ftar must relate to the infignia of the order of the garter.

The preceding part of this Poem was written fome years previous to the remainder, and the latter bears evident marks of increased powers, and improved judgment. It is not only, as the subject admitted, a strain of higher mood, but has the advantage of fuperior correctness.

Howard, Earl of Surry, an old English poet of confiderable reputation, and real abilities, is here very appofitely introduced, and his character laconically, but elegantly drawn :

Here noble Surry felt the facred rage,
Surry the Granville of a former age:
Matchlefs his pen, victorious was his lance,
Bold in the lifts, and graceful in the dance:
In the fame shades the Cupids tun'd his lyre,
To the fame notes of love and foft defire:
Fair Geraldine, bright object of his vow,
Then fill'd the groves as heav'nly Myra now.

There

There is a groffness of adulation, which a fenfible man would not accept; and there is a delicacy of compliment, which, if merited, he would not wish to refufe. Surely Lord Lanfdown must have gladly exchanged all the profufe and coarse flattery of the former quotation, for this fingle line :

Surry the Granville, &c.

Denham's Regal Hiftory of Windfor, evidently gave the hint for Pope's; but the vileft fign-poft daubing is not more inferior to the breathing figures of a Reynolds or a Weft, than the former is to the latter. The reader, however frequently he may have perused the following lines, will scarcely be displeased at having them once more put in the way of his perufal. From Edward's triumphs, to Henry's misfortunes, the transition is remarkably beautiful. The strain in one place is animatingly fonorous, in the other pathetically fweet:

Q would'ft

O would't thou fing what heroes Windfor bore,

What kings first breath'd upon her winding

fhore,

Or raise old warriors, whofe ador'd remains
In weeping vaults her hallow'd earth contains!
With Edward's acts adorn the fhining page,
Stretch his long triumphs down through every
age;

Draw monarchs chain'd, and Creffi's glori-
ous field,

'The lillies blazing on the regal fhield:

Then from her roofs when Verrio's colours fall,
And leave inanimate the naked wall,

Still in thy fong fhould vanquifh'd France.

appear,

And bleed forever under Britain's spear.
Let fofter ftrains ill-fated Henry mourn,
And palms eternal flourish round his urn;
Here o'er the martyr king the marble weeps;
And faft befide him once fear'd Edward fleeps;
Whom not the extended Albion could contain
From old Belerium to the northern main;
The grave unites where ev❜n the grave find rest,
And blended lie the oppreffor and the opprest!

Poets often comply with popular prejudiThat Pope disapproved the execution of Charles the First, is highly pro

ces.

bable;

bable; but that he seriously supposed it a national crime, and as fuch, avenged by fubfequent national calamities, may be doubted; yet the following paffage represents the matter ftrongly in that light. The fourth line may have a meaning, but it feems difficult to afcertain what it is: • old wounds and new ones,' is very indeterminate expreffion :

Make facred Charles's tomb forever known,
(Obfcure the place, and uninfcrib'd the ftone)
Oh fact accurs'd! what tears has Albion fhed,
Heav'ns what new wounds, and how her old
have bled!

She faw her fons with purple deaths expire,
Her facred domes involv'd in rolling fire;
A dreadful series of inteftine wars,
Inglorious triumphs, and dishonest scars.

The treaty of Utrecht, juft concluded when the latter part of this poem was written, afforded the author an opportunity to introduce father Thames as a poetical perfonage, defcanting on the advantages

vantages of peace, and prophefying the extenfion of commerce. The river god makes his appearance with great dignity:

In that bleft moment from his oozy bed,

Old father Thames advanc'd his reverend head, His treffes drop'd with dews, and o'er the ftream

His fhining horns diffus'd a golden gleam:
Grav'd on his urn appear'd the moon that
guides

His fwelling waters and alternate tides ;
The figur'd ftreams in waves of filver roll'd,
And on her banks Augusta rose in gold.
Around his throne the fea-born brothers ftood,
Who fwell with tributary urns his flood.

The Poet however, in defcribing these fea-born brothers, fems to have forgotten himself; for the attributes given to feveral of them, are not the attributes of perfons, but of real ftreams of water. The epithets indeed are generally well chofen, and the fifth line is a fine pic

ture:

*Surely, an error of the prefs for their or bis.