Her high birth, and graces sweet, The virgin-quire for her request The God that fits at marriage-feast. The poet when he wrote request had forgot that his former preter-imperfect tenfe, found, was formed without the fign did. It may not be impertinent to remark, that the Marchionefs lamented in this Epitaph of Milton, is probably the fame with that celebrated by Jonfon, in an Elegie on the Lady ANNE PAWLETT, Marchioness of WINTON; the beginning of which Pope seems to have thought of, when he wrote his pathetic Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate LADY. Jonfon begins his Elegie, What gentle ghoft, befprent with April dew, In the fame ftrain Pope beautifully breaks out, What beck'ning ghoft along the moonlight shade, 'Tis fhet. *In the UNDERWOOD. + Bish. Warburton's edit. vol. 1. As As Jonfon now lies before me, I may perhaps be pardoned for pointing out another paffage in him, which Pope probably remembered when he wrote the following. From shelves to fhelves fee greedy Vulcan roll, Thus Jonfon, fpeaking of a parcel of books, These, hadft thou pleas'd either to dine or fup, I fhall now produce fome inftances of Spenfer's confused conftruction. B. i. c. iii. f. xii. Till seeing by her fide the lyon ftand And that dred Lyons looke her caft in deadly hew. After having told us, that feeing the lyon ftand by her, the fled away for fear, he adds, that this was because she had never seen a lady before, which certainly was no reason why she should fly from the lyon. *Dunciad. b. 3. v. 81. An Execration upon Vulcane, in the UNDERWOOD. What What our author intended to exprefs here, was, that "at seeing the lyon, and so beautiful a lady, an ob"ject never seen before in that country, the was "affrighted, and fled.” B. i. c. vi. f. v. He gan the fort affaile, Whereof he weend poffeffed foone to bee, Of which he weend foone to be possessed, is not improper; but, to be poffeffed with rich spoile, &c. is very inaccurate. Here feems to be likewife fomewhat of an elleipfis, and I think he should have faid, rich Spoile of ITS ranfackt chaflitie. B. i. c. x. f. xl. The fourth appointed by his office was The poet fays, that his office was to relieve PRISONERS, and to redeem CAPTIVES with money from turkish turkish flavery; who, though guilty of crimes, yet he confidered that god every hour pardons crimes much greater than those for which they were imprisoned. By this it should seem, that those enslaved by the Turks were guilty of crimes, &c. but the poet would fignify by they faultie were, the prisoners firft mentioned, who were deservedly imprisoned on account of their crimes. Another inftance of our author's inaccuracy, is, his tautology, or repetition of the fame circumftances. B. iv. c. xii. f. i. For much more eath to tell the starres on hy, Then to recount the feas pofteritie. The difficulty of numbering the deities present at the marriage of Thames and Medway, he expreffes in the fame manner, in the stanza immediately preceding., The which more eath it were for mortall wight, B. vi. c. vi. f. iv. For whylome he had been a doughty knight, And proved oft in many a perilous fight, And And in all battles bore away the bayes; All this we were told a few lines before. And foothly it was faid by common fame, Of warres delights, and worlds contentious toyle, And hanging up his arms, and warlike spoile, From all the worlds incumbrance did himselfe affoile. C. v. f. 37. To this head we may refer the redundancies of a word. B. iii. c. vi. f. xi. It fortuned faire Venus having loft Her little fon, the winged god of love, xii. Him for to feeke SHE left her heavenly house. SHE is unneceffary in the laft line, as FAIRE VENUS is the nominative cafe. Other inftances of this fault |