Quique altum Præneste viri, quique arva Gabinæ En. 11, v. 605, v. 582, 712. Advancing in a line, they couch their spears— With those who plough Saturnia's Gabine land: DRYDEN. But to proceed: Earl Douglas, on a milk-white steed, Most like a Baron bold, Rode foremost of the company, Whose armour shone like gold.1 Turnus ut antevolans tardum præcesserat agmen, &c. Our English archers bent their bows, At the first flight of arrows sent, They clos'd full fast on ev'ry side, 1 V. No. 70, note on this stanza, p. 207.-G. With that there came an arrow keen Out of an English bow, Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart A deep and deadly blow.' Eneas was wounded after the same manner by an unknown hand in the midst of a parley. Has inter voces, media inter talia verba, En. 12, v. 318. Thus while he spake, unmindful of defence, DRYDEN. But of all the descriptive parts of this song, there are none more beautiful than the four following stanzas, which have a great force and spirit in them, and are filled with very natural circumstances. The thought in the third stanza was never touched by any other poet, and is such an one as would have shined in Homer or in Virgil. So thus did both these nobles die, He had a bow bent in his hand, Against Sir Hugh Montgomery So right his shaft he set, The gray-goose wing, that was thereon, In his heart-blood was wet. 1 Here, the modern poet, has improved upon his original, both in incident and expression.-G. This fight did last from break of day For when they rung the evening bell, The battle scarce was done. One may observe likewise, that in the catalogue of the slain, the author has followed the example of the greatest ancient poets, not only in giving a long list of the dead, but by diversifying it with little characters of particular persons. And with Earl Douglas there was slain Sir Hugh Montgomery; Sir Charles Carrell, that from the field Sir Charles Murrel of Ratcliff too, Sir David Lamb, so well esteem'd, Yet saved could not be. The familiar sound in these names destroys the majesty of the description: for this reason I do not mention this part of the poem but to shew the natural cast of thought which appears in it, as the two last verses look almost like a translation of Virgil. In the catalogue of the English who fell, Witherington's behaviour is in the same manner particularized very artfully, as the reader is prepared for it by that account which is given of him in the beginning of the battle; though I am satisfied your little buffoon readers (who have seen that passage ridiculed in Hudi bras) will not be able to take the beauty of it: for which reason I dare not so much as quote it.1 Then stept a gallant squire forth, Who said, I would not have it told, That e'er my captain fought on foot, We meet with the same heroic sentiment in Virgil. Non pudet, O Rutuli, cunctis pro talibus unam -8 En. 12, v. 229. For shame, Rutulians, can you bear the sight DRYDEN. What can be more natural, or more moving, than the circumstances in which he describes the behaviour of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day? Next day did many widows come," Their husbands to bewail; They wash'd their wounds in brinish tears, But all would not prevail. 'A sufficient proof if others were wanting that Addison had never seen the original poem, which has no traces of the ludicrous idea of the rifaci mento. For Wertharyngton my hearte was wo, That ever he slayne shulde be; For when both his leggis wear hewyne in to, Yet he knyled and fought on hys kne.-G. • If Addison had had the old poem before him, he would have been still more struck with this beautiful passage. So on the morrowe the mayde them byears Off byrch and hasell so 'gray'; Many wedous with wepyng tears Their bodies, bath'd in purple blood, They bore with them away: They kiss'd them dead a thousand times Thus we see how the thoughts of this poem, which naturally arise from the subject, are always simple, and sometimes exquisitely noble; that the language is often very sounding, and that the whole is written with a true poetical spirit. If this song had been written in the Gothic manner, which is the delight of all our little wits, whether writers or readers, it would not have hit the taste of so many ages, and have pleased the readers, of all ranks and conditions. I shall only beg pardon for such a profusion of Latin quotations: which I should not have made use of, but that I feared my own judgment would have looked too singular on such a subject, had not I supported it by the practice and authority of Virgil." C. No. 81. SATURDAY, JUNE 2. Qualis ubi audito venantum murmure tigris STATIUS, Theb. ii. 128. As when the tigress hears the hunter's din, ABOUT the middle of last winter, I went to see an opera at the theatre in the Haymarket, where I could not but take notice of two parties of very fine women, that had placed themselves in It may be proper to observe, once for all, that Mr. Addison's critical papers discover his own good taste; and are calculated to improve that of his reader; but otherwise have no great merit. He rarely makes a wrong judgment of the passages he quotes, but does not tell us on what grounds (or at least in too general terms) that judgment was, or ought to have been founded.-H. VOL. IV.-10* |