Upon a little farther reflection may it not be fairly imagined, that the Frenchman had his eye upon some beauty of claffical birth when he produced this chefd'oeuvre, and that the Mifs Floyd of Swift, or the Madame de Fontanges of La Fontaine, is but another name for Pandora, the charming Greek, disguised with a little rouge and pearl powder, and tricked out for admiration in modern drapery? (7) The 16th number of the Guardian, Vol. I. treats profeffedly of Song Writing; and at the beginning occurs the following paffage :- "The ladies, in com66 plaifance to him, turned the difcourfe to poetry. "This foon gave him an occafion of producing two 66 new fongs to the company, which, he faid, he would "venture to recommend as complete performances. "The first, continued he, is by a gentleman of an unrivalled reputation in every kind of writing. The "fecond by a lady, &c. &c.” THE FIRST SONG. ON Belvidera's bofom lying, Wishing, panting, fighing, dying, With unavailing prayers I fue : • You first have taught me how to love, Ah! teach me to be happy too.' But But fhe, alas! unkindly wife, To all my fighs and tears, replies; You quickly would forget to love.' If the French language had been as much in request then as it seems to be at the prefent day, the author of that paper would scarcely have ventured to put this fong off for an original; and it is fomething wonderful that, with all the avidity French literature is now apparently cultivated, it fhould not be discovered, for near a century, that the boafted production in queftion is but a paraphrase from that language. MADRIGAL DE MR. DE LA FONTAINE. Page 242. SOULAGEZ mon tourment, difois-je á ma cruelle, Literally thus: ASSUAGE my torments, faid I to my cruel fair. By my death you would lofe a lover, fuch as is not to be found in the empire of the amorous Deity. I must then take care, replied the maid; I fhould lofe you much fooner by making you happy. (8) LINES (8) LINES from the fame Volume, àpropos to this Subject. Page 53. QUELQUES imitateurs, fot beftail, je l'avouë, Je ne prends que l'idée, & les tours & les loix. Si d'ailleurs quelque endroit plein chez eux d'excellence, Je l'y transporte & veux qu'il n'ait rien d'affecté, In English. SOME imitators, foolish animals I confefs, follow, like true heep, the shepherd of Mantua. I make ufe of him in a different manner; and suffering myself to be directed in the way, often hazard the attempt of walking alone. This custom I fhall always follow; my imitation is not fervility. I only catch the ideas, the forms, and the rules which our masters themselves formerly followed. If, befides this, any paffage of peculiar excellence can be introduced into my verfes, without violence, I transplant it there, and endeavour to hinder it from appearing misplaced, by giving my own the fame air of antiquity. This This very paffage exemplifies the declaration; for it is itself taken from Vida, of which the Claffic Reader may be fully fatisfied by turning to the Third Book of his Poetics; particularly the paragraph beginning with the 170th line. The reader will also there see the great use Pope has made of the fame author; to produce the parallel paffages would require more room than could conveniently be fpared; little lefs than to tranfcribe the whole Effay on Criticism. It is for like reafon needless to adduce paffages from Dryden's King Arthur, &c. to prove his familiarity with Taffo, and other Italian writers, from whom even the illimimitable genius of Milton did not difdain occafionally to take hints. In the Preface to the firft Edition of this Poem I obferved, that MILTON'S Allegory of Sin and Death, and the circumftances of PARNELL's admirable Poem, the Hermit, are borrowed with inconfiderable variation, from an old folio in the black letter, printed by WYNKIN DE WORDE. Quoting from memory, I fell into a flight mistake respecting MILTON; I should have faid the Defcription of Sin. However, fome gentlemen, to whofe judgment and taste I pay the greatest deference, have expreffed their wishes that I had been more explicit in defcribing the book and giving the paffages at large-This I now proceed to do. The title page is wanting, except which the book is perfect and in the highest highest preservation; it contains 241 leaves, and on the final page this Colophon: “Here endeth the boke intytuled pe flouze of the commaundementes of god with many examples and autorptes extrade as well of pe holy fcziptunes as of other docouzs and good auncpent faders the whiche is moche profitable and utyle unto all people- lately tzanslated out of Frenshe into Englufthe Cuprinted at London in Fleete frete at the figne of the fonne by Wynkyn de Wazde. The. xiii, pere of ye zepgne of oure moofk naturell fouerapne lorde kynge Henry ye eyght of yt name. Fynpshed pe pere of ouz lorde. M.CCCCC.xxi, the. viij, daye of Daober." The curious reader will find an account of this book in HERBERT's edition of AME's Typographical Antiquities, Vol. I. article WYNKYN DE WORDE, fub anno. 1521. It was purchased at the fale of the late Rev. Mr. PRESTON, by RICHARD EDWARD MERCIER, of ANGLESEA-STREET, and from him by the writer of this work, in whofe poffeffion it now remains. The paffage |