I muft here obferve, that thofe idolaters, who devote themselves to the idols I am here fpeaking of, differ very much from all other kinds of idolaters. For as others fall out because they worship different idols, these idolaters quarrel because they worship the fame. The intention therefore of the idol is quite contrary to the wishes of the idolater; as the one defires to confine the idol to himself, the whole business and ambition of the other is to multiply adorers. This humour of an idol is prettily described in a tale of Chaucer: he reprefents one of them fitting at a table with three of her votaries about her, who are all of them courting her favour, and paying their adorations: fhe finiled upon one, drank to another, and trod upon the other's foot which was under the table. Now which of thofe three, fays the old bard, do you think was the favourite? In troth, fays he, not one of all the three. The behaviour of this old idol in Chaucer, puts me in mind of the beautiful Clarinda, one of the greatest idols among the moderns. She is worthipped once a week by candlelight, in the midft of a large congregation, generally called an affembly. Some of the gayeft youths in the nation endeavour to plant themselves in her eye, while fhe fits in form with multitudes of tapers burning about her. To encourage the zeal of her idolaters, fhe bestows a mark of her favour upon every one of them, before they go out of her prefence. She asks a question of one, tells a story to another, glances an ogle upon a third, takes a pinch of fnuff from the fourth, lets her fan drop by accident to give the fifth an occafion of taking it up. In fhort, every one goes away fatisfied with his fuccefs, and encouraged to renew his devotions on the fame canonical hour that day fevennight. An idol may be undeified by many accidental caufes. Marriage in particular is a kind of counter-apotheofis, or a deification inverted. When a man becomes familiar with his goddefs, fhe quickly finks into a woman. Old age is likewife a great decayer of your idol. The truth of it is, there is not a more unhappy being than a fuperannuated idol, efpecially when fhe has contracted fuch airs and behaviour as are only graceful when her worshippers are about her. my Confidering therefore that in these and many other cafes the woman generally outlives the idol, I must return to the moral of this paper, and defire fair readers to give a proper direction to their paffion for being admired; in order to which, they must endeavour to make themfelyes the objects of a reafonable and lafting admiration. This is not to be hoped-for from beauty, or dress, or fashion, but from those inward ornaments which are not to be defaced by time or fickness, and which appear moft amiable to thofe who are most acquainted with them. C. N° 74. Friday, May 25. -Pendent opera interrupta VIRG. Æn. iv. 88. The works unfinish'd and neglected lie. IN my laft Monday's paper I gave fome general in ftances of thofe beautiful ftrokes which please the reader in the old fong of Chevy-Chafe: I fhall here, according to my promife, be more particular, and fhew that the fentiments in that ballad are extremely natural and poetical, and full of the majeftic fimplicity which we admire in the greateft of the ancient poets; for which reáfon I fhall quote feveral paffages of it, in which the thought is altogether the fame with what we meet in feveral paffages of the Æneid; not that I would infer from thence, that the poet, whoever he was, proposed to himself any imitation of thofe paffages, but that he was directed to them in general by the fane kind of poetical genius, and by the fame copyings after nature. Had this old fong been filled with epigrammatical turns and points of wit, it might perhaps have pleased the wrong taste of fome readers; but it would never have become the delight of the common people, nor have warmed the heart of fir Philip Sidney like the found of a trumpet; it is only nature that can have this effect, and please those taftes which are the most unprejudiced or the inoft refined. I must however beg leave to diffent from fo great an authority as that of fir Philip Sidney, in the judgment which he has paffed as to the rude style NS and evil apparel of this antiquated fong; for there are feveral parts in it where not only the thought but the language is majestic, and the numbers fonorous; at least, the apparel is much more gorgeous than many of the poets made ufe of in queen Elizabeth's time, as the reader will fee in feveral of the following quotations. What can be greater than either the thought or the expreffion in that stanza. To drive the deer with hound and horn The child may rue that was unborn ་ The hunting of that day!' This way of confidering the misfortunes which this battle would bring upon pofterity, not only on those whỏ were born immediately after the battle, and loft their fathers in it, but on thofe alfo who perifhed in future battles which took their rife from this quarrel of the two earls, is wonderfully beautiful, and conformable to the way of thinking among the ancient poets. Audiet pugnas, vitio parentum ་ ་ Rara juventus. HOR. Od. I. ii. 23. Pofterity, thinn'd by their fathers crimes, Shall read, with grief, the ftory of their times.' What can be more founding and poetical, or refemble nore the majestic fimplicity of the ancients, than the following stanzas? The ftout earl of Northumberland A vow to God did make, His pleafure in the Scotish woods • Who knew full well, in time of need, The hounds ran fwiftly through the woods, The nimble deer to take, And with their cries the hills and dales Vocat ingenti clamore Citharon Taygerique canes, domitrixque Epidaurus equorum : GEORG. iii. 43 • Citharon loudly calls me to my way ; Thy hounds, Taygetus, open, and purfue the prey: • Fam'd for his hills, and for his horses breed : Lo, yonder doth earl Douglas come, Faft by the river Tweed, &c. The country of the Scotch warriors, defcribed in these two last verses, has a fine romantic fituation, and affords a couple of smooth words for verfe. If the reader compares the foregoing fix lines of the fong with the following Latin verfes, he will fee how much they are written in the fpirit of Virgil. Adverfi campo apparent, haftafque reducis EN. xi. 605-7. 682.712 Advancing in a line, they couch their fpears'-Prænefte fends a chofen band, With those who plow Saturnia's Gabine land: • Befides the fuccours which cold Anien yields : The rocks of Hernicus-befides a band, That follow'd from Velinum's dewy land• And mountaineers that from Severus came: And from the craggy cliffs of Tetrica; • And those where yellow Tiber takes his way, • And where Himella's wanton waters play: Cafperia fends her arms, with thofe that lie By Fabaris, and fruitful Foruli.' But to proceed. DRYDEN. • Earl Douglas on a milk-white fteed, • Rode foremost of the company, Turnus ut antevolans tardum præcefferat agmen, &c. Aureus "Our English archers bent their bows, • And many a gallant gentleman ་ Lay gafping on the ground. With that there came an arrow keen • Out of an English bow, 'Which ftruck earl Douglas to the heart Æneas was wounded after the fame manner by an unknown hand in the midft of a parley. Has inter voces, media inter talia verba, EN. xii. 318. Thus while he fpake, unmindful of defence, A winged arrow ftruck the pious prince : 'But whether from an human hand it came, 'Or hoftile god, is left unknown by fame.' DRYDEN. But of all the defcriptive parts of this fong, there are none more beautiful than the four following ftanzas, which have a great force and fpirit in them, and are filled with very natural circumstances. The thought in the third flanza was never touched by any other poet, and is fuck an one as would have fhined in Homer or Virgil. So thus did both thofe nobles die, ⚫ Whofe courage none could stain : An English archer then perceiv'd • The noble earl was flain. He had a bow bent in his hand, • Made of a trufty tree, An arrow of a cloth-yard long ་ Unto the head drew he. |