thunderbolt at Phaeton-Pariterque, animâque, rotifque expulit Aurigam, where he makes a forced piece of Latin, (Anima expulit Aurigam) that he may couple the foul and the wheels to the fame verb. P. 180. 1. 15. The youth was in a maze, &c.] It is impoffible for a man to be drawn in a greater confufion than Phaeton is; but the Antithefis of light and darkness a little flattens the defcription. Suntque Oculis tenebræ per tantum lumen oborta. Ibid. 1. 18. Then the feven ftars, &c.] I wonder none of Ovid's Commentators have taken notice of the overfight he has committed in this verfe, where he makes the Triones grow warm before there was ever fuch a fign in the heavens; for he tells us in this very book, that Jupiter turned Califto into this conftellation, after he had repaired the ruins that Phaeton had made in the world. P. 183. 1. 10. Athos and Tmolus, &c.] Ovid has here, after the way of the old Poets, given us a catalogue of the mountains and rivers which were burnt. But, that I might not tire the English reader, I have left out fome of them that make no figure in the description, and inverted the order of the reft according as the fmoothness of my verfe required. P. 184. l. 13. 'Twas then, they say, the Swartly Moor, &c.] This is the only Metamorphofis in all this long story, which contrary to cuftem is inferted in the middle of it. The critics may determine whether what follows it be not too great an excursion in him who propofes it as his whole defign to let us know the changes of things. I dare fay that if Ovid had not religiously observed the reports of the ancient Mythologists, we should have feen Phaeton turned into fome creature or other that hates the light of the fun; or perhaps into an eagle that ftill takes pleasure to gaze on it. P. 185. 1. 12. The frighted Nile, &c.] Ovid has made a great many pleafant images towards the latter end of this story. His verses on the Nile, Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem, Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet: Oftia feptem Pulverulenta vacant, feptem fine Flumine Valles, are as noble as Virgil could have written; but then he ought not to have mentioned the channel of the fea afterwards, Mare contrahitur, ficcæque eft campus Arenæ, because the thought is too near the other. The image of the Cyclades is a very pretty one; Ques altum texerat equor Exiftunt montes, et fparfas Cycladas augent. but to tell us that the fwans grew warm in Cayfter, -Medio volucres caluere Cäyftro, and that the Dolphins durft not leap, --Ne fe fuper æquora curvi Tellere confuetas audent De phires in auras, is intolerably trivial on fo great a fubject as the P. 186. 1. 13.] The Earth at length, &c.] We On EUROPA's Rape, page 221. P. 222. 1. 9. The dignity of empire, &c.] This Non bene conveniunt, nec in unâ fede morantur, without which the whole fable would have ap- P. 224. 1. 7. The frighted nymph looks, &c.] --Elufam defignat imagine tauri Europen: verum taurum, freta vera putaras. it is better described in Arachne's picture in the (who (who had more art and reflexion than the Grecian) to take hold of all opportunities to defcribe the picture of any place or action, which they generally do better than they could the place or action itself; because in the defcription of a picture you have a double fubject before you, either to describe the picture itself, or what is represented in it. On the Stories in the Third Book, FA B. I. There is fo great a variety in the arguments of the Metamorphofes, that he who would treat of them rightly, ought to be a master of all styles, and every different way of writing. Ovid indeed shows himself most in a familiar ftory, where the chief grace is to be eafy and natural; but wants neither strength of thought nor expreffion, when he endeavours after it, in the more fublime and manly subjects of his poem. In the present fable the ferpent is terribly described, and his behaviour very well imagined, the actions of both parties in the encounter are natural, and the language that reprefents them more ftrong and masculine than what we ufually meet with in this poet: If there be any faults in the narration, they are thefe, perhaps, which follow. P. 228. 1. 12. Spire above Spire, &c.] Ovid, ta make his ferpent more terrible, and to raise the character of his champion, has given too great a loose to his imagination, and exceeded all the bounds of probability. He tells us, that when he raised up but half his body he over-looked a tall foreft of oaks, and that his whole body was as large as that of the ferpent in the fkies. None but a madman would have attacked fuch a monster as this is described to be; nor can we have any notion of a mortal's standing against him. Virgil is not afhamed of making Æneas fly and tremble at the fight of a far lefs formidable foe, where he gives us the defcription of Polyphemus, in the third book; he knew very well that a monster was not a proper enemy for his hero to encounter: But we should certainly have feen Cadmus hewing down the Cyclops, had he fallen in Ovid's way: Or if Statius's little Tydeus had been thrown on Sicily, it is probable he would not have fpared one of the whole brotherhood. Phænicas, five illi tela parabant, Sive fugam, five ipfe timor prohibebat utrumque, Occupat: Ibid. 1. 19. In vain the Tyrians, &c.] The poet could not keep up his narration all along, in the grandeur and magnificence of an heroic ftyle: He has here funk into the flatnefs of profe, where he tells us the behaviour of the Tyrians at the fight of the ferpent: -Tegimen direpta Leoni Pellis erat; telum fplendenti Lancea ferro, And in a few lines after lets drop the majesty of his verse, for the fake of one of his little turns. How does he languifh in that which feems a laboured line! Triftia fanguineá lambentem vulnera linguâ. |