loft. This paffage of Narciffus probably gave Milton the hint of applying it to Eve, though I think her fur.prife at the fight of her own face in the water, far more just and natural, than this of Narciffus. She was a raw unexperienced Being, juft created, and therefore. might easily be subject to the delufion; but Narciffus had been in the world fixteen years, was brother and fon to the water-nymphs, and therefore to be fuppofed converfant with fountains long before this fatal mistake. P. 213. 1. 23. You trees, fays he, &c.] Ovid is very juftly celebrated for the paffionate speeches of his Poem. They have generally abundance of Nature in them, but I leave it to better judgments to confider whether they are not often too witty and too tedious. The Poet never cares for fmothering a good thought that comes in his way, and never thinks he can draw tears enough from his reader, by which means our grief is either diverted or spent before we come to his conclufion; for we cannot at the fame time be delighted with the wit of the Poet, and concerned for the perfon that fpeaks it; and a great Critic has admirably well obferved, Lamentationes debent effe breves et concifæ, nam Lachryma fubitò excrefcit, et difficile eft Auditorem vel Lectorem in fummo animi affectu diu tenere. any one in Narciffus's condition have cry'd out pem me Copia fecit? Or can any thing be more unnatural than to turn off from his forrows for the fake of a pretty reflexion ? O utinam noftro fecedere corpore poffem! Would lug Votum in Amante novum ; vellem, quod amamus, abeffset. None, I fuppofe, can be much grieved for one that is fo witty on his own afflictions. But I think we may every where observe in Ovid, that he employs his Invention N 4 more more than his Judgment, and fpeaks all the ingenious things that can be said on the subject, rather than those which are particularly proper to the perfon and circumftances of the speaker. FA B. VII. P. 218. 1. 1. When Pentheus thus] There is a great deal of spirit and fire in this speech of Pentheus, but I believe none befide Ovid would have thought of the transformation of the ferpent's teeth for an incitement to the Thebans courage, when he defires them not to degenerate from their great Forefather the Dragon, and draws a parallel between the behaviour of them both. Efte, precor, memores, quâ fitis ftirpe creati, FA B. VIII. The ftory of Acates has abundance of nature in all the parts of it, as well in the description of his own parentage and employment, as in that of the failors characters and manners. But the fhort fpeeches scattered up and down in it, which make the Latin very natural, cannot appear fo well in our language, which is much more stubborn and unpliant, and therefore are but as fo many rubs in the ftory, that are ftill turning the narration out of its proper courfe. The transformation at the latter end is wonderfully beautiful. FAB. FA B. IX. Ovid has two very good Similes on Pentheus, where he compares him to a River in a former ftory, and to a War horfe in the prefent. PROLOGUE L TO PHEDRA and HIPPOLITUS. Spoken by Mr. WILKS. ONG has a Race of Heroes fill'd the Stage, That rant by Note, and through the Gamut rage; While lull'd by Sound, and undisturb'd by Wit, And from the dull Fatigue of Thinking free, To your new Tafte the Poet of this Day Had Valentini, mufically coy, Shun'd Phædra's Arms, and scorn'd the proffer'd Joy; k It had not mov'd your Wonder to have seen But he a Stranger to your Modish Way, By your old Rules must stand or fall to-day, AM |