Pardon me, mighty Poet, nor despise
My causeless, yet not impious, furmise.
But I am now convinc'd; and none will dare
Within thy Labours to pretend a share.

Thou haft not mifs'd one thought that could be fit,
And all that was improper doft omit;

So that no room is here for Writers left,

But to detect their Ignorance or Theft.

That Majefty which through thy Work doth reign,
Draws the Devout, deterring the Profane,

And things divine thou treat'ft of in fuch ftate
As them preferves, and thee, inviolate.
At once Delight and Horror* on us seise,
Thou fing'ft with fo much gravity and ease
And above human flight doft foar aloft
With plume fo ftrong, fo equal and fo foft.
The Bird nam'd from that Paradife you fing
So never flaggs, but always keeps on wing.

Where couldft thou words of such a compafs find?
Whence furnish such a vast expense of mind?

MARVELL had in his view the Lines in that exquifite Exordium ;

Quædam divina Voluptas

Percipit, atque Horror; quod fic Natura tuâ vi

Tam manifefta patet, ex omni parte retecta.

LUCRET. III. 28.

39

49

To have followed them more closely would have done more justice to his fubject. Ease particularly, though there are beautiful inftances even of this, is far from being the characteristic of the aftonishing Poem, celebrated in these Lines: which however, having borrowed immortality from it, and being MARVELL's, I could not persuade myself to omit, and displace from their honourable, and almoft prefcriptive, feat.

Juft

Juft Heav'n thee like Tirefias to requite,
Rewards with prophecy thy lofs of fight.

Well might'st thou fcorn thy readers to allure
With tinkling Rhime, of thy own fense secure;
While the Town Bayes writes all the while and spells,
And like a pack-horfe tires without his bells:
Their fancies like our bushy points appear,

The Poets tag them, we for fashion wear.

I too tranfported by the Mode, offend,

And while I meant to Praife thee muft Commend.

Thy Verfe created, like thy Theme fublime,

In Number, Weight, and Measure, needs not Rhime.

50

ANDREW MARVELL.

51. "by the Mode, offend" 52.commend. Such is the Reading in the Edition of 1674 and of 1711, in Tonfon's of 1753, Dr. Newton's of 1763, Johnson's * of 1779, Gillies's of 1788, and the elegantly printed pocket Edition of 1790. I had made the Tranfpofition, by throwing back commend to the firft Line, as thinking it almost certainly a Reftitution of the true Reading; but on confidering I thought it better to leave the Paffage as firft printed. In the Edition of 1727, on looking to it, I found it tranfpofed, without Notice of any other Reading: it were to be wished this liberty had not often been taken with the Work itself in that Edition. The very neat Edinburgh Edition, of 1779, follows that of 1727 in this particular. I ought not to omit, that the Paffage is printed in the Edition of MARVELL's Works, published after his Death in 1681, in the fame manner as that prefixed to the PARADISE LOST in 1674, and here printed. MARVELL died August 16, 1678. Either way it is not very well expressed. “Mifcommend," is more probable :—that is, by praifing such Verse in Rime.-Rofcommon, in the mention of this Poem of MILTON (Ef. on Transl. Ver.), breaks from Rime to blank Verse. The Context I think pleads for this laft Conjecture. It is fo little difficult, and yet fø almost neceffary, that I fhould imagine I must have feen or heard it before; but I can not recollect if I have met with it.

* It must be remembered, that Johnson is no way responsible for the Edition of the Poets: but for the Lives only; a fufficient Ground both of Responsability and Fame.

OF

OF contemporary Teftimonies, the laft which I shall now

add is DRYDEN's: and it was worthy of fuch a Poet, who had raised one species of Verse to that height of splendour, to give this praife to the excellence of fo confummate a Master in the other.

The well known, and not to be omitted EPIGRAM is this: as published under the Frontispiece in the Edition of

MDCCXXVII.

Three Poets, in three diftant Ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The First in loftiness of thought surpass'd;
The Next, in majefty: in both the Laft.
The force of Nature could no farther goe:

To make a third, she joyn'd the former two,

A Greek Tranflation, an exercise of one of his Pupils, was given by Mr. THICKNESSE, the late Mafter of St. Paul's, to my Father; and by him to me, with an affectionate view of exciting my emulation. I give it now from memory: having loft or miflaid the Copy; which I have hardly feen fince I left Eton.

Τρεῖς τρίσιν εν γενέησι διιςαμένησιν ̓Αοιδοὶ

Ἑλλάδα, καὶ Ρωμὴν, κ' Αλβίονα Γαϊαν, ἐκοσμῶν.
Πρῶτος ἀριςεύεσκε νόημασιν ὑψηλοισι·

Δευτερος ἂν σεμνοτητ ̓ ὁδ' αρ' ὑςα]ος, ἀμφοτέροισιν.
Ουτὶ πέραν Φύσιος κάριος ποτ' ἔοικε προβάινειν·
Ως γίγνοιο τρίτος προτέρους δύ ̓ ἑνῶσεν ̓Αοιδες.

may be permitted to retrace some pleasing remembrances, by tranflating it thus:

SECULA divifos tria TRES genuere POETAS;

HELLADOS, HESPERIAQUE Decus, Terræque BRITANNE:
Indole, et ingentis animi præcelluit ILLÉ

Motibus; HIC ornatu, et majeftate decorâ:
PULCHRIUS hoc, illo MAJUS, hil MUSA valebat;
Dotibus emicuit collatis NOSTER útrûmque.

C. L.

Hujus Pagellæ quod vacuum effet Verfuum NEIDOS et PARADISEIÆ (ita enim MILTONI Poema, Voce ad HOMERICA Analogiam formata appellare liceat,) Recenfioni dicavi. VIRGILIANORUM Numerus ea pendet Ratione, ut, fi quatuor illi ante Arma virumque pofiti pro veris reputentur, fatis conftet. Ille enim in Sexto, poft, "Hi Collatinas imponent Montibus Arces," qui in elegantiffima Plantini Editione (1589) locum invenit, itidem in Mafvicii et Emmenefii pulcherrimis, fed ibi uncinulis inclufus "Laude Pudicitiæ celebres," &c. verum ut credamus et a Virgilio profectum efficere nunquam pɔterit. Claras libenter dixiffet: illud ne femel quidem pofuit.

APPENDIX TO THE PREFACE.

H AVING met with two early Editions of the PARADISE LOST, the

Fourth and Eighth, mentioned in the Lift I have given, but to which I was then a ftranger, farther than their mere existence, it is agreeable to my Plan to give fome Account of them.

The first of the two is the SUBSCRIPTION FOLIO, of 1688. To this the names of 530 Subscribers are fubjoined. A great number in that day. And a Lift it is, much refpectable, in another and more interesting view; the Learning, Talents, eminent Character, and public Services of several whom it contains ;-of these are SOMMERS, the Earl of DORSET *, DRYDEN, WALLER; the Marquis of Worcester; the gallant Churchill, and Codrington; the claffic Atterburies, Smallridge, and Aldrich; Rycaut; Oldys, Duke, Creech; Eachard: L'Eftrange; (the more honourably this last, because the current of his political and party sentiments did not carry him that way) : Dr. Davenant, distinguished by his political Writings and patriotic Conduct: POWELL, who has been celebrated amongst the Judges of those days as the ABDIEL of the Order, the fanctity of whofe Office had been then defecrated by an almost total defection, Drake; apparently the eminent Phyfician and Anatomift. Mir. Henry St. John, not improbably the afterwards celebrated Lord Bolinbroke, then 18. Southerne, whom the natural and pathetic force of his Tragic Genius has immortalized: and Betterton; great in his Art, refpected and beloved for his Life and Manners. There are, too, in the Lift, many distinguished for their Station and Titles: but to whom there is now more honour with Pofterity, in having thus early patronized fuch a Work, than these would have preferved to them. The names of four Ladies are in the Lift. Rebecca Viscountess Brouncker; Lady Henrietta Bond, Mrs. Dive, and Mrs. Timperley. Of this Memorial, from refpect to the In