Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

writers, and generally vain, concerning the fituation of Paradise before, and the disposition of it after, the Fall of our first parents: but, they seem to speak most rationally, who conceive it to have been destroy'd by the deluge, when all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Which opinion receives the fanction of Milton's concurrence, who may be fuppos'd to have study'd this fubject with attention, and to have been serious in his affent, fince he has inferted it into the Angel's prophetical description of Noah's flood.

**** All the cataracts

Of heav'n fet open, on the earth shall pour
Rain, day and night: all fountains of the Deep
Broke up, fhall heave the ocean to ufurp
Beyond all bounds, 'till inundation rife
Above the highest hills. Then, shall this mount
Of Paradife by might of waves be mov'd
Out of his place, push'd by the horned flood,
With all his verdure spoil'd, and trees, adrift
Down the great river to the op'ning gulf,
And there take root: an island salt, and bare,
The haunt of feals, and orcs, and fea mews' clang!
To teach thee that GOD attributes to place
No fanctity, if none be thither brought

By men, who there frequent, or, therein dwell.
Paradife Loft, Book xi.

*The voice of Orpheus, or Amphion's hand.] See pages xix. and xxxviii.

+ The choiceft things that furnish'd Noah's ark, Or Peter's feet &c.] See Genefis chap. vii. and the Acts of the Apofiles, chap. x.

The structure by a Prelate rais'd, White-Hall, Built with the fortune of Rome's Capitol &c.] Upon

Cardinal

* Page 130.

+ Page 131.

+ Page 132.

Cardinal Wolfey's falling from the favor of King Henry VIII, White-Hall, which he had built to be the Town-Scene of his own grandeur, was converted into a Royal Palace. In like manner the Capitol, when completed by Tarquin the Proud, was only intended for a fortress and magazine, to awe the city, whenever it should attempt to ftruggle for its liberties: (a ftratagem, which Pififtratus had practis'd but a few years before at Athens; and fecur'd the Government to himfelf by feizing the citadel ;) but, the Capitol, as well as White-Hall, was put to a nobler use than either Tarquin the Old who founded it, or his fucceffor who finish'd it, intended, by being made (if in profe I may ufe fo bold an expreffion) a palace for Jupiter.

So fnow on Etna &c.] This fimile is employ'd by Mr. Cowley, who in his note upon it, to which I refer the reader, confefseth that he copy'd it from Claudian : So, contraries on Ætna's top confpire;

Here, hoary frofts; and by them breaks-out fire:
A fecure peace the faithful neighbours keep;
Th' embolden'd fnow next to the flame does fleep.
Ode to Mr. Hobbs.

*Here, like the people's paftor &c.] This manner of expreffing the function of a King is frequently used by Homer, tho' it seems to have been originally of eastern extraction: See Pfalm lxxx. 1. But, I fuppofe Mr. Waller immediately refer'd to the reverfe of a Medal that was stamp'd at the coronation of King Charles II; on which his Majefty was figur'd in a Roman military habit, with a fhepherd's crook in his hand, and a flock of fheep grazing round him. See Fig. III.

+ On what the World may from that ftar expect, Which at his birth appear'd &c.] King Charles the Firft's proceffion to St. Paul's, to give thanks for the birth * Ibid.

Page 133.

+ Page 134.

birth of this fon, was eminently diftinguifh'd, by the appearance of a star about noon, which was exprefs'd beaming from the centre of the Medal that was ftruck on that occafion; See Fig. IV. and afterwards we find it repeated on that which was ftamp'd immediately upon the Reftoration. Fig. II.

+ Of the invafion and defeat of the Turks.

The fiege of Vienna, which occafion'd the writing this Poem, began about the middle of July 1683 (in the 78th year of Mr. Waller age) and was carriedon with great fury by an army of a hundred thoufand Turks, under the conduct of the Grand Vifier : but, he was compell'd to raise it on the tenth of the following September, by that heroic Prince John Sobieski King of Poland; at whose arrival the Infidels made fuch a precipitate flight, that they left behind them their field-equipage, and the Standard of the Ottoman empire; with a hundred and eighty pieces of Cannon. Upon this defeat the commotions grew fo violent among the Janifaries, that the Sultan was oblig'd to commute for his own fafety with the death of his great favorite Cara Muftapha the Grand Vifier, who was ftrangled at Belgrade on the 25th of December 1683. He had attain'd to the higheft dignities, and command, that a fubject is capable of enjoying in that government, by the intereft of the Sultaneís-Mother Valida, to whom for many years he had been a Gallant: but, not long before this fatal campaign, he had fall'n paffionately in love with Bafch Lari, the Sultan's fifter; which fo irritated the forfaken Valida, that he made ufe of the neceffities of the ftate to be reveng'd for his inconftancy; and prevail'd with her fon the Emperor Mahomet to

+ Page 134

fend

fend for his head; to which he is faid to have affented with the greatest reluctance.

* Renew the mem'ry of his father's doom.] This Sultan Mahomet was the Son of Ibrahim, who was depos'd and strangled in the year 1649.

He Baffa's heads to fave his own &c.] Muftapha, to clear his approaches to the Princess BafchLari, put to death the Baffa of Buda, to whom the had lately been marry'd; on pretence that he fail'd of performing his duty in an action against the Imperialifts before Vienna: and to cover that cruelty to his rival, he sentenc'd two of the fame dignity to be ftrangled with him.

Before another Solyman they get.] This refers to the second of that name, who made vast additions to the Ottoman dominions: he reigned forty fix years, every one of which is faid to have been diftinguish'd by a glorious action.

What Angel ball defcend &c.] The remaining part of the Poem complements King Charles, on the general peace concluded at Nimeguen; where most of the Princes, and States, of Europe fubmitted to his Majesty's arbitration, for adjusting their feveral prétenfions.

§ In battels won, Fortune a part doth claim &c.] In armis militum virtus, locorum opportunitas, auxilia fociorum, claffes, commeatus, multùm juvant: maximam vero partem quafi fuo jure Fortuna fibi vendicat. Cicero pro Marcello.

**What Thefeus did, or Theban Hercules.] The actions of Thefeus have already been refer'd to at page x. which the reader may find recited together by Ovid in the feventh book of his Metamorphofes (in which he seems to have copy'd the praises of Hercules (Jupiter's

[blocks in formation]

Ibid. + Ibid. Page 136. ** Ibid.

(Jupiter's fon by Alcmena, a Theban Lady) in the eighth book of Virgil's Æneis.

Tum Salii ad cantus, incenfa altaria circum, Populeis adfunt evinɛti tempora ramis :

Hinc juvenum chorus, ille fenum; qui carmine laudes

Herculeas & fa&a ferunt: ut prima novercæ
Monftra manu, geminofque premens eliferit angues:
Ut bello egregias idem disjecerit urbes,

Trojamque, Oechaliamque: ut duros mille labores
Rege fub Euryftheo, fatis Junonis iniquæ
Pertulerit. Tu nubigenas, invicte! bimembres,
Hylaumque, Pholumque manu : tu Cressia ma&tas
Prodigia, & vaftum Nemea fub rupe leonem.
Te Stygii tremuere lacus; te janitor Orci,
Offa fuper recubans antro femefa cruento.
Nec Te ulla facies, non terruit ipfe Typhæus
Arduus, arma tenens: non te rationis egentem
Lernaus turbâ capitum circumftetit anguis.
Salve, vera Jovis proles, decus addite Divis;
Et nos, & tua dexter adi pede facra fecundo!

The Salii fing, and cenfe his altars round
With Saban fmoke, their heads with poplar bound;
One choir of old, another of the young,

To dance, and bear the burthen of the fong.
The Lay records the labors, aud the praise,
And all th' immortal acts of Hercules.

First, how the mighty babe, when fwath'd in bands,
The ferpents ftrangled with his infant hands.
Then, as in years, and matchless force he grew,
Th' OEchalian walls, and Trojan, overthrew.
Befides, a thousand hazards they relate,
Procur'd by Juno's, and Euryftheus' hate.
Thy hands, unconquer'd Hero! could fubdue
The cloud-born Centaurs, and the monster crew.

Nor

« ПредишнаНапред »