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him. But this is fo forced and intricate, that I believe the reader will prefer this conjecture of a friend of mine:

"Him firft to love, that us fo dearly bought."

DAPHNAID A.

White as the native rofe, before the change Which Venus' blood did in her leaves imprefs:

Bion, Idyll. I. 66.

Αἷμα ῥόδον τίκτεο, τα δὲ δάκρυα τὴν ἀνεμώναν.

See alfo Pervigilium Veneris. 23.

IBID.

As to afflict fo fore

The innocent, as thofe which do tranfgrefs.

So fore, for as forely.

I B-I D.

In pureness, and in all celeftial grace,
That men admire in goodly womankind,
She did excel; and feem'd of Angels race,
Living on earth like Angel new divin'd,
Adorn'd with wisdom and with chastity.-

New divin'd is an odd expreffion. We meet with it again in The Ruins of Time:

Whilft thus I looked, loe, adown the lee
I faw an Harp, ftrung all with filver twine,
And made of gold and coftly ivory,
Swimming, that whilom feemed to have been
The harp, on which Dan Orpheus was feen
Wild beafts and forrefts after him to lead;
But was th' harp of Phillifides now dead.

At length, out of the river it was rear'd,
And borne about the clouds to be divin'd;
Whilst all the way moft heavenly noise was heard
Of the strings, stirred with the warbling wind,
That wrought both joy and forrow in my mind.
So now in heaven a Sign it doth appear,
The Harp, well known befide the Northern Bear.

I think it fhould be,

And borne above the clouds to be divin'd.

"To be divin'd;" that is, I fuppofe, to be deified, by being made a constellation: πodesDas.

Ovid, whom Spenfer has in view, fays of the harp of Orpheus, Met. XI. 51.

Medio dum labitur amne,

Flebile nefcio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua
Murmurat exanimis: refpondent flebile ripe.

IBID.

Is it fo uneath

To leave this life, or dolorous to die?

Virgil,

Virgil, Æn. XII. 646.

Ufque adeóne mori miferum eft?

IBID.

But, as the mother of the Gods, that fought
For fair Eurydice, her daughter dear,
Throughout the world, with woful heavy thought;
So will I travel whilft I tarry here.

What a jumble is this? I fuppofe he would have spoken of Ceres and Proferpina.

MUIO POTMO S.

Minerva did the challenge not refuse, &c.

Much of what follows is taken from the fable of Arachne in Ovid, Met. XI. 5, &c.

IBID.

Emongft thofe leaves fhe made a Butterfly
With excellent device and wondrous flight,
Flutt'ring among the olives wantonly,
That feem'd to live, fo like it was in fight:
The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie,
The filken down with which his back is dight,
His broad out-ftretched horns, his airy thighs,
His glorious colours, and his gliftering eyes.

I think it fhould be, his hairy thighs.

THE

THE TEARS OF THE MUSES.

This Poem puts me in mind of these lines in Shakespeare.

Thefeus reads

"The thrice three Mufes, mourning for the death Of Learning, late deceas'd in beggary."

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That is fome fatyr, keen and critical;
Not forting with a nuptial ceremony.

See Midfummer Night's Dream, Act. V. Scene I.

INTRODUCTION.

STANZ. I. II.

Rehearse to me, ye facred fifters nine,
The golden brood of great Apollo's wit,-
For fince the time that Phoebus' foolish fon
Ythundered, through Jove's avengeful wrath,-
Of you his mournful fifters was lamented,
Such mournful tunes were never fince invented.
I think it is against mythology to make the
Mufes the daughters of Apollo. Since the time-
were never fince invented,
is a redundancy;

but fuch as is common in good writers: For instance,

Virgil, En. IV. 24.

Sed mihi vel tellus optem priùs ima dehifcat,
Vel Pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,.
Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundam,
Antè, Pudor, quàm te violo, aut tua jura refolvo.

I fhall

I shall here transcribe fome examples of Redundancies, which I find the Editor of the Mifcellaneous Obfervations has collected; Vol. II. p. 37.

Catullus, De Aty. LXI. 47.

Animo æftuante rurfus reditum ad vada retulit,
Prudentius, Megi ETEP. VI. 103.

Nexus denique, qui manus retrorfus
In tergum revocaverant revinitas.

In Symm. I. 331.

Nec torquere facem potis eft ad figna Trionum,
Orbe nec obliquo portas Aquilonis adire,

Nec folitum converfus iter revocare retrorfum.

Seneca, Hippol. 676.

Ac verfa retro fidera obliquos agant
Retorta curfus.

Lucretius, II. 128.

Multa videbis enim plagis ibi percita cæcis
Commutare viam, retroque repulsa reverti.

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Que demerfa liquore obeunt, refracta videntur
Omnia converti, furfumque fupina reverti :
Et reflexa prope in fummo fluitare liquore.

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