Sweet are the ufes of Adverfity,

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in her head.

As you

like it, act 2. fc. 1.

Gardiner. Bolingbroke hath seized the wasteful King.

What pity is't that he had not so trimm'd

And drefs'd his land, as we this garden dress,

And wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees;
Left, being over proud with fap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself.
Had he done fo to great and growing men,
They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste
Their fruits of duty. All fuperfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live:
Had he done fo, himself had borne the crown,
Which waste and idle hours have quite thrown down.
Richard II. act 3. fc. 7.

See, how the Morning opes her golden gates,
And takes her farewell of the glorious Sun;.
How well resembles it the prime of youth,
Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love!

Second part Henry VI. act 2. fc. 1.

Brutus. O Caffius you are yoked with a lamb,
That carries anger as the flint bears fire :
Who, much enforced, fhows a hafty spark,

And straight is cold again.

Julius Cæfar, act 4. fc. 3.

Thus they their doubtful confultations dark
Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief :

As when from mountain-tops, the dusky clouds
Afcending, while the North-wind fleeps, o'erfpread

N 3

Heav'ns

Heav'n's cheerful face, the lowring element

Scowls o'er the darken'd landscape, fnow and show'r ;
If chance the radiant fun with farewell sweet
Extends his ev'ning-beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Atteft their joy, that hill and valley rings.

Paradife Loft, b. 2.

As the bright stars, and milky way,
Show'd by the night, are hid by day:
So we in that accomplish'd mind,
Help'd by the night new graces find,
Which by the fplendor of her view,
Dazzled before, we never knew,

Waller.

The laft exertion of courage compared to the blaze of a lamp before extinguishing, Tao Gierufalem, canto 19. ft. 22.

None of the foregoing fimiles, as they appear to me, tend to illuftrate the principal fubject: and therefore the pleasure they afford muft arise from fuggesting resemblances that are not obvious: I mean the chief pleasure; for undoubtedly a beautiful fubject introduced to form the fimile affords a separate pleasure, which is felt in the fimiles mentioned, particularly in that cited from Milton.

The next effect of a comparison in the order mentioned, is to place an object in a strong point

of

.

of view; which effect is remarkable in the following fimiles :

As when two scales are charg'd with doubtful loads,
From fide to fide the trembling balance nods,
(While fome laborious matron, just and poor,
With nice exactnefs weighs her woolly ftore),
Till pois'd aloft, the refting beam fufpends
Each equal weight; nor this nor that defcends:
So flood the war, till Hector's matchless might,
With fates prevailing, turn'd the scale of fight.
Fierce as a whirlwind up the wall he flies,
And fires his hoft with loud repeated cries.

Ut flos in feptis fecretis nafcitur hortis,
Ignotus pecori, nullo contufus aratro,

Iliad, b. xi. 521.

Quem mulcent auræ, firmat fol, educat imber,
Multi illum pueri, multæ cupiere puellæ ;

Idem, cum tenui carptus defloruit ungui,

Nulli illum pueri, nullæ cupiêre puellæ :

Sic virgo, dum intacta manet, dum cara fuis; fed
Cum caftum amifit, polluto corpore, florem,
Nec pueris jucunda manet, nec cara puellis.

Catullus.

The imitation of this beautiful fimile by Ariofto, canto 1. ft. 42. falls fhort of the original. It is alfo in part imitated by Pope*.

Lucetta. I do not feek to quench your love's hot fire, But qualify the fire's extreme rage,

* Dunciad, b. 4. I. 405.

N 4

Left

Left it should burn above the bounds of reason.

Julia. The more thou damm'st it up, the more it
burns:

The current, that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'ft, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;
But when his fair courfe is not hindered,

He makes sweet mufic with th' enamel'd ftones,
Giving a gentle kifs to every fedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage:

And fo by many winding nooks he strays
With willing fport, to the wild ocean.
Then let me go, and hinder not my course :
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a paftime of each weary step,
Till the last step have brought me to my love;
And there I'll reft, as, after much turmoil,
A bleffed foul doth in Elyfium.

Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 2. fc. 10.

She never told her love;

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: fhe pin'd in thought;

And with a green and yellow melancholy,

She fat like Patience on a monument,

Smiling at Grief.

Twelfth Night, act 2. fc. 6,

York. Then, as I faid, the Duke, great Bolingbroke,

Mounted upon a hot and fiery fteed,

Which his aspiring rider feem'd to know,

With flow but stately pace, kept on his course :

While all tongues cry'd, God fave thee, Bolingbroke.. Duchefs. Alas! poor Richard, where rides he the

while!

York.

York. As in a theatre, the eyes of men,
After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage,
Are idly bent on him that enters next,
Thinking his prattle to be tedious:

Even fo, or with much more contempt, mens eyes
Did fcowl on Richard; no man cry'd, God fave him!
No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home;
But duft was thrown upon his facred head:
Which with fuch gentle forrow he shook off,
His face still combating with tears and smiles,
The badges of his grief and patience;

That had not God, for fome ftrong purpose, steel'd
The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted,
And barbarism itself have pitied him.

Richard II. act 5. fc. 3.

Northumberland. How doth my fon and brother?
Thou trembleft, and the whiteness in thy cheek
Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, fo dead in look, fo wo-be-gone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,

And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd;
But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue:

And I my Piercy's death, ere thou report'st it.

Second part, Henry IV. act 1. fc. 3.

Why, then I do but dream on fov'reignty,

Like one that stands upon a promontory,
And spies a far-off fhore where he would tread,
Wishing his foot were equal with his eye,

And chides the fea that funders him from thence,
Saying, he'll lave it dry to have his way:

So do I wish, the crown being fo far off,

And