་ I LETTER VII. To the SAME. Remember, EUPHEMIUS, when we were reading over together LUCIAN'S Dialogue concerning BEAUTY, you was uncommonly pleased with that Author for calling HOMER the most excellent of the Painters *. Which implied, by beftowing this Expreffion upon the Father of the Poets, that Poetry comprehended all the Powers of her Sifter Art. But I am afraid it would be too bold in any Writer to call APELLES, or PROTOGENES, the moft excellent of the Poets. For tho' no Painter can arrive at any Perfection without a poetical Genius, yet his Art comprehending only Part of the Powers of Poetry, there would not be fufficient Authority for the mutual Appellation. There are Subjects indeed in common to Poets and Painters, but even in thofe very Subjects, not to mention others. Αρισον των Γραφέων Ομηρον. LUCIAN. which are the Province only of the former) Poetry has feveral adventitious Aids which maintain her Superiority over the other Art. Many Objects, it is true, fuch as the following Night-Pieces for Example, may be fo described even by the greatest Poets, that Painters of equal Genius might produce Pictures, betwixt which and them, the Palm of Glory would hang wavering. The firft is MILTON'S, "The Moon << Rifing in clouded Majesty, at length The next is HOMER'S, which EUSTA- Ως δ' ότ' εν εράνω *, &c. Iliad lib. viii. 1. 551. The * Mr. POPE's Translation of this Paffage is, in my Opimion, fuperior to the Original, which the ingenious Author of SirTHO. FITZOSBORNE's Letters has remarked before me. I must add one Observation, which is, that Mr. POPE has moft happily digefted a Line of SHAKESPEAR'S, "And The reft are SHAKESPEAR'S. "Yonder bleffed Moon "That tips with Silver all those Fruit-Tree Tops." Romeo and Juliet. Again, "The Moon fhines bright: in fuch a Night as this, "When the sweet Wind did gently kifs the Trees, "And they did make no Noife." Merch. of Ven. Now tho', I confefs, these beautiful Strokes of the three greatest Poets the World ever produced, may be equalled by Painting, yet I will prove that one adventitious Circumftance might be thrown into such a Landscape by Poetry, as the utmost glow of Colours could never emulate. This too SHAKESPEAR has done by a metaphorical Expreffion in one fingle Line, "How fweet the Moonlight SLEEPS upon that Bank!" Merch. of Ven. "And tips with Silver all those Fruit-tree Tops," into his Tranflation in this moft mafterly Manner, "O'er all the Trees a yellower Verdure shed, 66 And tip with Silver every Mountain's Head." To this I would apply, as Mr. H-- does in general, the Story of DOMINICHINO'S availing himself of AUG. CARRACCI's Picture. That That Verb [SLEEPS,] taken from animal Life and transferred by the irresistible Magic of Poetry, to the before lifeless Objects of the Creation, animates the whole Scene, and conveys an inftantaneous Idea to the Imagination what a folemn Stillnefs is required, when the peerless Queen of Night is, in the full Splendor of her Majefty, thus lulled to Repofe. When I once urged this, to an enthusiastical Admirer of the Lombard School of Painters, in favour of the Pre-eminence of Poetry over his beloved Art, he ingenuously confeffed it was beyond the Power of the Pencil to convey any Idea adequate to this; and the ingenious Reafon he gave, why it was fo, gave me no fmall Satisfaction. Painting, faid he, paffes gently thro' one of the Senfes, namely, that of Seeing, to the Imagination; but this adventitious Beauty of SHAKESPEAR's feizes the Imagination at once, before we can reduce the Image to a fenfible Object, which every meer Picture in Poetry ought, for a Teft of its Truth, to be reduced to: However, added he, fince we are upon the Subject of Night-Pieces, if you will hazard zard the Palm of Superiority upon a Subject where both thefe Arts have every Advantage in common; that is, if you will collate any Description in Poetry which conveys only Objects to the Eyes without thefe additional Charms, I dare venture that rural Night Landscape, where you fee, pointing to a fine Picture, the Power of the Moon both upon the Land and Water, against the most laboured Strokes of VIRGIL OF MILTON, or the more enchanting Sketches of HOMER or SHAKESPEAR. I must own nothing could be more favourable for me than felecting, from his Collection, this very Piece, to put in Competition with thefe Geniuses; as it did not neceffitate me to seek for a Description on any other Subject, SHAKESPEAR having left us a fhort one, but at the time the most elegantly picturesque of any I remember; which with a kind of anticipated Triumph I repeated. "To-morrow Night, when Phabe doth behold "Her Silver Vifage in the watry Glafs, 66 Decking with liquid Pearl the bladed Grass." Midfummer Night's Dream. I could |