Pagina-afbeeldingen
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Once general of a gilded hoft of sprites,
Like Hefper leading forth the fpangled nights;
But down like light'ning, which him ftruck, he came,
And roar'd at his firft plunge into the flame.

Lucifer makes a fpeech to the inferior agents of mifchief, in which there is fomething of Heathenifm, and therefore of impropriety; and, to give efficacy to his words, concludes by lafhing his breast with his long tail. Envy, after a paufe, fteps out, and among other declarations of her zeal utters these lines:

Do thou but threat, loud ftorms shall make reply,
And thunder echo to the trembling fky;
Whilft raging feas fwell to fo bold an height,
As thall the fire's proud element affright.
Th' old drudging Sun, from his long-beaten way,
Shall at thy voice start, and misguide the day.
The jocund orbs fhall break their meafur'd pace,
And ftubborn poles change their allotted place.
Heaven's gilded troops fhall flutter here and there,
Leaving their boafting fongs tun'd to a sphere.

Every reader feels himself weary with this useless talk of an allegorical Being,

It is not only when the events are confeffedly miraculous, that fancy and fiction lofe their effect : the whole system of life, while the Theocracy was yet vifible, has an appearance fo different from all other fcenes of human action, that the reader of the Sacred Volume habitually confiders it as the peculiar mode of existence of a diftinct fpecies of mankind, that lived and acted with manners uncommunicable; fo that it is difficult even for imagination to place us in the flate of them whofe ftory is related,

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lated, and by confequence their joys and griefs are not eafily adopted, nor can the attention be often interested in any thing that befalls them.

To the fubject thus originally indifpofed to the reception of poetical embellishments, the writer brought little that could reconcile impatience, or attract curiofity. Nothing can be more disgusting than a narrative fpangled with conceits; and conceits are all that the Davideis fupplies.

One of the great fources of poetical delight is defcription, or the power of presenting pictures to the mind. Cowley gives inferences instead of images, and fhews not what may be fuppofed to have been seen, but what thoughts the fight might have fuggefted. When Virgil defcribes the ftone which Turnus lifted against Æneas, he fixes the attention on its bulk and weight:

Saxum circumfpicit ingens,

Saxum antiquum, ingens, campo quod forte jacebat
Limes agro pofitus, litem ut difcerneret arvis.

Cowley fays of the stone with which Cain flew his brother,

I faw him fling the ftone, as if he meant

At once his murther and his monument.

Of the fword taken from Goliah, he says,

A fword fo great, that it was only fit
To cut off his great head that came with it.

Other poets defcribe Death by fome of its common appearances. Cowley fays, with a learned allufion to fepulchral lamps real or fabulous,

'Twixt his right ribs deep pierc'd the furious blade,
And open'd wide thofe fecret veffels where

Life's light goes out, when firft they let in air.

But he has allufions vulgar as well as learned. In a vifionary fucceffion of kings:

Joas at firft does bright and glorious fhew,

In life's fresh morn his fame does early crow.

Defcribing an undisciplined army, after having faid with elegance,

His forces feem'd no army, but a crowd
Heartlefs, unarm'd, disorderly, and loud,

he gives them a fit of the ague.

The allufions, however, are not always to vulgar things; he offends by exaggeration as much as by diminution:

The king was plac'd alone, and o'er his head

A well-wrought heaven of filk and gold was spread.

Whatever he writes is always polluted with fome conceit:

Where the fun's fruitful beams give metals birth,
Where he the growth of fatal gold does fee,

Gold, which alone more influence has than he.

In one paffage he starts a fudden question to the confufion of philofophy:

Ye learned heads, whom ivy garlands grace,
Why does that twining plant the oak embrace;
The oak for courtship moft of all unfit,
And rough as are the winds that fight with it?

His expreffions have fometimes a degree of meannefs that furpaffes expectation:

Nay, gentle guefts, he cries, fince now you're in,
The ftory of your gallant friend begin.

In a fimile defcriptive of the Morning:

As glimmering ftars just at th' approach of day,
Cathier'd by troops, at last all drop away.

The drefs of Gabriel deferves attention:

He took for fkin a cloud most foft and bright,
That e'er the mid-day fun pierc'd through with light ;
Upon his cheeks a lively bluth he spread,
Wath'd from the morning beauties' deepest red;
An harmless flatt'ring meteor thone for hair,
And fell adown his fhoulders with loofe care;
He cuts out a filk mantle from the fkies,
Where the moft fprightly azure pleas'd the eyes;
This he with ftarry vapours fprinkles all,
Took in their prime ere they grow ripe and fall;
Of a new rainbow ere it fret or fade,

The choiceft piece cut out, a fcarfe is made.

This is a juft fpecimen of Cowley's imagery: what might in general expreffions be great and forcible, he weakens and makes ridiculous by branching it into fmall parts. That Gabriel was invefted with the fofteft or brighteft colours of the sky, we might have been told, and been difmiffed to improve the idea in our different proportions of conception; but Cowley could not let us go till he had related where Gabriel got firft his fkin, and then his mantle, then his lace, and then his scarfe, and related it in the terms of the mercer and tailor.

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Sometimes he indulges himfelf in a digreffion, always conceived with his natural exubérance, and commonly, even where it is not long, continued till it is tedious:

I' th' library a few choice authors ftood,

Yet 'twas well ftor'd, for that finall ftore was good;
Writing, man's fpiritual phyfick, was not then
Itself, as now, grown a disease of men.
Learning (young virgin) but few fuitors knew;
The common proftitute fhe lately grew,

And with the fpurious brood loads now the prefs;
Laborious effects of idleness.

As the Davideis affords only four books, though intended to confift of twelve, there is no opportunity for fuch criticifm as Epick poems commonly fupply. The plan of the whole work is very imperfectly fhewn by the third part. The duration of an unfinished action cannot be known. Of characters either not yet introduced, or fhewn but upon few occafions, the full extent and the nice difcriminations cannot be afcertained. The fable is plainly implex, formed rather from the Odyffey than the Iliad : and many artifices of diverfification are employed, with the skill of a man acquainted with the best models. The paft is recalled by narration, and the future anticipated by vifion: but he has been fo lavish of his poetical art, that it is difficult to imagine how he could fill eight books more without practising again the fame modes of difpofing his matter; and perhaps the perception of this growing incumbrance inclined him to ftop. By this abruption, pofterity loft more inftruction than delight. If the continuation of the Davideis can be miffed,

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