Denham faw the better way, but has not purfued it with great fuccefs. His verfions of Virgil are not pleafing; but they taught Dryden to please better. His poetical imitation of Tully on "Old Age" has neither the clearness of profe, nor the fpriteliness of poetry.

The "ftrength of Denham," which Pope fo emphatically mentions, is to be found in many lines and couplets, which convey much meaning in few words, and exhibit the fentiment with more weight than bulk.

On the Thames.

"Though with those ftreams he no resemblance hold,
"Whofe foam is amber, and their gravel gold;
"His genuine and less guilty wealth t'explore,
"Search not his bottom, but furvey his shore."

On Strafford.

"His wifdom fuch, at once it did appear

"Three kingdoms' wonder, and three kingdoms' fear.
"While fingle he flood forth, and feem'd, although
“Each had an army, as an equal foe,

"Such was his force of eloquence, to make
"The hearers more concern'd than he that spake:
"Each feem'd to act that part he came to fee,

"And none was more a looker-on than he;
"So did he move our paffions, fome were known
"To with, for the defence, the crime their own.
"Now private pity ftrove with public hate,
"Reason with rage, and eloquence with fate.”

On

On Cowley.

To him no author was unknown,

Yet what he wrote was all his own; "Horace's wit, and Virgil's ftate,

"He did not fteal, but emulate!

"And, when he would like them appear,
"Their garb, but not their cloaths, did wear."

As one of Denham's principal claims to the regard of pofterity arifes from his improvement of our numbers, his verfification ought to be confidered. It will afford that pleasure which arifes from the obfervation of a man of judgement, naturally right, forfaking bad copies by degrees, and advancing towards a better practice, as he gains more confidence in himself.

In his tranflation of Virgil, written when he was about twenty-one years old, may be ftill found the old manner of continuing the fenfe ungracefully from verfe to verfe:

"Then all thofe

"Who in the dark our fury did efcape,

"Returning, know our borrow'd arms, and shape, And differing diale&t; then their numbers fwell "And grow upon us; firft Chorcebeus fell "Before Minerva's altar; next did bleed "Juft Ripheus, whom no Trojan did exceed "In virtue, yet the gods his fate decreed. "Then Hypanis and Dymas, wounded by "Their friends; nor thee, Pantheus, thy piety, "Nor confecrated mitre, from the fame "I fate could fave; my country's funeral flame "And Troy's cold afhes I atteft, and call "To witness for myself, that in their fall VOL. IX.

G

"Ne

"No foes, no death, nor danger, I declin'd, "Did and deferv'd no lefs, my fate to find."

From this kind of concatenated metre he afterwards refrained, and taught his followers the art of concluding their fenfe in couplets; which has perhaps been with rather too much conftancy pursued.

This paffage exhibits one of those triplets which are not unfrequent in this firft effay, but which it is to be fuppofed his maturer judgement disapproved, fince in his latter works he has totally forborn them.

His rhymes are fuch as feem found without difficulty, by following the fenfe; and are for the most part as exact at least as thofe of other poets, though now and then the reader is fhifted off with what he can get :

"O how transform'd!

"How much unlike that Hector, who return'd

"Clad in Achilles' fpoils !"

And again :

"From thence a thousand leffer pocts Sprung

"Like petty princes from the fall of Rome."

Sometimes the weight of rhyme is laid upon a word too feeble to sustain it:

"Troy confounded falls

"From all her glories: if it might have stood
By any power, by this right hand it shou'd.
"And though my outward ftate misfortune bath
"Depreft thus low, it cannot reach my faith."

Thus, by his fraud and our own faith o'ercome, "A feigned tear deftroys us, against whom

"Nor ten years conflict, nor a thousand fail."

He

He is not very careful to vary the ends of his verfes; in one paffage the word die rhymes three couplets in fix.

Most of these petty faults are in his first productions, where he was lefs fkilful, or at least less dextrous in the ufe of words; and though they had been more frequent, they could only have leffened the grace, not the ftrength of his compofition. He is one of the writers that improved our tafte, and advanced our language, and whom we ought therefore to read with gratitude, though, having done much, he left much to do.

MILTON.

THE life of Milton has been already written in fo many forms, and with fuch minute enquiry, that I might perhaps more properly have contented myself with the addition of a few notes on Mr. Fenton's elegant Abridgement, but that a new narrative was thought neceffary to the uniformity of this edition.

JOHN MILTON was by birth a gentleman, defcended from the proprietors of Milton, near Thame, in Oxfordshire, one of whom forfeited his eftate in the times of York and Lancafter. Which fide he took I know not; his defcendant inherited no veneration for the White Rofe.

His grandfather John was keeper of the foreft of Shotover, a zealous papift, who difinherited his fon, because he had forfaken the religion of his ancestors.

His father, John, who was the fon difinherited, had recourfe for his fupport to the profeffion of a fcrivener. He was a man eminent for his fkill in mufick, many of his compofitions being ftill to be found; and his reputation in his profeffion was fuch, that he grew