The cadence is the fame in all; and the worst ear will find a chiming in them, wonderfully expreffive of harmony. As nobody, that I know of, hath attempted to fhew the measure of this ode, I hope I fhall be indulged in a plain unpretending conjecture concerning it. IN the first place, then; Whoever confiders it, will find it plainly divided into fix diftinct parts, or heads, of complaint and lamentation. Thefe parts I take to be fo many ftanzas; like the ftrophe, antiftrophe, and epode of Pindar. And if fo, then the beginnings of fix of the verfes are plainly pointed out to us. EVERY fentence I take to be a verse; because real grief is fhort and fententious. And, to me, many of these verfes plainly demonftrate their own beginnings and endings, without the aid either of unnatural elifions, or those monftrous and ridiculous mutilations and divifions of words, with which critics have, to fuch fimple eyes as mine, defaced fome of the beft odes of Pindar, and turned fome of his fineft verfes into downright burlefque; confining him to their fantastic measures, who fcorned to be confined to any but those of his own free ear. THAT noble exclamation, How are the mighty fallen! with which three stanzas are marked, I take to be the fimple dictate of forrow upon every topic of lamentation; and is therefore, I think, to be confidered as a kind of burden to the fong, and to be either inferted in cach flanza, as in the first; or added to it, as in the two laft. AND as the author did not take the trouble of tranfcribing it in every stanza, (as no writer does at this day) I apprehend it to be tranfmitted to us, under the difadvantage of that omiffion, juft as it was left in the author's copy-which, by the way, is no bad proof of the transcriber's fidelity. IF thefe principles be right, then, I think, the measures are as follow. If I am miftaken, I fhall be very glad to fee my errors amended. אל במותיך חלל צר לי עליה אחי יהונתן נעמת לי מאד נפלאתה אהבתך לי מאהבת נשים איך נפלו גבורים ויאברו כלי מלחמות benoth Ifrael 5. el Saul bechenah 6. Abi Jehonathan yal bemotheca halal tzar li yaleha ahi Jehonathan nayamta li meod niphleatha ahabatheca li meahabath nafhim ech naphelu gibborim vajobedu chele milhamah. * And in their death they were not divided. STANZA 4. Ver. 4. This is faid in the true fpirit of friendship, and in one of its finest diftreffes: He felicitates them upon that happy circumftance of their friendship; to be undivided in death; and, in fo doing, finely laments himfelf upon that head. VER. 5, 6. The rapidity of the first line, and the strength and majesty of the second, are strong instances on which to ground that fine poetic precept: The found fhould be an echo to the fenfe. STANZA 6. His grief, as it began with Jonathan, naturally ends with it. It is well known that we lament ourselves in the lofs of Our our friends; and David was no way folicitous to conceal this circumftance. Ir may be the work of fancy: but to me, I own, this laft ftanza is the strongest picture of grief I ever perused. To my ear, every line in it is either fwelled with fighs or broken with fobs. The judicious reader will plainly find a “ break in the first line; very probably fo left in the original, the writer not being able to find an epithet for Jonathan answering to the idea of his diftrefs. I have ventured to fupply it in the English character, I think not unnaturally; I will not prefume to fay, juftly. To conclude: Few have ever perufed this lamentation with fo little attention, as not to perceive it evidently aninfated with a fpirit truly martial and magnanimous! It is the lamentation of a brave man over brave men! It is, in one word, a lamentation equally pathetic and he roic! END of BooK L |