marriage brought upon him fo much difquiet, as for a time difordered his understanding; and Butler lampoon'd him for his lunacy. I know not whether the malignant lines were then made publick, nor what provocation incited Butler to do that which no provocation can excuse.

His frenzy lasted not long; and he feems to have Zo regained his full force of mind; for he wrote after wards his excellent poem upon the death of Cowley, whom he was not long to furvive; for on the 19th of March, 1688, he was buried by his fide,

DENHAM is defervedly confidered as one of the fathers of English poetry. "Denham and Waller," fays Prior, "improved our verfification, and Dryden "perfected it." He has given fpecimens of various compofition, defcriptive, ludicrous, didactick, and fublime.

He appears to have had, in common with almost all mankind, the ambition of being upon proper occafion's a merry fellow, and in common with moft of them to have been by nature, or by early habits, debarred from it. Nothing is lefs exhilarating than the ludicrousnefs of Denham: He does not fail for want of efforts he is familiar, he is grofs; but he is never merry, unless the "Speech against peace in the close "Committee" be excepted. For grave burlesque, however, his imitation of Davenant fhews him to have been well qualified.

Of his more elevated occafional poems there is per haps none that does not deferve commendation. In the verses to Fletcher, we have an image that has fince been adopted:

"But

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But whither am I ftray'd? I need not raise
"Trophies to thee from other mens difpraise;
"Nor is thy fame on leffer ruins built,
"Nor need thy jufter title the foul guilt

"Of caftern kings, who, to fecure their reign,
"Muft have their brothers, fons, and kindred flain."
After Denham, Orrery, in one of his prologues,

"Poets are fultans, if they had their will;
"For every author would his brother kill."

And Pope,

"Should fuch a man, too fond to rule alone,

"Bear like the Turk no brother near the throne."

But this is not the best of his little pieces: it is excelled by his poem to Fanfhaw, and his elegy on Cowley.

His praise of Fanfhaw's version of Guarini, contains a very fpritely and judicious character of a good

tranflator :

"That fervile path thou nobly doft decline,

"Of tracing word by word, and line by line.
"Thofe are the labour'd births of flavish brains,
"Not the effect of poetry, but pains ;

Cheap vulgar arts, whofe narrowness affords

"No flight for thoughts, but poorly stick at words,

"A new and nobler way thou doft pursue,

"To make tranflations and tranflators too.
"They but preferve the ashes, thou the flame,
"True to his fenfe, but truer to his fame."

The excellence of thefe lines is greater, as the truth which they contain was not at that time generally known.

His poem on the death of Cowley was his laft, and, among his shorter works, his beft performance: the numbers are mufical, and the thoughts are juft.

"COOPER'S

"COOPER'S HILL" is the work that confers upon him the rank and dignity of an original author. He seems to have been, at least among us, the author of a species of compofition that may be denominated local poetry, of which the fundamental fubject is fome particular landfchape, to be poetically defcribed, with the addition of fuch embellishments as may be fupplied by historical retrospection or incidental medi

tation.

To trace a new scheme of poetry has in itself a very high claim to praise, and its praise is yet more when it is apparently copied by Garth and Pope; after whose names little will be gained by an enumeration of smaller poets, that have left scarce a corner of the ifland not dignified either by rhyme, or blank verse.

"COOPER'S HILL," if it be malicioufly infpected, will not be found without its faults. The digreffions are too long, the morality too frequent, and the fentiments fometimes fuch as will not bear a rigorous enquiry.

The four verses, which, fince Dryden has commended them, almost every writer for a century paft has imitated, are generally known:

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O could I flow like thee, and make thy ftream
My great example, as it is my theme!

Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;
"Strong without rage, without o er-flowing full.”

The lines are in themfelves not perfect; for moft of the words, thus artfully opposed, are to be understood fimply on one fide of the comparifon, and metaphorically on the other; and if there be any language

*By Garth, in his "Poem on Claremont," and by Pope, in his "Windfor Foreft."

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which does not express intellectual operations by material images, into that language they cannot be tranflated. But fo much meaning is comprized in fo few words; the particulars of refemblance are so perfpicaciously collected, and every mode of excellence feparated from its adjacent fault by fo nice a line of limitation; the different parts of the fentence are fo accurately adjusted; and the flow of the laft couplet is so smooth and sweet; that the paffage, however celebrated, has not been praised above its merit. It has beauty peculiar to itself, and must be numbered among thofe felicities which cannot be produced at will by wit and labour, but muft arife unexpectedly in fome hour propitious to poetry.

He appears to have been one of the firft that underftood the neceffity of emancipating tranflation from the drudgery of counting lines and interpreting fingle words. How much this fervile practice obfcured the clearest and deformed the most beautiful parts of the ancient authors, may be discovered by a perusal of our earlier verfions; fome of them the works of men well qualified, not only by critical knowledge, but by poetical genius, who yet, by a mistaken ambition of exactnefs, degraded at once their originals and themfelves.

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

The "ftrength of Denham," which Pope fo emiphatically mentions, is to be found in many lines and couplets,

couplets, which convey much meaning in few words, and exhibit the fentiment with more weight than bulk.

On the Thames.

"Though with thofe ftreams he no refemblance hold,
. Whofe foam is amber, and their gravel gold;
"His genuine and lefs 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 ftood 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 see,
"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 publick hate,
"Reason with rage, and eloquence with fate."
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 steal, 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 posterity arises from his improvement of our numbers, his verfification ought to be confidered. It will afford that pleasure which arises from the obfervation of a man of judgement naturally right forfaking bad copies