IT cannot be thought ftrange, that he who could fo judiciously explain, could as poetically express, the ideas of Isaiah: the latter he has performed in many inftances; but in none more strikingly than in the following, which magnificently represents the Meffiah treading the wine-prefs in his anger, and which an impartial judge, not blinded by the charms of antiquity, will think equal to many descriptions in Virgil, in point of elegance and energy: Ille patris vires indutus et iram Dira rubens graditur, per ftragem et fracta potentum * Prælect. vii. pag. 63. C 2 SECT. SECT. II. Of WINDSOR FOREST, and DE LYRIC Pieces. ESCRIPTIVE Poetry was by no means the fhining talent of POPE. This affertion may be manifested by the few images introduced in the poem before us, which arenot equally applicable to any place whatsoever. Rural beauty in general, and not the peculiar beauties of the Foreft of Windfor, are here defcribed. Nor are the fports of fetting, shooting, and fishing, included between the ninetythird and one hundred and forty-fixth verses, to which the reader is referred, at all more appropriated. The ftag-chafe, that immediately follows, although fome of the lines. are incomparably good *, is not so full, fo animated, and fo circumftantiated, as that of Somerville. THE digreffion that describes the demolition of the thirty villages by William the Conqueror, is well imagined; particularly, * See particularly, ver. 151. Round Round broken columns clasping ivy twin'd, Though I cannot forbear thinking, that the following picture of the ruins of GodstowNunnery, drawn, it should seem, on the spot, and worthy the hand of Paul Brill, is by no means excelled by the foregoing. Qua nudo Rofamonda humilis fub culmine tecti Hinc matutinum fæpe monebat avem ; VOLTAIRE, that lively maintainer of many a paradox, is inclined to difpute the truth of * Ver. 69. + Carmina Quadragef. Oxon. 1748. pag. 3. C 3 the the devastation imputed to William I, but for a reafon very strange and inconclufive. "Une telle action, fays he, eft trop infenfée pour etre vraisemblable. Les hiftoriens ne font pas attention qu'il faut au moins vingt années pour qu'un nouveau plan d'arbres devienne une forêt propre a là chaffe. a là chaffe. On lui fait femer cette forêt en 1080, il avoit alors 63 ans. Quelle apparence y a-t-il, qu'un homme raifonable ait à cet âge détruit des villages pour femer quinze lieues en bois, dans l'efpérance d'y chaffer un jour*?" There is indeed fome probability that, the character of this prince has been mifrepresented, and his oppreffions magnified. The law of the curfeu-bell, by which every inhabitant of England was obliged to extinguish his fire and candles at eight in the evening, has been usually alleged as the inftitution of a capricious tyrant. But this law, as Voltaire + rightly obferves, was fo far from being abfurdly tyrannical, that it was an ancient custom established among all Abregé de l'Histoire Univerfelle, &c. tom. i. pag. 280. the monafteries of the north. Their houses were built of wood, and fo cautious a method, to prevent fire, was an object worthy a prudent legiflator. A more amiable idea than POPE has here exhibited of the Conqueror, is given us of the fame prince, by that diligent enquirer into antiquity the Prefident Henault, in a paffage that contains fome curious particulars, characteristical of the manners of that age. "This monarch protected letters, at a time, when books were fo rare and uncommon, that a countefs of Anjou gave for a collection of homilies, two hundred sheep, a measure of wheat, another of rye, a third of millet, and a certain number of the skins of martens *" But to return. The story of Lodona is prettily Ovidian; but there is fcarcely a fingle incident in it, but what is borrowed from fome transformation of Ovid. The picture of a virtuous and learned man in *Novel Abregé Chronologique de l' Hiftoire de France. tom. i. pag. 126. To this ufeful and entertaining work Voltaire has often been deeply indebted, without confeffing his obligation. + Ver. 171. C 4 retirement |