nery in the reader's eye: for after the poet has

said, that the fair heroine

Repairs her smiles, awakens ev'ry grace,
And calls forth all the wonders of her face,*

He immediately subjoins,

The busy sylphs surround their darling care;
These set the head, and those divide the hair:
Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the gown;
And Betty's prais'd for labours not her own.

canto.

The mention of the Lock,† on which the poem turns, is rightly reserved to the second The sacrifice of the Baron to implore success to his undertaking, is another instance of our poet's judgment, in heightening the subject. The succeeding scene of sailing upon the Thames is most gay and delightful, and impresses very pleasing pictures upon the imagination. Here, too, the machinery is again introduced with much propriety. Ariel summons his denizens of air, who

who are thus painted with a rich exuberance of

fancy :

Some to the sun their insect wings unfold,

Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold:
Transparent forms, too thin for mortal sight,
Their fluid bodies half dissolv'd in light.
Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,
Thin glittering textures of the filmy dew,
Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies,
Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes;
While every beam new transient colours flings;
Colours, that change whene'er they wave their wings.*

Ariel afterwards enumerates the functions and employments of the sylphs, in the following manner; where some are supposed to delight in more gross, and others in more refined, occupations.

Ye know the spheres and various tasks, assign'd
By laws eternal to th' aërial kind.

Some in the fields of purest æther play,
And bask and brighten in the blaze of day;
Some guide the course of wand'ring orbs on high,
Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;
Some, less refin'd, beneath the moon's pale light,
Pursue the stars, that shoot across the night,

* Ver. 59.

ΟΙ

Or suck the mists in grosser air below,
Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,
Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain.*

Those who are fond of tracing images and sentiments to their source, may, perhaps, be inclined to think, that the hint of ascribing tasks and offices to such imaginary beings, is taken from the Fairies and the Ariel of Shakespeare: let the impartial critic determine which has the superiority of fancy. The employment of Ariel, in the TEMPEST, is said to be,

To tread the ooze

Of the salt deep;

To run upon the sharp wind of the north ;
To do-business in the veins of th' earth,
When it is bak'd with frost;

In the deep nook, where once

Thou call'd'st me up at midnight, to fetch dew

From the still-vext Bermoothes.

Nor

*Cant. ii. ver. 75.

Nor must I omit that exquisite song, in which his favourite and peculiar pastime is expressed.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I;

In a cowslip's bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat's back I do fly,

After sun-set, merrily:

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

With what wildness of imagination, but yet. with what propriety, are the amusements of the fairies pointed out in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: amusements proper for none but fairies!

'Fore the third part of a minute, hence:
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds:
Some war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats; and some keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders
At our queint spirits.

Shakespeare only could have thought of the following gratifications for Titania's lover; and they are fit only to be offered, to her lover, by a fairyqueen.

Be

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries.
The honey-bags steal from the humble bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed, and to arise:

And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moon-beams from his sleeping eyes.

If it should be thought, that Shakespeare has the merit of being the first who assigned proper employments to imaginary persons in the foregoing lines, yet it must be granted, that by the addition of the most delicate satire to the most lively fancy, POPE, in the following passage, has excelled any thing in Shakespeare, or perhaps in any other author.

Our humbler province is to tend the fair;
Not a less pleasing, though less glorious care;
To save the powder from too rough a gale,
Nor let th' imprison'd essences exhale;
To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs,
To steal from rainbows, ere they drop in show'rs,
A brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs,
Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs;
Nay, oft in dreams invention we bestow,
To change a flounce, or add a furbelow.*

*Cant. ii. ver. 91.

The