only as could be executed by a sylph; and have therefore an admirable propriety, as well as the utmost elegance. A thousand wings by turns blow back the hair,* Still farther to heighten the piece, and to preserve the characters of his machines to the last, just when the fatal † forfex was spread, t Ev'n then, before the fatal engine clos'd, A wretched sylph too fondly interpos'd; Fate urg'd the sheers, and cut the sylph in twain, Which last line is an admirable parody on that passage of Milton, which, perhaps oddly enough, describes Satan wounded: The *Cant. iii. ver. 136. + Observe the many periphrases, and uncommon appella, tions, POPE has used for Scissars, which would sound too vul. gar," Fatal Engine," Forfex,-" Sheers," Meeting Points, &c." Cant. iii. ver. 149. The griding sword, with discontinuous wound, The parodies are some of the most exquisite parts That which follows from the of this poem. "Dum juga montis aper," of Virgil, contains some of the most artful strokes of satire, and the most poignant ridicule imaginable. While fish in streams, or birds delight in air, Or in a coach and six the British fair, The introduction of frequent parodies on serious and solemn passages of Homer and Virgil, give much life and spirit to heroi-comic poetry. "Tu dors, Prelat? tu dors ?" in Boileau, is the "Eudes Alge vie" of Homer, and is full of humour. Q 4 *Paradise Lost, Book vi. ver. 329. + Cant. iii. ver. 163. humour. The wife of the barber talks in the language of Dido in her expostulations to her Æneas, at the beginning of the second canto of the Lutrin. POPE's parodies of the speech of Sarpedon, in Homer,* and of the description of Achilles's sceptre,† together with the scales of Jupiter, from Homer, Virgil, and Milton,‡ are judiciously introduced in their several places; are, perhaps, superior to those Boileau or Garth have used; and are worked up with peculiar pleasantry. The mind of the reader is engaged by novelty, when it so unexpectedly finds a thought, or object, it had been accustomed to survey in another form, suddenly arrayed in a ridiculous garb. A mixture of comic and ridiculous images, with serious and important ones, adds, also, no small beauty to this species of poetry. As in the following passages, where real and imaginary distresses are coupled together: Not youthful kings, in battle seiz'd alive ;§ *Cant. v. ver. 9. † Cant. iv. ver. 133. Cant. v. ver. 71. § Cant. iv. ver. 3. Not Not ardent lovers, robb'd of all their bliss Nay, to carry the climax still higher, ; Not Cynthia, when her manteau's pinn'd awry, This is much superior to a similar passage in the Dispensary, which POPE might have in his eye : At this the victors own such ecstacies,* As Memphian priests if their Osiris sneeze; These objects have no reference to Garth's subject, as almost all of POPE's have, in the passage in question, where some female foible is glanced at. In this same canto, the cave of SPLEEN, the pictures of her attendants, ILL-NATURE and AFFECTATION, the effects of the vapour that hung over her palace, the imaginary diseases she occa sions, *Cant. v. ad calc. * sions, the speech of Umbriel, a gnome, to this malignant deity, the vial of female sorrows, the speech of Thalestris to aggravate the misfortune, the breaking the vial, with its direful effects, and the speech of the disconsolate Belinda; all these circumstances are poetically imagined, and are far superior to any of Boileau and Garth. How much in character is it for Belinda to mark a very dismal and solitary situation, by wishing to be conveyed Where the gilt chariot never marks the way, Nothing * Especially when he adjures the goddess by an account of his services, Cant. iv. ver. 71. If e'er with airy horns I planted heads, Nothing can equal this beautiful panegyric, but the satirical |