etiam fpirans; ferociamque animi, quam habuerat vivus, in vultu retinens." Nor must I omit that affecting image in Spenser, who ever excels in the pathetic,

And him befides there lay upon the grafs
A dreary corfe, whofe life away did pass,
All wallow'd in his own, yet lukewarm, blood,
That from his wound yet welled fresh, alas;
In which a rusty knife fast fixed stood,
And made an open paffage for the gushing flood *.

When Palamon perceived his rival had

escaped,

He ftares, he stamps the ground;

The hollow tow'r with clamour rings around:
With briny tears he bath'd his fetter'd feet,
And dropp'd all o'er with agony of sweat.

Nor are the feelings of Palamon lefs ftrongly impreffed on the reader, where he fays,

The rage of Jealousy then fir'd his foul,
And his face kindled like a burning coal:

*Fairy Queen, Book I. Canto 9. Stanza 36.

Now

Now cold defpair'fucceeding in her ftead,
To livid palenefs turn'd the glowing red *.

If we pass on from defcriptions of perfons to those of things, we fhall find this poem equally excellent. The temple of Mars, is fituated with propriety, in a country defolate and joylefs; all around it,

The landscape was a foreft wide and bare;
Where neither beast nor human kind repair;
The fowl, that scent afar, the borders fly,
And shun the bitter blast, and wheel about the sky.
A cake of fcurf lies baking on the ground,
And prickly ftubs inftead of trees are found.

The temple itself is nobly and magnificently ftudied; and, at the fame time, adapted to the furious nature of the God to whom it belonged; and carries with it a barbarous and tremendous idea.

* These paffages are chiefly of the pathetic fort; for which Dryden in his tragedies is far from being remarkable. But it is not unusual for the fame person to fucceed in defcribing externally a distressful character, who may miferably fail in putting proper words in the mouth of fuch a character. In a word, fo much more difficult is DRAMATIC than DESCRIPTIVE poetry!

The

The frame of burnifh'd fteel that caft a glare
From far, and feem'd to thaw the freezing air.
A ftrait long entry to the temple led,
Blind with high walls and horror over-head:
Thence iffued such a blast and hollow roar,
As threaten'd from the hinge to heave the door;
In through the door a northern light there shone,
'Twas all it had, for windows there were none.
The gate of adamant, eternal frame,

Which hew'd by Mars himself from Indian quarries

came.

This scene of terror is judiciously contrafted by the pleafing and joyous imagery of the temples of Venus and Diana. The figure of the last goddess, is a design fit for GUIDO to execute..

The graceful Goddess was array'd in green;
About her feet were little beagles feen,

That watch'd with UPWARD eyes the motions of their queen.

But above all, the whole defcription of the entering the lifts *, and of the ensuing

* The reader is defired all along to remember, that the first delineation of all these images is in Chaucer, or Boccace, and it might be worth examining how much Dryden has added purely from his own stock.

combat,

combat, which is told at length, in the middle of the third book, is marvellously fpirited; and fo lively, as to make us spectators of that interesting and magnificent tournament. Even the absurdity of feigning ancient heroes, fuch as Thefeus and Lycurgus, prefent at the lifts and a modern combat, is overwhelmed and obliterated amidst the blaze, the pomp, and the profufion of fuch animated poetry. Frigid and phlegmatic must be the critic, who could have leifure dully and foberly to attend to the anachronism on fo ftriking an occafion. The mind is whirled away by a torrent of rapid imagery, and propriety is forgot.

THE tale of Sigifinonda and Guifcardo is heightened with many new and affecting touches by Dryden. I fhall felect only the following picture of Sigifmonda, as it has the fame attitude in which the appears in a famous piece of CORREGGIO.

Mute, folemn forrow, free from female noife,
Such as the Majefty of grief deftroys:
VOL. II.

с

For

For bending o'er the cup, the tears she shed
Seem'd by the posture to discharge her head,
O'erfill'd before; and oft (her mouth apply'd
To the cold heart) fhe kiss'd at once and cry'd.

There is an incomparable wildness in the vifion of Theodore and Honoria*, that represents the furious spectre of " the horfeman ghost that came thundering for his prey," and of the gaunt mastiffs that tore the fides of the fhrieking damfel he purfued; which is a fubject worthy the pencil of Spagnoletti, as it partakes of that favageness which is fo ftriking to the imagination. I fhall confine myself to point out only two paffages, which relate the two appearances of this formidable figure :

"It is

*This is one of Boccace's moft ferious stories. a curious thing to fee at the head of an edition of Boccace's tales, printed at Florence in 1573, a privilege of Gregory XIII. who fays, that in this he follows the fteps of Pius V. his predeceffor, of blessed memory, and which threatens with fevere punishments all thofe, who fhall dare to give any disturbance to those bookfellers to whom this privilege is granted. There is alfo a decree of the inquifition in favour of this edition, in which the holy father caufed some al62. terations to be made." LONGUERUANA, Tom. II. P. a Berlin, 1754

and