"Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet "not dull;

σε

Strong without rage, without o'er-flowing "full."

The lines are in themselves not perfect; for most of the words, thus artfully oppofed, are to be understood fimply on one fide of the comparison, and metaphorically on the other; and if there be any language which does not exprefs intellectual operations by material images, into that language they cannot be tranflated. But fo much meaning is comprized in 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 sentence are so accurately adjusted; and the flow of the last couplet is fo fmooth and fweet; that the paffage, however celebrated, has not been praised above its merit. It has beauty peculiar to itself, and must be numbered among those felicities which cannot be produced at will by wit and labour, but must arise unexpectedly in fome hour propitious to poetry.

He

He appears to have been one of the first that understood 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 perufal 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 themselves.

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

The "ftrength of Denham," which Pope fo emphatically mentions, is to be found in many lines and couplets, which convey much I 3

mean

meaning in few words, and exhibit the fentiment with more weight than bulk.

On the Thames.

"Though with thofe ftreams he no resemblance “hold,

"Whofe foam is amber, and their gravel gold; "His genuine and lefs guilty wealth t' explore, "Search not his bottom, but furvey his fhore."

On Strafford.

"His wifdom fuch, as once it did appear "Three kingdoms' wonder, and three king"doms' 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 fee,

"And none was more a looker-on than he; "So did he move our paffions, fome were known "To wifh, for the defence, the crime their own. "Now private pity ftrove with publick hate, "Reafon with rage, and eloquence with fate."

On Cowley.

"To him no author was unknown,

"Yet what he wrote was all his own;

"Horace's

"Horace's wit, and Virgil's ftate,

"He did not fteal, 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 pofterity arifes from his improvement of our numbers, his versification ought to be confidered. It will afford that pleasure which arifes from the observation of a man of judgement, naturally right, forsaking bad copies by degrees, and advancing towards a better practice, as he gains more confidence in himself.

In his tranflation of Virgil, written when he was about twenty-one years old, may be ftill found the old manner of continuing the fense ungracefully from verse to verse.

"Then all those

"Who in the dark our fury did escape, "Returning, know our borrow'd arms, and

" shape,

"And differing dialect: then their numbers fwell "And grow upon us; firft Chorœbeus fell "Before Minerva's altar; next did bleed "Juft Ripheus, whom no Trojan did exceed "In virtue, yet the gods his fate decreed.

1 4

}

"Then

"Then Hypanis and Dymas, wounded by "Their friends; nor thee, Pantheus, thy piety, "Nor confecrated mitre, from the fame "Ill fate could fave; my country's funeral flame "And Troy's cold afhes I atteft, and call "To witness for myself, that in their fall "No foes, or death, nor danger I declin'd, "Did and deferv'd no lefs, my fate to find."

From this kind of concatenated metre he afterwards refrained, and taught his followers the art of concluding their fenfe in couplets; which has perhaps been with rather too much conftancy pursued.

This paffage exhibits one of those triplets which are not infrequent in this first effay, but which is to be fuppofed his maturer judgement disapproved, fince in his latter works he has totally forborn them.

His rhymes are fuch as feem found without difficulty, by following the fenfe; and are for the most part as exact at least as thofe of other poets, though now and then the reader is fhifted off with what he can get.

"O how