que W He 910 estilos aisiitiga bre gannabon got ouitial to tom He certainly very much excelled in smoothnefs most of the writers who were living when his poetry commenced. The Poets of Elizabeth had attained an art of modulation, which was afterwards neglected or forgotten. Fairfax was acknowledged by him as his model; and he might have studied with advantage the poem of Davies*, which, though merely philofophical, yet feldom leaves the ear ungratified. 158 sslogitq stadt nok has But he was rather fmooth than ftrong; of the full refounding line, which Pope attributes to Dryden, he has given very few examples. The critical decifion has given the praise of ftrength to Denham, and of sweetness to Waller. ada wim svaques & yd yngsen Siedalimas His excellence of verfification has fome abatements. He uses the expletive do very frequently; and though he lived to fee it almost universally ejected, was not more care * Sir John Davies, entituled, "Nofce teipfum. This "Oracle expounded in two Elegies; I. Of Humane Know"ledge; II. Of the Soule of Man and the Immortalitie "thereof, 1599." R. ful ful to avoid it in his laft compofitions than in his firft. Praife had given him confidence; and finding the world fatisfied, he fatisfied himfelf. most sitemidot bron yoy ban sH otpisa vd baiovile dɔoms bum a bad seed of 250 His rhymes are fometimes weak words: fo is found to make the rhyme twice in ten lines, and occurs often as a rhyme through his book.edu aqsihoq quads 197svod bad vedT boloqqot mulle wou que vadı doldy valavonĵo His double rhymes, in heroick verse, have been cenfured by Mrs. Philips, who was his rival in the tranflation of Corneille's Pompey; and more faults might be found, were not the enquiry below attention.rotatimi ald *He fometimes uses the obfolete termination of verbs, as waxeth, affecteth; and sometimes retains the final syllable of the preterite, as amazed, fuppofed, of which I know not whether it is not to the detriment of our language that we have totally rejected them. omat oda *w yliss gnoms insuperl at eaw suley eti dansOf triplets he is fparing; but he did not wholly forbear them: of an Alexandrine he has given no example qed ti gai -ons al bus at sluoibit or boteqqut els The ninsult anpitogmoo fial aid of si blows or lut The general character of his poetry is ele gance and and gaiety. He is never pathetick, and very rarely fublime. He feems neither to have had a mind much elevated by nature, nor amplified by learning. His thoughts are fuch as a liberal converfation and large acquaintance with life would easily supply. They had however then, perhaps, that grace of novelty which they are now often fuppofed to want by thofe who, having already found them in later books, do not know or enquire who produced them firft. This treatment is unjuft. Let not the original author lofe by his imitators.ortdotte Wold yiispas eds Jom/ nol Praife, however, fhould be due before it is given. The author of Waller's Life afcribes to him the first practice of what Erythræus and fome late critics call Alliteration, of ufing in the fame verfe many words beginning with the fame letter. But this knack, whatever be. its value, was fo frequent among early writers, that Gafcoigne, a writer of the fixteenth century, warns the young poet against affecting it; Shakspeare, in the Midfummer Night's Dream, is fuppofed to ridicule it; and in ano ther ther play the fonnet of Holofernes fully dif plays it. Helmid salong HolloW RA dt bersel He borrows too many of his fentiments and illuftrations from the old Mythology, for which it is vain to plead the example of ancient poets: the deities, which they introduced fo frequently, were confidered as realities, fo far as to be received by the imagination, whatever fober reafon might even then determine. But of these images time has tarnifhed the folen A fiction, not only detected but defpifed, can never afford a folid bafis to any pofition, though fometimes it may furnish a tranfient allufion, or flight illuftration. No modern monarch can be much exalted by hearing that, as Hercules had had his club, he has his navy. But of the praise of Waller, though much may be taken ken away, much will remain; for it cannot be denied that he added fomething to our elegance of diction, and fomething to our propriety of thought; and to him may be applied what Taffo faid, with equal fpirit and juftice of himfelf and Guarini, when, having perufed the Paftor Fido, he cried out, "If he had not read Aminta, he had not "excelled it." AS AS Waller profeffed himself to have learned the art of verfification from Fairfax, it has been thought proper to fubjoin a specimen of his work, which, after Mr. Hoole's tranflation, will perhaps not be foon reprinted. By knowing the ftate in which Waller found our poetry, the reader may judge how much he improved it. 1. Erminia's fteed (this while) his miftreffe bore Through forrefts thicke among the fhadie treene, Her feeble hand the bridle raines forlore, Halfe in a fwoune fhe was for feare I weene; But her flit courfer fpared nere the more, To beare her through the defart woods unfeene Of her ftrong foes, that chas'd her through the plaine, gwneid and ad. And ftill purfu'd, but ftill purfu'd in vaine. fouer 2. Like as the wearie bounds at laft retire, |