An Arthurian Miscellany at sacred-texts.com

A bloody Engagement between the two Armies here, Drums beating, Trumpets sounding, Thunder and Lightning. -- They fight off and on several times. Some fall . GRIZZLE and GLUMDALCA remain .

The Morning dawns with an unwonted Crimson,
The Flowers all odorous seem, the Garden Birds
Sing louder, and the laughing Sun ascends,
The gaudy Earth with an unusual brightness,
All Nature smiles.   (Caes. Borg.)

-- The Sun too seems
As conscious of my Joy with broader Eye
To look abroad the World, and all things smile
Like Sophonisba.

-- The Morning rises slow,
And all those ruddy Streaks that us'd to paint
The Days Approach, are lost in Clouds as if
The Horrors of the Night had sent 'em back,
To warn the Sun, he should not leave the Sea,
To Peep , &c.

2 This Line is highly conformable to the beautiful Simplicity of the Antients. It hath been copied by almost every Modern,

             Not to be is not to be in Woe.   (State of Innocence.)

             Love is not Sin but where 'tis sinful Love.   (Don Sebastian.)

             Nature is Nature, Laelius.  (Sophonisba.)

             Men are but Men, we did not make our selves.   (Revenge.)


3 Dr. B------y reads the mighty Tall-mast Thumb. Mr. D------s the mighty Thumping Thumb. Mr. T------d reads Thundering. I think Thomas more agreeable to the great Simplicity so apparent in our Author.

4 That learned Historian Mr. S------n in the third Number of his Criticism on our Author, takes great Pains to explode this Passage. It is, says he, difficult to guess what Giants are here meant, unless the Giant Despair in the Pilgrim's Progress , or the Giant Greatness in the Royal Villain ; for I have heard of no other sort of Giants in the Reign of King Arthur. Petrus Burmanus makes three Tom Thumbs , one whereof he supposes to have been the same Person whom the Greeks called Hercules , and that by these Giants are to be understood the Centaurs slain by that Heroe. Another Tom Thumb he contends to have been no other than the Hermes Trismegistus of the Antients. The third Tom Thumb he places under the Reign of King Arthur , to which third Tom Thumb , says he, the Actions of the other two were attributed. Now tho' I know that this Opinion is supported by an Assertion of Justus Lipsius, Thomam illum Thumbum non alium quam Herculem fuisse satis constat ; yet shall I venture to oppose one Line of Mr. Midwinter , against them all,

             In Arthur's Court Tom Thumb did live .

But then, says Dr. B------y , if we place Tom Thumb in the Court of King Arthur , it will be proper to place that Court out of Britain , where no Giants were ever heard of. Spencer , in his Fairy Queen , is of another Opinion, where describing Albion he says,

             -- Far within a salvage Nation dwelt
             Of hideous Giants .

And in the same Canto,

             Then Elfar, who two Brethren Giants had,
             The one of which had two Heads --
                 The other three .

Risum teneatis, Amici.

5 To whisper in Books says Mr. D------s is errant Nonsense. I am afraid this learned Man does not sufficiently understand the extensive meaning of the Word Whisper. If he had rightly understood what is meant by the Senses Whisp'ring the Soul in the Persian Princess , or what Whisp'ring like Winds is in Aurengzebe , or like Thunder in another Author, he would have understood this. Emmeline in Dryden sees a Voice, but she was born blind, which is an Excuse Panthea cannot plead in Cyrus , who hears a sight.

             -- Your Description will surpass,
             All Fiction, Painting, or dumb Shew of Horror,
             That ever Ears yet heard, or Eyes beheld .

When Mr. D------s understands these he will understand Whisp'ring in Books.

6            -- Some Ruffian stept into his Father's Place ,
             And more than half begot him.  ( Mary Q. of Scots ).

7            -- For Ulamar seems sent Express from Heaven,
             To civilize this rugged Indian Clime .  (Liberty Asserted.)

8 Omne majus continet in se minus, sed minus non in se majus continere potest , says Scaliger in Thumbo . - I suppose he would have cavilled at these beautiful Lines in the Earl of Essex ;

             -- Thy most inveterate Soul,
             That looks through the foul Prison of thy Body .

             And at those of Dryden,

             The Palace is without too well design'd,
             Conduct me in, for I will view thy Mind.   (Aurengzebe.)

9 Mr. Banks hath copied this almost Verbatim,

             It was enough to say, here's Essex come,
             And Nurses still'd their Children with the fright.   (E. of Essex .)

10 The Trumpet in a Tragedy is generally as much as to say enter King: Which makes Mr. Banks in one of his Plays call it the Trumpets's formal Sound.

11 Phraortes in the Captives seems to have been acquainted with King Arthur .

             Proclaim a Festival for seven Days space,
             Let the Court shine in all its Pomp and Lustre,
             Let all our Streets resound with Shouts of Joy;
             Let Musick's Care-dispelling Voice be heard,
             The sumptuous Banquet, and the flowing Goblet
             Shall warm the Cheek, and fill the Heart with Gladness.
             Astarbe shall sit Mistress of the Feast .

12         Repentance frowns on thy contracted Brow .  (Sophonisba.)

             Hung on his clouded Brow, I mark'd Despair .  (Ibid.)

             -- A sullen Gloom,
             Scowls on his Brow .  (Busiris.)

13 Plato is of this Opinion, and so is Mr. Banks ;

             Behold these Tears sprung from fresh Pain and Joy .  (E. of Essex .)

14 These Floods are very frequent in the Tragick Authors.

             Near to some murmuring Brook I'll lay me down,
             Whose Waters if they should too shallow flow,
             My Tears shall swell them up till I will drown .  (Lee's Sophonisba.)

             Pouring forth Tears at such a lavish Rate,
             That were the World on Fire, they might have drown'd
             The Wrath of Heav'n, and quench'd the mighty Ruin .  (Mithridates.)

   One Author changes the Waters of Grief to those of Joy,

             -- These Tears that sprung from Tides of Grief,
             Are now augmented to a Flood of Joy .  (Cyrus the Great.)

   Another,

             Turns all the Streams of Hates, and makes them flow
             In Pity's Channel .  (Royal Villain.)

   One drowns himself,

             -- Pity like a Torrent pours me down,
             Now I am drowning all within a Deluge .  (Anna Bullen.)

    Cyrus drowns the whole world,

             Our swellin Grief
             Shall melt into a Deluge, and the World
             Shall drown in Tears.   (Cyrus the Great.)

15 An Expression vastly beneath the Dignity of Tragedy, says Mr. D------s , yet we find the Word he cavils at in the Mouth of Mithridates less properly used and applied to a more terrible Idea;

             I would be drunk with Death .  (Mithrid.)

The Author of the New Sophonisba taketh hold of this Monosyllable, and uses it pretty much to the same purpose,

             The Carthaginian Sword with Roman Blood
             Was drunk .

I would ask Mr. D------s which gives him the best Idea, a drunken King, or a drunken Sword?
Mr. Tate dresses up King Arthur's Resolution in Heroicks,

             Merry, my Lord, o' th' Captain's Humour right,
             I am resolv'd to be dead drunk to Night .

Lee also uses this charming Word;

             Love's the Drunkenness of the Mind .  (Gloriana.)

16 Dryden hath borrowed this, and applied it improperly,

             I'm half Seas o'er in Death .  (Cleom.)

17 This Figure is in great use among the Tragedians;

             'Tis therefore, therefore 'tis .  (Victim.)

             I long repent, repent and long again .  (Busiris.)

18 A Tragical Exclamation.

19 This Line is copied verbatim in the Captives .

20We find a Candlestick for this Candle in two celebrated Authors;

             -- Each Star withdraws
             His golden Head and burns within the Socket.   (Nero.)

             A Soul grown old and sunk into the Socket .  (Sebastian.)

21 This Simile occurs very frequently among the Dramatick Writers of both Kinds.

22 Mr. Lee hath stolen this Thought from our Author;

             -- This perfect Face, drawn by the Gods in Council,
             Which they were long a making.   (Lu. Jun. Brut.)

             -- At his Birth, the heavenly Council paus'd,
             And then at last cry'd out, This is a Man!

Dryden hath improved this Hint to the utmost Perfection:

             So perfect, that the very Gods who form'd you, wonder'd
             At their own Skill, and cry'd, A lucky Hit
             Has mended our Design! Their Envy hindred,
             Or you had been Immortal, and a Pattern,
             When Heaven would work for Ostentation sake,
             To copy out again .  (All for Love.)

Banks prefers the Works of Michael Angelo to that of the Gods;

             A Pattern for the Gods to make a Man by,
             Or Michael Angelo to form a Statue .

23 It is impossible says Mr. W------ sufficiently to admire this natural easy Line.

24 This Tragedy which in most Points resembles the Antients differs from them in this, that it assigns the same Honour to Lowness of Stature, which they did to Height. The Gods and Heroes in Homer and Virgil are continually described higher by the Head than their Followers, the contrary of which is observ'd by our Author: In short, to exceed on either side is equally admirable, and a Man of three Foot is as wonderful a sight as a Man of nine.

25              My Blood leaks fast, and the great heavy lading
             My Soul will quickly sink.   (Mithrid.)

             My Soul is like a Ship .  (Injur'd Love.)

26 This well-bred Line seems to be copied in the Persian Princess ;

             To be your humblest, and most faithful Slave .

27 This Doubt of the King puts me in mind of a Passage in the Captives , where the Noise of Feet is mistaken for the Rustling of Leaves,

             -- Methinks I hear
             The sound of Feet
             No, 'twas the Wind that shook yon Cypress Boughs.

28 Mr. Dryden seems to have had this Passage in his Eye in the first Page of Love Triumphant .

29 Don Carlos in the Revenge suns himself in the Charms of his Mistress,

             While in the Lustre of her Charms I lay .

30 A tragical phrase much in use.

31 This Speech hath been taken to pieces by several Tragical Authors who seem to have rifled it and shared its Beauties among them.

             My soul waits at the Portal of thy Breast,
             To ravish from thy Lips the welcome News.   (Anna Bullen.)

             My Soul stands listening at my Ears .  (Cyrus the Great.)

             Love to his Tune my jarring Heart would bring,
             But Reason overwinds and cracks the String.   (D. of Guise.)

             -- I should have lov'd,
             Tho' Jove in muttering Thunder had forbid it .  (New Sophonisba.)

             And when it (my Heart) wild resolves to love no more,
             Then is the Triumph of excessive Love .  (Ibidem.)

32 Massinissa is one fourth less happy than Tom Thumb .

             Oh! happy, happy, happy.   (New Sophonisba.)

33            No by my self.   (Anna Bullen.)

34          -- Who caus'd
             This dreadful Revolution in my Fate?
                 Ulamar. Who but a Dog, who but a Dog?   (Liberty Asserted.)

35          -- A Bride,
             Who twenty Years lay loving by your side .  (Banks.)

36          For born upon a Cloud, from high I'll fall,
             And rain down Royal Vengeance on you all.   (Albion Queens.)

37 An Information very like this we have in the Tragedy of Love , where Cyrus having stormed in the most violent manner, Cyaxares observes very calmly,

             Why, Nephew Cyrus -- you are mov'd .

38          'Tis in your Choice,
             Love me, or love me not!   (Conquest of Granada.)

39 There is not one Beauty in this Charming Speech, but hath been borrowed by almost every Tragick Writer.

40 Mr. Banks has (I wish I could not say too servilely) imitated this of Grizzle in his Earl of Essex.

             Where art thou Essex, &c.

41 The Countess of Nottingham in the Earl of Essex is apparently acquainted with Dollalolla .

42 Grizzle was not probably possessed of that Glew, of which Mr. Banks speaks in his Cyrus .

             I'll glew my Ears to ev'ry word.

43              Screech-Owls, dark Ravens and amphibious Monsters,
             Are screaming in that Voice .  (Mary Q. of Scots.)

44 The Reader may see all the Beauties of this Speech in a late Ode called the Naval Lyrick .

45 This Epithet to a Dolphin doth not give one so clear an Idea as were to be wished, a smiling Fish seeming a little more difficult to be imagined than a flying Fish. Mr. Dryden is of Opinion, that smiling is the Property of Reason, and that no irrational Creature can smile.

             Smiles not allowed to Beasts from Reason move .  (State of Innocence.)

46 These Lines are written in the same Key with those in the Earl of Essex;

             Why sayst thou so, I love thee well, indeed
             I do, and thou shalt find by this, 'tis true.

Or with this in Cyrus;

             The most heroick Mind that ever was.

And with above half of the modern Tragedies.

47 Aristotle in that excellent Work of his which is very justly stiled his Masterpiece, earnestly recommends using the Terms of Art, however coarse or even indecent they may be. Mr. Tate is of the same Opinion.

             Bru. Do not, like young Hawks, fetch a Course about,
                    Your Game flies fair.
             Fra. Do not fear it .
                    He answers you in your own Hawking Phrase .  (Injur'd Love.)

I think these two great Authorities are sufficient to justify Dollalolla in the use of the Phrase -- Hie away hie ; when in the same Line she says she is speaking to a setting Dog.

48 We meet with such another Pair of Scales in Dryden's King Arthur .

             Arthur and Oswald and their different Fates,
             Are weighing now within the Scales of Heav'n

Also in Sebastian.

             This Hour my Lot is weighing in the Scales .

49 Mr. Rowe is generally imagin'd to have taken some Hints from this Scene in his Character of Bajazet ; but as he, of all the Tragick Writers, bears the least Resemblance to our Author in his Diction, I am unwilling to imagine he would condescend to copy him in this particular.

50 This method of surprizing an Audience by raising their Expectation to the highest Pitch, and then baulking it, hath been practis'd with great Success by most of our Tragical Authors.

51 Almeyda in Sebastian is in the same Distress;

             Sometimes methinks I hear the Groan of Ghosts,
             Thin hollow Sounds and lamentable Screams;
             Then, like a dying Echo from afar,
             My Mother's Voice that cries, wed not Almeyda
             Forewarn'd , Almeyda, Marriage is thy Crime .

52 As very well he may if he hath any Modesty in him, says Mr. D------s . The Author of Busiris , is extremely zealous to prevent the Sun's blushing at any indecent Object; and therefore on all such Occasions he addresses himself to the Sun, and desires him to keep out of the way.

             Rise never more, O Sun! let Night prevail,
             Eternal Darkness close the World's wide Scene .  (Busiris.)

             Sun hide thy Face and put the World in Mourning.   (Ibid.)

Mr. Banks makes the Sun perform the Office of Hymen ; and therefore not likely to be disgusted at such a Sight;

             The Sun sets forth like a gay Brideman with you .  (Mary Q. of Scots.)

53 Nourmahal sends the same Message to Heaven;

             For I would have you, when you upwards move,
             Speak kindly of us, to our Friends above.   (Aurengzebe.)

We find another to Hell, in the Persian Princess;

             Villain, get thee down
             To Hell, and tell them that the Fray's begun.

54 Anthony gives the same Command in the same Words.

55       Oh! Marius, Marius ; wherefore art thou Marius ?  (Otway's Marius.)

56 Nothing is more common than these seeming Contradictions; such as,

             Haughty Weakness.   (Victim.)

             Great small World .  (Noah's Flood.)

57 Lee hath improv'd this Metaphor.

             Dost thou not view Joy peeping from my Eyes,
             The Casements open'd wide to gaze on thee;
             So Rome's glad Citizens to Windows rise,
             When they some young Triumpher fain would see.   (Gloriana.)

58 Almahide hath the same Contempt for these Appetites;

             To eat and drink can no Perfection be .  (Conquest of Granada.)

The Earl of Essex is of a different Opinion, and seems to place the chief Happiness of a General therein.

             Were but Commanders half so well rewarded,
             Then they might eat.   (Banks' Earl of Essex.)

But if we may believe one, who knows more than either, the Devil himself; we shall find Eating to be an Affair of more moment than is generally imagined.

             Gods are immortal only by their Food .  (Lucifer in the State of Innocence.)

59 This Expression is enough of it self (says Mr. D------s ) utterly to destroy the Character of Huncamunca ; yet we find a Woman of no abandon'd Character in Dryden , adventuring farther and thus excusing her self;

             To speak our Wishes first, forbid it Pride,
             forbid it Modesty: True, they forbid it,
             But Nature does not, when we are athirst,
             Or hungry, will imperious Nature stay,
             Nor eat, nor drink, before 'tis bid fall on .  (Cleomenes.)

Cassandra speaks before she is asked. Huncamunca afterwards.
Cassandra speaks her Wishes to her Lover.
Huncamunca only to her Father.

60             Her Eyes resistless Magick bear,
             Angels I see, and Gods are dancing there.   (Lee's Sophonisba.)

61 Mr. Dennis in that excellent Tragedy, called Liberty Asserted , which is thought to have given so great a Stroke to the late French King, hath frequent Imitations of this beautiful Speech of King Arthur;

             Conquest light'ning in his Eyes, and thund'ring in his Arm.
             Joy lighten'd in her Eyes.
             Joys like Light'ning dart along my Soul .

62          Jove with excessive Thund'ring tir'd above,
             Comes down for Ease, enjoys a Nymph, and then
             Mounts dreadful, and to Thund'ring goes again.   (Gloriana.)

63 This beautiful Line, which ought, says Mr. W------ to be written in Gold, is imitated in the New Sophonisba ;

             Oh! Sophonisba, Sophonisba , oh!
             Oh! Narva, Narva , oh!

The Author of a Song call'd Duke upon Duke, hath improv'd it.

             Alas! O Nick, O Nick, alas!

Where, by the help of a little false Spelling, you have two Meanings in the repeated Words.

64 Edith , in the Bloody Brother , speaks to her Lover in the same familiar Language.

             Your Grace is full of Game .

65              Traverse the glitt'ring Chambers of the Sky,
             Born on a Cloud in view of Fate I'll lie,
             And press her Soul while Gods stand wishing by.   (Hannibal.)

66             Let the four Winds from distant Corners meet,
             And on their Wings first bear it into France;
             Then back again to Edina's proud Walls,
             Till Victim to the Sound th' aspiring City falls.   (Albion Queens.)

67 I do not remember any Metaphors so frequent in the Tragick Poets as those borrow'd from Riding Post;

             The Gods and Opportunity ride Post .  (Hannibal.)

             -- Let's rush together,
             For Death rides Post.   (Duke of Guise.)

             Destruction gallops to thy murther Post .  (Gloriana.)

68 This Image too very often occurs;

             -- Bright as when thy Eye
             'First lighted up our Loves .  (Aurengzebe.)

             This not a Crown alone lights up my Name .  (Busiris.)

69 There is great Dissension among the Poets concerning the Method of making Man. One tells his Mistress that the Mold she was made in being lost, Heaven cannot form such another. Lucifer in Dryden , gives a merry Description of his own Formation;

             Whom Heaven neglecting, made and scarce design'd,
             But threw me in for Number to the rest.   (State of Innocence.)

In one Place, the same Poet supposes Man to be made of Metal;

             I was form'd
             Of that coarse Metal, which when she was made,
             The Gods threw by for Rubbish.   (All for Love.)

In another, of Dough;

             When the Gods moulded up the Paste of Man,
             Some of their Clay was left upon their Hands,
             And so they made Egyptians.  (Cleomenes.)

In another of Clay;

             -- Rubbish of remaining Clay .  (Sebastian.)

One makes the Soul of Wax;

             Her waxen Soul begins to melt apace.   (Anna Bullen.)

Another of Flint;

             Sure our two Souls have somewhere been acquainted
             In former Beings, or struck out together,
             One Spark to Africk flew, and one to Portugal.  (Sebastian.)

To omit the great Quantities of Iron, Brazen and Leaden Souls which are so plenty in modern Authors -- I cannot omit the Dress of a Soul as we find it in Dryden;

             Souls shirted but with Air .  (King Arthur.)

Nor can I pass by a particular sort of Soul in a particular sort of Description, in the New Sophonisba.

             Ye mysterious Powers,
             -- Whether thro' your gloomy Depths I wander,
             Or on the Mountains walk; give me the calm,
             The steady smiling Soul, where Wisdom sheds
             Eternal Sun-shine, and eternal Joy .

70 This Line Mr. Banks has plunder'd entire in his Anna Bullen .

71              Good Heaven, the Book of Fate before me lay,
             But to tear out the Journal of that Day.
             Or if the Order of the World below,
             Will not the Gap of one whole Day allow,
             Give me that Minute when she made her Vow .  (Conquest of Granada.)

72 I know some of the Commentators have imagined, that Mr. Dryden , in the Altercative Scene between Cleopatra and Octavia , a Scene which Mr. Addison inveighs against with great Bitterness, is much beholden to our Author. How just this their Observation is, I will not presume to determine.

73 A cobling Poet indeed, says Mr. D . and yet I believe we may find as monstrous Images in the Tragick-Authors: I'll put down one;

             Untie your folded Thoughts, and let them dangle loose as a
             Bride's Hair .  (Injur'd Love.)

Which Lines seem to have as much Title to a Milliner's Shop, as our Author's to a Shoemaker's.

74 Mr. L------ takes occasion in this Place to commend the great Care of our Author to preserve the Metre of Blank Verse, in which Shakespear, Johnson and Fletcher were so notoriously negligent; and the Moderns, in Imitation of our Author, so laudably observant;

             -- Then does
             Your Majesty believe that he can be
             A Traitor!   (Earl of Essex.)

Every Page of Sophonisba gives us Instances of this Excellence.

75              Love mounts and rowls about my stormy Mind.   (Aurengzebe.)

             Tempests and Whirlwinds thro' my Bosom move.   (Cleom.)

76              With such a furious Tempest on his Brow,
             As if the World's four Winds were pent within
             His blustring Carcase.   (Anna Bullen.)

77 Verba Tragica.

78 This Speech hath been terribly maul'd by the Poets.

79              -- My Life is worn to Rags;
             Not worth a Prince's wearing .  (Love Triumph.)

80              Must I beg the Pity of my Slave?
             Must a King beg! But Love's a greater King,
             A Tyrant, nay a Devil that possesses me.
             He tunes the Organ of my Voice and speaks,
             Unknown to me, within me.   (Sebastian.)

81             When thou wer't form'd, Heaven did a Man begin;
             But a Brute Soul by chance was shuffled in.   (Aurengzebe.)

82               -- I am a Multitude,
             Of walking Griefs.   (New Sophonisba.)

83               I will take thy Scorpion Blood,
             And lay it to my Grief till I have Ease.   (Anna Bullen.)

84 Our Author, who every where shews his great Penetration into human Nature, here outdoes himself: Where a less judicious Poet would have raised a long Scene of whining Love. He who understood the Passions better, and that so violent an Affection as this must be too big for Utterance, chooses rather to send his Characters off in this sullen and doleful manner: In which admirable Conduct he is imitated by the Author of the justly celebrated Eurydice . Dr. Young seems to point at this Violence of Passion;

             -- Passion choaks
             Their Words, and they're the Statues of Despair .

And Seneca tells us, Curaeleves Loquuntur, ingentes stupent . The Story of the Egyptian King in Herodotus is too well known to need to be inserted; I refer the more curious Reader to the excellent Montagne , who hath written an Essay on this Subject.

85              To part is Death --
             -- 'Tis Death to part.
             -- Ah.
             -- Oh.   (Don Carlos.)

86             Nor know I whether,
             What am I, who or where,   (Busiris.)

             I was I know not what, and am I know not how.   (Gloriana.)

87 To understand sufficiently the Beauty of this Passage, it will be necessary that we comprehend every Man to contain two Selfs. I shall not attempt to prove this from Philosophy, which the Poets make so plainly evident.
   One runs away from the other;

             Let me demand your Majesty,
             Why fly you from your self?   (Duke of Guise.)

In a 2d. One Self is a Guardian to the other;

             Leave me the Care of me .  (Conquest of Granada.)

Again,   My self am to my self less near .  (Ibid.)

In the same, the first Self is proud of the second;

             I my self am proud of me .  (State of Innocence.)

In a 3d. Distrustful of him;

             Fain I would tell, but whisper it in mine Ear,
             That none besides might hear, nay not my self .  (Earl of Essex.)

In a 4th. Honours him;

             I honour Rome,
             But honour too my self .  (Sophonisba.)

In a 5th. At Variance with him;

             Leave me not thus at Variance with my self .  (Busiris.)

Again, in a 6th.

             I find my self divided from my self.   (Medea.)

             She seemed the sad Effigies of her self.   (Albion Queens.)

             Assist me, Zulema, if thou would'st be
             The Friend thou seemest, assist me against me .

From all which it appears, that there are two Selfs; and therefore Tom Thumb's losing himself is no such Solecism as it hath been represented by Men, rather ambitious of Criticizing, than qualify'd to Criticize.

88 Mr. F----- imagines this Parson to have been a Welsh one from his Simile.

89 Our Author hath been plunder'd here according to Custom;

             Great Nature break thy Chain that links together,
             The Fabrick of the World and make a Chaos,
             Like that within my Soul .  (Love Triumphant.)

             -- Startle Nature, unfix the Globe,
             And hurl it from its Axle-tree and Hinges.  (Albion Queens.)

             The tott'ring Earth seems sliding off its Props.

90          D------n your delay, ye Torturers proceed,
             I will not hear one Word but Almahide.  (Conq. of Granada.)

91 Mr. Dryden hath imitated this in All for Love .

92 This Miltonick Stile abounds in the New Sophonisba .

             -- And on her ample Brow
             Sat Majesty .

93          Your ev'ry Answer, still so ends in that,
             You force me still to answer you Morat.  (Aurengzebe.)

94         Morat, Morat, Morat, You love the Name .  (Aurengzebe.)

95 Here is a Sentiment for the Virtuous Huncamunca (says Mr. D------s ) and yet with the leave of this great Man, the Virtuous Panthea in Cyrus , hath an Heart every whit as Ample;

             For two I must confess are Gods to me,
             Which is my Abradatus first, and thee.   (Cyrus the Great.)

Nor is the Lady in Love Triumphant more reserv'd, tho' not so intelligible;

             -- I am so divided,
             That I grieve most for both, and love both most.

96 A ridiculous Supposition to any one, who considers the great and extensive Largeness of Hell, says a Commentator: But not so to those who consider the great Expansion of immaterial Substance. Mr. Banks makes one Soul to be so expanded that Heaven could not contain it;

             The Heavens are all too narrow for her Soul .  (Virtue Betray'd.)

The Persian Princess hath a Passage not unlike the Author of this;

             We will send such Shoals of murther'd Slaves,
             Shall glut Hell's empty Regions .

This threatens to fill Hell even tho' it were empty; Lord Grizzle only to fill up the Chinks, supposing the rest already full.

97 Mr. Addisoin is generally thought to have had this Simile in his Eye, when he wrote that beautiful one at the end of the third Act of his Cato .

98 This beautiful simile is founded on a Proverb, which does Honour to the English Language;

             Between two Stools the Breech falls to the Ground.

I am not so pleased with any written Remains of the Ancients, as with those little Aphorisms, which verbal Tradition hath delivered down to us, under the Title of Proverbs. It were to be wished that instead of filling their Pages with the fabulous Theology of the Pagans, our modern Poets would think it worth their while to enrich their Works with the Proverbial Sayings of their Ancestors. Mr. Dryden hath chronicl'd one in Heroick;

             Two ifs scarce make one Possibility .  (Conquest of Granada.)

My Lord Bacon is of Opinion, that whatever is known of Arts and Sciences might be proved to have lurked in the Proverbs of Solomon . I am of the same Opinion in relation to those abovemention'd: At least I am confident that a more perfect System of Ethicks, as well as Oeconomy, might be compiled out of them, than is at present extant, either in the Works of the Antient Philosophers, or those more valuable, as more voluminous, ones of the modern Divines.

99 Of all the Particulars in which the modern Stage falls short of the ancient, there is none so much to be lamented, as the great Scarcity of Ghosts in the latter. Whence this proceeds, I will not presume to determine. Some are of opinion, that the Moderns are unequal to that sublime Language which a Ghost ought to speak. One says ludicrously, That Ghosts are out of Fashion; another, That they are properer for Comedy; forgetting, I suppose, that Aristotle hath told us, That a Ghost is the Soul of Tragedy; for so I render the which M. Dacier , amongst others, hath mistaken; I suppose mis-led, by not understanding the Fabula of the Latins , which signifies a Ghost as well as a Fable .

             -- Te premet nox, fabulaeque Manes   (Hor.)

Of all the Ghosts that have ever appeared on the Stage, a very learned and judicious foreign Critick, gives the Preference to this of our Author. These are his Words, speaking of this Tragedy;

-- Nec quidquam in illâ admirabilius quam Phasma quoddam horrendum, quod omnibus aliis Spectris, quibuscum scatet Anglorum Tragaedia, longè (pace D ------ isii V. Doctiss. dixerim) praetulerim.

100 We have already given Instances of this Figure.

101 Almanzor reasons in the same manner;

             -- A Ghost I'll be,
             And from a Ghost, you know, no Place is free.   (Conq. of Granada.)

102 The Man who writ this wretched Pun (says (Mr. D. ) would have picked your Pocket: Which he proceeds to shew, not only bad in it self, but doubly so on so solemn an Occasion. And yet in that excellent Play of Liberty Asserted , we find something very much resembling a Pun in the Mouth of a Mistress, who is parting with the Lover she is fond of;

Ul.              Oh, mortal Woe! one Kiss, and then farewel.
Irene.          The Gods have given to others to fare well.
                   O miserably must Irene fare.

Agamemnon , in the Victim , is full as facetious on the most solemn Occasion, that of Sacrificing his Daughter;

             Yes, Daughter, yes; you will assist the Priest;
             Yes, you must offer up your -- Vows for Greece.

103        I'll pull thee backwards by thy Shrowd to Light,
             Or else, I'll squeeze thee, like a Bladder, there,
             And make thee groan thy self away to Air.   (Conquest of Granada.)

             Snatch me, ye Gods, this Moment into Nothing.   (Cyrus the Great.)

104           So, art thou gone? Thou canst no Conquest boast,
             I thought what was the Courage of a Ghost .  (Conquest of Granada.)

King Arthur seems to be as brave a Fellow as Almanzor , who says most heroically,

             -- In spight of Ghosts, I'll on.

105 The Ghost of Lausaria in Cyrus is a plain Copy of this, and is therefore worth reading.

             Ah , Cyrus!
             Thou may'st as well grasp Water, or fleet Air,
             As think of touching my immortal Shade.   (Cyrus the Great.)

106   Thou better Part of heavenly Air.   (Conquest of Granada.)

107 A String of Similies (says one) proper to be hung up in the Cabinet of a Prince .

108 This Passage hath been understood several different Ways by the Commentators. For my part, I find it difficult to understand it at all. Mr. Dryden says,

             I have heard something how two Bodies meet,
             But how two Souls join, I know not.

So that 'till the Body of a Spirit be better understood, it will be difficult to understand how it is possible to run him through it.

109 Cydaria is of the same fearful Temper with Dollallolla ;

             I never durst in Darkness be alone.   (Ind. Emp.)

110       Think well of this, think that, think every way.   (Sophonisba.)

111 These Quotations are more usual in the Comick, than in the Tragick Writers.

112 This Distress (says Mr. D------ ) I must allow to be extremely beautiful, and tends to heighten the virtuous Character of Dollallolla, who is so exceeding delicate, that she is in the highest Apprehension from the inanimate Embrace of a Bolster. An Example worthy of Imitation from all our Writers of Tragedy .

113 Credat Judaeus Apelles.
Non ego -- (Says Mr. D. ) -- For, passing over the Absurdity of being equal to Odds, can we possibly suppose a little insignificant Fellow - I say again, a little insignificant Fellow able to vie with a Strength which all the Sampsons and Hercules's of Antiquity would be unable to encounter.

I shall refer this incredulous Critick to Mr. Dryden's Defence of his Almanzor ; and lest that should not satisfy him, I shall quote a few Lines from the Speech of a much braver Fellow than Almanzor , Mr. Johnson's Achilles;

             Tho' Human Race rise in embattel'd Hosts,
             To force her from my Arms -- Oh! Son of Atreus!
             By that immortal Pow'r, whose deathless Spirit
             Informs this Earth, I will oppose them all.  (Victim.)

114 I have heard of being supported by a Staff (says Mr. D. ) but never of being supported by an Helmet . I believe he never heard of Sailing with Wings, which he may read in no less a Poet than Mr. Dryden ;

             Unless we borrow Wings, and sail thro' Air.   (Love Triumphant.)

What will he say to a kneeling Valley?

             -- I'll stand
             Like a safe Valley, that low bends the Knee,
             To some aspiring Mountain.   (Injur'd Love.)

I am asham'd of so ignorant a Carper, who doth not know that an Epithet in Tragedy is very often no other than an Expletive. Do not we read in the New Sophonisba of grinding Chains, blue Plagues, white Occasions , and blue Serenity ? Nay, 'tis not the Adjective only, but sometimes half a Sentence is put by way of Expletive, as, Beauty pointed high with Spirit , in the same Play -- and, In the Lap of Blessing, to be most curst , in the Revenge.

115          A Victory like that of Almanzor .
             Almanzor is victorious without Fight .  (Conq. of Granada.)

116        Well have we chose an happy Day for Fight,
             For every Man in course of Time has found,
             Some Days are lucky, some unfortunate .  (K. Arthur.)

117 We read of such another in Lee;

             Teach his rude Wit a Flight she never made,
             And sent her Post to the Elysian Shade.   (Gloriana.)

118 These Lines are copied Verbatim in the Indian Emperor .

119          Unborn Thunder rolling in a Cloud.   (Conq. of Gran.)

120        Were Heaven and Earth in wild Confusion hurl'd,
             Should the rash Gods unhinge the rolling World,
             Undaunted, would I tread the tott'ring Ball,
             Crush'd, but unconquer'd, in the dreadful Fall.   (Female Warrior.)

121 See the History of Tom Thumb , pag. 2.

122          -- Amazement swallows up my Sense,
             And in th' impetuous Whirl of circling Fate,
             Drinks down my Reason.  (Pers. Princess.)

123           -- I have outfaced my self,
             What! am I two? Is there another Me?   (K. Arthur.)

124 The Character of Merlin is wonderful throughout, but most so in this Prophetick Part. We find several of these Prophecies in the Tragick Authors, who frequently take this Opportunity to pay a Compliment to their Country, and sometimes to their Prince. None but our Author (who seems to have detested the least Appearance of Flattery) would have past by such an Opportunity of being a Political Prophet.

125    I saw the Villain, Myron, with these Eyes I saw him .  (Busiris.)

In both which Places it is intimated, that it is sometimes possible to see with other Eyes than your own.

126 This Mustard (says Mr. D. ) is enough to turn one's Stomach: I would be glad to know what Idea the Author had in his Head when he wrote it . This will be, I believe, best explained by a Line of Mr. Dennis ;

             And gave him Liberty, the Salt of Life .  (Liberty asserted.)

The Understanding that can digest the one, will not rise at the other.

127       Han. Are you the Chief, whom Men fam'd Scipio call?
             Scip. Are you the much more famous Hannibal?  (Hannib.)

128 Dr. Young seems to have copied this Engagement in his Busiris :

             Myr. Villain!
             Mem. Myron!
             Myr. Rebel!
             Mem. Myron!
             Myr. Hell!
             Mem. Mandane

129 This last Speech of my Lord Grizzle , hath been of great Service to our Poets;

             -- I'll hold it fast
             As Life, and when Life's gone, I'll hold this last;
             And if thou tak'st it from me when I'm slain,
             I'll send my Ghost, and fetch it back again .  (Conquest of Granada.)

130        My Soul should with such Speed obey,
             It should not bait at Heaven to stop its way .

Lee seems to have had this last in his Eye;

             'Twas not my Purpose, Sir, to tarry there,
             I would but go to Heaven to take the Air .  (Gloriana.)

131        A rising Vapour rumbling in my Brains .  (Cleomenes.)

132          Some kind Spright knocks softly at my Soul,
             To tell me Fate's at Hand .

133 Mr. Dryden seems to have had this Simile in his Eye, when he says,

             My Soul is packing up, and just on Wing .  (Conquest of Granada.)

134          And in a purple Vomit pour'd his Soul.   (Cleomenes.)

135        The Devil swallows vulgar Souls
             Like whipp'd Cream .  (Sebastian.)

136        How I could curse my Name of Ptolemy!
             It is so long, it asks an Hour to write it.
             By Heav'n! I'll change it into Jove, or Mars,
             Or any other civil Monosyllable,
             That will not tire my Hand .  (Cleomenes.)

137 Here is a visible Conjunction of two Days in one, by which our Author may have either intended an Emblem of a Wedding; or to insinuate, that Men in the Honey-Moon are apt to imagine time shorter than it is. It brings into my Mind a Passage in the Comedy call'd the Coffee-House Politician ;

             We will celebrate this Day at my House To-morrow .

138 These beautiful Phrases are all to be found in one single Speech of King Arthur , or The British Worthy .

139          I was but teaching him to grace his Tale
             With decent Horror .  (Cleomenes.)

140 We may say with Dryden,

             Death did at length so many Slain forget,
             And left the Tale, and took them by the Great .

I know of no Tragedy which comes nearer to this charming and bloody Catastrophe, than Cleomenes , where the Curtain covers five principal Characters dead on the Stage. These Lines too,

             I ask no Questions then, of Who kill'd Who?
             The Bodies tell the Story as they lie.

seem to have belonged more properly to this Scene of our Author. -- Nor can I help imagining they were originally his. The Rival Ladies too seem beholden to this Scene;

             We're now a Chain of Lovers link'd in Death,
             Julia goes first , Gonsalvo hangs on her,
             And Angelina hangs upon Gonsalvo,
             As I on Angelina.

No Scene, I believe, ever received greater Honours than this. It was applauded by several Encores , a Word very unusual in Tragedy -- And it was very difficult for the Actors to escape without a second Slaughter. This I take to be a lively Assurance of that fierce Spirit of Liberty which remains among us, and which Mr. Dryden in his Essay on Dramatick Poetry hath observed -- Whether Custom (says he) hath so insinuated it self into our Countrymen, or Nature hath so formed them to Fierceness, I know not, but they will scarcely suffer Combats, and other Objects of Horror, to be taken from them . -- And indeed I am for having them encouraged in this Martial Disposition: Nor do I believe our Victories over the French have been owing to any thing more than to those bloody Spectacles daily exhibited in our Tragedies, of which the French Stage is so entirely clear.