A milk-white Hind, immortal and unchain'd,
Fed on the lawns, and in the foreft rang'd:
Without unfpotted, innocent within,

She fear'd no danger, for the knew no fin.
Yet had the oft been chac'd with horns and hounds
And Scythian fhafts, and many winged wounds
Aim'd at her heart; was often forc'd to fly,
And doom'd to death, though fated not to die.

Thefe lines are lofty, elegant and musical, notwithstanding the interruption of the paufe, of which the effect is rather increase of pleasure by variety, than offence by ruggedness.

To the first part it was his intention, he says, to give the majestick turn of heroick poefy; and perhaps he might have executed his design not unsuccessfully, had not an opportunity of fatire, which he cannot forbear, fallen fometimes in his way The character of a Presbyterian, whofe emblem is the Wolf, is not very heroically majes tick:

More haughty than the reft, the wolfish race
Appear with belly gaunt and famith'd face;
Never was fo deform'd a beaft of grace.

His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,

Clofe clapp'd for fhame; but his rough crest he rears,
And pricks up his predeftinating ears.

His general character of the other forts of beafts that never go to church, though fpritely and keen, has however, not much of heroick poefy:

These are the chief; to number o'er the reft,
And ftand like Adam naming every beast,
Were weary work; nor will the Muse describe
A flimy-born, and fun-begotten tribe;
Who, far from steeples and their facred found,
In fields their fullen conventicles found.

Thefe

Thefe grofs, half-animated, lumps I leave;
Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive;
But if they think at all, 'tis fure no higher
Than matter, put in motion, may afpire;
Souls that can scarce ferment their mass of clay;
So droffy, fo divifible, are they,

As would but serve pure bodies for allay;
Such fouls as fhards produce, fuch beetle things
As only buz to heaven with evening wings;
Strike in the dark, offending but by chance;
Such are the blindfold blows of ignorance.
They know not beings, and but hate a name;
To them the Hind and Panther are the fame.

26

}

One more instance, and that taken from the narrative part, where ftyle was more in his choice, will fhow how steadily he kept his refolution of heroick dignity.

For when the herd, fuffic'd, did late repair
To ferney heaths and to their forest laire,
She made a mannerly excuse to stay,
Proffering the Hind to wait her half the way:
That, fince the fky was clear, an hour of talk
Might help her to beguile the tedious walk.
With much good-will the motion was embrac'd,
To chat awhile on their adventures past:
Nor had the grateful Hind so soon forgot
Her friend and fellow-fufferer in the plot.
Yet, wondering how of late fhe grew eftrang'd,
Her forehead cloudy and her count'nance chang'd,
She thought this hour th' occafion would prefent
To learn her fecret caufe of discontent,

Which well the hop'd might be with case redress'd,
Confidering her a well-bred civil beast,

And more a gentlewoman than the rest.
After fome common talk what rumours ran,
The lady of the spotted muff began.

}

The

The fecond and third parts he profeffes to have reduced to diction more familiar and more fuitable to difpute and converfation; the difference is not, however, very easily perceived; the first has familiar, and the two others have fonorous, lines. The original incongruity runs through the whole; the king is now Cafar, and now the Lyon; and the name Pan is given to the Supreme Being.

But when this conftitutional abfurdity is forgiven, the poem must be confeffed to be written with great fmoothness of metre, a wide extent of knowledge, and an abundant multiplicity of images; the controverfy is embellished with pointed fentences, diversified by illuftrations, and enlivened by fallies of invective. Some of the facts to which allufions are made, are now become obfcure, and perhaps there may be many fatirical paffages little understood..

As it was by its nature a work of defiance, a compofition which would naturally be examined with the utmost acrimony of criticism, it was probably laboured with uncommon attention; and there are, indeed, few negligences in the fubordinate parts. The original impropriety, and the fubfequent unpopularity of the fubject, added to the ridiculousness of its first elements, has funk it into neglect; but it may be usefully studied, as an example of poetical ratiocination, in which the argument fuffers little from the metre.

In the poem on the Birth of the Prince of Wales, nothing is very remarkable but the exorbitant adulation, and that infenfibility of the precipice on which the king was then standing, which the laureat apparently fhared with the reft of the courtiers. A few months. cured

cured him of controverfy, difmiffed him from court, and made him again a play-wright and translator.

Of Juvenal there had been a translation by Stapylton, and another by Holiday; neither of them is very poetical. Stapylton is more finooth, and Holiday's is more esteemed for the learning of his notes. A new verfion was proposed to the poets of that time, and undertaken by them in conjunction. The main defign was conducted by Dryden, whose reputation was such that no man was unwilling to ferve the Mufes under him.

The general character of this tranflation will be given, when it is faid to preferve the wit, but to want the dignity of the original. The peculiarity of Juvenal is a mixture of gaiety and statelinefs, of pointed fentences and declamatory grandeur. His points have uot been neglected; but his grandeur none of the band feemed to confider as neceffary to be imitated, except Creech, who undertook the thirteenth fatire. It is therefore perhaps poffible to give a better representation of that great fatirist, even in those parts which Dryden himself has tranflated, fome paffages excepted, which will never be excelled.

With Juvenal was published Perfius, tranflated wholly by Dryden. This work, though like all the other productions of Dryden it may have fhining parts, feems to have been written merely for wages, in an uniform mediocrity, without any eager endeavour after excellence, or laborious effort of the mind.

There wanders an opinion among the readers of poetry, that one of thefe fatires is an exercise of the fchool. Dryden, fays that he once tranflated it at fchool; but not that he preserved or published the juvenile performance.

Not

Not long afterwards he undertook perhaps the most arduous work of its kind, a translation of Virgil, for which he had fhewn how well he was qualified by his verfion of the Pollio, and two episodes, one of Nifus and Euryalus, the other of Mezentius and Laufus.

In the comparison of Homer and Virgil, the difcriminative excellence of Homer is elevation and comprehenfion of thought, and that of Virgil is grace and fplendor of diction. The beauties of Homer are therefore difficult to be loft, and thofe of Virgil difficult to be retained. The massy trunk of sentiment is fafe by its folidity, but the blossoms of elocution easily drop away. The author, having the choice of his own images, felects those which he can beft adorn: the translator must, at all hazards, follow his original, and exprefs thoughts which perhaps he would not have chofen. When to this primary difficulty is added the inconvenience of a language fo much inferior in harmony to the Latin, it cannot be expected that they who read the Georgick and the Eneid fhould be much delighted with any verfion.

All thefe obftacles Dryden faw, and all these he determined to encounter. The expectation of his work was undoubtedly great; the nation confidered its honour as interested in the event. One gave him the different editions of his author, and another helped him in the fubordinate parts. The arguments of the fevetal books were given him by Addison.

The hopes of the publick were not difappointed. He produced, fays Pope, the most noble and Spirited tranflation that I know in any language. It certainly excelled whatever had appeared in English, and appears to have fatisfied his friends, and, for the most part,