GRAVE CONTAINS NOTHING BUT DUST AND ASHES. Adieu, my dear EUGENIO, and build no Expectations but upon the Rock of Certainty. I am, Your, &c. LET [67] LETTER XI. To EUPHEMIUS. I that you AM greatly pleafed, EUPHEMIUS, was of the fame Opinion as myself, in a late Converfation, that nothing would vitiate a Man's Tafte for Poetry more, than frequently reading the Italian Poets. Their forced Allufions, their tinfel Concetti, and perpetual Affectation of hunting for pretty Thoughts indifcriminately upon every Subject, are fo many Deviations from good Writing, which degrade the Dignity of Heroic, and totally destroy the Simplicity of Paftoral Poely. Sir PHILIP SIDNEY'S ARCADIA affords a fufficient Example how much the finest Genius may be corrupted by a too familiar Intercourfe with thofe exotic Triflers. I do not mean by this to extend my Cenfure to every Part of their poetical Compofitions, as there are many beautiful Paffages in TASSO'S JERUSALEM in one Species, and in his AMINTA in F 2 the This Lion (as THESEUS fays of his Brother in SHAKESPEAR'S Midfummer Night's Dream) is a very gentle Beaf, and of a good Confcience. But I cannot dismiss this Paffage without noticing the Merit of the AMSTERDAM Editor of 1732, who founds this ingenious explanatory Note upon the poor Word Cofi. Nell ifteffo modo (lays he) or forfe meglio: quando fa Cofi, cio è quando rugge. It may easily be conceived how a luxuriant Fancy may in the Heat of poetic Rapture glow up into Nonfenfe; but how a Commentator can coolly explain it afterwards is beyond my Understanding to account for. I fhould be glad if fome of those Gentlemen, who are fo willing to believe the Superiority of the Italian Poets over their own Countrymen, would collate FLETCHER'S Faithful Shepherdess, and MILTON'S Comus, with the abovementioned Pieces, and impartially confider the full Merit of both. I dare fay they would find this Branch of Laurel, which those two great Men have fo fuccessfully tranfplanted from ITALY, flourishes better in our own temperate Climate, than on the Banks Banks of the TIBER. But, as the FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS is more precisely a dramatic paftoral Poem than COMUS, and the first too that was attempted in our Language, I would reft the Contention upon that alone. If they defcend to particular Paffages, the following may fafely be put in Competition both for Tafte and Moral, with any they can produce from their favorite Authors. After the Satyr has left CLORIN, the Faithful Shepherdefs, the breaks out into the following Soliloquy. All my Fears go with thee. From this rude Man or Beaft? Sure I am mortal :. My Virgin Flow'r uncropt, pure, chaste, and fair, Draw me to wander after idle Fires; the other; in ARIOSTO'S ORLANDO, and in GUARINI'S PASTOR FIDO, which are worthy of the highest Commendations; much less would I recommend the total neglect of them, or fnatch that Palm of Glory from their Heads, which they have justly merited, from being the Inventors of the Dramatic Paftoral. Nevertheless I ftill retain the Sentiments I then advanced, that there were even in those two celebrated Pieces, the AMINTA and PASTOR FIDO, fuch a taftelefs Profufion of that fhining Stuff, which BOILEAU calls Clinquant, as muft greatly disgust every Reader whofe Fancy is properly chaftened by that Parent of fober Criti cifm, from whom the STAGYRITE drew every Precept, unerring Nature. The frft Act of both is full of those pretty Abfurdities; indeed GUARINI fo faithfully copies his Predeceffor, that LINCO utters DAFNE'S Thoughts throughout, and almost too in the fame Expreffions. For Example, Odi quel Ufcignuolo Che va di ramo in ramo Dafn. in Am. Act. I, |