Thus far we're safe. SCENE II. OTHO, POPPÆA. отно. Thanks to the rosy queen So her white neck reclin'd, so was she borne 190 195 Virgilii Ciris. 449. Manil. Astron. 5, v. 555. This particular beauty is also given to Helen by Constantine Manasses, in his 'Annales,' (see Meursii Opera, vol. vii. p. 390): Δειρὴ μακρὰ καταλευκος, ὅθεν ἐμυθουργήθη Κυκνογενῆ τὴν εὐόπτον Ελένην χρημάτιζειν. And so also in the Antehomerica of Tzetzes, ed. Jacobs. p. 115 (though the passage is corrupted): VOL. I. "That soft cheek springing to the marble neck, Akenside's Pl. of Imag. b. i. p. 112. ed. Park. Y HYMN TO IGNORANCE. A FRAGMENT. (See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 75.) HAIL, horrors, hail! ye ever gloomy bowers, Oh take me to thy peaceful shade again. But chiefly thee, whose influence breathed from high Ah, ignorance! soft salutary power! Prostrate with filial reverence I adore. 5 10 NOTES. Ver. 3. Where rushy Camus' slowly-winding flood] "Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum," Miltoni Eleg. i. 11. Ver. 4. Perpetual draws his humid train of mud] So Milton, Par. Lost, vii. 310: Thrice hath Hyperion roll'd his annual race, NOTES. 15 20 Ver. 14. Thy leaden ægis 'gainst our ancient foes] "To hatch a new Saturnian age of lead." Pope's Dunciad, i. 28. And so in the speech of Ignorance in Henry and Minerva,' by I. B. 1729 (one among the poetical pieces bound up by Pope in his library, and now in my possession): "Myself behind this ample shield of lead, Will to the field my daring squadrons head." *In the Dunciad, b. ii. ver. 352, "Dullness is sacred in a sound divine," is from Dryden's prologue to Troilus and Cressida : "Dullness is decent in the church and state." And in the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard, ver. 261, "Ah! hopeless, lasting flames; like those that burn is taken from Hudibras, Part II. cant. i. ver. 309: "Love in your heart as idly burns As fire in antique Roman urns, With damp, cold touch forbid it to aspire, And huddle up in fogs the dang'rous fire. Oh say she hears me not, but, careless grown, Can powers immortal feel the force of years? She rode triumphant o'er the vanquish'd world; Oh! sacred age! Oh! times for ever lost! (The schoolman's glory, and the churchman's boast.) High on her car, behold the grandam ride 25 30 35 Ver. 22. And huddle up in fogs the dang'rous fire] "Here Ignorance in steel was arm'd, and there And so in the Dunciad, b. i. ver. 80: Henry and Minerva. "All these, and more, the cloud-compelling queen Ver. 37. Like old Sesostris with barbaric pride] "Sesostris-like, such charioteers as these May drive six harness'd monarchs if they please." Young's Love of Fame, Sat. V. THE ALLIANCE OF EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. A FRAGMENT.* (See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 99.) ESSAY I. Πόταγ', ώ γαθέ· τὰν γὰρ ἀοιδὰν Οὔτι πα εἰς Αἴδαν γε τὸν ἐκλελάθοντα φυλαξεις. Theocritus, Id. I. 63. As sickly plants betray a niggard earth, VARIATIONS. Ver. 2. Barren] Flinty, Ms. NOTES. * In a note to his Roman History, Mr. Gibbon says: "Instead of compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the philosophic poem of which he has left such an exquisite specimen?" Vol. iii. p. 248. 4to.-Would it not have been more philosophical in Mr. Gibbon to have lamented the situation in which Gray was placed; which was not only not favourable to the cultivation of poetry, but which naturally directed his thoughts to those learned inquiries, that formed the amusement or business of all around him? |