Part 4 (1/2)
Charming fresh the Morning Air!_ &c.
Tho' there is little Meaning here, yet the Dancing of the Words and the Sprightliness of the Images, make it a prettier Lyrick than our _Italian_ Opera's can produce.
According to my Conception nothing can be prettier than this Thought of _Buchanan_.
Ilia mihi semper presenti dura _Neaera_; Me, quoties absum, semper abesse dolet; Non desiderio, nostro non mret Amore, Sed se non nostro posse Dolore frui.
_Cruel, when I am present, she appears; As often as I'm absent she's in Tears: Not that_ Neaera _wishes my Return, To see me love her, but to see me mourn._
These Verses of Mr. _Waller_ are, methinks, as pretty as they are gallant:
Phillis, _why should we delay Pleasures shorter than the Day!
Cou'd we, which we never can, Stretch our Lives beyond their Span; Beauty like a Shadow flies, And our Youth before us dies.
Or would Youth and Beauty stay, Love hath Wings, and will away.
Love hath swifter Wings than Time,_ &c.
Notice has been taken of the Prettiness of these Verses in _Dryden_'s Fable of the _c.o.c.k_ and the _Fox_.
The _c.o.c.k_ speaks to his Wife Dame _Partlet_:
------------_See my Dear How lavish Nature hath adorn'd the Year; How the pale Primrose and the Violet spring, And Birds essay their Throats, disus'd to sing: All these are ours, and I with Pleasure see Man strutting on two Legs, and aping me._
Madam _Dacier_ takes Notice of a very pretty Circ.u.mstance in _Sappho_'s Hymn to _Venus_, translated into _Latin_ by _Catullus_, and into _English_ by Mr. _Philips_.
_Thou once didst leave Almighty_ Jove, _And all the golden Roofs above: The Carre thy wanton Sparrows drew, Hov'ring in Air, they lightly flew.
As to my Bow'r, they wing'd their Way I saw their quiv'ring Pinions play: The Birds dismist, while you remain, Bore back their empty Carre again._
The Circ.u.mstance that renders it so pretty, according to the _Critical Lady_, is _Venus_'s dismissing her Sparrows and her Carre, and shewing she did not intend to make _Sappho_ a Court-Visit, but to dwell with her some Time. There's another Ode of _Sappho_, which is preserved in _Longinus_, and translated by _Boileau_. It is in the sublime Kind, and shews the Violence of Love.
_From Vein to Vein I feel a subtle Flame, When e'er I see thee, run thro' all my Frame: And as the Transport seizes on my Mind, I'm dumb, and neither Tongue nor Voice can find.
A Mist of Pleasure o'er my Eyes is spread, I hear no more, and am to Reason dead; Pale, breathless, speechless, I expiring lie, I burn, I freeze, I tremble, and I die._
In the _Spectator_, N 388. is a Paraphrase on the second Chapter of _Solomon_'s Song.
STANZA IV.
_I faint, I dye, my lab'ring Breast Is with the mighty Weight of Love opprest.
I feel the Fire possess my Heart, And Pain convey'd to ev'ry Part: Thro' all my Veins the Pa.s.sion flyes, My feeble Soul forsakes its Place; A trembling Faintness seals my Eyes, And Paleness dwells upon my Face._
To descend again to the lower Kinds of Thinking, I shall conclude the Pretty with these Verses of Mr. _Prior_'s on the Squirrel in the Cage:
_Mov'd in the Orb, pleas'd with the Chimes, The foolish Creature thinks he climbs.
Bus here or there, turn Wood or Wire He never gets two Inches higher.
So fares it with those merry Blades, That frisk it under Pindus Shades.
In n.o.ble Songs, and lofty Odes, They tread on Stars, and talk with G.o.ds; Still dancing in an airy Round, Still pleas'd with their own Verses Sound; Brought back how fast soe'er they go, Always aspiring, always low._
Agreeable Thoughts may be also reckon'd among the Natural, the Soft, and the Tender; all which in the general Acceptation, are also taken for Wit. This Speech of _Eve_'s to _Adam_ in the _Paradice Lost_, has an Agreeableness which cannot be match'd in the most Tender of our Lyrick or Elegiac Poets: