with a divine fury, he made пр

the latter part of

the hemistick with these following words,

martemque accendere cantu.

How warm, nay, how glowing a colouring is this!

five, and others again twenty-seven; which last is the true number, viz. from 860 to v. 886. Not less than twenty-five lines are required, to produce a sum exceeding 2000l.

Donatus the grammarian, and Servius, lived in the fourth century. Now let us hear the relation of Seneca, the philosopher, who has left us the following curious account of the grief of Octavia, (written probably about seventy years after the era of her supposed liberality to Virgil,) who (he tells us) not only rejected every kind of consolation, but even took exception against any representation of her son being presented to her sight, and would on no account permit any verses in honour of his memory to be recited to her:

"OCTAVIA et Livia, altera soror Augusti, altera uxor, amiserunt filios juvenes, utraque spe futuri principis certa. Octavia Marcellum, cui et avanculus et socer incumbere cœperat, in quem onus imperii reclinare : adolescentem animo alacrem, ingenio potentem; sed et frugalitatis continentiæque in illis aut annis aut opibus non mediocriter admirandum; patientem laboris, voluptatibus alienum ; quantumcumque imponere illi avunculus, et (ut ita dicam) inædificare voluisset, laturum. Bene legerat nulli cessura pondera fundamenta. Nullum finem, per omne vitæ suæ tempus, [that is, for twelve years, for so long she survived her son,] flendi gemendique fecit, nec ullas admisit voces salutare aliquod afferentes, ne avocari quidem se passa est. Intenta in unam rem, et toto animo affixa, talis per omnem vitam fuit, qualis in funere; non dico, non ausa consurgere, sed allevari recusans: secundam orbitatem judicans, lacrimas mittere. Nullam ha

In the beginning of his verse, the word æs, or brass, was taken for a trumpet, because the instru

bere imaginem filii carissimi voluit, nullam sibi fieri de illo mentionem. Oderat omnes matres, et in Liviam maxime furebat; quia videbatur ad illius filium transisse sibi promissa felicitas. Tenebris et solitudini familiarissima, ne ad fratrem quidem respiciens, carmina celebranda Marcelli memoria composita, aliosque studiorum honores, rejecit, et aures suas adversus omne solatium clausit. A solemnibus officiis seducta, et ipsam magnitudinis fraternæ nimis circumlucentem fortunam exosa, defodit se, et abdidit. Assidentibus liberis, nepotibus, lugubrem vestem non deposuit; non sine contumelia omnium suorum, quibus salvis orba sibi videbatur." CONSOL. AD MARC. c. ii.

Donatus, the original relater of this story, it should be remembered, has also told us that Virgil read his GEORGICKS to Augustus four days successively; Maecenas obligingly taking his place, when the poet's voice failed him: From the minuteness of this information, did not chronology stand in the way, one might be tempted to suppose that the grammarian had been of the party.But unluckily he has fixed the precise place and time where this interview took place; it was at Atella, (a small town in Campania) immediately after the battle of Actium, A. U. C. 724. Now after that battle, we know, that Augustus went to the island of Samos, to pass the winter; where hearing that his troops were ready to mutiny at Brandusium, he went thither, and after staying there only twenty-seven days, returned to Asia. Thence he went to Egypt, where he laid siege to Alexandria, in which city Antony and Cleopatra had taken refuge; and in a short time made himself master of it. It is evident therefore, that the tale of Virgil's reading the GEORGICKS to Augustus at Atella in the year of Rome 724, is a mere fiction.

ment was made of that metal,-which of itself was fine; but in the latter end, which was made extempore, you see three metaphors, martemque,— accendere, cantu. Good heavens! how the plain sense is raised by the beauty of the words! But this was happiness, the former might be only judgment: this was the curiosa felicitas, which Petronius attributes to Horace; it is the pencil thrown luckily full upon the horse's mouth, to express the foam which the painter with all his skill could not perform without it. These hits of words a true poet often finds, as I may say, without seeking; but he knows their value when he finds them, and is infinitely pleased. A bad poet may sometimes light on them, but he discerns not a diamond from a Bristol-stone; and would have been of the cock's mind in sop, a grain of barley would have pleased him better than the jewel.

The lights and shadows which belong to Colouring, put me in mind of that verse in Horace, Hoc amat obscurum, volt hoc sub luce videri.

Some parts of a poem require to be amply written, and with all the force and elegance of words; others must be cast into shadows, that is, passed over in silence, or but faintly touched. This belongs wholly to the judgment of the poet and the painter. The most beautiful parts of the picture, and the poem, must be the most finished, the colours and words most chosen; many things in both, which are not deserving of this care, must

be shifted off; content with vulgar expressions, and those very short, and left, as in a shadow, to the imagination of the reader.

We have the proverb, manum de tabulá, from the painters; which signifies, to know when to give over, and to lay by the pencil. Both Homer and Virgil practised this precept wonderfully well, but Virgil the better of the two. Homer knew, that when Hector was slain, Troy was as good as already taken; therefore he concludes his action there for what follows in the funerals of Patroclus, and the redemption of Hector's body, is not (properly speaking) a part of the main action. But Virgil concludes with the death of Turnus; for after that difficulty was removed, Æneas might marry, and establish the Trojans when he pleased. This rule I had before my eyes in the conclusion of the SPANISH FRYAR, when the discovery was made that the King was living, which was the knot of the play untied; the rest is shut up in the compass of some few lines, because nothing then hindered the happiness of Torismond and Leonora. The faults of that drama are in the kind of it, which is tragi-comedy. But it was given to the people; and I never writ any thing for myself but ANTONY AND CLeopatra.

This remark, I must acknowledge, is not so proper for the Colouring, as the Design; but it will hold for both. As the words, &c. are evidently shown to be the cloathing of the thought, in the same sense as colours are the cloathing

of the design, so the painter and the poet ought to judge exactly, when the colouring and expressions are perfect, and then to think their work is truly finished. Apelles said of Protogenes,—that he knew not when to give over. A work may be over-wrought, as well as under-wrought; too much labour often takes away the spirit by adding to the polishing, so that there remains nothing but a dull correctness, a piece without any considerable faults, but with few beauties; for when the spirits are drawn off, there is nothing but a caput mortuum. Statius never thought an expression could be bold enough; and if a bolder could be found, he rejected the first. Virgil had judgment enough to know daring was necessary; but he knew the difference betwixt a glowing colour and a glaring. As, when he compared the shocking of the fleets at Actium to the justling of islands rent from their foundations, and meeting in the ocean, he knew the comparison was forced beyond nature, and raised too high; he therefore softens the metaphor with a credas: “ you would almost believe-that mountains or islands rushed against each other:

pelago credas innare revulsas

Cycladas, aut montes concurrere montibus altos.

But here I must break off without finishing the discourse.

Cynthius aurem vellit, et admonuit, &c. The things which are behind are of too nice a con