❝ notice of by all judicious men, fo that it is fuper"fluous to collect them."

I know not whether he has, in many of thefe inftances, attained the reprefentation or refemblance that he purposes. Verfe can imitate only found and notion. A boundless verfe, a beadlong verfe, and a verfe of brass or of firong brass, feem to comprise very incongruous and unfociable ideas. What there is peculiar in the found of the line expreffing loofe care, I cannot discover; nor why the pine is taller in an Alexandrine than in ten fyllables.

But, not to defraud him of his due praise, he has given one example of reprefentative verfification, which perhaps no other English line can equal: Begin, be bold, and venture to be wife : He, who defers this work from day to day, Does on a river's bank expecting stay

Till the whole ftream that ftopp'd him shall be gone,
Which runs, and, as it runs, for ever shall run on.

Cowley was, I believe, the firft poet that mingled Alexandrines at pleasure with the common heroick of ten fyllables; and from him Dryden borrowed the practice, whether ornamental or licentious. He confidered the verse of twelve fyllables as elevated and majeftick, and has therefore deviated into that measure when he supposes the voice heard of the Supreme Being.

The author of the Davideis is commended by Dryden for having written it in couplets, because he difcovered that any ftaff was too lyrical for an heroick poem; but this feems to have been known before by May and Sandys, the tranflators of the Pharfalia and the Metamorphofes.

:

In the Davideis are fome hemiftichs, or verfes left imperfect by the author, in imitation of Virgil, whom he supposes not to have intended to complete them that this opinion is erroneous, may be probably concluded, because this truncation is imitated by no fubfequent Roman poet; because Virgil himself. filled up one broken line in the heat of recitation; because in one the fenfe is now unfinished; and because all that can be done by a broken verse, a line interfected by a cafura, and a full ftop, will equally effect.

Of triplets in his Davideis he makes no use, and perhaps did not at firft think them allowable; but he appears afterwards to have changed his mind, for in the verses on the government of Cromwell he inferts them liberally with great happiness.

After fo much criticifm on his Poems, the Effays which accompany them muft not be forgotten. What is faid by Sprat of his converfation, that no man could draw from it any fufpicion of his excellence in poetry, may be applied to these compofitions. No author ever kept his verfe and his profe at a greater diftance from each other. His thoughts are natural, and his ftyle has a fimooth and placid equability, which has never yet obtained its due commendation. Nothing is far-fought, or hardlaboured; but all is eafy without feebleness, and familiar without groffnefs.

It has been obferved by Felton, in his Effay on the Clafficks, that Cowley was beloved by every Mufe that he courted; and that he has rivalled the Ancients in every kind of poetry but tragedy,

It may be affirmed, without any encomiaftick fervour, that he brought to his poetick labours a mind replete with learning, and that his pages are embellifhed with all the ornaments which books could fupply; that he was the first who imparted to Englifh numbers the enthusiasm of the greater ode, and the gaiety of the lefs; that he was equally qualified for fpritely fallies, and for lofty flights; that he was among those who freed tranflation from fervility, and, instead of following his author at a diftance, walked by his fide; and that, if he left verfification yet improveable, he left likewife from time to time fuch specimens of excellence as enabled fucceeding poets to improve it.

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DENHA M.

Of Sir JOHN DENHAM very little is known but what is related of him by Wood, or by himself.

He was born at Dublin in 1615; the only fon of Sir John Denham, of Little Horfely in Effex, then chief baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, and of Eleanor, daughter of Sir Garret More, baron of Mellefont.

Two years afterwards, his father, being made one of the barons of the Exchequer in England, brought him away from his native country, and educated him in London.

In 1631 he was fent to Qxford, where he was confidered as a dreaming young man, given more to "dice and cards than ftudy;" and therefore gave no prognofticks of his future eminence; nor was fufpected to conceal, under fluggishness and laxity, a genius born to improve the literature of his country.

3

When he was, three years afterwards, removed to Lincoln's Inn, he profecuted the common law with fufficient appearance of application; yet did not lofe

his propenfity to cards and dice; but was very often plundered by gamefters.

Being feverely reproved for this folly, he profeffed, and perhaps believed, himself reclaimed and, to teftify the fincerity of his repentance, wrote and published "An Effay upon Gaming"

He feems to have divided his ftudies between law and poetry; for, in 1636, he tranflated the fecond book of the Æneid.

Two years after, his father died; and then, notwithstanding his refolutions and profeffions, he returned again to the vice of gaming, and loft feveral thousand pounds that had been left him.

In 1642, he published "The Sophy." This feems to have given him his firft hold of the publick attention; for Waller remarked, "that he broke out "like the Irish rebellion, three-fcore thoufand ftrong, "when nobody was aware, or in the least suspected "it ;" an obfervation which could have had no propriety, had his poetical abilities been known before.

He was after that pricked for fheriff of Surrey, and made governor of Farnham Caftle for the king; but he foon refigned that charge, and retreated to Oxford, where, in 1643, he published

"Hill."

66

Cooper's

This poem had fuch reputation as to excite the common artifice by which envy degrades excellence.

A report was spread, that the performance was not his own, but that he had bought it of a vicar for forty pounds. The fame attempt was made to rob Addison of Cato, and Pope of his Effay on Criticifm.