The first eight lines have no grammar; the adjectives are without any fubftantive, and the epithets without a fubje&. The thought in the last line, that Gay is buried in the bofoms of the worthy and good, who are diftinguished only to lengthen the line, is fo dark that few understand it; and so harsh, when it is explained, that ftill fewer approve. XII. Intended for Sir ISAAC NEWTON, ISAACUS NEWTONIUS: Hoc marmor fatetur. Nature, and Nature's laws, lay hid in night; Of this epitaph, fhort as it is, the faults feem not to be very few. Why part fhould be Latin, and part English, it is not eafy to difcover. In the Latin, the oppofition of Immortalis and Mortalis, is a mere sound, or a mere quibble; he is not immortal in any fenfe contrary to that in which he is mortal. In the verses the thought is obvious, and the words night and light are too nearly allied. XII. On EDMUND Duke of BUCKINGHAM, who died in the 19th Year of his Age, 1735. If modeft youth, with cool reflection crown'd, This epitaph Mr. Warburton prefers to the reft, but I know not for what reafon. To crown with reflection is furely a mode of speech approaching to nonfenfe. Opening virtues blooming round, is fomething like tautology; the fix following lines are poor and profaick. Art is in another couplet ufed for arts, that a rhyme may be had to heart. The fix laft lines are the beft, but not excellent. The rest of his fepulchral performances hardly deserve the notice of criticism. The contemptible "Dialogue" between HE and SHE fhould have been fuppreffed for the author's fake. In his last epitaph on himself, in which he attempts to be jocular upon one of the few things that make wife men ferious, he confounds the living man with the dead: Under this ftone, or under this fill, When a man is once buried, the question, under what he is buried, is eafily decided. He forgot that though he wrote the epitaph in a state of uncertainty, yet it could not be laid over him till his grave was made. Such is the folly of wit when it is ill employed. The world has but little new; even this wretchednefs ieems to have been borrowed from the following tunclefs lines: Ludovici Arcofti humantur offa Sub hoc marmore, vel fub hac humo, feu Sub quicquid voluit benignus hæres Sive hærede benignior comes, feu Opportunius incidens Viator: Nam fcire haud potuit futura, fed nec Ut utnam cuperet parare vivens, Surely Ariofto did not venture to expect that his trifle would have ever had fuch an illuftrious imitator. PITT PIT T. C HRISTOPHER PITT, of whom whatever more I fhall relate, more than has been already publifhed, I owe to the kind communication of Dr. Warton, was born in 1699 at Blandford, the fon of a phyfician much esteemed. He was, in 1714, received as a scholar into Winchefter College, where he was distinguished by exercifes of uncommon elegance, and, at his removal to New College in 1719, prefented to the electors, as the product of his private and voluntary ftudies, a compleat version of Lucan's poem, which he did not then know to have been tranflated by Rowe. This is an inftance of early diligence which well deferves to be recorded. The fuppreffion of fuch a work, recommended by fuch uncommon circumftances, is to be regretted. It is indeed culpable, to load libraries with fuperfluous books; but incitements to early excellence are never fuperfluous, and from this example the danger is not great of many imitations. When When he had refided at his College three years, he was prefented to the rectory of Pimpern in Dorfetfhire (1722), by his relation, Mr. Pitt of Stratfieldfea in Hampshire; and, refigning his fellowship, continued at Oxford two years longer, till he became Mafter of Arts (1724). He probably about this time tranflated "Vida's "Art of Poetry," which Triftram's fplendid edition had then made popular. In this tranflation he distinguifhed himself, both by its general elegance, and by the fkilful adaptation of his numbers to the images expreffed; a beauty which Vida has with great ardour enforced and exemplified. He then retired to his living, a place very pleafing by its fituation, and therefore likely to excite the imagination of a poet; where he paffed the reft of his life, reverenced for his virtue, and beloved for the foftness of his temper and eafinefs of his manners. Before strangers he had fomething of the fcholar's ti midity or diftruft; but, when he became familiar, he was in a very high degree chearful and entertaining. His general benevolence procured general refpe&t ; and he paffed a life placid and honourable, neither too great for the kindnefs of the low, nor too low for the notice of the great. A.T |