him drest out in point. The ideas, that pass in review before him, partake of the colour of his mind; and his fancy, like Shakespear's green-eyed monster, "makes the food it feeds on." Ovid abounds in conceits, and quaintnesses; but the eyes of Cowley multiplied them, as they did those of Petrarch, to infinity. After reference thus soberly made to the authority of Petrarch, Curiosity will, no doubt, prick up his ears when he is told, that the passage, quoted from that poet, contains not the sentiment in question. Mason, whose taste was too good to make him admit the authority of Petrarch in defence of an unnatural thought, seems not, however, to have doubted that the thought was really Petrarch's. And, indeed, if, of the sonnet referred to, the three lines quoted by Gray be taken, detached from the rest, they may, though somewhat awkwardly, be forced into the expression of that thought. Taken along with the context, and in connection with its design, the wildness of the idea vanishes, and propriety and nature invest it. The poet is complaining of the hopelessness of his love." "The flame I cherish," says he, “how intense! how intense! yet how કેંદ્ર unrewarded! and even unperceived! 66 66 unperceived by her, whom alone I wish "to recognise it, though marked by all "besides! Ah, distrustful fair-one! in 66 whom much beauty is mixed with lit"tle faith, look at my love-lorn eye, and "doubt my passion, if you can. No, you 66 cannot, you do not, doubt it; but my "luckless star hardens your heart against my ardent love. Yet not altogether unrewarded shall be my passion, although unrewarded by you. The tune 66 66 66 Petr. Son, 170. 6 66 ful homage, which you regard not, shall gain me immortal fame. The flame, "which you repay not with kindred "flame, shall spread its contagion over 66 many hearts. As a living principle, it "shall pervade my verse. I see it, in 66 Fancy's eye, shooting its sparks into "future ages; and (when the two fair "orbs that inspired it are closed, and the 66 tongue that sung their praises is cold) 66. .. SETTING THE WORLD ON FIRE!", Versified thus: AH! how within me glows the subtle flame! She, only dear, supreme in worth and fame, -But for my luckless star, ere now, full sure, Long, in my verse, shall live the genial fire, So much for this celebrated sentiment, I in the Elegy written in a Country Churchyard; a sentiment which it is heresy not to support, and sluggishness not to feel: and so much for the passage of Petrarch, on which Gray supposed he had built it. If' one line, in which there is a little of point, be excepted, the sonnet of which it makes the close, is as simple as ever was sung. A tuneful lover consoles himself for the hardness of his mistress's heart, by anticipating the enthusiasm with which posterity will read the verses, in which he has sung her praise. Here is no voice of Nature crying from the grave of the dead; here are no inurned ashes glowing with posthumous fires. It is not the ashes of Petrarch and Laura that glow, but posterity that glows, when Petrarch and Laura are no more.2 "Fredda una lingua, et due begli occhi chiusi." I subjoin the Sonnet at length, as Petrarch gave it. I observe CASTELVETRO has explained the passage as the On this sonnet of Petrarch, mishap seems to have been entailed. Cowley, to whom Petrarch was an inexhaustible mine, struck upon it, in one of his days of digging. He knew it, by its general appearance, to be ore, and set himself accordingly to smelt it; but so clumsily did he perform the operation, and so «CHE quos ;" in author of the Criticism apprehends it, reference to "mille." The misconception of this reference, and an inattention to the absolute construction, in the verse, "Fredda una lingua, e duo begli occhi chiusi," seem to have given rise to the English poet's mistake.-EDITOR. LASSO, Ch'i' ardo; ed altri non mel crede : Sì crede ogni uom, se non sola colei Infinita bellezza, e poca fede, Non vedete voi'l cor negli occhi miei? Chi' veggio nel pensier, dolce mio foco, Fredda una lingua, e duo begli occhi chiusi, 3 |