"Tack to the larboard and stand off to sea Veer starboard sea and land."
A direction which Scott suspects would have been unintelligible not only to Palinurus, but to the best pilot in the British navy.
He often too gives precedence in the arrangement of his verse to the name that should be deferred, as in this line,
"The angels, _God_, the virgin and the saints, &c."
which as Mr. Ezekiel Sanford wittily enough observes reminds one of the clown, who in giving an account of his hunt, begins with--"the dog and I, and dad." In describing the appeal of the vagabond Trojans, he falls into an odd blunder. We find
"Diamond buckles sparkling in their shoes."
A new version this, of _Pulchra Sicyona!_ However, this is _descending into the cobbler's criticism on the painting of Apelles_. Cibber in his parallel between Dryden and Pope yields to the first greater genius, to the latter more elegance--and the remark seems a just one. But I must leave this ground, haunted as it is with the genius of "glorious John Dryden."
Dryden was hard and haughty in appearance. He had a deep thick brow--a wide forehead, rather full at the temples. His mouth was spoiled by wrinkles which gave him a too determined and stern appearance. He died leaving two sons by Lady Elizabeth Howard, both of whom manifested talent, and became scholars and gentlemen of reputation.
XIII. The poets between Dryden and Pope, did little toward the advancement of English poetry. Although many of these were men of no mean capability, and met with merited honor in their day, their excellencies are not great enough to entitle them to a prominent place in a paper whose limits enforce _selection_. It is perhaps better for them that they are not admitted, as my applause even might, like paint on the brush of a bad artist, injure rather than assist. Let them pass then:--the odd and witty Prior; the melodious and animated Lansdown; the pointed Congreve; the elaborate and particular Addison; the penetrating Rowe; the easy and sweet Parnell--one and every one.
Alexander Pope, of a family at whose head was the Earl of Downe, lived fifty-five years, during the greater part of which time he was a distinguished contributor to his country's literature in pastoral, lyric and didactic poetry--and most of all in satire and translation. In noticing Cibber's parallel, I have already touched upon Pope's peculiar excellence--elegance.