Lord Falkland's:
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on haec, O Palla, dederas promissa parenti,Cautius ut saevo velles te credere Marti.Haud ignarus eram, quantum nova gloria in armis,Et praedulce decus primo certamine posset.Primitiae juvenis miserae, bellique propinquiDura rudimenta, et nulli exaudita deorum,Vota precesque meae! Aeneid. xi. 152. O Pallas, thou hast fail'd thy plighted word,To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword;I warn'd thee, but in vain, for well I knewWhat perils youthful ardour would pursue,That boiling blood would carry thee too far,Young as thou wert to dangers, raw to war.O curst essay of arms, disastrous doom,Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come!Hard elements of unauspicious war,Vain vows to heaven, and unavailing care! DRYDEN Hoffman, in his Lexicon, gives a very satisfactory account of thispractice of seeking fates in books: and says, that it was used by thepagans, the jewish rabbins, and even the early Christians; the lattertaking the New Testament for their oracle.] [Footnote 10: Johnson has exhibited here us little feeling for theneglected servant of the thankless house of Stewart, as he displayed inthe cold contempt of his sixth Rambler. An unmeaning compliment from aworthless king was Cowley's only recompense for years of faithful andpainful services. A heart loyal and affectionate, like his, may well beexcused the utterance of its pains, when wounded by those for whom itwould so cheerfully have poured forth its blood. We repeat, that Cowley'smisfortune was his devotion to a family, who invariably forgot, in theirprosperity, those who had defended them in the day of adversity. ED.] [Footnote 11: See Campbell's Poets, iv. 75.] [Footnote 12: By May's poem, we are here to understand a continuationof Lucan's Pharsalia, to the death of Julius Caesar, by Thomas May, aneminent poet and historian, who flourished in the reigns of Jamesand Charles the first, and of whom a life is given in the BiographiaBritannica. The merit of Cowley's Latin poems is well examined in CensuraLiteratia, vol. viii. See also Warton's Preface to Milton's JuvenilePoems. ED.] [Footnote 13: 1663.] [Footnote 14: Here is an error in the designation of this comedy, whichour author copied from the title page of the latter editions of Cowley'sworks: the title of the play itself is without the article, "Cutter ofColeman street," and that, because a merry sharking fellow about thetown, named Cutter, is a principal character in it.] [Footnote 15: L'Allegro of Milton. Dr. J.] [Footnote 16: About three hundred pounds per annum. See Campbell's Poets,iv.] [Footnote 17: Now in the possession of Mr. Clark, alderman of London.Dr. J.--Mr. Clark was, in 1798, elected to the important office ofchamberlain of London; and has every year since been unanimouslyreelected. N.] [Footnote 18: For metaphysical poets, see Brydges' Restituta, vol. iv.] [Footnote 19: It is but justice to the memory of Cowley, to quote here anexquisite stanza which Johnson has inserted in the Idler, No. 77, wherehe says; "Cowley seems to have possessed the power of writing easilybeyond any other of our poets; yet his pursuit of remote thought led himoften into harshness of expression." The stanza is to a lady elaboratelydressed: Th' adorning thee with so much artIs but a barb'rous skill,'Tis like the pois'ning of a dartToo apt before to kill. ED.] [Footnote 20: Dodsley's Collection of Poems, vol. v. R.] [Footnote 21: First published in quarto, 1669, under the title of CarmenPindaricum in Theatrum Sheldonianum in solennibus magnifici operisencaeniis. Recitatum Julii die 9, anno 1669, a Corbetto Owen, A. B. Aed.Chr. Alumno, authore. R.]
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