Hurd compares Cowley:
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Beauty, and strength, and wit, and wealth, and power,Have their short flourishing hour;And love to see themselves, and smile,And joy in their pre-eminence a while:Even so in the same landPoor weeds, rich corn, gay flowers together stand;Alas! Death mows down all with an impartial hand." 35. _Awaits_. The reading of the ed. of 1768, as of the Pembroke (andprobably the other) MS. _Hour_ is the subject, not the object, of theverb. 36. Hayley, in the Life of Crashaw, _Biographia Britannica_, saysthat this line is "literally translated from the Latin prose ofBartholinus in his Danish Antiquities." 39. _Fretted_. The _fret_ is, strictly, an ornament used in classicalarchitecture, formed by small fillets intersecting each other atright angles. Parker (_Glossary of Architecture_) derives the wordfrom the Latin _fretum_, a strait; and Hales from _ferrum_, iron,through the Italian _ferrata_, an iron grating. It is more likely(see Stratmann and Wb.) from the A. S. _frætu_, an ornament. Cf. _Hamlet_, ii. 2: "This majestical roof fretted with golden fire;" and _Cymbeline_, ii. 4: "The roof o' the chamberWith golden cherubins is fretted." 40. _The pealing anthem_. Cf. _Il Penseroso_, 161: "There let the pealing organ blowTo the full-voiced quire below,In service high, and anthem clear," etc. 41. _Storied urn_. Cf. _Il Pens._ 159: "storied windows richlydight." On _animated bust_, cf. Pope, _Temple of Fame_, 73: "Heroesin animated marble frown;" and Virgil, _Æn._ vi. 847: "spirantiaaera." 43. _Provoke_. Mitford considers this use of the word "unusuallybold, to say the least." It is simply the etymological meaning, _tocall forth_ (Latin, _provocare_). See Wb. Cf. Pope, _Ode_: "But when our country's cause provokes to arms." 44. _Dull cold ear_. Cf. Shakes. _Hen. VIII._ iii. 2: "And sleep indull, cold marble." 46. _Pregnant with celestial fire_. This phrase has been copied byCowper in his _Boadicea_, which is said (see notes of "Globe" ed.) tohave been written after reading Hume's History, in 1780: "Such the bard's prophetic words,Pregnant with celestial fire,Bending as he swept the chordsOf his sweet but awful lyre."
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