Page:An Essay on Virgil's Æneid.djvu/69

Rh. 114. Rush to the Seas, &c.] is so happy in the Variety of his Periods, and the Superiority of his Language, to all others but the Greek, that it is impossible for a Translation, in English, and in Rhyme, to do him Justice in this Particular. As it does not look graceful to run the Sense too frequently out of one Couplet into another, and as Rhyme will not admit of such a Variety of Periods as blank Verse, some Care has been taken in this Translation to endeavour at something equivalent, either by closing the Sense with a Triplet, (which is sometimes practis'd by Mr., and too frequently by Mr. ) or by making Use of the Alexandrian Line, which is a Liberty I have seldom taken, unless it appears Necessary, or at least proper (as in this Place) to express the Length, the Vastness, the Rapidity, or Slowness of an Image, according to the establish'd Rule of making the Sound an to the Sense.

124. Congeal'd with Fear, &c.] There is not a Passage in that has been more severely canvast by the Critics than this, where the Hero of the Poem is represented in such a Fright. Monsieur St. in particular, is very ridiculously Merry upon it, and after having laught at his Want of Courage, and Excess of Piety, concludes that he was fitter to make the thethe [sic] Founder of an Order than an Empire. But by that Critic's Leave, weeps on a much juster Occasion than  in ; his Tears are