Page:Hero and Leander; a poem (IA heroleanderpoem00musa).pdf/38



These words may be esteemed conclusive against the earlier Antiquity of the Poem. An author, who had not existed long after the venerable Musæus, would scarcely have us'd in this passage.

The three first words of this line possess that characteristic elegance of expression, which cannot be successfully adopted by the English tongue, Mr. David Whitford, whose Latin translation of this Poem was publish'd 1655, thus turns the verse,

The 'proruptum flumen' is too strong; is in the true genius of Anacreon's —See the 28th Ode. Mr. Whitford seems to have been misled by, stillans; which (perhaps too boldly) describes the violence of Hero's agitation. The original expression alludes to that genial moisture, diffusing itself in blushes over the countenance, while the heart vainly struggles to conceal affection. The first version,

has been vary'd to the more genuine meaning.

The sense of this line is more significantly express'd in the two preceding; it may be set down therefore as redundant. The very close repetition of and, raises here a similar objection to that already offer'd against V. 7.

Indeed this tautology of description is unnatural, when the mind, as in the present instance, is anxious to be acquainted with an interesting event.

Though I am well convinc'd, that Homer, the standard of Grecian Poesy, is a frequent dealer in puns, and other species of false wit, yet I am equally convinc'd