Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/33

Rh ; always a Fecundity of Fancy, but rarely an Intemperance: Nor do I remember he has err'd above once by an ill-judg'd Superfluity. After he has describ'd the Labyrinth built by Dædalus, he compares it thus,

Non secus ac liquidus Phrygiis Mænandrus in arvis Ludit, & ambiguo lapsu refluitque, fluitque; Et nunc ad fontes, nunc ad mare versus apertum Incertas exercet aquas

He should have ended at the Close of the second Line, as Virgil should have done at the End of the fourth in his noble Simile, where Dido proceeds to the Temple with her Court about her.

Qualis in Eurotæ ripis, aut per juga Cynthi Exercet Diana choros, quam mille secutæ Hinc, atque hinc glomerantur Orëades, illa pharetram Fert humero, gradiensque deas supereminet omnes: Latonæ tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus.

I see no Reason for the last Line: Tho' the Poet be justly celebrated for a most consummate Judgment, yet by an Endeavour to imitate Homer's Simile's, he is not only very long, but by introducing several Circumstances, he fails of an applicable Relation betwixt the principal Subject, and his new Ideas. He sometimes thinks fit to work into the Piece some differing Embroidery, which,