Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/57

 INTRODUCTION. xlix

Speaking of the state of things after the death of Alex- ander the Great, she uses the following very apt illustration, which, however, she found in Raleigh : —

" Great Alexander dead, his Armyes left, Like to that Giant of his Eye bereft; When of his monftrous bulk it was the guide. His matchlefs force no creature could abide. But by Ulijfes having loft his fight, All men began ftreight to contemn his might; For aiming ftill amifs, his dreadful blows Did harm himfelf, but never reacht his Foes." *

Now, Raleigh : —

" The death of Alexander left his army (as Demades the Athenian then compared it) in such case, as was that mon- strous giant Polyphemus, having lost his only eye. For that which is reported in fables of that great Cyclops might well be verified of the Macedonians : their force was intolerable, but for want of good guidance uneffectual, and harmful chiefly to themselves." t

After the publication of the first edition of her "Poems," Mrs. Bradstreet appears to have read Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives, and to have incorporated some of the facts which she thus obtained into the second edition. She does not mention Plutarch in the first edition ; while, in the second, she refers to him twice by name. I will give a single instance of the way in which she made these additions. In place of the lines in the first edition, already quoted, —

^'- Alexander now no longer could containe. But inftantly commands him to be ilaine ; " —


 * See page 289.

t " History of the World," Bk. iv. ch. 3, sec. i.

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