Part 58

The nicest eye did no distinction know, But that the goddess bore a golden bow.]

Nec positu variare comas; uni fibula vestem, Vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos. Ovid.--WARBURTON.]

Pope remembered Dryden's translation of Virgil, Æneis, xi. 968:

Diana's arms upon her shoulder sounds.

And xi. 1140:

A gilded quiver from his shoulder sounds.]

The lover gazed, and burning with desire, The more he looked the more he fed the fire.]

Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ, Ut solet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas. Ovid, Met. lib. v.--WARBURTON.

Sandys' translation:

As trembling doves the eager hawks eschew; As eager hawks the trembling dovers pursue.]

As from the god with fearful speed she flew, As did the god with equal speed pursue.

Sol erat a tergo: vidi præcedere longam Ante pedes umbram; nisi timor illa videbat. Sed certe sonituque pedum terrebar; et ingens Crinales vittas afflabat anhelitus oris. Ovid, Met. lib. v.--WARBURTON.

Sandys, whom our bard manifestly consulted, renders thus:

The sun was at our backs; before my feet I saw his shadow, or my fear did see't. Howere his sounding steps, and thick-drawn breath That fanned my hair, affrighted me to death.--WAKEFIELD.

Not only is the story of Lodona copied from the transformation of Arethusa into a stream, but nearly all the particulars are taken from different passages in Ovid, of which Warburton has furnished a sufficient specimen.]

Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears.--BOWLES.

Dryden's translation of the first book of Ovid's Art of Love:

Her briny tears augment the briny flood.]

And in truth they are but puerile and redundant.--WARTON.]

What's here? another firmament below Spread wide, and other trees that downward grow.--STEEVENS.]

No seas so rich, so full no streams appear.

The epithets "clear," "gentle," "full," which Pope applies to the Thames, show that he had in his mind the celebrated passage in Cooper's Hill:

Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o'er-flowing full.]

Heav'n her Eridanus no more shall boast, Whose fame in thine, like lesser currents lost, By nobler streams shall visit Jove's abodes, To shine amongst the stars and bathe the gods.]

Not fabled Po more swells the poet's lays While through the skies his shining current strays.--WAKEFIELD.]

Nor all his stars a brighter lustre show, Than the fair nymphs that gild thy shore below.

The MS. goes on thus:

Whose pow'rful charms enamoured gods may move To quit for this the radiant court above; And force great Jove, if Jove's a lover still, To change Olympus, &c.]