High on the Alps he took his warrior stand,
And thence in ardent volley from his hand
His thunder darted (so the Flatterer sings
In strains best suited to the ear of kings),
And like ALCIDES, with vindictive tread,
Crush'd the Hispanian lion's gasping head.
But mark the Proteus-policy of state:
Now, while his courtly numbers I translate,
The foes are friends, in social league they dare
On Britain to "let slip the Dogs of War."
Vain efforts all, which in disgrace shall end,
If Britain, truly to herself a friend,

780

785

790

Through all her realms bids civil discord cease,
And heals her empire's wounds by arts of Peace.
Rouse, then, fair Freedom! Fan that holy flame,
From whence thy sons their dearest blessings claim ;`
Still bid them feel that scorn of lawless sway, 795
Which Interest cannot blind, nor Power dismay :
So shall the throne thou gavest the BRUNSWICK line,
Long by that race adorn'd, thy dread palladium shine.

Dum super insanas moles, inimicaque castra
Borbonidum decus et vindex Lodoicus avorum,
Fulminat ardenti dextrâ, patriæque resurgens
Gallicus Alcides premit Hispani ora leonis.

NOTES

ON

THE ART OF PAINTING.

The few notes which the Translator has inserted, and which are marked M., are merely critical, and relate only to the Author's text or his own version.

NOTES

ON

THE ART OF PAINTING.

NOTE I. VERSE 1.

Two Sister Muses, with alternate fire, &c. M. DU PILES opens his annotations here, with much learned quotation from Tertullian, Cicero, Ovid, and Suidas, in order to show the affinity between the two arts. But it may perhaps be more pertinent to substitute in the place of it all a single passage, by Plutarch ascribed to Simonides, and which our author, after having quoted Horace, has literally translated: Ζωγραφίαν είναι ΦΘΕΓΓΟΜΕΝΗΝ την Ποιησιν, Ποιησιν δε ΣΙΓΩΣΑΝ την Ζωγραφίαν. There is a Latin line somewhere to the same purpose, but I know not whether ancient or modern :

Poema

Est Pictura loquens, mutum Pictura Poema.

M.

NOTE II. VERSE 33.

Such powers, such praises, heav'n-born pair, belong
To magic colouring, and persuasive song.

That is to say, they belong intrinsically and of right. Mr. Wills, in the preface to his version of our poet,

first detected the false translations of Du Piles and Dryden, which say, 66 so much have these divine arts been honoured;" in consequence of which the Frenchman gives a note of four pages, enumerating the instances in which painting and its professors have been honoured by kings and great men, ancient and modern. Fresnoy had not this in his idea. He says, "tantus inest divis honor artibus atque potestas," which Wills justly and literally translates,

Such powers,

such honours, are in arts divine.

M.

NOTE III. VERSE 51.

'Tis Painting's first chief business to explore
What lovelier forms in Nature's boundless store
Are best to art and ancient taste allied,

For ancient taste those forms has best applied.

The Poet, with great propriety, begins by declaring what is the chief business of Theory, and pronounces it to be a knowledge of what is beautiful in

nature:

That form alone, where glows peculiar grace,
The genuine Painter condescends to trace.

v. 9.

There is an absolute necessity for the Painter to generalise his notions; to paint particulars is not to paint nature, it is only to paint circumstances. When the Artist has conceived in his imagination the image of perfect beauty, or the abstract idea of forms, he may be said to be admitted into the great Council of Nature, and to

Trace Beauty's beam to its eternal spring,

And pure to man the fire celestial bring. v. 19. To facilitate the acquisition of this ideal beauty, the Artist is recommended to a studious examination of ancient sculpture.

Ꭱ.