But speaking tears the want of words supply,'
And the full foul bursts copious from his eye.
Affrighted, anxious for our fellows fates,
We prefs to hear what fadly he relates.
95 We went, Ulyffes! (fuch was thy command)
Thro' the lone thicket, and the defart land.

A Palace

v. 295, &c. We went, Ulyffes! (Such was thy command)] We have here a very lively picture of a perfon in a great fright, which was admir'd, obferves Euftathius, by the Ancients: There is not only a remarkable harmony in the flowing of the Poetry, but the very manner of speaking represents the disorder of the speaker; he is in too great an emotion to introduce his speech by any Preface, he breaks at once into it, without preparation, as if he could not foon enough deliver his thoughts. Longinus quotes these lines as an instance of the great judgment of Homer: there is nothing, fays that Critic, which gives more life to a difcourfe, than the taking away the connections and conjunctions; when the difcourfe is not bound together and embarrass'd, it walks and flides along of it felf, and will want very little oftentimes of going fafter even than the thought of the Orator: Thus in Xenophon, Join ing their bucklers, they gave back, they fought, they flew, they dy'd together; of the fame nature is that of Eurylochus,

We went, Ulyffes-fuch was thy command

Access we fought

Radiant he came

nor was access deny'd:

the portals open'd wide, &c.

I only wait behindof all the train;

I waited long and ey'd the doors in vain:

The rest are vanish'd- -none repass'd the gate.

These periods thus cut off, and yet pronounc'd with precipitatio on, are figns of a lively forrow; which at the fame time hinders, yet forces him to speak.

Many fuch hidden tranfitions are to be found in Virgil, of equal beauty with this of Homer:

Me, me, inquam qui feci, in me convertite tela.

Hero

A Palace in a woody vale we found

Brown with dark forefts, and with fhades around.

A voice celeftial eccho'd from the doom,

300 Or Nymph, or Goddess, chaunting to the loom.
Access we fought, nor was access deny'd:
Radiant fhe came; the portals open'd wide:
The Goddess mild invites the guests to stay:
They blindly follow where fhe leads the way.

I only

Here the Poet fhews the earneftness of the speaker who is in fo much hafte to fpeak, that his thoughts run to the end of the fentence almoft before his tongue can begin it. Thus Achame mides in his flight from the Cyclops,

-Per fidera teftor,

Per fuperes, atque hoc cæli fpirabile lumen,

Tollite me, Teucri.

"Here the Poet makes no connection with the preceding difcourfe, but leaves out the inquit, to express the precipitation and terror of Achamenides.

But our countryman Spenfer has equall'd if not furpass'd these great Poets of Antiquity, in painting a figure of Terror in the ninth Canto of the Fairy Queen, where Sir Trevifan flies from Despair.

He anfwer'd nought at all: but adding now
Fear to his first amazement, staring wide
With ftony eyes, and heartless hollow hue,
Aftonish'd ftood, as one that had efpy'd
Infernal faries, with their chains unty'd';
Him yet again, and yet again bespake
The gentle Knight; who nought to him reply'd,

Bnt

305 I only wait behind, of all the train;

I waited long, and ey'd the doors in vain:
The reft are vanish'd, none repass'd the gate;
And not a man appears to tell their fate.

I heard, and inftant o'er my fhoulders flung 310 The belt in which my weighty faulchion hung; (A beamy blade) then feiz'd the bended bow, And bad him guide the way, refolv'd to go.

But trembling every joint did inly quake,

And fault'ring tongue at last, these words seem'd forth to shake,
For God's dear love, Sir Knight, do me not stay,

For lo! he comes, he comes, faft after me,

Eft looking back, would fain have run away.

The defcription fets the figure full before our eyes, he fpeaks
fhort, and in broken and interrupted periods, which excellently re-
prefent the agony of his thoughts; and when he is a little more
confirm'd and embolden'd, he proceeds,

And am I now in fafety fure, quoth he,
From him who would have forced me to die?
And is the point of Death now turn'd from me?
Then I may tell this hapless Hiftory.

We fee he breaks out into interrogations, which, as Longinus ob-
ferves, give great motion, ftrength, and action to difcourfe. If the
Poet had proceeded fimply, the expreffion had not been equal to
the occafion; but by thefe fhort queftions, he gives ftrength to it,
and fhews the diforder of the fpeaker, by the fudden ftarts and
vehemence of the periods. The whole Canto of Defpair is a piece of
inimitable Poetry; the picture of Sir Trevifan has a general refem-
blance to this of Eurylochus, and feems to have been copy'd after
it, as will appear upon comparifon,

He, proftrate falling, with both hands embrac'd

My knees, and weeping thus bis fuit addrefs'd. 315 O King belov'd of Jove! thy fervant spare, And ah, thy felf the rafh attempt forbear! Never, alas! thou never fhalt return,

Or fee the wretched for whofe lofs we mourn
With what remains, from certain ruin fly,
320 And fave the few not fated yet to die.

I anfwer'd ftern. Inglorious then remain,
Here feaft and loiter, and defert thy train.

Alone

313. With both hands embrac'd my knees -] The
character of Eurylochus, who had married Climene the fifter of U-
lyffes, is the character of a brave man, who being witness to the
dreadful fate of his companions is diffident of himself, and judges
that the only way to conquer the danger is to fly from it. To
fear upon fuch an occafion, observes Dacier, is not Cowardice, but
Wifdom. But what is more remarkable in this defcription, is the
art of Homer in inferting the character of a brave man under fo
great a confternation, to fet off the character of Ulyffes, who knows
how at once to be bold and wife; for the more terrible and defpe-
rate the adventure is reprefented by Eurylochus, the greater appears
the intrepidity of Ulyffes, who trufting to his own wisdom, and
the affiftance of the Gods, has the courage to attempt it.
adds to the merit of the action is, that he undertakes it folely for
his companions, as Horace defcribes him:

Dum fibi, dum fociis reditum parat, afpera multa
Pertulit, adverfis rerum immerfabilis undis.

7. 321.

Inglorious then remain,

Here feaft and loiter.

-]

What

This expreffion is ufed farcaftically by Ulyffes, and in derifion of his fears. Dacier remarks, that Ulyffes having not feen what is reJated by Eurylochus, believes his refufal to return, proceeds from his faint-heartedness: An inftance, adds the, that we frequently

form

325

Alone, unfriended, will I tempt my way;
The laws of Fate compell, and I obey.

This faid, and fcornful turning from the fhore
My haughty step, I ftalk'd the vally o'er.

Till now approaching nigh the magic bow'r, Where dwelt th'enchantrefs skill'd in herbs of pow'r ; A form divine forth iffu'd from the wood, 330 (Immortal Hermes with the golden rod) In human femblance. On his bloomy face Youth fmil'd celeftial, with each opening grace' He feiz'd my hand, and gracious thus began. Ah whither roam'ft thou? much-enduring man! 335 O blind to fate! what led thy steps to rove The horrid mazes of this magic grove? Each friend you feek in yon enclosure lies, All loft their form, and habitants of ftyes.

form wrong judgments of mens actions, when we are ignorant of the motives of them. I confefs I am of opinion, that there is fome degree of cowardice in the character of Enrylochus: A man truly brave would not exprefs fuch confufion and terror in any extremity; he is not to be infpirited either by Ulyffes, or the example of his other companions, as appears from the fequel, infomuch that Ulyffes threatens to kill him for a coward; this prevails over his firft fears, and he fubmits to meet a future danger, merely to avoid one that is prefent. What makes this obfervation more juft is, that we never fee a brave man drawn by Homer or Virgil in fuch faint colours; but they always discover a presence of mind upon all emergencies.