Our English archers bent their bows,
Their hearts were good and true;
At the first flight of arrows fent,
Full threefcore Scots they flew..
They clos'd full faft on ev'ry fide,
No flacknefs there was found;
And many a gallant gentleman
Lay gafping on the ground.

With that there came an arrow keen
Out of an English bow,
Which Aruck Earl Douglas to the heart
A deep and deadly blow.

Eneas was wounded after the fame manner by an unknown hand in the midst of a parley.

Has inter voces, media inter talia verba,'
Ecce viro ftridens alis allapfa fagitta eft,
Incertum qua pulsa manu-

Æn. XII. v. 318.

Thus, while he fpake, unmindful of defence,
A winged arrow ftruck the pious prince;
But whether from an human hand it came,
Or hoftile God, is left unknown by fame.

DRYDEN.

But of all the defcriptive parts of this fong, there are none more beautiful than the four following ftanzas, which have a great force and fpirit in them, and are filled with very natural circumstances. The thought in the third, ftanza was never touched by any other poet, and is fuch a one as would have fhined in Homer or Virgil.

to So thus did both thofe nobles die,
Whofe courage none could ftain:
An English archer then perceiv'd
The noble earl was flain.

He

He had a bow bent in his hand,
Made of a trusty tree,
An arrow of a cloth-yard long
Unto the head drew he.

Against Sir Hugh Montgomery
So right his haft he fet,
The grey-goofe wing that was thereon
In his heart-blood was wet.

This fight did laft from break of day
Till fetting of the fun;

For when they rung the ev'ning bell
The battle fcarce was done.

One may obferve likewife, that in the catalogue of the flain the author has followed the example of the greateft ancient poets, not only in giving a long lift of the dead, but by diverfifying it with little characters of particular perfons.

And with Earl Douglas there was flain.
Sir Hugh Montgomery,

Sir Charles Carrel, that from the field
One foot would never fly:

Sir Charles Murrel of Ratcliff too,

wt His fifter's fon was heh sir lie to wi Sir David Lamb, fo well efteem'd, omandabis Yet faved could not be.

The familiar found in thefe names deftroys the majefty of the defcription; for this reafon I do not mention this part of the poem but to fhew the natural caft of thought which appears in it, as the two laft verfes look almoft like a translation of Virgil.

-Cadit et Ripheus juftiffimus unus
Qui fuit in teucris et fervantiffimus aqui,
Diis aliter vifum eft.

En. II. ver. 426.

Then

Then Ripheus fell in the unequal fight,
Juft of his word obfervant of the right:
Heav'n thought not fo.

DRYDEN.

In the catalogue of the English who fell, Withering-
ton's behaviour is in the fame manner particulariz-
ed very artfully, as the reader is prepared for it by
that account which is given of him in the beginning
of the battle; though I am fatisfied your little buf-
foon readers (who have feen that paffage ridiculed
in Hudibras) will not be able to take the beauty of
it: For which reafon I dare not fo much as quote it
Then ftept a gallant Squire forth,
Witherington was his name,

Who faid, I would not have it told
To Henry our King for fhame.

Tied That e'er my captain fought on foot,
And I ftood looking on.

We meet with the fame heroic fentiments in Virgil.
Non pudet, O Rutuli, cunctis pro talibus unam
Objectare animam? numerone an viribus æqui
Non fumus? Æn. XII. ver. 229.
ATX

For fhame, Rutilians, can you bear the fight
Of one expos'd for all, in fingle fight?
Can we before the face of heav'n, confefs
Our courage colder, or our number lefs? A
DRYDEN.

What can be more natural or more moving than the circumftances in which he defcribes the beha viour of those women who had lost their husband's on this fatal day?

Next day did many widows come

Their bufbands to bewail;

They wafb'd their wounds in brinifh tears,

But all would not prevail.

Their bodies, bath'd in purple blood,

They bore with them away;

They kiss'd them dead a thousand times,
When they were clad in clay.

Thus we fee how the thoughts of this poem, which naturally arife from the fubject, are always fimple, and fometimes exquifitely noble; that the language is often very founding, and that the whole is written with a true poetical fpirit. do)

If this fong had been written in the Gothick manner, which is the delight of all our little wits, whether writers or readers, would not have hit the tafte of fo many ages, and have pleased the readers of all ranks and conditions. I fhall only beg pardon for fuch a profufion of Latin quotations; which I fhould not have made ufe of, but that I feared my own judgment would have looked too fingular on fuch a fubject, had not I fupported it by the practice and authority of Virgil,gs Footra (C

No 75

SATURDAY, MAY 26.

Omnes Ariftippum decuit color, et ftatus, et res. HOR. Ep. xvII. 1. i. ver. 23.

a

All fortune fitted Ariftippus well.

IT

CREECH,

was with fome mortification that I fuffered the rallery of a fine Lady of iny acquaintance, for calling, in one of my papers, Dorimant a clown.. She was fo unmerciful as to take advantage of my invincible taciturnity, and on that occafion, with great freedom to confider the air, the height, the face, the gefture of him who could pretend to judge fo arrogantly of gallantry. She is full of motion, janty, and lively in her impertinence, and one of thofe that commonly pafs, among the ignorant, for perfons who have a great deal of humour. She

kad

had the play of Sir Fopling in her hand, and after fhe had faid it was happy for her there was not fo charming a creature as Dorimant now living, the began with a theatrical air and tone of voice to read, by way of triumph over me, fome of his fpeeches. 'Tis fbe, that lovely hair, that eafy shape, thofe wanton eyes, and all thofe melting charms about her mouth, which Medley spoke of; I'll follow the lottery and put in for a prize with my friend Bellair.

In love the victors from the vanquifb'd fly;

They fly that wound, and they pursue that die. Then turning over the leaves, the reads alternately, and fpeaks,

And you and Loveit to her coft fball find

I fathom all the depths of womankind.

Oh the fine Gentleman! But here, continues fhe, is the paffage I admire moft, where he begins to teize Loveit, and mimick Si Sir Fopling: Oh the pretty fatire, in his refolving to be a coxcomb to please, fince noife and nonefenfe have fuch powerful charms.

I, that I may fuccessful prove,
Transform myself to what you love.

Then how like a man of the town, fo wild and gay is that!

The wife will find a diff'rence in our fate,
You wed a woman, I a good estate.

It would have been a very wild endeavour for a man of my temper to offer any oppofition to fo nimble a speaker as my Fair enemy is; but her dif courfe gave me very many reflections, when I had left her company. Among others, I could not but confider, with fome attention, the falfe impreffions the generality (the Fair Sex more efpecially) have of what fhould be intended, when they fay, a fine Gentleman;