"Restore the lock!" she cries; and all around "Restore the lock!" the vaulted roofs rebound. Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain. But trust the Muse-she saw it upward rise, A sudden star, it shot through liquid air, The heav'ns bespangling with dishevelled light. And pleased pursue its progress through the skies. This the blest lover shall for Venus take, And send up vows from Rosamonda's lake.3 This Partridge' soon shall view in cloudless skies, 1 A celebrated fiction of Ariosto's. "Ciò che in somma quà giù perdeste mai Là, su saltendo ritrovar potrai." See Ariosto. Canto xxxiv.-Fope. 2 "Flammiferumque trahens spatioso limite crimen, In St. James' Park; filled in during the last century. 4 John Partridge was a ridiculous star-gazer, who in his almanacs every year never failed to predict the downfall of the Pope, and the King of France, then at war with the English.-Pope. In ridicule of these prophecies Swift published mock predictions, declaring that Par tridge would die on a certain day in the following March, and when the day came, his death (in accordance with the prophecy) was an When next he looks through Galileo's eyes; Then cease, bright nymph! to mourn thy ravished Which adds new glory to the shining sphere! MESSIAH, A SACRED ECLOGUE. IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL'S POLLIO. was first published in the "Spectator" for May 14, 1712, No. 378. Pope's "Messiah ADVERTISEMENT. IN reading several passages of the Prophet Isaiah, which foretell the coming of Christ, and the felicities attending it, I could not but observe a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and those in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not seem surprising, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the same subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but made nounced. The poor almanack maker loudly protested that he was still alive; but his assertion was met by the wits with a solemn assurance that he must be mistaken, that he was dead, or at least ought to be. The joke is immortalised in the " Tatler," and must have been intensely ludicrous at the time. 1 In the fourth Eclogue of Virgil he foretold the coming of a wondrous child who was to restore the fabled golden age. He professed to take the prediction from the Sibylline books which the Sibyl sold to Tarquin, and which were used as state oracles by the Romans; but it is believed they had been much altered before Virgil's time. See Prideaux's Connection," and also Trench's "Unconscious Prophecies of Heathendom." use of such ideas as best agreed with the nature of pastoral poetry, and disposed them in that manner which served most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the same in this imitation of him, though without admitting anything of my own; since it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and descriptions of the prophet are superior to those of the poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the same disadvantage of a literal translation.-Pope. YE nymphs of Solyma!' begin the song: 1 Solyma-Jerusalem. 2 The Muses. 3 Isaiah vi. 6, 7. 4 Virg. Ecl. 4, vi. Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna: Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri, 6 "Now the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns, now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven. By means of Thee, whatever reliques of our crimes remain, shall be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. He shall govern the world in peace with the virtues of his father." Dante says that Statius was made a Christian by reading this pas sage in Virgil. See L. Gyraldus.-Warton. It is certainly one of the "unconscious prophecies of Heathendom." Imitations from Isaiah, chap. vii. 14: chap. ix. 6, 7.—Pope. 5 Isaiah xi. 1-And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jess, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.-Pope. 6 Isaiah xlv. 8.-Pope. 7 Isaiah xxv. 6.-Pope. Returning Justice' lift aloft her scale; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend. 6 Astrea, the Virgin goddess of Justice, was fabled to have fled from the earth at the close of the Golden Age.-Isaiah ix. 7. * Virg. Ecl. iv. 18. At tibi prima, puer! nullo munuscula cultu, "For thee, O child, shall the earth without being tilled produce her early offerings; winding ivy, mixed with Baccar and Colocasia with smiling Acanthus. Thy cradle shall pour forth pleasing flowers about thee.' 3 Isaiah xxxv. 2. and Isaiah lx. 13.-Pope. 4 Ecl. iv. 46. გ Aggredere, ô magnos, adherit jam tempus, honores, Ecl. v. 62. Ipsi lætitiâ voces ad sideram jactant Intonsi montes: ipsæ jam carmina rupe Ipsa sonant arbusta: Deus, Deus ille Menalca. "Oh come and receive the mighty honours, the time draws nigh, O beloved offspring of the gods, O great increase of Jove! The uncultivated mountains send shouts of joy to the stars, the very rocks sing in verse, the very shrubs cry out, A God, a God." See Isaiah x1, 3, 4, chap. xliv. 23.-Pope. Isaiah xlii. 8.-Pope. • Isaiah xxxv, 5.-Pope, And leap exulting like the bounding roe.' In adamantine chains shall death be bound,2 5 Feeds from His hand, and in His bosom warms;3 1 Isaiah xxxv. 6.-Pope. 2 Isaiah xxv. 8.-Pope. 3 Isaiah xl. 11.-Pope. Isaiah ix. 6.-Pope. In Isaiah it is "the Everlasting Father" which the Seventy render "The Father of the world to come," agreeably to the style of the New Testament, in which the kingdom of the Messiah is called the age of the world to come. Mr. Pope, therefore, has with great judgment adopted the sense of the LXX. Warton. 5 Isaiali ii. 4.-Pope. 6 Isaiah lxv. 21, 22. 7 Isaiah xxxv. 1.-Pope. 8 Virg. Ecl. iv. 28. Molli paulatim, flavescet campus aristâ, "The fields shall grow yellow with ripened ears, and the red grape shall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard oak shall distil honey like dew. Isaiah xxxv. 7. and lv. 13.-Pope. Isaiah xli. 19, and lvi. 13.-Pope. |