1796. | Similes of Homer, 
Of cornel, afh, and beech; the wide-ftretch’d 
boughs 
Mingle with horrid noife, and, breaking, crafh : 
So rufh’d, amain, the fons of Greece and Troy, 
To mutual flaughter, IL. xvi. 765. 
This fimile is adopted by Virgil in 
fome very fine lines, in which, however, 
the application is lefs happy than in 
Homer’s. He is defcribing Atneas affail- 
ed by the pathetic entreaties of Dido, 
but withftanding all their force : 
Ac velut annofo validam cum robore quercum 
Alpini Borex nunc hinc nunc flatibus illinc 
Eruere inter fe certant; it ftridor, & alte 
Confternunt terram concuffo flipite frendes : 
Ipfa heret fcopulis; & quantum vertice ad 
auras a hy 
Etherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. 
Haud fecus affiduis hine atque hinc vocibus 
heros - 
Tunditur, & magno perfentit peftore curas. 
Mens immeota manet; lacryme  volvuntur 
inancs. . HAN. iv. 44t. 
As when the winds their airy quarrel try, 
foftling from every quarter of the fky ; 
<his way and that the mountain-oak they 
bend, 
His boughs they fhatter, and his branches 
rend ; 
With leaves, with falling maft, they f{pread the 
ground, 
The hollow vallies echo to the found : 
Unmov’d, thé royal plant their fury mocks, 
Or fhaken, clings more clofely to the rocks ; 
Far as he fhoots his towering head on high, 
So deep in earth his fix’d foundations lie: 
No lefs a ftorm the Trojan hero bears, 
- Thick meffages and loud complaints-he hears, > 
And bandy’d words {till beating on his ears. J 
Sighs, groans, and tears, proclaim his inward 
pains, 
But the firm purpofe of his heart remains. 
DRYDEN. 
The action in the fimile is furely too 
violent fora juft refemblance. Of this, 
the tranflator feems to have been fenfible, 
from the pains he has taken, even by 
hazarding fomething of the ludicrous, to 
heighten the impreffion of the wordy 
affault upon his hero. 
The following comparifon, applied to 
the Greeks burfting into Troy, 1s fome- 
what different in its imagery, and better 
adapted to the occafion: : 
Adverfi rupto quondam ceu turbine venti 
Confligunt, Zephyrufque, Notusque, & letus 
 \'Bots 
‘Eurus equis: ftridunt fylve, fevitque ti- 
denti 
-Spumeus, atque imo Nereus ciet zquora fundo. 
EN. i1..416. 
Thus, when the rival winds their quarrel try, 
Contending for the kingdom of the fky ; 
Virgil, and Milton. 547 
South, eaft, and weft, on airy courfers borne; 
The whirlwind gathers, and the woods are torne : 
Then Nereus ftrikes the deep, the billows rifey 
And, mix’d with ooze and fand, pollute the 
tkies. DRYDEN. 
Heétor, dealing deftru€tion among the 
Greeks,is, inthe following paflage, com- 
pared to a tempeft : 
As when the weft-wind drives, with ftormy 
guit, 
Clouds, by the fouth compell’d, on ocean’s 
face 
Thick roll the {welling waves; while, dafh’don 
high, ' 
The foam is {catter’d by the founding blat; 
So frequent fell the heads beneath the ftroke 
Of Heétor. Dek sO ee 
The point of comparifon here is very 
loofely ftated ; for though, ‘in the appli- 
cation of the fimile, the zimnber of the 
fain is the only circumftance noticed, 
which has no parallel but the waves, the 
real refemblance confifts in the force of 
HeGor, compared to a whirlwind, fcatter- 
ing the Grecks like foam. But this is a 
negligence, or inaccuracy, very frequent 
in the Grecian bard. Virgil, in a very 
fpirited imitation of this fimile, has ap- 
plied it with more correétnefs : 
Ac velut Edoni Berez cum fpiritus alto 
Infonat Agxo, fequiturque ad littora fudtus, 
Qu venti incubuere ; fugam dant nubila czelo: 
Sic Turnus, quacunque viam fecat, agmina 
cedunt, © 
Converfseque ruunt acies. FEN. xii. 365. 
As when loud Boreas, with his bluft’ring train, 
Stoops from above, incumbent on the main ; 
Where’er he flies, he drives the rack before, 
And rolls the billows on th’ Aigean fhore : 
So, where refiftlefs Turnus takes his courfe, 
The fcatter’d fquadrons bend before his force. 
DRYDEN. 
The fame poet finely illuftrates the 
fpeed of a courfer, by a comparifon with 
the north wind : 
Qualis Hyperboreis Aquilo cum denfus ab oris 
Incubuit, Scythiaque hyemes atque arida differt 
Nubila : tum fegetes altze campique natantes 
Levibus horrefcunt fiabris, fummeeque fonorem 
Dant fylva, longique urgent ad litora fluctus : 
Ille volat, fimul arva fuga, fimul eequora verrens. 
GEORG. lll. 196. 
Like Bereas in his race, when rufhing forth, 
He fweeps the fkies, and clears the cloudy 
north ; 
The waving harveft bends beneath his. blafts 
The foreft fhakes, the groves their honours 
caft ; 
He flies aloft, and, with impetuous roary. 
Purfues the foaming furges to the fhore. 
% DRYDEN. 
4A2 In 

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