1801. ] 
‘in recommending, while on the crofs, to 
his beloved difciple the care of his parent, 
in the all-expreflive and affectionate 
werds, Behold thy mother / had been nar- 
rated in the ninth book by Klopftock, 
with the moving fimplicity of the gofpel, 
(John xix. 27). Mary has now come to 
the fepulchre. — “ She wrung her hands 
and tottered, and feli to the earth. They 
held her as they could, and funk with 
her.” They raife her up. She turns on 
John the red dim eye. Bebold thy mo= 
ther! were the words fhe fhould have 
utter’d: to recal that parting with her 
dying fon, and to mark the impotence 
of confolation in woe like her woe. 
Grief ever dwells on the laft words of its 
object. 
The thirteenth book is filled with vi- 
fits of pilgrimage made at the holy crofs, 
and at the holy fepulchre, by angels and 
prophets. A hymn in dialogue, fung by 
Wfaiah and Daniel, aroufes and difap- 
points expectation. The moment of the 
refurrection, whether it is ill-prepared, 
whether the profufion of antecedent mi- 
racles diminifhes its relative magnifi- 
cence, whether it is defcribed with a too 
rapid or promifcuous circumitantiality, 
does not excite fo much furprife and joy 
as in the fimple journal of the gofpel- 
writers. 
‘The fourteenth canto difplays the afto- 
nifhment of Magdalena and different dif- 
ciples, on finding the fepulchre empty ; 
and details the revelation of the refur- 
rection. Probably the often quoted in- 
terview with Cleophas is the bef part of 
this book: it is faid to be highly valued 
by the poet himfelf: unlefs for the indi- 
cation of authorities to which deference is 
due, I fhould have read it with entire, 
but without peculiar, approbation. _ 
Apparitions of the re-rifen abound in 
the fifteenth divifion: it forms a dull 
collection of uncohering legendary anec- 
dotes. The fpiritua] eclogne between Eve 
and the mother of Chrift is peculiarly 
babifh. In the ftory of the feven fons 
martyred. by Antiochus Epiphanes, a 
{peech of their mother commands admi- 
ration by the furprifing turn of its force- 
ful pathos. 
The fixteenth book unfolds a new herd 
of ghoits, thofe dead fince the atonement. 
Anecdotes—and again anecdotes—neither 
progreffion, nor bufinefs, nor purpofe : 
fouls come, as the poet himfelf fays, now 
thick-rufhing from the clouds, now driz- 
zling. 
Antediluvians are delivered from pur- 
gatory in the feventeenth; which alfo in- 
cludes converfations of the friends of Jefus 
in the garden of Lazarus. 
In the eighteenth and nineteenth cans 
Klopftock’s Mefiah. | 503 
tos, the flagging wings of the poet are 
again exerted. Adam beholds in vifion 
the laft judgment, a procefs improperly 
begun before. ‘Phere is fome boldnefs of 
fancy in the decoration, fome vigour of 
language in the de(cription of thefe vifi- 
onary fcenes; the pardon of -:bbadona is 
read with eager joy: yet too many indi- 
vidual cafes are tried, almoft all inco- 
herent and epifodical, unconnected with 
each other, or with the reward and pu- 
nifhment of the perfons of the epopeea. 
fn Milton’s vifion of Adam the repre- 
fentations are feleéted with more difz 
cretion, although tricked out with lefs 
pageantry. To this prophetic interven- 
tion fucceed the apparitions of Chrift in 
Galilee; and to them the afcenfion. 
‘lofannas, fune by fucceflive feftoons of 
angels at every foar of the interminable 
afcenfion, occupy the whole twentieth and 
concluding book. Even manna tires at 
lait, and of thefe hallelujahs there are fo 
many, that one would fuppofe the author 
had contracted for editing the whole plal- 
ter of the cherubs. ‘The hymns are com- 
pofed in various lyric metres: they are 
too carefully felected from the Jewith 
prophets, as they contain accounts of the 
plagues of Egypt, and the taking of Ba- 
bylon, which have not even a myttical 
connection with the prefent topic. They 
are too feldom interfected by defcriptive 
paflages: one wifhes for a few of the 
picturefque, aerial, playful, angelic groups 
of Ceva. 
Strepit zthere aperto 
Leta phalanx, pennifque fupervolat, ar- 
_-vaque inumbrat : 
Pars florum manibus plenis effundere nim- 
bos 
alba fuper velamina: pars pedes ire: 
Ile equitat croceas nubes. hic cruribus exit 
E mediis nebulis, hic fummis prominet 
alis: . 
Mille alii variis neCtuntur in acre nodis. 
i ESWS PUER, LIB. If. 
At length Chrift is feated at the right 
hand of the Father. 
From the twenty thoufand lines of 
which the Meffizh confifts, a prudent au- 
thor would have expunged about one-half, 
for feeblenefs, tautology, or irrelevance: 
fo that the mafs of excellent compofition, 
which is chiefly to be fought between the 
fecond and eighth cantos, does not exceed 
that of the Paradife Loft, fuppofing it 
curtailed, in like manner, of what the cri- 
tics cenfure for extravagance, ignoblenefs, 
or pedantry; fuch as Satan’s journey, the 
Angelic war, Michael’s narrative, and 
other thinly fcattered paffages, which may 
collectively amount to one-fixth of the 
whole. Peetry, like ore, is eftimated not 
by the coarfenefs, but by the dese 
c8) 

