: } 
408 On the P 
reprefented by Ovid in his ‘* Metamor- 
.phifes.” Ceres; having vowed revenge 
againtt Erifithon for cutting down a2 
~. facred trée, fends a meflenger for this 
? 1 Bu Z iP ib d - 
ghaltly phantom, who is thus deicribed : 
Famem lapidofo videt in agro, 
Unguibus & raras vellentem dentibus herbas. 
Hirtus erat crinis; cava lumina; pallor in 
ore ; 
Labra incasa fitu; fcabre rubigine fauces 
Dura cutis, per quam foeGtari vifcera 1 ie sfient ; 
Ofia fub incurvis initabant urida lombis 5 
Ventris erat pro ventre locus; pendere pu- 
tares 
Pedtus, & a fpine tantummodo crate teneri: 
? Pp 
Auxerat articulos macies, genuumque rigebat 
Orbis, et immodico prodibant tubera talo. 
? £ 
Met.\. vill. 799. 


Crouch’d ina ftony field he fees-the pow’r 
Plucking with teethand nails the icanty herb. 
Shaggy her locks; her eyes were funk in 
pits 5 3 
Palenefs o’erfpread her face; her whiten’d 
pits 
Were hoar with mould; her jaws befet with 
rule; 
Thro’ her harfh hide her inwards all were 
thewn 3 
The arid bones £bove her crooked loins 
Stood forth; a void the belly’s s place fupply’d; 
Pendant her breaft appear’d, and held alone 
By the bare wick’ry {pine ; the wafting ficth 
Had fwell’d the joints; each knee, a rigid 
ball, 
Each ankle feem’d a monftrous bunch of bone. 
It is fearcely pofitble to conceive a 
more ftriking image of a famifhed perfon. 
‘The hard fkin, hanging breafts, crate or 
bafket work of the ribs and {pine, and 
joints appaz arenthy enfarged, 
ftances drawn: from the ie » and repre- 
fented with wonderful force. At the 
fame time, the figure is merély natural. 
Here are no types er emblems, as, in- 
deed, none were wanted ; “for fuch a fub- 
ject conld not fail of beg its own in- 
terpreter. “he furrounding fcenery is 
equally real. 
Eft locus extremis Scythiz glacialis in oris, 
Trife folum, fterilis, fine i fine arbore 
tellus. 
In icy Scythia’s fartheft boutd, there lies 
A fteril, gloomy, comnless, Has tract. 
The fanciful or preternatural part of 
the fiction is the manner in whieh the 
oct employs this phantom. He makes 
Fe take the cpportuuity of Erifiéthen’s 
lying aileep, to in/pire him with ber ber- 
Sef and the poor man awakes poffefled 
vy a moft infatiable hunger, which com- 
pels him, firft, according to the French 
phrate, i@enger J@ bien, to cat up his 
erfonification of 
are Cir cumi-- 
Abftr act Ideas in Poetry. 
eftate, and at laft, abfolunely to devour 
himielf. There is fomething ludicrous 
in this idea, which may ferve to fhew the 
dithculty of preferving ftrict propriety 
throughout an imaginary fcene; yet the 
agency. of Famine cannot be faid to be 
unfuitable to her nature. This notien 
of injpiving a quality by touching or 
breathing on a perfon, may frequently be 
met with in the beft peas to expreis the 
action of thoie fictitious beings. 
Churchill’s <“¢ Prophecy of Famine™ 
affords no addition to the eh part 
Zé: the perfonification, except fome itrokes 
f fatirical humour, difgraced by na- 
vides illiberality. Ihe employment of 
the imaginary being to utter a prophecy, 
is agreeable enough to the general notion 
of a genius, and is rendered more cha- 
ra¢teriltic by the local circumitance of 
the pretence to fecond fight. 
The next figure I thall prefemt is that 
of SLEEP, as likewile drawn hy the 
elegant and inventive pencil of Ovid. 
Though he is raited to the title and dig- 
nity of the God Scmius, yet. in form and 
attributes he is a mere drowfy mertal ; 
and the poet's invention is chiefly difplayed 
in the {cenery and accompaniments. He 
inhabits a gloomy cavern, into which 
the rays of the {un never penetrate, but 
where a kind of perpetual twilight reigns 
in the e foggy air. From hence all fhrill 
and enlivening founds are banifhed, and 
adead filence eternally prevails, bodkch 
only by the foft murmurs of the waters 
of Lethe. Around the entrance grew all 
kinds of foporiierous herbs. The god 
himieli hes faft afleep on an ebon couch 
raifed high with down. On the approach 
of Iris, who is fent to him with a mef- 
fage, with much ado he reufes himfelf. 
His painful relu€tant efforts are very 
-happily expreffed in the following lines ; 
tarda Deus gravitate jacentes 
Vix ocules tollens, iterumque iterumque 
relabens, 
Summaque percutiens nutanti peCtora mento, 
Excuflit tandem fibi fe ; cubitoque leyatus 
Quid veniat {citatur. ect. xi: 616. 
The god, his heavy eyes fearce lifting up, 
Once and again foal down ; his nodding chin 
Struck on his breait ; at length himatelf he 
thook 
Out of himfelf, and on his elbow rais’d, 
Inquir’d his caufe of coming. 
Ovid agts judicioufly in making the 
fubject of the requeit to fuch a power as 
ealy and brief as poflible. It is only 
that he would fend one of the dreems, 
which are reprefented as conftantly fit- 


ting, 1 kz bats, about the cave of Sleep. 
W hen 
