| 

1800. | From the Port-Feolia 
the Venetians, and the general fatisfaétion 
of all the Italians. 
I cannot clofe the article without ob- 
ferving, that his prefent holinefs is the firft 
Benediétin monk who has occupied the 
_papal throne, in modern times ; as it is 
known that the illuftrious order of St. 
Benedié had, in the middle ages, governed 
the church almoft exclufively, for nearl 
three centuries, and occafioned of courle 
361 
of a Man of Letters. 
a convention, that no individual belonging 
to it fhould ever after be elected pope. By 
the by, this circumftance of a monk railed 
to a foveretgn rank, reminds the writer of 
this article of an humorous but bitter paf- 
quinade which appeared in Rome at the 
election of Ganganelli. 
Quz regum quondam fuerat regina, fub- 
acta eft oe 
Servorum fervo; paruit et monacho! 

From the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 
Ee 
IMITATIONS AND SIMILARITIES. 
HE writer of the prefent article com- 
am menced, as far back as m the month 
of May,.1798, in this magazine, a feries 
of imitations and fimilarities, which at dif- 
ferent times he continued. This kind of li- 
terary amufement is not defpicable, nor 
has it been neglected by many ingenious 
correfpondents, who, if they have not al- 
ways anfwered to theif titles, have never 
failed of gratifying tafte and curiofity. 
‘There are few men of letters, who are 
not in the habit of marking parallel paf- 
fages, or tracing imitation in the thoufand 
fhapes it aflumes: to preferve this enter- 
taining topic from further negleét, and to 
animare the ingenious to break open their 
‘fecret cabinets, I fhall offer feveral which 
i conceive may provoke their labours to 
many future communications. 
i thall juft obferve, that to give intereft 
to the prefent article,’ it is not neceflary 
the felected paffages fhouid be ab/olutely 
imitation; tafte feels even a higher grati- 
fication in obferving by what dexterity 
and variation genius conceals or changes 
an original thought or image—Sim#larity 
ie will therefore widen the career we have 
opened, and prefent to the critical reader 
an extenfive range for obfervation. 
T have formerly noticed the following 
paflagds, as firi€tly imitation-— 
Bur er, in Hudibras, compares the 
crowded windows of his admiring {pecta- 
tors to a pillory. ; 
Each window like the pillory appears, 
With Zeads thruft through, nailed by the ears. 
Younc compares the Opera to a pillory. 
An Opera, like a pillory, may be faid 
To zail our ears down, but expofe our bead, 
In the DueNNa, we find the thought 
differently illuftrated, and by no means 
imitative ; yet congenial in its fatire. 
Don Jerome, alluding to the Serenaders, 
days, <¢ Thefe amorous orgies, that fteal 
-, AAONTHLY MAG. No. 58, 
the fenfes in the hearing; as they fay 
Fey ptian embalmers ferve mummies, éx- 
trading the brain through the ears.”—The 
wit is here original; but the fubjeét is the 
fame in the three paflages; the whole 
turning on the. allufion to the bead and to 
the ears. 
I confider the following paflage as 
ftrictly imitation, or rather as a very al- 
lowable plagiary, for it is committed bya. 
man of confiderable genius. 


The daring artift— 
Explored the pangs that rend the royal breait, 
Thafe qounds that lurk beneath the tiffued veft. 
T. WarTON on SHAKSPEARE. 
Sidney in his ‘* Defence of Poefie,”’ has 
the fame image; he writes ‘ Tragedy- 
openeth the greateft wounds, and fheweth 
forth the ulcers that are covered with t1f- 
fue” : 
De Caux is an old French poet, little 
known. One of his moral poems on an 
hour-glafs is however preferved in fome 
colleétions, and there are paffages which 
difcover a facility of verfification, and an 
ingenious allegorical manner. That this 
poem was read and admired by Gold{mith, 
the following beautiful image feems to 
indicate. De Caux, comparing the world 
to his hour-glafs, fays, moft exquiftely, — 
C’eft un verre qui luit, 3 
Qwun fouffle peut detruire, et qwun fouffle a produtt. 
Goldimith applies the thought, or ra- 
ther echoes the line thus, | ‘ : 
Princes and Lords may flourifh or may fade, 
M4 breath can make them, as a breath bas masle. 
I do not. know if my copy be correct ; 
and whether we might not read, 
A breath wumakes them, as a breath has made. 
In the Caftle Speire, Ofmond has this - 
fine defcription ot the ghoft of Evelina 
‘* Suddenly a female form glided along 
the vault. I flew towards her-—-my arms 
were already unclofed fo clafp her-——when 
fuddenly her figure. banged, her face grew 
3 pale 
- 
~ 
