ROCHESTER.
287
a subject only in its positive sense, and such a sense is given it in the first line:
Nothing, thou elder brother ev'n to shade.
In this line, I know not whether he does not allude to a curious book de Umbra, by Wowerus, which, having told the qualities of Shade, concludes with a poem, in which are these lines:
Jam primum terram validis circumspice claustris
Suspensam totam, decus admirabile mundi
Terrasque trađtusque maris, camposque liquentes
Aeris & vasti laqueata palatia cœli———
Omnibus umbra prior.
Suspensam totam, decus admirabile mundi
Terrasque trađtusque maris, camposque liquentes
Aeris & vasti laqueata palatia cœli———
Omnibus umbra prior.
The positive sense is generally preserved, with great skill, through the whole poem; though sometimes in a subordinate sense, the negative nothing is injudiciously mingled. Passerat confounds the two senses.
Another of his most vigorous pieces is his Lampoon on Sir Car Scroop, who, in a poem called The Praise of Satire, had some lines like these[1]:
He who can push into a midnight fray
His brave companion, and then run away,
His brave companion, and then run away,
- ↑ I quote from memory.Dr. J.
7
Leaving
