CAMPBELL'S IMITATIONS.
(Vol. vi., p. 505.)
It is curious that two of the passages pointed out by Mr. Breen, as containing borrowed ideas, are those quoted by Alison in his recent volume (Hist. Eur., vol. i. pp. 429, 430.) to support his panegyric on Campbell, of whose "felicitous images" he speaks with some enthusiasm.
The propensity of Campbell to adapt or imitate the thoughts and expressions of others has often struck me. Let me then suggest the following (taken at random) as further, and I believe hitherto unnoticed, illustrations of that propensity:
1. "When front to front the banner'd hosts combine,
Halt ere they close, and form the dreadful line."
Pleasures of Hope.
"When front to front the marching armies shine,
Halt ere they meet, and form the lengthening line."
Pope, Battle of Frogs and Mice.
2. "As sweep the shot stars down the troubled sky."
Pleasures of Hope.
"And rolls low thunder thro' the troubled sky."
Pope, Frogs and Mice.
3. "With meteor-standard to the winds unfurl'd."
Pleasures of Hope.
"The imperial standard which full high advanc'd,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind."
Milton, Par. Lost, i. 535.
4. "The dying man to Sweden turn'd his eye,
Thought of his home, and clos'd it with a sigh."
Pleasures of Hope.
"Sternitur infelix alieno vulnere, cœlumque
Aspicit, et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos."
Virgil, Æn., x. 782.
5. "... Red meteors flash'd along the sky,
And conscious Nature shudder'd at the cry."
Pleasures of Hope.
"... Fulsere ignes, et conscius æther."
Virgil, Æn., iv. 167.
6. "In hollow winds he hears a spirit moan."
Pleasures of Hope.
Shakespeare has the hollow whistling of the southern wind.
7. "The strings of Nature crack'd with agony."
Pleasures of Hope.
"His grief grew puissant. and the strings of life
Began to crack."—Shakspeare, King Lear.
8. "The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook."
Gertrude of Wyoming.
"... And feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce."
Milton, Par. Lost, ii. 599.
9. "His tassell'd horn beside him laid."
O'Connor's Child.
"... Ere th' odorous breath of morn
Awakes the slumbering leaves, or tassell'd horn
Shakes the high thicket."—Milton, Arcades.
10. "The scented wild-weeds and enamell'd moss."
Theodric.
Campbell thinks it necessary to explain this latter epithet in a note: "The moss of Switzerland, as well as that of the Tyrol, is remarkable for a bright smoothness approaching to the appearance of enamel." And yet was no one, or both, of the following passages floating in his brain when his pen traced the line?
"O'er the smooth enamell'd green
Where no print of sleep hath been."
Milton, Arcades.
"Here blushing Flora paints th' enamell'd ground."
Pope, Winsdor Forest.
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.