Addison's Letter from Italy:
And pillars rough with sculpture pierce the skies.
[33] This legendary hero was an Athenian knight-errant who, in imitation of Hercules, went about doing battle with the scourges of mankind, both human and animal.
[34] Minerva presented Perseus with her shield when he undertook to kill the Gorgon, Medusa.
[35] This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the position of the famous statue of Farnese.—Pope.
It were to be wished that our author, whose knowledge and taste of the fine arts were unquestionable, had taken more pains in describing so famous a statue as that of the Farnesian Hercules; for he has omitted the characteristical excellencies of this famous piece of Grecian workmanship; namely, the uncommon breadth of the shoulders, the knottiness and spaciousness of the chest, the firmness and protuberance of the muscles in each limb, particularly the legs, and the majestic vastness of the whole figure, undoubtedly designed by the artist to give a full idea of strength, as the Venus de Medicis of beauty. To mention the Hesperian apples, which the artist flung backwards, and almost concealed as an inconsiderable object, and which therefore scarcely appear in the statue, was below the notice of Pope.—Warton.
Addison's Vision: "At the upper end sat Hercules, leaning an arm upon his club."
[36] The pause at the word "strikes" renders the verse finely descriptive of the circumstance. Milton, in Par. Lost, xi. 491, has attempted this beauty with success:
And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook, but delayed to strike.—Wakefield.
[37] Milton, Par. Lost, i. 710: