[144] The river-gods were said to be the children of Oceanus and Tethys, but in the earlier mythology, Oceanus was himself a river (not a sea), surrounding the earth, and the lesser rivers were his progeny.
[145] The Tamesis. It was a common but erroneous notion, that the appellation was formed from appending the name Isis to Thame.
[146] Warton observes that Pope has here copied and equalled the description of rivers in Spenser, Drayton, and Milton. The description is beautiful, but in some points it is deficient. "Winding Isis" and "fruitful Thame" are ill designated. No peculiar and visible image is added to the character of the streams, either interesting from beauty, or incidental circumstances. Most rivers wind and may be called fruitful, as well as the Isis and Thame. The latter part of the description is much more masterly, as every river has its distinctive mark, and that mark is picturesque. It may be said, however, that all the epithets, in a description of this sort, cannot be equally significant, but surely something more striking should have been given as circumstantially characteristic of such rivers as the Isis and Thames, than that they were "winding" and "fruitful," or of the Kennet that it was renowned for "silver eels."—Bowles.
[147] Drayton:
The crystal Trent for fords and fish renowned.—Bowles.
The Kennet is not linked by Pope to any poetical association when he simply says that it is "renowned for silver eels," but Spenser brings a delightful picture before the eye when he speaks of the
still Darent in whose waters clean
Ten thousand fishes play, and deck his pleasant stream.
[148] Addison:
Where silver lakes with verdant shadows crowned.
[149] Several of Pope's epithets are borrowed, although he has not always coupled them with the same streams to which they are applied in his originals. For "Kennet swift" Milton has "Severn swift," and for "chalky Wey" Spenser has "chalky Kennet."