On which short hint Spenser has raised the following luxuriant imagery,
The blinded archer-boy,
Like lark in show’r of rain,
Sate bathing of his wings,
And glad the time did spend
Under those crystal drops,
Which fall from her fair eyes,
And at their brightest beams
Him proyn’d in lovely wise.
3. I will just add two more examples of the same kind; chiefly, because they illustrate an observation, very proper to be attended to on this subject; which is, “That in this display of a borrowed thought, the Imitation will generally fall short of the Original, even though the borrower be the greater Genius.”
The Italian poet, just now quoted, says sublimely of the Night,
—Usci la Notte, è sotto l’ali
Menò il silentio—
C. v. S. 79.
Milton has given a paraphrase of this passage, but very much below his original,
Now came still ev’ning on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompany’d—
The striking part of Tasso’s picture, is, “Night’s bringing in Silence under her wings.” So new and singular an idea as this had detected an Imitation. Milton contents himself, then, with saying simply, Silence accompany’d. However, to make amends, as he thought, for this defect, Night itself, which the Italian had merely personized, the English poet not only personizes, but employs in a very becoming office:
Now came still ev’ning on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad.
Every body will observe a little blemish, in this fine couplet. He should not have used the epithet still, when he intended to add,