I need not use more words to convince you, that the distinction of casual and design’d imitation is still of less significancy in this class of imitations, than the other.
And with this preamble, more particular perhaps and circumstantial than was necessary, I now proceed to lay before you some of those signs of derived expression, which I conceive to be unequivocal. If they are so, they will generally appear at first sight; so that I shall have little occasion to trouble you, as I did before, with my comments. It will be sufficient to deliver the rule, and to exemplify it.
I. An identity of expression, especially if carried on through an intire sentence, is the most certain proof of imitation.
Mr. Waller of Sacharissa,
So little care of what is done below
Hath the bright dame, whom heav’n affecteth so;
Paints her, ’tis true, with the same hand which spreads
Like glorious colours thro’ the flow’ry meads;
When lavish nature with her best attire
Cloaths the gay spring, the season of desire.
Mr. Fenton takes notice that the poet is copying from the Muiopotmos of Spenser.
To the gay gardens his unstaid desire
Him wholly carried to refresh his sprights:
There lavish Nature, in her best attire,
Pours forth sweet odours and alluring sights.
We shall see presently that, besides the identity of expression, there is also another mark of imitation in this passage.
II. But less than this will do, where the similarity of thought, and application of it, is striking.
Mr. Pope says divinely well,