Again, Mr. Pope’s,
“Or ravish’d with the whistling of a name,”
is for the same reason, if there were no other points of likeness, copied from Mr. Cowley’s
“Charm’d with the foolish whistlings of a name.”
Transl. of Virgil’s O! fortunati nimium, &c.
VII. An improper use of uncommon expression, in very exact writers, will sometimes create a suspicion. Milton had called the sight indifferently visual nerve and visual ray, P. L. iii. 620. xi. 415. Mr. Pope in his Messiah thought he might take the same liberty, but forgot that though the visual nerve might be purged from film, the visual ray could not. Had Mr. Pope invented this bold expression, he would have seen to apply his metaphor more properly.
VIII. Where the word or phrase is foreign, there is, if possible, still less doubt.
— — — —at last his sail-broad vans
He spreads for flight.
Milton, P. L. ii. v. 927.
Most certainly from Tasso’s,
—Spiega al grand volo i vanni. ix.
And that of Jonson in his Sejanus,