he sprinkles, rather liberally, moral sentences, glosses on the text, parenthetical apothegms.—A considerable store of classical learning is revealed in many passages;—the idea of Apollo's harp sounding forth "musick to the ocean," is a well-known antique piece of mystification; see Book II. where, likewise Leander's ineptness in love, seems suggested by that of Daphnis in Longus's exquisite Pastoral Romance.—Deep knowledge of the human heart is displayed in Hero's longing shamefacedness, which wears the semblance of hypocrisy, and yet is not.—Leander
"—knock'd and call'd, at which celestial noise,
The longing heart of Hero much more joys,
Than nymphs and shepherds, when the timbrel rings,
Or crooked dolphin when the sailor sings:—
She staid not for her robes, but straight arose,
And, drunk with gladness, to the door she goes,—
Where seeing a naked man she screech'd for fear[1],
******
- ↑ These lines would be highly gratifying to the derisive qualities of a French critic: but here, in England, their reign is over; and thanks to the Germans, with the Schlegels at their head, a truer philosophical method of judging, is beginning to obtain among us.
