And unknown Nations, wandering for a home.
All lay revers'd: the facred arts of rule
Turn'd to flagitious leagues against mankind,
And arts of plunder more and more avow'd ;
Pure plain Devotion to a folemn farce* ;
To holy dotage Virtue, even to guile,
To murder, and a mockery of oaths;
Brave ancient Freedom to the rage + of flaves,
Proud of their state, and fighting for their chains;
Dishonour'd Courage to the bravo's trade ‡,
To civil broil; and Glory to romance,
Thus human life unhing'd to ruin reel'd,
And giddy Reason totter'd on her throne,
At laft Heaven's beft inexplicable scheme, Disclosing, bade new brightning eras smile. The high command gone forth, Arts in My train, And azure-mantled Science, fwift we spread
A founding pinion. Eager Pity, mixt
With indignation, urg'd her downward flight. 105
On Latium first we stoop'd, for doubtful life
That panted, funk beneath unnumber'd woes.
Ah! poor Italia! what a bitter cup
Of vengeance haft thou drain'd?Goths, Vandals,Huns,
Lombards, Barbarians broke from every land, 110
How many a ruffian form haft thou beheld?
What horrid jargons heard, where rage alone
The corruptions of the church of Rome.
+ Vaffalage, whence the attachment of clans to their chief. Duelling.
Was all thy frighted ear could comprehend?
How frequent by the red inhuman hand,
Yet warm with brothers', husbands', fathers' blood, Haft thou thy matrons and thy virgins feen 116 To violation dragg'd, and mingled death What conflagrations, earthquakes, ravage, floods, Have turn'd thy cities into ftony wilds, And fuccourlefs and bare, the poor remains Of wretches forth to Nature's common caft? Added to these, the still continued wafte Of inbred foes*, that on thy vitals prey, And, double tyrants, seize the very soul. Where hadst thou treasures for this rapine all? 125 These hungry myriads, that thy bowels tore, Heap'd fack on fack, and bury'd in their rage Wonders of Art? Whence this grey scene a mine Of more than gold becomes and orient gems, Where Egypt, Greece, and Rome, united glow. 130 Here Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, bent From ancient models to reftore their arts, Remain'd. A little trace we how they rofe. Amid the hoary ruins Sculpture first,
Deep-digging, from the cavern dark and damp, 135 grave for ages, bid her marble race
Spring to new light. Joy sparkled in her eyes,
And old Remembrance thrill'd in every thought,
As the the pleafing refurrection faw.
In leaning fite, refpiring from his toils,
The well-known hero*, who delivered Greece,
His ample cheft, all tempefted with force,
Unconquerable rear'd. She faw the head,
Breathing the hero, small, of Grecian fize,
Scarce more extensive than the finewy neck;
The spreading shoulders, muscular, and broad;
The whole a mass of swelling finews, touch'd
Into harmonious fhape; the faw, and joy'd.
The yellow hunter, Meleager, rais'd
His beauteous front, and thro' the finish'd whole 150
Shows what ideas fmil'd of old in Greece.
Of raging afpect, rush'd impetuous forth
The Gladiator +. Pityless his look,
And each keen finew brac'd, the ftorm of war,
Ruffling, o'er all his nervous body frowns.
The Dying Other ‡ from the gloom she drew.
Supported on his shorten'd arm he leans,
Prone agonizing; with incumbent fate
Heavy declines his head, yet dark beneath
The suffering feature fullen Vengeance lowrs, 168
Shame, indignation, unaccomplish'd rage,
And ftill the cheated eye expects his fall.
All conqueft-flush'd, from prostrate Python came
The Quivered God. In graceful act he stands,
His arm extended with the flackened bow.
* The Hercules of Farnefe. The Dying Gladiator.
The Fighting Gladiator.
The Apollo of Belvidere.
Light flows, his eafy robe, and fair displays
A manly-foftened form. The bloom of gods Seems youthful o'er the beardless cheek to wave: His features yet heroic ardour warms;
And sweet fubfiding to a native smile,
Mixt with the joy elating conquest gives,
A fcatter'd frown exalts his matchlefs air.
On Flora mov'd, her full-proportion'd limbs
Rife thro' the mantle fluttering in the breeze.
The Queen of Love* arofe, as from the deep 175
She sprung in all, the melting pomp of charms.
Bashful fhe bends, her well-taught look aside
Turns in enchanting guife, where dubious mix
Vain confcious beauty, a diffembled sense
Of modest shame, and flippery looks of love. 180
The gazer grows enamour'd, and the stone,
As if exulting in its conquest, smiles.
So turn'd each limb, fo fwell'd with softening art,
That the deluded eye the marble doubts.
At last her utmost Masterpiece + she found,
That Maro fir'd ; the miferable fire,
Wrapt with his fons in Fate's feverest grasp.
The serpents, twifting round, their ftringent folds
Inextricable tie. Such paffion here!
Such agonies! fuch bitterness of pain!
The group of Laocoon and his two fons, deftroyed by two ferpents.
See Aneid. II. ver. 199,-227,
Seem fo to tremble thro' the tortur'd stone,
That the touch'd heart engrosses all the view.
Almoft unmark'd the best proportions pafs
That ever Greece beheld; and, feen alone,
On the rapt eye th' imperious paffions feize;
The father's double pangs, both for himself
And fons convuls'd; to Heaven his rueful look,
Imploring aid, and half-accufing, caft;
His fell defpair with indignation mixt,
As the ftrong-curling monsters from his fide 200
His full-extended fury cannot tear,
More tender touch'd, with varied art, his fons
All the foft rage of younger paffions show:
In a boy's helpless fate one finks opprefs'd,
While, yet unpierc'd, the frighted other tries 205
His foot to fteal out of the horrid twine.
She bore no more, but straight from Gothic ruft
Her chiffel clear'd, and duft and fragments drove
Impetuous round*. Succeffive as it went
From fon to fon, with more enlivening touch, 210
From the brute rock it call'd the breathing form,
Till, in a legislator's awful grace
Drefs'd, Buonaroti bid a Mofes + rife,
And, looking love immenfe, a Saviour God t.
It is reported of Michael Angelo Buonaroti, the most cele brated mafter in modern fculpture, that he wrought with a kind of infpiration, or enthufiaftical fury, which produced the effect here mentioned.
+ Efleemed the two finest pieces of modern sculpture.
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