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that his most sanguine admirers would with those blemishes remov'd; and it only flows from the false delicacy of his commentators, that such bars against perfection are suffer'd to stand. If this Poem of Musæus contains verses that are classical, and sentiments that engage, it is far from an unreasonable desire, to shew the piece in its most advantageous light. The play upon the fire of Love, and the water of the Ocean in the above verses is only less inexcusable, than the trifling manner, in which they are express'd. The reduction of the two verses into one will redeem the reputation of the Poem, which otherwise greatly totters; it makes Leander serious, as he should be, at so critical a season.
Λάζεο πῦρ κραδίη
Or better
Λαζεται πῡρ κραδίην
Then the address turns to himself, μὴ δέιδιθι νήχυτον ὕδωρ.
Orig.—Ατθίδός οῡ Βορέην ἀμνήμονα κάλλιπε νόμφης. V. 322.
This line was first turn'd in the version,
'Borcas, whose anguish wept the ravish'd prize,
'Wept Atthis, Nymph belov'd:'
A construction, which I afterwards found to be authoriz'd by the Latin translation of Mr. David Whitford.
'Atthidos ereptæ, Borca, tibi gaudia Nymphæ.'
The opinion however of a Friend readily induc'd me to a change. Indeed an additional force, and a more characteristic elegance are convey'd in the idea, that Boreas was so much busy'd in this tempest, as to forget his favorite Atthis. I have presum'd to lengthen the original thought by the phrase
'Unmindful of Leander,'
that
