g too much to please, tho'
I think this Charge is unjust, for 'tis in his Episodes, if any where,
that Tasso is admirable. I might here give several Instances, but shall,
at present, only refer my Reader to that of Tancred and Erminia, and I'm
mistaken if he does not dissent from Rapin in this particular. Sannazarius
and Vida were the next who did any thing remarkable in Epic; they both
writ in Latin on the same Subject, both Christian Heroics; Rapin says they
both had a good Genius for Latin, the Purity of their Style being
admirable, but that their ordering of the Fable has nothing in't of
Delicacy, nor is the manner of their Writing proportionable to the dignity
of the Subject. For Sannazarius he's indeed so faulty, that one can hardly
with Patience read him, the whole Structure of his imperfect Piece, de
partu, being built on Heathen Fable; yet he has great and vigorous
Thoughts and very Poetical Expressions, tho' therein Vida far excels him,
whose Thoughts are so noble, and the Air of his Stile so great, that the
Elogy Balzac gives his Countryman Tasso, wou'd as well or rather better
have fitted him; "That Virgil is the Cause, Vida is not the first; and
Vida, that Virgil is not alone." It is true, as Rapin observes, that his
Fable is very simple, and perhaps so much the better, considering the
Subject; tho' he forgets not Poetical Ornaments, where there's occasion,
if he does not lean a little to Sannazarius's Error; for he talks of the
Gorgons and Sphinxes, the Centaurs and Hydra's and Chimera's, though much
more sparingly and modestly than the other. He has the happiest beginning
that perhaps is to be found in any Poem, and by mingling his Proposition
and Invocation, has the advantage of placing one of the noblest Thoughts
in the World in the first Line, without danger of falling into the
absurdity of Horace's Author with his Fortunam Priami: For thus he sings,

Qui mare, qui terras, qul coelum numine comples
Spiritus alme, &c.

After the Invocation, in the very beginning of the Poem, he's preparing
the Incidents for his Hero's Death; he brings him to Jerusalem at the
Passover with Hosanna's; then raises his Machines, and falls to the
Description of Hell. He through the whole, uses his Figures very
gracefully; few have been more happy in Comparisons, more moving in
Passion, succinct, yet full in Narration: Yet is he not without Faults; or
in the second Book he brings him to his last Supper in the Garden, from