n
A course, till tired before the dog she lay,
Who stretched behind her, pants upon the plain,
Past power to kill, as she to get away.

132.
With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey;
His warm breath blows her flix up as she lies:
She trembling creeps upon the ground away
And looks back to him with _beseeching eyes_.

Thomson paints the _stag_ in a similar situation:--

----Fainting breathless toil
Sick seizes on his heart--he stands at bay:
The _big round tears_ run down his _dappled_ face,
He _groans_ in anguish.
_Autumn_, v. 451.

Shakspeare exhibits the same object:--

The wretched animal heaved forth such _groans_,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the _big round tears_
Coursed one another down his _innocent nose_
In piteous chase.

Of these three pictures the _beseeching eyes_ of Dryden perhaps is more
pathetic than _the big round tears_, certainly borrowed by Thomson from
Shakspeare, because the former expression has more passion, and is
therefore more poetical. The sixth line in Dryden is perhaps exquisite
for its imitative harmony, and with peculiar felicity paints the action
itself. Thomson adroitly drops the _innocent nose_, of which one word
seems to have lost its original signification, and the other offends now
by its familiarity. _The dappled face_ is a term more picturesque, more
appropriate, and more poetically expressed.

EXPLANATION OF THE FAC-SIMILE.

The manuscripts of Pope's version of the Iliad and Odyssey are preserved
in the British Museum in three volumes, the gift of David Mallet. They
are written chiefly on the backs of letters, amongst which are several
from Addison, Steele, Jervaise, Rowe, Young, Caryl, Walsh, Sir Godfrey
Kneller, Fenton, Craggs, Congreve, Hughes, his mother Editha, and Lintot
and Tonson the booksellers.[26]

From these letters no information can be gathered, which merits public
communication; they relate generally to the common civilities and common
affairs of life. What little could be done has already been given in the
additions to Pope's works.

It has been observed, that Pope taught himself to write, by copying
printed books: of this singularity we have in this collection a
remarkable instance; several parts are written in Roman and Italic
characters, which for some ti