are, however, told with liveliness, the versification is smooth, and
the diction, though now and then a little constrained by the measure
or the rhyme, is generally happy.

To "Trivia" may be allowed all that it claims; it is sprightly,
various, and pleasant. The subject is of that kind which Gay was by
nature qualified to adorn, yet some of his decorations may be justly
wished away. An honest blacksmith might have done for Patty what is
performed by Vulcan. The appearance of Cloacina is nauseous and
superfluous; a shoe-boy could have been produced by the casual
cohabitation of mere mortals. Horace's rule is broken in both
cases; there is no dignus vindice nodus, no difficulty that required
any supernatural interposition. A patten may be made by the hammer
of a mortal, and a bastard may be dropped by a human strumpet. On
great occasions, and on small, the mind is repelled by useless and
apparent falsehood.

Of his little poems the public judgment seems to be right; they are
neither much esteemed nor totally despised. The story of "The
Apparition" is borrowed from one of the tales of Poggio. Those that
please least are the pieces to which Gulliver gave occasion, for who
can much delight in the echo of an unnatural fiction?

"Dione" is a counterpart to "Amynta" and "Pastor Fido" and other
trifles of the same kind, easily imitated, and unworthy of
imitation. What the Italians call comedies from a happy conclusion,
Gay calls a tragedy from a mournful event, but the style of the
Italians and of Gay is equally tragical. There is something in the
poetical Arcadia so remote from known reality and speculative
possibility that we can never support its representation through a