Loose his beard and hoary hair
Streamed like a METEOR to the troubled air,
was taken from a picture of the Supreme Being by Raphael. It is,
however, remarkable, and somewhat ludicrous, that the _beard_ of
Hudibras is also compared to a _meteor_: and the accompanying
observation of Butler almost induces one to think that Gray derived from
it the whole plan of that sublime Ode--since his _Bard_ precisely
performs what the _beard_ of Hudibras _denounced_. These are the
verses:--
This HAIRY METEOR did denounce
_The fall of sceptres and of crowns_.
_Hudibras_, c. 1.
I have been asked if I am serious in my conjecture that "the _meteor
beard_" of Hudibras might have given birth to the "_Bard_" of Gray? I
reply, that the _burlesque_ and the _sublime_ are extremes, and extremes
meet. How often does it merely depend on our own state of mind, and on
our own taste, to consider the sublime as burlesque! A very vulgar, but
acute genius, Thomas Paine, whom we may suppose destitute of all
delicacy and refinement, has conveyed to us a notion of the _sublime_,
as it is probably experienced by ordinary and uncultivated minds; and
even by acute and judicious ones, who are destitute of imagination. He
tells us that "the _sublime_ and the _ridiculous_ are often so nearly
related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above
the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous
makes the sublime again." May I venture to illustrate this opinion?
Would it not appear the ridiculous or burlesque to describe the sublime
revolution of the _Earth_ on her axle, round the _Sun_, by comparing it
with the action of a _top_ flogged by a boy? And yet some of the most
exquisite lines in Milton do this; the poet only alluding in his mind to
the _top_. The earth he describes, whether
----She from west her _silent course_ advance
With _inoffensive pace_ that _spinning sleeps_
On her _soft axle_, while she _paces even_.
Be this as it may! it has never I believe been remarked (to return to
Gray) that when he conceived the idea of the beard of his _Bard_, he had
in his mind the _language_ of Milton, who describes Azazel sublimely
unfurling
The imperial ensign, which full high advanced,
_Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind_.
_Par. Lost_, B. i. v. 535.