A Dialogue Concerning Oratory Or The Causes Of Corrupt Eloquence Part 6

Varius, who soars on epic wing, Agrippa, shall thy conquests sing, Whate'er, inspir'd by thy command, The soldier dar'd on sea or land.

FRANCIS'S HORACE.

A few fragments only of his works have reached posterity. His tragedy of THYESTES is highly praised by Quintilian. That judicious critic does not hesitate to say, that it may be opposed to the best productions of the Greek stage. _Jam Varii Thyestes cuilibet Graecorum comparari potest._ Varius lived in high favour at the court of Augustus. After the death of Virgil, he was joined with _Plotinus_ and _Tucca_ to revise the works of that admirable poet. The _Varus_ of Virgil, so often celebrated in the Pastorals, was, notwithstanding what some of the commentators have said, a different person from Varius, the author of Thyestes.

Section XIII.

[a] The rural delight of Virgil is described by himself:

Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes; Flumina amem, sylvasque inglorius. O ubi campi, Sperchiusque, et virginibus bacchata Lacaenis Taygeta! O quis me gelidis sub montibus Haemi Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra?

GEORGICA, lib. ii. ver. 485.

Me may the lowly vales and woodland please, And winding rivers, and inglorious ease; O that I wander'd by Sperchius' flood, Or on Taygetus' sacred top I stood!

Who in cool Haemus' vales my limbs will lay, And in the darkest thicket hide from day?

WHARTON'S VIRG.

Besides this poetical retreat, which his imagination could command at any time, Virgil had a real and delightful villa near Naples, where he composed his Georgics, and wrote great part of the aeneid.

[b] When Augustus, or any eminent citizen, distinguished by his public merit, appeared in the theatre, the people testified their joy by acclamations, and unbounded applause. It is recorded by Horace, that Maecenas received that public honour.

----Datus in theatro c.u.m tibi plausus, Care Maecenas eques, ut paterni Fluminis ripae, simul et jocosa Redderet laudes tibi Vaticani Montis imago.

Lib. i. ode 20.

When Virgil appeared, the audience paid the same compliment to a man whose poetry adorned the Roman story. The letters from Augustus, which are mentioned in this pa.s.sage, have perished in the ruins of ancient literature.

[c] Pomponius Secundus was of consular rank, and an eminent writer of tragedy. See _Annals_, b. ii. s. 13. His life was written by Pliny the elder, whose nephew mentions the fact (book iii. epist. 5), and says it was a tribute to friendship. Quintilian p.r.o.nounces him the best of all the dramatic poets whom he had seen; though the critics whose judgement was matured by years, did not think him sufficiently tragical. They admitted, however, that his erudition was considerable, and the beauty of his composition surpa.s.sed all his contemporaries.

_Eorum, quos viderim, longe princeps Pomponius Secundus, quem senes parum tragic.u.m putabant, eruditione ac nitore praestare confitebantur._ Lib. x. cap. 1.

[d] Quintilian makes honourable mention of Domitius Afer. He says, when he was a boy, the speeches of that orator for Volusenus Catulus were held in high estimation. _Et n.o.bis pueris insignes pro Voluseno Catulo Domitii Afri orationes ferebantur._ Lib. x. cap 1. He adds, in another part of the same chapter, that Domitius Afer and Julius Africa.n.u.s were, of all the orators who flourished in his time, without comparison the best. But Afer stands distinguished by the splendour of his diction, and the rhetorical art which he has displayed in all his compositions. You would not scruple to rank him among the ancient orators. _Eorum quos viderim, Domitius Afer et Julius Secundus longe praestantissimi. Verborum arte ille, et toto genere dicendi praeferendus, et quem in numero veterum locare non timeas._ Lib. x.

cap. 1. Quintilian relates, that in a conversation which he had when a young man, he asked Domitius Afer what poet was, in his opinion, the next to Homer? The answer was, _Virgil is undoubtedly the second epic poet, but he is nearer to the first than to the third. Utar enim verbis, quae ex Afro Domitio juvenis accepi; qui mihi interroganti, quem Homero crederet maxime accedere: Secundus, inquit, est Virgilius, propior tamen primo quam tertio._ Lib. x. cap. 1. We may believe that Quintilian thought highly of the man whose judgement he cites as an authority. Quintilian, however, had in view nothing but the talents of this celebrated orator. Tacitus, as a moral historian, looked at the character of the man. He introduces him on the stage of public business in the reign of Tiberius, and there represents him in haste to advance himself by any kind of crime. _Quoquo facinore properus clare cere._ He tells us, in the same pa.s.sage (_Annals_, b. iv. s.

52), that Tiberius p.r.o.nounced him an orator in his own right, _suo jure disertum_. Afer died in the reign of Nero, A.U.C. 812, A.D. 59.

In relating his death, Tacitus observes, that he raised himself by his eloquence to the first civil honours; but he does not dismiss him without condemning his morals. _Annals_, b. xiv. s. 19.

[e] We find in the Annals and the History of Tacitus, a number of instances to justify the sentiments of Maternus. The rich found it necessary to bequeath part of their substance to the prince, in order to secure the remainder for their families. For the same reason, Agricola made Domitian joint heir with his wife and daughter. _Life of Agricola_, section 43.

[f] By a law of the Twelve Tables, a crown, when fairly earned by virtue, was placed on the head of the deceased, and another was ordered to be given to his father. The spirit of the law, Cicero says, plainly intimated, that commendation was a tribute due to departed virtue. A crown was given not only to him who earned it, but also to the father, who gave birth to distinguished merit. _Illa jam significatio est, laudis ornamenta ad mortuos pertinere, quod coronam virtute partam, et ei qui peperisset, et ejus parenti, sine fraude lex impositam esse jubet._ _De Legibus_, lib. ii. s. 24. This is the reward to which Maternus aspires; and, that being granted, he desires, as Horace did before him, to waive the pomp of funeral ceremonies.

Absint inani funere naeniae, Luctusque turpes et querimoniae; Compesce clamorem, ac sepulchri Mitte supervacuos honores.

Lib. ii. ode 20.

My friends, the funeral sorrow spare, The plaintive song, and tender tear; Nor let the voice of grief profane, With loud laments, the solemn scene; Nor o'er your poet's empty urn With useless idle sorrow mourn.

FRANCIS'S HORACE.

Section XIV.

[a] Vipstanius Messala commanded a legion, and, at the head of it, went over to Vespasian's party in the contention with Vitellius. He was a man of ill.u.s.trious birth, and equal merit; the only one, says Tacitus, who entered into that war from motives of virtue. _Legioni Vipstanius Messala praeerat, claris majoribus, egregius ipse, et qui solus ad id bellum artes bonas attulisset._ _Hist._ lib. iii. s. 9. He was brother to Regulus, the vile informer, who has been mentioned. See Life of Agricola, section 2. note a, and this tract, s. xii. note [b].

Messala, we are told by Tacitus, before he had attained the senatorian age, acquired great fame by pleading the cause of his profligate brother with extraordinary eloquence, and family affection. _Magnam eo die pietatis eloquentiaeque famam Vipstanius Messala adeptus est; nondum senatoria aetate, ausus pro fratre Aquilio Regulo deprecari._ _Hist._ lib. iv. s. 42. Since Messala has now joined the company, the Dialogue takes a new turn, and, by an easy and natural transition, slides into the question concerning the causes of the decline of eloquence.

[b] This is probably the same Asiaticus, who, in the revolt of the provinces of Gaul, fought on the side of VINDEX. See _Hist._ b. ii. s.

94. Biography was, in that evil period, a tribute paid by the friends of departed merit, and the only kind of writing, in which men could dare faintly to utter a sentiment in favour of virtue and public liberty.

[c] In the declamations of Seneca and Quintilian, we have abundant examples of these scholastic exercises, which Juvenal has placed in a ridiculous light.

Et nos ergo manum ferulae subduximus, et nos Consilium dedimus Syllae, privatus ut altum Dormiret.

Sat. i. ver. 15.

Provok'd by these incorrigible fools, I left declaiming in pedantic schools; Where, with men-boys, I strove to get renown, Advising Sylla to a private gown.

DRYDEN'S JUVENAL.

Section XV.

[a] The eloquence of Cicero, and the eminent orators of that age, was preferred by all men of sound judgement to the unnatural and affected style that prevailed under the emperors. Quintilian gives a decided opinion. Cicero, he says, was allowed to be the reigning orator of his time, and his name, with posterity, is not so much that of a man, as of eloquence itself. _Quare non immerito ab hominibus aetatis suae, regnare in judiciis dictus est: apud posteros vero id consecutus, ut Cicero jam non hominis, sed eloquentiae nomen habeatur._ Lib. x. cap.

1. Pliny the younger professed that Cicero was the orator with whom he aspired to enter into compet.i.tion. Not content with the eloquence of his own times, he held it absurd not to follow the best examples of a former age. _Est enim mihi c.u.m Cicerone aemulatio, nec sum contentus eloquentia saeculi nostri. Nam stultissimum credo, ad imitandum non optima quaeque praeponere._ Lib. i. epist. 5.

[b] Nicetes was a native of Smyrna, and a rhetorician in great celebrity. Seneca says (_Controversiarum_, lib. iv. cap. 25), that his scholars, content with hearing their master, had no ambition to be heard themselves. Pliny the younger, among the commendations which he bestows on a friend, mentions, as a praise-worthy part of his character, that he attended the lectures of Quintilian and Nicetes Sacerdos, of whom Pliny himself was at that time a constant follower.

_Erat non studiorum tantum, verum etiam studiosorum amantissimus, ac prope quotidie ad audiendos, quos tunc ego frequentabam, Quintilianum et Niceten Sacerdotem, vent.i.tabat._ Lib. vi. epist. 6.

[c] Mitylene was the chief city of the isle of Lesbos, in the aegean Sea, near the coast of Asia. The place at this day is called _Metelin_, subject to the Turkish dominion. _Ephesus_ was a city of _Ionia_, in the Lesser Asia, now called _Ajaloue_ by the Turks, who are masters of the place.

[d] Domitius Afer and Julius Africa.n.u.s have been already mentioned, section xiii. note [d]. Both are highly praised by Quintilian. For Asinius Pollio, see s. xii. note [e].

Section XVI.

[a] Quintilian puts the same question; and, according to him, Demosthenes is the last of the ancients among the Greeks, as Cicero is among the Romans. See _Quintilian_, lib. viii. cap. 5.

[b] The siege of Troy is supposed to have been brought to a conclusion eleven hundred and ninety-three years before Christian aera. From that time to the sixth year of Vespasian (A.U.C. 828), when this Dialogue was had, the number of years that intervened was about 1268; a period which, with propriety, may be said to be little less than 1300 years.

[c] Demosthenes died, before Christ 322 years, A.U.C. 432. From that time to the sixth of Vespasian, A.U.C. 828, the intervening s.p.a.ce was about 396 years. Aper calls it little more than 400 years; but in a conversation-piece strict accuracy is not to be expected.

[d] In the rude state of astronomy, which prevailed during many ages of the world, it was natural that mankind should differ in their computation of time. The ancient Egyptians, according to Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. and Pliny the elder, lib. vii. s. 48, measured time by the new moons. Some called the summer one year, and the winter another. At first thirty days were a lunar year; three, four, and six months were afterwards added, and hence in the Egyptian chronology the vast number of years from the beginning of the world. Herodotus informs us, that the Egyptians, in process of time, formed the idea of the solar or solst.i.tial year, subdivided into twelve months. The Roman year at first was lunar, consisting, in the time of Romulus, of ten months. Numa Pompilius added two. Men saw a diversity in the seasons, and wishing to know the cause, began at length to perceive that the distance or proximity of the sun occasioned the various operations of nature; but it was long before the s.p.a.ce of time, wherein that luminary performs his course through the zodiac, and returns to the point from which he set out, was called a year. The great year (_annus magnus_), or the PLATONIC YEAR, is the s.p.a.ce of time, wherein the seven planets complete their revolutions, and all set out again from the same point of the heavens where their course began before.

Mathematicians have been much divided in their calculations. Brotier observes, that Riccioli makes the great year 25,920 solar years; Tycho Brahe, 25,816; and Ca.s.sini, 24,800. Cicero expressly calls it a period of 12,954 years. _Horum annorum, quos in fastis habemus, MAGNUS annos duodecim millia nonagentos quinquaginta quatuor amplect.i.tur solst.i.tiales scilicet._ For a full and accurate dissertation on the ANNUS MAGNUS, see the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, tom.

xxii. 4to edit. p. 82.

Brotier, in his note on this pa.s.sage, relates a fact not universally known. He mentions a letter from one of the Jesuits on the mission, dated _Peking_, 25th October 1725, in which it is stated, that in the month of March preceding, when Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury were in conjunction, the Chinese mathematicians fancied that an approximation of Saturn was near at hand, and, in that persuasion, congratulated the emperor YONG-TCHING on the renovation of the world, which was shortly to take place. The emperor received the addresses of the n.o.bility, and gave credit to the opinion of the philosophers in all his public edicts. Meanwhile, _Father Kegler_ endeavoured to undeceive the emperor, and to convince him that the whole was a mistake of the Chinese mathematicians: but he tried in vain; flattery succeeded at court, and triumphed over truth.

[e] The argument is this: If the great year is the measure of time; then, as it consists, according to Cicero, of 12,954 solar years, the whole being divided by twelve, every month of the great year would be clearly 1080 years. According to that calculation, Demosthenes not only lived in the same year with the persons engaged in the Dialogue, but, it may be said, in the same month. These are the months to which Virgil alludes in the fourth eclogue:

Incipient magni procedere menses.

Section XVII.

[a] Menenius Agrippa was consul A.U.C. 251. In less than ten years afterwards, violent dissensions broke out between the patrician order and the common people, who complained that they were hara.s.sed and oppressed by their affluent creditors. One Sicinius was their factious demagogue. He told them, that it was in vain they fought the battles of their country, since they were no better than slaves and prisoners at Rome. He added, that men are born equal; that the fruits of the earth were the common birth-right of all, and an agrarian law was necessary; that they groaned under a load of debts and taxes; and that a lazy and corrupt aristocracy battened at ease on the spoils of their labour and industry. By the advice of this incendiary, the discontented citizens made a secession to the MONS SACER, about three miles out of the city. The fathers, in the meantime, were covered with consternation. In order, however, to appease the fury of the mult.i.tude, they dispatched Menenius Agrippa to their camp. In the rude unpolished style of the times (_prisco illo dicendi et horrido modo_, says Livy), that orator told them:

"At the time when the powers of man did not, as at present, co-operate to one useful end, and the members of the human body had their separate interest, their factions, and cabals; it was agreed among them, that the belly maintained itself by their toil and labour, enjoying, in the middle of all, a state of calm repose, pampered with luxuries, and gratified with every kind of pleasure. A conspiracy followed, and the several members of the body took the covenant. The hand would no longer administer food; the mouth would not accept it, and the drudgery of mastication was too much for the teeth. They continued in this resolution, determined to starve the TREASURY of the body, till they began to feel the consequences of their ill-advised revolt. The several members lost their former vigour, and the whole body was falling into a rapid decline.