The Art of Poetry: an Epistle to the Pisos Part 7

phylla ta mehn t anemohs chamahdis cheei, ahllah de thula Taeletheasa phyei, earos depigigyel(*)ai orae Oz andron genen. aemen phnei, aeh dahpolaegei.]

"Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground; Another race the following spring supplies, They fall successive, and successive rise: So generations in their turns decay; So flourish these, when those are past away."

The translator of Homer has himself compared words to leaves, but in another view, in his Essay on Criticism.

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

In another part of the Essay he persues the same train of thought with Horace, and rises, I think, above his Master.

Short is the date, alas, of modern rhymes, And 'tis but just to let them live betimes.

No longer now that golden age appears, When Patriarch-wits surviv'd a thousand years; Now length of Fame (our second life) is lost, And bare threescore is all ev'n that can boast; Our sons their father's failing language see, And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be.

So when the faithful pencil has design'd Some bright idea of the Master's mind, Where a new world leaps out at his command, And ready Nature waits upon his hand; When the ripe colours soften and unite, And sweetly melt into just shade and light; When mellowing years their full perfection give, And each bold figure just begins to live; The treach'rous colours the fair art betray, And all the bright creation fades away!

_Essay an Criticism._

95.--WHETHER THE SEA, &c.] _Sive receptus, &c._

This may be understood of any harbour; but it is generally interpreted to refer to the _Portus Julius_, a haven formed by letting in the sea upon the _Lucrine Lake_, and forming a junction between that and the Lake _Avernus_; a work, commenced by Julius Caesar, and compleated by Augustus, or Agrippa under his auspices. _Regis opus!_ Both these lakes (says Martin) were in Campania: the former was destroyed by an earthquake; but the latter is the present _Lago d'Averno_. Strabo, the Geographer, who, as well as our Poet, was living at the time, ascribes this work to Agrippa, and tells us that the Lucrine bay was separated from the Tyrrhene sea by a mound, said to have been first made by Hercules, and restored by Agrippa. Philargyrius says that a storm arose at the time of the execution of this great work, to which Virgil seems to refer in his mention of this Port, in the course of his Panegyrick on Italy in the second Georgick.

An memorem portus Lucrinoque addita claustra, Atque indignatem magnis strideribus aequor, Julia qua ponto longe sonat unda refuso, Tyrrbenusque fretis immitt.i.tur aeflut AVERNIS?

Or shall I praise thy Ports, or mention make Of the vast mound, that binds the Lucrine Lake?

Or the disdainful sea, that, shut from thence, Roars round the structure, and invades the fence; There, where secure the Julian waters glide, Or where Avernus' jaws admit the Tyrrhene tide?

DRYDEN.

98.--WHETHER THE MARSH, &c. Sterilisve Palus.]

THE PONTINE MARSH, first drained by the Consul Cornelius Cethegus; then, by Augustus; and many, many years after by Theodorick.

102.--OR IF THE RIVER, &c.] _Sen cursum, &c._ The course of the _Tyber,_ changed by Augustus, to prevent inundations.

110.--FOR DEEDS OF KINGS, &c.] Res gestae regumque, &c.

The ingenious author of the English Commentary, to whom I have so often referred, and to whom I must continue to refer, has discovered particular taste, judgement, and address, in his explication of this part of the Epistle. runs thus.

"From reflections on poetry, at large, he proceeds now to particulars: the most obvious of which being the different forms and measures of poetick composition, he considers, in this view, [from v. 75 to 86] the four great species of poetry, to which all others may be reduced, the Epick, Elegiack, Dramatick, and Lyrick. But the distinction of the measure, to be observed in the several species is so obvious, that there can scarcely be any mistake about them. The difficulty is to know [from v. 86 to 89] how far each may partake of the spirit of the other, without destroying that natural and necessary difference, which ought to subsist betwixt them all. To explain this, which is a point of great nicety, he considers [from v. 89 to 99] the case of Dramatick Poetry; the two species of which are as distinct from each other, as any two can be, and yet there are times, when the features of the one will be allowed to resemble those of the other.--But the Poet had a further view in choosing this instance. For he gets by this means into the main of his subject, which was Dramatick Poetry, and, by the most delicate transition imaginable, proceeds [from 89 to 323] to deliver a series of rules, interspersed with historical accounts, _and enlivened by digressions_, for the regulation of the Roman stage."

It is needless to insist, that my hypothesis will not allow me to concur entirely in the latter part of this extract; at least in that lat.i.tude, to which; the system of the writer carries it: yet I perfectly agree with Mr. Duncombe, that the learned Critick, in his observations on this Epistle, "has shewn, in general, the connection and dependence of one part with another, in a clearer light than any other Commentator." His shrewd and delicate commentary is, indeed, a most elegant contrast to the barbarous a.n.a.lysis of Scaliger, drawn up without the least idea of poetical transition, and with the uncouth air of a mere dry logician, or dull grammarian. I think, however, the _Order_ and _Method_, observed in this Epistle, is stricter than has yet been observed, and that the series of rules is delivered with great regularity; NOT _enlivened by digressions_, but pa.s.sing from one topick to another, by the most natural and easy transitions. The Author's discrimination of the different stiles of the several species of poetry, leads him, as has been already shewn, to consider the diction of the Drama, and its accommodation to the _circ.u.mstances_ and _character_ of the Speaker. A recapitulation of these _circ.u.mstances_ carries him to treat of the due management of _characters already known_, as well as of sustaining those that are entirely _original_; to the first of which the Poet gives the preference, recommending _known_ characters, as well as _known_ subjects: And on the mention of this joint preference, the Author leaves further consideration of _the_ diction, and slides into discourse upon the fable, which he continues down to the 152d verse.

Atque ita ment.i.tur, sic veris falsa remiscet, Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.

Having dispatched the fable, the Poet proceeds, and with some Solemnity of Order, to the consideration of the characters; not in regard to suitable _diction_, for of that he has already spoken, but in respect to _the manners_; and, in this branch of his subject, he has as judiciously borrowed from _the Rhetoricks_ of Aristotle, as in the rest of his Epistle from the _Poeticks_. He then directs, in its due place, the proper conduct of particular incidents _of the fable_; after which he treats of _the_ chorus; from whence he naturally falls into the history of theatrical musick; which is, as naturally, succeeded by an account of the Origin of _the Drama_, itself, which the Poet commences, like master Aristotle, even from the Dithyrambick Song, and carries it down to the establishment of the New Greek Comedy; from whence he pa.s.ses easily and gracefully, to _the_ Roman stage, acknowledging the merits of the Writers, but pointing out their defects, and a.s.signing the causes.

He then subjoins a few general observations, and concludes his long discourse on _the_ drama, having extended it to 275 lines. This discourse, together with the result of all his reflections on Poets and Poetry, he then applies in the most earnest and _personal_ manner to the elder Piso; and with a long and most pathetick _peroration_, if I may adopt an oratorical term, concludes the Epistle.

116.--THE ELEGY'S SMALL SONG.] EXIGUOS _Elegos_.

Commentators differ concerning the import of this expression--exiguos _Elegos_, the _Elegy's_ small _song_. De Nores, Schrevelius, and Desprez, think it refers to the humility of the elegiack stile and subjects, compared with epick or lyrick sublimity. Monsieur Dacier rather thinks that Horace refers here, as in the words _Versibus impariter junctis,_ "Couplets unequal," to the use of pentameter, or short verse, consisting of five feet, and joined to the hexameter, or long verse, of six. This inequality of the couplet Monsieur Dacier justly prefers to the two long Alexandrines of his own country, which sets almost all the French poetry, Epick, Dramatick, Elegiack, or Satyrick, to the tune of Derry Down. In our language, the measures are more various, and more happily conceived. Our Elegy adopts not only _unequal couplets_, but _alternate rhymes_, which give a plaintive tone to the heroick measure, and are most happily used in Gray's beautiful _Elegy in a Country Church yard.

135.--THY FEAST, THYESTES!] Caena Thyestae.

The story of Thyestes being of the most tragick nature, a banquet on his own children! is commonly interpreted by the Criticks, as mentioned by Horace, in allusion to Tragedy in general. The Author of the English Commentary, however, is of a different opinion, supposing, from a pa.s.sage of Cicero, that the Poet means to glance at the _Thyestes of Ennius,_ and to pay an oblique compliment to Varius, who had written a tragedy on the same subject.

The same learned Critick also takes it for granted, that the Tragedy of Telephus, and probably of _Peleus_, after-mentioned, point at tragedies of Euripedes, on these subjects, translated into Latin, and accomodated to the Roman Stage, without success, by _Ennius, Accius, or Naevius_.

One of this Critick's notes on this part of the Epistle, treating on the use of _pure poetry_ in the Drama, abounds with curious disquisition and refined criticism.

150.--_They must have_ pa.s.sion _too_.] dulcia _sunto_. The Poet, with great address, includes the sentiments under the consideration of diction.

--_Effert animi motus_ interprete lingua.

_Forces expression from the_ faithful tongue.

Buckingham has treated the subject of Dialogue very happily in his Essay on Poetry, glancing, but not servilely, at this part of Horace.

_Figures of Speech_, which Poets think so fine, Art's needless varnish to make Nature shine, Are all but _Paint_ upon a beauteous face, And in _Descriptions_ only claim a place.

But to make _Rage declaim_, and _Grief discourse_, From lovers in despair _fine_ things to _force_, Must needs succeed; for who can chuse but pity A _dying_ hero miserably _witty_?

201.----BE NOT YOUR OPENING FIERCE!] _Nec sic incipies_, Most of the Criticks observe, that all these doc.u.ments, deduced from _the Epick_, are intended, like the reduction of the Iliad into acts, as directions and admonition to the _Dramatick_ writer. _Nam si in_ EPOPaeIA, _que gravitate omnia poematum generae praecellit, ait principium lene esse debere; quanto magis in_ tragoedia _et_ comoedia, _idem videri debet_?

says de Nores. _Praeceptum de intio grandiori evitaado, quod tam_ epicus _quam_ tragicus _cavere debet_; says the Dauphin Editor. _Il faut se souvenir qu' Horace appliqae a la Tragedie les regies du Poeme Epique.

Car si ces debuts eclatans sont ridicules dans la Poeme Epique, ils le sont encore plus dans la Tragedie_: says Dacier. The Author of the English Commentary makes the like observation, and uses it to enforce his system of the Epistle's being intended as a Criticism on the Roman drama. [ xviii] 202---Like _the rude_ ballad-monger's _chant of old_]

_ut scriptor_ cyclicus olim.] _Scriptor_ cyclicus signisies an itinerant Rhymer travelling, like Shakespeare's Mad Tom, to wakes, and fairs, and market-towns. 'Tis not precisely known who was the Cyclick Poet here meant. Some have ascribed the character to Maevius, and Roscommon has adopted that idea.

Whoever vainly on his _strength_ depends, Begins like Virgil, but like Maevius ends: That Wretch, in spite of his forgotten rhimes, Condemn'd to live to all succeeding times, With _pompous nonsense_, and a _bellowing sound_, Sung _lofty Ilium_, _tumbling_ to the _ground_, And, if my Muse can thro' past ages fee, That _noisy, nauseous_, gaping fool was _he_; Exploded, when, with universal scorn, The _Mountains labour'd_, and a _Mouse_ was born.

_Essay on Translated Verse_.