The Spectator Volume Ii Part 48

[Footnote 1: See No. 258.]

No. 279. Sat.u.r.day, January 19, 1712. Addison.

Reddere personae scit convenientia cuique.

Hor.

We have already taken a general Survey of the Fable and Characters in _Milton's Paradise Lost_. The Parts which remain to be considered, according to _Aristotle's_ Method, are the _Sentiments_ and the _Language_. [1]

Before I enter upon the first of these, I must advertise my Reader, that it is my Design as soon as I have finished my general Reflections on these four several Heads, to give particular Instances out of the Poem which is now before us of Beauties and Imperfections which may be observed under each of them, as also of such other Particulars as may not properly fall under any of them. This I thought fit to premise, that the Reader may not judge too hastily of this Piece of Criticism, or look upon it as Imperfect, before he has seen the whole Extent of it.

The Sentiments in an Epic Poem are the Thoughts and Behaviour which the Author ascribes to the Persons whom he introduces, and are _just_ when they are conformable to the Characters of the several Persons. The Sentiments have likewise a relation to _Things_ as well as _Persons_, and are then perfect when they are such as are adapted to the Subject.

If in either of these Cases the Poet [endeavours to argue or explain, to magnify or diminish, to raise] [2] Love or Hatred, Pity or Terror, or any other Pa.s.sion, we ought to consider whether the Sentiments he makes use of are proper for [those [3]] Ends. _Homer_ is censured by the Criticks for his Defect as to this Particular in several parts of the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, tho at the same time those, who have treated this great Poet with Candour, have attributed this Defect to the Times in which he lived. [4] It was the Fault of the Age, and not of _Homer_, if there wants that Delicacy in some of his Sentiments which now appears in the Works of Men of a much inferior Genius. Besides, if there are Blemishes in any particular Thoughts, there is an infinite Beauty in the greatest Part of them. In short, if there are many Poets who would not have fallen into the Meanness of some of his Sentiments, there are none who could have risen up to the Greatness of others. _Virgil_ has excelled all others in the Propriety of his Sentiments. _Milton_ shines likewise very much in this Particular: Nor must we omit one Consideration which adds to his Honour and Reputation. _Homer_ and _Virgil_ introduced Persons whose Characters are commonly known among Men, and such as are to be met with either in History, or in ordinary Conversation. _Milton's_ Characters, most of them, lie out of Nature, and were to be formed purely by his own Invention. It shews a greater Genius in _Shakespear_ to have drawn his _Calyban,_ than his _Hotspur_ or _Julius Caesar:_ The one was to be supplied out of his own Imagination, whereas the other might have been formed upon Tradition, History and Observation. It was much easier therefore for _Homer_ to find proper Sentiments for an a.s.sembly of _Grecian_ Generals, than for _Milton_ to diversify his infernal Council with proper Characters, and inspire them with a Variety of Sentiments. The Lovers of _Dido_ and _AEneas_ are only Copies of what has pa.s.sed between other Persons.

_Adam_ and _Eve_, before the Fall, are a different Species from that of Mankind, who are descended from them; and none but a Poet of the most unbounded Invention, and the most exquisite Judgment, could have filled their Conversation and Behaviour with [so many apt [5]] Circ.u.mstances during their State of Innocence.

Nor is it sufficient for an Epic Poem to be filled with such Thoughts as are _Natural_, unless it abound also with such as are _Sublime_. Virgil in this Particular falls short of _Homer_. He has not indeed so many Thoughts that are Low and Vulgar; but at the same time has not so many Thoughts that are Sublime and n.o.ble. The Truth of it is, _Virgil_ seldom rises into very astonishing Sentiments, where he is not fired by the _Iliad_. He every where charms and pleases us by the Force of his own Genius; but seldom elevates and transports us where he does not fetch his Hints from _Homer_.

_Milton's_ chief Talent, and indeed his distinguishing Excellence, lies in the Sublimity of his Thoughts. There are others of the Moderns who rival him in every other part of Poetry; but in the Greatness of his Sentiments he triumphs over all the Poets both Modern and Ancient, _Homer_ only excepted. It is impossible for the Imagination of Man to distend itself with greater Ideas, than those which he has laid together in his first, [second,] and sixth Book[s]. The seventh, which describes the Creation of the World, is likewise wonderfully Sublime, tho not so apt to stir up Emotion in the Mind of the Reader, nor consequently so perfect in the Epic Way of Writing, because it is filled with less Action. Let the judicious Reader compare what _Longinus_ has observed [6] on several Pa.s.sages in _Homer_, and he will find Parallels for most of them in the _Paradise Lost_.

From what has been said we may infer, that as there are two kinds of Sentiments, the Natural and the Sublime, which are always to be pursued in an Heroic Poem, there are also two kinds of Thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The first are such as are affected and unnatural; the second such as are mean and vulgar. As for the first kind of Thoughts, we meet with little or nothing that is like them in _Virgil:_ He has none of those [trifling [7]] Points and Puerilities that are so often to be met with in _Ovid_, none of the Epigrammatick Turns of _Lucan_, none of those swelling Sentiments which are so frequent in _Statins_ and _Claudian_, none of those mixed Embellishments of _Ta.s.so_. Every thing is just and natural. His Sentiments shew that he had a perfect Insight into human Nature, and that he knew every thing which was the most proper to [affect it [8]].

Mr. _Dryden_ has in some Places, which I may hereafter take notice of, misrepresented _Virgil's_ way of thinking as to this Particular, in the Translation he has given us of the _AEneid_. I do not remember that _Homer_ any where falls into the Faults above-mentioned, which were indeed the false Refinements of later Ages. _Milton_, it must be confest, has sometimes erred in this Respect, as I shall shew more at large in another Paper; tho considering how all the Poets of the Age in which he writ were infected with this wrong way of thinking, he is rather to be admired that he did not give more into it, than that he did sometimes comply with the vicious Taste which still prevails so much among Modern Writers.

But since several Thoughts may be natural which are low and groveling, an Epic Poet should not only avoid such Sentiments as are unnatural or affected, but also such as are [mean [9]] and vulgar. _Homer_ has opened a great Field of Raillery to Men of more Delicacy than Greatness of Genius, by the Homeliness of some of his Sentiments. But, as I have before said, these are rather to be imputed to the Simplicity of the Age in which he lived, to which I may also add, of that which he described, than to any Imperfection in that Divine Poet. _Zoilus_ [10] among the Ancients, and Monsieur _Perrault_, [11] among the Moderns, pushed their Ridicule very far upon him, on account of some such Sentiments. There is no Blemish to be observed in _Virgil_ under this Head, and but [a] very few in Milton.

I shall give but one Instance of this Impropriety of [Thought [12]] in _Homer_, and at the same time compare it with an Instance of the same Nature, both in _Virgil_ and _Milton_. Sentiments which raise Laughter, can very seldom be admitted with any Decency into an Heroic Poem, whose Business it is to excite Pa.s.sions of a much n.o.bler Nature. _Homer_, however, in his Characters of _Vulcan_ [13] and _Thersites_ [14], in his Story of _Mars_ and _Venus_, [15] in his Behaviour of _Irus_ [16] and in other Pa.s.sages, has been observed to have lapsed into the Burlesque Character, and to have departed from that serious Air which seems essential to the Magnificence of an Epic Poem. I remember but one Laugh in the whole aeneid, which rises in the fifth Book, upon _Monaetes_, where he is represented as thrown overboard, and drying himself upon a Rock.

But this Piece. of Mirth is so well timed, that the severest Critick can have nothing to say against it; for it is in the Book of Games and Diversions, where the Readers Mind may be supposed to be sufficiently relaxed for such an Entertainment. The only Piece of Pleasantry in _Paradise Lost_, is where the Evil Spirits are described as rallying the Angels upon the Success of their new invented Artillery. This Pa.s.sage I look upon to be the most exceptionable in the whole Poem, as being nothing else but a String of Punns, and those too very indifferent ones.

--Satan beheld their Plight, And to his Mates thus in Derision call'd.

O Friends, why come not on those Victors proud?

Ere-while they fierce were coming, and when we, To entertain them fair with open Front, And Breast, (what could we more?) propounded terms Of Composition, straight they chang'd their Minds, Flew off, _and into strange Vagaries fell As they would dance: yet for a Dance they seem'd Somewhat extravagant, and wild; perhaps For Joy of offer'd Peace; but I suppose If our Proposals once again were_ heard, _We should compel them to a quick_ Result.

_To whom thus_ Belial _in like gamesome Mood: Leader, the Terms we sent were Terms of_ Weight, _Of_ hard Contents, _and full of force urg'd home; Such as we might perceive amus'd them all, And_ stumbled _many: who receives them right, Had need, from Head to Foot, will_ understand; _Not_ understood, _this Gift they have besides, They shew us when our Foes_ walk not upright.

_Thus they among themselves in pleasant vein Stood scoffing_ [17]----

I.

[Footnote 1: It is in Part II. of the _Poetics,_ when treating of Tragedy, that Aristotle lays down his main principles. Here after treating of the Fable and the Manners, he proceeds to the Diction and the Sentiments. By Fable, he says (-- 2),

I mean the contexture of incidents, or the Plot. By Manners, I mean, whatever marks the Character of the Persons. By Sentiments, whatever they say, whether proving any thing, or delivering a general sentiment, &c.

In dividing Sentiments from Diction, he says (--22): The Sentiments include whatever is the Object of speech, Diction (-- 23-25) the words themselves. Concerning Sentiment, he refers his reader to the rhetoricians.]

[Footnote 2: [argues or explains, magnifies or diminishes, raises]]

[Footnote 3: [these]]

[Footnote 4: Rene le Bossu says in his treatise on the Epic, published in 1675, Bk, vi. ch. 3:

What is base and ign.o.ble at one time and in one country, is not always so in others. We are apt to smile at Homers comparing Ajax to an a.s.s in his Iliad. Such a comparison now-a-days would be indecent and ridiculous; because it would be indecent and ridiculous for a person of quality to ride upon such a steed. But heretofore this Animal was in better repute: Kings and princes did not disdain the best so much as mere tradesman do in our time. Tis just the same with many other smiles which in Homers time were allowable. We should now pity a Poet that should be so silly and ridiculous as to compare a Hero to a piece of Fat. Yet Homer does it in a comparison he makes of Ulysses... The reason is that in these Primitive Times, wherein the Sacrifices ... were living creatures, the Blood and the Fat were the most n.o.ble, the most august, and the most holy things.]

[Footnote 5: [such Beautiful]]

[Footnote 6: Longimus on the Sublime, I. -- 9. of Discord, Homer says (Popes tr.):

While scarce the skies her horrid head can bound, She stalks on earth.

(Iliad iv.)

Of horses of the G.o.ds:

Far as a shepherd from some spot on high O'er the wide main extends his boundless eye, Through such a s.p.a.ce of air, with thundring sound, At one long leap th' immortal coursers bound.

(Iliad v.)

Longinus quotes also from the Iliad xix., the combat of the G.o.ds, the description of Neptune, Iliad xi., and the Prayer of Ajax, Iliad xvii.]

[Footnote 7: [little]]

[Footnote 8: [affect it. I remember but one line in him which has been objected against, by the Criticks, as a point of Wit. It is in his ninth Book, where _Juno_, speaking of the _Trojans_, how they survived the Ruins of their City, expresses her self in the following words;

_Num copti potuere copi, num incense cremorunt Pergama?_