Lectures on Poetry

Lecture IV V, VI, VII. — Of the Style of Poetry

My present Design being to give some Account of the Thought and Diction peculiar to Poets, I must first premise, that there are many Things relating to this Subject, which Words can scarce come up to, and are much better conceived than expressed. Every one will be satisfied of this, that considers of how delicate a Nature Poetry is; how variously it diversifies both Words and Things, by such Bounds as have a very close Connection, upon which, however, the Beauty of the Thought and Diction often turns20. These, tho’ clearly enough distinguished in the Mind; yet, such is the Weakness of Words, can never be explained in Writing. A true Judgment, duly exercised in reading the best Poets, and in making proper Reflections upon them, is the only Means of arriving at this Part of Knowledge. The outer Lines of it, which afford proper Matter for a Dissertation, I shall endeavour to represent to you, as well as I can.

But I would here, likewise, farther observe, that Writing and Thinking are (at least ought to be) so nearly allied, that it is impossible for any one, in treating of Style, not to mention some Things that relate to Thought likewise. This, therefore, will be my Case. At present, however, I shall confine my self chiefly to the former, reserving the latter for another intire Dissertation.

By Style I understand a Method of Writing peculiar to every Writer, Art, or Science; or that which distinguishes Writings and Writers from one another. The Beauty of it consists in such a proper Choice of Words, and in so apt a Connexion of them, as may express the Conceptions of the Mind clearly, and at the same Time cloathed with a becoming Dignity. The Style of Poetry is extremely various; because every Species of this divine Art has a Diction proper to itself; we shall just touch upon the several Kinds in this Dissertation, as we shall treat more fully, perhaps, of each, when we come to examine them separately. Our chief Business, at present, is, to speak of the Style of Poetry in general, and shew wherein the Difference consists between that and Prose.

Now this is so great, that the Poets use many Phrases, even with the greatest Elegance, which a Prose Writer could not, without the Imputation of false Latin, or the Guilt of Solecism. Instances of such Expressions, reducible to no certain Rule, are very frequent. To mention only a few: Adjectives and Participles that describe the Situation or Part of the Body, very elegantly require the following Noun to be put in the accusative Case, in Imitation of the Greek Construction; v.g. Stratus membra sub arbuto; Ære caput refulgens; saucius ora; Lacerum crudeliter ora, and the like21.

Adjectives of the Neuter Gender, and singular Number, and sometimes of the plural, are used adverbially. So, Triste micans; Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo, dulce loquentem; Cometa ferale rubens; torva tuentem, &c.

Many Adjectives govern a Genitive, in a Manner altogether poetical. Irritus incepti; non modicus voti; melior dextræ; Pubes læta laborum; egregius linguæ; Pravus togæ, inglorius ausi; anhelus laboris; integer vitæ scelerisque purus; lassus maris & viarum, militiæque; seri studiorum; fortunatus laborum; fessi rerum; trepidi rerum; and numberless others of the same Sort. Often, likewise, and with no less Elegance, they govern an Infinitive: Orpheus blandus ducere quercus; superare pugnis nobilis; celer sequi; vultus nimium lubricus aspici; durus componere versus; Adria facilis moveri; fortis tractare serpentes; doctus Phœbi dicere laudes; cantare periti; and the like.

Adjectives, and their Substantives, denoting Number and Multitude, are used in the singular Number: As, Populus frequens; multa rosa; innumera avis; quam multo repetet Græcia milite; licet illi plurima manet lacrima.

To mention but one Observation more: Some Adjectives, which in common Prose agree with their Substantives, are turned into the Neuter Gender and plural Number, and the Substantives into the Genitive Case: As, Ultima mundi; ardua montis; cuncta terrarum; prospera rerum; dura rerum; aspera ponti; acuta belli; strata viarum; opaca locorum; and many more to the like Purpose.

It would be endless, to produce all the Examples that come under these Rules; they abound in every Page almost of the best Poets, especially the Lyric: For the Lyrics chiefly delight in the true poetic Style, as may be collected from the Examples I have here produced, most of them from the Odes of Horace. But there are, besides, various poetical Expressions, which tho’ not reducible to any particular Class, yet occur up and down in Reading, and are worthy of treasuring up in the Memory. Such are frequent in Virgil:

——dederatque comam diffundere ventis22.

          And giv’n the Winds,
To wanton in her Tresses.

Ut cum carceribus sese effudêre quadrigæ,
Addunt se in spatia, & frustra retinacula tendens
Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas23.

As when the Racers from the Barriers start,
Oft whirling round the Goal, the Charioteer
Vainly attempts to check the flying Steeds.
Himself is born away, the dusty Car
Swift smoaks along, nor bounding hears the Reins.

And many in Juvenal:

Sic laudamus equum, facilis cui plurima palma
Fervet, & exultat rauco victoria Circo:
Nobilis hic, quocunque venit de gramine, cujus
Clara fuga ante alios, & primus in æquore pulvis24.

          We commend a Horse
(Without Regard of Pasture, or of Breed)
For his undaunted Mettle, and his Speed;

Who wins most Plates, with greatest Ease, and first
Prints with his Hoofs his Conquest on the Dust.
          G. Stephens.

But especially in the Prince of the Lyric Poets:

     25 ——amat
          Janua limen.

In rusty Silence mourns your Gate.
          Oldsworth.

26 —& ademptus Hector
Tradidit fessis leviora tolli
          Pergama Graiis.

  27 Qua pinus ingens, albaque populus,
Umbram hospitalem consociare amant
  Ramis, & obliquo laborat
    Lympha fugax trepidare rivo.

There where the Poplar and the stately Pine
Meet in a Shade, and closely twine,
To form the Bow’r with thick entangled Bows,
And where the limpid Stream in curling Murmurs flows.
          Oldsworth.

  28 Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa
Perfusus liquidis urget odoribus,
  Grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?
    Cui flavam religas comam,
        Simplex munditiis?

Beneath the rosy Bow’r,
  Chloë, what am’rous Boy
Sweet as the dewy Flow’r
    Now tastes your Lips,
        (Delusive Joy!)
Now leaning on your Breast,
Urges to be supremely blest?
For whom do you prepare
  (Neat Negligence of Dress!)
The Tresses of your golden Hair? &c.

  29 Vivet extento Proculeius ævo,
Notus in fratres animi paterni;
Illum aget, penna metuente solvi,
          Fama superstes.

When Fame of Proculeius sings,
She mounts on everlasting Wings;
His free and gen’rous Actions prove
A Father’s in a Brother’s Love.
          Oldsworth.
  30 Brachia, & vultum, teretesque suras,
Integer laudo; fuge suspicari,
Cujus octavum trepidavit ætas
      Claudere lustrum.

Her Face, her Neck, her Breast, her Arms,
I praise, not taken with her Charms;
  Suspicious Thoughts remove;
Let almost forty feeble Years
Secure thy Mind from jealous Fears,
And tell that Horace is too old for Love.
          Oldsworth.

I shall omit any more Examples; tho’ what I have hitherto laid before you, I dare say, have brought their own Reward with them, as they are true Specimens of poetic Elegance, and abundantly illustrate what I had to say upon this Head. To alledge all that relate to it, would be only to transcribe the greatest Part of the best Poets. And as the Beauty of the poetic Style chiefly consists in its own Peculiarities, those that would thoroughly understand it, must endeavour, with Diligence and Application, to make it familiar to them.

Nor is the Style of Poetry distinct from Oratory in Greek and Latin only; the same Difference runs thro’ all Tongues, both modern and ancient, English as well as foreign. To this is owing that Difficulty, which the Learners of a new Language complain of much more in reading the Poets, than the Prose Writers. The Reason why the former use such a Variety of Style so remote from that of the latter, seems to be owing to this; that as Poetry requires a peculiar Way of Thinking, it affects, likewise, a peculiar Manner of Writing and Speaking, that so it may be set off at as great a Distance from Prose as possible. Besides, as it is confined within the strict Rules of Measure, it is but just to allow it a greater Liberty of Diction, and so compensate, in some Degree, that Inconvenience with this Advantage.

The Expressions I have hitherto produced are purely poetical, which, beautiful as they are in Verse, if once resolved into Prose, become flat and insipid; you would acknowledge them, indeed, to be poetical Materials, but rudely scattered, and disjointed; and, as Horace describes it,

—Invenias disjecti membra Poetæ31.
Dissected Fragments of a Poet’s Limbs.

Other Phrases there are, which tho’ not merely poetical, yet are much more suitable to Verse than Prose: They may well enough be used sparingly, and with Caution, by an Orator, or an Historian; but if they occur frequently, they are Blemishes in his Composition, and mere Affectation. Of this Stamp are, Campus pinguis sanguine; the Field now sated with Blood: Vela vento turgida; the turgid Sails: Duces sordidi pulvere honesto, or non indecora; with honourable Dust besmeared; and the like.

But tho’ the Expressions above, that are purely poetical, or that are chiefly so, conduce much to the Beauty of a Poem, yet good Verse may be made of those only that are common to all Kinds of Writing. For Proof of this one Example shall suffice, from the Odes of Horace:

Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens32
Pinus, & celsæ graviore casu
Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos
      Fulmina montes.

Storms often vex the stately Oak,
High Mountains feel the Thunder’s Stroke;
And lofty Tow’rs, when Winds prevail,
Are ruin’d with the greater Fall.
          Creech.

In these Verses, tho’ truly beautiful, there is not somuch as one Phrase, not one Word, but what might with Propriety be used in Prose. It is observable, however, that even these, and the like Expressions, when transposed, and taken out of Metre, lose all their Elegance: For tho’ every Word, considered in itself, is agreeable to either Style, yet there is somewhat so distinguishing in the poetical, as throws a Beauty upon Words, which, out of Metre, would appear insipid, or absurd; and yet, tho’ we are sensible of the Thing, it is impossible to assign a Reason for it.

Another Peculiarity there is in the Style of Poetry, that a Thing is often express’d, not by Name, but by some concomitamt Circumstance, or Adjunct belonging to it; by which Means the Mind is led on to an entire Conception of it, by pleasing Intervals, as it were, and a successive Gradation of Thought. Thus Virgil,

33 Depresso incipiat jam tum mihi taurus aratro
Ingemere, & sulco attritus splendescere vomer.

          Ev’n then my Steers and Plough,
In the deep Furrows shall begin to groan.
          Trapp.

Again,

34 —prunis lapidosa rubescere corna.
And on the Plumbs the stony Cornel grew.

And in the same Book,

Nor the Spatt’ring of the Steel,
On Anvils form’d, and hammer’d into Swords.

These, perhaps, and the like, might be reduced to the Head of Descriptions; but they are very short and imperfect ones, and, if I may so speak, are from their very Imperfection the more perfect. The Mind of Man does not love to have every Thing too minutely laid before it; it pleases itself in having Room for Exercise, and to walk alone, as it were, without leading.

There are many other Things, which Poets chuse to express paraphrastically, and in short Descriptions, rather than in simple Terms. Every Body is acquainted with the usual little Images they give us (the larger ones I have at present nothing to do with) of the Morning, Night, Noon, and Evening; as

Mean while Aurora rising from the Sea.

Mean while the Hemisphere rolls round, and Night
Swift rushes from the Sea.

38 Nunc etiam pecudes umbras & frigora captant,
Nunc virides etiam occultant spineta lacertas.

Our Cattle now the cooling Shades enjoy,
Now the green Lizards lurk in prickly Brakes.

39 Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant,
Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbræ.

And now the Village Tops at Distance smoke.
And lofty Shades from lofty Mountains fall.

So of Winter, Summer, Spring, and Autumn; as,

40 Vere novo, gelidus canis cum montibus humor
Liquitur, & Zephyro putris se gleba resolvit.

With Spring’s first Op’ning, when dissolving Snows
From hoary Mountains run, and Zephyr slacks
The crumbling Glebe.

41 —Jam venit Æstas
Torrida, jam læto turgent in palmite gemmæ.

          Now scorching Summer comes,
And in the fruitful Tendrils swells the Gems.

Numberless other Descriptions there are of this Sort, which we admire in Poetry, and yet in Prose we should laugh at.

’Tis usual, likewise, in Poetry, (which is another Peculiarity) to denote Men, Places, Rivers, Mountains, by various Names taken from any of their Adjuncts. This is so well known, that I have no need, out of the Multitude of Examples, to produce any. ’Tis no less common to put Particulars for Generals; thus Virgil:

42 —Vestro si munere tellus
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista,
Poculaque inventis Acheloïa miscuit uvis.

          If the Earth
By your Indulgence chang’d Chaonian Mast
For Corn, and from the new discoulour’d Grape
With Acheloïan Bev’rage mingled Wine.

And in another Place,

43 —Quot Ionii veniant ad littora fluctus,
How many Waves roll to th’Ionian Shore.

So Horace,

44 —Tristitiam & metus
Tradam protervis in mare Creticum
Portare ventis.——

To Cretan Seas I give my Cares,
The Sport of wanton Winds.

Again,

45 —Nec mare Caspium
Vexant inæquales procellæ.

Nor ruffling Storms still toss the Caspian Floods.

And a little after,

46 —Aut Aquilonibus
Querceta Gargani laborant.

Nor the bleak North torments th’Appulian Woods.
          Creech.

Not a little elegant is this Manner of Writing, since, by an agreeable Variety of Particulars, it continually represents to the Mind somewhat new, and sets before it fresh Entertainment; whereas Generals, being always the same, grow cold and lifeless, by their too frequent Repetition.

Tho’ Oratory may seem to be more adapted to express our Conceptions, as being not confined by the Fetters of Metre; yet Poetry, it is certain, makes a stronger Impression upon the Mind, and conveys a livelier Image to the Imagination, and that at once with such Elegance and Brevity, as the Force of Prose can never come up to. In Proof of this, I might produce Multitudes of Examples; but none more full than that of Horace,

          47 ——enitescis
Pulchrior multo, juvenumque prodis
          Publica cura.

And still shine out more bright and fair,
The publick Grief, and publick Care.
          Oldsworth.

A Passage, this, entirely poetical, and not only beautiful in itself, but more proper to convey an Idea of the Thing intended, than all that the Power of Oratory can furnish.

To the Style of Poetry Descriptions likewise are almost peculiar. ’Tis true, they occur frequently in Prose; but then they are used either with Impropriety, or with Caution; or the Writings themselves are of a Kind that borders near upon Poetry, and therefore borrows Descriptions from it. Historians, indeed, describe Things, Places, and Persons; but not so much for the Sake of Ornament, as Necessity; that the Series of their Narration may appear clear and perspicuous to their Readers. Orators likewise attempt Descriptions, when they have Occasion for them to work upon the Passions. But neither the one nor the other affect them as a Decoration to their Writings, which Poets generally do very successfully, making use of these sort of Colourings, either of general Things or Particulars, in Miniature or at full Length, as Occasion serves, not only with a Design to move the Passions, but to please the Fancy. Great Judgment is required in the due Exercise of this Art, and a puerile Wit never betrays itself more apparently, than by forcing in Descriptions, out of mere Ostentation, that have no Connection with the Subject, and are consequently a Burden to it. But nothing is more beautiful, when a proper Choice is made of them; nothing more agreeable to the Nature of Poetry; few Things more peculiar to it. A Prose Writer does not only on Purpose use fewer Descriptions than the Poet, but in Reality is less capable of them. The very Essence of Poetry consists chiefly in Imitation; and such a Power it has in placing Things before the Eye of the Reader, as Prose entirely wants; and can be conceived only, not expressed48. An Historian might record the Omens and Prodigies that attended the Death of Julius Cæsar; but it is impossible he should come up to that admirable Description of them Virgil has left us. He might recount, for instance, the surprizing Eruption of Mount Ætna; but could never find out Words to represent it in so lively Colours as these,

49 —Quoties Cyclopum effervere in agros
Vidimus undantem, ruptis fornacibus, Ætnam,
Flammarumque globos, liquefactaque volvere saxa?

          How oft have we beheld
Loud thund’ring Ætna from Vulcano’s burst,
Deluge with liquid Fire Cyclopean Fields,
And toss huge Balls of Flame, and molten Stones?

Were an Historian to relate the Circumstance, in the Fourth Book of Virgil’s Æneis, he would tell us at once, that Dido had struggled long with a secret Passion for Æneas; but no Expressions out of Verse, could fix in the Mind so strong a Sense of that inward Disease with which she labour’d, as those wonderful Lines at the Beginning of the Narrative:

50 At Regina, gravi jamdudum saucia cura,
Vulnus alit venis, & cæco carpitur igni.

But with consuming Care the restless Queen,
Already bleeding, nourishes a Wound.

And what follows, all the Efforts of Prose can never equal: That, particularly, which the Poet subjoins, after he had described her sacrificing to the Gods, and consulting the Oracle:

51 Heu! vatum ignaræ mentes! quid vota furentem,
Quid delubra juvant? est mollis flamma medullas
Interea, & tacitum vivit sub pectore vulnus.

          Wretched the Ignorance
Of Augurs! what, alas! do Vows or Shrines
Avail, to heal her Frenzy? A soft Flame
Feeds on her Vitals, and a living Wound
Silent, uneven, bleeds inward in her Breast.

The whole Description is wonderful, and sufficiently testifies the Power of Poetry, beyond that of Prose. I beg Leave, however, to add one or two Instances more. The Poet describing the Queen just dying for Love, adds,

52 Nunc eadem, labente die, convivia quærit;
Iliacosque iterum demens audire labores
Exposcit, pendetque iterum narrantis ab ore.

          At Ev’ning she renews
Her Banquets; fondly begs again to hear
The Trojan Wars; again, while he relates,
She listens fix’d, and hangs upon the Sound.

And a few Lines after:

53 Sola domo mœret vacua, stratisque relictis
Incubat; illum absens absentem auditque videtque;
Aut gremio Ascanium, genitoris imagine capta,
Detinet, infandum si fallere possit amorem.

Lonely she pines within the empty Court,
Lies on the Couch which just before she left;
Him absent, absent still, she hears and sees.
Sometimes his Father’s Image all her Soul
Possessing, young Ascanius on her Lap
She long detains; if possible, to cheat,
With that Amusement, her unbounded Love.

Among the other fatal Predictions of the unhappy Queen’s Death, an Historian might mention the foreboding Noise of the Scrietch-Owl; but would fall infinitely short of the inexpressible Elegance with which it is described in the two following Lines:

54 Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo
Sæpe queri, & longas in fletum ducere voces.

          And on her Palace-Top
The lonely Owl, with oft repeated Scream,
Complains, and spins into a dismal Length
Her baleful Shrieks.

I have produced, perhaps, already, too many Examples; but I cannot forbear adding one more, which exceeds Admiration itself: It is the Description of Tityos, in the Sixth Æneid, suffering Punishment in the Shades below.

55 Necnon & Tityon, terræ omniparentis alumnum,
Cernere erat: per tota novem cui jugera corpus
Porrigitur; rostroque immanis vultur obunco
Immortale jecur tundens, fœcundaque pœnis
Viscera, rimaturque epulis, habitatque sub alto
Pectore; nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis.

There Tityus, Son of the all-bearing Earth,
One might behold: Whose Body’s monstrous Bulk
Lies stretch’d o’er nine whole Acres; and a huge
Portentous Vulture, with her hooky Beak
Pouncing his everlasting Liver, thrives
Upon his Entrails, fruitful of their Pains;
Rummages for her Meals, inhabits deep
Beneath his Breast; nor do the Fibres find
The least Relief from Torment still renew’d.

From the whole, I suppose it abundantly plain, that there is an Energy in the poetic Style, as it is much more adapted to copying Nature, than Oratory is, with all its Rhetoric.

Fifth Lecture.

’Tis farther to be observed, that figurative Expressions are far more frequent in Poetry, than Prose, as they are far more suitable to it; because it consists much more in the Embellishments of Style, in the Liveliness of Description, and impressing the Images of Things upon the Imagination. For tho’ it rejects all false Colouring, and too great Affectation of Pomp, yet from the very Nature of it we may judge it takes in more real Ornaments than Prose. As to Tropes or Figures, as they are usually called, many of them are never used in Oratory, some but seldom, and very sparingly; others, again, agree naturally with it, particularly, the Irony, Metonymy, Synechdoche, and Metaphor. Tho’ the last of these, for the Reason before alledg’d, is more the Property of Poetry. Some of the Figures are so familiar, and natural, that they are every Day used in common Speech, even by the Vulgar, of which Sort we may reckon those above, and some others. Metaphors never fail of being beautiful, when applied with mature Judgment, and a lively Wit; that is, when they are drawn from Nature, connect Ideas that have a due Relation to each other, and are not too much wrested to a foreign Sense. But nothing is more insipid, more ridiculous, or absurd, when these Rules are transgress’d in the Choice of them; which is the Case, very often, of our modern Writers, to their eternal Disgrace.

Nothing can shew more the Elegance of Metaphors, and their Agreement with Nature, than those that are taken from Men and living Creatures, and applied to Trees and Plants. For as these have a sort of Life ascrib’d to them (call’d the vegetative) and are really endued with it; the Transition is easy to Creatures of a higher Rank, that are endued with it in a more proper Sense. Hence we hear so often, not only among the Poets, but in Prose, and even in common Conversation, of Trees and Plants being alive or dead, healthy or sickly. Nay, often human Passions and Affections are attributed to them: Plants, in particular (to omit other Instances) are often said to love or hate this Soil or that. So Virgil, speaking of them,

56 Sponte sua quæ se tollunt in luminis auras,
Infœcunda quidem, sed læta, & fortia, surgunt.

Those which unbidden spring to upper Air,
Steril, indeed, but strong and healthy rise.

And afterwards,

57 Exuerint silvestrem animum, cultuque frequenti,
In quascunque voces artes, haud tarda sequentur.

          Will in Time unlearn
Their salvage Temper, and not slow obey
With frequent Culture, what your Art commands.

Again, in the same Book,

58 Inque novos soles audent se gramina tuto
Credere, nec metuit surgentes pampinus Austros.

          To new Suns the Herbs
Dare trust themselves; nor aught the tender Vine
From rising Auster fears.

There are many other Metaphors of different Kinds, which tho’ they may seem, as indeed they are, a little of the boldest, yet are agreeable to Nature, and true Elegance. As that of Virgil,

59 Insequitur nimbus peditum;
A Storm of Foot succeeds.

And in another Place,

60 —It toto turbida cælo
Tempestas telorum, & ferreus ingruit imber.

An Iron Tempest, and a Storm of Darts
Hovers aloft, and blackens all the Sky.

These lofty Metaphors, however, are to be used with great Judgment, for fear they should seem too far fetch’d, and the Style more swelling than weighty.

As I am now upon the Subject of Figures, I can’t help making a Remark or two on those Books of Rhetorick that are usually read in Schools. They contain, indeed, many Things of Use, and worthy of Observation: But surely there’s no Necessity that an Art designed for the Refinement of the Minds of Youth, should be treated of in so rough a Method, so full of dry, logical Definitions, as must be hard for Boys to understand, and much harder to remember. Nor is there any Need of all those Sub-divisions of Figures, one under another, which, when Boys have once made themselves Masters of, before they have Judgment enough to use them, they think their Business is to adorn their little Performances with these sort of Flowers, as they call them, and fling them in, at any Rate, without any Regard to Propriety: Their Style, by being thus overcharged, as it were, instead of appearing with fresh Vigour, abounds only with disagreeable Excrescencies. A Knowledge of these Things will be much better arrived at by Experience, than Precept: And every one that is conversant with the best Authors, that reads them with Understanding, and true Relish, cannot but be acquainted with all the Figures of Speech, and the Art of using them, tho’ he never heard so much as their Names, or their Definitions.

It is common with all Sorts of Writers to express the same Thing by different Modes of Speech, and such Variety is often reckoned a Proof of their Elegance. Now Poets have in this Particular a greater Liberty allow’d them, than any other Writers, for the Reason I have often mention’d, because their Works consist more in Ornament and Decoration. But the Exercise of this Liberty ought to be conducted with great Judgment and Caution; lest, by an ill Use of it, the Style grow too luxuriant. The just Medium, and the vicious Extreme, cannot be better learnt than by making a Comparison between Virgil and Ovid. Both of them, you’ll see, express the same Thought different Ways; the one never fails of Beauty, the other falsly aims at it. Ovid tells you the very same Thing, in many Words, and sometimes with very little Difference between them: Virgil illustrates one Thing in general, by distinguishing its several Species or Adjuncts, and his Description of each is perfectly new. A few Examples, out of many, will make this plain. Says Ovid,

61 Omnia pontus erat, deerant quoque littora ponto.
For all was Sea, nor had the Sea a Shore. Sandys.

And in another Place,

62 O! ego quantum egi! quam vasta potentia nostra est!
What Feats I’ve wrought! how mighty is my Pow’r!

And in the next Verse almost,

63 —Sic est mea magna potestas.
—So mighty is my Pow’r.

In the Sixth Book Niobe magnifying her own Happiness, and extolling herself above Measure, boasts thus,

64 Sum felix; quis enim negat hoc? felixque manebo;
Hoc quoque quis dubitat? tutam me copia fecit.
Major sum quam cui possit Fortuna nocere; &c.
Excessere metum bona jam mea, &c.

Thrice happy I, for who can that contest?
Or who deny that I shall long be blest?
By Plenty crown’d I dread no Change of Fate,
Despise both Fortune’s Friendship, and her Hate.
My Bliss is plac’d above the Reach of Fear, &c.

But to omit other Instances, only take a View of Narcissus in the same Poet, desperately in Love with himself:

65 Cunctaque miratur, quibus est mirabilis ipse;
Se cupit imprudens, & qui probat ipse probatur.
Dumque petit, petitur; pariterque accendit & ardet: &c.
Atque oculos idem qui decipit, incitat, error.

By his own Flames consum’d the Lover lies,
And gives himself the Wound by which he dies.
          Addison.

And afterwards, as if all he had done was nothing, he only changes the Person, and brings in Narcissus himself speaking thus:

66 Ille ego sum, sensi; nec me mea fallit imago;
Uror amore mei, flammas moveoque, feroque;
Quid faciam? roger? anne rogem? quid deinde rogabo?
Quod cupio mecum est; inopem me copia fecit.

Ah! wretched me, I now begin, too late,
To find out all the long perplex’d Deceit:
It is myself I love, myself I see,
The gay Delusion is a Part of me.
I kindle up the Fires by which I burn,
And my own Beauties from the Well return.
Whom shou’d I court? how utter my Complaint?}
Enjoyment but produces my Restraint,}
And too much Plenty makes me die for Want,}
          Addison.

Very justly may the last Words, with some small Alteration, be applied to Ovid himself, in whom a Fecundity of Words occasioned a Barrenness of Sense. How far is this from him, qui nil molitur inepte, who ne’er attempts a Thought in vain? Virgil, I mean, much better entitled, in my Opinion, to that Character, than he for whom Horace design’d it. With how much greater Propriety does that divine Poet express the same Thing in different Ways, where he describes the Manner of Grafting and Inoculating?

67 Et sæpe alterius ramos impune videmus
Vertere in alterius; mutatamque insita mala
Ferre pyrum, & prunis lapidosa rubescere corna.

Oft too we see one Tree’s ingrafted Sprays
Change to another’s, nor repent that Change.
The Pear’s hard Trunk with alien Apples bend:
And on the Plumb’s the stony Cornel grew.

68 Inseritur vero ex fœtu nucis arbutus horrida;
Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes,
Castaneæ fagos; ornusque incanuit albo
Flore pyri, glandemque sues fregere sub ulmis.

But with a Filberd’s Twig the prickly Arbutus
Is grafted: Oft the barren Plane has borne
The ruddiest Apples: Chesnuts bloom’d on Beech,
The wild Ash blossom’d with the Flow’rs of Pears,
Snow-white; and Swine crack’d Acorns under Elms.

By this Comparison of Ovid and Virgil, how tedious seem the Trifles, and how nauseous the Repetitions of the former; how various the Description, how diffusive, and yet how chaste the Elegance of the latter? The one with wonderful Art represents, as I said, the same Thing, or the same Thought, by different Species or Adjuncts; the other gives you the same Thing ten Times over, under the very same Species, by changing the Words only; from which superabundant Luxuriance, as his Style must needs want Nerves, so must his Readers Patience. I would not, however, condemn it throughout; he has many Passages that are worthy of Praise, and some, of Virgil himself. Of this Sort is that Description of the Fate of Niobe’s Children:

69 E quibus Ismenos, qui matris sarcina quondam
Prima suæ fuerat, certum dum flectit in orbem
Quadrupedis cursus, spumantiaque ora coërcet;
Hei mihi! conclamat: medioque in pectore fixa
Tela gerit, frœnisque manu moriente remissis,
In latus à dextro paulatim defluit armo.

Of these Ismenos, who by Birth had been
The first fair Issue of the fruitful Queen,
Just as he drew the Rein, to guide his Horse
Around the Compass of the circling Course,
Sigh’d deeply, and the Pangs of Smart express’d,
While the Shaft stuck engorg’d within his Breast:
And the Reins dropping from his dying Hand,
Gently he fell upon the yielding Sand.
          Croxall.

But in many Places, it must be own’d, he is guilty of that Luxuriance I just now mention’d; I cannot, therefore, sufficiently wonder at their Ignorance, who presume to compare him to Virgil. But of this, perhaps, I shall have a more convenient Opportunity hereafter; when I make a farther Comparison between some other Authors. I beg Leave, at present, as I have cited a remarkable Place out of Virgil’s Georgics, to present you with one or two more, that are no less deserving your Attention: I am sure, nothing can shew the Force and Elegance of the poetic Style, more than what that Model of Perfection has left us, even upon the plainest, and most ignoble Subject. Among his Precepts of Agriculture, he gives you these, in the following Words:

70 Sæpe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros,
Atque levem stipulam crepitantibus urere flammis.
Sive inde occultas vires & pabula terræ
Pinguia concipiunt; sive illis omne per ignem
Excoquitur vitium, atque exudat inutilis humor:
Seu plures calor ille vias, & cæca relaxat
Spiramenta, novas veniat qua sucrus in herbas;
Seu durat magis, & venas astringit hiantes, &c.

Oft too it has been painful found, to burn
The barren Fields with Stubble’s crackling Flames.
Whether from thence they secret Strength receive,
And richer Nutriment: Or by the Fire
All latent Mischief, and redundant Juice,
Oozing sweats off; or whether the same Heat
Opens the hidden Pores, that new Supplies
Of Moisture may refresh the recent Blades:
Or hardens more, and with astringent Force
Closes the gaping Veins: &c.

Nothing can exceed the Beauty of this Passage, unless that where he describes the various Methods of Grafting and Inoculating:

71 Nec modus inserere, atque oculos imponere simplex;
Nam qua se medio trudunt de cortice gemmæ,
Et tenues rumpunt tunicas, augustus in ipso
Fit nodo sinus; huc aliena ex arbore germen
Includunt, udoque docent inolescere libro.
Aut rursum enodes trunci resecantur, & alte
Finditur in solidum cuneis via: deinde feraces
Plantæ immittuntur; nec longum tempus, & ingens
Exiit ad cœlum ramis felicibus arbos,
Miraturque novas frondes, & non sua poma.

Nor single is the Manner to ingraft,
Or to inoculate. For where the Gems
Bud from the middle Bark, and gently burst
The filmy Coats; ev’n in the Knot is made
A small Incision: From an alien Tree
An Eye is here enclos’d, and taught to grow
Congenial, blending with the humid Rind.
Or else into the knotless solid Trunk
They force a Cleft with Wedges; then insert
The fertile Sprigs: Nor long the Time; to Heav’n
The Tree with loaden Branches shoots away,
Admires new Leaves, and Apples not her own.

I hope I shall deserve your Pardon for producing these Examples; they are of no ordinary Nature, for that very Reason because their Subject is so. I know very well, how absurd it would be to repeat to you, upon this Head, all the beautiful Passages that occur in the best Poets: What else would this be, but to transcribe the greatest Part of them? But I thought it not improper to give you these Specimens from the Georgics, that you might view in them the Force of Poetry and Virgil, who was able to throw such a Splendor upon so mean Materials, and make them at once the Pleasure and Envy of Posterity.

To shun the Repetition of the same Words, as much as possible, is a Precept not only applicable to Poets, but to all other Writers; because the same Sounds tire the Ears of the Reader. Here those Figures of Elegance, the Epizeuxis and Anadiplosis, are manifestly excepted. Some, however, out of a Detestation of this Fault, fall into a greater; and in their Zeal for Variety, by wresting Words from their natural Signification, are guilty of the very worst Fault in Writing, Obscurity. The best Writers never run into this Extreme, but chuse rather to repeat the same Words, than use others in an improper Sense, as may be seen very frequently in Virgil. It is probable, indeed, a Desire of Elegance first brought in a Diversity of Words; for if Convenience only were considered, each Conception of the Mind would have but a single Word appropriated to it: Whereas now, in learning a new Language, to our great Trouble we find many Words affixed to one Idea, or many Ideas to one Word. Nor is Disagreeableness of Sound to be avoided only in the Repetition of the same Words, but often (for the Rule does not always hold) in using different Words of the same Termination. As these in Juvenal:

—tarda per densa cadavera prorâ.

’Tis certain, in poetical Compositions we ought to have great Regard to Harmony, and to endeavour to captivate the Ear, as well as please the Imagination of our Readers. For tho’ nothing is more contemptible than versus inopes rerum, nugæque canoræ, poor shallow Verse, mere bubbling Trifles, that have no other Recommendation but Sound; yet they err, on the other Hand, who have a View only to the Sense, and none to the Musick that should echo to it. This was the Case of many of our Countrymen, of Couley, particularly, and others of the last Age; who, studious only for the Beauty of Thought, neglected, or did not rightly understand the Melody of Verse: Till at length our Dryden arose, who added to English Poetry what it only wanted, Numbers, Harmony, and Accuracy; by which Means, if we are not too partial in our Judgment of ourselves, it now bears the Laurel from all the Nations in Europe.

The best Poets among the Antients were solicitous about the Disposal of their Words, as well as the Choice of them. It is an Elegance, which, tho’ often unobserved, pleases the Mind insensibly. And yet any one, with the least Attention, will perceive, that there’s not a little Difference, whether the same Word is placed in one Part of a Verse, or another. How much, for Instance; would that of Virgil

Admonet in somnis, & turbida terret imago suffer in the Change, if it were read,

—& imago turbida terret!

Various Examples there are, of this Sort, which it would be needless to alledge. But I would here observe, that the Harmony of Verse does not only consist in its being free from all Asperity, and flowing gently with one steddy Course: Some Asperity is often necessary; a Poem may labour for the Want of, and offend the Ears even with its Smoothness. Many, therefore, much wrong their Judgment, who prefer Ovid, Claudian, and others, to Virgil, on this Account; because, forsooth, they find less Roughness in their Verse: Whereas the very Want of this is their Defect; and Virgil does not more excel them in Versification, than in every other Requisite of a good Poet. He is generally harmonious, full, and fluent; and if he does not always keep one even Tenor, this is not owing to any Inability, but, as we observed before, in another Particular, the Effect of his Choice. He knew it would be more grateful to his Reader to change, now and then, the usual Smoothness of Style, and mix with it somewhat of an agreeable Harshness. His Periods, likewise, he concludes very variously; generally, indeed, where the Verse ends, but often in different Parts of it, with this Foot or that, as the Sound requires. In the Conduct of this Variety, of as small a Moment as it may seem, there’s no little Labour, nor less Elegance. It is rarely aimed at by Ovid, Claudian, Statius, and the rest, who fall short of Virgil in that boasted Sweetness of Verse, whenever his Subject demands it of him. It is a great Mistake to think Ovid’s Negligence is a Matter of Merit, and that his Verses flow with the more Ease, for his Want of Care in their Composition; because, as it is urged, they are not so much the Effect of Study, as of Nature. Every Excellence in Writing must proceed from both; the more a Poem is laboured, the more natural it shall often seem; and its Stiffness may be owing to Neglect. To illustrate what I have said of Virgil, by one Example, out of many: In which of the abovemention’d Poets shall we find any Lines, I will not say that exceed in Harmony and Softness his Description of Orpheus and Eurydice, but come near it? The whole is sweet; but nothing can be more so than the following Part of it.

72 Illa quidem Stygia nabat jam frigida cymba:
Septem illum totos perhibent ex ordine menses,
Rupe sub aëria, deserti ad Strymonis undam,
Flevisse, & gelidis hæc evolvisse sub antris,
Mulcentem tigres, & agentem carmine quercus.
Qualis populea mœrens Philomela sub umbra
Amissos queritur fœtus, quos durus arator,
Observans, nido implumes detraxit; at illa
Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
Integrat, & mœstis late loca questibus implet.

She, shiv’ring, in the Stygian Sculler sail’d:
He, sev’n whole Months, ’tis said, beneath a bleak
Aerial Cliff, on Strymon’s Desart Bank,
Wept lonesome; and in freezing Caves revolv’d
This mournful Tale; while crouding Oaks admir’d
His Lays, and Tygers soften’d at the Sound.
    As when, complaining in melodious Groans,
Sweet Philomel beneath a Poplar Shade,
Mourns her lost Young; which some rough Village Hind
Observing, from their Nest, unfledg’d, has stole:
She weeps all Night; and perch’d upon a Bough,
With plaintive Notes repeated fills the Grove.

In reading these, and the like Passages, how naturally may we apply to the Poet, what he does to his Daphnis?

73 Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta,
Quale sopor fessis in gramine, quale per æstum
Dulcis aquæ saliente sitim restinguere rivo.

Such, heav’nly Poet, is thy Verse to me,
As Slumbers to the Weary on the Grass;
Such as fresh purling Rills, in Summer’s Heat,
To thirsty Travellers.

And again,

74 Nam neque me tantum venientis sibilus Austri,
Nec percussa juvant fluctu tam littora, nec quæ
Saxosas inter decurrunt flumina valles.

          For neither does the Breeze
Of whisp’ring Zephyr, when it rises fresh,
Bless me so much: Nor Waves that beat the Shore;
Nor Rivers, which thro’ stony Vallies glide.

Whether it was from Chance, or Design, that these Verses, by their very Sound, represent the Thing they describe, is not worth enquiring. It is certain, some Words are so naturally formed for this Purpose, and Poetry for the proper Disposal of them, that this Felicity can’t well be avoided; and ’tis to Chance alone we are often indebted for these beautiful Echo’s. Sometimes, however, they are the undoubted Effect of Art. Whence soever they proceed, they frequently occur, and are an ample Proof of the Force and Elegance of the poetic Style. That of Virgil is well known, where we see the Ox knock’d down, and hear the Noise of his sudden Fall, and lumpish Weight,

          Down falls the Beast
Dead, trembling, to the Ground.

In the same Book, in the Description of the Naval Course, we have the following Lines:

76 Ille inter navemque Gyæ scopulosque sonantes
Radit iter lævum interior, subitusque priorem
Præterit, & metis tenet æquora tuta relictis.

He betwixt Gyas, and the sounding Rocks,
Interior, skims the Left Hand Way, and swift
Outstrips his Rival, and beyond the Goal
Smooth shoots along, and gains the safer Seas.

What could better express the swift Motion with which the Ship brush’d by its Rival, and sail’d away clear of the Shelves, into the open Sea. In the last Verse, particularly, the Words seem with their Briskness to protrude one another, and skim away to the Goal. In another Part of the Description the same Image is thus represented:

77 Agmine remorum celeri, ventisque vocatis,
Prona petit maria, & pelago decurrit aperto.

          With his rowing Crowd,
And all the Winds invited to his Sails,
Gains the prone Deep, and swiftly shoots away
Upon the Ocean.

After this, follows that beautiful Comparison of the sailing of this Ship, and the Flight of the Dove, the Swiftness and Evenness of which is thus most admirably express’d:

78 —Mox aëre lapsa quieto
Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas.

Then smoothly gliding thro’ the quiet Air,
Skims the thin Way, nor moves her nimble Wings.

On the other Hand, how clearly do we see the dishonourable Tardiness with which the inglorious Ship drags on, after she had bulged upon the Rock?

79 Cum savo à scepulo multa vix arte revulsus,
Amissis remis, atque ordine debilis uno,
Irrisam, sine honore, ratem Sergestus agebat.

          When with much Art and Pain,
Torn from the cruel Rock his Oars half lost,
And one Side maim’d, Sergestus tugg’d along
His slow dishonour’d Skiff.

Can any Thing move slower than the Verse, or with greater Art? But what deserves all Admiration, or rather what exceeds it, is, the same Poet’s Description of the Giants Attempt against Heaven, by heaping Mountain upon Mountain.

80 Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam
Scilicet, atque Ossæ frondosum involvere Olympum.

Thrice they assay’d on Pelion to heave
Ossa; on Ossa still more high to roll
Woody Olympus.

How the Verse labours! Conati imponere—Pelio Ossam—Without any Elision of the Vowels, it moves on with Difficulty, and totters, as it were, with an unweildy Load, to represent to us the stupendous Image of the straining of the Giants. In the Words, atque Ossæ frondosum involvere Olympum, there seems to be a Redundancy of Syllables, and we see in them the enormous Superstructure rise higher and higher, by one Layer of Mountains heaped upon another.

Since, then, it is the Nature of Poetry to express the Things it describes by the very Sound of the Verse; how little Share of the Spirit of it have they, who, by an unnatural Constraint, smother their Thoughts with Words that are dumb to the Sense? And yet this is a Fault many are guilty of; who will set before you a rapid Torrent in the slow Length of an Alexandrine; rural Pleasures, in Words that represent the Clangor of a Trumpet; the Din of War, with the soft and easy Strain of Elegy; the Triumphs of Love, with the rough and unpolish’d Address of a Clown; and debase this divine Art with a thousand such Contradictions. A Lover of Virgil, that reads him with Discernment, will never fall into these, and the like Enormities; for which Reason, ’tis from him I produced the several Examples that have illustrated each Part of this Dissertation. No one can have Reason to complain of their Number; for nothing else could have so display’d the hidden Charms of Poetry. Let me recommend it, therefore, to my young Audience, who are fired with the Love of so engaging an Art, to make him the Bent of all their Care and Application; let Virgil be often in your Hand, and never out of your Thoughts,

Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna.

Read him by Day, and meditate by Night.
          Pope.

Sixth Lecture.

It is a common Opinion, that those mutilated Verses that occur up and down in the Æneis, were left so by the Author out of Design, and to add a certain Beauty to his Style. I am rather inclined to think them the Marks of an imperfect Work, and that they would have been fill’d up by the Author, if he had put his last Hand to that divine Performance. It is an agreed Point, that the Georgics are more correct than the Æneis; now in them we don’t find any of these Mutilations, and in the Æneis one that leaves the Sense imperfect. In a Place or two, indeed, some seeming Reason may be assign’d for this sudden breaking off; viz. to represent more naturally the Thing in Description. As in this:

Tho’ even here, I would observe by the Way, the unalterable Resolution of Æneas, and his abrupt leaving the Queen, might have been express’d as well, if his Speech had ended where it does now, and the Verse been continued on afterwards. It is certain, no good Account can be given of most of these Hiatus’s; and therefore it is very difficult to find out the Elegance of them. There may be a Grace, possibly, in some seeming Defects; as in those false Quantities, which Virgil sometimes, but sparingly admits, to awaken in his Reader an Attention to the Rules of Poetry, by so becoming a Violation of them. But tho’ a Lisp, a Mole, or a slight Cast of the Eye, may add new Beauties to the Beautiful, Lameness and Deformity never can.

But whatever is the Determination concerning Virgil (for I would not be too peremptory in mine) modern Writers, and especially those of our own Country, take, undoubtedly, too great a Liberty in imitating him, who purposely leave many half Lines, both in their English and Latin Poems. This is often but an Indulgence of their Sloth; sometimes of their Want of Words, or of Wit; they leave part of a Verse, because they know not how to finish it; and sometimes, perhaps, it is owing to an Affectation of Elegance. To me, I must confess, these Gaps, in Reading, are always offensive; not to say absurd and ridiculous. But so it is, they receive a Sanction, it seems, from the Authority of Virgil. Allowing he left some designedly, it does not follow our Writers have a Pretence to the same Liberty. They shall have it in abundance, if they’ll attempt another Æneis. In the mean Time, I would have them consider a little the Difference between a Poetical Essay, and an Epic Poem; or if that be their Attempt, the Difference, still, between theirs and Virgil’s.

Nor are they guilty of less Presumption, who, under the sacred Name of Virgil, arrogantly transgress the Laws of Quantity. In the Course of a long Work, that requires the greatest Nicety and Conduct, such a Liberty, when used with Caution and Modesty, is not only excuseable, but elegant: But what is this to our little poetical Businesses? In vain is Virgil here alledg’d, of all Authorities the greatest, or Cæsura, of all Figures the usefullest! ’Tis true, that immortal Poet uses this License sometimes, not only in the Æneis, but in the Georgics, and even in the Eclogues: The Prince of Poets, and the great Arbiter of Verse, might claim a discretionary Power of suspending the Laws of it, as he saw Occasion; but for us to invade his Prerogative, under Pretence of imitating his Example, is the same as if a Subject should usurp the Authority of a King, and justify himself by that very Authority. We are not, however, totally debarr’d this Liberty; nor yet indulged it in the same Degree with Virgil; much less ought we to extend it beyond him.

Scarce any Thing is of greater Difficulty, or Moment, in the poetic Style, than the true Use of Epithets. Nothing loads a Poem, or tires the Reader more, than too great a Redundancy of them. Now they are always redundant, unless their Substantives receive from them either new Ideas, or some Illustration and Ornament too of their own. And yet with the Observation of these Rules, it is possible they may be redundant, that is, a Poem may be clogg’d with too many of them. I shall lay before you some Examples of both Kinds of Epithets; and shall take Care to make Choice of such as may not only illustrate the Point before us, but many other Beauties of the poetic Style.

Of the former Sort of Epithets, that add new and distinct Ideas to their Substantives, the following Verses will furnish many. In Virgil’s most admirable Description of the Plague raging among the Cattle, in the third Book of the Georgics, we have these Lines:

82 Sæpe in honore Deum medio stans hostia ad aram,—
Inter cunctantes cecidit moribunda ministros.

Oft standing at the Altar, and with Wreaths,
And woolly Fillets bound, the Victim Bull,
In the mid Honour of the Gods, fell dead
Between the ling’ring Sacrificer’s Hands.

And a few Lines after:

83 Labitur infelix studiorum, atque immemor herbæ
Victor equus.——

Unhappy of his Toils, the Victor Steed
Sinks, and forgets his Food.

Again:

84 Tum vero ardentes oculi, atque attractus ab alto
Spiritus, interdum gemitu gravis; imaque longo
Ilia singultu tendunt; it naribus ater
Sanguis, & obsessas fauces premit aspera lingua.

His Eyes are all inflam’d; from his deep Breast
His Breath with Labour heaves; long Sobs and Groans
Distend his Entrails: From his Nostrils drops
Black ropy Gore, and to his Jaws his Tongue
Clotted with Filth, and Putrefaction, cleaves.

Afterwards:

85 Ecce! autem duro fumans sub vomere taurus
Concidit, & mixtum spumis vomit ore cruorem,
Extremosque ciet gemitus: it tristis arator,
Mœrentem abjungens fraterna morte juvencum,
Atque opere in medio defixa relinquit aratra.

Smoking beneath the Plough the sturdy Steer
Falls down, and spues a Flood of Gore and Foam,
And groans his last: The pensive Hind unyokes
His mourning Fellow Lab’rer, and amidst
Th’ unfinish’d Furrow leaves the sticking Share.

In the foremention’d Description of the Fate of Orpheus and Eurydice:

86 Illa, quis & me, inquit, miseram, & te perdidit, Orpheu?
Quis tantus furor? en! iterum crudelia retro
Fata vocant, conditque natantia lumina somnus.
Jamque vale; feror ingenti circumdata nocte,
Invalidasque tibi tendens, heu! non tua, palmas.

          She; Who, my Orpheus, who
Has Me unfortunate and Thee undone?
What Fury This? Again the cruel Fates
Remand me back; Sleep seals my swimming Eyes.
And now Farewel: With Darkness round enclos’d
I flit away; and vainly stretch to Thee
(Ah! now no longer Thine) these helpless Hands.

In these Examples there are only two Epithets, viz. ater and duro, the second Sort of which I shall speak of presently. But the rest, you may observe, as in cunctantes ministros, equus infelix studiorum, ardentes oculi, aspera lingua, defixa aratra, &c. add a new Idea, quite distinct from the general Nature of the Substantive, and rising from the special Adjuncts and Circumstances of the Thing described.

The second Sort of Epithets are those, that are not so distant from the general Nature of the Substantives, and yet not perfectly coincident with it; but bring with them Light and Ornament, tho’ not new Ideas. As in the abovemention’d Description of Virgil:

87 —Timidi damæ, cervique fugaces,
Nunc interque canes, & circum tecta vagantur.

        Now the tim’rous Hinds and Deer
Among the Dogs, and round the Houses, rove.

And in the first Æneid:

88 Nimborum in patriam, loca fœta furentibus Austris,
Æoliam venit; hic vasto rex Æolus antro
Luctantes ventos, tempestatesque sonoras
Imperio premit.——

         The Goddess to Æolia comes,
The Land of Storms, where struggling Gusts of Air
Engender: Here, in his capacious Cave,
Great Æolus with absolute Command
Controls, imprisons, and confines in Chains,
The noisy Tempests, and reluctant Winds.

In timidi damæ, cervi fugaces, and tempestates sonoras, the Epithets we see are of near Affinity with the Substantives; for they express some Adjuncts, or Properties, which are always inherent in them. Therefore are of a different Kind from tristis aratror, natantia lumina, invalidas palmas, and the rest above cited, that exhibit Ideas totally distinct from the universal Nature of the Subject, and agree with it only pro hic & nunc, as the Schoolmen speak. The Epithets of this distinct Kind entertain the Mind with a more agreeable Variety; but those of the other require, perhaps, more Care and Judgment in the proper Choice of them: For tho’ they border upon the general Nature of their Substantives, expressing, as we said, some of their inherent Qualities; yet, we likewise observed, they don’t perfectly coincide with them, but express an Idea somewhat different, and yet not totally so. These Expressions, for Instance, the fearful Deer, and the loud Tempests, are not like those Absurdities we shall have Occasion hereafter to expose; such as burning Fire, cold Ice, which are but other Words for hot Heat, and cold Cold; but represent to us some special, and less essential Adjuncts of their Substantives; and therefore are not to be indiscriminately used upon every Occasion, but then only, when they are agreeable to the Nature of the Subject. For Instance, because Virgil has said, the fearful Deer, and flitting Stags, it by no means follows that these Epithets are always applicable, whenever Stags or Deer shall happen to be mention’d. In the Place he used them, they were proper, because the Wonder of what he was describing turn’d wholly upon the Circumstance they describe, viz. that the Plague, which was common to all the Beasts, brought them all to such an Equality and Unanimity, that even those that were by Nature fearful, and formed for Flight, associated with such as lived upon Rapine and Slaughter. So, again, because the same Author has Luctantes ventos, tempestatesque sonoras, we are not to conclude we may use the same Epithets, with the same Words, at any Time. He made Choice of them to remind his Reader of the Difficulty of Æolus’s Province to restrain the Impetuosity of the boisterous Winds.

Upon this Occasion, I cannot but think, the Gradus ad Parnassum, and other Books of that Stamp, no small Prejudice to Learners. Here Boys meet with Heaps of undistinguish’d Epithets, and synonymous Words, before they are come to Maturity of Judgment to make a proper Choice of them; and consequently blindly pick out such as the Hiatus of the Verse requires, with little Regard to Sense, and less to Propriety and Elegance. By relying upon these Helps, they give themselves up to Sloth, their Ideas are confounded, and their Judgments corrupted. The Patrons of these sort of Books have nothing to urge in their Defence, but that by facilitating the Scholar’s Pains, they allure him to that Study, which he would otherwise have declined, on account of its Difficulty. But, before these Helps were thought of, Poetry was in as flourishing a Condition as in our Time; and it seems much more adviseable for the Boys to receive all proper Assistances from their Master, or School-fellows, than from these Fasciculi. To banish them from the Schools, would only have this Consequence; that it would put the Youth upon reading the best Poets, in order to whet their Imagination, and ripen their Judgment. If these Books are to any allowable, let them be indulged, not to Boys, but to confirm’d Poets, who have Judgment enough to select proper Words out of them. But to these such childish Helps are contemptible. All Things, therefore, consider’d, it would be no Disadvantage to Poetry, if the Gradus ad Parnassum, Flores Poetarum, Elegantiæ Poeticæ, and the other Thesaurus’s of this Nature, were committed to the Flames, or for ever buried in Oblivion. But to return:

There are other Epithets, of so general a Nature, that in all poetical Descriptions they are always applicable to their Substantives, and yet are different from those I just now mention’d, that perfectly coincide with them. As in Virgil:

89 Jamque rubescebat radiis mare, & æthere ab alto
Aurora in roseis fulgebat lutea bigis.

And now the Ocean redden’d with the Rays;
And in her rosy Car the blushing Morn
Shone from the Sky.

And in Ovid:

The Epithets, lutea, roseis, vigil, purpureas, &c. may always be used, in the Description of a bright Morning: And the same Thing may be observ’d of general Descriptions of the Night, the four Seasons of the Year, and the like.

There are others, again, of a middle Kind between the two Sorts of Epithets I have above laid down; which tho’ they do not add to their Subjects distinct Ideas, yet are much farther off from the general Nature of them, than these I have here mention’d. Of this Sort are the following in the foremention’d Description of the Plague among the Cattle.

91 Hinc læti vituli vulgo moriuntur in herbis,
Et dulces animas plena ad præsepia reddunt.

In ev’ry Pasture, on the verdant Grass,
The Calves all die, and render their sweet Souls
Before the plenteous Racks.

And again:

92 Non umbræ altorum nemorum, non mollia possunt
Prata movere animum; non qui per saxa volutus
Purior electro campum petit amnis.

No Shades of Groves, no grassy Meads can move
His Soul; nor Streams, which rolling o’er the Stones,
Purer than Crystal, glide along the Fields.

In general it is true, but not always, that Herbs are joyful, Meadows soft, Rivers pure, and the Breath of Calves sweet.

These are the general Rules, and such as are rarely or never to be transgress’d, in the Choice of Epithets: But to insert them only to fill up a Verse, when they are entirely idle and useless, and the Description is neither advanced, heightened, or illustrated by them, is the greatest Fault almost a Writer can be guilty of. From hence the Style is barren and jejune; the Sense relax’d and enervated. And yet this Fault, great as it is, not only Boys, but some even of the Ancients, and many of our modern Writers, run into. Buchanan, in his Paraphrastical Version of the Psalms, has these Verses:

93 Dum procul à patria, mœsti, Babylonis in oris,
Fluminis ad liquidas forte sedemus aquas.

Two Lines after he goes on thus:

Flevimus, & gemitus luctantia verba repressit,
     Inque sinus liquidæ decidit imber aquæ.

We had no Occasion to be reminded once, much less twice in the Compass of five Verses, that Water was liquid; ’tis a Circumstance that served as little for the Information of the Reader, as for the Illustration of what the Poet was describing. Ovid is often guilty this Way; as in the following Verse:

          Two fatal Shafts
Forth from his Arrow-bearing Quiver drew.

To produce more Instances, would be needless: One small Scruple, I confess, arises to me upon this Head, from observing that Horace and Virgil seem to use some few of these redundant Epithets; and ’twas for this Reason I said above, the Rule I had laid down ought rarely or never to be violated. But whatever we determine concerning those great Authorities (for I know not how to impeach them) it is certain they very sparingly allow themselves this Liberty; and the Writers, perhaps, of that Age, paid so great a Veneration to Homer, that they sometimes affected even to imitate his Faults. Notwithstanding, therefore, this Exception, (and what Rule is without one?) I may venture to affirm, that the Laws I proposed, in relation to Epithets, ought punctually to be observed. It is farther to be noted, that the Words meus, tuus, and suus, (which are not properly Epithets) are often brought into a Verse out of Idleness, only to fill it up, and make it flat and languid. Thus Ovid, in the Story of Phaeton,

95 —Balænarumque prementem
Ægæona suis immania terga lacertis.

Himself Ægæon with his Hand does guide
A Whale’s enormous Bulk.

96 Tum pater ora sui sacro medicamine nati
Contigit.——

Then o’er his own Son’s Face a Tincture pours.

And afterwards:

In the pentameter Verse these Pronouns, it is well known, are remarkably serviceable to constitute the last Foot; but it is one of the poorest Expedients that can be thought of!

I said that Homer’s Faults were, perhaps, studiously imitated by the best Writers; for if Homer may at this Time of Day be criticized upon, it would be hard to assign a Reason for the Frequency of his Epithets, many of which are insignificant and superfluous, or to shew wherein consists the Elegance of these sort of Expressions, and innumerable others of the like Nature, that occur up and down in him98.

——θοἡ παρἁ νηἱ μελαιυη.
θἱν’ ἑφ’ ἁλὁϛ πολιἡϛ, ‘ἑρὁων ἑπἱ ὁινοπα πὁντον.

          Sad retiring to the sounding Shore,
O’er the wild Margin of the Deep he hung.
          Pope.

—λευχὡλενο; Ἡρη, white arm’d Juno

—βοὡτιϛ πὁτνια Ἡρη, her full-ey’d Majesty.

These are Difficulties I only propose, not presuming to assert any Thing against the ancientest, and almost the Prince of Poets.

On the other Hand, they are under no less an Error, that will admit only of very few Epithets, and arrogantly banish the Use of them. It is certain, they are not only wonderfully adapted to Description, but so peculiarly to Poetry, that the Beauty of its Style chiefly consists in them. They exhibit to the Mind Ideas of Qualities in the Concrete, (as the Logicians speak) which strike the Imagination no less than those that are express’d in the Abstract. ’Tis plain, from what appears above, that the Writings of the best Poets are full of them, and particularly Virgil’s. But tho’ the Examples already alleg’d might seem sufficient, yet I beg Leave to add a very remarkable one, where every Substantive has its proper Epithet, to heighten and adorn the Sense. The Passage I mean is at the Beginning of the celebrated Description of the Infernal Shades:

99 Vestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in faucibus orci,
Luctus, & ultrices posuére cubilia
Curæ; Pallentesque habitant Morbi, tristisque Senectus,
Et Metus, & malesuada Fames, & turpis Egestas,
(Terribiles visu formæ!) Letumque, Laborque,
Tum consanguineus leti Sopor, & mala mentis

Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum;
Ferreique Eumenidum thalami, & Discordia demens,
Vipereos crines vittis innexa cruentis.
In medio ramos annosaque brachia pandit
Ulmus opaca, ingens; quam sedem somnia vulgo
Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus hærent.

Just in the Entrance and first Jaws of Hell,
Grief and revengeful Cares their Couches plac’d;
And pale Diseases, querulous old Age,
Fear, ill-persuading Hunger, and foul Want;
(Forms dreadful to behold) and Death, and Pain;
And Sleep akin to Death; the Mind’s false Joys;
The Furies Iron Bed; and Discord wild,
Her vip’rous Locks with bloody Fillets bound.
Full in the midst a tall and dusky Elm
Displays its Boughs, and aged Limbs: This Seat
(Such is the Fame) fantastick Dreams possess,
And stick beneath the Leaves.——

We meet with but few Lines of this Poet free from Epithets; many have two, and some three: Nay, sometimes ’tis the Height of Elegance to join more to the same Substantive, without a Conjunction between: As,

An Eyeless Monster, hideous, vast deform!

101 —Loricam ex ære rigentem,
Sanguineam, ingentem.——

          The Corslet stiff with Brass,
Sanguine, immense.

A Style, therefore, destitute of Epithets, will gain no more Admirers, than a Body made up of nothing but Nerves and Bones: And as the Beauty of this consists in not being too much emaciated, nor yet over-charged with Flesh; so does that of the other in a just Proportion of these sort of Adjuncts, when they are neither wanting, nor too much abound. Verbs and Substantives I suppose to be in Style, what Bones and Nerves are in a Body; because they contain more Strength, tho’ not more Beauty than Epithets; which therefore, whenever Emphasis and Energy is required, are totally omitted. Thus Virgil:

102 Aude, hospes, contemnere opes, & te quoque dignum
Finge Deo.——

Dare to scorn Wealth, brave Guest; presume thyself
Worthy to emulate a God.

And again:

103 Est hic, est animus lucis contemptor, & istum
Qui vita bene credit emi, quo tendis, honorem.

Here too, here dwells a Soul that with Contempt
Regards this vital Air, and thinks with Life
That Fame well bought, to which thy Soul aspires.

And at the Conclusion of that admirable Description of Æneas’s Shield made by Vulcan, thus the divine Poet closes his eighth Book:

104 Talia per clypeum Vulcani, dona parentis,
Miratur, rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet,
Attollens humero famamque & fata nepotum.

Such Figures on the broad Vulcanian Shield,
His Mother’s Gift, the Hero pleas’d admires
In Ignorance; and on his Shoulder high
Upheaves the Fame and Fortune of his Race.

The last Verse is express’d with all the Strength and Weight imaginable, because without one Epithet. The Reason of this Effect seems to be, that Ideas in the Concrete are no more than Adjuncts of those in the Abstract; now that which supports, must needs be stronger than what is supported. To the same Purpose, when this is our Aim, all synonymous Expressions must be avoided; for the shorter and closer the Style, the stronger; but the Matter of it, by being spread among a Variety of Words, is thinned, and, consequently, weakened. The Poet, no doubt, is indulged much more in Epithets and Synonyma’s, than the Orator; his Province consisting more peculiarly in Colouring, Description and Decoration. But both of them ought to take Care that these musical and bewitching Elegances are not too redundant; for a Style, whether in Prose or Verse, cannot be attended with a greater Fault than a verbose Luxuriance.

Some, thro’ Ignorance of what an Epithet is, may be apt in their Reading to make a wrong Enumeration of them; for all Adjectives and Participles do not (as many think) come under this Appellation, but those only which are annex’d to Substantives, by way of Ornament and Illustration; not such as make up the essential Part of the Description. In the following Lines of Virgil,

105 Diverso interea miscentur mœnia luctu;
Et magis atque magis (quanquam secreta parentis
Anchisæ domus, arboribusque obtecta recessit)
Clarescunt sonitus, armorumque ingruit horror.

Mean while, with Cries confus’d the Walls resound:
And tho’ my Father’s Palace, fenc’d with Trees,
Stood from the Hurry of the town retir’d;
The Noise grows loud, and th’ undistinguish’d Din
Of clashing Arms rolls near.

there is not an Epithet; neither diverso, secreta, or obtecta, comes under that Denomination, but are Adjectives or Participles of the other Kind.

Seventh Lecture.

We come now to enumerate the different Kinds of Style made use of by Poets, and to shew briefly wherein they consist, and to what sort of Verse and Subject each is suitable. To begin, then, with that which is first in Dignity, and therefore ought to be so in Place; the sublime, I mean, whose Property it is to express lofty Ideas in no vulgar Strain, but with Words sonorous, pompous, and majestic. This Style is, in the first Place, proper for the Epic Poem; in the next, to some sort of Odes; after that, to Tragedy; then to the severer kind of Satire; and, in short, to all Poems of less Note, that partake of the Heroic, or the Buskin. There are others that make Excursions into it, such as the Georgics, and all of the Didactic, or Philosophical Kind, whenever they digress into a more noble Field of Matter, to which their Subject sometimes naturally leads them. But to Comedy, the lower kind of Satire, and Pastoral, it is never agreeable; to Elegy very seldom. In behalf of the first of these, that Place of Terence will be urged, which Horace seems to have had in his View, when he says,

Yet Comedy sometimes may raise her Voice.
          Rosc.

But this Rage of Chremes, which Horace mentions, is not, perhaps, so much an Instance of a Comic Sublime, as of a borrowed Tragic Fury. In relation to Pastoral, if Virgil’s fourth Eclogue be objected, I answer, that the Poet himself confesses he leaves his proper Subject for a more lofty one, and begins his Poem with a sort of an Apology for it:

Sicelides Musæ, paulo majora canamus;
Non omnes arbusta juvant, humilesque myricæ.

Sicilian Muses, raise a loftier Strain;
Not all in Groves and lowly Shrubs delight.

Not that I suppose Pastoral totally to reject the Sublime, as I shall have Occasion to shew more fully hereafter.

For the present, I suppose, it will suffice to produce one or two Instances, out of innumerable, of the Style we are upon. In the second Æneid, Venus, shewing her Son what Gods were united for the Destruction of Troy, gives us this Specimen of it:

107 Non tibi Tyndaridis facies invisa Lacænæ,
Culpatusve Paris; Divûm inclementia, Divûm,
Has evertit opes, sternitque à culmine Trojam.

’Tis not Tyndarian Helen’s hated Form,
Nor much blam’d Paris; Heav’n, inclement Heav’n
O’erturns this Realm, and levels tow’ring Troy.

And a little after:

108 Hic ubi disjectas moles, avulsaque saxis
Saxa vides, mistoque undantem pulvere fumum;
Neptunus muros, magnoque emota tridenti
Fundamenta quatit, totamque à sedibus urbem
Eruit; hic Juno Scæas sævissima portas
Prima tenet, sociumque furens à navibus agmen
Ferro accincta vocat.
Jam summas arces Tritonia (respice) Pallas
Insedit, nimbo effulgens, & Gorgone sæva.
Ipse Pater Danais animos, viresque secundas
Sufficit, ipse Deos in Dardana suscitat arma.

Here, where you see that Rubbish, Heaps confus’d,
Stones wrench’d from Stones, and thick redounding Smoke
Blended with Clouds of Dust; great Neptune shakes
The Walls, and with his massy Trident heaves
The City from its deep Foundations. There
Relentless Juno, girt with Steel, has seiz’d
The Scæan Gates; and raging from their Ships
Calls her confed’rate Forces.
Next (that Way bend thy Eyes) the lofty Tow’rs
Tritonian Pallas has possess’d; there sits,
With her dire Gorgon. In a beamy Cloud,
Effulgent Jove himself the Grecian Troops
With Courage, and new Strength supplies; himself
Excites the Gods against the Dardan Arms.

Again, a few Lines after:

109 Dixerat; & spissis noctis se condidit umbris.
Apparent diræ facies, inimicaque Trojæ
Numina magna Deum.

She said; and in th’involving Shades retir’d:
The direful Shapes appear, and Foes to Troy,
Forms of the awful Gods.

And in the last Book, the Poet thus introduces Æneas going to engage with Turnus:

110 At pater Æneas, audito nomine Turni,
Deserit & muros, & summas deserit arces;
Præcipitatque moras omnes, opera omnia rumpit,
Lætitia exultans, horrendumque intonat armis.

But Prince Æneas, hearing Turnus’ Name,
Forsakes the Walls, forsakes the lofty Tow’rs,
Breaks all Delay, all other Toil; with Joy
Exults; and thunders terrible in Arms.

Instances of this Style fill every Page, almost, of the Æneis; and in the Odes of Horace are very frequent;

111 Justum & tenacem propositi virum,
Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis Tyranni,
  Mente quatit solida; neque Auster
Dux inquieti turbidus Adriæ,
Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus:
  Si fractus illabatur orbis,
    Impavidum ferient ruinæ.

  The Man whose Principles are true,
    In Heart resolv’d to act aright,
  Nor impious Faction’s madding Crew,
    Nor frowning Tyrant can affright;
Unshaken, like a Tow’r he stands, and braves
The Impotence of great or little Slaves.
  The Elements may war around,
    Fierce Winds may rave, huge Billows roll,
  Jove’s Lightning flash, his Thunder sound,
    And shock the World——but not his Soul:
He Nature’s Wreck can view, without Surprize,
Amidst the shining Ruin of the Skies.
          T. Hare.

v. g. Claudian, tho’ his Style is frequently too swelling, and borders upon the Bombast, yet often hits upon the true Sublime: Thus in the celebrated Description of the Victory which the Emperor Theodosius gained, by the Advantage of the Winds:

112 Te propter, gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis
Obruit adversas acies, revolutaque tela
Vertit in autores, & turbine reppulit hastas.
O! nimium dilecte Deo; cui fundit ab antris
Æolus armatas hyemes, cui militat æther,
Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti.

For thee the friendly North in social Show’rs,
Wide o’er the hostile Troops his Fury pours.
To their launch’d Jav’lins points a backward Road,
And Storms retort the missive Deaths they vow’d.
Great Jove for thee, thou Heav’n’s peculiar Care!
Sends forth his wing’d Militia of the Air.
Confed’rate Seasons round thy Standards join,
And mustring Winds attend thy Trumpet’s Sign.

Between the Sublime of Virgil and Claudian there’s a manifest Difference; the Ideas of the latter are not so just, nor the Diction so pure: He can only be said to be less faulty, when he writes best.

’Tis a remarkable Property of this Style, to be bold and figurative; to abound, especially, with Metaphors and Hyperboles; the Use of which requires great Care and Judgment. It is distinguish’d, on the one Hand, from the turgid, rumbling Bombast, which is much affected by those who are possess’d with a false Spirit of Poetry, and no true Judgment to direct it; and consists either of empty sounding Words, or unnatural Sentences, or absurd Metaphors, or rash Hyperbole’s. There are innumerable Examples of it in Claudian; v. g.

113 Sol, qui flammigeris mundum complexus habenis,
Volvis inexhausto redeuntia secula motu,
Sparge diem meliore coma; crinemque repexi
Blandius elato surgant temone jugales,
Efflantes roseum frænis spumantibus ignem.

Light of the Spheres, that with unwearied Ray
On flaming Harness roll’st the golden Day,
Undrain’d and sprightly seest fresh Seasons born,
With softer Tresses shed this fatal Morn.
Let thy hot Coursers spring with sleeker Manes,
And rosy Fires breath o’er the foaming Reins.

In another Place:

114 —compage soluta
Fulgidus umbrosa miscebitur axis Averno.

      Dissolv’d the Fabrick of the World,
The Sun’s bright Axis in Avernus hurl’d.

And again:

115 —Clypeus nos protegat idem,
Unaque pro gemino desudet cardine virtus.

          One Shield shall us protect,
And for its double Charge one Safeguard sweat.

So Statius, in the very Beginning of his Sylvæ:

116 Quæ super imposito moles geminata Colosso
Stat Latium complexa forum, &c.

This Mass, on which the great Colossus rides,
The Forum with a wide Embrace bestrides.

To omit others, thus Casimire:

117 —Currite candidis
Horæ quadrigis.

With snowy Steeds, ye nimble Hours, fly.

In another Place:

118 Anni nubibus insident,
Incertis equitant lustra Favoniis,
      Cæco secula turbine.

          Years ride on Clouds,
About uncertain Zephyrs Lustrums play,
And on black Whirlwinds Ages die away.

There are many other Instances of this kind in the same Poet; who seems to have been peculiarly delighted with this hard and unnatural Way of Writing.

The Sublime, on the other Hand, is distinguished from the Humble; which has its Elegance as it is used in its proper Place. It is proper, when we would describe, in a familiar and easy Manner, the common Concerns of Life; and agrees more especially with Comedy, the lower kind of Satire, and Epistles; and, as Occasion serves, may be admitted in all Sorts of Poems. Instances of it are very numerous:

119 Qui, fit, Mæcenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem
Seu ratio dederit, seu fors objecerit, illa
Contentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentes?

Whence comes, my Lord, this gen’ral Discontent?
Why do all loath the State that Chance hath sent,
Or their own Choice procur’d? But fondly bless
Their Neighbours Lots, and praise what they possess.
          Creech.

120 Prima dicte mihi, summa dicende Camæna,
Spectatum satis, & donatum jam rude quæris,
Mæcenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo.
Non eadem est ætas, non mens, &c.

My Lord, Mæcenas, whom I gladly chuse,
The first, and the last Subject of my Muse;
Tho’ I have fought enough, and well before,
And now dismist, have Leave to fight no more;
You strive to bring me on the Stage again:
My Age is not alike, unlike my Brain.
          Creech.

It is needless to add any more: Terence’s Comedies, and Horace’s Satires and Epistles, consist entirely almost of this Style, and are abundant Proof of its Elegance.

The Style of Pastorals is likewise of the humble Kind, but still distinct from what I have now been instancing in. The one, as I said, is suited to Comedy, Satire, and Epistles; the other to Bucolics: The former represents common Life, and more especially as it appears within the City; the latter draws all its Images from the Country; that looser and freer, this sweeter and more elaborate. But of these Things more hereafter, when we come to treat of this delightful Species of Poetry separately. At present let it be observ’d, that there is a middle Kind of Style between the Sublime and the Humble, suitable to every Branch of Poetry. This of Ovid is a Specimen of it:

121 Arma gravi numero, violentaque tela parabam
  Edere, materia conveniente modis.
Par erat inferior versus; risisse Cupido
  Dicitur, atque unum surripuisse pedem.
Quis tibi, sæve Puer, dedit hoc in carmina juris?
  Pieridum vates, non tua turba, sumus.

Whilst I to sing in lofty Verse prepare,
The bloody Triumphs of destructive War,
The Urchin Cupid mock’d my rash Design,
And stole one Foot from each alternate Line.
But who, my Boy, gave thou this great Command?
We are the Muses, not the Lovers Band.

Innumerable are the Instances of this middle Style among the Poets, especially in Virgil’s Georgics, which are chiefly writ in that Way. For it is to be particularly observ’d, that, because the Matter of a Poem is low, it by no means follows the Thoughts and Diction must be so too, and that there’s no necessary Connexion between a common Subject and a vulgar Style. To prescribe Rules for Sowing, Harvest, and other Matters of Husbandry, is a slight Subject, but not therefore to be treated with the Unpoliteness of a Clown. Tho’ the Poem be preceptive in its Nature, it may be elegant in its Manner; it may be employ’d upon Things of small Moment, yet they may be cloath’d with Ornament, and heighten’d by Description. But Comedy, and the looser kind of Satire, as they regard only the Manners of Men in common Life, are chiefly adapted to the low Style.

It then becomes faulty, when any Thing of a sublime Nature, at least above the common Level, is introduced with some low creeping Expression. Thus Ovid, where he speaks of the Council of the Gods:

122 —tenuere silentia cuncti.
The great Immortals held their Tongues.

And describing Phaeton run away with by the Horses of the Sun:123

124 Succutiturque alte, similisque est currus inani.
The Driver thrown, the Car as empty flies.
125 Nec scit qua sit iter, nec si sciat, imperet illis.
Nor knows the Way, nor, if he knew, could guide.

And in the fourth Book, after he had described the Interview between Pyramus and Thisbe well enough,

126 Ad nomen Thisbes oculos jam morte gravatos
Pyramus erexit,——

His swimming Eyes he rais’d at Thisbe’s Name.

he thus miserably concludes the Verse:

—visaque recondidit illa.
And having seen her, clos’d them up again.

In another Place,

127 Sensit abesse dolos, numerumque accessit ad harum.
All safe she found, and join’d herself to them.

In the seventh Book:

          128 —agisque
Carminibus grates, & Diis auctoribus horum.

You secret Transports on your Charms bestow,
And on the Gods, the Authors of them, too.

Nothing can be more palpable than the Absurdities I have here produced: In Ovid they are almost unpardonable, who, as he wanted not Genius, must needs have fallen into them thro’ gross Inadvertency and Supineness.

There’s another Species of Style, called the Sarcastical and Invective, suited, as Reason will tell us, more peculiarly to Satire. But we shall no where find a more lively Instance of it than in Virgil:

129 Cantando Tu illum? aut unquam tibi fistula cera
Juncta fuit? non tu in triviis, indocte, solebas
Stridenti miserum stipula disperdere carmen?

Thou him in piping! Had’st thou e’er a Pipe
Jointed with Wax?. Wert thou not wont, thou Dolt,
In the Cross-ways, upon a screeching Straw
To murder a vile Tune with viler Notes?

Here, it is plain, the Mordacity lies in the Expression more than the Thought; which is no more than that the Shepherd mention’d was a miserable Piper; but the Words are emphatically cutting, in triviis, stridenti, miserum, stipula, disperdere; each of which is arm’d with Poignancy, and dresses out the Image with fresh Ridicule. On the other Hand, sometimes the Invective turns wholly upon the Thought; as in another Verse of Virgil:

Who hates not Bavius, be he doom’d to love
Thy Metre, Mævius!

A keener Satire cannot be conceived; but the Force of it consists in the Sense only; the Words, considered separately, have nothing of that Kind in them. The former, therefore, is the proper Instance of the Invective Style; because in the Style the whole Invective is contained. It may justly be wonder’d that I should fetch Examples of the Style and Thought of Satire, from a Poet endow’d by Nature with the sweetest Disposition, and led by his Subject to a very different Way of Writing: But he had a Genius so adapted to every Thing, that he could write Satire in spite of his own good Nature. These Examples are a sufficient Proof, that if he had turn’d his Thoughts that Way, he would have gain’d the Laurel from all other Competitors; and I must ingenuously confess, that, in my Mind, Juvenal himself has nothing more severe than this Virgilian Acrimony.

The Florid Style is set off with Tropes, Figures, and especially Metaphors. The Use and Abuse of these, I have already spoke of; to avoid Repetition, therefore, I would here only observe, That all Sorts of Poems admit of figurative Expressions, and receive fresh Ornament from them, when the Subject requires them, and Judgment is used in the Choice of them; but that this Style is suitable, in the first Place, to the sublimer Kind of Ode, and, in the next, to the Epic Poem.

A Style, likewise, is said to be easy or strong; short or diffuse; clear or obscure; sweet, soft, and fluent; or rough, and unpleasant. The several Properties of these, to what Subject, and to what Poem each is suitable, may be collected from this Dissertation, and the Examples produced; and are partly so self-evident, that all further Explication or Example would be needless. I only observe, in one Word, that a clear Style is never faulty, an obscure and an uncouth one always so; but that the easy or strong, the short or prolix, the loose or close, the brisk or slow, the sweet and soft, or the rough and harsh, are all of them sometimes proper, sometimes improper, according to the Subject Matter of the Poem they appear in. ’Tis farther to be observ’d, That the rough Style, artfully enrich’d with a few antiquated Words, has a certain Majesty in it, which adds a Grandeur to Tragedy especially, and a Sublimity to the Epic Poem: That this Liberty, however, is to be used with Judgment and Caution, lest it appear dull and stiff, instead of lofty and majestic. On the other Hand, that Elegies, particularly, and some sort of Pastorals, require the sweet and flowing Style, and utterly reject all Asperity: Lastly, That some of the Appellations by which Style is distinguish’d are applied to Thought likewise; as sublime, low, satirical, elegant, &c. and some of them not so: For a brisk or slow Thought, a concise or prolix Thought, &c. are Terms which the Schools are yet Strangers to.

Elegance enters into the Composition of every Style that has any Merit in it, pervades every Part, and is, as it were, the Soul to it. What Elegance is, and wherein it consists, has been already shewn, at the Entrance of this Dissertation.

But tho’ every Kind of Poem has a Style peculiar to itself, yet we are not to preserve one even Course of Writing from the Beginning to the End, but to rise or fall, to be sweet or rough, to be concise or to expatiate, &c. according to the Variety of Matter into which our Subject leads us. Virgil, in that Description of Prodigies which I have before cited, sometimes uses the short Diction:

131 Vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentes
Ingens; & simulacra modis pallentia miris
Visa sub obscurum noctis; pecudesque locutæ,
Infandum! sistunt amnes; terræque dehiscunt;
Et mœstum illacrimat templis ebur; æraque sudant.

And oft in silent Woods were Voices more
Than human heard: And Spectres wond’rous pale
Seen in the Dusk of Ev’ning: Oxen spoke,
(Horrid to tell!) Earth yawn’d, and Streams stood still,
In Temples mourning Iv’ry wept; and Brass
Sweated.

But in the next Words, where he is to express a great Inundation, he thus breaks out into an Exuberancy of Style:

132 Proluit insano contorquens vortice silvas
Fluviorum Rex Eridanus, camposque per omnes
Cum stabulis armenta tulit.

          Eridanus, supreme of Rivers,
With roaring Inundation o’er the Plains
Whirl’d Woods away, and Cattle with their Stalls.

It is a great Fault, to be always upon the Sublime: In those Poems, whose Subject leads them to be most so, some Things occur, that ought to be express’d in the plainest Diction, that scarce admit, much less require the lofty or the splendid.

Lastly, ’tis to be observed, that the Style of Comedy is not properly a poetical Style, but an elegant kind of Prose. It would be absurd if it were otherwise; since the Language of Comedy is to imitate familiar Discourse, and such as passes in common Conversation. For this Reason, some (as Horace tells us) have made a Doubt whether this Species of the Drama is to be accounted a Species of Poetry, or not:

133 Idcirco quidam, Comœdia, necne, poema
Esset, quæsivere; quod acer spiritus, ac vis,
Nec verbis, nec rebus, inest; nisi quod pede certo
Differt sermoni, sermo merus.

And therefore some do doubt (tho’ some allow)
If Comedy be Poetry, or no:
Because it wants that Spirit, Flame and Force,
And bate the Numbers, ’tis but plain Discourse.
          Creech.

’Tis Certain the Style of the ancient Comedy had nothing poetical in it but the Feet and Measure, and those very little different from Prose; and rejected all those Modes of Speech, which we have mention’d above as peculiar to Poetry. What, therefore, Comedy has in common with Poetry, does not consist in the Diction, but partly in the Measure, and chiefly in the Invention, the Conduct of the Plot, and the Disposal of the Parts.

I am very sensible a great Question may arise in relation to our Comedies, whether they are to be deem’d Poems, since they want those metrical Numbers, which in our former Dissertation we made essential to a Poem. This Question undoubtedly bears much harder upon our English Comedies, than upon the ancient Greek and Latin ones; which are manifestly writ in some certain Measure, tho’ a loose one, and the nearest possible to Prose; but our’s pretend to be nothing else but Prose, only with a Distich or two at the Conclusion of every Act. It may be question’d, likewise, on the other Hand, whether the French Poets are to be commended, who write entire Comedies not only in Ryme, but even Heroic Verse. These Doubts I shall at present wave, since a more proper Opportunity will offer to discuss them fully, when I make Comedy the Subject of an entire Dissertation.

As Style is my present Subject, and I shall make Thought my next; it may not be improper to inquire into the Relation between the Beauty of the one and the other, and what Connexion there is between writing well, and thinking justly, and how they mutually conspire to promote each other. This Enquiry is somewhat of a middle Nature between the Subject of our present Discourse and the following; and, like a Partition Wall, may serve to join, and yet divide them.

I lay it down for a Rule, that no one can write clearly, or elegantly, that does not think so. If you are obscure to yourself, you must have great good Luck indeed, if you are perspicuous to others. And if your Thought is bad, shining Language only serves to make both ridiculous. ’Tis like dressing up a disagreeable Person in rich Cloaths, which receive Disgrace from the Wearer, and make his Deformity more contemptible. On the other Hand, ’tis scarce possible, but he whose Thoughts are clear and bright, will be so in his Style too, provided he is well vers’d in the best Authors, and Master of the Language he writes in. When we speak or write, our Thoughts break forth, like the Light, diffuse themselves around, and, by their natural Force, enter the Minds of our Hearers or Readers, as that does the Eyes of the Beholders. Words (if we may believe Quintilian) almost necessarily follow a clear Imagination, as the Shadow does a Substance. And if once we have a Conception of any Thing beautiful or sublime, suitable Expressions will arise, if we think proper to make use of them. If we think proper, I say, to make use of them; for it is not to be supposed, that the one will necessarily accompany the other, whether we will let them or not, or that Quintilian meant to extend the Necessity so far. It is possible the Thoughts may be beautiful and sublime, and the Words, out of Choice, plain and simple; and the Plainness of these may sometimes not only shew, but add to the Sublimity of those. To this Purpose Longinus cites that short Narration of the divine Historian, as a remarkable Instance of Sublimity: And God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light. So Horace:

         134 ——Sapere aude,
Incipe.

Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.
          Cowley.

And Virgil:

135 Ostendent terris hunc tantum Fata, neque ultra
Esse sinent.

          Him the Fates shall shew
To Earth, and only shew him; nor shall there
Permit his longer Stay.

In which, and many other Places, the Words are without Ornament, but the Thought sublime. Thus Beauty sometimes appears the most amiable in its native Charms, and unaffected Neatness: Thus Majesty has been seen to beam forth the strongest when all the Ensigns of it have been laid aside, and it stood supported by its own Strength. Words, then, are to the Thought, what Cloaths are to the Body; what I have to say farther upon this Head, shall be illustrated by this Comparison.

On the other Hand, there are many sublime and beautiful Thoughts that require Words of the same Nature; they appear pitiful without them, and fall short of their proper Dignity. Witness those Instances we have produced from Ovid of the creeping Style, and many more might be produced. Thus frequently, I may say generally, rich Attire, and costly Ornaments, add to the Beauty even of the most beautiful; and Kings who appear by Nature formed for Majesty, display it usually to most Advantage, when deck’d with the Imperial Purple.

But tho’ the Thoughts may be beautiful or sublime, while the Words that express them are plain and simple; yet the Rule will not hold inverted: Words can have neither Beauty, nor Sublimity, unless the Thoughts have both. I mean true Beauty, and true Sublimity; because if these are wanting in the Thought, that Sparkling which appears in the Diction, is only a false Light; as fine Cloaths are no longer fine when bestowed upon some dishonest Form; they are far from being an elegant Dress, when they ill become the Wearer. And if the Thought, in this Case, is not sublime, all the Magnificence of Diction is ridiculous Affectation, and mere Bombast. Only one Kind of Poem ought to be excepted; which tho’ it has no Latin Name, is well enough known in all the modern Languages of Europe: The Doggrel Kind I mean; which abounds much in an ingenious Liberty of Jesting, and dressing up little Things in pompous Words. But in all serious Writing, this Rule holds universally.

But tho’ beautiful Expressions cannot make the Thought beautiful, yet they strongly recommend its Beauty, and even improve it; as Dress and Ornament cannot create a Face, yet they may assist its Charms, and add to those that Nature has bestow’d upon it. In Proof of this, I might produce innumerable Examples that are to be met with every where in the Writings of the best Poets. When Virgil had excellently described the broken and shattered Condition of Sergestus’s Ship, which we mention’d above, it was undoubtedly a beautiful Thought to compare it working along with one Bank of Oars, to the labour’d Motion of a wounded Serpent. But how does the Poet heighten the Beauty of the Comparison in the following Manner of describing it?

136 Qualis sæpe viæ deprensus in aggere serpens,
Ærea quem obliquum rota transiit, aut gravis ictu
Seminecem liquit, saxo lacerumque, viator:
Nequicquam longos fugiens dat corpore tortus;
Parte ferox, ardensque oculis, & sibila colla
Arduus attollens; pars vulnere clauda retentat
Nexantem nodos, seque in sua membra plicantem.

          As when a Snake
Is catch’d (as oft it happens) on a Ridge
Of rising Ground; whose Body cross’d aslant
A brazen Wheel has mangled on the Road;
Or some sour Passenger, with heavy Blow,
Has left half dead, and shatter’d with a Stone:
He flying twists his Length in tortuous Wreaths,
Part fierce with ardent Eyes, and hissing Tongue,
Uprears aloft his swelling Neck in Air;
Part damag’d in the Wound retards him crush’d
Wriggling his Spires, and knitting Knots in vain.

Aristæus’s Entrance into the subterraneous Grotto’s of the Water Nymph Cyrene, is thus described by the same Poet:

137 —Simul alta jubet discedere late
Flumina, qua juvenis gressus inferret; at illum
Curvata in montis faciem circumstetit unda,
Accepitque sinu vasto, misitque sub amnem.
Jamque domum mirans genitricis, & humida regna,
Speluncisque lacus clausos, lucosque sonantes,
Ibat, & ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum,
Omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra
Spectabat diversa locis, &c.

      At once she bids on either Side retire
The Rivers, that the Youth unhurt might pass:
Him, like a Mountain, arch’d, the standing Waves
Surround; their spacious Bosom open wide,
And spread his Entrance to the hoary Deep.
And now admiring at his Mother’s Court,
And liquid Realms, the Lakes in Caverns pent,
And sounding Groves, he goes, and wond’ring hears
The rumbling Billows; nor less wond’ring sees
The various Streams, which subterraneous glide
Thro’ the vast Globe.

The Thought, the Fiction, is perfectly beautiful; but who is so blind, as not to see that these poetical Ideas receive no small Embellishment from the Elegance of the Expression; or so dull, as not to love and admire both the Art and Ingenuity of the Writer? We see, then, that the Elegance of Thought is much promoted by that of Diction; and this is true of all Sorts of Thought, as well the beautiful, as the sublime, but more particularly of that which consists of Comparison and Description. On the other Hand, that the Elegance and Sublimity of Thought conduces much to the Elegance and Sublimity of Expression, is too clear to need either Proof or Example; Thought being, as it were, the Life of Words, and (as the Schoolmen speak) that which gives them their essential Form. Upon the whole, then, beautiful Thoughts and Expressions mutually help and adorn each other, as a goodly Personage and a rich Attire. Wherein consists the Beauty of Thought, shall be the Subject of our next Enquiry.

Notes

35 Impositos duris crepitare incudibus enses.

36Oceanum interea surgens Aurora reliquit.

37 Vertitur interea cœlum, & ruit Oceano nox.

75 Sternitur, exanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos.

81 Italiam non sponte sequor——
Tis with Regret I seek
Th’ Italian Coasts.

90 —Ecce! vigil nitido patefecit ab ortu Purpureas Aurora fores, & plena rosarum Atria.——
Soon as the Morn, in orient Purple drest,
Unbarr’d the Portals of the roseate East.
          Pope, Odyss. IV. 411.

94 Eque sagittifera prompsit duo tela pharetra.

97 Vixque suis humeris candentem sustinet axem.

100 Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens.——

106 Interdum tamen & vocem Comœdia tollit.

130 Qui Bavium non odit, amet tua carmina, Mævi.