equally amusing, the compliments to the equestrian skill, and personal graces, of the Emperor: (Fescennin. Carm. 1. 1. 31-38.) IV. Cons. Honor. "Tua posceret ultro," (l. 554-564.) And the following, in the first quoted poem, might almost have been copied from the " Ipse capi voluit" of Juvenal. (Fescennin. Carm. 1. 1. 10-15.) It would be difficult, indeed, for one who had not read Claudian, to conceive the extreme of absurdity into which his study of adulation sometimes carries him. His invectives are on a par with his panegyrics; equally copious, and equally unmeasured, though, from the nature of the case, not so ludicrous in their extravagance. He absolutely luxuriates in abuse, and like barbarian sculptors, exerts all his opulence of language in varying or aggravating the portrait of deformity. It is impossible to regard such a prostitution of intellect without pain and disgust; nor is it easy to conceive how representations so palpably false, so immeasurably distant from the truth, could have been received with toleration, still less with applause, by the hearers, or even by the objects of the panegyric. The more delicate taste of a Tiberius would have rejected such homage with abhorrence. Perhaps, however, both our wonder and our indignation may be diminished on reflection. Undeserved praise is not always flattery. To many, perhaps to most minds there is an atmosphere of mysterious awe surrounding a monarch, through which himself and all that belongs to him, are viewed in higher dimensions and fairer colors than the reality. This is, it is true, a weakness, and the mark of a vulgar mind; but it is a feeling distinct from servility, and ought not to be confounded with it, though, as delusion and dishonesty play into each other's hands, the two are frequently found together. Many actions, too, which are now ascertained to have originated in selfish motives, were at the time otherwise interpreted; and it is not improbable that many favorable traits of character, which history, in its sweeping condemnation, has omitted to notice, were then recognised and appreciated. Without some such considerations as these, it is difficult to account for the sentiments entertained by contemporaries, and the opinions expressed by writers of whose integrity there can be no doubt, relative to characters of which the world now judges very differently. Nor ought it to be forgotten, that the topics of eulogy to which the court poet is compelled to resort, counteracts in some degree the effects of his servility. Poetry is essentially lofty, and if it cannot find an elevated subject, will make one. It may disgrace itself by becoming the panegyrist of the worthless, but it cannot descend to their level. If it cannot alter the nature of their actions, it will at least shame them by the fictions to which it is obliged to have recourse in their vindication. If it cannot find matter for praise in what they are, it will praise them for what they are not; and thus virtue, or what the poet considers as such, will in some way or other be the subject of the verse. Hence it is that the poetry of Claudian is so rich in moral reflection. His merit in this respect is indeed generally acknowledged. Few of the Roman poets have excelled him in the happy expression of sentiment. One or two of his sentences have passed into proverbs: as, Nunquam libertas gratior extat, Quam sub rege pio. De Cons. Stilich. II. 114. And the following, which is expressed with an ease and purity worthy of the Augustan age: Natura beatis Omnibus esse dedit, si quis cognoverit uti. In Ruf. 1. 215. The sententious passages of Claudian are, in our opinion, the finest parts of his works. Such are, among many others of the same stamp, the lines in praise of a country life, copied indeed, somewhat too closely from Virgil, Ruf. 1. 196; the address of Theodosius to his son, Iv. Cons. Hon. 214; the fine passage beginning, Principio magni custos Clementia mundi," Laud. Stilich. 11.6; and the well-known verses "De Sene Veronensi," among the minor poems. In addition to what was said above in extenuation of the great pervading fault of Claudian, it ought to be remembered, that in the case of Stilicho at least, he had the excuse of personal gratitude. Stilicho is indeed, more or less directly, the hero of every song; and he seizes with manifest pleasure every opportunity afforded him of reverting to this favorite subject; whose actions, indeed, with the proper degree of exaggerated coloring and distorted statement, appear to have afforded as fair a scope for eulogy as the greater part of those which have called forth the admiration of poets and orators in different ages." 'Setting aside the admixture of mythological fiction, Dryden's court poems bear a considerable resemblance to the Panegyrics of Claudian. Such are the lines on the Restoration, the Annus Mirabilis, and the Threnodia Augustalis; for the odes, elegies, and panegyrics of Dryden differ in little but the title. Addison's Campaign, and Tickell's Royal Progress, are specimens of the same style. Throughout all the works of Claudian there is a studied reference to Roman feelings and associations. In this he probably consulted the prepossessions of his audience. Though the great body of the population was little better than a mixture of all nations; though the original constitution of Rome had ceased to exist for centuries, and even the outward features of its polity were becoming more and more indistinguishable; the name of Rome still remained, and the recollection of its ancient glories had never been wholly effaced, even among the most degenerate of its sons. It is probable that, with the purity of blood, the degree of national feeling, which still remained, survived principally in the patricians, to whom Claudian's writings are addressed. Accordingly, all the shadows of liberty which yet remained, all the reliques of Republican form and title which were retained under the declining empire, are sedulously brought forward to dignify the transactions of despotic power or military violence. Ev'n then-in mockery of that golden time 'The venerable names of liberty and the people, the dignity of the consulship, the sanctity of the laws, the faith, and clemency, and inflexible justice which partial tradition extolled as the characteristics of the ancient Republic-these and kindred topics are perpetually recurring in the pages of the last of Roman poets. The daring achievement of Stilicho, in forcing a passage through the camp of Alaric, is heightened by a comparison with the exploit of Cocles of old. Honorius is complimented on his Roman predilections, and his adherence to the forms and customs of antiquity; and Theodosius is represented as inculcating on his son the virtues of the hardy heroes of the Republic as especial models of imitation. Whether Claudian was a Christian, has been the subject of some dispute. The point is scarcely worth deciding. If he were such, it could be in name only; for the tone of his sentiments is Pagan throughout, not to mention specific objections contained in individual passages. We are inclined, however, to agree with the greater part of critics, that he was an unbeliever; though we are not satisfied with all the arguments adduced in support of this opinion. The sneer in Eutrop. i. 314. can only apply to the fanatical reveries of an individual monk; and the satire, after all, is levelled more against Eutropius than John of Thebais. The prayer of Stilicho, Ruf. i. 334, which is likewise alleged, seems less conclusive than the speech of Mars following: meus ecce paratur Ad bellum Stilicho, qui me de more tropæis Ditat, et hostiles suspendit in arbore cristas. Claudian's liberal use of the heathen mythology proves little; no one supposes that Virgil, or Ovid, or Statius, believed their own fables. We are not quite prepared to agree with Heinsius and others relative to the spuriousness of the Christian poems ascribed to Claudian: the Carmen Paschale, at least, and the Laus Christi, seem to us (especially the former) to exhibit much of Claudian's flowing manner and play of language. Perhaps he wrote them in the way of a quit-rent, or necessary tribute of respect to the religion of the state. Such compliances are common among infidels of all times; nor ought they to be considered more remarkable in the imperial poet, than in a modern French savant, or German professor. We have already given our opinion of Claudian's manner; we must, however, in justice add, that it is equable, fluent, and free from all appearance of stiffness or elaboration. Ornate as his sentences are, they seem to flow from him spontaneously and without effort. His words and images spring, as it were, full-formed from his mind. It is in fact a mistake to call this species of style elaborate: none is in reality less so. Pascal, writing to a friend, apologised for the length of his communication, by saying that he had not time to make it shorter. Something of the same kind may be said with regard to the style before us. Simplicity, like conciseness, is the result of study. The happy thought which seems to be struck off like a spark from the anvil of a glowing imagination, cost its author more pains than would have sufficed to produce whole paragraphs of florid declamation. And if there are exceptions-if "easy writing" is in a few instances easy reading," yet even here great previous labor must have been exerted in the formation of the taste and the disciplining of the imagination, to render such an occurrence possible; the channel must have been hollowed out with toil, before the stream could flow smoothly and easily. Here and there in the style of Claudian traces of negligence are visible, and sometimes, though very rarely, the grandiloquous flow of his historical narrative is interrupted by a prosaic line or two. Thus in the complaint of Rome, Bell. Gildon. 62. spes unica nobis Restabat Libye, quæ vix ægreque fovebat Autumni. His epithets are frequently hyperbolical and tasteless, but seldom inappropriate, and never unmeaning. His illustrations, though not always the happiest, manifest a great extent and variety of information. "Juvat illum hac in re (pictura)," says Gessner, "tanta rerum naturalium, quanta tum esse poterat, cognitio, quæ inexhaustam visa imaginum et comparationum copiam suppeditaret." Prolegom. p. vII. It is always gratifying to know that we are on safe ground with an author, and that, however great may be the wealth of imagery and allusion which he displays, it is drawn from the depths of a knowledge still more extensive. We have known many popular and ingenious writers, whose works were crowded with recondite metaphors and comparisons, but whose learning, it was impossible not to perceive, was new and undigested, and the result of study undertaken for a temporary purpose. Hence the air of rawness visible in their displays of erudition, and the feeling of suspicion and unsatisfactoriness which attended us through the perusal. This was not the practice of the greatest poets of ancient and modern times-witness, among others, the "doctus senex" of English poetry, Milton. Their information was already matured and familiarised in the mind, when it developed itself in writing; it had mingled itself with the flesh and blood of the understanding; and its outward manifestations appear merely a natural efflux from the fulness within.-Claudian is unfortunate in his similes, which are for the most part below the dignity of the subject, or otherwise inapplicable. They are few in number. 1 We refer for instances to vi. Cons. Hon. 259. Eutrop. ii. 509. and Ruf. ii. 460. The simile of the bees, in the last passage, has a mockheroic effect, resembling that of Pope's pompous translation of a similar one in the second Iliad. From the above censure we must except such as the following, which seems to have been the original of one in the second book of Paradise Lost. vulgi pars maxima bellum Durat adhuc sævitque tumor, dubiumque per æstum Lassa recedentis fluitant vestigia venti.—In Ruf. i. 68. |