populum loquebatur, ita componuntur ad majeftatem confularem, ut quamvis ab Afiatica mollitie luxuque venerint, inter Furios atque Claudios nati educatique videantur, Neque fuam, ullo actu, Æneas originem prodidiffet, nifi, a præfractiore aliquanto pietate, fudiffet crebro copiam lacrymarum.Qua meliorum expreffione morum hac ætate, non modo Virgilius Latinorum poetarum princeps, fed quivis inflatiffimus vernaculorum, Homero præfertur: cum hic animos proceribus induerit fuos, ille vero alienos. Quamobrem varietas morum, qui carmine reddebantur, et hominum ad quos ea dirigebantur, inter Latinam Græcamque poefin, non inventionis tantum attulit, fed et elocutionis difcrimen illud, quod præcipue inter Homerum et Virgilium deprehenditur; cum fententias et ornamenta quæ Homerus fparferat, Virgilius, Romanorum aurium caufa, contraxerit; atque ad mores et ingenia retulerit eorum, qui a poefi non petebant publicam aut privatam inftitutionem, quam ipfi Marte fuo invenerant; fed tantum delecta tionem." tionem *." Blackwell, in his Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, has taken many observations from this valuable book, particularly in his twelfth Section. 11. Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, Are nameless graces, which no methods teach, POPE in this paffage feems to have remembered one of the Effays of Bacon, of which he is known to have been remarkably fond. "There is no excellent beauty, that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer, were the more trifler: whereof the one would make a perfonage by geometrical proportions; the other by taking the best parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent. Such perfonages, I think, would * J. Vincentii Gravinæ de POESI, ad S. Maffeium EPIST. Added to his treatise entitled, Della Ragion Poetica. In Napoli. 1716, pag. 239, 250. + Ver. 141. please 7 please nobody, but the painter that made doe well *" 12. Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take, May boldly deviate from the common track; HERE is evidently a blameable mixture of metaphors; where the attributes of the horse and the writer are confounded. The former may justly be faid to "take a nearer way, and, to deviate from a track;" but how can a horse "fnatch a grace," or " the heart?" gain * Effay xliii. On BEAUTY. + Ver. 150. 13. Some 13. Some figures monftrous and mishap'd appear, Confider'd fingly, or beheld too near, Which, but proportion'd to their light, or place, By this excellent obfervation, delivered in a beautiful metaphor, all the faults imputed to Homer may be juftified. Those who cenfure what is called the GROSSNESS of fome of his images, may please to attend to the following remark of a writer, by no means prejudiced in favour of the ancients. "Quant a ce qu'on appelle GROSSIERETE dans les héros d' Homére, on peut rire tant qu'on voudra de voir Patrocle, au neuviéme livre de l'Iliade, mettre trois gigots de mouton dans une marmite, allumer et foufler le feu, et préparer le diner avec Achille: Achille et Patrocle n'en font pas moins éclatans. Charles XII. Roi de Suéde, a foit fix mois fa cuifine a Demir-Tocca, fans perdre rien de fon heroifme; et la plûpart de nos generaux qui portent dans une campe tout le luxe d'une cour effeminee, auront bien de la pein a egaler ces heros, qui faifoient leur cuifine eux-memes. En un mot, Homere avoit a representer un Ajax et un Hector; non un courtifan de Verfailles, ou de Saint James*." 13. A prudent chief not always must display His pow'rs in equal rank, and fair array +. THE fame may be faid of mufic: concerning which, a difcerning judge has lately made the following observation. "I do not mean to affirm, that in this extenfive work [of Marcello] every recitative, air, or chorus, is of equal excellence. A continued elevation of this kind no author ever came up to. Nay, if we confider that variety, which in all arts is neceffary to keep up attention, we may perhaps affirm with trurh, that INEQUALITY makes a part of the character of excellence: that fomething ought to be thrown into fhades, in order to make the lights more * Voltaire, Effay fur la Poefie Epique. Les Oeuvres. Tom. ii. pag. 354, 355. This Effay is very different from what formerly appeared in England, + Ver. 175. ftriking. |