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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16506-8.txt b/16506-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e90823 --- /dev/null +++ b/16506-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2924 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry +(1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697), by Samuel Wesley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697) + +Author: Samuel Wesley + +Commentator: Edward N. Hooker + +Release Date: August 10, 2005 [EBook #16506] +[Most recently updated: December 23, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EPISTLE TO A FRIEND *** + + + + +E-text prepared by David Starner, Charles M. Bidwell, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + + +Series Two: +_Essays on Poetry_ + +No. 2 + +Samuel Wesley's +_Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry_ (1700) +and the +_Essay on Heroic Poetry_ (second edition, 1697) + +With an Introduction by +Edward N. Hooker + +The Augustan Reprint Society +January, 1947 +_Price:_ 75c + + + + +GENERAL EDITORS: _Richard C. Boys_, University of Michigan, Ann +Arbor; _Edward N. Hooker, H.T. Swedenberg, Jr._, University of +California, Los Angeles 24, California. + +Membership in the Augustan Reprint Society entitles the subscriber to six +publications issued each year. The annual membership fee is $2.50. Address +subscriptions and communications to the Augustan Reprint Society, in care +of one of the General Editors. + +EDITORIAL ADVISORS: _Louis I. Bredvold_, University of Michigan; +_James L. Clifford_, Columbia University; _Benjamin Boyce_, +University of Nebraska; _Cleanth Brooks_, Louisiana State University; +_Arthur Friedman_, University of Chicago; _James R. Sutherland_, +Queen Mary College, University of London; _Emmett L. Avery_, State +College of Washington; _Samuel Monk_, Southwestern University. + +Lithoprinted from Author's Typescript +EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC. +_Lithoprinters_ +ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN +1947 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +We remember Samuel Wesley (1662-1735), if at all, as the father of a great +religious leader. In his own time he was known to many as a poet and a +writer of controversial prose. His poetic career began in 1685 with the +publication of _Maggots_, a collection of juvenile verses on trivial +subjects, the preface to which, a frothy concoction, apologizes to the +reader because the book is neither grave nor gay. The first poem, "On a +Maggot," is composed in hudibrastics, with a diction obviously Butlerian, +and it is followed by facetious poetic dialogues and by Pindarics of the +Cowleian sort but on such subjects as "On the Grunting of a Hog." In 1688 +Wesley took his B.A. at Exeter College, Oxford, following which he became +a naval chaplain and, in 1690, rector of South Ormsby; he became rector of +Epworth in 1695. During the run of the _Athenian Gazette_ (1691-1697) +he joined with Richard Sault and John Norris in assisting John Dunton, the +promoter of the undertaking. His second venture in poetry, the _Life of +Our Blessed Lord and Saviour_, an epic largely in heroic couplets with +a prefatory discourse on heroic poetry, appeared in 1693, was reissued in +1694, and was honored with a second edition in 1697. In 1695 he dutifully +came forward with _Elegies_, lamenting the deaths of Queen Mary and +Archbishop Tillotson. _An Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry_ +(1700) was followed by at least four other volumes of verse, the last of +which was issued in 1717. His poetry appears to have had readers on a +certain level, but it stirred up little pleasure among wits, writers, or +critics. Judith Drake confessed that she was lulled to sleep by +Blackmore's _Prince Arthur_ and by Wesley's "heroics" (_Essay in +Defence of the Female Sex_, 1696, p. 50). And he was satirized as a +mare poetaster in Garth's _Dispensary_, in Swift's _The Battle of +the Books_, and in the earliest issues of the _Dunciad_. Nobody +today would care to defend his poetry for its esthetic merits. + +For a few years in the early eighteenth century Wesley found himself in +the vortex of controversy. Brought up in the dissenting tradition, he had +swerved into conformity at some point during the 1680's, possibly under +the influence of Tillotson, whom he greatly admired (cf. _Epistle to a +Friend_, pp. 5-6). In 1702 there appeared his _Letter from a Country +Divine to his friend in London concerning the education of dissenters in +their private academies_, apparently written about 1693. This attack +upon dissenting academies was published at an unfortunate time, when the +public mind was inflamed by the intolerance of overzealous churchmen. +Wesley was furiously answered; he replied in _A Defence of a Letter_ +(1704), and again in _A Reply to Mr. Palmer's Vindication_ (1707). It +is scarcely to Wesley's credit that in this quarrel he stood shoulder to +shoulder with that most hot-headed of all contemporary bigots, Henry +Sacheverell. His prominence in the controversy earned him the ironic +compliments of Defoe, who recalled that our "Mighty Champion of this very +High-Church Cause" had once written a poem to satirize frenzied Tories +(_Review_, II, no. 87, Sept. 22, 1705). About a week later Defoe, +having got wind of a collection being taken up for Wesley--who in +consequence of a series of misfortunes was badly in debt--intimated that +High-Church pamphleteering had turned out very profitably for both Lesley +and Wesley (Oct. 2, 1705). But in such snarling and bickering Wesley was +out of his element, and he seems to have avoided future quarrels. + +His literary criticism is small in bulk. But though it is neither +brilliant nor well written (Wesley apparently composed at a break-neck +clip), it is not without interest. Pope observed in 1730 that he was a +"learned" man (letter to Swift, in _Works_, ed. Elwin-Courthope, VII, +184). The observation was correct, but it should be added that Wesley +matured at the end of an age famous for its great learning, an age whose +most distinguished poet was so much the scholar that he appeared more the +pedant than the gentleman to critics of the succeeding era; Wesley was not +singular for erudition among his seventeenth-century contemporaries. + +The "Essay on Heroic Poetry," serving as Preface to _The Life of Our +Blessed Lord and Saviour_, reveals something of its author's erudition. +Among the critics, he was familiar with Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, +Dionysius of Halicarnasseus, Heinsius, Bochart, Balzac, Rapin, Le Bossu, +and Boileau. But this barely hints at the extent of his learning. In the +notes on the poem itself the author displays an interest in classical +scholarship, Biblical commentary, ecclesiastical history, scientific +inquiry, linguistics and philology, British antiquities, and research into +the history, customs, architecture, and geography of the Holy Land; he +shows, an intimate acquaintance with Grotius, Henry Hammond, Joseph Mede, +Spanheim, Sherlock, Lightfoot, and Gregory, with Philo, Josephus, Fuller, +Walker, Camden, and Kircher; and he shows an equal readiness to draw upon +Cudworth's _True Intellectual System_ and Boyle's new theories concerning +the nature of light. In view of such a breadth of knowledge it is somewhat +surprising to find him quoting as extensively as he does in the "Essay" +from Le Bossu and Rapin, and apparently leaning heavily upon them. + +The "Essay" was composed at a time when the prestige of Rymer and +neo-Aristotelianism in England was already declining, and though Wesley +expressed some admiration for Rapin and Le Bossu, he is by no means docile +under their authority. Whatever the weight of authority, he says, "I see +no cause why Poetry should not be brought to the Test [of reason], as well +as Divinity...." As to the sacred example of Homer, who based his great +epic on mythology, Wesley remarks, "But this [mythology] being now +antiquated, I cannot think we are oblig'd superstitiously to follow his +Example, any more than to make Horses speak, as he does that of Achilles." +To the question of the formidable Boileau, "What Pleasure can it be to +hear the howlings of repining Lucifer?" our critic responds flippantly, "I +think 'tis easier to answer than to find out what shew of Reason he had +for asking it, or why Lucifer mayn't howl as pleasantly as either +Cerberus, or Enceladus." Without hesitation or apology he takes issue with +Rapin's conception of Decorum in the epic. But Wesley is empiricist as +well as rationalist, and the judgment of authority can be upset by appeal +to the court of experience. To Balzac's suggestion that, to avoid +difficult and local proper names in poetry, generalized terms be used, +such as _Ill-luck_ for the _Fates_ and the _Foul Fiend_ for _Lucifer_, our +critic replies with jaunty irony, "... and whether this wou'd not sound +extreamly Heroical, I leave any Man to judge," and thus he dismisses the +matter. Similarly, when Rapin objects to Tasso's mingling of lyric +softness in the majesty of the epic, Wesley points out sharply that no man +of taste will part with the fine scenes of tender love in Tasso, Dryden, +Ovid, Ariosto, and Spenser "for the sake of a fancied Regularity." He had +set out to defend the Biblical epic, the Christian epic, and the propriety +of Christian machines in epic, and no rules or authority could deter him. +As good an example as any of his independence of mind can be seen in a +note on Bk. I, apropos of the poet's use of obsolete words (_Life of Our +Blessed Lord_, 1697, p. 27): it may be in vicious imitation of Milton and +Spenser, he says in effect, but I have a fondness for old words, they +please my ear, and that is all the reason I can give for employing them. + +Wesley's resistance to a strict application of authority and the rules +grew partly out of the rationalistic and empirical temper of Englishmen in +his age, but it also sprang from his learning. From various sources he +drew the theory that Greek and Latin were but corrupted forms of ancient +Phoenician, and that the degeneracy of Greek and Latin in turn had +produced all, or most, of the present European tongues (_ibid._, p. 354). +In addition, he believed that the Greeks had derived some of their +thought from older civilizations, and specifically that Plato had received +many of his notions from the Jews (_ibid._, p. 230)--an idea which recalls +the argument that Dryden in _Religio Laici_ had employed against the +deists. Furthermore, he had, like many of his learned contemporaries, a +profound respect for Hebrew culture and the sublimity of the Hebrew +scriptures, going so far as to remark in the "Essay on Heroic Poetry" that +"most, even of [the heathen poets'] best Fancies and Images, as well as +Names, were borrow'd from the Antient Hebrew Poetry and Divinity." In +short, however faulty his particular conclusions, he had arrived at an +historical viewpoint, from which it was no longer possible to regard the +classical standards--much less the standards of French critics--as having +the holy sanction of Nature herself. + +Some light is shed on the literary tastes of his period by Wesley's two +essays here reproduced, which with a few exceptions were in accord with +the prevailing current. _The Life of Our Blessed Lord_ shows strongly +the influence of Cowley's _Davideis_. Wesley's great admiration +persisted after the tide had turned away from Cowley; and his liking for +the "divine Herbert" and for Crashaw represented the tastes of sober and +unfashionable readers. In spite of the fact that he professed unbounded +admiration for Homer as the greatest genius in nature, in practise he +seemed more inclined to follow the lead of Cowley, Virgil, and Vida. +Although there was much in Ariosto that he enjoyed, he preferred Tasso; +the irregularities in both, however, he felt bound to deplore. To +Spenser's _Faerie Queene_ he allowed extraordinary merit. If the plan +of it was noble, he thought, and the mark of a comprehensive genius, yet +the action of the poem seemed confused. Nevertheless, like Prior later, +Wesley was inclined to suspend judgment on this point because the poem had +been left incomplete. To Spenser's "thoughts" he paid the highest tribute, +and to his "Expressions flowing natural and easie, with such a prodigious +Poetical Copia as never any other must expect to enjoy." Like most of the +Augustans Wesley did not care greatly for _Paradise Regained_, but he +partly atoned by his praise for _Paradise Lost_, which was an +"original" and therefore "above the common Rules." Though defective in its +action, it was resplendent with sublime thoughts perhaps superior to any +in Virgil or Homer, and full of incomparable and exquisitely moving +passages. In spite of his belief that Milton's blank verse was a mistake, +making for looseness and incorrectness, he borrowed lines and images from +it, and in Bk. IV of _The Life of Our Blessed Lord_ he incorporated a +whole passage of Milton's blank verse in the midst of his heroic couplets. + +Wesley's attitude toward Dryden deserves a moment's pause. In the "Essay +on Heroic Poetry" he observed that a speech of Satan's in _Paradise +Lost_ is nearly equalled in Dryden's _State of Innocence_. Later +in the same essay he credited a passage in Dryden's _King Arthur_ +with showing an improvement upon Tasso. There is no doubt as to his vast +respect for the greatest living poet, but his remarks do not indicate that +he ranked Dryden with Virgil, Tasso, or Milton; for he recognized as well +as we that the power to embellish and to imitate successfully does not +constitute the highest excellence in poetry. In the _Epistle to a +Friend_ he affirmed his admiration for Dryden's matchless style, his +harmony, his lofty strains, his youthful fire, and even his wit--in the +main, qualities of style and expression. But by 1700 Wesley had absorbed +enough of the new puritanism that was rising in England to qualify his +praise; now he deprecated the looseness and indecency of the poetry, and +called upon the poet to repent. One other point calls for comment. +Wesley's scheme for Christian machinery in the epic, as described in the +"Essay on Heroic Poetry," is remarkably similar to Dryden's. Dryden's had +appeared in the essay on satire prefaced to his translation of Juvenal, +published late in October, 1692; Wesley's scheme appeared soon after June, +1693. + +The _Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry_ is neither startling nor +contemptible; it has, in fact, much more to say than the rhymed treatises +on verse by Roscommon and Buckinghamshire. Its remarks on Genius are +fresh, though tantalizing in their brevity, and it defends the Moderns +with both neatness and energy. Much of its advice is cautious and +commonplace--but such was the tradition of the poetical treatise on verse. +Appearing within two years of Collier's first attack upon the stage, it +reinforces some of that worthy's contentions, but we are not aware of its +having had much effect. + +The _Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry_ is here reproduced, with +permission, from the copy at Harvard. The "Essay on Heroic Poetry" is +reproduced, with permission, from a copy of the 1697 edition of _The +Life of Our Blessed Lord_ owned by the Henry E. Huntington Library, at +San Marino, California. Our reproduction of the second item was made from +a typescript because the printing of the original lacks the size and +clarity which are necessary for satisfactory results In lithoprinting. The +typescript follows the original accurately except that italics (crazily +profuse in the 1697 edition) are omitted, the use of quotation marks is +normalized, and three obvious typographical errors are silently emended. + + Edward Niles Hooker + + + + +AN +EPISTLE +TO A +FRIEND +CONCERNING +POETRY. + +By SAMUEL WESLEY. + +_Fungor vice Cotis._ + +_LONDON_ + +Printed for CHARLES HARPER, at the _Flower de Luce_ +in _Fleetstreet_. MDCC. +_25. Aprill_. + + + + +PREFACE. + +_I have not much to say of this Poem, before I leave it to the_ Mercy _of +the Reader. There's no need of looking far into it, to find out that the +direct_ Design _of a great part of it, is to Serve the_ Cause of Religion +_and_ Virtue; _tho' 'twas necessary for that End to dispose the_ whole _in +such a manner as might be agreeable to the_ Tast _of the present Age, and +of those who usually give such sort of Books the_ Reading. _If there be +any Thoughts in it relating to_ Poetry, _that either are not known to_ all +Persons, _or are tolerably_ ranged _and_ expressed, _the Reader is welcome +to 'em for_ Over-weight: _If there are too few of these, I yet hope the +Pardon of all_ candid Judges, _because I've done the best I cou'd on this_ +Argument. _I can't be angry with any Person for ranking me amongst the_ +Ogylbys; _my Quarrel is with these that rank themselves amongst_ Atheists, +_and impudently defend and propagate that_ ridiculous _Opinion of the_ +Eternity of the World, _and a fatal_ invincible Chain of Things, _which, +it seems, is now most commonly made use of to destroy the_ Faith, _as our_ +lewd Plays _are to corrupt the_ Morals _of the_ Nation: _An Opinion, big +with more_ Absurdities _than_ Transubstantiation _it self, and of far +more_ fatal Consequence, _if receiv'd and believ'd: For besides its +extremely weakening, if not destroying, the_ Belief _of the_ Being _and_ +Providence of God, _it utterly takes away any sort of_ Freedom _in_ Humane +Actions, _reduces Mankind beneath the_ Brute Creation; _perfectly_ excuses +_the greatest_ Villanies _in_ this World, _and entirely vacates all_ +Retribution _hereafter. One wou'd wonder with what Face or Conscience such +a_ Sett _of Men shou'd hope to be treated by the Rules of_ Civility, _when +they themselves break through those of_ Society, _and_ common Humanity: +_How they can expect any fairer_ Quarter _than_ Wolves _or_ Tygers; _or +what Reason they can give why a_ Price _should not be sett upon their_ +Heads, _as well as on the_ Others; _or at least why they should not be +securely_ hamper'd _and_ muzzled, _and led about for a_ Sight, _like +other_ Monsters. _'Tis the fatal and spreading_ Poyson _of these Mens_ +Examples _and_ Principles _which has extorted these_ warm Expressions +_from me; I cannot with_ Patience _see my_ Countrey ruin'd _by the +prodigious increase of_ Infidelity _and_ Immorality, _nor forbear crying +out with some_ Vehemence, _when I am giving Warning to all honest Men to +stand up in the_ Defence _of it, when it is in greater and more eminent +danger than it wou'd have been formerly, if the_ Spanish Armada _had made +a Descent amongst us: I don't speak of these things by distant_ Hear-say, +_or only from our publick_ Prints, _but from my own_ Knowledg _and little_ +Acquaintance _in the World, and therefore others must have observ'd much +more, and cannot but fear, that if things go on as they now are, without a +greater_ Check, _and more_ severe Laws _against these wide and contagious_ +Mischiefs, _at least without a more general united_ Endeavour _to put +those Laws already made in_ strict Execution, _we are in a fair way to +become a_ Nation of Atheists. _'Tis now no difficult matter to meet with +those who pretend to be_ lewd _upon_ Principles; _They'll talk very_ +gravely, _look as if they were in earnest, and come_ sobrii ad perdendam +Rempublicam: _they wou'd be_ Criticks _too, and_ Philosophers: _They +attack_ Religion _in_ Form _and batter it from every_ Quarter; _they wou'd +turn the very_ Scriptures _against themselves, and labour hard to remove +a_ Supreme Being _out of the World; or if they do vouchsafe him any_ room +_in it, 'tis only that they may find_ Fault _with his_ Works, _which they +think, with that_ Blasphemer _of old, might have been much better order'd, +had they themselves stood by and directed the_ Architect. _They'll tell +you the_ Errors _of_ Nature _are every where_ plain _and_ visible, _all_ +monstrous, _here_ too much _and there_ too little; _or, as_ one of their +own Poets, + + Here she's _too sparing_, there _profusely_ vain. + +_What would these Men have, or why can't they be content to sink_ single +_into the_ bottomless Gulph, _without dragging so much Company thither +with 'em? Can they grapple_ Omnipotence, _or are they sure they can be_ +too hard _for_ Heaven? _Can they_ Thunder _with a_ Voice like God, _and +cast abroad the_ Rage _of their_ Wrath? _Cou'd they_ annihilate _Hell, +indeed, or did it only consist of such_ painted Flames _as they'd fain +believe it, they might make a shift to be tolerably happy, more quietly +rake through the World, and_ sink _into_ Nothing. _There's too great +reason to apprehend, that this_ Infection _is spred among Persons of +almost all_ Ranks _and_ Qualities; _and that tho' some may think it_ +decent _to keep on the_ Masque, _yet if they were search'd to the_ bottom, +_all_ their Religion _wou'd be found that which they most blasphemously +assert of_ Religion _in_ general, _only a_ State Engin _to keep the_ World +in Order. _This is_ Hypocrisie _with a Witness; the_ basest _and_ meanest +_of_ Vices; _and how come Men to fall into these_ damnable Errors _in +Faith, but by_ Lewdness _of Life? The Cowards wou'd not believe a God +because they_ dare _not do it, for Woe be to 'em if there be one, and +consequently any_ Future Punishments. _From such as these, I desire no +Favour, but that of their_ Ill Word, _as their_ Crimes _must expect_ none +_from me, whose_ Character _obliges me to declare an_ eternal War +_against_ Vice _and_ Infidelity, _tho' at the same time heartily to_ pity +_those who are_ infected _with it. If I cou'd be_ ambitious _of a_ Name +_in the World, it shou'd be that I might_ sacrifice _it in so glorious a_ +Cause _as that of_ Religion _and_ Virtue: _If none but_ Generals _must +fight in this_ sacred War, _when there are such_ infernal Hosts _on the +other side, they cou'd never prevail without one of the_ antient Miracles: +_If_ little People _can but well discharge the Place of a_ private +Centinel, _'tis all that's expected from us. I hope I shall never let the_ +Enemies of God and my Countrey _come on without_ Fireing, _tho' it serve +but to give the_ Alarm, _and if I dye without_ quitting _my_ Post, _I +desire no greater Glory_. _I have endeavour'd to shew that I had no_ +Personal Pique _against any whose_ Characters _I may have given in this +Poem, nor think the worse of them for their_ Thoughts _of me. I hope I +have every where done 'em_ Justice, _and as well as I cou'd, have given +'em_ Commendation _where they deserve it; which may also, on the other +side, acquit me of_ Flattery _with all_ Impartial Judges; _for 'tis not +only the_ Great _whose_ Characters _I have here attempted. And if what I +have written may be any ways_ useful, _or_ innocently diverting _to the +virtuous and ingenious_ Readers, _he has his End, who is_ + + Their Humble Servant + + S. WESLEY. + + + + +AN +EPISTLE +TO A +FRIEND +CONCERNING +POETRY. + + As Brother _Pryme_ of old from Mount _Orgueil_, + So I to you from _Epworth_ and the _Isle_: + Harsh _Northern_ Fruits from our cold Heav'ns I send, + Yet, since the _best_ they yield, they'll please a _Friend_. + You ask me, What's the readiest way to _Fame_, + And how to gain a _Poet's_ sacred Name? + For _Saffold_ send, your Choice were full as just, + When burning _Fevers_ fry your Limbs to Dust! + Yet, lest you _angry_ grow at your _Defeat_, } + And me as ill as that fierce _Spark_ should treat } 10 + Who did the Farrier into Doctor _beat_; } + You to my little _Quantum_, Sir, are free, + Which I from HORACE glean or NORMANDY; + These with some grains of _Common Sense_ unite, + Then freely _think_, and as I think I write. + First _poize_ your _Genius_, nor presume to write + If _Phoebus_ smile not, or some _Muse_ invite: + Nature refuses _Force_, you strive in vain, + She will not _drag_, but struggling breaks the Chain. + How bright a Spark of _Heav'nly Fire_ must warm! 20 + What _Blessings_ meet a _Poet's Mind_ to form! + How oft must he for those _Life-Touches_ sit, + _Genius, Invention, Memory, Judgment, Wit_? + There's here no _Middle-State_, you must excel; + _Wit_ has no _Half-way-House_ 'twixt _Heav'n_ and _Hell_ + _All cannot All things_, lest you mourn too late, + Remember _Phaeton_'s unhappy _Fate_! + Eager to guide the _Coursers_ of the _Day_, } + Beneath their _Brazen Hoofs_ he trampled lay, } + And his bright _Ruines_ mark'd their flaming Way. } 30 + [Sidenote: _Genius_.] + You'll ask, What GENIUS is, and Where to find? + 'Tis the full _Power_ and _Energy_ of _Mind_: + A _Reach_ of _Thought_ that skims all Nature o'er, + _Exhausts_ this narrow _World_, and asks for _more_: + Through every _Rank of Beings_ when't has flown, + Can frame a _New Creation_ of its own: + By _Possible_ and _Future_ unconfin'd: + Can stubborn _Contradictions_ yoke, and bind + Through _Fancy_'s Realms, with Number, Time and Place, + _Chimera-Forms_, a thin, an airy Race; 40 + Then with a secret _conscious Pride_ surveys + The _Enchanted Castles_ which't had _Power_ to raise. + [Sidenote: _Wit_.] + As _Genius_ is the _Strength_, be WIT defin'd + The _Beauty_ and the _Harmony_ of _Mind_: + _Beauty's_ Proportion, Air, each lively Grace + The _Soul_ diffuses round the _Heav'nly Face_: + 'Tis _various_, yet 'tis _equal_, still the same + In _Alpine Snows_, or _Ethiopian Flame_; + While _glaring Colours_ short-liv'd Grace supply, + Nor _Frost_ nor _Sun_ they bear, but _scorch_ and _die_. 50 + [Sidenote: _Judgment_.] + Nor these alone, tho much they can, suffice, + JUDGMENT must join, or never hope the Prize: + Those _Headstrong Coursers_ scowr along the Plains, + The _Rider's_ down, if once he lose the _Reins_: + Soon the _Mad Mixture_ will to all give Law, + And for the _Laurel Wreaths_ present thee _Wreaths of Straw_. + _Judgment's_ the _Act of Reason_; that which brings + Fit _Thoughts_ to _Thoughts_, and argues _Things_ from _Things_, + True, Decent, Just, are in its _Balance_ try'd, + And thence we learn to _Range, Compound, Divide_. 60 + [Sidenote: _Invention and Memory_.] + A _Cave_ there is wherein those _Nymphs_ reside + Who all the Realms of _Sense_ and _Fancy_ guide; + Nay some affirm that in the deepest _Cell_ + Imperial _Reason's_ self does not disdain to dwell: + With Living _Reed_ 'tis thatch'd and guarded round, + Which mov'd by _Winds_ emit a Silver Sound: + Two _Crystal Fountains_ near its _Entrance_ play, } + Wide scatt'ring _Golden Streams_ which ne'er decay, } + Two _Labyrinths_ behind harmonious Sounds convey: } + Chiefly, within, the _Room of State_ is fam'd 70 + Of rich _Mosaick Work_ divinely fram'd: + Of small _Extent_ to view, 'twill all things hide, + Heav'n's Azure _Arch_ it self not half so wide: + Here all the _Arts_ their sacred Mansion chuse, + Here dwells the MOTHER of the Heav'n-born Muse: + With wond'rous mystic _Figures_ round 'tis wrought + _Inlaid_ with FANCY, and _anneal'd_ with _Thought_: + With more than humane Skill depicted here + The various _Images of Things_ appear; + What _Was_, or _Is_, or labours yet to _Be_ 80 + Within the Womb of Dark _Futurity_, + May _Stowage_ in this wondrous _Storehouse_ find, + Yet leave unnumber'd empty _Cells_ behind: + But ah! as fast they come, they fly too fast, + Not _Life or Happiness are more in haste_: + Only the _First Great Mind_ himself can stay + The _Fugitives_ and at _one Glance_ survey; + But those whom he disdains not to befriend, } + _Uncommon Souls_, who nearest Heav'n ascend } + Far more, at once, than others comprehend: } 90 + Whate'er within this _sacred Hall_ you find, } + Whate'er will _lodge_ in your _capacious Mind_ } + Let _Judgment_ sort, and skilful _Method_ bind; } + And as from these you draw your antient Store + Daily supply the _Magazine_ with more. + Furnish'd with such _Materials_ he'll excel + Who when he _works_ is sure to work 'em _well_; + This ART alone, as _Nature_ that bestows, + And in _Perfection_ both, th' accomplish'd _Verser_ knows. + Knows to _persuade_, and how to _speak_, and when; 100 + The _Rules of Life_, and _Manners_ knows and _Men_: + Those _narrow Lines_ which _Good_ and _Ill_ divide; + [Sidenote: _Learning_.] + And by what _Balance Just_ and _Right_ are try'd: + How _Kindred-Things_ with _Things_ are closely join'd; } + How _Bodies_ act, and by what _Laws_ confin'd, } + Supported, mov'd and rul'd by th' _Universal Mind_. } + When the moist _Kids_ or burning _Sirius_ rise; } + Through what ambiguous Ways _Hyperion_ flies, } + And marks our _Upper_ or the _Nether Skies_. } + He knows those _Strings_ to _touch_ with artful Hand 110 + Which rule Mankind, and all the World command: + What _moves_ the _Soul_, and every secret _Cell_ + Where _Pity, Love_, and all the _Passions_ dwell. + The _Music_ of his _Verse_ can _Anger_ raise, + Which with a softer _Stroak_ he _smooths_ and _lays_: + Can _Emulation, Terror_, all excite, + _Compress_ the _Soul_ with _Grief_, or _swell_ with vast Delight. + If this you can, your _Care_ you'll well bestow, + And some new _Milton_ or a _Spencer_ grow; + If not, a _Poet_ ne'er expect to be, 120 + Content to _Rime_, like _D----y_ or like me. + But here perhaps you'll stop me, and complain, + To such _Impracticable Heights_ I strain + A Poet's _Notion_, that if _This_ be _He_, + There ne'er was one, nor e'er is like to be. + --But soft, my Friend! may we not _copy_ well + Tho far th' _Original_ our _Art_ excel? + _Divine Perfection_ we our _Pattern_ make + Th' _Idea_ thence of _Goodness_ justly take; + But they who _copy_ nearest, still must fall 130 + Immensely short of their _Original_; + [Sidenote: _Converse_.] + But _Wit_ and _Genius_, _Sense_ and _Learning_ join'd, + Will all come short if _crude_ and _unrefin'd_; + 'Tis CONVERSE only melts the stubborn _Ore_ + And _polishes_ the _Gold_, too rough before: + So _fierce_ the _Natural Taste_, 'twill ne'er b' endur'd, + The _Wine_ is _strong_, but never rightly _cur'd_. + [Sidenote: _Style_.] + STYLE is the _Dress_ of _Thought_; a _modest_ Dress, + _Neat_, but not _gaudy_, will true _Critics_ please: + Not _Fleckno's Drugget_, nor a worse Extream 140 + All daub'd with _Point_ and _Gold_ at every Seam: + Who only _Antique Words_ affects, appears + Like old King _Harry's_ Court, all Face and Ears; + Nor in a _Load_ of _Wig_ thy Visage shrowd, + Like _Hairy Meteors glimm'ring through a Cloud_: + Happy are those who here the _Medium_ know, + We hate alike a _Sloven_ and a _Beau_. + I would not follow _Fashion_ to the height + Close at the _Heels_, not yet be _out of Sight_: + _Words_ alter, like our _Garments_, every day, 150 + Now _thrive_ and _bloom_, now _wither_ and _decay_. + Let those of greater _Genius_ new _invent_, + Be you with those in _Common Use_ content. + A different _Style's_ for _Prose_ and _Verse_ requir'd, + _Strong figures_ here, _Neat Plainness_ there desir'd: + A different _Set of Words_ to both belong; + What _shines_ in _Prose_, is, _flat_ and _mean_ in _Song_. + The _Turn_, the _Numbers_ must be vary'd here, + And all things in a _different Dress_ appear. + This every _School Boy_ lash'd at _Eaton_ knows, } 160 + Yet _Men of Sense_ forget when they _compose_, } + And Father DRYDEN's Lines are sometimes _Prose_. } + A _vary'd Stile_ do various Works require, + This _soft_ as _Air_, and _tow'ring_ that as _Fire_. + None than th' _Epistle_ goes more _humbly_ drest, + Tho _neat_ 'twou'd be, and _decent_ as the _best_. + Such as th' ingenious _Censor_ may invite } + Oft to return with eager _Appetite_; } + So HORACE wrote, and so I'd _wish_ to write. } + Nor _creeps_ it always, but can _mount_ and _rise_, 170 + And with _bold Pinions_ sail along the Skies. + The self-same Work of _different Style_ admits, + Now _soft_, now _loud_, as best the _Matter_ fits: + So Father THAMES from unexhausted _Veins_, + Moves _clean_ and _equable_ along the _Plains_; + Yet still of different _Depth_ and _Breadth_ is found, + And _humours_ still the _Nature_ of the _Ground_. + [Sidenote: _Reading_.] + READING will mend your Style and raise it higher, + And _Matter_ find to feed th' _Immortal Fire_: + But if you would the _Vulgar Herd_ excel, 180 + And justly gain the _Palm_ of _Writing well_, + Wast not your Lamp in scanning _Vulgar Lines_, + Where _groveling_ all, or _One in twenty_ shines; + With _Prudence_ first among the _Antients_ chuse, + The _noblest_ only, and the _best_ peruse; + Such HOMER is, such VIRGIL's sacred Page, + Which _Death_ defie, nor yield to _Time_ or _Age_; + New _Beauties_ still their _Vigorous Works_ display, + Their _Fruit_ still _mellows_, but can ne'er _decay_. + The _Modern Pens_ not altogether slight, 190 + Be _Master_ of your _Language_ e'er you write! + _Immortal_ TILLOTSON with Judgment scan, + "That _Man of Praise, that something more than Man_!" + Ev'n those who hate his _Ashes_ this advise, } + As from black Shades resplendent Lightning flies, } + _Unwilling Truths_ break through a _Cloud of Lies_. } + He _Words_ and _Things_ for _mutual Aid_ design'd, + Before at _Variance_, in just _Numbers_ join'd; + He always _soars_, but never's _out of sight_, + He taught us how to _Speak_, and _Think_, and _Write_. 200 + If _English Verse_ you'd in _Perfection_ see, + ROSCOMMON read, and _Noble_ NORMANDY: + We _borrow_ all from their _exhaustless Store_, + Or little say they have not said _before_. + _Poor Insects_ of a _Day_, we toil and strive + To creep from _Dust_ to _Dust_, and think we _live_; + These weak _imperfect Beings_ scarce enjoy + E'er _Death's_ rude Hand our _blooming Hopes_ destroy: + With _Lynx's_ Eyes each others _Faults_ we find, + But to our _own_ how few who are not _blind_? 210 + How _long is Art_, how _short_, alas! our _Time_! } + How few who can above the _Vulgar_ climb, } + Whose _stronger Genius_ reach the _True Sublime_! } + With _tedious Rules_ which we our selves transgress, + We make the _Trouble more_ who strive to make it _less_. + But meanly why do you your _Fate_ deplore, + Yet still write on?--Why do a _Thousand_ more, + Who for their _own_ or some _Forefathers_ Crime + Are _doom'd_ to wear their _Days_ in _beating Rhime_? + But this a _Noble Patron_ will redress, 220 + And make you _better write_, tho you _write less_: + Whate'er a _discontented Mind_ pretends, + _Distinguish'd Worth_ can rarely miss of _Friends_: + Do but _excel_, and he'll at last arise + Who from the _Dust_ may lift thee to the _Skies_; + For his _own Sake_ will his _Protection_ grant; + What _Horace_ e'er did yet _Mecænas_ want? + Or if the _World_ its _Favours_ should refuse, + With _barren Smiles_ alone _reward_ thy Muse; + Be thy _own Patron_, thou no more wilt need, 230 + For all will _court_ thee if thy _Works succeed_; + At least the few _Good Judges_ will commend, + And _secret growing Praise_ thy Steps attend. + Who shew'd _Columbus_ where the _Indies_ lay? + True to thy self, _charge through_, and _force_ to _Fame_ the way! + If _Envy snarl_, indulge it no _Reply_, + Write _better_ still, and let it _burst_ and _die_! + Rest pleas'd if you can please the _Wiser Few_, + Since _to please all is more than Heav'n it self can do_. + There are who _can_ whate'er they _will_ believe, 240 + That _Bail's_ too hard for _Beady_, _Three_ are _Five_: + That Nature, Justice, Reason, Truth must fall, + With _Clear Idea's_ they'll _confound_ 'em all: + That _Parallels_ may _travel_ till they _meet_; + _Faith_ they can find in L----, no _Sense_ in STILLINGFLEET. + Disturb 'em not, but let 'em still enjoy + Th' _unenvy'd Charms_ of their _Eternal Moi_. + If to the _craggy Top of Fame_ you rise, + Those who are _lab'ring after_ ne'er _despise_. + Nor those _above_ on _Honours_ dazling Seat } 250 + Tho _disoblig'd_, with _sawcy Rudeness_ treat, } + _Revenge_ not always is _below the Great_. } + Their _Stronger Genius_ may o'er thine prevail: + _Wit, Power_ and _Anger_ join'd but rarely fail. + Tho _Eagles_ would not chuse to _hawk_ at _Flies_ } + They'd _snap_ 'em, should their _buzzing Swarms_ arise } + Importunate, and hurt their _Sun bright Eyes_. } + Nor should the _Muses Birds_ at _random_ fly, + And _strike_ at all, lest if they strike _they die_. + Why should we still be _lazily content_ 260 + With thredbare _Schemes_, and nothing _new_ invent? + All _Arts_ besides _improve, Sea, Air_ and _Land_ } + Are every day with _nicer Judgment_ scan'd, } + And why should _this_ alone be at a _stand_? } + Or _Nature_ largely to the _Ancients_ gave + And little did for _younger Children_ save; + Or rather we _impartial Nature_ blame + To hide our _Sloth_, and cover o'er our _Shame_; + As _Sinners_, when their _Reason's_ drown'd in _Sense_, + Fall out with _Heav'n_, and quarrel _Providence_. 270 + Yet should you our _Galenic Way_ despise, + And some _new Colbatch_ of the _Muses_ rise; + No _Quarter_ from the _College_ hope, who sit + _Infallible_ at _Will's_ and judg of _Sense_ and _Wit_: + Keep fair with these, or _Fame_ you _court_ in vain, + A strict _Neutrality_ at least _maintain_! + Speak, like the wise _Italian_, well of all; + Who knows into what _Hands_ he's doom'd to _fall_? + Write _oft_ and _much_, at _first_, if you'd _write well_, + For he who ne'er _attempts_ will ne'er _excel_; 280 + _Practice_ will _file_ your _Verse_, your _Thoughts refine_, + And _Beauty_ give, and _Grace_ to every Line: + The _Gnat_ to fam'd _Æneis_ led the way, + And our _Immortal_ COWLEY once did _play_. + Let not the _Sun of Life_ in vain decline, + Or _Time_ run _waste; No Day without a Line_. + Yet learn by me, my Friend, from _Errors_ past; + O never _write_, or never _Print_ in _Haste_! + The _worst Excuse_ Ill Authors e'er advance, + Which does, like _Lies_, a _single Guilt_ enhance. 290 + Lay by your _Work_, and leave it on the _Loom_, + Which if at _mod'rate distance_ you resume, + A _Father's Fondness_ you'll with Ease look through, + And _Objects_ in a proper _Medium_ view. + 'Tis _Time_ alone can _Strength_ and _Ripeness_ give; + A _Hasty Birth_ can ne'er expect to _live_. + Fly, _low_ at first, you'll with Advantage _rise_; + This _pleases_ all, as that will all _surprize_. + [Sidenote: _The Subject_.] + No _Work_ attempt but where your _Strength_ you know, + Be _Master of your Subject_, _Thoughts_ will _flow_: 300 + The _newer_ 'tis, the _choicer Fruit_ 'twill yield, + More _Room_ you have to work if _large_ your _Field_; + The _Sponge_ you oftner than the _Pen_ will want, + And rather _Reason_ see to _prune_ than _plant_; + Yet where the _Thoughts_ are _barren, weak_ and _thin_, + New _Cyons_ should be neatly _grafted_ in. + [Sidenote: _A Judge_.] + If you with _Friend_ or _Enemy_ are blest, + Your _Fancy's Offspring_ ne'er can want a _Test_, + Tho _Both_, perhaps may _overshoot_ the _Mark_: + First _Spite_ with _Envy_ charges in the _Dark_; 310 + _Unread_ they _damn_, and into _Passion_ fall, + 'Tis _Stuff_, 'tis _Blasphemy_ 'tis _Nonsense_ all; + They _sleep_ (when _doz'd before_) at every _Line_, } + While your more _dang'rous Friend_ exclaims,--'Tis fine, } + 'Tis _furiously Delightful_, 'tis _Divine_; } + Th' _inspiring God's_ in ev'ry Page confess'd; + A COWLEY or a DRYDEN at the least! + Yet you'll from _both_ an _equal Judgment_ frame + And stand the _nearest Candidate_ for _Fame_: + What _Envy praises_, or what _Friends dislike_, 320 + This bears the _Test_, and that the _Sponge_ should strike. + Chuse to be _absent_ when your _Cause_ is try'd, + Lest _Favour_ should the _partial Judge_ misguide; + Not _others Thoughts_ implicitly prefer, + Your _Friend's_ a _Mortal_, and like _you_, may _err_. + Upon the _last Appeal_ let _Reason_ sit, + And _here_, let _all Authority_ submit. + Divest your _self of self_ whate'er you can, + And think the _Author_ now some _other Man_. + A thousand trivial _Lumber-Thoughts_ will come, 330 + A thousand _Fagot-Lines_ will crowd for room; + _Reform_ your _Troops_, and no _Exemption_ grant, + You'll gain in _Strength_, what you in _Numbers_ want. + Nor yet _Infallibility_ pretend; + He still _errs on_ who thinks he ne'er can _mend_: + Reject that _hasty_, that _presumptuous Thought_! + None e'er but VIRGIL wrote without a _Fault_; + (Or _none_ he has, or none that _I can find_, + Who, dazzled with his _Beauties_, to his _Moles_ am blind.) + Who has the _least_ is _happiest_, he the _best_, 340 + Who _owns_ and _mends_ where he has once _transgrest_. + Nor will _good Writers smaller Blots_ despise, + Lest those neglected should to _Crimes_ arise; + Such _Venial Sins_ indulg'd will _mortal_ prove, + At least they from _Perfection_ far remove. + Nor _Critical Exactness_ here deride, + It looks like _Sloth_ or _Ignorance_, or _Pride_; + _Good Sense_ is spoild in _Words unapt_ exprest, + And _Beauty_ pleases more when 'tis _well drest_. + [Sidenote: _Method_.] + Forget not METHOD if the _Prize_ you'd gain, 350 + 'Twill cost you _Thought_, but richly pays the _Pain_; + What _first_, what _second_, or what _last_ to place, + What here will _shine_, and there the _Work_ disgrace. + Before you build, your MODEL justly lay, + And ev'ry Part in _Miniature_ survey; + Where airy _Terraces_ shall threat the _Skies_, + Where _Columns_ tow'r, or neat _Pilasters_ rise; + Where cool _Cascades_ come _roaring_ down the Hill, + Or where the _Crystal Nymph_ a _mossie Bason_ fill: + What _Statues_ are to grace the _Front_ design'd, 360 + And how to throw the _meaner Rooms_ behind. + Draw the _Main Strokes_ at first, 'twill shew your _Skill_, + _Life-Touches_ you may add whene'er you will. + Ev'n _Chance_ will sometimes all our _Art_ excel, + The _angry Foam_ we ne'er can _hit_ so well. + A _sudden Thought_, all beautiful and bright, + Shoots in and _stunns_ us with _amazing Light_; + Secure the _happy Moment_ e'er 'tis past, + Not _Time_ more _swift_, or _Lightning_ flies so fast. + All must be _free_ and _easie_, or in vain 370 + You _whip_ and _spur_, and the _wing'd Courser_ strain: + When _foggy Clouds_ hang _bellying_ in the _Skies_, + Or _fleety Boreas_ through th' _Horizon_ flies; + He then, whose _Muse_ produces ought that's _fine_, + His _Head_ must have a _stronger Turn_ than mine: + Like _Sybils Leaves_ the _Train of Thoughts_ are rang'd, + Which by _rude Winds_ disturb'd, are _nothing_ if they're chang'd. + Or are there too in _Writing softer Hours_? + Or is't that _Matter_ nobler _Mind_ o'erpow'rs, + Which boasts her _native Liberty_ in vain, 380 + In _Mortal Fetters_ and a _Slavish Chain_? + _Death_ only can the _Gordian Knot_ divide, } + Tho by what secret wondrous _Bands_ 'tis ty'd, } + Ev'n _Reason's_ self must own she can't decide: } + For as the _rapid Tides_ of _Matter_ turn } + We're fann'd with _Pleasure_ or with _Anger_ burn, } + We _Love_ and _Hate_ again, we _Joy_ and _Mourn_. } + Now the swift _Torrent_ high and headstrong grows, + _Shoots_ through the Dykes, and all the Banks _o'erflows_; + Strait the _capricious Waters_ backward fly, + The _Pebbles_ rake and leave the Bottom _dry_; 390 + Watch the _kind Hour_ and seize the _rising Flood_, + Else will your _dreggy Poem_ taste of _Mud_. + Hence old and batter'd _Hackneys_ of the _Stage_, + By long Experience render'd _Wise_ and _Sage_, + With pow'rful _Juices_ restive Nature urge, + Or else with _Bays_ of old, they _bleed_ and _purge_; + Thence, as the _Priestess_ from her _Cave_ inspir'd, + When to his _Cell_ the _rancid God_ retir'd, + _Double Entendres_ their fond _Audience_ blind, + Their _boasted Oracles_ abuse Mankind: 400 + _False Joys_ around their _Hearts_ in _Slumbers_ play, + And the warm _tingling Blood_ steals fast away; + The _Soul_ grows _dizzy_, lost in _Senses Night_, + And melts in pleasing _Pain_ and vain _Delight_. + Not that the _sowrest Critick_ can reprove + The _soft_ the moving _Scenes_ of _Virtuous Love_: + _Life's Sunny Morn_, which wears, alas! too fast; + _Pity_ it e'er should _hurt_, or should not _always last_! + Has _Bankrupt Nature_ then no _more_ to give, + Or by a _Trick_ persuades Mankind to _live_? 410 + No--when with _Prudence_ join'd 'tis still the _same_ } + Or _ripens_ into _Friendship's_ nobler _Name_, } + The _Matter_ pure, immortal is the _Flame_. } + No _Fool_, no _Debauchee_ could ever prove + The _honest Luxury of Virtuous Love_; + Then _curs'd_ are those who that _fair Name_ abuse, + And holy _Hymen's_ sacred _Fillets_ loose; + Who _poison Fountains_, and _infect_ the _Air_, + _Ruine_ the _Witty_, and _debauch_ the _Fair_; + With _nauseous Images_ their _Scenes_ debase 420 + At once their Country's _Ruine_ and _Disgrace_. + _Weigh_ well each _Thought_ if all be _Just_ and _Right_, + For those must clearly _think_ who clearly _write_. + Nothing _obscure_, _equivocal_, or _mean_, + Much less what is or _impious_ or _obscene_: + Altho the tempting _Serpent_ play his part, + And wind in _glitt'ring Folds_ around thy _Heart_; + Reject the _trait'rous Charmer_, tear him thence, + And keep thy _Vertue_ and thy _Innocence_. + [Sidenote: _The Manchinel, or Eves Apple_.] + In wild _America's_ rank _Champaign_ grows 430 + A _Tree_ which _Europe_ oft too dearly knows; + It rises high in _cool inchanting Groves_, + Whose green broad Leaves the fainting _Trav'ler_ loves; + _Fair_ is the treach'rous _Fruit_, and charms your _Eye_, + But ah! beware! for if you _taste_ you _die_. + Too well alas! it _thrives_ when _planted_ here, + Its deadly Branches shade our _Theatre_. + Of _Mesures, Numbers, Pauses_ next I sing, + And rest the breathless _Muse_ with cautious _Wing_: + Of _Embryo Thoughts_, unripen'd yet by Time, 440 + The Rules of _Verse_, of _Quantity_ and _Rhime_: + With trembling Steps through _Shades_ unknown I stray, + And mark a _rugged_ and a _dubious_ way; + Yet some small _glimm'ring Light_ will hence be show'd, + And future _Trav'lers_ may enlarge the _Road_. + [Sidenote: _Measure_.] + Of CHAUCER'S Verse we scarce the _Measures_ know, + So _rough_ the _Lines_, and so _unequal_ flow; + Whether by Injury of _Time_ defac'd, + Or _careless_ at the _first_, and writ in _haste_; + Or _coursly_, like old _Ennius_, he _design'd_ 450 + What After-days have _polish'd_ and _refin'd_. + SPENCER more _smooth_ and _neat_, and none than He + Could better skill of _English Quantity_; + Tho by his _Stanza_ cramp'd, his _Rhimes_ less chast, + And _antique Words_ affected all disgrac'd; + Yet _vast_ his _Genius, noble_ were his _Thoughts_, + Whence equal Readers wink at _lesser_ Faults. + From _France_ their _Alexandrins_ we receive + Which more of _Liberty_ and _Compass_ give; + Hence by our dull Translators were they us'd, 460 + Nor CHAPMAN nor old STERNHOLD these refus'd; + They borrow from _Hexameters_ their _Feet_, + Which with _Asclepiads_ and _Iambicks_ meet; + Yet in the midst we still a _Weakness_ see, + Their _Music_ gives us no _Variety_. + More _num'rous_ the _Pentameter_ and _strong_, + Which to our _Saxon Fathers_ did belong. + In this their antient _Edda_[1] seems to write, + _Mysterious Rhimes_, and _horrid_ to the _sight_: + Their _Runic Staves_ in this on _Rocks_ engrav'd, 470 + Which long th' Assaults of _Time_ it self have brav'd. + In this our antient _British Bards_ delight; } + And, if I measure his _rough Numbers_ right, } + In this old _Taliessin_ us'd to Write[2]. } + This still _Possession_ keeps, few else we read, + And _Right_ as well as _Fact_ may justly plead; + Altho the _French Intruders_ oft pursue + Their _baffled Title_, and their _Claim_ renew; + Too oft _Impressions_ on our _Armies_ make, + Cut off our _Straglers_ and our _Out-Guards_ take, 480 + Which lazily our Authors now admit, + And call th' _Excursions of Luxuriant Wit_; + With _Badger-Feet_ the two-top'd _Mount_ we climb, + And stalk from _Peak_ to _Peak_ on _Stilts of Rime_. + Sweet WALLER'S _Dimeter_ we most approve + For cheerful _Songs_ and _moving Tales of Love_, + Which for _Heroic Subjects_ wants of _Strength_, + Too _short_, as _Alexandrins_ err in _Length_. + Our _Ear's_ the Judge of _Cadence_; nicely weigh + What _Consonants_; rebel, and what obey; 490 + What _Vowels_ mixt compose a pleasing _Sound_, + And what the tender _Organs_ grate and wound. + Nor at thy Reader's _Mercy_ chuse to lie, + Nor let _his Judgment_ want of _thine_ supply: + So _easie_ let thy _Verse_ so _smoothly_ fall, + They must be read _aright_ if read at all. + [Sidenote: _Numbers_.] + Nor _equal Numbers_ will for all suffice, + The _Sock_ creeps low, the _Tragic Bushkins_ rife; + None knew this _Art_ so well, so well did use + As did the _Mantuan Shepherd's_ Heav'nly Muse: 500 + He marry'd _Sound and Sense_, at odds before, + We hear his _Scylla bark, Charybdis roar_; + And when in Fields his _Fiery Coursers_ meet + The _hollow Ground_ shakes underneath their feet: + Yet nicer _Ears_ can taste a _Diff'rence_ when + Of _Flocks_ and _Fields_ he _sings_ or _Arms_ and _Men_. + If I our _English Numbers_ taste aright, + We in the grave _Iambic_ most delight: + Each _second_ Syllable the Voice should _rest_, + _Spondees_ may serve, but still th' _Iambic's_ best: 510 + Th' unpleasing _Trochee_ always makes a _Blot_, + And lames the _Numbers_; or, if this forgot, + A strong _Spondaic_ should the _next_ succeed, + The feeble _Wall_ will a good _Buttress_ need: + Long _Writing, Observation, Art_ and _Pain_ + Must here unite if you the _Prize_ would gain. + [Sidenote: _Pauses_.] + _Pause_ is the _Rest_ of _Voice_, the poor _Remains_ + Of _antient Song_ that still our _Verse_ retains: + The _second Foot_ or _third's_ our usual _Rest_, + Tho more of _Art's_ in _varying_ oft exprest. 520 + At ev'ry Word the _Pause_ is sometimes[3] made, + And wond'rous _Beauty_ every where displaid: + --But here we _guess_, and _wander_ in the _dark_; + How should a hoodwink'd _Archer_ hit the Mark? + The little _Glimpse_ that DRYDEN gives, is more + Than all our _careless Writers_ knew before; + A few _Chance Lines_ may smooth and roundly fly, + But still no Thanks to us, we know not why. + He finds _Examples_, we the _Rule_ must make, + Tho who without a Guide may not mistake? 530 + [4] "_Tho deep yet clear, tho gentle yet not dull, + Strong without Rage, without o'er flowing full._" + If we that _famous Riddle_ can unty, + Their brightest _Beauties_ in the _Pauses_ lie, + To Admiration _vary'd_; next to these + The _Numbers_ justly order'd charm and please: + Each _Word_, each happy _Sound_ is big with _Sense_, + They all _deface_ who take one _Letter_ thence. + [Sidenote: _Quantity_.] + But little more of _Quantity_ we know + Than what our _Accent_ does, and _Custom_ show: 540 + The _Latin Fountains_ often we forsake, + As they the _Greek_; nay _diff'rent Ages_ take + A _diff'rent Path; Perfùme_ and _Envy_ now + We say, which _Ages past_ would scarce allow: + If no _Position_ make our _Accent_ strong + Most _Syllables_ are either _short_ or _long_. + [Sidenote: _Rhime_.] + _Primitive Verse_ was grac'd with pleasing _Rhimes_, + The _Blank_ a lazy Fault of _After-times_; + Nor need we other proof of this to plead + With those the sacred [5] _Hebrew Hymns_ can _read_: 550 + If this to _lucky Chance_ alone be _due_, + Why _Rhime_ they not in _Greek_ and _Latin_ too? + [6] PINDAR at first his ancient _Copy_ trac'd, + And sometimes equal _Sounds_ his _Numbers_ grac'd; + Till with the more than _human Labour_ tir'd, + He _drop'd_ his _Rhime_, and own'd him _uninspir'd_. + ORPHEUS and HOMER too, who first did dream + Of _num'rous Gods_, and left the _One Supreme, + Religion_ both and _Poetry_ did wrong, + _Apostatiz'd_ from _Rhime_, and lost the _Soul of Song_. 560 + Yet still some weak and glimm'ring _Sparks_ remain'd, + And still our _Great Forefathers_ this retain'd; + Nor _Inundations_ of _Barbarian Rome_, + Our ancient _Rhime_ could wholly overcome. + [Sidenote: _Vide p._ 13.] + Ne'er _cramp_ thy _Reason_ for some paltry _Chime_, + Nor sacrifice _Good Sense_ to _Numbers_ and to _Rhime_: + Both may be _sav'd_ and made _good Friends_; and here + The Poets _Art_ and _Happiness_ appear: + But when some _stubborn Word_ denies to draw + In _Numbers_, and defies the _Muses Law_, 570 + Reject it strait, unworthy such a _Grace_, + Another _yoke_ which better fills the _Place_: + Much _Reading_ will thy _Poverty_ amend + And _Taggs_ without the help of _Crambo_ lend. + The _Double Rhime_ is _antiquated_ grown, + Or us'd in _Satyr_ or _Burlesque_ alone; + Nor loves our stronger _Tongue_ that tinkling _Chime_, + The _Darling_ of the _French_, a _Female Rhime_. + Now, daring _Muse_! attempt a _stronger Flight_, + Beyond a _Vulgar Verser's_ cautious Height, 580 + Beyond thy self, and consecrate to _Fame_ } + Those who a _Title_ to the _Laurel_ claim, } + And may to after-times _embalm_ thy Name; } + Commend the _Good_, to all but _Vice_ be kind, + And cast the _smaller Faults_ in _shades_ behind; + Who _first_, who _next_; the _Balance_ justly hold, + As that which shines above, and flames with _Heav'nly Gold_. + Great N----BY the first, ROSCOMMON gone, + He rules our _Empire_ now of _Wit_ alone: + The _Beauties_ he of _Verse_ exactly knows, 590 + The famous DRYDEN'S not more smoothly flows: + Had ORPHEUS half so sweetly mourn'd his _Fate_, + As VIRGIL sung, or _Sh----d_ did _translate_; + H' had made the _Manes_ once again _relent_, + They would again _Eurydice_ have sent: + _Death's Temple_ we with _sacred Aw_ survey, + With _Admiration_ read his _Great Essay_: + Was _Art_ or bounteous _Nature_ here more _kind_? } + _Strong Sense_! Uncommon _Learning! Thoughts_ refin'd! } 600 + A _Godlike Person_, and an _equal Mind_! } + [Sidenote: _Paraphrase on_ Psal. 148 O Azure Vaults, &c.] + The _next_ in Dignity, if not the _same_, + Is Deathless Dorsot's lov'd and noble _Name_: + How did he sing, (listen'd the _Heav'nly Quire_;) + The Wond'rous Notes of DAVID's _Royal Lyre_! + Ah! _Why no more_ must we for ever long + And vainly languish for so _sweet_ a _Song_? + The next is _Tityrus_, who not disdains + To read his _Name_ among the _tuneful Swains_; + _Unweary'd_ in his _Prince's_ glorious _Cause_, 610 + As he of _Faith_, Defender of the _Laws_; + _Easie_ to all but to himself, he shares + His Monarch's _Favours_, and his Monarch's _Cares_: + His flowing _Language_ cloaths his _massie Sense_, } + Nor makes with _pompous Words_ a vain pretence, } + _Sound_ without _Soul_, to _Wit_ and _Eloquence_. } + Tho _Great_, he's still the same he was before: + --I _sue for nothing_, and I'll say no more. + _Montague_ left the _Muses_ peaceful _Seat_, + And bore the _Cares_ and _Honours_ of the _Great_: 620 + The _Pollio_ he of our _Augustan_ days, + Who _Wit_ rewards with more than _hungry Praise_; + _True Worth_ his _Patronage_ can never miss, + He has his _Prince's Smiles_ and _that_ has _his_. + Nor should he pass unprais'd whom all admire, + Who, mixt with _Seraphs_, rules the _Western_ Quire; + _Flowing_ and _pure_ his unexhausted _Vein_, + As Silver _Thames_, which, rolling down the _Plain_, + Salutes his _Sacred Dome_.---- + But those _profane_ who meanly thus _commend_, 630 + Th' _Immortal Cowley's_ and the _Muses_ Friend. + Of _matchless_ DRYDEN only _Dryden's_ Skill + Could justly say enough,--of _Good_ or _Ill_. + _Envy_ must own he has our _Tongue refin'd_, + And manly _Sense_ with tend'rest _Softness_ join'd: + His _Verse_ would _Stones_ and _Trees_ with _Soul_ inspire, + As did the _Theban_ and the _Thracian_ Lyre: + His youthful _Fire_ within, like _Etna, glows_, + Tho _Venerable Age_ around his Temples _snows_: + If from the _modern_ or the _antient_ Store 640 + He _borrows_ ought, he always _pays_ 'em more: + So much _improv'd_, each _Thought_, so _fine_ appears, + WALLER or OVID scarce durst own 'em _theirs_. + The Learned _Goth_ has scowr'd all _Europe_'s Plains, } + _France, Spain_, and fruitful _Italy_ he _drains_, } + From every Realm and every Language _gains_: } + His _Gains_ a _Conquest_ are, and not a _Theft_; + He wishes still new _Worlds_ of _Wit_ were left: + Thus _haughty Rome_, when, all the _Firm_ surpass'd, + Her _Eagles_ found our _moated World_ at last; 650 + Touching upon th' _unhospitable_ Coast, + _Good Laws_ bestow'd for our _wild Freedom_ lost; + With _Arts of Peace_ our stubborn Soil manur'd, + And _naked Limbs_ from _Frost_ and _Sun_ secur'd: + --But ah' how _dear_ the _Price_ of all we gain! } + What _Shoals of Vices_ with 'em cross'd the Main? } + What _Pride_, what _Luxury_, a foul, an odious Train? } + Who weighs, like _Galcacus_, the _Good_ with _Ill_, + Would wish they'd let us been _Barbarians_ still: + Such _thankless Pains Ignatian Firebrands_ take 660 + An _honest Pagan_ spoil, and a _bad Christian_ make. + Blest be kind Heav'n, which wrap'd me in a _Gown_, + And drew me early from the _fatal Town_! + And blest _Her Name_, to endless Ages blest, + Who gave my weary _Muse_ this calm _Retreat_ and _Rest_. + True to my God, my Country, and my Friend, } + Here, may I Life, not _wholly useless_, spend, } + _Steal_ through the World, and _smiling_ meet my _End_! } + I envy not _Great Dryden_'s loftier Strain } + Of _Arms_ and _Men_ design'd to entertain, } 670 + _Princes_ and _Courts_, so I but please the _Plain_: } + Nor would I barter _Profit_ for _Delight_, + Nor would have _writ like him, like him to write_. + If there's _Hereafter_, and a last _Great Day_, + What _Fire_'s enough to _purge_ his _Stains_ away? + How will he _wish_ each _lewd_ applauded _Line_ } + Which makes _Vice pleasing_, and _Damnation shine_, } + Had been as _dull_ as honest _Quarles_ or _mine_! } + With _sixty Years of Lewdness_ rest content! + It mayn't be yet _too late_, O yet _Repent_! 680 + Ev'n _Thee_ our _injur'd Altar_ will receive; + While yet there's _Hopes_ fly to its _Arms_ and live! + So shall for _Thee_ their _Harps_ the _Angels_ string, + And the _Returning Prodigal_ shall sing; + New _Joys_ through all the _Heav'nly Host_ be shown + In _Numbers_ only _sweeter_ than thy _own_. + CONGREVE from _Ireland_ wond'ring we receive, } + Would he the _Town's loose way_ of Writing leave, } + More Worth than all their Forfeit Lands will give: } + _Justness_ of _Thought_, a _Courtly Style_, and clear, 690 + And well-wrought _Passions_ in his _Works_ appear: + None knows with _finer Strokes_ our Souls to move, + And as he please we _smile_, or _weep_, or _love_. + When _Dryden_ goes, 'tis he must fill the _Chair_, + _With_ Congreve _only_ Congreve _can compare_. + Yet, tho he _natural_ is as untaught Loves, + His _Style_ as _smooth_ as _Cytherea_'s Doves, + When e'er unbyass'd _Judges_ read him o'er, + He sometimes _nodds_, as _Homer_ did before: + Some Lines his most _Admirers_ scarce would please, 700 + Nor _B----_'s Verse alone could _raise Disease_.[7] + For _smooth_ and _well turn'd Lines_ we _T----_ admire, + Who has in _Justness_ what he wants in _Fire_: + Each _Rhime_, each _Syllable_ well-weigh'd and fair, + His _Life_ and _Manners_ scarce more _regular_. + With _Strength_ and _Flame_ prodigious _D----s_ writes + Of _Loves_ lost _Wars_, and cruel martial _Fights_: + Scarce LEE himself strove with a _mightier Load_, + Or _labour'd_ more beneath th' _Incumbent God_: + Whate'er of old to _Rome_ or _Athens_ known, 710 + What _France_ or _We_ have _glean'd_, 'tis all his _own_. + How few can equal _Praise_ with _C----ch_ obtain, + Who made _Lucretius smooth_, and _chast_, and _plain_? + Courted by _Fame_ he could her _Charms_ despise, } + Still woo'd by that _false Fair_ he still denies, } + And press'd, for _Refuge_ to the _Altar_ flies; } + Like _votive Tablets_ offers up his _Bays_, + "_And leaves to our lewd Town the Drudgery of Plays_." + In lofty _Raptures_, born on Angels Wings } + Above the _Clouds_, above _Castalian Springs_, } 720 + N---- inspir'd, of God and _Nature_ sings; } + And if one _Glance_ on this _poor World_ he throw, + If e'er he mind the _Croud_ and _Buzz_ below; + Pities our _fruitless Pains_ for _Fame_ and _Praise_, + And wonders why we _drudge_ for _Crowns_ and _Bays_. + Could _B_---- be _sober_, many he'd excel, + Few know the _Antients_, or could use so well; + But ah! his _Genius_ with his _Virtue's_ fled, + Condemn'd to _Want of Grace_ and _Want of Bread_. + Ev'n Envy _B----re's Subject_ must confess } 730 + _Exact_ and _rare_, a _curious Happiness_, } + Nor many could the _Fable better dress_: } + Of _Words_ what _Compass_, and how vast a _Store_! + His _Courage_ and his _Vertue's_ only more: + More various _Scenes of Death_ his _Fights_ display + Then _Aghrim's_ Field or _London's_ fatal Day: + Let beauteous _Elda's Tears_ and _Passion_ prove + His _Soul_ is not _unknowing how to love_: + Disrob'd of _Clouds_ he view'd the _Stagyrite_ + As _Nature_ he, confess'd to _Human sight_: + His _Rules_ surveys, and traces to their _Springs_, } 740 + Where the _blind Bard_ of flaming _Ilium_ sings; } + Thence with the _Mantuan Swan_ in narrower Rings, } + Tho more _exact_, he, stooping from his height, + Reviews the same _fierce Wars_ and _Gods_ and _Heroes_ fight: + That beauteous antient _Palace_ he surveys } + Which _Maro's Hands_ had only Strength to raise, } + _Models_ from thence, and _copies_ every _Grace_: } + Each _Page_ is big with _Virgil's Manly Thought_, + To _follow him too near's a glorious Fault_. + He dar'd be _virtuous_ in the _World's_ Despite, 750 + _While_ D----n _lives he dar'd a Modest Poem write_. + Who can th' ingenious S----y's Praise refuse, + Who serves a grateful _Prince_, and grateful _Muse_? + Or _P----r_ read unmov'd, whose every _Page_ + So just a _Standard_ to the opening _Age_? + Neat _S----n_'s courtly _Vein's_ correct and clear, + Nor shall he miss his _Praise_ and _Station_ here: + Nor should the _rest_ whom I _unnam'd_ must leave, + (Tho such _Omission_ they'll with ease _forgive_:) 760 + _Unknown_ to me, let each his _Works_ commend, + Since _Virtue, Praise_, as _Shame_ does _Vice_ attend. + _Poets_, like _Leaves_ and _Words_, their _Periods_ know, + Now _fresh_ and _green_, now _sear_ and wither'd grow; + Or _burnt_ by _Autumn's_ Heat, and _Winter's_ Cold, + Or a _new hasty Birth_ shoves off the _old_. + Happy are those, and such are _some_ of ours, } + Who blest by bounteous _Heav'n's_ indulgent _Show'rs_ } + Bear wholsome _Fruit_, and not gay _pois'nous Flow'rs_: } + Who would not ev'n a _Lawreat's self_ commence 770 + Or at their _Virtue's_ or their _Faith's_ Expence: + Renounce their _Creed_ to save a _wretched Play_, } + And for a _crowded House_ and _full Third Day_ } + At one _bold Stroke_ throw all their _Heav'n_ away. } + What gain'd _Euripides_ by all his _Sense_, + Who madly rail'd against a _Providence_? + _Apostate Poets_ first seduc'd _Mankind_, + _But ours upon the Pagan Herd refin'd_; + They Vertue _prais'd_ at least, which ours _abuse_, + And more than _Paganize_ the Heav'n-born Muse: 780 + No Signs of _Grace_, or of _Repentance_ show, + Like _Strumpets lash'd_, more _impudent_ they grow. + Now learn, my Friend, and freely I'll impart + My _little All_ in this delightful Art: + Of _Poetry_ the various _Forms_ and _Kinds_, + The widest, strongest _Grasp_ of human Minds: + Not _all_ from _all_, but _some_ from _each_ I take, + Since we a _Garland_ not a _Garden_ make. + [Sidenote: _Epic_.] + EPIC's the _first_ and _best_, which mounting sings } + In _Mighty Numbers worthy mighty Things_, } 790 + Of _High Adventures, Heroes, Gods_ and _Kings_: } + By lively _Schemes_ the Mind to _Vertue_ forms, + And far beyond _unactive Precept_ warms. + The _Subject_ may be either _feign'd_ or _true_, + _Too Old_ it should not be, but less _too New_: + _Narration_ mixt with _Action_ most delights, + _Intrigues_ and _Councils_, vary'd _Games_ and _Fights_: + Nothing so _long_ as may the Reader _tire_, + But all the just well-mingled _Scenes_ admire. + Your _Heroe_ may be _virtuous_, must be _brave_; + Nothing that's _mean_ should his great Soul enslave: + Yet Heav'ns unequal _Anger_ he may _fear_, + And for his _suffering Friends_ indulge a _Tear_: + Thus when the _Trojans Navy_ scatter'd lay + He _wept_, he _trembled_, and to Heav'n did _pray_; + But when bright _Glory beckon'd_ from afar, + And _Honour_ call'd him out to meet the _War_; + Like a fierce _Torrent_ pouring o'er the _Banks_, + Or _Mars_ himself, he _thunders_ through the _Ranks_; + _Death_ walks before, while he a _Foe_ could find, 810 + _Horror_ and _Ruine_ mark long frightful _Lanes_ behind. + [Sidenote: _Machines_.] + For _worn_ and _old_ MACHINES few Readers care, + They're like the _Pastboard Chaos in the Fair_: + If ought surprizing you expect to shew, + The _Scenes_ if not the _Persons_ should be _new_: + With _both_ does MILTON'S wondrous Scheme begin, + The _Pandemonium, Chaos, Death_ and _Sin_; + Which _D----s_ had with like _Success_ assay'd, } + Had not the _Porch_ of _Death's Grim Court_ been made } + Too _wide_, and there th' impatient _Reader_ staid. } 820 + And _G----h_, tho _barren_ is his _Theme_ and _mean_, + By this has _reach'd_ at least the fam'd _Lutrine_. + If _tir'd_ with such a plenteous _Feast_ you call + For a far meaner _Banquet_, _Meal_ and _Wall_; + The _best_ I have is _yours_, tho 'tis too _long_, + And what's behind will into _Corners_ throng. + A _Place_ there is, if _Place_ 'tis nam'd aright, } + Where scatter'd _Rays_ of pale and sickly _Light_, } + Fringe o'er the _Confines_ of _Eternal Night_. } + _Shorn_ of their _Beams_ the _Sun_ and _Phoebe_ here 830 + Like the _fix'd Stars_, through _Glasses_ view'd, appear; + Or those faint _Seeds of Light_, which just display + Ambiguous Splendor round the _milky Way_; + The _Waste_ of _Chaos_, whose _Auguster_ Reign + Does those more barren doubtful Realms disdain: + Here dwell those _hideous Forms_ which oft repair } + To breath our upper _World's_ more _chearful_ Air } + Bleak _Envy_, grinding _Pain_, and meagre _Care_; } + _Disease_ and _Death_, the _Goddess_ of the _place_, + _Death_, the _least frightful Form of all their Race_; 840 + _Ambition, Pride_, false _Joys_ and _Hopes_ as vain, + _Lewdness_ and _Luxury_ compose her Train: + How large their _Interest_, and how vast their _Sway_ + Amid the wide invaded Realms of _Day_! + Soon would they our frail Race of _Mortals_ end, + Did not kind _Heav'n_ auspicious _Succours_ lend; + Sweet _Angel-Forms, Peace, Virtue, Health_ and _Love_, + How near ally'd, how like to those _above_! + These often drive the _Air_, those _Furies_ chace + And fetter in their own _infernal Place_: 850 + These lent at once NASSAW and ENGLAND Aid, + And bright MARIA to our _Shores_ convey'd: + Her, all their _Pow'r_ and all their _Charms_ they gave, + To _govern_ what her _Heroe_ came to _save_. + Nor _Envy_ this, who in her noisome Cell + By _Traitors_ in their swift _Descent to Hell_, + Her rising _Glories_ heard, then with a _Groan_ + She crawl'd before her _Sov'reign's_ direful _Throne_: + A _Pile of Sculls_ the odious _Fantom_ bore, + With _Bones_ half-naked mixt, and dropping putrid _Gore_; 860 + There thus--Shall _Heav'n_ defraud us of our _Reign_, + And BRITAIN, only BRITAIN break her _Chain_? + What can we there, while more than _mortal Grace_ + Forbids our _Entrance_, and secures the _Place_? + Awhile I _gaz'd_ and _viewed_ her as I _fled_, + When first she came, till half my _Snakes_ were dead; + And had I tarry'd longer near her _Throne_, + Had soon some base _insipid Vertue_ grown: + So fast the wide _progressive Ills_ increase, } + If longer unoppos'd our _Power_ will cease; } 870 + The base degenerate World _dissolve_ to Peace; } + Our boasted _Empire_ there will soon be o'er, + And _Mortals_ tremble at our _Arms_ no more. + She said, her _Tidings_ all the _Court_ affright, + And doubled _Horror_ fill'd the _Realms of Night_: + Till out foul _Lewdness_ leap'd, and shook the Place. } + The _fulsom'st Fiend_ of all th' _infernal Race_; } + A crusted _Leprosie_ deform'd her _Face_; } + With half a _bloodshot_ Eye the _Fury_ glar'd, + Yet when for _Mischief_ she above prepar'd, 880 + She _painted_ and she _dress'd_, those _Arts_ she knew, + And to her _self_ her self a _Stranger_ grew, + (Thus _old_ and batter'd _Bawds_ behind the Scenes, + New _rigg'd_ and _dawb'd_, pass on the _Stage_ for _Queens_;) + Nor yet, she cries, of _Britain_ we'll _despair_ } + I've yet some _trusty Friends_ in _Ambush_ there, } + All is not lost, we've still the _Theatre_: } + I'll batter _Virtue_ thence, nor fear to gain } + New _Subjects daily_ from her _hated Reign_; } + Is not Great _D----_ ours and all his _Train_? } + He knows he has new _Laurels_ here prepar'd, } 890 + For those he lost _above_, a just Reward, } + For his wide _Conquests_ he'll _command the Guard_: } + _Headed_ by him one _Foot_ we'll scorn to yield, + Tho _Virtue's_ glitt'ring _Squadrons_ drive the _Field_: + Grant me, Dread _Sov'reign_! a _Detachment_ hence } + We'll not be long alone on our _Defence_, } + But hope to drive the proud _Assailants_ thence. } + Bold _Blasphemy_ shall lead our black _Forlorn_, + With _Colours_ from _Heav'n's Crystal Ramparts_ torn, + And _Anti-Thunderrs_ arm'd; _Profaneness_ next 900 + Their _Canon_ seize, and turn the _Sacred Text_ + Against th' _Assailants_; brave _Revenge_ and _Rage_ + Shall our _main Batt'ry_ ply, and guard the _Stage_. + --But most I on dear _Ribaldry_ depend, + We've not a _surer_ or a _stronger Friend_. + Now shall she _broad_ and _open_ to the Skie, + Now _close_ behind some _double Meaning_ lye; + Now with _sulphureous Rivers_ lave the _French_, + And choak th' _Assailants_ with infernal _Stench_; + Each nicer _Vertue_ from the _Walls_ repel, 910 + And _Heav'n_ it self regale with the Perfumes of _Hell_. + This from the World our dreaded _Foe_ will drive, + As _murm'ring Bees_ are forc'd to leave their _Hive_; + _Souls_ so _refin'd_ such _Vapours_ cannot bear, + But seek their _native Heav'n_ and purer Air: + When _She_ and all her heav'nly _Guards_ are gone + And her bright _Heroe_ absent, all's our own: + If any _pious Fools_ should make a stand, + To stop our _Progress_ through the conquer'd Land, + They soon shall pass for _hot-brain'd Visionairs_, 920 + We'll run 'em down with _Ridicule_ and _Farce_. + Must they _reform_ the World! A likely _Task_! + Tis _Vizard_ all, and them we'll soon _unmask_. + The rest will _tumble_ in, or if they stay + And loiter in _Damnation's_ ample Way, + I've one _Expedient_ left, which can't but take, + My last _Reserve_; From yon black _brimstone_ Lake, + Whence two _Canals_ thro _subterranean Veins_ + Are drawn to _Sodom_ and _Campania's_ Plains, + My self I'll fill a _Vial_, and infuse 930 + My very Soul amid the _potent Juice_: + This _Essence_ near my _Heart_ I'll with me bear, } + And this among my _dearest Fav'rites_ share, } + Already _tutor'd_ by the _Theatre_; } + Who pass'd those _Bugbears Conscience, Law_ and _Shame_ + Have there been taught that _Virtue's_ but a _Name_: + _Exalted Souls_ who _vulgar Sins_ despise; + Fit for some _new discover'd_ nobler _Vice_; + One _Drop_ of this their _frozen Blood_ shall warm, + And _frighted Nature's feebler Guards_ disarm 930 + Till their _chill Veins_ with hotter _Fevers_ glow } + Than any _Etna_ or _Vesuvius_ know, } + Scarce equal'd by their _Parent Flames_ below; } + Till wide around the _gen'rous Canker_ spread, + And _Vengeance_ draw on each _devoted Head_: + Impatient _Heav'n_ it self our _Arms_ shall join, + The _Skies_ again with _forky Lightnings_ shine; + Till glutted _Desolation_ pants for Breath, + And _guilty Shades_ shall croud the _Realms of Death_. + --She said, the _Motion pleas'd_ she _wings_ away 940 + And in blue _pois'nous Foggs_ invades the _Day_: + Part of her _direful Threats_ too true we find, + And _Heav'n_ avert the _Plagues_ that yet remain _behind_! + [Sidenote: _Tragedy_.] + The _Path_ which _Epic_ treads the TRAGIC Muse + With _daring_ tho _unequal_ Steps pursues, + A _little Epic_ shines through every _Scene_, + Tho more of _Life_ appears, and less _Machine_; + More _Action_, less _Narration_, more _Delight_; + We _see_ the _Gods_ descend, and _Heroes_ fight. + While _Oedipus_ is _raving_ on the _Stage_, 950 + Mild _Pity_ enters and dissolves our _Rage_; + We _low'r_ our _haughty Spirits_, our _Pride_ and _Hate_, + And learn to _fear_ the sad _Reverse of Fate_. + A _Tyrant's Fall_, a treach'rous _Statesman's_ End + Clear the _Just Gods_, and equal _Heav'n_ defend: + Ungrateful _Factions_ here themselves torment, + And _bring_ those very _Ills_ they would _prevent_: + Nor think the lost _Intrigues_ of _Love_ too mean + To fill the _Stage_ and grace toe _Tragic Scene_! + Who from the _World_ this _Salt of Nature_ takes, 960 + _Twice Slaves of Kings_ of _Life_ a _Desart_ makes. + The _Moral_ and _Pathetick_ neatly join'd, + Are best for _Pleasure_ and for _life_ design'd. + Be this in _Tragic_ an _Eternal Law_; + _Bold Strokes_ and _larger_ than the _Life_ to draw: + Let all be _Great_; when here a _Woman's_ seen, + Paint her a _Fury_, or a _Heroine_: + _Slaves, Spendthrifts_, angry _Fathers_, better fit + The meaner _Sallies_ of COMEDIAN Wit; + But _Courtly_ HORACE did their _Stage_ refuse, 970 + Nor was it trod by _Maro's_ heav'nly Muse: + A _Walk_ so _low_ their _nobler Minds_ disdain, + Where _sordid Mirth's_ exchang'd for _sordid Gain_; + Where, in false _Pleasure_ all the _Profit's_ drown'd, + Nor _Authors_ with just _Admiration_ crown'd: + Hence was the _Sock_ a Task for _servile Wit_, + Course PLAUTUS hence, and neater TERENCE writ: + Yet if you still your _Fortune_ long to take, + And long to hear the _crouded Benches_ shake; 980 + If you'd _reform_ the _Mob_, lov'd _Vice restrain_, + The _Pulpits_ break, and neighb'ring _B----_ drain; + Let _Heav'n_ at least, if not its _Priests_, be free, + The _Bible_ sures's too _grave_ for _Comedy_: + If she nor _lewdly_ nor _profanely_ talk + She'll have a _cleaner_, tho a _narrower Walk_. + Our Nation's _endless Humour_ will supply + So large a _Fund_ as never can be _dry_; + Why then should _Vice_ be _bare_ and _open_ shown, + And with such _Nauseous Scenes_ affront the _Town_? 990 + Why thrive the _Lewd_, their _Wishes_ seldom crost, + And why _Poetic Justice_ often lost? + They plead they copy _Nature_.--Don't abuse + Her _sacred Name_ with such a _vile Excuse_! + She wisely _hides_ what these, like Beasts _display_, } + Ev'n _Vice_ it self, less _impudent_ than they, } + Remote in _Shades_, and far from _conscious_ Day. } + From this _Retrenchment_ by strong _Reason_ beat, + They next to _poor Necessity_ retreat: + The _Murderers, Bawds_ and _Robbers_ last pretence 1000 + With equal _Justice_, equal _Innocence_! + So _Crack_, in _pious Fit_, will plead she's _poor_, + 'Tis a _hard Choice_, Good Sir, to _starve_ or _whore_! + --Is there no _Third_, or will such _Reas'nings_ pass + In _Bridewel's_ rigid Court, or save the _Lash_? + Where the _stern Judge_, like _Radamanth_, surveys + The _trembling Sinner_, and each Action _weighs_. + A lazy, black, encumber'd _Stream_ rolls by, + Whole thick _sulphureous Vapours_ load the Sky; + Near where, in _Caves_ from _Heav'n's_ sweet _Light_ debar'd, 1010 + _Shrieks, Groans_, and _Iron Whips_, and _Clanks of Chains_ are heard. + And can't you _thrash_, or _trail_ a _Pike_ or _Pole_? + Are there no _Jakes_ in Town, or _Kennels_ foul? + No _honester Employment_, that you chuse + With such _vile Drudgery_ t'abase the heav'n born _Muse_? + The num'rous ODE in various _Paths_ delights, + _Love, Friendship, Gods_, and _Heroes, Games_ and _Fights_: + Her _Age_ with _Veneration_ is confess'd + The _first great Mother_ she of all the rest, + This [8]MOSES us'd, and DAVID'S Royal Lyre, } + This he whom wond'ring _Seraphs_ did _inspire_, } 1020 + Whence PINDAR stole some _Sparks of heav'nly Fire_, } + Who now by COWLEY's happy Muse improv'd, + Is _understood_ by some, by more _belov'd_: + The _Vastness_ of his Thought, the daring _Range_, + That imperceptible and pleasing _Change_, + Our jealous _Neighbours_ must themselves confess + The _British Genius_ tracks with most Success; + But still the _Smoothness_ we of _Verse_ desire, + The _Regulation_ of our _Native Fire_: + This from experienc'd _Masters_ we receive, 1030 + Sweet FLATMAN'S Works, and DRYDEN'S this will give. + If you in _pointed_ SATYR most delight, + _Worry_ not, where you only ought to _bite_: + _Easie_ your _Style_, unstudy'd all and clear. + _Prosaic Lines_ are _pardonable_ here. + There are whose _Breath_ would blast the _brightest Fame_, } + Who from _base Actions_ court an _odious Name_, } + With _Beauty_ and with _Virtue_ War proclaim; } + Who _bundle_ up the _Scandals_ of the _Town_, 1040 + And in _lewd Couplets_ make it all their _own_: + _Just Shame_ be _theirs_ who thus _debauch_ a _Muse_, + To vile _Lampoons_ a _noble Art_ abuse: + As _ill_ be _theirs_, and _half of_ DATS'_s Fate_, + Who always dully rail against the _State_. + _Kings_ are but _Men_, nor are their _Councils_ more, + Those _Ills_ we can't _avert_ we must _deplore_: + Not _many Poets_ were for _Statesmen_ made, + It asks more _Brains_ than stocks the _Rhiming_ Trade: + (At least, when they the _Ministry_ receive, 1050 + To _Poets Militant_ their _Muse_ they leave.) + All _sordid Flat'ry_ hate, it pleases none + But _Tyrants_ grinning on their _Iron Throne_: + Yet where wer'e rul'd with _wise_ impartial Sway, + The _Muses_ should their _grateful Homage_ pay: + 'Tis _base_ alike a _Tyrant's_ Name to raise, + And grudg a _Parent Prince_ our _tributary Praise_. + No wonder those who by _Proscriptions_ gain } + In _Marian_ Days, or _Sylla's_ bloody Reign, } + Of the divine _Augustus_ should complain; } 1060 + Who stoops to wear a _Crown's uneasie Weight_, + As _Atlas_ under Heav'n, to prop the _State_: + No _Glory_ strikes his Great exalted Mind, + No _Pleasure_ like obliging all Mankind; + He lets the _Factious_ their weak _Malice_ vent, + Punish'd enough while they themselves _torment_: + _Satiate_ with _Conquest_, his dread _Sword_ he sheaths, + And with a _Nod disbands ten thousand Deaths_. + Who dares _Rebellious Arms_ against him move + While his _Prætorian Guard_'s his Subjects _Love_? 1070 + Admir'd by all the _bravest_ and the _best_, + Who wear a _Roman Soul within their ample Breast_: + Tho _charm'd_ with _both_, which shall they more _admire_ + In _Peace_ his _Wisdom_, or in _War_ his _Fire_? + --_One Labour_ yet remains, and that they _ask_, + _Alcides_ never clear'd a _nobler Task_; + O _Father_! banish'd _Vertue_ O restore! + Let _Hydra Vice_ pollute thy _Reign_ no more! + Strike through the _Monster-Form_, which threatning stands, + Fierce with a _thousand Throats_, a _thousand Hands_! 1080 + _Rescue_ once more thy _Trojans sacred Line_ } + From _slavish Chains_, so shall thy _Temples_ shine } + With _Stars_, and all _Elysium_ shall be _thine_. } + +_FINIS._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Vide Edda Samundi--apud Sheringham, de Gentis Anglorum +Origine, pag._ 28, 29. + + _Hiaelp beiter eitt eun thad thier hialpa mun + Vid Sikum og Sottum goiru allum, + Thad kenn eg aunad er thorfa Ita + Syner their ed vilia lakner lisfa._ +[Transcriber's Note: extremely difficult to read in the original. +Transcription may not be accurate.] + + I know your only Help, the pow'rful Charm + That aids in ev'ery Grief and every Harm, + I know the Leaches Craft, and what they need + Who Doctors in that Noble Art proceed. + +[2] the _Vide_ British Chronicle, _and_ Taliessin's _Prophecies_; + + Prryff fard l'yffred in ydwyfi i Elphin + Am gwalad gynifio [indecipherable] Goribbin. + Ionas ddewn am golwis Merddin + Sebach Pob Brenmam geilw Taliesin. + Gwea a gasgle elud Tra feyna bud, + Gwererbin didd brawd in chospo i gnawd, + Gwae ni cheidw i geil ag if yufug eil, + Gwae in cheidw i ddefend chog bleiddna. +[Transcriber's Note: extremely difficult to read in the original. +Transcription may not be accurate.] + + Me _Elphin_ now his Bard may justly boast + Who long of old amid the Fire-wing'd Host: + Once _Merlin_ was I call'd, well known to Fame, + Whom future Kings shall _Taliessin_ name. + Wo to the Wretch who Wealth by Rapine gains, + And wo to him who Fasts and Pray'rs refrains; + Wo to the Shepherds who their Flocks betray, + And will not drive the _Ravish_ Wolves away. + +[3] _Olli sedaro rescondit corde Latinus._ Virg. + +[4] _Mr._ Dryden's _Riddle, in his Preface to_ Virgil. + +[5] _This was observ'd before Mr._ Le Clerc _was born. Vide_ Song of the +Well, _Num._ 21. 17. + + [Hebrew text] + +_Vide_ Psal. 80, & 81. _Where some Verses have Treble, where Quadruple +Rhimes, four in one Verse._ + +[6] Ode 1. [Greek: indecipherable] + +[7] _Vide_ Collier's _Reflexions on_ Moarning Bride, _and_ Garth's +_Dispensary_. + +[8] _I know some have affirm'd that_ Moses's _Song in the_ 14_th of_ +Exodus _was writ in Hexameters, but I can't perceive any such thing in +it, any more than in the_ 90_th_ Psalm, _or the Book of_ Job, _which seem +to be written about the same time with it. The Song of the_ Well, _in_ +Numbers, _pag._ 15. _is clearly an_ Ode _of unequal Measures_. + + + + +[Illustration: _THE_ +LIFE +_of_ +Christ. + +An Heroic Poem. + +_In Ten BOOKS +with sixty Copper Plates._ + +London: +_Printed for Charles Harper, & Benj. Motte._] + + + + +THE +LIFE +OF OUR +Blessed Lord & Saviour +JESUS CHRIST. + +AN +HEROIC POEM: +DEDICATED TO +Her Most Sacred MAJESTY. + +_In Ten Books._ + +ATTEMPTED BY +_SAMUEL WESLEY_, M.A. +Chaplain to the most Honourable JOHN Lord Marquess of _Normanby_, +and Rector of _Epwerth_ in the County of _Lincoln_. + +Each Book Illustrated by necessary Notes, explaining all the more +difficult Matters in the whole History: Also a Prefatory Discourse +concerning Heroic Poetry. + +_The Second Edition, revised by the Author, and improved with the +addition of a large Map of the_ HOLY-LAND, _and a table of the +principal matters._ + +With Sixty Copper-Plates, by the celebrated Hand of _W. Faithorn_. + +_LONDON_: +Printed for _Charles Harper_, at the _Flower-de-Luce_ over against St. +_Dunstan_'s Church, and are to be Sold by him, and _Roger Clavel_ at the +_Peacock_ against _Fetter-Lane_, both in _Fleetstreet_, 1697. + + + + +THE PREFACE, Being an ESSAY on HEROIC POETRY + + +A Just Heroic Poem is so vast an Undertaking, requires so much both of Art +and Genius for its Management, and carries such Difficulty in the Model of +the Whole, and Disposition of the several Parts, that it's no Wonder, if +not above One or Two of the Ancients, and hardly any of the Moderns, have +succeeded in their Attempts of this Nature. Rapin, and other Masters of +Epic, represent it as an Enterprize so hardy, that it can scarce enter +into the Mind of a wise Man, without affrighting him, as being the most +perfect Piece of Work that Art can produce. That Author has many excellent +Reflexions and Rules concerning it in his Discourse sur la Poetique; but +Bossu is the first I've seen who has writ a just and perfect Tract +thereon, wherein he has in a clear and Scholastic Method amass'd together +most that's to be found in Antiquity on that Subject, tho' chiefly keeping +to the Observations of Aristotle, which he drew from Homer, and who seems +the first that reduced Poetry to an Art. That Author defines Epic, "An +Artificial Discourse, in order to form the Manners by Instructions, +disguis'd under the Allegories of some one important Action, recited in +Verse, in a manner probable, diverting and admirable;" which he thus +himself abridges, "'Tis a Fable, agreeably imitated on some important +Action, recited in Verse in a manner that's probable and admirable;" In +which Definition are contain'd, as he afterwards explains it, the general +Nature of Epic, and that double, Fable and Poem: The Matter, some one +important Action probably feign'd and imitated: Its Form, Recitation or +Narration: And lastly, its End, Instruction, which is aimed at in general +by the Moral of the Fable; and besides in the particular Manners of the +Persons who make the most considerable Figure in the Work. + +To begin with Fable, which he makes included in the general Nature or +Essence of Epic. This, he says, is the most essential Part of it; "That +some Fables and Allegories scatter'd up and down in a Poem don't suffice +to constitute Epic, if they are only the Ornaments, and not the very +Foundation of it." And again, "That 'tis the very Fund and principal +Action that ought to be Feign'd and Allegorical:" For which reason he +expresly excludes hence all simple Histories, as by Name, Lucan's +Pharsalia, Silius Italicus's Punic War, and all true Actions of particular +Persons, without Fable: And still more home; that 'tis not a Relation of +the Actions of any Hero, to form the Manners by his Example, but on the +contrary, a Discourse invented to form the Manners by the Relation of some +one feign'd Action, design'd to please, under the borrow'd Name of some +illustrious Person, of whom Choice is made after we have fram'd the Plan +of the Action which we design to attribute to him. + +Nor indeed is Bossu singular in his Judgment on this Matter, there being +few or none who have ever writ on the same Subject, but are of the same +mind: For thus Boileau in his Art of Poetry, + + Dans la vaste recit d'une longue action + Se soutient par la Fable & vit de Fiction. + +Which his Translator I think better; + + In the Narration of some great Design, + Invention, Art, and Fable, all must join. + +Rapin too gives his Vote on the same side, Rien n'est, says he, plus +essentiel au Poem Epique, que la Fiction; and quotes Petronius to that +purpose, Per ambages, Deorumque ministeria praecipitandus est Liber +Spiritus. Nor is't only the Moderns who are of this Opinion; for the +Iliads are call'd in Horace, Fabula qua Paridis, &c. And lastly, even +Aristotle himself tells us, "That Fable is the principal thing in an +Heroic Poem; and, as it were, the very Soul of it." [Greek: Archê kai oion +psychê.] And upon this occasion commends Homer for lying with the best +Grace of any Man in the World: Authorities almost too big to admit any +Examination of their Reason, or Opposition to their Sentiments. However, I +see no cause why Poetry should not be brought to the Test, as well as +Divinity, or any more than the other, be believed on its own bare ipse +dixit. + +Let us therefore examine the Plan which they lay for a Work of this +Nature, and then we may be better able to guess at those Grounds and +Reasons on which they proceed. + +In forming an Heroic-Poem, the first thing they tell us we ought to do, is +to pitch on some Moral Truth, which we desire to enforce on our Reader, as +the Foundation of the whole work. Thus Virgil, as Bossu observes, +designing to render the Roman People pleased and easie under the new +Government of Augustus, laid down this Maxim, as the Foundation of his +Divine Æneis: "That great and notable Changes of State are not +accomplished but by the Order and Will of God: That those who oppose +themselves against them are impious, and frequently punished as they +deserve; and that Heaven is not wanting to take that Hero always under its +particular Protection, whom it chuses for the Execution of such grand +Designs." This for the Moral Truth; we must then, he says, go on to lay +the general Plan of the Fiction, which, together with that Verity, makes +the Fable and Soul of the Poem: And this he thinks Virgil did in this +manner, "The Gods save a great Prince from the Ruines of his Country, and +chuse him for the Preservation of Religion, and re-establishing a more +glorious Empire than his former. The Hero is made a King, and arriving at +his new Country, finds both God and Men dispos'd to receive him: But a +neighbouring Prince, whose Eyes Ambition and Jealousie have closed against +Justice and the Will of Heaven, opposes his Establishment, being assisted +by another King despoil'd of his Estate for his Cruelty and Wickedness. +Their Opposition, and the War on which this pious Prince is forc'd, render +his Establishment more just by the Right of Conquest, and more glorious by +his Victory and the Death of his Enemies." These are his own Words, as any +may see who are at the pains to consult him; nor can I help it, if either +Virgil or Bossu happen to be Prophets. + +When the Poet has proceeded thus far, and as Bossu calls it, dress'd +his Project, he's next to search in History or receiv'd Fable, for some +Hero, whose Name he may borrow for his Work, and to whom he may suit his +Persons. These are Bossu's Notions, and, indeed, very agreeable to +Aristotle, who says, that Persons and Actions in this sort of Poetry must +be feign'd, allegorical, and universal. + +This is the Platform they lay; and let's now see if we can discover the +Reasons whereon they found these Rules, being so unanimous for Fable +rather than true History, as the Matter of an Heroic Poem; and, if I +mistake not, these are some of the principal. + +1. Because they had observ'd the best Models of Heroic Poems were laid +after this manner; the greatest part of the Action both in Homer and +Virgil being pure Fable. Homer beginning, and all the rest following his +Steps. + +2. Because no single Hero, or true History, which the Ancients knew was +sufficient, without Fable, to furnish Matter for an Epic Poem. History, +says Aristotle, treats of particular Things as they really are; Poetry, as +they ought to be; and therefore he prefers Poetry as the more grave and +more instructive; the Poets being forc'd to follow the same Methods with +their Kindred-Art, that of the Painters, and gather a great many Beauties +together, out of 'em all, to steal one Venus. + +3. A third Reason may be, because, supposing they should have found some +one Example from whence to enforce strongly any particular Point of +Morality, yet it would have miss'd those other Characters of Epic, most of +its Agreeableness, and all its Power to raise Admiration. A chast +Historian must not go about to amuse his Reader with Machines; and a Poet +that would imitate him, must have been forc'd to thin his Stage +accordingly, and disband all his glorious Train of Gods and Godesses, +which composes all that's admirable in his Work; according to that of +Boileau; Chaque Virtue devient une divlnitie. + +And these, if I mistake not, were the main Reasons on which the +foremention'd Rules were grounded. Let's now enquire into the Strength and +Validity of them: To begin with Homer, he wrote in that manner, because +most of the ancient Eastern Learning, the Original of all others, was +Mythology. But this being now antiquated, I cannot think we are oblig'd +superstitiously to follow his Example, any more than to make Horses speak, +as he does that of Achilles, 2. If a Poet lights on any single Hero, whose +true Actions and History are as important as any that Fable ever did or +can produce, I see no reason why he may not as well make use of him and +his Example to form the Manners and enforce any Moral Truth, as seek for +one in Fable for that purpose: Nay, he can scarce fail of persuading more +strongly, because he has Truth it self; the other but the Image of Truth, +especially if his History be, in the Third place, of it self diverting and +admirable. If it has from its own Fund, and already made to his hand those +Deorum Ministeria, which cost the Poet so much in the forming 'em out of +his own Brain. Nor can we suppose Fiction it self pleases; no, 'tis the +agreeable and the admirable, in the Dress of Truth; and such a Plan as +this would effectually answer both the Ends of Poetry in general, +delectari & monere, nay come up fuller to the End of Epic, which is +agreeable Instruction; and thence it follows strongly, that a Poem written +in such a manner, must, notwithstanding the foregoing Rules, be a true and +proper Heroic Poem, especially if adorn'd with Poetical Colours and +Circumstances through the whole Body thereof. + +Now that all this is not gratis dictum, I think I can prove, even from +most of those very Authors I've already produc'd, as of the contrary +Opinion; and that I can make it appear, Bossu goes too far in fixing Fable +as the Essential Fund and Soul of the principal Action in an Epic Poem. To +begin with Rapin, who has this Passage, sur la Poetique, Reflex. 5. La +Poesie Heroique, &c. "Heroique Poesie, according to Aristotle, is a +Picture or Imitation of an Heroic Action; and the Qualities of the Action +are, That it ought to be (among others) true, or at least, such as might +pass for true;" Thus he. And hence it follows, according to him and +Aristotle, that the principal Action in Heroic, not only ought to pass for +Truth, but may be really true: For Horace, he does indeed call the Iliads +a Fable; but then he does not oblige his Poet superstitiously to follow +Homer in every thing, owning that he sometimes doats as well as other Men: +Further, this may, and I think does, refer rather to the Dress and Turn of +the Action, than to the Bottom and Ground of his History, which there's at +least as much, if not more reason to believe true than false: And in the +same Sense may we take Petronius and Boileau; nay, if we don't take 'em +thus, I can't tell whether there were ever such a thing as a true Heroic +Poem in the World; not so much as the Fairy-Queen, Gondibert, or Orlando +Furioso; all which have Fable enough in 'em of any reason; but their +principal Actions might be still true, as we are sure was that of the best +Heroic that ever was written; (I need not say I mean Virgil) since few or +no Authors ever deny'd that there was such a Man as Æneas, or even that he +came into Italy, built Cities there, and erected a Kingdom, which Tully +mentions, as a generally receiv'd Tradition in those Parts, and which it +seems he thought not frivolous, but true and solid; otherwise he'd scarce +have given it a place in his Argument for his Client. Of this Opinion too +seems Horace himself, in his Art of Poetry, namely, That there's no +necessity of the principal Action's being feign'd; for his Direction is, +"Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge; Either follow Tradition +or Fame, or else feign what's agreeable thereunto." He makes not feigning +essential to Heroic Action, but gives leave to follow Fame, who is not so +great a Lyar, but that she is sometimes in the right. Nay, what if we +should after all have Bossu himself on our side, which I'm mistaken if he +be not; for these are his Expressions, Lib. 1. Cap. 7. Le Fiction, &c. +"The Fiction may be so disguis'd under the Verity of the History, that +those who are ignorant of the Art of the Poet, may believe it not a +Fiction; and to make the Disguisement well, he ought to search into +History for the Names of some Persons, to whom such an Action has probably +or truly happen'd, &c." Hence 'tis evident, that according to Bossu's own +Notion, the main Action may be true; which appears even from Aristotle +himself, as quoted by him, 97. [Greek: Kan ara] &c. "An Author is not less +a Poet, because the Incidents he recites have truly happen'd; if so be +that which happen'd had the appearance of Truth, and all that Art demands, +and be really such as it ought to have been feign'd." And this Bossu +himself illustrates admirably well by an ingenious Simile; "A Statuary," +says he, "first forms his Design, Posture, Altitudes which he intends for +his Image; but if he then lights on any precious Material, Agate, or such +like, where the Figure, the Colours, and Veins will not be accommodated to +all he design'd, he regulates his Design and Imagination according to his +Matter; nor ought we to believe, at the same time, that these singular +lucky Hits condemn the Justness of his Art." From all which, I must leave +it to the Reader, whether I han't sufficiently prov'd what I've +undertaken; that Fiction is not necessary to the principal Action of our +Heroic Poem; on which I've been something more large, not so much on my +own account; for 'tis indifferent to me by what Name any Man calls my +Poem, so it answers the great End of Epic, which is Instruction; but +because I've heard some Persons have been so conceited as to criticise on +our immortal Cowley for this very reason, and deny his Davideis the Honour +of being an Heroic Poem, because the Subject thereof is a true History. + +And here I should drop the Discourse of Fable, were there not another sort +of Persons still to deal with, perhaps more importunate than the former: +The first will not like a Piece unless 'tis all Fable, or at least the +Foundation of it: These latter run into the contrary extreme, and seam +unwilling or afraid to admit anything of Fable in a Christian Poem; and as +Balzac in his Critics on Heinsius his Baptista, are frighted, as at some +Magical Charm, if they find but one Word there which was made use of by +the old Heathens; which, says he, (unluckily as things have since +happened) is as preposterous as to see Turks wear Hats, and Frenchmen +Turbants; the Flower-de-lis in the Musselmens Colours, or the Half-Moon on +the Standard of France. He's, however, it must be granted, justly angry +with Tasso, as Mr. Dryden since, for setting his Angels and Devils to +stave and tail at one another; Alecto and Pluto on one side, and Gabriel +and Raphael o' t'other; as well as with Sannazarius, for mingling Proteus +and David, and calling the Muses and Nymphs to the Labour of the Blessed +Virgin, Tho' the truth is, the Italian Poets seem more excusable, at least +to a Papist, in this Case, than any other Nation, who parted with as +little of their Idolatry as they could possibly, after they had kept it as +long as they were able, making the Change very easie, and turning their +Pantheon into an All Saints; much like the good Fathers in the Spanish +Conquests in America, who suffer the Natives to keep their Old Idols, so +they'll but pay for 'em, and get 'em christen'd; by this means making many +a good Saint out of a very indifferent Devil. So far, I say, Balzac is +undoubtedly in the right, that Christianity and Heathenism ought not to be +confounded, nor the Pagan Gods mention'd, but as such, in Christian Poems. +Of which Boileau also says, "They should not be Fill'd with the Fictions +of Idolatry;" tho' he tells us just before, + + In vain have our mistaken Authors try'd + Those ancient Ornaments to lay aside. + +As tho' he were afraid lest all Poets shou'd be forc'd to turn Christians, +and yet in the next Lines he thinks it full as bad, + + To fright the Reader in each Line with Hell, + And talk of Satan, Ashtaroth and Bel. + +As tho' he'd have no Christian to be a Poet. And much at the same rate is +Monsieur Balzac very angry with Buchanan, for the same reason; nor will he +by any means let us substitute Belzebub, Asmodeus, and Leviathan, in the +room of Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera, which is, in his Opinion, perfect +Pedantry and Affectation; and is extreamly afraid, lest any of those +Barbarous Hebrew Words should disfigure the purity of the Latin Tongue; +when surely he cou'd not but know, that this pure Latin Tongue it self, +for which he's so much concerned, is nothing but the gradual Corruption or +Barbarizing of the Greek; as that of the Phonician and Hebrew before; and +the Italian, and his own French too, from the Latin afterwards, by the +adulterous mixture of 'tis hard to say how many Languages: So that between +'em, they'd make it impossible for a Christian Poet to write a good Heroic +Poem, or even a Tragedy, on any, but profane Subjects; by taking away all +the Machines, and therein whatever is admirable. No, says Balzac, instead +of those hard Words and proper Names, Appellatives may be chosen, Words +common to all People: As for example, Ill luck instead of the Fates, and +the Foul Fiend for Lucifer; and whether this wou'd not sound extreamly +Heroical, I leave any Man to judge: It being besides certain, that 'tis +singulars and particulars which give an Air of Probability, and the main +Life and Beauty to a Poem, especially of this Nature; without which it +must of necessity sink and languish. However so much of Truth, I must +confess, there is in what he says, that I verily believe Magor-missabib, +or Mahershal-alhashbaz, wou'd scarce yoke decently in one of our +Pentameters, but be near as unquiet and troublesome there, as a Mount +Orgueil it self. Nor can partiality so far blind my Judgment as not to be +my self almost frighted at second hearing of such a thundering Verse, as +Belsamen Ashtaroth Baaltii Ba'al: Which seems as flat Conjuration, as +Zinguebar, Oran, &c. tho' 'tis now too late to amend it. But then there +are other Words or a more soft and treatable Cadence, even in the same +Hebrew Language, especially when mollified by a Latin or Greek form, or +Termination; and such as these one may make use of and let others alone: +though neither is our bolder rougher Tongue so much affrighted at them, as +the French and Latin. + +But Boileau pushes the Objection further, and wou'd make it bear against +the Things as well as Words, persuading himself, + + Our God and Prophets that he sent, + Can't act like those the Poets did invent. + +Tho' he too, is short in History, how excellent soever in Poetry. For +first, the Heathen Poets did not invent the Names of their Gods and +Heroes, but had 'em from Eastern Tradition, and the Phenician and Jewish +Language, tho' deflected and disguis'd after the Greek and other Forms, as +Josephus tells us, which the learned Bochart has proved invincibly; and I +have made some Essay towards it, in my Sixth Book. Nay further, it seems +plain to me, that most, even of their best Fancies and Images, as well as +Names, were borrow'd from the Antient Hebrew Poetry and Divinity, as, were +there room for't, I cou'd, I think, render more than probable, in all the +most celebrated Strokes of Homer, moat of the Heathen Poetical Fables, and +even in Hesiod's blind Theogonia. Their Gods or Devils, which you please, +were not near as Antient as the Hebrews. The Word Satan is as ancient as +Job; nor can they shew us a Pluto within a long while of him. Ashtaroth, +and Astarte, are old enough to be Grandmothers to their Isis, or Venus, +and Bel, of the same standing with Idolatry. Lawful it must certainly be, +to use these very Heathen Gods in Christian, since they were us'd in +sacred Hebrew Poetry, in due place, and in a due manner; Bel boweth down, +Nebo stoopeth, says Isaiah. And what a noble Description has the same +Prophet of the Fall of Lucifer? Nor can I see why it may not be as +convenient and agreeable, as 'tis lawful to transplant 'em from Hebrew +Poetry to our own, if we use 'em as they did. And then for Angels, +Prophets, and Oracles, it wou'd be strange, if they shou'd not strike the +Mind as agreeably when real and true, as the Daemons, or Oracles, or +Prophets of the Heathens, form'd, as has been said, partly from mistaken +Fragments, or Traditions of sacred Story, partly indeed from the Juggles +of the Heathen Priests, and crafty Ambitious Daemons. On the whole, we +have all the Advantages they had, and yet more than they, for Heroic +Poetry in these matters. As for that Question of Boileau's, "What Pleasure +can it be to hear the howlings of repining Lucifer?" I think 'tis easier +to answer than to find out what shew of Reason he had for asking it, or +why Lucifer mayn't howl as pleasantly as either Cerberus, or Enceladus. +And let any one read but his Speech, in Milton's Paradise, almost equall'd +in Mr. Dryden's State of Innocence, and I'm mistaken if he's not of the +same Mind; or if he be not, and it gives him no pleasure, I dare affirm +'tis for want of a true taste of what's really admirable. + +But Boileau comes to a stronger Objection, both against the Names and use +of these Daemons, by way of Machine, I mean, in Christian Poetry; + + The Mysteries we Christians must believe + Disdain such shifting Pageants to receive. + +Thus has his Translator turn'd him; and taking it in that Sence, the +meaning must be, that it disgraces Christianity, to mix its Mysteries with +Stories of Daemons, Angels, &c. But sure it can never be any disgrace, to +represent it really as it is, with the frequent Intervention of those +invisible and powerful Agents, both good and evil, in the Affairs of +Mankind, which our Saviour has both asserted and demonstrated in his +Gospel, both by Theory and Practice: Whence we learn, that there are +really vast numbers of these Spirits, some tempting, or tormenting, others +guarding and protecting Mortals: Nay, a subordination too among them, and +that they are always vigilant, some for our Destruction, others for our +Preservation, and that, as it seems, of every individual Man; and if this +be true in general, I'm sure 'tis probable In particular: Nor can it be +any disgrace to Christianity, to apply general Probabilities to particular +Cases, or to mention these Daemons in Poetry any more than in Divinity. + +But indeed the Translator has here mended Boileau's Thought, or at least +made it more plausible and defensible, tho he has miss'd his Sence; for +these are his Lines: + + De la foi d'une Christien les Mysteres terribles + D' Ornemens egayés ne sont point susceptibles. + +The plain English of which, I think is, "That the terrible Mysteries of +the Christian Faith, are not at all susceptible of these gayer Ornaments." +I'll not be too Critical here, tho' methinks its but an odd sort of Gayety +that's to be found in Tales of Hell; agreeable, I own, the most dreadful +thing nay be, if well manag'd in Poetry, but he can hardly ever make 'em +gay without a yery strong Catachresis. But tho' we let that pass, so must +not what follows, wherein he further explains his Notion. L'Evangile, +&c. + + The Gospel offers nothing to our Thoughts + But Penitence and Punishment for Faults. + +To which it may be first said, that supposing this true, and the Gospel +did present nothing else, yet why mayn't Angels be us'd in it, to warn +Sinners to that Repentance which we know they so much rejoyce in; or +Devils, to punish and torment the Guilty and Impious; as in the Case of +Sceva's Son, and others. But yet further, as to the assertion it self, +I know not what their Gospel offers, nor I believe are they better +acquainted with what ours does; but we are sure 'tis far enough from being +such a dismal melancholy thing as they represent it, since Immortality and +Life are brought to light therein. We know that it gives us the noblest +Examples, the most divine Law, the strongest, yet justest Passions, the +most glorious Combats, and Friendships, and Sufferings, such as neither +History or Fable cou'd ever yet equal. It shews us a God really +Descending, disrob'd indeed of all his more dazling and insupportable +Glories, as our Divine Herbert; but yet clothed with what has more of true +Divinity, with Humility, and Charity, and Patience, and Meekness, and +Innocence. Here's War, here's Love indeed; such as never was besides, or +will be more. He lov'd our Dust and Clay, and even for us, single +encounter'd all the Powers of Darkness, and yet more, his Almighty +Father's anger. But I'll go no farther, lest the Reader should think I +forget where I am. I must return to Boileau, whose strongest Objection is +yet behind; Et de vos Fictions, &c. + + And mingling Falshood with those Mysteries + Wou'd make our sacred Truths appear like Lies. + +But I hope the Critic knew, that there is a fair difference between a mere +Fiction, or Falshood, and an Instructive Parable or Fable, on one side, or +a few more lively Poetical Colours on the other. To mingle Falshoods, or +dull Legendary Fictions, without either Life or Soul in 'em, with our +Saviour's Blessed Gospel, may make 'em, in some Sence, superiour to it: +This wou'd indeed incline an Italian to be of the same Faith with his +Countryman, that 'twas all Fabula Christi, in the worst Sence of the Word: +But certainly expressing the Truth in Parables, and mingling these with +the Mysteries of the Gospel, can't be thought to give it an Air of +Fiction: nor dare any affirm it does so, without Blasphemy, since our +Saviour has so often done it. Nor only these but deeper Allegories are +thought to be made use of in the Christian Religion; for Example, the +Throne and Temple of God in the Revelations, and the Description of the +New Jerusalem, with all its Gates and Foundations of Sapphires and +Emeralds, and that lovely Scheme of Trees and Rivers, worthy a Paradise: +All this, I say, will scarcely be granted literal, and consequently must +be all an Allegory; alluding partly to the Old Jewish Church and Temple, +partly to Ezekiel's Visionary Representation and Prophetical Paradise. Nor +can it, I think, be justly reckoned more criminal, where we have any great +instructive Example, which has been real matter of Fact, to expatiate +thereon; adding suitable and proper Circumstances and Colours to the +whole, especially when the History it self is but succinctly Related, and +the Heads of things only left us. And this some great Man have thought was +the Method of the Holy Pen-man himself, whoever he were, in that lovely +antient Poem of Job; which, that 't was at the bottom a real History, few +but Atheists deny; and yet 'tis thought some Circumstances might be +amplified in the account we have left us, particularly the long Speeches +between that Great Man and his Friends; tho' the main hinges of the +Relation, his Person, Character, and Losses, the malice of the Devil, the +behaviour of his Wife and Friends, nay even the Substance of their +Discourses, as well as of that between God and him, and the wonderful Turn +of his Affairs soon after: All this might, and did, truly happen. Or, if +any amplification should be here deny'd, does not the Divine however every +day, Paraphrase and Expatiate upon the Words of his Text, inverting their +Method as he sees occasion, and yet is still thought unblameable. All the +difference is, that he delivers what's probable, as only probable; whereas +the Nature of Poetry requires, that such probable Amplifications as these, +be wrought into the main Action, in such a manner, as if they had really +happen'd; and without this, a Man might Ryme long enough, but ne'er cou'd +make a Poem, any more than this would have been one, had I begun with, +Abraham begat Isaac, and so tagg'd on to the end of all the fourteen +Generations, much as Nonnus has done with St. John, and yet often miss'd +his Sence too, as Heinsius judges. + +But enough of Fable, and of those who would either reduce all Heroic +Poetry unto it, or absolutely banish it thence. + +Next the Fable of Epics, the Poem is to be considered; which, after Bossu, +is the other part of its general Nature, and shews the manner of handling +it, comprehending Thoughts, Expressions and Verses; of which there need +not much be said, since they are obvious to every Reader. The Thoughts +must be clear and just, and noble, and the Diction or Expression suited to +them. The chief Difficulty, as Rapin observes, is to keep up the Sublime, +which Virgil has done admirably, even in the meanest Subjects; and which +Aristotle thinks may be best done by the judicious use of Metaphors. There +ought to meet, according to him, Proportion in the Design, Justness in the +Thoughts, and Exactness in the Expression, to constitute an accomplish'd +Heroic Poem; and the great Art of Thought and Expression lies in this, +that they be natural and proper without Meanness, and sublime without a +vitious Swelling and Affectation. + +The Matter is next in an Heroic Poem, which must be one important Action; +it must be important, Res gestæ Regumque Ducumque, with Horace. "It only +speaks of Kings and Princes," says Rapin, by which he must mean that it +chiefly and principally turns upon them: for both Virgil and Homer have +occasion for Traitors, and Cryers, and Beggars, nay even Swineherds (in +the Odysses), and yet still more, of whole Armies, which can't be all +compos'd of Kings and Princes. However, the more there is of these lower +Walks in the Plan of a Design, the less Heroic it must appear, even in the +Hands of the greatest Genius in Nature. Such a Genius, I think, was +Homer's, and yet the Truth of this Assertion will be plain to any who +compares his Odysses with his Iliads; where he'll find, if 'tis not for +want of Judgment, in the latter a very different Air from the former, in +many places much more dead and languishing, and this which I have given, +seems one probable Reason on't; not excluding that of Longinus, that Homer +was then grown old, and besides too much of the Work was spent in +Narration; to which may be added, that he here design'd a wise and prudent +rather than a brave and fighting Hero, having wrought off most of the Edg +and Fury of his Youthful Spirit and Fury in Achilles, as in Ulysses he +express'd more of Age and Judgment. + +This Action must be one and uniform: the Painture of one Heroic Action, +says Rapin from Aristotle. It must be, as Bossu from Horace, simplex +duntaxat & unum, that is, the principal Action on which the whole Work +moves ought to be one, otherwise the whole will be confus'd; tho' there +may be many Episodic Actions without making what Aristotle calls an +Episodic Poem, which is, where the Actions are not necessarily or not +probably link'd to each other, and of such an irregular multiplication of +Actions and Incidents. Bossu instances very pleasantly in Statius's +Achilleid; but he tells us there's also a regular and just Multiplication, +without which 'twere impossible to find matter for so large a Poem, when +as before it's so ordered that the Unity of the whole is not broken, and +consequently divers Incidents it has bound together are not to be +accounted different Actions and Fables, but only different Parts not +finish'd, or entire of one Action or Fable entire or finished: and, +agreeable to this Doctrine, Rapin blames Lucan's Episodes as too +far-fetch'd, over-scholastic, and consisting purely of speculative +Disputes on natural Causes whenever they came in his way, not being link'd +with the main Action, nor flowing naturally from it, nor tending to its +Perfection. + +And in this Action, the Poet ought, as Rapin tells us, to invert the +natural Order of things, not to begin with his Hero in the Cradle, and +write his Annals instead of an Epic Poem, as Statius in his Achilleid, the +Reason of which seems plain, because this would look more like History +than Poetry. It's more agreeable, more natural, in some Sence, to be here +unnatural; to bring in, by way of Recitation or Narration, what was first +in order of time, at some distance from that time when it really happened, +which makes the whole look unlike a dull formal Story, and gives more +scope for handsome Turns and the Art of the writer. Another Reason why a +whole Life is not ordinarily a proper Subject for Epics, is, because many +trivial Accidents must be therein recited; but if a Life can be found in +which is nothing but what's diverting and wonderful, tending besides to +the perfecting the main Action, and the Order of time revers'd in the +whole, the Case would be so much altered, that I think their Rules would +not hold. + +For the Form of Epic, which comes next in view, 'tis agreed on all Hands +to be Recitation or Narration. Bossu says, The Persons are not at all to +be introduced before the Eyes of the Spectators, acting by themselves +without the Poet; not that he'd hereby exclude the Poet from introducing +the persons telling their own Story, or some one of them that of the +principal Hero: for great part of Epic is thus far Dramatic. And thus +Virgil manages his second and third Books by way of Recitation, and that +by his Hero himself, making him give Dido a long account of the Wars of +Troy, and his own Actions, tho' thereby he falls into the Impropriety of +commending himself, with a--sum pius Æneas. Vida takes the same way of +Recitation, wherein he employs two or three of his six Books; and Milton +follows them both, tho' less naturally than either; for he introduces our +Saviour, in his Paradise regain'd, repeating a great part of his own Life +in Soliloquy, which way of Discourse includes, in a Wise Man especially, +so much of Calmness and deep Reflection, that it seems improper for the +great and noble Turn required in such a Work, unless in describing a +Passion, where it may be more lively. All that they mean by not +introducing the Parties, is not doing it as in a Tragedy: they are not to +be brought in abruptly to tell their own Tale from the beginning, without +the appearing Help of the Poet, as Actors in a true and proper Drama. And +this Narration, says Rapin, should be simple and natural; but the greatest +difficulty is, not to let its Simplicity appear, lest it thence grow +disagreeable, and the chiefest Art in this, consists in its Transitions, +and all the delicate surprising Turns, which lead the Reader from one +thing to another without his thinking whither he's going, or perceiving +any Breach or so much as a passage between 'em; after all, the more Action +there is in Epic, still the more Life there will be. A Poet may, I find, +easily fall into Poorness of Thought by aiming too much at the Probability +and neglecting the Admirable; whereby he loses that agreeableness which is +a mixture of both. He ought then to take more care than some have done, +not to keep himself too long behind the Scenes, and trust the Narration +with another, which, without a great deal of Art and Pains, will take off +much of the Life of the Work, as Longinus has already formerly observed. + +And here come in the Qualities of Narration, mentioned in our Definition, +that it ought to be done in a manner probable, agreeable, and admirable; +'tis rendered probable by its Simplicity and Singularity, and admirable by +the Grandeur of the Subject, the Figures and Machines, or [Greek: theoi +apo mêchanês], much more lawful here than in the Drama's; and lastly +agreeable, as has been said, by a mixture of both. + +The last thing in our Definition, is, the End of Epic, indeed the first +and principal which ought to be intended, and that's Instruction, not +only, as Rapin thinks, of great Men, but of all, as in Virgil's Scheme, +which we have already described; and, this either by the principal Moral +aim'd at in the whole, or the Manners of particular Persons. Of Fable and +Moral, I've already discours'd, and whether be the more lively and +probable way to instruct, by that or History. But here it may be worth the +while to enquire, whether the principal Hero in Epic ought to be virtuous? +Bossu thinks not, the manners being formed as well by seeing Errors as +Beauties in the chief Actors; but yet methinks it seems too much to form a +Hero that's a perfect Almanzor, with not one spark of Vertue, and only +remarkable for his extraordinary Strength and little Brains; such was +certainly Homer's Achilles, of whom I think the Father was in the right +when he observes, the Poet makes him not do one brave or virtuous Action, +all the while he lies before the Town: whereas Virgil's Hero, is, to tell +truth, an indifferent good Heathen, and, bating one or two slips, comes up +pretty well to his own good word. The same however may be said for Homer, +which our present Dramatists plead for their Excuse; that he copied his +Hero from those who were esteemed such in the barbarous Age in which he +liv'd, + + Impiger, iracundus, inexorabllis, acer, + Jura neget sibi nata, &c. + +Made up of Lewdness, Love, and Fighting: who, had he liv'd in our Days, +would have made an excellent Town Bully, I wish there were not too much +reason to say a modish Gentleman. But tho' old Homer took this way, +Virgil, who writes with much more Judgment and Exactness, and follows him +in many things, here thought fit to leave him; making his Hero, as I've +said, not only brave and prudent, but for the most part virtuous. Which +would much better form the manners of his Reader, than if they were set to +spell out Instruction from contraries, as Homer has done. Whence it +follows, the more virtuous a Hero is, the better; since he more +effectually answers the true end of Epics. After all, Rapin says, the +chief Excellency of an Heroic Poem consists in the just proportion of the +Parts; that perfect Union, just Agreement, and admirable Relation, which +the Parts of this great Work bear one towards another; and blames Tasso +for mingling all the Sweetness and Delicacy of Eclogues and Lyricks, with +the Force of an Heroic Poem. But I should think him mistaken here, and +that this is not the meaning of Aristotles [Greek: analogon]. For if we +allow not such a pleasing Variety, how shall we excuse even Virgil +himself, who has his Dido, as well a Tasso his Armida and Erminia? nay, +how shall we manage Love? which is usually one great Episode of Heroic, if +not with something of Delicacy. I grant Love ought to have a different Air +in different sorts of Poems; but still if it be natural it must have +something of Softness; and for his Enchanted Forrest, which this severe +Critic also blames, I believe there's few who read that part of his Work, +who would willingly have it omitted, for the sake of a fancied Regularity, +any more than they would part with Mr. Dryden's Improvement on't in his +King Arthur. However, if it be a fault, 'tis strange so many who have been +Masters of the greatest Genius should unanimously fall into it; as Ovid in +his Palace of Circe, Ariosto in that of Alcina, and Spencer in his +Acasia's Bower of Bliss, and several others, who have taken the same +Method. I should therefore rather think that this beautiful and marvellous +Analogy which Aristotle requires as the best thing in Epic, relates rather +to the Harmony and Agreement of the Parts with the Whole; so that there +appears no Fracture or Contradiction, the different Parts, tho' much +unlike, yet all together making one beautiful Figure and uniform Variety. + +And thus much of the Definition of Epic, containing the main Rules +thereof, by which the Reader may be able to form a Judgment of this, or +any other Heroic Poem: Especially if to these Rules be added some Examples +to render them more plain. In order to which, I desire to express my +Thoughts freely of other Poems, as I must expect every one will do of +mine, always observing that piece of Justice, never to find fault, without +taking notice of some Beauty to ballance it, and giving, where I can find +it, the better Judgment of other Persons as well as my own. Concluding all +with a brief Account of my own Work. + +To begin then with Grandsire Homer, this may be added to the particular +Remarks that have been already made. I think none will deny but the +Disposition of his Iliads, is so truly admirable, so regular, and exact, +that one would be apt to think he wrote his Poem by Aristotle's Rules, and +not Aristotle his Rules by his Poem. I confess, I once thought that he had +been oblig'd to his Commentators for most of the Beauties they celebrated +in him; but I am now, on a nearer view, so well satisfied to the contrary, +that I can ne'er think his Poem writ by piece-meal, without any Connexion +or Dependance: wherein Dionysius the Halicarnassian very justly praises +the Order and Management of the Design, as well as the Grandeur and +Magnificence of the Expression, and the sweet and passionate Movements. +Nor is it without Reason that Horace, Longinus, and all Antiquity have +given him, as the Model of just and noble Sentiments and Expressions. +I must confess there's something in his Numbers that strikes me more than +even Virgil's, his Thoughts and Expressions appear stronger than his, tho' +it cannot be denied but that Virgil's Design is much more regular. Rapin +says a great deal of that Prince of the Latin Poets, tho' indeed he can +never say enough, "He had an admirable Taste, says he, of what's natural, +an excellent Judgment for the Order, and an incomparable Delicacy for the +Number and Harmony of his Versification." And adds, "That the Design of +the Poem is, if we consider it in all its Circumstances, the most +judicious and best-laid that ever was or ever will be." There is indeed a +prodigious Variety in Virgil, and yet the same Soul visible in every Line. +His own great Spirit informs his Poetical World, and like that he speaks +of, + + ---- totos infusa per Artus + Mens agitat Molem, & magno se corpora miscet. + +He's soft with the height of Majesty, his Marcellus, his Dido, and, I +think, above all, his Elegy on Pallas is very noble and tender. The joints +so strong and exactly wrought, the Parts so proportionable, the Thoughts +and Expression so great, the Complements so fine and just, that I could +ne'er endure to read Statius, or any of the rest of the Antient Latins +after him; with whom therefore I shan't concern my self nor trouble my +Reader. Ariosto was the first of the Moderns who attempted any thing like +an Heroic Poem, and has many great and beautiful Thoughts; but at the same +time, 'tis true, as Balzac observes, that you can hardly tell whether he's +a Christian or an Heathen, making God swear by Styx, and using all the +Pagan Ornaments; his Fancy very often runs away with his Judgment, his +Action is neither one nor simple, nor can you imagine what he drives at; +he has an hundred Hero's but you can't tell which he designs should be +chief: Orlando indeed seems a wild Imitation of Homer's Achilles, but his +Character is not bright enough to make him the Principal; and besides he +orders it so, that he does more great Actions when he's mad then when +sober. Agreeable to this are Rapin's thoughts of him, which, in few words, +are "That he's elevated and admirable in his Expressions, his Descriptions +fine, but that he wants Judgment; and speaks well, but thinks ill, and +that tho' the Parts are handsome enough, yet the whole Work can by no +means pass for an Epic Poem, he having never seen the Rules of Aristotle;" +which he thinks Tasso had, and therefore wrote much better, whom he +commends as more correct in his Design, more regular in the ordering his +Fable, and more accomplish'd in all parts of his Poem than any other of +the Italians, whom yet he justly blames, because he has two Hero's +Godfredo and Rinaldo, of whom Godfredo seems the principal, and yet +Rinaldo performs the greatest part of the notable Actions. He seems to +imitate Agamemnon and Achilles, but then he raises his Agamemnon too high, +or keeps him too low, for he hardly lets him do one great Action through +the whole Work. He further criticises upon him as mingling too much +Gallantry with his Poem, which, he thinks, is unbecoming the Gravity of +his Subject. But whether this Censure be just, I know not, for Love and +Gallantry runs through all Virgil's Æneids, in the Instances of Helen, +Dido, and Lavinia, and indeed it gives so great a Life to Epic, that it +hardly can be agreeable without it, and I question whether ever it has +been so. Nor is he more just, I think, against Tasso's Episodes, which he +blames as not proper to circumstantiate his principal Action, not entring +into the Causes and Effects thereof, but seeking too much to please, tho' +I think this Charge is unjust, for 'tis in his Episodes, if any where, +that Tasso is admirable. I might here give several Instances, but shall, +at present, only refer my Reader to that of Tancred and Erminia, and I'm +mistaken if he does not dissent from Rapin in this particular. Sannazarius +and Vida were the next who did any thing remarkable in Epic; they both +writ in Latin on the same Subject, both Christian Heroics; Rapin says they +both had a good Genius for Latin, the Purity of their Style being +admirable, but that their ordering of the Fable has nothing in't of +Delicacy, nor is the manner of their Writing proportionable to the dignity +of the Subject. For Sannazarius he's indeed so faulty, that one can hardly +with Patience read him, the whole Structure of his imperfect Piece, de +partu, being built on Heathen Fable; yet he has great and vigorous +Thoughts and very Poetical Expressions, tho' therein Vida far excels him, +whose Thoughts are so noble, and the Air of his Stile so great, that the +Elogy Balzac gives his Countryman Tasso, wou'd as well or rather better +have fitted him; "That Virgil is the Cause, Vida is not the first; and +Vida, that Virgil is not alone." It is true, as Rapin observes, that his +Fable is very simple, and perhaps so much the better, considering the +Subject; tho' he forgets not Poetical Ornaments, where there's occasion, +if he does not lean a little to Sannazarius's Error; for he talks of the +Gorgons and Sphinxes, the Centaurs and Hydra's and Chimera's, though much +more sparingly and modestly than the other. He has the happiest beginning +that perhaps is to be found in any Poem, and by mingling his Proposition +and Invocation, has the advantage of placing one of the noblest Thoughts +in the World in the first Line, without danger of falling into the +absurdity of Horace's Author with his Fortunam Priami: For thus he sings, + + Qui mare, qui terras, qul coelum numine comples + Spiritus alme, &c. + +After the Invocation, in the very beginning of the Poem, he's preparing +the Incidents for his Hero's Death; he brings him to Jerusalem at the +Passover with Hosanna's; then raises his Machines, and falls to the +Description of Hell. He through the whole, uses his Figures very +gracefully; few have been more happy in Comparisons, more moving in +Passion, succinct, yet full in Narration: Yet is he not without Faults; or +in the second Book he brings him to his last Supper in the Garden, from +thence before Caiaphas and Pilate; which too much precipitates the main +Action: Besides, it seems harsh and improbable to bring in S. John, and +Joseph, our Saviour's reputed Father, as he does in the Third and Fourth +Book, giving Pilate an account of his Life; not to insist on the general +Opinion, that Joseph was not then alive. But notwithstanding these few +failures, it can't be deny'd, that his Description of our Saviour's +Passion in the Fourth Book, is incomparably fine; the disturbance among +the Angels on that occasion; his Character of Michael, and the Virgins +Lamentation under the Cross, and at the Sepulchre, are inimitable. And +thus much for Vida, on whom I've been more large because I've often made +use of his Thoughts in this following Work; his Poem being the most +complete on that Subject I've ever seen or expect to see. And here han't +the English more reason to complain of Rapin, that he takes no notice of +their Heroic Poems, than Lupez Viga of Tasso, for not mentioning the +Spaniards at the Siege of Jerusalem: but since he has been so partial, as +not to take any notice of our Writers, who sure as much deserve it as +their Dubartas and Ronsard; we may have liberty to speak of our own, and +to do 'em Justice: To begin with Spencer, who I think comes the nearest +Ariosto of any other; he's almost as Irregular, but much more Natural and +Lovely: But he's not only Irregular but Imperfect too, I mean, as to what +he intended; and therefore we can't well imagine what it wou'd have been, +had he liv'd to complete it. If Fable be the Essence of Epic, his Fairy +Queen had certainly enough of that to give it that Name. He seems, by the +account he gives of it to Sir Walter Rawleigh, to have design'd one +Principal Hero King Arthur, and one main important Action bringing him to +his Throne; but neither of these appear sufficiently distinct, or well +defin'd, being both lost in the vast Seas of Matter which compose those +Books which are finish'd. This however must be granted, the Design was +Noble, and required such a comprehensive Genius as his, but to draw the +first Sketch of it: And as the Design, so the Thoughts are also very +great, the Expressions flowing natural and easie, with such a prodigious +Poetical Copia as never any other must expect to enjoy. Gondibert methinks +wants Life; the Style is rather stiff than Heroic, and has more of Statius +than Virgil; one may see every where a great deal of Art, and Pains, and +Regularity, even to a fault; nor is a Genius wanting, but it's so +unnatural, that an ingenious Person may find much more pleasure in reading +a worse Poet. Besides, his Stanza's often cramp the Sence, and injure many +a noble Thought and Passion. But Mr. Cowley's Davideis is the Medium +between both; it has Gondibert's Majesty without his stiffness, and +something of Spencer's Sweetness and Variety, without his Irregularity: +Indeed all his Works are so admirable, that another Cowley might well be +employ'd in giving them their just Elogy. His Hero is according to the +ancient Model, truly Poetical, a mixture of some Faults and greater +Virtues. He had the advantage of both Love and Honour for his Episodes, +nay, and Friendship too, and that the noblest in History. He had all the +sacred History before him, and liberty to chuse where he pleased, either +by Narration or Prophecy; nor has he, as far as he has gone, neglected any +advantage the Subject gave him. Its a great Loss to the World that he left +the Work unfinish'd, since now he's dead, its always like to continue so. +As for Milton's Paradise Lost its an Original, and indeed he seems rather +above the common Rules of Epic than ignorant of them. Its I'm sure a very +lovely Poem, by what ever Name it's call'd, and in it he has many Thoughts +and Images, greater than perhaps any either in Virgil or Homer. The +Foundation is true History, but the turn is Fable: The Action is very +Important, but not uniform; for one can't tell which is the Principal in +the Poem, the Wars of the Angels or the Fall of Man, nor which is the +Chief Person Michael or Adam. Its true, the former comes in as an Episode +to the latter, but it takes up too great a part thereof, because its +link'd to it. His Discourse of Light is incomparable; and I think 'twas +worth the while to be blind to be its Author. His Description of Adam and +Eve, their Persons and Love, is almost too lively to bear reading: Not but +that he has his inequalities and repetitions, the latter pretty often, as +have, more or less, all other Poets but Virgil. For his antique Words I'm +not like to blame him whoever does: And for his blank Verse, I'm of a +different mind from most others, and think they rather excuse his +uncorrectness than the contraries; for I find its easier to run into it, +in that sort of Verse, than in Rhyming Works where the Thought is oftner +turned; whereas here the Fancy flows on, without check or controul. As for +his Paradise Regain'd, I nothing wonder that it has not near the Life of +his former Poem, any more than the Odysses fell short of the Iliads. +Milton, when he writ this, was grown Older, probably poorer: He had not +that scope for Fable, was confin'd to a lower Walk, and draws out that in +four Books which might have been well compriz'd in one: Notwithstanding +all this, there are many strokes which appear truly his; as the Mustring +of the Parthian Troops, the Description of Rome by the Devil to our +Saviour, and several other places. + +And now I've done with all the rest, I may take liberty to say something +of my own. + +For the Subject I dare stand by it, that 'tis fit for a better Heroic +Poem than any ever was, or will be made; and that if a good Poem cou'd not +be made on't, it must be either from the weakness of the Art itself, or +for want of a good Artist. I don't say the Subject with all its +Circumstances is the best for Epic, but considered in it self, or with a +prudent choice out of the vast Field of Matter which it affords. + +The Action is Important, if ever any was, being no less than the +Redemption of the World, which was not accomplish'd till after our +Saviours Death and Resurrection. The Ascension I confess should be left +out, according to the common Rules of Heroick Poetry, but I had not the +same reason of omitting it, as others have for not coming to the End of +their History, a little short of which they generally stop, because after +the main Business is over, nothing great remains, or however not greater +than has already past. And if any thing mean followed, the Reader wou'd +leave off dissatisfied. But I've as great and remarkable an Action, as any +in the whole story, yet upon my Hands, and which if I had omitted, I had +lost many very moving Incidents that follow'd the Resurrection; and +besides, Vida before me, has carry'd it yet further, to the actual Descent +of the Holy Ghost on the Disciples, and the spreading the Christian Name +all the World over; which I have done only in Prophecy. + +The Action is I think uniform, because all the Episodes are part of the +main Action, the Redemption of the World; to which his Incarnation, and +Divine Conception were absolutely necessary, and so were his Holy Life, +Doctrine, Miracles, and especially his Sufferings and Agonies. My +principal Hero was perfect, yet imitable, and that both in active and +contemplative Life. He leaves his own Kingdom to save and conquer another, +endures the greatest hardships, is reduc'd to the lowest ebb, nay is at +last forc'd to suffer Death it self. Yet after all, he emerges from his +Misfortunes, conquers all his Enemies, fixes Laws, establishes Religion, +Peace, and his own Empire, and is advanced higher than any Conquerer ever +was before him. + +The other Persons are Heroical enough, Angels, Kings, High Priests, +Governours, Councellors, nay even the Apostles themselves were more than +Kings, for they were thought and call'd Gods by the People. The Moral I +find not make it, in a true Example, which others are forced to Form in +Fable; "That we ought to do Good, to suffer evil, submit to the Divine +Will; to venture or lose a Life for a Friend; to forgive our Enemies." + +Yet further I desire to recommend the whole of the Christian Religion; all +the Articles of Faith; all that System of Divinity and Morality contain'd +in the Gospel of the Blessed Jesus, to the Study and Practice of Persons +of Ingenuity and Reason; to make his Divine Person, which is already +infinitely Amiable, if possible, actually more Ador'd and Lov'd; and to +Vindicate his Mission, his Satisfaction, and his Divinity, against all +Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics; which sure are the most proper Ends +that can be propos'd in a Work of this Nature: Which may be agreeably and +admirably done, if 'tis not the Poets fault; for here's all the marvellous +that cou'd be wished for, already done to my Hand, and all sacredly True, +Angels and Demons, and Miracles, with Voices from Heaven. + +Now the Subject being so fit for a good Heroic Poem, I shall have the less +excuse, if this be a bad one. And here I must ingenuously confess, I had +seen none of these Rules given by the Masters of Epic, when I laid the +Scheme of this Poem, tho I wish I had, for I might probably then have done +it better, or not at all. I knew not the hazard of the undertaking, but +greedily embrac'd it, when first propos'd by some Friends, who were +ignorant of what they put me upon. Being full of the Design wherein, the +earnest desire I had to see it accomplish'd, and either a lucky Chance, or +the Happiness of my Subject, may perhaps in some Instances, have supply'd +the want both of Rules and Genius. All I will say of my own performance +is, that I now know the Faults on't, tho I am not oblig'd to point 'em out +to my Reader, who will but too soon find 'em. That I wou'd have mended +much that's now amiss, had I lived in an Age where a man might afford to +be Nine or Ten Years about a Poem. And in the Mean time this satisfies me, +whatever is the success, that I've done all that cou'd be done by one in +my Circumstances towards the rendering it more compleat and free from +Faults, and only wish that my own Reputation may suffer, by the weakness +of the Work, and not the Dignity of the Subject. + +I cou'd plead for my self what Longinus says on Works of this Nature, +wou'd it not look like Arrogance, "That even the greatest Genius may +sometimes sink into meanness, when the force of their Spirits is once +exhausted: That its very difficult for height of Thought to sustain it +self long in an equal Tenour; and that some Faults ought to be excused +when there are more Beauties." But if none of these will pass, I hope it +will not much mortifie me, since I think the World and I have no great +matter to do with one another. I'm sensible my Poem wou'd have had fewer +Enemies, had I left out some Passages in't. But as mean as the worst of +this are, I wou'd not buy their good Word at such a rate. I had almost +forgot to mention the Gravers Work, which is not without Faults, +particularly he has err'd in the Posture of the Disciples at the last +Supper, whom he has made Sitting, when they were really Declining, or +Discumbent. But its now more than time to conclude my long Preface, which +I shall do in few Words. Since the chief Design in this Work, is to +advance the Honour of my Hero, and next to that, the entertainment of +Pious and ingenious Minds; for the truth of which, I hope I may appeal to +the great [Greek: kritikos tês kardias]; I shall not be much concern'd for +the success it may meet with in the World. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry +(1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697), by Samuel Wesley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EPISTLE TO A FRIEND *** + +***** This file should be named 16506-8.txt or 16506-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/0/16506/ + +Produced by Charles M. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697) + +Author: Samuel Wesley + +Commentator: Edward N. Hooker + +Release Date: August 10, 2005 [EBook #16506] +[Most recently updated: December 23, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EPISTLE TO A FRIEND *** + + + + +E-text prepared by David Starner, Charles M. Bidwell, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + + +Series Two: +_Essays on Poetry_ + +No. 2 + +Samuel Wesley's +_Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry_ (1700) +and the +_Essay on Heroic Poetry_ (second edition, 1697) + +With an Introduction by +Edward N. Hooker + +The Augustan Reprint Society +January, 1947 +_Price:_ 75c + + + + +GENERAL EDITORS: _Richard C. Boys_, University of Michigan, Ann +Arbor; _Edward N. Hooker, H.T. Swedenberg, Jr._, University of +California, Los Angeles 24, California. + +Membership in the Augustan Reprint Society entitles the subscriber to six +publications issued each year. The annual membership fee is $2.50. Address +subscriptions and communications to the Augustan Reprint Society, in care +of one of the General Editors. + +EDITORIAL ADVISORS: _Louis I. Bredvold_, University of Michigan; +_James L. Clifford_, Columbia University; _Benjamin Boyce_, +University of Nebraska; _Cleanth Brooks_, Louisiana State University; +_Arthur Friedman_, University of Chicago; _James R. Sutherland_, +Queen Mary College, University of London; _Emmett L. Avery_, State +College of Washington; _Samuel Monk_, Southwestern University. + +Lithoprinted from Author's Typescript +EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC. +_Lithoprinters_ +ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN +1947 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +We remember Samuel Wesley (1662-1735), if at all, as the father of a great +religious leader. In his own time he was known to many as a poet and a +writer of controversial prose. His poetic career began in 1685 with the +publication of _Maggots_, a collection of juvenile verses on trivial +subjects, the preface to which, a frothy concoction, apologizes to the +reader because the book is neither grave nor gay. The first poem, "On a +Maggot," is composed in hudibrastics, with a diction obviously Butlerian, +and it is followed by facetious poetic dialogues and by Pindarics of the +Cowleian sort but on such subjects as "On the Grunting of a Hog." In 1688 +Wesley took his B.A. at Exeter College, Oxford, following which he became +a naval chaplain and, in 1690, rector of South Ormsby; he became rector of +Epworth in 1695. During the run of the _Athenian Gazette_ (1691-1697) +he joined with Richard Sault and John Norris in assisting John Dunton, the +promoter of the undertaking. His second venture in poetry, the _Life of +Our Blessed Lord and Saviour_, an epic largely in heroic couplets with +a prefatory discourse on heroic poetry, appeared in 1693, was reissued in +1694, and was honored with a second edition in 1697. In 1695 he dutifully +came forward with _Elegies_, lamenting the deaths of Queen Mary and +Archbishop Tillotson. _An Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry_ +(1700) was followed by at least four other volumes of verse, the last of +which was issued in 1717. His poetry appears to have had readers on a +certain level, but it stirred up little pleasure among wits, writers, or +critics. Judith Drake confessed that she was lulled to sleep by +Blackmore's _Prince Arthur_ and by Wesley's "heroics" (_Essay in +Defence of the Female Sex_, 1696, p. 50). And he was satirized as a +mare poetaster in Garth's _Dispensary_, in Swift's _The Battle of +the Books_, and in the earliest issues of the _Dunciad_. Nobody +today would care to defend his poetry for its esthetic merits. + +For a few years in the early eighteenth century Wesley found himself in +the vortex of controversy. Brought up in the dissenting tradition, he had +swerved into conformity at some point during the 1680's, possibly under +the influence of Tillotson, whom he greatly admired (cf. _Epistle to a +Friend_, pp. 5-6). In 1702 there appeared his _Letter from a Country +Divine to his friend in London concerning the education of dissenters in +their private academies_, apparently written about 1693. This attack +upon dissenting academies was published at an unfortunate time, when the +public mind was inflamed by the intolerance of overzealous churchmen. +Wesley was furiously answered; he replied in _A Defence of a Letter_ +(1704), and again in _A Reply to Mr. Palmer's Vindication_ (1707). It +is scarcely to Wesley's credit that in this quarrel he stood shoulder to +shoulder with that most hot-headed of all contemporary bigots, Henry +Sacheverell. His prominence in the controversy earned him the ironic +compliments of Defoe, who recalled that our "Mighty Champion of this very +High-Church Cause" had once written a poem to satirize frenzied Tories +(_Review_, II, no. 87, Sept. 22, 1705). About a week later Defoe, +having got wind of a collection being taken up for Wesley--who in +consequence of a series of misfortunes was badly in debt--intimated that +High-Church pamphleteering had turned out very profitably for both Lesley +and Wesley (Oct. 2, 1705). But in such snarling and bickering Wesley was +out of his element, and he seems to have avoided future quarrels. + +His literary criticism is small in bulk. But though it is neither +brilliant nor well written (Wesley apparently composed at a break-neck +clip), it is not without interest. Pope observed in 1730 that he was a +"learned" man (letter to Swift, in _Works_, ed. Elwin-Courthope, VII, +184). The observation was correct, but it should be added that Wesley +matured at the end of an age famous for its great learning, an age whose +most distinguished poet was so much the scholar that he appeared more the +pedant than the gentleman to critics of the succeeding era; Wesley was not +singular for erudition among his seventeenth-century contemporaries. + +The "Essay on Heroic Poetry," serving as Preface to _The Life of Our +Blessed Lord and Saviour_, reveals something of its author's erudition. +Among the critics, he was familiar with Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, +Dionysius of Halicarnasseus, Heinsius, Bochart, Balzac, Rapin, Le Bossu, +and Boileau. But this barely hints at the extent of his learning. In the +notes on the poem itself the author displays an interest in classical +scholarship, Biblical commentary, ecclesiastical history, scientific +inquiry, linguistics and philology, British antiquities, and research into +the history, customs, architecture, and geography of the Holy Land; he +shows, an intimate acquaintance with Grotius, Henry Hammond, Joseph Mede, +Spanheim, Sherlock, Lightfoot, and Gregory, with Philo, Josephus, Fuller, +Walker, Camden, and Kircher; and he shows an equal readiness to draw upon +Cudworth's _True Intellectual System_ and Boyle's new theories concerning +the nature of light. In view of such a breadth of knowledge it is somewhat +surprising to find him quoting as extensively as he does in the "Essay" +from Le Bossu and Rapin, and apparently leaning heavily upon them. + +The "Essay" was composed at a time when the prestige of Rymer and +neo-Aristotelianism in England was already declining, and though Wesley +expressed some admiration for Rapin and Le Bossu, he is by no means docile +under their authority. Whatever the weight of authority, he says, "I see +no cause why Poetry should not be brought to the Test [of reason], as well +as Divinity...." As to the sacred example of Homer, who based his great +epic on mythology, Wesley remarks, "But this [mythology] being now +antiquated, I cannot think we are oblig'd superstitiously to follow his +Example, any more than to make Horses speak, as he does that of Achilles." +To the question of the formidable Boileau, "What Pleasure can it be to +hear the howlings of repining Lucifer?" our critic responds flippantly, "I +think 'tis easier to answer than to find out what shew of Reason he had +for asking it, or why Lucifer mayn't howl as pleasantly as either +Cerberus, or Enceladus." Without hesitation or apology he takes issue with +Rapin's conception of Decorum in the epic. But Wesley is empiricist as +well as rationalist, and the judgment of authority can be upset by appeal +to the court of experience. To Balzac's suggestion that, to avoid +difficult and local proper names in poetry, generalized terms be used, +such as _Ill-luck_ for the _Fates_ and the _Foul Fiend_ for _Lucifer_, our +critic replies with jaunty irony, "... and whether this wou'd not sound +extreamly Heroical, I leave any Man to judge," and thus he dismisses the +matter. Similarly, when Rapin objects to Tasso's mingling of lyric +softness in the majesty of the epic, Wesley points out sharply that no man +of taste will part with the fine scenes of tender love in Tasso, Dryden, +Ovid, Ariosto, and Spenser "for the sake of a fancied Regularity." He had +set out to defend the Biblical epic, the Christian epic, and the propriety +of Christian machines in epic, and no rules or authority could deter him. +As good an example as any of his independence of mind can be seen in a +note on Bk. I, apropos of the poet's use of obsolete words (_Life of Our +Blessed Lord_, 1697, p. 27): it may be in vicious imitation of Milton and +Spenser, he says in effect, but I have a fondness for old words, they +please my ear, and that is all the reason I can give for employing them. + +Wesley's resistance to a strict application of authority and the rules +grew partly out of the rationalistic and empirical temper of Englishmen in +his age, but it also sprang from his learning. From various sources he +drew the theory that Greek and Latin were but corrupted forms of ancient +Phoenician, and that the degeneracy of Greek and Latin in turn had +produced all, or most, of the present European tongues (_ibid._, p. 354). +In addition, he believed that the Greeks had derived some of their +thought from older civilizations, and specifically that Plato had received +many of his notions from the Jews (_ibid._, p. 230)--an idea which recalls +the argument that Dryden in _Religio Laici_ had employed against the +deists. Furthermore, he had, like many of his learned contemporaries, a +profound respect for Hebrew culture and the sublimity of the Hebrew +scriptures, going so far as to remark in the "Essay on Heroic Poetry" that +"most, even of [the heathen poets'] best Fancies and Images, as well as +Names, were borrow'd from the Antient Hebrew Poetry and Divinity." In +short, however faulty his particular conclusions, he had arrived at an +historical viewpoint, from which it was no longer possible to regard the +classical standards--much less the standards of French critics--as having +the holy sanction of Nature herself. + +Some light is shed on the literary tastes of his period by Wesley's two +essays here reproduced, which with a few exceptions were in accord with +the prevailing current. _The Life of Our Blessed Lord_ shows strongly +the influence of Cowley's _Davideis_. Wesley's great admiration +persisted after the tide had turned away from Cowley; and his liking for +the "divine Herbert" and for Crashaw represented the tastes of sober and +unfashionable readers. In spite of the fact that he professed unbounded +admiration for Homer as the greatest genius in nature, in practise he +seemed more inclined to follow the lead of Cowley, Virgil, and Vida. +Although there was much in Ariosto that he enjoyed, he preferred Tasso; +the irregularities in both, however, he felt bound to deplore. To +Spenser's _Faerie Queene_ he allowed extraordinary merit. If the plan +of it was noble, he thought, and the mark of a comprehensive genius, yet +the action of the poem seemed confused. Nevertheless, like Prior later, +Wesley was inclined to suspend judgment on this point because the poem had +been left incomplete. To Spenser's "thoughts" he paid the highest tribute, +and to his "Expressions flowing natural and easie, with such a prodigious +Poetical Copia as never any other must expect to enjoy." Like most of the +Augustans Wesley did not care greatly for _Paradise Regained_, but he +partly atoned by his praise for _Paradise Lost_, which was an +"original" and therefore "above the common Rules." Though defective in its +action, it was resplendent with sublime thoughts perhaps superior to any +in Virgil or Homer, and full of incomparable and exquisitely moving +passages. In spite of his belief that Milton's blank verse was a mistake, +making for looseness and incorrectness, he borrowed lines and images from +it, and in Bk. IV of _The Life of Our Blessed Lord_ he incorporated a +whole passage of Milton's blank verse in the midst of his heroic couplets. + +Wesley's attitude toward Dryden deserves a moment's pause. In the "Essay +on Heroic Poetry" he observed that a speech of Satan's in _Paradise +Lost_ is nearly equalled in Dryden's _State of Innocence_. Later +in the same essay he credited a passage in Dryden's _King Arthur_ +with showing an improvement upon Tasso. There is no doubt as to his vast +respect for the greatest living poet, but his remarks do not indicate that +he ranked Dryden with Virgil, Tasso, or Milton; for he recognized as well +as we that the power to embellish and to imitate successfully does not +constitute the highest excellence in poetry. In the _Epistle to a +Friend_ he affirmed his admiration for Dryden's matchless style, his +harmony, his lofty strains, his youthful fire, and even his wit--in the +main, qualities of style and expression. But by 1700 Wesley had absorbed +enough of the new puritanism that was rising in England to qualify his +praise; now he deprecated the looseness and indecency of the poetry, and +called upon the poet to repent. One other point calls for comment. +Wesley's scheme for Christian machinery in the epic, as described in the +"Essay on Heroic Poetry," is remarkably similar to Dryden's. Dryden's had +appeared in the essay on satire prefaced to his translation of Juvenal, +published late in October, 1692; Wesley's scheme appeared soon after June, +1693. + +The _Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry_ is neither startling nor +contemptible; it has, in fact, much more to say than the rhymed treatises +on verse by Roscommon and Buckinghamshire. Its remarks on Genius are +fresh, though tantalizing in their brevity, and it defends the Moderns +with both neatness and energy. Much of its advice is cautious and +commonplace--but such was the tradition of the poetical treatise on verse. +Appearing within two years of Collier's first attack upon the stage, it +reinforces some of that worthy's contentions, but we are not aware of its +having had much effect. + +The _Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry_ is here reproduced, with +permission, from the copy at Harvard. The "Essay on Heroic Poetry" is +reproduced, with permission, from a copy of the 1697 edition of _The +Life of Our Blessed Lord_ owned by the Henry E. Huntington Library, at +San Marino, California. Our reproduction of the second item was made from +a typescript because the printing of the original lacks the size and +clarity which are necessary for satisfactory results In lithoprinting. The +typescript follows the original accurately except that italics (crazily +profuse in the 1697 edition) are omitted, the use of quotation marks is +normalized, and three obvious typographical errors are silently emended. + + Edward Niles Hooker + + + + +AN +EPISTLE +TO A +FRIEND +CONCERNING +POETRY. + +By SAMUEL WESLEY. + +_Fungor vice Cotis._ + +_LONDON_ + +Printed for CHARLES HARPER, at the _Flower de Luce_ +in _Fleetstreet_. MDCC. +_25. Aprill_. + + + + +PREFACE. + +_I have not much to say of this Poem, before I leave it to the_ Mercy _of +the Reader. There's no need of looking far into it, to find out that the +direct_ Design _of a great part of it, is to Serve the_ Cause of Religion +_and_ Virtue; _tho' 'twas necessary for that End to dispose the_ whole _in +such a manner as might be agreeable to the_ Tast _of the present Age, and +of those who usually give such sort of Books the_ Reading. _If there be +any Thoughts in it relating to_ Poetry, _that either are not known to_ all +Persons, _or are tolerably_ ranged _and_ expressed, _the Reader is welcome +to 'em for_ Over-weight: _If there are too few of these, I yet hope the +Pardon of all_ candid Judges, _because I've done the best I cou'd on this_ +Argument. _I can't be angry with any Person for ranking me amongst the_ +Ogylbys; _my Quarrel is with these that rank themselves amongst_ Atheists, +_and impudently defend and propagate that_ ridiculous _Opinion of the_ +Eternity of the World, _and a fatal_ invincible Chain of Things, _which, +it seems, is now most commonly made use of to destroy the_ Faith, _as our_ +lewd Plays _are to corrupt the_ Morals _of the_ Nation: _An Opinion, big +with more_ Absurdities _than_ Transubstantiation _it self, and of far +more_ fatal Consequence, _if receiv'd and believ'd: For besides its +extremely weakening, if not destroying, the_ Belief _of the_ Being _and_ +Providence of God, _it utterly takes away any sort of_ Freedom _in_ Humane +Actions, _reduces Mankind beneath the_ Brute Creation; _perfectly_ excuses +_the greatest_ Villanies _in_ this World, _and entirely vacates all_ +Retribution _hereafter. One wou'd wonder with what Face or Conscience such +a_ Sett _of Men shou'd hope to be treated by the Rules of_ Civility, _when +they themselves break through those of_ Society, _and_ common Humanity: +_How they can expect any fairer_ Quarter _than_ Wolves _or_ Tygers; _or +what Reason they can give why a_ Price _should not be sett upon their_ +Heads, _as well as on the_ Others; _or at least why they should not be +securely_ hamper'd _and_ muzzled, _and led about for a_ Sight, _like +other_ Monsters. _'Tis the fatal and spreading_ Poyson _of these Mens_ +Examples _and_ Principles _which has extorted these_ warm Expressions +_from me; I cannot with_ Patience _see my_ Countrey ruin'd _by the +prodigious increase of_ Infidelity _and_ Immorality, _nor forbear crying +out with some_ Vehemence, _when I am giving Warning to all honest Men to +stand up in the_ Defence _of it, when it is in greater and more eminent +danger than it wou'd have been formerly, if the_ Spanish Armada _had made +a Descent amongst us: I don't speak of these things by distant_ Hear-say, +_or only from our publick_ Prints, _but from my own_ Knowledg _and little_ +Acquaintance _in the World, and therefore others must have observ'd much +more, and cannot but fear, that if things go on as they now are, without a +greater_ Check, _and more_ severe Laws _against these wide and contagious_ +Mischiefs, _at least without a more general united_ Endeavour _to put +those Laws already made in_ strict Execution, _we are in a fair way to +become a_ Nation of Atheists. _'Tis now no difficult matter to meet with +those who pretend to be_ lewd _upon_ Principles; _They'll talk very_ +gravely, _look as if they were in earnest, and come_ sobrii ad perdendam +Rempublicam: _they wou'd be_ Criticks _too, and_ Philosophers: _They +attack_ Religion _in_ Form _and batter it from every_ Quarter; _they wou'd +turn the very_ Scriptures _against themselves, and labour hard to remove +a_ Supreme Being _out of the World; or if they do vouchsafe him any_ room +_in it, 'tis only that they may find_ Fault _with his_ Works, _which they +think, with that_ Blasphemer _of old, might have been much better order'd, +had they themselves stood by and directed the_ Architect. _They'll tell +you the_ Errors _of_ Nature _are every where_ plain _and_ visible, _all_ +monstrous, _here_ too much _and there_ too little; _or, as_ one of their +own Poets, + + Here she's _too sparing_, there _profusely_ vain. + +_What would these Men have, or why can't they be content to sink_ single +_into the_ bottomless Gulph, _without dragging so much Company thither +with 'em? Can they grapple_ Omnipotence, _or are they sure they can be_ +too hard _for_ Heaven? _Can they_ Thunder _with a_ Voice like God, _and +cast abroad the_ Rage _of their_ Wrath? _Cou'd they_ annihilate _Hell, +indeed, or did it only consist of such_ painted Flames _as they'd fain +believe it, they might make a shift to be tolerably happy, more quietly +rake through the World, and_ sink _into_ Nothing. _There's too great +reason to apprehend, that this_ Infection _is spred among Persons of +almost all_ Ranks _and_ Qualities; _and that tho' some may think it_ +decent _to keep on the_ Masque, _yet if they were search'd to the_ bottom, +_all_ their Religion _wou'd be found that which they most blasphemously +assert of_ Religion _in_ general, _only a_ State Engin _to keep the_ World +in Order. _This is_ Hypocrisie _with a Witness; the_ basest _and_ meanest +_of_ Vices; _and how come Men to fall into these_ damnable Errors _in +Faith, but by_ Lewdness _of Life? The Cowards wou'd not believe a God +because they_ dare _not do it, for Woe be to 'em if there be one, and +consequently any_ Future Punishments. _From such as these, I desire no +Favour, but that of their_ Ill Word, _as their_ Crimes _must expect_ none +_from me, whose_ Character _obliges me to declare an_ eternal War +_against_ Vice _and_ Infidelity, _tho' at the same time heartily to_ pity +_those who are_ infected _with it. If I cou'd be_ ambitious _of a_ Name +_in the World, it shou'd be that I might_ sacrifice _it in so glorious a_ +Cause _as that of_ Religion _and_ Virtue: _If none but_ Generals _must +fight in this_ sacred War, _when there are such_ infernal Hosts _on the +other side, they cou'd never prevail without one of the_ antient Miracles: +_If_ little People _can but well discharge the Place of a_ private +Centinel, _'tis all that's expected from us. I hope I shall never let the_ +Enemies of God and my Countrey _come on without_ Fireing, _tho' it serve +but to give the_ Alarm, _and if I dye without_ quitting _my_ Post, _I +desire no greater Glory_. _I have endeavour'd to shew that I had no_ +Personal Pique _against any whose_ Characters _I may have given in this +Poem, nor think the worse of them for their_ Thoughts _of me. I hope I +have every where done 'em_ Justice, _and as well as I cou'd, have given +'em_ Commendation _where they deserve it; which may also, on the other +side, acquit me of_ Flattery _with all_ Impartial Judges; _for 'tis not +only the_ Great _whose_ Characters _I have here attempted. And if what I +have written may be any ways_ useful, _or_ innocently diverting _to the +virtuous and ingenious_ Readers, _he has his End, who is_ + + Their Humble Servant + + S. WESLEY. + + + + +AN +EPISTLE +TO A +FRIEND +CONCERNING +POETRY. + + As Brother _Pryme_ of old from Mount _Orgueil_, + So I to you from _Epworth_ and the _Isle_: + Harsh _Northern_ Fruits from our cold Heav'ns I send, + Yet, since the _best_ they yield, they'll please a _Friend_. + You ask me, What's the readiest way to _Fame_, + And how to gain a _Poet's_ sacred Name? + For _Saffold_ send, your Choice were full as just, + When burning _Fevers_ fry your Limbs to Dust! + Yet, lest you _angry_ grow at your _Defeat_, } + And me as ill as that fierce _Spark_ should treat } 10 + Who did the Farrier into Doctor _beat_; } + You to my little _Quantum_, Sir, are free, + Which I from HORACE glean or NORMANDY; + These with some grains of _Common Sense_ unite, + Then freely _think_, and as I think I write. + First _poize_ your _Genius_, nor presume to write + If _Phoebus_ smile not, or some _Muse_ invite: + Nature refuses _Force_, you strive in vain, + She will not _drag_, but struggling breaks the Chain. + How bright a Spark of _Heav'nly Fire_ must warm! 20 + What _Blessings_ meet a _Poet's Mind_ to form! + How oft must he for those _Life-Touches_ sit, + _Genius, Invention, Memory, Judgment, Wit_? + There's here no _Middle-State_, you must excel; + _Wit_ has no _Half-way-House_ 'twixt _Heav'n_ and _Hell_ + _All cannot All things_, lest you mourn too late, + Remember _Phaeton_'s unhappy _Fate_! + Eager to guide the _Coursers_ of the _Day_, } + Beneath their _Brazen Hoofs_ he trampled lay, } + And his bright _Ruines_ mark'd their flaming Way. } 30 + [Sidenote: _Genius_.] + You'll ask, What GENIUS is, and Where to find? + 'Tis the full _Power_ and _Energy_ of _Mind_: + A _Reach_ of _Thought_ that skims all Nature o'er, + _Exhausts_ this narrow _World_, and asks for _more_: + Through every _Rank of Beings_ when't has flown, + Can frame a _New Creation_ of its own: + By _Possible_ and _Future_ unconfin'd: + Can stubborn _Contradictions_ yoke, and bind + Through _Fancy_'s Realms, with Number, Time and Place, + _Chimera-Forms_, a thin, an airy Race; 40 + Then with a secret _conscious Pride_ surveys + The _Enchanted Castles_ which't had _Power_ to raise. + [Sidenote: _Wit_.] + As _Genius_ is the _Strength_, be WIT defin'd + The _Beauty_ and the _Harmony_ of _Mind_: + _Beauty's_ Proportion, Air, each lively Grace + The _Soul_ diffuses round the _Heav'nly Face_: + 'Tis _various_, yet 'tis _equal_, still the same + In _Alpine Snows_, or _Ethiopian Flame_; + While _glaring Colours_ short-liv'd Grace supply, + Nor _Frost_ nor _Sun_ they bear, but _scorch_ and _die_. 50 + [Sidenote: _Judgment_.] + Nor these alone, tho much they can, suffice, + JUDGMENT must join, or never hope the Prize: + Those _Headstrong Coursers_ scowr along the Plains, + The _Rider's_ down, if once he lose the _Reins_: + Soon the _Mad Mixture_ will to all give Law, + And for the _Laurel Wreaths_ present thee _Wreaths of Straw_. + _Judgment's_ the _Act of Reason_; that which brings + Fit _Thoughts_ to _Thoughts_, and argues _Things_ from _Things_, + True, Decent, Just, are in its _Balance_ try'd, + And thence we learn to _Range, Compound, Divide_. 60 + [Sidenote: _Invention and Memory_.] + A _Cave_ there is wherein those _Nymphs_ reside + Who all the Realms of _Sense_ and _Fancy_ guide; + Nay some affirm that in the deepest _Cell_ + Imperial _Reason's_ self does not disdain to dwell: + With Living _Reed_ 'tis thatch'd and guarded round, + Which mov'd by _Winds_ emit a Silver Sound: + Two _Crystal Fountains_ near its _Entrance_ play, } + Wide scatt'ring _Golden Streams_ which ne'er decay, } + Two _Labyrinths_ behind harmonious Sounds convey: } + Chiefly, within, the _Room of State_ is fam'd 70 + Of rich _Mosaick Work_ divinely fram'd: + Of small _Extent_ to view, 'twill all things hide, + Heav'n's Azure _Arch_ it self not half so wide: + Here all the _Arts_ their sacred Mansion chuse, + Here dwells the MOTHER of the Heav'n-born Muse: + With wond'rous mystic _Figures_ round 'tis wrought + _Inlaid_ with FANCY, and _anneal'd_ with _Thought_: + With more than humane Skill depicted here + The various _Images of Things_ appear; + What _Was_, or _Is_, or labours yet to _Be_ 80 + Within the Womb of Dark _Futurity_, + May _Stowage_ in this wondrous _Storehouse_ find, + Yet leave unnumber'd empty _Cells_ behind: + But ah! as fast they come, they fly too fast, + Not _Life or Happiness are more in haste_: + Only the _First Great Mind_ himself can stay + The _Fugitives_ and at _one Glance_ survey; + But those whom he disdains not to befriend, } + _Uncommon Souls_, who nearest Heav'n ascend } + Far more, at once, than others comprehend: } 90 + Whate'er within this _sacred Hall_ you find, } + Whate'er will _lodge_ in your _capacious Mind_ } + Let _Judgment_ sort, and skilful _Method_ bind; } + And as from these you draw your antient Store + Daily supply the _Magazine_ with more. + Furnish'd with such _Materials_ he'll excel + Who when he _works_ is sure to work 'em _well_; + This ART alone, as _Nature_ that bestows, + And in _Perfection_ both, th' accomplish'd _Verser_ knows. + Knows to _persuade_, and how to _speak_, and when; 100 + The _Rules of Life_, and _Manners_ knows and _Men_: + Those _narrow Lines_ which _Good_ and _Ill_ divide; + [Sidenote: _Learning_.] + And by what _Balance Just_ and _Right_ are try'd: + How _Kindred-Things_ with _Things_ are closely join'd; } + How _Bodies_ act, and by what _Laws_ confin'd, } + Supported, mov'd and rul'd by th' _Universal Mind_. } + When the moist _Kids_ or burning _Sirius_ rise; } + Through what ambiguous Ways _Hyperion_ flies, } + And marks our _Upper_ or the _Nether Skies_. } + He knows those _Strings_ to _touch_ with artful Hand 110 + Which rule Mankind, and all the World command: + What _moves_ the _Soul_, and every secret _Cell_ + Where _Pity, Love_, and all the _Passions_ dwell. + The _Music_ of his _Verse_ can _Anger_ raise, + Which with a softer _Stroak_ he _smooths_ and _lays_: + Can _Emulation, Terror_, all excite, + _Compress_ the _Soul_ with _Grief_, or _swell_ with vast Delight. + If this you can, your _Care_ you'll well bestow, + And some new _Milton_ or a _Spencer_ grow; + If not, a _Poet_ ne'er expect to be, 120 + Content to _Rime_, like _D----y_ or like me. + But here perhaps you'll stop me, and complain, + To such _Impracticable Heights_ I strain + A Poet's _Notion_, that if _This_ be _He_, + There ne'er was one, nor e'er is like to be. + --But soft, my Friend! may we not _copy_ well + Tho far th' _Original_ our _Art_ excel? + _Divine Perfection_ we our _Pattern_ make + Th' _Idea_ thence of _Goodness_ justly take; + But they who _copy_ nearest, still must fall 130 + Immensely short of their _Original_; + [Sidenote: _Converse_.] + But _Wit_ and _Genius_, _Sense_ and _Learning_ join'd, + Will all come short if _crude_ and _unrefin'd_; + 'Tis CONVERSE only melts the stubborn _Ore_ + And _polishes_ the _Gold_, too rough before: + So _fierce_ the _Natural Taste_, 'twill ne'er b' endur'd, + The _Wine_ is _strong_, but never rightly _cur'd_. + [Sidenote: _Style_.] + STYLE is the _Dress_ of _Thought_; a _modest_ Dress, + _Neat_, but not _gaudy_, will true _Critics_ please: + Not _Fleckno's Drugget_, nor a worse Extream 140 + All daub'd with _Point_ and _Gold_ at every Seam: + Who only _Antique Words_ affects, appears + Like old King _Harry's_ Court, all Face and Ears; + Nor in a _Load_ of _Wig_ thy Visage shrowd, + Like _Hairy Meteors glimm'ring through a Cloud_: + Happy are those who here the _Medium_ know, + We hate alike a _Sloven_ and a _Beau_. + I would not follow _Fashion_ to the height + Close at the _Heels_, not yet be _out of Sight_: + _Words_ alter, like our _Garments_, every day, 150 + Now _thrive_ and _bloom_, now _wither_ and _decay_. + Let those of greater _Genius_ new _invent_, + Be you with those in _Common Use_ content. + A different _Style's_ for _Prose_ and _Verse_ requir'd, + _Strong figures_ here, _Neat Plainness_ there desir'd: + A different _Set of Words_ to both belong; + What _shines_ in _Prose_, is, _flat_ and _mean_ in _Song_. + The _Turn_, the _Numbers_ must be vary'd here, + And all things in a _different Dress_ appear. + This every _School Boy_ lash'd at _Eaton_ knows, } 160 + Yet _Men of Sense_ forget when they _compose_, } + And Father DRYDEN's Lines are sometimes _Prose_. } + A _vary'd Stile_ do various Works require, + This _soft_ as _Air_, and _tow'ring_ that as _Fire_. + None than th' _Epistle_ goes more _humbly_ drest, + Tho _neat_ 'twou'd be, and _decent_ as the _best_. + Such as th' ingenious _Censor_ may invite } + Oft to return with eager _Appetite_; } + So HORACE wrote, and so I'd _wish_ to write. } + Nor _creeps_ it always, but can _mount_ and _rise_, 170 + And with _bold Pinions_ sail along the Skies. + The self-same Work of _different Style_ admits, + Now _soft_, now _loud_, as best the _Matter_ fits: + So Father THAMES from unexhausted _Veins_, + Moves _clean_ and _equable_ along the _Plains_; + Yet still of different _Depth_ and _Breadth_ is found, + And _humours_ still the _Nature_ of the _Ground_. + [Sidenote: _Reading_.] + READING will mend your Style and raise it higher, + And _Matter_ find to feed th' _Immortal Fire_: + But if you would the _Vulgar Herd_ excel, 180 + And justly gain the _Palm_ of _Writing well_, + Wast not your Lamp in scanning _Vulgar Lines_, + Where _groveling_ all, or _One in twenty_ shines; + With _Prudence_ first among the _Antients_ chuse, + The _noblest_ only, and the _best_ peruse; + Such HOMER is, such VIRGIL's sacred Page, + Which _Death_ defie, nor yield to _Time_ or _Age_; + New _Beauties_ still their _Vigorous Works_ display, + Their _Fruit_ still _mellows_, but can ne'er _decay_. + The _Modern Pens_ not altogether slight, 190 + Be _Master_ of your _Language_ e'er you write! + _Immortal_ TILLOTSON with Judgment scan, + "That _Man of Praise, that something more than Man_!" + Ev'n those who hate his _Ashes_ this advise, } + As from black Shades resplendent Lightning flies, } + _Unwilling Truths_ break through a _Cloud of Lies_. } + He _Words_ and _Things_ for _mutual Aid_ design'd, + Before at _Variance_, in just _Numbers_ join'd; + He always _soars_, but never's _out of sight_, + He taught us how to _Speak_, and _Think_, and _Write_. 200 + If _English Verse_ you'd in _Perfection_ see, + ROSCOMMON read, and _Noble_ NORMANDY: + We _borrow_ all from their _exhaustless Store_, + Or little say they have not said _before_. + _Poor Insects_ of a _Day_, we toil and strive + To creep from _Dust_ to _Dust_, and think we _live_; + These weak _imperfect Beings_ scarce enjoy + E'er _Death's_ rude Hand our _blooming Hopes_ destroy: + With _Lynx's_ Eyes each others _Faults_ we find, + But to our _own_ how few who are not _blind_? 210 + How _long is Art_, how _short_, alas! our _Time_! } + How few who can above the _Vulgar_ climb, } + Whose _stronger Genius_ reach the _True Sublime_! } + With _tedious Rules_ which we our selves transgress, + We make the _Trouble more_ who strive to make it _less_. + But meanly why do you your _Fate_ deplore, + Yet still write on?--Why do a _Thousand_ more, + Who for their _own_ or some _Forefathers_ Crime + Are _doom'd_ to wear their _Days_ in _beating Rhime_? + But this a _Noble Patron_ will redress, 220 + And make you _better write_, tho you _write less_: + Whate'er a _discontented Mind_ pretends, + _Distinguish'd Worth_ can rarely miss of _Friends_: + Do but _excel_, and he'll at last arise + Who from the _Dust_ may lift thee to the _Skies_; + For his _own Sake_ will his _Protection_ grant; + What _Horace_ e'er did yet _Mecaenas_ want? + Or if the _World_ its _Favours_ should refuse, + With _barren Smiles_ alone _reward_ thy Muse; + Be thy _own Patron_, thou no more wilt need, 230 + For all will _court_ thee if thy _Works succeed_; + At least the few _Good Judges_ will commend, + And _secret growing Praise_ thy Steps attend. + Who shew'd _Columbus_ where the _Indies_ lay? + True to thy self, _charge through_, and _force_ to _Fame_ the way! + If _Envy snarl_, indulge it no _Reply_, + Write _better_ still, and let it _burst_ and _die_! + Rest pleas'd if you can please the _Wiser Few_, + Since _to please all is more than Heav'n it self can do_. + There are who _can_ whate'er they _will_ believe, 240 + That _Bail's_ too hard for _Beady_, _Three_ are _Five_: + That Nature, Justice, Reason, Truth must fall, + With _Clear Idea's_ they'll _confound_ 'em all: + That _Parallels_ may _travel_ till they _meet_; + _Faith_ they can find in L----, no _Sense_ in STILLINGFLEET. + Disturb 'em not, but let 'em still enjoy + Th' _unenvy'd Charms_ of their _Eternal Moi_. + If to the _craggy Top of Fame_ you rise, + Those who are _lab'ring after_ ne'er _despise_. + Nor those _above_ on _Honours_ dazling Seat } 250 + Tho _disoblig'd_, with _sawcy Rudeness_ treat, } + _Revenge_ not always is _below the Great_. } + Their _Stronger Genius_ may o'er thine prevail: + _Wit, Power_ and _Anger_ join'd but rarely fail. + Tho _Eagles_ would not chuse to _hawk_ at _Flies_ } + They'd _snap_ 'em, should their _buzzing Swarms_ arise } + Importunate, and hurt their _Sun bright Eyes_. } + Nor should the _Muses Birds_ at _random_ fly, + And _strike_ at all, lest if they strike _they die_. + Why should we still be _lazily content_ 260 + With thredbare _Schemes_, and nothing _new_ invent? + All _Arts_ besides _improve, Sea, Air_ and _Land_ } + Are every day with _nicer Judgment_ scan'd, } + And why should _this_ alone be at a _stand_? } + Or _Nature_ largely to the _Ancients_ gave + And little did for _younger Children_ save; + Or rather we _impartial Nature_ blame + To hide our _Sloth_, and cover o'er our _Shame_; + As _Sinners_, when their _Reason's_ drown'd in _Sense_, + Fall out with _Heav'n_, and quarrel _Providence_. 270 + Yet should you our _Galenic Way_ despise, + And some _new Colbatch_ of the _Muses_ rise; + No _Quarter_ from the _College_ hope, who sit + _Infallible_ at _Will's_ and judg of _Sense_ and _Wit_: + Keep fair with these, or _Fame_ you _court_ in vain, + A strict _Neutrality_ at least _maintain_! + Speak, like the wise _Italian_, well of all; + Who knows into what _Hands_ he's doom'd to _fall_? + Write _oft_ and _much_, at _first_, if you'd _write well_, + For he who ne'er _attempts_ will ne'er _excel_; 280 + _Practice_ will _file_ your _Verse_, your _Thoughts refine_, + And _Beauty_ give, and _Grace_ to every Line: + The _Gnat_ to fam'd _AEneis_ led the way, + And our _Immortal_ COWLEY once did _play_. + Let not the _Sun of Life_ in vain decline, + Or _Time_ run _waste; No Day without a Line_. + Yet learn by me, my Friend, from _Errors_ past; + O never _write_, or never _Print_ in _Haste_! + The _worst Excuse_ Ill Authors e'er advance, + Which does, like _Lies_, a _single Guilt_ enhance. 290 + Lay by your _Work_, and leave it on the _Loom_, + Which if at _mod'rate distance_ you resume, + A _Father's Fondness_ you'll with Ease look through, + And _Objects_ in a proper _Medium_ view. + 'Tis _Time_ alone can _Strength_ and _Ripeness_ give; + A _Hasty Birth_ can ne'er expect to _live_. + Fly, _low_ at first, you'll with Advantage _rise_; + This _pleases_ all, as that will all _surprize_. + [Sidenote: _The Subject_.] + No _Work_ attempt but where your _Strength_ you know, + Be _Master of your Subject_, _Thoughts_ will _flow_: 300 + The _newer_ 'tis, the _choicer Fruit_ 'twill yield, + More _Room_ you have to work if _large_ your _Field_; + The _Sponge_ you oftner than the _Pen_ will want, + And rather _Reason_ see to _prune_ than _plant_; + Yet where the _Thoughts_ are _barren, weak_ and _thin_, + New _Cyons_ should be neatly _grafted_ in. + [Sidenote: _A Judge_.] + If you with _Friend_ or _Enemy_ are blest, + Your _Fancy's Offspring_ ne'er can want a _Test_, + Tho _Both_, perhaps may _overshoot_ the _Mark_: + First _Spite_ with _Envy_ charges in the _Dark_; 310 + _Unread_ they _damn_, and into _Passion_ fall, + 'Tis _Stuff_, 'tis _Blasphemy_ 'tis _Nonsense_ all; + They _sleep_ (when _doz'd before_) at every _Line_, } + While your more _dang'rous Friend_ exclaims,--'Tis fine, } + 'Tis _furiously Delightful_, 'tis _Divine_; } + Th' _inspiring God's_ in ev'ry Page confess'd; + A COWLEY or a DRYDEN at the least! + Yet you'll from _both_ an _equal Judgment_ frame + And stand the _nearest Candidate_ for _Fame_: + What _Envy praises_, or what _Friends dislike_, 320 + This bears the _Test_, and that the _Sponge_ should strike. + Chuse to be _absent_ when your _Cause_ is try'd, + Lest _Favour_ should the _partial Judge_ misguide; + Not _others Thoughts_ implicitly prefer, + Your _Friend's_ a _Mortal_, and like _you_, may _err_. + Upon the _last Appeal_ let _Reason_ sit, + And _here_, let _all Authority_ submit. + Divest your _self of self_ whate'er you can, + And think the _Author_ now some _other Man_. + A thousand trivial _Lumber-Thoughts_ will come, 330 + A thousand _Fagot-Lines_ will crowd for room; + _Reform_ your _Troops_, and no _Exemption_ grant, + You'll gain in _Strength_, what you in _Numbers_ want. + Nor yet _Infallibility_ pretend; + He still _errs on_ who thinks he ne'er can _mend_: + Reject that _hasty_, that _presumptuous Thought_! + None e'er but VIRGIL wrote without a _Fault_; + (Or _none_ he has, or none that _I can find_, + Who, dazzled with his _Beauties_, to his _Moles_ am blind.) + Who has the _least_ is _happiest_, he the _best_, 340 + Who _owns_ and _mends_ where he has once _transgrest_. + Nor will _good Writers smaller Blots_ despise, + Lest those neglected should to _Crimes_ arise; + Such _Venial Sins_ indulg'd will _mortal_ prove, + At least they from _Perfection_ far remove. + Nor _Critical Exactness_ here deride, + It looks like _Sloth_ or _Ignorance_, or _Pride_; + _Good Sense_ is spoild in _Words unapt_ exprest, + And _Beauty_ pleases more when 'tis _well drest_. + [Sidenote: _Method_.] + Forget not METHOD if the _Prize_ you'd gain, 350 + 'Twill cost you _Thought_, but richly pays the _Pain_; + What _first_, what _second_, or what _last_ to place, + What here will _shine_, and there the _Work_ disgrace. + Before you build, your MODEL justly lay, + And ev'ry Part in _Miniature_ survey; + Where airy _Terraces_ shall threat the _Skies_, + Where _Columns_ tow'r, or neat _Pilasters_ rise; + Where cool _Cascades_ come _roaring_ down the Hill, + Or where the _Crystal Nymph_ a _mossie Bason_ fill: + What _Statues_ are to grace the _Front_ design'd, 360 + And how to throw the _meaner Rooms_ behind. + Draw the _Main Strokes_ at first, 'twill shew your _Skill_, + _Life-Touches_ you may add whene'er you will. + Ev'n _Chance_ will sometimes all our _Art_ excel, + The _angry Foam_ we ne'er can _hit_ so well. + A _sudden Thought_, all beautiful and bright, + Shoots in and _stunns_ us with _amazing Light_; + Secure the _happy Moment_ e'er 'tis past, + Not _Time_ more _swift_, or _Lightning_ flies so fast. + All must be _free_ and _easie_, or in vain 370 + You _whip_ and _spur_, and the _wing'd Courser_ strain: + When _foggy Clouds_ hang _bellying_ in the _Skies_, + Or _fleety Boreas_ through th' _Horizon_ flies; + He then, whose _Muse_ produces ought that's _fine_, + His _Head_ must have a _stronger Turn_ than mine: + Like _Sybils Leaves_ the _Train of Thoughts_ are rang'd, + Which by _rude Winds_ disturb'd, are _nothing_ if they're chang'd. + Or are there too in _Writing softer Hours_? + Or is't that _Matter_ nobler _Mind_ o'erpow'rs, + Which boasts her _native Liberty_ in vain, 380 + In _Mortal Fetters_ and a _Slavish Chain_? + _Death_ only can the _Gordian Knot_ divide, } + Tho by what secret wondrous _Bands_ 'tis ty'd, } + Ev'n _Reason's_ self must own she can't decide: } + For as the _rapid Tides_ of _Matter_ turn } + We're fann'd with _Pleasure_ or with _Anger_ burn, } + We _Love_ and _Hate_ again, we _Joy_ and _Mourn_. } + Now the swift _Torrent_ high and headstrong grows, + _Shoots_ through the Dykes, and all the Banks _o'erflows_; + Strait the _capricious Waters_ backward fly, + The _Pebbles_ rake and leave the Bottom _dry_; 390 + Watch the _kind Hour_ and seize the _rising Flood_, + Else will your _dreggy Poem_ taste of _Mud_. + Hence old and batter'd _Hackneys_ of the _Stage_, + By long Experience render'd _Wise_ and _Sage_, + With pow'rful _Juices_ restive Nature urge, + Or else with _Bays_ of old, they _bleed_ and _purge_; + Thence, as the _Priestess_ from her _Cave_ inspir'd, + When to his _Cell_ the _rancid God_ retir'd, + _Double Entendres_ their fond _Audience_ blind, + Their _boasted Oracles_ abuse Mankind: 400 + _False Joys_ around their _Hearts_ in _Slumbers_ play, + And the warm _tingling Blood_ steals fast away; + The _Soul_ grows _dizzy_, lost in _Senses Night_, + And melts in pleasing _Pain_ and vain _Delight_. + Not that the _sowrest Critick_ can reprove + The _soft_ the moving _Scenes_ of _Virtuous Love_: + _Life's Sunny Morn_, which wears, alas! too fast; + _Pity_ it e'er should _hurt_, or should not _always last_! + Has _Bankrupt Nature_ then no _more_ to give, + Or by a _Trick_ persuades Mankind to _live_? 410 + No--when with _Prudence_ join'd 'tis still the _same_ } + Or _ripens_ into _Friendship's_ nobler _Name_, } + The _Matter_ pure, immortal is the _Flame_. } + No _Fool_, no _Debauchee_ could ever prove + The _honest Luxury of Virtuous Love_; + Then _curs'd_ are those who that _fair Name_ abuse, + And holy _Hymen's_ sacred _Fillets_ loose; + Who _poison Fountains_, and _infect_ the _Air_, + _Ruine_ the _Witty_, and _debauch_ the _Fair_; + With _nauseous Images_ their _Scenes_ debase 420 + At once their Country's _Ruine_ and _Disgrace_. + _Weigh_ well each _Thought_ if all be _Just_ and _Right_, + For those must clearly _think_ who clearly _write_. + Nothing _obscure_, _equivocal_, or _mean_, + Much less what is or _impious_ or _obscene_: + Altho the tempting _Serpent_ play his part, + And wind in _glitt'ring Folds_ around thy _Heart_; + Reject the _trait'rous Charmer_, tear him thence, + And keep thy _Vertue_ and thy _Innocence_. + [Sidenote: _The Manchinel, or Eves Apple_.] + In wild _America's_ rank _Champaign_ grows 430 + A _Tree_ which _Europe_ oft too dearly knows; + It rises high in _cool inchanting Groves_, + Whose green broad Leaves the fainting _Trav'ler_ loves; + _Fair_ is the treach'rous _Fruit_, and charms your _Eye_, + But ah! beware! for if you _taste_ you _die_. + Too well alas! it _thrives_ when _planted_ here, + Its deadly Branches shade our _Theatre_. + Of _Mesures, Numbers, Pauses_ next I sing, + And rest the breathless _Muse_ with cautious _Wing_: + Of _Embryo Thoughts_, unripen'd yet by Time, 440 + The Rules of _Verse_, of _Quantity_ and _Rhime_: + With trembling Steps through _Shades_ unknown I stray, + And mark a _rugged_ and a _dubious_ way; + Yet some small _glimm'ring Light_ will hence be show'd, + And future _Trav'lers_ may enlarge the _Road_. + [Sidenote: _Measure_.] + Of CHAUCER'S Verse we scarce the _Measures_ know, + So _rough_ the _Lines_, and so _unequal_ flow; + Whether by Injury of _Time_ defac'd, + Or _careless_ at the _first_, and writ in _haste_; + Or _coursly_, like old _Ennius_, he _design'd_ 450 + What After-days have _polish'd_ and _refin'd_. + SPENCER more _smooth_ and _neat_, and none than He + Could better skill of _English Quantity_; + Tho by his _Stanza_ cramp'd, his _Rhimes_ less chast, + And _antique Words_ affected all disgrac'd; + Yet _vast_ his _Genius, noble_ were his _Thoughts_, + Whence equal Readers wink at _lesser_ Faults. + From _France_ their _Alexandrins_ we receive + Which more of _Liberty_ and _Compass_ give; + Hence by our dull Translators were they us'd, 460 + Nor CHAPMAN nor old STERNHOLD these refus'd; + They borrow from _Hexameters_ their _Feet_, + Which with _Asclepiads_ and _Iambicks_ meet; + Yet in the midst we still a _Weakness_ see, + Their _Music_ gives us no _Variety_. + More _num'rous_ the _Pentameter_ and _strong_, + Which to our _Saxon Fathers_ did belong. + In this their antient _Edda_[1] seems to write, + _Mysterious Rhimes_, and _horrid_ to the _sight_: + Their _Runic Staves_ in this on _Rocks_ engrav'd, 470 + Which long th' Assaults of _Time_ it self have brav'd. + In this our antient _British Bards_ delight; } + And, if I measure his _rough Numbers_ right, } + In this old _Taliessin_ us'd to Write[2]. } + This still _Possession_ keeps, few else we read, + And _Right_ as well as _Fact_ may justly plead; + Altho the _French Intruders_ oft pursue + Their _baffled Title_, and their _Claim_ renew; + Too oft _Impressions_ on our _Armies_ make, + Cut off our _Straglers_ and our _Out-Guards_ take, 480 + Which lazily our Authors now admit, + And call th' _Excursions of Luxuriant Wit_; + With _Badger-Feet_ the two-top'd _Mount_ we climb, + And stalk from _Peak_ to _Peak_ on _Stilts of Rime_. + Sweet WALLER'S _Dimeter_ we most approve + For cheerful _Songs_ and _moving Tales of Love_, + Which for _Heroic Subjects_ wants of _Strength_, + Too _short_, as _Alexandrins_ err in _Length_. + Our _Ear's_ the Judge of _Cadence_; nicely weigh + What _Consonants_; rebel, and what obey; 490 + What _Vowels_ mixt compose a pleasing _Sound_, + And what the tender _Organs_ grate and wound. + Nor at thy Reader's _Mercy_ chuse to lie, + Nor let _his Judgment_ want of _thine_ supply: + So _easie_ let thy _Verse_ so _smoothly_ fall, + They must be read _aright_ if read at all. + [Sidenote: _Numbers_.] + Nor _equal Numbers_ will for all suffice, + The _Sock_ creeps low, the _Tragic Bushkins_ rife; + None knew this _Art_ so well, so well did use + As did the _Mantuan Shepherd's_ Heav'nly Muse: 500 + He marry'd _Sound and Sense_, at odds before, + We hear his _Scylla bark, Charybdis roar_; + And when in Fields his _Fiery Coursers_ meet + The _hollow Ground_ shakes underneath their feet: + Yet nicer _Ears_ can taste a _Diff'rence_ when + Of _Flocks_ and _Fields_ he _sings_ or _Arms_ and _Men_. + If I our _English Numbers_ taste aright, + We in the grave _Iambic_ most delight: + Each _second_ Syllable the Voice should _rest_, + _Spondees_ may serve, but still th' _Iambic's_ best: 510 + Th' unpleasing _Trochee_ always makes a _Blot_, + And lames the _Numbers_; or, if this forgot, + A strong _Spondaic_ should the _next_ succeed, + The feeble _Wall_ will a good _Buttress_ need: + Long _Writing, Observation, Art_ and _Pain_ + Must here unite if you the _Prize_ would gain. + [Sidenote: _Pauses_.] + _Pause_ is the _Rest_ of _Voice_, the poor _Remains_ + Of _antient Song_ that still our _Verse_ retains: + The _second Foot_ or _third's_ our usual _Rest_, + Tho more of _Art's_ in _varying_ oft exprest. 520 + At ev'ry Word the _Pause_ is sometimes[3] made, + And wond'rous _Beauty_ every where displaid: + --But here we _guess_, and _wander_ in the _dark_; + How should a hoodwink'd _Archer_ hit the Mark? + The little _Glimpse_ that DRYDEN gives, is more + Than all our _careless Writers_ knew before; + A few _Chance Lines_ may smooth and roundly fly, + But still no Thanks to us, we know not why. + He finds _Examples_, we the _Rule_ must make, + Tho who without a Guide may not mistake? 530 + [4] "_Tho deep yet clear, tho gentle yet not dull, + Strong without Rage, without o'er flowing full._" + If we that _famous Riddle_ can unty, + Their brightest _Beauties_ in the _Pauses_ lie, + To Admiration _vary'd_; next to these + The _Numbers_ justly order'd charm and please: + Each _Word_, each happy _Sound_ is big with _Sense_, + They all _deface_ who take one _Letter_ thence. + [Sidenote: _Quantity_.] + But little more of _Quantity_ we know + Than what our _Accent_ does, and _Custom_ show: 540 + The _Latin Fountains_ often we forsake, + As they the _Greek_; nay _diff'rent Ages_ take + A _diff'rent Path; Perfume_ and _Envy_ now + We say, which _Ages past_ would scarce allow: + If no _Position_ make our _Accent_ strong + Most _Syllables_ are either _short_ or _long_. + [Sidenote: _Rhime_.] + _Primitive Verse_ was grac'd with pleasing _Rhimes_, + The _Blank_ a lazy Fault of _After-times_; + Nor need we other proof of this to plead + With those the sacred [5] _Hebrew Hymns_ can _read_: 550 + If this to _lucky Chance_ alone be _due_, + Why _Rhime_ they not in _Greek_ and _Latin_ too? + [6] PINDAR at first his ancient _Copy_ trac'd, + And sometimes equal _Sounds_ his _Numbers_ grac'd; + Till with the more than _human Labour_ tir'd, + He _drop'd_ his _Rhime_, and own'd him _uninspir'd_. + ORPHEUS and HOMER too, who first did dream + Of _num'rous Gods_, and left the _One Supreme, + Religion_ both and _Poetry_ did wrong, + _Apostatiz'd_ from _Rhime_, and lost the _Soul of Song_. 560 + Yet still some weak and glimm'ring _Sparks_ remain'd, + And still our _Great Forefathers_ this retain'd; + Nor _Inundations_ of _Barbarian Rome_, + Our ancient _Rhime_ could wholly overcome. + [Sidenote: _Vide p._ 13.] + Ne'er _cramp_ thy _Reason_ for some paltry _Chime_, + Nor sacrifice _Good Sense_ to _Numbers_ and to _Rhime_: + Both may be _sav'd_ and made _good Friends_; and here + The Poets _Art_ and _Happiness_ appear: + But when some _stubborn Word_ denies to draw + In _Numbers_, and defies the _Muses Law_, 570 + Reject it strait, unworthy such a _Grace_, + Another _yoke_ which better fills the _Place_: + Much _Reading_ will thy _Poverty_ amend + And _Taggs_ without the help of _Crambo_ lend. + The _Double Rhime_ is _antiquated_ grown, + Or us'd in _Satyr_ or _Burlesque_ alone; + Nor loves our stronger _Tongue_ that tinkling _Chime_, + The _Darling_ of the _French_, a _Female Rhime_. + Now, daring _Muse_! attempt a _stronger Flight_, + Beyond a _Vulgar Verser's_ cautious Height, 580 + Beyond thy self, and consecrate to _Fame_ } + Those who a _Title_ to the _Laurel_ claim, } + And may to after-times _embalm_ thy Name; } + Commend the _Good_, to all but _Vice_ be kind, + And cast the _smaller Faults_ in _shades_ behind; + Who _first_, who _next_; the _Balance_ justly hold, + As that which shines above, and flames with _Heav'nly Gold_. + Great N----BY the first, ROSCOMMON gone, + He rules our _Empire_ now of _Wit_ alone: + The _Beauties_ he of _Verse_ exactly knows, 590 + The famous DRYDEN'S not more smoothly flows: + Had ORPHEUS half so sweetly mourn'd his _Fate_, + As VIRGIL sung, or _Sh----d_ did _translate_; + H' had made the _Manes_ once again _relent_, + They would again _Eurydice_ have sent: + _Death's Temple_ we with _sacred Aw_ survey, + With _Admiration_ read his _Great Essay_: + Was _Art_ or bounteous _Nature_ here more _kind_? } + _Strong Sense_! Uncommon _Learning! Thoughts_ refin'd! } 600 + A _Godlike Person_, and an _equal Mind_! } + [Sidenote: _Paraphrase on_ Psal. 148 O Azure Vaults, &c.] + The _next_ in Dignity, if not the _same_, + Is Deathless Dorsot's lov'd and noble _Name_: + How did he sing, (listen'd the _Heav'nly Quire_;) + The Wond'rous Notes of DAVID's _Royal Lyre_! + Ah! _Why no more_ must we for ever long + And vainly languish for so _sweet_ a _Song_? + The next is _Tityrus_, who not disdains + To read his _Name_ among the _tuneful Swains_; + _Unweary'd_ in his _Prince's_ glorious _Cause_, 610 + As he of _Faith_, Defender of the _Laws_; + _Easie_ to all but to himself, he shares + His Monarch's _Favours_, and his Monarch's _Cares_: + His flowing _Language_ cloaths his _massie Sense_, } + Nor makes with _pompous Words_ a vain pretence, } + _Sound_ without _Soul_, to _Wit_ and _Eloquence_. } + Tho _Great_, he's still the same he was before: + --I _sue for nothing_, and I'll say no more. + _Montague_ left the _Muses_ peaceful _Seat_, + And bore the _Cares_ and _Honours_ of the _Great_: 620 + The _Pollio_ he of our _Augustan_ days, + Who _Wit_ rewards with more than _hungry Praise_; + _True Worth_ his _Patronage_ can never miss, + He has his _Prince's Smiles_ and _that_ has _his_. + Nor should he pass unprais'd whom all admire, + Who, mixt with _Seraphs_, rules the _Western_ Quire; + _Flowing_ and _pure_ his unexhausted _Vein_, + As Silver _Thames_, which, rolling down the _Plain_, + Salutes his _Sacred Dome_.---- + But those _profane_ who meanly thus _commend_, 630 + Th' _Immortal Cowley's_ and the _Muses_ Friend. + Of _matchless_ DRYDEN only _Dryden's_ Skill + Could justly say enough,--of _Good_ or _Ill_. + _Envy_ must own he has our _Tongue refin'd_, + And manly _Sense_ with tend'rest _Softness_ join'd: + His _Verse_ would _Stones_ and _Trees_ with _Soul_ inspire, + As did the _Theban_ and the _Thracian_ Lyre: + His youthful _Fire_ within, like _Etna, glows_, + Tho _Venerable Age_ around his Temples _snows_: + If from the _modern_ or the _antient_ Store 640 + He _borrows_ ought, he always _pays_ 'em more: + So much _improv'd_, each _Thought_, so _fine_ appears, + WALLER or OVID scarce durst own 'em _theirs_. + The Learned _Goth_ has scowr'd all _Europe_'s Plains, } + _France, Spain_, and fruitful _Italy_ he _drains_, } + From every Realm and every Language _gains_: } + His _Gains_ a _Conquest_ are, and not a _Theft_; + He wishes still new _Worlds_ of _Wit_ were left: + Thus _haughty Rome_, when, all the _Firm_ surpass'd, + Her _Eagles_ found our _moated World_ at last; 650 + Touching upon th' _unhospitable_ Coast, + _Good Laws_ bestow'd for our _wild Freedom_ lost; + With _Arts of Peace_ our stubborn Soil manur'd, + And _naked Limbs_ from _Frost_ and _Sun_ secur'd: + --But ah' how _dear_ the _Price_ of all we gain! } + What _Shoals of Vices_ with 'em cross'd the Main? } + What _Pride_, what _Luxury_, a foul, an odious Train? } + Who weighs, like _Galcacus_, the _Good_ with _Ill_, + Would wish they'd let us been _Barbarians_ still: + Such _thankless Pains Ignatian Firebrands_ take 660 + An _honest Pagan_ spoil, and a _bad Christian_ make. + Blest be kind Heav'n, which wrap'd me in a _Gown_, + And drew me early from the _fatal Town_! + And blest _Her Name_, to endless Ages blest, + Who gave my weary _Muse_ this calm _Retreat_ and _Rest_. + True to my God, my Country, and my Friend, } + Here, may I Life, not _wholly useless_, spend, } + _Steal_ through the World, and _smiling_ meet my _End_! } + I envy not _Great Dryden_'s loftier Strain } + Of _Arms_ and _Men_ design'd to entertain, } 670 + _Princes_ and _Courts_, so I but please the _Plain_: } + Nor would I barter _Profit_ for _Delight_, + Nor would have _writ like him, like him to write_. + If there's _Hereafter_, and a last _Great Day_, + What _Fire_'s enough to _purge_ his _Stains_ away? + How will he _wish_ each _lewd_ applauded _Line_ } + Which makes _Vice pleasing_, and _Damnation shine_, } + Had been as _dull_ as honest _Quarles_ or _mine_! } + With _sixty Years of Lewdness_ rest content! + It mayn't be yet _too late_, O yet _Repent_! 680 + Ev'n _Thee_ our _injur'd Altar_ will receive; + While yet there's _Hopes_ fly to its _Arms_ and live! + So shall for _Thee_ their _Harps_ the _Angels_ string, + And the _Returning Prodigal_ shall sing; + New _Joys_ through all the _Heav'nly Host_ be shown + In _Numbers_ only _sweeter_ than thy _own_. + CONGREVE from _Ireland_ wond'ring we receive, } + Would he the _Town's loose way_ of Writing leave, } + More Worth than all their Forfeit Lands will give: } + _Justness_ of _Thought_, a _Courtly Style_, and clear, 690 + And well-wrought _Passions_ in his _Works_ appear: + None knows with _finer Strokes_ our Souls to move, + And as he please we _smile_, or _weep_, or _love_. + When _Dryden_ goes, 'tis he must fill the _Chair_, + _With_ Congreve _only_ Congreve _can compare_. + Yet, tho he _natural_ is as untaught Loves, + His _Style_ as _smooth_ as _Cytherea_'s Doves, + When e'er unbyass'd _Judges_ read him o'er, + He sometimes _nodds_, as _Homer_ did before: + Some Lines his most _Admirers_ scarce would please, 700 + Nor _B----_'s Verse alone could _raise Disease_.[7] + For _smooth_ and _well turn'd Lines_ we _T----_ admire, + Who has in _Justness_ what he wants in _Fire_: + Each _Rhime_, each _Syllable_ well-weigh'd and fair, + His _Life_ and _Manners_ scarce more _regular_. + With _Strength_ and _Flame_ prodigious _D----s_ writes + Of _Loves_ lost _Wars_, and cruel martial _Fights_: + Scarce LEE himself strove with a _mightier Load_, + Or _labour'd_ more beneath th' _Incumbent God_: + Whate'er of old to _Rome_ or _Athens_ known, 710 + What _France_ or _We_ have _glean'd_, 'tis all his _own_. + How few can equal _Praise_ with _C----ch_ obtain, + Who made _Lucretius smooth_, and _chast_, and _plain_? + Courted by _Fame_ he could her _Charms_ despise, } + Still woo'd by that _false Fair_ he still denies, } + And press'd, for _Refuge_ to the _Altar_ flies; } + Like _votive Tablets_ offers up his _Bays_, + "_And leaves to our lewd Town the Drudgery of Plays_." + In lofty _Raptures_, born on Angels Wings } + Above the _Clouds_, above _Castalian Springs_, } 720 + N---- inspir'd, of God and _Nature_ sings; } + And if one _Glance_ on this _poor World_ he throw, + If e'er he mind the _Croud_ and _Buzz_ below; + Pities our _fruitless Pains_ for _Fame_ and _Praise_, + And wonders why we _drudge_ for _Crowns_ and _Bays_. + Could _B_---- be _sober_, many he'd excel, + Few know the _Antients_, or could use so well; + But ah! his _Genius_ with his _Virtue's_ fled, + Condemn'd to _Want of Grace_ and _Want of Bread_. + Ev'n Envy _B----re's Subject_ must confess } 730 + _Exact_ and _rare_, a _curious Happiness_, } + Nor many could the _Fable better dress_: } + Of _Words_ what _Compass_, and how vast a _Store_! + His _Courage_ and his _Vertue's_ only more: + More various _Scenes of Death_ his _Fights_ display + Then _Aghrim's_ Field or _London's_ fatal Day: + Let beauteous _Elda's Tears_ and _Passion_ prove + His _Soul_ is not _unknowing how to love_: + Disrob'd of _Clouds_ he view'd the _Stagyrite_ + As _Nature_ he, confess'd to _Human sight_: + His _Rules_ surveys, and traces to their _Springs_, } 740 + Where the _blind Bard_ of flaming _Ilium_ sings; } + Thence with the _Mantuan Swan_ in narrower Rings, } + Tho more _exact_, he, stooping from his height, + Reviews the same _fierce Wars_ and _Gods_ and _Heroes_ fight: + That beauteous antient _Palace_ he surveys } + Which _Maro's Hands_ had only Strength to raise, } + _Models_ from thence, and _copies_ every _Grace_: } + Each _Page_ is big with _Virgil's Manly Thought_, + To _follow him too near's a glorious Fault_. + He dar'd be _virtuous_ in the _World's_ Despite, 750 + _While_ D----n _lives he dar'd a Modest Poem write_. + Who can th' ingenious S----y's Praise refuse, + Who serves a grateful _Prince_, and grateful _Muse_? + Or _P----r_ read unmov'd, whose every _Page_ + So just a _Standard_ to the opening _Age_? + Neat _S----n_'s courtly _Vein's_ correct and clear, + Nor shall he miss his _Praise_ and _Station_ here: + Nor should the _rest_ whom I _unnam'd_ must leave, + (Tho such _Omission_ they'll with ease _forgive_:) 760 + _Unknown_ to me, let each his _Works_ commend, + Since _Virtue, Praise_, as _Shame_ does _Vice_ attend. + _Poets_, like _Leaves_ and _Words_, their _Periods_ know, + Now _fresh_ and _green_, now _sear_ and wither'd grow; + Or _burnt_ by _Autumn's_ Heat, and _Winter's_ Cold, + Or a _new hasty Birth_ shoves off the _old_. + Happy are those, and such are _some_ of ours, } + Who blest by bounteous _Heav'n's_ indulgent _Show'rs_ } + Bear wholsome _Fruit_, and not gay _pois'nous Flow'rs_: } + Who would not ev'n a _Lawreat's self_ commence 770 + Or at their _Virtue's_ or their _Faith's_ Expence: + Renounce their _Creed_ to save a _wretched Play_, } + And for a _crowded House_ and _full Third Day_ } + At one _bold Stroke_ throw all their _Heav'n_ away. } + What gain'd _Euripides_ by all his _Sense_, + Who madly rail'd against a _Providence_? + _Apostate Poets_ first seduc'd _Mankind_, + _But ours upon the Pagan Herd refin'd_; + They Vertue _prais'd_ at least, which ours _abuse_, + And more than _Paganize_ the Heav'n-born Muse: 780 + No Signs of _Grace_, or of _Repentance_ show, + Like _Strumpets lash'd_, more _impudent_ they grow. + Now learn, my Friend, and freely I'll impart + My _little All_ in this delightful Art: + Of _Poetry_ the various _Forms_ and _Kinds_, + The widest, strongest _Grasp_ of human Minds: + Not _all_ from _all_, but _some_ from _each_ I take, + Since we a _Garland_ not a _Garden_ make. + [Sidenote: _Epic_.] + EPIC's the _first_ and _best_, which mounting sings } + In _Mighty Numbers worthy mighty Things_, } 790 + Of _High Adventures, Heroes, Gods_ and _Kings_: } + By lively _Schemes_ the Mind to _Vertue_ forms, + And far beyond _unactive Precept_ warms. + The _Subject_ may be either _feign'd_ or _true_, + _Too Old_ it should not be, but less _too New_: + _Narration_ mixt with _Action_ most delights, + _Intrigues_ and _Councils_, vary'd _Games_ and _Fights_: + Nothing so _long_ as may the Reader _tire_, + But all the just well-mingled _Scenes_ admire. + Your _Heroe_ may be _virtuous_, must be _brave_; + Nothing that's _mean_ should his great Soul enslave: + Yet Heav'ns unequal _Anger_ he may _fear_, + And for his _suffering Friends_ indulge a _Tear_: + Thus when the _Trojans Navy_ scatter'd lay + He _wept_, he _trembled_, and to Heav'n did _pray_; + But when bright _Glory beckon'd_ from afar, + And _Honour_ call'd him out to meet the _War_; + Like a fierce _Torrent_ pouring o'er the _Banks_, + Or _Mars_ himself, he _thunders_ through the _Ranks_; + _Death_ walks before, while he a _Foe_ could find, 810 + _Horror_ and _Ruine_ mark long frightful _Lanes_ behind. + [Sidenote: _Machines_.] + For _worn_ and _old_ MACHINES few Readers care, + They're like the _Pastboard Chaos in the Fair_: + If ought surprizing you expect to shew, + The _Scenes_ if not the _Persons_ should be _new_: + With _both_ does MILTON'S wondrous Scheme begin, + The _Pandemonium, Chaos, Death_ and _Sin_; + Which _D----s_ had with like _Success_ assay'd, } + Had not the _Porch_ of _Death's Grim Court_ been made } + Too _wide_, and there th' impatient _Reader_ staid. } 820 + And _G----h_, tho _barren_ is his _Theme_ and _mean_, + By this has _reach'd_ at least the fam'd _Lutrine_. + If _tir'd_ with such a plenteous _Feast_ you call + For a far meaner _Banquet_, _Meal_ and _Wall_; + The _best_ I have is _yours_, tho 'tis too _long_, + And what's behind will into _Corners_ throng. + A _Place_ there is, if _Place_ 'tis nam'd aright, } + Where scatter'd _Rays_ of pale and sickly _Light_, } + Fringe o'er the _Confines_ of _Eternal Night_. } + _Shorn_ of their _Beams_ the _Sun_ and _Phoebe_ here 830 + Like the _fix'd Stars_, through _Glasses_ view'd, appear; + Or those faint _Seeds of Light_, which just display + Ambiguous Splendor round the _milky Way_; + The _Waste_ of _Chaos_, whose _Auguster_ Reign + Does those more barren doubtful Realms disdain: + Here dwell those _hideous Forms_ which oft repair } + To breath our upper _World's_ more _chearful_ Air } + Bleak _Envy_, grinding _Pain_, and meagre _Care_; } + _Disease_ and _Death_, the _Goddess_ of the _place_, + _Death_, the _least frightful Form of all their Race_; 840 + _Ambition, Pride_, false _Joys_ and _Hopes_ as vain, + _Lewdness_ and _Luxury_ compose her Train: + How large their _Interest_, and how vast their _Sway_ + Amid the wide invaded Realms of _Day_! + Soon would they our frail Race of _Mortals_ end, + Did not kind _Heav'n_ auspicious _Succours_ lend; + Sweet _Angel-Forms, Peace, Virtue, Health_ and _Love_, + How near ally'd, how like to those _above_! + These often drive the _Air_, those _Furies_ chace + And fetter in their own _infernal Place_: 850 + These lent at once NASSAW and ENGLAND Aid, + And bright MARIA to our _Shores_ convey'd: + Her, all their _Pow'r_ and all their _Charms_ they gave, + To _govern_ what her _Heroe_ came to _save_. + Nor _Envy_ this, who in her noisome Cell + By _Traitors_ in their swift _Descent to Hell_, + Her rising _Glories_ heard, then with a _Groan_ + She crawl'd before her _Sov'reign's_ direful _Throne_: + A _Pile of Sculls_ the odious _Fantom_ bore, + With _Bones_ half-naked mixt, and dropping putrid _Gore_; 860 + There thus--Shall _Heav'n_ defraud us of our _Reign_, + And BRITAIN, only BRITAIN break her _Chain_? + What can we there, while more than _mortal Grace_ + Forbids our _Entrance_, and secures the _Place_? + Awhile I _gaz'd_ and _viewed_ her as I _fled_, + When first she came, till half my _Snakes_ were dead; + And had I tarry'd longer near her _Throne_, + Had soon some base _insipid Vertue_ grown: + So fast the wide _progressive Ills_ increase, } + If longer unoppos'd our _Power_ will cease; } 870 + The base degenerate World _dissolve_ to Peace; } + Our boasted _Empire_ there will soon be o'er, + And _Mortals_ tremble at our _Arms_ no more. + She said, her _Tidings_ all the _Court_ affright, + And doubled _Horror_ fill'd the _Realms of Night_: + Till out foul _Lewdness_ leap'd, and shook the Place. } + The _fulsom'st Fiend_ of all th' _infernal Race_; } + A crusted _Leprosie_ deform'd her _Face_; } + With half a _bloodshot_ Eye the _Fury_ glar'd, + Yet when for _Mischief_ she above prepar'd, 880 + She _painted_ and she _dress'd_, those _Arts_ she knew, + And to her _self_ her self a _Stranger_ grew, + (Thus _old_ and batter'd _Bawds_ behind the Scenes, + New _rigg'd_ and _dawb'd_, pass on the _Stage_ for _Queens_;) + Nor yet, she cries, of _Britain_ we'll _despair_ } + I've yet some _trusty Friends_ in _Ambush_ there, } + All is not lost, we've still the _Theatre_: } + I'll batter _Virtue_ thence, nor fear to gain } + New _Subjects daily_ from her _hated Reign_; } + Is not Great _D----_ ours and all his _Train_? } + He knows he has new _Laurels_ here prepar'd, } 890 + For those he lost _above_, a just Reward, } + For his wide _Conquests_ he'll _command the Guard_: } + _Headed_ by him one _Foot_ we'll scorn to yield, + Tho _Virtue's_ glitt'ring _Squadrons_ drive the _Field_: + Grant me, Dread _Sov'reign_! a _Detachment_ hence } + We'll not be long alone on our _Defence_, } + But hope to drive the proud _Assailants_ thence. } + Bold _Blasphemy_ shall lead our black _Forlorn_, + With _Colours_ from _Heav'n's Crystal Ramparts_ torn, + And _Anti-Thunderrs_ arm'd; _Profaneness_ next 900 + Their _Canon_ seize, and turn the _Sacred Text_ + Against th' _Assailants_; brave _Revenge_ and _Rage_ + Shall our _main Batt'ry_ ply, and guard the _Stage_. + --But most I on dear _Ribaldry_ depend, + We've not a _surer_ or a _stronger Friend_. + Now shall she _broad_ and _open_ to the Skie, + Now _close_ behind some _double Meaning_ lye; + Now with _sulphureous Rivers_ lave the _French_, + And choak th' _Assailants_ with infernal _Stench_; + Each nicer _Vertue_ from the _Walls_ repel, 910 + And _Heav'n_ it self regale with the Perfumes of _Hell_. + This from the World our dreaded _Foe_ will drive, + As _murm'ring Bees_ are forc'd to leave their _Hive_; + _Souls_ so _refin'd_ such _Vapours_ cannot bear, + But seek their _native Heav'n_ and purer Air: + When _She_ and all her heav'nly _Guards_ are gone + And her bright _Heroe_ absent, all's our own: + If any _pious Fools_ should make a stand, + To stop our _Progress_ through the conquer'd Land, + They soon shall pass for _hot-brain'd Visionairs_, 920 + We'll run 'em down with _Ridicule_ and _Farce_. + Must they _reform_ the World! A likely _Task_! + Tis _Vizard_ all, and them we'll soon _unmask_. + The rest will _tumble_ in, or if they stay + And loiter in _Damnation's_ ample Way, + I've one _Expedient_ left, which can't but take, + My last _Reserve_; From yon black _brimstone_ Lake, + Whence two _Canals_ thro _subterranean Veins_ + Are drawn to _Sodom_ and _Campania's_ Plains, + My self I'll fill a _Vial_, and infuse 930 + My very Soul amid the _potent Juice_: + This _Essence_ near my _Heart_ I'll with me bear, } + And this among my _dearest Fav'rites_ share, } + Already _tutor'd_ by the _Theatre_; } + Who pass'd those _Bugbears Conscience, Law_ and _Shame_ + Have there been taught that _Virtue's_ but a _Name_: + _Exalted Souls_ who _vulgar Sins_ despise; + Fit for some _new discover'd_ nobler _Vice_; + One _Drop_ of this their _frozen Blood_ shall warm, + And _frighted Nature's feebler Guards_ disarm 930 + Till their _chill Veins_ with hotter _Fevers_ glow } + Than any _Etna_ or _Vesuvius_ know, } + Scarce equal'd by their _Parent Flames_ below; } + Till wide around the _gen'rous Canker_ spread, + And _Vengeance_ draw on each _devoted Head_: + Impatient _Heav'n_ it self our _Arms_ shall join, + The _Skies_ again with _forky Lightnings_ shine; + Till glutted _Desolation_ pants for Breath, + And _guilty Shades_ shall croud the _Realms of Death_. + --She said, the _Motion pleas'd_ she _wings_ away 940 + And in blue _pois'nous Foggs_ invades the _Day_: + Part of her _direful Threats_ too true we find, + And _Heav'n_ avert the _Plagues_ that yet remain _behind_! + [Sidenote: _Tragedy_.] + The _Path_ which _Epic_ treads the TRAGIC Muse + With _daring_ tho _unequal_ Steps pursues, + A _little Epic_ shines through every _Scene_, + Tho more of _Life_ appears, and less _Machine_; + More _Action_, less _Narration_, more _Delight_; + We _see_ the _Gods_ descend, and _Heroes_ fight. + While _Oedipus_ is _raving_ on the _Stage_, 950 + Mild _Pity_ enters and dissolves our _Rage_; + We _low'r_ our _haughty Spirits_, our _Pride_ and _Hate_, + And learn to _fear_ the sad _Reverse of Fate_. + A _Tyrant's Fall_, a treach'rous _Statesman's_ End + Clear the _Just Gods_, and equal _Heav'n_ defend: + Ungrateful _Factions_ here themselves torment, + And _bring_ those very _Ills_ they would _prevent_: + Nor think the lost _Intrigues_ of _Love_ too mean + To fill the _Stage_ and grace toe _Tragic Scene_! + Who from the _World_ this _Salt of Nature_ takes, 960 + _Twice Slaves of Kings_ of _Life_ a _Desart_ makes. + The _Moral_ and _Pathetick_ neatly join'd, + Are best for _Pleasure_ and for _life_ design'd. + Be this in _Tragic_ an _Eternal Law_; + _Bold Strokes_ and _larger_ than the _Life_ to draw: + Let all be _Great_; when here a _Woman's_ seen, + Paint her a _Fury_, or a _Heroine_: + _Slaves, Spendthrifts_, angry _Fathers_, better fit + The meaner _Sallies_ of COMEDIAN Wit; + But _Courtly_ HORACE did their _Stage_ refuse, 970 + Nor was it trod by _Maro's_ heav'nly Muse: + A _Walk_ so _low_ their _nobler Minds_ disdain, + Where _sordid Mirth's_ exchang'd for _sordid Gain_; + Where, in false _Pleasure_ all the _Profit's_ drown'd, + Nor _Authors_ with just _Admiration_ crown'd: + Hence was the _Sock_ a Task for _servile Wit_, + Course PLAUTUS hence, and neater TERENCE writ: + Yet if you still your _Fortune_ long to take, + And long to hear the _crouded Benches_ shake; 980 + If you'd _reform_ the _Mob_, lov'd _Vice restrain_, + The _Pulpits_ break, and neighb'ring _B----_ drain; + Let _Heav'n_ at least, if not its _Priests_, be free, + The _Bible_ sures's too _grave_ for _Comedy_: + If she nor _lewdly_ nor _profanely_ talk + She'll have a _cleaner_, tho a _narrower Walk_. + Our Nation's _endless Humour_ will supply + So large a _Fund_ as never can be _dry_; + Why then should _Vice_ be _bare_ and _open_ shown, + And with such _Nauseous Scenes_ affront the _Town_? 990 + Why thrive the _Lewd_, their _Wishes_ seldom crost, + And why _Poetic Justice_ often lost? + They plead they copy _Nature_.--Don't abuse + Her _sacred Name_ with such a _vile Excuse_! + She wisely _hides_ what these, like Beasts _display_, } + Ev'n _Vice_ it self, less _impudent_ than they, } + Remote in _Shades_, and far from _conscious_ Day. } + From this _Retrenchment_ by strong _Reason_ beat, + They next to _poor Necessity_ retreat: + The _Murderers, Bawds_ and _Robbers_ last pretence 1000 + With equal _Justice_, equal _Innocence_! + So _Crack_, in _pious Fit_, will plead she's _poor_, + 'Tis a _hard Choice_, Good Sir, to _starve_ or _whore_! + --Is there no _Third_, or will such _Reas'nings_ pass + In _Bridewel's_ rigid Court, or save the _Lash_? + Where the _stern Judge_, like _Radamanth_, surveys + The _trembling Sinner_, and each Action _weighs_. + A lazy, black, encumber'd _Stream_ rolls by, + Whole thick _sulphureous Vapours_ load the Sky; + Near where, in _Caves_ from _Heav'n's_ sweet _Light_ debar'd, 1010 + _Shrieks, Groans_, and _Iron Whips_, and _Clanks of Chains_ are heard. + And can't you _thrash_, or _trail_ a _Pike_ or _Pole_? + Are there no _Jakes_ in Town, or _Kennels_ foul? + No _honester Employment_, that you chuse + With such _vile Drudgery_ t'abase the heav'n born _Muse_? + The num'rous ODE in various _Paths_ delights, + _Love, Friendship, Gods_, and _Heroes, Games_ and _Fights_: + Her _Age_ with _Veneration_ is confess'd + The _first great Mother_ she of all the rest, + This [8]MOSES us'd, and DAVID'S Royal Lyre, } + This he whom wond'ring _Seraphs_ did _inspire_, } 1020 + Whence PINDAR stole some _Sparks of heav'nly Fire_, } + Who now by COWLEY's happy Muse improv'd, + Is _understood_ by some, by more _belov'd_: + The _Vastness_ of his Thought, the daring _Range_, + That imperceptible and pleasing _Change_, + Our jealous _Neighbours_ must themselves confess + The _British Genius_ tracks with most Success; + But still the _Smoothness_ we of _Verse_ desire, + The _Regulation_ of our _Native Fire_: + This from experienc'd _Masters_ we receive, 1030 + Sweet FLATMAN'S Works, and DRYDEN'S this will give. + If you in _pointed_ SATYR most delight, + _Worry_ not, where you only ought to _bite_: + _Easie_ your _Style_, unstudy'd all and clear. + _Prosaic Lines_ are _pardonable_ here. + There are whose _Breath_ would blast the _brightest Fame_, } + Who from _base Actions_ court an _odious Name_, } + With _Beauty_ and with _Virtue_ War proclaim; } + Who _bundle_ up the _Scandals_ of the _Town_, 1040 + And in _lewd Couplets_ make it all their _own_: + _Just Shame_ be _theirs_ who thus _debauch_ a _Muse_, + To vile _Lampoons_ a _noble Art_ abuse: + As _ill_ be _theirs_, and _half of_ DATS'_s Fate_, + Who always dully rail against the _State_. + _Kings_ are but _Men_, nor are their _Councils_ more, + Those _Ills_ we can't _avert_ we must _deplore_: + Not _many Poets_ were for _Statesmen_ made, + It asks more _Brains_ than stocks the _Rhiming_ Trade: + (At least, when they the _Ministry_ receive, 1050 + To _Poets Militant_ their _Muse_ they leave.) + All _sordid Flat'ry_ hate, it pleases none + But _Tyrants_ grinning on their _Iron Throne_: + Yet where wer'e rul'd with _wise_ impartial Sway, + The _Muses_ should their _grateful Homage_ pay: + 'Tis _base_ alike a _Tyrant's_ Name to raise, + And grudg a _Parent Prince_ our _tributary Praise_. + No wonder those who by _Proscriptions_ gain } + In _Marian_ Days, or _Sylla's_ bloody Reign, } + Of the divine _Augustus_ should complain; } 1060 + Who stoops to wear a _Crown's uneasie Weight_, + As _Atlas_ under Heav'n, to prop the _State_: + No _Glory_ strikes his Great exalted Mind, + No _Pleasure_ like obliging all Mankind; + He lets the _Factious_ their weak _Malice_ vent, + Punish'd enough while they themselves _torment_: + _Satiate_ with _Conquest_, his dread _Sword_ he sheaths, + And with a _Nod disbands ten thousand Deaths_. + Who dares _Rebellious Arms_ against him move + While his _Praetorian Guard_'s his Subjects _Love_? 1070 + Admir'd by all the _bravest_ and the _best_, + Who wear a _Roman Soul within their ample Breast_: + Tho _charm'd_ with _both_, which shall they more _admire_ + In _Peace_ his _Wisdom_, or in _War_ his _Fire_? + --_One Labour_ yet remains, and that they _ask_, + _Alcides_ never clear'd a _nobler Task_; + O _Father_! banish'd _Vertue_ O restore! + Let _Hydra Vice_ pollute thy _Reign_ no more! + Strike through the _Monster-Form_, which threatning stands, + Fierce with a _thousand Throats_, a _thousand Hands_! 1080 + _Rescue_ once more thy _Trojans sacred Line_ } + From _slavish Chains_, so shall thy _Temples_ shine } + With _Stars_, and all _Elysium_ shall be _thine_. } + +_FINIS._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Vide Edda Samundi--apud Sheringham, de Gentis Anglorum +Origine, pag._ 28, 29. + + _Hiaelp beiter eitt eun thad thier hialpa mun + Vid Sikum og Sottum goiru allum, + Thad kenn eg aunad er thorfa Ita + Syner their ed vilia lakner lisfa._ +[Transcriber's Note: extremely difficult to read in the original. +Transcription may not be accurate.] + + I know your only Help, the pow'rful Charm + That aids in ev'ery Grief and every Harm, + I know the Leaches Craft, and what they need + Who Doctors in that Noble Art proceed. + +[2] the _Vide_ British Chronicle, _and_ Taliessin's _Prophecies_; + + Prryff fard l'yffred in ydwyfi i Elphin + Am gwalad gynifio [indecipherable] Goribbin. + Ionas ddewn am golwis Merddin + Sebach Pob Brenmam geilw Taliesin. + Gwea a gasgle elud Tra feyna bud, + Gwererbin didd brawd in chospo i gnawd, + Gwae ni cheidw i geil ag if yufug eil, + Gwae in cheidw i ddefend chog bleiddna. +[Transcriber's Note: extremely difficult to read in the original. +Transcription may not be accurate.] + + Me _Elphin_ now his Bard may justly boast + Who long of old amid the Fire-wing'd Host: + Once _Merlin_ was I call'd, well known to Fame, + Whom future Kings shall _Taliessin_ name. + Wo to the Wretch who Wealth by Rapine gains, + And wo to him who Fasts and Pray'rs refrains; + Wo to the Shepherds who their Flocks betray, + And will not drive the _Ravish_ Wolves away. + +[3] _Olli sedaro rescondit corde Latinus._ Virg. + +[4] _Mr._ Dryden's _Riddle, in his Preface to_ Virgil. + +[5] _This was observ'd before Mr._ Le Clerc _was born. Vide_ Song of the +Well, _Num._ 21. 17. + + [Hebrew text] + +_Vide_ Psal. 80, & 81. _Where some Verses have Treble, where Quadruple +Rhimes, four in one Verse._ + +[6] Ode 1. [Greek: indecipherable] + +[7] _Vide_ Collier's _Reflexions on_ Moarning Bride, _and_ Garth's +_Dispensary_. + +[8] _I know some have affirm'd that_ Moses's _Song in the_ 14_th of_ +Exodus _was writ in Hexameters, but I can't perceive any such thing in +it, any more than in the_ 90_th_ Psalm, _or the Book of_ Job, _which seem +to be written about the same time with it. The Song of the_ Well, _in_ +Numbers, _pag._ 15. _is clearly an_ Ode _of unequal Measures_. + + + + +[Illustration: _THE_ +LIFE +_of_ +Christ. + +An Heroic Poem. + +_In Ten BOOKS +with sixty Copper Plates._ + +London: +_Printed for Charles Harper, & Benj. Motte._] + + + + +THE +LIFE +OF OUR +Blessed Lord & Saviour +JESUS CHRIST. + +AN +HEROIC POEM: +DEDICATED TO +Her Most Sacred MAJESTY. + +_In Ten Books._ + +ATTEMPTED BY +_SAMUEL WESLEY_, M.A. +Chaplain to the most Honourable JOHN Lord Marquess of _Normanby_, +and Rector of _Epwerth_ in the County of _Lincoln_. + +Each Book Illustrated by necessary Notes, explaining all the more +difficult Matters in the whole History: Also a Prefatory Discourse +concerning Heroic Poetry. + +_The Second Edition, revised by the Author, and improved with the +addition of a large Map of the_ HOLY-LAND, _and a table of the +principal matters._ + +With Sixty Copper-Plates, by the celebrated Hand of _W. Faithorn_. + +_LONDON_: +Printed for _Charles Harper_, at the _Flower-de-Luce_ over against St. +_Dunstan_'s Church, and are to be Sold by him, and _Roger Clavel_ at the +_Peacock_ against _Fetter-Lane_, both in _Fleetstreet_, 1697. + + + + +THE PREFACE, Being an ESSAY on HEROIC POETRY + + +A Just Heroic Poem is so vast an Undertaking, requires so much both of Art +and Genius for its Management, and carries such Difficulty in the Model of +the Whole, and Disposition of the several Parts, that it's no Wonder, if +not above One or Two of the Ancients, and hardly any of the Moderns, have +succeeded in their Attempts of this Nature. Rapin, and other Masters of +Epic, represent it as an Enterprize so hardy, that it can scarce enter +into the Mind of a wise Man, without affrighting him, as being the most +perfect Piece of Work that Art can produce. That Author has many excellent +Reflexions and Rules concerning it in his Discourse sur la Poetique; but +Bossu is the first I've seen who has writ a just and perfect Tract +thereon, wherein he has in a clear and Scholastic Method amass'd together +most that's to be found in Antiquity on that Subject, tho' chiefly keeping +to the Observations of Aristotle, which he drew from Homer, and who seems +the first that reduced Poetry to an Art. That Author defines Epic, "An +Artificial Discourse, in order to form the Manners by Instructions, +disguis'd under the Allegories of some one important Action, recited in +Verse, in a manner probable, diverting and admirable;" which he thus +himself abridges, "'Tis a Fable, agreeably imitated on some important +Action, recited in Verse in a manner that's probable and admirable;" In +which Definition are contain'd, as he afterwards explains it, the general +Nature of Epic, and that double, Fable and Poem: The Matter, some one +important Action probably feign'd and imitated: Its Form, Recitation or +Narration: And lastly, its End, Instruction, which is aimed at in general +by the Moral of the Fable; and besides in the particular Manners of the +Persons who make the most considerable Figure in the Work. + +To begin with Fable, which he makes included in the general Nature or +Essence of Epic. This, he says, is the most essential Part of it; "That +some Fables and Allegories scatter'd up and down in a Poem don't suffice +to constitute Epic, if they are only the Ornaments, and not the very +Foundation of it." And again, "That 'tis the very Fund and principal +Action that ought to be Feign'd and Allegorical:" For which reason he +expresly excludes hence all simple Histories, as by Name, Lucan's +Pharsalia, Silius Italicus's Punic War, and all true Actions of particular +Persons, without Fable: And still more home; that 'tis not a Relation of +the Actions of any Hero, to form the Manners by his Example, but on the +contrary, a Discourse invented to form the Manners by the Relation of some +one feign'd Action, design'd to please, under the borrow'd Name of some +illustrious Person, of whom Choice is made after we have fram'd the Plan +of the Action which we design to attribute to him. + +Nor indeed is Bossu singular in his Judgment on this Matter, there being +few or none who have ever writ on the same Subject, but are of the same +mind: For thus Boileau in his Art of Poetry, + + Dans la vaste recit d'une longue action + Se soutient par la Fable & vit de Fiction. + +Which his Translator I think better; + + In the Narration of some great Design, + Invention, Art, and Fable, all must join. + +Rapin too gives his Vote on the same side, Rien n'est, says he, plus +essentiel au Poem Epique, que la Fiction; and quotes Petronius to that +purpose, Per ambages, Deorumque ministeria praecipitandus est Liber +Spiritus. Nor is't only the Moderns who are of this Opinion; for the +Iliads are call'd in Horace, Fabula qua Paridis, &c. And lastly, even +Aristotle himself tells us, "That Fable is the principal thing in an +Heroic Poem; and, as it were, the very Soul of it." [Greek: Arche kai oion +psyche.] And upon this occasion commends Homer for lying with the best +Grace of any Man in the World: Authorities almost too big to admit any +Examination of their Reason, or Opposition to their Sentiments. However, I +see no cause why Poetry should not be brought to the Test, as well as +Divinity, or any more than the other, be believed on its own bare ipse +dixit. + +Let us therefore examine the Plan which they lay for a Work of this +Nature, and then we may be better able to guess at those Grounds and +Reasons on which they proceed. + +In forming an Heroic-Poem, the first thing they tell us we ought to do, is +to pitch on some Moral Truth, which we desire to enforce on our Reader, as +the Foundation of the whole work. Thus Virgil, as Bossu observes, +designing to render the Roman People pleased and easie under the new +Government of Augustus, laid down this Maxim, as the Foundation of his +Divine AEneis: "That great and notable Changes of State are not +accomplished but by the Order and Will of God: That those who oppose +themselves against them are impious, and frequently punished as they +deserve; and that Heaven is not wanting to take that Hero always under its +particular Protection, whom it chuses for the Execution of such grand +Designs." This for the Moral Truth; we must then, he says, go on to lay +the general Plan of the Fiction, which, together with that Verity, makes +the Fable and Soul of the Poem: And this he thinks Virgil did in this +manner, "The Gods save a great Prince from the Ruines of his Country, and +chuse him for the Preservation of Religion, and re-establishing a more +glorious Empire than his former. The Hero is made a King, and arriving at +his new Country, finds both God and Men dispos'd to receive him: But a +neighbouring Prince, whose Eyes Ambition and Jealousie have closed against +Justice and the Will of Heaven, opposes his Establishment, being assisted +by another King despoil'd of his Estate for his Cruelty and Wickedness. +Their Opposition, and the War on which this pious Prince is forc'd, render +his Establishment more just by the Right of Conquest, and more glorious by +his Victory and the Death of his Enemies." These are his own Words, as any +may see who are at the pains to consult him; nor can I help it, if either +Virgil or Bossu happen to be Prophets. + +When the Poet has proceeded thus far, and as Bossu calls it, dress'd +his Project, he's next to search in History or receiv'd Fable, for some +Hero, whose Name he may borrow for his Work, and to whom he may suit his +Persons. These are Bossu's Notions, and, indeed, very agreeable to +Aristotle, who says, that Persons and Actions in this sort of Poetry must +be feign'd, allegorical, and universal. + +This is the Platform they lay; and let's now see if we can discover the +Reasons whereon they found these Rules, being so unanimous for Fable +rather than true History, as the Matter of an Heroic Poem; and, if I +mistake not, these are some of the principal. + +1. Because they had observ'd the best Models of Heroic Poems were laid +after this manner; the greatest part of the Action both in Homer and +Virgil being pure Fable. Homer beginning, and all the rest following his +Steps. + +2. Because no single Hero, or true History, which the Ancients knew was +sufficient, without Fable, to furnish Matter for an Epic Poem. History, +says Aristotle, treats of particular Things as they really are; Poetry, as +they ought to be; and therefore he prefers Poetry as the more grave and +more instructive; the Poets being forc'd to follow the same Methods with +their Kindred-Art, that of the Painters, and gather a great many Beauties +together, out of 'em all, to steal one Venus. + +3. A third Reason may be, because, supposing they should have found some +one Example from whence to enforce strongly any particular Point of +Morality, yet it would have miss'd those other Characters of Epic, most of +its Agreeableness, and all its Power to raise Admiration. A chast +Historian must not go about to amuse his Reader with Machines; and a Poet +that would imitate him, must have been forc'd to thin his Stage +accordingly, and disband all his glorious Train of Gods and Godesses, +which composes all that's admirable in his Work; according to that of +Boileau; Chaque Virtue devient une divlnitie. + +And these, if I mistake not, were the main Reasons on which the +foremention'd Rules were grounded. Let's now enquire into the Strength and +Validity of them: To begin with Homer, he wrote in that manner, because +most of the ancient Eastern Learning, the Original of all others, was +Mythology. But this being now antiquated, I cannot think we are oblig'd +superstitiously to follow his Example, any more than to make Horses speak, +as he does that of Achilles, 2. If a Poet lights on any single Hero, whose +true Actions and History are as important as any that Fable ever did or +can produce, I see no reason why he may not as well make use of him and +his Example to form the Manners and enforce any Moral Truth, as seek for +one in Fable for that purpose: Nay, he can scarce fail of persuading more +strongly, because he has Truth it self; the other but the Image of Truth, +especially if his History be, in the Third place, of it self diverting and +admirable. If it has from its own Fund, and already made to his hand those +Deorum Ministeria, which cost the Poet so much in the forming 'em out of +his own Brain. Nor can we suppose Fiction it self pleases; no, 'tis the +agreeable and the admirable, in the Dress of Truth; and such a Plan as +this would effectually answer both the Ends of Poetry in general, +delectari & monere, nay come up fuller to the End of Epic, which is +agreeable Instruction; and thence it follows strongly, that a Poem written +in such a manner, must, notwithstanding the foregoing Rules, be a true and +proper Heroic Poem, especially if adorn'd with Poetical Colours and +Circumstances through the whole Body thereof. + +Now that all this is not gratis dictum, I think I can prove, even from +most of those very Authors I've already produc'd, as of the contrary +Opinion; and that I can make it appear, Bossu goes too far in fixing Fable +as the Essential Fund and Soul of the principal Action in an Epic Poem. To +begin with Rapin, who has this Passage, sur la Poetique, Reflex. 5. La +Poesie Heroique, &c. "Heroique Poesie, according to Aristotle, is a +Picture or Imitation of an Heroic Action; and the Qualities of the Action +are, That it ought to be (among others) true, or at least, such as might +pass for true;" Thus he. And hence it follows, according to him and +Aristotle, that the principal Action in Heroic, not only ought to pass for +Truth, but may be really true: For Horace, he does indeed call the Iliads +a Fable; but then he does not oblige his Poet superstitiously to follow +Homer in every thing, owning that he sometimes doats as well as other Men: +Further, this may, and I think does, refer rather to the Dress and Turn of +the Action, than to the Bottom and Ground of his History, which there's at +least as much, if not more reason to believe true than false: And in the +same Sense may we take Petronius and Boileau; nay, if we don't take 'em +thus, I can't tell whether there were ever such a thing as a true Heroic +Poem in the World; not so much as the Fairy-Queen, Gondibert, or Orlando +Furioso; all which have Fable enough in 'em of any reason; but their +principal Actions might be still true, as we are sure was that of the best +Heroic that ever was written; (I need not say I mean Virgil) since few or +no Authors ever deny'd that there was such a Man as AEneas, or even that he +came into Italy, built Cities there, and erected a Kingdom, which Tully +mentions, as a generally receiv'd Tradition in those Parts, and which it +seems he thought not frivolous, but true and solid; otherwise he'd scarce +have given it a place in his Argument for his Client. Of this Opinion too +seems Horace himself, in his Art of Poetry, namely, That there's no +necessity of the principal Action's being feign'd; for his Direction is, +"Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge; Either follow Tradition +or Fame, or else feign what's agreeable thereunto." He makes not feigning +essential to Heroic Action, but gives leave to follow Fame, who is not so +great a Lyar, but that she is sometimes in the right. Nay, what if we +should after all have Bossu himself on our side, which I'm mistaken if he +be not; for these are his Expressions, Lib. 1. Cap. 7. Le Fiction, &c. +"The Fiction may be so disguis'd under the Verity of the History, that +those who are ignorant of the Art of the Poet, may believe it not a +Fiction; and to make the Disguisement well, he ought to search into +History for the Names of some Persons, to whom such an Action has probably +or truly happen'd, &c." Hence 'tis evident, that according to Bossu's own +Notion, the main Action may be true; which appears even from Aristotle +himself, as quoted by him, 97. [Greek: Kan ara] &c. "An Author is not less +a Poet, because the Incidents he recites have truly happen'd; if so be +that which happen'd had the appearance of Truth, and all that Art demands, +and be really such as it ought to have been feign'd." And this Bossu +himself illustrates admirably well by an ingenious Simile; "A Statuary," +says he, "first forms his Design, Posture, Altitudes which he intends for +his Image; but if he then lights on any precious Material, Agate, or such +like, where the Figure, the Colours, and Veins will not be accommodated to +all he design'd, he regulates his Design and Imagination according to his +Matter; nor ought we to believe, at the same time, that these singular +lucky Hits condemn the Justness of his Art." From all which, I must leave +it to the Reader, whether I han't sufficiently prov'd what I've +undertaken; that Fiction is not necessary to the principal Action of our +Heroic Poem; on which I've been something more large, not so much on my +own account; for 'tis indifferent to me by what Name any Man calls my +Poem, so it answers the great End of Epic, which is Instruction; but +because I've heard some Persons have been so conceited as to criticise on +our immortal Cowley for this very reason, and deny his Davideis the Honour +of being an Heroic Poem, because the Subject thereof is a true History. + +And here I should drop the Discourse of Fable, were there not another sort +of Persons still to deal with, perhaps more importunate than the former: +The first will not like a Piece unless 'tis all Fable, or at least the +Foundation of it: These latter run into the contrary extreme, and seam +unwilling or afraid to admit anything of Fable in a Christian Poem; and as +Balzac in his Critics on Heinsius his Baptista, are frighted, as at some +Magical Charm, if they find but one Word there which was made use of by +the old Heathens; which, says he, (unluckily as things have since +happened) is as preposterous as to see Turks wear Hats, and Frenchmen +Turbants; the Flower-de-lis in the Musselmens Colours, or the Half-Moon on +the Standard of France. He's, however, it must be granted, justly angry +with Tasso, as Mr. Dryden since, for setting his Angels and Devils to +stave and tail at one another; Alecto and Pluto on one side, and Gabriel +and Raphael o' t'other; as well as with Sannazarius, for mingling Proteus +and David, and calling the Muses and Nymphs to the Labour of the Blessed +Virgin, Tho' the truth is, the Italian Poets seem more excusable, at least +to a Papist, in this Case, than any other Nation, who parted with as +little of their Idolatry as they could possibly, after they had kept it as +long as they were able, making the Change very easie, and turning their +Pantheon into an All Saints; much like the good Fathers in the Spanish +Conquests in America, who suffer the Natives to keep their Old Idols, so +they'll but pay for 'em, and get 'em christen'd; by this means making many +a good Saint out of a very indifferent Devil. So far, I say, Balzac is +undoubtedly in the right, that Christianity and Heathenism ought not to be +confounded, nor the Pagan Gods mention'd, but as such, in Christian Poems. +Of which Boileau also says, "They should not be Fill'd with the Fictions +of Idolatry;" tho' he tells us just before, + + In vain have our mistaken Authors try'd + Those ancient Ornaments to lay aside. + +As tho' he were afraid lest all Poets shou'd be forc'd to turn Christians, +and yet in the next Lines he thinks it full as bad, + + To fright the Reader in each Line with Hell, + And talk of Satan, Ashtaroth and Bel. + +As tho' he'd have no Christian to be a Poet. And much at the same rate is +Monsieur Balzac very angry with Buchanan, for the same reason; nor will he +by any means let us substitute Belzebub, Asmodeus, and Leviathan, in the +room of Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera, which is, in his Opinion, perfect +Pedantry and Affectation; and is extreamly afraid, lest any of those +Barbarous Hebrew Words should disfigure the purity of the Latin Tongue; +when surely he cou'd not but know, that this pure Latin Tongue it self, +for which he's so much concerned, is nothing but the gradual Corruption or +Barbarizing of the Greek; as that of the Phonician and Hebrew before; and +the Italian, and his own French too, from the Latin afterwards, by the +adulterous mixture of 'tis hard to say how many Languages: So that between +'em, they'd make it impossible for a Christian Poet to write a good Heroic +Poem, or even a Tragedy, on any, but profane Subjects; by taking away all +the Machines, and therein whatever is admirable. No, says Balzac, instead +of those hard Words and proper Names, Appellatives may be chosen, Words +common to all People: As for example, Ill luck instead of the Fates, and +the Foul Fiend for Lucifer; and whether this wou'd not sound extreamly +Heroical, I leave any Man to judge: It being besides certain, that 'tis +singulars and particulars which give an Air of Probability, and the main +Life and Beauty to a Poem, especially of this Nature; without which it +must of necessity sink and languish. However so much of Truth, I must +confess, there is in what he says, that I verily believe Magor-missabib, +or Mahershal-alhashbaz, wou'd scarce yoke decently in one of our +Pentameters, but be near as unquiet and troublesome there, as a Mount +Orgueil it self. Nor can partiality so far blind my Judgment as not to be +my self almost frighted at second hearing of such a thundering Verse, as +Belsamen Ashtaroth Baaltii Ba'al: Which seems as flat Conjuration, as +Zinguebar, Oran, &c. tho' 'tis now too late to amend it. But then there +are other Words or a more soft and treatable Cadence, even in the same +Hebrew Language, especially when mollified by a Latin or Greek form, or +Termination; and such as these one may make use of and let others alone: +though neither is our bolder rougher Tongue so much affrighted at them, as +the French and Latin. + +But Boileau pushes the Objection further, and wou'd make it bear against +the Things as well as Words, persuading himself, + + Our God and Prophets that he sent, + Can't act like those the Poets did invent. + +Tho' he too, is short in History, how excellent soever in Poetry. For +first, the Heathen Poets did not invent the Names of their Gods and +Heroes, but had 'em from Eastern Tradition, and the Phenician and Jewish +Language, tho' deflected and disguis'd after the Greek and other Forms, as +Josephus tells us, which the learned Bochart has proved invincibly; and I +have made some Essay towards it, in my Sixth Book. Nay further, it seems +plain to me, that most, even of their best Fancies and Images, as well as +Names, were borrow'd from the Antient Hebrew Poetry and Divinity, as, were +there room for't, I cou'd, I think, render more than probable, in all the +most celebrated Strokes of Homer, moat of the Heathen Poetical Fables, and +even in Hesiod's blind Theogonia. Their Gods or Devils, which you please, +were not near as Antient as the Hebrews. The Word Satan is as ancient as +Job; nor can they shew us a Pluto within a long while of him. Ashtaroth, +and Astarte, are old enough to be Grandmothers to their Isis, or Venus, +and Bel, of the same standing with Idolatry. Lawful it must certainly be, +to use these very Heathen Gods in Christian, since they were us'd in +sacred Hebrew Poetry, in due place, and in a due manner; Bel boweth down, +Nebo stoopeth, says Isaiah. And what a noble Description has the same +Prophet of the Fall of Lucifer? Nor can I see why it may not be as +convenient and agreeable, as 'tis lawful to transplant 'em from Hebrew +Poetry to our own, if we use 'em as they did. And then for Angels, +Prophets, and Oracles, it wou'd be strange, if they shou'd not strike the +Mind as agreeably when real and true, as the Daemons, or Oracles, or +Prophets of the Heathens, form'd, as has been said, partly from mistaken +Fragments, or Traditions of sacred Story, partly indeed from the Juggles +of the Heathen Priests, and crafty Ambitious Daemons. On the whole, we +have all the Advantages they had, and yet more than they, for Heroic +Poetry in these matters. As for that Question of Boileau's, "What Pleasure +can it be to hear the howlings of repining Lucifer?" I think 'tis easier +to answer than to find out what shew of Reason he had for asking it, or +why Lucifer mayn't howl as pleasantly as either Cerberus, or Enceladus. +And let any one read but his Speech, in Milton's Paradise, almost equall'd +in Mr. Dryden's State of Innocence, and I'm mistaken if he's not of the +same Mind; or if he be not, and it gives him no pleasure, I dare affirm +'tis for want of a true taste of what's really admirable. + +But Boileau comes to a stronger Objection, both against the Names and use +of these Daemons, by way of Machine, I mean, in Christian Poetry; + + The Mysteries we Christians must believe + Disdain such shifting Pageants to receive. + +Thus has his Translator turn'd him; and taking it in that Sence, the +meaning must be, that it disgraces Christianity, to mix its Mysteries with +Stories of Daemons, Angels, &c. But sure it can never be any disgrace, to +represent it really as it is, with the frequent Intervention of those +invisible and powerful Agents, both good and evil, in the Affairs of +Mankind, which our Saviour has both asserted and demonstrated in his +Gospel, both by Theory and Practice: Whence we learn, that there are +really vast numbers of these Spirits, some tempting, or tormenting, others +guarding and protecting Mortals: Nay, a subordination too among them, and +that they are always vigilant, some for our Destruction, others for our +Preservation, and that, as it seems, of every individual Man; and if this +be true in general, I'm sure 'tis probable In particular: Nor can it be +any disgrace to Christianity, to apply general Probabilities to particular +Cases, or to mention these Daemons in Poetry any more than in Divinity. + +But indeed the Translator has here mended Boileau's Thought, or at least +made it more plausible and defensible, tho he has miss'd his Sence; for +these are his Lines: + + De la foi d'une Christien les Mysteres terribles + D' Ornemens egayes ne sont point susceptibles. + +The plain English of which, I think is, "That the terrible Mysteries of +the Christian Faith, are not at all susceptible of these gayer Ornaments." +I'll not be too Critical here, tho' methinks its but an odd sort of Gayety +that's to be found in Tales of Hell; agreeable, I own, the most dreadful +thing nay be, if well manag'd in Poetry, but he can hardly ever make 'em +gay without a yery strong Catachresis. But tho' we let that pass, so must +not what follows, wherein he further explains his Notion. L'Evangile, +&c. + + The Gospel offers nothing to our Thoughts + But Penitence and Punishment for Faults. + +To which it may be first said, that supposing this true, and the Gospel +did present nothing else, yet why mayn't Angels be us'd in it, to warn +Sinners to that Repentance which we know they so much rejoyce in; or +Devils, to punish and torment the Guilty and Impious; as in the Case of +Sceva's Son, and others. But yet further, as to the assertion it self, +I know not what their Gospel offers, nor I believe are they better +acquainted with what ours does; but we are sure 'tis far enough from being +such a dismal melancholy thing as they represent it, since Immortality and +Life are brought to light therein. We know that it gives us the noblest +Examples, the most divine Law, the strongest, yet justest Passions, the +most glorious Combats, and Friendships, and Sufferings, such as neither +History or Fable cou'd ever yet equal. It shews us a God really +Descending, disrob'd indeed of all his more dazling and insupportable +Glories, as our Divine Herbert; but yet clothed with what has more of true +Divinity, with Humility, and Charity, and Patience, and Meekness, and +Innocence. Here's War, here's Love indeed; such as never was besides, or +will be more. He lov'd our Dust and Clay, and even for us, single +encounter'd all the Powers of Darkness, and yet more, his Almighty +Father's anger. But I'll go no farther, lest the Reader should think I +forget where I am. I must return to Boileau, whose strongest Objection is +yet behind; Et de vos Fictions, &c. + + And mingling Falshood with those Mysteries + Wou'd make our sacred Truths appear like Lies. + +But I hope the Critic knew, that there is a fair difference between a mere +Fiction, or Falshood, and an Instructive Parable or Fable, on one side, or +a few more lively Poetical Colours on the other. To mingle Falshoods, or +dull Legendary Fictions, without either Life or Soul in 'em, with our +Saviour's Blessed Gospel, may make 'em, in some Sence, superiour to it: +This wou'd indeed incline an Italian to be of the same Faith with his +Countryman, that 'twas all Fabula Christi, in the worst Sence of the Word: +But certainly expressing the Truth in Parables, and mingling these with +the Mysteries of the Gospel, can't be thought to give it an Air of +Fiction: nor dare any affirm it does so, without Blasphemy, since our +Saviour has so often done it. Nor only these but deeper Allegories are +thought to be made use of in the Christian Religion; for Example, the +Throne and Temple of God in the Revelations, and the Description of the +New Jerusalem, with all its Gates and Foundations of Sapphires and +Emeralds, and that lovely Scheme of Trees and Rivers, worthy a Paradise: +All this, I say, will scarcely be granted literal, and consequently must +be all an Allegory; alluding partly to the Old Jewish Church and Temple, +partly to Ezekiel's Visionary Representation and Prophetical Paradise. Nor +can it, I think, be justly reckoned more criminal, where we have any great +instructive Example, which has been real matter of Fact, to expatiate +thereon; adding suitable and proper Circumstances and Colours to the +whole, especially when the History it self is but succinctly Related, and +the Heads of things only left us. And this some great Man have thought was +the Method of the Holy Pen-man himself, whoever he were, in that lovely +antient Poem of Job; which, that 't was at the bottom a real History, few +but Atheists deny; and yet 'tis thought some Circumstances might be +amplified in the account we have left us, particularly the long Speeches +between that Great Man and his Friends; tho' the main hinges of the +Relation, his Person, Character, and Losses, the malice of the Devil, the +behaviour of his Wife and Friends, nay even the Substance of their +Discourses, as well as of that between God and him, and the wonderful Turn +of his Affairs soon after: All this might, and did, truly happen. Or, if +any amplification should be here deny'd, does not the Divine however every +day, Paraphrase and Expatiate upon the Words of his Text, inverting their +Method as he sees occasion, and yet is still thought unblameable. All the +difference is, that he delivers what's probable, as only probable; whereas +the Nature of Poetry requires, that such probable Amplifications as these, +be wrought into the main Action, in such a manner, as if they had really +happen'd; and without this, a Man might Ryme long enough, but ne'er cou'd +make a Poem, any more than this would have been one, had I begun with, +Abraham begat Isaac, and so tagg'd on to the end of all the fourteen +Generations, much as Nonnus has done with St. John, and yet often miss'd +his Sence too, as Heinsius judges. + +But enough of Fable, and of those who would either reduce all Heroic +Poetry unto it, or absolutely banish it thence. + +Next the Fable of Epics, the Poem is to be considered; which, after Bossu, +is the other part of its general Nature, and shews the manner of handling +it, comprehending Thoughts, Expressions and Verses; of which there need +not much be said, since they are obvious to every Reader. The Thoughts +must be clear and just, and noble, and the Diction or Expression suited to +them. The chief Difficulty, as Rapin observes, is to keep up the Sublime, +which Virgil has done admirably, even in the meanest Subjects; and which +Aristotle thinks may be best done by the judicious use of Metaphors. There +ought to meet, according to him, Proportion in the Design, Justness in the +Thoughts, and Exactness in the Expression, to constitute an accomplish'd +Heroic Poem; and the great Art of Thought and Expression lies in this, +that they be natural and proper without Meanness, and sublime without a +vitious Swelling and Affectation. + +The Matter is next in an Heroic Poem, which must be one important Action; +it must be important, Res gestae Regumque Ducumque, with Horace. "It only +speaks of Kings and Princes," says Rapin, by which he must mean that it +chiefly and principally turns upon them: for both Virgil and Homer have +occasion for Traitors, and Cryers, and Beggars, nay even Swineherds (in +the Odysses), and yet still more, of whole Armies, which can't be all +compos'd of Kings and Princes. However, the more there is of these lower +Walks in the Plan of a Design, the less Heroic it must appear, even in the +Hands of the greatest Genius in Nature. Such a Genius, I think, was +Homer's, and yet the Truth of this Assertion will be plain to any who +compares his Odysses with his Iliads; where he'll find, if 'tis not for +want of Judgment, in the latter a very different Air from the former, in +many places much more dead and languishing, and this which I have given, +seems one probable Reason on't; not excluding that of Longinus, that Homer +was then grown old, and besides too much of the Work was spent in +Narration; to which may be added, that he here design'd a wise and prudent +rather than a brave and fighting Hero, having wrought off most of the Edg +and Fury of his Youthful Spirit and Fury in Achilles, as in Ulysses he +express'd more of Age and Judgment. + +This Action must be one and uniform: the Painture of one Heroic Action, +says Rapin from Aristotle. It must be, as Bossu from Horace, simplex +duntaxat & unum, that is, the principal Action on which the whole Work +moves ought to be one, otherwise the whole will be confus'd; tho' there +may be many Episodic Actions without making what Aristotle calls an +Episodic Poem, which is, where the Actions are not necessarily or not +probably link'd to each other, and of such an irregular multiplication of +Actions and Incidents. Bossu instances very pleasantly in Statius's +Achilleid; but he tells us there's also a regular and just Multiplication, +without which 'twere impossible to find matter for so large a Poem, when +as before it's so ordered that the Unity of the whole is not broken, and +consequently divers Incidents it has bound together are not to be +accounted different Actions and Fables, but only different Parts not +finish'd, or entire of one Action or Fable entire or finished: and, +agreeable to this Doctrine, Rapin blames Lucan's Episodes as too +far-fetch'd, over-scholastic, and consisting purely of speculative +Disputes on natural Causes whenever they came in his way, not being link'd +with the main Action, nor flowing naturally from it, nor tending to its +Perfection. + +And in this Action, the Poet ought, as Rapin tells us, to invert the +natural Order of things, not to begin with his Hero in the Cradle, and +write his Annals instead of an Epic Poem, as Statius in his Achilleid, the +Reason of which seems plain, because this would look more like History +than Poetry. It's more agreeable, more natural, in some Sence, to be here +unnatural; to bring in, by way of Recitation or Narration, what was first +in order of time, at some distance from that time when it really happened, +which makes the whole look unlike a dull formal Story, and gives more +scope for handsome Turns and the Art of the writer. Another Reason why a +whole Life is not ordinarily a proper Subject for Epics, is, because many +trivial Accidents must be therein recited; but if a Life can be found in +which is nothing but what's diverting and wonderful, tending besides to +the perfecting the main Action, and the Order of time revers'd in the +whole, the Case would be so much altered, that I think their Rules would +not hold. + +For the Form of Epic, which comes next in view, 'tis agreed on all Hands +to be Recitation or Narration. Bossu says, The Persons are not at all to +be introduced before the Eyes of the Spectators, acting by themselves +without the Poet; not that he'd hereby exclude the Poet from introducing +the persons telling their own Story, or some one of them that of the +principal Hero: for great part of Epic is thus far Dramatic. And thus +Virgil manages his second and third Books by way of Recitation, and that +by his Hero himself, making him give Dido a long account of the Wars of +Troy, and his own Actions, tho' thereby he falls into the Impropriety of +commending himself, with a--sum pius AEneas. Vida takes the same way of +Recitation, wherein he employs two or three of his six Books; and Milton +follows them both, tho' less naturally than either; for he introduces our +Saviour, in his Paradise regain'd, repeating a great part of his own Life +in Soliloquy, which way of Discourse includes, in a Wise Man especially, +so much of Calmness and deep Reflection, that it seems improper for the +great and noble Turn required in such a Work, unless in describing a +Passion, where it may be more lively. All that they mean by not +introducing the Parties, is not doing it as in a Tragedy: they are not to +be brought in abruptly to tell their own Tale from the beginning, without +the appearing Help of the Poet, as Actors in a true and proper Drama. And +this Narration, says Rapin, should be simple and natural; but the greatest +difficulty is, not to let its Simplicity appear, lest it thence grow +disagreeable, and the chiefest Art in this, consists in its Transitions, +and all the delicate surprising Turns, which lead the Reader from one +thing to another without his thinking whither he's going, or perceiving +any Breach or so much as a passage between 'em; after all, the more Action +there is in Epic, still the more Life there will be. A Poet may, I find, +easily fall into Poorness of Thought by aiming too much at the Probability +and neglecting the Admirable; whereby he loses that agreeableness which is +a mixture of both. He ought then to take more care than some have done, +not to keep himself too long behind the Scenes, and trust the Narration +with another, which, without a great deal of Art and Pains, will take off +much of the Life of the Work, as Longinus has already formerly observed. + +And here come in the Qualities of Narration, mentioned in our Definition, +that it ought to be done in a manner probable, agreeable, and admirable; +'tis rendered probable by its Simplicity and Singularity, and admirable by +the Grandeur of the Subject, the Figures and Machines, or [Greek: theoi +apo mechanes], much more lawful here than in the Drama's; and lastly +agreeable, as has been said, by a mixture of both. + +The last thing in our Definition, is, the End of Epic, indeed the first +and principal which ought to be intended, and that's Instruction, not +only, as Rapin thinks, of great Men, but of all, as in Virgil's Scheme, +which we have already described; and, this either by the principal Moral +aim'd at in the whole, or the Manners of particular Persons. Of Fable and +Moral, I've already discours'd, and whether be the more lively and +probable way to instruct, by that or History. But here it may be worth the +while to enquire, whether the principal Hero in Epic ought to be virtuous? +Bossu thinks not, the manners being formed as well by seeing Errors as +Beauties in the chief Actors; but yet methinks it seems too much to form a +Hero that's a perfect Almanzor, with not one spark of Vertue, and only +remarkable for his extraordinary Strength and little Brains; such was +certainly Homer's Achilles, of whom I think the Father was in the right +when he observes, the Poet makes him not do one brave or virtuous Action, +all the while he lies before the Town: whereas Virgil's Hero, is, to tell +truth, an indifferent good Heathen, and, bating one or two slips, comes up +pretty well to his own good word. The same however may be said for Homer, +which our present Dramatists plead for their Excuse; that he copied his +Hero from those who were esteemed such in the barbarous Age in which he +liv'd, + + Impiger, iracundus, inexorabllis, acer, + Jura neget sibi nata, &c. + +Made up of Lewdness, Love, and Fighting: who, had he liv'd in our Days, +would have made an excellent Town Bully, I wish there were not too much +reason to say a modish Gentleman. But tho' old Homer took this way, +Virgil, who writes with much more Judgment and Exactness, and follows him +in many things, here thought fit to leave him; making his Hero, as I've +said, not only brave and prudent, but for the most part virtuous. Which +would much better form the manners of his Reader, than if they were set to +spell out Instruction from contraries, as Homer has done. Whence it +follows, the more virtuous a Hero is, the better; since he more +effectually answers the true end of Epics. After all, Rapin says, the +chief Excellency of an Heroic Poem consists in the just proportion of the +Parts; that perfect Union, just Agreement, and admirable Relation, which +the Parts of this great Work bear one towards another; and blames Tasso +for mingling all the Sweetness and Delicacy of Eclogues and Lyricks, with +the Force of an Heroic Poem. But I should think him mistaken here, and +that this is not the meaning of Aristotles [Greek: analogon]. For if we +allow not such a pleasing Variety, how shall we excuse even Virgil +himself, who has his Dido, as well a Tasso his Armida and Erminia? nay, +how shall we manage Love? which is usually one great Episode of Heroic, if +not with something of Delicacy. I grant Love ought to have a different Air +in different sorts of Poems; but still if it be natural it must have +something of Softness; and for his Enchanted Forrest, which this severe +Critic also blames, I believe there's few who read that part of his Work, +who would willingly have it omitted, for the sake of a fancied Regularity, +any more than they would part with Mr. Dryden's Improvement on't in his +King Arthur. However, if it be a fault, 'tis strange so many who have been +Masters of the greatest Genius should unanimously fall into it; as Ovid in +his Palace of Circe, Ariosto in that of Alcina, and Spencer in his +Acasia's Bower of Bliss, and several others, who have taken the same +Method. I should therefore rather think that this beautiful and marvellous +Analogy which Aristotle requires as the best thing in Epic, relates rather +to the Harmony and Agreement of the Parts with the Whole; so that there +appears no Fracture or Contradiction, the different Parts, tho' much +unlike, yet all together making one beautiful Figure and uniform Variety. + +And thus much of the Definition of Epic, containing the main Rules +thereof, by which the Reader may be able to form a Judgment of this, or +any other Heroic Poem: Especially if to these Rules be added some Examples +to render them more plain. In order to which, I desire to express my +Thoughts freely of other Poems, as I must expect every one will do of +mine, always observing that piece of Justice, never to find fault, without +taking notice of some Beauty to ballance it, and giving, where I can find +it, the better Judgment of other Persons as well as my own. Concluding all +with a brief Account of my own Work. + +To begin then with Grandsire Homer, this may be added to the particular +Remarks that have been already made. I think none will deny but the +Disposition of his Iliads, is so truly admirable, so regular, and exact, +that one would be apt to think he wrote his Poem by Aristotle's Rules, and +not Aristotle his Rules by his Poem. I confess, I once thought that he had +been oblig'd to his Commentators for most of the Beauties they celebrated +in him; but I am now, on a nearer view, so well satisfied to the contrary, +that I can ne'er think his Poem writ by piece-meal, without any Connexion +or Dependance: wherein Dionysius the Halicarnassian very justly praises +the Order and Management of the Design, as well as the Grandeur and +Magnificence of the Expression, and the sweet and passionate Movements. +Nor is it without Reason that Horace, Longinus, and all Antiquity have +given him, as the Model of just and noble Sentiments and Expressions. +I must confess there's something in his Numbers that strikes me more than +even Virgil's, his Thoughts and Expressions appear stronger than his, tho' +it cannot be denied but that Virgil's Design is much more regular. Rapin +says a great deal of that Prince of the Latin Poets, tho' indeed he can +never say enough, "He had an admirable Taste, says he, of what's natural, +an excellent Judgment for the Order, and an incomparable Delicacy for the +Number and Harmony of his Versification." And adds, "That the Design of +the Poem is, if we consider it in all its Circumstances, the most +judicious and best-laid that ever was or ever will be." There is indeed a +prodigious Variety in Virgil, and yet the same Soul visible in every Line. +His own great Spirit informs his Poetical World, and like that he speaks +of, + + ---- totos infusa per Artus + Mens agitat Molem, & magno se corpora miscet. + +He's soft with the height of Majesty, his Marcellus, his Dido, and, I +think, above all, his Elegy on Pallas is very noble and tender. The joints +so strong and exactly wrought, the Parts so proportionable, the Thoughts +and Expression so great, the Complements so fine and just, that I could +ne'er endure to read Statius, or any of the rest of the Antient Latins +after him; with whom therefore I shan't concern my self nor trouble my +Reader. Ariosto was the first of the Moderns who attempted any thing like +an Heroic Poem, and has many great and beautiful Thoughts; but at the same +time, 'tis true, as Balzac observes, that you can hardly tell whether he's +a Christian or an Heathen, making God swear by Styx, and using all the +Pagan Ornaments; his Fancy very often runs away with his Judgment, his +Action is neither one nor simple, nor can you imagine what he drives at; +he has an hundred Hero's but you can't tell which he designs should be +chief: Orlando indeed seems a wild Imitation of Homer's Achilles, but his +Character is not bright enough to make him the Principal; and besides he +orders it so, that he does more great Actions when he's mad then when +sober. Agreeable to this are Rapin's thoughts of him, which, in few words, +are "That he's elevated and admirable in his Expressions, his Descriptions +fine, but that he wants Judgment; and speaks well, but thinks ill, and +that tho' the Parts are handsome enough, yet the whole Work can by no +means pass for an Epic Poem, he having never seen the Rules of Aristotle;" +which he thinks Tasso had, and therefore wrote much better, whom he +commends as more correct in his Design, more regular in the ordering his +Fable, and more accomplish'd in all parts of his Poem than any other of +the Italians, whom yet he justly blames, because he has two Hero's +Godfredo and Rinaldo, of whom Godfredo seems the principal, and yet +Rinaldo performs the greatest part of the notable Actions. He seems to +imitate Agamemnon and Achilles, but then he raises his Agamemnon too high, +or keeps him too low, for he hardly lets him do one great Action through +the whole Work. He further criticises upon him as mingling too much +Gallantry with his Poem, which, he thinks, is unbecoming the Gravity of +his Subject. But whether this Censure be just, I know not, for Love and +Gallantry runs through all Virgil's AEneids, in the Instances of Helen, +Dido, and Lavinia, and indeed it gives so great a Life to Epic, that it +hardly can be agreeable without it, and I question whether ever it has +been so. Nor is he more just, I think, against Tasso's Episodes, which he +blames as not proper to circumstantiate his principal Action, not entring +into the Causes and Effects thereof, but seeking too much to please, tho' +I think this Charge is unjust, for 'tis in his Episodes, if any where, +that Tasso is admirable. I might here give several Instances, but shall, +at present, only refer my Reader to that of Tancred and Erminia, and I'm +mistaken if he does not dissent from Rapin in this particular. Sannazarius +and Vida were the next who did any thing remarkable in Epic; they both +writ in Latin on the same Subject, both Christian Heroics; Rapin says they +both had a good Genius for Latin, the Purity of their Style being +admirable, but that their ordering of the Fable has nothing in't of +Delicacy, nor is the manner of their Writing proportionable to the dignity +of the Subject. For Sannazarius he's indeed so faulty, that one can hardly +with Patience read him, the whole Structure of his imperfect Piece, de +partu, being built on Heathen Fable; yet he has great and vigorous +Thoughts and very Poetical Expressions, tho' therein Vida far excels him, +whose Thoughts are so noble, and the Air of his Stile so great, that the +Elogy Balzac gives his Countryman Tasso, wou'd as well or rather better +have fitted him; "That Virgil is the Cause, Vida is not the first; and +Vida, that Virgil is not alone." It is true, as Rapin observes, that his +Fable is very simple, and perhaps so much the better, considering the +Subject; tho' he forgets not Poetical Ornaments, where there's occasion, +if he does not lean a little to Sannazarius's Error; for he talks of the +Gorgons and Sphinxes, the Centaurs and Hydra's and Chimera's, though much +more sparingly and modestly than the other. He has the happiest beginning +that perhaps is to be found in any Poem, and by mingling his Proposition +and Invocation, has the advantage of placing one of the noblest Thoughts +in the World in the first Line, without danger of falling into the +absurdity of Horace's Author with his Fortunam Priami: For thus he sings, + + Qui mare, qui terras, qul coelum numine comples + Spiritus alme, &c. + +After the Invocation, in the very beginning of the Poem, he's preparing +the Incidents for his Hero's Death; he brings him to Jerusalem at the +Passover with Hosanna's; then raises his Machines, and falls to the +Description of Hell. He through the whole, uses his Figures very +gracefully; few have been more happy in Comparisons, more moving in +Passion, succinct, yet full in Narration: Yet is he not without Faults; or +in the second Book he brings him to his last Supper in the Garden, from +thence before Caiaphas and Pilate; which too much precipitates the main +Action: Besides, it seems harsh and improbable to bring in S. John, and +Joseph, our Saviour's reputed Father, as he does in the Third and Fourth +Book, giving Pilate an account of his Life; not to insist on the general +Opinion, that Joseph was not then alive. But notwithstanding these few +failures, it can't be deny'd, that his Description of our Saviour's +Passion in the Fourth Book, is incomparably fine; the disturbance among +the Angels on that occasion; his Character of Michael, and the Virgins +Lamentation under the Cross, and at the Sepulchre, are inimitable. And +thus much for Vida, on whom I've been more large because I've often made +use of his Thoughts in this following Work; his Poem being the most +complete on that Subject I've ever seen or expect to see. And here han't +the English more reason to complain of Rapin, that he takes no notice of +their Heroic Poems, than Lupez Viga of Tasso, for not mentioning the +Spaniards at the Siege of Jerusalem: but since he has been so partial, as +not to take any notice of our Writers, who sure as much deserve it as +their Dubartas and Ronsard; we may have liberty to speak of our own, and +to do 'em Justice: To begin with Spencer, who I think comes the nearest +Ariosto of any other; he's almost as Irregular, but much more Natural and +Lovely: But he's not only Irregular but Imperfect too, I mean, as to what +he intended; and therefore we can't well imagine what it wou'd have been, +had he liv'd to complete it. If Fable be the Essence of Epic, his Fairy +Queen had certainly enough of that to give it that Name. He seems, by the +account he gives of it to Sir Walter Rawleigh, to have design'd one +Principal Hero King Arthur, and one main important Action bringing him to +his Throne; but neither of these appear sufficiently distinct, or well +defin'd, being both lost in the vast Seas of Matter which compose those +Books which are finish'd. This however must be granted, the Design was +Noble, and required such a comprehensive Genius as his, but to draw the +first Sketch of it: And as the Design, so the Thoughts are also very +great, the Expressions flowing natural and easie, with such a prodigious +Poetical Copia as never any other must expect to enjoy. Gondibert methinks +wants Life; the Style is rather stiff than Heroic, and has more of Statius +than Virgil; one may see every where a great deal of Art, and Pains, and +Regularity, even to a fault; nor is a Genius wanting, but it's so +unnatural, that an ingenious Person may find much more pleasure in reading +a worse Poet. Besides, his Stanza's often cramp the Sence, and injure many +a noble Thought and Passion. But Mr. Cowley's Davideis is the Medium +between both; it has Gondibert's Majesty without his stiffness, and +something of Spencer's Sweetness and Variety, without his Irregularity: +Indeed all his Works are so admirable, that another Cowley might well be +employ'd in giving them their just Elogy. His Hero is according to the +ancient Model, truly Poetical, a mixture of some Faults and greater +Virtues. He had the advantage of both Love and Honour for his Episodes, +nay, and Friendship too, and that the noblest in History. He had all the +sacred History before him, and liberty to chuse where he pleased, either +by Narration or Prophecy; nor has he, as far as he has gone, neglected any +advantage the Subject gave him. Its a great Loss to the World that he left +the Work unfinish'd, since now he's dead, its always like to continue so. +As for Milton's Paradise Lost its an Original, and indeed he seems rather +above the common Rules of Epic than ignorant of them. Its I'm sure a very +lovely Poem, by what ever Name it's call'd, and in it he has many Thoughts +and Images, greater than perhaps any either in Virgil or Homer. The +Foundation is true History, but the turn is Fable: The Action is very +Important, but not uniform; for one can't tell which is the Principal in +the Poem, the Wars of the Angels or the Fall of Man, nor which is the +Chief Person Michael or Adam. Its true, the former comes in as an Episode +to the latter, but it takes up too great a part thereof, because its +link'd to it. His Discourse of Light is incomparable; and I think 'twas +worth the while to be blind to be its Author. His Description of Adam and +Eve, their Persons and Love, is almost too lively to bear reading: Not but +that he has his inequalities and repetitions, the latter pretty often, as +have, more or less, all other Poets but Virgil. For his antique Words I'm +not like to blame him whoever does: And for his blank Verse, I'm of a +different mind from most others, and think they rather excuse his +uncorrectness than the contraries; for I find its easier to run into it, +in that sort of Verse, than in Rhyming Works where the Thought is oftner +turned; whereas here the Fancy flows on, without check or controul. As for +his Paradise Regain'd, I nothing wonder that it has not near the Life of +his former Poem, any more than the Odysses fell short of the Iliads. +Milton, when he writ this, was grown Older, probably poorer: He had not +that scope for Fable, was confin'd to a lower Walk, and draws out that in +four Books which might have been well compriz'd in one: Notwithstanding +all this, there are many strokes which appear truly his; as the Mustring +of the Parthian Troops, the Description of Rome by the Devil to our +Saviour, and several other places. + +And now I've done with all the rest, I may take liberty to say something +of my own. + +For the Subject I dare stand by it, that 'tis fit for a better Heroic +Poem than any ever was, or will be made; and that if a good Poem cou'd not +be made on't, it must be either from the weakness of the Art itself, or +for want of a good Artist. I don't say the Subject with all its +Circumstances is the best for Epic, but considered in it self, or with a +prudent choice out of the vast Field of Matter which it affords. + +The Action is Important, if ever any was, being no less than the +Redemption of the World, which was not accomplish'd till after our +Saviours Death and Resurrection. The Ascension I confess should be left +out, according to the common Rules of Heroick Poetry, but I had not the +same reason of omitting it, as others have for not coming to the End of +their History, a little short of which they generally stop, because after +the main Business is over, nothing great remains, or however not greater +than has already past. And if any thing mean followed, the Reader wou'd +leave off dissatisfied. But I've as great and remarkable an Action, as any +in the whole story, yet upon my Hands, and which if I had omitted, I had +lost many very moving Incidents that follow'd the Resurrection; and +besides, Vida before me, has carry'd it yet further, to the actual Descent +of the Holy Ghost on the Disciples, and the spreading the Christian Name +all the World over; which I have done only in Prophecy. + +The Action is I think uniform, because all the Episodes are part of the +main Action, the Redemption of the World; to which his Incarnation, and +Divine Conception were absolutely necessary, and so were his Holy Life, +Doctrine, Miracles, and especially his Sufferings and Agonies. My +principal Hero was perfect, yet imitable, and that both in active and +contemplative Life. He leaves his own Kingdom to save and conquer another, +endures the greatest hardships, is reduc'd to the lowest ebb, nay is at +last forc'd to suffer Death it self. Yet after all, he emerges from his +Misfortunes, conquers all his Enemies, fixes Laws, establishes Religion, +Peace, and his own Empire, and is advanced higher than any Conquerer ever +was before him. + +The other Persons are Heroical enough, Angels, Kings, High Priests, +Governours, Councellors, nay even the Apostles themselves were more than +Kings, for they were thought and call'd Gods by the People. The Moral I +find not make it, in a true Example, which others are forced to Form in +Fable; "That we ought to do Good, to suffer evil, submit to the Divine +Will; to venture or lose a Life for a Friend; to forgive our Enemies." + +Yet further I desire to recommend the whole of the Christian Religion; all +the Articles of Faith; all that System of Divinity and Morality contain'd +in the Gospel of the Blessed Jesus, to the Study and Practice of Persons +of Ingenuity and Reason; to make his Divine Person, which is already +infinitely Amiable, if possible, actually more Ador'd and Lov'd; and to +Vindicate his Mission, his Satisfaction, and his Divinity, against all +Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics; which sure are the most proper Ends +that can be propos'd in a Work of this Nature: Which may be agreeably and +admirably done, if 'tis not the Poets fault; for here's all the marvellous +that cou'd be wished for, already done to my Hand, and all sacredly True, +Angels and Demons, and Miracles, with Voices from Heaven. + +Now the Subject being so fit for a good Heroic Poem, I shall have the less +excuse, if this be a bad one. And here I must ingenuously confess, I had +seen none of these Rules given by the Masters of Epic, when I laid the +Scheme of this Poem, tho I wish I had, for I might probably then have done +it better, or not at all. I knew not the hazard of the undertaking, but +greedily embrac'd it, when first propos'd by some Friends, who were +ignorant of what they put me upon. Being full of the Design wherein, the +earnest desire I had to see it accomplish'd, and either a lucky Chance, or +the Happiness of my Subject, may perhaps in some Instances, have supply'd +the want both of Rules and Genius. All I will say of my own performance +is, that I now know the Faults on't, tho I am not oblig'd to point 'em out +to my Reader, who will but too soon find 'em. That I wou'd have mended +much that's now amiss, had I lived in an Age where a man might afford to +be Nine or Ten Years about a Poem. And in the Mean time this satisfies me, +whatever is the success, that I've done all that cou'd be done by one in +my Circumstances towards the rendering it more compleat and free from +Faults, and only wish that my own Reputation may suffer, by the weakness +of the Work, and not the Dignity of the Subject. + +I cou'd plead for my self what Longinus says on Works of this Nature, +wou'd it not look like Arrogance, "That even the greatest Genius may +sometimes sink into meanness, when the force of their Spirits is once +exhausted: That its very difficult for height of Thought to sustain it +self long in an equal Tenour; and that some Faults ought to be excused +when there are more Beauties." But if none of these will pass, I hope it +will not much mortifie me, since I think the World and I have no great +matter to do with one another. I'm sensible my Poem wou'd have had fewer +Enemies, had I left out some Passages in't. But as mean as the worst of +this are, I wou'd not buy their good Word at such a rate. I had almost +forgot to mention the Gravers Work, which is not without Faults, +particularly he has err'd in the Posture of the Disciples at the last +Supper, whom he has made Sitting, when they were really Declining, or +Discumbent. But its now more than time to conclude my long Preface, which +I shall do in few Words. Since the chief Design in this Work, is to +advance the Honour of my Hero, and next to that, the entertainment of +Pious and ingenious Minds; for the truth of which, I hope I may appeal to +the great [Greek: kritikos tes kardias]; I shall not be much concern'd for +the success it may meet with in the World. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry +(1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697), by Samuel Wesley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EPISTLE TO A FRIEND *** + +***** This file should be named 16506.txt or 16506.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/0/16506/ + +Produced by Charles M. 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