in point of constitution, genius, and disposition. [tion, and enthusiasm. Imitation is indeed the ba Athens was a free state like England, that piqued sis of all the liberal arts; invention and enthusiasm itself upon the influence of the democracy. Like constitute genius, in whatever manner it may be England, its wealth and strength depended upon displayed. Eloquence of all sorts admits of enthu its maritime power: and it generally acted as um-siasm. Tully says, an orator should be vehemens pire in the disputes that arose among its neigh- ut procella, excitatus ut torrens, incensus ut fulbours. The people of Athens, like those of Eng-men; tonat, fulgurat, et rapidis eloquentiæ flucland, were remarkably ingenious, and made great tibus cuncta proruit et proturbat. "Violent as a progress in the arts and sciences. They excelled tempest, impetuous as a torrent, and glowing inin poetry, history, philosophy, mechanics, and tense like the red bolt of heaven, he thunders, manufactures; they were acute, discerning, dis- lightens, overthrows, and bears down all before putatious, fickle, wavering, rash, and combustible, him, by the irresistible tide of eloquence." This and, above all other nations in Europe, addicted to is the mens divinior atque os magna sonaturum ridicule; a character which the English inherit in of Horace. This is the talent, a very remarkable degree. -Meum qui pectus inaniter angit, Ut magus. With passions not my own who fires my heart; As with a magic influence possess'd. We are told, that Michael Angelo Buonaroti used to work at his statues in a fit of enthusiasm, during which he made the fragments of the stone fly about him with surprising violence. The celebrated Lully being one day blamed for setting nothing to music but the languid verses of Quinault, was animated with the reproach, and running in a fit of enthusiasm to his harpsichord, sung in recitative, and accompanied four pathetic lines from the Iphigenia of Racine, with such expression as filled the hearers with astonishment and horror. If we may judge from the writings of Aristophanes, his chief aim was to gratify the spleen and excite the mirth of his audience; of an audience too, that would seem to have been uninformed by taste, and altogether ignorant of decorum; for his pieces are replete with the most extravagant absurdities, virulent slander, impiety, impurities, and low buffoonery. The comic muse, not contented with being allowed to make free with the gods and philosophers, applied her scourge so severely to the magistrates of the commonwealth, that it was thought proper to restrain her within bounds by a law, enacting, that no person should be stigmatized under his real name; and thus the chorus was silenced. In order to elude the penalty of this law, and gratify the taste of the people, the poets began to substitute fictitious names, under which they exhibited particular characters in such lively colours, Though versification be one of the criteria that that the resemblance could not possibly be mistaken distinguish poetry from prose, yet it is not the sole or overlooked. This practice gave rise to what is mark of distinction. Were the histories of Polycalled the middle comedy, which was but of short bius and Livy simply turned into verse, they would duration; for the legislature, perceiving that the first not become poems; because they would be destilaw had not removed the grievance against which tute of those figures, embellishments, and flights it was provided, issued a second ordinance, forbid- of imagination, which display the poet's art and ding, under severe penalties, any real or family oc- invention. On the other hand, we have many procurrences to be represented. This restriction was ductions that justly lay claim to the title of poetry, the immediate cause of improving comedy into a without having the advantage of versification; witgeneral mirror, held forth to reflect the various fol-ness the Psalms of David, the Song of Solomon, lies and foibles incident to human nature; a species with many beautiful hymns, descriptions, and of writing called the new comedy, introduced by rhapsodies, to be found in different parts of the Diphilus and Menander, of whose works nothing Old Testament, some of them the immediate probut a few fragments remain. ESSAY XV. duction of divine inspiration; witness the Celtic fragments which have lately appeared in the English language, and are certainly replete with poeti cal merit. But though good versification alone will not constitute poetry, bad versification alone will certainly degrade and render disgustful the subHAVING Communicated our sentiments touching limest sentiments and finest flowers of imagination. the origin of poetry, by tracing tragedy and comedy This humiliating power of bad verse appears in to their common source, we shall now endeavour many translations of the ancient poets; in Ogilby's to point out the criteria by which poetry is distin- Homer, Trapp's Virgil, and frequently in Creech's guished from every other species of writing. In Horace. This last indeed is not wholly devoid common with other arts, such as statuary and paint- of spirit; but it seldom rises above mediocrity, and, ing, it comprehends imitation, invention, composi- 'as Horace says, --Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non Di, non concessere columnæ. But God and man, and letter'd post denies, How is that beautiful ode, beginning with Justum et tenacem propositi virum, chilled and tamed by the following translation: He who by principle is sway'd, In truth and justice still the same, Is neither of the crowd afraid, Though civil broils the state inflame; Nor to a raging storm, when all the winds are up. Should nature with convulsions shake, Struck with the fiery bolts of Jove, Can not his constant courage move. mend and melt the heart, elevate the mind, and Aut prodesse volunt, aut delectare poetæ ; Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci, Profit and pleasure mingled thus with art, Tropes and figures are likewise liberally used in rhetoric and some of the most celebrated orators have owned themselves much indebted to the poets. Theophrastus expressly recommends the poets for this purpose. From their source, the spirit and energy of the pathetic, the sublime, and the beautiThat long Alexandrine-"Nor to a raging ful, are derived.* But these figures must be more storm, when all the winds are up," is drawling, sparingly used in rhetoric than in poetry, and even feeble, swoln with a pleonasm or tautology, as well then mingled with argumentation, and a detail of as deficient in the rhyme; and as for the "dread- facts altogether different from poetical narration. ful crack," in the next stanza, instead of exciting The poet, instead of simply relating the incident, terror, it conveys a low and ludicrous idea. How strikes off a glowing picture of the scene, and exmuch more elegant and energetic is this paraphrase hibits it in the most lively colours to the eye of the of the same ode, inserted in one of the volumes of imagination. "It is reported that Homer was hume's History of England. The man whose mind, on virtue bent, With undiverted aim, Serene beholds the angry crowd; Nor the proud tyrant's fiercest threat, Nor Jove's dread bolt, that shakes the pole, With all its power can shake. Should nature's frame in ruins fall, Resume primeval sway, His courage chance and fate defies, blind," says Tully in his Tusculan Questions, "yet his poetry is no other than painting. What country, what climate, what ideas, battles, commotions, and contests of men, as well as of wild beasts, has he not painted in such a manner as to bring before our eyes those very scenes, which he himself could not behold!" We can not therefore subscribe to the opinion of some ingenious critics, who have blamed Mr. Pope for deviating in some instances from the simplicity of Homer, in his translation of the Iliad and Odyssey. For example, the Grecian bard says simply, the sun rose; and his translator gives us a beautiful picture of the sun rising. Homer mentions a person who played upon the lyre; the translator sets him before us warbling to the silver strings. If this be a deviation, it is at the same time an improvement. Homer himself, as Cicero observes above, is full of this If poetry exists independent of versification, it kind of painting, and particularly fond of descripwill naturally be asked, how then is it to be dis- tion, even in situations where the action seems to tinguished? Undoubtedly by its own peculiar require haste. Neptune, observing from Samoexpression; it has a language of its own, which thrace the discomfiture of the Grecians before Troy, speaks so feelingly to the heart, and so pleasingly flies to their assistance, and might have been waftthe imagination, that its meaning can not pos- ed thither in half a line: but the bard describes sibly be misunderstood by any person of delicate him, first, descending the mountain on which he sensations. It is a species of painting with words, sat; secondly, striding towards his palace at gæ, in which the figures are happily conceived, ingeni- and yoking his horses; thirdly, he describes him ously arranged, affectingly expressed, and recomInended with all the warmth and harmony of colouring: it consists of imagery, description, metaphors, similes, and sentiments, adapted with propriety to the subject, so contrived and executed as motus hominum, qui ferarum, non ita expictus est, ut qua to soothe the ear, surprise and delight the fancy, ipse non viderit, nos ut videramus, effecerit! Nor feels the wreck of earth and skies Namque ab his (scilicet poetis) et in rebus spiritus, et ir verbis sublimitas, et in affectibus motus omnis, et in persona decor petitur.-Quintilian, I. x. ↑ Quæ regio, quæ ora, quæ species formæ, quæ pugna, qui putting on his armour; and lastly, ascending his This indeed is a figure, which has been copied car, and driving along the surface of the sea. Far by Virgil, and almost all the poets of every agefrom being disgusted by these delays, we are de- oculis micat acribus ignis-ignescunt iræ: auris lighted with the particulars of the description. dolor ossibus ardet. Milton, describing Satan in Nothing can be more sublime than the circum- Hell, says, stance of the mountain's trembling beneath the footsteps of an immortal: With head uplift above the wave, and eye That sparkling blazed!— -He spake and to confirm his words out flew There are certain words in every language par ticularly adapted to the poetical expression; some from the image or idea they convey to the imagination; and some from the effect they have upon the ear. The first are truly figurative; the others may be called emphatical.-Rollin observes, that Virgil has upon many occasions poetized (if we may be allowed the expression) a whole sentence by means of the same word, which is pendere. Ite meæ, felix quondam pecus, ite capellæ, With great veneration for the memory of Mr. At ease reclined beneath the verdant shade, Pope, we can not help objecting to some lines of No more shall I behold my happy flock this translation. We have no idea of the sea's exAloft hang browsing on the tufted rock. ulting and crowning Neptune, after it had subsided into a level plain. There is no such image Here the word pendere wonderfully improves in the original. Homer says, the whales exulted, the landscape, and renders the whole passage and knew or owned their king; and that the sea beautifully picturesque. The same figurative verb parted with joy: γηθοσύνη δε θάλασσα δίστατο. we meet with in many different parts of the Neither is there a word of the wondering waters: we therefore think the lines might be thus altered to advantage: They knew and own'd the monarch of the main: Æneid. Hi summo in fluctu pendent, his unda dehiscens These on the mountain billow hung; to those Besides the metaphors, similes, and allusions of In this instance, the words pendent and dehisAddison seems to have had this passage in his eye, cens, hung and yawning, are equally poetical. when he wrote his Hymn, which is inserted in the Spectator: -For though in dreadful worlds we hung, And in another piece of a like nature, in the Thy providence my life sustain'd Shakspeare, in his admired description of Dover Half way down Hangs one that gathers samphire-dreadful trade! Nothing can be more beautiful than the following picture, in which Milton has introduced the same expressive tint: -He, on his side, Leaning half raised, with looks of cordial love certain the vast height of Dover cliff; for the poet adds, "can not be heard so high." The place where Glo'ster stood was so high above the surface We shall give one example more from Virgil, to of the sea, that the pros, or dashing, could show in what a variety of scenes it may appear not be heard; and therefore an enthusiastic admirwith propriety and effect. In describing the pro-er of Shakspeare might with some plausibility gress of Dido's passion for Æneas, the Poet says, Iliacos iterum demens audire labores The woes of Troy once more she begg'd to hear; The reader will perceive in all these instances, that no other word could be substituted with equal energy; indeed no other word could be used with affirm, the poet had chosen an expression in which that sound is not at all conveyed. In the very same page of Homer's Iliad we meet with two other striking instances of the same sort of beauty. Apollo, incensed at the insults his priest had sustained, descends from the top of Olym pus, with his bow and quiver rattling on his shoulder as he moved along; Δάνη δε κλαγγή γενετ αργυρένιο Βιοιο. out degrading the sense, and defacing the image. Here the sound of the word Exλağav admirably ex · There are many other verbs of poetical import presses the clanking of armour; as the third line fetched from nature, and from art, which the poet after this surprisingly imitates the twanging of a uses to advantage, both in a literal and metaphori- bow. cal sense; and these have been always translated for the same purpose from one language to another; such as quasso, concutio, cio, suscito, lenio, savio, mano, fuo, ardeo, mico, aro, to shake, to wake, to rouse, to soothe, to rage, to flow, to shine Many beauties of the same kind are scattered or blaze, to plough.-Quassantia tectum liminaEneas, casu, concussus acerbo-Ære ciere viros, through Homer, Pindar, and Theocritus, such as Martemque accendere cantu-Eneas acuit Mar- the foμbivoa μeniora, susurrans apicula; the tem et se suscitat ira—Impium lenite clamorem. adu upoμa, dulcem susurrum; and the uniodeLenibant curas-Ne sævi magna sacerdos-Su-7, for the sighing of the pine. In shrill-ton'd murmurs sung the twanging bow. The Latin language teems with sounds adapted to dor ad imos manabat solos-Suspensæque diu lachrymæ fluxere per ora-Juvenali ardebat every situation, and the English is not destitute of amore e-Micat cereus ensis-Nullum maris æquor arandum. It will be unnecessary to insert examples of the same nature from the English poets. this significant energy. We have the cooing turtle, the sighing reed, the warbling rivulet, the sliding stream, the whispering breeze, the glance, the The words we term emphatical, are such as by gleam, the flash, the bickering flame, the dashing their sound express the sense they are intended to wave, the gushing spring, the howling blast, the convey and with these the Greek abounds, above rattling storm, the pattering shower, the crimp all other languages, not only from its natural copi- earth, the mouldering tower, the twanging bowousness, flexibility, and significance, but also from string, the clanging arms, the clanking chains, the variety of its dialects, which enables a writer the twinkling stars, the tinkling chords, the trickto vary his terminations occasionally as the nature ling drops, the twittering swallow, the cawing of the subject requires, without offending the most rook, the screeching owl; and a thousand other delicate ear, or incurring the imputation of adopt- words and epithets, wonderfully suited to the sense ing vulgar provincial expressions. Every smat- they imply. terer in Greek can repeat Βη δ' ακέων παρα θινα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλασσης, in which the last two words wonderfully echo to the sense, conveying the idea of the sea dashing on the shore. How much more significant in sound than that beautiful image of Shakspeare The sea that on the unnumber'd pebbles beats. Among the select passages of poetry which we shall insert by way of illustration, the reader will find instances of all the different tropes and figures which the best authors have adopted in the variety of their poetical works, as well as of the apostrophe, abrupt transition, repetition, and prosopopoia. In the mean time it will be necessary still further to analyze those principles which constitute the essence of poetical merit; to display those aelightful parterres that teem with the fairest flowers And yet, if we consider the strictness of pro- of imagination; and distinguish between the gaudy priety, this last expression would seem to have offspring of a cold insipid fancy, and the glowing been selected on purpose to concur with the other progeny, diffusing sweets, produce and vigo crcumstances, which are brought together to as-rated by the sun of genius. ESSAY XVI. verage chastised by the sober deity,"—a metaphor that signifies nothing more than "mixed or lowered with water." Demetrius Phalereus justly Or all the implements of poetry, the metaphor is the most generally and successfully used, and observes, that though a judicious use of metaphors indeed may be termed the Muse's caduceus, by wonderfully raises, sublimes, and adorns oratory the power of which she enchants all nature. The or elocution, yet they should seem to flow naturalmetaphor is a shorter simile, or rather a kind of magical coat, by which the same idea assumes a thousand different appearances. Thus the word plough, which originally belongs to agriculture, being metaphorically used, represents the motion of a ship at sea, and the effects of old age upon the human countenance -Plough'd the bosom of the deep ly from the subject; and too great a redundancy of them inflates the discourse to a mere rhapsody. The same observation will hold in poetry ; and the more liberal or sparing use of them will depend in a great measure on the nature of the subject. Passion itself is very figurative, and often bursts out into metaphors; but in touching the pathos, the poet must be perfectly well acquainted with the emotions of the human soul, and carefully distinguish between those metaphors which rise glowAnd time had plough'd his venerable front. ing from the heart, and those cold conceits which Almost every verb, noun substantive, or term of are engendered in the fancy. Should one of these art in any language, may be in this manner ap- last unfortunately intervene, it will be apt to deplied to a variety of subjects with admirable effect; stroy the whole effect of the most pathetical incibut the danger is in sowing metaphors too thick dent or situation. Indeed it requires the most so as to distract the imagination of the reader, and delicate taste, and aconsummate knowledge of proincur the imputation of deserting nature, in order priety, to employ metaphors in such a manner as to hunt after conceits. Every day produces poems to avoid what the ancients call the roux, the of all kinds, so inflated with metaphor, that they frigid, or false sublime. Instances of this kind may be compared to the gaudy bubbles blown up were frequent even among the correct ancients. from a solution of soap. Longinus is of opinion, Sappho herself is blamed for using the hyperbole that a multitude of metaphors is never excusable, xuxorepo Xiovos, whiter than snow. Demetrius is except in those cases when the passions are rous- so nice as to be disgusted at the simile of swift as ed, and like a winter torrent rush down impetu- the wind; though, in speaking of a race-horse, we ous, sweeping them with collective force along. know from experience that this is not even an hyHe brings an instance of the following quotation perbole. He would have had more reason to censure from Demosthenes; "Men," says he, "profli- that kind of metaphor which Aristotle styles zar gates, miscreants, and flatterers, who having seve- svepy av, exhibiting things inanimate as endued with rally preyed upon the bowels of their country, at sense and reason; such as that of the sharp pointed length betrayed her liberty, first to Philip, and now arrow, eager to take wing among the crowd. again to Alexander; who, placing the chief felici- O' Eubenus xað öμinov ETTITTEO DI MEYERIVæv. Not but ty of life in the indulgence of infamous lusts and that in descriptive poetry this figure is often allowappetites, overturned in the dust that freedom and ed and admired. The cruel sword, the ruthless independence which was the chief aith and end of dagger, the ruffian blast, are epithets which freall our worthy ancestors."* quently occur. The faithful bosom of the earth, Aristotle and Theophrastus seem to think it is the joyous boughs, the trees that admire their imrather too bold and hazardous to use metaphors so ages reflected in the stream, and many other examfreely, without interposing some mitigating phrase, ples of this kind, are found disseminated through such as "if I may be allowed the expression," or the works of our best modern poets; yet still they some equivalent excuse. At the same time Lon- must be sheltered under the privilege of the poetica ginus finds fault with Plato for hazarding some licentia; and, expect in poetry, they would give metaphors, which indeed appear to be equally af- offence. fected and extravagant, when he says, "The government of a state should not resemble a bowl of hot fermenting wine, but a cool and moderate be More chaste metaphors are freely used in all kinds of writing; more sparingly in history, and more abundantly in rhetoric: we have seen that Plato indulges in them even to excess. The ora* Ανθρωποι, φησι, μικροί, και αλάστορες, και κολακες, tions of Demosthenes are animated and even inακρωτηριασμένοι σας ἑαυτῶν ἕκαστοι πατρίδας την famed with metaphors, some of them so bold as ελευθερίαν προπεπωκότες, προτέρον Φιλιππῳ, νυν δ' Αλεξ- even to entail upon him the censure of the critics. ανδρο, τη γαστρι μετρούντες και τους αισχίστοις την Τιτε τῷ Πυθωνι τῷ ρητορι ρέοντι καθ' υμων. Then ευδαιμονίαν, την δ' ελευθερίαν, και To undeva exen I did not yield to Python the orator, when he overσπότην αύτων, & τοις προτέροις, Ἑλλησιν οροι των αγα. flowed you with a tide of eloquence. Cicero is by nowy nas xavoris, etc. still more liberal in the use of them: he ransacks |