"Scribendi rectè, fapere eft & principium & fons."
HAVE feldom known a trick fucceed, and will put
none upon the reader; but tell him plainly that I think it could never be more feasonable than now to lay down fuch rules, as, if they be obferved, will make men write more correctly, and judge more difcreetly but Horace must be read seriously or not at all, for elfe the reader won't be the better for him, and I fhall have loft my labour. I have kept as clofe as I could, both to the meaning and the words of the author, and done nothing but what I believe he would forgive if he were alive; and I have often asked myself that queftion. I know this is a field,
"Per quem magnus equos Aurunca flexit Alumnus.”
But with all the refpect due to the name of Ben Jonfon, to which no man pays more veneration than I; it cannot be denied, that the constraint of rhyme, and a literal tranflation (to which Horace in this book declares himself an enemy), has made him want a comment in many places.
* Printed from Dr. Rawlinson's copy, corrected by Earl of Rofcommon's own hand,
My chief care has been to write intelligibly; and where the Latin was obfcure, I have added a line or two to explain it.
I am below the envy of the critics; but, if I durft, I would beg them to remember, that Horace owed his favour and his fortune to the character given of him by Virgil and Varius, that Fundanius and Pollio are ftill valued by what Horace fays of them, and that,' in their golden age, there was a good understanding among the ingenious, and those who were the most esteemed were the best natured.
TF in a picture (Pifo) you should fee
A handfome woman with a fishes tail,
Or a man's head upon a horfe's neck,
Or limbs of beafts of the moft different kinds,
Cover'd with feathers of all forts of birds,
Would you not laugh, and think the painter mad!
Trust me, that book is as ridiculous,
Whofe incoherent style (like fick men's dreams)
Varies all fhapes, and mixes all extremes.
Painters and Poets have been still allow'd
Their pencils, and their fancies unconfin'd.
This privilege we freely give and take;
But Nature, and the common laws of fenfe,
Forbid to reconcile Antipathies,
Or make a fnake engender with a dove,
And hungry tigers court the tender lambs.
Some, that at firft have promis'd mighty things,
Applaud themfelves, when a few florid lines
The Lucrine mole (Cæfar's ftupendous work)
Protects our navies from the raging north;
And (fince Cethegus drain'd the Pontine lake)
We plow and reap where former ages row'd.
See how the Tiber (whofe licentious waves
So often overflow'd the neighbouring fields)
Now runs a fmooth and inoffenfive course,
Confin'd by our great Emperor's command:
Yet this, and they, and all, will be forgot;
Why then should words challenge eternity,
When greatest men and greatest actions die ?
Ufe may revive the obsoletest words,
And banish thofe that now are most in vogue;
Ufe is the judge, the law, and rule of speech.
Homer first taught the world in epick verse
To write of great commanders, and of kings.
Elegies were at first design'd for grief,
Though now we use them to exprefs our joy :
But to whose Muse we owe that sort of verse,
Is undecided by the men of skill.
Rage with Iambicks arm'd Archilochus, Numbers for dialogue and action fit,
And favourites of the Dramatic Mufe.
Fierce, lofty, rapid, whose commanding found
Awes the tumultuous noises of the pit,
And whofe peculiar province is the stage.
Gods, heroes, conquerors, Olympic crowns,
Love's pleasing cares, and the free joys of wine,
Are proper fubjects for the Lyric fong.
Why is he honour'd with a poet's name,
Who neither knows nor would obferve a rule;
And chooses to be ignorant and proud,
Rather than own his ignorance, and learn?
Let every thing have its due place and time.
A comic fubject loves an humble verse,
Thyeftes fcorns a low and comic ftyle.
Yet comedy fometimes may raise her voice,
And Chremes be allow'd to foam and rail:
Tragedians too lay by their state too grieve;
Peleus and Telephus exil'd and poor,
Forget their fwelling and gigantic words.
He that would have fpectators fhare his grief,
Muft write not only well, but movingly,
And raise men's paffions to what height he will.
We weep and laugh, as we see others do :
He only makes me fad who fhews the way,
And firft is fad himself; then, Telephus,
I feel the weight of your calamities,
And fancy all your miseries my own:
But, if you act them ill, I fleep or laugh;
Your looks muft alter, as your fubject does,
From kind to fierce, from wanton to fevere:
For nature forms, and foftens us within,
And writes our fortune's changes in our face.
Pleasure inchants, impetuous rage transports,
And grief dejects, and wrings the tortur'd foul,
And these are all interpreted by fpeech;
But he whose words and fortunes difagree,
Abfurd, unpity'd, grows a public jest.
Obferve the characters of thofe that speak,
$ 4
Whether an honeft fervant, or a cheat,
Or one whofe blood boils in his youthful veins,
Or a grave matron, or a busy nurse,
Extorting merchants, careful husbandmen,
Argives or Thebans, Afians or Greeks.
Follow report, or feign coherent things;
Defcribe Achilles, as Achilles was,
Impatient, rash, inexorable, proud,
Scorning all judges, and all law but arms;
Medea must be all revenge and blood,
Ino all tears, Ixion all deceit,
Io must wander, and Oreftes mourn.
If your bold Muse dare tread unbeaten paths, And bring new characters upon the stage, Be sure you keep them up to their first height. New fubjects are not easily explain'd,
And you had better choose a well-known theme, Than truft to an invention of your own:
For what originally others writ,
May be fo well disguis'd, and so improv'd,
That with fome juftice it may pass for yours;
But then you must not copy trivial things,
Nor word for word too faithfully translate,
Nor (as fome fervile imitators do)
Prefcribe at firft fuch strict uneasy rules,
As you must ever flavishly observe,
Or all the laws of decency renounce.
Begin not as th' old poetafter did, "Troy's famous war, and Priam's fate, I fing."
|