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THE MOST HONOURABLE

JOHN,

LORD MARQUIS OF NORMANBY, EARL OF MULGRAVE,* &c. AND KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER.

A HEROIC poem, truly such, is undoubtedly the greatest work which the soul of man is capable to perform. The design of it is to form the mind to heroic virtue by example. It is conveyed in verse, that it may delight, while it instructs the action of it is always one, entire, and great. The least and most trivial episodes, or under-actions, which are interwoven in it, are parts either necessary or convenient to carry on the main design; either so necessary, that, without them, the poem must be imperfect, or so convenient, that no others can be imagined more suitable to the place in which they are. There is nothing to be left void in a firm building; even the cavities ought not to be filled with rubbish, (which is of a perishable kind, destructive to the strength,) but with brick or stone, though of less pieces, yet of the same nature, and fitted to the crannies. Even the least portions of them must be of the epic kind: all things must be grave, majestical, and sublime; nothing of a foreign nature, like the trifling novels, which Ariosto, and others, have inserted in their poems; by which the reader is misled into another sort of pleasure, opposite to that which is designed in an epic poem. One raises the soul, and hardens it to virtue; the other softens it, and unbends it into vice. One conduces to the poet's aim, the completing of his work, which he is driving on, labouring and hastening in every line; the other slackens his pace, diverts him from his way, and locks him

The early editions, by an absurd and continued blunder, read Aristotle. Ariosto, and indeed all the heroic Italian poets, Tasso excepted, have chequer ed their romantic fictions with lighter stories, such as those of Jocondo and of Adonio, in the "Orlando Furioso." But neither Ariosto, nor his predecessors Boiardo and Pulci, ever entertained the idea of writing a regular epic poem after the ancient

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up, like a knight-errant, in an enchanted castle, when he should be pursuing his first adventure. Statius, as Bossu has well observed, was ambitious of trying his strength with his master Virgil, as Virgil had before tried his with HoThe Grecian gave the two Romans an example, in the games which were celebrated at the funerals of Patroclus. Virgil imitated the invention of Homer, but changed the sports. But both the Greek and Latin poet took their occasions from the subject; though to confess the truth, they were both ornamental, or, at best, convenient parts of it, rather than of necessity arising from it. Statius, who, through his whole poem, is noted for want of conduct and judg ment, instead of staying, as he might have done, for the death of Capaneus, Hippomedon, Tydeus, or some other of his seven champions, (who are heroes all alike,) or more properly for the tragical end of the two brothers, whose exequies the next successor had leisure to perform when the siege was raised, and in the interval betwixt the poet's first action and his second-went out of his way, as it were on prepense malice, to commit a fault. For he took his opportunity to kill a royal infant by the means of a serpent, (that author of all evil,) to make way for those funeral honours which he intended for him. Now, if this innocent had been of any relation to his Thebais-if he had either furthered or hindered the taking of the town-the poet might have found some sorry excuse, at least, for derules. On the contrary, they often drop the mask in the middle of the romantic wonders which they relate; and plainly show, how very far they are from considering the narrative as serious. It was, therefore, consistent with their plan, to admit such light and frivolous narratives, as might relieve the general gravity of their tale, which resembled an epic poem as little as a melo-drama does a tragedy.

* Mulgrave's early and Intimate connexion with our author has been often noticed in this edition. In the reign of William III he remained in a sort of di-grace, from his attachment to the exiled king; yet, in 1694, he was created Marquis of Normanby; in the reign of the queen, he rose still higher; and it is said that the dignities, offices, and influence, which he then enjoyed, were the reward of the ambitious love which he had dared to entertain for that princess, when she was only the Lady Anne, second daughter to the Duke of York.-See Dryden's Life; also Dedication to Aurung Zebe.

taining the reader from the promised siege. On these terms, this Capaneus of a poet engaged his two immortal predecessors; and his success was answerable to his enterprise.*

If this economy must be observed in the minutest parts of an epic poem, which, to a common reader, seem to be detached from the body, and almost independent of it; what soul, though sent into the world with great advantages of nature, cultivated with the liberal arts and sciences, conversant with histories of the dead, and enriched with observations on the living, can be sufficient to inform the whole body of so great a work? I touch here but transiently, without any strict method, on some few of those many rules of imitating nature, which Aristotle drew from Homer's Iliads and Odysseys, and which he fitted to the drama; furnishing himself also with observations from the practice of the theatre,when it flourished under Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles: for the original of the stage was from the epic poem. Narration, doubtless, preceded acting, and gave laws to it: what at first was told artfully, was, in process of time, represented gracefully to the sight and hearing. These episodes of Homer, which were proper for the stage, the poets amplified each into an action; out of his limbs they formed their bodies; what he had contracted, they enlarged; out of one Hercules, were made infinity of pigmies, yet all indued with human souls; for from him, their great creator, they have each of them the divinæ particulum auræ. They flowed from him at first, and are at last resolved into him. Nor were they only animated by him, but their measure and symmetry was owing to him. His one, entire, and great action was copied by them according to the proportions of the drama. If he finished his orb within the year, it sufficed to

I quote, from Mr. Malone, Mr. Harte's vindica. tion of Statius; premising, however, that it is far from amounting to an exculpation of that boisterous author, whose works have fallen into oblivion even among scholars, in due proportion to the ripening of poetical taste.

"Mr. Dryden, in his excellent Preface to the Eneid, takes occasion to quarrel with Statius, and calls the present book (the Sixth) an ill-timed and injudicious episode.' I wonder so severe a remark could pass from that gentleman, who was an admirer of our author, even to superstition. I own I can scarce forgive myself to contradict so great a poet, and so good a critic talium enim virorum ut admiratio marima, ita censura dificilis. However, the present case may admit of very alleviating circumstances. It may be replied, in general, that the design of this book was to give a respite to the main action, introducing a mournful, but pleasing variation, from terror to pity. It is also highly probable, that Statius had an eye to the funeral obsequies of Polydore and Anchises, mentioned in the third and fifth books of Virgil. We may also look upon them is a prelude, opening the mind by degrees to receive

teach them, that their action being less, and being also less diversified with incidents, their orb, of consequence, must be circumscribed in a less compass, which they reduced within the limits either of a natural or an artificial day; so that, as he taught them to amplify what he had shortened, by the same rule, applied the contrary way, he taught them to shorten what he had amplified. Tragedy is the miniature of human life; an epic poem is the draught at length. Here, my lord, I must contract also; for before I was aware, L was almost running into a long digression, to prove, that there is no such absolute necessity that the time of a stage action should so strictly be confined to twenty-four hours, as never to exceed them, for which Aristotle contends, and the Grecian stage has practised. Some longer space on some occasions, I think, may be allowed, especially for the English theatre, which requires more variety of incidents than the French. Corneille himself, after long prac tice, was inclined to think, that the time allotted by the ancients was too short to raise and finish a great action: and better a mechanic rule were stretched or broken, than a great beauty were omitted. To raise, and afterwards to calm the passions-to purge the soul from pride, by the examples of human miseries, which befall the greatest-in few words, to expel arrogance, and introduce compassion, are the great effects of tragedy; great, I must confess, if they were altogether as true as they are pompous. But are habits to be introduced at three hours' warning? are radical diseases so suddenly removed? A mountebank may promise such a cure, but a skilful physician will not undertake it. An epic poem is not in so much haste: it works leisurely; the changes which it makes are slow; but the cure is likely to be more perfect. The effects of tragedy, as the horrors of a future war. This is intimated in some measure by the derivation of the word Archemorus."-Note on Mr. Walter Harte's Translation of the Sixth Book of the Thebaid.

Notwithstanding what Mr. Harte has stated, our author seldom mentions Statius, without reprobating his turgid and bombast style.

Dryden, as was excellently observed by Sir Samuel Garth, in his "Funeral Eulogy," always thought that species of composition most excellent upon which his labour had been more immediately employed. In the "Essay upon Dramatic Poesy," he had preferred the tragedy to the epic poem, and here he has reversed their station, and rank. I think the principal distinction is noticed below. Tragedy is addressed, as it were, to the eye; and, the whole scene, to be enjoyed, even in perusal, must be supposed present to the observation. But epic poetry is, by its nature, narrative; and, therefore, while it is capable of the beauties of more extended description, and more copious morality, it is excluded from that immediate and energetic appeal to the senses manifested in the drama.

1 said, are too violent to be lasting. If it be
answered, that, for this reason, tragedies are
often to be seen, and the dose to be repeated,
this is tacitly to confess, that there is more vir-
tue in one heroic poem than in many tragedies.
A man is humbled one day, and his pride re-
turns the next. Chymical medicines are ob-
served to relieve oftener than to cure: for it is
the nature of spirits to make swift impressions,
but not deep. Galenical decoctions, to which
I may properly compare an epic poem, have
more of body in them; they work by their sub-
stance and their weight. It is one reason of
Aristotle's to prove, that tragedy is the more
noble, because it turns in a shorter compass:
the whole action being circumscribed within
the space of four-and-twenty hours. He might
prove as well, that a mushroom is to be prefer-
red before a peach, because it shoots up in the
compass of a night. A chariot may be driven
round a pillar in less space than a large machine,
because the bulk is not so great. Is the Moon
a more noble planet than Saturn, because she
makes her revolution in less than thirty days,
and he in little less than thirty years? Both
their orbs are in proportion to their several
magnitudes; and, consequently, the quickness
or slowness of their motion, and the time of their
circumvolutions, is no argument of the greater
or less perfection. And, besides, what virtue
is there in a tragedy, which is not contained in
an epic poem, where pride is humbled, virtue
rewarded, and vice punished; and those more
amply treated, than the narrowness of the dra-
ma can admit? The shining quality of an epic
hero, his magnanimity, his constancy, his pa-
tience, his piety, or whatever characteristical
virtue his poet gives him, raises first our admi-
ration. We are naturally prone to imitate what
we admire; and frequent acts produce a habit.
If the hero's chief quality be vicious, as, for ex-
ample, the choler and obstinate desire of ven-
geance in Achilles, yet the moral is instructive:
and, besides, we are informed in the very pro-
position of the Iliads, that this anger was perni-
cious; that it brought a thousand ills on the
Grecian camp.
The courage of Achilles is pro-
posed to imitation, not his pride and disobe-
dience to his general, nor his brutal cruelty to
his dead enemy, nor the selling his body to his
father. We abhor these actions while we read

• The cant of supposing, that the Iliad contained an obvious and intentional moral, was at this time so established among the critics, that even Dryden durst not shake himself free of it. In all probability, the ancient blind bard only thought of so arranging his splendid tale of Troy divine, that it should arrest the attention of his hearers. Doubtless, an admirable moral may be often extracted from his poem;

them; and what we abhor we never imitate. The poet only shows them, like rocks or quicksands, to be shunned.

By this example, the critics have concluded,
that it is not necessary the manners of the hero
should be virtuous. They are poetically good,
if they are of a piece; though, where a character
of perfect virtue is set before us, it is more love
ly; for there the whole hero is to be imitated.
This is the Eneas of our author; this is that
idea of perfection in an epic poem, which paint-
ers and statuaries have only in their minds, and
which no hands are able to express. These are
the beauties of a god in a human body. When
the picture of Achilles is drawn in tragedy, he
is taken with those warts, and moles, and hard
features, by those who represent him on the
stage, or he is no more Achilles; for his crea-
tor, Homer, has so described him. Yet even
thus he appears a perfect hero, though an im-
perfect character of virtue. Horace paints him
after Homer, and delivers him to be copied on
the stage with all those imperfections.* There-
fore they are either not faults in a heroic poem,
or faults common to the drama. After all, on
the whole merits of the cause, it must be ac-
knowledged, that the epic poem is more for the
manners, and tragedy for the passions. The
passions, as I have said, are violent; and acute
distempers require medicines of a strong and
speedy operation. Ill habits of the mind are
like chronical diseases, to be corrected by de-
grees, and cured by alteratives; wherein, though
purges are sometimes necessary, yet diet, good
air, and moderate exercise, have the greatest
part. The matter being thus stated, it will ap-
pear, that both sorts of poetry are of use for their
proper ends. The stage is more active; the
epic poem works at greater leisure, yet is active

because it contains an accurate picture of human
nature, which can never be truly presented, without.
But it may
conveying a lesson of instruction.
shrewdly be suspected, that the moral was as little
intended by the author, as it would have been the
object of a historian, whose work is equally preg-
nant with morality, though a detail of facts be only
intended. We may be pretty sure, that Homer
meant his Achilles, the favourite of the gods, as a
character approaching perfection; and if he is
cruel, proud, disobedient, and vengeful, I am afraid
it was only because these attributes, in a savage
state, are deemed as little derogatory from the
character of a hero, as dissipation and gallantry are
blemishes in that of a modern fine gentleman.

The opinion of Horace is a confirmation of what is stated above. None of the ancients ventured to impute the rudeness of Homer's characters to the barbarity of the poet's age. The faults which they could not shut their eyes against, must, they thought, have been equally apparent to the bard himself; although, in all probability, he meant. that these very attributes in his heroes should be considered as virtues.

too, when need requires; for dialogue is imitated by the drama, from the more active parts of it. One puts off a fit, like the quinquia, and relieves us only for a time; the other roots out the distemper, and gives a healthful habit. The sun enlightens and cheers us, dispels fogs, and warms the ground with his daily beams; but the corn is sowed, increases, is ripened, and is reaped for use in process of time, and in its proper season. I proceed, from the greatness of the action, to the dignity of the actors; I mean to the persons employed in both poems. There likewise tragedy will be seen to borrow from the epopee; and that which borrows is always of less dignity, because it has not of its own. A subject, it is true, may lend to his sovereign; but the act of borrowing makes the king inferior, because he wants, and the subject supplies. And suppose the persons of the drama wholly fabulous, or of the poet's invention, yet heroic poetry gave him the examples of that invention, because it was first, and Homer the common father of the stage. I know not of any one advantage which tragedy can boast above heroic poetry, but that it is represented to the view, as well as read, and instructs in the closet, as well as on the theatre. This is an uncontended excellence, and a chief branch of its prerogative; yet I may be allowed to say, without partiality, that herein the actors share the poet's praise. Your lordship knows some modern tragedies which are beautiful on the stage, and yet I am confident you would not read them. "Tryphon the stationer" complains, they are seldom asked for in his shop. The poet who flourished in the scene, is damned in the ruelle ;† nay more, he is not esteemed a good poet by those, who see and hear his extravagancies with delight. They are a sort of stately fustian, and lofty childishness. Nothing but nature can give a sincere pleasure; where that is not imitated, it is grotesque painting; "the fine woman ends in a fish's tail."

I might also add, that many things, which not only please, but are real beauties in the reading, would appear absurd upon the stage; and those not only the speciosa miracula, as Horace calls them, of transformations, of Scylla, Antiphates, and the Læstrygons, which cannot be represented even in operas; but the prowess of Achilles or Æneas would appear ridiculous in our dwarfheroes of the theatre. We can believe they

Bibliopola Tryphon," a character twice mentioned by Martial, Epig. lib. iv. 72. xiii. 3. Dryden probably means Tonson.

A Gallicism for the toilet, at which the ladies of Dryden's time, in imitation of their neighbours of France, were wont to receive visits, and hear recitations and readings.

routed armies, in Homer or in Virgil; but ne Hercules contra duos in the drama. I forbear to instance in many things, which the stage cannot or ought not to represent; for I have said already more than I intended on this subject, and should fear it might be turned against me, that I plead for the pre-eminence of epic poetry, because I have taken some pains in translating Virgil, if this were the first time that I had de livered my opinion in this dispute. But I have more than once already maintained the rights of my two masters against their rivals of the scene,* even while I wrote tragedies myself, and had no thoughts of this present undertaking. I submit my opinion to your judgment, who are better qualified than any man I know, to decide this controversy. You come, my lord, instructed in the cause, and needed not that I should open it. Your "Essay of Poetry," which was published without a name, and of which I was not honoured with the confidence, I read over and over with much delight, and as much instruction, and, without flattering you, or making myself more moral than I am not without some envy. I was loth to be informed how an epic poem should be written, or how a tragedy should be contrived and managed, in better verse, and with more judgment, than I could teach others. A native of Parnassus, and bred up in the studies of its fundamental laws, may receive new light from his contemporaries; but it is a grudging kind of praise which he gives his benefactors. He is more obliged, than he is willing to acknowledge; there is a tincture of malice in his commendations; for where I own I am taught, I confess my want of knowledge. A judge upon the bench may, out of good nature, or at least interest, encourage the pleadings of a puny counsellor; but he does not willingly commend his brother sergeant at the bar, especially when he controls his law, and exposes that ignorance which is made sacred by his place. I gave the unknown author his due commendation, I must confess; but who can answer for me and for the rest of the poets who heard me read the poem,

• Dryden, in the "Essay on Dramatic Poesy," against the French dramatists. maintains the cause of Shakspeare and Jonson

It appeared first in 1682, and drew the public attention by much sound criticism, expressed in pointed language; although the verse is so untunable and rugged, as to sound very disagreeably to modern ears. Dryden is mentioned with only a qualified degree of respect, and that paid solely to his satirical powers:

The laureat here may justly claim our praise, Crown'd by Mac-Flecnoe with immortal bays; Yet once his Pegasus has borne dead weight, Rid by some lumpish minister of state. The last couplet alludes to the "Hind and Panther.

whether we should not have been better pleased to have seen our own names at the bottom of the title-page? Perhaps we commended it the more, that we might seem to be above the censure. We are naturally displeased with an unkuown critic, as the ladies are with a lampooner, because we are bitten in the dark, and know not where to fasten our revenge. But great excellencies will work their way through all sorts of opposition. I applauded rather out of decency, than affection; and was ambitious, as some yet can witness, to be acquainted with a man, with whom I had the honour to converse, and that almost daily, for so many years together. Hea ven knows, if I have heartily forgiven you this deceit. You extorted a praise, which I should willingly have given, had I known you. Nothing had been more easy, than to commend a patron of a long standing. The world would join with me, if the encomiums were just; and, if unjust, would excuse a grateful flatterer. But to come anonymous upon me, and force me to commend you against my interest, was not altogether so fair, give me leave to say, as it was politic; for, by concealing your quality, you might clearly understand how your work succeeded, and that the general approbation was given to your merit, not your titles. Thus, like Apelles, you stood unseen behind your own Venus, and received the praises of the passing multitude; the work was commended, not the author; and I doubt not, this was one of the most pleasing adventures of your life.*

I have detained your lordship longer than I intended in this dispute of preference betwixt the epic poem and the drama, and yet have not formally answered any of the arguments which are brought by Aristotle on the other side, and set in the fairest light by Dacier. But I suppose, without looking on the book, I may have touched on some of the objections; for, in this address to your lordship, I design not a treatise of heroic poetry, but write in a loose epistolary way, somewhat tending to that subject, after the example of Horace, in his First Epistle of the Second Book to Augustus Caesar, and in that to the Pisos, which we call his "Art of Poetry;" in both of which he observes no method that I can trace, whatever Scaliger the father, or Heinsius, may have seen, or rather think they had seen. I have taken up, laid down, and resumed, as often as I pleased, the same subject;

Our author mentions elsewhere, "The Essay of Poetry, which I publicly valued before I knew the author of it." Although his lordship's experiment proved thus successful, I may be permitted to hint, that most noble authors may find it rather hazard

ous.

and this loose proceeding I shall use through all this prefatory dedication. Yet all this while I have been sailing with some side-wind or other toward the point I proposed in the beginning,the greatness and excellency of a heroic poem, with some of the difficulties which attend that work. The comparison, therefore, which I made betwixt the epopee and the tragedy, was not altogether a digression; for it is concluded on all hands, that they are both the masterpieces of human wit.

In the mean time, I may be bold to draw this corollary from what has been already said, that the file of heroic poets is very short; all are not such who have assumed that lofty title in ancient or modern ages, or have been so esteemed by their partial and ignorant admirers.

There have been but one great Ilias, and one neis, in so many ages. The next, but the next with a long interval betwixt, was the Jerusalem;* I mean not so much in distance of time, as in excellency. After these three are entered, some lord-chamberlain should be appointed, some critic of authority should be set before the door, to keep out a crowd of little poets, who press for admission, and are not of quality. Mævius would be deafening your lordship's ears with his

Fortunam Priami cantabo, et nobile heliummere fustian, as Horace would tell you, from behind, without pressing forward, and more smoke than fire. Pulci, Boiardo, and Arios'o,† would cry out, "Make room for the Italian poets, the descendants of Virgil in a right line :" father Le Moine, with his Saint Louis; and Scuderi with his Alaric, for a godly king and a Gothic conqueror; and Chapelain would take it ill that his Maid should be refused a place with Helen and

• Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered" seems to have been the first heroic poem attempted upon a classi cal model, after the revival of literature.

Pulci wrote the "Moragante Maggiore," Bolardo the "Orlando Innamorato," and Ariosto the wellknown continuation of that poem, called the "Or

lando Furioso." The first two poems, like the

"Amadigi," and a number of others in the same taste, are rather to be considered as an improvement upon the old metrical romances, than as at tempts at epic poetry. At the same time, these authors do not always expect their readers to receive with gravity the marvels which they narrate; but

introduce at every turn some ludicrous image, to

show how little they are themselves serious. Al

though Ariosto is immeasurably distinguished by brilliancy of imagination, and beauty of expression, from the rest of those romancers, yet even his delightful work may be more properly termed a romance of chivalry than an epic poem; a distinction which the Tuscan bard can hardly regret, since it has afforded, throughout Europe, more general delight than all the epics in the world, if we except those of Homer and Virgil.

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