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the former might be written, from his own materials, with all the minuteness of a contemporary history: and the latter, who attained to little more than a third of Juvenal's age, has left nothing to be desired on the only topicks which could interest posterity, his parent, his preceptor, and his course of studies.

AN ESSAY

ON THE

ROMAN SATIRISTS.

Ir will now be expected from me, perhaps, to say something on the nature and design of Satire; but in truth this has so frequently been done, that it seems, at present, to have as little of novelty as of utility, to recommend it.

Dryden, who had diligently studied the French criticks, drew up from their remarks, assisted by a cursory perusal of what Casaubon, Heinsius, Rigaltius, and Scaliger had written on the subject, an account of the rise and progress of dramatick and satirick poetry amongst the Romans; which he prefixed to his translation of Juvenal. What Dryden knew, he told in a manner that renders every attempt to recount it after him, equally hopeless and vain; but his acquaintance with works of literature was not very extensive, while his reliance on his own powers sometimes betrayed him into inaccuracies, to which the influence of his name gives a dangerous importance.

"The comparison of Horace with Juvenal and Persius," which makes a principal part of his Essay, is not formed with much niceness of discrimination, or accuracy of judgment. To speak my mind, I do not think that he clearly perceived, or fully understood, the characters of the first

two of Persius indeed he had an intimate knowledge; for, though he certainly deemed too humbly of his poetry, he yet speaks of his beauties and defects, in a manner which evinces a more than common acquaintance with both.

What Dryden left imperfect has been filled up in a great measure by Dusaulx, in the preliminary discourse to his translation of Juvenal, and by Ruperti, in his critical and ingenious Essay De diversa Satirarum Lucil.. Horat. Pers. et Juvenalis indole. With the assistance of these, I shall endeavour to give a more extended view of the Characteristick excellencies and defects of the rival Satirists, than has yet appeared in our language; little solicitous for the praise of originality, if I may be allowed to aspire to that of candour and truth. Previously to this, however, it will be necessary to say something on the supposed origin of Satire: and as this is a very beaten subject, I shall discuss it as briefly as possible.

It is probable that the first metrical compositions of the Romans, like those of every other people, were pious effusions for favours received or expected from the gods: Of these, the earliest, according to Varro, were the hymns to Mars, which, though used by the Salii in the Augustan age, were no longer intelligible. To these, succeeded the Fescennine verses, which were sung, or rather recited, after the vintage and harvest, and appear to have been little more than rude praises of the tutelar divinities of the country, intermixed with clownish jeers and sarcasms, extemporally poured out by the rusticks in some kind of measure, and indifferently directed at the audience, or at one another. These, by degrees, assumed the form of a dialogue; of which, as nature is every where the same, and the progress

of refinement but little varied, some resemblance may perhaps be found in the grosser eclogues of Theocritus.

Thus improved, (if the word may be allowed of such barbarous amusements,) they formed, for near three centuries, the delight of that nation: popular favour, however, had a dangerous effect on the performers, whose licentiousness degenerated at length into such wild invective, that it was found necessary to restrain it by a positive law: Si qui populo occentassit, carmenve condisit, quod infamiam faxit flagitiumve alieri, fuste ferito. From this time, we hear no further complaints of the Fescennine verses, which continued to charm the Romans; until, about a century afterwards, and during the ravages of a dreadful pestilence, the senate, as the historians say, in order to propitiate the gods, called in a troop of players from Tuscany, to assist at the celebration of their ancient festivals. This was a wise and a salutary measure the plague had spread dejection through the city, which was thus rendered more obnoxious to its fury; and it therefore became necessary, by novel and extraordinary amusements, to divert the attention of the people from the melancholy objects around them.

As the Romans were unacquainted with the language of Tuscany, the players, Livy tells us, omitted the modulation and the words, and confined themselves solely to gestures, which were accompanied by the flute. This imperfect exhibition, however, was so superiour to their own, that the Romans eagerly strove to attain the art; and as soon as they could imitate what they admired, graced their rustick measures with musick and dancing. By degrees, they dropped the Fescennine verses, for something of a more

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