Speeches of Satan and Belial in the 6th Book.

O Friends, why come not on thefe Victors proud? &c. BESIDES the Puning, there is a another very confiderable Fault in that Passage, and feveral other Places of the Poem. Any Thing of Burlesque, or Drollery, is, by all the Criticks, excluded from the Serioufnefs of an Epick Poem. HOMER, in this Particular, has failed as well as MILTON, and VIRGIL has been conftantly preferred to them both for his Conduct, according to * the Criticks, entirely blameless in this Refpect: However, I remember a Paffage in the 12th Eneid, where the Poet, in his own Perfon, breaks through the ferious Air of his Poem, and finks into a low Piece of Ri. dicule and Drollery.

Parte alia, media Eumedes in pralia fertur,
Antiqui proles bello praclara Dolonis,

Nomine avum referens, animo manibusque parentem :
Qui quondam, caftra ut Danaum fpeculator adiret,
Aufus Pelida pretium fibi pofcere currus.

Illum Tydides alio pro talibus aufis

Affecit pretio: nec equis adfpirat Achillis,

In the fame Book, the Death of Ebufus is related, with a Circumstance perfectly ludicrous.

*See Spectator, Vol. 4. No 219.

dicrous. Chorineus, fnatching a Brand from the Altar, fets his Beard on Fire; the bla zing and stinking of which is particularly described.

Obvius ambuftum torrem Chorinaus ab ara
Corripit, & venienti Ebufo plagamque ferenti
Occupat os flammis: illi ingens barba reluxit,
Nidoremque ambufta dedit: fuper ipfe fecutus
Cafariem lava turbati corripit hoftis, &c.

THIS Circumstance, tho' in a tragical Action, would infallibly produce Laughter in the Spectators, and is properer to be Part of an Adventure in Don Quixot, or Hudibras, than an Epick Poem.

Poftquam prima quies epulis, menfaque remota;
Crateras magnos ftatuunt, vina coronant.
Fit ftrepitus tectis, vocemque per ampla volutant
Atria: dependent lychni laquearibus aureis
Incenfi: & noctem flammis funalia vincunt.
Hic Regina gravem gemmis auroque popofcit,
Implevitque mero pateram; quam Belus, & omnes
A Belo foliti. Tum facta filentia teftis ;
Jupiter (hofpitibus nam te dare jura loquuntur)
Hunc latum Tyriifque diem Trojaque profectis
Effe velis, noftrofque hujus meminiffe minores.
Adfit latitia Bacchus dator, & bona Juno:
Et vos o cœtum Tyrii celebrate faventes.
Dixit, & in menfam laticum libavit honorem:
Primaque libato, fummo tenus attigit ore,
Tum Bitia dedit increpitans: ille impiger haufit
Spumantem pateram, & pleno fe proiuit auro.

THIS

THIS Action of Bitias is alfo buffoonish, and probably borrowed from that very Paffage of the Ift ILIAD, for which HOMER has been blam'd, where Vulcan's Aukwardness raises the Laughter of the Gods: However, it must be owned, that the Drunkennefs of Bitias was a properer Subject for Mirth and Ridicule, than the Lameness of Vulcan. The above Quotation deserves Attention, as it is the best Account of the Collations of the Ancients. How inferior is the

Dependent lychni laquearibus aureis Incenfi, & noctem flammis funalia vincunt. to this of our Poet?

from the arched Roof,

Pendent by fubtle Magick, many a Row
Of ftarry Lamps, and blazing Crefcents, fed
With Naptha and Asphaltus, yielded Light
As from a Sky.

THE Pieces of Burlesque we meet with in MILTON, were entirely owing to his exceffive Fondness for HOMER; and there are even more injudicious Imitations to be found in VIRGIL: For Example, Longinus has cenfured HOMER for the Story of Polypheme, &c. in the Odyffey; yet VIRGIL copies them, and indeed they are still worse

in

in the ÆNEID, for in HOMER they contribute to the Design of the Poem, in raifing the Character of the Hero, as his Conquefts aud Escapes from them are signal Inftances of that confùmmate Prudence, which the Poet proposed to celebrate; this cannot be faid of them, as imitated by VIRGIL, for there they contribute nothing to the Poet's Defign, and rather leffen than advance the Character of the Hero.

THERE are feveral Contradictions, and fuch like little Faults in the Paradife Loft, which are to be imputed to the Blindness and ill Memory of the Author; the common Obfervation in this Cafe holding, that Strength of Imagination is generally accompanied with fhortnefs of Memory. I fhall here inftance a Fault of this Kind, and, I think, the most flagrant One in the Poem, tho' many as ill may be found in the ILIAD or ÆNEID. It is in the Speech of Moloch in the 2d Book.

But perhaps

The Way feems difficult and steep, to scale
With upright Wing against a higher Foe.
Let fuch bethink them, if the sleepy Drench
of that forgetful Lake benumb not still,
That in our proper Motion we afcend

Up

Up to our native Seat: Defcent and Fall
To us is adverfe. Who but felt of late,
When the fierce Foe hung on our broken Rear
Infulting, and pursued us thro' the Deep,
With what Compulfion, and laborious Flight,
We funk thus low? Th' Afcent is easy then.

If the Poet had defigned to inform us, that the natural Motion of Spirits was upwards, and just the contrary of what we call Gravity, he should have told it in his own Person, or made fome of the Angels relate it to Adam. But it is certainly most abfurd, to make a Spirit, in the Time of a deep and important Confultation, spend a Dozen of Lines, in telling what every one of his Auditors must have known, as well as himself, if it was really the Cafe. "Tis exactly the fame, as if a General Officer, in the folemn Debates of a Council of War, should rise up, and with a long grave Speech inform his Colleagues, that it was easier to go down than Up-hill.

DOCTOR Bentley very well remarks the Contradiction, in the Word Flight, being applied to Sinking, which he amends, by putting Strife in its Place, which leaves the Matter just as it was; for the Impropriety lay in the Word Sunk.

SOME