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admission of new words. Virgil employs several words in a sense peculiar to himself, as is remarked by Aurelius Victor. The Latinity of Livy has not escaped without censure; and though his style is better, his language is not purer than that of Tacitus. This last admirable writer offends only by the affected conciseness of his manner, which does not which does not possess the simpli

city required in history. Even Seneca himself, amidst the glare of his false eloquence, is guilty of incorrectness in taste, rather than of impurity in language. True indeed it is, that when taste is corrupted, language generally declines; but it is not the want of refinement, which can be imputed as a fault to most of the authors, who wrote immediately subsequent to the Augustan age.

A learned critic contends, that Persius brought satiric poetry to perfection, inasmuch as he was the first who treated only of one subject in each of his satires. Unity of subject, adds he, is as essential to satire, as unity of fable to tragedy.

I am doubtful if this be either true with

respect to fact, or just with respect to criticism. Horace certainly does not violate the unity of subject, for example, in his first satire; and Persius can hardly be said to have preserved it in his sixth. In the fifth likewise, the most excellent of his satires, Persius cannot claim much praise for preserving the unity of subject, as he commences with some severe strictures upon bombast poets, and concludes with a dissertation upon liberty, as it was understood by the Stoics.

But is this critic right, in thinking that unity of subject is conformable to the nature, or consistent with the original plan of satire? Let us very briefly retrace the history of this species of poetry, and afterwards examine the justice of this opinion.

During the early ages of Rome the Fescennine verses, and the songs of the Salii, were probably the only poetical compositions known to the RoThe Fescennine verses were generally

mans.

sung, or recited, at the annual celebration of the feast of Saturn, and upon other occasions of public rejoicing.

But the Tuscans were at this time the most esteemed for their poetical productions of any people of Italy; and the Romans having insti tuted scenic representations, in order to appease the anger of the gods after a pestilence, hired some players from Tuscany, to assist at these exhibitions. As the language of the Tuscans was not understood at Rome, they confined themselves to pantomime, and by their looks and gestures, full of expression, spoke to the heart and to the pas sions, with the energy of a thousand of a thousand tongues.

The Romans soon caught the art, which they admired. In the year 514 of Rome, Livius Andronicus performed several pieces of his own, and added the interest of dialogue to the graces of action. Previous to this æra, the poems recited in public were known by the name of Satire. Many disputes have arisen on the derivation of this

word. According to Diomedes the grammarian, it may be derived, either à Satyris, because it abounds with immodest and ridiculous things, such as might be said and done by those representing satyrs on the stage; or from satura lanx, a full dish, in which the various first fruits of the year were anciently offered to the gods.

If satire be entirely a Roman poem, as is asserted both by Horace and Quintilian; the latter is evidently the juster derivation. It is then perhaps only necessary to admit this fact, to be convinced that satire was originally considered as a mixed and motley kind of composition-an olla, in which subjects were introduced with little attention to order or method.

If, indeed, arrangement or regularity had been thought essential to this species of composition, Horace would not have shewn himself so deficient in that lucid order which he recommends in his Epistle to the Pisos. But the truth is, that he considered variety as essential to satire. The

dish was not only to be full of fruit, but was to

contain all kinds.

Et sermone opus est, modo tristi sæpe jocoso,
Defendente vicem modo rhetoris atque poetæ :
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque
Extenuantis eas consulto. Ridiculum acri
Fortius et melius plerumque secat res.

HOR.

But even if it should appear that satire was of Greek, or rather of Sicilian origin, still the earliest of the Roman satirists seem to have thought, that unity of subject was by no means consistent with the nature of the poetry which they wrote. Had not this been the case, they would not have preferred the old Greek comedy to the new. Menander would have been their model, and not Aristophanes.

It is partly from considering with attention the ancient satires which still remain; and partly from investigating with accuracy the history of satiric poetry, that we shall be best enabled to form a just judgment with respect to it. If I were to offer my opinion, I should say, that I believe

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