De vi Scis simulare: quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes Denique sit quod vis, simplex duntaxat et unum. III. Maxima pars vatum, pater et juvenes patre digni, tandis Decipimur specie recti: brevis esse laboro, vitiis in charac- Obscurus fio: sectantem levia nervi tere Stili. Deficiunt animique: professus grandia, turget; - 23. Quidvis, Bentl. et Cun. ex MSS. vis quod, 26. Lenia, Bentl. Cun. San. ex MSS. gressions against the law of UNITY. To ver. 23. is considered and exposed that particular violation of uniformity, into which young poets especially are apt to run, arising from frequent and ill-timed descriptions. These, however beautiful in themselves, and with whatever mastery they may be executed, yet, if foreign to the subject, and incongruous to the place where they stand, are extremely impertinent: a caution, the more necessary, as the mistake itself arises [from ver. 24. to 26.], from an ambition of being right. There are two cases, in which this ambition remarkably misleads us. The first is, when it tempts us to push an acknowledged beauty too far. Great 20. Quid hoc? What would be the use of that? --- Enatat exspes,&c. Alluding to a custom among mariners, who, wishing to excite compassion among the by-standers, usually carried on their back a painting of the perils they had suffered on the seas. Vide Persius, Sat. i. 88. &c. et cantet si naufragus, essem 21. Amphora cœpit. Amphora was from αμφὶ and φερῶ, because it might be carried by the hands on both sides; it contained about 9 gall. English. This seems to imply "inceptis gravibus," whereas the urceus, being a diminutive vessel, may very aptly be opposed to "purpureus pannus.” 23. Simplex duntaxat et unum. Conf. Notes 127. 135. 151. 316. 24. Pater et juvenes patre digni. Piso and his two sons. 25. Brevis esse laboro, &c. Quintilian observes, (Lib. iv. c. 2.)" Nimium corripientes omnia sequitur obscuritas." Serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellæ. beauties are always in the confines of great faults; and therefore, by affecting superior excellence, we are easily carried into absurdity. Thus [from ver. 25. to 30.] brevity is often obscurity; sublimity, bombast; caution, coolness; and, to come round to the point, a fondness for varying, and diversifying a subject, by means of episodes and descriptions, such as are mentioned above [ver. 15.], will often betray a writer into that capital error of violating the unity of his piece. The several episodes or descriptions, intended to give variety, may be inserted in improper places; and then the absurdity is as great, as that of the painter, who, according to the illustration of ver. 19,20. should introduce a cypress into a sea-piece, or according to the illustration of the present verse, who paints a dolphin in a wood, or a boar in the sea. 2. Another instance, in which we are misled by an ambition of attaining to what is right, is, when, through an excessive 29. Qui variare cupit rem prodigialitèr unam, &c. The word prodigialitèr, apparently refers to that fictitious monster, under which the poet allusively shadows out the idea of absurd and inconsistent composition. The application, however, differs in this, that, whereas the monster, there painted, was intended to expose the extravagance of putting together incongruous parts, without any reference to a whole, this prodigy is designed to characterise a whole, but deformed by the illjudged position of its parts. The former is like a monster, whose several members, as of right belonging to different animals, could, by no disposition, be made to constitute one consistent animal. The other, like a landscape, which hath no objects absolutely irrelative or irreducible to a whole, but which a wrong position of the parts only renders prodigious. Send the boar to the woods, and the dolphin to the waves; and the painter might shew them both on the same canvass. Each is a violation of the law of unity, and a real monster: the one, because it contains an assemblage of natural incoherent parts; the other, because its parts, though in themselves coherent, are misplaced and disjointed. HURD. 31. In vitium ducit culpæ fuga. Horace makes this remark (Lib. i. Sat. ii. 24.) Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt. IV. Materi Æmilium circa ludum faber imus et ungues diligen. Exprimet, et molles imitabitur ære capillos; am esse dam, quam possi implere. Infelix operis summa, quia ponere totum mus Nesciet. Hunc ego me, si quid componere curem, 32. Unus. Bentl. ex MSS. Cun. San. MS. Helmst. 36. Naso vivere pravo, Lamb. MSS. 4. Bers. MS. Helmst. et Bentl. 40. Pudenter, V.D. fear of committing faults, we disqualify ourselves for the just execution of a whole or of such particulars, as are susceptible of real beauty. For not the affectation of superior excellencies only, but even In vitium ducit culpæ fuga, si caret arte. This is aptly illustrated by the case of a sculptor; whose over-scrupulous diligence to finish single and trivial parts in a statue, which, when most exact are only not faulty, leaves him utterly incapable of doing justice to the more important members, and, above all, of designing and completing a whole with any degree of perfection. But this latter is commonly the defect of a minute genius; who, having taken in hand a design, which he is by no means able to execute, naturally applies himself to labour at and finish those parts, which he finds are with Ordinis hæc virtus erit et venus, aut ego fallor, -- 43. Pro nunc, non, V. D. haud, MS. Bersm. et 46. ante 45. ponunt omnes præter Bentl. in his power. It is of consequence therefore [from ver.38. to 40.] Thus far some general reflections concerning poetical distribution; principally, as it may be affected by false notions, 1.Of poetic licence [ver. 10.] and, 2. Of poetic perfection [ver. 25.] Reddiderit junctura novum. Si forte necesse est Continget; dabiturque licentia sumta pudenter. 0 ૬ 50 μ 49. Rerum, et, Lamb. Glar. et ita continget ad apodosin refertur. 52. Factaque, Fabric. ex MSS. Bentl. Cun, к But the same causes will equally affect the language, as method of poetry. To these then are properly subjoined some directions about the use of words. Now this particular depending so entirely on what is out of the reach of rule, as the fashion of the age, the taste of the writer, and his knowledge of the language in which he writes, the poet only gives directions about new words; or, since every language is necessarily imperfect, about the coining of such words as the writer's necessity or convenience may demand. And here, after having prescribed [ver. 45.] a great caution and sparingness in the thing itself, he observes, 1. [to ver. 49.] That where it ought to be done, the better and less offensive way will be, not to coin a word entirely new, (for this is ever a task of some envy) but, by means of an ingenious and happy position of a well-known word, in respect the earliest orators. LUDOV. DES. Obscurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque and Quintilian has a very forcible rant.' |