Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

tionis discrimen illud, quod præcipue inter Homerum et Virgilium deprehenditur; cum sententias et ornamenta quæ Homerus sparserat, Virgilius, Romanorum arium causa, contraxerit; atque ad mores et ingenia retulerit eorum, qui a poesi non petebant publicam aut privatam institutionem, quam ipsi Marte suo invenerant; sed tantum delectationem."* Blackwell, in his excellent Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, has taken many observations from this valuable book, particularly in his twelfth Section.

11. Some beauties yet no precepts can declare,
For there's a happiness, as well as care.
Music resembles poetry; in each

Are nameless graces, which no methods teach,
And which a master-hand alone can reach.†

POPE in this passage seems to have remembered one of the essays of Bacon, of which he is known to have been remarkably fond. "There is no excellent beauty, that hath not some strange

VOL. I.

K

ness

*J. Vincentii Gravinæ de POESI, ad S. Maffeium EPIST. Added to his treatise entitled, Della Ragion Poetica. In Napoli. 1716. pag. 239, 250.

+ Ver. 141.

:

ness in the proportion. A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler whereof the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions; the other, by taking the best parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent. Such personages, I think, would please nobody, but the painter that made them. Not but I think, a painter may make a better face than ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity, as a musician that maketh an excellent ayre in music, and not by rule. A man shall see faces, that, if you examine them, part by part, you shall find never a good one; and yet altogether doe well."*

12. Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take,

May boldly deviate from the common track;
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,

And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,
Which, without passing thro' the judgment, gains
The heart, and all its ends at once obtains.†

Here

* Essay xliii. On BEAUTY.

↑ Ver. 150. These lines were thus printed in Dr. Warbur ton's quarto edition, 1743, page 16; and again in the octavo edition made use of in this work, 1752.

Here is evidently a blameable mixture of metaphors, where the attributes of the horse and the writer are confounded. The former may

justly be said to "take a nearer way, and to deviate from a track;" but how can a horse

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

13. Some figures monstrous and mishap'd appear,
Consider'd singly, or beheld too near,

Which, but proportion'd to their light, or place,
Due distance reconciles to form and grace.*

By this excellent observation, delivered in a beautiful metaphor, all the faults imputed to Homer may be justified. Those who censure what is called the GROSSNESS of some of his images, may please to attend to the following remark of a writer, by no means prejudiced in favour of the ancients. "Quant a ce qu'on appelle GROSSIERETE dans les héros d'Homére, on peut rire tant qu'on voudra de voir Patrocle, au neuviéme livre de l'Iliade, mettre trois gigots de mouton dans une marmite, allumer et souffler le feu, et préparer le diner avec Achille: Achille et Patrocle

[blocks in formation]

n'en sont pas moins éclatans. Charles XII. Roi de Suéde, a fait six mois sa cuisine a Demir-Tocca, sans perdre rien de son heroisme; et la plupart de nos generaux qui portent dans une campe tout le luxe d'une cour effeminée, auront bien de la pein a egaler ces heros, qui faisoient leur cuisine eux-memes.En un mot, Homere avoit a representer un Ajax et un Hector; non un courtisan de Versailles, ou de Saint James."*

14. A prudent chief not always must display
His pow'rs in equal rank, and fair array.†

The same may be said of music: concerning which, a discerning judge has lately made the following observation. "I do not mean to affirm, that in this extensive work (of Marcello) every recitative, air, or chorus, is of equal excellence. A continued elevation of this kind no author ever came up to. Nay, if we consider that variety, which in all arts is necessary to keep up attention, we may, perhaps, affirm, with truth,

that

* Voltaire, Essay sur la Poesie Epique. Les Oeuvres, Tom. ii. pag. 354, 355. This Essay is very different from what formerly appeared in England.

† Ver. 175.

that INEQUALITY makes a part of the character of excellence; that something ought to be thrown into shades, in order to make the lights more striking. And, in this respect, Marcello is truly excellent: if ever he seems to FALL, it is only to RISE with more astonishing majesty and greatness. It may be pertinent to subjoin Roscommon's remark on the same subject,

Far the greatest part

Of what some call neglect, is study'd art,
When Virgil seems to trifle in a line,
'Tis but a warning-piece, which gives the sign
To wake your fancy, and prepare your sight
To reach the noble height of some unusual flight.t

15. Hail bards triumphant born in happier days.

Doctor Warburton is of opinion, that "there is a pleasantry in this title, which alludes to the state of WARFARE that all true genius must undergo while here on earth." Is not this interpretation of the word triumphant very far-fetched, and foreign to the author's meaning? who, I conceive,

K 3

Avison's Essay on Musical Expression, edit. ii. page 103.

Essay on Transl. Verse.

* Ver. 189.

« ZurückWeiter »