The Art Of Poetry An Epistle To The Pisos

H >> Horace >> The Art Of Poetry An Epistle To The Pisos

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

* * * * *

Empedocles, ambitious to be thought
A God, his name with Godlike honours fought,
Holding a worldly life of no account,
Lead'p coldly into aetna's burning mount.---
Let Poets then with leave resign their breath,
Licens'd and priveleg'd to rush on death!
Who gives a man his life against his will,
Murders the man, as much as those who kill.
'Tis not once only he hath done this deed;
Nay, drag him forth! your kindness wo'n't succeed:
Nor will he take again a mortal's shame,
And lose the glory of a death of fame.
Nor is't apparent, _why_ with verse he's wild:
Whether his father's ashes he defil'd;
Whether, the victim of incestuous love,
The Blasted Monument he striv'd to move:
Whate'er the cause, he raves; and like a Bear,
Burst from his cage, and loose in open air,
Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus.
Quem vero arripuit, tenet, occiditque legendo,
Non miffura cutem, nisi plena cruroris, hirudo.

* * * * *

Learn'd and unlearn'd the Madman puts to flight,
They quick to fly, he bitter to recite!
What hapless soul he seizes, he holds fast;
Rants, and repeats, and reads him dead at last:
Hangs on him, ne'er to quit, with ceaseless speech.
Till gorg'd and full of blood, a very Leech!

Notes on the EPISTLE to the PISOS Notes

I have referred the Notes to this place, that the reader might be left
to his genuine feelings, and the natural impression on reading the
Epistle, whether adverse or favourable to the idea I ventured to
premise, concerning its Subject and Design. In the address to my learned
and worthy friends I said little more than was necessary so open my
plan, and to offer an excuse for my undertaking. The Notes descend to
particulars, tending to illustrate and confirm my hypothesis; and adding
occasional explanations of the original, chiefly intended for the use
of the English Reader. I have endeavoured, according to the best of my
ability, to follow the advice of Roscommon in the lines, which I have
ventured to prefix to these Notes. How far I may be entitled to the
_poetical blessing_ promised by the Poet, the Publick must determine:
but were I, avoiding arrogance, to renounce all claim to it, such an
appearance of _Modesty_ would includes charge of _Impertinence_ for
having hazarded this publication._Take pains the_ genuine meaning _to
explore!_

There sweat, there strain, tug the laborious oar:
_Search ev'ry comment_, that your care can find;
Some here, some there, may hit the Poet's mind:
Yet be not blindly guided by the _Throng_;
The Multitude is always in the _Wrong_.
When things appear _unnatural_ or _hard_,
_Consult your_ author, _with_ himself compar'd!
Who knows what Blessing Phoebus may bestow,
And future Ages to your labour owe?
Such _Secrets_ are not easily found out,
But once _discoverd_, leave no room for doubt.
truth stamps _conviction_ in your ravish'd breast,
And _Peace_ and _Joy_ attend _the_ glorious guest.

Essay on Translated Verse ART of POETRY, an EPISTLE, &c.

Q. HORATII FLACCI EPISTOLA AD PISONES.

The work of Horace, now under consideration, has been so long known, and
so generally received, by the name of The Art of Poetry, that I have, on
account of that notoriety, submitted this translation to the Publick,
under that title, rather than what I hold to be the true one, viz.
Horace's Epistle to The Pisos. The Author of the English Commentary has
adopted the same title, though directly repugnant to his own system;
and, I suppose, for the very same reason.

The title, in general a matter of indifference, is, in the present
instance, of much consequence. On the title Julius Scaliger founded his
invidious, and injudicious, attack. De arte quares quid sentiam. Quid?
eqvidem quod de arte, sine arte tradita. To the Title all the editors,
and commentators, have particularly adverted; commonly preferring the
Epistolary Denomination, but, in contradiction to that preference,
almost universally inscribing the Epistle, the Art of Poetry. The
conduct, however, of Jason De Nores, a native of Cyprus, a learned and
ingenious writer of the 16th century, is very remarkable. In the year
1553 he published at Venice this work of Horace, accompanied with a
commentary and notes, written in elegant Latin, inscribing it, after
Quintilian, Q. Horatii Flacci Liber De Arte Poetica. [Foot note: I think
it right to mention that I have never seen the 1st edition, published
at Venice. With a copy of the second edition, printed in Paris, I was
favoured by Dr. Warton of Winchester.] The very-next year, however,
he printed at Paris a second edition, enriching his notes with many
observations on Dante and Petrarch, and changing the title, after mature
consideration, to _Q. Horatii Flacii_ EPISTOLA AD PISONES, _de Arte
Poetica._ His motives for this change he assigns in the following terms.

_Quare adductum me primum sciant ad inscriptionem operis immutandam non
levioribus de causis,& quod formam epistolae, non autem libri, in quo
praecepta tradantur, vel ex ipso principio prae se ferat, & quod in
vetustis exemplaribus Epistolarum libros subsequatur, & quad etiam summi
et praestantissimi homines ita sentiant, & quod minime nobis obstet
Quintiliani testimonium, ut nonnullis videtur. Nam si librum appellat
Quintilianus, non est cur non possit inter epistolas enumerari, cum et
illae ab Horatio in libros digestae fuerint. Quod vero DE ARTE POETICA
idem Quintilianus adjangat, nihil commaveor, cum et in epistolis
praecepta de aliqua re tradi possint, ab eodemque in omnibus pene, et
in iis ad Scaevam & Lollium praecipue jam factum videatur, in quibus
breviter eos instituit, qua ratione apud majores facile versarentur._

Desprez, the Dauphin Editor, retains both titles, but says, inclining to
the Epistolary, _Attamen artem poeticam vix appellem cum Quintiliano et
aliis: malim vero epistolam nuncupare cum nonnullis eruditis._ Monsieur
Dacier inscribes it, properly enough, agreable to the idea of Porphyry,
Q. Horatii Flacci DE ARTE POETICA LIBER; feu, EPISTOLA AD PISONES,
patrem, et filios._

Julius Scaliger certainly stands convicted of critical malice by his
poor cavil at _the supposed title_; and has betrayed his ignorance of
the ease and beauty of Epistolary method, as well as the most gross
misapprehension, by his ridiculous analysis of the work, resolving it
into thirty-six parts. He seems, however, to have not ill conceived the
genius of the poem, in saying that _it relished satire_. This he has
urged in many parts of his Poeticks, particularly in the Dedicatory
Epistle to his son, not omitting, however, his constant charge of _Art
without Art_. Horatius artem cum inscripsit, adeo sine ulla docet arte,
ut satyrae propius totum opus illud esse videatur. This comes almost
home to the opinion of the Author of the elegant commentaries on the two
Epistles of Horace to the Pisos and to Augustus, as expressed in the
Dedication to the latter: With the recital of that opinion I shall
conclude this long note. "The genius of Rome was bold and elevated: but
Criticism of any kind, was little cultivated, never professed as an
_art_, by this people. The specimens we have of their ability in this
way (of which the most elegant, beyond all dispute, are the two epistles
to _Augustus_ and the _Pisos_) _are slight occasional attempts_, made in
the negligence of common sense, _and adapted to the peculiar exigencies
of their own taste and learning_; and not by any means the regular
productions of _art_, professedly bending itself to this work, and
ambitious to give the last finishing to the critical system."

[_Translated from Horace._] In that very entertaining and instructive
publication, entitled _An Essay on the Learning and Genius of Pope_,
the Critick recommends, as the properest poetical measure to render in
English the Satires and Epistles of Horace, that kind of familiar blank
verse, used in a version of Terence, attempted some years since by the
Author of this translation. I am proud of the compliment; yet I have
varied from the mode prescribed: not because Roscommon has already given
such a version; or because I think the satyrical hexameters of Horace
less familiar than the irregular lambicks of Terence. English Blank
Verse, like the lambick of Greece and Rome, is peculiarly adapted to
theatrical action and dialogue, as well as to the Epick, and the more
elevated Didactick Poetry: but after the models left by Dryden and Pope,
and in the face of the living example of Johnson, who shall venture to
reject rhime in the province of Satire and Epistle?

9.--TRUST ME, MY PISOS!] _Credite Pisones!_

Monsieur Dacier, at a very early period, feels the influence of _the
personal address_, that governs this Epistle. Remarking on this passage,
he observes that Horace, anxious to inspire _the Pisos _with a just
taste, says earnestly _Trust me, my Pisos! Credite Pisones! _an
expression that betrays fear and distrust, lest _the young Men _should
fall into the dangerous error of bad poets, and injudicious criticks,
who not only thought the want of unity of subject a pardonable effect
of Genius, but even the mark of a rich and luxuriant imagination.
And although this Epistle, continues Monsieur Dacier, is addressed
indifferently to Piso the father, and his Sons, as appears by v. 24 of
the original, yet it is _to the sons in particular _that these precepts
are directed; a consideration which reconciles the difference mentioned
by Porphyry. _Scribit ad Pisones, viros nobiles disertosque, patrem et
filios; vel, ut alii volunt,_ ad pisones fratres.

Desprez, the Dauphin Editor, observes also, in the same strain, Porro
_scribit Horatius ad patrem et ad filios Pisones, _praesertim vero ad
hos.

The family of the _Pisos_, to whom Horace addresses this Epistle, were
called Calpurnii, being descended from Calpus, son of Numa Pompilius,
whence, he afterwards stiles them _of the Pompilian Blood. Pompilius
Sanguis! _

10.--THE VOLUME SUCH] Librum _persimilem. Liber_, observes Dacier, is a
term applied to all literary productions, of whatever description. This
remark is undoubtedly just, confirms the sentiments of Jason de Nores,
and takes off the force of all the arguments founded on Quintilian's
having stiled his Epistle LIBER de _arte poetica_.

Vossius, speaking of the censure of Scaliger, "_de arte, sine arte_,"
subsoins sed fallitur, cum [Greek: epigraphaen] putat esse ab Horatio;
qui inscipserat EPISTOLAM AD PISONES. Argumentum vero, ut in Epistolarum
raeteris, ita in bac etiam, ab aliis postea appositum fuit.

l9.----OFT WORKS OF PROMISE LARGE, AND HIGH ATTEMPT.] Incaeptis gra-
nibus plerumque, &c. Buckingham's _Essay on Poetry_, Roscommon's _Essay
on Translated Verse_, as well as the Satires, and _Art Poetique_ of
Boileau, and Pope's _Essay on Criticism_, abound with imitations of
Horace. This passage of our Author seems to have given birth to the
following lines of Buckingham.

'Tis not a slash of fancy, which sometimes,
Dazzling our minds, sets off the slighted rhimes;
Bright as a blaze, but in a moment done;
True Wit is everlasting, like the Sun;
Which though sometimes behind a cloud retir'd,
Breaks out again, and is the more admir'd.

The following lines of Pope may perhaps appear to bear a nearer
resemblance this passage of Horace.

Some to _Conceit_ alone their taste confine,
And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at ev'ry line;
Pleas'd with a work where nothing's just or fit;
One glaring chaos, and wild heap of wit.

_Essay on Criticism._

49.---Of th' Aemilian class ] _Aemilium circa ludum_--literally, near
the Aemilian School; alluding to the Academy of Gladiators of Aemilius
Lentulus, in whose neighbourhood lived many Artists and Shopkeepers.

This passage also is imitated by Buckingham.

Number and Rhime, and that harmonious found,
Which never _does_ the ear with _harshness_ wound,
Are _necessary_, yet but _vulgar_ arts;
For all in vain these superficial parts
Contribute to the structure of the whole
Without a _Genius_ too; for that's the _Soul_:
A _Spirit_ which inspires the work throughout
As that of _Nature_ moves the world about.

_Essay on Poetry._

Pope has given a beautiful illustration of this thought,

Survey THE WHOLE, nor seek slight faults to find
Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind;
In wit, as Nature, what affects our hearts,
Is not th' exactness of peculiar parts;
'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call,
But the joint force and full result of all.
Thus when we view some well-proportion'd dome,
(The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome!)
No single parts unequally surprise,
All comes united to th' admiring eyes;
No monstrous height, or breadth, or length appear;
THE WHOLE at once is bold and regular.

_Essay on Criticism._

56.--SELECT, ALL YE WHO WRITE, A SUBJECT FIT] _Sumite materiam, &c._

This passage is well imitated by Roscommon in his Essay on Translated
Verse.

The first great work, (a task perform'd by few)
Is, that _yourself_ may to _yourself_ be true:
No mask, no tricks, no favour, no reserve!
_Dissect_ your mind, examine ev'ry _nerve_.
Whoever vainly on his strength depends,
_Begins_ like Virgil, but like Maevius _ends_.

* * * * *

Each poet with a different talent writes,
One _praises_, one _instructs_, another _bites_.
Horace did ne'er aspire to Epick Bays,
Nor lofty Maro stoop to Lyrick Lays.
Examine how your _humour_ is inclin'd,
And which the ruling passion of your mind:
Then, seek a Poet who your way does bend,
And chuse an Author as you chuse a friend.
United by this sympathetick bond,
You grow familiar, intimate, and fond;
Your thoughts, your words your stiles, your Souls agree,
No longer his _interpreter_, but _He_.

_Stooping_ to Lyrick Lays, though not inapplicable to some of the
lighter odes of Horace, is not descriptive of the general character of
the Lyrick Muse. _Musa dedit Fidibus Divas &c._

Pope takes up the same thought in his Essay on Criticism.

Be sure yourself and your own reach to know,
How far your genius, taste, and learning go;
Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet,
And mark that point where sense and dulness meet.

* * * * *

Like Kings we lose the conquests gain'd before,
By vain ambition still to make them more:
Each might his servile province well command,
Would all but stoop to what they understand.

71.--_A cunning phrase_.] _Callida junctura_.

_Jason de Nores_ and many other interpreters agree that Horace here
recommends, after Aristotle, the artful elevation of style by the use
of common words in an uncommon sense, producing at once an air of
familiarity and magnificence. Some however confine the expression,
_callida junctura_, to signify _compound words_. The Author of the
English Commentary adopts the first construction; but considers the
precept in both senses, and illustrates each by many beautiful examples
from the plays of Shakespeare. These examples he has accompanied with
much elegant and judicious observation, as the reader of taste will be
convinced by the following short extracts.

"The writers of that time had so _latinized_ the English language, that
the pure _English Idiom_, which Shakespeare generally follows, has all
the air of _novelty_, which other writers are used to affect by foreign
phraseology.--In short, the articles here enumerated are but so many
ways of departing from the usual and simpler forms of speech, without
neglecting too much the grace of ease and perspicuity; in which
well-tempered licence one of the greatest charms of all poetry, but
especially of Shakespeare's poetry, consists. Not that he was always and
every where so happy. His expression sometimes, and by the very means,
here exemplified, becomes _hard_, _obscure_, and _unnatural_. This is
the extreme on the other side. But in general, we may say, that He hath
either followed the direction of Horace very ably, or hath hit upon his
rule very happily."

76.--THE STRAIT-LAC'D CETHEGI.] CINCTUTIS _Cethegis_. Jason de Nores
differs, and I think very justly, from those who interpret _Cinctutis_
to signify _loose_, _bare_, or _naked_--EXERTOS & NUDOS. The plain sense
of the radical word _cingo_ is directly opposite. The word _cinctutis_
is here assumed to express a severity of manners by an allusion to an
antique gravity of dress; and the Poet, adds _de Nores_, very happily
forms a new word himself, as a vindication and example of the licence
he recommends. Cicero numbers M. Corn. Cethegus among the old Roman
Orators; and Horace himself again refers to the Cethegi in his Epistle
to Florus, and on the subject of the use of words.

_Obscurata diu papula bonus eruet, atque_
Proseret in lucem speciosa vocabula rer*um;
***need a Latin speaker to check this out***
_Quae priscis memorata_ CATONIBUS _atque_ CETHEGIS,
Nunc situs informis premit & deserta vetustas;
Adsciscet nova quae genitor produxerit usus.

Mark where a bold expressive phrase appears,
Bright thro' the rubbish of some hundred years;
Command _old words_ that long have slept, to wake,
Words, that wife Bacon, or brave Raleigh spake;
Or bid _the new_ be English, ages hence,
For Use will father what's begot by Sense.

POPE.

This brilliant passage of Pope is quoted in this place by the author of
that English Commentary, who has also subjoined many excellent remarks on
_the revival of old words_, worthy the particular attention of those
who cultivate prose as well as poetry, and shewing at large, that "the
riches of a language are actually increased by retaining its old words:
and besides, they have often _a greater real weight and dignity_, than
those of a more _fashionable_ cast, which succeed to them. This needs
no proof to such as are versed in the earlier writings of any
language."--"_The growing prevalency of a very different humour_, first
catched, as it should seem, from our commerce with the French Models,
_and countenanced by the too scrupulous delicacy of some good writers
amongst ourselves, bad gone far towards unnerving the noblest modern
language, and effeminating the public taste_."--"The rejection of _old
words_, as _barbarous_, and of many modern ones, as unpolite," had so
exhausted the _strength_ and _stores_ of our language, that it was high
time for some master-hand to interpose, and send us for supplies to _our
old poets_; which there is the highest authority for saying, no one ever
despised, but for a reason, not very consistent with his credit to avow:
_rudem esse omnino in nostris poetis, aut inertissimae nequitiae est,
aut fastidii delicatissimi.-- Cic. de fin._ 1. i. c. 2.

[As woods endure, &c.] _Ut silvae foliis_, &c. Mr. Duncombe, in his
translation of our Author, concurs with Monsieur Dacier in observing
that "Horace seems here to have had in view that fine similitude of
Homer in the sixth book of the Iliad, comparing the generations of men
to the annual succession of leaves.

[Greek:
Oipaeer phyllon genehn, toiaede ch ahndron.
phylla ta mehn t anemohs chamahdis cheei, ahllah de thula
Taeletheasa phyei, earos depigigyel(*)ai orae
Oz andron genen. aemen phnei, aeh dahpolaegei.]

"Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground;
Another race the following spring supplies,
They fall successive, and successive rise:
So generations in their turns decay;
So flourish these, when those are past away."

The translator of Homer has himself compared words to leaves, but in
another view, in his Essay on Criticism.

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

In another part of the Essay he persues the same train of thought with
Horace, and rises, I think, above his Master.

Short is the date, alas, of modern rhymes,
And 'tis but just to let them live betimes.
No longer now that golden age appears,
When Patriarch-wits surviv'd a thousand years;
Now length of Fame (our second life) is lost,
And bare threescore is all ev'n that can boast;
Our sons their father's failing language see,
And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be.
So when the faithful pencil has design'd
Some bright idea of the Master's mind,
Where a new world leaps out at his command,
And ready Nature waits upon his hand;
When the ripe colours soften and unite,
And sweetly melt into just shade and light;
When mellowing years their full perfection give,
And each bold figure just begins to live;
The treach'rous colours the fair art betray,
And all the bright creation fades away!

_Essay an Criticism._

95.--WHETHER THE SEA, &c.] _Sive receptus, &c._

This may be understood of any harbour; but it is generally interpreted
to refer to the _Portus Julius_, a haven formed by letting in the sea
upon the _Lucrine Lake_, and forming a junction between that and the
Lake _Avernus_; a work, commenced by Julius Caesar, and compleated by
Augustus, or Agrippa under his auspices. _Regis opus!_ Both these
lakes (says Martin) were in Campania: the former was destroyed by an
earthquake; but the latter is the present _Lago d'Averno_. Strabo, the
Geographer, who, as well as our Poet, was living at the time, ascribes
this work to Agrippa, and tells us that the Lucrine bay was separated
from the Tyrrhene sea by a mound, said to have been first made by
Hercules, and restored by Agrippa. Philargyrius says that a storm arose
at the time of the execution of this great work, to which Virgil seems
to refer in his mention of this Port, in the course of his Panegyrick on
Italy in the second Georgick.

An memorem portus Lucrinoque addita claustra,
Atque indignatem magnis strideribus aequor,
Julia qua ponto longe sonat unda refuso,
Tyrrbenusque fretis immittitur aeflut AVERNIS?

Or shall I praise thy Ports, or mention make
Of the vast mound, that binds the Lucrine Lake?
Or the disdainful sea, that, shut from thence,
Roars round the structure, and invades the fence;
There, where secure the Julian waters glide,
Or where Avernus' jaws admit the Tyrrhene tide?
DRYDEN.

98.--WHETHER THE MARSH, &c. Sterilisve Palus.]

THE PONTINE MARSH, first drained by the Consul Cornelius Cethegus; then,
by Augustus; and many, many years after by Theodorick.

102.--OR IF THE RIVER, &c.] _Sen cursum, &c._ The course of the _Tyber,_
changed by Augustus, to prevent inundations.

110.--FOR DEEDS OF KINGS, &c.] Res gestae regumque, &c.

The ingenious author of the English Commentary, to whom I have so
often referred, and to whom I must continue to refer, has discovered
particular taste, judgement, and address, in his explication of this
part of the Epistle. runs thus.

"From reflections on poetry, at large, he proceeds now to particulars:
the most obvious of which being the different forms and measures of
poetick composition, he considers, in this view, [from v. 75 to 86] the
four great species of poetry, to which all others may be reduced, the
Epick, Elegiack, Dramatick, and Lyrick. But the distinction of the
measure, to be observed in the several species is so obvious, that there
can scarcely be any mistake about them. The difficulty is to know [from
v. 86 to 89] how far each may partake of the spirit of the other,
without destroying that natural and necessary difference, which ought
to subsist betwixt them all. To explain this, which is a point of great
nicety, he considers [from v. 89 to 99] the case of Dramatick Poetry;
the two species of which are as distinct from each other, as any two
can be, and yet there are times, when the features of the one will be
allowed to resemble those of the other.--But the Poet had a further view
in choosing this instance. For he gets by this means into the main of
his subject, which was Dramatick Poetry, and, by the most delicate
transition imaginable, proceeds [from 89 to 323] to deliver a series
of rules, interspersed with historical accounts, _and enlivened by
digressions_, for the regulation of the Roman stage."

It is needless to insist, that my hypothesis will not allow me to concur
entirely in the latter part of this extract; at least in that latitude,
to which; the system of the writer carries it: yet I perfectly agree
with Mr. Duncombe, that the learned Critick, in his observations on this
Epistle, "has shewn, in general, the connection and dependence of one
part with another, in a clearer light than any other Commentator." His
shrewd and delicate commentary is, indeed, a most elegant contrast to
the barbarous analysis of Scaliger, drawn up without the least idea of
poetical transition, and with the uncouth air of a mere dry logician, or
dull grammarian. I think, however, the _Order_ and _Method_, observed
in this Epistle, is stricter than has yet been observed, and that the
series of rules is delivered with great regularity; NOT _enlivened
by digressions_, but passing from one topick to another, by the most
natural and easy transitions. The Author's discrimination of the
different stiles of the several species of poetry, leads him, as has
been already shewn, to consider the diction of the Drama, and its
accommodation to the _circumstances_ and _character_ of the Speaker. A
recapitulation of these _circumstances_ carries him to treat of the due
management of _characters already known_, as well as of sustaining those
that are entirely _original_; to the first of which the Poet gives
the preference, recommending _known_ characters, as well as _known_
subjects: And on the mention of this joint preference, the Author leaves
further consideration of _the_ diction, and slides into discourse upon
the fable, which he continues down to the 152d verse.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9