Volume Ii Part 32 (1/2)
There is nothing which more denotes a great Mind, than the Abhorrence of Envy and Detraction. This Pa.s.sion reigns more among bad Poets, than among any other Set of Men.
As there are none more ambitious of Fame, than those who are conversant in Poetry, it is very natural for such as have not succeeded in it to depreciate the Works of those who have. For since they cannot raise themselves to the Reputation of their Fellow-Writers, they must endeavour to sink it to their own Pitch, if they would still keep themselves upon a Level with them.
The greatest Wits that ever were produced in one Age, lived together in so good an Understanding, and celebrated one another with so much Generosity, that each of them receives an additional l.u.s.tre from his Contemporaries, and is more famous for having lived with Men of so extraordinary a Genius, than if he had himself been the [sole Wonder [1]] of the Age. I need not tell my Reader, that I here point at the Reign of _Augustus_, and I believe he will be of my Opinion, that neither _Virgil_ nor _Horace_ would have gained so great a Reputation in the World, had they not been the Friends and Admirers of each other.
Indeed all the great Writers of that Age, for whom singly we have so great an Esteem, stand up together as Vouchers for one anothers Reputation. But at the same time that _Virgil_ was celebrated by _Gallus, Propertius, Horace, Varius, Tucca_ and _Ovid_, we know that _Bavius_ and _Maevius_ were his declared Foes and Calumniators.
In our own Country a Man seldom sets up for a Poet, without attacking the Reputation of all his Brothers in the Art. The Ignorance of the Moderns, the Scribblers of the Age, the Decay of Poetry, are the Topicks of Detraction, with which he makes his Entrance into the World: But how much more n.o.ble is the Fame that is built on Candour and Ingenuity, according to those beautiful Lines of Sir _John Denham_, in his Poem on _Fletchers_ Works!
But whither am I strayed? I need not raise Trophies to thee from other Mens Dispraise: Nor is thy Fame on lesser Ruins built, Nor needs thy juster t.i.tle the foul Guilt Of Eastern Kings, who, to secure their Reign, Must have their Brothers, Sons, and Kindred slain.
I am sorry to find that an Author, who is very justly esteemed among the best Judges, has admitted some Stroaks of this Nature into a very fine Poem; I mean _The Art of Criticism_, which was publish'd some Months since, and is a Master-piece in its kind. [2] The Observations follow one another like those in _Horace's Art of Poetry_, without that methodical Regularity which would have been requisite in a Prose Author.
They are some of them uncommon, but such as the Reader must a.s.sent to, when he sees them explained with that Elegance and Perspicuity in which they are delivered. As for those which are the most known, and the most received, they are placed in so beautiful a Light, and ill.u.s.trated with such apt Allusions, that they have in them all the Graces of Novelty, and make the Reader, who was before acquainted with them, still more convinced of their Truth and Solidity. And here give me leave to mention what Monsieur _Boileau_ has so very well enlarged upon in the Preface to his Works, that Wit and fine Writing doth not consist so much in advancing Things that are new, as in giving Things that are known an agreeable Turn. It is impossible for us, who live in the lat[t]er Ages of the World, to make Observations in Criticism, Morality, or in any Art or Science, which have not been touched upon by others. We have little else left us, but to represent the common Sense of Mankind in more strong, more beautiful, or more uncommon Lights. If a Reader examines _Horace's Art of Poetry_, he will find but very few Precepts in it, which he may not meet with in _Aristotle_, and which were not commonly known by all the Poets of the _Augustan_ Age. His Way of expressing and applying them, not his Invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire.
For this Reason I think there is nothing in the World so tiresome as the Works of those Criticks who write in a positive Dogmatick Way, without either Language, Genius, or Imagination. If the Reader would see how the best of the _Latin_ Criticks writ, he may find their Manner very beautifully described in the Characters of _Horace, Petronius, Quintilian_, and _Longinus_, as they are drawn in the Essay of which I am now speaking.
Since I have mentioned _Longinus_, who in his Reflections has given us the same kind of Sublime, which he observes in the several pa.s.sages that occasioned them; I cannot but take notice, that our _English_ Author has after the same manner exemplified several of his Precepts in the very Precepts themselves. I shall produce two or three Instances of this Kind. Speaking of the insipid Smoothness which some Readers are so much in Love with, he has the following Verses.
These_ Equal Syllables _alone require, Tho oft the_ Ear _the_ open Vowels _tire, While_ Expletives _their feeble Aid_ do _join, And ten low Words oft creep in one dull Line.
The gaping of the Vowels in the second Line, the Expletive _do_ in the third, and the ten Monosyllables in the fourth, give such a Beauty to this Pa.s.sage, as would have been very much admired in an Ancient Poet.
The Reader may observe the following Lines in the same View.
A needless Alexandrine _ends the Song, That like a wounded Snake, drags its slow Length along_.
And afterwards,
Tis not enough no Harshness gives Offence, The Sound must seem an Eccho to the Sense.
Soft is the Strain when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth Stream in smoother Numbers flows; But when loud Surges lash the sounding Sh.o.r.e, The hoa.r.s.e rough Verse shou'd like the Torrent roar.
When Ajax strives some Rocks vast Weight to throw, The Line too labours, and the Words move slow; Not so, when swift Camilla scours the Plain, Flies o'er th' unbending Corn, and skims along the Main.
The beautiful Distich upon _Ajax_ in the foregoing Lines, puts me in mind of a Description in _Homer's_ Odyssey, which none of the Criticks have taken notice of. [3] It is where _Sisyphus_ is represented lifting his Stone up the Hill, which is no sooner carried to the top of it, but it immediately tumbles to the Bottom. This double Motion of the Stone is admirably described in the Numbers of these Verses; As in the four first it is heaved up by several _Spondees_ intermixed with proper Breathing places, and at last trundles down in a continual Line of _Dactyls_.
[Greek: Ka maen Sisyphon eiseidon, krater alge echonta, Laan Bastazonta pelorion amphoteraesin.
Aetoi ho men skaeriptomenos chersin te posin te, Laan ano otheske pot lophon, all hote melloi Akron hyperbaleein, tot apostrepsaske krataiis, Autis epeita pedonde kylindeto laas anaidaes.]
It would be endless to quote Verses out of _Virgil_ which have this particular Kind of Beauty in the Numbers; but I may take an Occasion in a future Paper to shew several of them which have escaped the Observation of others.
I cannot conclude this Paper without taking notice that we have three Poems in our Tongue, which are of the same Nature, and each of them a Master-Piece in its Kind; the Essay on Translated Verse [4], the Essay on the Art of Poetry [5], and the Essay upon Criticism.
[Footnote 1: [single Product]]
[Footnote 2: At the time when this paper was written Pope was in his twenty-fourth year. He wrote to express his grat.i.tude to Addison and also to Steele. In his letter to Addison he said,