Part 3 (1/2)

[7] _Vide_ Collier's _Reflexions on_ Moarning Bride, _and_ Garth's _Dispensary_.

[8] _I know some have affirm'd that_ Moses's _Song in the_ 14_th of_ Exodus _was writ in Hexameters, but I can't perceive any such thing in it, any more than in the_ 90_th_ Psalm, _or the Book of_ Job, _which seem to be written about the same time with it. The Song of the_ Well, _in_ Numbers, _pag._ 15. _is clearly an_ Ode _of unequal Measures_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _THE_ LIFE _of_ Christ.

An Heroic Poem.

_In Ten BOOKS with sixty Copper Plates._

London: _Printed for Charles Harper, & Benj. Motte._]

THE LIFE OF OUR Blessed Lord & Saviour JESUS CHRIST.

AN HEROIC POEM: DEDICATED TO Her Most Sacred MAJESTY.

_In Ten Books._

ATTEMPTED BY _SAMUEL WESLEY_, M.A.

Chaplain to the most Honourable JOHN Lord Marquess of _Normanby_, and Rector of _Epwerth_ in the County of _Lincoln_.

Each Book Ill.u.s.trated by necessary Notes, explaining all the more difficult Matters in the whole History: Also a Prefatory Discourse concerning Heroic Poetry.

_The Second Edition, revised by the Author, and improved with the addition of a large Map of the_ HOLY-LAND, _and a table of the princ.i.p.al matters._

With Sixty Copper-Plates, by the celebrated Hand of _W. Faithorn_.

_LONDON_: Printed for _Charles Harper_, at the _Flower-de-Luce_ over against St.

_Dunstan_'s Church, and are to be Sold by him, and _Roger Clavel_ at the _Peac.o.c.k_ against _Fetter-Lane_, both in _Fleetstreet_, 1697.

THE PREFACE, Being an ESSAY on HEROIC POETRY

A Just Heroic Poem is so vast an Undertaking, requires so much both of Art and Genius for its Management, and carries such Difficulty in the Model of the Whole, and Disposition of the several Parts, that it's no Wonder, if not above One or Two of the Ancients, and hardly any of the Moderns, have succeeded in their Attempts of this Nature. Rapin, and other Masters of Epic, represent it as an Enterprize so hardy, that it can scarce enter into the Mind of a wise Man, without affrighting him, as being the most perfect Piece of Work that Art can produce. That Author has many excellent Reflexions and Rules concerning it in his Discourse sur la Poetique; but Bossu is the first I've seen who has writ a just and perfect Tract thereon, wherein he has in a clear and Scholastic Method ama.s.s'd together most that's to be found in Antiquity on that Subject, tho' chiefly keeping to the Observations of Aristotle, which he drew from Homer, and who seems the first that reduced Poetry to an Art. That Author defines Epic, ”An Artificial Discourse, in order to form the Manners by Instructions, disguis'd under the Allegories of some one important Action, recited in Verse, in a manner probable, diverting and admirable;” which he thus himself abridges, ”'Tis a Fable, agreeably imitated on some important Action, recited in Verse in a manner that's probable and admirable;” In which Definition are contain'd, as he afterwards explains it, the general Nature of Epic, and that double, Fable and Poem: The Matter, some one important Action probably feign'd and imitated: Its Form, Recitation or Narration: And lastly, its End, Instruction, which is aimed at in general by the Moral of the Fable; and besides in the particular Manners of the Persons who make the most considerable Figure in the Work.

To begin with Fable, which he makes included in the general Nature or Essence of Epic. This, he says, is the most essential Part of it; ”That some Fables and Allegories scatter'd up and down in a Poem don't suffice to const.i.tute Epic, if they are only the Ornaments, and not the very Foundation of it.” And again, ”That 'tis the very Fund and princ.i.p.al Action that ought to be Feign'd and Allegorical:” For which reason he expresly excludes hence all simple Histories, as by Name, Lucan's Pharsalia, Silius Italicus's Punic War, and all true Actions of particular Persons, without Fable: And still more home; that 'tis not a Relation of the Actions of any Hero, to form the Manners by his Example, but on the contrary, a Discourse invented to form the Manners by the Relation of some one feign'd Action, design'd to please, under the borrow'd Name of some ill.u.s.trious Person, of whom Choice is made after we have fram'd the Plan of the Action which we design to attribute to him.

Nor indeed is Bossu singular in his Judgment on this Matter, there being few or none who have ever writ on the same Subject, but are of the same mind: For thus Boileau in his Art of Poetry,

Dans la vaste recit d'une longue action Se soutient par la Fable & vit de Fiction.

Which his Translator I think better;

In the Narration of some great Design, Invention, Art, and Fable, all must join.

Rapin too gives his Vote on the same side, Rien n'est, says he, plus essentiel au Poem Epique, que la Fiction; and quotes Petronius to that purpose, Per ambages, Deorumque ministeria praecipitandus est Liber Spiritus. Nor is't only the Moderns who are of this Opinion; for the Iliads are call'd in Horace, Fabula qua Paridis, &c. And lastly, even Aristotle himself tells us, ”That Fable is the princ.i.p.al thing in an Heroic Poem; and, as it were, the very Soul of it.” [Greek: Arche kai oion psyche.] And upon this occasion commends Homer for lying with the best Grace of any Man in the World: Authorities almost too big to admit any Examination of their Reason, or Opposition to their Sentiments. However, I see no cause why Poetry should not be brought to the Test, as well as Divinity, or any more than the other, be believed on its own bare ipse dixit.

Let us therefore examine the Plan which they lay for a Work of this Nature, and then we may be better able to guess at those Grounds and Reasons on which they proceed.