Part 10 (2/2)

SIR E. RIDLEY.

or (i. 32)--

alta sedent civilis volnera dextrae;

Deep lie the wounds that civil war hath made.

or (ix. 211)--

scire mori sors prima viris, sed proxima cogi.

Best gift of all The knowledge how to die: next, death compelled.

SIR E. RIDLEY.

Lines such as (i. 281)--

semper nocuit differre paratis,

To pause when ready is to court defeat.

SIR E. RIDLEY.

or (v. 260)--

quidquid multis peccatur, inultum est

The crime is free where thousands bear the guilt.

SIR E. RIDLEY.

are commonplace enough in thought but perfect in expression. Of a different character, but equally noteworthy, are sayings such as iv.

819--

momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum;

The change of Curio turned the scale of history.

or (iv. 185)--

usque adeone times, quem tu facis ipse timendum?

Dost fear him so Who takes his t.i.tle to be feared from thee?

SIR E. RIDLEY, _slightly altered._

Lucan's gift for epigram is further enhanced by the nature of his metre.

Ponderous in the extreme, it is ill-suited for epic, though in isolated lines its very weight gives added force. But he had a poor ear for rhythm: his hexameter is monotonous as the iambics of Seneca. There is a want of variety in pauses; he will not accommodate his rhythm to circ.u.mstances; line follows line with but the slightest rhythmical variation, and there is far too[307] sparing a use of elision. This failing is in part due to his desire to steer clear of the influence of Vergil and strike out on a line of his own. Faint echoes of Vergil, it is true, occur frequently throughout the poem, but to the untrained eye Lucan is emphatically un-Vergilian. His affinity to Ovid is greater.

Both are rhetorical, and Lucan is indebted to Ovid for much mythological detail. And it is probable that he owes his smoothness and monotony of metre largely to the influence of the _Metamorphoses_. His ponderosity is all his own.[308]

Lucan is the child of his age, but he is almost an isolated figure in literature. He has almost every conceivable defect in every conceivable degree, from the smallest detail to the general conception of his poem.

And yet he triumphs over himself. It is a hateful task to read the _Pharsalia_ from cover to cover, and yet when it is done and the lapse of time has allowed the feeling of immediate repulsion to evaporate, the reader can still feel that Lucan is a great writer. The absurdities slip from the memory, the dreariness of the narrative is forgotten, and the great pa.s.sages of lofty rhetoric, with their pungent epigram and their high political enthusiasm, remain deeply engraven on the mind. It is they that have given Lucan the immortality which he promised himself.

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