The Art of Poetry: an Epistle to the Pisos Part 13

--Roscommon's _Essay on Translated Verse._ A prudent chief not always must display Her pow'rs in equal ranks, and fair array: But with th' occasion and the place comply, Conceal his force, nay seem sometimes to fly.

Those oft are stratagems, which errors seem, Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.

POPE'S _Essay on Criticism._

530.--POEMS AND PICTURES ARE ADJUDC'D ALIKE.]

_Ut pictura poesis._

Here ends, in my opinion, the _didactick_ part of this Epistle; and it is remarkable that it concludes, as it begun, with a reference to the a.n.a.logy between Poetry and Painting. The arts are indeed congenial, and the same general principles govern both. Artists might collect many useful hints from this Epistle. The Lectures of the President of the Royal Academy are not rarely accommodated to the study of Painters; but Poets may refine their taste, and derive the most valuable instruction, from the perusal of those judicious and elegant discourses.

535.--O THOU, MY PISO'S ELDER HOPE AND PRIDE!]

O MAJOR JUVENUM!

We are now arrived at that portion of the Epistle, which I must confess I am surprised, that any Commentator ever past, without observing the peculiar language and conduct of the Poet. There is a kind of awful affection in his manner, wonderfully calculated to move our feelings and excite our attention. The Didactick and the Epistolary stile were never more happily blended. The Poet a.s.sumes the air of a father advising his son, rather than of a teacher instructing his pupils. Many Criticks have thrown out a cursory observation or two, as it were extorted from them by the pointed expressions of the Poet: but none of them, that I have consulted, have attempted to a.s.sign any reason, why Horace, having closed his particular precepts, addresses all the remainder of his Epistle, on the nature and expediency of Poetical pursuits, to _the Elder Piso only. I have endeavoured to give the most natural reason for this conduct; a reason which, if I am not deceived, readers the whole of the Epistle interesting, as well as clear and consistent; a reason which I am the more inclined to think substantial, as it confirms in great measure the system of the Author of the English Commentary, only shewing _the reflections on the drama in _this Epistle, as well as in the Epistle to Augustus, to be _incidental_, rather than the _princ.i.p.al subject_, _and main design_, of the Poet,

_Jason De Nores_, in this instance, as in most others, has paid more attention to his Author, than the rest of the Commentators. His note is as follows.

[O major juvenum!] _Per apostrophen _ad majorem natu __ex pisonibus convertis orationem, reddit rationem quare summum, ac perfectissimum poema esse debeat ut.i.tur autem proaemio quasi quodam ad _benevolentiam & attentionem _comparandum sumit autem _benevolentiam _a patris & filii laudibus:_ attentionem_, dum ait, "hoc tibi dictum tolle memor!" quasi dicat, per a.s.severationem,_firmum _omnin et _verum.

543.--_Boasts not _MESSALA'S PLEADINGS,_ nor is deem'd _AULUS IN JURISPRUDENCE._]

The Poet, with great delicacy, throws in a compliment to these distinguished characters of his time, for their several eminence in their profession. Messala is more than once mentioned as the friend and patron of Horace.

562.--_Forty thousand sesterces a year_.]

The pecuniary qualification for the Equestrian Order. _Census equestrem summam nummorum. _

565.--_Nothing_, IN SPITE OF GENIUS, YOU'LL _commence_]

_Tu nihil, invita dices faciesve Minerva._

Horace, says Dacier, here addresses the Elder Piso, as a man of mature years and understanding; _and be begins with panegyrick, rather than advice, in order to soften the precepts he is about to lay down to him._

The explication of De Nores is much to the same effect, as well as that of many other Commentators.

567.--But grant you should hereafter write. Si quid tamen olim scripseris.]

"This," says Dacier, "was some time afterwards actually the case, if we may believe the old Scholiast, who writes that _this _PISO _composed Tragedies._"

568.--Metius.] A great Critick; and said to be appointed by Augustus as a Judge, to appreciate the merit of literary performances. His name and office are, on other occasions, mentioned and recognized by Horace.

570.--Weigh the work well, AND KEEP IT BACK NINE YEARS!

nonumque prematur in annum!]

This precept, which, like many others in the Epistle, is rather retailed, than invented, by Horace, has been thought by some Criticks rather extravagant; but it acquires in this place, as addressed to the elder Piso, a concealed archness, very agreeable to the Poet's stile and manner. Pope has applied the precept with much humour, but with more open raillery than need the writer's purpose in this Epistle.

I drop at last, but in unwilling ears, This wholesome counsel----KEEP YOUR PIECE NINE YEARS!

Vida, in his Poeticks, after the strongest censure of carelessness and precipitation, concludes with a caution against too excessive an attention to correctness, too frequent revisals, and too long delay of publication. The pa.s.sage is as elegant as judicious.

Verum esto hic etiam modus: huic imponere curae Nescivere aliqui finem, medicasque secandis Morbis abstinulsse ma.n.u.s, & parcere tandem Immites, donec macie confectus et aeger Aruit exhausto velut omni sanguine foetus, Nativumque decus posuit, dum plurima ubique Deformat sectos artus inhonesta cicatrix.

Tuque ideo vitae usque memor brevioris, ubi annos Post aliquot (neque enim numerum, neque temporar pono certa tibi) addideris decoris satis, atque nitoris, Rumpe moras, opus ingentem dimitte per orbem, Perque ma.n.u.s, perque ora virm permitte vagari.

POETIC. lib 3.

592.--AND ON THE SACRED TABLET GRAVE THE LAW. LEGES INCIDERE LIGNO.]

Laws were originally written in verse, and graved on wood. The Roman laws were engraved on copper. DACIER.

595.--TYRTAEUS.] An ancient Poet, who is said to have been given to the Spartans as a General by the Oracle, and to have animated the Troops by his Verses to such a degree, as to be the means of their triumph over the Messenians, after two defeats: to which Roscommon alludes in his _Essay on translated Verse_.

When by impulse from Heav'n, Tyrtaeus sung, In drooping soldiers a new courage sprung; Reviving Sparta now the fight maintain'd, And what two Gen'rals lost, a Poet gain'd.

Some fragments of his works are still extant. They are written in the Elegiac measure; yet the sense is not, as in other Poets, always bound in by the Couplet; but often breaks out into the succeeding verse: a practice, that certainly gives variety and animation to the measure; and which has been successfully imitated in the _rhime_ of our own language by Dryden, and other good writers.

604.--_Deem then with rev'rence, &c]