The Art of Poetry: an Epistle to the Pisos Part 2

A comick incident loaths tragick strains: Thy feast, Thyestes, lowly verse disdains; Familiar diction scorns, as base and mean, Touching too nearly on the comick scene.

Each stile allotted to its proper place, Let each appear with its peculiar grace!

Interdum tamen et vocem comoedia tollit; Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore; Et tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri.

Telephus aut Peleus, c.u.m pauper et exul uterque, Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba, Si curat cor spectantis tetigisse querela.

Non satis est pulchra esse poemata; dulcia sunto, Et quocunque volent, animum auditoris agunto.

Ut ridentibus arrident, ita flentibus adflent Humani vultus; si vis me flere, dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi: tunc tua me infortunia laedent.

Telephe, vel Peleu, male si mandata loqueris, Aut dormitabo, aut ridebo: tristia moestum Vultum verba decent; iratum, plena minarum; Yet Comedy at times exalts her strain, And angry Chremes storms in swelling vein: The tragick hero, plung'd in deep distress, Sinks with his fate, and makes his language less.

Peleus and Telephus, poor, banish'd! each Drop their big six-foot words, and sounding speech; Or else, what bosom in their grief takes part, Which cracks the ear, but cannot touch the heart?

'Tis not enough that Plays are polish'd, chaste, Or trickt in all the harlotry of taste, They must have _pa.s.sion_ too; beyond controul Transporting where they please the hearer's soul.

With those that smile, our face in smiles appears; With those that weep, our cheeks are bath'd in tears: To make _me_ grieve, be first _your_ anguish shown, And I shall feel your sorrows like my own.

Peleus, and Telephus! unless your stile Suit with your circ.u.mstance, I'll sleep, or smile.

Features of sorrow mournful words require; Anger in menace speaks, and words of fire: Ludentem, lasciva; severum, seria dictu.

Format enim Natura prius nos intus ad omnem Fortunarum habitum; juvat, aut impellit ad iram, Aut ad humum moerore gravi deducit, et angit: Post effert animi motus interprete lingua.

Si dicentis erunt fortunis absona dicta, Romani tollent equitesque patresque chachinnum.

Intererit multum, Divusne loquatur, an heros; Maturusne senex, an adhuc florente juventa Fervidus; an matrona potens, an sedula nutrix; Mercatorne vagus, cultorne virentis agelli; Colchus, an a.s.syrius; Thebis nutritus, an Argis.

The playful prattle in a frolick vein, And the severe affect a serious strain: For Nature first, to every varying wind Of changeful fortune, shapes the pliant mind; Sooths it with pleasure, or to rage provokes, Or brings it to the ground by sorrow's heavy strokes; Then of the joys that charm'd, or woes that wrung, Forces expression from the faithful tongue: But if the actor's words belie his state, And speak a language foreign to his fate, Romans shall crack their sides, and all the town Join, horse and foot, to laugh th' impostor down.

Much boots the speaker's character to mark: G.o.d, heroe; grave old man, or hot young spark; Matron, or busy nurse; who's us'd to roam Trading abroad, or ploughs his field at home: If Colchian, or a.s.syrian, fill the scene, Theban, or Argian, note the shades between!

Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge, Scriptor. Honoratum si forte reponis Achillem, Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer, Jura neget sibi nata, nihil non arroget armis.

Sit Medea ferox invictaque, flebilis Ino, Perfidus Ixion, Io vaga, tristis Orestes.

Si quid inexpertum scenae committis, et audes Personam formare novam; servetur ad imum Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.

Difficile est proprie communia dicere: tuque Rectius Iliac.u.m carmen deducis in actus, Quam si proferres ignota indictaque primus.

Publica materies privati juris erit, si Non circa vilem patulumque moraberis...o...b..m; Follow the Voice of Fame; or if you feign, The fabled plan consistently sustain!

If great Achilles you bring back to view, Shew him of active spirit, wrathful too; Eager, impetuous, brave, and high of soul, Always for arms, and brooking no controul: Fierce let Medea seem, in horrors clad; Perfidious be Ixion, Ino sad; Io a wand'rer, and Orestes mad!

Should you, advent'ring novelty, engage Some bold Original to walk the Stage, Preserve it well; continu'd as begun; True to itself in ev'ry scene, and one!

Yet hard the task to touch on untried facts: Safer the Iliad to reduce to acts, Than be the first new regions to explore, And dwell on themes unknown, untold before.

Quit but the vulgar, broad, and beaten round, The publick field becomes your private ground: Nec verb.u.m verbo curabis reddere, fidus Interpres; nec desilies imitator in arctum, Unde pedem proferre pudor vetet aut operis lex.

Nec sic incipies, ut scriptor cyclicus olim: fortunam priami cantabo, et n.o.bile bellum.

Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu?

Parturiunt montes: nascetur ridiculus mus.

Quanto rectius hic, qui nil molitur inepte!

dic mihi, musa, virum, captae post moenia trojae, qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes.

Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat, Antiphaten, Scyllamque, et c.u.m Cylope Charibdin.

Nor word for word too faithfully translate; Nor leap at once into a narrow strait, A copyist so close, that rule and line Curb your free march, and all your steps confine!

Be not your opening fierce, in accents bold, Like the rude ballad-monger's chaunt of old; "The fall of Priam, the great Trojan King!

Of the right n.o.ble Trojan War, I sing!"

Where ends this Boaster, who, with voice of thunder, Wakes Expectation, all agape with wonder?

The mountains labour! hush'd are all the spheres!

And, oh ridiculous! a mouse appears.

How much more modestly begins HIS song, Who labours, or imagines, nothing wrong!

"Say, Muse, the Man, who, after Troy's disgrace, In various cities mark'd the human race!"

Not flame to smoke he turns, but smoke to light, Kindling from thence a stream of glories bright: Antiphates, the Cyclops, raise the theme; Scylla, Charibdis, fill the pleasing dream.

Nec reditum Diomedis ab interitu Meleagri, Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo: Semper ad eventum festinat; et in medias res, Non secus ac notas, auditorem rapit: et quae Desperat tractata nitescere posse, relinquit: Atque ita ment.i.tur, sic veris falsa remiscet, Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.

Tu, quid ego et populus mec.u.m desideret, audi; Si fautoris eges aulea manentis, et usque Sessuri, donec cantor, Vos plaudite, dicat: Aetatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores, Mobilibusque decor naturis dandus et annis.

Reddere qui voces jam scit puer, et pede certo Signat humum; gest.i.t paribus colludere, et iram Colligit ac ponit temere, et mutatur in horas.

He goes not back to Meleager's death, With Diomed's return to run you out of breath; Nor from the Double Egg, the tale to mar, Traces the story of the Trojan War: Still hurrying to th' event, at once he brings His hearer to the heart and soul of things; And what won't bear the light, in shadow flings.

So well he feigns, so well contrives to blend Fiction and Truth, that all his labours tend True to one point, persu'd from end to end.

Hear now, what I expect, and all the town, If you would wish applause your play to crown, And patient sitters, 'till the cloth goes down!

_Man's several ages _with attention view, His flying years, and changing nature too.

_The Boy _who now his words can freely sound, And with a steadier footstep prints the ground, Places in playfellows his chief delight, Quarrels, shakes hands, and cares not wrong or right: Sway'd by each fav'rite bauble's short-liv'd pow'r, In smiles, in tears, all humours ev'ry hour.

Imberbus juvenis, tandem custode remoto, Gaudet equis canibusque et aprici gramine campi; Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper, Utilium tardus provisor, prodigus aeris, Sublimis, cupidusque, et amata relinquere pernix.

Conversis studiis, aetas animusque virilis Quaerit opes et amicitias, infervit honori; Conmisisse cavet qud mox mutare laboret.

Multa senem circ.u.mveniunt incommoda; vel quod Quaerit, et inventis miser abstinet, ac timet uti; Vel qud res omnes timide gelideque ministrat, Dilator, spe lentus, iners, pavidusque futuri; _The beardless Youth_, at length from tutor free, Loves horses, hounds, the field, and liberty: Pliant as wax, to vice his easy soul, Marble to wholesome counsel and controul; Improvident of good, of wealth profuse; High; fond, yet fickle; generous, yet loose.

To graver studies, new pursuits inclin'd, _Manhood_, with growing years, brings change of mind: Seeks riches, friends; with thirst of honour glows; And all the meanness of ambition knows; Prudent, and wary, on each deed intent, Fearful to act, and afterwards repent.

Evil in various shapes _Old Age _surrounds; Riches his aim, in riches he abounds; Yet what he fear'd to gain, he dreads to lose; And what he sought as useful, dares not use.

Timid and cold in all he undertakes, His hand from doubt, as well as weakness, shakes; Hope makes him tedious, fond of dull delay; Dup'd by to-morrow, tho' he dies to-day; Difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti Se puero, censor, castigatorque minorum.

Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda sec.u.m, Multa recedentes adimunt: ne forte seniles Mandentur juveni partes, pueroque viriles.

Semper in adjunctis aevoque morabimur aptis.

Aut agitur res In scenis, aut acta refertur: Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quae Ipse sibi tradit spectator: non tamen intus Digna geri promes in scenam: multaque tolles Ex oculis, quae mox narret facundia praesens: Ill-humour'd, querulous; yet loud in praise Of all the mighty deeds of former days; When _he_ was young, good heavens, what glorious times!

Unlike the present age, that teems with crimes!

Thus years advancing many comforts bring, And, flying, bear off many on their wing: Confound not youth with age, nor age with youth, But mark their several characters with truth!

Events are on the stage in act display'd, Or by narration, if unseen, convey'd.

Cold is the tale distilling thro' the ear, Filling the soul with less dismay and fear, Than where spectators view, like standers-by, The deed submitted to the faithful eye.

Yet force not on the stage, to wound the sight, Asks that should pa.s.s within, and shun the light!

Many there are the eye should ne'er behold, But touching Eloquence in time unfold: Ne pueros coram populo Medea trucidet; Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus; Aut in avem Procne vertatur, Cadmus in anguem.

Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi.

Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu Fabula, quae posci vult, et spectata reponi Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus Inciderit: nec quarta loqui persona laboret.

Actoris partes Chorus, officiumque virile Defendat: neu quid medios intercinat actus, Quod non proposito conducat et haereat apte.

Ille bonis faveatque, et concilietur amicis, Et regat iratos, et amet peccare timentes: Who on Medea's parricide can look?

View horrid Atreus human garbage cook?