The Art of Poetry: an Epistle to the Pisos Part 8

The pompous exordium of Statius is well known, and the fragments of Ennius present us a most tremendous commencement of his Annals.

horrida romoleum certamina pango duellum!

this is indeed to split our ears asunder With guns, drums, trumpets, blunderbuss, and thunder!

211.--Say, Muse, the Man, &c.] Homer's opening of the Odyssey. his rule is perhaps no where so chastely observed as in _the Paradise Lost_.

Homer's [Greek: Maenin aeide thea]! or, his [Greek: Andra moi ennepe,Mgsa]! or, Virgil's _Arma, Urumque cano_! are all boisterous and vehement, in comparison with the calmness and modesty of Milton's meek approach,

Of Man's first disobedience, &c.

2l5.--_Antiphates, the Cyclops, &c_].- _Antiphatem, Scyllamque, & c.u.m Cyclope Charybdim_. Stories, that occur in the Odyssey. 218-19--Diomed's return--the Double Egg.]

The return of Diomede is not mentioned by Homer, but is said to be the subject of a tedious Poem by Antimachus; and to Stasimus is ascribed a Poem, called the Little Iliad, beginning with the nativity of Helen.

227.--Hear now!] _Tu, quid ego, &c._

This invocation, says Dacier justly, is not addressed to either of the Pisos, but to the Dramatick Writer generally.

229.---The Cloth goes down.] _Aulaea manentis._ This is translated according to modern manners; for with the Antients, the Cloth was raised at the Conclusion of the Play. Thus in Virgil's Georgicks;

Vel scena ut versis disceedat frontibus, atque Purpurea intexti tollant aulaea Britanni.

Where the proud theatres disclose the scene; Which interwoven Britons seem to _raise;_ And shew the triumph which their _shame_ displays.

Dryden

230.--Man's several ages, &c.] _aetatis cujusque, &c._ Jason Demores takes notice of the particular stress, that Horace lays on the due discrimination of the several Ages, by the solemnity with which he introduces the mention of them: The same Critick subjoins a note also, which I shall transcribe, as it serves to ill.u.s.trate a popular pa.s.sage in the _As you Like It_ of Shakespeare.

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their _exits_ and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts: His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms: And then, the whining school-boy with his satchel, And s.h.i.+ning morning-face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then, the lover; Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eye-brow. Then, a soldier; Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel; Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then, the justice In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances, And so he plays his part. The sixth age s.h.i.+fts Into the lean and flipper'd pantaloon, With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side; His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes, And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness, and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

_Animadverti_ a plerisque _hominis aetatem_ in septem divisam esse partes, infantiam, pueritiam, adolescentiam, juventutem, virilitatem, senectutem, & _ut ab illis dicitur_, decrepitatem. _In hac ver parte nihil de_ infantiae _moribus Horatius, c.u.m nihil ea aetas praeter vagitum habeat proprium, ideque infantis persona minime in scena induci possit, qud ipsas rerum voces reddere neque dum sciat, neque valeat. Nihil de moribus item hujus aetatis, quam, si latine licet_, decrepitatem _vocabimus_, quae aetas quodammodo infantiae respondet: _de_ juventute _autem_ & adolescentia _simul pertractat, qud et studiis, et natura, & voluntate, parum, aut nihil inter se differant.

Aristoteles etiam in libris ad Theodectem omisit_ & pueritiam, & _merit; c.u.m minime apud pueros, vel de pueris sit orator habiturus orationem. Ille enim ad hoc ex aetate personarum differentiam adhibet, ut inst.i.tuat oratorem, quomodo morata uti debeat oratione, id est, eorum moribus, apud quos, & de quibus loquitur, accommodata._

It appears from hence, that it was _common_ for the writers of that time, as well as Shakespeare's Jaques, to divide the life of Man into seven ages, viz. _Infancy, Childhood, p.u.b.erty, Youth, Manhood, Old Age_, and _Decrepitude_; "which last, (says Denores) in some sort answers to Infancy," or, as Shakespeare expresses it, IS second childishness.

"Before Shakespeare's time," says Warburton, "_seven acts_ was no unusual division of a play, so that there is a greater beauty than appears at first sight in this image." Mr. Steevens, however, informs us that the plays of that early period were not divided into acts at all. It is most probable therefore that Shakespeare only copied the moral philosophy (the _Socraticae chartae_) of his own day, adapting it, like Aristotle and Horace, to his own purpose; and, I think, with more felicity, than either of his ill.u.s.trious predecessors, by contriving to introduce, and discriminate, _every one of_ the seven ages. This he has effected by a.s.signing station and character to some of the stages, which to Aristotle and Horace appeared too similar to be distinguished from each other. Thus p.u.b.erty, youth, manhood, and old age, become under Shakespeare's hand, _the_ lover, _the_ soldier, _the_ justice, and the lean and flipper'd pantaloon; while the _natural qualities_ of the infant, the boy, and the dotard, afford sufficient materials for poetical description.

262.--_Thus_ years advancing _many comforts bring, and_ flying _bear off many on their wing_.]

_Multa ferunt_ anni venientes _commoda sec.u.m, multa_ recedentes _adimunt_.

Aristotle considers the powers of the body in a state of advancement till the 35th year, and the faculties of the mind progressively improving till the 49th; from which periods they severally decline. On which circ.u.mstance, applied to this pa.s.sage of Horace, Jason de Nores elegantly remarks, _Vita enim nostra videtur ad_ virilitatem _usque, qua_ in statu _posita est_, quendam quasi pontem _aetatis_ ascendere, _ab eaque inde_ descendere. Whether Addison ever met with the commentary of De Nores, it is perhaps impossible to discover. But this idea of _the_ ascent _and_ declivity _of the_ bridge _of_ human life, strongly reminds us of the delightful _vision of_ mirza.

288.--_An actor's part_ the Chorus _should sustain_.] _Actoris partes_ Chorus, &c.

"See also _Aristotle_ [Greek*: oes. ooiaet. k. iae.] The judgment of two such critics, and the practice of wise antiquity, concurring to establish this precept concerning the Chorus, it should thenceforth, one would think, have become a fundamental rule and maxim of the stage. And so indeed it appeared to some few writers. The most admired of the French tragic poets ventured to introduce it into two of his latter plays, and with such success that, as one observes, _It should, in all reason, have disabused his countrymen on this head: l'essai heureux de M. Racine, qui les [choeurs] a fait revivre dans_ athalie _et dans _esther_, devroit, il semble, nous avoir detrompez sur cet article._ [P.

Brumoi, vol. i. p. 105.] And, before him, our _Milton_, who, with his other great talents, possessed a supreme knowledge of antiquity, was so struck with its use and beauty, as to attempt to bring it into our language. His _Sampson Agonistes_ was, as might be expected, a master- piece. But even his credit hath not been sufficient to restore the Chorus. Hear a late Professor of the art declaring, _De _Choro _nihil disserui, quia non est essentialis dramati, atque a neotericis penitus_, et, me judice, merito repudiatur. [Prael. Poet. vol. ii. p. 188.] Whence it hath come to pa.s.s that the chorus hath been thus neglected is not now the enquiry. But that this critic, and all such, are greatly out in their judgments, when they presume to censure it in the ancients, must appear (if we look no further) from the double use, insisted on by the poet, For, 1. A _chorus _interposing, and bearing a part in the progress of the action, gives the representation that _probability_, [Footnote: _Quel avantage ne peut il [le poete] pas tirer d'une troupe d'acteurs, qui remplissent sa scene, qui rendant plus sense la continuite de l'action qui la sont paroitre VRAISEMBLABLE puisqu'il n'est pas naturel qu'elle sa pa.s.se sans point. On ne sent que trop le vuide de notre Theatre sans choeurs. &c. _[Les Theatre des Grecs. i. p. 105 ] and striking resemblance of real life, which every man of sense perceives, and _feels_ the want of upon our stage; a want, which nothing but such an expedient as the chorus can possibly relieve. And, 2. The importance of its other office [l. 196] to the _utility _of the representation, is so great, that, in a moral view, nothing can compensate for this deficiency. For it is necessary to the truth and decorum of characters, that the _manners_, bad as well as good, be drawn in strong, vivid colours; and to that end that immoral sentiments, forcibly expressed and speciously maintained, be sometimes _imputed _to the speakers. Hence the sound philosophy of the chorus will be constantly wanting, to rectify the wrong conclusions of the audience, and prevent the ill impressions that might otherwise be made upon it. Nor let any one say, that the audience is well able to do this for itself: Euripides did not find even an Athenian theatre so quick-sighted. The story is well known, [Sen. Ep.

115.] that when this painter of the _manners _was obliged, by the rules of his art, and the character to be sustained, to put a run of bold sentiments in the mouth of one of his persons, the people instantly took fire, charging the poet with the _imputed _villainy, as though it had been his _own_. Now if such an audience could so easily misinterpret an attention to the truth of character into the real doctrine of the poet, and this too, when a Chorus was at hand to correct and disabuse their judgments, what must be the case, when the _whole _is left to the sagacity and penetration of the people? The wiser sort, it is true, have little need of this information. Yet the reflexions of sober sense on the course and occurrences of the representation, clothed in the n.o.blest dress of poetry, and enforced by the joint powers of harmony and action (which is the true character of the Chorus) might make it, even to such, a no unpleasant or unprofitable entertainment. But these two are a small part of the uses of the chorus; which in every light is seen so important to the truth, decorum, and dignity of the tragic scene, that the modern stage, which hath not thought proper to adopt it, is even, with the advantage of, sometimes, the justest moral painting and sublimest imagery, but a very faint shadow of the old; as must needs appear to those who have looked into the ancient models, or, diverting themselves of modern prejudices, are disposed to consult the dictates of plain sense. For the use of such, I once designed to have drawn into one view the several important benefits arising to the drama from the observance of this rule, but have the pleasure to find myself prevented by a sensible dissertation of a good French writer, which the reader will find in the VIII tom. of the History of the Academy of Inscriptions end Belles Lettres.--Or, it may be sufficient to refer the English reader to the late tragedies of Elfrida and Caractacus; which do honour to modern poetry, and are a better apology, than any I could make, for the ancient Chorus.----Notes on the Art of Poetry.

Though it is not my intention to agitate, in this place, the long disputed question concerning the expediency, or inexpediency, of the Chorus, yet I cannot dismiss the above note without some farther observation. In the first place then I cannot think that _the judgment of two such Criticks_ as Aristotle and Horace, can be decisively quoted, _as concurring with the practice of wise antiquity,_ to establish the chorus. Neither of these _two Criticks_ have taken up the question, each of them giving directions for the proper conduct of _the Chorus,_ considered as an established and received part of Tragedy, and indeed originally, as they both tell us, _the whole_ of it. Aristotle, in his Poeticks, has not said much on the subject and from the little he has said, more arguments might perhaps be drawn, in favour of the omission, than for the introduction of _the Chorus._ It is true that he says, in his 4th chapter, that "Tragedy, after many changes, paused, _having gained its natural form:"_ [Greek transliteration: 'pollha': moiazolas metazalousa ae traG.o.dia epausto, hepei hesche taen heauiaes phusin]. This might, at first sight, seem to include his approbation of the Chorus, as well as of all the other parts of Tragedy then in use: but he himself expressly tells us in the very same chapter, that he had no such meaning, saying, that "to enquire whether Tragedy be perfect in its parts, either considered in itself, or with relation to the theatre, was foreign to his present purpose." [Greek: To men oun epischopein, eiapa echei aedae hae traG.o.dia tois ikanos, ae ou, auto te kath auto krinomenon, kai pros ta theatra, allos logos.]

In the pa.s.sage from which Horace has, in the verses now before us, described the office, and laid down the duties of the CHORUS, the pa.s.sage referred to by the learned Critick, the words of Aristotle are not particularly favourable to the inst.i.tution, or much calculated to recommend the use of it. For Aristotle there informs us, "that Sophocles alone of all the Grecian writers, made _the_ CHORUS conducive to the progress of the fable: not only even Euripides being culpable in this instance; but other writers, after the example of Agathon, introducing Odes as little to the purpose, as if they had borrowed whole scenes from another play."

[Greek: Kai ton chorus de ena dei upolazein tan upochriton. Kai morion einai tch olch, chai sunagonis*e mae osper par Euripidae, all osper para Sophochlei. Tois de loipois ta didomena mallon ta muthch, ae allaes Tragadias esi di o emzolima adchoi, protch arxanto Agrathonos tch toichtch Kai tch diaphsrei, ae aemzot ma adein, ae raesin ex allch eis allo armotteen, ae eteitodion oleos [per. poiaet. ch. iii.]]

On the whole therefore, whatever may be the merits, or advantages of _the_ CHORUS, I cannot think that the judgment of Aristotle or Horace can be adduced as recommendation of it. As to _the probability given to the representation, by CHORUS interposing and bearing a part in the action;_ the Publick, who have lately in a troop of singers a.s.sembled on the stage, as a Chorus, during the whole of presentations of Elfrida and Caractacus, are competent to decide for themselves, how far such an expedient, gives a more _striking resemblance of human life,_ than the common usage of our Drama. As to its importance in a _moral_ view, to correct the evil impression of vicious sentiments, _imputed_ to the speakers; the story told, to enforce its use for this purpose, conveys a proof of its efficacy. To give due force to sentiments, as well as to direct their proper tendency, depends on the skill and address of the Poet, independent of _the_ Chorus,

Monsieur Dacier, as well as the author of the above note, censures the modern stage for having rejected the Chorus, and having lost thereby _at least half its probability, and its_ greatest ornament; so that our Tragedy is _but a very faint shadow of the_ old. Learned Criticks, however, do not, perhaps, consider, that if it be expedient to revive _the_ Chorus, all the other parts of the antient Tragedy must be revived along with it. Aristotle mentions Musick as one of the six parts of Tragedy, and Horace no sooner introduces _the_ CHORUS, but he proceeds to _the _pipe _and _lyre. If a Chorus be really necessary, our Dramas, like those of the antients, should be rendered wholly _musical_; the _Dancers _also will then claim their place, and the pretentions of Vestris and Noverre may be admitted as _cla.s.sical_. Such a spectacle, if not more _natural_ than the modern, would at least be consistent; but to introduce a groupe of _spectatorial actors_, speaking in one part of the Drama, and singing in another, is as strange and incoherent a medley, and full as _uncla.s.sical_, as the dialogue and airs of _The Beggar's Opera!_

290.--_Chaunting no Odes between the acts, that seem_ unapt, _or _foreign _to the _general theme.]

_Nec quid medios, &c._

On this pa.s.sage the author of the English Commentary thus remarks. "How necessary this advice might be to the writers of the Augustan age cannot certainly appear; but, if the practice of Seneca may give room for suspicion, it should seem to have been much wanted; in whom I scarcely believe _there is_ one single instance, _of the _Chorus being employed in a manner, consonant to its true end and character."

The learned Critick seems here to believe, and the plays under the name of Seneca in some measure warrant the conclusion, that _the _Chorus of the Roman Stage was not calculated to answer the ends of its inst.i.tution. Aristotle has told us just the same thing, with an exception in favour of Sophocles, of the Grecian Drama. And are such surmises, or such information, likely to strengthen our prejudices on behalf of _the _CHORUS, or to inflame our desires for its revival?

292.----LET IT TO VIRTUE PROVE A GUIDE AND FRIEND.]

_Ille bonis saveatque, &c._

"_The Chorus_," says the poet, "_is to take the side of the good and virtuous_, i. e. is always to sustain a moral character. But this will need some explanation and restriction. To conceive aright of its office, we must suppose the _Chorus _to be a number of persons, by some probable cause a.s.sembled together, as witnesses and spectators of the great action of the drama. Such persons, as they cannot be wholly uninterested in what pa.s.ses before them, will very naturally bear some share in the representation. This will princ.i.p.ally consist in declaring their sentiments, and indulging their reflexions freely on the several events and mistresses as they shall arise. Thus we see the _moral_, attributed to the Chorus, will be no other than the dictates of plain sense; such as must be obvious to every thinking observer of the action, who is under the influence of no peculiar partialities from _affection_ or _interest_. Though even these may be supposed in cases, where the character, towards which they _draw_, is represented as virtuous."