wholly free. However that be, Horace, on this occafion, enters into the queftion very fully, and with a good deal of warmth. The character he gives of the old dramatic poets (which indeed includes all the poets I have been speaking of, except Lucilius, Lucretius, and Catullus) is perhaps Father too fevere. He fays, "That their language was in a great degree fuperannuated, even in his time; that they are often negligent and incorrect; and that there is generally a stiffness in their compofitions that people indeed might pardon these things in them, as the fault of the times they lived in; but that it was provoking they should think of commending them for thofe very faults." In another piece of his, which turns pretty much on the fame fubject, he gives Lucilius's character much in the fame manner. He owns, "that he had a good deal of wit; but then it is rather of the farce kind, than true genteel wit. He is a rapid writer, and has a great many good things in him; but is often very fuperfluous and incorrect; his language is dafhed affectedly with Greek; and his verses are hard and unharmonious." Quinctilian fteers the middle way between both. Cicero perhaps was a little misled by his nearness to their times; and Horace by his fubject, which was profeffedly to speak against the old writers. Quinctilian, therefore, does not commend them fo generally as Cicero, nor fpeak against them fo ftrongly as Horace; and is perhaps more to be depended upon, in this cafe, than either of them. He compares the works of Ennius to fome facred grove, in which the old oaks look rather venerable than pleafing. He commends Pacuvius and Actius, for the strength of their language and the force of their fentiments; but fays, "they wanted that polish which was fet on the Roman poetry afterwards." He fpeaks of Plautus and Cæcilius, as applauded writers; of Terence as a most elegant, and of Afranius, as an excellent one; but they all, fays he, fall infinitely thort of the grace and beauty which is to be found in the Attic writers of comedy, and which is perhaps peculiar to the dialect they wrote in. To conclude: According to him, Lucilius is too much cried up by many, and too much run down by Horace; Lucretius is more to be read for his matter than for his flyle; and Catullus is remarkable in the fatirical part of his works, but fcarce fo in the rest of his lyric poetry. Spence.

47. Of the flourishing State of Poetry

among the ROMANS.

The firft age was only as the dawning of the Roman poetry, in comparison of the clear full light that opened all at once afterwards, under Auguftus Cæfar. The ftate, which had been fo long tending towards a monarchy, was quite fettled down to that form by this prince. When he had no longer any dangerous opponents, he grew mild, or at least concealed the cruelty of his temper. He gave peace and quiet to the people that were fallen into his hands; and looked kindly on the improvement of all the arts and elegancies of life among them. He had a minifter, too, under him, who (though a very bad writer himself) knew how to encourage the beft; and who admitted the best poets, in particular, into a very great share of friendship and intimacy with him. Virgil was one of the foremost in this lift; who, at his first setting out, grew foon their moft applauded writer for genteel paftorals: then gave them the most beautiful and moft correct poem that ever was wrote in the Roman language, in his rules of agriculture (fo beautiful, that fome of the ancients feem to accufe Virgil of having ftudied beauty too much in that piecę); and laft of all, undertook a political poem, in fupport of the new establishment. I have thought this to be the intent of the Eneid, ever fince I first read Boffu; and. the more one confiders it, the more I think one is confirmed in that opinion. Virgil is faid to have begun this poem the very year that Auguftus was freed from his great rival Anthony: the goverment of the Roman empire was to be wholly in him: and though he chofe to be called their father, he was, in every thing but the name, their king. This monarchical form of government muft naturally be apɛ. to difpleafe the people. Virgil feems to have laid the plan of his poem to reconcile them to it. He takes advantage of their religious turn; and of fome old prophecies that must have been very flattering to the Roman people, as promifing them the empire of the whole world: he weaves this in with the most probable account of their origin, that of their being defcended from the Trojans. To be a little more particular: Virgil, in his Aneid, fhews that Æneas was called into their country by the exprefs order of the Gods; that he was made king of it, by the will of heaven,

and

and by all the human rights that could be; that there was an uninterrupted fucceffion of kings from him to Romulus; that his heirs were to reign there for ever; and that the Romans, under them, were to obtain the monarchy of the world. It appears from Virgil, and the other Roman writers, that Julius Cæfar was of the royal race, and that Auguftus was his fole heir. The natural refult of all this is, that the promises made to the Roman people, in and through this race, terminating in Auguftus, the Romans, if they would obey the Gods, and be mafters of the world, were to yield obedience to the new establishment under that prince. As odd a scheme as this may feem now, it is fcarce fo odd as that of fome people among us, who perfuaded themselves, that an abfolute obedience was owing to our kings, on their supposed defcent from fome unknown patriarch: and yet that had its effect with many, about a century ago; and seems not to have quite loft all its influence, even in our remembrance. However that be, I think it appears plain enough, that the two great points aimed at by Virgil in his Aneid, were to maintain their old religious tenets, and to fupport the new form of government in the family of the Cæfars. That poem therefore may very well be confidered as a religious and political work; or rather (as the vulgar religion with them was fcarce any thing more than an engine of state) it may fairly enough be confidered as a work merely political. If this was the cafe, Virgil was not fo highly encouraged by Auguftus and Mecenas for nothing. To fpeak a little more plainly: He wrote in the fervice of the new ufurpation on the state: and all that can be offered in vindication of him, in this light, is, that the ufurper he wrote for, was grown a tame one; and that the temper and bent of their conftitution, at that time, was fuch, that the reins of government must have fallen into the hands of fome one person or another; and might probably, on any new revolution, have fallen into the hands of fome one lefs mild and indulgent than Auguftus was, at the time when Virgil wrote this poem in his fervice. But whatever may be faid of his reasons for writing it, the poem itself has been highly applauded in all ages, from its first appearance to this day; and though left unfinished by its author, has been always reckoned as much fuperior to all the other

epic poems among the Romans, as Homer's is among the Greeks. Spence.

§ 48.

Obfervations on the ÆNEID, and the Author's Genius

It preferves more to us of the religion of the Romans, than all the other Latin poets (excepting only Ovid) put together: and gives us the forms and appearances of their deities, as ftrongly as if we had fo many pictures of them preferved to us, done by fome of the beft hands in the Auguftan age. It is remarkable, that he is commended by fome of the ancients themfelves, for the strength of his imagination as to this particular, though in general that is not his character, fo much as exactnefs. He was certainly the most correct poet even of his time; in which all falfe thoughts and idle ornaments in writing were discouraged: and it is as certain, that there is but little of invention in his Æneid; much lefs, I believe, than is generally imagined. Almost all the little facts in it are built on history; and even as to the particular lines, no one perhaps ever borrowed more from the poets that preceded him, than he did. He goes fo far back as to old Ennius; and often inferts whole verfes from him, and fome other of their earliest writers. The obfoleteness of their style, did not hinder him much in this: for he was a particular lover of their old language; and no doubt inferted many more antiquated words in his poem, than we can difcover at prefent. Judgment is his distinguishing character; and his great excellence confifted in chufing and ranging things aright. Whatever he borrowed he had the fkill of making his own, by weav ing it fo well into his work, that it looks all of a piece; even those parts of his poems, where this may be most practifed, resembling a fine piece of Mofaic, in which all the parts, though of such different marbles, unite together; and the various fhades and colours are fo artfully difpofed as to melt off infenfibly into one another.

One of the greatest beauties in Virgil's private character was, his modesty and good-nature. He was apt to think humbly of himself, and handfomely of others: and was ready to fhew his love of merit, even where it might feem to clash with his own. He was the first who recommended Horace to Mæcenas. Ibid.

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§ 49.

As

writers of this age; and is more loose and incorrrect than either of the other. Propertius followed too many mafters, Ovid endeavoured to thine in too many different kinds of writing at the fame time. Befides, he had a redundant genius; and almost always chofe rather to indulge, than to give any restraint to it. If one was to give any opinion of the different merits of his feveral works, one fhould not perhaps be much befide the truth, in faying, that he excels moft in his Fafti; then perhaps in his love-verfes; next in his heroic epifties; and lastly, in his Metamorphofes. As for the verfes he wrote after his misfortunes, he has quite loft his fpirit in them: and though you may difcover fome difference in his manner, after his banishment came to fit a little lighter on him, his genius never thines out fairly after that fatal Arcke. His very love of being witty had fortaken him; though before it feems to have grown upon him, when it was leaft becoming, toward his old age: for his Metamorphofes (which was the last poem he wrote at Rome, and which indeed was not quite finished when he was fent into banishment) has more inftances of falfe wit in it, than perhaps all his former writings put together. One of the things I have heard him most cried up for, in that piece, is his tranfitions from one story to another. The ancients thought differently of this point; and Quinctilian, where he is fpeaking of them, endeavours rather to excufe than to commend him on that head. We have a confiderable lofs in the latter half of his Fafti; and in his Medea, which is much commended. Dramatic poetry feems not to have flourished, in proportion to the other forts of poetry, in the Auguftan age. We fcarce hear any thing of the comic poets of that time; and if tragedy had been much cultivated then, the Roman writers would certainly produce fome names from it, to oppofe to the Greeks, without going fo far back as to thofe of Actius and Pacuvius. Indeed their own critics, in fpeaking of the dramatic writings of this age, boat rather of fingle pieces, than of authors: and the two particular tragedies, which they talk of in the higheft ftrain, are the Medea of Ovid, and Varius's Thyeites. However, if it was not the age for plays, it was certainly the age in which almost all the other kinds of poetry were in their greatest excellence at Rome. Spence.

$51. Of PHÆDRUS.

Under this period of the beft writing, I fhould be inclined to infert Phædrus. For though he published after the good manner of writing was in general on the decline, he flourished and formed his ftyle under Auguftus: and his book, though it did not appear till the reign of Tiberius, deferves, on all accounts, to be reckoned among the works of the Auguftan age. Fabule Afopeæ, was probably the title which he gave his fables. He profeffedly follows Efop in them; and declares, that he keeps to his manner, even where the subject is of his own invention. By this it appears, that

fop's way of telling ftories was very fhort and plain; for the diftinguishing beauty of Phædrus's fables is, their concifeness and fimplicity. The tafte was fo much fallen, at the time when he published them, that both thefe were objected to him as faults. He ufed thofe critics as they deferved. He tells a long, tedious story to thofe who objected against the conciseness of his style; and anfwers fome others, who condemned the plainnefs of it, with a run of bombaft verses, that have a great many noify elevated words in them, without any fenfe at the bottom.

Ibid.

$52. Of MANILIUS. Manilius can fcarce be allowed a place in this lift of the Auguftan poets; his poetry is inferior to a great many of the Latin poets, who have wrote in these lower ages, fo long fince Latin has ceased to be a living language. There is at leaft, I believe, no inftance, in any one poet of the flourishing ages, of fuch language, or fuch verfification, as we meet with in Manilius; and there is not any one ancient writer that speaks one word of any fuch poet about thofe times. I doubt not, there were bad poets enough in the Auguftan age; but I queftion whether Manilius may deferve the honour of being reckoned even among the bad poets of that time. What mult be faid, then, to the many paffages in the poem, which relate to the times in which the author lived, and which all have a regard to the Auguftan age? If the whole be not a modern forgery, I do not fee how one can deny his being of that age: and if it be a modern forgery, it is very lucky that it fhould agree fo exactly, in fo many little particulars, with the ancient globe of the heavens, in the Farnefe palace. Allowing

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Thefe are but small remains for an age in which poetry was fo well cultivated and followed by very great numbers, taking the good and the bad together. It is probable, moit of the beft have come down to us. As for the others, we only hear of the elegies of Capella and Montanus; that Proculus imitated Callimachus; and Rufus, Pindar that Fontanus wrote a fort of pifcatory eclogues; and Macer, a poem on the nature of birds, beafts, and plants. That the fame Macer, and Rabirinus, and Marius, and Ponticus, and Pedo Albinovanus, and feveral others, were epic writers in that time (which, by the way, feems to have fignified little more, than that they wrote in hexameter verie): that Fundanius was the best comic poet then, and Meliffus no bad one: that Varius was the moft efteemed for epic poetry, before the Aneid appeared; and one of the moft efteemed for tragedy always: that Pollio (befides his other excellencies at the bar, in the camp, and in affairs of itate) is much commended for tragedy; and Varus, either for tragedy or epic poetry; for it does not quite appear which of the two he wrote. Thefe laft are great names; but there remain fome of fill higher dignity, who were, or at leaft defired to be thought, poets in that time. In the former part of Auguftus's reign, his firft minifter for home affairs, Macenas; and in the latter part, his grandfon Germanicus, were of this number. Germanicus in particular tranflated Aratus; and there are fome (I do not well know on what grounds) who pretend to have met with a confiderable part of his tranflation. The emperor hamfelf feems to have been both a good critic, and a good author. He wrote chiefly in profe; but fome things in verfe too; and particularly good part of a tragedy, called Ajax.

It is no wonder, under fuch encouragements, and fo great examples, that poetry Thould arise to a higher pitch than it had ever done among the Romans. They had. been gradually improving it for above two centuries; and in Auguftus found a

prince, whofe own inclinations, the temper of whofe reign, and whofe very politics, led him to nurse all the arts; and poetry, in a more particular manner. The wonder is, when they had got fo far toward perfection, that they fhould fall as it were all at once; and from their greatest purity and fimplicity, fhould degenerate fo immediately into a lower and more affected manner of writing, than had been ever known among them. Ibid.

$ 54. Of the Fall of Poetry among the

Romans.

There are fome who affert, that the great age of the Roman eloquence I have been fpeaking of, began to decline a little even in the latter part of Auguftus's reign. It certainly fell very much under Tiberius; and grew every day weaker and weaker, till it was wholly changed under Caligula. Hence therefore we may date the third age, or the fall of the Roman poetry. Auguftus, whatever his natural temper was, put on at least a mildness, that gave a calm to the ftate during his time: the fucceeding emperors flung off the mask; and not only were, but openly appeared to be, rather monsters than men. We need not go to their historians for proofs of their prodigious vilenefs: it is enough to mention the bare names of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero. Under fuch heads, every thing that was good run to ruin. All difcipline in war, all domeftic virtues, the very love of liberty, and all the tafte for found eloquence and good poetry, funk gradually; and faded away, as they had flourished, together. Instead of the fenfible, chafte, and manly way of writing, that had been in ufe in the former age, there now rofe up a defire of writing imartly, and an affectation of shining in every thing they faid. A certain prettiness, and glitter, and luxuriance of ornaments, was what diftinguished their moft applauded writers in profe; and their poetry was quite loft in high flights and obfcurity. Seneca, the favourite profe writer of thofe times; and Petronius Arbiter, fo great a favourite with many of our own; afford too many proofs of this. As to the profe in Nero's time; and as to the poets, it is enough to fay, that they had then Lucan and Perfius, instead of Virgil and Horace, Ibid.