and they did not begin to neglect them at Rome, 'till their Manners began to be corrupted. Avaritia fidem, probitatem, cæterafque Artes bonas fubvertit. Pro his fuperbiam, crudelitatem, Deos negligere edocuit. Bell. Cat. It was still lefs reasonable to raise Cato above the Gods, in Honour of Pompey's Party; yet that is what Lucan means by it. Sed Victa Catoni But Cato follow'd Pompey. The But there is a Mark of Diftinction and Preference. The whole Strefs of the Expreffion lies on that Sed, But; 'tis fo obvious, that I wonder Mr. Row fhou'd take no Notice of it. Lucan is entirely loft in his Tranflation. Cato, 'tis true, was, in the Opinion of the Romans, the living Image of Virtue, and in every Thing more like to the Gods than to Men. It is allow'd He was a divine Man; but ftill he was a Man ; and Lucan, tho' a Poet and a Pagan, cou'd not give him the Advantage of the Gods without giving Offence to the Religion he profefs'd. Thus it is, that this Thought of his is both falfe and impious. Mr. Wah thinks of it like Boubours. It is an unpardonable Prejumption in any Scrt of Religion to complement their Princes at the expence of their Deitics. Pref. ib. and Lord Lanfdown paffes the fame Judgement. The Gods permitting Traitors to fucceed, Become not Parties in an impious Deed; And by the Tyrant's Murder we may find, That Cato and the Gods were of a Mind. A very just and noble Thought, worthy the Dignity of the noble Author, and it is Pity that any Part of his Character fhou'd not be equal to it. THERE are fome Criticks, who to excufe Lucan, explain the Verfe thus ; It pleas'd the Gods, that the wicked Party fhou'd prevail over the Good; tho' Cato defir'd the contrary. Good Men every Day pray for the Succefs of thofe that refemble them, and for the Profperity of a juft Caufe; but their Prayers are not always heard, and Providence fometimes orders Things otherwife. THE Gods declar'd themselves for Cafar, by the Succefs of the War, tho' Pompey's Party was the more Juft, and Cato fided with him. The But in the Verfe, per haps, haps, fignifies only Though, and does not injure the Gods, whofe Defigns are impenetrable. IN answer to this, it is faid, If there was nothing more in the Thought of Lucan, 'twould be no great Matter. There wou'd be no need of clamouring at it. But those who admire this Verfe, do not fo interpret it. A Critick on Brebeuf's Tranflation of it, objects against him, That the Expreffion in French does not come up to the original Latin. Lucan's Soul was fo poffefs'd with the Merit of Cato, that he raises him above the Gods, in making him the Defender of the jufteft Caufe, and in placing the Deities on the wrong Side. Brebeuf turns this noble Image of raifing Cato above the Gods into the mean one of his ferving Pompey; and it is most certain, that not only the French Critick upon Brebeuf's Verfion, but almost all that ever read this Verfe of Lucan, did fo understand it, and in this Sense only admire and extol it. But, perhaps, there is not that Impiety in Lucan's Thought, which the French Critick charges it with. THE Pagan Poets had their Gods of the Fable, as well as we Chriftians. Nay, the Fabulous Deities, the Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Venus, Bellona, &c. were as much Fiction to the wifer Heathens, as they are to us. Jupiter and Europa, Mars and Venus, Neptune and Philyra, Apollo and Daphne, Pluto and Proferpine; Are thefe the Deities whom Lucan ought not to have offended, out of Complacency to Cato? The fickle Goddess Fortune, who had ev'ry where her Temples, was on the Side of Cefar; and what more is there meant by it, than that Cefar had Fortune on his Side; but Pompey had Cato, and with him Justice? Homer brings in the Deities fighting, fome on one Side, fome on another, as their Paffions directed them. Are these the Gods, the Poets fhou'd not be free with? And is not the Vertue of Cato fuperiour to a Host of fuch vicious Deities? THE Pater Omnipotens, the Creator and Preferver of the World, whom Virgil calls, The Power immenfe, th' eternal Energy, The King of Gods and Men,who rouls, The radiant Stars, and Heaven and Earth controuls. DRY D. is not to be understood in Lucan's Diis, not the God who by his Providence governs the whole Creation; and to op pofe pofe whom is the Height of Impiety. The wifer Heathens, Socrates, Plato, Cicero, &c. ador'd no other God but this Pater Omnipotens; and the Poets being the very Makers of the Heathen Deities, it cou'd be no Impiety in them, to do what they pleas'd with what they had made themselves. FATHER Bouhours very juftly condemns a Saying in Ariofto, of one of his Heroes; which indeed, is very nearly related to the Hibernian Figure, call'd a Bull: Il pover' huomo che non fen' era accorto. Andava combattendo, & era morto. Not knowing he was kill'd, he still fought on. Of the fame Kind is what Tafo fays of Argantes: Minacciava morendo, e non Languia. He threaten'd as he dy'd, and did not languish. Fairfax has not given us Tafso in this Paffage : Argantes dy'd, but no Complaint he made, But as be furious liv'd, be careless dy'd. Minacciava morendo, He threaten'd as be dy'd, Fairfax ; be made no Complaint; he dy'd careless, is all you have in his Tranflation. A fierce robuft Saracen, fays Pere Bouhours, being mortally wounded, may menace his Enemy when he is dying; but not to lofe his Strength, and not to languifh under Death, is to exempt Argantes from the Law of Nature, and to destroy the Man in order to raife the Heroe. His Menaces are agreeable to his Character. Superbi, formidabili, feroci Gli ultimi moti fur, l'ultime voci. Bold, proud, disdainful, fierce, and void of Fear, FAIRF As the Verfe of Lucan has been fo much prais'd for its Dignity; fo hath this Verfe of Taffo, as a bright Inftance of Heroick Courage. The Heroe dies without the leaft Weakness. Heroes may have Refolution and Conftancy at the laft Gafp, but they can't lofe all the Blood in their Veins, without being weaken'd by it, without languishing. Montagne's Cannibal after he is taken Priso ner, ner, defies his Enemies in Chains, rails at them, fpits in their Faces, and 'tis all very natural in a fierce refolute Barbarian. Nay, if fuch a one in the Midst of Torments, had not the Power of Speech, and yet should make Mouths at his Tormentors, it would not be out of Nature ; as it is to fay he dy'd of his Wounds, and was not the weaker for it. Lord Lanfdown has an Eye to this Paffage of Montagne, and Pere Bouhours's Remark upon it, in his Poem on unnatural Flights in Poetry, The captive Cannibal, oppress'd with Chains, Admirable Lines, and worth all in fome rhiming Effays on Criticifm. IT is objected, That fuch Nicenefs, as to the Truth of Thought, will deprive Poets of fome of the most agreeable Parts of Poetry, which Macrobius terms Cavillationes, and Seneca calls Vafræ & Ludicre Conclufiones; the Italians term them Vivozze d' Ingegno, and the Spaniards, Agudezas. Ariftotie reduces the Art of ingenious Thinking to Metaphor, which is a Sort of Deceit or Falfehood; and Count Tefauro an Italian Critick in his Cannochiale Ariftotelico fays, That according to the Principles of that Philofopher, the moft fubtle and the most exquifite Thoughts are only figurative Enthymemes, or imperfect Syllogifms, which equally pleafe and impofe upon the Understanding. This puts the Makers of Points and Puns very much in Countenance, and gives the Swans and the Purcels a Place among the Etheridge's and Wycherley's. We muit therefore explain after Pere Bouhours, in what Sense Ariftotle and Tefauro, are to be taken. FIGURE in Speech is not Falfehood; and Metaphor has its Truth as well as its Fiction, as Ariftotle teaches in his Rhetorick. When Homer fays; Achilles goes like a Lion, 'tis a Comparison; but when he says of the fame Heroe, The Lion darted himfelf; 'tis a Metaphor. Achilles in the Com Of Meta phors. parifon, parifon, resembles a Lyon; In the Metaphor, he is a Lyon. The Metaphor you fee is livelier and fhorter than the Comparison. The former reprefents but one Object, the latter fhews us two. The Metaphor, if I may fo fay, confounds the Lyon with Achilles, or Achilles with the Lyon; but there is no more Falfehood in the one than in the other. These metaphorical Idea's deceive no Body. A very little Understanding will teach us what they fignifie, and a Man must be extremely dull to take fuch Things according to the Letter. Is there any one fo ftupid, as to fuppofe Homer's Achilles was really a Lyon, and not a Man who had the Strength, Fiercenefs and Courage, which are the Properties of a Lyon? When Voiture fays of Gustavus Adolphus, Behold the Lyon of the North; who does not difcover thro' this foreign Image, a Monarch that by his Valour and his Power made all the North to tremble? Metaphors are like tranfparent Vails, which expofe what they cover. Equivocal Expreffions may be fometimes not only fufferable, but beautiful; efpecially when they do not defcend fo low as punning. Puns are every where falfe Wit, and cannot be otherwife; the Wit confifting in the Sound, and not in the Senfe; but equiVocal Expreffions may be true in the Senfe, tho' in the Letter they are falfe: As this Poem of Voiture, a Petition to Cardinal Mazarine for his Coach-man, who had overturn'd him : Prelat paffant tous les Prelats paffez, Car chacun dit, que quoy que vous faffiez I12 |