65 What tho' no facred earth allow thee room, A heap of duft alone remains of thee, 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be! 74 Poets themselves must fall like those they fung, Deaf the prais'd ear, and mute the tuneful tongue. Ev'n he, whose foul now melts in mournful lays, Shall shortly want the gen'rous tear he pays; Then from his clofing eyes thy form fhall part, And the last pang fhall tear thee from his heart, 80 Life's idle business at one gasp be o'er, The Mufe forgot, and thou belov'd no more! Johnson fays, "Poetry has been seldom worfe employed, than in dignifying the amorous fury of a raving girl." This feems fevere, contemptuous, and unfeeling. Johnson, however, chiefly adverted, I imagine, to the falfe reafoning, and abfurd attempt, in the lines, "Is there no bright," &c. to make fuicide the natu ral confequence of more elevated feelings. Johnson spoke as a fevere moralift, and a rigid philosopher, against such contemptible reafoning, as Pope employs upon this subject, from the 5th to the 22d verfe 22d verfe. Having been, as might naturally be expected from his fuperior understanding, difgufted with the reafoning part of the poem, the gentler touches of fancy and tendernefs were loft, if I may fay fo, ou him. He would turn with difdain from fuch images as "There fhall the morn her earliest tears beflow;" or perhaps exclaim, as upon another occafion, "Incredu'us odi." Notwithstanding, however, his feverity, and the abfurd criticisms of Lord Kaims, which Warburton fpeaks of, the animated paffages of this poem, "But thou, falfe guardian," &c. and the lines of tenderness and poetic fancy interfperfed, cannot be read without fympathy. The verfes, "Yet fhall thy grave," &c. are poffibly too common place, but they are furely beautiful. If any expreffion might be objected to, perhaps it would be “filver” for "white" wings of an angel, PROLOGUE TO MR. ADDISON's TRAGEDY OF CATO. THE Tragedy of Cato itfelf, is a glaring inftance of the force of party; fo fententious and declamatory a drama would never have met with fuch rapid and amazing fuccefs, if every line and fentence had not been particularly tortured, and applied to recent events, and the reigning difputes of the times. The purity and energy of the diction, and the loftinefs of the fentiments, copied, in a great meafure, from Lucan, Tacitus, and Seneca the philofopher, merit approbation. But I have always thought, that those pompous Roman fentiments are not fo difficult to be produced, as is vulgarly imagined; and which, indeed, dazzle only the vulgar. A ftroke of nature is, in my opinion, worth a hundred fuch thoughts as "When vice prevails, and impious men bear fway, The poft of honour is a private ftation." Cato is a fine dialogue on liberty, and the love of one's country; but confidered as a dramatic performance, nay, as a model of a just tragedy, as some have affectedly represented it, it must be owned to want action and pathos; the two hinges, I prefume, on which a juft tragedy ought neceffarily to turn, and without which it cannot fubfift. It wants alfo character, although that be not so effentially neceffary to a tragedy as action. Syphax, indeed, in his interview with Juba, bears fome marks of a rough African; the fpeeches of the reft be transferred to any of the perfonages concerned. The fimile drawn from Mount Atlas, and the description of the Numidian travellers fmothered in the defart, are indeed in character, but sufficiently obvious. How Addison could fall into the falfe and unnatural custom of ending his three may firft acts with fimilics, is amazing in fo chafte and correct a writer, The loves of Juba and Marcia, of Portius, and Lucia, are vicious and infipid episodes, debase the dignity, and deftroy the unity of the fable. Cato was tranflated into Italian by Salvini; into Latin, and acted by the Jefuits at St. Omers; imitated in French by De Champs, and great part of it tranflated by the Abbé Du Bos. The Prologue to Addifon's Tragedy of Cato, is fuperior to any Prologue of Dryden; who, notwithstanding, is fo juftly celebrated for this fpecies of writing. The Prologues of Dryden are fatirical and facetious; this of Pope is folemn and fublime, as the fubject required. Thofe of Dryden contain general topics of criticism and wit, and may precede any play whatsoever, even tragedy or comedy. This of Pope is particular, and appropriated to the tragedy alone, which it was defigned to introduce. WARTON. PROLOGUE TO MR. ADDISON's T TRAGEDY OF CATO*. o wake the foul by tender strokes of art, NOTES. 5 ΤΟ Here *This Prologue, and the Epilogue which follows, are the most perfect models of this fpecies of writing, both in the ferious and the ludicrous way. WARBURTON. The former is much the better of the two; for fome of Dry. den's, of the latter kind, are unequalled. WARTON. VER. 7. Tyrants no more] Louis XIV. wished to have pardoned the Cardinal de Rohan, after hearing the Cinna of Corneille. WARTON. VER. 11. In pitying love,] Why then did Addison introduce the loves of Juba and Marcia? which Pope faid to Mr. Spence, were not in the original plan of the play, but were introduced in compliance with the popular practice of the ftage. WARTON. |