Page images
PDF
EPUB

These leave the sense, their learning to display, And those explain the meaning quite away.

You then whofe judgment the right courfe would fteer,

Know well each ANCIENT's proper character;

COMMENTARY.

VER. 118. You then whofe judgment, etc.] He comes next to the ancient Poets, the other and more intimate commentators of Nature. And fhews [from 117 to 141.] that the ftudy of These must indispensably follow that of the ancient Critics, as they furnish us with what the Critics, who only give us general rules, cannot fupply: while the ftudy of a great original Poet in

His Fable, Subject, scope in ev'ry page;

Religion, Country, genius of his Age;

will help us to thofe particular rules, which only can conduct us

NOTES.

having found the claffic writers miferably mangled by the hands of monkish Librarians, very commendably employed their pains and talents in reftoring them to their native purity. The fecond, the plagiaries from the French, who had made fome admirable Commentaries on the ancient critics. But that acumen and tafte, which feparately conftitute the diftinct value of thofe two fpecies of foreign Criticism, make no part of the character of these paltry mimics at home, defcribed by our Poet in the following lines,

These leave the fenfe, their learning to display,
And thofe explain the meaning quite away.

Which species is the leaft hurtful, the Poet has enabled us to determine in the lines with which he opens his poem,

But of the two lefs dang'rous is th' offence

To tire our patience than mislead our sense.

From whence we conclude, that the reverend Mr. Upton was much more innocently employed, when he quibbled upon Epictetus, than when he commented upon Shakespear.

120

His Fable, Subject, fcope in ev'ry page;
Religion, Country, genius of his Age:
Without all these at once before your eyes,
Cavil you may, but never criticize.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 123. Cavil you may, but never criticize.] The author after this verse originally inferted the following, which he has however omitted in all the editions:

Zoilus, had these been known, without a Name
Had dy'd, and Perault ne'er been damn'd to fame;
The sense of found Antiquity had reign'd,
And facred Homer yet been unprophan'd.
None e'er had thought his comprehenfive mind
To modern customs, modern rules confin'd;
Who for all ages writ, and all mankind.

COMMENTARY.

P.

}

fafely through every confiderable work we undertake to examine; and, without which, we may cavil indeed, as the poet truly obferves, but can never criticize. We might as well fuppofe that Vitruvius's book alone would make a perfect Judge of Architecture, without the knowledge of fome great mafter-piece of science, fuch as the Rotonda at Rome, or the Temple of Minerva at Athens; as that Ariftotle's fhould make a perfect Judge of wit, without the ftudy of Homer and Virgil. These therefore he principally recommends to complete the Critic in his Art. But as the latter of thefe Poets has, by fuperficial judges, been confidered rather as a copyer of Homer, than an original, our Author obviates that common error, and fhews it to have arifen (as often error does) from a truth, viz. that Homer and Nature were the fame; and how that the ambitious young Poet, though he fcorned to ftoop at any thing fhort of Nature, when he came to understand this great truth, had the prudence to contemplate Nature in the place where fhe was feen to most advantage, collected in all her charms in the clear mirror of Ho

Be Homer's works your study and delight,

Read them by day, and meditate by night; 125 Thence form your judgment, thence

bring,

your maxims

your

And trace the Mufes upward to their spring. Still with itself compar'd, his text peruse; And let your comment be the Mantuan Mufe.

When firft young Maro in his boundless mind A work t'outlaft immortal Rome defign'd, 13 Perhaps he seem'd above the Critic's law, And but from Nature's fountains fcorn'd to draw

VER. 130.

VARIATIONS.

When firft young Maro fung of Kings and Wars,
Ere warning Phoebus touch'd his trembling ears,

COMMENTARY.

ture, yet the vulgar reader would believe him to be a copier Homer; and though he copied Homer, yet the judicious read would fee him to be an imitator of Nature: the finest pra which any one, who came after Homer, could receive.

NOTES.

VER. 130. When firft young Maro, etc.] Virg. Eclog. vi. Cum canerem reges et prælia, Cynthius aurem

Vellit.

It is a tradition preferved by Servius, that Virgil began w writing a poem of the Alban and Roman affairs; which found above his years, and defcended firft to imitate Theo tus on rural fubjects, and afterwards to copy Homer in He poetry. P.

But when t'examine ev'ry part he came,
Nature and Homer were, he found, the fame.
Convinc'd, amaz'd, he checks the bold defign:
And rules as ftrict his labour'd work confine,
As if the Stagirite o'erlooked each line.
Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem;
To copy nature is to copy them.

Some beauties yet no Precepts can declare,
For there's a happiness as well as care.
Mufic resembles Poetry, in each

140

Are nameless graces which no methods teach,
And which a master-hand alone can reach. 145
If, where the rules not far enough extend,
(Since rules were made but to promote their end)

COMMENTARY.

VER. 141. Some beauties yet no Precepts can declare, etc.] Our Author, in these two general precepts for ftudying Nature and her Commentators, having confidered Poetry as it is, or may be reduced to Rule; left this fhould be mistaken as fufficient to attain PERFECTION either in writing or judging, he proceeds [from 140 to 201.] to point up to thofe fublimer beauties which Rules will never reach, that is, enable us either to execute or tafte: and which rife fo high above all precept as not even to be defcribed by it; but being entirely the gift of Heaven, Art and Reafon have no further share in their production than just to moderate their operations. These Sublimities of Poetry, like the Mysteries of Religion (fome of which are above Reafon, and fome contrary to it) may be divided into two forts, fuch as are above Rules, and fuch as are contrary to them.

Be Homer's works your ftudy and delight, Read them by day, and meditate by night; I Thence form your judgment, thence your maxi bring,

And trace the Muses upward to their spring. Still with itself compar'd, his text peruse; And let your comment be the Mantuan Muf When firft young Maro in his boundless m A work t'outlaft immortal Rome defign'd, Perhaps he seem'd above the Critic's law, And but from Nature's fountains fcorn'd to

VER. 130.

VARIATIONS.

When firft young Maro fung of Kings and Wars,
Ere warning Phoebus touch'd his trembling ears,

COMMENTARY.

ture, yet the vulgar reader would believe him to be a Homer; and though he copied Homer, yet the judicio would fee him to be an imitator of Nature: the fin which any one, who came after Homer, could receiv

NOTES.

VER. 130. When firft young Maro, etc.] Virg. Ecle
Cum canerem reges et prælia, Cynthius aurem
Vellit.

It is a tradition preferved by Servius, that Virgil b.
writing a poem of the Alban and Roman affairs;
found above his years, and defcended firft to imitate
tus on rural fubjects, and afterwards to copy Homer
poetry. P.

« PreviousContinue »