PART III. Ver. 560, &c. Rules for the Conduct of Manners in a Critic, 1. Candour, AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. ידי Is hard to fay, if greater want of skill Appear in writing or in judging ill; But, of the two, lefs dangʼrous is th' offence To tire our patience, than mislead our fenfe. Some COMMENTARY. An Effay] The poem is in one book, but divided into three principal parts or numbers. The first [to ver. 201.] gives rules for the Study of the Art of Criticism: the fecond [from thence to ver. 560.] expofes the Caufes of wrong Judgment; and the third [from thence to the end] marks out the Morals of the Critic. In order to a right conception of this poem, it will be neceffary to obferve, that though it be intitled fimply An Effay on Criticifm, yet feveral of the precepts relate equally to the good writing as well as the true judging of a poem. This is fo far from violating the Unity of the subject, that it preserves and completes it: or from disordering the regularity of the Form, that it adds beauty to it, as will appear by the following confiderations: 1. It was impoffible NOTES. An Essay] For a perfon of only twenty years old to have produced fuch an Effay, fo replete with a knowledge of life and manners, fuch accurate observations on men and books, such variety of literature, such strong good fenfe, and refined taste and judgment, VOL. I. Some few in that, but numbers err in this, Ten cenfure wrong for one who writes amifs; 5 ΙΘ In COMMENTARY. impoffible to give a full and exact idea of the Art of Poetical Criticifm, without confidering at the fame time the Art of Poetry; fo far as Poetry is an Art. Thefe therefore being closely connected in nature, the author has, with much judgment, interwoven the precepts of each reciprocally through his whole poem. 2. As the rules of the ancient Critics were taken from Poets who copied nature, this is another reason why every Poet fhould be a Critic: therefore as the subject is poetical Criticifm. it is frequently addreffed to the critical Poet. And 3dly, the Art of Criticism is as properly, and much more ufefully exercifed in writing than in judging. WARBURTON. VER. 1. 'Tis hard to fay, &c.] The Poem opens [from ver. I to 9.] with fhewing the ufe and feasonablenefs of the fubject. Its ufe, from the greater mischief in wrong Criticifm than in ill Poetry; this only tiring, that mifleading the reader: Its feafonableness, from the growing number of bad Critics, which now vaftly exceeds that of bad Poets. WARBURTON. VER. 9. 'Tis with our judgments, &c.] The author having fhewn us the expediency of this fubject, the Art of Criticim, inquires next [from ver. 8 to 15.] into the proper Qualities of a true Critic and obferves first, that JUDGMENT alone is not fufficient to constitute this character, because Judgment, like the artificial meafures of Time, goes different, and yet each man relies upon his own. WARBURTON. NOTES. ment, has been the subject of frequent, and of just admiration. It may fairly entitle him to the character of being one of the first of critics, though furely not of poets, as Dr, Johnfon afferts. For Didactic poetry being, from its nature, inferior to Lyric, Tragic, and In Poets as true Genius is but rare, True Taste as feldom is the Critic's fhare; Let NOTES. and Epic poetry, we fhould confound and invert all literary rank and order, if we compared and preferred the Georgics of Virgil to the Eneid, the Epiftle to the Pifo's to the "Qualem Miniftrum" of Horace, and Boileau's Art of Poetry to the Iphigenie of Racine. WARTON. VER. II. In Poets as true Genius is but rare,] It is indeed fo extremely rare, that no country, in the fucceffion of many ages, has produced above three or four perfons that deferve the title. The man of rhymes" may be eafily found; but the genuine poet, of a lively plaftic imagination, the true Maker or Creator, is fo uncommon a prodigy, that one is almost tempted to subscribe to the opinion of Sir William Temple, where he fays, "That for one man that is born capable of making a great poet, there may be a thousand born capable of making as great generals, or minifters of state, as the most renowned in story." WARTON. This observation, if juft, can only relate to fuch characters as Homer and Shakespear. VER. 12. True Tafle as feldom] The first piece of criticism in our language, worthy our attention, for little can be gathered from Webbe and Puttenham, was Sir Philip Sydney's Defence of Poefie. Spenfer is faid to have written a critical discourse, called The Poet; the lofs of which, confidering the exquifite taste and extenfive learning of Spenfer, is much to be regretted. Next came Daniel's Apology; then Ben Jonfon's Discoveries, the Preface to Gondibert, and Hobbes's Letter to D'Avenant, the Preface and Notes of Cowley (whofe profe style, by the way, is admirable), Temple's Effays, Dryden's Effay on Dramatic Poetry, and his various Prefaces and Prologues, Rhymer's Preface to Rapin, and Letter on Tragedy, and Dennis's Reforma. tion of Poetry, and the Effays of Rofcommon and Buckingham. These were the critical pieces that preceded our Author's Effay, Let fuch teach others who themselves excel, COMMENTARY. 15 Authors VER. 15. Let fuch teach others, &c.] But it is not enough that the Critic hath these natural endowments (genius and taste); he ought, as our author fhews us [from ver. 14 to 19], in order to give a further test of his qualification, have put them fuccessfully into ufe. And this, on two accounts : 1. Because the office of a Critic is an exercise of authority. 2. Because he being naturally as partial to his Judgment as the Poet is to his Wit, his partiality would have nothing to correct it, as that of the perfon judged hath, by the very terms. Therefore fome test is neceffary; and ́the best, and most unexceptionable, is his having written well him. felf; an approved remedy against Critical partiality; and the fureft NOTES. which was published without his name, May 1711, about the fame time with Fenton's Epiftle to Southerne; and did not, as Lewis the bookfeller told me, fell at first, till our Author fent copies, as prefents, to feveral eminent perfons. It is faid, very fenfibly, by La Bruyere, "I will allow that good writers are scarce enough; but then I afk, where are the people that know to read and judge? An union of these qualities,, which are seldom found in the fame perfon, seem to be indispens. ably neceffary to form an able critic; he ought to possess strong good fenfe, lively imagination, and exquifite fenfibility. And of these three qualities, the last is the most important; fince, after all that can be faid on the utility or neceffity of rules and precepts, it must be confeffed, that the merit of all works of genius must be determined by tafte and fentiment. "Why do you so much admire the Helen of Zeuxis?" faid one to Nicostratus; "You would not wonder why I fo much admired it (replied the painter), if you had my eyes." WARTON. VER. 15. Let fuch teach others] "Qui fcribit artificiofe, ab aliis commode fcripta facile intelligere poterit." Cic. ad Herenn. lib. iv. "De pictore, sculptore, fitore, nifi artifex, judicare non poteft." Pliny. POPE. |