See Dionyfius Homer's thoughts refine, And call new beauties forth from ev'ry line! NOTES. VER. 665. See Dionyfius] Of Halicarnaffus. 665 Fancy P. VER. 665. See Dionyfius] Thefe profaic lines, this spiritless eulogy, are much below the merit of the critic whom they are intended to celebrate. Pope feems here rather to have confidered Dionyfius as the author only of reflections concerning Homer; and to have, in fome measure, overlooked, or at least not to have fufficiently infifted on, his moft excellent book ΠΕΡΙ ΣΥΝΘΗΣΕΩΣ ΟΝΟΜΑΤΩΝ, in which he has unfolded all the fecret arts that render compofition harmonious. One part of this discourse, I mean from the beginning of the twenty-first to the end of the twenty-fourth fection, is, perhaps, one of the most useful pieces of criticifm extant. He there difcuffes the three different species of compofition; which he divides into the Nervous and Auftere, the Smooth and Florid, and the Middle, which partakes of the nature of the two others. As examples of the firft fpecies, he mentions Antimachus and Empedocles in heroics, Pindar in lyric, Æschylus in tragic poetry, and Thucydides in history. As examples of the fecond, he produces Hefied as a writer in heroics; Sappho, Anacreon, and Simonides, in lyric; Euripides only among tragic writers; among the hiftorians, Ephorus and Theopompus; and Ifocrates among the rhetoricians; all these, says he, have used words that are AEIA, xaɩ MAAAKA, και ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝΑ. The writers which he alleges as instances of the third fpecies, who have happily blended the two other fpecies of compofition, and who are the most complete models of style, are Homer in epic poetry; Stefichorus and Alcæus in lyric; in tragic, Sophocles; in hiftory, Herodotus; in eloquence, Demofthenes; in philofophy, Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle. Numberless are the paffages which Quintilian has borrowed from this writer; who has lately been brought forward, and perhaps will be more read by being fo often referred to, by the learned Lord Monboddo. The treatise, De Structurâ, was admirably well published by Mr. Upton, the editor alfo of Ariftotle's Poetics, printed at Cambridge, under the inspection of Dr. Hare, in the year 1706, and alfo of Extracts from Ælian, Polyanus, and Herodotus, and of Afcham's Schoolmaster. Let me indulge myself by adding, that his fon, Mr. John Upton, Prebendary of Rochester, was also a man of taste and ability, author of Observations on Shakespear, Fancy and art in gay Petronius please, NOTES. 670 Shakespear, of a moft accurate edition of Arrian's Epictetus, and of the beft edition of Spencer's Fairy Queen, ever given to the public. This amiable and learned man, was unjustly and uncandidly depreciated by Dr. Warburton, but, as a full equivalent, was honoured with the conftant friendship and regard of the excellent author of Hermes. VER. 666. And call new] Racine, in one of his letters, fays, accidentally, and without any affectation, that he had that day read over, in Greek, the whole of Dionyfius's treatise De Structura Orationis. I believe few modern poets could, with truth, have faid the fame thing. But he, as well as Boileau, was an excellent Greek scholar, which cannot be faid of any of their fucceffors in France, not even their celebrated Voltaire. VER. 667. Petronius pleafe,] This diffolute and effeminate writer little deserved a place among good critics, for only two or three pages on the subject of criticism. His fragment on the Civil War is far below Lucan, whom he endeavoured to blame and to excel. Sir George Wheeler, esteemed an accurate traveller, informs us, that he faw at Trau, in the hands of a Doctor Statelius, a fragment of Petronius, in which the account of the Supper of Trimalcion was entire. Yet this fragment has been judged to be spurious. VER. 669. In grave Quintilian's copious work,] To commend Quintilian barely for his method, and to infist merely on this excellence, is below the merit of one of the most rational and elegant of Roman writers. Confidering the nature of Quintilian's fubject, he afforded copious matter for a more appropriated and poetical character. No author ever adorned a scientifical treatise with fo many beautiful metaphors. Quintilian was found in the bottom of a tower of the monaftery of St. Gal, by Poggius; as appears by one of his letters dated 1417, written from Conftance, where the council was then fitting. The monastery was about twenty miles from that city. Silius Italicus, and Valerius Flaccus, were found at the fame time and place. À history of the manner in which the manuscripts of ancient authors were found, would be an entertaining work to perfons of literary curiosity. See Life of Lorenzo di Medici. Thus Thus useful arms in magazines we place, Thee, bold Longinus! all the Nine inspire, 675 And bless their Critic with a Poet's fire. An ardent Judge, who, zealous in his trust, NOTES. 680 VER. 675. Thee, bold Longinus !] This abrupt addrefs to Longinus is more fpirited and striking, and more fuitable to the character of the perfon addreffed, than if he had coldly spoken of him in the third perfon, as it flood in the firft edition. The tafte and fenfibility of Longinus were exquifite; but his obfervations are too general, and his method too loofe. The precifron of the true philofophical critic is loft in the declamation of the florid rhetorician. Inftead of fhewing for what reafon a fentiment or image is fublime, and discovering the fecret power by which they affect a reader with pleasure, he is ever intent on producing something fublime himself, and strokes of his own eloquence. Instead of pointing out the foundation of the grandeur of Homer's imagery, where he defcribes the motion of Neptune, the critic is endeavouring to rival the poet, by saying that, "there was not room enough in the whole earth to take fuch another ftep." He fhould have fhewn why the fpeech of Phaeton to his fon, in a fragment of Euripides, was so lively and picturefque; inftead of which, he ardently exclaims, "Would not you fay, that the foul of the writer afcended the chariot with the driver, and was whirled along in the fame flight and danger with the rapid horfes?" We have lately feen a juft fpecimen of the genuine method of criticifing, in Mr. Harris's accurate Discourse on Poetry, Painting, and Mufic. I have frequently wondered, that Longinus, who mentions Tully, should have taken no notice of Virgil or Horace. I fuppofe he thought them only fervile copiers of the Greeks. Neither Herodotus nor Thucidydes ever once mention the Romans. Thus Thus long fucceeding Critics juftly reign'd, Licence reprefs'd, and ufeful laws ordain'd. Learning and Rome alike in empire grew; 684 And arts still follow'd where her eagles flew; From the fame Foes, at laft, both felt their doom, And the fame age faw Learning fall and Rome. NOTES. With VER. 685. From the fame Foes,]" "Twas the fate of Rome to have scarce an intermediate age, or fingle period of time, between the rise of arts and fall of liberty. No fooner had that nation begun to lose the roughness and barbarity of their manners, and learn of Greece to form their heroes, their orators, and poets, on a right model, than on their unjust attempt upon the liberty of the world, they justly loft their own. With their liberty, they loft not only their force of eloquence, but even their style and language itself. The poets who afterwards arofe among them, were mere unnatural and forced plants. Their two most finished, who came last, and closed the scene, were plainly fuch as had feen the days of liberty, and felt the fad effects of its departure." Shaftesbury proceeds to obferve, that when defpotifm was fully established, not a ftatue, picture, or medal, not a tolerable piece of architecture, afterwards appeared. And it was, I may add, the opinion of Longinus, and Addison, who adopted it from him, that arbitrary governments were pernicious to the fine arts, as well as to the fciences. Modern history, however, has afforded an example to the contrary. Painting, fculpture, and mufic, have been feen to arrive to a high perfection in Rome, notwithstanding the flavery and fuperftition that reign there; nay, superstition itself has been highly productive of these fine arts; for with what enthusiasm must a popish painter work for an altar-piece? There have been inftances of painters who, before they began to work, have always received the facrament. Neither Dante, Ariofto, nor Taffo, flourished in. free governments; and it seems chimerical to affert, that Milton would never have written his Paradise Loft if he had not feen monarchy deftroyed, and the state thrown into diforder. Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Julio Romano, lived in defpotic states. The fine arts, in fhort, are naturally attendant upon power and luxury, But the fciences require unlimited freedom, VOL. I, $ With Tyranny, then Superftition join'd, VARIATIONS. Between ver. 690 and 691, the author omitted these two, NOTES. freedom, to raise them to their full vigour and growth. In a monarchy, there may be poets, painters, and musicians; but orators, hiftorians, and philofophers, can exift, in their full force, in a well-ordered republic alone. VER. 686. Saw Learning fall] Literature and the arts, which flourished to fo great a degree about the time of Auguftus, gradually felt a decline, from many concurrent causes; from the vast extent of the Roman empire, and its confequent defpotifm, which crushed every noble effort of the mind; from the military government, which rendered life and property precarious, and therefore destroyed even the necessary arts of agriculture and manufactures; and by the irruption of the barbarous nations, which was occafioned and facilitated by this ftate of things. About the eleventh century the people of Christendom were funk in the lowest ignorance and brutality, till the accidental finding Juftinian's Pandects, at Amalfi, in Italy, about the year 1130, began to awaken and enlarge the minds of men, by laying before them an art that would give ftability and fecurity to all the other arts that support and embellish life. It is a mistake to think that the arts were destroyed by the irruptions of the northern nations; they had degenerated and decayed before that event. VER. 692. What the Goths begun] Leontius Pilatus was the perfon that reftored Greek learning in Italy; Gregoris Tiphernas in France; William Grocyn of New College, Oxford, in England. The nine Grecians that came first from Conftantinople into the Weft, were Beffarion, Chryfoloras, Demet. Calchondylas, Gaza, J. Argyropulus, G. Trapezuntius, Mar. Mufurus, M. Marullus, J. Lafcaris. |