Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697)
Date: 2005-08-10T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Poetry; Epic poetry

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Title: Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697)

Author: Samuel Wesley

Author of introduction, etc.: Edward Niles Hooker

Release date: August 10, 2005 [eBook #16506]
Most recently updated: December 12, 2020

Language: English

Original publication: Los Angeles: The Augustan Reprint Society, 1947

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16506

Credits: E-text prepared by David Starner, Charles M. Bidwell, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EPISTLE TO A FRIEND CONCERNING POETRY (1700) AND THE ESSAY ON HEROIC POETRY (SECOND EDITION, 1697) ***

E-text prepared by David Starner, Charles M. Bidwell, and the Project

Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)

Series Two: Essays on Poetry

No. 2

Samuel Wesley's Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry (1700)
and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697)

With an Introduction by
Edward N. Hooker

The Augustan Reprint Society
January, 1947 Price: 75c

GENERAL EDITORS: Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor; Edward N. Hooker, H.T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of
California, Los Angeles 24, California.

Membership in the Augustan Reprint Society entitles the subscriber to six publications issued each year. The annual membership fee is $2.50. Address subscriptions and communications to the Augustan Reprint Society, in care of one of the General Editors.

EDITORIAL ADVISORS: Louis I. Bredvold, University of Michigan; James L. Clifford, Columbia University; Benjamin Boyce,
University of Nebraska; Cleanth Brooks, Louisiana State University; Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago; James R. Sutherland,
Queen Mary College, University of London; Emmett L. Avery, State
College of Washington; Samuel Monk, Southwestern University.

Lithoprinted from Author's Typescript
EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC. Lithoprinters ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
1947

INTRODUCTION

We remember Samuel Wesley (1662-1735), if at all, as the father of a great religious leader. In his own time he was known to many as a poet and a writer of controversial prose. His poetic career began in 1685 with the publication of Maggots, a collection of juvenile verses on trivial subjects, the preface to which, a frothy concoction, apologizes to the reader because the book is neither grave nor gay. The first poem, "On a
Maggot," is composed in hudibrastics, with a diction obviously Butlerian, and it is followed by facetious poetic dialogues and by Pindarics of the
Cowleian sort but on such subjects as "On the Grunting of a Hog." In 1688
Wesley took his B.A. at Exeter College, Oxford, following which he became a naval chaplain and, in 1690, rector of South Ormsby; he became rector of
Epworth in 1695. During the run of the Athenian Gazette (1691-1697)
he joined with Richard Sault and John Norris in assisting John Dunton, the promoter of the undertaking. His second venture in poetry, the Life of
Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, an epic largely in heroic couplets with a prefatory discourse on heroic poetry, appeared in 1693, was reissued in
1694, and was honored with a second edition in 1697. In 1695 he dutifully came forward with Elegies, lamenting the deaths of Queen Mary and
Archbishop Tillotson. An Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry (1700) was followed by at least four other volumes of verse, the last of which was issued in 1717. His poetry appears to have had readers on a certain level, but it stirred up little pleasure among wits, writers, or critics. Judith Drake confessed that she was lulled to sleep by
Blackmore's Prince Arthur and by Wesley's "heroics" (Essay in
Defence of the Female Sex, 1696, p. 50). And he was satirized as a mare poetaster in Garth's Dispensary, in Swift's The Battle of the Books, and in the earliest issues of the Dunciad. Nobody today would care to defend his poetry for its esthetic merits.

For a few years in the early eighteenth century Wesley found himself in the vortex of controversy. Brought up in the dissenting tradition, he had swerved into conformity at some point during the 1680's, possibly under the influence of Tillotson, whom he greatly admired (cf. Epistle to a
Friend, pp. 5-6). In 1702 there appeared his Letter from a Country
Divine to his friend in London concerning the education of dissenters in their private academies, apparently written about 1693. This attack upon dissenting academies was published at an unfortunate time, when the public mind was inflamed by the intolerance of overzealous churchmen.
Wesley was furiously answered; he replied in A Defence of a Letter (1704), and again in A Reply to Mr. Palmer's Vindication (1707). It is scarcely to Wesley's credit that in this quarrel he stood shoulder to shoulder with that most hot-headed of all contemporary bigots, Henry
Sacheverell. His prominence in the controversy earned him the ironic compliments of Defoe, who recalled that our "Mighty Champion of this very
High-Church Cause" had once written a poem to satirize frenzied Tories
(Review, II, no. 87, Sept. 22, 1705). About a week later Defoe, having got wind of a collection being taken up for Wesley—who in consequence of a series of misfortunes was badly in debt—intimated that
High-Church pamphleteering had turned out very profitably for both Lesley and Wesley (Oct. 2, 1705). But in such snarling and bickering Wesley was out of his element, and he seems to have avoided future quarrels.

His literary criticism is small in bulk. But though it is neither brilliant nor well written (Wesley apparently composed at a break-neck clip), it is not without interest. Pope observed in 1730 that he was a
"learned" man (letter to Swift, in Works, ed. Elwin-Courthope, VII,
184). The observation was correct, but it should be added that Wesley matured at the end of an age famous for its great learning, an age whose most distinguished poet was so much the scholar that he appeared more the pedant than the gentleman to critics of the succeeding era; Wesley was not singular for erudition among his seventeenth-century contemporaries.

The "Essay on Heroic Poetry," serving as Preface to The Life of Our
Blessed Lord and Saviour, reveals something of its author's erudition.
Among the critics, he was familiar with Aristotle, Horace, Longinus,
Dionysius of Halicarnasseus, Heinsius, Bochart, Balzac, Rapin, Le Bossu, and Boileau. But this barely hints at the extent of his learning. In the notes on the poem itself the author displays an interest in classical scholarship, Biblical commentary, ecclesiastical history, scientific inquiry, linguistics and philology, British antiquities, and research into the history, customs, architecture, and geography of the Holy Land; he shows, an intimate acquaintance with Grotius, Henry Hammond, Joseph Mede,
Spanheim, Sherlock, Lightfoot, and Gregory, with Philo, Josephus, Fuller,
Walker, Camden, and Kircher; and he shows an equal readiness to draw upon
Cudworth's True Intellectual System and Boyle's new theories concerning the nature of light. In view of such a breadth of knowledge it is somewhat surprising to find him quoting as extensively as he does in the "Essay"
from Le Bossu and Rapin, and apparently leaning heavily upon them.

The "Essay" was composed at a time when the prestige of Rymer and neo-Aristotelianism in England was already declining, and though Wesley expressed some admiration for Rapin and Le Bossu, he is by no means docile under their authority. Whatever the weight of authority, he says, "I see no cause why Poetry should not be brought to the Test [of reason], as well as Divinity…." As to the sacred example of Homer, who based his great epic on mythology, Wesley remarks, "But this [mythology] being now antiquated, I cannot think we are oblig'd superstitiously to follow his
Example, any more than to make Horses speak, as he does that of Achilles."
To the question of the formidable Boileau, "What Pleasure can it be to hear the howlings of repining Lucifer?" our critic responds flippantly, "I think 'tis easier to answer than to find out what shew of Reason he had for asking it, or why Lucifer mayn't howl as pleasantly as either
Cerberus, or Enceladus." Without hesitation or apology he takes issue with
Rapin's conception of Decorum in the epic. But Wesley is empiricist as well as rationalist, and the judgment of authority can be upset by appeal to the court of experience. To Balzac's suggestion that, to avoid difficult and local proper names in poetry, generalized terms be used, such as Ill-luck for the Fates and the Foul Fiend for Lucifer, our critic replies with jaunty irony, "… and whether this wou'd not sound extreamly Heroical, I leave any Man to judge," and thus he dismisses the matter. Similarly, when Rapin objects to Tasso's mingling of lyric softness in the majesty of the epic, Wesley points out sharply that no man of taste will part with the fine scenes of tender love in Tasso, Dryden,
Ovid, Ariosto, and Spenser "for the sake of a fancied Regularity." He had set out to defend the Biblical epic, the Christian epic, and the propriety of Christian machines in epic, and no rules or authority could deter him.
As good an example as any of his independence of mind can be seen in a note on Bk. I, apropos of the poet's use of obsolete words (Life of Our
Blessed Lord, 1697, p. 27): it may be in vicious imitation of Milton and
Spenser, he says in effect, but I have a fondness for old words, they please my ear, and that is all the reason I can give for employing them.

Wesley's resistance to a strict application of authority and the rules grew partly out of the rationalistic and empirical temper of Englishmen in his age, but it also sprang from his learning. From various sources he drew the theory that Greek and Latin were but corrupted forms of ancient
Phoenician, and that the degeneracy of Greek and Latin in turn had produced all, or most, of the present European tongues (ibid., p. 354).
In addition, he believed that the Greeks had derived some of their thought from older civilizations, and specifically that Plato had received many of his notions from the Jews (ibid., p. 230)—an idea which recalls the argument that Dryden in Religio Laici had employed against the deists. Furthermore, he had, like many of his learned contemporaries, a profound respect for Hebrew culture and the sublimity of the Hebrew scriptures, going so far as to remark in the "Essay on Heroic Poetry" that
"most, even of [the heathen poets'] best Fancies and Images, as well as
Names, were borrow'd from the Antient Hebrew Poetry and Divinity." In short, however faulty his particular conclusions, he had arrived at an historical viewpoint, from which it was no longer possible to regard the classical standards—much less the standards of French critics—as having the holy sanction of Nature herself.

Some light is shed on the literary tastes of his period by Wesley's two essays here reproduced, which with a few exceptions were in accord with the prevailing current. The Life of Our Blessed Lord shows strongly the influence of Cowley's Davideis. Wesley's great admiration persisted after the tide had turned away from Cowley; and his liking for the "divine Herbert" and for Crashaw represented the tastes of sober and unfashionable readers. In spite of the fact that he professed unbounded admiration for Homer as the greatest genius in nature, in practise he seemed more inclined to follow the lead of Cowley, Virgil, and Vida.
Although there was much in Ariosto that he enjoyed, he preferred Tasso; the irregularities in both, however, he felt bound to deplore. To
Spenser's Faerie Queene he allowed extraordinary merit. If the plan of it was noble, he thought, and the mark of a comprehensive genius, yet the action of the poem seemed confused. Nevertheless, like Prior later,
Wesley was inclined to suspend judgment on this point because the poem had been left incomplete. To Spenser's "thoughts" he paid the highest tribute, and to his "Expressions flowing natural and easie, with such a prodigious
Poetical Copia as never any other must expect to enjoy." Like most of the
Augustans Wesley did not care greatly for Paradise Regained, but he partly atoned by his praise for Paradise Lost, which was an
"original" and therefore "above the common Rules." Though defective in its action, it was resplendent with sublime thoughts perhaps superior to any in Virgil or Homer, and full of incomparable and exquisitely moving passages. In spite of his belief that Milton's blank verse was a mistake, making for looseness and incorrectness, he borrowed lines and images from it, and in Bk. IV of The Life of Our Blessed Lord he incorporated a whole passage of Milton's blank verse in the midst of his heroic couplets.

Wesley's attitude toward Dryden deserves a moment's pause. In the "Essay on Heroic Poetry" he observed that a speech of Satan's in Paradise
Lost is nearly equalled in Dryden's State of Innocence. Later in the same essay he credited a passage in Dryden's King Arthur with showing an improvement upon Tasso. There is no doubt as to his vast respect for the greatest living poet, but his remarks do not indicate that he ranked Dryden with Virgil, Tasso, or Milton; for he recognized as well as we that the power to embellish and to imitate successfully does not constitute the highest excellence in poetry. In the Epistle to a
Friend he affirmed his admiration for Dryden's matchless style, his harmony, his lofty strains, his youthful fire, and even his wit—in the main, qualities of style and expression. But by 1700 Wesley had absorbed enough of the new puritanism that was rising in England to qualify his praise; now he deprecated the looseness and indecency of the poetry, and called upon the poet to repent. One other point calls for comment.
Wesley's scheme for Christian machinery in the epic, as described in the
"Essay on Heroic Poetry," is remarkably similar to Dryden's. Dryden's had appeared in the essay on satire prefaced to his translation of Juvenal, published late in October, 1692; Wesley's scheme appeared soon after June,
1693.

The Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry is neither startling nor contemptible; it has, in fact, much more to say than the rhymed treatises on verse by Roscommon and Buckinghamshire. Its remarks on Genius are fresh, though tantalizing in their brevity, and it defends the Moderns with both neatness and energy. Much of its advice is cautious and commonplace—but such was the tradition of the poetical treatise on verse.
Appearing within two years of Collier's first attack upon the stage, it reinforces some of that worthy's contentions, but we are not aware of its having had much effect.

The Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry is here reproduced, with permission, from the copy at Harvard. The "Essay on Heroic Poetry" is reproduced, with permission, from a copy of the 1697 edition of The
Life of Our Blessed Lord owned by the Henry E. Huntington Library, at
San Marino, California. Our reproduction of the second item was made from a typescript because the printing of the original lacks the size and clarity which are necessary for satisfactory results In lithoprinting. The typescript follows the original accurately except that italics (crazily profuse in the 1697 edition) are omitted, the use of quotation marks is normalized, and three obvious typographical errors are silently emended.

Edward Niles Hooker

AN
EPISTLE
TO A
FRIEND
CONCERNING
POETRY.

By SAMUEL WESLEY.

Fungor vice Cotis.

LONDON

Printed for CHARLES HARPER, at the Flower de Luce in Fleetstreet. MDCC. 25. Aprill.

PREFACE.

I have not much to say of this Poem, before I leave it to the Mercy of the Reader. There's no need of looking far into it, to find out that the direct Design of a great part of it, is to Serve the Cause of Religion and Virtue; tho' 'twas necessary for that End to dispose the whole in such a manner as might be agreeable to the Tast of the present Age, and of those who usually give such sort of Books the Reading. If there be any Thoughts in it relating to Poetry, that either are not known to all
Persons, or are tolerably ranged and expressed, the Reader is welcome to 'em for Over-weight: If there are too few of these, I yet hope the
Pardon of all candid Judges, because I've done the best I cou'd on this Argument. I can't be angry with any Person for ranking me amongst the Ogylbys; my Quarrel is with these that rank themselves amongst Atheists, and impudently defend and propagate that ridiculous Opinion of the Eternity of the World, and a fatal invincible Chain of Things, which, it seems, is now most commonly made use of to destroy the Faith, as our lewd Plays are to corrupt the Morals of the Nation: An Opinion, big with more Absurdities than Transubstantiation it self, and of far more fatal Consequence, if receiv'd and believ'd: For besides its extremely weakening, if not destroying, the Belief of the Being and Providence of God, it utterly takes away any sort of Freedom in Humane
Actions, reduces Mankind beneath the Brute Creation; perfectly excuses the greatest Villanies in this World, and entirely vacates all Retribution hereafter. One wou'd wonder with what Face or Conscience such a Sett of Men shou'd hope to be treated by the Rules of Civility, when they themselves break through those of Society, and common Humanity: How they can expect any fairer Quarter than Wolves or Tygers; or what Reason they can give why a Price should not be sett upon their Heads, as well as on the Others; or at least why they should not be securely hamper'd and muzzled, and led about for a Sight, like other Monsters. 'Tis the fatal and spreading Poyson of these Mens Examples and Principles which has extorted these warm Expressions from me; I cannot with Patience see my Countrey ruin'd by the prodigious increase of Infidelity and Immorality, nor forbear crying out with some Vehemence, when I am giving Warning to all honest Men to stand up in the Defence of it, when it is in greater and more eminent danger than it wou'd have been formerly, if the Spanish Armada had made a Descent amongst us: I don't speak of these things by distant Hear-say, or only from our publick Prints, but from my own Knowledg and little Acquaintance in the World, and therefore others must have observ'd much more, and cannot but fear, that if things go on as they now are, without a greater Check, and more severe Laws against these wide and contagious Mischiefs, at least without a more general united Endeavour to put those Laws already made in strict Execution, we are in a fair way to become a Nation of Atheists. 'Tis now no difficult matter to meet with those who pretend to be lewd upon Principles; They'll talk very gravely, look as if they were in earnest, and come sobrii ad perdendam
Rempublicam: they wou'd be Criticks too, and Philosophers: They attack Religion in Form and batter it from every Quarter; they wou'd turn the very Scriptures against themselves, and labour hard to remove a Supreme Being out of the World; or if they do vouchsafe him any room in it, 'tis only that they may find Fault with his Works, which they think, with that Blasphemer of old, might have been much better order'd, had they themselves stood by and directed the Architect. They'll tell you the Errors of Nature are every where plain and visible, all monstrous, here too much and there too little; or, as one of their own Poets,

Here she's too sparing, there profusely vain.

What would these Men have, or why can't they be content to sink single into the bottomless Gulph, without dragging so much Company thither with 'em? Can they grapple Omnipotence, or are they sure they can be too hard for Heaven? Can they Thunder with a Voice like God, and cast abroad the Rage of their Wrath? Cou'd they annihilate Hell, indeed, or did it only consist of such painted Flames as they'd fain believe it, they might make a shift to be tolerably happy, more quietly rake through the World, and sink into Nothing. There's too great reason to apprehend, that this Infection is spred among Persons of almost all Ranks and Qualities; and that tho' some may think it decent to keep on the Masque, yet if they were search'd to the bottom, all their Religion wou'd be found that which they most blasphemously assert of Religion in general, only a State Engin to keep the World in Order. This is Hypocrisie with a Witness; the basest and meanest of Vices; and how come Men to fall into these damnable Errors in
Faith, but by Lewdness of Life? The Cowards wou'd not believe a God because they dare not do it, for Woe be to 'em if there be one, and consequently any Future Punishments. From such as these, I desire no
Favour, but that of their Ill Word, as their Crimes must expect none from me, whose Character obliges me to declare an eternal War against Vice and Infidelity, tho' at the same time heartily to pity those who are infected with it. If I cou'd be ambitious of a Name in the World, it shou'd be that I might sacrifice it in so glorious a Cause as that of Religion and Virtue: If none but Generals must fight in this sacred War, when there are such infernal Hosts on the other side, they cou'd never prevail without one of the antient Miracles: If little People can but well discharge the Place of a private
Centinel, 'tis all that's expected from us. I hope I shall never let the Enemies of God and my Countrey come on without Fireing, tho' it serve but to give the Alarm, and if I dye without quitting my Post, I desire no greater Glory. I have endeavour'd to shew that I had no Personal Pique against any whose Characters I may have given in this
Poem, nor think the worse of them for their Thoughts of me. I hope I have every where done 'em Justice, and as well as I cou'd, have given
'em Commendation where they deserve it; which may also, on the other side, acquit me of Flattery with all Impartial Judges; for 'tis not only the Great whose Characters I have here attempted. And if what I have written may be any ways useful, or innocently diverting to the virtuous and ingenious Readers, he has his End, who is

Their Humble Servant

S. WESLEY.

AN
EPISTLE
TO A
FRIEND
CONCERNING
POETRY.

As Brother Pryme of old from Mount Orgueil,
So I to you from Epworth and the Isle:
Harsh Northern Fruits from our cold Heav'ns I send,
Yet, since the best they yield, they'll please a Friend.
You ask me, What's the readiest way to Fame,
And how to gain a Poet's sacred Name?
For Saffold send, your Choice were full as just,
When burning Fevers fry your Limbs to Dust!
Yet, lest you angry grow at your Defeat, }
And me as ill as that fierce Spark should treat } 10
Who did the Farrier into Doctor beat; }
You to my little Quantum, Sir, are free,
Which I from HORACE glean or NORMANDY;
These with some grains of Common Sense unite,
Then freely think, and as I think I write.
First poize your Genius, nor presume to write
If Phoebus smile not, or some Muse invite:
Nature refuses Force, you strive in vain,
She will not drag, but struggling breaks the Chain.
How bright a Spark of Heav'nly Fire must warm! 20
What Blessings meet a Poet's Mind to form!
How oft must he for those Life-Touches sit, Genius, Invention, Memory, Judgment, Wit?
There's here no Middle-State, you must excel; Wit has no Half-way-House 'twixt Heav'n and Hell
All cannot All things, lest you mourn too late,
Remember Phaeton's unhappy Fate!
Eager to guide the Coursers of the Day, }
Beneath their Brazen Hoofs he trampled lay, }
And his bright Ruines mark'd their flaming Way. } 30
[Sidenote: Genius.]
You'll ask, What GENIUS is, and Where to find?
'Tis the full Power and Energy of Mind:
A Reach of Thought that skims all Nature o'er, Exhausts this narrow World, and asks for more:
Through every Rank of Beings when't has flown,
Can frame a New Creation of its own:
By Possible and Future unconfin'd:
Can stubborn Contradictions yoke, and bind
Through Fancy's Realms, with Number, Time and Place, Chimera-Forms, a thin, an airy Race; 40
Then with a secret conscious Pride surveys
The Enchanted Castles which't had Power to raise.
[Sidenote: Wit.]
As Genius is the Strength, be WIT defin'd
The Beauty and the Harmony of Mind: Beauty's Proportion, Air, each lively Grace
The Soul diffuses round the Heav'nly Face:
'Tis various, yet 'tis equal, still the same
In Alpine Snows, or Ethiopian Flame;
While glaring Colours short-liv'd Grace supply,
Nor Frost nor Sun they bear, but scorch and die. 50
[Sidenote: Judgment.]
Nor these alone, tho much they can, suffice,
JUDGMENT must join, or never hope the Prize:
Those Headstrong Coursers scowr along the Plains,
The Rider's down, if once he lose the Reins:
Soon the Mad Mixture will to all give Law,
And for the Laurel Wreaths present thee Wreaths of Straw. Judgment's the Act of Reason; that which brings
Fit Thoughts to Thoughts, and argues Things from Things,
True, Decent, Just, are in its Balance try'd,
And thence we learn to Range, Compound, Divide. 60
[Sidenote: Invention and Memory.]
A Cave there is wherein those Nymphs reside
Who all the Realms of Sense and Fancy guide;
Nay some affirm that in the deepest Cell Imperial Reason's self does not disdain to dwell:
With Living Reed 'tis thatch'd and guarded round,
Which mov'd by Winds emit a Silver Sound:
Two Crystal Fountains near its Entrance play, }
Wide scatt'ring Golden Streams which ne'er decay, }
Two Labyrinths behind harmonious Sounds convey: }
Chiefly, within, the Room of State is fam'd 70
Of rich Mosaick Work divinely fram'd:
Of small Extent to view, 'twill all things hide,
Heav'n's Azure Arch it self not half so wide:
Here all the Arts their sacred Mansion chuse,
Here dwells the MOTHER of the Heav'n-born Muse:
With wond'rous mystic Figures round 'tis wrought Inlaid with FANCY, and anneal'd with Thought:
With more than humane Skill depicted here
The various Images of Things appear;
What Was, or Is, or labours yet to Be 80
Within the Womb of Dark Futurity,
May Stowage in this wondrous Storehouse find,
Yet leave unnumber'd empty Cells behind:
But ah! as fast they come, they fly too fast,
Not Life or Happiness are more in haste:
Only the First Great Mind himself can stay
The Fugitives and at one Glance survey;
But those whom he disdains not to befriend, } Uncommon Souls, who nearest Heav'n ascend }
Far more, at once, than others comprehend: } 90
Whate'er within this sacred Hall you find, }
Whate'er will lodge in your capacious Mind }
Let Judgment sort, and skilful Method bind; }
And as from these you draw your antient Store
Daily supply the Magazine with more.
Furnish'd with such Materials he'll excel
Who when he works is sure to work 'em well;
This ART alone, as Nature that bestows,
And in Perfection both, th' accomplish'd Verser knows.
Knows to persuade, and how to speak, and when; 100
The Rules of Life, and Manners knows and Men:
Those narrow Lines which Good and Ill divide;
[Sidenote: Learning.]
And by what Balance Just and Right are try'd:
How Kindred-Things with Things are closely join'd; }
How Bodies act, and by what Laws confin'd, }
Supported, mov'd and rul'd by th' Universal Mind. }
When the moist Kids or burning Sirius rise; }
Through what ambiguous Ways Hyperion flies, }
And marks our Upper or the Nether Skies. }
He knows those Strings to touch with artful Hand 110
Which rule Mankind, and all the World command:
What moves the Soul, and every secret Cell Where Pity, Love, and all the Passions dwell.
The Music of his Verse can Anger raise,
Which with a softer Stroak he smooths and lays:
Can Emulation, Terror, all excite, Compress the Soul with Grief, or swell with vast Delight.
If this you can, your Care you'll well bestow,
And some new Milton or a Spencer grow;
If not, a Poet ne'er expect to be, 120
Content to Rime, like D——y or like me.
But here perhaps you'll stop me, and complain,
To such Impracticable Heights I strain
A Poet's Notion, that if This be He,
There ne'er was one, nor e'er is like to be.
—But soft, my Friend! may we not copy well
Tho far th' Original our Art excel? Divine Perfection we our Pattern make
Th' Idea thence of Goodness justly take;
But they who copy nearest, still must fall 130
Immensely short of their Original;
[Sidenote: Converse.]
But Wit and Genius, Sense and Learning join'd,
Will all come short if crude and unrefin'd;
'Tis CONVERSE only melts the stubborn Ore And polishes the Gold, too rough before:
So fierce the Natural Taste, 'twill ne'er b' endur'd,
The Wine is strong, but never rightly cur'd.
[Sidenote: Style.]
STYLE is the Dress of Thought; a modest Dress, Neat, but not gaudy, will true Critics please:
Not Fleckno's Drugget, nor a worse Extream 140
All daub'd with Point and Gold at every Seam:
Who only Antique Words affects, appears
Like old King Harry's Court, all Face and Ears;
Nor in a Load of Wig thy Visage shrowd,
Like Hairy Meteors glimm'ring through a Cloud:
Happy are those who here the Medium know,
We hate alike a Sloven and a Beau.
I would not follow Fashion to the height
Close at the Heels, not yet be out of Sight: Words alter, like our Garments, every day, 150
Now thrive and bloom, now wither and decay.
Let those of greater Genius new invent,
Be you with those in Common Use content.
A different Style's for Prose and Verse requir'd, Strong figures here, Neat Plainness there desir'd:
A different Set of Words to both belong;
What shines in Prose, is, flat and mean in Song.
The Turn, the Numbers must be vary'd here,
And all things in a different Dress appear.
This every School Boy lash'd at Eaton knows, } 160
Yet Men of Sense forget when they compose, }
And Father DRYDEN's Lines are sometimes Prose. }
A vary'd Stile do various Works require,
This soft as Air, and tow'ring that as Fire.
None than th' Epistle goes more humbly drest,
Tho neat 'twou'd be, and decent as the best.
Such as th' ingenious Censor may invite }
Oft to return with eager Appetite; }
So HORACE wrote, and so I'd wish to write. }
Nor creeps it always, but can mount and rise, 170
And with bold Pinions sail along the Skies.
The self-same Work of different Style admits,
Now soft, now loud, as best the Matter fits:
So Father THAMES from unexhausted Veins,
Moves clean and equable along the Plains;
Yet still of different Depth and Breadth is found,
And humours still the Nature of the Ground.
[Sidenote: Reading.]
READING will mend your Style and raise it higher,
And Matter find to feed th' Immortal Fire:
But if you would the Vulgar Herd excel, 180
And justly gain the Palm of Writing well,
Wast not your Lamp in scanning Vulgar Lines,
Where groveling all, or One in twenty shines;
With Prudence first among the Antients chuse,
The noblest only, and the best peruse;
Such HOMER is, such VIRGIL's sacred Page,
Which Death defie, nor yield to Time or Age;
New Beauties still their Vigorous Works display,
Their Fruit still mellows, but can ne'er decay.
The Modern Pens not altogether slight, 190
Be Master of your Language e'er you write! Immortal TILLOTSON with Judgment scan,
"That Man of Praise, that something more than Man!"
Ev'n those who hate his Ashes this advise, }
As from black Shades resplendent Lightning flies, } Unwilling Truths break through a Cloud of Lies. }
He Words and Things for mutual Aid design'd,
Before at Variance, in just Numbers join'd;
He always soars, but never's out of sight,
He taught us how to Speak, and Think, and Write. 200
If English Verse you'd in Perfection see,
ROSCOMMON read, and Noble NORMANDY:
We borrow all from their exhaustless Store,
Or little say they have not said before. Poor Insects of a Day, we toil and strive
To creep from Dust to Dust, and think we live;
These weak imperfect Beings scarce enjoy
E'er Death's rude Hand our blooming Hopes destroy:
With Lynx's Eyes each others Faults we find,
But to our own how few who are not blind? 210
How long is Art, how short, alas! our Time! }
How few who can above the Vulgar climb, }
Whose stronger Genius reach the True Sublime! }
With tedious Rules which we our selves transgress,
We make the Trouble more who strive to make it less.
But meanly why do you your Fate deplore,
Yet still write on?—Why do a Thousand more,
Who for their own or some Forefathers Crime
Are doom'd to wear their Days in beating Rhime?
But this a Noble Patron will redress, 220
And make you better write, tho you write less:
Whate'er a discontented Mind pretends, Distinguish'd Worth can rarely miss of Friends:
Do but excel, and he'll at last arise
Who from the Dust may lift thee to the Skies;
For his own Sake will his Protection grant;
What Horace e'er did yet Mecaenas want?
Or if the World its Favours should refuse,
With barren Smiles alone reward thy Muse;
Be thy own Patron, thou no more wilt need, 230
For all will court thee if thy Works succeed;
At least the few Good Judges will commend,
And secret growing Praise thy Steps attend.
Who shew'd Columbus where the Indies lay?
True to thy self, charge through, and force to Fame the way!
If Envy snarl, indulge it no Reply,
Write better still, and let it burst and die!
Rest pleas'd if you can please the Wiser Few,
Since to please all is more than Heav'n it self can do.
There are who can whate'er they will believe, 240
That Bail's too hard for Beady, Three are Five:
That Nature, Justice, Reason, Truth must fall,
With Clear Idea's they'll confound 'em all:
That Parallels may travel till they meet; Faith they can find in L——, no Sense in STILLINGFLEET.
Disturb 'em not, but let 'em still enjoy
Th' unenvy'd Charms of their Eternal Moi.
If to the craggy Top of Fame you rise,
Those who are lab'ring after ne'er despise.
Nor those above on Honours dazling Seat } 250
Tho disoblig'd, with sawcy Rudeness treat, } Revenge not always is below the Great. }
Their Stronger Genius may o'er thine prevail: Wit, Power and Anger join'd but rarely fail.
Tho Eagles would not chuse to hawk at Flies }
They'd snap 'em, should their buzzing Swarms arise }
Importunate, and hurt their Sun bright Eyes. }
Nor should the Muses Birds at random fly,
And strike at all, lest if they strike they die.
Why should we still be lazily content 260
With thredbare Schemes, and nothing new invent?
All Arts besides improve, Sea, Air and Land }
Are every day with nicer Judgment scan'd, }
And why should this alone be at a stand? }
Or Nature largely to the Ancients gave
And little did for younger Children save;
Or rather we impartial Nature blame
To hide our Sloth, and cover o'er our Shame;
As Sinners, when their Reason's drown'd in Sense,
Fall out with Heav'n, and quarrel Providence. 270
Yet should you our Galenic Way despise,
And some new Colbatch of the Muses rise;
No Quarter from the College hope, who sit Infallible at Will's and judg of Sense and Wit:
Keep fair with these, or Fame you court in vain,
A strict Neutrality at least maintain!
Speak, like the wise Italian, well of all;
Who knows into what Hands he's doom'd to fall?
Write oft and much, at first, if you'd write well,
For he who ne'er attempts will ne'er excel; 280 Practice will file your Verse, your Thoughts refine,
And Beauty give, and Grace to every Line:
The Gnat to fam'd AEneis led the way,
And our Immortal COWLEY once did play.
Let not the Sun of Life in vain decline,
Or Time run waste; No Day without a Line.
Yet learn by me, my Friend, from Errors past;
O never write, or never Print in Haste!
The worst Excuse Ill Authors e'er advance,
Which does, like Lies, a single Guilt enhance. 290
Lay by your Work, and leave it on the Loom,
Which if at mod'rate distance you resume,
A Father's Fondness you'll with Ease look through,
And Objects in a proper Medium view.
'Tis Time alone can Strength and Ripeness give;
A Hasty Birth can ne'er expect to live.
Fly, low at first, you'll with Advantage rise;
This pleases all, as that will all surprize.
[Sidenote: The Subject.]
No Work attempt but where your Strength you know,
Be Master of your Subject, Thoughts will flow: 300
The newer 'tis, the choicer Fruit 'twill yield,
More Room you have to work if large your Field;
The Sponge you oftner than the Pen will want,
And rather Reason see to prune than plant;
Yet where the Thoughts are barren, weak and thin,
New Cyons should be neatly grafted in.
[Sidenote: A Judge.]
If you with Friend or Enemy are blest,
Your Fancy's Offspring ne'er can want a Test,
Tho Both, perhaps may overshoot the Mark:
First Spite with Envy charges in the Dark; 310 Unread they damn, and into Passion fall,
'Tis Stuff, 'tis Blasphemy 'tis Nonsense all;
They sleep (when doz'd before) at every Line, }
While your more dang'rous Friend exclaims,—'Tis fine, }
'Tis furiously Delightful, 'tis Divine; }
Th' inspiring God's in ev'ry Page confess'd;
A COWLEY or a DRYDEN at the least!
Yet you'll from both an equal Judgment frame
And stand the nearest Candidate for Fame:
What Envy praises, or what Friends dislike, 320
This bears the Test, and that the Sponge should strike.
Chuse to be absent when your Cause is try'd,
Lest Favour should the partial Judge misguide;
Not others Thoughts implicitly prefer,
Your Friend's a Mortal, and like you, may err.
Upon the last Appeal let Reason sit,
And here, let all Authority submit.
Divest your self of self whate'er you can,
And think the Author now some other Man.
A thousand trivial Lumber-Thoughts will come, 330
A thousand Fagot-Lines will crowd for room; Reform your Troops, and no Exemption grant,
You'll gain in Strength, what you in Numbers want.
Nor yet Infallibility pretend;
He still errs on who thinks he ne'er can mend:
Reject that hasty, that presumptuous Thought!
None e'er but VIRGIL wrote without a Fault;
(Or none he has, or none that I can find,
Who, dazzled with his Beauties, to his Moles am blind.)
Who has the least is happiest, he the best, 340
Who owns and mends where he has once transgrest.
Nor will good Writers smaller Blots despise,
Lest those neglected should to Crimes arise;
Such Venial Sins indulg'd will mortal prove,
At least they from Perfection far remove.
Nor Critical Exactness here deride,
It looks like Sloth or Ignorance, or Pride; Good Sense is spoild in Words unapt exprest,
And Beauty pleases more when 'tis well drest.
[Sidenote: Method.]
Forget not METHOD if the Prize you'd gain, 350
'Twill cost you Thought, but richly pays the Pain;
What first, what second, or what last to place,
What here will shine, and there the Work disgrace.
Before you build, your MODEL justly lay,
And ev'ry Part in Miniature survey;
Where airy Terraces shall threat the Skies,
Where Columns tow'r, or neat Pilasters rise;
Where cool Cascades come roaring down the Hill,
Or where the Crystal Nymph a mossie Bason fill:
What Statues are to grace the Front design'd, 360
And how to throw the meaner Rooms behind.
Draw the Main Strokes at first, 'twill shew your Skill, Life-Touches you may add whene'er you will.
Ev'n Chance will sometimes all our Art excel,
The angry Foam we ne'er can hit so well.
A sudden Thought, all beautiful and bright,
Shoots in and stunns us with amazing Light;
Secure the happy Moment e'er 'tis past,
Not Time more swift, or Lightning flies so fast.
All must be free and easie, or in vain 370
You whip and spur, and the wing'd Courser strain:
When foggy Clouds hang bellying in the Skies,
Or fleety Boreas through th' Horizon flies;
He then, whose Muse produces ought that's fine,
His Head must have a stronger Turn than mine:
Like Sybils Leaves the Train of Thoughts are rang'd,
Which by rude Winds disturb'd, are nothing if they're chang'd.
Or are there too in Writing softer Hours?
Or is't that Matter nobler Mind o'erpow'rs,
Which boasts her native Liberty in vain, 380
In Mortal Fetters and a Slavish Chain? Death only can the Gordian Knot divide, }
Tho by what secret wondrous Bands 'tis ty'd, }
Ev'n Reason's self must own she can't decide: }
For as the rapid Tides of Matter turn }
We're fann'd with Pleasure or with Anger burn, }
We Love and Hate again, we Joy and Mourn. }
Now the swift Torrent high and headstrong grows, Shoots through the Dykes, and all the Banks o'erflows;
Strait the capricious Waters backward fly,
The Pebbles rake and leave the Bottom dry; 390
Watch the kind Hour and seize the rising Flood,
Else will your dreggy Poem taste of Mud.
Hence old and batter'd Hackneys of the Stage,
By long Experience render'd Wise and Sage,
With pow'rful Juices restive Nature urge,
Or else with Bays of old, they bleed and purge;
Thence, as the Priestess from her Cave inspir'd,
When to his Cell the rancid God retir'd, Double Entendres their fond Audience blind,
Their boasted Oracles abuse Mankind: 400 False Joys around their Hearts in Slumbers play,
And the warm tingling Blood steals fast away;
The Soul grows dizzy, lost in Senses Night,
And melts in pleasing Pain and vain Delight.
Not that the sowrest Critick can reprove
The soft the moving Scenes of Virtuous Love: Life's Sunny Morn, which wears, alas! too fast; Pity it e'er should hurt, or should not always last!
Has Bankrupt Nature then no more to give,
Or by a Trick persuades Mankind to live? 410
No—when with Prudence join'd 'tis still the same }
Or ripens into Friendship's nobler Name, }
The Matter pure, immortal is the Flame. }
No Fool, no Debauchee could ever prove
The honest Luxury of Virtuous Love;
Then curs'd are those who that fair Name abuse,
And holy Hymen's sacred Fillets loose;
Who poison Fountains, and infect the Air, Ruine the Witty, and debauch the Fair;
With nauseous Images their Scenes debase 420
At once their Country's Ruine and Disgrace. Weigh well each Thought if all be Just and Right,
For those must clearly think who clearly write.
Nothing obscure, equivocal, or mean,
Much less what is or impious or obscene:
Altho the tempting Serpent play his part,
And wind in glitt'ring Folds around thy Heart;
Reject the trait'rous Charmer, tear him thence,
And keep thy Vertue and thy Innocence.
[Sidenote: The Manchinel, or Eves Apple.]
In wild America's rank Champaign grows 430
A Tree which Europe oft too dearly knows;
It rises high in cool inchanting Groves,
Whose green broad Leaves the fainting Trav'ler loves; Fair is the treach'rous Fruit, and charms your Eye,
But ah! beware! for if you taste you die.
Too well alas! it thrives when planted here,
Its deadly Branches shade our Theatre.
Of Mesures, Numbers, Pauses next I sing,
And rest the breathless Muse with cautious Wing:
Of Embryo Thoughts, unripen'd yet by Time, 440
The Rules of Verse, of Quantity and Rhime:
With trembling Steps through Shades unknown I stray,
And mark a rugged and a dubious way;
Yet some small glimm'ring Light will hence be show'd,
And future Trav'lers may enlarge the Road.
[Sidenote: Measure.]
Of CHAUCER'S Verse we scarce the Measures know,
So rough the Lines, and so unequal flow;
Whether by Injury of Time defac'd,
Or careless at the first, and writ in haste;
Or coursly, like old Ennius, he design'd 450
What After-days have polish'd and refin'd.
SPENCER more smooth and neat, and none than He
Could better skill of English Quantity;
Tho by his Stanza cramp'd, his Rhimes less chast,
And antique Words affected all disgrac'd;
Yet vast his Genius, noble were his Thoughts,
Whence equal Readers wink at lesser Faults.
From France their Alexandrins we receive
Which more of Liberty and Compass give;
Hence by our dull Translators were they us'd, 460
Nor CHAPMAN nor old STERNHOLD these refus'd;
They borrow from Hexameters their Feet,
Which with Asclepiads and Iambicks meet;
Yet in the midst we still a Weakness see,
Their Music gives us no Variety.
More num'rous the Pentameter and strong,
Which to our Saxon Fathers did belong.
In this their antient Edda[1] seems to write, Mysterious Rhimes, and horrid to the sight:
Their Runic Staves in this on Rocks engrav'd, 470
Which long th' Assaults of Time it self have brav'd.
In this our antient British Bards delight; }
And, if I measure his rough Numbers right, }
In this old Taliessin us'd to Write[2]. }
This still Possession keeps, few else we read,
And Right as well as Fact may justly plead;
Altho the French Intruders oft pursue
Their baffled Title, and their Claim renew;
Too oft Impressions on our Armies make,
Cut off our Straglers and our Out-Guards take, 480
Which lazily our Authors now admit,
And call th' Excursions of Luxuriant Wit;
With Badger-Feet the two-top'd Mount we climb,
And stalk from Peak to Peak on Stilts of Rime.
Sweet WALLER'S Dimeter we most approve
For cheerful Songs and moving Tales of Love,
Which for Heroic Subjects wants of Strength,
Too short, as Alexandrins err in Length.
Our Ear's the Judge of Cadence; nicely weigh
What Consonants; rebel, and what obey; 490
What Vowels mixt compose a pleasing Sound,
And what the tender Organs grate and wound.
Nor at thy Reader's Mercy chuse to lie,
Nor let his Judgment want of thine supply:
So easie let thy Verse so smoothly fall,
They must be read aright if read at all.
[Sidenote: Numbers.]
Nor equal Numbers will for all suffice,
The Sock creeps low, the Tragic Bushkins rife;
None knew this Art so well, so well did use
As did the Mantuan Shepherd's Heav'nly Muse: 500
He marry'd Sound and Sense, at odds before,
We hear his Scylla bark, Charybdis roar;
And when in Fields his Fiery Coursers meet
The hollow Ground shakes underneath their feet:
Yet nicer Ears can taste a Diff'rence when
Of Flocks and Fields he sings or Arms and Men.
If I our English Numbers taste aright,
We in the grave Iambic most delight:
Each second Syllable the Voice should rest, Spondees may serve, but still th' Iambic's best: 510
Th' unpleasing Trochee always makes a Blot,
And lames the Numbers; or, if this forgot,
A strong Spondaic should the next succeed,
The feeble Wall will a good Buttress need:
Long Writing, Observation, Art and Pain Must here unite if you the Prize would gain.
[Sidenote: Pauses.] Pause is the Rest of Voice, the poor Remains Of antient Song that still our Verse retains:
The second Foot or third's our usual Rest,
Tho more of Art's in varying oft exprest. 520
At ev'ry Word the Pause is sometimes[3] made,
And wond'rous Beauty every where displaid:
—But here we guess, and wander in the dark;
How should a hoodwink'd Archer hit the Mark?
The little Glimpse that DRYDEN gives, is more
Than all our careless Writers knew before;
A few Chance Lines may smooth and roundly fly,
But still no Thanks to us, we know not why.
He finds Examples, we the Rule must make,
Tho who without a Guide may not mistake? 530
[4] "Tho deep yet clear, tho gentle yet not dull,
Strong without Rage, without o'er flowing full."
If we that famous Riddle can unty,
Their brightest Beauties in the Pauses lie,
To Admiration vary'd; next to these
The Numbers justly order'd charm and please:
Each Word, each happy Sound is big with Sense,
They all deface who take one Letter thence.
[Sidenote: Quantity.]
But little more of Quantity we know
Than what our Accent does, and Custom show: 540
The Latin Fountains often we forsake,
As they the Greek; nay diff'rent Ages take
A diff'rent Path; Perfume and Envy now
We say, which Ages past would scarce allow:
If no Position make our Accent strong
Most Syllables are either short or long.
[Sidenote: Rhime.] Primitive Verse was grac'd with pleasing Rhimes,
The Blank a lazy Fault of After-times;
Nor need we other proof of this to plead
With those the sacred [5] Hebrew Hymns can read: 550
If this to lucky Chance alone be due,
Why Rhime they not in Greek and Latin too?
[6] PINDAR at first his ancient Copy trac'd,
And sometimes equal Sounds his Numbers grac'd;
Till with the more than human Labour tir'd,
He drop'd his Rhime, and own'd him uninspir'd.
ORPHEUS and HOMER too, who first did dream
Of num'rous Gods, and left the One Supreme,
Religion both and Poetry did wrong, Apostatiz'd from Rhime, and lost the Soul of Song. 560
Yet still some weak and glimm'ring Sparks remain'd,
And still our Great Forefathers this retain'd;
Nor Inundations of Barbarian Rome,
Our ancient Rhime could wholly overcome.
[Sidenote: Vide p. 13.]
Ne'er cramp thy Reason for some paltry Chime,
Nor sacrifice Good Sense to Numbers and to Rhime:
Both may be sav'd and made good Friends; and here
The Poets Art and Happiness appear:
But when some stubborn Word denies to draw
In Numbers, and defies the Muses Law, 570
Reject it strait, unworthy such a Grace,
Another yoke which better fills the Place:
Much Reading will thy Poverty amend
And Taggs without the help of Crambo lend.
The Double Rhime is antiquated grown,
Or us'd in Satyr or Burlesque alone;
Nor loves our stronger Tongue that tinkling Chime,
The Darling of the French, a Female Rhime.
Now, daring Muse! attempt a stronger Flight,
Beyond a Vulgar Verser's cautious Height, 580
Beyond thy self, and consecrate to Fame }
Those who a Title to the Laurel claim, }
And may to after-times embalm thy Name; }
Commend the Good, to all but Vice be kind,
And cast the smaller Faults in shades behind;
Who first, who next; the Balance justly hold,
As that which shines above, and flames with Heav'nly Gold.
Great N——BY the first, ROSCOMMON gone,
He rules our Empire now of Wit alone:
The Beauties he of Verse exactly knows, 590
The famous DRYDEN'S not more smoothly flows:
Had ORPHEUS half so sweetly mourn'd his Fate,
As VIRGIL sung, or Sh——d did translate;
H' had made the Manes once again relent,
They would again Eurydice have sent: Death's Temple we with sacred Aw survey,
With Admiration read his Great Essay:
Was Art or bounteous Nature here more kind? } Strong Sense! Uncommon Learning! Thoughts refin'd! } 600
A Godlike Person, and an equal Mind! }
[Sidenote: Paraphrase on Psal. 148 O Azure Vaults, &c.]
The next in Dignity, if not the same,
Is Deathless Dorsot's lov'd and noble Name:
How did he sing, (listen'd the Heav'nly Quire;)
The Wond'rous Notes of DAVID's Royal Lyre!
Ah! Why no more must we for ever long
And vainly languish for so sweet a Song?
The next is Tityrus, who not disdains
To read his Name among the tuneful Swains; Unweary'd in his Prince's glorious Cause, 610
As he of Faith, Defender of the Laws; Easie to all but to himself, he shares
His Monarch's Favours, and his Monarch's Cares:
His flowing Language cloaths his massie Sense, }
Nor makes with pompous Words a vain pretence, } Sound without Soul, to Wit and Eloquence. }
Tho Great, he's still the same he was before:
—I sue for nothing, and I'll say no more. Montague left the Muses peaceful Seat,
And bore the Cares and Honours of the Great: 620
The Pollio he of our Augustan days,
Who Wit rewards with more than hungry Praise; True Worth his Patronage can never miss,
He has his Prince's Smiles and that has his.
Nor should he pass unprais'd whom all admire,
Who, mixt with Seraphs, rules the Western Quire; Flowing and pure his unexhausted Vein,
As Silver Thames, which, rolling down the Plain,
Salutes his Sacred Dome.——
But those profane who meanly thus commend, 630
Th' Immortal Cowley's and the Muses Friend.
Of matchless DRYDEN only Dryden's Skill
Could justly say enough,—of Good or Ill. Envy must own he has our Tongue refin'd,
And manly Sense with tend'rest Softness join'd:
His Verse would Stones and Trees with Soul inspire,
As did the Theban and the Thracian Lyre:
His youthful Fire within, like Etna, glows,
Tho Venerable Age around his Temples snows:
If from the modern or the antient Store 640
He borrows ought, he always pays 'em more:
So much improv'd, each Thought, so fine appears,
WALLER or OVID scarce durst own 'em theirs.
The Learned Goth has scowr'd all Europe's Plains, } France, Spain, and fruitful Italy he drains, }
From every Realm and every Language gains: }
His Gains a Conquest are, and not a Theft;
He wishes still new Worlds of Wit were left:
Thus haughty Rome, when, all the Firm surpass'd,
Her Eagles found our moated World at last; 650
Touching upon th' unhospitable Coast, Good Laws bestow'd for our wild Freedom lost;
With Arts of Peace our stubborn Soil manur'd,
And naked Limbs from Frost and Sun secur'd:
—But ah' how dear the Price of all we gain! }
What Shoals of Vices with 'em cross'd the Main? }
What Pride, what Luxury, a foul, an odious Train? }
Who weighs, like Galcacus, the Good with Ill,
Would wish they'd let us been Barbarians still:
Such thankless Pains Ignatian Firebrands take 660
An honest Pagan spoil, and a bad Christian make.
Blest be kind Heav'n, which wrap'd me in a Gown,
And drew me early from the fatal Town!
And blest Her Name, to endless Ages blest,
Who gave my weary Muse this calm Retreat and Rest.
True to my God, my Country, and my Friend, }
Here, may I Life, not wholly useless, spend, } Steal through the World, and smiling meet my End! }
I envy not Great Dryden's loftier Strain }
Of Arms and Men design'd to entertain, } 670 Princes and Courts, so I but please the Plain: }
Nor would I barter Profit for Delight,
Nor would have writ like him, like him to write.
If there's Hereafter, and a last Great Day,
What Fire's enough to purge his Stains away?
How will he wish each lewd applauded Line }
Which makes Vice pleasing, and Damnation shine, }
Had been as dull as honest Quarles or mine! }
With sixty Years of Lewdness rest content!
It mayn't be yet too late, O yet Repent! 680
Ev'n Thee our injur'd Altar will receive;
While yet there's Hopes fly to its Arms and live!
So shall for Thee their Harps the Angels string,
And the Returning Prodigal shall sing;
New Joys through all the Heav'nly Host be shown
In Numbers only sweeter than thy own.
CONGREVE from Ireland wond'ring we receive, }
Would he the Town's loose way of Writing leave, }
More Worth than all their Forfeit Lands will give: } Justness of Thought, a Courtly Style, and clear, 690
And well-wrought Passions in his Works appear:
None knows with finer Strokes our Souls to move,
And as he please we smile, or weep, or love.
When Dryden goes, 'tis he must fill the Chair, With Congreve only Congreve can compare.
Yet, tho he natural is as untaught Loves,
His Style as smooth as Cytherea's Doves,
When e'er unbyass'd Judges read him o'er,
He sometimes nodds, as Homer did before:
Some Lines his most Admirers scarce would please, 700
Nor B——'s Verse alone could raise Disease.[7]
For smooth and well turn'd Lines we T—— admire,
Who has in Justness what he wants in Fire:
Each Rhime, each Syllable well-weigh'd and fair,
His Life and Manners scarce more regular.
With Strength and Flame prodigious D——s writes
Of Loves lost Wars, and cruel martial Fights:
Scarce LEE himself strove with a mightier Load,
Or labour'd more beneath th' Incumbent God:
Whate'er of old to Rome or Athens known, 710
What France or We have glean'd, 'tis all his own.
How few can equal Praise with C——ch obtain,
Who made Lucretius smooth, and chast, and plain?
Courted by Fame he could her Charms despise, }
Still woo'd by that false Fair he still denies, }
And press'd, for Refuge to the Altar flies; }
Like votive Tablets offers up his Bays,
"And leaves to our lewd Town the Drudgery of Plays."
In lofty Raptures, born on Angels Wings }
Above the Clouds, above Castalian Springs, } 720
N—— inspir'd, of God and Nature sings; }
And if one Glance on this poor World he throw,
If e'er he mind the Croud and Buzz below;
Pities our fruitless Pains for Fame and Praise,
And wonders why we drudge for Crowns and Bays.
Could B—— be sober, many he'd excel,
Few know the Antients, or could use so well;
But ah! his Genius with his Virtue's fled,
Condemn'd to Want of Grace and Want of Bread.
Ev'n Envy B——re's Subject must confess } 730 Exact and rare, a curious Happiness, }
Nor many could the Fable better dress: }
Of Words what Compass, and how vast a Store!
His Courage and his Vertue's only more:
More various Scenes of Death his Fights display
Then Aghrim's Field or London's fatal Day:
Let beauteous Elda's Tears and Passion prove
His Soul is not unknowing how to love:
Disrob'd of Clouds he view'd the Stagyrite As Nature he, confess'd to Human sight:
His Rules surveys, and traces to their Springs, } 740
Where the blind Bard of flaming Ilium sings; }
Thence with the Mantuan Swan in narrower Rings, }
Tho more exact, he, stooping from his height,
Reviews the same fierce Wars and Gods and Heroes fight:
That beauteous antient Palace he surveys }
Which Maro's Hands had only Strength to raise, } Models from thence, and copies every Grace: }
Each Page is big with Virgil's Manly Thought,
To follow him too near's a glorious Fault.
He dar'd be virtuous in the World's Despite, 750 While D——n lives he dar'd a Modest Poem write.
Who can th' ingenious S——y's Praise refuse,
Who serves a grateful Prince, and grateful Muse?
Or P——r read unmov'd, whose every Page So just a Standard to the opening Age?
Neat S——n's courtly Vein's correct and clear,
Nor shall he miss his Praise and Station here:
Nor should the rest whom I unnam'd must leave,
(Tho such Omission they'll with ease forgive:) 760 Unknown to me, let each his Works commend,
Since Virtue, Praise, as Shame does Vice attend. Poets, like Leaves and Words, their Periods know,
Now fresh and green, now sear and wither'd grow;
Or burnt by Autumn's Heat, and Winter's Cold,
Or a new hasty Birth shoves off the old.
Happy are those, and such are some of ours, }
Who blest by bounteous Heav'n's indulgent Show'rs }
Bear wholsome Fruit, and not gay pois'nous Flow'rs: }
Who would not ev'n a Lawreat's self commence 770
Or at their Virtue's or their Faith's Expence:
Renounce their Creed to save a wretched Play, }
And for a crowded House and full Third Day }
At one bold Stroke throw all their Heav'n away. }
What gain'd Euripides by all his Sense,
Who madly rail'd against a Providence? Apostate Poets first seduc'd Mankind, But ours upon the Pagan Herd refin'd;
They Vertue prais'd at least, which ours abuse,
And more than Paganize the Heav'n-born Muse: 780
No Signs of Grace, or of Repentance show,
Like Strumpets lash'd, more impudent they grow.
Now learn, my Friend, and freely I'll impart
My little All in this delightful Art:
Of Poetry the various Forms and Kinds,
The widest, strongest Grasp of human Minds:
Not all from all, but some from each I take,
Since we a Garland not a Garden make.
[Sidenote: Epic.]
EPIC's the first and best, which mounting sings }
In Mighty Numbers worthy mighty Things, } 790
Of High Adventures, Heroes, Gods and Kings: }
By lively Schemes the Mind to Vertue forms,
And far beyond unactive Precept warms.
The Subject may be either feign'd or true, Too Old it should not be, but less too New: Narration mixt with Action most delights, Intrigues and Councils, vary'd Games and Fights:
Nothing so long as may the Reader tire,
But all the just well-mingled Scenes admire.
Your Heroe may be virtuous, must be brave;
Nothing that's mean should his great Soul enslave:
Yet Heav'ns unequal Anger he may fear,
And for his suffering Friends indulge a Tear:
Thus when the Trojans Navy scatter'd lay
He wept, he trembled, and to Heav'n did pray;
But when bright Glory beckon'd from afar,
And Honour call'd him out to meet the War;
Like a fierce Torrent pouring o'er the Banks,
Or Mars himself, he thunders through the Ranks; Death walks before, while he a Foe could find, 810 Horror and Ruine mark long frightful Lanes behind.
[Sidenote: Machines.]
For worn and old MACHINES few Readers care,
They're like the Pastboard Chaos in the Fair:
If ought surprizing you expect to shew,
The Scenes if not the Persons should be new:
With both does MILTON'S wondrous Scheme begin,
The Pandemonium, Chaos, Death and Sin;
Which D——s had with like Success assay'd, }
Had not the Porch of Death's Grim Court been made }
Too wide, and there th' impatient Reader staid. } 820
And G——h, tho barren is his Theme and mean,
By this has reach'd at least the fam'd Lutrine.
If tir'd with such a plenteous Feast you call
For a far meaner Banquet, Meal and Wall;
The best I have is yours, tho 'tis too long,
And what's behind will into Corners throng.
A Place there is, if Place 'tis nam'd aright, }
Where scatter'd Rays of pale and sickly Light, }
Fringe o'er the Confines of Eternal Night. } Shorn of their Beams the Sun and Phoebe here 830
Like the fix'd Stars, through Glasses view'd, appear;
Or those faint Seeds of Light, which just display
Ambiguous Splendor round the milky Way;
The Waste of Chaos, whose Auguster Reign
Does those more barren doubtful Realms disdain:
Here dwell those hideous Forms which oft repair }
To breath our upper World's more chearful Air }
Bleak Envy, grinding Pain, and meagre Care; } Disease and Death, the Goddess of the place, Death, the least frightful Form of all their Race; 840 Ambition, Pride, false Joys and Hopes as vain, Lewdness and Luxury compose her Train:
How large their Interest, and how vast their Sway Amid the wide invaded Realms of Day!
Soon would they our frail Race of Mortals end,
Did not kind Heav'n auspicious Succours lend;
Sweet Angel-Forms, Peace, Virtue, Health and Love,
How near ally'd, how like to those above!
These often drive the Air, those Furies chace
And fetter in their own infernal Place: 850
These lent at once NASSAW and ENGLAND Aid,
And bright MARIA to our Shores convey'd:
Her, all their Pow'r and all their Charms they gave,
To govern what her Heroe came to save.
Nor Envy this, who in her noisome Cell
By Traitors in their swift Descent to Hell,
Her rising Glories heard, then with a Groan She crawl'd before her Sov'reign's direful Throne:
A Pile of Sculls the odious Fantom bore,
With Bones half-naked mixt, and dropping putrid Gore; 860
There thus—Shall Heav'n defraud us of our Reign,
And BRITAIN, only BRITAIN break her Chain?
What can we there, while more than mortal Grace Forbids our Entrance, and secures the Place?
Awhile I gaz'd and viewed her as I fled,
When first she came, till half my Snakes were dead;
And had I tarry'd longer near her Throne,
Had soon some base insipid Vertue grown:
So fast the wide progressive Ills increase, }
If longer unoppos'd our Power will cease; } 870
The base degenerate World dissolve to Peace; }
Our boasted Empire there will soon be o'er,
And Mortals tremble at our Arms no more.
She said, her Tidings all the Court affright,
And doubled Horror fill'd the Realms of Night:
Till out foul Lewdness leap'd, and shook the Place. }
The fulsom'st Fiend of all th' infernal Race; }
A crusted Leprosie deform'd her Face; }
With half a bloodshot Eye the Fury glar'd,
Yet when for Mischief she above prepar'd, 880
She painted and she dress'd, those Arts she knew,
And to her self her self a Stranger grew,
(Thus old and batter'd Bawds behind the Scenes,
New rigg'd and dawb'd, pass on the Stage for Queens;)
Nor yet, she cries, of Britain we'll despair }
I've yet some trusty Friends in Ambush there, }
All is not lost, we've still the Theatre: }
I'll batter Virtue thence, nor fear to gain }
New Subjects daily from her hated Reign; }
Is not Great D—— ours and all his Train? }
He knows he has new Laurels here prepar'd, } 890
For those he lost above, a just Reward, }
For his wide Conquests he'll command the Guard: } Headed by him one Foot we'll scorn to yield,
Tho Virtue's glitt'ring Squadrons drive the Field:
Grant me, Dread Sov'reign! a Detachment hence }
We'll not be long alone on our Defence, }
But hope to drive the proud Assailants thence. }
Bold Blasphemy shall lead our black Forlorn,
With Colours from Heav'n's Crystal Ramparts torn,
And Anti-Thunderrs arm'd; Profaneness next 900
Their Canon seize, and turn the Sacred Text Against th' Assailants; brave Revenge and Rage Shall our main Batt'ry ply, and guard the Stage.
—But most I on dear Ribaldry depend,
We've not a surer or a stronger Friend.
Now shall she broad and open to the Skie,
Now close behind some double Meaning lye;
Now with sulphureous Rivers lave the French,
And choak th' Assailants with infernal Stench;
Each nicer Vertue from the Walls repel, 910
And Heav'n it self regale with the Perfumes of Hell.
This from the World our dreaded Foe will drive,
As murm'ring Bees are forc'd to leave their Hive; Souls so refin'd such Vapours cannot bear,
But seek their native Heav'n and purer Air:
When She and all her heav'nly Guards are gone
And her bright Heroe absent, all's our own:
If any pious Fools should make a stand,
To stop our Progress through the conquer'd Land,
They soon shall pass for hot-brain'd Visionairs, 920
We'll run 'em down with Ridicule and Farce.
Must they reform the World! A likely Task!
Tis Vizard all, and them we'll soon unmask.
The rest will tumble in, or if they stay
And loiter in Damnation's ample Way,
I've one Expedient left, which can't but take,
My last Reserve; From yon black brimstone Lake,
Whence two Canals thro subterranean Veins Are drawn to Sodom and Campania's Plains,
My self I'll fill a Vial, and infuse 930
My very Soul amid the potent Juice:
This Essence near my Heart I'll with me bear, }
And this among my dearest Fav'rites share, }
Already tutor'd by the Theatre; }
Who pass'd those Bugbears Conscience, Law and Shame Have there been taught that Virtue's but a Name: Exalted Souls who vulgar Sins despise;
Fit for some new discover'd nobler Vice;
One Drop of this their frozen Blood shall warm,
And frighted Nature's feebler Guards disarm 930
Till their chill Veins with hotter Fevers glow }
Than any Etna or Vesuvius know, }
Scarce equal'd by their Parent Flames below; }
Till wide around the gen'rous Canker spread,
And Vengeance draw on each devoted Head:
Impatient Heav'n it self our Arms shall join,
The Skies again with forky Lightnings shine;
Till glutted Desolation pants for Breath,
And guilty Shades shall croud the Realms of Death.
—She said, the Motion pleas'd she wings away 940
And in blue pois'nous Foggs invades the Day:
Part of her direful Threats too true we find,
And Heav'n avert the Plagues that yet remain behind!
[Sidenote: Tragedy.]
The Path which Epic treads the TRAGIC Muse
With daring tho unequal Steps pursues,
A little Epic shines through every Scene,
Tho more of Life appears, and less Machine;
More Action, less Narration, more Delight;
We see the Gods descend, and Heroes fight.
While Oedipus is raving on the Stage, 950
Mild Pity enters and dissolves our Rage;
We low'r our haughty Spirits, our Pride and Hate,
And learn to fear the sad Reverse of Fate.
A Tyrant's Fall, a treach'rous Statesman's End
Clear the Just Gods, and equal Heav'n defend:
Ungrateful Factions here themselves torment,
And bring those very Ills they would prevent:
Nor think the lost Intrigues of Love too mean
To fill the Stage and grace toe Tragic Scene!
Who from the World this Salt of Nature takes, 960 Twice Slaves of Kings of Life a Desart makes.
The Moral and Pathetick neatly join'd,
Are best for Pleasure and for life design'd.
Be this in Tragic an Eternal Law; Bold Strokes and larger than the Life to draw:
Let all be Great; when here a Woman's seen,
Paint her a Fury, or a Heroine: Slaves, Spendthrifts, angry Fathers, better fit
The meaner Sallies of COMEDIAN Wit;
But Courtly HORACE did their Stage refuse, 970
Nor was it trod by Maro's heav'nly Muse:
A Walk so low their nobler Minds disdain,
Where sordid Mirth's exchang'd for sordid Gain;
Where, in false Pleasure all the Profit's drown'd,
Nor Authors with just Admiration crown'd:
Hence was the Sock a Task for servile Wit,
Course PLAUTUS hence, and neater TERENCE writ:
Yet if you still your Fortune long to take,
And long to hear the crouded Benches shake; 980
If you'd reform the Mob, lov'd Vice restrain,
The Pulpits break, and neighb'ring B—— drain;
Let Heav'n at least, if not its Priests, be free,
The Bible sures's too grave for Comedy:
If she nor lewdly nor profanely talk
She'll have a cleaner, tho a narrower Walk.
Our Nation's endless Humour will supply
So large a Fund as never can be dry;
Why then should Vice be bare and open shown,
And with such Nauseous Scenes affront the Town? 990
Why thrive the Lewd, their Wishes seldom crost,
And why Poetic Justice often lost?
They plead they copy Nature.—Don't abuse
Her sacred Name with such a vile Excuse!
She wisely hides what these, like Beasts display, }
Ev'n Vice it self, less impudent than they, }
Remote in Shades, and far from conscious Day. }
From this Retrenchment by strong Reason beat,
They next to poor Necessity retreat:
The Murderers, Bawds and Robbers last pretence 1000
With equal Justice, equal Innocence!
So Crack, in pious Fit, will plead she's poor,
'Tis a hard Choice, Good Sir, to starve or whore!
—Is there no Third, or will such Reas'nings pass
In Bridewel's rigid Court, or save the Lash?
Where the stern Judge, like Radamanth, surveys
The trembling Sinner, and each Action weighs.
A lazy, black, encumber'd Stream rolls by,
Whole thick sulphureous Vapours load the Sky;
Near where, in Caves from Heav'n's sweet Light debar'd, 1010 Shrieks, Groans, and Iron Whips, and Clanks of Chains are heard.
And can't you thrash, or trail a Pike or Pole?
Are there no Jakes in Town, or Kennels foul?
No honester Employment, that you chuse
With such vile Drudgery t'abase the heav'n born Muse?
The num'rous ODE in various Paths delights, Love, Friendship, Gods, and Heroes, Games and Fights:
Her Age with Veneration is confess'd
The first great Mother she of all the rest,
This [8]MOSES us'd, and DAVID'S Royal Lyre, }
This he whom wond'ring Seraphs did inspire, } 1020
Whence PINDAR stole some Sparks of heav'nly Fire, }
Who now by COWLEY's happy Muse improv'd,
Is understood by some, by more belov'd:
The Vastness of his Thought, the daring Range,
That imperceptible and pleasing Change,
Our jealous Neighbours must themselves confess
The British Genius tracks with most Success;
But still the Smoothness we of Verse desire,
The Regulation of our Native Fire:
This from experienc'd Masters we receive, 1030
Sweet FLATMAN'S Works, and DRYDEN'S this will give.
If you in pointed SATYR most delight, Worry not, where you only ought to bite: Easie your Style, unstudy'd all and clear. Prosaic Lines are pardonable here.
There are whose Breath would blast the brightest Fame, }
Who from base Actions court an odious Name, }
With Beauty and with Virtue War proclaim; }
Who bundle up the Scandals of the Town, 1040
And in lewd Couplets make it all their own: Just Shame be theirs who thus debauch a Muse,
To vile Lampoons a noble Art abuse:
As ill be theirs, and half of DATS's Fate,
Who always dully rail against the State. Kings are but Men, nor are their Councils more,
Those Ills we can't avert we must deplore:
Not many Poets were for Statesmen made,
It asks more Brains than stocks the Rhiming Trade:
(At least, when they the Ministry receive, 1050
To Poets Militant their Muse they leave.)
All sordid Flat'ry hate, it pleases none
But Tyrants grinning on their Iron Throne:
Yet where wer'e rul'd with wise impartial Sway,
The Muses should their grateful Homage pay:
'Tis base alike a Tyrant's Name to raise,
And grudg a Parent Prince our tributary Praise.
No wonder those who by Proscriptions gain }
In Marian Days, or Sylla's bloody Reign, }
Of the divine Augustus should complain; } 1060
Who stoops to wear a Crown's uneasie Weight,
As Atlas under Heav'n, to prop the State:
No Glory strikes his Great exalted Mind,
No Pleasure like obliging all Mankind;
He lets the Factious their weak Malice vent,
Punish'd enough while they themselves torment: Satiate with Conquest, his dread Sword he sheaths,
And with a Nod disbands ten thousand Deaths.
Who dares Rebellious Arms against him move
While his Praetorian Guard's his Subjects Love? 1070
Admir'd by all the bravest and the best,
Who wear a Roman Soul within their ample Breast:
Tho charm'd with both, which shall they more admire In Peace his Wisdom, or in War his Fire?
—One Labour yet remains, and that they ask, Alcides never clear'd a nobler Task;
O Father! banish'd Vertue O restore!
Let Hydra Vice pollute thy Reign no more!
Strike through the Monster-Form, which threatning stands,
Fierce with a thousand Throats, a thousand Hands! 1080 Rescue once more thy Trojans sacred Line }
From slavish Chains, so shall thy Temples shine }
With Stars, and all Elysium shall be thine. }

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Vide Edda Samundi—apud Sheringham, de Gentis Anglorum
Origine, pag. 28, 29.

Hiaelp beiter eitt eun thad thier hialpa mun
Vid Sikum og Sottum goiru allum,
Thad kenn eg aunad er thorfa Ita
Syner their ed vilia lakner lisfa.
[Transcriber's Note: extremely difficult to read in the original.
Transcription may not be accurate.]

I know your only Help, the pow'rful Charm
That aids in ev'ery Grief and every Harm,
I know the Leaches Craft, and what they need
Who Doctors in that Noble Art proceed.

[2] the Vide British Chronicle, and Taliessin's Prophecies;

Prryff fard l'yffred in ydwyfi i Elphin
Am gwalad gynifio [indecipherable] Goribbin.
Ionas ddewn am golwis Merddin
Sebach Pob Brenmam geilw Taliesin.
Gwea a gasgle elud Tra feyna bud,
Gwererbin didd brawd in chospo i gnawd,
Gwae ni cheidw i geil ag if yufug eil,
Gwae in cheidw i ddefend chog bleiddna.
[Transcriber's Note: extremely difficult to read in the original.
Transcription may not be accurate.]

Me Elphin now his Bard may justly boast
Who long of old amid the Fire-wing'd Host:
Once Merlin was I call'd, well known to Fame,
Whom future Kings shall Taliessin name.
Wo to the Wretch who Wealth by Rapine gains,
And wo to him who Fasts and Pray'rs refrains;
Wo to the Shepherds who their Flocks betray,
And will not drive the Ravish Wolves away.

[3] Olli sedaro rescondit corde Latinus. Virg.

[4] Mr. Dryden's Riddle, in his Preface to Virgil.

[5] This was observ'd before Mr. Le Clerc was born. Vide Song of the
Well, Num. 21. 17.

[Hebrew text]

Vide Psal. 80, & 81. Where some Verses have Treble, where Quadruple
Rhimes, four in one Verse.

[6] Ode 1. [Greek: indecipherable]

[7] Vide Collier's Reflexions on Moarning Bride, and Garth's Dispensary.

[8] I know some have affirm'd that Moses's Song in the 14_th of_
Exodus was writ in Hexameters, but I can't perceive any such thing in it, any more than in the 90_th_ Psalm, or the Book of Job, which seem to be written about the same time with it. The Song of the Well, in Numbers, pag. 15. is clearly an Ode of unequal Measures.

[Illustration: THE
LIFE
of
Christ.

An Heroic Poem.

In Ten BOOKS with sixty Copper Plates.

London: Printed for Charles Harper, & Benj. Motte.]

THE
LIFE
OF OUR
Blessed Lord & Saviour
JESUS CHRIST.

AN
HEROIC POEM:
DEDICATED TO
Her Most Sacred MAJESTY.

In Ten Books.

ATTEMPTED BY SAMUEL WESLEY, M.A.
Chaplain to the most Honourable JOHN Lord Marquess of Normanby, and Rector of Epwerth in the County of Lincoln.

Each Book Illustrated by necessary Notes, explaining all the more difficult Matters in the whole History: Also a Prefatory Discourse concerning Heroic Poetry.

The Second Edition, revised by the Author, and improved with the addition of a large Map of the HOLY-LAND, and a table of the principal matters.

With Sixty Copper-Plates, by the celebrated Hand of W. Faithorn.

LONDON:
Printed for Charles Harper, at the Flower-de-Luce over against St. Dunstan's Church, and are to be Sold by him, and Roger Clavel at the Peacock against Fetter-Lane, both in Fleetstreet, 1697.

THE PREFACE, Being an ESSAY on HEROIC POETRY

A Just Heroic Poem is so vast an Undertaking, requires so much both of Art and Genius for its Management, and carries such Difficulty in the Model of the Whole, and Disposition of the several Parts, that it's no Wonder, if not above One or Two of the Ancients, and hardly any of the Moderns, have succeeded in their Attempts of this Nature. Rapin, and other Masters of
Epic, represent it as an Enterprize so hardy, that it can scarce enter into the Mind of a wise Man, without affrighting him, as being the most perfect Piece of Work that Art can produce. That Author has many excellent
Reflexions and Rules concerning it in his Discourse sur la Poetique; but
Bossu is the first I've seen who has writ a just and perfect Tract thereon, wherein he has in a clear and Scholastic Method amass'd together most that's to be found in Antiquity on that Subject, tho' chiefly keeping to the Observations of Aristotle, which he drew from Homer, and who seems the first that reduced Poetry to an Art. That Author defines Epic, "An
Artificial Discourse, in order to form the Manners by Instructions, disguis'd under the Allegories of some one important Action, recited in
Verse, in a manner probable, diverting and admirable;" which he thus himself abridges, "'Tis a Fable, agreeably imitated on some important
Action, recited in Verse in a manner that's probable and admirable;" In which Definition are contain'd, as he afterwards explains it, the general
Nature of Epic, and that double, Fable and Poem: The Matter, some one important Action probably feign'd and imitated: Its Form, Recitation or
Narration: And lastly, its End, Instruction, which is aimed at in general by the Moral of the Fable; and besides in the particular Manners of the
Persons who make the most considerable Figure in the Work.

To begin with Fable, which he makes included in the general Nature or
Essence of Epic. This, he says, is the most essential Part of it; "That some Fables and Allegories scatter'd up and down in a Poem don't suffice to constitute Epic, if they are only the Ornaments, and not the very
Foundation of it." And again, "That 'tis the very Fund and principal
Action that ought to be Feign'd and Allegorical:" For which reason he expresly excludes hence all simple Histories, as by Name, Lucan's
Pharsalia, Silius Italicus's Punic War, and all true Actions of particular
Persons, without Fable: And still more home; that 'tis not a Relation of the Actions of any Hero, to form the Manners by his Example, but on the contrary, a Discourse invented to form the Manners by the Relation of some one feign'd Action, design'd to please, under the borrow'd Name of some illustrious Person, of whom Choice is made after we have fram'd the Plan of the Action which we design to attribute to him.

Nor indeed is Bossu singular in his Judgment on this Matter, there being few or none who have ever writ on the same Subject, but are of the same mind: For thus Boileau in his Art of Poetry,

Dans la vaste recit d'une longue action
Se soutient par la Fable & vit de Fiction.

Which his Translator I think better;

In the Narration of some great Design,
Invention, Art, and Fable, all must join.

Rapin too gives his Vote on the same side, Rien n'est, says he, plus essentiel au Poem Epique, que la Fiction; and quotes Petronius to that purpose, Per ambages, Deorumque ministeria praecipitandus est Liber
Spiritus. Nor is't only the Moderns who are of this Opinion; for the
Iliads are call'd in Horace, Fabula qua Paridis, &c. And lastly, even
Aristotle himself tells us, "That Fable is the principal thing in an
Heroic Poem; and, as it were, the very Soul of it." [Greek: Arche kai oion psyche.] And upon this occasion commends Homer for lying with the best
Grace of any Man in the World: Authorities almost too big to admit any
Examination of their Reason, or Opposition to their Sentiments. However, I see no cause why Poetry should not be brought to the Test, as well as
Divinity, or any more than the other, be believed on its own bare ipse dixit.

Let us therefore examine the Plan which they lay for a Work of this
Nature, and then we may be better able to guess at those Grounds and
Reasons on which they proceed.

In forming an Heroic-Poem, the first thing they tell us we ought to do, is to pitch on some Moral Truth, which we desire to enforce on our Reader, as the Foundation of the whole work. Thus Virgil, as Bossu observes, designing to render the Roman People pleased and easie under the new
Government of Augustus, laid down this Maxim, as the Foundation of his
Divine AEneis: "That great and notable Changes of State are not accomplished but by the Order and Will of God: That those who oppose themselves against them are impious, and frequently punished as they deserve; and that Heaven is not wanting to take that Hero always under its particular Protection, whom it chuses for the Execution of such grand
Designs." This for the Moral Truth; we must then, he says, go on to lay the general Plan of the Fiction, which, together with that Verity, makes the Fable and Soul of the Poem: And this he thinks Virgil did in this manner, "The Gods save a great Prince from the Ruines of his Country, and chuse him for the Preservation of Religion, and re-establishing a more glorious Empire than his former. The Hero is made a King, and arriving at his new Country, finds both God and Men dispos'd to receive him: But a neighbouring Prince, whose Eyes Ambition and Jealousie have closed against
Justice and the Will of Heaven, opposes his Establishment, being assisted by another King despoil'd of his Estate for his Cruelty and Wickedness.
Their Opposition, and the War on which this pious Prince is forc'd, render his Establishment more just by the Right of Conquest, and more glorious by his Victory and the Death of his Enemies." These are his own Words, as any may see who are at the pains to consult him; nor can I help it, if either
Virgil or Bossu happen to be Prophets.

When the Poet has proceeded thus far, and as Bossu calls it, dress'd his Project, he's next to search in History or receiv'd Fable, for some
Hero, whose Name he may borrow for his Work, and to whom he may suit his
Persons. These are Bossu's Notions, and, indeed, very agreeable to
Aristotle, who says, that Persons and Actions in this sort of Poetry must be feign'd, allegorical, and universal.

This is the Platform they lay; and let's now see if we can discover the
Reasons whereon they found these Rules, being so unanimous for Fable rather than true History, as the Matter of an Heroic Poem; and, if I mistake not, these are some of the principal.

1. Because they had observ'd the best Models of Heroic Poems were laid after this manner; the greatest part of the Action both in Homer and
Virgil being pure Fable. Homer beginning, and all the rest following his
Steps.

2. Because no single Hero, or true History, which the Ancients knew was sufficient, without Fable, to furnish Matter for an Epic Poem. History, says Aristotle, treats of particular Things as they really are; Poetry, as they ought to be; and therefore he prefers Poetry as the more grave and more instructive; the Poets being forc'd to follow the same Methods with their Kindred-Art, that of the Painters, and gather a great many Beauties together, out of 'em all, to steal one Venus.

3. A third Reason may be, because, supposing they should have found some one Example from whence to enforce strongly any particular Point of
Morality, yet it would have miss'd those other Characters of Epic, most of its Agreeableness, and all its Power to raise Admiration. A chast
Historian must not go about to amuse his Reader with Machines; and a Poet that would imitate him, must have been forc'd to thin his Stage accordingly, and disband all his glorious Train of Gods and Godesses, which composes all that's admirable in his Work; according to that of
Boileau; Chaque Virtue devient une divlnitie.

And these, if I mistake not, were the main Reasons on which the foremention'd Rules were grounded. Let's now enquire into the Strength and
Validity of them: To begin with Homer, he wrote in that manner, because most of the ancient Eastern Learning, the Original of all others, was
Mythology. But this being now antiquated, I cannot think we are oblig'd superstitiously to follow his Example, any more than to make Horses speak, as he does that of Achilles, 2. If a Poet lights on any single Hero, whose true Actions and History are as important as any that Fable ever did or can produce, I see no reason why he may not as well make use of him and his Example to form the Manners and enforce any Moral Truth, as seek for one in Fable for that purpose: Nay, he can scarce fail of persuading more strongly, because he has Truth it self; the other but the Image of Truth, especially if his History be, in the Third place, of it self diverting and admirable. If it has from its own Fund, and already made to his hand those
Deorum Ministeria, which cost the Poet so much in the forming 'em out of his own Brain. Nor can we suppose Fiction it self pleases; no, 'tis the agreeable and the admirable, in the Dress of Truth; and such a Plan as this would effectually answer both the Ends of Poetry in general, delectari & monere, nay come up fuller to the End of Epic, which is agreeable Instruction; and thence it follows strongly, that a Poem written in such a manner, must, notwithstanding the foregoing Rules, be a true and proper Heroic Poem, especially if adorn'd with Poetical Colours and
Circumstances through the whole Body thereof.

Now that all this is not gratis dictum, I think I can prove, even from most of those very Authors I've already produc'd, as of the contrary
Opinion; and that I can make it appear, Bossu goes too far in fixing Fable as the Essential Fund and Soul of the principal Action in an Epic Poem. To begin with Rapin, who has this Passage, sur la Poetique, Reflex. 5. La
Poesie Heroique, &c. "Heroique Poesie, according to Aristotle, is a
Picture or Imitation of an Heroic Action; and the Qualities of the Action are, That it ought to be (among others) true, or at least, such as might pass for true;" Thus he. And hence it follows, according to him and
Aristotle, that the principal Action in Heroic, not only ought to pass for
Truth, but may be really true: For Horace, he does indeed call the Iliads a Fable; but then he does not oblige his Poet superstitiously to follow
Homer in every thing, owning that he sometimes doats as well as other Men:
Further, this may, and I think does, refer rather to the Dress and Turn of the Action, than to the Bottom and Ground of his History, which there's at least as much, if not more reason to believe true than false: And in the same Sense may we take Petronius and Boileau; nay, if we don't take 'em thus, I can't tell whether there were ever such a thing as a true Heroic
Poem in the World; not so much as the Fairy-Queen, Gondibert, or Orlando
Furioso; all which have Fable enough in 'em of any reason; but their principal Actions might be still true, as we are sure was that of the best
Heroic that ever was written; (I need not say I mean Virgil) since few or no Authors ever deny'd that there was such a Man as AEneas, or even that he came into Italy, built Cities there, and erected a Kingdom, which Tully mentions, as a generally receiv'd Tradition in those Parts, and which it seems he thought not frivolous, but true and solid; otherwise he'd scarce have given it a place in his Argument for his Client. Of this Opinion too seems Horace himself, in his Art of Poetry, namely, That there's no necessity of the principal Action's being feign'd; for his Direction is,
"Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge; Either follow Tradition or Fame, or else feign what's agreeable thereunto." He makes not feigning essential to Heroic Action, but gives leave to follow Fame, who is not so great a Lyar, but that she is sometimes in the right. Nay, what if we should after all have Bossu himself on our side, which I'm mistaken if he be not; for these are his Expressions, Lib. 1. Cap. 7. Le Fiction, &c.
"The Fiction may be so disguis'd under the Verity of the History, that those who are ignorant of the Art of the Poet, may believe it not a
Fiction; and to make the Disguisement well, he ought to search into
History for the Names of some Persons, to whom such an Action has probably or truly happen'd, &c." Hence 'tis evident, that according to Bossu's own
Notion, the main Action may be true; which appears even from Aristotle himself, as quoted by him, 97. [Greek: Kan ara] &c. "An Author is not less a Poet, because the Incidents he recites have truly happen'd; if so be that which happen'd had the appearance of Truth, and all that Art demands, and be really such as it ought to have been feign'd." And this Bossu himself illustrates admirably well by an ingenious Simile; "A Statuary,"
says he, "first forms his Design, Posture, Altitudes which he intends for his Image; but if he then lights on any precious Material, Agate, or such like, where the Figure, the Colours, and Veins will not be accommodated to all he design'd, he regulates his Design and Imagination according to his
Matter; nor ought we to believe, at the same time, that these singular lucky Hits condemn the Justness of his Art." From all which, I must leave it to the Reader, whether I han't sufficiently prov'd what I've undertaken; that Fiction is not necessary to the principal Action of our
Heroic Poem; on which I've been something more large, not so much on my own account; for 'tis indifferent to me by what Name any Man calls my
Poem, so it answers the great End of Epic, which is Instruction; but because I've heard some Persons have been so conceited as to criticise on our immortal Cowley for this very reason, and deny his Davideis the Honour of being an Heroic Poem, because the Subject thereof is a true History.

And here I should drop the Discourse of Fable, were there not another sort of Persons still to deal with, perhaps more importunate than the former:
The first will not like a Piece unless 'tis all Fable, or at least the
Foundation of it: These latter run into the contrary extreme, and seam unwilling or afraid to admit anything of Fable in a Christian Poem; and as
Balzac in his Critics on Heinsius his Baptista, are frighted, as at some
Magical Charm, if they find but one Word there which was made use of by the old Heathens; which, says he, (unluckily as things have since happened) is as preposterous as to see Turks wear Hats, and Frenchmen
Turbants; the Flower-de-lis in the Musselmens Colours, or the Half-Moon on the Standard of France. He's, however, it must be granted, justly angry with Tasso, as Mr. Dryden since, for setting his Angels and Devils to stave and tail at one another; Alecto and Pluto on one side, and Gabriel and Raphael o' t'other; as well as with Sannazarius, for mingling Proteus and David, and calling the Muses and Nymphs to the Labour of the Blessed
Virgin, Tho' the truth is, the Italian Poets seem more excusable, at least to a Papist, in this Case, than any other Nation, who parted with as little of their Idolatry as they could possibly, after they had kept it as long as they were able, making the Change very easie, and turning their
Pantheon into an All Saints; much like the good Fathers in the Spanish
Conquests in America, who suffer the Natives to keep their Old Idols, so they'll but pay for 'em, and get 'em christen'd; by this means making many a good Saint out of a very indifferent Devil. So far, I say, Balzac is undoubtedly in the right, that Christianity and Heathenism ought not to be confounded, nor the Pagan Gods mention'd, but as such, in Christian Poems.
Of which Boileau also says, "They should not be Fill'd with the Fictions of Idolatry;" tho' he tells us just before,

In vain have our mistaken Authors try'd
Those ancient Ornaments to lay aside.

As tho' he were afraid lest all Poets shou'd be forc'd to turn Christians, and yet in the next Lines he thinks it full as bad,

To fright the Reader in each Line with Hell,
And talk of Satan, Ashtaroth and Bel.

As tho' he'd have no Christian to be a Poet. And much at the same rate is
Monsieur Balzac very angry with Buchanan, for the same reason; nor will he by any means let us substitute Belzebub, Asmodeus, and Leviathan, in the room of Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera, which is, in his Opinion, perfect
Pedantry and Affectation; and is extreamly afraid, lest any of those
Barbarous Hebrew Words should disfigure the purity of the Latin Tongue; when surely he cou'd not but know, that this pure Latin Tongue it self, for which he's so much concerned, is nothing but the gradual Corruption or
Barbarizing of the Greek; as that of the Phonician and Hebrew before; and the Italian, and his own French too, from the Latin afterwards, by the adulterous mixture of 'tis hard to say how many Languages: So that between
'em, they'd make it impossible for a Christian Poet to write a good Heroic
Poem, or even a Tragedy, on any, but profane Subjects; by taking away all the Machines, and therein whatever is admirable. No, says Balzac, instead of those hard Words and proper Names, Appellatives may be chosen, Words common to all People: As for example, Ill luck instead of the Fates, and the Foul Fiend for Lucifer; and whether this wou'd not sound extreamly
Heroical, I leave any Man to judge: It being besides certain, that 'tis singulars and particulars which give an Air of Probability, and the main
Life and Beauty to a Poem, especially of this Nature; without which it must of necessity sink and languish. However so much of Truth, I must confess, there is in what he says, that I verily believe Magor-missabib, or Mahershal-alhashbaz, wou'd scarce yoke decently in one of our
Pentameters, but be near as unquiet and troublesome there, as a Mount
Orgueil it self. Nor can partiality so far blind my Judgment as not to be my self almost frighted at second hearing of such a thundering Verse, as
Belsamen Ashtaroth Baaltii Ba'al: Which seems as flat Conjuration, as
Zinguebar, Oran, &c. tho' 'tis now too late to amend it. But then there are other Words or a more soft and treatable Cadence, even in the same
Hebrew Language, especially when mollified by a Latin or Greek form, or
Termination; and such as these one may make use of and let others alone:
though neither is our bolder rougher Tongue so much affrighted at them, as the French and Latin.

But Boileau pushes the Objection further, and wou'd make it bear against the Things as well as Words, persuading himself,

Our God and Prophets that he sent,
Can't act like those the Poets did invent.

Tho' he too, is short in History, how excellent soever in Poetry. For first, the Heathen Poets did not invent the Names of their Gods and
Heroes, but had 'em from Eastern Tradition, and the Phenician and Jewish
Language, tho' deflected and disguis'd after the Greek and other Forms, as
Josephus tells us, which the learned Bochart has proved invincibly; and I have made some Essay towards it, in my Sixth Book. Nay further, it seems plain to me, that most, even of their best Fancies and Images, as well as
Names, were borrow'd from the Antient Hebrew Poetry and Divinity, as, were there room for't, I cou'd, I think, render more than probable, in all the most celebrated Strokes of Homer, moat of the Heathen Poetical Fables, and even in Hesiod's blind Theogonia. Their Gods or Devils, which you please, were not near as Antient as the Hebrews. The Word Satan is as ancient as
Job; nor can they shew us a Pluto within a long while of him. Ashtaroth, and Astarte, are old enough to be Grandmothers to their Isis, or Venus, and Bel, of the same standing with Idolatry. Lawful it must certainly be, to use these very Heathen Gods in Christian, since they were us'd in sacred Hebrew Poetry, in due place, and in a due manner; Bel boweth down,
Nebo stoopeth, says Isaiah. And what a noble Description has the same
Prophet of the Fall of Lucifer? Nor can I see why it may not be as convenient and agreeable, as 'tis lawful to transplant 'em from Hebrew
Poetry to our own, if we use 'em as they did. And then for Angels,
Prophets, and Oracles, it wou'd be strange, if they shou'd not strike the
Mind as agreeably when real and true, as the Daemons, or Oracles, or
Prophets of the Heathens, form'd, as has been said, partly from mistaken
Fragments, or Traditions of sacred Story, partly indeed from the Juggles of the Heathen Priests, and crafty Ambitious Daemons. On the whole, we have all the Advantages they had, and yet more than they, for Heroic
Poetry in these matters. As for that Question of Boileau's, "What Pleasure can it be to hear the howlings of repining Lucifer?" I think 'tis easier to answer than to find out what shew of Reason he had for asking it, or why Lucifer mayn't howl as pleasantly as either Cerberus, or Enceladus.
And let any one read but his Speech, in Milton's Paradise, almost equall'd in Mr. Dryden's State of Innocence, and I'm mistaken if he's not of the same Mind; or if he be not, and it gives him no pleasure, I dare affirm
'tis for want of a true taste of what's really admirable.

But Boileau comes to a stronger Objection, both against the Names and use of these Daemons, by way of Machine, I mean, in Christian Poetry;

The Mysteries we Christians must believe
Disdain such shifting Pageants to receive.

Thus has his Translator turn'd him; and taking it in that Sence, the meaning must be, that it disgraces Christianity, to mix its Mysteries with
Stories of Daemons, Angels, &c. But sure it can never be any disgrace, to represent it really as it is, with the frequent Intervention of those invisible and powerful Agents, both good and evil, in the Affairs of
Mankind, which our Saviour has both asserted and demonstrated in his
Gospel, both by Theory and Practice: Whence we learn, that there are really vast numbers of these Spirits, some tempting, or tormenting, others guarding and protecting Mortals: Nay, a subordination too among them, and that they are always vigilant, some for our Destruction, others for our
Preservation, and that, as it seems, of every individual Man; and if this be true in general, I'm sure 'tis probable In particular: Nor can it be any disgrace to Christianity, to apply general Probabilities to particular
Cases, or to mention these Daemons in Poetry any more than in Divinity.

But indeed the Translator has here mended Boileau's Thought, or at least made it more plausible and defensible, tho he has miss'd his Sence; for these are his Lines:

De la foi d'une Christien les Mysteres terribles
D' Ornemens egayes ne sont point susceptibles.

The plain English of which, I think is, "That the terrible Mysteries of the Christian Faith, are not at all susceptible of these gayer Ornaments."
I'll not be too Critical here, tho' methinks its but an odd sort of Gayety that's to be found in Tales of Hell; agreeable, I own, the most dreadful thing nay be, if well manag'd in Poetry, but he can hardly ever make 'em gay without a yery strong Catachresis. But tho' we let that pass, so must not what follows, wherein he further explains his Notion. L'Evangile,
&c.

The Gospel offers nothing to our Thoughts
But Penitence and Punishment for Faults.

To which it may be first said, that supposing this true, and the Gospel did present nothing else, yet why mayn't Angels be us'd in it, to warn
Sinners to that Repentance which we know they so much rejoyce in; or
Devils, to punish and torment the Guilty and Impious; as in the Case of
Sceva's Son, and others. But yet further, as to the assertion it self,
I know not what their Gospel offers, nor I believe are they better acquainted with what ours does; but we are sure 'tis far enough from being such a dismal melancholy thing as they represent it, since Immortality and
Life are brought to light therein. We know that it gives us the noblest
Examples, the most divine Law, the strongest, yet justest Passions, the most glorious Combats, and Friendships, and Sufferings, such as neither
History or Fable cou'd ever yet equal. It shews us a God really
Descending, disrob'd indeed of all his more dazling and insupportable
Glories, as our Divine Herbert; but yet clothed with what has more of true
Divinity, with Humility, and Charity, and Patience, and Meekness, and
Innocence. Here's War, here's Love indeed; such as never was besides, or will be more. He lov'd our Dust and Clay, and even for us, single encounter'd all the Powers of Darkness, and yet more, his Almighty
Father's anger. But I'll go no farther, lest the Reader should think I forget where I am. I must return to Boileau, whose strongest Objection is yet behind; Et de vos Fictions, &c.

And mingling Falshood with those Mysteries
Wou'd make our sacred Truths appear like Lies.

But I hope the Critic knew, that there is a fair difference between a mere
Fiction, or Falshood, and an Instructive Parable or Fable, on one side, or a few more lively Poetical Colours on the other. To mingle Falshoods, or dull Legendary Fictions, without either Life or Soul in 'em, with our
Saviour's Blessed Gospel, may make 'em, in some Sence, superiour to it:
This wou'd indeed incline an Italian to be of the same Faith with his
Countryman, that 'twas all Fabula Christi, in the worst Sence of the Word:
But certainly expressing the Truth in Parables, and mingling these with the Mysteries of the Gospel, can't be thought to give it an Air of
Fiction: nor dare any affirm it does so, without Blasphemy, since our
Saviour has so often done it. Nor only these but deeper Allegories are thought to be made use of in the Christian Religion; for Example, the
Throne and Temple of God in the Revelations, and the Description of the
New Jerusalem, with all its Gates and Foundations of Sapphires and
Emeralds, and that lovely Scheme of Trees and Rivers, worthy a Paradise:
All this, I say, will scarcely be granted literal, and consequently must be all an Allegory; alluding partly to the Old Jewish Church and Temple, partly to Ezekiel's Visionary Representation and Prophetical Paradise. Nor can it, I think, be justly reckoned more criminal, where we have any great instructive Example, which has been real matter of Fact, to expatiate thereon; adding suitable and proper Circumstances and Colours to the whole, especially when the History it self is but succinctly Related, and the Heads of things only left us. And this some great Man have thought was the Method of the Holy Pen-man himself, whoever he were, in that lovely antient Poem of Job; which, that 't was at the bottom a real History, few but Atheists deny; and yet 'tis thought some Circumstances might be amplified in the account we have left us, particularly the long Speeches between that Great Man and his Friends; tho' the main hinges of the
Relation, his Person, Character, and Losses, the malice of the Devil, the behaviour of his Wife and Friends, nay even the Substance of their
Discourses, as well as of that between God and him, and the wonderful Turn of his Affairs soon after: All this might, and did, truly happen. Or, if any amplification should be here deny'd, does not the Divine however every day, Paraphrase and Expatiate upon the Words of his Text, inverting their
Method as he sees occasion, and yet is still thought unblameable. All the difference is, that he delivers what's probable, as only probable; whereas the Nature of Poetry requires, that such probable Amplifications as these, be wrought into the main Action, in such a manner, as if they had really happen'd; and without this, a Man might Ryme long enough, but ne'er cou'd make a Poem, any more than this would have been one, had I begun with,
Abraham begat Isaac, and so tagg'd on to the end of all the fourteen
Generations, much as Nonnus has done with St. John, and yet often miss'd his Sence too, as Heinsius judges.

But enough of Fable, and of those who would either reduce all Heroic
Poetry unto it, or absolutely banish it thence.

Next the Fable of Epics, the Poem is to be considered; which, after Bossu, is the other part of its general Nature, and shews the manner of handling it, comprehending Thoughts, Expressions and Verses; of which there need not much be said, since they are obvious to every Reader. The Thoughts must be clear and just, and noble, and the Diction or Expression suited to them. The chief Difficulty, as Rapin observes, is to keep up the Sublime, which Virgil has done admirably, even in the meanest Subjects; and which
Aristotle thinks may be best done by the judicious use of Metaphors. There ought to meet, according to him, Proportion in the Design, Justness in the
Thoughts, and Exactness in the Expression, to constitute an accomplish'd
Heroic Poem; and the great Art of Thought and Expression lies in this, that they be natural and proper without Meanness, and sublime without a vitious Swelling and Affectation.

The Matter is next in an Heroic Poem, which must be one important Action; it must be important, Res gestae Regumque Ducumque, with Horace. "It only speaks of Kings and Princes," says Rapin, by which he must mean that it chiefly and principally turns upon them: for both Virgil and Homer have occasion for Traitors, and Cryers, and Beggars, nay even Swineherds (in the Odysses), and yet still more, of whole Armies, which can't be all compos'd of Kings and Princes. However, the more there is of these lower
Walks in the Plan of a Design, the less Heroic it must appear, even in the
Hands of the greatest Genius in Nature. Such a Genius, I think, was
Homer's, and yet the Truth of this Assertion will be plain to any who compares his Odysses with his Iliads; where he'll find, if 'tis not for want of Judgment, in the latter a very different Air from the former, in many places much more dead and languishing, and this which I have given, seems one probable Reason on't; not excluding that of Longinus, that Homer was then grown old, and besides too much of the Work was spent in
Narration; to which may be added, that he here design'd a wise and prudent rather than a brave and fighting Hero, having wrought off most of the Edg and Fury of his Youthful Spirit and Fury in Achilles, as in Ulysses he express'd more of Age and Judgment.

This Action must be one and uniform: the Painture of one Heroic Action, says Rapin from Aristotle. It must be, as Bossu from Horace, simplex duntaxat & unum, that is, the principal Action on which the whole Work moves ought to be one, otherwise the whole will be confus'd; tho' there may be many Episodic Actions without making what Aristotle calls an
Episodic Poem, which is, where the Actions are not necessarily or not probably link'd to each other, and of such an irregular multiplication of
Actions and Incidents. Bossu instances very pleasantly in Statius's
Achilleid; but he tells us there's also a regular and just Multiplication, without which 'twere impossible to find matter for so large a Poem, when as before it's so ordered that the Unity of the whole is not broken, and consequently divers Incidents it has bound together are not to be accounted different Actions and Fables, but only different Parts not finish'd, or entire of one Action or Fable entire or finished: and, agreeable to this Doctrine, Rapin blames Lucan's Episodes as too far-fetch'd, over-scholastic, and consisting purely of speculative
Disputes on natural Causes whenever they came in his way, not being link'd with the main Action, nor flowing naturally from it, nor tending to its
Perfection.

And in this Action, the Poet ought, as Rapin tells us, to invert the natural Order of things, not to begin with his Hero in the Cradle, and write his Annals instead of an Epic Poem, as Statius in his Achilleid, the
Reason of which seems plain, because this would look more like History than Poetry. It's more agreeable, more natural, in some Sence, to be here unnatural; to bring in, by way of Recitation or Narration, what was first in order of time, at some distance from that time when it really happened, which makes the whole look unlike a dull formal Story, and gives more scope for handsome Turns and the Art of the writer. Another Reason why a whole Life is not ordinarily a proper Subject for Epics, is, because many trivial Accidents must be therein recited; but if a Life can be found in which is nothing but what's diverting and wonderful, tending besides to the perfecting the main Action, and the Order of time revers'd in the whole, the Case would be so much altered, that I think their Rules would not hold.

For the Form of Epic, which comes next in view, 'tis agreed on all Hands to be Recitation or Narration. Bossu says, The Persons are not at all to be introduced before the Eyes of the Spectators, acting by themselves without the Poet; not that he'd hereby exclude the Poet from introducing the persons telling their own Story, or some one of them that of the principal Hero: for great part of Epic is thus far Dramatic. And thus
Virgil manages his second and third Books by way of Recitation, and that by his Hero himself, making him give Dido a long account of the Wars of
Troy, and his own Actions, tho' thereby he falls into the Impropriety of commending himself, with a—sum pius AEneas. Vida takes the same way of
Recitation, wherein he employs two or three of his six Books; and Milton follows them both, tho' less naturally than either; for he introduces our
Saviour, in his Paradise regain'd, repeating a great part of his own Life in Soliloquy, which way of Discourse includes, in a Wise Man especially, so much of Calmness and deep Reflection, that it seems improper for the great and noble Turn required in such a Work, unless in describing a
Passion, where it may be more lively. All that they mean by not introducing the Parties, is not doing it as in a Tragedy: they are not to be brought in abruptly to tell their own Tale from the beginning, without the appearing Help of the Poet, as Actors in a true and proper Drama. And this Narration, says Rapin, should be simple and natural; but the greatest difficulty is, not to let its Simplicity appear, lest it thence grow disagreeable, and the chiefest Art in this, consists in its Transitions, and all the delicate surprising Turns, which lead the Reader from one thing to another without his thinking whither he's going, or perceiving any Breach or so much as a passage between 'em; after all, the more Action there is in Epic, still the more Life there will be. A Poet may, I find, easily fall into Poorness of Thought by aiming too much at the Probability and neglecting the Admirable; whereby he loses that agreeableness which is a mixture of both. He ought then to take more care than some have done, not to keep himself too long behind the Scenes, and trust the Narration with another, which, without a great deal of Art and Pains, will take off much of the Life of the Work, as Longinus has already formerly observed.

And here come in the Qualities of Narration, mentioned in our Definition, that it ought to be done in a manner probable, agreeable, and admirable;
'tis rendered probable by its Simplicity and Singularity, and admirable by the Grandeur of the Subject, the Figures and Machines, or [Greek: theoi apo mechanes], much more lawful here than in the Drama's; and lastly agreeable, as has been said, by a mixture of both.

The last thing in our Definition, is, the End of Epic, indeed the first and principal which ought to be intended, and that's Instruction, not only, as Rapin thinks, of great Men, but of all, as in Virgil's Scheme, which we have already described; and, this either by the principal Moral aim'd at in the whole, or the Manners of particular Persons. Of Fable and
Moral, I've already discours'd, and whether be the more lively and probable way to instruct, by that or History. But here it may be worth the while to enquire, whether the principal Hero in Epic ought to be virtuous?
Bossu thinks not, the manners being formed as well by seeing Errors as
Beauties in the chief Actors; but yet methinks it seems too much to form a
Hero that's a perfect Almanzor, with not one spark of Vertue, and only remarkable for his extraordinary Strength and little Brains; such was certainly Homer's Achilles, of whom I think the Father was in the right when he observes, the Poet makes him not do one brave or virtuous Action, all the while he lies before the Town: whereas Virgil's Hero, is, to tell truth, an indifferent good Heathen, and, bating one or two slips, comes up pretty well to his own good word. The same however may be said for Homer, which our present Dramatists plead for their Excuse; that he copied his
Hero from those who were esteemed such in the barbarous Age in which he liv'd,

Impiger, iracundus, inexorabllis, acer,
Jura neget sibi nata, &c.

Made up of Lewdness, Love, and Fighting: who, had he liv'd in our Days, would have made an excellent Town Bully, I wish there were not too much reason to say a modish Gentleman. But tho' old Homer took this way,
Virgil, who writes with much more Judgment and Exactness, and follows him in many things, here thought fit to leave him; making his Hero, as I've said, not only brave and prudent, but for the most part virtuous. Which would much better form the manners of his Reader, than if they were set to spell out Instruction from contraries, as Homer has done. Whence it follows, the more virtuous a Hero is, the better; since he more effectually answers the true end of Epics. After all, Rapin says, the chief Excellency of an Heroic Poem consists in the just proportion of the
Parts; that perfect Union, just Agreement, and admirable Relation, which the Parts of this great Work bear one towards another; and blames Tasso for mingling all the Sweetness and Delicacy of Eclogues and Lyricks, with the Force of an Heroic Poem. But I should think him mistaken here, and that this is not the meaning of Aristotles [Greek: analogon]. For if we allow not such a pleasing Variety, how shall we excuse even Virgil himself, who has his Dido, as well a Tasso his Armida and Erminia? nay, how shall we manage Love? which is usually one great Episode of Heroic, if not with something of Delicacy. I grant Love ought to have a different Air in different sorts of Poems; but still if it be natural it must have something of Softness; and for his Enchanted Forrest, which this severe
Critic also blames, I believe there's few who read that part of his Work, who would willingly have it omitted, for the sake of a fancied Regularity, any more than they would part with Mr. Dryden's Improvement on't in his
King Arthur. However, if it be a fault, 'tis strange so many who have been
Masters of the greatest Genius should unanimously fall into it; as Ovid in his Palace of Circe, Ariosto in that of Alcina, and Spencer in his
Acasia's Bower of Bliss, and several others, who have taken the same
Method. I should therefore rather think that this beautiful and marvellous
Analogy which Aristotle requires as the best thing in Epic, relates rather to the Harmony and Agreement of the Parts with the Whole; so that there appears no Fracture or Contradiction, the different Parts, tho' much unlike, yet all together making one beautiful Figure and uniform Variety.

And thus much of the Definition of Epic, containing the main Rules thereof, by which the Reader may be able to form a Judgment of this, or any other Heroic Poem: Especially if to these Rules be added some Examples to render them more plain. In order to which, I desire to express my
Thoughts freely of other Poems, as I must expect every one will do of mine, always observing that piece of Justice, never to find fault, without taking notice of some Beauty to ballance it, and giving, where I can find it, the better Judgment of other Persons as well as my own. Concluding all with a brief Account of my own Work.

To begin then with Grandsire Homer, this may be added to the particular
Remarks that have been already made. I think none will deny but the
Disposition of his Iliads, is so truly admirable, so regular, and exact, that one would be apt to think he wrote his Poem by Aristotle's Rules, and not Aristotle his Rules by his Poem. I confess, I once thought that he had been oblig'd to his Commentators for most of the Beauties they celebrated in him; but I am now, on a nearer view, so well satisfied to the contrary, that I can ne'er think his Poem writ by piece-meal, without any Connexion or Dependance: wherein Dionysius the Halicarnassian very justly praises the Order and Management of the Design, as well as the Grandeur and
Magnificence of the Expression, and the sweet and passionate Movements.
Nor is it without Reason that Horace, Longinus, and all Antiquity have given him, as the Model of just and noble Sentiments and Expressions.
I must confess there's something in his Numbers that strikes me more than even Virgil's, his Thoughts and Expressions appear stronger than his, tho'
it cannot be denied but that Virgil's Design is much more regular. Rapin says a great deal of that Prince of the Latin Poets, tho' indeed he can never say enough, "He had an admirable Taste, says he, of what's natural, an excellent Judgment for the Order, and an incomparable Delicacy for the
Number and Harmony of his Versification." And adds, "That the Design of the Poem is, if we consider it in all its Circumstances, the most judicious and best-laid that ever was or ever will be." There is indeed a prodigious Variety in Virgil, and yet the same Soul visible in every Line.
His own great Spirit informs his Poetical World, and like that he speaks of,

—— totos infusa per Artus
Mens agitat Molem, & magno se corpora miscet.

He's soft with the height of Majesty, his Marcellus, his Dido, and, I think, above all, his Elegy on Pallas is very noble and tender. The joints so strong and exactly wrought, the Parts so proportionable, the Thoughts and Expression so great, the Complements so fine and just, that I could ne'er endure to read Statius, or any of the rest of the Antient Latins after him; with whom therefore I shan't concern my self nor trouble my
Reader. Ariosto was the first of the Moderns who attempted any thing like an Heroic Poem, and has many great and beautiful Thoughts; but at the same time, 'tis true, as Balzac observes, that you can hardly tell whether he's a Christian or an Heathen, making God swear by Styx, and using all the
Pagan Ornaments; his Fancy very often runs away with his Judgment, his
Action is neither one nor simple, nor can you imagine what he drives at; he has an hundred Hero's but you can't tell which he designs should be chief: Orlando indeed seems a wild Imitation of Homer's Achilles, but his
Character is not bright enough to make him the Principal; and besides he orders it so, that he does more great Actions when he's mad then when sober. Agreeable to this are Rapin's thoughts of him, which, in few words, are "That he's elevated and admirable in his Expressions, his Descriptions fine, but that he wants Judgment; and speaks well, but thinks ill, and that tho' the Parts are handsome enough, yet the whole Work can by no means pass for an Epic Poem, he having never seen the Rules of Aristotle;"
which he thinks Tasso had, and therefore wrote much better, whom he commends as more correct in his Design, more regular in the ordering his
Fable, and more accomplish'd in all parts of his Poem than any other of the Italians, whom yet he justly blames, because he has two Hero's
Godfredo and Rinaldo, of whom Godfredo seems the principal, and yet
Rinaldo performs the greatest part of the notable Actions. He seems to imitate Agamemnon and Achilles, but then he raises his Agamemnon too high, or keeps him too low, for he hardly lets him do one great Action through the whole Work. He further criticises upon him as mingling too much
Gallantry with his Poem, which, he thinks, is unbecoming the Gravity of his Subject. But whether this Censure be just, I know not, for Love and
Gallantry runs through all Virgil's AEneids, in the Instances of Helen,
Dido, and Lavinia, and indeed it gives so great a Life to Epic, that it hardly can be agreeable without it, and I question whether ever it has been so. Nor is he more just, I think, against Tasso's Episodes, which he blames as not proper to circumstantiate his principal Action, not entring into the Causes and Effects thereof, but seeking too much to please, tho'
I think this Charge is unjust, for 'tis in his Episodes, if any where, that Tasso is admirable. I might here give several Instances, but shall, at present, only refer my Reader to that of Tancred and Erminia, and I'm mistaken if he does not dissent from Rapin in this particular. Sannazarius and Vida were the next who did any thing remarkable in Epic; they both writ in Latin on the same Subject, both Christian Heroics; Rapin says they both had a good Genius for Latin, the Purity of their Style being admirable, but that their ordering of the Fable has nothing in't of
Delicacy, nor is the manner of their Writing proportionable to the dignity of the Subject. For Sannazarius he's indeed so faulty, that one can hardly with Patience read him, the whole Structure of his imperfect Piece, de partu, being built on Heathen Fable; yet he has great and vigorous
Thoughts and very Poetical Expressions, tho' therein Vida far excels him, whose Thoughts are so noble, and the Air of his Stile so great, that the
Elogy Balzac gives his Countryman Tasso, wou'd as well or rather better have fitted him; "That Virgil is the Cause, Vida is not the first; and
Vida, that Virgil is not alone." It is true, as Rapin observes, that his
Fable is very simple, and perhaps so much the better, considering the
Subject; tho' he forgets not Poetical Ornaments, where there's occasion, if he does not lean a little to Sannazarius's Error; for he talks of the
Gorgons and Sphinxes, the Centaurs and Hydra's and Chimera's, though much more sparingly and modestly than the other. He has the happiest beginning that perhaps is to be found in any Poem, and by mingling his Proposition and Invocation, has the advantage of placing one of the noblest Thoughts in the World in the first Line, without danger of falling into the absurdity of Horace's Author with his Fortunam Priami: For thus he sings,

Qui mare, qui terras, qul coelum numine comples
Spiritus alme, &c.

After the Invocation, in the very beginning of the Poem, he's preparing the Incidents for his Hero's Death; he brings him to Jerusalem at the
Passover with Hosanna's; then raises his Machines, and falls to the
Description of Hell. He through the whole, uses his Figures very gracefully; few have been more happy in Comparisons, more moving in
Passion, succinct, yet full in Narration: Yet is he not without Faults; or in the second Book he brings him to his last Supper in the Garden, from thence before Caiaphas and Pilate; which too much precipitates the main
Action: Besides, it seems harsh and improbable to bring in S. John, and
Joseph, our Saviour's reputed Father, as he does in the Third and Fourth
Book, giving Pilate an account of his Life; not to insist on the general
Opinion, that Joseph was not then alive. But notwithstanding these few failures, it can't be deny'd, that his Description of our Saviour's
Passion in the Fourth Book, is incomparably fine; the disturbance among the Angels on that occasion; his Character of Michael, and the Virgins
Lamentation under the Cross, and at the Sepulchre, are inimitable. And thus much for Vida, on whom I've been more large because I've often made use of his Thoughts in this following Work; his Poem being the most complete on that Subject I've ever seen or expect to see. And here han't the English more reason to complain of Rapin, that he takes no notice of their Heroic Poems, than Lupez Viga of Tasso, for not mentioning the
Spaniards at the Siege of Jerusalem: but since he has been so partial, as not to take any notice of our Writers, who sure as much deserve it as their Dubartas and Ronsard; we may have liberty to speak of our own, and to do 'em Justice: To begin with Spencer, who I think comes the nearest
Ariosto of any other; he's almost as Irregular, but much more Natural and
Lovely: But he's not only Irregular but Imperfect too, I mean, as to what he intended; and therefore we can't well imagine what it wou'd have been, had he liv'd to complete it. If Fable be the Essence of Epic, his Fairy
Queen had certainly enough of that to give it that Name. He seems, by the account he gives of it to Sir Walter Rawleigh, to have design'd one
Principal Hero King Arthur, and one main important Action bringing him to his Throne; but neither of these appear sufficiently distinct, or well defin'd, being both lost in the vast Seas of Matter which compose those
Books which are finish'd. This however must be granted, the Design was
Noble, and required such a comprehensive Genius as his, but to draw the first Sketch of it: And as the Design, so the Thoughts are also very great, the Expressions flowing natural and easie, with such a prodigious
Poetical Copia as never any other must expect to enjoy. Gondibert methinks wants Life; the Style is rather stiff than Heroic, and has more of Statius than Virgil; one may see every where a great deal of Art, and Pains, and
Regularity, even to a fault; nor is a Genius wanting, but it's so unnatural, that an ingenious Person may find much more pleasure in reading a worse Poet. Besides, his Stanza's often cramp the Sence, and injure many a noble Thought and Passion. But Mr. Cowley's Davideis is the Medium between both; it has Gondibert's Majesty without his stiffness, and something of Spencer's Sweetness and Variety, without his Irregularity:
Indeed all his Works are so admirable, that another Cowley might well be employ'd in giving them their just Elogy. His Hero is according to the ancient Model, truly Poetical, a mixture of some Faults and greater
Virtues. He had the advantage of both Love and Honour for his Episodes, nay, and Friendship too, and that the noblest in History. He had all the sacred History before him, and liberty to chuse where he pleased, either by Narration or Prophecy; nor has he, as far as he has gone, neglected any advantage the Subject gave him. Its a great Loss to the World that he left the Work unfinish'd, since now he's dead, its always like to continue so.
As for Milton's Paradise Lost its an Original, and indeed he seems rather above the common Rules of Epic than ignorant of them. Its I'm sure a very lovely Poem, by what ever Name it's call'd, and in it he has many Thoughts and Images, greater than perhaps any either in Virgil or Homer. The
Foundation is true History, but the turn is Fable: The Action is very
Important, but not uniform; for one can't tell which is the Principal in the Poem, the Wars of the Angels or the Fall of Man, nor which is the
Chief Person Michael or Adam. Its true, the former comes in as an Episode to the latter, but it takes up too great a part thereof, because its link'd to it. His Discourse of Light is incomparable; and I think 'twas worth the while to be blind to be its Author. His Description of Adam and
Eve, their Persons and Love, is almost too lively to bear reading: Not but that he has his inequalities and repetitions, the latter pretty often, as have, more or less, all other Poets but Virgil. For his antique Words I'm not like to blame him whoever does: And for his blank Verse, I'm of a different mind from most others, and think they rather excuse his uncorrectness than the contraries; for I find its easier to run into it, in that sort of Verse, than in Rhyming Works where the Thought is oftner turned; whereas here the Fancy flows on, without check or controul. As for his Paradise Regain'd, I nothing wonder that it has not near the Life of his former Poem, any more than the Odysses fell short of the Iliads.
Milton, when he writ this, was grown Older, probably poorer: He had not that scope for Fable, was confin'd to a lower Walk, and draws out that in four Books which might have been well compriz'd in one: Notwithstanding all this, there are many strokes which appear truly his; as the Mustring of the Parthian Troops, the Description of Rome by the Devil to our
Saviour, and several other places.

And now I've done with all the rest, I may take liberty to say something of my own.

For the Subject I dare stand by it, that 'tis fit for a better Heroic
Poem than any ever was, or will be made; and that if a good Poem cou'd not be made on't, it must be either from the weakness of the Art itself, or for want of a good Artist. I don't say the Subject with all its
Circumstances is the best for Epic, but considered in it self, or with a prudent choice out of the vast Field of Matter which it affords.

The Action is Important, if ever any was, being no less than the
Redemption of the World, which was not accomplish'd till after our
Saviours Death and Resurrection. The Ascension I confess should be left out, according to the common Rules of Heroick Poetry, but I had not the same reason of omitting it, as others have for not coming to the End of their History, a little short of which they generally stop, because after the main Business is over, nothing great remains, or however not greater than has already past. And if any thing mean followed, the Reader wou'd leave off dissatisfied. But I've as great and remarkable an Action, as any in the whole story, yet upon my Hands, and which if I had omitted, I had lost many very moving Incidents that follow'd the Resurrection; and besides, Vida before me, has carry'd it yet further, to the actual Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Disciples, and the spreading the Christian Name all the World over; which I have done only in Prophecy.

The Action is I think uniform, because all the Episodes are part of the main Action, the Redemption of the World; to which his Incarnation, and
Divine Conception were absolutely necessary, and so were his Holy Life,
Doctrine, Miracles, and especially his Sufferings and Agonies. My principal Hero was perfect, yet imitable, and that both in active and contemplative Life. He leaves his own Kingdom to save and conquer another, endures the greatest hardships, is reduc'd to the lowest ebb, nay is at last forc'd to suffer Death it self. Yet after all, he emerges from his
Misfortunes, conquers all his Enemies, fixes Laws, establishes Religion,
Peace, and his own Empire, and is advanced higher than any Conquerer ever was before him.

The other Persons are Heroical enough, Angels, Kings, High Priests,
Governours, Councellors, nay even the Apostles themselves were more than
Kings, for they were thought and call'd Gods by the People. The Moral I
find not make it, in a true Example, which others are forced to Form in
Fable; "That we ought to do Good, to suffer evil, submit to the Divine
Will; to venture or lose a Life for a Friend; to forgive our Enemies."

Yet further I desire to recommend the whole of the Christian Religion; all the Articles of Faith; all that System of Divinity and Morality contain'd in the Gospel of the Blessed Jesus, to the Study and Practice of Persons of Ingenuity and Reason; to make his Divine Person, which is already infinitely Amiable, if possible, actually more Ador'd and Lov'd; and to
Vindicate his Mission, his Satisfaction, and his Divinity, against all
Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics; which sure are the most proper Ends that can be propos'd in a Work of this Nature: Which may be agreeably and admirably done, if 'tis not the Poets fault; for here's all the marvellous that cou'd be wished for, already done to my Hand, and all sacredly True,
Angels and Demons, and Miracles, with Voices from Heaven.

Now the Subject being so fit for a good Heroic Poem, I shall have the less excuse, if this be a bad one. And here I must ingenuously confess, I had seen none of these Rules given by the Masters of Epic, when I laid the
Scheme of this Poem, tho I wish I had, for I might probably then have done it better, or not at all. I knew not the hazard of the undertaking, but greedily embrac'd it, when first propos'd by some Friends, who were ignorant of what they put me upon. Being full of the Design wherein, the earnest desire I had to see it accomplish'd, and either a lucky Chance, or the Happiness of my Subject, may perhaps in some Instances, have supply'd the want both of Rules and Genius. All I will say of my own performance is, that I now know the Faults on't, tho I am not oblig'd to point 'em out to my Reader, who will but too soon find 'em. That I wou'd have mended much that's now amiss, had I lived in an Age where a man might afford to be Nine or Ten Years about a Poem. And in the Mean time this satisfies me, whatever is the success, that I've done all that cou'd be done by one in my Circumstances towards the rendering it more compleat and free from
Faults, and only wish that my own Reputation may suffer, by the weakness of the Work, and not the Dignity of the Subject.

I cou'd plead for my self what Longinus says on Works of this Nature, wou'd it not look like Arrogance, "That even the greatest Genius may sometimes sink into meanness, when the force of their Spirits is once exhausted: That its very difficult for height of Thought to sustain it self long in an equal Tenour; and that some Faults ought to be excused when there are more Beauties." But if none of these will pass, I hope it will not much mortifie me, since I think the World and I have no great matter to do with one another. I'm sensible my Poem wou'd have had fewer
Enemies, had I left out some Passages in't. But as mean as the worst of this are, I wou'd not buy their good Word at such a rate. I had almost forgot to mention the Gravers Work, which is not without Faults, particularly he has err'd in the Posture of the Disciples at the last
Supper, whom he has made Sitting, when they were really Declining, or
Discumbent. But its now more than time to conclude my long Preface, which
I shall do in few Words. Since the chief Design in this Work, is to advance the Honour of my Hero, and next to that, the entertainment of
Pious and ingenious Minds; for the truth of which, I hope I may appeal to the great [Greek: kritikos tes kardias]; I shall not be much concern'd for the success it may meet with in the World.

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Table of Contents

- INTRODUCTION

- AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND CONCERNING POETRY.

- PREFACE.

- AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND CONCERNING POETRY.

- FOOTNOTES:

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE