Dear Sir,

IN

Na voyage, which proved much more tedious than was expected, I amufed myself with reading Horace and as I had not, for feveral years paft, looked into his Art of Poetry, which, I believe, is univerfally esteemed the most valuable of his works, it was almoft become quite new to me, and therefore the more entertaining. This epiftle I read over attentively at one stretch. My edition was Maittaire's, without either notes or paraphrafe: and though, for want of commentaries, I was often at a lofs to comprehend fully the true meaning and beauty of particular paffages, yet, by fo doing, I gained one advantage; to wit, I had in a manner, all at once, a view of the whole conduct of the celebrated performance, its different parts, and their connexions with and dependence upon one another; and confequently was more likely to form a juft idea of the fcope and drift of the whole, than if I had proceeded more leifurely. Befides, as there were no annotations in my copy, I was left intirely to my own thoughts, and no ways biaffed by the opinions of much more learned critics, to whofe judgment 1 probably fhould have paid more deference than to my own.

However, the upfhot was, that I landed in an opinion, concerning the scope and intention of the poem in question, and the occafion of its writing, different in fome refpects, not immaterial, as I apprehended, to the right understanding of it, from any yet offered, as far as I

either then could recollect, or have been able to find out fince.

My opinion, to explain it briefly, is, that the poet, in his epiftle to the Pifos, carries on two different defigns: the one, to throw out, in his own beautifully negligent way, fuch obfervations and precepts relating to poetry in general, but more fully and particularly concerning dramatic poetry, as he apprehended might be most useful in correcting and forming the taste of the town: the other, to combat and run down a fashionable folly of that time amongst the young men of rank, with which the elder of the young Pifos appears to have been deeply fmitten, to wit, an itch of figuring in poetry. And I cannot help thinking, that the latter, though it seems to be only accidental, is yet, in reality, the principal intention, the chief motive of the poet in writing the epiftle, or at least a conditio fine qua non thereof; and that the former, which appears the principal, and is, no doubt, in its own nature, the more important of the two, is chiefly a cover to the other; and fo managed by the poet, as to fcreen young Pifo from any ridicule that might stick to him, upon being pointed out, as labouring under a weakness, and at the fame time make the defigned impreffion firmly and deeply. This was a delicate tafk, worthy of Horace's genius; and accordingly he difplays all his wit, learning, humour, and art, in the execution thereof, as we shall in part fee by and by.

I fhall endeavour, briefly, to fupport

port this my opinion by arguments drawn from the character of the poet, and from the conduct and management of the poem under confideration; the only good grounds, I think, we have left to proceed upon, as he hath no where told us himself what his motives were in writing it, nor any of his friends or confidents for him.

The true character of Horace was to be, with all his abilities and accomplishments, as a poet, a fcholar, and a gentleman, extremely indolent; infomuch, that, probably, there never was a great poet, who had his fortune to make, that, in a middling long life, wrote fo few verfes as he did. This is fo evident, from numerous paffages in his works, that it would be quite fuperfluous to fet about proving it. At the fame time he was extremely fenfible of the charms of friendship; and, by his merit, he contracted intimacies with many of the greatest and worthiest persons in Rome. Amongst thefe, Pifo was eminent; a man of confular dignity, of great abilities both in public and private life, and of a most amiable character. To him, and his two fons, the epiftle we are confidering is infcribed: and as the elder of them appears to have been much attached to the ftudy of poetry, as hath been faid, it is, in my opinion, highly probable, that the principal intention of the epiftle was to moderate and restrain that ardour of his, fo unfuitable (when extreme) to the heir of a great family, and which perhaps was prejudicial to his health: I fay, it appears highly probable, that the great regard and intimate friendship our poet had for the illuftrious family, was the chief incentive that fpurred

him on to pen this, the moft learned and elaborate of all his works; and that the single intention of corre&ing and modelling the taste of the town, would not have been powerful enough to have made a man of his caft undertake a task fo laborious, without an additional motive.

It is hoped, that the fhort account we are going to give of the conduct and management of the epiftle itself, will farther juftify the opinion we have embraced.

He begins with giving a multiplicity of precepts, relating to poetry in general. Thefe are delivered, though in few words, yet with great ftrength, clearness, and precifion. They take up the firft eighty-nine lines. Their obvious and natural ufe, no doubt, is to inform the reader's judgment, and direct his taste; and affift him either in justly criticifing a poetical performance, or writing a good one himself, if he fhould hazard commencing author. But there is likewise a secondary use of them; to wit, to caution him against any attempt of this kind, unless he has reasonable grounds to think himself qualified, both in point of genius and induftry, to write up to thefe rules: fo that, even in the very beginning, he is craftily promoting his principal intention, which he does not explicitly broach till towards the end; and then only as it were by accident. This, I think, appears remarkably in the following precept:

Sumite materiem veftris qui fcribitis æquam
Viribus, & verfate diu quid ferre recufent
Quid valeant bumeri.

As if he had faid, "Authors fhould not only compofe with great deliberation, and at great leisure, but even think much, and long, on

the

the nature of the fubject they may chufe, before they begin to handle it; and confider well, whether their, abilities are equal to it or not." A ftrong caution to young men not to fet up for poets rafhly.

I cannot help remarking a very artful ftroke in the 24th line; to wit, the compliment to the Pifos, father and fons:

Pater & juvenes patre digni.

The fimple mentioning the father is the highest praife imaginable, as it implies, that his fuperior merit was known to every body; and juvenes patre digni is the greateft and moft delicate encomium that could be given of youths, to be worthy of fuch a father. This compliment, made in the very beginning of the epiftle, wonderfully prepoffeffes the reader in favour of the young noblemen, and prevents him from thinking the worfe of the elder fon, for any thing that is to be faid concerning him afterwards. So inimitable is the art of our poet!

Before I proceed farther, let me obferve how unreasonable fome critics are, who maintain, that Horace's defign in this epiftle is to give rules and precepts concerning every fpecies of poetry. In thirteen lines, to wit, from the 73d to the 86th inclufive, he dispatches what he had to fay on the epic, the elegiac, the iambic, and the lyric: and he omits intirely one great fpecies, to wit, the didactic; though very celebrated poems in that kind had been writ ten long before his time, amongst the Greeks by Hefiod and Empedocles, and by Lucretius amongst the Romans; not to mention Virgil's Georgics, which, no doubt, were published before the epiftle to the January 1761.

1

Pifos was written: fo far is he from intending to give inftructions relating to every fpecies of poetry! But this by the way.

From his general precepts, he, by a tranfition conducted with his ufual dexterity, proceeds to take dramatic poetry into confideration; and, if he was pretty full in delivering the former, he is much more copious in giving rules in the latter, beftowing near three hundred lines upon that fubject, though the whole epiftle contains but four hundred and feventy-fix. And there was good reafon for the poet to enlarge here: theatrical fpectacles had been, for fome time, the moft general entertainment of the Romans; and were, in a particular manner, encouraged by Auguftus, out of a political view, in order to reconcile a people, that, not many years before, were zealous republicans, to abfolute power. And our poet here is fo induitrious, and fo accurate, that his precepts may be looked upon as the elements of dramatic compofition, especially the tragic kind.

But if there be a fecondary use of handing down a multiplicity of rules and admonitions, relating to the ftructure of poems in general, to wit, in order to fcare fuch readers as are not duly qualified from commencing poets, by prefenting a view of the difficulties and difcouragements attending that profeffion; much more is there fuch an ufe in the formidable detail of the particu lar rules of the drama, which are fo numerous, and which must be obferved with fo much delicacy, in order to enfure fuccefs: and therefore the conclufion, addressed to young Pifo, is fo much the more ftrengthened; and the poet arifully

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inter

young man? And doth it not fhew, that, at least, a great part of the poet's defign in writing this Epiftle, was to give falutary and effectual advice to his friend Pifo ?

The principal argument our poet ufes to difcourage Pifo from perfifting in his poetical purfuits, which he therefore places in the front, is, that mediocrity in some things, and in fome profeffions, is ufeful and valuable; but in poetry is good for nothing:

certis medium ac tolerabile rebus Reffe concedi .....

Mediocribus effe poctis

Non bomines, non di, non conceffere columne.

And therefore, if a poet produces not a poem excellent in its kind, he not only lofes his labour, but expofes himself. But this maxim is to be understood fo as to admit degrees of excellence in poetry, even in the fame kind. Though the ancients agree in esteeming Homer the prince of epic poets, yet they allowed great poetical merit to Virgil's Æneid. And Ovid, who has no mean opinion of himself, fays, Quantum Virgilius magno conceffit Homero, Tantam ego Virgilio Nafs poeta meo.

Here are three degrees of excellence implied, and these at a confiderable distance from one another, if the poet is fuppofed to speak fense: mediocrity is, then, what falls fhort of excellence. Excellence in a poem is what gives pleasure to

good judges. Mediocrity is what difappoints them in their expecta tions, though it is not down-rightly bad.

But I will venture to fay, the illuftration of this maxim, in the lines immediately following, is what the French call outrée :

Utf Et craffum unguentum; & fardo cum mellé It gratas inter menfas symphonia difcors ;

papaver

Offendunt; poteras duci quia cœna fine ifiis z Sic animis natum, inventumque poema juvandis, Si paulum fummo deceffit, vergit ad imum,

Which may be thus fairly paraphrafed: "As, at an agreeable feaft, a wretched band of mufic, fweet-meats, give difgutt, because coarfe ointment, and bitter bad the fupper might have paffed very well without any thing of that kind at all; in like manner poetry, the nature and defign of which is to enfalls remarkably fhort of excellence, tertain and delight the mind, if it is good for little or nothing." Here, though I fhall by no means dispute the truth of the conclufion, yet I maintain, that the fimile is not fairly conducted. Symphonia difcors, craffum unguentum, fardo cum melle papaver, are in themselves abominable, even though they were not contrafted with grata menja; and yet here they are made to run parallel with a copy of verfes, which only paulum a fummo deceffit, without any difadvantageous comparison.

To be concluded in our next.]