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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49887	Monsieur Bossu's treatise of the epick poem containing many curious reflexions, very useful and necessary for the right understanding and judging of the excellencies of Homer and Virgil / done into English from the French, with a new original preface upon the same subject, by W.J. ; to which are added, An essay upon satyr, by Monsieur D'Acier ; and A treatise upon pastorals, by Monsieur Fontanelle.; Traité du poème épique. English	Le Bossu, René, 1631-1680.; W. J.; Dacier, André, 1651-1722. Essay upon satyr.; Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757. Of pastorals.	1695 (1695)	Wing L804; ESTC R10431	296,769	336

the best Recompence of Good Actions Ye brave young Men what equal Gifts can we What Recompence for such Deserts Decree The greatest sure and best you can receive The God's your Vertue and your Fame will give Englished thus by Mr. Dryden CHAP. III. Concerning the Manners of other Sciences besides Poetry GEography History Philosophy and Rhetorick teach nothing concerning the Manners but what the Poet should be acquainted with We will only here make a slight Application of it to our Subject The Geographers in the Tracts they write concerning the Situation of the Seas and Continent do likewise inform us of the diversity of States and Governments of the Employments the Inclinations the Customs of the People together with the Fashion of their Habits The Speech of Remulus in the Ninth Book of the Aeneid is all Geographical It contains the Education of the Italians and their War-like Manners adapted to every Age and it ends with an Antithesis wherein he reproaches the Trojans with the Effeminacy of their Clothing as a certain Sign that their Inclinations were opposite to those he had been describing There are several other Passages in the Aeneid where this Effeminacy of their Apparel is described and the Reproach of it cast upon Aeneas himself with some sort of Emphasis But Virgil very dexterously turns off from his Audience who were the Progeny of the Trojans this small Reproach which might else have reflected upon them He says that the Romans did not derive from their Fathers any of that effeminate Fashion But on the other hand that the Trojans accommodated themselves to the more manly and generous Customs of the Italians History as well as Geography describes the Manners and the Customs of States and People in general But History adds likewise thereto the Inclinations and Manners of particular Persons which it names Both of them treat equally of the Manners as indifferent writing with no other Design than to demonstrate them as they really are 'T is true the Notices they give serve for the Conduct of a Man's Life and each Man is to look upon the Examples he meets with as so many Precepts which teach him his Duty But this Application does not so much belong to these two Arts as to Moral Philosophy Poetry takes from History and Geography what both of them say concerning the Morals The Poet describes things in general as Geography does and usually it claps them under particular Names as in History Sometimes it joins both these two things together and makes the Application of them it self Virgil being about to describe the particular Manners of Sinon advertises his Readers that in the Villainy of this single Graecian one might discover the Wickedness of the whole Nation Moral Philosophy contains in it the simple knowledge of the Manners it suffers none that are either bad or indifferent It treats of them only with a design to render them good The Vertues are always good These it proposes that we may embrace them The Vices are always evil and it teaches how to avoid them The Passions in themselves are indifferent it corrects what is ill in them and puts us in a Method how to make a right use of them and bring them over to Vertue 's side There are some Inclinations that are so indifferent they cannot alter their Property Such are those of young Children before they are capable of Good or Evil. Philosophy looks upon them not to be so much Manners as the cause of future Manners We can produce an Instance of this without quitting our usual Guides Horace is no less a Philosopher than he is a Poet. 'T is worth taking notice what he relates concerning a Man of Canusium Servius Oppidius by Name He had a plentiful Estate left him by his Progenitors Before his Death he bequeaths two of his Lordships to his two Sons and gave them this Advice I have observed that you Aulus have managed your Play-things after a careless manner either gaming or giving them inconsiderately away And you Tiberius on the other hand are always counting your Trifles seem very anxious and look about for holes to hide them in This makes me afraid you will both ruine your selves by two contrary Vices The one by being as Prodigal as Numentanus The other as covetous as Cicuta Wherefore I charge you both and conjure you by the Guardian-Gods of our Family that you Aulus diminish nothing of the Estate I leave you and that you Tiberius never increase it but live contented with what Nature and your Father think sufficient for you This is the way Philosophy treats of the Inclinations of Children The Conclusion and all the Commands of this prudent Father are for riper Age. Virgil treats of the Doctrine of the Passions not only as a Moral but as a Natural Philosopher He renders a Reason of these things from the Matter whereof Bodies are composed and from the Manner whereby they are made and united to the Souls But he does it in a Poetical Way and very suitably to his Subject As Rhetorick proposes a different End to it self so likewise does it treat of the Manners after a different way The Orator's Design is not to render his Audience better than they are he is contented if they are but convinced of that he undertook to convince them of The better to effect this he sides with their Humour and their Interests as far as his Cause will bear He appears Modest Prudent and a Man of Probity that we may hearken to him with Delight that we may relie upon him and that we may believe that he neither designs to impose upon us or is in the wrong himself He gives us a quite contrary Idea of those he speaks against In a word he never troubles his Head with considering which are his own true Inclinations or what the Inclinations of others are but studies to represent them all such as they should be for him to gain his Cause The Poet should know all this that so he may the better make his Personages speak We might say that our Poets might look upon the Ancestors of their Audience as Orators do those in whose behalf they speak Besides Virgil might have considered Dido as his Enemy The Treachery of Hannibal and the Carthaginians would have dispensed a Roman Poet from some Civilities which else perhaps one might think were becoming him But the Fable does sufficiently regulate the Manners of all the Personages and 't is to this one should have the chiefest regard The Poet as well as the Orator has his Auditors All the difference I find is that they are not so few in number nor so fickle nor so subject to particular Passions and Inclinations The Poet writes for his whole Country he must be read every hour at all times and by sober Persons He has nothing then to do but to study in general the Humour of his own Nation and the good Inclinations of his Prince if he lives in a

when the Poet makes use of a great many of its Episodes and the other is when he gives to each a considerable Extent 'T is by this Method that the Epick Poets extend their Poems a great deal more than the Dramatick We must likewise take notice that there are some parts of an Action which of themselves do naturally present us but with one single Episode as the Death of Hector that of Turnus c. There are likewise more fertile parts of the Fable which oblige the Poet to form several Episodes of each part though in the first Model they are exprest in as simple a manner as the rest Such are the Fight between the Trojans and the Grecians the Absence of Vlysses the Travels of Aeneas c. For the Absence of Vlysses from his own Country during so many Years together does necessarily require his Presence elsewhere and the Design of the Fable obliges him to be cast into several Dangers and upon several States Now each Danger and each State furnishes Matter for an Episode which the Poet may make use of if he please We conclude then that Episodes are not Actions but the parts of an Action That they are not added to the Action and the Matter of the Poem but that they constitute this Action and this Matter as the Members of the Body constitute the Matter of it That upon this Account they are not deduc'd from any thing else but the very Foundation of the Action That they are not united and connected to the Action but to one another That all the parts of an Action are not so many Episodes but only such as are amplified and extended by particular Circumstances and in the manner whereby the Poet rehearses a Thing And lastly That this Union between each other is necessary in the Foundation of the Episode and probable in the Circumstances CHAP. VII Of the Vnity of the Action THere are four Qualifications in the Epick Action the first is its Vnity the second its Integrity the third its Importance and the fourth its Duration We will begin with the first In this place we shall consider the Vnity of the Action not only in the first Draught and Model of the Fable but in the extended and Episodiz'd Action And in truth if the Episodes are not added to the Action but on the contrary are the necessary parts thereof it is plain that they ought to be comprehended in it and its Vnity still preserv'd And the Fables which Aristotle calls Episodical are such wherein some Episodes that are foreign and not duly connected add some Actions to the Action of the Poem and so spoil the Vnity of it The Vnity of the Epick Action as well as the Vnity of the Fable does not consist either in the Vnity of the Hero or in the Vnity of Time This is what we have already taken notice of But 't is easier to tell wherein it does not consist than 't is to discover wherein it does From the Idea I have conceived thereof by reading our Authors these three things I suppose are necessary thereto The first is to make use of no Episode but what arises from the very Platform and Foundation of the Action and is as it were a Natural Member of this Body The second is exactly to unite these Episodes and these Members with one another And the third is never to finish any Episode so as it may seem to be an entire Action but to let each Episode still appear in its own particular Nature as the Member of a Body and as a Part of it self not compleat We have already established the first of these three Qualifications in the Doctrine we laid down concerning the Episodes and perhaps enough has been said about it but yet we will clear up this Doctrine by some Instances taken from the principal Episodes of the Aeneid In the Scheme we have drawn of the Fable and Action of this Poem we have observed that Aeneas ought of necessity to be a King newly elected and the Founder of an Empire rais'd upon the Ruins of a decay'd State that this Prince should be oppos'd by wicked Men and lastly that he should be established by Piety and the Force of Arms. The first part of this Action is the Alteration of a State of a King and of a Priest And this is Virgil's first Episode contain'd in his second Book wherein the Poet describes the Subversion of the Trojan Empire in Asia the Death of King Priam and of the Priest Panthus To all this he adds the Choice which both Gods and Men make of Aeneas to be the Successor of these two deceased Persons and to re-establish the Empire of the Trojans in Italy The second part of the Action begins when Aeneas sets himself upon his Duty executes the Orders he receives and marches for Italy Virgil has plac'd almost all this second Episode in his third Book the rest lies in the first in the fifth and in the beginning of the seventh The third part of the Action is the Establishing Religion and Laws Religion consists in Sacrifices in Funeral Rites and Festival Sports Aeneas performed all these and the Poet took care from time to time to advertise his Readers that these Ceremonies were not to be consider'd as so many particular Actions or as the simple Effects of the Hero's Piety upon some particular Occasions but as sacred Rites which he was going to transfer into Italy under the Quality of the Founder of the Roman Empire By this means no body can doubt of his meaning nor take these Acts of Religion and these Episodes for any thing else but the necessary and essential Parts of his Action and Matter This Part furnishes the Poet with several Episodes which he distributes into several parts of his Work as in the third Book where Aeneas receives from Helenus the Ceremonies which hereafter he was oblig'd to institute in the fifth where he celebrates the Sports hard by his Father's Tomb And elsewhere almost throughout the whole Poem Virgil design'd his sixth Book for the other part about Laws viz. for the Morality for the Politicks and for the forming such a Genius as was to animate the Body-Politick of the Roman State After these parts of the Action which contain the performance of the Hero 's Designs we are to consider likewise the Obstacles he meets with which make up the Intrigues of the Action These Obstacles are the Effects of Juno's Passion And we might say that this Opposition is no less proper to the Aeneid than the Opposition of Neptune is to the Odysseïs Now we observ'd that Aristotle placed the Anger of this God in the first Draught of the Greek Poem among the Incidents that are proper to it The first of these Intrigues and the most considerable Obstacle of all is that of Dido which takes up the first and fourth Book The second is the Burning of his Fleet in the fifth Book The third is the

above the Vulgar and in a Style that may in some sort keep up the Character of the Divine Persons he introduces To this end serves the Poetical and Figurative Expression and the Majesty of the Heroick Verse But all this being divine and surprizing may quite ruine all Probability Therefore the Poet should take special care as to that Point since his chief aim is to instruct and without Probability any Action is less likely to perswade To all this the Poets are oblig'd by the substance of the Things they propose to themselves as the subject Matter of their Poems and Instructions The manner of teaching them usefully and methodically has likewise oblig'd them to add several other Rules The Epopéa's business is with the Morals and Habitudes more than the Passions These rise on a sudden and their Heat is soon over but the Habitudes are more calm and come on and go off more leisurely Therefore the Epick Action cannot be contain'd in one single day as the Dramatick can It must have a longer and more just space allow'd it than that of Tragedy which is only allow'd for the Passions This Distinction makes the Tragedy and the Epopéa differ very much The violence of Tragedy requires a great deal more lively and brisk Representation than that of a Recital besides it is all Action and the Poet says never a Word as he does in the Epopéa where there are no Actors But if in this the Epopéa is inferiour to the Drama yet 't is superiour to both Philosophy and History because 't is a great deal more active than bare Philosophy and the Recitals of History And thô it does not present Actors to the Eyes of the Spectators yet it ought at least more frequently than Historians to break off the Thread of its Discourse by the Speeches of its Personages This Aristotle orders when he says that the Narration of the Epick ought to be Dramatick that is to say very active It has likewise its Passions which give it no small Advantage over Philosophy and History But in this it is inferiour to Tragedy For thô it has a mixture of all the Passions yet Joy and Admiration are the most essential to it These indeed contribute most towards the making us wise Men Admiration and Curiosity are the Cause of Sciences and nothing engages us so forcibly as Pleasure So that these two Passions must never be wanting to any invented Piece if we would be inform'd in what we are indispensibly oblig'd to know To conclude because the Precepts had need be concise that so they may be more easily conceiv'd and less burden the Memory and because nothing can be more effectual thereto than proposing one single Idea and collecting all things so well together that so they may be present to our Minds all at once the Poets have reduc'd all to one single Action under one and the same Design and in a Body whose Members and Parts should be homogeneous CHAP. III. The Definition of the Epick Poem THat which we have observ'd concerning the Nature of the Epick Poem gives us a just Idea of it which we may express thus The EPOPEA is a Discourse invented by Art to form the Manners by such Instructions as are disguis'd under the Allegories of some one important Action which is related in Verse after a probable diverting and surprizing Manner This here is the Definition of the Epopéa and not of Poetry it self For that is an Art of making all sorts of Poems of which the Epick is but a part The Epopéa then is not an Art but an artificial thing as 't is express'd in the Definition which says 't is a Discourse invented by Art It is likewise one sort of Poem as 't is intimated in the Definition by its being call'd a Discourse in Verse And the rest distinguishes it from all other sorts of Poems The Action of Comedy is not very important and besides the Poet says nothing but only the Persons he introduces say and act All just as in Tragedy For this reason both This and That is stil'd a Dramatick Poem And thus it is plain the Epopéa is neither Tragedy nor Comedy Nor is it a piece of Natural Philosophy as the Poems of Empedocles and Lucretius Nor a Treatise of Husbandry and the like as the Georgicks of Virgil Because these Pieces are not design'd to form Men's Manners and the Instructions contain'd in them are naked simple and proper without Disguise and Allegories This second reason which more especially concerns the Essence and Nature of Poesy does likewise exclude from the number of Epick Poems any Piece of Morality writ in Verse and a plain History such as Lucan's Pharsalia the Punick War of Silius Italicus and such like real Actions of some singular Persons without a Fable and in short every thing that is describ'd in Verse after this manner I shall not trouble my head to take notice how the Epopéa differs from the Satyr the Eclogue the Ode the Elegy the Epigram and other lesser Poems For this is self-evident But it will not be amiss to reflect upon what has been already said and from thence to conclude that the Epopéa has some relation to Four Things viz. to the Poem to the Fable to Moral Philosophy and to History It has a relation to History because as well This as That relates one or more Actions But the Actions of History are singular and true so that the Epopéa is neither a History nor a Species of History It has a necessary relation to Morality since both one and the other instructs Men in their Morals but the Action and the Allegories which are proper to it is the cause why properly speaking it is not Moral Philosophy although it may be stil'd a Species of it and in short it has a great deal more relation to this than to History But it belongs altogether to the Poem and the Fable since it is properly and truly a Poem and a Fable and is only distinguish'd from other Poems and Fables as several Species which equally partake of the same Genus are distinguish'd from one another Besides the Definition does exactly include both since a Poem is a Discourse in Verse and a Fable is a Discourse invented to form Men's Morals by Instructions disguis'd under the Allegories of an Action So that one might abridge the Definition we have given of the Epick Poem and only say that it is a Fable gracefully form'd upon an important Action which is related in Verse after a very probable and surprising manner CHAP. IV. Of the Parts of the Epick Poem The Division of this Treatise THE Parts of the Epick Poem contain'd in the former Definition are its Nature its Matter its Form and its Manner of proposing Things It s Nature is twofold for the Epopéa is both a Fable and a Poem But these two several Genus's agree very well together and compose a Body that is no Monster One may likewise

least Fancy And here the Comical Part might have been carried on very regularly even as the Poet pleas'd But to return The Fiction might be so disguis'd under the Truth of History that those who are ignorant of the Poet's Art would believe that he had made no Fiction But the better to carry on this Disguise search must be made in History for the Names of some Persons to whom this feign'd Action might either Probably or Really have happen'd and then must the Action be rehears'd under these known Names with such Circumstances as alter nothing of the Essence either of the Fable or the Moral as in the following Example In the War King Philip the Fair had with the Flemings in the Year 1302 he sent out his Army under the Command of Robert Earl of Artois his General and Ralph of Nesle his Constable When they were in the Plain of Courtray in sight of the Enemy the Constable says 'T was so easie to starve them that it would be advisable not to hazard the Lives of so many brave Men against such vile and despicable Fellows The Earl very haughtily rejects this Advice charging him with Cowardice and Treachery We will see replies the Constable in a rage which of us has the most Loyalty and Bravery and with that away he rides directly towards the Enemy drawing all the French Cavalry after him This Precipitation and the Dust they rais'd hinder'd them from discovering a large and deep River beyond which the Flemings were posted The French were miserably cast away in the Torrent At this Loss the Infantry were so startled that they suffer'd themselves to be cut in pieces by the Enemy 'T is by this means that the Fiction may have some Agreement with the Truth it self and the Precepts of the Art do not contradict one another though they order us to begin by feigning an Action and then advise us to draw it from History As for the Fiction and Fable it signifies little whether the Persons are Dogs or Oronics and Pridamont or Robert d'Artois and the Earl of Nesle or lastly Achilles and Agamemnon 'T is time we should now propose it in its just Extent under the two last Names in the Iliad It is too narrow for an Epopéa under the former Names CHAP. VIII Of the Fable of the Iliad THE Fable of the Iliad at the bottom is nothing else but that which I just now propos'd I will treat of it here at large because I cannot give you a greater light into this Doctrine than by the Practice of Homer 'T is the most exact Model of the Epopéa and the most useful Abridgment of all the Precepts of this Art since in truth Aristotle himself has extracted them out of the Works of this great Poet. In every thing which a Man undertakes with Design the End he proposes to himself is always the first thing which occurs in his Mind and upon which he grounds the whole Work and all its parts Thus since the Epick Poem was invented to form the Manners of Men 't is by this first View the Poet ought to begin The School-men treat of Vertues and Vices in general The Instructions they give are proper for all sorts of People and for all Ages But the Poet has a nearer Regard to his own Country and the Necessities he sees his own Nation lie under 'T is upon this account that he makes choice of some piece of Morality the most proper and fittest he can imagine and in order to press this home he makes less use of Reasoning than of the force of Insinuation accommodating himself to the particular Customs and Inclinations of his Audience and to those which in the general ought to be commended in them Let us now see how Homer has acquitted himself in all these Respects He saw the Grecians for whom he design'd his Poem were divided into as many States as they had Capital Cities Each was a Body Politick and had its Form of Government independent from all the rest And yet these distinct States were very often oblig'd to unite together in one Body against their common Enemies And here we have two very different sorts of Government such as cannot be very well comprehended in one Body of Morality and in one single Poem The Poet then has made two distinct Fables of them The One is for all Greece united into one Body but compos'd of Parts independent on one another as they in truth were and the Other is for each particular State consider'd as they were in time of Peace without the former Circumstances and the necessity of being united As for the first sort of Government observable in the Union or rather in the Assembling of many Independent States Experience has always made it appear That there is nothing like a due Subordination and a right Understanding between Persons to make the Designs that are form'd and carried on by several Generals to prosper And on the other hand an universal Misunderstanding the Ambition of a General and the Under-Officers refusing to submit have always been the infallible and inevitable Bane of these Confederacies All sorts of States and in particular the Grecians have dearly experienc'd this Truth So that the most useful and the most necessary Instructions that could be given them was to lay before their Eyes the Loss which both the People and the Princes themselves suffer'd by the Ambition and Discord of these last Homer then has taken for the Foundation of his Fable this great Truth viz. That a Misunderstanding between Princes is the Ruin of their own States I sing says he the Anger of Achilles so pernicious to the Grecians and the Cause of so many Heroes Deaths occasion'd by the Discord and Parting of Agamemnon and this Prince But that this Truth may be compleatly and fully known there is need of a second to back it For it may be question'd whether the ill Consequences which succeed a Quarrel were caused by that Quarrel and whether a right Understanding does re-adjust those Affairs which Discord has put out of Order that is to say these Assembled States must be represented first as labouring under a Misunderstanding and the ill Consequences thereof and then as United and Victorious Let us now see how he has dispos'd of these Things in one General Action Several Princes independant on one another were united against a Common Enemy He whom they had Elected their General offers an Affront to the most Valiant of all the Confederates This offended Prince was so far provok'd that he withdrew himself and obstinately refused to fight for the Common Cause This Misunderstanding gives the Enemy so much Advantage that the Confederates are very near quitting their Design very dishonourably He himself who is withdrawn is not exempt from sharing in the Misfortunes he brought upon his Allies For having permitted his intimate Friend to succour them in a great Necessity this Friend is kill'd by the Enemies General Thus being both made

Love the Ambition and the Valour of Turnus This last supply'd him with a great many Episodes being the Cause of all the War Aeneas met with in Italy It begins at the seventh Book and is not over till the End of the Poem 'T is thus that the Episodes of the Aeneid are deduc'd from the Fable and the very Essence of the Action The second Thing we said was necessary for the Vnity of the Action is the Unity and the Connexion of the Episodes with one another For besides that Relation and Proportion which all the Members ought to have with one another so as to constitute but one Body which should be homogeneous in all its parts 't is requir'd farther that these Members should be not contiguous as if they were cut off and clap'd together again but uninterrupted and duly connected Without this the natural Members would not make up that Union which is necessary to constitute a Body The Continuity and Situation of Episodes is not exact when they only follow one another but they should be plac'd one after another so as the first shall either be necessarily or probably the Cause of that which follows Aristotle finds fault with Incidents that are without any Consequence or Connexion and he says that the Poems wherein such sorts of Episodes are offend against the Vnity of Action He brings as an Instance of this Defect the Wound which Vlysses receiv'd upon Parnassus and the Folly he counterfeited before the Grecian Princes because one of these Incidents could not have happen'd as a Consequence of the other Homer could not have given them a necessary Connexion and Continuity nor has he spoil'd the Vnity of the Odysseïs by such a Mixture But he gives us a compleat Instance of the Continuity we speak of in the Method whereby he has connected the two parts of his Iliad which are the Anger of Achilles against Agamemnon and the Anger of the same Hero against Hector The Poet would not have duly connected these two Episodes if before the Death of Patroclus Achilles had been less inexorable and had accepted of the Satisfaction Agamemnon offer'd him This would have made two Anger 's and two Revenges quite different from and independent of one another And though both had been necessary and essential to the Fable to make it appear what Mischiefs Discord and what Advantages Concord is the Cause of Yet the Vnity would have been only in the Fable but the Action would have been double and Episodical because the first Episode would not have been the Cause of the second nor the second a Consequence of the first These two parts of the Ilaid are joyn'd together very regularly If Achilles had never fell out with Agamemnon he would have fought in person and not have expos'd his Friend singly against Hector under those Arms that were the cause of this Young man's Rashness and Death And besides the better to joyn these two parts with one another the second is begun a great while before one sees what Event the first ought to have All the Articles of the Reconciliation are propos'd and one might say that this Reconciliation with respect to Agamemnon is made before the Death of Patroclus and even before it was ever thought of exposing him to a Battel There was nothing more wanting but Achilles's Consent and since that was not given till the Death of Patroclus had made him resolve upon that of Hector it may be truly affirmed that the Anger and the Revenge of Achilles against Hector which is nothing else but the second part of the Poem is the only cause of the Reconciliation which finish'd the first part But for the Vnity of a Body it is not enough that all its Members be natural and duly united and compacted together 't is farther requisite that each Member should be no more than a Member an imperfect Part and not a finish'd compleat Body This is the third Qualification we said was necessary to preserve the Vnity of the Epick Action For the better understanding of this Doctrine we must take notice that an Action may be entire and compleat two ways The first is by perfectly compleating it and making it absolutely entire with respect to the principal Persons that are interested therein and in the principal Circumstances which are employ'd about it The second way is by compleating it only with respect to some Persons and in some Circumstances that are less principal This second way preserves the Action in its regular Vnity the other destroys it We will give you an Instance of each The Greeks were assembled together to revenge the Affront offer'd to Menelaus and to force the Trojans to restore him his Wife whom Paris had stollen away There happens a Difference between Agamemnon and Achilles This last being highly incens'd abandons the Common Cause and withdraws himself so that in his Absence Agamemnon's Army was worsted by the Trojans But the Boldness of the King of Kings puts him upon engaging the Enemy without Achilles Away he marches to give them a general Assault with all his Forces The Fight began with the Duel between Menelaus and Paris They sight without Seconds upon Condition that Helen should be the Conquerour's and the War decided by this Combat Tho' the Anger of Achilles was the Cause of this Combat and whatever Interest he might have therein yet 't is plain that Menelaus Paris and Helen are so far the principal Personages concern'd that if this Action had been finished with respect to them it would have been quite finish'd it would not have made a part of the Action and of the Revenge of Achilles but a compleat Action which would have put an End to the Revenge and render'd the Anger of this Hero ineffectual Therefore Homer has not finish'd this Action Paris being hard put to it escapes and Menelaus is wounded with a Dart by Pandarus by this means Achilles begins to be reveng'd and this Incident becomes an exact Episode Virgil has manag'd the Episode of Dido another way He has finish'd it so that the Vnion of his main Action is as Regular as the Art of Poetry requires The Address of this great Poet consists in ordering it so that Dido in whom this Incident is compleat was not the chief Personage and her Marriage was only a simple Circumstance of an Action that is not finish'd and yet is the Soul and the only Foundation of this particular Action in a word Aeneas is the Hero of this Episode which is only invented to retard the Settlement of this Hero in Italy This is manifest if we would but reflect on what the Skill and Care of the Poet has left us about it Juno who carried on all this Intrigue was very little concern'd for Dido's Happiness If she had lov'd her so well she should have diverted the Trojan Fleet from her Coasts upon which place she her self did cast them which was the only Cause of this Queens Miseries

a whole Year from Corruption This is the way by which Poets if they would imitate Homer must speak of Arts and Sciences One sees in this instance that Flies breed Corruption and fill dead Bodies with Maggots One there sees the Nature of Salt and the Art of preserving dead Bodies from Corruption But all this is express'd Poetically and with all the Qualifications requisite to that Imitation which according to Aristotle is essential to Poetry All is reduc'd into Action The Sea is made a Person that speaks and acts and this Prosopopoeia is attended with Passion Tenderness and Interest In short there is nothing therein but what has Manners This Instance may suffice it is plain obvious and easie to be understood We may for Diversion sake produce another from a Science a great deal more mysterious The Chymists have too good an opinion of their Philosophy and too much esteem for Virgil than to think he was wholly ignorant of their Art There are some that observe that he has express'd as clearly as themselves some of their choicest Operations These Gentlemen are not satisfied with ordinary Metaphors and Allegories such as Poets use But they carry on these Figures and Disguises to the utmost obscurity of a Riddle No inconvenience then would follow should they suppose the Hero of the Aeneid to be a Man who makes a discovery of that Gold which is produc'd after a miraculous manner and which is reproduc'd and increas'd incessantly from the very first time of its being discover'd The principle of this happy discovery is Piety Industry á Genius and the blessing of Heaven Aeneas was not deficient in any of these But 't is requisite several things should be Divin'd For this reason Helenus sends Aeneas to Sibyl he follows his advice and sees the two birds of Venus These are the two Extracts of Vitriol For that green Mineral which contains them is a sort of Copper that goes under the name of this Goddess I omit the rest and leave it as I found it in the Books where by chance I did read of it at least it will suit well enough with the Justice of that Advice Sibyl gives Aeneas upon the account of the difficulty of this discovery and the small number of those who succeed in it and that lastly as she says this undertaking is not fit for a wise Man But to return We may likewise reckon among the Subjects that are not Poetical the Descriptions of Palaces Gardens Groves Rivulets Ships and a hundred other Natural and Artificial things when they are too long and made after a simple proper manner without Allegories This is what Horace calls purple Shreds which Poets sometimes place very ill thinking that those faults will prove the finest Ornaments of their Works Thô this may be good in the lesser Poems I believe I have already spoken in some other place concerning the manner of making the Narration Active which is proper and essential to the Fable And that is to reduce the Precepts and Instructions we would lay down into Action Virgil abounds with Instances of this nature His Hero is a Legislator but 't is in a Poem So that he does not appoint that such a Sacrifice should be made or such Ceremonies observ'd But he does all this himself He does not command one should submit to the Gods nor does he prescribe a way how to punish the profane but he demonstrates at large the dreadful torments that attend these Miscreants CHAP. XI Of the Continuity of the Action and the Order of the Narration THe Continuity which the Action ought to have in the Narration is a Consequence of what has been already said and will serve as a Principle to that we are about to observe concerning the Order which the Poet ought to mind in the Recital of all his Action 'T is upon this Principle we shall judge when the Poet is permitted to begin the Narration by the beginning of his Action and to relate every thing one after another just as they happen'd and in their natural Order and when on the contrary he is oblig'd to invert this Order and make use of the Artificial one beginning his Poem by the Incidents of his Action which happen last perhaps in order of time In the first place we will treat concerning Continuity From the time the Poet begins to rehearse his Subject from the time he opens his Poem and brings his Personages if I may so say upon the Stage he ought so to continue his Action to the very end that none of the Personages be ever observ'd to be Idle and out of Motion This Continuity is sometimes to be met with in the Action it self and in the first Model of the Fable Of this Nature is the Action of the Iliad Apollo is provok'd and sends the Pestilence into the Grecian Army Agamemnon pacifies his Anger the Soldiers recover of their distemper and afterwards Fight Patroclus and Hector are kill'd their Funeral Obsequies are over and so the Action Ends in less than fifty Days without any Interruption and Discontinuity But when the Action lasts for several Years as in the Odysseïs and the Aeneid it cannot be Continu'd thô 't were interrupted by nothing else but the Winter-season a very unfit time for Wars and Voyages which are the usual Subjects of Poems Vlysses tarries a whole Year with Circe and seven with Calypso And Aeneas spent several Years in Thrace where he does nothing worthy to be recited by an Epick Poet. And perhaps he was more than a Year in Sicily during his Fathers Sickness and their Mourning for his Death So that the Actions of these two Poems are not Continued But thô the Actions are not Continu'd yet the Narration ought to be so as we hinted before There is no difficulty in managing the Actions that are Continu'd The Poet has nothing to do but Rehearse them in their Natural Order and relate the things one after another just as they happen'd This is what Homer has done in his Iliad When the Action is long and Discontinu'd the Poet relates it in an Artificial Order He takes nothing for the Matter of his Narration but what towards the End of the Action has something of Continuity in it and for his own share he only relates this part For this reason Virgil has begun his Recital just after Aeneas left Sicily where Anchises dy'd And Homer at the very first makes his Hero quit the Isle of Ogyges after he had staid there seven Years all which time the Poet le ts pass before the opening of his Poem In the Sequel of the Discourse some probable and natural occasion arises for Repeating the most considerable and necessary things which went before these beginnings The love Dido conceiv'd for Aeneas made her extreamly curious to know his adventures This Passion made the Recital thereof so Natural that the Poet thought himself oblig'd to make it more than once The Phaeacans indeed had no Interest