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book_n	essential_a	part_n	want_v	1,769	5	11.2230	5	false

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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

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

apt to laugh at it And we never consider that in Homer and Virgil's time all this was agreeable to the sense of the Holy Ghost himself which could never be in the wrong that God had very carefully enjoyn'd Moses all these things as the most August and Venerable that he would have us'd in the Religion and Worship he requir'd of Men and that lastly Queens and Princesses and Persons of the finest Make observ'd them with care respect and veneration 'T is therefore according to these Ideas that our Poets were bound to speak of these things They would have been impious had they treated these Subjects with Contempt And perhaps a Christian would do little better should he dare to ridicule them especially if we reflect that the Books of Homer and Virgil have us'd them less than they are made use of in several Books of the Holy Bible which a Man by thus doing will expose to the Buffoonery of Libertines and Atheists The Expression in its kind is of no less extent and requires no less study The Greek and Latin are two dead Languages of which we are no longer Masters They have their Turns their Delicacies and their Beauties which we ought to study in the best Originals It would be a piece of Vanity if we pretended to understand the Languages which we no longer speak as well as those who have improv'd them for so many Ages together and as well as those that have brought them to their highest perfection and have come off with the greatest success Shall a French Man or any Man now a days pretend that he is better qualified to Criticise upon Homer than Aristotle was If not then we should credit him when he assures us that this Poet has surpass'd all others in the Art of Writing well whether we consider his Sentiments and Thoughts or whether we consider his Expression And that he has not only excell'd all others but met with perfect success We may therefore shut up all by ending as we began Languages as well as Poems are the Inventions of Art and a Genius which gives them their Form and Perfection If we have a mind to know them throughly and to pass a right Judgment upon the Ancients we must before every thing rectifie our Judgment If a Man has a mind to know whether a Line be strait or no he does not take the next piece of Wood he can find to clap to it but this piece of Wood must in the first place be made perfectly strait if he would have it serve for a Rule Else if he applys it and it does not touch all the parts of the Line he will not guess whether the fault be in the Line or in the piece of Wood. Just so likewise before we judge of a Poem we should rectifie our Judgment and prove it by the excellent Works of the best Masters If they do not please us we should rather think the fault is in our own Judgments than in those Models and if they do please us we may rely upon our selves with the greater assurance according to that judicious Thought of Quinctilian That he whom Cicero pleases should by that conclude that he has benefited himself very much The same thing we say of our four Authors A Person may rely upon his own Judgment in that which concerns the Epick Poem and may assure himself of its Rectitude and Straightness when his Thoughts his Genius and his Reasonings are conformable to the Precepts of Aristotle and Horace and to the Practice of Homer and Virgil. The END AN ESSAY VPON SATYR Written by the Famous Monsieur DACIER HORACE having Entitled his Books of Satyrs Sermones and Satyrae indifferently and these two Titles giving different Idea's I think it very necessary to explain what the Latins understood by the Word Satyr The Learned Casaubon is the first and indeed the only Man that has with Success attempted to shew what the Satyrical Poesie of the Greeks and the Satyr of the Romans was His Book is an inestimable Treasure and it must be confessed I have had considerable Helps from it which is the Use we ought to make of the Works of such extraordinary Men who have gone before us only to be our Guides and serve us as Torches in the Darkness of Antiquity Nevertheless you must not so continually fix your Eyes upon them as not to consider whither you are led for they divert sometimes into Paths where you cannot with Safety follow them This Method is what my self have observed in forsaking my Directors and have ventured that way which no body before me has gone of which the following Discourse will convince you Satyr is a kind of Poetry only known amongst the Romans having no Relation to the Satyrical Poesie of the Greeks though some Learned Men have pretended to the contrary Quinctilian leaves no room to doubt upon this Point when he writes in Chap. 10. Satyra quidem tota nostra est The same Reason makes Horace call it in the last Satyr of Book 1. Graecis intactum Carmen The natural and true Etymology is this The Latins called it SATVR quasi plenum to which there was nothing wanting for its Perfection Thus Satur color when the Wool has taken a good Dye and nothing can be added to the Perfection of it From Satur they have made Satura which they wrote sometimes with an i Satira They used in other Words the same Variation of the Letter u into i as in Maxumus Maximus optumus optimus Satura is an Adjective which has reference to a Substantive understood for the ancient Romans said Saturam understanding Lancem And Satura Lanx was properly a Bason fill'd with all sorts of Fruit which they offer'd every Year to Ceres and Bacchus as the first fruits of all they had gathered These Offerings of different Things mix'd together were not unknown to the Greeks who call'd 'em 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sacrifice of all sorts of Fruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Offering of all sorts of Grain when they offer'd Pot-herbs The Grammarian Diomedes has perfectly describ'd both the Custom of the Romans and the Word Satura in this Passage Lanx referta varias multisque primitiis sacris Cereris inferebatur à copia Saturitate rei Satura vocabatur cujus generis lancium Virgilius in Georgicis meminit cum hoc modo dicit Lancibus pandis fumantia reddimus exta And lancesque liba feremus From thence the Word Satura was apply'd to many other Mixtures as in Festus Satyra cibi genus ex variis rebus conditum From hence it pass'd to the Works of the Mind for they call'd some Laws Leges Saturas which contain'd many Heads or Titles as the Julian Papian and Popean Laws which were called Miscellas which is of the same Signification with Satura From hence arose this Phrase Per Saturam legem ferre when the Senate made a

non quidem apud Graecos maledicum ad carpenda hominum vitia Archaeae Comoediae charactere compositum quale scripserunt Lucilius Horatius Persius Sed olim Carmen quod ex variis Poematibus constabat Satyra dicebatur quale scripserunt Pacuvius Ennius You may see plainly that Diomedes distinguishes the Satyr of Lucilius from that of Ennius and Pacuvius the Reason which he gives for this Distinction is ridiculous and absolutely false The good Man had not examin'd the Nature and Origin of these two Satyrs which were entirely like one another both in Matter and Form for Lucilius added to it only a little Politeness and more Salt almost without Changing any thing And if he did not put together several sorts of Verse in the same piece as Ennius has done yet he made several Pieces of which some were entirely Hexameters others entirely Iambics and others Trechaics as is evident from his Fragments In short if the Satyrs of Lucilius differ from these of Ennius because the former has added much to the Endeavours of the latter as Casaubon has pretended it will follow from thence that those of Horace and those of Lucilius are also entirely different for Horace has no less refin'd on the Satyrs of Lucilius than he on those of Ennius and Pacuvius This Passage of Diomedes has also deceiv'd Dousa the Son I say not this to expose some light Faults of these great Men but only to shew with what Exactness and with what Caution their Works must be read when they treat of any thing so obscure and so ancient I have made appear what was the ancient Satyr that was made for the Theatre I have shewn that that gave the Idea of the Satyr of Ennius and in fine I have sufficiently prov'd that the Satyrs of Ennius and Pacuvius of Lucilius and Horace are but one kind of Poem which has received its Perfection from the last 'T is time now to speak of the second kind of Satyr which I promised to explain and which is also derived from the ancient Satyr 'T is that which we call Varronian or the Satyr of Menippus the Cinick Philosopher This Satyr was not only composed of several sorts of Verse but Varro added Prose to it and made a Mixture of Greek and Latin Quinctilian after he had spoke of the Satyr of Lucitius adds Alterum illud est prius Satyrae genus quod non sola Carminum varietate mistum condidit Terentius Varro vir Romanorum eruditissimus The only Difficulty of this Passage is that Quinctilian assures us that this Satyr of Varro was the first for how could that be since Varro was a great while after Lucilius Quinctilian meant not that the Satyr of Varro was the first in order of Time for he knew well enough that in that respect he was the last But he would give us to understand that this kind of Satyr so mix'd was more like the Satyr of Ennius and Pacuvius who gave themselves a greater Liberty in this Composition than Lucilius who was more severe and correct We have now only some Fragments left of the Satyr of Varro and those generally very imperfect the Titles which are most commonly double shew the great Variety of Subjects of which Varro treated Seneca's Book on the Death of Claudius Boetius his Consolation of Philosophy and that of Petronius Arbiter are Satyrs entirely like those of Varro This is what I have in general to say on Satyr nor is it necessary I insist any more on this Subject This the Reader may observe that the Name of Satyr in Latin is not less proper for Discourses that recommend Virtue than to those which are design'd against Vice It had nothing so formidable in it as it has now when a bare Mention of Satyr makes them tremble who would fain seem what they are not for Satyr with us signifies the same Thing as exposing or lashing of some Thing or Person yet this different Acceptation alters not the Word which is always the same but the Latins in the Titles of their Books have often had regard only to the Word in the Extent of its Signification founded on its Etymology whereas we have had respect only to the first and general Use which has been made of it in the beginning to mock and deride yet this Word ought always to be writ in Latin with an u or i Satura or Satira and in English by an i Those who have wrote it with a y thought with Scaliger Heinsius and a great many others that the Divinities of the Groves which the Grecians call'd Satyrs the Romans Fauns gave their Names to these Pieces and that of the Word Satyrus they had made Satyra and that these Satyrs had a great Affinity with the Satyrick Pieces of the Greeks which is absolutely false as Casaubon has very well prov'd it in making it appear That of the Word Satyrus they could never make Satyra but Satyrica And in shewing the Difference betwixt the Satyrick Poems of the Greeks and the Roman Satyrs Mr. Spanheim in his fine Preface to the Caesars of the Emperour Julian has added new Reflections to those which this Judicious Critick had advanced and he has establish'd with a great deal of Judgment five or six essential Differences between those two Poems which you may find in his Book The Greeks had never any thing that came near this Roman Satyr but their Silli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were also biting Poems as they may easily be perceived to be yet by some Fragments of the Silli of Timon There was however this Difference That the Silli of the Greeks were Parodious from one End to the other which cannot be said of the Roman Satyrs where if sometimes you find some Parodia's you may plainly see that the Poet did not design to affect it and by consequence the Parodia's do not make the Essence of a Satyr as they do the Essence of the Silli Having explain'd the Nature Origin and Progress of Satyr I 'll now say a Word or two of Horace in particular There cannot be a more just Idea given of this part of his Works than in comparing them to the Statues of the Sileni to which Alcibiades in the Banquet compares Socrates They were Figures that without had nothing agreeable or beautiful but when you took the pains to open them you found the Figures of all the Gods In the manner that Horace presents himself to us in his Satyrs we discover nothing of him at first that deserves our Attachment He seems to be fitter to amuse Children than to employ the Thoughts of Men but when we remove that which hides him from our Eyes and view him even to the Bottom we find in him all the Gods together that is to say all those Vertues which ought to be the continual Practice of such as seriously endeavour to forsake their Vices Hitherto we have been content to see only his out-side and 't is a strange thing