the Vnity of the Epick Action CHAP. IX Of the Integrity of the Action ARistotle not only says that the Epick Action should be One but he adds that it should be Entire Perfect and Compleat And for this purpose it must have a Beginning a Middle and an End Herein these Actions differ from those of Aesop's Fables for there is no necessity that these last should be Entire and Compleat Witness the Fable of the meager hunger-starved Fox who convey'd himself thro a very small hole into a Granary full of Corn. When he had cram'd his Guts he was for marching the same way out again but he found himself too Corpulent A Weezel at a distance seeing him in such a quandary tells him he came empty in and must go as empty out Now there 's no necessity of finishing this Action Reynard is very regularly left in this place without telling what happened to him afterwards and without troubling ones head whether he was kill'd upon the spot or pinched his Guts to save his Carcass or whether he escaped at some other Hole This Action then is not a Whole because it has only a Beginning and Middle but not an End These three parts of a Whole are too Generally and Universally denoted by the Words Beginning Middle and End We may interpret them more precisely and say That the Causes and Designs which one takes for doing an Action are the Beginning of this Action That the Effects of these Causes and the Difficulties that are met with in the Execution of these Designs are the Middle of it and that the Unraveling and Resolution of these Difficulties are the End of the Action This End and this Unravelling may happen after different ways and so form several sorts of Actions For sometimes the Action ends by the discovery of some person who was unknown before as in the Tragedy of Oedipus This Prince thought himself the Son of Polybus and Meropa King and Queen of Corinth And he discovers himself to be a Theban the Son of Laius and Jocasta Sometimes without any Discovery there is a great change of Fortune in some person or other who thinking himself happy all on a sudden falls into a Misery he never dream'd of or else on the contrary becomes from a miserable a very happy person beyond all Expectation The first of these was Agamemnon's Case after the Ruine of Troy who thinking himself in quiet Possession of his acquired Glory was miserably butchered by his Wife These Changes or Alterations from one kind of Fortune to the Contrary are called by a Greek Name Peripetias Sometimes likewise there is neither a Discovery nor a Peripetia but the Action ceases and passes if I may so say from Motion to Rest after a simple Manner without any Incident but such as might be expected in the Ordinary course of Affairs Thus in the Troad of Seneca Hecuba and the Trojans appear at first as in Captivity and under a long series of Afflictions which made them complain with their Tongues and despair in their Hearts The Ghost of Achilles requires Polixena should be Sacrificed to him and before they part Calchas would make them kill Astyanax too Both are put in Execution and so the Tragedy ends These different ways make two sorts of Action or Fable The One Simple the Other Complex The Simple Actions are such as End without a Discovery and a Peripetia The Complex have either a Discovery or a Perpetia or Both. The Integrity of the Action comprehends all these things Let us now take a particular View of them CHAP. X. That the Action ought to be a Whole THis Proposition seems contrary to what Aristotle teaches us when he says That the War of Troy is a just and perfect Whole That Homer has taken but a part of it That therein he was very Judicious and that those who instead of Imitating him have taken this Whole for the Subject of their Poems have taken too much Matter and have been very indifferent Artists Does he pretend by this Doctrine and by these Instances to overthrow what we have cited out of that very treatise of Poetry Would he teach us that the Subject and Matter of a Poem ought not to be a Whole and an Entire and Compleat Action but only a part of an Action Sure 't is not likely he should contradict himself thus We may reconcile this that appears so contradictory in the Terms by making this Reflection That one and the same Action may be consider'd as in the Fable where the Poet makes use of it or else as in the History whence he took it When the Poet is upon the search after Matter for his Fable he lights upon several sorts of Actions Some have several parts which may be regularly connected in one Body and then he may take one of these Actions entire as it is But there are others whose parts are so independent to one another that a Man cannot with any probability joyn them together so as they shall seem to be the Causes and the Consequences of each other And this is what Aristotle condemns under the Name of Many-limb'd Fables To which he opposes those which have but one only part He does not absolutely forbid the Multiplicity of Parts but he commonly takes such sorts of Words in the worst Sense which might of themselves be understood in a more favourable one Thus we observ'd that he condemned the vicious Plurality of Fables and Episodes under the Terms of Polymythia and Episodical altho' a Man may lawfully put several Fables into a Poem and there is none but has several Episodes in it Therefore 't is in this Sence that he condemns the Plurality of the Parts in an Epick Action We are not to suppose that he condemns it absolutely and that this Action made use of cannot be a Whole He explains his own meaning sufficiently in the following Words As says he in other Imitations that which a Man Imitates is one single thing So likewise The Fable being the Imitation of an Action 't is requisite that this Action be One Entire and a Whole and that the parts be so joyn'd to and dependent on each other that one cannot so much as remove any one out of its Place either to transpose or retrench it quite without making a Change in the whole For whatever can be so placed or omitted that one cannot perceive the Alteration can by no means be a part of the Action So then 't is only the Plurality of parts in this last Sence which Aristotle condemns And he has commended Homer for having taken only a Part of all that passed in the Trojan War But yet we are to take special notice that this Retrenchment of all the other parts does not hinder the Anger of Achilles which is only retain'd from being a Whole in the Poem 'T is only a Part with respect to the whole War and in the History whence Homer took it But 't
Oh Jupiter What Shall this Stranger go off so c. But these Motions were very well prepar'd Dido entertains thoughts of her Death before Aeneas left her She spent her Night in nothing else but disquietude and such distracting thoughts as these her fears possess'd her with Soon as the Dawn began to clear the Sky Down to the Shore the sad Queen cast her Eye Where when she doth the empty port survey And now the Fleet with mings display'd at Sea Her hands held up her Golden tresses torn Must we says she of force indure this scorn Can we not have recourse to arms nor meet This fraud with fraud not burn this wicked Fleet Hast fly pursue row and let every hand Snatch up with speed some swift revenging brand Englished by Edm. Waller and Sidney Godolphin Esquires This is no surprize to the Hearers They are so well prepared for it that they would have wonder'd if the Beginning of this Speech had been less passionate The Practice of Seneca is quite contrary If he has any Recital to make which ought to imprint some great Passion or other he takes away from both his Personages and his Audience all the inclinations they might have towards it If they are possess'd with the Sorrow fear and expectation of some dreadful thing He will begin by some fine and elegant Description of some place or other which only serves to shew the Copiousness and the poignant bloomy Wit of a Poet without Judgment In the Troad Hecuba and Andromache were disposed to hear of the violent and barbarous death of their Son Astyanax whom the Grecians had thrown from the top of an high Tower It mightily concern'd them indeed to know that among the croud that flock'd from all parts to that sad sight Some there were who stood upon the ruins of the old decay'd Buildings others whose legs trembled under them because they were mounted a little too high c. People that have the patience to speak or hear such idle stuff are so little inclin'd to weep that they had need have notice as the mercenary Mourners of old had when 't is time to set up their Whine The Second thing we think necessary for the well managing the Passions and to make the Auditors sensible of them is to insert them in the Poem pure and disengag'd from every thing that may hinder them from producing their due Effect 'T is necessary then to avoid the vicious Multiplicity of Fables where there are too many Stories too many Fables too many Actions the Adventures too much divided and hard to be remembred and such Intrigues as one can't easily comprehend All this distracts the Mind and requires so much attention that there is nothing left for the Passions to work upon The Soul should be free and disengag'd to be the more sensible of them We destroy our true sorrows when we divert our thoughts another way And how contrary will these troublesome Applications be to the Fictions and Movement of Poems Of all the obstacles that destroy the Passions the Passions themselves are not the least They fight with and destroy one another And if a Man should mix together a Subject of Joy and a Subject of Sorrow he would make neither of them sink deep Horace informs us that no Poetical License will allow of this sort of mixture The very nature of these Habits impose this Law The Blood and Animal Spirits cannot move so smoothly on in their usual way at quiet if at the same time they are stop'd and retarded by some Violence such as Admiration causes Nor can they be in either of these two Motions whilst Fear contracts them from the external parts of the Body to make them rally about the Heart Or whilst Anger sends them into the Muscles and makes them act there with a Violence so contrary to the operations of Fear A Poet then should be acquainted with both the Causes and the Effects of the Passions in our Souls 'T is there we are more sensible of them and know them better than in the Blood and the Animal Spirits This Knowledge and the justness of his Genius will make him manage them with all the force and the effects they are capable of And here we will propose two Examples of that which we have said concerning the Simplicity and the Disengagement of each Passion The Admirable must needs be predominant in the Warlike Vertues of a Maid and this is the Passion Virgil makes use of in the Episode of Camilla And on the contrary he has made Pity to reign in that of Pallas This passion agrees very well with this young Prince who is one of the Heroe's Party But the Poet does not mix these two Passions together He only shows in Pallas all that ordinary Courage that a young Man is capable of He fights Turnus but did not go out to attack him He does not so much as wound him nor put him in the least danger he only attends his coming and speaks to him more like one that fear'd not death than one who expected to kill him He is kill'd at the first blow and there is nothing extraordinary in it But there is something more than ordinary in the Lamentation which Aeneas and the unhappy Evander made upon his Death Camilla on the contrary made her self admir'd by a Valour becoming a Hero but she dies without being pitied That which Diana says upon the Subject deserves not the name of a Lamentation in comparison to that which Aeneas and Evander made for Pallas Besides the Speech of Diana is said before her Death and is not in a place where it might have any great effect In short Camilla is kill'd she is reveng'd and nothing more said about it How many Poets are there that would have bestow'd a Lover or two upon her and endeavour'd to make an Episode as moving as that of Clorinda and Tancred This Beauty did not escape Virgil's view He says that several Italian Dames courted her for their Sons This Reflection shews us that his thoughts were upon every thing and that it was not without choice and judgment that he omitted that which would have appear'd so beautiful to other Poets But he was not willing to spoil the Vnity of the Passion nor put a stop to its effects CHAP. X. How the Narration ought to be Active THE Epick Narration ought to be Active This Qualification is so necessary to it that Aristotle's Expression herein seems to confound the Epopéa with the Tragedy 'T is by this he begins to lay down Rules for this first sort of Poem 'T is requisite says he that the Epick Fables be Dramatick like those that are in Tragedy Now that which makes Tragedy Dramatick and upon the account of which it has the Name which signifies to Act is that the Poet never speaks in it and that every thing is represented by the Personages that are introduc'd and who alone Act
First Book p. 50. BOOK II. Concerning the Subject-Matter of the Epick Poem or concerning the Action Chap. I. WHat the Subject-Matter of the Epick Poem is p. 53. Chap. II. Episodes consider'd in their Original p. 57. Chap. III. An Explication of the foregoing Doctrine by an Instance p. 59. Chap. IV. Of the several sorts of Episodes and what is meant by this Term. p. 61. Chap. V. Concerning the Nature of Episodes p. 64. Chap. VI. The Definition of Episodes p. 67. Chap. VII Of the Vnity of the Action p. 69. Chap. VIII Of the Faults which corrupt the Vnity of the Action p. 74. Chap. IX Of the Integrity of the Action p. 79. Chap. X. That the Action ought to be a Whole p. 81. Chap. XI Of the Beginning Middle and End of the Action p. 85. Chap. XII Of the Causes of the Action p. 89. Chap. XIII Of the Intrigue and the Vnravelling thereof p. 92. Chap. XIV The Way of Forming the Plot or Intrigue p. 95. Chap. XV. How to dispose or prepare the Vnravelling p. 98. Chap. XVI Of the several sorts of Actions p. 101. Chap. XVII Of the Conclusion of the Action p. 103. Chap. XVIII Of the Duration of the Action p. 107. Chap. XIX Of the Importance of the Action p. 110. BOOK III. Concerning the Form of the Epick Poem or concerning the Narration Chap. I. OF the Parts of the Narration p. 113. Chap. II. Of the Title of the Epick Poem p. 116. Chap. III. Of the Proposition p. 117. Chap. IV. Of the Invocation p. 123. Chap. V. Of the Body of the Poem or the Narration properly so called p. 127. Chap. VI. How the Narration is pleasant p. 128. Chap. VII Of Probability p. 132. Chap. VIII Of the Admirable or the Marvellous p. 137. Chap. IX Of the Passions p. 140. Chap. X. How the Narration ought to be Active p. 145. Chap. XI Of the Continuity of the Action and the Order of the Narration p. 149. Chap. XII Of the Duration of the Narration p. 154. BOOK IV. Concerning the Manners of the Epick Poem Chap. I. COncerning the Manners in General p. 159. Chap. II. Of the Causes of the Manners p. 161. Chap. III. Concerning the Manners of other Sciences besides Poetry p. 166. Chap. IV. Of the Manners of Poetry p. 169. Chap. V. Whether the Hero of the Poem ought to be an honest Man or no p. 173. Chap. VI. Of the Poetical Goodness of the Manners p. 177. Chap. VII Of the three other Qualifications of the Manners p. 180. Chap. VIII Of the Character of the Personages Aristotle's Words about it p. 186. Chap. IX Of the Characters of Achilles Ulysses and Aeneas p. 191. Chap. X. Of the Character of the other Personages p. 194. Chap. XI What the Character is p. 197. Chap. XII Of the Vnity of the Character in the Hero p. 199. Chap. XIII The Vnity of the Character in the Poem p. 202. Chap. XIV Of the Justness of the Character p. 205. Chap. XV. Of False Characters p. 211. BOOK V. Concerning the Machines Chap. I. OF the several sorts of Deities p. 215. Chap. II. Of the Manners of the Gods p. 218. Chap. III. How the Gods act in a Poem p. 222. Chap. IV. When one must make use of Machines p. 225. Chap. V. How the Machines are to be used p. 228. Chap. VI. Whether the Presence of the Gods is any Disparagement to the Heroes p. 230. BOOK VI. Concerning the Thoughts and the Expression Chap. I. THe Foundation of this Doctrine p. 235. Chap. II. Concerning Descriptions p. 239. Chap. III. Of Comparisons or Simile's p. 244. Chap. IV. Concerning Sentences p. 247. Chap. V. Concerning disguis'd Sentences p. 251. Chap. VI. Concerning several other Thoughts p. 257. Chap. VII Of the Expression p. 260. Chap. VIII How one ought to judge of the Elocution of a Poem p. 263. D'Acier's Essay upon Satyr p. 267. Monsieur Fontanelle upon Pastorals p. 277. ERRATA PAge 2. Line 34. read Of Epick Poesie p. 9. l. 12. for Morals r. Manners P. 10. l. 24. r. Regimens p. 14. l 29. r. Of the Fable p. 28. l. 18. r. so much as desiring p. 29. l. 27. r. Cutting off his Enemies p. 43. l. 24. for Model r. Draught p. 50. l. 11. r. at an end p. 65. l. 16. for this r. that p. 72. l. 40. for the r. this King of Kings p. 110. l. 11. r. Obligation p. 112. l. 10. r. Ilus p. 121. l. 31. r. Glaring p. 138. l. 29. for yes r. lies p. 139. l. 9. for two r. too p. 148. l. 33. for he follows his Advice r. whose Advice he follows p. 149. l. 15. r. concerning the Continuity p. 151. l. 14. for two r. too p. 168. l. antepenult r. that these are not vices p. 171. l. 17. r. relentless p. 174. l. 16. r. to distinguish p. 182. l. 35. for Faces r. Phases p. 187. l. 4. r. Valet p. 197. l. 22. r. dazzling p. 203. l. 15. for Print r. Rein. p. 208. l. 11. r. Glaring p. 213. l. 12. r. Raze ibid. l. 17. r. and to break down Bridges p. 214. l. ult r. Spaces p. 217. l. 13. r. to own p. 218. l. 34. r. in this sort of Writing p. 226. l. 1. for learn r. leave p. 245. l. 36. r. to an Amazon p. 250. l. 10. for befel r. be felt p. 263. l. 26. for Projections r. Proportions Monsieur Bossu's Treatise OF THE EPICK POEM BOOK I. Of the Nature of the Epick Poem and of the Fable CHAP. I. The Design of the whole Work ARTS as well as Sciences are founded upon Reason and in both we are to be guided by the Light of Nature But in Sciences neither the Inventers nor the Improvers of them are to make use of any other Guides but this Light of Nature Whereas on the other hand all Arts depend upon a great many other things such as the Choice and Genius of those who first invented them or of those who have labour'd at them with an Universal Applause Poetry is of this Nature And thò Reason might have first founded it yet it cannot be deny'd but that the Invention of Poets and the Choice they have been pleas'd to make have added thereto both its Matter and Form 'T is then in the excellent Pieces of Antiquity we are to look for the Fundamentals of this Art And they are only to be rely'd on to whom all others yield the Glory of having either practis'd with the most Success or collected and prescrib'd Rules with the greatest Judgment The Greeks and Latins have furnish'd us with Examples of both kinds Aristotle and Horace left behind them such Rules as make them by all Men of Learning to be look'd upon as perfect Masters of the Art of Poetry And the Poems of Homer and Virgil are by the Grant of all Ages the most perfect Models of this way of Writing the World ever saw So that if ever a Just and Supreme Authority had the Power to prescribe Laws and
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
But let us see whether these Incidents have so much as one single Qualification of those which I propos'd as necessary to the Vnity of the Action The first of these Qualifications is that an Episode be proper and drawn from the very Essence of the Fable and the Subject It would be hard to invent an Adventure more foreign to the War of the Theban Brothers than all this story of Lemnos For what Affinity has the Anger of Venus the butchering of the Lemnians the Designs of the Argonauts and the Amours of Jason and Hypsipyle with the Quarrel between Eteocles and Polynices To make a mix'd medly of such various Incidents is just like forming one of Horace's Monsters And never would a Woman's Head clap'd on to a Horse's Neck appear more Monstrous than does this Hypsipyle tack'd to the War of Thebes appear in this Poem This is the first and most Essential fault of this Episode The second is in the Connexion which is not at all in the Thebaid things being clap'd together without the least necessity or probability For pray what part of the subject of the Thebaid is either the Cause or the Effect of the Massacre at Lemnos Or of any of the Adventures of Jason 'T is true Hypsipyle makes this Recital to the Argives as they were going to infest Thebes but there is a great deal of difference between connecting the Recital of an Action to something and connecting the very Action to it If for the Introducing a Narration into the Body of a Poem and connecting it thereto so as to make a just Episode of it 't is enough that this Narration be made in the Presence of the Hero by some body that has some Interest therein there would be no more need of Rules for the due Vniting of Episodes For a Poet to fail of making this Vnion exactly it would not be enough that he were Ignorant and Unskilful but he should be something more he should be Malicious and declare positively against all Connexions whatever For without 't were so he would not be easily inclined to stuff a whole book with the impertinent Description of a Story that was nothing to the purpose The sports of the sixth Book of Statius are no less irregular There is nothing in the Action to give them the least Countenance They have no reference to the War of Thebes to the designs of the Argonauts nor to the mad Practices of Lemnos Nor is it a Consequence of the Stories of Hypsipyle but rather a Consequence of the Recital she made of these Stories They are tack'd to her Recital at one end and at the other to the March of the Grecians without the least Necessity and Probability And how could the fiery Tempers of Tydeus and Capaneus and the hot Spirits of the other Commanders away with such languishing and Godly Amusements and by consequence so opposite to the very Soul of the Poem which consists altogether in Violence and Impiety 'T is true the March of the Argives was the Cause of his Death for whom they instituted these sports But that it should not have been and since this cause is no way necessary and offends against all probability 't is rather a fresh Fault than any Excuse Hypsipyle had so little a way to go from the place where she left her Prince to that whither she conducted the Grecians that from thence she hears this Infant 's shrill cry when Death had almost stop'd his Mouth Therefore if she had had any concern for leaving Archemorus she should not have staid from him a moment But could not a Souldier have leave to pass a Compliment upon her for a few Minutes or so To conclude who did ever know a Nurse so inconsiderate as to leave her Child alone for several hours in the midst of a Forest to the mercy of wild Beasts expos'd to so many other Dangers and to leave him in this manner without a Guard thô so many Thousands were at hand to whom she had done such a singular piece of service How could so many Redoubted Princes endure this Unworthy and Foolish exposing of a Child without the least necessity for it But what signifies it Virgil had his sports and 't was but requisite Statius should have his too The third fault that may be committed against the Vnity of the Main Action is to compleat an Action entirely which should serve for an Episode This is likewise one of the Conditions of the Story of Hypsipyle Nothing is more compleat in all its Circumstances It makes no part of any other Action 'T is an entire Action that has no dependance on any of the Theban Worthies or the other Grecians of this Poem of whom not one has the least interest in what pass'd at Lemnos Thus the Vnity of the Action is entirely spoil'd in the Thebaid by this Adventure the Recital whereof makes the Poem Episodical This fault of Statius is in the very midle of his Poem It has cut the Action of it into two parts most monstrously divided by this large Hiatus which is so miserably fill'd up with foreign Members or rather foreign Bodies But as I before hinted these superfluities corrupt the Vnity as much when they are plac'd at the Beginning or End as when they are in the Middle and Body of the Poem Statius affords us instances of this kind of fault likewise Had he begun the War of Thebes with the Incestuous Birth of Eteocles and Polynices he would have imitated those who began the War of Troy with the Birth of Helen thô even that met with Horace's Censure But he carries matters still higher goes back as far as the first founding of Thebes and opens his Poem with the Rape of Europa which was the first Cause of building that City He ends just as he begun The Quarrel of the two Brothers was manifestly decided by their Deaths there remained no more difficulty the Siege was rais'd and all over And when the Reader expects no more the Poet who has quite drained his Matter gives us notice of his joyning another story thereto which was the Consequence thereof just as the Return of Vlysses is the Consequence of Hector's death and the taking of Troy and as the Reign of Ascanius is the Consequence of the Establishment of Aeneas Thebes has no longer the Argives but the Athenians for its Enemies 't is no longer defended by Eteocles but by Creon and not assaulted by Polynices but by Theseus The Dispute is no longer about a Kingdom but a Tyrant to be punished 'T is no more a Siege but the taking of a City And now no longer is Cruelty Ambition and Violence predominant there but Valour Generosity and Piety which in the last Book destroy the Character of the whole Poem So that the Action is quite Another in the Cause in the End in the Persons in the Manner and in all the other Circumstances These are the faults which manifestly spoil
the curiosity of the Spectators and the Attention they gave to what passed between this Young Hero and Chimene would not suffer them to take notice of this fault And that tho' they should have been inform'd of it they would have taken it ill if a more strict Regularity had rob'd them of so great a satisfaction I believe that the best Rules for knowing how far 't is allowable to carry on the Marvellous and for discerning what will be taking what will offend and what will be Ridiculous is first a sound judgment and then the reading of good Authors and likewise the Examples of those who have come off but sorrily and lastly the comparing these two together But in this Examen of things a Man must be well acquainted with the Genius's the Customs and the Manners of the several Ages For that which is a Beauty in Homer might have met with sorry Entertainment in the Works of a Poet in the days of Augustus 'T is not enough to make an Incident admir'd that it should have something that is Admirable But beside that 't is requisite there should be nothing in it that might put a stop to its effect and destroy the Admiration such as would be all contrary Passions Admiration in this point has nothing but what is common to it self and all the other Passions Therefore for the better explaining of this matter we must join that with them CHAP. IX Of the Passions THE Epick Narration ought to be Admirable but this Beauty is not enough It is farther necessary that it be moving and Passionate that it transport the Mind of the Reader fill him with Inquietude give some pleasure cast him into a Consternation and make him sensible of the Violence of all these Motions even in Subjects which he himself knows are feign'd and invented at pleasure Horace who prescribes all this to the Poets can't forbear admiring them when they come off well and he compares their skill to the Power of Magick The Passions then are necessary to great Poems But all are not equally necessary or convenient to all Poems Mirth and Pleasant surprizes belong to Comedy On the contrary Horrour and Compassion belong to Tragedy The Epick Poem keeps as it were in the middle between both and seizes upon all these Passions as is evident from the Grief that reigns in the fourth Book of the Aeneid and from the Sports and Diversions of the Eighth The Passion that seems most peculiar to this kind of Poem is Admiration It is the least contrary to the Passions of the two other kinds of Poems We admire with Joy things that surprise us pleasingly and we admire with Terrour and Grief such things as terrifie and make us sad Beside this Admiration which in general distinguishes the Epick Poem from the Dramatick each Epick Poem has likewise some peculiar passion which distinguishes it in particular from other Epick Poems and constitutes a kind of singular and individual difference between these Poems of the same Species These singular Passions correspond to the Character of the Hero Anger and Terrour reign throughout the Iliad because Achilles is Angry and the most Terrible of all Men. The Aeneid has all soft and tender Passions because that is the Character of Aeneas The Prudence Wisdom and Constancy of Vlysses do not allow him in either of these Extremes therefore the Poet does not permit one of them to be predominant in the Odysseïs He confines himself to Admiration only which he carries to an higher pitch than in the Iliad And 't is upon this account that he introduces a great many more Machines of the Odysseïs into the Body of the Action than is to be seen in the Actions of the other two Poems This Doctrine will find a fitter place in the next Book where we shall treat concerning the Manners and the Character We have still two things to say concerning the Passions The One is how to impress them upon the Auditors And the Other how to make them sensible of them The First is to prepare their minds for them And the Second is not to huddle together several Passions that are Incompatible The Necessity of preparing the Auditors is founded upon the Natural and General necessity of taking things where they are when we would convey them elsewhere 'T is easie applying this Maxim to the Subject in hand A Man is in a quiet and profound repose and you have a mind by a discourse made on purpose to make him angry You must begin your discourse by a mild way by this means you will Close him and then going hand in hand together as the saying is he will not fail following you in all the Passions You have a mind to excite in him by degrees But if at the first touch you manifest your Anger you will make your self as ridiculous and meet with as little success as Ajax in Ovid's Metamorphoses in whom the witty Ovid has given us a notable Instance of this Default He makes him begin his plea by Anger and violent figures before his Judges who were profoundly calm The Generals were set the Souldiers standing round about them Ajax rises and being of a furious and impatient Disposition casts a fierce look towards the Sea-shore stretches out his hands towards the Fleet that rode there and then cries out Oh Heavens This Cause must be tryed in view of the Navy and Ulysses my Competitor These necessary Preparations arise from the discourse that goes before these Movements or else from some Action that already begins to excite them before one speaks The Orators themselves sometimes make use of this last way For tho' they generally excite not the Passions till the end of their Harangues yet when they find their Audience already mov'd it would be ridiculous if by an unseasonable Calmness they should begin by making them quit that with which they would have them affected The last time Catiline enter'd the Senate house the Senators were so disturbed at his presence that those who sat next him drew farther off and left him to sit alone Then the Consul would have offended against Reason if he had begun his Speech with that sedateness that is usual to Exerdiums He would have abated that Indignation with which he was willing to affect the Senators against Cariline and he would have taken away from the mind of this Parricide that Dread and Terror he was minded to strike him with and which he was already sensible of by this tacite condemnation of the Senate Therefore omitting this first part of the Speech which upon such an occasion would have been prejudicial to him he takes his Audience in the Condition he found them and continues and beightens their Passions That which is so rare among the Orators is common among the Poets They abound with Instances of this nature where one may see the Passion prepar'd and kept up by the Actions Dido begins a Speech as Ovid's Ajax did
morrow he begins a Ship and in twenty Days finishes it the twenty fifth he sets Sail and after a Voyage of twenty Days is cast upon the Island of Corfu There he tarries three Days with Alcinous All this makes one and fifty Days from the first opening of the Poem to the Arrival of Vlysses in his own Country Eight and twenty of them he spent with Calypso reckoning the four that preceded the building of his Ship three and twenty Days more he is upon his Journey part of which he spent at Sea and part with Alcinous A night after he arrives in Ithaca Four Days he remains incognito at Eumeus's Country House On the fifth he went to his own Palace where he was in disguise two Days taking an account of what had happen'd and squaring his Actions accordingly The next night he kills his Rivals and on the morrow makes an end of discovering himself and re-adjusting all his Affairs Therefore adding these seven Days to the one and fifty before the Duration of the Narration in this Poem amounts to eight and fifty Days As for the Seasons of the Year the Poet gives us an occasion to guess something about it In the Iliad where there is more Action and Violence the Days are longer than the Nights and the Season very hot And on the contrary Homer has assign'd longer and cooler Nights to the Prudence of Vlysses placing the Maturity of Autumn in the Odysseis as he has the Contagious heats of the Summer in the Iliad The Practice of Homer then is without doubt to reduce the Duration of the Epick Narration into the Compass of a Campaign of a few Months But the Difficulty of knowing the design and intention of Virgil is the reason why 't is question'd whether one might not advance it to the Compass of a whole Year or more and whether the Winter season ought in reason to be excluded thence I found my self insensibly ingag'd in the Examen of this particular question I found it a great deal larger than I imagin'd and I have discours'd very amply upon it from whence several things may be deduc'd that in my mind are of no small use for the understanding of the Aeneid I here propose this Question about the time by way of Problem and freely leave others to determine and judge what they please But yet I say that in this Uncertainty two Reasons rather incline me to a single Campaign than a whole Year The first is the Practice of Homer which the Latin Poet commonly proposes as his Exemplar and who by wise men has been esteemed the most excellent Model for Poets to imitate This Reason makes so much the more for me in this Treatise of the Epick Poem because 't is founded upon that Relation that is observable between the Practice of Virgil and that of Homer the Rules of Horace and those of Aristotle The other Reason is still more to my purpose and that is that this reducing of it to one single Campaign is more conformable to that Idea I have proposed concerning the Fable and the Design of Virgil in this Poem We have already considered Aeneas as a Legislator and Founder of the Romans Religion He is so exact in observing all the Ceremonies which were performed for the Dead that there is not the least colour he should omit one so considerable as is that of Mourning especially for the Death of his Father for which he spares no cost This high Veneration he has for him makes one of the principal Qualities of his Character and almost throughout the whole regulates the general Character of the Poem Now the Mourning of the Romans consisted in two things the one is its Duration which lasted ten Months the other is that the Romans in this ominous and inauspicious time never undertook any thing of consequence How then could Aeneas dare to undertake his Settlement in Italy which was then a business of the highest Consequence to him So then he was oblig'd to stay in Sicily full ten Months after the Death of his Father and having stay'd less than two Months at Carthage he returned to Sicily to celebrate the Anniversary of his Death on the same day he arriv'd there This agrees very well with the Expressions of the Poet which we have already cited For the Anniversary happens at the end of the seventh Summer a little more than a Month after the Solstice and rising of Orion Aeneas then leaving Sicily in Summer during the Rising of this Constellation which rais'd the Tempest in the first Book he could not leave it the same Summer Anchises died but must needs have left Sicily the Summer following which is the seventh as the Poet says and the same in which he returns to the Anniversary By this means he must needs have pass'd the Autumn the Winter and the Spring in Sicily and have tarried there more than nine Months before his parting for Carthage but he went out and came back again to it the same Summer In the other Opinions I neither find the Conformity of Virgil with Homer nor the Observation of the Roman Mourning to which I really think Aeneas was oblig'd as much as he was to the other Ceremonies in which he was so punctual But these Reasons which make for me may not perhaps make for others I only propose them as I was oblig'd 'T is for Philosophers and Criticks to examine things to propose Reasons and to make them intelligible and 't is for the Reader to draw his Inferences Monsieur Bossu's Treatise OF THE EPICK POEM BOOK IV. Concerning the Manners of the Epick Poem CHAP. I. Concerning the Manners in General UNder the name of Manners we comprehend all the natural or acquired inclinations which carry us on to good bad or indifferent actions This Definition contains three things The first is the Manners themselves which we call Inclinations whether they have their source and origin in our Souls such as the Love of Sciences and Vertue or whether they proceed from the constitution of the Body as Anger and the Rest which we have in common with the Brutes The second thing is the cause of those Manners which is either Nature or our Choice and Industry according as they are either natural or acquir'd The third thing is the effect of the Manners namely Actions whether good as that of Aeneas or bad as that of Achilles or indifferent as that of Vlysses Those Manners are good which incline us to Vertue and Vertuous Actions those Bad which incline us to Vice and Sin and those are Indifferent which incline us to indifferent Qualities and Actions A right distinction should be made between Real Vertues and those that appear such and are only mere Qualities The Real Vertues such as Piety Prudence and the like make those who are Masters of them Good Praise-worthy and Honest-men But Real Vices such as Impiety Injustice Fraud and the like corrupt and vitiate those who are tainted with them
no constraint upon the Character of the Hero which ought to be predominant throughout He gives it a full and entire Liberty and on the contrary he moderates the rest and claps a Print upon them to hold them in either by some Passion or by some dependance the persons that have them are in to some Body else Aeneas is absolute Master of his Actions he has none that he is oblig'd to accommodate himself to upon what occasion soever Nor is this peculiar to the Latin Poet he imitates therein the Greek Poet whose Vlysses is as independant as Aeneas Achilles has a General over him but this General is only as the Chief among equal Princes Achilles then is not his Subject and take him from the Seige of Troy he has no Orders to receive from him Besides expecting no favour or good will from him and being Cholerick and Unjust he has no Obedience to pay him nor measures to take to please him and he thinks he has sufficient grounds to withdraw his Obedience from him Nay when he is reconcil'd to him and enters again upon his Duty yet he receives no Orders from him on the contrary without consulting with this General or any other of the Confederate Princes he on his own Head makes a Truce with his Enemies in behalf of them all 'T is therefore a great Artifice in Homer when he makes Achilles the most Valiant of the Confederates but withall Unjust and without Interest and on the contrary makes Agamemnon the General very much Interested for the Honour of his Brother Menelaus and his own This is what respects the Hero As for the other Personages Homer has made the Vnity of the Character easie by giving Violence and Anger to the greatest part of the Commanders on both sides The Latin Poet is harder put to it because he has made the Enemies of his Hero to have humours that are contrary to that of his Hero but withal he has annexed to them such Passions and Dependances that are no small advantage to his Vnity Turnus has in truth no dependance on King Latinus either as his Subject or his Ally This old Prince is neither his King nor his General He depends upon him after another way as the Courtier of Lavinia his Daughter and sole Heiress For under this pretention he dares not disoblige a Prince that owes him nothing and from whom he would obtain so much He is therefore oblig'd in many respects to submit to him and to take such measures as take off much of his fierceness and passion Besides this he sees the Victories of his Rival to whom he is oblig'd to yield the Glory of Arms in the judgment of Latinus and Amata her self he sees the ill success of all his designs the death of those he put most confidence in Mezentius Camilla c. he sees the Latins decrease and hears the Reproaches they cast upon him All this must needs cause strange Impressions on the mind of this Latin Achilles and hinder him from carrying on his Character so far as the Grecian did his Mezentius has a less part in the Poem than Turnus But he is too considerable to admit of his furious and cruel Character in all its force The Poet makes this prophane person much in love with his Son as he was a despiser of the Gods He so luckily makes use of this natural Passion that it renders his tenderness conspicuous and makes the Character of Aeneas Conqueror over the fury of this Barbarian His design in renewing the Battel was only to rejoin his Son The violence of his Paternal Love forces him to beseech Aeneas to favour him so far as to let him be buried in the same Grave with his Son and he dies full of the tender and sad Idea he had of his dear Lausus This same Artifice does likewise change the violences of Dido into a more moderate Character by these two ways The first is the inability wherein the Queen is plac'd What Can't I says she tear his Body in pieces and scatter his mangled Limbs in the Sea O! that I could but cut the Throats of his Comrades butcher his dear Ascanius and serve him up in a Banquet to his Father c. These are the wildest excesses of a most violent and terrible fury But she is in such circumstances that the Reader is not afraid any ill effects will follow He is not concern'd for Aeneas and Ascanius since they are no longer within her reach and he only pities this poor Princess from whose Mouth her misfortunes had forc'd this Language The other Method is the Love of this same Queen which in the midst of her Rage and fury tames her and forces her to melt into tears and to abandon her self to the tenderness of her Passions Another Method Virgil makes use of is to interrupt the fights by calm and tender Episodes which make the Character of the Hero still predominant Thus the assault made upon the Camp of Aeneas and the fury of Turnus is moderated by the Episode of Remulus which is diverting by that of the Ships chang'd into Nymphs which is admirable and by that of Nisus and Euryalus which is soft and moving We may reduce all that has been said of the Vnity of the Character to these few Heads The first and the Foundation of all the rest is to give the Hero a precise and sensible Character which may appear in all sorts of Encounters Secondly This Hero must be independent and left at full liberty to carry on his Character and Humour in all the force and extent it is capable of Thirdly The Poet may bestow this very Character on the other Personages that are most apparent and active whether they be on the Hero's side or on the contrary Party or whether they be Divine Persons This is the practice of Homer in his Iliad Fourthly When there is given to these other Personages some Character or other that is opposite to that of the Hero it must not be carry'd on in all its force And as this Moderation cannot proceed naturally from Persons themselves it is produc'd either by some Passion or by some Dependance as we have seen in Dido Mezentius and Turnus The Fifth way is to interrupt the particular Actions which of themselves require an opposite Character by such Episodes as are suitable to the general Character Thus the Death of Lausus causes pity and tenderness to bear sway amidst the Furies of War and has the same Effects which the Episode of Nisus and Euryalus has To these five ways we might likewise join the Thoughts Figures and Expressions of which we shall speak in the last Book of this Treatise CHAP. XIV Of the Justness of the Character THis is a Point of the greatest difficulty as well as Importance as well to those that Compose as to those that Read and Criticize It depends not only on the Art but likewise on the Goodness and Justness of the
agree together in us This is properly what we conceive of a Pastoral Life For it admits of no ambition nor of any thing that moves the heart with too much Violence Therefore our Laziness has cause to be contented But this way of living by reason of its idleness and tranquility creates Love more easily than any other or at least indulges it more But after all what Love A Love more innocent because the Mind is not so dangerously refin'd more assiduous because those who feel it are not diverted by any other Passion more full of Discretion because they hardly have any acquaintance with Vanity more faithful because with a Vivacity of Imagination less used they have also less uneasiness less distaste and less fickleness that is to say in short a Love purg'd of whatever the Excesses of human Fancy have sophisticated it with This consider'd 't is not to be admir'd why the Pictures which are drawn of a Pastoral Life have always something so very smiling in them and indulge our Fancies more than the Pompous Description of a splendid Court and of all the Magnificence that can shine there A Court gives us no Idea but of toilsome and constrain'd Pleasures For as we have observ'd the Idea is all in all Cou'd the Scene of this quiet Life with no other business but Love be plac'd any where but in the Country so that no Goats nor Sheep shou'd be brought in I fansie it would be never the worse for the Goats and Sheep add nothing to its Felicity but as the scene must lye either in the Country or in Towns it seems more reasonable to chuse the First As the Pastoral Life is the most idle of all others 't is also the most fit to be the Ground work of those Ingenious Representations of which we are speaking So that no Ploughmen Reapers Vine-dressers or Hunts men can by any means be so properly introduc'd in Eclogues as Shepherds Which confirms what I said that what makes this kind of Poetry please is not it's giving an Image of a Country Life but rather the Idea which it gives of the tranquility and Innocence of that Life Yet there is an Idyllium of Battus and Milo two Reapers in Theocrtius which has Beauties Milo asks Battus why he does not Reap as fast as he used to do He answers that he is in Love and then sings something that 's very pretty about the Woman that he loves But Milo laughs at him and tells him he is a Fool for being so idle as to be in Love that this is not an Imployment fit for one who Works for Food and that to divert himself and excite one another to Work he should sing some Songs which he denotes to him and which altogether relate to the Harvest I must needs own that I do not so well like this Conclusion For I would not be drawn from a pleasing and soft Idea to another that is low and without Charms Sannazarius has introduced none but Fishermen in his Eclogues and I always perceive when I read those Piscatory Poems that the Idea which I have of the Fishermen's hard and toilsome way of living shocks me I don't know what moved him to bring in Fishermen instead of Shepherds who were in possession of the Eclogue time out of mind but had the Fishermen been in possession of it it had been necessary to put the Shepherds in their place For singing and above all an Idle life becomes none but Shepherds Besides methinks 't is prettier and more genteel to send Flowers or Fruit to one's Mistress than send her Oysters as Sannazarius's Lyco doth to his 'T is true that Theocritus hath an Idyllium of two Fishermen but it doth not seem to me so beautiful as to have deserv'd to tempt any Man to write one of that kind The subject of it is this Two old Fishermen had but sparingly supp'd together in a wretched little Thatcht-house by the Sea-side One of them wakes his Bedfellow to tell him he had just dreamt that he was catching a Golden Fish and the other answers him that he might starve though he had really caught such a one Was this worth writing an Eclogue However though none but Shepherds were introduc'd in Eclogues 't is impossible but that the Life of Shepherds which after all is yet very Clownish must sessen and debase their Wit and hinder their being as ingenious nice and full of gallantry as they are commonly represented in Pastorals The famous Lord D'urfé's Astraea seems a less fabulous Romance than Amadis de gaule yet I fansie that in the main it is as incredible as to the politeness and graces of his Shepherds as Amadis can be as to all its Enchantments all its Fairies and the Extravagance of its adventures How comes it then that Pastorals please in spight of the falsity of the Characters which ought always to shock us Could we be pleased with seeing some Courtiers represented as having a Clownishness which should resemble that of real Shepherds as much as the Gallantry which Shepherds have in Pastorals resembles that of Courtiers No doubtless but indeed that Character of the Shepherds is not false after all if we look upon it one way For we do not mind the meanness of the Concerns that are their real Employment but the little trouble which those Concerns bring This meanness would wholly exclude Ornaments and Gallantry but on the other hand the quiet state promotes them and 't is only on that tranquility that whatever pleases in a Pastoral Life is grounded Our Imagination is not to be pleased without Truth but it is not very hard to please it for often 't is satisfied with a kind of half Truth Let it see only the half of a Thing but let that half be shown in a lively manner then it will hardly bethink it self that you hide from it the other half and you may thus deceive it as long as you please since all the while it imagines that this single moiety with the Thoughts of which it is taken up is the whole Thing The Illusion and at the same time the pleasingness of Pastorals therefore consists in exposing to the Eye only the Tranquility of a Shepherd's Life and in dissembling or concealing its meanness as also in showing only its Innocence and hiding its Miseries so that I do not comprehend why Theocritus dwelt so much upon its Miseries and Clownishness If those who are resolved to find no faults in the Ancients tell us that Theocritus had a mind to draw Nature just such as it is I hope that according to those principles we shall have some Idyllia of Porters or Watermen discoursing together of their particular Concerns Which will be every whit as good as some Idyllia of Shepherds speaking of nothing but their Goats or their Cows The Business is not purely to describe we must describe such Objects as are delightful When the quiet that reigns in the Country and the simplicity and tenderness