Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A35678
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Remarks on a book entituled Prince Arthur, an heroick poem with some general critical observations and several new remarks upon Virgil / by Mr. Dennis.
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Dennis, John, 1657-1734.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing D1040; ESTC R35663
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111,647
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266
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digress'd The Manners are to be well maintain'd because Nature is uniform For Poetry being an Imitation of Nature it follows that the humane Poetical persons are to be Imitations of Men. Now if Nature in Man is always uniform it is certain that the Manners in the humane Poetical persons ought never to vary But if Nature in one and the same Man may sometimes appear irregular it is evident that the Manners of the humane Poetical persons may in some Cases differ very much from themselves Thus the Humours in Children alter every Hour and in the Bloom of Youth they are very rarely consistent And therefore Aristotle in those Cases allows of unequal Manners provided the inequality of Humour be throughout maintain'd I had almost forgot another sort of Persons in which the Manners are variable and those are such as come indeed to years of Maturity but by reason of the inconsistency of their Brains never come to years of Discretion But besides these inborn Causes of the Inconstancy of the Manners which are want of Maturity and defect of Temper there are accidental Ones the which are chiefly two a very great Calamity and a very violent Passion which have both been seen to inspire Men with Sentiments and with Resolutions that have been unexpected from them Nay so Powerfull have their Effects been that as the last has made People act and talk with Transports that have been contrary to the Bent of their Natural Tempers so the first has been often known to asswage the Fury of the most turbulent Passions But to come closer to the Matter in hand The principal Characters of an Epick Poem which are those of which we chiefly Treat are not to vary their Manners at every turn either from an immatureness in Years or from a defect in Temper because such a Frailty is inconsistent with those extraordinary Qualities which they must have who are fit to oppose or to carry on great Designs And tho' even such Persons as these are suppos'd to be alter'd by the Violence of an extraordinary Passion or the Distress of some strange Calamity yet considering the intrepidity of their Natures and the firmness of their Resolutions they must be exceeding mournfull or terrible Incidents which can either subdue their Souls by the Force of a Passion which is contrary to the Bent of their Natural Tempers or asswage the impetuous Motions of Rage which is grounded on their inborn Vehemence And therefore it must be the most dismal of all Misfortunes which can make Mezentius bewail his Misery and bewail it with so moving an Air that our very Souls are pierced by the Sufferings of one whom we abhâ—…r'd but just before And it must be the most amazing of all Catastrophies which could â—…tonish and break the wrathfull Mind of Turnus and bring it to a sense of its wretched State and force it to sue for Forgiveness to one whom it had with so much Fury and with so much Disdain oppos'd Let us now consider that which happen'd both to the one and the other Mezentius as we have said above was a Contemner of the Gods and a Hater of Men. Yet this inhumane Tyrant could not so perfectly divest himself of Humanity but that he excepted his Son from the Number of those whom he hated a Son who indeed deserv'd the Affection of a much better Father And this Violence of Love was by so much the stronger in the Soul of this Barbarian because all its Softness was center'd in Lausus whereas the Tenderness of other Men is in different Degrees diffus'd through the whole Species Judge then what Impression the cruel Death of this lovely Son and a Son who died for his Father must make even upon a Barbarians Soul Can any one be surpriz'd upon this occasion to behold even the bloody inhumane Mezentius strowing Dust on his Head and clinging round round the Body in all the Convulsions of Sorrow then stretching out his Hands to Heaven and crying out with so pathetick an Air. Tantane me tenuit vivendi Nate voluptas Ut pro me hostili paterer succedere dextrae Quem genui tua ne hâ—…c genitor per vulnera servor Morte tuâ vivens heu nunc misero mihi demum Exilium infoelix nunc alte vulnus adactum And thus we have seen the predominant Quality of the Hero's Character appearing in Mezentius without the least Violation of the fourth Condition of the Manners For Mezentius does nothing upon this occasion but what Nature and Reason tell us he would do upon such an astonishing Incident and therefore he does nothing but what is extreamly regular But let us now behold the Catastrophie of Turnus And as we have seen a very tender Passion excited even in the Savage Mind of Mezentius by the admirable Address of a most deplorable Incident and that without any Offence against exact Regularity Let us now see the lofty turbulent Spirit of Turnus humbled by the Plagues that the Terrours of Jove inflict upon him Let us see this wrathfull outragious Prince dejected and soft and supplicating Let us see this intrepid and hitherto invincible Warriour stretching out his Hand for Mercy and not for Conquest Ille bumilis supplexque oculos dextramque precantem Protendens Equidem merui nec deprecor inquit Utere sorte tua miseri te siqua Parentis Tangere cura potest oro fuit tibi talis Anchises genitor Dauni miserere senectae Et me seu corpus spoliatum lumine mavis Redde meis vicisti victum tendere palmas Ausonii videre tua est Lavinia conjux Ulterius ne tende odiis Here we may take notice of the following Particulars First he acknowledges the Wrong which he had done to Aeneas by unjustly constraining Latinus to declare War against him and by Attacking his Men in his Absence after he was Wounded upon the breaking the League Secondly he confesses Aeneas the Conquerour Thirdly he resigns his Mistress And lastly he begs his Life This seems to be quite contrary to the Character of the Violent the Unjust and Inexorable Turnus So that here is an appearing Violation of the fourth Condition of the Manners But upon enquiry we shall find that all this is extremely Just and that Nature and Reasoâ—… being observ'd the Rules remain unviolated To show which we are not only to consider that now the fatal Blow has been struck which has brought Turnus to the very brink of Destruction and laid him at his Enemy's Mercy but we are to take a short View of what happen'd before As Aeneas Sail'd by the Gods Commands for Italy so his Arrival was foretold there by Portents and Prodigies and by the Oracle of Faunus The last of which as well as the other two had not only deterr'd Latinus from Marrying his Daughter to Turnus but had just before the Arrival of Aeneas assur'd him that a Foreign Hero was coming who was to lay the Foundation of a glorious Empire there and for whom his Daughter
Shine forth and with thy Beams dispell this Night Whose horrid Shades my lab'ring Soul affright And thus we have shown the Hero of the Poem neglectfull impious and fearfull And consequently we have in one Character seen Mr. Blackmore offending not only against the Unity of Character in the Hero and in the Poem and against three of the four Conditions of the Manners but against the Necessity of the Fable and of the Action For if the things which we observ'd in the First Part of this Treatise had not ruin'd the Moral it is manifest that these base unnecessary Vices which Mr. Blackmore has given to his Hero would have weaken'd it considerably if they had not destroy'd it But it will be objected by the Friends of this Author that the Hero of the Prince of Poets appears to be afraid at the Rising of the Storm in the first of the Aeneis Ex templo Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra Ingemit c. To this I answer First that we excus'd Prince Arthur's Fear upon the like occasion Tho' his Fear is directly express'd by the Poet. When the Just Arthur fill'd with Grief and Dread Whereas the Fear of Aeneas is not directly express'd Secondly That supposing Aeneas was afraid we can yet make a better Defence for him than can be made for Arthur tho' a good one may be made for him too For Aeneas had not only the same Cause of Fear which Arthur had which was his Love for his People but he was afraid of missing the Rites of Funeral which they who miss'd were denied the passage of Styx And besides all this he was afraid of the Anger of Juno who peculiarly commanded the Air and from whose Fury he knew the present Storm proceeded These are the Excuses which are made for Aeneas by those who allow that he was afraid He was afraid indeed say they but he was afraid of the Anger of the Gods and that comes into the Character of Piety But in case of any humane Danger he always appears intrepid Nay Turnus who is a Hero of a much inferiour Rank to Aeneas as Bossu has plainly demonstrated scorns to be afraid of less than a God For he says to Aeneas in the Twelfth Book when his Life was in utmost danger from him V. 894. Non me tua turbida torrent Dicta ferox Dii me terrent Jupiter Hostis. Think not that your Threats can terrifie me insulting Man None but the Gods and adverse Jove can terrifie Turnus To be afraid neither of God nor Man was only becoming of that Contemner of the Gods Mezentius Nec mortem horremus nec divum parcimus ulli Desine jam venio moriturus All the Second-rate Characters in the Aeneis Nisus Eurialus Pallas and Lausus shine with undaunted Courage But the Hero distinguishes himself from them all and is in the midst of a Battel like Thunder in a Storm He appears Superlatively brave upon every Action and upon every approach of Danger in a Sovereign Degree magnanimous These are the Excuses that are made for Aeneas by those who allow him to have been afraid in the Storm But I would fain ask those Gentlemen one question And that is Why they should allow Aeneas to have been afraid when Virgil has never said so For the Words Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra express no Fear And why should they be thought to imply any when that which immediately follows implies that Aeneas was not afraid and when the very Words which we have cited have a much better and a much more reasonable signification The Words which Aeneas utters imply that he was not afraid For it is plain that a Man like Aeneas who wishes himself dead is not afraid of Death Indeed why should he be afraid He knew very well that he should survive this Storm He had divine Assurance for it and he was perfectly Pious The Ghost of Hector had told him he should be establish'd in a Foreign Country The Soul of Creusa had averr'd it His Houshold-Gods had assur'd it and Delian and Buthrotian Apollo had given it the last Confirmation Well then I think it is pretty plain that the Man who wishes that he were dead and who knew that he should not die could not be afraid of the present Danger Nor do Virgil's Words Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra express any Fear Why then should they be thought to implâ—… any Why should the Man who in all other places writes with perfect Logick and perfect good Sence be believ'd in this to contradict himself so absurdly Especially when these very Words may be interpreted a much better way and so become more consistent with the Character of Aeneas and with the Sence of the Lines which follow For this Cold and this Trembling which relax'd the Nerves of Aeneas may very well be thought to be the Shuddring of a Religious Horrour conceiv'd at the Presence of the Revengefull Queen of the Gods who immediately commanded the Air and by whom the Hero knew that the present Storm was occasion'd For the Sense of the Anger of so great a Divinity must needs be an intolerable Burden upon the Soul of so Pious a Man as Aeneas Now Aristotle has observ'd in the Thirteenth Chapter of his Treatise of Poetry that Horrour is a very different thing from Fear which Reason and Experience every day confirm Since therefore these Words Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra may as well be interpreted of Horrour as Fear since if they are meant of the first they make the Poet consistent with himself whereas they make him contradict himself if they are meant of the last since this incident of the Storm may be very well thought to have occasion'd Horrour in Aeneas and lastly since it appears by the Words of the Hero that he was not afraid and it is very plain by his Circumstances that there was no occasion for Fear we have all the reason in the World to conclude that by Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra the Poet meant that his Hero felt Horrour and not Fear Thus have I done my endeavour to clear Aeneas from the Imputation of Fear and to show that the Trembling which seiz'd him from the Rising of the Storm might very well be suppos'd to proceed from another Cause And I have the rather done this because I could never be reconcil'd to the Excuses which are commonly made for him which are that he was afraid for his People or that he was afraid of the Anger of the Queen of the Gods For it is hard to imagine in this case that he could be afraid for his People without â—…ing afraid for himself or that he could in this coâ—…ncture tremble with Fear at the Anger of Jano without trembling at the Thoughts of approaching Death As for two or three other Passages in which the Poet mentions his Fear it is manifest that in those places he fears for others and not for himself But let us now consider the two other Qualities