527.—If Homer seem to nod, or chance to dream.]
It may not be disagreeable to the reader to see what two poets of our own country have said on this subject.
—foul descriptions are offensive still, either for being like, or being ill. For who, without a qualm, hath ever look'd on holy garbage, tho' by Homer cook'd? Whose railing heroes, and whose wounded Gods, make some suspect he snores, as well as nods. But I offend—Virgil begins to frown, And Horace looks with indignation down: My blushing Muse with conscious fear retires, and whom they like, implicitly admires.
—Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse.
A prudent chief not always must display
Her pow'rs in equal ranks, and fair array:
But with th' occasion and the place comply,
Conceal his force, nay seem sometimes to fly.
Those oft are stratagems, which errors seem,
Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.
POPE'S Essay on Criticism.
530.—POEMS AND PICTURES ARE ADJUDC'D ALIKE.]
Ut pictura poesis.
Here ends, in my opinion, the didactick part of this Epistle; and it is remarkable that it concludes, as it begun, with a reference to the Analogy between Poetry and Painting. The arts are indeed congenial, and the same general principles govern both. Artists might collect many useful hints from this Epistle. The Lectures of the President of the Royal Academy are not rarely accommodated to the study of Painters; but Poets may refine their taste, and derive the most valuable instruction, from the perusal of those judicious and elegant discourses.
535.—O THOU, MY PISO'S ELDER HOPE AND PRIDE!]
O MAJOR JUVENUM!
We are now arrived at that portion of the Epistle, which I must confess I am surprised, that any Commentator ever past, without observing the peculiar language and conduct of the Poet. There is a kind of awful affection in his manner, wonderfully calculated to move our feelings and excite our attention. The Didactick and the Epistolary stile were never more happily blended. The Poet assumes the air of a father advising his son, rather than of a teacher instructing his pupils. Many Criticks have thrown out a cursory observation or two, as it were extorted from them by the pointed expressions of the Poet: but none of them, that I have consulted, have attempted to assign any reason, why Horace, having closed his particular precepts, addresses all the remainder of his Epistle, on the nature and expediency of Poetical pursuits, to _the Elder Piso only. I have endeavoured to give the most natural reason for this conduct; a reason which, if I am not deceived, readers the whole of the Epistle interesting, as well as clear and consistent; a reason which I am the more inclined to think substantial, as it confirms in great measure the system of the Author of the English Commentary, only shewing _the reflections on the drama in _this Epistle, as well as in the Epistle to Augustus, to be incidental, rather than the principal subject, and main design, of the Poet,