[310] Jam Fides, & Pax, & Honor, Pudorque Priscus, & neglecta redire Virtus Audet, apparetque beata pleno Copia cornu.
Now Honour, Chastity and Peace, Virtue and banish'd Faith, return; Now Plenty broods a fair Increase, And fills with Flow'rs her fragrant Horn. Olds.
LECTURE XVII, XVIII.
Of Satire.
It is Merit enough for a Writer on a Subject that has been often canvass'd, if he can reduce into a short Compass whatever hath been said before, and add something material of his own. Whether I have done this in the present Case, must be submitted to the Judgment of the Audience; I am sure I shall make it my Endeavour, not only to represent my own Sentiments in an advantageous Light, but those of others; for I have a large Field of Writers before me, on this Subject; not only Horace, Quintilian, and the rest of the Ancients, but the learned Casaubon, Scaliger, Vossius, Dacier, and some others.
A Difficulty occurs upon our first Entrance; for a Doubt has been made about the Name of Satire, and the Orthography of it: The Reason of which Doubt will appear, from the uncertain History we have of this Kind of Poem. It cannot be denied, but that the Grecian Satire differ'd from the Roman; but yet the Difference seems not so great, as some are apt to imagine: The former was of the dramatic Kind, a Sort of Interlude annex'd to Tragedy, to remove from the Audience too melancholy Impressions. It is Horace's Observation,
[311] Carmine qui Tragico vilem certavit ob hircum, Mox etiam agrestes Satiros nudavit, & asper Incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit; eo quod Illecebris erat, & grata novitate, morandus Spectator.
The first Tragedians found that serious Style Too grave for their uncultivated Age, And so brought wild and naked Satires in, (Whose Motion, Words, and Shape, were all a Farce) As oft as Decency wou'd give them Leave; Because the mad ungovernable Rout, Full of Confusion, and the Fumes of Wine, Lov'd such Variety, and Antic Tricks. Roscom.
The Scene was laid in the Country, the Persons Satyrs, and rural Deities. Sometimes Peasants and Rustics were mix'd with them. The Subject was jocose, and full of Sneer and Banter; the Style a Medium between Comedy and Tragedy. This, as I said, was the satirical Poetry of the Grecians; but Satire, as we now have it, is entirely Roman, if we may believe Quintilian, who says[312], Satira quidem tota nostra est; or Horace[313], who styles Ennius the Inventor of a Poem unknown to the Grecians, meaning Satire, according to the Opinion of most of his Interpreters. Scaliger, however, expresly denies it to be of Roman Original; and there is Reason, indeed, as we shall see hereafter, to understand those Expressions of Quintilian and Horace with some Abatement. Those that will not allow it to be deriv'd from the Grecians, but entirely Roman, maintain, that Satira should be writ with an i, not a y; and that it is not deriv'd from Satyrus, but Satur; Satira, therefore, is the same as Satura, as Maximus anciently Maxumus. Now Satur signifies full of a Mixture of Things, as Lanx Satura, a Dish full of Varieties; and, as Dacier observes[314], "those Laws were call'd Leges Saturæ[315], which contain'd several Heads and Titles under them; as the Julian-Papian-Poppæan Law, which was otherwise call'd the Miscella, which is but another Word for Satura. Hence that Expression, per Saturam legem ferre, when the Votes of the Senators were not taken in Order, or counted, but were given together promiscuously. And this is properly per Saturam sententias exquirere, which is an Expression Sallust makes use of after Lælius. Nor is this all; some Books anciently bore this Title; as Pescennius Festus left Historias Saturas, or per Saturam." Thus far Dacier. Satire, then, when applied by a Metaphor to Writing, is a Miscellaneous Poem, full of Variety of Matter: According to that of Juvenal,