In these, and the Lines that follow, he lays down the chief Heads of Satire he design'd to treat of; this he does in an elegant and poetical Manner, not by proposing them in general Terms, but by Particulars. Afterwards, having weigh'd the Reasons his Friend alledges to dissuade him from so dangerous an Attempt, he replies, with a Quickness and Vivacity Worthy of a Satirist:
[347] Qui dedit ergo tribus patruis aconita, vehetur Pensilibus plumis, atque illinc despiciet nos?
Shall they who drench'd three Uncles in a Draught Of pois'nous Juice, be then in Triumph brought? Dryden.
What a Poignancy in the Words, and how swift a Turn in the Thought?
I agree with Vossius, but for a different Reason from his, that Persius scarce deserves a Place among the Satirists. He has dropp'd, indeed, many fine Expressions in describing the Beauty of Virtue, and the Deformity of Vice: But he wants Poignancy and Sting; he never laughs, and strikes but seldom: He does not correct Faults so much, as find them; his Reproof, at best, is too mild, and more like the Evenness of a Philosopher, than the Severity of a Satirist.
To come now to our own Times. There are few Kinds of Writing, in which the Moderns, of our own Country especially, are less exceeded than in this[348]; I mean in that Species of it in which Juvenal writ: For the Horatian Satire is but little affected among us. That Author, particularly[349], who not long since attack'd the Jesuits, tho' his Works, either through want of Care, or Judgment, or, more probably, considering his Youth, for want of both, are not so correct as might have been wish'd; yet his shewn a true poetical Vein, and a Fire not unworthy Juvenal himself. No one can be a Stranger to Dryden, who, as he exceeds others in every Kind of Poetry, so, in this, exceeds himself. But to pass by the rest of our own Countrymen whom I might mention, that deservedly celebrated French Poet[350] has so happily blended Horace and Juvenal together, that he seems to have found out a beautiful Species of Satire between both. He claims the poetical Laurel, but in Satire more particularly, from all the Writers of this Age, by universal Consent; and that is an Authority, to which I shall never think fit to oppose my private Judgment, whatever it is.
LECTURE XIX, &c.
Of the Drama in general.
We are come, at last, to that Species of Poetry which is chiefly and primarily so call'd, because it agrees best with the Sense of the original Word, poiein, whence Poema is deriv'd. For such is the comprehensive Signification of this Word, that it denotes not only the Invention, but the Contexture of the Fable, the Conduct of the Action, and the Disposal of the Parts: All which concern the two Sorts of Poems that now remain to be discours'd of, viz. the Epic and Dramatic, but more especially the latter. The former, indeed, is, upon the whole, more noble in its Nature; but, in some Circumstances, is inferior to the other; in the Action, particularly, as the Etymology of the Word Drama, from dran, to act, implies. In Epic, indeed, Heroes and Gods are represented speaking: But the Poet there performs only the Part of an Historian, and the Speeches are no more than Narrations. Whereas, in the Dramatic Writings, the Persons themselves are introduced, every Thing is transacted in our Sight, and our Eyes and Ears at once are gratified. Now Horace's Observation is undoubted just: