She o'er the Tops of untouch'd Corn wou'd fly, Skimming along, nor hurt the tender Grain; Or run, supported on a swelling Wave, Thro' the mid Sea, nor tinge her nimble Feet.
The Lines are exceeding beautiful, and therefore the more is the Pity that the Thing is impossible.
In my Definition of Epic Poetry, I inserted this Clause, that it must be form'd upon a Story partly real, and partly fictitious: For both these are equally necessary. In Tragedy, which is so much shorter, the Performance may not only be excusable, but commendable, tho' the whole Fable should be fictitious: But in a long Work, such as an Heroic Poem is, the Reader will be tir'd, unless he has the Pleasure of finding some Truth interwoven with the Fable. Besides, an Heroic Poet writes, or ought to write after the Examples of Homer and Virgil, in Honour of the Country he belongs to, or the Religion he professes; and then it must be necessary that he should have some Regard to popular Opinions, or true History. This is requisite, at least to the well-being, if not the very being of an Heroic Poem.
Little need be said about the Machinery, which, among the ancient Heathens, was the Agency of their false Gods, and of Angels and Demons among us Christians; its Beauty and Magnificence being well known. The Dignity of an Heroic Poem would scarce be kept up without it, especially since the το θαυμαστον or the Marvellous, depends upon it. I shall say no more, but refer the Reader to the fifth Chapter of Bossu.
The Versification of Heroic Poetry is what no Body is a Stranger to, which, among the Greeks and Romans consisted of Hexameters. This Kind of Verse is so peculiar to Epic, that when it is us'd upon other Occasions, it is commonly call'd Heroic Verse. It is needless to observe how numerous, and sublime, and beautiful, in all Respects, it is, and how much it has tended to ennoble those Languages: Our English Verse comes nearest to it, both in Gravity and Majesty, but at how great Distance? which yet, is, at least, both in Strength and Energy, far superior to the French and Italian.
I have made these few scatter'd Reflections upon Heroic Poetry, and propose to add no more, at present, for a Reason I have hinted before. As to the Nature and Origin of it, I shall only offer the following clear and succinct Account from the second Chapter of the first Book of the learned Bossu.
"The most considerable Difference my Subject presents me with, between the Style of the Ancients and Moderns, is, that our Way of Speaking is plain, proper, and without Circumlocution; whereas theirs was full of Mysteries and Allegories: The Truth was generally conceal'd under those ingenious Inventions, which, for their Excellence, are call'd Fables, or Sayings; as if there was as much Difference between those fabulous Discourses of the Wife, and the ordinary Language of the Vulgar, as there is between the Language proper to Men, and the Sounds which Beasts use, to express their Passions and Sensations.
"The first Use of Fables was to speak of the divine Nature, according to the Notions they had of it. This sublime Subject caused the first Poets to be styl'd Divines, and Poetry the Language of the the Gods. They divided the divine Attributes, as it were, into so many Persons, because the Weakness of the Human Mind could not well conceive or explain so much Power and Action in a Simplicity so great and indivisible, as that of God is. And perhaps they were jealous of the Advantages they receiv'd from such excellent and refin'd Learning, which they thought the vulgar Part of Mankind were not worthy of.
"They could not tell us of the Operations of this Almighty Cause, without speaking, at the same Time, of its Effects: So to Divinity they added Physiology, and treated of it in the same Manner, without quitting the Umbrages of their allegorical Expressions.
"But Man being the chief, and most noble of all the Effects which God produc'd, and nothing being so proper, or so useful to Poets, as this Subject, they added it to the former, and treated of Morality in the same Way that they did of Divinity and Physicks. And from Morality thus discours'd of, Art has form'd that Kind of Poem and Fable which we call Epic.