And at the Conclusion of that admirable Description of Æneas's Shield made by Vulcan, thus the divine Poet closes his eighth Book:
[104] Talia per clypeum Vulcani, dona parentis, Miratur, rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet, Attollens humero famamque & fata nepotum.
Such Figures on the broad Vulcanian Shield, His Mother's Gift, the Hero pleas'd admires In Ignorance; and on his Shoulder high Upheaves the Fame and Fortune of his Race.
The last Verse is express'd with all the Strength and Weight imaginable, because without one Epithet. The Reason of this Effect seems to be, that Ideas in the Concrete are no more than Adjuncts of those in the Abstract; now that which supports, must needs be stronger than what is supported. To the same Purpose, when this is our Aim, all synonymous Expressions must be avoided; for the shorter and closer the Style, the stronger; but the Matter of it, by being spread among a Variety of Words, is thinned, and, consequently, weakened. The Poet, no doubt, is indulged much more in Epithets and Synonyma's, than the Orator; his Province consisting more peculiarly in Colouring, Description and Decoration. But both of them ought to take Care that these musical and bewitching Elegances are not too redundant; for a Style, whether in Prose or Verse, cannot be attended with a greater Fault than a verbose Luxuriance.
Some, thro' Ignorance of what an Epithet is, may be apt in their Reading to make a wrong Enumeration of them; for all Adjectives and Participles do not (as many think) come under this Appellation, but those only which are annex'd to Substantives, by way of Ornament and Illustration; not such as make up the essential Part of the Description. In the following Lines of Virgil,
[105] Diverso interea miscentur mœnia luctu; Et magis atque magis (quanquam secreta parentis Anchisæ domus, arboribusque obtecta recessit) Clarescunt sonitus, armorumque ingruit horror.
Mean while, with Cries confus'd the Walls resound: And tho' my Father's Palace, fenc'd with Trees, Stood from the Hurry of the town retir'd; The Noise grows loud, and th' undistinguish'd Din Of clashing Arms rolls near.
there is not an Epithet; neither diverso, secreta, or obtecta, comes under that Denomination, but are Adjectives or Participles of the other Kind.
Seventh Lecture.
We come now to enumerate the different Kinds of Style made use of by Poets, and to shew briefly wherein they consist, and to what sort of Verse and Subject each is suitable. To begin, then, with that which is first in Dignity, and therefore ought to be so in Place; the sublime, I mean, whose Property it is to express lofty Ideas in no vulgar Strain, but with Words sonorous, pompous, and majestic. This Style is, in the first Place, proper for the Epic Poem; in the next, to some sort of Odes; after that, to Tragedy; then to the severer kind of Satire; and, in short, to all Poems of less Note, that partake of the Heroic, or the Buskin. There are others that make Excursions into it, such as the Georgics, and all of the Didactic, or Philosophical Kind, whenever they digress into a more noble Field of Matter, to which their Subject sometimes naturally leads them. But to Comedy, the lower kind of Satire, and Pastoral, it is never agreeable; to Elegy very seldom. In behalf of the first of these, that Place of Terence will be urged, which Horace seems to have had in his View, when he says,