By which Words, however, he intimates, that some other Poems, besides Funeral ones, went under the Name of Elegies. Horace is very express:
[231] Versibus impariter junctis querimonia primum, Post etiam inclusa est voti sententia compos.
In Verses long and short Grief first appear'd, In those they mourn'd past Ills, and future fear'd: But soon these Lines with Mirth and Joy were fill'd, And told when Fortune, or a Mistress smil'd. Creech.
From whence we learn, that Deaths are not the only Subjects of Elegy, but that by Degrees it was employ'd upon other Things that had nothing mournful in them, nay, that turn'd upon Gaiety and Festivity. Ovid's Books of Love, the Poems of Tibullus and Propertius, are entitled Elegies; and yet so far are they from being sad, that they are sometimes scarce serious. Ovid, particularly, takes too great a Liberty in this Kind of Poem, and lets his Joy break out to Excess. But if we look back to the Original, both of the Name and Thing, we shall find that Writings of this Sort are styled Elegies only in an improper Sense of the Word. One and the same Title, therefore, was indiscriminately given to Poems on different Subjects, but which agreed in their Verse, and Manner of Writing.
The chief Subjects to which Elegy owes its Rise, are Death and Love: The Connexion between which, it is not my Business here to examine. The Writings of the Poets, I have above mention'd, chiefly consist of Love; tho' Elegies admit almost of any Matter, especially if it be treated of seriously. The Contempt of Riches, the Pleasures of the Country, are in great measure the Subject of them, in which a little Love is generally interspers'd. Some, but few, in Tibullus and Propertius, have nothing of Death or Love; which, however, have been always the chief Subjects of this Kind of Poem. That Elegy, therefore, ought to be esteem'd the most perfect in its Kind, which has somewhat of both at once: Such, for Instance, where the Poet bewails the Death of his Corinna, his Delia, or Lycoris, or of some Youth or Damsel falling a Martyr to Love. Among the Love Elegies, those are to be placed next, which are full of that melancholy Complaint which Lovers seldom want Matter for. Yet there are some of a very different Temper; but which, as I observ'd before, are improperly rank'd in the Number of Elegies. Some, again, are full of Joy and Triumph: As in Ovid,
[232] Ite triumphales circum mea tempora lauri.
Triumphant Laurels, round my Temples twine.
Others satirical: As that of the same Poet, where, describing an old Woman, he breaks out into these Imprecations against her:
[233] Dii tibi dent nudosque lares, inopemque senectam, Et longas hyemes, perpetuamque sitim.
May'st thou with Poverty and Age be curst, The Length of Winter, and the Summer's Thirst.