Hear Ovid thus lamenting the Death of the same Poet, which follow'd from that Sickness. He speaks to Elegy:
[237] Ille tui Vates operis, tua fama, Tibullus, Ardet in extructo corpus inane rogo. Ecce Puer Veneris fert eversamque pharetram, Et fractos arcus, & sine luce facem. Aspice, demissis ut eat miserabilis alis, Pectoraque infesta tundat aperta manu.
Thy Poet, and Promulger of thy Fame, Tibullus burns upon the Fun'ral Flame. With Torch extinct, and Quiver downward born, See Cupid, once sincere! attend his Urn. Now beats his Breast, his tender Hands now wrings, Broken his Shafts, and pendulous his Wings.
While the one dies thus, while the other so laments his Death, how justly are they both render'd immortal? They that thus write, and thus deserve Elegies, are such as least need them. Some Descriptions in Elegy are not less affecting; as of the Elysian Fields, in the same Passage of Tibullus:
[238] Hic choreæ, cantusque vigent; passimque vagantes Dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aves. Fert casiam non culta seges, totosque per agros Floret odoratis terra benigna rosis. Ac juvenum series, teneris immista puellis, Ludit, & assidue prælia miscet Amor.
There Songs perpetual charm the list'ning Ear,} Whilst all the feather'd Wand'rers of the Air,} To join the Sound, their warbling Throats prepare.} Cassia from ev'ry Hedge unbidden breathes, And to the Gales its fragrant Sweets bequeaths; The bounteous Earth its purple Product yields, And od'rous Roses paint the blushing Fields: There Trains of blooming Youths, and tender Maids, Sport on the Green, and wanton in the Shades; While busy Love attends them all the Way, Joins in the Conflict, and provokes the Fray. Dart.
With this Kind of Poem, every Thing that is epigrammatical, satirical, or sublime, is inconsistent. Elegy aims not to be witty or facetious, acrimonious or severe, majestic or sublime; but is smooth, humble, and unaffected; nor yet is she abject in her Humility, but becoming, elegant, and attractive.
Among our modern Poems, we have few entitled Elegies; those only that are made on Funeral Occasions: But we have many that may be call'd so, in the larger Sense of the Word, as it was used by the Ancients, and we have above explain'd it: Many very ingenious ones on Love; and others of a melancholy and soft Turn.
Among the Ancients, Hexameters and Pentameters were so peculiar to Elegy, that this Kind of Metre is usually styled Elegiac; nor is any more soft, or more harmonious. Instead of it, we, in our own Tongue, use the Heroic.
The Writers in this Way that Antiquity has handed down to us, are all in Latin. Some there were more early among the Greeks, as Callimachus, Philetas, and others; the Fragments only of whose Writings have been sav'd from the Wreck of Time. They that would know which they are, may consult the learned Vossius, and others; it being beside my Purpose to enquire into Facts and History.