Molle atque facetum
Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure camoenæ.
Smooth flow his lines, and elegant his style,
On Virgil all the rural muses smile.
—FRANCIS.
"Facetum" does not here signify facetious but agreeable. I do not know whether we shall not find a little of this happy and affecting softness in the fatal passion of Dido. I think at least that we shall there recognize the author of those admirable verses which we meet with in his Eclogues: "Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error!"—I saw, I perished, yet indulged my pain.—(Dryden.)
Certainly the description of the descent into hell would not be badly matched with these lines from the fourth Eclogue:
Ille Deum vitam accipiet, divisque videbit
Permistos heroas, et ipse videbitur illis—
Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.
The sons shall lead the lives of gods, and be
By gods and heroes seen, and gods and heroes see.
The jarring nations he in peace shall bind,
And with paternal virtues rule mankind.
—DRYDEN.
I meet with many of these simple, elegant, and affecting passages in the three beautiful books of the "Æneid."
All the fourth book is filled with touching verses, which move those who have any ear or sentiment at all, even to tears, and to point out all the beauties of this book it would be necessary to transcribe the whole of it. And in the sombre picture of hell, how this noble and affecting tenderness breathes through every line.
It is well known how many tears were shed by the emperor Augustus, by Livia, and all the palace, at hearing this half line alone: "Tu Marcellus eris."—A new Marcellus will in thee arise.
Homer never produces tears. The true poet, according to my idea, is he who touches the soul and softens it, others are only fine speakers. I am far from proposing this opinion as a rule. "I give my opinion," says Montaigne, "not as being good, but as being my own."
Of Lucan.
If you look for unity of time and action in Lucan you will lose your labor, but where else will you find it? If you expect to feel any emotion or any interest you will not experience it in the long details of a war, the subject of which is very dry and the expressions bombastic, but if you would have bold ideas, an eloquent expatiation on sublime and philosophical courage, Lucan is the only one among the ancients in whom you will meet with it. There is nothing finer than the speech of Labienus to Cato at the gates of the temple of Jupiter Ammon, if we except the answer of Cato itself: