A Flower raises your Pity when Purpureus veluti cum flos fuccifus aratro You think that you fee the smallest Plants that the Spring revives, and adorns : Inque novos Soles audent fe gramina tutò A Nightingale is Philomela moving your Compaffion for her Misfortunes; Qualis populea marens philomela fub umbrâ HORACE in three Verses draws a Picture in which every thing is lively and affecting. fugit retro Levis juventas & decor, arida Pellente lafcivos amores Canitie, facilemque fomnum. En. L. ix. *.435. Wou'd he with two Strokes of his Pencil draw two Men whom every-body must know at first Sight? he fet's before your Eyes the incorrigible Folly of PA Ep. L. I. De Ar. Carm. Od. vj. Ep. L. I. . 21. Carm. Od. iv. $.57. RIS, and the implacable Rage of A CHILLES. Quid Paris? ut falvus regnet, vivatque beatus, Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer ; Wou'd he make us in love with the Place where he wifht to end his Days with his Friend? he makes us long to go thither. Me terrarum mihi præter omnes ibi tu calentem Debita Sparges lachrymå favillam Vatis amici. Does he give us the Character of ULYSSES? he reprefents him as above the Reach of Storms, and Shipwrack, and the greatest Calamitys. afpera multa Pertulit, adverfis rerum immerfabilis undis. Does he defcribe Rome invincible, even under her Misfortunes? hear him: Duris ut ilex tonfa bipennibus CATUL CATULLUS (whom one cannot name without detefting his obfcene Verfes,) hit the Perfection of a tender Simplicity. Odi, & amo: quare id faciam fortaffe requiris. Epigr. 86, Nefcio; fed fieri fentio, & excrutior. How much are the elaborate witty Conceits of OVID and MARTIAL inferiour to these negligent Words; where the distracted Heart alone fpeaks in a kind of Despair? Lib. 24. What can be more fimple, and more moving than King PRIA M's being reduc'd in his Öld-age to kifs the murdering Hands of ACHILLES who had deftroy'd his ILIAD. Children. He begs of him the great HECTOR'S Body, as the only Alleviation of his Mifery. He muft have spoilt all if he had given the leaft Ornament to his Words: therefore they exprefs nothing but his Grief. He conjured him by his own Father who funk under Old-age, to have Pity upon the most wretched of all Fathers. Wit has the Misfortune to weaken those ftrong Paffions it pretends to adorn. According to HORACE, a Poem is not to be valu'd much for being bright and fine, unless it be likewife moving, delightful, and confequently, fimple, natural, and full of Paffion : Non De Ar. Non fatis eft pulchra esse poemata, dulcia funto: Poet. $.99. Et quocunque volent animum Auditoris agunto. That which is only beautiful, I mean, bright, has but half the Beauty it ought to have. True Beauty muft express the Paffions well in order to excite them: it fhou'd captivate the Mind, and keep its Attention fteddily fixt on the true † Defign of a Poem. S. VI. Even in the Arts which are merely Imitations of outward Grace and Beauty, we not only confefs a Tafte; but make it a Part of refin'd Breeding to difcover, amidst the many falfe Manners, and ill Stiles, the true and natural one, which reprefents the real BEAUTY and VENUS of the kind. 'Tis the like moral GRACE and Venus which difcovering itself in the Turns of Character, and the Variety of human Affections, is copy'd by the writing Artift. If he knows not this Venus, thefe Graces, nor was ever ftruck with the Beauty, the Decorum of this inward kind, he can never paint advantagiously after the Life; nor in a feign'd Subject, where he has full Scope. CHARACTERISTICKS, Vol. I. p. 336, 7. Let Poets or the Men of Harmony, deny, if they can, this Force of Nature, or withstand this moral Magick. They for their Parts, carry a double Portion of this Charm about with them: For, in the first place, the very Paffion that infpires them is it-felf the Love of Numbers, Decency, and Proportion; and this too, not in a narrow Senfe, or after a felfish way, (for who is there that compofes for himself?) but in a friendly focial View; for the Pleafure and Good of others; even down to Pofterity, and future Ages. In the next Place, 'tis evident in thefe Performers, that their chief Theme and Subject, that which raifes their Genius the most, and by which they fo effectually move others, is purely Manners, and the moral Part. For this is the Effect, and this the Beauty of their Art, S. VI. WITH regard to Dramatick Poetry, we must first diftinguish between Tragedy, and Comedy. The former exhibits fuch great Events as are apt to excite violent Paffions. The latter only defcribes the Manners of Men in a private Condition. As for TRAGEDY, I muft begin with declaring that I wish our Poets may never aim at improving any Scene that reprefents fuch criminal Paffions as tend to inflame the Spectators. I obferv'd before that PLATO and other wife Legiflators among the Heathen excluded from their well-regulated Societys all fuch Fables and mufical Inftruments as might unman the People by inclining them to Senfuality. How much Severity then ought Chriftian Nations to fhow against all contagious Spectacles? So far am I from defiring to have fuch Entertainments improv'd, that it gives me a fenfible Pleafure to obferve that among us they are very low and imperfect. Our Poets have made them as luscious and infipid as Romances. The Lover talks of nothing but Flames, in vocal Measures of Syllables, and Sounds, to exprefs the Harmony and Numbers of an inward kind; and reprefent the Beautys of a human Soul by proper Foils and Contrarietys, which ferve as Graces in this Limning, and render this Mufick of the Paffions more powerful and enchanting. CHARACT. Vol. I. p. 136, 7. |