Vol. III.] Athenian Poets contemporary with Ariftophanes. heads of hair. They were fober, flo. venly, apt to deride, avaritious, and carried thick fhort ftaves. In the comedy Lyfiftratus, mention is made of the laconic feytales. This was a fort of letter in cypher, which was written, and read as follows: When the republic had occafon to dispatch an ambalfador, or general, on fecret orders, or to procure fome important article of intelligence, he was furnished with a batoon, equal in fize to another kept at Lacedemon. On this a bandlet of vellum or paper was rolled, containing written intimations, &c. after which, when the bandlet was taken away, it was impoffible to connect the feries of the words cut off, without the batoon, by which the bandlet was to be adjusted, or without knowing its exact fize. The Lacedemonians had a particular dance, called the Laconic Dance, or hornpipe, performed with the feet joined together, to the found of the flute. Ail useless mouths were expelled from Lacedemon, and foreigners occafionally there were treated roughly. The iflands of Thafus and Chio produced wines of great reputation. The inhabitants of Crete had invented 2 dance called the Cretan Sbake. This appears to have been a dance, in which the thighs and the reins had a confiderrable movement. The ancient kings of the Grecian cities had birds furmounted on their scepters. The Thebans, as well as the Megarians were great players on the flute. Our limits will not permit us to follow Lobineau, in his remarks on the tribunals, and the public affemblies; we fhall. notice, however, the following obfervation: in the affembly, the people held up their hands, to denote their confent to any thing propofed. This was called Quirtionia, a term afterwards adopted by Chriftians, to indicate the ordination of their fpiritual magiftrates, formerly performed by the fole impofition of hands; and hence comes the manner of speaking in French, when they fay, to fignify their confent to any thing, j'y donne les mains. Our learned and ingenious tranflator then enters into a view of the poets, tragic, comic, or lyric, of whom mention is made in Aristophanes, or his commentators; the characters which he introduced upon the ftage, and the refpectable perfonages, at the expence of whom he makes merry. Each of thefe has his article, concife but often pithy. We hall felect a few examples: ARISTOPHANES. It is juft that he hould pass the first in review himself. 537 He was bald, and has not forgotten to rally himself on this fubject. He poffeffed lands in Egina, and he flattered himself that when the Lacedemonians were feeking to make themfelves mafters of that ifland, it was in order to acquire a poet, whofe counfels, in the opinion of a Perfian king, would infallibly render better thofe who fhould follow them. He was fage in his moral conduct, and affumes merit for a practice maintained by him, of drawing up the curtain when the representation was finished, left any fhould profit of that coverture to cajole the youths for the purpose of feduction. CHAFINUS. A pifs-a-bed, puking tipler, who, in his young days, was in extraordinary vogue (all the pieces fung in the banquets being of his compofition but who, in his latter days, fell into contempt. EURIPIDES was always in high eftimation with his fellow-citizens; although Ariftophanes thought proper to befpatter him enough. He tells us, that Euripides was the fon of a water-crefs woman; that he had a fhrill fqueaking voice; that he affected little mincing words; that he had enervated tragedy; and brought on the ftage crimes, the memory of which ought rather to be obliterated; that, in argument, he reforted to vain fubtilties; and that he haftened his death by exceffive venery. He is, moreover, reprefented as grey-headed, and having a long beard. MELANTHUS was fcabby, leprous, ill-fcented, and effeminate; he had large, heavy jaws, and a fharp-toned voice. He was of a gallanting turn, although he only made love to old ladies; in which business it should seem that both he and they had enough to do. The phyficians were generally called fcatophafi; because it was their practice to tafte the excrements of their patients. ALCIBIADES lifped, and pronounced the letter L in lieu of the R: colax for corax. The poet AGATHON is reprefented with a fair complexion, a smooth skin, a feminine voice, and a beard constantly fhaved; in fine, as a handfome effemi nate man, who often enough fubmitted to perform the office of a woman. MORSINUS, the fon of Philocles, and the father of Amphidamas, was flovenly and mean-looking, a tolerably good oc culift, and a mediocre author. Arifto phanes pretends that rigorous punishments were inflicted in hell on fuch as had mifpent their time in copying paffages from this author, PANETIUS 538 Effays read before a Literary Society. PANETIUS was ill-made, fhort, ugly, and married to a great threw, who made a cuckold of him at every opportunity. SOCRATES is reprefented, in, the Clouds, as walking the ftreets, with a lofty mien, with haggard eyes, naked feet, an air of felf-fufficiency, as purJoining the clokes of his difciples, and flovenly. After this follows the French tranflation, made, as Lobineau obferves, folely after the original Greek, and the ancient fcholiafts, without any reference to the Latin verfion, or to the partial tranflation of Madame Dacier of Plutus and of the Clouds. Lobineau makes no diftinction of acts and scenes, as, he fays, it would be difficult to find in the original the five acts, which, according to fome, conftitute the whole economy of theatrical pieces; and he would not make an Imaginary diftribution. Of the tranflation itself we fhall only obferve, that it is natural and unlaboured, and that it feems to have been matured in retirement, and at a time when the French language had yet, fo to fpeak, its franc parler. In order to copy the manners of the Athenians with the greater verity, the tranflator has rather chofen to offend fome too delicate eyes, than to fall fhort of the refemblance of his portraits as a painter, employed to copy a family picture, ought neither to beautify an ugly figure, nor to change a ridiculous coftume. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, THE following Effays were read fome time in the year 1794, to a Literary Society in Liverpool. If you think them worthy of a place in your Mifceilany, they are much at your fervice, together with the best wishes of your's, P. F. ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF POETRY. No. I. "MANKIND may be divided into two claffes, confifting of thofe that are converfant with the productions of literature, and thofe that entirely, difregard them. The former clafs may be fubdivided into thofe that are "pleafed they know not why, and care not wherefore" -and thofe that enquire into the principles of their pleafures, and bring them to be meafured by the standard of reafon. It is one thing to be moved-another to enquire by what inftruments our emotions are occafioned. The former pre [Sup. dicament allies us to the literary vulgar, the latter affociates us with philofophers. "Notwithstanding the contempt that has been fhowered in fuch abundance upon critical enquiries into the principles of works of talte and genius, to thefe enquiries the human mind is irrefiftibly impelled. In this refpect the creation of the mind ftands upon the fame footing as the works of God. The delight and aftonifhment which men experienced at the fight of the wonders of nature, led to an inveftigation of their caufes; and became the germ of what is termed natural philofo. phy. And the appearance of exquifite literary productions led men to inveftigate the principles whence flowed the pleafure with which they refreshed the foul: and this gave rife to philofophical criticifm. "But it is a fact well known to thofe who have formed the flightest habit of reflection, that many fubjects which appear moft familiar and comprehenfibic, are in reality most difficult of inveftigation. The mental faculties are, perhaps, never put more intenfely on the firetch than in endeavouring to explain an axiom and when we fet about analyzing and reducing to fyftem, ideas that are daily and hourly floating on the furface of our minds, we meet with more perplexity than we were at first aware of. Thefe obfervations are furely not irrelevant when they are prefixed to an attempt at an enquiry into the nature and characteristics of poetry. "Whofe breaft has not been warmed by the mufes? Where is the man whose feelings are fo firmly bound by the froft influence of "Sacred Song?" I would of reafon as to be impenetrable to the not difhonour the prefent affembly fo much as to fuppofe that we had a brother of this defcription. But if any one be inclined to doubt the difficulty of the enquiry into which it is our bufinefs to enter, I fhall defend my affertions by the high authority of the inveftigator of the life and writings of Homer. Having looked into his book for affiftance in the tafk which I unwarily undertook, I found the following paffage, that ftrongly reminded me of the friends of Job, who are fo generally known under the charac ter of miferable comforters." "The fubject is of a nature fo delicate as not to admit of a direct definition for if ever the je ne fçais quoi was rightly. applied, it is to the powers of poetry and the faculty that produces it. To go about to defcribe it, would be like at tempting Vol. III.] On the Characteristics of Poetry. tempting to define infpiration, or that glow of fancy, or effufion of foul, which a poet feels while in his fit; a fenfation fo ftrong, that they exprefs it only by exclamations, adjurings, and rapture.' "On common occafions, a fentiment of this kind, coming, as it were, ex catbedia, would perhaps be fufficient to pre. vent any further examination. But as it is not the habit of our fociety to conform to data, which ought to be prepared with a degree of care proportionate to the weight they are likely to have; or even to require finifhed difcourfes from thofe that are requested to open the converfation; but merely a few leading ideas which may ferve as beacons to direct us in our courfe perhaps I may be excufed if I prefume to proceed a little farther. Et quodam prodire tenus finon datur ultrà: and, I think, we may fafely fay, that poetry is an art. "We have heard much indeed of the maxim poëta nafcitur, not fit, which may appear to contradict this pofition. It will perhaps be leading us aftray from the fubject, to enquire how far this doctrine is true; how much of the poet's excellence is to be attributed to the "facred bias of the foul;" and how much to the effects of culture? Granting that much depends upon the former, ftill we muft reckon poetry among the arts. For in what does art confift? Let us confult the acute Mr. Harris, who, after a minute investigation, defines art as confifting in an habitual power in man of becoming the caufe of fome effect according to a fyftem of well-approved precepts, operating for the fake of fome good, unattainable by his natural and uninftructed faculties." But arts may be divided into two claffes: thofe that conduce to "mere being" (if we may borrow the use of a term very familiar to the writer juft mentioned) and those that are fubfervient to "well being." The former, fuch as agriculture and architecture, in their rudeft ftate, carry their energies no farther than barely to the fupporting man in existence. The latter fweeten the cup of life, and give birth to innumerable pleatures. Thefe are justly styled ornamental, thofe neceffary, and, at a certain period of their progrefs, ufeful arts.-Now though when we come to the extremities when the characteristics of neceffary and 'ufeful end, and that of ornamental begins; and though much has been faid of the utility of poetry. yet, as we can easily conceive that maukind could much better 539 fpare the art of fpinning verfes than the art of fpinning wool, we fhall perhaps agree in numbering poetry among the ornamental arts. "Whenever Ariftotle, directly or indirectly, treats of poetry, he conftantly ftyles it a mimetic or imitative art. 1a this he feems to be juftified; for does not the principle of imitation pervade all its branches? When we open-I had almoft faid, the facred volume of the blind Ionian, what do we behold but a lively reprefentation of the actions and fpeeches of heroes and demi-gods-a picture fo exquifitely drawn that we may almost mistake it for reality. We can, in a manner, fe the humble Calchas fuppliantly bending before the Atrida-the haughty monarch of Argos fternly repelling from his prefence the peaceful prieft: We mark the folitary mourner wandering by the fhore of the roaring fea, and lifting up his hands to Apollo. We behold the god defcending wrapt in thick glooms." We fee him take his ftation, and hear the dire twanging of his filver bow. What are the dramas of Shakfpeare, or Efchylus, but (to use the expreffion of Cowper) "a map of huly life?" When Tibullus pours his plaintive fong, what does he but prefent before us the tablet of his heart, where we can trace his feelings and fympathize with him in his doubts and fears? In what confifts the beauty of didactic poetry, but in calling the vivid colouring of picturesque reprefentation to the aid of the uninterefting fquares and circles of precept? 66 66 Virgil introduces you to his fwainyou follow the progrefs of his labours.— With him you mark the rustling of the leaves of the foreft, hear the roaring of the fea, view the cormorant rifing from the waters, and the hern foaring above the clouds, and all the other prognoftics that forebode the coming form. "And when Akende developes the fecret wonders of the mind of man "Lightning fires the arch of heav'n, and thunders rock the ground! and Ocean, groaning from his lowest bed, heaves his tempeftuous billows to the fky amid the mighty uproar, while below the nations tremble. Shakspeare looks abroad from fome tall cliff fuperior, and enjoys the elemental war." But amidst thefe beauties we could wander for ever. Let us quit then, however reluctantly, having gathered, as the fruit of our excurfion, that, inafmuch as poetry impreffes upon our minds the 540 On the Characteristics of Poetry. are vivid pictures of material objects, and may [Sup ground. In oratory, fancy embellishes the operations of judgment; but, as poetry is a creative art, imagination is its primary caufe, and judgment a fecondary agent, pruning the luxuriant fhoots of fancy. "And now the queftion occurs, " by what means is this imitation effected?" The painter prepares his canvas; he chalks his outline; and, by the skilful combination and nice application of his colours, he produces the work that fills the heart of the connoiffeur with ecstacy, and immortalizes the name of the artift. But where are the poet's colours? What has he to combine to enable him to exalt his favourite mufe to the eminence which the claims fo far above her fifters? We anfwer, as Hamlet answered Polonius, "Words." Thefe are the poets colours-it is thefe that it is his bufinefs to arrange and combine; and this is, perhaps, the proper place to obferve, that it is the grand fource of the excellence of the poetic imitation, that its materials confift of words. Words are, by the Stagyrite, defined to be "founds fignificant"-they are fignificant of ideas. Men that adopt the fame language, by a tacit compact, agree that certain founds fhall be the reprefentatives of certain ideas; but ideas reprefent their archetypes. When, therefore, we ufe words, we revive in the minds of thofe that underftand our language, the pictures of the objects of which we fpeak. When I fpeak of a tree, or a mountain, the image of a tree and a mountain occurs in the fancy of thofe that hear me. The poetic imitation, then, being carried on by means of words, plainly embraces all objects of which mankind have ever formed ideas. Its energies are not crippled. It expatiates in the ample field of the univerfe, and paffes the flammantia limina mundi. "The dignity and beauty of the painters' art are fo univerfally felt and ac knowledged, that its admirers need not fear any difparagement of their miftrefs, when it is faid that the energies of paint ing are confined to thofe objects that can be reprefented by colour and figure. Poetry can alfo exprefs thefe objects, though it must be confeffed, with a far inferior degree of exquifiteness; but this deficiency is amply compenfated by the vaft range of the poet's excurfions: "The poet's eye, in a fine phrenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; The form of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns Vol. III.] On the Characteristics of Poetry. i urns them to fhape, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation, and a name." He dives into the human breaft, developes the windings of the heart, pourtrays, in all, their circumstances, the workings of the paffions, gives form and body to the moft abftract ideas, and, by the language which he puts into the mouths of his characters, he unlocks the fecrets of their mind. A fkilful painter would, perhaps, find a fubject worthy of his talents in Achilles, prompted by warmth, half unfheathing his fword in the council of the chiefs; but in Homer we behold the picture, and, moreover, hear the torrent of indignant language the heart-cutting words, as the poet styles them, with which he overwhelms the imperious fon of Atreus. But there is another grand advantage which the poet poffeffes over the painter, viz. that the latter is confined to the tranfactions that happen in a moment of time; while the former prefents to our view a long feries' of confecutive events. An interefting picture might, no doubt, be drawn, reprefenting the fruitless pleadings of the Grecian chiefs, who were deputed to foften the anger of Achilles. But what a fuperior picafure do we experience in contemplating the origin and progrefs of "Pelides' wrath." The various events to which it gives rife, and the numerous circumstances of which the poet has availed himself, to give dignity and confequence to the hero of his piece. Ariftotle's doctrine that a finished compo. fition fhould have a beginning, a middle, and an end, is furely founded on reafon; and the mind feels a fuperior degree of fatisfaction when the rife, the circumftances, and the confequences of events, are difplayed before it in artful order. We have, then, a farther characteristic of poetry, whereby it is not only diftinguished, but eminently diftinguished from the other imitative arts, viz. that its imitations are produced by words, and, confequently, that it has the power of reprefenting a confecutive order of events a long fucceflion of pictures ftrictly connected together, all tending to the illustration of one final object. "But the poetic imitation is conducted, not merely by words, but by words melodioufly arranged. "Melody is naturally pleafing to the human ear, and it is not furprifing that the cultivators of an art whofe province it is to delight, fhould be careful in bringing, as nearly as poffible, to perfection, the melody of their numbers. MONTHLY MAG. No. XIX. 541 In It is aftonishing with what accuracy the Greeks and. Romans attended to this particular; how minutely the value of almoft every fyllable was weighed, how ftrictly their bards were obliged to conform to the established standard. modern times, and in our own language, greater latitude is allowed; yet almoft every reader of poetry is aware of the charms of melodious compofition. What a fenfible difference do we perceive between the careless couplets of Churchill, and the fimply elegant lines of Goldfmith. How much more pleafing to the ear are the measured fentences of M'Pherion, than a hoft of lines which we fometimes find printed in the form of verfes. It is propofed, then, as another characteristic of poetry, that its imitations are effected by words, metrically and melodiously arranged. "Looking back on the way which we have already meafured, we find that poetry is an imitative art, whofe energies are conducted by means of words, metrically arranged. We fhould now proceed to enquire into its end or object; but the ideas which have been already fuggefted, will probably furnish fufficient materials for our evening's con verfation, and I muft beg leave to refume the fubject on fome future opportunity." No. II. "The concurrent voice of ages gives teftimony to the charms of poetry. Though it may appear ftrange to thofe who have not turned their attention to the matter, yet is is no lefs true, that the early efforts of human fpeech were highly poetical. The philofophical reafons for this fact, have by many writers been detailed at length; and it has been juftly obferved, that from this circumftance we have an eafy interpretation of the mythological tale of Orpheus caufing the trees to defcend from the mountains, and raifing the walls of cities by the ftrains of his lyre. "We have every reafon to fuppofe, that the maxims of early wifdom, the firft records of hiftory, the offices of religion -nay, even the dictates of law, were delivered in the poetic dress. "But when the progrefs of fociety had enlarged the faculties of the human mind, and the multiplicity of relations with which mankind became familiar, led them (if I may be permitted fo to ufe the word) to greater definition of ideas, language became, of course, more precife, and a more accurate phrafeology 4 A robbed |