559 3 A COLLECTION OF MY REMARKS, AND DETACHED PIECES, ON DIFFERENT SUBJECTS. NO. I. December 23rd, 1763.-ALL epic poets seem to consider an exact catalogue of the armies which they send into the field, and of the heroes by whom they are commanded, as a necessary and essential part of their poems. A commentator is obliged to justify this practice; but to what reader did it ever give pleasure? Such catalogues destroy the interest and retard the progress of the action, when our attention to it is most alive. All the beauties of detail, and all the ornaments of poetry, scarcely suffice to amuse our weariness; a weariness produced by such enumerations even in historical works, but which are pardoned in them, because necessary. In history, the victory commonly depends on the number and quality of the troops; but in epic poetry, it is always decided by the protection of the gods and the marvellous valour of the hero. Achilles is invincible; his myrmidons are scarcely known. Homer has indeed given a catalogue; yet this perhaps was not right in Homer, or right only in him. Ought his particular example to make a general law? In that case, the subject of every epic poem ought to be a siege, and the poem ought to conclude before either the place is taken or the siege raised. Poets themselves afford a convincing proof that they were sensible of following custom rather than reason, by treating those catalogues merely as episodes, and by introducing into them heroes, who are rarely those of history; and who, after shining a moment in those reviews, totally disappear, in order to make room for characters more essential to the action. An epic poet stands not in need of so dull and vulgar an expedient for making the reader acquainted with his true heroes. A critic may condemn those poetical catalogues; but woe to the critic, if he is insensible to all the beauties by which that of Virgil is adorned; the brightness of his colouring, the number and variety of his pictures, and that sweet and well-sustained harmony, which always charms the ear and the soul. The army of the Tuscans is not inferior to that of Turnus; being also composed of the flower of many warlike nations assembled under the standards of heroes and demigods. But it enjoys over the Rutuli an advantage which it was natural should belong to the allies of Eneas; having justice and the gods on its side. Every reader, while he detests the crimes of Mezentius, must applaud the exertions of a free and generous people, who have ventured to dethrone their tyrant, and are eager to punish him. I have always wondered that the courtier of Augustus should have introduced an episode which would have been more properly treated by the friend of Brutus. Every line breathes republica sentiments, the boldest, and perhaps the most extrava gant. Mezentius was the lawful and hereditary sovereign of a Ergo omnis furiis surrexit Etruria justis, VIRGIL, Eneid viii. 494. "If I wished to establish it as a general and unlimited principle, that subjects have a right to punish the crimes of their sovereigns, I would prefer this example, which admits of neither modification nor restriction. Among the ancients themselves, it appears to me to have been as singular in theory as the death of Agis was in practice. Augustus must have read both with terror; and had Virgil continued to recite the eighth book of the Æneid, I suspect that he would not have been so well rewarded for the story of Mezentius as he was for the panegyric of Marcellus. My surprise increases when I consider that the story of Mezentius is entirely Virgil's invention; that it entered not into the general plan of his poem; and that he himself had not thought of it when he composed his seventh book. It appears that Virgil, after forming a general idea of his design, trusted to his genius for supplying him with the means of carrying it into execution; and that entering into the character and situation of his hero, he prepared for him difficulties to encounter, without knowing exactly how he would surmount them: in one word, when he landed Æneas on the banks of the Tiber, that he knew not the whole series of events which should lead to the death of Turnus. I say the whole series of events; for the part of Mezentius depends on the introduction of Evander and Pallas, and the death of Pallas is intimately connected with that of Turnus. This manner of writing is not destitute of its advantages. It is applauded in Richardson, who has only imitated Virgil. The truth and boldness by which it is characterised far surpass the timid perplexity of a writer, who, while he forms his plot, is at the same time considering how he shall unravel it. Virgil's example is surely more worthy of imitation than that of Chapelain, who wrote the whole of his Pucelle in prose before he translated it into poetry. I am sensible that had Virgil lived to revise his work, he would have given to it uniformity and unity; and carefully effaced all those marks by which an attentive reader may perceive in it detached parts, not originally written the one for the other. Of these take the following examples. 1. Mezentius appears at the head of the warriors who follow Turnus, but appears as a king completely master of his dominions. He arrives from the Tyrrhenian coasts with numerous troops, and his son, the valiant Lausus, follows him with a thousand warriors from the city of Cære. 2. Messapus, king of the Falisci, is a Tuscan. Fescennium, Soracte, the Ciminian forest, are among the most celebrated places of Etruria. This Tuscan prince, would he have forsaken the whole body of his nation united by the crimes of Mezentius? Is it to be expected that he should be found in the camp of the enemy; or that he would have brought, as auxiliaries to Turnus, a people sunk in effeminacy, and who knew war only by their detestation of it? The poet would have coloured so extraordinary a measure by assuming for it some probable motive. Would he have said that all Etruria was in insurrection against Mezentius? 3. Aventinus, of Mount Aventine, the son of Hercules, makes a striking figure in the catalogue; but his part is inconsistent with that of Evander. They reigned at the same time, and over the same place. It will be said that one of those princes occupied the Palatine, while the other reigned over the Aventine Mount. This is impossible; for Evander shows the Aventine to Æneas, which was a barren rock,* situate in his little kingdom, which had no other boundaries than the Tiber, and the territory of the Rutuli.+ I believe that Virgil would also have corrected some faults, which it is painful to see in his enumeration of the Tuscan warriors. He well knew that when a poet speaks of a science, he ought to do it with precision; and he could not forget that accurate geography is not incompatible with poetry. Of the twelve cities which composed the confederacy of Etruria, he would have named more than Care and Clusium, and he would not have dwelt on the crowd of secondary towns, which could not do otherwise than follow the standards of their respective capitals. 2. He would not have thought that seven or eight beautiful verses compensated for introducing the Ligurians, a foreign and hostile nation, into the civil wars of the Tuscans, which could only be interesting to the members of their own confederacy. 3. I see the camp of the Tuscans on the seashore near to Cære; I see their vessels, and all the preparations for a distant expedition. They embark, but it is only for a voyage of thirty miles. They prefer this navigation to an easy march of two days, which would have brought them to the country of their ally, Evander. There they would have passed the Tiber, and found themselves on the frontiers of the Rutuli. 4. This naval expedition affords matter of surprise; but that of the troops of Mantua is totally incredible. Five hundred warriors embarking on the Mincius, could not arrive in the Tuscan sea without making the circumnavigation of the whole Italian coast. Virgil loved the place of his birth; but he might easily have discovered the means of bringing its ancient inhabitants to the assistance of Æneas, without offending against probability and geography. NO. II. Lausanne, December 24th, 1763.—I proceed to say a few words on the catalogue of Silius Italicus. 1. It would ill become me to * Virgil, Æneid viii. 190. + Idem, 473. speak of the general plan of a poem, of which I have read only a detached passage: yet this passage is sufficient to convince me that Pliny well knew his contemporary, when he pronounced that Silius owed more to art than to nature. This art is less apparent in the style, which is easy and flowing, than in the thoughts, which are those of a man who is continually striving to be sublime, and continually struggling against his own genius in favour of his subject. I am persuaded that Silius would have judged better in taking Övid than Virgil for his model. Wherever he does not offer violence to his genius, his fancy is rich, easy, and natural. With such a character, it is surprising that he did not prefer the elegiac to the epic. The greatest part of those who have failed in this last species of poetry are distinguished by a severity of character, and a wild irregularity of fancy; and, as they had as little taste as talent, they easily mistook those qualities for strength, elevation, and originality of genius. Faults were confounded with excellencies, to which they bore some bastard resemblance. 2. Virgil was free, Silius in fetters. The former might choose among all the nations of Italy those who most suited his design: the latter could not omit any of those nations without being guilty of a fault. He was under the hard necessity of writing a poetical geography of the whole country between the Strait of Rhegium and the Alps; and this constraint is but too visible in his performance. 3. Silius followed his model with a respect bordering on superstition. Italy no longer contained in her bosom a multitude of different nations, whose arms, manners, and even languages, diffused a pleasing variety over the subject, while the story of their chiefs and founders invited the writer to agreeable excursions in the region of fancy. All those nations were become strictly Roman, and had exactly conformed to the laws, ensigns, and discipline of the republic; a vast but uniform object, which was better fitted for suggesting reflections to a philosopher,than for animating the descriptions of a poet. Silius, after seeking for characteristic differences which no longer prevailed among the nations whom he describes, is continually introducing those of the countries which they inhabited. His pictures have life and variety: but they are not in their proper place. The character of the people who were to fight, was of importance in deciding the issue of the battle; the nature of the countries which they left behind them was entirely foreign to the subject. 4. Silius ought to have remembered that Aquilina was not in existence during the second Pumic war;* and that we knew nothing of this place till it became the seat of a Latin colony, sent thither to check the incursions of the Gauls, thirty years after the battle of Cannæ.+ NO. III. Lausanne, December 25th, 1763.-An useful chapter might be added to the History of the Great Roads of the Roman Empire, by 1 * Silius Ital. viii. 606. Tit. Liv. xxxix. 55; Vell. Patercul. lib. i. cap. 15. Bergler, explaining the uses to which the Romans applied them. He has indeed mentioned posts, which afforded conveniency to a small number of persons; but has omitted many important particulars that still remain to be told. A critical examination of the ordinary journeys of travellers would afford important information concerning the private life of the Romans, and even throw light on geography and chronology. I am sensible that the differences of age, condition, and circumstances, must render our general conclusions uncertain; but as the means were universally the same, these uncertainties will be reduced within certain limits. Augustus travelled with an extraordinary slowness in the neighbourhood of Rome. A journey to Tibur (twenty Roman miles*), or to Præneste (twenty-five miles†), consumed two days, or rather two nights. But the situation of Augustus was as singular as his taste. The weakness of his health from his youth upwards, compelled him to the strictest regimen; and by his own temper he would be inclined to carry the dictates of prudence to an extreme. It appears from his faithful biographer that this prince was soon tired of debauchery; and that he always despised luxury, though much addicted to effeminacy. We may add to these circumstances, that he travelled in a litter carried by slaves; and proceeded with great slowness, that his attention might not be withdrawn a moment from his usual occupations. The gentle motion of his carriage allowed him to read, write, and attend to the same affairs which employed him in his cabinet. § From such an example, no general consequence can be deduced. The same may be said of those rapid and extraordinary journies of which the ancients sometimes make mention. How wide is the difference between the mode of travelling of Augustus and that of his son Tiberius, who accomplished a journey of two hundred miles in twenty-four hours, when he hastened to close the eyes of his brother Drusus; or that of Cæsar the dictator, who posted one hundred miles a-day with hired carriages. Statius speaks of a rapidity as extraordinary, when he says that a traveller might set out from Rome in the morning, and sleep at Baiæ or Puteoli; an expeditious journey indeed, since the distance is one hundred and forty-one Roman,** or one hundred and twenty-seven English miles. Nil obstat cupidis: nihil moratur I know that the poet wished to celebrate the fine road which Domitian had made from Sinuessa to Cuma; which had fixed the sands of Liternum, and restrained the inundations of the Vulturnus. The thirty miles which he had passed, and which used to be the work of a day, now scarcely consumed two hours. Perhaps we * Itineraria Antiq. edit. Wesseling, p. 309. Sueton. in August. lxxviii. + Idem, p. 502. § Plin. Epist. iii. 5; Juvenal, Satir. iii. 239. Sueton. in Cæsar. lvii. Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 20. ** Vetera Itiner. p. 107, 108, 122. ++ Stat. Sylvar. 14. Carm. iii. |