Gent._, § 37). Plato, _In Alcibiad._, ii., Cronius,
Porphyry, Phurnutus, Iamblichus, cited by Court de Gébelin,
_Génie allég._, p. 36, 43; Plato, _In Ion._; Cicero, _De
Natur. Deor._, l. ii.; Strabo, l. i.; Origen, _Contr. Cels._
Among the moderns can be counted Bacon, Blackwell, Basnage,
Bergier, and Court de Gébelin himself, who has given a list
of eighty writers who have this opinion.
[103] Dionys. Halic., _De Comp. verb._, t. v., c. 16, 26;
Quintil., l. x., c. 1; Longin., _De Sublim._, c. 13; Ælian.,
_Var. Hist._, l. viii., c. 2; Plat., _Alcibiad._, i.
[104] Plat., _In Vitâ Lycurg._
[105] Allat., _De Patr. Homer._, c. 5; Meurs., _In Pisist._,
c. 9 et 12; Plat., _In Hipparc._
[106] Senec., _Epist._, 117.
[107] _Ibidem_, 88.
[108] Dionys. Halic., _In Vitâ Homer._; Eustath., _In
Iliad_, l. i.
[109] Strabo, l. xiv., p. 646.
[110] Arist., _De Poët._, c. 2, cit. par Barth., _Voyag.
d’Anach._, t. vii., c. 80, p. 44.
[111] The word _Epopœia_ is taken from the Greek ἐπο-ποιός
which designates alike a poet and an epic poem. It is
derived from the Phœnician words אפא (_apho_) an impassioned
transport, a vortex, an impulse, an enthusiasm; and פאה
(_phohe_), a mouth, a discourse. One can observe that the
Latin word _versus_, which is applied also to a thing which
turns, which is borne along, and to a poetic verse,
translates exactly the Greek word ἔπος, whose root אוף
(_aôph_) expresses a _vortex_. The Hebrew אופן (_aôphon_)
signifies properly a _wheel_.
[112] See in the collection of Meibomius, Aristides,
Quintilianus, and _Les Mém. de l’Acad. des Belles-Lettres_,
t. v., p. 152.
[113] Voltaire, _Dict. philos._, art. RIME.
[114] Refer to what I have already said in last footnote p.
40.
[115] Fréret said that the verses of the poet Eumelus
engraven upon the arch of the Cypselidæ were thus
represented. Voyez sa _Dissert. sur l’Art de l’Equitation_.
Il cite Pausanias, l. v., p. 419.
[116] Court de Gébelin, _Mond. primit._, t. ix., p. 222.
Conférez avec Aristotle, _Poët._, p. 20, 21, 22.
[117] Plat., _Dial. Ion_.
[118] Plat., _ut suprà_.
[119] Ælian., _Var. Hist_., l. xiii., c. 14; Diog. Laërt.,
_In Solon._, l. i., § 57.
[120] Plat., _In Hipparc._; Pausan, l. vii., c. 26; Cicer.,
_De Orat._, l. iii.
[121] Eustath., _In Iliad._, l. i., p. 145; l. ii., p. 263.
[122] Dionys. Halic., _De Comp. verb._, t. v., c. 16 et 24;
Quintil., _Instit._, l. x., c. 1.
[123] Athen., l. xv., c. 8; Aristot., _De Poët._, c. 16;
Ælian., _Var. Hist._, c. 15.
[124] Barthel., _Voyag. d’Anarchar._, t. vii., ch. 80, p.
46, 52.
[125] It can be seen that I have placed in the word
Stesi[`c]horus, an _accent grave_ over the consonant _c_,
and it will be noticed that I have used it thus with respect
to many similar words. It is a habit I have contracted in
writing, so as to distinguish, in this manner, the double
consonant _ch_, in the foreign words, or in their
derivatives, when it should take the guttural inflexion, in
place of the hissing inflexion which we ordinarily give to
it. Thus I accent the _[`c]_ in _Chio_, _[`c]hœur_,
_[`c]horus_, _é[`c]ho_, _[`c]hlorose_, _[`c]hiragre_,
_[`c]hronique_, etc.; to indicate that these words should be
pronounced _Khio_, _khœur_, _khorus_, _ékho_, _khlorose_,
_khiragre_, _khronique_, with the aspirate sound of _k_, and
not with that of the hissing _c_, as in _Chypre_, _chaume_,
_échope_, _chaire_, etc. This accentuation has appeared to
me necessary, especially when one is obliged to transcribe
in modern characters many foreign words which, lacking
usage, one knows not, at first, how to pronounce. It is,
after all, a slight innovation in orthography, which I leave
to the decision of the grammarians. I only say that it will
be very difficult for them, without this accent, or any
other sign which might be used, to know how one should
pronounce with a different inflexion, _A[`c]haïe_ and
_Achéen_; _Achille_ and _A[`c]hilleïde; Achêron_ and
_a[`c]hérontique_; _Bac[`c]hus_ and _bachique_, etc.
[126] Vossius, _De Inst. poët._, l. iii., c. 15; Aristot.,
_Rhet._, l. ii., 23; Max. Tyr. _Orat._, viii., p. 86.
[127] Ælian., _Var. Hist._, l. xiii., c. 14, Court de
Gébelin, _Mond. prim._, t. viii., p. 202.
[128] Plat., _In Theæt._; _ibid._, _De Republ._, l. x.;
Arist., _De Poët._, c. 4, etc.
[129] The name of Homeridæ, given at first to all the
disciples of Homer, was afterwards usurped by certain
inhabitants of Chios who called themselves his descendants
(Strab., l. xiv.; Isocr., _Hellen. encom._). Also I should
state here that the name of Homer, Ὅμηρος, was never of
Greek origin and has not signified, as has been said,
_blind_. The initial letter O is not a negation, but an
article added to the Phœnician word מרא (_mœra_), which
signifies, properly speaking, a centre of light, and
figuratively, a master, a doctor.
[130] The surname Eumolpidæ, given to the hierophants,
successors of Orpheus, comes from the word Εὔμολπος, by
which is designated the style of poetry of this divine man.
It signifies _the perfect voice_. It is derived from the
Phœnician words מלא (_mola_), perfected, and פאה (_phoh_),
mouth, voice, discourse. The adverb ἔυ, which precedes it,
expresses whatever is beautiful, holy, perfect.
[131] Fabric., _Bibl. Græc._, p. 36, 105, 240, 469,
_passim_; Arist., _Probl._, xix., 28; Meurs., _Bibl. Græc._,
c. i.
[132] Arist., _De Poët._, c. 8.
[133] Porphyre, _In Vitâ Pythagor._, p. 21; Clem. Alex., l.
vi., p. 658; Plato, _De Leg._, l. iii.; Plutar., _De
Music._, p. 1141; Poll., l. iv., c. 9.
[134] I have placed the epoch of Orpheus, which coincides
with that of the arrival of the Egyptian colony conducted
into Greece by Cecrops, at 1582 B.C., according to the
marbles of Paros.
[135] Schol. Aristoph., _In Nub._, v. 295.
[136] Athen., l. ii., c. 3.
[137] Voyez _L’Hist. du Théâtre Français_ de Fontenelle.
Voici les titres des premières pièces représentées dans le
cours du XIVᵉ siècle: _L’Assomption de la glorieuse Vierge
Marie_, mystère à 38 personnages; _Le Mystère de la Sainte
Hostie_, à 26 personn.; _Le Mystère de Monseigneur S. Pierre
et S. Paul_, à 100 personn.; _Les Mystères de la Conception
de la Passion, de la Résurrection de Notre Seigneur J. C._;
etc.
[138] See _Asiatic Researches_, v. iii., p. 427-431, and
465-467. Also _Grammar of the Bengal Language_, preface, p. v.
[139] See _Interesting Historical Events_, by Holwell, ch. 7.
[140] Aristot., _Probl._, 15, c. 19; Pausan., l. i., c. 7.
[141] See _Asiatic Researches_, vol. vi., p. 300-308.
[142] Rama is, in Sanskrit, the name of that which is
dazzling, elevated, white, sublime, protective, beautiful,
excellent. This word has exactly the same sense in the
Phœnician רמ (_ram_). Its primitive root, which is
universalized by the _hémantique_ letter מ (_m_), is רא
(_ra_), which has reference to the harmonic movement of
good, of light, and of sight. The name of the adversary of
Rama, _Rawhan_, is formed from the root רע (_rawh_) which
expresses, on the contrary, the disordered movement of evil
and of fire, and which, becoming united with the
augmentative syllable ון (_ôn_), depicts whatever ravages
and ruins; this is the signification which it has in
Sanskrit.
[143] From the word רמא (_rama_) is formed in Phœnician the
word דרמא (_drama_) by the adjunction of the demonstrative
article ד (_d’_); that is to say, a thing which comes from
Rama: an action well ordered, beautiful, sublime, etc.
Notice that the Greek verb δραεῖν, _to act_, whence is drawn
very inappropriately the word δρᾶμα, is always attached to
the same root רא (_ra_) which is that of harmonic movement.
[144] Athen., l. ii., c. 3; Arist., _De Poët._, c. 3, 4, 5.
[145] _Tragedy_, in Greek τραγῳδία, comes from the words
τραχίς, austere, severe, lofty, and ὠδή chant.
_Comedy_, in Greek κωμῳδία, is derived from the words κῶμος,
joyful, lascivious, and ὠδή, chant.
It is unnecessary for me to say that the etymologists who
have seen in _tragedy_ a song of the goat, because τράγος
signifies a goat in Greek, have misunderstood the simplest
laws of etymology. Τράγος signifies a goat only by metaphor,
because of the roughness and heights which this animal loves
to climb; as _caper_, in Latin, holds to the same root as
_caput_; and _chèvre_, in French, to the same root as
_chef_, for a similar reason.
[146] Diog. Laërt., l. i., § 59.
[147] Plutar. _In Solon_.
[148] Arist., _De Mor._, l. iii., c. 2; Ælian., _Var.
Hist._, l. v., c. 19; Clem. Alex., _Strom._, l. ii., c. 14.
[149] Plato, _De Legib._,l. iii.
[150] Athen., l. viii., c. 8.
[151] Plutar., _De Music_.
[152] Horat., _De Art. poët_, v. 279; Vitrav., _In Prefac._,
l. vii., p. 124.
[153] Æschylus, _In Prometh._, Act I., Sc. 1, et Act. V.,
Sc. ult.
[154] Æschylus, _In Eumenid._, Act V., Sc. 3.
[155] Aristoph. _In Plut._, v. 423; Pausan., l. i., c. 28;
_Vitâ Æschyl. apud._, Stanley, p. 702.
[156] Dionys. Chrys., _Orat._, l. ii.
[157] Aristoph., _In Ran._; Philostr., _In Vitâ Apollon_, l.
vi., c. ii.
[158] Plutar., _In Cimon._; Athen., l. viii., c. 8.
[159] Philostr., _In Vitâ Apoll._, l. vi., c. ii.
[160] Schol., _In Vitâ Sophocl._; Suidas, _In_ Σοφοκλ.;
Plutar., _De Profect. Vitæ_.
[161] Aristot., _De Poët._, c. 25.
[162] Aristoph., _In Ran._, v. 874 et 1075.
[163] Philostr., _Vitâ Apoll._, l. ii., c. 2; l. iv., c. 16;
l. vi., c. 11; _Vitâ Æschyl. apud_, Robort., p. 11.
[164] Aristoph., _In Ran._; Aristot., _De Poët._, c. 25.
[165] Plato, _De Legib._, l. ii. et iii.
[166] Hérodot., l. vi., 21; Corsin., _Fast. attic._, t.
iii., p. 172; Aristot., _De Poët._, c. 9.
[167] Aristot., _De Poët._, c. 9.
[168] Susarion appeared 580 B.C., and Thespis some years
after. The latter produced his tragedy of Alcestis in 536
B.C.; and the condemnation of Socrates occurred in 399 B.C.
So that only 181 years elapsed between the initial
presentation of comedy and the death of this philosopher.
[169] Aristot., _De Poët._, c. 3.
[170] Aristoph, _In Pac._, v. 740; Schol., _ibid._;
Epicharm., _In Nupt. Heb._ apud Athen., l. iii., p. 85.
[171] Plat., _In Argum._; Aristoph. p. xi.; Schol., _De
Comœd._; _ibid._, p.xii.
[172] Thence arises the epithet of _Eumolpique_ that I give
to the verses which form the subject of this work.
[173] The proof that Rome was scarcely known in Greece, at
the epoch of Alexander, is that the historian Theopompus,
accused by all critics of too much prolixity, has said only
a single word concerning this city, to announce that she had
been taken by the Gauls (Pliny, l. iii., c. 5). Bayle
observes with much sagacity, that however little Rome had
been known at that time, she would not have failed to
furnish the subject of a long digression for this historian,
who would have delighted much in it. (_Dict. crit._, art.
THEOPOMPUS, rem. E.)
[174] Diogen. Laërt., l. i., § 116. Pliny, l. v., c. 29.
Suidas, _In_ Φερεκύδης.
[175] Degerando, _Hist. des Systêm. de Phil._, t. i., p.
128, à la note.
[176] Dionys. Halic., _De Thucid. Judic._
[177] The real founder of the Atomic system such as has been
adopted by Lucretius (_De Rerum Natura_, l. i.), was
Moschus, Phœnician philosopher whose works threw light upon
those of Leucippus (Posidonius cité par Strabon, l. xvi.,
Sext. Empiric., _Adv. mathem._, p. 367). This system well
understood, does not differ from that of the monads, of
which Leibnitz was the inventor.
[178] Fréret, _Mytholog. ou Religion des Grecs_.
[179] Voltaire, who has adopted this error, has founded it
upon the signification of the word _Epos_, which he has
connected with that of Discourse (_Dictionn. philos._ au mot
EPOPÉE). But he is mistaken. The Greek word ἔπος is
translated accurately by _versus_. Thence the verb επεῖν, to
follow in the tracks, to turn, to go, in the same sense.
[180] The Greeks looked upon the Latin authors and artists
as paupers enriched by their spoils; also they learned their
language only when forced to do so. The most celebrated
writers by whom Rome was glorified, were rarely cited by
them. Longinus, who took an example of the sublime in Moses,
did not seek a single one either in Horace or in Vergil; he
did not even mention their names. It was the same with other
critics. Plutarch spoke of Cicero as a statesman; he quoted
many of his clever sayings, but he refrained from comparing
him with Demosthenes as an orator. He excuses himself on
account of having so little knowledge of the Latin tongue,
he who had lived so long in Rome! Emperor Julian, who has
written only in Greek, cites only Greek authors and not one
Latin.
[181] _Voyez_ l’ouvrage de Naudé, intitulé: _Apologie des
hommes accusés de magie_. Le nombre de ces hommes est
très-considérable.
[182] Allard, _Bibl. du Dauphiné_, à la fin.
[183] Duplessis-Mornai, _Mystère d’iniquité_, p. 279.
[184] This Ballad tongue, or rather Romance, was a mixture
of corrupt Latin, Teutonic, and ancient Gallic. It was
called thus, in order to distinguish it from the pure Latin
and French. The principal dialects of the Romance tongue
were the _langue d’oc_, spoken in the south of France, and
the _longue d’oïl_, spoken in the north. It is from the
_langue d’oïl_ that the French descend. The _langue d’oc_,
prevailing with the troubadours who cultivated it,
disappeared with them in the fourteenth century and was lost
in numberless obscure provincial dialects. Voyez _Le
Troubadour_, poésies occitaniques, à la Dissert., vol. i.
[185] Fontenelle, _Hist. du Théâtre Français_.
[186] Voyez Sainte-Palaye, _Mém. sur l’ancienne Cheval._;
Millot, _Hist. des Troubad._ Disc. prélim., on ce que j’ai
dit moi-même dans le _Troubadour_, comme ci-dessus.
[187] It is necessary to observe that _vau_ or _val_, _bau_
or _bal_, according to the dialect, signifies equally a
dance, a ball, and a folly, a fool. The Phœnician, root רע
(_whal_) expresses all that is elevated, exalted. The French
words _bal_, _vol_, _fol_, are here derived.
[188] The sonnets are of Oscan origin. The word _son_
signifies a song in the ancient _langue d’oc_. The word
_sonnet_ is applied to a little song, pleasing and of an
affected form.
The madrigals are of Spanish origin as their name
sufficiently proves. The word _gala_ signifies in Spanish a
kind of favour, an honour rendered, a gallantry, a present.
Thus _Madrid-gala_ arises from a gallantry in the Madrid
fashion.
The sylves, called _sirves_ or _sirventes_ by the
troubadours, were kinds of serious poems, ordinarily
satirical. These words come from the Latin _sylva_ which,
according to Quintilius, is said of a piece of verse recited
_ex-tempore_ (l. x., c. 3).
[189] _Voyez_ Laborde, _Essai sur la Musique_, t. i., p.
112, et t. ii., p. 168. On trouve, de la page 149 à la page
232 de ce même volume, un catalogue de tous les anciens
romanciers français. On peut voir, pour les Italiens,
Crescembini, _Della Volgar Poësia_.
[190] See Laborde. It is believed that this Guilhaume,
bishop of Paris, is the author of the hieroglyphic figures
which adorn the portal of Notre-Dame, and that they have
some connection with the hermetic science. (_Biblioth. des
Phil. Chim._, t. iv. Saint-Foix, Essai _sur Paris_.)
[191] Perhaps one is astonished to see that I give the name
of _sirventes_, or sylves, to that which is commonly called
the poems of Dante; but in order to understand me, it is
necessary to consider that these poems, composed of stanzas
of three verses joined in couplets, are properly only long
songs on a serious subject, which agrees with the _sirvente_.
The poems of Bojardo, of Ariosto, of Tasso, are, as to form,
only long ballads. They are poems because of the unity
which, notwithstanding the innumerable episodes with which
they are filled, constitutes the principal subject.
[192] Pasquier, _Hist. et Recherch. des Antiq._, l. vii.,
ch. 12. Henri-Etienne, _Précellence du Lang. Franç._, p. 12.
D’Olivet, _Prosod._, art. i., § 2. Delisle-de-Salles, _Hist.
de la Trag._, t. i., p. 154, à la note.
[193] D’Olivet, _Prosod._, art. V., § 1.
[194] _Ibidem._
[195] William Jones, _Asiatic Researches_, vol. i.
[196] _Ibid._, vol. i., p. 425.
[197] William Jones, _Asiatic Researches_, vol. i., p. 430.
[198] Wilkin’s _Notes on the Hitopadesa_, p. 249. Halled’s
_Grammar_, in the preface. The same, _Code of the Gentoo-Laws_.
_Asiat. Research._, vol. i., p. 423.
[199] _Asiat. Research._, vol. i., p. 346. Also in same
work, vol. i., p. 430.
[200] W. Jones has put into English a Natak entitled
_Sakuntala_ or _The Fatal Ring_, of which the French
translation has been made by Brugnières. Paris, 1803, chez
Treuttel et Würtz.
[201] See _Asiat. Research._, vol. iii., p. 42, 47, 86, 185,
etc.
[202] _Asiat. Research._, vol. i., p. 279, 357 et 360.
[203] _Institut. of Hindus-Laws._ W. Jones, _Works_, t.
iii., p. 51. _Asiat. Research._, vol. ii., p. 368.
[204] _Hist. génér. de la Chine_, t. i., p. 19. _Mém.
concern. les Chinois_, t. i., p. 9, 104, 160. _Chou-King._
Ch. _Yu-Kong_, etc., Duhalde, t. i., p. 266. _Mém.
concern._, etc., t. xiii., p. 190.
[205] The _She-King_, which contains the most ancient poetry
of the Chinese, is only a collection of odes and songs, of
sylves, upon different historical and moral subjects. (_Mém.
concer. les Chinois_, t. i., p. 51, et t. ii., p. 80.)
Besides, the Chinese had known rhyme for more than four
thousand years. (_Ibid._, t. viii., p. 133-185.).
[206] Le P. Parennin says that the language of the Manchus
has an enormous quantity of words which express, in the most
concise and most picturesque manner, what ordinary languages
can do only by aid of numerous epithets or periphrases.
(Duhalde, _in-fol._, t. iv., p. 65.)
[207] _Ci-dessus_, p. 31.
[208] _Voyez_ la traduction française des _Rech. asiatiq._,
t. ii., p. 49, notes _a_ et _b_.
[209] _Voyez_ ce que dit de Zend, Anquetil Duperron,
et l’exemple qu’il donne de cette ancienne langue.
_Zend-Avesta_, t. i.
[210] D’Herbelot, _Bibl. orient._, p. 54. _Asiat.
Research._, t. ii., p. 51.
[211] Anquetil Duperron, _Zend-Avesta_, t. i.
[212] _Asiat. Research._, t. ii., p. 51.
[213] L’abbé Massieu, _Histor. de la Poésie franç._, p. 82.
[214] In Arabic ديوان (_diwan_). ןאויד
[215] D’Herbelot, _Bibl. orient._, au mot DIVAN. _Asiat.
Research._, t. ii., p. 13.
[216] It must be remarked that the word _Diw_, which is also
Persian, was alike applied in Persia to the Divine
Intelligence, before Zoroaster had changed the signification
of it by the establishment of a new doctrine, which,
replacing the _Diws_ by the _Iseds_, deprived them of the
dominion of Heaven, and represented them as demons of the
earth. See Anquetil Duperron, _Vendidad-Sadè_, p. 133,
_Boun-Dehesh._, p. 355. It is thus that Christianity has
changed the sense of the Greek word Δαίμων (Demon), and
rendered it synonymous with the devil; whereas it signified
in its principle, divine spirit and genius.
[217] _Asiat. Research._, t. ii., p. 13.
[218] _Voyez_ Anquetil Duperron, _Zend-Avesta_, t. iii., p.
527 et suiv. _Voyez_ aussi un ouvrage allemand de Wahl, sur
l’état de la Perse: _Pragmatische-Geografische und Statische
Schilderung_ … etc. Leipzig, 1795, t. i., p. 198 à 204.
[219] Voyez plusieurs de leurs chansons rapportées par
Laborde, _Essai sur la Musique_, t. ii., p. 398.
[220] Laborde, _ibid._, t. i., p. 425.
[221] I will give, later on, a strophe from _Voluspa_, a
Scandinavian ode of _eumolpique_ style, very beautiful, and
of which I will, perhaps, one day make an entire
translation.
[222] It was said long ago that a great number of rhymed
verses were found in the Bible, and Voltaire even has cited
a ridiculous example in his _Dictionnaire philosophique_
(art. RIME): but it seems to me that before concerning
oneself so much as one still does, whether the Hebraic text
of the _Sepher_ is in prose or in verse, whether or not one
finds there rhymed verses after the manner of the Arabs, or
measured after the manner of the Greeks, it would be well to
observe whether one understands this text. The language of
Moses has been lost entirely for more than two thousand four
hundred years, and unless it be restored with an aptitude,
force, and constancy which is nowadays unusual, I doubt
whether it will be known exactly what the legislator of the
Hebrews has said regarding the principles of the Universe,
the origin of the earth, and the birth and vicissitudes of
the beings who people it. These subjects are, however, worth
the pains if one would reflect upon them; I cannot prevent
myself from thinking that it would be more fitting to be
occupied with the meaning of the words, than their
arrangements by long and short syllables, by regular or
alternate rhymes, which is of no importance whatever.
[223] Vossius, _De Poematum cantu et viribus rhythmi_; cité
par J. J. Rousseau, _Dictionnaire de Musique_, art. RYTHME.
[224] Nearly all of the Italian words terminate with one of
four vowels, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, without accent: it is very
rare that the vowels are accentuated, as the vowel _ù_. When
this occurs as in _cità_, _perchè_, _dì_, _farò_, etc.,
then, only, is the final masculine. Now here is what one of
their best rhythmic poets, named Tolomèo, gives as an
hexameter verse:
_Questa, per affeto, tenerissima lettera mando
A te_ …
To make this line exact, one feels that the word _mando_,
which terminates it, should be composed of two longs, that
is to say, that it should be written _mandò_, which could
not be without altering the sense entirely. Marchetti has
translated into blank verse the Latin poem of Lucretius. I
will quote the opening lines. Here is evident the softness
to which I take exception and which prevents them from being
really eumolpique, according to the sense that I have
attached to this word.
_Alma figlia di Giove, inclita madre
Del gran germe d’Enea, Venere bella,
Degli uomini piacere e degli Dei:
Tu, che sotto il volubili e lucenti
Segni del cielo, il mar profundo, e tutta
D’animai d’ogni specie orni la terra:_
... etc.
[225] One must not believe that the mute _e_ with which many
English words terminate represents the French feminine
final, expressed by the same vowel. This mute _e_ is in
reality mute in English; ordinarily it is only used to give
a more open sound to the vowel which precedes it, as in
_tale_, _scene_, _bone_, _pure_, _fire_. Besides it is never
taken into account, either in the measure or in the prosody
of the lines. Thus these two lines of Dryden rhyme exactly:
“Now scarce the Trojan fleet with sails and oars
Had left behind the fair Sicilian shores.…”
_Æneid_, b. i., v. 50.
It is the same in these of Addison:
“Tune ev’ry string and ev’ry tongue,
Be thou the Muse and subject of our song.…”
_St. Cecilia’s Day_, i., 10.
or these from Goldsmith:
“How often have I loiter’d o’er thy green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”
_The Deserted Village_, i., 7.
[226] There remains to us of this poetry the very precious
fragments contained in the _Edda_ and in _Voluspa_. The
_Edda_, whose name signifies great-grandmother, is a
collection, fairly ample, of Scandinavian traditions.
_Voluspa_ is a sort of Sibylline book, or cosmogonic oracle,
as its name indicates. I am convinced that if the poets of
the north, the Danes, Swedes, and Germans, had oftener drawn
their subjects from these indigenous sources, they would
have succeeded better than by going to Greece to seek them
upon the summits of Parnassus. The mythology of Odin,
descended from the Rhipæan mountains, suits them better than
that of the Greeks, whose tongue furthermore is not
conformable here. When one makes the moon and the wife (_der
Mond_, _das Weib_) of masculine and neuter gender; when one
makes the sun, the air, time, love (_die Sonne_, _die Luft_,
_die Zeit_, _die Liebe_) of feminine gender, one ought
wisely to renounce the allegories of Parnassus. It was on
account of the sex given to the sun and the moon that the
schism arose, of which I have spoken, in explaining the
origin of the temple of Delphi.
The Scandinavian allegories, however, that I consider a
_débris_ of Thracian allegories, furnishing subjects of a
very different character from those of the Greeks and
Latins, might have varied the poetry of Europe and prevented
the Arabesque fiction from holding there so much ascendancy.
The Scandinavian verses, being without rhyme, hold moreover,
to eumolpœia. The following is a strophe from _Voluspa_:
“Avant que le temps fût, Ymir avait été;
Ni la mer, ni nes vents n’existaient pas encore;
Il n’était de terre, il n’était point de ciel:
Tout n’était qu’un abîme immense, sans verdure.”