Mons. Dacier, Mons. de Sévigné, Boileau, and others, have left their
dispute on the meaning of this sentence in a tract considerably longer
than the poem of Horace. It is printed at the close of the eleventh
volume of Madame de Sévigné's Letters, edited by Grouvelle, Paris, 1806.
Presuming that all who can construe may venture an opinion on such
subjects, particularly as so many who _can't_ have taken the same
liberty, I should have held "my farthing candle" as awkwardly as
another, had not my respect for the wits of Louis 14th's Augustan
"Siècle" induced me to subjoin these illustrious authorities. I
therefore offer:
firstly Boileau: "Il est difficile de trailer des sujets qui sont à la
portée de tout le monde d'une maniere qui vous les rende propres, ce qui
s'appelle s'approprier un sujet par le tour qu'on y donne."
2dly, Batteux: "Mais il est bien difficile de donner des traits propres
et individuels aux etres purement possibles."
3dly, Dacier: "Il est difficile de traiter convenablement ces caractères
que tout le monde peut inventer."
Mr. Sévigné's opinion and translation, consisting of some thirty pages,
I omit, particularly as Mr. Grouvelle observes, "La chose est bien
remarquable, aucune de ces diverses interpretations ne parait être la
veritable." But, by way of comfort, it seems, fifty years afterwards,
"Le lumineux Dumarsais" made his appearance, to set Horace on his legs
again, "dissiper tous les nuages, et concilier tous les dissentiments;"
and I suppose some fifty years hence, somebody, still more luminous,
will doubtless start up and demolish Dumarsais and his system on this
weighty affair, as if he were no better than Ptolemy or Copernicus and
comments of no more consequence than astronomical calculations. I am
happy to say, "la longueur de la dissertation" of Mr. D. prevents Mr. G.
from saying any more on the matter. A better poet than Boileau, and at
least as good a scholar as Mr. de Sévigné, has said,
"A little learning is a dangerous thing."
And by the above extract, it appears that a good deal may be rendered as
useless to the Proprietors.
[Byron chose the words in question, Difficile,' etc., as a motto for the
first five cantos of 'Don Juan']
[Footnote 16: About two years ago a young man named Townsend was
announced by Mr. Cumberland, in a review (since deceased) [the 'London
Review'], as being engaged in an epic poem to be entitled "Armageddon."
The plan and specimen promise much; but I hope neither to offend Mr.
Townsend, nor his friends, by recommending to his attention the lines of
Horace to which these rhymes allude. If Mr. Townsend succeeds in his
undertaking, as there is reason to hope, how much will the world be
indebted to Mr. Cumberland for bringing him before the public! But, till
that eventful day arrives, it may be doubted whether the premature
display of his plan (sublime as the ideas confessedly are) has not,--by
raising expectation too high, or diminishing curiosity, by developing
his argument,--rather incurred the hazard of injuring Mr. Townsend's
future prospects. Mr. Cumberland (whose talents I shall not depreciate
by the humble tribute of my praise) and Mr. Townsend must not suppose me
actuated by unworthy motives in this suggestion. I wish the author all
the success he can wish himself, and shall be truly happy to see epic
poetry weighed up from the bathos where it lies sunken with Southey,
Cottle, Cowley (Mrs. or Abraham), Ogilvy, Wilkie, Pye, and all the "dull
of past and present days." Even if he is not a 'Milton', he may be
better than 'Blackmore'; if not a 'Homer', an 'Antimachus'. I should
deem myself presumptuous, as a young man, in offering advice, were it
not addressed to one still younger. Mr. Townsend has the greatest
difficulties to encounter; but in conquering them he will find
employment; in having conquered them, his reward. I know too well "the
scribbler's scoff, the critic's contumely;" and I am afraid time will
teach Mr. Townsend to know them better. Those who succeed, and those who
do not, must bear this alike, and it is hard to say which have most of
it. I trust that Mr. Townsend's share will be from 'envy'; he will soon
know mankind well enough not to attribute this expression to malice.
[This note was written [at Athens] before the author was apprised of Mr.
Cumberland's death [in May, 1811].--'MS'. (See Byron's letter to Dallas,
August 27, 1811.) The Rev. George Townsend (1788-1857) published 'Poems'
in 1810, and eight books of his 'Armageddon' in 1815. They met with the
fate which Byron had predicted. In later life he compiled numerous works
of scriptural exegesis. He was a Canon of Durham from 1825 till his
death.]]
[Footnote 17: The first line of 'A Spirit of Discovery by Sea', by the
Rev. W. Lisle Bowles, first published in 1805.]
[Footnote 18: Harvey, the 'circulator' of the 'circulation' of the
blood, used to fling away Virgil in his ecstasy of admiration and say,
"the book had a devil." Now such a character as I am copying would
probably fling it away also, but rather wish that "the devil had the
book;" not from dislike to the poet, but a well-founded horror of
hexameters. Indeed, the public school penance of "Long and Short" is
enough to beget an antipathy to poetry for the residue of a man's life,
and, perhaps, so far may be an advantage.]
[Footnote 19:
"'Infandum, regina, jubes renovare dolorem'."
I dare say Mr. Tavell (to whom I mean no affront) will understand me;
and it is no matter whether any one else does or no.--To the above
events, "'quæque ipse miserrima vidi, et quorum pars magna fui'," all
'times' and 'terms' bear testimony. [The Rev. G.F. Tavell was a fellow
and tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, during Byron's residence, and
owed this notice to the "zeal with which he protested against his
juvenile vagaries." During a part of his residence at Trinity, Byron
kept a tame bear in his rooms in Neville's Court. (See 'English Bards',
l. 973, 'note', and postscript to the Second Edition, 'ante', p. 383. See
also letter to Miss Pigot, October 26, 1807.)