After all, however, we must acknowledge, that so complex, so
diversified, and so ingenious a system as the Greek Theology, was too
much for an _uninstructed_ Genius, however exuberant, to have conceived
in its full extent. Accordingly we are told, that both Orpheus and
Museus travelled into Ægypt, and infused the traditionary learning of a
cultivated people into the minds of their own illiterate countrymen[18].
To do this the more effectually, they composed Hymns, or short sonnets,
in which their meaning was couched under the veil of beautiful allegory,
that their lessons might at once arrest the imagination, and be
impressed upon the Memory[19]. This, my Lord, we are informed by the
great Critic, was the first dress in which Poetry made its
appearance[20].
[Footnote 18: Herod. Lib. I. c. 49.]
[Footnote 19: Univ. Hist. Vol. VI. p. 221.]
[Footnote 20: Οἱ μεν γαρ σεμνοτεροι τας καλας εμιμουντο πραξεις
και τας των τοιουτων τυχας‧ οἱ δε ευτελεστεροι τας των φαυλων
πρωτον ψογους ποιουντες, ὡσπερ ἑτεροι ὙΜΝΟΥΣ και ΕΓΚΩΜΙΑ. Arist.
Poet. c. 4.]
Of Orpheus we know little more with certainty, than that the subjects of
his poems were the formation of the world, the offspring of Saturn, the
birth of the Giants, and the origin of man[21]. These were favourite
topics among the first Poets, and the discussion of them tended at once
to enlarge the imagination, and to give the reasoning faculty a proper
degree of exercise. This Poet however, though he obtained the highest
honours from his contemporaries, yet seems to have managed his subjects
in so loose a manner, that succeeding Writers will not allow him to have
been a Philosopher[22]. At present we are not sufficiently qualified to
determine his character, as most of the pieces which pass under his name
are ascribed to one Onomacritus, an Athenian who flourished about the
time of Pisistratus. That the writings of Orpheus were highly and
extensively useful, is a truth confirmed by the most convincing
evidence. The extraordinary effects which his Poetry and Music are said
to have produced, however absurd and incredible in themselves, are yet
unquestioned proofs that he was considered as a superior Genius, and
that his countrymen thought themselves highly indebted to him. Horace
gives an excellent account of this matter in very few words.
_Sylvestres homines, Sacer, Interpresque Deorum
Cædibus, & victu fœdo deterruit Orpheus,
Dictus ob hoc lenire tigres, rabidosque leones._[23]
The wood-born race of men when Orpheus tam’d,
From acorns, and from mutual blood reclaim’d.
The Priest divine was fabled to assuage
The tiger’s fierceness, and the lion’s rage. FRANCIS.
[Footnote 21: Orph. Argonaut.]
[Footnote 22: Εγω δε ει τον περι θεων εξαγορευσαντα τοιαυτα‧ χρη
φιλοσοφον καλειν ουκ οιδα τινα δει προσαγορευιν τον το ανθρωπειον
παθος αφειδουντο τοις θεοις προστριψαι, και τα σπασιως ὑπο τοιων
ανθρωπων αισχρουργουμενα, και τω ταυτης φωνης οργανω. Laer. ub.
sup.]
[Footnote 23: Hor. de Art. Poet.]
Museus, the Pupil of Orpheus, is as little known to posterity as his
Master. His only genuine production which has reached the present times
is an Ode to Ceres, a piece indeed full of exuberance and variety[24].
The Ancients in general seem to have entertained a very high opinion of
his Genius and writings, as he is said to have been the first person who
composed a regular Theogony, and is likewise celebrated as the inventor
of the Sphere[25]. His principle was that all things would finally
resolve into the same materials of which they were originally
compounded[26]. Virgil assigns him a place of distinguishied eminence in
the plains of Elysium.
_---- sic est affata Sibylla.
Musæum ante omnes, medium nam plurima turba
Hunc habet, atque humeris extantem suspicit altis[27]._
---- The Sibyl thus address’d
Musæus, rais’d o’er all the circling throng.
[Footnote 24: The beautiful story of Hero and Leander, which was
written by a person of his name, is thought to have been the work
of a Grammarian who lived about the 5th century: a conjecture
supported by very probable evidence. See Kenneth’s life of Museus,
p. 10.]
[Footnote 25: Diogen. Laert. ub. sup.]
[Footnote 26: Diogen. Laert. ub. sup.]
[Footnote 27: Æneid. Lib. 6.]
It is generally allowed that Amphion, who was a native of Bæotia,
brought music into Greece from Lydia, and invented that instrument (the
Lyre) from which Lyric Poetry takes its name[28]. Before his time they
had no regular knowledge of this divine art, though we must believe that
they were acquainted with it in some measure, as dancing is an art in
which we are informed that the earliest Poets were considerable
proficients[29].
[Footnote 28: It may not be amiss here to give the reader some
idea of the structure of the Ancient lyre, whose music is said to
have produced such wonderful effects. This instrument was composed
of an hollow frame, over which several strings were thrown,
probably in some such manner as we see them in an harp, or a
dulcimer. They did not so much resemble the viol, as the neck of
that instrument gives it peculiar advantages, of which the
Ancients seem to have been wholly ignorant. The Musician stood
with a short bow in his right hand, and a couple of small thimbles
upon the fingers of his left: with these he held one end of the
string, from which an acute sound was to be drawn, and then struck
it immediately with the bow. In the other parts he swept over
every string alternately, and allowed each of them to have its
full sound. This practice became unnecessary afterwards, when the
instrument was improved by the addition of new strings, to which
the sounds corresponded. Horace tells us, that in his time the
lyre had seven strings, and that it was much more musical than it
had been originally. Addressing himself to Mercury, he says
---- _Te docilis magistro.
Movit Amphion lapides canendo:
Tuque Testudo, resonare septem
Callida nervis;
Nec loquax olim, neque grata_ &c. Carm. Lib. III. Od. 11.
For a further account of this instrument, we shall refer the
reader to Quintilian’s Institutions. Lib. XII. c. 10.]
[Footnote 29: Particularly Orpheus and Museus. Lucian says in the
general. Τελετην αρχαιαν ουδεμιαν εστιν εὑρειν ανου ορχησεως. Lib.
de Salt.]
Such, my Lord, was the character of the first Lyric Poets, and such were
the subjects upon which they exercised invention. We have seen, in the
course of this short detail, that these Authors attempted to civilize a
barbarous people, whose imagination it was necessary to seize by every
possible expedient; and upon whom chastised composition would have
probably lost its effect, as its beauties are not perceptible to the
rude and illiterate. That they employed this method principally to
instruct their countrymen is more probable, when we remember that the
rudiments of learning were brought from Ægypt, a country in which Fable
and Allegory remarkably predominated[30]. By conversing with this
people, it is natural to suppose that men of impetuous imaginations
would imbibe their manner, and would adopt that species of composition
as the most proper, which was at the same time agreeable to their own
inclination, and authorised as expedient by the example of others.
From the whole, my Lord, we may conclude with probability, that the
Greek Hymn was originally a loose allegorical Poem, in which Imagination
was permitted to take its full career, and sentiment was rendered at
once obscure and agreeable, by being screened behind a veil of the
richest poetic imagery.
[Footnote 30: This allegorical learning was so much in use among
the Ægyptians, that the Disciples of a Philosopher were bound by
an oath. Εν ὑποκρυφοις ταυτα εχειν‧ και τοις απαιδευτοις και
αμνητοις μη μεταδεδιναι. Vid. Seld. de Diis Syr.]
The loose fragments of these early writers which have come down to our
times, render this truth as conspicuous as the nature of the subject
will permit. A Theogony, or an account of the procession of fabulous
Deities, was a theme on which Imagination might display her inventive
power in its fullest extent. Accordingly Hesiod introduces his work with
recounting the genealogy of the Muses, to whom he assigns “an apartment
and attendants, near the summit of snowy Olympus[31].” These Ladies, he
tells us, “came to pay him a visit, and complimented him with a scepter
and a branch of laurel, when he was feeding his flock on the mountain of
Helicon[32].” Some tale of this kind it was usual with the Poets to
invent, that the vulgar in those ages of fiction and ignorance might
consider their persons as sacred, and that the _offspring of their
imaginations_ might be regarded as _the children of Truth_.
[Footnote 31: ---- Ἡσιν αοιδη
Μεμβλεται, εν στηθεσσιν ακηδεα θυμον εχουσαις
Τυτθον απ’ ακροτατης κορυφης νιφεντος Ολυμπου.
Ενθα σφιν λιπαροι τε χοροι, και δωματα καλα.
Theog. a lin. 61.]
[Footnote 32:
Ὡς εφασαν Ηουραι Μεγαλου Διος αρτιεπειαι·
Και μοι σκεπτρον εδον, δαφνης εριθελεος οζον
Δρεψασθαι θηητον· επενευσαν δε μοι αυδην &c.
Theogon. l. 30.]
From the same licentious use of Allegory and Metaphor sprung the Fables
of the wars of the Giants, of the birth and education of Jupiter, of the
dethroning of Saturn, and of the provinces assigned by the Supreme to
the Inferior Deities; all of which are subjects said to have been
particularly treated by Orpheus[33]. The love of Fable became indeed so
remarkably prevalent in the earliest ages, that it is now impossible in
many instances to distinguish real from apparent truth in the History of
these times, and to discriminate the persons who were useful members of
society, from those who exist only in the works of a Poet, whose aim was
professedly to excite Admiration. Thus every event of importance was
disfigured by the colouring of poetic narration, and by ascribing to one
man the separate actions which perhaps were performed by several persons
of one name[34], we are now wholly unable to disentangle truth from a
perplexed and complicated detail of real and fictitious incidents.
[Footnote 33: Orph. Hym. in Apollon. Rhod.]
[Footnote 34: Of this, History furnisheth many examples. When one
man made an eminent figure in any profession, the actions of other
persons who had the same name were ascribed to him; and it was
perhaps partly for this reason that we find different cities
contending for the honour of giving birth to men of Genius, or
eminence. Callimachus in his Hymn to Jupiter makes an artful use
of this circumstance.
Εν δοιη μαλα θυμος· επει γενος αμφεριστον.
Ζευ σε μεν Ι’ δαιοισιν εν ουρεσι φασι γενεσθαι
Ζευ σε δ’ εν Αρκαδιη· ποτεροι Πατερ εψευσαντο
Κρητες αει ψευσται· και γαρ ταφον, ὡ ανα σειο
Κρητες ετεκτηναντο· συ δ’ ου θανες· εσσι γαρ αιει.
Callim. p. 4.]
It appears likewise from these shreds of antiquity, that the subjects of
the Hymn were not sufficiently limited, as we sometimes find one of them
addressed to several Deities, whose different functions recurring
constantly to the mind must have occasioned unavoidable obscurity[35].
The Poet by this means was led into numberless digressions, in which the
remote points of connection will be imperceptible to the reader, who
cannot place himself in some situation similar to that of the Writer,
and attend particularly to the character and manners of the period at
which he wrote.
[Footnote 35: Thus Theocritus.
Ὑμνεομες Ληδας. Τε και αιγιοχω Διος Ὑιω,
Καστορα και φοβερον Πολυδευκεα πυξ ερεθιζεν
Ὑμνεομες και Δις, και το Τριτον.]
Your Lordship, without the testimony of experience, would hardly believe
that a species of composition which derived its origin from, and owed
its peculiarities to the circumstances we have mentioned, could have
been considered in an happier æra as a pattern worthy the imitation of
cultivated genius, and the perusal of a polished and civilized people.
One is indeed ready to conclude, at the first view, that a mode of
writing which was assumed for a particular purpose, and was adopted to
the manners of an illiterate age, might at least have undergone
considerable alterations in succeeding periods, and might have received
improvements proportioned to those which are made in other branches of
the same art. But the fact is, that while the other branches of poetry
have been gradually modelled by the rules of criticism, the Ode hath
only been changed in a few external circumstances, and the enthusiasm,
obscurity and exuberance, which characterised it when first introduced,
continue to be ranked among its capital and discriminating excellencies.
To account for this phenomenon, my Lord, I need only remind your
Lordship of a truth which reflexion has, no doubt, frequently
suggested;--that the rules of criticism are originally drawen, not from
the speculative idea of perfection in an art, but from the work of that
Artist to whom either merit or accident hath appropriated the most
established character. From this position it obviously follows, that
such an art must arrive at once to its highest perfection, as the
attempts of succeeding performers are estimated not by their own
intrinsic _value_ or demerit, but by their conformity to a standard
which is previously set before them. It hath happened fortunately for
the republic of letters, that the two higher species of poetry are
exempted from the bad consequences which might have followed an exact
observation of this rule. An early and perfect standard was settled to
regulate the Epopee, and the Drama was susceptible of _gradual
improvement_, as Luxury augmented the subjects, and decorated the
machinery of the theatre. We have already seen that Lyric Poetry was not
introduced with the advantages of the former, and reflection must
convince us, that it is not calculated to gain the slow and
imperceptible accessions of the latter. We may observe however in the
general, that as the opinions of the bulk of mankind in speculative
matters are commonly the result of accident rather than the consequences
of reflection, so it becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible, in
some instances to point out a defect in an _established model_ without
incurring the censure of the multitude. Such, my Lord, is the nature of
man, and so trifling and capricious are the circumstances upon which his
sentiments depend.
Accustomed as your Lordship has been to survey the improved manners of
an enlightned age, you will contemplate with pleasure an happier aera in
the progression of Science, when the Ode from being confined wholly to
fictitious Theology, was transposed to the circle of Elegance and the
Graces. Such is its appearance in the writings ot Anacreon, of Horace,
and in the two fragments of Sappho.
Anacreon was nearly contemporary with that Onomacritus, whom we have
mentioned as the Author of those poems which are ascribed to Orpheus.
He flourished between the 60th and the 70th Olympiad. His pieces are the
offspring of genius and indolence. His subjects are perfectly suited to
his character. The devices which he would have to be carved upon a
silver cup are extremely ingenious.
---- Διος γονον
Βακχον Ευιον ἡμιν.
Μυστιν αματε Κυπριν
Ὑμεναιοις κροτουσαν.
Και Εροτας αποπλους
Και χαριτας γελωσας, &c.[36]
---- The race of Jove,
Bacchus whose happy smiles approve;
The Cyprian Queen, whose gentle hand
Is quick to tye the nuptial band;
The sporting Loves unarm’d appear,
The Graces loose and laughing near.
[Footnote 36: Anac. Carm. p. 35.]
Sweetness and natural elegance characterise the writings of this Poet,
as much as carelessness and ease distinguished his manners. In some of
his pieces there is exuberance and even wildness of imagination, as in
that particularly which is addressed to a young girl, where he wishes
alternately to be transformed into a mirror, a coat, a stream,
a bracelet, and a pair of shoes, for the different purposes which he
recites[37]. This is meer sport and wantonness, and the Poet would
probably have excused himself for it, by alledging that he took no
greater liberties in his own sphere than his predecessors of the same
profession had done in another. His indolence and love of ease is often
painted with great simplicity and elegance[38], and his writings abound
with those beautiful and unexpected turns which are characteristic of
every species of the Ode[39].
[Footnote 37: Anac. p. 87.]
[Footnote 38: This appears remarkably in that piece, where he
gives so ingenuous a character of himself.
Ὁν μοι μελει Γυγου
Του Σαρδεων Ανακτος
Το σημερον μελει μοι. p. 28.]
[Footnote 39: The reader will find a striking example of this
beauty, in the Ode addressed to a swallow, where he runs a
comparison betwixt the liberty of that bird and his own bondage.