Though we must allow Anacreon to have been an original Genius, yet it is
probable, as I formerly observed, that he took Lyric Poetry as he found
it; and without attempting to correct imperfections, of which he might
have been sensible, made on the contrary the same use of this which a
man of address will do of the foibles of his neighbour, by employing
them to promote his own particular purposes. We may conclude indeed from
the character of this Poet, that he was not fitted to strike out new
lights in the field of Science, or to make considerable deviations from
the practice of his Predecessors. He was, no doubt, of opinion likewise,
that his manner was authorised in some measure by the example of the
Mitylenian Poetess, whose pieces are celebrated for softness and
delicacy[40], and who possessed above all others the art of selecting
the happiest circumstances which she placed likewise in the most
striking points of view[41]. Longinus produceth, as a proof of this, her
fine Ode inscribed to a favourite attendant, in which the progression of
that tumultuous emotion, which deprived her of her senses, is described
with peculiar elegance and sensibility[42].
[Footnote 40: Thus Horace represents her
_Æoliis fidibus quærentem
Sappho puellis de popularibus_. Lib. II. Od. 13.]
[Footnote 41: Θεου ἡ Σαπφω τα συμβαινοντα ταις ερωτικαις μανιαις
παθηματα εκ των παρεπομενων, και εκ της αληθειας, αυτης ἑκαστοτε
λαμβανει, &c. De Lub. c. 10.]
[Footnote 42: Longinus speaks with transport of this beautiful
fragment of antiquity. Ου θαυμαζεις ὡς ὑπ’ αυτο την ψυχην το σωμα
τας ακοας την γλωσσαν τας οψεις την χροαν, πανθ’ ὡς αλλοτρια
διοιχομενοι επιζητει. Και καθ’ ὑπεναντιωσεις ἁμα ψυχεται, καιεται,
αλογιστει, φρονει--ἱνα μη εν τι περι αυτην παθος φαινεται, παθων
δε ΣΥΝΟΔΟΣ. De. Lub. c. 10.]
We are at a loss to judge of the character of Alcæus, the countryman and
rival of Sappho, because scarce any fragment of his writings has reached
the present times. He is celebrated by the Ancients as a spirited
Author, whose poems abounded with examples of the sublime and vehement.
Thus Horace says, when comparing him to Sappho, that he sung so forcibly
of wars, disasters, and shipwrecks, that the Ghosts stood still to hear
him in silent astonishment[43]. The same Poet informs us, that he
likewise sung of Bacchus, Venus, the Muses, and Cupid[44]. From these
sketches of his character we may conclude that his pieces were
distinguished by those marks of rapid and uncontrolled imagination,
which we have found to characterise the works of the first Lyric Poets.
[Footnote 43:
_Te sonantem plenius aureo
Alcæe plectro, dura navis,
Dura fugæ mala, dura belli.
Utrumque sacro digna silentio
Mirantur Utmbræ dicere._ ----Hor. ub. sup.]
[Footnote 44:
_Liberum & Musas, Veneremque & illi
Semper hærentem puerum canebat,
Et Lycum nigris oculis nigroque
Crine decorum._ Carm. Lib. I. Od. 32.]
Your Lordship needs not be told, that the Roman Poet who had the
advantage of improving upon so many originals, takes in a greater
variety of subjects than any of his predecessors, and runs into more
diffuse and diversified measure. I have said, my Lord, that his subjects
are more diversified, because in the character of a Lyric Poet we must
consider him as a professed imitator both of Anacreon and of Pindar. In
the former point of view he falls under our immediate cognisance; in the
latter we shall take a view of him afterwards, when we come to examine
the works of that great Original, whose example he follows.
The Reader will observe, that in the shorter Odes of Horace there is
commonly one leading thought, which is finely enlivened with the graces
of description. A constant Unity of sentiment is therefore preserved in
each of them, and the abrupt starts and sallies of passion are so
artfully interwoven with the principal subject, that upon a review of
the whole piece, we find it to be a perfect imitation of Nature. This
Poet (whose judgment appears to have been equal to his imagination) is
particularly careful to observe propriety in his most irregular
excursions, and the vivacity of his passion is justified by the
circumstances in which he is supposed to be placed. The diction of these
poems is likewise adapted with great accuracy to the sentiment, as it is
generally concise, forcible, and expressive. Brevity of language ought
indeed particularly to characterise this species of the Ode, in which
the Poet writes from immediate feeling, and is intensely animated by his
subject. Delicacy is likewise indispensibly requisite, because the
reader is apt to be disgusted with the least appearance of constraint or
harshness in a poem, whose principal excellence lies in the happy and
elegant turn of a pointed reflection. In short, little sallies and
picturesque epithets have a fine effect in pieces of this kind, as by
the former the passions are forcibly inflamed, and by the latter their
effects are feelingly exposed.
Of all these delicate beauties of composition, the Odes of Horace abound
with pregnant and striking examples. Sometimes he discovers the strength
of his passion, when he is endeavouring to forget it, by a sudden and
lively turn which is wholly unexpected. Thus he tells Lydia,
_Non si me satis audias,
Speres perpetuum dulcia barbare
Lædentem oscula, quæ Venus
Quinta parte sui nectaris imbuit[45]._
[Footnote 45: Carm. Lib. I. Od. 13.]
Sometimes his pictures are heightned with beautiful imagery, and he
seizeth the imagination before he appeals to reason. Thus, when he is
advising his friend not to mourn any longer for a man who was dead,
instead of proposing the subject immediately he says,
_Non semper imbres nubibus hispidos
Manant in agros_, &c.[46]
Not always snow, and hail, and rain
Defend, and beat the fruitful plain. CREECH.
[Footnote 46: Carm. Lib. II. Od. 9.]
On other occasions he breaks abruptly into a short and spirited
transition.
_Auditis? an me ludit amabilis
Insania? audire et videor pios
Errare per lucos, amœnæ
Quos et aquae subeunt et auræ[47]._
Dos’t hear? or sporting in my brain,
What wildly-sweet deliriums reign!
Lo! mid Elysium’s balmy groves,
Each happy shade transported roves!
I see the living scene display’d,
Where rills and breathing gales sigh murmuring thro’ the shade.
[Footnote 47: Id. Lib. III. Od. 4.]
On some subjects he is led imperceptibly into a soft melancholy, which
peculiar elegance of expression renders extremely agreeable in the end
of this poem. There is a fine stroke of this kind in his Ode to
Septimus, with whom he was going to fight against the Cantabrians.
He figures out a poetical recess for his old age, and then says,
_Ille te mecum locus, et beatæ
Postulant arces, ibi tu calentem
Debita sparges lachryma favillam
Vatis amici[48]._
That happy place, that sweet retreat.
The charming hills that round it rise,
Your latest hours, and mine await;
And when your Poet Horace dyes;
There the deep sigh thy poet-friend shall mourn,
And pious tears bedew his glowing urn. FRANCIS.
[Footnote 48: Carm. Lib. II. Od. 6.]
Upon the whole, my Lord, you will perhaps be of opinion, that though the
subjects of this second species of the Ode are wholly different from
these of the first; yet the same variety of images, boldness of
transition, figured diction, and rich colouring which characterised this
branch of poetry on its original introduction, continue to be uniformly
and invariably remarkable in the works of succeeding performers.
Reflection indeed will induce us to acknowledge, that in this branch of
Lyric Poetry the Author may be allowed to take greater liberties than we
could permit him to do in that which has formerly been mentioned. It is
the natural effect of any passion by which the mind is agitated, to
break out into short and abrupt sallies which are expressive of its
impetuosity, and of an imagination heated, and starting in the tumult of
thought from one object to another. To follow therefore the workings of
the mind in such a situation and to paint them happily, is in other
words to copy Nature. But your Lordship will observe, that the
transitions of the Poet who breaks from his subject to exhibit an
historical detail whose connection with it is remote, or who is
solicitous to display the fertility of a rich imagination at the expence
of perspicuity, when it is not supposed that his passions are inflamed:
you will observe, my Lord, that his digressions are by no means so
excusable as those of the other, because obscurity in the latter may be
an excellence, whereas in the former it is always a blemish.
It is only necessary to observe farther on this head, that the
difference of the subjects treated by Anacreon and Horace, from those of
Orpheus, Museus, &c. is owing to the different characters of the ages in
which they lived. We could not indeed have expected to meet with any
thing very serious, at any period, from so indolent and careless a
writer as Anacreon. But Luxury even in his time had made considerable
progress in the world. The principles of Theology were sufficiently well
established. Civil polity had succeeded to a state of confusion, and men
were become fond of ease and affluence, of wine and women. Anacreon
lived at the court of a voluptuous Monarch[49], and had nothing to
divert his mind from the pursuit of happiness in his own way. His Odes
therefore are of that kind, in which the gentler Graces peculiarly
predominate. Sappho and Horace were employed in the same manner. The
Lady had a Gallant, of whom it appears that she was extremely fond, and
the Roman Poet lived in a polite court, was patronized by a man of
distinguished eminence, and was left at full liberty to pursue that
course of life to which he was most powerfully prompted by inclination.
[Footnote 49: Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos.]
The poetic vein in these Writers takes that turn, which a stranger must
have expected upon hearing their characters. Their pieces are gay,
entertaining, loose, elegant, and ornamented with a rich profusion of
the graces of description. The reader of sensibility will receive the
highest pleasure from perusing their works, in which the internal
movements of the mind warmed by imagination, or agitated by passion, are
exposed in the happiest and most agreeable attitudes. This, perhaps, is
the principal excellence of the looser branches of poetic composition.
The mind of the Poet in these pieces is supposed to be intensely kindled
by his subject. His Fancy assumes the rein, and the operation of reason
is for a moment suspended. He follows the impulse of enthusiasm, and
throws off those simple but lively strokes of Nature and Passion, which
can only be felt, and are beyond imitation.
_Ut sibi quivis
Speret idem, sudet multum, frustraque laboret
Ausus idem_[50]!
All may hope to imitate with ease:
Yet while they drive the same success to gain,
Shall find their labour and their hopes are vain. FRANCIS.
[Footnote 50: Hor. de Art. Poet.]
The unequal measures which are used in these shorter Odes, are likewise
adapted with great propriety to the subjects of which they treat. Horace
says, that this inequality of numbers was originally fixed upon as
expressive of the complaints of a lover; but he adds, that they became
quickly expressive likewise of his exultation.
_Versibus impariter junctis Querimonia primum
Post etiam inclusa est voti sententia compos[51]._
Unequal measures first were taught to flow,
Sadly expressive of the Lover’s woe.
[Footnote 51: Id. ibid.]
These looser and shorter measures distinguish this branch of the Ode
from the Hymn which was composed in heroic measure[52], and from the
Pindaric Ode (as it is commonly called) to which the dithyrambique or
more diversified stanza was particularly appropriated. Of the shorter
Ode therefore it may be said with propriety,
_Son stile impetueux souvent marche au hazarde
Chez un beau disordre est un effect de l’art[53]._
[Footnote 52: Aristotle expressly mentions this circumstance, when
he explains the Origin of the Drama. Παραφανεισας δε της Τραγωδιας
και Κωμωδιας, οἱ εφ’ ἑκατερον τη ποιησεν ἁρμωντες κατα την οικειαν
φυσιν οἱ μεν αντι των Ιαμβων, Κωμωδοποιοι εγενοντο‧ οἱ δε αντι των
Επων τραγωδιδασκαλοι, δια τω μειζω και ενεμοτερα τα σχηματα ειναι
ταυτα εκεινων. Arist. Poet. c. 4.]
[Footnote 53: Boil. Art. Poet.]
Thus, my Lord, we have taken a view of the Lyric poetry of the Ancients,
as it appeared originally in the works of the earliest Poets, and as it
was afterwards employed to enliven a train of more elegant and delicate
sentiment. I have attempted, in the course of this enquiry, to follow
the lights which Antiquity throws on this subject as closely as
possible, to explain facts by placing them in connection, and to
illustrate reasoning by example.
Your Lordship’s acquaintance with the principles of civil Government,
and your experience of the effects of education have enabled you to
observe the _character_, which the Manners _of an age_ stamp upon the
productions of the Authors who live in it. Experience will convince us,
that these general revolutions resemble more nearly than we are apt to
imagine at first view, the circumstances of an Individual at the
different periods of life. In one age he is captivated by the beauties
of description, at another he is fond of the deductions of Philosophy;
his opinions vary with his years, and his actions, as directed by these,
are proportionably diversified. In all these circumstances however, the
original bias which he received from Nature remains unalterable, and the
peculiarity of his character appears conspicuous, notwithstanding the
accidental diversity of fluctuating sentiments. It is to be expected in
such a situation, that changes similar to these will usually take place
in arts which are susceptible of perpetual mutation; and of this a
particular instance is exhibited in the preceding detail. Another branch
of this subject remains to be considered, and on this I shall give your
Lordship the trouble of perusing a few remarks in a subsequent letter.
Permit me only to observe, from what hath already been advanced, that
the ingredients of Genius are often bestowed by Nature, when the polish
of Art is wanted to mould the original materials into elegant
proportion. He who possesseth the former in the highest degree may be a
Shakespear or an Æschylus; but both were united in forming the more
perfect characters of Demosthenes and Homer.