"Evidently because, though the _jus nocendi_ was taken away, yet that
was no good reason why the Chorus should entirely cease. M. Dacier
mistakes the matter. _Le choeur se tût ignominuesement, parce-que la
hi reprimasa licence, et que ce sut, à proprement parler, la hi qui le
bannit; ce qu' Horace regarde comme une espece de siétrissure. Properly
speaking,_ the law only abolished the abuse of the chorus. The ignominy
lay in dropping the entire use of it, on account of this restraint.
Horace was of opinion, that the chorus ought to have been retained,
though the state had abridged it of the licence, it so much delighted
in, of an illimited, and intemperate satire, _Sublatus chorus fuit,_
says Scaliger, _cujus illae videntur esse praecipuae partet, ut
potissimum ques liberet, laedertnt."
Notes on the Art of Poetry._ If Dacier be mistaken in this instance, his
mistake is common to all the commentators; not one of whom, the learned
and ingenious author of the above he excepted, has been able to extract
from these words any marks of Horace's predilection in favour of a
Chorus, or censure of "its culpable omission" in Comedy. De Nores
expresses the general sense of the Criticks on this passage.
[Turpiter.] _Quia lex, declaratâ Veteris Conaetdiae scriptorum
improbitate, a maledicendi licentiâ deterruit.--Sicuti enim antea
summâ cum laude Vetus Comediae, accepta est, ita postea summa est cum
turpitudine vetantibus etiam legibus repudiata, quia probis hominibus,
quia sapientibus, quia inte*s maledixerit. Quare Comaediae postea
conscriptae ad hujusce Veteris differentiam sublato choro, novae
appellatae sunt._
What Horace himself says on a similar occasion, of the suppression of
the Fescennine verses, in the Epistle to Augustus, is perhaps the best
comment on this passage.
--quin etiam lex
Paenaque lata, malo quae nollet carmine quenquam--
describi: vertere modum formindine fustis
ad bene dicendum delectandumque redacti.
421.---Daring their Graecian masters to forsake,
And for their themes domestick glories take.
Nec minimum meruere decus, vestigia Graeca
Ausi deserere, & celebrare domestica facta.
The author of the English Commentary has a note on this passage, replete
with fine taste, and sound criticism.
"This judgment of the poet, recommending domestic subjects, as fittest
for the stage, may be inforced from many obvious reasons. As, 1. that
it renders the drama infinitely more _affecting:_ and this on many
accounts, 1. As a subject, taken from our own annals, must of course
carry with it an air of greater probability, at least to the generality
of the people, than one borrowed from those of any other nation. 2.
As we all find a personal interest in the subject. 3. As it of course
affords the best and easiest opportunities of catching our minds, by
frequent references to our manners, prejudices, and customs. And of how
great importance this is, may be learned from hence, that, even in that
exhibition of foreign characters, dramatic writers have found themselves
obliged to sacrifice sacrifice truth and probability to the humour of
the people, and to dress up their personages, contrary to their own
better judgment, in some degree according to the mode and manners of
their respective countries [Footnote: "L'etude égale des poëtes de
différens tems à plaire à leurs spectateurs, a encore inssué dans la
maniere de peindre les caracteres. Ceux qui paroissent sur la scene
Angloise, Espagnols, Françoise, sont plus Anglois, Espagnols, ou
François que Grecs ou Romains, en un mot que ce qu'ils doivent être. II
ne faut qu'en peu de discernement pour s'appercevoir que nos Césars et
nos Achilles, en gardant même un partie de leur charactere primitif,
prennent droit de naturalité dans le païs où ils sont transplantez,
semblables à ces portraits, qui sortent de la main d'un peintre Flamand,
Italien, ou François, et qui portent l'empreinte du pais. On veut plaire
à sa nation, et rien ne plait tant que le resemblance de manieres et de
enie." P. Brumoy, vol. i. p. 200.] And, 4. as the writer himself, from an
intimate acquaintance with the character and genius of his own nation,
will be more likely to draw the manners with life and spirit.
"II. Next, which should ever be one great point in view, it renders the
drama more generally useful in its moral destination. For, it being
conversant about domestic acts, the great instruction of the fable more
sensibly affects us; and the characters exhibited, from the part we
take in their good or ill qualities, will more probably influence our
conduct.
"III. Lastly, this judgment will deserve the greater regard, as the
conduct recommended was, in fact, the practice of our great models, the
Greek writers; in whose plays, it is observable, there is scarcely a
single scene, which lies out of the confines of Greece.
"But, notwithstanding these reasons, the practice hath, in all times,
been but little followed. The Romans, after some few attempts in this
way (from whence the poet took the occasion of delivering it as a
dramatic precept), soon relapsed into their old use; as appears from
Seneca's, and the titles of other plays, written in, or after the
Augustan age. Succeeding times continued the same attachment to Grecian,
with the addition of an equal fondness for Roman, subjects. The reason
in both instances hath been ever the same: that strong and early
prejudice, approaching somewhat to adoration, in favour of the
illustrious names of those two great states. The account of this matter
is very easy; for their writings, as they furnish the business of our
younger, and the amusement of our riper, years; and more especially make
the study of all those, who devote themselves to poetry and the stage,
insensibly infix in us an excessive veneration for all affairs in which
they were concerned; insomuch, that no other subjects or events seem
considerable enough, or rise, in any proportion, to our ideas of the
dignity of the tragic scene, but such as time and long admiration have
consecrated in the annals of their story. Our Shakespeare was, I think,
the first that broke through this bondage of classical superstition. And
he owed this felicity, as he did some others, to his want of what is
called the advantage of a learned education. Thus uninfluenced by the
weight of early prepossession, he struck at once into the road of nature
and common sense: and without designing, without knowing it, hath
left us in his historical plays, with all their anomalies, an exacter
resemblance of the Athenian stage, than is any where to be found in its
most processed admirers and copyists.
"I will only add, that, for the more successful execution of this rule
of celebrating domestic acts, much will depend on the aera, from
whence the subject is taken. Times too remote have almost the same
inconveniences, and none of the advantages, which attend the ages
of Greece and Rome. And for those of later date, they are too much
familiarized to us, and have not as yet acquired that venerable cast and
air, which tragedy demands, and age only can give. There is no fixing
this point with precision. In the general, that aera is the fittest for
the poet's purpose, which, though fresh enough in pure minds to warm and
interest us in the event of the action, is yet at so great a distance
from the present times, as to have lost all those mean and disparaging
circumstances, which unavoidably adhere to recent deeds, and, in some
measure, sink the noblest modern transactions to the level of ordinary
life."
_Notes on the Art of Poetry._
The author of the essay on the writings and genius of Pope elegantly
forces a like opinion, and observes that Milton left a list of
thirty-three subjects for Tragedy, all taken from the English Annals.
423.--_Whether the gown prescrib'd a stile more mean,
or the inwoven purple rais'd the scene.