The Correspondent is desir'd to say which Cheek the Offender turned to
him.
T.
Ubi visus eris nostra medicabilis arte Fac monitis fugias otia prima meis.
Ovid.
Rem. Am
.
it
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From the Parish-Vestry, January 9.
All Ladies who come to Church in the New-fashioned Hoods,
are desired to be there before Divine Service begins,
lest they divert the Attention of the Congregation.
Ralph.
No. 273 |
Saturday, January 12, 1712 |
Addison |
Notandi sunt tibi Mores.
Hor.
Having examined the Action of
Paradise Lost
, let us in the next place
consider the Actors.
This is Aristotle's Method of considering, first the Fable, and secondly
the Manners; or, as we generally call them
in
English
, the Fable and the Characters.
Homer
has excelled all the Heroic Poets that ever wrote, in the
Multitude and Variety of his Characters. Every God that is admitted into
this Poem, acts a Part which would have been suitable to no other Deity.
His Princes are as much distinguished by their Manners, as by their
Dominions; and even those among them, whose Characters seem wholly made
up of Courage, differ from one another as to the particular kinds of
Courage in which they excel. In short, there is scarce a Speech or
Action in the
Iliad
, which the Reader may not ascribe to the Person
that speaks or acts, without seeing his Name at the Head of it.
Homer
does not only outshine all other Poets in the Variety, but also
in the Novelty of his Characters. He has introduced among his
Grecian
Princes a Person who had lived thrice the Age of Man, and conversed with
Theseus, Hercules, Polyphemus
, and the first Race of Heroes.
principal Actor is the
Son
of a Goddess, not to mention the
Offspring of other Deities, who have
likewise a Place in his Poem,
and the venerable
Trojan
Prince, who was the Father of so many Kings
and Heroes. There is in these several Characters of
Homer
, a certain
Dignity as well as Novelty, which adapts them in a more peculiar manner
to the Nature of an Heroic Poem. Tho' at the same time, to give them the
greater Variety, he has described a
Vulcan
, that is a Buffoon among
his Gods, and a
Thersites
among his Mortals.
Virgil
falls infinitely short of
Homer
in the Characters of his
Poem, both as to their Variety and Novelty.
Æneas
is indeed a perfect
Character, but as for
Achates
, tho' he is stiled the Hero's Friend, he
does nothing in the whole Poem which may deserve that Title.
Gyas
,
Mnesteus
,
Sergestus
and
Cloanthus
, are all of them Men of the same
Stamp and Character.
Fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum.
There are indeed several very Natural Incidents on the Part of
Ascanius
; as that of
Dido
cannot be sufficiently admired. I do not
see any thing new or particular in
Turnus
.
Pallas
and
Evander
are
remote
Copies of
Hector
and
Priam
, as
Lausus
and
Mezentius
are
almost Parallels to
Pallas
and
Evander
. The Characters of
Nisus
and
Eurialus
are beautiful, but common.
We must not forget the Parts
of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, which are fine Improvements
on the Greek Poet.
In short, there is neither that Variety nor
Novelty in the Persons of the
Æneid
, which we meet with in those of
the
Iliad
.
If
look into the Characters of
Milton
, we shall find that he has
introduced all the Variety
his Fable
was capable of receiving. The
whole Species of Mankind was in two Persons at the Time to which the
Subject of his Poem is confined. We have, however, four distinct
Characters in these two Persons. We see Man and Woman in the highest
Innocence and Perfection, and in the most abject State of Guilt and
Infirmity.
two last Characters are, indeed, very common and obvious,
but the two first are not only more magnificent, but more new
than
any Characters either in
Virgil
or
Homer
, or indeed in the whole
Circle of Nature.
Milton
so sensible of this Defect in the Subject of his Poem, and
of the few Characters it would afford him, that he has brought into it
two Actors of a Shadowy and Fictitious Nature, in the Persons of
Sin
and
Death
, by which means he has
wrought into
the Body of his
Fable a very beautiful and well-invented Allegory. But notwithstanding
the Fineness of this Allegory may attone for it in some measure; I
cannot think that Persons of such a Chymerical Existence are proper
Actors in an Epic Poem; because there is not that measure of Probability
annexed to them, which is requisite in Writings of this kind,
as I
shall shew more at large hereafter
.
Virgil
has, indeed, admitted Fame as an Actress in the
Æneid
, but
the Part she acts is very short, and none of the most admired
Circumstances in that Divine Work. We
in Mock-Heroic Poems,
particularly in the
Dispensary
and the
Lutrin
several
Allegorical Persons of this Nature which are very beautiful in those
Compositions,
may, perhaps, be used as an Argument, that the Authors
of them were of Opinion,
such
Characters might have a Place in an
Epic Work. For my own part, I should be glad the Reader would think so,
for the sake of the Poem I am now examining, and must further add, that
if such empty unsubstantial Beings may be ever made use of on this
Occasion, never were any more nicely imagined, and employed in more
proper Actions, than those of which I am now speaking.
Another Principal Actor in this Poem is the great Enemy of Mankind. The
of
Ulysses
in
Homer's Odyssey
is very much admired by
Aristotle
,
as perplexing that Fable with very agreeable Plots and
Intricacies, not only by the many Adventures in his Voyage, and the
Subtility of his Behaviour, but by the various Concealments and
Discoveries of his Person in several Parts of that Poem. But the Crafty
Being I have now mentioned, makes a much longer Voyage than
Ulysses
,
puts in practice many more Wiles and Stratagems, and hides himself under
a greater Variety of Shapes and Appearances, all of which are severally
detected, to the great Delight and Surprize of the Reader.
We may likewise observe with how much Art the Poet has varied several
Characters of the Persons that speak to his infernal Assembly. On the
contrary, how has he represented the whole Godhead exerting it self
towards Man in its full Benevolence under the Three-fold Distinction of
a Creator, a Redeemer and a Comforter!
Nor must we omit the Person of
Raphael
, who amidst his Tenderness and
Friendship for Man, shews such a Dignity and Condescension in all his
Speech and Behaviour, as are suitable to a Superior Nature.
The Angels
are indeed as much diversified in Milton, and distinguished by their
proper Parts, as the Gods are in Homer or Virgil. The Reader will
find nothing ascribed to Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, or Raphael, which
is not in a particular manner suitable to their respective Characters.
There
another Circumstance in the principal Actors of the
Iliad
and
Æneid
, which gives a
peculiar
Beauty to those two Poems, and
was therefore contrived with very great Judgment. I mean the Authors
having chosen for their Heroes, Persons who were so nearly related to
the People for whom they wrote.
Achilles
was a Greek, and
Æneas
the
remote Founder of
Rome
. By this means their Countrymen (whom they
principally proposed to themselves for their Readers) were particularly
attentive to all the Parts of their Story, and sympathized with their
Heroes in all their Adventures. A
Roman
could not but rejoice in the
Escapes, Successes and Victories of
Æneas
, and be grieved at any
Defeats, Misfortunes or Disappointments that befel him; as a
Greek
must
have had the same Regard for
Achilles
. And it is plain, that each of
those Poems have lost this great Advantage, among those Readers to whom
their Heroes are as Strangers, or indifferent Persons.
Milton's
Poem is admirable in this respect, since it is impossible for
any of its Readers, whatever Nation, Country or People he may belong to,
not to be related to the Persons who are the principal Actors in it; but
what is still infinitely more to its Advantage, the principal Actors in
this Poem are not only our Progenitors, but our Representatives. We have
an actual Interest in every thing they do, and no less than our utmost
Happiness is concerned, and lies at Stake in all their Behaviour.
I shall subjoin as a Corollary to the foregoing Remark, an admirable
Observation out of
Aristotle
, which hath been very much misrepresented
in the Quotations of some Modern Criticks.
'If a Man of perfect and consummate Virtue falls into a Misfortune, it raises our Pity, but not our Terror, because we do not fear that it may be our own Case, who do not resemble the Suffering Person. But as that great Philosopher adds, If we see a Man of Virtue mixt with Infirmities, fall into any Misfortune, it does not only raise our Pity but our Terror; because we are afraid that the like Misfortunes may happen to our selves, who resemble the Character of the Suffering Person.'
I shall
another Opportunity to observe, that a Person of
an absolute and consummate Virtue should never be introduced
in Tragedy, and shall only remark in this Place, that the foregoing Observation of
Aristotle
tho' it may be true in other Occasions, does not hold in this; because in the present
Case, though the Persons who fall into Misfortune are of the
most perfect and consummate Virtue, it is not to be considered
as what may possibly be, but what actually is our own Case;
since we are embarked with them on the same Bottom, and
must be Partakers of their Happiness or Misery.
In this,
some other very few Instances,
Aristotle's
Rules
for Epic Poetry (which he had drawn from his Reflections upon
Homer
) cannot be supposed to quadrate exactly with the Heroic
Poems which have been made since his Time; since it is plain
his Rules would
still have been
more perfect, could he have
perused the
Æneid
which was made some hundred Years after
his Death.
In my next, I shall go through other Parts of
Milton's
Poem;
and hope that what I shall there advance, as well as what I have
already written, will not only serve as a Comment upon
Milton,
but upon
Aristotle.
L.
These are what Aristotle means by the Fable and &c.
Offspring
Son of Aurora who has
that his Poem
It was especially for the novelty of
Paradise Lost
, that
John Dennis had in 1704 exalted Milton above the ancients. In putting
forward a prospectus of a large projected work upon 'the Grounds of
Criticism in Poetry,' he gave as a specimen of the character of his
work, the substance of what would be said in the beginning of the
Criticism upon Milton. Here he gave Milton supremacy on ground precisely
opposite to that chosen by Addison. He described him as
'one of the greatest and most daring Genius's that has appear'd in the World, and who has made his country a glorious present of the most lofty, but most irregular Poem, that has been produc'd by the Mind of Man. That great Man had a desire to give the World something like an Epick Poem; but he resolv'd at the same time to break thro' the Rules of Aristotle. Not that he was ignorant of them, or contemned them.... Milton was the first who in the space of almost 4000 years resolv'd for his Country's Honour and his own, to present the World with an Original Poem; that is to say, a Poem that should have his own thoughts, his own images, and his own spirit. In order to this he was resolved to write a Poem, that, by virtue of its extraordinary Subject, cannot so properly be said to be against the Rules as it may be affirmed to be above them all ... We shall now shew for what Reasons the choice of Milton's Subject, as it set him free from the obligation which he lay under to the Poetical Laws, so it necessarily threw him upon new Thoughts, new Images, and an Original Spirit. In the next place we shall shew that his Thoughts, his Images, and by consequence too, his Spirit are actually new, and different from those of Homer and Virgil. Thirdly, we shall shew, that besides their Newness, they have vastly the Advantage of Homer and Virgil.']
Paradise Lost
, Book II.
interwoven in
Sir Samuel Garth in his
Dispensary
, a mock-heroic poem
upon a dispute, in 1696, among doctors over the setting up of a
Dispensary in a room of the College of Physicians for relief of the sick
poor, houses the God of Sloth within the College, and outside, among
other allegories, personifies Disease as a Fury to whom the enemies of
the Dispensary offer libation. Boileau in his
Lutrin
a mock-heroic
poem written in 1673 on a dispute between two chief personages of the
chapter of a church in Paris, la Sainte Chapelle, as to the position of
a pulpit, had with some minor allegory, chiefly personified Discord, and
made her enter into the form of an old precentor, very much as in
Garth's poem the Fury Disease
'Shrill Colon's person took,
In morals loose, but most precise in look.'
that such
Poetics
II. § 17; III. §6.
particular
1
Poetics
II. § ii. But Addison misquotes the first clause. Aristotle
says that when a wholly virtuous man falls from prosperity into adversity,
'this is neither terrible nor piteous, but shocking. Then he adds that our pity is excited by undeserved misfortune, and our terror by some resemblance between the sufferer and ourselves.'
have been still
No. 274 |
Monday, January 14, 1712 |
Steele |
Audire est operæ pretium, procedere recte
Qui mœchis non vultis.
Hor.
I have upon several Occasions (that have occurred since I first took
into my Thoughts the present State of Fornication) weighed with my self,
in behalf of guilty Females, the Impulses of Flesh and Blood, together
with the Arts and Gallantries of crafty Men; and reflect with some Scorn
that most Part of what we in our Youth think gay and polite, is nothing
else but an Habit of indulging a Pruriency that Way. It will cost some
Labour to bring People to so lively a Sense of this, as to recover the
manly Modesty in the Behaviour of my Men Readers, and the bashful Grace
in the Faces of my Women; but in all Cases which come into Debate, there
are certain things previously to be done before we can have a true Light
into the Subject Matter; therefore it will, in the first Place, be
necessary to consider the impotent Wenchers and industrious Haggs, who
are supplied with, and are constantly supplying new Sacrifices to the
Devil of Lust. You are to know then, if you are so happy as not to know
it already, that the great Havock which is made in the Habitations of
Beauty and Innocence, is committed by such as can only lay waste and not
enjoy the Soil. When you observe the present State of Vice and Virtue,
the Offenders are such as one would think should have no Impulse to what
they are pursuing; as in Business, you see sometimes Fools pretend to be
Knaves, so in Pleasure, you will find old Men set up for Wenchers. This
latter sort of Men are the great Basis and Fund of Iniquity in the Kind
we are speaking of: You shall have an old rich Man often receive Scrawls
from the several Quarters of the Town, with Descriptions of the new
Wares in their Hands, if he will please to send Word when he will be
waited on. This Interview is contrived, and the Innocent is brought to
such Indecencies as from Time to Time banish Shame and raise Desire.
With these Preparatives the Haggs break their Wards by little and
little, 'till they are brought to lose all Apprehensions of what shall
befall them in the Possession of younger Men. It is a common Postscript
of an Hagg to a young Fellow whom she invites to a new Woman,