Cremona now shall ever boast thy name, NOTES. very low he went to pay a visit to his aged parents, who were in circumstances; but unhappily found they were just deceased. An action more meritorious than writing his Poetics. The The merits of Vida seem not to have been particularly attended to in England, till Pope had bestowed this commendation upon him; although the Poetics had been correctly published at Oxford, by Basil Kennet, some time before. The Silk-worms of Vida are written with classical purity, and with a just mixture of the styles of Lucretius and Virgil. It was a happy choice to write a poem on Chess; nor is the execution less happy. various stratagems and manifold intricacies of this ingenious game, so difficult to be described in Latin, are here expressed with the greatest perspicuity and elegance; so that, perhaps, the game might be learned from this description. Amidst many prosaic flatnesses there are many fine strokes in the Christiad; particularly his angels, with respect to their persons and insignia, are drawn with that dignity which we so much admire in Milton; who seems to have had his eye on those Gravina (Della Ragion. Poet. p. 127.) applauds Vida, for having found out a method to introduce the whole history of our Saviour's life, by putting it into the mouth of St. Joseph and St. John, who relate it to Pilate. But surely this speech, consisting of as many lines as that of Dido to Æneas, was too long to be made on such an occasion, when Christ was brought before the tribunal of Pilate, to be judged and condemned to death. The Poetics are, perhaps, the most perfect of his compositions; they are excellently translated by Pitt. Vida had formed himself upon Virgil, who is therefore his hero; he has too much depreciated Homer, and also Dante. Although his precepts principally regard epic poetry, yet many of them are applicable to every species of composition. This poem has the IMITATIONS. passages. Ver. 708. As next in place to Mantua,] Alluding to "Mantua væ miseræ nimium vicina Cremona."-Virg. This application is made in Kennet's edition of Vida. But soon by impious arms from Latium chas'd, Their ancient bounds the banish'd Muses pass'd. 710 NOTES. praise of being one of the * first, if not the very first, pieces of criticism, that appeared in Italy, since the revival of learning; for it was finished, as is evident from a short advertisement prefixed to it in the year 1520. It is remarkable, that most of the great poets, about this time, wrote an Art of Poetry. Trissino, a name respected for giving to Europe the first regular epic poem, and for first daring to throw off the bondage of rhyme, published at Vicenza, in the year 1529, Della Poetica, divisioni quattro, several years before his Italia Liberata. We have of Fracastorius, Naugerius, five de poetica dialogus, Venetiis, 1555. Minturnus, De Poeta, libri sex, appeared at Venice 1559. Bernardo Tasso, the father of Torquato, and author of an epic poem, entitled, L'Amadigi, wrote Raggionamento della Poesia, printed at Venice, 1562. And to pay the highest honour to criticism, the great Torquato Tasso himself wrote Discorsi del Poema Eroico, printed at Venice, 1587. These discourses are full of learning and taste. But I must not omit a curious anecdote, which Menage has given us in his Anti-Baillet; namely, that Sperone claimed these discourses as his own; for he thus speaks of them, in one of his Letters to Felice Paciotto; "Laudo voi infinitamente di voler scrivere della poetica; della quale interrogato molto fiate dal Tasso, e rispondendogli io libramente, si come soglio, egli n'a fatto un volume, e mandato al Signior Scipio Gonzago per cosa sua, e non mea: ma io ne chiarirò il mondo." Hence it appears, that our author was mistaken in saying, line 712, that "Critic-learning flourished most in France." For these critical works here mentioned, by so many capital writers in Italy, far exceed any which the French, at that period of time, had produced. ""Tis hard (said Akenside) to conceive by what means the French acquired this character of superior correctness. We have classic authors in English, older than in any modern language, except the Italian; and Spenser and Sidney wrote with the truest taste, when the French had not one great poet * Victorius's Latin translation of Aristotle's Poetics, was published at Florence, 1560. Castelvetro's Italian one at Vienna, 1570. Thence Arts o'er all the northern world advance, NOTES. they can bear to read. Milton and Chapelain were contemporaries; the Pucelle and Paradise Lost were in hand, perhaps frequently, at the self-same hour. One of them was executed in such a manner, that an Athenian of Menander's age would have turned his eyes from the Minerva of Phidias, or the Venus of Apelles, to obtain more perfect conceptions of beauty from the English Poet; the other, though fostered by the French court for twenty years with the utmost indulgence, does honour to the Leonine, and the Runic poetry. It was too great an attention to French criticism, that hindered our poets, in Charles the Second's time, from comprehending the genius, and acknowledging the authority, of Milton; else, without looking abroad, they might have acquired a manner more correct and perfect, than French authors could or can teach them. In short, unless correctness signify a freedom from little faults, without inquiring after the most essential beauties, it scarce appears on what foundation the French claim to that character is established." Ver. 714. And Boileau still in right of Horace sways.] May I be pardoned for declaring it as my opinion, that Boileau's is the best Art of Poetry* extant. The brevity of his precepts, enlivened by proper imagery, the justness of his metaphors, the harmony of his numbers, as far as Alexandrine lines will admit, the exactness of his method, the perspicacity of his remarks, and the energy of his style, all duly considered, may render this opinion not unreasonable. It is scarcely to be conceived, how much is comprehended in four short cantos. He that has well digested these, cannot be said to be ignorant of any important rule of poetry. The tale of the Physician turning Architect, in the fourth canto, is told with true pleasantry. It is to this work Boileau owes his immortality; which was of the highest utility to this nation, in diffusing a just way of thinking and writing; banishing every species of false wit, and introducing a general taste for the manly simplicity of the ancients, on whose writings *It was translated into Portuguese verse by Count d'Ericeyra. But we, brave Britons, foreign laws despis'd, 715 Fierce for the liberties of wit, and bold, Yet some there were, among the sounder few Of those who less presum'd, and better knew, 720 Who durst assert the juster ancient cause, And here restor'd Wit's fundamental laws. Such was the Muse, whose rules and practice tell, "Nature's chief Master-piece is writing well." NOTES. this poet had formed his taste. Boileau's chief talent was the didactic. His fancy was not the predominant faculty of his mind. Fontenelle has thus characterized him; "Il étoit grand et excellent versificateur, pourva cependant que cette louange se renferme dans ses beaux jours, dont la différence avec les autres est bien marquée, et faisoit souvent dire Helas! et Hola! mais il n'etoit pas grand poëte, si l'on entend par ce mot, comme on le doit, celui qui Fait, qui Invente, qui Cree." It has become fashionable among the late French writers, to decry Boileau; Marmontel, Diderot, D'Alembert, have done it. The chief fault of Boileau seems to be his decrying the great poets of Italy, and particularly Tasso; but M. Maffei informs us, that the elder son of Racine assured him, that his friend Boileau did not understand Italian, and had not read Tasso. The high encomium Tasso gave to Ariosto does him great honour, and shews him to be superior to envy. Ver. 723. Such was the Muse, whose rules and practice tell, "Nature's chief Master-piece is writing well." This high panegyric, which was not in the first edition, procured to Pope the acquaintance, and afterward the constant friendship, of the Duke of Buckingham; who, in his essay here alluded to, has followed the method of Boileau, in discoursing on the various species of poetry in their different gradations, to no other purpose than to manifest his own inferiority. The piece is, indeed, of the satiric, rather than of the preceptive kind. The coldness and neglect with which this writer, formed only on the Such was Roscommon, not more learn'd than good, NOTES. 726 French critics, speaks of Milton, must be considered as proofs "What woful stuff this madrigal would be, And each exalted stanza teems with thought." The best part of Buckingham's essay is that, in which he gives a ludicrous account of the plan of modern tragedy. I should add, that his compliment to Pope, prefixed to his poems, contains a pleasing picture of the sedateness and retirement proper to age, after the tumults of public life; and by its moral turn, breathes the spirit if not of a poet, yet of an amiable old man. Ver. 725. Such was Roscommon,] An Essay on Translated Verse seems, at first sight, to be a barren subject; yet Roscommon has decorated it with many precepts of utility and taste, and enlivened it with a tale in imitation of Boileau. It is indisputably better written, in a closer and more vigorous style, than the last-mentioned essay. Roscommon was more learned than Buckingham. He was bred under Bochart, at Caen in Normandy. He had laid a design of forming a society for the refining and fixing the standard of our language; in which project, his intimate friend Dryden was a principal assistant. This was the first attempt of that sort; and, I fear, we shall never see another set on foot in our days; even though Mr. Johnson has lately given us so excellent a Dictionary. It may be remarked, to the praise of Roscommon, that he was the first critic who had taste and spirit publicly to praise the Paradise Lost; with a noble encomium of which, and a rational recommendation of blank verse, he concludes his performance, though this passage was not in the first edition. Fenton, in his Observations on Waller, has accurately delineated his character. "His imagination might have probably been more fruitful and |