John Dryden

“ On the other side, the pains and diligence of ill Poets is but thrown away, when they want the Genius to invent and feign agreeably. But if the Fictions be delightful, which they always are, if they be natural, if they be of a piece; if the beginning, the middle, and the end be in their due places, and artfully united to each other, such Works can never fail of their deserv'd Success. And such is Virgil's Episode of Dido and Æneas ”

“ They lay no less than want of Invention to his Charge: a capital Crime, I must ac­knowledge: for a Poet is a Maker, as the word signifies; and who cannot make, that is, invent, hath his Name for nothing. That which makes this Accusation look so strange at the first sight, is, That he has borrow'd so many things from Homer, Appollonius Rhodius, and others who preceded him. ”

“ Nothing is to be call'd a fault in Poetry, says Aristotle, but what is against the Art; therefore a Man may be an admirable Poet, without being an exact Chronologer. Shall we dare, continues Segrais, to condemn Virgil, for having made a Fiction against the order of Time, when we commend Ovid and other Poets who have made many of their Fictions against the order of Nature? ”

“ A Man may be very Valiant, and yet Impious and Vicious. But the same can not be said of Piety, which excludes all ill Qualities, and comprehends even Valour it self, with all other Qualities which are good. Can we, for Example, give the praise of Valour to a Man who shou'd see his Gods prophan'd, and shou'd want the Courage to defend them? To a Man who shou'd abandon his Father, or desert his King in his last Necessity?
Thus far Segrais, in giving the preference to Piety, before Valour. ”

“ That is, in other words, to lay the Foundations of that Empire which Augustus was to Govern. This is the Noble Invention of our Author; but it hath been Copied by so many Sign-post-Dawbers, that now tis grown fulsom; rather by their want of Skill, than by the Commonness.
In the last place I may safely grant, that by reading Homer, Virgil was taught to imitate his Invention; that is, to imitate like him: which is no more, than if a Painter studied Raphael, that he might learn to design after his manner. ”

“ The Leaders may be Heroes, but the multitude must consist of Common Men.
I am also bound to tell your Lordship, in my own defence: That from the beginning of the first Georgick to the end of the last Æneid; I found the difficulty of Translation growing on me in every succeeding Book. For Virgil, above all Poets, had a Stock, which I may call almost inexhaustible, of figurative, elegant, and sounding Words. I who inherit but a small portion of his Genius, and write in a Language so much inferiour to the Latin, have found it very painful to vary Phrases, when the same Sense returns upon me. ”

“ Tragedy is the minature of Humane Life; an Epick Poem is the draught at length. Here, my Lord, I must contract also, for, before I was aware, I was almost running into a long digression, to prove that there is no such absolute necessity that the time of a Stage-Action shou'd so strictly be confin'd to Twenty Four Hours, as never to exceed them, for which Aristotle contends, and the Grecian Stage has practis'd. ”

“ But I am much deceiv'd, if (besides what I have said) there be not a secret Satire against the Sex, which is lurking under this Description of Virgil, who seldom speaks well of Women: Better indeed of Camilla, than any other; for he com­mends her Beauty and Valour: Because he wou'd concern the Rea­der for her Death. But Valour is no very proper Praise for Woman­kind; and Beauty is common to the Sex. ”

“ He was in Banishment when he wrote those Verses, which I cite from his Letter to Augustus: You, Sir, saith he, have sent me into Exile for writing my Art of Love, and my wanton Elegies; yet your own Poet was happy in your good graces, though he brought Dido and Æneas into a Cave, and left them there not over-honestly together: may I be so bold to ask your Majesty, is it a greater fault to teach the Art of unlawful Love, than to shew it in the Action? But was Ovid the Court-Poet so bad a Courtier, as to find no other Plea to excuse himself, than by a plain Accusation of his Master? ”

“ But herein, Segrais, in his admirable Preface to his Translation of the Æneis, as the Author of the Dauphin's Virgil justly calls it, has prevented me. Him I follow, and what I borrow from him, am ready to acknowledge to him. For, impartially speaking, the French are as much better Criticks than the English, as they are worse Poets. Thus we generally allow, that they better understand the Management of a War, than our Islanders; but we know we are superiour to them in the day of Battel. They value themselves on their Generals, we on our Soldiers. ”

“ Thus he weeps out of Compassion, and tenderness of Nature, when in the Temple of Carthage he beholds the Pictures of his Friends, who Sacrific'd their Lives in Defence of their Country. He deplores the lamentable End of his Pilot Palinurus; the untimely death of young Pallas his Confederate; and the rest, which I omit. Yet even for these Tears, his wretched Criticks dare condemn him. They make Æneas little better than a kind of St. Swithen-Heroe, always Raining. ”

“ For tho' England is not wanting in a Learned Nobility, yet such are my unhappy Circumstances, that they have confin'd me to a narrow choice. To the greater part, I have not the Honour to be known; and to some of them I cannot shew at present, by any publick Act, that grateful Respect which I shall ever bear them in my heart. Yet I have no reason to complain of Fortune, since in the midst of that abundance I could not possibly have chosen better, than the Worthy Son of so Illustrious a Father. He was the Patron of my Manhood, when I Flourish'd in the opinion of the World ”

“ To love our Native Country, and to study its Benefit and its Glory, to be interessed in its Concerns, is Natural to all Men, and is indeed our common Duty. A Poet makes a farther step; for endeavouring to do Honour to it, tis allowable in him even to be partial in its Cause; for he is not ty'd to Truth, or setter'd by the Laws of History. Homer and Tasso are justly praised, for chusing their Heroes out of Greece and Italy, Virgil indeed made his a Trojan, but it was to derive the Romans and his own Augustus from him ”

“ The Poet, who borrows nothing from others, is yet to be Born; he and the Jews Messias will come together. There are parts of the Æneis, which re­semble some parts both of the Ilias and of the Odysses: as for Example, Æneas descended into Hell, and Ulysses had been there before him: Æneas lov'd Dido, and Ulysses lov'd Calypso: In few words, Virgil has imi­tated Homer's Odysses in his first six Books, and in his six last the Ilias. But from hence can we infer, that the two Poets write the same History? Is there no invention in some other parts of Virgil's Æneis? ”

“ Achilles Achilles was as well provided with them as Æneas, tho' he was invulnerable without them: And Ariosto, the two Tasso's, Bernardo, and Torquato, even our own Spencer; in a word, all Modern Poets have Copied Homer, as well as Virgil; he is neither the first nor last, but in the midst of them; and therefore is safe, if they are so. Who knows, says Segrais, but that his fated Armour was only an Allegorical Defence, and signifi'd no more, than that he was under the peculiar Protection of the Gods? ”

“ Be pleas'd therefore to accept the Rudiments of Virgil's Poetry: Coursely Translated I confess, but which yet retains some Beauties of the Author, which neither the barbarity of our Language, nor my unskilfulness cou'd so much sully, but that they appear sometimes in the dim mirrour which I hold before you. The Subject is not unsuitable to your Youth, which allows you yet to Love, and is proper to your present Scene of Life. Rural Recreations abroad, and Books at home, are the innocent Pleasures of a Man who is early Wise; and gives Fortune no more hold of him, than of necessity he must. ”

“ He takes no notice that Virgil is Arraign'd, for placing Piety before Valour; and making that Piety the chief Character of his Heroe. I have already said from Bossu, that a Poet is not oblig'd to make his Heroe a Virtuous Man: Therefore neither Homer nor Tasso are to be blam'd, for giving what predominant quality they pleas'd to their first Character. But Virgil, who design'd to form a perfect Prince, and would insinuate, that Augustus, whom he calls Æneas in his Poem, was truly such, found himself oblig'd to make him without blemish ”

“ Now for the false judgment of my Friends, there is but this little to be said for them; the words of Virgil, in the Verse preceding are these,
————Siqua fata aspera rumpas.
As if the Poet had meant, if you break through your hard Destiny, so as to be born, you shall be call'd Marcellus: But this cannot be the Sense: for though Marcellus was born, yet he broke not through those hard Decrees, which doom'd him to so immature a death. Much less can Virgil mean, you shall be the same Marcellus by the Transmi­gration of his Soul. ”

“ Ovid takes it up after him, even in the same Age, and makes an ancient Heroine of Virgil's new created Dido; Dictates a Letter for her just before her death, to the ingrateful Fugitive; and very unluckily for himself, as for measuring a Sword with a Man so much superiour in force to him on the same Subject. I think I may be Judge of this, because I have Translated both. The Famous Author of the Art of Love has nothing of his own, he borrows all from a greater Master in his own Profession; and which is worse, improves nothing which he finds. ”

“ For if too much Constancy may be a Fault sometimes, then want of Constancy, and Ingratitude after the last Favour, is a Crime that never will be forgiven. But of Machines, more in their proper place; where I shall show, with how much Judgment they have been us'd by Virgil: and in the mean time, pass to another Article of his Defence, on the present Subject; where, if I cannot clear the Heroe, I hope at least to bring off the Poet; for here I must divide their Causes. Let Æneas trust to his Machine, which will only help to break his Fall, but the Address is incomparable. ”

“ The more he studies it, the more it grows upon him; every time he takes it up, he discovers some new Graces in it. And whereas Poems which are produc'd by the vigour of Imagination only, have a gloss upon them at the first, which Time wears off; the Works of Judgment, are like the Dia­mond, the more they are polish'd, the more lustre they receive. Such is the difference betwixt Virgil's Æneis, and Marini's Adone. And if I may be allow'd to change the Metaphor, I wou'd say, that Virgil is like the Fame which he describes ”

“ I was loath to be inform'd how an Epick Poem shou'd be written, or how a Tragedy shou'd be contriv'd and manag'd in better Verse, and with more Judgment, than I cou'd teach others. A Native of Parnassus, and bred up in the Studies of its Fundamental Laws, may receive new Lights from his Contemporaries, but tis a grudging kind of Praise which he gives his Benefactors. He is more oblig'd than he is willing to acknowledge: there is a tincture of Malice in his Commendations. For where I own I am taught, I confess my want of Knowledge. ”

“ But being beaten from this Hold, they will not yet allow him to be Valiant; because he wept more often, as they think, than well becomes a Man of Courage.
In the first place, if Tears are Arguments of Cowardise, what shall I say of Homer's Heroe? Shall Achilles pass for timorous, because he wept, and wept on less occasions than Æneas? Herein Virgil must be granted to have excell'd his Master. For once both Heroes are describ'd, lamenting their lost Loves: Briseis was taken away by force from the Grecians, Creusa was lost for ever to her Husband. ”

“ I observe that Virgil names not Nola, which was not far distant from Abella: perhaps, because that City, (the same in which Augustus dyed afterwards;) had once refus'd to give him entertainment; if if we may believe the Author of his Life. Homer heartily curses another City which had us'd him on the same manner: But our Au­thor thought his Silence of the Nolans a sufficient correction. When a Poet passes by a Place or Person, though a fair Occasion offers of rememb'ring them, tis a sign he is, or thinks himself, much disoblig'd. ”

“ I need say no more in justification of our Heroe's Courage, and am much deceiv'd, if he ever be attack'd on this side of his Character again. But he is Arraign'd with more shew of Reason by the Ladies; who will make a numerous Party against him, for being false to Love, in forsaking Dido. And I cannot much blame them; for to say the truth, tis an ill precedent for their Gallants to follow. ”

“ Tis necessary for the polishing of Manners, to have breath'd that Air, but tis infectious even to the best Morals to live always in it. Tis a dangerous Commerce, where an honest Man is sure at the first of being Cheated; and he recovers not his Losses, but by learning to Cheat others. The undermining Smile becomes at length habitual; and the drift of his plausible Conversation, is only to flatter one, that he may betray another. Yet tis good to have been a looker on, without venturing to play; that a Man may know false Dice another time, though he never means to use them. ”