Thomas Parnell

“ But see how my cave still swarms! how every age produces men, upon whom the preservation of thy memory devolves. My darling, the fates have decreed it! Thou art Zoilus, and Zoilus shall be eternal. Come, my serpents, applaud him with your hisses, that is all which now can be done; in modern times, my sons shall invent louder instruments, and artificial imitations; noises which drowning the voice of merit, shall furnish a concert to delight them." Here she arose to clasp him in her arms, a strange noise was heard, the critic started at it, and his vision forsook him. ”

“ But, as to have reputation was with him a sufficient cause of enmity, so to have that reputation universal, was what wrought his frenzy to its wildest degree; for which reason it was Homer with whom he was most implacably angry. And certainly, if envy choose its object for the power to give torment, it should here, (if ever) have the glory of fully answering its intentions; for the poet was so worshipped by the whole age, that his critic had not the common alleviation of the opinion of one other man, to concur in his condemnation. ”

“ This is indeed a common trick with remarkers, which they either practise by precedent from their master Zoilus, or are beholden for it to the same turn of temper. We acknowledge it a fine piece of satire, when there is folly in a passage, to lay it open in the way by which it naturally requires to be exposed: do this handsomely, and the author is deservedly a jest. If, on the contrary, you dress a passage which was not originally foolish, in the highest humour of ridicule, you only frame something which the author himself might laugh at, without being more nearly concerned than another reader. ”

“ They take criticism to be beyond every other part of learning, because it gives judgment upon books written in every other part. They think, in consequence, that every critic must be a greater genius than any author whom he censures; and therefore if they esteem themselves critics, they set enthroned in fancy at the head of literature. Criticism indeed deserves a noble elogy, when it is enlarged by such a comprehensive learning as Aristotle and Cicero were masters of ”

“ Men who frequent sports, as they are of a cheerful disposition, so are they lovers of poetry: this, together with the opinion they were affronted, wrought them up to impatience and further licenses; there was particularly a young Athenian gentleman, who was to run three chariots in those games, who being an admirer of Homer, could no longer contain himself, but cried out, "What in the name of Castor have we here, Zoilus from Thrace?" and as he said it, struck him with a chariot whip. ”

“ In the one instance you still see a mouse before, you, however, the poet raises it to a man; in the other, you shall see a man before you; however, the poet raises him to a demi-god. But some call that low, which others call natural. Every thing has two handles, and the critic who sets himself to censure all he meets, is under an obligation still to lay hold on the worst of them. ”

“ But, if we consider Pallas as the patroness of learning, we may by an allegorical application of the mice and frogs, find in this speech two sorts of enemies to learning; they who are maliciously mischievous, as the mice; and they who are turbulent through ostentation, as the frogs. The first are enemies to excellency upon principle; the second accidentally by the error of self-love, which does not quarrel with the excellence itself, but only with those people who get more praise than themselves by it. ”

“ Now since I have here practised a license in imitation of his, by shortening the word Borbocætes a whole syllable, it seems a good opportunity to speak for him where I defend myself. Remember then, that any great genius who introduces poetry into a language, has a power to polish it, and of all the manners of speaking then in use, to settle that for poetical which he judges most adapted to the art. Take notice too, that Homer has not only done this for necessity, but for ornament, since he uses various dialects to humour his sense with sounds which are expressive of it. ”

“ I imagine it may be no ungrateful undertaking to write some account of this celebrated person, from whom so many derive their character; and I think the life of a critic is not unseasonably put before the works of his poet, especially when his censures accompany him. If what he advances be just, he stands here as a censor; if otherwise, he appears as an addition to the poet's fame, and is placed before him with the justice of antiquity in its sacrifices, when, because such a beast had offended such a deity, he was brought annually to his altar to be slain upon it. ”

“ In short, Homer's Works are the examples of Aristotle's precepts; and Aristotle's precepts the methods Homer wrought by. From hence it is to be concluded as the opinion of this critic, that whoever would entirely destroy the reputation of Homer, must renounce the authority of Aristotle before-hand. The rules of building may be of service to us, if we design to judge of an edifice, and discover what may be amiss in it for the advantage of future artificers; but they are of no use to those who only intend to overthrow it utterly. ”

“ Envy, which has no relaxation, still hurried him forward; for it is certainly true that a man has not firmer resolution from reason, to stand by a good principle, than obstinacy from perverted nature, to adhere to a bad one.
In the morning as he walked the street, he observed in some places inscriptions concerning Homer, which informed him where he lived, where he had taught school, and several other particularities which the Smyrneans glory to have recorded of him; all which awakened and irritated the passions of Zoilus. ”

“ Zoilus and his followers, who seldom praise any man, are however careful to do it for their own sakes, if at any time they get an author of their opinion: though indeed it must be allowed, they still have a drawback in their manner of praise, and rather choose to drop the name of their man, or darkly hint him in a periphrasis, than to have it appear that they have directly assisted the perpetuating of any one's memory. Thus, if a Dutch critic were to introduce, for example, Martial, he would, instead of naming him, say Ingeniosus ille Epigrammaticus Bilbilicus. ”

“ There are upon the stone which is carved for the apotheosis of Homer, figures of mice by his foot-stool, which, according to Cuperus, its interpreter, some have taken to signify this poem; and others those critics, who tear or vilify the works of great men. Now if such can be compared to mice, let the words of Zoilus be brought home to himself and his followers for their mortification: That no one ought to think of meriting in the state of learning only by debasing the best performances, and as it were preying upon those things which should be sacred in it. ”

“ Now had he drawn his consequences fairly, he could only have found by the one, that trumpets were not in use at the taking of Troy; and by the other, that the battle of frogs and mice was laid by the Poet for a later scene of action than that of the Iliad. But the boast of discoveries accompanies the affectation of knowledge; and the affectation of knowledge is taken up with a design to gain a command over the opinions of others. It is too heavy a task for some critics to sway our rational judgments by rational inferences ”

“ But if these who thus follow Zoilus, meet not the same severities of fate, because they come short of his indefatigable ness, or their object is not so universally the concern of mankind, they shall nevertheless meet a proportion of it in the inward trouble they give themselves, and the outward contempt others fling upon them: a punishment which every one has hitherto felt, who has really deserved to be called a Zoilus; and which will always be the natural reward of such men's actions, as long as Zoilus is the proper name of envy. ”

“ But let not such men tell us they participate in the glory of these great men, and place themselves next to Phœbus, who, like Zoilus, entangle an author in the wrangles of grammarians, or try him with a positive air and barren imagination, by the set of rules they have collected out of others. ”

“ Thus he who hates fables answers one with another, and can rejoice in them when they flatter his envy. He appears at the head of his squadron of critics, in the full spirit of one utterly devoted to a party; with whom truth is a lie, or as bad as a lie, when it makes against him ”

“ He was fond of speaking ill, diligent to sow dissension, and from the constant bent of his thought, had obtained that sort of readiness for slander or reproach, which is esteemed wit by the light opinion of some, who take the remarks of ill-nature, for an understanding of mankind, and the abrupt lashes of rudeness for the spirit of expression. ”

“ It is needless to wish them the return they deserve: their disregard to candour is no sooner discovered, but they are for ever banished from the eyes of men of sense, and condemned to wander from stall to stall, for a temporary refuge from that oblivion which they cannot escape. ”

“ Or what were the best performances in this indulgence of ill-nature, but as apartments hung with the deformities of humanity, done by some great hand, which are the more to be abhorred, because the praise and honour they receive results from the degree of uneasiness to which they put every temper of common goodness? ”

“ Then they who represented the deities in the procession, laying aside their ensigns of divinity, ushered in the men of learning with a sound of voices, and their various instruments, to assist at a sacrifice in honour of Apollo and his favourite Homer.
It may be easily believed, that Zoilus concluded his affairs were at the utmost point of desperation in Egypt; wherefore, filled with pride, scorn, anger, vexation, envy, (and whatever could torment him, except the knowledge of his unworthiness) he flung himself aboard the first ship which left that country. ”

“ Chapman thinks it the work of his age, after he found men ungrateful; to show he could give strength, lineage, and fame, as he pleased, and praise a mouse as well as a man. Thus, says he, the poet professedly flung up the world, and applied himself at last to hymns. Now, though this reason of his may be nothing more than a scheme formed out of the order in which Homer's works are printed, yet does the conjecture, that this poem was written after the Iliad, appear probable, because of its frequent allusions to that poem ”

“ How many labour to destroy the monuments of the dead, and summon up the great from their graves to answer for trifles before them? How many, by misrepresentations, both hinder the world from favouring men of genius, and discourage them in themselves ”

“ He might retain some names which the world is least acquainted with, as his old translator Chapman uses Ephaistus instead of Vulcan, Baratrum for Hell; and if the notes were filled with Greek verses, it would more increase the wonder of many readers. Thus I went on; when he told me smiling, I had shown him indeed a set of arts very different from merit, for which reason, he thought, he ought not to depend upon them. A success, says he, founded on the ignorance of others, may bring a temporary advantage, but neither a conscious satisfaction, nor future fame to the author. ”

“ Now, if the question be concerning Homer's good or bad poetry, this is an unqualifying speech, which affords his friends just grounds of exception against the critic. Wherefore, be it known to all present and future censors, who have, or shall presume to glory in an ignorance of poetry, and at the same time take upon them to judge of poets, that they are in all their degrees for ever excluded the post they would usurp. In the first place, they who know neither the use, nor practice of the art ”

“ But whatever has been advanced by men really great in themselves, has been also attempted by others of capacities either unequal to the undertaking, or which have been corrupted by their passions, and drawn away into partial violences: so that we have sometimes seen the province of criticism usurped, by such who judge with an obscure diligence, and a certain dryness of understanding, incapable of comprehending a figurative style, or being moved by the beauties of imagination ”

“ These and many more filled the court of that munificent prince, whose liberal dispensations of wealth and favour became encouragements to every one to exert their parts to the utmost; like streams which flow through different sorts of soils, and improve each in that for which it was adapted by nature. ”

“ He neither chooses to draw a beauty in a ruff, or a French head; but with its neck uncovered, and in its natural ornament of hair curled up, or spread becomingly: so may a writer choose a natural manner of expressing himself, which will always be in fashion, without affecting to borrow an odd solemnity and unintelligible pomp from the past times, or humouring the present by falling into its affectations, and those phrases which are born to die with it. ”

“ All which proceeding is like boasting of our great friends, when it is to do ourselves an honour, or the shift of dressing up one who might otherwise be disregarded, to make him pass upon the world for a responsible voucher to our own assertions. ”

“ Behind these came three chariots, in which rode nine damsels, each of them with that instrument which is proper to each of the Muses; among whom, Calliope, to give her the honour of the day, sate in the middle of the second chariot, known by her richer vestments. After these marched a solemn train aptly habited, like those sciences which acknowledge their rise or improvement from this poet. Then the men of learning who attended the court, with wreaths, and rods or sceptres of laurel, as taking upon themselves the representation of Rhapsodists, to do honour, for the time, to Homer. ”