that we reverence Homer fomewhat the more, on account of our knowing fo lit tle facts expreffed in the plaineft manner, and which fears nothing fo much as the pomp of words. The epopea, on the other hand, feizes the pencil of Homer, and at one view takes in the whole univerfe. A God difcovers to the poet, in one inftant, heaven, hell, and earth, the past, the present, and the future; who chufes at will, and draws up an hiftory of mankind, rather than of men. The ethic afcends even to the mysteries of divine providence, and fhews us at once the moving forces, their direction, and the effects they have produced. Here every thing fhould be uttered with a degree of noblenefs and dignity, fuperior to its natural condition; men should speak in the ftile of heroes, the paffions fhould all have an energy, a continued vigour; in fhort, all fhould be nature, but nature enchanted and transported by the enthusiastic raptures of the mufe. There is not a fingle verfe in the Æneid, which does not partake of the dignity of the mufe, invoked by the poet in the beginning of his work; and to this dignity tle of the authors who preceded him. Fabricius, I think, gives us a long lift of those whose names are known; but the poetry of Homer is a fufficient proof that there were poets of eminence before him; for no language can leap from its infancy at once to perfection, and the Greek fhines with its brighteft luftre in his works *. dignity they owe their poetic ftrain; without this, they might be verses indeed in another species of writing, but would be profe in the epopeia. Batteux's principles of Lit. vol. 1. p. 116. La Langue Grecque eft, dit-on, à fon plus haut point de perfection dans Homere. Si cela eft, c'est une preuve décifive qu'avant l'Iliade & l'Odyée il avoit déjà paru plufieurs bons ouvrages en cette langue. Il eft certain meme qu'il y a de bons ouvrages, avant qu'il y en ait de bien écrits. Enfuite il eft naturel qu'il y en ait plus de bien écrits que de bons. Effais fur divers fujets de Literature, &c. tom. iv. p. 162. Virgil's Virgil's reputation will be for ever im mortal; his greatest enemies cannot deny him a very rich vein of poetry, and a moft perfect judgment; nor can his warmest admirers juftly equal him to Homer, whofe exuberant imagination poured forth original beauties, which Virgil was content to copy: invention is not the characteristic of the Latin poets: the ridiculous prejudice of Scaliger in favour of Virgil, and the neglect of Longinus, who never mentions him, forms perfect a contrast. Taffo was yet in his infancy, when Triffino, the author of the firft tragedy in the vulgar language, undertook to write an epic poem. He chofe for his fubject the deliverance of Italy from the Goths, by Bellifarius, under the em peror Juftinian. The subject was great, and and the execution, altho' very moderate, had great fuccefs; that faint glimmering of light in the times of obfcurity, was not entirely effaced till the appearance of the fhining brightnefs of Taffo. Triffino had great talents, and an extensive capacity he had been employed by Leo X. in many affairs of importance; and had been with great fuccefs his ambaffador to Charles V. But at laft he facrificed his ambition, and all his other affairs, to his love for letters, which had then attracted his confideration, as he found they were revived in Europe, and he had the glory of being their first fruits. He was with reafon charmed with the beauty of the books of Homer; and yet his greateft fault is having imitated him; for imitation demands greater genius, and and more art, than is commonly ima gined. The flowers of the antient feem withered when plucked, and wove together by unfkilful hands: yet nothing is more common than to fee authors mix pieces of Homer and Virgil in their own writings, hiding themselves under those great names, without confidering, that the fame things which are admirable in the antients, are ridiculous in their works *. Triffino endeavoured to imitate Homer, chiefly in his defcriptions; but here he managed very injudiciously; for whilst he took care to paint all that appeared domeftic, and in the house of his heroes, not having omitted even a button, or a garter, in the description of their habits, * Vide Effay fur le poem epique, par Voltaire, Drefden edition, vol. i. he |