128

The Progrefs of Satire.

laftly, to point out the confequences of applying it only to temporary fubjects; namely, that it is thereby degraded from a fyftem of morals to a vehicle for prejudice and malignity; that it is tempted to attacks on private characters, and to a fpecies of tyranny over literature which difcourages laudable exertion, repreffes modeft merit, and poifons the beft fources of rational pleasure." Pref. p. v.

It fhould, however, be confidered, that fatire muft, and always has been, in part temporary and perfonal; and that Horace himself, whom the writer before us confiders as quite blameless in this refpect, was probably not fo esteemed by the perfons against whom he directed feveral of his attacks. The prefent author begins his hiftorical view of fatire, with Ennius and Lucilius, and brings it down to Young, Churchill, Tickell, the author of the Diaboliad, and the author of the Baviad. Young is thus characterized.

"With wit that elfe had claim'd an equal prize*,
But tafte lefs juft, fee + virtuous Young arife!
His keen remarks, well-temper'd, though fevere,
His well turn'd fentence, and his pointed fneer,
At general vice, or flagrant follies, aim

Their nobler fting, nor wound one honour'd name." P. 12.

Of Young, the great fault was his epigrammatic manner. To Churchill this author gives, perhaps, more praife than he deferves His poetry was extolled chiefly from party views, and feems to be haftening to oblivion. Of Dryden, he fpeaks by far too lightly; and, as we are not yet determined to return to a repeated notice of the Purfuits of Literature, on account of the new and corrected edition which has lately appeared, we fhall take from the introduction already mentioned, the very vigor"I may," the author fays, " be pus account of that poet. fingular perhaps; but if I except Lucilius, (who is known to us only by detached lines and fhort paffages) in my opinion, the fulness of that glory‡, never fhone but on fix poets." Thefe are Horace, Juvenal, Perfius, Boileau, Dryden, and Pope.

*To that gained by Pope. Rev.

+"Scarcely any English poet is fo invariably zealous in the caufe His Satires (the only part of his works with of virtue as Dr. Young. which we have any concern here) are grounded on one general prin ciple, inherent in human nature. The characters introduced are all referred to that principle; and I have never heard that in the defcription of any of them he violated juftice, or gratified private malignity. This is furely the proper and only useful method of writing Satire. In the Satires of the ancients, there was generally a leading principle and object to each."

That of writing fatire. Rev.

No

Nor does it appear to us, that any material correction can be made in this enumeration. Boileau he holds very high, and delineates with very characteristic propriety. Dryden is thus drawn:

Nearly at the fame period (with Boileau) after fome momentary gleams, and ftrong flashes in the horizon, fatire arofe in England. When I name DRYDEN, I comprehend every varied excellence of our poetry. In harmony, ftrength, modulation, rhythm, energy, he firfb difplayed the full power of the English language. My bulinefs with him, at prefent, is only as a fatirift. I will be brief: I fpeak to the intelligent. He was the firft poet who brought to perfection, what I would term, the Allegory of Satire.' Fables, indeed, and apologues, and romances, have always been the most ancient modes of reproof and cenfure. It was the peculiar happiness of Dryden, to give an eternal fenfe and intereft to fubjects which are tranfitory. He placed his fcene on the ground of actual history. The reader of every age has an intereft in the delineation of characters and names which have been familiar to him from his earliest years. He is already prepared and feels a predilection for the fubject. This accommodation of ancient characters to exifting perfons, has a peculiar force in the age to which it is addreffed; and pofterity reads with delight, a poem founded on priftine ftory, and illuftrated by the records of modern times. Dryden's power of fatire, has been generally acknowledged in his Mac Flecknoe; but his mafter-piece, is that wonderful and unequalled performance, Abfalom and Achitophel. He prefents to us an heroick fubject, in heroick numbers, a well conftructed allegory, and a forcible appeal to our beft feelings and paffions. He paints the horrors of anarchy, fedition, rebellion, and democracy with the pencil of Dante, or of Michael Angelo, and he gives the speeches of his heroes, with the ftrength, propriety, and correctnefs of Virgil. It is fatire in its higheft form; but it is fatire addreffed to the few. It is not adapted to the general effect of this fpecies of poetry. In my opinion, Dryden has not the style and manner of Horace, or Juvenal, or Perfius, or Boileau. Pope called him unhappy, from the loofenefs of the age in which he lived. He has enthufiafm, majefty, feverity, gravity, ftrength of conception, and boldness of imagery. But fprightliness, gaiety, an safy badinage, an occafional playfulness, fo neceffary to the general effect of faurical poetry, were all wanting to him. Perhaps his genius was too fublime. He could not, or he would not defcend to the minutia which are often required, the anecdotes, and the paffing traits of the time. His fatire had an original character. It was the strain of Archilochus, founding from the lyre of Alcæus."

In our opinion, this is a moft valuable and original piece of criticism; and left we should not happen to recur to it, we take this occalion to fay, that the introductory letter from which it is taken, is one of the finest compofitions in manner, and most

*This always would be better away. Rev.

important

important in matter, of any that we have lately read. But to
return to our proper fubject. We have faid, that the attack
of this poet, on his unknown antagonist, is by far the best part
of his Effay. It is fair, therefore, to infert it. A lively and strong
fpecimen is given, in a kind of parody on his opponent, intro-
duced into the preface, and which might, perhaps, have been
as well interwoven in the poem; but the main attack is this:
"Senfe, genius, learning, wit, in me combine,"
A nameless fat' rift cries, all, all are mine!
'Tis mine, by keen unerring judgment graced,
To reign defpotic arbiter of taste,

To awe by myftic threats the paffive town,
Raife by a fmile, extinguifh by a frown,
And brand the name of each devoted wight;
But hide my own, fecured by friendly night."

Alas! can pride to fuch importance raise
A wretched mortal, puffed by tranfient praife?
Thou, who no faults, no weakness, canft excufe,
Hear thy own merits from th' ingenuous Muse;
Who, proud all juft distinctions to admit,
Proclaims thee, half a Poet, half a Wit;
Now vig'rous, daring, and almoft fublime;
Now tagging feeble words to feeble rhyme;
Now foaring high in Virtue's facred cause,
Now ftooping low, and pecking e'en at ftraws;
Now candid, now by prejudice debas'd;
(A bigot's principles, a pedant's taste)
Prompt to repel Religion's barbarous foes,
Yet crufh her fons, and aggravate their woes;
And blending love of truth and zeal for right
With bloated arrogance and envious fpite.
Nor think, howe'er fhe boaft her motley rhymes,
Thy fhapeless Muse shall live to after times.
No: though fuftain'd by mean unworthy art,
She feed each bafer paffion of the heart,
Indignant virtue yet shall mark thy shame,

And juftice blot thee from the rolls of fame." P. 18.

We have omitted the notes on this paffage, as they would have taken too. much room; and only mention, that the objection in note (c) to clans being applied to birds, feems to us quite groundlefs. The author is, however, frequently right in his remarks. Let us fubjoin the summary character of the unknown poet, with which this affailant has concluded his

notes.

"But let not refentment (even for a moment) forget what is due to candour and to juftice. Let me here once more, as a friend to the religion and conftitution of my country, acknowledge this writer's able and fpirited defence of both against the infidels and fophifts of the age. He is not, (alas!) the first advocate for Chriftianity who has violated

its precepts: but he is perhaps the fitft who has (in fo many inftances) wantonly violated them, attacking perfonally, and without provocation, men who are friends to the fame caufe as himself, whofe moral (and perhaps whose literary) characters ftand as high as his own, be the writer who he may; and fome, at least, of whom feel lefs the infult to themselves, than the injury he has done to the common caufe by degrading himself into a libeller, and the triumph which he has thus afforded to its inveterate enemies." P. 32.

A part of this accufation is also ftrictly true. There are names, fome of which are now removed from the P. of L. and fome ftill left, which the author fhould bluth ever to have introduced with contempt or ridicule: and, certainly, the temptation of wounding, by a farcafm founded on a partial view, or perhaps an ignorant mifapprehenfion of a character, is one, against which a lively fatirift can never be too much upon his guard. The prefent author will not find his vigour fufficient to deprefs his antagonist; but he has thrown out many judicious admonitions, to which attention ought to be paid.

ART. IV. The Hiftory of Rome, by Titus Livius, tranflated from the Original, with Notes and Illuftrations. By George Baker, A. M. 6 Vols. 8vo. 21. 2s. Cadell and Davies. 1797.

WE

E now poffefs four English translations of this valuable history. The first is a folio, by Philemon Holland, in 1600; the fecond is anonymous, and alfo in folio, printed in 1686; the third is by the Book fellers ufually called Hayes's tranflation, though the dedication to Admiral Vernon is figned by his humble fervants, the Tranflators," and the name of Hayes no where appears. It is neatly printed in fix volumes 8vo. and its date is 1744. The fourth, now before us for examination, is by the gentleman whofe name is prefixed, and whom we understand, to be refident in Ireland*.

Con

A fmall part of Livy was tranflated by Anthony Cope, Efq. and published in 1545. See Proleg. to Shakspeare; on which Mr. Steevens has this note. In the firft volume of the entries in the books of the Stationers'-Company, anno 1597, is the following note: Memorandum; that Mr. Alexander Nevill, Gent. is appointed to tranf late Titus Livius into the Englyfhe tongue : expreffed, the fame is not to be printed by anie man, but only fuch as fhall have his tranflacion

Confidering the prefent circumstances of our language, and the wide diffufion of claffical literature, it may be a matter of fome curiofity to exhibit a fpecimen of each of these verfions, that they who think proper may compare them with one another. For this purpofe, we fall felect a paffage of fome intereft; namely, the xlviii chap. of b. iii, which relates the abolition of the power of the Decemvirs, and the melancholy fate of the beautiful Virginia. We fubjoin the different tranflations in their chronological order.

PHILEMON HOLLAND.

"And the Decemvir, having his head intoxicate, and altogither carried away with unbridled luft, brake forth and said, That he had certaine intelligence, and was informed of a truth, by manifeft and affured evidences (and not induced and led thereto by the reviling taunts of Lelius yesterday, and the violent proceedings of Virginius, whereof he had the people of Rome to bear witnes, and which might give fome light and prefumptions) That the night paft there were meetings and conventicles in the cittie, and all to raife a mutinie and infurrection and therefore, he not ignorant of fuch a broile and roiot toward, was come downe into the common place, with a guard of armed men: not minding to hurt any one that would keepe the peace, but onely by vertue of the majestie of government and authorizie, to repreffe fuch as troubled the peaceable ftate of the cittie: therefore it were best for them to be still and quiet. Go Sergeant (quoth he) caufe the people to avoid the place, and make roome for the master to lay hand upon his bondflave: and after he had thundred out thefe wordes full of ire and wrath, the multitude of themselves gave backe, and made way: fo the poore filly wench stood all forlorne, and left as a prey to their injurious clutches. Then Virginius fecing all paft helpe, and no other remedie: Well Appius (quoth he) pardon me first I be feech thee, if upon a fatherly affection and griefe of heart, I have let fall fome fhrewd and curft words against thee more than was befeeming: Then, give me leave here before the Virgin, to enquire of her nourice the truth of this matter, that if I have fathered her untruly, I may goe hence better apaid, and satisfied in my mind. Leave being granted, he led his daughter and the nource apart from the reft, neare to the church of Venus Cloacina, hard at the fhops, called at this daie Nova Taberna, i. the new fhops, or ftandings; and there having caught a knife from a butcher, he thus fpake: My fweete daughter, no other meanes have I but this onely to fet thee free; and fo he ftrake the damfell to the heart and looking presently to the judgment feat, Here. with this bloud I facrifice thee Appius, and thy head to the divell. Appius with the crie that arofe upon fo horrible a fact, being much troubled, commanded Virginius to be apprehended; but he with

Again, in 1598, the Hiftory of Titus Livius was entered by Adam Idip." If fuch a tranflation was printed, we have not feen it. Phi lemon Holland however does not speak of any previous tranflator.

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