In grave Quintilian's copious work, we find The justest rules, and clearest method join'd: 670

NOTES.

sisted, he tells us, in softening the art of a scholar with the ease of a courtier. And whoever reads and understands, the critical part of his abominable story-telling, will see that the Poet has given his true character as a critic, which was the only thing he had to do with. Warburton.

Ver. 667. Petronius please,] This dissolute and effeminate writer little deserved a place among good critics, for only two or three pages on the subject of criticism. His fragment on the Civil War is far below Lucan, whom he endeavoured to blame and to excel. Sir George Wheeler, esteemed an accurate traveller, informs us, that he saw at Trau, in the hands of a Doctor Statelius, a fragment of Petronius, in which the account of the Supper of Trimalcion was entire. Yet this fragment has been judged to be spurious. Warton.

Ver. 669. In grave Quintilian's copious work] To commend Quintilian barely for his method, and to insist merely on this excellence, is below the merit of one of the most rational and elegant of Roman writers. Considering the nature of Quintilian's subject, he afforded copious matter for a more appropriate and poetical character. No author ever adorned a scientifical treatise with so many beautiful metaphors. Quintilian was found in the bottom of a tower of the monastery of St. Gal, by Poggius; as appears by one of his letters dated 1417, written from Constance, where the council was then sitting. The monastery was about twenty miles from that city. Silius Italicus, and Valerius Flaccus, were found at the same time and place. A history of the manner in which the MSS. of ancient authors were found, would be an entertaining work to persons of literary curiosity. See Life of Lorenzo de' Mediei. Warton.

Ver. 669. In grave Quintilian's] It is very justly remarked by Dr. Warton, that "to commend Quintilian barely for his method, is below his merit, as that elegant writer afforded copious matter for a more appropriated and poetical character." How differently does Leonardo Aretino speak, in his letter to Poggio, upon the discovery of Quintilian, with Silius Italicus and Valerius Flaccus, among dust and rubbish at the bottom of a tower, in the monastery

of

Thus useful arms in magazines we place,
All rang'd in order, and dispos'd with grace,
But less to please the eye, than arm the hand,
Still fit for use, and ready at command.

Thee, bold Longinus! all the Nine inspire, 675 And bless their Critic with a Poet's fire.

NOTES.

of St. Gal! "I have the pleasure of informing you," he says, "that from this discovery of yours we have already derived more advantages than you are aware of; for by your exertions we are at length in possession of a perfect copy of Quintilian. I have inspected the title of the books; we have now the entire treatise, of which before we had only one half, and that in a very mutilated state. Oh, what a valuable acquisition! what an unexpected plea sure! Shall I then behold Quintilian whole and entire, who, even in his imperfect state, was so rich a source of delight. I entreat you, my dear Poggio, send me the manuscript as soon as possible, that I may see it before I die."

See Shepherd's Life of Poggio, page 105. Nothing can shew more clearly the enthusiasm with which the buried treasures of classical authors were received, when they were brought to light, at this period; and Warton justly observes, that the history of the manner in which ancient MSS. were found, would be an entertaining work. Bowles.

Ver. 675. Thee, bold Longinus!] This abrupt address to Longinus is more spirited and striking, and more suitable to the character of the person addressed, than if he had coldly spoken of him in the third person, as it stood in the first edition. The taste and sensibility of Longinus were exquisite; but his observations are too general, and his method too loose. The precision of the true philosophical critic is lost in the declamation of the florid rhetorician. Instead of shewing for what reason a sentiment or image is sublime, and discovering the secret power by which they affect a reader with pleasure, he is ever intent on producing some thing sublime himself, and strokes of his own eloquence. Instead of pointing out the foundation of the grandeur of Homer's imagery, where he describes the motion of Neptune, the critic is endeavouring to rival the poet, by saying, that "there was not room

enough

An ardent Judge, who, zealous in his trust,
With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just:
Whose own example strengthens all his laws;
And is himself that great Sublime he draws. 680
Thus long succeeding Critics justly reign'd,
Licence repress'd, and useful laws ordain'd.

COMMENTARY.

Ver. 681. Thus long succeeding Critics, &c.] The next period in which the true Critic (he tells us) appeared, was at the revival and restoration of letters in the West. This occasions his giving a short history [from ver. 682 to 709.] of the decline and reestablishment of arts and sciences in Italy. He shews that they both fell under the same enemy, despotic power; and that when both had made some little efforts to recover themselves, they were soon again overwhelmed by a second deluge of another kind, namely, Superstition; and a calm of Dulness finished upon Rome and Letters what the rage of Barbarism had begun :

"A second deluge Learning thus o'er-run,

And the Monk finish'd what the Goth begun."

When things had long remained in this condition, and all hopes of recovery now seemed desperate, it was a CRITIC, our Author shews us, for the honour of the Art he here teaches, who at length broke the charm of Dulness, who dissipated the inchantment, and, like another Hercules, drove those cowl'd and hooded serpents from the Hesperian tree of knowledge, which they had so long guarded from human approach.

NOTES.

enough in the whole earth to take such another step." He should have shewn why the speech of Phäeton to his son, in a fragment of Euripides, was so lively and picturesque; instead of which, he ardently exclaims, "would not you say, that the soul of the writer ascended the chariot with the driver, and was whirled along in the same flight and danger with the rapid horses?" I have frequently wondered, that Longinus, who mentions Tully, should have taken no notice of Virgil or Horace. I suppose he thought them only servile copiers of the Greeks. Neither Herodotus nor Thucydides ever once mention the Romans. Warton.

Ver. 680. And is himself that great Sublime he draws.] It is

remarked

Learning and Rome alike in empire grew;

And arts still follow'd where her eagles flew ;
From the same Foes, at last, both felt their doom,
And the same age saw Learning fall and Rome.
With Tyranny, then Superstition join'd,
As that the body, this enslav'd the mind;
Much was believ'd, but little understood,
And to be dull was constru'd to be good;
A second deluge Learning thus o'er-run,
And the Monks finish'd what the Goths begun.

NOTES.

690

remarked in Smith's Translation, that the Prince of Condé, when he heard a fine passage repeated from the seventh section of Longinus's Treatise on the Sublime, exclaimed, "Voila le sublime! voila son veritable caractère!" Bowles.

Ver. 686. saw learning fall] Literature and the arts which flourished to so great a degree about the time of Augustus, gradually felt a decline, from many concurrent causes; from the vast extent of the Roman empire, and its consequent despotism, which crushed every noble effort of the mind; from the military government, which rendered life and property precarious, and therefore destroyed even the necessary arts of agriculture and manufactures; and by the irruption of the barbarous nations, which was occasioned and facilitated by this state of things. About the eleventh century the people of Christendom were sunk in the lowest ignorance and brutality, till the accidental finding Justinian's Pandects at Amalfi in Italy, about the year 1130, began to awaken and enlarge the minds of men, by laying before them an art that would give stability and security to all the other arts that support and embellish life. It is a mistake to think that the arts were destroyed by the irruptions of the northern nations. degenerated and decayed before that event.

They had

Warton.

Ver. 691. A second deluge, &c.] In referring to the revival of

VARIATIONS.

learning,

Between ver. 690 and 691, the author omitted these two:

Vain Wits and Critics were no more allow'd,
When none but Saints had licence to be proud.

P,

At length Erasmus, that great injur❜d name, (The glory of the priesthood and the shame!)

NOTES.

learning, it ought not to escape our notice, that a great effort was made for its restoration by Charlemagne, who not only collected about him learned men from all parts, but submitted to become their disciple and pupil. His earliest instructor was Petrus Diaconus, but it is to the honour of our own country, that the person who initiated him into the higher departments of learning was an Englishman—the celebrated Alcuin, the disciple of Bede. The exertions of Alcuin in the cause of learning are commemorated by all its historians, and are evinced by several of his works which yet remain. By his directions and example, and under the imperial patronage, schools and universities began to be established; and those of Pisa, Padua, Cremona, Florence, Verona, and many other places, are referred to this early period. With the death of Charlemagne the cause of literature again declined, and it was not till nearly two centuries afterwards that the effort began to be made which has eventually proved successful. After this slow and gradual revival, which is not merely to be attributed to the discovery of the pandects of Justinian, but to various concurring causes, learning was over-run by no second deluge. Its progress from that period to the beginning of the sixteenth century, may be traced in an almost unbroken series, through Pier Lombardo, Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Guido d' Arezzo, Guglielmo della Puglia, Arnoldo da Brescia, Borgondio Pisano, Ischamus, Gualtherus, both Latin poets, Folco, or Folchetto, Raymond Count of Toulouse, Johannes Accursius, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Planudes, Leontius Pilatus, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Gower, Wickliffe, Gregorius Tiphernas, Ambrogio Traversari, Lionardo Bruni (d'Arezzo) Gemisthus Pletho, Thomas a Kempis, Filelfo, Poggio Bracciolini, Chrysoloras, Arguropylus, Theodore Gaza, Bessarion, Joh. Lascar, Nicholas V. Aeneas Sylvius (Pius II.) Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Politiano, Marcus Musurus, Gio. Pico of Mirandula, Matteo Bosso, Pontano, Sanazzaro, &c. By some of these eminent men almost all the works of the ancient authors were discovered, restored, and commented on, and many of them published before the end of the fifteenth century. It is true the cultivation of the modern languages, which had made some progress as well in

France