Colligit ac ponit temere, et mutatur in horas. 160 COMMENTARY. J which was the point he had been confidering, was destructive of probability, this leads the poet, by a natural order, to cenfure fome other fpecies of mifconduct, which have the fame effect. He determines then, 1. [from 1. 179 to 189] the cafe of reprefentation and recital: or what it is, which renders fome things more fit to be acted on the stage, others more fit to be related on it. Segnius inritant animos demiffa per aurem, 180 Ét regat iratos, et àmet pacare tumentis: Ille dapes laudet menfae brevis, ille falubrem COMMENTARY. Next, 2. In pursuance of the fame point, viz. probability [to 1. 193] he restrains the ufe of machines; and prescribes the number of acts, and of perfons, to be introduced on the stage at the fame time. And, 3. laftly, the perfona dramatis, just mentioned, fuggesting it to his thoughts, he takes occafion from thence to pass on to the chorus [from 1. 193 to 202] whose double office it was, 1. To fuftain the part of a persona dramatis in the acts; and, 2. To connect the acts with VOL. I. C fongs, Juftitiam, legefque, et apertis otia portis : Tibia non, ut nunc, orichalco, juncta, tubaeque Acceffit numerisque modifque licentia major. COMMENTARY. 210 fongs, perfuading to good morals, and suitable to the fubject. Further, tragedy being, originally, nothing more than a chorus or fong, fet to mufic, from which practice the harmony of the regular chorus in aftertimes had its rife, he takes occafion to digrefs [from 1.202 to 220] in explaining the fimplicity and barbarity of the old, and the refinements of the later, mufic. The application of this account of the dramatic mufic to the cafe of the tragic chorus, together with a short glance at the other improvements of numbers, ftyle, &c. neceffarily connected with it, gives him the opportunity of going off eafily into a subject of near affinity with this, viz. the Roman fatiric piece which was indeed a ípecies of tragedy, but of fo extraordinary a compofition, as to require a fet of rules, and Rufticus urbano confufus, turpis honeftó? Et tulit eloquium infolitum facundia praeceps; COMMENTARY. 225 and inftructions, peculiar to itself. A point, in which they agreed, but which was greatly misunderstood or ill-obferved by his countrymen, was the kind of verse or measure employed in them. This therefore, by a difpofition of the most beautiful method, he referves for a confideration by itself, having, first of all, delivered fuch rules, as feemed neceffary about those points, in which they effentially differed. He explains then [from 1. 220 to 225] the use and end of the jatires, fhewing them to be defigned for the exhilaration of the ruftic youth, on their folemn festivities, after the exhibition of the graver, tragic fhews. But, 2. To convert, as far as was poffible, what was thus a neceffary facrifice to the taste of the multitude into a tolerable entertainment for the better fort, he lays down [from 1. 225 to 240] the exacteft defcrip C 2 tion Conveniet Satyros, ita vertere feria ludo; 231 Ut feftis matrona moveri juffa diebus, Ut nihil interfit, Davusne loquatur et audax COMMENTARY. 245 tion or idea of this fort of poem; by means of which he inftructs us in the due temperature and decorum of the fatyric style. 3. Lastly, [from 1. 240 to 251] he directs to the choice of proper fubjects, and defines the just character of those principal and fo uncommon perfonages in this drama, the fatyrs themfelves. This being premised, he confiders, as was obferved, what belongs in common to this with the regular |