in this view, that Ruifdale's waters, and Claude Lorrain's fkies, are so admirable.

40.-CUI LECTA POTENTER ERIT RES.] Potenter, i. e. xala dúvauw, Lambin: which gives a pertinent fenfe, but without juftifying the expreffion. The learned editor of Statius proposes to read pudenter, a word used by Horace on other occafions, and which fuits the meaning of the place as well. A fimilar paffage in the epiftle to Auguftus adds fome weight to this conjecture;

nec meus audet

REM tentare PUDOR, quam vires ferre recufent.

45. Hoc AMET, HOC SPERNAT, PROMISSI CARMINIS AUCTOR-IN VERBIS ETIAM TENUIS CAUTUSQUE SERENDIS.] Dr. Bentley hath inverted the order of these two lines; not merely, as I conceive, without fufficient reason, but in prejudice alfo to the fcope and tenor of the poet's fenfe; in which cafe only I allow myself to depart from his text. The whole precept, on poetical diftribution, is delivered, as of import

tance:

[Ordinis haec virtus erit et venus, aut egs fallar.] And fuch indeed it is: for, 1. It respects no less than the conftitution of a whole, i. e. the re duction of a subject into one entire, confiftent

plan,

ས་

plan, the most momentous and difficult of all the offices of invention, and which is more immediately addreffed, in the high and fublime fenfe of the word, to the Porr. 2. It is no trivial whole, which the Precept had in view, but, as the context fhews, and as is further apparent froin 1. 150, where this topic is refumed, and treated more at large, the epos and the drama. With what propriety then is a rule of fuch dignity inforced by that strong emphatic conclufion, Hoc amet, hoc fpernat, promissi carminis auctor :

i. e. "Be this rule held facred and inviolate by "him, who hath projected and engaged in a "work, deferving the appellation of a poem." Were the fubject only the choice or invention of words, the folemnity of fuch an application must be ridiculous.

As for the conftruction, the commoneft reader can find himself at no lofs to defend it against the force of the Doctor's objections.

46. IN VERBIS ETIAM TENUIS, &c.] I have faid, that thefe preparatory obfervations, concerning an unity of defign, the abuse of language, and the different colourings of the feveral species of poetry, whilft they extend to poetic compofition at large, more particularly respect the cafe of the drama. The first of thefe articles has been illuf

trated

trated in note on 1. 34. The last will be cónfidered in note, 1. 73. I will here fhew the fame of the fecond, concerning the abufe of words. For, 1. the ftyle of the drama reprefenting real life, and demanding, on that accounr, a peculiar cafe and familiarity in the language, the practice of coining new words muft be more infufferable in this, than in any other fpecies of poetry. The majefty of the epic will even fometimes require to be fupported by this means, when the commoneft ear would refent it, as downright affectation upon the stage. Hence the peculiar propriety of this rule to the dramatic writer,

In verbis etiam tenuis cautufque ferendis. 2. Next, it is neceffary to keep the tragic style, though condefcending, in fome fort, to the familiar caft of conversation, from sinking beneath the dignity of the perfonages, and the folemnity of the reprefentation. Now no expedient can more happily effect this, than what the poet prefcribes concerning the pofition and derivation of words. For thus, the language, without incurring the odium of abfolutely invented terms, fuftains itself in a becoming ftatelinefs and referve, and, whilft it feems to ftoop to the level of conversation, artfully eludes the meanness of a trite, profaic ftyle.-There are wonderful inftances of this management in the Samfon Ago

iftes of Milton; the most artificial and highly finished, though for that reason, perhaps, the least popular and moft neglected, of all the poet's works.

great

47. DIXERIS EGREGIE, NOTUM SI CALLIDA VERBUM REDDIDERIT JUNCTURA NOVUM. -1 This direction, about disposing of old words in fuch a manner as that they fhall have the grace of new ones, is among the finest in the whole poem. And because Shakespeare is he, of all our poets, who has most successfully practised this fecret, it may not be amifs to illuftrate the precept before us by examples taken from his writings.

But first it will be proper to explain the pres cept itself as given by Horace.

His critics feem not at all to have apprehended the force of it. Dacier and Sanadon, the two beft of them, confine it merely to the formation of compound words; which, though one way in which this callida junctura fhews itself, is by no means the whole of what the poet intended by it.

Their mistake arose from interpreting the word junctura too ftrictly. They suppose it to mean only the putting together two words into one; this being the most obvious idea we have of the joining of words. As if the moft literal conftruction VOL. I. E

of

of terms, according to their etymology, were always the moft proper.

But Mr. Dacier has a reafon of his own for confining the precept to this meaning. "The queftion, he says, is de verbis ferendis; and therefore this junctura must be explained of new words, properly fo called, as compound epithets are; and not of the grace of novelty which fingle words feem to acquire from the art of difpofing of them.”

By which we understand, that the learned critic did not perceive the fcope of his author; which was manifeftly this. "The invention of "new terms, fays he, being a matter of much nicety, I had rather you would contrive to " employ known words in fuch a way as to give "them the effect of new ones. It is true, new "words may fometimes be neceffary: And if "fo," &c. Whence we fee that the line,

In verbis etiam tenuis cautufque ferendis, is not given here in form as the general rule, and the following line, as the example. On the other hand, the rule is juft mentioned carelefly and in paffing, while the poet is haftening to another confideration of more importance, and which he even opposes to the former. “Instead "af making new words, you will do well to "confine yourself merely to old ones."

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