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Thanks to Mother Earth, or Vefta, to Silvanus, and their Genius, in the fame manner. But as all Festivals have a double Reason of their Inftitution; the first of Religion, the other of Recreation, for the unbending of our Minds: So both the Grecians and Romans agreed, after their Sacrifices were perform'd, to spend the remainder of the Day in Sports and Merriments; amongst which, Songs and Dances, and that which they call'd Wit (for want of knowing better) were the chiefeft Entertainments. The Grecians had a Notion of Satires, whom I have already defcrib'd; and taking them, and the Sileni, that is the young Satires and the old, for the Tutors, Attendants, and humble Companions of their Bacchus, habited themselves like thofe Rural Deities, and imitated them in their Ruftick Dances, to which they join'd Songs, with fome fort of rude Harmony, but without certain Numbers; and to thefe they added a kind of Chorus.

The Romans alfo (as Nature is the fame in all Places) tho' they knew nothing of thofe Grecian Demi-Gods, nor had any Communication with Greece, yet had certain Young Men, who at their Festivals danc'd and fung after their uncouth manner, to a certain kind of Verfe, which they call'd Saturnian; what it was, we have no certain light from Antiquity to difcover; but we may conclude, that, like the Grecian, it was void of Art, or at least with very feeble beginnings of it. Thofe ancient Romans, at thefe Holy-days, which were a mixture of Devotion and Debauchery, had a Custom of reproaching each other with their Faults, in a fort of extempore Poetry, or rather of tunable hobling Verfe; and they anfwer'd in the fame kind of grofs Raillery; their Wit and their Mufick

being of a piece. The Crecians, fays Cafaubon, had formerly done the fame, in the Perfons of their petulant Satires: But I am afraid he mistakes the matter, and confounds the Singing and Dancing of the Satires, with the Ruftical Entertainments of the first Romans. The Reason of my Opinion is this; that Cafaubon finding little light from Antiquity, of thefe beginnings of Poetry, amongst the Grecians, but only thefe Reprefentations of Satires, who carry'd Canisters and Cornucopias full of feveral Fruits in their Hands, and danc'd with them at their Publick Feafts: And afterwards reading Horace, who makes mention of his homely Romans, jefting at one another in the fame kind of Solemnities, might suppose those wanton Satires did the fame. And especially becaufe Horace poffibly might feem to him, to have fhewn the Original of all Poetry in general, inclu ding the Grecians as well as Romans: Tho' 'tis plainly otherwise, that he only defcrib'd the beginning, and firft Rudiments of Poetry in his own Country. The Verfes are thefe, which he cites from the First Epiftle of the Second Book, which was written to Auguftus..

Agricola prifci, fortes, parvoque beati,

Condita poft frumenta, levantes tempore fefto
Corpus & ipfum animum fpe finis dura ferentem,
Cum fociis operum, & pueris, & conjuge fida,
Tellurem Porco, Silvanum lacte piabunt;
Floribus & vino Genium memorem brevis avi:
Fefcennia per hunc inventa licentia morem
Verfibus alternis, opprobria ruftica fudit.

Our brawny Clowns of old, who turn'd the Soil,
Content with little, and inur'd to Toil,,

At

At Harveft home, with Mirth and Country-Cheer
Reftor'd their Bodies for another Tear;
Refresh'd their Spirits, and renew'd their Hope
Of fuch a future Feaft, and future Crop.
Then with their Fellow-Joggers of the Ploughs,
Their little Children, and their faithful Sponfe;
A Sow they flew to Velta's Deity;

And kindly Milk, Silvanus, pour'd to thee.
With Flow'rs, and Wine, their Genius they ador'd;
A fhort Life, and a merry, was the Word.
From flowing Cups defaming Rhymes enfue,
And at each other homely Taunts they threw..

Yet fince it is a hard Conjecture, that fo Great a Man as Cafaubon fhou'd mifapply what Horace writ concerning ancient Rome, to the Ceremonies and Manners of ancient Greece, I will not infift on this Opinion, but rather judge in general, That fince all Poetry had its Original from Religion, that of the Grecians and Romans had the fame beginning: Both were invented at Festivals of Thankfgiving: And both were profecuted with Mirth and Raillery, and Rudiments of Verfe: Amongst the Greeks, by thofe who reprefented Satires; and amongst the Romans, by real Clowns.

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For, indeed, when I am reading Cafaubon on these two Subjects, methinks I hear the fame Story told twice over with very little Alteration. Of which Dacier taking notice, in his Interpretation of the Latin Verfes which I have tranflated, fays plainly, that the beginning of Poetry was the fame, with a small variety, in boch Countries: And that the Mother of it in all Nations, was Devotion. But what is yet more wonderful, that moft learned Critique takes notice alfo, in his Illuftrations on the First Epistle of the Second Book, that as

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the Poetry of the Romans, and that of the Grecians, had the fame beginning at Feafts of Thanksgiving, as it has been obferv'd; and the old Comedy of the Greeks which was invective, and the Satyr of the Romans which was of the fame Nature, were begun on the very fame Occafion, fo the Fortune of both in procefs of time was just the fame; the old Comedy of the Grecians was forbidden, for its too much Licence in expofing of particular Perfons, and the rude Satyr of the Romans was alfo punish'd by a Law of the Decemviri, as Horace tells us, in thefe Words:

Libertafque recurrentes accepta per Annos
Lufit amabiliter, donec jam fævus apertam
In rabiem verti capit jocus; & per honeftas
Ire domos impune minax: Doluere cruento
Dente laceffiti; fuit intactis quoque cura
Conditione fuper communi: Quinetiam Lex,
Panoque lata, que nollet carmine quemquam
Defcribi, vertere modum formidine fuftis;
Ad benedicendum delectandumque redacti.

The Law of the Decemviri was this: Siquis Oc centaffit malum Garum, five Condidifit, quod Infamiamfaxit, Flagitiumve alteri, Capital efto. Aftrange likeness, and barely poffible: But the Critiques being all of the fame Opinion, it becomes me to be filent, and to fubmit to better Judgments than my own.

But to return to the Grecians, from whofe Satirick Drama's, the elder Scaliger and Heinfius, will have the Roman Satyr to proceed, I am to take a view of them firft, and fee if there be any fuch Defcent from them as thofe Authors have pretended. Thefpis, or whofoever he were that invented Tragedy, (for Authors differ) mingl'd with them

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a Chorus and Dances of Satires, which had before been us'd, in the Celebration of their Festivals; and there they were ever afterwards retain'd. The > Character of them was also kept, which was Mirth and Wantonefs: And this was given, I fuppofe, to the Folly of the common Audience, who foon grow weary of good Senfe; and as we daily fee, in our own Age and Country, are apt to forfake Poetry, and still ready to return to Buffoonry and Farce. From hence it came, that in the Olympique Games, where the Poets contended for four Prizes, the Satirique Tragedy was the laft of them; for in the reft, the Satires were excluded from the Chorus. Amongst the Plays of Euripides, which are yet remaining, there is one of these Satiriques, which is call'd the Cyclops; in which we may fee the Nature of thofe Poems; and from thence conclude, what Likenefs they have to the Roman Satyr.

The Story of this Cyclops, whofe Name was Polyphemus, fo famous in the Grecian Fables, was, That Ulyffes, who with his Company was driven. on the Coast of Sicily, where thofe Cyclops inhabited, coming to ask Relief from Silenus, and the Satires, who were Herdsmen to that one-ey'd Giant, was kindly receiv'd by them, and entertain'd; 'till being perceiv'd by Polyphemus, they were made Prifoners, against the Rites of Hofpitality, for which Ulyffes eloquently pleaded, were afterwards put down in the Den, and fome of them devour'd: After which, Ulyffes having made him drunk, when he was afleep thruft a great Firebrand into his Eye; and fo revenging his dead Followers, escap'd with the remaining Party of the living: And Silenus, and the Satires, were freed from their Servitude under Polyphemus, and remitted to their first Liberty, of attending and accompanying their Patron Bacchus.

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