Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

where Holiday fays, A perpetual Grinn, like that of Horace, rather angers than amends a Man. I cannot give him up the Manner of Horace in low Satyr fo eafily: Let the Chastisements of Juvenal be never fo neceffary for his new Kind of Satyr; let him declaim as wittily and fharply as he pleafes, yet still the nicest and most delicate touches of Satyr confift in fine Raillery. This, my Lord, is your particular Talent, to which even Juvenal could not arrive. 'Tis not Reading, 'tis not Imitation of an Author, which can produce this Fineness: It must be inborn, it muft proceed from a Genius, and particular way of Thinking, which is not to be taught; and therefore not to be imitated by him who has it not from Nature: How eafie it is to call Rogue and Villain, and that wittily! But how hard to make a Man appear a Fool, a Blockhead, or a Knave, without using any of those opprobri ous Terms! To fpare the groffness of the Names, and to do the thing yet more feverely, is to draw a full Face, and to make the Nofe and Cheeks ftand out, and yet not to employ any Depth of Shadowing. This is the Mystery of that Noble Trade; which yet no Mafter can teach to his Apprentice: He may give the Rules, but the Scholar is never the nearer in his Practice. Neither is it true, that this Fineness of Raillery is offenfive. A witty Man is tickled while he is hurt in this Manner; and a Fool feels it not. The occafion of an Offence may poffibly be given, but he cannot take it. If it be granted, that in Effe&t this way does more Mischief; that a Man is fecretly wounded, and tho' he be not fenfible himself, yet the malicious World will find it for him: Yet there is still a vast difference betwixt the flovenly Butchering of a Man, and the Fineness of a Stroke that separates

the

the Head from the Body, and leaves it ftanding in its Place. A Man may be capable, as Jack Ketch's Wife faid of his Servant, of a plain Piece of Work, a bare Hanging; but to make a Malefactor die fweetly, was only belonging to her Husband. I wish I could apply it to my felf; if the Reader would be kind enough to think it belongs to me. The Character of Zimri in my Abfalom, is, in my Opinion, worth the whole Poem: 'Tis not bloody, but 'tis ridiculous enough: And he for whom it was intended, was too witty to refent it as an Injury. If I had rail'd, I might have fuffer'd for it juftly; but I manag'd mine own Work more happily, perhaps more dextroufly. I avoided the mention of great Crimes, and apply'd my felf to the representing of Blind-fides, and little Extravagances: To which, the wittier a Man is, he is generally the more obnoxious. It fucceeded as I withed; the Jeft went round, and he was laugh'd at in his Turn who began the Frolick.

And thus, my Lord, you fee I have preferr'd the Manner of Horace, and of your Lordship, in this kind of Satyr, to that of Juvenal; and I think, reasonably. Holiday ought not to have arraigned fo great an Author, for that which was his Excellency and his Merit: Or if he did, on fuch a palpable Mistake, he might expect that fome one might poffibly arife, either in his own time, or after him, to rectify his Error, and reftore to Horace that Commendation, of which he has fo unjustly robb'd him. And let the Manes of Juvenal forgive me, if I fay, that this way of Horace was the" beft for amending Manners, as it is the moft difficult. His was, an Enfe refcindendum; but that of Horace was a pleafant Cure, with all the Limbs preferv'd entire; and, as our Mountebanks tell us

in their Bills, without keeping the Patient within Doors for a Day. What they promife only, Horace has effectually perform'd: Yet I contradict not the Propofition which I formerly advanc'd: Juvenal's Times requir'd a more painful kind of Operation: But if he had lived in the Age of Horace, I muft needs affirm, that he had it not about him. He took the Method which was prefcrib'd him by his own Genius; which was fharp and eager; he could not rally, but he could declaim: And as his Provocations were great, he has reveng'd them tragically. This notwithstanding, I am to say another Word, which, as true as it is, will yet difplease the partial Admirers of our Horace. I have hinted it before; but 'tis Time for me now to speak more plainly.

This Manner of Horace is indeed the best; but Horace has not executed it altogether fo happily, at least not often. The Manner of Juvenal is confeffed to be inferior to the former; but Juvenal has excelled him in his Performance. Juvenal has rail'd more wittily than Horace has rally'd. Horace means to make his Reader laugh; but he is not fure of his Experiment. Juvenal always intends to move your Indignation; and he always brings about his Purpose. Horace, for ought I know, might have tickled the People of his Age; but amongst the Moderns he is not fo fuccefsful. They who fay he entertains fo pleasantly, may perhaps value themselves on the Quickness of their own Understandings, that they can fee a Jeft farther off than other Men: They may find occafion of Laughter in the Wit-battle of the two Buffoons, Sormentus and Cicerrus; and hold their Sides for. fear of Burfting, when Rupilius and Perfius are fcolding. For my own Part, I can only like the Characters

Characters of all Four, which are judiciously gi ven: But for my Heart I cannot fo much as fmile at their infipid Raillery. I fee not why Perfus fhould call upon Brutus, to revenge him on his Adverfary; and that because he had killed Julius Cafar for endeavouring to be a King; therefore he fhou'd be defir'd to murder Rupilius, only be caufe his Name was Mr. King. A miferable Clench, in my Opinion, for Horace to record: I have heard honeft Mr. Swan make many

better, and yet have had the Grace to hold my Countenance. But it may be Punns were then in Fashion, as they were Wit in the Sermons of the last Age, and in the Court of King Charles II. I am forry to fay it, for the fake of Horace; but certain it is, he has no fine Palate who can feed fo heartily on Garbage.

But I have already wearied my felf, and doubt not but I have tir'd your Lordship's Patience, with this long, rambling, and I fear trivial Difcourfe. Upon the one half of the Merits, that is, Pleasure, I cannot but conclude that Juvenal was the bet ter Satyrift: They who will defeend into his particular Praises may find them at large in the Dif fertation of the Learned Rigaltius to Thuanus. As for Perfius, I have given the Reasons why I

think him inferior to both of them: Yet I have one thing to add on that Subject.

Barten Holiday, who tranflated both Juvenal and Perfius, has made this Diftinction betwixt them, which is no lefs true than witty; That, in Perfius, the Difficulty is to find a Meaning; in Juvenal to chufe a Meaning: So Crabbed is Perfius, and fo Copious is Juvenal: So much the Understanding is employ'd in one, and fo much the Judgment in the other. So difficult it is to find

any

any Senfe in the former, and the beft Senfe of the latter.

If, on the other fide, any one suppose I have commended Horace below his Merit, when I have allow'd him but the Second Place, I defire him to confider, if Juvenal, a Man of excellent Natural Endowments, befides the Advantages of Diligence and Study, and coming after him, and building upon his Foundations, might not probably, with all thefe Helps, furpafs him? And whether it be any Dishonour to Horace to be thus furpaffed; fince no Art, or Science, is at once begun and perfected, but that it muft pafs first through many Hands, and even through feveral Ages? If Lucilius cou'd add to Ennius, and Horace to Lucilius, why, without any Diminution to the Fame of Ho race, might not Juvenal give the laft Perfection to that Work? Or rather, what Difreputation is it to Horace, that Juvenal excels in the Tragical Satyr, as Horace does in the Comical? I have read over attentively both Heinfius and Dacier, in their Commendations of Horace; but I can find no more in either of them, for the preference of him to Juvenal. than the inftructive Part; the Part of Wifdom, and not that of Pleasure; which therefore is here allow'd him, notwithstanding what Scaliger and Rigaltius have pleaded to the contrary for Juvenal. And to fhew that I am impartial, I will here Tranflate what Dacier has faid on that Subject.

I cannot give more just Idea of the Two Books of Satyrs made by Horace, than by comparing them to the Statues of the Sileni, to which Alcibiades compares Socrates, in the Sympofium. They were Figures, which had nothing of Agreeable, nothing of Beauty on their Out-fide: But

when

« FöregåendeFortsätt »