ture.

in a Goat, with the Legs and Feet of that CreaBut Cafaubon, and his Followers, with Reafon, condemn this Derivation; and prove that from Satyrus, the word Satira, as it fignifies à Poem, cannot poffibly defcend. For Satira is not properly a Subftantive, but an Adjective; to which the word Lanx, in English a Charger, or large Platter, is understood: So that the Greek Poem made according to the Manner of a Satyr, and expreffing his Qualities, muft properly be call'd Satyrical, and not Satyr. And thus far 'tis allow'd that the Grecians had fuch Poems; but that they were wholly different in Specie, from that to which the Romans gave the Name of Satyr.

Ariftotle divides all Poetry, in relation to the Progrefs of it, into Nature without Art, Art begun, and Art compleated. Mankind, even the moft Barbarous, have the Seeds of Poetry implanted in them. The firft Specimen of it was certainly fhewn in the Praises of the DEITY, and Prayers to Him: And as they are of Natural Obligation, fo they are likewife of Divine Inftitution. Which Milton obferving, introduces Adam and Eve every Morning adoring GOD in Hymns and Prayers. The first Poetry was thus begun, in the wild Notes of Natural Poetry, before the Invention of Feet, and Measures. The Grecians and Romans had no other Original of their Poetry. Festivals and Holy-days foon fucceeded to Private Worship, and we need not doub but they were enjoyn'd by the True GOD to His own People; as they were afterwards imitated by the Heathens; who by the Light of Reafon knew they were to invoke fome Superiour Being in their Neceffities, and to thank Him for his Benefits. Thus the Gre cian Holy-days were celebrated with Offerings to Bacchus and Ceres, and other Deities, to whofe Bounty

Bounty they fuppos'd they were owing for their Corn and Wine, and other Helps of Life. And the ancient Romans, Horace tells us, paid their Thanks to Mother Earth, or Vesta, to Silvanus, and their Genius, in the fame manner. But as all Feftivals have a double Reafon 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; amongft which, Songs and Dances, and that which they call'd Wit (for want of knowing better) were the chiefelt 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 these 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 discover; 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

hobling Verfe; and they anfwer'd in the fame kind of grofs Raillery; their Wit and their Mufick being of a piece. The Grecians, 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 Reafon 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 Roraans, jefting at one another in the fame Kind of Solemnities, might fuppofe those wanton Satires did the fame. And efpecially be caufe Horace poffibly might feem to him, to have fhewn the Original of all Poetry in general, includ-> ing the Grecians as well as Romans: Tho' 'tis plainly otherwife, 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 Epistle 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 fidâ,
Tellurem porco, Silvanum lacte piabant,
Floribus & vino Genium memorem brevis ævi :
Fefcennina per hunc inventa licentia morem
Verfibus alternis opprobria ruftica fudit.

Our

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

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

And kindly Milk, Silvanus, pour'd to thee.
With Flow'rs, and Wine, their Genius they ador'd;
A foort 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 infist 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 Thanksgiving: And both were profecuted with Mirth and Raillery, and Rudiments of Verse: Amongst the Greeks, by those who represented Satires; and amongst the Romans, by real Clowns.

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 finall Variety, in both Countries: And that the Mother of it, in all Nations, was Devotion.. But what is yet more wonderful, that most learned Critique takes notice alfo, in his Illuftrations.

on

on the First Epiftle of the Second Book, that as 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 these Words:

Libertafque recurrentes accepta per annos Lufit amabiliter, donec jam Javus apertam In rabiem verti capit jocus; & per boneftas Ire domos impune minax: Doluere cruento Dente laceffiti; fuit intactis quoque cura Conditione fuper communi: Quinetiam Lex, Panaque lata, malo que nollet carmine quemquam • Defcribi, vertere modum formidine fuftis; Ad bene dicendum delectandumque redacti.

The Law of the Decemviri was this; Siquis Occentafit malum Carum, five Condidifit, quod Infamiam faxit, Flagitiumve alteri, Capital efto. A ftrange 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 Descent 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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