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mer has limited his Place to Troy, and the Fields about it; his Action to Forty Eight Natural Days, whereof Twelve are Holy-days, or Ceffation from Bufinefs, during the Funerals of Patroclus. To proceed, the Action of the Epique is greater: The Extention of Time enlarges the Pleasure of the Reader, and the Episodes give it more Ornament, and more Variety. The Inftruction is equal; but the firft is only Instructive, the latter forms a Heroe, and a Prince.

If it fignifies any thing which of them is of the morė Ancient Family, the best and moft abfolute Heroique Poem was written by Homer long before Tragedy was invented: But, if we confider the natural Endowments, and acquir'd Parts, which are neceffary to make an accomplish'd Writer in either Kind, Tragedy requires a lefs and more confin'd Knowledge: Moderate Learning, and Observation of the Rules is fufficient, if a Genius be not wanting. But in an Epique Poet, one who is worthy of that Name, befides an univerfal Genius, is requir'd univerfal Learning, together with all thofe Qualities and Acquifitions which I have nam'd above, and as many more as I have through Haste or Negligence omitted. And after all, he must have exactly study'd Homer and Virgil, as his Patterns, Ariftotle and Horace, as his Guides, and Vida and Boffu, as their Commentators, with many others both Italian and French Criticks, which I want Leifure here to recommend.

In a Word, what I have to fay, in relation to This Subject, which does not particularly concern Satyr, is, That the Greatness of an Heroique Poem, beyond that of a Tragedy, may easily be discover'd, by observing how few have attempted that Work, in Comparison of those who have written Drama's; and of those few, how small a Number have fucceeded. But leaving the Critiques on either fide, to contend about the Preference due to this or that Sort of Poetry; I will haften to my

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prefent Business, which is the Antiquity and Origin of Satyr, according to those Informations which I have receiv'd from the learned Cafaubon, Heinfius, Rigaltius, Dacier, and the Dauphin's Juvenal; to which I fhall add fome Obfervations of my own.

There has been a long Dispute among the Modern Critiques, whether the Romans dériv'd their Satyr from the Grecians, or firft invented it them felves. Jukus Scaliger and Heinfius, are of the first Opinion; Cafaubon, Rigaltius, Dacier, and the Publisher of the Dauphin's Juvenal, maintain the latter. If we take Satyr in the general Signification of the Word, as it is us'd in all modern Languages for an Invective, 'tis certain that 'tis almost as old as Verfe; and tho' Hymns, which are Praises of God, may be allow'd to have been before it, yet the defamation of others was not long after it. After God had curs'd Adam and Eve in Paradife, the Husband and Wife excus'd themselves, by laying the Blame on one another; and gave a Beginning to thofe conjugal Dialogues in Profe, which the Poets have perfected in verfe. The Third Chapter of Job is one of the first Inftances of this Poem in Holy Scripture: Unless we will take it higher; from the latter end of the Second; where his Wife advises him to curse his Maker.

This Original, I confefs, is not much to the Honour of Satyr; but here it was Nature, and that deprav'd: When it became an Art, it bore better Fruit. Only we have learnt thus much already, that Scoffs and Revilings are of the Growth of all Nations; and confequently that neither the Greek Poets borrow'd from other People their Art of Railing, neither needed the Romans to take it from them. But confidering Satyr as a Species of Poetry; here the War begins among the Critiques. liger the Father will have it defcend from Greece to Rome; and derives the Word Satyr from Satyrus, that mixt kind of Animal, or, as the Ancients thought him, Rural God, made up betwixt a Man and a Goat; with

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a Human Head, hook'd Nofe, powting Lips, a Bunch or Struma under the Chin, prick'd Ears, and upright Horns; the Body fhagg'd with Hair, especially from the Waist, and ending in a Goat, with the Legs and Feet of that Creature. But Cafaubon, and his Followers, with Reason, condemn this Derivation; and prove that from Satyrus, the Word Satira, as it fignifies a 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 most 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 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 doubt but they were enjoin'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 Superior Being in their Neceffities, and to thank Him for his Benefits. Thus the Grecian Holyday's were celebrated with Offerings to Bacchus and Ce

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res, and other Deities, to whofe 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 Vefta, to Silvanas, and their Genius, in the same manner. But as all Festivals have a double Reason of their Institution; 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 describ'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 those 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. Those 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 ex. tempore 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 Gre

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tians, 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 firft 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 Representations of Satires, who carried Canifters and Cornucopias full of feveral Fruits in their Hands, and danc'd with them at their publick Feasts: And afterwards reading Horace, who makes mention of his homely Romans jesting at one another in the same Kind of Solemnities, might fuppofe those wanton Satires did the fame. And especially because Horace poffibly might seem to him, to have fhewn the Original of all Poetry in general, including the Grecians as well as Romans. Tho' 'tis plainly otherwife, that he only defcrib'd the Beginning, and first 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 Augustus.

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

At Harveft home, with Mirth nnd Country Cheer
Reftor' d. their Bodies for another Year;

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