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 Spouse;
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 Thanksgiving: And both were profecuted. with Mirth and Raillery, and Rudiments of Verse : Amongst the Greeks, by those who reprefented 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 Verses which I have tranflated, fays plainly, that the Beginning of Poetry was the fame, with a fmall 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 the First Epistle 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 observ'd; and the old Comedy of the Greeks which was Invective, and the Satyr of the Romans which

was

was of the fame Nature, were begun on the very fame Occafion, fo the Fortune of both in process of time was juft the fame; the old Comedy of the Grecians was forbidden, for its too much Licence in expofing of parti, cular Perfons, and the rude Satyr of the Romans was also 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 cœpit jocus; & per honeftas
Ire domes impune minax: Doluere cruento
Dente laceffiti; fuit inta&tis quoque cura
Conditione fuper communi: Quinetiam Lex
Panaque lata, malo quæ nollit carmine quemquam
Deferibi, vertere modum formidine fuflis ;
Ad bene dicendum delectandumque redacti.

The Law of the Decemviri was this; Siquis Occentaf fit 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 Defcent from them as thofe Authors have pretended.

Thefpis, or whofoever he were that invented Tragedy, (for Authors differ) mingl'd with them a Chorus and Dancers 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 alfo kept, which was Mirth and Wantonnefs: And this was given, I fuppofe, to the Folly of the common Au

dience,

dience, who foon grow weary of good Sense; 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. Among the Plays of Euripides, which are yet remaining, there is one of these Satiriques, which is call'd the Cyclops; in which we may see the Nature of thofe Poems, and from thence conclude, what Likeness 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 those 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 some of them devour'd; after which Ulyffes having made him drunk, when he was afleep, thrust a great Firebrand into his Eye; and fo revenging his dead Followers, efcap'd with the remaining Party of the living: And Silenus, and the Satires, were freed from the Servitude under Polyphemus, and remitted to their first Liberty of attending and accompanying their Patron Bacchus.

This was the Subject of the Tragedy, which being one of those that end with a happy Event, is therefore by Ariftotle judg'd below the other Sort, whofe Success is unfortunate. Notwithstanding which, the Satires, who were part of the Dramatis Perfona, as well as the whole Chorus, were properly introdue'd into the Nature of the Poem, which is mix'd of Farce and Tragedy.

The

The Adventure of Ulysses was to entertain the Judging Part of the Audience; and the uncouth Persons of Silenus, and the Satires, to divert the Common People with their grofs Railleries.

Your Lordship has perceiv'd by this time, that this Satirique Tragedy, and the Roman Satyr, have little Refemblances in any other Features. The very Kinds are different: For what has a Paftoral Tragedy to do with a Paper of Verses fatyrically written? The Cha- ́ racter and Raillery of the Satires, is the only thing that cou'd pretend to a Likeness: Were Scaliger and Heinfius alive to maintain their Opinion. And the firft Farces of the Romans, which were the Rudiments of their Poetry, were written before they had any Communication with the Greeks; or indeed, any Knowledge of that People.

And here it will be proper to give the Definition of the Greek Satirique Poem from Cafaubon, before I leave this Subject. The Satirique, fays he, is a Dramatique Poem, annex'd to a Tragedy; having a Chorus, which confifts of Satires: The Perfons reprefented in it, are illuftrious Men: The Action of it is great; the Style is partly ferious, and partly jocular; and the Event of the Action most commonly is happy.

The Grecians, befides thefe Satirique Tragedies, had another Kind of Poem, which they call'd Silli; which were more of Kin to the Roman Satyr: Thofe Silli were indeed invective Poems, but of a different Species from the Roman Poems of Ennius, Pacuvius, Lucilius, Horace, and the rest of their Succeffors. They were fo call'd, fays Cafaubon in one Place, from Silenus, the Fofter-Father of Bacchus; but in another Place, bethinking himfelf better, he derives their Nameλaívei from their Scoffing and Petulancy. From fome Fragments of the Silli, written by Timon, we may find, that they were Satirique Poems, full of Parodies; that is, of Verfes patch'd up from great Poets, and turn'd

into another Senfe than their Author intended them. Such among the Romans is the famous Cento of Ausonius; where the Words are Virgil's: But by applying them to another Sense, they are made the Relation of a Wedding-Night; and the Act of Confummation fulfomely describ'd in the very Words of the most Modeft amongst all Poets. Of the fame manner are our Songs, which are turn'd into Burlefque, and the serious Words of the Author perverted into a ridiculous Meaning. Thus in Timon's Silli the Words are generally thofe of Homer, and the Tragique Poets; but he applies them Satirically, to fome Customs and Kinds of Philosophy, which he arraigns. But the Romans not ufing any of thefe Parodies in their Satires; fometimes, indeed, repeating Verses of other Men, as Perfius cites fome of Nero's; but not turning them into another Meaning, the Silli cannot be fuppos'd to be the Original of Roman Satyr. To these Silli, confifting of Parodies, we may properly add the Satires which were written against particular Perfons; fuch as were the Iambiques of Archilochus against Lyeambes, which Horace undoubtedly imitated in fome of his Odes and Epodes, whofe Titles bear a fufficient Witnefs of it: I might alfo name the Invective of Ovid against Ibis; and many others: But thefe are the Under Wood of Satyr, rather than the Timber-Trees: They are not a general Extenfion, as reaching only to fome individual Perfon. And Horace feems to have purg'd himself from those splenetick Reflections in those Odes and Epodes, before he undertook the Noble Work of Satires, which were properly fo call'd.

Thus, my Lord, I have at length difengag'd myself. from thofe Antiquities of Greece; and have prov'd, I hope, from the beft Critiques, that the Roman Satyr was not borrow'd from thence, but of their own Manufacture: I am now almoft gotten into my depth; at

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