But to return to the Grecians, from whofe fatirick dramas, the elder Scaliger and Heinfius will have the Roman fatire to proceed, I am to take a view of them first, 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) mingled with them a chorus and dancers of fatyrs, which had before been used in the celebration of their feftivals; and there they were ever afterwards retained. The character of them was alfo kept, which was mirth and wantonnefs and this was given, I fuppofe, to the folly of the common audience, who foon grew weary of good fenfe; and as we daily fee, in our own age, and country, are apt to forfake poetry, and fill ready to return to buffoonry and farce. From hence it came, that in the Olympick Games, where the poets contended for four prizes, the fatirick tragedy was the last of them; for in the reft, the fatyrs were excluded from the chorus. Among the plays of Euripides, which are yet remaining, there is one of thefe fatiricks, which is called the Cyclops; in which we may fee the nature of those poems, and from thence conclude, what likeness they have to the Roman fatyr.

The ftory of this Cyclops, whofe name was Polyphemus, fo famous in the Grecian fables, was, that Ulyffes, who with his company was driven on the coaft of Sicily, where thofe Cyclops inhabited, coming to ask relief from Silenus, and the fatyrs, who were herdsmen to that one-eyed giant, was kindly received by them, and entertained; till being perceived 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 devoured; after which Ulyffes having made him drunk, when he was afleep, thruft a great firebrand into his eye; and fo revenging his dead followers, efcaped with the remaining party of the living: and Silenus, and VOL. IV. L

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the fatyrs, were freed from their fervitude under Polyphemus, and remitted to their firft liberty of attending and accompanying their patron Bacchus.

This was the fubject of the tragedy, which being one of those that end with a happy event, is therefore by Aristotle judged below the other fort, whose fuccefs is unfortunate. Notwithstanding which, the fatyrs, who were part of the dramatis perfona, as well as the whole chorus, were properly introduced into the nature of the poem, which is mixed of farce and tragedy. The adventure of Ulyffes was to entertain the judging part of the audience, and the uncouth perfons of Silenus, and the fatyrs, to divert the common people with their grofs railleries.

Your lordship has perceived by this time, that this fatirick tragedy, and the Roman fatire, have little resemblances in any other features. The very kinds are different; for what has a pastoral tragedy to do with a paper of verfes fatirically written? The character and raillery of the fatyrs, is the only thing that could pretend to a likeness: were Scaliger and Heinfius alive to maintain their opinion.

And the first 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 fatirick poem from Cafaubon, before I leave this fubject. The fatirick, fays he, is a dramatick poem, annexed to a tragedy; having a chorus, which confifts of fatyrs: the perfons reprefented in it, are illustrious men: the action of it is great; the ftyle is partly ferious, and partly jocular; and the event of the action moft commonly is happy.

The Grecians, befides these fatirick tragedies, had another kind of poem, which they called Silli; which were more of kin to the Roman fatire: thofe filli were indeed invective poems, but of a different fpecies from the Roman poems of Ennius, Pacuvius, Lucilius, Horace, and the reft of their fucceffors.

They

They were fo called, fays Cafaubon in one place, from Silenus, the fofter-father to Bacchus; but in another place, bethinking himself better, he derives their name απο το σιλλαίνειν, from their fcofing and petulancy. From fome fragments of the filli, written by Timon, we may find, that they were fatirick poems, full of parodies; that is, of verfes patched up from great poets, and turned into another fenfe than their author intended them. Such among the Romans is the famous Cento of Aufonius, where, the words are Virgil's but by applying them to another fenfe, they are made the relation of a wedding-night; and the act of confummation fulfomely described in the very words of the most modest amongst all poets. Of the fame manner are our fongs, which are turned into burlesque, and the serious words of the author perverted into a ridiculous meaning. Thus in Timon's Silli the words are generally those of Homer, and the tragick poets; but he applies them fatirically, to fome cuftoms and kinds of philofophy, which he arraigns. But the Romans not ufing any of these parodies in their fatires; fometimes, indeed, repeating verfes of other men, as Perfius cites fome of Nero's; but not turning them into another meaning, the Silli cannot be fuppofed to be the original of Roman fatire. To thefe Silli, confifting of parodies, we may properly add the fatires which were written againft particular perfons; fuch as were the iambicks of Archilochus against Lycambes, which Horace undoubtedly imitated in fome of his odes and epodes, whofe titles bear a fufficient witnefs of it: I might also name the invective of Ovid against Ibis; and many others: but thefe are the underwood of fatire, rather than the timber-tree they are not a general extenfion, as reaching only to fome individual perfon. And Horace feems to have purged himself from thofe fplenetic reflections in thofe odes and epodes, before he undertook the noble work of fatires, which were properly fo called.

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Thus, my lord, I have at length difengaged myfelf from those antiquities of Greece; and have proved, I hope, from the best criticks, that the Roman fatire was not borrowed from thence, but of their own manufacture: I am now almoft gotten into my depth; at least by the help of Dacier I am fwimming towards it. Not that I will promife always to follow him, any more than he follows Cafauban; but to keep him in my eye, as my best and trueft guide; and where I think he may poffibly mislead me, there to have recourse to my own lights, as I expect that others fhould do by me.

Quintilian fays, in plain words, Satira quidem tota noftra eft: and Horace has faid the fame thing before him, fpeaking of his predeceffor in that fort of poetry, Et Græcis intacti carminis author. Nothing can be clearer than the opinion of the poet, and the orator, both the best criticks of the two beft ages of the Roman empire, than that fatire was wholly of Latin growth, and not tranfplanted from Athens to Rome. Yet, as I have faid, Scaliger the father, according to his custom, that is, infolently enough, contradicts them both; and gives no better reason, than the derivation of Satirus from oadv, falacitas; and fo from the lechery of those fauns, thinks he has fufficiently proved, that fatire is derived from them. As if wantonnefs and lubricity were effential to that fort of poem, which ought to be avoided in it. His other allegation, which I have already mentioned, is as pitiful that the fatyrs carried platters and canifters full of fruit, in their hands. If they had entered empty-handed, had they been ever the lefs fatyrs? Or were the fruits and flowers, which they offered, any thing of kin to fatire? Or any argument that this poem was originally Grecian? Cafaubon judged better, and his opinion is grounded on fure authority, that fatire was derived from fatura, a Roman word, which fignifies full, and abundant, and full alfo of variety, in which nothing is wanting in its due perfection. It is thus, fays Dacier, that

we

we lay a full colour, when the wool has taken the whole tincture, and drunk in as much of the dye as it can receive. According to this derivation from fatur comes fatura, or fatyra, according to the new fpelling; as optumus and maxumus are now fpelled optimus and maximus. Satura, as I have formerly noted, is an adjective, and relates to the word lanx, which is understood. And this lanx, in English a charger, or large platter, was yearly filled with all forts of fruits, which were offered to the Gods at their feftivals, as the premices, or firft-gatherings. Thefe offerings of feveral forts thus mingled, it is true, were not known to the Grecians, who called them πανκαρπόν θυσίαν, a facrifce of all forts of fruits ; and πανπερμία», when they offered all kinds of grain. Virgil has mentioned thefe facrifices in his Georgicks. Lancibus & pandis fumantia reddimus exta. And in another place, lancefque & liba feremus: that is, we offer the fmoaking entrails in great platters, and we will offer the chargers and the cakes.

This word fatura has been afterwards applied to many other forts of mixtures; as Feftus calls it a kind of olla, or hotch-potch, made of several forts of meats. Laws were alfo called leges faturæ, when they were of feveral heads and titles; like our tacked bills of parliament. And per faturam legem ferre, in the Roman fenate, was to carry a law without telling the fenators, or counting voices, when they were in hafte. Salluft ufes the word per faturam fententias exquirere; when the majority was vifibly on one fide. From hence it might probably be conjectured, that the difcourfes or fatires of Ennius Lucilius, and Horace, as we now call them, took their name; because they are full of various matters, and are alfo written on various fubjects, as Porphyrius fays. But Dacier affirms, that it is not immediately from thence that these fatires are fo called: for that name had been used formerly for other things, which .bore a nearer refemblance to thofe difcourfes of Horace. In explaining of which, (continues Dacier) a me

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