N° 351. Saturday, April 12. I In te omnis domus inclinata recumbit. Virg. F we look into the three great Heroick Poems which have appeared in the World, we may observe that they are built upon very flight Foundations. Homer lived near 300 Years after the Trojan Wa and, as the writing of History was not then in ufe among the Greeks, we may very well fuppofe, that the Tradition of Achilles and Ulyffes had brought down but very few particulars to his Knowledge; tho' there is no queftion but he has wrought into his two Poems fuch of their remarkable Adventures, as were still talked of among his Contemporaries. THE Story of Eneas, on which Virgil founded his Poem, was likewife very bare of Circumftances, and by that means afforded him an Opportunity of embellishing it with Fiction, and giving a full range to his own Invention. We find, however, that he has interwoven, in the course of his Fable, the principal Particulars, which were generally believed among the Romans, of Eneas's Voyage and Settlement in Italy. THE Reader may find an Abridgment of the whole Story as collected out of the ancient Hiftorians, and as it was received among the Romans, in Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus. SINCE none of the Criticks have confidered Virgil's Fable, with relation to this History of Æneas; it may not, perhaps, be amifs to examine it in this Light, fo far as regards my prefent Purpose. Whoever looks into the Abridgment above-mentioned, will find that the Character of Eneas is filled with Piety to the Gods, and a fuperftitious Obfervation of Prodigies, Oracles, and Predictions. Virgil has not only preferved this Character in the Perfon of Eneas, but has given a place in his Poem to those particu 125 particular Prophecies which he found recorded of him in Hiftory and Tradition. The Poet took the matters of Fact as they came down to him, and circumftanced them after his own manner, to make them appear the more natural, agreeable, or furprizing. I believe very many Readers have been fhocked at that ludicrous Prophecy, which one of the Harpyes pronounces to the Trojans in the third Book, namely, that before they had built their intended City, they fhould be reduced by Hunger to eat their very Tables. But, when they hear that this was one of the Circumstances that had been transmitted to the Romans in the Hiftory of Æneas, they will think the Poet did very well in taking notice of it. The Hiftorian abovementioned acquaints us, a Prophetess had foretold Æneas,' that he should take his Voyage Weftward, till his Companions fhould eat their Tables; and that accordingly, upon his landing in Italy, as they were eating their Flefh upon Cakes of Bread, for want of other Conveniencies, they afterwards fed on the Cakes themselves; upon which one of the Company faid merrily, We are eating our Tables. They immediately took the hint, fays the Hiftorian, and concluded the Prophecy to be fulfilled. As Virgil did not think it proper to omit fo material a particular in the Hiftory of Eneas, it may be worth while to confider with how much Judgment he has qualified it, and taken off every thing that might have appeared improper for a Paffige in an -Heroick Poem. The Prophetefs who foretells it, is an Hungry Harpy, as the Person who discovers it is young Afcanius: Heus etiam menfas confu nimus, inquit Iulus! SUCH an Observation, which is beautiful in the Mouth of a Boy, would have been ridiculous from any other of the Company. I am apt to think that the changing of the Trojan Fleet into Water-Nymphs, which is the moft violent Machine in the whole Æneid, and has given offence to several Criticks, may be accounted for the fame way. Virgil himself, before he begins that Relation, premifes, that what he was going to tell appeared incredible, but that it was juftified by Tradition. What further con G 3 firms firms me that this Change of the Fleet was a celebrated Circumftance in the Hiftory of Æneas, is, that Ovid has given a place to the fame Metamorphofis in his Account of the heathen Mythology. NONE of the Criticks I have met with having confidered the Fable of the Æneid in this Light, and taken notice how the Tradition, on which it was founded, authorizes thofe Parts in it which appear most exceptionable; I hope the length of this Reflection will not make it unacceptable to the curious Part of my Readers. THE Hiftory, which was the Bafis of Milton's Poem, is ftill fhorter than either that of the Iliad or Æneid. The Poet has likewife taken care to infert every Circumstance of it in the body of his Fable. The ninth Book, which we are here to confider, is raised upon that brief Account in Scripture, wherein we are told that the Serpent was more fubtle than any Beaft of the Field, that be tempted the Woman to eat of the forbidden Fruit, that he was overcome by this Temptation, and that Adam followed her Example. From these few Particulars, Milton has formed one of the most entertaining Fables that Invention ever produced. He has difpofed of these several Circumftances among fo many beautiful and natural Fictions of his own, that his whole Story looks only like a Comment upon facred Writ, or rather feems to be a full and compleat Relation of what the other is only an Epitome. I have infifted the longer on this Confideration, as I look upon the Difpofition and Contrivance of the Fable to be the principal Beauty of the ninth Book, which has more Story in it, and is fuller of Incidents, than any other in the whole Poem. Satan's traverfing the Globe, and still keeping within the Shadow of the Night, as fearing to be difcovered by the Angel of the Sun, who had before detected him, is one of thofe beautiful Imaginations with which he introduces this his fecond Series of Adventures. Having examined the Nature of every Creature, and found out one which was the moft proper for his Purpose, he again returns to Paradife; and, to avoid Discovery, finks by Night with a River that ran under the Garden, and rifes up again through a Fountain that iffued from it by the Tree Tree of Life. The Poet, who, as we have before taken notice, fpeaks as little as poffible in his own Perfon, and, after the Example of Homer, fills every Part of his Work with Manners and Characters, introduces a Soliloquy of this infernal Agent, who was thus restless in the Destruction of Man. He is then defcrib'd as gliding through the Garden, under the refemblance of a Mift, in order to find out that Creature in which he defign'd to tempt our first Parents. This Defcription has fomething in it very poetical and furprizing. So faying, through each Thicket dank or dry, His Head the midft, well ftor'd with fubtle Wiles. THE Author afterwards gives us a Defcription of the Morning, which is wonderfully fuitable to a Divine Poem, and peculiar to that firft Seafon of Nature: He reprefents the Earth, before it was curft, as a great Altar, breathing out its Incense from all Parts, and fending up a pleasant Savour to the Noftrils of its Creator; to which he adds a noble Idea of Adam and Eve, as offering their Morning-Worship, and filling up the univerfal Confort of Praise and Adoration. Now when as facred Light began to dawn In Eden on the humid Flowers, that breathed With grateful Smell; forth came the human Pair, THE Difpute which follows between our two first Parents, is reprefented with great Art: It proceeds from a Difference of Judgment, not of Paffion, and is managed with Reafon, not with Heat: It is fuch a Difpute as we may fuppofe might have happened in Paradife, had Man G 4 continued continued Happy and Innocent. There is a great Delicacy in the Moralities which are interfperfed in Adam's Difcourfe, and which the most ordinary Reader cannot but take notice of. That Force of Love which the Father of Mankind fo finely describes in the eighth Book, and which I inferted in my laft Saturday's Paper, fhews it felf here in many beautiful Inftances: As in those fond Regards he caft towards Eve at her parting from him. Her long with ardent Look his Eye pursued IN his Impatience and Amusement during her Abfence: Waiting defirous her return, had wove BUT particularly in that paffionate Speech, where fee ing her irrecoverably loft, he refolves to perifh with her rather than to live without her. Some curfed Fraud Or Enemy bath beguil'd thee! yet unknown ; How can I live without thee! how forgo Would never from my Heart! no, no! I feel THE |