A

GUIDE

то

Claffical Learning.

PART I.

CHA P. I.

The RISE and GROWTH of the

T

:

ROMAN POETRY.

HE Romans, in the Infancy of their ftate, were entirely unpolished. They sprung from Shepherds; they were increafed by the refuse of the neighbouring nations and their manners agreed with their original. As they lived wholly on tillage and plunder, war was their bufinefs, and husbandry their chief art. Roughness, raised into a virtue by calling it Roman spirit, was long an applauded character among their great men, and a kind of rufticity reigned even in their Senate-house.

ä Romulus fet up an afylum, to invite all the murderers and fugitives in the neighbourhood to join him.

In a nation of fuch a temper, conftantly employed in extending their conquests, or in settling the balance of power among themselves, it was long before the polite arts made any appearance; and very long before they flourished to any degree. Poetry first appeared; but such as might be expected among a warlike uncultivated people ".

try d

To-fay nothing of the Songs of Triumph mentioned even in' Romulus's time, there was certainly fomething of Poetry under Numa, who pretended to converfe with the Mufes, as well as with Egeria. Pythagoras, either then, or foon after, gave the Romans a tincture of PoeThe Pythagoreans made great use of Poetry, and, like the Druids, delivered most of their precepts in verfe. Indeed; in that and the following ages, the Roman Poetry was of a religious kind. Their very prayers were pcetical . They had alfo prophetic, or facred writers, who generally wrote in verfe. They had too a kind

Hor. ii. ep. i. v. 160, 163. c See Plut. in vita Rom. and

Lucr. 1. v. v. 1452.

of

Livy, b. iii. 29. b. iv. 20,

53. Ovid hints, that Numa taught some rites in verfe, Metam. xv. 484, Horace calls the old Salian verfes, which were fung by the Salian priests, Numa's verses, b. ii. ep. 1. 86.

d Cicero afferts this, Tufc. Quæft, b. iv. Vitr. 1. v. proæm. See Hor. b. ii. ep. 1. v. 138.

f These were fo numerous, that there were above 2000 of their volumes even in Augustus's time. Horace probably

alludes

of plays, derived from what they had seen of the Tuscan actors, fent for to Rome to expiate a plague. These were like our dumb-fhews, or elfe extempore farces, in ufe to this day in fome. parts of Italy. To these may be added the jesting dialogues at their vintage feasts (which were carried on afterwards fo abusively, as to be reftrained by a fevere law) and thofe Poets whe feem to have attended at the tables of the rich, and, like our bards, fung the atchievements of their ancestors, to inflame others to follow their examples h.

alludes to them, b. ii. ep. 1. v. 26. Though the authors are called Vates, and their works Carmina, that does not neceffarily imply that they were all poetry. Carmen is often used for a charm, and particularly by Pliny, b. xxviii. 2. Perhaps too it was used for any thing expressed in a high poetical ftyle: for he calls the form of words ufed by the Decii, in devoting themselves, Carnien; which form pro.bably is the fame with that in Livy, b. viii. 9. Perhaps the folemn forms, prophecies, and charms, were all at firft written in verfe, and thence the terms carmen, cantare, decantare, might be used, even when they were in profe. 8 See Livy, b. vii. 2. The Fefcennine poetry, mentioned by Livy and Horace, was probably a fort of dialogues, fince the latter expreffes it by alternis verfibus. Thus Virgil, ecl. iii. v. 59. Hefter, in Tufcan, fignified a Player. Hence Hifirio in Latin instead of Ludio.

h Hor. b. ii. ep. 1. v. 154. Val. Max. b.ii. cap. 1. Cic. Tufc. quæft, b, i. p. 289.

Almoft all thefe, with their works, fleep in peace; and it seems the lofs is not great; for they are reprefented as very obfcure, and as too barbarous for politer ears'.

Livius Andronicus is the firft Roman poet of whom any thing remains, and from whom the Romans date the beginning of their poetry, even in the Auguftan age.

The first kind of poetry that met with any fuccess, was that for the ftage. The Romans were very religious, and stage-plays then made a confiderable part of their public devotions.

Livius, Nævius, and Ennius, were the foremost in the lift of dramatic poets. Livius's first play (and it was the first written play that ever appeared at Rome) was acted in the 514th year from the building of the city. He feems to have been noted for the first, rather than for a good writer. He was the only one for the ftage, till Nævius arofe, and, probably, exceeded his master.

i Hor. b. ii. ep. 1. v. 87. 27. 159. Liv. xxvii. 38. Auguftus ordered the greatest part to be burned, referving only the choice of the books of the Sibyls. Suet. in Aug. c. 30. Martius, one of the most famous of these Vates, is quoted by Livy, b. xxv. 12.

The plays before Livius were extempore. He was the first who compofed one in form, and wrote it down for the actors to learn by heart. Hence, perhaps, he is called by Horace, Livius fcriptor. b. ii. ep. 1. v. 62. Cicero (de claris orat. c. 72.) fays, his pieces did not deserve a second reading.

Nævius

Nævius ventured alfo upon an Hiftorical Poem on the firft Carthaginian war. Ennius followed his steps, in this as well as in the dramatic way, and excelled him as much as he had excelled Livius. These were three actors, as well as poets, and feem rather to have wrote what was wanted for the ftage, than to have consulted their own genius. Each published, fometimes comedies, fometimes tragedies, and fometimes dramatic fatires; whereas the most celebrated ancient writers for the stage excel only in one kind. There is no tragedy of Terence or Menander, nor comedy of Actius or Euripides.

The quiet the Romans enjoyed after the second Punic War, and their easy conquests afterwards in Greece, gave them leifure to improve greatly in their poetry. Their dramatic writers had the benefit of the excellent Greek patterns, and formed themselves on those models.

Plautus was the first who confulted his own genius, and confined himself to comedy; for which he was best fitted by nature. Indeed his comedy (like the old Athenian) is of a ruder kind; his jefts are often rough, and his wit coarse but there is a strength and spirit in him, that makes him read with pleasure. Cæcilius

I Horace, in his Art of poetry, (v. 274.) speaks of his unpoliteness, but with the more reserve, perhaps, because Cicero

(de