Roman poetry. He fpeaks of Plautus and Cæcilius as applauded writers; of Terence as a most elegant, and of Afranius as an excellent one; but all (he fays) fall infinitely fhort of the grace and beauty of the Attic writers. According to him, Lucilius is too much extolled by fome, and too much run down by Horace. Lucretius is more read for matter than ftyle; and Catullus is remarkable for fatire, but hardly fo for the reft of his lyric poetry *.

See Quintilian's inftitutes, b. x. c. I.

CHA P. II.

CH

The FLOURISHING STATE of the

WHE

ROMAN POETRY.

7HEN the Roman ftate was quite formed into a monarchy, and Auguftus had no longer any dangerous opponents, he looked kindly on the improvement of all the arts and ele gancies of life. Maecenas, his chief minifter, (though a bad writer himself) knew how to encourage.

a

a Quintil. de caufis cor. el. b. ii. Auguftus ufed to divert himself in ridiculing the affectation of Mecenas's style, Suet. in Aug. c. 86. Macrobius has preferved part of one of Auguftus's letters to Mecenas, which in English would be to

this

courage the best, and admitted them into a great intimacy with him. Virgil ftood one of the foremoft in this lift, who foon grew the most applauded writer for genteel paftorals; and then published the most beautiful and correct poem on agriculture that ever was penned in the Roman language and, laftly, he undertook a political poem, in fupport of the new monarchcial ftate. In this light his Æneid may be fairly confidered. He

this effect 8 "Farewel my little honey, thou honey of all

nations! thou Tufcan ivory, thou fretwork ceiling of "Arezzo, thou pearl of Tiber, thou Cilnian emerald, and "beril of Porfenna," &c. Seneca has also given some inftances from Maecenas himself; which fhew his style could not be fet in too ridiculous a light. Epift. 114.

All paftoral writers may be divided into two classes, the rural and the ruftic; or, if you will, the genteel and the homely. See Hor. b. i. fat. 10. v. 45. where molle seems to be meant of the sweetness of Virgil's verfification in his paftorals, as facetus denotes the genteelness.

The author fays he had this notion from reading Boffu. Virgil is faid to have begun his poem the very year that Augustus was freed from his great rival Antony, when the government was to be wholly in him. This monarchical form must naturally be apt to displease the people; and Virgil sfeems to have laid the plan of his poem to reconcile them to it. He weaves into it the old prophecy, of their having the empire of the world, with the most probable account of their origin or descent from the Trojans, as being that of Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus, and some of the best Roman hiftorians. Homer had faid, Il. Y. v. 308. that Æneas and his defcendants fhould

He fhows in this poem, "That Æneas was call❝ed into Italy by the express order of the gods: "that he was made king of it by the will of "heaven, and by all human rights; that there "was an uninterrupted fucceffion from him to "Romulus that his heirs were to reign there "for ever, and that the Romans were to obtain "the monarchy of the world: that Julius Cæ"far was of this race, and that Auguftus was "his fole heir; confequently, that the Romans, "if they would obey the gods, and be masters "of the world, must yield obedience to the new "establishment under that prince." Thus it is plain, that the two great points aimed at by Virgil were, the maintenance of their old religious tenets, and the support of the new government in the family of the Cæfars. His poem, therefore, may well be confidered as a religious and political work. If this was the cafe, it is no wonder Virgil was so highly careffed by Augustus

should rule the Trojans from generation to generation. This prophecy, by changing rowerow into waloon was interpreted of Æneas and his race, that they should reign in Italy, and obtain the universal empire. See Pope, il. xx. v. 355• Æn. v. v. 97. vii. v. 101. ix. v. 449.

d All these particulars are inserted by Virgil in his Æneid. See i. v. 1.-7. iii. v. 185.97.167. iv. v. 279% x. v. 30.—34. xii. v. 175.—225. 937. vii. 50-52. i. v. 265. 269. 273, 276. vi. v. 776. 780. 288. vi. v. 836, Suet. in Julio. c. 6. and in Aug. c. 8.

and

and Mæcenas. In fhort, he wrote in the fervice of the new ufurpation; and all that can be faid in his excufe is, that the bent of their conftitution at that time was fuch, that the reins of the government muft have fallen into the hands of fome one perfon, who might be lefs indulgent than Auguftus was at that time. Be this as it will, the poem (though left unfinished) has been applauded in all ages. It preferves more of the religion of the Romans than all the other Latin poets, except Ovid; and gives us the forms and appearances of their deities, as strongly as if we had fo many pictures of them drawn by the beft hands in the Auguftan age. His imagination has been praised by fome of the ancients themfelves, though that is not his character fo much as exactnefs. He was certainly the most correct poet even of his time; and it is as certain that there is but little invention (much lefs perhaps than is imagined) in his Æneid. His minuteft facts are built on hiftory; and no one perhaps ever borrowed more from the former

← The many breaks or hemistichs, which are to be found in no other finished Latin poem, nor in any other of Virgil's works, are a plain proof of the Æneid being left unfinished.

f Juvėnal, sat. vii. v. 71. points to the very noblest efforts of imagination that Virgil has fhown in his poem, all relating to the deities. Thefe paffages are, Æn. xii. v. 332. i. v. 127, 195. 155.ii. v. 623. vii. v. 518.

poets,

poets, inferting whole verfes from Ennius and others. He minded not the obfoletenefs of their flyle, for he was fond of their old language, and, doubtlefs, inferted more antiquated words than can now be difcovered . Judgment was his diftinguishing character. Whatever he borrowed he made his own, by fo artfully weaving. it into his work, that it looks all of a piece 1.

Modefty and good-nature were the chief beauties in his private character. He thought hum

This is fhown by Macrobius, and the other collectors of Virgil's imitations of Homer, &c. Even the minutest pasfages (fuch as Afcanius's jest, and the like) appear to any one who has read Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus, to have been traditional and hiftorical.. Many of his old words have probably been altered by the tranfcribers, and others have been mistaken by the critics. Thus, they fay, Virgil uses fervere fhort, to make the found agree with the fenfe; whereas the reafon was, because the ancients used fervo, and ferveo, indifferently. Quint. Inftit. i. c. 6. Æn, viii, v.

677.

There are two celebrated old manufcript Virgils in the Vatican library at Rome, with paintings in them, relating to fome of the most remarkable paffages. The more ancient of the two is generally thought to be of Conftantine's time, by the learned in the ages of manufcripts: but as the pictures are evidently of too good a manner for that age, they are supposed, by the best judges, to have been copied from fome others of the most flourishing ages. Our author, therefore, has not fcrupled to make use of these pictures in the course of his work!

i Hor. b. i. fat. 5. V. 41.

bly