menon which may be well enough explained from Cicero. He fays, "that in feveral families the Roman language was spoken in perfection, even in thofe times ;" and inftances particularly in the families of the Lælii and the Scipio's. Every one knows that Terence was extremely intimate in both these families: and as the language of his pieces is that of familiar converfation, he had indeed little more to do, than to write as they talked at their tables. Perhaps, too, he was obliged to Scipio and Lælius, for more than their bare converfations. That is not at all impoffible; and indeed the Romans themselves feem generally to have imagined, that he was affifted by them in the writing part too. If it was really fo, that will account ftill better for the elegance of the language in his plays: becaufe Terence himself was born out of Italy and though he was brought thither very young, he received the first part of his education in a family, where they might not speak with fo much correctness as Lælius and Scipio had been used to from their very infancy. Thus much for the language of Terence's plays: as for the reft, it feems, from what he fays himfelf, that his moft ufual method was to take his plans chiefly, and his characters wholly, from the Greek comic poets. Thofe who say that he tranflated all the comedies of Menander, certainly carry the matter too far. They were probably more than Terence ever wrote. Indeed this would be more likely to be true of Afranius than Terence; though, I fuppofe, it would fcarce hold, were we to take both of them together.

$43. Of AFRANIUS.

Spence.

We have a very great lofs in the works of Afranius: for he was regarded, even in the Auguftan Age, as the moft exact imitator of Menander. He owns himself, that he had no reftraint in copying him; or any other of the Greek comic writers, wherever they fet him a good example. Afranius's flories and perions were Roman, as Terence's were Grecian. This was looked upon as fo material a point in those days, that it made two different foccies of comedy. Thofe on a Greek story were called, Palliate; and those on a Roman Togatæ. Terence excelled all the Roman poets in the former, and Afranius in the latter. Ibid.

$44. Of PACUVIUS and ACTIUS, About the fame time that comedy was improved fo confiderably, Pacuvius and Actius (one a contemporary of Terence, and the other of Afranius) carried tragedy as far towards perfection as it ever arrived in Roman hands. The ftep from Ennius to Pacuvius was a very great one; fo great, that he was reckoned, in Cicero's time, the best of all their tragic poets. Pacuvius, as well as Terence, enjoyed the acquaintance and friendship of Lælius and Scipio: but he did not profit so much by it, as to the improvement of his language. Indeed his ftyle was not to be the common converfation ftyle, as Terence's was; and all the ftiffenings given to it, might take just as much from its elegance as they added to its dignity. What is remarkable in him, is, that he was almost as eminent for painting as he was for poetry. He made the decorations for his own plays; and Pliny speaks of fome paintings by him, in a temple of Hercules, as the most celebrated work of their kind, done by any Roman of condition after Fabius Pictor. Actius began to publish when Pacuvius was leaving off: his language was not fo fine, nor his verfes fo well-turned, even as thofe of his predeceffor. There is a remarkable story of him in an old critic, which, as it may give fome light into their different manners of writing, may be worth relating. Pacuvius, in his old age, retired to Tarentum, to enjoy the foft air and mild winters of that place. As Actius was obliged, on fome affairs, to make a journey into Afia, he took Tarentum in his way, and ftaid there fome days with Pacuvius. It was in this vifit that he read his tragedy of Atreus to him, and defired his opinion of it. Old Pacuvius, after hearing it out, told him very honeftly, that the poetry was fonorous and majestic, but that it seemed to him too ftiff and harsh. Actius replied, that he was himself very fenfible of that fault in his writings; but that he was not at all forry for it: "for," fays he, I have always been of opinion, that it is the fame with writers as with fruits; among which those that are molt foft and palatable, decay the fooneft; whereas thofe of a rough tafte laft the longer, and have the finer relish, when once they come to be mellowed by time."-Whether this style ever came to be thus mellowed, I very much doubt; however that was, it is a

All this while, that is, for above one hundred years, the ftage, as you fee, was almost folely in poffeffion of the Roman poets. It was now time for the other kinds of poetry to have their turn; however, the firft that fprung up and flourished to any degree, was ftill a cyon from the fame root. What I mean, is Satire; the produce of the old comedy. This kind of poetry had been attempted in a different manner by fome of the former writers, and in particular by Ennius: but it was fo altered and fo improved by Lucilius, that he was called the inventor of it. This was a kind of poetry wholly of the Roman growth; and the only one they had that was fo; and even as to this, Lucilius improved a good deal by the fide lights he borrowed from the old comedy at Athens. Not long after, Lucretius brought their poetry acquainted with philofophy and Catullus began to fhew the Romans fomething of the excellence of the Greek lyric poets. Lucretius difcovers a great deal of fpirit wherever his subject will give him leave; and the first moment he fteps a little afide from it, in all his digreffions, he is fuller of life and fire, and appears to have been of a more poetical turn, than Virgil himfelf, which is partly acknowledged in the fine compliment the latter feems to pay him in his Georgics. His fubject often obliges him to go on heavily for an hundred lines together: but wherever he breaks out, he breaks out like lightning from a dark cloud; all at once, with force and brightness. His character, in this, agrees with what is faid of him: that a philtre he took had given him a frenzy, and that he wrote in his lucid intervals. He and Catullus wrote, when letters in general began to flourish at Rome much more than ever they had done. Catullus was too wife to rival him; and was the moft admired of all his cotemporaries, in all the different ways of writing he attempted. His odes perhaps are the leaft valuable part of his works. The ftrokes. of fatire in his epigrams are very fevere; and the defcriptions in his Idylliums, very full and picturesque. He paints ftrongly; but all his paintings have more of force

than elegance, and put one more in mind of Homer than Virgil.

With these I fhall chufe to close the firft age of the Roman poetry: an age more remarkable for ftrength than for refinement in writing. I have dwelt longer on it perhaps than I ought; but the order and fucceffion of these poets wanted, much to be fettled and I was obliged to fay fomething of each of them, because I may have recourfe to each on fome occafion or another, in fhewing you my collection. All that remains to us of the poetical works of this age, are the mifcellaneous poems of Catullus; the philofophical poem of Lucretius; fix comedies by Terence; and twenty by Plautus. Of all the reft, there is nothing left us, except fuch paffages from their works as happened to be quoted by the ancient writers, and particularly by Cicero and the old critics.

Ibid.

$46. Of the Criticisms of CICERO, HoRACE, and QUINCTILIAN on the above Writers.

The best way to fettle the characters and merits of thefe poets of the first age, where fo little of their own works remains, is by confidering what is faid of them by the other Roman writers, who were well acquainted with their works. The best of the Roman critics we can confult now, and perhaps the beft they ever had, are Cicero, Horace, and Quinctilian. If we compare their fentiments of thefe poets together, we shall find a difagreement in them; but a difagreement which I think may be accounted for, without any great difficulty. Cicero, (as he lived before the Roman poetry was brought to perfection, and poffibly as no very good judge of poetry himself) feems to think more highly of them than the others. He gives up Livius indeed; but then he makes it up in commending Nævius. All the other comic poets he quotes often with refpect; and as to the tragic, he carries it fo far as to feem strongly inclined to oppofe old Ennius to

chilus, Pacuvius to Sophocles, and Actius to Euripides. This high notion of the old poets was probably the general fashion in his time; and it continued afterwards (efpecially among the more elderly fort of people) in the Auguftan age; and indeed much longer. Horace, in his epistle to Auguftus, combats it as a vulgar error in his time; and perhaps it was an erro: from which that prince himself was not D & 4

Wheily

a

and by all the human rights that could be; that there was an uninterrupted fucceffion of kings from him to Romulus; that his heirs were to reign there for ever; and that the Romans, under them, were to obtain the monarchy of the world. It appears from Virgil, and the other Roman writers, that Julius Cæfar was of the royal race, and that Auguftus was his fole heir. The natural refult of all this is, that the promises made to the Roman people, in and through this race, terminating in Auguftus, the Romans if they would obey the gods, and be mafters of the world, were to yield obedience to the new establishment under that prince. As odd a scheme as this may feem now, it is fcarce fo odd as that of fome people among us, who perfuaded themselves, that an abfolute obedience was owing to our kings, on their fuppofed defcent from fome unknown patriarch: and yet that had its effect with many, about century ago; and feems not to have quite loft all its influence, even in our remembrance. However that be, I think it appears plain enough, that the two great points aimed at by Virgil in his Eneid, were to maintain their old religious tenets, and to fupport the new form of government in the family of the Cæfars. That poem therefore may very well be confidered as a religious and political work, or rather (as the vulgar religion with them was fcarce any thing more than an engine of ftate) it may fairly enough be confidered as a work merely political. If this was the cafe, Virgil was not fo highly encouraged by Auguftus and Macenas for nothing. To fpeak a little more plainly: He wrote in the fervice of the new ufurpation on the ftate: and all that can be offered in vindication of him, in this light, is, that the ufurper he wrote for, was grown a tame one; and that the temper and bent of their conftitution, at that time, was fuch, that the reins of government must have fallen into the hands of fome one perfon or another; and might probably, on any new revolution, have fallen into the hands of fome one lefs mild and indulgent than Auguftus was, at the time when Virgil wrote this poem in his fervice. But whatever may be faid of his reafons for writing it, the poem itself has been highly applauded in all ages, from its firft appearance to this day; and though left unfinished by its author, has been always reckoned as much fuperiot to all the other

It preferves more to us of the religion of the Romans, than all the other Latin poets (excepting only Ovid) put together: and gives us the forms and appearances of their deities, as ftrongly as if we had fo many pictures of them preferved to us, done by fome of the best hands in the Auguftan age. It is remarkable, that he is commended by fome of the ancients themfelves, for the ftrength of his imagination as to this particular, though in general that is not his character, fo much as exactnefs. He was certainly the moft correct poet even of his time; in which all falfe thoughts and idle ornaments in writing were difcouraged and it is as certain, that there is but little of invention in his Eneid; much less, I believe, than is generally imagined. Almost all the little facts in it are built on history; and even as to the particular lines, no one perhaps ever borrowed more from the poets that preceded him, than he did. He goes fo far back as to old Ennius; and often inferts whole verfes from him, and fome other of their earlieft writers. The obfoleteness of their ftyle, did not hinder him much in this: for he was a particular lover of their old language; and no doubt inferted many more antiquated words in his poem, than we can discover at prefent. Judgment is his diftinguishing character; and his great excellence confifted in chufing and ranging things aright. Whatever he borrowed he had the fkill of making his own, by weaving it fo well into his work, that it looks all of a piece; even those parts of his poems, where this may be most practifed, refembling a fine piece of Mofaic, in which all the parts, though of fuch different marbles, unite together; and the various fhades and colours are fo artfully difpofed as to melt off infenfibly into one another.

One of the greatest beauties in Virgil's private character was, his modesty and good-nature. He was apt to think humbly of himself, and handfomely of others: and was ready to fhew his love of merit, even where it might seem to clash with his own. He was the first who recommended Horace to Mæcenas.

Ibid.