A Dialogue Concerning Oratory Or The Causes Of Corrupt Eloquence Part 5

ART OF POETRY, ver. 372.

But G.o.d and man, and letter'd post denies, That poets ever are of middling size.

FRANCIS'S HORACE.

[b] Notwithstanding all that is said, in this Dialogue, of Saleius Ba.s.sus, it does not appear, in the judgement of Quintilian, that he was a poet whose fame could extend itself to the distant provinces.

Perfection in the kind is necessary. Livy, the historian, was at the head of his profession. In consequence of his vast reputation, we know from Pliny, the consul, that a native of the city of Cadiz was so struck with the character of that great writer, that he made a journey to Rome, with no other intent than to see that celebrated genius; and having gratified his curiosity, without staying to view the wonders of that magnificent city, returned home perfectly satisfied. _Nunquamne legisti Gaditanum quemdam t.i.ti Livii nomine gloriaque commotum, ad visendum eum ab ultimo terrarum orbe venisse; statimque, ut viderat, abiisse?_ Lib. ii. epist. 3.

[c] In Homer and Virgil, as well as in the dramatic poets of the first order, we frequently have pa.s.sages of real eloquence, with the difference which Quintilian mentions: the poet, he says, is a slave to the measure of his verse; and, not being able at all times to make use of the true and proper word, he is obliged to quit the natural and easy way of expression, and avail himself of new modes and turns of phraseology, such as tropes, and metaphors, with the liberty of transposing words, and lengthening or shortening syllables as he sees occasion. _Quod alligati ad certam pedum necessitatem non semper propriis uti possint, sed depulsi a recta via, necessario ad quaedam diverticula confugiant; nec mutare quaedam modo verba, sed extendere, corripere, convertere, dividere cogantur._ Quint, lib. x. cap. 1. The speaker in the Dialogue is aware of this distinction, and, subject to it, the various branches of poetry are with him so many different modes of eloquence.

[d] The original has, the citadel of eloquence, which calls to mind an admired pa.s.sage in Lucretius:

Sed nil dulcius est bene quam munita tenere Edita doctrina sapientum templa serena, Despicere unde queas alios, pa.s.simque videre Errare, atque viam pallantes quaerere vitae.

Lib. ii. ver. 7.

[e] It is a fact well known, that in Greece the most ill.u.s.trious of both s.e.xes thought it honourable to exercise themselves in the exhibitions of the theatre, and even to appear in the athletic games.

Plutarch, it is true, will have it, that all scenic arts were prohibited at Sparta by the laws of Lycurgus; and yet Cornelius Nepos a.s.sures us, that no Lacedaemonian matron, however high her quality, was ashamed to act for hire on the public stage. He adds, that throughout Greece, it was deemed the highest honour to obtain the prize in the Olympic games, and no man blushed to be a performer in plays and pantomimes, and give himself a spectacle to the people. _Nulla Lacedaemoni tam est n.o.bilis vidua, quae non in scenam eat mercede conducta. Magnis in laudibus tota fuit Graecia, victorem Olympiae citari. In scenam vero prodire, et populo esse spectaculo nemini in iisdem gentibus fuit turpitudini._ Cor. Nep. _in Praefat._ It appears, however, from a story told by aelian and cited by Shaftesbury, _Advice to an Author_, part ii. s. 3, that the Greek women were by law excluded from the Olympic games. Whoever was found to transgress, or even to cross the river Alpheus, during the celebration of that great spectacle, was liable to be thrown from a rock. The consequence was, that not one female was detected, except _Callipatria_, or, as others called her, _Pherenice_. This woman, disguised in the habit of a teacher of gymnastic exercises, introduced her son, _Pisidorus_, to contend for the victor's prize. Her son succeeded. Transported with joy at a sight so glorious, the mother overleaped the fence, which enclosed the magistrates, and, in the violence of that exertion, let fall her garment. She was, by consequence, known to be a woman, but absolved from all criminality. For that mild and equitable sentence, she was indebted to the merit of her father, her brothers, and her son, who all obtained the victor's crown. The incident, however, gave birth to a new law, whereby it was enacted, that the masters of the gymnastic art should, for the future, come naked to the Olympic games.

_aelian_ lib. x. cap. 1; and see _Pausanias_, lib. v. cap. 6.

[f] Nicostratus is praised by Pausanias (lib. v. cap. 20), as a great master of the athletic arts. Quintilian has also recorded his prowess.

"Nicostratus, whom in our youth we saw advanced in years, would instruct his pupil in every branch of his art, and make him, what he was himself, an invincible champion. Invincible he was, since, on one and the same day, he entered the lists as a wrestler and a boxer, and was proclaimed conqueror in both." _Ac si fuerit qui docebitur, ille, quem adolescentes vidimus, Nicostratus, omnibus in eo docendi partibus similiter uteretur; efficietque illum, qualis hic fuit, luctando pugnandoque quorum utroque in certamine iisdem diebus coronabatur invictum._ Quint. lib, ii. cap. 8.

Section XI.

[a] Nero's ambition to excel in poetry was not only ridiculous, but, at the same time, destructive to Lucan, and almost all the good authors of the age. See _Annals_, b. xv. According to the old scholiast on the Satires of Persius, the following verses were either written by Nero, or made in imitation of that emperor's style:

Torva Mimalloneis implerunt cornua bombis, Et raptum vitulo caput ablatura superbo Ba.s.saris, et lyncem Maenas flexura corymbis, Evion ingeminat: reparabilis adsonat echo.

The affectation of rhyme, which many ages afterwards was the essential part of monkish verse, the tumour of the words, and the wretched penury of thought, may be imputed to a frivolous prince, who studied his art of poetry in the manner described by Tacitus, _Annals_, b. xiv. s. 16. And yet it may be a question, whether the satirist would have the hardiness to insert the very words of an imperial poet, armed with despotic power. A burlesque imitation would answer the purpose; and it may be inferred from another pa.s.sage in the same poem, that Persius was content to ridicule the mode of versification then in vogue at court.

Claudere sic versum didicit; Berecynthius Attin, Et qui caeruleum dirimebat Nerea Delphin.

Sic costam longo subduximus Apennino.

[b] Vatinius was a favourite at the court of Nero. Tacitus calls him the sp.a.w.n of a cook's-shop and a tippling-house; _sutrinae et tabernae alumnus_. He recommended himself to the favour of the prince by his scurrility and vulgar humour. Being, by those arts, raised above himself, he became the declared enemy of all good men, and acted a distinguished part among the vilest instruments of that pernicious court. See his character, _Annals_ xv. s. 34. When an illiberal and low buffoon basks in the suns.h.i.+ne of a court, and enjoys exorbitant power, the cause of literature can have nothing to expect. The liberal arts must, by consequence, be degraded by a corrupt taste, and learning will be left to run wild and grow to seed.

Section XII.

[a] That poetry requires a retreat from the bustle of the world, has been so often repeated, that it is now considered as a truth, from which there can be no appeal. Milton, it is true, wrote his Paradise Lost in a small house near _Bunhill Fields_; and Dryden courted the muse in the hurry and dissipation of a town life. But neither of them fixed his residence by choice. Pope grew immortal on the banks of the Thames. But though the country seems to be the seat of contemplation, two great writers have been in opposite opinions. Cicero says, woods and groves, and rivers winding through the meadows, and the refres.h.i.+ng breeze, with the melody of birds, may have their attraction; but they rather relax the mind into indolence, than rouse our attention, or give vigour to our faculties. _Sylvarum amaenitas, et praeterlabentia flumina, et inspirantes ramis arborum aurae, volucrumque cantus, et ipsa late circ.u.mspiciendi libertas ad se trahunt; at mihi remittere potius voluptas ista videtur cogitationem, quam intendere._ _De Orat._ lib. ii. This, perhaps, may be true as applied to the public orator, whose scene of action lay in the forum or the senate. Pliny, on the other hand, says to his friend Tacitus, there is something in the solemnity of venerable woods, and the awful silence which prevails in those places, that strongly disposes us to study and contemplation.

For the future, therefore, whenever you hunt, take along with you your pen and paper, as well as your basket and bottle; for you will find the mountains not more inhabited by Diana, than by Minerva. _Jam undique sylvae, et solitudo, ipsumque illud silentium, quod venationi datur, magna cogitationis incitamenta sunt. Proinde, c.u.m, venabere, licebit, auctore me, ut panarium et lagunculam, sic etiam pugillares feras. Experiaris non Dianam magis montibus quam Minervam inerrare._ Lib. i. epist. 6. Between these two different opinions, a true poet may be allowed to decide. Horace describes the noise and tumult of a city life, and then says,

Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, et fugit urbes.

Epist. lib. ii. ep. ii. ver. 77.

Alas! to grottos and to groves we run, To ease and silence, ev'ry muse's son.

POPE.

[b] The expression in the original is full and expressive, _lucrosae hujus et sanguinantis eloquentiae_; that gainful and blood-thirsty eloquence. The immoderate wealth acquired by Eprius Marcellus has been mentioned in this Dialogue, section 8. Pliny gives us an idea of the vast acquisitions gained by Regulus, the notorious informer. From a state of indigence, he rose, by a train of villainous actions, to such immense riches, that he once consulted the omens, to know how soon he should be worth sixty millions of sesterces, and found them so favourable, that he had no doubt of being worth double that sum.

_Aspice Regulum, qui ex paupere et tenui ad tantas opes per flagitia processit, ut ipse mihi dixerit, c.u.m consuleret, quam cito sestertium s.e.xcennies impleturus esset, invenisse se exta duplicata, quibus portendi millies et ducenties habiturum._ Lib. ii. ep. 20. In another epistle the same author relates, that Regulus, having lost his son, was visited upon that occasion by mult.i.tudes of people, who all in secret detested him, yet paid their court with as much a.s.siduity as if they esteemed and loved him. They retaliated upon this man his own insidious arts: to gain the friends.h.i.+p of Regulus, they played the game of Regulus himself. He, in the mean time, dwells in his villa on the other side of the Tiber, where he has covered a large tract of ground with magnificent porticos, and lined the banks of the river with elegant statues; profuse, with all his avarice, and, in the depth of infamy, proud and vain-glorious. _Convenitur ad eum mira celebritate: cuncti detestantur, oderunt; et, quasi probent, quasi diligant, cursant, frequentant, utque breviter, quod sentio, enunciem, in Regulo demerendo, Regulum imitantur. Tenet se trans Tyberim in hortis, in quibus latissimum solum porticibus immensis, ripam statuis suis occupavit; ut est, in summa avaritia sumptuosus, in summa infamia gloriosus._ Lib. iv. ep. 2. All this splendour, in which Regulus lived, was the fruit of a gainful and blood-thirsty eloquence; if that may be called eloquence, which Pliny says was nothing more than a crazed imagination; _nihil praeter ingenium insanum_. Lib. iv.

ep. 7.

[c] Orpheus, in poetic story, was the son of Calliope, and Linus boasted of Apollo for his father.

----Nec Thracius Orpheus, Nec Linus; huic mater quamvis, atque huic pater adsit, Orphei Calliopea, Lino formosus Apollo.

VIRG. ECL. iv. ver. 55.

Not Orpheus' self, nor Linus, should exceed My lofty lays, or gain the poet's meed, Though Phbus, though Calliope inspire, And one the mother aid, and one the sire.

WHARTON'S VIRGIL.

Orpheus embarked in the Argonautic expedition. His history of it, together with his hymns, is still extant; but whether genuine, is much doubted.

[d] Lysias, the celebrated orator, was a native of Syracuse, the chief town in Sicily. He lived about four hundred years before the Christian aera. Cicero says, that he did not addict himself to the practice of the bar; but his compositions were so judicious, so pure and elegant, that you might venture to p.r.o.nounce him a perfect orator.

_Tum fuit Lysias, ipse quidem in causis forensibus non versatus sed egregie subtilis scriptor, atque elegans, quem jam prope audeas oratorem perfectum dicere._ Cicero _De Claris Orat._ s. 35. Quintilian gives the same opinion. Lysias, he says, preceded Demosthenes: he is acute and elegant, and if to teach the art of speaking were the only business of an orator, nothing more perfect can be found. He has no redundancy, nothing superfluous, nothing too refined, or foreign to his purpose: his style is flowing, but more like a pure fountain, than a n.o.ble river. _His aetate Lysias major, subtilis atque elegans, et quo nihil, si oratori satis sit docere, quaeras perfectius. Nihil enim est inane, nihil arcessitum; puro tamen fonti, quam magno flumini propior._ Quint, lib. x. cap. 1. A considerable number of his orations is still extant, all written with exquisite taste and inexpressible sweetness. See a very pleasing translation by Dr. Gillies.

Hyperides flourished at Athens in the time of Demosthenes, aeschynes, Lycurgus, and other famous orators. That age, says Cicero, poured forth a torrent of eloquence, of the best and purest kind, without the false glitter of affected ornament, in a style of n.o.ble simplicity, which lasted to the end of that period. _Huic Hyperides proximus, et aeschynes fuit, et Lycurgus, aliique plures. Haec enim aetas effudit hanc copiam; et, ut opinio mea fert, succus ille et sanguis incorruptus usque ad hanc aetatem oratorum fuit, in qua naturalis inesset, non fucatus nitor._ _De Claris Orat._ s. 36. Quintilian allows to Hyperides a keen discernment, and great sweetness of style; but he p.r.o.nounces him an orator designed by nature to s.h.i.+ne in causes of no great moment.

_Dulcis in primis et acutus Hyperides; sed minoribus causis, ut non dixerim utilior, magis par._ Lib. x. cap. 1. Whatever might be the case when this Dialogue happened, it is certain, at present, that the fame of Sophocles and Euripides has eclipsed the two Greek orators.

[e] For an account of Asinius Pollio and Corvinus Messala, see _Annals_, b. xi. s. 6. Quintilian (b. xii. chap. 10) commends the diligence of Pollio, and the dignity of Messala. In another part of his Inst.i.tutes, he praises the invention, the judgement, and spirit of Pollio, but at the same time says, he fell so short of the suavity and splendour of Cicero, that he might well pa.s.s for an orator of a former age. He adds, that Messala was natural and elegant: the grandeur of his style seemed to announce the n.o.bility of his birth; but still he wanted force and energy. _Malta in Asinio Pollione inventio, summa diligentia, adeo ut quibusdam etiam nimia videatur; et consilii et animi satis; a nitore et jucunditate Ciceronis ita longe abest, ut videri possit saeculo prior. At Messala nitidus et candidus, et quodammodo prae se ferens in dicendo n.o.bilitatem suam, viribus minor._ Quintilian, lib. x. cap. 1. The two great poets of the Augustan age have transmitted the name of Asinius Pollio to the latest posterity.

Virgil has celebrated him as a poet, and a commander of armies, in the Illyrican and Dalmatic wars.

Tu mihi, seu magni superas jam saxa Timavi, Sive oram Illyrici legis aequoris; en erit unquam Ille dies, mihi c.u.m liceat tua dicere facta?

En erit, ut liceat totum mihi ferre per orbem Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothurno?

ECLOG. viii. ver. 6.

O Pollio! leading thy victorious bands O'er deep Timavus, or Illyria's sands; O when thy glorious deeds shall I rehea.r.s.e?

When tell the world how matchless is thy verse, Worthy the lofty stage of laurell'd Greece, Great rival of majestic Sophocles!

WHARTON'S VIRGIL.

Horace has added the orator and the statesman:

Paulum severae musa tragediae Desit theatris; mox, ubi publicas Res ordinaris, grande munus Cecropio repetes cothurno, Insigne mstis praesidium reis, Et consulenti, Pollio, curiae, Cui laurus aeternos honores Dalmatico peperit triumpho.

Lib. ii. ode 1.

r.e.t.a.r.d a while thy glowing vein, Nor swell the solemn tragic scene; And when thy sage, thy patriot cares Have form'd the train of Rome's affairs, With lofty rapture reinflam'd, diffuse Heroic thoughts, and wake the buskin'd muse.

FRANCIS'S HORACE.

But after all, the question put by Maternus, is, can any of their orations be compared to the _Medea_ of Ovid, or the _Thyestes_ of Varius? Those two tragedies are so often praised by the critics of antiquity, that the republic of letters has reason to lament the loss.

Quintilian says that the _Medea_ of Ovid was a specimen of genius, that shewed to what heights the poet could have risen, had he thought fit rather to curb, than give the rein to his imagination. _Ovidii Medea videtur mihi ostendere quantum vir ille praestare potuisset, si ingenio suo temperare, quam indulgere maluisset._ Lib. x. cap. 1.

The works of Varius, if we except a few fragments, are wholly lost.

Horace, in his journey to Brundusium, met him and Virgil, and he mentions the incident with the rapture of a friend who loved them both:

Plotius, et Varius Sinuessae, Virgiliusque Occurrunt; animae quales neque candidiores Terra tulit, neque queis me sit devinctior alter.

Lib. i. sat. 5.

Horace also celebrates Varius as a poet of sublime genius. He begins his Ode to Agrippa with the following lines:

Scriberis Vario fortis, et hostium Victor, Maeonii carminis alite, Quam rem c.u.mque ferox navibus, aut equis Miles te duce gesserit.

Lib. i. ode 6.