Speeches of Satan and Belial in the 6th Book. O Friends, why come not on thefe Victors proud? &c. BESIDES the Puning, there is a another very confiderable Fault in that Passage, and feveral other Places of the Poem. Any Thing of Burlesque, or Drollery, is, by all the Criticks, excluded from the Serioufnefs of an Epick Poem. HOMER, in this Particular, has failed as well as MILTON, and VIRGIL has been conftantly preferred to them both for his Conduct, according to * the Criticks, entirely blameless in this Refpect: However, I remember a Paffage in the 12th Eneid, where the Poet, in his own Perfon, breaks through the ferious Air of his Poem, and finks into a low Piece of Ri. dicule and Drollery. Parte alia, media Eumedes in pralia fertur, Nomine avum referens, animo manibusque parentem : Illum Tydides alio pro talibus aufis Affecit pretio: nec equis adfpirat Achillis, In the fame Book, the Death of Ebufus is related, with a Circumstance perfectly ludicrous. *See Spectator, Vol. 4. No 219. dicrous. Chorineus, fnatching a Brand from the Altar, fets his Beard on Fire; the bla zing and stinking of which is particularly described. Obvius ambuftum torrem Chorinaus ab ara THIS Circumstance, tho' in a tragical Action, would infallibly produce Laughter in the Spectators, and is properer to be Part of an Adventure in Don Quixot, or Hudibras, than an Epick Poem. Poftquam prima quies epulis, menfaque remota; THIS THIS Action of Bitias is alfo buffoonish, and probably borrowed from that very Paffage of the Ift ILIAD, for which HOMER has been blam'd, where Vulcan's Aukwardness raises the Laughter of the Gods: However, it must be owned, that the Drunkennefs of Bitias was a properer Subject for Mirth and Ridicule, than the Lameness of Vulcan. The above Quotation deserves Attention, as it is the best Account of the Collations of the Ancients. How inferior is the Dependent lychni laquearibus aureis Incenfi, & noctem flammis funalia vincunt. to this of our Poet? from the arched Roof, Pendent by fubtle Magick, many a Row THE Pieces of Burlesque we meet with in MILTON, were entirely owing to his exceffive Fondness for HOMER; and there are even more injudicious Imitations to be found in VIRGIL: For Example, Longinus has cenfured HOMER for the Story of Polypheme, &c. in the Odyffey; yet VIRGIL copies them, and indeed they are still worse in in the ÆNEID, for in HOMER they contribute to the Design of the Poem, in raifing the Character of the Hero, as his Conquefts aud Escapes from them are signal Inftances of that confùmmate Prudence, which the Poet proposed to celebrate; this cannot be faid of them, as imitated by VIRGIL, for there they contribute nothing to the Poet's Defign, and rather leffen than advance the Character of the Hero. THERE are feveral Contradictions, and fuch like little Faults in the Paradife Loft, which are to be imputed to the Blindness and ill Memory of the Author; the common Obfervation in this Cafe holding, that Strength of Imagination is generally accompanied with fhortnefs of Memory. I fhall here inftance a Fault of this Kind, and, I think, the most flagrant One in the Poem, tho' many as ill may be found in the ILIAD or ÆNEID. It is in the Speech of Moloch in the 2d Book. But perhaps The Way feems difficult and steep, to scale Up Up to our native Seat: Defcent and Fall If the Poet had defigned to inform us, that the natural Motion of Spirits was upwards, and just the contrary of what we call Gravity, he should have told it in his own Person, or made fome of the Angels relate it to Adam. But it is certainly most abfurd, to make a Spirit, in the Time of a deep and important Confultation, spend a Dozen of Lines, in telling what every one of his Auditors must have known, as well as himself, if it was really the Cafe. "Tis exactly the fame, as if a General Officer, in the folemn Debates of a Council of War, should rise up, and with a long grave Speech inform his Colleagues, that it was easier to go down than Up-hill. DOCTOR Bentley very well remarks the Contradiction, in the Word Flight, being applied to Sinking, which he amends, by putting Strife in its Place, which leaves the Matter just as it was; for the Impropriety lay in the Word Sunk. SOME |