"to destroy his fon, would constrain his queen to ac66 cept of one of them for her husband; and indulge

themselves in all violence, fo much the more, be"cause they were perfuaded he would never return. "But at last he returns, and discovering himself only "to his fon and fome others, who had continued firm "to him, he is an eye-witness of the infolence of his "enemies, punishes them according to their deserts, "and reftores to his ifland that tranquillity and re"pofe to which they had been strangers during his "abfence."

As the truth, which ferves for foundation to this fiction, is, that the absence of a person from his own home, or his neglect of his own affairs, is the cause of great diforders: fo the principal point of the action, and the most effential one, is the abfence of the hero. This fills almost all the poem: for not only this real abfence lafted feveral years, but even when the hero returned, he does not discover himself; and this prudent difguife, from whence he reaped fo much advantage, has the fame effect upon the authors of the diforders, and all others who knew him not, as his real abfence had before, fo that he is abfent as to them, till the very moment of their punishment.

After the poet had thus compofed his fable, and joined the fiction to the truth, he then makes choice of Ulyffes, the king of the ifle of Ithaca, to maintain the character of his chief perfonage, and bestowed the rest upon Telemachus, Penelope, Antinous, and others, whom he calls by what names he pleafes.

I shall

I fhall not here infift upon the many excellent advices, which are fo many parts and natural confequences of the fundamental truth; and which the poet very dextrously lays down in thofe fictions which are the episodes and members of the entire action. Such for inftance are thefe advices: not to intrude one's felf into the mysteries of government, which the prince keeps fecret; this is reprefented to us by the winds fhut up in a bull-hide, which the miferable companions of Ulyffes would needs be fo foolish as to pry into not to fuffer one's felf to be led away by the feeming charms of an idle and inactive life, to which the Syrens fong invited not to fuffer one's felf to be fenfualized by pleasures, like those who were changed into brutes, by Circe: and a great many other points of morality neceflary for all forts of people.

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This Poem is more useful to the people than the Iliad, where the fubjects fuffer rather by the ill conduct of their princes, than through their own mifcarriages. But in the Odyffey, it is not the fault of Ulyffes that is the ruin of his fubjects. This wife prince leaves untried no method to make them partakers of the benefit of his return. Thus the poet in the Iliad fays, "He fings the anger of Achilles, which

had caufed the death of fo many Grecians ;" and, on the contrary, in the Odyffey he tells his readers, "That the fubjects perished through their own fault.” SECT.

A

OF THE UNITY OF THE FABLE:

RISTOTLE bestows great encomiums upon Homer for the fimplicity of his defign, becaufe he has included in one fingle part all that happened at the fiege of Troy. And to this he opposes the ignorance of fome poets, who imagined that the unity of the fable or action was fufficiently preferved by the unity of the hero; and who composed their Thefeids, Heraclids, and the like, wherein they only heaped up in one poem every thing that happened to one perfonage.

He finds fault with thofe poets who were for reducing the unity of the fable into the unity of the hero, because one man may have performed several adventures, which it is impoffible to reduce under any one general and fimple head. This reducing of all things to unity and fimplicity, is what Horace likewife makes his first rule.

"Denique fit quodvis fimplex duntaxat, & unum."

According to these rules, it will be allowable to make use of several fables; or (to speak more correctly) of several incidents, which may be divided into feveral fables, provided they are so ordered, that the unity of the fable be not spoiled. This liberty is still greater in the Epick Poem, because it is of a larger extent, and ought to be entire and complete.

5

I will

I will explain myself more diftinctly by the practice of Homer.

No doubt but one might make four distinct fables out of these four following instructions.

1. Divifion between thofe of the fame party expofes them entirely to their enemies.

II. Conceal your weakness; and you will be dreaded as much, as if you had none of those imperfections, of which they are ignorant.

III. When your ftrength is only feigned, and founded only in the opinion of others; never venture fo far as if your strength was real.

IV. The more you agree together, the lefs hurt can your enemies do you.

It is plain, I fay, that each of thefe particular maxims might serve for the ground-work of a fiction, and one might make four diftinct fables out of them. May not one then put all these into one fingle Epopea? Not unless one fingle fable can be made out of all. The poet indeed may have fo much skill as to unite all into one body, as members and parts, each of which taken afunder would be imperfect: and if he joins them fo, as that this conjunction fhall be no hindrance at all to the unity and regular fimplicity of the fable. This is what Homer has done with fuch fuccefs in the compofition of the Iliad.

1. The divifion between Achilles and his allies tended to the ruin of their defigns. 2. Patroclus

comes

comes to their relief in the armour of this hero, and Hector retreats. 3. But this young man pushing the advantage which his disguise gave him, too far, ventures to engage with Hector himself; but not being mafter of Achilles's ftrength (whom he only represented in outward appearance) he is killed, and by this means leaves the Grecian affairs in the fame disorder, from which, in that disguise, he came to free them. 4. Achilles provoked at the death of his friend, is reconciled, and revenges his lofs by the death of Hector. These various incidents being thus united, do not make different actions and fables, but are only the uncomplete and unfinished parts of one and the fame action and fable, which alone, when taken thus complexly, can be faid to be complete and entire: and all these maxims of the moral, are easily reduced into thefe two parts, which, in my opinion, cannot be separated without enervating the force of both. The two parts are these, That a right understanding is the preservation, and difcord the deftruction of states.

Though then the poet has made use of two parts in his poems, each of which might have ferved for a fable, as we have obferved: yet this multiplication cannot be called a vicious and irregular Polymythia, contrary to the neceffary unity and fimplicity of the fable; but it gives the fable another qualification, altogether neceffary and regular, namely, its perfection and finishing ftroke.

SECT.