MARTINUS SCRIBLER US

ΠΕΡΙ

ΒΑΘΟΥΣ:

O R,

Of the ART of SINKING in POETRY.

Written in the year 1727.

CHA P. I.!

T hath been long, my dear countrymen, the fubject of my concern and furprize, that whereas numberless poets, critics, and orators have compiled and digefted the art of antient poefy, there hath not risen among us one perfon fo public-fpirited, as to perform the like for the modern. Although it is univerfally known, that our every way industrious moderns, both in the weight of their writings, and in the velocity of their judgments, do fo infinitely excel the faid antients.

NEVERTHELESS, too true it is, that while a plain and direct road is paved to their os, or fublime; no tract has been yet chalked out to arrive at our Bases, or profound. The Latins, as they came between the Greeks and us, make ufe of the word altitudo, which implies equally height and depth. Wherefore confidering, with no small grief, how many promifing geniufes of this age are wandering, as I may fay, in the dark without a guide, I have undertaken this arduous but neceffary task, to lead them, as it were by the hand, and step by step, the gentle downhill way to the batkas; the bottom, the end, the central point, the non plus ultra, of true modern poefy!

WHEN I confider, my dear countrymen, the extent, fertility, and populoufnefs of our lowlands of Parnafius, the flourishing ftate of our trade, and the plenty of our

ma

manufacture; there are two reflections, which administer great occafion of furprize; the one, that all dignities and honours fhould be bestowed upon the exceeding few meagre inhabitants of the top of the mountain; the other, that our own nation should have arrived to that pitch of greatness it now poffeffes, without any regular fyftem of laws. As to the first, it is with great pleasure I have obferved of late the gradual decay of delicacy and refinement among mankind, who are become too reasonable to require, that we should labour with infinite pains to come up to the taste of these mountaineers, when they without any may condefcend to ours. But as we have now an unquestionable majority on our fide, I doubt not, but we fhall fhortly be able to level the highlanders, and procure a farther vent for our own product, which is already so much relished, encouraged, and rewarded by the nobility and gentry of Great Britain.

THEREFORE, to supply our former defect, I purpose to collect the scattered rules of our art into regular inftitutes, from the example and practice of the deep genius's of our nation; imitating herein my predeceffors, the mafter of Alexander, and the fecretary of the renowned Zenobia: and in this my undertaking I am the more ani. mated, as I expect more fuccefs than has attended even thofe great critics; fince their laws, though they might be good, have ever been flackly executed, and their precepts however ftrict obeyed only by fits, and by a very fmall number.

AT the fame time I intend to do juftice upon our neigh. bours, inhabitants of the upper Parnaffus; who taking advantage of the rifing ground are perpetually throwing down rubbish, dirt, and ftones upon us, never fuffering us to live in, peace. Thefe men, while, they enjoy the cryftal fream of helicon, envy us our common water, which (thank our ftars) though it is fomewhat muddy, flows in much greater abundance. Nor is this the greateft injuftice, that we have to complain of: for though it is evident, that we never made the leaft attempt or inroad into their territories, but lived contented in our native fens; they have often not only committed petty lar, cenies upon our borders, but driven the country, and carried off at once whole cart-loads of our manufa&ture; to

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reclaim fome of which ftoln goods is part of the defign of this treatise.

FOR we fhall fee, in the course of this work, that our greatest adverfaries have sometimes descended towards us; and doubtlefs might now and then have arrived at the bathos itself, had it not been for that mistaken opinion they all entertained, that the rules of the antients were equally neceffary to the moderns; than which there cannot be a more grievous error, as will be amply proved in the following discourse.

AND indeed when any of these have gone so far, as by the light of their own genius to attempt new models, it is wonderful to obferve, how nearly they have approached us in those particular pieces; though in their others they differ toto cælo from us.

СНАР. II.

That the bathos, or profound, is the natural taste of man,' and in particular of the prefent age.

T

H E tafte of the bathos is implanted by nature itself in the foul of man; till perverted by cuftom or example, he is taught, or rather compelled to relish the fublime. Accordingly, we fee the unprejudiced minds of children delight only in fuch productions, and in fuch images, as our true modern writers fet before them. I have obferved, how faft the general tafte is returning to this firft fimplicity and innocence: and if the intent of all poetry be to divert and inftruct, certainly that kind, which diverts and inftructs the greatest number, is to be preferred. Let us look round among the admirers of poetry; we shall find thofe, who have a taste of the fublime, to be very few; but the profound ftrikes univerfally, and is adapted to every capacity. It is a fruitless undertaking to write for men of a nice and foppifh gufto, whom after all it is almoft impoffible to please; and it is Atill more chimerical to write for pofterity, of whofe tafte we cannot make any judgment, and whofe applaufe we can never enjoy. It must be confeffed, our wifer authors have a prefent end,

Et

Et prodeffe volunt, et delectare poetæ.

Their true defign is profit or gain; in order to acquire which, it is neceflary to procure applaufe by adminiftring pleasure to the reader: from whence it follows demonftrably, that their productions must be fuited to the prefent taste. And I cannot but congratulate our age on this peculiar felicity, that though we have made indeed great progress in all other branches of luxury, we are not yet debauched with any high relish in poetry, but are in this one tafte less nice than our ancestors. If any art is to be estimated by its fuccefs, I appeal to experience, whe ́ther there have not been, in proportion to their number, as many starving good poets, as bad ones?

NEVERTHELESS, in making gain the principal end of our art, far be it from me to exclude any great geniu fes of rank or fortune from diverting themselves this way. They ought to be praised no less than thofe princes, who pafs their vacant hours in fome ingenious mechanical or manual art. And to fuch as thefe, it would be ingratitude not to own, that our art has been often infinitely indebted.

CHA P. III.

The neceffity of the bathos phyfically confidered.

FAR

ARTHERMORE, it were great cruelty and injuftice, if all fuch authors as cannot write in the other way, were prohibited from writing at all. Against this I draw an argument from what seems to me an undoubted phyfical maxim; that poetry is a natural morbid fecretion from the brain. As I would not fuddenly ftop a cold in the head, or dry up my neighbour's iffue, I would as little. hinder him from neceffary writing. It may be affirmed with great truth, that there is hardly any human creature paft childhood, but at one time or other has had fome poetical evacuation, and no question was much the better for it in his health; so true is the faying, nafcimur poeta. Therefore is the defire of writing properly termed pruritus, the "titillation of the generative faculty of "the brain," and the perfon is faid to conceive; now fuch as conceive muft bring forth. I have known a man VOL. VIII.

F

thought

is

thoughtful, melancholy, and raving for divers days, who forthwith grew wonderfully eafy, lightfome, and cheerful, upon a difcharge of the peccant humour in exceeding purulent metre. Nor can I queftion, but abundance of untimely deaths are occafioned for want of this laudible vent of unruly paffions; yea, perhaps, in poor wretches (which very lamentable) for mere want of pen, ink, and paper! From hence it follows, that a fuppreffion of the very wort poetry is of dangerous confequence to the ftate. We find by experience, that the fame humours which vent themselves in fummer in ballads and sonnets, are condenfed, by the winter's cold, into pamphlets and fpeeches for and against the ministry: nay, I know not, but many times a piece of poetry may be the most innocent compofition of a minifter himself.

IT is therefore manifeft, that mediocrity ought to be allowed, yea, indulged, to the good fubjects of England. Nor can I conceive how the world has fwallowed the contrary maxim upon the fingle authority of Horace *. Why fhould the golden mean, and quinteffence of all virtues, be deemed fo offenfive in this art? or coolness or mediocrity be so amiable a quality in man, and fo deteftable in a poet?

HOWEVER, far be it from me to compare these writers with those great fpirits, who are born with a vivacité de pefanteur, or (as an English author calls it) an " alacrity of finking t;" and who by ftrength of nature alone can excel. All I mean, is to evince the neceffity of rules to thefe of leffer geniufes, as well as the usefulness of them to the greater.

CHA P. IV.

That there is an art of the bathos, or profound. E come now to prove, that there is an art of finking in poetry. Is there not an architecture of

WE

vaults

Pope.

Spoken by Falftaff of himself in Shakespear's merry wives of

Windfor. Hawkesworth.