Bold Scipio, saviour of the Roman state ; And wise Aurelius, in whose well-taught mind 165 170 NOTES. had once intended to write an epic poem on the story of Timoleon; and it is remarkable that Dr. Akinside had the same design: he hints at it himself in the last stanza of the thirteenth ode, b. i. on lyric poetry: "But when from envy and from death to claim, When to throw incense on the vestal flame Of liberty my genius gives command; Conscious of powers she never knew, Astonish'd grasps at things beyond her view, Nor by another's fate submits to be confin'd." He told me himself that the last line alluded to the Leonidas of Glover. Ver. 172. He whom ungrateful Athens, &c.] Aristides, who for his great integrity was distinguished by the appellation of the Just. When his countrymen would have banished him by the Ostracism, where it was the custom for every man to sign the name of the person he voted to exile in an Oyster-shell; a peasant, who could not write, came to Aristides to do it for him, who readily signed his own name. P. Here his abode the martyr'd Phocion claims, But in the centre of the hallow'd choir, NOTES. 175 Ver. 174. martyr'd Phocion] Who, when he was about to drink the hemlock, charged his son to forgive his enemies, and not to revenge his death on those Athenians who had decreed it. Ver. 175. Agis,] The tragedy which Mr. J. Home wrote on this subject is much inferior to his pathetic Douglas. Ver. 178. But in the centre of the hallow'd choir, &c.] In the midst of the temple, nearest the throne of Fame, are placed the greatest names in learning of all antiquity. These are described in such attitudes as express their different characters; the columns on which they are raised are adorned with sculptures, taken from the most striking subjects of their works; which sculpture bears a resemblance, in its manner and character, to the manner and character of their writings. P. Ver. 178. But in the centre] The six persons Pope thought proper to select, as worthy to be placed on these pillars as the highest seats of honour, are Homer, Virgil, Pindar, Horace, Aristotle, and Tully. It is observable that our author has omitted the great dramatic poets of Greece. Sophocles and Euripides deserved certainly an honourable niche in the Temple of Fame as much as Pindar and Horace. But the truth is, it was not fashionable in Pope's time, nor among his acquaintance, attentively to study these poets. By a strange fatality they have not in this kingdom obtained the rank they deserve amongst classic writers. We have numberless treatises on Horace and Virgil, for instance, who in their different kinds do not surpass the authors in question, whilst hardly a critic among us has professedly pointed out their excellences. I own I have some particular reasons for thinking that our author was not very conversant in this sort of composition, having no inclination to the drama. In a note on the third book of his Homer, where Helen points out to Priam the names and characters of the Grecian leaders from the walls of Troy, he observes, Around the shrine itself of Fame they stand, Hold the chief honours, and the fane command. High on the first, the mighty Homer shone ; His silver beard wav'd gently o'er his breast; NOTES. 180 185 that several great poets have been engaged by the beauty of this passage to an imitation of it. But who are the poets he enumerates on this occasion? Only Statius and Tasso; the former of whom, in his seventh book, and the latter in his third, shews the forces and the commanders that invested the cities of Thebes and Jerusalem. Not a syllable is mentioned of that capital scene in the Phænissæ of Euripides, from the hundred and twentieth to the two hundredth line, where the old man, standing with Antigone on the walls of Thebes, marks out to her the various figures, habits, armour, and qualifications, of each different warrior, in the most lively and picturesque manner, as they appear in the camp beneath them. IMITATIONS. Ver. 179. Six pompous columns, &c.] "From the dees many a pillere, Of metal that shone not full clere, etc. Upon a pillere saw I stonde That was of lede and iron fine, Him of the Sect Saturnine, The Ebraicke Josephus the old, etc. Upon an iron piller strong, The wars of Troy were round the Pillar seen: Here fierce Tydides wounds the Cyprian Queen; NOTES. Ver. 188. The wars of Troy] The poems of Homer afford a marvellous variety of subjects proper for history painting. A very ingenious French nobleman, the Count de Caylus, has lately printed a valuable treatise, entitled, "Tableaux tirés de l'Illiade, et de l'Odysse d'Homere;" in which he has exhibited the whole series of events contained in these poems, arranged in their proper order; has designed each piece, and disposed each figure, with much taste and judgment. He seems justly to wonder, that artists have so seldom had recourse to this great storehouse of beautiful and noble images, so proper for the employment of the pencils, and delivered with so much force and distinctness, that the painter has nothing to do but to substitute his colours for the words of Homer. He complains that a Raphael, and a Julio Romano, shoud copy the crude and unnatural conceptions of Ovid's Metamorphoses and Apuleius's Ass; and that some of their sacred subjects were ill-chosen. Among the few who borrowed their subjects from Homer, he mentions Bouchardon with the honour he deserves, and relates the following anecdote: "This great artist having lately read Homer in an old and detestable French translation, came one day to me, his eyes sparkling with fire, and said " Since I have read this book, men seem to be fifteen feet high, and all nature is enlarged in my sight." Pope has selected from Homer only three subjects as the most interesting: Diomed wounding Venus, Hector slaying Patroclus, and the same Hector dragged along at the wheels of Achilles' chariot. Are these the most affecting and striking incidents of the Iliad? But it is highly worth remarking, that this very incident of dragging the body of Hector thrice round the walls of Troy is absolutely not mentioned by Homer. Bayle has remarked this; and Heyne acknowledges the truth of the remark, and thinks that Virgil, for he first mentioned it, Ter circum Iliacos raptaverat Hectora muros. B. i. v. 483. adopted the circumstance from some Greek tragedy on the subject. A following line in Virgil, which is indeed taken from Homer, furnishes a noble subject for sculpture: Tendentemque manus Priamam conspexit inermes. Here Hector glorious from Patroclus' fall, Here dragg'd in triumph round the Trojan wall; Bold was the work, and prov'd the master's fire; 190 195 NOTES. Ver. 194. A strong expression most he seem'd t' affect, In the sublime, as in great affluence of fortune, some minute and unimporant articles will unavoidably escape observation. But it is almost impossible for a low and grovelling genius to be guilty of error, since he never endangers himself by soaring on high, or aiming at eminence, but still goes on in the same quiet, uniform, Ver. 196. &c.] IMITATIONS. "There saw I stand on a pillere The Latin Poet Virgyle, That hath bore up of a great while And next him on a pillere was And next him on a pillere stode P. |