Sent by great Jove to him who rules the hoft; Forbid it heav'n! this warning fhould be loft! of Then let us hafte, obey the God's alarms, And join to rouze the fons of Greece to arms. Thus fpoke the fage: The Kings without delay Diffolve the council, and their chief obey: The fceptred rulers lead; the following hoft 110 Pour'd forth by thoufands, darkens all the coast. As from fome rocky cleft the fhepherd fees Cluft'ring in heaps on heaps the driving bees, Rolling, .111. As from fome rocky cleft.] This is the firft fimile in Homer, and we may obferve in general that he excels all mankind in the number, variety, and beauty of his comparisons. There are scarce any in Virgil which are not tranflated from him, and therefore when he fucceeds beft in them, he is to be commended but as an improver. Scaliger feems not to have thought of this, when he compares the fimiles of these two authors (as indeed they are the places moft obvious to comparifon.) The prefent paffage is an inftance of it, to which he oppofes the following verfes in the first Æneid. ✯, 434. Qualis apes aftate novâ per florea rura Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragantia mella. This he very much prefers to Homer's, and in particular extols the harmony and sweetness of the verfification above that of our Author; against which censure we need only appeal to the ears of the reader, μύτε Rolling, and blackning, fwarms fucceeding fwarms, With deeper murmurs and more hoarfe alarms; 115 Dufky they spread, a close-embody'd crowd, And o'er the vale defcends the' living cloud. So, from the tents and ships, a length'ning trainSpreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain: Along the region runs a deaf'ning found; 120 Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground.. Fame flies before, the meffenger of Jove, And fhining foars, and claps her wings above.. Ἤὔτε ἔθνεα εἶσι μελισσάων αδινάων, Αἱ μαὶ τ ̓ ἔνθα ἄλις πεποτήαθ, αἱ δέ τε ἔνθα, &c. Nine But Sealiger was unlucky in his choice of this particular comr parifon: There is a very fine one in the fixth Ancid, .707. that better agrees with Homer's: And nothing is more evident than that the design of these two is very different: Homer intended to defcribe the multitudes of Greeks pouring out of the hips, Virgil the diligence and labour of the builders at Carthage. And Macrobius, who obferves this difference Sat. 1. s. c. I. fhould also have found, that therefore the fimiles ought not to be compar'd together. The beauty of Homer's is not inferior to Virgil's, if we confider with what exa&ness it answers to its end. It conffts of three particulars; the vast number of the troops is exprest in the swarms; their tumultuous manner of iffuing out of the fhips, and the perpetual egreffion which feem'd without end, are imaged in the bees pouring out of the rock: and laftly their difperfion over all the thore, in their defcending on the flowers in the vales. Spondanus was therefore miftaken when he thought the whole application of this comparifon lay in the fingle word inador, catervatım, 28 Chapman has juftly observ'd. . 121. Fame flies before.] This affembly of the army is full Nine facred heralds now proclaiming loud The monarch's will, fufpend the lift'ning crowd. And fainter murmurs dy'd upon the ear, The King of Kings his awful figure rais'd; Th' immortal gift great Pelops left behind, 135 And now the mark of Agamemnon's reign, full of beauties: The lively defcription of their overspreading the field, the noble boldness of the figure when Fame is reprefented in person shining at their head, the universal tumult fucceeded by a folemn filence; and laftly the graceful rifing of Agamemnon, all contribute to caft a majesty on this part. In the paffage of the feeptre, Homer has found an artful and poetical manner of acquainting us with the high defcent of Agamemnon, and celebrating the hereditary right of his family; as well as finely hinted the original of his power to be deriv'd from heaven, in saying the fceptre was first the gift of Jupiter. It is with reference to this, that in the line where he first mentions it, he calls it "Aptor aie, and accordingly it is tranflated in that place. On this bright fceptre now the King reclin'd, And artful thus pronounc'd the speech defign'd, Ye 138. And artful thus pronound the speech defign'd.] The remarks of Dionyfius upon this fpeech I fhall give the reader altogether, tho' they lie fcatter'd in his two difcourses i σχηματισμλύων, the fecond of which is in a great degree but a repetition of the precepts and examples of the firft. This happen'd, I believe, from his having compos'd, them at diftin&t times and upon different occafions, "It is an exquifite piece of art, when you seem to aim at "perfuading one thing, and at the fame time in force the "contrary. This kind of Rhetorick is of great ufe in all occafions of danger, and of this Homer has afforded a moft powerful example in the oration of Agamemnon. 'Tis a "method perfectly wonderful, and even carries in it an appearance of abfurdity; for all that we generally esteem the "faults of oratory, by this means become the virtues of it. "Nothing is look'd upon as a greater error in a Rhetorician "than to alledge fuch arguments as either are easily answer'd, "or may be retorted upon himself; the former is a weak part, the latter a dangerous one; and Agamemnon here defignedly deals in both. For it is plain that if a man must not ufe weak arguments, or fuch as may make against him, "when he intends to perfuade the thing he fays; then on "the other fide, when he does not intend it, he must observe "the contrary proceeding, and make what are the faults of oratory in general, the excellencies of that oration in particular, or otherwife he will contradi& his own intention, "and perfuade the contrary to what he means Agamemnon "begins with an argument easily anfwer'd, by telling them "that Jupiter had promis'd to crown their arms with victory. For "if Jupiter had promis'd this, it was a reason for the stay in "the camp: But now (fays he) Jove has deceiv'd us, and we "must return with ignominy. This is another of the fame kind, "for it fhews what a difgrace it is to return. What follows "is of the second fort, and maybe turn'd against him. Jove "will have it so: For which they have only Agamemnon's "word, but Jove's own promise for the contrary. That God has overthrown many cities, and will yet overturn many others. es This Ye fons of Mars! partake your leader's care, >Heroes of Greece, and brothers of the war! Of partial Jove with juftice I complain, And heav'nly oracles believ'd in vain. "This was a strong reafon to ftay, and put their confidence " in him. It is shameful to have it told to all pofterity, that fo many "thousand Greeks, after a war of fo long continuance, at last re"turn'd home baffled and unsuccessful. All this might have been faid by a profeft adverfary to the caufe he pleads, and in"deed is the fame thing Vives fays elsewhere in reproach of "their flight. The conclufion evidently fhews the intent of "the speaker. Hate then, let us fly; prúywup, the word which "of all others was moft likely to prevail upon them to stay; "the most open term of disgrace he could poffibly have us'd: "Tis the fame which Juno makes ufe of to Minerva, Minerva "to Vlyffes, and Vlyffes again to the troops, to diffuade their "return; the fame which Agamemnon himself had ufed to in"fult Achilles, and which Homer never employs but with the "mark of cowardice and infamy. The fame author farther obferves, "That this whole ora"tion has the air of being fpoken in a paffion. It begins "with a stroke of the greatest rafhnefs and impatience. Ju"piter has been unjust, Heaven has deceiv'd us. This renders all "he fhall fay of the lefs authority, at the fame time that it "conceals his own artifice; for his anger feems to account "for the incongruities he utters." I could not fupprefs fo fine a remark, tho' it falls out of the order of thofe which precede it. Before I leave this article, I must take notice that this fpeech of Agamemnon is again put into his mouth in the ninth Iliad, and (according to Dionyfius) for the fame purpose, to detain the army at the fiege after a defeat; tho' it seems unartful to put the fame trick twice upon the Greeks by the fame perfon, and in the fame words too. We may indeed fuppofe the first feint to have remain'd undiscover'd, but at beft it is a management in the Poet not very entertaining to the readers. A fafe |