PART THE SECOND;

HE PRESCRIBES

WHAT THINGS ARE BEST ADAPTED

FOR THE ROMAN THEATRE.

ARGUMENT OF PRECEPTS.

IX. 99. Pathos is to be mingled.-X. 114. On forming the Qualities of the Characters.-XI. 128. On the Imitation of the Ancients.-XII. 136. On placing a Beginning. XIII. 153. On preserving the Manners. XIV. 179. Of (things) not to be produced on the Stage, or concerning Messengers. —XV. 189. Of the Number of Acts, and ChaXVI. 193. Of the Chorus. -XVII. 202. Of the Music. -XVIII. 220. Of Satiric Drama. — XIX. 251. Of Iambic Feet.-XX. 275. The Progress of ancient Drama.

racters.

ARS POETICA.

m

IX. 99. Pathos esse admiscendum.

NON est satis poëmata esse pulchra; sunto dulcia, et agunto animum auditoris quocunque volent. Ut humani vultus arrident ridentibus, ita adsunt flentibus: si vis me flere, primùm est dolendum tibi ipsi; tunc tua infortunia * lædent me. Aut dormitabo, aut ridebo, Telephe, vel Peleu, si loqueris mandata malè. 'Tristia verba decent mæstum vultum; plena minarum, iratum; lasciva, ludentem; seria dictu, severum. natura priùs format nos intùs ad omnem habitum fortunarum ; juvat, aut impellit ad iram, aut deducit ad humum gravi mærore, et angit; post, effert motus animi linguâ interprete. Si dicta erunt absona fortunis dicentis, Romani ? equites que pedites tollent cachinnum.

X. 114. De formandis Characteribus Personarum.

Enim

Intererit multùm ne ? Davus an Heros loquatur; ne maturus senex, an adhuc fervidus 'florente juventa; et potens matrona, an sedula nutrix; ne vagus mercator, ne cultor virentis agelli; Colchus, an Assyrius; nutritus Thebis, an Argis. Aut sequere famam, aut finge convenientia sibi. Scriptor, si fortè reponis honoratum Achillem; impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer, neget jura nata sibi, arroget nihil non armis. Medea sit ferox

que invicta, Ino flebilis, Ixion perfidus, Io vaga, Orestes tristis. Si committis quid inexpertum scenæ, et audes formare novam personam, servetur ad imum qualis processerit ab incepto, et constet sibi.

(k) Metaphora. (1) Metonymia. (m) Paranomasia. (p) Synecdoche.

THE ART OF POETRY.

IX. 99. Pathos is to be mingled.

It is not sufficient that poems be beautiful; let them be sweet, and lead the mind of the auditor wheresoever they please. As human countenances laugh at the laughing, so they accompany the weeping: if you wish that I should weep, it must first be wept by you yourself: then will your misfortunes hurt me. I shall either sleep, or laugh, Telephus, or Peleus, if you speak (the parts) allotted (to you) badly. Sorrowful words become a woful countenance; (words) full of threats, an angry (countenance); wanton (expressions), a playful (look); serious to be spoken, a severe (countenance). For nature first forms us within to every habit of fortune; she delights, or drives us to anger, or weighs (us) down to the ground with grievous sorrow, and torments (us); afterwards, she utters the emotions of the mind by the tongue (her) interpreter. If the sayings shall be discordant to the fortunes of the speaker, the Roman knights and plebeians will raise a laugh.

X. 114. On forming the Qualities of the Characters.

It will differ much whether Davus or a hero speak; whether a mature old man, or (one) as yet fervid with flourishing youth; and a powerful matron, or a sedulous nurse; or a wandering merchant, or cultivator of a flourishing little field; a Colchian, or Assyrian; (one) nourished at Thebes, or (one) at Argos. Either follow fame, or invent (things) concordant to themselves. O writer, if by chance you represent the renowned Achilles; (let him be) hasty, impetuous, inexorable, fierce, let him deny (that) laws (were) made for him, let him arrogate every thing by arms. Let Medea be ferocious, and untractable, Ino weeping, Ixion perfidious, Io wandering, Orestes sad. If you commit any thing (hitherto) unattempted to the stage, and dare form a new character, let it be preserved to the last such as it set out from the beginning, and be consistent with itself.

XI. 128. De Imitatione veterum.

Est difficile dicere communia propriè: que tu deducis Iliacum carmen in actus rectiùs quàm si primus proferres ignota que indicta. Publica materies erit privati juris, si nec moraberis circà vilem que patulum orbem; nec fidus interpres curabis reddere "verbum verbo: nec imitator desilies in arctum, undè pudor, aut lex operis vetet proferre pedem.

k

XII. 136. De ponendo principio.

Nec incipies sic, ut cyclicus scriptor olim: "Cantabo fortunam Priami, et nobile bellum." Quid hic promissor feret dignum tanto "hiatu? Montes parturiunt, ridiculus mus nascetur. Quantò rectiùs hic qui molitur nil ineptè : “Musa, dic mihi virum qui post tempora captæ Troja vidit mores et urbes multorum hominum." d Non cogitat dare fumum ex fulgore, sed lucem ex fumo, ut dehinc promat speciosa miracula, Antiphaten, que Scyllam, et Charybdin cum Cyclope: nec orditur reditum Diomedis ab integrû Meleagri, nec Trojanum bellum ab gemino ovo. Semper festinat ad eventum, et rapit auditorem in medias res non secus ac notas; et relinquit quæ tractata desperat posse nitescere; atque ita mentitur, sic remiscet falsa veris ne n medium discrepat primo, ne imum medio.

XIII. 153. De servando Ethos.

Tu audi, quid ego et populus mecum desideret ; si eges plausoris manentis aulæa, et sessuri usque, 'donec cantor dicat. "Vos plaudite," mores cujusque ætatis sunt notandi tibi, que decor dandus mobilibus naturis et annis. Puer qui jam scit reddere voces, et signat humum certo pede, gestit colludere paribus, et colligit ac ponit iram temerè, et mutatur in horas. Imberbus juvenis, custode tandem remoto, gaudet equis que canibus et gramine aprici campi; cereus flecti in vitium,

k

(d) Apostrophe. (k) Metaphora. (1) Metonymia. (p) Synecdoche.

(n) Polyptoton.

XI. 128. On the Imitation of the Ancients.

It is difficult to speak (upon) common(subjects) with propriety: and you reduce the Trojan verse into acts more justly than if the first you proffer (subjects) unknown and unrelated. Public matter will be your own property, if you neither dwell about the vile and open circle (of subjects); nor a faithful interpreter you will care to render word for word: nor an imitator will you leap into a streight, whence shame, or the law of the work may forbid you to withdraw your foot.

XII. 136. On placing a Beginning.

Nor should you begin thus, as a vague writer (did) formerly: "I will sing the fate of Priam, and the noble war." What will this boaster produce worthy of so much bragging?* The mountains are in labour, a ridiculous mouse shall be brought forth. How much more correctly (does) he (begin) who attempts nothing injudiciously: "O Muse, tell me the man who after the times of captive Troy saw the manners and cities of many men." He does not think to give smoke from a flash, but light from smoke, that from hence he may produce his specious miracles, Antiphates, and Scylla, and Charybdis with the Cyclops: nor does he date the return of Diomed from the death of Meleager, nor the Trojan war from the two eggs. He always hastens to the event, and snatches (his) auditor into the middle of subjects no otherwise than as (if they were) known; and he leaves (those subjects) which, treated upon, he despairs of being able to be improved; and he so feigns, so mingles the false with the true, that the middle may not differ from the beginning, nor the end with the middle.

XIII. 153. On preserving the Manners.

Do you hear what I and the people with me desire; if you want an applauder remaining (for the) curtain, and about to sit, even till the chanter shall say, "Applaud ye," the manners of every age are to be noted by you, and grace is to be given to variable natures and years. The boy who just knows (how) to order (his) voice, and marks the ground with a sure foot, delights to play with his equals, and takes up and lays aside his anger inconsiderately, and is changed in hours. The beardless youth, his guardian being at length removed, delights in horses and dogs and the grass of the sunny plain; like wax

* Ainsworth.

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