imaginary Perfons as may be introduced into Heroic Poems, Ishall beg leave to explain my self on [in] a Matter which is curious in its kind, and which none of the Criticks have treated of. It is certain Homer and Virgil are full of imaginary Perfons, who are very beautiful in Poetry when they are just shown, without being engaged in any Series of Action. Homer in deed reprefents Sleep as a Perfon, and ascribes a short Part to him in his Iliad; but we must consider that tho' we now regard such a Person as entirely Shadowy and unsubstantial, the Heathens made Statues of him, placed him in their Temples, and looked upon him as a real Deity. When Homer makes use of other fuch Allegorical Perfons it is only in fhort Expreffions, which convey an ordinary Thought to the Mind in the most pleasing manner, and may rather be looked upon as Poetical Phrafes than allegorical Defcriptions. Inftead of telling us that Men naturally fly when they are terrified, he introduces the Perfons of Flight and Fear, who he tells us are infeparable Companions. Inftead of faying that the Time was come when Apollo ought to have received his Recompence, he tells us that the Hours brought him his Reward. Instead of defcribing the Effects which Minerva's Ægis produced in Battell, he tells us that the Brims of it were encompaffed by Terrour, Rout, Difcord, Fury, Purfuit, Maffacre and Death. In the fame Figure of speaking he reprefents Victory as following Diomedes; Difcord as the Mother of Funerals and Mourning, Venus as dreffed by the Graces, Bellona as wearing Terrour and Confternation like a Garment. I might give several other Inftances out of Homer, as well as a great many out of Virgil. Milton has likewife very often made use of the fame way of speaking, as where he tells us that Victory fat on the right hand of the Meffiah, when he march'd forth against the Rebel Angels; that at the rifing of the Sun the Hours unbarr'd the Gates of Light; that Difcord was the Daughter of Sin. Of the fame nature are those Expreflions where defcribing the finging of the Nightin gale, he adds, Silence was pleafed; and upon the Meffiah's bidding Peace to the Chaos, Confufion heard his voice. I might add innumerable other* Instances of our Poet's writing in this beautiful Figure. It is plain that these I have mentioned, in which Perfons of an imaginary Nature are introduced, are such short Allegories as are not defigned to be taken in the literal Sense, but only to convey particular Circumstances to the Reader after an unusual and entertaining Manner. But when fuch Perfons are introduced as principal Actors, and engaged in a Series of Adventures, they take too much upon them, and are by no means proper for an Heroic Poem, which ought to appear credible in its principal Parts. I cannot forbear therefore thinking that Sin and Death are as improper Agents in a Work of this Nature, as Strength and Violence [Neceffity] in one of the Tragedies of Efchylus, who reprefented those two Perfons nailing down Prometheus to a Rock, for which he has been justly cenfured by the greatest Criticks. I do not know any imaginary Perfon made use of in a more Sublime manner of thinking than that in one of the Prophets, who defcribing God as defcending from Heaven, and visiting the Sins of Mankind, adds that dreadful Circumstance; Before him went the Peftilence. It is certain this imaginary Person might have been defcribed in all her purple Spots. The Fever might have march'd before her, Pain might have stood at her right Hand, Phrenzy on her left, and Death in her Rear. She might have been introduced as gliding down from the Tail of a Comet, or darted upon the Earth in a Flash of Lightning: She might have tainted the Atmosphere with her Breath; the very glaring of her Eyes might have fcattered Infection. But I believe every Reader will think that in fuch Sublime Writings the mentioning of her as it is done in Scripture has fomething in it more juft, as well as great, than all that the most fanciful Poet could have bestowed upon her in the Richness of his Imagination. The SPECTATOR. -Crudelis ubique Luctus, ubique pavor, & plurima Mortis Imago. Virg. {All Parts refound with Tumults, Plaints, and Fears, And grilly Death in fundry Shapes appears. M Saturday, April 26. 1712. Dryden.} ILTON has fhewn a wonderful Art in describing that variety of Paffions which arise in our first Parents upon the breach of the Commandment that had been given them. We fee them gradually paffing from the triumph of their Guilt thro' Remorfe, Shame, Despair, Contrition, Prayer, and Hope, to a perfect and compleat Repentance. At the end of the Tenth Book they are represented as proftrating themselves upon the Ground, and watering the Earth with their Tears: To which the Poet joins this beautiful Circumstance, that they offer'd up their Penitential Prayers on the very place where their Judge appeared to them when he pronounced their Sentence. -They forthwith to the place Repairing, where he judg'd them, proftrate fell Humbly their faults, and pardon begg'd, with tears [There is a Beauty of the fame kind in a tragedy of Sophocles, where Oedipus, after having put out his own Eyes, instead of breaking his Neck from the Palace Battlements (which furnishes so elegant an Entertainment for our English Audience) defires that he may be conducted to Mount Citharon, in order to end his Life in that very Place where he was exposed in his Infancy, and where he should then have died, had the Will of his Parents been executed.] As the Author never fails to give a Poetical turn to his Sentiments, he describes in the beginning of this Book the Acceptance which these their Prayers met with, in a fhort Allegory form'd upon that beautiful Paffage in Holy Writ. And another Angel came and flood at the Altar, having a golden Cenfer; and there was given unto him much incenfe, that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar, which was before the throne: And the fmoak of the incenfe which came with the Prayers of the Saints, afcended up before God. -To Heav'n their prayers Flew up, nor mifs'd the way, by envious winds We have the fame Thought expreffed a second time in the Interceffion of the Meffiah, which is conceived in very Emphatick Sentiments and Expreffions. Among the Poetical parts of Scripture which Milton has fo finely wrought into this part of his Narration, I must not omit that wherein Ezekiel speaking of the Angels who appeared to him in a Vision, adds that every one had four faces, and that their whole bodies, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings were full of eyes round about. The Cohort bright Of watchful Cherubim; four faces each The affembling of all the Angels of Heaven to hear the Solemn Decree passed upon Man is represented in very lively Ideas. The Almighty is here defcrib'd as remembring Mercy in the midst of Judgment, and commanding Michael to deliver his Meffage in the mildest terms, least the Spirit of Man, which was already broken with the Sense of his Guilt and Mifery, fhould fail before him. Yet leaf they faint At the fad Senience rigorously urg'd, The Conference of Adam and Eve is full of moving Sentiments. Upon their going Abroad after the melancholy Night which they had paffed together, they discover the Lion and the Eagle pursuing each of them their Prey towards the Eastern Gates of Paradife. There is a double Beauty in this Incident, not only as it presents great and just Omens which are always agreeable in Poetry; but as it expresses that Enmity which was now produced in the Animal Creation. The Poet, to fhew the like changes in Nature, as well as to grace his Fable with a noble Prodigy, represents the Sun in an Eclipfe. This particular Inci dent has likewife a fine effect upon the Imagination of the Reader, in regard to what follows: For, at the fame time that the Sun is under an Eclipfe, a bright Cloud descends in the Western quarter of the Heavens, filled with an Hoft of Angels, and more luminous than the Sun it felf. The whole Theatre of Nature is darkned, that this glorious Machine may appear in all its lustre and magnificence. Why in the Eaft Darknefs ere day's mid-courfe, and morning light And flow defcends, with fomething heav'nly fraught} In Paradife, and on a Hill made halt; A glorious apparition I need not observe how properly this Author, who always fuits his Parts to the Actors whom he intro |
