CHA P. XXII. EPIC AND DRAMATIC COMPOSITIONS. T RAGEDY and the epic poem differ little in fubftantials: in both the fame ends are propofed, viz. inftruction and amufement; and in both the fame means are employ'd, viz. imitation of human actions. They differ in the manner only of imitating: epic poetry deals in narration; tragedy represents its facts as paffing in our fight in the former, the poet introduces himself as an historian; in the latter, he presents his actors, and never himself *. This The dialogue in a dramatic compofition diftinguishes it fo dearly from other compofitions, that no writer has thought it neceffary to search for any other feparating mark. But much ufclefs labour has been bestow'd, to distinguish an epic poem by some peculiar mark. Boffu defines this poem to be, "A composition "in verfe, intended to form the manners by inftructions disguised "under the allegories of an important action;" which will exlude every epic poem founded upon real facts, and perhaps include feveral of fop's fables. Voltaire reckons verse so essential, as for that fingle reason to exclude the adventures of Telema chus. See his Ellay upon Epic Poetry. Others, affected with fubftance more than with ornament, hesitate not to pronounce that poem to be epic. It is not a little diverting to see so many profound eritics hunting for what is not to be found: they always take for granted, This difference, regarding form only, may be thought flight but the effects it occafions, are by no means fo; for what we fee, makes a ftronger impreffion than what we learn from others. A narrative poem is a story told by another facts and incidents paffing upon the ftage, come under our own obfervation; and are befide much enlivened by action and gefture, expreffive of many fentiments beyond the reach of language. : A dramatic compofition has another property, independent altogether of action; which is, that it makes a deeper impreffion than narration: in the former, perfons exprefs their own fentiments; in the latter, fentiments are related at fecond hand. For that reafon, Ariftotle, the father of critics, lays it down as a rule, That in an epic poem the author ought to take every opportunity to introduce his actors, and to confine the narrative part within the narroweft bounds *. Homer understood perfectly the advantage of this method; and his poems are both of them in a great meafure dramatic. Lucan runs to the op granted, without the least foundation, that there must be fome precife criterion to diftinguifh epic poetry from every other fpecies of writing. Literary compofitions run into each other, precifely like colours in their strong tints they are easily distinguished; but are fufceptible of fo much variety, and of fo many different forms, that we never can fay where one fpecies ends and another begins. As to the general tafte, there is little reafon to doubt, that a work where heroic actions are related in an elevated ftyle, will, without further requifite, be deemed an epic poem. Poet. ch. 25. fect. 6. pofite extreme and is guilty of a still greater fault, in ftuffing his Pharfalia with cold and languid reflections, the merit of which he affumes to himself, and deigns not to fhare with his perfonages. Nothing can be more injudiciously timed, than a chain of fuch reflections, which fufpend the battle of Pharfalia after the leaders had made their speeches, and the two armies are ready to engage *. Ariftotle, from the nature of the fable, divides tragedy into fimple and complex: but it is of greater moment, with respect to dramatic as well as epic poetry, to found a distinction upon the different ends attained by fuch compofitions. A poem, whether dramatic or epic, that has nothing in view but to move the paffions, and to exhibit pictures of virtue and vice, may be diftinguished by the name of pathetic: but where a ftory is purpofely contrived to illuftrate fome moral truth, by fhowing that diforderly paffions naturally lead to external misfortunes, fuch compofition may be denominated moral t. Lib. 7. from line 385. to line 460. Befide † The fame distinction is applicable to that fort of fable whick is faid to be the invention of fop. A moral, it is true, is by all critics confidered as effential to fuch a fable. But nothing is more common than to be led blindly by authority; for of the numerous collections I have feen, the fables that clearly inculcate a moral, make a very small part. In many fables, indeed, proper pictures of virtue and vice are exhibited: but the bulk of these collections convey no inftruction, nor afford any amufement beyond what a child receives in reading an ordinary story. making a deeper impreffion than can be done by any moral difcourfe, it affords conviction equal to that of the most accurate reafoning. To be fatisfied of this, we need but reflect, that the natural connection which vice hath with mifery, and virtue with happiness, may be illuftrated by ftating a fact as well as by urging an argument. Let us affume, for example, the following moral truths: That discord among the chiefs renders ineffectual all common meafures; and that the confequences of a flightly-founded quarrel, fostered by pride and arrogance, are not less fatal than those of the groffeft injury: these truths may be inculcated, by the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles at the fiege of Troy. In this view, probable circumstances must be invented, fuch as furnish an opportunity for the turbulent paffions to exert themselves in action: at the fame time, no accidental nor unaccountable event ought to be admitted; for the neceffary or probable connection between vice and mifery, is not learned from any events but what are naturally occafioned by the characters and paffions of the perfons represented, acting in fuch and fuch circumítances. A real event of which we fee not the cause, may be a leffon to us; because what hath happened may again happen: but this cannot be inferred from a story that is known to be a fiction. Many are the good effects of fuch compofitions. A pathetic compofition, whether epic or drama tic, tends to a habit of virtue, by exciting us to do what is right, and restraining from what is wrong *. Its frequent pictures of human woes, produce, befide, two effects extremely falutary: they improve our fympathy, and at the fame time fortify us in bearing our own misfortunes. A moral compofition must obviously produce the fame good effects, because by being moral it doth not cease to be pathetic: it enjoys beside an excellence peculiar to itself; for it not only improves the heart, as above mentioned, but inftructs the head by the moral it contains. For my part, I cannot imagine any entertainment more fuited to a rational being, than a work thus happily illuftrating fome moral truth; where a number of perfons of different characters are engaged in an important action, fome retarding, others promoting, the great catastrophe; and where there is dignity of ftyle as well as of matter. A work of this kind, has our sympathy at command, and can put in motion the whole train of the focial affections: our curiofity is by turns excited and gratified: and our delight is confummated at the clofe, upon finding, from the characters and fituations exhibited at the commencement, that every incident down to the final catastrophe is natural, and that the whole in conjunction make a regular chain of caufes and effects. See chap. 2. part 1. fect. 3. VOL. II. Confidering |