The turn on thoughts and
words is their chief talent: but the epic poem is too stately to
receive those little ornaments. The painters draw their nymphs in
thin and airy habits, but the weight of gold and of embroideries is
reserved for queens and goddesses. Virgil is never frequent in
those turns, like Ovid, but much more sparing of them in his
"AEneis" than in his Pastorals and Georgics.
"Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere manes."
That turn is beautiful indeed; but he employs it in the story of
Orpheus and Eurydice, not in his great poem. I have used that
licence in his "AEneis" sometimes, but I own it as my fault; it was
given to those who understand no better. It is like Ovid's
"Semivirumque bovem, semibovemque virum."
The poet found it before his critics, but it was a darling sin which
he would not be persuaded to reform.
The want of genius, of which I have accused the French, is laid to
their charge by one of their own great authors, though I have
forgotten his name, and where I read it.
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