three sorts. If we compare them together, the Epopéa will excel the other two by that great Liberty it takes of using Metaphors and perpetual Allusions in the Fables. Allegorical Expressions would be more obscure upon the Stage, and would have something that is less probable in the Mouth of the Actors we hear speak, than in the Narration of a Poet, who writes purely to be read. Comedy must likewise yield to Tragedy, because it has little of Elevation, and the manner of its Actors Speaking, is too Natural and Familiar.
This very Thing has made some People question whether [1]Comedy were a true Poem or no. Which Difficulty is wholly grounded upon this general Notion, That a Poem is a Discourse in Verse. Now in the Latin Comedy, the Discourse has nothing in it of Verse, but Feet and Numbers. This indeed is enough for such a Poetical Subject as Comedy is. And we suppose in this we are of Horace's Opinion, at least he attributes this Doubt to a very few Persons.
But this measure only, without any Air to distinguish the Discourse from Prose, makes no Verses: And for this Reason has [2]Horace call'd his Satyrs by a Prose Name; viz. Sermons. His Epistles are the same. His Odes are of a different Air, and these he calls by a Poetical Name, Carmina.
The Case is not the same with Subjects that are not Poetical, but writ in Verse, and adorn'd with Fables and Allegories; as, the Georgicks of Virgil, Lucan's Pharsalia, the Punick War of Silius Italicus, and the like. The truth on't is, these Fables and Allegories are not sufficient for an Epopéa, and its main Action, that ought to be a Fable; so that we do not take the Georgicks or the Pharsalia to be an Epopéa; but yet this should not hinder us from thinking them to be true Poems for all that.
But if a Man writes an Epopéa in Prose, would it be an Epick Poem? No, I think not; for a Poem is a Discourse in Verse. But yet this would not hinder its being an Epopéa; just as a Tragedy in Prose is still a Tragedy, though it be not a Tragick Poem. They who have question'd whether the Latin Comedy were a Poem or no, never doubted but it was a Comedy.
I should have said less upon such trite Matters, but that I was asham'd to take no notice at all what a Poem or a Verse was, being to treat so largely about the Epick Poem.
- ↑ Idcirco quidam Comœdia necne Poema effet quæsivere: quod acer spiritus ac vis nec Verbis nec rebus inest; nisi quod pede certo dissert sermoni sermo Merus. Hor. Lib. I. Sat. 4.
- ↑ Primum ego me illorum dederim quibus esse Poëtas Excerpam numero; neque enim concludere Versum Dixeris esse satis; neque si quis scribat uti nos Sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse Poëtam. ibid.
CHAP.
