13f)
EPIC POETKY IN GENERAL.
a learning of which an historian can scarcely avail himself
enough; and the historian who studies the Aeneid thoroughly,
will ever find new things to admire. But no epic poem can be
successful, if it is anything else than a living and simple narra-
tive of a portion of some series of events which, as a whole, is
known and interesting to the mass of a nation. I cannot un-
derstand how it is that, in manuals of Aesthetics, the views
propounded on epic poetry, and the subjects fit for it, are still
full of lamentable absurdities. It is really a ludicrous opinion,
which a living historian has set forth somewhere, that an epic
poem must be a failure if the subject is not old enough—as if
it were necessary for it to lay by for some centuries to go
through a kind of fermentation ! The question is similar to that
as to what subjects are fit for historical painting. Everthing is fit
for it, which is known and capable of suggesting to the beholder
the whole, of which it is only a part. This is the reason why Sa-
cred History is so peculiarlyfit for historical painting. Every one
who sees, for example, a madonna or an apostle, immediately
recollects all the particular circumstances connected with those
personages ; and this effect upon the beholder is still stronger,
if he has lived some time surrounded by works of art. When
Pietro of Albano or Domenichino paint mythological subjects,
we scholars indeed know very well what the artist meant to
express, and are vexed at his little inaccuracies; but the majo-
rity of people do not understand the meaning of the painting,
they cannot connect a definite idea with it, and the subject
contains nothing that is suggestive to them. Mythological
subjects, therefore, are at present a hazardous choice for an
artist; and however excellently they may be treated, they cannot
compete with those taken from Sacred History. Mythological
subjects were as much the common property of the ancients,
as the Sacred History is the common property of Christian
nations. A subject from modern history, if generally known,
much talked of, and suitable in respect to the external forms
connected with it, would be just as fit for artistic representation
as any other. But our costumes are unfavourable to art. The
ancientc, however, very seldom represented historical subjects in
worl<' of art, although their costumes were not against it. The
case of epic poetry i« of the same kind. If a narrative which
everybody knows, sings, or relates, is not treated as history in
its details, and if we feel ourselves justified in choosing for oui"
THE AENEID.
137
purpose, some portion of the whole, then any of its parts is a
fit subject for epic poetry. Cyclic poetry relates whole his-
tories continuously, and is of the same extent as history; but
epic poetry takes up only one portion of a whole, which the
poet relates just as if he had seen it. There cannot be a more
unfortunate epic than Lucan’s Pharsalia: it proceeds in the
Uianner of annals, and the author wants to set forth prominently
only certain events. There are passages in it like the recitative
of an opera, and written in a language which is neither prose
nor poetry. Virgil had not considered all the difficulties of
his task, when he undertook it. He took a Latin history, and
mixed it up with Greek traditions. If he had made use of the
Boman national traditions, he would have produced a poem
which would have had at least an Italian nationality about it.
The ancient Italian traditions, it is true, had alrea∣Iy fallen into
oblivion, and Homer was at that time better known than Nae-
vius; but still the only way to produce a living epic, would
have been to base it upon the national Italian traditions.
Virgil is a remarkable instance of a man mistaking his vocation :
his real calling was lyric poetry; his small lyric poems, for
instance, that on the villa of Syron6, and the one commencing
“ Si mihi susceptum fuerit decurrere munus7” shew that he
would have been a poet like Catullus, if he had not been
led away by his desire to write a great Graeco-Latin poem.
It is sad to think that his mistake, that is, the work which
is his most complete failure, has been so much admired by
posterity; and it is remarkable that Catullus’ superiority to
Virgil was not acknowledged till the end of the eighteenth
century. The cause of Virgil being so much liked in the
middle ages was that people did not or could not compare him
with Homer, and that they fixed their attention upon the
many particular beauties of the Aeneid. Jeremy Markland
was the first who ventured openly to speak against Virgil ; but
he was decried for it, as if he had committed an act of high
treason. It was surely no affectation in Virgil when he desired
to have the Aeneid burnt; he had made that poem the task of
his life, and in his last moments he had the feeling that he had
failed in it. I rejoice that his ʌvishwas not carried into effect;
6 H. Meyer, Antholog. Veter. Latin. Epigrammat. et Poetarum. No. 93, p.23.
Compare Niebuhr, vol.i.p. 198.
7 H. Meyer, /. c. No. 85. p. 21.