18 86 90 95 Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise! 17 100 85 Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise! The thoughts of Isaiah, which compose the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above those general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftiest parts of his Pollio.-P. 17 Isaiah, ch. lx. ver. 1. 19 ch. lx. ver. 3. 1 ch. lx. ver. 19, 20. 18 ch. lx, ver. 4. 20 ch. lx. ver. 6. 2 ch. li. ver. 6. ch. liv. ver. 10. THE THEBAIS. 6 POPE, in a brief notice at the head of this translation, states that, with some others from the Latin, it was written in his boyhood. If its command of poetic language belonged to him at fourteen or fifteen years of age,' later years must have added much less to his powers than to his fame. But he has the candor to acknowlege that he gave it some corrections a few years afterwards,'---an acknowlegement which reduces the whole question within ordinary bounds, and gives us a matured poem instead of an infant miracle. Warton rather arrogantly pronounces that Pope could have adopted Statius only in his boyhood; and in the same spirit wishes, that no youth of genius should ever be suffered to look into Statius, Lucan, Claudian, or Seneca the tragedian, from their tendency to dazzle by forced conceits, violent metaphors,' &c. Yet we may justly dispute the critical authority of a judge, who ranks Propertius, Tibullus, and Phædrus, among the perfect poets of Rome,' or, as he terms it, the legitimate models of just thinking and writing. If Statius exhibited the degenerate feelings of an age in which fear made Domitian a god, or if his theme revelled in the horrors of ancient story; he yet gives proof of poetic energy equal to any one of the eight whom Warton niches in unapproachable excellence. Lucan alone is not inferior to their ablest, in all that constitutes the great poet, in rich invention, fervid imagery, bold personification, and that intensity of thought which strikes the idea into the soul. Of all the poets of antiquity, Lucan has been the most defrauded, and the most tastelessly defrauded, of his renown. O sacer, et magnus vatum labor, omnia fato Pharsalia nostra Vivet, et a nullo tenebris damnabitur ævo. ARGUMENT. EDIPUS, king of Thebes, having by mistake slain his father Laius, and married his mother Jocasta, put out his own eyes, and resigned his realm to his sons, Eteocles and Polynices being neglected by them, he makes his prayer to the fury Tisiphone, to sow debate betwixt the brothers : they agree at last to reign singly, each a year by turns, and the first lot is obtained by Eteocles. Jupiter, in a council of the gods, declares his resolution of punishing the Thebans, and Argives also, by means of a marriage betwixt Polynices and one of the daughters of Adrastus, king of Argos. Juno opposes, but to no effect; and Mercury is sent on a message to the shades, to the ghost of Laius, who is to appear to Eteocles, and provoke him to break the agreement. Polynices in the mean time departs from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a storm, and arrives at Argos; where he meets with Tydeus, who had fled from Calydon, having killed his brother. Adrastus entertains them, having received an oracle from Apollo that his daughters should be married to a boar and a lion, which he understands to be meant of these strangers, by whom the hides of these beasts were worn, and who arrived at the time when he kept an annual feast in honor of that god: the rise of this solemnity he relates to his guests, the loves of Phœbus and Psamathe, and the story of Chorobus. He inquires, and is made acquainted with their descent and quality: the sacrifice is renewed, and the book concludes with a hymn to Apollo. The Translator hopes he need not apologise for his choice of this piece, which was made almost in his childhood: but finding the version better than he expected, he gave it some correction a few years afterwards.-POPE. |