loft their influence with their novelty; what remains but a tyrant divefted of power, who will never be feen without a mixture of indignation and difdain? The only defire which this object could gratify, will be transferred to another, not only without reluctance, but with triumph. As refentment will fucceed to difappointment, a defire to mortify will fucceed to a defire to please; and the husband may be urged to folicit a mistress, merely by a rememberance of the beauty of his wife, which lasted only till she was known.

Let it, therefore, be remembered, that none can be difciples of the Graces, but in the fchool of Virtue ; and that those who wish to be lovely, muft learn early to be good.

No. LXXXIII. Tuesday, Auguft 21. 1753.

Illic enim debet toto animo a poetâ in diffolutionem nodi, agi; eaque præcipua fabulæ pars eft quæ requirit plurimum diligentiæ.

CICERO.

The poet ought to exert his whole ftrength and fpirit in the folution of his plot; which is the principal part of the fable, and requires the utmost diligence and care.

F

Or the three only perfect Epopees, which, in the compass of so many ages, human wit has been able to produce, the conduct and constitution of the Odyssey seem to be the most artificial and judicious.

Ariftotle obferves, that there are two kinds of fables, the fimple and the complex. A fable in tragic or epic poetry, is denominated fimple, when the events it contains follow each other in a continued and unbroken tenour, without a Recognition or discovery, and without a Peripetie or unexpected change of fortune. fable called complex, when it contains both a discovery

A

and

and peripitie. And this great critic, whofe knowledge of human nature was confummate, determines, that fables of the latter fpecies far excel thofe of the former, because they more deeply intereft, and more irresistibly move the reader, by adding furprife and aftonishment to every other paffion which they excite.

The philofopher, agreeably to this obfervation, prefers the Oedipus of Sophocles, and the Iphigenia in Tauris and Alceftes of Euripides, to the Ajax, Philoctetes, and Medea of the fame writers, and to the Prometheus of Efchylus: because thefe laft are all uncomplicated fables; that is, the evils and misfortunes that befal the perfonages represented in these dramas, are unchangeably continued from the beginning to the end of each piece. For the fame reasons, the Athaliah of Racine, and the Meropes of Maffei and Voltaire, are beyond comparison the most affecting ftories that have been handled by any modern tragic writer: the discoveries, that Joas is the king of Ifrael, and that Egiftus is the son of Merope, who had just ordered him to be murdered, are fo unexpected, but yet so probable, that they may justly be esteemed very great efforts of judgment and genius, and contribute to place these two poems at the head of dramatic compofitions.

The fable of the Odyffey being complex, and containing a discovery and a change in the fortune of its hero, is upon this fingle confideration, exclufive of its other beauties, if we follow the principles of Ariftotle, much fuperior to the fables of the Iliad and the Æneid, which are both fimple and unadorned with a peripetie or recognition. The naked ftory of this poem, ftript of all its ornaments, and of the very names of the cha

racters,

racters, is exhibited by Ariftotle in the following paf. lage, which is almoft literally tranflated.

"A man is for several years absent from his home;

Neptune continually watches and perfecutes him; "his retinue being deftroyed, he remains alone: but "while his eftate is wafting by the fuitors of his wife, "and his fon's life is plotted againft, he himself fud"denly arrives after many storms at fea, difcovers him "felf to fome of his friends, falls on the fuitors, efta"blishes himself in fafety, and deftroys his enemies. This is what is effential to the fable; the episodes "make up the reft."

From thefe obfervations on the nature of the fable of the Odyffey in general, we may proceed to confider it more minutely. The two chief parts of every epic fable are its Intrigue or Plot, and its Solution or Unravelling. The intrigue is formed by a complication of different interests which keep the mind of the reader in a pleafing fufpence, and fill him with anxious wishes to fee the obftacles that oppofe the defigns of the hero, happily removed. The folution confifls in removing these difficulties, in fatisfying the curiofity of the reader by the completion of the intended action, and in leaving his mind in perfect repofe, without expectation of any farther event. Both of thefe should arife naturally and easily out of the very effence and fubject of the poem itself, fhould not be deduced from circumstances foreign and extrinfical, should be at the fame time probable yet wonderful.

The anger of Neptune, who refented the punishment which Ulyffes had inflicted on his fon Polypheme, induces him to prevent the return of the hero to Ithaca, by driving him from country to country by violent

tem

tempefts; and from this indignation of Neptune is formed the intrigue of the Odyffey in the first part of the poem; that is, in plain profe, "what more na"tural and ufual obftacle do they encounter who take

of the

poem

"long voyages, than the violence of winds and storms?" The plot of the second part is founded on circumftances equally probable and natural; on the unavoidable effects of the long abfence of a master, whose return was defpaired of, the infolence of his fervants, the dangers to which his wife and his fon were expofed, the ruin of his eftate, and the diforder of his kingdom.

The addrefs and art of Homer in the gradual folution of this plot, by the most probable and eafy expe. dients, are equally worthy our admiration and applaufe. Ulyffes is driven by a tempest to the island of the Phæ acians, where he is generously and hospitably received: During a banquet which Alcinous the king has prepared for him, the poet most artfully contrives that the bard Demodocus fhould fing the deftruction of Troy. At the recital of his past labours, and at hearing the names of his old companions, from whom he was now feparated, our hero could no longer contain himself, but bursts into tears and weeps bitterly. The curiofity of Alcinous being excited by this unaccountable forrow, he intreats Ulyffes to discover who he is, and what he has fuffered; which request furnishes a most proper and probable occafion to the hero to relate a long feries of adventures in the four following books; an occafion much more natural than that which induces Eneas to communicate his hiftory to Dido. By this judicious conduct, Homer taught his fucceffors the artful manner of entering abruptly into the midst of the

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action;