The Works of John Dryden, Volume 4 | Page 8

with persons, nor beautified with characters, nor varied with
accidents. The laws of an heroic poem did not dispense with those of
the other, but raised them to a greater height, and indulged him a farther
liberty of fancy, and of drawing all things as far above the ordinary

proportion of the stage, as that is beyond the common words and
actions of human life; and, therefore, in the scanting of his images and
design, he complied not enough with the greatness and majesty of an
heroic poem.
I am sorry I cannot discover my opinion of this kind of writing, without
dissenting much from his, whose memory I love and honour. But I will
do it with the same respect to him, as if he were now alive, and
overlooking my paper while I write. His judgment of an heroic poem
was this: "That it ought to be dressed in a more familiar and easy shape;
more fitted to the common actions and passions of human life; and, in
short, more like a glass of nature, shewing us ourselves in our ordinary
habits and figuring a more practicable virtue to us, than was done by
the ancients or moderns." Thus he takes the image of an heroic poem
from the drama, or stage poetry; and accordingly intended to divide it
into five books, representing the same number of acts; and every book
into several cantos, imitating the scenes which compose our acts.
But this, I think, is rather a play in narration, as I may call it, than an
heroic poem. If at least you will not prefer the opinion of a single man
to the practice of the most excellent authors, both of ancient and latter
ages. I am no admirer of quotations; but you shall hear, if you please,
one of the ancients delivering his judgment on this question; it is
Petronius Arbiter, the most elegant, and one of the most judicious
authors of the Latin tongue; who, after he had given many admirable
rules for the structure and beauties of an epic poem, concludes all in
these following words:--
_"Non enim res gestæ versibus comprehendendæ sunt, quod longe
melius historici faciunt: sed, per ambages deorumque ministeria,
præcipitanaus est liber spiritus, ut potius furentis animi vaticinatio
appareat, quam religiosæ orationis, sub testibus, fides."_
In which sentence, and his own essay of a poem, which immediately he
gives you, it is thought he taxes Lucan, who followed too much the
truth of history, crowded sentences together, was too full of points, and
too often offered at somewhat which had more of the sting of an
epigram, than of the dignity and state of an heroic poem. Lucan used

not much the help of his heathen deities: There was neither the ministry
of the gods, nor the precipitation of the soul, nor the fury of a prophet
(of which my author speaks), in his _Pharsalia_; he treats you more like
a philosopher than a poet, and instructs you in verse, with what he had
been taught by his uncle Seneca in prose. In one word, he walks soberly
afoot, when he might fly. Yet Lucan is not always this religious
historian. The oracle of Appius and the witchcraft of Erictho, will
somewhat atone for him, who was, indeed, bound up by an ill-chosen
and known argument, to follow truth with great exactness. For my part,
I am of opinion, that neither Homer, Virgil, Statius, Ariosto, Tasso, nor
our English Spencer, could have formed their poems half so beautiful,
without those gods and spirits, and those enthusiastic parts of poetry,
which compose the most noble parts of all their writings. And I will ask
any man who loves heroic poetry (for I will not dispute their tastes who
do not), if the ghost of Polydorus in Virgil, the Enchanted Wood in
Tasso, and the Bower of Bliss in Spencer (which he borrows from that
admirable Italian) could have been omitted, without taking from their
works some of the greatest beauties in them. And if any man object the
improbabilities of a spirit appearing, or of a palace raised by magic; I
boldly answer him, that an heroic poet is not tied to a bare
representation of what is true, or exceeding probable; but that he may
let himself loose to visionary objects and to the representation of such
things, as, depending not on sense, and therefore not to be
comprehended by knowledge, may give him a freer scope for
imagination. It is enough that, in all ages and religions, the greatest part
of mankind have believed the power of magic, and that there are spirits
or spectres which have appeared. This, I say, is foundation enough for
poetry; and I dare farther affirm, that the whole doctrine of separated
beings, whether those