-Although in poetry it be neceffary that the unites of time, place, and action should be explained, there is fill fomething that gives a greatnefs of mind to the reader, which few of the criticks have confidered. Addifon. 2. Poems; poetical pieces.She taketh moft delight

In mufick, inftruments, and poetry. Shak. This divine art has been little better defined by ther authors, in fuch terms as thefe ;-" the art f making verfes; or lines and periods that are in rige or metre." Such definitions are a degradation of an art that has been highly and justly prized in all ages.

A definition is given by Baron BIELFIELD, which by many is reckoned more juft; viz. that "Poetry is the art of expreffing our thoughts by FICTION." Ben Jonfon gives a fimilar definition of POESY. But even this is far from conveyinga juft idea of poetry. It is too unlimited, as poetry had nothing but fidion for its foundation. The fact is, that the best poems in all ages have been founded on hiftorical truth. Without, however, totally rejecting the baron's idea, perhaps a better definition may be given in these terms: Poetry is the art of expreffing our thoughts in the mot elegant and harmonious lauguage, and in embers moft agreeable to the ear, ornamented wch fimilies, metaphors, tropes, figures, epifodes, gories, and hyperboles; wherein fiction and agination are often indulged beyond the ftrict bounds of truth.

A work, therefore, that inceffantly prefents es which render the reader attentive and afed, where the author gives interefting fenti ents to every thing that he makes fpeak, and where he makes speak by fenfible figures all thofe s which would affect the mind but weakly When clothed in a fimple profaic ftyle,-fuch a ark is a poem. While that, though it be in verfe, which is of a didactic, dogmatic, or moral nature, and where the objects are prefented in a ner quite fimple, without fiction, without ages or ornaments, cannot be called poetry, but merely a work in verfe; for the art of reducing houghts, maxims, and periods, into rhyme or metre, is very different from the art of poetry. Verfe, however, is not to be regarded as foreign superfluous to poetry. To reduce thofe images, fictions, into verfe, is one of the greateft ficulties in poetry. The poetic fictions, that Pike our fenfes, aflift in graving them with fuch deep traces in our minds, as even time itself freCuently cannot efface. To give more efficacy to Las lively impreflion, the firft poets fung their vers, and the words and phrafes were reduced

tions into fuch concife terms as would be most easily remembered by their pofterity. Their laws and religious rites, too, as of equal importance, would foon be handed down in the fame manner; as we find they were to fuch a pitch, that among the Romans, vates was used fynonymously for both a poet and a prophet. Accordingly, we find the earlieft accounts of moft ancient nations have been thus tranfmitted by the poets, however mixed with fictions. Even after the difcovery of alphabetical characters, the facred Scriptures inform us, that MOSES and MIRIAM, the two most ancient authors on record, compofed a fong in praise of the Almighty, and in commemoration of his miraculous deliverance of the Hebrews from their Egyptian task-mafters; which is ftill extant, as a monument and mafter-piece of ancient facred poetry.

The GREEKS, a people the moft ingenious, the molt animated, and in every fenfe the moft accomplithed, that the world ever produced, afcribed the gift of poetry to their falfe deities, APOLLO and the MUSES, as well as to ORPHEUS, LINUS, AMPHION, and other heroes, who were deified for their poetical and musical abilities.

The literary annals of all nations afford veftiges of poetry from the retnoteft ages. They are found among the moft favage of ancient barbarians, and the moft defolate tribes of the Americans. TACITus mentions the verfes and the hymns of the Germans, at the time when that rough people yet inhabited the woods, and while their manners were ftill favage. The firft inhabitants of Scandinavia, and the other northern countries, thofe of Gaul, Albion, Iberia, Aufonia, and other nations of Eu-. rope, had their poetry, as well as the ancient people of Afia, and of the known borders of Africa. But the fimple productions of nature have conftantly fomething unformed, rough, and favage.

To attempt to give a hiftory of poetry, from its most rude origin to its perfection, would require a confiderable volume. To enumerate, in a regular chronological lift, even the names of all the eminent poets that have flourished in different ages and nations, would require more room than our limits will permit. But this is the lefs neceffary, as biographical memoirs of the most eminent poets of all ages and nations are interfperfed throughout the work, in their alphabetical order. See HOMER, HESIOD, VIRGIL, MILTON, DRYDEN, POPE, SHAKESPEARE, &c.

PART I.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE ART.

TRY.

Of the ORIGIN of POETRY. POETRY, like most other arts, ufeful as well as ornamental, appears to have originated from the feceffities of mankind. That defire, fo natural to all men, of being held in remembrance after death, ut have naturally led the earliest inhabitants of the world, before the invention of writing, to put Ueir most memorable traditions and heroic ac

THE Effence of Poetry, as well as of the PoLITE ARTS in general, confifts in EXPRESSION; which, to be poetic, muft arise from INVENTION. (See ART, § 3. and 12.) This invention, which is the fruit of genius alone, and is born with the poffeffor, arifes from, 1. The fubject: 2. The manner in which it is treated, or the fpecies of writing the poet adopts: 3. The plan laid down: and, 4. The method of execution.

The objects of poetry are universal nature. There

G&

fition.

Aut prodeffe volunt aut delectare poetæ ; Although, according to a late celebrated modern British poet (Dr JAMES BEATTIF), its ultimate end is to pleafe, inftruction being only one of the means (and not always neceffary) to accomplish that ultimate end.

SECT. II. Of the STANDARD of POETICAL IN

VENTION.

The grand ftandard of Poetical Invention is Nature, and the perfection of the poetical art is a close imitation of it. Even poetical license itself does not admit of any great deviation from it.

But this grand ftandard of the poet's and the painter's imitation and invention confifts of two important general divifions, viz. the inanimate and the animated objects of nature. In the mere outfide view of nature's works, in the inanimated part of the creation, there is a magnificence and plendour, to which even the most untutored minds often cannot attend unmoved. But the man of true genius and native taste, feels, even in the earliest period of life, a peculiar and inexpreffible delight in contemplating the beautics of inanimated nature.

This amiable fenfibility to the beauties of nature fhould be cherished in young perfons. It leads them to contemplate the Creator in his works; it purifies and harmonizes the mind, and fits it for intellectual inftruction; it even contributes to bodily health; and by the analogy between material and moral beauty, leads the heart by an eafy transition from the former to the latter, and thus recommends virtue for its tranfcendent beauty, while it makes vice appear deteftable. An intimate acquaintance with the beft defcriptive poets, fuch as Virgil, Milton, Spenfer, and Thomfon, will promote this happy fenfibility in early years, when novelty adds its charms to all the beauties of nature.

But though every part of the material univerfe abounds in objects of pleasurable contemplation, yet no part of it fo powerfully touches our hearts and feelings, or gives fo great a variety of exercise to our moral and intellectual faculties, as man, Human affairs and human feelings are univerfally interesting. Many have little relifh for the poetry that delineates only irrational or inanimate beings; but to that which exhibits the fortunes, the conduct, and characters of men, there are few who do not liften with delight and fympathy. Hence the univerfally cftablifhed reputation of SHARE SPEARE, who has drawn fuch a vaft vuiety of Luman characters to the life; and hence too the peculiar pleafure ailing from the numerous beautiful epitedes with which THOMSON has enlivened his defcriptive peem on the Seafons. ARISTOTLE Confiders the imitation of human cc. ca as effential to the poetic art; and it must be gebricwledged effential to the moft pleafing and

SECT. III. Of FICTION in POETRY. NOTWITHSTANDING the ftrict imitation of ni ture above recommended, yet we are neither t expect nor defire that every human invention poetry, where the chief end is only to pleaf fhould be an exact copy of real existence. It enough that the mind acquiefce in it as probabi or plaufible, or what might be expected to happe without any direct oppofition to the laws of ture: Or it is enough that it be confiftent, eith It, with general experience; or, 2dly, with pular opinions; or, 3dly, confiftent with itfe and connected with probable circumflances.

Upon thefe principles Fiction is admitted, conformable to the ftandard of Poetical Inven tion., Popular opinions, however erroneous, ar not often apparently repugnant to nature. 0. this account, as well as becaufe they are familia to us from our infancy, the mind readily acquiefce in them, or at least yields them that degree credit which is necessary to render them pleasin Hence Shakespeare's witches, ghofts, and fair are admitted as probable beings; and angels ar reprefented in religious paintings, although w know they do not now appear in real life. It Shakespeare's time these doctrines were not only univerfally believed throughout Europe, but ever eftablished by law, and defended by authors in the highest ranks of life. King James I. wrote a book exprefsly upon Demonology, which is ftill extant But though thefe opinions are long ago explod.c the poems and plays, in which characters founded on them are introduced, ftill afford pleasure even to the most learned of the prefent age. And upon fimilar principles we also admit the theology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, with their gods, goddeffes. demigods, heroes, centaurs, furies, gorgons, monfiers, and the rest of thofe "beautiful wonders," as Horace ftyles them, which were believed for many ages after the heroic ages, when they were fuppofed to have happened. We even admit the modern fables, the demons and enchantments of Taffe, because they are fuitable to the notions that had for ages univerfally prevailed throughout Europe, and were particularly credited by the Italians in the 16th century. But it is an abufe of fiction, and to the laft degree ridiculous, for a modern poet, in writing upon a fubject in modern hiftory, to introduce heather deitics, angels, dæmons, or ideal perfonages, into the fcene of action in his poem. This is a capital error in Taff's Jerufalem; and though BOILLAY banishes angels and devils, he introduces the gods of the heathens without limitation. In his ode upon the capture of Namur, he seriously afke, whether the walls were built by Apollo or Neptunt? And in relating the paffage of the Rhine, in 1975, he defcribes the god of that river as fighting with all his might to oppofe the French: which is confounding fiction with facts at a most ridiculus rate. But the French poets in general run into this error; and even VOLTAIRE himfelf, the lat modern pret whom one fhould have fufpected of fuch felly, is guilty of it in a most slagrant degret i

lore, orifons, ruthless, yon, yore, &c. But upon thefe we think it unneceffary to enlarge. To readers of poetry they must be familiar; befides that many of them are taken notice of by Dr JOHNSON in his Dictionary, incorporated with this Encyclopædia: and the young poet, who accuftoms himself to the language of our beft poets, from Chaucer down to Pope, will be at no lofs to form a complete gloffary for his own ufe. Modern poets are in more danger of erring, from adopting or inventing new words, than from borrowing the old. (See again LANGUAGE, Sec. VIII.) All fuch would do well to adhere ftrictly to Mr Pope's advice in his Efay on Criticifm, (v. 335.) a tract which every young poet, too, fhould get by heart and keep conftantly in mind, when be begins to write.

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old afide. SECT. VI. Of TROPES and FIGURES; STYLE,

&c.

THE knowledge and proper ufe of this branch of poetical language is fo very effential to poetry, that we might enlarge upon it to the extent of feveral fections, if we had not already completely anticipated the fubject, under the article ORATORY, Part III. Sea. III. where all the various tropes and figures ufed in Oratory and Poetry are particularly diftinguished, characterised, and exemplified. We may also refer the reader to the detached articles, ALLEGORY, APOSTROPHE, § 2, 4; COMPARISON, § III. 1—3.; CRITICISM, 3; DESCRIPTION, DIALOGUE, FABLE, FIGURE, VI. i-iii.; HYPERBOLE, METAPHOR, 2.; NARRATION, 3.; and PERSONIFICATION. With regard to the different ftyles, the Low, Middle, and Sublime, which diftinguish authors in poetry, as well as in oratory. thefe are fo fully difcuffed under ORATORY, Part III. Sect. V. VI. and VII. that it is unneceffary to add any thing farther on the subje&t here.

PART II.

OF THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF POETRY. SECT. I. Of EPIC and DRAMATIC COMPO

TIONS.

THE EPOPEE, or EPIC POETRY, and TRAGEDY, agree in fubftantials: in both the fame ends are propofed, viz. inftruction and amufe ment; and in both the fame means are employed, viz. imitation of human actions. They differ only in the manner of imitating: Epic poetry employs narration: Tragedy reprefents its facts as pafling before our eyes: In the former, the poet introduces himself as an hiftorian; in the latrer he prefents his actors, but never appears himfelf.

As this difference regards form only, it may be thought flight, but its effects are by no means fo; for what we fee always makes a deeper impreffion upon us, than what we hear from others. A narrative poem is a story told by another: Facts and incidents, paffing upon the stage, come under our own obfervation; and are alfo much enlivened by action and gefture, expreffive of ma

ny fentiments beyond the reach of language. dramatic compofition, independent of actio makes a deeper impreffion than narration, becau in it perfons exprefs their own fentiments, wher as in narration they are related at fecond-han Ariftotle lays it down as a rule, that in an epi poem, the author ought to take every opportun ty of introducing his characters, and reftrictir the narrative within the narroweft bounds. He MER understood this perfectly, and both his pe ems are highly dramatic. LUCAN runs to th oppofite extreme, and stuffs his Pharfalia with bi own reflections, juft after the generals had mad their speeches, and the armies were ready to en gage.

A POEM, whether dramatic or epic, that is in tended to move the paffions, by exhibiting pic tures of virtue and vice, may be stiled pathetic where it is invented to illuftrate fome moral trut

by fhewing the fatal confequences of indulgin diforderly paffions, it is denominated moral. Suc pieces are univerfally allowed to be useful.

The Epic Poem is, of all poetical works the most dignified, and the moft difficult în execu tion. The subject must be both great and inte refting. Hardly any who have attempted it have failed of choofing fome fubject fufficiently impor tant. The fame of Homer's heroes and the com fequences of diffention between the two chief o them, muft have appeared of the highest impor tance to the Greeks, who boafted their defcent from thefe heroes. The fubject of the Eneid it ftill greater than that of the Iliad, as it is the foundation of the most powerful empire that ever was established on earth. But the poems of HoMER and VIRGIL fall in this refpect infinitely fhort of that of MILTON. "Before the greatness difplayed in Paradife Loft (Dr Johnson obferves) all other greatnefs fhrinks away. The fubject of the English poet is not the deftruction of a city, the conduct of a colony, or the foundation of an empire: it is the fate of worlds, the revolutiona of heaven and earth; rebellion against the Supreme King, raised by the highest order of cre ated beings; the overthrow of their hoft, and the punishment of their crime; the creation of a new race of reasonable creatures; their original happinefs and innocence, their forfeiture of immortality, and their restoration to hope and peace."

A queftion has been moved whether the hero of an Epic Poem should be ultimately fuccefaful?

Johnfon thinks it not neceflary. Moft critics, however, are of the oppofite opinion; and no au thor of note has drawn his plan in favour of an unfortunate hero, except LUCAN; for in the Pa radife Loft, Adam's deceiver being at laft cruihed, and himself reftored to the divine favour, Milton's hero must be confidered as ultimately fuccessful.

As for Dramatic Poetry, that fubject will be refumed under the article THEATRE; with the confideration of the THREE UNITIES, about which fo much has been written by dramatic au thors. The OPERA has already been confidered in its order. See alfo Music, 67, 70-72.

SECT. II. Of LYRIC POETRY.
THE ODE is very ancient, and is fuppofed to

have