Elements of Criticism: In Two Volumes

Chapter 21. Narration and Description

611 u chapter xxi u Narration and Description Horace, and many critics after him, exhort writers to choose a subject adaptedtotheirgenius.Suchobservationswouldmultiplyrulesof criticism without end; and at any rate belong not to the present work, the object of which is human nature in general, and what is common to the species. But though the choice of a subject comes not under such a plan, the manner of execution comes under it; because the manner of execution is subjected to general rules, derived from principles common to the species. These rules, as they concern the things expressed as well as the language or expression , require a division of this chapter into two parts; first of thoughts, and next of words. I pretend not to justify this division as entirelyaccurate: for in discoursing of thoughts, it is difficult to abstract altogether from the words; and still more difficult, in discoursing of words, to abstract altogether from the thought. The first rule is, That in history, the reflections ought to be chaste and solid; for while the mind is intent upon truth, it is little disposed to the operations of the imagination. Strada’s Belgic history is full of poetical images, which, discording with the subject, are unpleasant; and they have a still worse effect, by giving an air of fiction to a genuine history. Such flowers ought to be scattered with a sparing hand, even in epic poetry; and at no rate are they proper, till the reader be warmed, and by an enlivened imagination be prepared to relish them: in that state of mind, they are agreeable; but while we are sedate and attentive to an historical chain of facts, we reject with disdain every fiction. This Belgic history is indeed wofully vicious both in matter and in form: it is stuffed with frigid and un- 612 chapter xxi meaning reflections; and its poetical flashes, even laying aside their impropriety , are mere tinsel. Second, Vida,* following Horace, recommends a modest commencement of anepic poem; givingforareason,Thatthewriteroughttohusband his fire. This reason has weight; but what is said above suggests a reason still more weighty: bold thoughts and figures are never relishedtillthemind be heated and thoroughly engaged, which is not the reader’s case at the commencement. Homer introduces not a single simile in the first book of the Iliad, nor in the first book of the Odyssey. On the other hand, Shakespear begins one of his plays with a sentiment too bold for the most heated imagination: Bedford. Hung be the heav’ns with black, yield day to night! Comets, importing change of times and states, Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky, And with them scourge the bad revolting stars, That have consented unto Henry’s death! Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long! England ne’er lost a king of so much worth. First part Henry VI.1 The passagewithwhichStradabeginshishistory,istoopoeticalforasubject of that kind; and at any rate too high for the beginning of a grave performance . A third reason ought to have no less influence than either of the former, That a man who, upon his first appearance, strains tomakeafigure, is too ostentatious to be relished. Hence the first sentences of a work ought to be short, natural, and simple. Cicero, in his oration pro Archia poeta, errs against this rule: his reader is out of breath at the very first period; which seems never to end. Burnet begins the History of his Own Times with a period long and intricate. A third rule or observation is, That where the subject is intended for entertainment solely, not for instruction, a thing ought to be de- * Poet. lib. 2. l. 30. 1. Act 1, sc. 1. narration and description 613 scribed as it appears, not as it is in reality. In running, for example, the impulse upon the ground is proportioned in some degree to the celerity of motion: though in appearance it is otherwise; for a person in swift motion seems to skim the ground, and scarcely to touch it. Virgil, with great taste, describes quick running according to appearance; and raises an image far more lively than by adhering scrupulously to truth: Hos super advenit Volsca de gente Camilla, Agmen agens equitum et florentes aere catervas, Bellatrix: non illa colo calathisve Minervae Foemineas assueta manus; sed praelia virgo Dura pati, cursuque pedum praevertere ventos. Illa vel intactae segetis per summa volaret Gramina: nec teneras cursu...