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Article DISSERTATIONS ON THE POLITE ARTS. ← Page 4 of 6 →
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Dissertations On The Polite Arts.
i figure according to his situation . What a difference between the / oice of the Epic , and that of a Tragedy . Go through aTl the other rinds , Comedy , Pastoral , Lyric Poetry , & c . and you will always , ind that difference . If this harmony be ever found wanting , the Poem becomes a bur- ' esque . And if tragedy sometimes lowers itself , or comedy rises , it s only to level themselves to their matter , which varies at times ,
Interdum . amen & vocem comcedia tollit ; Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore ; Et tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri Telpphus & Peleus , cum pauper & exul uterque-, Projicit ampullas , & scsquipedalia verba , Si curat cor spectantis tetigisse querela . This harmony is essential . Almost every one understands itbu ?
, mbappily a great many authors have it not sufficiently . In the same vork are found tragic , comic , and lyric verses , which are in noi nanner authorized by the thoughts they contain . Why then will 'ou pretend to paint , since you do not understand colours ? Descriptas servare vices , operumque colores Cur ego si nequeo ignoroqiie , poeta salutor ?
A delicate ear knows simply by the sound ofthe verse , what kind if work it is taken from . Shew its any lines of Sbakespear , Milton , ~ ) ryden , Swift , or Pope , and we shall never be mistaken in this repect A verse of Ovid is known amongst a-thousand of Virgil , riiere is not the least occasion to name the authors ; we know them y their style , as the heroes in Homer are known by their actions .
The second sort of harmony consists in the agreement of the sounds ' nd words with the object of the thought . Even writers in prose . ught to make this a rule ; and poets ought with much more care to bserve it . We should not then see them express a soft thing in rough . ords ; nor in soft ones , what is harsh and disagreeable : Carmine non levi dicehda est scabra crepido .
The third kind of harmony in Poetry may be called artificial , in pposition to the two others which are proper to discourse , and which eiong equally to Poetry and to Prose . This consists in a certain : t , which \ besides the choice of sounds and expressions that echo to le sense , ranges them in such a manner that all the syllables of a erse , taken together , produce by their sound , their number , their uantity , another sort of expressiona sort of compound expression
, , 'hich still adds to the natural signification of the words . Every thing in the universe has its particular motion ; there are ) me that are grave and majestic : others lively and rapid , and others rain are simple and sweet . In like manner Poetry has different inds of motions , to imitate those of nature , and by a sort of melody ) paint to the ears what . it has painted to the mind by words . This
irmony belongs to Poetty alone , aud it is the exquisite point of . rsification . We may very well call it the exquisite point of versification ; for it is e want of this that has made so manv Poems perish . The art of being Vox ,. V . ' T t
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Dissertations On The Polite Arts.
i figure according to his situation . What a difference between the / oice of the Epic , and that of a Tragedy . Go through aTl the other rinds , Comedy , Pastoral , Lyric Poetry , & c . and you will always , ind that difference . If this harmony be ever found wanting , the Poem becomes a bur- ' esque . And if tragedy sometimes lowers itself , or comedy rises , it s only to level themselves to their matter , which varies at times ,
Interdum . amen & vocem comcedia tollit ; Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore ; Et tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri Telpphus & Peleus , cum pauper & exul uterque-, Projicit ampullas , & scsquipedalia verba , Si curat cor spectantis tetigisse querela . This harmony is essential . Almost every one understands itbu ?
, mbappily a great many authors have it not sufficiently . In the same vork are found tragic , comic , and lyric verses , which are in noi nanner authorized by the thoughts they contain . Why then will 'ou pretend to paint , since you do not understand colours ? Descriptas servare vices , operumque colores Cur ego si nequeo ignoroqiie , poeta salutor ?
A delicate ear knows simply by the sound ofthe verse , what kind if work it is taken from . Shew its any lines of Sbakespear , Milton , ~ ) ryden , Swift , or Pope , and we shall never be mistaken in this repect A verse of Ovid is known amongst a-thousand of Virgil , riiere is not the least occasion to name the authors ; we know them y their style , as the heroes in Homer are known by their actions .
The second sort of harmony consists in the agreement of the sounds ' nd words with the object of the thought . Even writers in prose . ught to make this a rule ; and poets ought with much more care to bserve it . We should not then see them express a soft thing in rough . ords ; nor in soft ones , what is harsh and disagreeable : Carmine non levi dicehda est scabra crepido .
The third kind of harmony in Poetry may be called artificial , in pposition to the two others which are proper to discourse , and which eiong equally to Poetry and to Prose . This consists in a certain : t , which \ besides the choice of sounds and expressions that echo to le sense , ranges them in such a manner that all the syllables of a erse , taken together , produce by their sound , their number , their uantity , another sort of expressiona sort of compound expression
, , 'hich still adds to the natural signification of the words . Every thing in the universe has its particular motion ; there are ) me that are grave and majestic : others lively and rapid , and others rain are simple and sweet . In like manner Poetry has different inds of motions , to imitate those of nature , and by a sort of melody ) paint to the ears what . it has painted to the mind by words . This
irmony belongs to Poetty alone , aud it is the exquisite point of . rsification . We may very well call it the exquisite point of versification ; for it is e want of this that has made so manv Poems perish . The art of being Vox ,. V . ' T t