I Am very sensible that I have neither Wit suffi­cient, nor Ability capable, to speak home and decisively as to the Merits of two of the greatest Lyrick Poets Antiquity ever produc'd, Pindar and Horace. Since to do it as I ought, 'twou'd be­hoove me to be as knowing in Poesie as themselves, to judge worthily of their Writings. Nevertheless, I owe so blind an obedience to the Commands your Lordship hath been pleas'd to lay upon me to under­take their Comparison, that I believe I ought not to demurr one moment, but tell you what the assiduous Lecture of their Writings, and some others of the Ancients, may have furnish'd me with, to present you upon this Subject.

Pindar liv'd more than 450 Years before Horace; and was Son of a Flute-Player. Aelian reports, that a Swarm of Bees were his Nurses, as he lay expos'd out of his Father's House, who suckled him with Ho­ney instead of Milk.

It is true that I have not met with that Exposure, save only in Aelian; and all else, that speak of that Accident of the Bees, recount it after another manner. Philostratus says, that Pindar was in his Cradle when that Prodigy happ'ned to him. And Pausanias, that being young, and going from Thebes to Thespia in the [Page 2] great Heats, he was about Mid-day surpriz'd with Sleep; and stepping out of the way to repose himself, the Bees came and wrought their Honey on his Lips; which was the first Signal of the Genius, and natural Inclination, of [...]indar to Poesie. For this Prodigy (which is said likewise to have happ'ned to Plato and St. Ambrose)▪ hath always been look'd upon as the Pre­sage of an extraordinary Sweetness in Discourse.

There is in the Greek Anthology an Epigram of Antipater, which says in a manner the same thing.

The Birth of Horace was not more generous than that of Pindar. He was Son of a Seller of Salt-Fish; and had the reproach of not being entirely free-born.

In regard his Father, whom he calls Libertinum, was Son of a Free'd-man, or perhaps himself a Free'd-man; for the Word in the Latin signifies both the one and the other.

Among other Things, he recounts of himself an Accident something like that of the Bees to Pindar, in that Divine Ode of his.

Descende Coelo, &c. L. 3. Ode 4. Which, for the most part, he hath imitated out of that Poet; where he says,

But 'tis but a Fable by him invented, in imitation of that Accident of the Bees, which happ'ned to Pindar; which, perhaps, was likewise but a Fiction.

This is what I have to say of their Births. As for their Countries, Pindar was of Thebes, the Capital City of Boeotia, of which the Inhabitants always passed for gross witted and blockish among the other People of Greece, who usually call'd the Thebans the Swine of Boeo­tia; as Pindar himself testifies in the 6 th. of his Olym­pionicks. Where he charges his Master of the Quire to cause these Verses to be well sung.

Horace was Native of Venusium, a small Town, on the Frontiers of Lucania and Apulia; whose Inhabi­tants were always reputed notorious Thieves, perfi­dious [Page 4] Persons, and given to Pillage and Plunder from the very Time of the Brutians, of whom they were descended. For the Brutians, as Diodorus Siculus re­ports, were no other than a company of Slaves and desperate Wretches; who having assassinated their Masters, and pillag'd and ravag'd the Neighbouring-Countries, seated themselves at last on these Moun­tains; of which, by the Situation of the Place, and Force of Arms, they ever since kept the possession.

To what I have said of the Countries of these two great Genii, I shall add, That both of them, in the course of their Lives, were engag'd in troublesome Wars, and, with this Misfortune, to have been on the worse side. Pindar was terrify'd (as others) at the Descent Xerxes made into Greece, and shar'd part of the Infamy with his Country-men, who made an early Accomodation with that King against the common Consent of all the Greeks. Insomuch, that after the general Defeat of the Barbarians, the Thebans were reckoned as Deserters, and looked upon as People who had abandoned the Common Safety of their Country.

In like manner, the Family of Horace being under the Protection of the Iunii, our Poet became engag'd, after the Death of Iulius Caesar, on Brutus his side; who gave him the Command of a Legion. But he s [...]ow'd no great Proofs of his Valour, having sav'd himself in the Battel at Philippi, by throwing away his Buckler; which was the greatest Infamy that could befall a Soldier. He himself acknowledges it.

[Page 5] For all the World knows with how great Care the old Soldiers preserv'd their Bucklers; and the Joy Epaminondas had before he died, when he was told his Buckler was safe by him. 'Twas the Command of the Spartan Women to their Children going to the War, to return home with their Bucklers, or upon them. And, in fine, it was one of the greatest Reproaches could be given a Man to call him [...], A Shield-Quitter; as may be seen in divers Places of Ari­stophanes.

As to their Manners, it may be said, there was nothing of Likeness between these our two Poets. And first, as to what relates to Piety, they were of v [...]ry different Sentiments. For Pindar was extreme devout and religious towards his Gods: And there may be seen divers Evidences thereof in many of his Odes; as when he says, 'Tis always good to speak well of the God ▪ And elsewhere

In which other Poets had not that Temper as Pindar; and, particularly, Aristoph [...]nes, who vents a thousand Follies of the gourmandizing of the Gods, and more especially of Hercu [...]s.

Plato in his Dialogue, entituled Meno, calls Pindar Divine; and produces divers Testimonies from him, touching the Immortality of the Soul. Pindar (says he) maintains the Soul of Man to be immortal; That it ceases sometimes to act, by which they mean to die; and again is re-ingendred anew, but that it never perishes.

[Page 6]There is, beside, a very fair Proof of his Piety in those excellent Verses of his, in the Second Ode of his Olympionicks, where he speaks of the Pleasures de­stin'd to the Heroes, and the Pains reserv'd for the Wicked in the Life to come.

The like may be found in infinite other Passages.

And there is sufficient grounds to make this appear, by the very Titles of those Pieces of his that are lost; as his Hymns, his Dithyrambs, his Paeans, and several other Works; which, for the most part, were no other than the Praises of the God's and Heroes. He dwelt at Thebes, near the Temple of the Mother of the Gods, whom he had in particular Veneration; and, as his Scholiast affirms, He much honoured that Goddess, being of an extraordinary Piety. He built at Thebes a Chappel in Honour of Iupiter Hammon; for whom he caus'd a Statue to be made by Calamis, one of the most famous Statuaries of those Times, as may [Page 7] be seen in Pliny and Pausanias. The latter of which reports, that he saw at Delphos an Iron-Chair, in which Pindar us'd to sit when he came to the Temple, and which was preserv'd 'till his Time as a most pre­cious Relick. But that which made the Piety of Pin­dar yet more resplendent, and (as Pausanias says) rais'd it to the highest pitch of Glory, was, That the Priestess of Apollo at Delphos, at the instant that Pindar entred into the Temple, invited him in the Name of that God, to come and dine with him; and comman­ded, that of whatsoever was sacrific'd, there should be an equal share assign'd to him, as to Apollo. And this occasion'd that Belief, which then run through all Greece (as Plutarch reports) that the God Pan was seen on the Arcadian Hills, to divertize himself in Dancing, and singing one of Pindar's Songs, which they call'd a Paean.

Pausanias likewise tells a Story, that Pindar in the decline of his Age had a Vision of Proserpine, who re­proach'd him, that she was the only Deity he had not honoured with a Hymn; but that she expected he should make her one when he came to be with her. Soon after which, dying, he appear'd in a Dream to an old Kinswoman of his, and sung to her in Honour of that Goddess a Hymn; which his said Kinswoman, awaking, wrote down in the same Terms she heard it sung.

But as for Horace, tho' in his Poem, entituled Carmen Saecu­lare, and other his Odes, there are many Passages in Praise of the Gods, and that in the Sixth Satyr of his First Book, he says, Assisto Divinis, not to be here taken in any reli­gious sence; meaning no more, than that he stay'd to hear the ridiculous chat of your Diviners and Fortune-Tellers in the Grand Piazza, to close the other Diversions of the Day. Vid. Dacier Notis in Horat. Gallic. As­sisto Divinis, I assist at the Sacri­fices. Yet 'tis certain, according to the judgment of those who believ'd they had penetrated in­to [Page 8] his veritable Sentiments, That he was not through­ly persuaded of the Religion of his Times, nor the Credulity of the Vulgar, touching the Essence and Power of the Deity: Since on the contrary, as he himself says of himself, he was of the Gods. But

‘A spare, and an unfrequent Worshipper.’ For notwithstanding what he says afterward,

He treats of the Causes of his Conversion in a manner so Buffoon-like, that there is no Man but perceives he speaks not as he thinks! But in the Third Satyr of the Second Book, he disguises not the Matter, where speaking of a Superstitious Mother, who vow'd to Iu­piter to plunge her Child (sick of a Quartan Ague) into the Tyber. He thereupon thus rallies her.

Then asking the Question, how she came so out of her Wits? Answer is made, She was possess'd, Timore Deorum, with the Fear of the Gods. And in the Fifth Satyr of the First Book, where he describes the Jour­ney [Page 9] he made with Mecaenas to Brundusium, and plea­santly rallies the Priests of Egnatia, who would per­swade 'em, that in their Temple the Incense burn'd upon the Altar without the help of Fire. He says,

Which very well agrees with what he ingenuously ac­knowledges to his Friend Tibullus, in the Letter he writes [...].

We know nothing of Pindar's Education, more than that his Father, or Father-in-Law, Scopelinus was neither Father, nor Father-in-law to Pindar, but his Kinsman; and was Father of a Son of the same Name with Pin­dar, and a Lyrick Poet too; but nothing so eminent as this our Pindar; whose Fa­ther, according to Suidas, was Daiphantus, tho' some others (as he says) have reported his Name was Pa­gonidas; but that of Dai­phantus seems to him the truer of the two. Sco­pelinus, taught him early to play on the Flute: But perceiving the Genius of his Scholar was carried to something above that, he put him into the hands of a certain Lyrick Poet, Lasus by name, to instruct him in Poesie. And that Pindar in a short time became therein more able than his Master. Suidas writes that [Page 10] he was Scholar to Myrto. And there are others who report he studied some time under the famous Corinna; to whom they gave the Surname of Divine, and the Tenth Muse.

As to what concerns Horace, we have the particular Accompt of his Education from his Satyrs, where he takes a Pleasure to set himself out in his own Colours. In his Sixth Satyr he says

And after this commending the Honest Equipage that was allow'd him, he says,

Never was Child more dutifully Grateful toward a Parent than Horace was, as he admirably proves it, where he says,

It may likewise be said in general of these two Po­ets, that they were both very honest Men, consider­ing the Manners and Customs of the Times they liv'd in; tho as to particulars, there were some Vertues, and some Defects more or less remarkable in the one, than in the other. They were both naturally Amo­rous, both passionate Affectors of Glory. They [Page 12] made no difficulty of praising themselves, for those little Vanities give oftentimes a good Grace in Poesie, and ought to be permitted to such great Wits as they were. They were both admir'd in their Ages, by all those who were good Judges of what was commenda­ble, tho they were ill treated many times by the ig­norance of the Vulgar.

We have no sufficient knowledge of the particular Actions of Pindar to make a certain Judgment of his good Qualities, nor can we make any reasonable Ar­gument thereupon, but from the high reputation he acquir'd in his Life time, and the admirable Senti­ments he hath left us so happily exprest in his Odes, where Vertue is always exalted, and Vice painted in all its Deformity.

His Discourses are so full of moral Sentences, and honest Thoughts, that 'tis impossible such graceful Sentiments should proceed from a Soul ill-form'd, or meanly perswaded of the Principles of Honour. There are Thoughts of so high a Flight, that many have believ'd he drew them from their Divine Source, the Holy Scripture. At least 'tis the Opinion of Cle­mens Alexandrinus, who in the third Book of his Peda­gogue will have it, that Pindar was assisted by reading of the Proverbs of Solomon; and maintains, that in that part of his Works where he says,

He had in view that Passage in the ninth Chapter of the Proverbs, where he speaks of the lewd Woman, who sits in the Door of her House upon a Seat in the high place of the City to call them that pass by the way; and to the Fool she says, stoln Waters are sweeter, and Bread eaten in se­cret is more pleasant. And I wonder that the same Cle­mens Alexandrinus takes no notice of that other Ex­pression of Pindar.

Which he hath so visibly drawn from the Books of So­lomon, and where he hath put nothing of his own, but the Antistrophe, which is familiar to him, calling Somnium Vmbrae, the Dream of a Shadow, which Solo­mon terms, Vmbram Somnii, The Shadow of a Dream. 'Tis the same Expression, which Sophocles (as his Scho­liasts report) hath so happily imitated in his Ajax, where he makes Vlysses say,

What does not Pindar in several places say of Justice?

What says he not of Valour? As when he crys out,

As to Ingratitude, he says,

Which Virgil in the sixth of the Aeneids, hath briefly imitated.

As to Sincerity he tells us,

We find in Athenaeus a Prayer made by Pindar to Iupiter, which shews the sweetness of his Manners, and the de­sire he had to pass his Life vertuously.

Or as his Imitator Horace speaks,

Whereupon Casaubon says, That Pindar made a kind of Divinity of that Euthymia, or sweet Life. Cui optat (says he) curae esse, id est, ut honestâ voluptate frui pos­sit; whom he implores to be kind to him, and grant him the Fruition of honest Pleasures.

I should never have done, should I go about to re­port all the vertuous Expressions in Pindar. And we are obliged to believe that a Man speaking in the man­ner he did, spoke as he thought; for otherwise he could never have fail'd of giving himself the Lye in [Page 16] some part or other of his Works. It being true what he affirms,

Because,

Or as Horace hath it,

The Honesty and Humanity of Pindar appears throughout all his Works, and 'tis that which gave occasion to that handsome Discourse of Agias in Plu­tarch his Symposiacks, Where having censur'd the Ban­quets or Dinners of Homer as hungry and thirsty Treat­ments, the Masters of whose Feasts, (or as he calls them Kings) treat their Guests worse than our common Italian Hasts, upbraiding them (even in the time of Fight, when they are encountring their Enemies) with their Debauch'd Behaviour, and reckoning up how many Glasses each of them [Page 17] drunk off at Dinner. How much better (says he) are the Pindarick Feasts, where the Heroes meet together and share their equal Entertainments soberly. This seems truly a Community and Vnion of loving Friends, the other a kind of a discordant meeting of Men seemingly friendly, yet not participating in any common Civility even at their Meals.

As to Horace we can say in the first place; he was a very great Lover of his Pleasures; and that very like­ly he was of an agreeable Conversation, and conse­quently not displeasing to the Ladies of his Time, which he himself seems to hint at in these Verses.

He cherish'd his Liberty to such a degree, that he could never suffer himself to be constrain'd or made Cap­tive, not even by Augustus, who would have had him for his Secretary. As for Mecaenas to whom he ow'd so many Obligations, he had for him all the tenderness and grateful respect that was possible. Nevertheless see how he writes to him.

After this, bringing in the Fable of the Fox which could not get out of the Granary where he had fed himself fat, and the Weesels advice to make himself as lean as he was when he crept in at the little hole. He adds,

And

As to the Beauty of his Morals, it appears in a thou­sand Passages of his Writings; and we should be forc'd in a manner to copy them all entire; should we go a­bout to shew all we find in him to represent the Idea of an honest Man. He testifies he is himself fully per­swaded of the Honesty of his Manners, when he says,

‘Not nobly born, but pure of Life and Heart.’ [Page 19] And elsewhere,

‘But of firm Faith, and of no niggard Wit.’ His frequent Sentences, the Praises of Vertue and the Vertuous, and the perpetual Blame of things Vicious, and an infinity of noble and elevated Sentences scat­ter'd through his Odes, sufficiently testifie the truth of what I say; but his Ingenuity, and the free Acknow­ledgment he makes of his Defects in his Satyrs, in a manner ravish me, as well as the justness of his sence every where throughout. Never Man exprest him­self more delicately upon Friendship.

Elsewhere he handsomly decries those who are of too severe a Humour.

And speaking of some Peccadillo's, with which he might be reproach'd, and of the Care he took to root them out of his Mind. He says,

How many excellent things has he of Frugality in the second Satyr of his second Book? Against Avarice in the first Satyr of his first Book? Against the Sottish Vanity of the Nobility in the sixth? Against Adulte­rers in the second? Against other Crimes in the third Satyr of his second Book, and every where else?

In fine, all that he says strikes the Mind, and makes an Impression not possible to be resisted; since his gal­lant manner of treating in jest things the most serious and grave, penetrates much more easily, and more efficaciously than the severity of Precepts, which of it self is but odious, and as he says,

I shall not instance any thing further upon this Subject, since there needs not so many Proofs to support a Truth confirm'd by the judgment of all honest Men; who had always a Love and Admiration for Horace. Nor was there any of the great Wits of his Time who were not desirous to have a share in his Friendship. Virgil first introduc'd him into the Acquaintance of Maecenas who would never after live without him. Augustus call'd him Lepidissimum Homuncionem, his plea­sant little Man, and would have made him his Cabinet Secretary.

It appears not that Pindar ever spoke ill of any Man, and tho he had many Enemies who gave him some trouble while he lived, we find not that he ever sought to be reveng'd of them. He comforts himself against their Malignity by only saying,

‘Envy'd than pitied is the better State.’ And he praises those who never hearkned to Detra­ctors and Backbiters.

He mocks at their vain Efforts, comparing himself:

'Tis true he sometimes shews them his Teeth, as when he says,

But he reproves himself elsewhere for it, saying, ‘There comes always Misfortune to ill Tongues.’ And in another place he avows 'tis his Indeavour to avoid the bitings of the reproachful, for that he re­members he once saw the Poet Archilochus in a horrible Perplexity.

Which is the same thing Horace has said,

As for Horace, no Man ever had a Wit more apt for Raillery: and he seldom lets pass an occasion when of­fer'd to exercise his Talent that way. I speak not of his Satyrs, which he made expresly to be nipping and biting. Nay even in his Odes he cannot resist the na­tural inclination he has to Satirize, as may be seen in these,

And,

And in this where the Raillery is so fine,

Sometimes he carries the Satyre to excess, as in that Ode against Canidia,

And against Cassius Severus,

Against Mena the Freedman of Pompey.

And in divers others, of all which one may say,

'Tis not but that he knew how to praise when he pleas'd and he does it with an inimitable Grace in se­veral places of his Odes. True it is that Persons of Quality in his Time, were extreamly delicate as to praise, and it behov'd the Incense that was offer'd to be exquisite if receiv'd,

But this was true principally in respect of Augustus, who could not indure your dull ordinary Praises, but would wince at them, to use the term of our Poet.

And therefore he is not prais'd by Horace but in few places; and one may say, He does it not but upon occasion, and without dreaming on't. Neverthe­less his Praises are so fine, and deliver'd with such force, that there can be nothing more high or [Page 25] great, as may seen in the Letter he writes to that Emperor. ‘Cum tot sustineas —’ There is likewise a touch of marvellous Praise for Au­gustus, in the Letter he wrote to Quintius, where he says,

In the fifth Satyre of his second Book, he make Tyresias speak thus,

And in the first, he makes Trebatius thus speak to him:

To the end he might give him this Answer.

Where it appears he knew very well to raise himself up to the Heroick, when the Subject requir'd it. Could there be any thing said more great of a Mortal Man than this?

Can there be any thing seen more obliging for Mecae­nas than the Answer our Poet gives to the importu­nate [Page 27] Person who would have insinuated himself into the Family and Service of that great Minister of State by corrupt and underhand dealing.

There are many other passages of the same height and vigour.

Come we now to that nobleness of Mind and that disinteressed concern, which was much greater in Ho­race than in Pindar. Upon which 'twill not be amiss to call to mind that Pindar was not born of Parents o­ver well accommodated in the World, and that Horace had lost the greatest part of the Estate his Father left him after the Death of Brutus, as appears by these Verses of his,

And yet they found the means both the one and the o­ther to make their Fortunes: But by ways very diffe­rent. For Horace was not at all Covetous, and Pindar on the other side naturally lov'd Money; as his Scho­liasts expresly affirm, and as may be seen in divers pla­ces, calling it sometimes [...], the best of Things, o­therwhiles,

‘Bright Star and veritable Light to Man.’ Upon which Score he imploy'd his Talent to acquire Wealth, selling his Compositions for ready Money, as he himself says, speaking to his Muse.

Which he declares without being asham'd on't; since the Custom had been before establish'd by Simonides and others as he seems to testifie in the beginning of the second Ode of his Isthmioniques, where he says,

But contrarywise there is nothing seen in all the Works of Horace but Generosity. He mocks at the Covetous in a thousand places. He commends every where Frugality and Moderation: He appears always content with his present Fortune, and always ready to resign what he has from her.

And when he asks any thing of Mecaenas, he does it with so much spriteliness and address, that he seems to ask nothing, as

Where he well knows to put in practice what he ad­vises Scaeva in a Letter he writes him, giving him Precepts how to manage the design he had to fasten himself to a great Person; telling him

'Tis very easie to perceive he was rather Prodigal than Covetous, as may be judg'd by the Checks he gives himself for his lavish Humour. It appears by divers Odes that he often treated his Friends; and that he sometimes invited Mecaenas to Dine with him. He in­vites Torquatus by a Letter to come and Sup with him, and bring his Friends along with him, whom he plea­santly terms his Shadows, saying,

He knew besides how to serve his Friends, and th [...] Complaint he makes that he had not a moment of time at his own Disposal whilst he stay'd at Rome, shews clearly the facility and readiness he had to em­ploy himself on their Behalves. His Recommendati­ons are ingenious and pressing as in that Letter to Ti­berius, ‘Septimius Claudi—’ By which he presents to him Septimius, who desir'd to be entertain'd in his Service; and in another to Iccius wherein he recommends to him one Grosphus, where he says so truly,

But what above all shews the Noble Humour of Ho­race, is the Pleasure he took in Building; for which he blames himself under the Name of Damisippus, as one undertaking things above his Power to perform.

[Page 32] Where we may observe by the way, that Horace was but little of Stature; or as he himself says, Corporis exigui, which answers to the Word Homuncio, by which Augustus us'd to call him.

What Stature Pindar was of I know not; but 'tis certain, he in many places of his Works commends little Men, as when he speaks of a Wrestler.

And when he speaks of Hercules in these Terms,

It appears that Horace was something Cholerick, by the Rebuke he gives himself for it under the Name of Damasippus ‘—Non dico horrendam Rabiem:’ And by another place where he acknowledges,

‘Apt to be Cholerick, but soon appeas'd.’ Which is not the sign of an Ill Disposition; since such as easily take fire, are ordinarily frank of Nature, and without any Gall.

What is of greatest resemblance between our two Poets, is, That they were both of a Complexion ve­ry Amorous; We find by Athenaeus that Pindar ‘ [...],’ Was beyond measure Amorous. And he gives us a Song of his, where Pindar abandons himself to Love.

[Page 34] The same Athenaeus tells us of another upon the subject of Theoxenus his dearly beloved, of whom h [...] says,

Whence may be concluded, how much we ought to regret the loss we have suffered by the privation of th [...] greatest part of his Works, since by this Scantling the smiling Gaieties, the Graces and the Cupids are no [...] only to be found in the Odes of Sappho and Anacreo [...] but that Pindar sometimes made a shift to lay by tha [...] Majestick Severity which appears in his Works now left us.

What shall I say of so many Odes of Horace?

And where he seems to have drain'd himself of all h [...] could think amourously tender? As that which Scali­ger so commends, ‘ [Page 35]Donec gratus eram tibi.’ Or of these others,

And a hundred more,

I cannot yet but declare the horrour I conceive of these two Poets most disorderly Love of Boys, (tho in their Times, according to the Custom of those Countries, that detestable Sin was very ordinary) and the care they took to preserve to their last Breath the Character of amorous Persons. Pindar dy'd in the Arms of his beloved Theoxenus; and Horace before his Death, caus'd several Glasses, or Mirrors to be plac [...]d on eve­ry side of his Chamber, that he might at once see di­vers Lascivious Postures, and entertain himself to the last with voluptuous Thoughts.

And this is all I can remark of their Manners; as to what concerns the Conduc [...] of their Lives, they were both of them extreamly cross'd and travers'd by those that envy'd them, before they could arrive to that de­gree of Reputation they came to. A [...]lian reports, That Corinna at Thebes carried away five Times from Pindar the Prize of Lyrick Poesie through the igno­rance of the Judges. And Pausa [...]ias (in Baoticis) tells [Page 36] us, That he saw at Tanagra the Statue of the said Co­rinna, with a Diadem on her Head, in token of that Vi­ctory; and that it seems to him she got not the better of Pindar otherwise than because what she wrote was in the Aeo­lick Tongue, which was the Language peculiar only to th [...] Populace or Vulgar sort, and that Pindar made use of th [...] Dorick Dialect, which was most spoken by the Nobles an [...] Gentry. Add to this, that Corinna was very Beautiful, as one may judge (says he) by her Statue, and the Picture [...] which the Citizens of Tanagra caus'd to be drawn for her in their Portico's.

Athenaeus speaking of some kind of forc'd Verses, which they call'd Griphes; to which some of the Anci­ents apply'd themselves, as may be seen in Simonides his Egg, his Wings, and his Hatchet, and divers other Fragments of Antiquity, says, That Pindar drew upon himself the Iealousie and Aversion of the Poets of his Time, for having compos'd an Ode which he calls, Yet Pindar was not the first who wrote an [...] Poem; for Lasus Hermonensis before him, as Athe­naeus and Suidas testifie, wrote Di­thyrambs, and Hymns wherein the Letter Σ was not to be found parti­cularly in that entituled. The Cen­taurs, and another in praise of Ce­res, of which last the first Verse is produc'd by Heraclides Ponticus, being this, ‘ [...].’ See Cae'ius Calc [...]gni [...]us in his parti­cular Treatise De [...]udicio Vocalium, in Answer to Lucian's Piece upon the same Subject. Guraldus Dia­log. 9. and Vossius de Poetis Grae­cis, c.4. [...]; that is to say, made without a Sigma; because, he says, 'twas thought impossible they could leave out tha [...] Consonant, or that th [...]y had no esteem for that kind of P [...]sie. And Strabo to shew that the Sacrifi­ces to Cybele, and those to Bacchus, were equal­ly understood by the Name of Coryban [...]es, produces a Dithyramb which Pindar had made without doubt to mock those other Poet, of which the beginning is as follows.

Which agrees with what Dionysius Halecarnassaeus else­where says of this [...] (which Pindar perhaps calls a Theban Remnant ever since the Times of Cadmus and the Phoenicians) That they willingly put no S into their Verses, because of its hissing sound. And perhaps it is from hence that the double Σ, in the Attick Dialect, came ordinarily to be chang'd into Γ, and which gave occasion to that agreeable process of the Consonants in Lucian.

As for Horace,

As he says of himself; it may be very well presum'd he wanted not Envy, and that he was forc'd to sur­mount many Difficulties before he could see himself in a condition to be able to say,

‘And now I'm less bit by an envious Tooth.’ By which I conceive he means his close Enemies; such as swarm in great Mens Houses, Where (as Lucian say [...]) [...]eign Suspicions, Envy, Lyes and Slanders, whe [...]e great [Page 38] Hopes beget great Iealousies, and raging Hatreds, and the continual application of searching out means to ruine others.

Such Enemies as these, were they did Horace the greatest Mischief; who was a Person, upon whom they durst not with impunity openly attempt any thing; and whom they had reason to fear, for what he says of himself,

And,

And again,

But if our Poets were hardly dealt withall by the Envions, they were sufficiently recompens'd by the Honours, and Favours they receiv'd from Persons of Quality; for they were caress'd in their Times by those of the highest degree. For as Horace says,

And what a Joy was it to find,

He knew the Greatness of his own Merit, while he says,

Pindar says no less of his own Works, which he thinks fit to stile [...].

[Page 40] Sometimes he says,

And then again speaking of them assures us,

Which Horace hath happily imitated in this Ode.

They knew well enough their own value. Wherefore Pindar to that purpose ingeniously answer'd one (as Plutarch reports) who to flatter him said,

‘—I study to spread abroad your Commendations upon all Occasions, and indeavour to afford you the means of speaking Truth.’ 'Twas his only Wish, to enjoy long the Fruit of that Reputation, and the Honour he receiv'd from Persons of Merit.

To this we may add, his Reputation was so great after his Death, that the Lacedaemonians, and long af­ter them Alexander the Great, having taken the City of Thebes, sav'd all the Descendants of Pindar from Sla­very, and his House from Burning, by placing this In­scription on the Door. ‘ [...].’ ‘Burn not the Poet Pindar's House.’ I had almost forgot to tell to this purpose what is re­ported, That the Athenians publickly paid a Fine or Mulct which those of Thebes had set upon Pindar for having prais'd the City of Athens, calling it

Upon which, I cannot sufficiently admire the s [...]range Humour of those two Republicks, who mortally hated one another in their Prosperity, and yet in their Mis­fortunes render'd to each other those Services which [Page 42] they could not have expected from their best Friends.

To return to our two Poets. Pindar flourish'd in Greece, when Honour, Vertue, Wealth, and Arts were in their greatest Splendour. He appear'd seve­ral times in the publick Assembly of the Olympick Games, where as Lucian says of Herodotus, He receiv'd in one place the Vniversal Applause of all Greece, not pub­lish'd by [...]e Mouth of a single Crier, or Herald, but by those of as many Towns, as had sent People to that As­sembly.

As for Horace 'tis enough to say he liv'd in the Time of Augustus, and had, as he himself says, the Appro­bation

As much as to say, That of the Whole World.

He seems to me, among other things to have had a great Advantage over Pindar, in that he chose him­self the Subjects he had a mind to treat of, and by that could give a free Field to his Genius to range in, as to the Matters he made choice of. Whereas Pindar was under a Constraint, having been always oblig'd to praise Persons who for the most part were but of mean Me­rit. Which gave occasion for those Parechases or Di­gressions, of which I shall speak hereafter.

And in Truth, it was requisite the Works of Pin­dar should have something extraordinary, or rather Divine, to have pleas'd as they have done, by only singing of Praises; which ordinarily to us, appear as flat, as Satyres are agreeable, by reason of that little principle of Envy which is in us, which makes us be­lieve Men take from us what is given to another by praising him, and give to us what is taken from ano­ther by dispraising him. For

There was a time nevertheless, when Pindar was not of that high Esteem. For we find in Athenaeus, that in the Time of Eupolis the Comedian, the Works of Pindar were fallen into Oblivion, by reason of the lit­tle liking was commonly had of things worthy. And Casaubon says, that Eupolis deplor'd the Corruption of the Wits of his Age. Quod mollia & lascivae aliorum Poetarum Erotopaegnia, Pindaricae Musae, hec est, foedam Plumbi scoriam puro puto A ro ant [...]ponerent. i. e. Who preferr'd the Soft and Lascivious Erotopaegnia of other Poets, before the Works of the Pindarick Muse, that is, more valued the dross of Lead, than pure Gold.

And yet there was little more than a hundred Years between Pindar and Eupolis; who according to Suidas perish'd in a Naval Fight in the Peloponnesian War. Upon which occasion a Decree was made by the Peo­ple of Athens, ‘ [...].’ ‘That a Poet should be dispens'd with from going to the Wars.’

And this is seen in some places of Aristophanes, who lived about the same time as Eupolis; where his Scho­liasts say, He mocks at your Dithyrambick Writers, and particularly at Pindar, as in this place, where speak­ing of the Clouds, he makes Socrates to say,

And else where that Poet takes a Pleasure to form Di­thyrambick Cadences out of several Shreds or Pieces taken from divers places of Lyrick Poets, and turning them into ridicule; as in these.

Upon which his S [...]holiast says, The Poet speaks against those that write [...]rambs, and in another place, he more expresly mocks a [...] Pindar upon those frequent words of his [...] and [...], as in this place.

Upon which the Scholiast says, [...]. He mocks at Pindar.

And here we might take occasion to discourse of the Grecian Games, of their Institution, and the fruit of those Exercises which are so well explain'd by Solon in Lucian his Anacharsis. I might speak of their first Authors, the Rewards of the Conquerors; who ac­cording [Page 45] to Pindar, were reputed happy for all their Lives. And the time of their Celebration; particularly of the Olympicks which have given Name to the Olym­piads so often mentioned in Chronology, which Cele­bration was perform'd during the 45 Days of Interca­lation, proceeding from the Accompt of the Excess of 4 Solar Years above 4 Lunar ones, each of 12 Luna­tions. There are several other things we might dis­course of touching the Errors of the Ancients as to that Supputation, and of the different Mutations of the Epoche's or their Terms until the time of the Golden Number, or the Enneadecateride of Meton, upon which the Ancient Poets made such pleasant Raillery, whilst they feign'd the Gods to have gone Supperless to Bed, having a whole Day attended for the Smoak of the Sacrifices, which the reformed Ca­lendar put off to another time, but the Digression would be too great.

I shall not at all tell you of the Measures of Lyrick Verse, their Strophes and Antistrophes, Epods, Systems and Antisystems. I might yet have many things very curious to treat of upon occasion, touching the Modes of the ancient Musick, upon which the Odes of Pindar are compos'd: And I might Discourse concerning the Report of agreement they might seem to have with our manner of singing at this Day; and examine whether the Dorick Mode answer to our A mi la, &c. Diatonick, as Glarean and Galileo (Father of the great Mathemati­cian) are of Opinion; or to D la re sol, and the Lydi­an to L F ut fa, and I might by that explain that Verse of Horace,

[Page 46] But to avoid prolixity, I shall only say what Plutarch reports in his Book of Musick, which is. That Plato admitted the Dorick Mode in his Republick, as being more Masculine and Warlike than the other Modes, and by rea­son of its severity more proper to restrain the Extravagancies of Youth, than the Lydian and the Phrygian being too soft. And he commends the Poesie of Pindar compos'd for the Dance which he calls [...], The Pindarick Tuna, which agrees with what Clemens Alexandrinus tells us, That Pindar invented a sort of Dance, and is confirmed by Athenaeus.

But I think my Lord! It may be now time to speak of the Works of our two Poets. Pindar besides his Olympia, Pythia, Isthmia, and Nemaea, which we have, (to which four Books the Ancients gave the Name of Period) had compos'd divers other Works which are now lost, and of which we have no Remains, but some Fragments scattered in Eustathius, Athenaeus, Strabo, Philo-Iudaeus, Pausanias, Dionysius Halicarnassaeus, Plu­tarch, Stobaeus, Suidas, and some others. Of which see the account as given by Suidas. Pindar (says he) wrote 17 Books in the Dorick Dialect, as his Olympioni­ca, and Pythionica, Prosodia, Parthenia, Enthronismi, Bacchica, Daphniphorica, Paeanes, Hyporchimata, Hymni, Dithyrambi, Scolia, Encomia, Threni, Dramata Tragica, Epigrammata Heroica, and an Exhortation in Prose to his Countrymen the Greeks.

In this Catalogue of Suidas we cannot but wonder he should only mention his Olympionica, and his Pythionica, without taking notice of his Isthmica, and his Nemeaea; and we may do well here to observe, that he calls, O­limpionica and Pythionica, which almost all the printed Books call Olympia and Pythia. Which last is an Error, which Casaubon has corrected in his Lections upon Theo­critus, speaking occasionally upon the words Olympionica and Pythionica, where he says, Quas ego voces censeo esse reponendas in fronte singulorum Librorum Pindari, pro eo [Page 47] quod nunc Legimus Olympia, Pythia; male opinor; non enim ludos laudare Poetae est, ut loquuntur, intentio, sed ipsos victores. i. e. ‘Which Words I am of opinion ought to be inserted in the Title Pages of each of Pindar's Books, instead of what we there read O­lympia, and Pythia; unduly as I think, for it is not the Poet's Intention to praise the Games, but the Victors in those Games.’

These four Games, as we have already said, were call'd Periodus or the Period, by way of Excellency; for tho most of the considerable Towns of Greece held Assemblies for the Celebration of their particular Games, and had great Concourse of Combatants and Spectators, from all parts, there were four yet infi­nitely more celebrious than the rest, which they call'd Sacred, to wit, the Olympian which were held at Pisa in Elis in honour of Iupiter, the Pythian, at Cirrha in Phocis near Delphos in honour of Apollo; the Isthmian ▪ at the Isthmus of Peloponnesus near Corinth and Sicyonia, in honour of Neptune; and the Nemeaean in the Val­ley of Nemeaea near Argos, in honour of Iupiter. The Combatant who had been Victor in all these four Games (which they term'd [...], to gain the Period) teceiv'd thereby so great an Honour, that Pin­dar often compares it to that of the Gods, and Cicero makes no difficulty to say, That among the Gr [...]eks 'twas the same as to have Triumph'd among the Ro­mans.

Suidas says the Lyrick Poets call'd Prosodia the Poems that were sung at the solemn Feasts of the Gods: Prosodion. And Casaubon upon a place in Athenaeus, where there is a Speech made of the Prosodia, says, [...], Carmen ab iis cantari so­litum, qui ad Apollinem accedebant, Apostolicus mod [...]s is est, qui convenit [...] vel [...] erant apud Graecos praefecturae nauticae nomina, i e ‘ [...] Prosodion was a Song us'd to be sung by tho [...] [...] [Page 48] made their Address to Apollo.’ The Apostolion belong'd to those they call'd Apostoli, Apostolion. who were the Officers among the Greeks, who directed the Affairs of the Ma­rine.

Which I understand after this manner. That the Prosodion was apparently that which they sung in go­ing to the Temple of Apollo, [...], and the Apostolion what was sung, [...], by the Company of the Gallies going out to Sea.

The said Suidas says the Parthenia were Songs made in honour of Virgins, Parthenia. or the Eumenides, for both the one and the other are meant by the Word [...]. He calls the Paeans [...], or, as we may say in La­tine Faustas Acclamationes, Songs of Joy, good Wishes and Acclamations, or Benedictions, and he makes of them two sorts: One which they sung in honour of Mars before the Combat, and which they call'd, [...], the other after the Victory. Which yet in another place he delivers after another manner; that the Ancients sung two sorts of Paeans, one to Mars before the Battle, and another to Apollo after it. And 'tis upon this the Scholiast of Sophocles speaks, upon these Verses in his Oedipus Tyrannus. ‘ [...]—.’ That they who are in Health, make Sacrifices, and sing Pae­ans, for their being freed from Sickness; and they who are stricken with Sickness make Complaints of their Maladies. For as Suidas in another place says, The Paeanism is that which is sung for being delivered from the Evils they are threatned with.

I have likewise found in several Au­thors, Paean. that the Paean was not compos'd by the Ancients but for the Gods only. [Page 49] And one of the principal Heads of the Accusation De­mophilus made against Aristotle at Athens, was that of Impiety, with which he was charg'd for having made that excellent Ode we find in Athenaeus, and Diogenes Laertius, in honour of one Hermias Tyrant of Aternae, which Demophilus maintain'd to have been a Paean, tho' Aristotle made the contrary appear by several Reasons, of which the principal was, that there wanted in it the Acclamation of [...], which is, as one would say, the very mark of a Paean.

They which came after Aristotle were no such rigid Observers of that Ceremony, which pass'd from the Gods to Heroes, and from them to Mortal Men, by the Flattery of the Athenians, who were the first that caus'd one to be sung in honour of Demetrius the Son of Antigonus, and another after that, in honour of Ptolemy King of Aegypt.

Macrobius in the 17th Chapter of his first Book of Saturnals, produces a very curious Origine of that Acclamation, [...], or [...]; for they are both us'd, because Apollo is call'd [...], or from [...] to heal, or from [...], from his shoot­ing off Letiferous Shafts; and [...], a feriendo, to strike; or, [...], from his mitigating of Pains.

Athenaeus, as to the Origine of this Word, recounts a very pleasant Story. He says, That Latona having brought her Children from Chalcis in Euboea to Delphos, resolv'd to repose her self near the Cave where the Serpent Python had his Den; whence that Serpent issuing out with fury to devour her, she was thereupon so extremely afrighted, that snatching up Diana in her Arms, she hastily fled a­way, and got upon a Stone, which serves (says he) as a Basis to the Statue of that Goddess, and whereupon was en­graven the whole Story of that Accident, and Apollo being happily present, arm'd with his Bow and Arrows, distressed Latena crys out several times, [...], i. e. [Page 50] Shoot Child, Sh [...]ot. And from thence came that Accla­mation ordinarily made use of by those who are in dan­ger.

Plutarch in his Book of Musick says, There is great difference between a Paean and the Hypor­chema, Hyporchema. as may be seen (says he) by the Works of Pindar, who hath compos'd both the one and the other. Those Works of Pindar which are stil'd Hyporchemata, I call, Songs for the Dance. For as much as the Ancients have written they were the same with the Carmen Saliare of the Latines; which according to the Interpretation of Dalecampius upon Athenaeus, Saltantibus accinebatur, Was Sung to the Dan­cers. Or, as Lucian says, Were Songs compos'd for the Dance of the Persons in the Chorus, and call'd Hyporche­mata; although Casaubon thinks otherwise, and calls them Saltationes Voci subservi [...]ntes, Dances compos'd to the Voice. But 'tis easie to reconcile that Diversity by what the same Athenaeus in another place says, The Hyporchema was a kind of Dance, where the Persons, whether Men or Women who compos'd the Chorus, Danc'd Singing: And that among those Dances the most conside­rable were Prosodia, Apostolia, the Parthenia, and the like; for as for the Hymns, and particularly those to Venus and Bacchus, as likewise the Paeans, some of them (says he) were danc'd, and others were not.

Where it may be noted that these Songs we have but now spoken of, (which were sung in Processions, or in publick Shews, and Ceremonies, or at Naval Imbarkments) were not only sung, but that there were Dan­cers likewise who shewed several Gestures and Motions as Signs and Marks expressive of the sense and meaning of the Things that were sung. And he (says Athenaeus) who made any Gestures or Motions not answerable to the Subject or Sence of the Letter, or danc'd without measure, or [...]ut of just Cadence was hiss'd at. Whence it came (says he) that this kind of Dance was call'd in Greek [...], [Page 51] as one would say, [...]. A Dance after the Aire or Sence of the Song. Or, as he says in another place, an imitation of the Things express'd by the Letter of the Aire or Song.

He further says, Dances proper to Theatrical Poesie. As there are three sorts of Dances proper to Theatrical Poesie, that is to say, the Tragical, the Comical, and Satyrical; so likewise there are three kinds proper to the Lyrick Poesie, to wit, Dances proper to Lyrick Poe­sie. the Pyr­rick, the Gymnopedike, and the Hypor­chematike The Pyrrhick has much of resemblance with the Satyrical, being both Danc'd with a quick and swift Motion, the Pyr­rhick being a Warlike Dance. The Gymnopedike, has some relation to the Tragical, which they call Emme­lia, as being serious, and that there is a kind of Gra­vity, and Majesty in both of them; the Hyporchema­tike, or Comical, which they call Cordax, in regard they have both of them something more Jolly and Fro­lick. I make use of that Term to express the Ridicule of the Cordax, which sometimes went to a vicious excess, and at length past for Infamous among the Greeks, by reason of the dishonest and Lascivious Ge­stures of the Dancers. Of which Horace seems to take notice when he complains,

I could wish we had the Works of Pindar which are lost, that we might know the true difference be­tween those he had compos'd in honour of one and the same Deity, as between the Daphnephoria, the Paeans, and Prosodia, which were all made in honour of Apollo, [Page 52] or between the Bacchicks and the Dithyrambs which were made in honour of Bacchus whom they call'd Dithyrambos, because he was born by two Gates, that is, from the Belly of his Mother, and the Thigh of Iupiter. Perhaps they differ'd not but in the Cadences and Mea­sures of the Verse, or other Expressions; at least it ap­pears throughout, that the Dithyrambs were full of Figures extremely swelling, great Dictions compos'd of several others, and a sence perpetually imbroil'd and intricate, in so much as not easily to be under­stood. For as Suidas writes, The Composers of Di­thyrambs spoke not but of Things elevated as of the Clouds and Meteors, and in Terms made up of com­pound Words, and ways of speaking new, hardy, and extraordinary, as Horace says, speaking of Pindar,

Which comes to what Aristophanes says, who calls them [...], Charlatans who indeavoured to puzzle their Auditors with mighty Words, and vain Discourses in the Air. And as his Scholiast adds the Dithyrambick Poets made use of compound Elocu­tions and extremely imbroil'd. Which occasioned the Proverb,

[Page 53] Which is apply'd to Things very difficult to be under­stood.

I observe these Dithyrambs were well esteemed of, while compriz'd within the Bounds of reasonable and moderate Expressions. But were look'd upon as ridi­culous, when carried on to Excess, as we have seen a­bove in those Remnants and Pieces which Aristophanes has maliciously tack'd together in his Clouds; where his Scholiast says, that the Dithyrambs were not made but to ruine good Poesie.

At least they believ'd not they could be suffered a­ny where but in a Society of Drunkards, as Philocho­rus in Athenaeus declares, That the Ancients sung not Di­thyrambs in any of their Libations or Sacrifices, but only in those they made to Bacchus, and when they were well whet­ted. And we have some Verses of Archilochus to this Purpose.

Which comes up to that Fragment we have of Epi­charmus who forbids, [...], There should be any Dithyrambs for your Water-Drinkers.

There is yet another sort of Poetry in the number of those attributed to Pindar, which was not Sung but in their Cups; and these were the Sco­lia's of the Ancients, which Suidas calls, Scolia, what kind of Poesie. [...], as one would say, Drunken Catches; of whom the Inventor according to Pindar in Plutarch, was one call'd Ther­pander, [Page 54] and 'twas principally at Nuptial Festivals that these kind of Songs were made use of. And as the Ancient Greeks did eat lying, and not sitting as we do, they drest for that purpose several little Beds round about a Table, upon which the invited Guests lay down, and at the end of Dinner a Branch of Myr­tle was given to him that was at the end of the Table, who immediately began to sing some little Sentences or Pieces of Love in Verse, and after that gave the Branch to him that was next him, who having sung his Song, gave it to another, and so it pass'd from Hand to Hand till it came to the Master of the Feast; and as it pass'd from one to another, it made a round about the Table, which they call'd, [...], a winding or turning March, by reason of the little Beds set round the Table, and from thence the Sonnets had the Name of Scolia's.

I call them Sonnets after the manner of Suidas, who says, The Scolion was a Song of few Verses, which was ordinarily made in praise of some brave Action, or in dispraise of some Vices; for as Casaubon says, Verissi­mum est Scoliorum Argumenta fuisse [...], & vitae prae­cepta sunt, quae pleraque illorum facta ex dictis septem sa­pientum quae [...] olim dicta sunt, quia moris erat ea cantare in Convivis, i. e. It is most certain that the Argu­ments or Subjects of these Scholia's were instructive to Life, and were full of Moral Praecepts. They were for the most part taken out of the Sayings of the Seven Wise Men, which were heretofore call'd Adomenes, because it was the Cu­stom to sing them at Feasts. Which is confirm'd by what Suidas and Aristophanes report of Pericles, who had written the Laws of Athens in form of little Songs after the man­ner of Scolia 's, to the end they might be sung, and so be more easily remembred; and is further verified by a number of Scolia's in Athenaeus.

[Page 55]That Author says moreover, as does likewise Sui­das, That there were three different Manners of Singing at the Table; the first when all the Company sang together one and the same Song; the second when they sang round one after another; and the third, when they only who were skil­ful Songsters sung each of them a Song, and that Interrup­tion (says he) which was made passing from one skilful Songster to another, leaving the rest of the Guests vacant, and going a Traverse, or Skipping, gave the Name Sco­lion to that manner of Singing.

I shall say nothing of that Great Scolion of Pindar, which he made in Praise of the Corinthian Courtezans; nor of that Eustathius speaks of in his Comment upon the Odysses, That there were two kinds of Scolia 's, whereof one they call'd, [...], or rallying, made purposely to mock at the Vicious; and the other [...], or Serious, in Commendation of Vertue and Vertuous Persons. Among the last he puts those which they call'd, [...], or Lugubria, which were sung at the Solemnity of the Dead by those of the Family, about the Funeral Pile. I have read in an Interpreter of Athenaeus that these Scolia's were like those Verses which from the Italians we at present call Stanzas, Sonnets, and Madrigals.

But I may seem to have been too long upon this Matter, and that 'tis time to return to our Sub­ject.

See therefore the Judgment Quintilian has given of Pindar's Poesie in the first Chapter of his Tenth Book, where he says, Novem vero Lyricorum longè Pindarus princeps, Spiritus magnificentia, sententiis, figuris, brevis­sima rerum verborumque copiâ, & veluti quodam Eloquen­tiae flumine, propter quae Horatius eum credidit nemini imitabilem, i. e. Pindar is far beyond any, Prince of the Nine Lyrick Poets, for the Height and Majesty of his Thoughts, the Gravity of his Sentences, the Beauty of his Figures, the Copious Brevity of his Words and Matter, and [Page 56] as it were a Flood or Torrent of Eloquence; for which Ho­race thought him inimitable.

It seems Quinctilian took all this Discourse from Dio­nysius Halicarnassaeus his Book de construction. verbonim where he thus speaks, Pindar is Admirable for the choice of his Words and Thoughts, he has Grandeur, Harmony, Affluence, Order, and vigour of Expressions, and all that, accompany'd with a certain grave yet close Delivery, mix'd with an agreeable sweetness; is marvellous for his Sentences, his Energy, his Figures, his address in describing manners, his Amplifications, and Elocution, and above all for the Honesty of his own Manners, which appears in all his Wri­tings, where his Temperance, his Piety and the Greatness of his Mind shine throughout.

By which it appears to me, that Author was perfect­ly acquainted with the Character of Pindar, for he has omitted nothing that could be considered in his Works, where the Sublime (of which Longinus has written) is in its greatest Lustre, and of which Ho­race says,

Athenaeus likewise never speaks of Pindar, but he gives him this Epithete, [...], The great-voic'd Pindar.

[Page 57]And now it might be proper for me after what these Men have said, to hold my Tongue; but my Lord! I cannot forbear telling you of some Passages in Pindar, which I never yet could read without being extreme­ly concern'd. As where he describes the Joy the Good Old Aeson had when he review'd his Son Iason, and beheld him to be a Person so well made and accom­plish'd, after he had mourn'd for him as Dead.

Or when he recounts the brave Action of Antilochus [...], who undertook by his own Death to save the Life of his Father Nestor, where the Rela­tion is so tender, so touching, and so lively, as Diony­sius Halicarnassaeus notes, That they seem not the things told, but the very actions themselves, as if done in our Pre­sence. There is no body but trembles for the poor Ne­stor, to see him distress'd in his Chariot, stop'd by the wounding of one of his Horses, and pursu'd by Mem­non with his Lance a tilt; but who would not at the same time be strook with equal Joy and Grief to see Antilochus so courageously oppose himself against him, and die combating for the Life of his Father?

Can any thing be seen more soft than what he says of the Birth of Aristaeus.

See how richly he commends the Excellent Sculptures of the Rhodians?

With what Force and Vigour does he describe the Hostile Desolation of a fruitful Land?

With what agreeableness does he paint the Joy of an Old Man at the Birth of a Son to inherit his E­state?

And the Shame and Grief of the Combatants over­come in the Pythian Games?

The Description he gives of Mount Aetna hath some­thing of Divine,

Which Virgil hath imitted in the 3d of his Aeneids af­ter this manner.

Which is one of the Places Phavorinus (in Aulus Gellius) says Virgil had not put his last Hand to, and where he finds much to say against it, but chiefly for taking up­on [Page 62] on him to imitate Pindar. Ejusmodi sententias & verba molitus est, ut Pindaro quoque ipso, qui nimis opima pin­guique esse facundiâ existimatus est, insolentior hoc quidem in loco' tumidiorque sit, i.e. He seems to have attempted the same Words and Expressions as Pindar, who had an Eloquence esteemed too Rich and Pompous, and in this place to have outgone him in Terms more insolent, and more swel­ling.

It is worth seeing what Pindar says of Fortune,

And speaking of the Graces he says,

Horace hath imitated very nearly the Verses of For­tune in his Ode. ‘ [Page 63]O Diva gratum quae regis Antium.’ And those of the Graces, which he attributes to the Muses, in this, ‘Discende Coelo & dia age Tibia—’ As likewise that excellent place of Pindar,

Which he turns so happily after this Manner,

[Page 64] And several other excellent Passages, whence Horace and Virgil seem to have drain'd his Sublime Sentiments, and rich Expressions, being ravish'd and carried away with anothers Enthusiasm, in the same manner (says [...], S. 11. ex edit. Langban. Longinus) as the Priestess of Apollo upon the sacred Tripod, is possest with the Spirit of that God.

'Twould take up too much time should I enter up­on the particularizing what is observable in the Works of Pindar, and speak of the Austerity of his Diction, his Sentences, his Figures, and particularly his Hy­perbata, his Metaphors, his Allegories, his Hyperbole's, which so much enrich his Thoughts, as likewise of those graceful Words, [...]. Tempest-footed and indefatigable, which leave us the penetrating Ideas of the lightness and swiftness he speaks of.

I shall only tell what Quinctilian reports of the Hy­perbole in the 8th Chapter of his 10th Book, where he says, Exquisitam figuram hujus rei deprendere apud princi­pem Lyricorum videar, in libro quem inscripsit [...], Is namque Herculis Impetum adversus Meropas qui in Insulâ Co dicuntur habitasse, non igni, nec Ventis, neo Mari, sed fulmini dicit similem fuisse, ut illa minora, hoc par esset, i. e. I find an Exquisite Example of this Figure, in the Prince of Lyrick Poets, Pindar, in one of his Hymns, where speaking of the impetuous Assault made by Hercules against the Meropes, Inhabitante of the Island Chios, he assimi­lates the Action not to Fire, Winds, or the Sea, but to Thunder; the others seeming less, this only equal to it.

And what Dionysius Halicarnassaeus hath upon the Subject of the severity of his Diction in his Book of Demosthenes his Eloquence, where having explicated at large what he calls austere Harmony, he concludes, that the Diction of Aeschylus among the Tragick Po­ets, and that of Pindar wholly and entirely among the Lyricks, may afford sufficient Examples.

[Page 65]The same Author in his Book of the Construction of Words, says, 'twill suffice to mention only Pindar among the Poets, and Thucydides among the Historians, for they are two, who have most happily made use of that Har­mony and austere Construction in Discourse; begin we (says he) with this Dithyramb of Pindar, &c. And after having recited the Verses of the Poem, he adds, There is no Man who sees not but that the Expression is Strong, Nervous, Sententious, Grave, and very Severe, which is heard and goes off without Distaste, and agreeably strikes the Ear.

These are the Beauties of Pindar; for which, in an Epigram of the Greek Anthology, he is sometimes call'd,

‘The Servant of the Sweet-voic'd Muses.’ And again,

‘The Muses Trumpet, sounder of grave Hymns.’ Which gave occasion of this further Encomium,

Upon which Score Horace writes,

And Longini [...], That Pindar seems sometimes to set all on Fire with his Vehemence. 'Tis true yet what the same Longinus immediately after says, That that Ardor of his was sometimes ill-quench'd, and fell unhappily. As much as to say, That amidst the great Beauties of Pindar, there were some Defects taken notice of by the Cri­ticks, of which we shall reckon up the most considera­ble.

The first is, that Faftus of Words, and that perpe­tual height of Expressions, full of excessive Hyperbole's, as we have already remark'd out of Favorinus, speaking of the Judgment he gave upon Virgil, That Pindar 's E­loquence was too rich and swelling.

And truly there is in Pindar some Fashions of speak­ing so hardly, and so far from our common use, that a Man can hardly consider of them, without finding them ridiculous. As when having excessively prais'd one of his Combatants, and fearing he might be thought to have said too much, he leaves off.

‘Least Envy should throw Stones at him.’ [Page 67] And when he praises another for having been Victori­ous, he uses this Expression,

‘He fell upon the Golden Knees of Victory.’ After the same manner having spoken of another Vi­ctor in the Olympick Games, he adds,

And some others of the like Nature which are, as I have said, very far from the Notion of Sublime, in our manner of speaking. And we can give no other reason for't, but that of the Mode and Gusto of the Times. But to condemn all upon that Principle, were to be too quick, and to do like those who having never been out of their own Homes, cannot without Laugh­ter look upon strange fashion'd Cloaths.

What besides they find ill in Pindar's Works, are the enormous Digressions or Excursions he makes, which have for the most part so little of Rapport to the principal Subject of the Ode, that they appear like large pieces of Cloth of Gold sow'd to some Stuff, of less value.

Upon which, 'Tis to be remembred what hereto­fore we have said, That Pindar had occasion to praise Persons who were ordinarily but of mean Merit, and therefore had not much to say of them. So that he was oblig'd to search for Matter abroad, upon which [Page 68] he might elevate his Thoughts; forasmuch as those wretched Combatants he prais'd, would have long Odes for their Money; and 'twas in this, that the Artifice of Pindar principally appear'd,

Which he calls, [...], The Effect of an extraor­dinary Genius: And upon this Subject I cannot forbear to say what sometime hath come into my Mind, that in all likelihood Pindar at his Leisure compos'd upon several sort of Cadences his different Works in Praise of the Gods and Heroes: And that when a Victorious Combatant came to ask him for an Ode, he went to search among his Compositions for a Piece that was most proper, and would be most suitable for the Per­son he was to praise, either in respect of his Country, or the place of his Victory, his Beauty, Age, or some other thing that might serve him as a Connexion to put together what he had formerly prepar'd, with that he had thought to say upon the accompt of him he was to speak of.

In the mean while, his Transitions are so just, that his Artisice therein appear'd not at all, and is what he acknowledges in divers places. As for Example, at the end of that long and admirable Narration of the Argonauts which is in the 4th of his Pythioniques, where he says,

And in another place,

They take notice likewise of some Faults of Pindar in Chronology; as where he recounts the taking up of Pelops, to the Palace of Iupiter, where, says he, [...], Ganymede afterwards arriv'd, in­stead of saying, [...], where Ganymede had been before; because Ganymede was elder than Pelops according to their Genealogies reported by Diodorus Siculus, who writes, That Paris was the Son o [...] Priam, he of Laomedon, whose Father was Ilus, to whom Ga­nymede was Brother; and in another place, That Mene­laus was the Son of Atreus, whose Father was Pelops, where it may be observ'd that Paris and Menelaus be­ing of the same Age, and there being but two Gene­rations from Menelaus to Pelops, and three from Pa­ris to Ganymed, it follows that this should be Elder than the other, and consequently that Neptune his ta­king [Page 70] up of Pelops must be a long time after that of Iu­piter his Rape of Ganymede for his Beauty.

Pausanias (in Achaicis) takes notice of another Pa­rachronism of Pindar, where he says, It seems to me that Pindar was not altogether so knowing of what concern'd the Temple of the Ephesian Diana, whilst he Writes, It was built by the Amazons when they made War against Theseus Prince of Athens; for that Temple was famous long time before the Ionians pass'd into Asia. True it is, the Amazons marching in that War from Thermodoon, offer'd their Sacrifices to that Goddess there, as they did like­wise in their Flight from Hercules, and before that when defeated, and pursu'd by Bacchus, they fled to that Temple as Suppliants; but they never were, or can be said to have been Builders thereof.

If we had those Poems of Pindar, which they call Threni, we should see whether it be true what Diony­sius Halicarnassaeus says, That Simonides was more hap­py than Pindar, in describing sad and Lugubrious Subjects, in as much as he mourned not in such Magnifick and Swelling Expressions as he, but in much more pathetical. But as those Works are lost, we must acquiesce, and leave it to the judgment and sufficiency of that Author.

I find there are some Learned Persons who discom­mend the beginning of the first Ode, [...], The best of Things is Water; and like not, that being to make a highly-elevated Comparison, he should use that of Water, which is too vile and low to produce any Idea of Grandeur in our Thoughts. That of Gold [Page 71] which follows after, has (say they) some excuse for the Passion this Poet had for Riches; but they find not any proportion between Water and the Sun to joyn them together, which has a seeming resemblance of Truth according to our Principles and manner of rea­soning at this Day.

This Objection nevertheless, will not appear very considerable, if we make but this Reflexion, That Pindar sent that Ode into Sicily to a Tyrant of Syracu­sa, where they follow'd the Doctrine of Empedocles, who about that time had immortaliz'd himself by his Works, by his Life and his voluntary fall into the flam­ing Gulf of Aetna: For one of the Principles of that Philosopher's Doctrine, was this, That Water was the Origin and Source of all the Works of Nature.

So that Pindar could not make use of a Comparison more happy or more efficacious than that of Water, to comprehend what was great and elevated to the Sicili­ans, who regarded that Element as the Principle, which had given them their Being.

And these, my Lord, are the Defects which some have charg'd Pindar with, which are no other than little Moles in a Beautiful Body, as Horace says,

Which in my Sence, make in his admirable Works, what Shadows do in Painting, which heighten and set off with greater Lustre the Beauties and Colours of the Piece: Or, as [...], §. 25. ex Edit. Langbain. Or § 26. ex Edit. Tan. Fabri. Longinus says, As Dissonances in Musick are suffer'd, to give the greater rellish and more agreeable sweet­ness to the perfect Accords. They are, to speak truly the inevitable Effects of that Sublimity of Thought and Diction, which according to the Sentiment of that Author, can [Page 72] never be entirely pure; and where as in a great and rich store, there will be a necessity of loosing or neg­lecting something.

I call these Faults Negligences, for such are those of Pindar, which will never hinder him from always me­riting to be Crown'd with Phoebean Lawrel, and bear­ing away the Prize from all the Lyrick Poets, tho the Stile of some of them be more even, and less defect­ive: For that, evenness of Stile can never enter into Comparison with that Majestick Force, (tho some­thing uneven) in the Stile of Pindar.

And this [...], L. seu §. 29. according to the Langbain Edition. Longinus makes clearly appear, when having examined the Faults of Homer, and declar'd that A­pollonius, in his Argonauticks, is with­out Defects, he crys out, and asks, Whe­ther there be any one would rather be Apol­lonius than Homer? Bacchylides than Pindar? Ion of Chios, than Sophocles? And after adds, These first are without Defects, and never trip, or stumble in their Writings, whereas the others sometimes fall, by reason of the Violence that Transports them beyond their power to re­gulate, or remedy.

And I further observe, that Longinus judiciously joyns together these three Heroes of Greek Poesie, Homer, Pindar and Sophocles as the three Coryphaei in e­very kind of Poesie, the Epick, Lyrick and Tragick; and who according to the Judgment of Aristotle, chose Subjects the most Sublime, and handled them the most no­bly.

Come we now to the Works of Horace; he hath left us four Books of Odes, one of Epods, two of Satyrs, two of Epistles, and one of the Art of Poetry, dedicated to the Piso's. He calls those of his Odes Lib [...]os Carminum, because the Word Carmen in Latin answers to the [...] of the Greeks, who call the Lyrick Poets [...], and [...].

[Page 73]Some Grammarians believ'd that the Word [...] (which they term See the rea­son of the Word in Sca­liger de Poe­tica, l. 1. c. 44. Quia post can­tiones ad Aras Deorum ex­pletas, accede­bat aliquis, sacra certis versiculis clausurus. Clau­sular's) had taken its Name from the in­equality of the Verse, in which they are written, in regard the Greeks call'd Epods, or Clausular's the short Verses which follow just under the longer. O­thers seeing the best Ode in the Book of Epods, which is against Canidia, to speak nothing but of Enchantments, which they call [...] in Greek, conceive the Name to have pass'd from that Ode to the whole Book: And others lastly have concluded the Book of Epods to be as it were [...], as if compos'd after, or as I may say, over and above those of the Odes. There are those who take the Carmen Saeculare out of the Body of his other Books, and make it a separate Work of it self.

The two of Satyrs have that Title given them for that as Horace seems to confess,

They are call'd likewise Libri Sermonum, Discourses, because speaking of them in another place, he says, they are,

There is something wanting in the Epistles; and tho there are some Specimens which are without any Breach, by reason the beginning of one Epistle is joyn'd [Page 74] to the end of another; yet the common Sence shows clearly, that many times they are both defective. That to the Piso's de Arte Poetica, which Horace for the most part hath taken from Parianus Neoptolemus, is an accomplish'd Piece; it has been anatomiz'd by Fa­bricius, who has reduc'd to a certain Order the Precepts here and there scattered in that Treatise.

You see, my Lord! By this Discourse, we have a larger Subject given us to treat of these Pieces of Ho­race, than those of Pindar, for the reason we have al­ready deliver'd, that the greatest part of the latter's Works are lost. And that by what we have left of him, he seems to have been constrain'd to spend his Wit upon the praises of particular Persons; whereas Horace had the Liberty to choose his Subjects the most proper to his own Genius and Humour.

I know full well there hath been an infinite number of things advantageously said of him and his Works; and that the greatest Persons, both Ancient and Mo­dern, have rendred of him Illustrious Testimonies. But I should be too tedious, should I go about to re­port them all in this place; I shall therefore content my self to tell you only what Quinctilian, who in my Opinion is a sufficient Judge, hath deliver'd of him.

And in the first place, as to its Satyres, he immedi­ately gives him the advantage over Lucilius, Multo est tertior Lucilio, ac purius magis Horatius, & ad notandos mores praecipuus. Horace (says he) is much more Polite and Neat than Lucilius; and for describing of Manners most admirable.

For his Epods. Iambus (says he) non sane à Roma­nis celebratus est ut proprium opus, à quibusdam interpositus, cujus Acerbitas in Catullo, Bibaculo, Horatio: Quamvis illi Epodos intervenire reperiatur, i. e. The Iambick never pass'd with the Romans for a particular sort of Poetry. Some have inserted it among other Verses. Of which, the force and Acerbity may be seen in Catullus, Bibaculus [Page 75] and Horace: Tho it appears they were sometimes inter­mix'd in Epods. Where we see he calls Epods what others term Clausulars; that is to say, those short Verses interpos'd after the longer, which they call Iambicks.

But as for his Odes, or Lyricks, he prefers him be­fore all that ever wrote in that kind. At Lyricorum idem Horatius ferè solus legi dignus, nam & insurgit ali­quando & plenus est jucunditatis, & gratiae, & variis figu­ris & verbis faeliciter audax, i. e. Of all the Lyricks, there is none but Horace only who merits to be read, for he sometimes rises full of pleasing Graces, and is most happily bold in the variety of his Expressions and Figures.

It will be very difficult to add any thing to that Judgment; which not only places Horace above all the Lyricks, but enters into the Particularities of his Perfections. It seems to me as if he would say, Ho­race has spoken upon all the Matters that can enter in­to Lyrick Poesie, and that he has Divinely treated of them: That he raised himself in the greatest Subjects almost as high as Pindar, but maintain'd them more uniformly, without falling, as may be seen in these Excellent Odes.

And,

[Page 76] That in the middle sort of Stile he has inimitable Charms, as in that Ode which Sealiger is so much ta­ken with.

And that other,

There are other Odes of a Compsotion more severe, as these,

We have him in others, where he seems to be full of a Spirit of Fury, which Longinus would call,

[Page 77] Others that seem to have been dictated to him by the Graces: As,

I have already spoken of his Amorous, and his Satyri­cal Pieces; but I can never be weary of praising the Sweetness of those where there is something of sad, and mournful, as, in that to Maecenas.

And that other to Virgil, upon the Death of Quincti­lius Varus,

And to speak the Truth, I find all that is graceful, and pleasant, in Horace; and I never take him up to read him in any part, but I meet with something that seems to me to be new; and that I discover not some fresh Beauties and Graces which I never perceiv'd be­fore.

And 'tis that part of his Works where one may admire the Fecundity and Sublimity of his Invention, the Riches and the Hardiness of his Expressions, the Purity of his Diction, which is infinitely more modest and correct than that of Pindar. Horace likewise liv'd in an Age wher [...] his insolent Figures were not per­mitted, [Page 78] and he could not say as Martial afterwards did.

His Sentences are so frequent, and so strong and vigo­rous, and exprest in terms so majestick, that 'tis im­possible they should not touch to the quick; and one may see by all that we have already said, that he had enrich'd his Mind by all the fairest Lights he could get by the Lecture of good Books, or the Conversation of Honourable Company which was the thing Pindar wanted.

His Satyres and his Epistles are not of a Stile so elevated as his Odes, but on the contrary, he seems to have affected the abating and diminishing of its force expresly. ‘Extenuantis cas consulto.’ As if he purposely design'd the extenuating it, and thereby make his Verses appear sine nervis, less strong and ner­vous.

In which the justness of his Judgment appears a­bove all those who have attempted to write Satyres. For, in my Opinion, 'tis not they who speak great Words, or make the most noise, that touch the near­est. I love an Author that reasons and toyes fa­miliarly with us, and who, as Persius says of Ho­race,

[Page 79] Upon which I cannot but wonder at the Judgment of Scaliger, who prefers Iuvenal before him; Versus longe meli­ores quam Horatiani, Sententiae acriores, Phrasis apertior. Whose Verses (says he) are much better than Horace 's, his Sentences more sharp, and his Phrase more open.

Which I must needs refer to his chagrin Humour, who could not laugh at any thing, and had been long accustomed to cry aloud, and speak injuriously. But need I wonder that Scaliger should attack Horace? Sca­liger, I say, who dar'd to blame Euclid, and Archi­medes, in whom he was confident he had found Paralo­gisms, but with the Success, or rather Shame and Grief that all the World knows. What he says else­where, Juvenalis ardet, Persius jugulat, Horatius irri­det, i. e. Iuvenal is fiery, Persius plays the Cut-throat, Horace mocks and Laughs, is something of a better Sence; however an old Commentator upon Horace hath said, That the Satyre of Horace is a Mean be­tween that of Lucilius, and Iuvenal, Nam & asperita­tem habet qualem Lucilius, & suavitatem qualem Juvena­lis, as having the Asperity of Lucilius, and the sweet­ness of Iuvenal.

I cannot but be troubled to find that the Authority of Scaliger hath drawn after him that of Lipsius. Who, after having declar'd that divers Persons were offend­ed that Scaliger should prefer Iuvenal before Horace, says this, At ille, me judice, inter multa certi & elegantis judicii, nihil verius protulit, i. e. Among the many things he hath delivered of a solid and exquisite Iudgment, there is nothing, in my Mind, he ever pronounc'd of greater Truth. And I am not satisfy'd with the honourable Amends he elsewhere makes Horace, by saying, That he is, Placidus, lenis, quietus, monet saepius quam casti­gat, [Page 80] sed ita praeclare hoc ipsum, ut in ea parte & arte, nihil possit supra eum, i. e. Pleasant, Gentle and agreeable, Ad­monishes oftner than Corrects; and this he does with so much Art, and so Nobly, that nothing can be said to go beyond him.

For in my Opinion 'tis to judge after the Flemish or the Holland Fashion, of the Delicateness, and Polite­ness of Manners, to say as he in another place does, Hoc ipsum maxime Satyrae proprium videtur, tangit vitia, objurgat, inclamat, raro jocos, saepius acerbos sales miscet, i. e. It seems the most proper Character of a Satyre to strike at Vices, to chide and upbraid, to cry out, seldom to joke, and oftner to intermix sharp and bitter Railleries.

'Tis in these Satyres Horace displays the best of that Learning he had acquir'd by the Study of Philosophy: He is not pleas'd as Iuvenal, to put himself into Pas­sion incessantly, but contrarily Discovers Truths by Laughing.

And takes off the Mask from Craft, Covetousness, Couzenage and Hypocrisie, by his Reasonings which are always just, and issuing from a Spirit perfectly sound and purify'd.

His Narrations there, are marvellous, his Descrip­tions fine and delicate. I take a singular Pleasure in reading over and over the Treatment of Horace, and that troublesome Fellow, in the 9th Satyre of his first Book. I can never be tir'd with that Description of the Amorous Person, who consulted whether he should return to his Mistress, who call'd him back, after she had thrust him out of Doors? Which Horace hath ta­ken almost Word for Word from Terence his Eunuchus, That of the Soldier of Lucullus, of Vulteius Mena, [Page 81] of the Sorceries of Canidia in the Eighth Satyre of his first Book, are admirable. I speak not of those lit­tle Stories so delicate and delightful, which he has taken from Aesop's Fables, as that of the Stag and Horse, that of the Frogs, that of the City and the Country Mouse, and a hundred other pr [...]tty Descrip­tions, which he touches with an Air so gallant, and a turn so easie, that 'tis impossible to look upon them without being extreamly pleas'd. I should be forc'd to Transcribe all his Works, should I undertake to report all the Places and Passages that merit to b [...] prais'd and commended.

'Tis not yet but that the Criticks find some thin [...] to except against; and for my self, I could say (if [...] might speak my Mind freely) that Horace has fallen into that Excess which Longinus call [...] Fury out of Season, in those Verses in his Art of Poetry where he says,

See the best Verses in the World, which speak of the greatest things that humane Art or Power can un­dertake, viz. To make new Ports, to drain Marishes, and turn the Course of great Rivers, which Horace calls Regis Opus, a Kingly Work; and which the vast Expence, the great Care and Travail of Men intend­ed to have made Immortal; nevertheless all these by the common Fate of Things find an end.

Will you not say that to answer the Comparison worthily of these Emphatical Expressions, Horace should tell you of something extraordinary and sur­prizing; and yet this great Preparation ends at last in a Consolation only for the Decease of some wretched Dictions, or Words departed out of the World of common usage.

[Page 83]I cannot but further take notice of the passionate Transport some Learned Criticks of this latter Age, have against Horace upon the Subject of his Judgment on the Verses and Railleries of Plautus, where he Writes,

Hereupon Scaliger with his ordinary Emphasis crys out, Quis adeo est aversus à Musis, ut lepore, & salibus Plauti & Laberii non tangatur? Horatii judicium sine ju­dicio est, i. e. ‘Who can be so averse from the Mu­ses, as not to be touch'd with the Facetiousness and Jests of Plautus and Laberius? Horace his Judgment is without Judgment.’

[Page 84] Lipsius says no less, Neque praeter rem amare se dicit elegantes & Vrbanos Plauti sales; nec Venusini illius ali­ter censentis versus unquam sine indignatiuncula legere, i. e. ‘Not without reason (says he) I love the Elegant and Witty Urbanities of Plautus, nor can I ever read the Verses of that Venusine, who judges other­wise, without some kind of Indignation.’

Besides these, hear how mischievously pleasant Turnebus is upon the same Subject, In hujus Plauti sali­bus aestimandis accedo potius sententiae veterum ingenuorum Remanorum, quam Flacci Venusini Hominis, & Libertino Patre Nati, i. e. ‘As to the Estimation of Plautus his Jests, and witty Railleries, I rather adhere to the Opinion of the Ancient Ingenuous Romans, than to the Censure of that Venusine Flaccus, the Son of a Freedman.’ As much as to say, That Horace did not well enough understand the Latine Tongue, because he was not Born at Rome, but the Son of a Liber­tine.

But the Learned Heinsius is of another Judgment, who speaking of Horace says, Ejus vernae melius de Plauto judicabant, quam qui nunc familiam in literis tuer [...] hac aetate creduntur: Et qui nec saeculi quo vixit, & quo, cum Poesis tum Latina Lingua ad supremum culmen ac fastigium evecta fuit, ignorare potuit judicium, vir tan­tus, & quod rei caput arbitror Principibus qui inter se quo­tidie de iis judicabant, intimè familiaris & amicus, i. e. ‘His Slaves were able to judge better of Plautus, than they who at this Day are accounted the Pa­trons of Learning. So knowing a Person could not be ignorant of the Judgment of the Age he had liv'd in,’ wherein both the Latin Poesie and Lan­guage were at the height, and (which I take to be an [Page 85] Argument above all) familiarly conversant with Prin­ces, who were daily discussing that point with him as their Friend.

There is another who says, Horace spake not of Plautus but out of Envy; 'tis Ianus Parrhasius, ingenio Plautus fuit perurbano, & maxime festivo, quod non absque suspicione livoris elevatus ab Horatio.

What is it then that could compel Horace to speak so disadvantageously of Plautus? Plautus (say I) who has been so commended by the Ancients; and in whom we find so many handsome, and agreeable things. Proficiscine id potuit (says Petrus Victorius) à judicio de­pravato? Quod amissus magna ex parte tunc foret lepos la [...]ini Sermonis, a [...] puritas illa venustasque inquinala, i. e. ‘Could this proceed from a depraved Judgment? Or that the Delicacy of the Latine Tongue, its Purity and Gracefulness was contaminated?’

I am unwilling to say so; for that were to do an in­jury to the Reputation of an Age, which was every way the most Gallant, the most Polite, and the most Illuminated of all that preceded, or since succeed it.

Nor shall I attribute the Cause to the different Hu­mours of these two Poets, as Famianus Strada hath done, Cum alter garrulus & facetus, alter iracundus fo­ret & taciturnus, as if one were Jovial and Facetious, the other Chagreen and Silent, since we have reason rather to call Horace the Father of all pleasant Gallan­try, for the in [...]inite number of agreeable Gentilesses, which are to be met with in his Poems, whence Augu­stus was us'd to call him his Pleasant little Man.

[Page 86]There is more reason therefore to attribute that Judgment of Horace to the Gusto of that Age, which was an Enemy to all unhandsome Buffoonery. For as the same Strada says, Decorum Horatiani saeculi, à liberi­ori ac populari genere joculandi abhorrebat.

And really there is no appearance that Horace had an intent directly to blame Plautus an Author so cele­brated, if all the Ingenious Men of those Days were of a different Opinion. He had a Wit too fine and dis­cerning, to advance a Proposition so hardy, had he not known it would have been receiv'd with Appro­bation.

And 'tis no wonder if Wits accustomed to those de­licate Lyrick Cadences, of Sappho, Alcman, Alcaeus, Stesichorus, and other Greek Poets, whom Horace hath so happily imitated in his own Tongue, should not find in the ill-concerted measures of Plautus his Verses, that Gusto and that sweetness which their Ancestors were taken with; for that in their Times, they had not met with any more just. It is not strange, I say, that un­der an Emperour, (and he a Learned one) Men should take no more Pleasure in hearing the impertinent Turns, the laboured Points, and insipid Railleries, which charm'd the ordinary Vulgar in a Democratical State, which nevertheless in Plautus his Days had some shew of Novelty.

It was not perhaps necessary I should have made so long a Digression in defence of Horace his Reputation, that was too well established in his own Times, when even the Ignorant could better judge of his Works, than the most learned Criticks of these Days.

[Page 87]In fine Horace had this Advantage in his Life time, as to injoy the Fame of the present, and not fear the Judgment of future Times, and was not (as Famia­nus Strada said of Alexander Farnese) one of those Il­lustrious Unfortunate, who needed to die to avow their Merit, which Envy had debas'd during their Lives.

And this high Reputation which hath lasted till now through so many Ages past, will yet continue, not only as he says,

But as long as there are People who shall understand the Latine Tongue; or shall have a Gusto or Relish of what is excellent.

This is, my Lord! What I had to say touching Pindar and Horace. Pindar has some things more sur­prizing than Horace, and comes nearer, as we may say, to what is Divine. His Works have a Natural Liberty. It seems the only force of his Genius hath produc'd them without the aid of any Foreign Suc­cour; as he himself Glories while he says,

And he speaks but undervaluingly of those who are forc'd to be taught by others.

Which makes his Character appear extreamly glit­tering and highly elevated. For as [...], S. 2. Longinus Writes,

But for Horace, he hath a larger extent of Know­ledge than Pindar, more Equalness, more Sweetness, and Jovialness, and much fewer Defects. His Thoughts likewise are very noble, and his Diction much more correct and pure.

He is like Pindar Bold, and advent'rous in his Ex­pressions, and many times much more happy. This Quality is one of the most resplendent in Horace, whom for that reason Quinctilian calls foelicissime Auda­c [...]m, Most happily daring: And is that which by Petro­nius is stil'd Horatii curiosa Foelicitas, Horace his curious Felicity.

[Page 89]In fine, my Lord! Besides all the Qualities necessa­ry to Poets and Orators, there is a certain happy har­diness of Expression, without which (as one may say) Discourse hath neither Life nor Soul. 'Tis that which Enchants the Reader, and there is nothing but Nature can give it.

But who, my Lord! can better know this than your self? Who have it as a constant Companion, even in your familiar Entertainments, and are notless happy in your Expressions, than just in your Thoughts.

But this is not a place to undertake your Elogies; and 'tis too long that I have abus'd your Honourable Patience by thus entertaining you. Without further wearying you by a recital of your own Praises, 'tis enough for me to let you see by my Obedience to your Commands, what I have been able to do in ma­king this Parallel of Pindar and Horace, and to shew with how much Zeal, dutiful Respect, and Submission, I am,