[144]Athen.,l. ii., c.3;Arist.,DePoët.,c.3, 4, 5.[145]Tragedy, in Greek τραγῳδία, comes from the words τραχίς, austere, severe, lofty, and ὠδή chant.Comedy, in Greek κωμῳδία, is derived from the words κῶμος, joyful, lascivious, and ὠδή, chant.It is unnecessary for me to say that the etymologists who have seen intragedya song of the goat, because τράγος signifies a goat in Greek, have misunderstood the simplest laws of etymology. Τράγος signifies a goat only by metaphor, because of the roughness and heights which this animal loves to climb; ascaper, in Latin, holds to the same root ascaput; andchèvre, in French, to the same root aschef, for a similar reason.[146]Diog. Laërt., l. i., §59.[147]Plutar.In Solon.[148]Arist.,De Mor., l. iii., c. 2; Ælian.,Var. Hist., l. v., c.19;Clem. Alex.,Strom., l. ii., c.14.[149]Plato,De Legib.,l. iii.[150]Athen.,l. viii., c.8.[151]Plutar.,De Music.[152]Horat.,De Art. poët, v.279; Vitrav.,In Prefac.,l. vii., p.124.[153]Æschylus,InPrometh., ActI., Sc. 1, et Act. V., Sc. ult.[154]Æschylus,InEumenid., ActV., Sc.3.[155]Aristoph.InPlut.,v.423;Pausan.,l. i., c.28;VitâÆschyl.apud., Stanley,p.702.[156]Dionys. Chrys.,Orat.,l. ii.[157]Aristoph.,In Ran.;Philostr.,In Vitâ Apollon,l. vi., c.ii.[158]Plutar.,In Cimon.; Athen.,l. viii., c.8.[159]Philostr.,In VitâApoll.,l. vi., c. ii.[160]Schol.,In Vitâ Sophocl.; Suidas,InΣοφοκλ.;Plutar.,De Profect. Vitæ.[161]Aristot.,De Poët., c.25.[162]Aristoph.,In Ran.,v.874 et 1075.[163]Philostr.,VitâApoll.,l. ii., c.2;l. ii., c.16;l. vi., c.11;VitâÆschyl.apud, Robort.,p.11.[164]Aristoph.,In Ran.;Aristot.,DePoët.,c.25.[165]Plato,DeLegib.,l. ii. et iii.[166]Hérodot., l. vi., 21; Corsin.,Fast. attic.,t. iii., p.172;Aristot.,DePoët.,c.9.[167]Aristot.,DePoët., c. 9.[168]Susarion appeared 580B.C., and Thespis some years after. The latter produced his tragedy of Alcestis in 536B.C.; and the condemnation of Socrates occurred in 399B.C.So that only 181 years elapsed between the initial presentation of comedy and the death of this philosopher.[169]Aristot.,DePoët.,c.3.[170]Aristoph,In Pac.,v.740; Schol.,ibid.;Epicharm.,In Nupt. Heb.apud Athen.,l. iii., p.85.[171]Plat.,In Argum.;Aristoph. p. xi.; Schol.,De Comœd.;ibid.,p. xii.[172]Thence arises the epithet ofEumolpiquethat I give to the verses which form the subject of this work.[173]The proof that Rome was scarcely known in Greece, at the epoch of Alexander, is that the historian Theopompus, accused by all critics of too much prolixity, has said only a single word concerning this city, to announce that she had been taken by the Gauls (Pliny,l. iii., c.5). Bayle observes with much sagacity, that however little Rome had been known at that time, she would not have failed to furnish the subject of a long digression for this historian, who would have delighted much in it. (Dict. crit., art.Theopompus,rem.E.)[174]Diogen. Laërt., l. i., §116. Pliny,l. v., c.29. Suidas,InΦερεκύδης.[175]Degerando,(Hist. des Systêm. de Phil.), t. i., p.128, à la note.[176]Dionys. Halic.,DeThucid.Judic.[177]The real founder of the Atomic system such as has been adopted by Lucretius (De Rerum Natura,l. i.), was Moschus, Phœnician philosopher whose works threw light upon those of Leucippus (Posidonius cité par Strabon,l. xvi.,Sext. Empiric.,Adv. mathem., p.367). This system well understood, does not differ from that of the monads, of which Leibnitz was the inventor.[178]Fréret,(Mytholog.ou Religion des Grecs).[179]Voltaire, who has adopted this error, has founded it upon the signification of the wordEpos, which he has connected with that of Discourse (Dictionn. philos.au motEpopée). But he is mistaken. The Greek word ἔπος is translated accurately byversus. Thence the verb επεῖν, to follow in the tracks, to turn, to go, in the same sense.[180]The Greeks looked upon the Latin authors and artists as paupers enriched by their spoils; also they learned their language only when forced to do so. The most celebrated writers by whom Rome was glorified, were rarely cited by them. Longinus, who took an example of the sublime in Moses, did not seek a single one either in Horace or in Vergil; he did not even mention their names. It was the same with other critics. Plutarch spoke of Cicero as a statesman; he quoted many of his clever sayings, but he refrained from comparing him with Demosthenes as an orator. He excuses himself on account of having so little knowledge of the Latin tongue, he who had lived so long in Rome! Emperor Julian, who has written only in Greek, cites only Greek authors and not one Latin.[181](Apologie des hommes accusés de magie)l’ouvrage de Naudé, intitulé:(Apologie des hommes accusés de magie). Le nombre de ces hommes est très-considérable.[182]Allard,(Bibl. du Dauphiné), à la fin.[183]Duplessis-Mornai,(Mystère d’iniquité),p.279.[184]This Ballad tongue, or rather Romance, was a mixture of corrupt Latin, Teutonic, and ancient Gallic. It was called thus, in order to distinguish it from the pure Latin and French. The principal dialects of the Romance tongue were thelangue d’oc, spoken in the south of France, and thelongue d’oïl, spoken in the north. It is from thelangue d’oïlthat the French descend. Thelangue d’oc, prevailing with the troubadours who cultivated it, disappeared with them in the fourteenth century and was lost in numberless obscure provincial dialects.Voyez(Le Troubadour), poésies occitaniques, à la Dissert.,vol. i.[185]Fontenelle,(Hist.du Théâtre Français).[186]Voyez Sainte-Palaye,(Mém. sur l’ancienne Cheval.); Millot,(Hist. des Troubad.)Disc. prélim., on ce que j’ai dit moi-même dans le(Troubadour), comme ci-dessus.[187]It is necessary to observe thatvauorval,bauorbal, according to the dialect, signifies equally a dance, a ball, and a folly, a fool. The Phœnician, root רע (whal) expresses all that is elevated, exalted. The French words(bal),vol,fol, are here derived.[188]The sonnets are of Oscan origin. The wordsonsignifies a song in the ancientlangue d’oc. The wordsonnetis applied to a little song, pleasing and of an affected form.The madrigals are of Spanish origin as their name sufficiently proves. The wordgalasignifies in Spanish a kind of favour, an honour rendered, a gallantry, a present. ThusMadrid-galaarises from a gallantry in the Madrid fashion.The sylves, calledsirvesorsirventesby the troubadours, were kinds of serious poems, ordinarily satirical. These words come from the Latinsylvawhich, according to Quintilius, is said of a piece of verse recitedex-tempore(l. x., c.3).[189]VoyezLaborde,Essai sur la Musique,t. i., p.112, ett. ii., p.168. On trouve, de la page 149 à la page 232 de ce même volume, un catalogue de tous les anciens romanciers français. On peut voir, pour les Italiens, Crescembini,Della Volgar Poësia.[190]See Laborde. It is believed that this Guilhaume, bishop of Paris, is the author of the hieroglyphic figures which adorn the portal of Notre-Dame, and that they have some connection with the hermetic science.((Biblioth. des Phil. Chim.).,t. iv.Saint-Foix, Essai(sur Paris).)[191]Perhaps one is astonished to see that I give the name ofsirventes, or sylves, to that which is commonly called the poems of Dante; but in order to understand me, it is necessary to consider that these poems, composed of stanzas of three verses joined in couplets, are properly only long songs on a serious subject, which agrees with thesirvente. The poems of Bojardo, of Ariosto, of Tasso, are, as to form, only long ballads. They are poems because of the unity which, notwithstanding the innumerable episodes with which they are filled, constitutes the principal subject.[192]Pasquier,(Hist. et Recherch. des Antiq.), l. vii., ch.12. Henri-Etienne,(Précellence duLang. Franç.),p.12. D’Olivet,(Prosod.),art.i., §2. Delisle-de-Salles,(Hist. de la Trag.), t. i., p.154, à la note.[193]D’Olivet,(Prosod.),art.V., §1.[194]Ibidem.[195]William Jones,Asiatic Researches,vol. i.[196]Ibid.,vol. i., p.425.[197]William Jones,Asiatic Researches,vol. i., p.430.[198]Wilkin’sNotes on the Hitopadesa,p.249. Halled’sGrammar, in the preface. The same,Code of the Gentoo-Laws.Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page423.[199]Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page346. Also in same work,vol. 1, page430.[200]W. Jones has put into English a Natak entitledSakuntalaorThe Fatal Ring, of which the French translation has been made by Brugnières. Paris, 1803, chez Treuttel et Würtz.[201]SeeAsiat. Research., vol. iii., p.42, 47, 86, 185, etc.[202]Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page279, 357 et 360.[203]Institut. of Hindus-Laws.W. Jones,Works,t. iii., p.51.Asiat. Research., vol. ii., p.368.[204](Hist. génér.de la Chine),t. i., p.19.(Mém. concern.les Chinois),t. i., p.9, 104, 160.Chou-King.Ch.Yu-Kong, etc., Duhalde,t. i., p.266.(Mém. concern.), etc.,t. xiii., p.190.[205]TheShe-King, which contains the most ancient poetry of the Chinese, is only a collection of odes and songs, of sylves, upon different historical and moral subjects. ((Mém. concer.les Chinois),t. i., p.51, ett. ii., p.80.) Besides, the Chinese had known rhyme for more than four thousand years. (Ibid.,t. viii., p.133-185.).[206]LeP.Parennin says that the language of the Manchus has an enormous quantity of words which express, in the most concise and most picturesque manner, what ordinary languages can do only by aid of numerous epithets or periphrases. (Duhalde,in-fol.,t. iv., p.65.)[207](Ci-dessus),p.31.[208](Voyez)la traduction française desRech. asiatiq., t. ii., p.49, notesaetb.[209]Voyezce que dit de Zend, Anquetil Duperron, et l’exemple qu’il donne de cette ancienne langue.Zend-Avesta,t. i.[210]D’Herbelot,Bibl. orient., p.54.Asiat. Research., t. ii., p.51.[211]Anquetil Duperron,Zend-Avesta,t. i.[212]Asiat. Research., t. ii., p.51.[213]L’abbé Massieu,Histor. de la Poésie franç., p.82.[214]In Arabic ديوان (diwan). ןאויד[215]D’Herbelot,Bibl. orient., au motDivan.Asiat. Research., t. ii., p.13.[216]It must be remarked that the wordDiw, which is also Persian, was alike applied in Persia to the Divine Intelligence, before Zoroaster had changed the signification of it by the establishment of a new doctrine, which, replacing theDiwsby theIseds, deprived them of the dominion of Heaven, and represented them as demons of the earth. See Anquetil Duperron,Vendidad-Sadè,p.133,Boun-Dehesh.,p.355. It is thus that Christianity has changed the sense of the Greek word Δαίμων (Demon), and rendered it synonymous with the devil; whereas it signified in its principle, divine spirit and genius.[217]Asiat. Research., t. ii., p.13.[218]VoyezAnquetil Duperron,Zend-Avesta,t. iii., p.527 etsuiv.Voyezaussi un ouvrage allemand de Wahl, sur l’état de la Perse:Pragmatische-Geografische und Statische Schilderung… etc. Leipzig, 1795,t. i., p.198 à 204.[219]Voyez plusieurs de leurs chansons rapportées par Laborde,Essai sur la Musique,t. ii., p.398.[220]Laborde,ibid.,t. i., p.425.[221]I will give, later on, a strophe fromVoluspa, a Scandinavian ode ofeumolpiquestyle, very beautiful, and of which I will, perhaps, one day make an entire translation.[222]It was said long ago that a great number of rhymed verses were found in the Bible, and Voltaire even has cited a ridiculous example in hisDictionnaire philosophique(art.Rime): but it seems to me that before concerning oneself so much as one still does, whether the Hebraic text of theSepheris in prose or in verse, whether or not one finds there rhymed verses after the manner of the Arabs, or measured after the manner of the Greeks, it would be well to observe whether one understands this text. The language of Moses has been lost entirely for more than two thousand four hundred years, and unless it be restored with an aptitude, force, and constancy which is nowadays unusual, I doubt whether it will be known exactly what the legislator of the Hebrews has said regarding the principles of the Universe, the origin of the earth, and the birth and vicissitudes of the beings who people it. These subjects are, however, worth the pains if one would reflect upon them; I cannot prevent myself from thinking that it would be more fitting to be occupied with the meaning of the words, than their arrangements by long and short syllables, by regular or alternate rhymes, which is of no importance whatever.[223]Vossius,De Poematum cantu et viribus rhythmi; cité par J. J. Rousseau,Dictionnaire de Musique,art.Rythme.[224]Nearly all of the Italian words terminate with one of four vowels,a,e,i,o, without accent: it is very rare that the vowels are accentuated, as the vowelù. When this occurs as incità,perchè,dì,farò, etc., then, only, is the final masculine. Now here is what one of their best rhythmic poets, named Tolomèo, gives as an hexameter verse:Questa, per affeto, tenerissima lettera mandoA te…To make this line exact, one feels that the wordmando, which terminates it, should be composed of two longs, that is to say, that it should be writtenmandò, which could not be without altering the sense entirely. Marchetti has translated into blank verse the Latin poem of Lucretius. I will quote the opening lines. Here is evident the softness to which I take exception and which prevents them from being really eumolpique, according to the sense that I have attached to this word.Alma figlia di Giove, inclita madreDel gran germe d’Enea, Venere bella,Degli uomini piacere e degli Dei:Tu, che sotto il volubili e lucentiSegni del cielo, il mar profundo, e tuttaD’animai d’ogni specie orni la terra:... etc.[225]One must not believe that the muteewith which many English words terminate represents the French feminine final, expressed by the same vowel. This muteeis in reality mute in English; ordinarily it is only used to give a more open sound to the vowel which precedes it, as intale,scene,bone,pure,fire. Besides it is never taken into account, either in the measure or in the prosody of the lines. Thus these two lines of Dryden rhyme exactly:“Now scarce the Trojan fleet with sails and oarsHad left behind the fair Sicilian shores.…”Æneid,b. i., v.50.It is the same in these of Addison:“Tune ev’ry string and ev’ry tongue,Be thou the Muse and subject of our song.…”St. Cecilia’s Day,i., 10.or these from Goldsmith:“How often have I loiter’d o’er thy green,Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”The Deserted Village, i., 7.[226]There remains to us of this poetry the very precious fragments contained in theEddaand inVoluspa. TheEdda, whose name signifies great-grandmother, is a collection, fairly ample, of Scandinavian traditions.Voluspais a sort of Sibylline book, or cosmogonic oracle, as its name indicates. I am convinced that if the poets of the north, the Danes, Swedes, and Germans, had oftener drawn their subjects from these indigenous sources, they would have succeeded better than by going to Greece to seek them upon the summits of Parnassus. The mythology of Odin, descended from the Rhipæan mountains, suits them better than that of the Greeks, whose tongue furthermore is not conformable here. When one makes the moon and the wife (der Mond,das Weib) of masculine and neuter gender; when one makes the sun, the air, time, love (die Sonne,die Luft,die Zeit,die Liebe) of feminine gender, one ought wisely to renounce the allegories of Parnassus. It was on account of the sex given to the sun and the moon that the schism arose, of which I have spoken, in explaining the origin of the temple of Delphi.The Scandinavian allegories, however, that I consider adébrisof Thracian allegories, furnishing subjects of a very different character from those of the Greeks and Latins, might have varied the poetry of Europe and prevented the Arabesque fiction from holding there so much ascendancy. The Scandinavian verses, being without rhyme, hold moreover, to eumolpœia. The following is a strophe fromVoluspa:“Avant que le temps fût, Ymir avait été;Ni la mer, ni nes vents n’existaient pas encore;Il n’était de terre, il n’était point de ciel:Tout n’était qu’un abîme immense, sans verdure.”“In the beginning, when naught was, thereWas neither sand nor sea nor the cold waves,Nor was earth to be seen nor heaven above.There was a Yawning Chasm [chaos] but grass nowhere.…”Ár vas aida pat-es ekki vas;vasa sandr né sær né svalar unnir,iœr[=x]o fansk æva né upp-himinn;Gap vas Ginnunga, enn gras ekki,…Voyez Mallet,Monuments celtiques,p.135; et pour le texte, le poëme même de la Voluspa,in Edda islandorum, Mallet paraît avoir suivi un texte erroné.As to the Gallic poetry of the Scotch bards, that Macpherson has made known to us under the name ofOssian, much is needed that they may have a sufficient degree of authenticity for them to be cited as models, and placed parallel with those of Homer, as has been done without reflection. These poems, although resting for the greater part upon a true basis, are very far from being veritable as to form. The Scotch bards, like the Oscan troubadours, must be restored and often entirely remade, if they are to be read. Macpherson, in composing hisOssian, has followed certain ancient traditions, has put together certain scattered fragments; but has taken great liberties with all the rest. He was, besides, a man endowed with creative genius and he might have been able to attain to epopœia if he had been better informed. His lack of knowledge has left a void in his work which demonstrates its falsity. There is no mythology, no allegory, no cult inOssian. There are some historic or romanesque facts joined to long descriptions; it is a style more emphatic than figurative, more bizarre than original. Macpherson, in neglecting all kinds of mythological and religious ideas, in even mocking here and there thestone of powerof the Scandinavians, has shown that he was ignorant of two important things: the one, that the allegorical or religious genius constitutes the essence of poetry; the other, that Scotland was at a very ancient period the hearth of this same genius whose interpreters were the druids, bards, and scalds. He should have known that, far from being without religion, the Caledonians possessed in the heart of their mountains, the Gallic Parnassus, the sacred mountain of the Occidental isles; and that when the antique cult began to decline in Gaul, it was in Albion, reckoned among the holy isles by even the Indians, that the druids went to study.VoyezLes Commentaires de César,iv., 20;L’Introduction de l’histoire de Danemark, par Mallet;L’Histoire des Celtes, par Pelloutier; et enfin lesRecherches asiatiques(Asiat. Research.),t. vi., p.490 et 502.In order to seize the occasion of applying eumolpique lines to a greater number of subjects, I am going to quote a sort of exposition of Ossian, the only one I believe, which is found in his poems; because Macpherson, for more originality, neglected nearly always to announce the subject of his songs. I will not give the text, because the English translation whence I obtained it does not give it. It concerns the battle of Lora. After a kind of exordium addressed to the son of the stranger, dweller of the silent cavern, Ossian said to him:Le chant plaît-il à ton oreille?Ecoute le récit du combat de Lora.Il est bien ancien, ce combat! Le tumulteDes armes, et les cris furieux des guerriers,Sont couverts par un long silence;Ils sont éteints depuis longtemps:Ainsi sur des rochers retentissants, la foudreRoule, gronde, éclate et n’est plus;Le soleil reparaît, et la cime brillanteDes coteaux verdoyants, sourit à ses rayons.Son of the secret cell! dost thou delight in songs?Hear the battle of Lora.The sound of its steel is long since past.So thunder on the darkened hill roars, and is no more.The sun returns with his silent beams,The glittering rocks, and green heads of the mountains smile.This example serves to prove that eumolpique lines might easily adapt themselves to the dithyramb.[227]The tragedy of theCid, given by Pierre Corneille in 1626, upon which were based the grandeur and dominant character of the Théâtre Français, as well as the renown of the author, is taken from a Spanish ballad very celebrated in Spain. The Cid, who is the hero of it, lived towards the close of the eleventh century. He was a type of the paladins and knights errant of the romanesque traditions. He enjoyed a wide reputation and attained a high degree of fortune.VoyezMonte-Mayor,Diana,l. ii.; et Voltaire,Essai sur les Mœurs,t. iii., stéréotype,p.86.In the course of the sixteenth century, the Spanish held a marked superiority over the other peoples: their tongue was spoken at Paris, Vienna, Milan, Turin. Their customs, their manners of thought and of writing, subjugated the minds of the Italians, and from CharlesV.to the commencement of the reign of PhilipIII., Spain enjoyed an importance that the other peoples never had.VoyezRobertson,Introduction à l’Histoire de Charles-Quint.It would be necessary to overstep considerably the ordinary limits of a footnote, if I should explain how it happens that Spain has lost this supremacy acquired by her, and why her tongue, the only one capable of rivalling and perhaps effacing the French, has yielded to it in all ways, and by which it was eclipsed. This explanation would demand for itself alone a very lengthy work. Among the writers who have sought for the cause of the decadence of the Spanish monarchy, some have believed to discover it in the increase of its wealth, others, in the too great extent of its colonies, and the greater part, in the spirit of its government and its superstitious cult. They have all thought that the tribunal of the Inquisition alone was capable of arresting the impulse of genius and of stifling the development of learning. In this they have taken effects for causes, and consequences for principles. They have not seen that the spirit of the government and the cult is always not the motive, but the result of the national spirit, and that the wealth and the colonies, indifferent in themselves, are only instruments that this spirit employs for good or evil, according to its character. I can only indicate the first cause which has prevented Spain from reaching the culminating point which France is very near to attaining. This cause is pride. Whilst Europe, enveloped in darkness, was, so to speak, in the fermentation of ignorance, Spain, conquered by the Arabs, received a germ of science which, developing with rapidity, produced a precocious fruit, brilliant, but like hot-house fruit lacking internal force and generative vigour. This premature production having raised Spain abruptly above the other European nations, inspired in her that pride, that excessiveamour propre, which, making her treat with contempt all that did not belong to her, hindered her from making any change in her usual customs, carried her with complacency in her mistakes, and when other peoples came to bring forth fruits in their season, corrupted hers and stamped her with a stationary movement, which becoming necessarily retrogressive, must ruin her, and did ruin her.[228]In comparing the first lines of Homer with those of Klopstock, it is seen that the Greek contains 29 letters, 18 of which are vowels; and the German 48 letters, 31 of which are consonants. It is difficult with such disparity in the elements to make the harmony the same.[229]GOLDEN VERSES OF THE PYTHAGOREANS (1)PREPARATION
[144]Athen.,l. ii., c.3;Arist.,DePoët.,c.3, 4, 5.
[145]Tragedy, in Greek τραγῳδία, comes from the words τραχίς, austere, severe, lofty, and ὠδή chant.
Comedy, in Greek κωμῳδία, is derived from the words κῶμος, joyful, lascivious, and ὠδή, chant.
It is unnecessary for me to say that the etymologists who have seen intragedya song of the goat, because τράγος signifies a goat in Greek, have misunderstood the simplest laws of etymology. Τράγος signifies a goat only by metaphor, because of the roughness and heights which this animal loves to climb; ascaper, in Latin, holds to the same root ascaput; andchèvre, in French, to the same root aschef, for a similar reason.
[146]Diog. Laërt., l. i., §59.
[147]Plutar.In Solon.
[148]Arist.,De Mor., l. iii., c. 2; Ælian.,Var. Hist., l. v., c.19;Clem. Alex.,Strom., l. ii., c.14.
[149]Plato,De Legib.,l. iii.
[150]Athen.,l. viii., c.8.
[151]Plutar.,De Music.
[152]Horat.,De Art. poët, v.279; Vitrav.,In Prefac.,l. vii., p.124.
[153]Æschylus,InPrometh., ActI., Sc. 1, et Act. V., Sc. ult.
[154]Æschylus,InEumenid., ActV., Sc.3.
[155]Aristoph.InPlut.,v.423;Pausan.,l. i., c.28;VitâÆschyl.apud., Stanley,p.702.
[156]Dionys. Chrys.,Orat.,l. ii.
[157]Aristoph.,In Ran.;Philostr.,In Vitâ Apollon,l. vi., c.ii.
[158]Plutar.,In Cimon.; Athen.,l. viii., c.8.
[159]Philostr.,In VitâApoll.,l. vi., c. ii.
[160]Schol.,In Vitâ Sophocl.; Suidas,InΣοφοκλ.;Plutar.,De Profect. Vitæ.
[161]Aristot.,De Poët., c.25.
[162]Aristoph.,In Ran.,v.874 et 1075.
[163]Philostr.,VitâApoll.,l. ii., c.2;l. ii., c.16;l. vi., c.11;VitâÆschyl.apud, Robort.,p.11.
[164]Aristoph.,In Ran.;Aristot.,DePoët.,c.25.
[165]Plato,DeLegib.,l. ii. et iii.
[166]Hérodot., l. vi., 21; Corsin.,Fast. attic.,t. iii., p.172;Aristot.,DePoët.,c.9.
[167]Aristot.,DePoët., c. 9.
[168]Susarion appeared 580B.C., and Thespis some years after. The latter produced his tragedy of Alcestis in 536B.C.; and the condemnation of Socrates occurred in 399B.C.So that only 181 years elapsed between the initial presentation of comedy and the death of this philosopher.
[169]Aristot.,DePoët.,c.3.
[170]Aristoph,In Pac.,v.740; Schol.,ibid.;Epicharm.,In Nupt. Heb.apud Athen.,l. iii., p.85.
[171]Plat.,In Argum.;Aristoph. p. xi.; Schol.,De Comœd.;ibid.,p. xii.
[172]Thence arises the epithet ofEumolpiquethat I give to the verses which form the subject of this work.
[173]The proof that Rome was scarcely known in Greece, at the epoch of Alexander, is that the historian Theopompus, accused by all critics of too much prolixity, has said only a single word concerning this city, to announce that she had been taken by the Gauls (Pliny,l. iii., c.5). Bayle observes with much sagacity, that however little Rome had been known at that time, she would not have failed to furnish the subject of a long digression for this historian, who would have delighted much in it. (Dict. crit., art.Theopompus,rem.E.)
[174]Diogen. Laërt., l. i., §116. Pliny,l. v., c.29. Suidas,InΦερεκύδης.
[175]Degerando,(Hist. des Systêm. de Phil.), t. i., p.128, à la note.
[176]Dionys. Halic.,DeThucid.Judic.
[177]The real founder of the Atomic system such as has been adopted by Lucretius (De Rerum Natura,l. i.), was Moschus, Phœnician philosopher whose works threw light upon those of Leucippus (Posidonius cité par Strabon,l. xvi.,Sext. Empiric.,Adv. mathem., p.367). This system well understood, does not differ from that of the monads, of which Leibnitz was the inventor.
[178]Fréret,(Mytholog.ou Religion des Grecs).
[179]Voltaire, who has adopted this error, has founded it upon the signification of the wordEpos, which he has connected with that of Discourse (Dictionn. philos.au motEpopée). But he is mistaken. The Greek word ἔπος is translated accurately byversus. Thence the verb επεῖν, to follow in the tracks, to turn, to go, in the same sense.
[180]The Greeks looked upon the Latin authors and artists as paupers enriched by their spoils; also they learned their language only when forced to do so. The most celebrated writers by whom Rome was glorified, were rarely cited by them. Longinus, who took an example of the sublime in Moses, did not seek a single one either in Horace or in Vergil; he did not even mention their names. It was the same with other critics. Plutarch spoke of Cicero as a statesman; he quoted many of his clever sayings, but he refrained from comparing him with Demosthenes as an orator. He excuses himself on account of having so little knowledge of the Latin tongue, he who had lived so long in Rome! Emperor Julian, who has written only in Greek, cites only Greek authors and not one Latin.
[181](Apologie des hommes accusés de magie)l’ouvrage de Naudé, intitulé:(Apologie des hommes accusés de magie). Le nombre de ces hommes est très-considérable.
[182]Allard,(Bibl. du Dauphiné), à la fin.
[183]Duplessis-Mornai,(Mystère d’iniquité),p.279.
[184]This Ballad tongue, or rather Romance, was a mixture of corrupt Latin, Teutonic, and ancient Gallic. It was called thus, in order to distinguish it from the pure Latin and French. The principal dialects of the Romance tongue were thelangue d’oc, spoken in the south of France, and thelongue d’oïl, spoken in the north. It is from thelangue d’oïlthat the French descend. Thelangue d’oc, prevailing with the troubadours who cultivated it, disappeared with them in the fourteenth century and was lost in numberless obscure provincial dialects.Voyez(Le Troubadour), poésies occitaniques, à la Dissert.,vol. i.
[185]Fontenelle,(Hist.du Théâtre Français).
[186]Voyez Sainte-Palaye,(Mém. sur l’ancienne Cheval.); Millot,(Hist. des Troubad.)Disc. prélim., on ce que j’ai dit moi-même dans le(Troubadour), comme ci-dessus.
[187]It is necessary to observe thatvauorval,bauorbal, according to the dialect, signifies equally a dance, a ball, and a folly, a fool. The Phœnician, root רע (whal) expresses all that is elevated, exalted. The French words(bal),vol,fol, are here derived.
[188]The sonnets are of Oscan origin. The wordsonsignifies a song in the ancientlangue d’oc. The wordsonnetis applied to a little song, pleasing and of an affected form.
The madrigals are of Spanish origin as their name sufficiently proves. The wordgalasignifies in Spanish a kind of favour, an honour rendered, a gallantry, a present. ThusMadrid-galaarises from a gallantry in the Madrid fashion.
The sylves, calledsirvesorsirventesby the troubadours, were kinds of serious poems, ordinarily satirical. These words come from the Latinsylvawhich, according to Quintilius, is said of a piece of verse recitedex-tempore(l. x., c.3).
[189]VoyezLaborde,Essai sur la Musique,t. i., p.112, ett. ii., p.168. On trouve, de la page 149 à la page 232 de ce même volume, un catalogue de tous les anciens romanciers français. On peut voir, pour les Italiens, Crescembini,Della Volgar Poësia.
[190]See Laborde. It is believed that this Guilhaume, bishop of Paris, is the author of the hieroglyphic figures which adorn the portal of Notre-Dame, and that they have some connection with the hermetic science.((Biblioth. des Phil. Chim.).,t. iv.Saint-Foix, Essai(sur Paris).)
[191]Perhaps one is astonished to see that I give the name ofsirventes, or sylves, to that which is commonly called the poems of Dante; but in order to understand me, it is necessary to consider that these poems, composed of stanzas of three verses joined in couplets, are properly only long songs on a serious subject, which agrees with thesirvente. The poems of Bojardo, of Ariosto, of Tasso, are, as to form, only long ballads. They are poems because of the unity which, notwithstanding the innumerable episodes with which they are filled, constitutes the principal subject.
[192]Pasquier,(Hist. et Recherch. des Antiq.), l. vii., ch.12. Henri-Etienne,(Précellence duLang. Franç.),p.12. D’Olivet,(Prosod.),art.i., §2. Delisle-de-Salles,(Hist. de la Trag.), t. i., p.154, à la note.
[193]D’Olivet,(Prosod.),art.V., §1.
[194]Ibidem.
[195]William Jones,Asiatic Researches,vol. i.
[196]Ibid.,vol. i., p.425.
[197]William Jones,Asiatic Researches,vol. i., p.430.
[198]Wilkin’sNotes on the Hitopadesa,p.249. Halled’sGrammar, in the preface. The same,Code of the Gentoo-Laws.Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page423.
[199]Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page346. Also in same work,vol. 1, page430.
[200]W. Jones has put into English a Natak entitledSakuntalaorThe Fatal Ring, of which the French translation has been made by Brugnières. Paris, 1803, chez Treuttel et Würtz.
[201]SeeAsiat. Research., vol. iii., p.42, 47, 86, 185, etc.
[202]Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page279, 357 et 360.
[203]Institut. of Hindus-Laws.W. Jones,Works,t. iii., p.51.Asiat. Research., vol. ii., p.368.
[204](Hist. génér.de la Chine),t. i., p.19.(Mém. concern.les Chinois),t. i., p.9, 104, 160.Chou-King.Ch.Yu-Kong, etc., Duhalde,t. i., p.266.(Mém. concern.), etc.,t. xiii., p.190.
[205]TheShe-King, which contains the most ancient poetry of the Chinese, is only a collection of odes and songs, of sylves, upon different historical and moral subjects. ((Mém. concer.les Chinois),t. i., p.51, ett. ii., p.80.) Besides, the Chinese had known rhyme for more than four thousand years. (Ibid.,t. viii., p.133-185.).
[206]LeP.Parennin says that the language of the Manchus has an enormous quantity of words which express, in the most concise and most picturesque manner, what ordinary languages can do only by aid of numerous epithets or periphrases. (Duhalde,in-fol.,t. iv., p.65.)
[207](Ci-dessus),p.31.
[208](Voyez)la traduction française desRech. asiatiq., t. ii., p.49, notesaetb.
[209]Voyezce que dit de Zend, Anquetil Duperron, et l’exemple qu’il donne de cette ancienne langue.Zend-Avesta,t. i.
[210]D’Herbelot,Bibl. orient., p.54.Asiat. Research., t. ii., p.51.
[211]Anquetil Duperron,Zend-Avesta,t. i.
[212]Asiat. Research., t. ii., p.51.
[213]L’abbé Massieu,Histor. de la Poésie franç., p.82.
[214]In Arabic ديوان (diwan). ןאויד
[215]D’Herbelot,Bibl. orient., au motDivan.Asiat. Research., t. ii., p.13.
[216]It must be remarked that the wordDiw, which is also Persian, was alike applied in Persia to the Divine Intelligence, before Zoroaster had changed the signification of it by the establishment of a new doctrine, which, replacing theDiwsby theIseds, deprived them of the dominion of Heaven, and represented them as demons of the earth. See Anquetil Duperron,Vendidad-Sadè,p.133,Boun-Dehesh.,p.355. It is thus that Christianity has changed the sense of the Greek word Δαίμων (Demon), and rendered it synonymous with the devil; whereas it signified in its principle, divine spirit and genius.
[217]Asiat. Research., t. ii., p.13.
[218]VoyezAnquetil Duperron,Zend-Avesta,t. iii., p.527 etsuiv.Voyezaussi un ouvrage allemand de Wahl, sur l’état de la Perse:Pragmatische-Geografische und Statische Schilderung… etc. Leipzig, 1795,t. i., p.198 à 204.
[219]Voyez plusieurs de leurs chansons rapportées par Laborde,Essai sur la Musique,t. ii., p.398.
[220]Laborde,ibid.,t. i., p.425.
[221]I will give, later on, a strophe fromVoluspa, a Scandinavian ode ofeumolpiquestyle, very beautiful, and of which I will, perhaps, one day make an entire translation.
[222]It was said long ago that a great number of rhymed verses were found in the Bible, and Voltaire even has cited a ridiculous example in hisDictionnaire philosophique(art.Rime): but it seems to me that before concerning oneself so much as one still does, whether the Hebraic text of theSepheris in prose or in verse, whether or not one finds there rhymed verses after the manner of the Arabs, or measured after the manner of the Greeks, it would be well to observe whether one understands this text. The language of Moses has been lost entirely for more than two thousand four hundred years, and unless it be restored with an aptitude, force, and constancy which is nowadays unusual, I doubt whether it will be known exactly what the legislator of the Hebrews has said regarding the principles of the Universe, the origin of the earth, and the birth and vicissitudes of the beings who people it. These subjects are, however, worth the pains if one would reflect upon them; I cannot prevent myself from thinking that it would be more fitting to be occupied with the meaning of the words, than their arrangements by long and short syllables, by regular or alternate rhymes, which is of no importance whatever.
[223]Vossius,De Poematum cantu et viribus rhythmi; cité par J. J. Rousseau,Dictionnaire de Musique,art.Rythme.
[224]Nearly all of the Italian words terminate with one of four vowels,a,e,i,o, without accent: it is very rare that the vowels are accentuated, as the vowelù. When this occurs as incità,perchè,dì,farò, etc., then, only, is the final masculine. Now here is what one of their best rhythmic poets, named Tolomèo, gives as an hexameter verse:
Questa, per affeto, tenerissima lettera mandoA te…
Questa, per affeto, tenerissima lettera mando
A te…
To make this line exact, one feels that the wordmando, which terminates it, should be composed of two longs, that is to say, that it should be writtenmandò, which could not be without altering the sense entirely. Marchetti has translated into blank verse the Latin poem of Lucretius. I will quote the opening lines. Here is evident the softness to which I take exception and which prevents them from being really eumolpique, according to the sense that I have attached to this word.
Alma figlia di Giove, inclita madreDel gran germe d’Enea, Venere bella,Degli uomini piacere e degli Dei:Tu, che sotto il volubili e lucentiSegni del cielo, il mar profundo, e tuttaD’animai d’ogni specie orni la terra:... etc.
Alma figlia di Giove, inclita madre
Del gran germe d’Enea, Venere bella,
Degli uomini piacere e degli Dei:
Tu, che sotto il volubili e lucenti
Segni del cielo, il mar profundo, e tutta
D’animai d’ogni specie orni la terra:
... etc.
[225]One must not believe that the muteewith which many English words terminate represents the French feminine final, expressed by the same vowel. This muteeis in reality mute in English; ordinarily it is only used to give a more open sound to the vowel which precedes it, as intale,scene,bone,pure,fire. Besides it is never taken into account, either in the measure or in the prosody of the lines. Thus these two lines of Dryden rhyme exactly:
“Now scarce the Trojan fleet with sails and oarsHad left behind the fair Sicilian shores.…”Æneid,b. i., v.50.
“Now scarce the Trojan fleet with sails and oars
Had left behind the fair Sicilian shores.…”
Æneid,b. i., v.50.
It is the same in these of Addison:
“Tune ev’ry string and ev’ry tongue,Be thou the Muse and subject of our song.…”St. Cecilia’s Day,i., 10.
“Tune ev’ry string and ev’ry tongue,
Be thou the Muse and subject of our song.…”
St. Cecilia’s Day,i., 10.
or these from Goldsmith:
“How often have I loiter’d o’er thy green,Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”The Deserted Village, i., 7.
“How often have I loiter’d o’er thy green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”
The Deserted Village, i., 7.
[226]There remains to us of this poetry the very precious fragments contained in theEddaand inVoluspa. TheEdda, whose name signifies great-grandmother, is a collection, fairly ample, of Scandinavian traditions.Voluspais a sort of Sibylline book, or cosmogonic oracle, as its name indicates. I am convinced that if the poets of the north, the Danes, Swedes, and Germans, had oftener drawn their subjects from these indigenous sources, they would have succeeded better than by going to Greece to seek them upon the summits of Parnassus. The mythology of Odin, descended from the Rhipæan mountains, suits them better than that of the Greeks, whose tongue furthermore is not conformable here. When one makes the moon and the wife (der Mond,das Weib) of masculine and neuter gender; when one makes the sun, the air, time, love (die Sonne,die Luft,die Zeit,die Liebe) of feminine gender, one ought wisely to renounce the allegories of Parnassus. It was on account of the sex given to the sun and the moon that the schism arose, of which I have spoken, in explaining the origin of the temple of Delphi.
The Scandinavian allegories, however, that I consider adébrisof Thracian allegories, furnishing subjects of a very different character from those of the Greeks and Latins, might have varied the poetry of Europe and prevented the Arabesque fiction from holding there so much ascendancy. The Scandinavian verses, being without rhyme, hold moreover, to eumolpœia. The following is a strophe fromVoluspa:
“Avant que le temps fût, Ymir avait été;Ni la mer, ni nes vents n’existaient pas encore;Il n’était de terre, il n’était point de ciel:Tout n’était qu’un abîme immense, sans verdure.”“In the beginning, when naught was, thereWas neither sand nor sea nor the cold waves,Nor was earth to be seen nor heaven above.There was a Yawning Chasm [chaos] but grass nowhere.…”Ár vas aida pat-es ekki vas;vasa sandr né sær né svalar unnir,iœr[=x]o fansk æva né upp-himinn;Gap vas Ginnunga, enn gras ekki,…
“Avant que le temps fût, Ymir avait été;
Ni la mer, ni nes vents n’existaient pas encore;
Il n’était de terre, il n’était point de ciel:
Tout n’était qu’un abîme immense, sans verdure.”
“In the beginning, when naught was, thereWas neither sand nor sea nor the cold waves,Nor was earth to be seen nor heaven above.There was a Yawning Chasm [chaos] but grass nowhere.…”
“In the beginning, when naught was, there
Was neither sand nor sea nor the cold waves,
Nor was earth to be seen nor heaven above.
There was a Yawning Chasm [chaos] but grass nowhere.…”
Ár vas aida pat-es ekki vas;vasa sandr né sær né svalar unnir,iœr[=x]o fansk æva né upp-himinn;Gap vas Ginnunga, enn gras ekki,…
Ár vas aida pat-es ekki vas;
vasa sandr né sær né svalar unnir,
iœr[=x]o fansk æva né upp-himinn;
Gap vas Ginnunga, enn gras ekki,…
Voyez Mallet,Monuments celtiques,p.135; et pour le texte, le poëme même de la Voluspa,in Edda islandorum, Mallet paraît avoir suivi un texte erroné.
As to the Gallic poetry of the Scotch bards, that Macpherson has made known to us under the name ofOssian, much is needed that they may have a sufficient degree of authenticity for them to be cited as models, and placed parallel with those of Homer, as has been done without reflection. These poems, although resting for the greater part upon a true basis, are very far from being veritable as to form. The Scotch bards, like the Oscan troubadours, must be restored and often entirely remade, if they are to be read. Macpherson, in composing hisOssian, has followed certain ancient traditions, has put together certain scattered fragments; but has taken great liberties with all the rest. He was, besides, a man endowed with creative genius and he might have been able to attain to epopœia if he had been better informed. His lack of knowledge has left a void in his work which demonstrates its falsity. There is no mythology, no allegory, no cult inOssian. There are some historic or romanesque facts joined to long descriptions; it is a style more emphatic than figurative, more bizarre than original. Macpherson, in neglecting all kinds of mythological and religious ideas, in even mocking here and there thestone of powerof the Scandinavians, has shown that he was ignorant of two important things: the one, that the allegorical or religious genius constitutes the essence of poetry; the other, that Scotland was at a very ancient period the hearth of this same genius whose interpreters were the druids, bards, and scalds. He should have known that, far from being without religion, the Caledonians possessed in the heart of their mountains, the Gallic Parnassus, the sacred mountain of the Occidental isles; and that when the antique cult began to decline in Gaul, it was in Albion, reckoned among the holy isles by even the Indians, that the druids went to study.VoyezLes Commentaires de César,iv., 20;L’Introduction de l’histoire de Danemark, par Mallet;L’Histoire des Celtes, par Pelloutier; et enfin lesRecherches asiatiques(Asiat. Research.),t. vi., p.490 et 502.
In order to seize the occasion of applying eumolpique lines to a greater number of subjects, I am going to quote a sort of exposition of Ossian, the only one I believe, which is found in his poems; because Macpherson, for more originality, neglected nearly always to announce the subject of his songs. I will not give the text, because the English translation whence I obtained it does not give it. It concerns the battle of Lora. After a kind of exordium addressed to the son of the stranger, dweller of the silent cavern, Ossian said to him:
Le chant plaît-il à ton oreille?Ecoute le récit du combat de Lora.Il est bien ancien, ce combat! Le tumulteDes armes, et les cris furieux des guerriers,Sont couverts par un long silence;Ils sont éteints depuis longtemps:Ainsi sur des rochers retentissants, la foudreRoule, gronde, éclate et n’est plus;Le soleil reparaît, et la cime brillanteDes coteaux verdoyants, sourit à ses rayons.Son of the secret cell! dost thou delight in songs?Hear the battle of Lora.The sound of its steel is long since past.So thunder on the darkened hill roars, and is no more.The sun returns with his silent beams,The glittering rocks, and green heads of the mountains smile.
Le chant plaît-il à ton oreille?Ecoute le récit du combat de Lora.Il est bien ancien, ce combat! Le tumulteDes armes, et les cris furieux des guerriers,Sont couverts par un long silence;Ils sont éteints depuis longtemps:Ainsi sur des rochers retentissants, la foudreRoule, gronde, éclate et n’est plus;Le soleil reparaît, et la cime brillanteDes coteaux verdoyants, sourit à ses rayons.
Le chant plaît-il à ton oreille?
Ecoute le récit du combat de Lora.
Il est bien ancien, ce combat! Le tumulte
Des armes, et les cris furieux des guerriers,
Sont couverts par un long silence;
Ils sont éteints depuis longtemps:
Ainsi sur des rochers retentissants, la foudre
Roule, gronde, éclate et n’est plus;
Le soleil reparaît, et la cime brillante
Des coteaux verdoyants, sourit à ses rayons.
Son of the secret cell! dost thou delight in songs?Hear the battle of Lora.The sound of its steel is long since past.So thunder on the darkened hill roars, and is no more.The sun returns with his silent beams,The glittering rocks, and green heads of the mountains smile.
Son of the secret cell! dost thou delight in songs?
Hear the battle of Lora.
The sound of its steel is long since past.
So thunder on the darkened hill roars, and is no more.
The sun returns with his silent beams,
The glittering rocks, and green heads of the mountains smile.
This example serves to prove that eumolpique lines might easily adapt themselves to the dithyramb.
[227]The tragedy of theCid, given by Pierre Corneille in 1626, upon which were based the grandeur and dominant character of the Théâtre Français, as well as the renown of the author, is taken from a Spanish ballad very celebrated in Spain. The Cid, who is the hero of it, lived towards the close of the eleventh century. He was a type of the paladins and knights errant of the romanesque traditions. He enjoyed a wide reputation and attained a high degree of fortune.VoyezMonte-Mayor,Diana,l. ii.; et Voltaire,Essai sur les Mœurs,t. iii., stéréotype,p.86.
In the course of the sixteenth century, the Spanish held a marked superiority over the other peoples: their tongue was spoken at Paris, Vienna, Milan, Turin. Their customs, their manners of thought and of writing, subjugated the minds of the Italians, and from CharlesV.to the commencement of the reign of PhilipIII., Spain enjoyed an importance that the other peoples never had.VoyezRobertson,Introduction à l’Histoire de Charles-Quint.
It would be necessary to overstep considerably the ordinary limits of a footnote, if I should explain how it happens that Spain has lost this supremacy acquired by her, and why her tongue, the only one capable of rivalling and perhaps effacing the French, has yielded to it in all ways, and by which it was eclipsed. This explanation would demand for itself alone a very lengthy work. Among the writers who have sought for the cause of the decadence of the Spanish monarchy, some have believed to discover it in the increase of its wealth, others, in the too great extent of its colonies, and the greater part, in the spirit of its government and its superstitious cult. They have all thought that the tribunal of the Inquisition alone was capable of arresting the impulse of genius and of stifling the development of learning. In this they have taken effects for causes, and consequences for principles. They have not seen that the spirit of the government and the cult is always not the motive, but the result of the national spirit, and that the wealth and the colonies, indifferent in themselves, are only instruments that this spirit employs for good or evil, according to its character. I can only indicate the first cause which has prevented Spain from reaching the culminating point which France is very near to attaining. This cause is pride. Whilst Europe, enveloped in darkness, was, so to speak, in the fermentation of ignorance, Spain, conquered by the Arabs, received a germ of science which, developing with rapidity, produced a precocious fruit, brilliant, but like hot-house fruit lacking internal force and generative vigour. This premature production having raised Spain abruptly above the other European nations, inspired in her that pride, that excessiveamour propre, which, making her treat with contempt all that did not belong to her, hindered her from making any change in her usual customs, carried her with complacency in her mistakes, and when other peoples came to bring forth fruits in their season, corrupted hers and stamped her with a stationary movement, which becoming necessarily retrogressive, must ruin her, and did ruin her.
[228]In comparing the first lines of Homer with those of Klopstock, it is seen that the Greek contains 29 letters, 18 of which are vowels; and the German 48 letters, 31 of which are consonants. It is difficult with such disparity in the elements to make the harmony the same.
[229]GOLDEN VERSES OF THE PYTHAGOREANS (1)
PREPARATION