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purity of Domenichino, the learning of Poussin, the air of Guido, the greatness of taste of the Charaches, and the sublimity and grand contorno of Michael Angelo; with all the rest of the cant of criticism, which he emitted with that volubility which generally those orators have who annex no ideas to their words.

As we were passing through the rooms, in our way to the gallery, I made him observe a whole length of Charles the First by Vandyke, as a perfect representation of the character as well as the figure of the man. He agreed it was very fine, but it wanted spirit and contrast, and had not the flowing line, without which a figure could not possibly be graceful. When we entered the gallery, I thought I could perceive him recollecting his rules by which he was to criticise Raffaele. I shall pass over his observation of the boats being too little, and other criticisms of that kind till we arrive at St. Paul preaching. "This," says he, "is esteemed the most excellent of all the cartoons: what nobleness, what dignity, there is in that figure of St. Paul! and yet what an addition to that nobleness could Raffaelle have given, had the art of contrast been known in his time! but, above all, the flowing line which constitutes grace and beauty! You would not have then seen an upright figure standing equally on both legs, and both hands stretched forward in the same direction, and his drapery, to all appearance, without the least art or disposition." The following picture is the Charge to Peter. "Here," says he, are twelve upright figures; what a pity it is that Raffaelle was not acquainted with the pyramidal principle! He wonld then have contrived the figures in the middle to have been on higher ground, or the figures at the extremities stooping or lying; which would

not only have formed the group into the shape of a pyramid, but likewise contrasted the standing figures. Indeed," added he, "I have often lamented that so great a genius as Raffaelle had not lived in this enlightened age, since the art has been reduced to principles, and had had his education in one of the modern academies; what glorious works might we then have expected from his divine pencil!"

I shall trouble you no longer with my friend's observations, which, I suppose, you are now able to continue by yourself. It is curious to observe, that, at the same time that great admiration is pretended for a name of fixed reputation, objections are raised against those very qualities by which that great name was acquired.

Those criticks are continually lamenting that Raffaelle had not the colouring and harmony of Rubens, or the light and shadow of Rembrant, without considcring how much the gay harmony of the former, and affectation of the latter, would take from the dignity of Raffaelle; and yet Rubens had great harmony, and Rembrant understood light and shadow: but what may be an excellence in a lower class of painting, becomes a blemish in a higher; as the quick, sprightly turn, which is the life and beauty of epigrammatick compositions, would but ill suit with the majesty of heroick poetry.

To conclude: I would not be thought to infer, from any thing that has been said, that rules are absolutely unnecessary; but to censure scrupulosity, a servile attention to minute exactness, which is sometimes inconsistent with higher excellency, and is lost in the blaze of expanded genius.

I do not know whether you will think painting a

general subject. By inserting this letter, perhaps you will incur the censure a man would desire, whose business being to entertain a whole room, should turn his back to the company, and talk to a particular per

son.

I am, Sir, &c.*

No. 77. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1759.

EASY poetry is universally admired; but I know

not whether any rule has yet been fixed, by which it may be decided when poetry can properly be called casy. Horace has told us, that it is such as, 66 every reader hopes to equal, but after long labour finds unattainable." This is a very loose description, in which only the effect is noted; the qualities which produce this effect remain to be investigated.

Easy poetry is that in which natural thoughts are expressed without violence to the language. The discriminating character of ease consists principally in the diction; for all true poetry requires that the sentiments be natural. Language suffers violence by harsh or by daring figures, by transposition, by unusual acceptations of words, and by any licence which would be avoided by a writer of prose. Where any artifice appears in the construction of the verse, that verse is no longer easy. Any epithet which can be ejected without diminution of the sense, any curious iteration

* Sir Joshua Reynolds.

of the same word, and all unusual though not ungrammatical structure of speech, destroy the grace of poetry.

easy

The first lines of Pope's Iliad afford examples of many licences which an easy writer must decline?

Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumbered, heav'nly goddess, sing;
The wrath which hurl'd to Piuto's gloomy reign
The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain.

In the first couplet the language is distorted by inversions clogged with superfluities, and clouded by a harsh metaphor; and in the second there are two words used in an uncommon sense, and two epithets inserted only to lengthen the line: all these practices may in a long work easily be pardoned, but they always produce some degree of obscurity and rugged

ness.

Easy poetry has been so long excluded by ambition of ornament, and luxuriance of imagery, that its nature seems now to be forgotten. Affectation, however opposite to ease, is sometimes mistaken for it:and those who aspire to gentle elegance collect female phrases and fashionable barbarisms, and imagine that style to be easy which custom has made familiar. Such was the idea of the poet who wrote the following verses to a countess cutting paper.

Pallas grew vap'rish once and odd,

She would not do the least right thing

Either for Goddess or for God,

Nor work, nor play, nor paint, nor sing.

Jove frown'd, and " Use (he cried) those eyes.
So skilful, and those hands so taper;

Do something exquisite and wise”—
She bow'd, obey'd him, and cut paper.

This vexing him who gave her birth,
Thought by all Heaven a burning shame,
What does she next, but bids on earth
Her Burlington do just the same?

Pallas, you give yourself strange airs ;
But sure you'll find it hard to spoil
The sense and taste of one that bears
The name of Savile and of Boyle.

Alas! one bad example shown,

How quickly all the sex pursue!
Sce, madam! see the arts o'erthrown
Between John Overton and you.

It is the prerogative of easy poetry to be understood as long as the language lasts; but modes of speech, which owe their prevalence only to modish folly, or to the eminence of those that use them, die away with their inventors, and their meaning, in a few years, is no longer known.

Easy poetry is commonly sought in petty compositions upon minute subjects; but ease though it excludes pomp, will admit greatness. Many lines in Cato's soliloquy are at once easy and sublime:

'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us;

'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,

And intimates eternity to man.

-If there's a power above us,

And that there is all nature cries aloud

Through all her works, he must delight in virtue,

And that which he delights in must be happy.

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