No XXIV. Verfe 725. Παν δὲ συνεβάκχευσ ̓ ὄρος. All the Mountain danced 784. To their wild revelry. THESE words of Euripides, contrafted with a line of Æfchylus, conftitute the subject of a curious criticism of Longinus, which has never yet in my judgment been explained: It is effential for the clear comprehenfion of the Reader to trace the principal object of this Critick, where they occur, and to develop his preceding obfervations, before he enters on the particular comparison of the two paffages in the Dramatick Poets: That Section in his Treatife on the Sublime is entirely appropriated to the difcuffion of Vifions, or Images; and he defines thefe according to the prevailing and not the general fenfe of the word Darla, "when you feem under enthufiafm and paffion to behold what you defcribe, and submit it to the eyes of the Hearer 2:"After this definition, he diftinguishes the different objects of Poetical and Rhetorical Vilions: The former he pronounces to aim at furprise, as their final purpofe, and the latter at illuftration: Yet both, accor ding to his idea, in common afpire at the intent of ftriking Sect. 15. Ed. Pearce, p. 92. 2 Οταν ἃ λέγης, ὑπ' ἐνθεσιασμό καὶ πάθος βλέπειν δοκῆς, καὶ ὑπ' ὄψιν τιθῆς τοῖς Angvow. (Id.) See alto the conefponding definition of the ai panaolai, or vhions, by Quintilian. (Inftit. Orat. 1. 6. c. 2. vol. 1. p. 523. Burman.) Ed. the the mind: He next produces two paffages from Euripides with a view to elucidate this fubject: The first occurs in his Tragedy of Oreftes, where this Prince is reprefented, after the murder of his Mother Clytemneftra, beholding from his disordered Imagination " the Furies with their bloody visages and ferpentine locks, actually leaping on him':" The other is extant in the Iphigenia in Tauris, where Oreftes is alfo defcribed, as agitated with the fame frantick horrors of mind: Here Longinus afferts, "that the Poet himself saw the Furies, and has almost compelled even his Hearers to behold his own vifion":" Euripides therefore, continues he, has uncommonly exerted himself to express in his Tragedies the two paffions, Madness and Love, and has been most remarkably fuccessful in thefe; yet he is not without courage in attempting even Images of other kinds: Though his Genius was by no means naturally fublime, he has forced his nature himself in many inftances into a tragical fpirit, and in each of thofe elevated paffages, as the Poet fays, Lafh'd by his tail his heaving fides refound, (Pope's II. 20. V. 218.) This 3 Τὸ μὲν ἐν ποιήσει τέλος ἐςὶν ἔμπληξις, τὸ δ' ἐν λόγοις ἐνάργεια· ἀμφότεραι δ' ὅμως τότ ̓ ἐπιζητέσι, τὸ συγκεκινημένον. (Id.) I have tranflated ενάργεια, μια luftration, on the authority of Quintilian, who informs us, that it was fo rendered by Cicero: Infequetur vágya, quæ a Cicerone illuftratio & evidentia nominatur. (Inftit. Orat. 1. 6. c. 2. Id. p.524.) 4 V.255. s V. 291.) 6 Εντᾶυθ ̓ ὁ Ποιητὴς αὐτὸς εἶδεν Εριννύας· ὁ δὲ ἐφαντάσθη, μικρὰ δεῖν θεάσασθαι καὶ τὰς ἀκύοντας ἐνάγκασεν. (Id. p. 94.) 7 Εσι μὲν ἦν φιλοπονώταῖος ὁ Εὐριπίδης δύο ταυτὶ πάθη μανίας τε καὶ ἔρωτας ἐκτραγῳδῆσαι, καν τάτοις, ὡς ἐκ οἶδ ̓ ἔι τισιν ἑτέροις, ἐπιτυχέσαλος & μὲν ἀλλὰ καὶ This animated comparison of Longinus is borrowed from the 20th Iliad of Homer, where Achilles, returned to the battle and opposed by Æneas, is faid to resemble a Lion," who views his Enemy at first with scorn, but ftruck by the spear of fome valiant youth turns, foams, and lafhes himself into vengeance:" After this general character of Euripides, the Critick proceeds to confirm his fubject of Poetical Vision by citing a beautiful fragment from the Phaeton of our Poet, where Apollo is reprefented, delivering to his Son the reins of his chariot, and advising him on the path of his Journey": Here the impetuofity of youth and the anxiety of paternal affection is finely painted: "Would not you fay, exclaims Longinus, that the foul of the Poet alfo mounted the car, and flew together with the Horses, participating of one common danger? For were it not itself wafted with a velocity equal to this heavenly career, it could not have conceived images like thefe: Such alfo are the defcriptions in the Caffandra of this Poet':" Here he produces only a hemistick of the lines, to which he alludes, and as this Tragedy of Eu ταῖς ἄλλαις ἐπιτίθεσθαι φαντασίαις ἐκ ἄτολμος· ἥκισά γέ τοι μεγαλοφυής ὤν, ὅμως τὴν αὐτὸς φύσιν ἐν πόλλοις γενέσθαι τραγικὴν προσηνάγκασε, καὶ παρ ̓ ἕκασα ἐπὶ τῶν μεγέθων, ὡς ὁ Ποιητὴς, Οὐρῇ δὲ πλευράς τε καὶ ἴσχιον ἀμφοτέρωθεν * Id. p. 96 & 98. (Id. p. 96.) 9 Αρ' ἐκ ἂν εἴποις, ὅτι ἡ ψυχὴ τὰ γράφονος συνεπιβαίνει τὰ ἅρματος, καὶ συγκινο δυνεύεσα τοῖς ἵπποις συνεπλέρωται; εἰ γὰρ ἂν, εἰ μὴ τοῖς ἐξανίοις ἐκείνοις ἔργοις ἐσοδρομῖσα ἐφέρελο, τοιαῦτ ̓ ἄν ποτε ἐφαντάσθη. Ὅμοια καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς Κασσάνδρας ̓Αλλ ̓, ὦ φίλιπποι Τρώες. (Id.) ripides ripides has not defcended to pofterity, we are unable to enjoy those beauties, which were the immediate object of the admiration of Longinus: "But Æfchylus, continues the Critick, has made daring attempts in thefe Heroick Visions, as in his Seven against Thebes, where the Generals without remorfe mutually oblige themfelves by one common oath to die together 10:" After citing fome noble lines from this Tragedy in proof of his affertion, "But this Poet, he adds, fometimes produces fentiments unfinished ", and as it were, uncarded 12, and unfoftened: Yet Euripides advances to the brink of this danger through his emulation of him: And in Æfchylus the Palace of Lycurgus is agitated in a wonderful degree by a facred impulfe on the appearance of Dionusus; Ἐνθεσιᾷ δὴ δῶμα, βακχεύει ςέγη. The Dome was frantick, and the roof convuls'd Le Palais en fureur mugit à fon afpect ", But 10 Το δ' Αἰσχύλο φανασίαις ἐπιτολμῶνιος ηρωϊκωτάταις, ὥσπερ καὶ οἱ Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας παρ' αὐτῷ, τὸν ἴδιον αὐτῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλως δίχα οἴκτες συνομνύμενοι θάνατον ἐνίο]ε μέντοι ἀκατεργάσες καὶ οἱονεὶ σοκοειδεῖς τὰς ἐννοίας καὶ ἀμαλάκτες φέροντος, ὅμως ἑαυτὸν ὁ Εὐριπίδης κακείνοις ὑπὸ φιλοτιμίας τοῖς κινδύνοις προσβιβάζει. Καὶ παρὰ μὲν Αἰσχύλῳ παραδόξως τὰ τὸ Λυκέργο βασίλεια κατὰ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν τῷ Διονύσι θεοφορεῖται. (Id. p. 99 & 100.) The original ánalegyárus exactly anfwers the incompofitus of the Romans, which is the very epithet, applied by Quintilian to fchylus, Sed rudis in plerifque et incompofitus. (L. 10. c. 1. vol. 2. p. 897. Ed. Burman.) 12 Here the original word, wokoudes, implies the refemblance to the rude vellus, or the fleece in its rough state: Since I know of no established epithet in the English Language, which could convey the precife term, I have ventured to coin the word, uncarded, in order to preferve the idea of Longinus. But Euripides has expreffed the fame fentiment in a different manner, having foftened it thus 14: Πῶν δὲ ξυνεβάκχευσ ̓ ὄρος. All the Mountain danced To their wild revelry. La Montagne à leurs cris répond en mugiffant 15. Having Longinus. The Author of the Dialogue de Oratoribus, which has been attributed to Tacitus and to Quintilian, has a phrafe, which bears great refemblance to it, impexam antiquitatem. (C. 20.) And Tanaquil Faber, in his Note on this paffage of Longinus judiciously cites the reply of an old School-master, when an illiterate Pupil was delivered to him, in order to be inftructed in the elements of education, wózov & wλów, craffiora et rudiora vellera non fubigo, it is not my bufinefs to card the coarse wool. 13 This is the verfion of Boileau in his Tranflation of Longinus, but Monfieur Dacier afferts in his remarks on that tranflation, that the word mugir does not appear ftrong enough to exprefs alone the boy and Baxxeven of Efchylus; for they not only fignify mugir, but also convey the idea of being fhaken with violence and agitation: Though it is a folly, adds he, to aspire at attempting a verfe better than Monfieur Defpréaux, I will not fcruple to declare, that the line of Æfchylus would be perhaps better tranflated in regard to fenfe in this manner : Du Palais en fureur les combles ébranlés (Oeuvres de Boileau, tom. 2. p. 39. Ed. Amft. 1718.) The English Tranflator Smith renders it, The frantick Dome and roaring Roofs convuls'd Reel to and fro, inftinct with rage divine. (Ed. 1743. p. 43.) 14 Ο δ' Εὐριπίδης τὸ αὐτὸ τῆς ἑτέρως ἐφηδύνας ἐξεφώνησε. (Id. p. 1oo. In all the Editions of Longinus it is printed ξυνεβάκχευσ', intead of συνεβάκχευσ', as it ought to be. 15 This line of Boileau is alfo corrected by Dacier. La Montagne f'ebranle, & répond à leurs cris. (Oeuvres de Boileau, tom. 2. p. 39. Ed. Amft. 1718.) The Pere Brumoy renders it, Tout leur paroiffoit danfer, la Montagne même, and remarks in his Note, Euripide a voulu marquer l'yvreffe, qui |