EPIC. 



65 



poet may fly from region to region, between hea- 

 ven and hell, but he must, at least, describe his 

 flight and his way. Slow and prolonged description 

 is allowed in the epic. How long does Achilles 

 rage! How slow is the death of Christ!* Hence 

 the propriety of a calm and minute description 

 of the shield of Achilles ; hence the propriety of 

 the episode. The multitude of actors retards, like 

 a number of wheels in clock-work, the course of the 

 machine ; since each actor requires room for his 

 action. Novels are epic compositions, and follow 

 the same rules. Yorick's journey occupies but three 

 days ; the fifth book of Don Quixote is confined to 

 one evening, in a tavern. The action of the poem 

 becomes tedious, it is true, in case of repetition, and 

 stops when action foreign to the main purpose is 

 introduced ; but the main action of the poem may be 

 divided into parts without being exposed to the 

 charge of these faults, as the unity of a day is not 

 destroyed by its division into hours." Unity, indeed, 

 is necessary in the epic as in every poem, and, in 

 fact, in every production of art. (See Drama.) But 

 this unity need not be so scrupulously observed as in 

 the drama. A writer of genius may be allowed to 

 overstep the rules, and say, " I do not intend to give 

 you a perfect epic, but merely fragments," as Byron 

 has done in the case of the Giaour. Such produc- 

 tions, however, must always remain exceptions to 

 the class of epic compositions. Parts of 'different 

 operas are sometimes combined for an evening's 

 entertainment ; but no one would call such a per- 

 formance an opera. The fragments of a masterly 

 work of sculpture may be beautiful, and much more 

 beautiful and more valuable than many complete 

 statues ; yet fragments are not statues. 



From what has been said, it appears that the epic 

 may treat very different subjects, grave and elevated 

 like Dante's and Milton's poems, glowing and 

 romantic like Ariosto's and Wieland's epics, cheer- 

 ful and ludicrous like Tassino's and Butler's admi- 

 rable productions. Accordingly, epics have been 

 divided into heroic ; mock-heroic, as the excellent 

 Le Secchia Rapita (The Rape of the Bucket), or 

 Pope's Rape of the Lock, or Boileau's Lutrin ; ro- 

 mantic as Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered ; allegoric 

 as Dante, &c.; but these divisions can never be very 

 definite, as they pass imperceptibly into each other. 

 Whilst Homer is, we might almost say, plastic, 

 Ariosto is almost lyric, and always descriptive in 

 quite another style, and Milton often pours forth his 

 religious sentiments in a lyric strain ; yet the poems 

 of all are epicB. 



As the language and the literature of a nation 

 always mutually affect each other, we trace this 

 influence, of course, in epic poetry. Who can calcu- 

 late the great influence which Homer probably had 

 on the Greek language ? Whilst, on the other hand, 

 it is partly owing to the plastic trait in the two 

 ancient languages, that this characteristic was im- 

 parted to their epic poetry. Among the modern 

 languages of Europe, none is so well adapted to 

 description as the English a circumstance to which, 

 probably, is partly owing the great number of. Eng- 

 lish epics, or poems of an epic character, of which 

 many are truly beautiful, including all varieties, from 

 the sublimity of Paradise Lost to the wit of Hudibras. 

 Spenser, Milton, Glover, Butler, Pope, Scott, Byron, 

 Moore, Campbell, Southey, and many other distin- 

 guished names, are embraced in the list of English 

 epic writers 



In the number of good epics, the Italians are next 

 the English, among modern nations, and can pro- 

 duce three of the highest character, while the English 



to the 



in. 



In Klopstock'a Mt.isiade. 



have but one of the highest rank to oppose to them : 

 these three are Dante's Divina Commcdia, one of the 

 grandest productions of the human mind ; Ariosto's 

 Orlando Furioso, the flower of romantic poetry ; and 

 Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, a poem which, if defi- 

 cient in originality and character, two very import- 

 ant ingredients of an epic, cannot be surpassed in 

 sweetness and harmony, and, in fact, has not, in our 

 opinion, been equalled in these respects. The Ital- 

 ians are very rich in burlesque and satiric epics. 



The Germans possess one great ancient epic, the 

 Nibelungenlied, a poem of the grandest design, and of 

 the highest rank in regard to the characters described, 

 excelling in this respect the Iliad of Homer ; the 

 chief personage of which is violent, self-willed, and 

 incapable of self-government, so as to fall far below 

 the rank of a true hero, whose attributes should be 

 firmness and self-command, a spirit unshaken in ad- 

 versity, and an intellect adequate to every exigency. 

 But, in respect to poetical execution and beauty of 

 language, the Nibelungcnlied cannot be compared 

 with the Ionic rhapsodies. Of a very early date, 

 likewise, is the satirical epic Reynard the Fox (q. v.), 

 a poem alike original in design and execution, in 

 well-conceived and well-executed satire. It may be 

 considered a model of satiric epic poetry. The great- 

 est modern epic of the Germans is the Messiade, by 

 Klopstock, which we consider faulty in its very con- 

 ception, as the life of the Saviour offers but little 

 matter suitable for the epic poet, so that the poem, 

 in general, has little of an epic character. It is not 

 much read in Germany ; when perused, it is gene- 

 rally as a task, and from a feeling of duty. In modern 

 times, the Germans have had several epics from 

 Wieland, Schultze, and others ; but he who has 

 enjoyed Camoens, Ariosto, and the epics of the Bri- 

 tish poets, will not think that the German epics rise 

 in value by comparison : still less should we think 

 of extolling those German epics which partake more 

 or less of the character of idyllic poetry ; and the 

 most celebrated of which is Goethe's Hermann und 

 Dorothea, a poem much esteemed by his countrymen 

 in general (but in which we were never able to take 

 any great interest), giving quaint descriptions in 

 incorrect hexameters : it must be remembered, how- 

 ever, that, when this poem was written, hexameters, 

 in German, were something new, and the standard 

 of correctness had then not been raised so high as it 

 has since been, chiefly by the exertions of A. W. von 

 Schlegel. Still less could we ever relish the Louisa 

 of Voss, a poem which treats in regular epic style 

 the scenes in the life of a country clergyman, and in 

 which the standing epithet ehrwurdig (respectable) is 

 as often and gravely repeated, whenever " the pastor 

 of'Grunau " is mentioned, as swift-footed, in Homer, 

 with the name of Achilles. Descriptiveness is not so 

 prominent a feature in the German language as in 

 the English (it is more abstract and metaphysical, 

 hence in poetry more lyrical), and therefore it does 

 not so naturally lead the poet to epic poetry. 



The most important epic of the Spaniards is Er- 

 cilla's Araucana, a poem, which, to foreigners, gene- 

 rally appears like a dull chronicle, defective in poeti- 

 cal conciseness of language and originality of ideas. 

 The Spaniards possess several epics of an allegoric- 

 religious character. 



One of the noblest of epic productions is Cameons' 

 Imsiad, which, like a magnificent flower, sprung 

 naturally out of a heroic and glorious age, and which, 

 in spite of the many animadversions on particular 

 parts of it, in which the taste of the age may have 

 prevailed over the higher claims of poetry, will be 

 prized as long as noble ideas and beautiful descrip- 

 tions are valued. 



The French language, the chief traits of which are 



