770 
POETRY. 
merited ? Statius has adhered too clofely to hiftory to 
render his poem either interefting or pleating. Its moral, 
if it convey any at all, fhows the fatal effefts of civil broils, 
and inculcates the necelfity of a foie and abfolute govern¬ 
ment. Under a reign like that of Domitian, fuch a fenti- 
ment could not fail to be highly acceptable. 
It is a principal defect in the Thebais, that it has no 
perfonage who can properly be faid to be its hero. There 
is, confequently, not that juft fubordination in the cha- 
rafters, which we find in other poems of the fame de- 
fcription. Nor are they fo happily diverfified as in 
Homer. The heroes of Statius are drawn as favage and 
as cruel as they are known to be in hiftory. Though 
they fometimes have diftinguifhing features, yet a general 
character of courage mingled with rage, revenge, violence, 
and impiety, reigns in Tydeus, Hippomedon, Capaneus, 
and Polynices. CEdipus difplays throughout the fury 
of a bluftering bully, inftead»of that patient fubmifiion 
and pathetic remorfe, fo obfervable in Sophocles, and fo 
fuited to his melancholy condition. The two brothers 
are impious and unnatural; and Polynices is made to 
refign the crown with as ill a grace as Eteocles retains it 
beyond the term agreed. Adraftus, indeed, is a mild and 
noble charafler, and occafionally appears with all the 
qualities of a wife and religious prince, a tender parent, 
and a prudent general. Amphiaraus is precifely the 
reverfe of Achilles. Each knows his fate to be unavoid¬ 
able; but Achilles bravely meets it, while Amphiaraus 
meanly flies from it. The one is with reluctance dif- 
guifed by a fond mother, and placed among the women ; 
the other, when betrayed in his retreat by the avarice of 
his wife, in revenge devotes her to death, and adds to 
his infamy by making his foil a parricide. The gods 
make as cruel a figure as the men. Jupiter, is himfelf 
the author and promoter of the war. He liftens to the 
diftraCted fury of CEdipus, when he implores the divine 
vengeance on his unnatural fons; and difpatches the 
fury Tifiphone to fow difcord among them. 
Statius is more fuccefsful in his machinery, which he 
in general introduces on proper occafions, and where it 
confiderably embelliflies and enlivens the narration. 
The defcriptions are fometimes equally poetical; but in 
thefe Statius is the profefl'ed admirer and imitator of 
■Virgil. As they prefent nothing original, it is unne- 
ceffary to notice them here. One only we feleCt, which, 
though evidently copied from Virgil, is not inferior, if 
it does not excel, the parallel paftage in the ZEneid. It 
defcribes the fatal fieep, on the night when all the men 
of Lemnos are killed ; 
-Prims decrefcunt murmura noftis 
Gum confanguinei mixtus caligine Leti, 
Rore madens Ifygio morituram ampleciitur urbem 
Somnus, et impiacido fundit gravia otia cornu 
Secernitque viros.- Lib,v. 
The reader will recoiled a fitnilar defcription in the 
ZEneid, in the night when Troy is facked. The contelt 
between the brothers, and indeed the whole of the ele¬ 
venth book, may be confidered the belt part of the poem. 
Statius is not deftitute either of energy or pathos; he 
maintains a fire and fpirit, equal to what we fee in poets 
of the greateft names. His fentimenrs are dignified, his 
conceptions lofty, and his defcriptions magnificent. 
But his predominant defeat is, that he is too florid. 
His language is often too pompous for his meaning; 
his images are exaggerated; his imagination, rioting in 
the moil irregular profufion, perpetually throws him into 
falfe metaphor, and miftaken fublime. The impetuofity 
of his fancy is unreftrained, either by his own judgment, 
or the chafiity of ftyle and fentimtnt in the great poet he 
profeffed to imitate. However we may be difpoled to 
admire fuch a flow of mind, more fuited to the ardour of 
youth than to the feverity of age, we mult confefs, that 
it. was the iefs excufable in Statius, who wrote at an 
advanced period of life. The remark of Longinus, that 
tliofe who have been moft eminent in the fublime are 
fubjeCl to the moft fudden falls, is in no one more exem¬ 
plified than in Statius. Strada has fuppofed him feated 
on the higheft pinnacle of Parnaftus, but fo uneafy in his 
fituation, as to be always in danger of falling to the 
bottom. He undoubtedly poffeffed invention, ability, 
and fpirit; but his gigantic images, his tortured and 
hyperbolical expreflions, too often offend the reader 
accuftomed to the chaftened grandeur and fteady judg¬ 
ment of Virgil. In Juvenal’s verfes are many expreflions 
which feem to hint obliquely that Statius was a favourite 
of the vulgar, who were eafiiy captivated with a wild and 
inartificial tale, and with an empty magnificence of num¬ 
bers. 
Silius Italicus tried an epic on the Punic war, and 
failed. He took Livy’s account of it for his theme. 
His poem includes all the principal events of that war, 
from the fiege of Saguntum to the defeat of Hannibal, 
and the conqueft of Carthage. The deftrudfion of Sa¬ 
guntum, the paflage of the Alps, theacfions atTrebia 
and Thrafymenus, the defeat at Cannae, and at length 
the viftory at Zama, which effected fuch a change in the 
fortune of the war, and produced the fubverfion of a 
republic fo long the rival of Rome, were no doubt great 
and fplendid events. The numerous examples of mili¬ 
tary virtue, patient perfeverance, heroic courage, and 
hazardous enterprife, prefented to the imagination of 
Silius a feries of brilliant achievements, peculiarly 
adapted fo the epopcea. A feleftion of the moft promi¬ 
nent fails, connected with the defeat of Hannibal, and 
the ultimate triumph of the Romans, with a judicious 
interpolation of thofe auxiliary graces of fiftion and ma¬ 
chinery which the laws of the epic admit, might have 
formed an interefting and pleafing poem. But Silius has 
adhered too fervilely to the order of hiftorical narrative. 
Whatever is to be found in the profe of Livy, of ficges, 
battles, and marches, may be feen recorded in the mea- 
fured verfe of Silius. 
Silius has infufed into his fubjeSl and ftyle, thofe rules 
of the epoposa, which were confidered as laws in his time, 
and famftioned by the numerous examples in Homel¬ 
and in Virgil. For inftance ; Hannibai, having taken 
Saguntum, refolves to pafs the Alps and march to Rome. 
Silius, in imitation of the manner of Homer of invoking 
the afliftance of the gods in all difficult emergencies, 
imagines that Jupiter fends Mercury to appear before 
Hannibal, and excite him to purfue his march to Rome. 
Venus complains of the fuccefs of the Carthaginian 
hero, but is confoled in hearing oftke future grandeur of 
the Romans, (lib. iii.) In another part of the poem, where 
Hannibal is mentioned as on his march, the poet.^in 
clofe imitation of Homer, minutely defcribes the differ¬ 
ent nations of which his army is compofed. In the 
eighth book he enumerates, in a fimilar manner, the 
forces of the Romans. In the thirteenth book, Scipio 
vifits the infernal regions, like Ulyfies in the Odyfiey, 
and .iEneas in the ZEneid. Other fpecimens of his ma- 
chinery are to be found in different parts of the poem ; 
but it mull be obferved, that they are all profeffed imita¬ 
tions of former poets, and give Silius not the fmalleft 
claim to originality, or merit of invention. His peculiar 
characteriftic is variety, contrary to that equable and 
fteady current which we admire in Virgil. This variety 
arifes principally from his frequent imitations of other 
authors. Virgil was content with borrowing from the 
Greeks; but Silius appears to have adopted without 
fcruple the fentiments and manner of both Greek and 
Roman writers. To form a correiSt opinion of his merit, 
we mult not criticife his poem as a whole, but feleft 
thofe parts moft confpicuous for beauty or elegance. In 
the narrative part, which is-indeed feldotn interrupted by 
epifodes, he in general maintains the gravity and dignity 
fuited to the epic ; and, confidering the frequent helps 
of which he freely availed himfelf, he has pVeferved a 
perfpicuity and order not to be found in Lucan or 
r Statius. 
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