560 
belong to the epopcea, to authorize its 
exclusion from that class of writings, A 
principal defect is, that it begins too high, 
and the duration of the action is unrea- 
sonably prolonged. The action of the 
Rape is entirely finished in the books 
now extant, so that what followed, if in- 
deed Claudian lived to cothpose more 
than we possess, could not be properly 
said to belong to it, any more than the - 
JEneid, thoagh in fact a continuation in 
part of the same story which formed the 
subject of Homer, can be said to belong 
to the Iliad. Greater simplicity in the 
action, and a greater variety of human 
actors, contrasting with the deities of 
heaven and hell, would also have rendered 
the poem more natural and pleasing. 
But the genius of Claudian was of a high 
and lofty description, and seemed to dis- 
dain the common incidents and language 
of human nature. His sentiments are 
always dignified, and his diction is beyond 
rneasure pompous, and surpassing even 
Flaccus in the splendour of his opening ; 
he thus exclaims: 
Audaci promere cantu 
‘Mens congesta jubet. Gressus removete, 
profani ! 
Jam furor humanos nostro de pectore sensus 
Expulit, et totum spirant precordia Phebum. 
These enthusiastic flights can be tole- 
rated only in the Ode, or any other simi- 
lar piece sufficiently short to enable the 
poet to preserve the same fervour through- 
out the whole. But in a poem of any 
Jength like the epic, they are evidently 
improper, as they only make the subse- 
quent and unavoidable fall of the poet 
the more glaring and offensive, Thus 
Claudian has not been able to maintain 
beyond the middle of the first book the ter- 
rors which he endeavours to excite in his 
proposition—and the infernal darkness* 
which was to obscure the light of the sun, 
vanishes before the ornaments of ivory, 
and the pillars of amber, which decorate 
the palace of Proserpina.t 
No man ever possessed more of true 
poetic genius than Claudian, and few men 
of genius ever possessed so little judg- 
ment. His flights are extravagant, but 
they are beautiful. He has a boldness in 
the use of figures, which astonishes and 
confounds the reader, but ‘their founda- 
® Si dicto parere negas, patefacta ciebo 
Tartara, Saturni veteres laxabo catenés : 
Obducamtenebris:lucem. Compage soluta 
Lucidus umbroso miscebitur axis aveno. 
De Rep. Pros. lib. I. 
+ Atria cingit ebur, trabibus solidatur ahenis 
Culmen, & in celsas surgunt electra columnas. 
Lbid. 
Lycaum of Ancient Literature—Claudian. 
| | Jang 
tion may almost always be found in truth, 
though they are stretched too far in the 
execution. He is more florid, though 
less affected, than Statius. Like him, he 
is often tumid and inflated without any 
apparent cause; but what in Statius was 
the effect of art, is in Claudian excess of 
imagination. We are often more dis- 
posed to excuse a fault which proceeds 
from the ebullition of an over-heated 
fancy, than to admire a beauty that has 
evidently been laboured into excellence. 
It must not be understood that luxuriance 
in poetry is always. a fault, and that we 
are bound to admire every thing that is 
correct. A dull poet, at the expence of 
much labour and thought, may possibly at- 
tain to the correctness of Virgil, though 
he will never acquire his spizit or his 
taste. Gn the other hand, an extrava- 
gant and depraved fancy may,sometiimes 
resemble the- rich abundance of Ovid 
and Claudian ; but examimation will shew 
the former to be an undigested heap of 
bombast, and the other a magnificent 
profusion of fine images. But as true 
beauty consists in a just symmetry of 
parts, all concurring to form a whole in a_ 
graceful and uniform proportion, it is the 
office of judgment to, correct the wild 
sallies of imagination; and here, as we 
have already said, Claudian was unfortu- 
nately deficient. The most lively in- 
stances of this redundancy of fancy occur 
in the beginning of the third book, where 
Jupiter is described as calling a council 
of the gods, in the nuptials of Pluto and 
Proserpine in the second, and the.re- 
presentation of Mount tna. Ofhis de- 
scriptions, the general fault is, that they 
are too minute, and involve too many 
circumstances. He is also accused of 
deviating into philosophical, ingenious, 
and learned digressions which too fre- 
quently lead him from the purpose of his 
story. Butupon the whole, the beauties 
of his poem far exceed its defects. Strada 
(Prolus. 5, 6.) allows him to contend with 
the five heroic poets, Lucretius, Virgil, 
Ovid, Lucan, and Statius. 
We have thus completed our survey of 
the epic poets of Greece and Rome. If 
we have appeared to bestow on some of 
them a greater degree of attention than 
their general merit would seem to au- 
thorize, let it be recollected that our de- 
sign embraces ail the authors of ancient 
literature. 
classies, criticism has exhausted all its 
powers; but the secondary poets still 
present a field of comparative novelty 
ard utility. In recommending these to 
the perusal of the studious reader, we 
have 
On the higher order of the. 
