Page:Joan of Arc - Southey (1796).djvu/6

vi brought me. I saw its faults, and immediately formed my resolution. The first 340 lines remain nearly as they were: from thence the plan of the whole has been changed, and I believe there are not 1000 lines remaining as they were originally written. The rest was composed whilst the printing went on.

The 450 lines at the beginning of the second book, were written by S. T. Coleridge. But from this part must be excepted the lines 141, 142, 143; and the whole intermediate passage from 148 to 222. The lines from 266 to 272, are likewise mine, and the lines from 286 to 291.

The general fault of Epic Poems is, that we feel little interest for the Heroes they celebrate. The national vanity of a Greek or a Roman might have been gratified by the renown of Achilles, or Æneas, but to engage the unprejudiced, there must be more of human feelings than is generally to be found in the character of Warriors: from this objection the Odyssey alone may be excepted. Ulysses appears as the father and the husband, and the affections are enlisted on his side. The judgment must applaud the well-digested plan, and splendid execution of the Iliad, but the heart always bears testimony to the merit of the Odyssey: it is the poem of nature, and its personages inspire love rather than command admiration. The good herdsman Eumæus is worth a thousand heroes! Homer is indeed the best of Poets, for he is dignified yet simple; but Pope has disguised him in fop-finery, and Cowper has stripped him naked.

There are few readers who do not prefer Turnus to Æneas; an emigrant, suspected of treason, who negligently left his wife, seduced Dido, deserted her, and then took Lavinia forcibly from her betrothed husband! What avails a man's piety to the Gods, if in all his dealings with men he prove himself a villain? If we represent Deity as commanding a bad action, we make a Moloch God, and furnish arguments for the Atheist. The ill-chosen subjects of Lucan and Statius have prevented them from acquiring the popularity they would otherwise have merited, yet in detached parts, the former of these is perhaps unequalled, certainly unexcelled. The French Court honored the Poet of Liberty, by excluding him from the edition in Usum Delphini; haps