Monsieur Bossu's treatise of the epick poem containing many curious reflexions, very useful and necessary for the right understanding and judging of the excellencies of Homer and Virgil / done into English from the French, with a new original preface upon the same subject, by W.J. ; to which are added, An essay upon satyr, by Monsieur D'Acier ; and A treatise upon pastorals, by Monsieur Fontanelle.

CHAP. II. Of the Title of the Epick Poem.

WE here examine Things upon the Principles we laid down in speaking concerning the Nature of the Epick Poem. We observed that it is a Fable; and we see nothing in the Practice of our Poets that gives us any other Idea of the Title and Inscri∣ption of their Poems, than of the Titles of Aesop's Fables. They have for their Title the Names of the Persons that act in them. There lies this Difference, that all the Personages are nam'd in the Title of Aesop's Fables, because they are but few, and one is as im∣portant as another; but in the Epick Poem there is commonly One who is a great deal more considerable than the rest, and the others are too many to be all nam'd. Therefore they only affix the Name of the principal Personage to it. Thus the Odysseïs and the Aeneid bear only the Name of Ʋlysses and Aeneas.

The Example of Homer in the Inscription of the Iliad informs us, that the Title of the Poem may be deriv'd from something else besides the Name of the Personages. Perhaps he did not call it the Achilleid, because Achilles does not act therein, as Ʋlysses and Aeneas do in the other two Poems. He has as many Sharers in his Dignity as there are Princes in his Alliance. He has a Gene∣ral to whom he should submit, and refusing to do that, he makes but little or no Figure in the whole Action, of which the Subject of the Poem is but a part. He is but little better than a Cashier'd Officer. He is doubtless the most Valiant; but the Poet sings his Anger, not his Valour. And even there, the Anger which the Poet sings is rather that which makes Achilles to absent himself from fighting, than that which puts him upon killing of Hector. To conclude, the Fable consists less in this Anger, than in the Quar∣rel and Reconciliation, wherein Agamemnon had as great a share as he. So that the Poet makes no Scruple to mention them both in his Proposition, when he comes as near the Fable it self as possi∣ble: I sing, says he, the Anger of Achilles, that has done so much mischief to the Grecians, and caused the death of so ma∣ny Heroes; since the time that Agamem∣non and he fell out and parted. These Considerations ought not to degrade Achilles from the Honour of being the chief Perso∣nage, which Homer has doubtless made him: but they may serve to prove, that though he is the chief Hero of this Fable, yet he is not the only Hero, as Ʋlysses and Aeneas are in the Fables that go under their Names.

Statius and Lucan have each of them two Heroes; and they have, like Homer, given their Poems the Names of the Places where the Actions were done, and not of the Heroes who did them. But the Thebaid, and the Pharsalia, are such defective Poems, that there's no relying upon their Authority.

In Tragedies, where the Name of the Personage is made use of for the Title, the Poet adds something else to it, when he makes several pieces under the Name of the same Hero. Seneca has done this in his two Tragedies of Hercules. The One he names from the Madness which transported him, and the † Other from the Place, where he was burnt. This is the Rea∣son why more than one Name is requisite for the Title of Aesop's Fables; for there is scarce an Animal, but what is a Hero in seve∣ral Fables. But this signifies little to the Epick Poem: 'Tis rare that an Author makes two of these Fables under the Name of one and the same Person.

Nor do Poets use to denote the Action in the Title of the Poem. Several Things happen'd to Medea, Ʋlysses, Aeneas, and Troy; and one might feign a great many under the Names of the Wolf and the Lamb, which the Title alone would never inform us of. This signifies nothing; the Authors are well enough satisfied with these plain Inscriptions, Medea, the Odysseïs, the Aeneid, the Ili∣ad, the Lamb and the Wolf. And they refer us to the Discourse it self to know what the Action is that is recited.

Notes

• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Iliad. 1.
• Hercules Furens.
• †

  Hercules Oetus.