SAT
SAT
licerent e .— In effect, fatyrkal poetry, according to this cri- tick, may be naturally enough deduced from the wantonnefs of the fatyrs ; and what confirms it, is that Earvpttfts is ren- dered in ancient glofies by India; and fatyrkal, by ludicrous, fportive, Sec. Thus Seneca's fatyr is called ludus, and Ho- race and Perfius ufe ludere for fcribere fatyras u — a V. Plin. Hill. Nat. 1. 30. c. 10. L Sever, in uEttia. v. 12. c Manil. 1. 5. v. 480. d Dicmed. 1. 3. e Seal. Poet. I. 1. c. 12. f V. Dan. Heinf. de fatyr. Horatian, 1. 2. Lugd. 1628. I2 n . Fab. Tbef. p. 2248. Satyr bears a near affinity to raillery, ridicule, lampoon, li- bel, fcfc, and Hands oppofed to panegyrick. See Libel, Panegyrick, &c. — The reafon why fatyrs generally pleafe, and panegyricks tire the readers, feems to be, be- caufe the former are commonly true, and the latter falfe.— V. Journ. des Scav. T. 81. p. 294.
Horace calls his two books of fatyrs, indifferently either Sermones, or Satyres, two words which at firff, fight prefent very different ideas. See Serm ones. The chief fatyrifls among the ancients are, Horace, Ju- venal and Perfius j among the moderns, Regnier and Tloi- leau in French ; and Dryden, Oldham, Rochefter, Buck- ingham, Pope, Young, &c. among the Engllfh. A fatyr ought to be lively, pleafant, moral, and full of va- riety, wherein Juvenal and Horace excelled, though their fatyrs ought not to be read without caution.- — Among the qualifications requifite in a.fatyrljl, one of the moft efiential is good-nature; all the fentiments which are beautiful in this way of writing muff, proceed from that quality in the au- thor. It is good-nature produces that difdain of all bafenefs, vice and folly, which prompts the poet to exprefs himfelf with fmartnefs againll the errors of men, but without bit- ternefs towards their perfons. It is this quality keeps the mind in equanimity, and never lets an offence unfeafonably throw a man out of his character. When Virgil faid, he that did not hate Bavius might love Masvius, he was in per- fect good humour, and was not fo much moved at their ab- furdities, as paffionately to call them fots, or blockheads in a direct invective, but laughed at them with a delicacy of fcorn, without any mixture of anger. — The beff good man with the worft-natured mufe, was the character among us of a gentleman as famous for his humanity, as his wit. In reality, the ordinary fubjects for fatyr are fuch as incite the greateft indignation in the beft tempers, and confequently men of fuch a make are beft qualified for fpeaking of them : fuch men can behold vice and folly, when they injure per- fons with whom they are wholly unacquainted, with the fame feverity as others refent the ills they feel themfelves. — In all the writings of Horace and Juvenal, there is not one ill-natured expreflion ; not one fentence of feverity which does not apparently proceed from the contrary difpofition. — V. Tatlt N° 242. T. 4. p. 219. feq.
Satyr may be divided with regard to the meafure, and kind of verfe, as well as the manner of the poem, and the cha- racter, into narrative, dramatkk, mixed, &c. Narrative, is a fimple narration or recital of abufes in the poet's own perfon. — Such is the firft of Juvenal. Dramatkk, is that wherein feveral perfons difcourfe toge- ther; whether they be namelefs, as in the firft of Perfius; or have names, as of Catius and Damafippus. Mixt, is compounded of both the former ; as that fine one of Horace, Ibam forte via facra.
Grave, and animated, which inveigh with warmth and earn- eftnefs againft corruption, and vice in every fhape. — As thofe of Juvenal and Perfius.
Sportive, and lighter, which feem to play with mens follies, but in playing omit no opportunity of making them feel the lafh, — Such are thofe of Horace, hence faid to be fermoni propiora.
The grave fort brandifhes a naked fword, the fportive pre- fents a thyrfus, like that of the ancient fatyrs furrounded with vine leaves, with which it ftabs unawares. — The heat of the former fometimes degenerates into fury, and Indigna- tion ; and the calmnefs of the latter fometimes finks to mere raillery. But between the two extremes are a great num- ber of intermediate fpecies and degrees. The former, efpe- cially when dictated by paffion, is much eafieft: nothing is more difficult than to make people of tafte laugh, even at the expence of others. The attaining of this muft be the fruit of genius and talents, rather than rules : perhaps it may be unneceffary to explain either ; fince vanity, felf-love, and even malice are mafters more than fufficient for a poet who wants not wit, and judgment. Thus Juvenal : Si na- tura negat, facit indignat'to verfum ; and Boileau : La colere fttffit & vaut un Apollon. — V. Mourg. Trait de lapoef. Franc. ' c. 4. Mem. de Trev. Nov. 1723. p. 2150.
In perufing the writings of the two leaders of the two forts of fatyr laft mentioned, it may not be unneceffary to con- fider, that they lived in very different times : Horace was intimate with a prince of the greatefl goodnefs, and huma- nity ; and his court was formed after his example : therefore the faults that poet falls upon were little inconfiftencies in behaviour, falfe pretences to politenefs, or impertinent affec- tations of what men were not fit for. Vices of a coarfer .fort could not come under his confederation, or enter the palace of Auguftus.— Juvenal, on the other hand, lived un-
der Domitian, in whofe reign every thing great and noble was banifhed the habitations of the men in power. There- fore he attacks vice as it pufles by in triumph, not as it breaks into converfation. The fail of empire, contempt of glorv, and a general degeneracy of manners, are before his eyes in alL his writings.— In the days of Auguftus, to have talked like Juvenal had been madnefs, or in thofe of Domitian, like Horace. Morality and virtue are every where recom- mended in Horace, as became a man in a polite court, from the beauty, propriety, and convenience of purfuing them: vice and corruption are attacked by Juvenal in a ftyle which denotes, he fears he fhall not be heard unlefs he calls to them in their own language, with a bare-faced mention of the villanies and obfeenities of his contemporaries. — V. Tail. T. 4. N° 242. p. 219. feqq.
The Italians divide fatyr into ferious, as that in common ufe ; and joccfe, giocofa, which they alfo call bernefca, and we burlefque. See Burles qu e .
Their chief fatyrifis in the ferious way are, Dante (whom they particularly call principe fatirico) Ariofto, Aretine, Er- cole Bentivoglio, Luigi Alamanni, Jacobo Soldani, Lorenzo Azzolino, Salvator Rofa, Lud. Adimari, and Benedetto Men- zini a . — Thofe who have excelled in the jocofe kind are Francefco Berni (the inventor of it) Mauro, Firenzuol? 3 Cafa, Coppetta Varchi Lafca, Caporali ">, c3V. — a V. Bian- chin della fatira Italiana, P. I. p. 9. Giorn. de Letter d'Ltal. T. 20. p. 306. b Id. ibid. P. II. p. 25. Giorn. p. 310. feqq. Satyr is divided into general, which is levelled at common abufes wherein numbers are equally interefted : and perfonal, which points out and expofes particular characters. — Which laft, as it affects mens reputation, on which their intereft greatly depends, is fcarce diftinguifhable from defamation, and fcandal. See Infamous and Scandal. To this laft clafs belong moft of thofe which bear the title of Jnti: as the Anti-Baillet of Menage, with which M, Bail- let was fo ftung, that he compofed a treatife exprefs on per- fonal fatyrs which bear the title Jnti ; to fhew the immora- lity, and unlawfulneis of them, and their contrariety to the precepts of the gofpel. See Anti.
It is further objected to this kind of fatyr, that a publick detection, far from producing the effect it is defigned for, reformation, is apt to drive men to defperation, and harden them in their courfe. The excellent author of the treatife of the Government of the Tongue, fpeaking of uncharitable truths, fays, a difcovery of this kind ferves not to reclaim, but enrage the offender, and precipitate him into farther de- grees of ill. Modefty and fear of fbame is one of thofe na- tural reftraints which the wifdom of heaven has put on man- kind : and he who once ftumbles, may yet by a check of that bridle recover himfelf again. But when by a publick detec- tion he is fallen under that infamy he feared, he will be then apt to difcard all caution, and to think he owes himfelf the utmoft pleafures of vice at the price of his reputation.— Nay, perhaps he advances farther, and fets up for a reverfed fort of fame, by being eminently wicked : thus he who before was but a clandeftine difciple, becomes a doctor of impiety. — Doubtlefs it was this fort of reafoning that induced our wife legiflators lately to repeal the law which put the brand of infamy in the face of felons.— In effed, where crimes are enormous, the delinquent deferves little pity, yet the re- porter may deferve lefs.— V. Tail. N° 74, T. 2. p. K4.. fea. See alfo N° 76. p. 166./^. *. ;
Greek Satyr. — Cafaubon makes a diftinction between the fa- tyrkal poetry of the Greeks, and the fatyr of the Romans, which he maintains was peculiar to themfelves ; in which alfo he feems to be juftified by Quintilian. Satyr a quidem tota nojlra ejl, in qua primus infignem laudem adeptus Lucilius a . Which fame Lucilius is alfo exprefly faid by Horace to have been the firft fatyrkal poet b .
Efl Lucilius aufus
. Primus in hunc operis 1 componere carmina morem. For a like reafon Horace calls fatyr, Greeds intaclum carmen, a fort of poetry unknown to the Greeks \ Spanheim in his fine preface to the Qefars of the emperor Julian, has fhown five or fix efiential differences between thofe two poems. The Greeks chiefly reprehended vice, &c. in their drama's though they had alfo a fort of narrative poems called Silli, like the Roman and our fatyrs. Thefe Silli were cutting, or farcaftick poems, as may be eafily feen by the fragments of Timon's Silli; with this difference, that the Greek Silli were parodies from one end to the other, which cannot be faid of the Roman fatyr. Or if we find fometimes a parody, it is what the poet did not defign, and confequently the pa- rody does not make the effence of fatyr, as it does that of the SHU d .— a V. Quint. Infl. Orat. I. 10. c. 1. b Hor. Sat. 1. 1. 2. v. 62. C I. Cafaub. defatyrka Grtscor. Poefi & Romanor. fa- tyra. 1. 2. Par. 1605. — J See Mafcov. Exerc. Prior, in Horat. fatyr. §. 10. Langheinrich Diff. de Timon. Sillograph. Lipf. 1720 & 1721. Stoll. Introd. ad HiJ}. Liter. P. 1. c. 5. §. 38. Scaliger, notwithftanding all this, followed by fome of the lateft and beft criticks, fcruples not to derive the fatyrkal poetry of the Latins from that of the Greeks. According to thefe authors, fatyr in its origin was a fort of interlude in tragedy, wherein goat-footed fatyrs were introduced to
alle.
