Epistolae Ad Pisones Et Augustum (Volume 1); With an English Commentary and Notes (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1753. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... cally, with good advantage; where, instead of distracting the attention, and breaking the unity of the subject, it would concenter, as it were, with the great design, and have an effect in augmenting the distress of it. 153. Tu, Quid Ego Et Populus, &c] The connection is this. " But though the strict ob" scrvance of these rules will enable the poet to con" duct his plot to the best advantage, yet this is not " all which is required to a perfect tragedy. If he " would seize the attention, and secure the applause, " of the audience, something surther must be at" tempted. He must (to return to the point, from " which I digressed, t 127J be particularly studious ** to express the manners. Beside the peculiarities of " office, temper, condition, country, &c. before con** sidered, all which require to be drawn with the ** utmost fidelity, a singular attention must be had " to the characteristic differences of age." AEtatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores. The reason of this conduct is given in the commentary. It surther serves to adorn this part of the epistle which is wholly perceptive from f 89 to 202] with those beautisul pourtraitures of human lise, in its several successive stages, which nature and Aristotle had instructed him so well to paint. 157. Mo 157. MOBILIBUSQUE DECOR NATURIS DAN Dus Et Annis.] Mobil/bus] non levibus aut inconstantibus, sed ques variatis ectatibus Immutantur. Lambin. Naturis] By this word is not meant, simply, that instinctive natural biass, implanted in every man, to this or that character, but, in general, nature, as it appears diversified in the different periods of lise. The sense will be: A certain decorum or propriety must be observed in painting the natures or dispositions of men, varying with their years. There is then no o..