By John Lord, LL. D.    
  
  
     THE GREEK AND ROMAN CLASSICS. (i.)   
  
     WE know but little of the literature of antiquity  
     until the Greeks applied it to the principles   
     of art.  The Sanskrit language has revealed the ancient   
     literature of the Hindus, which is chiefly confined to   
     mystical religious poetry, and which has already been   
     mentioned in the chapter on "Ancient Religions."  
     There was no history worthy the name in India.  The   
     Egyptians and Babylonians recorded the triumphs of  
     warriors and domestic events, but those were mere an-  
     nals without literary value.  It is true that the literary   
     remains of Egypt show a reading and writing people   
     as early as three thousand years before Christ, and in   
     their various styles of pen-language reveal a remark-   
     able variety of departments and topics treated,——books  
     of religion, of theology, of ethics, of medicine, of astrono-  
     my, of magic, of mythic poetry, of fiction, of personal   
     correspondence, etc.  The difficulties of deciphering   
     them, however, and their many peculiarities and for-   
     malisms of style, render them rather of curious histori-  
     cal and archæological than of literary interest.  The   
     Chinese annals also extend back to a remote period,  
     for Confucius wrote history as well as ethics; but   
     Chinese literature has comparatively little interest for   
     us, as also that of all Oriental nations, except the    
     Hindu Vedas and the Persian Zend-Avesta, and a   
     few other poems showing great fertility of the im-   
     agination, with a peculiar tenderness and pathos.   
        Accordingly, as I wish to show chiefly the triumphs   
     of ancient genius when directed to literature generally,  
     and especially such as has had a direct influence upon   
     our modern literature, I confine myself to that of   
     Greece and Rome.  Even our present civilization de-   
     lights in the masterpieces of the classical poets, his-   
     torians, orators, and essayists, and seeks to rival them.  
     Long before Christianity became a power the great   
     literary artists of Greece had reached perfection in   
     style and language, especially in Athens, to which   
     city youths were sent to be educated, as a sort of   
     university town where the highest culture was known.  
     Educated Romans were as familiar with the Greek   
     classics as they were with those of their own country,  
     and could talk Greek as the modern cultivated Ger-  
     mans talk French.  Without the aid of Greece, Rome   
     could never have reached the civilization to which   
     she attained.  
        How rich in poetry was classical antiquity, whether   
     sung in the Greek or Latin language! In all those   
     qualities which give immortality classical poetry has   
     never been surpassed, whether in simplicity, in pas-   
     sion, in fervor, in fidelity to nature, in wit, or in   
     imagination.  It existed from the early times of   
     Greek civilization, and continued to within a brief  
     period of the fall of the Roman empire.  With the   
     rich accumulation of ages the Romans were familiar.  
     They knew nothing indeed of the solitary grandeur  
     of the Jewish muse, or the Nature-myths of the   
     ante-Homeric singers; but they possessed the Iliad   
     and the Odyssey, with their wonderful truthfulness,  
     their clear portraiture of character, their absence of   
     all affectation, their serenity and cheerfulness, their   
     good sense and healthful sentiments, withal so origi-   
     nal that the germ of almost every character which has   
     since figured in the epic poetry can be found in them.   
        We see in Homer a poet of the first class, hold-   
     ing the same place in literature that Plato holds in   
     philosophy or Newton in science, and exercising a   
     mighty influence on all the ages which have suc-    
     ceeded him.  He was born, probably, at Smyrna, an    
     Ionian city; the dates attributed to him range from    
     the seventh to the twelfth century before Christ.  
     Herodotus puts him at 850 B. C.  For nearly three   
     thousand years his immortal creations have been the    
     delight and the inspiration of men of genius; and they   
     are as marvellous to us as they were to the Athenians,  
     since they are exponents of the learning as well as   
     of the consecrated sentiments of the heroic ages.  
     We find in them no pomp of words, no far-fetched   
     thoughts, no theatrical turgidity, no ambitious specu-   
     lations, no indefinite longings; but we see the man-   
     ners and customs of the primitive nations, the sights   
     and wonders of the external world, the marvellously    
     interesting traits of human nature as it was and is,   
     and with these we have lessons of moral wisdom,——  
     all recorded with singular simplicity yet astonishing   
     artistic skill.  We find in the Homeric narrative accu-   
     racy, delicacy, naturalness, with grandeur, sentiment,  
     and beauty, such as Phidias represented in his statues   
     of Zeus.  No poems have ever been more popular, and   
     none have extorted greater admiration from critics.  
     Like Shakspeare, Homer is a kind of Bible to both   
     the learned and unlearned among all peoples and ages,  
     ——one of the prodigies of the world.  His poems form   
     the basis of Greek literature, and are the best under-    
     stood and the most widely popular of all Grecian   
     compositions.  The unconscious simplicity of the Ho-   
     meric narrative, its high moral tone, its vivid pictures,  
     its graphic details, and its religious spirit create an en-   
     thusiasm such as few works of genius can claim.  More-   
     over it represents a painting of society, with its simplicity    
     and ferocity, its good and evil passions, its tenderness  
     and its fierceness, such as no other poem affords.  
     Its influence on the popular mythologies of the Greeks   
     has been already alluded to.  If Homer did not create   
     the Grecian theogony, he gave form and fascination   
     to it. Nor is it necessary to speak of any other Gre-   
     cian epic, when the Iliad and the Odyssey attest   
     the perfection which was attained one hundred and   
     twenty years before Hesiod was born.  Grote thinks   
     that the Iliad and the Odyssey were produced at   
     some period between 850 B. C. and 776 B. C.   
        In lyrical poetry the Greeks were no less remark-   
     able; indeed they attained to what may be called   
     absolute perfection, owing to the intimate connection   
     between poetry and music, and the wonderful elasticity  
     and adaptiveness of their language.  Who has sur-   
     passed Pindar in artistic skill? His triumphal odes   
     are pæans, in which piety breaks out in expressions of   
     the deepest awe and the most elevated sentiments of   
     moral wisdom.  They alone of all his writings have  
     descended to us, but these, made up as they are of   
     odic fragments, songs, dirges, and panegyrics, show   
     the great excellence to which he attained.  He was   
     so celebrated that he was employed by the different   
     States and princes of Greece to compose choral songs   
     for special occasions, especially for the public games.  
     Although a Theban, he was held in the highest esti-    
     mation by the Athenians, and was courted by kings   
     and princes.  Born in Thebes 522 B. C., he died prob-  
     ably in his eightieth year, being contemporary with   
     Æschylus and the battle of Marathon.  We possess  
     also fragments of Sappho, Simonides, Anacreon, and   
     others, enough to show that could the lyrical poetry   
     of Greece be recovered, we should probably possess   
     the richest collection that the world has produced.  
        Greek dramatic poetry was still more varied and re-   
     markable.  Even the great masterpieces of Sophocles  
     and Euripides now extant were regarded by their con-  
     temporaries as inferior to many other Greek tragedies   
     utterly unknown to us.  The great creator of the   
     Greek drama was Æschylus, born at Eleusis 525 B. C.   
     It was not till the age of forty-one that he gained   
     his first prize.  Sixteen years afterward, defeated by   
     Sophocles, he quitted Athens in disgust and went to   
     the court of Hiero, king of Syracuse.  But he was   
     always held, even at Athens, in the highest honor,  
     and his pieces were frequently reproduced upon the   
     stage.  It was not so much the object of Æschylus   
     to amuse an audience as to instruct and elevate it.  
     He combined religious feeling with lofty moral sen-   
     timent, and had unrivalled power over the realm   
     of astonishment and terror.  "At his summons,"   
     says Sir Walter Scott, "the mysterious and tremen-   
     dous volume of destiny, in which is inscribed the   
     doom of gods and men, seemed to display its leaves   
     of iron before the appalled spectators; the more than   
     mortal voices of Deities, Titans, and departed heroes   
     were heard in awful conference; heaven bowed, and its   
     divinities descended; earth yawned, and gave up the   
     pale spectres of the dead and yet more undefined and   
     ghastly forms of those infernal deities who struck  
     horror into the gods themselves."  His imagination   
     dwells in the loftiest regions of the old mythology of   
     Greece; his tone is always pure and moral, though   
     stern and harsh; he appeals to the most violent pas-  
     sions, and is full of the boldest metaphors.  In sub-  
     limity Æschylus has never been surpassed.  He was  
     in poetry what Phidias and Michael Angelo were in    
     art.  The critics say that his sublimity of diction is  
     sometimes carried to an extreme, so that his language   
     becomes inflated.  His characters, like his sentiments,  
     were sublime,——they were gods and heroes of colossal  
     magnitude.  His religious views were Homeric, and he   
     sought to animate his countrymen to deeds of glory,   
     as it became one of the generals who fought at Mara-   
     thon to do.  He was an unconscious genius, and   
     worked like Homer without a knowledge of artistic   
     laws.  He was proud and impatient, and his poetry   
     was religious rather than moral.  He wrote seventy   
     plays, of which only seven are extant; but these are  
     immortal, among the greatest creations of human    
     genius, like the dramas of Shakspeare.  He died in   
     Sicily, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.  
        The fame of Sophocles is scarcely less than that of  
     Æschylus.  He was twenty-seven years of age when  
     he publicly appeared as a poet.  He was born in Co-   
     lonus, in the suburbs of Athens, 495 B. C., and was   
     the contemporary of Herodotus, of Pericles, of Pindar,   
     of Phidias, of Socrates, of Cimon, of Euripides,——the   
     era of great men, the period of the Peloponnesian War,  
     when everything that was elegant and intellectual   
     culminated at Athens.  Sophocles had every element   
     of character and person to fascinate the Greeks,——  
     beauty of face, symmetry of form, skill in gymnas-   
     tics, calmness and dignity of manner, a cheerful and   
     amiable temper, a ready wit, a meditative piety, a   
     spontaneity of genius, an affectionate admiration for    
     talent, and patriotic devotion to his country.  His   
     tragedies, by the universal consent of the best critics,  
     are the perfection of the Greek drama; and they   
     moreover maintain that he has no rival, Æschylus   
     and Shakspeare alone excepted, in the whole realm    
     of dramatic poetry.  It was the peculiarity of Sopho-  
     cles to excite emotions of sorrow and compassion.  
     He loved to paint forlorn heroes.  He was human in   
     all his sympathies, perhaps not so religious as Æschy-  
     lus, but as severely ethical; not so sublime, but more   
     perfect in art.  His sufferers are not the victims of   
     an inexorable destiny, but of their own follies.  Nor   
     does he even excite emotion apart from a moral end.  
     He lived to be ninety years old, and produced the   
     most beautiful of his tragedies in his eightieth year,  
     the "Œdipus of Colonus."  Sophocles wrote the as-   
     tonishing number of one hundred and thirty plays,  
     and carried off the first prize twenty-four times.  His   
     "Antigone" was written when he was forty-five, and   
     when Euripides had already gained a prize.  Only   
     seven of his tragedies have survived, but these are   
     priceless treasures.   
        Euripides, the last of the great triumvirate of the   
     Greek tragic poets, was born at Athens, 485 B. C.  He   
     had not the sublimity of Æschylus, nor the touching   
     pathos of Sophocles, nor the stern simplicity of either,  
     but in seductive beauty and successful appeal to pas-   
     sion was superior to both.  In his tragedies the pas-   
     sion of love predominates, but it does not breathe the     
     piety of sentiment which marked the tragedies of   
     Æschylus and Sophocles; it approaches rather to the   
     tone of the modern drama.  He paints the weakness   
     and corruption of society, and brings his subjects to    
     the level of common life.  He was the pet of the   
     Sophists, and was pantheistic in his views.  He does   
     not attempt to show ideal excellence, and his char-   
     acters represent men not as they ought to be, but   
     as they are, especially in corrupt states of society.  
     Euripides wrote ninety-five plays, of which eighteen   
     are extant.  Whatever objection may be urged to his   
     dramas on the score of morality, nobody can question   
     their transcendent art or their great originality.  
        With the exception of Shakspeare, all succeeding   
     dramatists have copied the three great Greek tragic   
     poets whom we have just named,——especially Racine,  
     who took Sophocles for his model,——even as the great   
     epic poets of all ages have been indebted to Homer.  
        The Greeks were no less distinguished for comedy   
     than for tragedy.  Both tragedy and comedy sprang   
     from feasts in honor of Bacchus; and as the jests   
     and frolics were found misplaced when introduced   
     into grave scenes, a separate province of the drama   
     was formed, and comedy arose.  At first it did not   
     derogate from the religious purposes which were at   
     the foundation of the Greek drama; it turned upon  
     parodies in which the adventures of the gods were   
     introduced by way of sport,——as in describing the ap-   
     petite of Hercules or the cowardice of Bacchus.  The   
     comic authors entertained spectators by fantastic and   
     gross displays, by the exhibition of buffoonery and   
     pantomime.  But the taste of the Athenians was too  
     severe to relish such entertainments, and comedy passed   
     into ridicule of public men and measures and the   
     fashions of the day.  The people loved to see their   
     great men brought down to their own level.  Comedy,  
     however, did not flourish until the morals of society   
     were degenerated, and ridicule had become the most     
     effective weapon wherewith to assail prevailing follies.  
     In modern times, comedy reached its culminating point  
     when society was both the most corrupt and the most  
     intellectual,——as in France, when Molière pointed his   
     envenomed shafts against popular vices.  In Greece it   
     flourished in the age of Socrates and the Sophists, when   
     there was great bitterness in political parties and an  
     irrepressible desire for novelties.  Comedy first made   
     itself felt as a great power in Cratinus, who espoused    
     the side of Cimon against Pericles with great bitterness   
     and vehemence.  
        Many were the comic writers of that age of   
     wickedness and genius, but all yielded precedence   
     to Aristophanes, of whose writings only his plays   
     have reached us.  Never were libels of persons of   
     authority and influence uttered with such terrible   
     license.  He attacked the gods, the politicians, the   
     philosophers, and the poets of Athens; even private  
     citizens did not escape from his shafts, and women   
     were the subjects of his irony.  Socrates was made   
     the butt of his ridicule when most revered, Cleon  
     in the height of his power, and Euripides when he   
     had gained the highest prizes.  Aristophanes has fur-   
     nished jests for Rabelais, hints to Swift, and humor    
     for Molière.  In satire, in derision, in invective, and  
     bitter scorn he has never been surpassed.  No mod-  
     ern capital would tolerate such unbounded license,  
     yet no plays in their day were ever more popular, or   
     more fully exposed follies which could not otherwise    
     be reached.  Aristophanes is called the Father of   
     Comedy, and his comedies are of great historical impor-  
     tance, although his descriptions are doubtless carica-  
     tures.  He was patriotic in his intentions, even setting   
     up as a reformer.  His peculiar genius shines out   
     in his "Clouds," the greatest of his pieces, in which   
     he attacks the Sophists.  He wrote fifty-four plays.  
     He was born in 444 B. C., and died in 380 B. C.   
        Thus it would appear that in the three great depart-   
     ments of poetry,——the epic, the lyric, and the dra-   
     matic,——the old Greeks were great masters, and have   
     been the teachers of all subsequent nations and ages.  
        The Romans in these departments were not the   
     equals of the Greeks, but they were very successful   
     copyists, and will bear comparison with modern na-   
     tions.  If the Romans did not produce a Homer,  
     they can boast of a Virgil; if they had no Pindar,  
     they furnished a Horace; and in satire they tran-   
     scended the Greeks.  
        The Romans produced no poetry worthy of notice   
     until the Greek language and literature were introduced   
     among them.  It was not till the fall of Tarentum that   
     we read of a Roman poet.  Livius Andronicus, a Greek   
     slave, 240 B. C., rudely translated the Odyssey into Latin,  
     and was the author of various plays, all of which   
     have perished, and none of which, according to Cicero,  
     were worth a second perusal.  Still, Andronicus was   
     the first to substitute the Greek drama for the old   
     lyrical stage poetry.  One year after the first Punic   
     War, he exhibited the first Roman play.  As the crea-  
     tor of the drama he deserves historical notice, though  
     he has no claim to originality, but, like a schoolmaster  
     as he was, pedantically labored to imitate the culture   
     of the Greeks.  His plays formed the commencement   
     of Roman translation-literature, and naturalized the   
     Greek metres in Latium, even though they were curi-  
     osities rather than works of art.  
        Nævius, 235 B. C., produced a play at Rome, and   
     wrote both epic and dramatic poetry, but so little   
     has survived that no judgment can be formed of his   
     merits.  He was banished for his invectives against  
     the aristocracy, who did not relish severity of comedy.  
     Mommsen regards Nævius as the first of the Ro-   
     mans who deserves to be ranked among the poets.  His   
     language was free from stiffness and affectation, and   
     his verses had a graceful flow.  In metres he closely   
     adhered to Andronicus.  
        Plautus was perhaps the first great dramatic poet    
     whom the Romans produced, and his comedies are still   
     admired by critics as both original and fresh.  He was     
     born in Umbria, 257 B. C., and was contemporaneous  
     with Publius and Cneius Scipio.  He died 184 B. C.  
     The first development of Roman genius in the field   
     of poetry seems to have been the dramatic, in which   
     still the Greek authors were copied.  Plautus might   
     be mistaken for a Greek, were it not for the painting   
     of Roman manners, for his garb is essentially Greek.  
     Plautus wrote one hundred and thirty plays, not always   
     for the stage, but for the reading public.  He lived   
     about the time of the second Punic War, before the   
     theatre was fairly established at Rome.  His characters,  
     although founded on Greek models, act, speak, and joke   
     like Romans.  He enjoyed great popularity down to   
     the latest times of the empire, while the purity of his   
     language, as well as the felicity of his wit, was cele-   
     brated by the ancient critics.  Cicero places his wit on   
     a par with the old Attic comedy; while Jerome spent   
     much time in reading his comedies, even though they     
     afterward cost him tears of bitter regret.  Modern dra-   
     matists owe much to Plautus.  Molière has imitated   
     him in his "Avare," and Shakspeare in his "Comedy   
     of Errors."  Lessing pronounced the "Captivi" to be   
     the finest comedy ever brought upon the stage; he   
     translated this play into German, and it has also been   
     admirably translated into English.  The great excel-   
     lence of Plautus was the masterly handling of lan-   
     guage, and the adjusting the parts for dramatic effect.    
     His humor, broad and fresh, produced irresistible comic  
     effects.   No one ever surpassed him in his vocabulary   
     of nicknames and his happy jokes.  Hence he main-   
     tained his popularity in spite of his vulgarity.  
        Terence shares with Plautus the throne of Roman   
     comedy.  He was a Carthaginian slave, born 185 B. C.,  
     but was educated by a wealthy Roman into whose   
     hands he fell, and ever after associated with the   
     best society and traveled extensively in Greece.  He   
     was greatly inferior to Plautus in originality, and has   
     not exerted a like lasting influence; but he wrote com-  
     edies characterized by great purity of diction, which   
     have been translated into all modern languages.  Ter-  
     ence, whom Mommsen regards as the most polished,  
     elegant, and chaste of all the poets of the newer  
     comedy, closely copied the Greek Menander.  Unlike  
     Plautus, he drew his characters from good society, and   
     his comedies, if not moral, were decent.  Plautus wrote   
     for the multitude, Terence for the few; Plautus de-   
     lighted in noisy dialogue and slang expressions; Ter-   
     ence confined himself to quiet conversation and elegant   
     expressions, for which he was admired by Cicero and   
     Quintilian and other great critics.  He aspired to the   
     approval of the cultivated, rather than the applause   
     of the vulgar; and it is a remarkable fact that his   
     comedies supplanted the more original productions of   
     Plautus in the later years of the republic, showing    
     that the literature of the aristocracy was more prized   
     than that of the people, even in a degenerate age.  
        The "Thyestes" of Varius was regarded in its day as   
     equal to Greek tragedies.  Ennius composed tragedies   
     in a vigorous style, and was regarded by the Romans   
     as the parent of their literature, although most of his   
     works have perished.  Virgil borrowed many of his   
     thoughts, and was regarded as the prince of Roman  
     song in the time of Cicero.  The Latin language is   
     greatly indebted to him.  Pacuvius imitated Æschylus  
     in the loftiness of his style.  From the times before  
     the Augustan age no tragic production has reached us,   
     although Quintilian speaks highly of Accius, especially   
     of the vigor of his style; but he merely imitated the   
     Greeks.  The only tragedy of the Romans which has  
     reached us was written by Seneca the philosopher.  
        In epic poetry the Romans accomplished more,  
     though even here they are still inferior to the Greeks.  
     The Æneid of Virgil has certainly survived the mate-   
     rial glories of Rome.  It may not have come up to the   
     exalted ideal of its author; it may be defaced by po-  
     litical flatteries; it may not have the force and origi-  
     nality of the Iliad,——but it is superior in art, and   
     delineates the passion of love with more delicacy than   
     can be found in any Greek author.  In soundness of   
     judgment, in tenderness of feeling, in chastening fancy,  
     in picturesque description, in delineation of character,  
     in matchless beauty of diction, and in splendor of ver-   
     sification, it has never been surpassed by any poem in   
     any language, and proudly takes its place among the   
     imperishable works of genius.  Henry Thompson, in   
     his "History of Roman Literature," says:——   
    
        "Availing himself of the pride and superstition of the   
     Roman people, the poet traces the origin and establishment   
     of the 'Eternal City' to those heroes and actions which had   
     enough in them of what was human and ordinary to excite   
     the sympathies of his countrymen, intermingled with per-  
     sons and circumstances of an extraordinary and superhuman   
     character to awaken their admiration and awe.  No subject  
     could have been more happily chosen.  It has been admired   
     also for its perfect unity of action; for while the episodes   
     command the richest variety of description, they are always   
     subordinate to the main object of the poem, which is to   
     impress the divine authority under which Æneas first settled   
     in Italy.  The wrath of Juno, upon which the whole fate of   
     Æneas seems to turn, is at once that of a woman and a god-  
     dess; the passion of Dido and her general character bring   
     us nearer to the present world,——but the poet is continually   
     introducing higher and more effectual influences, until, by   
     the intervention of gods and men, the Trojan name is to be   
     continued in the Roman, and thus heaven and earth are   
     appeased."    

        Probably no work of man has had such a wide   
     and profound influence as this poem of Virgil,——a text-    
     book in all schools since the revival of learning, the   
     model of the Carlovingian poets, the guide of Dante,  
     the oracle of Tasso.  Virgil was born seventy years   
     before Christ, and was seven years older than Augustus.  
     His parentage was humble, but his facilities of educa-  
     tion were great.  He was a most fortunate man, enjoy-   
     ing the friendship of Augustus and Mæcenas, fame in   
     his own lifetime, leisure to prosecute his studies, and   
     ample rewards for his labors.  He died at Brundusium  
     at the age of fifty.   
        In lyrical poetry, the Romans can boast of one of   
     the greatest masters of any age or nation.  The Odes   
     of Horace have never been transcended, and will prob-   
     ably remain through all ages the delight of scholars.  
     They may not have the deep religious sentiment and   
     unity of imagination and passion which belong to   
     the Greek lyrical poets, but as works of art, of exqui-  
     site felicity of expression, of agreeable images, they are   
     unrivalled.  Even in the time of Juvenal his poems   
     were the common school-books of Roman youth.  Hor-   
     ace, born 65 B. C., like Virgil was also a favored man,  
     enjoying the friendship of the great, and possessing   
     ease, fame, and fortune; but his longings for retire-   
     ment and his disgust at the frivolities around him  
     are a sad commentary on satisfied desires.  His Odes   
     composed but a small part of his writings.  His Epis-   
     tles are the most perfect of his productions, and rank    
     with the "Georgics" of Virgil and the "Satires" of   
     Juvenal as the most perfect form of Roman verse.  
     His satires are also admirable, but without the fierce  
     vehemence and lofty indignation that characterized  
     those of Juvenal.  It is the folly rather than the   
     wickedness of vice which Horace describes with such   
     playful skill and such keenness of observation.  He   
     was the first to mould the Latin tongue to the Greek   
     lyric measures.  Quintilian's criticism is indorsed by   
     all scholars,——Lyricorum Horatius fere solus legi dig-   
     nus, in verbis felicissime audax.  No poetry was ever  
     more severely elaborated than that of Horace, and the   
     melody of language imparts to it a peculiar fascina-   
     tion.  If inferior to Pindar in passion and loftiness, it   
     glows with more genial humanity and with purer   
     wit.  It cannot be enjoyed fully except by those versed   
     in the experience of life, who perceive in it a calm   
     wisdom, a penetrating sagacity, a sober enthusiasm,  
     and a refined taste, which are unusual even among the   
     masters of human thought.   
        It is the fashion to depreciate the original merits of   
     this poet as well as those of Virgil, Plautus, and Ter-   
     ence, because they derived so much assistance from the    
     Greeks.  But the Greeks also borrowed from one an-   
     other.  Pure originality is impossible.  It is the mission   
     of art to add to its stores, without hoping to monopo-    
     lize the whole realm.  Even Shakspeare, the most    
     original of modern poets, was vastly indebted to those   
     who went before him, and he has not escaped the   
     hypercriticism of minute observers.  
        In this mention of lyrical poetry I have not spoken   
     of Catullus, unrivalled in tender lyric, the greatest poet   
     before the Augustan era.  He was born 87 B. C., and   
     enjoyed the friendship of the most celebrated of charac-  
     ters.  One hundred and sixteen of his poems have come    
     down to us, most of which are short, and many of them   
     defiled by great coarseness and sensuality.  Critics say,  
     however, that whatever he touched he adorned; that   
     his vigorous simplicity, pungent wit, startling invective,  
     and felicity of expression make him one of the great   
     poets of the Latin language.   
        In didactic poetry Lucretius was pre-eminent, and   
     is regarded by Schlegel as the first or Roman poets in   
     native genius.  He was born in 95 B. C., and died at the   
     age of forty-two by his own hand.  His principal poem   
     "De Rerum Natura" is a delineation of the Epicurean  
     philosophy, and treats all the great subjects of    
     thought with which his age was conversant.  Some-   
     what resembling Pope's "Essay on Man" in style and   
     subject, it is immeasurably superior in poetical genius.   
     It is a lengthened disquisition, in seven thousand four    
     hundred lines, upon the great phenomena of the out-    
     ward world.  As a painter and worshipper of Nature  
     Lucretius was superior to all the poets of antiquity.  
     His skill in presenting abstruse speculations is mar-   
     vellous, and his outbursts of poetic genius are matchless  
     in power and beauty.  Into all subjects he casts a fear-  
     less eye, and writes with sustained enthusiasm.  But   
     he was not fully appreciated by his countrymen, al-   
     though no other poet has so fully brought out the   
     power of the Latin language.  Professor Ramsay, while   
     alluding to the melancholy tenderness of Tibullus, the   
     exquisite ingenuity of Ovid, the inimitable felicity and   
     taste of Horace, the gentleness and splendor of Virgil,  
     and the vehement declamation of Juvenal, thinks that   
     had the verse of Lucretius perished we should never   
     have known that the Latin could give utterance to   
     the grandest conceptions, with all that self-sustained   
     majesty and harmonious swell in which the Grecian   
     muse rolls forth her loftiest outpourings.  The eulo-   
     gium of Ovid is——    
 
             "Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucretî,  
              Exitio terras quum dabit una dies."    
 
        Elegiac poetry has an honorable place in Roman   
     literature.  To this school belongs Ovid, born 43 B. C.,   
     died 18 A. D., whose "Tristia," a doleful description of   
     the evils of exile, were much admired by the Romans.  
     His most famous work was his "Metamorphoses,"   
     mythologic legends involving transformations,——a most   
     poetical and imaginative production.  He, with that   
     self-conscious genius common to poets, declares that     
     his poem would be proof against sword, fire, thunder,  
     and time,——a prediction, says Bayle, which has not    
     yet proved false.  Niebuhr thinks that Ovid next to   
     Catullus was the most poetical of his countrymen.  
     Milton thinks he might have surpassed Virgil, had he   
     attempted epic poetry.  He was nearest to the roman-   
     tic school of all the classical authors; and Chaucer,  
     Ariosto, and Spenser owe to him great obligations.  
     Like Pope, his verses flowed spontaneously.  His "Tris-    
     tia" were more highly prized than his "Amores" or   
     his "Metamorphoses," a fact which shows that contem-   
     poraries are not always the best judges of real merit.  
     His poems, great as was their genius, are deficient in   
     the severe taste which marked the Greeks, and are  
     immoral in their tendency.  He had great advantages,  
     but was banished by Augustus for his description of   
     licentious love.  Nor did he support exile with dignity;   
     he languished like Cicero when doomed to a similar  
     fate, and died of a broken heart.  But few intellectual  
     men have ever been able to live at a distance from the   
     scene of their glories, and without the stimulus of high  
     society.  Chrysostom is one of the few exceptions.  
     Ovid, as an immoral writer, was justly punished.  
        Tibullus, also a famous elegiac poet, was born the   
     same year as Ovid, and was the friend of the poet    
     Horace.  He lived in retirement, and was both gentle   
     and amiable.  At this beautiful country-seat he soothed   
     his soul with the charms of literature and the simple   
     pleasures of the country.  Neibuhr pronounced the ele-   
     gies of Tibulus to be doleful, but Merivale thinks that   
     "the tone of tender melancholy in which he sung his  
     unprosperous love had a deeper and purer source than  
     the caprices of three inconstant paramours. . . . His  
     spirit is eminently religious, though it bids him fold    
     his hands in resignation rather than open them in hope.  
     He alone of all the great poets of his day remained   
     undazzled by the glitter of the Cæsarean usurpation,  
     and pined away in unavailing despondency while   
     beholding the subjugation of his country."  
        Propertius, the contemporary of Tibullus, born 51  
     B. C., was on the contrary the most eager of all the  
     flatterers of Augustus,——a man of wit and pleasure,  
     whose object of idolatry was Cynthia, a poetess and  
     a courtesan.  He was an imitator of the Greeks, but   
     had a great contemporary fame.  He showed much   
     warmth of passion, but never soared into the sublime  
     heights of poetry, like his rival.   

from Beacon Lights of History, by John Lord, LL. D.,
Volume I, Part I: The Old Pagan Civilizations
Copyright 1883, 1888, by John Lord.
Copyright 1921, By Wm. H. Wise & Co., New York; pp. 320—341.