Ducebant. Nusquam Magni fortuna sine illo Libertate perit: tunc mille in vulnera lætus But this art is more fully displayed by the poet, in the portraiture which he gives of the character and conduct of Cæsar; which he represents in a far different light from that attested by the general voice of history. In an early part of his work he thus speaks of him: Cæsar in arma furens, nullas nisi sanguine fuso Recording story has distinguish'd well, Though vanquished oft by Cæsar, ne'er enslav'd, Ib. vii. v 862. ¶ But Cæsar for destruction eager burns, Hesperia fines, vacuosque irrumpat in agros Ib. lib. ii. v. 439. Before the battle of Pharsalia he describes him as invoking the furies, and the gods that presided over crimes, to afford him their assistance. P At tu quos scelerum superos? Quas rite vocasti Ib. lib. vii. v. 168. To burn the villages, to waste the plains, And blushes to be thought his country's friend. Ib. ii. v. 669. But who, O Cæsar! who were then thy Gods? And dreadful to the day the pow'rs of hell arose. lb. viii. v. 257. This licence is peculiarily striking, as historians have particularized the sacrifices Cæsar offered to Mars and his tutelary goddess, Venus, the night before the battle, and have mentioned his vows to raise a temple to the goddess Victory if she favoured him in the contest. E But the most striking example of this licence may be drawn from the representation of his conduct after the fatal battle. He is first described as exciting his victorious army to plunder and rapine: 'Plena, viri,' dixit, superest pro sanguine merces 'Quam monstrare meum est: nec enim donare vocabo 'Quod sibi quisque dabit. Tot regum fortuna simul, Magnique coacta Expectat dominos: propera præcedere miles Quos sequeris: quascunque tuas Pharsalia fecit, Ib. lib. vii. v. 737. As rejoicing in the slaughter, and satiating his rage in viewing the destruction of his countrymen. • Behold, he cries, our victory complete, Ib. vii. v. 1052. t Postquam clara dies Pharsalica damna retexit, And even denying the last offices of sepul ture to their remains. u Ac ne læta furens scelerum spectacula perdat, * But soon the visionary horrors pass, And his first rage with day resumes its place: And joys that earth is no where to be found, And owns, those Gods he serves, his utmost wish have crown'd. "Still greedy to possess the curs'd delight, Ib. vii. v. 1110. To glut his soul, and gratify his sight, Refus'd the vanquish'd consul's bones a tomb; Ingerit Emathiam. Non illum Pænus humator How such liberties may be allowed, and yet be reconcileable with verisimilitude, at principle which was laid down as essential to compositions of the historical kind, and which was taken as affording one of the strongest arguments in favour of adhering to historical truth, may be thus briefly established. With respect to those incidents which are drawn from history, as they are not considerable, the historian's authority becomes no ultimate test of their truth. Events of lesser importance admit of a different statement according to the different opinions by which they are imbibed or transmitted: and under the supposition of the historian's being mistaken, which daily experience informs not to be improbable, the poet is at liberty to adopt His piety the country round beheld, And bright with fires shone Canna's fatal field. Ib. vii. v. 1121. |