Village books

This kind of
satire only has any delicacy in it. Of this delicacy Horace is the best
master: he appears in good humour while he censures; and therefore his
censure has the more weight, as supposed to proceed from judgment, not
from passion. Juvenal is ever in a passion; he has little valuable but his
eloquence and morality: the last of which I have had in my eye: but rather
for emulation, than imitation, through my whole work.
But though I comparatively condemn Juvenal, in part of the sixth satire
(where the occasion most required it), I endeavoured to touch on his
manner; but was forced to quit it soon, as disagreeable to the writer, and
reader too. Boileau has joined both the Roman satirists with great
success; but has too much of Juvenal in his very serious satire on woman,
which should have been the gayest of all. An excellent critic of our own
commends Boileau's closeness, or, as he calls it, pressness, particularly;
whereas, it appears to me, that repetition is his fault, if any fault
should be imputed to him.


Pages:
54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78