Arraigning Persons by Name
By
Monsieur BOILEAU

When first I publish’d my Satires, I was thoroughly prepar’d for that Noise and Tumult which the Impression of my Book has rais’d upon Parnassus. I knew that the Tribe of Poets, and above all, Bad Poets, are a People ready to take fire; and that Minds so covetous of Praise wou’d not easily digest any Raillery, how gentle soever. I may farther say to my advantage, that I have look’d with the Eyes of a Stoick upon the Defamatory Libels that have been publish’d against me. Whatever Calumnies they have been willing to asperse me with, whatever false Reports they have spread of my Person, I can easily forgive those little Revenges; and ascribe ’em to the Spleen of a provok’d Author, who finds himself attack’d in the most sensible part of a Poet, I mean, in his Writings.

But I own I was a little surpriz’d at the whimsical Chagrin of certain Readers, who instead of diverting themselves with this Quarrel of Parnassus, of which they might have been indifferent Spectators, chose to make themselves Parties, and rather to take pet with Fools, than laugh with Men of Sense. ’Twas to comfort these People, that I compos’d my ninth Satire; where I think I have shewn clearly enough, that without any prejudice either to one’s Conscience or the Government, one may think bad Verses bad Verses, and have full right to be tir’d with reading a silly Book. But since these Gentlemen have spoken of the liberty I have taken of Naming them, as an Attempt unheard-of, and without Example, and since Examples can’t well be put into Rhyme; ’tis proper to say one word to inform ’em of a thing of which they alone wou’d gladly be ignorant, and to make them know, that in comparison of all my brother Satirists, I have been a Poet of great Moderation.

To begin with Lucilius the Inventer of Satire; what liberty, or rather what license did he not indulge in his Works? They were not only Poets and Authors whom he attack’d, they were People of the first Quality in Rome, and Consular Persons. However Scipio and Laelius did not judge that Poet (so determin’d a Laugher as he was) unworthy of their Friendship; and probably upon occasion no more refus’d him, than they did Terence, their advice on his Writings: They never thought of espousing the part of Lupus and Metellus, whom he ridicul’d in his Satires, nor imagin’d they gave up any part of their own Character in leaving to his Mercy all the Coxcombs of the Nation.

num Laelius, aut qui
Duxit ab oppressa meritum Carthagine nomen,
Ingenio offensi, aut laeso doluere Metello
Famosisve Lupo co-operto versibus?

In a word, Lucilius spar’d neither the Small nor the Great, and often from the Nobles and the Patricians he stoop’d to the Lees of the People.

Primores populi arripuit populumq; tributim.

It may be said that Lucilius liv’d in a Republick where those sort of liberties might be permitted. Look then upon Horace, who liv’d under an Emperor in the beginnings of a Monarchy (the most dangerous time in the world to laugh) who is there whom he has not satiriz’d by name? Fabius the great Talker, Tigellius the Fantastick, Nasidienus the Impertinent, Nomentanus the Debauchee, and whoever came at his Quill’s end. They may answer that these are fictitious Names: an excellent Answer indeed! As if those whom he attack’d were no better known; as if we were ignorant that Fabius was a Roman Knight who compos’d a Treatise of Law, that Tigellius was a Musician favour’d by Augustus, that Nasidienus Rufus was a famous Coxcomb in Rome, that Cassius Nomentanus was one of the most noted Rakes in Italy. Certainly those who talk in this manner, are not conversant with ancient Writers, nor extreamly instructed in the affairs of the Court of Agustus. Horace is not contented with calling people by their Names; he seems so afraid they should be mistaken, that he gives us even their Sir-names; nay tells us the Trade they follow’d, or the Employments they exercis’d. Observe for Example how he speaks of Aufidius Luscus Praetor of Fundi.

Fundos Aufidio Lusco Praetore libenter
Linquimus, insani ridentes praemia scribae
Praetextam & latum clavum, &c.

We were glad to leave (says he) the Town of Fundi of which one Aufidius Luscus was Praeator, but it was not without laughing heartily at the folly of this man, who having been a Clerk, took upon him the Airs of a Senator and a Person of Quality. Could a Man be describ’d more precisely? and would not the Circumstances only be sufficient to make him known? Will they say that Aufidius was then dead? Horace speaks of a Voyage made some time since. And how will my Censors account for this other passage?

Turgidus Alpinus jugulat dum Memnona, dumque
Diffingit Rheni luteum caput: haec ego ludo.

While that Bombast Poet Alpinus, murders Memnon in his Poem, and bemires himself in his description of the Rhine, I divert my self in these Satires. ’Tis plain from hence, that Alpinus liv’d in the time when Horace writ these Satires: and suppose Alpinus was an imaginary Name, cou’d the Author of the Poem of Memnon be taken for another? Horace, they may say, liv’d under the reign of the most Polite of all the Emperors; but do we live under a Reign less polite? and would they have a Prince who has so many Qualities in common with Augustus, either less disgusted than he at bad Books, or more rigorous towards those who blame them?

Let us next examine Persius, who writ in the time of Nero: He not only Raillies the Works of the Poets of his days, but attacks the Verses of the Emperor himself: For all the World knows, and all the Court of Nero well knew, that those four lines,

Torva Mimalloneis, &c.

which Persius so bitterly ridicules in his first Satire, were Nero’s own Verses; and yet we have no account that Nero (so much a Tyrant as he was) caus’d Persius to be punish’d; Enemy as he was to Reason, and fond as every one knows of his own Works, he was gallant enough to take this Raillery on his Verses, and did not think that the Emperor on this occasion should assert the Character of the Poet.

Juvenal, who flourish’d under Trajan, shews a little more respect towards the great Men of his age; and was contented to sprinkle the gall of his Satire on those of the precedent reign. But as for the Writers, he never look’d for them further than his own time. At the very beginning of his Work you find him in a very bad humor against all his cotemporary Scriblers: ask Juvenal what oblig’d him to take up his Pen? he was weary of hearing the Theseide of Codrus, the Orestes of this man, and the Telephus of that, and all the Poets (as he elsewhere says) who recited their Verses in the Month of August,

& Augusto recitantes Mense Poetas.

So true it is that the right of blaming bad Authors, is an ancient Right, pass’d into a Custom, among all the Satirists, and allow’d in all ages.

To come from the Ancients to the Moderns. Regnier who is almost the only Satirical Poet we have, has in truth been a little more discreet than the rest; nevertheless he speaks very freely of Gallet the famous Gamester, who paid his Creditors with Sept and Quatorze, and of the Sieur de Provins who chang’d his long Cloak into a Doublet, and of Cousin who run from his house for fear of repairing it, and of Pierre de Puis, and many others.

What will my Critics say to this? When they are ever so little touch’d, they wou’d drive from the Republick of Letters all the Satirical Poets, as so many disturbers of the Peace of the Nation. But what will they say of Virgil; the wise, the discreet Virgil? who in an Eclog where he has nothing to do with Satire, has made in one Line two Poets for ever ridiculous.

Qui Bavium non odit, amet tua carmina Moevi.

Let them not say that Bavius and Moevius in this place are suppos’d names, since it would be too plainly to give the Lye to the learned Servius, who positively declares the contrary. In a word, what would my Censors do with Catullus, Martial, and all the Poets of Antiquity, who have made no more scruple in this matter than Virgil? What would they think of Voiture who had the conscience to laugh at the expence of the renowned Neuf Germain, tho’ equally to be admir’d for the Antiquity of his Beard, and the Novelty of his Poetry? Will they banish from Parnassus, him, and all the ancient Poets, to establish the reputation of Fools and Coxcombs? If so, I shall be very easy in my banishment, and have the pleasure of very good company. Without Raillery, wou’d these Gentlemen really be more wise than Scipio and Lelius, more delicate than Augustus, or more cruel than Nero? But they who are so angry at the Critics, how comes it that they are so merciful to bad Authors? I see what it is that troubles them; they have no mind to be undeceiv’d. It vexes them to have seriously admir’d those Works, which my Satires have expos’d to universal Contempt; and to see themselves condemn’d, to forget in their old Age, those Verses which they got by heart in their Youth, as Master-pieces of Wit. Truly I am sorry for ’em, but where’s the help? Can they expect, that to comply with their particular Taste, we should renounce common Sense? applaud indifferently all the Impertinencies which a Coxcomb shall think fit to throw upon paper? and instead of condemning bad Poets (as they did in certain Countries) to lick out their Writings with their own Tongue, shall Books become for the future inviolable Sanctuaries, where all Blockheads shall be made free Denizens, not to be touch’d without Profanation? I could say much more on this subject; but as I have already treated it in my ninth Satire, I shall thither refer the Reader.