DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48954#0253
Ch. IV. GRANDEUR AND SUBLIMITY. 287
The speech of Clytemneslra , descending from
her chariot in the Iphigenia of Euripides 12 , is
sluffed with a number of common and trivial cir-
cumslances.
But of all writers , Lucan as to this article is the
moll injudicious : the sea-sight between the Ro-
mans and Massilians 13 , is described so much in
detail, without exhibiting any grand or total view,
that the reader is fatigued with endless circumstan-
ces , without ever feeling any degree of elevation;
and yet there are some fine incidents, those for ex-
ample of the two brothers, and of the old man and
his son, which , taken separately, would afFed us
greatly. But Lucan , once engaged in a descrip-
tion , knows no end. See other passages of the
same kind, L. 4. I. 292. to S37. L. 4. L 760. to
The episode of the sorceress Erissho , end
of book 6. is intolerably minute and prolix.
To these I venture to oppose a passage from an
old historical ballad :
Go , little page , tell Hardiknute
That lives on hill so high14,
To draw his sword , the dread of saes,
And haste to follow me.
12 Beginning of aft 3.
Lib. 3. beginning at line 867.
14 High , in the old Scotch language, is pronounced hee.
The speech of Clytemneslra , descending from
her chariot in the Iphigenia of Euripides 12 , is
sluffed with a number of common and trivial cir-
cumslances.
But of all writers , Lucan as to this article is the
moll injudicious : the sea-sight between the Ro-
mans and Massilians 13 , is described so much in
detail, without exhibiting any grand or total view,
that the reader is fatigued with endless circumstan-
ces , without ever feeling any degree of elevation;
and yet there are some fine incidents, those for ex-
ample of the two brothers, and of the old man and
his son, which , taken separately, would afFed us
greatly. But Lucan , once engaged in a descrip-
tion , knows no end. See other passages of the
same kind, L. 4. I. 292. to S37. L. 4. L 760. to
The episode of the sorceress Erissho , end
of book 6. is intolerably minute and prolix.
To these I venture to oppose a passage from an
old historical ballad :
Go , little page , tell Hardiknute
That lives on hill so high14,
To draw his sword , the dread of saes,
And haste to follow me.
12 Beginning of aft 3.
Lib. 3. beginning at line 867.
14 High , in the old Scotch language, is pronounced hee.