AKENSIDE, Inscription for the Bust of Shakespeare..
Our ingenious countryman Wood* had a higher opinion of the authority of the work in question ; and although some allowance may be made for the gratification of the traveller, in finding that theory respecting Homer's histo ry, which he had himself so plausibly deduced from his landscapes and similes, confirmed by a work ascribed to so venerable a name as that of Herodotus, yet Wood's re marks are worth attending to: It may be here requisite," he says, p. 189, Essay on Homer,)" that I take some notice of the ancient lite of Homer, handed down to us, and as cribed' to Herodotus. The life of Homer is supposed by several not to be the genuine production of that historian. As it is impossible to imagine a collection of circumstances which have less the appearance of fiction, I do not see why we should not suppose that this was the last and most probable account that the historian could get. As for the observation that they belong to the lowest sphere of life, I fear it is suggested by modern distinctions of rank un known in those times. When we are told, by way of de preciating this written life, that it is conducted with the spi rit of a grammarian ; that there is nothing in it above the life which a grammarian might lead himself ; nay, that it is such a one as they commonly do lead, the highest stage of .. to be master of a school; we are treated with objections which arise much more out of a knowledge of modern than ancient times. The character of a gramma rian was unknown, not only to Homer, but to Herodotus ; and when it did appear, was much more respectable than of late, when, by an easy transition, it is connected with the name of schoolmaster, as in the present case, and con veys very false ideas of the state of knowledge and learn ing. Of the same sort is the stricture upon the extem pore verses of this treatise, which, far from being an ar gument against it, I take to be the most genuine mark of the age to which it pretends. When in a written compo sition, the distinction of prose and verse was of a shott standing, what we here call extempore verses, which are so often interspersed in the works of Herodotus, and the oldest of the Greek writers, I suppose to have been quo tations from that period of knowledge previous to the com mon use of writing, when prose was confined to conversa tions, and all compositions were in metre, that they might be more easily remembered." In this life of Homer, attri buted to Herodotus, the name of the poet's mother is said to have been Critheis, a native of Smyrna : he was the off spring of illegitimate love.
" No sickly fruit of faint compliance he, Stamnt in the mint of Nature's ecstacv." Critheis had been left an orphan. Her tutor, whose name was Cleanax, having disgraced her for her frailty, she was obliged to fly from her native place, and after wander ing for some time, arrived at the banks of the river Aides. There she was delivered of the infant, who, from the place of his birth, was called Melesigenes, a name which he bore till it was changed to Homer after his blindness. Phe mitts, an inhabitant of Smyrna, who taught music, took the unfortunate mother; into his house, married her, and adopt ed the child Melesigenes. The youth for sonic time as sisted them in the school of music, but after their death was seized with a desire of seeing foreign countries, and embarked with a Phenician shipmaster. Among other places, he arrived at Ithaca, where he learnt the adven tures of Ulysses ; but his stay was unfortunately prolong ed till lie was struck with ophthalmia, which the igno rance of a pretender to the healing art soon made incura ble. Already he had been a poet, and he now consoled his blindness by composing the Iliad. With this treasure in his memory, he wandered from place to place, and sub sisted by reciting it. Universal tradition thus exhibits to its the greatest genius of antiquity as wandering about in blindness, and supported by the spontaneous kindness of those whom he visited. But the idea of such mendicity must not be confounded with the repulsive and squalid as sociations which the word beggary brings to the mind in our own artificial state of society, when disgrace covers the supplicant, and when the feeling of compassion car ries contempt, and not kindness, along with it. In simple
times, the traveller went abroad, and sought protection and food with the assurance, that, whenever he saw the human countenance, he should meet with the natural charity of the human heart. He made his way with confidence, for hospitality was the virtue and the point of honour of pri meval society. A picture of such hospitality is given in the Odyssey, when Mentor and Telemachus arrive at the dominions of Nestor. The King, who knows nothing of the visitants, invites them to the royal table, and, not until he has feasted them, puts the question, " Strangers, what are you ?" But Homer did not visit foreign countries with merely the common claims to hospitality, religiously re spected as those claims were sure to be. He travelled in the character of bard and reciter, of which an image was renewed in modern Europe among the minstrels and the troubadours. Of the latter description of Poets, we know that many held an honourable place at the most splendid courts, were the inmates of palaces, and the suitors of noble dames. The Greek itinerant bard, in times when books and writ ing were unknown, must have been a character not coldly respected as a stranger, but esteemed and beloved for his powers of entertainment. Poetry was then not only the ornament of sentiment and beautiful fiction, but embraced all that was the mental amusement, and all that could be called the knowledge of mankind. It taught them what they believed to be their history ; celebrated their mytho logy; gave them romantic conceptions of the past and the present world ; and gave additional pleasure to the heart; by the charm which it afforded to the ear. Such was the profession of the ancient poet ; but which, nevertheless, though immeasurably removed above the contempt of con temporary society, must have been exposed to many inci dental calamities. The very virtue of hospitality arose out of a state of society, that rendered travelling and naviga tion fatiguing and perilous. When the poet could only recite his works, the honours and caresses due to genius and originality alone might often be lavished on the least inspired of the profession, who drew their stores of enter tainment from a memory tenacious of the compositions of others ; and hospitable as the times might be, the general partiality of the undistinguishing multitude for impudence and flattery might often favour the mere pretenders to poe try, while the lofty mind of the true poet could not stoop to canvass for popularity. In the life of Homer, already men • tioned, we find the prince of poets encountering adversity in many shapes. At several places it tells us of his apply ing to the rulers of the state for maintenance at the pub lic expellee, and promising to immortalize their history by his compositions. If the author of the life, whoever he was, contrived those traditions, it is singular that he has told by anticipation a story so nearly resembling the for tunes of Tasso and of Dryden. Among the Phocians it is also related, that a perfidious brother poet, Thestorides, after having received Homer in his house, drew from him the story of the Iliad, and passed it off for his own. Ho mer, it is added, followed him to Chios, where Thestori des was reciting his works, and obliged the plagiary to fly from his presence. His kindest reception is said to have been at Chios, where, assuming gaiety from his easy cir cumstances, he composed the mock heroic of the Frogs and Mice. There, also, he married, and had two daugh ters, one of whom died a virgin, and the other is supposed to have perpetuated his race in the Homerides, who, for ma ny generations, lived by reciting the Iliad and the Odyssey. On this account of Homer's residence in Chios, whether fabulous or true; are founded all the local traditions of places consecrated by his name. Among others, that of the hollow in the rock, which bears the name of his school, but which Tournefort and Chandlers have so entirely discredited.