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In such passages therefore we are carefully to observe whether or not the poet himself do anywhere give any intimation that he dislikes the things he makes such persons say; which, in the prologue to his Thais Menander does, in these words:— Therefore, my Muse, describe me now a whore, Fair, bold, and furnished with a nimble tongue; One that ne’er scruples to do lovers wrong; That always craves, and denied shuts her door; That truly loves no man, yet, for her ends, Affection true to every man pretends. But Homer of all the poets does it best. For he doth beforehand, as it were, bespeak dislike of the evil things and approbation of the good things he utters. Of the latter take these instances:— He readily did the occasion take, And sweet and comfortable words he spake; Odyss. VI. 148. By him he stood, and with soft speeches quelled The wrath which in his heated bosom swelled. Il. II. 189. And for the former, he so performs it as in a manner solemnly to forbid us to use or heed such speeches as those he mentions, as being foolish and wicked. For example, being to tell us how uncivilly Agamemnon treated the priest, he premises these words of his own,— Not so Atrides: he with kingly pride Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied; Il. I. 24. intimating the insolency and unbecomingness of his answer. And when he attributes this passionate speech to Achilles,— O monster, mix’d of insolence and fear, Thou dog in forehead, and in heart a deer! Il. I. 225. he accompanies it with this censure,— Nor yet the rage his boiling breast forsook, Which thus redoubling on Atrides broke; Il. I. 223. for it was unlikely that speaking in such anger he should observe any rules of decency.
