BIB_ID
333531
Accession number
MA 497.50
Creator
Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797
Display Date
undated.
Credit line
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan, before 1904.
Description
1 item (1 p), bound ; 19.0 cm
Notes
A penciled note at the top of the page says "proposed to be added to 'detached thoughts.'"
Part of a collection of the correspondence of Horace Walpole to various recipients including Henry Seymour Conway, Benjamin Ibbot and Horace Mann and with a small number of miscellaneous writings and copies of the writings of others. Items in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see collection-level record for more information.
Part of a collection of the correspondence of Horace Walpole to various recipients including Henry Seymour Conway, Benjamin Ibbot and Horace Mann and with a small number of miscellaneous writings and copies of the writings of others. Items in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see collection-level record for more information.
Provenance
Given by Mary Berry to Sir Frankland Lewis; by descent to his daughter-in-law Lady Theresa Lewis; by descent to her son Sir Thomas Villiers Lister; by descent to his wife Lady Lister; acquired by Pierpont Morgan before 1904.
Summary
Being a small essay on epic poetry; commenting that "Nobody may joke in an epic poem except a god, and that only upon some occasion that is not 'dignus vindice.' A hero may now and then attempt a sarcasm, but then it must be a very clumsy one. An Epic Poem must be a tragedy that does not make you melancholy. You must not be concerned for any person slain in it, except for a young man or two, who is introduced only to be killed;" concluding that an "Epic Poem is like a Tower of Babel, which answered no end, and the stones and labour bestowed on which might have built many excellent fabrics."
Catalog link
Department