Bavius and Maevius (or Mevius) were two poets in the age of
Augustus Caesar
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
, whose names became synonymous with
bad verse and malicious criticism of superior writers. Both are named together in
Virgil's
Eclogues (3.90). Maevius is also the object of
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
's tenth
Epode, which invites the gods to drown him as he embarks on a sea voyage. The name M(a)evius is attested of several historical individuals, but whether Virgil's Bavius and Maevius are real writers or literary inventions is unclear.
mentions Bavius in his 1729 ''
Dunciad Variorum'' and explains, in a note, that he drew the reference from Virgil.
Pope draws a parallel between these two critics and his own dunces by quoting
John Dennis John Dennis may refer to:
*John Dennis (dramatist) (1658–1734), English dramatist
*John Dennis (1771–1806), Maryland congressman
* John Dennis (1807–1859), his son, Maryland congressman
*John Stoughton Dennis (1820–1885), Canadian surveyor
...
who thought it likely that Bavius "and Maevius had (even in ''Augustus's'' days) a very formidable Party at ''Rome'', who thought them much superior to ''Virgil'' and ''Horace:'' For (saith he) I cannot believe they would have fix'd that eternal brand upon them, if they had not been coxcombs in more than ordinary credit" (''Dunciad Variorum''). Bavius and Maevius are also like the "dunces" in Pope's own ''Dunciad'' in that little is remembered of them except for their bad reputations. In the ''Dunciad,'' Book III, Pope has Bavius dip the
transmigrating souls of poetasters in
Lethe, making them doubly stupid before being born as hack writers. In his "An Essay on Criticism," Pope writes of Maevius:
:Some are bewilder'd in the Maze of Schools,
:And some made Coxcombs Nature meant but Fools.
:In search of Wit these lose their common Sense,
:And then turn Criticks in their own Defence.
:Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write,
:Or with a Rival's or a Eunuch's spite.
:All Fools have still an Itching to deride,
:And fain wou'd be upon the Laughing Side;
:If Maevius Scribble in Apollo's spight,
:There are, who judge still worse than he can write...
Maevius also features in the
Earl of Roscommon's "An Essay on Translated Verse" as a symbol of poetic failure:
:"Whoever vainly on his strength depends,
:Begins like Virgil, but like Maevius ends."
:(in J.E. Spingarn, ed., Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, II, p.299)
References
''N.b. material in this article is taken from the public domain 1828 edition of'' Lempriere's Dictionary.
Ancient Roman poets
1st-century BC Roman poets
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