Uncheck'd by megrims of patrician brains, As pious Calvin saw Servetus blaze, Ex noto fictum carmen sequar, ut sibi quivis Speret idem: sudet multum, frustraque laboret Ausus idem. Tantum series juncturaque pollet: Tantum de medio sumtis accedit honoris. every gentleman of taste in the kingdom. The stage and the press, my Lords, are two of our out-sentries: if we remove them, if we hoodwink them, if we throw them in fetters, the enemy may surprise us. Therefore, I must look upon the bill now be fore us as a step for introducing arbitrary power into this kingdom."-E.] Whom nature guides, so writes, that every dunee, Let Pastoral be dumb; for who can hope A vulgar scribbler, certes, stands disgraced Peace to Swift's faults! his wit hath made them (1) Michael Perez, the "Copper Captain," in Rule a Wife and has been ascribed to it than in reality it ever had; for I do not have a Wife. believe that any man was ever made a rogue by being present at that representation."-See Croker's Boswell, vol. iii. p. 242. -E. (4) Jerry Collier's controversy with Congreve, etc. on the subject of the drama is too well known to require further comment. (5) "Ifit rise again."-When Lord Byron penned this couplet at Athens, he little imaginedthat he should so soon be called on to write an address to be spoken on the opening of New Drury, and become one of the committee for managing its concerns.-E. (2) Of this "skill," Reynolds, the Dramatist, in his Life and Times, records a remarkable instance. The doctor had, it seems, an "eye like Mars, to threaten and command." Threaten, in every sense of the word; for his numerous patients stood as much in awe of this formidable weapon as of bars, chains, or strait-waistcoats. After a few week's attendance on the King, he allowed his Majesty a razor to shave himself, and a penknife to cut his nails. For this he was one evening charged by the other physicians, before a committee of the House of Commons, with rashness and imprudence. Mr. Burke was very severe on this point, and authoritatively demanded to know, "If the royal patient had become outrageous at the moment, what power the doctor possessed of instantaneously terrifying him into obe--[The Rev. Charles Simeon, fellow of King's College, Camdience?" "Place the candles between us, Mr. Burke," replied the doctor, in an equally authoritative tone, and I'll give you an answer. There, Sir! by the eye. I should have looked at him thus, Sir-thus!" Mr. Burke instantaneously averted bis head; and making no reply, evidently acknowledged this basilisk authority. This story was often related by the doctor himself. -E. (3) Dr. Johnson was of the like opinion. Of the Beggar's Opera he says, in his Life of Gay: "The play, like many others, was plainly written only to divert, without any moral purpose, and is, therefore, not likely to do good; nor can it be conceived, without more speculation than life requires or admits, to be productive of much evil. Highwaymen and housebreakers seldom (6) Mr. Simeon is the very bully of beliefs, and castigator of "good works." He is ably supported by John Stickles, a labourer in the same vineyard :-but I say no more, for, according to Johnny in full congregation, "No hopes for them as laughs.” bridge, a zealous Calvinist, who, in consequence of his zeal Yet Scott has shown our wondering isle of late This some vouchsafe to pardon; but 't is hard And must the bard his glowing thoughts confine, Ye, who seek finish'd models, never cease, By day and night, to read the works of Greece. But our good fathers never bent their brains To heathen Greek, content with native strains. The few who read a page, or used a pen, Were satisfied with Chaucer and old Ben; The jokes and numbers suited to their taste Were quaint and careless, any thing but chaste; Yet whether right or wrong the ancient rules, It will not do to call our fathers fools! Though you and I, who eruditely know To separate the elegant and low, Can also, when a hobbling line appears, Detect with fingers, in default of ears. Offenduntur enim quibus est equus, et pater, et res : Nec, si quid fricti ciceris probat et nucis emtor, Equis accipiunt animis, donantve corona. Syllaba longa brevi subjecta vocatur iambus, Pes citus: unde etiam trimetris accrescere jussit Nomen iambeis, cum senos redderet ictus, Primus ad extremum similis sibi: non ita pridem, Tardior ut paulo graviorque veniret ad aures, Spondeos stabiles in jura paterna recepit, Commodus et patiens; non ut de sede secunda Cederet aut quarta socialiter. Hic et in Acci Nobilibus trimetris apparet rarus, et Enni. In scenam missus magno cum pondere versus, Aut operæ celeris nimium curâque carentis, Aut ignoratæ premit artis crimine turpi. Non quivis videt immodulata poemata judex: El data Romanis venia est indigna poetis. Idcircone vager, scribamque licenter; an omnes Visuros peccata putem mea, tutus, et intra Spem veniæ cautus? Vitavi denique culpam, Non laudem merui. Vos exemplaria Græca Nocturna versate manu, versate diurnå. "At vestri proavi Plautinos et numeros et Laudavere sales."— Nimium patienter utrumque, Ne dicam stulte, mirati; si modo ego et vos any other non-conformist of his age." Dr. Barrow says that his practical writings were never mended, his controversial seldom confuted." On Boswell's asking Johnson which of them be should read, the Doctor replied. "Any of them: they are all good."-E. (1)"They support Pope, I see, in the Quarterly,"-wrote Lord Byron in 1820 from Ravenna-"it is a sin, and a shame, and a In sooth I do not know, or greatly care To learn, who our first English strollers were; Or if, till roofs received the vagrant art, Our muse, like that of Thespis, kept a cart; But this is certain, since our Shakspeare's days, There's pomp enough, if little else, in plays; Nor will Melpomene ascend her throne Without high heels, white plume, and Bristol stone. Old comedies still meet with much applause, Whate'er their follies, and their faults beside, If all our bards, more patient of delay, Lords of the quill, whose critical assaults He only thought, but you would make, us mad! Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod no Ignotum tragicæ genus invenisse Camœnæ damnation, that Pope!! should require it: but he does. Those miserable mountebanks of the day, the poets, disgrace themselves, and deny God, in running down Pope, the most faultless of poets." Again, in situ, same year:-"I have at last, lost all patience with the atrocious cant and nonsense about Pope with which our present sare overflowing, and am determined to made such head against it as an individual can by prose or verse, and I will But truth to say, most rhymers rarely guard With little rhyme, less reason, if you please, Am I not wise, if such some poets' plight, To purge in spring-like Bayes (3)-before I write? If this precaution soften'd not my bile, I know no scribbler with a madder style; But since (perhaps my feelings are too nice) I cannot purchase fame at such a price, Non barbam; secreta petit loca; balnea vitat. at least do it with good will. There is no bearing it any longer, and, if it goes on, it will destroy what little good writing or taste remains amongst us. I hope there are still a few men of taste to second me; but if not I'll battle it alone, convinced that it is in the best cause of English literature." Again, in 1824:-"Neither time, nor distance, nor grief, nor age, can ever diminish my veneration for him who is the great moral poet of all times, of all climes, of all feelings, and of all stages of existence. The delight of my boyhood, the study of my manhood, perhaps (if allowed to me to attain it) he may be the consolation of my age. His poetry is the book of life. Without canting, and yet without neglecting religion, he has assembled all that a good and great man can gather together of moral wisdom clothed in consummate beauty. Sir William Temple observes, that of all the members of mankind that live within the compass of a thousand years, for one man that is born capable of making a great poet, there may be a thousand born capable of making as great generals and ministers of state as any in story.' Here is a statesman's opinion of poetry; it is honourable to him and to the art. Such a 'poet of a thousand years' was Pope. A thousand years will roll away before such another can be hoped for in our literature. But it can want them he is himself a literature."-E. (1) That this is the age of the decline of English poetry, will be doubted by few who have calmly considered the subject. That there are men of genius among the present poets, makes little against the fact; because it has been well said, 'that, next to him who forms the taste of his country, the greatest genius is he who corrupts it.' No one has ever denied genius to Marini, who corrupted, not merely the taste of Italy, but that of all Europe, for nearly a century. The great cause of the present deplorable state of English poetry is to be attributed to that absurd and systematic depreciation of Pope, in which, for the last few years, there has been a kind of epidemic concurrence. The Lakers and their school, and every body else with their school, and even Moore without a school, and dilettanti lecturers at institutions, 111 labour gratis at a grinder's wheel, Though modern practice sometimes differs quite, He who has learn'd the duty which he owes Quid deceat, quid non; quo virtus, quo ferat error. Scribendi recte sapere est et principium et fons. Rem tibi Socraticæ poterunt ostendere chartæ, Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur. Qui didicit patriæ quid debeat, et quid amicis; Quo sit amore parens, quo frater amandus, et hospes; Quod sit conscripti, quod judicis officium, quæ Partes in bellum missi ducis; ille profecto Reddere personæ sit convenientia cuique. and elderly gentlemen who translate and imitate, and young la dies who listen and repeat, and baronets who draw indifferent frontispieces for bad poets, and noblemen who let them dine with them in the country, the small body of the wits and the great body of the blues, have latterly united in a depreciation, of which their forefathers would have been as much ashamed as their children will be. In the mean time, what have we got instead? The Lake School, which began with an epic poem written in six weeks' (so Joan of Arc proclaimed herself), and finished with a ballad composed in twenty years, as Peter Bell's creator takes care to inform the few who will inquire. What have we got instead? A deluge of flimsy and unintelligible romances, im!tated from Scott and myself, who have both made the best of our bad materials and erroneous system. What have we got instead? Madoc, which is neither an epic nor any thing else; Thalaba, Kehama, Gebir, and such gibberish, written in all metres, and in no language." B. Letters, 1819.-See also the two pamphlets against Mr. Bowles, written at Ravenna in 1821, in which Lord Byron's enthusiastic reverence for Pope is the principal feature. -E. (2) As famous a tonsor as Licinus himself, and better paid, and may, like him, be one day a senator, having a better qualification than one half of the heads he crops, viz.-independence. (3) See the Rehearsal: 66 Bayes. Pray, Sir, how do you do when you write? "Smith. Faith, Sir, for the most part I'm in pretty good health. "Bayes. I mean, what do you do when you write? "Smith. I take pen, ink, and paper, and sit down. Sometimes a sprightly wit, and tale well told, Without much grace, or weight, or art, will hold A longer empire o'er the public mind Than sounding trifles, empty, though refined. Unhappy Greece! thy sons of ancient days The muse may celebrate with perfect praise, Whose generous children narrow'd not their hearts With commerce, given alone to arms and arts. Our boys (save those whom public schools compel To "long and short" before they 're taught to spell) From frugal fathers soon imbibe by rote, "A penny saved, my lad, 's a penny got." Babe of a city birth! from sixpence take The third, how much will the remainder make ?— "A groat."-"Ah, bravo! Dick hath done the sum! He 'll swell my fifty thousand to a plum." They whose young souls receive this rust betimes, T is clear, are fit for any thing but rhymes; And Locke will tell you, that the father's right Who hides all verses from his children's sight; For poets, says this sage, (1) and many more, Make sad mechanics with their lyric lore; And Delphi now, however rich of old, Discovers little silver, and less gold, Because Parnassus, though a mount divine, Is poor as Irus, (2) or an Irish mine. (3) Two objects always should the poet move, Respicere exemplar vitæ morumque jubebo Quidquid præcipies, esto brevis: ut cito dicta stewed prunes only; but when I have a grand design in hand, I ever take physic and let blood: for when you would have pure swiftness of thought, and fiery flights of fancy, yau must have a care of the pensive part. In fine, you must purge."—E. (1) I have not the original by me, but the Italian translation runs as follows:-"E una cosa a mio credere molto stravagante, che un padre desideri, o permetta, che suo figliuolo coltivi e perfezioni questo talento." A little further on: "Si travano di rado nel Parnaso le miniere d'oro e d'argento." Educazione dei Fanciulli del Signor Locke.-["If the child have a poetic vein, it is to me the strangest thing in the world, that the father should desire or suffer it to be cherished or improved."-"It is Redundance places memory on the rack, To end at once:-that bard for all is fit Who mingles well instruction with his wit; His book, with Longman's liberal aid, shall pass; But every thing has faults, nor is 't unknown Yet if an author, spite of foe or friend, Omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat. Centuria seniorum agitant expertia frugis: Sunt delicta tamen, quibus ignovisse velimus. Nam neque chorda sonum reddit, quem vult manus et mens; very seldom seen, that any one discovers mines of gold or silver on Parnassus."―E.] (2) Iro pauperior:" this is the same beggar who boxed with Ulysses for a pound of kid's fry, which he lost, and half a dozen teeth besides.-See Odyssey, b. 18. (3) The Irish gold-mine of Wicklow, which yields just ore enough to swear by, or gild a bad guinea. (4) "This couplet is amusingly characteristic of that mixture of fun and bitterness with which their author sometimes spoke in conversation; so much so, that those who knew him might almost fancy they hear him utter the words." Moore. (5) As Mr. Pope took the liberty of damning Homer, to whom Let Havard's (1) fate o’ertake him, who for once, As pictures, so shall poems be; some stand Parnassian pilgrims! ye whom chance, or choice, Sic mihi qui multum cessat, fit Chœrilus ille, Ut pictura poesis; erit, quæ, si propius stes, he was under great obligations-And Homer (damn him!) calls" -it may be presumed than any body or any thing may be damned in verse by poetical license; and, in case of accident, I beg leave to plead so illustrious a precedent. Our church and state, our courts and camps, concede No medium knows; you must be last or first; Are damn'd alike by gods, and men, and columns. (9) Again, my Jeffrey !—as that sound inspires, O major juvenum, quamvis et voce paternå of fame would not suffer it to be concealed longer than the tenth or twelfth night of acting the play. The moment Havard put on the sword and tie-wig, the genteel dress of the times, and professed himself to be the writer of Charles the First, the audiences were thinned, and the bookseller refused to give the usual sum of a hundred pounds for the copyright."—E.] (2) Here, in the original MS., we find the following couplet and (1) For the story of Billy Havard's tragedy, see Davies's Life of Garrick. I believe it is Regulus, or Charles the First. The moment it was known to be his the theatre thinned, and the bookseller refused to give the customary sum for the copyright.-note:["Havard," says Davies, "was reduced to great straits, and, in order to retrieve his affairs, the story of Charles the First was proposed to him as a proper subject to engage the public attention. Havard's desire of ease was known to be superior to his thirst for fame or money; and Giffard, the manager, insisted upon the power of locking him up till the work was finished. To this he consented; and Giffard actually turned the key upon him, and let him out at his pleasure, till the play was completed. It was acted with great emolument to the manager, and some degree of reputation, as well as gain, to the author. It drew large crowds to the theatre; curiosity was excited with respect to the author: that was a secret to be kept from the people; but Havard's love "The Devil and Jeffrey are here placed antithetically to gods and men, such being their usual position, and their due one-ac cording to the facetious saying, 'If God won't take you, the Devil must; and I am sure no one durst object to his taking the poetry which, rejected by Horace, is accepted by Jeffrey. That these gentlemen are in some cases kinder,-the one to countrymen, and the other from his odd propensity to prefer evil to good,-than the gods, men, and columns' of Horace, may be seen by a reference to the review of Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming; and in No. 31. of the Edinburgh Review (given to me the other day by the captain of an English frigate off Salamis), there is a similar concession to the mediocrity of Jamie Grahame's British Georgies. It is fortunate for Campbell, that his fame neither depends on his last poem, nor the puff of the Edinburgh Review. The catalogues of our English are also less fastidious than the pillars of the Roman librarians.-A word more with the author of Gertrude of Wyoming. At the end of a poem, and even of a couplet, we have generally that unmeaning thing we call a thought;' so Mr. Campbell concludes with a thought in such a manner as to fulfil the whole of Pope's prescription, and bé as unmeaning' as the best of his brethren : 'Because I may not stain with grief "Though what gods, men, and columns' interdiet, (3) To the Eclectic or Christian Reviewers I have to return thanks for the fervour of that charity which, in 1809, induced them to express a hope that a thing then published by me might lead to certain consequences, which, although natural enough, surely came but rashly from reverend lips. I refer them to their own pages, where they congratulated themselves on the prospect of a tilt between Mr. Jeffrey and myself, from which some great good be at hand to extract the ball.-[The following is the charitable passage in the Eclectic Review of which Lord Byron speaks: When I was in the fifth form, I carried to my master the translation of a chorus in Prometheus, wherein was a pestilent expression about 'staining a voice,' which met with no quarter. Little did I think that Mr. Campbell would have adopted my fifth form 'sublime'—at least in so conspicuous a situation. 'Sorrow' has been dry' (in proverbs), and wet' (in sonnets), this many a day; and now it stains, and stains a sound, of all feasible things! To be sure, death-songs might have been stained with that same grief to very good purpose, if Outalissi had clappe down his stanzas on wholesome paper for the Edinburgh Evening Post, or any other given hyperborean gazette; or if the said Outalissi had been troubled with the slightest second sight of his own notes embodied on the last proof of an overcharged quarto: but as he is supposed to have been an improvisatore on this occasion, and probably to the last tune he ever chanted in this world, it would have done him no discredit to have made his exit with a mouthful of common sense. Talking of staining (as Caleb Quotem says) puts me in mind' of a certain couplet, which Mr. Campbell will find in a writer for whom he, and his school, have no small contempt : 'E'en copious Dryden wanted, or forgot, The last and greatest art-the art to blot!". E. |