Page images
PDF
EPUB

Yet, if you only prize your favourite thought,
As critics kindly do, and authors ought;
If your cool friend annoy you now and then,
And cross whole pages with his plaguy pen;
No matter, throw your ornaments aside,—
Better let him than all the world deride.
Give light to passages too much in shade,
Nor let a doubt obscure one verse you've made;
Your friend's a "Johnson," not to leave one word,
However trifling, which may seem absurd;
Such erring trifles lead to serious ills,
And furnish food for critics,63 or their quills.

As the Scotch fiddle, with its touching tune,
Or the sad influence of the angry moon,
All men avoid bad writers' ready tongues,
As yawning waiters fly 6+ Fitzscribble's 65 lungs;
Yet on he mouths-ten minutes-tedious each
As prelate's homily, or placeman's speech;
Long as the last years of a lingering lease,
When riot pauses until rents increase.

While such a minstrel, muttering fustian, strays
O'er hedge and ditch, through unfrequented ways,
If by some chance he walks into a well,
And shouts for succour with stentorian yell,
"A rope! help, Christians, as ye hope for grace!"
Nor woman, man, nor child will stir a pace;
For there his carcass he might freely fling,
From frenzy, or the humour of the thing.

Vir bonus et prudens versus reprehendet inertes:
Culpabit duros; incomptis allinet atrum
Transverso calamo signum; ambitiosa recidet
Ornamenta; parum claris lucem dare coget;
Arguet ambigue dictum; mutanda notabit;
Fiet Aristarchus: nec dicet, Cur ego amicum
Offendam in nugis? hæ nugæ seria ducent
In mala derisum semel exceptumque sinistre.
Ut mala quem scabies aut morbus regius urguet,
Aut fanaticus error et iracunda Diana,
Vesanum tetigisse timent fugiuntque poetam,
Qui sapiunt; agitant pueri, incautique sequuntur.
Hic dum sublimes versus ructatur, et errat
Si veluti merulis intentus decidit auceps
In puteum, foveamve; licet, Succurrite, longum
Clamet, Io cives! non sit qui tollere curet.

VOL. I.

R

Though this has happen'd to more bards than one; I'll tell you Budgell's story,-and have done.

Budgell, a rogue and rhymester, for no good,
(Unless his case be much misunderstood)
When teased with creditors' continual claims,
"To die like Cato,"66 leapt into the Thames !
And therefore be it lawful through the town
For any bard to poison, hang, or drown.
Who saves the intended suicide receives

Small thanks from him who loathes the life he leaves;
And, sooth to say, mad poets must not lose
The glory of that death they freely choose.

Nor is it certain that some sorts of verse
Prick not the poet's conscience as a curse;
Dosed 67 with vile drams on Sunday he was found,
Or got a child on consecrated ground!
And hence is haunted with a rhyming rage--
Fear'd like a bear just bursting from his cage.
If free, all fly his versifying fit,

Fatal at once to simpleton or wit:

But him, unhappy! whom he seizes,-him
He flays with recitation limb by limb;

Probes to the quick where'er he makes his breach,
And gorges like a lawyer-or a leech.

Si quis curet opem ferre, et demittere funem,
Qui scis an prudens huc se dejecerit, atque
Servari nolit? Dicam: Siculique poetæ
Narrabo interitum. Deus immortalis haberi
Dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Ætnam
Insiluit: sit jus liceatque perire poetis:
Invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti.
Nec semel hoc fecit; nec, si retractus erit, jam
Fiet homo, et ponet famosæ mortis amorem.
Nec satis apparet cur versus factitet: utrum
Minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental
Moverit incestus: certe furit, ac velut ursus,
Objectos caveæ valuit si frangere clathros,
Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus.
Quem vero arripuit, tenet, occiditque legendo,
Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, hirudo.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Or low Dubost-as once the world has seen

IN an English newspaper, which finds its way abroad wherever there are Englishmen, I read an account of this dirty dauber's caricature of Mr. Has a "beast," and the consequent action, &c. The circumstance is, probably, too well known to require further comment.-[Thomas Hope, Esq., the author of "Anastasius," having offended Dubost, that unprincipled painter revenged himself by a picture called "Beauty and the Beast," in which Mr. Hope and his lady were represented according to the well-known fairy story. The exhibition of it is said to have fetched thirty pounds in a day. A brother of Mrs. Hope thrust his sword through the canvass; and M. Dubost had the consolation to get five pounds damages.]

2.-Page 213, line 11.

Believe me, Moschus, like that picture seems ["Moschus."-In the original MS., "Hobhouse."]

3.-Page 213, line 15.

Poets and painters, as all artists know,

["All artists."-Originally, "We scribblers."]

4.-Page 214, line 12.

To paint a rainbow, or-the river Thames.
"Where pure description held the place of sense."-POPE.

5.-Page 214, line 18.

Whose wit is never troublesome till-true.

[This is pointed, and felicitously expressed.-MOORE.]

6.-Page 215, line 10.

But coats must claim another artisan.

Mere common mortals were commonly content with one tailor and with one bill, but the more particular gentlemen found it impossible to

I

confide their lower garments to the makers of their body clothes. speak of the beginning of 1809: what reform may have since taken place I neither know, nor desire to know.

7.-Page 215, line 12.

As Vulcan's feet to bear Apollo's frame;
["As one leg perfect and the other lame."-MS.]

8.-Page 216, line 7.

(As Pitt has furnish'd us a word or two,

Mr. Pitt was liberal in his additions to our parliamentary tongue; as may be seen in many publications, particularly the Edinburgh Review.

9.-Page 217, line 7.

True, some decay, yet not a few revive;

Old ballads, old plays, and old women's stories, are at present in as much request as old wine or new speeches. In fact, this is the millennium of black letter: thanks to our Hebers, Webers, and Scotts!-[Weber was a poor German hack, a mere amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott.]

10.-Page 217, line 22.

You doubt-see Dryden, Pope, St. Patrick's dean.

"Mac Flecknoe," the "Dunciad," and all Swift's lampooning ballads. Whatever their other works may be, these originated in personal feelings, and angry retort on unworthy rivals; and though the ability of these satires elevates the poetical, their poignancy detracts from the personal character of the writers.

11.-Page 218, line 4.

For jest and pun in very middling prose.

With all the vulgar applause and critical abhorrence of puns, they have Aristotle on their side; who permits them to orators, and gives them consequence by a grave disquisition. ["Cicero also," says Addison, "has sprinkled several of his works with them; and, in his book on Oratory, quotes abundance of sayings as pieces of wit, which, upon exa. mination, prove arrant puns."]

12.-Page 218, line 14.

Where angry Townly lifts his voice on high.

[In Vanbrugh's comedy of the "Provoked Husband."]

13.-Page 218, line 18.

To "hollowing Hotspur" and his sceptred sire. "And in his ear I'll hollow, Mortimer!"-1 Henry IV.

14.-Page 220, line 5.

If some Drawcansir you aspire to draw,

["Johnson. Pray, Mr. Bayes, who is that Drawcansir?

Bayes. Why, Sir, a great hero, that frights his mistress, snubs up kings, baffles armies, and does what he will, without regard to numbers, good sense, or justice."-Rehearsal.]

15.-Page 220, line 26.

Beware-for God's sake, don't begin like Bowles!

About two years ago a young man, named Townsend, was announced by Mr. Cumberland, in a review (since deceased) as being engaged in an epic poem to be entitled "Armageddon." The plan and specimen promise much; but I hope neither to offend Mr. Townsend, nor his friends, by recommending to his attention the lines of Horace to which these rhymes allude. If Mr. Townsend succeeds in his undertaking, as there is reason to hope, how much will the world be indebted to Mr. Cumberland for bringing him before the public! But, till that eventful day arrives, it may be doubted whether the premature display of his plan (sublime as the ideas confessedly are) has not,-by raising expecta tion too high, or diminishing curiosity, by developing his argument,rather incurred the hazard of injuring Mr. Townsend's future prospects. Mr. Cumberland (whose talents I shall not depreciate by the humble tribute of my praise) and Mr. Towrsend must not suppose me actuated by unworthy motives in this suggestion. wish the author all the success he can wish himself, and shall be truly happy to see epic poetry weighed up from the bathos where it lies sunken with Southey, Cottle, Cowley (Mrs. or Abraham), Ogilvy, Wilkie, Pye, and all the "dull of past and present days." Even if he is not a Milton, he may be better than Blackmore; if not a Homer, an Antimachus. I should deem

myself presumptuous, as a young man, in offering advice, were it not addressed to one still younger. Mr. Townsend has the greatest difficulties to encounter: but in conquering them he will find employment; in having conquered them, his reward. I know too well "the scribbler's scoff, the critic's contumely;" and I am afraid time will teach Mr. Townsend to know them better. Those who succeed, and those who do not, must bear this alike, and it is hard to say which have most of it. İ trust that Mr. Townsend's share will be from envy; he will soon know mankind well enough not to attribute this expression to malice. [This note Lord Byron says was penned at Athens, before he was aware of Mr. Cumberland's death in May, 1811. On his return to England Lord B. wrote to a friend:-"There is a sucking epic poet at Granta, a Mr. Townsend, protégé of the late Cumberland. Did you ever hear of him and his 'Armageddon?' I think his plan (the man I don't know) borders on the sublime; though, perhaps, the anticipation of the 'Last Day' is a little too daring; at least, it looks like telling the Almighty what he is to do; and might remind an ill-natured person of the line

'And fools rush in where angels fear to tread.''

To gratify the curiosity which had been excited, Mr. Townsend, in 1815, was induced to publish eight out of the twelve books, and their eception realised Lord Byron's ominous predictions.]

« PreviousContinue »