Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
- Author: Samuel Johnson
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Intelligible To Every Body; And _When To Sow The Corn_, Is A Needless
_Addition_.
Ver. 3.
"The Care Of Sheep, Of Oxen, And Of Kine,
And When To Geld The Lambs, And Shear The Swine,
"Would As Well Have Fallen Under The _Cura Boum, Qui Cultus Habendo Sit
Pecori_, As Mr. D.'S _Deduction_ Of Particulars.
Ver. 5
"The Birth And Genius Of The Frugal Bee
I Sing, Maecenas, And I Sing to Thee.
"But Where Did _Experientia_ Ever Signify _Birth Andgenius_? Or What
Ground Was There For Such A _Figure_ In this Place? How Much More Manly
Is Mr. Ogylby'S Version?
"What Makes Rich Grounds, In what Celestial Signs
'Tis Good To Plough, And Marry Elms With Vines:
What Best Fits Cattle, What With Sheep Agrees,
And Several Arts Improving frugal Bees;
I Sing, Maecenas.
"Which Four Lines, Though Faulty Enough, Are Yet Much More To The Purpose
Than Mr. D.'S Six.
Ver. 22.
"From Fields And Mountains To My Song Repair.
"For _Patrium Linquens Nemus, Saltusque Lycaei_--Very Well Explained!
Ver. 23, 24.
"Inventor Pallas, Of The Fatt'Ning oil,
Thou Founder Of The Plough, And Ploughman'S Toil!
"Written As If _These_ Had Been _Pallas'S Invention_. The _Ploughman'S
Toil'S_ Impertinent.
Ver. 25.
"The Shroud-Like Cypress----
"Why _Shroud-Like_? Is A _Cypress_ Pulled up By The _Roots_, Which The
_Sculpture_ In the _Last Eclogue_ Fills _Silvanus'S_ Hand With, So Very
Like A _Shroud_? Or Did Not Mr. D. Think Of That Kind Of _Cypress_ Used
Often For _Scarves And Hatbands_, At Funerals Formerly, Or For _Widows'
Veils_, &C. ? If So, 'Twas A _Deep, Good Thought_.
Ver. 26.
"That Wear
The Royal Honours, And Increase The Year.
"What'S Meant By _Increasing the Year_? Did The _Gods_ Or _Goddesses_
Add More _Months_, Or _Days_, Or _Hours_, To It? Or How Can _Arva Tueri_
Signify To _Wear Rural Honours_? Is This To _Translate_, Or _Abuse_ An
_Author_? The Next _Couplet_ Is Borrowed from Ogylby, I Suppose, Because
_Less To The Purpose_ Than Ordinary.
Ver. 33.
"The Patron Of The World, And Rome'S Peculiar Guard.
"_Idle_, And None Of Virgil'S, No More Than The Sense Of The _Precedent
Couplet_; So Again, _He Interpolates Virgil_ With That And _The Round
Circle Of The Year To Guide Powerful Of Blessings, Which Thou Strew'St
Around_; A Ridiculous _Latinism_, And An _Impertinent Addition_; Indeed
The Whole _Period_ Is But One Piece Of _Absurdity_ And _Nonsense_, As
Those Who Lay It With The _Original_ Must Find.
Ver. 42, 43.
"And Neptune Shall Resign The Fasces Of The Sea.
"Was He _Consul_ Or _Dictator_ There?
"And Wat'Ry Virgins For Thy Bed shall Strive.
"Both Absurd _Interpolations_."
Ver. 47, 48.
"Where In the Void Of Heaven A Place Is Free.
"_Ah, Happy_ D----N, _Were_ That Place For _Thee_!
"But Where Is _That Void_? Or, What Does Our _Translator_ Mean By It? He
Knows What Ovid Says God Did To Prevent Such A Void In heaven; Perhaps
This Was Then Forgotten: But Virgil Talks More Sensibly.
Ver. 49.
"The Scorpion Ready To Receive Thy Laws.
"No, He Would Not Then Have _Gotten Out Of His Way_ So Fast.
Ver. 56.
"Though Proserpine Affects Her Silent Seat.
"What Made Her Then So _Angry_ With _Ascalaphus_, For Preventing her
Return? She Was Now Mus'D To _Patience_ Under The _Determinations Of
Fate_, Rather Than _Fond_ Of Her _Residence_,
Ver. 61, 62, 63.
"Pity The Poet'S And The Ploughman'S Cares,
Interest Thy Greatness In our Mean Affairs,
And Use Thyself Betimes To Hear Our Prayers.
"Which Is Such A Wretched _Perversion_ Of Virgil'S _Noble Thought_ As
Vicars Would Have Blushed at; But Mr. Ogylby Makes Us Some Amends, By His
Better Lines:
"O, Wheresoe'Er Thou Art, From Thence Incline,
And Grant Assistance To My Bold Design!
Pity, With Me, Poor Husbandmen'S Affairs,
And Now, As If Translated, Hear Our Prayers.
"This Is _Sense_, And _To The Purpose_: The Other, Poor _Mistaken
Stuff_."
Such Were The Strictures Of Milbourne, Who Found Few Abetters, And Of
Whom It May Be Reasonably Imagined, That Many Who Favoured his Design
Were Ashamed of His Insolence.
When Admiration Had Subsided, The Translation Was More Coolly Examined,
And Found, Like All Others, To Be Sometimes Erroneous, And Sometimes
Licentious. Those Who Could Find Faults, Thought They Could Avoid Them;
And Dr. Brady Attempted, In blank Verse, A Translation Of The Aeneid,
Which, When Dragged into The World, Did Not Live Long Enough To Cry,
I Have Never Seen It; But That Such A Version There Is, Or Has Been,
Perhaps Some Old Catalogue Informed me.
With Not Much Better Success, Trapp, When His Tragedy And His Prelections
Had Given Him Reputation, Attempted another Blank Version Of The Aeneid;
To Which, Notwithstanding the Slight Regard With Which It Was Treated, He
Had Afterwards Perseverance Enough To Add The Eclogues And Georgicks. His
Book May Continue Its Existence As Long As It Is The Clandestine Refuge
Of Schoolboys.
Since The English Ear Has Been Accustomed to The Mellifluence Of Pope'S
Numbers, And The Diction Of Poetry Has Become More Splendid, New Attempts
Have Been Made To Translate Virgil; And All His Works Have Been Attempted
By Men Better Qualified to Contend With Dryden. I Will Not Engage Myself
In An Invidious Comparison By Opposing one Passage To Another; A Work Of
Which There Would Be No End, And Which Might Be Often Offensive Without
Use.
It Is Not By Comparing line With Line, That The Merit Of Great Works Is
To Be Estimated, But By Their General Effects And Ultimate Result. It Is
Easy To Note A Weak Line, And Write One More Vigorous In its Place; To
Find A Happiness Of Expression In the Original, And Transplant It By
Force Into The Version: But What Is Given To The Parts May Be Subducted
From The Whole, And The Reader May Be Weary, Though The Critick May
Commend. Works Of Imagination Excel By Their Allurement And Delight; By
Their Power Of Attracting and Detaining the Attention. That Book Is Good
In Vain, Which The Reader Throws Away. He Only Is The Master, Who Keeps
The Mind In pleasing captivity; Whose Pages Are Perused with Eagerness,
And In hope Of New Pleasure Are Perused again; And Whose Conclusion
Is Perceived with An Eye Of Sorrow, Such As The Traveller Casts Upon
Departing day [122].
By His Proportion Of This Predomination I Will Consent That Dryden Should
Be Tried; Of This, Which, In opposition To Reason, Makes Ariosto The
Darling and The Pride Of Italy; Of This, Which, In defiance Of Criticism,
Continues Shakespeare The Sovereign Of The Drama.
His Last Work Was His Fables, In which He Gave Us The First Example Of A
Mode Of Writing, Which The Italians Call _Refaccimento_, A Renovation
Of Ancient Writers, By Modernizing their Language. Thus The Old Poem
Of Boiardo Has Been New Dressed by Domenichi And Berni. The Works Of
Chaucer, Upon Which This Kind Of Rejuvenescence Has Been Bestowed by
Dryden, Require Little Criticism. The Tale Of The Cock Seems Hardly
Worth Revival; And The Story Of Palamon And Arcite, Containing an Action
Unsuitable To The Times In which It Is Placed, Can Hardly Be Suffered to
Pass Without Censure Of The Hyperbolical Commendation Which Dryden Has
Given It In the General Preface, And In a Poetical Dedication, A Piece
Where His Original Fondness Of Remote Conceits Seems To Have Revived.
Of The Three Pieces Borrowed from Boccace, Sigismunda May Be Defended by
The Celebrity Of The Story. Theodore And Honoria, Though It Contains Not
Much Moral, Yet Afforded opportunities Of Striking description. And Cymon
Was Formerly A Tale Of Such Reputation, That, At The Revival Of Letters,
It Was Translated into Latin By One Of The Beroalds.
Whatever Subjects Employed his Pen, He Was Still Improving our Measures
And Embellishing our Language.
In This Volume Are Interspersed some Short Original Poems, Which, With
His Prologues, Epilogues, And Songs, May Be Comprised in congreve'S
Remark, That Even Those, If He Had Written Nothing else, Would Have
Entitled him To The Praise Of Excellence In his Kind.
One Composition Must, However, Be Distinguished. The Ode For St.
Cecilia'S Day, Perhaps The Last Effort Of His Poetry, Has Been Always
Considered as Exhibiting the Highest Flight Of Fancy, And The Exactest
Nicety Of Art. This Is Allowed to Stand Without A Rival. If, Indeed,
There Is Any Excellence Beyond It, In some Other Of Dryden'S Works, That
Excellence Must Be Found. Compared with The Ode On Killigrew, It May Be
Pronounced, Perhaps, Superiour In the Whole; But Without Any Single Part
Equal To The First Stanza Of The Other.
It Is Said To Have Cost Dryden A Fortnight'S Labour; But It Does Not Want
Its Negligences: Some Of The Lines Are Without Correspondent Rhymes; A
Defect, Which I Never Detected, But After An Acquaintance Of Many Years,
And Which The Enthusiasm Of The Writer Might Hinder Him From Perceiving.
His Last Stanza Has Less Emotion Than The Former; But It Is Not Less
Elegant In the Diction. The Conclusion Is Vitious; The Musick Of
Timotheus, Which "Raised a Mortal To The Skies," Had Only A Metaphorical
Power; That Of Cecilia, Which "Drew An Angel Down," Had A Real Effect:
The Crown, Therefore, Could Not Reasonably Be Divided.
In A General Survey Of Dryden'S Labours, He Appears To Have A Mind Very
Comprehensive By Nature, And Much Enriched with Acquired knowledge. His
Compositions Are The Effects Of A Vigorous Genius Operating upon Large
Materials.
The Power That Predominated in his Intellectual Operations, Was Rather
Strong Reason Than Quick Sensibility. Upon All Occasions That Were
Presented, He Studied rather Than Felt, And Produced sentiments Not
Such As Nature Enforces, But Meditation Supplies. With The Simple And
Elemental Passions, As They Spring separate In the Mind, He Seems Not
Much Acquainted; And Seldom Describes Them But As They Are Complicated
By The Various Relations Of Society, And Confused in the Tumults And
Agitations Of Life.
What He Says Of Love May Contribute To The Explanation Of His Character:
Love Various Minds Does Variously Inspire;
It Stirs In gentle Bosoms Gentle Fire,
Like That Of Incense On The Altar Laid;
But Raging flames Tempestuous Souls Invade:
A Fire Which Ev'Ry Windy Passion Blows,
With Pride It Mounts, Or With Revenge It Glows.
Dryden'S Was Not One Of The "Gentle Bosoms:" Love, As It Subsists In
Itself, With No Tendency But To The Person Loved, And Wishing only For
Correspondent Kindness; Such Love As Shuts Out All Other Interest; The
Love Of The Golden Age, Was Too Soft And Subtile To Put His Faculties In
Motion. He Hardly Conceived it But In its Turbulent Effervescence With
Some Other Desires; When It Was Inflamed by Rivalry, Or Obstructed by
Difficulties: When It Invigorated ambition, Or Exasperated revenge.
He Is, Therefore, With All His Variety Of Excellence, Not Often
Pathetick; And Had So Little Sensibility Of The Power Of Effusions Purely
Natural, That He Did Not Esteem Them In others. Simplicity Gave Him No
Pleasure; And, For The First Part Of His Life, He Looked on Otway With
Contempt, Though, At Last, Indeed very Late, He Confessed that In his
Play "There Was Nature, Which Is The Chief Beauty."
We Do Not Always Know Our Own Motives. I Am Not Certain Whether It Was
Not Rather The Difficulty Which He Found In exhibiting the Genuine
Operations Of The Heart, Than A Servile Submission To An Injudicious
Audience, That Filled his Plays With False Magnificence. It Was Necessary
To Fix Attention; And The Mind Can Be Captivated only By Recollection,
Or By Curiosity; By Reviving natural Sentiments, Or Impressing new
Appearances Of Things. Sentences Were Readier At His Call Than Images; He
Could More Easily Fill The Ear With Some Splendid Novelty, Than Awaken
Those Ideas That Slumber In the Heart.
The Favourite Exercise Of His Mind Was Ratiocination; And, That Argument
Might Not Be Too Soon At An End, He Delighted to Talk Of Liberty And
Necessity, Destiny And Contingence; These He Discusses In the Language Of
The School With So Much Profundity, That The Terms Which He Uses Are Not
Always Understood. It Is, Indeed, Learning, But Learning out Of Place.
When Once He Had Engaged himself In disputation, Thoughts Flowed in on
Either Side: He Was Now No Longer At A Loss; He Had Always Objections And
Solutions At Command; "Verbaque Provisam Rem"--Give Him Matter For His
Verse, And He Finds, Without Difficulty, Verse For His Matter.
In Comedy, For Which He Professes Himself Not Naturally Qualified, The
Mirth Which He Excites Will, Perhaps, Not Be Found So Much To Arise From
Any Original Humour, Or Peculiarity Of Character Nicely Distinguished and
Diligently Pursued, As From Incidents And Circumstances, Artifices And
Surprises; From Jests Of Action Rather Than Of Sentiment. What He Had Of
Humorous Or Passionate, He Seems To Have Had Not From Nature, But From
Other Poets; If Not Always As A Plagiary, At Least As An Imitator.
Next To Argument, His Delight Was In wild And Daring sallies Of
Sentiment, In the Irregular And Eccentrick Violence Of Wit. He Delighted
To Tread Upon The Brink Of
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