Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
- Author: Samuel Johnson
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Commonly Harsh To Modern Ears. He Has, Indeed, Many Noble Lines, Such As
The Feeble Care Of Waller Never Could Produce. The Bulk Of His Thoughts
Sometimes Swelled his Verse To Unexpected and Inevitable Grandeur; But
His Excellence Of This Kind Is Merely Fortuitous: He Sinks Willingly
Down To His General Carelessness, And Avoids, With Very Little Care,
Either Meanness Or Asperity.
His Contractions Are Often Rugged and Harsh:
One Flings A Mountain, And Its Rivers Too
Torn Up With 'T.
His Rhymes Are Very Often Made By Pronouns, Or Particles, Or The Like
Unimportant Words, Which Disappoint The Ear, And Destroy The Energy Of
The Line.
His Combination Of Different Measures Is, Sometimes, Dissonant And
Unpleasing; He Joins Verses Together, Of Which The Former Does Not Slide
Easily Into The Latter.
The Words _Do_ And _Did_, Which So Much Degrade, In present Estimation,
The Line That Admits Them, Were, In the Time Of Cowley, Little Censured
Or Avoided; How Often He Used them, And With How Bad An Effect, At Least
To Our Ears, Will Appear By A Passage, In which Every Reader Will Lament
To See Just And Noble Thoughts Defrauded of Their Praise By Inelegance
Of Language:
Where Honour Or Where Conscience _Does_ Not Bind,
No Other Law Shall Shackle Me;
Slave To Myself I Ne'Er Will Be;
Nor Shall My Future Actions Be Confin'D
By My Own Present Mind.
Who By Resolves And Vows Engag'D _Does_ Stand
For Days, That Yet Belong To Fate,
_Does_, Like An Unthrift, Mortgage His Estate,
Before It Falls Into His Hand;
The Bondman Of The Cloister So,
All That He _Does_ Receive _Does_ Always Owe:
And Still, As Time Comes In, It Goes Away,
Not To Enjoy, But Debts To Pay!
Unhappy Slave, And Pupil To A Bell,
Which His Hour'S Work, As Well As Hours, _Does_ Tell!
Unhappy Till The Last, The Kind Releasing knell.
His Heroick Lines Are Often Formed of Monosyllables; But Yet They Are
Sometimes Sweet And Sonorous.
He Says Of The Messiah:
Round The Whole Earth His Dreaded name Shall Sound,
_And Reach To Worlds That Must Not Yet Be Found_.
In Another Place, Of David:
Yet Bid Him Go Securely, When He Sends;
_'Tis Saul That Is His Foe, And We His Friends.
The Man Who Has His God, No Aid Can Lack;
And We Who Bid Him Go, Will Bring him Back._
Yet, Amidst His Negligence, He Sometimes Attempted an Improved and
Scientifick Versification; Of Which It Will Be Best To Give His Own
Account Subjoined to This Line:
Nor Can The Glory Contain Itself In th' Endless Space.
"I Am Sorry That It Is Necessary To Admonish The Most Part Of Readers,
That It Is Not By Negligence That This Verse Is So Loose, Long, And,
As It Were, Vast; It Is To Paint In the Number The Nature Of The Thing
Which It Describes, Which I Would Have Observed in divers Other Places
Of This Poem, That Else Will Pass For Very Careless Verses: As Before,
And Overruns The Neighb'Ring fields With Violent Course.
"In The Second Book,
Down A Precipice Deep, Down He Casts Them All.
"And,
And Fell A-Down His Shoulders With Loose Care
"In The Third,
Brass Was His Helmet, His Boots Brass, And O'Er
His Breast A Thick Plate Of Strong Brass He Wore.
"In The Fourth,
Like Some Fair Pine O'Erlooking all Th' Ignobler Wood.
"And,
Some From The Rocks Cast Themselves Down Headlong.
"And Many More: But It Is Enough To Instance In a Few. The Thing is,
That The Disposition Of Words And Numbers Should Be Such, As That,
Out Of The Order And Sound Of Them, The Things Themselves May Be
Represented. This The Greeks Were Not So Accurate As To Bind Themselves
To; Neither Have Our English Poets Observed it, For Aught I Can Find.
The Latins (Qui Musas Colunt Severiores) Sometimes Did It; And Their
Prince, Virgil, Always, In whom The Examples Are Innumerable, And Taken
Notice Of By All Judicious Men, So That It Is Superfluous To Collect
Them."
I Know Not Whether He Has, In many Of These Instances, Attained the
Representation Or Resemblance That He Purposes. Verse Can Imitate Only
Sound And Motion. A _Boundless_ Verse, A _Headlong_ Verse, And A Verse
Of _Brass_, Or Of _Strong Brass_, Seem To Comprise Very Incongruous
And Unsociable Ideas. What There Is Peculiar In the Sound Of The Line
Expressing _Loose Care_, I Cannot Discover; Nor Why The _Pine_ Is
_Taller_ In an Alexandrine Than In ten Syllables.
But, Not To Defraud Him Of His Due Praise, He Has Given One Example Of
Representative Versification, Which, Perhaps, No Other English Line Can
Equal:
Begin, Be Bold, And Venture To Be Wise:
He, Who Defers This Work From Day To Day,
Does On A River'S Bank Expecting stay
Till The Whole Stream That Stopp'D Him Shall Be Gone,
_Which Runs, And, As It Runs, For Ever Shall Run On_.
Cowley Was, I Believe, The First Poet That Mingled alexandrines, At
Pleasure, With The Common Heroick Of Ten Syllables; And From Him Dryden
Borrowed the Practice, Whether Ornamental Or Licentious. He Considered
The Verse Of Twelve Syllables As Elevated and Majestick, And Has,
Therefore, Deviated into That Measure, When He Supposes The Voice Heard
Of The Supreme Being.
The Author Of The Davideis Is Commended by Dryden For Having written It
In Couplets, Because He Discovered that Any Staff Was Too Lyrical For
An Heroick Poem; But This Seems To Have Been Known Before By May And
Sandys, The Translators Of The Pharsalia And The Metamorphoses.
In The Davideis Are Some Hemistichs, Or Verses Left Imperfect By The
Author, In imitation Of Virgil, Whom He Supposes Not To Have Intended
To Complete Them: That This Opinion Is Erroneous, May Be Probably
Concluded, Because This Truncation Is Imitated by No Subsequent Roman
Poet; Because Virgil Himself Filled up One Broken Line In the Heat Of
Recitation; Because In one The Sense Is Now Unfinished; And Because All
That Can Be Done By A Broken Verse, A Line Intersected by A _Caesura_
And A Full Stop, Will Equally Effect.
Of Triplets, In his Davideis, He Makes No Use, And, Perhaps, Did Not, At
First, Think Them Allowable; But He Appears Afterwards To Have Changed
His Mind, For, In the Verses On The Government Of Cromwell, He Inserts
Them Liberally With Great Happiness.
After So Much Criticism On His Poems, The Essays Which Accompany Them
Must Not Be Forgotten. What Is Said By Sprat Of His Conversation, That
No Man Could Draw From It Any Suspicion Of His Excellence In poetry, May
Be Applied to These Compositions. No Author Ever Kept His Verse And His
Prose At A Greater Distance From Each Other. His Thoughts Are Natural,
And His Style Has A Smooth And Placid Equability, Which Has Never Yet
Obtained its Due Commendation. Nothing is Far-Sought, Or Hard-Laboured;
But All Is Easy Without Feebleness, And Familiar Without Grossness.
It Has Been Observed by Felton, In his Essay On The Classicks, That
Cowley Was Beloved by Every Muse That He Courted; And That He Has
Rivalled the Ancients In every Kind Of Poetry But Tragedy.
It May Be Affirmed, Without Any Encomiastick Fervour, That He Brought To
His Poetick Labours A Mind Replete With Learning, And That His Pages Are
Embellished with All The Ornaments Which Books Could Supply; That He Was
The First Who Imparted to English Numbers The Enthusiasm Of The Greater
Ode, And The Gaiety Of The Less; That He Was Equally Qualified for
Sprightly Sallies, And For Lofty Flights; That He Was Among Those Who
Freed translation From Servility, And, Instead Of Following his Author
At A Distance, Walked by His Side; And That If He Left Versification
Yet Improvable, He Left Likewise, From Time To Time, Such Specimens Of
Excellence As Enabled succeeding poets To Improve It.
* * * * *
The Insertion Of Cowley'S Epitaph May Be Interesting to Our Readers.
Epitaphium
Autoris
In ecclesia D. Petri Apud Westmonasterienses
Sepulti.
Abrahamus Cowleius,
Anglorum Pindarus, Flaccus, Maro,
Deliciae, Decus, Desiderium, Aevi Sui,
Hic Juxta Situs Est.
Aurea Dum Volitant Late Tua Scripta Per Orbem,
Et Fama Aeternum Vivis, Divine Poeta,
Hic Placida Jaceas Requie: Custodiat Urnam
Cana Fides, Vigilentque Perenni Lampade Musae
Sit Sacer Iste Locus; Nee Quis Temerarius Ausit
Sacrilega Turbare Manu Venerabile Bustum.
Intacti Maneant; Maneant Per Saecula Dulces
Cowleii Cineres, Serventque Immobile Saxum.
Sic Vovatque
Votumque Suum Apud Posteros Sacratum Esse Voluit
Qui Viro Incomparabili Posult Sepulchrale Marmor,
Georgius Dux Buckinghamiae.
Excessit E Vita Anno Aetatis Suae 49 Deg. Et Honorifica Pompa Elatus
Ex Aedibus
Buckinghamianis, Viris Illustribus Omnium Ordinum Exequias
Celebrantibus,
Sepultus Est Die 3 Deg. M. Augusti, Anno Domini 1667.
[Footnote 6: This Volume Was Not Published before 1633, When Cowley Was
Fifteeyears Old. Dr. Johnson, As Well As Former Biographers, Seems To
Have Been Misled by The Portrait Of Cowley Being, By Mistake, Marked with
The Age Of Thirteen Years. R.]
[Footnote 7: He Was A Candidate This Year At Westminster School For
Election To Trinity College, But Proved unsuccessful.]
[Footnote 8: In the First Edition Of This Life, Dr. Johnson Wrote, "Which
Was Never Inserted in any Collection Of His Works;" But He Altered the
Expression When The Lives Were Collected into Volumes. The Satire Was
Added to Cowley'S Works By The Particular Direction Of Dr. Johnson. N.]
[Footnote 9: Consulting the Virgilian Lots, Sortes Virgilianae, Is A
Method Of Divination By The Opening of Virgil, And Applying to The
Circumstances Of The Peruser The First Passage In either Of The Two Pages
That He Accidentally Fixes His Eye On. It Is Said, That King charles
The First, And Lord Falkland, Being in the Bodleian Library, Made This
Experiment Of Their Future Fortunes, And Met With Passages Equally
Ominous To Each.
That Of The King was The Following:
At Bello Audacis Populi Vexatus Et Armis,
Finibus Extorris, Complexu Avulsus Luli,
Auxilium Imploret, Videatque Indigna Suorum
Funera, Nec, Cum Se Sub Leges Pacis Iniquae
Tradiderit, Regno Aut Optata Luce Fruatur:
Sed cadat Ante Diem, Mediaque Inhumatus Arena. Aeneid. Iv. 615.
Yet Let A Race Untam'D, And Haughty Foes,
His Peaceful Entrance With Dire Arms Oppose,
Oppress'D With Numbers In th' Unequal Field,
His Men Discourag'D And Himself Expell'D:
Let Him For Succour Sue From Place To Place,
Torn From His Subjects And His Son'S Embrace.
First Let Him See His Friends In battle Slain,
And Their Untimely Fate Lament In vain:
And When, At Length, The Cruel War Shall Cease,
On Hard Conditions May He Buy His Peace;
Nor Let Him Then Enjoy Supreme Command.
But Fall Untimely By Some Hostile Hand,
And Lie Unburied on The Barren Sand. Dryden.
Lord Falkland'S:
Non Haec, O Palla, Dederas Promissa Parenti,
Cautius Ut Saevo Velles Te Credere Marti.
Haud Ignarus Eram, Quantum Nova Gloria In armis,
Et Praedulce Decus Primo Certamine Posset.
Primitiae Juvenis Miserae, Bellique Propinqui
Dura Rudimenta, Et Nulli Exaudita Deorum,
Vota Precesque Meae! Aeneid. Xi. 152.
O Pallas, Thou Hast Fail'D Thy Plighted word,
To Fight With Caution, Not To Tempt The Sword;
I Warn'D Thee, But In vain, For Well I Knew
What Perils Youthful Ardour Would Pursue,
That Boiling blood Would Carry Thee Too Far,
Young As Thou Wert To Dangers, Raw To War.
O Curst Essay Of Arms, Disastrous Doom,
Prelude Of Bloody Fields And Fights To Come!
Hard Elements Of Unauspicious War,
Vain Vows To Heaven, And Unavailing care! Dryden
Hoffman, In his Lexicon, Gives A Very Satisfactory Account Of This
Practice Of Seeking fates In books: And Says, That It Was Used by The
Pagans, The Jewish Rabbins, And Even The Early Christians; The Latter
Taking the New Testament For Their Oracle.]
[Footnote 10: Johnson Has Exhibited here Us Little Feeling for The
Neglected servant Of The Thankless House Of Stewart, As He Displayed in
The Cold Contempt Of His Sixth Rambler. An Unmeaning compliment From A
Worthless King was Cowley'S Only Recompense For Years Of Faithful And
Painful Services. A Heart Loyal And Affectionate, Like His, May Well Be
Excused the Utterance Of Its Pains, When Wounded by Those For Whom It
Would So Cheerfully Have Poured forth Its Blood. We Repeat, That Cowley'S
Misfortune Was His Devotion To A Family, Who Invariably Forgot, In their
Prosperity, Those Who Had Defended them In the Day Of Adversity. Ed.]
[Footnote 11: See Campbell'S Poets, Iv. 75.]
[Footnote 12: By May'S Poem, We Are Here To Understand A Continuation
Of Lucan'S Pharsalia, To The Death Of Julius Caesar, By Thomas May, An
Eminent Poet And Historian, Who Flourished in the Reigns Of James
And Charles The First, And Of Whom A Life Is Given In the Biographia
Britannica. The Merit Of Cowley'S Latin Poems Is Well Examined in
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