History of English Humour Volume I Part 19

"'Twere pity treason at his door to lay Who makes heaven's gate a lock to its own key.

Let him rail on, let his invective muse Have four and twenty letters to abuse, Which, if he jumbles to one line of sense Indict him of a capital offence."

This satire led to some replies, which Dryden crushed in his "Mac Flecnoe," a poem named after an Irish priest--an inferior poet--who, but for this notice, would never have been known to posterity. Shadwell was the man really aimed at; Mac Flecnoe exclaims:--

"Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he Who stands confirmed in full stupidity, The rest to some faint meaning make pretence But Shadwell never deviates into sense."[58]

After much in the same strain, he finishes with:--

"Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame In keen iambics, but mild anagram.

Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command Some peaceful province in acrostic land, There thou mayest wings display and altars raise, And torture one poor world ten thousand ways."

Dryden calls this kind of satire Varronian, as he weaves a sort of imaginary story into which he introduces the object of his attack. He was under the impression that this was the first piece of ridicule written in heroics, and his claim seemed correct as far as England was concerned, but Boileau and Ta.s.soni had preceded him. Willmot says, "Dryden is wanting in the graceful humour of Ta.s.soni, and exquisite power of Boileau. His wit has more weight than edge--it beat in armour, but could not cut gause." The greater part of Dryden's satire could not cut anything, nor be distinguished from elaborate vituperation. He wrote an essay on Satire, in which he shows a much better knowledge of history than of humour. His best pa.s.sages are in the "Spanish Friars,"

but they are weak and mainly directed against the profligacy of the Church. The servant says of the friar, "There's a huge, fat religious gentleman coming up, Sir. He says he's but a friar, but he's big enough to be a Pope; his gills are as rosy as a turkey-c.o.c.k's; his great belly walks in state before him like an harbinger, and his gouty legs come limping after it. Never was such a ton of devotion seen."

Samuel Butler affords one of the many examples of highly gifted literary men who have died in great poverty. His works, recommended by Lord Dorset, were read largely, and even by the King himself; but there was then no great demand for books, and authors had to look to patrons, and eat the uncertain bread of dependence. We may suppose, however, that he was an improvident man, for during his life he held several offices, and was at one time steward of Ludlow Castle.

Butler possessed a real gift of humour, and an astonis.h.i.+ng fertility of invention. To us there seems to be still too much indelicacy in his writings, though less than heretofore, and there is a considerable amount of bear-fighting, both in the literal and metaphorical sense.

This rough and cruel pastime was very common in that day. We read of bear-baiting at Kenilworth to amuse Queen Elizabeth, and Alleyn, the munificent founder of Dulwich College, was not only a dramatic author and manager, but "Master of the bears and dogs," which seems to have been a post of honour. To the present day, a ring for such sports is to be seen outside the princ.i.p.al gate of Battle Abbey.

We have already observed that the drama of Spain became the model for that of modern Europe, and we are not therefore surprised to find that the main design in Sir Hudibras is to produce an English Don Quixote.

All the accessories of the work point to this imitation; there is a long account of his arms, his Squire, and horse. But beyond this, he aimed at several well-known rogues of his day, especially those pretending to necromancy and prophetic powers, who seem to have been numerous.[59]

This gave the poem an interest at that day which it cannot have now, and it was increased by the amusing hits he makes at the Puritans, who had lately convulsed the State, and whom he had been able to gauge when he was employed by Sir Samuel Luke.[60] The lines are well known in which he speaks of the time:--

"When pulpit, drum, ecclesiastic, Was beat with fist, instead of a stick;"

and the general outcry against dignitaries is thus represented:--

"The oyster women locked their fish up And trudged away to cry 'No Bishop'; Botchers left old clothes in the lurch, And fell to turn and patch the church; Some cry'd the Covenant, instead Of pudding, pies, and gingerbread!"

Sir Hudibras is a Presbyterian "true blue."

"Such as do build their faith upon The holy test of pike and gun; Decide all controversies by Infallible artillery: And prove their doctrine orthodox By apostolic blows and knocks.

"Rather than fail, they will defy That which they love most tenderly; Quarrel with minced pies, and disparage.

Their best and dearest friend, plum porridge; Fat pig and goose itself oppose, And blaspheme custard through the nose."

Sir Hudibras was learned in controversy:--

"For he a rope of sand could twist As tough as learned Sorbonist And weave fine cobwebs fit for skull That's empty when the moon is full, Such as take lodgings in a head That's to be let unfurnished."

He had been at the siege of "Bullen," by Henry VIII., and his breeches were lined

"With many a piece Of ammunition, bread and cheese, And fat black puddings, proper food For warriors that delight in blood.

For as he said he always chose To carry victual in his hose, That often tempted rats and mice The ammunition to surprise."

Hudibras speaking of men fighting with an unworthy enemy, says:--

"So th' Emperor Caligula That triumphed o'er the British sea, Took crabs and oysters prisoners, And lobsters 'stead of cuira.s.siers; Engaged his legions in fierce bustles With periwinkles, prawns, and mussels, And led his troops with furious gallops To charge whole regiments of scallops; Not like their ancient way of war, To wait on his triumphal car; But, when he went to dine or sup, More bravely ate his captives up."

Butler begins one canto with

"Ah me! what perils do environ The man that meddles with cold iron."

His political views are seen in the following:

"For as a fly that goes to bed Rests with its tail above its head, So in this mongrel state of ours The rabble are the supreme powers.

That horsed us on their backs to show us A jadish trick at last, and throw us."

Several minor poems have been attributed to Butler, but most of them have been considered spurious. Some, however, are admitted--one of which is a humorous skit against the Royal Society, who were supposed at that day to be too minutely subtle. It is called "An Elephant in the Moon."

"Some learned astronomers think they have made a great discovery, but it is really owing to a mouse and some gnats having got into their telescope."

The light, short metre in which Butler composed his comic narrative was well suited to the subject, and corresponded to the "swift iambics" of Archilochus. Dryden says that double rhymes are necessary companions of burlesque writing. Addison, however, is of opinion that Hudibras "would have made a much more agreeable figure in heroics," to which Cowden Clarke replies, "Why, bless his head! the whole and sole intention of the poem is _mock_ heroic, and the structure of the verse is burlesque,"

and he also tells us that Butler's rhymes const.i.tute one feature of his wit. Certainly he had some strange terminations to his lines. Hudibras speaking of hanging Sidrophel and Whack.u.m says:--

"I'll make them serve for perpendiclars As true as e'er were used by bricklayers."

One of the bear-baiting mob annoys Rapho's steed, who

"Began to kick, and fling, and wince, As if he'd been beside his sense, Striving to disengage from thistle That gall'd him sorely under his tail."

Again we have:--

"An ancient castle that commands Th' adjacent parts, in all the fabric You shall not see one stone, nor a brick."

The astrologers made an instrument to examine the moon to

"Tell what her diameter per inch is; And prove that she's not made of green cheese."

By the interchange which often takes place between the poetical and ludicrous, this roughness of versification, then allowable, appears now so childish, that Lamb and Cowden Clark mistook it for humour. But we might extract from the writers of that day many ridiculous rhymes, evidently intended to be serious.

The humour of Butler was in his time more popular than the sentiment of Milton, but he obtained no commensurate remuneration. Wycherley kindly endeavoured to interest Buckingham on his behalf, and had almost succeeded, when two handsome women pa.s.sed by, and the Duke left him in pursuit of them. John Wesley's father has written Butler's epitaph in imperishable sarcasm:--

"See him when starved to death and turned to dust, Presented with a monumental bust; The poet's fate is here in emblem shown, He asked for bread, and he received--a stone."

CHAPTER VIII.

Comic Drama of the Restoration--Etherege--Wycherley.

The example set by Beaumont and Fletcher seems to have been much followed by their immediate successors. Decker wrote conjointly with Webster and Middleton, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish his work. His power of invective was well known; and in his humour there is such straining after strong words and effective phrases, as to seem quite unnatural. His "Gull's Hornbook" is written against c.o.xcombs, and he says their "vinegar railings shall not quench his Alpine resolutions."

Etherege and Wycherley ushered in the comic drama of the Restoration.

They were both courtiers, and the successful writers of this period took their tone from that of "the quality."

George, (afterwards Sir George) Etherege was born in 1636. He was known as "Gentle George" or "Easy Etherege," and it is said that he was himself a fop, and painted the character of Dorimant in Sir Fopling Flutter from himself. In his princ.i.p.al plays there is very little humour, though he gives some amusing sketches of the affectations of the metropolis.