An Essay on Criticism Part 10

After all that has been said of the _Sublime, &c._ perhaps the Criticks do make more of Things than is necessary, or in Nature: Tho' Poets pretend to Inspiration, and cry out, _The G.o.d, the G.o.d_, they are, in the Main, but meer Men, and have their Tricks and Quirks to keep up the Reputation of that Art: Nay, like other Professions, they would have us believe, that there's Mystery in it too; not, I suppose, as Divines understand it, but in the vulgar Sense, as it is understood when we say, the Trade or Mystery of a _Cordwainer_. Some of these Poetical Mysteries are as follow.

We are told that this Verse of _Homer_'s Third _Iliad_ was said, by _Alexander the Great_, to be the best in all the Poem:

_Great in the Wars, and great in Arts of Sway._

Methinks our _Gazette_ Men, and _Courant_ Men, express themselves every whit as well, when in Honour of a defunct General, whose Activity had long furnish'd them with Matter for their News-Books, they tell us, He was great alike in the Camp, and in the Cabinet, which easily runs into as good a Verse as the other.

_Great in the Camp, and in the Cabinet._

The next best Verses that ever were, are _Boileaus_; and they were said to be the best in all his Works, by _La Fontaine_: The Subject is the _French_ King's setting up Lace-making at _Roan_.

Et nos voisins frustrez de ces tributs serviles, Que paiat a leur Art, le Luxe de nos Villes.

_No more by foreign Tributes are we griev'd, Which, from our Luxury, alien Arts receiv'd._

Why these are better Verses than all other best Verses, is the Mystery we are speaking of, and like that of the Free-Masons, it cannot be unfolded but by a Brother; nay, one may suspect of this Mystery what is justly suspected of that; they do not tell it us, for fear we shou'd laugh at it.

Of this Kind, doubtless, is the famous Couplet, taken out of Sir _John Denham_'s _Coopers-Hill_, which _Dryden_ says, are the two best Verses in the _English_ Tongue:

_Tho' Deep, yet clear; tho' Gentle, yet not dull; Strong without Rage, without o'erflowing full._

He said he would not reveal the Secret why they were the best Verses, but left it as a Riddle to Posterity. I dare say, there are a Thousand as good Verses in Mr. _Pope_'s _Homer_, if by good Verses he means smooth ones, and one would think Three such Monysyllables as _Yet_, _Not_, _Dull_, all together, was enough to set aside the Claim of that Line.

Having said so much already of my honest Intention In this _Essay_, I must, at last, refer it to the Judgement of the Reader, and whatever it is, shall receive it with Pleasure, when it is given with Candour.

If he approves of what I have said, I cannot but be pleased with having given some few Hints to another.

If he does not approve of it, 'twill please me still more to receive new Light my self.

Since this Essay was finish'd, I have seen a Book written by a _French_ Gentleman, which has been receiv'd with much Civility; and as that Gentleman is commanded to make Remarks on our Manners in _England_, he will not do us Justice unless he puts the Reception his Book has met with, among the Instances of our Humanity to Strangers.

I must own I have not learnt a good deal by it, and the Reading of it has not excited any Impatience in me to read any new _Heroick_ Poem. I have long despair'd to see another good _Dramatick_, and much more an _Epick_ Poem in _English_, and cannot hope now to see one in _French_, which never yet was seen: However, I wish so well to all such generous Enterprizes, that I think it barbarous to give them the least Discouragement.

My Objections to this Gentleman's Criticisms are for what he says too ill of _Milton_'s Poem, and too good of _Clarendon_'s History, which he highly commends for the fine Characters, tho' he seems not to understand them, or not to have inform'd himself sufficiently of the Facts on which they are founded. He a.s.sures us the Lord _Clarendon_ has _unravell'd all the Springs of the Civil Wars_. I pa.s.s by the Expression to _unravel a Spring_, for that probably it sounds better in the _French_ Idiom than in the _English_: But the Sense of it is not true in Fact. _He has drawn, at full Length, the pictures of those whose Ambition shook the Foundation of his Country._ He has drawn them at full Length indeed, but as _Milton_ drew his shadowy Beings, _Death_, _Sin_, _Chaos_, by the Extent of his Imagination, and with little Regard to Historical Likeness, or copying after Nature; his Pictures on the King's Side being to a Man, all so many Heroes; on that of the Parliament so many _Scoundrels_; which was impossible to be true: For, besides that it was not in the Course, so it was not in the Nature of the Thing, that so many heroical Persons should take Party for Oppression and Superst.i.tion, and so many Blockheads and Poltrons espouse the Cause of Religion and Liberty.

But I do not wonder that this Critick is so extreamly civil to the Author of the _History of the Rebellion_. He censures _Milton_ for drawing the Pictures of _Death_ and the _Devil_ with so much Deformity.

_Satan_, _Sin_, and _Death_, must needs _shock the Readers of a delicate Taste_. As if it was possible for the Imagination to paint any Thing so ugly as the Devil is in every One's Conception, and that the more shocking such Painting is, it was not the more natural, as being the more conformable to the Idea which every one has conceiv'd of the Original. 'Tis true, the _Devil_ and _Death_ are not Subjects to touch the _Delicacy_ of Readers, but are extreamly proper to move Horrour and Detestation, which are there the Moral of that Divine Poem. If the Scene of _Paradise_ was opening, the Reader might have expected something to have touch'd his _Delicacy_; but when he came, as in _Milton_, to the Gates of h.e.l.l _wide open_, he certainly should have left his Delicacy behind him. _Hans Holben_'s Death's Dance is a merry Piece, but was no more proper to admit of Delicacy than the Droll Pieces of _Heemskirk_; and it would not be more extravagant to put Perfumes among the Ingredients of a _Stink-Pot_, than to put Delicacy in a Picture of the Devil. One of the most masterly Pieces of the greatest Matter of the _Lombard_ School, a Carca.s.s on a Butcher's Stall with the Gutts and Garbage about it, was much admir'd by the _Italians_, whose Delicacy is exemplary to other Nations; whence one may conclude, that whatever Subject has Truth and Likeness in it according to Nature, or our Conception of it, will always please, as an exact: and lively Imitation. I shall take no more Notice of the Criticisms on _Milton_ in this Place, nor perhaps in any other; but I can never read the Remarks of the Criticks on the _Paradise Lost_, without calling to Mind the Boast of King _Alphonso_, who criticising on the Form of the _Creation_, said, _If he had been consulted in it, it should have been more perfect._

FINISH.