An Essay on Criticism Part 6

Several Hundred Years before there was such a Thing heard of as a Stage at _Athens_.

The next Thing this Critick takes notice of, is _Dryden_'s making _Cleomenes_ a _Copernican_ 2000 Years before _Copernicus_'s Time. The Rest of the Criticisms turn upon the Improbability that Don _Sebastian_ King of _Portugal_ understood Latin, tho' he never prayed to G.o.d in any other Language; or that the Emperor of _Barbary_ had ever heard of the Names of _Bacchus_, _Cupid_, _Castor_, and _Pollux_, or the Mufti of _Archimedes_, tho' we are credibly informed, that most of the Greek and Roman Learning was translated into _Arabick_; and it is well known that the _Arabians_ were the greatest Encouragers of Arts and Sciences for three or four Centuries, when they were buried all over Christendom under the Rubbish of Monkery and Barbarism; and the Revivers of Learning were obliged to them for their Translations and Comments, which were turned into _Latin_ out of _Arabick_. I have not only read of a Translation of _Aristotle_ with Comments by _Aben Rois_, and of _Euclid_ by _Na.s.sir Eddyn_, with Notes, but of an _Arabick Ovid_, where the Fable is the Foundation of the Work, and several other Cla.s.sicks in the _Arabick_ Tongue. How easy would it be to fill up such Critical Epistles as that in the _Guardian_ with as just and curious Remarks out of the best Epick Poets! How has _Chaucer_ confounded the Sacred _Scripture_ History with Pagan Fables:

_There by the Fount_ Narcissus _pin'd alone: There_ Sampson _was, and wiser_ Solomon: Medea'_s Charms were there._ Dryden _from_ Chauc.

_Ariosto_ does the same in the x.x.xii Book of _Orlando Furioso_:

Joshua_'s Day seemed shorter than the same, Shorter did seem the false_ Amphytrion_'s Night._ Harrington.

The same does _Ta.s.so_, _Canto_ iv of his _Jierusamme_:

_There where_ Cileno_'s foul and loathsome Rout; The_ Sphinges, Centaurs; _there where_ Gorgon_'s fell, There howling_ Scilla_'s, yawling round about: There Serpents hiss, there seven mouth'd_ Hydra_'s yell,_ Chimera _there spues Fire and Brimstone out, And_ Polyphemus _blind suporteth h.e.l.l._ Fairfax.

All understood of the h.e.l.l, which is the Punishment of the d.a.m.ned, according to the Christian Theology, and here confounded with the fabled Empire of _Pluto_. _Spencer_ too mixes Scripture History with the Fable: _Canto_ ix.

_The Years of_ Nestor _nothing were to his, Ne yet_ Methusalem, _tho' longest liv'd; For he remembred both their Infancies._

Nay _Milton_ himself adorns the _Pandaemonium_ with Dorick Pillars, while _Adam_ and _Eve_ lived in the _Bowers_ of Paradise before Man had a House to put his Head in:

--------_Pilasters round Were set, and Dorick Pillars overlaid With golden Architrave._

He also borrows the Rivers of the h.e.l.l of the Heathens for his Christian Poem:

_Abhorred_ Styx, _the Flood of deadly Hate, Sad_ Acheron _of Sorrow, black and deep,_ Cocytus _nam'd, of Lamentation loud Heard on her rueful Stream. Fierce_ Phlegeton, _Whose Waves of torrent Fire inflame with Rage.

Far off from these a flow and silent Stream_ Lethe _the River of Oblivion rolls;_

Which

Medusa _with_ Gorgonian _Terror guards._

It has been hinted elsewhere, that 'tis ungenerous to criticise on _Dryden_'s Conduct and Sentiments, which 'tis plain he varied at Pleasure, and wrote like a great Original, whose Example was to be a Rule to others, and himself to take Rules from none; but it is not true, as we read in the above-cited _Guardian_, _That his very Faults have more Beauty in them, than the most elaborate Compositions of many more correct Writers_: For I will repeat some few Lines that are monstrous, and then let the Reader judge how they can be beautiful.

_'Tis false, she is not ill, nor can she be; She must be chaste, because she's lov'd by me.

--------I'll squeeze thee like a Bladder, Or make thee groan thy self away in Air.

She who dares love, and for that Love dares die, And knowing this, dares yet love on, am I.

Good Heaven thy Book of Fate before me lay, But to tear out the Journal of this Day.

But take what Friends, what Armies thou canst bring, What Worlds, and when you are united All, Then I will thunder in your Ears; she shall.

--------Fight, love, despair; And I can do all this, because I dare.

What are ten thousand Subjects, such as they?

If I am scorn'd, I'll take my self away.

Thou shalt not wish her thine, thou shalt not dare To be so impudent as to dispair.

There's not a Star of thine dares stay with thee, I'll whistle thy tame Fortune after me._

I cannot repeat any more of it: These are Mr. _Dryden_'s Faults, in which, according to the _Guardian_, there are more Beauties than in the most elaborate Pieces of more correct Writers. I confess it grieves me to mention such Enormities as these are: For no Man can do more justice to Mr. _Dryden_'s fruitful Imagination, and harmonious Versification than my self: But it does not therefore follow, that even Errour in him is more beautiful than Regularity in others.

It I had more Room, and more Leisure, I should have endeavour'd to explain the Difference between the several Ways of Thinking. Some of them I have attempted, and I hope it may stir up a greater Genius, to do in _English_ as Pere _Bouhours_ has done in _French_, which would introduce a beautiful and just Manner both in Thought and Expression. It would then be known why it is that Archbishop _Tillotson_ and Bishop _Sprat_ are both esteem'd Masters of the _English_ Language; why Sir _William Temple_, and Sir _Roger L'Estrange_, the _Tatler_, and the _Spectator_, are generally spoken of as fine Writers; though their Manner is as different as their Faces. Every Thing that pleases in Writing is with us, as I have already hinted, resolved into Wit, whether it be in the Thought or the Expression. _Nay some_, says the _Spectator_, _carry the Notion of Wit so far, as to ascribe it to Puns and Quibbles, and even to external Mimickry, and to look upon a Man as an ingenious Person that can resemble the Tone, Gesture, or Face of another_. With such admirable Judges as these, Sir _Isaac Newton_'s Discourse of _Fluxions_ is very witty, as the Machine called the _Orrery_ was said to be very _wittily_ contrived. With these _Estcourt_, _Penkethman_, and even _Norris_ are Wits, as the _Spaniards_ take the _Apes_ to be, and that they won't speak because they would not work. I have known two or three Actors who got into Vogue by Grimace only, and acting Parts that had neither Wit nor Sense in them.

Every one of the Kinds of right Thinking has its opposite, as every Virtue has its Vice; and the Sublime especially is apt to be mistaken in the Pomp and Puffiness of Description. Of this Kind is that Pa.s.sage, where Mr. _Eachard_ describes the Sea-Fight between the _English_ and the _Dutch_, in the Time of the _Rump_.

"The Battle grew so fierce and so furious, that there were scarce any Thing to be seen but Masts _overturn'd_ into the Sea, _Splinters_ flying on all Sides, _Sails_ rent and torn in Pieces, Cables and _Cordage_ cut in sunder: _How it terrifies one!_ In one Place a _Vessel_ boarded, and in a Moment the Men chaced off or blown up with the Decks into the Air.

_Four or Five Hundred Men would not have made a Figure dreadful enough unless the Wooden Decks had gone along with them._ And in another was seen a s.h.i.+p swallow'd up by the Waves with several Hundreds of Men, and the Sea turn'd red with Human Gore, and cover'd with dead Bodies, and floating Parts of scatter'd s.h.i.+ps. _What's the Reason that we freeze in the midst of so much_ Fire? _This is what the_ French _call the Cold and the Puerile Stile._ Again; All which instead of dismaying the Combatants, serv'd only to excite their Rage, and enflame them to a more cruel and implacable Slaughter; and the continual Outcries of miserable wounded Wretches render'd them but the more b.l.o.o.d.y minded, and rouz'd them to a more cruel and remorseless Revenge. The rising Coasts on both Sides the Channel were violently shaken with the resounding Thunders of the roaring Guns, and those engag'd seem'd to be involv'd in the Wreck of Nature."

This Fight was over against the Island of _Portland_, and I really believe the p.r.o.nouncing of these Words, _roaring Guns_, _resounding Thunders_, _rising Coasts_, _Wreck of Nature_, among the Rocks under the Light-houses, would have as good an Effect with the Help of Eccho, as a Broadside at Sea, which the Historian a.s.sures us at the same Time shook the Hills of _England_ and _France_. Whence comes it that we read all this without the least Emotion, where there is so much Affectation to move? Are we not so stun'd with the Sound that the Sense is lost in it, and we are no more concern'd than at the Sight of a Storm in a Half-penny Picture? _Dryden_ lets us a little into this Secret in his _Preface_ to _Troil._ and _Cress._ He is speaking of the puffy Style, _the common Practice of those Writers, who not being able to infuse a natural Pa.s.sion into the Mind, have made it their Business to ply the Ears, and to stun their Judges by the Noise_. A better Judge than Mr.

_Dryden_ has directed us in this Matter.

_The Words, which in Magnificence abound, Grow tedious oft, and lose themselves in Sound._ Rosc.

This Way of Writing is much more easy than that which is truly great and sublime, as in Liquors, 'tis easier to give them Ferment and Froth, than Spirit and Purity. _There are more Authors_, says _Dryden_, who can make a _pompous Description, than who can write with an equal and natural Stile_. He adds, that _Shakespear_ himself did not distinguish _the blown puffy Stile from true Sublimity_; which could not wholly be attributed to the Time, because we meet with the true Sublimity very often in _Spencer_ and _Fairfax_, who were both Contemporaries with _Shakespear_, and _Spencer_ much the elder. Two Lines of Sir _John Denham_'s, on a like Subject with that of _Echard_, fills one with Horrour and Amazement.

_Tost by a Whirlwind of tempestuous Fire, A Thousand Wretches in the Air expire._

Mr. _Addison_ observes after _Pere Bouhours_, That _it is impossible for any Thought to be beautiful, which is not just, and has not its Foundation in the Nature of Things: That the Basis of all Wit is Truth, and that no Thought can be valuable, of which good Sense is not the Ground-work_. Therefore when Mr. _Echard_ writes his _Oxcellency_ for his _Excellency_, speaking of the Parliament's General the Earl of _Ess.e.x_, the _Tyrannical_ Parliament for the _Triennial_ Parliament, the New _Noddle_ for the _New Model_ with respect to the Army, and the like, we are not to be imposed upon by him, and to take it upon his bare Word for Wit. Neither is there any Wit at all in his burlesquing such Phrases as these; _Presence of G.o.d_, _Seeking the Lord_, _Call of G.o.d_, _Jesus Christ_, &c. Which he also would impose upon us for Witicisms.

His Descriptions are not all so lofty and sounding as that of the _Sea-Fight_, particularly when he paints _Oliver Cromwel_, without his Breeches, running away from the Cavaliers in his _Drawers_ only, and then turning back upon them and beating them. Of this Kind is the incomparable Picture of the Aldermen _Gloucester_: Their _Visages were pale, lean, and ugly; their Cloaths strange and unusual; their Voices pert, shrill, and fearless_; Amba.s.sadors _from the G.o.dly City of Gloucester_. His Similes are not more elevated, especially that where he compares the _Silent_ and _Victorious_ General Monk to a Cat, and General _Lambert to a Mouse_. He watched him as a Cat watches a Mouse, a singular Proof of his Perfection in Eloquence, which naturally leads us to _Expression_, and I doubt not the Historian thinks a finer Historical Stile than his own is not to be met with.

As in Thoughts so in Expression, we in _England_ are apt to confound all the various Kinds under the general Terms of good Language, and a fine Stile. The Sublime, the Natural, the Didactick, the Narrative, the Tragick, the Comick, the Polite, the Affected, are seldom rightly distinguish'd, and the latter very often mistaken for the Polite. The Admirers of Mr. _Echard_'s History do, doubtless, take what follows to have as much of the Sublime in it as the _English_ Tongue is capable of.

It introduces the glorious Reign of King _Charles_ II.

_Having gone through a stormy and tempestuous Season of various Misery, we arrive at a sudden Brightness and Splendour, a most unexpected Order, and glorious Calm and Suns.h.i.+ne. The Splendour and Brightness harder to be born than the preceeding Clouds and Darkness._ What is Stormy and Tempestuous? what Brightness, Suns.h.i.+ne, and Splendour? What Clouds and Darkness? but other Words for the same Things, and instead of Amplification comes under the Denomination of another Figure very common in such puffy Rhetorick, call'd _Tautology_, which I am afraid the Historian and his Admirers mistake for the Sublime, there being but very few that can distinguish Sound from Sense, or Wind from Spirit. _Let a Discourse be never so fine_, says _Rapin_, _it loses its worth when 'tis out of its Place, and appears affected_. Affectation in Stile has the same Effect with ordinary Judges as Affectation in Air has with Women and Fops. It pa.s.ses upon them for Politeness; and Delicacy, tho' there is nothing more vicious in Language. I might fill a Volume with Examples of this Vice, taken out of the Earl of _Clarendon_, and the Archdeacon's Histories, but as I had never troubled my self about them, had there been nothing in them but Want of Method, and an affected Stile, I shall content my self with two or three Observations only, which are sufficient to convince all those that can judge right; and as for others, I have not Leisure nor Words enough to attempt it.

He says the Sight of the _Gloucester_ Aldermen at once _gave Mirth to the most severe Countenances, and Sadness to the most cheerful Hearts_.

What Idea can one have of these _Cavaliers_, as he expresses himself, but that of some Idiots whom we have seen to laugh and cry in a Breath.

He has two Expressions about Mines, which are very extraordinary, both as he is a _Naturalist_ and as he is an _Orator_: The one is the _Bra.s.s-Mine_ in _c.u.mberland_, the only _Bra.s.s-Mine_ that ever was, or ever will be in the World. A _Copper-Mine_ might have been found out there, and a Mine of _Lapis calaminaris_, which put together, would produce _Bra.s.s_ enough, if there were Ore enough. Where he speaks of the Cleanliness of his Writing, he intimates, that he is one of those who _dive into the rich Mines of Nature_. What can one imagine about diving better than that of a Duck and a Dog in a Pond, or Boys in the _Bath_?

To dive into a Mine, methinks, is like running a Man's Head into a Rock. If he had said he had been digging in the rich Mines of Nature, one might have expected some Mettal to have come of it, of one Sort or another. When the Parliament, that brought in King _Charles_ II, met the first Time, Mr. _Echard_ says, _We are now arrived at the_ VAST _Day_, which I humbly conceive to be beyond Conception, and a strange Specimen of the Author's Talent in Elocution. He had a mind to make this Day something _prodigious_ and _uncommon_, and therefore swells it up with an Epithet which bursts in the Operation. VAST might have been proper, if he had been speaking of the Ton of _Heidelbergh_, or Admiral _Russel_'s Punch Bowl at _Lisbon_: But under what Figure will he put Day for the Word VAST to become it well? Doctor _Littleton_ in his Dictionary makes VAST to be _huge_, _burly_, _wide_, _broad_, _large_, and what is much less for the Archdeacon's Purpose, _misshapen_, _ill-favoured_, _desolate_, _insatiable_, _outragious_; put Day to ever a one of them, and see how the Coat fits. Mr. _Bailey_ in his very good Dictionary is contented with two or three Interpretations only, as a _huge Day_, a _s.p.a.cious Day_. _Ludlow_, I believe, would have followed _Littleton_, and then for VAST would have understood _desolate Day_, _ill-shapen Day_, _insatiable Day_; so dangerous is it for People to meddle with Words which they do not understand. Of all the Blunders in Expression which are to be avoided, there was the best Provision made against this that could be, if a Man had had the least Acquaintance with the politer Authors, Monsieur St. _Evremont_ having written a Dissertation on this very Word VAST, and whoever reads it, will pity a Writer who could fall into so gross an Errour, if there were no Malice in what he had written. I suppose that almost all Mr. _Echard_'s Readers have taken this VAST in the Sense he intended for _Important_, and if he had said this _Mountainous Day_, it would have done as well: They would have expected a Birth from the Mountain, and the Arch-Deacon's History is a Labour of the same Kind.

As we in _England_ are apt to confound Sentiments and Expressions, so we do the same by Talents, and think if a Man can make a _School-Book_ or two, he can write a History. _Jeremiah Collier_ wrote a _short View of the Stage_, which sold wonderfully, and immediately the Booksellers hir'd him to write Three Histories in Folio: And I question not but, because Sir _Isaac Newton_ has outdone all Philosophers in his Treatise of _Fluxions_, they would employ him in _Heroick_ Poetry, if he were young enough, and would be employ'd by them. There was a _Pertness_ in _Collier_'s Stile, which was mistaken for Vivacity, and tho' there cannot be any Thing more affected, yet it recommends his _Essays_, _Views_, &c. as somewhat in the Perfection of our Language. I wonder Dr.

_Felton_ should forget him, when he mentions Sir _Roger L'Estrange_, Mr.

_Trap_, and other masterly Writers. You cannot name _Collier_'s _Views_, _Essays_, &c. in Company, but some body or other immediately cries out, _Ay! that's Fine._ Wonderful fine, as will be seen presently.

In his Essays he has this Expression, _A Man may act an Excellency for the Satisfaction if Significancy_, which has the same Effect in Prose, as it is observ'd of some good Verses, that the _Smoothness_ or _Roughness_ of the Numbers are an Image of the Roughness or Smoothness of the Thing. You can hardly p.r.o.nounce these Words without a prim Look, and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up your Mouth with the Affectation of a Girl at a _Boarding-School_. Would one imagine that this was said by the same Author in another place; _Nothing is more nauseous than to be affected_: And yet see further, _Don't let Miss suffer her Heels to get too much into her Head_, not to say any Thing about the _Att.i.tude_, which would be very extraordinary in a Picture. Again, _Seeing and Hearing are the most creditable Senses; the Brain has an unpromising Aspect_, which cannot be known without Dissection. What Idea does this leave upon the Mind? or this, _A PRINCE made but a lame Figure in Comparison with our APOSTLE._ One would think _Collier_ had Prince _Prettiman_ and the _Spanish_ Fryer in his Head when he wrote it. He is so fond of this Conceit, that he endeavours to prove, in his Essay on Theft, and elsewhere, that our Saviour's Disciples were Men of Quality, well-born, and well-bred, and if they did fish at any time, 'twas only for their Pleasure. As the _Barber_ of _Northampton_ told _Estcourt_, He was a Doctor by Profession, and shav'd only for his Diversion. But _Collier_ seems to have less Regard for his Brotherhood in the last Centuries, when he informs us that by Queen _Elizabeth_'s Injunctions a Clergyman could not marry till he had made his Complaint against Celibacy before two Justices of the Peace, and gain'd their Consent, and the _good Will of the Master or Mistress where the Damsel serv'd_, by which he gives us to understand, that soon after the Reformation the Priests Wives were all _Abigail_'s.

_Collier_'s Dialogues serve two princ.i.p.al Ends, the one to carry on an Argument the more freely and loosely; and the other, which is not the least, to give himself a fat Figure in his own Picture, for he himself is the Man who has always the best of the Dispute.

_Well, I can't stand the Force of your Argument: You are smart, you have brought your self well off._

Thus he conquers his _Alphius_, and compels him _to own, That the Priests are an independant State_; and thus Boys build Houses of Cards to blow them down when they have done. What a Parcel of Flowers and Graces might one pick up in his Writings, if it was more _a propos_, such as _Slender Difficulty_, _Lean Temper_, _touchy Point_, _Cheek by Joule_, _to con over_, _to be Uppish_, _Intents and Purposes_, _to glitter upon the Senses_, _Enrichments_, _renverse_, _Deconcert_, _bigger Entertainment of the Soul_, _don't_, _on't_, _can't_, _won't_, _'tis_, _it's_, _at's_, and the frequent Use of Proverbs.

_Where there's Life there's Hope.

One Swallow makes no Summer_, &c.

The Use of Proverbs is so far from giving Disgust in common Conversation, especially in the Country, that 'tis look'd upon to be Wit as well as Mimickry, Buffoonry, Pun, Quibble, _&c._ and you would be star'd at if you should object against either of them as the effect of Ignorance or Folly. The _Spectator_ takes Notice that Puns made a considerable Figure on the Banks of _Cam_, and Proverbs must needs do no less on the Banks of _Isis_, when so great a Scholar as _Edward Llwyd_ set the Example, two in one Paragraph.