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Title: Calamities and Quarrels of Authors
Author: Disraeli, Isaac, 1766-1848
Language: English
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CALAMITIES AND QUARRELS
OF
AUTHORS.
BY
ISAAC DISRAELI.
A NEW EDITION
EDITED BY HIS SON
THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD.
LONDON:
FREDERICK WARNE AND CO.
BEDFORD STREET, STRAND.
LONDON:
BRADBURY, AGNEW & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
CONTENTS.
CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS.
PREFACE 3
AUTHORS BY PROFESSION:--GUTHRIE AND AMHURST--DRAKE--SMOLLETT 7
THE CASE OF AUTHORS STATED, INCLUDING THE HISTORY OF LITERARY
PROPERTY 15
THE SUFFERINGS OF AUTHORS 22
A MENDICANT AUTHOR, AND THE PATRONS OF FORMER TIMES 25
COWLEY--OF HIS MELANCHOLY 35
THE PAINS OF FASTIDIOUS EGOTISM 42
INFLUENCE OF A BAD TEMPER IN CRITICISM 51
DISAPPOINTED GENIUS TAKES A FATAL DIRECTION BY ITS ABUSE 59
THE MALADIES OF AUTHORS 70
LITERARY SCOTCHMEN 75
LABORIOUS AUTHORS 83
THE DESPAIR OF YOUNG POETS 98
THE MISERIES OF THE FIRST ENGLISH COMMENTATOR 104
THE LIFE OF AN AUTHORESS 106
THE INDISCRETION OF AN HISTORIAN--CARTE 110
LITERARY RIDICULE, ILLUSTRATED BY SOME ACCOUNT OF A LITERARY
SATIRE 114
LITERARY HATRED, EXHIBITING A CONSPIRACY AGAINST AN AUTHOR 130
UNDUE SEVERITY OF CRITICISM 139
A VOLUMINOUS AUTHOR WITHOUT JUDGMENT 146
GENIUS AND ERUDITION THE VICTIMS OF IMMODERATE VANITY 155
GENIUS, THE DUPE OF ITS PASSIONS 168
LITERARY DISAPPOINTMENTS DISORDERING THE INTELLECT 172
THE REWARDS OF ORIENTAL STUDENTS 186
DANGER INCURRED BY GIVING THE RESULT OF LITERARY INQUIRIES 193
A NATIONAL WORK WHICH COULD FIND NO PATRONAGE 200
THE MISERIES OF SUCCESSFUL AUTHORS 202
THE ILLUSIONS OF WRITERS IN VERSE 212
QUARRELS OF AUTHORS.
PREFACE 229
WARBURTON, AND HIS QUARRELS; INCLUDING AN ILLUSTRATION OF HIS
LITERARY CHARACTER 233
POPE AND HIS MISCELLANEOUS QUARRELS 278
POPE AND CURLL; OR A NARRATIVE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY
TRANSACTIONS RESPECTING THE PUBLICATION OF POPE'S LETTERS 292
POPE AND CIBBER; CONTAINING A VINDICATION OF THE COMIC WRITER 301
POPE AND ADDISON 313
BOLINGBROKE AND MALLET'S POSTHUMOUS QUARREL WITH POPE 321
LINTOT'S ACCOUNT-BOOK 328
POPE'S EARLIEST SATIRE 333
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 336
SIR JOHN HILL, WITH THE ROYAL SOCIETY, FIELDING, SMART, ETC. 362
BOYLE AND BENTLEY 377
PARKER AND MARVELL 391
D'AVENANT AND A CLUB OF WITS 403
THE PAPER-WARS OF THE CIVIL WARS 415
POLITICAL CRITICISM ON LITERARY COMPOSITIONS 423
HOBBES, AND HIS QUARRELS; INCLUDING AN ILLUSTRATION OF HIS
CHARACTER 436
HOBBES'S QUARRELS WITH DR. WALLIS, THE MATHEMATICIAN. 463
JONSON AND DECKER 474
CAMDEN AND BROOKE 490
MARTIN MAR-PRELATE 501
SUPPLEMENT TO MARTIN MAR-PRELATE 523
LITERARY QUARRELS FROM PERSONAL MOTIVES 529
INDEX 541
CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS:
INCLUDING
SOME INQUIRIES RESPECTING THEIR MORAL AND LITERARY CHARACTERS.
"Such a superiority do the pursuits of Literature possess above
every other occupation, that even he who attains but a mediocrity
in them, merits the pre-eminence above those that excel the most
in the common and vulgar professions."--HUME.
PREFACE.
The Calamities of Authors have often excited the attention of the
lovers of literature; and, from the revival of letters to this day,
this class of the community, the most ingenious and the most
enlightened, have, in all the nations of Europe, been the most
honoured, and the least remunerated. Pierius Valerianus, an attendant
in the literary court of Leo X., who twice refused a bishopric that he
might pursue his studies uninterrupted, was a friend of Authors, and
composed a small work, "De Infelicitate Literatorum," which has been
frequently reprinted.[1] It forms a catalogue of several Italian
literati, his contemporaries; a meagre performance, in which the
author shows sometimes a predilection for the marvellous, which
happens so rarely in human affairs; and he is so unphilosophical, that
he places among the misfortunes of literary men those fatal casualties
to which all men are alike liable. Yet even this small volume has its
value: for although the historian confines his narrative to his own
times, he includes a sufficient number of names to convince us that to
devote our life to authorship is not the true means of improving our
happiness or our fortune.
At a later period, a congenial work was composed by Theophilus
Spizelius, a German divine; his four volumes are after the fashion of
his country and his times, which could make even small things
ponderous. In 1680 he first published two volumes, entitled "Infelix
Literatus," and five years afterwards his "Felicissimus Literatus;" he
writes without size, and sermonises without end, and seems to have
been so grave a lover of symmetry, that he shapes his _Felicities_
just with the same measure as his _Infelicities_. These two equalised
bundles of hay might have held in suspense the casuistical ass of
Sterne, till he had died from want of a motive to choose either. Yet
Spizelius is not to be contemned because he is verbose and heavy; he
has reflected more deeply than Valerianus, by opening the moral causes
of those calamities which he describes.[2]
The chief object of the present work is to ascertain some doubtful yet
important points concerning Authors. The title of Author still retains
its seduction among our youth, and is consecrated by ages. Yet what
affectionate parent would consent to see his son devote himself to his
pen as a profession? The studies of a true Author insulate him in
society, exacting daily labours; yet he will receive but little
encouragement, and less remuneration. It will be found that the most
successful Author can obtain no equivalent for the labours of his
life. I have endeavoured to ascertain this fact, to develope the
causes and to paint the variety of evils that naturally result from
the disappointments of genius. Authors themselves never discover this
melancholy truth till they have yielded to an impulse, and adopted a
profession, too late in life to resist the one, or abandon the other.
Whoever labours without hope, a painful state to which Authors are at
length reduced, may surely be placed among the most injured class in
the community. Most Authors close their lives in apathy or despair,
and too many live by means which few of them would not blush to
describe.
Besides this perpetual struggle with penury, there are also moral
causes which influence the literary character. I have drawn the
individual characters and feelings of Authors from their own
confessions, or deduced them from the prevalent events of their lives;
and often discovered them in their secret history, as it floats on
tradition, or lies concealed in authentic and original documents. I
would paint what has not been unhappily called the _psychological_
character.[3]
I have limited my inquiries to our own country, and generally to
recent times; for researches more curious, and eras more distant,
would less forcibly act on our sympathy. If, in attempting to avoid
the naked brevity of Valerianus, I have taken a more comprehensive
view of several of our Authors, it has been with the hope that I was
throwing a new light on their characters, or contributing some fresh
materials to our literary history. I feel anxious for the fate of the
opinions and the feelings which have arisen in the progress and
diversity of this work; but whatever their errors may be, it is to
them that my readers at least owe the materials of which it is formed;
these materials will be received with consideration, as the
confessions and statements of genius itself. In mixing them with my
own feelings, let me apply a beautiful apologue of the Hebrews--"The
clusters of grapes sent out of Babylon implore favour for the
exuberant leaves of the vine; for had there been no leaves, you had
lost the grapes."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A modern writer observes, that "Valeriano is chiefly known to
the present times by his brief but curious and interesting
work, _De Literatorum Infelicitate_, which has preserved many
anecdotes of the principal scholars of the age, not elsewhere
to be found."--ROSCOE'S _Leo X._ vol. iv. p. 175.
[2] There is also a bulky collection of this kind, entitled,
_Analecta de Calamitate Literatorum_, edited by Mencken, the
author of _Charlataneria Eruditorum_.
[3] From the Grecian _Psyche_, or the soul, the Germans have
borrowed this expressive term. They have a _Psychological
Magazine_. Some of our own recent authors have adopted the
term peculiarly adapted to the historian of the human mind.
AUTHORS BY PROFESSION.
GUTHRIE AND AMHURST--DRAKE--SMOLLETT.
A great author once surprised me by inquiring what I meant by "an
Author by Profession." He seemed offended at the supposition that I
was creating an odious distinction between authors. I was only placing
it among their calamities.
The title of AUTHOR is venerable; and in the ranks of national glory,
authors mingle with its heroes and its patriots. It is indeed by our
authors that foreigners have been taught most to esteem us; and this
remarkably appears in the expression of Gemelli, the Italian traveller
round the world, who wrote about the year 1700; for he told all Europe
that "he could find nothing amongst us but our writings to distinguish
us from the worst of barbarians." But to become an "Author by
Profession," is to have no other means of subsistence than such as are
extracted from the quill; and no one believes these to be so
precarious as they really are, until disappointed, distressed, and
thrown out of every pursuit which can maintain independence, the
noblest mind is cast into the lot of a doomed labourer.
Literature abounds with instances of "Authors by Profession"
accommodating themselves to this condition. By vile artifices of
faction and popularity their moral sense is injured, and the literary
character sits in that study which he ought to dignify, merely, as one
of them sings,
To keep his mutton twirling at the fire.
Another has said, "He is a fool who is a grain honester than the times
he lives in."
Let it not, therefore, be conceived that I mean to degrade or vilify
the literary character, when I would only separate the Author from
those polluters of the press who have turned a vestal into a
prostitute; a grotesque race of famished buffoons or laughing
assassins; or that populace of unhappy beings, who are driven to
perish in their garrets, unknown and unregarded by all, for illusions
which even their calamities cannot disperse. Poverty, said an ancient,
is a sacred thing--it is, indeed, so sacred, that it creates a
sympathy even for those who have incurred it by their folly, or plead
by it for their crimes.
The history of our Literature is instructive--let us trace the origin
of characters of this sort among us: some of them have happily
disappeared, and, whenever great authors obtain their due rights, the
calamities of literature will be greatly diminished.
As for the phrase of "Authors by Profession," it is said to be of
modern origin; and GUTHRIE, a great dealer in literature, and a
political scribe, is thought to have introduced it, as descriptive of
a class of writers which he wished to distinguish from the general
term. I present the reader with an unpublished letter of Guthrie, in
which the phrase will not only be found, but, what is more important,
which exhibits the character in its degraded form. It was addressed to
a minister.
_June 3, 1762._
"My Lord,
"In the year 1745-6, Mr. Pelham, then First Lord of the Treasury,
acquainted me, that it was his Majesty's pleasure I should
receive, till better provided for, which never has happened,
200_l._ a-year, to be paid by him and his successors in the
Treasury. I was satisfied with the august name made use of, and
the appointment has been regularly and quarterly paid me ever
since. I have been equally punctual in doing the government all
the services that fell within my abilities or sphere of life,
especially in those critical situations that call for unanimity in
the service of the crown.
"Your Lordship may possibly now suspect that _I am an Author by
Profession_: you are not deceived; and will be less so, if you
believe that I am disposed to serve his Majesty under your
Lordship's _future patronage and protection, with greater zeal, if
possible, than ever_.
"I have the honour to be,
"My Lord, &c.,
"WILLIAM GUTHRIE."
Unblushing venality! In one part he shouts like a plundering
hussar who has carried off his prey; and in the other he bows with
the tame suppleness of the "quarterly" Swiss chaffering his halbert
for his price;--"to serve his Majesty" for--"his Lordship's future
patronage."
Guthrie's notion of "An Author by Profession," entirely derived from
his own character, was twofold; literary taskwork, and political
degradation. He was to be a gentleman convertible into an historian,
at ---- per sheet; and, when he had not time to write histories, he
chose to sell his name to those he never wrote. These are mysteries of
the craft of authorship; in this sense it is only a trade, and a very
bad one! But when in his other capacity, this gentleman comes to hire
himself to one lord as he had to another, no one can doubt that the
stipendiary would change his principles with his livery.[4]
Such have been some of the "Authors by Profession" who have worn the
literary mask; for literature was not the first object of their
designs. They form a race peculiar to our country. They opened their
career in our first great revolution, and flourished during the
eventful period of the civil wars. In the form of newspapers, their
"Mercuries" and "Diurnals" were political pamphlets.[5] Of these, the
Royalists, being the better educated, carried off to their side all
the spirit, and only left the foam and dregs for the Parliamentarians;
otherwise, in lying, they were just like one another; for "the father
of lies" seems to be of no party! Were it desirable to instruct men by
a system of political and moral calumny, the complete art might be
drawn from these archives of political lying, during their flourishing
era. We might discover principles among them which would have humbled
the genius of Machiavel himself, and even have taught Mr. Sheridan's
more popular scribe, Mr. Puff, a sense of his own inferiority.
It is known that, during the administration of Harley and Walpole,
this class of authors swarmed and started up like mustard-seed in a
hot-bed. More than fifty thousand pounds were expended among them!
Faction, with mad and blind passions, can affix a value on the basest
things that serve its purpose.[6] These "Authors by Profession" wrote
more assiduously the better they were paid; but as attacks only
produced replies and rejoinders, to remunerate them was heightening
the fever and feeding the disease. They were all fighting for present
pay, with a view of the promised land before them; but they at length
became so numerous, and so crowded on one another, that the minister
could neither satisfy promised claims nor actual dues. He had not at
last the humblest office to bestow, not a commissionership of wine
licences, as Tacitus Gordon had: not even a collectorship of the
customs in some obscure town, as was the wretched worn-out Oldmixon's
pittance;[7] not a crumb for a mouse!
The captain of this banditti in the administration of Walpole was
Arnall, a young attorney, whose mature genius for scurrilous
party-papers broke forth in his tender nonage. This hireling was "The
Free Briton," and in "The Gazetteer" _Francis Walsingham, Esq._,
abusing the name of a profound statesman. It is said that he received
above ten thousand pounds for his obscure labours; and this patriot
was suffered to retire with all the dignity which a pension could
confer. He not only wrote for hire, but valued himself on it; proud of
the pliancy of his pen and of his principles, he wrote without remorse
what his patron was forced to pay for, but to disavow. It was from a
knowledge of these "Authors by Profession," writers of a faction in
the name of the community, as they have been well described, that our
great statesman Pitt fell into an error which he lived to regret. He
did not distinguish between authors; he confounded the mercenary with
the men of talent and character; and with this contracted view of the
political influence of genius, he must have viewed with awe, perhaps
with surprise, its mighty labour in the volumes of Burke.
But these "Authors by Profession" sometimes found a retribution of
their crimes even from their masters. When the ardent patron was
changed into a cold minister, their pen seemed wonderfully to have
lost its point, and the feather could not any more tickle. They were
flung off, as Shakspeare's striking imagery expresses it, like
An unregarded bulrush on the stream,
To rot itself with motion.
Look on the fate and fortune of AMHURST. The life of this "Author by
Profession" points a moral. He flourished about the year 1730. He
passed through a youth of iniquity, and was expelled from his college
for his irregularities: he had exhibited no marks of regeneration when
he assailed the university with the periodical paper of the _Terræ
Filius_; a witty Saturnalian effusion on the manners and Toryism of
Oxford, where the portraits have an extravagant kind of likeness, and
are so false and so true that they were universally relished and
individually understood. Amhurst, having lost his character, hastened
to reform the morals and politics of the nation. For near twenty years
he toiled at "The Craftsman," of which ten thousand are said to have
been sold in one day. Admire this patriot! an expelled collegian
becomes an outrageous zealot for popular reform, and an intrepid Whig
can bend to be yoked to all the drudgery of a faction! Amhurst
succeeded in writing out the minister, and writing in Bolingbroke and
Pulteney. Now came the hour of gratitude and generosity. His patrons
mounted into power--but--they silently dropped the instrument of their
ascension. The political prostitute stood shivering at the gate of
preferment, which his masters had for ever flung against him. He died
broken-hearted, and owed the charity of a grave to his bookseller.
I must add one more striking example of a political author in the case
of Dr. JAMES DRAKE, a man of genius, and an excellent writer. He
resigned an honourable profession, that of medicine, to adopt a very
contrary one, that of becoming an author by profession for a party. As
a Tory writer, he dared every extremity of the law, while he evaded
it by every subtlety of artifice; he sent a masked lady with his MS.
to the printer, who was never discovered, and was once saved by a flaw
in the indictment from the simple change of an _r_ for a _t_, or _nor_
for _not_;--one of those shameful evasions by which the law, to its
perpetual disgrace, so often protects the criminal from punishment.
Dr. Drake had the honour of hearing himself censured from the throne;
of being imprisoned; of seeing his "Memorials of the Church of
England" burned at London, and his "Historia Anglo-Scotica" at
Edinburgh. Having enlisted himself in the pay of the booksellers,
among other works, I suspect, he condescended to practise some
literary impositions. For he has reprinted Father Parson's famous
libel against the Earl of Leicester in Elizabeth's reign, under the
title of "Secret Memoirs of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1706,"
8vo, with a preface pretending it was printed from an old MS.
Drake was a lover of literature; he left behind him a version of
Herodotus, and a "System of Anatomy," once the most popular and
curious of its kind. After all this turmoil of his literary life,
neither his masked lady nor the flaws in his indictments availed him.
Government brought a writ of error, severely prosecuted him; and,
abandoned, as usual, by those for whom he had annihilated a genius
which deserved a better fate, his perturbed spirit broke out into a
fever, and he died raving against cruel persecutors, and patrons not
much more humane.
So much for some of those who have been "Authors by Profession" in one
of the twofold capacities which Guthrie designed, that of writing for
a minister; the other, that of writing for the bookseller, though far
more honourable, is sufficiently calamitous.
In commercial times, the hope of profit is always a stimulating, but a
degrading motive; it dims the clearest intellect, it stills the
proudest feelings. Habit and prejudice will soon reconcile even genius
to the work of money, and to avow the motive without a blush. "An
author by profession," at once ingenious and ingenuous, declared that,
"till fame appears to be worth more than money, he would always prefer
money to fame." JOHNSON had a notion that there existed no motive for
writing but money! Yet, crowned heads have sighed with the ambition of
authorship, though this great master of the human mind could suppose
that on this subject men were not actuated either by the love of glory
or of pleasure! FIELDING, an author of great genius and of "the
profession," in one of his "Covent-garden Journals" asserts, that "An
author, in a country where there is no public provision for men of
genius, is not obliged to be a more disinterested patriot than any
other. Why is he whose _livelihood is in his pen_ a greater monster in
using it to serve himself, than he who uses his tongue for the same
purpose?"
But it is a very important question to ask, is this "livelihood in the
pen" really such? Authors drudging on in obscurity, and enduring
miseries which can never close but with their life--shall this be
worth even the humble designation of a "livelihood?" I am not now
combating with them whether their taskwork degrades them, but whether
they are receiving an equivalent for the violation of their genius,
for the weight of the fetters they are wearing, and for the entailed
miseries which form an author's sole legacies to his widow and his
children. Far from me is the wish to degrade literature by the
inquiry; but it will be useful to many a youth of promising talent,
who is impatient to abandon all professions for this one, to consider
well the calamities in which he will most probably participate.
Among "Authors by Profession" who has displayed a more fruitful
genius, and exercised more intense industry, with a loftier sense of
his independence, than SMOLLETT? But look into his life and enter into
his feelings, and you will be shocked at the disparity of his
situation with the genius of the man. His life was a succession of
struggles, vexations, and disappointments, yet of success in his
writings. Smollett, who is a great poet, though he has written little
in verse, and whose rich genius composed the most original pictures of
human life, was compelled by his wants to debase his name by selling
it to voyages and translations, which he never could have read. When
he had worn himself down in the service of the public or the
booksellers, there remained not, of all his slender remunerations, in
the last stage of life, sufficient to convey him to a cheap country
and a restorative air on the Continent. The father may have thought
himself fortunate, that the daughter whom he loved with more than
common affection was no more to share in his wants; but the husband
had by his side the faithful companion of his life, left without a
wreck of fortune. Smollett, gradually perishing in a foreign land,[8]
neglected by an admiring public, and without fresh resources from the
booksellers, who were receiving the income of his works, threw out his
injured feelings in the character of _Bramble_; the warm generosity of
his temper, but not his genius, seemed fleeting with his breath. In a
foreign land his widow marked by a plain monument the spot of his
burial, and she perished in solitude! Yet Smollett dead--soon an
ornamented column is raised at the place of his birth,[9] while the
grave of the author seemed to multiply the editions of his works.
There are indeed grateful feelings in the public at large for a
favourite author; but the awful testimony of those feelings, by its
gradual progress, must appear beyond the grave! They visit the column
consecrated by his name, and his features are most loved, most
venerated, in the bust.
Smollett himself shall be the historian of his own heart; this most
successful "Author by Profession," who, for his subsistence, composed
masterworks of genius, and drudged in the toils of slavery, shall
himself tell us what happened, and describe that state between life
and death, partaking of both, which obscured his faculties and
sickened his lofty spirit.
"Had some of those who were pleased to call themselves my friends been
at any pains to deserve the character, and told me ingenuously what I
had to expect in _the capacity of an author, when I first professed
myself of that venerable fraternity_, I should in all probability have
spared myself the _incredible labour and chagrin I have since
undergone_."
As a relief from literary labour, Smollett once went to revisit his
family, and to embrace the mother he loved; but such was the
irritation of his mind and the infirmity of his health, exhausted by
the hard labours of authorship, that he never passed a more weary
summer, nor ever found himself so incapable of indulging the warmest
emotions of his heart. On his return, in a letter, he gave this
melancholy narrative of himself:--"Between friends, I am now convinced
that _my brain was in some measure affected_; for I had a kind of
_Coma Vigil_ upon me from April to November, without intermission. In
consideration of this circumstance, I know you will forgive all my
peevishness and discontent; tell Mrs. Moore that with regard to me,
she has as yet seen nothing but the wrong side of the tapestry." Thus
it happens in the life of authors, that they whose comic genius
diffuses cheerfulness, create a pleasure which they cannot themselves
participate.
The _Coma Vigil_ may be described by a verse of Shakspeare:--
Still-waking sleep! that is not what it is!
Of praise and censure, says Smollett, in a letter to Dr. Moore,
"Indeed I am sick of both, and wish to God my circumstances would
allow me to consign my pen to oblivion." A wish, as fervently repeated
by many "Authors by Profession," who are not so fully entitled as was
Smollett to write when he chose, or to have lived in quiet for what he
had written. An author's life is therefore too often deprived of all
social comfort whether he be the writer for a minister, or a
bookseller--but their case requires to be stated.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] It has been lately disclosed that HOME, the author of "Douglas,"
was pensioned by Lord Bute to answer all the papers and
pamphlets of the Government, and to be a vigilant defender of
the measures of Government.
[5] I have elsewhere portrayed the personal characters of the
hireling chiefs of these paper wars: the versatile and
unprincipled Marchmont Needham, the Cobbett of his day; the
factious Sir Roger L'Estrange; and the bantering and
profligate Sir John Birkenhead.
[6] An ample view of these lucubrations is exhibited in the early
volumes of the _Gentleman's Magazine_.
[7] It was said of this man that "he had submitted to labour at the
press, like a horse in a mill, till he became as blind and as
wretched." To show the extent of the conscience of this class
of writers, and to what lengths mere party-writers can
proceed, when duly encouraged, Oldmixon, who was a Whig
historian, if a violent party-writer ought ever to be
dignified by so venerable a title, unmercifully rigid to all
other historians, was himself guilty of the crimes with which
he so loudly accused others. He charged three eminent persons
with interpolating Lord Clarendon's History; this charge was
afterwards disproved by the passages being produced in his
Lordship's own handwriting, which had been fortunately
preserved; and yet this accuser of interpolation, when
employed by Bishop Kennett to publish his collection of our
historians, made no scruple of falsifying numerous passages in
Daniel's Chronicle, which makes the first edition of that
collection of no value.
[8] Smollett died in a small abode in the neighbourhood of Leghorn,
where he had resided some time in the hope of recovering his
shattered health; and where he wrote his "Humphrey Clinker."
His friends had tried in vain to procure for him the
appointment of consul to any one of the ports of the
Mediterranean. He is buried in the English cemetery at
Leghorn.--ED.
[9] It stands opposite Dalquhurn House, where he was born, near the
village of Renton, Dumbartonshire. Had Smollett lived a few
more years, he would have been entitled to an estate of about
1000_l._ a year. There is also a cenotaph to his memory on the
banks of Leven-water, which he has consecrated in one of his
best poems.--ED.
THE CASE OF AUTHORS STATED,
INCLUDING THE HISTORY OF LITERARY PROPERTY.
JOHNSON has dignified the booksellers as "the patrons of literature,"
which was generous in that great author, who had written well and
lived but ill all his life on that patronage. Eminent booksellers, in
their constant intercourse with the most enlightened class of the
community, that is, with the best authors and the best readers,
partake of the intelligence around them; their great capitals, too,
are productive of good and evil in literature; useful when they carry
on great works, and pernicious when they sanction indifferent ones.
Yet are they but commercial men. A trader can never be deemed a
patron, for it would be romantic to purchase what is not saleable; and
where no favour is conferred, there is no patronage.
Authors continue poor, and booksellers become opulent; an extraordinary
result! Booksellers are not agents for authors, but proprietors of
their works; so that the perpetual revenues of literature are solely
in the possession of the trade.
Is it then wonderful that even successful authors are indigent? They
are heirs to fortunes, but by a strange singularity they are
disinherited at their birth; for, on the publication of their works,
these cease to be their own property. Let that natural property be
secured, and a good book would be an inheritance, a leasehold or a
freehold, as you choose it; it might at least last out a generation,
and descend to the author's blood, were they permitted to live on
their father's glory, as in all other property they do on his
industry.[10] Something of this nature has been instituted in France,
where the descendants of Corneille and Molière retain a claim on the
theatres whenever the dramas of their great ancestors are performed.
In that country, literature has ever received peculiar honours--it was
there decreed, in the affair of Crebillon, that literary productions
are not seizable by creditors.[11]
The history of literary property in this country might form as
ludicrous a narrative as Lucian's "true history." It was a long while
doubtful whether any such thing existed, at the very time when
booksellers were assigning over the perpetual copyrights of books, and
making them the subject of family settlements for the provision of
their wives and children! When Tonson, in 1739, obtained an injunction
to restrain another bookseller from printing Milton's "Paradise
Lost," he brought into court as a proof of his title an assignment of
the original copyright, made over by the sublime poet in 1667, which
was read. Milton received for this assignment the sum which we all
know--Tonson and all his family and assignees rode in their carriages
with the profits of the five-pound epic.[12]
The verbal and tasteless lawyers, not many years past, with legal
metaphysics, wrangled like the schoolmen, inquiring of each other,
"whether the _style_ and _ideas_ of an author were tangible things; or
if these were a _property_, how is _possession_ to be taken, or any
act of _occupancy_ made on mere intellectual _ideas_." Nothing, said
they, can be an object of property but which has a corporeal
substance; the air and the light, to which they compared an author's
ideas, are common to all; ideas in the MS. state were compared to
birds in a cage; while the author confines them in his own dominion,
none but he has a right to let them fly; but the moment he allows the
bird to escape from his hand, it is no violation of property in any
one to make it his own. And to prove that there existed no property
after publication, they found an analogy in the gathering of acorns,
or in seizing on a vacant piece of ground; and thus degrading that
most refined piece of art formed in the highest state of society, a
literary production, they brought us back to a state of nature; and
seem to have concluded that literary property was purely ideal; a
phantom which, as its author could neither grasp nor confine to
himself, he must entirely depend on the public benevolence for his
reward.[13]
The Ideas, that is, the work of an author, are "tangible things."
"There are works," to quote the words of a near and dear relative,
"which require great learning, great industry, great labour, and great
capital, in their preparation. They assume a palpable form. You may
fill warehouses with them, and freight ships; and the tenure by which
they are held is superior to that of all other property, for it is
original. It is tenure which does not exist in a doubtful title; which
does not spring from any adventitious circumstances; it is not
found--it is not purchased--it is not prescriptive--it is original; so
it is the most natural of all titles, because it is the most simple
and least artificial. It is paramount and sovereign, because it is a
tenure by creation."[14]
There were indeed some more generous spirits and better philosophers
fortunately found on the same bench; and the identity of a literary
composition was resolved into its sentiments and language, besides
what was more obviously valuable to some persons, the print and paper.
On this slight principle was issued the profound award which accorded
a certain term of years to any work, however immortal. They could not
diminish the immortality of a book, but only its reward. In all the
litigations respecting literary property, authors were little
considered--except some honourable testimonies due to genius, from the
sense of WILLES, and the eloquence of MANSFIELD. Literary property was
still disputed, like the rights of a parish common. An honest printer,
who could not always write grammar, had the shrewdness to make a bold
effort in this scramble, and perceiving that even by this last
favourable award all literary property would necessarily centre with
the booksellers, now stood forward for his own body--the printers.
This rough advocate observed that "a few persons who call themselves
_booksellers_, about the number of _twenty-five_, have kept the
_monopoly of books and copies_ in their hands, to the entire exclusion
of all others, but more especially the _printers_, whom they have
always held it a rule never to let become purchasers in _copy_." Not a
word for the _authors_! As for them, they were doomed by both parties
as the fat oblation: they indeed sent forth some meek bleatings; but
what were AUTHORS, between judges, booksellers, and printers? the
sacrificed among the sacrificers!
All this was reasoning in a circle. LITERARY PROPERTY in our nation
arose from _a new state of society_. These lawyers could never
develope its nature by wild analogies, nor discover it in any
common-law right; for our common law, composed of immemorial customs,
could never have had in its contemplation an object which could not
have existed in barbarous periods. Literature, in its enlarged spirit,
certainly never entered into the thoughts or attention of our rude
ancestors. All their views were bounded by the necessaries of life;
and as yet they had no conception of the impalpable, invisible, yet
sovereign dominion of the human mind--enough for our rough heroes was
that of the seas! Before the reign of Henry VIII. great authors
composed occasionally a book in Latin, which none but other great
authors cared for, and which the people could not read. In the reign
of Elizabeth, ROGER ASCHAM appeared--one of those men of genius born
to create a new era in the history of their nation. The first English
author who may be regarded as the founder of our _prose style_ was
Roger Ascham, the venerable parent of our _native literature_. At a
time when our scholars affected to contemn the vernacular idiom, and
in their Latin works were losing their better fame, that of being
understood by all their countrymen, Ascham boldly avowed the design of
setting an example, in his own words, TO SPEAK AS THE COMMON PEOPLE,
TO THINK AS WISE MEN. His pristine English is still forcible without
pedantry, and still beautiful without ornament.[15] The illustrious
BACON condescended to follow this new example in the most popular of
his works. This change in our literature was like a revelation; these
men taught us our language in books. We became a reading people; and
then the demand for books naturally produced a new order of authors,
who traded in literature. It was then, so early as in the Elizabethan
age, that _literary property_ may be said to derive its obscure origin
in this nation. It was protected in an indirect manner by the
_licensers_ of the press; for although that was a mere political
institution, only designed to prevent seditious and irreligious
publications, yet, as no book could be printed without a licence,
there was honour enough in the licensers not to allow other
publishers to infringe on the privilege granted to the first
claimant. In Queen Anne's time, when the office of licensers was
extinguished, a more liberal genius was rising in the nation, and
_literary property_ received a more definite and a more powerful
protection. A limited term was granted to every author to reap the
fruits of his labours; and Lord Hardwicke pronounced this statute "a
universal patent for authors." Yet, subsequently, the subject of
_literary property_ involved discussion; even at so late a period as
in 1769 it was still to be litigated. It was then granted that
originally an author had at common law a property in his work, but
that the act of Anne took away all copyright after the expiration of
the terms it permitted.
As the matter now stands, let us address an arithmetical age--but my
pen hesitates to bring down my subject to an argument fitted to "these
coster-monger times."[16] On the present principle of literary
property, it results that an author disposes of a leasehold property
of twenty-eight years, often for less than the price of one year's
purchase! How many living authors are the sad witnesses of this fact,
who, like so many Esaus, have sold their inheritance for a meal! I
leave the whole school of Adam Smith to calm their calculating
emotions concerning "that unprosperous race of men" (sometimes this
master-seer calls them "unproductive") "commonly called _men of
letters_," who are pretty much in the situation which lawyers and
physicians would be in, were these, as he tells us, in that state when
"_a scholar_ and _a beggar_ seem to have been very nearly _synonymous
terms_"--and this melancholy fact that man of genius discovered,
without the feather of his pen brushing away a tear from his
lid--without one spontaneous and indignant groan!
Authors may exclaim, "we ask for justice, not charity." They would
not need to require any favour, nor claim any other than that
protection which an enlightened government, in its wisdom and its
justice, must bestow. They would leave to the public disposition the
sole appreciation of their works; their book must make its own
fortune; a bad work may be cried up, and a good work may be cried
down; but Faction will soon lose its voice, and Truth acquire one.
The cause we are pleading is not the calamities of indifferent
writers, but of those whose utility or whose genius long survives
that limited term which has been so hardly wrenched from the
penurious hand of verbal lawyers. Every lover of literature, and
every votary of humanity has long felt indignant at that sordid
state and all those secret sorrows to which men of the finest
genius, or of sublime industry, are reduced and degraded in
society. Johnson himself, who rejected that perpetuity of literary
property which some enthusiasts seemed to claim at the time the
subject was undergoing the discussion of the judges, is, however,
for extending the copyright to a _century_. Could authors secure
this, their natural right, literature would acquire a permanent
and a nobler reward; for great authors would then be distinguished
by the very profits they would receive from that obscure multitude
whose common disgraces they frequently participate, notwithstanding
the superiority of their own genius. Johnson himself will serve as
a proof of the incompetent remuneration of literary property. He
undertook and he performed an Herculean labour, which employed him
so many years that the price he obtained was exhausted before the
work was concluded--the wages did not even last as long as the
labour! Where, then, is the author to look forward, when such works
are undertaken, for a provision for his family, or for his future
existence? It would naturally arise from the work itself, were
authors not the most ill-treated and oppressed class of the
community. The daughter of MILTON need not have craved the alms of
the admirers of her father, if the right of authors had been better
protected; his own "Paradise Lost" had then been her better portion
and her most honourable inheritance. The children of BURNS would have
required no subscriptions; that annual tribute which the public pay
to the genius of their parent was their due, and would have been their
fortune.
Authors now submit to have a shorter life than their own celebrity.
While the book markets of Europe are supplied with the writings of
English authors, and they have a wider diffusion in America than at
home, it seems a national ingratitude to limit the existence of works
for their authors to a short number of years, and then to seize on
their possession for ever.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] The following facts will show the value of _literary property_;
immense profits and cheap purchases! The manuscript of
"Robinson Crusoe" ran through the whole trade, and no one
would print it; the bookseller who did purchase it, who, it is
said, was not remarkable for his discernment, but for a
speculative turn, got a thousand guineas by it. How many have
the booksellers since accumulated? Burn's "Justice" was
disposed of by its author for a trifle, as well as Buchan's
"Domestic Medicine;" these works yield annual incomes.
Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" was sold in the hour of
distress, with little distinction from any other work in that
class of composition; and "Evelina" produced five guineas from
the niggardly trader. Dr. Johnson fixed the price of his
"Biography of the Poets" at two hundred guineas; and Mr.
Malone observes, the booksellers in the course of twenty-five
years have probably got five thousand. I could add a great
number of facts of this nature which relate to living writers;
the profits of their own works for two or three years would
rescue them from the horrors and humiliation of pauperism. It
is, perhaps, useful to record, that, while the compositions of
genius are but slightly remunerated, though sometimes as
productive as "the household stuff" of literature, the latter
is rewarded with princely magnificence. At the sale of the
Robinsons, the copyright of "Vyse's Spelling-book" was sold at
the enormous price of 2200_l._, with an _annuity_ of fifty
guineas to the author!
[11] The circumstance, with the poet's dignified petition, and the
King's honourable decree, are preserved in "Curiosities of
Literature," vol. i. p. 406.
[12] The elder Tonson's portrait represents him in his gown and cap,
holding in his right hand a volume lettered "Paradise
Lost"--such a favourite object was Milton and copyright! Jacob
Tonson was the founder of a race who long honoured literature.
His rise in life is curious. He was at first unable to pay
twenty pounds for a play by Dryden, and joined with another
bookseller to advance that sum; the play sold, and Tonson was
afterwards enabled to purchase the succeeding ones. He and his
nephew died worth two hundred thousand pounds.--Much old
Tonson owed to his own industry; but he was a mere trader. He
and Dryden had frequent bickerings; he insisted on receiving
10,000 verses for two hundred and sixty-eight pounds, and poor
Dryden threw in the finest Ode in the language towards the
number. He would pay in the base coin which was then current;
which was a loss to the poet. Tonson once complained to
Dryden, that he had only received 1446 lines of his
translation of Ovid for his Miscellany for fifty guineas, when
he had calculated at the rate of 1518 lines for forty guineas;
he gives the poet a piece of critical reasoning, that he
considered he had a better bargain with "Juvenal," which is
reckoned "not so easy to translate as Ovid." In these times
such a mere trader in literature has disappeared.
[13] Sir James Burrows' Reports on the question concerning Literary
Property, 4to. London, 1773.
[14] Mirror of Parliament, 3529.
[15] See "Amenities of Literature" for an account of this author.
[16] A coster-monger, or Costard-monger, is a dealer in apples, which
are so called because they are shaped like a _costard_, _i.e._
a man's head. _Steevens._--Johnson explains the phrase
eloquently: "In these times when the prevalence of trade has
produced that meanness, that rates the merit of everything by
money."
THE SUFFERINGS OF AUTHORS.
_The natural rights and properties of AUTHORS_ not having been
sufficiently protected, they are defrauded, not indeed of their fame,
though they may not always live to witness it, but of their
_uninterrupted profits_, which might save them from their frequent
degradation in society. That act of Anne which confers on them some
right of property, acknowledges that works of learned men have been
carried on "too often to the ruin of them and their families."
Hence we trace a literary calamity which the public endure in those
"Authors by Profession," who, finding often too late in life that it
is the worst profession, are not scrupulous to live by some means or
other. "I must live," cried one of the brotherhood, shrugging his
shoulders in his misery, and almost blushing for a libel he had just
printed--"I do not see the necessity," was the dignified reply. Trade
was certainly not the origin of authorship. Most of our great authors
have written from a more impetuous impulse than that of a mechanic;
urged by a loftier motive than that of humouring the popular taste,
they have not lowered themselves by writing down to the public, but
have raised the public to them. Untasked, they composed at propitious
intervals; and feeling, not labour, was in their last, as in their
first page.
When we became a reading people, books were to be suited to popular
tastes, and then that trade was opened that leads to the workhouse. A
new race sprang up, that, like Ascham, "spoke as the common people;"
but would not, like Ascham, "think as wise men." The founders of
"Authors by Profession" appear as far back as in the Elizabethan age.
Then there were some roguish wits, who, taking advantage of the public
humour, and yielding their principle to their pen, lived to write, and
wrote to live; loose livers and loose writers!--like Autolycus, they
ran to the fair, with baskets of hasty manufactures, fit for clowns
and maidens.[17]
Even then flourished the craft of authorship, and the mysteries of
bookselling. ROBERT GREENE, the master-wit, wrote "The Art of
Coney-catching," or Cheatery, in which he was an adept; he died of a
surfeit of Rhenish and pickled herrings, at a fatal banquet of
authors;--and left as his legacy among the "Authors by Profession" "A
Groatsworth of Wit, bought with a Million of Repentance." One died of
another kind of surfeit. Another was assassinated in a brothel. But
the list of the calamities of all these worthies have as great variety
as those of the Seven Champions.[18] Nor were the _stationers_, or
_book-venders_, as the publishers of books were first designated, at a
fault in the mysteries of "coney-catching." Deceptive and vaunting
title-pages were practised to such excess, that TOM NASH, an "Author
by Profession," never fastidiously modest, blushed at the title of his
"Pierce Pennilesse," which the publisher had flourished in the first
edition, like "a tedious mountebank." The booksellers forged great
names to recommend their works, and passed off in currency their base
metal stamped with a royal head. "It was an usual thing in those
days," says honest Anthony Wood, "to set a great name to a book or
books, by the sharking booksellers or snivelling writers, to get
bread."
Such authors as these are unfortunate, before they are criminal; they
often tire out their youth before they discover that "Author by
Profession" is a denomination ridiculously assumed, for it is none!
The first efforts of men of genius are usually honourable ones; but
too often they suffer that genius to be debased. Many who would have
composed history have turned voluminous party-writers; many a noble
satirist has become a hungry libeller. Men who are starved in
society, hold to it but loosely. They are the children of Nemesis!
they avenge themselves--and with the Satan of MILTON they exclaim,
Evil, be thou my good!
Never were their feelings more vehemently echoed than by this
Nash--the creature of genius, of famine, and despair. He lived indeed
in the age of Elizabeth, but writes as if he had lived in our own. He
proclaimed himself to the world as _Pierce Pennilesse_, and on a
retrospect of his _literary life_, observes that he had "sat up late
and rose early, contended with the cold, and conversed with
scarcitie;" he says, "all my labours turned to losse,--I was despised
and neglected, my paines not regarded, or slightly rewarded, and I
myself, in prime of my best wit, laid open to povertie. Whereupon I
accused my fortune, railed on my patrons, bit my pen, rent my papers,
and raged."--And then comes the after-reflection, which so frequently
provokes the anger of genius: "How many base men that wanted those
parts I had, enjoyed content at will, and had wealth at command! I
called to mind a cobbler that was worth five hundred pounds; an
hostler that had built a goodly inn; a carman in a leather pilche that
had whipt a thousand pound out of his horse's tail--and have I more
than these? thought I to myself; am I better born? am I better brought
up? yea, and better favoured! and yet am I a beggar? How am I crost,
or whence is this curse? Even from hence, the men that should employ
such as I am, are enamoured of their own wits, though they be never so
scurvie; that a scrivener is better paid than a scholar; and men of
art must seek to live among cormorants, or be kept under by dunces,
who count it policy to keep them bare to follow their books the
better." And then, Nash thus utters the cries of--
A DESPAIRING AUTHOR!
Why is't damnation to despair and die
When life is my true happiness' disease?
My soul! my soul! thy safety makes me fly
_The faulty means_ that might my pain appease;
Divines and dying men may talk of hell;
But in my heart her several torments dwell.
Ah worthless wit, to train me to this woe!
Deceitful arts that nourish discontent!
Ill thrive the folly that bewitch'd me so!
Vain thoughts, adieu! for now I will repent;
And yet my wants persuade me to proceed,
Since none take pity of a scholar's need!--
Forgive me, God, although I curse my birth,
And ban the air wherein I breathe a wretch!
For misery hath daunted all my mirth--
Without redress complains my careless verse,
And Midas' ears relent not at my moan!
In some far land will I my griefs rehearse,
'Mongst them that will be moved when I shall groan!
England, adieu! the soil that brought me forth!
Adieu, unkinde! where skill is nothing worth!
Such was the miserable cry of an "Author by Profession" in the reign
of Elizabeth. Nash not only renounces his country in his despair--and
hesitates on "the faulty means" which have appeased the pangs of many
of his unhappy brothers, but he proves also the weakness of the moral
principle among these men of genius; for he promises, if any Mæcenas
will bind him by his bounty, he will do him "as much honour as any
poet of my beardless years in England--but," he adds, "if he be sent
away with a flea in his ear, let him look that I will rail on him
soundly; not for an hour or a day, while the injury is fresh in my
memory, but in some elaborate polished poem, which I will leave to the
world when I am dead, to be a living image to times to come of his
beggarly parsimony." Poets might imagine that CHATTERTON had written
all this, about the time he struck a balance of his profit and loss by
the death of Beckford the Lord Mayor, in which he concludes with "I am
glad he is dead by 3_l._ 13_s._ 6_d._"[19]
FOOTNOTES:
[17] An abundance of these amusing tracts eagerly bought up in their
day, but which came in the following generation to the
ballad-stalls, are in the present enshrined in the cabinets of
the curious. Such are the revolutions of literature! [It is by
no means uncommon to find them realise sums at the rate of a
guinea a page; but it is to be solely attributed to their
extreme rarity; for in many instances the reprints of such
tracts are worthless.]
[18] Poverty and the gaol alternated with tavern carouses or the
place of honour among the wild young gallants at the
playhouses. They were gentlemen or beggars as daily
circumstances ordained. When this was the case with such
authors as Greene, Peele, and Massinger, we need not wonder at
finding "a whole knot" of writers in infinitely worse plight,
who lived (or starved) by writing ballads and pamphlets on
temporary subjects. In a brief tract, called "The Downfall of
Temporising Poets," published 1641, they are said to be "an
indifferent strong corporation, twenty-three of you sufficient
writers, besides Martin Parker," who was the great ballad and
pamphlet writer of the day. The shifts they were put to, and
the difficulties of their living, is denoted in the reply of
one of the characters in this tract, who on being asked if he
has money, replies "Money? I wonder where you ever see poets
have money two days together; I sold a copy last night, and
have spent the money; and now have another copy to sell, but
nobody will buy it."--ED.
[19] Chatterton had written a political essay for "The North Briton,"
which opened with the preluding flourish of "A spirited people
freeing themselves from insupportable slavery:" it was,
however, though accepted, not printed, on account of the Lord
Mayor's death. The patriot thus calculated the death of his
great patron!
£ s. d.
Lost by his death in this Essay 1 11 6
Gained in Elegies £2 2
---- in Essays 3 3
---- 5 5 0
---------
Am glad he is dead by £3 13 6
A MENDICANT AUTHOR,
AND THE PATRONS OF FORMER TIMES.
It must be confessed, that before "Authors by Profession" had
fallen into the hands of the booksellers, they endured peculiar
grievances. They were pitiable retainers of some great family.
The miseries of such an author, and the insolence and penuriousness of
his patrons, who would not return the poetry they liked and would not
pay for, may be traced in the eventful life of THOMAS CHURCHYARD, a
poet of the age of Elizabeth, one of those unfortunate men who have
written poetry all their days, and lived a long life to complete
the misfortune. His muse was so fertile, that his works pass all
enumeration. He courted numerous patrons, who valued the poetry,
while they left the poet to his own miserable contemplations. In a
long catalogue of his works, which this poet has himself given, he
adds a few memoranda, as he proceeds, a little ludicrous, but very
melancholy. He wrote a book which he could never afterwards
recover from one of his patrons, and adds, "all which book was in as
good verse as ever I made; an honourable knight dwelling in the
Black Friers can witness the same, because I read it unto him."
Another accorded him the same remuneration--on which he adds, "An
infinite number of other songs and sonnets given where they cannot
be recovered, nor purchase any favour when they are craved." Still,
however, he announces "Twelve long Tales for Christmas, dedicated to
twelve honourable lords." Well might Churchyard write his own sad
life, under the title of "The Tragicall Discourse of the Haplesse
Man's Life."[20]
It will not be easy to parallel this pathetic description of the
wretched age of a poor neglected poet mourning over a youth vainly
spent.
High time it is to haste my carcase hence:
Youth stole away and felt no kind of joy,
And age he left in travail ever since;
The wanton days that made me nice and coy
Were but a dream, a shadow, and a toy--
I look in glass, and find my cheeks so lean
That every hour I do but wish me dead;
Now back bends down, and forwards falls the head,
And hollow eyes in wrinkled brow doth shroud
As though two stars were creeping under cloud.
The lips wax cold, and look both pale and thin,
The teeth fall out as nutts forsook the shell,
The bare bald head but shows where hair hath been,
The lively joints wax weary, stiff, and still,
The ready tongue now falters in his tale;
The courage quails as strength decays and goes....
The thatcher hath a cottage poor you see:
The shepherd knows where he shall sleep at night;
The daily drudge from cares can quiet be:
Thus fortune sends some rest to every wight;
And I was born to house and land by right....
Well, ere my breath my body do forsake
My spirit I bequeath to God above;
My books, my scrawls, and songs that I did make,
I leave with friends that freely did me love....
Now, friends, shake hands, I must be gone, my boys!
Our mirth takes end, our triumph all is done;
Our tickling talk, our sports and merry toys
Do glide away like shadow of the sun.
Another comes when I my race have run,
Shall pass the time with you in better plight,
And find good cause of greater things to write.
Yet Churchyard was no contemptible bard; he composed a national poem,
"The Worthiness of Wales," which has been reprinted, and will be still
dear to his "Fatherland," as the Hollanders expressively denote their
natal spot. He wrote in the "Mirrour of Magistrates," the Life of
Wolsey, which has parts of great dignity; and the Life of Jane Shore,
which was much noticed in his day, for a severe critic of the times
writes:
Hath not Shore's wife, although a light-skirt she,
Given him a chaste, long, lasting memorie?
Churchyard, and the miseries of his poetical life, are alluded to by
Spenser. He is old Palemon in "Colin Clout's come Home again." Spenser
is supposed to describe this laborious writer for half a century,
whose melancholy pipe, in his old age, may make the reader "rew:"
Yet he himself may rewed be more right,
That sung so long untill quite hoarse he grew.
His epitaph, preserved by Camden, is extremely instructive to all
poets, could epitaphs instruct them:--
_Poverty_ and _poetry_ his tomb doth inclose;
Wherefore, good neighbours, be merry in _prose_.
It appears also by a confession of Tom Nash, that an author would
then, pressed by the _res angusta domi_, when "the bottom of his purse
was turned upward," submit to compose pieces for gentlemen who aspired
to authorship. He tells us on some occasion, that he was then in the
country composing poetry for some country squire;--and says, "I am
faine to let my plow stand still in the midst of a furrow, to follow
these Senior Fantasticos, to whose amorous _villanellas_[21] I
prostitute my pen," and this, too, "twice or thrice in a month;" and
he complains that it is "poverty which alone maketh me so unconstant
to my determined studies, trudging from place to place to and fro, and
prosecuting the means to keep me from idlenesse." An author was then
much like a vagrant.
Even at a later period, in the reign of the literary James, great
authors were reduced to a state of mendicity, and lived on alms,
although their lives and their fortunes had been consumed in
forming national labours. The antiquary STOWE exhibits a striking
example of the rewards conferred on such valued authors. Stowe had
devoted his life, and exhausted his patrimony, in the study of
English antiquities; he had travelled on foot throughout the kingdom,
inspecting all monuments of antiquity, and rescuing what he could
from the dispersed libraries of the monasteries. His stupendous
collections, in his own handwriting, still exist, to provoke the
feeble industry of literary loiterers. He felt through life the
enthusiasm of study; and seated in his monkish library, living with
the dead more than with the living, he was still a student of taste:
for Spenser the poet visited the library of Stowe; and the first
good edition of Chaucer was made so chiefly by the labours of our
author. Late in life, worn-out with study and the cares of poverty,
neglected by that proud metropolis of which he had been the historian,
his good-humour did not desert him; for being afflicted with sharp
pains in his aged feet, he observed that "his affliction lay in that
part which formerly he had made so much use of." Many a mile had he
wandered and much had he expended, for those treasures of antiquities
which had exhausted his fortune, and with which he had formed works
of great public utility. It was in his eightieth year that Stowe at
length received a public acknowledgment of his services, which will
appear to us of a very extraordinary nature. He was so reduced in his
circumstances that he petitioned James I. for a _licence to collect
alms_ for himself! "as a recompense for his labours and travel of
_forty-five years_, in setting forth the _Chronicles of England_,
and _eight years_ taken up in the _Survey of the Cities of London
and Westminster_, towards his relief now in his old age; having left
his former means of living, and only employing himself for the
service and good of his country." Letters-patent under the great
seal were granted. After no penurious commendations of Stowe's
labours, he is permitted "to gather the benevolence of well-disposed
people within this realm of England; to ask, gather, and take the
alms of all our loving subjects." These letters-patent were to be
published by the clergy from their pulpits; they produced so
little, that they were renewed for another twelvemonth: one entire
parish in the city contributed seven shillings and sixpence! Such,
then, was the patronage received by Stowe, to be a licensed beggar
throughout the kingdom for one twelvemonth! Such was the public
remuneration of a man who had been useful to his nation, but not to
himself!
Such was the first age of _Patronage_, which branched out in the last
century into an age of _Subscriptions_, when an author levied
contributions before his work appeared; a mode which inundated our
literature with a great portion of its worthless volumes: of these the
most remarkable are the splendid publications of Richard Blome; they
may be called fictitious works; for they are only mutilated
transcripts from Camden and Speed, but richly ornamented, and
pompously printed, which this literary adventurer, said to have been a
gentleman, loaded the world with, by the aid of his subscribers.
Another age was that of _Dedications_,[22] when the author was to
lift his tiny patron to the skies, in an inverse ratio as he lowered
himself, in this public exhibition. Sometimes the party haggled about
the price;[23] or the statue, while stepping into his niche, would
turn round on the author to assist his invention. A patron of Peter
Motteux, dissatisfied with Peter's colder temperament, composed the
superlative dedication to himself, and completed the misery of the
author by subscribing it with Motteux's name![24] Worse fared it when
authors were the unlucky hawkers of their own works; of which I shall
give a remarkable instance in MYLES DAVIES, a learned man maddened by
want and indignation.
The subject before us exhibits one of the most singular spectacles in
these volumes; that of a scholar of extensive erudition, whose life
seems to have passed in the study of languages and the sciences, while
his faculties appear to have been disordered from the simplicity of
his nature, and driven to madness by indigence and insult. He formed
the wild resolution of becoming a mendicant author, the hawker of his
own works; and by this mode endured all the aggravated sufferings, the
great and the petty insults of all ranks of society, and even
sometimes from men of learning themselves, who denied a mendicant
author the sympathy of a brother.
MYLES DAVIES and his works are imperfectly known to the most curious
of our literary collectors. His name has scarcely reached a few; the
author and his works are equally extraordinary, and claim a right to
be preserved in this treatise on the "Calamities of Authors."
Our author commenced printing a work, difficult, from its miscellaneous
character, to describe; of which the volumes appeared at different
periods. The early and the most valuable volumes were the first and
second; they are a kind of bibliographical, biographical, and critical
work, on English Authors. They all bear a general title of "Athenæ
Britannicæ."[25]
Collectors have sometimes met with a very curious volume, entitled
"Icon Libellorum," and sometimes the same book, under another
title--"A Critical History of Pamphlets." This rare book forms the
first volume of the "Athenæ Britannicæ." The author was Myles Davies,
whose biography is quite unknown: he may now be his own biographer. He
was a Welsh clergyman, a vehement foe to Popery, Arianism, and
Socinianism, of the most fervent loyalty to George I. and the
Hanoverian succession; a scholar, skilled in Greek and Latin, and in
all the modern languages. Quitting his native spot with political
disgust, he changed his character in the metropolis, for he subscribes
himself "Counsellor-at-Law." In an evil hour he commenced author, not
only surrounded by his books, but with the more urgent companions of a
wife and family; and with that childlike simplicity which sometimes
marks the mind of a retired scholar, we perceive him imagining that
his immense reading would prove a source, not easily exhausted, for
their subsistence.
From the first volumes of his series much curious literary history may
be extracted, amidst the loose and wandering elements of this literary
chaos. In his dedication to the Prince he professes "to represent
writers and writings in a catoptrick view."
The preface to the second volume opens his plan; and nothing as yet
indicates those rambling humours which his subsequent labours
exhibit.
As he proceeded in forming these volumes, I suspect, either that his
mind became a little disordered, or that he discovered that mere
literature found but penurious patrons in "the Few;" for, attempting
to gain over all classes of society, he varied his investigations, and
courted attention, by writing on law, physic, divinity, as well as
literary topics. By his account--
"The avarice of booksellers, and the stinginess of hard-hearted
patrons, had driven him into a cursed company of door-keeping herds,
to meet the irrational brutality of those uneducated mischievous
animals called footmen, house-porters, poetasters, mumpers,
apothecaries, attorneys, and such like beasts of prey," who were, like
himself, sometimes barred up for hours in the menagerie of a great
man's antechamber. In his addresses to Drs. Mead and Freind, he
declares--"My misfortunes drive me to publish my writings for a poor
livelihood; and nothing but the utmost necessity could make any man in
his senses to endeavour at it, in a method so burthensome to the
modesty and education of a scholar."
In French he dedicates to George I.; and in the Harleian MSS. I
discovered a long letter to the Earl of Oxford, by our author, in
French, with a Latin ode. Never was more innocent bribery proffered to
a minister! He composed what he calls _Stricturæ Pindaricæ_ on the
"Mughouses," then political clubs;[26] celebrates English authors in
the same odes, and inserts a political Latin drama, called "Pallas
Anglicana." Mævius and Bavius were never more indefatigable! The
author's intellect gradually discovers its confusion amidst the loud
cries of penury and despair.
To paint the distresses of an author soliciting alms for a book which
he presents--and which, whatever may be its value, comes at least as
an evidence that the suppliant is a learned man--is a case so
uncommon, that the invention of the novelist seems necessary to fill
up the picture. But Myles Davies is an artist in his own simple
narrative.
Our author has given the names of several of his unwilling customers:--
"Those squeeze-farthing and hoard-penny ignoramus doctors, with
several great personages who formed excuses for not accepting my
books; or they would receive them, but give nothing for them; or else
deny they had them, or remembered anything of them; and so gave me
nothing for my last present of books, though they kept them _gratis et
ingratiis_.
"But his Grace of the Dutch extraction in Holland (said to be akin to
Mynheer Vander B--nck) had a peculiar grace in receiving my present of
books and odes, which, being bundled up together with a letter and ode
upon his Graceship, and carried in by his porter, I was bid to call
for an answer five years hence. I asked the porter what he meant by
that? I suppose, said he, four or five days hence; but it proved five
or six months after, before I could get any answer, though I had writ
five or six letters in French with fresh odes upon his Graceship, and
an account where I lived, and what noblemen had accepted of my
present. I attended about the door three or four times a week all that
time constantly from twelve to four or five o'clock in the evening;
and walking under the fore windows of the parlours, once that time his
and her Grace came after dinner to stare at me, with open windows and
shut mouths, but filled with fair water, which they spouted with so
much dexterity that they twisted the water through their teeth and
mouth-skrew, to flash near my face, and yet just to miss me, though my
nose could not well miss the natural flavour of the orange-water
showering so very near me. Her Grace began the water-work, but not
very gracefully, especially for an English lady of her description,
airs, and qualities, to make a stranger her spitting-post, who had
been guilty of no other offence than to offer her husband some
writings.--His Grace followed, yet first stood looking so wistfully
towards me, that I verily thought he had a mind to throw me a guinea
or two for all these indignities, and two or three months' then
sleeveless waiting upon him--and accordingly I advanced to address his
Grace to remember the poor author; but, instead of an answer, he
immediately undams his mouth, out fly whole showers of lymphatic
rockets, which had like to have put out my mortal eyes."
Still he was not disheartened, and still applied for his bundle of
books, which were returned to him at length unopened, with "half a
guinea upon top of the cargo," and "with a desire to receive no more.
I plucked up courage, murmuring within myself--
'Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.'"
He sarcastically observes,
"As I was still jogging on homewards, I thought that a great many were
called _their Graces_, not for any grace or favour they had truly
deserved with God or man, but for the same reason of contraries, that
the _Parcæ_ or Destinies, were so called, because they spared none, or
were not truly the _Parcæ, quia non parcebant_."
Our indigent and indignant author, by the faithfulness of his
representations, mingles with his anger some ludicrous scenes of
literary mendicity.
"I can't choose (now I am upon the fatal subject) but make one
observation or two more upon the various rencontres and adventures I
met withall, in presenting my books to those who were likely to accept
of them for their own information, or for that of helping a poor
scholar, or for their own vanity or ostentation.
"Some parsons would hollow to raise the whole house and posse of the
domestics to raise a poor _crown_; at last all that flutter ends in
sending Jack or Tom out to change a guinea, and then 'tis reckoned
over half-a-dozen times before the fatal crown can be picked out,
which must be taken as it is given, with all the parade of almsgiving,
and so to be received with all the active and passive ceremonial of
mendication and alms-receiving--as if the books, printing and paper,
were worth nothing at all, and as if it were the greatest charity for
them to touch them or let them be in the house; 'For I shall never
read them,' says one of the five-shilling-piece chaps; 'I have no time
to look in them,' says another; ''Tis so much money lost,' says a
grave dean; 'My eyes being so bad,' said a bishop, 'that I can scarce
read at all.' 'What do you want with me?' said another; 'Sir, I
presented you the other day with my _Athenæ Britannicæ_, being the
last part published.' 'I don't want books, take them again; I don't
understand what they mean.' 'The title is very plain,' said I, 'and
they are writ mostly in English.' 'I'll give you a crown for both the
volumes.' 'They stand me, sir, in more than that, and 'tis for a bare
subsistence I present or sell them; how shall I live?' 'I care not a
farthing for that; live or die, 'tis all one to me.' 'Damn my master!'
said Jack, ''twas but last night he was commending your books and your
learning to the skies; and now he would not care if you were starving
before his eyes; nay, he often makes game at your clothes, though he
thinks you the greatest scholar in England.'"
Such was the life of a learned mendicant author! The scenes which are
here exhibited appear to have disordered an intellect which had never
been firm; in vain our author attempted to adapt his talents to all
orders of men, still "To the crazy ship all winds are contrary."
FOOTNOTES:
[20] This author, now little known but to the student of our rarer
early poets, was a native of Shrewsbury, and had served in the
army. He wrote a large number of poetical pieces, all now of
the greatest rarity; their names have been preserved by that
industrious antiquary Joseph Ritson, in his _Bibliographia
Poetica_. The principal one was termed "The Worthiness of
Wales," and is written in laudation of the Principality. He
was frequently employed to supply verses for Court Masques and
Pageantry. He composed "all the devises, pastimes, and plays
at Norwich" when Queen Elizabeth was entertained there; as
well as gratulatory verses to her at Woodstock. He speaks of
his mind as "never free from studie," and his body "seldom
void of toyle"--"and yet both of them neither brought greate
benefits to the life, nor blessing to the soule" he adds, in
the words of a man whose hope deferred has made his heart
sick!--ED.
[21] _Villanellas_, or rather "_Villanescas_, are properly country
rustic songs, but commonly taken for ingenious ones made in
imitation of them."--PINEDA.
[22] This practice of dedications had indeed flourished before; for
authors had even prefixed numerous dedications to the same
work, or dedicated to different patrons the separate
divisions. Fuller's "Church History" is disgraced by the
introduction of twelve title-pages, besides the general one;
with as many particular dedications, and no less than fifty or
sixty inscriptions, addressed to benefactors; for which he is
severely censured by Heylin. It was an expedient to procure
dedication fees; for publishing books by _subscription_ was an
art not then discovered.
[23] The price of the dedication of a play was even fixed, from five
to ten guineas, from the Revolution to the time of George I.,
when it rose to twenty--but sometimes a bargain was to be
struck--when the author and the play were alike indifferent.
Even on these terms could vanity be gratified with the coarse
luxury of panegyric, of which every one knew the price.
[24] This circumstance was so notorious at the time, that it
occasioned a poetical satire in a dialogue between Motteux and
his patron Henningham--preserved in that vast flower-bed or
dunghill, for it is both, of "Poems on Affairs of State," vol.
ii. 251. The patron, in his zeal to omit no possible
distinction that could attach to him, had given one
circumstance which no one but himself could have known, and
which he thus regrets:
"PATRON.
I must confess I was to blame
That one particular to name;
The rest could never have been known,
_I made the style so like thy own_.
POET.
I beg your pardon, Sir, for that!
PATRON.
Why d----e what would you be at?
_I writ below myself_, you sot!
Avoiding figures, tropes, what not;
For fear I should my fancy _raise
Above the level of thy plays_!"
[25] "_Athenæ Britannicæ_, or a Critical History of the Oxford and
Cambridge Writers and Writings, with those of the Dissenters
and Romanists, as well as other Authors and Worthies, both
Domestic and Foreign, both Ancient and Modern. Together with
an occasional freedom of thought, in criticising and comparing
the parallel qualifications of the most eminent authors and
their performances, both in MS. and print, both at home and
abroad. By M. D. London, 1716." On the first volume of this
series, Dr. Farmer, a bloodhound of unfailing scent in curious
and obscure English books, has written on the leaf "This is
the only copy I have met with." Even the great bibliographer,
Baker, of Cambridge, never met but with three volumes (the
edition at the British Museum is in seven), sent him as a
great curiosity by the Earl of Oxford, and now deposited in
his collection at St. John's College. Baker has written this
memorandum in the first volume: "Few copies were printed, so
the work has become scarce, and for that reason will be
valued. The book in the greatest part is borrowed from modern
historians, but yet contains some things more uncommon, and
not easily to be met with." How superlatively rare must be the
English volumes which the eyes of Farmer and Baker never
lighted on!
[26] These clubs are described in Macky's "Journey through England,"
1724. He says they were formed to uphold the Royalist party
on the accession of King George I. "This induced a set of
gentlemen to establish _Mughouses_ in all the corners of
this great city, for well-affected tradesmen to meet and keep
up the spirit of loyalty to the Protestant succession," and
to be ready to join their forces for the suppression of the
other party. "Many an encounter they had, till at last the
Parliament was obliged by a law to put an end to this city
strife, which had this good effect, that upon the pulling
down of the Mughouse in Salisbury Court, for which some boys
were hanged on this act, the city has not been troubled with
them since." It was the custom in these houses to allow no
other drink but ale to be consumed, which was brought in mugs
of earthenware; a chairman was elected, and he called on the
members of the company for songs, which were generally party
ballads of a strongly-worded kind, as may be seen in the
small collection printed in 1716, entitled "A Collection of
State Songs, Poems, &c., published since the Rebellion, and
sung in the several Mughouses in the cities of London and
Westminster."--ED.
COWLEY.
OF HIS MELANCHOLY.
The mind of COWLEY was beautiful, but a querulous tenderness in his
nature breathes not only through his works, but influenced his habits
and his views of human affairs. His temper and his genius would have
opened to us, had not the strange decision of Sprat and Clifford
withdrawn that full correspondence of his heart which he had carried
on many years. These letters were suppressed because, as Bishop Sprat
acknowledges, "in this kind of prose Mr. Cowley was excellent! They
had a domestical plainness, and a peculiar kind of familiarity." And
then the florid writer runs off, that, "in letters, where the souls of
men should appear undressed, in that negligent habit they may be fit
to be seen by one or two in a chamber, but not to go abroad into the
streets." A false criticism: which not only has proved to be so since
their time by Mason's "Memoirs of Gray," but which these friends of
Cowley might have themselves perceived, if they had recollected that
the Letters of Cicero to Atticus form the most delightful chronicles
of the heart--and the most authentic memorials of the man. Peck
obtained one letter of Cowley's, preserved by Johnson, and it exhibits
a remarkable picture of the miseries of his poetical solitude. It is,
perhaps, not too late to inquire whether this correspondence was
destroyed as well as suppressed? Would Sprat and Clifford have burned
what they have told us they so much admired?[27]
Fortunately for our literary sympathy, the fatal error of these
fastidious critics has been in some degree repaired by the admirable
genius himself whom they have injured. When Cowley retreated from
society, he determined to draw up an apology for his conduct, and to
have dedicated it to his patron, Lord St. Albans. His death
interrupted the entire design; but his Essays, which Pope so finely
calls "the language of his heart," are evidently parts of these
precious Confessions. All of Cowley's tenderest and undisguised
feelings have therefore not perished. These Essays now form a species
of composition in our language, a mixture of prose and verse--the man
with the poet--the self-painter has sat to himself, and, with the
utmost simplicity, has copied out the image of his soul.
Why has this poet twice called himself _the melancholy Cowley_? He
employed no poetical _cheville_[28] for the metre of a verse which his
own feelings inspired.
Cowley, at the beginning of the Civil War, joined the Royalists at
Oxford; followed the queen to Paris; yielded his days and his nights
to an employment of the highest confidence, that of deciphering the
royal correspondence; he transacted their business, and, almost
divorcing himself from his neglected muse, he yielded up for them the
tranquillity so necessary to the existence of a poet. From his
earliest days he tells us how the poetic affections had stamped
themselves on his heart, "like letters cut into the bark of a young
tree, which, with the tree, will grow proportionably."
He describes his feelings at the court:--
"I saw plainly all the paint of that kind of life the nearer I came to
it--that beauty which I did not fall in love with when, for aught I
knew, it was real, was not like to bewitch or entice me when I saw it
was adulterate. I met with several great persons whom I liked very
well, but could not perceive that any part of their greatness was to
be liked or desired. I was in a crowd of good company, in business of
great and honourable trust; I eat at the best table, and enjoyed the
best conveniences that ought to be desired by a man of my condition;
yet I could not abstain from renewing my old schoolboy's wish, in a
copy of verses to the same effect:--
Well then! I now do plainly see,
This busie world and I shall ne'er agree!"
After several years' absence from his native country, at a most
critical period, he was sent over to mix with that trusty band of
loyalists, who, in secrecy and in silence, were devoting themselves to
the royal cause. Cowley was seized on by the ruling powers. At this
moment he published a preface to his works, which some of his party
interpreted as a relaxation of his loyalty. He has been fully
defended. Cowley, with all his delicacy of temper, wished sincerely to
retire from all parties; and saw enough among the fiery zealots of his
own, to grow disgusted even with Royalists.
His wish for retirement has been half censured as cowardice by
Johnson; but there was a tenderness of feeling which had ill-formed
Cowley for the cunning of party intriguers, and the company of little
villains. About this time he might have truly distinguished himself as
"The melancholy Cowley."
I am only tracing his literary history for the purpose of this work:
but I cannot pass without noticing the fact, that this abused man,
whom his enemies were calumniating, was at this moment, under the
disguise of a doctor of physic, occupied by the novel studies of
botany and medicine; and as all science in the mind of the poet
naturally becomes poetry, he composed his books on plants in Latin
verse.
At length came the Restoration, which the poet zealously celebrated in
his "Ode" on that occasion. Both Charles the First and Second had
promised to reward his fidelity with the mastership of the Savoy; but,
Wood says, "he lost it by certain persons enemies of the muses." Wood
has said no more; and none of Cowley's biographers have thrown any
light on the circumstance: perhaps we may discover this literary
calamity.
That Cowley caught no warmth from that promised sunshine which the
new monarch was to scatter in prodigal gaiety, has been distinctly
told by the poet himself; his muse, in "The Complaint," having
reproached him thus:--
Thou young prodigal, who didst so loosely waste
Of all thy youthful years, the good estate--
Thou changeling then, bewitch'd with noise and show,
Wouldst into courts and cities from me go--
Go, renegado, cast up thy account--
Behold the public storm is spent at last;
The sovereign is toss'd at sea no more,
And thou, with all the noble company,
Art got at last to shore--
But whilst thy fellow-voyagers I see,
All march'd up to possess the promis'd land;
Thou still alone (alas!) dost gaping stand
Upon the naked beach, upon the barren sand.
But neglect was not all Cowley had to endure; the royal party seemed
disposed to calumniate him. When Cowley was young he had hastily
composed the comedy of "The Guardian;" a piece which served the cause
of loyalty. After the Restoration, he rewrote it under the title of
"Cutter of Coleman Street;" a comedy which may still be read with
equal curiosity and interest: a spirited picture of the peculiar
characters which appeared at the Revolution. It was not only ill
received by a faction, but by those vermin of a new court, who,
without merit themselves, put in their claims, by crying down those
who, with great merit, are not in favour. All these to a man accused
the author of having written a satire against the king's party. And
this wretched party prevailed, too long for the author's repose, but
not for his fame.[29] Many years afterwards this comedy became
popular. Dryden, who was present at the representation, tells us that
Cowley "received the news of his ill success not with so much firmness
as might have been expected from so great a man." Cowley was in truth
a great man, and a greatly injured man. His sensibility and delicacy
of temper were of another texture than Dryden's. What at that moment
did Cowley experience, when he beheld himself neglected, calumniated,
and, in his last appeal to public favour, found himself still a victim
to a vile faction, who, to court their common master, were trampling
on their honest brother?
We shall find an unbroken chain of evidence, clearly demonstrating the
agony of his literary feelings. The cynical Wood tells us that, "not
finding that preferment he expected, while others for their money
carried away most places, he retired discontented into Surrey." And
his panegyrist, Sprat, describes him as "weary of the vexations and
formalities of an active condition--he had been perplexed with a long
compliance with foreign manners. He was satiated with the arts of a
court, which sort of life, though his virtue made it innocent to him,
yet nothing could make it quiet. These were the reasons that moved him
to follow the violent inclination of his own mind," &c. I doubt if
either the sarcastic antiquary or the rhetorical panegyrist have
developed the simple truth of Cowley's "violent inclination of his own
mind." He does it himself more openly in that beautiful picture of an
injured poet, in "The Complaint," an ode warm with individual feeling,
but which Johnson coldly passes over, by telling us that "it met the
usual fortune of complaints, and seems to have excited more contempt
than pity."
Thus the biographers of Cowley have told us nothing, and the poet
himself has probably not told us all. To these calumnies respecting
Cowley's comedy, raised up by those whom Wood designates as "enemies
of the muses," it would appear that others were added of a deeper dye,
and in malignant whispers distilled into the ear of royalty. Cowley,
in an ode, had commemorated the genius of Brutus, with all the
enthusiasm of a votary of liberty. After the king's return, when
Cowley solicited some reward for his sufferings and services in the
royal cause, the chancellor is said to have turned on him with a
severe countenance, saying, "Mr. Cowley, your pardon is your reward!"
It seems that ode was then considered to be of a dangerous tendency
among half the nation; Brutus would be the model of enthusiasts, who
were sullenly bending their neck under the yoke of royalty. Charles
II. feared the attempt of desperate men; and he might have forgiven
Rochester a loose pasquinade, but not Cowley a solemn invocation. This
fact, then, is said to have been the true cause of the despondency so
prevalent in the latter poetry of "the melancholy Cowley." And hence
the indiscretion of the muse, in a single flight, condemned her to a
painful, rather than a voluntary solitude; and made the poet complain
of "barren praise" and "neglected verse."[30]
While this anecdote harmonises with better known facts, it throws some
light on the outcry raised against the comedy, which seems to have
been but an echo of some preceding one. Cowley retreated into
solitude, where he found none of the agrestic charms of the landscapes
of his muse. When in the world, Sprat says, "he had never wanted for
constant health and strength of body;" but, thrown into solitude, he
carried with him a wounded spirit--the Ode of Brutus and the
condemnation of his comedy were the dark spirits that haunted his
cottage. Ill health soon succeeded low spirits--he pined in dejection,
and perished a victim of the finest and most injured feelings.
But before we leave _the melancholy Cowley_, he shall speak the
feelings, which here are not exaggerated. In this Chronicle of
Literary Calamity no passage ought to be more memorable than the
solemn confession of one of the most amiable of men and poets.
Thus he expresses himself in the preface to his "Cutter of Coleman
Street."
"We are therefore wonderful wise men, and have a fine business of it;
we, who spend our time in poetry. I do sometimes laugh, and am often
angry with myself, when I think on it; and if I had a son inclined by
nature to the same folly, I believe I should bind him from it by the
strictest conjurations of a paternal blessing. For what can be more
ridiculous than to labour to give men delight, whilst they labour, on
their part, most earnestly to take offence?"
And thus he closes the preface, in all the solemn expression of
injured feelings:--"This I do affirm, that _from all which I have
written, +I never+ received the least benefit or the least advantage;
but, on the contrary, have felt sometimes the effects of malice and
misfortune_!"
Cowley's ashes were deposited between those of Chaucer and Spenser; a
marble monument was erected by a duke; and his eulogy was pronounced,
on the day of his death, from the lips of royalty. The learned wrote,
and the tuneful wept: well might the neglected bard, in his
retirement, compose an epitaph on himself, living there "entombed,
though not dead."
To this ambiguous state of existence he applies a conceit, not
inelegant, from the tenderness of its imagery:
Hic sparge flores, sparge breves rosas,
Nam vita gaudet mortua floribus;
Herbisque odoratis corona
Vatis adhuc cinerem calentem.
IMITATED.
Here scatter flowers and short-lived roses bring.
For life, though dead, enjoys the flowers of spring;
With breathing wreaths of fragrant herbs adorn
The yet warm embers in the poet's urn.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] My researches could never obtain more than one letter of
Cowley's--it is but an elegant trifle--returning thanks to his
friend Evelyn for some seeds and plants. "The Garden" of
Evelyn is immortalised in a delightful Ode of Cowley's, as
well as by Evelyn himself. Even in this small note we may
discover the touch of Cowley. The original is in Astle's
collection.
MR. ABRAHAM COWLEY TO JOHN EVELYN, ESQ.
"_Barn Elms, March 23, 1663._
"SIR,--There is nothing more pleasant than to see kindness
in a person for whom we have great esteem and respect: no,
not the sight of your garden in May, or even the having
such an one; which makes me more obliged to return you my
most humble thanks for the testimonies I have lately
received of you, both by your letter and your presents. I
have already sowed such of your seeds as I thought most
proper upon a hot-bed; but cannot find in all my books a
catalogue of these plants which require that culture, nor
of such as must be set in pots; which defects, and all
others, I hope shortly to see supplied, as I hope shortly
to see your work of Horticulture finished and published;
and long to be in all things your disciple, as I am in all
things now,
"Sir, your most humble and most obedient Servant,
"A. COWLEY."
[Barn Elms, from whence this letter is dated, was the first
country residence of Cowley. It lies low on the banks of the
Thames, and here the poet was first seized with a fever, which
obliged him to remove; but he chose an equally improper
locality for a man of his temperament, in Chertsey, where he
died from the effects of a severe cold.]
Such were the ordinary letters which passed between two men
whom it would be difficult to parallel for their elegant
tastes and gentle dispositions. Evelyn's beautiful retreat at
Sayes Court, at Deptford, is described by a contemporary as
"a garden exquisite and most boscaresque, and, as it were,
an exemplar of his book of Forest-trees." It was the
entertainment and wonder of the greatest men of those times,
and inspired the following lines of Cowley, to Evelyn and
his lady, who excelled in the arts her husband loved; for she
designed the frontispiece to his version of Lucretius--
"In books and gardens thou hast placed aright
(Things well which thou dost understand,
And both dost make with thy laborious hand)
Thy noble innocent delight;
And in thy virtuous wife, where thou again dost meet
Both pleasures more refined and sweet;
The fairest garden in her looks,
And in her mind the wisest books."
[28] A term the French apply to those _botches_ which bad poets use
to make out their metre.
[29] This comedy was first presented very hurriedly for the amusement
of Prince Charles as he passed through Cambridge to York.
Cowley himself describes it, then, as "neither _made_ nor
_acted_, but _rough-drawn_ by him, and _repeated_ by his
scholars" for this temporary purpose. After the Restoration he
endeavoured to do more justice to his juvenile work, by
remodelling it, and producing it at the Duke of York's
theatre. But as many of the characters necessarily retained
the features of the older play, and times had changed; it was
easy to affix a false stigma to the poet's pictures of the old
Cavaliers; and the play was universally condemned as a satire
on the Royalists. It was reproduced with success at the
theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, as long afterwards as the
year 1730.--ED.
[30] The anecdote, probably little known, may be found in "The
Judgment of Dr. Prideaux in Condemning the Murder of
Julius Cæsar by the Conspirators as a most villanous act,
maintained," 1721, p. 41.
THE PAINS OF FASTIDIOUS EGOTISM.
I must place the author of "The Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors,"
who himself now ornaments that roll, among those who have participated
in the misfortunes of literature.
HORACE WALPOLE was the inheritor of a name the most popular in
Europe;[31] he moved in the higher circles of society; and fortune had
never denied him the ample gratification of his lively tastes in the
elegant arts, and in curious knowledge. These were particular
advantages. But Horace Walpole panted with a secret desire for
literary celebrity; a full sense of his distinguished rank long
suppressed the desire of venturing the name he bore to the uncertain
fame of an author, and the caprice of vulgar critics. At length he
pretended to shun authors, and to slight the honours of authorship.
The cause of this contempt has been attributed to the perpetual
consideration of his rank. But was this bitter contempt of so early a
date? Was Horace Walpole a Socrates before his time? was he born that
prodigy of indifference, to despise the secret object he languished to
possess? His early associates were not only noblemen, but literary
noblemen; and need he have been so petulantly fastidious at bearing
the venerable title of author, when he saw Lyttleton, Chesterfield,
and other peers, proud of wearing the blue riband of literature? No!
it was after he had become an author that he contemned authorship: and
it was not the precocity of his sagacity, but the maturity of his
experience, that made him willing enough to undervalue literary
honours, which were not sufficient to satisfy his desires.
Let us estimate the genius of Horace Walpole by analysing his talents,
and inquiring into the nature of his works.
His taste was highly polished; his vivacity attained to brilliancy;[32]
and his picturesque fancy, easily excited, was soon extinguished; his
playful wit and keen irony were perpetually exercised in his
observations on life, and his memory was stored with the most
amusing knowledge, but much too lively to be accurate; for his
studies were but his sports. But other qualities of genius must
distinguish the great author, and even him who would occupy that
leading rank in the literary republic our author aspired to fill. He
lived too much in that class of society which is little favourable to
genius; he exerted neither profound thinking, nor profound feeling;
and too volatile to attain to the pathetic, that higher quality of
genius, he was so imbued with the petty elegancies of society that
every impression of grandeur in the human character was deadened in
the breast of the polished cynic.
Horace Walpole was not a man of genius,--his most pleasing, if not his
great talent, lay in letter-writing; here he was without a rival;[33]
but he probably divined, when he condescended to become an author,
that something more was required than the talents he exactly
possessed. In his latter days he felt this more sensibly, which will
appear in those confessions which I have extracted from an unpublished
correspondence.
Conscious of possessing the talent which amuses, yet feeling his
deficient energies, he resolved to provide various substitutes for
genius itself; and to acquire reputation, if he could not grasp at
celebrity. He raised a printing-press at his Gothic castle, by which
means he rendered small editions of his works valuable from their
rarity, and much talked of, because seldom seen. That this is true,
appears from the following extract from his unpublished correspondence
with a literary friend. It alludes to his "Anecdotes of Painting in
England," of which the first edition only consisted of 300 copies.
"Of my new fourth volume I printed 600; but, as they can be had, I
believe not a third part is sold. This is a very plain lesson to me,
that my editions sell for their curiosity, and not for any merit in
them--and so they would if I printed Mother Goose's Tales, and but a
few. If I am humbled as an author, I may be vain as a printer; and
when one has nothing else to be vain of, it is certainly very little
worth while to be proud of that."
There is a distinction between the author of great connexions and the
mere author. In the one case, the man may give a temporary existence
to his books; but in the other, it is the book which gives existence
to the man.
Walpole's writings seem to be constructed on a certain principle, by
which he gave them a sudden, rather than a lasting existence. In
historical research our adventurer startled the world by maintaining
paradoxes which attacked the opinions, or changed the characters,
established for centuries. Singularity of opinion, vivacity of
ridicule, and polished epigrams in prose, were the means by which
Horace Walpole sought distinction.
In his works of imagination, he felt he could not trust to himself--the
natural pathetic was utterly denied him. But he had fancy and
ingenuity; he had recourse to the _marvellous_ in imagination on the
principle he had adopted the _paradoxical_ in history. Thus, "The
Castle of Otranto," and "The Mysterious Mother," are the productions
of ingenuity rather than genius; and display the miracles of art,
rather than the spontaneous creations of nature.
All his literary works, like the ornamented edifice he inhabited,
were constructed on the same artificial principle; an old paper
lodging-house, converted by the magician of taste into a Gothic
castle, full of scenic effects.[34]
"A Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors" was itself a classification
which only an idle amateur could have projected, and only the most
agreeable narrator of anecdotes could have seasoned. These splendid
scribblers are for the greater part no authors at all.[35]
His attack on our peerless Sidney, whose fame was more mature than
his life, was formed on the same principle as his "Historic Doubts" on
Richard III. Horace Walpole was as willing to vilify the truly great,
as to beautify deformity; when he imagined that the fame he was
destroying or conferring, reflected back on himself. All these works
were plants of sickly delicacy, which could never endure the open air,
and only lived in the artificial atmosphere of a private collection.
Yet at times the flowers, and the planter of the flowers, were roughly
shaken by an uncivil breeze.
His "Anecdotes of Painting in England" is a most entertaining
catalogue. He gives the feelings of the distinct eras with regard to
the arts; yet his pride was never gratified when he reflected that he
had been writing the work of Vertue, who had collected the materials,
but could not have given the philosophy. His great age and his good
sense opened his eyes on himself; and Horace Walpole seems to have
judged too contemptuously of Horace Walpole. The truth is, he was
mortified he had not and never could obtain a literary peerage; and he
never respected the commoner's seat. At these moments, too frequent in
his life, he contemns authors, and returns to sink back into all the
self-complacency of aristocratic indifference.
This cold unfeeling disposition for literary men, this disguised malice
of envy, and this eternal vexation at his own disappointments,--break
forth in his correspondence with one of those literary characters
with whom he kept on terms while they were kneeling to him in the
humility of worship, or moved about to fetch or to carry his little
quests of curiosity in town or country.[36]
The following literary confessions illustrate this character:--
"_June, 1778._
"I have taken a thorough dislike to being an author; and, if it
would not look like begging you to compliment one by contradicting
me, I would tell you what I am most seriously convinced of, that I
find what small share of parts I had grown dulled. And when I
perceive it myself, I may well believe that others would not be
less sharp-sighted. _It is very natural_; mine were _spirits_
rather than _parts_; and as time has rebated the one, it must
surely destroy _their resemblance_ to the other."
In another letter:--
"I set very little value on myself; as a man, I am a very faulty
one; and _as an author, a very middling one_, which _whoever
thinks a comfortable rank, is not at all of my opinion_. Pray
convince me that you think I mean sincerely, by not answering me
with a compliment. It is very weak to be pleased with flattery;
the stupidest of all delusions to beg it. From you I should take
it ill. We have known one another almost forty years."
There were times when Horace Walpole's natural taste for his studies
returned with all the vigour of passion--but his volatility and his
desultory life perpetually scattered his firmest resolutions into air.
This conflict appears beautifully described when the view of King's
College, Cambridge, throws his mind into meditation; and the passion
for study and seclusion instantly kindled his emotions, lasting,
perhaps, as long as the letter which describes them occupied in
writing.
"_May 22, 1777._
"The beauty of King's College, Cambridge, now it is restored,
penetrated me with a visionary longing to be a monk in it. Though
my life has been passed in turbulent scenes, in pleasures or other
pastimes, and in much fashionable dissipation, still, books,
antiquity, and virtue kept hold of a corner of my heart: and since
necessity has forced me of late years to be a man of business, my
disposition tends to be a recluse for what remains--but it will
not be my lot; and though there is some excuse for the young doing
what they like, I doubt an old man should do nothing but what he
ought, and I hope doing one's duty is the best preparation for
death. Sitting with one's arms folded to think about it, is a very
long way for preparing for it. If Charles V. had resolved to make
some amends for his abominable ambition by doing good (his duty
as a king), there would have been infinitely more merit than going
to doze in a convent. One may avoid actual guilt in a sequestered
life, but the virtue of it is merely negative; the innocence is
beautiful."
There had been moments when Horace Walpole even expressed the
tenderest feelings for fame; and the following passage, written prior
to the preceding ones, gives no indication of that contempt for
literary fame, of which the close of this character will exhibit an
extraordinary instance.
This letter relates an affecting event--he had just returned from
seeing General Conway attacked by a paralytic stroke. Shocked by his
appearance, he writes--
"It is, perhaps, to vent my concern that I write. It has operated
such a revolution on my mind, as no time, at _my age_, can efface.
It has at once damped every pursuit which my spirits had even now
prevented me from being weaned from, I mean of virtu. It is like a
mortal distemper in myself; for can amusements amuse, if there is
but a glimpse, a vision of outliving one's friends? _I have had
dreams in which I thought I wished for fame--it was not certainly
posthumous fame at any distance; I feel, I feel it was confined to
the memory of those I love._ It seems to me impossible for a man
who has no friends to do anything for fame--and to me the first
position in friendship is, to intend one's friends should survive
one--but it is not reasonable to oppress you, who are suffering
gout, with my melancholy ideas. What I have said will tell you,
what I hope so many years have told you, that I am very constant
and sincere to friends of above forty years."
In a letter of a later date there is a remarkable confession, which
harmonises with those already given.
"My pursuits have always been light, trifling, and tended to
nothing but my casual amusement. I will not say, without a little
vain ambition of showing some parts, but never with industry
sufficient to make me apply to anything solid. My studies, if they
could be called so, and my productions, were alike desultory. In
my latter age I discovered the futility both of my objects and
writings--I felt how insignificant is the reputation of an author
of mediocrity; and that, being no genius, I only added one name
more to a list of writers; but had told the world nothing but what
it could as well be without. These reflections were the best
proofs of my sense; and when I could see through my own vanity,
there is less wonder in my discovering that such talents as I
might have had are impaired at seventy-two."
Thus humbled was Horace Walpole to himself!--there is an intellectual
dignity, which this man of wit and sense was incapable of reaching--and
it seems a retribution that the scorner of true greatness should at
length feel the poisoned chalice return to his own lips. He who had
contemned the eminent men of former times, and quarrelled with and
ridiculed every contemporary genius; who had affected to laugh at
the literary fame he could not obtain,--at length came to scorn himself!
and endured "the penal fires" of an author's hell, in undervaluing his
own works, the productions of a long life!
The chagrin and disappointment of such an author were never less
carelessly concealed than in the following extraordinary letter:--
HORACE WALPOLE TO --------
"_Arlington Street, April 27, 1773._
"Mr. Gough wants to be introduced to me! Indeed! I would see him,
as he has been midwife to Masters; but he is so dull that he
would only be troublesome--and besides, you know I shun
authors, and would never have been one myself, if it obliged me to
keep such bad company. They are always in earnest, and think
their profession serious, and dwell upon trifles, and reverence
learning. I laugh at all these things, and write only to laugh
at them and divert myself. None of us are authors of any
consequence, and it is the most ridiculous of all vanities to be
vain of being _mediocre_. A page in a great author humbles me to
the dust, and the conversation of those that are not superior
to myself reminds me of what will be thought of myself. I blush
to flatter them, or to be flattered by them; and should dread
letters being published some time or other, in which they would
relate our interviews, and we should appear like those puny
conceited witlings in Shenstone's and Hughes's correspondence,
who give themselves airs from being in possession of the soil
of Parnassus for the time being; as peers are proud because they
enjoy the estates of great men who went before them. Mr. Gough is
very welcome to see Strawberry-hill, or I would help him to
any scraps in my possession that would assist his publications,
though he is one of those industrious who are only re-burying the
dead--but I cannot be acquainted with him; it is contrary to
my system and my humour; and besides I know nothing of barrows
and Danish entrenchments, and Saxon barbarisms and Phœnician
characters--in short, I know nothing of those ages that knew
nothing--then how should I be of use to modern literati? All the
Scotch metaphysicians have sent me their works. I did not read one
of them, because I do not understand what is not understood by
those that write about it; and I did not get acquainted with
one of the writers. I should like to be intimate with Mr.
Anstey, even though he wrote Lord Buckhorse, or with the author
of the Heroic Epistle--I have no thirst to know the rest of my
contemporaries, from the absurd bombast of Dr. Johnson down to
the silly Dr. Goldsmith, though the latter changeling has had
bright gleams of parts, and the former had sense, till he
changed it for words, and sold it for a pension. Don't think me
scornful. Recollect that I have seen Pope, and lived with
Gray.--Adieu!"
Such a letter seems not to have been written by a literary man--it is
the babble of a thoughtless wit and a man of the world. But it is
worthy of him whose contracted heart could never open to patronage or
friendship. From such we might expect the unfeeling observation in the
"Anecdotes of Painting," that "want of patronage is the apology for
want of genius. Milton and La Fontaine did not write in the bask of
court favour. A poet or a painter may want an equipage or a villa, by
wanting protection; they can always afford to buy ink and paper,
colours and pencil. Mr. Hogarth has received no honours, but universal
admiration." Patronage, indeed, cannot convert dull men into men of
genius, but it may preserve men of genius from becoming dull men. It
might have afforded Dryden that studious leisure which he ever wanted,
and which would have given us not imperfect tragedies, and uncorrected
poems, but the regulated flights of a noble genius. It might have
animated Gainsborough to have created an English school in landscape,
which I have heard from those who knew him was his favourite yet
neglected pursuit. But Walpole could insult that genius, which he
wanted the generosity to protect!
The whole spirit of this man was penury. Enjoying an affluent
income he only appeared to patronise the arts which amused his
tastes,--employing the meanest artists, at reduced prices, to
ornament his own works, an economy which he bitterly reprehends in
others who were compelled to practise it. He gratified his avarice
at the expense of his vanity; the strongest passion must prevail.
It was the simplicity of childhood in Chatterton to imagine Horace
Walpole could be a patron--but it is melancholy to record that a
slight protection might have saved such a youth. Gray abandoned
this man of birth and rank in the midst of their journey through
Europe; Mason broke with him; even his humble correspondent Cole,
this "friend of forty years," was often sent away in dudgeon; and
he quarrelled with all the authors and artists he had ever been
acquainted with. The Gothic castle at Strawberry-hill was rarely
graced with living genius--there the greatest was Horace Walpole
himself; but he had been too long waiting to see realised a
magical vision of his hopes, which resembled the prophetic fiction of
his own romance, that "the owner should grow too large for his
house." After many years, having discovered that he still retained his
mediocrity, he could never pardon the presence of that preternatural
being whom the world considered a GREAT MAN.--Such was the feeling
which dictated the close of the above letter; Johnson and Goldsmith
were to be "scorned," since Pope and Gray were no more within the
reach of his envy and his fear.
FOOTNOTES:
[31] He was the youngest son of the celebrated minister, Sir Robert
Walpole.--ED.
[32] In his letters there are uncommon instances of vivacity,
whenever pointed against authors. The following have not yet
met the public eye. What can be more maliciously pungent
than this on Spence? "As I know Mr. J. Spence, I do not
think I should have been so much delighted as Dr. Kippis with
reading his letters. He was a good-natured harmless little
soul, but more like a silver penny than a genius. It was a
neat fiddle-faddle bit of sterling, that had read good books,
and kept good company; but was too trifling for use, and only
fit to please a child."--On Dr. Nash's first volume of
'Worcestershire': "It is a folio of prodigious corpulence, and
yet dry enough; but it is finely dressed with many heads and
views." He characterises Pennant; "_He_ is not one of our
plodders (alluding to Gough); rather the other extreme;
his _corporal_ spirits (for I cannot call them _animal_) do
not allow him to digest anything. He gave a round jump
from ornithology to antiquity, and, as if they had any
relation, thought he understood everything that lay between
them. The report of his being disordered is not true; he has
been with me, and at least is as composed as ever I saw him."
His literary correspondence with his friend Cole abounds
with this easy satirical criticism--he delighted to
ridicule authors!--as well as to starve the miserable artists
he so grudgingly paid. In the very volumes he celebrated the
arts, he disgraced them by his penuriousness; so that he
loved to indulge his avarice at the expense of his vanity!
[33] This opinion on Walpole's talent for letter-writing was
published in 1812, many years before the public had the
present collection of his letters; my prediction has been
amply verified. He wrote a great number to Bentley, the son
of Dr. Bentley, who ornamented Gray's works with some
extraordinary designs. Walpole, who was always proud and
capricious, observes his friend Cole, broke with Bentley
because he would bring his wife with him to Strawberry-hill.
He then asked Bentley for all his letters back, but he
would not in return give Bentley's own.
This whole correspondence abounded with literature, criticism,
and wit of the most original and brilliant composition. This
is the opinion of no friend, but an admirer, and a good judge;
for it was Bentley's own.
[34] This is the renowned Strawberry-hill, a villa still standing on
the banks of the Thames, between Teddington and Twickenham,
but now despoiled of the large collection of pictures,
curiosities, and articles of _vertu_ so assiduously collected
by Walpole during a long life. The ground on which it stands
was originally partially occupied by a small cottage, built by
a nobleman's coachman for a lodging-house, and occupied by a
toy-woman of the name of Chevenix. Hence Walpole says of it,
in a letter to General Conway, "it is a little plaything house
that I got out of Mrs. Chevenix's shop, and is the prettiest
bauble you ever saw."--ED.
[35] Walpole's characters are not often to be relied on, witness his
injustice to Hogarth as a painter, and his insolent calumny of
Charles I. His literary opinions of James I. and of Sidney
might have been written without any acquaintance with the
works he has so maliciously criticised. In his account of
Sidney he had silently passed over the "Defence of Poetry;"
and in his second edition has written this avowal, that "he
had forgotten it; a proof that I at least did not think it
sufficient foundation for so high a character as he acquired."
How heartless was the polished cynicism which could dare to
hazard this false criticism! Nothing can be more imposing than
his volatile and caustic criticisms on the works of James I.,
yet he had probably never opened that folio he so poignantly
ridicules. He doubts whether two pieces, "The Prince's
Cabala," and "The Duty of a King in his Royal Office," were
genuine productions of James I. The truth is that both these
works are nothing more than extracts printed with those
separate titles and drawn from the king's "Basilicon Doron."
He had probably neither read the extracts nor the original.
[36] It was such a person as Cole of Milton, his correspondent of
forty years, who lived at a distance, and obsequious to his
wishes, always looking up to him, though never with a
parallel glance--with whom he did not quarrel, though if
Walpole could have read the private notes Cole made in his
MSS. at the time he was often writing the civilest letters of
admiration,--even Cole would have been cashiered from his
correspondence. Walpole could not endure equality in literary
men.--Bentley observed to Cole, that Walpole's pride and
hauteur were excessive; which betrayed themselves in the
treatment of Gray who had himself too much pride and
spirit _to forgive it_ when matters were made up between them,
and Walpole invited Gray to Strawberry-hill. When Gray came,
he, without any ceremony, told Walpole that though he
waited on him as civility required, yet by _no means would he
ever be there on the terms of their former friendship,
which he had totally cancelled_.--From COLE'S MSS.
INFLUENCE OF A BAD TEMPER IN CRITICISM.
Unfriendly to the literary character, some have imputed the
brutality of certain authors to their literary habits, when it may
be more truly said that they derived their literature from their
brutality. The spirit was envenomed before it entered into the
fierceness of literary controversy, and the insanity was in the
evil temper of the man before he roused our notice by his ravings.
RITSON, the late antiquary of poetry (not to call him poetical),
amazed the world by his vituperative railing at two authors of the
finest taste in poetry, Warton and Percy; he carried criticism, as
the discerning few had first surmised, to insanity itself; the
character before us only approached it.
DENNIS attained to the ambiguous honour of being distinguished as
"The Critic," and he may yet instruct us how the moral influences the
literary character, and how a certain talent that can never mature
itself into genius, like the pale fruit that hangs in the shade,
ripens only into sourness.
As a critic in his own day, party for some time kept him alive; the
art of criticism was a novelty at that period of our literature. He
flattered some great men, and he abused three of the greatest; this
was one mode of securing popularity; because, by this contrivance, he
divided the town into two parties; and the irascibility and satire of
Pope and Swift were not less serviceable to him than the partial
panegyrics of Dryden and Congreve. Johnson revived him, for his minute
attack on Addison; and Kippis, feebly voluminous, and with the cold
affectation of candour, allows him to occupy a place in our literary
history too large in the eye of Truth and Taste.
Let us say all the good we can of him, that we may not be interrupted
in a more important inquiry. Dennis once urged fair pretensions to the
office of critic. Some of his "Original Letters," and particularly the
"Remarks on Prince Arthur," written in his vigour, attain even to
classical criticism.[37] Aristotle and Bossu lay open before him, and
he developes and sometimes illustrates their principles with close
reasoning. Passion had not yet blinded the young critic with rage; and
in that happy moment, Virgil occupied his attention even more than
Blackmore.
The prominent feature in his literary character was good sense; but in
literature, though not in life, good sense is a penurious virtue.
Dennis could not be carried beyond the cold line of a precedent, and
before he ventured to be pleased, he was compelled to look into
Aristotle. His learning was the bigotry of literature. It was ever
Aristotle explained by Dennis. But in the explanation of the obscure
text of his master, he was led into such frivolous distinctions, and
tasteless propositions, that his works deserve inspection, as examples
of the manner of a true mechanical critic.
This blunted feeling of the mechanical critic was at first concealed
from the world in the pomp of critical erudition; but when he trusted
to himself, and, destitute of taste and imagination, became a poet and
a dramatist, the secret of the Royal Midas was revealed. As his evil
temper prevailed, he forgot his learning, and lost the moderate sense
which he seemed once to have possessed. Rage, malice, and dulness,
were the heavy residuum; and now he much resembled that congenial soul
whom the ever-witty South compared to the tailor's goose, which is at
once hot and heavy.
Dennis was sent to Cambridge by his father, a saddler, who imagined a
genius had been born in the family. He travelled in France and Italy,
and on his return held in contempt every pursuit but poetry and
criticism. He haunted the literary coteries, and dropped into a galaxy
of wits and noblemen. At a time when our literature, like our
politics, was divided into two factions, Dennis enlisted himself under
Dryden and Congreve;[38] and, as legitimate criticism was then an
awful novelty in the nation, the young critic, recent from the
Stagirite, soon became an important, and even a tremendous spirit.
Pope is said to have regarded his judgment; and Mallet, when young,
tremblingly submitted a poem, to live or die by his breath. One would
have imagined that the elegant studies he was cultivating, the views
of life which had opened on him, and the polished circle around, would
have influenced the grossness which was the natural growth of the
soil. But ungracious Nature kept fast hold of the mind of Dennis!
His personal manners were characterised by their abrupt violence. Once
dining with Lord Halifax he became so impatient of contradiction, that
he rushed out of the room, overthrowing the sideboard. Inquiring on
the next day how he had behaved, Moyle observed, "You went away like
the devil, taking one corner of the house with you." The wits,
perhaps, then began to suspect their young Zoilus's dogmatism.
The actors refused to perform one of his tragedies to empty houses,
but they retained some excellent thunder which Dennis had invented;
it rolled one night when Dennis was in the pit, and it was applauded!
Suddenly starting up, he cried to the audience, "By G--, they wont act
my tragedy, but they steal my thunder!" Thus, when reading Pope's
"Essay on Criticism," he came to the character of Appius, he suddenly
flung down the new poem, exclaiming, "By G--, he means me!" He is
painted to the life.
_Lo!_ _Appius reddens_ at each word you speak,
And stares tremendous with a threatening eye,
Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry.
I complete this picture of Dennis with a very extraordinary
caricature, which Steele, in one of his papers of "The Theatre," has
given of Dennis. I shall, however, disentangle the threads, and pick
out what I consider not to be caricature, but resemblance.
"His motion is quick and sudden, turning on all sides, with a
suspicion of every object, as if he had done or feared some
extraordinary mischief. You see wickedness in his meaning, but folly
of countenance, that betrays him to be unfit for the execution of it.
He starts, stares, and looks round him. This constant shuffle of haste
without speed, makes the man thought a little touched; but the vacant
look of his two eyes gives you to understand that he could never run
out of his wits, which seemed not so much to be lost, as to want
employment; they are not so much astray, as they are a wool-gathering.
He has the face and surliness of a mastiff, which has often saved him
from being treated like a cur, till some more sagacious than ordinary
found his nature, and used him accordingly. Unhappy being! terrible
without, fearful within! Not a wolf in sheep's clothing, but a sheep
in a wolf's."[39]
However anger may have a little coloured this portrait, its truth may
be confirmed from a variety of sources. If Sallust, with his
accustomed penetration in characterising the violent emotions of
Catiline's restless mind, did not forget its indication in "his walk
now quick and now slow," it maybe allowed to think that the character
of Dennis was alike to be detected in his habitual surliness.
Even in his old age--for our chain must not drop a link--his native
brutality never forsook him. Thomson and Pope charitably supported the
veteran Zoilus at a benefit play; and Savage, who had nothing but a
verse to give, returned them very poetical thanks in the name of
Dennis. He was then blind and old, but his critical ferocity had no
old age; his surliness overcame every grateful sense, and he swore as
usual, "They could be no one's but that _fool_ Savage's"--an evidence
of his sagacity and brutality![40] This was, perhaps, the last peevish
snuff shaken from the dismal link of criticism; for, a few days after,
was the redoubted Dennis numbered with the mighty dead.
He carried the same fierceness into his style, and commits the same
ludicrous extravagances in literary composition as in his manners. Was
Pope really sore at the Zoilian style? He has himself spared me the
trouble of exhibiting Dennis's gross personalities, by having
collected them at the close of the Dunciad--specimens which show how
low false wit and malignity can get to by hard pains. I will throw
into the note a curious illustration of the anti-poetical notions of a
mechanical critic, who has no wing to dip into the hues of the
imagination.[41]
In life and in literature we meet with men who seem endowed with an
obliquity of understanding, yet active and busy spirits; but, as
activity is only valuable in proportion to the capacity that puts all
in motion, so, when ill directed, the intellect, warped by nature,
only becomes more crooked and fantastical. A kind of frantic
enthusiasm breaks forth in their actions and their language, and often
they seem ferocious when they are only foolish. We may thus account
for the manners and style of Dennis, pushed almost to the verge of
insanity, and acting on him very much like insanity itself--a
circumstance which the quick vengeance of wit seized on, in the
humorous "Narrative of Dr. Robert Norris, concerning the Frenzy of Mr.
John Dennis, an officer of the Custom-house."[42]
It is curious to observe that Dennis, in the definition of genius,
describes himself; he says--"Genius is caused by a _furious joy_ and
_pride of soul_ on the conception of an extraordinary hint. Many men
have their _hints_ without their motions of _fury and pride of soul_,
because they want fire enough to agitate their spirits; and these we
call cold writers. Others, who have a great deal of fire, but have not
excellent organs, feel the fore-mentioned _motions_, without the
extraordinary _hints_; and these we call fustian writers." His
_motions_ and his _hints_, as he describes them, in regard to cold or
fustian writers, seem to include the extreme points of his own
genius.
Another feature strongly marks the race of the Dennises. With a
half-consciousness of deficient genius, they usually idolize some
chimera, by adopting some extravagant principle; and they consider
themselves as original when they are only absurd.
Dennis had ever some misshapen idol of the mind, which he was
perpetually caressing with the zeal of perverted judgment or monstrous
taste. Once his frenzy ran against the Italian Opera; and in his
"Essay on Public Spirit," he ascribes its decline to its unmanly
warblings. I have seen a long letter by Dennis to the Earl of Oxford,
written to congratulate his lordship on his accession to power, and
the high hopes of the nation; but the greater part of the letter runs
on the Italian Opera, while Dennis instructs the Minister that the
national prosperity can never be effected while this general
corruption of the three kingdoms lies open!
Dennis has more than once recorded two material circumstances in the
life of a true critic; these are his _ill-nature_ and the _public
neglect_.
"I make no doubt," says he, "that upon the perusal of the critical
part of these letters, the _old accusation_ will be brought against
me, and there will be a _fresh outcry_ among thoughtless people that I
am _an ill-natured man_."
He entertained exalted opinions of his own powers, and he deeply felt
their public neglect.
"While others," he says in his tracts, "have been _too much
encouraged_, I have been _too much neglected_"--his favourite system,
that religion gives principally to great poetry its spirit and
enthusiasm, was an important point, which, he says, "has been left to
be treated by _a person who has the honour of being your lordship's
countryman_--your lordship knows that persons _so much and so long
oppressed as I have been_ have been always allowed to _say things
concerning themselves_ which in others might be offensive."
His vanity, we see, was equal to his vexation, and as he grew old he
became more enraged; and, writing too often without Aristotle or Locke
by his side, he gave the town pure Dennis, and almost ceased to be
read. "The oppression" of which he complains might not be less
imaginary than his alarm, while a treaty was pending with France, that
he should be delivered up to the Grand Monarque for having written a
tragedy, which no one could read, against his majesty.
It is melancholy, but it is useful, to record the mortifications of
such authors. Dennis had, no doubt, laboured with zeal which could
never meet a reward; and, perhaps, amid his critical labours, he
turned often with an aching heart from their barren contemplation to
that of the tranquillity he might have derived from an humbler
avocation.
It was not literature, then, that made the mind coarse, brutalising
the habits and inflaming the style of Dennis. He had thrown himself
among the walks of genius, and aspired to fix himself on a throne to
which Nature had refused him a legitimate claim. What a lasting source
of vexation and rage, even for a long-lived patriarch of criticism!
Accustomed to suspend the scourge over the heads of the first authors
of the age, he could not sit at a table or enter a coffee-house
without exerting the despotism of a literary dictator. How could the
mind that had devoted itself to the contemplation of masterpieces,
only to reward its industry by detailing to the public their human
frailties, experience one hour of amenity, one idea of grace, one
generous impulse of sensibility?
But the poor critic himself at length fell, really more the victim of
his criticisms than the genius he had insulted. Having incurred the
public neglect, the blind and helpless Cacus in his den sunk fast into
contempt, dragged on a life of misery, and in his last days, scarcely
vomiting his fire and smoke, became the most pitiable creature,
receiving the alms he craved from triumphant genius.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] It is curious to observe that Kippis, who classifies with the
pomp of enumeration his heap of pamphlets, imagines that, as
Blackmore's Epic is consigned to oblivion, so likewise must be
the criticism, which, however, he confesses he could never
meet with. An odd fate attends Dennis's works: his criticism
on a bad work ought to survive it, as good works have survived
his criticisms.
[38] See in Dennis's "Original Letters" one to Tonson, entitled, "On
the conspiracy against the reputation of Mr. Dryden." It was
in favour of _folly_ against _wisdom_, _weakness_ against
_power_, &c.; _Pope_ against _Dryden_. He closes with a
well-turned period. "Wherever genius runs through a work, I
forgive its faults; and wherever that is wanting, no beauties
can touch me. Being struck by Mr. Dryden's genius, I have no
eyes for his errors; and I have no eyes for his enemies'
beauties, because I am not struck by their genius."
[39] In the narrative of his frenzy (quoted p. 56), his _personnel_
is thus given. "His aspect was furious, his eyes were rather
fiery than lively, which he rolled about in an uncommon
manner. He often opened his mouth as if he would have uttered
some matter of importance, but the sound seemed lost inwardly.
His beard was grown, which they told me he would not suffer to
be shaved, believing the modern dramatic poets had corrupted
all the barbers of the town to take the first opportunity of
cutting his throat. His eyebrows were grey, long, and grown
together, which he knit with indignation when anything was
spoken, insomuch that he seemed not to have smoothed his
forehead for many years."--ED.
[40] There is an epigram on Dennis by Savage, which Johnson has
preserved in his Life; and I feel it to be a very correct
likeness, although Johnson censures Savage for writing an
epigram against Dennis, while he was living in great
familiarity with the critic. Perhaps that was the happiest
moment to write the epigram. The anecdote in the text
doubtless prompted "the fool" to take this fair revenge and
just chastisement. Savage has brought out the features
strongly, in these touches--
"Say what revenge on Dennis can be had,
Too dull for laughter, for reply too mad.
On one so poor you cannot take the law,
On one so old your sword you scorn to draw.
Uncaged then, let the harmless monster rage,
Secure in dulness, madness, want, and age!"
[41] Dennis points his heavy cannon of criticism and thus
bombards that aerial edifice, the "Rape of the Lock." He is
inquiring into the nature of _poetical machinery_, which, he
oracularly pronounces, should be religious, or allegorical,
or political; asserting the "Lutrin" of Boileau to be a
trifle only in appearance, covering the deep political
design of reforming the Popish Church!--With the yard of
criticism he takes measure of the slender graces and tiny
elegance of Pope's aerial machines, as "less considerable
than the _human persons_, which is _without precedent_.
Nothing can be so contemptible as the _persons_ or so
foolish as the understandings of these _hobgoblins_.
Ariel's speech is one continued impertinence. After he has
talked to them of black omens and dire disasters that
threaten his heroine, those bugbears dwindle to the breaking
a piece of china, to staining a petticoat, the losing a
fan, or a bottle of sal volatile--and what makes Ariel's
speech more ridiculous is the _place_ where it is spoken, on
the sails and cordage of Belinda's barge." And then he
compares the Sylphs to the Discord of Homer, whose feet are
upon the earth, and head in the skies. "They are, indeed,
beings so diminutive that they bear the same proportion to
the rest of the intellectual that _Eels in vinegar_ do to
the rest of the material world; the latter are only to be seen
through microscopes, and the former only through the false
optics of a Rosicrucian understanding." And finally, he
decides that "these diminutive beings are only _Sawney_
(that is, Alexander Pope), taking the change; for it is
he, a little lump of flesh, that talks, instead of a little
spirit." Dennis's profound gravity contributes an additional
feature of the burlesque to these heroi-comic poems
themselves, only that Dennis cannot be playful, and will
not be good-humoured.
On the same tasteless principle he decides on the improbability
of that incident in the "Conscious Lovers" of Steele, raised
by Bevil, who, having received great obligations from his
father, has promised not to marry without his consent. On this
Dennis, who rarely in his critical progress will stir a foot
without authority, quotes four formidable pages from Locke's
"Essay on Government," to prove that, at the age of
discretion, a man is free to dispose of his own actions! One
would imagine that Dennis was arguing like a special pleader,
rather than developing the involved action of an affecting
drama. Are there critics who would pronounce Dennis to be a
very _sensible_ brother? It is here too he calls Steele "a
twopenny author," alluding to the price of the "Tatlers"--but
this cost Dennis dear!
[42] "The narrative of the frenzy of Mr. John Dennis," published in
the Miscellanies of Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot, and said to
have been written by Pope, is a grave banter on his usual
violence. It professes to be the account of the physician who
attended him at the request of a servant, who describes the
first attack of his madness coming on when "a poor simple
child came to him from the printers; the boy had no sooner
entered the room, but he cried out 'the devil was come!'" The
constant idiosyncrasy he had that his writings against France
and the Pope might endanger his liberty, is amusingly hit off;
"he perpetually starts and runs to the window when any one
knocks, crying out ''Sdeath! a messenger from the French King;
I shall die in the Bastile!'"--ED.
DISAPPOINTED GENIUS
TAKES A FATAL DIRECTION BY ITS ABUSE.
How the moral and literary character are reciprocally influenced, may
be traced in the character of a personage peculiarly apposite to these
inquiries. This worthy of literature is ORATOR HENLEY, who is rather
known traditionally than historically.[43] He is so overwhelmed with
the echoed satire of Pope, and his own extravagant conduct for many
years, that I should not care to extricate him, had I not discovered a
feature in the character of Henley not yet drawn, and constituting no
inferior calamity among authors.
Henley stands in his "gilt tub" in the Dunciad; and a portrait of him
hangs in the picture-gallery of the Commentary. Pope's verse and
Warburton's notes are the pickle and the bandages for any Egyptian
mummy of dulness, who will last as long as the pyramid that encloses
him. I shall transcribe, for the reader's convenience, the lines of
Pope:--
Embrown'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands,
Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands;
How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue!
How sweet the periods, neither said nor sung!
Still break the benches, Henley, with thy strain,
While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson, preach in vain.
Oh! great restorer of the good old stage,
Preacher at once, and Zany of thy age![44]
It will surprise when I declare that this buffoon was an indefatigable
student, a proficient in all the learned languages, an elegant poet,
and, withal, a wit of no inferior class. It remains to discover why
"the Preacher" became "the Zany."
Henley was of St. John's College, Cambridge, and was distinguished for
the ardour and pertinacity of his studies; he gave evident marks of
genius. There is a letter of his to the "Spectator," signed _Peter de
Quir_, which abounds with local wit and quaint humour.[45] He had not
attained his twenty-second year when he published a poem, entitled
"Esther, Queen of Persia,"[46] written amid graver studies; for three
years after, Henley, being M.A., published his "Complete Linguist,"
consisting of grammars of ten languages.
The poem itself must not be passed by in silent notice. It is preceded
by a learned preface, in which the poet discovers his intimate
knowledge of oriental studies, with some etymologies from the Persic,
the Hebrew, and the Greek, concerning the name and person of
Ahasuerus, whom he makes to be Xerxes. The close of this preface gives
another unexpected feature in the character of him who, the poet tells
us, was "embrowned with _native_ bronze"--an unaffected modesty!
Henley, alluding to a Greek paraphrase of Barnes, censures his faults
with acrimony, and even apologises for them, by thus gracefully
closing the preface: "These can only be alleviated by one plea, the
youth of the author, which is a circumstance I hope the candid will
consider in favour of the present writer!"
The poem is not destitute of imagination and harmony.
The pomp of the feast of Ahasuerus has all the luxuriance of Asiatic
splendour; and the circumstances are selected with some fancy.
The higher guests approach a room of state,
Where tissued couches all around were set
Labour'd with art; o'er ivory tables thrown,
Embroider'd carpets fell in folds adown.
The bowers and gardens of the court were near,
And open lights indulged the breathing air.
Pillars of marble bore a silken sky,
While cords of purple and fine linen tie
In silver rings, the azure canopy.
Distinct with diamond stars the blue was seen,
And earth and seas were feign'd in emerald green;
A globe of gold, ray'd with a pointed crown,
Form'd in the midst almost a real sun.
Nor is Henley less skilful in the elegance of his sentiments, and in
his development of the human character. When Esther is raised to the
throne, the poet says--
And Esther, though in robes, is Esther still.
And then sublimely exclaims--
The heroic soul, amidst its bliss or woe,
Is never swell'd too high, nor sunk too low;
Stands, like its origin above the skies,
Ever the same great self, sedately wise;
Collected and prepared in every stage
To scorn a courting world, or bear its rage.
But wit which the "Spectator" has sent down to posterity, and poetry
which gave the promise of excellence, did not bound the noble ambition
of Henley; ardent in more important labours, he was perfecting himself
in the learned languages, and carrying on a correspondence with
eminent scholars.
He officiated as the master of the free-school at his native town in
Leicestershire, then in a declining state; but he introduced many
original improvements. He established a class for public elocution,
recitations of the classics, orations, &c.; and arranged a method of
enabling every scholar to give an account of his studies without the
necessity of consulting others, or of being examined by particular
questions. These miracles are indeed a little apocryphal; for they are
drawn from that pseudo-gospel of his life, of which I am inclined to
think he himself was the evangelist. His grammar of ten languages was
now finished; and his genius felt that obscure spot too circumscribed
for his ambition. He parted from the inhabitants with their regrets,
and came to the metropolis with thirty recommendatory letters.
Henley probably had formed those warm conceptions of patronage in
which youthful genius cradles its hopes. Till 1724 he appears,
however, to have obtained only a small living, and to have existed by
translating and writing. Thus, after persevering studies, many
successful literary efforts, and much heavy taskwork, Henley found he
was but a hireling author for the booksellers, and a salaried
"Hyp-doctor" for the minister; for he received a stipend for this
periodical paper, which was to cheer the spirits of the people by
ridiculing the gloomy forebodings of Amhurst's "Craftsman." About this
time the complete metamorphosis of the studious and ingenious John
Henley began to branch out into its grotesque figure; and a curiosity
in human nature was now about to be opened to public inspection. "The
Preacher" was to personate "The Zany." His temper had become brutal,
and he had gradually contracted a ferocity and grossness in his
manners, which seem by no means to have been indicated in his purer
days. His youth was disgraced by no irregularities--it was studious
and honourable. But he was now quick at vilifying the greatest
characters; and having a perfect contempt for all mankind, was
resolved to live by making one half of the world laugh at the other.
Such is the direction which disappointed genius has too often given to
its talents.
He first affected oratory, and something of a theatrical attitude in
his sermons, which greatly attracted the populace; and he startled
those preachers who had so long dozed over their own sermons, and who
now finding themselves with but few slumberers about them, envied
their Ciceronian brothers.
Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands.
It was alleged against Henley, that "he drew the people too much from
their parish churches, and was not so proper for a London divine as a
rural pastor." He was offered a rustication, on a better living; but
Henley did not come from the country to return to it.
There is a narrative of the life of Henley, which, subscribed by another
person's name, he himself inserted in his "Oratory Transactions."[47]
As he had to publish himself this highly seasoned biographical
morsel, and as his face was then beginning to be "embrowned with
bronze," he thus very impudently and very ingeniously apologises for
the panegyric:--
"If any remark of the writer appears favourable to myself, and be
judged apocryphal, it may, however, weigh in the opposite scale to
some things less obligingly said of me; false praise being as
pardonable as false reproach."[48]
In this narrative we are told, that when at college--
"He began to be uneasy that he had not the liberty of thinking,
without incurring the scandal of heterodoxy; he was impatient that
systems of all sorts were put into his hands ready carved out for him;
it shocked him to find that he was commanded to believe against his
judgment, and resolved some time or other to enter his protest against
any person being bred like a slave, who is born an Englishman."
This is all very decorous, and nothing can be objected to the first
cry of this reforming patriot but a reasonable suspicion of its truth.
If these sentiments were really in his mind at college, he deserves at
least the praise of retention: for fifteen years were suffered to pass
quietly without the patriotic volcano giving even a distant rumbling
of the sulphurous matter concealed beneath. All that time had passed
in the contemplation of church preferment, with the aerial perspective
lighted by a visionary mitre. But Henley grew indignant at his
disappointments, and suddenly resolved to reform "the gross impostures
and faults that have long prevailed in the received _institutions_ and
_establishments_ of _knowledge_ and _religion_"--simply meaning that
he wished to pull down the _Church_ and the _University_!
But he was prudent before he was patriotic; he at first grafted
himself on Whiston, adopting his opinions, and sent some queries by
which it appears that Henley, previous to breaking with the church,
was anxious to learn the power it had to punish him. The Arian Whiston
was himself, from pure motives, suffering expulsion from Cambridge,
for refusing his subscription to the Athanasian Creed; he was a pious
man, and no buffoon, but a little crazed. Whiston afterwards
discovered the character of his correspondent, he then requested the
Bishop of London.
"To summon Mr. Henley, the orator, whose vile history I knew so well,
to come and tell it to the church. But the bishop said he could do
nothing; since which time Mr. Henley has gone on for about twenty
years without control every week, as an ecclesiastical mountebank, to
abuse religion."
The most extraordinary project was now formed by Henley; he was to
teach mankind universal knowledge from his lectures, and primitive
Christianity from his sermons. He took apartments in Newport market,
and opened his "Oratory." He declared,
"He would teach more in one year than schools and universities did in
five, and write and study twelve hours a-day, and yet appear as
untouched by the yoke, as if he never bore it."
In his "Idea of what is intended to be taught in the _Week-days'
Universal Academy_," we may admire the fertility, and sometimes the
grandeur of his views. His lectures and orations[49] are of a very
different nature from what they are imagined to be; literary topics
are treated with perspicuity and with erudition, and there is
something original in the manner. They were, no doubt, larded and
stuffed with many high-seasoned jokes, which Henley did not send to
the printer.
Henley was a charlatan and a knave; but in all his charlatanerie and
his knavery he indulged the reveries of genius; many of which have
been realised since; and, if we continue to laugh at Henley, it will
indeed be cruel, for we shall be laughing at ourselves! Among the
objects which Henley discriminates in his general design, were, to
supply the want of a university, or universal school, in this capital,
for persons of all ranks, professions, and capacities;--to encourage a
literary correspondence with great men and learned bodies; the
communication of all discoveries and experiments in science and the
arts; to form an amicable society for the encouragement of learning,
"in order to cultivate, adorn, and exalt the genius of Britain;" to
lay a foundation for an English Academy; to give a standard to our
language, and a digest to our history; to revise the ancient schools
of philosophy and elocution, which last has been reckoned by
Pancirollus among the _artes perditæ_. All these were "to bring all
the parts of knowledge into the narrowest compass, placing them in the
clearest light, and fixing them to the utmost certainty." The religion
of the Oratory was to be that of the primitive church in the first
ages of the four first general councils, approved by parliament in the
first year of the reign of Elizabeth. "The Church of England is really
with us; we appeal to her own principles, and we shall not deviate
from her, unless she deviates from herself." Yet his "Primitive
Christianity" had all the sumptuous pomp of popery; his creeds and
doxologies are printed in the red letter, and his liturgies in the
black; his pulpit blazed in gold and velvet (Pope's "gilt tub"); while
his "Primitive Eucharist" was to be distributed with all the ancient
forms of celebrating the sacrifice of the altar, which he says, "are
so noble, so just, sublime, and perfectly harmonious, that the change
has been made to an unspeakable disadvantage." It was restoring the
decorations and the mummery of the mass! He assumed even a higher
tone, and dispersed medals, like those of Louis XIV., with the device
of a sun near the meridian, and a motto, _Ad summa_, with an
inscription expressive of the genius of this new adventurer, _Inveniam
viam aut faciam_! There was a snake in the grass; it is obvious that
Henley, in improving literature and philosophy, had a deeper
design--to set up a new sect! He called himself "a Rationalist," and
on his death-bed repeatedly cried out, "Let my notorious enemies know
I die a Rational."[50]
His address to the town[51] excited public curiosity to the utmost;
and the floating crowds were repulsed by their own violence from
this new paradise, where "The Tree of Knowledge" was said to be
planted. At the succeeding meeting "the Restorer of Ancient
Eloquence" informed "persons in chairs that they must come sooner."
He first commenced by subscriptions to be raised from "persons
eminent in Arts and Literature," who, it seems, were lured by the
seductive promise, that, "if they had been virtuous or penitents, they
should be commemorated;" an oblique hint at a panegyrical puff. In the
decline of his popularity he permitted his door-keeper, whom he
dignifies with the title of _Ostiary_, to take a shilling! But he
seems to have been popular for many years; even when his auditors
were but few, they were of the better order;[52] and in notes
respecting him which I have seen, by a contemporary, he is called
"the reverend and learned." His favourite character was that of a
Restorer of Eloquence; and he was not destitute of the qualifications
of a fine orator, a good voice, graceful gesture, and forcible
elocution. Warburton justly remarked, "Sometimes he broke jests,
and sometimes that bread which he called the Primitive Eucharist." He
would degenerate into buffoonery on solemn occasions. His address to
the Deity was at first awful, and seemingly devout; but, once
expatiating on the several sects who would certainly be damned, he
prayed that the Dutch might be _undamm'd_! He undertook to show the
ancient use of the petticoat, by quoting the Scriptures where the
mother of Samuel is said to have made him "_a little coat_," ergo, a
PETTI-_coat_![53] His advertisements were mysterious ribaldry to
attract curiosity, while his own good sense would frequently
chastise those who could not resist it; his auditors came in
folly, but they departed in good-humour.[54] These advertisements
were usually preceded by a sort of motto, generally a sarcastic
allusion to some public transaction of the preceding week.[55]
Henley pretended to great impartiality; and when two preachers had
animadverted on him, he issued an advertisement, announcing "A
Lecture that will be a challenge to the Rev. Mr. Batty and the Rev.
Mr. Albert. Letters are sent to them on this head, and _a free
standing-place_ is there to be had _gratis_." Once Henley offered
to admit of a disputation, and that he would impartially determine
the merits of the contest. It happened that Henley this time was
overmatched; for two Oxonians, supported by a strong party to awe his
"marrow-boners," as the butchers were called, said to be in the
Orator's pay, entered the list; the one to defend the _ignorance_,
the other the _impudence_, of the Restorer of Eloquence himself. As
there was a door behind the rostrum, which led to his house, the
Orator silently dropped out, postponing the award to some happier
day.[56]
This age of lecturers may find their model in Henley's "Universal
Academy," and if any should aspire to bring themselves down to his
genius, I furnish them with hints of anomalous topics. In the second
number of "The Oratory Transactions," is a diary from July 1726, to
August 1728. It forms, perhaps, an unparalleled chronicle of the
vagaries of the human mind. These archives of cunning, of folly, and
of literature, are divided into two diaries; the one "The Theological
or Lord's days' subjects of the Oratory;" the other, "The Academical
or Week-days' subjects." I can only note a few. It is easy to pick out
ludicrous specimens; for he had a quaint humour peculiar to himself;
but among these numerous topics are many curious for their knowledge
and ingenuity.
"The last Wills and Testaments of the Patriarchs."
"An Argument to the Jews, with a proof that they ought to be
Christians, for the same reason which they ought to be Jews."
"St. Paul's Cloak, Books, and Parchments, left at Troas."
"The tears of Magdalen, and the joy of angels."
"New Converts in Religion." After pointing out the names of "Courayer
and others, the D---- of W----n, the Protestantism of the P----, the
conversion of the Rev. Mr. B----e, and Mr. Har----y," he closes with
"Origen's opinion of Satan's conversion; with the choice and balance
of Religion in all countries."
There is one remarkable entry:--
"Feb. 11. This week all Mr. Henley's writings were seized, to be
examined by the State. _Vide Magnam Chartam_, and _Eng Lib._"
It is evident by what follows that the _personalities_ he made use of
were one means of attracting auditors.
"On the action of Cicero, and the beauty of Eloquence, and on living
characters; of action in the Senate, at the Bar, and in the Pulpit--of
the Theatrical in all men. The manner of my Lord ----, Sir ----, Dr.
----, the B. of ----, being a proof how all life is playing something,
but with different action."
In a Lecture on the History of Bookcraft, an account was given
"Of the plenty of books, and dearth of sense; the advantages of the
Oratory to the booksellers, in advertising for them; and to their
customers, in making books useless; with all the learning, reason, and
wit more than are proper for one advertisement."
Amid these eccentricities it is remarkable that "the Zany" never
forsook his studies; and the amazing multiplicity of the MSS. he left
behind him confirm this extraordinary fact. "These," he says, "are six
thousand more or less, that I value at one guinea apiece; with 150
volumes of commonplaces of wit, memoranda," &c. They were sold for
much less than one hundred pounds; I have looked over many; they are
written with great care. Every leaf has an opposite blank page,
probably left for additions or corrections, so that if his nonsense
were spontaneous, his sense was the fruit of study and correction.
Such was "Orator Henley!" A scholar of great acquirements, and of no
mean genius; hardy and inventive, eloquent and witty; he might have
been an ornament to literature, which he made ridiculous; and the
pride of the pulpit, which he so egregiously disgraced; but, having
blunted and worn out that interior feeling, which is the instinct of
the good man, and the wisdom of the wise, there was no balance in his
passions, and the decorum of life was sacrificed to its selfishness.
He condescended to live on the follies of the people, and his sordid
nature had changed him till he crept, "licking the dust with the
serpent."[57]
FOOTNOTES:
[43] So little is known of this singular man, that Mr. Dibdin, in his
very curious "Bibliomania," was not able to recollect any
other details than those he transcribed from Warburton's
"Commentary on the Dunciad." In Mr. Nichols' "History of
Leicestershire" a more copious account of Henley may be found;
to their facts something is here added. It was, however,
difficult to glean after so excellent a harvest-home. To the
author of the "Life of Bowyer," and other works devoted to our
authors, our literary history is more indebted, than to the
labours of any other contemporary. He is the Prosper Marchand
of English literature.
[44] It is, perhaps, unnecessary to point out this allusion of Pope
to our ancient _mysteries_, where the _Clergy_ were the
_actors_; among which, the _Vice_ or _Punch_ was introduced.
(See "Curiosities of Literature.")
[45] Specimens of Henley's style may be most easily referred to in
the "Spectator," Nos. 94 and 518. The communication on
punning, in the first; and that of judging character by
exteriors, in the last; are both attributed to Henley.--ED.
[46] The title is, "Esther, Queen of Persia, an historical Poem, in
four books; by John Henley, B.A. of St. John's College,
Cambridge. 1714."
[47] Many of the rough drafts of his famed discourses delivered at
the Oratory are preserved in the library of the Guildhall,
London. The advertisements he drew up for the papers,
announcing their subject, are generally exceedingly whimsical,
and calculated to attract popular attention.--ED.
[48] This narrative is subscribed A. Welstede. Warburton maliciously
quotes it as a life of Henley, written by Welsted--doubtless
designed to lower the writer of that name, and one of the
heroes of the Dunciad. The public have long been deceived by
this artifice; the effect, I believe, of Warburton's
dishonesty.
[49] Every lecture is dedicated to some branch of the royal family.
Among them one is on "University Learning," an attack.--"On
the English History and Historians," extremely curious.--"On
the Languages, Ancient and Modern," full of erudition.--"On
the English Tongue," a valuable criticism at that moment when
our style was receiving a new polish from Addison and Prior.
Henley, acknowledging that these writers had raised
_correctness_ of expression to its utmost height, adds,
though, "if I mistake not, something to the detriment of that
_force_ and _freedom_ that ought, with the most concealed art,
to be a perfect copy of nature in all compositions." This is
among the first notices of that artificial style which has
vitiated our native idiom, substituting for its purity an
affected delicacy, and for its vigour profuse ornament. Henley
observes that, "to be perspicuous, pure, elegant, copious, and
harmonious, are the chief good qualities of writing the
English tongue; they are attained by study and practice, and
lost by the contrary: but _imitation_ is to be avoided; they
cannot be made our own but by keeping the force of our
understandings superior to our models; by _rendering our
thoughts the original, and our words the copy_."--"On Wit and
Imagination," abounding with excellent criticism.--"On grave
conundrums and serious buffoons, in defence of burlesque
discourses, from the most weighty authorities."--"A
Dissertation upon Nonsense." At the close he has a fling at
his friend Pope; it was after the publication of the Dunciad.
"Of Nonsense there are celebrated professors; Mr. Pope grows
witty like Bays in the 'Rehearsal,' by selling bargains (his
subscriptions for Homer), praising himself, laughing at his
joke, and making his own works the test of any man's
criticism; but he seems to be in some jeopardy; for the ghost
of Homer has lately spoke to him in Greek, and Shakspeare
resolves to bring him, as he has brought Shakspeare, to a
tragical conclusion. Mr. Pope suggests the last choice of a
subject for writing a book, by making the _Nonsense_ of others
his argument; while his own puts it out of any writer's power
to confute him." In another fling at Pope, he gives the reason
why Mr. Pope adds the dirty dialect to that of the water, and
is in love with the Nymphs of Fleet ditch; and in a lecture on
the spleen he announced "an anatomical discovery, that Mr.
Pope's spleen is bigger than his head!"
[50] Thus he anticipated the term, since become so notorious among
German theologians.
[51] It is preserved in the "Historical Register," vol. xi. for 1726.
It is curious and well written.
[52] "Gentleman's Magazine," vol. lvii. p. 876.
[53] His "Defence of the Oratory" is a curious performance. He
pretends to derive his own from great authority. "St. Paul
is related, Acts 28, to have dwelt _two whole years in his
own hired house_, and to have received all that came in
unto him, teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus
Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. This
was at _Rome_, and doubtless was his practice in his other
travels, there being the same reason in the thing to produce
elsewhere the like circumstances." He proceeds to show
"the calumnies and reproaches, and the novelty and impiety,
with which Christianity, at its first setting out, was
charged, as a mean, abject institution, not only useless
and unserviceable, but pernicious to the public and its
professors, as the refuse of the world."--Of the false
accusations raised against Jesus--all this he applies to
himself and his oratory--and he concludes, that "Bringing
men to think rightly will always be reckoned a depraving
of their minds by those who are desirous to keep them in a
mistake, and who measure all truth by the standard of their
own narrow opinions, views, and passions. The principles of
this institution are those of right reason: the first ages
of Christianity; true facts, clear criticism, and polite
literature--if these corrupt the mind, to find a place where
the mind will not be corrupted will be impracticable."
Thus speciously could "the Orator" reason, raising himself to
the height of apostolical purity. And when he was accused
that he _did all for lucre_, he retorted, that "some _do
nothing_ for it;" and that "he preached more charity sermons
than any clergyman in the kingdom."
[54] He once advertised an oration on marriage, which drew together
an overflowing assembly of females, at which, solemnly shaking
his head, he told the ladies, that "he was afraid, that
oftentimes, as well as now, they came to church in hopes to
get husbands, rather than be instructed by the preacher;" to
which he added a piece of wit not quite decent. He congregated
the trade of shoemakers, by offering to show the most
expeditious method of making shoes: he held out a boot, and
cut off the leg part. He gave a lecture, which he advertised
was "for the instruction of those who do not like it; it was
on the philosophy, history, and great use of _Nonsense_ to the
learned, political, and polite world, who excel in it."
[55] Dr. Cobden, one of George the Second's chaplains, having, in
1748, preached a sermon at St. James's from these words, "Take
away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be
established in righteousness," it gave so much displeasure,
that the doctor was struck out of the list of chaplains; and
the next Saturday the following parody of his text appeared as
a motto to Henley's advertisement:
"Away with the wicked before the king,
And away with the wicked behind him;
His throne it will bless
With righteousness,
And we shall know where to find him."
CHALMER'S "Biographical Dictionary."
[56] The history of the closing years of Henley's life is thus given
in "The History of the Robin Hood Society," 1764, a political
club, whose debates he occasionally enlivened:--"The Orator,
with various success, still kept up his _Oratory_, _King
George's_, or _Charles's Chapel_, as he differently termed it,
till the year 1759, when he died. At its first establishment
it was amazingly crowded, and money flowed in upon him apace;
and between whiles it languished and drooped: but for some
years before its author's death it dwindled away so much, and
fell into such an hectic state, that the few friends of it
feared its decease was very near. The doctor, indeed, kept it
up to the last, determined it should live as long as he did,
and actually exhibited many evenings to empty benches. Finding
no one at length would attend, he admitted the acquaintances
of his door-keeper, runner, mouth-piece, and some other of his
followers, gratis. On the 13th of October, however, the doctor
died, and the Oratory ceased; no one having iniquity or
impudence sufficient to continue it on."--ED.
[57] Hogarth has preserved his features in the parson who figures so
conspicuously in his "Modern Midnight Conversation." His
off-hand style of discourse is given in the _Gray's-Inn
Journal_, 1753 (No. 18), in an imaginary meeting of the
political Robin Hood Society, where he figures as Orator Bronze,
and exclaims:--"I am pleased to see this assembly--you're a
twig from me; a chip of the old block at Clare Market;--I am
the old block, invincible; _coup de grace_ as yet unanswered.
We are brother rationalists; logicians upon fundamentals! I
love ye all--I love mankind in general--give me some of that
porter."--ED.
THE MALADIES OF AUTHORS.
The practice of every art subjects the artist to some particular
inconvenience, usually inflicting some malady on that member which has
been over-wrought by excess: nature abused, pursues man into his most
secret corners, and avenges herself. In the athletic exercises of the
ancient Gymnasium, the pugilists were observed to become lean from
their hips downwards, while the superior parts of their bodies, which
they over-exercised, were prodigiously swollen; on the contrary, the
racers were meagre upwards, while their feet acquired an unnatural
dimension. The secret source of life seems to be carried forwards to
those parts which are making the most continued efforts.
In all sedentary labours, some particular malady is contracted by
every worker, derived from particular postures of the body and
peculiar habits. Thus the weaver, the tailor, the painter, and the
glass-blower, have all their respective maladies. The diamond-cutter,
with a furnace before him, may be said almost to live in one; the
slightest air must be shut out of the apartment, lest it scatter away
the precious dust--a breath would ruin him!
The analogy is obvious;[58] and the author must participate in the
common fate of all sedentary occupations. But his maladies, from the
very nature of the delicate organ of thinking, intensely exercised,
are more terrible than those of any other profession; they are more
complicated, more hidden in their causes, and the mysterious union
and secret influence of the faculties of the soul over those of the
body, are visible, yet still incomprehensible; they frequently produce
a perturbation in the faculties, a state of acute irritability, and
many sorrows and infirmities, which are not likely to create much
sympathy from those around the author, who, at a glance, could have
discovered where the pugilist or the racer became meagre or monstrous:
the intellectual malady eludes even the tenderness of friendship.
The more obvious maladies engendered by the life of a student arise
from over-study. These have furnished a curious volume to Tissot, in
his treatise "On the Health of Men of Letters;" a book, however, which
chills and terrifies more than it does good.
The unnatural fixed postures, the perpetual activity of the mind, and
the inaction of the body; the brain exhausted with assiduous toil
deranging the nerves, vitiating the digestive powers, disordering its
own machinery, and breaking the calm of sleep by that previous state
of excitement which study throws us into, are some of the calamities
of a studious life: for like the ocean when its swell is subsiding,
the waves of the mind too still heave and beat; hence all the small
feverish symptoms, and the whole train of hypochondriac affections, as
well as some acute ones.[59]
Among the correspondents of the poets Hughes and Thomson, there is a
pathetic letter from a student. Alexander Bayne, to prepare his
lectures, studied fourteen hours a-day for eight months successively,
and wrote 1,600 sheets. Such intense application, which, however, not
greatly exceeds that of many authors, brought on the bodily complaints
he has minutely described, with "all the dispiriting symptoms of a
nervous illness, commonly called vapours, or lowness of spirits."
Bayne, who was of an athletic temperament, imagined he had not paid
attention to his diet, to the lowness of his desk, and his habit of
sitting with a particular compression of the body; in future all these
were to be avoided. He prolonged his life for five years, and,
perhaps, was still flattering his hopes of sharing one day in the
literary celebrity of his friends, when, to use his words, "the same
illness made a fierce attack upon me again, and has kept me in a very
bad state of inactivity and disrelish of all my ordinary amusements:"
those _amusements_ were his serious _studies_. There is a fascination
in literary labour: the student feeds on magical drugs; to withdraw
him from them requires nothing less than that greater magic which
could break his own spells. A few months after this letter was written
Bayne died on the way to Bath, a martyr to his studies.
The excessive labour on a voluminous work, which occupies a long life,
leaves the student with a broken constitution, and his sight decayed
or lost. The most admirable observer of mankind, and the truest
painter of the human heart, declares, "The corruptible body presseth
down the soul, and the earthy tabernacle weigheth down the _mind that
museth on many things_." Of this class was old Randle Cotgrave, the
curious collector of the most copious dictionary of old French and old
English words and phrases. The work is the only treasury of our
genuine idiom. Even this labour of the lexicographer, so copious and
so elaborate, must have been projected with rapture, and pursued with
pleasure, till, in the progress, "the mind was musing on many things."
Then came the melancholy doubt, that drops mildew from its enveloping
wings over the voluminous labour of a laborious author, whether he be
wisely consuming his days, and not perpetually neglecting some higher
duties or some happier amusements. Still the enchanted delver sighs,
and strikes on in the glimmering mine of hope. If he live to complete
the great labour, it is, perhaps, reserved for the applause of the
next age; for, as our great lexicographer exclaimed, "In this gloom of
solitude I have protracted my work, till those whom I wished to please
have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty
sounds;" but, if it be applauded in his own, that praise has come too
late for him whose literary labour has stolen away his sight. Cotgrave
had grown blind over his dictionary, and was doubtful whether this
work of his laborious days and nightly vigils was not a superfluous
labour, and nothing, after all, but a "poor bundle of words." The
reader may listen to the gray-headed martyr addressing his patron,
Lord Burghley:
"I present to your lordship an account of the _expense of many hours_,
which, in your service, and to mine own benefit, _might have been
otherwise employed_. My desires have aimed at more substantial marks;
but _mine eyes_ failed them, and forced me to _spend out their vigour
in this bundle of words_, which may be unworthy of your lordship's
great patience, and, perhaps, _ill-suited to the expectation of
others_."
A great number of young authors have died of over-study. An
intellectual enthusiasm, accompanied by constitutional delicacy, has
swept away half the rising genius of the age. Curious calculators have
affected to discover the average number of infants who die under the
age of five years: had they investigated those of the children of
genius who perish before their thirtieth year, we should not be
less amazed at this waste of man. There are few scenes more
afflicting, nor which more deeply engage our sympathy, than that
of a youth, glowing with the devotion of study, and resolute to
distinguish his name among his countrymen, while death is stealing on
him, touching with premature age, before he strikes the last blow.
The author perishes on the very pages which give a charm to his
existence. The fine taste and tender melancholy of Headley, the
fervid genius of Henry Kirke White, will not easily pass away; but
how many youths as noble-minded have not had the fortune of Kirke
White to be commemorated by genius, and have perished without their
fame! Henry Wharton is a name well known to the student of English
literature; he published historical criticisms of high value; and he
left, as some of the fruits of his studies, sixteen volumes of
MS., preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth. These
great labours were pursued with the ardour that only could have
produced them; the author had not exceeded his thirtieth year when
he sank under his continued studies, and perished a martyr to
literature. Our literary history abounds with instances of the sad
effects of an over indulgence in study: that agreeable writer,
Howel, had nearly lost his life by an excess of this nature,
studying through long nights in the depth of winter. This severe study
occasioned an imposthume in his head; he was eighteen days without
sleep; and the illness was attended with many other afflicting
symptoms. The eager diligence of Blackmore, protracting his studies
through the night, broke his health, and obliged him to fly to a
country retreat. Harris, the historian, died of a consumption by
midnight studies, as his friend Hollis mentions. I shall add a
recent instance, which I myself witnessed: it is that of John
Macdiarmid. He was one of those Scotch students whom the golden
fame of Hume and Robertson attracted to the metropolis. He mounted the
first steps of literary adventure with credit; and passed through
the probation of editor and reviewer, till he strove for more
heroic adventures. He published some volumes, whose subjects
display the aspirings of his genius: "An Inquiry into the Nature of
Civil and Military Subordination;" another into "the System of
Military Defence." It was during these labours I beheld this
inquirer, of a tender frame, emaciated, and study-worn, with
hollow eyes, where the mind dimly shone like a lamp in a tomb. With
keen ardour he opened a new plan of biographical politics. When, by
one who wished the author was in better condition, the dangers of
excess in study were brought to his recollection, he smiled, and,
with something of a mysterious air, talked of unalterable confidence
in the powers of his mind; of the indefinite improvement in our
faculties: and, with this enfeebled frame, considered himself
capable of continuous labour. His whole life, indeed, was one
melancholy trial. Often the day cheerfully passed without its meal,
but never without its page. The new system of political biography
was advancing, when our young author felt a paralytic stroke. He
afterwards resumed his pen; and a second one proved fatal. He lived
just to pass through the press his "Lives of British Statesmen," a
splendid quarto, whose publication he owed to the generous temper
of a friend, who, when the author could not readily procure a
publisher, would not see the dying author's last hope disappointed.
Some research and reflection are combined in this literary and
civil history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but it
was written with the blood of the author, for Macdiarmid died of
over-study and exhaustion.
Among the maladies of poor authors, who procure a precarious existence
by their pen, one, not the least considerable, is their old age; their
flower and maturity of life were shed for no human comforts; and old
age is the withered root. The late THOMAS MORTIMER, the compiler,
among other things, of that useful work, "The Student's Pocket
Dictionary," felt this severely--he himself experienced no abatement
of his ardour, nor deficiency in his intellectual powers, at near the
age of eighty;--but he then would complain "of the paucity of literary
employment, and the preference given to young adventurers." Such is
the _youth_, and such the _old age_ of ordinary authors!
FOOTNOTES:
[58] Hawkesworth, in the second paper of the "Adventurer," has
composed, from his own feelings, an elegant description of
intellectual and corporeal labour, and the sufferings of an
author, with the uncertainty of his labour and his reward.
[59] Dr. Fuller's "Medicina Gymnastica, or, a treatise concerning the
power of Exercise, with respect to the Animal OEconomy, fifth
edition, 1718," is useful to remind the student of what he is
apt to forget; for the object of this volume is to _substitute
exercise for medicine_. He wrote the book before he became a
physician. He considers horse-riding as the best and noblest
of all exercises, it being "a mixed exercise, partly active
and partly passive, while other sorts, such as walking,
running, stooping, or the like, require some labour and more
strength for their performance." Cheyne, in his well-known
treatise of "The English Malady," published about twenty years
after Fuller's work, acknowledges that riding on horseback is
the best of all exercises, for which he details his reasons.
"Walking," he says, "though it will answer the same end, yet
is it more laborious and tiresome;" but amusement ought always
to be combined with the exercise of a student; the mind will
receive no refreshment by a solitary walk or ride, unless it
be agreeably withdrawn from all thoughtfulness and anxiety; if
it continue studying in its recreations, it is the sure means
of obtaining neither of its objects--a friend, not an author,
will at such a moment be the better companion.
The last chapter in Fuller's work contains much curious
reading on the ancient physicians, and their gymnastic
courses, which Asclepiades, the pleasantest of all the ancient
physicians, greatly studied; he was most fortunate in the
invention of exercises to supply the place of much physic, and
(says Fuller) no man in any age ever had the happiness to
obtain so general an applause; Pliny calls him the delight of
mankind. Admirable physician, who had so many ways, it
appears, to make physic agreeable! He invented the _lecti
pensiles_, or hanging beds, that the sick might be rocked to
sleep; which took so much at that time, that they became a
great luxury among the Romans.
Fuller judiciously does not recommend the gymnastic courses,
because horse-riding, for persons of delicate constitutions,
is preferable; he discovers too the reason why the ancients
did not introduce this mode of exercise--it arose from the
simple circumstance of their not knowing the use of stirrups,
which was a later invention. Riding with the ancients was,
therefore, only an exercise for the healthy and the robust; a
horse without stirrups was a formidable animal for a
valetudinarian.
LITERARY SCOTCHMEN.
What literary emigrations from the North of young men of genius,
seduced by a romantic passion for literary fame, and lured by the
golden prospects which the happier genius of some of their own
countrymen opened on them. A volume might be written on literary
Scotchmen, who have perished immaturely in this metropolis; little
known, and slightly connected, they have dropped away among us, and
scarcely left a vestige in the wrecks of their genius. Among them some
authors may be discovered who might have ranked, perhaps, in the first
classes of our literature. I shall select four out of as many hundred,
who were not entirely unknown to me; a romantic youth--a man of
genius--a brilliant prose writer--and a labourer in literature.
ISSAC RITSON (not the poetical antiquary) was a young man of genius,
who perished immaturely in this metropolis by attempting to exist by
the efforts of his pen.
In early youth he roved among his native mountains, with the battles
of Homer in his head, and his bow and arrow in his hand; in calmer
hours, he nearly completed a spirited version of Hesiod, which
constantly occupied his after-studies; yet our minstrel-archer did not
less love the severer sciences.
Selected at length to rise to the eminent station of the Village
Schoolmaster,--from the thankless office of pouring cold rudiments
into heedless ears, RITSON took a poetical flight. It was among the
mountains and wild scenery of Scotland that our young Homer, picking
up fragments of heroic songs, and composing some fine ballad poetry,
would, in his wanderings, recite them with such passionate expression,
that he never failed of auditors; and found even the poor generous,
when their better passions were moved. Thus he lived, like some old
troubadour, by his rhymes, and his chants, and his virelays; and,
after a year's absence, our bard returned in the triumph of verse.
This was the most seducing moment of life; RITSON felt himself a
laureated Petrarch; but he had now quitted his untutored but feeling
admirers, and the child of fancy was to mix with the everyday business
of life.
At Edinburgh he studied medicine, lived by writing theses for the
idle and the incompetent, and composed a poem on Medicine, till at
length his hopes and his ambition conducted him to London. But the
golden age of the imagination soon deserted him in his obscure
apartment in the glittering metropolis. He attended the hospitals,
but these were crowded by students who, if they relished the
science less, loved the trade more: he published a hasty version
of Homer's Hymn to Venus, which was good enough to be praised, but
not to sell; at length his fertile imagination, withering over the
taskwork of literature, he resigned fame for bread; wrote the preface
to Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, compiled medical articles for the
Monthly Review; and, wasting fast his ebbing spirits, he retreated to
an obscure lodging at Islington, where death relieved a hopeless
author, in the twenty-seventh year of his life.
The following unpolished lines were struck off at a heat in trying his
pen on the back of a letter; he wrote the names of the Sister Fates,
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos--the sudden recollection of his own fate
rushed on him--and thus the rhapsodist broke out:--
I wonder much, as yet ye're spinning, Fates!
What threads yet twisted out for me, old jades!
Ah, Atropos! perhaps for me thou spinn'st
Neglect, contempt, and penury and woe;
Be't so; whilst that foul fiend, the spleen,
And moping melancholy spare me, all the rest
I'll bear, as should a man; 'twill do me good,
And teach me what no better fortune could,
Humility, and sympathy with others' ills.
--------------Ye destinies,
I love you much; ye flatter not my pride.
Your mien, 'tis true, is wrinkled, hard, and sour;
Your words are harsh and stern; and sterner still
Your purposes to me. Yet I forgive
Whatever you have done, or mean to do.
Beneath some baleful planet born, I've found,
In all this world, no friend with fostering hand
To lead me on to science, which I love
Beyond all else the world could give; yet still
Your rigour I forgive; ye are not yet my foes;
My own untutor'd will's my only curse.
We grasp asphaltic apples; blooming poison!
We love what we should hate; how kind, ye Fates,
To thwart our wishes! O you're kind to scourge!
And flay us to the bone to make us feel!--
Thus deeply he enters into his own feelings, and abjures his errors,
as he paints the utter desolation of the soul while falling into the
grave opening at his feet.
The town was once amused almost every morning by a series of humorous
or burlesque poems by a writer under the assumed name of _Matthew
Bramble_--he was at that very moment one of the most moving spectacles
of human melancholy I have ever witnessed.
It was one evening I saw a tall, famished, melancholy man enter a
bookseller's shop, his hat flapped over his eyes, and his whole
frame evidently feeble from exhaustion and utter misery. The
bookseller inquired how he proceeded in his new tragedy. "Do not talk
to me about my tragedy! Do not talk to me about my tragedy! I have
indeed more tragedy than I can bear at home!" was the reply, and
the voice faltered as he spoke. This man was Matthew Bramble, or
rather--M'DONALD, the author of the tragedy of Vimonda, at that moment
the writer of comic poetry--his tragedy was indeed a domestic one,
in which he himself was the greatest actor amid his disconsolate
family; he shortly afterwards perished. M'Donald had walked from
Scotland with no other fortune than the novel of "The Independent"
in one pocket, and the tragedy of "Vimonda" in the other. Yet he
lived some time in all the bloom and flush of poetical confidence.
Vimonda was even performed several nights, but not with the
success the romantic poet, among his native rocks, had conceived was
to crown his anxious labours--the theatre disappointed him--and
afterwards, to his feelings, all the world!
LOGAN had the dispositions of a poetic spirit, not cast in a
common mould; with fancy he combined learning, and with eloquence
philosophy.
His claims on our sympathy arise from those circumstances in his life
which open the secret sources of the calamities of authors; of those
minds of finer temper, who, having tamed the heat of their youth by
the patient severity of study, from causes not always difficult to
discover, find their favourite objects and their fondest hopes barren
and neglected. It is then that the thoughtful melancholy, which
constitutes so large a portion of their genius, absorbs and consumes
the very faculties to which it gave birth.
Logan studied at the University of Edinburgh, was ordained in the
Church of Scotland--and early distinguished as a poet by the
simplicity and the tenderness of his verses, yet the philosophy of
history had as deeply interested his studies. He gave two courses of
lectures. I have heard from his pupils their admiration, after the
lapse of many years; so striking were those lectures for having
successfully applied the science of moral philosophy to the history of
nations. All wished that Logan should obtain the chair of the
Professorship of Universal History--but from some point of etiquette
he failed in obtaining that distinguished office.
This was his first disappointment in life, yet then perhaps but
lightly felt; for the public had approved of his poems, and a
successful poet is easily consoled. Poetry to such a gentle being
seems a universal specific for all the evils of life; it acts at the
moment, exhausting and destroying too often the constitution it seems
to restore.
He had finished the tragedy of "Runnymede;" it was accepted at
Covent-garden, but interdicted by the Lord Chamberlain, from some
suspicion that its lofty sentiments contained allusions to the
politics of the day. The Barons-in-arms who met John were conceived to
be deeper politicians than the poet himself was aware of. This was the
second disappointment in the life of this man of genius.
The third calamity was the natural consequence of a tragic poet being
also a Scotch clergyman. Logan had inflicted a wound on the
Presbytery, heirs of the genius of old Prynne, whose puritanic
fanaticism had never forgiven Home for his "Douglas," and now groaned
to detect genius still lurking among them.[60] Logan, it is certain,
expressed his contempt for them; they their hatred of him: folly and
pride in a poet, to beard Presbyters in a land of Presbyterians![61]
He gladly abandoned them, retiring on a small annuity. They had,
however, hurt his temper--they had irritated the nervous system of a
man too susceptible of all impressions, gentle or unkind--his
character had all those unequal habitudes which genius contracts in
its boldness and its tremors; he was now vivacious and indignant, and
now fretted and melancholy. He flew to the metropolis, occupied
himself in literature, and was a frequent contributor to the "English
Review." He published "A Review of the Principal Charges against Mr.
Hastings." Logan wrestled with the genius of Burke and Sheridan; the
House of Commons ordered the publisher Stockdale to be prosecuted, but
the author did not live to rejoice in the victory obtained by his
genius.
This elegant philosopher has impressed on all his works the seal of
genius; and his posthumous compositions became even popular; he who
had with difficulty escaped excommunication by Presbyters, left the
world after his death two volumes of sermons, which breathe all that
piety, morality, and eloquence admire. His unrevised lectures,
published under the name of a person, one Rutherford, who had
purchased the MS., were given to the world in "A View of Ancient
History." But one highly-finished composition he had himself
published; it is a philosophical review of Despotism: had the name of
Gibbon been affixed to the title-page, its authenticity had not been
suspected.[62]
From one of his executors, Mr. Donald Grant, who wrote the life
prefixed to his poems, I heard of the state of his numerous MSS.; the
scattered, yet warm embers of the unhappy bard. Several tragedies, and
one on Mary Queen of Scots, abounding with all that domestic
tenderness and poetic sensibility which formed the soft and natural
feature of his muse; these, with minor poems, thirty lectures on the
Roman History, and portions of a periodical paper, were the wrecks of
genius! He resided here, little known out of a very private circle,
and perished in his fortieth year, not of penury, but of a broken
heart. Such noble and well-founded expectations of fortune and fame,
all the plans of literary ambition overturned: his genius, with all
its delicacy, its spirit, and its elegance, became a prey to that
melancholy which constituted so large a portion of it.
Logan, in his "Ode to a Man of Letters," had formed this lofty
conception of a great author:--
Won from neglected wastes of time,
Apollo hails his fairest clime,
The provinces of mind;
An Egypt with eternal towers;[63]
See Montesquieu redeem the hours
From Louis to mankind.
No tame remission genius knows,
No interval of dark repose,
To quench the ethereal flame;
From Thebes to Troy, the victor hies,
And Homer with his hero vies,
In varied paths to Fame.
Our children will long repeat his "Ode to the Cuckoo," one of the most
lovely poems in our language; magical stanzas of picture, melody, and
sentiment.[64]
These authors were undoubtedly men of finer feelings, who all perished
immaturely, victims in the higher department of literature! But this
article would not be complete without furnishing the reader with a
picture of the fate of one who, with a pertinacity of industry not
common, having undergone regular studies, not very injudiciously
deemed that the life of a man of letters could provide for the simple
wants of a philosopher.
This man was the late ROBERT HERON, who, in the following letter,
transcribed from the original, stated his history to the Literary
Fund. It was written in a moment of extreme bodily suffering and
mental agony in the house to which he had been hurried for debt. At
such a moment he found eloquence in a narrative, pathetic from its
simplicity, and valuable for its genuineness, as giving the results of
a life of literary industry, productive of great infelicity and
disgrace; one would imagine that the author had been a criminal rather
than a man of letters.
"_The Case of a Man of Letters, of regular education, living by honest
literary industry._
"Ever since I was eleven years of age I have mingled with my studies
the labour of teaching or of writing, to support and educate myself.
"During about twenty years, while I was in constant or occasional
attendance at the University of Edinburgh, I taught and assisted young
persons, at all periods, in the course of education; from the Alphabet
to the highest branches of Science and Literature.
"I read a course of Lectures on the Law of Nature, the Law of Nations;
the Jewish, the Grecian, the Roman, and the Canon Law; and then on the
Feudal Law; and on the several forms of Municipal Jurisprudence
established in Modern Europe. I printed a Syllabus of these Lectures,
which was approved. They were intended as introductory to the
professional study of Law, and to assist gentlemen who did not study
it professionally, in the understanding of History.
"I translated 'Fourcroy's Chemistry' twice, from both the second and
the third editions of the original; 'Fourcroy's Philosophy of
Chemistry;' 'Savary's Travels in Greece;' 'Dumourier's Letters;'
'Gessner's Idylls' in part; an abstract of 'Zimmerman on Solitude,'
and a great diversity of smaller pieces.
"I wrote a 'Journey through the Western Parts of Scotland,' which has
passed through two editions; a 'History of Scotland,' in six volumes
8vo; a 'Topographical Account of Scotland,' which has been several
times reprinted; a number of communications in the 'Edinburgh
Magazine;' many Prefaces and Critiques; a 'Memoir of the Life of Burns
the Poet,' which suggested and promoted the subscription for his
family--has been many times reprinted, and formed the basis of Dr.
Currie's Life of him, as I learned by a letter from the doctor to one
of his friends; a variety of _Jeux d'Esprit_ in verse and prose; and
many abridgments of large works.
"In the beginning of 1799 I was encouraged to come to London. Here I
have written a great multiplicity of articles in almost every branch of
science and literature; my education at Edinburgh having comprehended
them all. The 'London Review,' the 'Agricultural Magazine,' the
'Anti-Jacobin Review,' the 'Monthly Magazine,' the 'Universal
Magazine,' the 'Public Characters,' the 'Annual Necrology,' with
several other periodical works, contain many of my communications. In
such of those publications as have been reviewed, I can show that my
anonymous pieces have been distinguished with very high praise. I
have written also a short system of Chemistry, in one volume 8vo; and I
published a few weeks since a small work called 'Comforts of Life,'[65]
of which the first edition was sold in one week, and the second
edition is now in rapid sale.
"In the Newspapers--the _Oracle_, the _Porcupine_ when it existed, the
_General Evening Post_, the _Morning Post_, the _British Press_, the
_Courier_, &c., I have published many Reports of Debates in
Parliament, and, I believe, a greater variety of light fugitive pieces
than I know to have been written by any one other person.
"I have written also a variety of compositions in the Latin and the
French languages, in favour of which I have been honoured with the
testimonies of liberal approbation.
"I have invariably written to serve the cause of religion, morality,
pious christian education, and good order, in the most direct manner.
I have considered what I have written as mere trifles; and have
incessantly studied to qualify myself for something better. I can
prove that I have, for many years, read and written, one day with
another, from twelve to sixteen hours a day. As a human being, I have
not been free from follies and errors. But the tenor of my life has
been temperate, laborious, humble, quiet, and, to the utmost of my
power, beneficent. I can prove the general tenor of my writings to
have been candid, and ever adapted to exhibit the most favourable
views of the abilities, dispositions, and exertions of others.
"For these last ten months I have been brought to the very extremity
of bodily and pecuniary distress.
"I shudder at the thought of perishing in a gaol.
"_92, Chancery-lane, Feb. 2, 1807._
"(In confinement)."
The physicians reported that Robert Heron's health was such "as
rendered him totally incapable of extricating himself from the
difficulties in which he was involved, by the _indiscreet exertion of
his mind, in protracted and incessant literary labours_."
About three months after, Heron sunk under a fever, and perished amid
the walls of Newgate. We are disgusted with this horrid state of
pauperism; we are indignant at beholding an author, not a contemptible
one, in this last stage of human wretchedness! after early and late
studies--after having read and written from twelve to sixteen hours a
day! O, ye populace of scribblers! before ye are driven to a garret,
and your eyes are filled with constant tears, pause--recollect that
few of you possess the learning or the abilities of Heron.
The fate of Heron is the fate of hundreds of authors by profession in
the present day--of men of some literary talent, who can never
extricate themselves from a degrading state of poverty.
FOOTNOTES:
[60] Home was at the time when he wrote "Douglas" a clergyman in the
Scottish Church; the theatre was then looked upon by the
religious Scotsmen with the most perfect abhorrence. Many
means were taken to deter the performance of the play; and as
they did not succeed, others were tried to annoy the author,
until their persevering efforts induced him to withdraw
himself entirely from the clerical profession.--ED.
[61] The objection to his tragedy was made chiefly by his
parishioners at South Leith, who were strongly opposed to
their minister being in any way connected with the theatre. He
therefore resigned his appointment, and settled in London,
which he never afterwards abandoned, dying there in
1788.--ED.
[62] This admirable little work is entitled "A Dissertation on the
Governments, Manners, and Spirit of Asia; Murray, 1787." It is
anonymous; but the publisher informed me it was written by
Logan. His "Elements of the Philosophy of History" are
valuable. His "Sermons" have been republished.
[63] The finest provinces of Egypt gained from a neglected waste.
[64] An attempt has been made to deprive Logan of the authorship of
this poem. He had edited (very badly) the poems of a deceased
friend, Michael Bruce; and the friends of the latter claimed
this poem as one of them. In the words of one who has examined
the evidence it may be sufficient to say, "his claim is not
only supported by internal evidence, but the charge was never
advanced against him while he was alive to repel it."--ED.
[65] "The Comforts of Life" were written in prison; "The Miseries"
(by Jas. Beresford) necessarily in a drawing-room. The works
of authors are often in contrast with themselves; melancholy
authors are the most jocular, and the most humorous the most
melancholy.
LABORIOUS AUTHORS.
This is one of the groans of old BURTON over his laborious work, when
he is anticipating the reception it is like to meet with, and
personates his objectors. He says:--
"This is a thinge of meere industrie--a collection without wit or
invention--a very toy! So men are valued!--their labours vilified by
fellowes of no worth themselves, as things of nought; who could not
have done as much."
There is, indeed, a class of authors who are liable to forfeit all
claims to genius, whatever their genius may be--these are the
laborious writers of voluminous works; but they are farther subject
to heavier grievances--to be undervalued or neglected by the apathy or
the ingratitude of the public.
Industry is often conceived to betray the absence of intellectual
exertion, and the magnitude of a work is imagined necessarily to shut
out all genius. Yet a laborious work has often had an original growth
and raciness in it, requiring a genius whose peculiar feeling, like
invisible vitality, is spread through the mighty body. Feeble
imitations of such laborious works have proved the master's mind that
is in the original. There is a talent in industry which every
industrious man does not possess; and even taste and imagination may
lead to the deepest studies of antiquities, as well as mere
undiscerning curiosity and plodding dulness.
But there are other more striking characteristics of intellectual
feeling in authors of this class. The fortitude of mind which
enables them to complete labours of which, in many instances, they
are conscious that the real value will only be appreciated by
dispassionate posterity, themselves rarely living to witness the fame
of their own work established, while they endure the captiousness
of malicious cavillers. It is said that the Optics of NEWTON had
no character or credit here till noticed in France. It would not be
the only instance of an author writing above his own age, and
anticipating its more advanced genius. How many works of erudition
might be adduced to show their author's disappointments! PRIDEAUX'S
learned work of the "Connexion of the Old and New Testament," and
SHUCKFORD'S similar one, were both a long while before they could
obtain a publisher, and much longer before they found readers. It is
said Sir WALTER RALEIGH burned the second volume of his History, from
the ill success the first had met with. PRINCE'S "Worthies of
Devon" was so unfavourably received by the public, that the
laborious and patriotic author was so discouraged as not to print the
second volume, which is said to have been prepared for the press.
FARNEWORTH'S elaborate Translation, with notes and dissertations,
of Machiavel's works, was hawked about the town; and the poor
author discovered that he understood Machiavel better than the
public. After other labours of this kind, he left his family in
distressed circumstances. Observe, this excellent book now bears a
high price! The fate of the "Biographia Britannica," in its first
edition, must be noticed: the spirit and acuteness of CAMPBELL,
the curious industry of OLDYS, and the united labours of very able
writers, could not secure public favour; this treasure of our
literary history was on the point of being suspended, when a poem by
Gilbert West drew the public attention to that elaborate work,
which, however, still languished, and was hastily concluded. GRANGER
says of his admirable work, in one of his letters--"On a fair state
of my account, it would appear that my labours in the improvement
of my work do not amount to _half the pay of a scavenger_!" He
received only one hundred pounds to the times of Charles I., and
the rest to depend on public favour for the continuation. The sale
was sluggish; even Walpole seemed doubtful of its success, though he
probably secretly envied the skill of our portrait-painter. It was
too philosophical for the mere collector, and it took near ten years
before it reached the hands of philosophers; the author derived
little profit, and never lived to see its popularity established!
We have had many highly valuable works suspended for their want of
public patronage, to the utter disappointment, and sometimes the
ruin of their authors; such are OLDYS'S "British Librarian," MORGAN'S
"Phœnix Britannicus," Dr. BERKENHOUT'S "Biographia Literaria,"
Professor MARTYN'S and Dr. LETTICE'S "Antiquities of Herculaneum:"
all these are _first_ volumes, there are no _seconds_! They are
now rare, curious, and high priced! Ungrateful public! Unhappy
authors!
That noble enthusiasm which so strongly characterises genius, in
productions whose originality is of a less ambiguous nature, has been
experienced by some of these laborious authors, who have sacrificed
their lives and fortunes to their beloved studies. The enthusiasm of
literature has often been that of heroism, and many have not shrunk
from the forlorn hope.
RUSHWORTH and RYMER, to whose collections our history stands so deeply
indebted, must have strongly felt this literary ardour, for they
passed their lives in forming them; till Rymer, in the utmost
distress, was obliged to sell his books and his fifty volumes of MS.
which he could not get printed; and Rushworth died in the King's Bench
of a broken heart. Many of his papers still remain unpublished. His
ruling passion was amassing state matters, and he voluntarily
neglected great opportunities of acquiring a large fortune for this
entire devotion of his life. The same fate has awaited the similar
labours of many authors to whom the history of our country lies under
deep obligations. ARTHUR COLLINS, the historiographer of our Peerage,
and the curious collector of the valuable "Sydney Papers," and other
collections, passed his life in reselling these works of antiquity, in
giving authenticity to our history, or contributing fresh materials to
it; but his midnight vigils were cheered by no patronage, nor his
labours valued, till the eye that pored on the mutilated MS. was for
ever closed. Of all those curious works of the late Mr. STRUTT, which
are now bearing such high prices, all were produced by extensive
reading, and illustrated by his own drawings, from the manuscripts of
different epochs in our history. What was the result to that ingenious
artist and author, who, under the plain simplicity of an antiquary,
concealed a fine poetical mind, and an enthusiasm for his beloved
pursuits to which only we are indebted for them? Strutt, living in the
greatest obscurity, and voluntarily sacrificing all the ordinary views
of life, and the trade of his _burin_, solely attached to national
antiquities, and charmed by calling them into a fresh existence under
his pencil, I have witnessed at the British Museum, forgetting for
whole days his miseries, in sedulous research and delightful labour;
at times even doubtful whether he could get his works printed; for
some of which he was not regaled even with the Roman supper of "a
radish and an egg." How he left his domestic affairs, his son can
tell; how his works have tripled their value, the booksellers. In
writing on the calamities attending the love of literary labour, Mr.
JOHN NICHOLS, the modest annalist of the literary history of the last
century, and the friend of half the departed genius of our country,
cannot but occur to me. He zealously published more than fifty works,
illustrating the literature and the antiquities of the country;
labours not given to the world without great sacrifices. Bishop Hurd,
with friendly solicitude, writes to Mr. Nichols on some of his own
publications, "While you are enriching the Antiquarian world" (and, by
the Life of Bowyer, may be added the Literary), "I hope you do not
forget yourself. _The profession of an author, I know from experience,
is not a lucrative one._--I only mention this because I see a large
catalogue of your publications." At another time the Bishop writes,
"You are very good to excuse my freedom with you; but, as times go,
almost any trade is better than that of an author," &c. On these notes
Mr. Nichols confesses, "I have had some occasion to regret that I did
not attend to the judicious suggestions." We owe to the late THOMAS
DAVIES, the author of "Garrick's Life," and other literary works,
beautiful editions of some of our elder poets, which are now eagerly
sought after, yet, though all his publications were of the best kinds,
and are now of increasing value, the taste of Tom Davies twice ended
in bankruptcy. It is to be lamented for the cause of literature, that
even a bookseller may have too refined a taste for his trade; it must
always be his interest to float on the current of public taste,
whatever that may be; should he have an ambition to _create_ it, he
will be anticipating a more cultivated curiosity by half a century;
thus the business of a bookseller rarely accords with the design of
advancing our literature.
The works of literature, it is then but too evident, receive no
equivalent; let this be recollected by him who would draw his
existence from them. A young writer often resembles that imaginary
author whom Johnson, in a humorous letter in "The Idler" (No. 55),
represents as having composed a work "of universal curiosity, computed
that it would call for many editions of his book, and that in five
years he should gain fifteen thousand pounds by the sale of thirty
thousand copies." There are, indeed, some who have been dazzled by the
good fortune of GIBBON, ROBERTSON, and HUME; we are to consider these
favourites, not merely as authors, but as possessing, by their
situation in life, a certain independence which preserved them from
the vexations of the authors I have noticed. Observe, however, that
the uncommon sum Gibbon received for copyright, though it excited the
astonishment of the philosopher himself, was for the continued labour
of a _whole life_, and probably the _library_ he had purchased for his
work equalled at least in cost the produce of his _pen_; the tools
cost the workman as much as he obtained for his work. Six thousand
pounds gained on these terms will keep an author indigent.
Many great labours have been designed by their authors even to be
posthumous, prompted only by their love of study and a patriotic
zeal. Bishop KENNETT'S stupendous "Register and Chronicle," volume I.,
is one of those astonishing labours which could only have been
produced by the pleasure of study urged by the strong love of
posterity.[66] It is a diary in which the bishop, one of our most
studious and active authors, has recorded every matter of fact,
"delivered in the words of the most authentic books, papers, and
records." The design was to preserve our literary history from the
Restoration. This silent labour he had been pursuing all his life,
and published the first volume in his sixty-eighth year, the very
year he died. But he was so sensible of the coyness of the public
taste for what he calls, in a letter to a literary friend, "a tedious
heavy book," that he gave it away to the publisher. "The volume,
too large, brings me no profit. In good truth, the scheme was laid
for conscience' sake, to restore a good old principle that history
should be purely matter of fact, that every reader, by examining and
comparing, may make out a history by his own judgment. I have
collections transcribed for another volume, if the bookseller will
run the hazard of printing." This volume has never appeared, and the
bookseller probably lost a considerable sum by the one published,
which valuable volume is now procured with difficulty.[67]
These laborious authors have commenced their literary life with a
glowing ardour, though the feelings of genius have been obstructed by
those numerous causes which occur too frequently in the life of a
literary man.
Let us listen to STRUTT, whom we have just noticed, and let us learn
what he proposed doing in the first age of fancy.
Having obtained the first gold medal ever given at the Royal Academy,
he writes to his mother, and thus thanks her and his friends for their
deep interest in his success:--
"I will at least strive to the utmost to give my benefactors no reason
to think their pains thrown away. If I should not be able to abound
in riches, yet, by God's help, I will strive to pluck that palm which
the greatest artists of foregoing ages have done before me; _I will
strive to leave my name behind me in the world, if not in the
splendour that some have, at least with +some marks+ of assiduity and
study_; which, I can assure you, shall never be wanting in me. Who can
bear to hear the names of Raphael, Titian, Michael Angelo, &c., the
most famous of the Italian masters, in the mouth of every one, and not
wish to be like them? And to be like them, we must study as they have
done, take such pains, and labour continually like them; the which
shall not be wanting on my side, I dare affirm; so that, should I not
succeed, I may rest contented, and say I have done my utmost. God has
blessed me with a mind to undertake. You, dear madam, will excuse my
vanity; you know me, from my childish days, to have been a vain boy,
always desirous to execute something to gain me praises from every
one; always scheming and imitating whatever I saw done by anybody."
And when Strutt settled in the metropolis, and studied at the British
Museum, amid all the stores of knowledge and art, his imagination
delighted to expatiate in its future prospects. In a letter to a
friend he has thus chronicled his feelings:
"I would not only be a great antiquary, but a refined thinker; I would
not only discover antiquities, but would, by explaining their use,
render them useful. Such vast funds of knowledge lie hid in the
antiquated remains of the earlier ages; these I would bring forth, and
set in their true light."
Poor Strutt, at the close of life, was returning to his own first and
natural energies, in producing a work of the imagination. He had made
considerable progress in one, and the early parts which he had
finished bear the stamp of genius; it is entitled "Queenhoo-hall, a
Romance of ancient times," full of the picturesque manners, and
costume, and characters of the age, in which he was so conversant;
with many lyrical pieces, which often are full of poetic feeling--but
he was called off from the work to prepare a more laborious one.
"Queenhoo-hall" remained a heap of fragments at his death; except the
first volume, and was filled up by a stranger hand. The stranger was
Sir Walter Scott, and "Queenhoo-hall" was the origin of that glorious
series of romances where antiquarianism has taken the shape of
imagination.
Writing on the calamities attached to literature, I must notice one of
a more recondite nature, yet perhaps few literary agonies are more
keenly felt. I would not excite an undue sympathy for a class of
writers who are usually considered as drudges; but the present case
claims our sympathy.
There are men of letters, who, early in life, have formed some
favourite plan of literary labour, which they have unremittingly
pursued, till, sometimes near the close of life, they either discover
their inability to terminate it, or begin to depreciate their own
constant labour. The literary architect has grown gray over his
edifice; and, as if the black wand of enchantment had waved over it,
the colonnades become interminable, the pillars seem to want a
foundation, and all the rich materials he had collected together, lie
before him in all the disorder of ruins. It may be urged that the
reward of literary labour, like the consolations of virtue, must be
drawn with all their sweetness from itself; or, that if the author be
incompetent, he must pay the price of his incapacity. This may be
Stoicism, but it is not humanity. The truth is, there is always a
latent love of fame, that prompts to this strong devotion of labour;
and he who has given a long life to that which he has so much desired,
and can never enjoy, might well be excused receiving our insults, if
he cannot extort our pity.
A remarkable instance occurs in the fate of the late Rev. WILLIAM
COLE;[68] he was the college friend of Walpole, Mason, and Gray; a
striking proof how dissimilar habits and opposite tastes and feelings
can associate in literary friendship; for Cole, indeed, the public had
informed him that his friends were poets and men of wit; and for them,
Cole's patient and curious turn was useful, and, by its extravagant
trifling, must have been very amusing. He had a gossip's ear, and a
tatler's pen--and, among better things, wrote down every grain of
literary scandal his insatiable and minute curiosity could lick up; as
patient and voracious as an ant-eater, he stretched out his tongue
till it was covered by the tiny creatures, and drew them all in at one
digestion. All these tales were registered with the utmost simplicity,
as the reporter received them; but, being but tales, the exactness of
his truth made them still more dangerous lies, by being perpetuated;
in his reflections he spared neither friend nor foe; yet, still
anxious after truth, and usually telling lies, it is very amusing to
observe, that, as he proceeds, he very laudably contradicts, or
explains away in subsequent memoranda what he had before registered.
Walpole, in a correspondence of forty years, he was perpetually
flattering, though he must imperfectly have relished his fine taste,
while he abhorred his more liberal principles, to which sometimes he
addressed a submissive remonstrance. He has at times written a letter
coolly, and, at the same moment, chronicled his suppressed feelings in
his diary, with all the flame and sputter of his strong prejudices. He
was expressly nicknamed Cardinal Cole. These scandalous chronicles,
which only show the violence of his prejudices, without the force of
genius, or the acuteness of penetration, were ordered not to be opened
till twenty years after his decease; he wished to do as little
mischief as he could, but loved to do some. I well remember the cruel
anxiety which prevailed in the nineteenth year of these inclosures; it
spoiled the digestions of several of our literati who had had the
misfortune of Cole's intimate friendship, or enmity. One of these was
the writer of the Life of Thomas Baker, the Cambridge Antiquary, who
prognosticated all the evil he among others was to endure; and,
writhing in fancy under the whip not yet untwisted, justly enough
exclaims in his agony, "The attempt to keep these characters from the
public till the subjects of them shall be no more, seems to be
peculiarly cruel and ungenerous, since it is precluding them from
vindicating themselves from such injurious aspersions, as their
friends, perhaps however willing, may at that distance of time be
incapable of removing." With this author, Mr. Masters, Cole had
quarrelled so often, that Masters writes, "I am well acquainted with
the fickleness of his disposition for more than forty years past."
When the lid was removed from this Pandora's box, it happened that
some of his intimate friends were alive to perceive in what strange
figures they were exhibited by their quondam admirer!
COLE, however, bequeathed to the nation, among his unpublished works,
a vast mass of antiquities and historical collections, and one
valuable legacy of literary materials. When I turned over the papers
of this literary antiquary, I found the recorded cries of a literary
martyr.
COLE had passed a long life in the pertinacious labour of forming an
"Athenæ Cantabrigienses," and other literary collections--designed as
a companion to the work of Anthony Wood. These mighty labours exist in
more than fifty folio volumes in his own writing. He began these
collections about the year 1745; in a fly-leaf of 1777 I found the
following melancholy state of his feelings and a literary confession,
as forcibly expressed as it is painful to read, when we consider that
they are the wailings of a most zealous votary:
"In good truth, whoever undertakes this drudgery of an 'Athenæ
Cantabrigienses' must be contented with no prospect of credit and
reputation to himself, and with the mortifying reflection that after
all his pains and study, through life, he must be looked upon in a
humble light, and only as a journeyman to Anthony Wood, whose
excellent book of the same sort will ever preclude any other, who
shall follow him in the same track, from all hopes of fame; and will
only represent him as an imitator of so original a pattern. For, at
this time of day, all great characters, both Cantabrigians and
Oxonians, are already published to the world, either in his book, or
various others; so that the collection, unless the same characters are
reprinted here, must be made up of second-rate persons, and the refuse
of authorship.--However, as I have begun, and made so large a progress
in this undertaking, _it is death to think of leaving it off_, though,
from the former considerations, so little credit is to be expected
from it."
Such were the fruits, and such the agonies, of nearly half a century
of assiduous and zealous literary labour! Cole urges a strong claim to
be noticed among our literary calamities. Another of his miseries was
his uncertainty in what manner he should dispose of his collections:
and he has put down this _naïve_ memorandum--"I have long wavered how
to dispose of all my MS. volumes; to give them to _King's College_,
would be to throw them into a _horsepond_; and I had as lieve do one
as the other; they are generally so _conceited of their Latin and
Greek, that all other studies are barbarism_."[69]
The dread of incompleteness has attended the life-labours (if the
expression may be allowed) of several other authors who have never
published their works. Such was the learned Bishop LLOYD, and the Rev.
THOMAS BAKER, who was first engaged in the same pursuit as Cole, and
carried it on to the extent of about forty volumes in folio. Lloyd is
described by Burnet as having "many volumes of materials upon all
subjects, so that he could, with very little labour, write on any of
them, with more life in his imagination, and a truer judgment, than
may seem consistent with such a laborious course of study; but he did
not lay out his learning with the same diligence as he laid it in." It
is mortifying to learn, in the words of Johnson, that "he was always
hesitating and inquiring, raising objections, and removing them, and
waiting for clearer light and fuller discovery." Many of the labours
of this learned bishop were at length consumed in the kitchen of his
descendant. "Baker (says Johnson), after many years passed in
biography, left his manuscripts to be buried in a library, because
that was imperfect which could never be perfected." And to complete
the absurdity, or to heighten the calamity which the want of these
useful labours makes every literary man feel, half of the collections
of Baker sleep in their dust in a turret of the University; while the
other, deposited in our national library at the British Museum, and
frequently used, are rendered imperfect by this unnatural divorce.
I will illustrate the character of a laborious author by that of
ANTHONY WOOD.
WOOD'S "Athenæ Oxonienses" is a history of near a thousand of our
native authors; he paints their characters, and enters into the spirit
of their writings. But authors of this complexion, and works of this
nature, are liable to be slighted; for the fastidious are petulant,
the volatile inexperienced, and those who cultivate a single province
in literature are disposed, too often, to lay all others under a state
of interdiction.
WARBURTON, in a work thrown out in the heat of unchastised youth, and
afterwards withdrawn from public inquiry, has said of the "Athenæ
Oxonienses"--
"Of all those writings given us by the learned Oxford antiquary, there
is not one that is not a disgrace to letters; most of them are so to
common sense, and some even to human nature. Yet how set out! how
tricked! how adorned! how extolled!"[70]
The whole tenor of Wood's life testifies, as he himself tells us,
that "books and MSS. formed his Elysium, and he wished to be dead to
the world." This sovereign passion marked him early in life, and the
image of death could not disturb it. When young, "he walked mostly
alone, was given much to thinking and melancholy." The _deliciæ_ of
his life were the more liberal studies of painting and music,
intermixed with those of antiquity; nor could his family; who
checked such unproductive studies, ever check his love of them. With
what a firm and noble spirit he says--
"When he came to full years, he perceived it was his natural genie,
and he could not avoid them--they crowded on him--he could never give
a reason why he should delight in those studies, more than in others,
so prevalent was nature, mixed with a generosity of mind, and a hatred
to all that was servile, sneaking, or advantageous for lucre-sake."
These are not the roundings of a period, but the pure expressions
of a man who had all the simplicity of childhood in his feelings.
Could such vehement emotions have been excited in the unanimated
breast of a clod of literature? Thus early Anthony Wood betrayed the
characteristics of genius; nor did the literary passion desert him
in his last moments. With his dying hands he still grasped his
beloved papers, and his last mortal thoughts dwelt on his _Athenæ
Oxonienses_.[71]
It is no common occurrence to view an author speechless in the hour of
death, yet fervently occupied by his posthumous fame. Two friends went
into his study to sort that vast multitude of papers, notes,
letters--his more private ones he had ordered not to be opened for
seven years; about two bushels full were ordered for the fire, which
they had lighted for the occasion. "As he was expiring, he expressed
both his knowledge and approbation of what was done by throwing out
his hands."
Turn over his Herculean labour; do not admire less his fearlessness of
danger, than his indefatigable pursuit of truth. He wrote of his
contemporaries as if he felt a right to judge of them, and as if he
were living in the succeeding age; courtier, fanatic, or papist, were
much alike to honest Anthony; for he professes himself "such an
universal lover of all mankind, that he wished there might be no cheat
put upon readers and writers in the business of commendations. And
(says he) since every one will have a double balance, one for his own
party, and another for his adversary, all he could do is to amass
together what every side thinks will make best weight for themselves.
Let posterity hold the scales."
Anthony might have added, "I have held them." This uninterrupted
activity of his spirits was the action of a sage, not the bustle of
one intent merely on heaping up a book.
"He never wrote in post, with his body and thoughts in a hurry, but in
a fixed abode, and with a deliberate pen. And he never concealed an
ungrateful truth, nor flourished over a weak place, but in sincerity
of meaning and expression."
Anthony Wood cloistered an athletic mind, a hermit critic abstracted from
the world, existing more with posterity than amid his contemporaries. His
prejudices were the keener from the very energies of the mind that
produced them; but, as he practises no deception on his reader, we know
the causes of his anger or his love. And, as an original thinker creates
a style for himself, from the circumstance of not attending to style at
all, but to feeling, so Anthony Wood's has all the peculiarity of the
writer. Critics of short views have attempted to screen it from ridicule,
attributing his uncouth style to the age he lived in. But not one in his
own time nor since, has composed in the same style. The austerity and
the quickness of his feelings vigorously stamped all their roughness and
vivacity on every sentence. He describes his own style as "an honest,
plain English dress, without flourishes or affectation of style, as best
becomes a history of truth and matters of fact. It is the first (work)
of its nature that has ever been printed in our own, or in any other
mother-tongue."
It is, indeed, an honest Montaigne-like simplicity. Acrimonious and
cynical, he is always sincere, and never dull. Old Anthony to me is an
admirable character-painter, for anger and love are often picturesque.
And among our literary historians he might be compared, for the effect
he produces, to Albert Durer, whose kind of antique rudeness has a
sharp outline, neither beautiful nor flowing; and, without a genius
for the magic of light and shade, he is too close a copier of Nature
to affect us by ideal forms.
The independence of his mind nerved his ample volumes, his fortitude
he displayed in the contest with the University itself, and his
firmness in censuring Lord Clarendon, the head of his own party. Could
such a work, and such an original manner, have proceeded from an
ordinary intellect? Wit may sparkle, and sarcasm may bite; but the
cause of literature is injured when the industry of such a mind is
ranked with that of "the hewers of wood, and drawers of water:"
ponderous compilers of creeping commentators. Such a work as the
"Athenæ Oxonienses" involved in its pursuits some of the higher
qualities of the intellect; a voluntary devotion of life, a sacrifice
of personal enjoyments, a noble design combining many views, some
present and some prescient, a clear vigorous spirit equally diffused
over a vast surface. But it is the hard fate of authors of this class
to be levelled with their inferiors!
Let us exhibit one more picture of the calamities of a laborious
author, in the character of JOSHUA BARNES, editor of Homer, Euripides,
and Anacreon, and the writer of a vast number of miscellaneous
compositions in history and poetry. Besides the works he published, he
left behind him nearly fifty unfinished ones; many were epic poems,
all intended to be in twelve books, and some had reached their eighth!
His folio volume of "The History of Edward III." is a labour of
valuable research. He wrote with equal facility in Greek, Latin, and
his own language, and he wrote all his days; and, in a word, having
little or nothing but his Greek professorship, not exceeding forty
pounds a year, Barnes, who had a great memory, a little imagination,
and no judgment, saw the close of a life, devoted to the studies of
humanity, settle around him in gloom and despair. The great idol of
his mind was the edition of his Homer, which seems to have completed
his ruin; he was haunted all his days with a notion that he was
persecuted by envy, and much undervalued in the world; the sad
consolation of the secondary and third-rate authors, who often die
persuaded of the existence of ideal enemies. To be enabled to publish
his Homer at an enormous charge, he wrote a poem, the design of which
is to prove that Solomon was the author of the Iliad; and it has been
said that this was done to interest his wife, who had some property,
to lend her aid towards the publication of so divine a work. This
happy pun was applied for his epitaph:--
JOSHUA BARNES,
Felicis memoriæ, judicium expectans.
_Here lieth_
JOSHUA BARNES,
Of happy memory, awaiting judgment!
The year before he died he addressed the following letter to the Earl
of Oxford, which I transcribe from the original. It is curious to
observe how the veteran and unhappy scribbler, after his vows of
retirement from the world of letters, thoroughly disgusted with "all
human learning," gently hints to his patron, that he has ready for the
press, a singular variety of contrasted works; yet even then he did
not venture to disclose one-tenth part of his concealed treasures!
"TO THE EARL OF OXFORD.
_Oct. 16, 1711._
"MY HON. LORD,
"This, not in any doubt of your goodness and high respect to
learning, for I have fresh instances of it every day; but because
I am prevented in my design of waiting personally on you, being
called away by my business for Cambridge, to read Greek lectures
this term; and my circumstances are pressing, being, through the
combination of booksellers, and the meaner arts of others, too
much prejudiced in the sale. I am not neither sufficiently
ascertained whether my Homer and letters came to your honour;
surely the vast charges of that edition has almost broke my
courage, there being much more trouble in putting off the
impression, and contending with a subtle and unkind world, than
in all the study and management of the press.
"Others, my lord, are younger, and their hopes and helps are
fresher; I have done as much in the way of learning as any man
living, but have received less encouragement than any, having
nothing but my Greek professorship, which is but forty pounds per
annum, that I can call my own, and more than half of that is taken
up by my expenses of lodging and diet in terme time at Cambridge.
"I was obliged to take up three hundred and fifty pounds on
interest towards this last work, whereof I still owe two hundred
pounds, and two hundred more for the printing; the whole expense
arising to about one thousand pounds. I have lived in the
university above thirty years, fellow of a college now above forty
years' standing, and fifty-eight years of age; am bachelor of
divinity, and have preached before kings; but am now your honour's
suppliant, and would fain retire from the study of humane
learning, which has been so little beneficial to me, if I might
have a little prebend, or sufficient anchor to lay hold on; only I
have two or three matters ready for the press--an ecclesiastical
history, Latin; an heroic poem of the Black Prince, Latin; another
of Queen Anne, English, finished; a treatise of Columnes, Latin;
and an accurate treatise about Homer, Greek, Latin, &c. I would
fain be permitted the honour to make use of your name in some one,
or most of these, and to be, &c.,
"JOSHUA BARNES."[72]
He died nine months afterwards. Homer did not improve in sale; and the
sweets of patronage were not even tasted. This, then, is the history
of a man of great learning, of the most pertinacious industry, but
somewhat allied to the family of the _Scribleri_.
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Kennett was characterised throughout life by a strong party
feeling, which he took care to display on every occasion. He
was born at Dover in 1660, and his first publication, at the
age of twenty, gave great offence to the Whig party; it was in
the form of a letter from a Student at Oxford to a friend in
the country, concerning the approaching parliament. He
scarcely ever published a sermon without so far mixing party
matters in it as to obtain replies and rejoinders; the rector
of Whitechapel employed an artist to place his head on Judas's
shoulders in the picture of the Last Supper done for that
church, and to make the figure unmistakeable, placed the
_patch_ on the forehead which Kennett wore, to conceal a scar
he got by the bursting of a gun. His diligence and application
through life was extraordinary. He assisted Anthony Wood in
collecting materials for his "Athenæ Oxonienses;" and, like
Oldys, was continually employed in noting books, or in forming
manuscript collections on various subjects, all of which were
purchased by the Earl of Shelburne, afterwards Marquis of
Lansdowne, and were sold with the rest of his manuscripts to
the British Museum. He died in 1714, of a fever he had
contracted in a journey to Italy.--ED.
[67] See Bishop Kennett's Letter in Nichols's "Life of Bowyer," vol.
i, 383.
[68] The best account of the Rev. Wm. Cole is to be found in
Nichols's "Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century," vol.
i. His life was eventless, and passed in studious drudgery. He
had all that power of continuous application which will
readily form immense manuscript collections. In this way his
life was passed, occasionally aiding from his enormous stores
the labours of others. He was an early and intimate
acquaintance of Horace Walpole's, and they visited France
together in 1765. Browne Willis, the antiquary, gave him the
rectory of Blecheley, in Buckinghamshire, and he was
afterwards presented to the vicarage of Burnham, near Eton. He
died in 1782, in the 68th year of his age, having chiefly
employed a long life in noting on all subjects, until his
manuscripts became a small library of themselves, which he
bequeathed to the British Museum, with an order that they
should not be opened for twenty years. They are correctly
characterised by Nichols: he says, "many of the volumes
exhibit striking traits of Mr. Cole's own character; and a man
of sufficient leisure might pick out of them abundance of
curious matter." He left a diary behind him which for
puerility could not be exceeded, and of which Nichols gives
several ridiculous specimens. If his parrot died, or his
man-servant was bled; if he sent a loin of pork to a friend,
and got a quarter of lamb in return; "drank coffee with Mrs.
Willis," or "sent two French wigs to a London barber," all is
faithfully recorded. It is a true picture of a lover of
labour, whose constant energy must be employed, and will write
even if the labour be worthless.--ED.
[69] Cole's collection, ultimately bequeathed by him to the British
Museum, is comprised in 92 volumes, and is arranged among the
additional manuscripts there, of which it forms Nos. 5798 to
5887.--ED.
[70] In his "Critical and Philosophical Enquiry into the Causes of
Prodigies."
[71] This, his most valuable work, has been most carefully edited,
with numerous additions by Dr. Bliss, and is the great
authority for Lives of Oxford men. Its author, born at Oxford
in 1632, died there in 1695, having devoted his life strictly
to study.--ED.
[72] Harleian MSS. 7523.
THE DESPAIR OF YOUNG POETS.
WILLIAM PATTISON was a young poet who perished in his twentieth year;
his character and his fate resemble those of Chatterton. He was one
more child of that family of genius, whose passions, like the torch,
kindle but to consume themselves.
The youth of Pattison was that of a poet. Many become irrecoverably
poets by local influence; and Beattie could hardly have thrown his
"Minstrel" into a more poetical solitude than the singular spot which
was haunted by our young bard. His first misfortune was that of having
an anti-poetical parent; his next was that of having discovered a spot
which confirmed his poetical habits, inspiring all the melancholy and
sensibility he loved to indulge. This spot, which in his fancy
resembled some favourite description in Cowley, he called "Cowley's
Walk." Some friend, who was himself no common painter of fancy, has
delineated the whole scenery with minute touches, and a freshness of
colouring, warm with reality. Such a poetical habitation becomes a
part of the poet himself, reflecting his character, and even
descriptive of his manners.
"On one side of 'Cowley's Walk' is a huge rock, grown over with moss
and ivy climbing on its sides, and in some parts small trees spring
out of the crevices of the rock; at the bottom are a wild plantation
of irregular trees, in every part looking aged and venerable. Among
these cavities, one larger than the rest was the cave he loved to sit
in: arched like a canopy, its rustic borders were edged with ivy
hanging down, overshadowing the place, and hence he called it (for
poets must give a name to every object they love) 'Hederinda,' bearing
ivy. At the foot of this grotto a stream of water ran along the walk,
so that its level path had trees and water on one side, and a wild
rough precipice on the other. In winter, this spot looked full of
horror--the naked trees, the dark rock, and the desolate waste; but in
the spring, the singing of the birds, the fragrancy of the flowers,
and the murmuring of the stream, blended all their enchantment."
Here, in the heat of the day, he escaped into the "Hederinda," and
shared with friends his rapture and his solitude; and here through
summer nights, in the light of the moon, he meditated and melodised
his verses by the gentle fall of the waters. Thus was Pattison fixed
and bound up in the strongest spell the demon of poetry ever drew
around a susceptible and careless youth.
He was now a decided poet. At Sidney College, in Cambridge, he was
greatly loved; till, on a quarrel with a rigid tutor, he rashly cut
his name out of the college book, and quitted it for ever in utter
thoughtlessness and gaiety, leaving his gown behind, as his _locum
tenens_, to make his apology, by pinning on it a satirical farewell.
Whoever gives himself the pains to stoop,
And take my venerable tatters up,
To his presuming inquisition I,
In _loco Pattisoni_, thus reply:
"Tired with the senseless jargon of the gown,
My master left the college for the town,
And scorns his precious minutes to regale
With wretched college-wit and college-ale."
He flew to the metropolis to take up the trade of a poet.
A translation of Ovid's "Epistles" had engaged his attention during
two years; his own genius seemed inexhaustible; and pleasure and
fame were awaiting the poetical emigrant. He resisted all kind
importunities to return to college; he could not endure submission,
and declares "his spirit cannot bear control." One friend "fears the
innumerable temptations to which one of his complexion is liable in
such a populous place." Pattison was much loved; he had all the
generous impetuosity of youthful genius; but he had resolved on
running the perilous career of literary glory, and he added one
more to the countless thousands who perish in obscurity.
His first letters are written with the same spirit that distinguishes
Chatterton's; all he hopes he seems to realise. He mixes among the
wits, dates from Button's, and drinks with Concanen healths to
college friends, till they lose their own; more dangerous Muses
condescend to exhibit themselves to the young poet in the park; and
he was to be introduced to Pope. All is exultation! Miserable
youth! The first thought of prudence appears in a resolution of
soliciting subscriptions from all persons, for a volume of poems.
His young friends at college exerted their warm patronage; those in
his native North condemn him, and save their crowns; Pope admits of no
interview, but lends his name, and bestows half-a-crown for a volume
of poetry, which he did not want; the poet wearies kindness, and would
extort charity even from brother-poets; petitions lords and ladies;
and, as his wants grow on him, his shame decreases.
How the scene has changed in a few months! He acknowledges to a
friend, that "his heart was broke through the misfortunes he had
fallen under;" he declares "he feels himself near the borders of
death." In moments like these he probably composed the following
lines, awfully addressed,
AD CŒLUM!
Good heaven! this mystery of life explain,
Nor let me think I bear the load in vain;
Lest, with the tedious passage cheerless grown,
Urged by despair, I throw the burden down.
But the torture of genius, when all its passions are strained on the
rack, was never more pathetically expressed than in the following
letter:--
"SIR,--If you was ever touched with a sense of humanity, consider
my condition: what _I am_, my proposals will inform you; what _I
have been_, Sidney College, in Cambridge, can witness; but what _I
shall be_ some few hours hence, I tremble to think! Spare my
blushes!--I have not enjoyed the common necessaries of life for
these two days, and can hardly hold to subscribe myself,
"Yours, &c."
The picture is finished--it admits not of another stroke. Such was the
complete misery which Savage, Boyse, Chatterton, and more innocent
spirits devoted to literature, have endured--but not long--for they
must perish in their youth!
HENRY CAREY was one of our most popular poets; he, indeed, has
unluckily met with only dictionary critics, or what is as fatal to
genius, the cold and undistinguishing commendation of grave men on
subjects of humour, wit, and the lighter poetry. The works of Carey do
not appear in any of our great collections, where Walsh, Duke, and
Yalden slumber on the shelf.
Yet Carey was a true son of the Muses, and the most successful writer
in our language. He is the author of several little national poems. In
early life he successfully burlesqued the affected versification of
Ambrose Philips, in his baby poems, to which he gave the fortunate
appellation of "_Namby Pamby_, a panegyric on the new versification;"
a term descriptive in sound of those chiming follies, and now become a
technical term in modern criticism. Carey's "Namby Pamby" was at first
considered by Swift as the satirical effusion of Pope, and by Pope as
the humorous ridicule of Swift. His ballad of "Sally in our Alley" was
more than once commended for its nature by Addison, and is sung to
this day. Of the national song, "God save the King," it is supposed he
was the author both of the words and of the music.[73] He was very
successful on the stage, and wrote admirable burlesques of the Italian
Opera, in "The Dragon of Wantley," and "The Dragoness;" and the mock
tragedy of "Chrononhotonthologos" is not forgotten. Among his Poems
lie still concealed several original pieces; those which have a
political turn are particularly good, for the politics of Carey were
those of a poet and a patriot. I refer the politician who has any
taste for poetry and humour to "The Grumbletonians, or the Dogs
without doors, a Fable," very instructive to those grown-up folks,
"The Ins and the Outs." "Carey's Wish" is in this class; and, as the
purity of election remains still among the desiderata of every true
Briton, a poem on that subject by the patriotic author of our national
hymn of "God save the King" may be acceptable.
CAREY'S WISH.
Cursed be the wretch that's bought and sold,
And barters liberty for gold;
For when election is not free,
In vain we boast of liberty:
And he who sells his single right,
Would sell his country, if he might.
When liberty is put to sale
For wine, for money, or for ale,
The sellers must be abject slaves,
The buyers vile designing knaves;
A proverb it has been of old,
The devil's bought but to be sold.
This maxim in the statesman's school
Is always taught, _divide and rule_.
All parties are to him a joke:
While zealots foam, he fits the yoke.
Let men their reason once resume;
'Tis then the statesman's turn to fume.
Learn, learn, ye Britons, to unite;
Leave off the old exploded bite;
Henceforth let Whig and Tory cease,
And turn all party rage to peace;
Rouse and revive your ancient glory;
Unite, and drive the world before you.
To the ballad of "Sally in our Alley" Carey has prefixed an argument
so full of nature, that the song may hereafter derive an additional
interest from its simple origin. The author assures the reader that
the popular notion that the subject of his ballad had been the noted
Sally Salisbury, is perfectly erroneous, he being a stranger to her
name at the time the song was composed.
"As innocence and virtue were ever the boundaries of his Muse, so in
this little poem he had no other view than to set forth the beauty of
a chaste and disinterested passion, even in the lowest class of human
life. The real occasion was this: A shoemaker's 'prentice, making
holiday with his sweetheart, treated her with a sight of Bedlam, the
puppet-shows, the flying-chairs, and all the elegancies of Moorfields;
from whence, proceeding to the Farthing Pye-house, he gave her a
collation of buns, cheesecakes, gammon of bacon, stuffed beef, and
bottled ale; through all which scenes the author dodged them (charmed
with the simplicity of their courtship), from whence he drew this
little sketch of Nature; but, being then young and obscure, he was
very much ridiculed for this performance; which, nevertheless, made
its way into the polite world, and amply recompensed him by the
applause of the divine Addison, who was pleased (more than once) to
mention it with approbation."
In "The Poet's Resentment" poor Carey had once forsworn "the harlot
Muse:"--
Far, far away then chase the harlot Muse,
Nor let her thus thy noon of life abuse;
Mix with the common crowd, unheard, unseen,
And if again thou tempt'st the vulgar praise,
Mayst thou be crown'd with birch instead of bays!
Poets make such oaths in sincerity, and break them in rapture.
At the time that this poet could neither walk the streets nor be
seated at the convivial board, without listening to his own songs and
his own music--for, in truth, the whole nation was echoing his verse,
and crowded theatres were applauding his wit and humour--while this
very man himself, urged by his strong humanity, founded a "Fund for
decayed Musicians"--he was so broken-hearted, and his own common
comforts so utterly neglected, that in despair, not waiting for nature
to relieve him from the burden of existence, he laid violent hands on
himself; and when found dead, had only a halfpenny in his pocket! Such
was the fate of the author of some of the most popular pieces in our
language. He left a son, who inherited his misery, and a gleam of his
genius.
FOOTNOTES:
[73] The late Richard Clark, of the Chapel Royal and Westminster
Abbey, published in 1823 "An Account of the National Anthem,
entitled God save the King," in which he satisfactorily proves
"that Carey neither had, nor could have had, any claim at all
to this composition," which he traces back to the celebrated
composer, Dr. John Bull, who he believes composed it for the
entertainment given by the Merchant Taylors Company to King
James I., in 1607. Ward, in his "Lives of the Gresham
Professors," gives a list of Bull's compositions, then in the
possession of Dr. Pepusch (who arranged the music for the
_Beggar's Opera_), and Art. 56 is "God save the King." At the
Doctor's death, his manuscripts, amounting to two cartloads,
were scattered or sold for waste-paper, and this was one of
the number. Clark ultimately recovered this MS.--ED.
THE MISERIES OF THE FIRST ENGLISH COMMENTATOR.
DR. ZACHARY GREY, the editor of "Hudibras," is the father of our
modern commentators.[74] His case is rather peculiar; I know not
whether the father, by an odd anticipation, was doomed to suffer
for the sins of his children, or whether his own have been visited
on the third generation; it is certain that never was an author
more overpowered by the attacks he received from the light and
indiscriminating shafts of ignorant wits. He was ridiculed and abused
for having assisted us to comprehend the wit of an author, which,
without that aid, at this day would have been nearly lost to us; and
whose singular subject involved persons and events which required the
very thing he gave,--historical and explanatory notes.
A first thought, and all the danger of an original invention, which is
always imperfectly understood by the superficial, was poor Dr. Grey's
merit. He was modest and laborious, and he had the sagacity to
discover what Butler wanted, and what the public required. His project
was a happy thought, to commentate on a singular work which has
scarcely a parallel in modern literature, if we except the "Satyre
Ménippée" of the French, which is, in prose, the exact counterpart of
"Hudibras" in rhyme; for our rivals have had the same state
revolution, in which the same dramatic personages passed over their
national stage, with the same incidents, in the civil wars of the
ambitious Guises, and the citizen-reformers. They, too, found a
Butler, though in prose, a Grey in Duchat, and, as well as they could,
a Hogarth. An edition, which appeared in 1711, might have served as
the model of Grey's Hudibras.
It was, however, a happy thought in our commentator, to turn over the
contemporary writers to collect the events and discover the personages
alluded to by Butler; to read what the poet read, to observe what the
poet observed. This was at once throwing himself and the reader back
into an age, of which even the likeness had disappeared, and
familiarising us with distant objects, which had been lost to us in
the haze and mists of time. For this, not only a new mode of
travelling, but a new road was to be opened; the secret history, the
fugitive pamphlet, the obsolete satire, the ancient comedy--such were
the many curious volumes whose dust was to be cleared away, to cast a
new radiance on the fading colours of a moveable picture of manners;
the wittiest ever exhibited to mankind. This new mode of research,
even at this moment, is imperfectly comprehended, still ridiculed even
by those who could never have understood a writer who will only be
immortal in the degree he is comprehended--and whose wit could not
have been felt but for the laborious curiosity of him whose "reading"
has been too often aspersed for "such reading"
As was never read.
Grey was outrageously attacked by all the wits, first by Warburton, in
his preface to Shakspeare, who declares that "he hardly thinks there
ever appeared so execrable a heap of nonsense under the name of
commentaries, as hath been lately given us on a certain satyric poet
of the last age." It is odd enough, Warburton had himself contributed
towards these very notes, but, for some cause which has not been
discovered, had quarrelled with Dr. Grey. I will venture a conjecture
on this great conjectural critic. Warburton was always meditating to
give an edition of his own of our old writers, and the sins he
committed against Shakspeare he longed to practise on Butler, whose
times were, indeed, a favourite period of his researches. Grey had
anticipated him, and though Warburton had half reluctantly yielded the
few notes he had prepared, his proud heart sickened when he beheld
the amazing subscription Grey obtained for his first edition of
"Hudibras;" he received for that work 1500_l._[75]--a proof that this
publication was felt as a want by the public.
Such, however, is one of those blunt, dogmatic censures in which
Warburton abounds, to impress his readers with the weight of his
opinions; this great man wrote more for effect than any other of our
authors, as appears by his own or some friend's confession, that if
his edition of Shakspeare did no honour to that bard, this was not the
design of the commentator--which was only to do honour to himself by a
display of his own exuberant erudition.
The poignant Fielding, in his preface to his "Journey to Lisbon," has
a fling at the gravity of our doctor. "The laborious, much-read Dr. Z.
Grey, of whose redundant notes on 'Hudibras' I shall only say that it
is, I am confident, the single book extant in which above 500 authors
are quoted, not one of which could be found in the collection of the
late Dr. Mead." Mrs. Montague, in her letters, severely characterises
the miserable father of English commentators; she wrote in youth and
spirits, with no knowledge of books, and _before_ even the unlucky
commentator had published his work, but wit is the bolder by
anticipation. She observes that "his dulness may be a proper ballast
for doggrel; and it is better that his stupidity should make jest dull
than serious and sacred things ridiculous;" alluding to his numerous
theological tracts.
Such then are the hard returns which some authors are doomed to
receive as the rewards of useful labours from those who do not even
comprehend their nature; a wit should not be admitted as a critic till
he has first proved by his gravity, or his dulness if he chooses, that
he has some knowledge; for it is the privilege and nature of wit to
write fastest and best on what it least understands. Knowledge only
encumbers and confines its flights.
FOOTNOTES:
[74] Dr. Zachary Grey was throughout a long life a busy contributor
to literature. The mere list of his productions, in
divinity and history, occupy some pages of our biographical
dictionaries. He was born 1687, and died at Ampthill, in
Bedfordshire, in 1766. In private he was noted for mild and
pleasing manners. His "Hudibras," which was first published
in 1744, in two octavo volumes, is now the standard
edition.--ED.
[75] Cole's MSS.
THE LIFE OF AN AUTHORESS.
Of all the sorrows in which the female character may participate,
there are few more affecting than those of an authoress;--often
insulated and unprotected in society--with all the sensibility of the
sex, encountering miseries which break the spirits of men; with the
repugnance arising from that delicacy which trembles when it quits its
retirement.
My acquaintance with an unfortunate lady of the name of ELIZA RYVES,
was casual and interrupted; yet I witnessed the bitterness of "hope
deferred, which maketh the heart sick." She sunk, by the slow wastings
of grief, into a grave which probably does not record the name of its
martyr of literature.
She was descended from a family of distinction in Ireland; but as she
expressed it, "she had been deprived of her birthright by the
chicanery of law." In her former hours of tranquillity she had
published some elegant odes, had written a tragedy and comedies--all
which remained in MS. In her distress she looked up to her pen as a
source of existence; and an elegant genius and a woman of polished
manners commenced the life of a female trader in literature.
Conceive the repulses of a modest and delicate woman in her attempts
to appreciate the value of a manuscript with its purchaser. She has
frequently returned from the booksellers to her dreadful solitude to
hasten to her bed--in all the bodily pains of misery, she has sought
in uneasy slumbers a temporary forgetfulness of griefs which were to
recur on the morrow. Elegant literature is always of doubtful
acceptance with the public, and Eliza Ryves came at length to try the
most masculine exertions of the pen. She wrote for one newspaper much
political matter; but the proprietor was too great a politician for
the writer of politics, for he only praised the labour he never paid;
much poetry for another, in which, being one of the correspondents of
Della Crusca, in payment of her verses she got nothing but verses; the
most astonishing exertion for a female pen was the entire composition
of the historical and political portion of some Annual Register. So
little profitable were all these laborious and original efforts, that
every day did not bring its "daily bread." Yet even in her poverty her
native benevolence could make her generous; for she has deprived
herself of her meal to provide with one an unhappy family dwelling
under the same roof.
Advised to adopt the mode of translation, and being ignorant of the
French language, she retired to an obscure lodging at Islington, which
she never quitted till she had produced a good version of Rousseau's
"Social Compact," Raynal's "Letter to the National Assembly," and
finally translated De la Croix's "Review of the Constitutions of the
principal States in Europe," in two large volumes with intelligent
notes. All these works, so much at variance with her taste, left her
with her health much broken, and a mind which might be said to have
nearly survived the body.
Yet even at a moment so unfavourable, her ardent spirit engaged in a
translation of Froissart. At the British Museum I have seen her
conning over the magnificent and voluminous MS. of the old chronicler,
and by its side Lord Berners' version, printed in the reign of Henry
VIII. It was evident that his lordship was employed as a spy on
Froissart, to inform her of what was going forward in the French camp;
and she soon perceived, for her taste was delicate, that it required
an ancient lord and knight, with all his antiquity of phrase, to break
a lance with the still more ancient chivalric Frenchman. The familiar
elegance of modern style failed to preserve the picturesque touches
and the _naïve_ graces of the chronicler, who wrote as the mailed
knight combated--roughly or gracefully, as suited the tilt or the
field. She vailed to Lord Berners; while she felt it was here
necessary to understand old French, and then to write it in old
English.[76] During these profitless labours hope seemed to be
whispering in her lonely study. Her comedies had been in possession of
the managers of the theatres during several years. They had too much
merit to be rejected, perhaps too little to be acted. Year passed over
year, and the last still repeated the treacherous promise of its
brother. The mysterious arts of procrastination are by no one so well
systematised as by the theatrical manager, nor its secret sorrows so
deeply felt as by the dramatist. One of her comedies, _The Debt of
Honour_, had been warmly approved at both theatres--where probably a
copy of it may still be found. To the honour of one of the managers,
he presented her with a hundred pounds on his acceptance of it. Could
she avoid then flattering herself with an annual harvest?
But even this generous gift, which involved in it such golden
promises, could not for ten years preserve its delusion. "I feel,"
said Eliza Ryves, "the necessity of some powerful patronage, to bring
my comedies forward to the world with _éclat_, and secure them an
admiration which, should it even be deserved, is seldom bestowed,
unless some leading judge of literary merit gives the sanction of his
applause; and then the world will chime in with his opinion, without
taking the trouble to inform themselves whether it be founded in
justice or partiality." She never suspected that her comedies were not
comic!--but who dare hold an argument with an ingenious mind, when it
reasons from a right principle, with a wrong application to itself? It
is true that a writer's connexions have often done a great deal for a
small author, and enabled some favourites of literary fashion to enjoy
a usurped reputation; but it is not so evident that Eliza Ryves was a
comic writer, although, doubtless, she appeared another Menander to
herself. And thus an author dies in a delusion of self-flattery!
The character of Eliza Ryves was rather tender and melancholy, than
brilliant and gay; and like the bruised perfume--breathing sweetness
when broken into pieces. She traced her sorrows in a work of fancy,
where her feelings were at least as active as her imagination. It is a
small volume, entitled "The Hermit of Snowden." Albert, opulent and
fashionable, feels a passion for Lavinia, and meets the kindest
return; but, having imbibed an ill opinion of women from his
licentious connexions, he conceived they were slaves of passion, or of
avarice. He wrongs the generous nature of Lavinia, by suspecting her
of mercenary views; hence arise the perplexities of the hearts of
both. Albert affects to be ruined, and spreads the report of an
advantageous match. Lavinia feels all the delicacy of her situation;
she loves, but "she never told her love." She seeks for her existence
in her literary labours, and perishes in want.
In the character of Lavinia, our authoress, with all the melancholy
sagacity of genius, foresaw and has described her own death!--the
dreadful solitude to which she was latterly condemned, when in the
last stage of her poverty; her frugal mode of life; her acute
sensibility; her defrauded hopes; and her exalted fortitude. She has
here formed a register of all that occurred in her solitary existence.
I will give one scene--to me it is pathetic--for it is like a scene at
which I was present:--
"Lavinia's lodgings were about two miles from town, in an obscure
situation. I was showed up to a mean apartment, where Lavinia was
sitting at work, and in a dress which indicated the greatest economy.
I inquired what success she had met with in her dramatic pursuits. She
waved her head, and, with a melancholy smile, replied, 'that her
hopes of ever bringing any piece on the stage were now entirely over;
for she found that more interest was necessary for the purpose than
she could command, and that she had for that reason laid aside her
comedy for ever!' While she was talking, came in a favourite dog of
Lavinia's, which I had used to caress. The creature sprang to my arms,
and I received him with my usual fondness. Lavinia endeavoured to
conceal a tear which trickled down her cheek. Afterwards she said,
'Now that I live entirely alone, I show Juno more attention than I had
used to do formerly. _The heart wants something to be kind to_; and it
consoles us for the loss of society, to see even an animal derive
happiness from the endearments we bestow upon it.'"
Such was Eliza Ryves! not beautiful nor interesting in her person, but
with a mind of fortitude, susceptible of all the delicacy of feminine
softness, and virtuous amid her despair.[77]
FOOTNOTES:
[76] This version of Lord Berners has been reprinted.
[77] Those who desire to further investigate the utter misery of
female authorship may be referred to Whyte's vivid description
of an interview with Mrs. Clarke (the daughter of Colley
Cibber), about the purchase of a novel. It is appended to an
edition of his own poems, printed at Dublin, 1792; and has
been reproduced in Hone's "Table Book," vol. i.--ED.
THE INDISCRETION OF AN HISTORIAN.
THOMAS CARTE.
"CARTE," says Mr. Hallam, "is the most exact historian we have;" and
Daines Barrington prefers his authority to that of any other, and many
other writers confirm this opinion. Yet had this historian been an
ordinary compiler, he could not have incurred a more mortifying fate;
for he was compelled to retail in shilling numbers that invaluable
history which we have only learned of late times to appreciate, and
which was the laborious fruits of self-devotion.
Carte was the first of our historians who had the sagacity and the
fortitude to ascertain where the true sources of our history lie. He
discovered a new world beyond the old one of our research, and not
satisfied in gleaning the _res historica_ from its original writers--a
merit which has not always been possessed by some of our popular
historians--Carte opened those subterraneous veins of secret history
from whence even the original writers of our history, had they
possessed them, might have drawn fresh knowledge and more ample
views. Our domestic or civil history was scarcely attempted till Carte
planned it; while all his laborious days and his literary travels on
the Continent were absorbed in the creation of a _History of England_
and of a _Public Library_ in the metropolis, for we possessed neither.
A diligent foreigner, Rapin, had compiled our history, and had
opportunely found in the vast collection of Rymer's "Fœdera" a rich
accession of knowledge; but a foreigner could not sympathise with the
feelings, or even understand the language, of the domestic story of
our nation; our rolls and records, our state-letters, the journals of
parliament, and those of the privy-council; an abundant source of
private memoirs; and the hidden treasures in the state-paper office,
the Cottonian and Harleian libraries; all these, and much besides, the
sagacity of Carte contemplated. He had further been taught--by his own
examination of the true documents of history, which he found preserved
among the ancient families of France, who with a warm patriotic
spirit, worthy of imitation, "often carefully preserved in their
families the acts of their ancestors;" and the _trésor des chartes_
and the _dépôt pour les affaires étrangères_ (the state-paper office
of France),--that the history of our country is interwoven with that
of its neighbours, as well as with that of our own countrymen.[78]
Carte, with these enlarged views, and firm with diligence which never
paused, was aware that such labours--both for the expense and
assistance they demand--exceeded the powers of a private individual;
but "what a single man cannot do," he said, "may be easily done by a
society, and the value of an opera subscription would be sufficient to
patronise a History of England." His valuable "History of the Duke of
Ormond" had sufficiently announced the sort of man who solicited this
necessary aid; nor was the moment unpropitious to his fondest hopes,
for a _Society for the Encouragement of Learning_ had been formed, and
this impulse of public spirit, however weak, had, it would seem,
roused into action some unexpected quarters. When Carte's project was
made known, a large subscription was raised to defray the expense of
transcripts, and afford a sufficient independence to the historian;
many of the nobility and the gentry subscribed ten or twenty guineas
annually, and several of the corporate bodies in the city honourably
appeared as the public patrons of the literature of their nation. He
had, perhaps, nearly a thousand a year subscribed, which he employed
on the History. Thus everything promised fair both for the history and
for the historian of our fatherland, and about this time he zealously
published another proposal for the erection of a public library in the
Mansion-house. "There is not," observed Carte, "a great city in Europe
so ill-provided with public libraries as London." He enters into a
very interesting and minute narrative of the public libraries of
Paris.[79] He then also suggested the purchase of ten thousand
manuscripts of the Earl of Oxford, which the nation now possess in the
Harleian collection.
Though Carte failed to persuade our opulent citizens to purchase this
costly honour, it is probably to his suggestion that the nation owes
the British Museum. The ideas of the literary man are never thrown
away, however vain at the moment, or however profitless to himself.
Time preserves without injuring the image of his mind, and a following
age often performs what the preceding failed to comprehend.
It was in 1743 that this work was projected, in 1747 the first volume
appeared. One single act of indiscretion, an unlucky accident rather
than a premeditated design, overturned in a moment this monument of
history;--for it proved that our Carte, however enlarged were his
views of what history ought to consist, and however experienced in
collecting its most authentic materials, and accurate in their
statement, was infected by a superstitious jacobitism, which seemed
likely to spread itself through his extensive history. Carte indeed
was no philosopher, but a very faithful historian.
Having unhappily occasion to discuss whether the King of England had,
from the time of Edward the Confessor, the power of healing inherent
in him before his unction, or whether the gift was conveyed by
ecclesiastical hands, to show the efficacy of the royal touch, he
added an idle story, which had come under his own observation, of a
person who appeared to have been so healed. Carte said of this unlucky
personage, so unworthily introduced five hundred years before he was
born, that he had been sent to Paris to be touched by "the eldest
lineal descendant of a race of kings who had indeed for a long
succession of ages cured that distemper by the royal touch." The
insinuation was unquestionably in favour of the Pretender, although
the name of the prince was not avowed, and was a sort of promulgation
of the right divine to the English throne.
The first news our author heard of his elaborate history was the
discovery of this unforeseen calamity; the public indignation was
roused, and subscribers, public and private, hastened to withdraw
their names. The historian was left forlorn and abandoned amid his
extensive collections, and Truth, which was about to be drawn out of
her well by this robust labourer, was no longer imagined to lie
concealed at the bottom of the waters.
Thunderstruck at this dreadful reverse to all his hopes, and
witnessing the unrequited labour of more than thirty years withered
in an hour, the unhappy Carte drew up a faint appeal, rendered still
more weak by a long and improbable tale, that the objectionable
illustration had been merely a private note which by mistake had
been printed, and only designed to show that the person who had been
healed improperly attributed his cure to the sanative virtue of the
regal unction; since the prince in question had never been anointed.
But this was plunging from Scylla into Charybdis, for it inferred
that the Stuarts inherited the heavenly-gifted touch by descent. This
could not avail; yet heavy was the calamity! for now an historian of
the utmost probity and exactness, and whose labours were never
equalled for their scope and extent, was ruined for an absurd but
not peculiar opinion, and an indiscretion which was more ludicrous
than dishonest.
This shock of public opinion was met with a fortitude which only
strong minds experience; Carte was the true votary of study,--by
habit, by devotion, and by pleasure, he persevered in producing an
invaluable folio every two years; but from three thousand copies he
was reduced to seven hundred and fifty, and the obscure patronage of
the few who knew how to appreciate them. Death only arrested the
historian's pen--in the fourth volume. We have lost the important
period of the reign of the second Charles, of which Carte declared
that he had read "a series of memoirs from the beginning to the end of
that reign which would have laid open all those secret intrigues which
Burnet with all his genius for conjecture does not pretend to account
for."
So precious were the MS. collections Carte left behind him, that the
proprietor valued them at 1500_l._; Philip Earl of Hardwicke paid
200_l._ only for the perusal, and Macpherson a larger sum for their
use; and Hume, without Carte, would scarcely have any authorities.
Such was the calamitous result of Carte's historical labours, who has
left others of a more philosophical cast, and of a finer taste in
composition, to reap the harvest whose soil had been broken by his
hand.
FOOTNOTES:
[78] It is much to the honour of Carte, that the French acknowledge
that his publication of the "Rolles Gascognes" gave to them
the first idea of their learned work, the "Notice des
Diplomes."
[79] This paper, which is a great literary curiosity, is preserved by
Mr. Nichols in his "Literary History," vol. ii.
LITERARY RIDICULE.
ILLUSTRATED BY SOME ACCOUNT OF A LITERARY SATIRE.
RIDICULE may be considered as a species of eloquence; it has all its
vehemence, all its exaggeration, all its power of diminution; it is
irresistible! Its business is not with truth, but with its appearance;
and it is this similitude, in perpetual comparison with the original,
which, raising contempt, produces the ridiculous.
There is nothing real in ridicule; the more exquisite, the more it
borrows from the imagination. When directed towards an individual, by
preserving a unity of character in all its parts, it produces a
fictitious personage, so modelled on the prototype, that we know not
to distinguish the true one from the false. Even with an intimate
knowledge of the real object, the ambiguous image slides into our
mind, for we are at least as much influenced in our opinions by our
imagination as by our judgment. Hence some great characters have come
down to us spotted with the taints of indelible wit; and a satirist of
this class, sporting with distant resemblances and fanciful analogies,
has made the fictitious accompany for ever the real character. Piqued
with Akenside for some reflections against Scotland, Smollett has
exhibited a man of great genius and virtue as a most ludicrous
personage; and who can discriminate, in the ridiculous physician in
"Peregrine Pickle," what is real from what is fictitious?[80]
The banterers and ridiculers possess this provoking advantage over
sturdy honesty or nervous sensibility--their amusing fictions affect
the world more than the plain tale that would put them down. They
excite our risible emotions, while they are reducing their adversary
to contempt--otherwise they would not be distinguished from gross
slanderers. When the wit has gained over the laughers on his side, he
has struck a blow which puts his adversary _hors de combat_. A grave
reply can never wound ridicule, which, assuming all forms, has really
none. Witty calumny and licentious raillery are airy nothings that
float about us, invulnerable from their very nature, like those
chimeras of hell which the sword of Æneas could not pierce--yet these
shadows of truth, these false images, these fictitious realities, have
made heroism tremble, turned the eloquence of wisdom into folly, and
bowed down the spirit of honour itself.
Not that the legitimate use of RIDICULE is denied: the wisest men have
been some of the most exquisite ridiculers; from Socrates to the
Fathers, and from the Fathers to Erasmus, and from Erasmus to Butler
and Swift. Ridicule is more efficacious than argument; when that keen
instrument cuts what cannot be untied. "The Rehearsal" wrote down the
unnatural taste for the rhyming heroic tragedies, and brought the
nation back from sound to sense, from rant to passion. More important
events may be traced in the history of Ridicule. When a certain set of
intemperate Puritans, in the reign of Elizabeth, the ridiculous
reformists of abuses in Church and State, congregated themselves under
the literary _nom de guerre_ of _Martin Mar-prelate_, a stream of
libels ran throughout the nation. The grave discourses of the
archbishop and the prelates could never silence the hardy and
concealed libellers. They employed a moveable printing-press, and the
publishers perpetually shifting their place, long escaped detection.
They declared their works were "printed in Europe, not far from some
of the bouncing priests;" or they were "printed over sea, in Europe,
within two furlongs of a bouncing priest, at the cost and charges of
Martin Mar-prelate, gent." It was then that TOM NASH, whom I am about
to introduce to the reader's more familiar acquaintance, the most
exquisite banterer of that age of genius, turned on them their own
weapons, and annihilated them into silence when they found themselves
paid in their own base coin. He rebounded their popular ribaldry on
themselves, with such replies as "Pap with a hatchet, or a fig for my
godson; or, crack me this nut. To be sold, at the sign of the
Crab-tree Cudgel, in Thwack-coat lane."[81] Not less biting was his
"Almond for a Parrot, or an Alms for Martin." Nash first silenced
_Martin Mar-prelate_, and the government afterwards hanged him; Nash
might be vain of the greater honour. A ridiculer then is the best
champion to meet another ridiculer; their scurrilities magically undo
each other.
But the abuse of ridicule is not one of the least calamities of
literature, when it withers genius, and gibbets whom it ought to
enshrine. Never let us forget that Socrates before his judges asserted
that "his persecution originated in the licensed raillery of
Aristophanes, which had so unduly influenced the popular mind during
_several years_!" And thus a fictitious Socrates, not the great
moralist, was condemned. Armed with the most licentious ridicule, the
Aretine of our own country and times has proved that its chief
magistrate was not protected by the shield of domestic and public
virtues; a false and distorted image of an intelligent monarch could
cozen the gross many, and aid the purposes of the subtle few.
There is a plague-spot in ridicule, and the man who is touched with
it can be sent forth as the jest of his country.
The literary reign of Elizabeth, so fertile in every kind of genius,
exhibits a remarkable instance, in the controversy between the witty
Tom Nash and the learned Gabriel Harvey. It will illustrate the nature
of _the fictions of ridicule_, expose the materials of which its
shafts are composed, and the secret arts by which ridicule can level a
character which seems to be placed above it.
GABRIEL HARVEY was an author of considerable rank, but with two
learned brothers, as Wood tells us, "had the ill luck to fall into the
hands of that noted and restless buffoon, Tom Nash."
Harvey is not unknown to the lover of poetry, from his connexion with
Spenser, who loved and revered him. He is the Hobynol whose poem is
prefixed to the "Faery Queen," who introduced Spenser to Sir Philip
Sidney: and, besides his intimacy with the literary characters of his
times, he was a Doctor of Laws, an erudite scholar, and distinguished
as a poet. Such a man could hardly be contemptible; and yet, when some
little peculiarities become aggravated, and his works are touched by
the caustic of the most adroit banterer of that age of wit, no
character has descended to us with such grotesque deformity, exhibited
in so ludicrous an attitude.
Harvey was a pedant, but pedantry was part of the erudition of an age
when our national literature was passing from its infancy; he
introduced hexameter verses into our language, and pompously laid
claim to an invention which, designed for the reformation of English
verse, was practised till it was found sufficiently ridiculous. His
style was infected with his pedantic taste; and the hard outline of
his satirical humour betrays the scholastic cynic, not the airy and
fluent wit. He had, perhaps, the foibles of a man who was clearing
himself from obscurity; he prided himself on his family alliances,
while he fastidiously looked askance on the trade of his father--a
rope-manufacturer.
He was somewhat rich in his apparel, according to the rank in society
he held; and, hungering after the notice of his friends, they fed him
on soft sonnet and relishing dedication, till Harvey ventured to
publish a collection of panegyrics on himself--and thus gravely
stepped into a niche erected to Vanity. At length he and his two
brothers--one a divine and the other a physician--became students of
astronomy; then an astronomer usually ended in an almanac-maker, and
above all, in an astrologer--an avocation which tempted a man to
become a prophet. Their "sharp and learned judgment on earthquakes"
drove the people out of their senses (says Wood); but when nothing
happened of their predictions, the brothers received a severe
castigation from those great enemies of prophets, the wits. The
buffoon, Tarleton, celebrated for his extempore humour, jested on them
at the theatre;[82] Elderton, a drunken ballad-maker, "consumed his
ale-crammed nose to nothing in bear-bating them with bundles of
ballads."[83] One on the earthquake commenced with "Quake! quake!
quake!" They made the people laugh at their false terrors, or, as Nash
humorously describes their fanciful panic, "when they sweated and were
not a haire the worse." Thus were the three learned brothers beset by
all the town-wits; Gabriel had the hardihood, with all undue gravity,
to charge pell-mell among the whole knighthood of drollery; a
circumstance probably alluded to by Spenser, in a sonnet addressed to
Harvey--
"Harvey, the happy above happier men,
I read; that sitting like a looker-on
Of this worlde's stage, dost note with _critique pen_
The sharp dislikes of each condition;
And, as one carelesse of suspition,
Ne fawnest for the favour of the great;
_Ne fearest foolish reprehension
Of faulty men, which daunger to thee threat_,
But freely doest of what thee list, entreat,
Like a great lord of peerlesse liberty.--"
The "foolish reprehension of faulty men, threatening Harvey with
danger," describes that gregarious herd of town-wits in the age of
Elizabeth--Kit Marlow, Robert Greene, Dekker, Nash, &c.--men of no
moral principle, of high passions, and the most pregnant Lucianic
wits who ever flourished at one period.[84] Unfortunately for the
learned Harvey, his "critique pen," which is strange in so polished
a mind and so curious a student, indulged a sharpness of invective
which would have been peculiar to himself, had his adversary, Nash,
not quite outdone him. Their pamphlets foamed against each other,
till Nash, in his vehement invective, involved the whole generation
of the Harveys, made one brother more ridiculous than the other, and
even attainted the fair name of Gabriel's respectable sister.
Gabriel, indeed, after the death of Robert Greene, the crony of Nash,
sitting like a vampyre on his grave, sucked blood from his corpse,
in a memorable narrative of the debaucheries and miseries of this
town-wit. I throw into the note the most awful satirical address I
ever read.[85] It became necessary to dry up the floodgates of
these rival ink-horns, by an order of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The order is a remarkable fragment of our literary history, and is
thus expressed:--"That all Nashe's bookes and Dr. Harvey's bookes be
taken wheresoever they may be found, and that none of the said bookes
be ever printed hereafter."
This extraordinary circumstance accounts for the excessive rarity of
Harvey's "Foure Letters, 1592," and that literary scourge of Nash's,
"Have with you to Saffron-Walden (Harvey's residence), or Gabriel
Harvey's Hunt is vp, 1596;" pamphlets now as costly as if they
consisted of leaves of gold.[87]
Nash, who, in his other works, writes in a style as flowing as
Addison's, with hardly an obsolete vestige, has rather injured this
literary invective by the evident burlesque he affects of Harvey's
pedantic idiom; and for this Mr. Malone has hastily censured him,
without recollecting the aim of this modern Lucian.[88] The delicacy
of irony; the _sous-entendu_, that subtlety of indicating what is not
told; all that poignant satire, which is the keener for its polish,
were not practised by our first vehement satirists; but a bantering
masculine humour, a style stamped in the heat of fancy, with all the
life-touches of strong individuality, characterise these licentious
wits. They wrote then as the old _fabliers_ told their tales, naming
everything by its name; our refinement cannot approve, but it cannot
diminish their real nature, and among our elaborate graces, their
_naïveté_ must be still wanting.
In this literary satire NASH has interwoven a kind of ludicrous
biography of Harvey; and seems to have anticipated the character of
Martinus Scriblerus. I leave the grosser parts of this invective
untouched; for my business is not with _slander_, but with _ridicule_.
Nash opens as a skilful lampooner; he knew well that ridicule, without
the appearance of truth, was letting fly an arrow upwards, touching no
one. Nash accounts for his protracted silence by adroitly declaring
that he had taken these two or three years to get perfect intelligence
of Harvey's "Life and conversation; one true point whereof well sat
downe will more excruciate him than _knocking him about the ears with
his own style_ in a hundred sheets of paper."
And with great humour says--
"As long as it is since he writ against me, so long have I given him a
lease of his life, and he hath only held it by my mercy; and now let
him thank his friends for this heavy load of disgrace I lay upon him,
since I do it but to show my sufficiency; and they urging what a
triumph he had over me, hath made me ransack my standish more than I
would."
In the history of such a literary hero as Gabriel, the birth has ever
been attended by portents. Gabriel's mother "dreamt a dream," that she
was delivered "of an immense elder gun that can shoot nothing but
pellets of chewed paper; and thought, instead of a boy, she was
brought to bed of one of those kistrell birds called a wind-sucker."
At the moment of his birth came into the world "a calf with a double
tongue, and eares longer than any ass's, with his feet turned
backwards." Facetious analogies of Gabriel's literary genius!
He then paints to the life the grotesque portrait of Harvey; so that
the man himself stands alive before us. "He was of an adust swarth
choleric dye, like restie bacon, or a dried scate-fish; his skin
riddled and crumpled like a piece of burnt parchment, with channels
and creases in his face, and wrinkles and frets of old age." Nash
dexterously attributes this premature old age to his own talents;
exulting humorously--
"I have brought him low, and shrewdly broken him; look on his head,
and you shall find a gray haire for euerie line I have writ against
him; and you shall haue all his beard white too by the time he hath
read ouer this booke."
To give a finishing to the portrait, and to reach the climax of
personal contempt, he paints the sordid misery in which he lived at
Saffron-Walden:--"Enduring more hardness than a camell, who will liue
four dayes without water, and feedes on nothing but thistles and
wormwood, as he feeds on his estate on trotters, sheep porknells, and
buttered rootes, in an hexameter meditation."
In his Venetian velvet and pantofles of pride, we are told--
"He looks, indeed, like a case of tooth-pickes, or a lute-pin stuck in
a suit of apparell. An Vsher of a dancing-schoole, he is such a _basia
de vmbra de vmbra de los pedes_; a kisser of the shadow of your feetes
shadow he is!"
This is, doubtless, a portrait resembling the original, with its
Cervantic touches; Nash would not have risked what the eyes of his
readers would instantly have proved to be fictitious; and, in fact,
though the _Grangerites_ know of no portrait of Gabriel Harvey, they
will find a woodcut of him by the side of this description; it is,
indeed, in a most pitiable attitude, expressing that gripe of
criticism which seized on Gabriel "upon the news of the going in hand
of my booke."
The ponderosity and prolixity of Gabriel's "period of a mile," are
described with a facetious extravagance, which may be given as a
specimen of the eloquence of ridicule. Harvey entitled his various
pamphlets "Letters."
"More letters yet from the doctor? Out upon it, here's a packet of
epistling, as bigge as a packe of woollen cloth, or a stack of salt
fish. Carrier, didst thou bring it by wayne, or by horsebacke? By
wayne, sir, and it hath crackt me three axle-trees.--_Heavie_ newes!
Take them again! I will never open them.--My cart (quoth he,
deep-sighing,) hath cryde creake under them fortie times euerie
furlong; wherefore if you be a good man rather make mud-walls with
them, mend highways, or damme up quagmires with them.
"When I came to unrip and unbumbast[89] this _Gargantuan_ bag pudding,
and found nothing in it but dogs tripes, swines livers, oxe galls, and
sheepes guts, I was in a bitterer chafe than anie cooke at a long
sermon, when his meat burnes.
"O 'tis an vnsconscionable vast gor-bellied volume, bigger bulkt than
a Dutch hoy, and more cumbersome than a payre of Switzer's galeaze
breeches."[90]
And in the same ludicrous style he writes--
"One epistle thereof to John Wolfe (Harvey's printer) I took and
weighed in an ironmonger's scale, and it counter poyseth a cade[91] of
herrings with three Holland cheeses. It was rumoured about the Court
that the guard meant to trie masteries with it before the Queene, and
instead of throwing the sledge, or the hammer, to hurle it foorth at
the armes end for a wager.
"Sixe and thirtie sheets it comprehendeth, which with him is but sixe
and thirtie full points (periods); for he makes no more difference
'twixt a sheet of paper and a full pointe, than there is 'twixt two
black puddings for a pennie, and a pennie for a pair of black
puddings. Yet these are but the shortest prouerbes of his wit, for he
never bids a man good morrow, but he makes a speech as long as a
proclamation, nor drinkes to anie, but he reads a lecture of three
howers long, _de Arte bibendi_. O 'tis a precious apothegmatical
pedant."
It was the foible of Harvey to wish to conceal the humble avocation of
his father: this forms a perpetual source of the bitterness or the
pleasantry of Nash, who, indeed, calls his pamphlet "a full answer to
the eldest son of the halter maker," which, he says, "is death to
Gabriel to remember; wherefore from time to time he doth nothing but
turmoile his thoughts how to invent new pedigrees, and what great
nobleman's bastard he was likely to be, not whose sonne he is reputed
to be. Yet he would not have a shoo to put on his foote if his father
had not traffiqued with the hangman.--Harvey nor his brothers cannot
bear to be called the sonnes of a rope-maker, which, by his private
confession to some of my friends, was the only thing that most set him
afire against me. Turne over his two bookes he hath published against
me, wherein he hath clapt paper God's plentie, if that could press a
man to death, and see if, in the waye of answer, or otherwise, he once
mentioned _the word rope-maker_, or come within forty foot of it;
except in one place of his first booke, where he nameth it not
neither, but goes thus cleanly to worke:--'and may not a good sonne
have a reprobate for his father?' a periphrase of a rope-maker, which,
if I should shryue myself, I never heard before." According to Nash,
Gabriel took his oath before a justice, that his father was an honest
man, and kept his sons at the Universities a long time. "I confirmed
it, and added, Ay! which is more, three proud sonnes, that when they
met the hangman, their father's best customer, would not put off their
hats to him--"
Such repeated raillery on this foible of Harvey touched him more to
the quick, and more raised the public laugh, than any other point
of attack; for it was merited. Another foible was, perhaps, the
finical richness of Harvey's dress, adopting the Italian fashions on
his return from Italy, "when he made no bones of taking the wall
of Sir Philip Sidney, in his black Venetian velvet."[92] On this the
fertile invention of Nash raises a scandalous anecdote concerning
Gabriel's wardrobe; "a tale of his hobby-horse reuelling and
domineering at Audley-end, when the Queen was there; to which place
Gabriel came ruffling it out, hufty tufty, in his suit of veluet--"
which he had "untrussed, and pelted the outside from the lining of
an old velvet saddle he had borrowed!" "The rotten mould of that
worm-eaten relique, he means, when he dies, to hang over his tomb for
a monument."[93] Harvey was proud of his refined skill in "Tuscan
authors," and too fond of their worse conceits. Nash alludes to
his travels in Italy, "to fetch him twopenny worth of Tuscanism,
quite renouncing his natural English accents and gestures, wrested
himself wholly to the Italian punctilios, painting himself like a
courtezan, till the Queen declared, 'he looked something like an
Italian!' At which he roused his plumes, pricked his ears, and run
away with the bridle betwixt his teeth." These were malicious
tales, to make his adversary contemptible, whenever the merry wits at
court were willing to sharpen themselves on him.
One of the most difficult points of attack was to break through that
bastion of sonnets and panegyrics with which Harvey had fortified
himself by the aid of his friends, against the assaults of Nash.
Harvey had been commended by the learned and the ingenious. Our
Lucian, with his usual adroitness, since he could not deny Harvey's
intimacy with Spenser and Sidney, gets rid of their suffrages by this
malicious sarcasm: "It is a miserable thing for a man to be said to
have had friends, and now to have neer a one left!" As for the others,
whom Harvey calls "his gentle and liberall friends," Nash boldly
caricatures the grotesque crew, as "tender itchie brained infants,
that cared not what they did, so they might come in print; worthless
whippets, and jack-straws, who meeter it in his commendation, whom he
would compare with the highest." The works of these young writers he
describes by an image exquisitely ludicrous and satirical:--
"These mushrumpes, who pester the world with their pamphlets, are like
those barbarous people in the hot countries, who, when they have bread
to make, doe no more than clap the dowe upon a post on the outside of
their houses, and there leave it to the sun to bake; so their
indigested conceipts, far rawer than anie dowe, at all adventures upon
the post they clap, pluck them off who will, and think they have made
as good a batch of poetrie as may be."
Of Harvey's list of friends he observes:--
"To a bead-roll of learned men and lords, he appeals, whether he be an
asse or no?"
Harvey had said, "Thomas Nash, from the top of his wit looking down
upon simple creatures, calleth Gabriel Harvey a dunce, a foole, an
ideot, a dolt, a goose cap, an asse, and so forth; for some of the
residue is not to be spoken but with his owne mannerly mouth; but he
should have shewed particularlie which wordes in my letters were the
wordes of a dunce; which sentences the sentences of a foole; which
arguments the arguments of an ideot; which opinions the opinions of a
dolt; which judgments the judgments of a goose-cap; which conclusions
the conclusions of an asse."[94]
Thus Harvey reasons, till he becomes unreasonable; one would have
imagined that the literary satires of our English Lucian had been
voluminous enough, without the mathematical demonstration. The
banterers seem to have put poor Harvey nearly out of his wits; he and
his friends felt their blows too profoundly; they were much too
thin-skinned, and the solemn air of Harvey in his graver moments at
their menaces is extremely ludicrous. They frequently called him
_Gabrielissime Gabriel_, which quintessence of himself seems to have
mightily affected him. They threatened to confute his letters till
eternity--which seems to have put him in despair. The following
passage, descriptive of Gabriel's distresses, may excite a smile.
"This grand confuter of my letters says, 'Gabriel, if there be any wit
or industrie in thee, now I will dare it to the vttermost; write of
what thou wilt, in what language thou wilt, and I will confute it, and
answere it. Take Truth's part, and I will proouve truth to be no
truth, marching ovt of thy dung-voiding mouth.' He will never leave me
as long as he is able to lift a pen, _ad infinitum_; if I reply, he
has a rejoinder; and for my brief _triplication_, he is prouided with
a _quadruplication_, and so he mangles my sentences, hacks my
arguments, wrenches my words, chops and changes my phrases, even to
the disjoyning and dislocation of my whole meaning."
Poor Harvey! he knew not that there was _nothing real_ in ridicule,
_no end_ to its merry malice!
Harvey's taste for hexameter verses, which he so unnaturally forced
into our language, is admirably ridiculed. Harvey had shown his taste
for these metres by a variety of poems, to whose subjects Nash thus
sarcastically alludes:--
"It had grown with him into such a dictionary custom, that no may-pole
in the street, no wether-cocke on anie church-steeple, no arbour, no
lawrell, no yewe-tree, he would ouerskip, without hayling in this
manner. After supper, if he chancst to play at cards with a queen of
harts in his hands, he would run upon men's and women's hearts all the
night."
And he happily introduces here one of the miserable hexameter conceits
of Harvey--
Stout hart and sweet hart, yet stoutest hart to be stooped.
Harvey's "Encomium Lauri" thus ridiculously commences,
What might I call this tree? A lawrell? O bonny lawrell,
Needes to thy bowes will I bow this knee, and vayle my bonetto;
which Nash most happily burlesques by describing Harvey under a
yew-tree at Trinity-hall, composing verses on the weathercock of
Allhallows in Cambridge:--
O thou wether-cocke that stands on the top of Allhallows,
Come thy wales down, if thou darst, for thy crowne, and take the
wall on us.
"The hexameter verse (says Nash) I graunt to be a gentleman of an
auncient house (so is many an English beggar), yet this clyme of our's
hee cannot thrive in; our speech is too craggy for him to set his
plough in; hee goes twitching and hopping in our language, like a man
running vpon quagmires, vp the hill in one syllable and down the dale
in another, retaining no part of that stately smooth gate which he
vaunts himself with amongst the Greeks and Latins."
The most humorous part in this Scribleriad, is a ludicrous narrative
of Harvey's expedition to the metropolis, for the sole purpose of
writing his "Pierce Supererogation," pitted against Nash's "Pierce's
Pennilesse." The facetious Nash describes the torpor and pertinacity
of his genius, by telling us he had kept Harvey at work--
"For seaven and thirtie weekes space while he lay at his printer's,
Wolfe, never stirring out of doors, or being churched all that
while--and that in the deadest season that might bee, hee lying in the
ragingest furie of the last plague where there dyde above 1600 a weeke
in London, ink-squittring and saracenically printing against mee.
Three quarters of a year thus immured hee remained, with his spirits
yearning empassionment, and agonised fury, thirst of revenge,
neglecting soul and bodies health to compasse it--sweating and dealing
upon it most intentively."[95]
The narrative proceeds with the many perils which Harvey's printer
encountered, by expense of diet, and printing for this bright genius
and his friends, whose works "would rust and iron-spot paper to have
their names breathed over it;" and that Wolfe designed "to get a
privilege betimes, forbidding of all others to sell waste-paper but
himselfe." The climax of the narrative, after many misfortunes, ends
with Harvey being arrested by the printer, and confined to Newgate,
where his sword is taken from him, to his perpetual disgrace. So much
did Gabriel endure for having written a book against Tom Nash!
But Harvey might deny some of these ludicrous facts.--Will he deny?
cries Nash--and here he has woven every tale the most watchful malice
could collect, varnished for their full effect. Then he adds,
"You see I have brought the doctor out of request at court; and it
shall cost me a fall, but I will get him howted out of the Vniuersitie
too, ere I giue him ouer." He tells us Harvey was brought on the stage
at Trinity-college, in "the exquisite comedie of Pedantius," where,
under "the finical fine schoolmaster, the just manner of his phrase,
they stufft his mouth with; and the whole buffianisme throughout his
bookes, they bolstered out his part with--euen to the carrying of his
gowne, his nice gate in his pantofles, or the affected accent of his
speech--Let him deny that there was a shewe made at Clarehall of him
and his brothers, called Tarrarantantara turba tumultuosa Trigonum
Tri-Harveyorum Tri-harmonia; and another shewe of the little minnow
his brother, at Peter-house, called Duns furens, Dick Harvey in a
frensie." The sequel is thus told:--"Whereupon Dick came and broke the
college glass windows, and Dr. Perne caused him to be set in the
stockes till the shewe was ended."
This "Duns furens, Dick Harvey in a frensie," was not only the
brother of one who ranked high in society and literature, but himself
a learned professor. Nash brings him down to "Pigmey Dick, that lookes
like a pound of goldsmith's candles, who had like to commit folly last
year with a milk-maid, as a friend of his very soberly informed me.
Little and little-wittied Dick, that hath vowed to live and die in
defence of Brutus and his Trojans."[96] An Herculean feat of this
"Duns furens," Nash tells us, was his setting Aristotle with his heels
upwards on the school-gates at Cambridge, and putting ass's ears on
his head, which Tom here records in _perpetuam rei memoriam_. But
Wood, our grave and keen literary antiquary, observes--
"To let pass other matters these vain men (the wits) report of Richard
Harvey, his works show him quite another person than what they make
him to be."
Nash then forms a ludicrous contrast between "witless Gabriel and
ruffling Richard." The astronomer Richard was continually baiting the
great bear in the firmament, and in his lectures set up atheistical
questions, which Nash maliciously adds, "as I am afraid the earth
would swallow me if I should but rehearse." And at his close, Nash
bitterly regrets he has no more room; "else I should make Gabriel a
fugitive out of England, being the rauenousest slouen that ever lapt
porridge in noblemen's houses, where he has had already, out of two,
his mittimus of Ye may be gone! for he was a sower of seditious
paradoxes amongst kitchen-boys." Nash seems to have considered himself
as terrible as an Archilochus, whose satires were so fatal as to
induce the satirised, after having read them, to hang themselves.
How ill poor Harvey passed through these wit-duels, and how profoundly
the wounds inflicted on him and his brothers were felt, appears by his
own confessions. In his "Foure Letters," after some curious
observations on invectives and satires, from those of Archilochus,
Lucian, and Aretine, to Skelton and Scoggin, and "the whole venomous
and viperous brood of old and new raylers," he proceeds to blame even
his beloved friend the gentle Spenser, for the severity of his "Mother
Hubbard's Tale," a satire on the court. "I must needes say, Mother
Hubbard in heat of choller, forgetting the pure sanguine of her
Sweete Feary Queene, artfully ouershott her malcontent-selfe; as
elsewhere I have specified at large, with the good leaue of vnspotted
friendship.--Sallust and Clodius learned of Tully to frame artificiall
declamations and patheticall invectives against Tully himselfe; if
Mother Hubbard, in the vaine of Chawcer, happen to tel one canicular
tale, father Elderton and his son Greene, in the vaine of Skelton or
Scoggin, will counterfeit an hundred dogged fables, libles, slaunders,
lies, for the whetstone. But many will sooner lose their liues than
the least jott of their reputation. What mortal feudes, what cruel
bloodshed, what terrible slaughterdome have been committed for the
point of honour and some few courtly ceremonies."
The incidents so plentifully narrated in this Lucianic biography, the
very nature of this species of satire throws into doubt; yet they
still seem shadowed out from some truths; but the truths who can
unravel from the fictions? And thus a narrative is consigned to
posterity which involves illustrious characters in an inextricable
network of calumny and genius.
Writers of this class alienate themselves from human kind, they break
the golden bond which holds them to society; and they live among us
like a polished banditti. In these copious extracts, I have not
noticed the more criminal insinuations against the Harveys; I have
left the grosser slanders untouched. My object has been only to trace
the effects of ridicule, and to detect its artifices, by which the
most dignified characters may be deeply injured at the pleasure of a
Ridiculer. The wild mirth of ridicule, aggravating and taunting real
imperfections, and fastening imaginary ones on the victim in idle
sport or ill-humour, strikes at the most brittle thing in the world, a
man's good reputation, for delicate matters which are not under the
protection of the law, but in which so much of personal happiness is
concerned.
FOOTNOTES:
[80] Of AKENSIDE few particulars have been recorded, for the friend
who best knew him was of so cold a temper with regard to
public opinion, that he has not, in his account, revealed a
solitary feature in the character of the poet. Yet Akenside's
mind and manners were of a fine romantic cast, drawn from the
moulds of classical antiquity. Such was the charm of his
converse, that he even heated the cold and sluggish mind of
Sir John Hawkins, who has, with unusual vivacity, described a
day spent with him in the country. As I have mentioned the
fictitious physician in "Peregrine Pickle," let the same page
show the real one. I shall transcribe Sir John's forgotten
words--omitting his "neat and elegant dinner:"--"Akenside's
conversation was of the most delightful kind, learned,
instructive, and, without any affectation of wit, cheerful and
entertaining. One of the pleasantest days of my life I passed
with him, Mr. Dyson, and another friend, at Putney--where the
enlivening sunshine of a summer's day, and the view of an
unclouded sky, were the least of our gratifications. In
perfect good-humour with himself and all about him, he seemed
to feel a joy that he lived, and poured out his gratulations
to the great Dispenser of all felicity in expressions that
Plato himself might have uttered on such an occasion. In
conversations with select friends, and those whose studies had
been nearly the same with his own, it was a usual thing with
him, in libations to the memory of eminent men among the
ancients, to bring their characters into view, and expatiate
on those particulars of their lives that had rendered them
famous." Observe the arts of the ridiculer! he seized on the
romantic enthusiasm of Akenside, and turned it to _the cookery
of the ancients_!
[81] This pamphlet has been ascribed to John Lilly, but it must be
confessed that its native vigour strangely contrasts with the
famous _Euphuism_ of that refined writer. [There can, however,
be little doubt that he was the author of this tract, as he is
alluded to more than once as such by Harvey in his "Pierce's
Supererogation;"--"would that Lilly had alwaies been _Euphues_
and never _Pap-hatchet_."--ED.]
[82] Tarleton appears to have had considerable power of extemporising
satirical rhymes on the fleeting events of his own day. A
collection of his Jests was published in 1611; the following
is a favourable specimen:--"There was a nobleman asked
Tarleton what he thought of soldiers in time of peace. Marry,
quoth he, they are like chimneys in summer."--ED.
[83] A long list of Elderton's popular rhymes is given by Ritson in
his "Bibliographia Poetica." One of them, on the "King of
Scots and Andrew Browne," is published in Percy's "Reliques,"
who speaks of him as "a facetious fuddling companion, whose
tippling and whose rhymes rendered him famous among his
contemporaries." Ritson is more condensed and less civil in
his analysis; he simply describes him as "a ballad-maker by
profession, and drunkard by habit."--ED.
[84] Harvey, in the title-page of his "Pierce's Supererogation," has
placed an emblematic woodcut, expressive of his own
confidence, and his contempt of the wits. It is a lofty
palm-tree, with its durable and impenetrable trunk; at its
feet lie a heap of serpents, darting their tongues, and filthy
toads, in vain attempting to pierce or to pollute it. The
Italian motto, wreathed among the branches of the palm,
declares, _Il vostro malignare non giova nulla_: Your
malignity avails nothing.
[85] Among those Sonnets, in Harvey's "Foure Letters, and certaine
Sonnets, especially touching Robert Greene and other parties
by him abused, 1592," there is one, which, with great
originality of conception, has an equal vigour of style, and
causticity of satire, on Robert Greene's death. John Harvey
the physician, who was then dead, is thus made to address the
town-wit, and the libeller of himself and his family. If
Gabriel was the writer of this singular Sonnet, as he
undoubtedly is of the verses to Spenser, subscribed Hobynol,
it must be confessed he is a Poet, which he never appears in
his English hexameters:--
JOHN HARVEY the Physician's Welcome to ROBERT GREENE!
"Come, fellow Greene, come to thy gaping grave,
Bid vanity and foolery farewell,
That ouerlong hast plaid the mad-brained knaue,
And ouerloud hast rung the bawdy bell.
Vermine to vermine must repair at last;
No fitter house for busie folke to dwell;
Thy conny-catching pageants are past[86],
Some other must those arrant stories tell;
These hungry wormes thinke long for their repast;
Come on; I pardon thy offence to me;
It was thy living; be not so aghast!
A fool and a physitian may agree!
And for my brothers never vex thyself;
They are not to disease a buried elfe."
[86] Greene had written "The Art of Coney-catching." He was a great
adept in the arts of a town-life.
[87] Sir Egerton Brydges in his reprint of "Greene's Groatsworth of
Wit," has given the only passage from "The Quip for an Upstart
Courtier," which at all alludes to Harvey's father. He says
with great justice, "there seems nothing in it sufficiently
offensive to account for the violence of Harvey's anger." The
Rev. A. Dyce, so well known from his varied researches in our
dramatic literature, is of opinion that the offensive passage
has been removed from the editions which have come down to us.
Without some such key it is impossible to comprehend Harvey's
implacable hatred, or the words of himself and friends when
they describe Greene as an "impudent railer in an odious and
desperate mood," or his satire as "spiteful and villanous
abuse." The occasion of the quarrel was an attack by Richard
Harvey, who had the folly to "mis-term all our poets and
writers about London, _piperly make-plays_ and _make-bates_,"
as Nash informs us; "hence Greene being chief agent to the
company, for he writ more than four other, took occasion to
canvass him a little,--about some seven or eight lines, which
hath plucked on an invective of so many leaves."--ED.
[88] Nash was a great favourite with the wits of his day. One calls
him "our true English Aretine," another, "Sweet satyric Nash,"
a third describes his Muse as "armed with a gag-tooth (a
tusk), and his pen possessed with Hercules's furies." He is
well characterised in "The Return from Parnassus."
"His style was witty, tho' he had some gall;
Something he might have mended, so may all;
Yet this I say, that for _a mother's wit_,
Few men have ever seen the like of it."
Nash abounds with "Mother-wit;" but he was also educated at
the University, with every advantage of classical studies.
[89] _Bombast_ was the tailors' term in the Elizabethan era for the
stuffing of horsehair or wool used for the large breeches then
in fashion; hence the term was applied to high-sounding
phrases--"all sound and fury, signifying nothing."--ED.
[90] These were the loose heavy breeches so constantly worn by Swiss
soldiers as to become a national costume, and which has been
handed down to us by the artists of the day in a variety of
forms. They obtained the name of _galeaze_, from their
supposed resemblance to the broad-bottomed ship called a
galliass.--ED.
[91] A cade is 500 herrings; a great quantity of an article of no
value.
[92] Harvey's love of dress, and desire to indulge it cheaply, is
satirically alluded to by Nash, in confuting Harvey's
assertion that Greene's wardrobe at his death was not worth
more than three shillings--"I know a broker in a spruce
leather jerkin shall give you thirty shillings for the doublet
alone, if you can help him to it. Hark in your ear! he had a
very fair cloak, with sleeves of a goose green, it would serve
you as fine as may be. No more words; if you be wise, play the
good husband, and listen after it, you may buy it ten
shillings better cheap than it cost him. By St. Silver, it is
good to be circumspect in casting for the world; there's a
great many _ropes_ go to ten shillings? If you want a greasy
pair of silk stockings to shew yourself in the court, they are
there to be had too, amongst his moveables."--ED.
[93] This unlucky Venetian velvet coat of Harvey had also produced a
"Quippe for an Vpstart Courtier, or a quaint dispute between
Veluet-breeches and Cloth-breeches," which poor Harvey
declares was "one of the most licentious and intolerable
invectives." This blow had been struck by Greene on the
"Italianated" Courtier.
[94] "Pierce's Supererogation, or a new praise of the Old Asse,"
1593.
[95] Harvey's opponents were much nimbler penmen, and could strike
off these lampoons with all the facility of writers for the
stage. Thus Nash declares, in his "Have with you to Saffron
Walden," that he leaves Lilly, who was also attacked, to
defend himself, because "in as much time as he spends in
taking tobacco one week, he can compile that would make
Gabriell repent himself all his life after."--ED.
[96] He had written an antiquarian work on the descent of Brutus on
our island.--The party also who at the University attacked the
opinions of Aristotle were nicknamed the _Trojans_, as
determined enemies of the _Greeks_.
LITERARY HATRED.
EXHIBITING A CONSPIRACY AGAINST AN AUTHOR.
In the peaceful walks of literature we are startled at discovering
genius with the mind, and, if we conceive the instrument it guides to
be a stiletto, with the hand of an assassin--irascible, vindictive,
armed with indiscriminate satire, never pardoning the merit of rival
genius, but fastening on it throughout life, till, in the moral
retribution of human nature, these very passions, by their ungratified
cravings, have tended to annihilate the being who fostered them. These
passions among literary men are with none more inextinguishable than
among _provincial writers_.--Their bad feelings are concentrated by
their local contraction. The proximity of men of genius seems to
produce a familiarity which excites hatred or contempt; while he who
is afflicted with disordered passions imagines that he is urging his
own claims to genius by denying them to their possessor. A whole life
passed in harassing the industry or the genius which he has not
equalled; and instead of running the open career as a competitor, only
skulking as an assassin by their side, is presented in the object now
before us.
Dr. GILBERT STUART seems early in life to have devoted himself to
literature; but his habits were irregular, and his passions fierce.
The celebrity of Robertson, Blair, and Henry, with other Scottish
brothers, diseased his mind with a most envious rancour. He confined
all his literary efforts to the pitiable motive of destroying theirs;
he was prompted to every one of his historical works by the mere
desire of discrediting some work of Robertson; and his numerous
critical labours were all directed to annihilate the genius of his
country. How he converted his life into its own scourge, how wasted
talents he might have cultivated into perfection, lost every trace of
humanity, and finally perished, devoured by his own fiend-like
passions,--shall be illustrated by the following narrative, collected
from a correspondence now lying before me, which the author carried on
with his publisher in London. I shall copy out at some length the
hopes and disappointments of the literary adventurer--the colours are
not mine; I am dipping my pencil in the palette of the artist
himself.
In June, 1773, was projected in the Scottish capital "The Edinburgh
Magazine and Review." Stuart's letters breathe the spirit of rapturous
confidence. He had combined the sedulous attention of the intelligent
Smellie, who was to be the printer, with some very honourable critics;
Professor Baron, Dr. Blacklock, and Professor Richardson; and the
first numbers were executed with more talent than periodical
publications had then exhibited. But the hardiness of Stuart's
opinions, his personal attacks, and the acrimony of his literary
libels, presented a new feature in Scottish literature, of such
ugliness and horror, that every honourable man soon averted his face
from this _boutefeu_.
He designed to ornament his first number with--
"A print of my Lord Monboddo in his quadruped form. I must, therefore,
most earnestly beg that you will purchase for me a copy of it in some
of the Macaroni print shops. It is not to be procured at Edinburgh.
They are afraid to vend it here. We are to take it on the footing of a
figure of an animal, not yet described; and are to give a grave, yet
satirical account of it, in the manner of Buffon. It would not be
proper to allude to his lordship but in a very distant manner."
It was not, however, ventured on; and the nondescript animal was still
confined to the windows of "the Macaroni print shops." It was,
however, the bloom of the author's fancy, and promised all the mellow
fruits it afterwards produced.
In September this ardour did not abate:--
"The proposals are issued; the subscriptions in the booksellers' shops
astonish; correspondents flock in; and, what will surprise you, the
timid proprietors of the 'Scots' Magazine' have come to the resolution
of dropping their work. You stare at all this, and so do I too."
Thus he flatters himself he is to annihilate his rival, without even
striking the first blow. The appearance of his first number is to be
the moment when their last is to come forth. Authors, like the
discoverers of mines, are the most sanguine creatures in the world:
Gilbert Stuart afterwards flattered himself Dr. Henry was lying at the
point of death from the scalping of his tomahawk pen; but of this
anon.
On the publication of the first number, in November, 1773, all is
exultation; and an account is facetiously expected that "a thousand
copies had emigrated from the Row and Fleet-street."
There is a serious composure in the letter of December, which seems to
be occasioned by the tempered answer of his London correspondent. The
work was more suited to the meridian of Edinburgh; and from causes
sufficiently obvious, its personality and causticity. Stuart, however,
assures his friend that "the second number you will find better than
the first, and the third better than the second."
The next letter is dated March 4, 1774, in which I find our author
still in good spirits:--
"The Magazine rises, and promises much, in this quarter. Our artillery
has silenced all opposition. The rogues of the 'uplifted hands'
decline the combat." These rogues are the clergy, and some others, who
had "uplifted hands" from the vituperative nature of their adversary;
for he tells us that, "now the clergy are silent, the town-council
have had the presumption to oppose us; and have threatened Creech (the
publisher in Edinburgh) with the terror of making him a constable for
his insolence. A pamphlet on the abuses of Heriot's Hospital,
including a direct proof of perjury in the provost, was the punishment
inflicted in return. And new papers are forging to chastise them, in
regard to the poors' rate, which is again started; the improper choice
of professors; and violent stretches of the impost. The _liberty of
the press_, in its fullest extent, is to be employed against them."
Such is the language of reform, and the spirit of a reformist! A
little private malignity thus ferments a good deal of public spirit;
but patriotism must be independent to be pure. If the "Edinburgh
Review" continues to succeed in its sale, as Stuart fancies,
Edinburgh itself may be in some danger. His perfect contempt of
his contemporaries is amusing:--
"Monboddo's second volume is published, and, with Kaimes, will appear
in our next; the former is a childish performance; the latter rather
better. We are to treat them with a good deal of freedom. I observe an
amazing falling off in the English Reviews. We beat them hollow. I
fancy they have no assistance but from the Dissenters,--a dull body of
men. The Monthly will not easily recover the death of Hawkesworth; and
I suspect that Langhorne has forsaken them; for I see no longer his
pen."
We are now hastening to the sudden and the moral catastrophe of our
tale. The thousand copies which had emigrated to London remained
there, little disturbed by public inquiry; and in Scotland, the
personal animosity against almost every literary character there,
which had inflamed the sale, became naturally the latent cause of its
extinction; for its life was but a feverish existence, and its florid
complexion carried with it the seeds of its dissolution. Stuart at
length quarrelled with his coadjutor, Smellie, for altering his
reviews. Smellie's prudential dexterity was such, that, in an article
designed to level Lord Kaimes with Lord Monboddo, the whole libel was
completely metamorphosed into a panegyric. They were involved in a
lawsuit about "a blasphemous paper." And now the enraged Zoilus
complains of "his hours of peevishness and dissatisfaction." He
acknowledges that "a circumstance had happened which had broke his
peace and ease altogether for some weeks." And now he resolves that
this great work shall quietly sink into a mere compilation from the
London periodical works. Such, then, is the progress of malignant
genius! The author, like him who invented the brazen bull of Phalaris,
is writhing in that machine of tortures he had contrived for others.
We now come to a very remarkable passage: it is the frenzied language
of disappointed wickedness.
"_17 June, 1774._
"It is an infinite disappointment to me that the Magazine does not
grow in London; I thought the soil had been richer. But it is my
constant fate to be disappointed in everything I attempt; I do not
think I ever had a wish that was gratified; and never dreaded an
event that did not come. With this felicity of fate, I wonder how
the devil I could turn projector. I am now sorry that I left
London; and the moment that I have money enough to carry me back
to it, I shall set off. _I mortally detest and abhor this place,
and everybody in it._ Never was there a city where there was so
much pretension to knowledge, and that had so little of it. The
solemn foppery, and the gross stupidity of the Scottish literati,
are perfectly insupportable. I shall drop my idea of a Scots
newspaper. Nothing will do in this country that has common sense
in it; only cant, hypocrisy, and superstition will flourish here.
_A curse on the country, and all the men, women, and children of
it!_"
Again.--"The publication is too good for the country. There are very
few men of taste or erudition on this side of the Tweed. Yet every
idiot one meets with lays claim to both. Yet the success of the
Magazine is in reality greater than we could expect, considering
that we have every clergyman in the kingdom to oppose it, and that
the magistracy of the place are every moment threatening its
destruction."
And, therefore, this recreant Scot anathematizes the Scottish people
for not applauding blasphemy, calumny, and every species of literary
criminality! Such are the monstrous passions that swell out the
poisonous breast of genius, deprived of every moral restraint; and
such was the demoniac irritability which prompted a wish in Collot
d'Herbois to set fire to the four quarters of the city of Lyons;
while, in his "tender mercies," the kennels of the streets were
running with the blood of its inhabitants--remembering still that the
Lyonese had, when he was a miserable actor, hissed him off the stage!
Stuart curses his country, and retreats to London. Fallen, but not
abject; repulsed, but not altered; degraded, but still haughty. No
change of place could operate any in his heart. He was born in
literary crime, and he perished in it. It was now "The English Review"
was instituted, with his idol Whitaker, the historian of Manchester,
and others. He says, "To Whitaker he assigns the palm of history in
preference to Hume and Robertson." I have heard that he considered
himself higher than Whitaker, and ranked himself with Montesquieu. He
negotiated for Whitaker and himself a Doctor of Laws' degree; and they
were now in the titular possession of all the fame which a dozen
pieces could bestow! In "The English Review" broke forth all the
genius of Stuart in an unnatural warfare of Scotchmen in London
against Scotchmen at Edinburgh. "The bitter herbs," which seasoned it
against Blair, Robertson, Gibbon, and the ablest authors of the age,
at first provoked the public appetite, which afterwards indignantly
rejected the palatable garbage.
But to proceed with our _Literary Conspiracy_, which was conducted by
Stuart with a pertinacity of invention perhaps not to be paralleled in
literary history. That the peace of mind of such an industrious author
as Dr. HENRY was for a considerable time destroyed; that the sale of a
work on which Henry had expended much of his fortune and his life was
stopped; and that, when covered with obloquy and ridicule, in despair
he left Edinburgh for London, still encountering the same hostility;
that all this was the work of the same hand perhaps was never even
known to its victim. The multiplied forms of this Proteus of the
Malevoli were still but one devil; fire or water, or a bull or a lion;
still it was the same Proteus, the same Stuart.
From the correspondence before me I am enabled to collect the
commencement and the end of this literary conspiracy, with all its
intermediate links. It thus commences:--
"_25 Nov. 1773._
"We have been attacked from different quarters, and Dr. Henry in
particular has given a long and a dull defence of his sermon. I
have replied to it with a degree of spirit altogether unknown in
this country. The reverend historian was perfectly astonished, and
has actually invited the Society for Propagating Christian
Knowledge to arm in his cause! I am about to be persecuted by the
whole clergy, and I am about to persecute them in my turn. They
are hot and zealous; I am cool and dispassionate, like a
determined sceptic; since I have entered the lists, I must fight;
I must gain the victory, or perish like a man."
"_13 Dec. 1773._
"David Hume wants to review Henry; but that task is so precious
that I will undertake it myself. Moses, were he to ask it as a
favour, should not have it; yea, not even the man after God's own
heart."
"_4 March, 1774._
"This month Henry is utterly demolished; his sale is stopped, many
of his copies are returned; and his old friends have forsaken him;
pray, in what state is he in London? Henry has delayed his London
journey; you cannot easily conceive how exceedingly he is
humbled.[97]
"I wish I could transport myself to London to review him for the
Monthly. A fire there, and in the Critical, would perfectly
annihilate him. Could you do nothing in the latter? To the former
I suppose David Hume has transcribed the criticism he intended for
us. It is precious, and would divert you. I keep a proof of it in
my cabinet for the amusement of friends. This great philosopher
begins to dote."[98]
Stuart prepares to assail Henry, on his arrival in London, from
various quarters--to lower the value of his history in the estimation
of the purchasers.
"_21 March, 1774._
"To-morrow morning Henry sets off for London, with immense hopes
of selling his history. I wish he had delayed till our last review
of him had reached your city. But I really suppose that he has
little probability of getting any gratuity. The trade are too
sharp to give precious gold for perfect nonsense. I wish sincerely
that I could enter Holborn the same hour with him. He should have
a repeated fire to combat with. I entreat that you may be so kind
as to let him feel some of your thunder. I shall never forget the
favour. If Whitaker is in London, he could give a blow. Paterson
will give him a knock. Strike by all means. The wretch will
tremble, grow pale, and return with a consciousness of his
debility. I entreat I may hear from you a day or two after you
have seen him. He will complain grievously of me to Strahan and
Rose. I shall send you a paper about him--an advertisement from
Parnassus, in the manner of Boccalini."
"_March, 1774._
"Dr. Henry has by this time reached you. I think you ought to pay
your respects to him in the _Morning Chronicle_. If you would only
transcribe his jests, it would make him perfectly ridiculous. See,
for example, what he says of St. Dunstan. A word to the wise."
"_March 27, 1774._
"I have a thousand thanks to give you for your insertion of the
paper in the London _Chronicle_, and for the part you propose to
act in regard to Henry. I could wish that you knew for certain his
being in London before you strike the first blow. An inquiry at
Cadell's will give this. When you have an enemy to attack, I shall
in return give my best assistance, and aim at him a mortal blow,
and rush forward to his overthrow, though the flames of hell
should start up to oppose me.
"It pleases me, beyond what I can express, that Whitaker has an
equal contempt for Henry. The idiot threatened, when he left
Edinburgh, that he would find a method to manage the Reviews, and
that he would oppose their panegyric to our censure. Hume has
behaved ill in the affair, and I am preparing to chastise him.
You may expect a series of papers in the Magazine, pointing out a
multitude of his errors, and ascertaining his ignorance of English
history. It was too much for my temper to be assailed both by
infidels and believers. My pride could not submit to it. I shall
act in my defence with a spirit which it seems they have not
expected."
"_11 April, 1774._
"I received with infinite pleasure the annunciation of the great
man into the capital. It is forcible and excellent; and you have
my best thanks for it. You improve amazingly. The poor creature
will be stupified with amazement. Inclosed is a paper for him.
Boccalini will follow. I shall fall upon a method to let David
know Henry's transaction about his review. It is mean to the last
degree. But what could one expect from the most ignorant and the
most contemptible man alive? Do you ever see Macfarlane? He owes
me a favour for his history of George III., and would give a fire
for the packet. The idiot is to be Moderator for the ensuing
Assembly. It shall not, however, be without opposition.
"Would the paragraph about him from the inclosed leaf of the
'Edinburgh Review' be any disgrace to the _Morning Chronicle_?"
"_20th May, 1774._
"Boccalini I thought of transmitting, when the reverend historian,
for whose use it was intended, made his appearance at Edinburgh.
But it will not be lost. He shall most certainly see it. David's
critique was most acceptable. It is a curious specimen in one view
of insolent vanity, and in another of contemptible meanness. The
old historian begins to dote, and the new one was never out of
dotage."
"_3 April, 1775._
"I see every day that what is written to a man's disparagement is
never forgot nor forgiven. Poor Henry is on the point of death,
and his friends declare that I have killed him. I received the
information as a compliment, and begged they would not do me so
much honour."
But Henry and his history long survived Stuart and his _critiques_;
and Robertson, Blair, and Kaimes, with others he assailed, have all
taken their due ranks in public esteem. What niche does Stuart occupy?
His historical works possess the show, without the solidity, of
research; hardy paradoxes, and an artificial style of momentary
brilliancy, are none of the lasting materials of history. This shadow
of "Montesquieu," for he conceived him only to be his fit rival,
derived the last consolations of life from an obscure corner of a
Burton ale-house--there, in rival potations, with two or three other
disappointed authors, they regaled themselves on ale they could not
always pay for, and recorded their own literary celebrity, which had
never taken place. Some time before his death, his asperity was almost
softened by melancholy; with a broken spirit, he reviewed himself; a
victim to that unrighteous ambition which sought to build up its
greatness with the ruins of his fellow-countrymen; prematurely wasting
talents which might have been directed to literary eminence. And
Gilbert Stuart died as he had lived, a victim to intemperance,
physical and moral!
FOOTNOTES:
[97] It may be curious to present Stuart's idea of the literary
talents of Henry. Henry's unhappy turn for humour, and a style
little accordant with historical dignity, lie fairly open to
the critic's animadversion. But the research and application
of the writer, for that day, were considerable, and are still
appreciated. But we are told that "he neither furnishes
entertainment nor instruction. Diffuse, vulgar, and
ungrammatical, he strips history of all her ornaments. As an
antiquary, he wants accuracy and knowledge; and, as an
historian, he is destitute of fire, taste, and sentiment. His
work is a gazette, in which we find actions and events,
without their causes; and in which we meet with the names,
without the characters of personages. He has amassed all the
refuse and lumber of the times he would record." Stuart never
imagined that the time would arrive when the name of Henry
would be familiar to English readers, and by many that of
Stuart would not be recollected.
[98] The critique on Henry, in the _Monthly Review_, was written by
Hume--and, because the philosopher was candid, he is here said
to have doted.
UNDUE SEVERITY OF CRITICISM.
DR. KENRICK.--SCOTT OF AMWELL.
We have witnessed the malignant influence of illiberal criticism, not
only on literary men, but over literature itself, since it is the
actual cause of suppressing works which lie neglected, though
completed by their authors. The arts of literary condemnation, as they
may be practised by men of wit and arrogance, are well known; and it
is much less difficult than it is criminal, to scare the modest man of
learning, and to rack the man of genius, in that bright vision of
authorship sometimes indulged in the calm of their studies--a generous
emotion to inspire a generous purpose! With suppressed indignation,
shrinking from the press, such have condemned themselves to a
Carthusian silence; but the public will gain as little by silent
authors as by a community of lazy monks; or a choir of singers who
insist they have lost their voice. That undue severity of criticism
which diminishes the number of good authors, is a greater calamity
than even that mawkish panegyric which may invite indifferent ones;
for the truth is, a bad book produces no great evil in literature; it
dies soon, and naturally; and the feeble birth only disappoints its
unlucky parent, with a score of idlers who are the dupes of their rage
after novelty. A bad book never sells unless it be addressed to the
passions, and, in that case, the severest criticism will never impede
its circulation; malignity and curiosity being passions so much
stronger and less delicate than taste or truth.
And who are the authors marked out for attack? Scarcely one of the
populace of scribblers; for wit will not lose one silver shaft on game
which, struck, no one would take up. It must level at the Historian,
whose novel researches throw a light in the depths of antiquity; at
the Poet, who, addressing himself to the imagination, perishes if that
sole avenue to the heart be closed on him. Such are those who receive
the criticism which has sent some nervous authors to their graves, and
embittered the life of many whose talents we all regard.[99]
But this species of criticism, though ungenial and nipping at first,
does not always kill the tree which it has frozen over.
In the calamity before us, Time, that great autocrat, who in its
tremendous march destroys authors, also annihilates critics; and
acting in this instance with a new kind of benevolence, takes up some
who have been violently thrown down, and fixes them in their proper
place; and daily enfeebling unjust criticism, has restored an injured
author to his full honours.
It is, however, lamentable enough that authors must participate in
that courage which faces the cannon's mouth, or cease to be authors;
for military enterprise is not the taste of modest, retired, and
timorous characters. The late Mr. Cumberland used to say that authors
must not be thin-skinned, but shelled like the rhinoceros; there are,
however, more delicately tempered animals among them, new-born lambs,
who shudder at a touch, and die under a pressure.
As for those great authors (though the greatest shrink from ridicule)
who still retain public favour, they must be patient, proud, and
fearless--patient of that obloquy which still will stain their honour
from literary echoers; proud, while they are sensible that their
literary offspring is not
Deformed, unfinished, sent before its time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up.
And fearless of all critics, when they recollect the reply of Bentley
to one who threatened to write him down, "that no author was ever
written down but by himself."
An author must consider himself as an arrow shot into the world; his
impulse must be stronger than the current of air that carries him
on--else he fall!
The character I had proposed to illustrate this calamity was the
caustic Dr. KENRICK, who, once during several years, was, in his
"London Review," one of the great disturbers of literary repose. The
turn of his criticism; the airiness, or the asperity of his sarcasm;
the arrogance with which he treated some of our great authors, would
prove very amusing, and serve to display a certain talent of
criticism. The life of Kenrick, too, would have afforded some
wholesome instruction concerning the morality of a critic. But the
rich materials are not at hand! He was a man of talents, who ran a
race with the press; could criticise all the genius of the age faster
than it could be produced; could make his own malignity look like wit,
and turn the wit of others into absurdity, by placing it topsy-turvy.
As thus, when he attacked "The Traveller" of Goldsmith, which he
called "a flimsy poem," he discussed the subject as a grave political
pamphlet, condemning the whole system, as raised on false principles.
"The Deserted Village" was sneeringly pronounced to be "pretty;" but
then it had "neither fancy, dignity, genius, or fire." When he
reviewed Johnson's "Tour to the Hebrides," he decrees that the whole
book was written "by one who had seen but little," and therefore could
not be very interesting. His virulent attack on Johnson's Shakspeare
may be preserved for its total want of literary decency; and his "Love
in the Suds, a Town Eclogue," where he has placed Garrick with an
infamous character, may be useful to show how far witty malignity will
advance in the violation of moral decency. He libelled all the genius
of the age, and was proud of doing it.[100] Johnson and Akenside
preserved a stern silence: but poor Goldsmith, the child of Nature,
could not resist attempting to execute martial law, by caning the
critic; for which being blamed, he published a defence of himself in
the papers. I shall transcribe his feelings on Kenrick's excessive and
illiberal criticism.
"The law gives us no protection against this injury. The insults we
receive before the public, by being more open, are the more
distressing; by treating them with silent contempt, we do not pay a
sufficient deference to the opinion of the world. By recurring to
legal redress, we too often expose the weakness of the law, which only
serves to increase our mortification by failing to relieve us. In
short, every man should singly consider himself as a guardian of the
liberty of the press, and, as far as his influence can extend, should
endeavour to prevent its licentiousness becoming at last the grave of
its freedom."[101]
Here then is another calamity arising from the calamity of undue
severity of criticism, which authors bring on themselves by their
excessive anxiety, which throws them into some extremely ridiculous
attitudes; and surprisingly influences even authors of good sense and
temper. SCOTT, of Amwell, the Quaker and Poet, was, doubtless, a
modest and amiable man, for Johnson declared "he loved him." When his
poems were collected, they were reviewed in the "Critical Review" very
offensively to the poet; for the critic, alluding to the numerous
embellishments of the volume, observed that
"There is a profusion of ornaments and finery about this book not
quite suitable to the plainness and simplicity of the Barclean system;
but Mr. Scott is fond of the Muses, and wishes, we suppose, like
Captain Macheath, to see his ladies well dressed."
Such was the cold affected witticism of the critic, whom I intimately
knew--and I believe he meant little harm! His friends imagined even
that this was the solitary attempt at wit he had ever made in his
life; for after a lapse of years, he would still recur to it as an
evidence of the felicity of his fancy, and the keenness of his satire.
The truth is, he was a physician, whose name is prefixed as the editor
to a great medical compilation, and who never pretended that he had
any taste for poetry. His great art of poetical criticism was always,
as Pope expresses a character, "to dwell in decencies;" his acumen, to
detect that terrible poetic crime false rhymes, and to employ
indefinite terms, which, as they had no precise meaning, were
applicable to all things; to commend, occasionally, a passage not
always the most exquisite; sometimes to hesitate, while, with
delightful candour, he seemed to give up his opinion; to hazard
sometimes a positive condemnation on parts which often unluckily
proved the most favourite with the poet and the reader. Such was this
poetical reviewer, whom no one disturbed in his periodical course,
till the circumstance of a plain Quaker becoming a poet, and
fluttering in the finical ornaments of his book, provoked him from
that calm state of innocent mediocrity, into miserable humour, and
illiberal criticism.
The effect, however, this pert criticism had on poor Scott was indeed
a calamity. It produced an inconsiderate "Letter to the Critical
Reviewers." Scott was justly offended at the stigma of Quakerism,
applied to the author of a literary composition; but too gravely
accuses the critic of his scurrilous allusion to Macheath, as
comparing him to a highwayman; he seems, however, more provoked at the
odd account of his poems; he says, "You rank all my poems together as
_bad_, then discriminate some as _good_, and, to complete all,
recommend the volume as _an agreeable and amusing collection_." Had
the poet been personally acquainted with this tantalizing critic, he
would have comprehended the nature of the criticism--and certainly
would never have replied to it.
The critic, employing one of his indefinite terms, had said of
"Amwell," and some of the early "Elegies," that "they had their share
of poetical merit;" he does not venture to assign the proportion of
that share, but "the Amœbean and oriental eclogues, odes, epistles,
&c., now added, are _of a much weaker feature, and many of them
incorrect_."
Here Scott loses all his dignity as a Quaker and a poet--he asks what
the critic means by the affected phrase _much weaker feature_; the
style, he says, was designed to be somewhat less elevated, and thus
addresses the critic:--
"You may, however, be safely defied to pronounce them, with truth,
deficient either in strength or melody of versification! They
were designed to be, like Virgil's, descriptive of Nature, simple
and correct. Had you been disposed to do me justice, you might
have observed that in these eclogues I had drawn from the great
prototype Nature, much imagery that had escaped the notice of
all my predecessors. You might also have remarked that when I
introduced images that had been already introduced by others,
still the arrangement or combination of those images was my own.
The praise of originality you might at least have allowed me."
As for their _incorrectness_!--Scott points that accusation with a
note of admiration, adding, "with whatever defects my works may be
chargeable, the last is that of _incorrectness_."
We are here involuntarily reminded of Sir Fretful, in _The Critic_:--
"I think the interest rather declines in the fourth act."
"Rises! you mean, my dear friend!"
Perhaps the most extraordinary examples of the irritation of a poet's
mind, and a man of amiable temper, are those parts of this letter in
which the author quotes large portions of his poetry, to refute the
degrading strictures of the reviewer.
This was a fertile principle, admitting of very copious extracts; but
the ludicrous attitude is that of an Adonis inspecting himself at his
mirror.
That provoking see-saw of criticism, which our learned physician
usually adopted in his critiques, was particularly tantalizing to the
poet of Amwell. The critic condemns, in the gross, a whole set of
eclogues; but immediately asserts of one of them, that "the whole of
it has great poetical merit, and paints its subject in the warmest
colours." When he came to review the odes, he discovers that "he does
not meet with those polished numbers, nor that freedom and spirit,
which that species of poetry requires;" and quotes half a stanza,
which he declares is "abrupt and insipid." "From twenty-seven odes!"
exclaims the writhing poet--"are the whole of my lyric productions to
be stigmatised for four lines which are flatter than those that
preceded them?" But what the critic could not be aware of, the poet
tells us--he designed them to be just what they are. "I knew they were
so when they were first written, but they were thought sufficiently
elevated for the place." And then he enters into an inquiry what the
critic can mean by "polished numbers, freedom, and spirit." The
passage is curious:--
"By your first criticism, _polished numbers_, if you mean melodious
versification, this perhaps the general ear will not deny me. If you
mean classical, chaste diction, free from tautologous repetitions of
the same thoughts in different expressions; free from bad rhymes,
unnecessary epithets, and incongruous metaphors, I believe you may be
safely challenged to produce many instances wherein I have failed.
"By _freedom_, your second criterion, if you mean daring transition,
or arbitrary and desultory disposition of ideas, however this may
be required in the greater ode, it is now, I believe, for the first
time, expected in the lesser ode. If you mean that careless, diffuse
composition, that conversation-verse, or verse loitering into
prose, now so fashionable, this is an excellence which I am not
very ambitious of attaining. But if you mean strong, concise, yet
natural easy expression, I apprehend the general judgment will decide
in my favour. To the general ear, and the general judgment, then, do
I appeal as to an impartial tribunal." Here several odes are
transcribed. "By _spirit_, your third criticism, I know nothing you
can mean but enthusiasm; that which transports us to every scene, and
interests us in every sentiment. Poetry without this cannot subsist;
every species demands its proportion, from the greater ode, of which
it is the principal characteristic, to the lesser, in which a
small portion of it only has hitherto been thought requisite. My
productions, I apprehend, have never before been deemed destitute
of this essential constituent. Whatever I have wrote, I have felt,
and I believe others have felt it also."
On "the Epistles," which had been condemned in the gross, suddenly the
critic turns round courteously to the bard, declaring "they are
written in an easy and familiar style, and seem to flow from a good
and a benevolent heart." But then sneeringly adds, that one of them
being entitled "An Essay on Painting, addressed to a young Artist,
had better have been omitted, because it had been so fully treated in
so masterly a manner by Mr. Hayley." This was letting fall a spark in
a barrel of gunpowder. Scott immediately analyses his brother poet's
poem, to show they have nothing in common; and then compares those
similar passages the subject naturally produced, to show that "his
poem does not suffer greatly in the comparison." "You may," he adds,
after giving copious extracts from both poems, "persist in saying that
Mr. Hayley's are the best. Your business then is to prove it." This,
indeed, had been a very hazardous affair for our medical critic, whose
poetical feelings were so equable, that he acknowledges "Mr. Scott's
poem is just and elegant," but "Mr. Hayley's is likewise just and
elegant;" therefore, if one man has written a piece "just and
elegant," there is no need of another on the same subject "just and
elegant."
To such an extreme point of egotism was a modest and respectable
author most cruelly driven by the callous playfulness of a poetical
critic, who himself had no sympathy for poetry of any quality or any
species, and whose sole art consisted in turning about the canting
dictionary of criticism. Had Homer been a modern candidate for
poetical honours, from him Homer had not been distinguished, even from
the mediocrity of Scott of Amwell, whose poetical merits are not,
however, slight. In his Amœbean eclogues he may be distinguished as
the poet of botanists.
FOOTNOTES:
[99] So sensible was even the calm Newton to critical attacks, that
Whiston tells us he lost his favour, which he had enjoyed for
twenty years, for contradicting Newton in his old age; for
no man was of "a more fearful temper." Whiston declares that
he would not have thought proper to have published his work
against Newton's "Chronology" in his lifetime, "because I
knew his temper so well, that I should have expected it
would have killed him; as Dr. Bentley, Bishop Stillingfleet's
chaplain, told me, that he believed Mr. Locke's thorough
confutation of the Bishop's metaphysics about the Trinity
hastened his end." Pope writhed in his chair from the light
shafts which Cibber darted on him; yet they were not tipped
with the poison of the Java-tree. Dr. Hawkesworth, _died
of criticism_.--Singing-birds cannot live in a storm.
[100] In one of his own publications he quotes, with great
self-complacency, the following lines on himself:--
"The wits who drink water and suck sugar-candy,
Impute the strong spirit of Kenrick to brandy:
They are not so much out; the matter in short is,
He sips _aqua-vitæ_ and spits _aqua-fortis_."
[101] Dr. Kenrick's character and career is thus summed up in the
"Biographia Dramatica:"--"This author, with singular
abilities, was neither happy or successful. Few persons were
ever less respected by the world; still fewer have created so
many enemies, or dropped into the grave so little regretted by
their contemporaries. He was seldom without an enemy to attack
or defend himself from." He was the son of a London citizen,
and is said to have served an apprenticeship to a brass-rule
maker. One of his best known literary works was a comedy
called _Falstaff's Wedding_, which met with considerable
success upon the stage, although its author ventured on the
difficult task of adopting Shakespeare's characters, and
putting new words into the mouth of the immortal Sir John and
his satellites.--ED.
A VOLUMINOUS AUTHOR WITHOUT JUDGMENT.
Vast erudition, without the tact of good sense, in a voluminous
author, what a calamity! for to such a mind no subject can present
itself on which he is unprepared to write, and none at the same time
on which he can ever write reasonably. The name and the works of
WILLIAM PRYNNE have often come under the eye of the reader; but it is
even now difficult to discover his real character; for Prynne stood so
completely insulated amid all parties, that he was ridiculed by his
friends, and execrated by his enemies. The exuberance of his fertile
pen, the strangeness and the manner of his subjects, and his
pertinacity in voluminous publication, are known, and are nearly
unparalleled in literary history.
Could the man himself be separated from the author, Prynne would not
appear ridiculous; but the unlucky author of nearly two hundred
works,[102] and who, as Wood quaintly computes, "must have written a
sheet every day of his life, reckoning from the time that he came to
the use of reason and the state of man," has involved his life in his
authorship; the greatness of his character loses itself in his
voluminous works; and whatever Prynne may have been in his own age,
and remains to posterity, he was fated to endure all the calamities of
an author who has strained learning into absurdity, and abused zealous
industry by chimerical speculation.
Yet his activity, and the firmness and intrepidity of his character
in public life, were as ardent as they were in his study--his soul
was Roman; and Eachard says, that Charles II., who could not but
admire his earnest honesty, his copious learning, and the public
persecutions he suffered, and the ten imprisonments he endured,
inflicted by all parties, dignified him with the title of "the
Cato of the Age;" and one of his own party facetiously described
him as "William the Conqueror," a title he had most hardly earned
by his inflexible and invincible nature. Twice he had been cropped of
his ears; for at the first time the executioner having spared the
two fragments, the inhuman judge on his second trial discovering them
with astonishment, ordered them to be most unmercifully cropped--then
he was burned on his cheek, and ruinously fined and imprisoned in a
remote solitude,[103]--but had they torn him limb by limb, Prynne had
been in his mind a very polypus, which, cut into pieces, still loses
none of its individuality.
His conduct on the last of these occasions, when sentenced to be
stigmatised, and to have his ears cut close, must be noticed. Turning
to the executioner, he calmly invited him to do his duty--"Come,
friend, come, burn me! cut me! I fear not! I have learned to fear the
fire of hell, and not what man can do unto me; come, scar me! scar
me!" In Prynne this was not ferocity, but heroism; Bastwick was
intrepid out of spite, and Burton from fanaticism. The executioner had
been urged not to spare his victims, and he performed his office with
extraordinary severity, cruelly heating his iron twice, and cutting
one of Prynne's ears so close, as to take away a piece of the cheek.
Prynne stirred not in the torture; and when it was done, smiled,
observing, "The more I am beaten down, the more I am lift up." After
this punishment, in going to the Tower by water, he composed the
following verses on the two letters branded on his cheek, S. L., for
schismatical libeller, but which Prynne chose to translate "Stigmata
Laudis," the stigmas of his enemy, the Archbishop Laud.
Stigmata maxillis referens insignia LAUDIS,
Exultans remeo, victima grata Deo.
The heroic man, who could endure agony and insult, and even thus
commemorate his sufferings, with no unpoetical conception, almost
degrades his own sublimity when the poetaster sets our teeth on edge
by his verse.
Bearing Laud's stamps on my cheeks I retire
Triumphing, God's sweet sacrifice by fire.
The triumph of this unconquered being was, indeed, signal. History
scarcely exhibits so wonderful a reverse of fortune, and so strict a
retribution, as occurred at this eventful period. He who had borne
from the archbishop and the lords in the Star Chamber the most
virulent invectives, wishing them at that instant seriously to
consider that some who sat there on the bench might yet stand
prisoners at the bar, and need the favour they now denied, at length
saw the prediction completely verified. What were the feelings of
Laud, when Prynne, returning from his prison of Mount Orgueil in
triumph, the road strewed with boughs, amid the acclamations of the
people, entered the apartment in the Tower which the venerable Laud
now in his turn occupied. The unsparing Puritan sternly performed the
office of rifling his papers,[104] and persecuted the helpless prelate
till he led him to the block. Prynne, to use his own words, for he
could be eloquent when moved by passion, "had struck proud Canterbury
to the heart; and had undermined all his prelatical designs to advance
the bishops' pomp and power;"[105] Prynne triumphed--but, even this
austere Puritan soon grieved over the calamities he had contributed to
inflict on the nation; and, with a humane feeling, he once wished,
that "when they had cut off his ears, they had cut off his head." He
closed his political existence by becoming an advocate for the
Restoration; but, with his accustomed want of judgment and intemperate
zeal, had nearly injured the cause by his premature activity. At the
Restoration some difficulty occurred to dispose of "busie Mr. Pryn,"
as Whitelocke calls him. It is said he wished to be one of the Barons
of the Exchequer, but he was made the Keeper of the Records in the
Tower, "purposely to employ his head from scribbling against the state
and bishops;" where they put him to clear the Augean stable of our
national antiquities, and see whether they could weary out his
restless vigour. Prynne had, indeed, written till he found no
antagonist would reply; and now he rioted in leafy folios, and proved
himself to be one of the greatest paper-worms which ever crept into
old books and mouldy records.[106]
The literary character of Prynne is described by the happy epithet which
Anthony Wood applies to him, "Voluminous Prynne." His great
characteristic is opposed to that axiom of Hesiod so often quoted, that
"half is better than the whole;" a secret which the matter-of-fact
men rarely discover. Wanting judgment, and the tact of good sense,
these detailers have no power of selection from their stores, to make
one prominent fact represent the hundred minuter ones that may follow
it. Voluminously feeble, they imagine expansion is stronger than
compression; and know not to generalise, while they only can deal in
particulars. Prynne's speeches were just as voluminous as his
writings; always deficient in judgment, and abounding in knowledge--he
was always wearying others, but never could himself. He once made a
speech to the House, to persuade them the king's concessions were
sufficient ground for a treaty; it contains a complete narrative of
all the transactions between the king, the Houses, and the army, from
the beginning of the parliament; it takes up 140 octavo pages, and kept
the house so long together, that the debates lasted from Monday
morning till Tuesday morning!
Prynne's literary character may be illustrated by his singular book,
"Histriomastix,"--where we observe how an author's exuberant learning,
like corn heaped in a granary, grows rank and musty, by a want of
power to ventilate and stir about the heavy mass.
This paper-worm may first be viewed in his study, as painted by the
picturesque Anthony Wood; an artist in the Flemish school:--
"His custom, when he studied, was to put on a long quilted cap, which
came an inch over his eyes, serving as an umbrella to defend them from
too much light, and _seldom eating any dinner_, would be every three
hours maunching a roll of bread, and now and then refresh his
exhausted spirits with ale brought to him by his servant;" a custom to
which Butler alludes,
Thou that with ale, or viler liquors,
Didst inspire Withers, Prynne, and Vicars,
And force them, though it were in spite
Of nature, and their stars, to write.
The "HISTRIOMASTIX, the Player's Scourge, or Actor's Tragedie," is a
ponderous quarto, ascending to about 1100 pages; a Puritan's invective
against plays and players, accusing them of every kind of crime,
including libels against Church and State;[107] but it is more
remarkable for the incalculable quotations and references foaming over
the margins. Prynne scarcely ventures on the most trivial opinion,
without calling to his aid whatever had been said in all nations and
in all ages; and Cicero, and Master Stubbs, Petrarch and Minutius
Felix, Isaiah and Froissart's Chronicle, oddly associate in the
ravings of erudition. Who, indeed, but the author "who seldom dined,"
could have quoted perhaps a thousand writers in one volume?[108] A wit
of the times remarked of this _Helluo librorum_, that "Nature makes
ever the dullest beasts most laborious, and the greatest feeders;" and
Prynne has been reproached with a weak digestion, for "returning
things unaltered, which is a symptom of a feeble stomach."
When we examine this volume, often alluded to, the birth of the
monster seems prodigious and mysterious; it combines two opposite
qualities; it is so elaborate in its researches among the thousand
authors quoted, that these required years to accumulate, and yet the
matter is often temporary, and levelled at fugitive events and
particular persons; thus the very formation of this mighty volume
seems paradoxical. The secret history of this book is as extraordinary
as the book itself, and is a remarkable evidence how, in a work of
immense erudition, the arts of a wily sage involved himself, and
whoever was concerned in his book, in total ruin. The author was
pilloried, fined, and imprisoned; his publisher condemned in the
penalty of five hundred pounds, and barred for ever from printing and
selling books, and the licenser removed and punished. Such was the
fatality attending the book of a man whose literary voracity produced
one of the most tremendous indigestions, in a malady of writing.
It was on examining Prynne's trial I discovered the secret history of
the "Histriomastix." Prynne was seven years in writing this work, and,
what is almost incredible, it was near four years passing through the
press. During that interval the eternal scribbler was daily gorging
himself with voluminous food, and daily fattening his cooped-up capon.
The temporary sedition and libels were the gradual Mosaic inlayings
through this shapeless mass.
It appears that the volume of 1100 quarto pages originally consisted
of little more than a quire of paper; but Prynne found insuperable
difficulties in procuring a licenser, even for this infant Hercules.
Dr. Goode deposed that--
"About eight years ago Mr. Prynne brought to him a quire of paper to
license, which he refused; and he recollected the circumstance by
having held an argument with Prynne on his severe reprehension on the
unlawfulness of a man to put on women's apparel, which, the
good-humoured doctor asserted was not always unlawful; for suppose Mr.
Prynne yourself, as a Christian, was persecuted by pagans, think you
not if you disguised yourself in your maid's apparel, you did well?
Prynne sternly answered that he thought himself bound rather to yield
to death than to do so."
Another licenser, Dr. Harris, deposed, that about seven years ago--
"Mr. Prynne came to him to license a treatise concerning stage-plays;
but he would not allow of the same;"--and adds, "So this man did
deliver this book when it was young and tender, and would have had it
then printed; but it is since grown seven times bigger, and seven
times worse."
Prynne not being able to procure these licensers, had recourse to
another, Buckner, chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was
usual for the licenser to examine the MS. before it went to the press;
but Prynne either tampered with Buckner, or so confused his intellects
by keeping his multifarious volume in the press for four years; and
sometimes, I suspect, by numbering folios for pages, as appears in the
work, that the examination of the licenser gradually relaxed; and he
declares in his defence that he had only licensed part of it. The
bookseller, Sparks, was indeed a noted publisher of what was then
called "Unlawful and unlicensed books;" and he had declared that it
was "an excellent book, which would be called in, and then sell well."
He confesses the book had been more than three years in the press, and
had cost him three hundred pounds.
The speech of Noy, the Attorney-General, conveys some notion of the
work itself; sufficiently curious as giving the feelings of those
times against the Puritans.
"Who he means by his _modern innovators_ in the church, and by
_cringing and ducking_ to altars, a fit term to bestow on the church;
he learned it of the _canters_, being used among them. The musick in
the church, the charitable term he giveth it, is not to be a noise of
men, but rather a _bleating of brute beasts_; choristers _bellow_ the
tenor, as it were oxen; _bark_ a counterpoint as a kennel of dogs;
_roar_ out a treble like a sort of bulls; _grunt_ out a bass, as it
were a number of hogs. Bishops he calls the _silk and satin divines_;
says Christ was a Puritan, in his Index. He falleth on those things
that have not relation to stage-plays, musick in the church, dancing,
new-years' gifts, &c.,--then upon altars, images, hair of men and
women, bishops and bonfires. Cards and tables do offend him, and
perukes do fall within the compass of his theme. His end is to
persuade the people that we are returning back again to paganism, and
to persuade them to go and serve God in another country, as many are
gone already, and set up new laws and fancies among themselves.
Consider what may come of it!"
The decision of the Lords of the Star Chamber was dictated by passion
as much as justice. Its severity exceeded the crime of having produced
an unreadable volume of indigested erudition; and the learned
scribbler was too hardly used, scarcely escaping with life. Lord
Cottington, amazed at the mighty volume, too bluntly affirmed that
Prynne did not write this book alone; "he either assisted the devil,
or was assisted by the devil." But secretary Cooke delivered a
sensible and temperate speech; remarking on all its false erudition
that,
"By this vast book of Mr. Prynne's, it appeareth that he hath read
more than he hath studied, and studied more than he hath considered.
He calleth his book 'Histriomastix;' but therein he showeth himself
like unto Ajax Anthropomastix, as the Grecians called him, the scourge
of all mankind, that is, the whipper and the whip."
Such is the history of a man whose greatness of character was clouded
over and lost in a fatal passion for scribbling; such is the history
of a voluminous author whose genius was such that he could write a
folio much easier than a page; and "seldom dined" that he might quote
"squadrons of authorities."[109]
FOOTNOTES:
[102] That all these works should not be wanting to posterity,
Prynne deposited the complete collection in the library of
Lincoln's-Inn, about forty volumes in folio and quarto.
Noy, the Attorney-General, Prynne's great adversary, was
provoked at the society's acceptance of these ponderous
volumes, and promised to send them the voluminous labours of
Taylor the water-poet, to place by their side; he judged, as
Wood says, that "Prynne's books were worth little or
nothing; that his proofs were no arguments, and his
affirmations no testimonies." But honest Anthony, in spite
of his prejudices against Prynne, confesses, that though
"by the generality of scholars they are looked upon to be
rather rhapsodical and confused than polite or concise, yet,
for antiquaries, critics, and sometimes for divines, they are
useful." Such erudition as Prynne's always retains its
value--the author who could quote a hundred authors on
"the unloveliness of love-locks," will always make a good
literary chest of drawers, well filled, for those who can make
better use of their contents than himself.
[103] Prynne seems to have considered being debarred from pen, ink,
and books as an act more barbarous than the loss of his ears.
See his curious book of "A New Discovery of the Prelate's
Tyranny;" it is a complete collection of everything relating
to Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton; three political fanatics, who
seem impatiently to have courted the fate of Marsyas. Prynne,
in his voluminous argument, proving the illegality of the
sentences he had suffered, in his ninth point thus gives way
to all the feelings of Martinus Scriblerus:--"Point 9th, that
the prohibiting of me pen, ink, paper, and books, is against
law." He employs an argument to prove that the abuse of any
lawful thing never takes away the use of it; therefore the law
does not deprive gluttons or drunkards of necessary meat and
drink; this analogy he applies to his pen, ink, and books, of
which they could not deprive him, though they might punish him
for their abuse. He asserts that the popish prelates, in the
reign of Mary, were the first who invented this new torture of
depriving a scribbler of pen and ink. He quotes a long passage
from Ovid's Tristia, to prove that, though exiled to the Isle
of Pontus for his wanton books of love, pen and ink were not
denied him to compose new poems; that St. John, banished to
the Isle of Patmos by the persecuting Domitian, still was
allowed pen and ink, for there he wrote the Revelation--and he
proceeds with similar facts. Prynne's books abound with
uncommon facts on common topics, for he had no discernment;
and he seems to have written to convince himself, and not the
public.
But to show the extraordinary perseverance of Prynne in his
love of scribbling, I transcribe the following title of one of
his extraordinary works. He published "Comfortable Cordial
against Discomfortable Fears of Imprisonment, containing some
Latin verses, sentences and texts of Scripture, _written by
Mr. Wm. Prynne on his chamber-walls in_ the Tower of London
during his imprisonment there; translated by him into English
verse," 1641. Prynne literally verifies Pope's description--
"Is there who lock'd from ink and paper, scrawls
With desperate charcoal round his darken'd walls?"
We have also a catalogue of printed books written by Wm.
Prynne, of Lincoln's-Inn, Esq., in these classes--
Before }
During } his imprisonment, with the motto _Jucundi acti
labores_. 1643.
Since }
[104] The interesting particulars of this interview have been
preserved by the Archbishop himself--and it is curious to
observe how Laud could now utter the same tones of murmur and
grief to which Prynne himself had recently given way. Studied
insult in these cases accompanies power in the hands of a
faction. I collect these particulars from "The History of the
Troubles and Tryal of Archbishop Laud," and refer to Vicars's
"God in the Mount, or a Parliamentarie Chronicle," p. 344, for
the Puritanic triumphs.
"My implacable enemy, Mr. Pryn, was picked out as a man
whose malice might be trusted to make the search upon me, and
he did it exactly. The manner of the search upon me was
thus: Mr. Pryn came into the Tower so soon as the gates
were open--commanded the Warder to open my door--he came into
my chamber, and found me in bed--Mr. Pryn seeing me safe
in bed, falls first to my pockets to rifle them--it was
expressed in the warrant that he should search my pockets.
Did they remember, when they gave this warrant, how odious it
was to Parliaments, and some of themselves, to have the
pockets of men searched? I rose, got my gown upon my
shoulders, and he held me in the search till past nine in the
morning (he had come in betimes in the morning in the month
of May). He took from me twenty-one bundles of papers which
I had prepared for my defence, &c., a little book or diary,
containing all the occurrences of my life, and my book of
private devotions; both written with my own hand. Nor could
I get him to leave this last; he must needs see what passed
between God and me. The last place he rifled was a trunk
which stood by my bedside; in that he found nothing but about
forty pounds in money, for my necessary expenses, which he
meddled not with, and a bundle of some gloves. This bundle he
was so careful to open, as that he caused each glove to be
looked into; upon this I tendered him one pair of the gloves,
which he refusing, I told him he might take them, and fear no
bribe, for he had already done me all the mischief he could,
and I asked no favour of him; so he thanked me, took the
gloves, and bound up my papers, and went his way."--Prynne
had a good deal of _cunning_ in his character, as well as
fortitude. He had all the subterfuges and quirks which,
perhaps, form too strong a feature in the character of "an
utter Barrister of Lincoln's Inn." His great artifice was
secretly printing extracts from the diary of Laud, and
placing a copy in the hands of every member of the House,
which was a sudden stroke on the Archbishop, when at the
bar, that at the moment overcame him. Once when Prynne was
printing one of his libels, he attempted to deny being the
author, and ran to the printing-house to distribute the forms,
but it was proved he had corrected the proof and the
revise. Another time, when he had written a libellous
letter to the Archbishop, Noy, the Attorney-General, sent
for Prynne from his prison, and demanded of him whether the
letter was of his own handwriting. Prynne said he must see
and read the letter before he could determine; and when Noy
gave it to him, Prynne tore it to pieces, and threw the
fragments out of the window, that it might not be brought in
evidence against him. Noy had preserved a copy, but that
did not avail him, as Prynne well knew that the misdemeanour
was in the letter itself; and Noy gave up the prosecution,
as there was now no remedy.
[105] Breviate of the Bishop's intolerable usurpations, p. 35.
[106] While Keeper of the Records, he set all the great energies of
his nature to work upon the national archives. The result
appeared in three folio volumes of the greatest value to the
historian. They were published irregularly, and at intervals
of time--thus the second volume was issued in 1665; the first
in 1666; and the third in 1670. The first two volumes are of
the utmost rarity, nearly all the copies having been destroyed
in the great fire of London.--ED.
[107] Hume, in his History, has given some account of this enormous
quarto; to which I refer the reader, vol. vi. chap. lii.
[108] Milton admirably characterises Prynne's absurd learning, as well
as his character, in his treatise on "The likeliest means to
remove hirelings out of the Church," as "a late hot querist
for tythes, whom ye may know by _his wits lying ever beside
him in the margin, to be ever beside his wits in the text_. A
fierce Reformer once; now rankled with a contrary heat."
[109] The very expression Prynne himself uses, see p. 668 of the
Histriomastix; where having gone through "three squadrons," he
commences a fresh chapter thus: "The fourth squadron of
authorities is the venerable troope of 70 several renowned
ancient fathers;" and he throws in more than he promised, all
which are quoted volume and page, as so many "play-confounding
arguments." He has quoted perhaps from three to four hundred
authors on a single point.
GENIUS AND ERUDITION THE VICTIMS OF IMMODERATE VANITY.
The name of TOLAND is more familiar than his character, yet his
literary portrait has great singularity; he must be classed among the
"Authors by Profession," an honour secured by near fifty publications;
and we shall discover that he aimed to combine with the literary
character one peculiarly his own.[110] With higher talents and more
learning than have been conceded to him, there ran in his mind an
original vein of thinking. Yet his whole life exhibits in how small a
degree great intellectual powers, when scattered through all the forms
which Vanity suggests, will contribute to an author's social comforts,
or raise him in public esteem. Toland was fruitful in his productions,
and still more so in his projects; yet it is mortifying to estimate
the result of all the intense activity of the life of an author of
genius, which terminates in being placed among these Calamities.
Toland's birth was probably illegitimate; a circumstance which
influenced the formation of his character. Baptised in ridicule, he
had nearly fallen a victim to Mr. Shandy's system of Christian names,
for he bore the strange ones of _Janus Junius_, which, when the
school-roll was called over every morning, afforded perpetual
merriment, till the master blessed him with plain _John_, which the
boy adopted, and lived in quiet. I must say something on the names
themselves, perhaps as ridiculous! May they not have influenced the
character of Toland, since they certainly describe it? He had all the
shiftings of the double-faced _Janus_, and the revolutionary politics
of the ancient _Junius_. His godfathers sent him into the world in
cruel mockery, thus to remind their Irish boy of the fortunes that
await the desperately bold: nor did Toland forget the strong-marked
designations; for to his most objectionable work, the Latin tract
entitled _Pantheisticon_, descriptive of what some have considered as
an atheistical society, he subscribes these appropriate names, which
at the time were imagined to be fictitious.
Toland ran away from school and Popery. When in after-life he was
reproached with native obscurity, he ostentatiously produced a
testimonial of his birth and family, hatched up at a convent of Irish
Franciscans in Germany, where the good Fathers subscribed, with their
ink tinged with their Rhenish, to his most ancient descent, referring
to the Irish history! which they considered as a parish register, fit
for the suspected son of an Irish Priest!
Toland, from early life, was therefore dependent on patrons; but
illegitimate birth creates strong and determined characters, and
Toland had all the force and originality of self-independence. He was
a seed thrown by chance, to grow of itself wherever it falls.
This child of fortune studied at four Universities; at Glasgow,
Edinburgh, and Leyden; from the latter he passed to Oxford, and, in
the Bodleian Library, collected the materials for his after-studies.
He loved study, and even at a later period declares that "no
employment or condition of life shall make me disrelish the lasting
entertainment of books." In his "Description of Epsom," he observes
that the taste for retirement, reading, and contemplation, promotes
the true relish for select company, and says,
"Thus I remove at pleasure, as I grow weary of the country or the
town, as I avoid a crowd or seek company.--Here, then, let me have
_books and bread_ enough without dependence; a bottle of hermitage and
a plate of olives for a select friend; with an early rose to present a
young lady as an emblem of discretion no less than of beauty."
At Oxford appeared that predilection for paradoxes and over-curious
speculations, which formed afterwards the marking feature of his
literary character. He has been unjustly contemned as a sciolist; he
was the correspondent of Leibnitz, Le Clerc, and Bayle, and was a
learned author when scarcely a man. He first published a Dissertation
on the strange tragical death of Regulus, and proved it a Roman
legend. A greater paradox might have been his projected speculation on
Job, to demonstrate that only the dialogue was genuine; the rest being
the work of some idle Rabbin, who had invented a monstrous story to
account for the extraordinary afflictions of that model of a divine
mind. Speculations of so much learning and ingenuity are uncommon in a
young man; but Toland was so unfortunate as to value his own merits
before those who did not care to hear of them.
Hardy vanity was to recompense him, perhaps he thought, for that want
of fortune and connexions, which raised duller spirits above him.
Vain, loquacious, inconsiderate, and daring, he assumed the
dictatorship of a coffee-house, and obtained easy conquests, which he
mistook for glorious ones, over the graver fellows, who had for many a
year awfully petrified their own colleges. He gave more violent
offence by his new opinions on religion. An anonymous person addressed
two letters to this new Heresiarch, solemn and monitory.[111] Toland's
answer is as honourable as that of his monitor's. This passage is
forcibly conceived:--
"To what purpose should I study here or elsewhere, were I an _atheist_
or _deist_, for one of the two you take me to be? What a condition to
mention virtue, if I believed there was no God, or one so impotent
that could not, or so malicious that would not, reveal himself! Nay,
though I granted a Deity, yet, if nothing of me subsisted after death,
what laws could bind, what incentives could move me to common honesty?
Annihilation would be a sanctuary for all my sins, and put an end to
my crimes with myself. Believe me I am not so indifferent to the evils
of the present life, but, without the expectation of a better, I
should soon suspend the mechanism of my body, and resolve into
inconscious atoms."
This early moment of his life proved to be its crisis, and the first
step he took decided his after-progress. His first great work of
"Christianity not Mysterious," produced immense consequences. Toland
persevered in denying that it was designed as any attack on
Christianity, but only on those subtractions, additions, and other
alterations, which have corrupted that pure institution. The work, at
least, like its title, is "Mysterious."[112] Toland passed over to
Ireland, but his book having got there before him, the author beheld
himself anathematized; the pulpits thundered, and it was dangerous to
be seen conversing with him. A jury who confessed they could not
comprehend a page of his book, condemned it to be burned. Toland now
felt a tenderness for his person; and the humane Molyneux, the friend
of Locke, while he censures the imprudent vanity of our author, gladly
witnessed the flight of "the poor gentleman." But South, indignant at
our English moderation in his own controversy with Sherlock on some
doctrinal points of the Trinity, congratulates the Archbishop of
Dublin on the Irish persecution; and equally witty and intolerant, he
writes on Toland, "Your Parliament presently sent him packing, and
without the help of a _fagot_, soon made the kingdom _too hot_ for
him."
Toland was accused of an intention to found a sect, as South
calls them, of "Mahometan-Christians." Many were stigmatised as
_Tolandists_; but the disciples of a man who never procured for
their prophet a bit of dinner or a new wig, for he was frequently
wanting both, were not to be feared as enthusiasts. The persecution
from the church only rankled in the breast of Toland, and excited
unextinguishable revenge.
He now breathed awhile from the bonfire of theology; and our _Janus_
turned his political face. He edited Milton's voluminous politics, and
Harrington's fantastical "Oceana," and, as his "Christianity not
Mysterious" had stamped his religion with something worse than heresy,
so in politics he was branded as a Commonwealth's-man. Toland had
evidently strong nerves; for him opposition produced controversy,
which he loved, and controversy produced books, by which he lived.
But let it not be imagined that Toland affected to be considered as no
Christian, or avowed himself as a Republican. "Civil and religious
toleration" (he says) "have been the two main objects of all my
writings." He declares himself to be only a primitive Christian, and a
pure Whig. But an author must not be permitted to understand himself
so much more clearly than he has enabled his readers to do. His
mysterious conduct may be detected in his want of moral integrity.
He had the art of explaining away his own words, as in his first
controversy about the word _mystery_ in religion, and he exults in his
artifice; for, in a letter, where he is soliciting the minister for
employment, he says:--"The church is much exasperated against me; yet
as that is the heaviest article, so it is undoubtedly the easiest
conquered, and I know _the infallible method of doing it_." And, in a
letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, he promises to _reform his
religion to that prelate's liking_! He took the sacrament as an
opening for the negotiation.
What can be more explicit than his recantation at the close of his
_Vindicius Liberius_? After telling us that he had withdrawn from
sale, after the second edition, his "'Christianity not Mysterious,'
when I perceived what real or pretended offence it had given," he
concludes thus:--"Being now arrived to years that will not wholly
excuse inconsiderateness in resolving, or precipitance in acting, I
firmly hope that my _persuasion_ and _practice_ will show me _to be a
true Christian_; that my due _conformity_ to the _public worship_ may
prove me to be _a good Churchman_; and that my untainted loyalty to
King William will argue me to be a staunch Commonwealth's-man. That I
shall continue all my life a friend to religion, an enemy to
superstition, a supporter of good kings, and a deposer of tyrants."
Observe, this _Vindicius Liberius_ was published on his return from
one of his political tours in Germany. His views were then of a very
different nature from those of controversial divinity; but it was
absolutely necessary to allay the storm the church had raised against
him. We begin now to understand a little better the character of
Toland. These literary adventurers, with heroic pretensions, can
practise the meanest artifices, and shrink themselves into nothing to
creep out of a hole. How does this recantation agree with the
"Nazarenus," and the other theological works which Toland was
publishing all his life? Posterity only can judge of men's characters;
it takes in at a glance the whole of a life; but contemporaries only
view a part, often apparently unconnected and at variance, when in
fact it is neither. This recantation is full of the spirit of _Janus
Junius_ Toland.
But we are concerned chiefly with Toland's literary character. He was
so confirmed an author, that he never published one book without
promising another. He refers to others in MS.; and some of his most
curious works are posthumous. He was a great artificer of title-pages,
covering them with a promising luxuriance; and in this way recommended
his works to the booksellers. He had an odd taste for running
inscriptions of whimsical crabbed terms; the gold-dust of erudition to
gild over a title; such as "Tetradymus, Hodegus, Clidopharus;"
"Adeisidaemon, or the Unsuperstitious." He pretends these affected
titles indicated their several subjects; but the genius of Toland
could descend to literary quackery.
He had the art of propagating books; his small Life of Milton produced
several; besides the complacency he felt in extracting long passages
from Milton against the bishops. In this Life, his attack on the
authenticity of the _Eikon Basilike_ of Charles I. branched into
another on supposititious writings; and this included the spurious
gospels. Association of ideas is a nursing mother to the fertility of
authorship. The spurious gospels opened a fresh theological campaign,
and produced his "Amyntor." There was no end in provoking an author,
who, in writing the life of a poet, could contrive to put the
authenticity of the Testament to the proof.
Amid his philosophical labours, his _vanity_ induced him to seize on
all temporary topics to which his facility and ingenuity gave
currency. The choice of his subjects forms an amusing catalogue; for
he had "Remarks" and "Projects" as fast as events were passing. He
wrote on the "Art of Governing by Parties," on "Anglia Liberia,"
"Reasons for Naturalising the Jews," on "The Art of Canvassing at
Elections," "On raising a National Bank without Capital," "The State
Anatomy," "Dunkirk or Dover," &c. &c. These, and many like these, set
off with catching titles, proved to the author that a man of genius
may be capable of writing on all topics at all times, and make the
country his debtor without benefiting his own creditors.[113]
There was a moment in Toland's life when he felt, or thought he felt,
fortune in his grasp. He was then floating on the ideal waves of the
South Sea bubble. The poor author, elated with a notion that he was
rich enough to print at his own cost, dispersed copies of his absurd
"Pantheisticon." He describes a society of Pantheists, who worship the
universe as God; a mystery much greater than those he attacked in
Christianity. Their prayers are passages from Cicero and Seneca, and
they chant long poems instead of psalms; so that in their zeal they
endured a little tediousness. The next objectionable circumstance in
this wild ebullition of philosophical wantonness is the apparent
burlesque of some liturgies; and a wag having inserted in some copies
an impious prayer to Bacchus, Toland suffered for the folly of others
as well as his own.[114] With the South Sea bubble vanished Toland's
desire of printing books at his own risk; and thus relieved the world
from the weight of more _Pantheisticons_!
With all this bustle of authorship, amidst temporary publications
which required such prompt ingenuity, and elaborate works which
matured the fruits of early studies, Toland was still not a sedentary
writer. I find that he often travelled on the continent; but how could
a guinealess author so easily transport himself from Flanders to
Germany, and appear at home in the courts of Berlin, Dresden, and
Hanover? Perhaps we may discover a concealed feature in the character
of our ambiguous philosopher.
In the only Life we have of Toland, by Des Maiseaux, prefixed to his
posthumous works, he tells us, that Toland was at the court of Berlin,
but "an incident, _too ludicrous to be mentioned_, obliged him to
leave that place sooner than he expected." Here is an incident in a
narrative clearly marked out, but never to be supplied! Whatever this
incident was, it had this important result, that it sent Toland away
in haste; but _why_ was he there? Our chronological biographer,[115]
"good easy man," suspects nothing more extraordinary when he tells us
Toland was at Berlin or Hanover, than when he finds him at Epsom;
imagines Toland only went to the Electoral Princess Sophia, and the
Queen of Prussia, who were "ladies of sublime genius," to entertain
them by vexing some grave German divines, with philosophical
conferences, and paradoxical conundrums; all the ravings of Toland's
idleness.[116]
This secret history of Toland can only be picked out by fine threads.
He professed to be a literary character--he had opened a periodical
"literary correspondence," as he terms it, with Prince Eugene; such as
we have witnessed in our days by Grimm and La Harpe, addressed to some
northern princes. He was a favourite with the Electoral Princess
Sophia and the Queen of Prussia, to whom he addressed his "Letters to
Serena." Was he a political agent? Yet how was it that Toland was
often driven home by distressed circumstances? He seems not to have
been a practical politician, for he managed his own affairs very ill.
Was the political intriguer rather a suspected than a confidential
servant of all his masters and mistresses? for it is evident no one
cared for him! The absence of moral integrity was probably never
disguised by the loquacious vanity of this literary adventurer.
In his posthumous works are several "Memorials" for the Earl of
Oxford, which throw a new light over a union of political _espionage_
with the literary character, which finally concluded in producing that
extraordinary one which the political imagination of Toland created in
all the obscurity and heat of his reveries.
In one of these "Memorials," forcibly written and full of curiosity,
Toland remonstrates with the minister for his marked neglect of him;
opens the scheme of a political tour, where, like Guthrie, he would be
content with his _quarterage_. He defines his character; for the
independent Whig affects to spurn at the office, though he might not
shrink at the duties of a spy.
"Whether such a person, sir, who is _neither minister nor spy_, and as
a _lover of learning will be welcome everywhere_, may not prove of
extraordinary use to my Lord Treasurer, as well as to his predecessor
Burleigh, who employed such, I leave his lordship and you to
consider."
Still _this character_, whatever title may designate it, is inferior
in dignity and importance to that which Toland afterwards projected,
and which portrays him where his life-writer has not given a touch
from his brush; it is a political curiosity.
"I laid an honester scheme of serving my country, your lordship, and
myself; for, seeing it was neither convenient for you, nor a thing at
all desired by me, that _I should appear in any public post_, I
sincerely proposed, as occasions should offer, to communicate to your
lordship my observations on _the temper of the ministry, the
dispositions of the people, the condition of our enemies or allies
abroad_, and what I might think _most expedient in every conjuncture_;
which advice you were to follow in whole, or in part, or not at all,
as your own superior wisdom should direct. My general acquaintance,
the several languages I speak, the experience I have acquired in
foreign affairs, and being engaged in no interest at home, besides
that of the public, should qualify me in some measure for this
province. ALL WISE MINISTERS HAVE EVER HAD SUCH PRIVATE MONITORS. As
much as I thought myself fit, or was thought so by others, for such
general observations, so much have I ever abhorred, my lord, _those
particular observers we call SPIES_; but I despise the calumny no less
than I detest the thing. Of such general observations, you should have
perused a far greater number than I thought fit to present hitherto,
had I discovered, by due effects, that they were acceptable from _me_;
for they must unavoidably be received from _somebody_, unless a
minister were omniscient--yet I soon had good reason to believe I was
not designed for the man, whatever the original sin could be that made
me incapable of such a trust, and which I now begin to suspect.
Without direct answers to my proposals, how could I know whether I
helped my friends elsewhere, or betrayed them contrary to my
intentions! and accordingly I have for some time been very cautious
and reserved. But if your lordship will enter into any measures with
me to procure _the good of my country_, I shall be more ready to
_serve_ your lordship in this, or in some becoming capacity, than any
other minister. They who confided to my management affairs of a higher
nature have found me exact as well as secret. My impenetrable
negociation at Vienna (hid under the pretence of curiosity) was not
only applauded by the prince that employed me, but also proportionably
rewarded. And here, my lord, give me leave to say that I have found
England miserably served abroad since this change; and our ministers
at home are sometimes as great strangers to the genius as to the
persons of those with whom they have to do. At ---- you have placed
the most unacceptable man in the world--one that lived in a scandalous
misunderstanding with the minister of the States at another court--one
that has been the laughing-stock of all courts, for his senseless
haughtiness and most ridiculous airs--and one that can never judge
aright, unless by accident, in anything."
The discarded, or the suspected _private monitor of the Minister_
warms into the tenderest language of political amour, and mourns their
rupture but as the quarrels of lovers.
"I cannot, from all these considerations, but in the nature of a
lover, complain of your present neglect, and be solicitous for your
future care." And again, "I have made use of the simile of a lover,
and as such, indeed, I thought fit, once for all, to come to a
thorough explanation, resolved, if my affection be not killed by your
unkindness, to become indissolubly yours."
Such is the nice artifice which colours, with a pretended love of his
country, the sordidness of the political intriguer, giving clean names
to filthy things. But this view of the political face of our _Janus_
is not complete till we discover the levity he could carry into
politics when not disguised by more pompous pretensions. I shall give
two extracts from letters composed in a different spirit.
"I am bound for Germany, though first for Flanders, and next for
Holland. I believe I shall be pretty well accommodated for this
voyage, which I expect will be very short. Lord! how near was _my old
woman_ being a queen! and your humble servant being _at his ease_."
His _old woman_ was the Electoral Princess Sophia; and _his ease_ is
what patriots distinguish as _the love of their country_! Again--
"The October Club,[117] if rightly managed, will be rare stuff _to
work the ends of any party_. I sent such an account of these wights to
an _old gentlewoman_ of my acquaintance, as in the midst of fears (the
change of ministry) will make her laugh."
After all his voluminous literature, and his refined politics, Toland
lived and died the life of an Author by Profession, in an obscure
lodging at a country carpenter's, in great distress. He had still one
patron left, who was himself poor, Lord Molesworth, who promised him,
if he lived,
"Bare necessaries. These are but cold comfort to a man of your spirit
and desert; but 'tis all I dare promise! 'Tis an ungrateful age, and
we must bear with it the best we may till we can mend it."
And his lordship tells of his unsuccessful application to some Whig
lord for Toland; and concludes,
"'Tis a sad monster of a man, and not worthy of further notice."
I have observed that Toland had strong nerves; he neither feared
controversies, nor that which closes all. Having examined his
manuscripts, I can sketch a minute picture of the last days of our
"author by profession." At the carpenter's lodgings he drew up a list
of all his books--they were piled on four chairs, to the amount of
155--most of them works which evince the most erudite studies; and as
Toland's learning has been very lightly esteemed, it may be worth
notice that some of his MSS. were transcribed in Greek.[118] To this
list he adds--"I need not recite those in the closet with the unbound
books and pamphlets; nor my trunk, wherein are all my papers and MSS."
I perceive he circulated his MSS. among his friends, for there is a
list by him as he lent them, among which are ladies as well as
gentlemen, _esprits forts_!
Never has author died more in character than Toland; he may be said to
have died with a busy pen in his hand. Having suffered from an
unskilful physician, he avenged himself in his own way; for there was
found on his table an "Essay on Physic without Physicians." The dying
patriot-trader was also writing a preface for a political pamphlet on
_the danger of mercenary Parliaments_; and the philosopher was
composing his own epitaph--one more proof of the ruling passion
predominating in death; but why should a _Pantheist_ be solicitous to
perpetuate his genius and his fame! I shall transcribe a few lines;
surely they are no evidence of Atheism!
Omnium Literarum excultor,
ac linguarum plus decem sciens;
Veritatis propugnator,
Libertatis assertor;
nullus autem sectator aut cliens,
nec minis, nec malis est inflexus,
quin quam elegit, viam perageret;
utili honestum anteferens.
Spiritus cum æthereo patre,
à quo prodiit olim, conjungitur;
corpus item, Naturæ cedens,
in materno gremio reponitur.
Ipse vero æternum est resurrecturus,
at idem futurus TOLANDUS nunquam.[119]
One would have imagined that the writer of his own panegyrical epitaph
would have been careful to have transmitted to posterity a copy of his
features; but I know of no portrait of Toland. His patrons seem never
to have been generous, nor his disciples grateful; they mortified
rather than indulged the egotism of his genius. There appeared,
indeed, an elegy, shortly after the death of Toland, so ingeniously
contrived, that it is not clear whether he is eulogised or ridiculed.
Amid its solemnity these lines betray the sneer. "Has," exclaimed the
eulogist of the ambiguous philosopher,
Each jarring element gone angry home?
And _Master Toland_ a _Non-ens_ become?
LOCKE, with all the prescient sagacity of that clear understanding
which penetrated under the secret folds of the human heart,
anticipated the life of Toland at its commencement. He admired the
genius of the man; but, while he valued his parts and learning, he
dreaded their result. In a letter I find these passages, which were
then so prophetic, and are now so instructive:--
"If his exceeding great value of himself do not deprive the world of
that usefulness that his parts, if rightly conducted, might be of, I
shall be very glad.--The hopes young men give of what use they will
make of their parts is, to me, the encouragement of being concerned
for them; but, _if vanity increases with age, I always fear whither it
will lead a man_."
FOOTNOTES:
[110] Toland was born in Ireland, in 1669, of Roman Catholic parents,
but became a zealous opponent of that faith before he was
sixteen; after which he finished his education at Glasgow and
Edinburgh; he retired to study at Leyden, where he formed the
acquaintance of Leibnitz and other learned men. His first
book, published in 1696, and entitled "Christianity not
Mysterious," was met by the strongest denunciation from the
pulpit, was "presented" by the grand jury of Middlesex, and
ordered to be burnt by the common hangman by the Parliament of
Ireland. He was henceforth driven for employ to literature;
and in 1699 was engaged by the Duke of Newcastle to edit the
"Memoirs of Denzil, Lord Hollis;" and afterwards by the Earl
of Oxford on a new edition of Harrington's "Oceana." He then
visited the Courts of Berlin and Hanover. He published many
works on politics and religion, the latter all remarkable for
their deistical tendencies, and died in March, 1722, at the
age of 53.--ED.
[111] These letters will interest every religious person; they may be
found in Toland's posthumous works, vol. ii. p. 295.
[112] Toland pretends to prove that "there is nothing in the Christian
Religion, not only which is contrary to reason, but even
which is above it."--He made use of some arguments (says
Le Clerc) that were drawn from Locke's Treatise on the
Human Understanding. I have seen in MS. a finished treatise by
Locke on Religion, addressed to Lady Shaftesbury; Locke
gives it as a translation from the French. I regret my
account is so imperfect; but the possessor may, perhaps, be
induced to give it to the public. The French philosophers have
drawn their first waters from English authors; and Toland,
Tindale, and Woolston, with Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, and
Locke, were among their earliest acquisitions.
[113] In examining the original papers of Toland, which are preserved,
I found some of his agreements with booksellers. For his
description of Epsom he was to receive only four guineas in
case 1000 were sold. He received ten guineas for his pamphlet
on Naturalising the Jews, and ten guineas more in case Bernard
Lintott sold 2000. The words of this agreement run thus:
"Whenever Mr. Toland calls for ten guineas, after the first of
February next, I promise to pay them, if I _cannot show_ that
200 of the copies remain unsold." What a sublime person is an
author! What a misery is authorship! The great philosopher who
creates systems that are to alter the face of his country,
must stand at the counter to count out 200 unsold copies!
[114] Des Maiseaux frees Toland from this calumny, and hints at his
own personal knowledge of the author--but he does not know
what a foreign writer authenticates, that this blasphemous
address to Bacchus is a parody of a prayer in the Roman
ritual, written two centuries before by a very proper society
of _Pantheists_, a club of drunkards!
[115] Warburton has well described Des Maiseaux: "All the Life-writers
we have had are, indeed, strange insipid creatures. The
verbose tasteless Frenchman seems to lay it down as a
principle that every life must be a book, and what is worse,
it proves a book without a life; for what do we know of
Boileau, after all his tedious stuff?"
[116] One of these philosophical conferences has been preserved by
Beausobre, who was indeed the party concerned. He inserted it
in the "Bibliothèque Germanique," a curious literary journal,
in 50 volumes, written by L'Enfant, Beausobre, and Formey. It
is very copious, and very curious, and is preserved in the
General Dictionary, art. Toland. The parties, after a warm
contest, were very wisely interrupted by the Queen, when she
discovered they had exhausted their learning, and were
beginning to rail at each other.
[117] A political society which obtained its name from the malt
liquors consumed at its meetings, and which was popularly
termed October from the month when it was usually brewed. This
club advocated the claims of the House of Hanover, and may
have originated the Mughouses noted in p. 32.--ED.
[118] I subjoin, for the gratification of the curious, the titles of a
few of these books. "Spanhemii Opera;" "Clerici Pentateuchus;"
"Constantini Lexicon Græco-Latinum;" "Fabricii Codex
Apocryphus Vet. et Nov. Test.;" "Synesius de Regno;" "Historia
Imaginum Coelestium Gosselini," 16 volumes; "Caryophili
Dissertationes;" "Vonde Hardt Ephemerides Philologicæ;"
"Trismegisti Opera;" "Recoldus, et alia Mahomedica;" all the
Works of Buxtorf; "Salviani Opera;" "Reland de Relig.
Mahomedica;" "Galli Opuscula Mythologica;" "Apollodori
Bibliotheca;" "Palingenius;" "Apuleius;" and every classical
author of antiquity. As he was then employed in his curious
history of the Druids, of which only a specimen is preserved,
we may trace his researches in the following books: "Luydii
Archæologia Britannica;" "Old Irish Testament," &c.;
"Maccurtin's History of Ireland;" "O'Flaherty's Ogygia;"
"Epistolarum Hibernicarum;" "Usher's Religion of the ancient
Irish;" "Brand's Isles of Orkney and Zetland;" "Pezron's
Antiquités des Celtes."
There are some singular papers among these fragments. One
title of a work is "Priesthood without Priestcraft; or
Superstition distinguished from Religion, Dominion from Order,
and Bigotry from Reason, in the most principal Controversies
about Church government, which at present divide and deform
Christianity." He has composed "A Psalm before Sermon in
praise of Asinity." There are other singular titles and works
in the mass of his papers.
[119]
A lover of all literature,
and knowing more than ten languages;
a champion for truth,
an assertor of liberty,
but the follower or dependant of no man;
nor could menaces nor fortune bend him;
the way he had chosen he pursued,
preferring honesty to his interest.
His spirit is joined with its ethereal father
from whom it originally proceeded;
his body likewise, yielding to Nature,
is again laid in the lap of its mother:
but he is about to rise again in eternity,
yet never to be the same TOLAND more.
GENIUS THE DUPE OF ITS PASSIONS.
POPE said that STEELE, though he led a careless and vicious life, had
nevertheless a love and reverence for virtue. The life of Steele was
not that of a retired scholar; hence his moral character becomes more
instructive. He was one of those whose hearts are the dupes of their
imaginations, and who are hurried through life by the most despotic
volition. He always preferred his caprices to his interests; or,
according to his own notion, very ingenious, but not a little absurd,
"he was always of the humour of preferring the state of his mind to
that of his fortune." The result of this principle of moral conduct
was, that a man of the most admirable abilities was perpetually acting
like a fool, and, with a warm attachment to virtue, was the frailest
of human beings.
In the first act of his life we find the seed that developed itself in
the succeeding ones. His uncle could not endure a hero for his heir:
but Steele had seen a marching regiment; a sufficient reason with him
to enlist as a private in the horse-guards: cocking his hat, and
putting on a broad-sword, jack-boots, and shoulder-belt, with the most
generous feelings he forfeited a very good estate.--At length Ensign
Steele's frank temper and wit conciliated esteem, and extorted
admiration, and the ensign became a favourite leader in all the
dissipations of the town. All these were the ebullitions of genius,
which had not yet received a legitimate direction. Amid these orgies,
however, it was often pensive, and forming itself; for it was in the
height of these irregularities that Steele composed his "Christian
Hero," a moral and religious treatise, which the contritions of every
morning dictated, and to which the disorders of every evening added
another penitential page. Perhaps the genius of Steele was never so
ardent and so pure as at this period; and in his elegant letter to his
commander, the celebrated Lord Cutts, he gives an interesting account
of the origin of this production, which none but one deeply imbued
with its feelings could have so forcibly described.
"_Tower Guard, March 23, 1701._
"MY LORD,--The address of the following papers is so very much due
to your lordship, that they are but a mere report of what has
passed upon my guard to my commander; for they were writ upon
duty, when the mind was perfectly disengaged, and at leisure, in
the silent watch of the night, to run over the busy dream of the
day; and the vigilance which obliges us to suppose an enemy always
near us, has awakened a sense that there is a restless and subtle
one which constantly attends our steps, and meditates our
ruin."[120]
To this solemn and monitory work he prefixed his name, from this
honourable motive, that it might serve as "a standing testimony
against himself, and make him ashamed of understanding, and seeming to
feel what was virtuous, and living so quite contrary a life." Do we
not think that no one less than a saint is speaking to us? And yet he
is still nothing more than Ensign Steele! He tells us that this grave
work made him considered, who had been no undelightful companion, as a
disagreeable fellow--and "The Christian Hero," by his own words,
appears to have fought off several fool-hardy geniuses who were for
"trying their valour on him," supposing a saint was necessarily a
poltroon. Thus "The Christian Hero," finding himself slighted by his
loose companions, sat down and composed a most laughable comedy, "The
Funeral;" and with all the frankness of a man who cares not to hide
his motives, he tells us, that after his religious work he wrote the
comedy because "nothing can make the town so fond of a man as a
successful play."[121] The historian who had to record such strange
events, following close on each other, as an author publishing a book
of piety, and then a farce, could never have discovered the secret
motive of the versatile writer, had not that writer possessed the most
honest frankness.
Steele was now at once a man of the town and its censor, and wrote
lively essays on the follies of the day in an enormous black peruke
which cost him fifty guineas! He built an elegant villa, but, as he
was always inculcating economy, he dates from "The Hovel." He detected
the fallacy of the South Sea scheme, while he himself invented
projects, neither inferior in magnificence nor in misery. He even
turned alchemist, and wanted to coin gold, merely to distribute it.
The most striking incident in the life of this man of volition, was
his sudden marriage with a young lady who attended his first wife's
funeral--struck by her angelical beauty, if we trust to his raptures.
Yet this sage, who would have written so well on the choice of a wife,
united himself to a character the most uncongenial to his own; cold,
reserved, and most anxiously prudent in her attention to money, she
was of a temper which every day grew worse by the perpetual imprudence
and thoughtlessness of his own. He calls her "Prue" in fondness and
reproach; she was Prudery itself! His adoration was permanent, and so
were his complaints; and they never parted but with bickerings--yet he
could not suffer her absence, for he was writing to her three or four
passionate notes in a day, which are dated from his office, or his
bookseller's, or from some friend's house--he has risen in the midst
of dinner to despatch a line to "Prue," to assure her of his affection
since noon.[122]--Her presence or her absence was equally painful to
him.
Yet Steele, gifted at all times with the susceptibility of genius, was
exercising the finest feelings of the heart; the same generosity of
temper which deluded his judgment, and invigorated his passions,
rendered him a tender and pathetic dramatist; a most fertile essayist;
a patriot without private views; an enemy whose resentment died away
in raillery; and a friend, who could warmly press the hand that
chastised him. Whether in administration, or expelled the House;
whether affluent, or flying from his creditors; in the fulness of his
heart he, perhaps, secured his own happiness, and lived on, like some
wits, extempore. But such men, with all their virtues and all their
genius, live only for themselves.
Steele, in the waste of his splendid talents, had raised sudden
enmities and transient friendships. The world uses such men as Eastern
travellers do fountains; they drink their waters, and when their
thirst is appeased, turn their hacks on them. Steele lived to be
forgotten. He opened his career with folly; he hurried through it in a
tumult of existence; and he closed it by an involuntary exile, amid
the wrecks of his fortune and his mind.
Steele, in one of his numerous periodical works, the twelfth number of
the "Theatre," has drawn an exquisite contrast between himself and
his friend Addison: it is a cabinet picture. Steele's careful pieces,
when warm with his subject, had a higher spirit, a richer flavour,
than the equable softness of Addison, who is only beautiful.
"There never was a more strict friendship than between these
gentlemen; nor had they ever any difference but what proceeded from
their different way of pursuing the same thing: the one, with
patience, foresight, and temperate address, always waited and stemmed
the torrent; while the other often plunged himself into it, and was as
often taken out by the temper of him who stood weeping on the bank for
his safety, whom he could not dissuade from leaping into it. Thus
these two men lived for some years last past, shunning each other, but
still preserving the most passionate concern for their mutual welfare.
But when they met, they were as unreserved as boys; and talked of the
greatest affairs, upon which they saw where they differed, without
pressing (what they knew impossible) to convert each other."
If Steele had the honour of the invention of those periodical papers
which first enlightened the national genius by their popular
instruction, he is himself a remarkable example of the moral and the
literary character perpetually contending in the man of volition.
FOOTNOTES:
[120] Mr. Nichols's "Epistolary Correspondence of Sir Richard Steele,"
vol. i. p. 77.
[121] Steele has given a delightful piece of self-biography towards
the end of his "Apology for Himself and his Writings," p. 80,
4to.
[122] In the "Epistolary Correspondence of Sir Richard Steele," edition
of 1809, are preserved these extraordinary love-despatches;
"Prue" used poor Steele at times very ill; indeed Steele
seems to have conceived that his warm affections were all she
required, for Lady Steele was usually left whole days in
solitude, and frequently in want of a guinea, when Steele
could not raise one. He, however, sometimes remonstrates with
her very feelingly. The following note is an instance:--
"DEAR WIFE,--I have been in great pain of body and mind
since I came out. You are extremely cruel to a generous
nature, which has a tenderness for you that renders your
least _dishumour_ insupportably afflicting. After short
starts of passion, not to be inclined to reconciliation,
is what is against all rules of Christianity and justice.
When I come home, I beg to be kindly received; or this
will have as ill an effect upon my fortune, as on my mind
and body."
In a postscript to another billet, he thus "sneers at Lady
Steele's excessive attention to money":--
"Your man Sam owes me threepence, which must be deducted
in the account between you and me; therefore, pray take
care to get it in, or stop it."
Such despatches as the following were sent off three or four
times in a day:--
"I beg of you not to be impatient, though it be an hour
before you see
"Your obliged husband,
R. STEELE."
"DEAR PRUE,--Don't be displeased that I do not come home
till eleven o'clock.
Yours, ever."
"DEAR PRUE,--Forgive me dining abroad, and let Will carry
the papers to Buckley's.
Your fond devoted
R. S."
"DEAR PRUE,--I am very sleepy and tired, but could not
think of closing my eyes till I had told you I am, dearest
creature, your most affectionate, faithful husband,
R. STEELE.
"From the Press, One in the morning."
It would seem by the following note that this hourly account
of himself was in consequence of the connubial mandate of his
fair despot:--
"DEAR PRUE,--It is a strange thing, because you are
handsome, that you will not behave yourself with the
obedience that people of worse features do--but that I
must be always giving you an account of every trifle and
minute of my time. I send this to tell you I am waiting to
be sent for again when my Lord Wharton is stirring."
LITERARY DISAPPOINTMENTS DISORDERING THE INTELLECT.
LELAND AND COLLINS.
This awful calamity may be traced in the fate of LELAND and COLLINS:
the one exhausted the finer faculties of his mind in the grandest
views, and sunk under gigantic tasks; the other enthusiast sacrificed
his reason and his happiness to his imagination.
LELAND, the father of our antiquaries, was an accomplished scholar,
and his ample mind had embraced the languages of antiquity, those of
his own age, and the ancient ones of his own country: thus he held all
human learning by its three vast chains. He travelled abroad; and he
cultivated poetry with the ardour he could even feel for the
acquisition of words. On his return home, among other royal favours,
he was appointed by Henry VIII. the king's antiquary, a title
honourably created for Leland; for with him it became extinct. By this
office he was empowered to search after English antiquities; to
review the libraries of all the religious institutions, and to bring
the records of antiquity "out of deadly darkness into lively light."
This extensive power fed a passion already formed by the study of our
old rude historians; his elegant taste perceived that they wanted
those graces which he could lend them.
Six years were occupied, by uninterrupted travel and study, to survey
our national antiquities; to note down everything observable for the
history of the country and the honour of the nation. What a
magnificent view has he sketched of this learned journey! In search of
knowledge, Leland wandered on the sea-coasts and in the midland;
surveyed towns and cities, and rivers, castles, cathedrals, and
monasteries; tumuli, coins, and inscriptions; collected authors;
transcribed MSS. If antiquarianism pored, genius too meditated in this
sublime industry.
Another six years were devoted to shape and to polish the immense
collections he had amassed. All this untired labour and continued
study were rewarded by Henry VIII. It is delightful, from its rarity,
to record the gratitude of a patron: Henry was worthy of Leland; and
the genius of the author was magnificent as that of the monarch who
had created it.
Nor was the gratitude of Leland silent: he seems to have been in the
habit of perpetuating his spontaneous emotions in elegant Latin verse.
Our author has fancifully expressed his gratitude to the king:--
"Sooner," he says, "shall the seas float without their silent
inhabitants; the thorny hedges cease to hide the birds; the oak to
spread its boughs; and Flora to paint the meadows with flowers;"
Quàm Rex dive, tuum labatur pectore nostro
Nomen, quod studiis portus et aura meis.
Than thou, great King, my bosom cease to hail,
Who o'er my studies breath'st a favouring gale.
Leland was, indeed, alive to the kindness of his royal patron; and
among his numerous literary projects, was one of writing a history of
all the palaces of Henry, in imitation of Procopius, who described
those of the Emperor Justinian. He had already delighted the royal ear
in a beautiful effusion of fancy and antiquarianism, in his _Cygnea
Cantio_, the Song of the Swans. The swan of Leland, melodiously
floating down the Thames, from Oxford to Greenwich, chants, as she
passes along, the ancient names and honours of the towns, the castles,
and the villages.
Leland presented his "Strena, or a New Year's Gift," to the king.--It
consists of an account of his studies; and sketches, with a fervid and
vast imagination, his magnificent labour, which he had already
inscribed with the title _De Antiquitate Britannica_, and which was to
be divided into as many books as there were shires. All parts of this
address of the King's Antiquary to the king bear the stamp of his
imagination and his taste. He opens his intention of improving, by the
classical graces of composition, the rude labours of our ancestors;
for,
"Except Truth be delicately clothed in purpure, her written verytees
can scant find a reader."
Our old writers, he tells his sovereign, had, indeed,
"From time to time preserved the acts of your predecessors, and the
fortunes of your realm, with great diligence, and no less faith; would
to God with like eloquence!"
An exclamation of fine taste, when taste was yet a stranger in the
country. And when he alludes to the knowledge of British affairs
scattered among the Roman, as well as our own writers, his fervid
fancy breaks forth with an image at once simple and sublime:--
"I trust," says Leland, "so to open the window, that the light shall
be seen so long, that is to say, by the space of a whole thousand
years stopped up, and the old glory of your Britain to re-flourish
through the world."[123]
And he pathetically concludes--
"Should I live to perform those things that are already begun, I trust
that your realm shall so well be known, once painted with its native
colours, that it shall give place to the glory of no other region."
The grandeur of this design was a constituent part of the genius of
Leland, but not less, too, was that presaging melancholy which even
here betrays itself, and even more frequently in his verses.
Everything about Leland was marked by his own greatness; his country
and his countrymen were ever present; and, by the excitement of his
feelings, even his humbler pursuits were elevated into patriotism.
Henry died the year after he received the "New Year's Gift." From that
moment, in losing the greatest patron for the greatest work, Leland
appears to have felt the staff which he had used to turn at pleasure
for his stay, break in his hands.
He had new patrons to court, while engaged in labours for which a
single life had been too short. The melancholy that cherishes genius
may also destroy it. Leland, brooding over his voluminous labours,
seemed to love and to dread them; sometimes to pursue them with
rapture, and sometimes to shrink from them with despair. His generous
temper had once shot forwards to posterity; but he now calms his
struggling hopes and doubts, and confines his literary ambition to his
own country and his own age.
POSTERITATIS AMOR DUBIUS.
Posteritatis amor mihi perblanditur, et ultro
Premittit libris secula multa meis.
At non tam facile est oculato imponere, nosco
Quàm non sim tali dignus honore frui.
Græcia magniloquos vates desiderat ipsa,
Roma suos etiam disperiisse dolet.
Exemplis quum sim claris edoctus ab istis,
Quî sperem Musas vivere posse meas?
Certè mî sat erit præsenti scribere sæclo,
Auribus et patriæ complacuisse meæ.
IMITATED.
Posterity, thy soothing love I feel,
That o'er my volumes many an age may steal:
But hard it is the well-clear'd eye to cheat
With honours undeserved, too fond deceit!
Greece, greatly eloquent, and full of fame,
Sighs for the want of many a perish'd name;
And Rome o'er her illustrious children mourns,
Their fame departing with their mouldering urns.
How can I hope, by such examples shown,
More than a transient day, a passing sun?
Enough for me to win the present age,
And please a brother with a brother's page.
By other verses, addressed to Cranmer, it would appear that Leland was
experiencing anxieties to which he had not been accustomed,--and one
may suspect, by the opening image of his "Supellex," that his pension
was irregular, and that he began, as authors do in these hard cases,
to value "the furniture" of his mind above that of his house.
AD THOMAM CRANMERUM, CANT. ARCHIEPISCOP.
Est congesta mihi domi Supellex
Ingens, aurea, nobilis, venusta,
Quâ totus studeo Britanniarum
Vero reddere gloriam nitori.
Sed Fortuna meis noverca cœptis
Jam felicibus invidet maligna.
Quare, ne pereant brevi vel horâ
Multarum mihi noctium labores
Omnes, et patriæ simul decora
Ornamenta cadant, &c. &c.
IMITATED.
The furnitures that fill my house,
The vast and beautiful disclose,
All noble, and the store is gold;
Our ancient glory here unroll'd.
But fortune checks my daring claim,
A step-mother severe to fame.
A smile malignantly she throws
Just at the story's prosperous close.
And thus must the unfinish'd tale,
And all my many vigils fail,
And must my country's honour fall;
In one brief hour must perish all?
But, conscious of the greatness of his labours, he would obtain the
favour of the Archbishop, by promising a share of his own fame--
----pretium sequetur amplum--
Sic nomen tibi litteræ elegantes
Rectè perpetuum dabunt, suosque
Partim vel titulos tibi receptos
Concedet memori Britannus ore:
Sic te posteritas amabit omnis,
Et famâ super æthera innotesces.
IMITATED.
But take the ample glorious meed,
To letter'd elegance decreed,
When Britain's mindful voice shall bend,
And with her own thy honours blend,
As she from thy kind hands receives
Her titles drawn on Glory's leaves,
And back reflects them on thy name,
Till time shall love thy mounting fame.
Thus was Leland, like the melancholic, withdrawn entirely into the
world of his own ideas; his imagination delighting in reveries, while
his industry was exhausting itself in labour. His manners were not
free from haughtiness,--his meagre and expressive physiognomy
indicates the melancholy and the majesty of his mind; it was not old
age, but the premature wrinkles of those nightly labours he has
himself recorded. All these characteristics are so strongly marked in
the bust of Leland, that Lavater had triumphed had he studied
it.[124]
Labour had been long felt as voluptuousness by Leland; and this is
among the Calamities of Literature, and it is so with all those
studies which deeply busy the intellect and the fancy. There is a
poignant delight in study, often subversive of human happiness. Men of
genius, from their ideal state, drop into the cold formalities of
society, to encounter its evils, its disappointments, its neglect, and
perhaps its persecutions. When such minds discover the world will only
become a friend on its own terms, then the cup of their wrath
overflows; the learned grow morose, and the witty sarcastic; but more
indelible emotions in a highly-excited imagination often produce those
delusions, which Darwin calls hallucinations, and which sometimes
terminate in mania. The haughtiness, the melancholy, and the aspiring
genius of Leland, were tending to a disordered intellect. Incipient
insanity is a mote floating in the understanding, escaping all
observation, when the mind is capable of observing itself, but seems a
constituent part of the mind itself when that is completely covered
with its cloud.
Leland did not reach even the maturity of life, the period at which
his stupendous works were to be executed. He was seized by frenzy. The
causes of his insanity were never known. The Papists declared he went
mad because he had embraced the new religion; his malicious rival
Polydore Vergil, because he had promised what he could not perform;
duller prosaists because his poetical turn had made him conceited. The
grief and melancholy of a fine genius, and perhaps an irregular
pension, his enemies have not noticed.
The ruins of Leland's mind were viewed in his library; volumes on
volumes stupendously heaped together, and masses of notes scattered
here and there; all the vestiges of his genius, and its distraction.
His collections were seized on by honest and dishonest hands; many
were treasured, but some were stolen. Hearne zealously arranged a
series of volumes from the fragments; but the "Britannia" of Camden,
the "London" of Stowe, and the "Chronicles" of Holinshed, are only a
few of those public works whose waters silently welled from the spring
of Leland's genius; and that nothing might be wanting to preserve some
relic of that fine imagination which was always working in his poetic
soul, his own description of his learned journey over the kingdom was
a spark, which, falling into the inflammable mind of a poet, produced
the singular and patriotic poem of the "Polyolbion" of Drayton. Thus
the genius of Leland has come to us diffused through a variety of
other men's; and what he intended to produce it has required many to
perform.
A singular inscription, in which Leland speaks of himself, in the
style he was accustomed to use, and which Weever tells us was affixed
to his monument, as he had heard by tradition, was probably a relic
snatched from his general wreck--for it could not with propriety have
been composed after his death.[125]
Quantùm Rhenano debet Germania docto
Tantùm debebit terra Britanna mihi.
Ille suæ gentis ritus et nomina prisca
Æstivo fecit lucidiora die.
Ipse antiquarum rerum quoque magnus amator
Ornabo patriæ lumina clara meæ.
Quæ cum prodierint niveis inscripta tabellis,
Tum testes nostræ sedulitatis erunt.
IMITATED.
What Germany to learn'd Rhenanus owes,
That for my Britain shall my toil unclose;
His volumes mark their customs, names, and climes,
And brighten, with a summer's light, old times.
I also, touch'd by the same love, will write,
To ornament my country's splendid light,
Which shall, inscribed on snowy tablets, be
Full many a witness of my industry.
Another example of literary disappointment disordering the intellect
may be contemplated in the fate of the poet COLLINS.
Several interesting incidents may be supplied to Johnson's narrative
of the short and obscure life of this poet, who, more than any other
of our martyrs to the lyre, has thrown over all his images and his
thoughts a tenderness of mind, and breathed a freshness over the
pictures of poetry, which the mighty Milton has not exceeded, and the
laborious Gray has not attained. But he immolated happiness, and at
length reason, to his imagination! The incidents most interesting in
the life of Collins would be those events which elude the ordinary
biographer; that invisible train of emotions which were gradually
passing in his mind; those passions which first moulded his genius,
and which afterwards broke it! But who could record the vacillations
of a poetic temper, its early hope and its late despair, its wild
gaiety and its settled frenzy, but the poet himself? Yet Collins has
left behind no memorial of the wanderings of his alienated mind but
the errors of his life!
At college he published his "Persian Eclogues," as they were first
called, to which, when he thought they were not distinctly Persian, he
gave the more general title of "Oriental." The publication was
attended with no success; but the first misfortune a poet meets will
rarely deter him from incurring more. He suddenly quitted the
university, and has been censured for not having consulted his friends
when he rashly resolved to live by the pen. But he had no friends! His
father had died in embarrassed circumstances; and Collins was residing
at the university on the stipend allowed him by his uncle, Colonel
Martin, who was abroad. He was indignant at a repulse he met with at
college; and alive to the name of author and poet, the ardent and
simple youth imagined that a nobler field of action opened on him in
the metropolis than was presented by the flat uniformity of a
collegiate life. To whatever spot the youthful poet flies, that spot
seems Parnassus, as applause seems patronage. He hurried to town, and
presented himself before the cousin who paid his small allowance from
his uncle in a fashionable dress with a feather in his hat. The graver
gentleman did not succeed in his attempt at sending him back, with all
the terror of his information, that Collins had not a single guinea of
his own, and was dressed in a coat he could never pay for. The young
bard turned from his obdurate cousin as "a dull fellow;" a usual
phrase with him to describe those who did not think as he would have
them.
That moment was now come, so much desired, and scarcely yet dreaded,
which was to produce those effusions of fancy and learning, for which
Collins had prepared himself by previous studies. About this time
Johnson[126] has given a finer picture of the intellectual powers and
the literary attainments of Collins than in the life he afterwards
composed. "Collins was acquainted not only with the learned tongues,
but with the Italian, French, and Spanish languages; full of hopes and
full of projects, versed in many languages, high in fancy, and strong
in retention." Such was the language of Johnson, when, warmed by his
own imagination, he could write like Longinus; at that after-period,
when assuming the austerity of critical discussion for the lives of
poets, even in the coldness of his recollections, he describes Collins
as "a man of extensive literature, and of vigorous faculties."
A chasm of several years remains to be filled. He was projecting works
of labour, and creating productions of taste; and he has been
reproached for irresolution, and even for indolence. Let us catch his
feelings from the facts as they rise together, and learn whether
Collins must endure censure or excite sympathy.
When he was living loosely about town, he occasionally wrote many
short poems in the house of a friend, who witnesses that he burned as
rapidly as he composed. His odes were purchased by Millar, yet though
but a slight pamphlet, all the interest of that great bookseller could
never introduce them into notice. Not an idle compliment is recorded
to have been sent to the poet. When we now consider that among these
odes was one the most popular in the language, with some of the most
exquisitely poetical, it reminds us of the difficulty a young writer
without connexions experiences in obtaining the public ear; and of the
languor of poetical connoisseurs who sometimes suffer poems, that have
not yet grown up to authority, to be buried on the shelf. What the
outraged feelings of the poet were, appeared when some time afterwards
he became rich enough to express them. Having obtained some fortune by
the death of his uncle, he made good to the publisher the deficiency
of the unsold odes, and, in his haughty resentment at the public
taste, consigned the impression to the flames!
Who shall now paint the feverish and delicate feelings of a young poet
such as Collins, who had twice addressed the public, and twice had
been repulsed? He whose poetic temper Johnson has finely painted, at
the happy moment when he felt its influence, as "delighting to rove
through the meadows of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of
golden palaces, and repose by the waterfalls of Elysian gardens!"
It cannot be doubted, and the recorded facts will demonstrate it, that
the poetical disappointments of Collins were secretly preying on his
spirit, and repressing his firmest exertions. With a mind richly
stored with literature, and a soul alive to the impulses of nature and
study, he projected a "History of the Revival of Learning," and a
translation of "Aristotle's Poetics," to be illustrated by a large
commentary.
But "his great fault," says Johnson, "was his _irresolution_; or the
frequent calls of _immediate necessity_ broke his schemes, and
suffered him to pursue no settled purpose." Collins was, however, not
idle, though without application; for, when reproached with idleness
by a friend, he showed instantly several sheets of his version of
Aristotle, and many embryos of some lives he had engaged to compose
for the "Biographia Britannica;" he never brought either to
perfection! What then was this _irresolution_ but the vacillations of
a mind broken and confounded? He had exercised too constantly the
highest faculties of fiction, and he had precipitated himself into the
dreariness of real life. None but a poet can conceive, for none but a
poet can experience, the secret wounds inflicted on a mind of romantic
fancy and tenderness of emotion, which has staked its happiness on its
imagination; for such neglect is felt as ordinary men would feel the
sensation of being let down into a sepulchre, and buried alive. The
mind of Tasso, a brother in fancy to Collins, became disordered by the
opposition of the critics, but perpetual neglect injures it not less.
The HOPE of the ancients was represented holding some flowers, the
promise of the spring, or some spikes of corn, indicative of
approaching harvest--but the HOPE of Collins had scattered its seed,
and they remained buried in the earth.
The oblivion which covered our poet's works appeared to him eternal,
as those works now seem to us immortal. He had created HOPE with deep
and enthusiastic feeling!--
With eyes so fair--
Whispering promised pleasure,
And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail;
And Hope, enchanted, smiled, and waved her golden hair!
The few years Collins passed in the metropolis he was subsisting with
or upon his friends; and, being a pleasing companion, he obtained many
literary acquaintances. It was at this period that Johnson knew him,
and thus describes him:--"His appearance was decent, and his
knowledge considerable; his views extensive, and his conversation
elegant." He was a constant frequenter at the literary resorts of the
Bedford and Slaughter's; and Armstrong, Hill, Garrick, and Foote,
frequently consulted him on their pieces before they appeared in
public. From his intimacy with Garrick he obtained a free admission
into the green-room; and probably it was at this period, among his
other projects, that he planned several tragedies, which, however, as
Johnson observes, "he only planned." There is a feature in Collins's
character which requires attention. He is represented as a man of
cheerful dispositions; and it has been my study to detect only a
melancholy, which was preying on the very source of life itself.
Collins was, indeed, born to charm his friends; for fancy and elegance
were never absent from his susceptible mind, rich in its stores, and
versatile in its emotions. He himself indicates his own character, in
his address to "Home:"--
Go! nor, regardless while these numbers boast
My short-lived bliss, forget my social name.
Johnson has told us of his cheerful dispositions; and one who knew him
well observes, that "in the green-room he made diverting observations
on the vanity and false consequence of that class of people, and his
manner of relating them to his particular friends was extremely
entertaining:" but the same friend acknowledges that "some letters
which he received from Collins, though chiefly on business, have in
them some flights which strongly mark his character, and for which
reason I have preserved them." We cannot decide of the temper of a man
viewed only in a circle of friends, who listen to the ebullitions of
wit or fancy; the social warmth for a moment throws into forgetfulness
his secret sorrow. The most melancholy man is frequently the most
delightful companion, and peculiarly endowed with the talent of
satirical playfulness and vivacity of humour.[127] But what was the
true life of Collins, separated from its adventitious circumstances?
It was a life of want, never chequered by hope, that was striving to
elude its own observation by hurrying into some temporary dissipation.
But the hours of melancholy and solitude were sure to return; these
were marked on the dial of his life, and, when they struck, the gay
and lively Collins, like one of his own enchanted beings, as surely
relapsed into his natural shape. To the perpetual recollection of his
poetical disappointments are we to attribute this unsettled state of
his mind, and the perplexity of his studies. To these he was
perpetually reverting, which he showed when after a lapse of several
years, he could not rest till he had burned his ill-fated odes. And
what was the result of his literary life? He returned to his native
city of Chichester in a state almost of nakedness, destitute,
diseased, and wild in despair, to hide himself in the arms of a
sister.
The cloud had long been gathering over his convulsed intellect; and
the fortune he acquired on the death of his uncle served only for
personal indulgences, which rather accelerated his disorder. There
were, at times, some awful pauses in the alienation of his mind--but
he had withdrawn it from study. It was in one of these intervals that
Thomas Warton told Johnson that when he met Collins travelling, he
took up a book the poet carried with him, from curiosity, to see what
companion a man of letters had chosen--it was an English Testament. "I
have but one book," said Collins, "but that is the best." This
circumstance is recorded on his tomb.
He join'd pure faith to strong poetic powers,
And in reviving reason's lucid hours,
Sought on one book his troubled mind to rest,
And rightly deem'd the book of God the best.
At Chichester, tradition has preserved some striking and affecting
occurrences of his last days; he would haunt the aisles and cloisters
of the cathedral, roving days and nights together, loving their
Dim religious light.
And, when the choristers chanted their anthem, the listening and
bewildered poet, carried out of himself by the solemn strains, and his
own too susceptible imagination, moaned and shrieked, and awoke a
sadness and a terror most affecting amid religious emotions; their
friend, their kinsman, and their poet, was before them, an awful image
of human misery and ruined genius!
This interesting circumstance is thus alluded to on his monument:--
Ye walls that echoed to his frantic moan,
Guard the due record of this grateful stone:
Strangers to him, enamour'd of his lays,
This fond memorial of his talents raise.
A voluntary subscription raised the monument to Collins. The genius of
Flaxman has thrown out on the eloquent marble all that fancy would
consecrate; the tomb is itself a poem.
There Collins is represented as sitting in a reclining posture, during
a lucid interval of his afflicting malady, with a calm and benign
aspect, as if seeking refuge from his misfortunes in the consolations
of the Gospel, which lie open before him, whilst his lyre, and "The
Ode on the Passions," as a scroll, are thrown together neglected on
the ground. Upon the pediment on the tablet are placed in relief two
female figures of LOVE and PITY, entwined each in the arms of the
other; the proper emblems of the genius of his poetry.
Langhorne, who gave an edition of Collins's poems with all the fervour
of a votary, made an observation not perfectly correct:--"It is
observable," he says, "that none of his poems bear the marks of an
amorous disposition; and that he is one of those few poets who have
sailed to Delphi without touching at Cythera. In the 'Ode to the
Passions,' _Love_ has been omitted." There, indeed, Love does not form
an important personage; yet, at the close, _Love_ makes his transient
appearance with _Joy_ and _Mirth_--"a gay fantastic round."
And, amidst his frolic play,
As if he would the charming air repay,
Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.
It is certain, however, that Collins considered the amatory passion as
unfriendly to poetic originality; for he alludes to the whole race of
the Provençal poets, by accusing them of only employing
Love, only love, her forceless numbers mean.
Collins affected to slight the urchin; for he himself had been once in
love, and his wit has preserved the history of his passion; he was
attached to a young lady who was born the day before him, and who
seems not to have been very poetically tempered, for she did not
return his ardour. On that occasion he said "that he came into the
world _a day after the fair_."
Langhorne composed two sonnets, which seem only preserved in the
"Monthly Review," in which he was a writer, and where he probably
inserted them; they bear a particular reference to the misfortunes of
our poet. In one he represents Wisdom, in the form of Addison,
reclining in "the old and honoured shade of Magdalen," and thus
addressing
The poor shade of Collins, wandering by;
The tear stood trembling in his gentle eye,
With modest grief reluctant, while he said--
"Sweet bard, belov'd by every muse in vain!
With pow'rs, whose fineness wrought their own decay;
Ah! wherefore, thoughtless, didst thou yield the rein
To fancy's will, and chase the meteor ray?
Ah! why forget thy own Hyblæan strain,
Peace rules the breast, where Reason rules the day."
The last line is most happily applied; it is a verse by the
unfortunate bard himself, which heightens the contrast with his
forlorn state! Langhorne has feelingly painted the fatal indulgences
of such a character as Collins.
Of fancy's too prevailing power beware!
Oft has she bright on life's fair morning shone;
Oft seated Hope on Reason's sovereign throne,
Then closed the scene, in darkness and despair.
Of all her gifts, of all her powers possest,
Let not her flattery win thy youthful ear,
Nor vow long faith to such a various guest,
False at the last, tho' now perchance full dear;
The casual lover with her charms is blest,
But woe to them her magic bands that wear!
The criticism of Johnson on the poetry of Collins, that "as men are
often esteemed who cannot be loved, so the poetry of Collins may
sometimes extort praise when it gives little pleasure," might
almost have been furnished by the lumbering pen of old Dennis. But
Collins from the poetical never _extorts_ praise, for it is given
_spontaneously_; he is much _more loved_ than _esteemed_, for he
does not give _little pleasure_. Johnson, too, describes his
"lines as of slow motion, clogged and impeded with clusters of
consonants." Even this verbal criticism, though it appeals to the
eye, and not to the ear, is false criticism, since Collins is
certainly the most musical of poets. How could that lyrist be harsh
in his diction, who almost draws tears from our eyes, while his
melodious lines and picturing epithets are remembered by his readers?
He is devoured with as much enthusiasm by one party as he is
imperfectly relished by the other.
Johnson has given two characters of this poet; the one composed at a
period when that great critic was still susceptible of the seduction
of the imagination; but even in this portrait, though some features of
the poet are impressively drawn, the likeness is incomplete, for there
is not even a slight indication of the chief feature in Collins's
genius, his tenderness and delicacy of emotion, and his fresh and
picturesque creative strokes. Nature had denied to Johnson's robust
intellect the perception of these poetic qualities. He was but a
stately ox in the fields of Parnassus, not the animal of nature. Many
years afterwards, during his poetical biography, that long Lent of
criticism, in which he mortified our poetical feeling by accommodating
his to the populace of critics--so faint were former recollections,
and so imperfect were even those feelings which once he seemed to have
possessed--that he could then do nothing but write on Collins with
much less warmth than he has written on Blackmore. Johnson is, indeed,
the first of critics, when his powerful logic investigates objects
submitted to reason; but great sense is not always combined with
delicacy of taste; and there is in poetry a province which Aristotle
himself may never have entered.
FOOTNOTES:
[123] Leland, in his magnificent plan, included several curious
departments. Jealous of the literary glory of the Italians,
whom he compares to the Greeks for accounting all nations
barbarous and unlettered, he had composed four books "De Viris
Illustribus", on English Authors, to force them to acknowledge
the illustrious genius, and the great men of Britain. Three
books "De Nobilitate Britannica" were to be "as an ornament
and a right comely garland."
[124] What reason is there to suppose with Granger that his bust, so
admirably engraven by Grignion, is supposititious? Probably
struck by the premature old age of a man who died in his
fortieth year, he condemned it by its appearance; but not with
the eye of the physiognomist.
[125] Ancient Funerall Monuments, p. 692.
[126] In a letter to Joseph Warton.
[127] Burton, the author of "The Anatomy of Melancholy," offers a
striking instance. Bishop Kennett, in his curious "Register
and Chronicle," has preserved the following particulars of
this author. "In an interval of vapours _he would be extremely
pleasant, and raise laughter in any company_. Yet I have heard
that nothing at last could make him laugh but going down to
the Bridge-foot at Oxford, and hearing the bargemen scold and
storm and swear at one another; at which he would set his
hands to his sides, and laugh most profusely; yet in his
chamber so mute and mopish, that he was suspected to be _felo
de se_." With what a fine strain of poetic feeling has a
modern bard touched this subject!--
"As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow,
While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below,
So the cheek may be tinged with a warm sunny smile,
Though the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while."
MOORE'S "Irish Melodies."
THE REWARDS OF ORIENTAL STUDENTS.
At a time when oriental studies were in their infancy in this country,
SIMON OCKLEY, animated by the illustrious example of Pococke and the
laborious diligence of Prideaux, devoted his life and his fortune to
these novel researches, which necessarily involved both. With that
enthusiasm which the ancient votary experienced, and with that patient
suffering the modern martyr has endured, he pursued, till he
accomplished, the useful object of his labours. He, perhaps, was the
first who exhibited to us other heroes than those of Rome and Greece;
sages as contemplative, and a people more magnificent even than the
iron masters of the world. Among other oriental productions, his most
considerable is "The History of the Saracens." The first volume
appeared in 1708, and the second ten years afterwards. In the preface
to the last volume, the oriental student pathetically counts over his
sorrows, and triumphs over his disappointments; the most remarkable
part is the date of the place from whence this preface was written--he
triumphantly closes his labours in the confinement of Cambridge Castle
for debt!
Ockley, lamenting his small proficiency in the Persian studies,
resolves to attain to them--
"How often have I endeavoured to perfect myself in that language, but
my malignant and envious stars still frustrated my attempts; but they
shall sooner alter their courses than extinguish my resolution of
quenching that thirst which the little I have had of it hath already
excited."
And he states the deficiencies of his history with the most natural
modesty--
"Had I not been forced to snatch everything that I have, as it were,
out of the fire, our Saracen history should have been ushered into the
world after a different manner." He is fearful that something would be
ascribed to his indolence or negligence, that "ought more justly to be
attributed to the influence of inexorable necessity, could I have been
master of my own time and circumstances."
Shame on those pretended patrons who, appointing "a professor of the
oriental languages," counteract the purpose of the professorship by
their utter neglect of the professor, whose stipend cannot keep him on
the spot where only he ought to dwell. And Ockley complains also of
that hypocritical curiosity which pretends to take an interest in
things it cares little about; perpetually inquiring, as soon as a work
is announced, when it is to come out. But these Pharisees of
literature, who can only build sepulchres to ancient prophets, never
believe in a living one. Some of these Ockley met with on the
publication of his first volume: they run it down as the strangest
story they had ever heard; they had never met with such folks as the
Arabians! "A reverend dignitary asked me if, when I wrote that book, I
had not lately been reading the history of Oliver Cromwell?" Such was
the plaudit the oriental student received, and returned to grow pale
over his MSS. But when Petis de la Croix, observes Ockley, was
pursuing the same track of study, in the patronage of Louis XIV., he
found books, leisure, and encouragement; and when the great Colbert
desired him to compose the life of Genkis Chan, he considered a period
of ten years not too much to be allowed the author. And then Ockley
proceeds--
"But my unhappy condition hath always been widely different from
anything that could admit of such an exactness. Fortune seems only to
have given me a taste of it out of spite, on purpose that I might
regret the loss of it."
He describes his two journeys to Oxford, for his first volume; but in
his second, matters fared worse with him--
"Either my domestic affairs were grown much worse, or I less able to
bear them; or what is more probable, both."
Ingenuous confession! fruits of a life devoted in its struggles to
important literature! and we murmur when genius is irritable, and
erudition is morose! But let us proceed with Ockley:--
"I was forced to take the advantage of the slumber of my cares, that
never slept when I was awake; and if they did not incessantly
interrupt my studies, were sure to succeed them with no less constancy
than night doth the day."
This is the cry of agony. He who reads this without sympathy, ought to
reject these volumes as the idlest he ever read, and honour me with
his contempt. The close of Ockley's preface shows a love-like
tenderness for his studies; although he must quit life without
bringing them to perfection, he opens his soul to posterity and tells
them, in the language of prophecy, that if they will bestow
encouragement on our youth, the misfortunes he has described will be
remedied. He, indeed, was aware that these students--
"Will hardly come in upon the prospect of finding leisure, in a
prison, to transcribe those papers for the press which they have
collected with indefatigable labour, and oftentimes at the expense of
their rest, and all the other conveniences of life, for the service of
the public."
Yet the exulting martyr of literature, at the moment he is fast bound
to the stake, does not consider a prison so dreadful a reward for
literary labours--
"I can assure them, from my own experience, that I have enjoyed more
true liberty, more happy leisure, and more solid repose in six months
here, than in thrice the same number of years before. Evil is the
condition of that historian who undertakes to write the lives of
others before he knows how to live himself. Yet I have no just reason
to be angry with the world; I never stood in need of its assistance in
my life, but I found it always very liberal of its advice; for which I
am so much the more beholden to it, by how much the more I did always
in my judgment give the possession of wisdom the preference to that of
riches."[128]
Poor Ockley, always a student, and rarely what is called a man of the
world, once encountered a literary calamity which frequently occurs
when an author finds himself among the vapid triflers and the polished
cynics of the fashionable circle. Something like a patron he found in
Harley, the Earl of Oxford, and once had the unlucky honour of dining
at the table of my Lord Treasurer. It is probable that Ockley, from
retired habits and severe studies, was not at all accomplished in the
_suaviter in modo_, of which greater geniuses than Ockley have so
surlily despaired. How he behaved I cannot narrate: probably he
delivered himself with as great simplicity at the table of the Lord
Treasurer as on the wrong side of Cambridge Castle gate. The
embarrassment this simplicity drew him into is very fully stated in
the following copious apology he addressed to the Earl of Oxford,
which I have transcribed from the original; perhaps it may be a useful
memorial to some men of letters as little polished as the learned
Ockley:--
"_Cambridge, July 15, 1714._
"MY LORD,--I was so struck with horror and amazement two days ago,
that I cannot possibly express it. A friend of mine showed me a
letter, part of the contents of which were, 'That Professor Ockley
had given such extreme offence by some uncourtly answers to some
gentlemen at my Lord Treasurer's table that it would be in vain to
make any further application to him.'
"My Lord, it is impossible for me to recollect, at this distance
of time. All that I can say is this: that, as on the one side for
a man to come to his patron's table with a design to affront
either him or his friends supposes him a perfect natural, a mere
idiot; so on the other side it would be extreme severe, if a
person whose education was far distant from the politeness of a
court, should, upon the account of an unguarded expression, or
some little inadvertency in his behaviour, suffer a capital
sentence.
"Which is my case, if I have forfeited your Lordship's favour;
which God forbid! That man is involved in double ruin that is not
only forsaken by his friend, but, which is the unavoidable
consequence, exposed to the malice and contempt not only of
enemies, but, what is still more grievous, of all sorts of fools.
"It is not the talent of every well-meaning man to converse with
his superiors with due decorum; for, either when he reflects upon
the vast distance of their station above his own, he is struck
dumb and almost insensible; or else their condescension and
courtly behaviour encourages him to be too familiar. To steer
exactly between these two extremes requires not only a good
intention, but presence of mind, and long custom.
"Another article in my friend's letter was, 'That somebody had
informed your Lordship that I was a very sot.' When first I had
the honour to be known to your Lordship, I could easily foresee
that there would be persons enough that would envy me upon that
account, and do what in them lay to traduce me. Let Haman enjoy
never so much himself, it is all nothing, it does him no good,
till poor Mordecai is hanged out of his way.
"But I never feared the being censured upon that account. Here in
the University I converse with none but persons of the most
distinguished reputations both for learning and virtue, and
receive from them daily as great marks of respect and esteem,
which I should not have if that imputation were true. It is most
certain that I do indulge myself the freedom of drinking a
cheerful cup, at proper seasons, among my friends; but no
otherwise than is done by thousands of honest men, who never
forfeit their character by it. And whoever doth no more than so,
deserves no more to be called a sot, than a man that eats a hearty
meal would be willing to be called a glutton.
"As for those detractors, if I have but the least assurance of
your Lordship's favour, I can very easily despise them. They are
_Nati consumere fruges_. They need not trouble themselves about
what other people do; for whatever they eat and drink, it is only
robbing the poor. Resigning myself entirely to your Lordship's
goodness and pardon, I conclude this necessary apology with like
provocation. That _I would be content he should take my character
from any person that had a good one of his own_.
"I am, with all submission, My Lord,
"Your Lordship's most obedient, &c.,
"SIMON OCKLEY."
To the honour of the Earl of Oxford, this unlucky piece of awkwardness
at table, in giving "uncourtly answers," did not interrupt his regard
for the poor oriental student; for several years afterwards the
correspondence of Ockley was still acceptable to the Earl.
If the letters of the widows and children of many of our eminent
authors were collected, they would demonstrate the great fact, that
the man who is a husband or a father ought not to be an author. They
might weary with a monotonous cry, and usually would be dated from the
gaol or the garret. I have seen an original letter from the widow of
Ockley to the Earl of Oxford, in which she lays before him the
deplorable situation of her affairs; the debts of the Professor being
beyond what his effects amounted to, the severity of the creditors
would not even suffer the executor to make the best of his effects;
the widow remained destitute of necessaries, incapable of assisting
her children.[129]
Thus students have devoted their days to studies worthy of a student.
They are public benefactors, yet find no friend in the public, who
cannot yet appreciate their value--Ministers of State know it, though
they have rarely protected them. Ockley, by letters I have seen, was
frequently employed by Bolingbroke to translate letters from the
Sovereign of Morocco to our court; yet all the debts for which he was
imprisoned in Cambridge Castle did not exceed two hundred pounds. The
public interest is concerned in stimulating such enthusiasts; they are
men who cannot be salaried, who cannot be created by letters-patent;
for they are men who infuse their soul into their studies, and breathe
their fondness for them in their last agonies. Yet such are doomed to
feel their life pass away like a painful dream!
Those who know the value of LIGHTFOOT'S Hebraic studies, may be
startled at the impediments which seem to have annihilated them. In
the following effusion he confides his secret agitation to his friend
Buxtorf: "A few years since I prepared a little commentary on the
First Epistle to the Corinthians, in the same style and manner as I
had done that on Matthew. But it laid by me two years or more, nor can
I now publish it, but at my own charges, and to my great damage, which
I felt enough and too much in the edition of my book upon Mark. Some
progress I have made in the gospel of St. Luke, but I can print
nothing but at my own cost: thereupon I wholly give myself to reading,
scarce thinking of writing more; for booksellers and printers have
dulled my edge, who will print no book, especially Latin, unless they
have an assured and considerable gain."
These writings and even the fragments have been justly appreciated by
posterity, and a recent edition of all Lightfoot's works in many
volumes have received honours which their despairing author never
contemplated.
FOOTNOTES:
[128] Dr. Edmund Castell offers a remarkable instance to illustrate
our present investigation. He more than devoted his life to
his "Lexicon Heptaglotton." It is not possible, if there are
tears that are to be bestowed on the afflictions of learned
men, to read his pathetic address to Charles II., and forbear.
He laments the seventeen years of incredible pains, during
which he thought himself idle when he had not devoted sixteen
or eighteen hours a day to this labour; that he had expended
all his inheritance (it is said more than twelve thousand
pounds); that it had broken his constitution, and left him
blind as well as poor. When this invaluable Polyglott was
published, the copies remained unsold in his hands; for the
learned Castell had anticipated the curiosity and knowledge of
the public by a full century. He had so completely devoted
himself to oriental studies, that they had a very remarkable
consequence, for he had totally forgotten his own language,
and could scarcely spell a single word. This appears in some
of his English Letters, preserved by Mr. Nichols in his
valuable "Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century," vol.
iv. Five hundred of these Lexicons, unsold at the time of his
death, were placed by Dr. Castell's niece in a room so little
regarded, that scarcely one complete copy escaped the rats,
and "the whole load of learned rags sold only for seven
pounds." The work at this moment would find purchasers, I
believe, at forty or fifty pounds.--The learned SALE, who
first gave the world a genuine version of the Koran, and who
had so zealously laboured in forming that "Universal History"
which was the pride of our country, pursued his studies
through a life of want--and this great orientalist (I grieve
to degrade the memoirs of a man of learning by such
mortifications), when he quitted his studies too often wanted
a change of linen, and often wandered in the streets in search
of some compassionate friend who would supply him with the
meal of the day!
[129] The following are extracts from Ockley's letters to the Earl of
Oxford, which I copy from the originals:--
"_Cambridge Castle, May 2, 1717._
"I am here in the prison for debt, which must needs be an
unavoidable consequence of the distractions in my family.
I enjoy more repose, indeed, here, than I have tasted
these many years, but the circumstance of a family obliges
me to go out as soon as I can."
"_Cambridge, Sept. 7, 1717._
"I have at last found leisure in my confinement to finish
my Saracen history, which I might have hoped for in vain
in my perplexed circumstances."
DANGER INCURRED BY GIVING THE RESULT OF LITERARY INQUIRIES.
An author occupies a critical situation, for, while he is presenting
the world with the result of his profound studies and his honest
inquiries, it may prove pernicious to himself. By it he may incur the
risk of offending the higher powers, and witnessing his own days
embittered. Liable, by his moderation or his discoveries, by his
scruples or his assertions, by his adherence to truth, or by the
curiosity of his speculations, to be persecuted by two opposite
parties, even when the accusations of the one necessarily nullify the
other; such an author will be fortunate to be permitted to retire out
of the circle of the bad passions; but he crushes in silence and
voluntary obscurity all future efforts--and thus the nation loses a
valued author.
This case is exemplified by the history of Dr. COWEL'S curious work
"The Interpreter." The book itself is a treasure of our antiquities,
illustrating our national manners. The author was devoted to his
studies, and the merits of his work recommended him to the Archbishop
of Canterbury; in the Ecclesiastical Court he practised as a civilian,
and became there eminent as a judge.[130]
Cowel gave his work with all the modesty of true learning; for who
knows his deficiencies so well in the subject on which he has written
as that author who knows most? It is delightful to listen to the
simplicity and force with which an author in the reign of our first
James opens himself without reserve.
"My true end is the advancement of knowledge; and therefore have I
published this poor work, not only to impart the good thereof to those
young ones that want it, but also to draw from the learned the supply
of my defects. Whosoever will charge these my travels [labours] with
many oversights, he shall need no solemn pains to prove them. And upon
the view taken of this book sithence the impression, I dare assure
them that shall observe most faults therein, that I, by gleaning after
him, will gather as many omitted by him, as he shall show committed by
me. What a man saith well is not, however, to be rejected because he
hath some errors; reprehend who will, in God's name, that is, with
sweetness and without reproach. So shall he reap hearty thanks at my
hands, and thus more soundly help in a few months, than I, by tossing
and tumbling my books at home, could possibly have done in many
years."
This extract discovers Cowel's amiable character as an author. But he
was not fated to receive "sweetness without reproach."
Cowel encountered an unrelenting enemy in Sir Edward Coke, the famous
Attorney-General of James I., the commentator of Littleton. As a man,
his name ought to arouse our indignation, for his licentious tongue,
his fierce brutality, and his cold and tasteless genius. He whose
vileness could even ruffle the great spirit of Rawleigh, was the
shameless persecutor of the learned Cowel.
Coke was the oracle of the common law, and Cowel of the civil; but
Cowel practised at Westminster Hall as well as at Doctors' Commons.
Coke turned away with hatred from an advocate who, with the skill of a
great lawyer, exerted all the courage. The Attorney-General sought
every occasion to degrade him, and, with puerile derision, attempted
to fasten on Dr. Cowel the nickname of _Dr. Cowheel_. Coke, after
having written in his "Reports" whatever he could against our author,
with no effect, started a new project. Coke well knew his master's
jealousy on the question of his prerogative; and he touched the King
on that nerve. The Attorney-General suggested to James that Cowel had
discussed "too nicely the mysteries of his monarchy, in some points
derogatory to the supreme power of his crown; asserting that the royal
prerogative was in some cases limited." So subtly the serpent
whispered to the feminine ear of a monarch, whom this vanity of
royalty startled with all the fears of a woman. This suggestion had
nearly occasioned the ruin of Cowel--it verged on treason; and if the
conspiracy of Coke now failed, it was through the mediation of the
archbishop, who influenced the King; but it succeeded in alienating
the royal favour from Cowel.
When Coke found he could not hang Cowel for treason, it was only a
small disappointment, for he had hopes to secure his prey by involving
him in felony. As physicians in desperate cases sometimes reverse
their mode of treatment, so Coke now operated on an opposite
principle. He procured a party in the Commons to declare that Cowel
was a betrayer of the rights and liberties of the people; that he had
asserted the King was independent of Parliament, and that it was a
favour to admit the consent of his subjects in giving of subsidies,
&c.; and, in a word, that he drew his arguments from the Roman
Imperial Code, and would make the laws and customs of Rome and
Constantinople those of London and York. Passages were wrested to
Coke's design. The prefacer of Cowel's book very happily expresses
himself when he says, "When a suspected book is brought to the
torture, it often confesseth all, and more than it knows."
The Commons proceeded criminally against Cowel; and it is said his
life was required, had not the king interposed. The author was
imprisoned, and the book was burnt.
On this occasion was issued "a proclamation touching Dr. Cowel's book
called 'The Interpreter.'" It may be classed among the most curious
documents of our literary history. I do not hesitate to consider this
proclamation as the composition of James I.
I will preserve some passages from this proclamation, not merely for
their majestic composition, which may still be admired, and the
singularity of the ideas, which may still be applied--but for the
literary event to which it gave birth in the appointment of a royal
licenser for the press. Proclamations and burning of books are the
strong efforts of a weak government, exciting rather than suppressing
public attention.
"This later age and times of the world wherein we are fallen is so
much given to verbal profession, as well of religion as of all
commendable royal virtues, but wanting the actions and deeds agreeable
to so specious a profession; as it hath bred such an unsatiable
curiosity in many men's spirits, and such an itching in the tongues
and pens of most men, as nothing is left unsearched to the bottom both
in talking and writing. For from the very highest mysteries in the
Godhead and the most inscrutable counsels in the Trinity, to the very
lowest pit of hell and the confused actions of the devils there, there
is nothing now unsearched into by the curiosity of men's brains. Men,
not being contented with the knowledge of so much of the will of God
as it hath pleased him to reveal, but they will needs sit with him in
his most private closet, and become privy of his most inscrutable
counsels. And, therefore, it is no wonder that men in these our days
do not spare to wade in all the deepest mysteries that belong to the
persons or state of kings and princes, that are gods upon earth; since
we see (as we have already said) that they spare not God himself. And
this licence, which every talker or writer now assumeth to himself, is
come to this abuse; that many Phormios will give counsel to Hannibal,
and many men that never went of the compass of cloysters or colleges,
will freely wade, by their writings, in the deepest mysteries of
monarchy and politick government. Whereupon it cannot otherwise fall
out but that when men go out of their element and meddle with things
above their capacity, themselves shall not only go astray and stumble
in darkness, but will mislead also divers others with themselves into
many mistakings and errors; the proof whereof we have lately had by a
book written by Dr. Cowel, called 'The Interpreter.'"
The royal reviewer then in a summary way shows how Cowel had, "by
meddling in matters beyond his reach, fallen into many things to
mistake and deceive himself." The book is therefore "prohibited; the
buying, uttering, or reading it;" and those "who have any copies are
to deliver the same presently upon this publication to the Mayor of
London," &c., and the proclamation concludes with instituting
licensers of the press:--
"Because that there shall be better oversight of books of all sorts
before they come to the press, we have resolved to make choice of
commissioners, that shall look more narrowly into the nature of all
those things that shall be put to the press, and from whom a more
strict account shall be yielded unto us, than hath been used
heretofore."
What were the feelings of our injured author, whose integrity was so
firm, and whose love of study was so warm, when he reaped for his
reward the displeasure of his sovereign, and the indignation of his
countrymen--accused at once of contradictory crimes, he could not be
a betrayer of the rights of the people, and at the same time limit the
sovereign power. Cowel retreated to his college, and, like a wise man,
abstained from the press; he pursued his private studies, while his
inoffensive life was a comment on Coke's inhumanity more honourable to
Cowel than any of Coke's on Littleton.
Thus Cowel saw, in his own life, its richest labour thrown aside; and
when the author and his adversary were no more, it became a treasure
valued by posterity! It was printed in the reign of Charles I., under
the administration of Cromwell, and again after the Restoration. It
received the honour of a foreign edition. Its value is still
permanent. Such is the history of a book, which occasioned the
disgrace of its author, and embittered his life.
A similar calamity was the fate of honest STOWE, the Chronicler. After
a long life of labour, and having exhausted his patrimony in the study
of English antiquities, from a reverential love to his country, poor
Stowe was ridiculed, calumniated, neglected, and persecuted. One
cannot read without indignation and pity what Howes, his continuator,
tells us in his dedication. Howes had observed that--
"No man would lend a helping hand to the late aged painful Chronicler,
nor, after his death, prosecute his work. He applied himself to
several persons of dignity and learning, whose names had got forth
among the public as likely to be the continuators of Stowe; but every
one persisted in denying this, and some imagined that their secret
enemies had mentioned their names with a view of injuring them, by
incurring the displeasure of their superiors and risking their own
quiet. One said, 'I will _not flatter_, to scandalise my posterity;'
another, 'I cannot see how a man should spend his labour and money
worse than in that which acquires no regard nor reward except
_backbiting_ and _detraction_.' One swore a great oath and said, 'I
thank God that I am not yet so mad to waste my time, spend two hundred
pounds a-year, trouble myself and all my friends, only to give
assurance of endless reproach, loss of liberty, and bring all my days
in question.'"
Unhappy authors! are such then the terrors which silence eloquence,
and such the dangers which environ truth? Posterity has many
discoveries to make, or many deceptions to endure! But we are treading
on hot embers.
Such too was the fate of REGINALD SCOT, who, in an elaborate and
curious volume,[131] if he could not stop the torrent of the popular
superstitions of witchcraft, was the first, at least, to break and
scatter the waves. It is a work which forms an epoch in the history of
the human mind in our country; but the author had anticipated a very
remote period of its enlargement. Scot, the apostle of humanity, and
the legislator of reason, lived in retirement, yet persecuted by
religious credulity and legal cruelty.
SELDEN, perhaps the most learned of our antiquaries, was often led, in
his curious investigations, to disturb his own peace, by giving the
result of his inquiries. James I. and the Court party were willing
enough to extol his profound authorities and reasonings on topics
which did not interfere with their system of arbitrary power; but they
harassed and persecuted the author whom they would at other times
eagerly quote as their advocate. Selden, in his "History of Tithes,"
had alarmed the clergy by the intricacy of his inquiries. He pretends,
however, to have only collected the opposite opinions of others,
without delivering his own. The book was not only suppressed, but the
great author was further disgraced by subscribing a gross recantation
of all his learned investigations--and was compelled to receive in
silence the insults of Courtly scholars, who had the hardihood to
accuse him of plagiarism, and other literary treasons, which more
sensibly hurt Selden than the recantation extorted from his hand by
"the Lords of the High Commission Court." James I. would not suffer
him to reply to them. When the king desired Selden to show the right
of the British Crown to the dominion of the sea, this learned author
having made proper collections, Selden, angried at an imprisonment he
had undergone, refused to publish the work. A great author like Selden
degrades himself when any personal feeling, in literary disputes,
places him on an equality with any king; the duty was to his
country.--But Selden, alive to the call of rival genius, when Grotius
published, in Holland, his _Mare liberum_, gave the world his _Mare
clausum_; when Selden had to encounter Grotius, and to proclaim to the
universe "the Sovereignty of the Seas," how contemptible to him
appeared the mean persecutions of a crowned head, and how little his
own meaner resentment!
To this subject the fate of Dr. HAWKESWORTH is somewhat allied. It is
well known that this author, having distinguished himself by his
pleasing compositions in the "Adventurer," was chosen to draw up the
narrative of Cook's discoveries in the South Seas. The pictures of a
new world, the description of new manners in an original state of
society, and the incidents arising from an adventure which could find
no parallel in the annals of mankind, but under the solitary genius of
Columbus--all these were conceived to offer a history, to which the
moral and contemplative powers of Hawkesworth only were equal. Our
author's fate, and that of his work, are known: he incurred all the
danger of giving the result of his inquiries; he indulged his
imagination till it burst into pruriency, and discussed moral theorems
till he ceased to be moral. The shock it gave to the feelings of our
author was fatal; and the error of a mind, intent on inquiries which,
perhaps, he thought innocent, and which the world condemned as
criminal, terminated in death itself. Hawkesworth was a vain man, and
proud of having raised himself by his literary talents from his native
obscurity: of no learning, he drew all his science from the
Cyclopædia; and, I have heard, could not always have construed the
Latin mottos of his own paper, which were furnished by Johnson; but
his sensibility was abundant--and ere his work was given to the world,
he felt those tremblings and those doubts which anticipated his fate.
That he was in a state of mental agony respecting the reception of his
opinions, and some other parts of his work, will, I think, be
discovered in the following letter, hitherto unpublished. It was
addressed, with his MSS., to a peer, to be examined before they were
sent to the press--an occupation probably rather too serious for the
noble critic:--
"_London, March 2, 1761._
"I think myself happy to be permitted to put _my MSS. into your
Lordship's hands_, because, though it increases my anxiety and my
fears, yet it will at least secure me from what I should think _a
far greater misfortune_ than any other that can attend my
performance, _the danger of addressing to the King any sentiment,
allusion, or opinion_, that could make such an address _improper_.
I have now the honour to submit the _work_ to your Lordship, with
the dedication; from which the duty I owe to his Majesty, and, if
I may be permitted to add anything to that, the duty I owe to
myself, have concurred to exclude the servile, extravagant, and
indiscriminate adulation which has so often disgraced alike those
by whom it has been given and received.
"I remain, &c. &c."
This elegant epistle justly describes that delicacy in style which has
been so rarely practised by an indiscriminate dedicator; and it not
less feelingly touches on that "far greater misfortune than any
other," which finally overwhelmed the fortitude and intellect of this
unhappy author!
FOOTNOTES:
[130] Cowel's book, "The Interpreter," though professedly a mere
explanation of law terms, was believed to contain allusions or
interpretations of law entirely adapted to party feeling.
Cowel was blamed by both parties, and his book declared to
infringe the royal prerogative or the liberties of the
subject. It was made one of the articles against Laud at his
trial, that he had sanctioned a new edition of this work to
countenance King Charles in his measures. Cowel had died long
before this (October, 1611); he had retired again to
collegiate life as soon as he got free of his political
persecutions.--ED.
[131] "The Discoverie of Witchcraft, necessary to be known for the
undeceiving of Judges, Justices, and Juries, and for the
Preservation of Poor People." Third edition, 1665. This was
about the time that, according to Arnot's Scots Trials, the
expenses of burning a witch amounted to ninety-two pounds,
fourteen shillings, Scots. The unfortunate old woman cost two
trees, and employed two men to watch her closely for thirty
days! One ought to recollect the past follies of humanity, to
detect, perhaps, some existing ones.
A NATIONAL WORK WHICH COULD FIND NO PATRONAGE.
The author who is now before us is DE LOLME!
I shall consider as an English author that foreigner, who flew to our
country as the asylum of Europe, who composed a noble work on our
Constitution, and, having imbibed its spirit, acquired even the
language of a free country.
I do not know an example in our literary history that so loudly
accuses our tardy and phlegmatic feeling respecting authors, as the
treatment De Lolme experienced in this country. His book on our
Constitution still enters into the studies of an English patriot, and
is not the worse for flattering and elevating the imagination,
painting everything beautiful, to encourage our love as well as our
reverence for the most perfect system of governments. It was a noble
as well as ingenious effort in a foreigner--it claimed national
attention--but could not obtain even individual patronage. The fact is
mortifying to record, that the author who wanted every aid, received
less encouragement than if he had solicited subscriptions for a raving
novel, or an idle poem. De Lolme was compelled to traffic with
booksellers for this work; and, as he was a theoretical rather than a
practical politician, he was a bad trader, and acquired the smallest
remuneration. He lived, in the country to which he had rendered a
national service, in extreme obscurity and decay; and the walls of the
Fleet too often enclosed the English Montesquieu. He never appears to
have received a solitary attention,[132] and became so disgusted with
authorship, that he preferred silently to endure its poverty rather
than its other vexations. He ceased almost to write. Of De Lolme I
have heard little recorded but his high-mindedness; a strong sense
that he stood degraded beneath that rank in society which his book
entitled him to enjoy. The cloud of poverty that covered him only
veiled without concealing its object; with the manners and dress of a
decayed gentleman, he still showed the few who met him that he
cherished a spirit perpetually at variance with the adversity of his
circumstances.
Our author, in a narrative prefixed to his work, is the proud
historian of his own injured feelings; he smiled in bitterness on his
contemporaries, confident it was a tale reserved for posterity.
After having written the work whose systematic principles refuted
those political notions which prevailed at the era of the American
revolution,--and whose truth has been so fatally demonstrated in our
own times, in two great revolutions, which have shown all the defects
and all the mischief of nations rushing into a state of freedom before
they are worthy of it,--the author candidly acknowledges he counted on
some sort of encouragement, and little expected to find the mere
publication had drawn him into great inconvenience.
"When my enlarged English edition was ready for the press, had I
acquainted ministers that I was preparing to boil my tea-kettle with
it, for want of being able to afford the expenses of printing it;"
ministers, it seems, would not have considered that he was lighting
his fire with "myrrh, and cassia, and precious ointment."
In the want of encouragement from great men, and even from booksellers,
De Lolme had recourse to a subscription; and his account of the manner
he was received, and the indignities he endured, all which are
narrated with great simplicity, show that whatever his knowledge of
our Constitution might be, "his knowledge of the country was, at that
time, very incomplete." At length, when he shared the profits of his
work with the booksellers, they were "but scanty and slow." After
all, our author sarcastically congratulates himself, that he--
"Was allowed to carry on the above business of selling my book,
without any objection being formed against me, from my not having
served a regular apprenticeship, and without being molested by the
Inquisition."
And further he adds--
"Several authors have chosen to relate, in writings published after
death, the personal advantages by which their performances had been
followed; as for me, I have thought otherwise--and I will see it
printed while I am yet living."
This, indeed, is the language of irritation! and De Lolme degrades
himself in the loudness of his complaint. But if the philosopher
lost his temper, that misfortune will not take away the dishonour of
the occasion that produced it. The country's shame is not lessened
because the author who had raised its glory throughout Europe, and
instructed the nation in its best lesson, grew indignant at the
ingratitude of his pupil. De Lolme ought not to have congratulated
himself that he had been allowed the liberty of the press unharassed
by an inquisition: this sarcasm is senseless! or his book is a
mere fiction!
FOOTNOTES:
[132] Except by the hand of literary charity; he was more than once
relieved by the Literary Fund. Such are the authors only whom
it is wise to patronise.
THE MISERIES OF SUCCESSFUL AUTHORS.
HUME is an author so celebrated, a philosopher so serene, and a man so
extremely amiable, if not fortunate, that we may be surprised to meet
his name inscribed in a catalogue of literary calamities. Look into
his literary life, and you will discover that the greater portion was
mortified and angried; and that the stoic so lost his temper, that had
not circumstances intervened which did not depend on himself, Hume had
abandoned his country and changed his name!
"The first success of most of my writings was not such as to be an
object of vanity." His "Treatise of Human Nature" fell dead-born from
the press. It was cast anew with another title, and was at first
little more successful. The following letter to Des Maiseaux, which I
believe is now first published, gives us the feelings of the youthful
and modest philosopher:--
"DAVID HUME TO DES MAISEAUX.
"SIR,--Whenever you see my name, you'll readily imagine the
subject of my letter. A young author can scarce forbear
speaking of his performance to all the world; but when he
meets with one that is a good judge, and whose instruction and
advice he depends on, there ought some indulgence to be given
him. You were so good as to promise me, that if you could find
leisure from your other occupations, you would look over my
system of philosophy, and at the same time ask the opinion of
such of your acquaintance as you thought proper judges. Have you
found it sufficiently intelligible? Does it appear true to you?
Do the style and language seem tolerable? These three questions
comprehend everything; and I beg of you to answer them with the
utmost freedom and sincerity. I know 'tis a custom to flatter
poets on their performances, but I hope philosophers may be
exempted; and the more so that their cases are by no means alike.
When we do not approve of anything in a poet we commonly can give
no reason for our dislikes but our particular taste; which not
being convincing, we think it better to conceal our sentiments
altogether. But every error in philosophy can be distinctly
markt and proved to be such; and this is a favour I flatter
myself you'll indulge me in with regard to the performance I put
into your hands. I am, indeed, afraid that it would be too great
a trouble for you to mark all the errors you have observed; I
shall only insist upon being informed of the most material of
them, and you may assure yourself will consider it as a singular
favour. I am, with great esteem
"Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
"_Aprile 6, 1739._
"DAVID HUME.
"Please direct to me at Ninewells, near Berwick-upon-Tweed."
Hume's own favourite "Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals"
came unnoticed and unobserved in the world. When he published the
first portion of his "History," which made even Hume himself sanguine
in his expectations, he tells his own tale:--
"I thought that I was the only historian that had at once neglected
present power, interest, and authority, and the cry of popular
prejudices; and, as the subject was suited to every capacity, I
expected proportional applause. But miserable was my disappointment!
All classes of men and readers united in their rage against him who
had presumed to shed a generous tear for the fate of Charles I. and
the Earl of Strafford." "What was still more mortifying, the book
seemed to sink into oblivion, and in a twelvemonth not more than
forty-five copies were sold."
Even Hume, a stoic hitherto in his literary character, was struck
down, and dismayed--he lost all courage to proceed--and, had the war
not prevented him, "he had resolved to change his name, and never more
to have returned to his native country."
But an author, though born to suffer martyrdom, does not always
expire; he may be flayed like St. Bartholomew, and yet he can breathe
without a skin; stoned, like St. Stephen, and yet write on with a
broken head; and he has been even known to survive the flames,
notwithstanding the most precious part of an author, which is
obviously his book, has been burnt in an _auto da fe_. Hume once
more tried the press in "The Natural History of Religion." It proved
but another martyrdom! Still was the _fall_ (as he terms it) of
the first volume of his History haunting his nervous imagination,
when he found himself yet strong enough to hold a pen in his hand,
and ventured to produce a second, which "helped to buoy up its
unfortunate brother." But the third part, containing the reign of
Elizabeth, was particularly obnoxious, and he was doubtful whether he
was again to be led to the stake. But Hume, a little hardened by a
little success, grew, to use his own words, "callous against the
impressions of public folly," and completed his History, which was
now received "with tolerable, and but tolerable, success."
At length, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, our author began, a
year or two before he died, as he writes, to see "many _symptoms_ of
my literary reputation breaking out _at last_ with additional lustre,
though I know that I can have but few years to enjoy it." What a
provoking consolation for a philosopher, who, according to the result
of his own system, was close upon a state of annihilation!
To Hume, let us add the illustrious name of DRYDEN.
It was after preparing a second edition of Virgil, that the great
Dryden, who had lived, and was to die in harness, found himself still
obliged to seek for daily bread. Scarcely relieved from one heavy
task, he was compelled to hasten to another; and his efforts were now
stimulated by a domestic feeling, the expected return of his son in
ill-health from Rome. In a letter to his bookseller he pathetically
writes--"If it please God that _I must die of over-study_, I cannot
spend my life better than in preserving his." It was on this occasion,
on the verge of his seventieth year, as he describes himself in the
dedication of his Virgil, that, "worn out with study, and oppressed
with fortune," he contracted to supply the bookseller with 10,000
verses at sixpence a line!
What was his entire dramatic life but a series of vexation and
hostility, from his first play to his last? On those very boards
whence Dryden was to have derived the means of his existence and his
fame, he saw his foibles aggravated, and his morals aspersed.
Overwhelmed by the keen ridicule of Buckingham, and maliciously
mortified by the triumph which Settle, his meanest rival, was allowed
to obtain over him, and doomed still to encounter the cool malignant
eye of Langbaine, who read poetry only to detect plagiarism.
Contemporary genius is inspected with too much familiarity to be felt
with reverence; and the angry prefaces of Dryden only excited the
little revenge of the wits. How could such sympathise with injured,
but with lofty feelings? They spread two reports of him, which may not
be true, but which hurt him with the public. It was said that, being
jealous of the success of Creech, for his version of Lucretius, he
advised him to attempt Horace, in which Dryden knew he would fail--and
a contemporary haunter of the theatre, in a curious letter[133] on
_The Winter Diversions_, says of Congreve's angry preface to the
_Double Dealer_, that--
"The critics were severe upon this play, which gave the author
occasion to lash them in his epistle dedicatory--so that 'tis
generally thought _he has done his business and lost himself_; a thing
he owes to Mr. Dryden's _treacherous friendship_, who being _jealous
of the applause_ he had got by his _Old Bachelor deluded him_ into a
foolish imitation of his own way of writing angry prefaces."
This lively critic is still more vivacious on the great Dryden, who
had then produced his _Love Triumphant_, which, the critic says,
"Was damned by the universal cry of the town, _nemine contradicente_
but the _conceited poet_. He says in his prologue that 'this is the
last the town must expect from him;' he had done himself a kindness
had he taken his leave before." He then describes the success of
Southerne's _Fatal Marriage, or the Innocent Adultery_, and
concludes, "This kind usage will encourage desponding minor poets,
and _vex huffing Dryden and Congreve to madness_."
I have quoted thus much of this letter, that we may have before us
a true image of those feelings which contemporaries entertain of the
greater geniuses of their age; how they seek to level them; and in
what manner men of genius are doomed to be treated--slighted,
starved, and abused. Dryden and Congreve! the one the finest genius,
the other the most exquisite wit of our nation, are to be _vexed to
madness_!--their failures are not to excite sympathy, but contempt
or ridicule! How the feelings and the language of contemporaries
differ from that of posterity! And yet let _us_ not exult in our purer
and more dignified feelings--_we_ are, indeed, the _posterity_ of
Dryden and Congreve; but we are the _contemporaries_ of others who
must patiently hope for better treatment from our sons than they
have received from the fathers.
Dryden was no master of the pathetic, yet never were compositions more
pathetic than the Prefaces this great man has transmitted to
posterity! Opening all the feelings of his heart, we live among his
domestic sorrows. Johnson censures Dryden for saying _he has few
thanks to pay his stars that he was born among Englishmen_.[134] We
have just seen that Hume went farther, and sighed to fly to a retreat
beyond that country which knew not to reward genius.--What, if Dryden
felt the dignity of that character he supported, dare we blame his
frankness? If the age be ungenerous, shall contemporaries escape the
scourge of the great author, who feels he is addressing another age
more favourable to him?
Johnson, too, notices his "Self-commendation; his diligence in
reminding the world of his merits, and expressing, with very little
scruple, his high opinion of his own powers." Dryden shall answer in
his own words; with all the simplicity of Montaigne, he expresses
himself with the dignity that would have become Milton or Gray:--
"It is a vanity common to all writers to overvalue their own
productions; and it is better for me to own this failing in myself,
than the world to do it for me. _For what other reason have I spent
my life in such an unprofitable study? Why am I grown old in seeking
so barren a reward as fame?_ The same parts and application which have
made me a poet, might have raised me to any honours of the gown, which
are often given to men of as little learning, and less honesty, than
myself."
How feelingly Whitehead paints the situation of Dryden in his old
age:--
Yet lives the man, how wild soe'er his aim,
Would madly barter fortune's smiles for fame?
Well pleas'd to shine, through each recording page,
The hapless Dryden of a shameless age!
Ill-fated bard! where'er thy name appears,
The weeping verse a sad memento bears;
Ah! what avail'd the enormous blaze between
Thy dawn of glory and thy closing scene!
When sinking nature asks our kind repairs,
Unstrung the nerves, and silver'd o'er the hairs;
When stay'd reflection came uncall'd at last,
And gray experience counts each folly past!
MICKLE'S version of the Lusiad offers an affecting instance of the
melancholy fears which often accompany the progress of works of
magnitude, undertaken by men of genius. Five years he had buried
himself in a farm-house, devoted to the solitary labour; and he closes
his preface with the fragment of a poem, whose stanzas have
perpetuated all the tremblings and the emotions, whose unhappy
influence the author had experienced through the long work. Thus
pathetically he addresses the Muse:--
----Well thy meed repays thy worthless toil;
Upon thy houseless head pale want descends
In bitter shower; and taunting scorn still rends
And wakes thee trembling from thy golden dream:
In vetchy bed, or loathly dungeon ends
Thy idled life----
And when, at length, the great and anxious labour was completed, the
author was still more unhappy than under the former influence of his
foreboding terrors. The work is dedicated to the Duke of Buccleugh.
Whether his Grace had been prejudiced against the poetical labour by
Adam Smith, who had as little comprehension of the nature of poetry as
becomes a political economist, or from whatever cause, after
possessing it for six weeks the Duke had never condescended to open
the volume. It is to the honour of Mickle that the Dedication is a
simple respectful inscription, in which the poet had not compromised
his dignity,--and that in the second edition he had the magnanimity
not to withdraw the dedication to this statue-like patron. Neither was
the critical reception of this splendid labour of five devoted years
grateful to the sensibility of the author: he writes to a friend--
"Though my work is well received at Oxford, I will honestly own to
you, some things have hurt me. A few grammatical slips in the
introduction have been mentioned; and some things in the notes about
Virgil, Milton, and Homer, have been called the arrogance of
criticism. But the greatest offence of all is, what I say of blank
verse."
He was, indeed, after this great work was given to the public, as
unhappy as at any preceding period of his life; and Mickle, too, like
Hume and Dryden, could feel a wish to forsake his native land! He
still found his "head houseless;" and "the vetchy bed" and "loathly
dungeon" still haunted his dreams. "To write for the booksellers is
what I never will do," exclaimed this man of genius, though struck by
poverty. He projected an edition of his own poems by subscription.
"Desirous of giving an edition of my works, in which I shall bestow
the utmost attention, which, perhaps, will be my final farewell to
that blighted spot (worse than the most bleak mountains of Scotland)
yclept Parnassus; after this labour is finished, if Governor Johnstone
cannot or does not help me to a little independence, _I will certainly
bid adieu to Europe, to unhappy suspense, and perhaps also to the
chagrin of soul which I feel to accompany it_."
Such was the language which cannot now be read without exciting our
sympathy for the author of the version of an epic, which, after a
solemn devotion of no small portion of the most valuable years
of life, had been presented to the world, with not sufficient
remuneration or notice of the author to create even hope in the
sanguine temperament of a poet. Mickle was more honoured at Lisbon
than in his own country. So imperceptible are the gradations of
public favour to the feelings of genius, and so vast an interval
separates that author who does not immediately address the tastes
or the fashions of his age, from the reward or the enjoyment of
his studies.
We cannot account, among the lesser calamities of literature, that of
a man of genius, who, dedicating his days to the composition of a
voluminous and national work, when that labour is accomplished, finds,
on its publication, the hope of fame, and perhaps other hopes as
necessary to reward past toil, and open to future enterprise, all
annihilated. Yet this work neglected or not relished, perhaps even the
sport of witlings, afterwards is placed among the treasures of our
language, when the author is no more! but what is posthumous
gratitude, could it reach even the ear of an angel?
The calamity is unavoidable; but this circumstance does not lessen it.
New works must for a time be submitted to popular favour; but
posterity is the inheritance of genius. The man of genius, however,
who has composed this great work, calculates his vigils, is best
acquainted with its merits, and is not without an anticipation of the
future feeling of his country; he
But weeps the more, because he weeps in vain.
Such is the fate which has awaited many great works; and the heart of
genius has died away on its own labours. I need not go so far back as
the Elizabethan age to illustrate a calamity which will excite the
sympathy of every man of letters; but the great work of a man of no
ordinary genius presents itself on this occasion.
This great work is "The Polyolbion" of MICHAEL DRAYTON; a poem
unrivalled for its magnitude and its character.[135] The genealogy of
poetry is always suspicious; yet I think it owed its birth to
Leland's magnificent view of his intended work on Britain, and was
probably nourished by the "Britannia" of Camden, who inherited the
mighty industry, with out the poetical spirit, of Leland; Drayton
embraced both. This singular combination of topographical erudition
and poetical fancy constitutes a national work--a union that some may
conceive not fortunate, no more than "the slow length" of its
Alexandrine metre, for the purposes of mere delight. Yet what
theme can be more elevating than a bard chanting to his "Fatherland,"
as the Hollanders called their country? Our tales of ancient glory,
our worthies who must not die, our towns, our rivers, and our
mountains, all glancing before the picturesque eye of the naturalist
and the poet! It is, indeed, a labour of Hercules; but it was not
unaccompanied by the lyre of Apollo.
This national work was ill received; and the great author dejected,
never pardoned his contemporaries, and even lost his temper.[136]
Drayton and his poetical friends beheld indignantly the trifles of the
hour overpowering the neglected Polyolbion.
One poet tells us that
--------------------they prefer
The fawning lines of every pamphleter.
GEO. WITHERS.
And a contemporary records the utter neglect of this great poet:--
Why lives Drayton when the times refuse
Both means to live, and matter for a muse,
Only without excuse to leave us quite,
And tell us, durst we act, he durst to write?
W. BROWNE.
Drayton published his Polyolbion first in eighteen parts; and the
second portion afterwards. In this interval we have a letter to
Drummond, dated in 1619:--
"I thank you, my dear sweet Drummond, for your good opinion of
Polyolbion. I have done twelve books more, that is, from the 18th
book, which was Kent (if you note it), all the east parts and north to
the river of Tweed; _but it lieth by me, for the booksellers and I are
in terms_; they are a company of base knaves, whom I scorn and kick
at."
The vengeance of the poet had been more justly wreaked on the buyers
of books than on the sellers, who, though knavery has a strong
connexion with trade, yet, were they knaves, they would be true to
their own interests. Far from impeding a successful author,
booksellers are apt to hurry his labours; for they prefer the crude to
the mature fruit, whenever the public taste can be appeased even by an
unripened dessert.
These "knaves," however, seem to have succeeded in forcing poor
Drayton to observe an abstinence from the press, which must have
convulsed all the feelings of authorship. The second part was not
published till three years after this letter was written; and then
without maps. Its preface is remarkable enough; it is pathetic, till
Drayton loses the dignity of genius in its asperity. In is inscribed,
in no good humour--
"TO ANY THAT WILL READ IT!
"When I first undertook this poem, or, as some have pleased to term
it, this Herculean labour, I was by some virtuous friends persuaded
that I should receive much comfort and encouragement; and for these
reasons: First, it was a new clear way, never before gone by any; that
it contained all the delicacies, delights, and rarities of this
renowned isle, interwoven with the histories of the Britons, Saxons,
Normans, and the later English. And further, that there is scarcely
any of the nobility or gentry of this land, but that he is some way or
other interested therein.
"But it hath fallen out otherwise; for instead of that comfort which
my noble friends proposed as my due, I have met with barbarous
ignorance and base detraction; such a cloud hath the devil drawn over
the world's judgment. Some of the stationers that had the selling of
the first part of this poem, because _it went not so fast away in the
selling_ as some of their beastly and abominable trash (a shame both
to our language and our nation), have despightfully left out the
epistles to the readers, and so have cousened the buyers with
imperfected books, which those that have undertaken the second part
have been forced to amend in the first, for _the small number that are
yet remaining in their hands_.
"And some of our outlandish, unnatural English (I know not how
otherwise to express them) stick not to say that there is nothing in
this island worth studying for, and take a great pride to be ignorant
in anything thereof. As for these cattle, _odi profanum vulgus, et
arceo_; of which I account them, be they never so great."
Yet, as a true poet, whose impulse, like fate, overturns all
opposition, Drayton is not to be thrown out of his avocation; but
intrepidly closes by promising "they shall not deter me from going on
with Scotland, if means and time do not hinder me to perform as much
as I have promised in my first song." Who could have imagined that
such bitterness of style, and such angry emotions, could have been
raised in the breast of a poet of pastoral elegance and fancy?
Whose bounding muse o'er ev'ry mountain rode,
And every river warbled as it flow'd.
KIRKPATRICK.
It is melancholy to reflect that some of the greatest works in our
language have involved their authors in distress and anxiety: and that
many have gone down to their grave insensible of that glory which soon
covered it.
FOOTNOTES:
[133] A letter found among the papers of the late Mr. Windham, which
Mr. Malone has preserved.
[134] There is an affecting _remonstrance_ of Dryden to Hyde, Earl of
Rochester, on the state of his poverty and neglect--in which
is this remarkable passage:--"It is enough for one age to have
_neglected_ Mr. Cowley and _starved_ Mr. Butler."
[135] The author explains the nature of his book in his title-page
when he calls it "A Chorographicall Description of tracts,
rivers, mountaines, forests, and other parts of this renowned
Isle of Great Britaine, with intermixture of the most
remarquable stories, antiquities, wonders, rarityes,
pleasures, and commodities of the same; digested in a Poem."
The maps with which it is illustrated are curious for the
impersonations of the nymphs of wood and water, the sylvan
gods, and other characters of the poem; to which the learned
Selden supplied notes. Ellis calls it "a wonderful work,
exhibiting at once the learning of an historian, an antiquary,
a naturalist, and a geographer, and embellished by the
imagination of a poet."--ED.
[136] In the dedication of the first part to Prince Henry, the author
says of his work, "it cannot want envie: for even in the birth
it alreadie finds that."--ED.
THE ILLUSIONS OF WRITERS IN VERSE.
Who would, with the awful severity of Plato, banish poets from the
Republic? But it may be desirable that the Republic should not be
banished from poets, which it seems to be when an inordinate passion
for writing verses drives them from every active pursuit. There is no
greater enemy to domestic quiet than a confirmed versifier; yet are
most of them much to be pitied: it is the _mediocre_ critics they
first meet with who are the real origin of a populace of _mediocre_
poets. A young writer of verses is sure to get flattered by those who
affect to admire what they do not even understand, and by those who,
because they understand, imagine they are likewise endowed with
delicacy of taste and a critical judgment. What sacrifices of social
enjoyments, and all the business of life, are lavished with a
prodigal's ruin in an employment which will be usually discovered to
be a source of early anxiety, and of late disappointment![137] I say
nothing of the ridicule in which it involves some wretched Mævius, but
of the misery that falls so heavily on him, and is often entailed on
his generation. Whitehead has versified an admirable reflection of
Pope's, in the preface to his works:--
For wanting wit be totally undone,
And barr'd all arts, for having fail'd in one?
The great mind of BLACKSTONE never showed him more a poet than when he
took, not without affection, "a farewell of the Muse," on his being
called to the bar. DRUMMOND, of Hawthornden, quitted the bar from his
love of poetry; yet he seems to have lamented slighting the profession
which his father wished him to pursue. He perceives his error, he
feels even contrition, but still cherishes it: no man, not in his
senses, ever had a more lucid interval:--
I changed countries, new delights to find;
But ah! for pleasure I did find new pain;
Enchanting pleasure so did reason blind,
That father's love and words I scorn'd as vain.
I know that all the Muses' heavenly lays,
With toil of spirit which are so dearly bought,
As idle sounds of few or none are sought,
That there is nothing lighter than vain praise;
Know what I list, this all cannot me move,
But that, alas! I both must write and love!
Thus, like all poets, who, as Goldsmith observes, "are fond of
enjoying the present, careless of the future," he talks like a man of
sense, and acts like a fool.
This wonderful susceptibility of praise, to which poets seem more
liable than any other class of authors, is indeed their common food;
and they could not keep life in them without this nourishment. NAT.
LEE, a true poet in all the excesses of poetical feelings--for he was
in such raptures at times as to lose his senses--expresses himself in
very energetic language on the effects of the praise necessary for
poets:--
"Praise," says Lee, "is the greatest encouragement we chamelions can
pretend to, or rather the manna that keeps soul and body together; we
devour it as if it were angels' food, and vainly think we grow
immortal. There is nothing transports a poet, next to love, like
commending in the right place."
This, no doubt, is a rare enjoyment, and serves to strengthen his
illusions. But the same fervid genius elsewhere confesses, when
reproached for his ungoverned fancy, that it brings with itself its
own punishment:--
"I cannot be," says this great and unfortunate poet, "so ridiculous a
creature to any man as I am to myself; for who should know the house
so well as the good man at home? who, when his neighbour comes to see
him, still sets the best rooms to view; and, if he be not a wilful
ass, keeps the rubbish and lumber in some dark hole, where nobody
comes but himself, to mortify at melancholy hours."
Study the admirable preface of POPE, composed at that matured period
of life when the fever of fame had passed away, and experience had
corrected fancy. It is a calm statement between authors and readers;
there is no imagination that colours by a single metaphor, or conceals
the real feeling which moved the author on that solemn occasion, of
collecting his works for the last time. It is on a full review of the
past that this great poet delivers this remarkable sentence:--
"_I believe, if any one, early in his life, should contemplate the
dangerous fate of AUTHORS, he would scarce be of their number on any
consideration._ The life of a wit is a warfare upon earth; and to
pretend to serve the learned world in any way, one must have the
constancy of a martyr, and a resolution to suffer for its sake."
All this is so true in literary history, that he who affects to
suspect the sincerity of Pope's declaration, may flatter his sagacity,
but will do no credit to his knowledge.
If thus great poets pour their lamentations for having devoted
themselves to their art, some sympathy is due to the querulousness of
a numerous race of _provincial bards_, whose situation is ever at
variance with their feelings. These usually form exaggerated
conceptions of their own genius, from the habit of comparing
themselves with their contracted circle. Restless, with a desire of
poetical celebrity, their heated imagination views in the metropolis
that fame and fortune denied them in their native town; there they
become half-hermits and half-philosophers, darting epigrams which
provoke hatred, or pouring elegies, descriptive of their feelings,
which move derision: their neighbours find it much easier to ascertain
their foibles than comprehend their genius; and both parties live in a
state of mutual persecution. Such, among many, was the fate of the
poet HERRICK; his vein was pastoral, and he lived in the elysium of
the west, which, however, he describes by the sullen epithet, "Dull
Devonshire," where "he is still sad." Strange that such a poet should
have resided near twenty years in one of our most beautiful counties
in a very discontented humour. When he quitted his village of
"Deanbourne," the petulant poet left behind him a severe "farewell,"
which was found still preserved in the parish, after a lapse of more
than a century. Local satire has been often preserved by the very
objects it is directed against, sometimes from the charm of the wit
itself, and sometimes from the covert malice of attacking our
neighbours. Thus he addresses "Deanbourne, a rude river in Devonshire,
by which, sometime, he lived:"--
Dean-bourn, farewell!
Thy rockie bottom that doth tear thy streams,
And makes them frantic, e'en to all extremes.
Rockie thou art, and rockie we discover
Thy men,--
O men! O manners!--
O people currish, churlish as their seas--
He rejoices he leaves them, never to return till "rocks shall turn to
rivers." When he arrives in London,
From the dull confines of the drooping west,
To see the day-spring from the pregnant east,
he, "ravished in spirit," exclaims, on a view of the metropolis--
O place! O people! manners form'd to please
All nations, customs, kindreds, languages!
But he fervently entreats not to be banished again:--
For, rather than I'll to the west return,
I'll beg of thee first, here to have mine urn.
The Devonians were avenged; for the satirist of the _English Arcadia_
was condemned again to reside by "its rockie side," among "its rockie
men."
Such has been the usual chant of provincial poets; and, if the
"silky-soft Favonian gales" of Devon, with its "Worthies," could not
escape the anger of such a poet as Herrick, what county may hope to be
saved from the invective of querulous and dissatisfied poets?
In this calamity of authors I will show that a great poet felicitated
himself that poetry was not the business of his life; and afterwards I
will bring forward an evidence that the immoderate pursuit of poetry,
with a very moderate genius, creates a perpetual state of illusion;
and pursues grey-headed folly even to the verge of the grave.
Pope imagined that PRIOR was only fit to make verses, and less
qualified for business than Addison himself. Had Prior lived to finish
that history of his own times he was writing, we should have seen how
far the opinion of Pope was right. Prior abandoned the Whigs, who had
been his first patrons, for the Tories, who were now willing to adopt
the political apostate. This versatility for place and pension rather
shows that Prior was a little more "qualified for business than
Addison."
Johnson tells us "Prior lived at a time when the rage of party
detected all which was any man's interest to hide; and, as little ill
is heard of Prior, it is certain that not much was known:" more,
however, than Johnson supposes. This great man came to the pleasing
task of his poetical biography totally unprepared, except with the
maturity of his genius, as a profound observer of men, and an
invincible dogmatist in taste. In the history of the times, Johnson is
deficient, which has deprived us of that permanent instruction and
delight his intellectual powers had poured around it. The character
and the secret history of Prior are laid open in the "State
Poems;"[138] a bitter Whiggish narrative, too particular to be
entirely fictitious, while it throws a new light on Johnson's
observation of Prior's "propensity to sordid converse, and the low
delights of mean company," which Johnson had imperfectly learned from
some attendant on Prior.
A vintner's boy, the wretch was first preferr'd
To wait at Vice's gates, and pimp for bread;
To hold the candle, and sometimes the door,
Let in the drunkard, and let out----.
But, as to villains it has often chanc'd,
Was for his wit and wickedness advanc'd.
Let no man think his new behaviour strange,
No metamorphosis can nature change;
Effects are chain'd to causes; generally,
The rascal born will like a rascal die.
His Prince's favours follow'd him in vain;
They chang'd the circumstance, but not the man.
While out of pocket, and his spirits low,
He'd beg, write panegyrics, cringe, and bow;
But when good pensions had his labours crown'd,
His panegyrics into satires turn'd;
O what assiduous pains does Prior take
To let great Dorset see he could mistake!
Dissembling nature false description gave,
Show'd him the poet, but conceal'd the knave.
To us the poet Prior is better known than the placeman Prior; yet in
his own day the reverse often occurred. Prior was a State Proteus;
Sunderland, the most ambiguous of politicians, was the _Erle Robert_
to whom he addressed his _Mice_; and Prior was now Secretary to the
Embassy at Ryswick and Paris; independent even of the English
ambassador--now a Lord of Trade, and, at length, a Minister
Plenipotentiary to Louis XIV.
Our business is with his poetical feelings.
Prior declares he was chiefly "a poet by accident;" and hints, in
collecting his works, that "some of them, as they came singly from the
first impression, have lain long and quietly in Mr. Tonson's shop."
When his party had their downfall, and he was confined two years in
prison, he composed his "Alma," to while away prison hours; and when,
at length, he obtained his freedom, he had nothing remaining but that
fellowship which, in his exaltation, he had been censured for
retaining, but which he then said he might have to live upon at last.
Prior had great sagacity, and too right a notion of human affairs in
politics, to expect his party would last his time, or in poetry, that
he could ever derive a revenue from rhymes!
I will now show that that rare personage, a sensible poet, in
reviewing his life in that hour of solitude when no passion is
retained but truth, while we are casting up the amount of our past
days scrupulously to ourselves, felicitated himself that the natural
bent of his mind, which inclined to poetry, had been checked, and not
indulged, throughout his whole life. Prior congratulated himself that
he had been only "a poet by accident," not by occupation.
In a manuscript by Prior, consisting of "An Essay on Learning," I find
this curious and interesting passage entirely relating to the poet
himself:--
"I remember nothing farther in life than that I made verses; I chose
Guy Earl of Warwick for my first hero, and killed Colborne the giant
before I was big enough for Westminster School. But I had two
accidents in youth which hindered me from being quite possessed with
the Muse. I was bred in a college where prose was more in fashion
than verse,--and, as soon as I had taken my first degree, I was sent
the King's Secretary to the Hague; there I had enough to do in
studying French and Dutch, and altering my Terentian and Virgilian
style into that of Articles and Conventions; so that _poetry, which by
the bent of my mind might have become the business of my life, was, by
the happiness of my education, only the amusement of it_; and in this,
too, having the prospect of some little fortune to be made, and
friendships to be cultivated with the great men, I did not launch much
into _satire_, which, however agreeable for the present to the writers
and encouragers of it, does in time do neither of them good;
considering the uncertainty of fortune, and the various changes of
Ministry, and that every man, as he resents, may punish in his turn of
greatness and power."
Such is the wholesome counsel of the Solomon of Bards to an aspirant,
who, in his ardour for poetical honours, becomes careless of their
consequences, if he can but possess them.
I have now to bring forward one of those unhappy men of rhyme, who,
after many painful struggles, and a long querulous life, have died
amid the ravings of their immortality--one of those miserable bards of
mediocrity whom no beadle-critic could ever whip out of the poetical
parish.
There is a case in Mr. Haslam's "Observations on Insanity," who
assures us that the patient he describes was insane, which will appear
strange to those who have watched more poets than lunatics!
"This patient, when admitted, was very noisy, and importunately
talkative--reciting passages from the Greek and Roman poets, or
talking of his own literary importance. He became so troublesome to
the other madmen, who were sufficiently occupied with their own
speculations, that they avoided and excluded him from the common room;
so that he was at last reduced to the mortifying situation of being
the sole auditor of his own compositions. He conceived himself very
nearly related to Anacreon, and possessed of the peculiar vein of that
poet."
Such is the very accurate case drawn up by a medical writer. I can
conceive nothing in it to warrant the charge of insanity; Mr. Haslam,
not being a poet, seems to have mistaken the common orgasm of poetry
for insanity itself.
Of such poets, one was the late PERCIVAL STOCKDALE, who, with the most
entertaining simplicity, has, in "The Memoirs of his Life and
Writings," presented us with a full-length figure of this class of
poets; those whom the perpetual pursuits of poetry, however
indifferent, involve in a perpetual illusion; they are only discovered
in their profound obscurity by the piteous cries they sometimes utter;
they live on querulously, which is an evil for themselves, and to no
purpose of life, which is an evil to others.
I remember in my youth Percival Stockdale as a condemned poet of the
times, of whom the bookseller Flexney complained that, whenever this
poet came to town, it cost him twenty pounds. Flexney had been the
publisher of Churchill's works; and, never forgetting the time when he
published "The Rosciad," which at first did not sell, and afterwards
became the most popular poem, he was speculating all his life for
another Churchill, and another quarto poem. Stockdale usually brought
him what he wanted--and Flexney found the workman, but never the
work.
Many a year had passed in silence, and Stockdale could hardly be
considered alive, when, to the amazement of some curious observers of
our literature, a venerable man, about his eightieth year, a vivacious
spectre, with a cheerful voice, seemed as if throwing aside his shroud
in gaiety--to come to assure us of the immortality of one of the worst
poets of the time.
To have taken this portrait from the life would have been difficult;
but the artist has painted himself, and manufactured his own colours;
else had our ordinary ones but faintly copied this Chinese grotesque
picture--the glare and the glow must be borrowed from his own
palette.
Our self-biographer announces his "Life" with prospective rapture, at
the moment he is turning a sad retrospect on his "Writings;" for this
was the chequered countenance of his character, a smile while he was
writing, a tear when he had published! "I know," he exclaims, "that
this book will live and _escape the havoc that has been made of my
literary fame_." Again--"Before I die, I _think my literary fame may
be fixed on an adamantine foundation_." Our old acquaintance, Blas of
Santillane, at setting out on his travels, conceived himself to be _la
huitième merveille du monde_; but here is one, who, after the
experience of a long life, is writing a large work to prove himself
that very curious thing.
What were these mighty and unknown works? Stockdale confesses that all
his verses have been received with negligence or contempt; yet their
mediocrity, the absolute poverty of his genius, never once occurred to
the poetical patriarch.
I have said that the frequent origin of bad poets is owing to bad
critics; and it was the early friends of Stockdale, who, mistaking his
animal spirits for genius, by directing them into the walks of poetry,
bewildered him for ever. It was their hand that heedlessly fixed the
bias in the rolling bowl of his restless mind.
He tells us that while yet a boy of twelve years old, one day talking
with his father at Branxton, where the battle of Flodden was fought,
the old gentleman said to him with great emphasis--
"You may make that place remarkable for your birth, if you take care
of yourself. My father's understanding was clear and strong, and he
could penetrate human nature. He already saw that _I had natural
advantages above those of common men_."
But it seems that, at some earlier period even than his twelfth year,
some good-natured Pythian had predicted that Stockdale would be "a
poet." This ambiguous oracle was still listened to, after a lapse of
more than half a century, and the decree is still repeated with fond
credulity:--"Notwithstanding," he exclaims, "_all that is past_, O
thou god of my mind! (meaning the aforesaid Pythian) I still hope that
my future fame will decidedly _warrant the prediction_!"
Stockdale had, in truth, an excessive sensibility of temper, without
any control over it--he had all the nervous contortions of the Sybil,
without her inspiration; and shifting, in his many-shaped life,
through all characters and all pursuits, "exalting the olive of
Minerva with the grape of Bacchus," as he phrases it, he was a lover,
a tutor, a recruiting officer, a reviewer, and, at length, a
clergyman; but a poet eternally! His mind was so curved, that nothing
could stand steadily upon it. The accidents of such a life he
describes with such a face of rueful simplicity, and mixes up so much
grave drollery and merry pathos with all he says or does, and his
ubiquity is so wonderful, that he gives an idea of a character, of
whose existence we had previously no conception, that of a sentimental
harlequin.[139]
In the early part of his life, Stockdale undertook many poetical
pilgrimages; he visited the house where Thomson was born; the
coffee-room where Dryden presided among the wits, &c. Recollecting the
influence of these local associations, he breaks forth, "Neither the
unrelenting coldness, nor the repeated insolence of mankind, can
prevent me from thinking that _something like this enthusiastic
devotion may hereafter be paid to ME_."
Perhaps till this appeared it might not be suspected that any unlucky
writer of verse could ever feel such a magical conviction of his
poetical stability. Stockdale, to assist this pilgrimage to his
various shrines, has particularised all the spots where his works were
composed! Posterity has many shrines to visit, and will be glad to
know (for perhaps it may excite a smile) that "'The Philosopher,' a
poem, was written in Warwick Court, Holborn, in 1769,"--"'The Life of
Waller,' in Round Court, in the Strand."--A good deal he wrote in
"May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane," &c., but
"In my lodgings at Portsmouth, in St. Mary's Street, I wrote my 'Elegy
on the Death of a Lady's Linnet.' It will not be uninteresting to
sensibility, to thinking and elegant minds. It deeply interested me,
and therefore produced not one of my weakest and worst written poems.
It was directly opposite to a noted house, which was distinguished by
the name of _the green rails_; where the riotous orgies of Naxos and
Cythera contrasted with my quiet and purer occupations."
I would not, however, take his own estimate of his own poems; because,
after praising them outrageously, he seems at times to doubt if they
are as exquisite as he thinks them! He has composed no one in which
some poetical excellence does not appear--and yet in each nice
decision he holds with difficulty the trepidations of the scales of
criticism--for he tells us of "An Address to the Supreme Being," that
"it is distinguished throughout with a natural and fervid piety; it is
flowing and poetical; it is not without its pathos." And yet,
notwithstanding all this condiment, the confection is evidently good
for nothing; for he discovers that "this flowing, fervid, and poetical
address" is "not animated with that vigour which gives dignity and
impression to poetry." One feels for such unhappy and infected
authors--they would think of themselves as they wish at the moment
that truth and experience come in upon them and rack them with the
most painful feelings.
Stockdale once wrote a declamatory life of Waller. When Johnson's
appeared, though in his biography, says Stockdale, "he paid a large
tribute to the abilities of Goldsmith and Hawkesworth, yet _he made no
mention of my name_." It is evident that Johnson, who knew him well,
did not care to remember it. When Johnson was busied on the Life of
Pope, Stockdale wrote a pathetic letter to him _earnestly imploring_
"a generous tribute from his authority." Johnson was still obdurately
silent; and Stockdale, who had received many acts of humane kindness
from him, adds with fretful _naïveté_,
"In his sentiments towards me he was divided between a benevolence to
my interests, and a _coldness to my fame_."
Thus, in a moment, in the perverted heart of the scribbler, will ever
be cancelled all human obligation for acts of benevolence, if we are
_cold to his fame_!
And yet let us not too hastily condemn these unhappy men, even for the
violation of the lesser moral feelings--it is often but a fatal effect
from a melancholy cause; that hallucination of the intellect, in
which, if their genius, as they call it, sometimes appears to sparkle
like a painted bubble in the buoyancy of their vanity, they are also
condemned to see it sinking in the dark horrors of a disappointed
author, who has risked his life and his happiness on the miserable
productions of his pen. The agonies of a disappointed author cannot,
indeed, be contemplated without pain. If they can instruct, the
following quotation will have its use.
Among the innumerable productions of Stockdale, was a "History of
Gibraltar," which might have been interesting, from his having resided
there: in a moment of despair, like Medea, he immolated his
unfortunate offspring.
"When I had arrived at within a day's work of its conclusion, in
consequence of some immediate and mortifying accidents, _my literary
adversity_, and all my other misfortunes, took _fast hold of my mind;
oppressed it extremely; and reduced it to a stage of the deepest
dejection and despondency_. In this unhappy view of life, I made a
sudden resolution--_never more to prosecute the profession of an
author_; to retire altogether from the world, and read only for
consolation and amusement. _I committed to the flames my History of
Gibraltar and my translation of Marsollier's Life of Cardinal
Ximenes_; for which the bookseller had refused to pay me the fifty
guineas, according to agreement."
This claims a tear! Never were the agonies of literary disappointment
more pathetically told.
But as it is impossible to have known poor deluded Stockdale, and not
to have laughed at him more than to have wept for him--so the
catastrophe of this author's literary life is as finely in character
as all the acts. That catastrophe, of course, is his last poem.
After many years his poetical demon having been chained from the
world, suddenly broke forth on the reports of a French invasion. The
narrative shall proceed in his own inimitable manner.
"My poetical spirit excited me to write my poem of 'The Invincible
Island.' I never found myself in a happier disposition to compose, nor
ever wrote with more pleasure. I presumed warmly to hope that unless
_inveterate prejudice and malice_ were as invincible as our island
itself, it would have _the diffusive circulation_ which I earnestly
desired.
"Flushed with this idea--borne impetuously along _by ambition and by
hope, though they had often deluded me_, I set off in the mail-coach
from Durham for London, on the 9th of December, 1797, at midnight, and
in a severe storm. On my arrival in town my poem was advertised,
printed, and published with great expedition. It was printed for
Clarke in New Bond-street. For several days the sale was very
promising; and my bookseller as well as myself entertained sanguine
hopes; _but the demand for the poem relaxed gradually_! From this last
of many literary misfortunes, I inferred that _prejudice_ and
_malignity_, in my fate as an _author_, seemed, indeed, to be
invincible."
The catastrophe of the poet is much better told than anything in the
poem, which had not merit enough to support that interest which the
temporary subject had excited.
Let the fate of Stockdale instruct some, and he will not have written
in vain the "Memoirs of his Life and Writings." I have only turned the
literary feature to our eye; it was combined with others, equally
striking, from the same mould in which that was cast. Stockdale
imagined he possessed an intuitive knowledge of human nature. He says,
"everything that constituted my nature, my acquirements, my habits,
and my fortune, conspired to let in upon me a complete knowledge of
human nature." A most striking proof of this knowledge is his
parallel, after the manner of Plutarch, between Charles XII. and
himself! He frankly confesses there were some points in which he and
the Swedish monarch did not exactly resemble each other. He thinks,
for instance, that the King of Sweden had a somewhat more fervid and
original genius than himself, and was likewise a little more robust in
his person--but, subjoins Stockdale,
"Of our reciprocal fortune, achievements, and conduct, some parts will
be to _his_ advantage, and some to _mine_."
Yet in regard to _Fame_, the main object between him and Charles XII.,
Stockdale imagined that his own
"Will not probably take its fixed and immoveable station, and shine
with its expanded and permanent splendour, till it consecrates his
ashes, till it illumines his tomb!"
POPE hesitated at deciding on the durability of his poetry. PRIOR
congratulates himself that he had not devoted all his days to rhymes.
STOCKDALE imagines his fame is to commence at the very point (the
tomb) where genius trembles its own may nearly terminate!
To close this article, I could wish to regale the poetical Stockdales
with a delectable morsel of fraternal biography; such would be the
life, and its memorable close, of ELKANAH SETTLE, who imagined himself
to be a great poet, when he was placed on a level with Dryden by the
town-wits, (gentle spirits!) to vex genius.
Settle's play of _The Empress of Morocco_ was the very first "adorned
with sculptures."[140] However, in due time, the Whigs despising his
rhymes, Settle tried his prose for the Tories; but he was a magician
whose enchantments never charmed. He at length obtained the office of
the city poet, when lord mayors were proud enough to have laureates in
their annual pageants.
When Elkanah Settle published any _party poem_, he sent copies round
to the chiefs of the party, accompanied with addresses, to extort
pecuniary presents. He had latterly one standard _Elegy_ and
_Epithalamium_ printed off with blanks, which, by the ingenious
contrivance of filling up with the names of any considerable person
who died or was married, no one who was going out of life or entering
it _could pass scot-free_ from the _tax levied by his hacknied muse_.
The following letter accompanied his presentation copy to the Duke of
Somerset, of a poem, in Latin and English, on the Hanover succession,
when Elkanah wrote for the Whigs, as he had for the Tories:--
"SIR,--Nothing but the greatness of the subject could encourage my
presumption in laying the enclosed Essay at your Grace's feet,
being, with all profound humility, your Grace's most dutiful
servant,
"E. SETTLE."
In the latter part of his life Settle dropped still lower, and became
the poet of a booth at Bartholomew Fair, and composed drolls, for
which the rival of Dryden, it seems, had a genius!--but it was little
respected--for two great personages, "Mrs. Mynns and her daughter,
Mrs. Leigh," approving of their great poet's happy invention in one of
his own drolls, "St. George for England," of a green dragon, as large
as life, insisted, as the tyrant of old did to the inventor of the
brazen bull, that the first experiment should be made on the artist
himself, and Settle was tried in his own dragon; he crept in with all
his genius, and did "act the dragon, enclosed in a case of green
leather of his own invention." The circumstance is recorded in the
lively verse of Young, in his "Epistle to Pope concerning the authors
of the age."
Poor Elkanah, all other changes past,
For bread in Smithfield dragons hiss'd at last,
Spit streams of fire to make the butchers gape,
And found his manners suited to his shape;
Such is the fate of talents misapplied,
So lived your prototype, and so he died.
FOOTNOTES:
[137] An elegant poet of our times alludes, with due feeling, to these
personal sacrifices. Addressing Poetry, he exclaims--
"In devotion to thy heavenly charms,
I clasp'd thy altar with my infant arms;
For thee neglected the wide field of wealth;
The toils of interest, and the sports of health."
How often may we lament that poets are too apt "to clasp the
altar with infant arms." Goldsmith was near forty when he
published his popular poems--and the greater number of the
most valued poems were produced in mature life. When the poet
begins in "infancy," he too often contracts a habit of writing
verses, and sometimes, in all his life, never reaches poetry.
[138] Vol. ii. p. 355.
[139] My old favourite cynic, with all his rough honesty and acute
discrimination, Anthony Wood, engraved a sketch of Stockdale
when he etched with his aqua-fortis the personage of a
brother:--"This Edward Waterhouse wrote a rhapsodical,
indigested, whimsical work; and not in the least to be taken
into the hand of any sober scholar, unless it be to make him
laugh or wonder at the simplicity of some people. He was a
cock-brained man, and afterwards took orders."
[140] It was published in quarto in 1673, and has engravings of the
principal scene in each act, and a frontispiece representing
the Duke's Theatre in Dorset Gardens, where it was first acted
publicly; it had been played twice at court before this, by
noble actors, "persons of such birth and honour," says Settle,
"that they borrowed no greatness from the characters they
acted." The prologues were written by Lords Mulgrave and
Rochester, and the utmost _éclat_ given to the five long acts
of rhyming bombast, which was declared superior to any work of
Dryden's. As City Poet afterwards Settle composed the
pageants, speeches, and songs for the Lord Mayor's Shows from
1691 to 1708. Towards the close of his career he became
impoverished, and wrote from necessity on all subjects. One of
his plays, composed for Mrs. Mynns' booth in Bartholomew Fair,
has been twice printed, though both editions are now
uncommonly rare. It is called the "Siege of Troy;" and its
popularity is attested by Hogarth's print of Southwark Fair,
where outside of Lee and Harper's great theatrical booth is
exhibited a painting of the Trojan horse, and the announcement
"The Siege of Troy is here."--ED.
QUARRELS OF AUTHORS;
OR,
SOME MEMOIRS FOR OUR LITERARY HISTORY.
"The use and end of this Work I do not so much design for
curiosity, or satisfaction of those that are the lovers of
learning, but chiefly for a more grave and serious purpose:
which is, that it will _make learned men wise in the use and
administration of learning_."--LORD BACON, "Of Learning."
PREFACE.
THE QUARRELS OF AUTHORS may be considered as a continuation of the
CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS; and both, as some Memoirs for Literary
History.
These Quarrels of Authors are not designed to wound the Literary
Character, but to expose the secret arts of calumny, the malignity of
witty ridicule, and the evil prepossessions of unjust hatreds.
The present, like the preceding work, includes other subjects than the
one indicated by the title, and indeed they are both subservient to a
higher purpose--that of our Literary History.
There is a French work, entitled "Querelles Littéraires," quoted in
"Curiosities of Literature," many years ago. Whether I derive the idea
of the present from the French source I cannot tell. I could point out
a passage in the great Lord BACON which might have afforded the hint.
But I am inclined to think that what induced me to select this topic
was the interest which JOHNSON has given to the literary quarrels
between _Dryden_ and _Settle_, _Dennis_ and _Addison_, &c.; and which
Sir WALTER SCOTT, who, amid the fresh creations of fancy, could delve
for the buried truths of research, has thrown into his narrative of
the quarrel of _Dryden_ and _Luke Milbourne_.
From the French work I could derive no aid; and my plan is my own. I
have fixed on each literary controversy to illustrate some principle,
to portray some character, and to investigate some topic. Almost every
controversy which occurred opened new views. With the subject, the
character of the author connected itself; and with the character were
associated those events of his life which reciprocally act on each
other. I have always considered an author as a human being, who
possesses at once two sorts of lives, the intellectual and the vulgar:
in his books we trace the history of his mind, and in his actions
those of human nature. It is this combination which interests the
philosopher and the man of feeling; which provides the richest
materials for reflection; and all those original details which spring
from the constituent principles of man. JOHNSON'S passion for literary
history, and his great knowledge of the human heart, inspired at once
the first and the finest model in this class of composition.
The Philosophy of Literary History was indeed the creation of BAYLE.
He was the first who, by attempting a _critical dictionary_, taught us
to think, and to be curious and vast in our researches. He ennobled a
collection of facts by his reasonings, and exhibited them with the
most miscellaneous illustrations; and thus conducting an apparently
humble pursuit with a higher spirit, he gave a new turn to our
studies. It was felt through Europe; and many celebrated authors
studied and repeated BAYLE. This father of a numerous race has an
English as well as a French progeny.
JOHNSON wrote under many disadvantages; but, with scanty means, he
has taught us a great end. Dr. BIRCH was the contemporary of
JOHNSON. He excelled his predecessors; and yet he forms a striking
contrast as a literary historian. BIRCH was no philosopher, and I
adduce him as an instance how a writer, possessing the most ample
knowledge, and the most vigilant curiosity--one practised in all the
secret arts of literary research in public repositories and in
private collections, and eminently skilled in the whole science of
bibliography--may yet fail with the public. The diligence of BIRCH
has perpetuated his memory by a monument of MSS., but his, touch
was mortal to genius! He palsied the character which could never
die; heroes sunk pusillanimously under his hand; and in his torpid
silence, even MILTON seemed suddenly deprived of his genius.
I have freely enlarged in the _notes_ to this work; a practice which
is objectionable to many, but indispensable perhaps in this species of
literary history.
The late Mr. CUMBERLAND, in a conversation I once held with him on
this subject, triumphantly exclaimed, "You will not find a single note
through the whole volume of my 'Life.' I never wrote a note. The
ancients never wrote notes; but they introduced into their text all
which was proper for the reader to know."
I agreed with that elegant writer, that a fine piece of essay-writing,
such as his own "Life," required notes no more than his novels and his
comedies, among which it may be classed. I observed that the ancients
had no literary history; this was the result of the discovery of
printing, the institution of national libraries, the general literary
intercourse of Europe, and some other causes which are the growth
almost of our own times. The ancients have written history without
producing authorities.
Mr. CUMBERLAND was then occupied on a review of Fox's History; and of
CLARENDON, which lay open before him,--he had been complaining,
with all the irritable feelings of a dramatist, of the frequent
suspensions, and the tedious minuteness of his story.
I observed that _notes_ had not then been discovered. Had Lord
CLARENDON known their use, he had preserved the unity of design in his
text. His Lordship has unskilfully filled it with all that historical
furniture his diligence had collected, and with those minute
discussions which his anxiety for truth, and his lawyer-like mode of
scrutinising into facts and substantiating evidence, amassed. Had
these been cast into _notes_, and were it now possible to pass them
over in the present text, how would the story of the noble historian
clear up! The greatness of his genius will appear when disencumbered
of its unwieldy and misplaced accompaniments.
If this observation be just, it will apply with greater force to
literary history itself, which, being often the mere history of the
human mind, has to record opinions as well as events--to discuss as
well as to narrate--to show how accepted truths become suspicious--or
to confirm what has hitherto rested in obscure uncertainty, and to
balance contending opinions and opposite facts with critical nicety.
The multiplied means of our knowledge now opened to us, have only
rendered our curiosity more urgent in its claims, and raised up the
most diversified objects. These, though accessories to the leading one
of our inquiries, can never melt together in the continuity of a text.
It is to prevent all this disorder, and to enjoy all the usefulness
and the pleasure of this various knowledge, which has produced the
invention of _notes_ in literary history. All this forms a sort of
knowledge peculiar to the present more enlarged state of literature.
Writers who delight in curious and rare extracts, and in the discovery
of new facts and new views of things, warmed by a fervour of research
which brings everything nearer to our eye and close to our touch,
study to throw contemporary feelings in their page. Such rare extracts
and such new facts BAYLE eagerly sought, and they delighted JOHNSON;
but all this luxury of literature can only be produced to the public
eye in the variegated forms of _notes_.
WARBURTON, AND HIS QUARRELS;
INCLUDING AN ILLUSTRATION OF
HIS LITERARY CHARACTER
The name of Warburton more familiar to us than his Works--declared
to be "a Colossus" by a Warburtonian, who afterwards shrinks the
image into "a human size"--Lowth's caustic retort on his
Attorneyship--motives for the change to Divinity--his first
literary mischances--Warburton and his Welsh Prophet--his
Dedications--his mean flatteries--his taste more struck by the
monstrous than the beautiful--the effects of his opposite
studies--the SECRET PRINCIPLE which conducted Warburton through all
his Works--the _curious_ argument of his Alliance between Church and
State--the _bold_ paradox of his Divine Legation--the demonstration
ends in a conjecture--Warburton lost in the labyrinth he had
ingeniously constructed--confesses the harassed state of his
mind--attacked by Infidels and Christians--his SECRET PRINCIPLE
turns the poetical narrative of Æneas into the Eleusinian
Mysteries--Hurd attacks Jortin; his Attic irony translated into
plain English--Warburton's paradox on Eloquence; his levity of ideas
renders his sincerity suspected--Leland refutes the whimsical
paradox--Hurd attacks Leland--Leland's noble triumph--Warburton's
SECRET PRINCIPLE operating in Modern Literature: on Pope's Essay on
Man--Lord Bolingbroke the author of the Essay--Pope received
Warburton as his tutelary genius--Warburton's systematic treatment
of his friends and rival editors--his literary artifices and little
intrigues--his Shakspeare--the whimsical labours of Warburton on
Shakspeare annihilated by Edwards's "Canons of Criticism"--Warburton
and Johnson--Edwards and Warburton's mutual attacks--the concealed
motive of his edition of Shakspeare avowed in his justification--his
SECRET PRINCIPLE further displayed in Pope's Works--attacks Akenside;
Dyson's generous defence--correct Ridicule is a test of Truth,
illustrated by a well-known case--Warburton a literary
revolutionist; aimed to be a perpetual dictator--the ambiguous
tendency of his speculations--the Warburtonian School supported by
the most licentious principles--specimens of its peculiar style--the
use to which Warburton applied the Dunciad--his party: attentive to
raise recruits--the active and subtle Hurd--his extreme
sycophancy--Warburton, to maintain his usurped authority, adopted
his system of literary quarrels.
The name of WARBURTON is more familiar to us than his works: thus was
it early,[141] thus it continues, and thus it will be with posterity!
The cause may be worth our inquiry. Nor is there, in the whole compass
of our literary history, a character more instructive for its
greatness and its failures; none more adapted to excite our curiosity,
and which can more completely gratify it.
Of great characters, whose actions are well known, and of those who,
whatever claim they may have to distinction, are not so, ARISTOTLE has
delivered a precept with his accustomed sagacity. If _Achilles_, says
the Stagirite, be the subject of our inquiries, since all know what he
has done, we are simply to indicate his actions, without stopping to
detail; but this would not serve for _Critias_; for whatever relates
to him must be fully told, since he is known to few;[142]--a critical
precept, which ought to be frequently applied in the composition of
this work.
The history of Warburton is now well known; the facts lie dispersed in
the chronological biographer;[143] but the secret connexion which
exists between them, if there shall be found to be any, has not yet
been brought out; and it is my business to press these together; hence
to demonstrate principles, or to deduce inferences.
The literary fame of Warburton was a portentous meteor: it seemed
unconnected with the whole planetary system through which it rolled,
and it was imagined to be darting amid new creations, as the tail of
each hypothesis blazed with idle fancies.[144] Such extraordinary
natures cannot be looked on with calm admiration, nor common
hostility; all is the tumult of wonder about such a man; and his
adversaries, as well as his friends, though differently affected, are
often overcome by the same astonishment.
To a Warburtonian, the object of his worship looks indeed of colossal
magnitude, in the glare thrown about that hallowed spot; nor is the
divinity of common stature; but the light which makes him appear so
great, must not be suffered to conceal from us the real standard by
which only his greatness can be determined:[145] even literary
enthusiasm, delightful to all generous tempers, may be too prodigal of
its splendours, wasting itself while it shines; but truth remains
behind! Truth, which, like the asbestos, is still unconsumed and
unaltered amidst these glowing fires.
The genius of Warburton has called forth two remarkable anonymous
criticisms--in one, all that the most splendid eloquence can bring to
bear against this chief and his adherents;[146] and in the other, all
that taste, warmed by a spark of Warburtonian fire, can discriminate
in an impartial decision.[147] Mine is a colder and less grateful
task. I am but a historian! I have to creep along in the darkness of
human events, to lay my hand cautiously on truths so difficult to
touch, and which either the panegyrist or the writer of an invective
cover over, and throw aside into corners.
Much of the moral, and something too of the physical dispositions of
the man enter into the literary character; and, moreover, there are
localities--the place where he resides, the circumstances which arise,
and the habits he contracts; to all these the excellences and the
defects of some of our great literary characters may often be traced.
With this clue we may thread our way through the labyrinth of Genius.
Warburton long resided in an obscure provincial town, the articled
clerk of a country attorney,[148] and then an unsuccessful practising
one. He seems, too, once to have figured as "a wine-merchant in the
Borough," and rose into notice as "the orator of a disputing club;"
but, in all his shapes, still keen in literary pursuits, without
literary connexions; struggling with all the defects of a desultory
and self-taught education, but of a bold aspiring character, he
rejected, either in pride or in despair, his little trades, and took
Deacon's orders--to exchange a profession, unfavourable to continuity
of study, for another more propitious to its indulgence.[149] In a
word, he set off as a literary adventurer, who was to win his way by
earning it from patronage.
His first mischances were not of a nature to call forth that
intrepidity which afterwards hardened into the leading feature of his
character. Few great authors have begun their race with less
auspicious omens, though an extraordinary event in the life of an
author happened to Warburton--he had secured a patron before he was an
author.
The first publication of his which we know, was his "Translations in
Prose and Verse from Roman Poets, Orators, and Historians." 1724. He
was then about twenty-five years of age. The fine forms of classic
beauty could never be cast in so rough a mould as his prose; and his
turgid unmusical verses betrayed qualities of mind incompatible with
the delicacy of poetry. Four years afterwards he repeated another
bolder attempt, in his "Critical and Philosophical Inquiry into the
Causes of Prodigies and Miracles." After this publication, I wonder
Warburton was ever suspected of infidelity or even scepticism.[150] So
radically deficient in Warburton was that fine internal feeling which
we call taste, that through his early writings he acquired not one
solitary charm of diction,[151] and scarcely betrayed, amid his
impurity of taste, that nerve and spirit which afterwards crushed all
rival force. His translations _in imitation of Milton's style_ betray
his utter want of ear and imagination. He attempted to suppress both
these works during his lifetime.
When these unlucky productions were republished by Dr. Parr, the
_Dedications_ were not forgotten; they were both addressed to the same
opulent baronet, not omitting "the virtues" of his lady the Countess
of Sunderland, whose marriage he calls "so divine a union." Warburton
had shown no want of judgment in the choice of his patrons; for they
had more than one living in their gift--and perhaps, knowing his
patrons, none in the dedications themselves. They had, however, this
absurdity, that in freely exposing the servile practices of
dedicators, the writer was himself indulging in that luxurious sin,
which he so forcibly terms "Public Prostitution." This early
management betrays no equivocal symptoms of that traffic in
_Dedications_, of which he has been so severely accused,[152] and of
that paradoxical turn and hardy effrontery which distinguished his
after-life. These dedications led to preferment, and thus hardily was
laid the foundation-stone of his aspiring fortunes.
Till his thirtieth year, Warburton evinced a depraved taste, but a
craving appetite for knowledge. His mind was constituted to be more
struck by the Monstrous than the Beautiful, much like that Sicilian
prince who furnished his villa with the most hideous figures
imaginable:[153] the delight resulting from harmonious and delicate
forms raised emotions of too weak a nature to move his obliquity of
taste; roused, however, by the surprise excited by colossal ugliness.
The discovery of his intellectual tastes, at this obscure period of
his life, besides in those works we have noticed, is confirmed by one
of the most untoward accidents which ever happened to a literary man;
it was the chance-discovery of a letter he had written to one of the
heroes of the Dunciad, forty years before. At the time that letter
was written, his literary connexions were formed with second-rate
authors; he was in strict intimacy with Concanen and Theobald, and
other "ingenious gentlemen who made up our last night's conversation,"
as he expresses himself.[154] This letter is full of the heresies of
taste: one of the most anomalous is the comment on that well-known
passage in Shakspeare, on "the genius and the mortal instruments;"
Warburton's is a miraculous specimen of fantastical sagacity and
critical delirium, or the art of discovering meanings never meant, and
of illustrations the author could never have known. Warburton declares
to "the ingenious gentlemen," (whom afterwards with a Pharaoh's heart
he hanged by dozens to posterity in the "Dunciad,") that "Pope
borrowed for want of genius;" that poet, who, when the day arrived, he
was to comment on as the first of poets! His insulting criticisms on
the popular writings of Addison,--his contempt for what Young calls
"sweet elegant Virgilian prose,"--show how utterly insensible he was
to that classical taste in which Addison had constructed his
materials. But he who could not taste the delicacy of Addison, it may
be imagined might be in raptures with the rant of Lee. There is an
unerring principle in the false sublime: it seems to be governed by
laws, though they are not ours; and we know what it will like, that
is, we know what it will mistake for what ought not to be liked, as
surely as we can anticipate what will delight correct taste. Warburton
has pronounced one of the raving passages of poor Nat "to contain not
only the most sublime, but the most judicious imagery that poetry
could conceive or paint." JOSEPH WARTON, who indignantly rejects it
from his edition of Pope, asserts that "we have not in our language a
more striking example of true turgid expression, and genuine fustian
and bombast."[155] Yet such was the man whom ill-fortune (for the
public at least) had chosen to become the commentator of our greater
poets! Again Churchill throws light on our character:--
He, with an all-sufficient air
Places himself in the critic's chair,
And wrote, to advance his Maker's praise,
Comments on rhymes, and notes on plays--
A judge of genius, though, confest,
With not one spark of genius blest:
Among the first of critics placed,
Though free from every taint of taste.
Not encouraged by the reception his first literary efforts received,
but having obtained some preferment from his patron, we now come to a
critical point in his life. He retreated from the world, and, during a
seclusion of near twenty years, persevered in uninterrupted studies.
The force of his character placed him in the first order of thinking
beings. This resolution no more to court the world for literary
favours, but to command it by hardy preparation for mighty labours,
displays a noble retention of the appetite for fame; Warburton scorned
to be a scribbler!
Had this great man journalised his readings, as Gibbon has done, we
should perhaps be more astonished at his miscellaneous pursuits. He
read everything, and, I suspect, with little distinction, and equal
delight.[156] Curiosity, even to its delirium, was his first passion;
which produced those new systems of hypothetical reasoning by which he
startled the world; and his efforts to save his most ingenious
theories from absurdity resembled, to use his own emphatic words
applied to the philosophy of Leibnitz, "a contrivance against
Fatalism," for though his genius has given a value to the wildest
paradoxes, paradoxes they remain.
But if Warburton read so much, it was not to enforce opinions already
furnished to his hands, or with cold scepticism to reject them,
leaving the reader in despair. He read that he might write what no one
else had written, and which at least required to be refuted before it
was condemned. He hit upon a SECRET PRINCIPLE, which prevails through
all his works, and this was INVENTION; a talent, indeed, somewhat
dangerous to introduce in researches where Truth, and not Fancy, was
to be addressed. But even with all this originality he was not free
from imitation, and has even been accused of borrowing largely without
hinting at his obligations. He had certainly one favourite model
before him: Warburton has delineated the portrait of a certain author
with inimitable minuteness, while he caught its general effect; we
feel that the artist, in tracing the resemblance of another, is
inspired by all the flattery of a self-painter--he perceived the
kindred features, and he loved them!
This author was BAYLE! And I am unfolding the character of Warburton,
in copying the very original portrait:--
"Mr. Bayle is of a quite different character from these Italian
sophists: a writer, whose strength and clearness of _reasoning_ can be
equalled only by the gaiety, easiness, and delicacy of his _wit_;
_who, pervading human nature with a glance, STRUCK INTO THE PROVINCE
OF PARADOX, as an exercise for the restless vigour of his mind_: who,
with a soul superior to the sharpest attacks of fortune, and a heart
practised to the best philosophy, had _not yet enough of real
greatness to overcome that last foible of superior geniuses_, the
temptation of honour, which the ACADEMIC EXERCISE OF WIT is conceived
to bring to its professors."[157]
Here, then, we discover the SECRET PRINCIPLE which conducted Warburton
through all his works, although of the most opposite natures. I do not
give this as an opinion to be discussed, but as a fact to be
demonstrated.
The faculties so eminent in Bayle were equally so in Warburton. In his
early studies he had particularly applied himself to logic; and was
not only a vigorous reasoner, but one practised in all the _finesse_
of dialectics. He had wit, fertile indeed, rather than delicate; and a
vast body of erudition, collected in the uninterrupted studies of
twenty years. But it was the SECRET PRINCIPLE, or, as he calls it,
"_the Academic exercise of Wit_," on an enlarged system, which carried
him so far in the new world of INVENTION he was creating.
This was a new characteristic of investigation; it led him on to
pursue his profounder inquiries beyond the clouds of antiquity; for
what he could not _discover_, he CONJECTURED and ASSERTED. Objects,
which in the hands of other men were merely matters resting on
authentic researches, now received the stamp and lustre of original
invention. Nothing was to be seen in the state in which others had
viewed it; the hardiest paradoxes served his purpose best, and
this licentious principle produced unlooked-for discoveries. He
humoured his taste, always wild and unchastised, in search of the
monstrous and the extravagant; and, being a wit, he delighted in
finding resemblances in objects which to more regulated minds had no
similarity whatever. _Wit_ may exercise its ingenuity as much in
combining _things_ unconnected with each other, as in its odd
assemblage of _ideas_; and Warburton, as a literary antiquary,
proved to be as witty in his combinations as BUTLER and CONGREVE
in their comic images. As this principle took full possession of
the mind of this man of genius, the practice became so familiar,
that it is possible he might at times have been credulous enough
to have confided in his own reveries. As he forcibly expressed
himself on one of his adversaries, Dr. STEBBING, "Thus it is to
have to do with a head whose _sense is all run to system_." "His
Academic Wit" now sported amid whimsical theories, pursued bold
but inconclusive arguments, marked out subtile distinctions, and
discovered incongruous resemblances; but they were maintained by an
imposing air of conviction, furnished with the most prodigal
erudition, and they struck out many ingenious combinations. The
importance or the curiosity of the topics awed or delighted his
readers; the principle, however licentious, by the surprise it
raised, seduced the lovers of novelties. Father HARDOUIN had
studied as hard as Warburton, rose as early, and retired to rest
as late, and the obliquity of his intellect resembled that of
Warburton--but he was a far inferior genius; he only discovered
that the classical works of antiquity, the finest compositions
of the human mind, in ages of its utmost refinement, had been
composed by the droning monks of the middle ages; a discovery which
only surprised by its tasteless absurdity--but the absurdities
of Warburton had more dignity, were more delightful, and more
dangerous: they existed, as it were, in a state of illusion, but
illusion which required as much genius and learning as his own
to dissipate. His spells were to be disturbed only by a magician,
great as himself. Conducted by this solitary principle, Warburton
undertook, as it were, a magical voyage into antiquity. He passed
over the ocean of time, sailing amid rocks, and half lost on
quicksands; but he never failed to raise up some _terra incognita_;
or point at some scene of the _Fata Morgana_, some earthly spot,
painted in the heaven one knows not how.
In this secret principle of resolving to _invent_ what no other had
before conceived, by means of _conjecture_ and _assertion_, and of
maintaining his theories with all the pride of a sophist, and all the
fierceness of an inquisitor, we have the key to all the contests by
which this great mind so long supported his literary usurpations.
The first step the giant took showed the mightiness of his stride. His
first great work was the famous "Alliance between Church and State."
It surprised the world, who saw the most important subject depending
on a mere _curious_ argument, which, like all political theories, was
liable to be overthrown by writers of opposite principles.[158] The
term "Alliance" seemed to the dissenters to infer that the _Church_
was an independent power, forming a contract with the _State_, and not
acknowledging that it is only an integral part, like that of the
_army_ or the _navy_.[159] Warburton had not probably decided, at that
time, on the principle of ecclesiastical power: whether it was
paramount by its divine origin, as one party asserted; or whether, as
the new philosophers, Hobbes, Selden, and others, insisted, the
spiritual was secondary to the civil power.[160]
The intrepidity of this vast genius appears in the plan of his greater
work. The omission of a future state of reward and punishment, in the
Mosaic writings, was perpetually urged as a proof that the mission was
not of divine origin: the ablest defenders strained at obscure or
figurative passages, to force unsatisfactory inferences; but they were
looking after what could not be found. Warburton at once boldly
acknowledged it was not there; at once adopted all the objections of
the infidels: and roused the curiosity of both parties by the hardy
assertion, that this very _omission_ was a _demonstration_ of its
divine origin.[161]
The first idea of this new project was bold and delightful, and the
plan magnificent. Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity, the three great
religions of mankind, were to be marshalled in all their pomp, and
their awe, and their mystery. But the procession changed to a battle!
To maintain one great paradox, he was branching out into innumerable
ones. This great work was never concluded: the author wearied himself,
without, however, wearying his readers; and, as his volumes appeared,
he was still referring to his argument, "as far as it is yet
advanced." The _demonstration_ appeared in great danger of ending in a
_conjecture_; and this work, always beginning and never ending, proved
to be the glory and misery of his life.[162] In perpetual conflict
with those numerous adversaries it roused, Warburton often shifted
his ground, and broke into so many divisions, that when he cried out,
Victory! his scattered forces seemed rather to be in flight than in
pursuit.[163]
The same SECRET PRINCIPLE led him to turn the poetical narrative of
Æneas in the infernal regions, an episode evidently imitated by Virgil
from his Grecian master, into a minute description of the initiation
into the Eleusinian Mysteries. A notion so perfectly new was at least
worth a commonplace truth. Was it not delightful to have so many
particulars detailed of a secret transaction, which even its
contemporaries of two thousand years ago did not presume to know
anything about? Father Hardouin seems to have opened the way for
Warburton, since he had discovered that the whole Æneid was an
allegorical voyage of St. Peter to Rome! When Jortin, in one of his
"Six Dissertations," modestly illustrated Virgil by an interpretation
inconsistent with Warburton's strange discovery, it produced a
memorable quarrel. Then Hurd, the future shield, scarcely the sword,
of Warburton, made his first sally; a dapper, subtle, and cold-blooded
champion, who could dexterously turn about the polished weapon of
irony.[164] So much our _Railleur_ admired the volume of Jortin, that
he favoured him with "A Seventh Dissertation, addressed to the Author
of the Sixth, on the Delicacy of Friendship," one of the most
malicious, but the keenest pieces of irony. It served as the
foundation of a new School of Criticism, in which the arrogance of the
master was to be supported by the pupil's contempt of men often his
superiors. To interpret Virgil differently from the modern Stagirite,
was, by the aggravating art of the ridiculer, to be considered as the
violation of a moral feeling.[165] Jortin bore the slow torture and
the teasing of Hurd's dissecting-knife in dignified silence.
At length a rising genius demonstrated how Virgil could not have
described the Eleusinian Mysteries in the sixth book of the Æneid. One
blow from the arm of Gibbon shivered the allegorical fairy palace into
glittering fragments.[166]
When the sceptical Middleton, in his "Essay on the Gift of Tongues,"
pretended to think that "an inspired language would be perfect in its
kind, with all the purity of Plato and the eloquence of Cicero," and
then asserted that "the style of the New Testament was utterly rude
and barbarous, and abounding with every fault that can possibly deform
a language," Warburton, as was his custom, instantly acquiesced; but
hardily maintained that "_this very barbarism was one certain mark of
a divine original_."[167]--The curious may follow his subtile argument
in his "Doctrine of Grace;" but, in delivering this paradox, he struck
at the fundamental principles of eloquence: he dilated on all the
abuses of that human art. It was precisely his utter want of taste
which afforded him so copious an argument; for he asserted that the
principles of eloquence were arbitrary and chimerical, and its various
modes "mostly fantastical;" and that, consequently, there was no such
thing as a good taste,[168] except what the _consent of the learned_
had made; an expression borrowed from Quintilian. A plausible and a
consolatory argument for the greater part of mankind! It, however,
roused the indignation of Leland, the eloquent translator of
Demosthenes, and the rhetorical professor at Trinity College, in
Dublin, who has nobly defended the cause of classical taste and
feeling by profounder principles. His classic anger produced his
"Dissertation on the Principles of Human Eloquence;" a volume so much
esteemed that it is still reprinted. Leland refuted the whimsical
paradox, yet complimented Warburton, who, "with the spirit and energy
of an ancient orator, was writing against eloquence," while he showed
that the style of the New Testament was defensible on surer grounds.
Hurd, who had fleshed his polished weapon on poor Jortin, and had been
received into the arms of the hero under whom he now fought,
adventured to cast his javelin at Leland: it was dipped in the cold
poison of contempt and petulance. It struck, but did not canker,
leaves that were immortal.[169] Leland, with the native warmth of his
soil, could not resist the gratification of a reply; but the nobler
part of the triumph was, the assistance he lent to the circulation of
Hurd's letter, by reprinting it with his own reply, to accompany a
new edition of his "Dissertation on Eloquence."[170]
We now pursue the SECRET PRINCIPLE, operating on lighter topics; when,
turning commentator, with the same originality as when an author, his
character as a literary adventurer is still more prominent, extorting
double senses, discovering the most fantastical allusions, and making
men of genius but of confined reading, learned, with all the lumber of
his own unwieldy erudition.
When the German professor CROUSAZ published a rigid examen of the
doctrines in POPE'S "Essay on Man," Warburton volunteered a defence of
Pope. Some years before, it appears that Warburton himself, in a
literary club at Newark, had produced a dissertation against those
very doctrines! where he asserted that "the Essay was collected from
the worst passages of the worst authors." This probably occurred at
the time he declared that Pope had no genius! BOLINGBROKE really WROTE
the "Essay on Man," which Pope _versified_.[171] His principles may be
often objectionable; but those who only read this fine philosophical
poem for its condensed verse, its imagery, and its generous
sentiments, will run no danger from a metaphysical system they will
not care to comprehend.
But this serves not as an apology for Warburton, who now undertook an
elaborate defence of what he had himself condemned, and for which
purpose he has most unjustly depressed Crousaz--an able logician, and
a writer ardent in the cause of religion. This commentary on the
"Essay on Man," then, looks much like the work of a sophist and an
adventurer! Pope, who was now alarmed at the tendency of some of those
principles he had so innocently versified, received Warburton as his
tutelary genius. A mere poet was soon dazzled by the sorcery of
erudition; and he himself, having nothing of that kind of learning,
believed Warburton to be the Scaliger of the age, for his gratitude
far exceeded his knowledge.[172] The poet died in this delusion: he
consigned his immortal works to the mercy of a ridiculous commentary
and a tasteless commentator, whose labours have cost so much pains to
subsequent editors to remove. Yet from this moment we date the worldly
fortunes of Warburton.--Pope presented him with the entire property of
his works; introduced him to a blind and obedient patron, who bestowed
on him a rich wife, by whom he secured a fine mansion; till at
length, the mitre crowned his last ambition. Such was the large
chapter of accidents in Warburton's life!
There appears in Warburton's conduct respecting the editions of the
great poets which he afterwards published, something systematic; he
treated the several editors of those very poets, THEOBALD, HANMER,
and GREY, who were his friends, with the same odd sort of kindness:
when he was unknown to the world, he cheerfully contributed to all
their labours, and afterwards abused them with the liveliest
severity.[173] It is probable that he had himself projected these
editions as a source of profit, but had contributed to the more
advanced labours of his rival editors, merely as specimens of his
talent, that the public might hereafter be thus prepared for his
own more perfect commentaries.
Warburton employed no little art[174] to excite the public curiosity
respecting his future Shakspeare: he liberally presented Dr. BIRCH
with his MS. notes for that great work the "General Dictionary," no
doubt as the prelude of his after-celebrated edition. Birch was here
only a dupe: he escaped, unlike Theobald, Hanmer, and Grey, from being
overwhelmed with ridicule and contempt. When these extraordinary
specimens of emendatory and illustrative criticism appeared in the
"General Dictionary," with general readers they excited all the
astonishment of perfect novelty. It must have occurred to them, that
no one as yet had understood Shakspeare; and, indeed, that it required
no less erudition than that of the new luminary now rising in the
critical horizon to display the amazing erudition of this most
recondite poet. Conjectural criticism not only changed the words but
the thoughts of the author; perverse interpretations of plain matters.
Many a striking passage was wrested into a new meaning: plain words
were subtilised to remove conceits; here one line was rejected, and
there an interpolation, inspired alone by critical sagacity, pretended
to restore a lost one; and finally, a source of knowledge was opened
in the notes, on subjects which no other critic suspected could, by
any ingenuity, stand connected with Shakspeare's text.
At length the memorable edition appeared: all the world knows its
chimeras.[175] One of its most remarkable results was the production
of that work, which annihilated the whimsical labours of Warburton,
Edwards's "Canons of Criticism," one of those successful facetious
criticisms which enliven our literary history. Johnson, awed by the
learning of Warburton, and warmed by a personal feeling for a great
genius who had condescended to encourage his first critical labour,
grudgingly bestows a moderated praise on this exquisite satire, which
he characterises for "its airy petulance, suitable enough to the
levity of the controversy." He compared this attack "to a fly, which
may sting and tease a horse, but yet the horse is the nobler
animal."[176] Among the prejudices of criticism, is one which hinders
us from relishing a masterly performance, when it ridicules a
favourite author; but to us, mere historians, truth will always
prevail over literary favouritism. The work of Edwards effected its
purpose, that of "laughing down Warburton to his proper rank and
character."[177]
Warburton designates himself as "a critic by profession;" and tells
us, he gave this edition "to deter the _unlearned writer_ from
wantonly trifling with an art he is a stranger to, at the expense of
the integrity of the text of established authors." Edwards has placed
a N.B. on this declaration:--"A writer may properly be called
_unlearned_, who, notwithstanding all his other knowledge, does not
understand the subject which he writes upon." But the most dogmatical
absurdity was Warburton's declaration, that it was once his design to
have given "a body of canons for criticism, drawn out in form, with a
glossary;" and further he informs the reader, that though this has not
been done by him, if the reader will take the trouble, he may supply
himself, as these canons of criticism lie scattered in the course of
the notes. This idea was seized on with infinite humour by Edwards,
who, from these very notes, has framed a set of "Canons of Criticism,"
as ridiculous as possible, but every one illustrated by authentic
examples, drawn from the labours of our new Stagirite.[178]
At length, when the public had decided on the fact of Warburton's
edition, it was confessed that the editor's design had never been to
explain Shakspeare! and that he was even conscious he had frequently
imputed to the poet meanings which he never thought! Our critic's
great object was to display his own learning! Warburton wrote for
Warburton, and not for Shakspeare! and the literary imposture almost
rivals the confessions of Lander or Psalmanazar!
The same SECRET PRINCIPLE was pursued in his absurd edition of Pope.
He formed an unbroken Commentary on the "Essay on Criticism," to show
that that admirable collection of precepts had been constructed by a
systematical method, which it is well known the poet never designed;
and the same instruments of torture were here used as in the "Essay on
Man," to reconcile a system of fatalism to the doctrines of
Revelation.[179] Warton had to remove the incumbrance of his
Commentaries on Pope, while a most laborious confederacy zealously
performed the same task to relieve Shakspeare. Thus Warburton pursued
ONE SECRET PRINCIPLE in all his labours; thus he raised edifices which
could not be securely inhabited, and were only impediments in the
roadway; and these works are now known by the labours of those who
have exerted their skill in laying them in ruins.
Warburton was probably aware that the SECRET PRINCIPLE which regulated
his public opinions might lay him open, at numerous points, to the
strokes of ridicule. It is a weapon which every one is willing to use,
but which seems to terrify every one when it is pointed against
themselves. There is no party or sect which have not employed it in
their most serious controversies: the grave part of mankind protest
against it, often at the moment they have been directing it for their
own purpose. And the inquiry, whether ridicule be a test of truth, is
one of the large controversies in our own literature. It was opened by
Lord Shaftesbury, and zealously maintained by his school. Akenside, in
a note to his celebrated poem, asserts the efficacy of ridicule as a
test of truth: Lord Kaimes had just done the same. Warburton levelled
his piece at the lord in the bush-fighting of a note; but came down in
the open field with a full discharge of his artillery on the luckless
bard.[180]
Warburton designates Akenside under the sneering appellative of "The
Poet," and alluding to his "sublime account" of the use of ridicule,
insultingly reminds him of "his Master," Shaftesbury, and of that
school which made morality an object of taste, shrewdly hinting that
Akenside was "a man of taste;" a new term, as we are to infer from
Warburton, for "a Deist;" or, as Akenside had alluded to Spinoza, he
might be something worse. The great critic loudly protested against
the practice of ridicule; but, in attacking its advocate, he is
himself an evidence of its efficacy, by keenly ridiculing "the Poet"
and his opinions. Dyson, the patron of Akenside, nobly stepped
forwards to rescue his Eagle, panting in the tremendous gripe of the
critical Lion. His defence of Akenside is an argumentative piece of
criticism on the nature of ridicule, curious, but wanting the graces
of the genius who inspired it.[181]
I shall stop one moment, since it falls into our subject, to record
this great literary battle on the use of ridicule, which has been
fought till both parties, after having shed their ink, divide the
field without victory or defeat, and now stand looking on each other.
The advocates for the use of RIDICULE maintain that it is a natural
sense or feeling, bestowed on us for wise purposes by the Supreme
Being, as are the other feelings of beauty and of sublimity;--the
sense of beauty to detect the deformity, as the sense of ridicule the
absurdity of an object: and they further maintain, that no real
virtues, such as wisdom, honesty, bravery, or generosity, can be
ridiculed.
The great Adversary of Ridicule replied that they did not dare to
ridicule the virtues openly; but, by overcharging and distorting them
they could laugh at leisure. "Give them other names," he says, "call
them but Temerity, Prodigality, Simplicity, &c., and your business is
done. Make them ridiculous, and you may go on, in the freedom of wit
and humour (as Shaftesbury distinguishes ridicule), till there be
never a virtue left to laugh out of countenance."
The ridiculers acknowledge that their favourite art may do mischief,
when _dishonest men obtrude circumstances foreign to the object_. But,
they justly urge, that the use of reason itself is full as liable to
the same objection: grant Spinoza his false premises, and his
conclusions will be considered as true. Dyson threw out an ingenious
illustration. "It is so equally in the mathematics; where, in
reasoning about a circle, if we join along with its real properties
others that do not belong to it, our conclusions will certainly be
erroneous. Yet who would infer from hence that _the manner of proof_
is defective or fallacious?"
Warburton urged the strongest _case_ against the use of ridicule, in
that of Socrates and Aristophanes. In his strong and coarse
illustration he shows, that "by clapping a fool's coat on the most
immaculate virtue, it stuck on Socrates like a San Benito, and at last
brought him to his execution: it made the owner resemble his direct
opposite; that character he was most unlike. The consequences are well
known."
Warburton here adopted the popular notion, that the witty buffoon
Aristophanes was the occasion of the death of the philosopher
Socrates. The defence is skilful on the part of Dyson; and we may
easily conceive that on so important a point Akenside had been
consulted. I shall give it in his own words:--
"The Socrates of Aristophanes is as truly ridiculous a character as
ever was drawn; but it is not the character of Socrates himself. The
object was perverted, and the mischief which ensued was owing to
the dishonesty of him who persuaded the people that that was the
real character of Socrates, not from any error in the faculty of
ridicule itself."--Dyson then states the fact as it concerned
Socrates. "The real intention of the contrivers of this ridicule
was not so much to mislead the people, by giving them a bad opinion of
Socrates, as to sound what was at the time the general opinion of him,
that from thence they might judge whether it would be safe to bring
a direct accusation against him. The most effectual way of making
this trial was by ridiculing him; for they knew, if the people saw
his character in its true light, they would be displeased with the
misrepresentation, and not endure the ridicule. On trial this
appeared: the play met with its deserved fate; and, notwithstanding
the exquisiteness of the wit, was absolutely _rejected_. A second
attempt succeeded no better; and the abettors of the poet were so
discouraged from pursuing their design against Socrates, that it was
not till ABOVE TWENTY YEARS after _the publication of the play_ that
they brought their accusation against him! It was not, therefore,
ridicule that did, or could destroy Socrates: he was rather
sacrificed for the right use of it himself, against the Sophists, who
could not bear the test."
Thus, then, stands the argument.--Warburton, reasoning on the abuses
of ridicule, has opened to us all its dangers. Its advocate concedes
that Ridicule, to be a test of Truth, must not impose on us
circumstances which are foreign to the object. No object can be
ridiculed that is not ridiculous. Should this happen, then the
ridicule is false; and, as such, can be proved as much as any piece of
false reasoning. We may therefore conclude, that ridicule is a taste
of congruity and propriety not possessed by every one; a test which
separates truth from imposture; a talent against the exercise of which
most men are interested to protest; but which, being founded on the
constituent principles of the human mind, is often indulged at the
very moment it is decried and complained of.
But we must not leave this great man without some notice of that
peculiar style of controversy which he adopted, and which may be
distinguished among our LITERARY QUARRELS. He has left his name to a
school--a school which the more liberal spirit of the day we live in
would not any longer endure. Who has not heard of THE WARBURTONIANS?
That SECRET PRINCIPLE which directed Warburton in all his works, and
which we have attempted to pursue, could not of itself have been
sufficient to have filled the world with the name of Warburton. Other
scholars have published reveries, and they have passed away, after
showing themselves for a time, leaving no impression; like those
coloured and shifting shadows on a wall, with which children are
amused; but Warburton was a literary Revolutionist, who, to maintain a
new order of things, exercised all the despotism of a perpetual
dictator. The bold unblushing energy which could lay down the most
extravagant positions, was maintained by a fierce dogmatic spirit, and
by a peculiar style of mordacious contempt and intolerant insolence,
beating down his opponents from all quarters with an animating shout
of triumph, to encourage those more serious minds, who, overcome by
his genius, were yet often alarmed by the ambiguous tendency of his
speculations.[182]
The Warburtonian School was to be supported by the most licentious
principles; by dictatorial arrogance,[183] by gross invective, and by
airy sarcasm;[184] the bitter contempt which, with its many little
artifices, lowers an adversary in the public opinion, was more
peculiarly the talent of one of the aptest scholars, the cool, the
keen, the sophistical Hurd. The lowest arts of confederacy were
connived at by all the disciples,[185] prodigal of praise to
themselves, and retentive of it to all others; the world was to be
divided into two parts, the _Warburtonians_ and the _Anti_.
To establish this new government in the literary world, this great
Revolutionist was favoured by Fortune with two important aids; the one
was a _Machine_, by which he could wield public opinion; and the other
a _Man_, who seemed born to be his minister or his viceroy.
The _machine_ was nothing less than the immortal works of Pope; as
soon as Warburton had obtained a royal patent to secure to himself the
sole property of Pope's works, the public were compelled, under the
disguise of a Commentary on the most classical of our Poets, to be
concerned with all his literary quarrels, and have his libels and
lampoons perpetually before them; all the foul waters of his anger
were deposited here as in a common reservoir.[186]
Fanciful as was the genius of Warburton, it delighted too much in its
eccentric motions, and in its own solitary greatness, amid abstract
and recondite topics, to have strongly attracted the public attention,
had not a party been formed around him, at the head of which stood
the active and subtle Hurd; and amid the gradations of the votive
brotherhood, the profound BALGUY,[187] the spirited BROWN,[188] till
we descend--
To his tame jackal, parson TOWNE.[189]
_Verses on Warburton's late Edition._
This Warburtonian party reminds one of an old custom among our elder
poets, who formed a kind of freemasonry among themselves, by adopting
younger poets by the title of their _sons_.--But that was a domestic
society of poets; this, a revival of the Jesuitic order instituted by
its founder, that--
By him supported with a proper pride,
They might hold all mankind as fools beside.
Might, like himself, teach each adopted son,
'Gainst all the world, to quote a Warburton.[190]
CHURCHILL'S "Fragment of a Dedication."
The character of a literary sycophant was never more perfectly
exhibited than in Hurd. A Whig in principle, yet he had all a
courtier's arts for Warburton; to him he devoted all his genius,
though that, indeed, was moderate; aided him with all his ingenuity,
which was exquisite; and lent his cause a certain delicacy of taste
and cultivated elegance, which, although too prim and artificial, was
a vein of gold running through his mass of erudition; it was Hurd who
aided the usurpation of Warburton in the province of criticism above
Aristotle and Longinus.[191] Hurd is justly characterised by Warton,
in his Spenser, vol. ii. p. 36, as "the _most sensible_ and
_ingenious_ of modern critics."--He was a lover of his studies; and he
probably was sincere, when he once told a friend of the literary
antiquary Cole, that he would have chosen not to quit the university,
for he loved retirement; and on that principle Cowley was his
favourite poet, which he afterwards showed by his singular edition of
that poet. He was called from the cloistered shades to assume the
honourable dignity of a Royal Tutor. Had he devoted his days to
literature, he would have still enriched its stores. But he had other
more supple and more serviceable qualifications. Most adroit was he in
all the archery of controversy: he had the subtlety that can evade the
aim of the assailant, and the slender dexterity, substituted for
vigour, that struck when least expected. The subaltern genius of Hurd
required to be animated by the heroic energy of Warburton; and the
careless courage of the chief wanted one who could maintain the
unguarded passages he left behind him in his progress.
Such, then, was WARBURTON, and such the quarrels of this great author.
He was, through his literary life, an adventurer, guided by that
secret principle which opened an immediate road to fame. By opposing
the common sentiments of mankind, he awed and he commanded them; and
by giving a new face to all things, he surprised, by the appearances
of discoveries. All this, so pleasing to his egotism, was not,
however, fortunate for his ambition. To sustain an authority which he
had usurped; to substitute for the taste he wanted a curious and
dazzling erudition; and to maintain those reckless decisions which so
often plunged him into perils, Warburton adopted his _system of
Literary Quarrels_. These were the illegitimate means which raised a
sudden celebrity, and which genius kept alive, as long as that genius
lasted; but Warburton suffered that literary calamity, too protracted
a period of human life: he outlived himself and his fame. This great
and original mind sacrificed all his genius to that secret principle
we have endeavoured to develope--it was a self-immolation!
The learned SELDEN, in the curious little volume of his "Table-Talk,"
has delivered to posterity a precept for the learned, which they ought
to wear, like the Jewish phylacteries, as "a frontlet between their
eyes." _No man is the wiser for his learning: it may administer matter
to work in, or objects to work upon; but wit and wisdom are born with
a man._ Sir THOMAS HANMER, who was well acquainted with Warburton,
during their correspondence about Shakspeare, often said of him:--"The
only use he could find in Mr. Warburton was _starting the game_; he
was not to be trusted in _running it down_." A just discrimination!
His fervid curiosity was absolutely creative; but his taste and his
judgment, perpetually stretched out by his system, could not save him
from even inglorious absurdities!
Warburton, it is probable, was not really the character he appears. It
mortifies the lovers of genius to discover how a natural character may
be thrown into a convulsed unnatural state by some adopted system: it
is this system, which, carrying it, as it were, beyond itself,
communicates a more than natural, but a self-destroying energy. All
then becomes reversed! The arrogant and vituperative Warburton was
only such in his assumed character; for in still domestic life he was
the creature of benevolence, touched by generous passions. But in
public life the artificial or the acquired character prevails over the
one which nature designed for us; and by that all public men, as well
as authors, are usually judged by posterity.
FOOTNOTES:
[141] One of his lively adversaries, the author of the "Canons of
Criticism," observed the difficulty of writing against an
author whose reputation so much exceeded the knowledge of his
works. "It is my misfortune," says EDWARDS, "in this
controversy, to be engaged with a person who is better known
by his _name_ than his _works_; or, to speak more properly,
whose _works are more known than read_."--_Preface to the
Canons of Criticism._
[142] Aristotle's Rhetoric, B. III. c. 16.
[143] The materials for a "Life of Warburton" have been arranged by
Mr. NICHOLS with his accustomed fidelity.--_See his Literary
Anecdotes._
[144] It is probable I may have drawn my meteor from our volcanic
author himself, who had his lucid moments, even in the
deliriums of his imagination. Warburton has rightly observed,
in his "Divine Legation," p. 203, that "_Systems_, _Schemes_,
and _Hypotheses_, all bred of heat, in the warm regions of
_Controversy_, like meteors in a troubled sky, have each its
turn to _blaze_ and _fly_ away."
[145] It seems, even by the confession of a Warburtonian, that his
master was of "a human size;" for when Bishop LOWTH rallies
the Warburtonians for their subserviency and credulity to
their master, he aimed a gentle stroke at Dr. BROWN, who, in
his "Essays on the Characteristics," had poured forth the most
vehement panegyric. In his "Estimate of Manners of the
Times," too, after a long _tirade_ of their badness in regard
to taste and learning, he thus again eulogizes his mighty
master:--"Himself is abused, and his friends insulted for his
sake, by those who never read his writings; or, if they did,
could neither taste nor comprehend them; while every little
aspiring or despairing scribbler eyes him as Cassius did
Cæsar: and whispers to his fellow--
'Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.'
No wonder, then, if the malice of the Lilliputian tribe be
bent against this dreaded GULLIVER; if they attack him with
poisoned arrows, whom they cannot subdue by strength."
On this Lowth observes, that "this Lord Paramount in his
pretensions _doth bestride the narrow world_ of literature,
and has cast out his shoe over all the regions of science."
This leads to a ludicrous comparison of Warburton, with King
Pichrochole and his three ministers, who, in URQUHART'S
admirable version of the French wit, are Count Merdaille,
the Duke of Smalltrash, and the Earl Swashbuckler, who set up
for universal monarchy, and made an imaginary expedition
through all the quarters of the world, as Rabelais records,
and the bishop facetiously quotes. Dr. Brown afterwards
seemed to repent his panegyric, and contrives to make his
gigantic hero shrink into a moderate size. "I believe
still, every little aspiring fellow continues thus to eye
him. For myself, I have ever considered him as _a man_,
yet considerable among his species, as the following part of
the paragraph _clearly demonstrates_. I speak of him here
as _a Gulliver_ indeed; yet still of _no more than human
size_, and only apprehended to be of _colossal magnitude_ by
certain of his Lilliputian enemies." Thus subtilely would poor
Dr. Brown save appearances! It must be confessed that, in a
dilemma, never was a giant got rid of so easily!--The plain
truth, however, was, that Brown was then on the point of
quarrelling with Warburton; for he laments, in a letter to
a friend, that "he had not avoided all personal panegyric. I
had thus saved myself the trouble of setting right a
character which I far over-painted." A part of this letter
is quoted in the "Biographia Britannica."
[146] "Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian, not admitted into the
collections of their respective works," itself a collection
which our shelves could ill spare, though maliciously
republished by Dr. PARR. The dedication by Parr stands
unparalleled for comparative criticism. It is the eruption of
a volcano; it sparkles, it blazes, and scatters light and
destruction. How deeply ought we to regret that this Nazarite
suffered his strength to be shorn by the Delilahs of spurious
fame. Never did this man, with his gifted strength, grasp the
pillars of a temple, to shake its atoms over Philistines; but
pleased the childlike simplicity of his mind by pulling down
houses over the heads of their unlucky inhabitants. He
consumed, in local and personal literary quarrels, a genius
which might have made the next age his own. With all the
stores of erudition, and all the eloquence of genius, he
mortified a country parson for his politics, and a London
accoucheur for certain obstetrical labours performed on
Horace; and now his collected writings lie before us, volumes
unsaleable and unread. His insatiate vanity was so little
delicate, as often to snatch its sweetmeat from a foul plate;
it now appears, by the secret revelations in Griffith's own
copy of his "Monthly Review," that the writer of a very
elaborate article on the works of Dr. Parr, was no less a
personage than the Doctor himself. His egotism was so
declamatory, that it unnaturalized a great mind, by the
distortions of Johnsonian mimicry; his fierceness, which was
pushed on to brutality on the unresisting, retreated with a
child's terrors when resisted; and the pomp of petty pride in
table triumphs and evening circles, ill compensated for the
lost century he might have made his own!
Lord o'er the greatest, to the least a slave,
Half-weak, half-strong, half-timid, and half-brave;
To take a compliment of too much pride,
And yet most hurt when praises are denied.
Thou art so deep discerning, yet so blind,
So learn'd, so ignorant, cruel, yet so kind;
So good, so bad, so foolish, and so wise;--
By turns I love thee, and by turns despise.
MS. ANON. (said to be by the late Dr. HOMER.)
[147] The "Quarterly Review," vol. vii. p. 383.--So masterly a piece
of criticism has rarely surprised the public in the leaves of
a periodical publication. It comes, indeed, with the feelings
of another age, and the reminiscences of the old and vigorous
school. I cannot implicitly adopt all the sentiments of the
critic, but it exhibits a highly-finished portrait, enamelled
by the love of the artist.--This article was written by the
late Dr. Whitaker, the historian of Craven, &c.
[148] When Warburton, sore at having been refused academical
honours at Oxford, which were offered to Pope, then his
fellow-traveller, and who, in consequence of this refusal,
did himself not accept them--in his controversy with Lowth
(then the Oxford Professor), gave way to his angry spirit,
and struck at the University itself, for its political
jesuitism, being a place where men "were taught to distinguish
between _de facto_ and _de jure_," caustic was the retort.
Lowth, by singular felicity of application, touched on
Warburton's original designation, in a character he hit on in
Clarendon. After remonstrating with spirit and dignity on
this petulant attack, which was not merely personal, Lowth
continues:--"Had I not your lordship's example to justify me,
I should think it a piece of extreme impertinence to inquire
where YOU were bred; though one might justly plead, in
excuse for it, a natural curiosity to know _where_ and _how_
such a phenomenon was produced. It is commonly said that your
lordship's education was of that particular kind, concerning
which it is a remark of that great judge of men and manners,
Lord Clarendon (on whom you have, therefore, with a wonderful
happiness of allusion, justness of application, and elegance
of expression, conferred 'the unrivalled title of the
Chancellor of Human Nature'), that it peculiarly disposes
men to be proud, insolent, and pragmatical." Lowth, in a
note, inserts Clarendon's character of Colonel Harrison: "He
had been bred up in the place of a clerk, under a lawyer of
good account in those parts; which kind of education
introduces men into the language and practice of business;
and if it be not resisted by the great ingenuity of the
person, inclines young men to more pride than any other kind
of breeding, and disposes them to be pragmatical and
insolent." "Now, my lord (Lowth continues), as you have in
your whole behaviour, and in all your writings, remarkably
distinguished yourself by your humility, lenity, meekness,
forbearance, candour, humanity, civility, decency, good
manners, good temper, moderation with regard to the
opinions of others, and a modest diffidence of your own, this
unpromising circumstance of your education is so far from
being a disgrace to you, that it highly redounds to your
praise."--_Lowth's Letter to the Author of the D. L._ p. 63.
Was ever weapon more polished and keen? This Attic style of
controversy finely contrasts with the tasteless and fierce
invective of the Warburtonians, although one of them is
well known to have managed too adroitly the cutting
instrument of irony; but the frigid malignancy of Hurd
diminishes the pleasure we might find in his skill.
Warburton ill concealed his vexation in the contempt he
vented in a letter to Hurd on this occasion. "All you say
about Lowth's pamphlet breathes the purest spirit of
friendship. His _wit_ and his _reasoning_, God knows, and
I also, (as a certain critic said once in a matter of the
like great importance), are much below the qualities that
deserve those names."--He writes too of "this man's boldness
in publishing his letters."--"If he expects an answer, he
will certainly find himself disappointed; though I believe I
could make _as good sport with this devil of a vice_, for
the public diversion, as ever was made with him in the old
Moralities."--But Warburton did reply! Had he ever possessed
one feeling of taste, never would he have figured the elegant
Lowth as this grotesque personage. He was, however, at that
moment sharply stung!
This circumstance of _Attorneyship_ was not passed over in
Mallet's "Familiar Epistle to the Most Impudent Man Living."
Comparing, in the Spirit of "familiarity," Arnall, an impudent
scribbling attorney and political scribe, with Warburton, he
says, "You have been an attorney as well as he, but a little
more impudent than he was; for Arnall never presumed to
conceal his turpitude under the gown and the scarf." But this
is mere invective!
[149] I have given a tempered opinion of his motive for this sudden
conversion from Attorneyship to Divinity; for it must not be
concealed, in our inquiry into Warburton's character, that he
has frequently been accused of a more worldly one. He was so
fierce an advocate for some important causes he undertook,
that his sincerity has been liable to suspicion; the pleader,
in some points, certainly acting the part of a sophist. Were
we to decide by the early appearances of his conduct, by the
rapid change of his profession, by his obsequious servility to
his country squire, and by what have been termed the hazardous
"fooleries in criticism, and outrages in controversy," which
he systematically pursued, he looks like one not in earnest;
and more zealous to maintain the character of his own genius,
than the cause he had espoused. Leland once exclaimed, "What
are we to think of the writer and his intentions? Is he really
sincere in his reasonings?" Certain it is, his paradoxes often
alarmed his friends, to repeat the words of a great critic, by
"the absurdity of his criticism, the heterodoxy of his tenets,
and the brutality of his invectives." Our Juvenal, who,
whatever might be the vehemence of his declamation, reflected
always those opinions which floated about him, has drawn a
full-length figure. He accounts for Warburton's early motive
in taking the cassock, as being
"------------thereto drawn
By some faint omens of the Lawn,
And on the truly Christian plan,
To make himself a gentleman:
A title, in which Form arrayed him,
Tho' Fate ne'er thought of when she made him.
To make himself a man of note,
He in defence of Scripture wrote:
So long he wrote, and long about it,
That e'en believers 'gan to doubt it.
He wrote too of the Holy Ghost;
Of whom, no more than doth a post,
He knew; nor, should an angel show him,
Would he or know, or choose to know him."
CHURCHILL'S "Duellist."
I would not insinuate that Warburton is to be ranked among the
class he so loudly denounced, that of "Free-thinkers;" his
mind, warm with imagination, seemed often tinged with
credulity. But from his want of sober-mindedness, we cannot
always prove his earnestness in the cause he advocated. He
often sports with his fancies; he breaks out into the most
familiar levity; and maintains, too broadly, subtile and
refined principles, which evince more of the political than
the primitive Christian. It is certain his infidelity was
greatly suspected; and Hurd, to pass over the stigma of
Warburton's sudden conversion to the Church, insinuates that
"_an early seriousness of mind_ determined him to the
ecclesiastical profession."--"It may be so," says the critic
in the "Quarterly Review," no languid admirer of this great
man; "but the symptoms of that _seriousness were very
equivocal afterwards_; and the _certainty of an early
provision, from a generous patron in the country_, may perhaps
be considered by those who are disposed to assign human
conduct to ordinary motives, as quite adequate to the
effect."
Dr. Parr is indignant at such surmises; but the feeling is
more honourable than the decision! In an admirable character
of Warburton in the "Westminster Magazine" for 1779, it is
acknowledged, "at his outset in life he was suspected of
being inclined to infidelity; and it was not till many
years had elapsed, that the orthodoxy of his opinions was
generally assented to." On this Dr. Parr observes, "Why Dr.
Warburton was _ever_ suspected of secret infidelity I know
not. What he was _inclined to think_ on subjects of
religion, before, perhaps, he had leisure or ability to
examine them, depends only upon obscure surmise, or vague
report." The words _inclined to think_ seems a periphrase
for _secret infidelity_. Our critic attributes these reports
to "an English dunce, whose blunders and calumnies are now
happily forgotten, and repeated by a French buffoon, whose
morality is not commensurate with his wit."--_Tracts_ by
Warburton, &c., p. 186.
"The English Dunce" I do not recollect; of this sort there are
so many! Voltaire is "the French buffoon;" who, indeed,
compares Warburton in his bishopric, to Peachum in the
Beggar's Opera--who, as Keeper of Newgate, was for hanging all
his old accomplices!
[150] Warburton was far more extravagant in a later attempt which he
made to expound the odd visions of a crack-brained Welshman, a
prophesying knave; a knave by his own confession, and a
prophet by Warburton's. This commentary, inserted in Jortin's
"Remarks on Ecclesiastical History," considerably injured the
reputation of Jortin. The story of Warburton and his Welsh
Prophet would of itself be sufficient to detect the shiftings
and artifices of his genius. RICE or ARISE EVANS! was one of
the many prophets who rose up in Oliver's fanatical days; and
Warburton had the hardihood to insert, in Jortin's learned
work, a strange commentary to prove that Arise Evans, in
Cromwell's time, in his "Echo from Heaven," had manifestly
_prophesied the Hanoverian Succession_! The Welshman was a
knave by his own account in subscribing with his _right_ hand
the confession he calls his prophecy, before a justice, and
with his _left_, that which was his recantation, signed before
the recorder, adding, "I know the bench and the people thought
I recanted; but, alas! they were deceived;" and this Warburton
calls "an uncommon fetch of wit," to save the truth of the
prophecy, though not the honour of the prophet. If Evans meant
anything, he meant what was then floating in all men's minds,
the probable restoration of the Stuarts. By this prelude of
that inventive genius which afterwards commented, in the same
spirit, on the Æneid of Virgil, and the "Divine Legation,
itself," and made the same sort of discoveries, he fixed
himself in this dilemma: either Warburton was a greater
impostor than Arise Evans, or he was more credulous than even
any follower of the Welsh prophet, if he really had any. But
the truth is, that Warburton was always writing for a present
purpose, and believed, and did not believe, as it happened.
"Ordinary men believe _one_ side of a contradiction at a time,
whereas his lordship" (says his admirable antagonist)
"frequently believes, or at least defends _both_. So that it
would have been no great wonder if he should maintain that
Evans was both a real prophet and an impostor." Yet this is
not the only awkward attitude into which Warburton has here
thrown himself. To strain the vision of the raving Welshman to
events of which he could have no notion, Warburton has plunged
into the most ludicrous difficulties, all which ended, as all
his discoveries have done, in making the fortune of an
adversary who, like the Momus of Homer, has raised through the
skies "inextinguishable laughter," in the amusing tract of
"Confusion worse Confounded, Rout on Rout, or the Bishop of
G----'s Commentary on Arise Evans; by Indignatio," 1772. The
writer was the learned Henry Taylor, the author of Ben
Mordecai's Apology.
[151] The correct taste of Lowth with some humour describes the last
sentence of the "Enquiry on Prodigies" as "the Musa Pedestris
got on horseback in a high prancing style." He printed it in
measured lines, without, however, changing the place of a
single word, and it produced blank verse. Thus it reads--
"Methinks I see her like the mighty Eagle
renewing her immortal youth, and purging
her opening sight at the unobstructed beams
of our benign meridian Sun," &c.
Such a glowing metaphor, in the uncouth prose of Warburton,
startled Lowth's classical ear. It was indeed "the Musa
Pedestris who had got on horseback in a high prancing style;"
for as it has since been pointed out, it is a well-known
passage towards the close of the Areopagitica of Milton, whose
prose is so often purely poetical. See Birch's Edition of
Milton's Prose Works, I. 158. Warburton was familiarly
conversant with our great vernacular writers at a time when
their names generally were better known than their works, and
when it was considered safe to pillage their most glorious
passages. Warburton has been convicted of snatching their
purple patches, and sewing them into his coarser web, without
any acknowledgment; he did this in the present remarkable
instance, and at a later day, in the preface to his "Julian,"
he laid violent hands on one of Raleigh's splendid metaphors.
[152] When Warburton was considered as a Colossus of literature,
RALPH, the political writer, pointed a severe allusion to the
awkward figure he makes in these Dedications. "The Colossus
himself creeps between the legs of the late Sir Robert Sutton;
in what posture, or for what purpose, need not be explained."
CHURCHILL has not passed by unnoticed Warburton's humility,
even to weakness, combined with pride which could rise to
haughtiness.
"He was so proud, that should he meet
The twelve apostles in the street,
He'd turn his nose up at them all,
And shove his Saviour from the wall."
Yet this man
----"Fawned through all his life
For patrons first, then for a wife;
Wrote _Dedications_, which must make
The heart of every Christian quake."
_The Duellist._
It is certain that the proud and supercilious Warburton long
crouched and fawned. MALLET, at least, well knew all that
passed between Warburton and Pope. In the "Familiar Epistle"
he asserts that Warburton was introduced to Pope by his
"nauseous flattery." A remarkable instance, besides the
dedications we have noticed, occurred in his correspondence
with Sir Thomas Hanmer. He did not venture to attack "The
Oxford Editor," as he sarcastically distinguishes him, without
first demanding back his letters, which were immediately
returned, from Sir Thomas's high sense of honour. Warburton
might otherwise have been shown strangely to contradict
himself, for in these letters he had been most lavish of his
flatteries and encomiums on the man whom he covered with
ridicule in the preface to his Shakspeare. See "An Answer to
certain Passages in Mr. W.'s Preface to Shakspeare," 1748.
His dedication to the plain unlettered Ralph Allen of Bath,
his greatest of patrons, of his "Commentary on Pope's Essay on
Man," is written in the same spirit as those to Sir Robert
Sutton; but the former unlucky gentleman was more publicly
exposed by it. The subject of this dedication turns on "the
growth and progress of _Fate_, divided into four principal
branches!" There is an episode about _Free-will_ and _Nature_
and _Grace_, and "a _contrivance_ of Leibnitz about
_Fatalism_." Ralph Allen was a good Quaker-like man, but he
must have lost his temper if he ever read the dedication! Let
us not, however, imagine that Warburton was at all insensible
to this violation of literary decorum; he only sacrificed
_propriety_ to what he considered a more urgent principle--his
own personal interest. No one had a juster conception of the
true nature of _dedications_; for he says in the famous one
"to the Free-thinkers:"--"I could never approve the custom of
dedicating books to men whose professions made them strangers
to the subject. A Discourse on the Ten Predicaments to a
Leader of Armies, or a System of Casuistry to a Minister of
State, always appeared to me a high absurdity."
All human characters are mixed--true! yet still we feel
indignant to discover some of the greatest often combining the
most opposite qualities; and then they are not so much mixed
as the parts are naturally joined together. Could one imagine
that so lofty a character as Warburton could have been liable
to have incurred even the random stroke of the satirist?
whether true or false, the events of his life, better known at
this day than in his own, will show. Churchill says that
"He could cringe and creep, be civil,
And hold a stirrup to the devil,
If, _in a journey to his mind_,
He'd let him mount, and ride behind."
The author of the "Canons of Criticism," with all his
sprightly sarcasm, gives a history of Warburton's later
Dedications. "The first edition of 'The Alliance' came out
without a dedication, but was presented to the bishops; and
when nothing came of that, the second was addressed to both
the Universities; and when nothing came of that, the third was
dedicated to a noble Earl, and nothing has yet come of that."
Appendix to "Canons of Criticism," seventh edit. 261.
[153] The palace here alluded to is fully described in a volume of
"Travels through Sicily and Malta," by P. Brydone, F.R.S., in
1770. He describes it as belonging to "the Prince of Palermo,
a man of immense fortune, who has devoted his whole life to
the study of monsters and chimeras, greater and more
ridiculous than ever entered into the imagination of the
wildest writers of romance and knight-errantry." He tells us
this palace was surrounded by an army of statues, "not one
made to represent any object in nature. He has put the heads
of men to the bodies of every sort of animal, and the heads of
every other animal to the bodies of men. Sometimes he makes a
compound of five or six animals that have no sort of
resemblance in nature. He puts the head of a lion on the neck
of a goose, the body of a lizard, the legs of a goat, the tail
of a fox; on the back of this monster he puts another, if
possible still more hideous, with five or six heads, and a
bush of horns. There is no kind of horn in the world he has
not collected, and his pleasure is to see them all flourishing
upon the same head." The interior of the house was decorated
in the same monstrous style, and the description, unique of
its kind, occupies several pages of Mr. Brydone's book.--ED.
[154] This letter was written in 1726, and first found by Dr. Knight
in 1750, in fitting up a house where Concanen had probably
lodged. It was suppressed, till Akenside, in 1766, printed it
in a sixpenny pamphlet, entitled "An Ode to Mr. Edwards." He
preserved the curiosity, with "all its peculiarities of
grammar, spelling, and punctuation." The insulted poet took a
deep revenge for the contemptuous treatment he had received
from the modern Stagirite. The "peculiarities" betray most
evident marks of the self-taught lawyer; the orthography and
the double letters were minted in the office. [Thus he speaks
of Addison as this "exact _Mr._ of propriety," and of his own
studies of the English poets "to trace them to their sources;
and observe what _oar_, as well as what slime and gravel they
brought down with them."] When I looked for the letter in
_Akenside's Works_, I discovered that it had been silently
dropped. Some interest, doubtless, had been made to suppress
it, for Warburton was humbled when reminded of it. Malone,
fortunately, has preserved it in his Shakspeare, where it may
be found, in a place not likely to be looked into for it, at
the close of _Julius Cæsar_: this literary curiosity had
otherwise been lost for posterity; its whole history is a
series of wonderful escapes.
By this document we became acquainted with the astonishing
fact, that Warburton, early in life, was himself one of those
very dunces whom he has so unmercifully registered in their
Doomsday-book; one who admired the genius of his brothers, and
spoke of Pope with the utmost contempt! [Thus he says,
"Dryden, I observe, borrows for want of leisure, and Pope for
want of genius!"]
[155] Lee introduces Alexander the Great, saying,
"When Glory, like the dazzling eagle, stood
Perch'd on my beaver in the Granic flood,
When Fortune's self my standard trembling bore,
And the pale Fates stood frighted on the shore;
When the Immortals on the billows rode,
And I myself appear'd the leading god!"
In the province of taste Warburton was always at sea without
chart or compass, and was as unlucky in his panegyric on
Milton as on Lee. He calls the "Paradise Regained" "a charming
poem, _nothing inferior_ in the _poetry_ and the _sentiments_
to the Paradise Lost." Such extravagance could only have
proceeded from a critic too little sensible to the essential
requisites of poetry itself.
[156] Such opposite studies shot themselves into the most fantastical
forms in his rocket-writings, whether they streamed in "The
Divine Legation," or sparkled in "The Origin of Romances," or
played about in giving double senses to Virgil, Pope, and
Shakspeare. CHURCHILL, with a good deal of ill-nature and some
truth, describes them:--
"A curate first, he read and read,
And laid in, while he should have fed
The souls of his neglected flock,
Of rending, such a mighty stock,
That he o'ercharged the weary brain
With more than she could well contain;
More than she was with spirit fraught
To turn and methodise to thought;
And which, _like ill-digested food,
To humours turn'd, and not to blood_."
The opinion of BENTLEY, when he saw "The Divine Legation," was
a sensible one. "This man," said he, "has a monstrous
appetite, with a very bad digestion."
The Warburtonians seemed to consider his great work, as the
Bible by which all literary men were to be sworn. LOWTH
ridicules their credulity. "'The Divine Legation,' it seems,
contains in it all knowledge, divine and human, ancient and
modern: it is a perfect Encyclopædia, including all history,
criticism, divinity, law, politics, from the law of Moses down
to the Jew bill, and from Egyptian hieroglyphics to modern
Rebus-writing, &c."
"In the 2014 pages of the unfinished 'Divine Legation,'"
observes the sarcastic GIBBON, "four hundred authors are
quoted, from St. Austin down to Scarron and Rabelais!"
Yet, after all that satire and wit have denounced, listen to
an enlightened votary of Warburton. He asserts that "The
'Divine Legation' has taken its place at the head, not to say
of English theology, but almost of English literature. To the
composition of this prodigious performance, HOOKER and
STILLINGFLEET could have contributed the erudition,
CHILLINGWORTH and LOCKE the acuteness, TAYLOR an imagination
even more wild and copious, SWIFT, and perhaps, EACHARD, the
sarcastic vein of wit; but what power of understanding, except
WARBURTON'S, could first have amassed all these materials, and
then compacted them into a bulky and elaborate work, so
consistent and harmonious."--_Quarterly Review._ vol. vii.
[157] "The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated," vol. i. sec. iv.
Observe the remarkable expression, "that last foible of
superior genius." He had evidently running in his mind
Milton's line on Fame--
"That last infirmity of noble minds."
In such an exalted state was Warburton's mind when he was
writing this, his own character.
[158] The author of "The Canons of Criticism" addressed a severe
sonnet to Warburton; and alludes to the "Alliance":--
"Reign he sole king in paradoxal land,
And for Utopia plan his idle schemes
Of _visionary leagues, alliance vain
'Twixt_ Will _and_ Warburton--"
On which he adds this note, humorously stating the grand
position of the work:--"The whole argument by which the
_alliance between Church and State_ is established, Mr.
Warburton founds upon this supposition--'That people,
considering themselves in a religious capacity, may contract
with themselves, considered in a civil capacity.' The conceit
is ingenious, but is not his own. _Scrub_, in the _Beaux
Stratagem_, had found it out long ago: he considers himself as
acting the different parts of all the servants in the family;
and so _Scrub_, the coachman, ploughman, or justice's clerk,
might contract with _Scrub_, the butler, for such a quantity
of ale as the other assumed character demanded."--Appendix, p.
261.
[159] "Monthly Review," vol. xvi. p. 324, the organ of the
dissenters.
[160] See article HOBBES, for his system. The great Selden was an
_Erastian_; a distinction extremely obscure. _Erastus_ was a
Swiss physician of little note, who was for restraining the
ecclesiastical power from all temporal jurisdiction. Selden
did him the honour of adopting his principles. Selden wrote
against the _divine right_ of tithes, but allowed the _legal_
right, which gave at first great offence to the clergy, who
afterwards perceived the propriety of his argument, as Wotton
has fully acknowledged.
[161] It does not always enter into the design of these volumes to
examine those great works which produced _literary quarrels_.
But some may be glad to find here a word on this original
project.
The grand position of the _Divine Legation_ is, that the
knowledge of the immortality of the soul, or a future
state of reward and punishment, is absolutely necessary in
the moral government of the universe. The author shows how it
has been inculcated by all good legislators, so that no
religion could ever exist without it; but the Jewish could,
from its peculiar government, which was theocracy--a
government where the presence of God himself was perpetually
manifested by miracles and new ordinances: and hence
temporal rewards and punishments were sufficient for that
people, to whom the unity and power of the Godhead were
never doubtful. As he proceeded, he would have opened a new
argument, viz., that the Jewish religion was only the
_part_ of a revelation, showing the necessity of a further one
for its _completion_, which produced Christianity.
When Warburton was in good spirits with his great work (for he
was not always so), he wrote thus to a friend:--"You judge
right, that the _next_ volume of the D. L. will not be the
_last_. I thought I had told you that I had divided the work
into three parts: the first gives you a view of Paganism; the
second, of Judaism; and the third, of Christianity. _You will
wonder_ how this last inquiry can come into _so simple an
argument_ as that which I undertake to enforce. I have not
room to tell you more than this--that after I have proved a
future state not to be, _in fact_ in the Mosaic dispensation,
I next show that, if Christianity be true, _it could not
possibly be there_; and this necessitates me to explain the
nature of Christianity, with which the whole ends. But this
_inter nos_. If it be known, I should possibly have somebody
writing against _this part too_ before it appears."--Nichols's
"Literary Anecdotes," vol. v. p. 551.
Thus he exults in the true tone, and with all the levity of a
sophist. It is well that a true feeling of religion does not
depend on the quirks and quibbles of human reasonings, or,
what are as fallible, on masses of fanciful erudition.
[162] Warburton lost himself in the labyrinth he had so ingeniously
constructed. This work harassed his days and exhausted his
intellect. Observe the tortures of a mind, even of so great a
mind as that of Warburton's, when it sacrifices all to the
perishable vanity of sudden celebrity. Often he flew from his
task in utter exhaustion and despair. He had quitted the
smooth and even line of truth, to wind about and split himself
on all the crookedness of paradoxes. He paints his feelings in
a letter to Birch. He says--"I was so disgusted with an old
subject, that I had deferred it from month to month and year
to year." He had recourse to "an expedient;" which was, "to
set the press on work, and so oblige himself to supply copy."
Such is the confession of the author of the "Divine Legation!"
this "encyclopædia" of all ancient and modern lore--all to
proceed from "a simple argument!" But when he describes his
sufferings, hard is the heart of that literary man who cannot
sympathise with such a giant caught in the toils! I give his
words:--"Distractions of various kinds, inseparable from human
life, joined with a naturally melancholy habit, contribute
greatly to increase my indolence. This makes my reading wild
and desultory; and I seek refuge from _the uneasiness of
thought_, from any book, let it be what it will. _By my manner
of writing upon subjects, you would naturally imagine they
afford me pleasure, and attach me thoroughly. I will assure
you_, No!"--Nichols's "Literary Anecdotes," vol. v. p. 562.
Warburton had not the cares of a family--they were merely
literary ones. The secret cause of his "melancholy," and his
"indolence," and that "want of attachment and pleasure to his
subjects;" which his friends "naturally imagined" afforded him
so much, was the controversies he had kindled, and the
polemical battles he had raised about him. However boldly he
attacked in return, his heart often sickened in privacy; for
how often must he have beheld his noble and his whimsical
edifices built on sands, which the waters were perpetually
eating into!
At the last interview of Warburton with Pope, the dying poet
exhorted him to proceed with "The Divine Legation." "Your
reputation," said he, "as well as your duty, is concerned in
it. People say you can get no farther in your proof. Nay, Lord
Bolingbroke himself bids me expect no such thing." This
anecdote is rather extraordinary; for it appears in "Owen
Ruffhead's Life of Pope," p. 497, a work written under the eye
of Warburton himself; and in which I think I could point out
some strong touches from his own hand on certain important
occasions, when he would not trust to the creeping dulness of
Ruffhead.
[163] His temerity had raised against him not only infidels, but
Christians. If any pious clergyman now wrote in favour of the
opinion that God's people believed in the immortality of the
soul--which can we doubt they did? and which Menasseh Ben
Israel has written his treatise, "De Resurrectione Mortuorum,"
to prove--it was a strange sight to behold a bishop seeming to
deny so rational and religious a creed! Even Dr. Balguy
confessed to Warburton, that "there was one thing in the
argument of the 'Divine Legation' that stuck more with candid
men than all the rest--how a religion without a future state
could be worthy of God!" This Warburton promised to satisfy,
by a fresh appendix. His volatile genius, however, was
condemned to "the pelting of a merciless storm." Lowth told
him--"You give yourself out as _demonstrator_ of the _divine
legation_ of Moses; it has been often demonstrated before; a
young student in theology might undertake to give a
better--that is, a more satisfactory and irrefragable
demonstration of it in five pages than you have done in five
volumes."--Lowth's "Letter to Warburton," p. 12.
[164] Hurd was the son of a Staffordshire farmer, and was placed by
him at Rugely, from whence he was removed to Emmanuel College,
Cambridge. At the age of twenty-six he published a pamphlet
entitled "Remarks on a late Book entitled 'An Inquiry into the
Rejection of the Christian Miracles by the Heathens, by
William Weston,'" which met with considerable attention. In
1749, on the occasion of publishing a commentary on Horace's
"Ars Poetica," he complimented Warburton so strongly as to
ensure his favour. Warburton returned it by a puff for Hurd in
his edition of Pope, and the two became fast friends. It was a
profitable connexion to Hurd, for by the intercession of
Warburton he was appointed one of the Whitehall preachers, a
preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and Archdeacon of Gloucester. He
repaid Warburton by constant praises in print, and so far
succeeded with that vain man, that when he read the dedication
he made to him of his "Commentary on the Epistle to Augustus,"
he wrote to him with mock humility--"I will confess to you how
much satisfaction the groundless part of it, that which
relates to myself, gave me." When Dr. Jortin very properly
spoke of Warburton with less of subserviency than the
overbearing bishop desired, Hurd at once came forward to fight
for Warburton in print, in a satirical treatise on "The
Delicacy of Friendship," which highly delighted his patron,
who at once wrote to Dr. Lowth, stating him to be "a man of
very superior talents, of genius, learning, and virtue;
indeed, a principal ornament of the age he lives in." Hurd was
made Bishop of Lichfield in 1775, and of Winchester in 1779.
He died in the year 1808.--ED.
[165] The Attic irony was translated into plain English, in "Remarks
on Dr. Warburton's Account of the Sentiments of the Early
Jews," 1757; and the following rules for all who dissented
from Warburton are deduced:--"You must not write on the same
subject that he does. You must not glance at his arguments,
even without naming him or so much as referring to him. If you
find his reasonings ever so faulty, you must not presume to
furnish him with better of your own, even though you prove,
and are desirous to support his conclusions. When you design
him a compliment, you must express it in full form, and with
all the circumstance of panegyrical approbation, without
impertinently qualifying your civilities by assigning a reason
why you think he deserves them, as this might possibly be
taken for a hint that you know something of the matter he is
writing about as well as himself. You must never call any of
his _discoveries_ by the name of _conjectures_, though you
allow them their full proportion of elegance, learning, &c.;
for you ought to know that this capital genius never proposed
anything to the judgment of the public (though ever so new and
uncommon) with diffidence in his life. Thus stands the decree
prescribing our demeanour towards this sovereign in the
Republic of Letters, as we find it promulged, and bearing date
at the palace of Lincoln's Inn, Nov. 25, 1755."--From whence
Hurd's "Seventh Dissertation" was dated.
[166] Gibbon's "Critical Observations on the Design of the Sixth Book
of the Æneid." Dr. Parr considers this clear, elegant, and
decisive work of criticism, as a complete refutation of
Warburton's discovery.
[167] It is curious enough to observe that Warburton himself,
acknowledging this to be a paradox, exultingly exclaims,
"Which, _like so many others_ I have had the ODD FORTUNE to
advance, will be seen to be only another name for Truth." This
has all the levity of a sophist's language! Hence we must
infer that some of the most important subjects could not be
understood and defended, but by Warburton's "_odd fortune_!"
It was this levity of ideas that raised a suspicion that he
was not always sincere. He writes, in a letter, of "living in
mere spite, to rub another volume of the 'Divine Legation' in
the noses of bigots and zealots." He employs the most
ludicrous images, and the coarsest phrases, on the most solemn
subjects. In one of his most unlucky paradoxes with Lowth, on
the age and style of the writings of Job, he accuses that
elegant scholar of deficient discernment; and, in respect to
style, as not "distinguishing partridge from horseflesh;" and
in quoting some of the poetical passages, of "paying with an
old song," and "giving rhyme for reason." Alluding to some one
of his adversaries, whom he calls "the weakest, as well as the
wickedest of all mankind," he employs a striking image--"I
shall hang him and his fellows, as they do vermin in a warren,
and leave them to posterity, to stink and blacken in the
wind."
[168] Warburton, in this work (the "Doctrine of Grace,") has a curious
passage, too long to quote, where he observes, that "The
Indian and Asiatic eloquence was esteemed hyperbolic and
puerile by the more phlegmatic inhabitants of Rome and Athens:
and the Western eloquence, in its turn, frigid or insipid, to
the hardy and inflamed imaginations of the East. The same
expression, which in one place had the utmost simplicity, had
in another the utmost sublime." The jackal, too, echoes the
roar of the lion; for the polished Hurd, whose taste was far
more decided than Warburton's, was bold enough to add, in his
Letter to Leland, "That which is thought supremely _elegant_
in one country, passes in another for _finical_; while what in
this country is accepted under the idea of _sublimity_, is
derided in that other as no better than _bombast_." So
unsettled were the _no-taste_ of Warburton, and the
_prim-taste_ of Hurd!
[169] The Letter to Leland is characterised in the "Critical Review"
for April, 1765, as the work of "a preferment-hunting
toad-eater, who, while his patron happened to go out of his
depth, tells him that he is treading good ground; but at the
same time offers him the use of a cork-jacket to keep him
above water."
[170] Dr. Thomas Leland was born in Dublin in 1722, and was educated
in Trinity College, in that city. Having obtained a Fellowship
there, he depended on that alone, and devoted a long life to
study, and the production of various historical and
theological works; as well as a "History of Ireland,"
published in 1773. He died in 1785.--ED.
[171] In a rough attack on Warburton, respecting Pope's privately
printing 1500 copies of the "Patriot King" of Bolingbroke,
which I conceive to have been written by Mallet, I find a
particular account of the manner in which the "Essay on Man"
was written, over which Johnson seems to throw great doubts.
The writer of this angry epistle, in addressing Warburton,
says: "If you were as intimate with Mr. Pope as you pretend,
you must know the truth of a fact which several others, as
well as I, who never had the honour of a personal acquaintance
with Lord Bolingbroke or Mr. Pope, have heard. The fact was
related to me by a certain Senior Fellow of one of our
Universities, who was very intimate with Mr. Pope. He started
some objections, one day, at Mr. Pope's house, to the doctrine
contained in the Ethic Epistles: upon which Mr. Pope told him
that he would soon convince him of the truth of it, by laying
the argument at large before him; for which purpose he gave
him _a large prose manuscript_ to peruse, telling him, at the
same time, the author's name. From this perusal, whatever
other conviction the doctor might receive, he collected at
least this: that Mr. Pope had from his friend not only the
_doctrine_, but even the _finest and strongest ornaments of
his Ethics_. Now, if this fact be true (as I question not but
you know it to be so), I believe no man of candour will
attribute such merit to Mr. Pope as you would insinuate, for
acknowledging the wisdom and the friendship of the man who was
his instructor in philosophy; nor consequently that this
acknowledgment, and the _dedication of his own system, put
into a poetical dress by Mr. Pope_, laid his lordship under
the necessity of never resenting any injury done to him by the
poet afterwards. Mr. Pope told no more than literal truth, in
calling Lord Bolingbroke his _guide, philosopher, and
friend_." The existence of this very manuscript volume was
authenticated by Lord Bathurst, in a conversation with Dr.
Blair and others, where he said, "he had read the MS. in Lord
Bolingbroke's handwriting, and was at a loss whether most to
admire the elegance of Lord Bolingbroke's prose, or the beauty
of Mr. Pope's verse."--See the letter of Dr. Blair in
"Boswell's Life of Johnson."
[172] Of many instances, the following one is the most curious. When
Jarvis published his "Don Quixote," Warburton, who was prompt
on whatever subject was started, presented him with "A
Dissertation on the Origin of the Books of Chivalry." When it
appeared, it threw Pope, their common friend, into raptures.
He writes, "I knew you as certainly as the ancients did the
gods, by the first pace and the very gait." True enough!
Warburton's strong genius stamped itself on all his works. But
neither the translating painter, nor the simple poet, could
imagine the heap of absurdities they were admiring! Whatever
Warburton here asserted was false, and whatever he conjectured
was erroneous; but his blunders were quite original.--The good
sense and knowledge of Tyrwhitt have demolished the whole
edifice, without leaving a single brick standing. The absurd
rhapsody has been worth preserving, for the sake of the
masterly confutation: no uncommon result of Warburton's
literary labours!
It forms the concluding note in Shakspeare's _Love's Labour
Lost_.
[173] Of THEOBALD he was once the companion, and to Sir THOMAS HANMER
he offered his notes for his edition. [Hanmer's Shakspeare was
given in 1742 to the University of Oxford, for its benefit,
and was printed at the University Press, under the management
of Dr. Smith and Dr. Shippon. Sir Thomas paid the expenses of
the engravings by Gravelot prefixed to each play. The edition
was published in 4to. in 1744, it was printed on the "finest
royal paper," and does not warrant the severity of Pope, whose
editing was equally faulty.] Sir Thomas says he found
Warburton's notes "sometimes just, but mostly wild and out of
the way." Warburton paid a visit to Sir Thomas for a week,
which he conceived was to assist him in perfecting his darling
text; but hints were now dropped by Warburton, that _he_ might
publish the work corrected, by which a greater sum of money
might be got than could be by that plaything of Sir Thomas,
which shines in all its splendour in the Dunciad; but this
project did not suit Hanmer, whose life seemed greatly to
depend on the magnificent Oxford edition, which "was not to go
into the hands of booksellers." On this, Warburton, we are
told by Hanmer, "flew into a great rage, and there is an end
of the story." With what haughtiness he treats these two
friends, for once they were such! Had the Dey of Algiers been
the editor of Shakspeare, he could not have issued his orders
more peremptorily for the decapitation of his rivals. Of
Theobald and Hanmer he says, "the one was recommended to me as
a poor man, the other as a poor critic: and to each of them at
different times I communicated a great number of observations,
which they managed, as they saw fit, to the relief of their
several distresses. Mr. Theobald was naturally turned to
industry and labour. What he read he could transcribe; but as
to what he thought, if ever he did think, he could but ill
express, so he read on: and by that means got a character of
learning, without risking to every observer the imputation of
wanting a better talent."--See what it is to enjoy too close
an intimacy with a man of wit! "As for the Oxford Editor, he
wanted nothing (alluding to Theobald's want of money) but what
he might very well be without, the reputation of a critic,"
&c. &c.--_Warburton's Preface to Shakspeare._
His conduct to Dr. GREY, the editor of Hudibras, cannot be
accounted for by any known fact. I have already noticed their
quarrels in the "Calamities of Authors." Warburton cheerfully
supplied Grey with various notes on Hudibras, though he said
he had thought of an edition himself, and they were gratefully
acknowledged in Grey's Preface; but behold! shortly afterwards
they are saluted by Warburton as "an execrable heap of
nonsense;" further, he insulted Dr. Grey for the _number_ of
his publications! Poor Dr. Grey and his "Coadjutors," as
Warburton sneeringly called others of his friends, resented
this by "A Free and Familiar Letter to that Great Preserver of
Pope and Shakspeare, the Rev. Mr. William Warburton." The
doctor insisted that Warburton had had sufficient share in
those very notes to be considered as one of the "Coadjutors."
"I may venture to say, that whoever was the _fool of the
company_ before he entered (or _the fool of the piece_, in his
own diction) he was certainly so after he engaged in that
work; for, as Ben Jonson observes, 'he that _thinks_ himself
the _Master-Wit_ is commonly the _Master-Fool_.'"
[174] Warburton certainly used little intrigues: he trafficked with
the obscure Reviews of the times. He was a correspondent in
"The Works of the Learned," where the account of his first
volume of the Divine Legation, he says, is "a nonsensical
piece of stuff;" and when Dr. Doddridge offered to draw up
an article for his second, the favour was accepted, and it
was sent to the miserable journal, though acknowledged "to be
too good for it." In the same journal were published all
his specimens of Shakspeare, some years after they had
appeared in the "General Dictionary," with a high character of
these wonderful discoveries.--"The Alliance," when first
published, was announced in "The Present State of the
Republic of Letters," to be the work of a gentleman whose
capacity, judgment, and learning deserve some eminent dignity
in the Church of England, of which he is "now an inferior
minister."--One may presume to guess at "the gentleman," a
little impatient for promotion, who so much cared whether
Warburton was only "now an inferior minister."
These are little arts. Another was, that Warburton sometimes
acted Falstaff's part, and ran his sword through the dead! In
more instances than one this occurred. Sir Thomas Hanmer was
dead when Warburton, then a bishop, ventured to assert that
Sir Thomas's letter concerning their intercourse about
Shakspeare was "one continued falsehood from beginning to
end." The honour and veracity of Hanmer must prevail over the
"liveliness" of Warburton, for Hurd lauds his "_lively_
preface to his Shakspeare." But the "Biographia Britannica"
bears marks of Warburton's violence, in a cancelled sheet. See
the _Index_, art. HANMER; [where we are told "the sheet being
castrated at the instance of Mr., now Dr. Warburton, Bishop of
Gloucester, it has been reprinted as an appendix to the work,"
it consisted in the suppression of one of Hanmer's letters.]
He did not choose to attack Dr. Middleton in form, during his
lifetime, but reserved his blow when his antagonist was no
more. I find in Cole's MSS. this curious passage:--"It was
thought, at Cambridge, that Dr. Middleton and Dr. Warburton
did not cordially esteem one another; yet both being keen and
thorough sportsmen, they were mutually afraid to engage to
each other, for fear of a fall. If that was the case, the
bishop judged prudently, however fairly it may be looked upon,
to stay till it was out of the power of his adversary to make
any reply, before he gave his answer." Warburton only replied
to Middleton's "Letter from Rome," in his fourth edition of
the "Divine Legation," 1765.--When Dyson firmly defended his
friend Akenside from the rude attacks of Warburton, it is
observed, that he bore them with "prudent patience:" he never
replied!
[175] These critical _extravaganzas_ are scarcely to be paralleled by
"Bentley's Notes on Milton." How Warburton turned "an
allegorical mermaid" into "the Queen of Scots;"--showed how
Shakspeare, in one word, and with one epithet "the majestic
world," described the _Orbis Romanus_, alluded to the Olympic
Games, &c.; yet, after all this discovery, seems rather to
allude to a story about Alexander, which Warburton happened to
recollect at that moment;--and how he illustrated Octavia's
idea of the fatal consequences of a civil war between Cæsar
and Antony, who said it would "cleave the world," by the story
of Curtius leaping into the chasm;--how he rejected
"_allowed_, with absolute power," as not English, and read
"_hallowed_," on the authority of the Roman Tribuneship being
called _Sacro-sancta Potestas_; how his emendations often rose
from puns; as for instance, when, in _Romeo and Juliet_, it is
said of the Friar, that "the city is much obliged to _him_,"
our new critic consents to the sound of the word, but not to
the spelling, and reads _hymn_; that is, to laud, to praise!
These, and more extraordinary instances of perverting
ingenuity and abused erudition, would form an uncommon
specimen of criticism, which may be justly ridiculed, but
which none, except an exuberant genius, could have produced.
The most amusing work possible would be a real Warburton's
Shakspeare, which would contain not a single thought, and
scarcely an expression, of Shakspeare's!
[176] Had Johnson known as much as we do of Warburton's opinion of his
critical powers, it would have gone far to have cured his
amiable prejudice in favour of Warburton, who really was a
critic without taste, and who considered literature as some do
politics, merely as a party business. I shall give a
remarkable instance. When Johnson published his first critical
attempt on _Macbeth_, he commended the critical talents of
Warburton; and Warburton returned the compliment in the
preface to his Shakspeare, and distinguishes Johnson as "a man
of parts and genius." But, unluckily, Johnson afterwards
published his own edition; and, in his editorial capacity, his
public duty prevailed over his personal feelings: all this
went against Warburton; and the opinions he now formed of
Johnson were suddenly those of insolent contempt. In a letter
to Hurd, he writes: "Of _this Johnson_, you and I, I believe,
think alike!" And to another friend: "The remarks he makes, in
every page, on _my Commentaries_, are full of _insolence and
malignant reflections_, which, had they not in them _as much
folly as malignity_, I should have reason to be offended
with." He consoles himself, however, that Johnson's notes,
accompanying his own, will enable even "the trifling part of
the public" not to mistake in the comparison.--NICHOLS'S
"Literary Anecdotes," vol. v. p. 595.
And what became of Johnson's noble Preface to Shakspeare? Not
a word on that!--Warburton, who himself had written so many
spirited ones, perhaps did not like to read one finer than his
own,--so he passed it by! He travelled through Egypt, but held
his hands before his eyes at a pyramid!
[177] Thomas Edwards chiefly led the life of a literary student,
though he studied for the Bar at Lincoln's-Inn, and was
fully admitted a member thereof. He died unmarried at the age
of 58. He descended from a family of lawyers; possessed a
sufficient private property to ensure independence, and
died on his own estate of Turrick, in Buckinghamshire. Dr.
Warton observes, "This attack on Mr. Edwards is not of weight
sufficient to weaken the effects of his excellent 'Canons of
Criticism,' all impartial critics allow these remarks to have
been decisive and judicious, and his book remains unrefuted
and unanswerable."--ED.
[178] Some grave dull men, who did not relish the jests, doubtless the
booksellers, who, to buy the _name of Warburton_, had paid
down 500_l._ for the edition, loudly complained that Edwards
had injured both him and them, by stopping the sale! On this
Edwards expresses his surprise, how "a little twelvepenny
pamphlet could stop the progress of eight large octavo
volumes;" and apologises, by applying a humorous story to
Warburton, for "puffing himself off in the world for what he
is not, and now being discovered."--"I am just in the case of
a friend of mine, who, going to visit an acquaintance, upon
entering his room, met a person going out of it:--'Prythee,
Jack,' says he, 'what do you do with that fellow?' 'Why, 'tis
Don Pedro di Mondongo, my Spanish master.'--'Spanish master!'
replies my friend; 'why, he's an errant Teague; I know the
fellow well enough: 'tis Rory Gehagan. He may possibly have
been in Spain; but, depend on't, he will sell you the
Tipperary brogue for pure Castilian.' Now honest Rory has just
the same reason of complaint against this gentleman as Mr.
Warburton has against me, and I suppose abused him as heartily
for it; but nevertheless the gentleman did both parties
justice."
Some secret history is attached to this publication, so fatal
to Warburton's critical character in English literature. This
satire, like too many which have sprung out of literary
quarrels, arose from _personal motives_! When Edwards, in
early life, after quitting college, entered the army, he was
on a visit at Mr. Allen's, at Bath, whose niece Warburton
afterwards married. Literary subjects formed the usual
conversation. Warburton, not suspecting the red coat of
covering any Greek, showed his accustomed dogmatical
superiority. Once, when the controversy was running high,
Edwards taking down a Greek author, explained a passage in a
manner quite contrary to Warburton. He did unluckily something
more--he showed that Warburton's mistake had arisen from
having used a French translation!--and all this before Ralph
Allen and his niece! The doughty critic was at once silenced,
in sullen indignation and mortal hatred. To this circumstance
is attributed Edwards's "Canons of Criticism," which were
followed up by Warburton with incessant attacks; in every new
edition of Pope, in the "Essay on Criticism," and the Dunciad.
Warburton asserts that Edwards is a very dull writer (witness
the pleasantry that carries one through a volume of no small
size), that he is a libeller (because he ruined the critical
character of Warburton)--and "a libeller (says Warburton, with
poignancy), is nothing but a Grub-street critic run to
seed."--He compares Edwards's wit and learning to his ancestor
Tom Thimble's, in the _Rehearsal_ (because Edwards read Greek
authors in their original), and his air of good-nature and
politeness, to Caliban's in the _Tempest_ (because he had so
keenly written the "Canons of Criticism").--I once saw a great
literary curiosity: some _proof-sheets_ of the Dunciad of
Warburton's edition. I observed that some of the bitterest
notes were _after-thoughts_, written on those proof-sheets
after he had prepared the book for the press--one of these
additions was his note on Edwards. Thus Pope's book afforded
renewed opportunities for all the personal hostilities of this
singular genius!
[179] In the "Richardsoniana," p. 264, the younger Richardson, who was
admitted to the intimacy of Pope, and collated the press for
him, gives some curious information about Warburton's
Commentary, both upon the "Essay on Man" and the "Essay on
Criticism." "Warburton's discovery of the 'regularity' of
Pope's 'Essay on Criticism,' and 'the whole scheme' of his
'Essay on Man,' I happen to _know_ to be mere absurd
refinement in creating conformities; and this from Pope
himself, though he thought fit to adopt them afterwards." The
genius of Warburton might not have found an invincible
difficulty in proving that the "Essay on Criticism" was in
fact an Essay on Man, and the reverse. Pope, before he knew
Warburton, always spoke of his "Essay on Criticism" as "an
irregular collection of thoughts thrown together as Horace's
'Art of Poetry' was." "As for the 'Essay on Man,'" says
Richardson, "I _know_ that he never dreamed of the scheme he
afterwards adopted; but he had taken terror about the clergy,
and Warburton himself, at the general alarm of its fatalism
and deistical tendency, of which my father and I talked with
him frequently at Twickenham, without his appearing to
understand it, or ever thinking to alter those passages which
we suggested."--This extract is to be valued, for the
information is authentic; and it assists us in throwing some
light on the subtilty of Warburton's critical impositions.
[180] The postscript to Warburton's "Dedication to the Freethinkers,"
is entirely devoted to Akenside; with this bitter opening,
"The Poet was too full of the subject and of himself."
[181] "An Epistle to the Rev. Mr. Warburton, occasioned by his
Treatment of the Author of 'The Pleasures of the Imagination,'"
1744. While Dyson repels Warburton's accusations against "the
Poet," he retorts some against the critic himself. Warburton
often perplexed a controversy by a subtile change of a word;
or by breaking up a sentence; or by contriving some absurdity in
the shape of an inference, to get rid of it in a mock
triumph. These little weapons against the laws of war are
insidiously practised in the war of words. Warburton never
replied.
[182] The paradoxical title of his great work was evidently designed
to attract the unwary. "The Divine Legation of Moses
demonstrated--_from the omission of a future state_!" It
was long uncertain whether it was "a covert attack on
Christianity, instead of a defence of it." I have here no
concern with Warburton's character as a polemical theologist;
this has been the business of that polished and elegant
scholar, Bishop Lowth, who has shown what it is to be in
Hebrew literature "a Quack in Commentatorship, and a
Mountebank in Criticism." He has fully entered into all the
absurdity of Warburton's "ill-starred Dissertation on Job."
It is curious to observe that Warburton in the wild chase of
originality, often too boldly took the bull by the horns,
for he often adopted the very reasonings and objections of
infidels!--for instance, in arguing on the truth of the
Hebrew text, because the words had no points when a living
language, he absolutely prefers the Koran for correctness! On
this Lowth observes: "You have been urging the same
argument that _Spinoza_ employed, in order to destroy the
authority of the Hebrew Scriptures, and to introduce
infidelity and atheism." Lowth shows further, that "this was
also done by 'a society of gentlemen,' in their 'Sacerdotism
Displayed,' said to be written by 'a select committee of the
Deists and Freethinkers of Great Britain,' whose author
Warburton himself had represented to be 'the forwardest
devil of the whole legion.'" Lowth, however, concludes that
all the mischief has arisen only from "your lordship's
undertaking to treat of a subject with which you appear to
be very much unacquainted."--LOWTH'S _Letter_, p. 91.
[183] Lowth remonstrated with Warburton on his "supreme
authority:"--"I did not care to protest against the
authoritative manner in which you proceeded, or to question
_your investiture in the high office of Inquisitor General and
Supreme Judge of the Opinions of the Learned_, which you had
long before assumed, and had _exercised with a ferocity and a
despotism without example in the Republic of Letters, and
hardly to be paralleled among the disciples of Dominic_;
exacting their opinions to the standard of your infallibility,
and prosecuting with implacable hatred every one that presumed
to differ from you."--LOWTH'S _Letter to W._, p. 9.
[184] Warburton had the most cutting way of designating his
adversaries, either by the most vehement abuse or the light
petulance that expressed his ineffable contempt. He says to
one, "Though your teeth are short, what you want in teeth you
have in venom, and know, as all other creatures do, where your
strength lies." He thus announces in one of the prefaces to
the "Divine Legation" the name of the author of a work on "A
Future State of Rewards and Punishments," in which were some
objections to Warburton's theory:--"I shall, therefore, but do
what indeed would be justly reckoned the cruellest of all
things, _tell my reader the name of this miserable_; which we
find to be J. TILLARD." "Mr. Tillard was first condemned (says
the author of 'Confusion Worse Confounded,') as a ruffian that
stabs a man in the dark, because he did _not_ put his name to
his book against the 'Divine Legation;' and afterwards
condemned as lost to shame, both as a man and a writer,
because he _did_ put his name to it." Would not one imagine
this person to be one of the lowest of miscreants? He was a
man of fortune and literature. Of this person Warburton says
in a letter, "This is a man of fortune, and it is well he is
so, for I have spoiled his trade as a writer; and as he was
very abusive, free-thinking, and anonymous, I have not spared
to expose his ignorance and ill faith." But afterwards, having
discovered that he was a particular friend to Dr. Oliver, he
makes awkward apologies, and declares he would not have _gone
so far_ had he known this! He was often so vehement in his
abuse that I find he confessed it himself, for, in preparing a
new edition of the "Divine Legation," he tells Dr. Birch that
he has made "several omissions of passages which were thought
_vain_, _insolent_, and _ill-natured_."
It is amusing enough to observe how he designates men as great
as himself. When he mentions the learned Hyde, he places him
"at the head of a rabble of lying orientalists." When he
alludes to Peters, a very learned and ingenious clergyman, he
passes by him as "The Cornish Critic." A friend of Peters
observed that "he had given Warburton 'a Cornish hug,' of
which he might be sore as long as he lived." Dr. Taylor, the
learned editor of Demosthenes, he selects from "his fellows,"
that is, other dunces: a delicacy of expression which offended
scholars. He threatens Dr. Stebbing, who had preserved an
anonymous character, "to catch this Eel of Controversy, since
he hides his head by the tail, the only part that sticks out
of the mud, more dirty indeed than slippery, and still more
weak than dirty, as passing through a trap where he was forced
at every step to leave part of his skin--that is, his system."
Warburton has often true wit. With what provoking contempt he
calls Sir Thomas Hanmer always "The Oxford Editor!" and in his
attack on Akenside, never fails to nickname him, in derision,
"The Poet!" I refer the reader to a postscript of his
"Dedication to the Freethinkers," for a curious specimen of
supercilious causticity in his description of Lord Kaimes as a
critic, and Akenside as "The Poet!" Of this pair he tells us,
in bitter derision, "they are both men of taste." Hurd
imitated his master successfully, by using some qualifying
epithet, or giving an adversary some odd nickname, or
discreetly dispensing a little mortifying praise. The
antagonists he encounters were men sometimes his superiors,
and these he calls "sizeable men." Some are styled "insect
blasphemers!" The learned Lardner is reduced to "the laborious
Dr. Lardner;" and "Hume's History" is treated with the
discreet praise of being "the most readable history we have."
He carefully hints to Leland that "he had never read his
works, nor looked into his translations; but what he has
_heard_ of his writings makes him think favourably of him."
Thus he teases the rhetorical professor by mentioning the
"elegant translation which, _they say_, you have made of
Demosthenes!" And he understands that he is "a scholar, who,
_they say_, employs himself in works of learning and taste."
Lowth seems to have discovered this secret art of Warburton;
for he says, "You have a set of names always at hand, a kind
of infamous list, or black calendar, where every offender is
sure to find a niche ready to receive him; nothing so easy as
the application, and slight provocation is sufficient."
[185] Sometimes Warburton left his battles to be fought by subaltern
genius; a circumstance to which Lowth, with keen pleasantry,
thus alludes:--"Indeed, my lord, I was afterwards much
surprised, when, having been with great civility dismissed
from your presence, I found _your footman at your door, armed
with his master's cane, and falling upon me without mercy_,
yourself looking on and approving, and having probably put the
weapon with proper orders into his hands. You think, it seems,
that I ought to have taken my beating quietly and patiently,
in respect to the livery which he wore. I was not of so tame a
disposition: I wrested the weapon from him, and broke it. Your
lordship, it seems, by an oblique blow, got an unlucky rap on
the knuckles; though you may thank yourself for it, you lay
the blame on me."--LOWTH'S _Letter to W._, p. 11.
Warburton and Hurd frequently concerted together on the manner
of attack and defence. In one of these letters of Hurd's it is
very amusing to read--"Taylor is a more creditable dunce than
Webster. What do you think to do with the Appendix against
Tillard and Sykes? Why might not Taylor rank with them," &c.
The Warburtonians had also a system of _espionage_. When Dr.
Taylor was accused by one of them of having _said_ that
Warburton was no scholar, the learned Grecian replied that he
did not recollect ever _saying_ that Dr. Warburton was no
scholar, but that indeed he had always _thought_ so. Hence a
tremendous quarrel! Hurd, the Mercury of our Jupiter, cast the
first light shaft against the doctor, then Chancellor of
Lincoln, by alluding to the Preface of his work on Civil Law
as "_a certain thing_ prefatory to a learned work, intituled
'The Elements of Civil Law:'" but at length Jove himself
rolled his thunder on the hapless chancellor. The doctor had
said in his work, that "the Roman emperors persecuted the
first Christians, not so much from a dislike of their tenets
as from a jealousy of their nocturnal assemblies." Warburton's
doctrine was, that "they held nocturnal assemblies because of
the persecution of their enemies." One was the fact, and the
other the consequence. But the Chancellor of Lincoln was to be
outrageously degraded among the dunces! that was the real
motive; the "nocturnal assemblies" only the ostensible one. A
pamphleteer, in defence of the chancellor, in reply, thought
that in "this literary persecution" it might be dangerous "if
Dr. Taylor should be provoked to _prove in print_ what he only
_dropped in conversation_." How innocent was this gentleman of
the arts and stratagems of logomachy, or book-wars! The
_proof_ would not have altered the cause: Hurd would have
disputed it tooth and nail; Warburton was running greater
risks, every day of his life, than any he was likely to
receive from this flourish in the air. The great purpose was
to make the Chancellor of Lincoln the butt of his sarcastic
pleasantry; and this object was secured by Warburton's forty
pages of preface, in which the chancellor stands to be
buffeted like an ancient quintain, "a mere lifeless block."
All this came upon him for only _thinking_ that Warburton was
no _scholar_!
[186] See what I have said at the close of the note, pp. 262-3. In a
collection entitled "Verses occasioned by Mr. Warburton's late
Edition of Mr. Pope's Works," 1751, are numerous epigrams,
parodies, and similes on it. I give one:--
"As on the margin of Thames' silver flood
Stand little _necessary_ piles of wood,
So Pope's fair page appears with _notes_ disgraced:
Put down the nuisances, ye men of taste!"
Lowth has noticed the use Warburton made of his patent for
vending Pope. "I thought you might possibly whip me at the
cart's-tail in a note to the 'Divine Legation,' the ordinary
place of your literary executions; or _pillory me in the
Dunciad_, another engine which, as legal proprietor, you have
very ingeniously and judiciously applied to the same purpose;
or, perhaps, have ordered me a kind of Bridewell correction,
by one of your beadles, in a pamphlet."--LOWTH'S _"Letter to
Warburton,"_ p. 4.
Warburton carried the licentiousness of the pen in all these
notes to the _Dunciad_ to a height which can only be
paralleled in the gross logomachies of Schioppius, Gronovius,
and Scaliger, and the rest of that snarling crew. But his wit
exceeded even his grossness. He was accused of not sparing--
"Round-house wit and Wapping choler."
[Verses occasioned by Mr. W.'s late Edition of Pope.]
And one of his most furious assailants thus salutes
him:--"Whether you are a wrangling Wapping attorney, a
pedantic pretender to criticism, an impudent paradoxical
priest, or an animal yet stranger, an heterogeneous medley of
all three, as your farraginous style seems to confess."--An
Epistle to the Author of a Libel entitled "A Letter to the
Editor of Bolingbroke's Works," &c.--See NICHOLS, vol. v. p.
651.
I have ascertained that Mallet was the author of this
furious epistle. He would not acknowledge what he dared
not deny. Warburton treated Mallet, in this instance, as
he often did his superiors--he never replied! The silence
seems to have stung this irascible and evil spirit: he
returned again to the charge, with another poisoned
weapon. His rage produced "A _Familiar_ Epistle to the Most
Impudent Man Living," 1749. The style of this second
letter has been characterised as "bad enough to disgrace
even gaols and garrets." Its virulence could not well
exceed its predecessor. The oddness of its title has made
this worthless thing often inquired after. It is merely
personal. It is curious to observe Mallet, in this pamphlet,
treat Pope as an object of pity, and call him "this poor man."
[David Mallet was the son of an innkeeper, who, by means of
the party he wrote for, obtained lucrative appointments
under Government, and died rich. He was unscrupulous in his
career, and ready as a writer to do the most unworthy
things. The death of Admiral Byng was hastened by the
unscrupulous denunciations of Mallet, who was pensioned in
consequence.] Orator Henley took some pains, on the first
appearance of this catching title, to assure his friends
that it did not refer to _him_. The title proved contagious;
which shows the abuse of Warburton was very agreeable. Dr.
Z. Grey, under the title of "A Country Curate," published
"A Free and _Familiar_ Letter to the Great Refiner of Pope and
Shakspeare," 1750; and in 1753, young Cibber tried also at
"A _Familiar_ Epistle to Mr. William Warburton, from Mr.
Theophilus Cibber," prefixed to the "Life of Barton Booth."
Dr. Z. Grey's "freedom and _familiarity_" are designed to
show Warburton that he has no wit; but unluckily, the doctor
having none himself, his arguments against Warburton's are not
decisive. "The _familiarity_" of Mallet is that of a
scoundrel, and the _younger_ Cibber's that of an idiot: the
genius of Warburton was secure. Mallet overcharged his gun
with the fellest intentions, but found his piece, in
bursting, annihilated himself. The popgun of the _little_
Theophilus could never have been heard!
[Warburton never lost a chance of giving a strong opinion
against Mallet; and Dr. Johnson says, "When Mallet undertook
to write the 'Life of Marlborough,' Warburton remarked that he
might perhaps forget that Marlborough was a general, as he had
forgotten that Bacon was a philosopher."]
But Warburton's rage was only a part of his _secret
principle_; for can anything be more witty than his attack on
poor COOPER, the author of "The Life of Socrates?" Having
called his book "a late worthless and now forgotten thing,
called 'The Life of Socrates,'" he adds, "where the head of
the author has just made a shift to do the office of a _camera
obscura_, and represent things in an inverted order, himself
_above_, and Rollin, Voltaire, and every other author of
reputation, _below_." When Cooper complained of this, and of
some severer language, to Warburton, through a friend,
Warburton replied that Cooper had attacked him, and that he
had only taken his revenge "with a slight joke." Cooper was
weak and vain enough to print a pamphlet, to prove that this
was a serious accusation, and no joke; and if it was a joke,
he shows it was not a correct one. In fact, Cooper could never
comprehend how his head was like a _camera obscura_! Cooper
was of the Shaftesburian school--philosophers who pride
themselves on "the harmony" of their passions, but are too
often in discords at a slight disturbance. He equalled the
virulence of Warburton, but could not attain to the wit. "I
found," says Cooper, "previous to his pretended witticism
about the _camera obscura_, such miserable spawn of wretched
malice, as nothing but the inflamed brain of a rank monk could
conceive, or the oyster-selling maids near London Bridge could
utter." One would not suppose all this came from the school of
Plato, but rather from the tub of Diogenes. Something must be
allowed for poor Cooper, whose "Life of Socrates" had been so
positively asserted to be "a late worthless and forgotten
thing." It is curious enough to observe Cooper declaring,
after this sally, that Warburton "has very unfortunately used
the word _impudent_ (which epithet Warburton had applied to
him), as it naturally reminds every reader that the pamphlet
published about two years ago, addressed 'to the most impudent
man living,' was universally acknowledged to be dedicated to
our commentator." Warburton had always the _Dunciad_ in his
head when a new quarrel was rising, which produced an odd
blunder on the side of Edwards, and provoked that wit to be as
dull as Cooper. Warburton said, in one of his notes on
Edwards, who had entitled himself "a gentleman of Lincoln's
Inn,"--"This gentleman, as he is pleased to call himself, is
in reality a gentleman only of the _Dunciad_, or, to speak him
better, in the plain language of our honest ancestors to such
mushrooms, a _gentleman of the last edition_." Edwards
misunderstood the allusion, and sore at the personal attack
which followed, of his having "eluded the solicitude of his
careful father," considered himself "degraded of his
gentility," that it was "a reflection on his birth," and
threatened to apply to "Mr. Warburton's Masters of the Bench,
for degrading a 'barrister of their house.'" This afforded a
new triumph to Warburton, in a new note, where he explains his
meaning of these "mushrooms," whom he meant merely as literary
ones; and assures "Fungoso and his friends, who are all
gentlemen, that he meant no more than that Edwards had become
a gentleman _of the last edition of the Dunciad_!" Edwards and
his fungous friends had understood the phrase as applied to
new-fangled gentry. One of these wits, in the collection of
verses cited above, says to Warburton:--
"This mushroom has made sauce for you.
He's meat; thou'rt poison--plain enough--
If he's a _mushroom_, thou'rt a _puff_!"
Warburton had the full command over the _Dunciad_, even when
Pope was alive, for it was in consequence of Warburton's being
refused a degree at Oxford, that the poet, though one had been
offered to himself, produced the celebrated lines of "Apollo's
Mayor and Aldermen," in the fourth _Dunciad_. Thus it is that
the personal likes and dislikes of witty men come down to
posterity, and are often mistaken as just satire, when, after
all, they are nothing but LITERARY QUARRELS, seldom founded on
truth, and very often complete falsehoods!
[187] Dr. Thomas Balguy was the son of a learned father, at whose
rectory of Northallerton he was born; he was appointed
Archdeacon of Salisbury in 1759, and afterwards Archdeacon of
Winchester. He died at the prebendal house of the latter city
in 1795, at the age of 74. His writings are few--chiefly on
church government and authority, which brought him into
antagonism with Dr. Priestley and others, who objected to the
high view he took of its position. With Hurd and Warburton he
was always intimate; his sermon on the consecration of the
former was one of the sources of adverse attack; the latter
notes his death as that of "an old and esteemed friend."--ED.
[188] Dr. Brown was patronised and "pitied" by Warburton for years. He
used him, but spoke of him disparagingly, as "a helpless
creature in the ways of the world." Nichols speaks of him as
an "elegant, ingenious, and unhappy author." His father was a
native of Scotland; his son was born at Rothbury, in
Northumberland, educated at Cambridge, made minor canon at
Carlisle, but resigned it in disgust, living in obscurity in
that city several years, till the Rebellion of 1745, when he
acted as a volunteer at the siege of the Castle, and behaved
with great intrepidity. His publication of an "Essay on
Satire," on the death of Pope, led to his acquaintance with
Warburton, who helped him to the rectory of Horksley, near
Colchester; but he quarrelled with his patron, as he
afterwards quarrelled with others. He then settled down to the
vicarage of St. Nicholas, Newcastle, but not for long, as an
educational scheme of the Empress of Russia offered him
inducements to leave England; but his health failed him before
he could carry out his intentions, irritability succeeded, and
his disappointments, real and imaginary, led him to commit
suicide in the fifty-first year of his age. He seems to have
been a continual trouble to Warburton, who often alludes to
his unsettled habits--and schooled him occasionally after his
own fashion. Thus he writes in 1777:--"Brown is here; I think
rather faster than ordinary, but no wiser. You cannot imagine
the tenderness they all have of his tender places, and with
how unfeeling a hand I probe them."--ED.
[189] Towne is so far "unknown to fame" that his career is unrecorded
by our biographers; he was content to work for, and under the
guidance of Warburton, as a literary drudge.--ED.
[190] Warburton, indeed, was always looking about for fresh recruits:
a circumstance which appears in the curious Memoirs of the
late Dr. Heathcote, written by himself. Heathcote, when young,
published anonymously a pamphlet in the Middletonian
controversy. By the desire of Warburton, the bookseller
transmitted his compliments to the anonymous author. "I was
greatly surprised," says Heathcote, "but soon after perceived
that Warburton's state of authorship being a state of war, _it
was his custom to be particularly attentive to all young
authors, in hopes of enlisting them into his service_.
Warburton was more than civil, when necessary, on these
occasions, and would procure such adventurers some slight
patronage."--NICHOLS'S "Literary Anecdotes," vol. v. p. 536.
[191] We are astonished at the boldness of the minor critic, when,
even after the fatal edition of Warburton's Shakspeare, he
should still venture, in the life of his great friend, to
assert that "this fine edition must ever be highly valued by
men of sense and taste; a spirit congenial to that of the
author breathing throughout!"
Is it possible that the man who wrote this should ever have
read the "Canons of Criticism?" Yet is it to be supposed that
he who took so lively an interest in the literary fortunes of
his friend should _not_ have read them? The Warburtonians
appear to have adopted one of the principles of the Jesuits in
their controversies, which was to repeat arguments which had
been confuted over and over again; to insinuate that they had
not been so! But this was not too much to risk by him who, in
his dedication of "Horace's Epistle to Augustus," with a
Commentary, had hardily and solemnly declared that "Warburton,
in his _enlarged view of things_, had not only revived the two
models of Aristotle and Longinus, but had rather struck out _a
new original plan of criticism_, which should unite the
virtues of each of them. This experiment was made on the two
greatest of our own poets--Shakspeare and Pope. Still (he
adds, addressing Warburton) _you went farther_, by joining to
those powers a perfect insight into human nature; and so
ennobling the exercise of literary by the justest moral
censure, _you have now, at length, advanced criticism to its
full glory_."
A perpetual intercourse of mutual adulation animated the
sovereign and his viceroy, and, by mutual support, each
obtained the same reward: two mitres crowned the greater and
the minor critic. This intercourse was humorously detected by
the lively author of "Confusion Worse Confounded."--"When the
late Duke of R.," says he, "kept wild beasts, it was a common
diversion to make two of his bears drunk (not metaphorically
with flattery, but literally with strong ale), and then daub
them over with honey. It was excellent sport to see how
lovingly (like a couple of critics) they would lick and claw
one another." It is almost amazing to observe how Hurd, who
naturally was of the most frigid temperament, and the most
subdued feelings, warmed, heated, and blazed in the
progressive stages "of that pageantry of praise spread over
the Rev. Mr. Warburton, when the latter was advancing fast
towards a bishoprick," to use the words of Dr. Parr, a
sagacious observer of man. However, notwithstanding the
despotic mandates of our Pichrocole and his dapper minister,
there were who did not fear to meet the greater bear of the
two so facetiously described above. And the author of
"Confusion Worse Confounded" tells a familiar story, which
will enliven the history of our great critic. "One of the
bears mentioned above happened to get loose, and was running
along the street in which a tinker was gravely walking. The
people all cried, 'Tinker! tinker! beware of the bear!' Upon
this Magnano faced about with great composure; and raising his
staff, knocked down Bruin, then setting his arms a-kimbo,
walked off very sedately; only saying, 'Let the bear beware of
the tinker,' which is now become a proverb in those
parts."--"Confusion Worse Confounded," p. 75.
POPE,
AND HIS MISCELLANEOUS QUARRELS.
POPE adopted a system of literary politics--collected with
extraordinary care everything relative to his Quarrels--no
politician ever studied to obtain his purposes by more oblique
directions and intricate stratagems--some of his manœuvres--his
systematic hostility not practised with impunity--his claim to his
own works contested--CIBBER'S facetious description of POPE'S
feelings, and WELSTED'S elegant satire on his genius--DENNIS'S
account of POPE'S Introduction to him--his political prudence
further discovered in the Collection of all the Pieces relative to
the _Dunciad_, in which he employed SAVAGE--the THEOBALDIANS and
the POPEIANS; an attack by a Theobaldian--The _Dunciad_
ingeniously defended, for the grossness of its imagery, and its
reproach of the poverty of the authors, supposed by POPE himself,
with some curious specimens of literary personalities--the
Literary Quarrel between AARON HILL and POPE distinguished for its
romantic cast--a Narrative of the extraordinary transactions
respecting the publication of POPE'S Letters; an example of
Stratagem and Conspiracy, illustrative of his character.
POPE has proudly perpetuated the history of his Literary Quarrels; and
he appears to have been among those authors, surely not forming the
majority, who have delighted in, or have not been averse to provoke,
hostility. He has registered the titles of every book, even to a
single paper, or a copy of verses, in which their authors had
committed treason against his poetical sovereignty.[192] His ambition
seemed gratified in heaping these trophies to his genius, while his
meaner passions could compile one of the most voluminous of the
scandalous chronicles of literature. We are mortified on discovering
so fine a genius in the text humbling itself through all the depravity
of a commentary full of spleen, and not without the fictions of
satire. The unhappy influence his _Literary Quarrels_ had on this
great poet's life remains to be traced. He adopted a system of
literary politics abounding with stratagems, conspiracies, manœuvres,
and factions.
Pope's literary quarrels were the wars of his poetical ambition, more
perhaps than of the petulance and strong irritability of his
character. They were some of the artifices he adopted from the
peculiarity of his situation.
Thrown out of the active classes of society from a variety of causes
sufficiently known,[193] concentrating his passions into a solitary
one, his retired life was passed in the contemplation of his own
literary greatness. Reviewing the past, and anticipating the future,
he felt he was creating a new era in our literature, an event which
does not always occur in a century: but eager to secure present
celebrity, with the victory obtained in the open field, he combined
the intrigues of the cabinet: thus, while he was exerting great means,
he practised little artifices. No politician studied to obtain his
purposes by more oblique directions, or with more intricate
stratagems; and Pope was at once the lion and the fox of Machiavel. A
book might be written on the Stratagems of Literature, as Frontinus
has composed one on War, and among its subtilest heroes we might place
this great poet.
To keep his name alive before the public was one of his early plans.
When he published his "Essay on Criticism," anonymously, the young and
impatient poet was mortified with the inertion of public curiosity: he
was almost in despair.[194] Twice, perhaps oftener, Pope attacked
Pope;[195] and he frequently concealed himself under the names of
others, for some particular design. Not to point out his dark familiar
"Scriblerus," always at hand for all purposes, he made use of the
names of several of his friends. When he employed SAVAGE in "a
collection of all the pieces, in verse and prose, published on
occasion of the _Dunciad_," he subscribed his name to an admirable
dedication to Lord Middlesex, where he minutely relates the whole
history of the _Dunciad_, "and the weekly clubs held to consult of
hostilities against the author;" and, for an express introduction to
that work, he used the name of Cleland, to which is added a note,
expressing surprise that the world did not believe that Cleland was
the writer![196] Wanting a pretext for the publication of his
letters, he delighted CURLL by conveying to him some printed
surreptitious copies, who soon discovered that it was but a fairy
treasure which he could not grasp; and Pope, in his own defence, had
soon ready the authentic edition.[197] Some lady observed that Pope
"hardly drank tea without a stratagem!" The female genius easily
detects its own peculiar faculty, when it is exercised with inferior
delicacy.
But his systematic hostility did not proceed with equal impunity: in
this perpetual war with dulness, he discovered that every one he
called a dunce was not so; nor did he find the dunces themselves
less inconvenient to him; for many successfully substituted, for
their deficiencies in better qualities, the lie that lasts long
enough to vex a man; and the insolence that does not fear him: they
attacked him at all points, and not always in the spirit of
legitimate warfare.[198] They filled up his asterisks, and accused
him of treason. They asserted that the panegyrical verses prefixed
to his works (an obsolete mode of recommendation, which Pope
condescended to practise), were his own composition, and to which
he had affixed the names of some dead or some unknown writers.
They published lists of all whom Pope had attacked; placing at the
head, "God Almighty; the King;" descending to the "lords and
gentlemen."[199] A few suspected his skill in Greek; but every
hound yelped in the halloo against his Homer.[200] Yet the more
extraordinary circumstance was, their hardy disputes with Pope
respecting his claim to his own works, and the difficulty he more
than once found to establish his rights. Sometimes they divided public
opinion by even indicating the real authors; and witnesses from
White's and St. James's were ready to be produced. Among these
literary coteries, several of Pope's productions, in their anonymous,
and even in their MS. state, had been appropriated by several
pseudo authors; and when Pope called for restitution, he seemed to be
claiming nothing less than their lives. One of these gentlemen had
enjoyed a very fair reputation for more than two years on the
"Memoirs of a Parish-Clerk;" another, on "The Messiah!" and there were
many other vague claims. All this was vexatious; but not so much as
the ridiculous attitude in which Pope was sometimes placed by his
enraged adversaries.[201] He must have found himself in a more
perilous situation when he hired a brawny champion, or borrowed the
generous courage of some military friend.[202] To all these troubles
we may add, that Pope has called down on himself more lasting
vengeance; and the good sense of Theobald, the furious but often
acute remarks of Dennis; the good-humoured yet keen remonstrance of
Cibber; the silver shaft, tipped with venom, sent from the injured
but revengeful Lady Mary; and many a random shot, that often struck
him, inflicted on him many a sleepless night.[203] The younger
Richardson has recorded the personal sufferings of Pope when, one
day, in taking up Cibber's letter, while his face was writhing with
agony, he feebly declared that "these things were as good as
hartshorn to him;" but he appeared at that moment rather to want a
little. And it is probably true, what Cibber facetiously says of
Pope, in his second letter:--"Everybody tells me that I have made you
as uneasy as a rat in a hot kettle, for a twelvemonth together."[204]
Pope was pursued through life by the insatiable vengeance of Dennis.
The young poet, who had got introduced to him, among his first
literary acquaintances, could not fail, when the occasion presented
itself, of ridiculing this uncouth son of Aristotle. The blow was
given in the character of Appius, in the "Art of Criticism;" and it is
known Appius was instantaneously recognised by the fierce shriek of
the agonised critic himself. From that moment Dennis resolved to write
down every work of Pope's. How dangerous to offend certain tempers,
verging on madness![205] Dennis, too, called on every one to join him
in the common cause; and once he retaliated on Pope in his own way.
Accused by Pope of being the writer of an account of himself, in
Jacob's "Lives of the Poets," Dennis procured a letter from Jacob,
which he published, and in which it appears that Pope's own character
in this collection, if not written by him, was by him very carefully
corrected on the proof-sheet; so that he stood in the same ridiculous
attitude into which he had thrown Dennis, as his own trumpeter.
Dennis, whose brutal energy remained unsubdued, was a rhinoceros of a
critic, shelled up against the arrows of wit. This monster of
criticism awed the poet; and Dennis proved to be a Python, whom the
golden shaft of Apollo could not pierce.
The political prudence of Pope was further discovered in the
"Collection of all the Pieces relative to the _Dunciad_," on which
he employed Savage: these exemplified the justness of the satire,
or defended it from all attacks. The precursor of the _Dunciad_
was a single chapter in "The Bathos; or, the Art of Sinking in
Poetry;" where the humorous satirist discovers an analogy between
flying-fishes, parrots, tortoises, &c., and certain writers, whose
names are designated by initial letters. In this unlucky alphabet of
dunces, not one of them but was applied to some writer of the day;
and the loud clamours these excited could not be appeased by the
simplicity of our poet's declaration, that the letters were placed at
random: and while his oil could not smooth so turbulent a sea, every
one swore to the flying-fish or the tortoise, as he had described
them. It was still more serious when the _Dunciad_ appeared. Of that
class of authors who depended for a wretched existence on their
wages, several were completely ruined, for no purchasers were to be
found for the works of some authors, after they had been inscribed
in the chronicle of our provoking and inimitable satirist.[206]
It is in this collection by Savage I find the writer's admirable
satire on the class of literary prostitutes. It is entitled "An Author
to be Let, by Iscariot Hackney." It has been ably commended by Johnson
in his "Life of Savage," and on his recommendation Thomas Davies
inserted it in his "Collection of Fugitive Pieces;" but such is the
careless curiosity of modern re-publishers, that often, in preserving
a decayed body, they are apt to drop a limb: this was the case with
Davies; for he has dropped the preface, far more exquisite than the
work itself. A morsel of such poignant relish betrays the hand of the
master who snatched the pen for a moment.
This preface defends Pope from the two great objections justly raised
at the time against the _Dunciad_: one is, the grossness and
filthiness of its imagery; and the other, its reproachful allusions to
the poverty of the authors.
The _indelicacies_ of the _Dunciad_ are thus wittily apologised
for:--
"They are suitable to the subject; a subject composed, for the most
part, of authors whose writings are the refuse of wit, and who in
life are the very excrement of Nature. Mr. Pope has, too, used dung;
but he disposes that dung in such a manner that it becomes rich
manure, from which he raises a variety of fine flowers. He deals in
rags; but like an artist, who commits them to a paper-mill, and brings
them out useful sheets. The chemist extracts a fine cordial from the
most nauseous of all dung; and Mr. Pope has drawn a sweet poetical
spirit from the most offensive and unpoetical objects of the
creation--unpoetical, though eternal writers of poetry."
The reflections on the _poverty_ of its heroes are thus ingeniously
defended:--"Poverty, not proceeding from folly, but which may be owing
to virtue, sets a man in an amiable light; but when our wants are of
our own seeking, and prove the motive of every ill action (for the
poverty of bad authors has always a bad heart for its companion), is
it not a vice, and properly the subject of satire?" The preface then
proceeds to show how "all these _said writers_ might have been _good
mechanics_." He illustrates his principles with a most ungracious
account of several of his contemporaries. I shall give a specimen of
what I consider as the polished sarcasm and caustic humour of Pope, on
some favourite subjects.
"Mr. Thomas _Cooke_.--His enemies confess him not without merit. To do
the man justice, he might have made a tolerable figure as a _Tailor_.
'Twere too presumptuous to affirm he could have been a _master_ in any
profession; but, dull as I allow him, he would not have been
despicable for a third or a fourth hand journeyman. Then had his wants
have been avoided; for, he would at least have learnt to _cut his coat
according to his cloth_.
"Why would not Mr. _Theobald_ continue an attorney? Is not _Word-catching_
more serviceable in splitting a cause, than explaining a fine poet?
"When Mrs. _Haywood_ ceased to be a strolling-actress, why might not
the lady (though once a theatrical queen) have subsisted by turning
_washerwoman_? Has not the fall of greatness been a frequent distress
in all ages? She might have caught a beautiful bubble, as it arose
from the suds of her tub, blown it in air, seen it glitter, and then
break! Even in this low condition, she had played with a bubble; and
what more is the vanity of human greatness?
"Had it not been an honester and more decent livelihood for Mr.
_Norton_ (Daniel De Foe's son of love by a lady who vended oysters)
to have dealt in a _fish-market_, than to be dealing out the dialects
of Billingsgate in the Flying-post?
"Had it not been more laudable for Mr. _Roome_, the son of an
_undertaker_, to have borne a link and a mourning-staff, in the long
procession of a funeral--or even been more decent in him to have sung
psalms, according to education, in an Anabaptist meeting, than to have
been altering the _Jovial Crew, or Merry Beggars_, into a _wicked_
imitation of the _Beggar's Opera_?"
This satire seems too exquisite for the touch of Savage, and is quite
in the spirit of the author of the _Dunciad_. There is, in Ruffhead's
"Life of Pope," a work to which Warburton contributed all his care, a
passage which could only have been written by Warburton. The strength
and coarseness of the imagery could never have been produced by the
dull and feeble intellect of Ruffhead: it is the opinion, therefore,
of Warburton himself, on the _Dunciad_. "The _good purpose_ intended
by this satire was, to the _herd_ in general, of less efficacy than
our author hoped; for _scribblers_ have not the common sense of _other
vermin_, who usually abstain from mischief, when they see any of their
kind _gibbeted_ or _nailed up_, as terrible examples."--Warburton
employed the same strong image in one of his threats.
One of Pope's Literary Quarrels must be distinguished for its romantic
cast.
In the Treatise on the _Bathos_, the initial letters of the bad
writers occasioned many heartburns; and, among others, Aaron Hill
suspected he was marked out by the letters A. H. This gave rise to a
large correspondence between Hill and Pope. Hill, who was a very
amiable man, was infinitely too susceptible of criticism; and Pope,
who seems to have had a personal regard for him, injured those nice
feelings as little as possible. Hill had published a panegyrical
poem on Peter the Great, under the title of "The Northern Star;" and
the bookseller had conveyed to him a criticism of Pope's, of which
Hill publicly acknowledged he mistook the meaning. When the Treatise
of "The Bathos" appeared, Pope insisted he had again mistaken the
initials A. H.--Hill gently attacked Pope in "a paper of very
pretty verses," as Pope calls them. When the _Dunciad_ appeared,
Hill is said "to have published pieces, in his youth, bordering upon
the bombast." This was as light a stroke as could be inflicted; and
which Pope, with great good-humour, tells Hill, might be equally
applied to himself; for he always acknowledged, that when a boy, he
had written an Epic poem of that description; would often quote absurd
verses from it, for the diversion of his friends; and actually
inserted some of the most extravagant ones in the very Treatise on
"The Bathos." Poor Hill, however, was of the most sickly delicacy,
and produced "The Caveat," another gentle rebuke, where Pope is
represented as "sneakingly to approve, and want the worth to cherish
or befriend men of merit." In the course of this correspondence,
Hill seems to have projected the utmost stretch of his innocent
malice; for he told Pope, that he had almost finished "An Essay on
Propriety and Impropriety in Design, Thought, and Expression,
illustrated by examples in both kinds, from the writings of Mr.
Pope;" but he offers, if this intended work should create the least
pain to Mr. Pope, he was willing, with all his heart, to have it run
thus:--"An Essay on Propriety and Impropriety, &c., illustrated by
Examples of the first, from the writings of Mr. Pope, and of the
rest, from those of the author."--To the romantic generosity of this
extraordinary proposal, Pope replied, "I acknowledge your generous
offer, to give _examples of imperfections_ rather out of _your own
works_ than mine: I consent, with all my heart, to your confining them
to _mine_, for two reasons: the one, that I fear your sensibility
that way is greater than my own: the other is a better; namely,
that I intend to correct the faults you find, if they are such as I
expect from Mr. Hill's cool judgment."[207]
Where, in literary history, can be found the parallel of such an offer
of self-immolation? This was a literary quarrel like that of lovers,
where to hurt each other would have given pain to both parties. Such
skill and desire to strike, with so much tenderness in inflicting a
wound; so much compliment, with so much complaint; have perhaps never
met together, as in the romantic hostility of this literary chivalry.
FOOTNOTES:
[192] Pope collected these numerous literary libels with extraordinary
care. He had them bound in volumes of all sizes; and a range
of twelves, octavos, quartos, and folios were marshalled in
portentous order on his shelves. He wrote the names of the
writers, with remarks on these _Anonymiana_. He prefixed to
them this motto, from Job: "Behold, my desire is, that mine
adversary had written a book: surely I would take it upon my
shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me." xxxi. 35. Ruffhead,
who wrote Pope's Life under the eye of Warburton, who revised
every sheet of the volume, and suffered this mere lawyer and
singularly wretched critic to write on, with far inferior
taste to his own--offered "the entire collection to any public
library or museum, whose search is after _curiosities_, and
may be desirous of enriching their common treasure with it: it
will be freely at the service of that which asks first." Did
no one accept the invitation? As this was written in 1769, it
is evidently pointed towards the British Museum; but there I
have not heard of it. This collection must have contained much
of the Secret Memoirs of Grub-street: it was always a fountain
whence those "waters of bitterness," the notes in the
_Dunciad_, were readily supplied. It would be curious to
discover by what stratagem Pope obtained all that secret
intelligence about his Dunces, with which he has burthened
posterity, for his own particular gratification. Arbuthnot, it
is said, wrote some notes merely literary; but Savage, and
still humbler agents, served him as his _Espions de Police_.
He pensioned Savage to his last day, and never deserted him.
In the account of "the phantom Moore," Scriblerus appeals to
Savage to authenticate some story. One curious instance of the
fruits of Savage's researches in this way he has himself
preserved, in his memoirs of "An Author to be Let, by Iscariot
Hackney." This portrait of "a perfect Town-Author" is not
deficient in spirit: the hero was one Roome, a man only
celebrated in the _Dunciad_ for his "funereal frown." But it
is uncertain whether this fellow had really so dismal a
countenance; for the epithet was borrowed from his profession,
being the son of an undertaker! Such is the nature of some
satire! Dr. Warton is astonished, or mortified, for he knew
not which, to see the pains and patience of Pope and his
friends in compiling the Notes to the _Dunciad_, to trace out
the lives and works of such paltry and forgotten scribblers.
"It is like walking through the darkest alleys in the dirtiest
part of St. Giles's." Very true! But may we not be allowed to
detect the vanities of human nature at St. Giles's as well as
St. James's? Authors, however obscure, are always an amusing
race to authors. The greatest find their own passions in the
least, though distorted, or cramped in too small a compass.
It is doubtless from Pope's great anxiety for his own literary
celebrity that we have been furnished with so complete a
knowledge of the grotesque groups in the _Dunciad_. "Give me a
shilling," said Swift, facetiously, "and I will insure you
that posterity shall never know one single enemy, excepting
those whose memory you have preserved." A very useful hint for
a man of genius to leave his wretched assailants to dissolve
away in their own weakness. But Pope, having written a
_Dunciad_, by accompanying it with a commentary, took the only
method to interest posterity. He felt that Boileau's satires
on bad authors are liked only in the degree the objects
alluded to are known. But he loved too much the subject for
its own sake. He abused the powers genius had conferred on
him, as other imperial sovereigns have done. It is said that
he kept the whole kingdom in awe of him. In "the frenzy and
prodigality of vanity," he exclaimed--
"--------Yes, I am proud to see
Men, not afraid of God, afraid of me!"
Tacitus Gordon said of him, that Pope seemed to persuade the
nation that all genius and ability were confined to him and
his friends.
[193] Pope, in his energetic Letter to Lord HERVEY, that "masterpiece
of invective," says Warton, which Tyers tells us he kept long
back from publishing, at the desire of Queen Caroline, who was
fearful her counsellor would become insignificant in the
public esteem, and at last in her own, such was the power his
genius exercised;--has pointed out one of these causes. It
describes himself as "a private person under penal laws, and
many other disadvantages, not for want of honesty or
conscience; yet it is by these alone I have hitherto lived
_excluded from all posts of profit or trust_. I can interfere
with the views of no man."
[194] The first publisher of the "Essay on Criticism" must have been
a Mr. Lewis, a Catholic bookseller in Covent-garden; for,
from a descendant of this Lewis, I heard that Pope, after
publication, came every day, persecuting with anxious
inquiries the cold impenetrable bookseller, who, as the poem
lay uncalled for, saw nothing but vexatious importunities
in a troublesome youth. One day, Pope, after nearly a
month's publication, entered, and in despair tied up a
number of the poems, which he addressed to several who had a
reputation in town, as judges of poetry. The scheme
succeeded, and the poem, having reached its proper circle,
soon got into request.
[195] He was the author of "The Key to the Lock," written to show that
"The Rape of the Lock" was a political poem, designed to
ridicule the Barrier Treaty; [so called from the arrangement
made at the Peace of Utrecht between the ministers of Great
Britain and the States General, as to the towns on the
frontiers of the Dutch, which were to be permanently
strengthened as barrier fortresses. Pope, in the mask of
Esdras Barnivelt, apothecary, thus makes out his poem to be a
political satire. "Having said that by the _lock_ is meant the
_Barrier Treaty_--first then I shall discover, that Belinda
represents Great Britain, or (which is the same thing) her
late Majesty. This is plainly seen in the description of her,
"On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore."
Alluding to the ancient name of Albion, from her white cliffs,
and to the cross which is the ensign of England. The baron who
cuts off the lock, or Barrier Treaty, is the Earl of Oxford.
Clarissa, who lent the scissors, my Lady Masham. Thalestris,
who provokes Belinda to resent the loss of the lock or treaty,
the Duchess of Marlborough; and Sir Plume, who is moved by
Thalestris to re-demand it of Great Britain, Prince Eugene,
"who came hither for that purpose." He concludes 32 pages of
similar argument by saying, "I doubt not if the persons most
concerned would but order Mr. Bernard Lintott, the printer and
publisher of this dangerous piece, to be taken into custody
and examined, many further discoveries might be made both of
this poet's and his abettors secret designs, which are
doubtless of the utmost importance to Government." Such is a
specimen of Pope's chicanery.] Its innocent extravagance could
only have been designed to increase attention to a work, which
hardly required any such artifice. [In the preface to this
production, "the uncommon sale of this book" is stated as one
reason for the publication; "above six thousand of them have
been already vended."] In the same spirit he composed the
"Guardian," in which Phillips's Pastorals were insidiously
preferred to his own. Pope sent this ironical, panegyrical
criticism on Phillips anonymously to the "Guardian," and
Steele not perceiving the drift, hesitated to publish it, till
Pope advised it. Addison detected it. I doubt whether we have
discovered all the _supercheries_ of this kind. After writing
the finest works of genius, he was busily employed in
attracting the public attention to them. In the antithesis of
his character, he was so great and so little! But he knew
mankind! and present fame was the great business of his life.
[196] Cleland was the son of Colonel Cleland, an old friend of Pope;
he and his son had served in the East Indian army; but the
latter returned to London, and became a sort of literary
jackal to Pope, and a hack author for the booksellers. He
wrote several moral and useful works; but as they did not pay
well, he wrote an immoral one, for which he obtained a better
price, and a pension of 100_l._ a-year, on condition that he
never wrote in that manner again. This was obtained for him by
Lord Granville, after Cleland had been cited before the Privy
Council, and pleaded poverty as the reason for such
authorship.--ED.
[197] The narrative of this dark transaction, which seems to have been
imperfectly known to Johnson, being too copious for a note,
will be found at the close of this article.
[198] A list of all the pamphlets which resulted from the _Dunciad_
would occupy a large space. Many of them were as grossly
personal as the celebrated poem. The poet was frequently
ridiculed under the names of "Pope Alexander" (from his
dictatorial style), and "Sawney." In "an heroic poem
occasioned by the _Dunciad_," published in 1728, the poet's
snug retreat at Twickenham is thus alluded to:--
"Sawney! a mimic sage of huge renown,
To Twick'nam bow'rs retir'd, enjoys his wealth,
His malice and his muse: in grottoes cool,
And cover'd arbours, dreams his hours away."
A fragment of Pope's celebrated grotto still remains; the
house is destroyed. Pope spent all his spare cash over his
Twickenham villa. "I never save anything," he said once to
Spence; and the latter has left a detailed account of what he
meant to do in the further decoration of his garden if he had
lived. As he gained a sum of money, he regularly spent it in
this way.--ED.
[199] Pope is, perhaps, the finest _character-painter_ of all
satirists. Atterbury, after reading the portrait of Atticus,
advised him to proceed in a way which his genius had pointed
out; but Arbuthnot, with his dying breath, conjured him "to
reform, and not to chastise;" that is, not to spare the vice,
but the person. It is said, Pope answered, that, to correct
the world with due effect, they become inseparable; and that,
deciding by his own experience, he was justified in his
opinion. Perhaps, at first, he himself wavered; but he strikes
bolder as he gathers strength. The two first editions of the
_Dunciad_, now before me, could hardly be intelligible: they
exhibit lines after lines gaping with an hiatus, or obscured
with initial letters: in subsequent editions, the names stole
into their places. We are told, that the personalities in his
satires quickened the sale: the portraits of Sporus, Bufo,
Clodius, Timon, and Atossa, were purchased by everybody; but
when he once declared, respecting the _characters_ of one of
his best satires, that no real persons were intended, it
checked public curiosity, which was felt in the sale of that
edition. Personality in his satires, no doubt, accorded with
the temper and the talent of Pope; and the malice of mankind
afforded him all the conviction necessary to indulge it. Yet
Young could depend solely on abstract characters and pure wit;
and I believe that his "Love of Fame" was a series of
admirable satires, which did not obtain less popularity than
Pope's. Cartwright, one of the poetical sons of Ben Jonson,
describes, by a beautiful and original image, the office of
the satirist, though he praises Jonson for exercising a virtue
he did not always practise; as Swift celebrates Pope with the
same truth, when he sings:--
"Yet malice never was his aim;
He lash'd the vice, but spared the name."
Cartwright's lines are:--
"--------'tis thy skill
To strike the vice, and spare the person still;
As he who, when he saw the serpent wreath'd
About his sleeping son, and as he breathed,
Drink in his soul, did so the shot contrive,
To kill the beast, but keep the child alive."
[200] Cooke, the translator of Hesiod, published a letter in Mist's
Journal, insisting that Pope had _mistaken the whole character
of Thersites_, from ignorance of the language. I regret I have
not drawn some notes from that essay. The subject might be
made curious by a good Greek scholar, if Pope has really erred
in the degree Cooke asserts. Theobald, who seems to have been
a more classical scholar than has been allowed, besides some
versions from the Greek tragic bards, commenced a translation
of the _Odyssey_ as soon as Pope's _Iliad_ appeared.
[201] In one of these situations, Pope issued a very grave, but very
ludicrous, advertisement. They had the impudence to publish an
account of Pope having been flagellated by two gentlemen in
Ham Walks, during his evening promenade. This was avenging
Dennis for what he had undergone from the narrative of his
madness. In "The Memoirs of Grub-street," vol. i. p. 96, this
tingling narrative appears to have been the ingenious forgery
of Lady Mary! On this occasion, Pope thought it necessary to
publish the following advertisement in the _Daily Post_, June
14, 1728:--
"Whereas, there has been a scandalous paper cried aloud about
the streets, under the title of 'A Pop upon Pope,' insinuating
that I was whipped in Ham Walks on Thursday last:--This is to
give notice, that I did not stir out of my house at Twickenham
on that day; and the same is a malicious and ill-founded
report.--A. P."
[Spence, on the authority of Pope's half-sister, says: "When
some of the people that he had put into the _Dunciad_ were so
enraged against him, and threatened him so highly, he loved to
walk alone to Richmond, only he would take a large faithful
dog with him, and pistols in his pocket. He used to say to us
when we talked to him about it, that 'with pistols the least
man in England was above a match for the largest.'"]
It seems that Phillips hung up a birchen-rod at Button's.
Pope, in one of his letters, congratulates himself that he
never attempted to use it. [His half-sister, Mrs. Rackett,
testifies to Pope's courage; she says, "My brother never knew
what fear was."]
[202] According to the scandalous chronicle of the day, Pope, shortly
after the publication of the _Dunciad_, had a tall Irishman to
attend him. Colonel Duckett threatened to cane him, for a
licentious stroke aimed at him, which Pope recanted. Thomas
Bentley, nephew to the doctor, for the treatment his uncle had
received, sent Pope a challenge. The modern, like the ancient
Horace, was of a nature liable to panic at such critical
moments. Pope consulted some military friends, who declared
that his _person_ ought to protect him from any such
redundance of valour as was thus formally required; however,
one of them accepted the challenge for him, and gave Bentley
the option either of fighting or apologising; who, on this
occasion, proved, what is usual, that the easiest of the two
was the quickest done.
[203] I shall preserve one specimen, so classically elegant, that Pope
himself might have composed it. It is from the pen of that
Leonard Welsted whose "Aganippe" Pope has so shamefully
characterised--
"Flow, Welsted, flow, like thine inspirer, beer!"
Can the reader credit, after this, that Welsted, who was clerk
in ordinary at the Ordnance Office, was a man of family and
independence, of elegant manners and a fine fancy, but who
considered poetry only as a passing amusement? He has,
however, left behind, amid the careless productions of his
muse, some passages wrought up with equal felicity and power.
There are several original poetical views of nature scattered
in his works, which have been collected by Mr. Nichols, that
would admit of a comparison with some of established fame.
Welsted imagined that the spirit of English poetry was on its
decline in the age of Pope, and allegorises the state of our
poetry in a most ingenious comparison. The picture is
exquisitely wrought, like an ancient gem: one might imagine
Anacreon was turned critic:--
"A flask I rear'd whose sluice began to fail,
And told, from Phærus, this facetious tale:--
Sabina, very old and very dry,
Chanced, on a time, an EMPTY FLASK to spy:
The flask but lately had been thrown aside,
With the rich grape of Tuscan vineyards dyed;
But lately, gushing from the slender spout,
Its life, in purple streams, had issued out.
_The costly flavour still to sense remain'd_,
And still its sides the violet colour stain'd:
A sight so sweet taught wrinkled age to smile;
Pleased, she imbibes the generous fumes awhile,
Then, downwards turn'd, the vessel gently props,
And drains with patient care the lucid drops:
O balmy spirit of Etruria's vine!
O fragrant flask, she said, too lately mine!
_If such delights, THOUGH EMPTY, thou canst yield_,
What wondrous raptures hadst thou given if filled!"
_Paloemon to Coelia at Bath, or the Triumvirate._
"The empty flask" only retaining "the costly flavour," was the
verse of Pope.
[204] Pope was made to appear as ridiculous as possible, and often
nicknamed "Poet Pug," from the frontispiece to an attack in
reply to his own, termed "Pope Alexander's Supremacy and
Infallibility examined." It represents Pope as a misshapen
monkey leaning on a pile of books, in the attitude adopted by
Jervas in his portrait of the poet.--ED.
[205] Dennis tells the whole story. "At his first coming to town he
was importunate with Mr. Cromwell to introduce him to me. The
recommendation engaged me to be about thrice in company with
him; after which I went to the country, till I found myself
most insolently attacked in his very superficial 'Essay on
Criticism,' by which he endeavoured to destroy the reputation
of a man who had published pieces of criticism, and to set up
his own. I was moved with indignation to that degree, that I
immediately writ remarks on that essay. I also writ upon part
of his translation of 'Homer,' his 'Windsor Forest,' and his
infamous 'Temple of Fame.'" In the same pamphlet he
says:--"Pope writ his 'Windsor Forest' in envy of Sir John
Denham's 'Cooper's Hill;' his infamous 'Temple of Fame' in
envy of Chaucer's poem upon the same subject; his 'Ode on St.
Cecilia's Day,' in envy of Dryden's 'Feast of Alexander.'" In
reproaching Pope with his peculiar rhythm, that monotonous
excellence, which soon became mechanical, he has an odd
attempt at a pun:--"Boileau's Pegasus has all his paces; the
Pegasus of Pope, like a _Kentish post-horse_, is always upon
the _Canterbury_."--"Remarks upon several Passages in the
Preliminaries to the _Dunciad_," 1729.
[206] Two parties arose in the literary republic, the _Theobaldians_
and the _Popeians_. The "Grub-street Journal," a kind of
literary gazette of some campaigns of the time, records the
skirmishes with tolerable neutrality, though with a strong
leaning in favour of the prevailing genius.
The _Popeians_ did not always do honour to their great leader;
and the _Theobaldians_ proved themselves, at times, worthy of
being engaged, had fate so ordered it, in the army of their
renowned enemy. When Young published his "Two Epistles to
Pope, on the Authors of the Age," there appeared "One Epistle
to Mr. A. Pope, in Answer to two of Dr. Young's." On this, a
Popeian defends his master from some extravagant accusations
in "The Grub-street Memoirs." He insists, as his first
principle, that all accusations against a man's character
without an attestor are presumed to be slanders and lies, and
in this case every gentleman, though "Knight of the Bathos,"
is merely a liar and scoundrel.
"You assure us he is not only a bad poet, but a stealer from
bad poets: if so, you have just cause to complain of invasion
of property. You assure us he is not even a versifier, but
steals the _sound_ of his verses; now, to _steal a sound_ is
as ingenious as to _paint an echo_. You cannot bear
_gentlemen_ should be treated as vermin and reptiles; now, to
be impartial, you were compared to _flying-fishes_,
_didappers_, _tortoises_, and _parrots_, &c., not vermin, but
curious and beautiful creatures"--alluding to the abuse, in
this "Epistle," on such authors as Atterbury, Arbuthnot,
Swift, the Duke of Buckingham, &c. The Popeian concludes:--
"After all, _your poem_, to comfort you, is more innocent than
the _Dunciad_; for in the one there's no man abused but is
very well pleased to be abused in such company; whereas in the
other there's no man so much as named, but is extremely
affronted to be ranked with such people as style each other
the _dullest of men_."
The publication of the _Dunciad_, however, drove the
_Theobaldians_ out of the field. Guerillas, such as the "One
Epistle," sometimes appeared, but their heroes struck and
skulked away. A _Theobaldian_, in an epigram, compared the
_Dunciad_ of Pope to the offspring of the celebrated Pope
Joan. The neatness of his wit is hardly blunted by a pun. He
who talks of Pope's "stealing a sound," seems to have
practised that invisible art himself, for the verse is musical
as Pope's.
TO THE AUTHOR OF THE DUNCIAD.
"With rueful eyes thou view'st thy wretched race,
The child of guilt, and destined to disgrace.
Thus when famed Joan usurp'd the Pontiff's chair,
With terror she beheld her new-born heir:
Ill-starr'd, ill-favour'd into birth it came;
In vice begotten, and brought forth with shame!
In vain it breathes, a lewd abandon'd hope!
And calls in vain, the unhallow'd father--Pope!"
The answers to this epigram by the Popeians are too gross. The
"One Epistle" is attributed to James Moore Smyth, in alliance
with Welsted and other unfortunate heroes.
[207] The six Letters are preserved in Ruffhead's Appendix, No. 1.
A NARRATIVE
OF THE EXTRAORDINARY TRANSACTIONS RESPECTING THE PUBLICATION OF POPE'S
LETTERS.
JOHNSON observes, that "one of the passages of POPE'S life which seems
to deserve some inquiry, was the publication of his letters by CURLL,
the rapacious bookseller."[208] Our great literary biographer has
expended more research on this occasion than his usual penury of
literary history allowed; and yet has only told the close of the
strange transaction--the previous parts are more curious, and the
whole cannot be separated. Joseph Warton has only transcribed
Johnson's narrative. It is a piece of literary history of an uncommon
complexion; and it is worth the pains of telling, if Pope, as I
consider him to be, was the subtile weaver of a plot, whose texture
had been close enough for any political conspiracy. It throws a strong
light on the portrait I have touched of him. He conducted all his
literary transactions with the arts of a Minister of State; and the
genius which he wasted on this literary stratagem, in which he so
completely succeeded, might have been perhaps sufficient to have
organised rebellion.
It is well known that the origin of Pope's first letters given to the
public, arose from the distresses of a cast-off mistress of one of his
old friends (H. Cromwell),[209] who had given her the letters of
Pope, which she knew how to value: these she afterwards sold to Curll,
who preserved the originals in his shop, so that no suspicions could
arise of their authenticity. This very collection is now deposited
among Rawlinson's MSS. at the Bodleian.[210]
This single volume was successful; and when Pope, to do justice to the
memory of Wycherley, which had been injured by a posthumous volume,
printed some of their letters, Curll, who seemed now to consider that
all he could touch was his own property, and that his little volume
might serve as a foundation-stone, immediately announced _a new
edition_ of it, with _Additions_, meaning to include the letters of
Pope and Wycherley. Curll now became so fond of _Pope's Letters_, that
he advertised for any: "no questions to be asked." Curll was willing
to be credulous: having proved to the world he had some originals, he
imagined these would sanction even spurious one. A man who, for a
particular purpose, sought to be imposed on, easily obtained his wish:
they translated letters of Voiture to Mademoiselle Rambouillet, and
despatched them to the eager Bibliopolist to print, as Pope's to Miss
Blount. He went on increasing his collection; and, skilful in catering
for the literary taste of the town, now inflamed their appetite by
dignifying it with "Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence!"
But what were the feelings of Pope during these successive surreptitious
editions? He had discovered that his genuine letters were liked; the
grand experiment with the public had been made for him, while he was
deprived of the profits; yet for he himself to publish his own
letters, which I shall prove he had prepared, was a thing unheard of in
the nation. All this was vexatious; and to stop the book-jobber and open
the market for himself, was a point to be obtained.
While Curll was proceeding, wind and tide in his favour, a new and
magnificent prospect burst upon him. A certain person, masked by the
initials P. T., understanding Curll was preparing _a Life of Pope_,
offered him "divers Memoirs gratuitously;" hinted that he was well
known to Pope; but the poet had lately "treated him as a stranger."
P. T. desires an answer from E. C. by the _Daily Advertiser_, which
was complied with. There are passages in this letter which, I think,
prove Pope to be the projector of it: his family is here said to be
allied to Lord Downe's; his father is called a merchant. Pope could
not bear the reproach of Lady Mary's line:--
Hard as thy heart, and as _thy birth obscure_.
He always hinted at noble relatives; but Tyers tells us, from the
information of a relative, that "his father turns out, at last, to
have been a linen-draper in the Strand:" therefore P. T. was at least
telling a story which Pope had no objection should be repeated.
The second letter of P. T., for the first was designed only to break
the ice, offers Curll "a large Collection of Letters from the early
days of Pope to the year 1727." He gives an excellent notion of their
value: "They will open very many scenes new to the world, and make the
most authentic Life and Memoirs that could be." He desires they may be
announced to the world immediately, in Curll's precious style, that he
"might not appear himself to have set the whole thing a-foot, and
afterwards he might plead he had only sent some letters to complete
the Collection." He asks nothing, and the originals were offered to be
deposited with Curll.
Curll, secure of this promised addition, but still craving for more
and more, composed a magnificent announcement, which, with P. T.'s
entire correspondence, he enclosed in a letter to Pope himself. The
letters were now declared to be a "Critical, Philological, and
Historical Correspondence."--His own letter is no bad specimen of his
keen sense; but after what had so often passed, his impudence was
equal to the better quality.
"SIR,--To convince you of my readiness to oblige you, the inclosed
is a demonstration. You have, as he says, disobliged a gentleman,
the initial letters of whose name are P. T. I have some other
papers in the same hand, relating to your _family_, which I will
show, if you desire a sight of them. Your letters to Mr. Cromwell
are out of print; and I intend to print them very beautifully, in
an octavo volume. I have more to say than is proper to write; and
if you will give me a meeting, I will wait on you with pleasure,
and close all differences between you and yours,
"E. CURLL."
Pope, surprised, as he pretends, at this address, consulted with his
friends; everything evil was suggested against Curll. They conceived
that his real design was "to get Pope to look over the former edition
of his 'Letters to Cromwell,' and then to print it, as _revised_ by
Mr. Pope; as he sent an _obscene book_ to a _Bishop_, and then
advertised it as _corrected_ and _revised_ by him;" or perhaps to
extort money from Pope for suppressing the MS. of P. T., and then
publish it, saying P. T. had kept another copy. Pope thought proper to
answer only by this public advertisement:--
"Whereas A. P. hath received a letter from E. C., bookseller,
pretending that a person, the initials of whose name are P. T., hath
offered the said E. C. to print a large Collection of Mr. P.'s
letters, to which E. C. required an answer: A. P. having never had,
nor intending to have, any private correspondence with the said E. C.,
gives it him in this manner. That he knows no such person as P. T.;
that he believes he hath no such collection; and that he thinks the
whole a forgery, and shall not trouble himself at all about it."
Curll replied, denying he had endeavoured to _correspond_ with Mr.
Pope, and affirms that he had written to him by _direction_.
It is now the plot thickens. P. T. suddenly takes umbrage, accuses
Curll of having "betrayed him to 'Squire Pope,' but you and he both
shall soon be convinced it was no forgery. Since you would not comply
with my proposal to advertise, I have printed them at my own expense."
He offers the books to Curll for sale.
Curll on this has written a letter, which takes a full view of the
entire transaction. He seems to have grown tired of what he calls
"such jealous, groundless, and dark negotiations." P. T. now found it
necessary to produce something more than a shadow--an agent appears,
whom Curll considered to be a clergyman, who assumed the name of R.
Smith. The first proposal was, that P. T.'s letters should be
returned, that he might feel secure from all possibility of detection;
so that P. T. terminates his part in this literary freemasonry as a
nonentity.
Here Johnson's account begins.--"Curll said, that one evening a man in
a clergyman's gown, but with a lawyer's band, brought and offered to
sale a number of printed volumes, which he found to be Pope's
Epistolary Correspondence; that he asked no name, and was told none,
but gave the price demanded, and thought himself authorised to use his
purchase to his own advantage." Smith, the clergyman, left him some
copies, and promised more.
Curll now, in all the elation of possession, rolled his thunder in an
advertisement still higher than ever.--"Mr. Pope's Literary
Correspondence regularly digested, from 1704 to 1734:" to lords,
earls, baronets, doctors, ladies, &c., with their respective answers,
and whose names glittered in the advertisement. The original MSS. were
also announced to be seen at his house.
But at this moment Curll had not received many books, and no MSS. The
advertisement produced the effect designed; it roused public notice,
and it alarmed several in the House of Lords. Pope doubtless
instigated his friends there. The Earl of Jersey moved, that to
publish letters of Lords was a breach of privilege; and Curll was
brought before the House.
This was an unexpected incident; and P. T. once more throws his dark
shadow across the path of Curll to hearten him, had he wanted courage
to face all the lords. P. T. writes to instruct him in his answers to
their examination; but to take the utmost care to conceal P. T.; he
assures him that the lords could not touch a hair of his head if he
behaved firmly; that he should only answer their interrogatories by
declaring he received the letters from different persons; that some
were given, and some were bought. P. T. reminds one, on this occasion,
of Junius's correspondence on a like threat with his publisher.
"Curll appeared at the bar," says Johnson, "and knowing himself in no
great danger, spoke of Pope with very little reverence. 'He has,' said
Curll, 'a knack at versifying; but in prose I think myself a match for
him.' When the Orders of the House were examined, none of them
appeared to have been infringed: Curll went away triumphant, and Pope
was left to seek some other remedy." The fact, not mentioned by
Johnson, is, that though Curll's flourishing advertisement had
announced _letters written by lords_, when the volumes were examined
not one written by a lord appeared.
The letter Curll wrote on the occasion to one of these dark familiars,
the pretended clergyman, marks his spirit and sagacity. It contains a
remarkable passage. Some readers will be curious to have the
productions of so celebrated a personage, who appears to have
exercised considerable talents.
_15th May, 1735._
"DEAR SIR,--I am just again going to the Lords to finish Pope. I
desire you to send me the _sheets_ to _perfect_ the first fifty
books, and likewise the _remaining three hundred books_; and pray
be at the Standard Tavern this evening, and I will pay you twenty
pounds more. My defence is right; I only told the lords I did not
know from whence the books came, and that my wife received them.
This was strict truth, and prevented all further inquiry. _The
lords declared they had been made Pope's tools._ I put myself on
this single point, and insisted, as there was not any Peer's
letter in the book, I had not been guilty of any breach of
privilege. I depend that the _books_ and the _imperfections_ will
be sent; and believe of P. T. what I hope he believes of me.
"For the Rev. Mr. SMITH."
The reader observes that Curll talks of a great number of _books not
received_, and of _the few_ which he has received, as _imperfect_. The
fact is, the whole bubble is on the point of breaking. He, masked in
the initial letters, and he, who wore the masquerade dress of a
clergyman's gown with a lawyer's band, suddenly picked a quarrel with
the duped bibliopolist: they now accuse him of a design he had of
betraying them to the Lords!
The tantalized and provoked Curll then addressed the following letter
to "The Rev. Mr. Smith," which, both as a specimen of this celebrated
personage's "prose," in which he thought himself "a match for Pope,"
and exhibiting some traits of his character, will entertain the
curious reader.
_Friday, 16 May, 1735._
"SIR,--1st, I am falsely accused. 2. I value not any man's change
of temper; I will never change my VERACITY for falsehood, in
owning a fact of which I am innocent. 3. I did not own the books
came from _across the water_, nor ever _named you_; all I said
was, that the books came _by water_. 4. When the books were
seized, I sent my son to convey a letter to you; and as you told
me everybody knew you in Southwark, I bid him make a strict
inquiry, as I am sure you would have done in such an exigency. 5.
Sir, _I have acted justly_ in this affair, and that is what I
shall always think wisely. 6. I will be kept no longer in the
dark; P. T. is _Will o' the Wisp_; all the books I have had are
imperfect; the first fifty had no titles nor prefaces; the last
five bundles seized by the Lords contained but thirty-eight in
each bundle, which amounts to one hundred and ninety, and fifty,
is in all but two hundred and forty books. 7. As to the loss of a
future copy, I despise it, nor will I be concerned with any more
such dark suspicious dealers. But now, sir, I'll tell you what I
will do: when I have the _books perfected_ which I have already
received, and _the rest of the impression_, I will pay you for
them. But what do you call this usage? First take a note for a
month, and then want it to be changed for one of Sir Richard
Hoare's. My note is as good, for any sum I give it, as the Bank,
and shall be as punctually paid. I always say, _gold is better
than paper_. But if this dark converse goes on, I will instantly
reprint the whole book; and, as a supplement to it, all the
letters P. T. ever sent me, of which I have exact copies, together
with all your originals, and give them in upon oath to my Lord
Chancellor. You talk of _trust_--P. T. has not reposed any in me,
for he has my money and notes for imperfect books. Let me see,
sir, either P. T. or yourself, or you'll find the Scots proverb
verified, _Nemo me impune lacessit_.
"Your abused humble servant,
"E. CURLL.
"P.S. Lord ---- I attend this day. LORD DELAWAR I SUP WITH
TO-NIGHT. Where _Pope_ has one lord, I have twenty."
After this, Curll announced "Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence, with
the _initial correspondence_ of P. T., R. S. &c." But the shadowy
correspondents now publicly declared that they could give _no title_
whatever to Mr. Pope's letters, with which they had furnished CURLL,
and never pretended any; that therefore any bookseller had the same
right of printing them: and, in respect to money matters between them,
he had given them notes not negotiable, and had never paid them fully
for the copies, perfect and imperfect, which he had sold.
Thus terminated this dark transaction between Curll and his _initial_
correspondents. He still persisted in printing several editions of the
letters of Pope, which furnished the poet with a modest pretext to
publish an authentic edition--the very point to which the whole of
this dark and intricate plot seems to have been really directed.[211]
Were Pope not concerned in this mysterious transaction, how happened
it that the letters which P. T. actually printed were genuine? To
account for this, Pope promulgated a new fact. Since the first
publication of his letters to his friend Cromwell, wrenched from the
distressed female who possessed them, our poet had been advised to
collect his letters; and these he had preserved by inserting them in
two books; either the originals or the copies. For this purpose an
amanuensis or two were employed by Pope when these books were in the
country, and by the Earl of Oxford when they were in town. Pope
pretended that Curll's letters had been extracted from these two
books, but sometimes imperfectly transcribed, and sometimes
interpolated. Pope, indeed, offered a reward of twenty pounds to
"P. T." and "R. Smith, who passed for a clergyman," if they would come
forward and discover the whole of this affair; or "if they had acted,
as it was reported, by the _direction_ of any other person." They
never appeared. Lintot, the son of the great rival of Curll, told Dr.
Johnson, that his father had been offered the same parcel of printed
books, and that Pope knew better than anybody else how Curll obtained
the copies.
Dr. Johnson, although he appears not to have been aware of the subtle
intricacy of this extraordinary plot, has justly drawn this inference:
"To make the copies perfect was the only purpose of Pope, because the
numbers offered for sale by the private messengers, showed that hope
of gain could not have been the motive of the impression. It seems
that Pope, being desirous of printing his letters, and not knowing how
to do, without imputation of vanity, what has in this country been
done very rarely, contrived an appearance of compulsion; when he could
complain that his letters were surreptitiously printed, he might
decently and defensively publish them himself."
I have observed, how the first letter of P. T. pretending to be
written by one who owed no kindness to Pope, bears the evident
impression of his own hand; for it contains matters not exactly true,
but exactly what Pope wished should appear in his own life. That he
had prepared his letters for publication, appears by the story of the
two MS. books--that the printed ones came by water, would look as if
they had been sent from his house at Twickenham; and, were it not
absurd to pretend to decipher initials, P. T. might be imagined to
indicate the name of the owner, as well as his place of abode.
Worsdale, an indifferent painter, was a man of some humour in
personating a character, for he performed Old Lady Scandal in one of
his own farces. He was also a literary adventurer, for, according to
Mrs. Pilkington's Memoirs, wishing to be a poet as well as a mimic, he
got her and her husband to write all the verses which passed with his
name; such a man was well adapted to be this clergyman with the
lawyer's band, and Worsdale has asserted that he was really employed
by his friend Pope on this occasion.
Such is the intricate narrative of this involved transaction. Pope
completely succeeded, by the most subtile manœuvres imaginable; the
incident which perhaps was not originally expected, of having his
letters brought before the examination at the House of Lords, most
amply gratified his pride, and awakened public curiosity. "He made the
House of Lords," says Curll, "his tools." Greater ingenuity,
perplexity, and secrecy have scarcely been thrown into the conduct of
the writer, or writers, of the Letters of Junius.
FOOTNOTES:
[208] Curll was a bookseller, from whose shop issued many works of an
immoral class, yet he chose for his sign "The Bible and Dial,"
which were displayed over his shop in Fleet-street. The satire
of Pope's Dunciad seems fairly to have been earned, as we may
judge from the class of books still seen in the libraries of
curious collectors, and which are certainly unfitted for more
general circulation. For these publications he was fined by
the Court of King's Bench, and on one occasion stood in the
pillory as a punishment. Yet himself and Lintot were the chief
booksellers of the era, until Tonson arose, and by taking a
more enlarged view of the trade, laid the foundation of the
great publishing houses of modern times.--ED.
[209] Cromwell was one of the gay young men who frequented
coffee-houses and clubs when Pope, also a young man, did the
same, and corresponded freely with him for a few years, when
the intimacy almost entirely ceased. The lady was a Mrs.
Thomas, who became a sort of literary hack to Curll, and is
celebrated in the Dunciad under the name of Corinna. Roscoe,
in his edition of Pope, says, "Of Henry Cromwell little is
known, further than what is learnt from this correspondence,
from which he appears to have been a man of respectable
connections, talents, and education, and to have intermingled
pretty freely in the gallantries of fashionable life." He
seems to have been somewhat eccentric, and the correspondence
of Pope only lasted from 1708 to 1711.--ED.
[210] Pope, in his conversations with Spence, says, "My letters to
Cromwell were written with a design that does not generally
appear: they were not written in sober sadness."--ED.
[211] Pope's victory over Curll is represented by Hogarth in a print
ostentatiously hung in the garret of his "Distressed
Poet."--ED.
POPE AND CIBBER;
CONTAINING
A VINDICATION OF THE COMIC WRITER.
POPE attacked CIBBER from personal motives--by dethroning Theobald,
in the _Dunciad_, to substitute CIBBER, he made the satire not
apply--CIBBER'S facetious and serious remonstrance--CIBBER'S
inimitable good-humour--an apology for what has been called his
"effrontery"--perhaps a modest man, and undoubtedly a man of
genius--his humorous defence of his deficiency in Tragedy, both
in acting and writing--Pope more hurt at being exposed as a
ridiculous lover than as a bad man--an account of "The Egotist, or
Colley upon Cibber," a kind of supplement to the "Apology for his
life," in which he has drawn his own character with great freedom
and spirit.
Pope's quarrel with Cibber may serve to check the haughtiness of
genius; it is a remarkable instance how good-humour can gently draw a
boundary round the arbitrary power, whenever the wantonness of satire
would conceal calumny. But this quarrel will become even more
interesting, should it throw a new light on the character of one whose
originality of genius seems little suspected. Cibber showed a happy
address in a very critical situation, and obtained an honourable
triumph over the malice of a great genius, whom, while he complained
of he admired, and almost loved the cynic.
Pope, after several "flirts," as Cibber calls them, from slight
personal motives, which Cibber has fully opened,[212] at length from
"peevish weakness," as Lord Orford has happily expressed it, closed
his insults by dethroning Theobald, and substituting Cibber; but as he
would not lose what he had already written, this change disturbed the
whole decorum of the satiric fiction. Things of opposite natures,
joined into one, became the poetical chimera of Horace. The hero of
the _Dunciad_ is neither Theobald nor Cibber; Pope forced a dunce to
appear as Cibber; but this was not making Cibber a dunce. This error
in Pope emboldened Cibber in the contest, for he still insisted that
the satire did not apply to him;[213] and humorously compared the
libel "to a purge with a wrong label," and Pope "to an apothecary who
did not mind his business."[214]
Cibber triumphed in the arduous conflict--though sometimes he felt
that, like the Patriarch of old, he was wrestling, not with an
equal, but one of celestial race, "and the hollow of his thigh was
out of joint." Still, however, he triumphed, by that singular
felicity of character, that inimitable _gaieté de cœur_, that
honest simplicity of truth, from which flowed so warm an admiration
of the genius of his adversary; and that exquisite _tact_ in the
characters of men, which carried down this child of airy humour to
the verge of his ninetieth year, with all the enjoyments of strong
animal spirits, and all that innocent egotism which became frequently
a source of his own raillery.[215] He has applied to himself the
epithet "impenetrable," which was probably in the mind of Johnson when
he noticed his "impenetrable impudence." A critic has charged him with
"effrontery."[216] Critics are apt to admit too much of traditional
opinion into their own; it is necessary sometimes to correct the
knowledge we receive. For my part, I can almost believe that
Cibber was a _modest man_![217] as he was most certainly a man of
genius. Cibber had lived a dissipated life, and his philosophical
indifference, with his careless gaiety, was the breastplate which
even the wit of Pope failed to pierce. During twenty years'
persecution for his unlucky Odes, he never lost his temper; he
would read to his friends the best things pointed against them,
with all the spirit the authors could wish; and would himself
write epigrams for the pleasure of hearing them repeated while
sitting in coffee-houses; and whenever they were applauded as
"Palpable hits!"--"Keen!"--"Things with a spirit in them!"--he
enjoyed these attacks on himself by himself.[218] If this be vanity,
it is at least "_Cibberian_."
It was, indeed, the singularity of his personal character which so
long injured his genius, and laid him open to the perpetual attacks of
his contemporaries,[219] who were mean enough to ridicule undisguised
foibles, but dared not be just to the redeeming virtues of his genius.
Yet his genius far exceeded his literary frailties. He knew he was no
poet, yet he would string wretched rhymes, even when not salaried for
them; and once wrote an Essay on Cicero's character, for which his
dotage was scarcely an apology;--so much he preferred amusement to
prudence.[220] Another foible was to act tragedies with a squeaking
voice[221], and to write them with a genius about the same size for
the sublime; but the malice of his contemporaries seemed to forget
that he was creating new dramatic existences in the exquisite
personifications of his comic characters; and was producing some of
our standard comedies, composed with such real genius, that they still
support the reputation of the English stage.
In the "Apology for his Life," Cibber had shown himself a generous
and an ill-treated adversary, and at all times was prodigal of his
eulogiums, even after the death of Pope; but, when remonstrance and
good temper failed to sheathe with their oil the sharp sting of the
wasp, as his weakest talent was not the ludicrous, he resolved to
gain the laughers over, and threw Pope into a very ridiculous
attitude.[222] It was extorted from Cibber by this insulting line
of Pope's:--
And has not Colley, too, his Lord and w--e?
It seems that Pope had once the same! But a ridiculous story, suited
to the taste of the loungers, nettled Pope more than the keener
remonstrances and the honest truths which Cibber has urged. Those who
write libels, invite imitation.
Besides the two letters addressed by Cibber to Pope, this quarrel
produced a moral trifle, or rather a philosophical curiosity,
respecting Cibber's own character, which is stamped with the full
impression of all its originality.
The title, so expressive of its design, and the whim and good-humour
of the work, which may be considered as a curious supplement to the
"Apology for his Life," could scarcely have been imagined, and most
certainly could not have been executed, but by the genius who dared
it. I give the title in the note.[223] It is a curious exemplification
of what Shaftesbury has so fancifully described as "self-inspection."
This little work is a conversation between "Mr. Frankly and his old
acquaintance, Colley Cibber." Cibber had the spirit of making this Mr.
Frankly speak the bitterest things against himself; and he must have
been an attentive reader of all the keenest reproaches his enemies
ever had thrown out. This caustic censor is not a man of straw, set
up to be easily knocked down. He has as much vivacity and wit as
Cibber himself, and not seldom has the better of the argument. But the
gravity and the levity blended in this little piece form admirable
contrasts: and Cibber, in this varied effusion, acquires all our
esteem for that open simplicity, that unalterable good-humour which
flowed from nature, and that fine spirit that touches everything with
life; yet, as he himself confesses, the main accusation of Mr.
Frankly, that "his philosophical air will come out at last mere vanity
in masquerade," may be true.
I will attempt to collect some specimens of this extraordinary
production, because they harmonise with the design of the present
work, and afford principles, in regard to preserving an equability of
temper, which may guide us in Literary Quarrels.
_Frankly_ observes, on Cibber's declaration that he is not uneasy at
Pope's satire, that "no blockhead is so dull as not to be sore when he
is called so; and (you'll excuse me) if that were to be your own case,
why should we believe you would not be as uneasy at it as another
blockhead?
_Author._ This is pushing me pretty home indeed; but I wont give out.
For as it is not at all inconceivable, that a blockhead of my size may
have a particular knack of doing some useful thing that might puzzle a
wiser man to be master of, will not that blockhead still have
something in him to be conceited of? If so, allow me but the vanity of
supposing I may have had some such possible knack, and you will not
wonder (though in many other points I may still be a blockhead) that I
may, notwithstanding, be contented with my condition.
_Frankly._ Is it not commendable, in a man of parts, to be warmly
concerned for his reputation?
_Author._ In what regards his honesty or honour, I will make some
allowance; but for the reputation of his parts, not one tittle.
_Frankly._ How! not to be concerned for what half the learned world
are in a continual war about.
_Author_. So are another half about religion; but neither Turk or
Pope, swords or anathemas, can alter truth! There it stands! always
visible to reason, self-defended and immovable! Whatever it _was_, or
_is_, it ever _will be_! As no attack can alter, so no defence can add
to its proportion.
_Frankly._ At this rate, you pronounce all controversies in wit to be
either needless or impertinent.
_Author._ When one in a hundred happens _not_ to be so, or to make
amends for being either by its pleasantry, we ought in justice to
allow it a great rarity. A reply to a just satire or criticism will
seldom be thought better of.
_Frankly._ May not a reply be a good one?
_Author._ Yes, but never absolutely necessary; for as your work (or
reputation) must have been good or bad, before it was censured, your
reply to that censure could not alter it: it would still be but what
it was. If it was good, the attack could not hurt it: if bad, the
reply could not mend it.[224]
_Frankly._ But slander is not always so impotent as you seem to
suppose it; men of the best sense may be misled by it, or, by their
not inquiring after truth, may never come at it; and the vulgar, as
they are less apt to be good than ill-natured, often mistake malice
for wit, and have an uncharitable joy in commending it. Now, when this
is the case, is not a tame silence, upon being satirically libelled,
as liable to be thought guilt or stupidity, as to be the result of
innocence or temper?--Self-defence is a very natural and just excuse
for a reply.
_Author._ Be it so! But still that does not always make it necessary;
for though slander, by their not weighing it, may pass upon some few
people of sense for truth, and might draw great numbers of the vulgar
into its party, the mischief can never be of long duration. _A
satirical slander, that has no truth to support it, is only a great
fish upon dry land: it may flounce and fling, and make a fretful
pother, but it wont bite you; you need not knock it on the head; it
will soon lie still, and die quietly of itself._
_Frankly._ The single-sheet critics will find you employment.
_Author._ Indeed they wont. I'm not so mad as to think myself a match
for the invulnerable.
_Frankly._ Have a care; there's Foulwit; though he can't feel, he can
bite.
_Author._ Ay, so will bugs and fleas; but that's only for sustenance:
everything must feed, you know; and your creeping critics are a sort
of vermin, that if they could come to a king, would not spare him;
yet, whenever they can persuade others to laugh at their jest upon me,
I will honestly make one of the number; but I must ask their pardon,
if that should be all the reply I can afford them."
This "boy of seventy odd," for such he was when he wrote "The
Egotist," unfolds his character by many lively personal touches. He
declares he could not have "given the world so finished a coxcomb as
Lord Foppington, if he had not found a good deal of the same stuff in
himself to make him with." He addresses "A Postscript, To those few
unfortunate Readers and Writers who may not have more sense than the
Author:" and he closes, in all the fulness of his spirit, with a piece
of consolation for those who are so cruelly attacked by superior
genius.
"Let us then, gentlemen, who have the misfortune to lie thus at the
mercy of those whose natural parts happen to be stronger than our
own--let us, I say, make the most of our sterility! Let us double and
treble the ranks of our thickness, that we may form an impregnable
phalanx, and stand every way in front to the enemy! or, would you
still be liable to less hazard, lay but yourselves down, as I do, flat
and quiet upon your faces, when Pride, Malice, Envy, Wit, or Prejudice
let fly their formidable shot at you, what odds is it they don't all
whistle over your head? Thus, too, though we may want the artillery of
missive wit to make reprisals, we may at least in security bid them
kiss the tails we have turned to them. Who knows but, by this our
supine, or rather prone serenity, their disappointed valour may become
their own vexation? Or let us yet, at worst, but solidly stand our
ground, like so many defensive stone-posts, and we may defy the
proudest Jehu of them all to drive over us. Thus, gentlemen, you see
that Insensibility is not without its comforts; and as I give you no
worse advice than I have taken myself, and found my account in, I hope
you will have the hardness to follow it, for your own good and the
glory of
"Your impenetrable humble servant,
"C. C."
After all, one may perceive, that though the good-humour of poor
Cibber was real, still the immortal satire of Pope had injured his
higher feelings. He betrays his secret grief at his close, while he
seems to be sporting with his pen; and though he appears to confide in
the falsity of the satire as his best chance for saving him from it,
still he feels that the caustic ink of such a satirist must blister
and spot wherever it falls. The anger of Warburton, and the sternness
of Johnson, who seem always to have considered an actor as an inferior
being among men of genius, have degraded Cibber. They never suspected
that "a blockhead of his size could do what wiser men could not," and,
as a fine comic genius, command a whole province in human nature.
FOOTNOTES:
[212] Johnson says, that though "Pope attacked Cibber with acrimony,
the provocation is not easily discoverable." But the
statements of Cibber, which have never been contradicted,
show sufficient motives to excite the poetic irascibility. It
was Cibber's "fling" at the unowned and condemned comedy
of the triumvirate of wits, Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot,
_Three Hours after Marriage_, when he performed Bayes in the
_Rehearsal_, that incurred the immortal odium. There was no
malice on Cibber's side; for it was then the custom to restore
the zest of that obsolete dramatic satire, by introducing
allusions to any recent theatrical event. The plot of this
ridiculous comedy hinging on the deep contrivance of two
lovers getting access to the wife of a virtuoso, "one
curiously swathed up like an Egyptian mummy, and the other
slily covered in the pasteboard skin of a crocodile," was an
incident so _extremely natural_, that it seemed congenial
with the high imagination and the deep plot of a Bayes!
Poor Cibber, in the gaiety of his _impromptu_, made the
"fling;" and, unluckily, it was applauded by the audience!
The irascibility of Pope too strongly authenticated one of
the three authors. "In the swelling of his heart, after the
play was over, he came behind the scenes with his lips pale
and his voice trembling, to call me to account for the insult;
and accordingly fell upon me with all the foul language that
a wit out of his senses would be capable of, choked with the
foam of his passion." Cibber replied with dignity, insisted
on the privilege of the character, and that he would repeat
the same jest as long as the public approved of it. Pope
would have certainly approved of Cibber's manly conduct,
had he not been the author himself. To this circumstance may
be added the reception which the town and the court bestowed
on Cibber's "Nonjuror," a satire on the politics of the
jacobite faction; Pope appears, under the assumed name of
_Barnevelt_, to have published "an odd piece of wit,
proving that the Nonjuror, in its design, its characters, and
almost every scene of it, was a closely-couched jacobite
libel against the Government." Cibber says that "this was so
shrewdly maintained, that I almost liked the jest myself."
Pope seems to have been fond of this new species of irony;
for, in the Pastorals of Phillips, he showed the same sort of
ingenuity, and he repeated the same charge of political
mystery against his own finest poem; for he proved by many
"merry inuendoes," that "The Rape of the Lock" was as
audacious a libel as the pretended Barnevelt had made out the
Nonjuror to be. See note, p. 280.
[213] Cibber did not obtrude himself in this contest. Had he been
merely a poor vain creature, he had not preserved so long
a silence. His good-temper was without anger, but he
remonstrates with no little dignity, when he chooses to be
solemn; though to be playful was more natural to him. "If I
have lain so long stoically silent, or unmindful of your
satirical favours, it was not so much for want of a proper
reply, as that I thought there never needed a public one;
for all people of sense would know what truth or falsehood
there was in what you said of me, without my wisely
pointing it out to them. Nor did I choose to follow your
example, of being so much a self-tormentor, as to be
concerned at whatever opinion of me any published invective
might infuse into people unknown to me. Even the malicious,
though they may like the libel, don't always believe it."
His reason for reply is, that his silence should not be
farther reproached "as a plain confession of my being a
bankrupt in wit, if I don't immediately answer those bills
of discredit you have drawn upon me." There is no doubt that
Cibber perpetually found instigators to encourage these
attacks; and one forcible argument he says was, that "a
disgrace, from such a pen, would stick upon me to posterity."
He seems to be aware that his acquaintance cheer him to the
lists "for their particular amusement."
[214] "His edition of Shakspeare proved no better than a foil to set
off the superiority of Theobald's; and Cibber bore away the
palm from him in the drama. We have an account of two attempts
of Pope's, one in each of the two principal branches of this
species of poetry, and both unsuccessful. The fate of the
comedy has been already mentioned (in page 300), and the
tragedy was saved from the like fate by one not less
ignominious, being condemned and burnt by his own hands. It
was called _Cleone_, and formed upon the same story as a late
one wrote and published by Mr. Dodsley with the same title in
1759. See Dodsley's Preface."--_Biographia Britannica_, 1760.
[215] Armstrong, who was a keen observer of man, has expressed his
uncommon delight in the company of Cibber. "Beside his
abilities as a writer (as a writer of comedies, Armstrong
means), and the singular variety of his powers as an
actor, he was to the last one of the most agreeable,
cheerful, and best-humoured men you would ever wish to
converse with."--Warton's _Pope_, vol. iv. 160.
Cibber was one of those rare beings whose dispositions Hume
describes "as preferable to an inheritance of 10,000_l._ a
year."
[216] Dr. Aikin, in his Biographical Dictionary, has thus written on
Cibber: "It cannot be doubted, that, at the time, the contest
was more painful to Pope than to Cibber. But Pope's satire is
immortal, whereas Cibber's sarcasms are no longer read.
_Cibber may therefore be represented to future times with less
credit for abilities than he really deserves_; for he was
certainly no dunce, though not, in the higher sense of the
word, a man of genius. _His effrontery and vanity_ could not
be easily overcharged, even by a foe. Indeed, they are
striking features in the portrait drawn by himself." Dr.
Aikin's political morality often vented its indignation at the
successful injustice of great power! Why should not the same
spirit conduct him in the Literary Republic? With the just
sentiments he has given on Cibber, it was the duty of an
intrepid critic to raise a moral feeling against the despotism
of genius, and to have protested against the arbitrary power
of Pope. It is participating in the injustice to pass it by,
without even a regret at its effect.
As for Cibber himself, he declares he was _not impudent_, and
I am disposed to take his own word, for he _modestly_ asserts
this, in a remark on Pope's expression,
"'Cibberian forehead,'
"by which I find you modestly mean _Cibberian impudence_, as a
sample of the strongest.--Sir, your humble servant--but pray,
sir, in your 'Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot' (where, by the way, in
your ample description of a great Poet, you slily hook in a
whole hat-full of virtues to your own character) have not you
this particular line?
'And thought a _Lie_, in verse or prose, the same--'"
Cibber laments it is not so, for "any accusation in smooth
verse will always sound well, though it is not tied down to
have a tittle of truth in it, when the strongest defence in
poor humble prose, not having that harmonious advantage, takes
nobody by the ear--very hard upon an innocent man! For suppose
in prose, now, I were as confidently to insist that you were
an _honest_, _good-natured_, _inoffensive creature_, would my
barely saying so be any proof of it? No sure. Why then, might
it not be supposed an equal truth, that both our assertions
were equally false? _Yours_, when you call me _impudent_;
_mine_, when I call you _modest_, &c. While my superiors
suffer me occasionally to sit down with them, I hope it will
be thought that rather the _Papal_ than the _Cibberian_
forehead ought to be out of countenance." I give this as a
specimen of Cibber's serious reasonings--they are poor; and
they had been so from a greater genius; for ridicule and
satire, being only a mere abuse of eloquence, can never be
effectually opposed by truisms. Satire must be repelled by
satire; and Cibber's _sarcasms_ obtained what Cibber's
_reasonings_ failed in.
[217] Vain as Cibber has been called, and vain as he affects to be, he
has spoken of his own merits as a comic writer,--and he was a
very great one,--with a manly moderation, very surprising
indeed in a vain man. Pope has sung in his _Dunciad_, most
harmoniously inhuman,
"How, with less reading than makes felons scape,
Less human genius than God gives an ape,
Small thanks to France, and none to Rome or Greece,
A patch'd, vamp'd, future, old, revived new piece;
'Twixt Plautus, Fletcher, Congreve, and Corneille,
Can make a CIBBER, JOHNSON, and OZELL."
Blasting as was this criticism, it could not raise the anger
of the gay and careless Cibber. Yet what could have put it to
a sharper test? Johnson and Ozell are names which have long
disappeared from the dramatic annals, and could only have been
coupled with Cibber to give an idea of what the satirist meant
by "the human genius of an ape." But listen to the mild, yet
the firm tone of Cibber--he talks like injured innocence, and
he triumphs over Pope, in all the dignity of truth.--I appeal
to Cibber's posterity!
"And pray, sir, why my name under this scurvy picture? I
flatter myself, that if you had not put it there, nobody else
would have thought it like me; nor can I easily believe that
you yourself do: but perhaps you imagined it would be a
laughing ornament to your verse, and had a mind to divert
other people's spleen with it as well as your own. Now let me
hold up my head a little, and then we shall see how the
features hit me." He proceeds to relate, how "many of those
plays have lived the longer for my meddling with them." He
mentions several, which "had been dead to the stage out of all
memory, which have since been in a constant course of acting
above these thirty or forty years." And then he adds: "Do
those altered plays at all take from the merit of those _more
successful pieces_, which were _entirely my own_?--When a man
is abused, he has a right to speak even laudable truths of
himself, to confront his slanderer. Let me therefore add, that
my first Comedy of _The Fool in Fashion_ was as much (though
not so valuable) an original, as any work Mr. Pope himself has
produced. It is now forty-seven years since its first
appearance on the stage, where it has kept its station, to
this very day, without ever lying one winter dormant. Nine
years after this, I brought on _The Careless Husband_, with
still greater success; and was that too
'A patch'd, vamp'd, future, old, revived new piece?'
Let the many living spectators of these plays, then, judge
between us, whether the above verses came from the honesty of
a satirist, who would be thought, like you, the upright censor
of mankind. Sir, this libel was below you! Satire, without
truth, recoils upon its author, and must, at other times,
render him suspected of prejudice, even where he may be just;
as frauds, in religion, make more atheists than converts; and
the bad heart, Mr. Pope, that points an injury with verse,
makes it the more unpardonable, as it is not the result of
sudden passion, but of an indulged and slowly-meditating
ill-nature. What a merry mixed mortal has nature made you,
that can debase that strength and excellence of genius to the
lowest human weakness, that of offering unprovoked injuries,
at the hazard of your being ridiculous too, when the venom you
spit falls short of your aim!" I have quoted largely, to show
that Cibber was capable of exerting a dignified remonstrance,
as well as pointing the lightest, yet keenest, shafts of
sarcastic wit.
[218] Ayre's "Memoirs of Pope," vol. ii. p. 82.
[219] Even the "Grub-street Journal" had its jest on his appointment
to the laureateship. In No. 52 was the following epigram:--
"Well, said Apollo, still 'tis mine
To give the real laurel:
For that my Pope, my son divine,
Of rivals ends the quarrel.
But guessing who would have the luck
To be the birth-day fibber,
I thought of Dennis, Tibbald, Duck,
But never dreamt of Cibber!"--ED.
[220] It may be reasonably doubted, however, if vanity had not
something to do with this--the vanity of appearing as a
philosophical writer, and astonishing the friends who had
considered him only as a good comedian. The volume was
magnificently printed in quarto on fine paper, "for the
author," in 1747. It is entitled, "The Character and Conduct
of Cicero Considered, from the History of his Life by the Rev.
Dr. Middleton; with occasional Essays and Observations upon
the most Memorable Facts and Persons during that Period." The
entire work is a series of somewhat too-familiar notes on the
various passages of "Cicero's Life and Times," as narrated by
Middleton. He terms the unsettled state after the death of
Sylla "an uncomfortable time for those sober citizens who had
a mind and a right to be quiet." His professional character
breaks forth when he speaks of Roscius instructing Cicero in
acting; and in the very commencement of his grave labour he
rambles back to the theatre to quote a scene from Vanbrugh's
_Relapse_, as a proof how little fashionable readers _think_
while they _read_. Colley's well-meaning but free-and-easy
reflections on the gravities of Roman history, in the progress
of his work, are remarkable, and have all the author's coarse
common sense, but very little depth or refinement--ED.
[221] With what good-humour he retorts a piece of sly malice of
Pope's; who, in the notes to the _Dunciad_, after quoting
Jacob's account of Cibber's talents, adds--"Mr. Jacob omitted
to remark that he is particularly admirable in tragedy." To
which Cibber rejoins--"Ay, sir, and your remark has omitted,
too, that (with all his commendations) I can't dance upon the
rope, or make a saddle, nor play upon the organ. My dear, dear
Mr. Pope, how could a man of your stinging capacity let so
tame, so low a reflection escape him? Why, this hardly rises
above the petty malice of Miss Molly. 'Ay, ay, you may think
my sister as handsome as you please, but if you were to see
her legs!' If I have made so many crowded theatres laugh, and
in the right place, too, for above forty years together, am I
to make up the number of your dunces, because I have not the
equal talent of making them cry too? Make it your own case. Is
what you have excelled in at all the worse for your having so
dismally dabbled in the farce of _Three Hours after Marriage_?
What mighty reason will the world have to laugh at my weakness
in tragedy, more than at yours in comedy?"
I will preserve one anecdote of that felicity of temper--that
undisturbed good-humour which never abandoned Cibber in his
most distressful moments. When he brought out, in 1724, his
_Cæsar in Egypt_, at a great expense, and "a beggarly account
of empty boxes" was the result, it raised some altercations
between the poet and his brother managers, the bard still
struggling for another and another night. At length he closed
the quarrel with a pun, which confessed the misfortune, with
his own good-humour. In a periodical publication of the times
I find the circumstance recorded in this neat epigram:--
_On the Sixth Night of CIBBER'S "Cæsar in Egypt."_
When the pack'd audience from their posts retired,
And Julius in a general hiss expired;
Sage Booth to Cibber cried, "Compute our gains!
These dogs of Egypt, and their dowdy queans,
But ill requite these habits and these scenes,
To rob Corneille for such a motley piece:
His geese were swans; but zounds! thy swans are geese!"
Rubbing his firm invulnerable brow,
The bard replied--"The critics must allow
'Twas ne'er in _Cæsar's destiny_ TO RUN!"
Wilks bow'd, and bless'd the gay pacific pun.
[222] A wicked wag of a lord had enticed Pope into a tavern, and laid
a love-plot against his health. Cibber describes his resolute
interference by snatching "our little Homer by the heels. This
was done for the honour of our nation. Homer would have been
too serious a sacrifice to our evening's amusement." He has
metamorphosed our Apollo into a "Tom-tit;" but the Ovidian
warmth, however ludicrous, will not _now_ admit of a
narrative. This story, by our comic writer, was accompanied by
a print, that was seen by more persons, probably, than read
the _Dunciad_. In his second letter, Cibber, alluding to the
vexation of Pope on this ridiculous story, observes--"To have
been exposed as _a bad man_, ought to have given thee thrice
the concern of being shown a _ridiculous lover_." And now that
he had discovered that he could touch the nerves of Pope, he
throws out one of the most ludicrous analogies to the figure
of our bard:--"When crawling in thy dangerous deed of
darkness, I gently, with a finger and a thumb, picked off thy
small round body by thy long legs, like a spider making love
in a cobweb."
[223] "The EGOTIST, or Colley upon Cibber; being his own picture
retouched to so _plain_ a likeness that no one _now_ would
have the face to own it BUT HIMSELF.
'But one stroke more, and that shall be my last.'
_London_, 1743.
DRYDEN."
[224] How many good authors might pursue their studies in quiet, would
they never reply to their critics but on matters of fact, in
which their honour may be involved. I have seen very
tremendous criticisms on some works of real genius, like
serpents on marble columns, wind and dart about, and spit
their froth, but they die away on the pillars that enabled
them to erect their malignant forms to the public eye. They
fall in due time; and weak must be the substance of that
pillar which does not stand, and look as beautiful, when the
serpents have crawled over it, as before. Dr. Brown, in his
"Letter to Bishop Lowth," has laid down an axiom in literary
criticism:--"_A mere literary attack_, however well or
ill-founded, would not easily have drawn me into a _public
expostulation_; for every man's true literary character is
best seen in his own writings. Critics may rail, disguise,
insinuate, or pervert; yet still the object of their censures
lies equally open to all the world. Thus the world becomes a
competent judge of the merits of the work animadverted on.
Hence, the mere _author_ hath a fair chance for a fair
decision, at least among the judicious; and it is of no mighty
consequence what opinions the _injudicious_ form concerning
mental abilities. For this reason, I have never replied to any
of those numerous critics who have on different occasions
honoured me with their regard."
POPE AND ADDISON.
The quarrel between POPE and ADDISON originated in one of the
infirmities of genius--a subject of inquiry even after their
death, by Sir WILLIAM BLACKSTONE--POPE courts ADDISON--suspects
ADDISON of jealousy--ADDISON'S foible to be considered a great
poet--interview between the rivals, of which the result was the
portrait of ATTICUS, for which ADDISON was made to sit.
Among the Literary Quarrels of POPE one acquires dignity and interest
from the characters of both parties. It closed by producing the
severest, but the most masterly portrait of one man of genius,
composed by another, which has ever been hung on the satiric Parnassus
for the contemplation of ages. ADDISON must descend to posterity with
the dark spots of ATTICUS staining a purity of character which had
nearly proved immaculate.
The friendship between Pope and Addison was interrupted by one of
the infirmities of genius. Tempers of watchful delicacy gather up in
silence and darkness motives so shadowy in their origin, and of such
minute growth, that, never breaking out into any open act, they
escape all other eyes but those of the parties themselves. These
causes of enmity are too subtle to bear the touch; they cannot be
inquired after, nor can they be described; and it may be said that
the minds of such men have rather quarrelled than they themselves:
they utter no complaints, but they avoid each other. All the world
perceived that two authors of the finest genius had separated from
motives on which both were silent, but which had evidently operated
with equal force on both. Their admirers were very general, and at a
time when literature divided with politics the public interest, the
best feelings of the nation were engaged in tracking the obscure
commencements and the secret growth of this literary quarrel, in which
the amiable and moral qualities of Addison, and the gratitude and
honour of Pope, were equally involved. The friends of either party
pretended that their chiefs entertained a reciprocal regard for each
other, while the illustrious characters themselves were living in
a state of hostility. Even long after these literary heroes were
departed, the same interest was general among the lovers of
literature; but those obscure motives which had only influenced
two minds--those imperceptible events, which are only events as
they are watched by the jealousy of genius--eluded the most anxious
investigation. Yet so lasting and so powerful was the interest
excited by this literary quarrel, that, within a few years, the
elegant mind of Sir WILLIAM BLACKSTONE withdrew from the severity of
profounder studies to inquire into the causes of a quarrel which was
still exciting the most opposite opinions. Blackstone has judged
and summed up; but though he evidently inclines to favour Addison, by
throwing into the balance some explanation for the silence of
Addison against the audible complaints of Pope; though sometimes he
pleads as well as judges, and infers as well as proves; yet even
Blackstone has not taken on himself to deliver a decision. His happy
genius has only honoured literary history by the masterly force and
luminous arrangement of investigation, to which, since the time of
Bayle, it has been too great a stranger.[225]
At this day, removed from all personal influence and affections, and
furnished with facts which contemporaries could not command, we take
no other concern in this literary quarrel but as far as curiosity and
truth delight us in the study of human nature. We are now of no
party--we are only historians!
Pope was a young writer when introduced to Addison by the intervention
of that generously-minded friend of both, Steele. Addison eulogised
Pope's "Essay on Criticism;" and this fine genius covering with his
wing an unfledged bardling, conferred a favour which, in the
estimation of a poet, claims a life of indelible gratitude.
Pope zealously courted Addison by his poetical aid on several
important occasions; he gave all the dignity that fine poetry could
confer on the science of medals, which Addison had written on, and
wrote the finest prologue in the language for the Whig tragedy of his
friend. Dennis attacked, and Pope defended _Cato_[226]. Addison might
have disapproved both of the manner and the matter of the defence; but
he did more--he insulted Pope by a letter to Dennis, which Dennis
eagerly published as Pope's severest condemnation. An alienation of
friendship must have already taken place, but by no overt act on
Pope's side.
Not that, however, Pope had not found his affections weakened: the
dark hints scattered in his letters show that something was gathering
in his mind. Warburton, from his familiar intercourse with Pope, must
be allowed to have known his literary concerns more than any one; and
when he drew up the narrative,[227] seems to me to have stated
uncouthly, but expressively, the progressive state of Pope's feelings.
According to that narrative, Pope "reflected," that after he had first
published "The Rape of the Lock," then nothing more than a hasty _jeu
d'esprit_, when he communicated to Addison his very original project
of the whole sylphid machinery, Addison chilled the ardent bard with
his coldness, advised him against any alteration, and to leave it as
"a delicious little thing, _merum sal_." It was then, says Warburton,
"Mr. Pope began to _open his eyes_ to Addison's character." But when
afterwards he discovered that Tickell's Homer was opposed to his, and
judged, as Warburton says, "by _laying many odd circumstances_
together," that Addison,[228] and not Tickell, was the author--the
alienation on Pope's side was complete. No open breach indeed had yet
taken place between the rival authors, who, as jealous of dominion as
two princes, would still demonstrate, in their public edicts, their
inviolable regard; while they were only watching the advantageous
moment when they might take arms against each other.
Still Addison publicly bestowed great encomiums on Pope's _Iliad_,
although he had himself composed the rival version, and in private
preferred his own.[229] He did this with the same ease he had
continued its encouragement while Pope was employed on it. We are
astonished to discover such deep politics among literary Machiavels!
Addison had certainly raised up a literary party. Sheridan, who wrote
nearly with the knowledge of a contemporary, in his "Life of Swift,"
would naturally use the language and the feelings of the time; and in
describing Ambrose Phillips, he adds, he was "one of Mr. Addison's
little senate."
But in this narrative I have dropt some material parts. Pope believed
that Addison had employed Gildon to write against him, and had
encouraged Phillips to asperse his character.[230] We cannot, now,
quite demonstrate these alleged facts; but we can show that Pope
believed them, and that Addison does not appear to have refuted
them.[231] Such tales, whether entirely false or partially true, may
be considered in this inquiry of little amount. The greater events
must regulate the lesser ones.[232]
Was Addison, then, jealous of Pope? Addison, in every respect, then,
his superior; of established literary fame when Pope was yet young;
preceding him in age and rank; and fortunate in all the views of human
ambition. But what if Addison's foible was that of being considered a
great poet? His political poetry had raised him to an undue elevation,
and the growing celebrity of Pope began to offend him, not with the
appearance of a meek rival, with whom he might have held divided
empire, but as a master-spirit, that was preparing to reign alone. It
is certain that Addison was the most feeling man alive at the fate of
his poetry. At the representation of his _Cato_, such was his
agitation, that had _Cato_ been condemned, the life of Addison might,
too, have been shortened. When a wit had burlesqued some lines of this
dramatic poem, his uneasiness at the innocent banter was equally
oppressive; nor could he rest, till, by the interposition of a friend,
he prevailed upon the author to burn them.[233]
To the facts already detailed, and to this disposition in Addison's
temper, and to the quick and active suspicions of Pope, irritable, and
ambitious of all the sovereignty of poetry, we may easily conceive
many others of those obscure motives, and invisible events, which none
but Pope, alienated every day more and more from his affections for
Addison, too acutely perceived, too profoundly felt, and too
unmercifully avenged. These are alluded to when the satirist sings--
Damn with faint praise; assent with civil leer;
And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike;
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike, &c.
Accusations crowded faster than the pen could write them down. Pope
never composed with more warmth. No one can imagine that Atticus was
an ideal personage, touched as it is with all the features of an
extraordinary individual. In a word, it was recognised instantly by
the individual himself; and it was suppressed by Pope for near twenty
years, before he suffered it to escape to the public.
It was some time during their avowed rupture, for the exact period has
not been given, that their friends promoted a meeting between these
two great men. After a mutual lustration, it was imagined they might
have expiated their error, and have been restored to their original
purity. The interview did take place between the rival wits, and was
productive of some very characteristic ebullitions, strongly
corroborative of the facts as they have been stated here. This
extraordinary interview has been frequently alluded to. There can be
no doubt of the genuineness of the narrative but I know not on what
authority it came into the world.[234]
The interview between Addison and Pope took place in the presence of
Steele and Gay. They met with cold civility. Addison's reserve wore
away, as was usual with him, when wine and conversation imparted some
warmth to his native phlegm. At a moment the generous Steele deemed
auspicious, he requested Addison would perform his promise in renewing
his friendship with Pope. Pope expressed his desire: he said he was
willing to hear his faults, and preferred candour and severity rather
than forms of complaisance; but he spoke in a manner as conceiving
Addison, and not himself, had been the aggressor. So much like their
humblest inferiors do great men act under the influence of common
passions: Addison was overcome with anger, which cost him an effort to
suppress; but, in the formal speech he made, he reproached Pope with
indulging a vanity that far exceeded his merit; that he had not yet
attained to the excellence he imagined; and observed, that his verses
had a different air when Steele and himself corrected them; and, on
this occasion, reminded Pope of a particular line which Steele had
improved in the "Messiah."[235] Addison seems at that moment to have
forgotten that he had trusted, for the last line of his own dramatic
poem, rather to the inspiration of the poet he was so contemptuously
lecturing than to his own.[236] He proceeded with detailing all the
abuse the herd of scribblers had heaped on Pope; and by declaring that
his Homer was "an ill-executed thing," and Tickell's had all the
spirit. We are told, he concluded "in a low hollow voice of feigned
temper," in which he asserted that he had ceased to be solicitous
about his own poetical reputation since he had entered into more
public affairs; but, from friendship for Pope, desired him to be more
humble, if he wished to appear a better man to the world.
When Addison had quite finished schooling his little rebel, Gay, mild
and timid (for it seems, with all his love for Pope, his expectations
from the court, from Addison's side, had tethered his gentle heart),
attempted to say something. But Pope, in a tone far more spirited than
all of them, without reserve told Addison that he appealed from his
judgment, and did not esteem him able to correct his verses; upbraided
him as a pensioner from early youth, directing the learning which had
been obtained by the public money to his own selfish desire of power,
and that he "had always endeavoured to cut down new-fledged merit."
The conversation now became a contest, and was broken up without
ceremony. Such was the notable interview between two rival wits, which
only ended in strengthening their literary quarrel; and sent back the
enraged satirist to his inkstand, where he composed a portrait, for
which Addison was made to sit, with the fine _chiar' oscuro_ of
Horace, and with as awful and vindictive features as the sombre hand
of Juvenal could have designed.
FOOTNOTES:
[225] Sir William Blackstone's Discussion on the Quarrel between
Addison and Pope was communicated by Dr. Kippis in his
"Biographia Britannica," vol. i. p. 56. Blackstone is there
designated as "a gentleman of considerable rank, to whom the
public is obliged for works of much higher importance."
[226] Dennis asserts in one of his pamphlets that Pope, fermenting
with envy at the success of Addison's _Cato_, went to Lintot,
and persuaded him to engage this redoubted critic to write the
remarks on _Cato_--that Pope's gratitude to Dennis for having
complied with his request was the well-known narrative of
Dennis "being placed as a lunatic in the hands of Dr. Norris,
a curer of mad people, at his house in Hatton-garden, though
at the same time I appeared publicly every day, both in the
park and in the town." Can we suppose that Dennis tells a
falsehood respecting Pope's desiring Lintot to engage Dennis
to write down _Cato_? If true, did Pope wish to see Addison
degraded, and at the same time take an opportunity of
ridiculing the critic, without, however, answering his
arguments? The secret history of literature is like that of
politics?
[Dennis took a strong dislike to Addison's _Cato_, and his
style of criticism is thus alluded to in the humorous account
of his frenzy written by Pope: "On all sides of his room were
pinned a great many sheets of a tragedy called _Cato_, with
notes on the margin by his own hand. The words _absurd_,
_monstrous_, _execrable_, were everywhere written in such
large characters, that I could read them without my
spectacles." Warton says that "Addison highly disapproved of
this bitter satire on Dennis, and Pope was not a little
chagrined at this disapprobation; for the narrative was
intended to court the favour of Addison, by defending his
_Cato_: in which seeming defence Addison was far from thinking
our author sincere."]
[227] In the notes to the Prologue to the Satires.
[228] Pope's conjecture was perfectly correct. Dr. Warton confirms it
from a variety of indisputable authorities.--Warton's "Pope,"
vol. iv. p. 34.
[229] In the "Freeholder," May, 1716.
[230] Pope himself thus related the matter to Spence: "Phillips seemed
to have been encouraged to abuse me in coffee-houses and
conversations; and Gildon wrote a thing about Wycherly, in
which he had abused both me and my relations very grossly.
Lord Warwick himself told me one day that it was in vain for
me to endeavour to be well with Mr. Addison; that his jealous
temper would never admit of a settled friendship between us,
and to convince me of what he had said, assured me that
Addison had encouraged Gildon to publish those scandals, and
had given him ten guineas after they were published."--ED.
[231] The strongest parts of Sir William Blackstone's discussion turn
on certain inaccurate dates of Ruffhead, in his statements,
which show them to be inconsistent with the times when they
are alleged to have happened. These erroneous dates had been
detected in an able article in the Monthly Review on that
work, April, 1769. Ruffhead is a tasteless, confused, and
unskilful writer--Sir William has laid great stress on the
incredible story of Addison paying Gildon to write against
Pope, "a man so amiable in his moral character." It is
possible that the Earl of Warwick, who conveyed the
information, might have been a malicious, lying youth; but
then Pope had some knowledge of mankind--he believed the
story, for he wrote instantly, with honest though heated
feelings, to Addison, and sent him, at that moment, the first
sketch of the character of Atticus. Addison used him very
civilly ever after--but it does not appear that Addison ever
contradicted the tale of the officious Earl. All these facts,
which Pope repeated many years after to Spence, Sir William
was not acquainted with, for they were transcribed from
Spence's papers by Johnson, after Blackstone had written.
[This is fully in accordance with his previous conduct, as he
described it to Spence; on the first notification of the Earl
of Warwick's news, "the next day when I was heated with what I
had heard, I wrote a letter to Mr. Addison, to let him know
that I was not unacquainted with this behaviour of his; that
if I was to speak severely of him, in return for it, it should
not be in such a dirty way; and that I should rather tell
himself freely of his faults, and allow his good qualities;
and that it should be something in the following manner: I
then adjoined the first sketch of what has since been called
my Satire on Addison. Mr. Addison used me very civilly ever
after, and never did me any injustice that I know of from that
time to his death, which was about three years after."]
[232] That Addison did occasionally divert Pope's friends from him,
appears from the advice which Lady Mary Wortley Montague says
he gave to her--"Leave him as soon as you can, he will
certainly play you some devilish trick else: he has an
appetite to satire." Malone thinks this may have been said
under the irritation produced by the verses on Addison, which
Pope sent to him, as described above. Pope's love of satire,
and unflinching use of it, was as conspicuous as Addison's
nervous dislike to it.--ED.
[233] From Lord Egmont's MS. Collections.--See the "Addenda Kippis's
Biographia Britannica."
[234] The earliest and most particular narrative of this remarkable
interview I have hitherto only traced to "Memoirs of the
Life and Writings of A. Pope, Esq., by William Ayre, Esq.,"
1745, vol. i. p. 100. This work comes in a very suspicious
form; it is a huddled compilation, yet contains some
curious matters; and pretends, in the title-page, to be
occasionally drawn from "original MSS. and the testimonies
of persons of honour." He declares, in the preface, that he
and his friends "had means and some helps which were never
public." He sometimes appeals to several noble friends of
Pope as his authorities. But the mode of its publication,
and that of its execution, are not in its favour. These
volumes were written within six months of the decease of
our poet; have no publisher's name; and yet the author,
whoever he was, took out "a patent, under his majesty's royal
signet," for securing the copyright. This Ayre is so
obscure an author, though a translator of Tasso's "Aminta,"
that he seems to have escaped even the minor chronicles of
literature. At the time of its publication there appeared
"Remarks on Squire Ayre's Memoirs of Pope." The writer
pretends he has discovered him to be only one of the
renowned Edmund Curll's "squires," who, about that time, had
created an order of literary squires, ready to tramp at
the funeral of every great personage with his life. The
"Remarker" then addresses Curll, and insinuates he speaks
from personal knowledge of the man:--"You have an adversaria
of title-pages of your own contrivance, and which your authors
are to write books to. Among what you call _the occasional,
or black list_, I have seen Memoirs of Dean Swift, Pope,
&c." Curll, indeed, was then sending forth many pseudo
squires, with lives of "Congreve," "Mrs. Oldfield," &c.; all
which contained some curious particulars, picked up in
coffee-houses, conversations, or pamphlets of the day. This
William Ayre I accept as "a squire of low degree," but a real
personage. As for this interview, Ayre was certainly
incompetent to the invention of a single stroke of the
conversations detailed: where he obtained all these
interesting particulars, I have not discovered. Johnson
alludes to this interview, states some of its results, but
refers to no other authority than floating rumours.
[235] The line stood originally, and nearly literally copied from
Isaiah--
"He wipes the tears for ever from our eyes;"
which Steele retouched, as it now stands--
"From every face he wipes off every tear."
Dr. Warton prefers the rejected verse. The latter, he thinks,
has too much of modern quaintness. The difficulty of choice
lies between that naked simplicity which scarcely affects, and
those strokes of art which are too apparent.
[236] The last line of Addison's tragedy read originally--
"And oh! 'twas this that ended Cato's life."
A very weak line, which was altered at the suggestion of Pope
as it stands at present:--
"And robs the guilty world of Cato's life."--ED.
BOLINGBROKE AND MALLET'S POSTHUMOUS QUARREL WITH POPE.
Lord BOLINGBROKE affects violent resentment for Pope's pretended
breach of confidence in having printed his "Patriot King"--WARBURTON'S
apology for POPE'S disinterested intentions--BOLINGBROKE instigates
MALLET to libel POPE, after the poet's death--The real motive for
libelling POPE was BOLINGBROKE'S personal hatred of WARBURTON, for the
ascendancy the latter had obtained over the poet--Some account of
their rival conflicts--BOLINGBROKE had unsettled POPE'S religious
opinions, and WARBURTON had confirmed his faith--POPE, however,
refuses to abjure the Catholic religion--Anecdote of POPE'S anxiety
respecting a future state--MALLET'S intercourse with POPE: anecdote of
"The Apollo Vision," where MALLET mistook a sarcasm for a
compliment--MALLET'S character--Why LEONIDAS GLOVER declined writing
the Life of Marlborough--BOLINGBROKE'S character hit off--WARBURTON,
the concealed object of this posthumous quarrel with POPE.
On the death of POPE, 1500 copies of one of Lord BOLINGBROKE'S works,
"The Patriot King," were discovered to have been secretly printed by
Pope, but never published. The honest printer presented the whole to
his lordship, who burned the edition in his gardens at Battersea. The
MS. had been delivered to our poet by his lordship, with a request to
print a few copies for its better preservation, and for the use of a
few friends.
Bolingbroke affected to feel the most lively resentment for what he
chose to stigmatise as "a breach of confidence." "His thirst of
vengeance," said Johnson, "incited him to blast the memory of the man
over whom he had wept in his last struggles; and he employed Mallet,
another friend of Pope, to tell the tale to the public with all its
aggravations. Warburton, whose heart was warm with his legacy, and
tender by the recent separation," apologised for Pope. The irregular
conduct which Bolingbroke stigmatised as a breach of trust, was
attributed to a desire of perpetuating the work of his friend, who
might have capriciously destroyed it. Our poet could have no selfish
motive; he could not gratify his vanity by publishing the work as his
own, nor his avarice by its sale, which could never have taken place
till the death of its author; a circumstance not likely to occur
during Pope's lifetime.[237]
The vindictive rage of Bolingbroke; the bitter invective he permitted
MALLET to publish, as the editor of his works; and the two anonymous
pamphlets of the latter, which I have noticed in the article of
WARBURTON; are effects much too disproportionate to the cause which is
usually assigned. JOHNSON does not develope the secret motives of what
he has energetically termed "Bolingbroke's thirst of vengeance." He
and Mallet carried their secret revenge beyond all bounds: the lordly
stoic and the irritated bardling, under the cloak of anonymous
calumny, have but ill-concealed the malignity of their passions. Let
anonymous calumniators recollect, in the midst of their dark work,
that if they escape the detection of their contemporaries, their
reputation, if they have any to lose, will not probably elude the
researches of the historian;--a fatal witness against them at the
tribunal of posterity.
The preface of Mallet to the "Patriot King" of Bolingbroke, produced a
literary quarrel; and more pamphlets than perhaps I have discovered
were published on this occasion.
Every lover of literature was indignant to observe that the vain and
petulant Mallet, under the protection of Pope's
Guide, philosopher, and friend!
should have been permitted to have aspersed Pope with the most
degrading language. Pope is here always designated as "This Man." Thus
"_This Man_ was no sooner dead than Lord Bolingbroke received
information that an entire edition of 1500 copies of these papers had
been printed; that this very _Man_ had corrected the press, &c." Could
one imagine that this was the Tully of England, describing our Virgil?
For Mallet was but the mouthpiece of Bolingbroke.
After a careful detection of many facts concerning the parties now
before us, I must attribute the concealed motive of this outrage
on Pope to the election the dying poet made of Warburton as his
editor. A mortal hatred raged between Bolingbroke and Warburton. The
philosophical lord had seen the mighty theologian ravish the prey
from his grasp. Although Pope held in idolatrous veneration the
genius of Bolingbroke, yet had this literary superstition been
gradually enlightened by the energy of Warburton. They were his good
and his evil genii in a dreadful conflict, wrestling to obtain the
entire possession of the soul of the mortal. Bolingbroke and
Warburton one day disputed before Pope, and parted never to meet
again. The will of Pope bears the trace of his divided feelings: he
left his MSS. to Bolingbroke as his executor, but his works to
Warburton as his editor. The secret history of Bolingbroke and
Warburton with Pope is little known: the note will supply it.[238]
But how did the puny Mallet stand connected with these great men? By
the pamphlets published during this literary quarrel he appears to
have enjoyed a more intimate intercourse with them than is known. In
one of them he is characterised "as a fellow who, while Mr. Pope
lived, was as diligent in licking his feet, as he is now in licking
your lordship's; and who, for the sake of giving himself an air of
importance, in being joined with you, and for the vanity of saying
'the Author and I,'--'the Editor and me,'--has sacrificed all his
pretensions to friendship, honour, and humanity."[239] An anecdote in
this pamphlet assigns a sufficient motive to excite some wrath in a
much less irritable animal than the self-important editor of
Bolingbroke's Works. The anecdote may be distinguished as
THE APOLLO VISION.
"The editor (Mallet) being in company with the person to whom Mr. Pope
has consigned the care of his works (Warburton), and who, he thought,
had some intention of writing Mr. Pope's life, told him he had an
anecdote, which he believed nobody knew but himself. I was sitting one
day (said he) with Mr. Pope, in his last illness, who coming suddenly
out of a reverie, which you know he frequently fell into at that time,
and fixing his eyes steadfastly upon me; 'Mr. M. (said he), I have had
an odd kind of vision. Methought I saw my own head open, and Apollo
came out of it; I then saw your head open, and Apollo went into it;
after which our heads closed up again.' The gentleman (Warburton)
could not help smiling at his vanity; and with some humour replied,
'Why, sir, if I had an intention of writing _your_ life, this might
perhaps be a proper anecdote; but I don't see, that in Mr. Pope's it
will be of any consequence at all.'" P. 14.
This exhibits a curious instance of an author's egotism, or rather of
Mallet's conceit, contriving, by some means, to have his name slide
into the projected Life of Pope by Warburton, who appears, however,
always to have treated him with the contempt Pope himself evidently
did.[240] What opinion could the poet have entertained of the taste
of that weak and vain critic, who, when Pope published anonymously
"The Essay on Man," being asked if anything new had appeared, replied
that he had looked over a thing called an "Essay on Man," but,
discovering the utter want of skill and knowledge in the author, had
thrown it aside. Pope mortified him by confiding to him the secret.
"The Apollo Vision" was a stinging anecdote, and it came from
Warburton either directly or indirectly. This was followed up by
"A Letter to the Editor of the Letters on the Spirit of Patriotism,
the Idea of a Patriot King," &c., a dignified remonstrance of
Warburton himself; but "The Impostor Detected and Convicted, or the
Principles and Practices of the Author of the Spirit of Patriotism
(Lord Bolingbroke) set forth in a clear light, in a Letter to a
Member of Parliament in Town, from his Friend in the Country, 1749,"
is a remarkable production. Lord Bolingbroke is the impostor and
the concealed Jacobite. Time, the ablest critic on these party
productions, has verified the predictions of this seer. We discover
here, too, a literary fact, which is necessary to complete our
present history. It seems that there were omissions and corrections
in the edition Pope printed of "The Patriot King," which his caution
or his moderation prompted, and which such a political demagogue as
Bolingbroke never forgave. They are thus alluded to: "Lord B. may
remember" (from a conversation held, at which the writer appears
to have been present), "that a difference in opinion prevailed, and
a few points were urged by that gentleman (Pope) in opposition to some
particular tenets which related to the limitation of the English
monarchy, and to the ideal doctrine of a patriot king. These were Mr.
P.'s reasons for the emendations he made; and which, together with
the consideration that both their lives were at that time in a
declining state, was the true cause, and no other, of his care to
preserve those letters, by handing them to the press, with the
precaution mentioned by the author." Indeed the cry raised against
the _dead man_ by Bolingbroke and Mallet, was an artificial one:
that it should ever have tainted the honour of the bard, or that it
should ever have been excited by his "Philosopher and Friend," are
equally strange; it is possible that the malice of Mallet was more at
work than that of Bolingbroke, who suffered himself to be the dupe
of a man held in contempt by Pope, by Warburton, and by others. But
the pamphlet I have just noticed might have enraged Bolingbroke,
because his true character is ably drawn in it. The writer says that
"a person in an eminent station of life abroad, when Lord B----
was at Paris to transact a certain affair, said, _C'est certainement
un homme d'esprit, mais un coquin sans probité_." This was a very
disagreeable truth!
In one of these pamphlets, too, Bolingbroke was mortified at his
dignity being lessened by the writer, in comparing his lordship with
their late friend Pope.--"I venture to foretell, that the name of Mr.
Pope, in spite of your unmanly endeavours, shall revive and blossom in
the dust, from his own merits; and presume to remind you, that
_yours_, had it not been for _his_ genius, _his_ friendship, _his_
idolatrous veneration for _you_, might, in a short course of years,
have died and been forgotten." Whatever the degree of genius
Bolingbroke may claim, doubtless the verse of Pope has embalmed his
fame. I have never been able to discover the authors of these
pamphlets, who all appear of the first rank, and who seem to have
written under the eye of Warburton. The awful and vindictive
Bolingbroke, and the malignant and petulant Mallet, did not long brood
over their anger: he or they gave it vent on the head of Warburton, in
those two furious pamphlets, which I have noticed in the "Quarrels of
Warburton." All these pamphlets were published in the same year, 1749,
so that it is now difficult to arrange them according to their
priority. Enough has been shown to prove, that the loud outcry of
Bolingbroke and Mallet, in their posthumous attack on Pope, arose from
their unforgiving malice against him, for the preference by which the
poet had distinguished Warburton; and that Warburton, much more than
Pope, was the real object of this masked battery.
FOOTNOTES:
[237] At the time, to season the tale for the babble of Literary
Tattlers, it was propagated that POPE intended, on the death
of BOLINGBROKE, to sell this eighteenpenny pamphlet at a
guinea a copy; which would have produced an addition of as
many hundreds to the thousands which the poet had honourably
reaped from his Homer. This was the ridiculous lie of the day,
which lasted long enough to obtain its purpose, and to cast an
odium on the shade of Pope. Pope must have been a miserable
calculator of _survivorships_, if ever he had reckoned on
this.
[238] Splendid as was the genius of Bolingbroke, the gigantic force of
Warburton obtained the superiority. Had the contest solely
depended on the effusions of genius, Bolingbroke might have
prevailed; but an object more important than human interests
induced the poet to throw himself into the arms of Warburton.
The "Essay on Man" had been reformed by the subtle aid of
Warburton, in opposition to the objectionable principles which
Bolingbroke had infused into his system of philosophy: this,
no doubt, had vexed Bolingbroke. But another circumstance
occurred of a more mortifying nature. When Pope one day showed
Warburton Bolingbroke's "Letters on the Study and Use of
History," printed, but not published, and concealing the name
of the author, Warburton not only made several very free
strictures on that work, but particularly attacked a
digression concerning the authenticity of the Old Testament.
Pope requested him to write his remarks down as they had
occurred, which he instantly did; and Pope was so satisfied
with them, that he crossed out the digression in the printed
book, and sent the animadversions to Lord Bolingbroke, then at
Paris. The style of the great dogmatist, thrown out in heat,
must no doubt have contained many fiery particles, all which
fell into the most inflammable of minds. Pope soon discovered
his officiousness was received with indignation. Yet when
Bolingbroke afterwards met Warburton he dissimulated: he used
the language of compliment, but in a tone which claimed
homage. The two most arrogant geniuses who ever lived, in vain
exacted submission from each other: they could allow of no
divided empire, and they were born to hate each other.
Bolingbroke suppressed his sore feelings, for at that very
time he was employed in collecting matter to refute the
objections; treasuring up his secret vengeance against Pope
and Warburton, which he threw out immediately on the death of
Pope. I collect these particulars from Ruffhead, p. 527, and
whenever, in that volume, Warburton's name is introduced, it
must be considered as coming from himself.
The reasonings of Bolingbroke appear at times to have
disturbed the religious faith of our poet, and he owed much to
Warburton in having that faith confirmed. But Pope rejected,
with his characteristic good sense, Warburton's tampering with
him to abjure the Catholic religion. On the belief of a future
state, Pope seems often to have meditated with great anxiety;
and an anecdote is recorded of his latest hours, which shows
how strongly that important belief affected him. A day or two
before his death he was at times delirious, and about four
o'clock in the morning he rose from bed and went to the
library, where a friend who was watching him found him busily
writing. He persuaded him to desist, and withdrew the paper he
had written. The subject of the thoughts of the delirious poet
was a new theory on the "Immortality of the Soul," in which he
distinguished between those material objects which tended to
strengthen his conviction, and those which weakened it. The
paper which contained these disordered thoughts was shown to
Warburton, and surely has been preserved.
[239] "A letter to the Lord Viscount B----ke, occasioned by his
treatment of a deceased friend." Printed for A. Moore, without
date. This pamphlet either came from Warburton himself, or
from one of his intimates. The writer, too, calls Pope his
friend.
[240] We find also the name of Mallet closely connected with another
person of eminence, the Patriot-Poet, Leonidas Glover. I take
this opportunity of correcting a surmise of Johnson's in his
Life of Mallet, respecting Glover, and which also places
Mallet's character in a true light.
A minute life of Mallet might exhibit a curious example of
mediocrity of talent, with but suspicious virtues, brought
forward by the accident of great connexions, placing a
bustling intriguer much higher in the scale of society than
"our philosophy ever dreamt of." Johnson says of Mallet, that
"It was remarkable of him, that he was the only Scot whom
Scotchmen did not commend." From having been accidentally
chosen as private tutor to the Duke of Montrose, he wound
himself into the favour of the party at Leicester House; he
wrote tragedies conjointly with Thomson, and was appointed,
with Glover, to write the Life of the Duke of Marlborough. Yet
he had already shown to the world his scanty talent for
biography in his "Life of Lord Bacon," on which Warburton so
acutely animadverted.
According to Johnson's account, the Duchess of Marlborough
assigned the task of writing the Life of the Duke to Glover
and to Mallet, with a remuneration of a thousand pounds. She
must, however, have mortified the poets by subjoining the
sarcastic prohibition that "no verses should be inserted."
Johnson adds, "Glover, _I suppose, rejected with disdain the
legacy_, and devolved the whole work upon Mallet."
The cause why Glover declined this work could not, indeed, be
known to Johnson: it arose from a far more dignified motive
than the petty disdain of the legacy, which our great literary
biographer has surmised. It can now be told in his own words,
which I derive from a very interesting extract communicated to
me by my friend Mr. Duppa, from that portion of the MS.
Memoirs of Glover not yet published.
I shall first quote the remarkable codicil from the original
will of her Grace, which Mr. Duppa took the pains to consult.
She assigns her reasons for the choice of her historians, and
discriminates between the two authors. After bequeathing the
thousand pounds for them, she adds: "I believe Mr. Glover is a
very honest man, who wishes, as I do, all the good that can
happen, to preserve the liberties and laws of England. Mr.
Mallet was recommended to me by the late Duke of Montrose,
whom I admired extremely for his great steadiness and
behaviour in all things that related to the preservation of
our laws and the public good."--Thus her Grace has expressed a
personal knowledge and confidence in Glover, distinctly marked
from her "recommended" acquaintance Mallet.
Glover refused the office of historian, not from "disdain of
the legacy," nor for any deficient zeal for the hero whom he
admired. He refused it with sorrowful disappointment; for,
besides the fantastical restrictions of "not writing any
verses;" and the cruel one of yoking such a patriot with the
servile Mallet, there was one which placed the revision of the
work in the hands of the Earl of Chesterfield: this was the
_circumstance_ at which the dignified genius of Glover
revolted. Chesterfield's mean political character had excited
his indignation; and he has drawn a lively picture of this
polished nobleman's "eager prostitution," in his printed
Memoirs, recently published under the title of "Memoirs of a
celebrated Literary and Political Character," p. 24.
In the following passage, this great-minded man, for such he
was, "unburthens his heart in a melancholy digression from his
plain narrative."
"Composing such a narrative (alluding to his own Memoirs)
and endeavouring to establish such a temper of mind, I
cannot at intervals refrain from regret that the _capricious
restrictions_ in the Duchess of Marlborough's will,
appointing me to write the life of her illustrious husband,
compelled me to reject the undertaking. There, conduct,
valour, and success abroad; prudence, perseverance,
learning, and science, at home; would have shed some portion
of their graces on their historian's page: a mediocrity of
talent would have felt an unwonted elevation in the bare
attempt of transmitting so splendid a period to succeeding
ages." Such was the dignified regret of Glover!
Doubtless, he disdained, too, his colleague; but Mallet reaped
the whole legacy, and still more, a pension: pretending to be
always occupied on the Life of Marlborough, and every day
talking of the great discoveries he had made, he contrived to
make this nonentity serve his own purposes. Once hinting to
Garrick, that, in spite of chronology, by some secret device
of anticipation, he had reserved a niche in this great work
for the Roscius of his own times, the gratitude of Garrick was
instant. He recollected that Mallet was a tragedy-writer; and
it also appeared that our dramatic bardling had one ready. As
for the pretended Life of Marlborough, not a line appears ever
to have been written!
Such was the end of the ardent solicitude and caprice of the
Duchess of Marlborough, exemplified in the last solemn act of
life, where she betrayed the same warmth of passion, and the
same arrogant caprice she had always indulged, at the cost of
her judgment, in what Pope emphatically terms "the trade of
the world." She was
"The wisest fool much time has ever made."
Even in this darling project of her last ambition, to
immortalise her name, she had incumbered it with such arrogant
injunctions, mixed up such contrary elements, that they were
certain to undo their own purpose. Such was the barren harvest
she gathered through a life of passion, regulated by no
principle of conduct. One of the most finished portraits of
Pope is the Atossa, in his "Epistle on Woman." How admirably
he shows what the present instant proves, that she was one
who, always possessing the _means_, was sure to lose the
_ends_.
LINTOT'S ACCOUNT-BOOK.
An odd sort of a literary curiosity has fallen in my way. It throws
some light on the history of the heroes of the _Dunciad_; but such
_minutiæ literariæ_ are only for my bibliographical readers.
It is a book of accounts, which belonged to the renowned BERNARD
LINTOT, the bookseller, whose character has been so humorously
preserved by Pope, in a dialogue which the poet has given as having
passed between them in Windsor Forest. The book is entitled "_Copies,
when Purchased_." The power of genius is exemplified in the ledger of
the bookseller as much as in any other book; and while I here
discover, that the moneys received even by such men of genius as Gay,
Farquhar, Cibber, and Dr. King, amount to small sums, and such authors
as Dennis, Theobald, Ozell, and Toland, scarcely amount to anything,
that of Pope much exceeds 4000_l._
I am not in all cases confident of the nature of these "Copies
purchased;" those works which were originally published by Lintot may
be considered as purchased at the sums specified: some few might have
been subsequent to their first edition. The guinea, at that time,
passing for twenty-one shillings and sixpence, has occasioned the
fractions.
I transcribe Pope's account. Here it appears that he sold "The Key to
the Lock" and "Parnell's Poems." The poem entitled, "To the Author of
a Poem called _Successio_," appears to have been written by Pope, and
has escaped the researches of his editors. The smaller poems were
contributed to a volume of Poetical Miscellanies, published by
Lintot.[241]
MR. POPE.
£ s. d.
_19 Feb. 1711-12._
Statius, First Book } 16 2 6
Vertumnus and Pomona }
_21 March, 1711-12._
First Edition Rape 7 0 0
_9 April, 1712._
To a Lady presenting Voiture }
Upon Silence } 3 16 6
To the Author of a Poem called _Successio_ }
_23 Feb. 1712-13._
Windsor Forest 32 5 0
_23 July, 1713._
Ode on St. Cecilia's day 15 0 0
_20th Feb. 1713-14._
Additions to the Rape 15 0 0
_1 Feb. 1714-15._
Temple of Fame 32 5 0
_30 April, 1715._
Key to the Lock 10 15 0
_17 July, 1716._
Essay on Criticism[242] 15 0 0
_13 Dec. 1721._
Parnell's Poems 15 0 0
_23 March, 1713._
Homer, vol. i. 215 0 0
650 books on royal paper 176 0 0
_9 Feb. 1715-16._
Homer, vol. ii. 215 0 0
_7 May, 1716._
650 royal paper 150 0 0
This article is repeated to the sixth volume of
of Homer. To which is to be added another sum
of 840_l._, paid for an assignment of all
the copies. The whole of this part of the
account amounting to 3203 4 0
Copy-moneys for the Odyssey, vols. i. ii. iii.,
and 750 of each vol. royal paper, 4to. 615 6 0
Ditto for the vols. iv. v. and 750 do. 425 18 7-1/2
----------------
£4244 8 7-1/2
================
MR. GAY.
£ s. d.
_12 May, 1713._
Wife of Bath 25 0 0
_11 Nov. 1714._
Letter to a Lady 5 7 6
_14 Feb. 1714._
The What d'ye call it? 16 2 6
_22 Dec. 1715._
Trivia 43 0 0
Epistle to the Earl of Burlington 10 15 0
_4 May, 1717._
Battle of the Frogs 16 2 6
_8 Jan. 1717._
Three Hours after Marriage 43 2 6
The Mohocks, a Farce, 2_l._ 10_s._
(Sold the Mohocks to him again.[243])
Revival of the Wife of Bath 75 0 0
------------
£234 10 0
MR. DENNIS.
£ s. d.
_Feb. 24, 1703-4._
Liberty Asserted, one half share[245] 7 3 0
_10 Nov. 1708._
Appius and Virginia 21 10 0
_25 April, 1711._
Essay on Public Spirit 2 12 6
_6 Jan. 1711._
Remarks on Pope's Essay 2 12 6
Dennis must have sold himself to criticism from ill-nature, and not
for pay. One is surprised that his two tragedies should have been
worth a great deal more than his criticism. Criticism was then worth
no more than too frequently it deserves; Dr. Sewel, for his
"Observations on the Tragedy of _Jane Shore_," received only a
guinea.
I had suggested a doubt whether Theobald attempted to translate from
the original Greek: one would suppose he did by the following entry,
which has a line drawn through it, as if the agreement had not been
executed. Perhaps Lintot submitted to pay Theobald for _not doing_ the
Odyssey when Pope undertook it.
MR. THEOBALD.
£ s. d.
_23 May, 1713._
Plato's Phædon 5 7 6
For _Æsculus's_ Trag. 1 1 6
being part of Ten Guineas.
_12 June, 1714._
La Motte's Homer 3 4 6
_April_ 21, 1714. Articles signed by Mr. Theobald, to translate
for B. Lintot the 24 books of Homer's Odyssey into English blank
verse. Also the four Tragedies of Sophocles, called Œdipus
Tyrannus, Œdipus Coloneus, Trachiniæ, and Philoctetes, into
English blank verse, with Explanatory Notes to the twenty-four
Books of the Odyssey, and to the four Tragedies. To receive, for
translating every 450 Greek verses, with Explanatory Notes
thereon, the sum of 2_l._ 10_s._
To translate likewise the Satires and Epistles of Horace into
English rhyme. For every 120 Latin lines so translated, the sum of
1_l._ 1_s._ 6_d._
These Articles to be performed, according to the time specified,
under the penalty of fifty pounds, payable by either party's
default in performance.
Paid in hand, 2_l._ 10_s._
It appears that Toland never got above 5_l._, 10_l._, or 20_l._, for
his publications. See his article in "Calamities of Authors," p.
155. I discovered the humiliating conditions that attended his
publications, from an examination of his original papers. All this
author seems to have reaped from a life devoted to literary
enterprise, and philosophy, and patriotism, appears not to have
exceeded 200_l._
Here, too, we find that the facetious Dr. King threw away all his
sterling wit for five miserable pounds, though "The Art of Cookery,"
and that of "Love," obtained a more honourable price. But a mere
school-book probably inspired our lively genius with more real
facetiousness than any of those works which communicate so much to
others.
DR. KING.
£ s. d.
_18 Feb. 1707-8._
Paid for Art of Cookery 32 5 0
_16 Feb. 1708-9._
Paid for the First Part of Transactions 5 0 0
Paid for his Art of Love 32 5 0
_23 June, 1709._
Paid for the Second Part of the Transactions[246] 5 0 0
_4 March, 1709-10._
Paid for the History of Cajamai 5 0 0
_10 Nov. 1710._
Paid for King's Gods 50 0 0
_1 July, 1712._
Useful Miscellany, Part I 1 1 6
Paid for the Useful Miscellany 3 0 0
Lintot utters a groan over "The Duke of Buckingham's Works"
(Sheffield), for "having been _jockeyed_ of them by Alderman Barber
and Tonson." Who can ensure literary celebrity? No bookseller would
_now_ regret being _jockeyed_ out of his Grace's works!
The history of plays appears here somewhat curious:--tragedies, then
the fashionable dramas, obtained a considerable price; for though
Dennis's luckier one reached only to 21_l._, Dr. Young's _Busiris_
acquired 84_l._ Smith's _Phædra and Hippolytus_, 50_l._; Rowe's _Jane
Shore_, 50_l._ 15_s._; and _Jane Gray_, 75_l._ 5_s._ Cibber's
_Nonjuror_ obtained 105_l._ for the copyright.
Is it not a little mortifying to observe, that among all these
customers of genius whose names enrich the ledger of the bookseller,
Jacob, that "blunderbuss of law," while his law-books occupy in space
as much as Mr. Pope's works, the amount of his account stands next in
value, far beyond many a name which has immortalised itself!
FOOTNOTES:
[241] "Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, by several Hands,"
1712.--The second edition appeared in 1714; and in the
title-page are enumerated the poems mentioned in this account,
and Pope's name affixed, as if he were the actual editor--an
idea which Mr. Nichols thought he affected to discountenance.
It is probable that Pope was the editor. We see, by this
account, that he was paid for his contributions.
[242] This was a new edition, published conjointly by Lintot and
Lewis, the Catholic bookseller and early friend of Pope, of
whom, and of the first edition, 1711, I have preserved an
anecdote, p. 280.
[243] The late Isaac Reed, in the Biog. Dramatica, was uncertain
whether Gay was the author of this unacted drama. It is a
satire on the inhuman frolics of the bucks and bloods of
those days, who imitated the savageness of the Indians
whose name they assumed.[244] Why Gay repurchased "The
Mohocks," remains to be discovered. Was it another joint
production with Pope?--The literary co-partnership between
Pope and Gay has never been opened to the curious. It is
probable that Pope was consulted, if not concerned, in
writing "The What d'ye call it?" which, Jacob says in his
"Poetical Register," "exposes several of our eminent
poets." Jacob published while Gay was living, and seems to
allude to this literary co-partnership; for, speaking of
Gay, he says: "that having an inclination to poetry, by the
strength of his own genius, and the _conversation_ of Mr.
Pope, he has made some progress in poetical writings."
This tragi-comical farce of "The Mohocks" is satirically
dedicated to Dennis, "as a _horrid_ and _tremendous_ piece,
formed on the model of his own 'Appius and Virginia.'" This
touch seems to come from the finger of Pope. It is a
mock-tragedy, for the Mohocks themselves rant in blank verse;
a feeble performance, far inferior to its happier predecessor,
"The What d'ye call it?"
[244] The brutal amusements of these "Mohocks," and the helpless
terror of London, is scarcely credible in modern days. Wild
bands of drunken men nightly infested the streets, attacking
and ill-using every passer-by. A favourite pastime was to
surround their victim with drawn swords, pricking him on every
side as he endeavoured to escape. Many persons were maimed and
dangerously wounded. Gay, in his _Trivia_, has noted some of
their more innocent practical jokes; and asks--
"Who has not trembled at the Mohock's name?
Was there a watchman took his hourly rounds,
Safe from their blows or new invented wounds?"
Swift, in his notes to Stella, has expressed his dread, while
in London, of being maimed, or perhaps killed, by them.--ED.
[245] Bought of Mr. George Strahan, bookseller.
[246] For an account of these humorous pieces, see the following
article on "The Royal Society."
POPE'S EARLIEST SATIRE.
We find by the first edition of Lintot's "Miscellaneous Poems," that
the anonymous lines "To the Author of a Poem called _Successio_," was
a literary satire by Pope, written when he had scarcely attained his
fourteenth year. This satire, the first probably he wrote for the
press, and in which he has succeeded so well, that it might have
induced him to pursue the bent of his genius, merits preservation. The
juvenile composition bears the marks of his future excellences: it has
the tune of his verse, and the images of his wit. Thirty years
afterwards, when occupied by the _Dunciad_, he transplanted and pruned
again some of the original images.
The hero of this satire is Elkanah Settle. The subject is one of those
Whig poems, designed to celebrate the happiness of an uninterrupted
"Succession" in the Crown, at the time the Act of Settlement passed,
which transferred it to the Hanoverian line. The rhymer and his theme
were equally contemptible to the juvenile Jacobite poet.
The hoarse and voluminous Codrus of Juvenal aptly designates this
eternal verse-maker;--one who has written with such constant
copiousness, that no bibliographer has presumed to form a complete
list of his works.[247]
When Settle had outlived his temporary rivalship with Dryden, and was
reduced to mere Settle, he published party-poems, in folio, composed
in Latin, accompanied by his own translations. These folio poems,
uniformly bound, except that the arms of his patrons, or rather his
purchasers, richly gilt, emblazon the black morocco, may still be
found. These presentation-copies were sent round to the chiefs of the
party, with a mendicant's petition, of which some still exist. To have
a clear conception of the _present views_ of some politicians, it is
necessary to read their history backwards. In 1702, when Settle
published "Successio," he must have been a Whig. In 1685 he was a
Tory, commemorating, by a heroic poem, the coronation of James II.,
and writing periodically against the Whigs. In 1680 he had left the
Tories for the Whigs, and conducted the whole management of burning
the Pope, then a very solemn national ceremony.[248] A Whig, a
pope-burner, and a Codrus, afforded a full draught of inspiration to
the nascent genius of our youthful satirist.
Settle, in his latter state of wretchedness, had one standard _elegy_
and _epithalamium_ printed off with _blanks_. By the ingenious
contrivance of inserting the name of any considerable person who died
or was married, no one who had gone out of the world or was entering
into it but was equally welcome to this dinnerless livery-man of the
draggled-tailed Muses. I have elsewhere noticed his last exit from
this state of poetry and of pauperism, when, leaping into a green
dragon which his own creative genius had invented, in a theatrical
booth, Codrus, in hissing flames and terrifying-morocco folds,
discovered "the fate of talents misapplied!"
TO THE AUTHOR OF A POEM ENTITLED "SUCCESSIO."
Begone, ye critics, and restrain your spite;
Codrus writes on, and will for ever write.
The heaviest Muse the swiftest course has gone,
As clocks run fastest when most lead is on.[249]
What though no bees around your cradle flew,
Nor on your lips distill'd their golden dew;
Yet have we oft discover'd in their stead,
A swarm of drones that buzz'd about your head.
When you, like Orpheus, strike the warbling lyre,
Attentive blocks stand round you, and admire.
Wit past through thee no longer is the same,
As meat digested takes a different name;[250]
But sense must sure thy safest plunder be,
Since no reprisals can be made on thee.
Thus thou mayst rise, and in thy daring flight
(Though ne'er so weighty) reach a wondrous height:
So, forced from engines, lead itself can fly,
And pond'rous slugs move nimbly through the sky.[251]
Sure Bavius copied Mævius to the full,
And CHÆRILUS[252] taught CODRUS to be dull;
Therefore, dear friend, at my advice give o'er
This needless labour, and contend no more
To prove a _dull Succession_ to be true,
Since 'tis enough we find it so in you.
FOOTNOTES:
[247] The fullest account we have of Settle, a busy scribe in his day,
is in Mr. Nichols's "Literary Anecdotes," vol. i. p. 41.
[248] It was the custom when party feeling ran high on the subject of
papacy, towards the close of the reign of Charles the Second,
to get up these solemn mock-processions of the Pope and
Cardinals, accompanied with figures to represent Sir
Edmundbury Godfrey, and other subjects well adapted to heat
popular feelings, and parade them through the streets of
London. The day chosen for this was the anniversary of the
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth (Nov. 17), and when the
procession reached Temple-bar, the figure of the Pope was
tossed from his chair by one dressed as the Devil into a great
bonfire made opposite the statue of Queen Elizabeth, on the
city side of Temple-bar. Two rare tracts describe these
"solemn mock-processions," as they are termed, in 1679 and
1680. Prints were also published depicting the whole
proceedings, and descriptive pamphlets from the pen of Settle,
who arranged these shows.--ED.
[249] Thus altered in the _Dunciad_, book i., ver. 183--
"As clocks to weight their nimble motions owe,
The wheels above urged by the load below."
[250] This original image a late caustic wit (Horne Tooke), who
probably had never read this poem, employed on a certain
occasion. Godwin, who had then distinguished himself by his
genius and by some hardy paradoxes, was pleading for them as
hardily, by showing that they did not originate in him--that
they were to be found in Helvetius, in Rousseau, and in other
modern philosophers. "Ay," retorted the cynical wit; "so you
eat at my table venison and turtle, but from you the same
things come quite changed!" The original, after all, is in
Donne, long afterwards versified by our poet. See Warton's
edition, vol. iv. p. 257. Pope must have been an early reader
of Donne.
[251] Thus altered in the _Dunciad_, book i. ver. 181--
"As, forced from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,
And pond'rous slugs cut swiftly through the sky."
[252] Perhaps, by _Chærilus_, the juvenile satirist designated
_Flecknoe_, or _Shadwell_, who had received their immortality
of dulness from his master, catholic in poetry and opinions,
Dryden.
THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
THE ROYAL SOCIETY at first opposed from various quarters--their
Experimental Philosophy supplants the Aristotelian methods--suspected
of being the concealed Advocates of Popery, Arbitrary Power, and
Atheism--disappointments incurred by their promises--the simplicity
of the early Inquirers--ridiculed by the Wits and others--Narrative
of a quarrel between a Member of the Royal Society and an
Aristotelian--Glanvill writes his "Plus Ultra," to show the
Improvements of Modern Knowledge--Character of Stubbe of
Warwick--his Apology, from himself--opposes the "Plus Ultra" by the
"Plus Ultra reduced to a Nonplus"--his "Campanella revived"--the
Political Projects of Campanella--Stubbe persecuted, and menaced
to be publicly whipped; his Roman spirit--his "Legends no
Histories"--his "Censure on some Passages of the History of the
Royal Society"--Harvey's ambition to be considered the Discoverer of
the Circulation of the Blood, which he demonstrates--Stubbe describes
the Philosophy of Science--attacks Sprat's Dedication to the
King--The Philosophical Transactions published by Sir Hans Sloane
ridiculed by Dr. King--his new Species of Literary Burlesque--King's
character--these attacks not ineffectually renewed by Sir John Hill.
The Royal Society, on its first establishment, at the era of the
Restoration, encountered fierce hostilities; nor, even at later
periods, has it escaped many wanton attacks. A great revolution in the
human mind was opening with that establishment; for the spirit which
had appeared in the recent political concussion, and which had given
freedom to opinion, and a bolder scope to enterprise, had now reached
the literary and philosophical world; but causes of the most opposite
natures operated against this institution of infant science.
In the first place, the new experimental philosophy, full of
inventions and operations, proposed to supplant the old scholastic
philosophy, which still retained an obscure jargon of terms, the most
frivolous subtilties, and all those empty and artificial methods by
which it pretended to decide on all topics. Too long it had filled the
ear with airy speculation, while it starved the mind that languished
for sense and knowledge. But this emancipation menaced the power of
the followers of Aristotle, who were still slumbering in their
undisputed authority, enthroned in our Universities. For centuries
the world had been taught that the philosopher of Stagira had thought
on every subject: Aristotle was quoted as equal authority with St.
Paul, and his very image has been profanely looked on with the
reverence paid to Christ. BACON had fixed a new light in Europe, and
others were kindling their torches at his flame. When the great
usurper of the human understanding was once fairly opposed to Nature,
he betrayed too many symptoms of mere humanity. Yet this great triumph
was not obtained without severe contention; and upon the Continent
even blood has been shed in the cause of words. In our country, the
University of Cambridge was divided by a party who called themselves
_Trojans_, from their antipathy to the _Greeks_, or the Aristotelians;
and once the learned Richard Harvey, the brother of Gabriel, the
friend of Spenser, stung to madness by the predominant powers, to
their utter dismay set up their idol on the school-gates, with his
heels upwards, and ass's ears on his head. But at this later period,
when the Royal Society was established, the war was more open, and
both parties more inveterate. Now the world seemed to think, so
violent is the reaction of public opinion, that they could reason
better without Aristotle than with him: that he had often taught them
nothing more than self-evident propositions, or had promoted that
dangerous idleness of maintaining paradoxes, by quibbles and other
captious subtilties. The days had closed of the "illuminated," the
"profound," and the "irrefragable," titles, which the scholastic
heroes had obtained; and the Aristotelian four modes, by which all
things in nature must exist, of _materialiter_, _formaliter_,
_fundamentaliter_, and _eminenter_, were now considered as nothing
more than the noisy rattles, or chains of cherry-stones, which had too
long detained us in the nursery of the human mind.[253] The world had
been cheated with words instead of things; and the new experimental
philosophy insisted that men should be less loquacious, but more
laborious.
Some there were, in that unsettled state of politics and religion, in
whose breasts the embers of the late Revolution were still hot: they
were panic-struck that the advocates of popery and arbitrary power
were returning on them, disguised as natural philosophers. This new
terror had a very ludicrous origin:--it arose from some casual
expressions, in which the Royal Society at first delighted, and by
which an air of mystery was thrown over its secret movements: such was
that "Universal Correspondence" which it affected to boast of; and the
vaunt to foreigners of its "Ten Secretaries," when, in truth, all
these magnificent declarations were only objects of their wishes.
Another fond but singular expression, which the illustrious BOYLE had
frequently applied to it in its earliest state, when only composed of
a few friends, calling it "The Invisible College," all concurred to
make the Royal Society wear the appearance of a conspiracy against
the political freedom of the nation. At a time, too, when, according
to the historian of the Royal Society, "almost every family was widely
disagreed among themselves on matters of religion," they believed that
this "new experimental philosophy was subversive of the Christian
faith!"[254] and many mortally hated the newly-invented optical
glasses, the telescope and the microscope, as atheistical inventions,
which perverted our sight, and made everything appear in a new and
false light! Sprat wrote his celebrated "History of the Royal
Society," to show that experimental philosophy was neither designed
for the extinction of the Universities, nor of the Christian religion,
which were really imagined to be in danger.
Others, again, were impatient for romantic discoveries; miracles were
required, some were hinted at, while some were promised. In the
ecstasy of imagination, they lost their soberness, forgetting that
they were but the historians of nature, and not her prophets.[255] But
amid these dreams of hope and fancy, the creeping experimentalist was
still left boasting of improvements, so slow that they were not
perceived, and of novelties so absurd that they too often raised the
laugh against their grave and unlucky discoverers. The philosophers
themselves seemed to have been fretted into the impatient humour which
they attempted to correct; and the amiable Evelyn becomes an irritated
satirist, when he attempts to reply to the repeated question of that
day, "What have they done?"[256]
But a source of the ridicule which was perpetually flowing against the
Royal Society, was the almost infantine simplicity of its earliest
members, led on by their honest zeal; and the absence of all
discernment in many trifling and ludicrous researches, which called
down the malice of the wits;[257] there was, too, much of that unjust
contempt between the parties, which students of opposite pursuits and
tastes so liberally bestow on each other. The researches of the
Antiquarian Society were sneered at by the Royal, and the antiquaries
avenged themselves by their obstinate incredulity at the prodigies of
the naturalists; the student of classical literature was equally
slighted by the new philosophers; who, leaving the study of words and
the elegancies of rhetoric for the study merely of things, declared as
the cynical ancient did of metaphors, "Poterimus vivere sine
illis"--We can do very well without them! The ever-witty South, in his
oration at Oxford, made this poignant reflection on the Royal
Society--"Mirantur nihil nisi pulices, pediculos, et seipsos." They
can admire nothing except fleas, lice, and themselves! And even Hobbes
so little comprehended the utility of these new pursuits, that he
considered the Royal Society merely as so many labourers, who, when
they had washed their hands after their work, should leave to others
the polishing of their discourses. He classed them, in the way they
were proceeding, with apothecaries, and gardeners, and mechanics, who
might now "all put in for, and get the prize." Even at a later period,
Sir William Temple imagined the virtuosi to be only so many Sir
Nicholas Gimcracks; and contemptuously called them, from the place of
their first meeting, "the Men of Gresham!" doubtless considering them
as wise as "the Men of Gotham!" Even now, men of other tempers and
other studies are too apt to refuse the palm of philosophy to the
patient race of naturalists.[258] Wotton, who wrote so zealously at
the commencement of the last century in favour of modern knowledge, is
alarmed lest the effusions of wit, in his time, should "deaden the
industry of the philosophers of the next age; for," he adds, "nothing
wounds so effectually as a jest; and when men once become ridiculous,
their labours will be slighted, and they will find few imitators." The
alarm shows his zeal, but not his discernment: since curiosity in
hidden causes is a passion which endures with human nature. "The
philosophers of the next age" have shown themselves as persevering as
their predecessors, and the wits as malicious. The contest between men
of meditation and men of experiment, is a very ancient quarrel; and
the "divine" Socrates was no friend to, and even a ridiculer of, those
very pursuits for which the Royal Society was established.[259]
In founding this infant empire of knowledge, a memorable literary war
broke out between Glanvill, the author of the treatise on "Witches,"
&c., and Stubbe, a physician, a man of great genius. It is the
privilege of genius that its controversies enter into the history of
the human mind; what is but temporary among the vulgar of mankind,
with the curious and the intelligent become monuments of lasting
interest. The present contest, though the spark of contention flew out
of a private quarrel, at length blazed into a public controversy.
The obscure individual who commenced the fray, is forgotten in the
boasted achievements of his more potent ally; he was a clergyman
named Cross, the Vicar of Great Chew, in Somersetshire, a stanch
Aristotelian.
Glanvill, a member of the Royal Society, and an enthusiast for the new
philosophy, had kindled the anger of the peripatetic, who was his
neighbour, and who had the reputation of being the invincible
disputant of his county.[260] Some, who had in vain contended with
Glanvill, now contrived to inveigle the modern philosopher into an
interview with this redoubted champion.
When Glanvill entered the house, he perceived that he was to begin an
acquaintance in a quarrel, which was not the happiest way to preserve
it. The Vicar of Great Chew sat amid his congregated admirers. The
peripatetic had promised them the annihilation of the new-fashioned
virtuoso, and, like an angry boar, had already been preluding by
whetting his tusks. Scarcely had the first cold civilities passed,
when Glanvill found himself involved in single combat with an
assailant armed with the ten categories of Aristotle. Cross, with his
_Quodam modo_, and his _Modo quodam_, with his _Ubi_ and his _Quando_,
scattered the ideas of the simple experimentalist, who, confining
himself to a simple recital of _facts_ and a description of _things_,
was referring, not to the logic of Aristotle, but to the works of
nature. The imperative Aristotelian was wielding weapons, which, says
Glanvill, "were nothing more than like those of a cudgel-player, or
fencing-master."[261]
The last blow was still reserved, when Cross asserted that Aristotle
had more opportunities to acquire knowledge than the Royal Society, or
all the present age had, or could have, for this definitive reason,
"because Aristotle did, _totam peragrare Asiam_." Besides, in the Chew
philosophy, where novelty was treason, improvements or discoveries
could never exist. Here the Aristotelian made his stand; and at
length, gently hooking Glanvill between the horns of a dilemma, the
entrapped virtuoso threw himself into an unguarded affirmation; at
which the Vicar of Great Chew, shouting in triumph, with a sardonic
grin, declared that Glanvill and his Royal Society had now avowed
themselves to be atheistical! This made an end of the interview, and a
beginning of the quarrel.[262]
Glanvill addressed an expostulatory letter to the inhuman Aristotelian,
who only replied by calling it a recantation, asserting that the affair
had finished with the conviction.
On this, Glanvill produced his "Plus Ultra,"[263] on the modern
improvements of knowledge. The quaint title referred to that Asian
argument which placed the boundaries of knowledge at the ancient
limits fixed by Aristotle, like the pillars of Hercules, on which was
inscribed _Ne plus ultra_, to mark the extremity of the world. But
Glanvill asserted we might advance still further--_plus ultra_! To
this book the Aristotelian replied with such rancour, that he could
not obtain a licence for the invective either at Oxford or London.
Glanvill contrived to get some extracts, and printed a small number of
copies for his friends, under the sarcastic title of "The Chew
Gazette,"--a curiosity, we are told, of literary scolding, and which
might now, among literary trinkets, fetch a Roxburgh prize.
Cross, maddened that he could not get his bundle of peripatetic
ribaldries printed, wrote ballads, which he got sung as it chanced.
But suppressed invectives and eking rhymes could but ill appease so
fierce a mastiff: he set on the poor F.R.S. an animal as rabid, but
more vigorous than himself--both of them strangely prejudiced against
the modern improvements of knowledge; so that, like mastiffs in the
dark, they were only the fiercer.
This was Dr. Henry Stubbe, a physician of Warwick--one of those ardent
and versatile characters, strangely made up of defects as strongly
marked as their excellences. He was one of those authors who, among
their numerous remains, leave little of permanent value; for their
busy spirits too keenly delight in temporary controversy, and they
waste the efforts of a mind on their own age, which else had made the
next their own. Careless of worldly opinions, these extraordinary men,
with the simplicity of children, are mere beings of sensation;
perpetually precipitated by their feelings, with slight powers of
reflection, and just as sincere when they act in contradiction to
themselves, as when they act in contradiction to others. In their
moral habits, therefore, we are often struck with strange contrasts;
their whole life is a jumble of actions; and we are apt to condemn
their versatility of principles as arising from dishonest motives; yet
their temper has often proved more generous, and their integrity
purer, than those who have crept up in one unvarying progress to an
eminence which they quietly possess, without any of the ardour of
these original, perhaps whimsical, minds. The most tremendous menace
to a man of this class would be to threaten to write the history of
his life and opinions. When Stubbe attacked the Royal Society, this
threat was held out against him. But menaces never startled his
intrepid genius; he roved in all his wild greatness; and, always
occupied more by present views than interested by the past events of
his life, he cared little for his consistency in the high spirit of
his independence.
The extraordinary character of Stubbe produced as uncommon a
history. Stubbe had originally been a child of fortune, picked up
at Westminster school by Sir Henry Vane the younger, who sent him
to Oxford; where this effervescent genius was, says Wood, "kicked,
and beaten, and whipped."[264] But if these little circumstances
marked the irritability and boldness of his youth, it was equally
distinguished by an entire devotion to his studies. Perhaps one of
the most anomalous of human characters was that of his patron, Sir
Henry Vane the younger (whom Milton has immortalised in one of the
noblest of sonnets), the head of the Independents, who combined with
the darkest spirit of fanaticism the clear views of the most sagacious
politician. The gratitude of Stubbe lasted through all the changeful
fortunes of the chief of a faction--a long date in the records of
human affection! Stubbe had written against monarchy, the church, the
university, &c.; for which, after the Restoration, he was accused
by his antagonists. He exults in the reproach; he replies with all
that frankness of simplicity, so beautiful amid our artificial
manners. He denies not the charge; he never trims, nor glosses over,
nor would veil, a single part of his conduct. He wrote to serve his
patrons, but never himself. I preserve the whole of this noble
passage in the note.[265] Wood bears witness to his perfect
disinterestedness. He never partook of the prosperity of his patron,
nor mixed with any parties, loving the retirement of his private
studies; and if he scorned and hated one party, the Presbyterians, it
was, says Wood, because his high generous nature detested men "void
of generous souls, sneaking, snivelling, &c." Stubbe appears to have
carried this philosophical indifference towards objects of a higher
interest than those of mere profit; for, at the Restoration, he found
no difficulty in conforming to the Church[266] and to the Government.
The king bestowed on him the title of his physician; yet, for the
sake of making philosophical experiments, Stubbe went to Jamaica,
and intended to have proceeded to Mexico and Peru, pursuing his
profession, but still an adventurer. At length Stubbe returned
home; established himself as a physician at Warwick, where, though he
died early, he left a name celebrated.[267] The fertility of his pen
appears in a great number of philosophical, political, and medical
publications. But all his great learning, the facility of his genius,
his poignant wit, his high professional character, his lofty
independence, his scorn of practising the little mysterious arts of
life, availed nothing; for while he was making himself popular
among his auditors, he was eagerly depreciated by those who would
not willingly allow merit to a man who owned no master, and who
feared no rival.
Literary coteries were then held at coffee-houses;[268] and there
presided the voluble Stubbe, with "a big and magisterial voice, while
his mind was equal to it," says the characterising Wood; but his
attenuated frame seemed too delicate to hold long so unbroken a
spirit. It was an accident, however, which closed this life of toil
and hurry and petulant genius. Going to a patient at night, Stubbe was
drowned in a very shallow river, "his head (adds our cynic, who had
generously paid the tribute of his just admiration with his strong
peculiarity of style) being then intoxicated with bibbing, but more
with talking and snuffing of powder."
Such was the adversary of the Royal Society! It is quite in character
that, under the government of Cromwell, he himself should have spread
a taste for what was then called "The New Philosophy" among our youth
and gentlemen, with the view of rendering the clergy contemptible; or,
as he says, "to make them appear egregious fools in matters of common
discourse." He had always a motive for his actions, however opposite
they were; pretending that he was never moved by caprice, but guided
by principle. One of his adversaries, however, has reason to say, that
judging him by his "printed papers, he was a man of excellent
contradictory parts." After the Restoration, he furnished as odd, but
as forcible a reason, for opposing the Royal Society. At that time the
nation, recent from republican ardours, was often panic-struck by
papistical conspiracies, and projects of arbitrary power; and it was
on this principle that he took part against the Society. Influenced by
Dr. Fell and others, he suffered them to infuse these extravagant
opinions into his mind. No private ends appear to have influenced his
changeable conduct; and in the present instance he was sacrificing his
personal feelings to his public principles; for Stubbe was then in the
most friendly correspondence with the illustrious Boyle, the father of
the Royal Society, who admired the ardour of Stubbe, till he found its
inconvenience.[269]
Stubbe opened his formidable attacks, for they form a series, by
replying to the "Plus Ultra" of Glanvill, with a title as quaint,
"The _Plus Ultra_ reduced to a _Non-plus_, in animadversions on
Mr. Glanvill and the Virtuosi." For a pretence for this violent
attack, he strained a passage in Glanvill; insisting that the honour
of the whole faculty of which he was a member was deeply concerned
to refute Glanvill's assertion, that "the ancient physicians could not
cure a cut finger."--This Glanvill denied he had ever affirmed or
thought;[270] but war once resolved on, a pretext as slight as the
present serves the purpose; and so that an odium be raised against
the enemy, the end is obtained before the injustice is acknowledged.
This is indeed the history of other wars than those of words. The
present was protracted with an hostility unsubduing and unsubdued.
At length the malicious ingenuity, or the heated fancy, of Stubbe,
hardly sketched a political conspiracy, accusing the ROYAL SOCIETY of
having adopted the monstrous projects of CAMPANELLA;--an anomalous
genius, who was confined by the Inquisition the greater part of his
life, and who, among some political reveries, projected the
establishment of a universal empire, though he was for shaking off
the yoke of authority in the philosophical world. He was for one
government and one religion throughout Europe, but in other respects
he desired to leave the minds of men quite free. Campanella was one
of the new lights of the age; and his hardy, though wild genius
much more resembled our Stubbe, who denounced his extravagancies,
than any of the Royal Society, to whom he was so artfully compared.
This tremendous attack appeared in Stubbe's "Campanella Revived, or an
Enquiry into the History of the Royal Society; whether the Virtuosi
there do not pursue the projects of Campanella, for reducing England
into Popery; relating the quarrel betwixt H. S. and the R. S., &c.
1670."[271]
Such was the dread which his reiterated attacks caused the Royal
Society, that they employed against him all the petty persecutions of
power and intrigue. "Thirty legions," says Stubbe, alluding to the
famous reply of the philosopher, who would not dispute with a crowned
head, "were to be called to aid you against a young country physician,
who had so long discontinued studies of this nature." However, he
announces that he has finished three more works against the Royal
Society, and has a fourth nearly ready, if it be necessary to prove
that the rhetorical history of the Society by Sprat must be bad,
because "no eloquence can be complete if the subject-matter be
foolish!" His adversaries not only threatened to write his life,[272]
but they represented him to the king as a libeller, who ought to be
whipped at a cart's tail; a circumstance which Stubbe records with the
indignation of a Roman spirit.[273] They stopped his work several
times, and by some stratagem they hindered him from correcting the
press; but nothing could impede the career of his fearless genius. He
treated with infinite ridicule their trivial or their marvellous
discoveries in his "Legends no Histories," and his "Censure on some
Passages of the History of the Royal Society." But while he ridiculed,
he could instruct them; often contributing new knowledge, which the
Royal Society had certainly been proud to have registered in their
history. In his determination of depreciating the novelties of his
day, he disputes even the honour of HARVEY to the discovery of the
circulation of the blood: he attributes it to ANDREAS CÆSALPINUS, who
not only discovered it, but had given it the name of _Circulatio
Sanguinis_.[274]
Stubbe was not only himself a man of science, but a caustic satirist,
who blends much pleasantry with his bitterness. In the first ardour
of philosophical discovery, the Society, delighted by the acquisition
of new facts, which, however, rarely proved to be important, and were
often ludicrous in their detail, appear to have too much neglected the
arts of reasoning; they did not even practise common discernment, or
what we might term philosophy, in its more enlarged sense.[275]
Stubbe, with no respect for "a Society," though dignified by the
addition of "Royal," says, "a cabinet of virtuosi are but pitiful
reasoners. Ignorance is infectious; and 'tis possible for men to grow
fools by contact. I will speak to the virtuosi in the language of the
Romish Saint Francis (who, in the wilderness, so humbly addressed his
only friends,) '_Salvete, fratres asini! Salvete, fratres lupi!_'" As
for their Transactions and their History, he thinks "they purpose to
grow famous, as the Turks do to gain Paradise, _by treasuring up all
the waste paper they meet with_." He rallies them on some ridiculous
attempts, such as "An Art of Flying;" an art, says Stubbe, in which
they have not so much as effected the most facile part of the attempt,
which is to break their necks!
Sprat, in his dedication to the king, had said that "the establishment
of the Royal Society was an enterprise equal to the most renowned
actions of the best princes." One would imagine that the notion of a
monarch founding a society for the cultivation of the sciences could
hardly be made objectionable; but, in literary controversy, genius
has the power of wresting all things to its purpose by its own
peculiar force, and the art of placing every object in the light it
chooses, and can thus obtain our attention in spite of our conviction.
I will add the curious animadversion of Stubbe on Sprat's compliment
to the king:--
"Never Prince acquired the fame of great and good by any knickknacks--but
by actions of political wisdom, courage, justice," &c.
Stubbe shows how Dionysius and Nero had been depraved by these
_mechanic philosophers_--that
"An Aristotelian would never pardon himself if he compared _this_
heroical enterprise with the actions of our Black Prince or Henry V.;
or with Henry VIII. in demolishing abbeys and rejecting the papal
authority; or Queen Elizabeth's exploits against Spain; or her
restoring the Protestant religion, putting the Bible into English, and
supporting the Protestants beyond sea. But the reason he (Sprat) gives
why the establishment of the Royal Society of experimentators equals
the most renowned actions of the best princes, is such a pitiful one
as Guzman de Alfarache never met with in the whole extent of the
_Hospital of Fools_--'To increase the power, by new arts, of conquered
nations!' These consequences are twisted like the _cordage of Ocnus_,
the God of Sloth, in hell, which are fit for nothing but _to fodder
asses with_. If our historian means by _every little invention to
increase the powers of mankind_, as an enterprise of such renown, he
is deceived; this glory is not due to such as go about with a dog and
a hoop, nor to the practicers of legerdemain, or upon the high or low
rope; not to every mountebank and his man Andrew; all which, with many
other mechanical and experimental philosophers, do in some sort
increase the powers of mankind, and differ no more from some of the
virtuosi, than _a cat in a hole_ doth from _a cat out of a hole_;
betwixt which that inquisitive person ASDRYASDUST TOSSOFFACAN found a
very great resemblance. 'Tis not the increasing of the _powers of
mankind_ by a pendulum watch, nor spectacles whereby divers may see
under water, nor the new ingenuity of apple-roasters, nor every petty
discovery or instrument, must be put in comparison, much less
preferred, before _the protection and enlargement of empires_."[276]
Had Stubbe's death not occurred, this warfare had probably continued.
He insisted on a complete victory. He had forced the Royal Society to
disclaim their own works, by an announcement that they were not
answerable, as a body, for the various contributions which they gave
the world: an advertisement which has been more than once found
necessary to be renewed. As for their historian Sprat, our intrepid
Stubbe very unexpectedly offered to manifest to the parliament that
this courtly adulator, by his book, was chargeable with high treason;
if they believed that the Royal Society were really engaged so deeply
as he averred in the portentous Cæsarean Popery of Campanella.
Glanvill, who had "insulted all university learning," had been
immolated at the pedestal of Aristotle. "I have done enough," he adds,
"since my animadversions contain more than they all knew; and that
these have shown that the _virtuosi_ are very great impostors, or men
of little reading;" alluding to the various discoveries which they
promulgated as novelties, but which Stubbe had asserted were known to
the ancients and others of a later period. This forms a perpetual
accusation against the inventors and discoverers, who may often
exclaim, "Perish those who have done our good works before us!" "The
Discoveries of the Ancients and Moderns" by Dutens, had this book been
then published, might have assisted our keen investigator; but our
combatant ever proudly met his adversaries single-handed.
The "Philosophical Transactions" were afterwards accused of another
kind of high treason, against grammar and common sense. It was long
before the collectors of facts practised the art of writing on them;
still later before they could philosophise, as well as observe: Bacon
and Boyle were at first only imitated in their patient industry. When
Sir HANS SLOANE was the secretary of the Royal Society, he, and most
of his correspondents, wrote in the most confused manner imaginable. A
wit of a very original cast, the facetious Dr. KING,[277] took
advantage of their perplexed and often unintelligible descriptions;
of the meanness of their style, which humbled even the great objects
of nature; of their credulity that heaped up marvels, and their vanity
that prided itself on petty discoveries, and invented a new species of
satire. SLOANE, a name endeared to posterity, whose life was that of
an enthusiast of science, and who was the founder of a national
collection; and his numerous friends, many of whose names have
descended with the regard due to the votaries of knowledge, fell the
victims. Wit is an unsparing leveller.
The new species of literary burlesque which King seems to have
invented, consists in selecting the very expressions and absurd
passages from the original he ridiculed, and framing out of them a
droll dialogue or a grotesque narrative, he adroitly inserted his own
remarks, replete with the keenest irony, or the driest sarcasm.[278]
Our arch wag says, "The bulls and blunders which Sloane and his
friends so naturally pour forth cannot be misrepresented, so careful
I am in producing them." King still moves the risible muscles of his
readers. "The Voyage to Cajamai," a travestie of Sloane's valuable
"History of Jamaica," is still a peculiar piece of humour; and it has
been rightly distinguished as "one of the severest and merriest
satires that was ever written in prose."[279] The author might indeed
have blushed at the labour bestowed on these drolleries; he might have
dreaded that humour so voluminous might grow tedious; but King, often
with a LUCIANIC spirit, with flashes of RABELAIS, and not seldom with
the causticity of his friend Swift, dissipated life in literary
idleness, with parodies and travesties on most of his contemporaries;
and he made these little things often more exquisite at the cost of
consuming on them a genius capable of better. A parodist or a
burlesquer is a wit who is perpetually on the watch to catch up or to
disguise an author's words, to swell out his defects, and pick up his
blunders--to amuse the public! King was a wit, who lived on the
highway of literature, appropriating, for his own purpose, the
property of the most eminent passengers, by a dextrous mode no other
had hit on. What an important lesson the labours of King offer to real
genius! Their temporary humour lost with their prototypes becomes like
a paralytic limb, which, refusing to do its office, impedes the action
of the vital members.
WOTTON, in summing up his "Reflections upon Ancient and Modern
Learning," was doubtful whether knowledge would improve in the next
age proportionably as it had done in his own. "The humour of the age
is visibly altered," he says, "from what it had been thirty years ago.
Though the Royal Society has weathered the rude attacks of Stubbe,"
yet "the sly insinuations of the _Men of Wit_," with "the _public
ridiculing_ of all who spend their time and fortunes in scientific or
curious researches, have so taken off the edge of those who have
opulent fortunes and a love to learning, that these studies begin to
be contracted amongst physicians and mechanics."--He treats King with
good-humour. "A man is got but a very little way (in philosophy) that
is concerned as often as such a merry gentleman as Dr. King shall
think fit to make himself sport."[280]
FOOTNOTES:
[253] Some may be curious to have these monkish terms defined.
_Causes_ are distinguished by Aristotle into four kinds:--The
material cause, _ex qua_, out of which things are made;
the formal cause, _per quam_, by which a thing is that
which it is, and nothing else; the efficient cause, _a qua_,
by the agency of which anything is produced; and the final
cause, _propter quam_, the end for which it is produced. Such
are his notions in his Phys. 1. ii. c. iii., referred to by
Brucker and Formey in their Histories of Philosophy. Of the
Scholastic Metaphysics, _Sprat_, the historian of the Royal
Society, observes, "that the lovers of that cloudy knowledge
boast that it is an excellent instrument to refine and
make subtle the minds of men. But there may be _a greater
excess in the subtlety of men's wits_ than in their
_thickness_; as we see those threads, which are of too fine
a spinning, are found to be more useless than those which are
homespun and gross."--_History of the Royal Society_, p. 326.
In the history of human folly, often so closely connected with
that of human knowledge, some of the schoolmen (the
commentators on Aquinas and others) prided themselves, and
were even admired for their impenetrable obscurity! One of
them, and our countryman, is singularly commended by Cardan,
for that "only one of his arguments was enough to puzzle all
posterity; and that, when he had grown old, he wept because he
could not understand his own books." Baker, in his Reflections
upon Learning, who had examined this schoolman, declares that
his obscurity is such, as if he never meant to be understood.
The extravagances of the schoolmen are, however, not always
those of Aristotle. Pope, and the wits of that day, like these
early members of the Royal Society, decried Aristotle, who did
not probably fall in the way of their studies. His great
imperfections are in natural philosophy; but he still
preserves his eminence for his noble treatises of Ethics, and
Politics, and Poetics, notwithstanding the imperfect state in
which these have reached us. Dr. Copleston and Dr. Gillies
have given an energetic testimony to their perpetual value.
Pope, in satirising the University as a nest of dunces,
considered the followers of Aristotle as so many stalled oxen,
"_fat bulls of Basan_."
"A hundred head of Aristotle's friends."
DUNCIAD.
Swift has drawn an allegorical personage of Aristotle, by
which he describes the nature of his works. "He stooped much,
and made use of a staff; his visage was meagre, his hair lank
and thin, and his voice hollow;" descriptive of his abrupt
conciseness, his harsh style, the obscurities of his
dilapidated text, and the deficiency of feeling, which his
studied compression, his deep sagacity, and his analytical
genius, so frequently exhibit.
[254] Sprat makes an ingenious observation on the notion of those who
declared that "_the most learned ages are still the most
atheistical, and the ignorant the most devout_." He says this
had become almost proverbial, but he shows that piety is
little beholden to those who make this distinction. "The
Jewish law forbids us to offer up to God a sacrifice that has
a blemish; but these men bestow the most excellent of men on
the devil, and only assign to religion those men and those
times which have the greatest blemish of human nature, even a
defect in their knowledge and understanding."--_History of the
Royal Society_, p. 356.
[255] Science, at its birth, is as much the child of imagination as
curiosity; and, in rapture at the new instrument it has
discovered, it impatiently magnifies its power. To the
infant, all improvements are wonders; it chronicles even its
dreams, and has often described what it never has seen,
delightfully deceived; the cold insults of the cynics, the
wits, the dull, and the idle, maliciously mortify the
infant in its sports, till it returns to slow labour and
patient observation. It is rather curious, however, that
when science obtains a certain state of maturity, it is
liable to be attacked by the same fits of the marvellous
which affected its infancy;--and the following extract from
one of the enthusiastic _Virtuosi_ in the infancy of science,
rivals the visions of "the perfectibility of man" of which we
hear so much at this late period. Some, perhaps, may consider
these strong tendencies of the imagination, breaking out at
these different periods in the history of science, to
indicate results, of which the mind feels a consciousness,
which the philosopher should neither indulge nor check.
"Should these heroes go on (the Royal Society) as they
have happily begun, they will fill the world with wonders;
and posterity will find many things that are now but
_rumours_, verified into practical _realities_. It may be,
some ages hence, a _voyage_ to the southern unknown tracts,
yea, possibly the _Moon_, will not be more strange than one
to America. To them that come after us, it may be as
ordinary to _buy a pair of wings_ to fly into remotest
regions, as now _a pair of boots_ to ride a journey. And to
confer at the distance of the Indies, by _sympathetic
conveyances_, may be as usual to future times, as to us in a
literary correspondence. The restoration of _grey hairs to
juvenility_, and renewing the _exhausted marrow_, may at
length, be effected without a miracle; and the turning the
now-comparative _desert world_ into a _paradise_, may not
improbably be expected from late _agriculture_.
"Those that judge by the narrowness of former principles and
successes, will smile at these paradoxical expectations. But
the great inventions of latter ages, which altered the face of
all things, in their naked proposals and mere suppositions,
were to former times as ridiculous. To have talked of a new
earth to have been discovered, had been a romance to
antiquity; and to sail without sight of stars or shores, by
the guidance of a mineral, a story more absurd than the
flight of Dædalus. That men should speak after their tongues
were ashes, or communicate with each other in differing
hemispheres, before the invention of letters, could not but
have been thought a fiction. Antiquity would not have
believed the almost incredible force of our cannons, and
would as coldly have entertained the wonders of the
telescope."--GLANVILL, _Scepsis Scientifica_, p. 133.
[256] Evelyn, whose elegant mind, one would have imagined, had been
little susceptible of such vehement anger, in the preface
to his "Sylva," scolds at no common rate: "Well-meaning
people are led away by the noise of a few ignorant and
comical buffoons, who, with an insolence suitable to their
understanding, are still crying out, _What have the Society
done?_" He attributes all the opposition and ridicule the
Society encountered to a personage not usual to be introduced
into a philosophical controversy--"The Enemy of Mankind." But
it was well to denounce the devil himself, as the Society had
nearly lost the credit of fearing him. Evelyn insists that
"next to the propagation of our most holy faith," that of the
new philosophy was desirable both for the king and the
nation; "for," he adds, "it will survive the triumphs of
the proudest conquerors; since, when all their pomp and
noise is ended, they are those _little things in black_, whom
now in scorn they term philosophers and fops, to whom they
must be obliged for making their names outlast the pyramids,
whose founders are as unknown as the heads of the Nile." Why
Evelyn designates the philosophers as _little things in
black_, requires explanation. Did they affect a dress of
this colour in the reign of Charles II., or does he allude
to the dingy appearance of the chemists?
[257] It is not easy to credit the simplicity of these early
inquirers. In a Memorial in Sprat's History, entitled,
"Answers returned by Sir Philliberto Vernatti to certain
Inquiries sent by order of the Royal Society;" among some of
the most extraordinary questions and descriptions of
nonentities, which must have fatigued Sir Philliberto, who
then resided in Batavia, I find the present:--"Qy. 8. What
ground there may be for that relation concerning _horns
taking root, and growing about Goa_?" It seems the question
might as well have been asked at London, and answered by
some of the members themselves; for Sir Philliberto
gravely replied--"Inquiring about this, a friend laughed,
and told me it was a jeer put upon the Portuguese, because
the women of Goa are counted none of the chastest." Inquiries
of this nature, and often the most trivial objects set off
with a singular minuteness of description, tempted the laugh
of the scoffers. Their great adversary, Stubbe, ridiculing
their mode of giving instructions for inquiries, regrets
that the paper he received from them had been lost, otherwise
he would have published it. "The great Mr. Boyle, when he
brought it, tendered it with blushing and disorder," at the
simplicity of the Royal Society! And indeed the royal founder
himself, who, if he was something of a philosopher, was much
more of a wit, set the example. The Royal Society, on the day
of its creation, was the whetstone of the wit of their
patron. When Charles II. dined with the members on the
occasion of constituting them a Royal Society, towards the
close of the evening he expressed his satisfaction in being
the first English monarch who had laid a foundation for a
society who proposed that their sole studies should be
directed to the investigation of the arcana of nature; and
added with that peculiar gravity of countenance he usually
wore on such occasions, that among such learned men he now
hoped for a solution to a question which had long perplexed
him. The case he thus stated:--"Suppose two pails of water
were fixed in two different scales that were equally
poised, and which weighed equally alike, and that two live
bream, or small fish, were put into either of these pails, he
wanted to know the reason why that pail, with such addition,
should not weigh more than the other pail which stood
against it." Every one was ready to set at quiet the royal
curiosity; but it appeared that every one was giving a
different opinion. One, at length, offered so ridiculous a
solution, that another of the members could not refrain from
a loud laugh; when the King, turning to him, insisted that he
should give his sentiments as well as the rest. This he did
without hesitation, and told his majesty, in plain terms, that
he denied the fact! On which the King, in high mirth,
exclaimed--"Odds fish, brother, you are in the right!" The
jest was not ill designed. The story was often useful, to cool
the enthusiasm of the scientific visionary, who is apt
often to account for what never has existed.
[258] Pope was severe in his last book of the _Dunciad_ on the
students of insects, flowers, &c.; and R.O. Cambridge followed
out the idea of a mad virtuoso in his "Scribleriad," which he
has made up from the absurd or trifling parts of natural
history and philosophy. His hero is--
"A much-enduring man, whose curious soul
Bore him with ceaseless toil from pole to pole;
Insatiate endless knowledge to obtain,
Thro' woes by land, thro' dangers on the main."
He collects curiosities from all parts of the world; studies
occult and natural sciences; and is at last beatified by
electrical glories at a meeting of hermetical philosophers.
This poem is elucidated by notes, which point the allusions to
the works or doings of the old philosophers.--ED.
[259] Evelyn, who could himself be a wit occasionally, was, however,
much annoyed by the scorners. He applies to these wits a
passage in Nehemiah ii. 19, which describes those who laughed
at the _builders of Jerusalem_. "These are the Sanballats,
the Horonites, who disturb our men upon the wall; but _let
us rise up and build_!" He describes these Horonites of wit as
"magnificent fops, whose talents reach but to the adjusting of
their perukes." But the Royal Society was attacked from other
quarters, which ought to have assisted them. Evelyn, in his
valuable treatise on forest-trees, had inserted a new
project for making cider; and Stubbe insisted, that in
consequence "much cider had been spoiled within these three
years, by following the directions published by the
commands of the Royal Society." They afterwards announced
that they never considered themselves as answerable for
their own memoirs, which gave Stubbe occasion to boast that
he had forced them to deny what they had written. A passage
in Hobbes's "Considerations upon his Reputation, &c.," is as
remarkable for the force of its style as for that of sense,
and may be applicable to _some_ at this day, notwithstanding
the progress of science, and the importance attached to
their busy idleness.
"Every man that hath spare money can get furnaces, and buy
coals. Every man that hath spare money can be at the charge of
making great moulds, &c., and so may have the best and
greatest telescopes. They can get engines made, recipients
made, and try conclusions; but they are never the more
philosophers for all this. 'Tis laudable to bestow money on
curious or useful delights, but that is none of the praises of
a philosopher." p. 53.
[260] Glanvill was a learned man, but evidently superstitious,
particularly in all that related to witchcraft and apparitions;
the reality of both being insisted on by him in a series of
books which he published at various periods of his life, and
which he continually worked upon with new arguments and
instances, in spite of all criticism or opposition. He was a
member of the Royal Society, prebend of Worcester, and rector
of Bath, where he died, October 4, 1680.--ED.
[261] The ninth chapter in the "Plus Ultra," entitled "The Credit of
Optic Glasses vindicated against a disputing man, who is
afraid to believe his eyes against Aristotle," gives one of
the ludicrous incidents of this philosophical visit. The
disputer raised a whimsical objection against the science of
optics, insisting that the newly-invented glasses, the
telescope, the microscope, &c., were all deceitful and
fallacious; for, said the Aristotelian, "take two spectacles,
use them at the same time, and you will not see so well as
with one singly--_ergo_, your microscopes and telescopes are
impostors." How this was forced into a syllogism does not
appear; but still the conclusion ran, "We can see better
through one pair than two, therefore all perspectives are
fallacious!"
One proposition for sense,
And t'other for convenience,
will make a tolerable syllogism for a logician in despair. The
Aristotelian was, however, somewhat puzzled by a problem which
he had himself raised--"Why we cannot see with two pair of
spectacles better than with one singly?" for the man of axioms
observed, "_Vis unita fortior_," "United strength _is
stronger_." It is curious enough, in the present day, to
observe the sturdy Aristotelian denying these discoveries, and
the praises of optics, and "the new glasses," by Glanvill. "If
this philosopher," says the member of the Royal Society, "had
spared some of those thoughts to the profitable doctrine of
optics which he hath spent upon _genus_ and _species_, we had
never heard of this objection." And he replies to the paradox
which the Aristotelian had raised by "Why cannot he write
better with _two pens_ than with a _single one_, since _Vis
unita fortior_? When he hath answered this _Quære_, he hath
resolved his own. The reason he gave why it should be so, is
the reason why 'tis not." Such are the squabbles of infantine
science, which cannot as yet discover causes, although it has
ascertained effects.
[262] This appears in chap. xviii. of the "Plus Ultra." With great
simplicity Glanvill relates:--"At this period of the
conference, the disputer lost all patience, and with sufficient
spite and rage told me 'that I was an atheist!--that he had
indeed desired my acquaintance, but would have no more on't,'
and so turned his back and went away, giving me time only to
answer that 'I had no great reason to lament the loss of an
acquaintance that could be so easily forfeited.'" The
following chapter vindicates the Royal Society from the
charge of atheism! to assure the world they were not to be
ranked "among the black conspirators against Heaven!" We see
the same objections again occurring in the modern system of
geology.
[263] This book was so scarce in 1757, that the writer in the
"Biographia Britannica" observes that this "small but elegant
treatise is still very much esteemed by the curious, being
become so scarce as not to be met with in other hands." Oldys,
in 1738, had, in his "British Librarian," selected this work
among the scarce and valuable books of which he has presented
us with so many useful analyses.
The history of books is often curious. At one period a book is
scarce and valuable, and at another is neither one nor the
other. This does not always depend on the caprice of the
public, or what may be called literary fashions. Glanvill's
"Plus Ultra" is probably now of easy occurrence; like a
prophecy fully completed, the uncertain event being verified,
the prophet has ceased to be remembered.
[264] His early history is given by Wood in his usual style. His
father had been a Lincolnshire parson, who was obliged to
leave his poor curacy because "anabaptistically inclined," and
fled to Ireland, whence his mother and her children were
obliged to return on the breaking out of the rebellion of
1641, and landed at Liverpool; afterward, says Wood, "they all
beated it on the hoof thence to London, where she, gaining a
comfortable subsistence by her needle, sent her son Henry,
being then ten years of age, to the collegiate school at
Westminster. At that time Mr. Richard Busbie was the chief
master, who finding the boy have pregnant parts to a miracle,
did much favour and encourage him. At length Sir Henry Vane,
junior (the same who was beheaded on Tower Hill, 1662), coming
casually into the school with Dr. Lambert Osbaldiston, he did,
at the master's motion, take a kindness to the said boy, and
gave him the liberty to resort to his house, and to fill that
belly which otherwise had no sustenance but what one penny
could purchase for his dinner: and as for his breakfast, he
had none, except he got it by making somebody's exercise. Soon
after, Sir Henry got him to be a king's scholar; and his
master perceiving him to be beyond his years in proficiency,
he gave him money to buy books, clothes, and his teaching for
nothing." Such was the humble beginning of a learned man, who
lived to be a formidable opponent to the whole body of the
Royal Society.--ED.
[265] When Sprat and Glanvill, and others, had threatened to write his
life, Stubbe draws this apology for it, while he shows how
much, in a time of revolutions, the Royal Society might want
one for themselves.
"I was so far from being daunted at those rumours and threats,
that I enlarged much this book thereupon, and resolved to
charge the enemy home when I saw how weak a resistance I
should meet with. I knew that recriminations were no answers.
I understood well that the passages of a life like mine, spent
in different places with much privacy and obscurity, was
unknown to them; that even those actions they would fix their
greatest calumnies upon, were such as that they understood not
the grounds, nor had they learning enough and skill to
condemn. I was at Westminster School when the late king was
beheaded. I never took covenant nor engagement. In sum, _I
served my patron_. I endeavoured to express my _gratitude_ to
him who had relieved me, being a _child_, and in great poverty
(the rebellion in Ireland having deprived my parents of all
means wherewith to educate me); who made me a king's scholar;
preferred me to Christchurch College, Oxon.; and who often
supplied me with money when my tender years gave him little
hopes of any return; and who protected me amidst the
_Presbyterians_, and _Independents_, and other _sects_. With
none thereof did I contract any relation or acquaintance; my
familiarity never engaged me with ten of that party; and my
genius and humour inclined me to fewer. I neither enriched,
nor otherwise advanced myself, during the late troubles; and
shared the common _odium_ and _dangers_, not _prosperity_,
with my _benefactor_. I believe no generous man, who hath the
least sense of bravery, will condemn me; and I profess I am
ashamed rather to have done so little, than that I have done
so much, for him that so frankly obliged a _stranger_ and a
_child_. When Gracchus was put to death for sedition, that
faithful friend and accomplice of his was dismissed, and
mentioned with honour by all posterity, who, when he was
impeached, _justified his treason_ by the avowing a
_friendship_ so great that, whatever Gracchus had commanded
him, he would not have declined it. And being further
questioned, whether he would have burned the capitol at his
bidding? he replied again, that he should have done it; but
Gracchus would not bid such a thing. They that knew me
heretofore, know I have a thousand times thus apologised for
myself; adding, that in _vassals_ and _slaves_, and persons
_transcendently obliged_, their fidelity exempted them from
all ignominy, though the principal _lords_, _masters_, and
_patrons_, might be accounted _traitors_. My youth and other
circumstances incapacitated me from rendering him any great
services; but _all that I did_, and _all that I writ_, had no
other aim than _his interest_; nor do I care how much any man
can inodiate my former writings, as long as they were
subservient to him.
"Having made this declaration, let them (or more able men
than they) write the life of a man who hath some virtues of
the most celebrated times, and hath preserved himself free
from the vices of these. My reply shall be a scornful
silence."--Preface to Stubbe's "Legends no Histories," 1670.
[266] His reasons for conformity on these important objects are given
with his usual simplicity. "I have at length removed all the
umbrages I ever lay under. I have joined myself to the Church
of England, not only upon account of its being _publicly
imposed_ (which in _things indifferent_ is no small
consideration, as I learned from the Scottish transactions at
Perth), but because it is _the least defining_, and
consequently _the most comprehensive and fitting to be
national_."
[267] He died at Bath in 1676, where he had gone in attendance upon
several of his patients from the neighbourhood of Warwick,
where he for a long time practised as a physician. His old
antagonist Glanvill was at that time rector of the Abbey
Church in which he was buried, and so became the preacher of
his funeral sermon. Wood says he "said no great matter of
him."--ED.
[268] Pope said to Spence, "It was Dryden who made Will's coffee-house
the great resort for the wits of his time. After his death
Addison transferred it to Button's, who had been a servant of
his." Will's coffee-house was at the corner of Bow-street,
Covent-garden, and Button's close by in Russell-street.--ED.
[269] "Some years after the king's restoration he took pet against the
Royal Society, (for which before he had a great veneration,)
and being encouraged by Dr. Jo. Fell, no admirer of that
society, became in his writings an inveterate enemy against it
for several pretended reasons: among which were, first, that
the members thereof intended to bring a contempt upon ancient
and solid learning, upon Aristotle, to undermine the
universities, and reduce them to nothing, or at least to be
very inconsiderable. Secondly, that at long running to destroy
the established religion, and involve the nation in popery,
and I know not what, &c. So dexterous was his pen, whether
_pro_ or _con_, that few or none could equal, answer, or come
near him. He was a person of most admirable parts, had a most
prodigious memory, though his enemies would not acknowledge
it, but said he read indexes; was the most noted Latinist and
Grecian of his age; and after he had been put upon it, was so
great an enemy to the _virtuosi_ of his time, I mean those of
the Royal Society, that, as he saith, they alarmed him with
dangers and troubles even to the hazard of his life and
fortunes."--_Wood._
[270] The aspersed passage in Glanvill is this: "The philosophers of
elder times, though their wits were excellent, yet the way
they took was not like to bring much advantage to knowledge,
or any of the uses of human life, being, for the most part,
that of _Notion_ and _Dispute_, which still runs round in a
labyrinth of talk, but advanceth nothing. _These methods_, in
so many centuries, _never brought the world so much practical
beneficial knowledge as could help towards the cure of a cut
finger_." Plus Ultra, p. 7.--Stubbe, with all the malice of a
wit, drew his inference, and turned the point unfairly against
his adversary!
I shall here observe how much some have to answer, in a
literary court of conscience, when they unfairly depreciate
the works of a contemporary; and how idly the literary
historian performs his task, whenever he adopts the character
of a writer from another who is his adversary. This may be
particularly shown in the present instance.
MORHOFF, in his _Polyhistor Litteraria_, censures the _Plus
Ultra_ of Glanvill, conceiving that he had treated with
contempt all ages and nations but his own. The German
bibliographer had never seen the book, but took its character
from Stubbe and Meric Casaubon. The design of the _Plus
Ultra_, however, differs little from the other works of
Glanvill, which Morhoff had seen, and has highly commended.
[271] The political reverie of Campanella was even suspected to cover
very opposite designs to those he seemed to be proposing to
the world. He attempted to turn men's minds from all inquiries
into politics and religion, to mere philosophical ones. He
wished that the passions of mankind might be so directed, as
to spend their force in philosophical discussions, and in
improvements in science. He therefore insisted on a uniformity
on those great subjects which have so long agitated modern
Europe; for the ancients seem to have had no wars merely for
religion, and perhaps none for modes of government. One may
discover an enlightened principle in the project; but the
character of Campanella was a jumble of sense, subtlety, and
wildness. He probably masked his real intentions. He appears
an advocate for the firm establishment of the papal despotism;
yet he aims to give an enlightened principle to regulate the
actions of mankind. The intentions of a visionary are
difficult to define. If he were really an advocate for
despotism, what occasioned an imprisonment for the greater
part of his days? Did he lay his project much deeper than the
surface of things? Did Campanella imagine that, if men were
allowed to philosophise with the utmost freedom, the despotism
of religion and politics would dissolve away in the weakness
of its quiescent state?
The project is a chimera--but, according to the projector, the
political and religious freedom of _England_ formed its
greatest obstacle. Part of his plan, therefore, includes the
means of weakening the Insular heretics by intestine
divisions--a mode not seldom practised by the continental
powers of France and Spain.
The political project of this fervid genius was, that his
"Prince," the Spanish king, should be the mightiest sovereign
in Europe. For this, he was first to prohibit all theological
controversies from the Transalpine schools, those of Germany,
&c. "A controversy," he observes, "always shows a kind of
victory, and may serve as an authority to a bad cause." He
would therefore admit of no commentaries on the Bible, to
prevent all diversity of opinion. He would have revived the
ancient philosophical sects, instead of the modern religious
sects.
The _Greek_ and the _Hebrew_ languages were not to be taught!
for the republican freedom of the ancient Jews and Grecians
had often proved destructive of monarchy. Hobbes, in the bold
scheme of his _Leviathan_, seems to have been aware of this
fatality. Campanella would substitute for these ancient
languages the study of the _Arabic_ tongue! The troublesome
Transalpine wits might then employ themselves in confuting the
Turks, rather than in vexing the Catholics; so closely did
sagacity and extravagance associate in the mind of this wild
genius. But _Mathematical_ and _Astronomical_ schools, and
other institutions for the encouragement of the _mechanical
arts_, and particularly those to which the northern genius is
most apt, as navigation, &c., were to occupy the studies of
the people, divert them from exciting fresh troubles, and
withdraw them from theological factions. Campanella thus would
make men great in science, having first made them slaves in
politics; a philosophical people were to be the subjects of
despots--not an impossible event!
His plan, remarkable enough, of _weakening the English_, I
give in his words:--"No better way can possibly be found than
by causing divisions and dissensions among them, and by
continually keeping up the same; which will furnish the
Spaniard and the French with advantageous opportunities. As
for their religion, which is a moderated Calvinism, that
cannot be so easily extinguished and rooted out there, unless
there were some schools set up in Flanders, where the English
have great commerce, by means of which there may be scattered
abroad the seeds of schism and division. These people being of
a nature which is still desirous of novelties and change, they
are easily wrought over to anything." These _schools_ were
tried at Douay in Flanders, and at Valladolid in Spain, and
other places. They became nests of rebellion for the English
Catholics; or for any one, who, being discontented with
government, was easily converted to any religion which aimed
to overturn the British Constitution. The _secret history_ of
the Roman Catholics in England remains yet to be told: they
indeed had their martyrs and their heroes; but the _public
effects_ appear in the frequent executions which occurred in
the reigns of Elizabeth and James.
Stubbe appears to have imagined that the ROYAL SOCIETY was
really formed on the principle of Campanella; to withdraw the
people from intermeddling with _politics_ and _religion_, by
engaging them merely in philosophical pursuits.--The reaction
of the public mind is an object not always sufficiently
indicated by historians. The vile hypocrisy and mutual
persecutions of the numerous fanatics occasioned very relaxed
and tolerant principles of religion at the Restoration; as,
the democratic fury having spent itself, too great an
indulgence was now allowed to monarchy. Stubbe was alarmed
that, should Popery be established, the crown of England would
become feudatory to foreign power, and embroil the nation in
the restitution of all the abbey lands, of which, at the
Reformation, the Church had so zealously been plundered. He
was still further alarmed that the _virtuosi_ would influence
the education of our youth to these purposes; "an evil," says
he, "which has been guarded against by our ancestors in
founding _free-schools_, by uniformity of instruction
cementing men's minds." We now smile at these terrors; perhaps
they were sometimes real. The absolute necessity of strict
conformity to the prevalent religion of Europe was avowed in
that unrivalled scheme of despotism, which menaced to efface
every trace of popular freedom, and the independence of
nations, under the dominion of Napoleon.
[272] To this threat of writing his life, we have already noticed the
noble apology he has drawn up for the versatility of his
opinions. See p. 347. At the moment of the Restoration it
was unwise for any of the parties to reproach another for
their opinions or their actions. In a national revolution,
most men are implicated in the general reproach; and Stubbe
said, on this occasion, that "he had observed worse faces in
the society than his own." Waller, and Sprat, and Cowley had
equally commemorated the protectorship of Cromwell and the
restoration of Charles. Our satirist insidiously congratulates
himself that "_he_ had never compared Oliver the regicide to
Moses, or his son to Joshua;" nor that he had ever written any
Pindaric ode, "dedicated to the happy memory of the most
renowned Prince Oliver, Lord Protector:" nothing to recommend
"the sacred urn" of that blessed spirit to the veneration of
posterity; as if
"His _fame_, like men, the elder it doth grow,
Will of itself turn _whiter_ too,
Without what needless art can do."
These lines were, I think, taken from Sprat himself! Stubbe
adds, it would be "imprudent in them to look beyond the act of
indemnity and oblivion, which was more necessary to the Royal
Society than to me, who joined with no party, &c."--_Preface
to "Legends no Histories."_
[273] He has described this intercourse of his enemies at court with
the king, where, when this punishment was suggested, "a
generous personage, altogether unknown to me, being present,
bravely and frankly interposed, saying, that 'whatever I was,
I was a Roman; that Englishmen were not so precipitously to be
condemned to so exemplary a punishment; that representing that
book to be a libel against the king was too remote a
consequence to be admitted of in a nation free-born, and
governed by laws, and tender of ill precedents.'" It was a
noble speech, in the relaxed politics of the court of Charles
II. He who made it deserved to have had his name more
explicitly told: he is designated as "that excellent
Englishman, the great ornament of this age, nation, and House
of Commons; he whose single worth balanceth much of the
debaucheries, follies, and impertinences of the kingdom."--_A
Reply unto the Letter written to Mr. Henry Stubbe, Oxford,
1671_, p. 20.
[274] Stubbe gives some curious information on this subject. Harvey
published his Treatise at Frankfort, 1628, but Cæsalpinus's
work had appeared in 1593. Harvey adopted the notion, and more
fully and perspicuously proved it. I shall give what Stubbe
says. "Harvey, in his two Answers to Riolan, nowhere asserts
the invention so to himself, as to deny that he had the
intimation or notion from Cæsalpinus; and his silence I take
for a tacit confession. His _ambition of glory_ made him
_willing to be thought the author of a paradox_ he had so
illustrated, and brought upon the stage, where _it lay
unregarded_, and in all probability buried in oblivion; yet
such was his modesty, as not to vindicate it to himself by
telling a lie."--STUBBE'S _Censure_, &c., p. 112.
I give this literary anecdote, as it enters into the history
of most discoveries, of which the _improvers_, rather than the
_inventors_, are usually the most known to the world. Bayle,
who wrote much later than Stubbe, asserts the same, and has
preserved the entire passage, art. _Cæsalpinus_. It is said
Harvey is more expressly indebted to a passage in Servetus,
which Wotton has given in the preface to his "Reflections on
Ancient and Modern Learning," edition 1725. The notion was
probably then afloat, and each alike contributed to its
development. Thus it was disputed with Copernicus, whether his
great discovery of a fixed sun, and the earth wheeling round
that star, was his own; others had certainly observed it; yet
the invention was still Copernican: for that great genius
alone corrected, extended, and gave perfection to a hint, till
it expanded to a system.
So gradual have often been the great inventions of genius.
What others _conjectured_, and some _discovered_, Harvey
_demonstrated_. The fate of Harvey's discovery is a curious
instance of that patience and fortitude which genius must too
often exert in respect to itself. Though Harvey lived to his
eightieth year, he hardly witnessed his great discovery
established before he died; and it has been said, that he was
the only one of his contemporaries who lived to see it in some
repute. No physician adopted it; and when it got into vogue,
they then disputed whether he was the inventor! Sir William
Temple denied not only the discovery, but the doctrine of the
Circulation of the Blood. "Sense can hardly allow it; which,"
says he, "in this dispute must be satisfied as well as reason,
before mankind will concur."
[275] Stubbe has an eloquent passage, which describes the philosophy
of science. The new Experimental School had perhaps too wholly
rejected some virtues of the old one; the cultivation of the
human understanding, as well as the mere observation on the
facts that they collected; an error which has not been
entirely removed.
"That art of reasoning by which the prudent are discriminated
from fools, which methodiseth and facilitates our discourses,
which informs us of the validity of consequences and the
probability of arguments, and manifests the fallacies of
impostors; that art which gives life to solid eloquence, and
which renders Statesmen, Divines, Physicians, and Lawyers
accomplished; how is this cried down and vilified by the
ignoramuses of these days! What contempt is there raised upon
the disputative Ethics of Aristotle and the Stoics; and those
moral instructions, which have produced the Alexanders and the
Ptolemies, the Pompeys and the Ciceroes, are now slighted in
comparison of _day-labouring_! Did we live at Sparta, where
the daily employments were the exercises of substantial virtue
and gallantry, and _men_, like _setting dogs_, were rather
_bred up_ unto, than _taught_ reason and worth, it were a more
tolerable proposal (though the different policy of these times
would not admit of it); but this _working_, so recommended, is
but the _feeding of carp in the air_, &c. As for the study of
Politics, and all critical learning, these are either
pedantical, or tedious, to those who have _a shorter way of
studying men_."--_Preface to "Legends no Histories."_
[276] "Legends no Histories," p. 5.
[277] Dr. King was allied to the families of Clarendon and Rochester;
he took a degree as Doctor of Civil Law, and soon got into
great practice. "He afterwards went with the Earl of Pembroke,
Lord-Lieutenant, to Ireland, where he became Judge Advocate,
Sole Commissioner of the Prizes, Keeper of the Records,
Vicar-General to the Lord Primate of Ireland; was countenanced
by persons of the highest rank, and might have made a fortune.
But so far was he from heaping up riches, that he returned to
England with no other treasure than a few merry poems and
humorous essays, and returned to his student's place in Christ
Church."--_Enc. Brit._ He was assisted by Bolingbroke; but
when his patronage failed, Swift procured him the situation of
editor to "Barber's Gazette." He ultimately took to drinking;
Lintot the bookseller, told Pope, "I remember Dr. King could
write verses in a tavern three hours after he could not
speak." His last patron was Lord Clarendon, and he died in
apartments he had provided for him in London, Dec. 25, 1712,
and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey at the
expense of his lordship.--ED.
[278] Sloane describes Clark, the famous posture-master, "Phil.
Trans." No. 242, certainly with the wildest grammar, but with
many curious particulars; the gentleman in one of Dr. King's
Dialogues inquires the secretary's opinion of the causes of
this man's wonderful pliability of limbs; a question which
Sloane had thus solved, with colloquial ease: it depended upon
"bringing the body to it, by using himself to it."
In giving an account of "a child born without a brain"--"Had
it lived long enough," said King, "it would have made an
excellent publisher of Philosophical Transactions!"
Sloane presented the Royal Society with "a figure of a
Chinese, representing one of that nation using an ear-picker,
and expressing great satisfaction therein."--"Whatever
pleasure," said that learned physician, "the Chinese may take
in thus picking their ears, I am certain most people in these
parts, who have had their hearing impaired, have had such
misfortune first come to them by picking their ears too
much."--He is so _curious_, says King, that the secretary took
as much satisfaction in looking upon the ear-picker, as the
Chinese could do in picking their ears!
But "What drowning is"--that "Hanging is only apoplexy!" that
"Men cannot swallow when they are dead!" that "No fish die of
fevers!" that "Hogs s--t soap, and cows s--t fire!" that the
secretary had "Shells, called _Blackmoor's-teeth_, I suppose
from their _whiteness_!" and the learned RAY'S, that grave
naturalist, incredible description of "a very curious little
instrument!" I leave to the reader and Dr. King.
[279] Sir Hans Sloane was unhappily not insensible to these ludicrous
assaults, and in the preface to his "History of Jamaica,"
1707, a work so highly prized for its botanical researches,
absolutely anticipated this fatal facetiousness, for thus he
delivers himself:--"Those who strive to make ridiculous
anything of this kind, and think themselves great wits, but
are very ignorant, and understand nothing of the argument,
these, if one were afraid of them, and consulted his own ease,
might possibly hinder the publication of any such work, the
efforts to be expected from them, making possibly some
impression upon persons of equal dispositions; but considering
that I have the approbation of others, whose judgment,
knowledge, &c., I have great reason to value; and considering
that these sorts of men have been in all ages ready to do the
like, not only to ordinary persons and their equals, but even
to abuse their prince and blaspheme their Maker, I shall, as I
have ever since I seriously considered this matter, think of
and treat them with the greatest contempt."
[280] Dr. King's dispersed works have fortunately been collected by
Mr. Nichols, with ample illustrations, in three vols. 8vo,
1776. The "Useful Transactions in Philosophy and other sorts
of Learning," form a collection of ludicrous dissertations
of Antiquarianism, Natural Philosophy, Criticism, &c., where
his own peculiar humour combines with his curious reading. [In
this he burlesqued the proceedings of the Royal and
Antiquarian Societies with some degree of spirit and humour.
By turning vulgar lines into Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon,
a learned air is given to some papers on childish subjects.
One learned doctor communicates to another "an Essay proving,
by arguments philosophical, that millers, falsely so reputed,
are not thieves, with an interesting argument that taylors
likewise are not so." A Welsh schoolmaster sends some
"natural observations" made in Wales, in direct imitation of
the "Philosophical Transactions" for 1707, and with humorous
love for genealogy, reckons that in his school, "since the
flood, there have been 466, and I am the 467th master: before
the flood, they living long, there were but two--Rice ap Evan
Dha the good, and Davie ap Shones Gonnah the naught, in
whose time the flood came." The first paper of the collection
is an evident jest on John Bagford and his gatherings for
the history of printing, now preserved among the manuscripts
of the British Museum. It purports to be "an Essay on the
invention of samplers, communicated by Mrs. Judith Bagford,
with an account of her collections for the same:" and
written in burlesque of a paper in the "Philosophical
Transactions" for April, 1697. It is a most elaborate
performance, deducing with mock-seriousness the origin of
samplers from the ancient tales of Arachne, who "set forth
the whole story of her wrongs in needlework, and sent it to
her sister;" and our author adds, with much humour, "it is
very remarkable that the memory of this story does at present
continue, for there are no samplers, which proceed in any
measure beyond the first rudiments, but have a tree and a
nightingale sitting on it." Such were the jests of the day
against the Royal philosophers.] He also invented _satirical
and humorous indexes_, not the least facetious parts of
his volumes. King had made notes on more than 20,000 books
and MSS., and his _Adversaria_, of which a portion has been
preserved, is not inferior in curiosity to the literary
journals of Gibbon, though it wants the investigating spirit
of the modern philosopher.
SIR JOHN HILL,
WITH
THE ROYAL SOCIETY, FIELDING, SMART, &c.
A Parallel between Orator HENLEY and Sir JOHN HILL--his love of the
Science of Botany, with the fate of his "Vegetable System"--ridicules
scientific Collectors; his "Dissertation on Royal Societies," and his
"Review of the Works of the Royal Society"--compliments himself
that he is NOT a Member--successful in his attacks on the
Experimentalists, but loses his spirit in encountering the
Wits--"The Inspector"--a paper war with FIELDING--a literary
stratagem--battles with SMART and WOODWARD--HILL appeals to the
Nation for the Office of Keeper of the Sloane Collection--closes
his life by turning Empiric--Some Epigrams on HILL--his
Miscellaneous Writings.
In the history of literature we discover some who have opened their
career with noble designs, and with no deficient powers, yet unblest
with stoic virtues, having missed, in their honourable labours, those
rewards they had anticipated, they have exhibited a sudden transition
of character, and have left only a name proverbial for its disgrace.
Our own literature exhibits two extraordinary characters, indelibly
marked by the same traditional odium. The wit and acuteness of Orator
HENLEY, and the science and vivacity of the versatile Sir JOHN HILL,
must separate them from those who plead the same motives for abjuring
all moral restraint, without having ever furnished the world with a
single instance that they were capable of forming nobler views.
This _orator_ and this _knight_ would admit of a close parallel;[281]
both as modest in their youth as afterwards remarkable for their
effrontery. Their youth witnessed the same devotedness to study, with
the same inventive and enterprising genius. Hill projected and pursued
a plan of botanical travels, to form a collection of rare plants: the
patronage he received was too limited, and he suffered the misfortune
of having anticipated the national taste for the science of botany by
half a century. Our young philosopher's valuable "Treatise on Gems,"
from Theophrastus, procured for him the warm friendship of the eminent
members of the Royal Society. To this critical period of the lives of
Henley and of Hill, their resemblance is striking; nor is it less from
the moment the surprising revolution in their characters occurred.
Pressed by the wants of life, they lost its decencies. Henley
attempted to poise himself against the University; Hill against the
Royal Society. Rejected by these learned bodies, both these Cains of
literature, amid their luxuriant ridicule of eminent men, still evince
some claims to rank among them. The one prostituted his genius in his
"Lectures;" the other, in his "Inspectors." Never two authors were
more constantly pelted with epigrams, or buffeted in literary
quarrels. They have met with the same fate; covered with the same
odium. Yet Sir John Hill, this despised man, after all the fertile
absurdities of his literary life, performed more for the improvement
of the "Philosophical Transactions," and was the cause of diffusing a
more general taste for the science of botany, than any other
contemporary. His real ability extorts that regard which his
misdirected ingenuity, instigated by vanity, and often by more
worthless motives, had lost for him in the world.[282]
At the time that Hill was engaged in several large compilations for
the booksellers, his employers were desirous that the honours of an
F.R.S. should ornament his title-page. This versatile genius, however,
during these graver works, had suddenly emerged from his learned
garret, and, in the shape of a fashionable lounger, rolled in his
chariot from the Bedford to Ranelagh; was visible at routs; and
sate at the theatre a tremendous arbiter of taste, raising about him
tumults and divisions;[283] and in his "Inspectors," a periodical
paper which he published in the _London Daily Advertiser_, retailed
all the great matters relating to himself, and all the little
matters he collected in his rounds relating to others. Among other
personalities, he indulged his satirical fluency on the scientific
collectors. The Antiquarian Society were twitted as medal-scrapers and
antediluvian knife-grinders; conchologists were turned into
cockleshell merchants; and the naturalists were made to record
pompous histories of stickle-hacks and cockchafers. Cautioned by
Martin Folkes, President of the Royal Society,[284] not to attempt
his election, our enraged comic philosopher, who had preferred
his jests to his friends, now discovered that he had lost three
hundred at once. Hill could not obtain three signatures to his
recommendation. Such was the real, but, as usual, not the ostensible,
motive of his formidable attack on the Royal Society. He produced his
"Dissertation on Royal Societies, in a letter from a Sclavonian
nobleman to his friend," 1751; a humorous prose satire, exhibiting a
ludicrous description of a tumultuous meeting at the Royal Society,
contrasted with the decorum observed in the French Academy; and
moreover, he added a _conversazione_ in a coffee-house between some
of the members.
Such was the declaration of war, in a first act of hostility; but the
pitched-battle was fought in "A Review of the Works of the Royal
Society, in eight parts," 1751. This literary satire is nothing less
than a quarto volume, resembling, in its form and manner, the
Philosophical Transactions themselves; printed as if for the
convenience of members to enable them to bind the "Review" with the
work reviewed. Voluminous pleasantry incurs the censure of that
tedious trifling which it designs to expose. In this literary facetia,
however, no inconsiderable knowledge is interspersed with the
ridicule. Perhaps Hill might have recollected the successful attempts
of Stubbe on the Royal Society, who contributed that curious knowledge
which he pretended the Royal Society wanted; and with this knowledge
he attempted to combine the humour of Dr. King.[285]
Hill's rejection from the Royal Society, to another man would have
been a puddle to step over; but he tells a story, and cleanly passes
on, with impudent adroitness.[286]
Hill, however, though he used all the freedom of a satirist, by
exposing many ridiculous papers, taught the Royal Society a more
cautious selection. It could, however, obtain no forgiveness from the
parties it offended; and while the respectable men whom Hill had the
audacity to attack, Martin Folkes, the friend and successor of Newton,
and Henry Baker, the naturalist, were above his censure,--his own
reputation remained in the hands of his enemies. While Hill was
gaining over the laughers on his side, that volatile populace soon
discovered that the fittest object to be laughed at was our literary
Proteus himself.
The most egregious egotism alone could have induced this versatile
being, engaged in laborious works, to venture to give the town the
daily paper of _The Inspector_, which he supported for about two
years. It was a light scandalous chronicle all the week, with a
seventh-day sermon. His utter contempt for the genius of his
contemporaries, and the bold conceit of his own, often rendered the
motley pages amusing. _The Inspector_ became, indeed, the instrument
of his own martyrdom; but his impudence looked like magnanimity; for
he endured, with undiminished spirit, the most biting satires, the
most wounding epigrams, and more palpable castigations.[287] His vein
of pleasantry ran more freely in his attacks on the Royal Society than
in his other literary quarrels. When Hill had not to banter ridiculous
experimentalists, but to encounter wits, his reluctant spirit soon
bowed its head. Suddenly even his pertness loses its vivacity; he
becomes drowsy with dulness, and, conscious of the dubiousness of his
own cause, he skulks away terrified: he felt that the mask of quackery
and impudence which he usually wore was to be pulled off by the hands
now extended against him.
A humorous warfare of wit opened between Fielding, in his _Covent-Garden
Journal_, and Hill, in his _Inspector_. _The Inspector_ had made the
famous lion's head, at the Bedford, which the genius of Addison and
Steele had once animated, the receptacle of his wit; and the wits
asserted, of this now _inutile lignum_, that it was reduced to a mere
state of _blockheadism_. Fielding occasionally gave a facetious
narrative of a paper war between the forces of Sir Alexander Drawcansir,
the literary hero of the _Covent-Garden Journal_, and the army of
Grub-street; it formed an occasional literary satire. Hill's lion, no
longer Addison's or Steele's, is not described without humour.
Drawcansir's "troops are kept in awe by a strange mixed monster, not
much unlike the famous chimera of old. For while some of our
Reconnoiterers tell us that this monster has the appearance of a lion,
others assure us that his ears are much longer than those of that
generous beast."
Hill ventured to notice this attack on his "blockhead;" and, as was
usual with him, had some secret history to season his defence with.
"The author of 'Amelia,' whom I have only once seen, told me, at that
accidental meeting, he held the present set of writers in the
utmost contempt; and that, in his character of Sir Alexander
Drawcansir, he should treat them in the most unmerciful manner. He
assured me he had always excepted me; and after honouring me with
some encomiums, he proceeded to mention a conduct which would be,
he said, useful to both; this was, the amusing our readers with a
mock fight; giving blows that would not hurt, and sharing the
advantage in silence."[288]
Thus, by reversing the fact, Hill contrived to turn aside the frequent
stories against him by a momentary artifice, arresting or dividing
public opinion. The truth was, more probably, as Fielding relates it,
and the story, as we shall see, then becomes quite a different affair.
At all events, Hill incurred the censure of the traitor who violates a
confidential intercourse.
And if he lies not, must at least betray.
POPE.
Fielding lost no time in reply. To have brought down the _Inspector_
from his fastnesses into the open field, was what our new General only
wanted: a battle was sure to be a victory. Our critical Drawcansir has
performed his part, with his indifferent puns, but his natural
facetiousness.
"It being reported to the General that a _hill_ must be levelled,
before the Bedford coffee-house could be taken, orders were given; but
this was afterwards found to be a mistake; for this _hill_ was only a
little paltry _dunghill_, and had long before been levelled with the
dirt. The General was then informed of a report which had been spread
by his _lowness_, the Prince of Billingsgate, in the Grub-street army,
that his Excellency had proposed, by a _secret treaty_ with that
Prince, to carry on the war only in appearance, and so to betray the
common cause; upon which his Excellency said with a smile:--'If the
betrayer of a private treaty could ever deserve the least credit, yet
his Lowness here must proclaim himself either a liar or a fool. None
can doubt but that he is the former, if he hath feigned this treaty;
and I think few would scruple to call him the latter, if he had
rejected it.' The General then declared the fact stood thus:--'His
Lowness came to my tent on an affair of his own. I treated him, though
a commander in the enemy's camp, with civility, and even kindness. I
told him, with the utmost good-humour, I should attack his Lion; and
that he might, if he pleased, in the same manner defend him; from
which, said I, no great loss can happen on either side--'"
_The Inspector_ slunk away, and never returned to the challenge.
During his inspectorship, he invented a whimsical literary stratagem,
which ended in his receiving a castigation more lasting than the
honours performed on him at Ranelagh by the cane of a warm Hibernian.
Hill seems to have been desirous of abusing certain friends whom he
had praised in the _Inspectors_; so volatile, like the loves of
coquettes, are the literary friendships of the "Scribleri." As this
could not be done with any propriety there, he published the first
number of a new paper, entitled _The Impertinent_. Having thus
relieved his private feelings, he announced the cessation of this new
enterprise in his _Inspectors_, and congratulated the public on the
ill reception it had given to the _Impertinent_, applauding them for
their having shown by this that "their indignation was superior to
their curiosity." With impudence all his own, he adds--"It will not be
easy to say too much in favour of the candour of the town, which has
despised a piece that cruelly and unjustly attacked Mr. Smart the
poet." What innocent soul could have imagined that _The Impertinent_
and _The Inspector_ were the same individual? The style is a specimen
of _persiflage_; the thin sparkling thought; the pert vivacity, that
looks like wit without wit; the glittering bubble, that rises in
emptiness;--even its author tells us, in _The Inspector_, it is "the
most pert, the most pretending," &c.[289]
Smart, in return for our Janus-faced critic's treatment, balanced the
amount of debtor and creditor with a pungent Dunciad _The Hilliad_.
Hill, who had heard of the rod in pickle, anticipated the blow, to
break its strength; and, according to his adopted system, introduced
himself and Smart, with a story of his having recommended the bard to
his bookseller, "who took him into salary on my approbation. I
betrayed him into the profession, and having starved upon it, he has a
right to abuse me." This story was formally denied by an advertisement
from Newbery, the bookseller.
"The Hilliad" is a polished and pointed satire. The hero is thus
exhibited on earth, and in heaven.
On earth, "a tawny sibyl," with "an old striped curtain--"
And tatter'd tapestry o'er her shoulders hung--
Her loins with patchwork cincture were begirt,
That more than spoke diversity of dirt.
Twain were her teeth, and single was her eye--
Cold palsy shook her head----
with "moon-struck madness," awards him all the wealth and fame she
could afford him for sixpence; and closes her orgasm with the sage
admonition--
The chequer'd world's before thee; go, farewell!
Beware of Irishmen; and learn to spell!
But in heaven, among the immortals, never was an unfortunate hero of
the vindicative Muses so reduced into nothingness! Jove, disturbed at
the noise of this thing of wit, exclaims, that nature had never proved
productive in vain before, but now,
On mere privation she bestow'd a frame,
And dignified a nothing with a name;
A wretch devoid of use, of sense, of grace,
The insolvent tenant of incumber'd space!
Pallas hits off the style of Hill, as
The neutral nonsense, neither false nor true--
Should Jove himself, in calculation mad,
Still negatives to blank negations add;
How could the barren ciphers ever breed;
But nothing still from nothing would proceed.
Raise, or depress, or magnify, or blame,
Inanity will ever be the same.
But Phœbus shows there may still be something produced from inanity.
E'en blank privation has its use and end--
From emptiness, how sweetest music flows!
How absence, to possession adds a grace,
And modest vacancy, to all gives place.
So from Hillario, some effect may spring;
E'en him--that slight penumbra of a thing!
The careless style of the fluent Inspectors, beside their audacity,
brought Hill into many scrapes. He called Woodward, the celebrated
harlequin, "the meanest of all characters." This Woodward resented in
a pamphlet-battle, in which Hill was beaten at all points.[290] But
Hill, or the Monthly Reviewer, who might be the same person, for that
journal writes with the tenderness of a brother of whatever relates to
our hero, pretends that the Inspector only meant, that "the character
of Harlequin (if a thing so unnatural and ridiculous ought to be
called a character) was the _meanest_ on the stage!"[291]
I will here notice a characteristic incident in Hill's literary life,
of which the boldness and the egotism is scarcely paralleled, even by
Orator Henley. At the time the Sloane Collection of Natural History
was purchased, to form a part of our grand national establishment, the
British Museum, Hill offered himself, by public advertisement, in one
of his _Inspectors_, as the properest person to be placed at its head.
The world will condemn him for his impudence. The most reasonable
objection against his mode of proceeding would be, that the thing
undid itself; and that the very appearance, by public advertisement,
was one motive why so confident an offer should be rejected. Perhaps,
after all, Hill only wanted to _advertise himself_.
But suppose that Hill was the man he represents himself to be, and he
fairly challenges the test, his conduct only appears eccentric,
according to routine. Unpatronised and unfriended men are depressed,
among other calamities, with their quiescent modesty; but there is a
rare spirit in him who dares to claim favours, which he thinks his
right, in the most public manner. I preserve, in the note, the most
striking passages of this extraordinary appeal.[292]
At length, after all these literary quarrels, Hill survived his
literary character. He had written himself down to so low a degree,
that whenever he had a work for publication, his employers stipulated,
in their contracts, that the author should conceal his name; a
circumstance not new among a certain race of writers.[293] But the
genius of Hill was not annihilated by being thrown down so violently
on his mother earth; like Anthæus, it rose still fresh; and like
Proteus, it assumed new forms.[294] Lady Hill and the young Hills were
claimants on his industry far louder than the evanescent epigrams
which darted around him: these latter, however, were more numerous
than ever dogged an author in his road to literary celebrity.[295] His
science, his ingenuity, and his impudence once more practised on the
credulity of the public, with the innocent quackery of attributing all
medicinal virtues to British herbs. He made many walk out, who were
too sedentary; they were delighted to cure headaches by feverfew tea;
hectic fevers by the daisy; colics by the leaves of camomile, and
agues by its flowers. All these were accompanied by plates of the
plants, with the Linnæan names.[296] This was preparatory to the
_Essences_ of Sage, _Balsams_ of Honey, and _Tinctures_ of Valerian.
Simple persons imagined they were scientific botanists in their walks,
with Hill's plates in their hands. But one of the newly-discovered
virtues of British herbs was, undoubtedly, that of placing the
discoverer in a chariot.
In an Apology for the character of Sir John Hill, published after his
death, where he is painted with much beauty of colouring, and elegance
of form, the eruptions and excrescences of his motley physiognomy,
while they are indicated--for they were too visible to be entirely
omitted in anything pretending to a resemblance--are melted down, and
even touched into a grace. The Apology is not unskilful, but the real
purpose appears in the last page; where we are informed that Lady
Hill, fortunately for the world, possesses all his valuable recipes
and herbal remedies!
FOOTNOTES:
[281] The moral and literary character of Henley has been developed in
"Calamities of Authors."
[282] The twenty-six folios of his "Vegetable System," with many
others, testify his love and his labour. It contains 1600
plates, representing 26,000 different figures of plants _from
nature only_. This publication ruined the author, whose widow
(the sister of Lord Ranelagh) published "An Address to the
Public, by the Hon. Lady Hill, setting forth the consequences
of the late Sir John Hill's acquaintance with the Earl of
Bute," 1787. I should have noticed it in the "Calamities of
Authors." It offers a sad and mortifying lesson to the votary
of science who aspires to a noble enterprise. Lady Hill
complains of the _patron_; but a patron, however great, cannot
always raise the public taste to the degree required to afford
the only true patronage which can animate and reward an
author. Her detail is impressive:--
"Sir John Hill had just wrote a book of great elegance--I
think it was called 'Exotic Botany'--which he wished to have
presented to the king, and therefore named it to Lord Bute.
His lordship waived that, saying that 'he had a greater object
to propose;' and shortly after laid before him a plan of the
most voluminous, magnificent, and costly work that ever man
attempted. I tremble when I name its title--because I think
the severe application which it required killed him; and I am
sure the expense ruined his fortune--'The Vegetable System.'
This work was to consist of twenty-six volumes folio,
containing sixteen hundred copper-plates, the engraving of
each cost four guineas; the paper was of the most expensive
kind; the drawings by the first hands. The printing was also a
very weighty concern; and many other articles, with which I am
unacquainted. Lord Bute said that 'the expense had been
considered, and that Sir John Hill might rest assured his
circumstances should not be injured.' Thus he entered upon and
finished his destruction. The sale bore no proportion to the
expense. After 'The Vegetable System' was completed, Lord Bute
proposed another volume to be added, which Sir John
strenuously opposed; but his lordship repeating his desire,
Sir John complied, lest his lordship should find a pretext to
cast aside repeated promises of ample provision for himself
and family. But this was the crisis of his fate--he died."
Lady Hill adds:--"He was a character on which every virtue was
impressed." The domestic partiality of the widow cannot alter
the truth of the narrative of "The Vegetable System," and its
twenty-six tomes.
[283] His apologist forms this excuse for one then affecting to be a
student and a rake:--"Though engaged in works which required
the attention of a whole life, he was so exact an economist of
his time that he scarcely ever missed a public amusement for
many years; and this, as he somewhere observes, was of no
small service to him; as, without indulging in these respects,
he could not have undergone the fatigue and study inseparable
from the execution of his vast designs."--Short Account of the
"Life, Writings, and Character of the late Sir John Hill,
M.D." Edinburgh: 1779.
[284] Hogarth has painted a portrait of Folkes, which is still hanging
in the rooms of the Royal Society. He was nominated
vice-president by the great Sir Isaac Newton, and succeeded
him as president. He wrote a work on the "English Silver
Coinage," and died at the age of sixty-four, 1754.--ED.
[285] Hill planned his Review with good sense. He says:--"If I am
merry in some places, it ought to be considered that the
subjects are too ridiculous for serious criticism. That the
work, however, might not be without its _real use_, an _Error_
is nowhere exposed without establishing a _Truth_ in its
place." He has incidentally thrown out much curious
knowledge--such as his plan for forming a _Hortus Siccus_, &c.
The Review itself may still be considered both as curious and
entertaining.
[286] In exposing their deficiencies, as well as their redundancies,
Hill only wishes, as he tells us, that the Society may by this
means become ashamed of what it has been, and that the world
may know that _he is NOT a member of it till it is an honour
to a man to be so_! This was telling the world, with some
ingenuity, and with no little impudence, that the Royal
Society would not admit him as a member. He pretends to give a
secret anecdote to explain the cause of this rejection. Hill,
in every critical conjuncture of his affairs, and they were
frequent ones, had always a story to tell, or an evasion,
which served its momentary purpose. When caned by an Irish
gentleman at Ranelagh, and his personal courage, rather than
his stoicism, was suspected, he published a story of _his_
having once caned a person whom he called Mario; on which a
wag, considering Hill as a Prometheus, wrote--
"To beat one man great Hill was fated.
What man?--a man whom he created!"
We shall see the story he turned to his purpose, when pressed
hard by Fielding. In the present instance, in a letter to a
foreign correspondent, who had observed his name on the list
of the _Correspondents_ of the Royal Society, Hill said--"You
are to know that _I have the honour NOT to be a member of the
Royal Society of London_."--This letter lay open on his table
when a member, upon his accustomed visit, came in, and in his
absence read it. "And we are not to wonder," says Hill, "that
he who could obtain intelligence in this manner could also
divulge it. _Hinc illæ lachrymæ!_ Hence all the animosities
that have since disturbed this philosophic world." While Hill
insolently congratulates himself that he is _not_ a member of
the Royal Society, he has most evidently shown that he had no
objection to be the member of any society which would enrol
his name among them. He obtained his medical degree from no
honourable source; and another title, which he affected, he
mysteriously contracted into barbaric dissonance. Hill
entitled himself--
_Acad. Reg. Scient. Burd. &c. Soc._
To which Smart, in the "Hilliad," alludes--
"While _Jargon_ gave his titles on a _block_,
And styled him M.D. Acad. Budig. Soc."
His personal attacks on Martin Folkes, the president, are
caustic, but they may not be true; and on Baker, celebrated
for his microscopical discoveries, are keen. He reproaches
Folkes, in his severe dedication of the work, in all the
dignity of solemn invective.--"The manner in which you
represented me to a noble friend, while to myself you made me
much more than I deserved; the ease with which you had
excused yourself, and the solemnity with which, in the
face of Almighty God, you excused yourself again; when we
remember that the whole was done within the compass of a day;
these are surely virtues in a patron that I, of all men,
ought not to pass over in silence." Baker, in his early
days, had unluckily published a volume of lusory poems. Some
imitations of Prior's loose tales Hill makes use of to
illustrate _his_ "Philosophical Transactions." All is food for
the malicious digestion of Wit!
His anecdote of Mr. Baker's _Louse_ is a piece of secret
scientific history sufficiently ludicrous.
"The Duke of Montague was famous for his love to the whole
animal creation, and for his being able to keep a very grave
face when not in the most serious earnest. Mr. Baker, a
distinguished member of the Royal Society, had one day
entertained this nobleman and several other persons with the
sight of the peristaltic motion of the bowels in a louse, by
the microscope. When the observation was over, he was going
to throw the creature away; but the Duke, with a face that
made him believe he was perfectly in earnest, told him it
would be not only cruel, but ungrateful, in return for the
entertainment that creature had given them, to destroy it.
He ordered the boy to be brought in from whom it was procured,
and after praising the smallness and delicacy of Mr. Baker's
fingers, persuaded him carefully to replace the animal in its
former territories, and to give the boy a shilling not to
disturb it for a fortnight."--"A Review of the Works of the
Royal Society," by John Hill, M.D., p. 5.
[287] These papers had appeared in the London _Daily Advertiser_,
1754. At their close he gleaned the best, and has preserved
them in two volumes. But as Hill will never rank as a
classic, the original nonsense will be considered as most
proper for the purposes of a true collector. Woodward, the
comedian, in his lively attack on Hill, has given "a mock
Inspector," an exquisite piece of literary ridicule, in
which he has hit off the egotisms and slovenly ease of the
real ones. Never, like "The Inspector," flamed such a
provoking prodigy in the cloudy skies of Grub-street; and
Hill seems studiously to have mortified his luckless rivals
by a perpetual embroidery of his adventures in the "Walks
at Marybone," the "Rotunda at Ranelagh," spangled over with
"my domestics," and "my equipage." [One of his adventures
at Ranelagh was sufficiently unfortunate to obtain for him the
unenviable notoriety of a caricature print representing him
enduring a castigation at the Rotunda gate from an Irish
gentleman named Brown, with whose character he had made
far too free in one of his "Inspectors." Hill showed much
pusillanimity in the affair, took to his bed, and gave out
that the whole thing was a conspiracy to murder him. This
occasioned the publication of another print, in which he
is represented in bed, surrounded by medical men, who treat
him with very little respect. One insists on his fee, because
Hill has never been acknowledged as one of themselves; and
another, to his plea of want of money, responds, "Sell your
sword, it is only an encumbrance."]
[288] It is useful to remind the public that they are often played
upon in this manner by the artifices of _political writers_.
We have observed symptoms of this deception practised at
present. It is an old trick of the craft, and was greatly used
at a time when the nation seemed maddened with political
factions. In a pamphlet of "A View of London and Westminster,
or the Town-spy," 1725, I find this account:--"The _seeming
quarrel_, formerly, between _Mist's Journal_ and the _Flying
Post_ was _secretly concerted_ between themselves, in order to
decoy the eyes of all the parties on both their papers; and
the project succeeded beyond all expectation; for I have been
told that the former narrowly missed getting an estate by
it."--p. 32.
[289] Isaac Reed, in his "Repository of Fugitive Pieces of Wit and
Humour," vol. iv., in republishing "The Hilliad," has
judiciously preserved the offending "Impertinent" and the
abjuring "Inspector." The style of "The Impertinent" is
volatile and poignant. His four classes of authors are not
without humour. "There are men who write because they have
wit; there are those who write because they are hungry; there
are some of the modern authors who have a constant fund of
both these causes; and there are who will write, although they
are not instigated either by the one or by the other. The
first are all spirit; the second are all earth; the third
disclose more life, or more vapidity, as the one or the other
cause prevails; and for the last, having neither the one nor
the other principle for the cause, they show neither the one
nor the other character in the effect; but begin, continue,
and end, as if they had neither begun, continued, nor ended at
all." The first class he instances by Fielding; the second by
Smart. Of the third he says:--"The mingled wreath belongs to
Hill," that is himself; and the fourth he illustrates by the
absurd Sir William Browne.
"Those of the first rank are the most capricious and lazy of
all animals. The monkey genius would rarely exert itself, if
even idleness innate did not give way to the superior love of
mischief. The ass (that is Smart), which characters the
second, is as laborious as he is empty; he wears a ridiculous
comicalness of aspect (which was, indeed, the physiognomy of
the poor poet), that makes people smile when they see him at a
distance. His mouth opens, because he must be fed, while we
laugh at the insensibility and obstinacy that make him prick
his lips with thistles."
[290] Woodward humorously attributes Hill's attack on him to his
_jealousy_ of his successful performance of _Harlequin_, and
opens some of the secret history of Hill, by which it appears
that early in life he trod the theatrical boards. He tells us
of the extraordinary pains the prompter had taken with Hill,
in the part of Oroonoko; though, "if he had not quite
forgotten it, to very little purpose." He reminds Hill of a
dramatic anecdote, which he no doubt had forgotten. It seems
he once belonged to a strolling company at May-fair, where, in
the scene between Altamont and Lothario, the polite audience
of that place all chorused, and agreed with him, when dying he
exclaimed, "Oh, Altamont, thy genius is the stronger." He then
shows him off as the starved apothecary in _Romeo and Juliet_,
in one of his botanic peregrinations to Chelsea Garden; from
whence, it is said, he was expelled for "culling too many rare
plants"--
"I do remember an apothecary,
Culling of simples----."
Hill, who was often so brisk in his attack on the wits, had no
power of retort; so that he was always buffeting and always
buffeted.
[291] He was also satirised in a poem termed "The Pasquinade,"
published in 1752, in which the goddesses of Pertness and
Dulness join to praise him as their favourite reflex.
"Pertness saw her form distinctly shine
In none, immortal Hill! so full as thine."
Dulness speaks of him thus rapturously:--
"See where my son, who gratefully repays
Whate'er I lavish'd on his younger days;
Whom still my arm protects to brave the town
Secure from Fielding, Machiavel, or Brown;
Whom rage nor sword e'er mortally shall hurt,
Chief of a hundred chiefs o'er all the pert!
Rescued an orphan babe from common sense,
I gave his mother's milk to Confidence;
She with her own ambrosia bronz'd his face,
And changed his skin to monumental brass.
Whom rage nor sword e'er mortally shall hurt,
Chief of a hundred chiefs o'er all the pert!
Rescued an orphan babe from common sense,
I gave his mother's milk to Confidence;
She with her own ambrosia bronz'd his face,
And changed his skin to monumental brass."
[292] Hill addresses the Lord Chancellor, Archbishop of Canterbury,
and the Speaker, on Sir Hans Sloane's Collection of Natural
History, proposing himself as a candidate for nomination in
the principal office, by whatever name that shall be
called:--"I deliver myself with humility; but conscious also
that I possess the liberties of a British subject, I shall
speak with freedom." He says that the only means left for a
Briton is to address his sovereign and the public. "That
foreigners will resort to this collection is certain, for it
is the most considerable in the world; and that our own people
will often visit it is as sure, because it may be made the
means of much useful as well as curious knowledge. One and the
other will expect a person in that office who has sufficient
knowledge: he must be able to give account of every article,
freely and fluently, not only in his own, but in the Latin and
French languages.
"This the world, and none in it better than your lordship,
sees is not a place that any one can execute: it requires
knowledge in a peculiar and uncommon kind of study--knowledge
which very few possess; and in which, my lord, the bitterest
of my enemies (and I have thousands, although neither myself
nor they know why) will not say I am deficient----.
"My lord, the eyes of all Europe are upon this transaction.
What title I have to your lordship's favour, those books which
I have published, and with which (pardon the necessary boast)
all Europe is acquainted, declare. Many may dispute by
interest with me; but if there be one who would prefer
himself, by his abilities, I beg the matter may be brought to
trial. The collection is at hand; and I request, my lord, such
person and myself may be examined by that test, together. It
is an amazing store of knowledge; and he has most, in this
way, who shall show himself most acquainted with it.
"What are my own abilities it very ill becomes me thus to
boast; but did they not qualify me for the trust, my lord, I
would not ask it. As to those of any other, unless a man be
conjured from the dead, I shall not fear to say there is not
any one whoever that is able so much as to call the parts of
the collection by their names.
"I know I shall be accused of ostentation in giving to myself
this preference; and I am sorry for it: but those who have
candour will know it could not be avoided.
"Many excel, my lord, in other studies: it is my chance to
have bestowed the labour of my life on this: those labours may
be of some use to others. This appears the only instance in
which it is possible that they should be rewarded----."
In a subsequent _Inspector_, he treated on the improvement of
botany by raising plants, and reading lectures on them at the
British Museum, with the living plants before the lecturer and
his auditors. Poor Sir John! he was born half a century too
early!--He would, in this day, have made his lectures
fashionable; and might have secured at the opera every night
an elegant audience for the next morning in the gardens of the
Museum.
[293] It would be difficult to form a list of his anonymous works or
compilations, among which many are curious. Tradition has
preserved his name as the writer of Mrs. Glasse's Cookery, and
of several novels. There is a very curious work, entitled
"Travels in the East," 2 vols. 8vo, of which the author has
been frequently and in vain inquired after. These travels are
attributed to a noble lord; but it now appears that they are a
very entertaining narrative manufactured by Hill. Whiston, the
bookseller, had placed this work in his MS. catalogue of
Hill's books.
There is still another production of considerable merit,
entitled "Observations on the Greek and Roman Classics," 1753.
A learned friend recollects, when young, that this critical
work was said to be written by Hill. It excels Blackwell and
Fenton; and aspires to the numerous composition of prose. The
sentimental critic enters into the feelings of the great
authors whom he describes with spirit, delicacy of taste, and
sometimes with beautiful illustration. It only wants a
chastening hand to become a manual for the young classical
student, by which he might acquire those vivid emotions, which
many college tutors may not be capable of communicating.
I suspect, too, he is the author of this work, from a passage
which Smart quotes, as a specimen of Hill's puffing himself,
and of those smart short periods which look like wit, without
being witty. In a letter to himself, as we are told, Hill
writes:--"You have discovered many of the beauties of the
ancients--they are obliged to you; we are obliged to you: were
they alive, they would thank you; we who are alive do thank
you." If Hill could discriminate the most hidden beauties of
the ancients, the _tact_ must have been formed at his
leisure--in his busy hours he never copied them; but when had
he leisure?
Two other works, of the most contrasted character, display the
versatility and dispositions of this singular genius, at
different eras. When "The Inspector" was rolling in his
chariot about the town, appeared "Letters from the Inspector
to a Lady," 1752. It is a pamphlet, containing the amorous
correspondence of Hill with a reigning beauty, whom he first
saw at Ranelagh. On his first ardent professions he is
contemptuously rejected; he perseveres in high passion, and is
coldly encouraged; at length he triumphs; and this proud and
sullen beauty, in her turn, presents a horrid picture of the
passions. Hill then becomes the reverse of what he was; weary
of her jealousy, sated with the intercourse, he studiously
avoids, and at length rejects her; assigning for his final
argument his approaching marriage. The work may produce a
moral effect, while it exhibits a striking picture of all the
misery of illicit connexions: but the scenes are coloured with
Ovidian warmth. The original letters were shown at the
bookseller's: Hill's were in his own handwriting, and the
lady's in a female hand. But whether Hill was the publisher,
as an attempt at notoriety--or the lady admired her own
correspondence, which is often exquisitely wrought, is not
known.
Hill, in his serious hours, published a large quarto volume,
entitled "Thoughts Concerning God and Nature," 1755. This
work, the result of his scientific knowledge and his moral
reasoning, was never undertaken for the purpose of profit. He
printed it with the certainty of a considerable loss, from its
abstract topics, not obvious to general readers; at a time,
too, when a guinea quarto was a very hazardous enterprise. He
published it purely from conscientious and religious motives;
a circumstance mentioned in that Apology of his Life which we
have noticed. The more closely the character of Hill is
scrutinised, the more extraordinary appears this man, so often
justly contemned, and so often unjustly depreciated.
[294] Through the influence of Lord Bute he became connected with the
Royal Gardens at Kew; and his lordship also assisted him in
publishing his botanical works. See note, p. 363.
[295] It would occupy pages to transcribe epigrams on Hill. One of
them alludes to his philosophical as well as his literary
character:--
"Hill puffs himself; forbear to chide!
An insect vile and mean
Must first, he knows, be magnified
Before it can be seen."
Garrick's happy lines are well known on his farces:--
"For physic and farces his equal there scarce is--
His farces are physic, his physic a farce is."
Another said--
"The worse that we wish thee, for all thy vile crimes,
Is to take thy own physic, and read thy own rhymes."
The rejoinder would reverse the wish--
"For, if he takes his physic first,
He'll never read his rhymes."
[296] Hill says, in his pamphlet on the "Virtues of British
Herbs":--"It will be happy if, by the same means, the
knowledge of plants also becomes more general. The study of
them is pleasant, and the exercise of it healthful. He who
seeks the herb for its cure, will find it half effected by the
walk; and when he is acquainted with the useful kinds, he may
be more people's, besides his own, physician."
BOYLE AND BENTLEY.
A Faction of Wits at Oxford the concealed movers of this
Controversy--Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE'S opinions the ostensible cause;
Editions of classical Authors by young Students at Oxford the
probable one--BOYLE'S first attack in the Preface to his
"Phalaris"--BENTLEY, after a silence of three years, betrays his
feelings on the literary calumny of BOYLE--BOYLE replies by the
"Examination of Bentley's Dissertation"--BENTLEY rejoins by
enlarging it--the effects of a contradictory Narrative at a
distant time--BENTLEY'S suspicions of the origin of the
"Phalaris," and "The Examination," proved by subsequent
facts--BENTLEY'S dignity when stung at the ridicule of Dr.
KING--applies a classical pun, and nicknames his facetious and
caustic Adversary--KING invents an extraordinary Index to dissect
the character of BENTLEY--specimens of the Controversy; BOYLE'S
menace, anathema, and ludicrous humour--BENTLEY'S sarcastic reply
not inferior to that of the Wits.
The splendid controversy between BOYLE and BENTLEY was at times a
strife of gladiators, and has been regretted as the opprobrium of our
literature; but it should be perpetuated to its honour; for it may be
considered, on one side at least, as a noble contest of heroism.
The ostensible cause of the present quarrel was inconsiderable; the
concealed motive lies deeper; and the party feelings of the haughty
Aristarchus of Cambridge, and a faction of wits at Oxford, under the
secret influence of Dean Aldrich, provoked this fierce and glorious
contest.
Wit, ridicule, and invective, by cabal and stratagem, obtained a
seeming triumph over a single individual, but who, like the Farnesian
Hercules, personified the force and resistance of incomparable
strength. "The Bees of Christchurch," as this conspiracy of wits has
been called, so musical and so angry, rushed in a dark swarm about
him, but only left their fine stings in the flesh they could not
wound. He only put out his hand in contempt, never in rage. The
Christchurch men, as if doubtful whether wit could prevail against
learning, had recourse to the maliciousness of personal satire. They
amused an idle public, who could even relish sense and Greek, seasoned
as they were with wit and satire, while Boyle was showing how Bentley
wanted wit, and Bentley was proving how Boyle wanted learning.
To detect the origin of the controversy, we must find the seed-plot
of Bentley's volume in Sir William Temple's "Essay upon Ancient and
Modern Learning," which he inscribed to his alma mater, the
University of Cambridge. Sir William, who had caught the contagion
of the prevalent literary controversy of the times, in which the
finest geniuses in Europe had entered the lists, imagined that the
ancients possessed a greater force of genius, with some peculiar
advantages--that the human mind was in a state of decay--and that
our knowledge was nothing more than scattered fragments saved out of
the general shipwreck. He writes with a premeditated design to dispute
the improvements or undervalue the inventions of his own age. Wotton,
the friend of Bentley, replied by his curious volume of "Reflections
on Ancient and Modern Learning." But Sir William, in his ardour, had
thrown out an unguarded opinion, which excited the hostile contempt of
Bentley. "The oldest books," he says, "we have, are still in their
kind the best; the two most ancient that I know of, in prose, are
'Æsop's Fables' and 'Phalaris's Epistles.'"--The "Epistles," he
insists, exhibit every excellence of "a statesman, a soldier, a wit,
and a scholar." That ancient author, who Bentley afterwards asserted
was only "some dreaming pedant, with his elbow on his desk."
Bentley, bristled over with Greek, perhaps then considered that to
notice a vernacular and volatile writer ill assorted with the critic's
_Fastus_. But about this time Dean Aldrich had set an example to the
students of Christchurch of publishing editions of classical authors.
Such juvenile editorships served as an easy admission into the
fashionable literature of Oxford. Alsop had published the "Æsop;" and
Boyle, among other "young gentlemen," easily obtained the favour of
the dean, "to _desire_ him to undertake an edition of the 'Epistles of
Phalaris.'" Such are the modest terms Boyle employs in his reply to
Bentley, after he had discovered the unlucky choice he had made of an
author.
For this edition of "Phalaris" it was necessary to collate a MS. in
the king's library; and Bentley, about this time, had become the royal
librarian. Boyle did not apply directly to Bentley, but circuitously,
by his bookseller, with whom the doctor was not on terms. Some act of
civility, or a Mercury more "formose," to use one of his latinisms,
was probably expected. The MS. was granted, but the collator was
negligent; in six days Bentley reclaimed it, "four hours" had been
sufficient for the purpose of collation.
When Boyle's "Phalaris" appeared, he made this charge in the preface,
that having ordered the Epistles to be collated with the MS. in the
king's library, the collator was prevented perfecting the collation by
the _singular humanity_ of the library-keeper, who refused any further
use of the MS.; _pro singulari suâ humanitate negavit_: an expression
that sharply hit a man marked by the haughtiness of his manners.[297]
Bentley, on this insult, informed Boyle of what had passed. He
expected that Boyle would have civilly cancelled the page; though he
tells us he did not require this, because, "to have insisted on
the cancel, might have been forcing a gentleman to too low a
submission;"--a stroke of delicacy which will surprise some to
discover in the strong character of Bentley. But he was also too
haughty to ask a favour, and too conscious of his superiority to
betray a feeling of injury. Boyle replied, that the bookseller's
account was quite different from the doctor's, who had spoken
slightingly of him. Bentley said no more.
Three years had nearly elapsed, when Bentley, in a new edition of his
friend Wotton's book, published "A Dissertation on the Epistles of the
Ancients;" where, reprehending the false criticism of Sir William
Temple, he asserted that the "Fables of Æsop" and the "Epistles of
Phalaris" were alike spurious. The blow was levelled at Christchurch,
and all "the bees" were brushed down in the warmth of their
summer-day.
It is remarkable that Bentley kept so long a silence; indeed, he had
considered the affair so trivial, that he had preserved no part of the
correspondence with Boyle, whom no doubt he slighted as the young
editor of a spurious author. But Boyle's edition came forth, as
Bentley expresses it, "with a sting in its mouth." This, at first,
was like a cut finger--he breathed on it, and would have forgotten it;
but the nerve was touched, and the pain raged long after the stroke.
Even the great mind of Bentley began to shrink at the touch of
literary calumny, so different from the vulgar kind, in its extent and
its duration. He betrays the soreness he would wish to conceal, when
he complains that "the false story has been spread all over England."
The statement of Bentley produced, in reply, the famous book of
Boyle's "Examination of Bentley's Dissertation." It opens with an
imposing narrative, highly polished, of the whole transaction, with the
extraordinary furniture of documents, which had never before entered
into a literary controversy--depositions--certificates--affidavits--and
private letters. Bentley now rejoined by his enlarged "Dissertation on
Phalaris," a volume of perpetual value to the lovers of ancient
literature, and the memorable preface of which, itself a volume,
exhibits another Narrative, entirely differing from Boyle's. These
produced new replies and new rejoinders. The whole controversy became
so perplexed, that it has frightened away all who have attempted to
adjust the particulars. With unanimous consent they give up the
cause, as one in which both parties studied only to contradict each
other. Such was the fate of a Narrative, which was made out of the
recollections of the parties, with all their passions at work, after
an interval of three years. In each, the memory seemed only retentive
of those passages which best suited their own purpose, and which were
precisely those the other party was most likely to have forgotten.
What was forgotten, was denied; what was admitted, was made to refer to
something else; dialogues were given which appear never to have been
spoken; and incidents described which are declared never to have taken
place; and all this, perhaps, without any purposed violation of
truth. Such were the dangers and misunderstandings which attended a
Narrative framed out of the broken or passionate recollections of the
parties on the watch to confound one another.[298]
Bentley's Narrative is a most vigorous production: it heaves with the
workings of a master-spirit; still reasoning with such force, and
still applying with such happiness the stores of his copious
literature, had it not been for this literary quarrel, the mere
English reader had lost this single opportunity of surveying that
commanding intellect.
Boyle's edition of "Phalaris" was a work of parade, designed to confer
on a young man, who bore an eminent name, some distinction in the
literary world. But Bentley seems to have been well-informed of the
secret transactions at Christchurch. In his first attack he mentions
Boyle as "the young gentleman of great hopes, whose name is set to the
edition;" and asserts that the editor, no more than his own
"Phalaris," has written what was ascribed to him. He persists in
making a plurality of a pretended unity, by multiplying Boyle into a
variety of little personages, of "new editors," our "annotators," our
"great geniuses."[299] Boyle, touched at these reflections, declared
"they were levelled at a learned society, in which I had the happiness
to be educated; as if 'Phalaris' had been made up by contributions
from several hands." Pressed by Bentley to acknowledge the assistance
of Dr. John Freind, Boyle confers on him the ambiguous title of "The
Director of Studies." Bentley links the Bees together--Dr. Freind and
Dr. Alsop. "The Director of Studies, who has lately set out Ovid's
'Metamorphoses,' with a paraphrase and notes, is of the same size for
learning with the late editor of the Æsopian Fables. They bring the
nation into contempt abroad, and themselves into it at home;" and adds
to this magisterial style, the mortification of his criticism on
Freind's Ovid, as on Alsop's Æsop.
But Boyle assuming the honours of an edition of "Phalaris," was but a
venial offence, compared with that committed by the celebrated volume
published in its defence.
If Bentley's suspicions were not far from the truth, that "the
'Phalaris' had been _made up by contributions_," they approached still
closer when they attacked "The Examination of his Dissertation." Such
was the assistance which Boyle received from all "the Bees," that
scarcely a few ears of that rich sheaf fall to his portion. His
efforts hardly reach to the mere narrative of his transactions with
Bentley. All the varied erudition, all the Attic graces, all the
inexhaustible wit, are claimed by others; so that Boyle was not
materially concerned either in his "Phalaris," or in the more
memorable work.[300]
The Christchurch party now formed a literary conspiracy against the
great critic; and as treason is infectious when the faction is strong,
they were secretly engaging new associates; Whenever any of the party
published anything themselves, they had sworn to have always "a fling
at Bentley," and intrigued with their friends to do the same.
They procured Keil, the professor of astronomy, in so grave a work as
"The Theory of the Earth," to have a fling at Bentley's boasted
sagacity in conjectural criticism. Wotton, in a dignified reproof,
administered a spirited correction to the party-spirit; while his love
of science induced him generously to commend Keil, and intimate the
advantages the world may derive from his studies, "as he grows older."
Even Garth and Pope struck in with the alliance, and condescended to
pour out rhymes more lasting than even the prose of "the Bees."
But of all the rabid wits who, fastening on their prey, never drew
their fangs from the noble animal, the facetious Dr. King seems to
have been the only one who excited Bentley's anger. Persevering
malice, in the teasing shape of caustic banter, seems to have affected
the spirit even of Bentley.
At one of those conferences which passed between Bentley and the
bookseller, King happened to be present; and being called on by Boyle
to bear his part in the drama, he performed it quite to the taste of
"the Bees." He addressed a letter to Dean Aldrich, in which he gave
one particular: and, to make up a sufficient dose, dropped some
corrosives. He closes his letter thus:--"That scorn and contempt which
I have naturally for pride and insolence, makes me remember that which
otherwise I might have forgotten." Nothing touched Bentley more to the
quick than reflections on "his pride and insolence." Our defects seem
to lose much of their character, in reference to ourselves, by habit
and natural disposition; yet we have always a painful suspicion of
their existence; and he who touches them with no tenderness is never
pardoned. The invective of King had all the bitterness of truth.
Bentley applied a line from Horace; which showed that both Horace and
Bentley could pun in anger:--
Proscripti _Regis Rupili_ pus atque venenum.[301]--_Sat._ i. 7.
The filth and venom of _Rupilius King_.
The particular incident which King imperfectly recollected, made
afterwards much noise among the wits, for giving them a new notion of
the nature of ancient MSS. King relates that Dr. Bentley said--"If the
MS. were collated, it would be worth nothing for the future." Bentley,
to mortify the pertness of the bookseller, who would not send his
publications to the Royal Library, had said that he ought to do
so, were it but to make amends for the damage the MS. would sustain
by his printing the various readings; "for," added Bentley, "after
the various lections were once taken and printed, _the MS. would
be like a squeezed orange, and little worth for the future_." This
familiar comparison of a MS. with a squeezed orange provoked the
epigrammatists. Bentley, in retorting on King, adds some curious facts
concerning the fate of MSS. after they have been printed; but is
aware, he says, of what little relish or sense the Doctor has of MSS.,
who is better skilled in "the catalogue of ales, his Humty-Dumty,
Hugmatee, Three-threads, and the rest of that glorious list, than
in the catalogue of MSS." King, in his banter on Dr. Lister's
journey to Paris, had given a list of these English beverages. It
was well known that he was in too constant an intercourse with them
all. Bentley nicknames King through the progress of his Controversy,
for his tavern-pleasures, Humty-Dumty, and accuses him of writing more
in a tavern than in a study. He little knew the injustice of his
charge against a student who had written notes on 22,000 books and
MSS.; but they were not Greek ones.
All this was not done with impunity. An irritated wit only finds
his adversary cutting out work for him. A second letter, more
abundant with the same pungent qualities, fell on the head of
Bentley. King says of the arch-critic--"He thinks meanly, I find,
of my reading; yet for all that, I dare say I have read more than any
man in England besides _him_ and _me_; for I have read his book all
over."[302] Nor was this all; "Humty-Dumty" published eleven
"Dialogues of the Dead," supposed to be written by a student at
Padua, concerning "one Bentivoglio, a very troublesome critic in the
world;" where, under the character of "Signior Moderno," Wotton
falls into his place. Whether these dialogues mortified Bentley, I
know not: they ought to have afforded him very high amusement. But
when a man is at once tickled and pinched, the operation requires
a gentler temper than Bentley's. "Humty-Dumty," indeed, had Bentley
too often before him. There was something like inveteracy in his wit;
but he who invented the remarkable index to Boyle's book, must have
closely studied Bentley's character. He has given it with all its
protuberant individuality.[303]
Bentley, with his peculiar idiom, had censured "all the stiffness and
stateliness, and operoseness of style, quite alien from the character
of 'Phalaris,' a man of business and despatch." Boyle keenly turns his
own words on Bentley. "_Stiffness and stateliness, and operoseness of
style_, is indeed quite _alien from the character of a man of
business_; and being but a _library-keeper_, it is not over-modestly
done, to oppose his judgment and taste to that of Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE,
who knows more of these things than Dr. Bentley does of Hesychius and
Suidas. Sir William Temple has spent a good part of his life in
transacting affairs of state: he has written to kings, and they to
him; and this has qualified him to judge how kings should write, much
better than the _library-keeper at St. James's_."--This may serve as a
specimen of the Attic style of the controversy. Hard words sometimes
passed. Boyle complains of some of the _similes_ which Bentley
employs, more significant than elegant. For the new readings of
"Phalaris," "he likens me to a bungling tinker mending old kettles."
Correcting the faults of the version, he says, "The first epistle cost
me four pages in scouring;" and, "by the help of a Greek proverb, he
calls me downright ass." But while Boyle complains of these
sprinklings of ink, he himself contributes to Bentley's "Collection of
Asinine Proverbs," and "throws him in one out of Aristophanes," of "an
ass carrying mysteries:" "a proverb," says Erasmus, (as 'the Bees'
construe him.) "applied to those who were preferred to some place they
did not deserve, as when a _dunce_ was made a _library-keeper_."
Some ambiguous threats are scattered in the volume, while others are
more intelligible. When Bentley, in his own defence, had referred to
the opinions which some learned foreigners entertained of him--they
attribute these to "the foreigners, because they are foreigners--we,
that have the happiness of a nearer conversation with him, know him
better; and we may perhaps take an opportunity of setting these
mistaken strangers right in their opinions." They threaten him with
his character, "in a tongue that will last longer, and go further,
than their own;" and, in the imperious style of Festus, add:--"Since
Dr. Bentley has appealed to foreign universities, to foreign
universities he must go." Yet this is light, compared with the odium
they would raise against him by the menace of the resentments of a
whole society of learned men.
"_Single adversaries_ die and drop off; but _societies_ are immortal:
their resentments are sometimes delivered down from hand to hand; and
when once they have begun with a man, there is no knowing when they
will leave him."
In reply to this literary anathema, Bentley was furnished, by his
familiarity with his favourite authors, with a fortunate application
of a term, derived from Phalaris himself. Cicero had conveyed his idea
of Cæsar's cruelty by this term, which he invented from the very name
of the tyrant.[304]
"There is a certain temper of mind that Cicero calls _Phalarism_; a
spirit like Phalaris's. One would be apt to imagine that a portion of
it had descended upon some of his translators. The gentleman has given
a broad hint more than once in his book, that if I proceed further
against Phalaris, I may draw, perhaps, a duel, or a stab upon myself;
a generous threat to a divine, who neither carries arms nor principles
fit for that sort of controversy. I expected such usage from the
spirit of Phalarism."
In this controversy, the amusing fancy of "the Bees" could not pass by
Phalaris without contriving to make some use of that brazen bull by
which he tortured men alive. Not satisfied in their motto, from the
Earl of Roscommon, with wedging "the great critic, like Milo, in the
timber he strove to rend," they gave him a second death in their
finis, by throwing Bentley into Phalaris's bull, and flattering their
vain imaginations that they heard him "bellow."
"He has defied Phalaris, and used him very coarsely, under the
assurance, as he tells us, that 'he is out of his reach.' Many of
Phalaris's enemies thought the same thing, and repented of their vain
confidence afterwards in his _bull_. Dr. Bentley is perhaps, by this
time, or will be suddenly, satisfied that he also has presumed a
little too much upon his distance; but it will be too late to repent
when he begins to bellow."[305]
Bentley, although the solid force of his mind was not favourable to
the lighter sports of wit, yet was not quite destitute of those airy
qualities; nor does he seem insensible to the literary merits of "that
odd work," as he calls Boyle's volume, which he conveys a very good
notion of:--"If his book shall happen to be preserved anywhere as an
useful commonplace book for ridicule, banter, and all the topics of
calumny." With equal dignity and sense he observes on the ridicule so
freely used by both parties--"I am content that what is the greatest
virtue of his book should be counted the greatest fault of mine."
His reply to "Milo's fate," and the tortures he was supposed to pass
through when thrown into Phalaris's bull, is a piece of sarcastic
humour which will not suffer by comparison with the volume more
celebrated for its wit.
"The facetious examiner seems resolved to vie with Phalaris himself in
the science of _Phalarism_; for his revenge is not satisfied with one
single death of his adversary, but he will kill me over and over
again. He has slain me twice by two several deaths! one, in the first
page of his book; and another, in the last. In the title-page I die
the death of Milo, the Crotonian:--
----Remember Milo's end,
Wedged in that timber which he strove to rend.
"The application of which must be this:--That as Milo, after his
victories at six several Olympiads, was at last conquered and
destroyed in wrestling with a _tree_, so I, after I had attained to
some small reputation in letters, am to be quite baffled and run down
by _wooden antagonists_. But in the end of his book he has got me into
Phalaris's bull, and he has the pleasure of fancying that he hears me
_begin to bellow_. Well, since it is certain that I am in the bull, I
have performed the part of a sufferer. For as the cries of the
tormented in old Phalaris's bull, being conveyed through pipes lodged
in the machine, were turned into music for the entertainment of the
tyrant, so the complaints which my torments express from me, being
conveyed to Mr. Boyle by this answer, are all dedicated to his
pleasure and diversion. But yet, methinks, when he was setting up to
be _Phalaris junior_, the very omen of it might have deterred him. As
the old tyrant himself at last bellowed in his own bull, his imitators
ought to consider that at long run their own actions may chance to
overtake them."--p. 43.
Wit, however, enjoyed the temporary triumph; not but that some, in
that day, loudly protested against the award.[306] "The Episode of
Bentley and Wotton," in "The Battle of the Books," is conceived with
all the caustic imagination of the first of our prose satirists. There
Bentley's great qualities are represented as "tall, without shape or
comeliness; large, without strength or proportion." His various
erudition, as "armour patched up of a thousand incoherent pieces;" his
book, as "the sound" of that armour, "loud and dry, like that made by
the fall of a sheet of lead from the roof of some steeple;" his
haughty intrepidity, as "a vizor of brass, tainted by his breath,
corrupted into copperas, nor wanted gall from the same fountain; so
that, whenever provoked by anger or labour, an atramentous quality of
most malignant nature was seen to distil from his lips." Wotton is
"heavy-armed and slow of foot, lagging behind." They perish together
in one ludicrous death. Boyle, in his celestial armour, by a stroke of
his weapon, transfixes both "the lovers," "as a cook trusses a brace
of woodcocks, with iron skewer piercing the tender sides of both.
Joined in their lives, joined in their death, so closely joined, that
Charon would mistake them both for one, and waft them over Styx for
half his fare." Such is the candour of wit! The great qualities of an
adversary, as in Bentley, are distorted into disgraceful attitudes;
while the suspicious virtues of a friend, as in Boyle, not passed over
in prudent silence, are ornamented with even spurious panegyric.
Garth, catching the feeling of the time, sung--
And to a Bentley 'tis we owe a Boyle.
Posterity justly appreciates the volume of Bentley for its stores
of ancient literature; and the author, for that peculiar sagacity
in emending a corrupt text, which formed his distinguishing
characteristic as a classical critic; and since his book but for this
literary quarrel had never appeared, reverses the names in the
verse of the "Satirist."
FOOTNOTES:
[297] Haughtiness was the marking feature of Bentley's literary
character; and his Wolseyan style and air have been played on
by the wits. Bentley happened to express himself on the King's
MS. of Phalaris in a manner their witty malice turned against
him. "'Twas a surprise (he said) to find that OUR MS. was not
perused."--"OUR MS. (they proceed) that is, his Majesty's and
mine! He speaks out now; 'tis no longer the King's, but OUR
MS., _i.e._ Dr. Bentley's and the King's in common, _Ego et
Rex meus_--much too familiar for a library-keeper!"--It has
been said that Bentley used the same Wolseyan egotism on
Pope's publications:--"This man is always abusing _me_ or the
_King_!"
[298] Bentley, in one place, having to give a positive contradiction
to the statement of the bookseller, rising in all his dignity
and energy, exclaims, "What can be done in this case? Here are
two contrary affirmations; and the matter being done in
private, neither of us have any witness. I might plead, as
Æmilius Scaurus did against one Varius, of Sucro. _Varius
Sucronensis ait, Æmilius Scaurus negat. Utri creditis
Quirites?_" p. 21.--The story is told by Valerius Maximus,
lib. iii. c. 7. Scaurus was insolently accused by one Varius,
a Sucronian, that he had taken bribes from Mithridates:
Scaurus addressed the Roman people. "He did not think it just
that a man of his age should defend himself against
accusations, and before those who were not born when he filled
the offices of the republic, nor witnessed the actions he had
performed. Varius, the Sucronian, says that Scaurus, corrupted
by gold, would have betrayed the republic; Scaurus replies, It
is not true. Whom will you believe, fellow-Romans?"--This
appeal to the people produced all the effect imaginable, and
the ridiculous accuser was silenced.
Bentley points the same application, with even more
self-consciousness of his worth, in another part of his
preface. It became necessary to praise himself, to remove the
odium Boyle and his friends had raised on him--it was a
difficulty overcome. "I will once more borrow the form of
argument that Æmilius Scaurus used against Varius Sucronensis.
Mr. Spanheim and Mr. Grævius give a high character of Dr. B.'s
learning: Mr. Boyle gives the meanest that malice can furnish
himself with. _Utri creditis, Quirites?_ Whether of the
characters will the present age or posterity believe?"--p. 82.
It was only a truly great mind which could bring itself so
close to posterity.
[299] It was the fashion then to appear very unconcerned about one's
literary reputation; but then to be so tenacious about it when
once obtained as not to suffer, with common patience, even the
little finger of criticism to touch it. Boyle, after defending
what he calls his "honesty," adds, "the rest _only_ touches my
learning. This will give me _no concern_, though it may put me
to some little trouble. I shall enter upon this with _the
indifference of a gamester who plays but for a trifle_." On
this affected indifference, Bentley keenly observes:--"This
was entering on his work a little ominously; for a gamester
who plays with indifference never plays his game well. Besides
that, by this odd comparison, he seems to give warning, and is
as good as his word, that he will put the dice upon his
readers as often as he can. But what is worse than all, this
comparison puts one in mind of a general rumour, that there's
another set of gamesters who _play him_ in his dispute while
themselves are safe behind the curtain."--BENTLEY'S
_Dissertation on Phalaris_, p. 2.
[300] Rumours and conjectures are the lot of contemporaries; truth
seems reserved only for posterity; and, like the fabled
Minerva, she is born of age at once. The secret history of
this volume, which partially appeared, has been more
particularly opened in one of Warburton's letters, who
received it from Pope, who had been "let into the secret."
Boyle wrote the Narrative, "which, too, was corrected for
him." Freind, who wrote the entire Dissertation on Æsop in
that volume, wrote also, with Atterbury, the body of the
Criticisms; King, the droll argument, proving that Bentley was
not the author of his own Dissertation, and the extraordinary
index which I shall shortly notice. In Atterbury's "Epistolary
Correspondence" is a letter, where, with equal anger and
dignity, Atterbury avows his having written _about half, and
planned the whole_ of Boyle's attack upon Bentley! With these
facts before us, can we read without surprise, if not without
indignation, the passage I shall now quote from the book to
which the name of Boyle is prefixed. In raising an artful
charge against Bentley, of appropriating to himself some MS.
notes of Sir Edward Sherburn, Boyle, replying to the argument
of Bentley, that "Phalaris" was the work of some sophist,
says:--"The sophists are everywhere pelted by Dr. Bentley, for
putting out what they wrote in other men's names; but I did
not expect to hear so loudly of it from one that has so far
outdone them; for _I think 'tis much worse to take the honour
of another man's book to one's self_, than to entitle one's
own book to another man."--p. 16.
I am surprised Bentley did not turn the point of his
antagonist's sword on himself, for this flourish was a most
unguarded one. But Bentley could not then know so much of the
book, "made up by contributions," as ourselves.
Partial truths flew about in rumours at the time; but the
friends of a young nobleman, and even his fellow-workmen,
seemed concerned that his glory should not be diminished by a
ruinous division. Rymer, in his "Essay concerning Curious and
Critical Learning," judiciously surmised its true origin. "I
fancy this book was written (as most public compositions in
that college are) by a _select club_. Every one seems to have
thrown in a repartee or so in his turn; and the most ingenious
Dr. Aldrich (he does not deserve the epithet in its most
friendly sense) no doubt at their head, smoked and punned
plentifully on this occasion." The arrogance of Aldrich
exceeded even that of Bentley. Rymer tells further, that
Aldrich was notorious for thus employing his "young
inexperienced students;" that he "_betrayed_ Mr. Boyle into
the controversy, and is still involving others in the
quarrel." Thus he points at the rival chieftains; one of whom
never appeared in public, but was the great mover behind the
curtain. These lively wits, so deeply busied among the
obscurest writers of antiquity, so much against their will,
making up a show of learning against the formidable array of
Bentley, exhilarated themselves in their dusty labours by a
perpetual stimulus of keen humour, playful wit, and angry
invective. No doubt they were often enraged at bearing the
yoke about their luxuriant manes, ploughing the darkest and
heaviest soil of antiquity. They had been reared--
"Insultare solo, et gressus glomerare superbos."
"Georg." Lib. iii. 117.
"To insult the ground, and proudly pace the plain."
TRAPP.
Swift, in "The Battle of the Books," who, under his patron,
Sir William Temple, was naturally in alliance with "the
Bees," with ingenious ambiguity alludes to the glorious
manufacture. "Boyle, clad in a suit of armour, _which had
been given him by all the GODS_." Still the truth was only
floating in rumours and surmises; and the little that Boyle
had done was not yet known. Lord Orrery, his son, had a
difficulty to overcome to pass lightly over this allusion. The
literary honour of the family was at stake, and his filial
piety was exemplary to a father, who had unfortunately, in
passion, deprived his lordship of the family library--a
stroke from which his sensibility never recovered, and which
his enemies ungenerously pointed against him. Lord Orrery,
with all the tenderness of a son, and the caution of a
politician, observes on "the armour given by the Gods"--"I
shall not _dispute_ about the _gift_ of the armour. The Gods
never bestowed celestial armour except upon heroes, whose
courage and superior strength distinguished them from the
rest of mankind." Most ingeniously he would seem to
convert into a classical fable what was designed as a plain
matter of fact!
It does credit to the discernment of Bentley, whose taste was
not very lively in English composition, that he pronounced
Boyle was _not the author_ of the "Examination," from _the
variety of styles in it_.--p. 107.
[301] This short and pointed satire of Horace is merely a pleasant
story about a low wretch of the name of King; and Brutus,
under whose command he was, is entreated to get rid of him,
from his hereditary hatred to _all kings_. I suppose this pun
must be considered legitimate, otherwise Horace was an
indifferent punster.
[302] A keen repartee! Yet King could read this mighty volume as "a
vain confused performance," but the learned DODWELL declared
to "the Bees of Christchurch," who looked up to him, that "he
had never learned so much from any book of the size in his
life." King was as unjust to Bentley, as Bentley to King. Men
of genius are more subject to "unnatural civil war" than even
the blockheads whom Pope sarcastically reproaches with it. The
great critic's own notion of his volume seems equally modest
and just. "To undervalue this dispute about 'Phalaris,'
because it does not suit one's own studies, is to quarrel with
a circle because it is not a square. If the question be not of
vulgar use, it was writ therefore for a few; for even the
greatest performances, upon the most important subjects, are
no entertainment at all to _the many of the world_."--p. 107.
[303] This index, a very original morsel of literary pleasantry, is at
once a satirical character of the great critic, and what it
professes to be. I preserve a specimen among the curiosities I
am collecting. It is entitled--
"_A Short Account of +Dr. BENTLEY+, by way of Index._
"Dr. Bentley's true story proved false, by the
testimonies of, &c., p. --
"His civil language, p. --
"His nice taste,
in wit, p. --
in style, p. --
in Greek, p. --
in Latin, p. --
in English, p. --
"His modesty and decency in contradicting great
men"--a very long list of authors, concluding with
'_Everybody_,' p. --
"His familiar acquaintance with books he never saw,"
p. --
And lastly, "his profound skill in criticism--from
beginning to THE END."
Which thus terminates the volume.
[304] Cicero ad Atticum, Lib. vii., Epist. xii.
[305] No doubt this idea was the origin of that satirical Capriccio,
which closed in a most fortunate pun--a literary caricature,
where the doctor is represented in the hands of Phalaris's
attendants, who are putting him into the tyrant's bull, while
Bentley exclaims, "I had rather be _roasted_ than _Boyled_."
[306] Sir Richard Blackmore, in his bold attempt at writing "A Satire
against Wit," in utter defiance of it, without any, however,
conveys some opinions of the times. He there paints the great
critic, "crowned with applause," seated amidst "the spoils of
ruined wits:"
"Till his rude strokes had thresh'd the empty sheaf,
Methought there had been something else than chaff."
Boyle, not satisfied with the undeserved celebrity conceded to
his volume, ventured to write poetry, in which no one appears
to have suspected the aid of "The Bees"--
"See a fine scholar sunk by wit in Boyle!
After his foolish rhymes, both friends and foes
Conclude they know _who did not write his prose_."
_A Satire against Wit._
PARKER AND MARVELL.
MARVELL the founder of "a newly-refined art of jeering
buffoonery"--his knack of nicknaming his adversaries--PARKER'S
Portrait--PARKER suddenly changes his principles--his declamatory
style--MARVELL prints his anonymous letter as a motto to "The
Rehearsal Transprosed"--describes him as an "At-all"--MARVELL'S
ludicrous description of the whole posse of answers summoned
together by PARKER--MARVELL'S cautious allusion to MILTON--his
solemn invective against PARKER--anecdote of MARVELL and
PARKER--PARKER retires after the second part of "The Rehearsal
Transprosed"--The Recreant, reduced to silence, distils his secret
vengeance in a posthumous libel.
One of the legitimate ends of satire, and one of the proud triumphs of
genius, is to unmask the false zealot; to beat back the haughty spirit
that is treading down all; and if it cannot teach modesty, and raise a
blush, at least to inflict terror and silence. It is then that the
satirist does honour to the office of the executioner.
As one whose whip of steel can with a lash
Imprint the characters of shame so deep,
Even in the brazen forehead of proud Sin,
That not eternity shall wear it out.[307]
The quarrel between PARKER and MARVELL is a striking example of the
efficient powers of genius, in first humbling, and then annihilating,
an unprincipled bravo, who had placed himself at the head of a
faction.
Marvell, the under-secretary and the bosom-friend of Milton, whose
fancy he has often caught in his verse, was one of the greatest wits
of the luxuriant age of Charles II.; he was a master in all the arts
of ridicule; and his inexhaustible spirit only required some permanent
subject to have rivalled the causticity of Swift, whose style, in
neatness and vivacity, seems to have been modelled on his.[308] But
Marvell placed the oblation of genius on a temporary altar, and the
sacrifice sunk with it; he wrote to the times, and with the times his
writings have passed away; yet something there is incorruptible in
wit, and wherever its salt has fallen, that part is still preserved.
Such are the vigour and fertility of Marvell's writings, that our old
Chronicler of Literary History, Anthony Wood, considers him as the
founder of "the then newly-refined art (though much in mode and
fashion almost ever since) of sportive and jeering buffoonery;"[309]
and the crabbed humorist describes "this pen-combat as briskly managed
on both sides; a jerking flirting way of writing entertaining the
reader, by seeing two such right cocks of the game so keenly engaging
with sharp and dangerous weapons."--Burnett calls Marvell "the
liveliest droll of the age, who writ in a burlesque strain, but with
so peculiar and entertaining a conduct, that from the king to the
tradesman, his books were read with great pleasure." Charles II. was a
more polished judge than these uncouth critics; and, to the credit of
his impartiality,--for that witty monarch and his dissolute court
were never spared by Marvell, who remained inflexible to his
seduction--he deemed Marvell the best prose satirist of the age. But
Marvell had other qualities than the freest humour and the finest wit
in this "newly-refined art," which seems to have escaped these grave
critics--a vehemence of solemn reproof, and an eloquence of invective,
that awes one with the spirit of the modern Junius,[310] and may give
some notion of that more ancient satirist, whose writings are said to
have so completely answered their design, that, after perusal, their
victim hanged himself on the first tree; and in the present case,
though the delinquent did not lay violent hands on himself, he did
what, for an author, may be considered as desperate a course,
"withdraw from the town, and cease writing for some years."[311]
The celebrated work here to be noticed is Marvell's "Rehearsal
Transprosed;" a title facetiously adopted from Bayes in "The Rehearsal
Transposed" of the Duke of Buckingham. It was written against the
works and the person of Dr. Samuel Parker, afterwards Bishop of
Oxford, whom he designates under the character of Bayes, to denote the
incoherence and ridiculousness of his character. Marvell had a
peculiar knack of calling names,--it consisted in appropriating a
ludicrous character in some popular comedy, and dubbing his
adversaries with it. In the same spirit he ridiculed Dr. Turner, of
Cambridge, a brother-genius to Parker, by nicknaming him "Mr. Smirk,
the Divine in Mode," the name of the Chaplain in Etherege's "Man of
Mode," and thus, by a stroke of the pen, conveyed an idea of "a neat,
starched, formal, and forward divine." This application of a
fictitious character to a real one, this christening a man with
ridicule, though of no difficult invention, is not a little hazardous
to inferior writers; for it requires not less wit than Marvell's to
bring out of the real character the ludicrous features which mark the
factitious prototype.
Parker himself must have his portrait, and if the likeness be justly
hit off, some may be reminded of a resemblance. Mason applies the
epithet of "Mitred Dullness" to him: but although he was at length
reduced to railing and to menaces, and finally mortified into silence,
this epithet does not suit so hardy and so active an adventurer.
The secret history of Parker may be collected in Marvell,[312] and his
more public one in our honest chronicler, Anthony Wood. Parker was
originally educated in strict sectarian principles; a starch Puritan,
"fasting and praying with the Presbyterian students weekly, and who,
for their refection feeding only on thin broth made of oatmeal and
water, were commonly called _Gruellers_." Among these, says Marvell,
"it was observed that he was wont to put more graves than all the rest
into his porridge, and was deemed one of the _preciousest_[313] young
men in the University." It seems that these mortified saints, both the
brotherhood and the sisterhood, held their chief meetings at the house
of "Bess Hampton, an old and crooked maid that drove the trade of
laundry, who, being from her youth very much given to the godly party,
as they call themselves, had frequent meetings, especially for those
that were her customers." Such is the dry humour of honest Anthony,
who paints like the Ostade of literary history.
But the age of sectarism and thin gruel was losing all its coldness in
the sunshine of the Restoration; and this "preciousest young man,"
from praying and caballing against episcopacy, suddenly acquainted
the world, in one of his dedications, that Dr. Ralph Bathurst had
"rescued him from the chains and fetters of an unhappy education,"
and, without any intermediate apology, from a sullen sectarian turned
a flaming highflyer for the "supreme dominion" of the Church.[314]
It is the after-conduct of Parker that throws light on this rapid
change. On speculative points any man may be suddenly converted; for
these may depend on facts or arguments which might never have occurred
to him before. But when we watch the weathercock chopping with the
wind, so pliant to move, and so stiff when fixed--when we observe this
"preciousest grueller" clothed in purple, and equally hardy in the
most opposite measures--become a favourite with James II., and a
furious advocate for arbitrary power; when we see him railing at and
menacing those, among whom he had committed as many extravagances as
any of them;[315] can we hesitate to decide that this bold, haughty,
and ambitious man was one of those who, having neither religion nor
morality for a casting weight, can easily fly off to opposite
extremes? and whether a puritan or a bishop, we must place his zeal to
the same side of his religious ledger--that of the profits of barter!
The quarrel between Parker and Marvell originated in a preface,[316]
written by Parker, in which he had poured down his contempt and abuse
on his old companions, the Nonconformists. It was then Marvell clipped
his wings with his "Rehearsal Transprosed;" his wit and humour were
finely contrasted with Parker's extravagances, set off in his
declamatory style; of which Marvell wittily describes "the volume and
circumference of the periods, which, though he takes always to be his
chiefest strength, yet, indeed, like too great a line, weakens the
defence, and requires too many men to make it good." The tilt was now
opened, and certain masqued knights appeared in the course; they
attempted to grasp the sharp and polished weapon of Marvell, to turn
it on himself.[317] But Marvell, with malicious ingenuity, sees Parker
in them all--they so much resembled their master! "There were no
less," says the wit, "than six scaramouches together on the stage, all
of them of the same gravity and behaviour, the same tone, the same
habit, that it was impossible to discern which was the true author of
the 'Ecclesiastical Polity.' I believe he imitated the wisdom of some
other princes, who have sometimes been persuaded by their servants to
disguise several others in the regal garb, that the enemy might not
know in the battle whom to single." Parker, in fact, replied to
Marvell anonymously, by "A Reproof to the Rehearsal Transprosed," with
a mild exhortation to the magistrate to crush with the secular arm the
pestilent wit, the servant of Cromwell, and the friend of Milton. But
this was not all; something else, anonymous too, was despatched to
Marvell: it was an extraordinary letter, short enough to have been an
epigram, could Parker have written one; but short as it was, it was
more in character, for it was only a threat of assassination! It
concluded with these words: "If thou darest to print any lie or libel
against Dr. Parker, by the Eternal God I will cut thy throat." Marvell
replied to "the Reproof," which he calls a printed letter, by the
second part of "the Rehearsal Transprosed;" and to the unprinted
letter, by publishing it on his own title-page.
Of two volumes of wit and broad humour, and of the most galling
invective, one part flows so much into another, that the volatile
spirit would be injured by an analytical process. But Marvell is now
only read by the curious lovers of our literature, who find the
strong, luxuriant, though not the delicate, wit of the wittiest age,
never obsolete: the reader shall not, however, part from Marvell
without some slight transplantations from a soil whose rich vegetation
breaks out in every part.
Of the pleasantry and sarcasm, these may be considered as specimens.
Parker was both author and licenser of his own work on "Ecclesiastical
Polity;"[318] and it appears he got the licence for printing Marvell's
first _Rehearsal_ recalled. The Church appeared in danger when the
doctor discovered he was so furiously attacked. Marvell sarcastically
rallies him on his dual capacity:--
"He is such an _At-all_, of so many capacities, that he would
excommunicate any man who should have presumed to intermeddle with any
one of his provinces. Has he been an author? he is too the licenser.
Has he been a father? he will stand too for godfather. Had he acted
_Pyramus_, he would have been _Moonshine_ too, and the _Hole in the
Wall_. That first author of 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' (such as his)
Nero, was of the same temper. He could not be contented with the Roman
empire, unless he were too his own precentor; and lamented only the
detriment that mankind must sustain at his death, in losing so
considerable a fiddler."
The satirist describes Parker's arrogance for those whom Parker calls
the vulgar, and whom he defies as "a rout of wolves and tigers, apes
and buffoons;" yet his personal fears are oddly contrasted with his
self-importance: "If he chance but to sneeze, he prays that the
_foundations of the earth_ be not shaken.--Ever since he crept up to
be but the _weathercock of a steeple_, he trembles and cracks at every
puff of wind that blows about him, as if the _Church of England_ were
falling." Parker boasted, in certain philosophical "Tentamina," or
essays of his, that he had confuted the atheists: Marvell declares,
"If he had reduced any atheist by his book, he can only pretend to
have converted them (as in the old Florentine wars) by mere tiring
them out, and perfect weariness." A pleasant allusion to those mock
fights of the Italian mercenaries, who, after parading all day, rarely
unhorsed a single cavalier.
Marvell blends with a ludicrous description of his answerers great
fancy:--
"The whole _Posse Archidiaconatus_ was raised to repress me; and great
rising there was, and sending post every way to pick out the ablest
ecclesiastical droles to prepare an answer. Never was such a hubbub
made about a sorry book. One flattered himself with being at least a
surrogate; another was so modest as to set up with being but a
paritor; while the most generous hoped only to be graciously smiled
upon at a good dinner; but the more hungry starvelings generally
looked upon it as an immediate call to a benefice; and he that could
but write an answer, whatsoever it were, took it for the most
dexterous, cheap, and legal way of simony. As is usual on these
occasions, there arose no small competition and mutiny among the
pretenders."
It seems all the body had not impudence enough, and had too nice
consciences, and could not afford an extraordinary expense in wit for
the occasion. It was then
"The author of the 'Ecclesiastical Polity' altered his lodgings to a
calumny-office, and kept open chamber for all comers, that he might be
supplied himself, or supply others, as there was occasion. But the
information came in so slenderly, that he was glad to make use of
anything rather than sit out; and there was at last nothing so slight,
but it grew material; nothing so false, but he resolved it should go
for truth; and what wanted in matter, he would make out with invention
and artifice. So that he and his remaining comrades seemed to have set
up a glass-house, the model of which he had observed from the height
of his window in the neighbourhood, and the art he had been initiated
into ever since from the manufacture (he will criticise because not
orifacture) of _soap-bubbles_, he improved by degrees to the mystery
of making _glass-drops_, and thence, in running leaps, mounted by
these virtues to be Fellow of the Royal Society, Doctor of Divinity,
Parson, Prebend, and Archdeacon. The furnace was so hot of itself,
that there needed no coals, much less any one to blow them. One burnt
the weed, another calcined the flint, a third melted down that
mixture; but he himself fashioned all with his breath, and polished
with his style, till, out of a mere jelly of sand and ashes, he had
furnished a whole cupboard of things, so brittle and incoherent, that
the least touch would break them again in pieces, and so transparent,
that every man might see through them."
Parker had accused Marvell with having served Cromwell, and being the
friend of Milton, then living, at a moment when such an accusation not
only rendered a man odious, but put his life in danger.[319] Marvell,
who now perceived that Milton, whom he never looked on but with the
eyes of reverential awe, was likely to be drawn into his quarrel,
touches on this subject with infinite delicacy and tenderness, but not
with diminished energy against his malignant adversary, whom he shows
to have been an impertinent intruder in Milton's house, where indeed
he had first known him. He cautiously alludes to our English Homer by
his initials: at that moment the very name of Milton would have
tainted the page!
"J. M. was, and is, a man of great learning and sharpness of wit, as
any man. It was his misfortune, living in a tumultuous time, to be
tossed on the wrong side; and he writ, _flagrante bello_, certain
dangerous treatises. But some of his books, upon which you take him at
advantage, were of no other nature than that one writ by your own
father; only with this difference, that your father's, which I have by
me, was written with the same design, but with much less wit or
judgment, for which there was no remedy, unless you will supply his
judgment with his high Court of Justice. At his Majesty's happy
return, J. M. did partake, even as you yourself did, for all your
huffing, of his royal clemency, and has ever since expiated himself in
a retired silence. Whether it were my foresight, or my good fortune, I
never contracted any friendship or confidence with you; but then it
was you frequented J. M. incessantly, and haunted his house day by
day. What discourses you there used, he is too generous to remember.
But for you to insult over his old age, to traduce him by your
scaramouches, and in your own person, as a schoolmaster, who was born
and hath lived more ingenuously and liberally than yourself!"
Marvell, when he lays by his playful humour and fertile fancy for more
solemn remonstrances, assumes a loftier tone, and a severity of
invective, from which, indeed, Parker never recovered.
Accused by Parker of aiming to degrade the clerical character, Marvell
declares his veneration for that holy vocation, and that he reflected
even on the failings of the men, from whom so much is expected, with
indulgent reverence:--
"Their virtues are to be celebrated with all encouragement; and if
their vices be not notoriously palpable, let the eye, as it defends
its organ, so conceal the object by connivance." But there are cases
when even to write satirically against a clergyman may be not only
excusable, but necessary:--"The man who gets into the church by the
belfry or the window, ought never to be borne in the pulpit; and so
the man who illustrates his own corrupt doctrines with as ill a
conversation, and adorns the lasciviousness of his life with an equal
petulancy of style and language."--In such a concurrence of
misdemeanors, what is to be done? The example and the consequence so
pernicious! which could not be, "if our great pastors but exercise the
wisdom of common shepherds, by parting with one to stop the infection
of the whole flock, when his rottenness grows notorious. Or if our
clergy would but use the instinct of other creatures, and chastise the
blown deer out of their herd, such mischiefs might easily be
remedied. In this case it is that I think a clergyman is laid open to
the pen of any one that knows how to manage it; and that every person
who has either wit, learning, or sobriety, is licensed, if debauched,
to curb him; if erroneous, to catechise him; and if foul-mouthed and
biting, to muzzle him. Such an one would never have come into the
church, but to take sanctuary; rather wheresoever men shall find the
footing of so wanton a satyr out of his own bounds, the neighbourhood
ought, notwithstanding all his pretended capering divinity, to hunt
him through the woods, with hounds and horse, home to his harbour."
And he frames an ingenious apology for the freedom of his humour, in
this attack on the morals and person of his adversary:--
"To write against him (says Marvell) is the odiousest task that ever I
undertook, and has looked to me all the while like the cruelty of a
living dissection; which, however it may tend to public instruction,
and though I have picked out the noxious creature to be anatomised,
yet doth scarce excuse the offensiveness of the scent and fouling of
my fingers: therefore, I will here break off abruptly, leaving many a
vein not laid open, and many a passage not searched into. But if I
have undergone the drudgery of the most loathsome part already (which
is his personal character), I will not defraud myself of what is more
truly pleasant, the conflict with, if it may be so called, his
reason."
It was not only in these "pen-combats" that this Literary Quarrel
proceeded; it seems also to have broken out in the streets; for a tale
has been preserved of a rencontre, which shows at once the brutal
manners of Parker, and the exquisite wit of Marvell. Parker meeting
Marvell in the streets, the bully attempted to shove him from the
wall: but, even there, Marvell's agility contrived to lay him
sprawling in the kennel; and looking on him pleasantly, told him to
"lie there for a son of a whore!" Parker complained to the Bishop of
Rochester, who immediately sent for Marvell, to reprimand him; but he
maintained that the doctor had so called himself, in one of his recent
publications; and pointing to the preface, where Parker declares "he
is 'a true son of his mother, the Church of England:' and if you read
further on, my lord, you find he says: 'The Church of England has
spawned two bastards, the Presbyterians and the Congregationists;'
ergo, my lord, he expressly declares that he is the _son of a
whore_!"
Although Parker retreated from any further attack, after the second
part of "The Rehearsal Transprosed," he in truth only suppressed
passions to which he was giving vent in secrecy and silence. That,
indeed, was not discovered till a posthumous work of his appeared, in
which one of the most striking parts is a most disgusting caricature
of his old antagonist. Marvell was, indeed, a republican, the pupil of
Milton, and adored his master: but his morals and his manners were
Roman--he lived on the turnip of Curtius, and he would have bled at
Philippi. We do not sympathise with the fierce republican spirit of
those unhappy times that scalped the head feebly protected by a mitre
or a crown. But the private virtues and the rich genius of such a man
are pure from the taint of party. We are now to see how far private
hatred can distort, in its hideous vengeance, the resemblance it
affects to give after nature. Who could imagine that Parker is
describing Marvell in these words?--
"Among these insolent revilers of great fame for ribaldry was one
Marvell. From his youth he lived in all manner of wickedness; and
thus, with a singular petulancy from nature, he performed the office
of a satirist for the faction, not so much from the quickness of his
wit, as from the sourness of his temper. A vagabond, ragged, hungry
poetaster, beaten at every tavern, where he daily received the rewards
of his impudence in kicks and blows.[320] By the interest of Milton,
to whom he was somewhat agreeable for his malignant wit, he became the
under-secretary to Cromwell's secretary."
And elsewhere he calls him "a drunken buffoon," and asserts that "he
made his conscience more cheap than he had formerly made his
reputation;" but the familiar anecdote of Marvell's political honesty,
when, wanting a dinner, he declined the gold sent to him by the king,
sufficiently replies to the calumniator. Parker, then in his retreat,
seems not to have been taught anything like modesty by his silence, as
Burnet conjectured; who says, "That a face of brass must grow red when
it is burnt as his was." It was even then that the recreant, in
silence, was composing the libel, which his cowardice dared not
publish, but which his invincible malice has sent down to posterity.
FOOTNOTES:
[307] Randolph's _Muses' Looking-glass_. Act 1, Scene 4.
[308] Swift certainly admired, if he did not imitate Marvell: for in
his "Tale of a Tub" he says, "We still read Marvell's answer
to Parker with pleasure, though the book it answers be sunk
long ago."
[309] This is a curious remark of Wood's: How came raillery and satire
to be considered as "a newly-refined art?" Has it not, at all
periods, been prevalent among every literary people? The
remark is, however, more founded on truth than it appears, and
arose from Wood's own feelings. Wit and Raillery had been so
strange to us during the gloomy period of the fanatic
Commonwealth, that honest Anthony, whose prejudices did not
run in favour of Marvell, not only considers him as the
"restorer of this newly-refined art," but as one "hugely
versed in it," and acknowledges all its efficacy in the
complete discomfiture of his haughty rival. Besides this, _a
small book_ of controversy, such as Marvell's usually are, was
another novelty--the "aureoli libelli," as one fondly calls
his precious books, were in the wretched taste of the times,
rhapsodies in folio. The reader has doubtless heard of
Caryll's endless "Commentary on Job," consisting of 2400 folio
pages! in small type. Of that monument of human perseverance,
which commenting on Job's patience, inspired what few works do
to whoever read them, the exercise of the virtue it
inculcated, the publisher, in his advertisement in Clavel's
Catalogue of Books, 1681, announces the two folios in 600
sheets each! these were a republication of the first edition,
in twelve volumes quarto! he apologises "that it hath been _so
long a doing_, to the great vexation and loss of the
proposer." He adds, "indeed, _some few lines_, no more than
what may be contained _in a quarto page_, are expunged, _they
not relating to the Exposition_, which nevertheless some, by
malicious prejudice, have so unjustly aggravated, as if the
whole work had been disordered." He apologises for curtailing
_a few lines_ from 2400 folio pages! and he considered that
these few lines were the only ones that did not relate to the
Exposition! At such a time, the little books of Marvell must
have been considered as relishing morsels after such
indigestible surfeits.
[310] The severity of his satire on Charles's court may be well
understood by the following lines:--
"A colony of French possess the court,
Pimps, priests, buffoons, in privy-chamber sport;
Such slimy monsters ne'er approached a throne
Since Pharaoh's days, nor so defil'd a crown;
In sacred ear tyrannick arts they croak,
Pervert his mind, and good intentions choak."
"The Historical Poem," given in the poems on State affairs, is
so personal in its attacks on the vices of Charles, that it is
marvellous how its author escaped punishment. "Hodge's Vision
from the Monument" is equally strong, while the "Dialogue
between two Horses" (that of the statue of Charles I. at
Charing-cross, and Charles II., then in the city), has these
two strong lines of regret:--
"----to see _Deo Gratias_ writ on the throne,
And the king's wicked life say God there is none."
The satire ends with the question:--
"But canst thou devise when things will be mended?"
Which is thus answered:--
"When the reign of the line of the Stuarts is ended!".--ED.
[311] So Burnet tells us.
[312] See "The Rehearsal Transprosed, the second part," p. 76.
[313] One of the canting terms used by the saints of those days, and
not obsolete in the dialect of those who still give themselves
out to be saints in the present.
[314] Marvell admirably describes Parker's journey to London at the
Restoration, where "he spent a considerable time in creeping
into all corners and companies, horoscoping up and down
concerning the duration of the government." This term, so
expressive of his political doubts, is from "Judicial
Astrology," then a prevalent study. "Not considering anything
as best, but as most lasting and most profitable; and after
having many times cast a figure, he at last satisfied himself
that the episcopal government would endure as long as this
king lived, and from thenceforwards cast about to find the
highway to preferment. To do this, he daily enlarged not only
his conversation but his conscience, and was made free of some
of the town vices; imagining, like Muleasses, King of Tunis
(for I take witness that on all occasions I treat him rather
above his quality than otherwise), that by hiding himself
among the onions he should escape being traced by his
perfumes." The narrative proceeds with a curious detail of all
his sycophantic attempts at seducing useful patrons, among
whom was the Archbishop of Canterbury. Then began "those
pernicious books," says Marvell, "in which he first makes all
that he will to be law, and then whatsoever is law, to be
divinity." Parker, in his "Ecclesiastical Polity," came at
length to promulgate such violent principles as these, "He
openly declares his submission to the government of a Nero and
a Caligula, rather than suffer a dissolution of it." He says,
"it is absolutely necessary to set up a more severe government
over men's consciences and religious persuasions than over
their vices and immoralities;" and that "men's vices and
debaucheries may lie more safely indulged than their
consciences." Is it not difficult to imagine that this man had
once been an Independent, the advocate for every congregation
being independent of a bishop or a synod?
[315] Parker's father was a lawyer, and one of Oliver's most
submissive sub-committee men, who so long pillaged the nation
and spilled its blood, "not in the hot and military way (which
diminishes always the offence), but in the cooler blood and
sedentary execution of an high court of justice." He wrote a
very remarkable book (after he had been petitioned against for
a misdemeanour) in defence of that usurped irregular state
called "The Government of the People of England." It had "a
most hieroglyphical title" of several emblems: two hands
joined, and beneath a sheaf of arrows, stuffed about with
half-a-dozen mottoes, "enough," says Marvell, "to have
supplied the mantlings and achievement of this (godly)
family." An anecdote in this secret history of Parker is
probably true. "He shortly afterwards did inveigh against his
father's memory, and in his mother's presence, before
witnesses, for a couple of whining fanatics."--_Rehearsal
Transprosed_, second part, p. 75.
[316] This preface was prefixed to Bishop Bramball's "Vindication of
the Bishops from the Presbyterian Charge of Popery."
[317] As a specimen of what old Anthony calls "a jerking flirting way
of writing," I transcribe the titles of these answers which
Marvell received. As Marvell had nicknamed Parker, Bayes,
the quaint humour of one entitled his reply, "Rosemary and
Bayes;" another, "The Transproser Rehearsed, or the Fifth
Act of Mr. Bayes's Play;" another, "Gregory Father Greybeard,
with his Vizard off;" another formed "a Commonplace Book out
of the Rehearsal, digested under heads;" and lastly, "Stoo him
Bayes, or some Animadversions on the Humour of writing
Rehearsals."--_Biog. Brit._ p. 3055.
This was the very Bartlemy-fair of wit!
[318] The title will convey some notion of its intolerant principles:
"A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity, wherein the authority
of the Civil Magistrate _over the Consciences of Subjects_, in
matters of external Religion, is asserted."
[319] Milton had become acquainted with Marvell when travelling in
Italy, where he had gone to perfect his studies. He returned
to England in 1653, and was connected with the Cromwellian
party, through the introduction of Milton, in 1657. The great
poet was at that time secretary to Cromwell, and he became his
assistant-secretary. He afterwards represented his native town
of Hull in Parliament.--ED.
[320] Vanus, pannosus, et famelicus poetaster oenopolis quovis
vapulans, fuste et calce indies petulantiæ poenas tulit--are
the words in Parker's "_De Rebus sui Temporis Commentariorum_,"
p. 275.
D'AVENANT
AND A CLUB OF WITS.
CALAMITIES of Epic Poets--Character and Anecdotes of
D'AVENANT--attempts a new vein of invention--the Critics
marshalled against each other on the "Gondibert"--D'AVENANT'S
sublime feelings of Literary Fame--attacked by a Club of Wits in
two books of Verses--the strange misconception hitherto given
respecting the Second Part--various specimens of the Satires on
Gondibert, the Poet, and his Panegyrist HOBBES--the Poet's
silence; and his neglect of the unfinished Epic, while the
Philosopher keenly retorts on the Club, and will not allow of any
authority in WIT.
The memoirs of epic poets, in as far as they relate to the history of
their own epics, would be the most calamitous of all the suitors of
the Muses, whether their works have reached us, or scarcely the names
of the poets. An epic, which has sometimes been the labour of a life,
is the game of the wits and the critics. One ridicules what is
written; the other censures for what has not been written:--and it has
happened, in some eminent instances, that the rudest assailants of him
who "builds the lofty rhyme," have been his ungenerous contemporaries.
Men, whose names are now endeared to us, and who have left their
ΚΤΗΜΑ ΕΣ ΑΕΙ, which HOBBES so energetically translates "a possession
for everlasting," have bequeathed an inheritance to posterity, of
which they have never been in the receipt of the revenue. "The first
fruits" of genius have been too often gathered to place upon its tomb.
Can we believe that MILTON did not endure mortification from the
neglect of "evil days," as certainly as Tasso was goaded to madness by
the systematic frigidity of his critics? He who is now before us had a
mind not less exalted than Milton or Tasso; but was so effectually
ridiculed, that he has only sent us down the fragment of a great
work.
One of the curiosities in the history of our poetry, is the GONDIBERT
of D'AVENANT; and the fortunes and the fate of this epic are as
extraordinary as the poem itself. Never has an author deserved more
copious memoirs than the fertility of this man's genius claims. His
life would have exhibited a moving picture of genius in action and in
contemplation. With all the infirmities of lively passions, he had all
the redeeming virtues of magnanimity and generous affections; but with
the dignity and the powers of a great genius, falling among an age of
wits, he was covered by ridicule. D'Avenant was a man who had viewed
human life in all its shapes, and had himself taken them. A poet and a
wit, the creator of the English stage with the music of Italy and the
scenery of France; a soldier, an emigrant, a courtier, and a
politician:--he was, too, a state-prisoner, awaiting death with his
immortal poem in his hand;[321] and at all times a philosopher!
That hardiness of enterprise which had conducted him through life,
brought the same novelty, and conferred on him the same vigour in
literature.
D'Avenant attempted to open a new vein of invention in narrative
poetry; which not to call _epic_, he termed _heroic_; and which we who
have more completely emancipated ourselves from the arbitrary mandates
of Aristotle and Bossu, have since styled romantic. Scott, Southey,
and Byron have taught us this freer scope of invention, but
characterised by a depth of passion which is not found in D'Avenant.
In his age, the title which he selected to describe the class of his
poetical narrative, was a miserable source of petty criticism. It was
decreed that every poem should resemble another poem, on the plan of
the ancient epic. This was the golden age of "the poet-apes," till
they found that it was easier to produce epic writers than epic
readers.
But our poet, whose manly genius had rejected one great absurdity, had
the folly to adopt another. The first reformers are always more heated
with zeal than enlightened by sagacity. The four-and-twenty chapters
of an epic, he perceived, were but fantastical divisions, and
probably, originally, but accidental; yet he proposed another form as
chimerical; he imagined that by having only five he was constructing
his poem on the dramatic plan of five acts. He might with equal
propriety have copied the Spanish comedy which I once read, in
twenty-five acts, and in no slender folio. "Sea-marks (says D'Avenant,
alluding to the works of antiquity) are chiefly useful to _coasters_,
and serve not those who have the ambition of _discoverers_, that love
to sail in untried seas;" and yet he was attempting to turn an epic
poem into a monstrous drama, from the servile habits he had contracted
from his intercourse with the theatre! This error of the poet has,
however, no material influence on the "Gondibert," as it has come down
to us; for, discouraged and ridiculed, our adventurer never finished
his voyage of discovery. He who had so nobly vindicated the freedom of
the British Muse from the meanness of imitation, and clearly defined
what such a narrative as he intended should be, "a perfect glass of
nature, which gives us a familiar and easy view of ourselves," did not
yet perceive that there is no reason why a poetical narrative should
be cast into any particular form, or be longer or shorter than the
interest it excites will allow.
More than a century and a half have elapsed since the first
publication of "Gondibert," and its merits are still a subject of
controversy; and indubitable proof of some inherent excellence not
willingly forgotten. The critics are marshalled on each side, one
against the other, while between these formidable lines stands the
poet, with a few scattered readers;[322] but what is more surprising
in the history of the "Gondibert," the poet is a great poet, the work
imperishable!
The "Gondibert" has poetical defects fatal for its popularity; the
theme was not happily chosen; the quatrain has been discovered by
capricious ears to be unpleasing, though its solemnity was felt by
Dryden.[323] The style is sometimes harsh and abrupt, though often
exquisite; and the fable is deficient in that rapid interest which the
story-loving readers of all times seem most to regard. All these are
diseases which would have long since proved mortal in a poem less
vital; but our poet was a commanding genius, who redeemed his bold
errors by his energetic originality. The luxuriancy of his fancy, the
novelty of his imagery, the grandeur of his views of human life; his
delight in the new sciences of his age;--these are some of his
poetical virtues. But, above all, we dwell on the impressive solemnity
of his philosophical reflections, and his condensed epigrammatic
thoughts. The work is often more ethical than poetical; yet, while we
feel ourselves becoming wiser at every page, in the fulness of our
minds we still perceive that our emotions have been seldom stirred by
passion. The poem falls from our hands! yet is there none of which we
wish to retain so many single verses. D'Avenant is a poetical
Rochefoucault; the sententious force of his maxims on all human
affairs could only have been composed by one who had lived in a
constant intercourse with mankind.[324]
A delightful invention in this poem is "the House of Astragon," a
philosophical residence. Every great poet is affected by the
revolutions of his age. The new experimental philosophy had revived
the project of Lord Bacon's learned retirement, in his philosophical
romance of the _Atalantis_; and subsequently in a time of civil repose
after civil war, Milton, Cowley, and Evelyn attempted to devote an
abode to science itself. These tumults of the imagination subsided in
the establishment of the Royal Society. D'Avenant anticipated this
institution. On an estate consecrated to philosophy stands a retired
building on which is inscribed, "Great Nature's Office," inhabited by
sages, who are styled "Nature's Registers," busily recording whatever
is brought to them by "a throng of Intelligencers," who make "patient
observations" in the field, the garden, the river, on every plant, and
"every fish, and fowl, and beast." Near at hand is "Nature's Nursery,"
a botanical garden. We have also "a Cabinet of Death," "the Monument
of Bodies," an anatomical collection, which leads to "the Monument of
vanished Minds," as the poet finely describes the library. Is it not
striking to find, says Dr. Aikin, so exact a model of _the school of
Linnæus_?
This was a poem to delight a philosopher; and Hobbes, in a curious
epistle prefixed to the work, has strongly marked its distinct
beauties. "Gondibert" not only came forth with the elaborate panegyric
of Hobbes, but was also accompanied by the high commendatory poems of
Waller and Cowley; a cause which will sufficiently account for the
provocations it inflamed among the poetical crew; and besides these
accompaniments, there is a preface of great length, stamped with all
the force and originality of the poet's own mind; and a postscript, as
sublime from the feelings which dictated it as from the time and place
of its composition.
In these, this great genius pours himself out with all that "glory of
which his large soul appears to have been full," as Hurd has nobly
expressed it.[325] Such a conscious dignity of character struck the
petulant wits with a provoking sense of their own littleness.
A club of wits caballed and produced a collection of short poems
sarcastically entitled "Certain Verses written by several of the
Author's Friends, to be reprinted in the Second Edition of 'Gondibert,'"
1653. Two years after appeared a brother volume, entitled "The
Incomparable Poem of Gondibert vindicated from the Wit-Combats of Four
Esquires; Clinias, Dametas, Sancho and Jack Pudding;"[326] with these
mottoes:
Κοτεει και αοιδος αοιδω.
Vatum quoque gratia, rara est.
Anglicè,
One wit-brother
Envies another.
Of these rare tracts, we are told by Anthony Wood and all subsequent
literary historians, too often mere transcribers of title-pages, that
the second was written by our author himself. Would not one imagine
that it was a real vindication, or at least a retort-courteous on
these obliging friends. The irony of the whole volume has escaped
their discovery. The second tract is a continuation of the satire: a
mock defence, where the sarcasm and the pretended remonstrance are
sometimes keener than the open attack. If, indeed, D'Avenant were the
author of a continuation of a satire on himself, it is an act of _felo
de se_ no poet ever committed; a self-flagellation by an iron whip,
where blood is drawn at every stroke, the most penitent bard never
inflicted on himself. Would D'Avenant have bantered his proud labour,
by calling it "incomparable?" And were it true, that he felt the
strokes of their witty malignity so lightly, would he not have secured
his triumph by finishing that "Gondibert," "the monument of his mind?"
It is too evident that this committee of wits hurt the quiet of a
great mind.
As for this series of literary satires, it might have been expected,
that since the wits clubbed, this committee ought to have been more
effective in their operations. Many of their papers were, no doubt,
more blotted with their wine than their ink. Their variety of attack
is playful, sarcastic, and malicious. They were then such exuberant
wits, that they could make even ribaldry and grossness witty. My
business with these wicked trifles is only as they concerned the
feelings of the great poet, whom they too evidently hurt, as well as
the great philosopher who condescended to notice these wits, with wit
more dignified than their own.
Unfortunately for our "jeered Will," as in their usual court-style
they call him, he had met with "a foolish mischance," well known among
the collectors of our British portraits. There was a feature in his
face, or rather no feature at all, that served as a perpetual
provocative: there was no precedent of such a thing, says Suckling, in
"The Sessions of the Poets"--
In all their records, in verse or in prose,
There was none of a Laureat who wanted a nose.
Besides, he was now doomed--
Nor could old Hobbes
Defend him from dry bobbs.
The preface of "Gondibert," the critical epistle of Hobbes, and the
poems of the two greatest poets in England, were first to be got rid
of. The attack is brisk and airy.
UPON THE PREFACE.
Room for the best of poets heroic,
If you'll believe two wits and a Stoic.
Down go the _Iliads_, down go the _Æneidos_:
All must give place to the _Gondiberteidos_.
For to _Homer_ and _Virgil_ he has a just pique,
Because one's writ in Latin, the other in Greek;
Besides an old grudge (our critics they say so)
With _Ovid_, because his sirname was _Naso_.
If fiction the fame of a poet thus raises,
What poets are you that have writ his praises?
But we justly quarrel at this our defeat;
You give us a stomach, he gives us no meat.
A preface to no book, a porch to no house;
Here is the mountain, but where is the mouse?
This stroke, in the mock defence, is thus warded off, with a slight
confession of the existence of "the mouse."
Why do you bite, you men of fangs
(That is, of teeth that forward hangs),
And charge my dear Ephestion
With want of meat? you want digestion.
We poets use not so to do,
To find men meat and stomach too.
You have the book, you have the house,
And mum, good Jack, and catch the mouse.
Among the personal foibles of D'Avenant appears a desire to disguise
his humble origin; and to give it an air of lineal descent, he
probably did not write his name as his father had done. It is said he
affected, at the cost of his mother's honour, to insinuate that he was
the son of Shakspeare, who used to bait at his father's inn.[327]
These humorists first reduce D'Avenant to "Old Daph."
Denham, come help me to laugh,
At old Daph,
Whose fancies are higher than chaff.
Daph swells afterwards into "Daphne;" a change of sex inflicted on the
poet for making one of his heroines a man; and this new alliance to
Apollo becomes a source of perpetual allusion to the bays--
Cheer up, small wits, now _you_ shall crowned be,--
Daphne himself is turn'd into a tree.
One of the club inquires about the situation of _Avenant_--
----where now it lies,
Whether in Lombard,[328] or the skies.
Because, as seven cities disputed for the birth of Homer, so after
ages will not want towns claiming to be _Avenant_--
Some say by _Avenant_ no place is meant,
And that our Lombard is without descent;
And as, by _Bilk_, men mean there's nothing there,
So come from _Avenant_, means from _no where_.
Thus _Will_, intending _D'Avenant_ to grace,
Has made a notch in's name like that in's face.
D'Avenant had been knighted for his good conduct at the siege of
Gloucester, and was to be tried by the Parliament, but procured his
release without trial. This produces the following sarcastic
epigram:--
UPON FIGHTING WILL.
The King knights Will for fighting on his side;
Yet when Will comes for fighting to be tried,
There is not one in all the armies can
Say they e'er felt, or saw, this fighting man.
Strange, that the Knight should not be known i' th' field;
A face well charged, though nothing in his shield.
Sure fighting Will like _basilisk_ did ride
Among the troops, and all that _saw_ Will died;
Else how could Will, for fighting, be a Knight,
And none alive that ever saw Will fight?
Of the malignancy of their wit, we must preserve one specimen. They
probably harassed our poet with anonymous despatches from the Club:
for there appears another poem on D'Avenant's anger on such an
occasion:--
A LETTER SENT TO THE GOOD KNIGHT.
Thou hadst not been thus long neglected,
But we, thy four best friends, expected,
Ere this time, thou hadst stood corrected.
But since that planet governs still,
That rules thy tedious fustain quill
'Gainst nature and the Muses' will;
When, by thy friends' advice and care,
'Twas hoped, in time, thou wouldst despair
To give ten pounds to write it fair;
Lest thou to all the world would show it,
We thought it fit to let thee know it:
Thou art a damn'd insipid poet!
These literary satires contain a number of other "pasquils,"
burlesquing the characters, the incidents, and the stanza, of the
GONDIBERT: some not the least witty are the most gross, and must not
be quoted; thus the wits of that day were poetical suicides, who have
shortened their lives by their folly.
D'Avenant, like more than one epic poet, did not tune to his ear the
_names_ of his personages. They have added, to show that his writings
are adapted to an easy musical singer, the names of his heroes and
heroines, in these verses:--
Hurgonil, Astolpho, Borgia, Goltha, Tibalt,
Astragon, Hermogild, Ulfinor, Orgo, Thula.
And "epithets that will serve for any substantives, either in this
part or the next."
Such are the labours of the idlers of genius, envious of the nobler
industry of genius itself!--How the great author's spirit was
nourished by the restoratives of his other friends, after the bitter
decoctions prescribed by these "Four," I fear we may judge by the
unfinished state in which "Gondibert" has come down to us. D'Avenant
seems, however, to have guarded his dignity by his silence; but Hobbes
took an opportunity of delivering an exquisite opinion on this Club of
Wits, with perfect philosophical indifference. It is in a letter to
the Hon. EDWARD HOWARD, who requested to have his sentiments on
another heroic poem of his own, "The British Princes."
"My judgment in poetry hath, you know, been once already censured, by
very good wits, for commending 'Gondibert;' but yet they have not, I
think, disabled my testimony. For, _what authority is there in wit_?
A jester may have it; a man in drink may have it, and be fluent
over-night, and wise and dry in the morning. What is it? or who can
tell whether it be better to have it, or be without it, especially if
it be a pointed wit? I will take my liberty to praise what I like, as
well as they do to reprehend what they do not like."
The stately "Gondibert" was not likely to recover favour in the court
of Charles the Second, where man was never regarded in his true
greatness, but to be ridiculed; a court where the awful presence of
Clarendon became so irksome, that the worthless monarch exiled him; a
court where nothing was listened to but wit at the cost of sense, the
injury of truth, and the violation of decency; where a poem of
magnitude with new claims was a very business for those volatile
arbiters of taste; an epic poem that had been travestied and
epigrammed, was a national concern with them, which, next to some new
state-plot, that occurred oftener than a new epic, might engage the
monarch and his privy council. These were not the men to be touched by
the compressed reflections and the ideal virtues personified in this
poem. In the court of the laughing voluptuary the manners as well as
the morals of these satellites of pleasure were so little heroic, that
those of the highest rank, both in birth and wit, never mentioned each
other but with the vulgar familiarity of nicknames, or the coarse
appellatives of Dick, Will, and Jack! Such was the era when the
serious "Gondibert" was produced, and such were the judges who seem to
have decided its fate.
FOOTNOTES:
[321] D'Avenant commenced his poem during his exile at Paris. The
preface is dated from the Louvre; the postscript from Cowes
Castle, in the Isle of Wight, where he was then confined,
expecting his immediate execution. The poem, in the first
edition, 1651, is therefore abruptly concluded. There is
something very affecting and great in his style on this
occasion. "I am here arrived at the middle of the third book.
But it is high time to strike sail and cast anchor, though I
have run but half my course, when at the helm I am threatened
with _death_; who, though he can visit us but once, seems
troublesome; and even in the innocent may beget such a
gravity, as diverts the music of verse. Even in a worthy
design, I shall ask leave to desist, when I am interrupted by
so great an experiment as _dying_;--and 'tis an experiment to
the most experienced; for no man (though his mortifications
may be much greater than mine) can say _he has already
died_."--D'Avenant is said to have written a letter to Hobbes
about this time, giving some account of his progress in the
third book. "But why (said he) should I trouble you or myself
with these thoughts, when I am pretty certain I shall be
hanged next week?"--A stroke of the gaiety of temper of a very
thoughtful mind; for D'Avenant, with all his wit and fancy,
has made the profoundest reflections on human life.
The reader may be interested to know, that after D'Avenant's
removal from Cowes to the Tower, to be tried, his life was
saved by the gratitude of two aldermen of York, whom he had
obliged. It is delightful to believe the story told by
Bishop Newton, that D'Avenant owed his life to Milton; Wood,
indeed, attributes our poet's escape to both; at the
Restoration D'Avenant interposed, and saved Milton. Poets,
after all, envious as they are to a brother, are the most
generously-tempered of men: they libel, but they never hang;
they will indeed throw out a sarcasm on the man whom they
saved from being hanged. "Please your Majesty," said Sir
John Denham, "do not hang George Withers--that it may not
be said I am the worst poet alive."
[322] It would form a very curious piece of comparative criticism,
were the opinions and the arguments of all the critics--those
of the time and of the present day--thrown into the
smelting-pot. The massiness of some opinions of great
authority would be reduced to a thread of wire; and even what
is accepted as standard ore might shrink into "a gilt
sixpence." On one side, the condemners of D'Avenant would be
Rymer, Blackwall, Granger, Knox, Hurd, and Hayley; and the
advocates would be Hobbes, Waller, Cowley, Dr. Aikin, Headley,
&c. Rymer opened his Aristotelian text-book. He discovers that
the poet's first lines do not give any light into his design
(it is probable D'Avenant would have found it hard to have
told it to Mr. Rymer); that it has neither proposition nor
invocation--(Rymer might have filled these up himself); so
that "he chooses to enter into the top of the house, because
the mortals of mean and satisfied minds go in at the door;"
and then "he has no hero or action so illustrious that the
_name_ of the poem prepared the reader for its reception."
D'Avenant had rejected the marvellous from his poem--that is,
the machinery of the epic: he had resolved to compose a tale
of human beings for men. "This was," says Blackwall, another
of the classical flock, "like lopping off a man's limb, and
then putting him upon running races." Our formal critics are
quite lively in their dulness on our "adventurer." But poets,
in the crisis of a poetical revolution, are more legitimate
judges than all such critics. Waller and Cowley applaud
D'Avenant for this very omission of the epical machinery in
this new vein of invention:--
"Here no bold tales of gods or monsters swell,
But human passions such as with us dwell;
_Man is thy theme_, his virtue or his rage,
Drawn to the life in each elaborate page."
WALLER.
"Methinks heroic poesy, till now,
Like some fantastic fairy-land did show,
_And all but man, in man's best work had place_."
COWLEY.
Hurd's discussion on "Gondibert," in his "Commentaries," is
the most important piece of criticism; subtle, ingenious, and
exquisitely analytical. But he holds out the fetter of
authority, and he decides as a judge who expounds laws; not
the best decision, when new laws are required to abrogate
obsolete ones. And what laws invented by man can be immutable?
D'Avenant was thus tried by the laws of a country, that of
Greece or Rome, of which, it is said, he was not even a
denizen.
It is remarkable that all the critics who condemn D'Avenant
could not but be struck by his excellences, and are very
particular in expressing their admiration of his genius. I
mean all the critics who have read the poem: some assuredly
have criticised with little trouble.
[323] It is written in the long four-lined stanzas, which Dryden
adopted for his _Annus Mirabilis_; nearly 2000 of such stanzas
are severe trials for the critical reader.--ED.
[324] I select some of these lines as examples.
Of Care, who only "seals her eyes in cloisters," he says,
"She visits cities, but she dwells in thrones."
Of learned Curiosity, eager, but not to be hurried--the
student is
"Hasty to know, though not by haste beguiled."
He calls a library, with sublime energy,
"The monument of vanish'd minds."
Never has a politician conveyed with such force a most
important precept:
------------"The laws,
Men from themselves, but not from power, secure."
Of the Court he says,
"There prosperous power sleeps long, though suitors wake."
"Be bold, for number cancels bashfulness;
Extremes, from which a King would blushing shrink,
Unblushing senates act as no excess."
And these lines, taken as they occur:
"Truth's a discovery made by travelling minds."
"Honour's the moral conscience of the great."
"They grow so certain as to need no hope."
"Praise is devotion fit for mighty minds."
I conclude with one complete stanza, of the same cast of
reflection. It may be inscribed in the library of the student,
in the studio of the artist, in every place where excellence
can only be obtained by knowledge.
"Rich are the diligent, who can command
Time, nature's stock! and, could his hour-glass fall,
Would, as for seed of stars, stoop for the sand,
And by incessant labour gather all!"
[325] Can one read such passages as these without catching some of the
sympathies of a great genius that knows itself?
"He who writes an heroic poem leaves an estate entailed, and
he gives a greater gift to posterity than to the present age;
for a public benefit is best measured in the number of
receivers; and our contemporaries are but few when reckoned
with those who shall succeed.
"If thou art a malicious reader, thou wilt remember my preface
boldly confessed, that a main motive to the undertaking was a
desire of fame; and thou mayest likewise say, I may very
possibly not live to enjoy it. Truly, I have some years ago
considered that Fame, like Time, only gets a reverence by long
running; and that, like a river, 'tis narrowest where 'tis
bred, and broadest afar off.
"If thou, reader, art one of those who have been warmed with
poetic fire, I reverence thee as my judge; and whilst others
tax me with vanity, I appeal to thy conscience whether it be
more than such a necessary assurance as thou hast made to
thyself in like undertakings? For when I observe that writers
have many enemies, such inward assurance, methinks, resembles
that forward confidence in men of arms, which makes them
proceed in great enterprise; since the right examination of
abilities begins with inquiring whether we doubt ourselves."
Such a composition is injured by mutilation. He here also
alludes to his military character: "Nor could I sit idle and
sigh with such as mourn to hear the drum; for if the age be
not quiet enough to be taught virtue a pleasant way, the next
may be at leisure; nor could I (like men that have civilly
slept till they are old in dark cities) think war a novelty."
Shakspeare could not have expressed his feelings, in his own
style, more eloquently touching than D'Avenant.
[326] It is said there were four writers. The Clinias and Dametas were
probably Sir John Denham and Jo. Donne; Sir Allan Broderick
and Will Crofts, who is mentioned by the clubs as one of their
fellows, appear to be the Sancho and Jack Pudding. Will Crofts
was a favourite with Charles II: he had been a skilful agent,
as appears in Clarendon. [In the accounts of moneys disbursed
for secret services in the reign of Charles II., published by
the Camden Society, his name appears for 200_l._, but that of
his wife repeatedly figures for large sums, "as of free
guift." In this way she receives 700_l._ with great regularity
for a series of years, until the death of Charles II.] Howell
has a poem "On some who, blending their brains together,
plotted how to bespatter one of the Muses' choicest sons, Sir
William D'Avenant."
[327] The story was current in D'Avenant's time, and it is certain he
encouraged the believers in its truth. Anthony Wood speaks of
the lady as "a very beautiful woman, of a good wit and
conversation, in which she was imitated by none of her
children but by this William." He also notes Shakspeare's
custom to lodge at the Crown Inn, Oxford, kept by her husband,
"in his journies between Warwickshire and London." Aubrey
tells the same tale, adding that D'Avenant "would sometimes,
when he was pleasant over a glass of wine with his most
intimate friends, _e.g._ Sam. Butler (author of 'Hudibras,'
&c.,) say, that it seemed to him that he writ with the very
same spirit that Shakspeare did, and was contented enough to
be thought his son;" he adds that "his mother had a very light
report." It was Pope who told Oldys the jesting story he had
obtained from Betterton, of little Will running from school to
meet Shakspeare, in one of his visits to Oxford, and being
asked where he was running, by an old townsman, replied, to
"see my godfather Shakspeare." "There's a good boy," said the
old gentleman, "but have a care that you don't take God's name
in vain."--ED.
[328] The scene where the story of "Gondibert" is placed, which the
wits sometimes pronounced _Lumber_ and _Lumbery_.
THE
PAPER-WARS OF THE CIVIL WARS.
The "Mercuries" and "Diurnals," archives of political fictions--"The
Diurnals," in the pay of the Parliament, described by BUTLER and
CLEVELAND--Sir JOHN BIRKENHEAD excels in sarcasm, with specimens
of his "Mercurius Aulicus"--how he corrects his own lies--Specimens
of the Newspapers on the side of the Commonwealth.
Among these battles of logomachy, in which so much ink has been spilt,
and so many pens have lost their edge--at a very solemn period in our
history, when all around was distress and sorrow, stood forwards the
facetious ancestors of that numerous progeny who still flourish among
us, and who, without a suspicion of their descent, still bear the
features of their progenitors, and inherit so many of the family
humours. These were the MERCURIES and DIURNALS--the newspapers of our
Civil Wars.
The distinguished heroes of these Paper-Wars, Sir John Birkenhead,
Marchmont Needham, and Sir Roger L'Estrange, I have elsewhere
portrayed.[329] We have had of late correct lists of these works; but
no one seems as yet to have given any clear notion of their spirit and
their manner.
The London Journals in the service of the Parliament were usually the
_Diurnals_. These politicians practised an artifice which cannot be
placed among "the lost inventions." As these were hawked about the
metropolis to spur curiosity, often languid from over-exercise, or to
wheedle an idle spectator into a reader, every paper bore on its front
the inviting heads of its intelligence. Men placed in the same
circumstances will act in the same manner, without any notion of
imitation; and the passions of mankind are now addressed by the same
means which our ancestors employed, by those who do not suspect they
are copying them.
These _Diurnals_ have been blasted by the lightnings of Butler and
Cleveland. Hudibras is made happy at the idea that he may be
Register'd by fame eternal,
In deathless pages of DIURNAL.
But Cleveland has left us two remarkable effusions of his satiric and
vindictive powers, in his curious character of "A Diurnal Maker," and
"A London Diurnal." He writes in the peculiar vein of the wit of those
times, with an originality of images, whose combinations excite
surprise, and whose abundance fatigues our weaker delicacy.
"A Diurnal-Maker is the Sub-Almoner of History; Queen Mab's Register;
one whom, by the same figure that a North-country pedler is a
merchantman, you may style an author. The silly countryman who, seeing
an ape in a scarlet coat, blessed his young worship, and gave his
landlord joy of the hopes of his house, did not slander his compliment
with worse application than he that names this shred an historian. To
call him an Historian is to knight a Mandrake; 'tis to view him
through a perspective, and, by that gross hyperbole, to give the
reputation of an engineer to a maker of mousetraps. When these weekly
fragments shall pass for history, let the poor man's box be entitled
the Exchequer, and the alms-basket a Magazine. Methinks the Turke
should license Diurnals, because he prohibits learning and books." He
characterises the Diurnal as "a puny chronicle, scarce pin-feathered
with the wings of time; it is a history in sippets; the English Iliads
in a nutshell; the Apocryphal Parliament's Book of Maccabees in single
sheets."
But Cleveland tells us that these Diurnals differ from a _Mercurius
Aulicus_ (the paper of his party),--"as the Devil and his Exorcist, or
as a black witch doth from a white one, whose office is to unravel her
enchantments."
The _Mercurius Aulicus_ was chiefly conducted by Sir JOHN BIRKENHEAD,
at Oxford, "communicating the intelligence and affairs of the court to
the rest of the kingdom." Sir John was a great wag, and excelled in
sarcasm and invective; his facility is equal to repartee, and his
spirit often reaches to wit: a great forger of tales, who probably
considered that a romance was a better thing than a newspaper.[330]
The royal party were so delighted with his witty buffoonery, that Sir
John was recommended to be Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford.
Did political lying seem to be a kind of moral philosophy to the
feelings of a party? The originality of Birkenhead's happy manner
consists in his adroit use of sarcasm: he strikes it off by means of a
parenthesis. I shall give, as a specimen, one of his summaries of what
the _Parliamentary Journals_ had been detailing during the week.
"The Londoners in print this week have been pretty copious. They say
that _a troop of the Marquess of Newcastle's horse have submitted to
the Lord Fairfax_. (They were part of the _German_ horse which came
over in the _Danish_ fleet.)[331] That the Lord _Wilmot hath been dead
five weeks, but the Cavaliers concealed his death_. (Remember this!)
That _Sir John Urrey[332] is dead and buried at Oxford_. (He died the
same day with the Lord Wilmot.) That the _Cavaliers, before they have
done, will HURREY all men into misery_. (This quibble hath been six
times printed, and nobody would take notice of it; now let's hear of
it no more!) That _all the Cavaliers which Sir William Waller took
prisoners (besides 500) tooke the National Covenant_. (Yes, all he
took (besides 500) tooke the Covenant.) That 2000 _Irish Rebels landed
in Wales_. (You called them English Protestants till you cheated them
of their money.) That _Sir William Brereton left 140 good able men in
Hawarden Castle_. ('Tis the better for Sir Michael Earnley, who hath
taken the Castle.) That _the Queen hath a great deafnesse_. (Thou hast
a great blister on thy tongue.) That _the Cavaliers burned all the
suburbs of Chester, that Sir William Brereton might find no shelter to
besiedge it_. (There was no hayrick, and Sir William cares for no
other shelter.)[333] The SCOTTISH DOVE says (there are Doves in
Scotland!) that _Hawarden Castle had but forty men in it when the
Cavaliers took it_. (Another told you there were 140 lusty stout
fellows in it: for shame, gentlemen! conferre Notes!) That _Colonel
Norton at Rumsey took 200 prisoners_. (I saw them counted: they were
just two millions.) Then the _Dove_ hath this sweet passage: _O
Aulicus, thou profane wretch, that darest scandalize GOD'S saints,
darest thou call that loyal subject Master Pym a traitor_? (Yes,
pretty _Pigeon_,[334] he was charged with six articles by his
Majesty's Atturney Generall.) Next he says, that _Master Pym died like
Moses upon the Mount_. (He did not die upon the mount, but should have
done.) Then he says _Master Pym died in a good old age, like Jacob in
Egypt_. (Not like Jacob, yet just as those died in Egypt in the days
of Pharaoh.")[335]
As Sir John was frequently the propagator of false intelligence, it
was necessary at times to seem scrupulous, and to correct some slight
errors. He does this very adroitly, without diminishing his
invectives.
"We must correct a mistake or two in our two last weeks. We advertised
you of certain money speeches made by Master _John_ Sedgwick: on
better information, it was not _John_, but _Obadiah_, Presbyter of
Bread-street, who in the pulpit in hot weather used to unbutton his
doublet, which John, who wanteth a thumbe, forbears to practise. And
when we told you last week of a committee of _Lawyers_ appointed to
put their new _Seale_ in execution, we named, among others, Master
George Peard.[336] I confess this was no small errour to reckon
Master Peard among the _Lawyers_, because he now lies sicke, and so
farre from being their new _Lord Keeper_, that he now despairs to
become their _Door Keeper_, which office he performed heretofore. But
since Master Peard has become desperately sick; and so his vote, his
law, and haire have all forsook him, his corporation of Barnstable
have been in perfect health and loyalty. The town of Barnstable having
submitted to the King, this will no doubt be a special cordial for
their languishing Burgess. And yet the man may grow hearty again when
he hears of the late defeat given to his Majesty's forces in
Lincolnshire."
This paper was immediately answered by MARCHMONT NEEDHAM, in his
"Mercurius Britannicus," who cannot boast the playful and sarcastic
bitterness of Sir John; yet is not the dullest of his tribe. He opens
his reply thus:
"Aulicus will needs venture his soule upon the other _half-sheet_; and
this week he _lies_, as completely as ever he did in _two full
sheets_; full of as many scandals and fictions, full of as much
stupidity and ignorance, full of as many tedious untruths as ever. And
because he would _recrute_ the reputation of his wit, he falls into
the company of our _Diurnals_ very furiously, and there lays about him
in the midst of our weekly pamphlets; and he casts in the few squibs,
and the little wildfire he hath, dashing out his conceits; and he
takes it ill that the poore scribblers should tell a story for their
living; and after a whole week spent at Oxford, in inke and paper, to
as little purpose as _Maurice_ spent his shot and powder at
_Plimouth_, he gets up, about Saturday, into a jingle or two, for he
cannot reach to a full jest; and I am informed that the three-quarter
conceits in the last leafe of his Diurnall cost him fourteen pence in
_aqua vitæ_."
Sir John never condescends formally to reply to Needham, for which he
gives this singular reason:--"As for this libeller, we are still
resolved to take no notice till we find him able to spell his own
name, which to this hour BRITANNICUS never did."
In the next number of Needham, who had always written it _Brittanicus_,
the correction was silently adopted. There was no crying down the
etymology of an Oxford malignant.
I give a short narrative of the political temper of the times, in
their unparalleled gazettes.
At the first breaking out of the parliament's separation from the
royal party, when the public mind, full of consternation in that
new anarchy, shook with the infirmity of childish terrors, the
most extravagant reports were as eagerly caught up as the most
probable, and served much better the purposes of their inventors.
They had daily discoveries of new conspiracies, which appeared in a
pretended correspondence written from Spain, France, Italy, or
Denmark: they had their amusing literature, mixed with their grave
politics; and a dialogue between "a Dutch mariner and an English
ostler," could alarm the nation as much as the last letter from
their "private correspondent." That the wildest rumours were
acceptable appears from their contemporary Fuller. Armies were
talked of, concealed under ground by the king, to cut the throats of
all the Protestants in a night. He assures us that one of the most
prevailing dangers among the Londoners was "a design laid for a mine
of powder under the Thames, to cause the river to drown the city."
This desperate expedient, it seems, was discovered just in time to
prevent its execution; and the people were devout enough to have a
public thanksgiving, and watched with a little more care that the
Thames might not be blown up. However, the plot was really not so
much at the bottom of the Thames as at the bottom of their purses.
Whenever they wanted 100,000_l._ they raised a plot, they terrified
the people, they appointed a thanksgiving-day, and while their
ministers addressed to God himself all the news of the week, and
even reproached him for the rumours against their cause, all ended,
as is usual at such times, with the gulled multitude contributing
more heavily to the adventurers who ruled them than the legal
authorities had exacted in their greatest wants. "The Diurnals" had
propagated thirty-nine of these "Treasons, or new Taxes," according
to one of the members of the House of Commons, who had watched their
patriotic designs.
These "Diurnals" sometimes used such language as the following, from
_The Weekly Accompt_, January, 1643:--
"This day afforded no newes at all, but onely what was _heavenly_ and
_spiritual_;" and he gives an account of the public fast, and of the
grave divine Master Henderson's sermon, with his texts in the morning;
and in the afternoon, another of Master Strickland, with his
texts--and of their spiritual effect over the whole parliament![337]
Such news as the following was sometimes very agreeable:--
"From Oxford it is informed, that on Sunday last was fortnight in the
evening, Prince Rupert, accompanied with some lords, and other
cavaliers, _danced through the streets openly, with music before
them_, to one of the colleges; where, after they had stayed about half
an houre, they returned back again, dancing with the same music; and
immediately there followed _a pack of women, or curtizans_, as it may
be supposed, for they were hooded, and could not be knowne; and this
the party who related affirmed he saw with his own eyes."
On this the Diurnal-maker pours out severe anathemas--and one with a
_note_, that "_dancing_ and _drabbing_ are inseparable companions, and
follow one another close at the heels." He assures his readers, that
the malignants, or royalists, only fight like sensual beasts, to
maintain their dancing and drabbing!--Such was the revolutionary tone
here, and such the arts of faction everywhere. The matter was rather
peculiar to our country, but the principle was the same as practised
in France. Men of opposite characters, when acting for the same
concealed end, must necessarily form parallels.
FOOTNOTES:
[329] "Curiosities of Literature," vol. i. p. 158 (last edition).
[330] There is a small poem, published in 1643, entitled "The Great
Assizes holden in Parnassus," in the manner of a later work,
"The Sessions of the Poets," in which all the Diurnals and
Mercuries are arraigned and tried. An impartial satire on them
all; and by its good sense and heavy versification, is so much
in the manner of GEORGE WITHER, that some have conjectured it
to be that singular author's. Its rarity gives it a kind of
value. Of such verses as Wither's, who has been of late
extolled too highly, the chief merit is their sense and truth;
which, if he were not tedious, might be an excellence in
prose. Antiquaries, when they find a poet adapted for their
purposes, conjecture that he is an excellent one. This prosing
satirist, strange to say, in some pastoral poetry, has opened
the right vein.
Aulicus is well characterized:--
--------------"hee, for wicked ends,
Had the Castalian spring defiled with gall,
And changed by Witchcraft most satyricall,
The bayes of Helicon and myrtles mild,
To pricking hawthornes and to hollies wild.
--------------with slanders false,
With forged fictitious calumnies and tales--
He added fewel to the direful flame
Of civil discord; and domestic blowes,
By the incentives of malicious prose.
For whereas he should have composed his inke
Of liquors that make flames expire, and shrink
Into their cinders--
--He laboured hard for to bring in
The exploded doctrines of the Florentine,
And taught that to dissemble and to lie
Were vital parts of human policie."
[331] Alluding to a ridiculous rumour, that the King was to receive
foreign troops by a Danish fleet.
[332] Col. Urrey, _alias_ Hurrey, deserted the Parliament, and went
over to the King; afterwards deserted the King, and discovered
to the Parliament all he knew of the King's forces.--_See
Clarendon._
[333] This Sir William Brereton, or, as Clarendon writes the name,
Bruerton, was the famous Cheshire knight, whom Cleveland
characterizes as one of those heroes whose courage lies in
their teeth. "Was Brereton," says the loyal satirist, "to
fight with his teeth, as he in all other things resembles the
beast, he would have odds of any man at this weapon. He's a
terrible slaughterman at a Thanksgiving dinner. Had he been
cannibal enough to have eaten those he vanquished, his gut
would have made him valiant." And in "Loyal Songs" his valiant
appetite is noticed:
"But, oh! take heed lest he do eat
The Rump all at one dinner!"
And Aulicus, we see, accuses him of concealing his bravery in
a hayrick. It is always curious and useful to confer the
writers of intemperate times one with another. Lord Clarendon,
whose great mind was incapable of descending to scurrility,
gives a very different character to this pot-valiant and
hayrick runaway; for he says, "It cannot be denied but Sir
William Brereton, and the other gentlemen of that party,
albeit their educations and course of life had been very
different from their present engagements, and for the most
part very unpromising in matters of war, and therefore were
too much contemned enemies, executed their commands with
notable sobriety and indefatigable industry (virtues not so
well practised in the King's quarters), insomuch as the best
soldiers who encountered with them had no cause to despise
them."--_Clarendon_, vol. ii. p. 147.
[334] "The Scotch Dove" seems never to have recovered from this
metamorphosis, but ever after, among the newsmen, was known to
be only a Widgeon. His character is not very high in "The
Great Assizes."
"The innocent _Scotch Dove_ did then advance,
Full sober in his wit and countenance:
And, though his book contain'd not mickle scence,
Yet his endictment shew'd no great offence.
Great wits to perils great, themselves expose
Oft-times; but the _Scotch Dove_ was none of those.
In many words he little matter drest,
And did laconick brevity detest.
But while his readers did expect some Newes,
They found a Sermon--"
The Scotch Dove desires to meet the classical Aulicus in the
duel of the pen:--
------------"to turn me loose,
A _Scottish Dove_ against a _Roman Goose_."
"The Scotch Dove" is condemned "to cross the seas, or to
repasse the Tweede." They all envy him his "easy mulet," but
he wofully exclaims at the hard sentence,
"For if they knew that _home_ as well as he,
They'd rather die than there imprison'd be!"
[335] This stroke alludes to a rumour of the times, noticed also by
Clarendon, that Pym died of the _morbus pediculosus_.
[336] "Peard, a bold lawyer of little note."--_Clarendon._
[337] These divines were as ready with the sword as the pen; thus, we
are told in "The Impartial Scout" for July, 1650--"The
ministers are now as active in the military discipline as
formerly they were in the gospel profession, Parson Ennis,
Parson Brown, and about thirty other ministers having received
commissions to be majors and captains, who now hold forth the
Bible in one hand, and the sword in the other, telling the
soldiery that they need not fear what man can do against
them--that God is on their side--and that He hath prepared an
engine in heaven to break and blast the designs of all
covenant-breakers."--ED.
POLITICAL CRITICISM
ON LITERARY COMPOSITIONS.
ANTHONY WOOD and LOCKE--MILTON and SPRAT--BURNET and his
History--PRIOR and ADDISON--SWIFT and STEELE--WAGSTAFFE and
STEELE--STEELE and ADDISON--HOOKE and MIDDLETON--GILBERT
WAKEFIELD--MARVEL and MILTON--CLARENDON and MAY.
VOLTAIRE, in his letters on our nation, has hit off a marked feature
in our national physiognomy. "So violent did I find parties in London,
that I was assured by several that the Duke of MARLBOROUGH was a
coward, and Mr. POPE a fool."
A foreigner indeed could hardly expect that in collecting the
characters of English authors by English authors (a labour which has
long afforded me pleasure often interrupted by indignation)--in a
word, that a class of literary history should turn out a collection of
personal quarrels. Would not this modern Baillet, in his new _Jugemens
des Sçavans_, so ingeniously inquisitive but so infinitely confused,
require to be initiated into the mysteries of that spirit of party
peculiar to our free country!
All that boiling rancour which sputters against the thoughts, the
style, the taste, the moral character of an author, is often nothing
more than practising what, to give it a name, we may call _Political
Criticism in Literature_; where an author's literary character is
attacked solely from the accidental circumstance of his differing in
opinion from his critics on subjects unconnected with the topics he
treats of.
Could Anthony Wood, had he not been influenced by this political
criticism, have sent down LOCKE to us as "a man of a turbulent spirit,
clamorous, and never contented, prating and troublesome?"[338] But
Locke was the antagonist of FILMER, that advocate of arbitrary power;
and Locke is described "as bred under a fanatical tutor," and when in
Holland, as one of those who under the Earl of Shaftesbury "stuck
close to him when discarded, and carried on the _trade of faction_
beyond and within the seas several years after." In the great original
genius, born, like BACON and NEWTON, to create a new era in the
history of the human mind, this political literary critic, who was not
always deficient in his perceptions of genius, could only discover "a
trader in faction," though in his honesty he acknowledges him to be "a
noted writer."
A more illustrious instance of party-spirit operating against works of
genius is presented to us in the awful character of MILTON. From
earliest youth to latest age endowed with all the characteristics of
genius; fervent with all the inspirations of study; in all changes
still the same great literary character as Velleius Paterculus writes
of one of his heroes--"Aliquando fortunâ, semper animo maximus:" while
in his own day, foreigners, who usually anticipate posterity, were
inquiring after Milton, it is known how utterly disregarded he lived
at home. The divine author of the "Paradise Lost" was always connected
with the man for whom a reward was offered in the _London Gazette_.
But in their triumph, the lovers of monarchy missed their greater
glory, in not separating for ever the republican Secretary of State
from the rival of Homer.
That the genius of Milton pined away in solitude, and that all the
consolations of fame were denied him during his life, from this
political criticism on his works, is generally known; but not perhaps
that this spirit propagated itself far beyond the poet's tomb. I give
a remarkable instance. Bishop Sprat, who surely was capable of feeling
the poetry of Milton, yet from political antipathy retained such an
abhorrence of his _name_, that when the writer of the Latin
Inscription on the poet JOHN PHILIPS, in describing his versification,
applied to it the term _Miltono_, Sprat ordered it to be erased, as
polluting a monument raised in a church.[339] A mere critical opinion
on versification was thus sacrificed to political feeling:--a stream
indeed which in its course has hardly yet worked itself clear. It
could only have been the strong political feeling of Warton which
could have induced him to censure the prose of Milton with such
asperity, while he closed his critical eyes on its resplendent
passages, which certainly he wanted not the taste to feel,--for he
caught in his own pages, occasionally, some of the reflected warmth.
This feeling took full possession of the mind of Johnson, who, with
all the rage of political criticism on subjects of literature, has
condemned the finest works of Milton, and in one of his terrible
paroxysms has demonstrated that the Samson Agonistes is "a tragedy
which ignorance has admired and bigotry applauded." Had not Johnson's
religious feelings fortunately interposed between Milton and his
"Paradise," we should have wanted the present noble effusion of his
criticism; any other Epic by Milton had probably sunk beneath his
vigorous sophistry, and his tasteless sarcasm. Lauder's attack on
Milton was hardily projected, on a prospect of encouragement, from
this political criticism on the literary character of Milton; and he
succeeded as long as he could preserve the decency of the delusion.
The Spirit of Party has touched with its plague-spot the character of
Burnet; it has mildewed the page of a powerful mind, and tainted by
its suspicions, its rumours, and its censures, his probity as a man.
Can we forbear listening to all the vociferations which faction has
thrown out? Do we not fear to trust ourselves amid the multiplicity of
his facts? And when we are familiarised with the variety of his
historical portraits, are we not startled when it is suggested that
"they are tinged with his own passions and his own weaknesses?" Burnet
has indeed made "his humble appeal to the great God of Truth" that he
has given it as fully as he could find it; and he has expressed his
abhorrence of "a lie in history," so much greater a sin than a lie in
common discourse, from its lasting and universal nature. Yet these
hallowing protestations have not saved him! A cloud of witnesses, from
different motives, have risen up to attaint his veracity and his
candour; while all the Tory wits have ridiculed his style, impatiently
inaccurate, and uncouthly negligent, and would sink his vigour and
ardour, while they expose the meanness and poverty of his genius. Thus
the literary and the moral character of no ordinary author have fallen
a victim to party-feeling.[340]
But this victim to political criticism on literature was himself
criminal, and has wreaked his own party feelings on the _Papist_
Dryden, and the _Tory_ Prior; Dryden he calls, in the most unguarded
language, "a monster of immodesty and impurity of all sorts." There
had been a literary quarrel between Dryden and Burnet respecting a
translation of Varillas' "History of Heresies;" Burnet had ruined the
credit of the papistical author while Dryden was busied on the
translation; and as Burnet says, "he has wreaked his malice on me for
spoiling his three months' labour." In return, he kindly informs
Dryden, alluding to his poem of "The Hind and the Panther," "that he
is the author of the _worst_ poem the age has produced;" and that as
for "his morals, it is scarce possible to grow a worse man than he
was"--a personal style not to be permitted in any controversy, but to
bring this passion on the hallowed ground of history, was not "casting
away his shoe" in the presence of the divinity of truth.[341] It could
only have been the spirit of party which induced Burnet, in his
History, to mention with contempt and pretended ignorance so fine a
genius as "_one Prior_, who had been Jersey's secretary." It was the
same party-feeling in the Tory Prior, in his elegant "Alma," where he
has interwoven so graceful a wreath for Pope, that could sneer at the
fine soliloquy of the Roman Cato of the Whig Addison:
I hope you would not have me die
_Like simple Cato in the play_,
For anything that he can say.
It was the same spirit which would not allow that Garth was the author
of his celebrated poem--
Garth did not write his own Dispensary,
as Pope ironically alludes to the story of the times:--a contemporary
wit has recorded this literary injury, by repeating it.[342] And
Swift, who once exclaimed to Pope, "The deuce take party!" was himself
the greatest sinner of them all. He, once the familiar friend of
Steele till party divided them, not only emptied his shaft of quivers
against his literary character, but raised the horrid yell of the
war-whoop in his inhuman exultation over the unhappy close of the
desultory life of a man of genius. Bitterly has he written--
From perils of a hundred jails,
Withdrew to starve, and die in Wales.
When Steele published "The Crisis," Swift attacked the author in so
exquisite a piece of grave irony, that I am tempted to transcribe his
inimitable parallels of a triumvirate composed of the writer of the
_Flying Post_, Dunton the literary projector, and poor Steele: the
one, the Iscariot of hackney scribes; the other a crack-brained
scribbling bookseller, who boasted he had a thousand projects, fancied
he had methodised six hundred, and was ruined by the fifty he
executed. The following is a specimen of that powerful irony in which
Swift excelled all other writers; that fine Cervantic humour, that
provoking coolness which Swift preserves while he is panegyrising the
objects of his utter contempt.
"Among the present writers on the Whig side, I can recollect but
_three_ of any great distinction, which are the _Flying Post_, Mr.
Dunton, and the Author of 'The Crisis.' The first of these seems to
have been much sunk in reputation since the sudden retreat of the only
true, genuine, original author, Mr. Ridpath, who is celebrated by the
_Dutch Gazetteer_ as one of _the best pens in England_. Mr. Dunton
hath been longer and more conversant in books than any of the three,
as well as more voluminous in his productions: however, having
employed his studies in so great a variety of other subjects, he hath,
I think, but lately turned his genius to politics. His famous tract
entitled 'Neck or Nothing' must be allowed to be the shrewdest piece,
and written with the most spirit of any which hath appeared from that
side since the change of the ministry. It is indeed a most cutting
satire upon the Lord Treasurer and Lord Bolingbroke; and I wonder none
of our friends ever undertook to answer it. I confess I was at first
of the same opinion with several good judges, who from the style and
manner suppose it to have issued from the sharp pen of the Earl of
Nottingham; and I am still apt to think it might receive his
lordship's last hand. The third and principal of this triumvirate is
the author of 'The Crisis,' who, although he must yield to the _Flying
Post_ in knowledge of the world and skill in politics, and to Mr.
Dunton in keenness of satire and variety of reading, hath yet other
qualities enough to denominate him a writer of a superior class to
either, provided he would a little regard the propriety and
disposition of his words, consult the grammatical part, and get some
information on the subject he intends to handle."[343]
So far this fine ironical satire may be inspected as a model; the
polished weapon he strikes with so gracefully, is allowed by all the
laws of war; but the political criticism on the literary character,
the party feeling which degrades a man of genius, is the drop of
poison on its point.
Steele had declared in the "Crisis" that he had always maintained an
inviolable respect for the clergy. Swift (who perhaps was aimed at in
this instance, and whose character, since the publication of "The Tale
of a Tub," lay under a suspicion of an opposite tendency) turns on
Steele with all the vigour of his wit, and all the causticity of
retort:--
"By this he would insinuate that those papers among the _Tatlers_ and
_Spectators_, where the whole order is abused, were not his own. I
will appeal to all who know the flatness of his style, and the
barrenness of his invention, whether he doth not grossly prevaricate?
_Was he ever able to walk without his leading-strings, or swim without
bladders, without being discovered by his hobbling or his sinking?_"
Such was the attack of Swift, which was pursued in the _Examiner_, and
afterwards taken up by another writer. This is one of the evils
resulting from the wantonness of genius: it gives a contagious example
to the minor race; its touch opens a new vein of invention, which the
poorer wits soon break into; the loose sketch of a feature or two from
its rapid hand is sufficient to become a minute portrait, where not a
hair is spared by the caricaturist. This happened to Steele, whose
literary was to be sacrificed to his political character; and this
superstructure was confessedly raised on the malicious hints we have
been noticing. That the _Examiner_ was the seed-plot of "The Character
of Richard St--le, Esq.," appears by its opening--"It will be no
injury, I am persuaded, to the _Examiner_ to _borrow him_ a little
(Steele), upon promise of returning him safe, as children do their
playthings, when their mirth is over, and, they have done with them."
The author of the "Character of Richard St--le, Esq.," was Dr.
Wagstaffe, one of those careless wits[344] who lived to repent a
crazy life of wit, fancy, and hope, and an easy, indolent one, whose
genial hours force up friends like hot-house plants, that bloom and
flower in the spot where they are raised, but will not endure the
change of place and season--this wit caught the tone of Swift, and
because, as his editor tells us, "he had some friends in the ministry,
and thought he could not take a better way to oblige them than by
showing his dislike to a gentleman who had so much endeavoured to
oppose them," he sat down to write a libel with all the best humour
imaginable; for, adds this editor, "he was so far from having any
personal pique or enmity against Mr. Steele, that at the time of his
writing he did not so much as know him, even by sight." This principle
of "having some friends in the ministry," and not "any knowledge" of
the character to be attacked, has proved a great source of invention
to our political adventurers;--thus Dr. Wagstaffe was fully enabled to
send down to us a character where the moral and literary qualities of
a genius, to whom this country owes so much as the father of
periodical papers, are immolated to his political purpose. This severe
character passed through several editions. However the careless Steele
might be willing to place the elaborate libel to the account of party
writings, if he did not feel disturbed at reproaches and accusations,
which are confidently urged, and at critical animadversions, to which
the negligence of his style sometimes laid him too open, his
insensibility would have betrayed a depravity in his morals and taste
which never entered into his character.[345]
Steele was doomed even to lose the friendship of Addison amid
political discords; but on that occasion Steele showed that his taste
for literature could not be injured by political animosity. It was at
the close of Addison's life, and on occasion of the Peerage Bill,
Steele published "The Plebeian," a cry against enlarging the
aristocracy. Addison replied with "The Old Whig," Steele rejoined
without alluding to the person of his opponent. But "The Old Whig"
could not restrain his political feelings, and contemptuously
described "little Dicky, whose trade it was to write pamphlets."
Steele replied with his usual warmth; but indignant at the charge of
"vassalage," he says, "I will end this paper, by firing every free
breast with that noble exhortation of the tragedian--
Remember, O my friends! the laws, the rights,
The generous plan of power deliver'd down
From age to age, &c."
Thus delicately he detects the anonymous author, and thus energetically
commends, while he reproves him!
Hooke (a Catholic), after he had written his "Roman History,"
published "Observations on Vertot, Middleton, &c., on the Roman
Senate," in which he particularly treated Dr. Middleton with a
disrespect for which the subject gave no occasion: this was attributed
to the Doctor's _offensive_ letter from Rome. Spelman, in replying to
this concealed motive of the Catholic, reprehends him with equal
humour and bitterness for his desire of _roasting a Protestant
parson_.
Our taste, rather than our passions, is here concerned; but the moral
sense still more so. The malice of faction has long produced this
literary calamity; yet great minds have not always degraded
themselves; not always resisted the impulse of their finer feelings,
by hardening them into insensibility, or goading them in the fury
of a misplaced revenge. How delightful it is to observe Marvell, the
Presbyterian and Republican wit, with that generous temper that
instantly discovers the alliance of genius, warmly applauding the
great work of Butler, which covered his own party with odium and
ridicule. "He is one of an excellent wit," says Marvell, "and
whoever dislikes the choice of his subject, cannot but commend the
performance."[346]
Clarendon's profound genius could not expand into the same liberal
feelings. He highly commends May for his learning, his wit and
language, and for his Supplement to Lucan, which he considered as "one
of the best epic poems in the English language;" but this great spirit
sadly winces in the soreness of his feelings when he alludes to May's
"History of the Parliament;" then we discover that this late
"ingenious person" performed his part "so meanly, that he seems to
have lost his wit when he left his honesty." Behold the political
criticism in literature! However we may incline to respect the
feelings of Clarendon, this will not save his judgment nor his
candour. We read May now, as well as Clarendon; nor is the work of May
that of a man who "had lost his wits," nor is it "meanly performed."
Warburton, a keen critic of the writers of that unhappy and that
glorious age for both parties, has pronounced this "History" to be "a
just composition, according to the rules of history; written with much
judgment, penetration, manliness, and spirit, and with a candour that
will greatly increase your esteem, when you understand that he wrote
by order of his masters the Parliament."
Thus have authors and their works endured the violations of party
feelings; a calamity in our national literature which has produced
much false and unjust criticism.[347] The better spirit of the present
times will maintain a safer and a more honourable principle,--the true
objects of LITERATURE, the cultivation of the intellectual faculties,
stand entirely unconnected with POLITICS and RELIGION, let this be the
imprescriptible right of an author. In our free country unhappily they
have not been separated--they run together, and in the ocean of human
opinions, the salt and bitterness of these mightier waves have
infected the clear waters from the springs of the Muses. I once read
of a certain river that ran through the sea without mixing with it,
preserving its crystalline purity and all its sweetness during its
course; so that it tasted the same at the Line as at the Poles. This
stream indeed is only to be found in the geography of an old romance;
literature should be this magical stream!
FOOTNOTES:
[338] A forcible description of Locke may be found in the curious
"Life of Wood," written by himself. I shall give the passage
where Wood acknowledges his after celebrity, at the very
moment the bigotry of his feelings is attempting to degrade
him.
Wood belonged to a club with Locke and others, for the purpose
of hearing chemical lectures. "John Locke of Christchurch was
afterwards a noted writer. This John Locke was a man of a
turbulent spirit, clamorous, and never contented. The club
wrote and took notes from the mouth of their master, who sat
at the upper end of a table, but the said John Locke scorned
to do it; so that while every man besides of the club were
writing, he would be prating and troublesome."
[339] This anecdote deserves preservation. I have drawn it from the
MSS. of Bishop KENNET.
"In the Epitaph on JOHN PHILIPS occurs this line on his metre,
that
'Uni in hoc laudis genere Miltono secundus,
Primoque pene par.'
These lines were ordered to be razed out of the monument by
Dr. Sprat, Bishop of Rochester. The word Miltono being, as he
said, not fit to be in a Christian church; but they have since
been restored by Dr. ATTERBURY, who succeeded him as Bishop of
Rochester, and who wrote the epitaph jointly with Dr.
FREIND."--Lansdowne MSS., No. 908, p. 162.
The anecdote has appeared, but without any authority. Dr.
SYMMONS, in his "Life of Milton," observing on what he calls
Dr. Johnson's "biographical libel on Milton," that Dr. Johnson
has mentioned this fact, seems to suspect its authenticity;
for, if true, "it would cover the respectable name of Sprat
with eternal dishonour." Of its truth the above gives
sufficient authority; but at all events the prejudices of
Sprat must be pardoned, while I am showing that minds far
greater than his have shared in the same unhappy feeling. Dr.
Symmons himself bears no light stain for his slanderous
criticism on the genius of THOMAS WARTON, from the motive we
are discussing; though Warton, as my text shows, was too a
sinner! I recollect in my youth a more extraordinary instance
than any other which relates to Milton. A woman of no
education, who had retired from the business of life, became a
very extraordinary reader; accident had thrown into her way a
large library composed of authors who wrote in the reigns of
the two Charleses. She turned out one of the _malignant_
party, and an abhorrer of the Commonwealth's men. Her opinion
of CROMWELL and MILTON may be given. She told me it was no
wonder that the rebel who had been secretary to the usurper
should have been able to have drawn so finished a character of
SATAN, and that the Pandæmonium, with all the oratorical
devils, was only such as he had himself viewed at Oliver's
council-board.
[340] I throw into this note several curious notices respecting
BURNET, and chiefly from contemporaries.
Burnet has been accused, after a warm discussion, of returning
home in a passion, and then writing the character of a person.
But as his feelings were warm, it is probable he might have
often practised the reverse. An anecdote of the times is
preserved in "The Memoirs of Grub-street," vol. ii. p. 291. "A
noble peer now living declares he stood with a very ill grace
in the history, till he had an opportunity put into his hands
of obliging the bishop, by granting a favour at court, upon
which the bishop told a friend, within an hour, that he was
mistaken in such a lord, and must go and alter his whole
character; and so he happens to have a pretty good one." In
this place I also find this curious extract from the MS.
"Memoirs of the M---- of H----." "Such a day Dr. B----t told
me King William was an obstinate, conceited man, that would
take no advice; and on this day King William told me that Dr.
B----t was a troublesome, impertinent man, whose company he
could not endure." These anecdotes are very probable, and lead
one to reflect. Some political tergiversation has been laid to
his charge; Swift accused him of having once been an advocate
for passive obedience and absolute power. He has been
reproached with the deepest ingratitude, for the purpose of
gratifying his darling passion of popularity, in his conduct
respecting the Duke of Lauderdale, his former patron. If the
following piece of secret history be true, he showed too much
of a compliant humour, at the cost of his honour. I find it in
Bishop Kennet's MSS. "Dr. Burnet having _over night_ given in
some important depositions against the Earl of Lauderdale to
the House of Commons, was, _before morning_, by the
intercession of the D----, made king's chaplain and preacher
at the Rolls; so he was bribed to hold the peace."--Lansdowne
MSS., 990. This was quite a politician's short way to
preferment! An honest man cannot leap up the ascent, however
he may try to climb. There was something morally wrong in this
transaction, because Burnet notices it, and acknowledges--"I
was much blamed for what I had done." The story is by no means
refuted by the _naïve_ apology.
Burnet's character has been vigorously attacked, with all the
nerve of satire, in "Faction Displayed," attributed to
Shippen, whom Pope celebrates--
----"And pour myself as plain
As honest Shippen or as old Montaigne."
Shippen was a Tory. In "Faction Displayed," Burnet is
represented with his Cabal (so some party nicknames the
other), on the accession of Queen Anne, plotting the
disturbance of her government. "Black Aris's fierceness," that
is Burnet, is thus described:--
"A Scotch, seditious, unbelieving priest,
The brawny chaplain of the calves'-head feast,
Who first his patron, then his prince betray'd,
And does that church he's sworn to guard, invade,
Warm with rebellious rage, he thus began," &c.
One hardly suspects the hermit Parnell capable of writing
rather harsh verses, yet stinging satire; they are not in his
works; but he wrote the following lines on a report of a fire
breaking out in Burnet's library, which had like to have
answered the purpose some wished--of condemning the author and
his works to the flames--
"He talks, and writes, that Popery will return,
And we, and he, and all his works will burn;
And as of late he meant to bless the age
With _flagrant prefaces of party rage_,
O'ercome with passion and the subject's weight,
Lolling he nodded in his elbow-seat;
Down fell the candle! Grease and zeal conspire,
Heat meets with heat, and pamphlets burn their sire;
Here crawls a _preface_ on its half-burn'd maggots,
And there an _introduction_ brings its fagots;
Then roars the prophet of the northern nation,
Scorch'd by a flaming speech on moderation."
Thomas Warton smiles at Burnet for the horrors of Popery which
perpetually haunted him, in his "Life of Sir T. Pope," p. 53.
But if we substitute the term arbitrary power for popery, no
Briton will join in the abuse Burnet has received on this
account. A man of Burnet's fervid temper, whose foible was
strong vanity and a passion for popularity, would often rush
headlong into improprieties of conduct and language; his
enemies have taken ample advantage of his errors; but many
virtues his friends have recorded; and the elaborate and
spirited character which the Marquis of Halifax has drawn of
Burnet may soothe his manes, and secure its repose amid all
these disturbances around his tomb. This fine character is
preserved in the "Biographia Britannica." Burnet is not the
only instance of the motives of a man being honourable, while
his actions are frequently the reverse, from his impetuous
nature. He has been reproached for a want of that truth which
he solemnly protests he scrupulously adhered to; yet, of many
circumstances which were at the time condemned as "lies," when
Time drew aside the mighty veil, Truth was discovered beneath.
Tovey, with his visual good humour, in his "Anglia Judaica,"
p. 277, notices "that pleasant copious imagination which will
for ever rank our _English Burnet_ with the _Grecian
Heliodorus_." Roger North, in his "Examen," p. 413, calls him
"a busy Scotch parson." Lord Orford sneers at his hasty
epithets, and the colloquial carelessness of his style, in his
"Historic Doubts," where, in a note, he mentions "_one_
Burnet" tells a ridiculous story, mimicking Burnet's
chit-chat, and concludes surprisingly with, "So the Prince of
Orange mounted the throne."
After reading this note, how would that learned foreigner
proceed, who I have supposed might be projecting the
"Judgments of the Learned" on our English authors? Were he to
condemn Burnet as an historian void of all honour and
authority, he would not want for documents. It would require a
few minutes to explain to the foreigner the nature of
political criticism.
[341] Dryden was very coarsely satirised in the political poems of his
own day; and among the rest, in "The Session of the Poets,"--a
general onslaught directed against the writers of the time,
which furnishes us with many examples of unjust criticism on
these literary men, entirely originating in political feeling.
One example may suffice;
"Then in came Denham, that limping old bard,
Whose fame on _the Sophy_ and _Cooper's-hill_ stands,
And brought many stationers, who swore very hard
That nothing sold better except 'twere his lands.
But Apollo advised him to write something more,
To clear a suspicion which possessed the Court,
That _Cooper's-hill_, so much bragg'd on before,
Was writ by a vicar, who had forty pounds for't."
[342] Dr. Wagstaffe, in his "Character of Steele," alludes to the
rumour which Pope has sent down to posterity in a single
verse: "I should have thought Mr. Steele might have the
example of his _friend_ before his eyes, who _had the
reputation of being the author of The Dispensary_, till, by
two or three unlucky after-claps, he proved himself incapable
of writing it."--WAGSTAFFE'S _Misc. Works_, p. 136.
[343] I know not how to ascertain the degree of political skill which
Steele reached in his new career--he was at least a spirited
Whig, but the ministry was then under the malignant influence
of the concealed adherents to the Stuarts, particularly of
Bolingbroke, and such as Atterbury, whose secret history is
now much better known than in their own day. The terrors of
the Whigs were not unfounded. Steele in the House disappointed
his friends; from his popular Essays, it was expected he would
have been a fluent orator; this was no more the case with him
than Addison. On this De Foe said he had better have continued
the _Spectator_ than the _Tatler_.--LANSDOWNE'S _MSS._ 1097.
[344] Wagstaffe's "Miscellaneous Works," 1726, have been collected
into a volume. They contain satirical pieces of humour,
accompanied by some Hogarthian prints. His "Comment upon the
History of Tom Thumb," ridicules Addison's on the old ballad
of "Chevy Chase," who had declared "it was full of the
majestic simplicity which we admire in the greatest of the
ancient poets," and quoted passages which he paralleled with
several in the Æneid. Wagstaffe tells us he has found "in the
library of a schoolboy, among other undiscovered valuable
authors, one more proper to adorn the shelves of Bodley or the
Vatican than to be confined to the obscurity of a private
study." This little Homer is the chanter of Tom Thumb. He
performs his office of "a true commentator," proving the
congenial spirit of the poet of Thumb with that of the poet of
Æneas. Addison got himself ridiculed for that fine natural
taste, which felt all the witchery of our ballad-Enniuses,
whose beauties, had Virgil lived with Addison, he would have
inlaid into his mosaic. The bigotry of classical taste, which
is not always accompanied by a natural one, and rests securely
on prescribed opinions and traditional excellence, long
contemned our vernacular genius, spurning at the minstrelsy of
the nation; Johnson's ridicule of "Percy's Reliques" had its
hour, but the more poetical mind of Scott has brought us back
to home feelings, to domestic manners, and eternal nature.
[345] I shall content myself with referring to "The Character of
Richard St--le, Esq.," in Dr. Wagstaffe's Miscellaneous Works,
1726. Considering that he had no personal knowledge of his
victim, one may be well surprised at his entering so deeply
into his private history; but of such a character as Steele,
the private history is usually too public--a mass of scandal
for the select curious. Poor Steele, we are told, was
"arrested for the maintenance of his bastards, and afterwards
printed a _proposal_ that the public should take care of
them;" got into the House "not to be arrested;"--"his _set_
speeches there, which he designs to get _extempore_ to speak
in the House." For his literary character we are told that
"Steele was a jay who borrowed a feather from the peacock,
another from the bullfinch, and another from the magpye; so
that _Dick_ is made up of borrowed colours; he borrowed his
humour from Estcourt, criticism of Addison, his poetry of
Pope, and his politics of Ridpath; so that his qualifications
as a man of genius, like Mr. T----s, as a member of
Parliament, _lie in thirteen parishes_." Such are the pillows
made up for genius to rest its head on!
Wagstaffe has sometimes delicate humour; Steele, who often
wrote in haste, necessarily wrote incorrectly. Steele had this
sentence: "And ALL, as one man, will join in a common
indignation against ALL who would perplex our obedience:" on
which our pleasant critic remarks--"Whatever contradiction
there is, as some suppose, in _all joining against all_, our
author has good authority for what he says; and it may be
proved, in spite of Euclid or Sir Isaac, that everything
consists of _two alls_, that these _alls_ are capable of being
divided and subdivided into as many _alls_ as you please, and
so _ad infinitum_. The following lines may serve for an
illustration:--
'Three children sliding on the ice
Upon a summer's day;
As it fell out, they all fell in;
The rest they ran away.'
"Though this polite author does not directly say there are
_two alls_, yet he implies as much; for I would ask any
_reasonable_ man what can be understood by _the rest they ran
away_, but the _other all_ we have been speaking of? The world
may see that I can exhibit the beauties, as well as quarrel
with the faults, of his composition, but I hope he will not
value himself on his _hasty productions_."
Poor Steele, with the best humour, bore these perpetual
attacks, not, however, without an occasional groan, just
enough to record his feelings. In one of his wild, yet
well-meant projects, of the invention of "a Fish-pool, or
Vessel for Importing Fish Alive," 1718, he complains of
calumnies and impertinent observations on him, and seems to
lay some to the account of his knighthood:--"While he was
pursuing what he believed might conduce to the common good, he
gave the syllables _Richard Steele_ to the publick, to be used
and treated as they should think fit; he must go on in _the
same indifference_, and allow the TOWN _their usual liberty
with his name_, which I find they think they have much more
room to sport with than formerly, as it is lengthened with the
monosyllable SIR."
[346] "Rehearsal Transprosed," p. 45.
[347] The late Gilbert Wakefield is an instance where the political
and theological opinions of a recluse student tainted his pure
literary works. Condemned as an enraged Jacobin by those who
were Unitarians in politics, and rejected because he was a
Unitarian in religion by the orthodox, poor Wakefield's
literary labours were usually reduced to the value of
waste-paper. We smile, but half in sorrow, in reading a
letter, where he says, "I meditate a beginning, during the
winter, of my criticisms on all the ancient Greek and Latin
authors,_ by small piecemeals, on the cheapest possible paper,
and at the least possible expense of printing_. As I can never
do more than barely indemnify myself, I shall print only 250
copies." He half-ruined himself by his splendid edition of
Lucretius, which could never obtain even common patronage from
the opulent friends of classical literature. Since his death
it has been reprinted, and is no doubt now a marketable
article for the bookseller; so that if some authors are not
successful for themselves, it is a comfort to think how
useful, in a variety of shapes, they are made so to others.
Even Gilbert's "contracted scheme of publication" he was
compelled to abandon! Yet the classic erudition of Wakefield
was confessed, and is still remembered. No one will doubt that
we have lost a valuable addition to our critical stores by
this literary persecution, were it only in the present
instance; but examples are too numerous!
HOBBES, AND HIS QUARRELS;
INCLUDING
AN ILLUSTRATION OF HIS CHARACTER.
Why HOBBES disguised his sentiments--why his philosophy degraded
him--of the sect of the HOBBISTS--his LEVIATHAN; its principles
adapted to existing circumstances--the author's difficulties on
its first appearance--the system originated in his fears, and was
a contrivance to secure the peace of the nation--its duplicity and
studied ambiguity illustrated by many facts--the advocate of the
national religion--accused of atheism--HOBBE'S religion--his
temper too often tried--attacked by opposite parties--Bishop
FELL'S ungenerous conduct--makes HOBBES regret that juries do not
consider the quarrels of authors of any moment--the mysterious
panic which accompanied him through life--its probable cause--he
pretends to recant his opinions--he is speculatively bold, and
practically timorous--an extravagant specimen of the anti-social
philosophy--the SELFISM of HOBBES--his high sense of his works, in
regard to foreigners and posterity--his monstrous egotism--his
devotion to his literary pursuits--the despotic principle of the
LEVIATHAN of an innocent tendency--the fate of systems of
opinions.
The history of the philosopher of Malmesbury exhibits a large
picture of literary controversy, where we may observe how a
persecuting spirit in the times drives the greatest men to take
refuge in the meanest arts of subterfuge. Compelled to disguise their
sentiments, they will not, however, suppress them; and hence all
their ambiguous proceedings, all that ridicule and irony, and even
recantation, with which ingenious minds, when forced to their
employ, have never failed to try the patience, or the sagacity, of
intolerance.[348]
The character of Hobbes will, however, serve a higher moral design.
The force of his intellect, the originality of his views, and the
keenest sagacity of observation, place him in the first order of
minds; but he has mortified, and then degraded man into a mere selfish
animal. From a cause we shall discover, he never looked on human
nature but in terror or in contempt. The inevitable consequence of
that mode of thinking, or that system of philosophy, is to make the
philosopher the abject creature he has himself imagined; and it is
then he libels the species from his own individual experience.[349]
More generous tempers, men endowed with warmer imaginations, awake to
sympathies of a higher nature, will indignantly reject the system,
which has reduced the unlucky system-maker himself to such a pitiable
condition.
Hobbes was one of those original thinkers who create a new era in the
philosophical history of their nation, and perpetuate their name by
leaving it to a sect.[350]
The eloquent and thinking Madame de Staël has asserted that "Hobbes
was an _Atheist_ and a _Slave_." Yet I still think that Hobbes
believed, and proved, the necessary existence of a Deity, and that he
loved freedom, as every sage desires it. It is now time to offer an
apology for one of those great men who are the contemporaries of all
ages, and, by fervent inquiry, to dissipate that traditional cloud
which hangs over one of "those monuments of the mind" which Genius has
built with imperishable materials.
The author of the far-famed "Leviathan" is considered as a vehement
advocate for absolute monarchy. This singular production may, however,
be equally adapted for a republic; and the monstrous principle may be
so innocent in its nature, as even to enter into our own constitution,
which presumes to be neither.[351]
As "The Leviathan" produced the numerous controversies of Hobbes, a
history of this great moral curiosity enters into our subject.
Hobbes, living in times of anarchy, perceived the necessity of
re-establishing authority with more than its usual force. But how were
the divided opinions of men to melt together, and where in the State
was to be placed _absolute power_? for a remedy of less force he could
not discover for that disordered state of society which he witnessed.
Was the sovereign or the people to be invested with that mighty power
which was to keep every other quiescent?--a topic which had been
discussed for ages, and still must be, as the humours of men
incline--was, I believe, a matter perfectly indifferent to our
philosopher, provided that whatever might be the government, absolute
power could somewhere be lodged in it, to force men to act in strict
conformity. He discovers his perplexity in the dedication of his work.
"In a way beset with those that contend on one side for too great
liberty, on the other side for too much authority, 'tis hard to pass
between the points of both unwounded." It happened that our cynical
Hobbes had no respect for his species; terrified at anarchy, he seems
to have lost all fear when he flew to absolute power--a sovereign
remedy unworthy of a great spirit, though convenient for a timid one
like his own. Hobbes considered men merely as animals of prey, living
in a state of perpetual hostility, and his solitary principle of
action was self-preservation at any price.
He conjured up a political phantom, a favourite and fanciful notion,
that haunted him through life. He imagined that the _many_ might be
more easily managed by making them up into an artificial _One_, and
calling this wonderful political unity the _Commonwealth_, or the
_Civil Power_, or the _Sovereign_, or by whatever name was found most
pleasing; he personified it by the image of "Leviathan."[352]
At first sight the ideal monster might pass for an innocent conceit;
and there appears even consummate wisdom in erecting a colossal power
for our common security; but Hobbes assumed that _Authority_ was to be
supported to its extreme pitch. _Force_ with him appeared to
constitute _right_, and _unconditional submission_ then became a
_duty_: these were consequences quite natural to one who at his first
step degraded man by comparing him to a watch, and who would not have
him go but with the same nicety of motion, wound up by a great key.
To be secure, by the system of Hobbes, we must at least lose the glory
of our existence as intellectual beings. He would persuade us into the
dead quietness of a commonwealth of puppets, while he was consigning
into the grasp of his "Leviathan," or sovereign power, the wire that
was to communicate a mockery of vital motion--a principle of action
without freedom. The system was equally desirable to the Protector
Cromwell as to the regal Charles. A conspiracy against mankind could
not alarm their governors: it is not therefore surprising that the
usurper offered Hobbes the office of Secretary of State; and that he
was afterwards pensioned by the monarch.
A philosophical system, moral or political, is often nothing more than
a temporary expedient to turn aside the madness of the times by
substituting what offers an appearance of relief; nor is it a little
influenced by the immediate convenience of the philosopher himself;
his personal character enters a good deal into the system. The object
of Hobbes in his "Leviathan" was always ambiguous, because it was, in
truth, one of these systems of expediency, conveniently adapted to
what has been termed of late "existing circumstances." His sole aim
was to keep all things in peace, by creating one mightiest power in
the State, to suppress instantly all other powers that might rise in
insurrection. In his times, the establishment of despotism was the
only political restraint he could discover of sufficient force to
chain man down, amid the turbulence of society; but this concealed end
he is perpetually shifting and disguising; for the truth is, no man
loved slavery less.[353]
The system of Hobbes could not be limited to politics: he knew
that the safety of the people's morals required an _Established
Religion_. The alliance between Church and State had been so
violently shaken, that it was necessary to cement them once more.
As our philosopher had been terrified in his politics by the view of
its contending factions, so, in religion, he experienced the same
terror at the hereditary rancours of its multiplied sects. He could
devise no other means than to attack the mysteries and dogmas of
theologians, those after-inventions and corruptions of Christianity,
by which the artifices of their chiefs had so long split them into
perpetual factions:[354] he therefore asserted that the religion
of the people ought to exist, in strict conformity to the will of
the State.[355]
When Hobbes wrote against mysteries, the mere polemics sent forth a
cry of his impiety; the philosopher was branded with Atheism;--one of
those artful calumnies, of which, after a man has washed himself
clean, the stain will be found to have dyed the skin.[356]
To me it appears that Hobbes, to put an end to these religious wars,
which his age and country had witnessed, perpetually kindled by crazy
fanatics and intolerant dogmatists, insisted that the _crosier_ should
be carried in the _left_ hand of his Leviathan, and the _sword_ in
his right.[357] He testified, as strongly as man could, by his public
actions, that he was a Christian of the Church of England, "as by law
established," and no enemy to the episcopal order; but he dreaded the
encroachments of the Churchmen in his political system; jealous of
that _supremacy_ at which some of them aimed. Many enlightened bishops
sided with the philosopher.[358] At a time when Milton sullenly
withdrew from every public testimonial of divine worship, Hobbes, with
more enlightened views, _attended Church service_, and strenuously
supported _an established religion_; yet one is deemed a religious
man, and the other an Atheist! Were the actions of men to be decisive
of their characters, the reverse might be inferred.
The temper of our philosopher, so ill-adapted to contradiction, was
too often tried; and if, as his adversary, Harrington, in the
"Oceana," says, "Truth be a spark whereunto objections are like
bellows," the mind of Hobbes, for half a century, was a very forge,
where the hammer was always beating, and the flame was never allowed
to be extinguished. Charles II. strikingly described his worrying
assailants. "Hobbes," said the king, "was a bear against whom the
Church played their young dogs, in order to exercise them."[359] A
strange repartee has preserved the causticity of his wit. Dr. Eachard,
perhaps one of the prototypes of Swift, wrote two admirable ludicrous
dialogues, in ridicule of Hobbes's "State of Nature."[360] These were
much extolled, and kept up the laugh against the philosophic
misanthropist: once when he was told that the clergy said that
"Eachard had crucified Hobbes," he bitterly retorted, "Why, then,
don't they fall down and _worship_ me?"[361]
"The Leviathan" was ridiculed by the wits, declaimed against by the
republicans, denounced by the monarchists, and menaced by the clergy.
The commonwealth man, the dreamer of equality, Harrington, raged at
the subtile advocate for despotic power; but the glittering bubble of
his fanciful "Oceana" only broke on the mighty sides of the Leviathan,
wasting its rainbow tints: the mitred Bramhall, at "The Catching of
Leviathan, or the Great Whale," flung his harpoon, demonstrating
consequences from the principles of Hobbes, which he as eagerly
denied. But our ambiguous philosopher had the hard fate to be attacked
even by those who were labouring to the same end.[362] The literary
wars of Hobbes were fierce and long; heroes he encountered, but heroes
too were fighting by his side. Our chief himself wore a kind of
magical armour; for, either he denied the consequences his adversaries
deduced from his principles, or he surprised by new conclusions, which
many could not discover in them; but by such means he had not only the
art of infusing confidence among the _Hobbists_, but the greater one
of dividing his adversaries, who often retreated, rather fatigued than
victorious. Hobbes owed this partly to the happiness of a genius which
excelled in controversy, but more, perhaps, to the advantage of the
ground he occupied as a metaphysician: the usual darkness of that spot
is favourable to those shiftings and turnings which the equivocal
possessor may practise with an unwary assailant. Far different was the
fate of Hobbes in the open daylight of mathematics: there his hardy
genius lost him, and his sophistry could spin no web; as we shall see
in the memorable war of twenty years waged between Hobbes and Dr.
Wallis. But the gall of controversy was sometimes tasted, and the
flames of persecution flashed at times in the closet of our
philosopher. The ungenerous attack of Bishop Fell, who, in the Latin
translation of Wood's "History of the University of Oxford," had
converted eulogium into the most virulent abuse,[363] without the
participation of Wood, who resented it with his honest warmth, was
only an arrow snatched from a quiver which was every day emptying
itself on the devoted head of our ambiguous philosopher. Fell only
vindicated himself by a fresh invective on "the most vain and waspish
animal of Malmesbury," and Hobbes was too frightened to reply. This
was the Fell whom it was so difficult to assign a reason for not
liking:
I don't like thee, Dr. Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell,
But I don't like thee, Dr. Fell!
A curious incident in the history of the mind of this philosopher, was
the mysterious panic which accompanied him to his latest day. It has
not been denied that Hobbes was subject to occasional terrors: he
dreaded to be left without company; and a particular instance is told,
that on the Earl of Devonshire's removal from Chatsworth, the
philosopher, then in a dying state, insisted on being carried away,
though on a feather-bed. Various motives have been suggested to
account for this extraordinary terror. Some declared he was afraid of
spirits; but he was too stout a materialist![364]--another, that he
dreaded assassination; an ideal poniard indeed might scare even a
materialist. But Bishop Atterbury, in a sermon on _the Terrors of
Conscience_, illustrates their nature by the character of our
philosopher. Hobbes is there accused of attempting to destroy the
principles of religion against his own inward conviction: this would
only prove the insanity of Hobbes! The Bishop shows that "the
disorders of _conscience_ are not a _continued_, but an _intermitting_
disease;" so that the patient may appear at intervals in seeming
health and real ease, till the fits return: all this he applies to the
case of our philosopher. In reasoning on human affairs, the shortest
way will be to discover human motives. The spirit, or the assassin of
Hobbes, arose from the bill brought into Parliament, when the nation
was panic-struck on the fire of London, against Atheism and
Profaneness; he had a notion that a writ _de heretico comburendo_ was
intended for him by Bishop Seth Ward, his _quondam_ admirer.[365] His
spirits would sink at those moments; for in the philosophy of Hobbes,
the whole universe was concentrated in the small space of SELF. There
was no length he refused to go for what he calls "the natural right of
preservation, which we all receive from the uncontrollable dictates of
NECESSITY." He exhausts his imagination in the forcible descriptions
of his extinction: "the terrible enemy of nature, Death," is always
before him. The "inward horror" he felt of his extinction, Lord
Clarendon thus alludes to: "If Mr. Hobbes and some other man were both
condemned to death (which is the most formidable thing Mr. Hobbes can
conceive)"--and Dr. Eachard rallies him on the infinite anxiety he
bestowed on his _body_, and thinks that "he had better compound to be
kicked and beaten twice a day, than to be so dismally tortured about
an old rotten carcase." Death was perhaps the only subject about which
Hobbes would not dispute.
Such a materialist was then liable to terrors; and though, when his
works were burnt, the author had not a hair singed, the convulsion of
the panic often produced, as Bishop Atterbury expresses it, "an
intermitting disease."
Persecution terrified Hobbes, and magnanimity and courage were no
virtues in his philosophy. He went about hinting that he was not
obstinate (that is, before the Bench of Bishops); that his opinions
were mere conjectures, proposed as exercises for the powers of
reasoning. He attempted (without meaning to be ludicrous) to make his
_opinions_ a distinct object from his _person_; and, for the good
order of the latter, he appealed to the family chaplain for his
attendance at divine service, from whence, however, he always departed
at the sermon, insisting that the chaplain could not teach him
anything. It was in one of these panics that he produced his
"Historical Narrative of Heresy, and the Punishment thereof," where,
losing the dignity of the philosophic character, he creeps into a
subterfuge with the subtilty of the lawyer; insisting that "The
Leviathan," being published at a time when there was no distinction of
creeds in England (the Court of High Commission having been abolished
in the troubles), that therefore none could be heretical.[366]
No man was more speculatively bold, and more practically timorous;[367]
and two very contrary principles enabled him, through an extraordinary
length of life, to deliver his opinions and still to save himself:
these were his excessive vanity and his excessive timidity. The one
inspired his hardy originality, and the other prompted him to protect
himself by any means. His love of glory roused his vigorous intellect,
while his fears shrunk him into his little self. Hobbes, engaged in
the cause of truth, betrayed her dignity by his ambiguous and abject
conduct: this was a consequence of his selfish philosophy; and this
conduct has yielded no dubious triumph to the noble school which
opposed his cynical principles.
A genius more luminous, sagacity more profound, and morals less
tainted, were never more eminently combined than in this very man, who
was so often reduced to the most abject state. But the anti-social
philosophy of Hobbes terminated in preserving a pitiful state of
existence. He who considered nothing more valuable than life, degraded
himself by the meanest artifices of self-love,[368] and exulted in the
most cynical truths.[369] The philosophy of Hobbes, founded on fear
and suspicion, and which, in human nature, could see nothing beyond
himself, might make him a wary politician, but always an imperfect
social being. We find, therefore, that the philosopher of Malmesbury
adroitly retained a friend at court, to protect him at an extremity;
but considering all men alike, as bargaining for themselves, his
friends occasioned him as much uneasiness as his enemies. He lived in
dread that the Earl of Devonshire, whose roof had ever been his
protection, should at length give him up to the Parliament! There are
no friendships among cynics!
To such a state of degradation had the selfish philosophy reduced one
of the greatest geniuses; a philosophy true only for the wretched and
the criminal.[370] But those who feel moving within themselves the
benevolent principle, and who delight in acts of social sympathy, are
conscious of passions and motives, which the others have omitted in
their system. And the truth is, these "unnatural philosophers," as
Lord Shaftesbury expressively terms them, are by no means the monsters
they tell us they are: their practice is therefore usually in
opposition to their principles. While Hobbes was for chaining down
mankind as so many beasts of prey, he surely betrayed his social
passion, in the benevolent warnings he was perpetually giving them;
and while he affected to hold his brothers in contempt, he was
sacrificing laborious days, and his peace of mind, to acquire
celebrity. Who loved glory more than this sublime cynic?--"_Glory_,"
says our philosopher, "by those whom it displeaseth, is called
_Pride_; by those whom it pleaseth, it is termed _a just valuation of
himself_."[371] Had Hobbes defined, as critically, the passion of
_self-love_, without resolving all our sympathies into a single
monstrous one, we might have been disciplined without being degraded.
Hobbes, indeed, had a full feeling of the magnitude of his labours,
both for foreigners and posterity, as he has expressed it in his life.
He disperses, in all his works, some Montaigne-like notices of
himself, and they are eulogistic. He has not omitted any one of his
virtues, nor even an apology for his deficiency in others. He notices
with complacency how Charles II. had his portrait placed in the royal
cabinet; how it was frequently asked for by his friends, in England
and in France.[372] He has written his life several times, in verse
and in prose; and never fails to throw into the eyes of his
adversaries the reputation he gained abroad and at home.[373] He
delighted to show he was living, by annual publications; and
exultingly exclaims, "That when he had silenced his adversaries, he
published, in the eighty-seventh year of his life, the Odyssey of
Homer, and the next year the Iliad, in English verse."
His greatest imperfection was a monstrous egotism--the fate of those
who concentrate all their observations in their own individual
feelings. There are minds which may think too much, by conversing too
little with books and men. Hobbes exulted he had read little; he had
not more than half-a-dozen books about him; hence he always saw things
in his own way, and doubtless this was the cause of his mania for
disputation.
He wrote against dogmas with a spirit perfectly dogmatic. He liked
conversation on the terms of his own political system, provided
absolute authority was established, peevishly referring to his own
works whenever contradicted; and his friends stipulated with
strangers, that "they should not dispute with the old man." But what
are we to think of that pertinacity of opinion which he held even with
one as great as himself? Selden has often quitted the room, or Hobbes
been driven from it, in the fierceness of their battle.[374] Even to
his latest day, the "war of words" delighted the man of confined
reading. The literary duels between Hobbes and another hero celebrated
in logomachy, the Catholic priest, Thomas White, have been recorded by
Wood. They had both passed their eightieth year, and were fond of
paying visits to one another: but the two literary Nestors never met
to part in cool blood, "wrangling, squabbling, and scolding on
philosophical matters," as our blunt and lively historian has
described.[375]
His little qualities were the errors of his own selfish philosophy;
his great ones were those of nature. He was a votary to his
studies:[376] he avoided marriage, to which he was inclined; and
refused place and wealth, which he might have enjoyed, for literary
leisure. He treated with philosophic pleasantry his real contempt of
money.[377] His health and his studies were the sole objects of his
thoughts; and notwithstanding that panic which so often disturbed
them, he wrote and published beyond his ninetieth year. He closes the
metrical history of his life with more dignity than he did his life
itself; for his mind seems always to have been greater than his
actions. He appeals to his friends for the congruity of his life with
his writings; for his devotion to justice; and for a generous work,
which no miser could have planned; and closes thus:--
And now complete my four-and-eighty years,
Life's lengthen'd plot is o'er, and the last scene appears.[378]
Of the works of Hobbes we must not conclude, as Hume tells us, that
"they have fallen into neglect;" nor, in the style with which they
were condemned at Oxford, that "they are pernicious and damnable." The
sanguine opinion of the author himself was, that the mighty
"Leviathan" will stand for all ages, defended by its own strength; for
the rule of justice, the reproof of the ambitious, the citadel of the
Sovereign, and the peace of the people.[379] But the smaller
treatises of Hobbes are not less precious. Locke is the pupil of
Hobbes, and it may often be doubtful whether the scholar has rivalled
the nervous simplicity and the energetic originality of his master.
The genius of Hobbes was of the first order; his works abound with the
most impressive truths, in all the simplicity of thought and language,
yet he never elevates nor delights. Too faithful an observer of the
miserable human nature before him, he submits to expedients; he acts
on the defensive; and because he is in terror, he would consider
security to be the happiness of man. In _Religion_ he would stand by
an established one; yet thus he deprives man of that moral freedom
which God himself has surely allowed us. Locke has the glory of having
first given distinct notions of the nature of toleration. In
_Politics_ his great principle is the establishment of _Authority_,
or, as he terms it, an "entireness of sovereign power:" here he seems
to have built his arguments with such eternal truths and with such a
contriving wisdom as to adapt his system to all the changes of
government. Hobbes found it necessary in his day to place this
despotism in the hands of his colossal monarch; and were Hobbes now
living, he would not relinquish the principle, though perhaps he might
vary the application; for if Authority, strong as man can create it,
is not suffered to exist in our free constitution, what will become of
our freedom? Hobbes would now maintain his system by depositing his
"entireness of sovereign power" in the Laws of his Country. So easily
shifted is the vast political machine of the much abused "Leviathan!"
The _Citizen_ of Hobbes, like the _Prince_ of Machiavel, is alike
innocent, when the end of their authors is once detected, amid those
ambiguous means by which the hard necessity of their times constrained
their mighty genius to disguise itself.
It is, however, remarkable of _Systems of Opinions_, that the
founder's celebrity has usually outlived his sect's. Why are systems,
when once brought into practice, so often discovered to be fallacies?
It seems to me the natural progress of system-making. A genius of
this order of invention long busied with profound observations and
perpetual truths, would appropriate to himself this assemblage of his
ideas, by stamping his individual mark on them; for this purpose he
strikes out some mighty paradox, which gives an apparent connexion to
them all: and to this paradox he forces all parts into subserviency.
It is a minion of the fancy, which his secret pride supports, not
always by the most scrupulous means. Hence the system itself, with all
its novelty and singularity, turns out to be nothing more than an
ingenious deception carried on for the glory of the inventor; and when
his followers perceive they were the dupes of his ingenuity, they are
apt, in quitting the system, to give up all; not aware that the parts
are as true as the whole together is false; the sagacity of Genius
collected the one, but its vanity formed the other!
FOOTNOTES:
[348] Shaftesbury has thrown out, on this head, some important
truths:--"If men are forbid to speak their minds _seriously_,
they will do it _ironically_. If they find it dangerous to
do so, they will then redouble their disguise, _invoke
themselves into mysteriousness_, and talk so as hardly to be
understood. The _persecuting_ spirit has raised the
_bantering_ one. The higher the slavery, the more exquisite
the buffoonery."--Vol. i. p. 71. The subject of our present
inquiry is a very remarkable instance of "involving himself
into mysteriousness." To this cause we owe the strong raillery
of Marvell; the cloudy "Oracles of Reason" of Blount; and
the formidable, though gross burlesque, of Hickeringill, the
rector of All-Saints, in Colchester. "Of him (says the
editor of his collected works, 1716), the greatest writers of
our times trembled at his pen; and as great a genius as
Sir Roger L'Estrange's was, it submitted to his _superior
way of reasoning_"--that is, to a most extraordinary
burlesque spirit in politics and religion. But even he who
made others tremble felt the terrors he inflicted; for he
complains that "some who have thought his pen too sharp and
smart, those who have been galled, sore men where the skin's
off, have long lain to catch for somewhat to accuse me--upon
such touchy subjects, a man had need have the _dexterity to
split a hair_, to handle them pertinently, usefully, and
yet _safely_ and _warily_."--Such men, however, cannot
avoid their fate: they will be persecuted, however they
succeed in "splitting a hair;" and it is then they have
recourse to the most absurd _subterfuges_, to which our
Hobbes was compelled. Thus also it happened to Woolston, who
wrote in a ludicrous way "Blasphemies" against the miracles of
Christ; calling them "tales and rodomontados." He rested his
defence on this subterfuge, that "it was meant to place the
Christian religion on a better footing," &c. But the Court
answered, that "if the author of a treasonable libel should
write at the conclusion, _God save the king!_ it would not
excuse him."
[349] The moral axiom of Solon "KNOW THYSELF" (_Nosce teipsum_),
applied by the ancient sage as a corrective for our own pride
and vanity, Hobbes contracts into a narrow principle, when, in
his introduction to "The Leviathan," he would infer that, by
this self-inspection, we are enabled to determine on the
thoughts and passions of other men; and thus he would make the
taste, the feelings, the experience of the individual decide
for all mankind. This simple error has produced all the dogmas
of cynicism; for the cynic is one whose insulated feelings,
being all of the selfish kind, can imagine no other stirrer of
even our best affections, and strains even our loftiest
virtues into pitiful motives. Two noble authors, men of the
most dignified feelings, have protested against this
principle. Lord Shaftesbury keenly touches the characters of
Hobbes and Rochester:--"Sudden courage, says our modern
philosopher (Hobbes), is anger. If so, courage, considered as
constant, and belonging to a character, must, in his account,
be defined constant anger, or anger constantly recurring. All
men, says a witty poet (Rochester), would be cowards, if they
durst: that the poet and the philosopher both were cowards,
may be yielded, perhaps, without dispute! they may have spoken
the best of their knowledge."--SHAFTESBURY, vol. i. p. 119.
With an heroic spirit, that virtuous statesman, Lord
Clarendon, rejects the degrading notion of Hobbes. When _he_
looked into his own breast, he found that courage was a real
virtue, which had induced him, had it been necessary, to have
shed his blood as a patriot. But death, in the judgment of
Hobbes, was the most terrible event, and to be avoided by any
means. Lord Clarendon draws a parallel between a "man of
courage" and one of the disciples of Hobbes, "brought to die
together, by a judgment they cannot avoid." "How comes it to
pass, that one of these undergoes death, with no other
concernment than as if he were going any other journey; and
the other with such confusion and trembling, that he is even
without life before he dies; if it were true that all men fear
alike upon the like occasion?"--_Survey of the Leviathan_, p.
14.
[350] They were distinguished as _Hobbists_, and the opinions as
_Hobbianism_. Their chief happened to be born on a Good
Friday; and in the metrical history of his own life he seems
to have considered it as a remarkable event. An atom had its
weight in the scales by which his mighty egotism weighed
itself. He thus marks the day of his birth, innocently
enough:--
"Natus erat noster Servator Homo-Deus annos
Mille et quingentos, octo quoque undecies."
But the _Hobbists_ declared more openly (as Wood tells us),
that "as our Saviour Christ went out of the world on that day
to save the men of the world, so another saviour came into the
world on that day to save them!"
That the sect spread abroad, as well as at home, is told us
by Lord Clarendon, in the preface to his "Survey of the
Leviathan." The qualities of the author, as well as the
book, were well adapted for proselytism; for Clarendon,
who was intimately acquainted with him, notices his
confidence in conversation--his never allowing himself to
be contradicted--his bold inferences--the novelty of his
expressions--and his probity, and a life free from scandal.
"The humour and inclination of the time to all kind of
paradoxes," was indulged by a pleasant clear style, an
appearance of order and method, hardy paradoxes, and
accommodating principles to existing circumstances.
Who were the sect composed of? The monstrous court of Charles
II.--the grossest materialists! The secret history of that
court could scarcely find a Suetonius among us. But our author
was frequently in the hands of those who could never have
comprehended what they pretended to admire; this appears by a
publication of the times, intituled, "Twelve Ingenious
Characters, &c." 1686, where, in that of a town-fop, who, "for
genteel breeding, posts to town, by his mother's indulgence,
three or four wild companions, half-a-dozen bottles of
Burgundy, _two leaves of Leviathan_," and some few other
obvious matters, shortly make this young philosopher nearly
lose his moral and physical existence. "He will not confess
himself an Atheist, yet he boasts aloud that he holds his
_gospel_ from _the Apostle of Malmesbury_, though it is more
than probable he never read, at least understood, ten leaves
of _that unlucky author_." If such were his wretched
disciples, Hobbes was indeed "an unlucky author," for their
morals and habits were quite opposite to those of their
master. EACHARD, in the preface to his Second Dialogue, 1673,
exhibits a very Lucianic arrangement of his disciples--Hobbes'
"Pit, Box, and Gallery Friends." The _Pit-friends_ were sturdy
practicants who, when they hear that "Ill-nature, Debauchery,
and Irreligion were Mathematics and Demonstration, clap and
shout, and swear by all that comes from Malmesbury." The
_Gallery_ are "a sort of small, soft, little, pretty, fine
gentlemen, who having some little wit, some little modesty,
some little remain of conscience and country religion, could
not hector it as the former, but quickly learnt to chirp and
giggle when t'other clapt and shouted." But "the Don-admirers,
and _Box-friends_ of Mr. Hobbes are men of gravity and
reputation, who will scarce simper in favour of the
philosopher, but can make shift to nod and nod again." Even
amid this wild satire we find a piece of truth in a dark
corner; for the satirist confesses that "his Gallery-friends,
who were such resolved practicants in _Hobbianism_ (by which
the satirist means all kinds of licentiousness) would most
certainly have been so, had there never been any such man as
Mr. Hobbes in the world." Why then place to the account of the
philosopher those gross immoralities which he never
sanctioned? The life of Hobbes is without a stain! He had
other friends besides these "Box, Pit, and Gallery"
gentry--the learned of Europe, and many of the great and good
men of his own country.
[351] Hobbes, in defending Thucydides, whom he has so admirably
translated, from the charge of some obscurity in his design,
observes that "Marcellinus saith he was obscure, on purpose
that the common people might not understand him; and not
unlikely, for a wise man should so write (though in words
understood by all men), that wise men only should be able to
commend him." Thus early in life Hobbes had determined on a
principle which produced all his studied ambiguity, involved
him in so much controversy, and, in some respects, preserved
him in an inglorious security.
[352] Hobbes explains the image in his Introduction. He does not
disguise his opinion that _Men_ may be converted into
_Automatons_; and if he were not very ingenious we might lose
our patience. He was so delighted with this whimsical fancy of
his "artificial man," that he carried it on to government
itself, and employed the engraver to impress the monstrous
personification on our minds, even clearer than by his
reasonings. The curious design forms the frontispiece of "The
Leviathan." He borrowed the name from that sea-monster, that
mightiest of powers, which Job has told is not to be compared
with any on earth. The sea-monster is here, however, changed
into a colossal man, entirely made up of little men from all
the classes of society, bearing in the right hand the sword,
and in the left the crosier. The compartments are full of
political allegories. An expression of Lord Clarendon's in the
preface to his "Survey of the Leviathan," shows our
philosopher's infatuation to this "idol of the Den," as Lord
Bacon might have called the intellectual illusion of the
philosopher. Hobbes, when at Paris, showed a proof-sheet or
two of his work to Clarendon, who, he soon discovered, could
not approve of the hardy tenets. "He frequently came to me,"
says his lordship, "and told me his book (_which he would call
LEVIATHAN_) was then printing in England. He said, that he
knew when I read his book I would not like it, and mentioned
some of his conclusions: upon which I asked him, why he would
publish such doctrine: to which, after a discourse, _between
jest and earnest_, he said, _The truth is, I have a mind to go
home!_" Some philosophical systems have, probably, been raised
"between jest and earnest;" yet here was a text-book for the
despot, as it is usually accepted, deliberately given to the
world, for no other purpose than that the philosopher was
desirous of changing his lodgings at Paris for his old
apartments in London!
[353] The duplicity of the system is strikingly revealed by Burnet,
who tells of Hobbes, that "he put all the law in the will of
the _prince_ or the _people_; for he writ his book _at first_
in favour of _absolute monarchy_, but turned it afterwards to
gratify the _republican party_. These were his true
principles, though he had disguised them for deceiving unwary
readers." It is certain Hobbes became a suspected person among
the royalists. They were startled at the open extravagance of
some of his political paradoxes; such as his notion of the
necessity of extirpating all the _Greek_ and _Latin_ authors,
"by reading of which men from their childhood have gotten a
habit of licentious controuling the actions of their
sovereigns."--p. 111. But the doctrines of liberty were not
found only among the Greeks and Romans; the _Hebrews_ were
stern republicans; and liberty seems to have had a nobler
birth in the North among our German ancestors, than perhaps in
any other part of the globe. It is certain that the Puritans,
who warmed over the Bible more than the classic historians,
had their heads full of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea;
the hanging of the five kings of Joshua; and the fat king of
the Moabites, who in his summer-room received a present, and
then a dagger, from the left-handed Jewish Jacobin. Hobbes
curiously compares "The _tyrannophobia_, or fear of being
strongly governed," to the _hydrophobia_. "When a monarchy is
once bitten to the quick by those democratical writers, and,
by their poison, men seem to be converted into dogs," his
remedy is, "a strong monarch," or "the exercise of entire
sovereignty," p. 171; and that the authority he would
establish should be immutable, he hardily asserts that "the
ruling power cannot be punished for mal-administration." Yet
in this elaborate system of despotism are interspersed some
strong republican axioms, as The safety of the people is the
supreme law,--The public good to be preferred to that of the
individual:--and that God made the one for the many, and not
the many for the one. The effect the LEVIATHAN produced on the
royal party was quite unexpected by the author. His hardy
principles were considered as a satire on arbitrary power, and
Hobbes himself as a concealed favourer of democracy. This has
happened more than once with such vehement advocates. Our
philosopher must have been thunderstruck at the insinuation,
for he had presented the royal exile, as Clarendon in his
"Survey" informs us, with a magnificent copy of "The
Leviathan," written on vellum; this beautiful specimen of
calligraphy may still be seen, as we learn from the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for January, 1813, where the curiosity
is fully described. The suspicion of Hobbes's principles was
so strong, that it produced his sudden dismissal from the
presence of Charles II. when at Paris. The king, indeed, said
he believed Hobbes intended him no hurt; and Hobbes said of
the king, "that his majesty understood his writings better
than his accusers." However, happy was Hobbes to escape from
France, where the officers were in pursuit of him, amid snowy
roads and nipping blasts. The lines in his metrical life open
a dismal winter scene for an old man on a stumbling horse:--
"Frigus erat, nix alta, senex ego, ventus acerbus,
Vexat equus sternax, et salebrosa via--"
A curious spectacle! to observe, under a despotic government,
its vehement advocate in flight!
The ambiguity of "The Leviathan" seemed still more striking,
when Hobbes came, at length, to place the right of government
merely in what he terms "the Seat of Power,"--a wonderful
principle of expediency; for this was equally commodious to
the republicans and to the royalists. By this principle, the
republicans maintained the right of Cromwell, since his
authority was established, while it absolved the royalists
from their burdensome allegiance; for, according to "The
Leviathan," Charles was the English monarch only when in a
condition to force obedience; and, to calm tender consciences,
the philosopher further fixed on that precise point of time,
"when a subject may obey an unjust conqueror." After the
Restoration, it was subtilely urged by the Hobbists, that this
very principle had greatly served the royal cause; for it
afforded a plea for the emigrants to return, by compounding
for their estates, and joining with those royalists who had
remained at home in an open submission to the established
government; and thus they were enabled to concert their
measures in common, for reinstating the old monarchy. Had the
Restoration never taken place, Hobbes would have equally
insisted on the soundness of his doctrine; he would have
asserted the title of Richard Cromwell to the Protectorate, if
Richard had had the means to support it, as zealously as he
afterwards did that of Charles II. to the throne, when the
king had firmly re-established it. The philosophy of Hobbes,
therefore, is not dangerous in any government; its sole aim is
to preserve it from intestine divisions; but for this purpose,
he was for reducing men to mere machines. With such little
respect he treated the species, and with such tenderness the
individual!
I will give Hobbes's own justification, after the Restoration
of Charles II., when accused by the great mathematician,
Dr. Wallis, a republican under Cromwell, of having written
his work in defence of Oliver's government. Hobbes does not
deny that "he placed the right of government wheresoever
should be the strength." Most subtilely he argues, how this
very principle "was designed in behalf of the faithful
subjects of the king," after they had done their utmost to
defend his rights and person. The government of Cromwell
being established, these found themselves without the
protection of a government of their own, and therefore
might lawfully promise obedience to their victor for the
saving of their lives and fortunes; and more, they ought even
to protect that authority in war by which they were
themselves protected in peace. But this plea, which he so ably
urged in favour of the royalists, will not, however,
justify those who, like Wallis, voluntarily submitted to
Cromwell, because they were always the enemies of the king;
so that this submission to Oliver is allowed only to the
royalists--a most admirable political paradox! The whole of
the argument is managed with infinite dexterity, and is thus
unexpectedly turned against his accusers themselves. The
principle of "self-preservation" is carried on through the
entire system of Hobbes.--_Considerations upon the Reputation,
Loyalty, &c., of Mr. Hobbes._
[354] The passage in Hobbes to which I allude is in "The Leviathan,"
c. 32. He there says, sarcastically, "It is with the
_mysteries of religion_ as with wholesome pills for the sick,
which, swallowed whole, have the virtue to cure; but, chewed,
are for the most part cast up again without effect." Hobbes is
often a wit: he was much pleased with this thought, for he had
it in his _De Cive_; which, in the English translation, bears
the title of "Philosophical Rudiments Concerning Government
and Society," 1651. There he calls "the wholesome pills,"
"bitter." He translated the _De Cive_ himself; a circumstance
which was not known till the recent appearance of Aubrey's
papers.
[355] Warburton has most acutely distinguished between the intention
of Hobbes and that of some of his successors. The bishop does
not consider Hobbes as an enemy to religion, not even to the
Christian; and even doubts whether he has attacked it in "The
Leviathan." At all events, he has "taken direct contrary
measures from those of Bayle, Collins, Tindal, Bolingbroke,
and all that school. They maliciously endeavoured to show the
Gospel was _unreasonable_; Hobbes, as reasonable as his
admirable wit could represent it: they contended for the most
unbounded _toleration_, Hobbes for the most rigorous
_conformity_." See the "Alliance between Church and State,"
book i. c. v. It is curious to observe the noble disciple of
Hobbes, Lord Bolingbroke, a strenuous advocate for his
political and moral opinions, enraged at what he calls his
"High Church notions." Trenchard and Gordon, in their
_Independent Whig_, No. 44, that libel on the clergy, accuse
them of _Atheism_ and _Hobbism_; while some divines as
earnestly reject Hobbes as an Atheist! Our temperate sage,
though angried at that spirit of contradiction which he had
raised, must, however, have sometimes smiled both on his
advocates and his adversaries!
[356] The odious term of _Atheist_ has been too often applied to many
great men of our nation by the hardy malignity of party. Were
I to present a catalogue, the very names would refute the
charge. Let us examine the religious sentiments of Hobbes. The
materials for its investigation are not common, but it will
prove a dissertation of facts. I warn some of my readers to
escape from the tediousness, if they cannot value the
curiosity.
Hobbes has himself thrown out an observation in his "Life of
Thucydides" respecting Anaxagoras, that "his opinions, being
of a strain above the apprehension of the vulgar, procured him
the estimation of an _Atheist_, which name they bestowed upon
all men that thought not as they did of their ridiculous
religion, and in the end cost him his life." This was a
parallel case with Hobbes himself, except its close, which,
however, seems always to have been in the mind of our
philosopher.
Bayle, who is for throwing all things into doubt, acknowledging
that the life of Hobbes was blameless, adds, One might,
however, have been tempted to ask him this question:
Heus age responde; minimum est quod scire laboro;
_De Jove quid sentis?_--PERSIUS, Sat. ii. v. 17.
Hark, now! resolve this one short question, friend!
_What are thy thoughts of Jove?_
But Bayle, who compared himself to the Jupiter of Homer,
powerful in gathering and then dispersing the clouds,
dissipates the one he had just raised, by showing how "Hobbes
might have answered the question with sincerity and belief,
_according to the writers of his life_."--But had Bayle known
that Hobbes was the author of all the lives of himself, so
partial an evidence might have raised another doubt with the
great sceptic. It appears, by Aubrey's papers, that Hobbes did
not wish his biography should appear when he was living, that
he might not seem the author of it.
Baxter, who knew Hobbes intimately, ranks him with Spinosa, by
a strong epithet for materialists--"The _Brutists_, Hobbes,
and Spinosa." He tells us that Selden would not have him in
his chamber while dying, calling out, "No Atheists!" But by
Aubrey's papers it appears that Hobbes stood by the side of
his dying friend. It is certain his enemies raised stories
against him, and told them as suited their purpose. In the
Lansdowne MSS. I find Dr. Grenville, in a letter, relates how
"Hobbes, when in France, and like to die, betrayed such
expressions of repentance to a great prelate, from whose mouth
I had this relation, that he admitted him to the sacrament.
But Hobbes afterwards made this a subject of ridicule in
companies."--_Lansdowne MSS._ 990--73.
Here is a strong accusation, and a fact too; yet, when fully
developed, the result will turn out greatly in favour of
Hobbes.
Hobbes had a severe illness at Paris, which lasted six months,
thus noticed in his metrical life:
Dein per sex menses morbo decumbo propinque
Accinctus morti; nec fugio, illa fugit.
It happened that the famous Guy Patin was his physician; and
in one of these amusing letters, where he puts down the events
of the day, like a newspaper of the times, in No. 61, has
given an account of his intercourse with the philosopher, in
which he says that Hobbes endured such pain, that he would
have destroyed himself--"_Qu'il avoit voulu se tuer._"--Patin
is a vivacious writer: we are not to take him _au pied de la
lettre_. Hobbes was systematically tenacious of life: and, so
far from attempting suicide, that he wanted even the courage
to allow Patin to bleed him! It was during this illness that
the Catholic party, who like to attack a Protestant in a state
of unresisting debility, got his learned and intimate friend,
Father Mersenne, to hold out all the benefits a philosopher
might derive from their Church. When Hobbes was acquainted
with this proposed interview (says a French contemporary,
whose work exists in MS., but is quoted in Joly's folio volume
of Remarks on Bayle), the sick man answered, "Don't let him
come for this; I shall laugh at him; and perhaps I may convert
him myself." Father Mersenne did come; and when this
missionary was opening on the powers of Rome to grant a
plenary pardon, he was interrupted by Hobbes--"Father, I have
examined, a long time ago, all these points; I should be sorry
to dispute now; you can entertain me in a more agreeable
manner. When did you see Mr. Gassendi?" The monk, who was a
philosopher, perfectly understood Hobbes, and this interview
never interrupted their friendship. A few days after, Dr.
Cosin (afterwards Bishop of Durham), the great prelate whom
Dr. Grenville alludes to, prayed with Hobbes, who first
_stipulated_ that the prayers should be those authorised by
the _Church of England_; and he also received the sacrament
with reverence. Hobbes says:--"Magnum hoc erga disciplinam
Episcopalem signum erat reverentiæ."--It is evident that the
conversion of Father Mersenne, to which Hobbes facetiously
alluded, could never be to Atheism, but to Protestantism: and
had Hobbes been an Atheist, he would not have risked his
safety, when he arrived in England, by his strict attendance
to the _Church of England_, resolutely refusing to unite with
any of the sects. His views of the national religion were not
only enlightened, but in this respect he showed a boldness in
his actions very unusual with him.
But the religion of Hobbes was "of a strain beyond the
apprehension of the vulgar," and not very agreeable to some of
the Church. A man may have peculiar notions respecting the
Deity, and yet be far removed from Atheism; and in his
political system the Church may hold that subordinate place
which some Bishops will not like. When Dr. Grenville tells us
"Hobbes ridiculed in companies" certain matters which the
Doctor held sacred, this is not sufficient to accuse a man of
Atheism, though it may prove him not to have held orthodox
opinions. From the MS. collections of the French contemporary,
who well knew Hobbes at Paris, I transcribe a remarkable
observation:--"Hobbes said, that he was not surprised that the
Independents, who were enemies of monarchy, could not bear it
in heaven, and that therefore they placed there three Gods
instead of one; but he was astonished that the English
bishops, and those Presbyterians who were favourers of
monarchy, should persist in the same opinion concerning the
Trinity. He added, that the Episcopalians ridiculed the
Puritans, and the Puritans the Episcopalians; but that the
wise ridiculed both alike."--_Lantiniana MS._ quoted by Joly,
p. 434.
The _religion_ of Hobbes was in _conformity_ to _State and
Church_. He had, however, the most awful notions of the
Divinity. He confesses he is unacquainted with "the nature of
God, but not with the _necessity_ of the existence of the
Power of all powers, and First Cause of all causes; so that we
know that God is, though not what he is." See his "Human
Nature," chap. xi. But was the God of Hobbes the inactive
deity of Epicurus, who takes no interest in the happiness or
misery of his created beings; or, as Madame de Staël has
expressed it, with the point and felicity of French
antithesis, was this "an Atheism with a God?" This consequence
some of his adversaries would draw from his principles, which
Hobbes indignantly denies. He has done more; for in his _De
Corpore Politico_, he declares his belief of all the
fundamental points of Christianity, part i. c. 4, p. 116. Ed.
1652. But he was an open enemy to those "who presume, out of
Scripture, by their own interpretation, to raise any _doctrine
to the understanding_, concerning those things which are
incomprehensible;" and he refers to St. Paul, who gives a good
rule "_to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every
man_ the measure of faith."--Rom. xii. 3.
[357] This he pictures in a strange engraving prefixed to his book,
and representing a crowned figure, whose description will be
found in the note, p. 440. It is remarkable that when Hobbes
adopted the principle that the _ecclesiastical_ should be
united with the _sovereign_ power, he was then actually
producing that portentous change which had terrified Luther
and Calvin; who, even in their day, were alarmed by a new kind
of political Antichrist; that "Cæsarean Popery" which Stubbe
so much dreaded, and which I have here noticed, p. 358.
Luther predicted that as the pope had at times seized on the
political sword, so this "Cæsarean Popery," under the pretence
of policy, would grasp the ecclesiastical crosier, to form a
_political church_. The curious reader is referred to Wolfius
_Lectionum Memorabilium et reconditarum_, vol. ii. cent. x. p.
987. Calvin, in his commentary on Amos, has also a remarkable
passage on this _political church_, animadverting on Amaziah,
the priest, who would have proved the Bethel worship
warrantable, because settled by the royal authority: "It is
the king's chapel." Amos, vii. 13. Thus Amaziah, adds Calvin,
assigns the king a double function, and maintains it is in his
power to transform religion into what shape he pleases, while
he charges Amos with disturbing the public repose, and
encroaching on the royal prerogative. Calvin zealously
reprobates the conduct of those inconsiderate persons, "who
give the civil magistrate a sovereignty in religion, and
dissolve the Church into the State." The supremacy in Church
and State, conferred on Henry VIII., was the real cause of
these alarms; but the passage of domination raged not less
fiercely in Calvin than in Henry VIII.; in the enemy of kings
than in kings themselves. Were the _forms_ of religion more
celestial from the sanguinary hands of that tyrannical
reformer than from those of the reforming tyrant? The system
of our philosopher was, to lay all the wild spirits which have
haunted us in the chimerical shapes of _nonconformity_. I have
often thought, after much observation on our Church history
since the Reformation, that _the devotional feelings_ have not
been so much concerned in this bitter opposition to the
National Church as the rage of dominion, the spirit of vanity,
the sullen pride of sectarism, and the delusions of madness.
[358] Hobbes himself tells us that "some bishops are content to hold
their authority from _the king's letters patents_; others will
needs have somewhat more they know not what of _divine
rights_, &c., _not acknowledging the power of the king_. It is
a relic still remaining of the venom of popish ambition,
lurking in that _seditious distinction and division_ between
the power _spiritual_ and _civil_. The safety of the State
does not depend on the safety of the clergy, but on the
_entireness of the sovereign power_."--_Considerations upon
the Reputation, &c., of Mr. Hobbes_, p. 44.
[359] This royal observation is recorded in the "Sorberiana." Sorbiere
gleaned the anecdote during his residence in England. By the
"Aubrey Papers," which have been published since I composed
this article, I find that Charles II. was greatly delighted by
the wit and repartees of Hobbes, who was at once bold and
happy in making his stand amidst the court wits. The king,
whenever he saw Hobbes, who had the privilege of being
admitted into the royal presence, would exclaim, "Here comes
the bear to be baited." This did not allude to his native
roughness, but the force of his resistance when attacked.
[360] See "Mr. Hobbes's State of Nature considered, in a Dialogue
between Philautus and Timothy." The second dialogue is not
contained in the eleventh edition of Eachard's Works, 1705,
which, however, was long after his death, so careless were the
publishers of those days of their authors' works. The literary
bookseller, Tom Davies, who ruined himself by giving good
editions of our old authors, has preserved it in his own.
[361] "A Discourse Concerning Irony," 1729, p. 13.
[362] Men of very opposite principles, but aiming at the same purpose,
are reduced to a dilemma, by the spirit of party in
controversy. Sir Robert Filmer, who wrote against "The
Anarchy of a Limited Monarchy," and "Patriarcha," to
re-establish _absolute power_, derived it from the scriptural
accounts of the patriarchal state. But Sir Robert and Hobbes,
though alike the advocates for supremacy of power, were as
opposite as possible on theological points. Filmer had the
same work to perform, but he did not like the instruments of
his fellow-labourer. His manner of proceeding with Hobbes
shows his dilemma: he refutes the doctrine of the "Leviathan,"
while he confesses that Hobbes is right in the main. The
philosopher's reasonings stand on quite another foundation
than the scriptural authorities deduced by Filmer. The result
therefore is, that Sir Robert had the trouble to confute the
very thing he afterwards had to establish!
[363] It may be curious to some of my readers to preserve that part of
Hobbes's Letter to Anthony Wood, in the rare tract of his
"Latin Life," in which, with great calmness, the philosopher
has painfully collated the odious interpolations. All that was
written in favour of the morals of Hobbes--of the esteem in
which foreigners held him--of the royal patronage, &c., were
maliciously erased. Hobbes thus notices the amendments of
Bishop Fell:--
"Nimirum ubi mihi tu ingenium attribuis _Sobrium_, ille,
deleto _Sobrio_, substituit _Acri_.
"Ubi tu scripseras _Libellum scripsit de Cive_,
interposuit ille inter _Libellum_ et _de Cive, rebus
permiscendis natum_, de _Cive_, quod ita manifestè falsum
est, &c.
"Quod, ubi tu de libro meo _Leviathan_ scripsisti, primò,
quod esset, _Vicinis gentibus notissimus_ interposuit
ille, _publico damno_. Ubi tu scripseras, _scripsit
librum_, interposuit ille _monstrosissimum_."
A noble confidence in his own genius and celebrity breaks out
in this Epistle to Wood. "In leaving out all that you have
said of my character and reputation, the dean has injured you,
but cannot injure me; for long since has my fame winged its
way to a station from which it can never descend." One is
surprised to find such a Miltonic spirit in the contracted
soul of Hobbes, who in his own system might have cynically
ridiculed the passion for fame, which, however, no man felt
more than himself. In his controversy with Bishop Bramhall
(whose book he was cautious not to answer till ten years after
it was published, and his adversary was no more, pretending he
had never heard of it till then!) he breaks out with the same
feeling:--"What my works are, he was no fit judge; but now he
has provoked me, I will say thus much of them, that neither
he, if he had lived, could--nor I, if I would, can--extinguish
the light which is set up in the world by the greatest part of
them."
It is curious to observe that an idea occurred to Hobbes,
which some authors have attempted lately to put into practice
against their critics--to prosecute them in a court of law;
but the knowledge of mankind was one of the liveliest
faculties of Hobbes's mind; he knew well to what account
common minds place the injured feelings of authorship; yet
were _a jury of literary men_ to sit in judgment, we might
have a good deal of business in the court for a long time; the
critics and the authors would finally have a very useful body
of reports and pleadings to appeal to; and the public would be
highly entertained and greatly instructed. On this attack of
Bishop Fell, Hobbes says--"I might perhaps have an action on
the case against him, if it were worth my while; but juries
seldom consider the Quarrels of Authors as of much moment."
[364] Bayle has conjured up an amusing theory of apparitions, to show
that Hobbes might fear that a certain combination of atoms
agitating his brain might so disorder his mind that it would
expose him to spectral visions; and being very timorous, and
distrusting his imagination, he was averse to be left alone.
Apparitions happen frequently in dreams, and they may happen,
even to an incredulous man, when awake, for reading and
hearing of them would revive their images--these images, adds
Bayle, might play him some unlucky trick! We are here
astonished at the ingenuity of a disciple of Pyrrho, who in
his inquiries, after having exhausted all human evidence,
seems to have demonstrated what he hesitates to believe!
Perhaps the truth was, that the sceptical Bayle had not
entirely freed himself from the traditions which were then
still floating from the fireside to the philosopher's closet:
he points his pen, as Æneas brandished his sword at the
Gorgons and Chimeras that darkened the entrance of Hell;
wanting the admonitions of the sibyl, he would have rushed
in--
_Et frustra ferro diverberet umbras._
[365] The papers of Aubrey confirm my suggestion. I shall give the
words--"There was a report, and surely true, that in
parliament, not long after the king was settled, some of the
bishops made a motion to have the good old gentleman burned
for a heretique; which he hearing, feared that his papers
might be searched by their order, and he told me he had burned
part of them."--p. 612. When Aubrey requested Waller to write
verses on Hobbes, the poet said that he was afraid of the
Churchmen. Aubrey tells us--"I have often heard him say that
he was not afraid of _Sprights_, but afraid of being knocked
on the head for five or ten pounds which rogues might think he
had in his chamber." This reason given by Hobbes for his
frequent alarms was an evasive reply for too curious and
talkative an inquirer. Hobbes has not concealed the cause of
his terror in his metrical life--
"Tunc venit in mentem mihi Dorislaus et Ascham,
Tanquam proscripto terror ubique aderat."
Dr. Dorislaus and Ascham had fallen under the daggers of
proscription. [The former was assassinated in Holland, whither
he had fled for safety.]
[366] It is said that Hobbes completely recanted all his opinions; and
proceeded so far as to declare that the opinions he had
published in his "Leviathan," were not his real sentiments,
and that he neither maintained them in public nor in private.
Wood gives this title to a work of his--"An Apology for
Himself and his Writings," but without date. Some have
suspected that this Apology, if it ever existed, was not his
own composition. Yet why not? Hobbes, no doubt, thought that
"The Leviathan" would outlast any recantation; and, after all,
that a recantation is by no means a refutation!--recantations
usually prove the force of authority, rather than the force of
conviction. I am much pleased with a Dr. Pocklington, who hit
the etymology of the word _recantation_ with the spirit.
Accused and censured, for a penance he was to make a
recantation, which he began thus:--"If _canto_ be to sing,
_recanto_ is to sing again:" so that he _re-chanted_ his
offensive principles by his _recantation_!
I suspect that the apology Wood alludes to was only a
republication of Hobbes's Address to the King, prefixed to the
"Seven Philosophical Problems," 1662, where he openly disavows
his opinions, and makes an apology for the "Leviathan." It is
curious enough to observe how he acts in this dilemma. It was
necessary to give up his opinions to the clergy, but still to
prove they were of an innocent nature. He therefore
acknowledges that "his theological notions are not his
opinions, but propounded with submission to the power
ecclesiastical, never afterwards having maintained them in
writing or discourse." Yet, to show the king that the regal
power incurred no great risk in them, he laid down one
principle, which could not have been unpleasing to Charles II.
He asserts, truly, that he never wrote against episcopacy;
"yet he is called an Atheist, or man of no religion, because
he has made the authority of the Church depend wholly upon the
regal power, which, I hope, your majesty will think is neither
Atheism nor Heresy." Hobbes considered the _religion_ of his
country as a subject of _law_, and not _philosophy_. He was
not for _separating_ the Church from the State; but, on the
contrary, for _joining them_ more closely. The bishops ought
not to have been his enemies; and many were not.
[367] In the MS. collection of the French contemporary, who personally
knew him, we find a remarkable confession of Hobbes. He said
of himself that "he sometimes made openings to let in light,
but that he could not discover his thoughts but by half-views:
like those who throw open the window for a short time, but
soon closing it, from the dread of the storm." _"Il disoit
qu'il faisoit quelquefois des ouvertures, mais qu'il ne
pouvoit découvrir ses pensées qu'à-demi; qu'il imitoit ceux
qui ouvrent la fenêtre pendant quelques momens, mais qui la
referment promptement de peur de l'orage."_--Lantiniana MSS.,
quoted by Joly in his volume of "Remarques sur Bayle."
[368] Could one imagine that the very head and foot of the stupendous
"Leviathan" bear the marks of the little artifices practised
for self by its author? This grave work is dedicated to
Francis Godolphin, a person whom its author had never seen,
merely to remind him of a certain legacy which that person's
brother had left to our philosopher. If read with this fact
before us, we may detect the concealed claim to the legacy,
which it seems was necessary to conceal from the Parliament,
as Francis Godolphin resided in England. It must be confessed
this was a miserable motive for dedicating a system of
philosophy which was addressed to all mankind. It discovers
little dignity. This secret history we owe to Lord Clarendon,
in his "Survey of the Leviathan," who adds another. The
postscript to the "Leviathan," which is only in the English
edition, was designed as an easy summary of the principles:
and his lordship adds, as a sly address to Cromwell, that he
might be induced to be master of them at once, and "as a pawn
of his new subject's allegiance." It is possible that Hobbes
might have anticipated the sovereign power which the _general_
was on the point of assuming in the _protectorship_. It was
natural enough, that Hobbes should deny this suggestion.
[369] The story his antagonist (Dr. Wallis) relates is perfectly in
character. Hobbes, to show the Countess of Devonshire his
attachment to life, declared that "were he master of all the
world to dispose of, he would give it to live one day." "But
you have so many friends to oblige, had you the world to
dispose of!" "Shall I be the better for that when I am dead?"
"No," repeated the sublime cynic, "I would give the whole
world to live one day." He asserted that "it was lawful to
make use of ill instruments to do ourselves good," and
illustrated it thus:--"Were I cast into a deep pit, and the
devil should put down his cloven foot, I would take hold of it
to be drawn out by it." It must be allowed this is a
philosophy which has a chance of being long popular; but it is
not that of another order of human beings! Hobbes would not,
like Curtius, have leaped into a "deep pit" for his country;
or, to drop the fable, have died for it in the field or on the
scaffold, like the Falklands, the Sidneys, the Montroses--all
the heroic brotherhood of genius! One of his last expressions,
when informed of the approaches of death, was--"I shall be
glad to find a hole to creep out of the world at." Everything
was seen in a little way by this great man, who, having
reasoned himself into an abject being, "licked the dust"
through life.
[370] In our country, Mandeville, Swift, and Chesterfield have trod in
the track of Hobbes; and in France, Helvetius, Rochefoucault
in his "Maxims," and L'Esprit more openly in his "Fausetté des
Vertus Humaines." They only degrade us--they are polished
cynics! But what are we to think of the tremendous cynicism of
Machiavel? That great genius eyed human nature with the
ferocity of an enraged savage. Machiavel is a vindictive
assassin, who delights even to turn his dagger within the
mortal wound he has struck; but our Hobbes, said his friend
Sorbiere, "is a gentle and skilful surgeon, who, with regret,
cuts into the living flesh, to get rid of the corrupted." It
is equally to be regretted that the same system of degrading
man has been adopted by some, under the mask of religion.
Yet Hobbes, perhaps, never suspected the arms he was placing
in the hands of wretched men, when he furnished them with
such fundamental positions as, that "Man is naturally an evil
being; that he does not love his equal; and only seeks the
aid of society for his own particular purposes." He would at
least have disowned some of his diabolical disciples. One of
them, so late as in 1774, vented his furious philosophy in "An
Essay on the Depravity and Corruption of Human Nature,
wherein the Opinions of Hobbes, Mandeville, Helvetius, &c. are
supported against Shaftesbury, Hume, Sterne, &c. by Thomas
O'Brien M'Mahon." This gentleman, once informed that he was
_born wicked_, appears to have considered that wickedness
was his paternal estate, to be turned to as profitable an
account as he could. The titles of his chapters, serving as
a string of the most extraordinary propositions, have been
preserved in the "Monthly Review," vol. lii. 77. The
demonstrations in the work itself must be still more
curious. In these axioms we find that "Man has an _enmity_ to
all beings; that had he _power_, the first victims of his
revenge would be his wife, children, &c.--a sovereign, if
he could reign with the _unbounded authority_ every man _longs
for_, free from apprehension of punishment for misrule,
would slaughter all his subjects; perhaps he would not
leave one of them alive at the end of his reign." It was
perfectly in character with this wretched being, after having
quarrelled with human nature, that he should be still more
inveterate against a small part of her family, with whom
he was suffered to live on too intimate terms; for he
afterwards published another extraordinary piece--"The
Conduct and Good-Nature of Englishmen Exemplified in their
charitable way of Characterising the Customs, Manners, &c.
of Neighbouring Nations; their Equitable and Humane Mode of
Governing States, &c.; their Elevated and Courteous
Deportment, &c. of which their own Authors are everywhere
produced as Vouchers," 1777. One is tempted to think that
this O'Brien M'Mahon, after all, is only a wag, and has
copied the horrid pictures of his masters, as Hogarth did
the School of Rembrandt by his "Paul before Felix, designed
and _scratched_ in the true Dutch taste." These works
seem, however, to have their use. To have carried the
conclusions of the Anti-social Philosophy to as great lengths
as this writer has, is to display their absurdity. But, as
every rational Englishman will appeal to his own heart, in
declaring the one work to be nothing but a libel on the
nation; so every man, not destitute of virtuous emotions,
will feel the other to be a libel on human nature itself.
[371] "Human Nature," c. ix.
[372] Hobbes did not exaggerate the truth. Aubrey says of Cooper's
portrait of Hobbes, that "he intends to borrow the picture of
his majesty, for Mr. Loggan to engrave an accurate piece by,
which will sell well at home and abroad." We have only the
rare print of Hobbes by Faithorne, prefixed to a quarto
edition of his Latin Life, 1682, remarkable for its expression
and character. Sorbiere, returning from England, brought home
a portrait of the sage, which he placed in his collection; and
strangers, far and near, came to look on the physiognomy of a
great and original thinker. One of the honours which men of
genius receive is the homage the public pay to their images:
either, like the fat monk, one of the heroes of the _Epistolæ
obscurorum Virorum_, who, standing before a portrait of
Erasmus, spit on it in utter malice; or when they are looked
on in silent reverence. It is alike a tribute paid to the
masters of intellect. They have had their shrines and
pilgrimages.
None of our authors have been better known, nor more highly
considered, than our Hobbes, abroad. I find many curious
particulars of him and his conversations recorded in French
works, which are not known to the English biographers or
critics. His residence at Paris occasioned this. See
Ancillon's Mélange Critique, Basle, 1698; Patin's Letters, 61;
Sorberiana; Niceron, tome iv.; Joly's Additions to Bayle.--All
these contain original notices on Hobbes.
[373] To his Life are additions, which nothing but the self-love of
the author could have imagined.
"Amicorum Elenchus."--He might be proud of the list of
foreigners and natives.
"Tractuum contra Hobbium editorum Syllabus."
"Eorum qui in Scriptis suis Hobbio contradixerunt Indiculus."
"Qui Hobbii meminerunt seu in bonam seu in sequiorem partem."
"In Hobbii Defensionem."--Hobbes died 1679, aged 91. These two
editions are, 1681, 1682.
[374] This fact has been recorded in one of the pamphlets of Richard
Baxter, who, however, was no well-wisher to our philosopher.
"Additional Notes on the life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale,"
1682, p. 40.
[375] "Athen. Oxon.," vol. ii. p. 665, ed. 1721. No one, however, knew
better than Hobbes the vanity and uselessness of _words_: in
one place he compares them to "a spider's web; for, by
contexture of words, tender and delicate wits are insnared and
stopped, but strong wits break easily through them." The
pointed sentence with which Warburton closes his preface to
Shakspeare, is Hobbes's--that "words are the counters of the
wise, and the money of fools."
[376] Aubrey has minutely preserved for us the manner in which Hobbes
composed his "Leviathan:" it is very curious for literary
students. "He walked much, and contemplated; and he had in the
head of his cane a pen and inkhorn, and carried always a
note-book in his pocket; and as soon as a thought darted, he
presently entered it into his book, or otherwise might have
lost it. He had drawn the design of the book into chapters,
&c., and he knew whereabouts it would come in. Thus that book
was made."--Vol. ii. p. 607. Aubrey, the little Boswell of his
day, has recorded another literary peculiarity, which some
authors do not assuredly sufficiently use. Hobbes said that he
sometimes would set his thoughts upon researching and
contemplating, always with this proviso: "that he very much
and deeply considered one thing at a time--for a week, or
sometimes a fortnight."
[377] A small annuity from the Devonshire family, and a small pension
from Charles II., exceeded the wants of his philosophic life.
If he chose to compute his income, Hobbes says facetiously of
himself, in French sols or Spanish maravedis, he could
persuade himself that Croesus or Crassus were by no means
richer than himself; and when he alludes to his property, he
considers wisdom to be his real wealth:--
"An quàm dives, id est, quàm sapiens fuerim?"
He gave up his patrimonial estate to his brother, not wanting
it himself; but he tells the tale himself, and adds, that
though small in extent, it was rich in its crops. Anthony
Wood, with unusual delight, opens the character of Hobbes:
"Though he hath an ill name from some, and good from others,
yet he was a person endowed with an excellent philosophical
soul, was a contemner of riches, money, envy, the world, &c.;
a severe lover of justice, and endowed with great morals;
cheerful, open, and free of his discourse, yet without offence
to any, which he endeavoured always to avoid." What an
enchanting picture of the old man in the green vigour of his
age has Cowley sent down to us!
"Nor can the snow which now cold age does shed
Upon thy reverend head,
Quench or allay the noble fires within;
But all which thou hast been,
And all that youth can be, thou'rt yet:
So fully still dost thou
Enjoy the manhood and the bloom of wit,
And all the natural heat, but not the fever too.
So contraries on Ætna's top conspire:
Th' embolden'd snow next to the flame does sleep.--
To things immortal time can do no wrong;
And that which never is to die, for ever must be young."
[378]
"Ipse meos nôsti, Verdusi candide, mores,
Et tecum cuncti qui mea scripta legunt:
Nam mea vita meis non est incongrua scriptis;
Justitiam doceo, Justitiamque colo.
Improbus esse potest nemo qui non sit avarus,
Nec pulchrum quisquam fecit avarus opus.
Octoginta ego jam complevi et quatuor annos;
Pene acta est vitæ fabula longa meæ."
[379] Hobbes, in his metrical (by no means his poetical) life, says,
the more the "Leviathan" was written against, the more it was
read; and adds,
"Firmiùs inde stetit, spero stabitque per omne
Ævum, defensus viribus ipse suis.
Justitiæ mensura, atque ambitionis elenchus,
Regum arx, pax populo, si doceatur, erit."
The term _arx_ is here peculiarly fortunate, according to the
system of the author--it means a citadel or fortified place on
an eminence, to which the people might fly for their common
safety.
His works were much read; as appears by "The Court Burlesqued,"
a satire attributed to Butler.
"So those who wear the holy robes
That rail so much at _Father Hobbs_,
Because he has exposed of late
_The nakedness of Church and State_;
Yet tho' they do his books condemn,
They love to buy and read the same."
Our author, so late as in 1750, was still so commanding a
genius, that his works were collected in a handsome folio; but
that collection is not complete. When he could not get his
works printed at home, he published them in Latin, including
his mathematical works, at Amsterdam, by Blaew, 1668, 4to. His
treatises, "De Cive," and "On Human Nature," are of perpetual
value. Gassendi recommends these admirable works, and
Puffendorff acknowledges the depth of his obligations. The
Life of Hobbes in the "Biographia Britannica," by Dr.
Campbell, is a work of curious research.
HOBBES'S QUARRELS
WITH
DR. WALLIS THE MATHEMATICIAN.
HOBBES'S passion for the study of Mathematics began late in
life--attempts to be an original discoverer--attacked by
WALLIS--various replies and rejoinders--nearly maddened by the
opposition he encountered--after four years of truce, the war
again renewed--character of HOBBES by Dr. WALLIS, a specimen of
invective and irony; serving as a remarkable instance how the
greatest genius may come down to us disguised by the arts of an
adversary--HOBBES'S noble defence of himself; of his own great
reputation; of his politics; and of his religion--a literary
stratagem of his--reluctantly gives up the contest, which lasted
twenty years.
The Mathematical War between HOBBES and the celebrated Dr. WALLIS is
now to be opened. A series of battles, the renewed campaigns of more
than twenty years, can be described by no term less eventful. Hobbes
himself considered it as a war, and it was a war of idle ambition, in
which he took too much delight. His "Amata Mathemata" became his
pride, his pleasure, and at length his shame. He attempted to maintain
his irruption into a province he ought never to have entered in
defiance, by "a new method;" but having invaded the powerful natives,
he seems to have almost repented the folly, and retires, leaving "the
unmanageable brutes" to themselves:
Ergo meam statuo non ultra perdere opellam
Indocile expectans discere posse pecus.
His language breathes war, while he sounds his retreat, and confesses
his repulse. The Algebraists had all declared against the Invader.
Wallisius contra pugnat; victusque videbar
Algebristarum Theiologumque scholis,
Et simul eductus Castris exercitus omnis
Pugnæ securus Wallisianus ovat.
And,
Pugna placet vertor--
Bella mea audisti--&c.
So that we have sufficient authority to consider this Literary Quarrel
as a war, and a "Bellum Peloponnesiacum" too, for it lasted as long.
Political, literary, and even personal feelings were called in to heat
the temperate blood of two Mathematicians.
What means this tumult in a Vestal's veins?
Hobbes was one of the many victims who lost themselves in squaring the
circle, and doubling the cube. He applied, late in life, to
mathematical studies, not so much, he says, to learn the subtile
demonstrations of its figures, as to acquire those habits of close
reasoning, so useful in the discovery of new truths, to prove or to
refute. So justly he reasoned on mathematics; but so ill he practised
the science, that it made him the most unreasonable being imaginable,
for he resisted mathematical demonstration, itself![380]
His great and original character could not but prevail in everything
he undertook; and his egotism tempted him to raise a name in the world
of Science, as he had in that of Politics and Morals. With the ardour
of a young mathematician, he exclaimed, "_Eureka!_" "I have found it."
The quadrature of the circle was indeed the common Dulcinea of the
Quixotes of the time; but they had all been disenchanted. Hobbes alone
clung to his ridiculous mistress. Repeatedly confuted, he was
perpetually resisting old reasonings and producing new ones. Were only
genius requisite for an able mathematician, Hobbes had been among the
first; but patience and docility, not fire and fancy, are necessary.
His reasonings were all paralogisms, and he had always much to say,
from not understanding the subject of his inquiries.
When Hobbes published his "De Corpore Philosophico," 1655, he there
exulted that he had solved the great mystery. Dr. Wallis, the Savilian
professor of mathematics at Oxford,[381] with a deep aversion to
Hobbes's political and religious sentiments, as he understood them,
rejoiced to see this famous combatant descending into his own arena.
He certainly was eager to meet him single-handed; for he instantly
confuted Hobbes, by his "Elenchus Geometriæ Hobbianæ." Hobbes, who saw
the newly-acquired province of his mathematics in danger, and which,
like every new possession, seemed to involve his honour more than was
necessary, called on all the world to be witnesses of this mighty
conflict. He now published his work in English, with a sarcastic
addition, in a magisterial tone, of "_Six Lessons to the Professors of
Mathematics in Oxford_." These were Seth Ward[382] and Wallis, both no
friends to Hobbes, and who hungered after him as a relishing morsel.
Wallis now replied in English, by "Due Correction for Mr. Hobbes, or
School-discipline for not saying his Lessons Right," 1656. That part
of controversy which is usually the last had already taken place in
their choice of phrases.[383]
In the following year the campaign was opened by Hobbes with
"ΣΤΙΓΜΑΙ; or, _marks_ of the absurd Geometry, _rural Language_,
Scottish Church-politics, and Barbarisms, of John Wallis." Quick was
the routing of these fresh forces; not one was to escape alive! for
Wallis now took the field with "Hobbiani Puncti dispunctio! or, the
undoing of Mr. Hobbes's Points; in answer to Mr. Hobbes's ΣΤΙΓΜΑΙ,
_id est_, Stigmata Hobbii." Hobbes seems now to have been reduced to
great straits; perhaps he wondered at the obstinacy of his adversary.
It seems that Hobbes, who had been used to other studies, and who
confesses all the algebraists were against him, could not conceive a
point to exist without quantity; or a line could be drawn without
latitude; or a superficies be without depth or thickness; but
mathematicians conceive them without these qualities, when they exist
abstractedly in the mind; though, when for the purposes of science
they are produced to the senses, they necessarily have all the
qualities. It was understanding these figures, in the vulgar way,
which led Hobbes into a labyrinth of confusions and absurdities.[384]
They appear to have nearly maddened the clear and vigorous intellect
of our philosopher; for he exclaims, in one of these writings:--
"I alone am mad, or they are all out of their senses: so that no third
opinion can be taken, unless any will say that we are all mad."
Four years of truce were allowed to intervene between the next battle;
when the irrefutable Hobbes, once more collecting his weak and his
incoherent forces, arranged them, as well as he was able, into "Six
Dialogues," 1661. The utter annihilation he intended for his
antagonist fell on himself. Wallis borrowing the character of "The
Self-tormentor" from Terence, produced "Hobbius Heauton-timorumenos
(Hobbes the Self-tormentor); or, a Consideration of Mr. Hobbes's
Dialogues; addressed to Robert Boyle," 1662.
This attack of Wallis is of a very opposite character to the arid
discussion of abstract blunders in geometry. He who began with points,
and doubling the cube, and squaring the circle, now assumes a loftier
tone, and carrying his personal and moral feelings into a mere
controversy between two idle mathematicians, he has formed a solemn
invective, and edged it with irony. I hope the reader has experienced
sufficient interest in the character of Hobbes to read the long, but
curious extract I shall now transcribe, with that awe and reverence
which the old man claims. It will show how even the greatest genius
may be disguised, when viewed through the coloured medium of an
adversary. One is, however, surprised to find such a passage in a
mathematical work.
"He doth much improve; I mean he doth, _proficere in pejus_; more,
indeed, than I could reasonably have expected he would have
done;--insomuch, that I cannot but profess some relenting thoughts
(though I had formerly occasion to use him somewhat coarsely), to
see an old man thus fret and torment himself to no purpose. You,
too, should pity your antagonist; not as if he did deserve it, but
because he needs it; and as Chremes, in Terence, of his Senex, his
self-tormenting Menedemus--
Cum videam miserum hunc tam excruciarier
Miseret me ejus. Quod potero adjutabo senem.
"Consider the temper of the man, to move your pity; a person _extremely
passionate and peevish, and wholly impatient of contradiction_. A
temper which, whether it be a greater fault or torment (to one who must
so often meet with what he is so ill able to bear), is hard to say.
"And to this fretful humour you must add another as bad, which feeds
it. You are therefore next to consider him as _one highly opinionative
and magisterial_. _Fanciful_ in his conceptions, and deeply enamoured
with those _phantasmes_, without a rival. He doth not spare to
profess, upon all occasions, how incomparably he thinks himself to
have _surpassed all_, ancient, modern, schools, academies, persons,
societies, philosophers, divines, heathens, Christians; how despicable
he thinks all their writings in comparison of his; and what hopes he
hath, that, by _the sovereign command of some absolute prince, all
other doctrines being exploded, his new dictates should be_
_peremptorily imposed, to be alone taught in all schools and pulpits,
and universally submitted to_. To recount all which he speaks of
himself _magnificently_, and _contemptuously_ of others, would fill a
volume. Should some idle person read over all his books, and
collecting together his arrogant and supercilious speeches, applauding
himself, and despising all other men, set them forth in one
_synopsis_, with this title, _Hobbius de se_--what a pretty piece of
pageantry this would make!
"The admirable sweetness of your own nature has not given you the
experience of such a temper: yet your contemplation must have needs
discerned it, in those symptoms which you have seen it work in others,
like the strange effervescence, ebullition, fumes, and fetors, which
you have sometimes given yourself the content to observe, in some
active _acrimonious_ chymical _spirits_ upon the injection of some
contrariant _salts_ strangely vexing, fretting, and tormenting itself,
while it doth but administer _sport_ to the unconcerned spectator.
Which temper, being so eminent in the person we have to deal with,
your generous nature, which cannot but pity affliction, how much
soever deserved, must needs have some compassion for him: who, besides
those exquisite _torments_ wherewith he doth afflict himself, like
that
----quo Siculi non invenere Tyranni
Tormentum majus--
is unavoidably exposed to those two great _mischiefs_; an incapacity
to be _taught what he doth not know_, or to be _advised when he thinks
amiss_; and moreover, to this _inconvenience_, that he must never
_hear his faults but from his adversaries_; for those who are willing
to be reputed _friends_ must either not advertise what they see amiss,
or incommode themselves.
"But, you will ask, what need he thus torment himself? What need of
pity? If _he have hopes_ to be admitted the _sole dictator in
philosophy_, civil and natural, in schools and pulpits, and to be
owned as the only _magister sententiarum_, what would he have more?
"True, _if he have_; but what _if he have not_? That he _had_ some
hopes of such an honour, he hath not been sparing to let us know, and
was providing against the _envy_ that might attend it (_nec deprecabor
invidiam, sed augendo, ulciscar_, was his resolution); but I doubt
these hopes are at an end. He did not find (as he expected) that the
_fairies and hobgoblins_ (for such he reputes all that went before
him) did vanish presently, upon the first appearance of his
_sunshine_: and, which is worse, while he was on the one side guarding
himself against _envy_, he is, on the other side, unhappily
_surprised_ by a worse enemy, called _contempt_, and with which he is
less able to grapple.
"I forbear to mention (lest I might seem to reproach that age which I
reverence) the _disadvantages_ which he may sustain by his old age.
'Tis possible that time and age, in a person somewhat _morose_, may
have riveted faster that preconceived opinion of his own worth and
excellency beyond others. 'Tis possible, also, that he may have
_forgotten_ much of what once he knew. He may, perhaps, be sometimes
more _secure_ than _safe_; while trusting to what he thinks a firm
foundation, his footing fails him; nor always so vigilant or
quicksighted as to discern the _incoherence_ or _inconsequence_ of his
own discourses; unwilling, notwithstanding, to make use of the eyes of
other men, lest he should seem thereby to disparage his own; but
certainly (though his _will_ may be as good as ever) his _parts_ are
less vegete and nimble, as to _invention_ at least, than in his
younger days.
"While he had endeavoured only to _raise an expectation_, or put the
world in hopes of what great things he had in hand (_to render all
philosophy as clear and certain as Euclid's Elements_), if he had then
_died_, it might, perhaps, have been thought by some that the world
had been deprived of _a great philosopher_, and learning sustained an
invaluable loss, by the abortion of _so desired a piece_. But since
that _Partus Montis_ is come to light, and found to be no more than
what little animals have brought forth, and that _deformed_ enough and
_unamiable_, he might have sooner gone off the stage with more
advantage than now he is like to do; such is the misfortune for a man
to _outlive his reputation_!
"By this time, perhaps, you may see cause to _pity_ him while you see
him _falling_. But if you consider him _tumbling headlong_ from so
great a height, 'twill make some addition to that _compassion_ which
doth already begin to work. You are therefore next to consider that
when, upon the account of _geometry_, he was unsafely mounted to that
height of vanity, he did unhappily fall into the hands of two
mathematicians, who have used him so unmercifully as would have put a
person of _greater patience_ into _passion_, and meeting with such a
_temper_, have so discomposed him that he hath ever since _talked
idly_: and to augment the grief, these mathematicians were both
divines--he had rather have fallen by any other hand. These
_mathematical divines_ (a term which he had thought incomponible)
began to unravel the wrong end; and while he thought they should have
first _untiled the roof_, and by degrees gone downward, they strike at
the _foundation_, and make the building tumble all at once; and that
in such confusion, that by dashing one part against another, they make
each help to destroy the whole. They first fall upon his _last
reserve_, and rout his _mathematics_ beyond a possibility of
_rallying_; and by _firing his magazine_ upon the first assault, make
his own weapons _fight against him_. Not contented herewith, they
enter the _breach_, and pursue the _rout_ through his Logics, Physics,
Metaphysics, Theology, where they find all in confusion."
This invective and irony from this celebrated mathematician, so much
out of the path of his habitual studies, might have proved a
tremendous blow; but the genius of Hobbes was invulnerable to mere
human opposition, unless accompanied by the supernatural terrors of
penal fires or perpetual dungeons. Our hero received the whole
discharge of this battering train, and stood invulnerable, while he
returned the fire in "Considerations upon the Reputation, Loyalty,
Manners, and Religion of Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury, written by way
of Letter to a learned person, Dr. Wallis," 1662.
It is an extraordinary production. His lofty indignation retorts on
the feeble irony of his antagonist with keen and caustic accusations;
and the green strength of youth was still seen in the old man whose
head was covered with snows.
From this spirited apology for himself I shall give some passages.
Hobbes thus replied to Dr. Wallis, who affected to consider the old
man as a fit object for commiseration.
"You would make him contemptible, and move Mr. Boyle to pity him. This
is a way of railing too much beaten to be thought witty: besides, 'tis
no argument of your contempt to spend upon him so many angry lines, as
would have furnished you with a dozen of sermons. If you had in good
earnest despised him, you would have let him alone, as he does Dr.
Ward, Mr. Baxter, Pike, and others, that have reviled him as you do.
As for his reputation beyond the seas, it fades not yet; and because,
perhaps, you have no means to know it, I will cite you a passage of an
epistle written by a learned Frenchman to an eminent person in
France, in a volume of epistles." Hobbes quotes the passage at length,
in which his name appears joined with Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, and
Gassendi.
In reply to Wallis' sarcastic suggestion that an idle person should
collect together Hobbes's arrogant and supercilious speeches
applauding himself, under one title, _Hobbius de se_, he says--
"Let your idle person do it; Mr. Hobbes shall acknowledge them under
his hand, and be commended for it, and you scorned. A certain Roman
senator having propounded something in the assembly of the people,
which they, misliking, made a noise at, boldly bade them hold their
peace, and told them he knew better what was good for the commonwealth
than all they; and his words are transmitted to us as an argument of
his virtue; _so much do truth and vanity alter the complexion of
self-praise_. You can have very little skill in morality, that cannot
see the justice of commending a man's self, as well as of anything
else, in his own defence; and it was want of prudence in you to
constrain him to a thing that would so much displease you.
"When you make his _age_ a reproach to him, and show no cause that
might impair the faculties of his mind, but only age, I admire how you
saw not that you reproached all old men in the world as much as him,
and warranted all young men, at a certain time which they themselves
shall define, to call you _fool_! Your dislike of old age you have
also otherwise sufficiently signified, in venturing so fairly as you
have done to escape it. But that is no great matter to one that hath
so many marks upon him of much greater reproaches. By Mr. Hobbes's
calculation, that derives prudence from experience, and experience
from age, you are a very young man; but, by your own reckoning, you
are older already than Methuselah.
"During the late trouble, who made both Oliver and the people mad but
the preachers of your principles? But besides the wickedness, see the
folly of it. You thought to make them mad, but just to such a degree
as should serve your own turn; that is to say, mad, and yet just as
wise as yourselves. Were you not very imprudent to think to govern
madness?"--p. 15.
"The king was hunted as a partridge in the mountains, and though the
hounds have been hanged, yet the hunters were as guilty as they, and
deserved no less punishment. And the decypherers (Wallis had
decyphered the royal letters),[385] and all that blew the horn, are to
be reckoned among the hunters. Perhaps you would not have had the prey
killed, but rather have kept it tame. And yet who can tell? I have
read of few kings deprived of their power by their own subjects that
have lived any long time after it, for reasons that every man is able
to conjecture."
He closes with a very odd image of the most cynical contempt:--
"Mr. Hobbes has been always far from provoking any man, though, when
he is provoked, you find his pen as sharp as yours. All you have said
is error and railing; that is, _stinking wind_, such as a jade lets
fly when he is too hard girt upon a full belly. I have done. I have
considered you now, but will not again, whatsoever preferment any of
your friends shall procure you."
These were the pitched battles; but many skirmishes occasionally took
place. Hobbes was even driven to a _ruse de guerre_. When he found his
mathematical character in the utmost peril, there appeared a pamphlet,
entitled "Lux Mathematica, &c., or, Mathematical Light struck out from
the clashings between Dr. John Wallis, Professor of Geometry in the
celebrated University of Oxford (celeberrima Academia), and Thomas
Hobbes, of Malmesbury; augmented with many and shining rays of the
Author, R. R." 1672.
Here the victories of Hobbes are trumpeted forth, but the fact is,
that R. R. should have been T. H. It was Hobbes's own composition!
R. R. stood for _Roseti Repertor_, that is, the Finder of the Rosary,
one of the titles of Hobbes's mathematical discoveries. Wallis asserts
that this R. R. may still serve, for it may answer his own book,
"Roseti Refutator, or, the Refuter of the Rosary."
Poor Hobbes gave up the contest reluctantly; if, indeed, the
controversy may not be said to have lasted all his life. He
acknowledges he was writing to no purpose; and that the medicine was
obliged to yield to the disease.
Sed nil profeci, magnis authoribus Error
Fultus erat, cessit sic Medicina malo.
He seems to have gone down to the grave, in spite of all the
reasonings of the geometricians on this side of it, with a firm
conviction that its superficies had both depth and thickness.[386]
Such were the fruits of a great genius, entering into a province out
of his own territories; and, though a most energetic reasoner, so
little skilful in these new studies, that he could never know when he
was confuted and refuted.[387]
FOOTNOTES:
[380] The origin of his taste for mathematics was purely accidental:
begun in love, it continued to dotage. According to Aubrey, he
was forty years old when, "being in a gentleman's library,
Euclid's Elements lay open at the 47th Propos. lib. i., which,
having read, he swore 'This is impossible!' He read the
demonstration, which referred him back to another--at length
he was convinced of that truth. This made him in love with
geometry. I have heard Mr. Hobbes say that he was wont to draw
lines on his thighs and on the sheets a-bed."
[381] The author of the excellent Latin grammar of the English
language, so useful to every student in Europe, of which work
that singular patriot, Thomas Hollis, printed an edition, to
present to all the learned Institutions of Europe. Henry
Stubbe, the celebrated physician of Warwick, to whom the
reader has been introduced, joined, for he loved a quarrel, in
the present controversy, when it involved philosophical
matters, siding with Hobbes, because he hated Wallis. In his
"Oneirocritica, or an Exact Account of the Grammatical Parts
of this Controversy," he draws a strong character of Wallis,
who was indeed a great mathematician, and one of the most
extraordinary decypherers of letters; for perhaps no new
system of character could be invented for which he could not
make a key; by which means he had rendered the most important
services to the Parliament. Stubbe quaintly describes him as
"the sub-scribe to the tribe of Adoniram" (_i.e._ Adoniram
Byfield, who, with this cant name, was scribe to the fanatical
Assembly of Divines), and "as the glory and pride of the
Presbyterian faction."
[382] Dr. Seth Ward, after the Restoration made Bishop of Salisbury,
said, some years before this event was expected, that "he had
rather be the author of one of Hobbes's books than be king of
England." But afterwards he seemed not a little inclined to
cry out _Crucifige_! He who, to one of these books, the
admirable treatise on "Human Nature," had prefixed one of the
highest panegyrics Hobbes could receive!--_Athen. Oxon._ vol.
ii. p. 647.
[383] It is mortifying to read _such language_ between two
mathematicians, in the calm inquiries of square roots, and the
finding of mean proportionals between two straight lines. I
wish the example may prove a warning. Wallis thus opens on
Hobbes:--"It seems, Mr. Hobbs, that you have a mind to _say
your lesson_, and that the mathematic professors of Oxford
should _hear_ you. You are too old to learn, though you have
as much need as those that be younger, and yet will think much
to be whipped.
"What moved you to say your lessons in English, when the
books against which you do chiefly intend them were
written in Latin? Was it chiefly for the perfecting your
natural rhetoric whenever you thought it convenient to repair
to Billingsgate?--You found that the oyster-women could not
teach you to rail in Latin. Now you can, upon all occasion,
or without occasion, give the titles of _fool_, _beast_,
_ass_, _dog_, &c., which I take to be but barking; and
they are no better than a man might have at Billingsgate for a
box o' the ear.
"You tell us, 'though the beasts that think our railing to be
roaring have for a time admired us; yet now you have showed
them our ears, they will be less affrighted.' Sir, those
persons (the professors themselves) needed not the sight of
_your ears_, but could tell by the _voice_ what kind of
creature _brayed_ in your books: you dared not have said this
to their faces."--He bitterly says of Hobbes, that "he is a
man who is always writing what was answered before he had
written."
[384] Dr. Campbell's art. on Hobbes, in "Biog. Brit." p. 2619.
[385] Found in the king's tent at Naseby, and which were written to
the queen on important political subjects, in a cypher of
which they only had the key. They were afterwards published in
a quarto pamphlet, and did much mischief to the royal
cause.--ED.
[386] The strange conclusions some mathematicians have deduced from
their principles concerning the _real quantity of matter_, and
the _reality of space_, have been noticed by Pope, in the
_Dunciad_:--
"Mad _Mathésis_ alone was unconfined,
Too mad for mere material chains to bind:
Now to _pure space_ lifts her ecstatic stare;
Now running round _the circle_, finds its _square_."
_Dunciad_, Book iv. ver. 31.
[387] When all animosities had ceased, after the death of Hobbes, I
find Dr. Wallis, in a very temperate letter to Tenison,
exposing the errors of Hobbes in mathematical studies; Wallis
acknowledges that philology had never entered into his
pursuits,--in this he had never designed to oppose his
superior genius: but it was Hobbes who had too often turned
his mathematical into a philological controversy. Wallis has
made a just observation on the nature of mathematical
truths:--"Hobbes's argumentations are destructive in one part
of what is said in another. This is more convincingly evident,
and more unpardonable, in mathematics than in other
discourses, which are things capable of cogent demonstration,
and so evident, that though a good mathematician may be
subject to commit an error, yet one who understands but little
of it cannot but see a fault when it is showed him."
Wallis was an eminent genius in scientific pursuits. His art
of decyphering letters was carried to amazing perfection; and
among other phenomena he discovered was that of teaching a
young man, born deaf and dumb, to speak plainly. He humorously
observes, in one of his letters:--"I am now employed upon
another work, as hard almost as to make Mr. Hobbes understand
mathematics. It is to teach a person dumb and deaf to speak,
and to understand a language."
[388] The gross convivialities of the times, from the age of
Elizabeth, were remarkable for several circumstances.
Hard-drinking was a foreign vice, imported by our military men
on their return from the Netherlands: and the practice, of
whose prevalence Camden complains, was even brought to a kind
of science. They had a dialect peculiar to their orgies. See
"Curiosities of Literature," vol. ii. p. 294 (last edition).
Jonson's inclinations were too well suited to the prevalent
taste, and he gave as largely into it as any of his
contemporaries. Tavern-habits were then those of our poets and
actors. Ben's _Humours_, at "the Mermaid," and at a later
period, his _Leges Convivales_ at "the Apollo," the club-room
of "the Devil," were doubtless one great cause of a small
personal unhappiness, of which he complains, and which had a
very unlucky effect in rendering a mistress so obdurate, who
"through her eyes had stopt her ears." This was, as his own
verse tells us,
"His mountain-belly and his rocky face."
He weighed near twenty stone, according to his own avowal--an
Elephant-Cupid! One of his "Sons," at the "Devil," seems to
think that his _Catiline_ could not fail to be a miracle, by a
certain sort of inspiration which Ben used on the occasion.
"With strenuous sinewy words that _Catiline_ swells,
I reckon it not among men-miracles.
How could that poem heat and vigour lack,
_When each line oft cost BEN a cup of sack_?"
R. BARON'S _Pocula Castalia_, p. 113, 1650.
Jonson, in the Bacchic phraseology of the day, was "a
Canary-bird." "He would (says Aubrey) many times exceed in
drink; canary was his beloved liquor; then he would tumble
home to bed; and when he had thoroughly perspired, then to
study."
Tradition, too, has sent down to us several tavern-tales of
"Rare Ben." A good-humoured one has been preserved of the
first interview between Bishop Corbet, when a young man, and
our great bard. It occurred at a tavern, where Corbet was
sitting alone. Ben, who had probably just drank up to the
pitch of good fellowship, desired the waiter to take to the
gentleman "a quart of _raw_ wine; and tell him," he added, "I
_sacrifice_ my service to him."--"Friend," replied Corbet, "I
thank him for his love; but tell him, from me, that he is
mistaken; for _sacrifices are always burned_." This pleasant
allusion to the mulled wine of the time by the young wit could
not fail to win the affection of the master-wit himself. Harl.
MSS. 6395.
Ben is not viewed so advantageously, in an unlucky fit of
ebriety recorded by Oldys, in his MS. notes on Langbaine; but
his authority is not to me of a suspicious nature: he had
drawn it from a MS. collection of Oldisworth's, who appears to
have been a curious collector of the history of his times. He
was secretary to that strange character, Philip, Earl of
Pembroke. It was the custom of those times to form collections
of little traditional stories and other good things; we have
had lately given to us by the Camden Society an amusing one,
from the L'Estrange family, and the MS. already quoted is one
of them. There could be no bad motive in recording a tale,
quite innocent in itself, and which is further confirmed by
Isaac Walton, who, without alluding to the tale, notices that
Jonson parted from Sir Walter Raleigh and his son "not in cold
blood." Mr. Gifford, in a MS. note on this work, does not
credit this story, it not being accordant with dates. Such
stories may not accord with dates or persons, and yet may be
founded on some substantial fact. I know of no injury to Ben's
poetical character, in showing that he was, like other men,
quite incapable of taking care of himself, when he was sunk in
the heavy sleep of drunkenness. It was an age when kings, as
our James I. and his majesty of Denmark, were as often laid
under the table as their subjects. My motive for preserving
the story is the incident respecting _carrying men in
baskets_: it was evidently a custom, which perhaps may have
suggested the memorable adventure of Falstaff. It was a
convenient mode of conveyance for those who were incapable of
taking care of themselves before the invention of hackney
coaches, which was of later date, in Charles the First's
reign.
Camden recommended Jonson to Sir Walter Raleigh as a tutor to
his son, whose gay humours not brooking the severe studies of
Jonson, took advantage of his foible, to degrade him in the
eyes of his father, who, it seems, was remarkable for his
abstinence from wine: though, if another tale be true, he was
no common sinner in "the true Virginia." Young Raleigh
contrived to give Ben a surfeit, which threw the poet into a
deep slumber; and then the pupil maliciously procured a
buck-basket, and a couple of men, who carried our Ben to Sir
Walter, with a message that "their young master had sent home
his tutor." There is nothing improbable in the story; for the
circumstance of _carrying drunken men in baskets_ was a usual
practice. In the Harleian MS. quoted above, I find more than
one instance; I will give one. An alderman, carried in _a
porter's basket_, at his own door, is thrown out of it in a
_qualmish_ state. The man, to frighten away the passengers,
and enable the grave citizen to creep in unobserved, exclaims,
that the man had the _falling sickness_!
[389] These were Marston and Decker, but as is usual with these sort
of caricatures, the originals sometimes mistook their
likenesses. They were both town-wits, and cronies, of much the
same stamp; by a careful perusal of their works, the editor of
Jonson has decided that Marston was Crispinus. With him Jonson
had once lived on the most friendly terms: afterwards the
great poet quarrelled with both, or they with him.
Dryden, in the preface to his "Notes and Observations on the
Empress of Morocco," in his quarrel with Settle, which has
been sufficiently narrated by Dr. Johnson, felt, when poised
against this miserable rival, who had been merely set up by a
party to mortify the superior genius, as Jonson had felt when
pitched against _Crispinus_. It is thus that literary history
is so interesting to authors. How often, in recording the
fates of others, it reflects their own! "I knew indeed (says
Dryden) that to write against him was to do him too great an
honour; but I considered Ben Jonson had done it before to
Decker, our author's predecessor, whom he chastised in his
Poetaster, under the character of _Crispinus_." Langbaine
tells us the subject of the "Satiromastix" of Decker, which I
am to notice, was "the witty Ben Jonson;" and with this agree
all the notices I have hitherto met with respecting "the
Horace Junior" of Decker's _Satiromastix_. Mr. Gilchrist has
published two curious pamphlets on Jonson; and in the last, p.
56, he has shown that Decker was "the poet-ape of Jonson," and
that he avenged himself under the character of _Crispinus_ in
his "Satiromastix;" to which may be added, that the _Fannius_,
in the same satirical comedy, is probably his friend Marston.
Jonson allowed himself great liberty in _personal satire_, by
which, doubtless, he rung an alarum to a waspish host; he
lampooned _Inigo Jones_, the great machinist and architect.
The lampoons are printed in Jonson's works [but not in their
entirety. The great architect had sufficient court influence
to procure them to be cancelled; and the character of
_In-and-in Medley_, in "The Tale of a Tub," has come down to
us with no other satirical personal traits than a few
fantastical expressions]; and I have in MS. an answer by Inigo
Jones, in verse, so pitiful that I have not printed it. That
he condescended to bring obscure individuals on the stage,
appears by his character of _Carlo Buffoon_, in _Every Man out
of his Humour_. He calls this "a second untruss," and was
censured for having drawn it from personal revenge. The Aubrey
Papers, recently published have given us the character of this
_Carlo Buffoon_, "one Charles Chester, a bold impertinent
fellow; and they could never be at quiet for him; a perpetual
talker, and made a noise like a drum in a room. So one time at
a tavern Sir Walter Raleigh beats him, and seals up his mouth;
_i.e._, his upper and nether beard, with hard wax."--p. 514.
Such a character was no unfitting object for dramatic satire.
Mr. Gilchrist's pamphlets defended Jonson from the frequent
accusations raised against him for the freedom of his muse, in
such portraits after the life. Yet even our poet himself does
not deny their truth, while he excuses himself. In the
dedication of "The Fox," to the two Universities, he boldly
asks, "Where have I been particular? Where personal?--Except
to a mimic, cheater, bawd, buffoon, creatures (for their
insolencies) worthy to be taxed." The mere list he here
furnishes us with would serve to crowd one of the "twopenny
audiences" in the small theatres of that day.
[390] Alluding, no doubt, to the price of seats at some of the minor
theatres.
[391] It was the fashion with the poets connected with the theatre to
wear long hair. Nashe censures Greene "for his fond (foolish)
disguising of a Master of Arts (which was Greene's degree)
with ruffianly hair."--ED.
[392] Alluding to the trial of the Poetasters, which takes place
before Augustus and his poetical jury of Virgil, Ovid,
Tibullus, &c., in Ben's play.
[393] Decker alludes here to the bastard of Burgundy, who considered
himself unmatchable, till he was overthrown in Smithfield by
Woodville, Earl Rivers.
[394] Horace acknowledges he played Zulziman at Paris-garden. "Sir
Vaughan: Then, master Horace, you played the part of an honest
man--"
Tucca exclaims: "Death of Hercules! he could never play that
part well in 's life!"
[395] Among those arts of imitation which man has derived from the
practice of animals, naturalists assure us that he owes _the
use of clysters_ to the Egyptian Ibis. There are some who
pretend this medicinal invention comes from the stork. The
French are more like _Ibises_ than we are: _ils se donnent des
lavements eux-mêmes_. But as it is rather uncertain what the
Egyptian _Ibis_ is; whether, as translated in Leviticus xi.
17, the cormorant, or a species of stork, or only "a great
owl," as we find in Calmet; it would be safest to attribute
the invention to the unknown bird. I recollect, in Wickliffe's
version of the Pentateuch, which I once saw in MS. in the
possession of my valued friend Mr. Douce, that that venerable
translator interpolates a little, to tell us that the Ibis
"giveth to herself a purge."
JONSON AND DECKER.
BEN JONSON appears to have carried his military spirit into
the literary republic--his gross convivialities, with anecdotes
of the prevalent taste in that age for drinking-bouts--his
"Poetaster" a sort of _Dunciad_, besides a personal attack on the
frequenters of the theatres, with anecdotes--his Apologetical
Dialogue, which was not allowed to be repeated--characters of
DECKER and of MARSTON--DECKER'S Satiromastix, a parody on JONSON'S
"Poetaster"--BEN exhibited under the character of "Horace
Junior"--specimens of that literary satire; its dignified
remonstrance, and the honourable applause bestowed on the great
bard--some foibles in the literary habits of BEN, alluded to by
DECKER--JONSON'S noble reply to his detractors and rivals.
This quarrel is a splendid instance how genius of the first order,
lavishing its satirical powers on a number of contemporaries, may
discover, among the crowd, some individual who may return with a right
aim the weapon he has himself used, and who will not want for
encouragement to attack the common assailant: the greater genius is
thus mortified by a victory conceded to the inferior, which he himself
had taught the meaner one to obtain over him.
JONSON, in his earliest productions, "Every Man in his Humour," and
"Every Man out of his Humour," usurped that dictatorship, in the
Literary Republic, which he so sturdily and invariably maintained,
though long and hardily disputed. No bard has more courageously
foretold that posterity would be interested in his labours; and often
with very dignified feelings he casts this declaration into the teeth
of his adversaries: but a bitter contempt for his brothers and his
contemporaries was not less vehement than his affections for those who
crowded under his wing. To his "sons" and his admirers he was warmly
attached, and no poet has left behind him, in MS., so many testimonies
of personal fondness, in the inscriptions and addresses, in the copies
of his works which he presented to friends: of these I have seen more
than one fervent and impressive.
DRUMMOND of Hawthornden, who perhaps carelessly and imperfectly
minuted down the heads of their literary conference on the chief
authors of the age, exposes the severity of criticism which Ben
exercised on some spirits as noble as his own. The genius of Jonson
was rough, hardy, and invincible, of which the frequent excess
degenerated into ferocity; and by some traditional tales, this
ferocity was still inflamed by large potations: for Drummond informs
us, "Drink was the element in which he lived."[388] Old Ben had
given, on two occasions, some remarkable proofs of his personal
intrepidity. When a soldier, in the face of both armies, he had
fought single-handed with his antagonist, had slain him, and carried
off his arms as trophies. Another time he killed his man in a duel.
Jonson appears to have carried the same military spirit into the
Literary Republic.
Such a genius would become more tyrannical by success, and naturally
provoked opposition, from the proneness of mankind to mortify usurped
greatness, when they can securely do it. The man who hissed the poet's
play had no idea that he might himself become one of the dramatic
personages. Ben then produced his "Poetaster," which has been called
the _Dunciad_ of those times; but it is a _Dunciad_ without notes.
The personages themselves are now only known by their general
resemblance to nature, with the exception of two characters, those of
_Crispinus and Demetrius_.[389]
In "The Poetaster," Ben, with flames too long smothered, burst over
the heads of all rivals and detractors. His enemies seem to have been
among all classes; personages recognised on the scene as soon as
viewed; poetical, military, legal, and histrionic. It raised a host in
arms. Jonson wrote an apologetical epilogue, breathing a firm spirit,
worthy of himself; but its dignity was too haughty to be endured by
contemporaries, whom genius must soothe by equality. This apologetical
dialogue was never allowed to be repeated; now we may do it with
pleasure. Writings, like pictures, require a particular light and
distance to be correctly judged and inspected, without any personal
inconvenience.
One of the dramatic personages in this epilogue inquires
I never saw the play breed all this tumult.
What was there in it could so deeply offend,
And stir so many hornets?
The author replies:
------------I never writ that piece
More innocent, or empty of offence;
Some salt it had, but neither tooth nor gall.
------------Why, they say you tax'd
The law and lawyers, captains, and the players,
By their particular names.
------------It is not so:
I used no names. My books have still been taught
To spare the persons, and to speak the vices.
And he proceeds to tell us, that to obviate this accusation he had
placed his scenes in the age of Augustus.
To show that Virgil, Horace, and the rest
Of those great master-spirits, did not want
Detractors then, or practisers against them:
And by this line, although no parallel,
I hoped at last they would sit down and blush.
But instead of their "sitting down and blushing," we find--
That they fly buzzing round about my nostrils;
And, like so many screaming grasshoppers
Held by the wings, fill every ear with noise.
Names were certainly not necessary to portraits, where every day the
originals were standing by their side. This is the studied pleading
of a poet, who knows he is concealing the truth.
There is a passage in the play itself where Jonson gives the true
cause of "the tumult" raised against him. Picturing himself under the
character of his favourite Horace, he makes the enemies of Horace thus
describe him, still, however, preserving the high tone of poetical
superiority.
"Alas, sir, Horace is a mere sponge. Nothing but humours and
observations he goes up and down sucking from every society, and when
he comes home squeezes himself dry again. He will pen all he knows. He
will sooner lose his best friend than his least jest. What he once
drops upon paper against a man, lives eternally to upbraid him."
Such is the true picture of a town-wit's life! The age of Augustus was
much less present to Jonson than his own; and Ovid, Tibullus, and
Horace were not the personages he cared so much about, as "that
society in which," it was said, "he went up and down sucking in and
squeezing himself dry:" the formal lawyers, who were cold to his
genius; the sharking captains, who would not draw to save their own
swords, and would cheat "their friend, or their friend's friend,"
while they would bully down Ben's genius; and the little sycophant
histrionic, "the twopenny[390] tear-mouth, copper-laced scoundrel,
stiff-toe, who used to travel with pumps full of gravel after a blind
jade and a hamper, and stalk upon boards and barrel-heads to an old
crackt trumpet;" and who all now made a party with some rival of
Jonson.
All these personages will account for "the tumult" which excites the
innocent astonishment of our author. These only resisted him by
"filling every ear with noise." But one of the "screaming grasshoppers
held by the wings," boldly turned on the holder with a scorpion's
bite; and Decker, who had been lashed in "The Poetaster," produced his
"Satiromastix, or the untrussing of the humorous Poet." Decker was a
subordinate author, indeed; but, what must have been very galling to
Jonson, who was the aggressor, indignation proved such an inspirer,
that Decker seemed to have caught some portion of Jonson's own genius,
who had the art of making even Decker popular; while he discovered
that his own laurel-wreath had been dexterously changed by the
"Satiromastix" into a garland of "stinging nettles."
In "The Poetaster," _Crispinus_ is the picture of one of those
impertinent fellows who resolve to become poets, having an equal
aptitude to become anything that is in fashionable request. When
Hermogenes, the finest singer in Rome, refused to sing, _Crispinus_
gladly seizes the occasion, and whispers the lady near him--"Entreat
the ladies to entreat me to sing, I beseech you." This character is
marked by a ludicrous peculiarity which, turning on an individual
characteristic, must have assisted the audience in the true
application. Probably Decker had some remarkable head of hair,[391]
and that his locks hung not like "the curls of Hyperion;" for the
jeweller's wife admiring among the company the persons of Ovid,
Tibullus, &c., _Crispinus_ acquaints her that they were poets, and,
since she admires them, promises to become a poet himself. The simple
lady further inquires, "if, when he is a poet, his looks will change?
and particularly if his hair will change, and be like those
gentlemen's?" "A man," observes _Crispinus_, "may be a poet, and yet
not change his hair." "Well!" exclaims the simple jeweller's wife, "we
shall see your cunning; yet if you can change your hair, I pray do
it."
In two elaborate scenes, poor Decker stands for a full-length.
Resolved to be a poet, he haunts the company of Horace: he meets him
in the street, and discovers all the variety of his nothingness: he
is a student, a stoic, an architect: everything by turns, "and
nothing long." Horace impatiently attempts to escape from him, but
_Crispinus_ foils him at all points. This affectionate admirer is
even willing to go over the world with him. He proposes an ingenious
project, if Horace will introduce him to Mæcenas. _Crispinus_ offers
to become "his assistant," assuring him that "he would be content
with the next place, not envying thy reputation with thy patron;"
and he thinks that Horace and himself "would soon lift out of favour
Virgil, Varius, and the best of them, and enjoy them wholly to
ourselves." The restlessness of Horace to extricate himself from
this "Hydra of Discourse," the passing friends whom he calls on to
assist him, and the glue-like pertinacity of _Crispinus_, are richly
coloured.
A ludicrous and exquisitely satirical scene occurs at the trial of
_Crispinus_ and his colleagues. Jonson has here introduced an
invention, which a more recent satirist so happily applied to our
modern Lexiphanes, Dr. Johnson, for his immeasurable polysyllables.
Horace is allowed by Augustus to make _Crispinus_ swallow a certain
pill; the light vomit discharges a great quantity of hard matter, to
clear
His brain and stomach of their tumorous heats.
These consist of certain affectations in style, and adulteration of
words, which offended the Horatian taste: "the basin" is called
quickly for and _Crispinus_ gets rid easily of some, but others were
of more difficult passage:--
'Magnificate!' that came up somewhat hard!
_Crispinus._ 'O barmy froth----'
_Augustus._ What's that?
_Crispinus._ 'Inflate!--Turgidous!--and Ventositous'--
_Horace._ 'Barmy froth, inflate, turgidous, and ventosity are come
up.'
_Tibullus._ O terrible windy words!
_Gallus._ A sign of a windy brain.
But all was not yet over: "Prorumpt" made a terrible rumbling, as if
his spirit was to have gone with it; and there were others which
required all the kind assistance of the Horatian "light vomit." This
satirical scene closes with some literary admonitions from the grave
Virgil, who details to _Crispinus_ the wholesome diet to be observed
after his surfeits, which have filled
His blood and brain thus full of crudities.
Virgil's counsels to the vicious neologist, who debases the purity of
English diction by affecting new words or phrases, may too frequently
be applied.
You must not hunt for wild outlandish terms
To stuff out a peculiar dialect;
But let your matter run before your words.
And if at any time you chance to meet
Some Gallo-Belgick phrase, you shall not straight
Rack your poor verse to give it entertainment,
But let it pass; and do not think yourself
Much damnified, if you do leave it out
When not the sense could well receive it.
Virgil adds something which breathes all the haughty spirit of Ben: he
commands _Crispinus_:
------------Henceforth, learn
To bear yourself more humbly, nor to swell
Or breathe your insolent and idle spite
On him whose laughter can your worst affright:
and dismisses him
To some dark place, removed from company;
He will talk idly else after his physic.
"The Satiromastix" may be considered as a parody on "The Poetaster."
Jonson, with classical taste, had raised his scene in the court of
Augustus: Decker, with great unhappiness, places it in that of William
Rufus. The interest of the piece arises from the dexterity with which
Decker has accommodated those very characters which Jonson has
satirised in his "Poetaster." This gratified those who came every day
to the theatre, delighted to take this mimetic revenge on the arch
bard.
In Decker's prefatory address "To the World," he observes, "Horace
haled his Poetasters to the bar;[392] the Poetasters untrussed Horace:
Horace made himself believe that his Burgonian wit[393] might
desperately challenge all comers, and that none durst take up the
foils against him." But Decker is the Earl Rivers! He had been blamed
for the personal attacks on Jonson; for "whipping his fortunes and
condition of life; where the more noble reprehension had been of his
mind's deformity:" but for this he retorts on Ben. Some censured
Decker for barrenness of invention, in bringing on those characters in
his own play whom Jonson had stigmatised; but "it was not improper,"
he says, "to set the same dog upon Horace, whom Horace had set to
worry others." Decker warmly concludes with defying the Jonsonians.
"Let that mad dog Detraction bite till his teeth be worn to the
stumps; Envy, feed thy snakes so fat with poison till they burst;
World, let all thy adders shoot out their Hydra-headed forked stings!
I thank thee, thou true Venusian Horace, for these good words thou
givest me. _Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo._"
The whole address is spirited. Decker was a very popular writer,
whose numerous tracts exhibit to posterity a more detailed narrative
of the manners of the town in the Elizabethan age than is elsewhere to
be found.
In Decker's Satiromastix, Horace junior is first exhibited in his
study, rehearsing to himself an ode: suddenly the Pindaric rapture is
interrupted by the want of a rhyme; this is satirically applied to an
unlucky line of Ben's own. One of his "sons," Asinius Bubo, who is
blindly worshipping his great idol, or "his Ningle," as he calls him,
amid his admiration of Horace, perpetually breaks out into digressive
accounts of what sort of a man his friends take him to be. For one,
Horace in wrath prepares an epigram: and for _Crispinus_ and
_Fannius_, brother bards, who threaten "they'll bring your life and
death on the stage, as a bricklayer in a play," he says, "I can bring
a prepared troop of gallants, who, for my sake, shall distaste every
unsalted line in their fly-blown comedies." "Ay," replies Asinius,
"and all men of my rank!" _Crispinus_, Horace calls "a light
voluptuous reveller," and _Fannius_ "the slightest cobweb-lawn piece
of a poet." Both enter, and Horace receives them with all friendship.
The scene is here conducted not without skill. Horace complains that
----------------When I dip my pen
In distill'd roses, and do strive to drain
Out of mine ink all gall--
Mine enemies, with sharp and searching eyes,
Look through and through me.
And when my lines are measured out as straight
As even parallels, 'tis strange, that still,
Still some imagine that they're drawn awry.
The error is not mine, but in their eye,
That cannot take proportions.
To the querulous satirist, _Crispinus_ replies with dignified
gravity--
Horace! to stand within the shot of galling tongues
Proves not your guilt; for, could we write on paper
Made of these turning leaves of heaven, the clouds,
Or speak with angels' tongues, yet wise men know
That some would shake the head, though saints should sing;
Some snakes must hiss, because they're born with stings.
------------Be not you grieved
If that which you mould fair, upright, and smooth,
Be screw'd awry, made crooked, lame, and vile,
By racking comments.--
So to be bit it rankles not, for Innocence
May with a feather brush off the foul wrong.
But when your _dastard wit will strike at men
In corners, and in riddles fold the vices
Of your best friends_, you must not take to heart
If they take off all gilding from their pills,
And only offer you the bitter core.--
At this the galled Horace winces. _Crispinus_ continues, that it is in
vain Horace swears, that
--------------He puts on
The office of an executioner,
Only to strike off the swoln head of sin,
Where'er you find it standing. Say you swear,
And make damnation, parcel of your oath,
That when your lashing jests make all men bleed,
Yet you whip none--court, city, country, friends,
Foes, all must smart alike.--
_Fannius_, too, joins, and shows Ben the absurd oaths he takes, when
he swears to all parties, that he does not mean them. How, then, of
five hundred and four, five hundred
Should all point with their fingers in one instant,
At one and the same man?
Horace is awkwardly placed between these two friendly remonstrants, to
whom he promises perpetual love.
Captain Tucca, a dramatic personage in Jonson's Poetaster, and a copy
of his own Bobadil, whose original the poet had found at "Powles," the
fashionable lounge of that day, is here continued with the same
spirit; and as that character permitted from the extravagance of its
ribaldry, it is now made the vehicle for those more personal retorts,
exhibiting the secret history of Ben, which perhaps twitted the great
bard more than the keenest wit, or the most solemn admonition which
Decker could ever attain. Jonson had cruelly touched on Decker being
out at elbows, and made himself too merry with the histrionic tribe:
he, who was himself a poet, and had been a Thespian! The blustering
captain thus attacks the great wit:--"Do'st stare, my Saracen's head
at Newgate? I'll march through thy Dunkirk guts, for shooting jests at
me." He insists that as Horace, "that sly knave, whose shoulders were
once seen lapp'd in a player's old cast cloak," and who had reflected
on _Crispinus's_ satin doublet being ravelled out; that he should wear
one of _Crispinus's_ "old cast sattin suits," and that _Fannius_
should write a couple of scenes for his own "strong garlic comedies,"
and Horace should swear that they were his own--he would easily bear
"the guilt of conscience." "Thy Muse is but a hagler, and wears
clothes upon best be trust (a humorous Deckerian phrase)--thou'rt
_great_ in somebody's books for this!" Did it become Jonson to gibe at
the histrionic tribe, who is himself accused of "treading the stage,
as if he were treading mortar."[394] He once put up--"a supplication
to be a poor journeyman player, and hadst been still so, but that thou
couldst not set _a good face_ upon't. Thou hast forget how thou
ambled'st in leather-pilch, by a play-waggon in the highway; and
took'st mad Jeronimo's part, to get service among the mimics," &c.
Ben's person was, indeed, not gracious in the playfulness of love or
fancy. A female, here, thus delineates Ben:--
"That same Horace has the most ungodly face, by my fan; it looks for
all the world like a rotten russet-apple, when 'tis bruised. It's
better than a spoonful of cinnamon-water next my heart, for me to hear
him speak; he sounds it so i' th' nose, and talks and rants like the
poor fellows under Ludgate--to see his face make faces, when he reads
his songs and sonnets."
Again, we have Ben's face compared with that of his favourite,
Horace's--"You staring Leviathan! look on the sweet visage of Horace;
look, parboil'd face, look--he has not his face punchtfull of
eyelet-holes, like the cover of a warming-pan."
Joseph Warton has oddly remarked that most of our poets were handsome
men. Jonson, however, was not poetical on that score; though his bust
is said to resemble Menander's.
Such are some of the personalities with which Decker recriminated.
Horace is thrown into many ludicrous situations. He is told that
"admonition is good meat." Various persons bring forward their
accusations; and Horace replies that they envy him,
Because I hold more worthy company.
The greatness of Ben's genius is by no means denied by his rivals;
and Decker makes _Fannius_ reply, with noble feelings, and in an
elevated strain of poetry:--
Good Horace, no! my cheeks do blush for thine,
As often as thou speakst so; where one true
And nobly virtuous spirit, for thy best part
Loves thee, I wish one, ten; even from my heart!
I make account, I put up as deep share
In any good man's love, which thy worth earns,
As thou thyself; we envy not to see
Thy friends with bays to crown thy poesy.
No, here the gall lies;--We, that know what stuff
Thy very heart is made of, know the stalk
On which thy learning grows, and can give life
To thy, once dying, baseness; yet must we
Dance anticke on your paper--.
But were thy warp'd soul put in a new mould,
I'd wear thee as a jewel set in gold.
To which one adds, that "jewels, master Horace, must be hanged, you
know." This "Whip of Men," with Asinius his admirer, are brought to
court, transformed into satyrs, and bound together: "not lawrefied,
but nettle-fied;" crowned with a wreath of nettles.
With stinging-nettles crown his stinging wit.
Horace is called on to swear, after Asinius had sworn to give up his
"Ningle."
"Now, master Horace, you must be a more horrible swearer; for your
oath must be, like your wits, of many colours; and like a broker's
book, of many parcels."
Horace offers to swear till his hairs stand up on end, to be rid of
this sting. "Oh, this sting!" alluding to the nettles. "'Tis not your
sting of conscience, is it?" asks one. In the inventory of his oaths,
there is poignant satire, with strong humour; and it probably exhibits
some foibles in the literary habits of our bard.
He swears "Not to hang himself, even if he thought any man could write
plays as well as himself; not to bombast out a new play with the old
linings of jests stolen from the _Temple's Revels_; not to sit in a
gallery, when your comedies have entered their actions, and there make
vile and bad faces at every line, to make men have an eye to you, and
to make players afraid; not to venture on the stage, when your play is
ended, and exchange courtesies and compliments with gallants to make
all the house rise and cry--'That's Horace that's he that pens and
purges humours.' When you bid all your friends to the marriage of a
poor couple, that is to say, your Wits and Necessities--_alias_, a
poet's Whitsun-ale--you shall swear that, within three days after, you
shall not abroad, in bookbinders' shops, brag that your viceroys, or
tributary-kings, have done homage to you, or paid quarterage.
Moreover, when a knight gives you his passport to travel in and out to
his company, and gives you money for God's sake--you will swear not to
make scald and wry-mouthed jests upon his knighthood. When your plays
are misliked at court, you shall not cry Mew! like a puss-cat, and
say, you are glad you write out of the courtier's element; and in
brief, when you sup in taverns, amongst your betters, you shall swear
not to dip your manners in too much sauce; nor, at table, to fling
epigrams or play-speeches about you."
The king observes, that
--------------------He whose pen
Draws both corrupt and clear blood from all men
Careless what vein he pricks; let him not rave
When his own sides are struck; blows, blows do crave.
Such were the bitter apples which Jonson, still in his youth, plucked
from the tree of his broad satire, that branched over all ranks in
society. That even his intrepidity and hardiness felt the incessant
attacks he had raised about him, appears from the close of the
Apologetical Epilogueto "The Poetaster;" where, though he replies with
all the consciousness of genius, and all its haughtiness, he closes
with a determination to give over the composition of comedies! This,
however, like all the vows of a poet, was soon broken; and his
masterpieces were subsequently produced.
_Friend._ Will you not answer then the libels?
_Author._ No.
_Friend._ Nor the Untrussers.
_Author._ Neither.
_Friend._ You are undone, then.
_Author._ With whom?
_Friend._ The world.
_Author._ The bawd!
_Friend._ It will be taken to be stupidity or tameness in you.
_Author._ But they that have incensed me, can in soul
Acquit me of that guilt. They know I dare
To spurn or baffle them; or squirt their eyes
With ink or urine: or I could do worse,
Arm'd with Archilochus' fury, write iambicks,
Would make the desperate lashers hang themselves.--
His Friend tells him that he is accused that "all his writing is mere
railing;" which Jonson nobly compares to "the salt in the old comedy;"
that they say, that he is slow, and "scarce brings forth a play a
year."
_Author._ ------------'Tis true,
I would they could not say that I did that.
He is angry that their
------------Base and beggarly conceits
Should carry it, by the multitude of voices,
Against the most abstracted work, opposed
To the stufft nostrils of the drunken rout.--
And then exclaims with admirable enthusiasm--
O this would make a learn'd and liberal soul
To rive his stained quill up to the back,
And damn his long-watch'd labours to the fire;
Things, that were born, when none but the still night,
And the dumb candle, saw his pinching throes.
And again, alluding to these mimics--
This 'tis that strikes me silent, seals my lips,
And apts me rather to sleep out my time,
Than I would waste it in contemned strifes
With these vile Ibides, these unclean birds,
That make their mouths their clysters, and still purge
From their hot entrails.[395] But I leave the monsters
To their own fate. And since the Comic Muse
Hath proved so ominous to me, I will try
If Tragedy have a more kind aspect.
Leave me! There's something come into my thought
That must and shall be sung, high and aloof,
Safe from the wolf's black jaw, and the dull ass's hoof.
_Friend._ I reverence these raptures, and obey them.
Such was the noble strain in which Jonson replied to his detractors in
the town and to his rivals about him. Yet this poem, composed with all
the dignity and force of the bard, was not suffered to be repeated. It
was stopped by authority. But Jonson, in preserving it in his works,
sends it "TO POSTERITY, that it may make a difference between their
manners that provoked me then, and mine that neglected them ever."
FOOTNOTES:
[396] This work was not given to the public till 1724, a small
quarto, with a fine portrait of Brooke. More than a century
had elapsed since its forcible suppression. Anstis printed it
from the fair MS. which Brooke had left behind him. The
author's paternal affection seemed fondly to imagine its
child might be worthy of posterity, though calumniated by
its contemporaries.
[397] "Verum enimverò de his et hoc genere hominum ne verbum amplius
addam, tabellam tamen summi illius artificis Apellis, cùm
colorum vivacitate depingere non possim, verbis leviter
adumbrabo et proponam, ut Antiphilus noster, suique similes,
et qui calumniis credunt, hanc, et in hac seipsos semel
simulque intueantur.
"Ad dextram sedet quidam, quia credulus, auribus prælongis
insignis, quales ferè illæ Midæ feruntur. Manum porrigit
procul accedenti Calumniæ. Circumstant eum mulierculæ duæ,
Ignorantia ac Suspicio. Adit aliunde propiùs Calumnia eximiè
compta, vultu ipso et gestu corporis efferens rabiem, et iram
æstuanti conceptam pectore præ se ferens: sinistra facem
tenens flammantem, dextra secum adolescentem capillis
arreptum, manus ad superos tendentem, obtestantemque
immortalium deorum fidem, trahit. Anteit vir pallidus, in
specium impurus, acie oculorum minimè hebeti, cæterùm planè
iis símilis, qui gravi aliquo morbo contabuerunt. Hic livor
est, ut facilè conjicias. Quin, et mulierculæ aliquot Insidiæ
et Fallaciæ ut comites Calumniam comitantur. Harum est munus,
dominam hortari, instruere, comere, et subornare. A tergo,
habitu lugubri, pullato, laceroque Poenitentia subsequitur,
quæ capite in tergum deflexo, cum lachrymis, ac pudore procul
venientem Veritatem agnoscit, et excipit."
[398] A _Fletcher_ is a maker of bows and arrows.--ASH.
[399] Brooke died at the old mansion opposite the Roman town of
Reculver in Kent. The house is still known as Brooke-farm; and
the original gateway of decorative brickwork still exists. He
was buried in Reculver Church, now destroyed, where a mural
monument was erected to his memory, having a rhyming
inscription, which told the reader:--
"Fifteenth October he was last alive,
One thousand six hundred and twenty-five,
Seaventy-three years bore he fortune's harms,
And forty-five an officer of armes."
Brooke was originally a painter-stainer. His enmity to Camden
appears to have originated in the appointment of the latter to
the office of Clarencieux on the death of Richard Lee; he
believing himself to be qualified for the place by greater
knowledge, and by his long connexion with the College of Arms.
His mode of righting himself lacked judgment, and he was twice
suspended from his office, and was even attempted to be
expelled therefrom.--ED.
[400] In Anstis's edition of "A Second Discoverie of Errors in the
Much-commended 'Britannia,' &c.," 1724, the reader will find
all the passages in the "Britannia" of the edition of 1594 to
which Brooke made exceptions, placed column-wise with the
following edition of it in 1600. It is, as Anstis observes, a
debt to truth, without making any reflections.
[401] There is a sensible observation in the old "Biographia
Britannica" on Brooke. "From the splenetic attack originally
made by Rafe Brooke upon the 'Britannia' arose very _great
advantages to the public_, by the shifting and bringing to
light as good, perhaps a better and more authentic account of
our nobility, than had been given at that time of those in any
other country of Europe."--p. 1135.
CAMDEN AND BROOKE.
Literary, like political history, is interested in the cause of an
obscure individual, when deprived of his just rights--character of
CAMDEN--BROOKE'S "Discovery of Errors" in the "Britannia"--his
work disturbed in the printing--afterwards enlarged, but never
suffered to be published--whether BROOKE'S motive was personal
rancour!--the persecuted author becomes vindictive--his keen reply
to CAMDEN--CAMDEN'S beautiful picture of calumny--BROOKE furnishes
a humorous companion-piece--CAMDEN'S want of magnanimity and
justice--when great authors are allowed to suppress the works of
their adversary, the public receives the injury and the insult.
In the literary as well as the political commonwealth, the cause of an
obscure individual violently deprived of his just rights is a common
one. We protest against the power of genius itself, when it strangles
rather than wrestles with its adversary, or combats in mail against a
naked man. The general interests of literature are involved by the
illegitimate suppression of a work, of which the purpose is to correct
another, whatever may be the invective which accompanies the
correction: nor are we always to assign to malignant motives even this
spirit of invective, which, though it betrays a contracted genius, may
also show the earnestness of an honest one.
The quarrel between CAMDEN, the great author of the "Britannia," and
BROOKE, the "York Herald," may illustrate these principles. It has
hitherto been told to the shame of the inferior genius; but the
history of Brooke was imperfectly known to his contemporaries. Crushed
by oppression, his tale was marred in the telling. A century sometimes
passes away before the world can discover the truth even of a private
history.
Brooke is aspersed as a man of the meanest talents, insensible to the
genius of Camden, rankling with envy at his fame, and correcting the
"Britannia" out of mere spite.
When the history of Brooke is known, and his labours fairly estimated,
we shall blame him much less than he has been blamed; and censure
Camden, who has escaped all censure, and whose conduct, in the
present instance, was destitute of magnanimity and justice.
The character of the author of "Britannia" is great, and this error of
his feelings, now first laid to his charge, may be attributed as much
to the weakness of the age as to his own extreme timidity, and perhaps
to a little pride. Conscious as was Camden of enlarged views, we can
easily pardon him for the contempt he felt, when he compared them with
the subordinate ones of his cynical adversary.
Camden possessed one of those strongly directed minds which early in
life plan some vast labour, while their imagination and their industry
feed on it for many successive years; and they shed the flower and
sweetness of their lives in the preparation of a work which at its
maturity excites the gratitude of their nation. His passion for our
national antiquities discovered itself even in his school-days, grew
up with him at the University; and, when afterwards engaged in his
public duties as master at Westminster school, he there composed his
"Britannia," "at spare hours, and on festival days." To the perpetual
care of his work, he voluntarily sacrificed all other views in life,
and even drew himself away from domestic pleasures; for he refused
marriage and preferments, which might interrupt his beloved studies!
The work at length produced, received all the admiration due to so
great an enterprise; and even foreigners, as the work was composed in
the universal language of learning, could sympathise with Britons,
when they contemplated the stupendous labour. Camden was honoured by
the titles (for the very names of illustrious genius become such), of
the Varro, the Strabo, and the Pausanias of Britain.
While all Europe admired the "Britannia," a cynical genius, whose
mind seemed bounded by his confined studies, detected one error
amidst the noble views the mighty volume embraced; the single one
perhaps he could perceive, and for which he stood indebted to his
office as "York Herald." Camden, in an appendage to the end of
each county, had committed numerous genealogical errors, which he
afterwards affected, in his defence, to consider as trivial
matters in so great a history, and treats his adversary with all the
contempt and bitterness he could inflict on him; but Ralph Brooke
entertained very high notions of the importance of heraldical
studies, and conceived that the "Schoolmaster" Camden, as he
considered him, had encroached on the rights and honours of his
College of Heralds. When particular objects engage our studies, we
are apt to raise them in the scale of excellence to a degree
disproportioned to their real value; and are thus liable to incur
ridicule. But it should be considered that many useful students
are not philosophers, and the pursuits of their lives are never
ridiculous to them. It is not the interest of the public to degrade
this class too low. Every species of study contributes to the
perfection of human knowledge, by that universal bond which connects
them all in a philosophical mind.
Brooke prepared "A Discovery of Certain Errors in the Much-commended
Britannia." When we consider Brooke's character, as headstrong with
heraldry as Don Quixote's with romances of chivalry, we need not
attribute his motives (as Camden himself, with the partial feelings
of an author, does, and subsequent writers echo) to his envy at
Camden's promotion to be Clarencieux King of Arms; for it appears
that Brooke began his work before this promotion. The indecent
excesses of his pen, with the malicious charges of plagiarism he
brings against Camden for the use he made of Leland's collections,
only show the insensibility of the mere heraldist to the nobler
genius of the historian. Yet Brooke had no ordinary talents: his
work is still valuable for his own peculiar researches; but his
_naïve_ shrewdness, his pointed precision, the bitter invective, and
the caustic humour of his cynical pen, give an air of originality,
if not of genius, which no one has dared to notice. Brooke's first
work against Camden was violently disturbed in its progress, and
hurried, in a mutilated state, into the world, without licence or a
publisher's name. Thus impeded, and finally crushed, the howl of
persecution followed his name; and subsequent writers servilely traced
his character from their partial predecessors.
But Brooke, though denied the fair freedom of the press, and a victim
to the powerful connexions of Camden, calmly pursued his silent labour
with great magnanimity. He wrote his "Second Discovery of Errors," an
enlargement of the first. This he carefully finished for the press,
but could never get published. The secret history of the controversy
may be found there.[396]
Brooke had been loudly accused of indulging a personal rancour against
Camden, and the motive of his work was attributed to envy of his great
reputation; a charge constantly repeated.
Yet this does not appear, for when Brooke first began his "Discovery
of Errors," he did not design its publication; for he liberally offered
Camden his Observations and Collections. They were fastidiously, perhaps
haughtily, rejected; on this pernicious and false principle, that to
correct his errors in genealogy might discredit the whole work. On
which absurdity Brooke shrewdly remarks--"As if healing the sores would
have maimed the body." He speaks with more humility on this occasion
than an insulted, yet a skilful writer, was likely to do, who had his
labours considered, as he says, "worthy neither of thanks nor
acceptance."
"The rat is not so contemptible but he may help the lion, at a pinch,
out of those nets wherein his strength is hampered; and the words of
an inferior may often carry matter in them to admonish his superior of
some important consideration; and surely, of what account soever I
might have seemed to this learned man, yet, in respect to my
profession and courteous offer, (I being an officer-of-arms, and he
then but a schoolmaster), might well have vouchsafed the perusal of my
notes."
When he published, our herald stated the reasons of writing against
Camden with good-humour, and rallies him on his "incongruity in his
principles of heraldry--for which I challenge him!--for depriving some
nobles of issue to succeed them, who had issue, of whom are descended
many worthy families: denying barons and earls that were, and making
barons and earls of others that were not; mistaking the son for the
father, and the father for the son; affirming legitimate children to
be illegitimate, and illegitimate to be legitimate; and framing
incestuous and unnatural marriages, making the father to marry the
son's wife, and the son his own mother."
He treats Camden with the respect due to his genius, while he
judiciously distinguishes where the greatest ought to know when to
yield.
"The most abstruse arts I profess not, but yield the palm and victory
to mine adversary, that great learned Mr. Camden, with whom, yet, a
long experimented navigator may contend about his chart and compass,
about havens, creeks, and sounds; so I, an ancient herald, a little
dispute, without imputation of audacity, concerning the honour of
arms, and the truth of honourable descents."
Brooke had seen, as he observes, in four editions of the "Britannia,"
a continued race of errors, in false descents, &c., and he continues,
with a witty allusion:--
"Perceiving that even the brains of many learned men beyond the seas
had misconceived and miscarried in the travail and birth of their
relations, being gotten, as it were, with child (as Diomedes's mares)
by the blasts of his erroneous puffs; I could not but a little
question the original father of their absurdities, being so far blown,
with the trumpet of his learning and fame, into foreign lands."
He proceeds with instances of several great authors on the Continent
having been misled by the statements of Camden.
Thus largely have I quoted from Brooke, to show, that at first he
never appears to have been influenced by the mean envy, or the
personal rancour, of which he is constantly accused. As he proceeded
in his work, which occupied him several years, his reproaches are
whetted with a keener edge, and his accusations are less generous. But
to what are we to attribute this? To the contempt and persecution
Brooke so long endured from Camden: these acted on his vexed and
degraded spirit, till it burst into the excesses of a man heated with
injured feelings.
When Camden took his station in the Herald's College with Brooke,
whose offers of his notes he had refused to accept, they soon found
what it was for two authors to live under the same roof, who were
impatient to write against each other. The cynical York, at first,
would twit the new king-of-arms, perpetually affirming that "his
predecessor was a more able herald than any who lived in this age:" a
truth, indeed, acknowledged by Dugdale. On this occasion, once the
king-of-arms gave malicious York "the lie!" reminding the crabbed
herald of "his own learning; who, as a scholar, was famous through all
the provinces of Christendom." "So that (adds Brooke) now I learnt,
that before him, when we speak in commendation of any other, to say, I
must always except Plato." Camden would allow of no private
communication between them; and in _Sermonibus Convivalibus_, in his
table-talk, "the heat and height of his spirit" often scorched the
contemned Yorkist, whose rejected "Discovery of Errors" had no doubt
been too frequently enlarged, after such rough convivialities. Brooke
now resolved to print; but, in printing the work, the press was
disturbed, and his house was entered by "this learned man, his
friends, and the stationers." The latter were alarmed for the sale of
the "Britannia," which might have been injured by this rude attack.
The work was therefore printed in an unfinished state: part was
intercepted; and the author stopped, by authority, from proceeding any
further. Some imperfect copies got abroad.
The treatment the exasperated Brooke now incurred was more provoking
than Camden's refusal of his notes, and the haughtiness of his
"Sermonibus Convivalibus." The imperfect work was, however, laid
before the public, so that Camden could not refuse to notice its
grievous charges. He composed an angry reply in Latin, addressed _ad
Lectorem_! and never mentioning Brooke by name, contemptuously alludes
to him only by a _Quidam_ and _Iste_ (a certain person, and He!)--"He
considers me (cries the mortified Brooke, in his second suppressed
work) as an _Individuum vagum_, and makes me but a _Quidam_ in his
pamphlet, standing before him as a schoolboy, while he whips me. Why
does he reply in Latin to an English accusation? He would disguise
himself in his school-rhetoric; wherein, like the cuttle-fish, being
stricken, he thinks to hide and shift himself away in the ink of his
rhetoric. I will clear the waters again."
He fastens on Camden's former occupation, virulently accusing him of
the manners of a pedagogue:--"A man may perceive an immoderate and
eager desire of vainglory growing in hand, ever since he used to
teach and correct children for these things, according to the opinion
of some, _in mores et naturam abeunt_." He complains of "the
school-hyperboles" which Camden exhausts on him, among which Brooke
is compared to "the strumpet Leontion," who wrote against "the divine
Theophrastus." To this Brooke keenly replies:
"Surely, had Theophrastus dealt with women's matters, a woman, though
mean, might in reason have contended with him. A king must be content
to be laughed at if he come into Apelles's shop, and dispute about
colours and portraiture. I am not ambitious nor envious to carp at
matters of higher learning than matters of heraldry, which I profess:
that is the slipper, wherein I know a slip when I find it. But see
your cunning; you can, with the blur of your pen, dipped in copperas
and gall, make me learned and unlearned; nay, you can almost change my
sex, and make me a whore, like Leontion; and, taking your silver pen
again, make yourself the divine Theophrastus."
At the close of Camden's answer, he introduced the allegorical picture
of Calumny, that elegant invention of the Grecian fancy of Apelles,
painted by him when suffering under the false accusations of a rival.
The picture is described by Lucian; but it has received many happy
touches from the classical hand of the master of Westminster School.
As a literary satire, he applies it with great dignity. I give here a
translation, but I preserve the original Latin in the note as Camden's
reply to Brooke is not easily to be procured.
"But though I am not disposed to waste more words on these, and this
sort of men, yet I cannot resist the temptation of adding a slight
sketch, for I cannot give that vivacity of colouring of the picture of
the great artist Apelles that our Antiphilus and the like, whose ears
are ever open to calumny, may, in contemplating it, find a reflection
of themselves.
"On the right hand sits a man, who, to show his credulity, is
remarkable for his prodigious ears, similar to those of Midas. He
extends his hand to greet Calumny, who is approaching him. The two
diminutive females around him are Ignorance and Suspicion. Opposite to
them, Calumny advances, betraying in her countenance and gesture the
savage rage and anger working in her tempestuous breast: her left hand
holds a flaming torch; while with her right she drags by the hair a
youth, who, stretching his uplifted hands to Heaven, is calling on the
immortal powers to bear testimony to his innocence. She is preceded by
a man of a pallid and impure appearance, seemingly wasting away under
some severe disease, except that his eye sparkles, and has not the
dulness usual to such. That Envy is here meant, you readily
conjecture. Some diminutive females, frauds and deceits, attend her as
companions, whose office is to encourage and instruct, and studiously
to adorn their mistress. In the background, Repentance, sadly arrayed
in a mournful, worn-out, and ragged garment, who, with averted head,
with tears and shame, acknowledges and prepares to receive Truth,
approaching from a distance."[397]
This elegant picture, so happily introduced into a piece of literary
controversy, appears to have only slightly affected the mind of
Brooke, which was probably of too stout a grain to take the folds of
Grecian drapery. Instead of sympathising with its elegance, he breaks
out into a horse-laugh; and, what is quite unexpected among such grave
inquiries into a ludicrous tale in verse, which, though it has not
Grecian fancy, has broad English humour, where he maliciously
insinuates that Camden had appropriated to his own use, or "new-coated
his 'Britannia'" with Leland's MSS., and disguised what he had
stolen.
Now, to show himself as good a painter as he is a herald, he
propounded, at the end of his book, a table (_i.e._ a picture) of
his own invention, being nothing comparable to "Apelles," as he
himself confesseth, and we believe him; for, like the rude painter
that was fain to write, 'This is a Horse,' upon his painted horse,
he writes upon his picture the names of all that furious rabble
therein expressed--which, for to requite him, I will return a tale of
John Fletcher (some time of Oxford) and his horse. Neither can this
fable be any disparagement to his table, being more ancient and
authenticall, and far more conceipted than his envious picture. And
thus it was:--
A TALE (NOT OF A ROASTED) BUT OF A PAINTED HORSE.
JOHN FLETCHER, famous, and a man well known,
But using not his sirname's trade alone,[398]
Did hackney out poor jades for common hire,
Not fit for any pastime but to tire.
His conscience, once, surveying his jade's stable,
Prick'd him, for keeping horses so unable.
"Oh why should I," saith John, "by scholars thrive,
For jades that will not carry, lead, nor drive?"
To mend the matter, out he starts, one night,
And having spied a palfrey somewhat white,
He takes him up, and up he mounts his back,
Rides to his house, and there he turns him black;
Marks him in forehead, feet, in rump, and crest,
As coursers mark those horses which are best.
So neatly John had coloured every spot,
That the right owner sees him, knows him not.
Had he but feather'd his new-painted breast,
He would have seemèd Pegasus at least.
Who but John Fletcher's horse, in all the town,
Amongst all hackneys, purchased this renown?
But see the luck; John Fletcher's horse, one night,
By rain was wash'd again almost to white.
His first right owner, seeing such a change,
Thought he should know him, but his hue was strange!
But eyeing him, and spying out his steed,
By flea-bit spots of his now washèd weed,
Seizes the horse; so Fletcher was attainted,
And did confess the horse--he stole and painted.
To close with honour to Brooke; in his graver moments he warmly repels
the accusation Camden raised against him, as an enemy to learning, and
appeals to many learned scholars, who had tasted of his liberality at
the Universities, towards their maintenance; but, in an elevated tone,
he asserts his right to deliver his animadversions as York Herald.
"I know (says Brooke) the great advantage my adversary has over me, in
the received opinion of the world. If some will blame me for that my
writings carry some characters of spleen against him, men of pure
affections, and not partial, will think reason that he should, by ill
hearing, lose the pleasure he conceived by ill speaking. But since I
presume not to understand above that which is meet for me to know, I
must not be discouraged, nor fret myself, because of the malicious;
for I find myself seated upon a rock, that is sure from tempest and
waves, from whence I have a prospect into his errors and waverings. I
do confess his great worth and merit, and that we Britons are in some
sort beholding to him; and might have been much more, if God had lent
him the grace to have played the faithful steward, in the talent
committed to his trust and charge."
Such was the dignified and the intrepid reply of Ralph Brooke, a man
whose name is never mentioned without an epithet of reproach; and who,
in his own day, was hunted down, and not suffered, vindictive as he
was no doubt, to relieve his bitter and angry spirit, by pouring it
forth to the public eye.[399]
But the story is not yet closed. Camden, who wanted the magnanimity to
endure with patient dignity the corrections of an inferior genius, had
the wisdom, with the meanness, silently to adopt his useful
corrections, but would never confess the hand which had brought
them.[400]
Thus hath Ralph Brooke told his own tale undisturbed, and, after the
lapse of more than a century, the press has been opened to him.
Whenever a great author is suffered to gag the mouth of his
adversary, Truth receives the insult. But there is another point more
essential to inculcate in literary controversy. Ought we to look
too scrupulously into the motives which may induce an inferior
author to detect the errors of a greater? A man from no amiable
motive may perform a proper action: Ritson was useful after Warton;
nor have we a right to ascribe it to any concealed motives, which,
after all, may be doubtful. In the present instance, our much-abused
Ralph Brooke first appears to have composed his elaborate work
from the most honourable motives: the offer he made of his Notes to
Camden seems a sufficient evidence. The pride of a great man first led
Camden into an error, and that error plunged him into all the
barbarity of persecution; thus, by force, covering his folly.
Brooke over-valued his studies: it is the nature of those peculiar
minds adapted to excel in such contracted pursuits. He undertook an
ungracious office, and he has suffered by being placed by the side
of the illustrious genius with whom he has so skilfully combated
in his own province; and thus he has endured contempt, without
being contemptible. The public are not less the debtors to such
unfortunate, yet intrepid authors.[401]
FOOTNOTES:
[396] This work was not given to the public till 1724, a small quarto,
with a fine portrait of Brooke. More than a century had
elapsed since its forcible suppression. Anstis printed it
from the fair MS. which Brooke had left behind him. The
author's paternal affection seemed fondly to imagine its
child might be worthy of posterity, though calumniated by
its contemporaries.
[397] "Verum enimverò de his et hoc genere hominum ne verbum amplius
addam, tabellam tamen summi illius artificis Apellis, cùm
colorum vivacitate depingere non possim, verbis leviter
adumbrabo et proponam, ut Antiphilus noster, suique similes,
et qui calumniis credunt, hanc, et in hac seipsos semel
simulque intueantur.
"Ad dextram sedet quidam, quia credulus, auribus prælongis
insignis, quales ferè illæ Midæ feruntur. Manum porrigit
procul accedenti Calumniæ. Circumstant eum mulierculæ duæ,
Ignorantia ac Suspicio. Adit aliunde propiùs Calumnia eximiè
compta, vultu ipso et gestu corporis efferens rabiem, et iram
æstuanti conceptam pectore præ se ferens: sinistra facem
tenens flammantem, dextra secum adolescentem capillis
arreptum, manus ad superos tendentem, obtestantemque
immortalium deorum fidem, trahit. Anteit vir pallidus, in
specium impurus, acie oculorum minimè hebeti, cæterùm planè
iis símilis, qui gravi aliquo morbo contabuerunt. Hic livor
est, ut facilè conjicias. Quin, et mulierculæ aliquot Insidiæ
et Fallaciæ ut comites Calumniam comitantur. Harum est munus,
dominam hortari, instruere, comere, et subornare. A tergo,
habitu lugubri, pullato, laceroque Poenitentia subsequitur,
quæ capite in tergum deflexo, cum lachrymis, ac pudore procul
venientem Veritatem agnoscit, et excipit."
[398] A _Fletcher_ is a maker of bows and arrows.--ASH.
[399] Brooke died at the old mansion opposite the Roman town of
Reculver in Kent. The house is still known as Brooke-farm; and
the original gateway of decorative brickwork still exists. He
was buried in Reculver Church, now destroyed, where a mural
monument was erected to his memory, having a rhyming
inscription, which told the reader:--
"Fifteenth October he was last alive,
One thousand six hundred and twenty-five,
Seaventy-three years bore he fortune's harms,
And forty-five an officer of armes."
Brooke was originally a painter-stainer. His enmity to Camden
appears to have originated in the appointment of the latter to
the office of Clarencieux on the death of Richard Lee; he
believing himself to be qualified for the place by greater
knowledge, and by his long connexion with the College of Arms.
His mode of righting himself lacked judgment, and he was twice
suspended from his office, and was even attempted to be
expelled therefrom.--ED.
[400] In Anstis's edition of "A Second Discoverie of Errors in the
Much-commended 'Britannia,' &c.," 1724, the reader will find
all the passages in the "Britannia" of the edition of 1594 to
which Brooke made exceptions, placed column-wise with the
following edition of it in 1600. It is, as Anstis observes, a
debt to truth, without making any reflections.
[401] There is a sensible observation in the old "Biographia
Britannica" on Brooke. "From the splenetic attack originally
made by Rafe Brooke upon the 'Britannia' arose very _great
advantages to the public_, by the shifting and bringing to
light as good, perhaps a better and more authentic account of
our nobility, than had been given at that time of those in any
other country of Europe."--p. 1135.
MARTIN MAR-PRELATE.
Of the two prevalent factions in the reign of Elizabeth, the
Catholics and the Puritans--Elizabeth's philosophical indifference
offends both--Maunsell's Catalogue omits the books of both
parties--of the Puritans, "the mild and moderate, with the fierce
and fiery," a great religious body covering a political
one--Thomas Cartwright, the chief of the Puritans, and his rival
Whitgift--attempts to make the Ecclesiastical paramount to the
Civil Power--his plan in dividing the country into comitial,
provincial, and national assemblies, to be concentrated under the
secret head at Warwick, where Cartwright was elected "perpetual
Moderator!"--after the most bitter controversies, Cartwright
became very compliant to his old rival Whitgift, when Archbishop
of Canterbury--of MARTIN MAR-PRELATE--his sons--specimens of their
popular ridicule and invective--Cartwright approves of this mode
of controversy--better counteracted by the wits than by the grave
admonishers--specimens of the ANTI-MARTIN MAR-PRELATES--of the
authors of these surreptitious publications.
The Reformation, or the new Religion, as it was then called, under
Elizabeth, was the most philosophical she could form, and therefore
the most hateful to the zealots of all parties. It was worthy of her
genius, and of a better age! Her sole object was, a deliverance from
the Papal usurpation. Her own supremacy maintained, she designed to be
the great sovereign of a great people; and the Catholic, for some
time, was called to her council-board, and entered with the Reformer
into the same church. But wisdom itself is too weak to regulate human
affairs, when the passions of men rise up in obstinate insurrection.
Elizabeth neither won over the Reformers nor the Catholics. An
excommunicating bull, precipitated by Papal Machiavelism, driving on
the brutalised obedience of its slaves, separated the friends. This
was a political error arising from a misconception of the weakness of
our government; and when discovered as such, a tolerating dispensation
was granted "till better times;" an unhealing expedient, to join again
a dismembered nation! It would surprise many, were they aware how
numerous were our ancient families and our eminent characters who
still remained Catholics.[402] The country was then divided, and
Englishmen who were heroic Romanists fell the terrible victims.
On the other side, the national evil took a new form. It is
probable that the Queen, regarding the mere ceremonies of religion,
now venerable with age, as matters of indifference, and her fine
taste perhaps still lingering amid the solemn gorgeousness of the
Roman service, and her senses and her emotions excited by the
religious scenery, did not share in that abhorrence of the paintings
and the images, the chant and the music, the censer and the altar,
and the pomp of the prelatical habits, which was prompting many
well-intentioned Reformers to reduce the ecclesiastical state into
apostolical nakedness and primitive rudeness. She was slow to meet
this austerity of feeling, which in this country at length extirpated
those arts which exalt our nature, and for this these pious Vandals
nicknamed the Queen "the untamed heifer;" and the fierce Knox
expressly wrote his "First Blast Against the Monstrous Government of
Women." Of these Reformers, many had imbibed the republican
notions of Calvin. In their hatred of Popery, they imagined that they
had not gone far enough in their wild notions of reform, for they
viewed it, still shadowed out in the new hierarchy of the bishops.
The fierce Calvin, in his little church at Geneva, presumed to rule a
great nation on the scale of a parish institution; copying the
apostolical equality at a time when the Church (say the Episcopalians)
had all the weakness of infancy, and could live together in a
community of all things, from a sense of their common poverty. Be
this as it may, the dignified ecclesiastical order was a vulnerable
institution, which could do no greater injury, and might effect as
much public good as any other order in the state.[403] My business
is not with this discussion. I mean to show how the republican system
of these Reformers ended in a political struggle which, crushed in
the reign of Elizabeth, and beaten down in that of James, so
furiously triumphed under Charles. Their history exhibits the
curious spectacle of a great religious body covering a political
one--such as was discovered among the Jesuits, and such as may again
distract the empire, in some new and unexpected shape.
Elizabeth was harassed by the two factions of the intriguing Catholic
and the disguised Republican. The age abounded with libels.[404] Many
a _Benedicite_ was handed to her from the Catholics; but a portentous
personage, masked, stepped forth from a club of PURITANS, and
terrified the nation by continued visitations, yet was never visible
till the instant of his adieus--"starting like a guilty thing upon a
fearful summons!"
Men echo the tone of their age, yet still the same unvarying human
nature is at work; and the Puritans,[405] who in the reign of
Elizabeth imagined it was impossible to go too far in the business of
reform, were the spirits called _Roundheads_ under Charles, and who
have got another nickname in our days. These wanted a Reformation of a
Reformation--they aimed at reform, but they designed Revolution; and
they would not accept of toleration, because they had determined on
predominance.[406]
Of this faction, the chief was THOMAS CARTWRIGHT, a person of great
learning, and doubtless of great ambition. Early in life a
disappointed man, the progress was easy to a disaffected subject. At a
Philosophy Act, in the University of Cambridge, in the royal presence,
the queen preferred and rewarded his opponent for the slighter and
more attractive elegances in which the learned Cartwright was
deficient. He felt the wound rankle in his ambitious spirit. He began,
as Sir George Paul, in his "Life of Archbishop Whitgift," expresses
it, "to kick against her Ecclesiastical Government." He expatriated
himself several years, and returned fierce with the republican spirit
he had caught among the Calvinists at Geneva, which aimed at the
extirpation of the bishops. It was once more his fate to be poised
against another rival, Whitgift, the Queen's Professor of Divinity.
Cartwright, in some lectures, advanced his new doctrines; and these
innovations soon raised a formidable party, "buzzing their conceits
into the green heads of the University."[408] Whitgift regularly
preached at Cartwright, but to little purpose; for when Cartwright
preached at St. Mary's they were forced to take down the windows. Once
our sly polemic, taking advantage of the absence of Whitgift, so
powerfully operated, in three sermons on one Sunday, that in the
evening his victory declared itself, by the students of Trinity
College rejecting their surplices, as Papistical badges. Cartwright
was now to be confuted by other means. The University refused him his
degree of D.D.; condemned the lecturer to silence; and at length
performed that last feeble act of power, expulsion. In a heart already
alienated from the established authorities, this could only envenom a
bitter spirit. Already he had felt a personal dislike to royalty, and
now he had received an insult from the University: these were motives
which, though concealed, could not fail to work in a courageous mind,
whose new forms of religion accorded with his political feelings. The
"Degrees" of the University, which he now declared to be "unlawful,"
were to be considered "as limbs of Antichrist." The whole hierarchy
was to be exterminated for a republic of Presbyters; till, through the
church, the republican, as we shall see, discovered a secret passage
to the Cabinet of his Sovereign, where he had many protectors.
Such is my conception of the character of Cartwright. The reader is
enabled to judge for himself by the note.[409]
But Cartwright, chilled by an imprisonment, and witnessing some of
his party condemned, and some executed, after having long sustained
the most elevated and rigid tone, suddenly let his alp of ice
dissolve away in the gentlest thaw that ever occurred in political
life. Ambitious he was, but not of martyrdom! His party appeared once
formidable,[410] and his protection at Court sure. I have read
several letters of the Earl of Leicester, in MS., that show he always
shielded Cartwright, whenever in danger. Many of the ministers of
Elizabeth were Puritans; but doubtless this was before their state
policy had detected the politicians in mask. When some of his
followers had dared to do what he had only thought, he appears to
have forsaken them. They reproached him for this left-handed
policy, some of the boldest of them declaring that they had neither
acted nor written anything but what was warranted by his principles.
I do not know many political ejaculations more affecting than that
of Henry Barrow, said to have been a dissipated youth, when
Cartwright refused, before Barrow's execution, to allow of a
conference. The deluded man, after a deep sigh, said: "Shall I be
thus forsaken by him? Was it not he that brought me first into
these briars? and will he now leave me in the same? Was it not from
him alone that I took my grounds? Or did I not, out of such
premises as he pleased to give me, infer those propositions, and
deduce those conclusions, for which I am now kept in these bonds?" He
was soon after executed, with others.
Then occurred one of those political spectacles at which the
simple-minded stare, and the politic smile; when, after the most cruel
civil war of words,[411] Cartwright wrote very compliant letters to
his old rival, Whitgift, now Archbishop of Canterbury; while the
Archbishop was pleading with the Queen in favour of the inveterate
Republican, declaring that had Cartwright not so far engaged himself
in the beginning, he thought he would have been, latterly, drawn into
conformity. To clear up this mysterious conduct, we must observe that
Cartwright seems to have graduated his political ambition to the
degree the government touched of weakness or of strength; and besides,
he was now growing prudent as he was growing rich. For it seems that
he who was for scrambling for the Church revenues, while telling the
people of the Apostles, _silver and gold they had none_, was himself
"feeding too fair and fat" for the meagre groaning state of a
pretended reformation. He had early in life studied that part of the
law by which he had learned the marketable price of landed property;
and as the cask still retains its old flavour, this despiser of
bishops was still making the best interest for his money by
land-jobbing.[412]
One of the memorable effects of this attempted innovation was that
continued stream of libels which ran throughout the nation, under the
portentous name of Martin Mar-Prelate.[413] This extraordinary
personage, in his collective form, for he is to be splitted into more
than one, long terrified Church and State. He walked about the kingdom
invisibly, dropping here a libel, and there a proclamation for
sedition; but wherever _Martinism_ was found, _Martin_ was not. He
prided himself in what he calls "Pistling the Bishops." Sometimes he
hints to his pursuers how they may catch him, for he prints, "within
two furlongs of a bouncing priest," or "in Europe;" while he acquaints
his friends, who were so often uneasy for his safety, that "he has
neither wife nor child," and prays "they may not be anxious for him,
for he wishes that his head might not go to the grave in peace."--"I
come, with the rope about my neck, to save you, howsoever it goeth
with me." His press is interrupted, he is silent, and Lambeth seems to
breathe in peace. But he has "a son; nay, five hundred sons!" and
_Martin Junior_ starts up! He inquires
"Where his father is; he who had studied the art of pistle-making? Why
has he been tongue-tied these four or five months? Good Nuncles (the
bishops), have you closely murthered the gentleman in some of your
prisons? Have you choaked him with a fat prebend or two? I trow my
father will swallow down no such pills, for he would thus soon purge
away all the conscience he hath. Do you mean to have the keeping of
him? What need that? he hath five hundred sons in the land. My father
would be sorry to put you to any such cost as you intend to be at with
him. A meaner house, and less strength than the Tower, the Fleet, or
Newgate, would serve him well enough. He is not of that ambitious vein
that many of his brethren the bishops are, in seeking for more costly
houses than even his father built for him."
This same "Martin Junior," who, though he is but young, as he says,
"has a pretty smattering gift in this pistle-making; and I fear, in a
while, I shall take a pride in it." He had picked up beside a bush,
where it had dropped from somebody, an imperfect paper of his
father's:--
"Theses Martinianæ--set forth as an after-birth of the noble gentleman
himselfe, by a pretty stripling of his, Martin Junior, and dedicated
by him to his good nuncka, Maister John Cankerbury (i.e. Canterbury).
Printed without a sly privilege of the Cater Caps"--(i.e. the square
caps the bishops wore).
But another of these five hundred sons, who declares himself to be his
"reverend and elder brother, heir to the renowned _Martin Mar-Prelate_
the Great," publishes
"The just Censure and Reproof of Martin Junior; where, lest the
Springall should be utterly discouraged in his good meaning, you shall
finde that he is not bereaved of his due commendation."
_Martin Senior_, after finding fault with _Martin Junior_ for "his
rash and indiscreet headiness," notwithstanding agrees with everything
he had said. He confirms all, and cheers him; but charges him,
"Should he meet their father in the street, never to ask his blessing,
but walke smoothly and circumspectly; and if anie offer to talk with
thee of Martin, talke thou straite of the voyage into Portugal, or of
the happie death of the Duke of Guise, or some such accident; but
meddle not with thy father. Only, if thou have gathered anie thing in
visitation for thy father, intreate him to signify, in some secret
printed pistle, where a will have it lefte. I feare least some of us
should fall into John Canterburie's hand."
Such were the mysterious personages who, for a long time, haunted the
palaces of the bishops and the vicarages of the clergy, disappearing
at the moment they were suddenly perceived to be near. Their slanders
were not only coarse buffooneries, but the hottest effusions of
hatred, with an unparalleled invective of nicknames.[414] Levelled at
the bishops, even the natural defects, the personal infirmities, the
domestic privacies, much more the tyranny, of these now "petty popes,"
now "bouncing priests," now "terrible priests," were the inexhaustible
subjects of these popular invectives.[415] Those "pillars of the
State" were now called "its caterpillars;" and the inferior clergy,
who perhaps were not always friendly to their superiors, yet dreaded
this new race of innovators, were distinguished as "halting neutrals."
These invectives were well farced for the gross taste of the
multitude; and even the jargon of the lowest of the populace affected,
and perhaps the coarse malignity of two _cobblers_ who were connected
with the party, often enlivened the satirical page. The _Martin
Mar-Prelate_ productions are not, however, effusions of genius; they
were addressed to the coarser passions of mankind, their hatred and
contempt. The authors were grave men, but who affected to gain over
the populace with a popular familiarity.[416] In vain the startled
bishops remonstrated: they were supposed to be criminals, and were
little attended to as their own advocates. Besides, they were solemn
admonishers, and the mob are composed of laughers and scorners.
The Court-party did not succeed more happily when they persecuted
Martin, broke up his presses, and imprisoned his assistants. Never
did sedition travel so fast, nor conceal itself so closely; for they
employed a moveable press; and, as soon as it was surmised that Martin
was in Surrey, it was found he was removed to Northamptonshire, while
the next account came that he was showing his head in Warwickshire.
And long they invisibly conveyed themselves, till in Lancashire the
snake was scotched by the Earl of Derby, with all its little
brood.[417]
These pamphlets were "speedily dispersed and greedily read," not only
by the people; they had readers and even patrons among persons of
condition. They were found in the corners of chambers at Court; and
when a prohibition issued that no person should carry about them any
of the Mar-Prelate pamphlets on pain of punishment, the Earl of Essex
observed to the Queen, "What then is to become of me?" drawing one of
these pamphlets out of his bosom, and presenting it to her.
The Martinists were better counteracted by the Wits, in some
extraordinary effusions, prodigal of humour and invective Wit and
raillery were happily exercised against these masked divines: for the
gaiety of the Wits was not foreign to their feelings. The Mar-Prelates
showed merry faces, but it was with a sardonic grin they had swallowed
the convulsing herb; they horridly laughed against their will--at
bottom all was gloom and despair. The extraordinary style of their
pamphlets, concocted in the basest language of the populace, might
have originated less from design than from the impotence of the
writers. Grave and learned persons have often found to their cost that
wit and humour must spring from the soil; no art of man can plant them
there. With such, this play and grace of the intellect can never be
the movements of their nature, but its convulsions.
Father Martin and his two sons received "A sound boxe of the eare," in
"a pistle" to "the father and the two sonnes, Huffe, Ruffe, and
Snuffe, the three tame ruffians of the Church, who take pepper in the
nose because they cannot marre prelates grating," when they once met
with an adversary who openly declared--
"I profess rayling, and think it is as good a cudgel for a Martin as a
stone for a dogge, or a whip for an ape, or poison for a rat. Who
would curry an ass with an ivory comb? Give this beast thistles for
provender. I doe but yet angle with a silken flie, to see whether
Martins will nibble; and if I see that, why then I have wormes for the
nonce, and will give them line enough, like a trowte, till they
swallow both hooke and line, and then, Martin, beware your gills, for
I'll make you daunce at the pole's end."
"Fill thy answer as full of lies as of lines, swell like a toade, hiss
like an adder, bite like a dog, and chatter like a monkey, my pen is
prepared, and my mind; and if you chaunce to find anie worse words
than you broughte, let them be put in your dad's dictionarie.
Farewell, and be hanged; and I pray God you fare no worse.--Yours at
an hour's warning."
This was the proper way to reply to such writers, by driving them out
of the field with their own implements of warfare. "Pasquill of
England"[418] admirably observed of the papers of this faction--"Doubt
not but that the same reckoning in the ende will be made of you which
your favourers commonly make of their old shooes--when they are past
wearing, they barter them awaie for newe broomes, or carrie them forth
to the dunghill and leave them there." The writers of these Martin
Mar-Prelate books have been tolerably ascertained,[419] considering the
secrecy with which they were printed--sometimes at night, sometimes hid
in cellars, and never long in one place: besides the artifices used in
their dispersion, by motley personages, held together by an invisible
chain of confederacy. Conspiracy, like other misery, "acquaints a
man with strange bedfellows;" and the present confederacy combined
persons of the most various descriptions, and perhaps of very opposite
views. I find men of learning, and of rigid lives, intimately
associated with dissipated, or with too ardently-tempered youths;
connected, too, with maniacs, whose lunacy had taken a revolutionary
turn; and men of rank combining with old women and cobblers.[420]
Such are the party-coloured apostles of insurrection! and thus their
honourable and dishonourable motives lie so blended together, that the
historian cannot separate them. At the moment the haughty spirit of
a conspirator is striking at the head of established authority, he
is himself crouching to the basest intimates; and to escape often
from an ideal degradation, he can bear with a real one.
Of the heads of this party, I shall notice Penry and Udall, two
self-devoted victims to Nonconformity. The most active was John Penry,
or _Ap Henry_. He exulted that "he was born and bred in the mountains
of Wales:" he had, however, studied at both our Universities. He had
all the heat of his soil and of his party. He "wished that his head
might not go down to the grave in peace," and was just the man to
obtain his purpose. When he and his papers were at length seized,
Penry pleaded that he could not be tried for sedition, professing
unbounded loyalty to the Queen: such is the usual plea of even violent
Reformers. Yet how could Elizabeth be the sovereign, unless she
adopted the mode of government planned by these Reformers? In defence
of his papers, he declared that they were only the private memorandums
of a scholar, in which, during his wanderings about the kingdom, he
had collected all the objections he had heard against the government.
Yet these, though written down, might not be his own. He observed that
they were not even English, nor intelligible to his accusers; but a
few Welshisms could not save Ap Henry; and the judge, assuming the
hardy position, that _scribere est agere_, the author found more
honour conferred on his MSS. than his genius cared to receive. It was
this very principle which proved so fatal, at a later period, to a
more elevated politician than Penry; yet Algernon Sidney, perhaps,
possessed not a spirit more Roman.[421] State necessity claimed
another victim; and this ardent young man, whose execution had been at
first unexpectedly postponed, was suddenly hurried from his dinner to
a temporary gallows; a circumstance marked by its cruelty, but
designed to prevent an expected tumult.[422]
Contrasted with this fiery Mar-Prelate was another, the learned
subtile John Udall. His was the spirit which dared to do all that
Penry had dared, yet conducting himself in the heat of action with the
tempered wariness of age: "If they silence me as a minister," said he,
"it will allow me leisure to write; and then I will give the bishops
such a blow as shall make their hearts ache." It was agreed among the
party neither to deny, or to confess, writing any of their books, lest
among the suspected the real author might thus be discovered, or
forced solemnly to deny his own work; and when the Bishop of
Rochester, to catch Udall by surprise, suddenly said, "Let me ask you
a question concerning your book," the wary Udall replied, "It is not
yet proved to be mine!" He adroitly explained away the offending
passages the lawyers picked out of his book, and in a contest between
him and the judge, not only repelled him with his own arms, but when
his lordship would have wrestled on points of divinity, Udall expertly
perplexed the lawyer by showing he had committed an anachronism of
four hundred years! He was equally acute with the witnesses; for when
one deposed that he had seen a catalogue of Udall's library, in which
was inserted "The Demonstration of Discipline," the anonymous book for
which Udall was prosecuted; with great ingenuity he observed that this
was rather an argument that he was not the author, for "scholars use
not to put their own books in the catalogue of those they have in
their study." We observe with astonishment the tyrannical decrees of
our courts of justice, which lasted till the happy Revolution. The
bench was as depraved in their notions of the rights of the subject in
the reign of Elizabeth as in those of Charles II. and James II. The
Court refused to hear Udall's witnesses, on this strange principle,
that "witnesses in favour of the prisoner were against the queen!" To
which Udall replied, "It is for the queen to hear all things when the
life of any of her subjects is in question." The criminal felt what
was just more than his judges; and yet the judge, though to be
reprobated for his mode, calling so learned a man "Sirrah!" was right
in the thing, when he declared that "you would bring the queen and the
crown under your girdles." It is remarkable that Udall repeatedly
employed that expression which Algernon Sidney left as his last legacy
to the people, when he told them he was about to die for "that _Old
Cause_ in which I was from my youth engaged." Udall perpetually
insisted on "_The Cause_." This was a term which served at least for a
watchword: it rallied the scattered members of the republican party.
The precision of the expression might have been difficult to
ascertain; and, perhaps, like every popular expedient, varied with
"existing circumstances." I did not, however, know it had so remote an
origin as in the reign of Elizabeth; and suspect it may still be
freshened up, and varnished over, for any present occasion.
The last stroke for Udall's character is the history of his
condemnation. He suffered the cruel mockery of a pardon granted
conditionally, by the intercession of the Scottish monarch but never
signed by the Queen--and Udall mouldered away the remnant of his days
in a rigid imprisonment.[423] Cartwright and Travers, the chief movers
of this faction, retreated with haste and caution from the victims
they had conducted to the place of execution, while they themselves
sunk into a quiet forgetfulness and selfish repose.
FOOTNOTES:
[402] The Church History by Dodd, a Catholic, fills three vols. folio:
it is very rare and curious. Much of our own domestic history
is interwoven in that of the fugitive papists, and the
materials of this work are frequently drawn from their own
archives, preserved in their seminaries at Douay, Valladolid,
&c., which have not been accessible to Protestant writers.
Here I discovered a copious nomenclature of eminent persons,
and many literary men, with many unknown facts, both of a
private and public nature. It is useful, at times, to know
whether an English author was a Catholic.
[403] I refer the reader to Selden's "Table Talk" for many admirable
ideas on "Bishops." That enlightened genius, who was no friend
to the ecclesiastical temporal power, acknowledges the
absolute necessity of this order in a great government. The
preservers of our literature and our morals they ought to be,
and many have been. When the political reformers ejected the
bishops out of the house, what did they gain? a more vulgar
prating race, but even more lordly! Selden says--"The bishops
being put out of the house, whom will they lay the fault upon
now? When the dog is beat out of the room, where will they lay
the stink?"
[404] The freedom of the press hardly subsisted in Elizabeth's
reign; and yet libels abounded! A clear demonstration that
nothing is really gained by those violent suppressions and
expurgatory indexes which power in its usurpation may
enforce. At a time when they did not dare even to publish
the titles of such libels, yet were they spread about, and
even hoarded. The most ancient catalogue of our vernacular
literature is that by Andrew Maunsell, published in 1595.
It consists of Divinity, Mathematics, Medicine, &c.; but
the third part which he promised, and which to us would
have been the most interesting, of "Rhetoric, History,
Poetry, and Policy," never appeared. In the Preface, such was
the temper of the times, and of Elizabeth, we discover that
he has deprived us of a catalogue of the works alluded to in
our text, for he thus distinctly points at them:--"The books
written by the _fugitive papistes_, as also those that are
_written against the present government_ (meaning those of
the Puritans), I doe not think meete for me to meddle
withall." In one part of his catalogue, however, he contrived
to insert the following passage; the burden of the song seems
to have been chorused by the ear of our cautious Maunsell.
He is noticing a Pierce Plowman in prose. "I did not see the
beginning of this booke, but it ended thus:--
"God save the king, and speed the plough
And send the _prelats_ care inough,
Inough, inough, inough."--p. 80.
Few of our native productions are so rare as the _Martin
Mar-Prelate_ publications. I have not found them in the public
repositories of our national literature. There they have been
probably rejected with indignity, though their answerers have
been preserved; yet even these are almost of equal rarity
and price. They were rejected in times less enlightened than
the present. In a national library every book deserves
preservation. By the rejection of these satires, however
absurd or infamous, we have lost a link in the great chain
of our National Literature and History. [Since the above was
written, many have been added to our library; and the Rev.
William Maskell, M.A., has published his "History of the
Martin Mar-Prelate Controversy." It is a most careful
summary of the writings and proceedings of all connected with
this important event, and is worthy the attentive perusal of
such as desire accurate information in this chapter of our
Church history.]
[405] We know them by the name of Puritans, a nickname obtained by
their affecting superior sanctity; but I find them often
distinguished by the more humble appellative of Precisians. As
men do not leap up, but climb on rocks, it is probable they
were only _precise_ before they were _pure_. A satirist of
their day, in "Rythmes against Martin Marre-Prelate," melts
their attributes into one verse:--
"The sacred sect, and perfect _pure precise_."
A more laughing satirist, "Pasquill of England to Martin
Junior," persists in calling them Puritans, _a pruritu!_ for
their perpetual itching, or a desire to do something.
Elizabeth herself only considered them as "a troublesome sort
of people:" even that great politician could not detect the
political monster in a mere chrysalis of reform. I find,
however, in a poet of the Elizabethan age, an evident change
in the public feeling respecting the _Puritans_, who being
always most active when the government was most in trouble,
their political views were discovered. Warner, in his
"Albion's England," describes them:--
"If ever England will in aught prevent her own mishap,
Against these Skommes (no terme too gross) let England shut
the gap;
With giddie heads--
Their countrie's foes they helpt, and most their country
harm'd.
If _Hypocrites_ why _Puritaines_ we term, be asked, in
breefe,
'Tis but an _ironised terme_: good-fellow so spells
theefe!"
The gentle-humoured FULLER, in his "Church History," felt a
tenderness for the name of _Puritan_, which, after the mad
follies they had played during the Commonwealth, was then held
in abhorrence. He could not venture to laud the good men of
that party, without employing a new term to conceal the odium.
In noticing, under the date of 1563, that the bishops urged
the clergy of their dioceses to press uniformity, &c., he
adds--"Such as refused were branded with the name of
Puritans--a name which in this nation began in this year,
subject to several senses, and various in the acceptions.
_Puritan_ was taken for the opposers of hierarchy and church
service, as resenting of superstition. But the nickname was
quickly improved by profane mouths to abuse pious persons. We
will decline the word to prevent exceptions, which, if
casually slipping from our pen, the reader knoweth that only
_nonconformists_ are intended," lib. ix. p. 76. Fuller,
however, divided them into classes--"the mild and moderate,
and the fierce and fiery." HEYLIN, in his "History of the
Presbyterians," blackens them as so many political devils; and
NEALE, in his "History of the Puritans," blanches them into a
sweet and almond whiteness.
Let us be thankful to these PURITANS for a political lesson.
They began their quarrels on the most indifferent matters.
They raised disturbances about the "Romish Rags," by which
they described the decent surplice as well as the splendid
scarlet chimere[407] thrown over the white linen rochet,
with the square cap worn by the bishops. The scarlet robe,
to please their sullen fancy, was changed into black satin;
but these men soon resolved to deprive the bishops of more
than a scarlet robe. The affected niceties of these
PRECISIANS, dismembering our images, and scratching at our
paintings, disturbed the uniformity of the religious
service. A clergyman in a surplice was turned out of the
church. Some wore square caps, some round, some abhorred all
caps. The communion-table placed in the East was considered
as an idolatrous altar, and was now dragged into the
middle of the church, where, to show their contempt, it
was always made the filthiest seat in the church. They used
to kneel at the sacrament; now they would sit, because that
was a proper attitude for a supper; then they would not
sit, but stand: at length they tossed the elements about,
because the bread was wafers, and not from a loaf. Among
their _preciseness_ was a qualm at baptism: the water was to
be taken from a basin, and not from a fount; then they
would not name their children, or if they did, they would
neither have Grecian, nor Roman, nor Saxon names, but Hebrew
ones, which they ludicrously translated into English, and
which, as Heylin observes, "many of them when they came of
age were ashamed to own"--such as "Accepted, Ashes,
Fight-the-good-Fight-of-Faith, Joy-again, Kill-sin, &c."
Who could have foreseen that some pious men quarrelling about
the square caps and the rochets of bishops should at length
attack bishops themselves; and, by an easy transition, passing
from bishops to kings, finally close in levellers!
[406] The origin of the controversy may be fixed about 1588. "A far
less easy task," says the Rev. Mr. Maskell, "is it to guess at
the authors. The tracts on the Mar-Prelate side have been
usually attributed to Penry, Throgmorton, Udal, and Fenner.
Very considerable information may be obtained about these
writers in Wood's 'Athenæ,' art. _Penry_; in Collier, Strype,
and Herbert's edition of 'Arnes,' to whom I would refer. After
a careful examination of these and other authorities on the
subject, the question remains, in my judgment, as obscure as
before; and I think that it is very far from clear that either
one of the three last-named was actually concerned in the
authorship of any of the pamphlets."--ED.
[407] So Heylin writes the word; but in the "Rythmes against Martin,"
a contemporary production, the term is _Chiver_. It is not in
Cotgrave.
[408] In the "Just Censure and Reproof of Martin Junior" (circæ 1589),
we are told: "There is Cartwright, too, at Warwick; he hath
got him such a company of disciples, both of the worshipfull
and other of the poorer sort, as wee have no cause to thank
him. Never tell me that he is too grave to trouble himself
with Martin's conceits. Cartwright seeks the peace of the
Church no otherwise than his platform may stand." He was
accused before the commissioners in 1590 of knowing who wrote
and printed these squibs, which he did not deny.--ED.
[409] I give a remarkable extract from the writings of Cartwright.
It will prove two points. First, that the _religion_ of
those men became a cover for a _political_ design; which was
_to raise the ecclesiastical above the civil power_. Just
the reverse of Hobbes's after scheme; but while theorists
thus differ and seem to refute one another, they in reality
work for an identical purpose. Secondly, it will show the not
uncommon absurdity of man; while these nonconformists were
affecting to annihilate the hierarchy of England as a
remains of the Romish supremacy, they themselves were
designing one according to their own fresher scheme. It
was to be a state or republic of Presbyters, in which _all
Sovereigns_ were to hold themselves, to use their style, as
"Nourisses, or servants under the Church; the Sovereigns
were to be as subjects; they were to vail their sceptres and
to offer their crowns as the prophet speaketh, _to lick the
dust of the feet of the Church_." These are Cartwright's
words, in his "Defence of the Admonition." But he is still
bolder, in a joint production with _Travers_. He insists
that "the _Monarchs of the World_ should give up their
_sceptres and crowns_ unto him (Jesus Christ) who is
_represented by the Officers of the Church_." See "A Full
and Plain Declaration of Ecclesiastical Discipline," p.
185. One would imagine he was a disguised Jesuit, and an
advocate for the Pope's supremacy. But observe how these
saintly Republicans would govern the State. Cartwright is
explicit, and very ingenious. "The world is now deceived
that thinketh that the _Church_ must be framed according to
the _Commonwealth_, and the _Church Government_ according to
the _Civil Government_, which is as much as to say, as if
a man should fashion his house according to his hangings;
whereas, indeed, it is clean contrary. That as the hangings
are made fit for the house, so the Commonwealth must be made
to agree with the Church, and the government thereof with her
government; for, as the house is before the hangings,
therefore the hangings, which come after, must be framed to
the house, which was before; so the Church being before there
was a commonwealth, and the commonwealth coming after, must be
fashioned and made suitable to the Church; otherwise, God is
made to give place to men, heaven to earth."--CARTWRIGHT'S
_Defence of the Admonition_, p. 181.
Warburton's "Alliance between Church and State," which was in
his time considered as a hardy paradox, is mawkish in its
pretensions, compared with this sacerdotal republic. It is not
wonderful that the wisest of our Sovereigns, that great
politician Elizabeth, should have punished with death
these democrats: but it is wonderful to discover that these
inveterate enemies to the Church of Rome were only trying to
transfer its absolute power into their own hands! They wanted
to turn the Church into a democracy. They fascinated the
people by telling them that there would be no beggars were
there no bishops; that every man would be a governor by
setting up a Presbytery. From the Church, I repeat, it is
scarcely a single step to the Cabinet. Yet the early
Puritans come down to us as persecuted saints. Doubtless,
there were a few honest saints among them; but they were as
mad politicians as their race afterwards proved to be, to
whom they left so many fatal legacies. Cartwright uses the
very language a certain cast of political reformers have
recently done. He declares "An establishment may be made
without the magistrate;" and told the people that "if every
hair of their head was a life, it ought to be offered for
such a cause." Another of this faction is for "registering
the names of the fittest and hottest brethren without
lingering for Parliament;" and another exults that "there are
a hundred thousand hands ready." Another, that "we may
overthrow the bishops and all the government in one day." Such
was the style, and such the confidence in the plans which the
lowest orders of revolutionists promulgated during their
transient exhibition in this country. More in this strain
may be found in "Maddox's Vindication Against Neale," the
advocate for the Puritans, p. 255; and in an admirable
letter of that great politician, Sir Francis Walsingham, who,
with many others of the ministers of Elizabeth, was a favourer
of the Puritans, till he detected their secret object to
subvert the government. This letter is preserved in
"Collier's Eccl. Hist." vol. ii. 607. They had begun to
divide the whole country into _classes_, provincial synods,
&c. They kept registers, which recorded all the heads of their
debates, to be finally transmitted to the secret head of the
_Classis_ of Warwick, where Cartwright governed as _the
perpetual moderator_! _Heylin's Hist. of Presbyt._ p. 277.
These violent advocates for the freedom of the press had,
however, an evident intention to monopolise it; for they
decreed that "no book should be put in print but by consent of
the _Classes_."--Sir G. PAUL'S _Life of Whitgift_, p. 65. The
very Star-Chamber they justly protested against, they were
for raising among themselves!
[410] Under the denomination of _Barrowists_ and _Brownists_. I find
Sir Walter Raleigh declaring, in the House of Commons, on a
motion for reducing disloyal subjects, that "they are worthy
to be rooted out of a Commonwealth." He is alarmed at the
danger, "for it is to be feared that men not guilty will be
included in the law about to be passed. I am sorry for it. I
am afraid there is near twenty thousand of them in England;
and when they be gone (that is, expelled) who shall maintain
their wives and children?"--SIR SIMONDS D'EWES' _Journal_, p.
517.
[411] The controversies of Whitgift and Cartwright were of a nature
which could never close, for toleration was a notion which
never occurred to either. These rivals from early days wrote
with such bitterness against each other, that at length it
produced mutual reproaches. Whitgift complains to Cartwright:
"If you were writing against the veriest Papist, or the
ignorantest dolt, you could not be more spiteful and
malicious." And Cartwright replies: "If peace had been so
precious unto you as you pretend, you would not have brought
so many hard words and bitter reproaches, as it were sticks
and coals, to double and treble the heat of contention."
After this it is curious, even to those accustomed to such
speculations, to observe some men changing with the times, and
furious rivals converted into brothers. Whitgift, whom
Elizabeth, as a mark of her favour, called "her black
husband," soliciting Cartwright's pardon from the Queen; and
the proud Presbyter Cartwright styling Whitgift his Lord the
Archbishop's Grace of Canterbury, and visiting him!
[412] Sir George Paul, a contemporary, attributes his wealth "to the
benevolence and bounty of his followers." Dr. Sutcliffe, one
of his adversaries, sharply upbraids him, that "in the
persecution he perpetually complained of, he was grown rich."
A Puritan advocate reproves Dr. Sutcliffe for always carping
at Cartwright's purchases:--"Why may not Cartwright sell the
lands he had from his father, and buy others with the money,
as well as some of the bishops, who by bribery, simony,
extortion, racking of rents, wasting of woods, and such like
stratagems, wax rich, and purchase great lordships for their
posterity?"
To this Sutcliffe replied:
"I do not carpe alway, no, nor once, at Master Cartwright's
purchase. I hinder him not; I envy him not. Only thus much I
must tell him, that Thomas Cartwright, a man that hath more
landes of his own in possession than any bishop that I know,
and that fareth daintily every day, and feedeth fayre and
fatte, and lyeth as soft as any tenderling of that brood, and
hath wonne much wealth in short time, and will leave more to
his posterity than any bishop, should not cry out either of
persecution or of excess of bishop's livinges."--SUTCLIFFE'S
_Answer to Certain Calumnious Petitions._
[413] "The author of these libels," says Bishop Cooper, in his
"Admonition to the People of England," 1589, "calleth
himself by a feigned name, _Martin Mar-Prelate_, a very
fit name undoubtedly. But if this outrageous spirit of
boldness be not stopped speedily, I fear he will prove
himself to be, not only _Mar-Prelate_, but Mar-Prince,
Mar-State, Mar-Law, Mar-Magistrate, and altogether, until he
bring it to an Anabaptistical equality and community."--ED.
[414] Cartwright approved of them, and well knew the concealed
writers, who frequently consulted him: this appears by Sir G.
Paul's "Life of Whitgift," p. 65. Being asked his opinion of
such books, he said, that "since the bishops, and others there
touched, would not amend by grave books, it was therefore meet
they should be dealt withal to their farther reproach; and
that some books must be _earnest_, some _more mild and
temperate_, whereby they may be both of the spirit of Elias
and Eliseus;" the one the great mocker, the other the more
solemn reprover. It must be confessed Cartwright here
discovers a deep knowledge of human nature. He knew the power
of ridicule and of invective. At a later day, a writer of the
same stamp, in "The Second Wash, or the _Moore_ Scoured _once
more_," (written against Dr. Henry More, the Platonist), in
defence of that vocabulary of _names_ which he has poured on
More, asserts it is a practice allowed by the high authority
of Christ himself. I transcribe the curious passage:--"It is
the practice of Christ himself to character _men_ by those
_things_ to which they assimilate. Thus hath he called _Herod_
a _fox_; _Judas_ a _devil_; _false pastors_ he calls _wolves_;
the _buyers and sellers_, _theeves_; and those Hebrew Puritans
the _Pharisees_, _hypocrites_. This rule and justice of his
Master St. Paul hath well observed, and he acts freely
thereby; for when he reproves the Cretians, he makes use of
that ignominious proverb, _Evil beasts and slow bellies_. When
the high priest commanded the Jews to _smite_ him on the face,
he replied to him, not without some bitterness, _God shall
smite thee, thou white wall_. I cite not these places to
justify an injurious spleen, but to argue the liberty of the
truth."--_The Second Wash, or the +Moore+ Scoured once_ more.
1651. P. 8.
[415] One of their works is "A Dialogue, wherein is laid open the
tyrannical dealing of L. Bishopps against God's children." It
is full of scurrilous stories, probably brought together by
two active cobblers who were so useful to their junto. Yet the
bishops of that day were not of dissolute manners; and the
accusations are such, that it only proves their willingness to
raise charges against them. Of one bishop they tell us, that
after declaring he was poor, and what expenses he had been at,
as Paul's church could bear witness, shortly after hanged four
of his servants for having robbed him of a considerable sum.
Of another, who cut down all the woods at Hampstead, till the
towns-women "fell a swaddling of his men," and so saved
Hampstead by their resolution. But when _Martin_ would give a
proof that the Bishop of London was one of the bishops of the
devil, in his "Pistle to the terrible priests," he tells this
story:--"When the bishop throws his bowl (as he useth it
commonly upon the Sabbath-day), he runnes after it; and if it
be too hard, he cries _Rub! rub! rub! the diuel goe with
thee!_ and he goeth himself with it; so that by these words he
names himself the Bishop of the Divel, and by his tirannical
practice prooveth himselfe to be." He tells, too, of a parson
well known, who, being in the pulpit, and "hearing his dog
cry, he out with this text: 'Why, how now, hoe! can you not
let my dog alone there? Come, Springe! come, Springe!' and
whistled the dog to the pulpit." One of their chief objects of
attack was Cooper, Bishop of Lincoln, a laborious student, but
married to a dissolute woman, whom the University of Oxford
offered to separate from him: but he said he knew his
infirmity, and could not live without his wife, and was tender
on the point of divorce. He had a greater misfortune than even
this loose woman about him--his _name_ could be punned on; and
this bishop may be placed among that unlucky class of authors
who have fallen victims to their _names_. Shenstone meant more
than he expressed, when he thanked God that he could not be
punned on. Mar-Prelate, besides many cruel hits at Bishop
Cooper's wife, was now always "making the _Cooper's hoops to
flye off_, and the bishop's tubs to leake out." In "The
Protestatyon of Martin Marprelat," where he tells of two
bishops, "who so contended in throwing down elmes, as if the
wager had bene whether of them should most have impoverished
their bishopricks. Yet I blame not _Mar-Elme_ so much as
Cooper for this fact, because it is no less given him by his
_name_ to spoil elmes, than it is allowed him by the secret
judgment of God to mar the Church. A man of _Cooper's_ age and
occupation, so wel seene in that trade, might easily knowe
that tubs made of green timber must needs leak out; and yet I
do not so greatly marvel; for he that makes no conscience to
be a deceiver in the building of the churche, will not stick
for his game to be a _deceitfull workeman in making of
tubbs_."--p. 19. The author of the books against Bishop Cooper
is said to have been Job Throckmorton, a learned man,
affecting raillery and humour to court the mob.
Such was the strain of ribaldry and malice which Martin
Mar-Prelate indulged, and by which he obtained full possession
of the minds of the people for a considerable time. His libels
were translated, and have been often quoted by the Roman
Catholics abroad and at home for their particular purposes,
just as the revolutionary publications in this country have
been concluded abroad to be the general sentiments of the
people of England; and thus our factions always will serve the
interests of our enemies. Martin seems to have written little
verse; but there is one epigram worth preserving for its
bitterness.
Martin Senior, in his "Reproofe of Martin Junior," complains
that "his younger brother has not taken a little paines in
ryming with _Mar-Martin_ (one of their poetical antagonists),
that the Cater-Caps may know how the meanest of my father's
sonnes is able to answeare them both at blunt and sharpe." He
then gives his younger brother a specimen of what he is
hereafter to do. He attributes the satire of _Mar-Martin_ to
Dr. Bridges, Dean of Sarum, and John Whitgift, Archbishop of
Canterbury.
"The first Rising, Generation, and Original of _Mar-Martin_.
"From Sarum came a goos's egg,
With specks and spots bepatched;
A priest of Lambeth coucht thereon,
Thus was _Mar-Martin_ hatched.
Whence hath _Mar-Martin_ all his wit,
But from that egge of Sarum?
The rest comes all from great Sir John,
Who rings us all this 'larum.
What can the cockatrice hatch up
But serpents like himselfe?
What sees the ape within the glasse
But a deformed elfe?
Then must _Mar-Martin_ have some smell
Of forge, or else of fire:
A sotte in wit, a beaste in minde,
For so was damme and sire."
[416] It would, however, appear that these revolutionary publications
reached the universities, and probably fermented "the green
heads" of our students, as the following grave admonition
directed to them evidently proves:--
"Anti-Martinus sive monitio cujusdam Londinensis ad
adolescentes vtrimque academiæ contra personatum quendam
rabulam qui se Anglicè Martin Marprelat, &c. Londini, 1589,
4o."
A popular favourite as he was, yet even Martin, _in propria
persona_, acknowledges that his manner was not approved of by
_either party_. His "Theses Martinianæ" opens thus: "I see my
doings and my course misliked of many, both the good and the
bad; though also I have favourers of both sortes. The bishops
and their traine, though they stumble at the cause, yet
especially mislike my maner of writing. Those whom foolishly
men call _Puritanes_, like of the matter I have handled, but
the forme they cannot brooke. So that herein I have them both
for mine adversaries. But now what if I should take the course
in certain theses or conclusions, without _inveighing_ against
either _person_ or _cause_." This was probably written after
Martin had swallowed some of his own sauce, or taken his "Pap
(offered to him) with a Hatchet," as one of the most
celebrated government pamphlets is entitled. But these "Theses
Martinianæ," without either scurrility or invective are the
dullest things imaginable; abstract propositions were not
palatable to the multitude; and then it was, after the trial
had been made, that _Martin Junior and Senior_ attempted to
revive the spirit of the old gentleman; but if sedition has
its progress, it has also its decline; and if it could not
strike its blow when strongest, it only puled and made
grimaces, prognostics of weakness and dissolution. This is
admirably touched in "Pappe with an Hatchet." "Now Old Martin
appeared, with a wit worn into the socket, twingling and
pinking like the snuffe of a candle; _quantum mutatus ab
illo_, how unlike the knave he was before, not for malice, but
for sharpnesse! The hogshead was even come to the hauncing,
and nothing could be drawne from him but dregs; yet the emptie
caske sounds lowder than when it was full, and protests more
in his waining than he could performe in his waxing. I drew
neere the sillie soul, whom I found quivering in two sheets of
protestation paper (alluding to the work mentioned here in the
following note). O how meager and leane he looked, so crest
falne that his combe hung downe to his bill; and had I not
been sure it was the picture of Envie, I should have sworn it
had been the image of Death: so like the verie anatomie of
Mischief, that one might see through all the ribbes of his
conscience."
In another rare pamphlet from the same school, "Pasquill of
England to Martin Junior, in a countercuffe given to Martin
Junior," he humorously threatens to write "The Owle's
Almanack, wherein your night labours be set down;" and "some
fruitful volumes of 'The Lives of the Saints,' which, maugre
your father's five hundred sons, shall be printed," with
"hays, jiggs, and roundelays, and madrigals, serving for
epitaphs for his father's hearse."
[417] Some of these works still bear evident marks that the
"pursuivants" were hunting the printers. "The Protestatyon
of Martin Mar-Prelate, wherein, notwithstanding the
surprising of the printer, he maketh it knowne vnto the
world that he feareth neither proud priest, tirannous prelate,
nor godlesse cater-cap; but defieth all the race of them,"
including "a challenge" to meet them personally; was
probably one of their latest efforts. The printing and the
orthography show all the imperfections of that haste in
which they were forced to print this work. As they lost their
strength, they were getting more venomous. Among the little
Martins disturbed in the hour of parturition, but already
christened, there were: "Episto Mastix;" "The Lives and
Doings of English Popes;" "Itinerarium, or Visitations;"
"Lambethisms." The "Itinerary" was a survey of every
clergyman of England! and served as a model to a similar
work, which appeared during the time of the Commonwealth. The
"Lambethisms" were secrets divulged by Martin, who, it seems,
had got into the palace itself! Their productions were,
probably, often got up in haste, in utter scorn of the
Horatian precept. [These pamphlets were printed with
difficulty and danger, in secrecy and fear, for they were
rigidly denounced by the government of Elizabeth. Sir George
Paul, in his "Life of Archbishop Whitgift," informs us that
they were printed with a kind of wandering press, which was
first set up at Moulsey, near Kingston-on-Thames, and from
thence conveyed to Fauseley in Northamptonshire, and from
thence to Norton, afterwards to Coventry, from thence to
Welstone in Warwickshire, from which place the letters were
sent to another press in or near Manchester; where by the
means of Henry, Earl of Derby, the press was discovered in
printing "More Work for a Cooper;" an answer to Bishop
Cooper's attack on the party, and a work so rare Mr. Maskell
says, "I believe no copy of it, in any state, remains."]
As a great curiosity, I preserve a fragment in the _Scottish_
dialect, which well describes them and their views. The title
is wanting in the only copy I have seen; but its extreme
rarity is not its only value: there is something venerable in
the criticism, and poignant in the political sarcasm.
"Weil lettred clarkis endite their warkes, quoth Horace,
slow and geasoun,
Bot thou can wise forth buike by buike, at every spurt and
seasoun;
For men of litrature t'endite so fast, them doth not fitte,
Enanter in them, as in thee, their pen outrun thair witte.
The shaftis of foolis are soone shot out, but fro the merke
they stray;
So art thou glibbe to guibe and taunte, but rouest all the
way,
Quhen thou hast parbrackt out thy gorge, and shot out all
thy arrowes,
See that thou hold thy clacke, and hang thy quiver on the
gallows.
Els Clarkis will soon all be Sir Johns, the priestis craft
will empaire,
And Dickin, Jackin, Tom, and Hob, mon sit in Rabbies
chaire.
Let Georg and Nichlas, cheek by jol, bothe still on
cock-horse yode,
That dignitie of Pristis with thee may hau a long abode.
Els Litrature mon spredde her wings, and piercing welkin
bright,
To Heaven, from whence she did first wend, retire and take
her flight."
[418] "Pasquill of England to Martin Junior, in a countercuffe given
to Martin Junior."
[419] "Most of the books under Martin's name were composed by John
Penry, John Udall, John Field, and Job Throckmorton, who all
concurred in making Martin. See 'Answer to Throgmorton's
Letter by Sutcliffe,' p. 70; 'More Work for a Cooper;' and
'Hay any Work for a Cooper;' and 'Some layd open in his
Colours;' were composed by Job Throckmorton."--MS. Note by
Thomas Baker. Udall, indeed, denied having any concern in
these invectives, and professed to disapprove of them. We see
Cartwright, however, of quite a different opinion. In Udall's
library some MS. notes had been seen by a person who
considered them as materials for a Martin Mar-Prelate work in
embryo, which Udall confessed were written "by a friend." All
the writers were silenced ministers; though it is not
improbable that their scandalous tales, and much of the
ribaldry, might have been contributed by their lowest
retainers, those purveyors for the mob, of what they lately
chose to call their "Pig's-meat."
[420] The execution of Hacket, and condemnation of his party, who had
declared him "King of Europe," so that England was only a
province to him, is noted in our "General History of England."
This was the first serious blow which alarmed the Puritanic
party. Doubtless, this man was a mere maniac, and his
ferocious passions broke out early in life; but, in that day,
they permitted no lunacy as a plea for any politician.
Cartwright held an intercourse with that party, as he had with
Barrow, said to have been a debauched youth; yet we had a sect
of Barrowists; and Robert Brown, the founder of another sect,
named after him _Brownists_; which became very formidable.
This Brown, for his relationship, was patronised by Cecil,
Earl of Burleigh. He was a man of violent passions. He had a
wife, with whom he never lived; and a church, wherein he never
preached, observes the characterising Fuller, who knew him
when Fuller was young. In one of the pamphlets of the time I
have seen, it is mentioned that being reproached with beating
his wife, he replied, "I do not beat Mrs. Brown as my wife,
but as a curst cross old woman." He closed his life in prison;
not for his opinions, but for his brutality to a constable.
The old women and the cobblers connected with these Martin
Mar-Prelates are noticed in the burlesque epitaphs on Martin's
death, supposed to be made by his favourites; a humorous
appendix to "Martin's Monthminde." Few political conspiracies,
whenever religion forms a pretext, is without a woman. One
Dame Lawson is distinguished, changing her "silke for sacke;"
and other names might be added of ladies. Two cobblers are
particularly noticed as some of the industrious purveyors of
sedition through the kingdom--Cliffe, the cobbler, and one
Newman. Cliffe's epitaph on his friend Martin is not without
humour:--
"Adieu, both naule and bristles now for euer;
The shoe and soale--ah, woe is me!--must sever.
Bewaile, mine awle, thy sharpest point is gone;
My bristle's broke, and I am left alone.
Farewell old shoes, thumb-stall, and clouting-leather;
Martin is gone, and we undone together."
Nor is Newman, the other cobbler, less mortified and pathetic.
"The London Corresponding Society" had a more ancient origin
than that sodality was aware.
"My hope once was, my old shoes should be sticht;
My thumbs ygilt, that were before bepicht:
Now Martin's gone, and laid full deep in ground,
My gentry's lost, before it could be found."
Among the Martin Mar-Prelate books was one entitled "The
Cobbler's Book." This I have not seen; but these cobblers
probably picked up intelligence for these scandalous
chronicles. The writers, too, condescended to intersperse the
cant dialect of the populace, with which the cobblers
doubtless assisted these learned men, when busied in their
buffoonery. Hence all their vulgar gibberish; the Shibboleth
of the numerous class of their admirers--such as, "O, whose
_tat_?" John _Kan_kerbury, for Canterbury; _Paltri_-politans,
for Metropolitans; _See Villains_, for Civilians; and Doctor
of _Devility_, for Divinity! and more of this stamp. Who could
imagine that the writers of these scurrilities were learned
men, and that their patrons were men of rank! We find two
knights heavily fined for secreting these books in their
cellars. But it is the nature of rebellion to unite the two
extremes; for _want_ stirs the populace to rise, and _excess_
the higher orders. This idea is admirably expressed in one of
our elder poets:--
"Want made them murmur; for the people, who
To get their bread, do wrestle with their fate,
Or those, who in superfluous riot flow,
Soonest rebel. Convulsions in a State,
Like those which natural bodies do oppress,
Rise from repletion, or from emptiness."
ALEYNE'S _Henry VII_.
[421] The writer of Algernon Sidney's Memoirs could not have known
this fact, or he would not have said that "this was the first
indictment of high treason upon which any man lost his life
for _writing anything without publishing it_."--Edit. 1751, p.
21. It is curious to have Sidney's own opinion on this point.
We discover this on his trial. He gives it, assuming one of
his own noble principles, not likely to have been allowed by
the wretched Tories of that day. Addressing the villanous
Jeffries, the Lord Chief Justice:--"My Lord, I think it is _a
right of mankind, and 'tis exercised by all studious men_, to
write, in their own closets, what they please, for their own
memory; and no man can be answerable for it, unless they
publish it." Jeffries replied:--"Pray don't go away with _that
right of mankind_, that it is lawful for me to write what I
will in my own closet, so I do not publish it. We must not
endure men to talk thus, that by the _right of nature_ every
man may contrive mischief in his own chamber, and is not to be
punished till he thinks fit to be called to it." Jeffries was
a profligate sophist, but his talents were as great as his
vices.
[422] Penry's unfinished petition, which he designed to have
presented to the Queen before the trial, is a bold and
energetic composition; his protestation, after the trial, a
pathetic prayer! Neale has preserved both in his "History of
the Puritans." With what simplicity of eloquence he
remonstrates on the temporising government of Elizabeth. He
thus addresses the Queen, under the title of Madam!--"Your
standing is, and has been, by the Gospel: it is little
beholden to you for anything that appears. The practice of
your government shows that if you could have ruled without the
Gospel, it would have been doubtful whether the Gospel
should be established or not; for now that you are established
in your throne by the Gospel, you suffer it to reach no
farther than the end of your sceptre limiteth unto it." Of a
milder, and more melancholy cast, is the touching language,
when the hope of life, but not the firmness of his cause had
deserted him. "I look not to live this week to an end. I
never took myself for a rebuker, much less for a reformer of
states and kingdoms. I never did anything in this cause for
contention, vainglory, or to draw disciples after me.
Great things, in this life, I never sought for: sufficiency I
had, with great outward trouble; but most content I was with
my lot, and content with my untimely death, though I leave
behind me a friendless widow and four infants."--Such is often
the pathetic cry of the simple-hearted, who fall the
victims to the political views of more designing heads.
We could hardly have imagined that this eloquent and serious
young man was that Martin Mar-Prelate who so long played the
political ape before the populace, with all the mummery of
their low buffoonery, and even mimicking their own idioms. The
populace, however, seems to have been divided in their
opinions respecting the sanity of his politics, as appears by
some ludicrous lines, made on Penry's death, by a northern
rhymer.
"The Welshman is hanged,
Who at our kirke flanged,
And at the state banged,
And brened are his buks.
And though he be hanged,
Yet he is not wranged;
The deil has him fanged
In his kruked kluks."
WEEVER'S _Funerall Monuments_, p. 56. Edit. 1631.
[423] Observe what different conclusions are drawn from the same fact
by opposite writers. Heylin, arguing that Udall had been
justly condemned, adds, "the man remained a _living
monument_ of the archbishop's extraordinary goodness to
him in the preserving of that life which by the law he had
forfeited." But Neale, on the same point, considers him as
one who "died for his conscience, and stands upon record
_as a monument_ of the oppression and cruelty of the
government." All this opposition of feeling is of the nature
of party-spirit; but what is more curious in the history of
human nature, is the change of opinion in the same family in
the course of the same generation. The son of this Udall
was as great a zealot for Conformity, and as great a
sufferer for it from his father's party, when they possessed
political power. This son would not submit to their oaths
and covenants, but, with his bedridden wife, was left
unmercifully to perish in the open streets,--WALKER'S
_Sufferings of the Clergy_, part ii. p. 178.
SUPPLEMENT TO MARTIN MAR-PRELATE.
As a literary curiosity, I shall preserve a very rare poetical tract,
which describes with considerable force the Revolutionists of the
reign of Elizabeth. They are indeed those of wild democracy; and the
subject of this satire will, I fear, be never out of time. It is an
admirable political satire against a mob-government. In our poetical
history, this specimen too is curious, for it will show that the
stanza in alternate rhymes, usually denominated elegiac, is adapted to
very opposite themes. The solemnity of the versification is
impressive, and the satire equally dignified and keen.
The taste of the mere modern reader had been more gratified by
omitting some unequal passages; but, after deliberation, I found that
so short a composition would be injured by dismembering extracts. I
have distinguished by italics the lines to which I desire the reader's
attention, and have added a few notes to clear up some passages which
might appear obscure.
RYTHMES AGAINST MARTIN MARRE-PRELATE.[424]
_Ordo Sacerdotum fatuo turbatur ab omni,
Labitur et passim Religionis honos._
Since Reason, _Martin_, cannot stay thy pen,
We 'il see what rime will do; have at thee then!
A Dizard late skipt out upon our stage,
But in a sacke, that no man might him see;
And though we know not yet the paltrie page,
Himselfe hath _Martin_ made his name to bee.
A proper name, and for his feates most fit;
The only thing wherein he hath shew'd wit.
Who knoweth not, that Apes, men _Martins_ call,[425]
Which beast, this baggage seemes as 't were himselfe:
So as both nature, nurture, name, and all,
Of that's expressed in this apish elfe.
Which Ile make good to Martin Marre-als face,
In three plaine poynts, and will not bate an ace.
For, first, _the Ape delights with moppes and mowes,
And mocketh Prince and Peasants all alike_;
_This jesting Jacke_, that no good manners knowes,
_With his Asse-heeles presumes all states to strike_.
Whose scoffes so stinking in each nose doth smell,
As all mouthes saie of Dolts he beares the bell.
Sometimes his chappes do walke in poynts too high,
Wherein the Ape himself a Woodcock tries.
Sometimes with floutes he drawes his mouth awrie,
And sweares by his ten bones, and falselie lies.
Wherefore be he what he will I do not passe;
He is the paltriest Ape that euer was.
Such fleering, leering, jeering fooles bopeepe,
Such hahas! teehees! weehees! wild colts play;
Such Sohoes! whoopes and hallowes; hold and keepe;
Such rangings, ragings, reuelings, roysters ray;
With so foule mouth, and knaue at euery catch,
'Tis some knaue's nest did surely _Martin_ hatch.
_Now out he runnes with Cuckowe king of May,
Then in he leapes with a wild Morrice daunce_;
Then strikes he up _Dame Lawson's_[426] lustie lay;
Then comes Sir _Jeffrie's_ ale-tub, tapp'd by chaunce,
Which makes me gesse, and I can shrewdly smell,
He loues both t' one and t'other passing well.
_Then straight, as though he were distracted quite,
He chafeth like a cut-purse layde in warde_;
_And rudely railes with all his maine and might,
Against both knights and lords without regard_:
So as _Bridewell_ must tame his dronken fits,
And _Bedlem_ help to bring him to his wits.
But, _Martin_, why, in matters of such weight,
Dost thou thus _play the dawe, and dauncing foole_?
O sir (quoth he) _this is a pleasant baite
For men of sorts_, to traine them to my schoole.
_Ye noble states, how can you like hereof,
A shamelesse Ape at your sage head should scoffe?_
Good Noddie, now leaue scribbling in such matters;
They are no tooles for fooles to tend unto;
Wise men regard not what mad monkies patters!
'Twere trim a beast should teach men what to do.
Now _Tarleton's_ dead, the consort lackes a Vice.
For knaue and foole thou maist bear prick and price.
The sacred sect, and perfect pure precise,
Whose cause must be by _Scoggin's_ jests mainteinde,
Ye shewe, although that Purple, Apes disguise,
Yet Apes are still, and so must be, disdainde.
_For though your Lyons lookes weake eyes escapes,
Your babling bookes bewraies you all for Apes._
The next point is, _Apes use to tosse and teare
What once their fidling fingers fasten on_;
_And clime aloft, and cast downe euery where,
And neuer staie till all that stands be gon!_
Now whether this in _Martin_ be not true,
You wiser heads marke here what doth ensue.
What is it not that _Martin_ doth not rent?
Cappes, tippets, gownes, black chiuers, rotchets white;
Communion bookes, and homelies: yea, so bent
To teare, as women's wimples feele his spite.
Thus tearing all, as all apes use to doo,
He teares withall the Church of Christ in two.
Marke now what thinges he meanes to tumble downe,
For to this poynt to look is worth the while,
In one that makes no choice 'twixt cap and crowne,
Cathedral churches he would fain untile,
And snatch up bishops' lands, and catch away
All gaine of learning for his prouling pray.
_And thinke you not he will pull downe at length
As well the top from tower as cocke from steeple_;
_And when his head hath gotten some more strength,
To play with Prince as now he doth with People_:
Yes, he that now saith, Why should Bishops bee?
Will next crie out, _Why Kings? The Saincts are free!_
The Germaine boores with Clergiemen began,
But neuer left till Prince and Peeres were dead.
_Jacke Leyden was a holy zealous man,
But ceast not till the Crowne was on his head._
And _Martin's_ mate, _Jacke Strawe_, would alwaies ring,
The Clergie's faults, but sought to kill the King.
"Oh that," quoth _Martin_, "_chwere_ a Nobleman!"[427]
Avaunt, vile villain! 'tis not for such swads.
And of the Counsell, too: marke Princes then:
These roomes are raught at by these lustie lads.
_For Apes must climbe, and neuer stay their wit,
Untill on top of highest hilles they sit._
What meane they els, in euery towne to craue
Their Priest and King like Christ himself to be:
_And for one Pope ten thousand Popes to have,
And to controll the highest he or she?_
Aske Scotland that, whose King so long they crost,
As he was like his kingdome to haue lost.
Beware ye States and Nobles of this lande,
The Clergie is but one of these men's buttes.
_The Ape at last on master's necke will stande:
Then gegge betimes these gaping greedie gutts._
_Least that too soone, and then too late ye feele,
He strikes at head that first began with heele._
The third tricke is, _what Apes by flattering waies
Cannot come by with biting, they will snatch_;
Our _Martin_ makes no bones, but plainely saies,
Their fists shall walke, they will both bite and scratch.
He'll make their hearts to ake, and will not faile,
_Where pen cannot, their penknife shall prevail_.[428]
But this is false, he saith he did but mock:
A foole he was, that so his words did scanne.
He only meant with pen their pates to knocke;
A knaue he is, that so turns cat in pan.
But, _Martin_, sweare and stare as deepe as hell,
Thy sprite, thy spite and mischeuous minde doth tell.
_The thing that neither Pope with booke nor bull,
Nor Spanish King with ships could doe without,
Our MARTINS heere at home will worke at full:
If Prince curbe not betimes that rabble rout._
That is, destroy both Church and State and all;
For if t' one faile, the other needes must fall.
Thou England, then, whom God doth make so glad
Through Gospel's grace and Prince's prudent reigne,
Take heede lest thou at last be made as sad,
Through _Martin's_ makebates marring, to thy paine.
For he marrs all and maketh nought, nor will,
Saue lies and strife, and works for _England's_ ill.
_And ye graue men that answere MARTIN'S mowes,
He mocks the more, and you in vain loose times.
Leaue Apes to Doggs to baite, their skins to Crowes_,
And let old _Lanam_[429] lashe him with his rimes.
_The beast is proud when men read his enditings_;
Let his workes goe the waie of all wast writings.
Now, _Martin_, you that say you will spawne out
Your brawling brattes, in euery towne to dwell,
_We will provide in each place for your route,
A bell and whippe that Apes do loue so well._
And if yo skippe, and will not wey the checke,
We 'il haue a springe, and catche you by the necke.
And so adieu, mad _Martin_-mar-the-land
Leaue off thy worke, and "more work"[430] hearest thou me
Thy work's nought worth, take better worke in hand.
_Thou marr'st thy worke, and thy work will marre thee._
Worke not anewe, least it doth work thy wracke,
And then make worke for him that worke doth lacke.
And this I warn thee, Martin Monckies-face,
Take heed of me; my rime doth charm thee bad.
I am a rimer of the Irish race,
And haue alreadie rimde thee staring mad.
But if thou cease not thy bald jests to spread,
I'le never leave till I have rimde thee dead.
FOOTNOTES:
[424] In Herbert's "Typographical Antiquities," p. 1689, this tract is
intituled, "A Whip for an Ape, or Martin Displaied." I have
also seen the poem with this title. Readers were then often
invited to an old book by a change of title: in some cases, I
think the same work has been published with several titles.
[425] _Martin_ was a name for a _bird_, and a cant term for an _Ass_;
and, as it appears here, an _Ape_. Our _Martins_, considered
as birds, were often reminded that their proper food was
"hempen seed," which at length choked them. That it meant an
_Ass_, appears from "Pappe with a Hatchet." "Be thou Martin
the bird or Martin the beast, a bird with the longest bill, or
a _beast with the longest ears_, there's a net spread for your
neck."--Sign. B. 5. There is an old French proverb, quoted by
Cotgrave, _voce_ Martin:--"_Plus d'un ASNE à la foire, a nom
+Martin+_."
[426] Martin was a _protégé_ of this _Dame Lawson_. There appear to
have been few political conspiracies without a woman, whenever
religion forms a part. This dame is thus noticed in the mock
epitaphs on Martin's funeral--
"Away with silk, for I will mourn in sacke;
Martin is dead, our new sect goes to wrack.
Come, gossips mine, put finger in the eie,
He made us laugh, but now must make us crie."
DAME LAWSON.
"Sir Jeffrie's Ale-tub" alludes to two knights who were
ruinously fined, and hardly escaped with life, for their
patronage of Martin.
[427] _Chwere_, _i.e._ "that I were," alluding to their frequently
adopting the corrupt phraseology of the populace, to catch the
ears of the mob.
[428] It is a singular coincidence that Arnauld, in his caustic retort
on the Jesuits, said--"I do not fear your _pen_, but your
_penknife_." The play on the word, tells even better in our
language than in the original--_plume_ and _canife_.
[429] I know of only one _Laneham_, who wrote "A Narrative of the
Queen's Visit at Kenilworth Castle," 1575. He was probably a
redoubtable satirist. I do not find his name in Ritson's
"Bibliographia Poetica."
[430] Alluding to the title of one of their most virulent libels
against Bishop Cooper ["Hay any worke for Cooper," which was a
pun on the Bishop's name, conveyed in the street cry of an
itinerant trader, and was followed by another entitled] "More
work for a Cooper." Cooper, in his "Admonition to the People
of England," had justly observed that this _Mar-Prelate_ ought
to have many other names. See note, p. 510.
I will close this note with an extract from "Pappe with a
Hatchet," which illustrates the ill effects of all sudden
reforms, by an apposite and original image.
"There was an aged man that lived in a well-ordered
Commonwealth by the space of threescore years, and finding,
at the length, that by the heate of some men's braines, and
the warmness of other men's blood, that newe alterations
were in hammering, and that it grewe to such an height, that
all the desperate and discontented persons were readie to
runne their heads against their head; comming into the midst
of these mutiners, cried, as loude as his yeeres would
allow:--'Springalls, and vnripened youthes, whose wisedomes
are yet in the blade, when this snowe shall be melted (laying
his hand on his siluer haires) then shall you find store
of dust, _and rather wish for the continuance of a long frost,
than the incomming of an vntimely thaw_.'"--_Sig. D. 3.
verso._
LITERARY QUARRELS
FROM
PERSONAL MOTIVES
Anecdote of a BISHOP and a DOCTOR--Dr. MIDDLETON and Dr.
BENTLEY--WARBURTON and Dr. TAYLOR--WARBURTON and EDWARDS--SWIFT
and DRYDEN--POPE and BENTLEY--why fiction is necessary for satire,
according to Lord ROCHESTER'S confession--ROWE and ADDISON--POPE
and ATTERBURY--Sir JOHN HAWKINS and GEORGE STEEVENS--a fierce
controversial author a dangerous neighbour--a ludicrous instance
of a literary quarrel from personal motives between BOHUN and the
WYKEHAMISTS.
Literary Quarrels have abundantly sprung from mere personal motives;
and controversies purely literary, sometimes of magnitude, have broken
out, and been voluminously carried on, till the public are themselves
involved in the contest, while the true origin lies concealed in some
sudden squabble; some neglect of petty civility; some unlucky epithet;
or some casual observation dropped without much consideration, which
mortified or enraged the author. How greatly has passion prevailed in
literary history! How often the most glorious pages in the chronicles
of literature are tainted with the secret history which must be placed
by their side, so that the origin of many considerable works, which do
so much honour to the heads of their authors, sadly accuse their
hearts. But the heaven of Virgil was disturbed with quarrels--
Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ?
_Æneid._
Can heavenly minds such high resentment show?
_Dryden._
And has not a profound observer of human affairs declared, _Ex
privatis odiis respublica crescit?_ individual hatreds aggrandize the
republic. This miserable philosophy will satisfy those who are
content, from private vices, to derive public benefits. One wishes for
a purer morality, and a more noble inspiration.
To a literary quarrel from personal motives we owe the origin of a
very remarkable volume. When Dr. Parr delivered his memorable sermon,
which, besides the "_sesquipedalia verba_," was perhaps the longest
that ever was heard--if not listened to--Bishop Hurd, who had always
played the part of one of the most wary of politicians in private
life, and who had occasion once adroitly to explain the French word
_Retenue_, which no man better understood, in a singularly unguarded
moment, sarcastically observed that he did not like "the doctor's long
vernacular sermon." The happy epithet was soon conveyed to the
classical ear of the modern Grecian: it was a wasp in it! The bishop
had, in the days of literary adventure, published some pieces of
irony, which were thought more creditable to his wit than his
feelings--and his great patron, Warburton, certain juvenile prose and
verse--all of which they had rejected from their works. But this it is
to be an author!--his errors remain when he has outlived and corrected
them. The mighty and vindictive Grecian in rage collected them all;
exhausted his own genius in perpetuating follies; completed the works
of the two bishops in utter spite; and in "Tracts by Warburton and a
Warburtonian," has furnished posterity with a specimen of the force of
his own "vernacular" style, giving a lesson to the wary bishop, who
had scarcely wanted one all his life--of the dangers of an unlucky
epithet!
Dr. Conyers Middleton, the author of the "Life of Cicero," seldom
wrote but out of pique; and he probably owed his origin as an author
to a circumstance of this nature. Middleton when young was a
_Dilettante_ in music; and Dr. Bentley, in contempt, applied the
epithet "fiddling Conyers." Had the irascible Middleton broken his
violin about the head of the learned Grecian, and thus terminated the
quarrel, the epithet had then cost Bentley's honour much less than it
afterwards did. It seems to have excited Middleton to deeper studies,
which the great Bentley not long after felt when he published
proposals for an edition of the New Testament in Greek. Middleton
published his "Remarks, paragraph by paragraph, upon the proposals,"
to show that Bentley had neither talents nor materials proper for the
work. This opened a great paper-war, and again our rabid wolf fastened
on the majestic lion, "paragraph by paragraph." And though the lion
did affect to bear in contempt the fangs of his little active enemy,
the flesh was torn. "The proposals" sunk before the "paragraph by
paragraph," and no edition of the Greek Testament by Bentley ever
appeared. Bentley's proposals at first had met with the greatest
success; the subscription-money amounted to two thousand pounds, and
it was known that his nephew had been employed by him to travel abroad
to collect these MSS. He declared he would make use of no MS. that was
not a thousand years old, or above; of which sort he had collected
twenty, so that they made up a total of twenty thousand years. He was
four years studying them before he issued his proposals. The Doctor
rested most on eight Greek MSS., the most recent of which was one
thousand years old. All this wore a very imposing appearance. At a
touch the whole magnificent edifice fell to pieces! Middleton says,
"His twenty old MSS. shrink at once to eight, and he is forced again
to own that even of these eight there are only four which had not been
used by Dr. Mill;" and these Middleton, by his sarcastic reasoning, at
last reduces to "some pieces only of the New Testament in MS." So that
twenty MSS. and their twenty thousand years were battered by the
"fiddling Conyers" into a solitary fragment of little value! Bentley
returned the subscription-money, and would not publish; the work still
lies in its prepared state, and some good judges of its value have
expressed a hope to see it yet published. But Bentley himself was not
untainted in this dishonourable quarrel: he well knew that Middleton
was the author of this severe attack; but to show his contempt of the
real author, and desirous, in his turn, of venting his disappointment
on a Dr. Colbatch, he chose to attribute it to him, and fell on
Colbatch with a virulence that made the reply perfectly libellous, if
it was Bentley's, as was believed.
The irascibility of Middleton, disguising itself in a literary form,
was still more manifested by a fact recorded of him by Bishop Newton.
He had applied to Sir Robert Walpole for the mastership of the
Charter-house, who honestly informed him that Bishop Sherlock, with
the other Bishops, were against his being chosen. Middleton attributed
the origin of this opposition to Bishop Sherlock, and wreaked his
vengeance by publishing his "Animadversions upon Sherlock's Discourses
on Prophecy." The book had been long published, and had passed through
successive editions; but Middleton pretended he had never seen them
before, and from this time Lambeth-house was a strong provocative for
his vindictive temper.
Nor was the other great adversary of Middleton, he who so long
affected to be the lord paramount, the Suzerain in the feudal empire,
rather than the republic of letters--Warburton himself--less easily
led on to these murderous acts of personal rancour. A pamphlet of the
day has preserved an anecdote of this kind. Dr. Taylor, the Chancellor
of Lincoln, once threw out in company an opinion derogatory to the
scholarship of Warburton, who seems to have had always some choice
spirits of his legion as spies in the camp of an enemy, and who sought
their tyrant's grace by their violation of the social compact. The
tyrant himself had an openness, quite in contrast with the dark
underworks of his satellites. He boldly interrogated our critic, and
Taylor replied, undauntedly and more poignantly than Warburton might
have suspected, that "he did not recollect ever _saying_ that Dr.
Warburton was no scholar, but that indeed he had always _thought_ so."
To this intrepid spirit the world owes one of the remarkable prefaces
to the "Divine Legation"--in which the Chancellor of Lincoln, intrepid
as he was, stands like a man of straw, to be buffeted and tossed about
with all those arts of distortion which the wit and virulence of
Warburton almost every day was practising at his "established places
of execution," as his prefaces and notes have been wittily termed.
Even Warburton himself, who committed so many personal injuries, has,
in his turn, most eminently suffered from the same motive. The
personal animosity of a most ingenious man was the real cause of the
utter destruction of Warburton's critical reputation. Edwards, the
author of the "Canons of Criticism," when young and in the army, was a
visitor at Allen's of Prior-park, the patron of Warburton; and in
those literary conversations which usually occupied their evenings,
Warburton affected to show his superiority in his acquaintance with
the Greek writers, never suspecting that a red coat covered more Greek
than his own--which happened unluckily to be the case. Once, Edwards
in the library, taking down a Greek author, explained a passage in a
manner which did not suit probably with some new theory of the great
inventor of so many; a contest arose, in which Edwards discovered how
Warburton came by his illegitimate knowledge of Greek authors: Edwards
attempted to convince him that he really did not understand Greek, and
that his knowledge, such as it was, was derived from French
translations--a provoking act of literary kindness, which took place
in the presence of Ralph Allen and his niece, who, though they could
not stand as umpires, did as witnesses. An incurable breach took place
between the parties, and from this trifling altercation, Edwards
produced the bitter "Canons of Criticism," and Warburton those foaming
notes in the _Dunciad_.
Such is the implacable nature of literary irascibility! Men so
tenderly alive to intellectual sensibility, find even the lightest
touch profoundly enter into the morbid constitution of the literary
temper; and even minds of a more robust nature have given proof of a
sickly delicacy hanging about them quite unsuspected. Swift is a
remarkable instance of this kind: the foundation of the character of
this great wit was his excellent sense. Yet having, when young,
composed one of the wild Pindarics of the time, addressed to the
Athenian Society, and Dryden judiciously observing that "cousin
Jonathan would never be a poet," the enraged wit, after he had reached
the maturity of his own admirable judgment, and must have been well
aware of the truth of the friendly prediction, could never forgive it.
He has indulged the utmost licentiousness of personal rancour; he even
puns miserably on his name to degrade him as the _emptiest_ of
writers. His spirited translation of Virgil, which was admired even by
Pope, he levels by the most grotesque sarcastic images to mark the
poet's diminutive genius--he says this version-maker is so lost in
Virgil, that he is like "the lady in a lobster; a mouse under a canopy
of state; a shrivelled beau within the penthouse of a full-bottomed
perriwig." He never was generous enough to contradict his opinion, and
persisted in it to the last. Some critic, about Swift's own time,
astonished at his treatment of Dryden, declares he must have been
biassed by some prejudice--the anecdote here recorded, not then
probably known, discovers it.
What happened to Pope on the publication of his Homer shows all the
anxious temper of the author. Being in company with Bentley, the poet
was very desirous of obtaining the doctor's opinion of it, which
Bentley contrived to parry as well as he could; but in these matters
an author who calculates on a compliment, will risk everything to
obtain it. The question was more plainly put, and the answer was as
plainly given. Bentley declared that "the verses were good verses, but
the work is not Homer--it is Spondanus!" From this interview posterity
derives from the mortified poet the full-length figure of "_the
slashing_ Bentley," in the fourth book of the Dunciad:
The mighty Scholiast, whose unwearied pains
Made Horace dull, and humbled Milton's strains.
When Bentley was told by some officious friend that Pope had abused
him, he only replied, "Ay, like enough! I spoke against his Homer, and
the _portentous cub_ never forgives!" Part of Pope's severe criticism
only is true; but to give full effect to their severity, poets always
infuse a certain quantity of fiction. This is an artifice absolutely
necessary to practise; so I collect from a great master in the arts of
satire, and who once honestly avowed that no satire could be composed
unless it was _personal_; and no personalities would sufficiently
adorn a poem without _lies_. This great satirist was Rochester. Burnet
details a curious conversation between himself and his lordship on
this subject. The bishop tells us that "he would often go into the
country, and be for some months wholly employed in study, or the
sallies of his wit chiefly directed to satire. And this he often
defended to me by saying, there were some people that could not be
kept in order, or admonished, but in this way." Burnet remonstrated,
and Rochester replied--"A man could not write with life unless he were
_heated by revenge_; for to make a satire without resentments, upon
the cold notions of philosophy, was as if a man would, in cold blood,
cut men's throats who had never offended him. And he said, the _lies_
in these libels came often in as _ornaments_, that could not be spared
without _spoiling the beauty_ of the poem." It is as useful to know
how the materials of satire are put together; as thus the secret of
pulling it to pieces more readily may sometimes be obtained.
These facts will sufficiently establish this disgraceful principle of
the personal motives which have influenced the quarrels of authors,
and which they have only disguised by giving them a literary form.
Those who are conversant in literary history can tell how many works,
and some considerable ones, have entirely sprung out of the vengeance
of authors. Johnson, to whom the feelings of the race were so well
known, has made a curious observation, which none but an author could
have made:--"The best advice to authors would be, that they should
keep out of the way of one another." He says this in the "Life of
Rowe," on the occasion of Addison's Observations on Rowe's Character.
Rowe had expressed his happiness to Pope at Addison's promotion; and
Pope, who wished to conciliate Addison towards Rowe, mentioned it,
adding, that he believed Rowe was sincere. Addison replied, "That he
did not suspect Rowe feigned; but _the levity of his heart is such,
that he is struck with any new adventure_: and it would affect him
just in the same manner as if he heard I was going to be hanged."
Warburton adds that Pope said he could not deny but Addison understood
Rowe well. Such is the fact on which Johnson throws out an admirable
observation:--"This censure time has not left us the power of
confirming or refuting; but observation daily shows that much stress
is not to be laid on hyperbolical accusations and pointed sentences,
which even he that utters them desires to be applauded, rather than
credited. Addison can hardly be supposed to have meant all that he
said. _Few characters can bear the microscopic scrutiny of WIT
quickened by ANGER._" I could heap up facts to demonstrate this severe
truth. Even of Pope's best friends, some of their severities, if they
ever reached him, must have given the pain he often inflicted. His
friend Atterbury, to whom he was so partial, dropped an expression, in
the heat of conversation, which Pope could never have forgiven; that
our poet had "a crooked mind in a crooked body." There was a rumour,
after Pope's death, that he had left behind him a satirical "Life of
Dean Swift." Let genius, whose faculty detects the foibles of a
brother, remember he is a rival, and be a generous one. In that
extraordinary morsel of literary history, the "Conversations of Ben
Jonson with his friend Drummond of Hawthornden," preserving his
opinions of his contemporaries, if I err not in my recollection, I
believe that he has not spoken favourably of a single individual!
The personal motives of an author, influencing his literary conduct,
have induced him to practise meannesses and subterfuges. One
remarkable instance of this nature is that of Sir John Hawkins, who
indeed had been hardly used by the caustic pleasantries of George
Steevens. Sir John, in his edition of Johnson, with ingenious malice
contrived to suppress the acknowledgment made by Johnson to Steevens
of his diligence and sagacity, at the close of his preface to
Shakspeare. To preserve the panegyric of Steevens mortified Hawkins
beyond endurance; yet, to suppress it openly, his character as an
editor did not permit. In this dilemma he pretended he reprinted the
preface from the edition of 1765; which, as it appeared before
Johnson's acquaintance with Steevens, could not contain the tender
passage. However, this was unluckily discovered to be only a
subterfuge, to get rid of the offensive panegyric. On examination, it
proved not true; Hawkins did not reprint from this early edition, but
from the latest, for all the corrections are inserted in his own. "If
Sir John were to be tried at Hicks's Hall (long the seat of that
justice's glory), he would be found guilty of _clipping_," archly
remarks the periodical critic.
A fierce controversial author may become a dangerous neighbour to
another author: a petulant fellow, who does not write, may be a
pestilent one; but he who prints a book against us may disturb our
life in endless anxieties. There was once a dean who actually teased
to death his bishop, wore him out in journeys to London, and at length
drained all his faculties--by a literary quarrel from personal
motives.
Dr. THOMAS PIERCE, Dean of Sarum--a perpetual controversialist, and to
whom it was dangerous to refuse a request, lest it might raise a
controversy--wanted a prebend of Dr. WARD, Bishop of Salisbury, for
his son Robert. He was refused; and now, studying revenge, he opened a
controversy with the bishop, maintaining that the king had the right
of bestowing all dignities in all cathedrals in the kingdom, and not
the bishops. This required a reply from the bishop, who had been
formerly an active controversialist himself. Dean Pierce renewed his
attack with a folio volume, entitled "A Vindication of the King's
Sovereign Right, &c.," 1683.--Thus it proceeded, and the web thickened
around the bishop in replies and rejoinders. It cost him many tedious
journeys to London, through bad roads, fretting at "the King's
Sovereign Right" all the way; and, in the words of a witness, "in
unseasonable times and weather, that by degrees his spirits were
exhausted, his memory quite gone, and he was totally unfitted for
business."[431] Such was the fatal disturbance occasioned by Dean
Pierce's folio of "The King's Sovereign Right," and his son Bob being
left without a prebend!
I shall close this article with a very ludicrous instance of a
literary quarrel from personal motives. This piece of secret history
had been certainly lost, had not Bishop Lowth condescended to preserve
it, considering it as necessary to assign a sufficient reason for the
extraordinary libel it produced.
Bohun, an antiquarian lawyer, in a work entitled "The English Lawyer,"
in 1732, in illustrating the origin of the Act of _Scandalum
Magnatum_, which arose in the time of William of Wykeham, the
chancellor and bishop of Edward III. and the founder of New College,
in Oxford; took that opportunity of committing the very crime on the
venerable manes of Wykeham himself. He has painted this great man in
the darkest colours. Wykeham is charged with having introduced "Alice
Piers, his niece or," &c., for the truth is he was uncertain who she
was, to use his peculiar language, "into the king's bosom;" to have
joined her in excluding the Black Prince from all power in the state;
and he hints at this hero having been poisoned by them; of Wykeham's
embezzling a million of the public money, and, when chancellor, of
forging an Act of Parliament to indemnify himself, and thus passing
his own pardon. It is a singularity in this libellous romance, that
the contrary of all this only is true. But Bohun has so artfully
interwoven his historical patches of misrepresentations, surmises, and
fictions, that he succeeded in framing an historical libel.
Not satisfied with this vile tissue, in his own obscure volume, seven
years afterwards, being the editor of a work of high reputation,
Nathaniel Bacon's "Historical and Political Discourse of the Laws and
Government of England," he further satiated his frenzy by contriving
to preserve his libel in a work which he was aware would outlive his
own.
Whence all this persevering malignity? Why this quarrel of Mr. Bohun,
of the Middle Temple, with the long-departed William of Wykeham?
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?
He took all these obscure pains, and was moved with this perpetual
rancour against William of Wykeham, merely to mortify the Wykehamists;
and slandered their founder, with the idea that the odium might be
reflected on New College. Bohun, it seems, had a quarrel with them
concerning a lease on which he had advanced money; but the holder had
contrived to assign it to the well-known Eustace Budgell: the college
confirmed the assignment. At an interview before the warden, high
words had arisen between the parties: the warden withdrew, and the wit
gradually shoved the antiquary off the end of the bench on which they
were sitting: a blow was struck, and a cane broken. Bohun brought an
action, and the Wykehamites travelled down to give bail at Westminster
Hall, where the legal quarrel was dropped, and the literary one then
began. Who could have imagined that the venerable bishop and
chancellor of Edward III. was to be involved in a wretched squabble
about a lease with an antiquary and a wit? "Fancying," says Bishop
Lowth, "he could inflict on the Society of New College a blow which
would affect them more sensibly by wounding the reputation of their
founder, he set himself to collect everything he could meet with that
was capable of being represented to his discredit, and to improve it
with new and horrible calumnies of his own invention." Thus originated
this defamatory attack on the character of William of Wykeham! And by
arts which active writers may practise, and innocent readers cannot
easily suspect, a work of the highest reputation, like that of
Nathaniel Bacon's, may be converted into a vehicle of personal
malignity, while the author himself disguises his real purpose under
the specious appearance of literature! The present case, it must be
acknowledged, is peculiar, where a dead person was attacked with a
spirit of rancour to which the living only appear subject; but the
author was an antiquary, who lived as much with the dead as the
living: his personal motive was the same as those already recorded,
and here he was acting with a double force on the dead and the
living!
But here I stop my hand, my list would else be too complete.
Great names are omitted--Whitaker and Gibbon;[432] Pope and Lord
Hervey;[433] Wood and South;[434] Rowe, Mores, and Ames;[435] and
George Steevens and Gough.[436]
This chapter is not honourable to authors; but historians are only
Lord Chief Justices, who must execute the laws, even on their intimate
friends, when standing at the bar. The chapter is not honourable--but
it may be useful; and that is a quality not less valuable to the
public. It lets in their readers to a kind of knowledge, which opens a
necessary comment on certain works, and enlarges our comprehension of
their spirit.
If in the heat of controversy authors imprudently attack each other
with personalities, they are only scattering mud and hurling stones,
and will incur the ridicule or the contempt of those who, unfriendly
to the literary character, feel a secret pleasure in its degradation;
but let them learn, that to open a literary controversy from mere
personal motives; thus to conceal the dagger of private hatred under
the mantle of literature, is an expedient of short duration, for the
secret history is handed down with the book; and when once the dignity
of the author's character sinks in the meanness of his motives,
powerful as the work may be, even Genius finds its lustre diminished,
and Truth itself becomes suspicious.
FOOTNOTES:
[431] Lansdowne MSS. 1042-1316.
[432] GIBBON'S _Miscellaneous Works_, vol. i. 243.
[433] WALPOLE'S _Memoirs_, vol. iii. 40.
[434] The Life of Wood, by GUTCH, vol. i.
[435] NICHOLS'S _Literary Anecdotes_.
[436] "Curiosities of Literature," vol. iii. p. 303-4.
INDEX.
ADDISON, quarrels with Pope, 313
disapproves of his satire on Dennis, 315
aids a rival version of Homer, 316
satirized by Pope as _Atticus_, _n._ 317
his nervous fear of criticism, 317
his last interview with Pope, 318-320
quarrels with Steele on political grounds, 433
his disbelief in Rowe, 535
AKENSIDE exhibited as a ludicrous personage by Smollett; his real
character cast in the mould of antiquity, _n._ 114
severely criticised by Warburton, 264
ALDRICH, Dean, secretly fosters the attacks on Bentley, 378, _n._
383
AMHURST, a political author, his history, 11
ARNALL, a great political scribe, 10
ASCHAM, Roger, the founder of English Prose, 19
ATHENÆ BRITANNICÆ, one of the rarest works, account of, _n._ 31
ATHENÆ OXONIENSES, an apology for, 89
ATTERBURY, Bp., on terrors of conscience, 451
severe remarks on Pope, 535
AUBREY, gives the real reason for the fears of Hobbes the
philosopher, _n._ 452
minutely narrates the mode in which he composed his "Leviathan,"
_n._ 459
AUTHORS by profession, a phrase of modern origin, 8
original letter to a Minister from one, _ib._
Fielding's apology for them, 11
AUTHORS, Horace Walpole affects to despise them, 43
their maladies, 78
case of, stated, 15
incompetent remuneration of, 21
who wrote above the genius of their own age, 84
ill reception from the public of their valuable works, 85
who have sacrificed their fortunes to their studies, _ib._
who commenced their literary life with ardour, and found their
genius obstructed by numerous causes, 87
who have never published their works, 90
provincial, liable to bad passions, 128
AYRE'S Memoirs of Pope, _n._ 318, 319
BAKER and his microscopical discoveries, _n._ 366-367
Rev. Thomas, his collection, 93
BALGUY, Dr. Thos., _n._ 273
BARNES, Joshua, wrote a poem to prove Solomon was the author of the
"Iliad," and why, 97
his pathetic letter descriptive of his literary calamities, _ib._
hints at the vast number of his unpublished works, 98
BAYLE, his use of paradox, 247
his theory of apparitions, _n._ 451
BAYNE, Alexander, died of intense application, 72
BENTLEY, Dr., his controversy with Boyle, 378, 390
his haughtiness, _n._ 379
his dissertation on "Phalaris", 380
satirized by Dr. Middleton, 531
BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA in danger of being left unfinished, 84
BIRKENHEAD, Sir J., a newspaper-writer, 416
BLACKSTONE investigates the quarrel between Pope and Addison, 314
BOHUN, his unjustifiable attack on William of Wykeham, 537
BOLINGBROKE, his share in Pope's "Essay on Man,", 256
quarrel with Pope, 321-328
his "Patriot King" secretly printed by Pope, 321
his hatred of Warburton, 323-328
BOOKSELLERS in the reign of Elizabeth, 23
why their interest is rarely combined with the advancement of
literature, _n._ 87
why they prefer the crude to the matured fruit, 210
BOYLE, his controversy with Bentley, 378-390
his edition of "Phalaris", 378-381
his literary aids, _n._ 382
BRAMHALL opposes Hobbes' philosophy, 449
BRERETON, Sir W., characterised by Clarendon and Cleveland, _n._
418
BROOKE attacks errors in Camden's "Britannia", 492
his work unfairly suppressed, 495
his severe remarks on Camden, _ib._
humorous rhymes on a horse, 497
his self-defence, 498
his real motives vindicated, 499
biographical note, _ib._
BROWN, Dr., his panegyric on Warburton, and his sorrow for writing
it, _n._ 235
account of, _n._ 273
BROWN, Robt., founder of a sect of Puritans, _n._ 518
BURNET, Bp., his character attacked, 426
BURTON, his laborious work, 83
his constitutional melancholy, _n._ 182
CÆSALPINUS, originally the propounder of a theory of the circulation
of the blood, 335
CALVIN'S opinions on government, _n._ 447
CALVIN, his narrowed sectarianism, 502
CAMDEN recommends Jonson to Raleigh, _n._ 476
his industry, and his great work the "Britannia", 491
Brooke points out its errors, 492
his works suppressed through Camden's interest, 495
his exasperation, _ib._
his powerful picture of calumny, 496
his quiet adoption of Brooke's corrections, 499
CAMPANELLA and his political works, 351-352
CAREY, Henry, inventor of "Namby Pamby", 101
"Carey's Wish," a patriotic song on the Freedom of Election, by
the author of "God save the King," _n._ 102
"Sally in our Alley," a popular ballad, its curious origin, 103
author of several of our national poems, 104
his miserable end, _ib._
CARTE, Thomas, his valuable history, 110-111
the first proposer of public libraries, 111
its fate from his indiscretion, 112
CARTWRIGHT, Thomas, chief of the Puritan faction, 505
progress of his opinions, 506
his great popularity, _ib._
forsakes his party, 508-509
CARYLL'S voluminous commentary on Job, _n._ 392
CASTELL, Dr., ruined in health and fortune by the publication of his
Polyglott, _n._ 189
CHARLES THE SECOND'S jest at the Royal Society, _n._ 311
an admirer of Hobbes's ability in disputation, _n._ 448
CHATTERTON, his balance-sheet on the Lord Mayor's death, _n._ 25
CHURCHILL'S satire on Warburton, 240, 242, 243, 246
CHURCHYARD, Thomas, an unhappy poet, describes his patrons, 26
his pathetic description of his wretched old age, _ib._
CIBBER, his easy good-nature, 306
his reasonable defence of himself, _n._ 305-307
his "Essay on Cicero," _n._ 306
apology for his Life, 307
attacks on himself, 305, 308
unjustly degraded, 312
CLARENDON, Lord, his prejudice against May, 434
his opinion of Hobbes's philosophy, _n._ 438
CLERGY fight in the great civil wars, _n._ 422
CLELAND, biographical note on, 282
CLEVELAND'S character of a journal-maker, 416
COLE, Rev. William, his character, 90
his melancholy confession on his lengthened literary labours,
92
his anxiety how best to dispose of his collections, 93
COLLINS, Arthur, historian of the Peerage, 85
COLLINS, Wm., the poet, quits the university suddenly with romantic
hopes of becoming an author, 172
publishes his "Odes" without success, and afterwards indignantly
burns the edition, 180
defended from some reproaches of irresolution, made by Johnson,
181
anecdote of his life in the metropolis, 182
anecdotes of, when under the influence of a disordered intellect,
183
his monument described, 184
two sonnets descriptive of Collins, 185
his poetical character defended, 186
CONTEMPORARIES, how they seek to level genius, 206
COOPER, author of "Life of Socrates," attacked by Warburton, _n._
272
COOPER, Bishop, attacked by Mar-Prelates, _n._ 513, 514
COPYRIGHTS, Lintot's payments for, 328-333
CORBET, his humorous introduction to Ben Jonson, _n._ 475
COTGRAVE, Randle, falls blind in the labour of his "Dictionary",
73
COURT of Charles II. satirised by Marvell, 393
its characteristics, 414
COWEL incurs by his curious work "The Interpreter" the censure of
the King and the Commons on opposite principles, 193
COWLEY, original letter from, _n._ 36
his essays form a part of his confessions, 37
describes his feelings at court, _ib._
his melancholy attributed to his "Ode to Brutus," by which he
incurred the disgrace of the court, 40
his remarkable lamentation for having written poetry, 41
his Epitaph composed by himself, 42
CRITIC, poetical, without any taste, how he contrived to criticise
poems, 143
CRITICISMS, illiberal, some of its consequences stated, 140
CROSS attacks the Royal Society, 344-346
CROUSAZ dissects Pope's "Essay on Man", 256
CURLL, and his publication of Pope's letters, 292
D'AVENANT, his poem of "Gondibert", 404
history of its composition, _n._ 404
its merits and defects, 405-408
a club of wits satirize it, 409
and its author, 412
and occasion it to be left unfinished, 413
DAVIES, Myles, a mendicant author, his life, 30
DECKER quarrels with Ben Jonson for his arrogance, 475-487
ridicules him in his "Satiromastix", 482-487
DEDICATION, composed by a patron to himself, _n._ 30
DEDICATIONS, used in an extraordinary way, _n._ 30
DE LOLME'S work on the Constitution could find no patronage, and the
author's bitter complaints, 200
relieved by the Literary Fund, _n._ 201
DENHAM falsely satirized, _n._ 429
DENNIS, John, distinguished as "The Critic", 52
his "Original Letters" and "Remarks on Prince Arthur," his best
productions, 52
anecdotes of his brutal vehemence, 53
curious caricature of his personal manners, 54
a specimen of his anti-poetical notions, _n._ 55
his frenzy on the Italian Opera, 57
acknowledges that he is considered as ill-natured, and complains
of public neglect, _ib._
more the victim of his criticisms than the genius he insulted,
58
his insatiable vengeance toward Pope, 286
his attack on Addison's "Cato", 315
his account with the bookseller Lintot, 331
DRAKE, Dr. John, a political writer, his miserable life, 11
DRAYTON'S national work, "The Polyolbion," ill received, and the
author greatly dejected, 210
angry preface addressed "To any that will read it", 211
DRUMMOND of Hawthornden, his love of poetry, 213
conversation with Jonson, 475
DRYDEN, in his old age, complains of dying of over-study, 204
his dramatic life a series of vexations, 205
regrets he was born among Englishmen, 206
remarkable confession of the poet, _ib._
vilified by party spirit, 427
compares his quarrel with Settle to that of Jonson with Decker,
_n._ 477
DUNCIAD, Pope's collections for, 278
early editions of, _n._ 283
rage of persons satirized in, _n._ 284
satire on naturalists in, 342
DUNTON the bookseller satirized by Swift, 430
DYSON defends Akenside, 265
EACHARD'S satire on Hobbes and his sect, _n._ 439
EDWARDS, Thomas, author of "Canons of Criticism", 261
biographical notice, _n._ 532
anecdotes of his critical sagacity, _n._ 262-263
origin of his "Canons of Criticism", 532
EVANS, Arise, a fanatical Welsh prophet, patronised by Warburton,
_n._ 240
EVELYN defends the Royal Society, 340
EXERCISE, to be substituted for medicine by literary men, and which
is the best, _n._ 68
FALSE rumours in the great Civil War, 421
FARNEWORTH'S Translation of Machiavel, 84
FELL, Dr., an opponent of the Royal Society, 350
ungenerous to Hobbes, 450
rhymes descriptive of his unpopularity, 451
FIELDING attacks Sir John Hill, 368-369
FILMER, Sir R., writes to establish despotism, _n._ 449
FOLKES, Martin, President of the Royal Society, _n._ 364
attacked by Sir John Hill, _n._ 366
FULLER'S "Medicina Gymnastica," _n._ 71
GARTH, Dr., and his Dispensary, 429
GAY acts as mediator with Pope and Addison, 320
his account with Lintot the bookseller, 330
GIBBON, Ed., price of his copyright, 87
GILDON supposed by Pope to have been employed by Addison to write
against him, 316
GLANVILL a defender of the Royal Society, 244
GLOVER, Leonidas, declines to write a Life of Marlborough, _n._
325
GOLDSMITH'S remonstrance on illiberal criticism, from which the law
gives no protection, 142
GRANGER'S complaint of not receiving half the pay of a scavenger,
85
GREENE, Robert, a town-wit, his poverty and death, 23
awful satirical address to, _n._ 119
GREY, Dr. Zachary, the father of our commentators, ridiculed and
abused, 104
the probable origin of his new mode of illustrating Hudibras,
_ib._
Warburton's double-dealing with him, _n._ 259
GUTHRIE offers his services as a hackney-writer to a minister, 8
HACKETT executed for attacks on the church, _n._ 518
HANMER, Sir T., his edition of Shakespeare, _n._ 242, _n._ 258
HARDOUIN supposes the classics composed by monks in the Middle Ages,
249-252
HARRINGTON and his "Oceana", 449
HARVEY, Dr., and his discovery of the circulation of the blood,
335
HARVEY, Gabriel, his character, 117
his device against his antagonist, _n._ 119
his portrait, 121
severely satirised by Nash for his prolix periods, 122
cannot be endured to be considered as the son of a rope-maker,
123
his pretended sordid manners, 124
his affectation of Italian fashions, _ib._
his friends ridiculed, 125
his pedantic taste for hexameter verses, &c., 127
his curious remonstrance with Nash, 126
his lamentation on invectives, 129
his books, and Nash's, suppressed by order of the Archbishop of
Canterbury for their mutual virulence, 120
HAWKESWORTH, Dr., letter on presenting his MS. of Cook's Voyages for
examination, the publication of which overwhelmed his
fortitude and intellect, 199
HENLEY, Orator, this buffoon an indefatigable student, an elegant
poet, and wit, 59
his poem of "Esther, Queen of Persia", 60
sudden change in his character, 62
seems to have attempted to pull down the Church and the
University, 63
some idea of his lectures, _n._ 64
his projects to supply a Universal School, _ib._
specimens of his buffoonery on solemn occasions, 66
his "Defence of the Oratory," _n._ _ib._
once found his match in two disputants, 67
specimen of the diary of his "Oratory Transactions", _ib._
close of his career, _n._ 68
his character, 69
parallel between him and Sir John Hill, 363
HENRY, Dr., the Historian, the sale of his work, on which he had
expended most of his fortune and his life, stopped, and
himself ridiculed, by a conspiracy raised against him, 136
HENRY, Dr., caustic review of his history, _n._ _ib._
HERON, Robert, draws up the distresses of a man of letters living by
literary industry, in the confinement of a sponging-house,
from his original letter, 81
HERRICK, Robert, petulant invective against Devonshire, 215
HILL, Aaron, and his quarrel with Pope, 290
HILL, Sir John, 362-396
parallel between him and Orator Henley, 383
his great work on Botany, _n._ _ib._
his personalities, 364
attacks the Royal Society, 365
his _Inspector_, 367
war of wit with Fielding, 368
and Smart, 370-372
attacks Woodward, who replies with some ridiculous anecdotes, _n._
372
proposes himself as keeper of the Sloane collection, 374
manufactures _Travels_, _n._ 374
his death, 375
HOBBES contemns the Royal Society, 342
praises D'Avenant's poem of "Gondibert", 408-412
his quarrels, 436
peculiarities of his character, 437
his sect, 438
his real opinions, 439
his "Leviathan", 440-448
feared and suspected by both parties, _n._ 442
no atheist, _n._ 445
his continual disputations, 448-450
his terror of death, 451
the real solution of his fears, 452
his disciples in literature, _n._ 455
his pride, 456
his mode of composition, _n._ 459
his contented poverty, and consistent conduct, _ib._
characteristics of his writings, 461
his passion for mathematics, 464
leads to a quarrel with Dr. Wallis, 465-473
HOME and his tragedy of "Douglas", 79
HOWEL, nearly lost his life by excessive study, 74
HUME, his literary life mortified with disappointments, 202
wished to change his name and his country, 204
his letter to Des Maiseaux requesting his opinion of his
philosophy, 202
HURD, Bishop, biographical note on, 253
imitates Warburton's style, _n._ 269
_Icon Libellorum._ See _Athenæ Britannicæ_.
JOHNSON, Dr., his aversion to Milton's politics, 425
JONES, Inigo, ridiculed by Ben Jonson, _n._ 477
JONSON, Ben, his quarrel with Decker, 475
his conversation with Drummond of Hawthornden, 475, 535
his general conviviality, _n._ 475
his play "The Poetaster", 476-481
his powerful satire on Decker, 482-487
his bitter allusions to his enemies, 487-488
KENNET'S, Bishop, Register and Chronicle, 87
KENRICK, Dr., a caustic critic, treats our great authors with the
most amusing arrogance, 141
an epigram on himself, by himself, _n._ 142
KING, Dr., his payments as an author, 332
biographical notice of, _n._ 358
ridicules the Transactions of the Royal Society, 358, 361
aids in attacking Bentley, 384
his satirical Index to Bentley's Characteristics, _n._ 386
LAWSON, Dame, a noted female Puritan, _n._ 519, 525
LEE, Nat., his love of praise, 213
LELAND, the antiquary, an accomplished scholar, 172
his "Strena," or New Year's Gift to Henry VIII.; an account of his
studies, and his magnificent projects, 174
doubts that his labours will reach posterity, 175
he values "the furniture" of his mind, _ib._
his bust striking from its physiognomy, 177
the ruins of his mind discovered in his library, _ib._
the inscription on his tomb probably had been composed by himself,
before his insanity, 178
thoughts on Eloquence, 255
LIBELS abounded in the age of Elizabeth, 503
LIGHTFOOT could not procure the printing of his work, 192
LINTOT'S account-book, 328-333
LITERARY PROPERTY, difficulties to ascertain its nature, 16
history of, _ib._
value of, _n._ _ib._
LITERARY quarrels from personal motives, 529-539
LLOYD'S, Bishop, collections and their fate, 93
LOGAN, the history of his literary disappointments, 78
dies broken-hearted, _ib._
his poetic genius, 80
LOWTH, Bishop, attack on pretensions of Warburton, _n._ 235-246,
_n._ 252-268
M'DONALD, or Matthew Bramble, his tragical reply to an inquiry after
his tragedy, 77
MACDIARMID, John, died of over-study and exhaustion, 74
MALLET, his knowledge of Pope and Warburton, _n._ 242
his attacks on Warburton, _n._ 271
employed by Bolingbroke to libel Pope, _ib._
anecdote of his egotism, 324
employed by the Duchess of Marlborough on a Life of the Duke, _n._
325
M'MAHON and his anti-social philosophy, _n._ 456
MARSTON, John, satirised by Ben Jonson, _n._ 477
MARTIN MAR-PRELATE'S libels issuing from a moveable press carried
about the country, 116
a party-name for satirists of the Church, 510
their popularity, 513-516
their secret printings, 515
opposed by other wits, 517
authors of these satires, _n._ 505, _n._ 518, 520, 523
curious rhymes against, 524-528
MARVELL attacks the intolerant tenets of Bishop Parker, 392
severity of his satire on the Court of Charles II., _n._ 393
comments on the early career of Parker, 394-395
origin of quarrel, 396
his noble defence of Milton, 399
his rencontre with Parker in the streets, 401
his political honesty, 402
his generous criticism on Butler, 434
MASKELL, Rev. W., history of the Mar-Prelate controversy, _n._
503
date of its origin, and opinion on its authors, _n._ 505
MELANCHOLY persons frequently the most delightful companions, _n._
182
MENASSAH, Ben Israel, his treatise "De Resurrectione Mortuorum,"
_n._ 252
MICKLE'S pathetic address to his muse, 207
his disappointments after the publication of the "Lusiad" induce
him to wish to abandon his native country, 208
MIDDLETON, Dr. Conyers, quarrel with Bentley, 530
and with Warburton, 532
MILTON'S works the favourite prey of booksellers, 17
vilified by party spirit, 424-425
MORTIMER, Thomas, his complaint in old age of the preference given
to young adventurers, 75
MOTTEUX, Peter, and his patron, 30
MUGHOUSE, political clubs, _n._ 32
NASH, Tom, the misery of his literary life, 23
threatens his patrons, 24
silences Mar-Prelate with his own weapons, 116
his character as a Lucianic satirist, 120
his "Have with you to Saffron Walden," a singular literary
invective against Gabriel Harvey, 120
NEEDHAM, Marchmont, a newspaper writer in the great Civil War,
420
NEWSPAPERS of the great Civil War, 415, 422
NEWTON, of a fearful temper in criticism, _n._ 140
NEWTON'S "Optics" first favourably noticed in France, 84
OCKLEY, Simon, among the first of our authors who exhibited a great
nation in the East in his "History of the Saracens", 163
his sufferings expressed in a remarkable preface dated from gaol,
187
dines with the Earl of Oxford; an original letter of apology for
his uncourtly behaviour, 189
exults in prison for the leisure it affords for study, _n._ _ib._
neglected, but employed by ministers, 196
OLDMIXON asserts Lord Clarendon's "History" to have been interpolated,
while himself falsifies Daniel's "Chronicle," _n._ 10
PALERMO, Prince of; and his Palace of Monsters, _n._ 243
PAPER-WARS of the Civil Wars, 415, 422
PARKER, Bishop of Oxford, his early career, 394-395
the intolerance of his style, 397
attacks Milton, 399
and Marvell in the streets, 401
his posthumous portrait of Marvell, 402
PARR, Dr., his talent and his egotism, _n._ 236
his defence of Warburton, _n._ 239
in revenge for Bishop Hurd's criticism, publishes his early works
of irony, 531
PATIN, Guy, his account of Hobbes, _n._ 445
PATTISON, a young poet, his college career, 98
his despair in an address to Heaven, and a pathetic letter, 101
PENRY, one of the writers of Mar-Prelate tracts, _n._ 505, _n._
518
his career, 520
his execution, 521
his petition and protest, _n._ 521
rhymes on his death, _ib._
PHALARIS, Epistles of, 378
PHILLIPS asperses Pope, 316
PIERCE, Dr. T., his controversies, 537
POETS, _mediocre_ Critics are the real origin of _mediocre_, 212
Nat. Lee describes their wonderful susceptibility of praise,
213
provincial, their situation at variance with their feelings,
214
POPE, Alex., his opinion of "the Dangerous Fate of Authors", 214
the Poet Prior, 216
POPE, Alexander, his high estimation of Warburton, 257, 273
Warburton's edition of his works, 263, 270
his miscellaneous quarrel, 278, 291
collects libels on himself, _n._ 273
literary stratagems, 280
early neglect of his "Essay on Criticism," _n._ 280
the real author of the "Key to the Lock," _n._ 280
hostilities between him and others, 282
the finest character-painter, _n._ 283
his personal sufferings on Cibber's satire, 285
his first introduction to Dennis, _n._ 286
narrative of the publication of his letter to Curll, 292, 300
his attacks on Cibber, 301, 312
his condemned comedy, _n._ 301, 307
quarrels with Addison, 313
urges an attack on his _Cato_, _n._ 315
believes him to have employed adverse critics, _n._ 316-317
satirizes Addison as Atticus, _n._ 317
his last interview with Addison, 318, 320
surreptitiously prints Bolingbroke's "Patriot King", 321
his bookselling account with Lintot, 329
his earliest satire, 333-335
his satires and their effects, 535
PRIDEAUX'S "Connection of Old and New Testament", 84
PRINCE'S "Worthies of Devon", _ib._
PRIOR, curious character of, from a Whig satire, 216
felicitated himself that his natural inclination for poetry had
been checked, 217
attacked for his political creed, 429
PROCLAMATION issued by James I. against Cowel's book, "The
Interpreter," a curious document in literary history, 195
PRYNNE, a voluminous author without judgment, but the character of
the man not so ridiculous as the author, 146
his intrepid character, 147
his curious argument against being debarred from pen and ink, _n._
148
his interview with Laud in the Tower, _n._ 149
had a good deal of cunning in his character, _n._ 150
grieved for the Revolution in which he himself had been so
conspicuous a leader, 148
his speeches as voluminous as his writings, _n._ 151
seldom dined, _n._ 152
account of his famous "Histriomastix", _ib._
Milton admirably characterises Prynne's absurd learning, _n._
_ib._
how the "Histriomastix" was at once an elaborate work of many
years, and yet a temporary satire--the secret history of the
book being as extraordinary as the book itself, 153
PURITANS, origin of their name, _n._ 504
RALEIGH, Sir W., an opposer of Puritanism, _n._ 508
REFORMATION, the, under Elizabeth, 501
RIDICULE described, 114
it creates a fictitious personage, _ib._
a test of truth, 264, 267
RITSON, Joseph, the late poetical antiquary, carried criticism to
insanity, 51
RITSON, Isaac, a young Scotch writer, perishes by attempting to
exist by the efforts of his pen, 75
his extemporary rhapsody descriptive of his melancholy fate, 76
ROYAL SOCIETY, the, 335, 361
encounters much opposition when first established, _ib._
RUFFHEAD'S Life of Pope, 290
RUSHWORTH dies of a broken heart, having neglected his own affairs
for his "Historical Collections", 85
RYMER'S distress in forming his "Historical Collections", 85
RYVES, Eliza, her extraordinary literary exertions and melancholy
end, 107
SALE, the learned, often wanted a meal while translating the Koran,
_n._ 189
SAVAGE the Poet employed by Pope to collect materials for notes to
the _Dunciad_, _n._ 279
SCOT, Reginald, persecuted for his work against Witchcraft, 198
SCOTT, of Amwell, the Quaker and poet, offended at being compared to
Capt. Macheath by the affected witticism of a Reviewer, 143
his extraordinary "Letter to the Critical Reviewers," in which he
enumerates his own poetical beauties, _ib._
SELDEN compelled to recant his opinions, and not suffered to reply
to his calumniators, 198
refuses James I. to publish his defence of the "Sovereignty of the
Seas" till Grotius provoked his reply, _ib._
opinions on bishops, _n._ 502
SETTLE, Elkanah, the ludicrous close of a scribbler's life, 146
the hero of Pope's earliest satire, 333
manages Pope burnings, 334
SHAFTESBURY, Lord, on the origin of irony, _n._ 436
his character of Hobbes, _n._ 437
his conversation with Hobbes in Paris on his work, "The
Leviathan," _n._ 441
SHUCKFORD, "Sacred and Profane History Connected", 85
SLOANE, Sir Hans, his peculiarities of style, 358-360
SMART and his satire, "The Hilliad", 371-372
SMOLLETT confesses the incredible labour and chagrin he had endured
as an author, 13
SOCRATES ridiculed by Aristophanes, 266
SOUTH'S poignant reflection on the Royal Society, 342
SPRAT'S History of the Royal Society, 337-339
his aversion to Milton, 424
STEELE, his paradoxical character, 168
satirized by Swift, 429-431
why he wrote a laughable comedy after his "Christian Hero", 169
his ill choice in a wife of an uncongenial character, 170
specimens of his "Love Despatches," _n._ _ib._
finely contrasts his own character with that of Addison, _n._
172
introduces Pope to Addison, 314
manages a friendly interview between them after a long disseverance,
319
his political creed loses him Addison's friendship, 433
STEEVENS, G., satirizes Sir John Hawkins, 535
STILLINGFLEET, Bishop, his end supposed to have been hastened by
Locke's confutation of his metaphysical notions, _n._ 140
STOCKDALE, Perceval, his character an extraordinary instance of the
illusions of writers in verse, 218
draws a parallel between Charles XII. and himself, 224
STOWE, the chronicler, petitions to be a licensed beggar, 29
STRUTT, the antiquary, a man of genius and imagination, 86
his spirited letters on commencing his career of authorship, 88
STUART, Dr. Gilbert, his envious character; desirous of destroying
the literary works of his countrymen, 131
projects the "Edinburgh Magazine and Review;" its design, _ib._
his horrid feelings excited by his disappointments, 132
raises a literary conspiracy against Dr. Henry, 135
dies miserably, 139
STUBBE and his attacks on the Royal Society, 346
his early history, 347
influenced by Dr. Fell in his attacks, _n._ 350
specimens of them, 356
SYSTEMS of Opinions, often fallacies in practice, 461
SUBSCRIPTIONS once inundated our literature with worthless works,
29
TEMPLE, Sir W., Essay on Learning, 378
THEOBALD, his payments from, and literary arrangements with Lintot,
331-332
TICKELL'S Homer, 316
TOLAND, a lover of study, 157
defends himself from the aspersion of atheism or deism, 150
accused of an intention to found a sect, 159
had the art of explaining away his own words, _ib._
a great artificer of title-pages, 160
his "Pantheisticon", 161
projects a new office of a private monitor to the minister, 163
of the books he read and his MSS. _n._ 166
his panegyrical epitaph composed by himself, 167
Locke's admirable foresight of his character, 168
the miserable payment for his life of literary labour, 332
TONSON, Jacob, bickerings with Dryden, _n._ 171
his bookselling career, _ib._
UDALL, John, a writer in the Mar-Prelate controversy, _n._ 505,
_n._ 518
his character and career, 521-523
WAGSTAFFE, Dr., his character of Steele, _n._ 429-432
his satirical works, _n._ 431
WAKEFIELD, Gilbert, his works unsuccessful because of his politics,
_n._ 435
WALLIS, Dr., his curious narrative of a dialogue between Hobbes and
the Countess of Devonshire, _n._ 455
his quarrel with Hobbes, 465-473
his power of deciphering secret writing, 472
his real opinion of Hobbes, _n._ 473
WALPOLE, Horace, his literary character, 43
instances of his pointed vivacity against authors, _n._ 43
why he attacked the fame of Sydney, and defended Richard III.,
45
his literary mortifications, acknowledged by himself from his
original letters, 47
how Gray treated him when invited to Strawberry-hill, _n._ 46
extraordinary letter of, expressing his contempt of his most
celebrated contemporaries, 49
WALSINGHAM, Sir Francis, originally favours the Puritans, _n._
508
WARBURTON, dishonest criticism on Gray's "Hudibras", 105
and his quarrels, 233-277
his early career, 239
his traffic in dedications, 241
his contemptuous criticism on Pope and Addison, 244
his miscellaneous reading, 245, 246
his love of conjecture, 247
Divine Legation, _n._ 250, 267
unhappy in his labours, _n._ 252
his coarseness of invective, _n._ 224, 268
his contemptuous criticisms, 258, 269
conjectural criticism on Shakspeare, 260
his edition of Pope, 263, 270, 271
his literary recruits, 274
defends Pope against Bolingbroke, 321
influenced Pope through his religion, _n._ 323
his opinion of Hobbes, _n._ 444
offends Edwards in a contest, 532
WARD, Dr. Seth, his double opinion of Hobbes' Works, _n._ 465
WARD, Dr., his quarrel with Dr. Pierce, 536
WHARTON, Henry, sunk under his historical studies, 74
WHITGIFT, Archbishop, his controversies with Cartwright the Puritan,
and ultimate friendship with him, _n._ 509
WILLIAM of WYKEHAM attacked by Bohun, 537
WOOD, Anthony, his character, 94
an apology for the "Athenæ Oxonienses", 92
the writers of a party whom he abhorred frequently refer to him in
their own favour, 99
defines Marvell's style, 392
gives Bishop Parker's early history, 394
his prejudice against Lake, 423
WOODWARD the actor attacked by Hill, 372, and note
WORKS, valuable, not completed from deficient encouragement, 84
WOTTON'S reflections on learning, 378
THE END.
* * * * *
Transcriber Notes
Typographical inconsistencies have been changed and are listed below.
Archaic and variable spelling and hyphenation is preserved, including
the author's use of "wont" instead of "won't".
Author's punctuation style is preserved, except where noted below.
Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=.
Emphasized words within italics indicated by +plus signs+.
Transcriber Changes
The following changes were made to the original text:
Page 11: Added missing word (He passed through a youth of
iniquity, and was expelled =from= his college for his
irregularities)
Page 21: Was 'ingratisude' (it seems a national =ingratitude= to
limit the existence of works for their authors)
Page 23: Was 'roya' (passed off in currency their base metal stamped
with a =royal= head)
Page 40: Was 'discontentd' (he retired =discontented= into
Surrey.")
Page 62: Was smudged 'brothe' (envied their Ciceronian =brothers.=)
Page 63: Added period (he then requested the Bishop of =London.=)
Page 89: Was 'prosspects' (his imagination delighted to expatiate in
its future =prospects=)
Page 105: Was 'Hubidras' (might have served as the model of Grey's
=Hudibras=.)
Page 118: Added quote (="Harvey=, the happy above happier men, I
read)
Page 187: Was 'sorows' (the oriental student pathetically counts
over his =sorrows=)
Page 215: Removed quote (O people currish, churlish as their
=seas--=)
Page 230: Changed comma to period (he gave a new turn to our
=studies.=)
Page 281: Added quote ("and the weekly clubs held to consult of
hostilities against the =author;"=)
Page 289: Was 'nor' (Is =not= _Word-catching_ more serviceable in
splitting a cause, than explaining a fine poet?)
Page 327: Was 'damagogue' (which such a political =demagogue= as
Bolingbroke never forgave)
Page 328: Added quote (which I have noticed in the ="Quarrels= of
Warburton.")
Page 350: Was 'petulent' (which closed this life of toil and hurry
and =petulant= genius)
Page 399: Was 'ut' (he was glad to make use of anything rather than
sit =out=;)
Page 403: Was 'Philosoper' (while the =Philosopher= keenly retorts
on the Club)
Page 420: Added missing i (I give a short narrative of the political
temper of the times, =in= their unparalleled gazettes.)
Page 434: Added quote (From age to age, =&c."=)
Page 436: Was 'montrous' (his =monstrous= egotism)
Page 469: Changed comma to period (than in his younger =days.=)
Page 471: Removed quote (you are older already than =Methuselah.=)
Page 481: Added quote ('Barmy froth, inflate, turgidous, and
ventosity are come =up.'=)
Page 483: Was 'searchin' (Mine enemies, with sharp and =searching=
eyes)
Page 487: Added period (Nor the =Untrussers.=)
Page 497: Removed quote (=Now=, to show himself as good a painter as
he is a herald)
Footnote 20: Extra comma removed (his _Bibliographia =Poetica=_.)
Footnote 140: Was 'afterwardss' (As City Poet =afterwards= Settle
composed the pageants)
Footnote 140: Was 'Mayor' (songs for the Lord =Mayor's= Shows from
1691 to 1708)
Footnote 140: Original split across lines as 'im,' and 'poverished,'
(Towards the close of his career he became
=impoverished=)
Footnote 150: Changed period to comma (by =Indignatio,"= 1772)
Footnote 157: Added quote ("that last foible of superior
=genius."=)
Footnote 163: Was 'Manasseh' (which =Menasseh= Ben Israel has
written his treatise)
Footnote 183: Was 'infallibilty' (to the standard of your
=infallibility=)
Footnote 186: Added quote (="Letter= to Warburton," p. 4.)
Footnote 195: Added quote (Prince Eugene, ="who= came hither for
that purpose.")
Footnote 202: Was 'Irishmant o' (had a tall Irishman =to= attend
him)
Footnote 291: Added quote (And changed his skin to monumental
=brass."=)
Footnote 324: Added missing word (=It= may be inscribed in the
library of the student)
Footnote 353: Was 'caligraphy' (this beautiful specimen of
=calligraphy= may still be seen)
Footnote 353: Was 'hi' (it produced =his= sudden dismissal from the
presence of Charles II. when at Paris)
Footnote 354: Added quote (but, chewed, are for the most part cast
up again without =effect."=)
Footnote 367: Added quote (="Il= disoit qu'il faisoit quelquefois
des ouvertures)
Footnote 369: Added period (The story his antagonist (Dr. Wallis)
relates is perfectly in =character.=)
Footnote 418: Changed comma to period (in a countercuffe given to
Martin =Junior."=)
Index: Was 'Gilden' (=GILDON= supposed by Pope to have been employed
by Addison to write against him, 316)
Index: Added period (JOHNSON, =Dr.,= his aversion to Milton's
politics, 425)
Index: Was '132' (LIGHTFOOT could not procure the printing of his
work, =192=)
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Calamities and Quarrels of Authors" ***
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