Part 9

They who will not grant me, that pleasure is one of the ends of poetry, but that it is only a means of compassing the only end, which is instruction, must yet allow, that, without the means of pleasure, the instruction is but a bare and dry philosophy: a crude preparation of morals, which we may have from Aristotle and Epictetus, with more profit than from any poet. Neither Holyday nor Stapylton have imitated Juvenal in the poetical part of him--his diction and his elocution. Nor had they been poets, as neither of them were, yet, in the way they took, it was impossible for them to have succeeded in the poetic part.

The English verse, which we call heroic, consists of no more than ten syllables; the Latin hexameter sometimes rises to seventeen; as, for example, this verse in Virgil:

_Pulverulenta putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum._

Here is the difference of no less than seven syllables in a line, betwixt the English and the Latin. Now the medium of these is about fourteen syllables; because the dactyle is a more frequent foot in hexameters than the spondee. But Holyday, without considering that he wrote with the disadvantage of four syllables less in every verse, endeavours to make one of his lines to comprehend the sense of one of Juvenal's. According to the falsity of the proposition was the success. He was forced to crowd his verse with ill-sounding monosyllables, of which our barbarous language affords him a wild plenty; and by that means he arrived at his pedantic end, which was to make a literal translation. His verses have nothing of verse in them, but only the worst part of it--the rhyme; and that, into the bargain, is far from good. But, which is more intolerable, by cramming his ill-chosen, and worse-sounding monosyllables so close together, the very sense which he endeavours to explain, is become more obscure than that of his author; so that Holyday himself cannot be understood, without as large a commentary as that which he makes on his two authors. For my own part, I can make a shift to find the meaning of Juvenal without his notes: but his translation is more difficult than his author. And I find beauties in the Latin to recompense my pains; but, in Holyday and Stapylton, my ears, in the first place, are mortally offended; and then their sense is so perplexed, that I return to the original, as the more pleasing task, as well as the more easy.[50]

This must be said for our translation, that, if we give not the whole sense of Juvenal, yet we give the most considerable part of it: we give it, in general, so clearly, that few notes are sufficient to make us intelligible. We make our author at least appear in a poetic dress. We have actually made him more sounding, and more elegant, than he was before in English; and have endeavoured to make him speak that kind of English, which he would have spoken had he lived in England, and had written to this age. If sometimes any of us (and it is but seldom) make him express the customs and manners of our native country rather than of Rome, it is, either when there was some kind of analogy betwixt their customs and ours, or when, to make him more easy to vulgar understandings, we give him those manners which are familiar to us. But I defend not this innovation, it is enough if I can excuse it. For, to speak sincerely, the manners of nations and ages are not to be confounded; we should either make them English, or leave them Roman. If this can neither be defended nor excused, let it be pardoned at least, because it is acknowledged; and so much the more easily, as being a fault which is never committed without some pleasure to the reader.

Thus, my lord, having troubled you with a tedious visit, the best manners will be shewn in the least ceremony. I will slip away while your back is turned, and while you are otherwise employed; with great confusion for having entertained you so long with this discourse, and for having no other recompence to make you, than the worthy labours of my fellow-undertakers in this work, and the thankful acknowledgments, prayers, and perpetual good wishes, of,

MY LORD, Your Lordship's Most obliged, most humble, And most obedient servant, JOHN DRYDEN. _Aug. 18, 1692._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Our author's connection with this witty and accomplished nobleman is fully traced in Dryden's Life. He was created Earl of Middlesex in 1675, and after the Revolution became Lord Chamberlain, and a knight of the garter. Dryden alludes to these last honours in the commencement of the dedication, which was prefixed to a version of the Satires of Juvenal by our author and others, published in 1693.

[2] See Introduction to the "Essay on Dramatic Poetry."

[3] These Lyrical Pieces, after all, are only a few smooth songs, where wit is sufficiently overbalanced by indecency.

[4] Alluding to Rochester's well-known couplet:

For pointed satire I would Buckhurst chuse; The best good man, with the worst-natured muse.

_Allusion to Horace's 10th Satire, Book I._

The satires of Lord Dorset seem to have consisted in short lampoons, if we may judge of those which have been probably lost, from such as are known to us. His mock "Address to Mr Edward Howard, on his incomparable and incomprehensible Poem, called the British Princes;" another to the same on his plays; a lampoon on an Irish lady; and one on Lady Dorchester,--are the only satires of his lordship's which have been handed down to us. He probably wrote other light occasional pieces of the same nature.

[5] Shooting at rovers, in archery, is opposed to shooting at butts: In the former exercise the bowman shoots at random, merely to show how far he can send an arrow.

[6] Probably meaning Sir Robert Howard, with whom our author was now reconciled, and perhaps Sir William D'Avenant.

[7] The First Satire of Persius is doubtless levelled against bad poets; but that author rather engages in the defence of satire, opposed to the silly or bombastic verses of his contemporaries, than in censuring freedoms used with private characters.

[8] The four sceptres were placed saltier-wise upon the reverse of guineas, till the gold coinage of his present majesty.

[9]

_Sic Maro nec Calabri tentavit carmina Flacci, Pindaricos posset cum superare modos; Et Vario cessit Romani laude cothurni, Cum posset tragico fortius ore loqui._

MART. _lib. VIII. epig. XVIII._

[10] "Would it be imagined," says Dr Johnson, "that, of this rival to antiquity, all the satires were little personal invectives, and that his longest composition was a song of eleven stanzas? The blame, however, of this exaggerated praise falls on the encomiast, not upon the author; whose performances are, what they pretend to be, the effusions of a man of wit; gay, vigorous, and airy."

[11] Dryden's recollection seems here deficient. There is, no doubt, a close imitation of the Iliad throughout the Jerusalem; but the death of the Swedish Prince was so far from being the motive of Rinaldo's return to the wars, that Rinaldo seems never to have heard either of that person or of his fate until he was delivered from the garden of Armida, and on his voyage to join Godfrey's army.

[12] Epic poems by Le Moyne, Chapelain, and Scuderi; of which it may be enough to say, that they are in the stale, weary, flat, and unprofitable taste of all French heroics.

[13] This passage is certainly inaccurate in one particular, and probably in the rest. Sir Philip Sydney was killed at the battle of Zutphen, 16th October, 1586, and the "Faery Queen" was then only commenced. For, in a dialogue written by Bryskett, as Mr Malone conjectures, betwixt 1584 and 1586, Spenser is introduced describing himself as having undertaken a work in heroical verse, under the title of a "Faerie Queene;" and it is clear that he continued to labour in that task till 1594, when we learn, from his 80th sonnet, that he had just composed six books:

After so long a race as I have run Through Faery Land, which those six books compile, Give leave to rest me, being half foredonne, And gather to myself new breath awhile; Then, as a steed refreshed after toyle, Out of my prison will I break anew, And stoutly will that second work assoyle, With strong endevour, and attention due.

It was not, therefore, the death of Sir Philip Sydney which deprived him of spirit to continue his captivating poem, since the greater part was written after that event; but the poet's domestic misfortunes, occasioned by Tyrone's rebellion, which seem at once to have ruined his fortune, and broken his heart. See TODD'S _Life of Spenser_, and MALONE'S Note on this passage.

It seems unlikely, that Sydney was Spenser's Prince Arthur. Upton more justly considers Leicester, a worthless character, but the favourite of Gloriana, (Queen Elizabeth,) and who aspired to share her bed and throne, as depicted under that character. See TODD'S _Spenser_, Vol. I. Life, p. clxviii.

[14] This was a charge brought against Spenser so early as the days of Ben Jonson; who says, in his Discoveries, "Spenser, in affecting the ancients, writ no language; yet I would have him read for his matter, but as Virgil read Ennius." This has been generally supposed to apply only to Spenser's "Pastorals;" but as in these he imitates rather a coarse and provincial than an obsolete dialect, the limitation of Jonson's censure is probably imaginary. It is probable, that, as the style of poetry in the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and in that of her successor, had become laboured and ornate, Spenser's imitations of the old metrical romances had to his contemporaries an antique air of rude and naked simplicity, although his "Faery Queen" seems more intelligible to us than the compositions of Jonson himself. Dryden, whose charge was afterwards echoed by Pope, probably adopted it without very accurate investigation. Our idea of what is ancient does not necessarily imply obscurity; on the contrary, I am afraid that to modern ears the style of Addison sounds more antiquated than that of Dr Johnson; so that simplicity may produce the same effect as unintelligibility.

[15] Mr Rymer, who was pleased to call himself a critic, had promised to favour the public with "some reflections on that Paradise Lost of Milton, which some are pleased to call a poem, and to assert rhime against the slender sophistry wherewith he attacks it." But this promise, which is given in the end of his "Remarks on the Tragedies of the last Age," he never filled up the measure of his presumption, by attempting to fulfil.

[16]

_Dixeris egregie, notum si callida verbum Reddiderit junctura novum_----

This passage, as our author observes, (p. 221. vol. iv.) is variously construed by expositors; and the meaning which he there adopts, that of "applying received words to a new signification," seems fully as probable as that adopted in the text. Mr Malone has given the opinions of Hurd, Beattie, and De Nores, upon this disputed passage.

[17] This resolution our author fortunately did not adhere to.

[18] The passages of Scripture, on which Dryden founds his idea of the machinery of guardian angels, are the following, which I insert for the benefit of such readers as may not have at hand the old-fashioned book in which they occur.

"Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. And I Daniel alone saw the vision; for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face towards the ground.

"And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands: And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And, when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days. And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb. And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for, as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me. Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me. And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not; peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And, when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me. Then said he, knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince."--Dan. x. 5-21.

It may, however, be doubted, whether any poetical use could be made of the guardian angels here mentioned; since our ideas of their powers are too obscure and indefinite to afford any scope for description.

[19] In the beginning of the 12th chapter, as well as in the passage quoted, Michael is distinguished as "the great prince which standeth up for the children of Daniel's people."

[20] I shall imitate my predecessor, Mr Malone, in presenting the reader with Spanheim's summary of the notes of distinction between the Greek satirical drama, and the satirical poetry of the Romans.

"La premiére différence, qui est içi à remarquer et dont on ne peut disconvenir, c'est que les Satyres ou poëmes satyriques des Grecs, etoient des piéces dramatiques, ou de théatre; ce qu'on ne peut point dire des Satires Romaines, prises dans tous ces trois genres, dont je viens de parler, et auxquelles on a appliqué ce mot. Il y auroit peut-être plus de sujet d'en douter, à l'égard de ces premiéres Satires des anciens Romains, dont il a été fait mention, et dont il ne nous est rien resté, si les passages de deux auteurs Latins et de T. Live entre autres, qui en parlent, ne marquoient en termes exprès, qu'elles avoient précedé parmi eux les piéces dramatiques, et etoient en effet d'une autre espéce. D'ou vient aussi, que les Latins, quand ils font mention de la poësie Grecque, et d'ailleurs se contentent de donner aux premiéres ce nom de _poëme_, comme Ciceron le donne aux Satires de Varron, et d'autres un nom pareil à celles de Lucilius ou d'Horace.

"La seconde différence entre les poëmes satyriques des Grecs, et les Satires des Latins, vient de ce qu'il y a même quelque diversité dans le nom, laquelle ne paroit pas autrement dans les langues vulgaires. C'est qu'en effet les Grecs donnoient aux leurs le nom de Satyrus ou Satiri, de Satyriques, de piéces Satyriques, par rapport, s'entend, aux Satyres, ces hostes de bois, et ces compagnons de Baccus, qui y jouoient leur rôle: et d'ou vient aussi, qu'Horace, comme nous avons déja vû, les appelle _agrestes Satyros_, et ceux, qui en étoient les auteurs, du nom de _Satyrorum Scriptor._ Au lieu que les Romains ont dit _Satira_ ou _Satura_ de ces poëmes, auxquels ils en ont appliqué et restraint le nom; que leurs auteurs et leurs grammairiens donnent une autre origine, et une autre signification de ce mot, comme celle d'un mélange de plusieurs fruits de la terre, ou bien de plusieurs mets dans un plat; delà celle d'un mélange de plusieurs loix comprises dans une, ou enfin la signification d'un poëme mêlé de plusieurs choses.

"La troisiéme différence entre ces mêmes Satires et les piéces satyriques des Grecs est, qu'en effet l'introduction des Silénes et des Satyres, qui composoient les choeurs de ces derniéres, etoient tellement de leur essence, que sans eux elles ne pouvoient plus porter le nom de _Satyres_. Tellement qu'Horace, parlant entre autres de la nature de ces Satyres ou poëmes satyriques des Grecs, s'arrête a montrer, en quelle maniére on y doit faire parler Siléne, ou les Satyres; ce qu'on leur doit faire éviter ou observer. Ce qu'l n'auroit pas fait avec tant de soin, s'il avoit cru, que la présence des Satyres ne fut pas de la nature et de l'essence, comme je viens de dire, de ces sortes de piéces, qui en portoient le nom.

"C'est à quoi on peut ajouter l'action de ces mêmes Satyres, et qui etoient propres aux piéces, qui en portoient le nom. C'est qu'en effet les danses etoient si fort de leur essence, que non seulement Aristote, comme nous avons déja veu, joint ensemble la _poësie satyrique et faite pour la danse_; mais qu'un autre auteur Grec [_Lucianus_ #peri orchêseôs#] parle nommément des trois différentes sortes de danses attachés au théatre, _la tragique, la comique, et la satyrique_. D'où vient aussi, comme il le remarque ailleurs, que les Satires en prirent le nom de _Sicynnistes_; c'est à dire d'une sorte de danse, qui leur etoit particuliére, comme on peut voir entre autres de ce qu'en dit Siléne dans le Cyclope, à la veuë des Satyres; et ainsi d'ou on peut assés comprendre la force de l'épithéte de _saltantes Satyros_, que Virgile leur donne en quelque endroit; ou de ce qu'Horace, dans sa premiére Ode, parle des danses des Nymphes et des Satyres, _Nympharumque leues cum Satyris chori_. Tout cela, comme chacun voit, n'avoit aucun raport avec les Satires Romaines, et il n'est pas nécessaire, d'en dire davantage, pour le faire entendre.

"La quatriéme différence resulte des sujets assés divers des uns et des autres. Les Satyres des Grecs, comme il a déja été remarqué, et qu'on peut juger par les titres, qui nous en restent, prenoient d'ordinaire, non seulement des sujets connus, mais fabuleux; ce qui fait dire là-dessus à Horace, _ex noto carmen fictum sequar_; des heros, par exemple, ou des demi-dieux des siécles passés, à quoi le même poëte venoit de faire allusion. Les Satires Romaines, comme leurs auteurs en parlent eux-mêmes, et qu'ils le pratiquent, s'attachoient á reprendre les vices ou les erreurs de leur siécle et de leur patrie; à y jouer des particuliers de Rome, un Mutius entre autres, et un Lupus, avec Lucilius; un Milonius et un Nomentanus, avec Horace; un Crispinus et un Locustus, avec Juvenal; c'est à dire des gens, qui nous seroient peu connus aujourdhui, sans la mention, qu'ils ont trouvé à propos d'en faire dans leurs satires.

"La cinquiéme différence paroit encore dans la maniére, de laquelle les uns et les autres traitent leurs sujets, et dans le but principal, qu'ils s'y proposent. Celui de la poësie satyrique des Grecs, etoit de tourner en ridicule des actions sérieuses, comme l'enseigne le même Horace, _vertere seria ludo_; de travêstir pour ce sujet leurs dieux ou leurs héros, d'en changer le caractére, selon le besoin; de faire par exemple d'un Achille un homme mol, suivant qu'un autre poëte Latin y fait allusion, _Nec nocet autori, qui mollem fecit Achillem_. C'étoit en un mot leur but principal, de rire et de plaisanter; et d'ou vient non seulement le mot de _Risus_, comme il a déja été remarqué, qu'on a appliqué à ces sortes d'ouvrages, mais aussi ceux en Grec de _jeux_, ou même de jouëts, et de _joci_ en Latin, comme fait encore Horace, où il parle de l'auteur tragique, qui parmi les Grecs fut le premier, qui composa de ces piéces satyriques, et suivant qu'il dit, _incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit_. Nons pouvons même comprendre de ce qu'il ajoute dans la suite et des epithétes, que d'autres leur donnent de ris obscénes, que cette gravité, avec laquelle on avoit d'abord temperé ces sortes d'ouvrages, en fut bannie dans la suite; que les régles de la pudeur n'y furent guéres observées; et qu'on en fit des spectacles assés conformes à l'humeur et à la conduite de tels acteurs que des satires petulans ou _protervi_, comme Horace les appelle sur ce même sujet. Et c'est à quoi contribuerent d'ailleurs leurs danses et leurs postures, dont il à été parlé, de même que celles des pantomimes parmi les Romains. Au lieu que les Satires Romaines, temoin celles qui nous restent, et á qui d'ailleurs ce nom est demeuré comme propre et attaché, avoient moins pour but de plaisanter que d'exciter ou de l'indignation, ou de la haine, _facit indignatio versum_, ou du mépris; qu'elles s'attachent plus à reprendre et à mordre, qu'à faire rire ou à folâtrer. D'ou vient aussi le nom de _poëme medisant_, que les grammairiens leur donnent, ou celui de _vers mordans_, comme en parle Ovide dans un passage, où je trouve qu'il se défend de n'avoir point écrit de Satyres.

_Non ego mordaci distrinxi carmine quemquam, Nec meus ullius crimina versus habet._

"Je ne touche pas enfin la différence, qu'on pourroit encore alléguer de la composition diverse des unes et des autres; les Satires Romaines, dont il est ici proprement question et qui ont été conservées jusques à nous, ayant été écrites en vers héroiques, et les poëmes satyriques des Grecs en vers jambiques. Ce qui devroit néanmoins être d'autant plus remarqué, qu'Horace ne trouve point d'autre différence entre l'inventeur des Satires Romaines et les auteurs de l'ancienne comédie, comme Cratinus et Eupolis, si non que les Satires du premier étoient écrites dans un autre genre de vers."--See Baron SPANHEIM'S Dissertation, _Sur les_ Cesars _de_ Julien, _et en général sur les ouvrages satyriques des Anciens_, prefixed to his translation of Julian's work, Amsterdam, 1728, 4to. and Malone's "Dryden," Vol. IV. p. 130.

[21] Horace, in the beginning of the Fourth Satire of his First Book, introduces Lucilius as imitating the ancient Greek comedians:

_Hinc omnis pendet Lucilius, hosce secutus, Mutatis tantum pedibus numerisque; facetus, Emunctæ naris, durus componere versus. Nam fuit hoc vitiosus: in hora sæpe ducentos, Ut magnum, versus dictabat stans pede in uno. Cum flueret lutulentus, erat quod tollere velles; Garrulus, atque piger scribendi ferre laborem; Scribendi recte; nam ut multum, non moror._--

Towards the end of the Tenth Satire, the poet resumes the subject, and vindicates his character of Lucilius against those who had accused him of too much severity towards the ancient satirist; and again accuses him of carelessness, though he acknowledges his superiority to the more ancient models:

----_fuerit Lucilius, inquam, Comis et urbanus; fuerit limatior idem, Quam rudis, et Græcis intacti carminis auctor, Quamque poetarum seniorum turba: Sed ille, Si foret hoc nostrum fato dilatus in ævum, Detereret sibi multa: recideret omne, quod ultra Perfectum traheretur: et in versu faciendo Sæpe caput scaberet, vivos et roderet ungues._