Part 16

There public care and private passion _fought_ _A doubtful combat_ in his noble _thought_. _Poems_, p. 14.

_Public care_ is the periphrasis of _honour_, and _private passion_, of _love_. For the rest you see—_disjecti membra poetæ_.

IV. An imitation is discoverable, when there is but the least particle of the original expression, “by a peculiar and no very natural arrangement of words.”

In Fletcher’s _faithful Shepherdess_, the speaker says,

— — — — — — — In thy face Shines more awful majesty, Than dull weak mortality Dare with misty eyes behold, AND LIVE—

The writer glanced, but very improperly on such an occasion, at _Exod._ xxxiii. 20. “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, _and live_.”

V. An uncommon _construction_ of words not identical, especially if the subject be the same, or the ideas similar, will look like imitation.

Milton says finely of the _Swan_,

— — — — —The Swan with arched neck Between her white wings mantling proudly ROWS HER STATE—

I should think he might probably have that line of Fletcher in his head,

How like a Swan she SWIMS HER PACE!

The expression, you see, is very like. ’Tis true, the _image_ in Milton is much nobler. It is taken from a barge of state in a public procession.

VI. We may even pronounce that a _single word_ is taken, when it is new and uncommon.

Milton’s calling a ray of light—a levell’d _rule_ in Comus v. 340, is so particular that, when one reads in Euripides ἡλίου ΚΑΝΩΝ σαφὴς, Suppl. v. 650, one has no doubt that the learned poet translated the Greek word.

Again, Mr. Pope’s,

“Or ravish’d with the _whistling_ of a name,”

is for the same reason, if there were no other points of likeness, copied from Mr. Cowley’s

“Charm’d with the foolish _whistlings_ of a name.” Transl. of Virgil’s _O! fortunati nimium_, &c.

VII. An improper _use_ of uncommon expression, in very exact writers, will sometimes create a suspicion. Milton had called the _sight_ indifferently _visual nerve_ and _visual ray_, P. L. iii. 620. xi. 415. Mr. Pope in his Messiah thought he might take the same liberty, but forgot that though the _visual nerve_ might be purged from film, the _visual ray_ could not. Had Mr. Pope _invented_ this bold expression, he would have seen to apply his _metaphor_ more properly.

VIII. Where the word or phrase is _foreign_, there is, if possible, still less doubt.

— — — —at last his sail-broad _vans_ He spreads for flight. Milton, P. L. ii. v. 927.

Most certainly from Tasso’s,

—Spiega al grand volo i _vanni_. ix.

And that of Jonson in his _Sejanus_,

O! what is it proud slime will not believe Of his own worth, to hear it _equal prais’d_ _Thus with the Gods_— A. 1.

from Juvenal’s

nihil est quod credere de se Non possit, cum _laudatur Diis æqua_ potestas.

IX. Conclude the same when the expression is _antique_, in the writer’s own language.

In Mr. Waller’s Panegyric on the Protector,

So, when a Lion shakes his dreadful mane, And angry grows, if he _that first took pain_ To tame his youth, approach the haughty beast, He bends to him, but frights away the rest.

The antique formality of the phrase _that first took pain_, for, _that first took the pains_, in so pure and modern a speaker, as this poet, looks suspicious. He took it, as he found it in an older writer. There are many other marks of imitation, but we had needed no more than this to make the discovery:

So when a lion shakes his dreadful mane, And beats his tail, with courage proud, and wroth, If his commander come, _who first took pain_ To tame his youth, his lofty crest down go’th. Fairfax’s _Tasso_, B. VIII. S. 83.

X. You observe in most of the instances, here given, besides other marks, there is an identity of rhyme. And this circumstance of itself, in our poetry, is no bad argument of imitation, particularly when joined to a similarity of expression. And the reason is, the rhyme itself very naturally brings the expression along with it.

1. “Stuck o’er with titles, and hung round with strings, That thou mayst be _by Kings, or whores of Kings_.” Essay on Man, E. IV. v. 205.

from Mr. Cowley in his translation of _Hor._ 1. _ep._ 10.

“To Kings, or to the favourites of Kings.”

2. “Such is the world’s great harmony, that _springs_ From order, union, full _consent of things_.” Ep. III. 295.

from Denham’s _Cowper’s Hill_,

“Wisely she knew the _harmony of things_ As well as that of sounds from discord _springs_.”

3. “Far as the solar walk, or milky way.” Essay on Man, Ep. I. v. 102.

from Mr. Dryden’s Pindaric Poem to the memory of K. Charles II.

“Out of the solar walk, or heav’n’s high way.”

Though these consonancies chyming in the writer’s head, he might not always be aware of the imitation.

XI. In the examples, just given, there was no reason to suspect the poet was imitating, till you met with the original. Then indeed the rhyme leads to the discovery. But “if an exact writer falls into a _flatness of expression_ for the sake of rhyme, you may ev’n previously conclude that he has some precedent for it.”

In the famous lines,

Let modest Foster, if he will, excell Ten metropolitans _in preaching well_. Ep. to Satires, v. 131.

I used to suspect that the phrase of _preaching well_ so unlike the concise accuracy of Pope, would not have been hazarded by him, if some eminent writer, though perhaps of an older age and less correct taste than his own, had not set the example. But I had no doubt left when I happened on the following couplet in Mr. Waller.

Your’s sounds aloud, and tells us you _excell_ No less in courage, than _in singing well_. Poem to Sir W. D’Avenant.

Our great poet is more happy in the application of these rhymes on another occasion,

Let such teach others, who themselves _excell_, And censure freely, who have written _well_. Essay on Crit. v. 15.

The reason is apparent. But here he glanced at the Duke of Buckingham’s,

“Nature’s chief master-piece is _writing well_.”

XII. “The same pause and turn of expression are pretty sure symptoms of imitation.” These minute resemblances do not usually spring from Nature, which, when the sentiment is the same, hath a hundred ways of its own, of giving it to us.

1. That noble verse in the essay on criticism, v. 625.

“For fools rush in, where angels dare not tread,”

is certainly fashion’d upon Shakespear’s,

——————————“the world is grown so bad That wrens make prey, where angels dare not perch.” _Rich._ III. A. I. S. III.

2. The verses to Sir W. Trumbal in Past. 1.

“And carrying with you all the world can boast, To all the world illustriously are lost.”

from Waller’s _Maid’s Tragedy_ alter’d,

Happy he that from the world retires And carries with him what the world admires. p. 215. Lond. 1712.

XIII. When to these marks the same _Rhyme_ is added, the case is still more evident.

“Men would be angels, angels would be Gods.” Essay on Man, Ep. I. v. 126.

Without all question from Sir Fulk Grevil,

Men would be tyrants, tyrants would be _Gods_. Works, _Lond._ 1633. p. 73.

XIV. The seeming quaintness and obscurity of an expression frequently indicates imitation. As when in Fletcher’s _Pilgrim_ we read,

“_Hummings_ of higher nature vex his brains.” A. II. S. 2.

Had the idea been original, the poet had expressed it more plainly. In leaving it thus, he pays his reader the compliment to suppose, that he will readily call to mind,

aliena negotia centum Per caput, et circa saliunt latus;

which sufficiently explains it: As we may see from Mr. Cowley’s application of the same passage. “Aliena negotia centum per caput et centum saliunt latus. A hundred businesses of other men fly continually about his head and _ears_, and strike him in the face like Dorres.” _Disc. of Liberty._ And still more clearly, from Mr. Pope’s,

“A hundred other men’s affairs, Like bees, are _humming_ in my ears.”

Learned writers of quick parts abound in these delicate allusions. It makes a principal part of modern elegancy to glance in this oblique manner at well-known passages in the classics.

XV. I will trouble you with but one more note of _imitated expression_, and it shall be the very reverse of the last. When the passages glanced at are not familiar, the expression is frequently minute and circumstantial, corresponding to the original in the order, turn, and almost number of the words. The reasons are, that, the imitated passage not being known, the imitator may give it, as he finds it, with safety, or at least without offence; and that, besides, the force and beauty of it would escape us in a brief and general allusion. The following are instances:

1. “Man never is, but always to be blest.” Essay on Man, Ep. I. v. 69.

from Manilius,

Victuros agimus semper, nec vivimus unquam.

2. —“Hope never comes, That comes to all.”— MILTON, P. L. I. v. 66.

from Euripides in the Troad. v. 676.

—οὐδ’, ὃ πᾶσι λείπεται βροτοῖς, Ξύνεστιν ἐλπὶς.—

3. But above all, that in Jonson’s Catiline,

“He shall die: _Shall_ was too slowly said: He’s _dying_: That Is still too slow: He’s _dead_.”

from Seneca’s _Hercules furens_, A. III.

“Lycus Creonti debitas poenas _dabit_: Lentum est, dabit; _dat_: hoc quoque est lentum; _dedit_.”

You have now, Sir, before you a specimen of those rules, which I have fancied might be fairly applied to the discovery of imitations, both in regard to the SENSE and EXPRESSION of great writers. I would not pretend that the same stress is to be laid on _all_; but there may be something, at least, worth attending to in every one of them. It were easy, perhaps, to enumerate still more, and to illustrate these I have given with more agreeable citations. Yet I have spared you the disgust of considering those vulgar passages, which every body recollects and sets down for acknowledged imitations. And these I have used are taken from the most celebrated of the ancient and modern writers. You may observe indeed that I have chiefly drawn from our own poets; which I did, not merely because I know you despise the pedantry of confining one’s self to learned quotations, but because I think we are better able to discern those circumstances, which betray an imitation, in our own language than in any other. Amongst other reasons, an _identity_ of words and phrases, upon which so much depends, especially in the article of _expression_, is only to be had in the _same_ language. And you are not to be told with how much more certainty we determine of the degree of evidence, which such identity affords for this purpose, in a language we speak, than in one which we only lisp or spell.

But you will best understand of what importance this affair of _expression_ is to the discovery of imitations, by considering how seldom we are able to fix an imitation on Shakespear. The reason is, not, that there are not numberless passages in him very like to others in approved authors, or that he had not read enough to give us a fair hold of him; but that his expression is so totally his own, that he almost always sets us at defiance.

You will ask me, perhaps, now I am on this subject, how it happened that Shakespear’s language is every where so much his own as to secure his imitations, if they were such, from discovery; when I pronounce with such assurance of those of our other poets. The answer is given for me in the Preface to Mr. Theobald’s Shakespear; though the observation, I think, is too good to come from that critic. It is, that, though his words, agreeably to the state of the English tongue at that time, be generally Latin, his phraseology is perfectly English: An advantage, he owed to his slender acquaintance with the Latin idiom. Whereas the other writers of his age, and such others of an older date as were likely to fall into his hands, had not only the most familiar acquaintance with the Latin idiom, but affected on all occasions to make use of it. Hence it comes to pass, that, though he might draw sometimes from the Latin (Ben Jonson, you know, tells us, _He had less Greek_) and the learned English writers, he takes nothing but the _sentiment_; the expression comes of itself, and is purely English.

I might indulge in other reflexions, and detain you still further with examples taken from his works. But we have _lain_, as the Poet speaks, _on these primrose beds_, too long. It is time that you now rise to your own nobler _inventions_; and that I return myself to those, less pleasing, perhaps, but more useful studies from which your friendly sollicitations have called me. Such as these amusements are, however, I cannot repent me of them, since they have been innocent at least, and even ingenuous; and, what I am fondest to recollect, have helped to enliven those many years of friendship we have passed together in this place. I see indeed, with regret, the approach of that time, which threatens to take me both from _it_, and _you_. But, however fortune may dispose of me, she cannot throw me to a distance, to which your affection and good wishes, at least, will not follow me.

And for the rest,

“Be no unpleasing melancholy mine.”

The coming years of my life will not, I foresee, in many respects, be what the past have been to me. But, till they take me from myself, I must always bear about me the agreeable remembrance of our friendship.

_I am,_

_Dear Sir,_

_Your most affectionate Friend and Servant._

CAMBRIDGE, Aug. 15, 1757.

INDEX

TO THE

TWO VOLUMES.

A.

ADDISON, Mr., his judgment of the double sense of verbs, i. 359. his _Cato_, defended, 102. not too poetical, ib. its real defects, ib. his criticism on _Milton_ proceeds on just principles, 393. how far defective, 396.

AENEIS, prefigured under the idea of a temple, i. 333. the destruction of Troy, an episode, why, i. 139.

AGLAOPHON, his rude manner of painting; why preferred to _Parrhasius_ and _Zeuxis_, i. 346.

ALLEGORY, the distinguished pride of ancient poetry, i. 343. a fine instance from _Virgil_, 333.

ANCIENTS, immoderately extolled, why, i. 346.

ANTIGONE, the chorus of it defended, i. 158.

APHORISMS, condemned in the _Roman_ writers, i. 184. why used so frequently by the Greeks, 185.

APOLLONIUS _Rhodius_, why censured by _Aristophanes_ and _Aristarchus_, i. 267.

APOTHEOSIS, the usual mode of flattery in the _Augustan_ age, i. 333.

ARISTOTLE, his opinion of _Homer’s_ imitations, i. 67. of _Euripides_, 116. of the business of the chorus, 145. of the sententious manner, 186. his fine Ode, corrected, 188. n. translated, 189. of the origin of tragedy, 194. a passage in his poetics explained, 123. his censure of the _Iphigenia at Aulis_, considered, 131. he was little known at Rome in Cicero’s time, 191. why _Horace_ differs from him in his account of _Aeschylus’s_ inventions, 240. a supposed contradiction between him and _Horace_ reconciled, 262. his judgment of moral pictures, 375. his admiration of an epithet in _Homer_, on what founded, ii. 126.

ART and NATURE, their provinces in forming a poet, i. 273.

ATELLANE FABLE, a species of Comedy, i. 192. different from the satyric piece, 195. the Oscan language used in it, 198. why criticised by _Horace_, 206. in what sense Pomponius, the Inventor of it, 198.

ATHENAEUS, of the moralizing turn of the Greeks, i. 187.

AUCTOR ad Herennium, defines an aphorism, i. 184.

AUGUSTUS, fond of the old Comedy, i. 228. n.

B.

BACON, Lord, his idea of poetry, ii. 178.

BALZAC, Mr., his flattery of LOUIS LE JUSTE, i. 344, 345.

BEAUTY, the idea of, how distinguished from the pathetic, i. 110.

BENTLEY, Dr., corrections of his censured, i. 71, 72, 106, 142. an interpretation of his confuted, 110. a conjecture of his confirmed, 349.

BOS, _M. de_, how he accounts for the effect of Tragedy, i. 119. for the degeneracy of taste and literature, 264. what he thought of modern imitations of the ancient poets, ii. 224.

BOUHOURS, P., his merit as a critic, pointed out, i. 393. wherein censured, 395.

BRUMOY, P., his character, i. 133. commends the _Athalie_ and _Esther_ of _Racine_, 145. justifies the chorus, ib. accounts for the sententious manner of the _Greek_ stage, 185. an observation of his on the imitation of foreign characters, 247.

BRUYERE, _M. de la_, an observation of his concerning the manners, ii. 135.

BUSIRIS, in what sense a ridiculous character, i. 208.

C.

CAESAR, _C. Julius_, his judgment of _Terence_, i. 225.

CASAUBON, _Isaac_, his book on satyric poetry recommended, i. 194. an emendation of his confirmed, 208.

CHARACTER, the object of comedy, ii. 56. of what sort, 40. of what persons, ib. plays of, in what faulty, 48. instances of such plays, 53.

CHARACTERS, of comedy, general; of tragedy, particular, why, ii. 48. this matter explained at large, to 54.

CHORUS, its use and importance, i. 145. its moral character, 156. more easily conducted by ancient than modern poets, 161. improvements in the Latin tragic chorus, 179.

CICER, _M. Tullius_, of the use of old words, i. 89. of self-murder, 162. of poetic licence, 174. of the language of _Democritus_ and _Plato_, 180. of the music of his time, 182. of the neglect of philosophy, 191. of the mimes, 205. of _Plautus’s_ wit, 220. does not mention _Menander_, 229. mentions corporal infirmities as proper subjects for ridicule, 231. of a good poet, 249. of decorum, 251. of the use of philosophy, ib.

CID, of _P. Corneille_, its uncommon success, to what owing, i. 398.

CLOWNS, their character in _Shakespear_, i. 186.

COMEDY, _Roman_, three species of it, i. 192.

—— the author’s idea of it, ii. 30. conclusions concerning its nature, from that idea, 37. attributes, common to it and tragedy, 42. attributes, peculiar to it, 45. its genius, considered at large, 57. M. _de Fontenelle’s_ notion of it, considered, 75. idea of it enlarged since the time of _Aristotle_, 65. polite and heroic, what we are to think of it, 86. on high life, censured, ib. of modern invention, ib. accounted for, 87. why more difficult than tragedy, ib.

COMPARISON, similarity of, in all writers, why necessary, ii. 194. why more so in the graver than lighter poetry, 198.

CORNEILLE, P., his objection to _Euripides’s Medea_, confuted, i. 163. his notion of comic action considered, ii. 41.

CRITICISM, the uses of it, ii. 105. its aim, 391. when perfect, ib.

D.

DACIER, _M._, criticisms of his considered, i. 94, 168, 173, 174, 175, 240, 244, 245, 268, ibid. the author’s opinion of him, as a critic, 62, n. and 272. his account of the opening of the _Epistle to Augustus_ censured, 326.

DANCE, the choral commended, i. 178.

DAVENANT, Sir _William_, his _Gondibert_ criticised, ii. 235.

DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS, characterizes the satyric piece, i. 193.

DESCRIPTION, natural and moral, why similar in the form as well as matter in all poets, ii. 191, 192.

DIALOGUE, _Socratic_, the genius of, i. 252.

DIO CASSIUS, instances from him of the gross flattery paid to _Caesar_, i. 330.

DIOMEDES, of the Satyric and Atellane fables, i. 195. of the use of the Satyric piece, 203. a passage in him corrected by _Casaubon_, 208. his character of the Atellanes, 234. distinguishes the different kinds of the _Roman_ drama, 241.

DIONYSIUS, of _Halicarnassus_, of the use of words, i. 92. of _Plato’s_ figurative style, 254.

DOCTUS, the meaning of, explained, i. 350-352.

DONATUS, distinguishes the three forms of comedy, i. 192, 193.

DRAMA, see _Tragedy_, _Comedy_, _Farce_.

—— _Peruvian_, some account of, ii. 66, 67. _Chinese_, 67. _Greek_ and _Roman_, its character, 69. the laws of, in what different from those of history, ii. 179.

DULCE, its distinction from _pulchrum_, i. 109.

DUPORT, _Pr._, his collection of moral parallelisms in _Homer_, and Sacred Writ, of what use? ii. 140.

E.

ELECTRA, of _Euripides_, vindicated, i. 125. a circumstance in the two plays of that name by _Euripides_ and _Sophocles_ compared, 259.

ELFRIDA, of Mr. Mason, i. 148. the best apology for the ancient chorus, ibid.

ENVY, how it operates in human nature, i. 329. how it operated in the case of Mr. _Pope_, 328.

EPIC _Poetry_, admits new words, i. 73. its plan how far to be copied by the tragic poet, 137. in what different from history, ii. 179.

EPISODE, its character and laws, ii. 185.

EPISTLE, didactic and elegiac, Intr. to vol. i. 17. _Didactic_, the offspring of the satyr, ibid. its three-fold character, 24. _Elegiac_, the difference of this from the didactic form, 23, 24.

ERATOSTHENES, his idea of the end of poetry, ii. 4.

EURIPIDES, his character, i. 116. his _Medea_ commended, 121. _Electra_ vindicated, 125. _Iphigenia_ in _Aulis_ vindicated, 131. the decorum of his characters, 132. his _Hippolytus_ led _Seneca_ into mistakes, 150. an observation on the chorus of that play, 161. and of the _Medea_, 162. _Quintilian’s_ character of him, 191. a circumstance in his _Electra_ compared with _Sophocles_, 259. his genius resembling _Virgil’s_, ii. 152.

EXPRESSION, why similar in different writers without imitation, ii. 204.

F.

FABLE, why essential to both Dramas, ii. 42. why an unity and even simplicity in the fable, 43. a good one, why not so essential to comedy as tragedy, 45.

FARCE, the author’s idea of it, ii. 30. its laws, 96. its end and character, how distinguished from those of tragedy and comedy, 98.

FEELING, rightly made the test of poetical merit, i. 390.

FENELON, of the use of old words, i. 91.

FICTION, _poetical_, when credible, ii. 130. the soul of poetry, ii. 11.

FLATTERY of the _Roman Emperors_ excessive, i. 330. imported from the _Asiatic_ provinces, 331.

FONTENELLE, M. _de_, his opinion of the origin of comedy, i. 244. his notion of the drama, ii. 75, &c. his comedies criticised, 90. his pastorals censured, ibid. his opinion of the uses of criticism, 105.

G.

GEDDES, J. Esq., his notion of the most essential principles of Eloquence, i. 381.

GELLIUS, _Aulus_, his opinion of _Laberius_, i. 206.

GENIUS, original, a proof of, in the particularity of description, ii. 126. similarity of, in two writers, its effects, 225.

GEORGIC, the form of this poem, what, ii. 183.

GREEKS, their most ancient writers falsely supposed to be the best, i. 347.

H.

HEINSIUS, his idea of true criticism, i. 65. his explanation of a passage in _Horace_, 148. thought one part of the Epistle to the _Pisos_ inexplicable, 269. his transposition of the Epistle censured, 272.

HIPPOLYTUS, of _Euripides_; an observation on the chorus, i. 161. of _Seneca_, censured, 149.

HOBBES, Mr., his censure of the Italian romancers in their unnatural fiction, ii. 238.

HOESLINUS, his opinion of the fourth book of the Aeneis, ii. 154.

HOMER, first invented dramatic imitations, i. 42. his excellence in painting the _effects_ of the manners, ii. 157.