The face of Nature we no more furvey, All glares alike, without distinction gay: But true Expreffion, like th' unchanging Sun, 315 NOTES. 320 Such an army, fays Algarotti, confifts in well-difciplined men, not in a number of camels, elephants, fcythed chariots, and Afiatic encumbrances. Among many excellencies, this is the chief blemish of the Rambler; every object, every subject, is treated with an equal degree of dignity; he never softens and subdues his tints, but paints and adorns every image which he touches, with perpetual pomp, and unremitted fplendor. VER. 324. Some by old words, &c.] "Abolita et abrogata retinere, infolentiae cujufdam eft, et frivolae in parvis jactantiae." Quint. lib. i. c. 6. P. "Opus eft, ut verba à vetuftate repetita neque crebra fint, neque manifesta, quia nil eft odiofius affectatione, nec utique ab ultimis repetita temporibus. Oratio cujus fumma virtus eft perfpicuitas quam fit vitiofa, fi egeat interprete? Ergo ut novorum optima erunt maxime vetera, ita veterum maxime nova." Idem. P. Quintilian's advice on this fubject is as follows: "Cum fint autem verba propria, ficta, tranflata; propriis dignitatem dat antiquitas. Namque et fanctiorem, et magis admirabilem reddurt orationem, quibus non quilibet fuit ufurus: eoque ornamento acerrimi judicii Virgilius unice eft ufus. Olli enim, et quianam, et mis, et pone, pellucent, et afpergunt illam, quae etiam in picturis Such labour'd nothings, in fo ftrange a ftyle, 326 Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile." These sparks with aukward vanity display NOTES. 33° picturis eft gratiffima, vetuftatis inimitabilem arti auctoritatem. Sed utendum modo, nec ex ultimis tenebris repetenda." "The language of the age (fays Mr. Gray, admirably well,) is never the language of poetry; except among the French, whose verfe, where the thought or image does not fupport it, differs in nothing from profe. Our poetry, on the contrary, has a language peculiar to itself; to which almoft every one that has written, has added fomething by enriching it with foreign idioms and derivatives: nay, fometimes words of their own compofitions or invention. Shakespeare and Milton have been great creators this way; and no one more licentious than Pope or Dryden, who perpetually borrow expreffions from the former. Let me give you fome inftances from Dryden, whom every body reckons a great mafter of our poetical tongue. Full of museful mopings,—unlike the trim of love,—a pleasant beverage,—a roundelay of love,—stood filent in his mood,-with knots and knaves deformed, his ireful mood,in proud array, his boon was granted, and difarray and shameful rout,-wayward but wife,-furbished for the field, the foiled dodderd oaks, difherited,-fmouldring flames,-retchlefs of laws,— crones old and ugly,-the beldam at his fide,-the grandam hag,— villanize his father's fame.-But they are infinite; and our language not being a fettled thing, (like the French), has an undoubted right to words of an hundred years old, provided antiquity have not rendered them unintelligible. In truth, Shakespeare's language is one of his principal beauties; and he has no lefs advantage over your Addisons and Rowes in this, than in those great excellencies you mention. Every word in him is a picture. Pray put me in the following lines, into the tongue of our modern dramatics." VER. 328. Unlucky, as Fungofo, &c.] See Ben. Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour. P. And And but fo mimic ancient wits at best, As apes our grandfires, in their doublets dreft, Be not the first by whom the new are try'd 335 Nor yet the last to lay the old afide. But moft by Numbers judge a Poet's fong, And smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong: In the bright Mufe, tho' thousand charms confpire, Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire; Who haunt Parnaffus but to please their ear, 340 Not mend their minds; as fome to church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there. Thefe equal fyllables alone require, Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire; While expletives their feeble aid do join; 345 NOTES. VER.337. But moft by Numbers, &c.] Quis populi fermo eft? quis enim? nifi carmine molli VER. 345. Tho' oft the ear, &c.] "Fugiemus crebras vocalium concurfiones, quae vaftam atque hiantem orationem reddunt." Cic ad Heren. lib. iv. Vide etiam Quintil. lib. ix. c. 4. P. "Non tamen (fays the fenfible Quintilian) id ut crimen ingens expavefcendum eft; ac nefcio negligentia in hoc, an folicitudo fit major; nimiofque non immeritò in hâc curâ putant omnes Ifocratem fecutos, præcipuèque Theopompum. At Demofthenes & Cicero modicè refpexerunt ad hanc partem." Quintil. lib. ix. c. 9. While they ring round the fame unvary'd chimes, 356 That, like a wounded snake, drags its flow length along. Leave fuch to tune their own dull rhymes, and know What's roundly smooth, or languishingly flow; And praise the eafy vigour of a line, 360 Where Denham's ftrength, and Waller's sweetness join. NOTES. VER. 347. Ten low words] Our language is thought to be overloaded with monofyllables; Shaftesbury, we are told, limited their number to nine in any fentence; Quintilian condemns too great a concourse of them; etiam monofyllaba, fi plura funt, malè continuabuntur; quia neceffe eft compofitio, multis claufulis concifa, fubfultet. Inft. lib. ix. c. 4. VER. 360. And praife the cafy vigour] Fenton, in his entertaining obfervations on Waller, has given us a curious anecdote concerning IMITATIONS. VER. 346. Where expletives their feeble aid do join, And ten low words oft creep in one dull line :] the From Dryden. "He creeps along with ten little words in every line, and helps out his numbers with [for] [to] and [unto] and all the pretty expletives he can find, while the fenfe is left half tired behind it." Effay on Dram. Poetry. But there are many lines of monofyllables that have much force and energy; in our author himfelf, as well as Dryden. True True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, NOTES. the great induftry and exactnefs with which Waller polished even his fmalleft compofitions. "When the court was at Windfor, thefe verses were writ in the Taffo of her Royal Highness, at Mr. Waller's request, by the late Duke of Buckinghamshire; and I very well remember to have heard his Grace say, that the author employed the greateft part of a fummer in compofing and correcting them." So that, however he is generally reputed the parent of thofe fwarms of infect wits, who affect to be thought eafy writers, it is evident that he bestowed much time and care on his poems, before he ventured them out of his hands. VER. 361. Denham's ftrength,] Sufficient juftice is not done to Sandys, who did more to polish and tune the English verfification, by his Pfalms and his Job, than thofe two writers, who are ufually applauded on this fubject. VER. 362. True eafe] Writers who feem to have compofed with the greatest eafe, have exerted much labour in attaining this facility. Virgil took more pains than Lucan, though the style of the former appears fo natural; and Guarini and Ariosto spent much time in making their poems fo feemingly natural and easy. Even Voiture wrote with extreme difficulty, though apparently without any effort; what Taflo fays of one of his heroines may be applied to fuch writers; "Non fo ben dire s'adorna, o fe negletta, Se cafo, od arte, il bel volto compose, Le negligenze fue fono artifici." It is well known, that the writings of Voiture, of Saraffin, and La Fontaine, were laboured into that facility for which they are fo famous, with repeated alterations and many rafures. Moliere is reported to have paft whole days, in fixing upon a proper epithet or rhyme, although his verfes have all the flow and freedom of converfation. This happy facility (faid a man of wit) may be compared to garden-terraces, the expence of which does not appear; and which, after the cost of feveral millions, yet feem to be a mere work of chance and nature." I have been informed, that Addifon was fo extremely nice in polishing his profe compofitions, that when almost a whole impreffion of a spectator was worked off, he would flop the prefs, to infert a new prepofition or conjunction. |