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and which is more properly talking upon paper, than writing; I will tell you without any preface, that I never took Tycho Brahe for one of the ancients, or in the least an acquaintance of Lucan's; nay, 'tis a mercy on this occasion that I do not give you an account of his life and conversation; as how he lived some years like an inchanted knight in a certain island, with a tale of a King of Denmark's mistress that shall be nameless-But I have compassion on you, and would not for the world you should stay any longer among the Genii and Semidei Manes, you know where; for if once you get so near the moon, Sappho will want your presence in the clouds and inferior regions; not to mention the great loss Drury-lane will sustain, when Mr. C▬▬ is in the milky-way. These celestial thoughts put me in mind of the priests you mention, who are a sort of sortilegi in one sense, because in their lottery there are more blanks than prizes: the adventurers being at first in an uncertainty, whereas the setters-up are sure of something. Priests indeed in their character, as they represent God, are sacred and so are constables, as they represent the King ; but you will own a great many of them are very odd fellows, and the devil of any likeness in them. Yet I can assure you, I honour the good as much as I detest the bad, and I think, that in condemning these, we praise those. The translations from Ovid I have not so good an opinion of as you; because I think they have little of the main characteristic of this author, a graceful easiness. For let the sense be ever so exactly rendered, unless an author looks like himself,

in his air, habit, and manner, 'tis a disguise, and not translation. But as to the Psalm, I think David is much more beholden to the translator than Ovid; and as he treated the Roman like a Jew, so he has made the Jew speak like a Roman.

LETTER XXV.

FROM MR. CROMWELL.

Your, etc.

Dec. 5, 1710.

THE same judgment we made on Rowe's ixth of Lucan will serve for his part of the vith, where I find this memorable line,

Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum
Atque virum.

For this he employs six verses, among which is this,

As if on Knightly terms in lists they ran.

Pray can you trace chivalry up higher than Pharamond? will you allow it an anachronism?-Tickle in his version of the Phoenix from Claudian,

When nature ceases, thou shalt still remain,
Nor second Chaos bound thy endless train.

7 Nothing surely can be so totally abhorrent from all the ideas of antiquity as chivalry, the rise and genius of which are no where so amply and accurately investigated as by that curious antiquary M. De la Curne de Sainte-Palaye, in a Memoir first published in the 20th volume of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, and afterward enlarged and published in two volumes at Paris, 1759.

Claudian thus,

Et clades te nulla rapit, solusque superstes,
Edomita tellure, manes.

which plainly refers to the deluge of Deucalion, and the conflagration of Phaeton; not to the final dissolution. Your thought of the priests lottery is very fine you play the wit, and not the critic, upon the errors of your brother.

Your observations are all very just: Virgil is eminent for adjusting his diction to his sentiments; and among the moderns, I find you practise the Prosodia of your rules. Your poem shews you to be, what you say of Voiture-with books well bred: the state of the fair, though satirical, is touched with that delicacy and gallantry, that not the court of Augustus, not-But hold, I shall lose what I lately recovered, your opinion of my sincerity: yet I must say, 'tis as faultless as the fair to whom it is addressed, be she never so perfect. The M. G. (who, it seems, had no right notion of you, as you of him) transcribed it by lucubration From some discourse of yours, he thought your inclination led you to (what the men of fashion call learning) pedantry; but now, he says, he has no less, I assure you, than a veneration for Your, etc.

To a Lady, with the Works of Voiture. P.

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LETTER XXVI.

December 17, 1710.

It seems that my late mention of Crashaw, and my quotation from him, has moved your curiosity. I therefore send you the whole Author, who has held a place among my other books of this nature for some years; in which time having read him twice or thrice, I find him one of those whose works may just deserve reading. I take this poet to have writ like a gentleman, that is, at leisure hours, and more to keep out of idleness, than to establish a reputation; so that nothing regular or just can be expected from him. All that regards design, form, fable, (which is the soul of poetry,) all that concerns exactness, or consent of parts, (which is the body,) will probably be wanting; only pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expressions, and something of a neat cast of verse, (which are properly the dress, gems, or loose ornaments of poetry,) may be found in these This is indeed the case of most other poetical writers of miscellanies; nor can it well be otherwise, since no man can be a true poet, who writes for diversion only. These authors should be considered as versifiers and witty men, rather than as poets; and under this head will only fall the thoughts, the expression, and the numbers. These are only the pleasing part of poetry, which may be judged of at a view, and comprehend all at once. And (to express myself like a painter) their colouring enter

verses.

tains the sight, but the lines and life of the picture are not to be inspected too narrowly.

This Author formed himself upon Petrarchy or rather upon Marino. His thoughts, one may ob serve, in the main, are pretty; but creatures fur fetched, and too often strained and affezes to make them appear the greater. For men are bever ao apt to think a thing great, as when it is o24 or wongful; and inconsiderate authors would rativer be vamired than understood. This ambition of surprizing a reader, is the true natural cause of all fustan, or bombast in poetry. To confirm what I have said, you need but look into his first poom of the Weeper where the 2d, 4th, 6th, 14th, 21st stanzas are, we col limely dull, as the 7th, th, 9th, 16th, 17%, 2, and 23d stanzas of the same copy, are soft and plowe ing: and if these last want any thing, it is ou coajay and more unaffected expression. The remaining thoughts in that poem might have been spared, being either but repetitions, or very trivial and mean. by this example in the first one may guess at all the rest; to be like this, a mixture of tender gentle

And

• Crashaw was so fond of Marino, a writer of fim waguation but little judgment, as to translate the whole first book of luz Strage de gli Innocent published 1633), which Muring bowelf preferred to his Il Adone, and to which Milton was indebted for many hints, which, however, he greatly improved. Die party. larly Stanza 7, and several succnding Stanzas w Cruchun, p. 35, for a description of Satan. Milton, in his Mansus, colorati s the Adonis: the Strage was not then published. It was first printed in France, and Chapelain prefixed a hearted preface to it. There was a translation of all the four books of the Slaughter of the Innocents, published 1675, by T. R. and dedicated to the Dutchess of York.

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