Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

us, but to represent the common sense of mankind in more strong, more beautiful, or more uncommon lights. If a Reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but very few precepts in it, which he may not meet with in Aristotle, and which were not commonly known by all the Poets of the Augustan Age. His way of expressing and applying them, not his invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire.

For this reason I think there is nothing in the world so tiresome as the works of those Critics, who write in a positive dogmatic way, without either language, genius or imagination. If the Reader would see how the best of the Latin Critics writ, may find their manner very beautifully described in the characters of Horace, Petronius, Quintilian and Longinus, as they are drawn in the Essay of which I am now speaking.

he

5

ΙΟ

15

Since I have mentioned Longinus, who in his Reflections has given us the same kind of sublime, which he observes in the several passages that occasioned them; I cannot but take notice, that our English Author has after the same manner exemplified several of his precepts in the very precepts themselves. I shall produce two or three instances of this kind. 20 Speaking of the insipid smoothness which some Readers are so much in love with, he has the following verses.

These equal syllables alone require,

Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire,

While expletives their feeble aid do join,

And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.

25

The gaping of the vowels in the second line, the expletive do in the third, and the ten monosyllables in the fourth, give such a beauty to this passage, as would have been very much admired in an ancient Poet. The Reader may observe the 30 following lines in the same view.

A needless Alexandrine ends the song,

That like a wounded Snake, drags its slow length along.

5

ΙΟ

15

20

25

And afterwards,

'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.

Soft is the strain when Zephir gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother number flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,

The hoarse, rough verse shou'd like the torrent roar.
When Ajax strives, some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow:

Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

The beautiful Distich upon Ajax in the foregoing lines, puts me in mind of a description in Homer's Odyssey. It is where Sisyphus is represented lifting his stone up the hill, which is no sooner carried to the top of it, but it immediately tumbles to the bottom. This double motion of the stone is admirably described in the numbers of these verses; as in the four first it is heaved up by several Spondees intermixed with proper breathing-places, and at last trundles down in a continued line of Dactyls.

Καὶ μὴν Σίσυφον εἰσεῖδον, κρατέρ ̓ ἄλγε ̓ ἔχοντα,
Λᾶαν βαστάζοντα πελώριον ἀμφοτέρῃσιν.
Ητοι ὁ μὲν, σκηριπτόμενος χερσίν τε ποσίν τε,
Λᾶαν ἄνω θεσκε ποτὶ λόφον. ἀλλ ̓ ὅτε μέλλοι
*Ακρον ὑπερβαλέειν, τότ ̓ ἀποστρέψασκε κραταιὶς
Αὖτις, ἔπειτα πέδονδε κυλίνδετο λᾶας ἀναιδής.

It would be endless to quote verses out of Virgil which have this particular kind of beauty in the numbers; but I may take an occasion in a future paper to shew several of them which 30 have escaped the observation of others.

I cannot conclude this paper without taking notice, that we have three poems in our tongue, which are of the same nature, and each of them a master-piece in its kind; the Essay on translated verse, the Essay on the art of poetry, and the Essay 35 upon criticism.

N° 269. Tuesday, January 8. [1712.]

[blocks in formation]

I was this morning surprized with a great knocking at the door, when my Landlady's daughter came up to me and told me there was a man below desired to speak with me. Upon my asking her who it was, she told me it was a very grave elderly person, but that she did not know his name. I immediately went down to him, and found him to be the coachman of my worthy friend Sir ROGER DE COVERLY. He told me that his master came to town last night, and would be glad to take a turn with me in Grays-Inn walks. As I was wondring in my self what had brought Sir ROGER to town, not having lately received any letter from him, he told me that his master was come up to get a sight of Prince Eugene, and that he desired I would immediately meet him.

I was not a little pleased with the curiosity of the old Knight, though I did not much wonder at it, having heard him say more than once in private discourse, that he looked upon Prince Eugenio (for so the Knight always calls him) to be a greater man than Scanderbeg.

I was no sooner come into Grays-Inn walks, but I heard my friend upon the Terrace hemming twice or thrice to himself with great vigour, for he loves to clear his pipes in good air (to make use of his own phrase) and is not a little pleased with any one who takes notice of the strength which he still exerts in his morning hemms.

I was touched with a secret joy at the sight of the good old man, who before he saw me was engaged in conversation with a beggar man that had asked an alms of him. I could hear my friend chide him for not finding out some work; but at the same time saw him put his hand in his pocket and give him six-pence.

5

ΙΟ

15

20

25

IO

Our salutations were very hearty on both sides, consisting of many kind shakes of the hand, and several affectionate looks which we cast upon one another. After which the Knight told me my good friend his Chaplain was very well, and much at my service, and that the Sunday before, he had made a most incomparable Sermon out of Doctor Barrow. I have left, says he, all my affairs in his hands, and being willing to lay an obligation upon him, have deposited with him thirty marks, to be distributed among his poor parishioners.

He then proceeded to acquaint me with the welfare of Will Wimble. Upon which he put his hand into his fob, and presented me in his name with a tobacco stopper, telling me that Will had been busie all the beginning of the winter in turning great quantities of them; and that he made a present 15 of one to every Gentleman in the country who has good principles, and smokes. He added, that poor Will was at present under great tribulation, for that Tom Touchy had taken the law of him for cutting some hazel sticks out of one of his hedges.

20

25

Among other pieces of news which the Knight brought from his country seat, he informed me that Moll White was dead; and that about a month after her death the wind was so very high, that it blew down the end of one of his barns. But for my part, says Sir ROGER, I do not think that the old woman had any hand in it.

He afterwards fell into an account of the diversions which had passed in his house during the holydays, for Sir ROGER, after the laudable custom of his ancestors, always keeps open house at Christmas. I learned from him, that he had killed 30 eight fat hogs for this season, that he had dealt about his chines very liberally amongst his neighbours, and that in particular he had sent a string of hogs-puddings with a pack of cards to every poor family in the parish. I have often thought, says Sir ROGER, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out

in the middle of the winter. It is the most dead uncomfortable time of the year, when the poor people would suffer very much from their poverty and cold, if they had not good cheer, warm fires, and Christmas gambols to support them. I love to rejoyce their poor hearts at this season, and to see the whole village merry in my great hall. I allow a double quantity of malt to my small beer, and set it a running for twelve days to every one that calls for it. I have always a piece of cold beef and a mince-pye upon the table, and am wonderfully pleased to see my tenants pass away a whole evening in playing their innocent tricks, and smutting one another. Our friend Will Wimble is as merry as any of them, and shews a thousand roguish tricks upon these occasions.

[merged small][ocr errors]

I was very much delighted with the reflection of my old friend, which carried so much goodness in it. He then 15 launched out into the praise of the late Act of Parliament for securing the Church of England, and told me with great satisfaction, that he believed it already began to take effect; for that a rigid Dissenter, who chanced to dine at his house on Christmas day, had been observed to eat very plentifully 20 of his plumb-porridge.

After having dispatched all our country matters, Sir ROGER made several enquiries concerning the club, and particularly of his old antagonist Sir ANDREW FREEPORT. He asked me with a kind of smile, whether Sir ANDREW had not taken the 25 advantage of his absence, to vent among them some of his Republican doctrines; but soon after gathering up his countenance into a more than ordinary seriousness, Tell me truly, says he, don't you think Sir ANDREW had a hand in the Pope's procession but without giving me time to answer him, 30 Well, well, says he, I know you are a wary man, and do not care to talk of publick matters.

The Knight then asked me, if I had seen Prince Eugene; and made me promise to get him a stand in some convenient

« ZurückWeiter »