Of little use the man, you may suppose, Who says in verse what others say in prose; 210 And in our own (excuse some courtly stains) 215 No whiter page than Addison remains. NOTES. and at the same time gave him the Poem to carry to them for their perusal. Our Poet executed his commission in the most friendly manner; and the Play, and the project for bringing it upon the stage, had their approbation and encouragement. Throughout the carriage of this whole affair, Mr. Addison was so exceedingly afraid of party imputations, that when Mr. Pope, at his request, wrote the famous Prologue to it, and had said: "Britons, ARISE, be worth like this approved, And shew you have the virtue to be moved;" he was much troubled; said it would be called, stirring the people to rebellion; and earnestly begged he would soften it into something less obnoxious. On this account it was altered, as it now stands, to Britons, attend,-though at the expense both of the sense and spirit. Notwithstanding this, the very next year, when the present illustrious family came to the succession, Mr. Addison thought fit to make a merit of CATO, as purposely and directly written to oppose to the schemes of a faction. His poem, VOL. VI. to Torquet "ab obscœnis jam nunc sermonibus aurem; Mox etiam pectus præceptis format amicis, NOTES. to her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, beginning in this manner: "The Muse, that oft with sacred raptures fired, Engaged great CATO in her country's cause; Warburton. On you In Spence's Collections, I read these anecdotes of Addison, at his house at Byfleet in Surrey, 1754. These anecdotes, which were very curious, and contained many unknown particular circumstances of his contemporaries, were sold to Mr. Dodsley the bookseller, and prepared to be published; when Dr. Lowth, the late excellent bishop of London, and Dr. Ridley, on a close inspection of them, imagined, that from some personalities in them, they were improper for the public eye. They therefore prevailed on Mr. Dodsley to relinquish his bargain, which he readily and generously agreed to do; and the Anecdotes were sealed up and delivered into the hands of the late Duke of Newcastle, the patron and friend of Spence. When Dr. Johnson was writing the Lives of the Poets, application was made to the Duke for an inspection of what related to Pope. It is to be hoped no farther use was ever made of them in any other publication. Warton. Ver. 216. No whiter page than Addison remains.] Mr. Addison's literary character is much mistaken, as characters generally are, when taken (as his has been) in the gross. He was but an ordinary poet, and a worse critic. His verses are heavy, and his judgment of men and books superficial. But, in the pleasantry of comic adventures, and, in the dignity of moral allegories, he is inimitable; Nature having joined in him, as she had done once before in Lucian (who wanted the other's wisdom to make a right use of it) the sublime of Plato to the humour of Menander. Warburton. If Addison's verses are heavy, as is asserted in this note, yet has he displayed (for I must repeat the assertion) a great power of true poetic imagination, in his Vision of Mirza, the Story of Bal sora, He from the taste obscene reclaims our youth, And sets the passions on the side of truth, Forms the soft bosom with the gentlest art, And pours each human virtue in the heart. 220 NOTES. sora, of Constantia and Theodosius, and many most beautiful allegories. The author, who called his Campaign a gazette in rhyme, never meant to deny that there were many very brilliant passages in this poem. The regular march from place to place, which he followed, like the route of a muster-master-general, was all that was pointed at. See Boileau, Art. Poet. Warton. Ver. 217. He from the taste obscene, &c.] This, in imitation of his original, refers to the true poet: and likewise to Mr. Addison's papers in the Tatlers, Spectators, and Guardians; the character of which is given in the preceding note. But the excellence of the papers called the Spectator, may be best gathered from their breaking through party madness, at their birth, and, like the infant Hercules, in the fable of the two snakes, strangling the rage both of the Whig and Tory papers. The fact is too important not to be delivered to posterity. Swift had inflamed party rage into madness, by his Examiners, where all the heads of the Whig interest found their characters torn in pieces, and treated in the most cruel and unjust manner. The Tatler, till then the delight of the public, was no longer heard; and the efforts of Steele's indiscreet zeal to turn it into a partypaper, did not succeed. So the Tatler soon became silent, as no longer inspired by Mr. Addison, who disliked that foolish attempt. But relying on his strength, and supported by the honesty of his intentions, he resolved to try whether it was possible to soften the savage rage of party, by calling off the public attention to it, and fixing it on those amiable lucubrations, with a few of which, the world had been so lately charmed in the Tatler. It was this, and, at the same time, to keep his friend Steele out of mischief, which made him espouse the projected paper of the Spectator. His constant assistance in it had a wonderful effect. It was indeed the Asperitatis, et invidiæ corrector, et ira; NOTES. full effort of the finest and most original genius in this way of writing. Yet whoever now reflects upon the success at that critical juncture, cannot be less struck with it, than men were at that time. Swift, as appears by his letters lately published, was surprized at the extraordinary success. It mortified his pride, that Mr. A. could draw the public attention from party-matters, when managed by him, where he shone without a rival. He frequently drops hints of his uneasiness that Whigs and Tories were unanimous in the applauses they gave to the Spectator; and invidiously represents it as a woman's paper, and patronised chiefly by the ladies. Warburton. Ver. 220. And pours each] All this Addison has accomplished in an eminent and unequalled degree in his prose writings; but propriety required that the example should have been given, not from writings in prose, but verse. Pope has here deserted and deviated from his original, and put a change on his readers. I will just add, that Addison said he had taken the admirable character of Vellum from the Scornful Lady. Warton. Pope has not expressly referred either to the prose or verse of Addison; and the reader may therefore apply the commendation to either, or include both, according to his own judgment. Ver. 224. "The rights a court attack'd,] For this passage our author was threatened with a prosecution. Warton. Ver. 226. the idiot and the poor,] A foundation for the maintenance of idiots, and a fund for assisting the poor, by lending small sums of money on demand. Ver. 229. who merit other palms;] Horace, in the seven lines Pope. of Let Ireland tell, how wit upheld her cause, Her trade supported, and supplied her laws; NOTES. of the original, Castis cum pueris, &c. is perfectly serious, aud Pope has indulged a vein of ill-placed humour and pleasantry, in laughing at poor Sternhold and Hopkins, and Psalm-singing in country churches. A very accurate and entertaining account is given in the History of English Poetry, of this musical version of the Psalms, which was made after the model of Clement Marot, who, about the year 1570, hoped to have introduced a spirit of devotion into the court of Francis I. by substituting divine hymns instead of chansons d'amour, among the ladies and nobility. And Thomas Sternhold, a native of Hampshire, and educated at Winchester college, hoped to do the same in the court of Edward VI. to whom he was a groom of the bed-chamber. His coadjutor was John Hopkins, a schoolmaster in Suffolk, who translated fiftyeight of the Psalms; and another assistant was William Whyttingham, dean of Durham, who also versified the Decalogue, the Nicene, Apostolic, and Athanasian Creeds. And Thomas Norton, who joined with Lord Buckhurst in writing the tragedy of Gorboduc, joined also in this work, and turned into metre twentyseven Psalms. History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 168, by Thomas Warton. Warton. |
