On this page
-
Text (4)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
DRYDEN . The Poetical Worls of John Drydtn . Edited by Kobert BtlL Vol . L Price 2 s . Gd . J . W . Parker and Son . The Annotated Edition of the English Poets , of which the first volume is before us , promises to be of permanent value : one which can be lovingly carried in the studious pocket as a companion , and which also claims a place on the shelves of a library . It is essentially a literary edition ; produced vath the patient zeal of passionate delight in literary excellence for its own sake , and not of mere erudite display . Robert Bell has taken enormous pains to save us trouble , not to show how much he has read . If he continue as he has begun , the work will endure .
pryden was a good name to begin with , when once the chronological order was given up . We did not expect any novelty in the Biography -but patient zeal has been rewarded , and novelty there is , some of it valuable , in the Life prefixed . Dry den ' s descendants have been liberal , as several hitherto unpublished letters testify ; and the discovery of the Exchequer warrant sets at rest a long disputed point . We cannot follow the Biographer through all the pleasant stages of the poet ' s career , but must content ourselves with a rapid glance at a few passages . den believed in
Dry astrology , as his intimacy with its secrets in The Mock Astrologer leads one to suspect . There is a charmin g naivete in this passage from one of his letters— " Towards the latter end of September ; Charles will begin to recover lis perfect liealth , according to his nativity which , casting it myself , I am sure is true : ' llobert Bell notices the eifect of this superstition the poet ' s writings , vyhere the influence of the planets over human affairs are frequently apostrophised in a style we are not to accept as mere poetic artifice ; when Robert Bell adds , however , that " it is undoubtedly surprising that a mind so acute should be enslaved bv rinr * rin « i
so absurd , " his pen glides into careless commonplace , for there is * nothin <* at all surprising in the fact , as his subsequent remark clearly proves . ° Dryden ' s dedications are often referred to , reflecting on his character , but their real significance is indicated in these passages : — 'l Th dedication , w 5 th its preposterous tropes and bombastic flattery , was as much a part of the manners of the day as the Chadreus periwig , or the heed steinkirk . It would be as reasonable' to measure the morals of a writer in the reign of Charles II . Ir his costume as by his Dedications , since be obviously followed the fashion iu both , without being in the slightest degree responsible for its absurdity . The greater his command over the artifices of rhetoric , the more likely he would be to excel in the language of compliment and eulogy ; and if Dryden went beyond all his contemporaries in that respect , as he un-Juestionably did , it was simply because he could not help going beyond them in everything t is not then in his Dedications that we shall trace the true character of his relations with great people , but in his pnblished writings , and . etill more , in his Denronal conduct .
there is not much fir me to animadvert . Be pleased therefore ^«^ iT ** » ** & ** can't , shan ' t and the like abbreviations of sylfabTsTVhkhtS , £ £ " £ tvoT ^ a rusticity . As for Pedantry you are not to be taxd with it . I remeiXf ' hw- * « - what of concluding your Sentences with prepositions or conjunct ^ £ mStW rtSK not elegant , as m your hrst sentence —( See the consequences of . ) I find UkewW « h . f « S make not a due distinction betwLtt that , and who ; A mart that is niwoM ^ ,, i 7-who is proper . That , ought alvrayes to ^ ignify a thing ; W , a ^«? n ? Tn V ^ tnS that vou'dhavs underfoot the business ; trueWlislfis , an ' acquaintanceI whTESd havt undertaken the business . I am confident I need not proceed vritli these little criticC ™ which are ratler cavillings . Philareque , or the Critique on Balzac , observes it as aS m his style , tlat he has m many places written twenty words together ( en suitte ^ which were all Monosyllables . I observe this in some lines of your Ncble Epigramm- and am oft « n guilty of it myselfe through hastinesse . Mr . Waller counted this a vertue of the English tongue , that it cou'd bring so many words of the Teutoaicue together , and yet the smoothness of the Verse not vitiated . Now I ana speaking of yow Epigramm , I am sure you will not w offended with m « for saying , there is some imperfection in the two last lines . ^^
" Blend ' em together , Fate , ease both their pafcne ; And of two wretches make one happy man . The word blend includes the sense of together ; ease both tleic paine paine is SinV gular , both is PJurall . But ipdeed paine may lave a collective and plurall signification . Then the Bhyme is not full of pain and Man . An half rhyme is not always a fault * but in the close « f any paper of verses , tis to be avoy-ded . And after all , te ll me truly , if those wordspSfoe bj > tb . their paine ; were not superfluous in ( he sence , and onUr put , for the sake of tbe rhyme , and filling up the \ erse . It came into my head to alter them , and I am affraya for the worse . ' " . " Kind Fate , or Fortune , blend them , if you can ; And , of twowrotches , make one happy man . Kind fate looks a little fiarsh : fate without an epithet , 5 s always taken in the ill sence . Kind added , changes that signification . < jRati valet ; hora tenigni . ) The words ( if you can ) have almost the same fault I tax'd in / oar ending of tie line : bnt being better considered , that is , whether fortune or fate , cam alter a Man ' s temper , who is already so
temperd : and leaving it doubtful ] , I thmke does not prejudice the thought , in the last Una * Now I begin , to be in for Cakes and Ale ; and why should I not put a quere on those other lines ? Poor Shift , does all his whole contrivance set , To spend tint wealth he wants the Sence to get . All bis whole contrivance , is bptt all his Contrivance , or his irnble ^ DoDtrivance ; thus , one of those words , lookes a little like , tautology . Then an ill natur'd man might ask , hovr he cou'd spend wealth , npt having the sence to get it ? But this ie trifling , in me . For your sence is very intelligible ; whaeh is enough to secure it . And . by voor favour , so is Martial ' s : Viribus hie non cst , hie ncn est utHis annis : and yet in exactness of Criticism , yodr censure stands good upon him . —I am call'd to dinner , and hav « onily time to add a great truth ; that I am from the bottome of my Soul , Deare Sir , Year most humble Servant and true lover John Dxemstb *
" Your apostrophe ' s to your Mistresse , where you break off the fluid of youc discount ^ and address yoareself to her , are , in my opinion , as fine turnea of gallantry , as 1 have , mett with anjnrhere . ¦ '"' - . " For My HEonour'd Friend , ,. "William Walsh Esqr . " Thete . " We must find room for another excellent bit of advice given'to cframiati < r writers : — ; . "It is an ill ambition , " he says , u of us poets to please an audience with more than they can bear ; and supposing that we wrote as well , as . vainly we imagine ourselves to write ; yet we ought to consider that no man can bear to be . long tickled . " / ' ¦ . j On Dryden ' s merits as a poet , the editor says , after noticing the contrary opinions which have been put forth by critics : - — '' ' : ' * '' ' ' ; "Now , out of this conflict of judgments cornea an indestructible fame , commanding tile common assent of all . There must Tiave been a permanent element in his gentim to
produce this , w nat was it ? In ona word—power . This-power , inclusive of many modes at excellence , an < j never failing him . in its . application , _ was his great etiaractaristio ... A riiorec precise definition might . be gives ; but for a succinct and general , answer to tbe question , What was it that raised Dryden above all his contemporaries , and ^ reserves him on hia elevation ? this is sufficiently closa and comprehensive . He was distinguished , above . ' all , things else , far strength , s jj _ thought , strength of purpose , strength' of diction ... lie . was » ' strong man in verse and prose ; bold , energetic , self-reliant , and wiie in his react . Thera . was no weakness in Dryden ; no compromise of means or ends . Terhaps there was hot much tenderness ; yet he had a certain manly sweetness at times ,, that was alLthe moreprecious and affecting from its rarity , and because it seemed to cotne from the depths of his nature . There was real physical passion—undisguised sensuouBhess : no love .. JSobust
inall things , liis poetry has a weight and an earnestness that take , it out of the atmosphere of , the imaginative . It is never airy , never sportive . He made pootry the vehicle « f politics and controversy , not of feeling ox of fancy . There is not a single Jove passage tlroughout the whole , such as we find in tihakspeare or in Fletcher ,, touching the spring oT tears in the . heart , and twa . kening in the reader the emotion its depicts . When he ventures in this direction , it is to exhibit highly--wrought artificial tarns of gallantry , as in the Lines on the Duchess of Portsmouth ; or luscious descriptions , as in the Cvmon and Iphigenia . He , treads heavily , and every foot-fall crushes the earth beneath . ' He has none of tho chnracteristics of the cavalier party to -which he belonged , except their licentiousness , and that . onl y when it suits his purpose oil the stage . He has none of their grace , their sophistry ,, their lace work . Even his licentiousness differed from theirs . It was too lusty tor their ' Bhowy and volatile spirits . "
We intended saying something on Dryden as man and poet , but our space is already run out , and scarcel y a line remains for criticism . We said this was a literary edition . So truly is it , above all things , literary , that in the-Memoir we have scarcely a glimpse of the man beyond the writer . Dry * den at home ; Dryden moved by his household affectiqns ; Dryden at the coffee-houso ( one of the most familiar images "we have of him ) , is not seen in these pages . And ,-while touching a weak place , let us also note that the style , in general so clear , elegant , and sometimes epigrammatic , is in three or four passages lax , confused , and acquiescent of commonplace , such , as a more careful revision * would not have permitted to pass . If our critic cisin is microscopic in this respect , it is evidence of tlie value we attach to * this edition of the English Poets ; the stains -which are unnoticed in ? earthen > v are attract attention in porcelain .
. . He never asked a favour , although favours , according to the usage of patronage in those days , were conferred upon him , which it was not only not considered derogatory to accept , but . honourable to deserve . On tbe contrary , his life , for which he appeals in this letter to the testimony of those who knew him best , was blameless and inoffensive . Nor was this the virtue of indifference or a languid temperament , which suffers opportunities to pass away unreaped , and then takes credit to itself for being superior to them . A man who occupied so prominent a position * - and wielded so great a power , could not fail to have fiad temptations thrown in his way , which it required no commen firmness to resist . His biographers have collected few facts to enlighten us on this subject . They seem to have
taken it tor granted , that lie who had renounced the Commonwealth , and changed his religion , was hardly entitled to a vindication , and they have either left his personal integrity an open question , or touched upon it with timidity or distrust . It is certain , nevertheless , that l ) ryd « n when the political storm lolled , received offers-of place and emolument , ly way of peace-offering , from his old adversaries , and that he refused them ; and that when lis sons , and other ^ friends , urged him to dedicate his Virgil to King William ( at a time , too , -when he was involved in worse distresses than , had ever befallen him at any former period , ) he could not be persuaded to follow their counsels , although Jacob Tonson used all his influence to prevail upon him , and even tried to entrap him into the Dedication by T ) reparing the book for the purpose , and having the figure of fencas in the plates drawn like King William , with a hooked nose . There was reason to believe that this Dedication would lave reconciled all differences between Dryden and the court , and brought him a large pecuniary reward . He thus alludes to it in a letter to his sons at Rome : —
" * My Virgil succeeds in the world beyond its desert or my expectation . You know , th # profits might have been more , but neither my conscience nor my honour would suffer me to accept them ; but I can n 6 ver repent of my constancy , sinco I am thoroughly persuaded of the justice of the cause for which I suffer . ' ** If he compromised his taste in the season of prosperity by addressing his patrons in Ihe language of extravagant adulation , it must , at feast , be allowed to his " honour , that he inflexibly maintained his principles under the last pressure of adversity . " Robert Bell has a good remark on what he happily calls Dryden ' s impetuous candour , " in reference to his changes 6 f opinion : —
" The frankness -with which he acknowledged an error was as characteristic of his open nature as the boldness with which he vindicated it in the first instance . Whatever he thought it right or just to do , he did thorough !) ' and heartily . He never had recourse to half measures to cover his retreat . His recantations were not softened or compromised by apologetic sophistries . He was not ashamed of admitting a mistake , but eager to make full amends for it—his eagerness sometimes even carrying him too far on the other eido . To this impulsive temperament , this impetuous enndour ^ for which he lias never got the entire credit he deserves ) , may be traced those contradictions of opinion on questions of criticism that are scattered over his prose writings—contradictions , however , which always conduct us to new trains of thought , and even in their fallacies are entitled to respect . "
It has been all but universally believed that Dryden'a change of religion was interested ; and until the discovery , now first made , of the fact that Dryden ' s pension was given him two years before-the chance , the interested motive did seem obvious . We cannot here enter into the details , but refer to Robert BeLPs pages , where the reader will find the whole case temperately and cogently argued . The following remark is worth quoting : — - 11 Dryden ' s change of religion must ever remain an open question , to be discussed with , such candour as the prejudices of in < n will permit them to bring to the consideration of topics of this nature . The apostate is always exposed to distrust . The community he joins is hardly more charitable in ita constructions than the community ho deserts ; and the least instructed of mankind , whose profession of faith in a matter of liabit and inheritance , and not of inquirj and conviction , stnnda on his barren stcacfyastness , and beVicves himself entitled to impugn the motives of him who , in the face of social obloquy , deliberately renounces the creed in which ho was educated . " That is finely said . A critical letter , written by Dryden . will be read with interest : —
" You command me , Dearo Sir , to muke a kind of critique on your Essay : tis an hard province ; but if I were ublo to . undertake it , possibly , a greater proofe or friendhhi p is scarcely to be found ; where to be truly a friend , a . man must soemo to exercise a littl « inulice . As it happens I am now iucumuord with some necessary business , relating tojurfi of my Sonns ; winch when it is over , I shall huvo more leysure to obey you , in ca , so ttfbro uppeare any farther need . There in not tho leust occasion of reflecting on your disposition of the piece , nor tho thoughts . 1 sco nothing to CLMisuro in cither of them . Besides thu
Untitled Article
THE CAUCASUS . * Thk Caucasus was recently described by the Times as almost a terra incognita . Yet , if we include in that general designation , which more strictly belongs to the mountain-range , all that once famous territory stretching from the * Euxine to the Caspian , we are speaking of a land renowned before Europe had a history , and even now the theatre of events in "which the battle of East and West may have to b « fought out . To the English mind the name of Circassia brings fantastic visions of veiled and captive beauty , and Georgia seems a svnonym to all that is voluptuous in the most languishing and lazy of the daughters of the Horeem . But from time to time * through tlic veracious bulletins of the Invalide Russe , vro catch stray
Untitled Article
Januaby 14 , 1854 . ] THE IEADRK 41
Untitled Article
• The Caucasus . By Ivan Golovia , Trlibner and Co ., 12 , Pilternoster-row .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1854, page 41, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2021/page/17/
-