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Leader (1850-1860), 14th January 1854, Edition 1 of 1, Page 41, Untitled Article

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      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 Dry den ' s descendants have been liberal , as several hitherto unpublished letters testify ; and the discovery of the Exchequer warrant sets at rest a long disputed point .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/