diff options
Diffstat (limited to '15176.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 15176.txt | 17226 |
1 files changed, 17226 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/15176.txt b/15176.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31da96b --- /dev/null +++ b/15176.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17226 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of English Literature, Considered as an +Interpreter of English History, by Henry Coppee + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History + Designed as a Manual of Instruction + +Author: Henry Coppee + +Release Date: February 26, 2005 [EBook #15176] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH LITERATURE, *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History. + +Designed as a _Manual of Instruction_. + +By + +Henry Coppee, LL.D., + +President of the Lehigh University. + + The Roman Epic abounds in moral and poetical defects; nevertheless it + remains the most complete picture of the national mind at its highest + elevation, the most precious document of national history, if the + history of an age is revealed in its ideas, no less than in its events + and incidents.--Rev. C. Merivale. + + _History of the Romans under the Empire_, c. xli. + +Second Edition. +Philadelphia: +Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. +1873. + + + + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by Claxton, +Remsen & Haffelfinger, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at +Washington. + + + +Stereotyped by J. Fagan & Son, Philadelphia. + + + + +To The Right Reverend William Bacon Stevens, D.D., LL.D., Bishop Of +Pennsylvania. + +My Dear Bishop: + +I desire to connect your name with whatever may be useful and valuable in +this work, to show my high appreciation of your fervent piety, varied +learning, and elegant literary accomplishments; and, also, far more than +this, to record the personal acknowledgment that no man ever had a more +constant, judicious, generous and affectionate brother, than you have been +to me, for forty years of intimate and unbroken association. + +Most affectionately and faithfully yours, + +Henry Coppee. + + + + +PREFACE + + + +It is not the purpose of the author to add another to the many volumes +containing a chronological list of English authors, with brief comments +upon each. Such a statement of works, arranged according to periods, or +reigns of English monarchs, is valuable only as an abridged dictionary of +names and dates. Nor is there any logical pertinence in clustering +contemporary names about a principal author, however illustrious he may +be. The object of this work is to present prominently the historic +connections and teachings of English literature; to place great authors in +immediate relations with great events in history; and thus to propose an +important principle to students in all their reading. Thus it is that +Literature and History are reciprocal: they combine to make eras. + +Merely to establish this historic principle, it would have been sufficient +to consider the greatest authors, such as Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, +Milton, Dryden, and Pope; but it occurred to me, while keeping this +principle before me, to give also a connected view of the course of +English literature, which might, in an academic curriculum, show students +how and what to read for themselves. Any attempt beyond this in so +condensed a work must prove a failure, and so it may well happen that some +readers will fail to find a full notice, or even a mention, of some +favorite author. + +English literature can only be studied in the writings of the authors here +only mentioned; but I hope that the work will be found to contain +suggestions for making such extended reading profitable; and that teachers +will find it valuable as a syllabus for fuller courses of lectures. + +To those who would like to find information as to the best editions of the +authors mentioned, I can only say that I at first intended and began to +note editions: I soon saw that I could not do this with any degree of +uniformity, and therefore determined to refer all who desire this +bibliographic assistance, to _The Dictionary of Authors_, by my friend S. +Austin Allibone, LL.D., in which bibliography is a strong feature. I am +not called upon to eulogize that noble work, but I cannot help saying that +I have found it invaluable, and that whether mentioned or not, no writer +can treat of English authors without constant recurrence to its accurate +columns: it is a literary marvel of our age. + +It will be observed that the remoter periods of the literature are those +in which the historic teachings are the most distinctly visible; we see +them from a vantage ground, in their full scope, and in the interrelations +of their parts. Although in the more modern periods the number of writers +is greatly increased, we are too near to discern the entire period, and +are in danger of becoming partisans, by reason of our limited view. +Especially is this true of the age in which we live. Contemporary history +is but party-chronicle: the true philosophic history can only be written +when distance and elevation give due scope to our vision. + +The principle I have laid down is best illustrated by the great literary +masters. Those of less degree have been treated at less length, and many +of them will be found in the smaller print, to save space. Those who study +the book should study the small print as carefully as the other. + +After a somewhat elaborate exposition of English literature, I could not +induce myself to tack on an inadequate chapter on American literature; +and, besides, I think that to treat the two subjects in one volume would +be as incongruous as to write a joint biography of Marlborough and +Washington. American literature is too great and noble, and has had too +marvelous a development to be made an appendix to English literature. + +If time shall serve, I hope to prepare a separate volume, exhibiting the +stages of our literature in the Colonial period, the Revolutionary epoch, +the time of Constitutional establishment, and the present period. It will +be found to illustrate these historical divisions in a remarkable manner. + +H. C. + +The Lehigh University, _October_, 1872. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE HISTORICAL SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT. + + Literature and Science--English Literature--General Principle--Celts + and Cymry--Roman Conquest--Coming of the Saxons--Danish Invasions--The + Norman Conquest--Changes in Language + + +CHAPTER II. + +LITERATURE A TEACHER OF HISTORY. CELTIC REMAINS. + + The Uses of Literature--Italy, France, England--Purpose of the + Work--Celtic Literary Remains--Druids and Druidism--Roman + Writers--Psalter of Cashel--Welsh Triads and Mabinogion--Gildas and St. + Colm + + +CHAPTER III. + +ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE AND HISTORY. + + The Lineage of the Anglo-Saxon--Earliest Saxon Poem--Metrical + Arrangement--Periphrasis and Alliteration--Beowulf--Caedmon--Other + Saxon Fragments--The Appearance of Bede + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE VENERABLE BEDE AND THE SAXON CHRONICLE. + + Biography--Ecclesiastical History--The Recorded Miracles--Bede's + Latin--Other Writers--The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: its Value--Alfred the + Great--Effect of the Danish Invasions + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND ITS EARLIEST LITERATURE. + + Norman Rule--Its Oppression--Its Benefits--William of + Malmesbury--Geoffrey of Monmouth--Other Latin Chronicles--Anglo-Norman + Poets--Richard Wace--Other Poets + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE MORNING TWILIGHT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. + + Semi-Saxon Literature--Layamon--The Ormulum--Robert of + Gloucester--Langland. Piers Plowman--Piers Plowman's Creed--Sir Jean + Froissart--Sir John Mandevil + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CHAUCER, AND THE EARLY REFORMATION. + + A New Era: Chaucer--Italian Influence--Chaucer as a Founder--Earlier + Poems--The Canterbury Tales--Characters--Satire--Presentations of + Woman--The Plan Proposed + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CHAUCER (CONTINUED).--REFORMS IN RELIGION AND SOCIETY. + + Historical Facts--Reform in Religion--The Clergy, Regular and + Secular--The Friar and the Sompnour--The Pardonere--The Poure + Persone--John Wiclif--The Translation of the Bible--The Ashes of Wiclif + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CHAUCER (CONTINUED).--PROGRESS OF SOCIETY, AND OF LANGUAGE. + + Social Life--Government--Chaucer's English--His Death--Historical + Facts--John Gower--Chaucer and Gower--Gower's Language--Other Writers + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE BARREN PERIOD BETWEEN CHAUCER AND SPENSER. + + Greek Literature--Invention of Printing. Caxton--Contemporary + History--Skelton--Wyatt--Surrey--Sir Thomas Moore--Utopia, and other + Works--Other Writers + + +CHAPTER XI. + +SPENSER AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. + + The Great Change--Edward VI. and Mary--Sidney--The Arcadia--Defence of + Poesy--Astrophel and Stella--Gabriel Harvey--Edmund Spenser: Shepherd's + Calendar--His Great Work + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY IN THE FAERIE QUEENE. + + The Faerie Queene--The Plan Proposed--Illustrations of the History--The + Knight and the Lady--The Wood of Error and the Hermitage--The + Crusades--Britomartis and Sir Artegal--Elizabeth--Mary Queen of + Scots--Other Works--Spenser's Fate--Other Writers + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE ENGLISH DRAMA. + + Origin of the Drama--Miracle Plays--Moralities--First Comedy--Early + Tragedies--Christopher Marlowe--Other Dramatists--Playwrights and + Morals + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. + + The Power of Shakspeare--Meagre Early History--Doubts of his + Identity--What is known--Marries and goes to London--"Venus" and + "Lucrece"--Retirement and Death--Literary Habitudes--Variety of the + Plays--Table of Dates and Sources + + +CHAPTER XV. + +WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE (CONTINUED). + + The Grounds of his Fame--Creation of Character--Imagination and + Fancy--Power of Expression--His Faults--Influence of + Elizabeth--Sonnets--Ireland and Collier--Concordance--Other Writers + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +BACON, AND THE RISE OF THE NEW PHILOSOPHY. + + Birth and Early Life--Treatment of Essex--His Appointments--His + Fall--Writes Philosophy--Magna Instauratio--His Defects--His Fame--His + Essays + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE ENGLISH BIBLE. + + Early Versions--The Septuagint--The Vulgate--Wiclif; + Tyndale--Coverdale; Cranmer--Geneva; Bishop's Bible--King James's + Bible--Language of the Bible--Revision + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +JOHN MILTON, AND THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH. + + Historical Facts--Charles I.--Religious Extremes--Cromwell--Birth and + Early Works--Views of Marriage--Other Prose Works--Effects of the + Restoration--Estimate of his Prose + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE POETRY OF MILTON. + + The Blind Poet--Paradise Lost--Milton and Dante--His + Faults--Characteristics of the Age--Paradise Regained--His + Scholarship--His Sonnets--His Death and Fame + + +CHAPTER XX. + +COWLEY, BUTLER, AND WALTON. + + Cowley and Milton--Cowley's Life and Works--His Fame--Butler's + Career--Hudibras--His Poverty and Death--Izaak Walton--The Angler; and + Lives--Other Writers + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +DRYDEN, AND THE RESTORED STUARTS. + + The Court of Charles II.--Dryden's Early Life--The Death of + Cromwell--The Restoration--Dryden's Tribute--Annus Mirabilis--Absalom + and Achitophel--The Death of Charles--Dryden's Conversion--Dryden's + Fall--His Odes + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF THE GREAT REBELLION AND OF THE RESTORATION. + + The English Divines--Hall--Chillingsworth--Taylor--Fuller--Sir T. + Browne--Baxter--Fox--Bunyan--South--Other Writers + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE DRAMA OF THE RESTORATION. + + The License of the Age--Dryden--Wycherley--Congreve--Vanbrugh-- + Farquhar--Etherege--Tragedy--Otway--Rowe--Lee--Southern + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +POPE, AND THE ARTIFICIAL SCHOOL. + + Contemporary History--Birth and Early Life--Essay, on Criticism--Rape + of the Lock--The Messiah--The Iliad--Value of the Translation--The + Odyssey--Essay on Man--The Artificial School--Estimate of Pope--Other + Writers + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +ADDISON, AND THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. + + The Character of the Age--Queen Anne--Whigs and Tories--George + I.--Addison: The Campaign--Sir Roger de Coverley--The Club--Addison's + Hymns--Person and Literary Character + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +STEELE AND SWIFT. + + Sir Richard Steele--Periodicals--The Crisis--His Last Days--Jonathan + Swift: Poems--The Tale of a Tub--Battle of the Books--Pamphlets--M. B. + Drapier--Gulliver's Travels--Stella and Vanessa--His Character and + Death + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN FICTION. + + The New Age--Daniel Defoe--Robinson Crusoe--Richardson--Pamela, and + Other Novels--Fielding--Joseph Andrews--Tom Jones--Its + Moral--Smollett--Roderick Random--Peregrine Pickle + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +STERNE, GOLDSMITH, AND MACKENZIE. + + The Subjective School--Sterne: Sermons--Tristram Shandy--Sentimental + Journey--Oliver Goldsmith--Poems: The Vicar--Histories, and Other + Works--Mackenzie--The Man of Feeling + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE HISTORICAL TRIAD IN THE SCEPTICAL AGE. + + The Sceptical Age--David Hume--History of England--Metaphysics--Essay + on Miracles--Robertson--Histories--Gibbon--The Decline and Fall + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +SAMUEL JOHNSON AND HIS TIMES. + + Early Life and Career--London--Rambler and Idler--The Dictionary--Other + Works--Lives of the Poets--Person and Character--Style--Junius + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE LITERARY FORGERS IN THE ANTIQUARIAN AGE. + + The Eighteenth Century--James Macpherson--Ossian--Thomas + Chatterton--His Poems--The Verdict--Suicide--The Cause + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +POETRY OF THE TRANSITION SCHOOL. + + The Transition Period--James Thomson--The Seasons--The Castle of + Indolence--Mark Akenside--Pleasures of the Imagination--Thomas + Gray--The Elegy. The Bard--William Cowper--The Task--Translation of + Homer--Other Writers + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +THE LATER DRAMA. + + The Progress of the Drama--Garrick--Foote--Cumberland--Sheridan--George + Colman--George Colman, the Younger--Other Dramatists and + Humorists--Other Writers on Various Subjects + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE NEW ROMANTIC POETRY: SCOTT. + + Walter Scott--Translations and Minstrelsy--The Lay of the Last + Minstrel--Other Poems--The Waverley Novels--Particular + Mention--Pecuniary Troubles--His Manly Purpose--Powers + Overtasked--Fruitless Journey--Return and Death--His Fame + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THE NEW ROMANTIC POETRY: BYRON AND MOORE. + + Early Life of Byron--Childe Harold and Eastern Tales--Unhappy + Marriage--Philhellenism and Death--Estimate of his Poetry--Thomas + Moore--Anacreon--Later Fortunes--Lalla Rookh--His Diary--His Rank as + Poet + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE NEW ROMANTIC POETRY (CONTINUED). + + Robert Burns--His Poems--His Career--George Crabbe--Thomas + Campbell--Samuel Rogers--P. B. Shelley--John Keats--Other Writers + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +WORDSWORTH, AND THE LAKE SCHOOL. + + The New School--William Wordsworth--Poetical Canons--The Excursion and + Sonnets--An Estimate--Robert Southey--His Writings--Historical + Value--S. T. Coleridge--Early Life--His Helplessness--Hartley and H. N. + Coleridge + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE REACTION IN POETRY. + + Alfred Tennyson--Early Works--The Princess--Idyls of the + King--Elizabeth B. Browning--Aurora Leigh--Her Faults--Robert + Browning--Other Poets + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE LATER HISTORIANS. + + New Materials--George Grote--History of Greece--Lord Macaulay--History + of England--Its Faults--Thomas Carlyle--Life of Frederick II.--Other + Historians + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE LATER NOVELISTS AS SOCIAL REFORMERS. + + Bulwer--Changes in Writers--Dickens's Novels--American Notes--His + Varied Powers--Second Visit to America--Thackeray--Vanity Fair--Henry + Esmond--The Newcomes--The Georges--Estimate of his Powers + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE LATER WRITERS. + + Charles Lamb--Thomas Hood--Thomas de Quincey--Other Novelists--Writers + on Science and Philosophy + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +ENGLISH JOURNALISM. + + Roman News Letters--The Gazette--The Civil War--Later Divisions--The + Reviews--The Monthlies--The Dailies--The London Times--Other Newspapers + + +Alphabetical Index of Authors + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE HISTORICAL SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT. + + + Literature and Science. English Literature. General Principle. Celts + and Cymry. Roman Conquest. Coming of the Saxons. Danish Invasions. The + Norman Conquest. Changes in Language. + + + +LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. + + +There are two words in the English language which are now used to express +the two great divisions of mental production--_Science_ and _Literature_; +and yet, from their etymology, they have so much in common, that it has +been necessary to attach to each a technical meaning, in order that we may +employ them without confusion. + +_Science_, from the participle _sciens_, of _scio, scire_, to know, would +seem to comprise all that can be known--what the Latins called the _omne +scibile_, or all-knowable. + +_Literature_ is from _litera_, a letter, and probably at one remove from +_lino, litum_, to anoint or besmear, because in the earlier times a tablet +was smeared with wax, and letters were traced upon it with a graver. +Literature, in its first meaning, would, therefore, comprise all that can +be conveyed by the use of letters. + +But language is impatient of retaining two words which convey the same +meaning; and although science had at first to do with the fact of knowing +and the conditions of knowledge in the abstract, while literature meant +the written record of such knowledge, a far more distinct sphere has been +given to each in later times, and special functions assigned them. + +In general terms, Science now means any branch of knowledge in which men +search for principles reaching back to the ultimate, or for facts which +establish these principles, or are classified by them in a logical order. +Thus we speak of the mathematical, physical, metaphysical, and moral +sciences. + +Literature, which is of later development as at present used, comprises +those subjects which have a relation to human life and human nature +through the power of the imagination and the fancy. Technically, +literature includes _history, poetry, oratory, the drama_, and _works of +fiction_, and critical productions upon any of these as themes. + +Such, at least, will be a sufficiently exact division for our purpose, +although the student will find them overlapping each other's domain +occasionally, interchanging functions, and reciprocally serving for each +other's advantage. Thus it is no confusion of terms to speak of the poetry +of science and of the science of poetry; and thus the great functions of +the human mind, although scientifically distinct, co-operate in harmonious +and reciprocal relations in their diverse and manifold productions. + + +ENGLISH LITERATURE.--English Literature may then be considered as +comprising the progressive productions of the English mind in the paths of +imagination and taste, and is to be studied in the works of the poets, +historians, dramatists, essayists, and romancers--a long line of brilliant +names from the origin of the language to the present day. + +To the general reader all that is profitable in this study dates from the +appearance of Chaucer, who has been justly styled the Father of English +Poetry; and Chaucer even requires a glossary, as a considerable portion +of his vocabulary has become obsolete and much of it has been modified; +but for the student of English literature, who wishes to understand its +philosophy and its historic relations, it becomes necessary to ascend to a +more remote period, in order to find the origin of the language in which +Chaucer wrote, and the effect produced upon him by any antecedent literary +works, in the root-languages from which the English has sprung. + + +GENERAL PRINCIPLE.--It may be stated, as a general principle, that to +understand a nation's literature, we must study the history of the people +and of their language; the geography of the countries from which they +came, as well as that in which they live; the concurrent historic causes +which have conspired to form and influence the literature. We shall find, +as we advance in this study, that the life and literature of a people are +reciprocally reflective. + + +I. CELTS AND CYMRY.--Thus, in undertaking the study of English literature, +we must begin with the history of the Celts and Cymry, the first +inhabitants of the British Islands of whom we have any record, who had +come from Asia in the first great wave of western migration; a rude, +aboriginal people, whose languages, at the beginning of the Christian era, +were included in one family, the _Celtic_, comprising the _British_ or +_Cambrian_, and the _Gadhelic_ classes. In process of time these were +subdivided thus: + + The British into + _Welsh_, at present spoken in Wales. + _Cornish_, extinct only within a century. + _Armorican_, Bas Breton, spoken in French Brittany. + The Gadhelic into + _Gaelic_, still spoken in the Scottish Highlands. + _Irish_, or _Erse_, spoken in Ireland. + _Manx_, spoken in the Isle of Man. + +Such are the first people and dialects to be considered as the antecedent +occupants of the country in which English literature was to have its +birth. + + +II. ROMAN CONQUEST.--But these Celtic peoples were conquered by the Romans +under Caesar and his successors, and kept in a state of servile thraldom +for four hundred and fifty years. There was but little amalgamation +between them and their military masters. Britain was a most valuable +northern outpost of the Roman Empire, and was occupied by large garrisons, +which employed the people in hard labors, and used them for Roman +aggrandizement, but despised them too much to attempt to elevate their +condition. Elsewhere the Romans depopulated, where they met with barbarian +resistance; they made a solitude and called it peace--for which they gave +a triumph and a cognomen to the conqueror; but in Britain, although +harassed and endangered by the insurrections of the natives, they bore +with them; they built fine cities like London and York, originally +military outposts, and transformed much of the country between the Channel +and the Tweed from pathless forest into a civilized residence. + + +III. COMING OF THE SAXONS.--Compelled by the increasing dangers and +troubles immediately around the city of Rome to abandon their distant +dependencies, the Roman legions evacuated Britain, and left the people, +who had become enervated, spiritless, and unaccustomed to the use of arms, +a prey to their fierce neighbors, both from Scotland and from the +continent. + +The Saxons had already made frequent incursions into Britain, while rival +Roman chieftains were contesting for pre-eminence, and, as early as the +third century, had become so troublesome that the Roman emperors were +obliged to appoint a general to defend the eastern coast, known as _comes +litoris Saxonici_, or count of the Saxon shore.[1] + +These Saxons, who had already tested the goodliness of the land, came when +the Romans departed, under the specious guise of protectors of the Britons +against the inroads of the Picts and Scots; but in reality to possess +themselves of the country. This was a true conquest of race--Teutons +overrunning Celts. They came first in reconnoitring bands; then in large +numbers, not simply to garrison, as the Romans had done, but to occupy +permanently. From the less attractive seats of Friesland and the basin of +the Weser, they came to establish themselves in a charming country, +already reclaimed from barbarism, to enslave or destroy the inhabitants, +and to introduce their language, religion, and social institutions. They +came as a confederated people of German race--Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and +Frisians;[2] but, as far as the results of their conquest are concerned, +there was entire unity among them. + +The Celts, for a brief period protected by them from their fierce northern +neighbors, were soon enslaved and oppressed: those who resisted were +driven slowly to the Welsh mountains, or into Cornwall, or across the +Channel into French Brittany. Great numbers were destroyed. They left few +traces of their institutions and their language. Thus the Saxon was +established in its strength, and has since remained the strongest element +of English ethnography. + + +IV. DANISH INVASIONS.--But Saxon Britain was also to suffer from +continental incursions. The Scandinavians--inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, +and Denmark--impelled by the same spirit of piratical adventure which had +actuated the Saxons, began to leave their homes for foreign conquest. +"Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the +banquet, grasped their arms, sounded their horn, ascended their ships, and +explored every coast that promised either spoil or settlement."[3] To +England they came as Danes; to France, as Northmen or Normans. They took +advantage of the Saxon wars with the British, of Saxon national feuds, and +of that enervation which luxurious living had induced in the Saxon kings +of the octarchy, and succeeded in occupying a large portion of the north +and east of England; and they have exerted in language, in physical type, +and in manners a far greater influence than has been usually conceded. +Indeed, the Danish chapter in English history has not yet been fairly +written. They were men of a singularly bold and adventurous spirit, as is +evinced by their voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and thence to the Atlantic +coast of North America, as early as the tenth and eleventh centuries. It +is more directly to our purpose to observe their character as it is +displayed in their conquest of the Frankish kingdom of Neustria, in their +facile reception and ready assimilation of the Roman language and arts +which they found in Gaul, and in their forcible occupancy, under William +the Conqueror, of Saxon England, in 1066. + + +V. THE NORMAN CONQUEST.--The vigor of the Normans had been trained, but +not weakened by their culture in Normandy. They maintained their supremacy +in arms against the efforts of the kings of France. They had long +cultivated intimate relations with England, and their dukes had long +hankered for its possession. William, the natural son of Duke +Robert--known to history and musical romance as Robert le Diable--was a +man of strong mind, tenacious purpose, and powerful hand. He had obtained, +by promise of Edward the Confessor, the reversion of the crown upon the +death of that monarch; and when the issue came, he availed himself of +that reversion and the Pope's sanction, and also of the disputed +succession between Harold, the son of Godwin, and the true Saxon heir, +Edgar Atheling, to make good his claim by force of arms. + +Under him the Normans were united, while divisions existed in the Saxon +ranks. Tostig, the brother of Harold, and Harald Hardrada, the King of +Norway, combined against Harold, and, just before the landing of Duke +William at Pevensey, on the coast of Sussex, Harold was obliged to march +rapidly northward to Stanford bridge, to defeat Tostig and the Norwegians, +and then to return with a tired army of uncertain _morale_, to encounter +the invading Normans. Thus it appears that William conquered the land, +which would have been invincible had the leaders and the people been +united in its defence. + +As the Saxons, Danes, and Normans were of the same great Teutonic family, +however modified by the different circumstances of movement and residence, +there was no new ethnic element introduced; and, paradoxical as it may +seem, the fusion of these peoples was of great benefit, in the end, to +England. Though the Saxons at first suffered from Norman oppression, the +kingdom was brought into large inter-European relations, and a far better +literary culture was introduced, more varied in subject, more developed in +point of language, and more artistic. + +Thus much, in a brief historical summary, is necessary as an introduction +to our subject. From all these contests and conquests there were wrought +in the language of the country important changes, which are to be studied +in the standard works of its literature. + + +CHANGES IN LANGUAGE.--The changes and transformations of language may be +thus briefly stated:--In the Celtic period, before the arrival of the +Romans, the people spoke different dialects of the Celtic and Gadhelic +languages, all cognate and radically similar. + +These were not much affected by the occupancy of the Romans for about four +hundred and fifty years, although, doubtless, Latin words, expressive of +things and notions of which the British had no previous knowledge, were +adopted by them, and many of the Celtic inhabitants who submitted to these +conquerors learned and used the Latin language. + +When the Romans departed, and the Saxons came in numbers, in the fifth and +sixth centuries, the Saxon language, which is the foundation of English, +became the current speech of the realm; adopting few Celtic words, but +retaining a considerable number of the Celtic names of places, as it also +did of Latin terminations in names. + +Before the coming of the Normans, their language, called the _Langue +d'oil_, or Norman French, had been very much favored by educated +Englishmen; and when William conquered England, he tried to supplant the +Saxon entirely. In this he was not successful; but the two languages were +interfused and amalgamated, so that in the middle of the twelfth century, +there had been thus created the _English language_, formed but still +formative. The Anglo-Saxon was the foundation, or basis; while the Norman +French is observed to be the principal modifying element. + +Since the Norman conquest, numerous other elements have entered, most of +them quietly, without the concomitant of political revolution or foreign +invasion. + +Thus the Latin, being used by the Church, and being the language of +literary and scientific comity throughout the world, was constantly adding +words and modes of expression to the English. The introduction of Greek +into Western Europe, at the fall of Constantinople, supplied Greek words, +and induced a habit of coining English words from the Greek. The +establishment of the Hanoverian succession, after the fall of the Stuarts, +brought in the practice and study of German, and somewhat of its +phraseology; and English conquests in the East have not failed to +introduce Indian words, and, what is far better, to open the way for a +fuller study of comparative philology and linguistics. + +In a later chapter we shall reconsider the periods referred to, in an +examination of the literary works which they contain, works produced by +historical causes, and illustrative of historical events. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +LITERATURE A TEACHER OF HISTORY. CELTIC REMAINS. + + + The Uses of Literature. Italy, France, England. Purpose of the Work. + Celtic Literary Remains. Druids and Druidism. Roman Writers. Psalter of + Cashel. Welsh Triads and Mabinogion. Gildas and St. Colm. + + + +THE USES OF LITERATURE. + + +Before examining these periods in order to find the literature produced in +them, it will be well to consider briefly what are the practical uses of +literature, and to set forth, as a theme, that particular utility which it +is the object of these pages to inculcate and apply. + +The uses of literature are manifold. Its study gives wholesome food to the +mind, making it strong and systematic. It cultivates and delights the +imagination and the taste of men. It refines society by elevating the +thoughts and aspirations above what is sensual and sordid, and by checking +the grosser passions; it makes up, in part, that "multiplication of +agreeable consciousness" which Dr. Johnson calls happiness. Its +adaptations in religion, in statesmanship, in legislative and judicial +inquiry, are productive of noble and beneficent results. History shows us, +that while it has given to the individual man, in all ages, contemplative +habits, and high moral tone, it has thus also been a powerful instrument +in producing the brilliant civilization of mighty empires. + + +A TEACHER OF HISTORY.--But apart from these its subjective benefits, it +has its highest and most practical utility as a TEACHER OF HISTORY. +Ballads, more powerful than laws, shouted forth from a nation's heart, +have been in part the achievers, and afterward the victorious hymns, of +its new-born freedom, and have been also used in after ages to reinspire +the people with the spirit of their ancestors. Immortal epics not only +present magnificent displays of heroism for imitation, but, like the Iliad +and Odyssey, still teach the theogony, national policy, and social history +of a people, after the Bema has long been silent, the temples in ruin, and +the groves prostrate under the axe of repeated conquests. + +Satires have at once exhibited and scourged social faults and national +follies, and remained to after times as most essential materials for +history. + +Indeed, it was a quaint but just assertion of Hare, in his "Guesses at +Truth," that in Greek history there is nothing truer than Herodotus except +Homer. + + +ITALY AND FRANCE.--Passing by the classic periods, which afford abundant +illustration of the position, it would be easy to exhibit the clear and +direct historic teachings in purely literary works, by a reference to the +literature of Italy and France. The history of the age of the Guelphs and +Ghibellines is clearly revealed in the vision of Dante: the times of Louis +XIV. are amply illustrated by the pulpit of Massillon, Bourdaloue, and +Bridaine, and by the drama of Corneille, Racine, and Moliere. + + +ENGLISH LITERATURE THE BEST ILLUSTRATION.--But in seeking for an +illustration of the position that literature is eminently a teacher and +interpreter of history, we are fortunate in finding none more striking +than that presented by English literature itself. All the great events of +English history find complete correspondent delineation in English +literature, so that, were the purely historical record lost, we should +have in the works of poetry, fiction, and the drama, correct portraitures +of the character, habits, manners and customs, political sentiments, and +modes and forms of religious belief among the English people; in a word, +the philosophy of English history. + +In the works of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Dryden, and Addison, are to +be found the men and women, kings, nobles, and commons, descriptions of +English nature, hints of the progress of science and advancement in art; +the conduct of government, the force of prevailing fashions--in a word, +the moving life of the time, and not its dry historic record. + +"Authors," says the elder D'Israeli, "are the creators or creatures of +opinion: the great form the epoch; the many reflect the age." +Chameleon-like, most of them take the political, social, and religious +hues of the period in which they live, while a few illustrate it perhaps +quite as forcibly by violent opposition and invective. + +We shall see that in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_ and in Gower's _Vox +Clamantis_ are portrayed the political ferments and theological +controversies of the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. Spenser decks +the history of his age in gilded mantle and flowing plumes, in his tribute +to Gloriana, The Faery Queen, who is none other than Elizabeth herself. +Literature partakes of the fierce polemic and religious enthusiasm which +mark the troublous times of the Civil War; it becomes tawdry, tinselled, +and licentious at the Restoration, and develops into numerous classes and +more serious instruction, under the constitutional reigns of the house of +Hanover, in which the kings were bad, but the nation prosperous because +the rights of the people were guaranteed. + +Many of the finest works of English literature are _purely and directly +historical_; what has been said is intended to refer more particularly to +those that are not--the unconscious, undesigned teachers of history, such +as fiction, poetry, and the drama. + + +PURPOSE OF THE WORK.--Such, then, is the purpose of this volume--to +indicate the teachings of history in the principal productions of English +literature. Only the standard authors will be considered, and the student +will not be overburdened with statistics, which it must be a part of his +task to collect for himself. And now let us return to the early literature +embodied in those languages which have preceded the English on British +soil; or which, by their combination, have formed the English language. +For, the English language may be properly compared to a stream, which, +rising in a feeble source, receives in its seaward flow many tributaries, +large and small, until it becomes a lordly river. The works of English +literature may be considered as the ships and boats which it bears upon +its bosom: near its source the craft are small and frail; as it becomes +more navigable, statelier vessels are launched upon it, until, in its +majestic and lakelike extensions, rich navies ride, freighted with wealth +and power--the heavy ordnance of defence and attack, the products of +Eastern looms, the precious metals and jewels from distant mines--the best +exponents of the strength and prosperity of the nation through which flows +the river of speech, bearing the treasures of mind. + + +CELTIC LITERARY REMAINS. THE DRUIDS.--Let us take up the consideration of +literature in Britain in the order of the conquests mentioned in the first +chapter. + +We recur to Britain while inhabited by the Celts, both before and after +the Roman occupation. The extent of influence exercised by the Latin +language upon the Celtic dialects cannot be determined; it seems to have +been slight, and, on the other hand, it may be safely assumed that the +Celtic did not contribute much to the world-absorbing Latin. + +The chief feature, and a very powerful one, of the Celtic polity, was +_Druidism_. At its head was a priesthood, not in the present meaning of +the word, but in the more extended acceptation which it received in the +middle ages, when it embraced the whole class of men of letters. Although +we have very few literary remains, the system, wisdom, and works of the +Druids form one of the strong foundation-stones of English literature and +of English national customs, and should be studied on that account. The +_Druid_ proper was governor, judge, philosopher, expounder, and +executioner. The _ovaidd_, or _ovates_, were the priests, chiefly +concerned in the study of theology and the practice of religion. The +_bards_ were heroic poets of rare lyric power; they kept the national +traditions in trust, and claimed the second sight and the power of +prophecy. Much has been said of their human sacrifices in colossal images +of wicker-work--the "_immani magnitudine simulacra_" of Caesar--which were +filled with human victims, and which crackled and disappeared in towering +flame and columns of smoke, amid the loud chantings of the bards. The most +that can be said in palliation of this custom is, that almost always such +a scene presented the judicial execution of criminals, invested with the +solemnities of religion. + +In their theology, _Esus_, the God Force--the Eternal Father--has for his +agents the personification of spiritual light, of immortality, of nature, +and of heroism; _Camul_ was the war-god; _Tarann_ the thunder-god; _Heol_, +the king of the sun, who inflames the soldier's heart, and gives vitality +to the corn and the grape.[4] + +But Druidism, which left its monuments like Stonehenge, and its strong +traces in English life, now especially found in Wales and other +mountainous parts of the kingdom, has not left any written record. + + +ROMAN WRITERS.--Of the Roman occupancy we have Roman and Greek accounts, +many of them by those who took part in the doings of the time. Among the +principal writers are _Julius Caesar_, _Tacitus_, _Diodorus Siculus_, +_Strabo_, and _Suetonius_. + + +PSALTER OF CASHEL.--Of the later Celtic efforts, almost all are in Latin: +the oldest Irish work extant is called the _Psalter of Cashel_, which is a +compilation of the songs of the early bards, and of metrical legends, made +in the ninth century by _Cormac Mac Culinan_, who claimed to be King of +Munster and Bishop of Cashel. + + +THE WELSH TRIADS.--The next of the important Celtic remains is called _The +Welsh Triads_, an early but progressive work of the Cymbric Celts. Some of +the triads are of very early date, and others of a much later period. The +work is said to have been compiled in its present form by _Caradoc of +Nantgarvan_ and _Jevan Brecha_, in the thirteenth century. It contains a +record of "remarkable men and things which have been in the island of +Britain, and of the events which befell the race of the Cymri from the age +of ages," i.e. from the beginning. It has also numerous moral proverbs. It +is arranged in _triads_, or sets of three. + +As an example, we have one triad giving "The three of the race of the +island of Britain: _Hu Gadarn_, (who first brought the race into Britain;) +_Prydain_, (who first established regal government,) and _Dynwal Moelmud_, +(who made a system of laws.)" Another triad presents "The three benevolent +tribes of Britain: the _Cymri_, (who came with Hu Gadarn from +Constantinople;) the _Lolegrwys_, (who came from the Loire,) and the +_Britons_" + +Then are mentioned the tribes that came with consent and under protection, +viz., the _Caledonians_, the _Gwyddelian race_, and the men of _Galedin_, +who came from the continent "when their country was drowned;" the last +inhabited the Isle of Wight. Another mentions the three usurping tribes; +the _Coranied_, the _Gwydel-Fichti_, (from Denmark,) and the _Saxons_. +Although the _compilation_ is so modern, most of the triads date from the +sixth century. + + +THE MABINOGION.--Next in order of importance of the Celtic remains must be +mentioned the Mabinogion, or _Tales for Youth_, a series of romantic +tales, illustrative of early British life, some of which have been +translated from the Celtic into English. Among these the most elaborate is +the _Tale of Peredur_, a regular Romance of Arthur, entirely Welsh in +costume and character. + + +BRITISH BARDS.--A controversy has been fiercely carried on respecting the +authenticity of poems ascribed to _Aneurin_, _Taliesin_, _Llywarch Hen_, +and _Merdhin_, or _Merlin_, four famous British bards of the fifth and +sixth centuries, who give us the original stories respecting Arthur, +representing him not as a "miraculous character," as the later histories +do, but as a courageous warrior worthy of respect but not of wonder. The +burden of the evidence, carefully collected and sifted by Sharon +Turner,[5] seems to be in favor of the authenticity of these poems. + +These works are fragmentary and legendary: they have given few elements to +the English language, but they show us the condition and culture of the +British mind in that period, and the nature of the people upon whom the +Saxons imposed their yoke. "The general spirit [of the early British +poetry] is much more Druidical than Christian,"[6] and in its mysterious +and legendary nature, while it has been not without value as a historical +representation of that early period, it has offered rare material for +romantic poetry from that day to the present time. It is on this account +especially that these works should be studied. + + +GILDAS.--Among the writers who must be considered as belonging to the +Celtic race, although they wrote in Latin, the most prominent is _Gildas_. +He was the son of Caw, (Alcluyd, a British king,) who was also the father +of the famous bard Aneurin. Many have supposed Gildas and Aneurin to be +the same person, so vague are the accounts of both. If not, they were +brothers. Gildas was a British bard, who, when converted to Christianity, +became a Christian priest, and a missionary among his own people. He was +born at Dumbarton in the middle of the sixth century, and was surnamed +_the Wise_. His great work, the History of the Britons, is directly +historical: his account extends from the first invasion of Britain down to +his own time. + +A true Celt, he is a violent enemy of the Roman conquerors first, and then +of the Saxon invaders. He speaks of the latter as "the nefarious Saxons, +of detestable name, hated alike by God and man; ... a band of devils +breaking forth from the den of the barbarian lioness." + +The history of Gildas, although not of much statistical value, sounds a +clear Celtic note against all invaders, and displays in many parts +characteristic outlines of the British people. + + +ST. COLUMBANUS.--St. Colm, or Columbanus, who was born in 521, was the +founder and abbot of a monastery in Iona, one of the Hebrides, which is +also called Icolmkill--the Isle of Colm's Cell. The Socrates of that +retreat, he found his Plato in the person of a successor, St. Adamnan, +whose "Vita Sancti Columbae" is an early work of curious historical +importance. St. Adamnan became abbot in 679. + +A backward glance at the sparse and fragmentary annals of the Celtic +people, will satisfy us that they have but slight claims to an original +share in English literature. Some were in the Celtic dialects, others in +Latin. They have given themes, indeed, to later scholars, but have left +little trace in form and language. The common Celtic words retained in +English are exceedingly few, although their number has not been decided. +They form, in some sense, a portion of the foundation on which the +structure of our literature has been erected, without being in any manner +a part of the building itself. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE AND HISTORY. + + + The Lineage of the Anglo-Saxon. Earliest Saxon Poem. Metrical + Arrangement. Periphrasis and Alliteration. Beowulf. Caedmon. Other + Saxon Fragments. The Appearance of Bede. + + + +THE LINEAGE OF THE ANGLO-SAXON. + + +The true origin of English literature is Saxon. Anglo-Saxon is the mother +tongue of the English language, or, to state its genealogy more +distinctly, and to show its family relations at a glance, take the +following divisions and subdivisions of the + + TEUTONIC CLASS. + | + .--------------------+-------------------. + | | | + High German branch. Low German branch. Scandinavian branch. + | + Dead | Languages. + .----------+--------------+-------------+------------. + | | | | | + Gothic. Old Dutch. Anglo-Saxon. Old Frisian. Old Saxon. + | + English. + +Without attempting an analysis of English to find the exact proportion of +Saxon words, it must be observed that Saxon is the root-language of +English; it might with propriety be called the oldest English; it has been +manipulated, modified, and developed in its contact with other +languages--remaining, however, _radically_ the same--to become our present +spoken language. + +At this period of our inquiry, we have to do with the Saxon itself, +premising, however, that it has many elements from the Dutch, and that its +Scandinavian relations are found in many Danish words. The progress and +modifications of the language in that formative process which made it the +English, will be mentioned as we proceed in our inquiries. + +In speaking of the Anglo-Saxon literature, we include a consideration also +of those works written in Latin which are products of the times, and bear +a part in the progress of the people and their literature. They are +exponents of the Saxon mind, frequently of more value than the vernacular +writings. + + +EARLIEST SAXON POEM.--The earliest literary monument in the Saxon language +is the poem called Beowulf, the author and antiquity of which are alike +unknown. It is at once a romantic legend and an instructive portraiture of +the earliest Saxon period--"an Anglo-Saxon poetical romance," says Sharon +Turner, "true in costume and manners, but with an invented story." Before +proceeding to a consideration of this poem, let us look for a moment at +some of the characteristics of Saxon poetry. As to its subject-matter, it +is not much of a love-song, that sentiment not being one of its chief +inspirations. The Saxon imagination was inflamed chiefly by the religious +and the heroic in war. As to its handling, it abounded in metaphor and +periphrasis, suggestive images, and parables instead of direct narrative. + + +METRICAL ARRANGEMENT.--As to metrical arrangement, Saxon poetry differed +from our modern English as well as from the classical models, in that +their poets followed no laws of metre, but arranged their vernacular +verses without any distinct rules, but simply to please the ear. "To such +a selection and arrangement of words as produced this effect, they added +the habit of frequently omitting the usual particles, and of conveying +their meaning in short and contracted phrases. The only artifices they +used were those of inversion and transition."[7] It is difficult to give +examples to those unacquainted with the language, but the following +extract may serve to indicate our meaning: it is taken from Beowulf: + + Crist waer a cennijd + Cyninga wuldor + On midne winter: + Maere theoden! + Ece almihtig! + On thij eahteothan daeg + Hael end gehaten + Heofon ricet theard. + + Christ was born + King of glory + In mid-winter: + Illustrious King! + Eternal, Almighty! + On the eighth day + Saviour was called, + Of Heaven's kingdom ruler. + + +PERIPHRASIS.--Their periphrasis, or finding figurative names for persons +and things, is common to the Norse poetry. Thus Caedmon, in speaking of +the ark, calls it the _sea-house, the palace of the ocean, the wooden +fortress_, and by many other periphrastic names. + + +ALLITERATION.--The Saxons were fond of alliteration, both in prose and +verse. They used it without special rules, but simply to satisfy their +taste for harmony in having many words beginning with the same letter; and +thus sometimes making an arbitrary connection between the sentences or +clauses in a discourse, e.g.: + + Firum foldan; + Frea almihtig; + + The ground for men + Almighty ruler. + +The nearest approach to a rule was that three words in close connection +should begin with the same letter. The habit of ellipsis and transposition +is illustrated by the following sentence in Alfred's prose: "So doth the +moon with his pale light, that the bright stars he obscures in the +heavens;" which he thus renders in poetry: + + With pale light + Bright stars + Moon lesseneth. + +With this brief explanation, which is only intended to be suggestive to +the student, we return to Beowulf. + + +THE PLOT OF BEOWULF.--The poem contains six thousand lines, in which are +told the wonderful adventures of the valiant viking Beowulf, who is +supposed to have fallen in Jutland in the year 340. The Danish king +Hrothgar, in whose great hall banquet, song, and dance are ever going on, +is subjected to the stated visits of a giant, Grendel, a descendant of +Cain, who destroys the Danish knights and people, and against whom no +protection can be found. + +Beowulf, the hero of the epic, appears. He is a great chieftain, the +_heorth-geneat_ (hearth-companion, or vassal) of a king named Higelac. He +assembles his companions, goes over the road of the swans (the sea) to +Denmark, or Norway, states his purpose to Hrothgar, and advances to meet +Grendel. After an indecisive battle with the giant, and a fierce struggle +with the giant's mother, who attacks him in the guise of a sea-wolf, he +kills her, and then destroys Grendel. Upon the death of Hrothgar he +receives his reward in being made King of the Danes. + +With this occurrence the original poem ends: it is the oldest epic poem in +any modern language. At a later day, new cantos were added, which, +following the fortunes of the hero, record at length that he was killed by +a dragon. A digest and running commentary of the poem may be found in +Turner's Anglo-Saxons; and no one can read it without discerning the +history shining clearly out of the mists of fable. The primitive manners, +modes of life, forms of expression, are all historically delineated. In it +the intimate relations between the _king_ and his people are portrayed. +The Saxon _cyning_ is compounded of _cyn_, people, and _ing_, a son or +descendant; and this etymology gives the true conditions of their rule: +they were popular leaders--_elected_ in the witenagemot on the death of +their predecessors.[8] We observe, too, the spirit of adventure--a rude +knight-errantry--which characterized these northern sea-kings + + that with such profit and for deceitful glory + labor on the wide sea explore its bays + amid the contests of the ocean in the deep waters + there they for riches till they sleep with their elders. + +We may also notice the childish wonder of a rude, primitive, but brave +people, who magnified a neighboring monarch of great skill and strength, +or perhaps a malarious fen, into a giant, and who were pleased with a poem +which caters to that heroic mythus which no civilization can root out of +the human breast, and which gives at once charm and popularity to every +epic. + + +CAEDMON.--Next in order, we find the paraphrase of Scripture by _Caedmon_, +a monk of Whitby, who died about the year 680. The period in which he +lived is especially marked by the spread of Christianity in Britain, and +by a religious zeal mingled with the popular superstitions. The belief was +universal that holy men had the power to work miracles. The Bible in its +entire canon was known to few even among the ecclesiastics: treasure-house +as it was to the more studious clerics, it was almost a sealed book to the +common people. It would naturally be expected, then, that among the +earliest literary efforts would be found translations and paraphrases of +the most interesting portions of the Scripture narrative. It was in +accordance with the spirit of the age that these productions should be +attended with something of the marvellous, to give greater effect to the +doctrine, and be couched in poetic language, the especial delight of +people in the earlier ages of their history. Thus the writings of Caedmon +are explained: he was a poor serving-brother in the monastery of Whitby, +who was, or feigned to be, unable to improvise Scripture stories and +legends of the saints as his brethren did, and had recourse to a vision +before he exhibited his fluency. + +In a dream, in a stall of oxen of which he was the appointed night-guard, +an angelic stranger asked him to sing. "I cannot sing," said Caedmon. +"Sing the creation," said the mysterious visitant. Feeling himself thus +miraculously aided, Caedmon paraphrased in his dream the Bible story of +the creation, and not only remembered the verses when he awoke, but found +himself possessed of the gift of song for all his days. + +Sharon Turner has observed that the paraphrase of Caedmon "exhibits much +of a Miltonic spirit; and if it were clear that Milton had been familiar +with Saxon, we should be induced to think that he owed something to +Caedmon." And the elder D'Israeli has collated and compared similar +passages in the two authors, in his "Amenities of Literature." + +Another remarkable Anglo-Saxon fragment is called _Judith_, and gives the +story of Judith and Holofernes, rendered from the Apocrypha, but with +circumstances, descriptions, and speeches invented by the unknown author. +It should be observed, as of historical importance, that the manners and +characters of that Anglo-Saxon period are applied to the time of Judith, +and so we have really an Anglo-Saxon romance, marking the progress and +improvement in their poetic art. + +Among the other remains of this time are the death of _Byrhtnoth_, _The +Fight of Finsborough_, and the _Chronicle of King Lear and his Daughters_, +the last of which is the foundation of an old play, upon which +Shakspeare's tragedy of Lear is based. + +It should here be noticed that Saxon literature was greatly influenced by +the conversion of the realm at the close of the sixth century from the +pagan religion of Woden to Christianity. It displayed no longer the fierce +genius of the Scalds, inculcating revenge and promising the rewards of +Walhalla; in spirit it was changed by the doctrine of love, and in form it +was softened and in some degree--but only for a time--injured by the +influence of the Latin, the language of the Church. At this time, also, +there was a large adoption of Latin words into the Saxon, especially in +theology and ecclesiastical matters. + + +THE ADVENT OF BEDE.--The greatest literary character of the Anglo-Saxon +period, and the one who is of most value in teaching us the history of the +times, both directly and indirectly, is the man who has been honored by +his age as the _venerable Bede_ or _Beda_. He was born at Yarrow, in the +year 673; and died, after a retired but active, pious, and useful life, in +735. He wrote an Ecclesiastical history of the English, and dedicated it +to the most glorious King Ceowulph of Northumberland, one of the monarchs +of the Saxon Heptarchy. It is in matter and spirit a Saxon work in a Latin +dress; and, although his work was written in Latin, he is placed among the +Anglo-Saxon authors because it is as an Englishman that he appears to us +in his subject, in the honest pride of race and country which he +constantly manifests, and in the historical information which he has +conveyed to us concerning the Saxons in England: of a part of the history +which he relates he was an _eye-witness_; and besides, his work soon +called forth several translations into Anglo-Saxon, among which that of +Alfred the Great is the most noted, and would be taken for an original +Saxon production. + +It is worthy of remark, that after the decline of the Saxon literature, +Bede remained for centuries, both in the original Latin and in the Saxon +translations, a sealed and buried book; but in the later days, students of +English literature and history began to look back with eager pleasure to +that formative period prior to the Norman conquest, when English polity +and institutions were simple and few, and when their Saxon progenitors +were masters in the land. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE VENERABLE BEDE AND THE SAXON CHRONICLE. + + + Biography. Ecclesiastical History. The Recorded Miracles. Bede's Latin. + Other Writers. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: its Value. Alfred the Great. + Effect of the Danish Invasions. + + + +BIOGRAPHY. + + +Bede was a precocious youth, whose excellent parts commended him to Bishop +Benedict. He made rapid progress in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; was a deacon +at the unusual age of nineteen, and a priest at thirty. It seems probable +that he always remained in his monastery, engaged in literary labor and +offices of devotion until his death, which happened while he was dictating +to his boy amanuensis, "Dear master," said the boy, "there is yet one +sentence not written." He answered, "Write quickly." Soon after, the boy +said, "The sentence is now written." He replied. "It is well; you have +said the truth. Receive my head into your hands, for it is a great +satisfaction to me to sit facing my holy place where I was wont to pray, +that I may also sitting, call upon my Father." "And thus, on the pavement +of his little cell, singing 'Glory be unto the Father, and unto the Son, +and unto the Holy Ghost,' when he had named the Holy Ghost he breathed his +last, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom." + + +HIS ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.--His ecclesiastical history opens with a +description of Britain, including what was known of Scotland and Ireland. +With a short preface concerning the Church in the earliest times, he +dwells particularly upon the period, from the arrival of St. Augustine, in +597, to the year 731, a space of one hundred and thirty-four years, during +nearly one-half of which the author lived. The principal written works +from which he drew were the natural history of Pliny, the Hormesta of the +Spanish priest _Paulus Orosius_, and the history of Gildas. His account of +the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, "being the traditions of the Kentish +people concerning Hengist and Horsa," has since proved to be fabulous, as +the Saxons are now known to have been for a long period, during the Roman +occupancy, making predatory incursions into Britain before the time of +their reputed settlement.[9] + +For the materials of the principal portions of his history, Bede was +indebted to correspondence with those parts of England which he did not +visit, and to the lives of saints and contemporary documents, which +recorded the numerous miracles and wonders with which his pages are +filled. + + +BEDE'S RECORDED MIRACLES.--The subject of these miracles has been +considered at some length by Dr. Arnold,[10] in a very liberal spirit; but +few readers will agree with him in concluding that with regard to some +miracles, "there is no strong _a priori_ improbability in their +occurrence, but rather the contrary." One of the most striking of the +historical lessons contained in this work, is the credulity and +superstition which mark the age; and we reason justly and conclusively +from the denial of the most palpable and absurd, to the repudiation of +the lesser demands on our credulity. It is sufficient for us that both +were eagerly believed in his day, and thus complete a picture of the age +which such a view would only serve to impair, if not destroy. The theology +of the age is set forth with wonderful clearness, in the numerous +questions propounded by Augustine to Gregory I., the Bishop of Rome, and +in the judicious answers of that prelate; in which may also be found the +true relation which the Church of Rome bore to her English mission. + +We have also the statement of the establishment of the archbishoprics of +Canterbury and York, the bishopric of London, and others. + +The last chapter but one, the twenty-third, gives an important account "of +the present state of the English nation, or of all Britain;" and the +twenty-fourth contains a chronological recapitulation, from the beginning +of the year 731, and a list of the author's works. Bede produced, besides +his history, translations of many books in the Bible, several histories of +abbots and saints, books of hymns and epigrams, a treatise on orthography, +and one on poetry. + +To point the student to Bede's works, and to indicate their historic +teachings, is all that can be here accomplished. A careful study of his +Latin History, as the great literary monument of the Anglo-Saxon period, +will disclose many important truths which lie beneath the surface, and +thus escape the cursory reader. Wars and politics, of which the +Anglo-Saxon chronicle is full, find comparatively little place in his +pages. The Church was then peaceful, and not polemic; the monasteries were +sanctuaries in which quiet, devotion, and order reigned. Another phase of +the literature shows us how the Gentiles raged and the people were +imagining a vain thing; but Bede, from his undisturbed cell, scarcely +heard the howlings of the storm, as he wrote of that kingdom which +promised peace and good-will. + + +BEDE'S LATIN.--To the classical student, the language of Bede offers an +interesting study. The Latin had already been corrupted, and a nice +discrimination will show the causes of this corruption--the effects of the +other living languages, the ignorance of the clergy, and the new subjects +and ideas to which it was applied. + +Bede was in the main more correct than his age, and his vocabulary has few +words of barbarian origin. He arose like a luminary, and when the light of +his learning disappeared, but one other star appeared to irradiate the +gloom which followed his setting; and that was in the person and the reign +of Alfred. + + +OTHER WRITERS OF THIS AGE.--Among names which must pass with the mere +mention, the following are, after Bede, the most illustrious in this time. +_Aldhelm_, Abbot of Malmesbury, who died in the year 709, is noted for his +scientific computations, and for his poetry: he is said to have translated +the Psalms into Anglo-Saxon poetry. + +_Alcuin_, the pride of two countries, England and France, was born in the +year of Bede's death: renowned as an Englishman for his great learning, he +was invited by Charlemagne to his court, and aided that distinguished +sovereign in the scholastic and literary efforts which render his reign so +illustrious. Alcuin died in 804. + +The works of Alcuin are chiefly theological treatises, but he wrote a life +of Charlemagne, which has unfortunately been lost, and which would have +been invaluable to history in the dearth of memorials of that emperor and +his age. + +_Alfric_, surnamed Grammaticus, (died 1006,) was an Archbishop of +Canterbury, in the tenth century, who wrote eighty homilies, and was, in +his opposition to Romish doctrine, one of the earliest English reformers. + +_John Scotus Erigena_, who flourished at the beginning of the ninth +century, in the brightest age of Irish learning, settled in France, and is +known as a subtle and learned scholastic philosopher. His principal work +is a treatise "On the Division of Nature," Both names, _Scotus_ and +_Erigena_, indicate his Irish origin; the original _Scoti_ being +inhabitants of the North of Ireland. + +_Dunstan_, (925-988,) commonly called Saint Dunstan, was a powerful and +dictatorial Archbishop of Canterbury, who used the superstitions of +monarch and people to enable him to exercise a marvellous supremacy in the +realm. He wrote commentaries on the Benedictine rule. + +These writers had but a remote and indirect bearing upon the progress of +literature in England, and are mentioned rather as contemporary, than as +distinct subjects of our study. + + +THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE.--We now reach the valuable and purely +historical compilation known as the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, which is a +chronological arrangement of events in English history, from the birth of +Christ to the year 1154, in the reign of Henry the Second. It is the most +valuable epitome of English history during that long period. + +It is written in Anglo-Saxon, and was begun soon after the time of Alfred, +at least as a distinct work. In it we may trace the changes in the +language from year to year, and from century to century, as it passed from +unmixed Saxon until, as the last records are by contemporary hands, it +almost melted into modern English, which would hardly trouble an +Englishman of the present day to read. + +The first part of the Chronicle is a table of events, many of them +fabulous, which had been originally jotted down by Saxon monks, abbots, +and bishops. To these partial records, King Alfred furnished additional +information, as did also, in all probability, Alfric and Dunstan. These +were collected into permanent form by Plegmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, +who brought the annals up to the year 891; from that date they were +continued in the monasteries. Of the Saxon Chronicle there are no less +than seven accredited ancient copies, of which the shortest extends to the +year 977, and the longest to 1154; the others extend to intermediate +dates. + + +ITS VALUE.--The value of the Chronicle as a statistic record of English +history cannot be over-estimated; it moves before the student of English +literature like a diorama, picturing the events in succession, not without +glimpses of their attendant philosophy. We learn much of the nation's +thoughts, troubles, mental, moral, and physical conditions, social laws, +and manners. As illustrations we may refer to the romantic adventures of +King Alfred; and to the conquest of Saxon England by William of +Normandy--"all as God granted them," says the pious chronicler, "for the +people's sins." And he afterward adds, "Bishop Odo and William the Earl +built castles wide throughout the nation, and poor people distressed; and +ever after it greatly grew in evil: may the end be good when God will." +Although for the most part written in prose, the annals of several years +are given in the alliterative Saxon verse. + +A good English translation of Bede's history, and one of the Chronicle, +edited by Dr. Giles, have been issued together by Bohn in one volume of +his Antiquarian library. To the student of English history and of English +literature, the careful perusal of both, in conjunction, is an imperative +necessity. + + +ALFRED THE GREAT.--Among the best specimens of Saxon prose are the +translations and paraphrases of King _Alfred_, justly called the Great and +the Truth-teller, the noblest monarch of the Saxon period. The kingdoms of +the heptarchy, or octarchy, had been united under the dominion of Egbert, +the King of Wessex, in the year 827, and thus formed the kingdom of +England. But this union of the kingdoms was in many respects nominal +rather than really complete; as Alfred frequently subscribes himself _King +of the West Saxons_. It was a confederation to gain strength against their +enemies. On the one hand, the inhabitants of North, South, and West Wales +were constantly rising against Wessex and Mercia; and on the other, until +the accession of Alfred upon the death of his brother Ethelred, in 871, +every year of the Chronicle is marked by fierce battles with the troops +and fleets of the Danes on the eastern and southern coasts. + +It redounds greatly to the fame of Alfred that he could find time and +inclination in his troubled and busy reign, so harassed with wars by land +and sea, for the establishment of wise laws, the building or rebuilding of +large cities, the pursuit of letters, and the interest of education. To +give his subjects, grown-up nobles as well as children, the benefits of +historical examples, he translated the work of Orosius, a compendious +history of the world, a work of great repute; and to enlighten the +ecclesiastics, he made versions of parts of Bede; of the Pastorale of +Gregory the First; of the Soliloquies of St. Augustine, and of the work of +Boethius, _De Consolatione Philosophiae_. Beside these principal works are +other minor efforts. In all his writings, he says he "sometimes interprets +word for word, and sometimes meaning for meaning." With Alfred went down +the last gleams of Saxon literature. Troubles were to accumulate steadily +and irresistibly upon the soil of England, and the sword took the place of +the pen. + + +THE DANES.--The Danes thronged into the realm in new incursions, until +850,000 of them were settled in the North and East of England. The +Danegelt or tribute, displaying at once the power of the invaders and the +cowardice and effeminacy of the Saxon monarchs, rose to a large sum, and +two millions[11] of Saxons were powerless to drive the invaders away. In +the year 1016, after the weak and wicked reign of the besotted _Ethelred_, +justly surnamed the _Unready_, who to his cowardice in paying tribute +added the cruelty of a wholesale massacre on St. Brice's Eve--since called +the Danish St. Bartholomew--the heroic Edmund Ironsides could not stay the +storm, but was content to divide the kingdom with _Knud_ (Canute) the +Great. Literary efforts were at an end. For twenty-two years the Danish +kings sat upon the throne of all England; and when the Saxon line was +restored in the person of Edward the Confessor, a monarch not calculated +to restore order and impart strength, in addition to the internal sources +of disaster, a new element of evil had sprung up in the power and cupidity +of the Normans. + +Upon the death of Edward the Confessor, the claimants to the throne were +_Harold_, the son of Godwin, and _William of Normandy_, both ignoring the +claims of the Saxon heir apparent, Edgar Atheling. Harold, as has been +already said, fell a victim to the dissensions in his own ranks, as well +as to the courage and strength of William, and thus Saxon England fell +under Norman rule. + + +THE LITERARY PHILOSOPHY.--The literary philosophy of this period does not +lie far beneath the surface of the historic record. Saxon literature was +expiring by limitation. During the twelfth century, the Saxon language was +completely transformed into English. The intercourse of many previous +years had introduced a host of Norman French words; inflections had been +lost; new ideas, facts, and objects had sprung up, requiring new names. +The dying Saxon literature was overshadowed by the strength and growth of +the Norman, and it had no royal patron and protector since Alfred. The +superior art-culture and literary attainments of the South, had long been +silently making their impression in England; and it had been the custom to +send many of the English youth of noble families to France to be educated. + +Saxon chivalry[12] was rude and unattractive in comparison with the +splendid armor, the gay tournaments, and the witching minstrelsy which +signalized French chivalry; and thus the peaceful elements of conquest +were as seductive as the force of arms was potent. A dynasty which had +ruled for more than six hundred years was overthrown; a great chapter in +English history was closed. A new order was established, and a new chapter +in England's annals was begun. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND ITS EARLIEST LITERATURE. + + + Norman Rule. Its Oppression. Its Benefits. William of Malmesbury. + Geoffrey of Monmouth. Other Latin Chronicles. Anglo-Norman Poets. + Richard Wace. Other Poets. + + + +NORMAN RULE. + + +With the conquest of England, and as one of the strongest elements of its +permanency, the feudal system was brought into England; the territory was +surveyed and apportioned to be held by military tenure; to guard against +popular insurrections, the curfew rigorously housed the Saxons at night; a +new legislature, called a parliament, or talking-ground, took the place of +the witenagemot, or assembly of the wise: it was a conquest not only in +name but in truth; everything was changed by the conqueror's right, and +the Saxons were entirely subjected. + + +ITS OPPRESSION.--In short, the Norman conquest, from the day of the battle +of Hastings, brought the Saxon people under a galling yoke. The Norman was +everywhere an oppressor. Besides his right as a conqueror, he felt a +contempt for the rudeness of the Saxon. He was far more able to govern and +to teach. He founded rich abbeys; schools like those of Oxford and +Cambridge he expanded into universities like that of Paris. He filled all +offices of profit and trust, and created many which the Saxons had not. In +place of the Saxon English, which, however vigorous, was greatly wanting +in what may be called the vocabulary of progress, the Norman French, +drawing constantly upon the Latin, enriched by the enactments of +Charlemagne and the tributes of Italy, even in its infancy a language of +social comity in Western Europe, was spoken at court, introduced into the +courts of law, taught in the schools, and threatened to submerge and drown +out the vernacular.[13] All inducements to composition in English were +wanting; delicious songs of Norman Trouveres chanted in the _Langue +d'oil_, and stirring tales of Troubadours in the _Langue d'oc_, carried +the taste captive away from the Saxon, as a regal banquet lures from the +plain fare of the cottage board, more wholesome but less attractive. + + +ITS BENEFITS.--Had this progress continued, had this grasp of power +remained without hinderance or relaxation, the result would have been the +destruction or amalgamation of the vigorous English, so as to form a +romance language similar to the French, and only different in the amount +of Northern and local words. But the Norman power, without losing its +title, was to find a limit to its encroachments. This limit was fixed, +_first_, by the innate hardihood and firmness of the Saxon character, +which, though cast down and oppressed, retained its elasticity; which +cherished its language in spite of Norman threats and sneers, and which +never lost heart while waiting for better times; _secondly_, by the +insular position of Great Britain, fortified by the winds and waves, which +enabled her to assimilate and mould anew whatever came into her borders, +to the discomfiture of further continental encroachments; constituting +her, in the words of Shakspeare, + + "... that pale, that white-faced shore, + Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides, + And coops from other lands her islanders;" + +and, _thirdly_, to the Crusades, which, attracting the nobles to +adventures in Palestine, lifted the heel of Norman oppression off the +Saxon neck, and gave that opportunity, which alone was needed, to make +England in reality, if not in name--in thews, sinews, and mental strength, +if not in regal state and aristocratic privilege--Saxon-England in all its +future history. Other elements are still found, but the Saxon greatly +predominates. + +The historian of that day might well bemoan the fate of the realm, as in +the Saxon Chronicle already quoted. To the philosopher of to-day, this +Norman conquest and its results were of incalculable value to England, by +bringing her into relations with the continent, by enduing her with a +weight and influence in the affairs of Europe which she could never +otherwise have attained, and by giving a new birth to a noble literature +which has had no superior in any period of the world's history. + +As our subject does not require, and our space will not warrant the +consideration of the rise and progress of French literature, before its +introduction with the Normans into England, we shall begin with the first +fruits after its transplantation into British soil. But before doing so, +it becomes necessary to mention certain Latin chronicles which furnished +food for these Anglo-Norman poets and legendists. + + +WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY.--_William of Malmesbury_, the first Latin historian +of distinction, who is contemporary with the Norman conquest, wrote a work +called the "Heroic Deeds of the English Kings," (_Gesta Regum Anglorum_,) +which extends from the arrival of the Saxons to the year 1120; another, +"The New History," (_Historia Novella_,) brings the history down to 1142. +Notwithstanding the credulity of the age, and his own earnest recital of +numerous miracles, these works are in the main truthful, and of real value +to the historical student. In the contest between Matilda and Stephen for +the succession of the English crown, William of Malmesbury is a strong +partisan of the former, and his work thus stands side by side, for those +who would have all the arguments, with the _Gesta Stephani_, by an unknown +contemporary, which is written in the interest of Stephen. + + +GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.--More famous than the monk of Malmesbury, but by no +means so truthful, stands _Geoffrey of Monmouth_, Archdeacon of Monmouth +and Bishop of St. Asaph's, a writer to whom the rhyming chronicles and +Anglo-Norman poets have owed so much. Walter, a Deacon of Oxford, it is +said, had procured from Brittany a Welsh chronicle containing a history of +the Britons from the time of one Brutus, a great-grandson of AEneas, down +to the seventh century of our era. From this, partly in translation and +partly in original creation, Geoffrey wrote his "History of the Britons." +Catering to the popular prejudice, he revived, and in part created, the +deeds of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table--fabulous heroes who +have figured in the best English poetry from that day to the present, +their best presentation having been made in the Idyls of the King, +(Arthur,) by Tennyson. + +The popular philosophy of Geoffrey's work is found in the fact, that while +in Bede and in the Saxon Chronicle the Britons had not been portrayed in +such a manner as to flatter the national vanity, which seeks for remote +antecedents of greatness; under the guise of the Chronicle of Brittany, +Geoffrey undertook to do this. Polydore Virgil distinctly condemns him for +relating "many fictitious things of King Arthur and the ancient Britons, +invented by himself, and pretended to be translated by him into Latin, +which he palms on the world with the sacred name of true history;" and +this view is substantiated by the fact that the earlier writers speak of +Arthur as a prince and a warrior, of no colossal fame--"well known, but +not idolized.... That he was a courageous warrior is unquestionable; but +that he was the miraculous Mars of the British history, from whom kings +and nations shrunk in panic, is completely disproved by the temperate +encomiums of his contemporary bards."[14] + +It is of great historical importance to observe the firm hold taken by +this fabulous character upon the English people, as evinced by the fact +that he has been a popular hero of the English epic ever since. Spenser +adopted him as the presiding genius of his "Fairy Queen," and Milton +projected a great epic on his times, before he decided to write the +Paradise Lost. + + + +OTHER PRINCIPAL LATIN CHRONICLERS OF THE EARLY NORMAN PERIOD. + + +Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, 1075-1109: History of Croyland. Authenticity +disputed. + +William of Poictiers, 1070: Deeds of William the Conqueror, (Gesta +Gullielmi Ducis Normannorum et Regis Anglorum.) + +Ordericus Vitalis, born about 1075: general ecclesiastical history. + +William of Jumieges: History of the Dukes of Normandy. + +Florence of Worcester, died 1118: (Chronicon ex Chronicis,) Chronicle from +the Chronicles, from the Creation to 1118, (with two valuable additions to +1141, and to 1295.) + +Matthew of Westminster, end of thirteenth century (probably a fictitious +name): Flowers of the Histories, (Flores Historiarum.) + +Eadmer, died about 1124: history of his own time, (Historia Novorum, sive +sui seculi.) + +Giraldus Cambrensis, born 1146, known as Girald Barry: numerous histories, +including Topographia Hiberniae, and the Norman conquest of Ireland; also +several theological works. + +Henry of Huntingdon, first half of the twelfth century: History of +England. + +Alured of Rievaux, 1109-66: The Battle of the Standard. + +Roger de Hoveden, end of twelfth century: Annales, from the end of Bede's +history to 1202. + +Matthew Paris, monk of St. Alban's, died 1259: Historia Major, from the +Norman conquest to 1259, continued by William Rishanger to 1322. + +Ralph Higden, fourteenth century: Polychronicon, or Chronicle of Many +Things; translated in the fifteenth century, by John de Trevisa; printed +by Caxton in 1482, and by Wynken de Worde in 1485. + + +THE ANGLO-NORMAN POETS AND CHRONICLERS.--Norman literature had already +made itself a name before William conquered England. Short jingling tales +in verse, in ballad style, were popular under the name of _fabliaux_, and +fuller epics, tender, fanciful, and spirited, called Romans, or Romaunts, +were sung to the lute, in courts and camps. Of these latter, Alexander the +Great, Charlemagne, and Roland were the principal heroes. + +Strange as it may seem, this _langue d'oil_, in which they were composed, +made more rapid progress in its poetical literature, in the period +immediately after the conquest, in England than at home: it flourished by +the transplantation. Its advent was with an act of heroism. Taillefer, the +standard-bearer of William at Seulac, marched in advance of the army, +struck the first blow, and met his death while chanting the song of +Roland: + + Of Charlemagne and Roland, + Of Oliver and his vassals, + Who died at Roncesvalles. + + De Karlemaine e de Reliant, + Et d'Olivier et des vassals, + Ki moururent en Renchevals. + +Each stanza ended with the war-shout _Aoi_! and was responded to by the +cry of the Normans, _Diex aide, God to aid_. And this battle-song was the +bold manifesto of Norman poetry invading England. It found an echo +wherever William triumphed on English soil, and played an important part +in the formation of the English language and English literature. New +scenes and new victories created new inspiration in the poets; monarchs +like Henry I., called from his scholarship _Beauclerc_, practised and +cherished the poetic art, and thus it happened that the Norman poets in +England produced works of sweeter minstrelsy and greater historical value +than the _fabliaux_, _Romans_, and _Chansons de gestes_ of their brethren +on the continent. The conquest itself became a grand theme for their +muse. + + +RICHARD WACE.--First among the Anglo-Norman poets stands Richard Wace, +called Maistre Wace, reading clerk, (clerc lisant,) born in the island of +Jersey, about 1112, died in 1184. His works are especially to be noted for +the direct and indirect history they contain. His first work, which +appeared about 1138, is entitled _Le Brut d'Angleterre_--The English +Brutus--and is in part a paraphrase of the Latin history of Geoffrey of +Monmouth, who had presented Brutus of Troy as the first in the line of +British kings. Wace has preserved the fiction of Geoffrey, and has catered +to that characteristic of the English people which, not content with +homespun myths, sought for genealogies from the remote classic times. +Wace's _Brut_ is chiefly in octo-syllabic verse, and extends to fifteen +thousand lines. + +But Wace was a courtier, as well as a poet. Not content with pleasing the +fancy of the English people with a fabulous royal lineage, he proceeded to +gratify the pride of their Norman masters by writing, in 1171, his "Roman +de Rou, et des Ducs de Normandie," an epic poem on Rollo, the first Duke +of Normandy--Rollo, called the Marcher, because he was so mighty of +stature that no horse could bear his weight. This Rollo compromised with +Charles the Simple of France by marrying his daughter, and accepting that +tract of Neustria to which he gave the name of Normandy. He was the +ancestor, at six removes, of William the Conqueror, and his mighty deeds +were a pleasant and popular subject for the poet of that day, when a +great-grandson of William, Henry II., was upon the throne of England. The +Roman de Rou contains also the history of Rollo's successors: it is in two +parts; the first extending to the beginning of the reign of the third +duke, Richard the Fearless, and the second, containing the story of the +conquest, comes down to the time of Henry II. himself. The second part he +wrote rapidly, for fear that he would be forestalled by the king's poet +_Benoit_. The first part was written in Alexandrines, but for the second +he adopted the easier measure of the octo-syllabic verse, of which this +part contains seventeen thousand lines. In this poem are discerned the +craving of the popular mind, the power of the subject chosen, and the +reflection of language and manners, which are displayed on every page. + +So popular, indeed, was the subject of the Brut, indigenous as it was +considered to British soil, that Wace's poem, already taken from Geoffrey +of Monmouth, as Geoffrey had taken it, or pretended to take it from the +older chronicle, was soon again, as we shall see, to be versionized into +English. + + + +OTHER NORMAN WRITERS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. + + + +_Philip de Than_, about 1130, one of the Trouveres: _Li livre de +creatures_ is a poetical study of chronology, and his _Bestiarie_ is a +sort of natural history of animals and minerals. + +_Benoit_: Chroniques des Ducs de Normandie, 1160, written in thirty +thousand octo-syllabic verses, only worthy of a passing notice, because of +the appointment of the poet by the king, (Henry II.,) in order to +forestall the second part of Wace's Roman de Rou. + +Geoffrey, died 1146: A miracle play of St. Catherine. + +Geoffrey Gaimar, about 1150: Estorie des Engles, (History of the English.) + +Luc de la Barre, blinded for his bold satires by the king (Henry I.). + +Mestre Thomas, latter part of twelfth century: Roman du Roi Horn. Probably +the original of the "Geste of Kyng Horn." + +Richard I., (Coeur de Lion,) died 1199, King of England: _Sirventes_ and +songs. His antiphonal song with the minstrel Blondel is said to have given +information of the place of his imprisonment, and procured his release; +but this is probably only a romantic fiction. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE MORNING TWILIGHT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. + + + Semi-Saxon Literature. Layamon. The Ormulum. Robert of Gloucester. + Langland. Piers Plowman. Piers Plowman's Creed. Sir Jean Froissart. Sir + John Mandevil. + + + +SEMI-SAXON LITERATURE. + + +Moore, in his beautiful poem, "The Light of the Harem," speaks of that +luminous pulsation which precedes the real, progressive morning: + + ... that earlier dawn + Whose glimpses are again withdrawn, + As if the morn had waked, and then + Shut close her lids of light again. + +The simile is not inapt, as applied to the first efforts of the early +English, or Semi-Saxon literature, during the latter part of the twelfth +and the whole of the thirteenth century. That deceptive dawn, or first +glimpse of the coming day, is to be found in the work of _Layamon_. The +old Saxon had revived, but had been modified and altered by contact with +the Latin chronicles and the Anglo-Norman poetry, so as to become a +distinct language--that of the people; and in this language men of genius +and poetic taste were now to speak to the English nation. + + +LAYAMON.--Layamon[15] was an English priest of Worcestershire, who made a +version of Wace's _Brut_, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, so +peculiar, however, in its language, as to puzzle the philologist to fix +its exact date with even tolerable accuracy. But, notwithstanding the +resemblance, according to Mr. Ellis, to the "simple and unmixed, though +very barbarous Saxon," the character of the alphabet and the nature of the +rhythm place it at the close of the twelfth century, and present it as +perhaps the best type of the Semi-Saxon. The poem consists partly of the +Saxon alliterative lines, and partly of verses which seem to have thrown +off this trammel; so that a different decision as to its date would be +reached according as we consider these diverse parts of its structure. It +is not improbable that, like English poets of a later time, Layamon +affected a certain archaism in language, as giving greater beauty and +interest to his style. The subject of the _Brut_ was presented to him as +already treated by three authors: first, the original Celtic poem, which +has been lost; second, the Latin chronicle of Geoffrey; and, third, the +French poem of Wace. Although Layamon's work is, in the main, a +translation of that of Wace, he has modified it, and added much of his +own. His poem contains more than thirty thousand lines. + + +THE ORMULUM.--Next in value to the Brut of Layamon, is the Ormulum, a +series of metrical homilies, in part paraphrases of the gospels for the +day, with verbal additions and annotations. This was the work of a monk +named _Orm_ or _Ormin_, who lived in the beginning of the thirteenth +century, during the reign of King John and Henry III., and it resembles +our present English much more nearly than the poem of Layamon. In his +dedication of the work to his brother Walter, Orm says--and we give his +words as an illustration of the language in which he wrote: + + Ice hafe don swa summ thu bad + Annd forthedd te thin wille + Ice hafe wennd uintill Ennglissh + Goddspelless hallghe lare + Affterr thatt little witt tatt me + Min Drihhten hafethth lenedd + + I have done so as thou bade, + And performed thee thine will; + I have turned into English + Gospel's holy lore, + After that little wit that me + My lord hath lent. + +The poem is written in Alexandrine verses, which may be divided into +octosyllabic lines, alternating with those of six syllables, as in the +extract given above. He is critical with regard to his orthography, as is +evinced in the following instructions which he gives to his future readers +and transcriber: + + And whase willen shall this booke + Eft other sithe writen, + Him bidde ice that he't write right + Swa sum this booke him teacheth + + And whoso shall wish this book + After other time to write, + Him bid I that he it write right, + So as this book him teacheth. + +The critics have observed that, whereas the language of Layamon shows that +it was written in the southwest of England, that of Orm manifests an +eastern or northeastern origin. To the historical student, Orm discloses +the religious condition and needs of the people, and the teachings of the +Church. His poem is also manifestly a landmark in the history of the +English language. + + +ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER.--Among the rhyming chroniclers of this period, +Robert, a monk of Gloucester Abbey, is noted for his reproduction of the +history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, already presented by Wace in French, and +by Layamon in Saxon-English. But he is chiefly valuable in that he carries +the chronicle forward to the end of the reign of Henry III. Written in +West-country English, it not only contains a strong infusion of French, +but distinctly states the prevailing influence of that language in his own +day: + + Vor bote a man couthe French, me tolth of him well lute + Ac lowe men holdeth to Englyss, and to her kunde speche zute. + + For unless a man know French, one talketh of him little; + But _low_ men hold to English, and to their natural speech yet. + +The chronicle of Robert is written in Alexandrines, and, except for the +French words incongruously interspersed, is almost as "barbarous" Saxon as +the Brut of Layamon. + + +LANGLAND--PIERS PLOWMAN.--The greatest of the immediate heralds of +Chaucer, whether we regard it as a work of literary art, or as an historic +reflector of the age, is "The Vision of Piers Plowman," by Robert +Langland, which appeared between 1360 and 1370. It stands between the +Semi-Saxon and the old English, in point of language, retaining the +alliterative feature of the former; and, as a teacher of history, it +displays very clearly the newly awakened spirit of religious inquiry, and +the desire for religious reform among the English people: it certainly was +among the means which aided in establishing a freedom of religious thought +in England, while as yet the continent was bound in the fetters of a +rigorous and oppressive authority. + +Peter, the ploughboy, intended as a representative of the common people, +drops asleep on Malvern Hills, between Wales and England, and sees in his +dream an array of virtues and vices pass before him--such as Mercy, Truth, +Religion, Covetousness, Avarice, etc. The allegory is not unlike that of +Bunyan. By using these as the personages, in the manner of the early +dramas called the Moralities, he is enabled to attack and severely scourge +the evil lives and practices of the clergy, and the abuses which had +sprung up in the Church, and to foretell the punishment, which afterward +fell upon the monasteries in the time of Henry VIII., one hundred and +fifty years later: + + And then shall the Abbot of Abingdon, and all his issue forever, + _Have a knock of a king, and incurable the wound_. + +His attack is not against the Church itself, but against the clergy. It +is to be remarked, in studying history through the medium of literature, +that the works of a certain period, themselves the result of history, +often illustrate the coming age, by being prophetic, or rather, as +antecedents by suggesting consequents. Thus, this Vision of Piers Plowman +indicates the existence of a popular spirit which had been slowly but +steadily increasing--which sympathized with Henry II. and the +priest-trammelling "Constitutions of Clarendon," even while it was ready +to go on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket, the illustrious +victim of the quarrel between Henry and his clergy. And it points with no +uncertain finger to a future of greater light and popular development, for +this bold spirit of reform was strongly allied to political rights. The +clergy claimed both spiritualities and temporalities from the Pope, and, +being governed by ecclesiastical laws, were not like other English +subjects amenable to the civil code. The king's power was thus endangered; +a proud and encroaching spirit was fostered, and the clergy became +dissolute in their lives. In the words of Piers Plowman: + + I found these freres, | For profit of hem selve; + All the four orders, | Closed the gospel, + Preaching the people | As hem good liked. + + +And again: + + Ac now is Religion | And a loud buyer, + A rider, a roamer about, | A pricker on a palfrey, + A leader of love days | From manor to manor. + + +PIERS PLOWMAN'S CREED.--The name of Piers Plowman and the conceit of his +Vision became at once very popular. He stood as a representative of the +peasant class rising in importance and in assertion of religious rights. + +An unknown follower of Wiclif wrote a poem called "Piers Plowman's Creed," +which conveys religious truth in a formula of belief. The language and the +alliterative feature are similar to those of the Vision; and the +invective is against the clergy, and especially against the monks and +friars. + + +FROISSART.--Sire Jean Froissart was born about 1337. He is placed here for +the observance of chronological order: he was not an English writer, but +must receive special mention because his "Chronicles," although written in +French, treat of the English wars in France, and present splendid pictures +of English chivalry and heroism. He lived, too, for some time in England, +where he figured at court as the secretary of Philippa, queen of Edward +III. Although not always to be relied on as an historian, his work is +unique and charming, and is very truthful in its delineation of the men +and manners of that age: it was written for courtly characters, and not +for the common people. The title of his work may be translated "Chronicles +of France, England, Scotland, Spain, Brittany, Gascony, Flanders, and +surrounding places." + + +SIR JOHN MANDEVIL, (1300-1371.)--We also place in this general catalogue a +work which has, ever since its appearance, been considered one of the +curiosities of English literature. It is a narrative of the travels of +Mandevil in the East. He was born in 1300; became a doctor of medicine, +and journeyed in those regions of the earth for thirty-four years. A +portion of the time he was in service with a Mohammedan army; at other +times he lived in Egypt, and in China, and, returning to England an old +man, he brought such a budget of wonders--true and false--stories of +immense birds like the roc, which figure in Arabian mythology and romance, +and which could carry elephants through the air--of men with tails, which +were probably orang-outangs or gorillas. + +Some of his tales, which were then entirely discredited, have been +ascertained by modern travellers to be true. His work was written by him +first in Latin, and then in French--Latin for the savans, and French for +the court--and afterward, such was the power and demand of the new +English tongue, that he presented his marvels to the world in an English +version. This was first printed by Wynken de Worde, in 1499. + + + +Other Writers of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, Who Preceded +Chaucer. + + +Robert Manning, a canon of Bourne--called also Robert de Brunne: +Translated a portion of Wace's _Brut_, and also a chronicle of Piers de +Langtoft bringing the history down to the death of Edward I. (1307.) He is +also supposed to be the author of a translation of the "Manuel des Peches," +(Handling of Sins,) the original of which is ascribed to Bishop Grostete +of Lincoln. + +_The Ancren Riwle_, or _Anchoresses' Rule_, about 1200, by an unknown +writer, sets forth the duties of a monastic life for three ladies +(anchoresses) and their household in Dorsetshire. + +Roger Bacon, (1214-1292,) a friar of Ilchester: He extended the area of +knowledge by his scientific experiments, but wrote his Opus Magus, or +_greater work_, in comparison with the Opus Minus, and numerous other +treatises in Latin. If he was not a writer in English, his name should be +mentioned as a great genius, whose scientific knowledge was far in advance +of his age, and who had prophetic glimpses of the future conquests of +science. + +Robert Grostete, Bishop of Lincoln, died 1253, was probably the author of +the _Manuel des Peches_, and also wrote a treatise on the sphere. + +Sir Michael Scott: He lived in the latter half of the thirteenth century; +was a student of the "occult sciences," and also skilled in theology and +medicine. He is referred to by Walter Scott as the "wondrous wizard, +Michael Scott." + +Thomas of Ercildoun--called the Rhymer--supposed by Sir Walter Scott, but +erroneously, as is now believed, to be the author of "Sir Tristram." + +_The King of Tars_ is the work of an unknown author of this period. + + +In thus disposing of the authors before Chaucer, no attempt has been made +at a nice subdivision and classification of the character of the works, or +the nature of the periods, further than to trace the onward movement of +the language, in its embryo state, in its birth, and in its rude but +healthy infancy. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CHAUCER, AND THE EARLY REFORMATION. + + + A New Era--Chaucer. Italian Influence. Chaucer as a Founder. Earlier + Poems. The Canterbury Tales. Characters. Satire. Presentations of + Woman. The Plan Proposed. + + + +THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA. + + +And now it is evident, from what has been said, that we stand upon the eve +of a great movement in history and literature. Up to this time everything +had been more or less tentative, experimental, and disconnected, all +tending indeed, but with little unity of action, toward an established +order. It began to be acknowledged that though the clergy might write in +Latin, and Frenchmen in French, the English should "show their fantasyes +in such words as we learneden of our dame's tonge," and it was equally +evident that that English must be cultivated and formed into a fitting +vehicle for vigorous English thought. To do this, a master mind was +required, and such a master mind appeared in the person of Chaucer. It is +particularly fortunate for our historic theory that his works, +constituting the origin of our homogeneous English literature, furnish +forth its best and most striking demonstration. + + +CHAUCER'S BIRTH.--Geoffrey Chaucer was born at London about the year 1328: +as to the exact date, we waive all the discussion in which his biographers +have engaged, and consider this fixed as the most probable time. His +parentage is unknown, although Leland, the English antiquarian, declares +him to have come of a noble family, and Pitts says he was the son of a +knight. He died in the year 1400, and thus was an active and observant +contemporary of events in the most remarkable century which had thus far +rolled over Europe--the age of Edward III. and the Black Prince, of Crecy +and Poitiers, of English bills and bows, stronger than French lances; the +age of Wiclif, of reformation in religion, government, language, and +social order. Whatever his family antecedents, he was a courtier, and a +successful one; his wife was Philippa, a sister of Lady Katherine +Swinford, first the mistress and then the wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of +Lancaster. + + +ITALIAN INFLUENCE.--From a literary point of view, the period of his birth +was remarkable for the strong influence of Italian letters, which first +having made its entrance into France, now, in natural course of progress, +found its way into England. Dante had produced, + + ... in the darkness prest, + From his own soul by worldly weights, ... + +the greatest poem then known to modern Europe, and the most imaginative +ever written. Thus the Italian sky was blazing with splendor, while the +West was still in the morning twilight. The Divina Commedia was written +half a century before the Canterbury Tales. + +Boccaccio was then writing his _Filostrato_, which was to be Chaucer's +model in the Troilus and Creseide, and his _Decameron_, which suggested +the plan of the Canterbury Tales. His _Teseide_ is also said to be the +original of the Knight's Tale. Petrarch, "the worthy clerke" from whom +Chaucer is said to have learned a story or two in Italy for his great +work, was born in 1304, and was also a star of the first magnitude in that +Italian galaxy. + +Indeed, it is here worthy of a passing remark, that from that early time +to a later period, many of the great products of English poetry have been +watered by silver rills of imaginative genius from a remote Italian +source. Chaucer's indebtedness has just been noticed. Spenser borrowed his +versification and not a little of his poetic handling in the Faery Queen +from Ariosto. Milton owes to Dante some of his conceptions of heaven and +hell in his Paradise Lost, while his Lycidas, Arcades, Allegro and +Penseroso, may be called Italian poems done into English. + +In the time of Chaucer, this Italian influence marks the extended +relations of English letters; and, serving to remove the trammels of the +French, it gave to the now vigorous and growing English that opportunity +of development for which it had so long waited. Out of the serfdom and +obscurity to which it had been condemned by the Normans, it had sprung +forth in reality, as in name, the English language. Books, few at the +best, long used in Latin or French, were now demanded by English mind, and +being produced in answer to the demand. + + +THE FOUNDER OF THE LITERATURE.--But there was still wanted a man who could +use the elements and influences of the time--a great poet--a maker--a +creator of literature. The language needed a forming, controlling, fixing +hand. The English mind needed a leader and master, English imagination a +guide, English literature a father. + +The person who answered to this call, and who was equal to all these +demands, was Chaucer. But he was something more. He claimed only to be a +poet, while he was to figure in after times as historian, philosopher, and +artist. + +The scope of this work does not permit an examination of Chaucer's +writings in detail, but the position we have taken will be best +illustrated by his greatest work, the Canterbury Tales. Of the others, a +few preliminary words only need be said. Like most writers in an early +literary period, Chaucer began with translations, which were extended into +paraphrases or versions, and thus his "'prentice hand" gained the +practice and skill with which to attempt original poems. + + +MINOR POEMS.--His earliest attempt, doubtless, was the _Romaunt of the +Rose_, an allegorical poem in French, by William de Lorris, continued, +after his death in 1260, by Jean de Meun, who figured as a poet in the +court of Charles le Bel, of France. This poem, esteemed by the French as +the finest of their old romances, was rendered by Chaucer, with +considerable alterations and improvements, into octosyllabic verse. The +Romaunt portrays the trials which a lover meets and the obstacles he +overcomes in pursuit of his mistress, under the allegory of a rose in an +inaccessible garden. It has been variously construed--by theologians as +the yearning of man for the celestial city; by chemists as the search for +the philosopher's stone; by jurists as that for equity, and by medical men +as the attempt to produce a panacea for all human ailments. + +Next in order was his _Troilus and Creseide_, a mediaeval tale, already +attempted by Boccaccio in his Filostrate, but borrowed by Chaucer, +according to his own account, from _Lollius_, a mysterious name without an +owner. The story is similar to that dramatized by Shakspeare in his +tragedy of the same title. This is in decasyllabic verse, arranged in +stanzas of seven lines each. + +The _House of Fame_, another of his principal poems, is a curious +description--probably his first original effort--of the Temple of Fame, an +immense cage, sixty miles long, and its inhabitants the great writers of +classic times, and is chiefly valuable as showing the estimation in which +the classic writers were held in that day. This is also in octosyllabic +verses, and is further remarkable for the opulence of its imagery and its +variety of description. The poet is carried in the claws of a great eagle +into this house, and sees its distinguished occupants standing upon +columns of different kinds of metal, according to their merits. The poem +ends with the third book, very abruptly, as Chaucer awakes from his +vision. + +"The Legend of Good Women" is a record of the loves and misfortunes of +celebrated women, and is supposed to have been written to make amends for +the author's other unjust portraitures of female character. + + +THE CANTERBURY TALES.--In order to give system to our historic inquiries, +we shall now present an outline of the Canterbury Tales, in order that we +may show-- + + I. The indications of a general desire in that period for a reformation + in religion. + + II. The social condition of the English people. + + III. The important changes in government. + + IV. The condition and progress of the English language. + +The Canterbury Tales were begun in 1386, when Chaucer was fifty-eight +years old, and in a period of comparative quiet, after the minority of +Richard II. was over, and before his troubles had begun. They form a +beautiful gallery of cabinet pictures of English society in all its +grades, except the very highest and the lowest; and, in this respect, they +supplement in exact lineaments and the freshest coloring those compendiums +of English history which only present to us, on the one hand, the persons +and deeds of kings and their nobles, and, on the other, the general laws +which so long oppressed the lower orders of the people, and the action of +which is illustrated by disorders among them. But in Chaucer we find the +true philosophy of English society, the principle of the guilds, or +fraternities, to which his pilgrims belong--the character and avocation of +the knight, squire, yeoman, franklin, bailiff, sompnour, reeve, etc., +names, many of them, now obsolete. Who can find these in our compendiums? +they must be dug--and dry work it is--out of profounder histories, or +found, with greater pleasure, in poems like that of Chaucer. + + +CHARACTERS.--Let us consider, then, a few of his principal characters +which most truly represent the age and nation. + +The Tabard inn at Southwark, then a suburb of "London borough without the +walls," was a great rendezvous for pilgrims who were journeying to the +shrine of St. Thomas a Becket, at Canterbury--that Saxon archbishop who +had been murdered by the minions of Henry II. Southwark was on the high +street, the old Roman highway from London to the southeast. A gathering of +pilgrims here is no uncommon occurrence; and thus numbers and variety make +a combination of penitence and pleasure. The host of the Tabard--doubtless +a true portraiture of the landlord of that day--counts noses, that he may +distribute the pewter plates. A substantial supper smokes upon the +old-fashioned Saxon-English board--so substantial that the pilgrims are +evidently about to lay in a good stock, in anticipation of poor fare, the +fatigue of travel, and perhaps a fast or two not set down in the calendar. +As soon as they attack the viands, ale and strong wines, hippocras, +pigment, and claret, are served in bright pewter and wood. There were +Saxon drinks for the commoner pilgrims; the claret was for the knight. +Every one drinks at his will, and the miller, as we shall see, takes a +little more than his head can decently carry. + +First in the place of honor is the knight, accompanied by his son, the +young squire, and his trusty yeoman. Then, in order of social rank, a +prioress, a nun and three priests, a friar, a merchant, a poor scholar or +clerk of Oxford, a sergeant of the law, a frankelein, a haberdasher, a +weaver, a tapster, a dyer, a cook, a shipman, a doctor of physic, a wife +of Bath, a poor parson, a ploughman, a miller, a manciple or college +steward, a reeve or bailiff, a sompnour or summoner to the ecclesiastical +courts, a pardoner or seller of papal indulgences (one hundred and fifty +years before Luther)--an essentially English company of many social +grades, bound to the most popular shrine, that of a Saxon archbishop, +himself the son of a London citizen, murdered two hundred years before +with the connivance of an English king. No one can read this list without +thinking that if Chaucer be true and accurate in his descriptions of these +persons, and make them talk as they did talk, his delineations are of +inestimable value historically. He has been faithfully true. Like all +great masters of the epic art, he doubtless drew them from the life; each, +given in the outlines of the prologue, is a speaking portrait: even the +horses they ride are as true to nature as those in the pictures of Rosa +Bonheur. + +And besides these historic delineations which mark the age and country, +notwithstanding the loss of local and personal satire with which, to the +reader of his day, the poem must have sparkled, and which time has +destroyed for us, the features of our common humanity are so well +portrayed, that to the latest generations will be there displayed the +"forth-showing instances" of the _Idola Tribus_ of Bacon, the besetting +sins, frailties, and oddities of the human race. + + +SATIRE.--His touches of satire and irony are as light as the hits of an +accomplished master of the small-sword; mere hits, but significant of deep +thrusts, at the scandals, abuses, and oppressions of the age. Like +Dickens, he employed his fiction in the way of reform, and helped to +effect it. + +Let us illustrate. While sitting at the table, Chaucer makes his sketches +for the Prologue. A few of these will serve here as specimens of his +powers. Take the _Doctour of Physike_ who + + Knew the cause of every maladie, + Were it of cold or hote or wet or drie; + +who also knew + + ... the old Esculapius, + And Dioscorides and eke Rufus, + Old Hippocras, Rasis, and Avicen, + +and many other classic authorities in medicine. + + Of his diete mesurable was he, + And it was of no superfluite; + +nor was it a gross slander to say of the many, + + His studie was but litel on the Bible. + +It was a suggestive satire which led him to hint that he was + + ... but esy of dispense; + He kepte that he wan in pestilence; + For gold in physike is a cordial; + Therefore he loved gold in special. + +Chaucer deals tenderly with the lawyers; yet, granting his sergeant of the +law discretion and wisdom, a knowledge of cases even "from the time of +King Will," and fees and perquisites quite proportional, he adds, + + Nowher so besy a man as he ther n' as, + And yet he seemed besier than he was. + + +HIS PRESENTATIONS OF WOMAN.--Woman seems to find hard judgment in this +work. Madame Eglantine, the prioress, with her nasal chanting, her +English-French, "of Stratford-atte-Bow," her legion of smalle houndes, and +her affected manner, is not a flattering type of woman's character, and +yet no doubt she is a faithful portrait of many a prioress of that day. + +And the wife of Bath is still more repulsive. She tells us, in the +prologue to her story, that she has buried five husbands, and, buxom +still, is looking for the sixth. She is a jolly _compagnon de voyage_, had +been thrice to Jerusalem, and is now seeking assoil for some little sins +at Canterbury. And the host's wife, as he describes her, is not by any +means a pleasant helpmeet for an honest man. The host is out of her +hearing, or he would not be so ready to tell her character: + + I have a wif, tho' that she poore be; + But of her tongue a blabbing shrew is she, + And yet she hath a heap of vices mo. + +She is always getting into trouble with the neighbors; and when he will +not fight in her quarrel, she cries, + + ... False coward, wreak thy wif; + By corpus domini, I will have thy knife, + And thou shalt have my distaff and go spin. + +The best names she has for him are milksop, coward, and ape; and so we +say, with him, + + Come, let us pass away from this mattere. + + +THE PLAN PROPOSED.--With these suggestions of the nature of the company +assembled "for to don their pilgrimage," we come to the framework of the +story. While sitting at the table, the host proposes + + That each of you, to shorten with your way, + In this viage shall tellen tales twey. + +Each pilgrim should tell two stories; one on the way to Canterbury, and +one returning. As, including Chaucer and the host, there are thirty-one in +the company, this would make sixty-two stories. The one who told the best +story should have, on the return of the company to the Tabard inn, a +supper at the expense of the rest. + +The host's idea was unanimously accepted; and in the morning, as they ride +forth, they begin to put it into execution. Although lots are drawn for +the order in which the stories shall be told, it is easily arranged by the +courteous host, who recognizes the difference in station among the +pilgrims, that the knight shall inaugurate the scheme, which he does by +telling that beautiful story of _Palamon and Arcite_, the plot of which is +taken from _Le Teseide_ of Boccacio. It is received with cheers by the +company, and with great delight by the host, who cries out, + + So mote I gon--this goth aright, + Unbockled is the mail. + +The next in order is called for, but the miller, who has replenished his +midnight potations in the morning, and is now rolling upon his horse, +swears that "he can a noble tale," and, not heeding the rebuke of the +host, + + Thou art a fool, thy wit is overcome, + +he shouts out a vulgar story, in all respects in direct contrast to that +of the knight. As a literary device, this rude introduction of the miller +breaks the stiffness and monotony of a succession in the order of rank; +and, as a feature of the history, it seems to tell us something of +democratic progress. The miller's story ridicules a carpenter, and the +reeve, who is a carpenter, immediately repays him by telling a tale in +which he puts a miller in a ludicrous position. + +With such a start, the pilgrims proceed to tell their tales; but not all. +There is neither record of their reaching Canterbury, nor returning. Nor +is the completion of the number at all essential: for all practical +purposes, we have all that can be asked; and had the work been completed, +it would have added little to the historical stores which it now +indirectly, and perhaps unconsciously, offers. The number of the tales +(including two in prose) is twenty-four, and great additional value is +given to them by the short prologue introducing each of them. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CHAUCER, (CONTINUED.)--REFORMS IN RELIGION AND SOCIETY. + + + Historical Facts. Reform in Religion. The Clergy, Regular and Secular. + The Friar and the Sompnour. The Pardonere. The Poure Persone. John + Wiclif. The Translation of the Bible. The Ashes of Wiclif. + + + +HISTORICAL FACTS. + + +Leaving the pilgrims' cavalcade for a more philosophical consideration of +the historical teachings of the subject, it may be clearly shown that the +work of Chaucer informs us of a wholesome reform in religion, or, in the +words of George Ellis,[16] "he was not only respected as the father of +English poetry, but revered as a champion of the Reformation." + +Let us recur briefly to the history. With William the Conqueror a great +change had been introduced into England: under him and his immediate +successors--his son William Rufus, his nephew Henry I., the usurper +Stephen, and Henry II.,--the efforts of the "English kings of Norman race" +were directed to the establishment of their power on a strong foundation; +but they began, little by little, to see that the only foundation was that +of the unconquerable English people; so that popular rights soon began to +be considered, and the accession of Henry II., the first of the +Plantagenets, was specially grateful to the English, because he was the +first since the Conquest to represent the Saxon line, being the grandson +of Henry I., and son of _Matilda_, niece of Edgar Atheling. In the mean +time, as has been seen, the English language had been formed, the chief +element of which was Saxon. This was a strong instrument of political +rights, for community of language tended to an amalgamation of the Norman +and Saxon peoples. With regard to the Church in England, the insulation +from Rome had impaired the influence of the Papacy. The misdeeds and +arrogance of the clergy had arrayed both people and monarch against their +claims, as several of the satirical poems already mentioned have shown. As +a privileged class, who used their immunities to do evil and corrupt the +realm, the clergy became odious to the _nobles_, whose power they shared +and sometimes impaired, and to the _people_, who could now read their +faults and despise their comminations, and who were unwilling to pay +hard-earned wages to support them in idleness and vice. It was not the +doctrine, but the practice which they condemned. With the accession of the +house of Plantagenet, the people were made to feel that the Norman +monarchy was a curse, without alloy. Richard I. was a knight-errant and a +crusader, who cared little for the realm; John was an adulterer, traitor, +and coward, who roused the people's anger by first quarrelling with the +Pope, and then basely giving him the kingdom to receive it again as a +papal fief. The nation, headed by the warlike barons, had forced the great +charter of popular rights from John, and had caused it to be confirmed and +supplemented during the long reign of his son, the weak Henry III. + +Edward I. was engaged in cruel wars, both in Wales and Scotland, which +wasted the people's money without any corresponding advantage. + +Edward II. was deposed and murdered by his queen and her paramour +Mortimer; and, however great their crime, he was certainly unworthy and +unable to control a fierce and turbulent people, already clamorous for +their rights. These well-known facts are here stated to show the +unsettled condition of things during the period when the English were +being formed into a nation, the language established, and the earliest +literary efforts made. Materials for a better organization were at hand in +great abundance; only proper master-builders were needed. We have seen +that everything now betokened the coming of a new era, in State, Church, +and literature. + +The monarch who came to the throne in 1327, one year before the birth of +Chaucer, was worthy to be the usher of this new era to England: a man of +might, of judgment, and of forecast; the first truly _English_ monarch in +sympathy and purpose who had occupied the throne since the Conquest: +liberal beyond all former precedent in religion, he sheltered Wiclif in +his bold invectives, and paved the way for the later encroachments upon +the papal supremacy. With the aid of his accomplished son, Edward the +Black Prince, he rendered England illustrious by his foreign wars, and +removed what remained of the animosity between Saxon and Norman. + + +REFORM IN RELIGION.--We are so accustomed to refer the Reformation to the +time of Luther in Germany, as the grand religious turning-point in modern +history, that we are apt to underrate, if not to forget, the religious +movement in this most important era of English history. Chaucer and Wiclif +wrote nearly half a century before John Huss was burned by Sigismond: it +was a century after that that Luther burned the Pope's decretals at +Wittenberg, and still later that Henry VIII. threw off the papal dominion +in England. But great crises in a nation's history never arrive without +premonition;--there are no moral earthquakes without premonitory throes, +and sometimes these are more decisive and destructive than that which +gives electric publicity. Such distinct signs appeared in the age of +Chaucer, and the later history of the Church in England cannot be +distinctly understood without a careful study of this period. + +It is well known that Chaucer was an adherent of John of Gaunt; that he +and his great protector--perhaps with no very pious intents--favored the +doctrines of Wiclif; that in the politico-religious disturbances in 1382, +incident to the minority of Richard II., he was obliged to flee the +country. But if we wish to find the most striking religious history of the +age, we must seek it in the portraitures of religious characters and +events in his Canterbury Tales. In order to a proper intelligence of +these, let us look for a moment at the ecclesiastical condition of England +at that time. Connected with much in doctrine and ritual worthy to be +retained, and, indeed, still retained in the articles and liturgy of the +Anglican Church, there was much, the growth of ignorance and neglect, to +be reformed. The Church of England had never had a real affinity with +Rome. The gorgeous and sensual ceremonies which, in the indolent airs of +the Mediterranean, were imposing and attractive, palled upon the taste of +the more phlegmatic Englishmen. Institutions organized at Rome did not +flourish in that higher latitude, and abuses were currently discussed even +before any plan was considered for reforming them. + + +THE CLERGY.--The great monastic orders of St. Benedict, scattered +throughout Europe, were, in the early and turbulent days, a most important +aid and protection to Christianity. But by degrees, and as they were no +longer needed, they had become corrupt, because they had become idle. The +Cluniacs and Cistercians, branches of the Benedictines, are represented in +Chaucer's poem by the monk and prioress, as types of bodies which needed +reform. + +The Grandmontines, a smaller branch, were widely known for their foppery: +the young monks painted their cheeks, and washed and covered their beards +at night. The cloisters became luxurious, and sheltered, and, what is +worse, sanctioned lewdness and debauchery. + +There was a great difference indeed between the _regular_ clergy, or +those belonging to orders and monasteries, and the _secular_ clergy or +parish priests, who were far better; and there was a jealous feud between +them. There was a lamentable ignorance of the Scripture among the clergy, +and gross darkness over the people. The paraphrases of Caedmon, the +translations of Bede and Alfred, the rare manuscripts of the Latin Bible, +were all that cast a faint ray upon this gloom. The people could not read +Latin, even if they had books; and the Saxon versions were almost in a +foreign language. Thus, distrusting their religious teachers, thoughtful +men began to long for an English version of that Holy Book which contains +all the words of eternal life. And thus, while the people were becoming +more clamorous for instruction, and while Wiclif was meditating the great +boon of a translated Bible, which, like a noonday sun, should irradiate +the dark places and disclose the loathsome groups and filthy +manifestations of cell and cloister, Chaucer was administering the +wholesome medicine of satire and contempt. He displays the typical monk +given up to every luxury, the costly black dress with fine fur edgings, +the love-knot which fastens his hood, and his preference for pricking and +hunting the hare, over poring into a stupid book in a cloister. + + +THE FRIAR AND THE SOMPNOUR.--His satire extends also to the friar, who has +not even that semblance of virtue which is the tribute of the hypocrite to +our holy faith. He is not even the demure rascal conceived by Thomson in +his Castle of Indolence: + + ... the first amid the fry, + + * * * * * + + A little round, fat, oily man of God, + Who had a roguish twinkle in his eye, + When a tight maiden chanced to trippen by, + + * * * * * + + Which when observed, he shrunk into his mew, + And straight would recollect his piety anew. + +But Chaucer's friar is a wanton and merry scoundrel, taking every +license, kissing the wives and talking love-talk to the girls in his +wanderings, as he begs for his Church and his order. His hood is stuffed +with trinkets to give them; he is worthily known as the best beggar of his +house; his eyes alight with wine, he strikes his little harp, trolls out +funny songs and love-ditties. Anon, his frolic over, he preaches to the +collected crowd violent denunciations of the parish priest, within the +very limits of his parish. The very principles upon which these mendicant +orders were established seem to be elements of evil. That they might be +better than the monks, they had no cloisters and magnificent gardens, with +little to do but enjoy them. Like our Lord, they were generally without a +place to lay their heads; they had neither purse nor scrip. But instead of +sanctifying, the itinerary was their great temptation and final ruin. +Nothing can be conceived better calculated to harden the heart and to +destroy the fierce sensibilities of our nature than to be a beggar and a +wanderer. So that in our retrospective glance, we may pity while we +condemn "the friar of orders gray." With a delicate irony in Chaucer's +picture, is combined somewhat of a liking for this "worthy limitour."[17] + +In the same category of contempt for the existing ecclesiastical system, +Chaucer places the sompnour, or summoner to the Church courts. Of his +fire-red face, scattered beard, and the bilious knobs on his cheeks, +"children were sore afraid." The friar, in his tale, represents him as in +league with the devil, who carries him away. He is a drinker of strong +wines, a conniver at evil for bribes: for a good sum he would teach "a +felon" + + ... not to have none awe + In swiche a case of the archdeacon's curse. + +To him the Church system was nothing unless he could make profit of it. + + +THE PARDONERE.--Nor is his picture of the pardoner, or vender of +indulgences, more flattering. He sells--to the great contempt of the +poet--a piece of the Virgin's veil, a bit of the sail of St. Peter's boat, +holy pigges' bones, and with these relics he made more money in each +parish in one day than the parson himself in two months. + +Thus taking advantage of his plot to ridicule these characters, and to +make them satirize each other--as in the rival stories of the sompnour and +friar--he turns with pleasure from these betrayers of religion, to show us +that there was a leaven of pure piety and devotion left. + + +THE POOR PARSON.--With what eager interest does he portray the lovely +character of the _poor parson_, the true shepherd of his little flock, in +the midst of false friars and luxurious monks!--poor himself, but + + Riche was he of holy thought and work, + + * * * * * + + That Cristes gospel truely wolde preche, + His parishers devoutly wolde teche. + + * * * * * + + Wide was his parish and houses fer asonder, + But he left nought for ne rain no thonder, + In sickness and in mischief to visite + The ferrest in his parish, moche and lite. + Upon his fete, and in his hand a staf, + This noble example to his shepe he yaf, + That first he wrought and afterward he taught. + +Chaucer's description of the poor parson, which loses much by being +curtailed, has proved to be a model for all poets who have drawn the +likeness of an earnest pastor from that day to ours, among whom are +Herbert, Cowper, Goldsmith, and Wordsworth; but no imitation has equalled +this beautiful model. When urged by the host, + + Tell us a fable anon, for cocke's bones, + +he quotes St. Paul to Timothy as rebuking those who tell fables; and, +disclaiming all power in poetry, preaches them such a stirring discourse +upon penance, contrition, confession, and the seven deadly sins, with +their remedies, as must have fallen like a thunderbolt upon this careless, +motly crew; and has the additional value of giving us Chaucer's epitome of +sound doctrine in that bigoted and ignorant age: and, eminently sound and +holy as it is, it rebukes the lewdness of the other stories, and, in point +of morality, neutralizes if it does not justify the lewd teachings of the +work, or in other words, the immorality of the age. This is the parson's +own view: his story is the last which is told, and he tells us, in the +prologue to his sermon: + + To knitte up all this feste, and make an ende; + And Jesu for his grace wit me sende + To showen you the way in this viage + Of thilke parfit glorious pilgrimage, + That hight Jerusalem celestial. + +In an addendum to this discourse, which brings the Canterbury Tales to an +abrupt close, and which, if genuine, as the best critics think it, was +added some time after, Chaucer takes shame to himself for his lewd +stories, repudiates all his "translations and enditinges of worldly +vanitees," and only finds pleasure in his translations of Boethius, his +homilies and legends of the saints; and, with words of penitence, he hopes +that he shall be saved "atte the laste day of dome." + + +JOHN WICLIF.[18]--The subject of this early reformation so clearly set +forth in the stories of Chaucer, cannot be fully illustrated without a +special notice of Chaucer's great contemporary and co-worker, John Wiclif. + +What Chaucer hints, or places in the mouths of his characters, with +apparently no very serious intent, Wiclif, himself a secular priest, +proclaimed boldly and as of prime importance, first from his professor's +chair at Oxford, and then from his forced retirement at Lutterworth, where +he may well have been the model of Chaucer's poor parson. + +Wiclif was born in 1324, four years before Chaucer. The same abuses which +called forth the satires of Langland and Chaucer upon monk and friar, and +which, if unchecked, promised universal corruption, aroused the +martyr-zeal of Wiclif; and similar reproofs are to be found in his work +entitled "Objections to Friars," and in numerous treatises from his pen +against many of the doctrines and practices of the Church. + +Noted for his learning and boldness, he was sent by Edward III. one of an +embassy to Bruges, to negotiate with the Pope's envoys concerning +benefices held in England by foreigners. There he met John of Gaunt, the +Duke of Lancaster. This prince, whose immediate descendants were to play +so prominent a part in later history, was the fourth son of Edward III. By +the death of the Black Prince, in 1376, and of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, +in 1368, he became the oldest remaining child of the king, and the father +of the man who usurped the throne of England and reigned as Henry IV. The +influence of Lancaster was equal to his station, and he extended his +protection to Wiclif. This, combined with the support of Lord Percy, the +Marshal of England, saved the reformer from the stake when he was tried +before the Bishop, of London on a charge of heresy, in 1377. He was again +brought before a synod of the clergy at Lambeth, in 1378, but such was the +favor of the populace in his behalf, and such, too, the weakness of the +papal party, on account of a schism which had resulted in the election of +two popes, that, although his opinions were declared heretical, he was not +proceeded against. + +After this, although almost sick to death, he rose from what his enemies +had hoped would be his death-bed, to "again declare the evil deeds of the +friars." In 1381, he lectured openly at Oxford against the doctrine of +transubstantiation; and for this, after a presentment by the Church--and a +partial recantation, or explaining away--even the liberal king thought +proper to command that he should retire from the university. Thus, during +his latter years, he lived in retirement at his little parish of +Lutterworth, escaping the dangers of the troublous time, and dying--struck +with paralysis at his chancel--in 1384, sixteen years before Chaucer. + + +TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.--The labors of Wiclif which produced the most +important results, were not his violent lectures as a reformer, but the +translation of the Bible into English, the very language of the common +people, greatly to the wrath of the hierarchy and its political upholders. +This, too, is his chief glory: as a reformer he went too fast and too far; +he struck fiercely at the root of authority, imperilling what was good, in +his attack upon what was evil. In pulling up the tares he endangered the +wheat, and from him, as a progenitor, came the Lollards, a fanatical, +violent, and revolutionary sect. + +But his English Bible, the parent of the later versions, cannot be too +highly valued. For the first time, English readers could search the whole +Scriptures, and judge for themselves of doctrine and authority: there they +could learn how far the traditions and commandments of men had encrusted +and corrupted the pure word of truth. Thus the greatest impulsion was +given to a reformation in doctrine; and thus, too, the exclusiveness and +arrogance of the clergy received the first of many sledge-hammer blows +which were to result in their confusion and discomfiture. + +"If," says Froude,[19] "the Black Prince had lived, or if Richard II. had +inherited the temper of the Plantagenets, the ecclesiastical system would +have been spared the misfortune of a longer reprieve." + + +THE ASHES OF WICLIF.--The vengeance which Wiclif escaped during his life +was wreaked upon his bones. In 1428, the Council of Constance ordered that +if his bones could be distinguished from those of other, faithful people, +they should "be taken out of the ground and thrown far off from Christian +burial." On this errand the Bishop of Lincoln came with his officials to +Lutterworth, and, finding them, burned them, and threw the ashes into the +little stream called the Swift. Fuller, in his Church History, adds: "Thus +this brook has conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into +the narrow seas, they into the main ocean; and thus the ashes of Wiclif +are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world +over;" or, in the more carefully selected words of an English laureate of +modern days,[20] + + ... this deed accurst, + An emblem yields to friends and enemies, + How the bold teacher's doctrine, _sanctified + By truth_, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CHAUCER (CONTINUED.)--PROGRESS OF SOCIETY, AND OF LANGUAGES. + + + Social Life. Government. Chaucer's English. His Death. Historical + Facts. John Gower. Chaucer and Gower. Gower's Language. Other Writers. + + + +SOCIAL LIFE. + + +A few words must suffice to suggest to the student what may be learned, as +to the condition of society in England, from the Canterbury Tales. + +All the portraits are representatives of classes. But an inquiry into the +social life of the period will be more systematic, if we look first at the +nature and condition of chivalry, as it still existed, although on the eve +of departure, in England. This is found in the portraits of certain of +Chaucer's pilgrims--the knight, the squire, and the yeoman; and in the +special prologues to the various tales. The _knight_, as the +representative of European chivalry, comes to us in name at least from the +German forests with the irrepressible Teutons. _Chivalry_ in its rude +form, however, was destined to pass through a refining and modifying +process, and to obtain its name in France. Its Norman characteristic is +found in the young _ecuyer_ or squire, of Chaucer, who aspires to equal +his father in station and renown; while the English type of the +man-at-arms (_l'homme d'armes_) is found in their attendant yeoman, the +_tiers etat_ of English chivalry, whose bills and bows served Edward III. +at Cressy and Poictiers, and, a little later, made Henry V. of England +king of France in prospect, at Agincourt. Chivalry, in its palmy days, +was an institution of great merit and power; but its humanizing purpose +now accomplished, it was beginning to decline. + +What a speaking picture has Chaucer drawn of the knight, brave as a lion, +prudent in counsel, but gentle as a woman. His deeds of valor had been +achieved, not at Cressy and Calais, but--what both chieftain and poet +esteemed far nobler warfare--in battle with the infidel, at Algeciras, in +Poland, in Prussia, and Russia. Thrice had he fought with sharp lances in +the lists, and thrice had he slain his foe; yet he was + + Of his port as meke as is a mayde; + He never yet no vilainie ne sayde + In all his life unto ne manere wight, + He was a very parfit gentil knight. + +The entire paradox of chivalry is here presented by the poet. For, though +Chaucer's knight, just returned from the wars, is going to show his +devotion to God and the saints by his pilgrimage to the hallowed shrine at +Canterbury, when he is called upon for his story, his fancy flies to the +old romantic mythology. Mars is his god of war, and Venus his mother of +loves, and, by an anachronism quite common in that day, Palamon and Arcite +are mediaeval knights trained in the school of chivalry, and aflame, in +knightly style, with the light of love and ladies' eyes. These +incongruities marked the age. + +Such was the flickering brightness of chivalry in Chaucer's time, even +then growing dimmer and more fitful, and soon to "pale its ineffectual +fire" in the light of a growing civilization. Its better principles, which +were those of truth, virtue, and holiness, were to remain; but its forms, +ceremonies, and magnificence were to disappear. + +It is significant of social progress, and of the levelling influence of +Christianity, that common people should do their pilgrimage with community +of interest as well as danger, and in easy, tale-telling conference with +those of higher station. The franklin, with white beard and red face, has +been lord of the sessions and knight of the shire. The merchant, with +forked beard and Flaundrish beaver hat, discourses learnedly of taxes and +ship-money, and was doubtless drawn from an existing original, the type of +a class. Several of the personages belong to the guilds which were so +famous in London, and + + Were alle yclothed in o livere + Of a solempne and grete fraternite. + + +GOVERNMENT.--Closely connected with this social progress, was the progress +in constitutional government, the fruit of the charters of John and Henry +III. After the assassination of Edward II. by his queen and her paramour, +there opened upon England a new historic era, when the bold and energetic +Edward III. ascended the throne--an era reflected in the poem of Chaucer. +The king, with Wiclif's aid, checked the encroachments of the Church. He +increased the representation of the people in parliament, and--perhaps the +greatest reform of all--he divided that body into two houses, the peers +and the commons, giving great consequence to the latter in the conduct of +the government, and introducing that striking feature of English +legislation, that no ministry can withstand an opposition majority in the +lower house; and another quite as important, that no tax should be imposed +without its consent. The philosophy of these great facts is to be found in +the democratic spirit so manifest among the pilgrims; a spirit tempered +with loyalty, but ready, where their liberties were encroached upon, to +act with legislative vigor, as well as individual boldness. + +Not so directly, but still forcibly, does Chaucer present the results of +Edward's wars in France, in the status of the knight, squire, and yeoman, +and of the English sailor, and in the changes introduced into the language +and customs of the English thereby. + + +CHAUCER'S ENGLISH.--But we are to observe, finally, that Chaucer is the +type of progress in the language, giving it himself the momentum which +carried it forward with only technical modifications to the days of +Spenser and the Virgin Queen. The _House of Fame_ and other minor poems +are written in the octosyllabic verse of the Trouveres, but the +_Canterbury Tales_ give us the first vigorous English handling of the +decasyllabic couplet, or iambic pentameter, which was to become so +polished an instrument afterward in the hands of Dryden and Pope. The +English of all the poems is simple and vernacular. + +It is known that Dante had at first intended to compose the Divina +Commedia in Latin. "But when," he said to the sympathizing Frate Ilario, +"I recalled the condition of the present age, and knew that those generous +men for whom, in better days, these things were written, had abandoned +(_ahi dolore_) the liberal arts into vulgar hands, I threw aside the +delicate lyre which armed my flank, and attuned another more befitting the +ears of moderns." It seems strange that he should have thus regretted what +to us seems a noble and original opportunity of double creation--poem and +language. What Dante thus bewailed was his real warrant for immortality. +Had he written his great work in Latin, it would have been consigned, with +the Italian latinity of the middle ages, to oblivion; while his Tuscan +still delights the ear of princes and lazzaroni. Professorships of the +Divina Commedia are instituted in Italian universities, and men are +considered accomplished when they know it by heart. + +What Dante had done, not without murmuring, Chaucer did more cheerfully in +England. Claimed by both universities as a collegian, perhaps without +truth, he certainly was an educated man, and must have been sorely tempted +by Latin hexameters; but he knew his mission, and felt his power. With a +master hand he moulded the language. He is reproached for having +introduced "a wagon-load of foreign words," i.e. Norman words, which, +although frowned upon by some critics, were greatly needed, were eagerly +adopted, and constituted him the "well of English undefiled," as he was +called by Spenser. It is no part of our plan to consider Chaucer's +language or diction, a special study which the reader can pursue for +himself. Occleve, in his work "_De Regimine Principium"_ calls him "the +honour of English tonge," "floure of eloquence," and "universal fadir in +science," and, above all, "the firste findere of our faire language." To +Lydgate he was the "Floure of Poetes throughout all Bretaine." Measured by +our standard, he is not always musical, "and," in the language of Dryden, +"many of his verses are lame for want of half a foot, and sometimes a +whole one;" but he must be measured by the standards of his age, by the +judgment of his contemporaries, and by a thorough intelligence of the +language as he found it and as he left it. Edward III., a practical +reformer in many things, gave additional importance to English, by +restoring it in the courts of law, and administering justice to the people +in their own tongue. When we read of the _English_ kings of this early +period, it is curious to reflect that these monarchs, up to the time of +Edward I., spoke French as their vernacular tongue, while English had only +been the mixed, corrupted language of the lower classes, which was now +brought thus by king and poet into honorable consideration. + + +HIS DEATH.--Chaucer died on the 25th of October, 1400, in his little +tenement in the garden of St. Mary's Chapel, Westminster, and left his +works and his fame to an evil and unappreciative age. His monument was not +erected until one hundred and fifty-six years afterward, by Nicholas +Brigham. It stands in the "poets' corner" of Westminster Abbey, and has +been the nucleus of that gathering-place of the sacred dust which once +enclosed the great minds of England. The inscription, which justly styles +him "Anglorum vates ter maximus," is not to be entirely depended upon as +to the "annus Domini," or "tempora vitae," because of the turbulent and +destructive reigns that had intervened--evil times for literary effort, +and yet making material for literature and history, and producing that +wonderful magician, the printing-press, and paper, by means of which the +former things might be disseminated, and Chaucer brought nearer to us than +to them. + + +HISTORICAL FACTS.--The year before Chaucer died, Richard II. was starved +in his dungeon. Henry, the son of John of Gaunt, represented the +usurpation of Lancaster, and the realm was convulsed with the revolts of +rival aristocracy; and, although Prince Hal, or Henry V., warred with +entire success in France, and got the throne of that kingdom away from +Charles VI., (the Insane,) he died leaving to his infant son, Henry VI., +an inheritance which could not be secured. The rival claimant of York, +Edward IV., had a strong party in the kingdom: then came the wars of the +Roses; the murders and treason of Richard III.; the sordid valor of Henry +VII.; the conjugal affection of Henry VIII.; the great religious +earthquake all over Europe, known as the Reformation; constituting all +together an epoch too stirring and unsettled to permit literature to +flourish; an epoch which gave birth to no great poet or mighty master, but +which contained only the seeds of things which were to germinate and +flourish in a kindlier age. + +In closing this notice of Chaucer, it should be remarked that no English +poet has been more successful in the varied delineation of character, or +in fresh and charming pictures of Nature. Witty and humorous, sententious +and didactic, solemn and pathetic, he not only pleases the fancy, but +touches the heart. + + +JOHN GOWER.--Before entering upon the barren period from Chaucer to +Spenser, however, there is one contemporary of Chaucer whom we must not +omit to mention; for his works, although of little literary value, are +historical signs of the times: this is _John Gower_, styled variously Sir +John and Judge Gower, as he was very probably both a knight and a justice. +He seems to owe most of his celebrity to his connection, however slight, +with Chaucer; although there is no doubt of his having been held in good +repute by the literary patrons and critics of his own age. His fame rests +upon three works, or rather three parts of one scheme--_Speculum +Meditantis_, _Vox Clamantis_, and _Confessio Amantis_. The first of these, +_the mirror of one who meditates_, was in French verse, and was, in the +main, a treatise upon virtue and repentance, with inculcations to conjugal +fidelity much disregarded at that time. This work has been lost. The _Vox +Clamantis_, or _voice of one crying in the wilderness_, is directly +historical, being a chronicle, in Latin elegiacs, of the popular revolts +of Wat Tyler in the time of Richard II., and a sermon on fatalism, which, +while it calls for a reformation in the clergy, takes ground against +Wiclif, his doctrines, and adherents. In the later books he discusses the +military and the lawyers; and thus he is the voice of one crying, like the +Baptist in the wilderness, against existing abuses and for the advent of a +better order. The _Confessio Amantis_, now principally known because it +contains a eulogium of Chaucer, which in his later editions he left out, +is in English verse, and was composed at the instance of Richard II. The +general argument of this Lover's Confession is a dialogue between the +lover and a priest of Venus, who, in the guise of a confessor, applies the +breviary of the Church to the confessions of love.[21] The poem is +interspersed with introductory or recapitulatory Latin verses. + + +CHAUCER AND GOWER.--That there was for a time a mutual admiration between +Chaucer and Gower, is shown by their allusion to each other. In the +penultimate stanza of the Troilus and Creseide, Chaucer calls him "O +Morall Gower," an epithet repeated by Dunbar, Hawes, and other writers; +while in the _Confessio Amantis_, Gower speaks of Chaucer as his disciple +and poet, and alludes to his poems with great praise. That they were at +any time alienated from each other has been asserted, but the best +commentators agree in thinking without sufficient grounds. + +The historical teachings of Gower are easy to find. He states truths +without parable. His moral satires are aimed at the Church corruptions of +the day, and yet are conservative; and are taken, says Berthelet, in his +dedication of the Confessio to Henry VIII., not only out of "poets, +orators, historic writers, and philosophers, but out of the Holy +Scripture"--the same Scripture so eloquently expounded by Chaucer, and +translated by Wiclif. Again, Gower, with an eye to the present rather than +to future fame, wrote in three languages--a tribute to the Church in his +Latin, to the court in his French, and to the progressive spirit of the +age in his English. The latter alone is now read, and is the basis of his +fame. Besides three poems, he left, among his manuscripts, fifty French +sonnets, (cinquantes balades,) which were afterward printed by his +descendant, Lord Gower, Duke of Sutherland. + + +GOWER'S LANGUAGE.--Like Chaucer, Gower was a reformer in language, and was +accused by the "severer etymologists of having corrupted the purity of the +English by affecting to introduce so many foreign words and phrases;" but +he has the tribute of Sir Philip Sidney (no mean praise) that Chaucer and +himself were the leaders of a movement, which others have followed, "to +beautifie our mother tongue," and thus the _Confessio Amantis_ ranks as +one of the formers of our language, in a day when it required much moral +courage to break away from the trammels of Latin and French, and at the +same time to compel them to surrender their choicest treasures to the +English. + +Gower was born in 1325 or 1326, and outlived Chaucer. It has been +generally believed that Chaucer was his poetical pupil. The only evidence +is found in the following vague expression of Gower in the Confessio +Amantis: + + And greet well Chaucer when ye meet + As _my disciple_ and my poete. + For in the flower of his youth, + In sondry wise as he well couth, + Of ditties and of songes glade + The which he for my sake made. + +It may have been but a patronizing phrase, warranted by Gower's superior +rank and station; for to the modern critic the one is the uprising sun, +and the other the pale star scarcely discerned in the sky. Gower died in +1408, eight years after his more illustrious colleague. + + + +OTHER WRITERS OF THE PERIOD OF CHAUCER. + + +John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, a Scottish poet, born about 1320: +wrote a poem concerning the deeds of King Robert I. in achieving the +independence of Scotland. It is called _Broite_ or _Brute_, and in it, in +imitation of the English, he traces the Scottish royal lineage to Brutus. +Although by no means equal to Chaucer, he is far superior to any other +English poet of the time, and his language is more intelligible at the +present day than that of Chaucer or Gower. Sir Walter Scott has borrowed +from Barbour's poem in his "Lord of the Isles." + +Blind Harry--name unknown: wrote the adventures of Sir William Wallace, +about 1460. + +James I. of Scotland, assassinated at Perth, in 1437. He wrote "The Kings +Quhair," (Quire or Book,) describing the progress of his attachment to the +daughter of the Earl of Somerset, while a prisoner in England, during the +reign of Henry IV. + +Thomas Occleve, flourished about 1420. His principal work is in Latin; De +Regimine Principum, (concerning the government of princes.) + +John Lydgate, flourished about 1430: wrote _Masks_ and _Mummeries_, and +nine books of tragedies translated from Boccaccio. + +Robert Henryson, flourished about 1430: Robin and Makyne, a pastoral; and +a continuation of Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide, entitled "The Testament +of Fair Creseide." + +William Dunbar, died about 1520: the greatest of Scottish poets, called +"The Chaucer of Scotland." He wrote "The Thistle and the Rose," "The +Dance," and "The Golden Targe." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE BARREN PERIOD BETWEEN CHAUCER AND SPENSER. + + + Greek Literature. Invention of Printing. Caxton. Contemporary History. + Skelton. Wyatt. Surrey. Sir Thomas More. Utopia, and other Works. Other + Writers. + + + +THE STUDY OF GREEK LITERATURE. + + +Having thus mentioned the writers whom we regard as belonging to the +period of Chaucer, although some of them, like Henryson and Dunbar, +flourished at the close of the fifteenth century, we reach those of that +literary epoch which may be regarded as the transition state between +Chaucer and the age of Elizabeth: an epoch which, while it produced no +great literary work, and is irradiated by no great name, was, however, a +time of preparation for the splendid advent of Spenser and Shakspeare. + +Incident to the dangers which had so long beset the Eastern or Byzantine +Empire, which culminated in the fall of Constantinople--and to the gradual +but steady progress of Western Europe in arts and letters, which made it a +welcome refuge for the imperilled learning of the East--Greek letters came +like a fertilizing flood across the Continent into England. The philosophy +of Plato, the power of the Athenian drama, and the learning of the +Stagyrite, were a new impulse to literature. Before the close of the +fifteenth century, Greek was taught at Oxford, and men marvelled as they +read that "musical and prolific language, that gives a soul to the objects +of sense, and a body to the abstractions of philosophy," a knowledge of +which had been before entirely lost in the West. Thus was perfected what +is known as the revival of letters, when classical learning came to enrich +and modify the national literatures, if it did temporarily retard the +vernacular progress. The Humanists carried the day against the +Obscurantists; and, as scholarship had before consisted in a thorough +knowledge of Latin, it now also included a knowledge of Greek, which +presented noble works of poetry, eloquence, and philosophy, and gave us a +new idiom for the terminologies of science. + + +INVENTION OF PRINTING.--Nor was this all. This great wealth of learning +would have still remained a dead letter to the multitude, and, in the +main, a useless treasure even to scholars, had it not been for a simple +yet marvellous invention of the same period. In Germany, some obscure +mechanics, at Harlem, at Mayence, and at Strasbourg, were at work upon a +machine which, if perfected, should at once extend letters a hundred-fold, +and by that process revolutionize literature. The writers before, few as +they were, had been almost as numerous as the readers; hereafter the +readers were to increase in a geometrical proportion, and each great +writer should address millions. Movable types, first of wood and then of +metal, were made, the latter as early as 1441. Schoeffer, Guttenberg, and +Faust brought them to such perfection that books were soon printed and +issued in large numbers. But so slowly did the art travel, partly on +account of want of communication, and partly because it was believed to +partake of necromancy, and partly, too, from the phlegmatic character of +the English people, that thirty years elapsed before it was brought into +England. The art of printing came in response to the demand of an age of +progress: it was needed before; it was called for by the increasing number +of readers, and when it came it multiplied that number largely. + + +WILLIAM CAXTON.--That it did at last come to England was due to William +Caxton, a native of Kent, and by vocation a mercer, who imported costly +continental fabrics into England, and with them some of the new books now +being printed in Holland. That he was a man of some eminence is shown by +his having been engaged by Edward IV. on a mission to the Duke of +Burgundy, with power to negotiate a treaty of commerce; that he was a +person of skill and courtesy is evinced by his being retained in the +service of Margaret, Duchess of York, when she married Charles, Duke of +Burgundy. While in her train, he studied printing on the Continent, and is +said to have printed some books there. At length, when he was more than +sixty years old, he returned to England; and, in 1474, he printed what is +supposed to be the first book printed in England, "The Game and Playe of +the Chesse." Thus it was a century after Chaucer wrote the Canterbury +Tales that printing was introduced into England. Caxton died in 1491, but +his workmen continued to print, and among them Wynken de Worde stands +conspicuous. Among the earlier works printed by Caxton were the Canterbury +Tales, the Book of Fame, and the Troilus and Creseide of Chaucer. + + +CONTEMPORARY HISTORY.--It will be remembered that this was the stormy +period of the Wars of the Roses. The long and troubled reign of Henry VI. +closed in sorrow in 1471. The titular crown of France had been easily +taken from him by Charles VII. and Joan of Arc; and although Richard of +York, the great-grandson of Edward III., had failed in his attempts upon +the English throne, yet _his_ son Edward, afterward the Fourth, was +successful. Then came the patricide of Clarence, the accession and +cruelties of Richard III., the battle of Bosworth, and, at length, the +union of the two houses in the persons of Henry VII. (Henry Tudor of +Lancaster) and Elizabeth of York. Thus the strife of the succession was +settled, and the realm had rest to reorganize and start anew in its +historic career. + +The weakening of the aristocracy by war and by execution gave to the +crown a power before unknown, and made it a fearful coigne of vantage for +Henry VIII., whose accession was in 1509. People and parliament were alike +subservient, and gave their consent to the unjust edicts and arbitrary +cruelties of this terrible tyrant. + +In his reign the old English quarrel between Church and State--which +during the civil war had lain dormant--again rose, and was brought to a +final issue. It is not unusual to hear that the English Reformation grew +out of the ambition of a libidinous monarch. This is a coincidence rather +than a cause. His lust and his marriages would have occurred had there +been no question of Pope or Church; conversely, had there been a continent +king upon the throne, the great political and religious events would have +happened in almost the same order and manner. That "knock of a king" and +"incurable wound" prophesied by Piers Plowman were to come. Henry only +seized the opportunity afforded by his ungodly passions as the best +pretext, where there were many, for setting the Pope at defiance; and the +spirit of reformation so early displayed, and awhile dormant from +circumstances, and now strengthened by the voice of Luther, burst forth in +England. There was little demur to the suppression of the monasteries; the +tomb of St. Thomas a Becket was desecrated amidst the insulting mummeries +of the multitude; and if Henry still burned Lutherans--because he could +not forget that he had in earlier days denounced Luther--if he still +maintained the six bloody articles[22]--his reforming spirit is shown in +the execution of Fisher and More, by the anathema which he drew upon +himself from the Pope, and by Henry's retaliation upon the friends and +kinsmen of Cardinal Pole, the papal legate. + +Having thus briefly glanced at the history, we return to the literary +products, all of which reflect more or less of the historic age, and by +their paucity and poverty indicate the existence of the causes so +unfavorable to literary effort. This statement will be partially +understood when we mention, as the principal names of this period, +Skelton, Wyatt, Surrey, and Sir Thomas More, men whose works are scarcely +known to the ordinary reader, and which are yet the best of the time. + + +SKELTON.--John Skelton, poet, priest, and buffoon, was born about the year +1460, and educated at what he calls "Alma parens, O Cantabrigensis." Tutor +to Prince Henry, afterward Henry VIII., he could boast, "The honour of +England I lernyd to spelle." That he was highly esteemed in his day we +gather from the eulogium of Erasmus, then for a short time professor of +Greek at Oxford: "Unum Brittanicarum literarum lumen et decus." By another +contemporary he is called the "inventive Skelton." As a priest he was not +very holy; for, in a day when the marriage of the clergy was worse than +their incontinence, he contracted a secret marriage. He enjoyed for a time +the patronage of Wolsey, but afterward joined his enemies and attacked him +violently. He was _laureated_: this does not mean, as at present, that he +was poet laureate of England, but that he received a degree of which that +was the title. + +His works are direct delineations of the age. Among these are "monodies" +upon _Kynge Edwarde the forthe_, and the _Earle of Northumberlande_. He +corrects for Caxton "The boke of the Eneydos composed by Vyrgyle." He +enters heartily into numerous literary quarrels; is a reformer to the +extent of exposing ecclesiastical abuses in his _Colin Clout_; and +scourges the friars and bishops alike; and in this work, and his "Why come +ye not to Courte?" he makes a special target of Wolsey, and the pomp and +luxury of his household. He calls him "Mad Amelek, like to Mamelek" +(Mameluke), and speaks + + Of his wretched original + And his greasy genealogy. + He came from the sank (blood) royal + That was cast out of a butcher's stall. + +This was the sorest point upon which he could touch the great cardinal and +prime minister of Henry VIII. + +Historically considered, one work of Skelton is especially valuable, for +it places him among the first of English dramatists. The first effort of +the modern drama was the _miracle play_; then came the _morality_; after +that the _interlude_, which was soon merged into regular tragedy and +comedy. Skelton's "Magnyfycence," which he calls "a goodly interlude and a +merie," is, in reality, a morality play as well as an interlude, and marks +the opening of the modern drama in England. + +The peculiar verse of Skelton, styled _skeltonical_, is a sort of English +anacreontic. One example has been given; take, as another, the following +lampoon of Philip of Spain and the armada: + + A skeltonicall salutation + Or condigne gratulation + And just vexation + Of the Spanish nation, + That in bravado + Spent many a crusado + In setting forth an armado + England to invado. + + Who but Philippus, + That seeketh to nip us, + To rob us and strip us, + And then for to whip us, + Would ever have meant + Or had intent + Or hither sent + Such strips of charge, etc., etc. + +It varies from five to six syllables, with several consecutive rhymes. + +His "Merie Tales" are a series of short and generally broad stories, +suited to the vulgar taste: no one can read them without being struck with +the truly historic character of the subjects and the handling, and without +moralizing upon the age which they describe. Skelton, a contemporary of +the French Rabelais, seems to us a weak English portrait of that great +author; like him a priest, a buffoon, a satirist, and a lampooner, but +unlike him in that he has given us no English _Gargantua_ and _Pantagruel_ +to illustrate his age. + + +WYATT.--The next writer who claims our attention is Sir Thomas Wyatt, the +son of Sir Henry Wyatt. He was born in 1503, and educated at Cambridge. +Early a courtier, he was imperilled by his attachment to Anne Boleyn, +conceded, if not quite Platonic, yet to have never led him to criminality. +Several of his poems were inspired by her charms. The one best known +begins-- + + What word is that that changeth not, + Though it be turned and made in twain? + It is mine ANNA, God it wot, etc. + +That unfortunate queen--to possess whose charms Henry VIII. had repudiated +Catherine of Arragon, and who was soon to be brought to the block after +trial on the gravest charges--which we do not think substantiated--was, +however, frivolous and imprudent, and liked such impassioned +attentions--indeed, may be said to have suffered for them. + +Wyatt was styled by Camden "splendide doctus," but his learning, however +honorable to him, was not of much benefit to the world; for his works are +few, and most of them amatory--"songs and sonnets"--full of love and +lovers: as a makeweight, in _foro conscientiae_, he paraphrased the +penitential Psalms. An excellent comment this on the age of Henry VIII., +when the monarch possessed with lust attempted the reformation of the +Church. That Wyatt looked with favor upon the Reformation is indicated by +one of his remarks to the king: "Heavens! that a man cannot repent him of +his sins without the Pope's leave!" Imprisoned several times during the +reign of Henry, after that monarch's death he favored the accession of +Lady Jane Grey, and, with other of her adherents, was executed for high +treason on the 11th of April, 1554. We have spoken of the spirit of the +age. Its criticism was no better than its literature; for Wyatt, whom few +read but the literary historian, was then considered + + A hand that taught what might be said in rhyme, + That reft Chaucer the glory of his wit. + +The glory of Chaucer's wit remains, while Wyatt is chiefly known because +he was executed. + + +SURREY.--A twin star, but with a brighter lustre, was Henry Howard, Earl +of Surrey, a writer whose works are remarkable for purity of thought and +refinement of language. Surrey was a gay and wild young +fellow--distinguished in the tournament which celebrated Henry's marriage +with Anne of Cleves; now in prison for eating meat in Lent, and breaking +windows at night; again we find him the English marshal when Henry invaded +France in 1544. He led a restless life, was imperious and hot-tempered to +the king, and at length quartered the king's arms with his own, thus +assuming royal rights and imperilling the king's dignity. On this charge, +which was, however, only a pretext, he was arrested and executed for high +treason in 1547, before he was thirty years old. + +Surrey is the greatest poetical name of Henry the Eighth's reign, not so +much for the substance of his poems as for their peculiar handling. He is +claimed as the introducer of blank verse--the iambic pentameter without +rhyme, occasionally broken for musical effect by a change in the place of +the caesural pause. His translation of the Fourth Book of the AEneid, +imitated perhaps from the Italian version of the Cardinal de Medici, is +said to be the first specimen of blank verse in English. How slow its +progress was is proved by Johnson's remarks upon the versification of +Milton.[23] Thus in his blank verse Surrey was the forerunner of Milton, +and in his rhymed pentameter couplet one of the heralds of Dryden and +Pope. + + +SIR THOMAS MORE.--In a bird's-eye view of literature, the division into +poetry and prose is really a distinction without a difference. They are +the same body in different clothing, at labor and at festivity--in the +working suit and in the court costume. With this remark we usher upon the +literary scene Thomas More, in many respects one of the most remarkable +men of his age--scholar, jurist, statesman, gentleman, and Christian; and, +withal, a martyr to his principles of justice and faith. In a better age, +he would have retained the highest honors: it is not to his discredit that +in that reign he was brought to the block. + +He was born in 1480. A very precocious youth, a distinguished career was +predicted for him. He was greatly favored by Henry VIII., who constantly +visited him at Chelsea, hanging upon his neck, and professing an intensity +of friendship which, it is said, More always distrusted. He was the friend +and companion of Erasmus during the residence of that distinguished man in +England. More was gifted as an orator, and rose to the distinction of +speaker of the House of Commons; was presented with the great seal upon +the dismissal of Wolsey, and by his learning, his affability, and his +kindness, became the most popular, as he seemed to be the most prosperous +man in England. But, the test of Henry's friendship and of More's +principles came when the king desired his concurrence in the divorce of +Catherine of Arragon. He resigned the great seal rather than sign the +marriage articles of Anne Boleyn, and would not take the oath as to the +lawfulness of that marriage. Henry's kindness turned to fury, and More was +a doomed man. A devout Romanist, he would not violate his conscience by +submitting to the act of supremacy which made Henry the head of the +Church, and so he was tried for high treason, and executed on the 6th of +July, 1535. There are few scenes more pathetic than his last interview +with his daughter Margaret, in the Tower, and no death more calmly and +beautifully grand than his. He kissed the executioner and forgave him. +"Thou art," said he, "to do me the greatest benefit that I can receive: +pluck up thy spirit man, and be not afraid to do thine office." + + +UTOPIA.--His great work, and that which best illustrates the history of +the age, is his Utopia, ([Greek: ou topos], not a place.) Upon an island +discovered by a companion of Vespuccius, he established an imaginary +commonwealth, in which everybody was good and everybody happy. Purely +fanciful as is his Utopia, and impossible of realization as he knew it to +be while men are what they are, and not what they ought to be, it is +manifestly a satire on that age, for his republic shunned English errors, +and practised social virtues which were not the rule in England. + +Although More wrote against Luther, and opposed Henry's Church +innovations, we are struck with his Utopian claim for great freedom of +inquiry on all subjects, even religion; and the bold assertion that no man +should be punished for his religion, because "a man cannot make himself +believe anything he pleases," as Henry's six bloody articles so fearfully +asserted he must. The Utopia was written in Latin, but soon translated +into English. We use the adjective _utopian_ as meaning wildly fanciful +and impossible: its true meaning is of high excellence, to be striven +for--in a word, human perfection. + + +OTHER WORKS.--More also wrote, in most excellent English prose, a history +of the princes, Edward V. and his brother Richard of York, who were +murdered in the Tower; and a history of their murderer and uncle, Richard +III. This Richard--and we need not doubt his accuracy of statement, for he +was born five years before Richard fell at Bosworth--is the short, +deformed youth, with his left shoulder higher than the right; crafty, +stony-hearted, and cruel, so strikingly presented by Shakspeare, who takes +More as his authority. "Not letting (sparing) to kiss whom he thought to +kill ... friend and foe was indifferent where his advantage grew; he +spared no man's death whose life withstood his purpose. He slew, with his +own hands, King Henry VI., being a prisoner in the Tower." + +With the honorable name of More we leave this unproductive period, in +which there was no great growth of any kind, but which was the +planting-time, when seeds were sown that were soon to germinate and bloom +and astonish the world. The times remind us of the dark saying in the +Bible, "Out of the eater came forth meat; out of the strong came +sweetness." + +The art of printing had so increased the number of books, that public +libraries began to be collected, and, what is better, to be used. The +universities enlarged their borders, new colleges were added to Cambridge +and Oxford; new foundations laid. The note of preparation betokened a +great advent; the scene was fully prepared, and the actors would not be +wanting. + +Upon the death of Henry VIII., in 1547, Edward VI., his son by Jane +Seymour, ascended the throne, and during his minority a protector was +appointed in the person of his mother's brother, the Earl of Hertford, +afterward Duke of Somerset. Edward was a sickly youth of ten years old, +but his reign is noted for the progress of reform in the Church, and +especially for the issue of the _Book of Common Prayer_, which must be +considered of literary importance, as, although with decided +modifications, and an interruption in its use during the brief reign of +Mary, it has been the ritual of worship in the Anglican Church ever since. +It superseded the Latin services--of which it was mainly a translation +rearranged and modified--finally and completely, and containing, as it +does, the whole body of doctrine, it was the first clear manifesto of the +creeds and usages of that Church, and a strong bond of union among its +members. + + + +OTHER WRITERS OF THE PERIOD. + + +_Thomas Tusser_, 1527-1580: published, in 1557, "A Hundreth Good Points of +Husbandrie," afterward enlarged and called, "Five Hundred Points of Good +Husbandrie, united to as many of Good Huswiferie;" especially valuable as +a picture of rural life and labor in that age. + +Alexander Barklay, died 1552: translated into English poetry the _Ship of +Fools_, by Sebastian Brandt, of Basle. + +Reginald Pecock, Bishop of St. Asaph and of Chichester: published, in +1449, "The Repressor of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy." He attacked the +Lollards, but was suspected of heresy himself, and deprived of his +bishopric. + +John Fisher, 1459-1535: was made Bishop of Rochester in 1504; opposed the +Reformation, and refused to approve of Henry's divorce from Catherine of +Arragon; was executed by the king. The Pope sent him a cardinal's hat +while he was lying under sentence. Henry said he would not leave him a +head to put it on. Wrote principally sermons and theological treatises. + +Hugh Latimer, 1472-1555: was made Bishop of Worcester in 1535. An ardent +supporter of the Reformation, who, by a rude, homely eloquence, influenced +many people. He was burned at the stake at the age of eighty-three, in +company with Ridley, Bishop of London, by Queen Mary. His memorable words +to his fellow-martyr are: "We shall this day light a candle in England +which, I trust, shall never be put out." + +John Leland, or Laylonde, died 1552: an eminent antiquary, who, by order +of Henry VIII., examined, _con amore_, the records of libraries, +cathedrals, priories, abbeys, colleges, etc., and has left a vast amount +of curious antiquarian learning behind him. He became insane by reason of +the pressure of his labors. + +George Cavendish, died 1557: wrote "The Negotiations of Woolsey, the Great +Cardinal of England," etc., which was republished as the "Life and Death +of Thomas Woolsey." From this, it is said, Shakspeare drew in writing his +"Henry VIII." + +Roger Ascham, 1515-1568: specially famous as the successful instructor of +Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey, whom he was able to imbue with a taste for +classical learning. He wrote a treatise on the use of the bow, called +_Toxophilus_, and _The Schoolmaster_, which contains many excellent and +judicious suggestions, worthy to be carried out in modern education. It +was highly praised by Dr. Johnson. It was written for the use of the +children of Sackville, Lord Buckhurst. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +SPENSER AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. + + + The Great Change. Edward VI. and Mary. Sidney. The Arcadia. Defence of + Poesy. Astrophel and Stella. Gabriel Harvey. Edmund Spenser--Shepherd's + Calendar. His Great Work. + + + +THE GREAT CHANGE. + + +With what joy does the traveller in the desert, after a day of scorching +glow and a night of breathless heat, descry the distant trees which mark +the longed-for well-spring in the emerald oasis, which seems to beckon +with its branching palms to the converging caravans, to come and slake +their fever-thirst, and escape from the threatening sirocco! + +The pilgrim arrives at the caravansery: not the long, low stone house, +unfurnished and bare, which former experience had led him to expect; but a +splendid palace. He dismounts; maidens purer and more beautiful than +fabled houris, accompanied by slaves bearing rare dishes and goblets of +crusted gold, offer him refreshments: perfumed baths, couches of down, +soft and soothing music are about him in delicious combination. Surely he +is dreaming; or if this be real, were not the burning sun and the sand of +the desert, the panting camel and the dying horse of an hour ago but a +dream? + +Such is not an overwrought illustration of English literature in the long, +barren reach from Chaucer to Spenser, as compared with the freshness, +beauty, and grandeur of the geniuses which adorned Elizabeth's court, and +tended to make her reign as illustrious in history as the age of Pericles, +of Augustus, or of Louis XIV. Chief among these were Spenser and +Shakspeare. As the latter has been truly characterized as not for an age, +but for all time, the former may be more justly considered as the highest +exponent and representative of that period. The Faerie Queene, considered +only as a grand heroic poem, is unrivalled in its pictures of beautiful +women, brave men, daring deeds, and Oriental splendor; but in its +allegorical character, it is far more instructive, since it enumerates and +illustrates the cardinal virtues which should make up the moral character +of a gentleman: add to this, that it is teeming with history, and in its +manifold completeness we have, if not an oasis in the desert, more truly +the rich verge of the fertile country which bounds that desert, and which +opens a more beautiful road to the literary traveller as he comes down the +great highway: wearied and worn with the factions and barrenness of the +fifteenth century, he fairly revels with delight in the fertility and +variety of the Elizabethan age. + + +EDWARD AND MARY.--In pursuance of our plan, a few preliminary words will +present the historic features of that age. In the year 1547, Henry VIII., +the royal Bluebeard, sank, full of crimes and beset with deathbed horrors, +into a dishonorable grave.[24] A poor, weak youth, his son, Edward VI., +seemed sent by special providence on a short mission of six years, to +foster the reformed faith, and to give the land a brief rest after the +disorders and crimes of his father's reign. + +After Edward came Queen Mary, in 1553--the bloody Mary, who violently +overturned the Protestant system, and avenged her mother against her +father by restoring the Papal sway and making heresy the unpardonable +sin. It may seem strange, in one breath to denounce Henry and to defend +his daughter Mary; but severe justice, untempered with sympathy, has been +meted out to her. We acknowledge all her recorded actions, but let it be +remembered that she was the child of a basely repudiated mother, Catherine +of Arragon, who, as the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, was a +Catholic of the Catholics. Mary had been declared illegitimate; she was +laboring under an incurable disease, affecting her mind as well as her +body; she was the wife of Philip II. of Spain, a monster of iniquity, +whose sole virtue--if we may so speak--was his devotion to his Church. She +inherited her bigotry from her mother, and strengthened it by her +marriage; and she thought that in persecuting heretics she was doing God +service, which would only be a perfect service when she should have burned +out the bay-tree growth of heresy and restored the ancient faith. + +Such were her character and condition as displayed to the English world; +but we know, in addition, that she bore her sufferings with great +fortitude; that, an unloved wife, she was a pattern of conjugal affection +and fidelity; that she was a dupe in the hands of designing men and a +fierce propaganda; and we may infer that, under different circumstances +and with better guidance, the real elements of her character would have +made her a good monarch and presented a far more pleasing historical +portrait. + +Justice demands that we should say thus much, for even with these +qualifications, the picture of her reign is very dark and painful. After a +sad and bloody rule of five years--a reign of worse than Roman +proscription, or later French terrors--she died without leaving a child. +There was but one voice as to her successor. Delirious shouts of joy were +heard throughout the land: "God save Queen Elizabeth!" "No more burnings +at Smithfield, nor beheadings on Tower green! No more of Spanish Philip +and his pernicious bigots! Toleration, freedom, light!" The people of +England were ready for a golden age, and the golden age had come. + + +ELIZABETH.--And who was Elizabeth? The daughter of the dishonored Anne +Boleyn, who had been declared illegitimate, and set out of the succession; +who had been kept in ward; often and long in peril of her life; destined, +in all human foresight, to a life of sorrow, humiliation, and obscurity; +her head had been long lying "'twixt axe and crown," with more probability +of the former than the latter. + +Wonderful was the change. With her began a reign the like of which the +world had never seen; a great and brilliant crisis in English history, in +which the old order passed away and the new was inaugurated. It was like a +new historic fulfilment of the prophecy of Virgil: + + Magnus ... saeclorum nascitur ordo; + Jam redit et _Virgo_, redeunt Saturnia regna. + +Her accession and its consequences were like the scenes in some fairy +tale. She was indeed a Faerie Queene, as she was designated in Spenser's +magnificent allegory. Around her clustered a new chivalry, whose gentle +deeds were wrought not only with the sword, but with the pen. Stout heart, +stalwart arm, and soaring imagination, all wore her colors and were amply +rewarded by her smiles; and whatever her personal faults--and they were +many--as a monarch, she was not unworthy of their allegiance. + + +SIDNEY.--Before proceeding to a consideration of Spenser's great poem, it +is necessary to mention two names intimately associated with him and with +his fame, and of special interest in the literary catalogue of Queen +Elizabeth's court, brilliant and numerous as that catalogue was. + +Among the most striking characters of this period was Sir Philip Sidney, +whose brief history is full of romance and attraction; not so much for +what he did as for what he personally was, and gave promise of being. +Whenever we seek for an historical illustration of the _gentleman_, the +figure of Sidney rises in company with that of Bayard, and claims +distinction. He was born at Pennshurst in Kent, on the 29th of November, +1554. He was the nephew of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the chief +favorite of the queen. Precocious in grace, dignity, and learning, Sidney +was educated both at Oxford and Cambridge, and in his earliest manhood he +was a _prud' homme_, handsome, elegant, learned, and chivalrous; a +statesman, a diplomatist, a soldier, and a poet; "not only of excellent +wit, but extremely beautiful of face. Delicately chiselled Anglo-Norman +features, smooth, fair cheek, a faint moustache, blue eyes, and a mass of +amber-colored hair," distinguished him among the handsome men of a court +where handsome men were in great request. + +He spent some time at the court of Charles IX. of France--which, however, +he left suddenly, shocked and disgusted by the massacre of St. +Bartholomew's Eve--and extended his travels into Germany. The queen held +him in the highest esteem--although he was disliked by the Cecils, the +constant rivals of the Dudleys; and when he was elected to the crown of +Poland, the queen refused him permission to accept, because she would not +lose "the brightest jewel of her crown--her Philip," as she called him to +distinguish him from her sister Mary's Philip, Philip II. of Spain. A few +words will finish his personal story. He went, by the queen's permission, +with his uncle Leicester to the Low Countries, then struggling, with +Elizabeth's assistance, against Philip of Spain. There he was made +governor of Flushing--the key to the navigation of the North Seas--with +the rank of general of horse. In a skirmish near Zutphen (South Fen) he +served as a volunteer; and, as he was going into action fully armed, +seeing his old friend Sir William Pelham without cuishes upon his thighs, +prompted by mistaken but chivalrous generosity, he took off his own, and +had his thigh broken by a musket-ball. This was on the 2d of October, +1586, N.S. He lingered for twenty days, and then died at Arnheim, mourned +by all. The story of his passing the untasted water to the wounded +soldier, will never become trite: "This man's necessity is greater than +mine," was an immortal speech which men like to quote.[25] + + +SIDNEY'S WORKS.--But it is as a literary character that we must consider +Sidney; and it is worthy of special notice that his works could not have +been produced in any other age. The principal one is the _Arcadia_. The +name, which was adopted from Sannazzaro, would indicate a pastoral--and +this was eminently the age of English pastoral--but it is in reality not +such. It presents indeed sylvan scenes, but they are in the life of a +knight. It is written in prose, interspersed with short poems, and was +inspired by and dedicated to his literary sister Mary, the Countess of +Pembroke. It was called indeed the _Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia_. There +are many scenes of great beauty and vigor; there is much which represents +the manners, of the age, but few persons can now peruse it with pleasure, +because of the peculiar affectations of style, and its overload of +ornament. There grew naturally in the atmosphere of the court of a regnant +queen, an affected, flattering, and inflated language, known to us as +_Euphuism_. Of this John Lilly has been called the father, but we really +only owe to him the name, which is taken from his two works, _Euphues, +Anatomy of Wit_, and _Euphues and his England_. The speech of the Euphuist +is hardly caricatured in Sir Walter Scott's delineation of Sir Piercie +Shafton in "The Monastery." The gallant men of that day affected this form +of address to fair ladies, and fair ladies liked to be greeted in such +language. Sidney's works have a relish of this diction, and are imbued +with the spirit which produced it. + + +DEFENCE OF POESIE.--The second work to be mentioned is his "Defence of +Poesie." Amid the gayety and splendor of that reign, there was a sombre +element. The Puritans took gloomy views of life: they accounted +amusements, dress, and splendor as things of the world; and would even +sweep away poetry as idle, and even wicked. Sir Philip came to its defence +with the spirit of a courtier and a poet, and the work in which he upholds +it is his best, far better in style and sense than his Arcadia. It is one +of the curiosities of literature, in itself, and in its representation of +such a social condition as could require a defence of poetry. His +_Astrophel and Stella_ is a collection of amatory poems, disclosing his +passion for Lady Rich, the sister of the Earl of Essex. Although something +must be allowed to the license of the age, in language at least, yet still +the _Astrophel and Stella_ cannot be commended for its morality. The +sentiments are far from Platonic, and have been severely censured by the +best critics. Among the young gallants of Euphuistic habitudes, Sidney was +known as _Astrophel_; and Spenser wrote a poem mourning the death of +Astrophel: _Stella_, of course, was the star of his worship. + + +GABRIEL HARVEY.--Among the friends of both Sidney and Spenser, was one who +had the pleasure of making them acquainted--Gabriel Harvey. He was born, +it is believed, in 1545, and lived until 1630. Much may be gathered of the +literary character and tendencies of the age by a perusal of the "three +proper and wittie familiar letters" which passed between Spenser and +himself, and the "four letters and certain sonnets," containing valuable +notices of contemporary poets. He also prefixed a poem entitled +_Hobbinol_, to the Faery Queene. But Harvey most deserves our notice +because he was the champion of the hexameter verse in English, and imbued +even Spenser with an enthusiasm for it. + +Each language has its own poetic and rhythmic capacities. Actual +experiment and public taste have declared their verdict against hexameter +verse in English. The genius of the Northern languages refuses this old +heroic measure, which the Latins borrowed from the Greeks, and all the +scholarship and finish of Longfellow has not been able to establish it in +English. Harvey was a pedant so thoroughly tinctured with classical +learning, that he would trammel his own language by ancient rules, instead +of letting it grow into the assertion of its own rules. + + +EDMUND SPENSER--THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR.--Having noticed these lesser +lights of the age of Spenser, we return to a brief consideration of that +poet, who, of all others, is the highest exponent and representative of +literature in the age of Queen Elizabeth, and whose works are full of +contemporary history. + +Spenser was born in the year of the accession of Queen Mary, 1553, at +London, and of what he calls "a house of ancient fame." He was educated at +Cambridge, where he early displayed poetic taste and power, and he went, +after leaving college, to reside as a tutor in the North of England. A +love affair with "a skittish female," who jilted him, was the cause of his +writing the _Shepherd's Calendar_; which he soon after took with him in +manuscript to London, as the first fruits of a genius that promised far +nobler things. + +Harvey introduced him to Sidney, and a tender friendship sprang up between +them: he spent much of his time with Sidney at Pennshurst, and dedicated +to him the _Shepherd's Calendar_. He calls it "an olde name for a newe +worke." The plan of it is as follows: There are twelve parts, +corresponding to twelve months: these he calls _aeglogues_, or +goat-herde's songs, (not _eclogues_ or [Greek: eklogai]--well-chosen +words.) It is a rambling work in varied melody, interspersed and relieved +by songs and lays. + + +HIS ARCHAISMS.--In view of its historical character, there are several +points to be observed. It is of philological importance to notice that in +the preliminary epistle, he explains and defends his use of archaisms--for +the language of none of his poems is the current English of the day, but +always that of a former period--saying that he uses old English words +"restored as to their rightful heritage;" and it is also evident that he +makes new ones, in accordance with just principles of philology. This fact +is pointed out, lest the cursory reader should look for the current +English of the age of Elizabeth in Spenser's poems. + +How much, or rather how little he thought of the poets of the day, may be +gathered from his saying that he "scorns and spews the rakebelly rout of +ragged rymers." It further displays the boldness of his English, that he +is obliged to add "a Glosse or Scholion," for the use of the reader. + +Another historical point worthy of observation is his early adulation of +Elizabeth, evincing at once his own courtiership and her popularity. In +"February" (Story of the Oak and Briar) he speaks of "colours meete to +clothe a mayden queene." The whole of "April" is in her honor: + + Of fair Eliza be your silver song, + That blessed wight, + The floure of virgins, may she flourish long, + In princely plight. + +In "September" "he discourseth at large upon the loose living of Popish +prelates," an historical trait of the new but cautious reformation of the +Marian Church, under Elizabeth. Whether a courtier like Spenser could +expect the world to believe in the motto with which he concludes the +epilogue, "Merce non mercede," is doubtful, but the words are significant; +and it is not to his discredit that he strove for both. + + +HIS GREATEST WORK.--We now approach _The Faerie Queene_, the greatest of +Spenser's works, the most remarkable poem of that age, and one of the +greatest landmarks in English literature and English history. It was not +published in full until nearly all the great events of Elizabeth's reign +had transpired, and it is replete with the history of nearly half a +century in the most wonderful period of English history. To courtly +readers of that day the history was only pleasantly illustrative--to the +present age it is invaluable for itself: the poem illustrates the history. + +He received, through the friendship of Sidney, the patronage of his uncle, +Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester--a powerful nobleman, because, besides +his family name, and the removal of the late attainder, which had been in +itself a distinction, he was known to be the lover of the queen; for +whatever may be thought of her conduct, we know that in recommending him +as a husband to the widowed Queen of Scots, she said she would have +married him herself had she designed to marry at all; or, it may be said, +she would have married him had she dared, for that act would have ruined +her. + +Spenser was a loyal and enthusiastic subject, a poet, and a scholar. From +these characteristics sprang the Faerie Queene. After submitting the first +book to the criticism of his friend and his patron, he dedicated the work +to "The most high, mighty, and magnificent empress, renowned for piety, +virtue, and all gracious government, Elizabeth, by the grace of God Queen +of England, France, and Ireland, and of Virginia."[26] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY IN THE FAERIE QUEENE. + + + The Faerie Queene. The Plan Proposed. Illustrations of the History. The + Knight and the Lady. The Wood of Error and the Hermitage. The Crusades. + Britomartis and Sir Artegal. Elizabeth. Mary Queen of Scots. Other + Works. Spenser's Fate. Other Writers. + + + +THE FAERIE QUEENE. + + +The Faerie Queene is an allegory, in many parts capable of more than one +interpretation. Some of the characters stand for two, and several of them +even for three distinct historical personages. + +The general plan and scope of the poem may be found in the poet's letter +to his friend, Sir Walter Raleigh. It is designed to enumerate and +illustrate the moral virtues which should characterize a noble or gentle +person--to present "the image of a brave knight perfected in the twelve +private morall vertues, as Aristotle hath devised." It appears that the +author designed twelve books, but he did not accomplish his purpose. The +poem, which he left unfinished, contains but six books or legends, each of +which relates the adventures of a knight who is the patron and +representative of a special virtue. + + _Book_ I. gives the adventures of St. George, the Red-Cross Knight, by + whom is intended the virtue of Holiness. + + _Book_ II., those of Sir Guyon, or Temperance. + + _Book_ III., Britomartis, a lady-knight, or Chastity. + + _Book_ IV., Cambel and Triamond, or Friendship. + + _Book_ V., Sir Artegal, or Justice. + + _Book_ VI., Sir Calydore, or Courtesy. + +The perfect hero of the entire poem is King Arthur, chosen "as most fitte, +for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many men's former +workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envy and suspition of +present time." + +It was manifestly thus, too, that the poet solved a difficult and delicate +problem: he pleased the queen by adopting this mythic hero, for who else +was worthy of her august hand? + +And in the person of the faerie queene herself Spenser informs us: "I mean +_glory_ in my general intention, but in my particular, I conceive the most +excellent and glorious person of our sovereign, the _Queene_." + +Did we depend upon the poem for an explanation of Spenser's design, we +should be left in the dark, for he intended to leave the origin and +connection of the adventures for the twelfth book, which was never +written; but he has given us his plan in the same preliminary letter to +Raleigh. + + +THE PLAN PROPOSED.--"The beginning of my history," he says, "should be in +the twelfth booke, which is the last; where I devise that the Faerie +Queene kept her Annual Feaste XII days; uppon which XII severall days the +occasions of the XII severall adventures hapned, which being undertaken by +XII severall knights, are in these XII books handled and discoursed." + +First, a tall, clownish youth falls before the queen and desires a boon, +which she might not refuse, viz. the achievement of any adventure which +might present itself. Then appears a fair lady, habited in mourning, and +riding on an ass, while behind her comes a dwarf, leading a caparisoned +war-horse, upon which was the complete armor of a knight. The lady falls +before the queen and complains that her father and mother, an ancient king +and queen, had, for many years, been shut up by a dragon in a brazen +castle, and begs that one of the knights may be allowed to deliver them. + +The young clown entreats that he may take this adventure, and +notwithstanding the wonder and misgiving of all, the armor is found to fit +him well, and when he had put it on, "he seemed the goodliest man in all +the company, and was well liked by the lady, and eftsoones taking on him +knighthood, and mounting on that strounge courser, he went forth with her +on that adventure; where beginneth the First Booke." + +In a similar manner, other petitions are urged, and other adventures +undertaken. + + +ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY.--The history in this poem lies directly upon +the surface. Elizabeth was the Faery Queen herself--faery in her real +person, springing Cinderella-like from durance and danger to the most +powerful throne in Europe. Hers was a reign of faery character, popular +and august at home, after centuries of misrule and civil war; abroad +English influence and power were exerted in a magical manner. It is she +who holds a court such as no Englishman had ever seen; who had the power +to transform common men into valiant warriors, elegant courtiers, and +great statesmen; to send forth her knights upon glorious +adventures--Sidney to die at Zutphen, Raleigh to North and South America, +Frobisher--with a wave of her hand as he passes down the Thames--to try +the northwest passage to India; Effingham, Drake, and Hawkins to drive off +to the tender mercy of northern storms the Invincible Armada, and then to +point out to the coming generations the distant fields of English +enterprise. + +"Chivalry was dying; the abbey and the castle were soon together to +crumble into ruins; and all the forms, desires, beliefs, convictions of +the old world were passing away, never to return;"[27] but this virgin +queen was the founder of a new chivalry, whose deeds were not less +valiant, and far more useful to civilization. + +It is not our purpose, for it would be impossible, to interpret all the +history contained in this wonderful poem: a few of the more striking +presentations will be indicated, and thus suggest to the student how he +may continue the investigation for himself. + + +THE KNIGHT AND THE LADY.--In the First Book we are at once struck with the +fine portraiture of the Red Crosse Knight, the Patron of Holinesse, which +we find in the opening lines: + + A gentle knight was pricking on the plain, + Ycladd in mighty arms and silver shield. + +As we read we discover, without effort, that he is the St. George of +England, or the impersonation of England herself, whose red-cross banner +distinguishes her among the nations of the earth. It is a description of +Christian England with which the poet thus opens his work: + + And on his brest a bloodie cross he bore, + The dear remembrance of his dying Lord, + For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore, + And dead, as living ever, Him adored. + Upon his shield the like was also scored, + For sovereign hope which in his help he had. + +Then follows his adventure--that of St. George and the Dragon. By slaying +this monster, he will give comfort and aid to a peerless lady, the +daughter of a glorious king; this fair lady, _Una_, who has come a long +distance, and to whom, as a champion, the Faery Queene has presented the +red-cross knight. Thus is presented the historic truth that the reformed +and suffering Church looked to Queen Elizabeth for succor and support, for +the Lady Una is one of several portraitures of the Church in this poem. + +As we proceed in the poem, the history becomes more apparent. The Lady +Una, riding upon a lowly ass, shrouded by a veil, covered with a black +stole, "as one that inly mourned," and leading "a milk-white lamb," is the +Church. The ass is the symbol of her Master's lowliness, who made even his +triumphant entry into Jerusalem upon "a colt the foal of an ass;" the +lamb, the emblem of the innocence and of the helplessness of the "little +flock;" the black stole is meant to represent the Church's trials and +sorrows in her former history as well as in that naughty age. The dragon +is the old serpent, her constant and bitter foe, who, often discomfited, +returns again and again to the attack in hope of her overthrow. + + +THE WOOD OF ERROR.--The adventures of the knight and the lady take them +first into the Wood of Error, a noble and alluring grove, within which, +however, lurks a loathsome serpent. The knight rushes upon this female +monster with great boldness, but + + ... Wrapping up her wreathed body round, + She leaped upon his shield and her huge train + All suddenly about his body wound, + That hand and foot he strove to stir in vain. + God help the man so wrapt in Error's endless chain. + +The Lady Una cries out: + + ... Now, now, sir knight, shew what ye bee, + _Add faith unto thy force_, and be not faint. + Strangle her, else she sure will strangle thee. + +He follows her advice, makes one desperate effort, Error is slain, and the +pilgrimage resumed. + +Thus it is taught that the Church has waged successful battle with Error +in all its forms--paganism, Arianism, Socinianism, infidelity; and in all +ages of her history, whether crouching in the lofty groves of the Druids, +or in the more insidious forms of later Christian heresy. + + +THE HERMITAGE.--On leaving the Wood of Error, the knight and Lady Una +encounter a venerable hermit, and are led into his hermitage. This is +_Archimago_, a vile magician thus disguised, and in his retreat foul +spirits personate both knight and lady, and present these false doubles to +each. Each sees what seems to be the other's fall from virtue, and, +horrified by the sight, the real persons leave the hermitage by separate +ways, and wander, in inextricable mazes lost, until fortune and faery +bring them together again and disclose the truth. + +Here Spenser, who was a zealous Protestant, designs to present the +monastic system, the disfavor into which the monasteries had fallen, and +the black arts secretly studied among better arts in the cloisters, +especially in the period just succeeding the Norman conquest. + + +THE CRUSADES.--As another specimen of the historic interpretation, we may +trace the adventures of England in the Crusades, as presented in the +encounter of St. George with _Sansfoy_, (without faith,) or the Infidel. + +From the hermitage of Archimago, + + The true St. George had wandered far away, + Still flying from his thoughts and jealous fear, + Will was his guide, and grief led him astray; + At last him chanced to meet upon the way + A faithless Saracen all armed to point, + In whose great shield was writ with letters gay + SANSFOY: full large of limb, and every joint + He was, and cared not for God or man a point. + +Well might the poet speak of Mohammedanism as large of limb, for it had +stretched itself like a Colossus to India, and through Northern Africa +into Spain, where it threatened Christendom, beyond the Pyrenees. It was +then that the unity of the Church, the concurrence of Europe in one form +of Christianity, made available the enthusiasm which succeeded in stemming +the torrent of Islam, and setting bounds to its conquests. + +It is not our purpose to pursue the adventures of the Church, but to +indicate the meaning of the allegory and the general interpretation; it +will give greater zest to the student to make the investigation for +himself, with the all-sufficient aids of modern criticism. + +Assailed in turn by error in doctrine, superstition, hypocrisy, +enchantments, lawlessness, pride, and despair, the red-cross knight +overcomes them all, and is led at last by the Lady Una into the House of +Holiness, a happy and glorious house. There, anew equipped with the shield +of Faith, the helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, he goes +forth to greater conquests; the dragon is slain, the Lady Una triumphant, +the Church delivered, and Holiness to the Lord established as the law of +his all-subduing kingdom on earth. + + +BRITOMARTIS.--In the third book the further adventures of the red-cross +knight are related, but a heroine divides our attention with him. +_Britomartis_, or Chastity, finds him attacked by six lawless knights, who +try to compel him to give up his lady and serve another. Here Britomartis +represents Elizabeth, and the historic fact is the conflict of English +Protestantism carried on upon land and sea, in the Netherlands, in France, +and against the Invincible Armada of Philip. The new mistress offered him +in the place of Una is the Papal Church, and the six knights are the +nations fighting for the claims of Rome. + +The valiant deeds of Britomartis represent also the power of chastity, to +which Scott alludes when he says, + + She charmed at once and tamed the heart, + Incomparable Britomarte.[28] + +And here the poet pays his most acceptable tribute to the Virgin Queen. +She is in love with Sir Artegal--abstract justice. She has encountered him +in fierce battle, and he has conquered her. It was the fond boast of +Elizabeth that she lived for her people, and for their sake refused to +marry. The following portraiture will be at once recognized: + + And round about her face her yellow hair + Having, thro' stirring, loosed its wonted band, + Like to a golden border did appear, + Framed in goldsmith's forge with cunning hand; + Yet goldsmith's cunning could not understand + To frame such subtle wire, so shiny clear, + For it did glisten like the glowing sand, + The which Pactolus with his waters sheer, + Throws forth upon the rivage, round about him near. + +This encomium upon Elizabeth's hair recalls the description of another +courtier, that it was like the last rays of the declining sun. Ill-natured +persons called it red. + + +SIR ARTEGAL, OR JUSTICE.--As has been already said, Artegal, or Justice, +makes conquest of Britomartis or Elizabeth. It is no earthly love that +follows, but the declaration of the queen that in her continued maidenhood +justice to her people shall be her only spouse. Such, whatever the honest +historian may think, was the poet's conceit of what would best please his +royal mistress. + +It has been already stated that by Gloriana, the Faerie Queene, the poet +intended the person of Elizabeth in her regnant grandeur: Britomartis +represents her chastity. Not content with these impersonations, Spenser +introduces a third: it is Belphoebe, the abstraction of virginity; a +character for which, however, he designs a dual interpretation. Belphoebe +is also another representation of the Church; in describing her he rises +to great splendor of language: + + ... her birth was of the morning dew, + And her conception of the glorious prime. + +We recur, as we read, to the grandeur of the Psalmist's words, as he +speaks of the coming of her Lord: "In the day of thy power shall the +people offer thee free-will offerings with a holy worship; the dew of thy +birth is of the womb of the morning." + + +ELIZABETH.--In the fifth book a great number of the statistics of +contemporary history are found. A cruel sultan, urged on by an abandoned +sultana, is Philip with the Spanish Church. Mercilla, a queen pursued by +the sultan and his wife, is another name for Elizabeth, for he tells us +she was + + ... a maiden queen of high renown; + For her great bounty knowen over all. + +Artegal, assuming the armor of a pagan knight, represents justice in the +person of Solyman the Magnificent, making war against Philip of Spain. In +the ninth canto of the sixth book, the court of Elizabeth is portrayed; in +the tenth and eleventh, the war in Flanders--so brilliantly described in +Mr. Motley's history. The Lady Belge is the United Netherlands; Gerioneo, +the oppressor, is the Duke of Alva; the Inquisition appears as a horrid +but nameless monster, and minor personages occur to complete the historic +pictures. + +The adventure of Sir Artegal in succor of the Lady Irena, (Erin,) +represents the proceedings of Elizabeth in Ireland, in enforcing the +Reformation, abrogating the establishments of her sister Mary, and thus +inducing Tyrone's rebellion, with the consequent humiliation of Essex. + + +MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.--With one more interpretation we close. In the fifth +book, Spenser is the apologist of Elizabeth for her conduct to her cousin, +Mary Queen of Scots, and he has been very delicate in his distinctions. It +is not her high abstraction of justice, Sir Artegal, who does the +murderous deed, but his man _Talus_, retributive justice, who, like a +limehound, finds her hidden under a heap of gold, and drags her forth by +her fair locks, in such rueful plight that even Artegal pities her: + + Yet for no pity would he change the course + Of justice which in Talus hand did lie, + Who rudely haled her forth without remorse, + Still holding up her suppliant hands on high, + And kneeling at his feet submissively; + But he her suppliant hands, those _hands of gold_, + And eke her feet, those feet of _silver try_, + Which sought unrighteousness and justice sold, + Chopped off and nailed on high that all might them behold. + +She was a royal lady, a regnant queen: her hands held a golden sceptre, +and her feet pressed a silver footstool. She was thrown down the castle +wall, and drowned "in the dirty mud." + +"But the stream washed away her guilty blood." Did it wash away +Elizabeth's bloody guilt? No. For this act she stands in history like Lady +Macbeth, ever rubbing her hands, but "the damned spot" will not out at her +bidding. Granted all that is charged against Mary, never was woman so +meanly, basely, cruelly treated as she. + +What has been said is only in partial illustration of the plan and manner +of Spenser's great poem: the student is invited and encouraged to make an +analysis of the other portions himself. To the careless reader the poem is +harmonious, the pictures beautiful, and the imagery gorgeous; to the +careful student it is equally charming, and also discloses historic +pictures of great value. + +It is so attractive that the critic lingers unconsciously upon it. +Spenser's tributes to the character of woman are original, beautiful, and +just, and the fame of his great work, originally popular and designed for +a contemporary purpose only, has steadily increased. Next to Milton, he is +the most learned of the British poets. Warton calls him the _serious +Spenser_. Thomson says he formed himself upon Spenser. He took the ottava +rima, or eight-lined stanza of the Italian poets, and by adding an +Alexandrine line, formed it into what has since been called the Spenserian +stanza, which has been imitated by many great poets since, and by Byron, +the greatest of them, in his Childe Harold. Of his language it has already +been said that he designedly uses the archaic, or that of Chaucer; or, as +Pope has said, + + Spenser himself affects the obsolete. + +The plan of the poem, neglecting the unities of an epic, is like that of a +general history, rambling and desultory, or like the transformations of a +fairy tale, as it is: his descriptions are gorgeous, his verse exceedingly +melodious, and his management of it very graceful. The Gerusalemme +Liberata of Tasso appeared while he was writing the Faery Queene, and he +imitated portions of that great epic in his own, but his imitations are +finer than the original. + + +HIS OTHER WORKS.--His other works need not detain us: Hymns in honor of +Love and Beauty, Prothalamion, and Epithalamion, Mother Hubbard's Tale, +Amoretti or Sonnets, The Tears of the Muses or Brittain's Ida, are little +read at the present day. His Astrophel is a tender "pastoral elegie" upon +the death of the most noble and valorous knight, Sir Philip Sidney; and is +better known for its subject than for itself. This was a favorite theme of +the friendly and sensitive poet; he has also written several elegies and +aeglogues in honor of Sidney. + + +SPENSER'S FATE.--The fate of Spenser is a commentary upon courtiership, +even in the reign of Elizabeth, the Faery Queene. Her requital of his +adoration was an annual pension of fifty pounds, and the ruined castle and +unprofitable estate of Kilcolman in Ireland, among a half-savage +population, in a period of insurrections and massacres, with the +requirement that he should reside upon his grant. An occasional visit from +Raleigh, then a captain in the army, a rambler along the banks of the +picturesque Mulla, and the composition and arrangement of the great poem +with the suggestions of his friend, were at once his labors and his only +recreations. He sighed after the court, and considered himself as hardly +used by the queen. + +At length an insurrection broke out, and his home was set on fire: he fled +from his flaming castle, and in the confusion his infant child was left +behind and burned to death. A few months after, he died in London, on +January 16, 1598-9, broken-hearted and poor, at an humble tavern, in King +Street. Buried at the expense of the Earl of Essex, Ann Countess of Dorset +bore the expense of his monument in Westminster Abbey, in gratitude for +his noble championship of woman. Upon that are inscribed these words: +_Anglorum poetarum nostri seculi facile princeps_--truer words, great as +is the praise, than are usually found in monumental inscriptions. + +Whatever our estimate of Spenser, he must be regarded as the truest +literary exponent and representative of the age of Elizabeth, almost as +much her biographer as Miss Strickland, and her historian as Hume: indeed, +neither biographer nor historian could venture to draw the lineaments of +her character without having recourse to Spenser and his literary +contemporaries. + + + +OTHER WRITERS OF THE AGE OF SPENSER. + + +_Richard Hooker_, 1553-1598: educated at Oxford, he became Master of the +Temple in London, a post which he left with pleasure to take a country +parish. He wrote a famous work, entitled "A Treatise on the Laws of +Ecclesiastical Polity," which is remarkable for its profound learning, +powerful logic, and eloquence of style. In it he defends the position of +the Church of England, against Popery on the one hand and Calvinism on the +other. + +_Robert Burton_, 1576-1639: author of "The Anatomy of Melancholie," an +amusing and instructive medley of quotations and classical anecdotes, +showing a profound erudition. In this all the causes and effects of +melancholy are set forth with varied illustrations. His _nom de plume_ was +Democritus, Jr., and he is an advocate of the laughing philosophy. + +_Thomas Hobbes_, 1588-1679: tutor to Charles II., when Prince of Wales, +and author of the _Leviathan_. This is a philosophical treatise, in which +he advocates monarchical government, as based upon the fact that all men +are selfish, and that human nature, being essentially corrupt, requires an +iron control: he also wrote upon _Liberty and Necessity_, and on _Human +Nature_. + +John Stow, 1525-1605: tailor and antiquary. Principally valuable for his +"Annales," "Summary of English Chronicles," and "A Survey of London." The +latter is the foundation of later topographical descriptions of the +English metropolis. + +Raphael Hollinshed, or Holinshed, died about 1580: his _Chronicles of +Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande_, were a treasure-house to Shakspeare, +from which he drew materials for King Lear, Cymbeline, Macbeth, and other +plays. + +Richard Hakluyt, died 1616: being greatly interested in voyages and +travels, he wrote works upon the adventures of others. Among these are, +"Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America," and "Four Voyages +unto Florida," which have been very useful in the compilation of early +American history. + +Samuel Purchas, 1577-1628: like Hakluyt, he was exceedingly industrious in +collecting material, and wrote "Hakluyt's Posthumus, or Purchas, his +Pilgrimes," a history of the world "in Sea Voyages and Land Travels." + +Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552-1618: a man famous for his personal strength and +comeliness, vigor of mind, valor, adventures, and sufferings. A prominent +actor in the stirring scenes of Elizabeth's reign, he was high in the +favor of the queen. Accused of high treason on the accession of James I., +and imprisoned under sentence of death, an unsuccessful expedition to +South America in search of El Dorado, which caused complaints from the +Spanish king, led to his execution under the pending sentence. He wrote, +chiefly in prison, a History of the World, in which he was aided by his +literary friends, and which is highly commended. It extends to the end of +the second Macedonian war. Raleigh was also a poet, and wrote several +special treatises. + +William Camden, 1551-1623: author of Britannia, or a chorographic +description of the most flourishing kingdoms of England, Scotland, +Ireland, and the adjacent islands, from the earliest antiquity. This work, +written in Latin, has been translated into English. He also wrote a sketch +of the reign of Elizabeth. + +_George Buchanan_, 1506-1581: celebrated as a Latin writer, an historian, +a poet, and an ecclesiastical polemic. He wrote a _History of Scotland_, a +Latin version of the Psalms, and a satire called _Chamaeleon_. He was a +man of profound learning and indomitable courage; and when told, just +before his death, that the king was incensed at his treatise _De Jure +Regni_, he answered that he was not concerned at that, for he was "going +to a place where there were few kings." + +Thomas Sackville, Earl Dorset, Lord Buckhurst, 1536-1608: author, or +rather originator of "The Mirror for Magistrates," showing by illustrious, +unfortunate examples, the vanity and transitory character of human +success. Of Sackville and his portion of the Mirror for Magistrates, Craik +says they "must be considered as forming the connecting link between the +Canterbury Tales and the Fairy Queen." + +_Samuel Daniel_, 1562-1619: an historian and a poet. His chief work is +"The Historie of the Civile Warres between the Houses of York and +Lancaster," "a production," says Drake, "which reflects great credit on +the age in which it was written." This work is in poetical form; and, +besides it, he wrote many poems and plays, and numerous sonnets. + +Michael Drayton, 1563-1631: a versatile writer, most favorably known +through his _Polyolbion_, a poem in thirty books, containing a detailed +description of the topography of England, in Alexandrine verses. His +_Barons' Wars_ describe the civil commotions during the reign of Edward +II. + +Sir John Davies, 1570-1626: author of _Nosce Teipsum_ and _The Orchestra_. +The former is commended by Hallam; and another critic calls it "the best +poem, except Spenser's Faery Queen, in Queen Elizabeth's, or even, in +James VI.'s time." + +John Donne, 1573-1631: a famous preacher, Dean of St. Paul's: considered +at the head of the metaphysical school of poets: author of +_Pseudo-Martyr_, _Polydoron_, and numerous sermons. He wrote seven +_satires_, which are valuable, but his style is harsh, and his ideas +far-fetched. + +Joseph Hall, 1574-1656: an eminent divine, author of six books of +_satires_, of which he called the first three _toothless_, and the others +_biting_ satires. These are valuable as presenting truthful pictures of +the manners and morals of the age and of the defects in contemporary +literature. + +Sir Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, 1554-1628: he wrote the Life of Sidney, +and requested to have placed upon his tomb, "The friend of Sir Philip +Sidney." He was also the author of numerous treatises: "Monarchy," "Humane +Learning," "Wars," etc., and of two tragedies. + +George Chapman, 1557-1634: author of a translation of Homer, in verses of +fourteen syllables. It retains much of the spirit of the original, and is +still considered one of the best among the numerous versions of the +ancient poet. He also wrote _Caesar and Pompey, Byron's Tragedy_, and other +plays. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE ENGLISH DRAMA. + + + Origin of the Drama. Miracle Plays. Moralities. First Comedy. Early + Tragedies. Christopher Marlowe. Other Dramatists. Playwrights and + Morals. + + + +ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH DRAMA. + + +To the Elizabethan period also belongs the glory of having produced and +fostered the English drama, itself so marked a teacher of history, not +only in plays professedly historical, but also in the delineations of +national character, the indications of national taste, and the satirical +scourgings of the follies of the day. A few observations are necessary as +to its feeble beginnings. The old Greek drama indeed existed as a model, +especially in the tragedies of Euripides and the comedies of Aristophanes; +but until the fall of Constantinople, these were a dead letter to Western +Europe, and when the study of Greek was begun in England, they were only +open to men of the highest education and culture; whereas the drama +designed for the people was to cater in its earlier forms to the rude +tastes and love of the marvellous which are characteristic of an +unlettered people. And, besides, the Roman drama of Plautus and of Terence +was not suited to the comprehension of the multitude, in its form and its +preservation of the unities. To gratify the taste for shows and +excitement, the people already had the high ritual of the Church, but they +demanded something more: the Church itself acceded to this demand, and +dramatized Scripture at once for their amusement and instruction. Thus the +_mysteria_ or _miracle play_ originated, and served a double purpose. + +"As in ancient Greece, generations before the rise of the great dramas of +Athens, itinerant companies wandered from village to village, carrying +their stage furniture in their little carts, and acted in their booths and +tents the grand stories of the mythology--so in England the mystery +players haunted the wakes and fairs, and in barns or taverns, taprooms, or +in the farm-house kitchen, played at saints and angels, and transacted on +their petty stage the drama of the Christian faith."[29] + + +THE MYSTERY, OR MIRACLE PLAY.--The subjects of these dramas were taken +from such Old Testament narratives as the creation, the lives of the +patriarchs, the deluge; or from the crucifixion, and from legends of the +saints: the plays were long, sometimes occupying portions of several days +consecutively, during seasons of religious festival. They were enacted in +monasteries, cathedrals, churches, and church-yards. The _mise en scene_ +was on two stages or platforms, on the upper of which were represented the +Persons of the Trinity, and on the lower the personages of earth; while a +yawning cellar, with smoke arising from an unseen fire, represented the +infernal regions. This device is similar in character to the plan of +Dante's poem--Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. + +The earliest of these mysteries was performed somewhere about the year +1300, and they held sway until 1600, being, however, slowly supplanted by +the _moralities_, which we shall presently consider. Many of these +_mysteries_ still remain in English, and notices of them may be found in +_Collier's History of Dramatic Poetry_. + +A miracle play was performed to celebrate the birth of Philip II. of +Spain. They are still performed in Andalusia, and one written within a few +years for such representation, was enacted at Seville, with great pomp of +scenic effect, in the Holy Week of 1870. Similar scenes are also +witnessed by curious foreigners at the present day in the Ober-Ammergau of +Bavaria. These enable the traveller of to-day to realize the former +history. + +To introduce a comic element, the devil was made to appear with horns, +hoof, and tail, to figure with grotesque malignity throughout the play, +and to be reconsigned at the close to his dark abode by the divine power. + + +MORALITIES.--As the people became enlightened, and especially as religious +knowledge made progress, such childish shows were no longer able to +satisfy them. The drama undertook a higher task of instruction in the form +of what was called a _morality_, or _moral play_. Instead of old stories +reproduced to please the childish fancy of the ignorant, genius invented +scenes and incidents taken indeed from common life, but the characters +were impersonal; they were the ideal virtues, _morality, hope, mercy, +frugality_, and their correlative vices. The _mystery_ had endeavored to +present similitudes; the _moralities_ were of the nature of allegory, and +evinced a decided progress in popular intelligence. + +These for a time divided the interest with the mysteries, but eventually +superseded them. The impersonality of the characters enabled the author to +make hits at political circumstances and existent follies with impunity, +as the multitude received advice and reproof addressed to them abstractly, +without feeling a personal sting, and the government would not condescend +to notice such abstractions. The moralities were enacted in court-yards or +palaces, the characters generally being personated by students, or +merchants from the guilds. A great improvement was also made in the length +of the play, which was usually only an hour in performance. The public +taste was so wedded to the devil of the mysteries, that he could not be +given up in the moral plays: he kept his place; but a rival buffoon +appeared in the person of _the vice_, who tried conclusions with the +archfiend in serio-comic style until the close of the performance, when +Satan always carried the vice away in triumph, as he should do. + +The moralities retained their place as legitimate drama throughout the +sixteenth century, and indeed after the modern drama appeared. It is +recorded that Queen Elizabeth, in 1601, then an old woman, witnessed one +of these plays, entitled "The Contention between Liberality and +Prodigality." This was written by Lodge and Greene, two of the regular +dramatists, after Ben Jonson had written "Every Man in his Humour," and +while Shakspeare was writing Hamlet. Thus the various progressive forms of +the drama overlapped each other, the older retaining its place until the +younger gained strength to assert its rights and supersede its rival. + + +THE INTERLUDE.--While the moralities were slowly dying out, another form +of the drama had appeared as a connecting link between them and the +legitimate drama of Shakspeare. This was the _interlude_, a short play, in +which the _dramatis personae_ were no longer allegorical characters, but +persons in real life, usually, however, not all bearing names even +assumed, but presented as a friar, a curate, a tapster, etc. The chief +characteristic of the interlude was, however, its satire; it was a more +outspoken reformer than the morality, scourged the evils of the age with +greater boldness, and plunged into religious controversy with the zeal of +opposing ecclesiastics. The first and principal writer of these interludes +was John Heywood, a Roman Catholic, who wrote during the reign of Henry +VIII., and, while a professed jester, was a great champion of his Church. + +As in all cases of progress, literary and scientific, the lines of +demarcation cannot be very distinctly drawn, but as the morality had +superseded the mystery, and the interlude the morality, so now they were +all to give way before the regular drama. The people were becoming more +educated; the greater spread of classical knowledge had caused the +dramatists to study and assimilate the excellences of Latin and Greek +models; the power of the drama to instruct and refine, as well as to +amuse, was acknowledged, and thus its capability of improvement became +manifest. The forms it then assumed were more permanent, and indeed have +remained almost unchanged down to our own day. + +What is called the _first_ comedy in the language cannot be expected to +show a very decided improvement over the last interludes or moralities, +but it bears those distinctive marks which establish its right to the +title. + + +THE FIRST COMEDY.--This was _Ralph Roister Doister_, which appeared in the +middle of the sixteenth century: (a printed copy of 1551 was discovered in +1818.) Its author was Nicholas Udall, the master of Eton, a clergyman, but +very severe as a pedagogue; an ultra Protestant, who is also accused of +having stolen church plate, which may perhaps mean that he took away from +the altar what he regarded as popish vessels and ornaments. He calls the +play "a comedy and interlude," but claims that it is imitated from the +Roman drama. It is regularly divided into acts and scenes, in the form of +our modern plays. The plot is simple: Ralph, a gay Lothario, courts as gay +a widow, and the by-play includes a designing servant and an intriguing +lady's-maid: these are the stock elements of a hundred comedies since. + +Contemporary with this was _Gammer Gurton's Needle_, supposed to be +written, but not conclusively, by John Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells, +about 1560. The story turns upon the loss of a steel needle--a rare +instrument in that day, as it was only introduced into England from Spain +during the age of Elizabeth. This play is a coarser piece than Ralph +Roister Doister; the buffoon raises the devil to aid him in finding the +lost needle, which is at length found, by very palpable proof, to be +sticking in the seat of Goodman Hodge's breeches. + + +THE FIRST TRAGEDY.--Hand in hand with these first comedies came the +earliest tragedy, _Gorboduc_, by Sackville and Norton, known under another +name as _Ferrex and Porrex_; and it is curious to observe that this came +in while the moralities still occupied the stage, and before the +interludes had disappeared, as it was played before the queen at White +Hall, in 1562. It is also to be noted that it introduced a chorus like +that of the old Greek drama. Ferrex and Porrex are the sons of King +Gorboduc: the former is killed by the latter, who in turn is slain by his +own mother. Of Gorboduc, Lamb says, "The style of this old play is stiff +and cumbersome, like the dresses of the times. There may be flesh and +blood underneath, but we cannot get at it." + +With the awakened interest of the people, the drama now made steady +progress. In 1568 the tragedy of _Tancred and Gismunda_, based upon one of +the stories of Boccaccio, was enacted before Elizabeth. + +A license for establishing a regular theatre was got out by Burbage in +1574. Peele and Greene wrote plays in the new manner: Marlowe, the +greatest name in the English drama, except those of Shakspeare and Ben +Jonson, gave to the world his _Tragical History of the Life and Death of +Doctor Faustus_, which many do not hesitate to compare favorably with +Goethe's great drama, and his _Rich Jew of Malta_, which contains the +portraiture of Barabas, second only to the Shylock of Shakspeare. Of +Marlowe a more special mention will be made. + + +PLAYWRIGHTS AND MORALS.--It was to the great advantage of the English +regular drama, that the men who wrote were almost in every case highly +educated in the classics, and thus able to avail themselves of the best +models. It is equally true that, owing to the religious condition of the +times, when Puritanism launched forth its diatribes against all +amusements, they were men in the opposition, and in most cases of +irregular lives. Men of the world, they took their characters from among +the persons with whom they associated; and so we find in their plays +traces of the history of the age, in the appropriation of classical forms, +in the references to religious and political parties, and in their +delineation of the morals, manners, and follies of the period: if the +drama of the present day owes to them its origin and nurture, it also +retains as an inheritance many of the faults and deformities from which in +a more refined period it is seeking to purge itself. It is worthy of +notice, that as the drama owes everything to popular patronage, its moral +tone reflects of necessity the moral character of the people who frequent +it, and of the age which sustains it. + + +CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE.--Among those who may be regarded as the immediate +forerunners and ushers of Shakspeare, and who, although they prepared the +way for his advent, have been obscured by his greater brilliance, the one +most deserving of special mention is Marlowe. + +Christopher Marlowe was born at Canterbury, about the year 1564. He was a +wild, irregular genius, of bad morals and loose life, but of fine +imagination and excellent powers of expression. He wrote only tragedies. + +His _Tamburlaine the Great_ is based upon the history of that _Timour +Leuk_, or _Timour the Lame_, the great Oriental conqueror of the +fourteenth century: + + So large of limb, his joints so strongly knit, + Such breadth of shoulders as might mainly bear + Old Atlas' burthen. + +The descriptions are overdrawn, and the style inflated, but the subject +partakes of the heroic, and was popular still, though nearly two +centuries had passed since the exploits of the historic hero. + +_The Rich Jew of Malta_ is of value, as presenting to us Barabas the Jew +as he appeared to Christian suspicion and hatred in the fifteenth century. +As he sits in his country-house with heaps of gold before him, and +receives the visits of merchants who inform him of the safe arrival of his +ships, it is manifest that he gave Shakspeare the first ideal of his +Shylock, upon which the greater dramatist greatly improved. + +_The Tragicall Life and Death of Doctor John Faustus_ certainly helped +Goethe in the conception and preparation of his modern drama, and contains +many passages of rare power. Charles Lamb says: "The growing horrors of +Faustus are awfully marked by the hours and half-hours which expire and +bring him nearer and nearer to the enactment of his dire compact. It is +indeed an agony and bloody sweat." + +_Edward II._ presents in the assassination scene wonderful power and +pathos, and is regarded by Hazlitt as his best play. + +Marlowe is the author of the pleasant madrigal, called by Izaak Walton +"that smooth song": + + Come live with me and be my love. + +The playwright, who had led a wild life, came to his end in a tavern +brawl: he had endeavored to use his dagger upon one of the waiters, who +turned it upon him, and gave him a wound in the head of which he died, in +1593. + +His talents were of a higher order than those of his contemporaries; he +was next to Shakspeare in power, and was called by Phillips "a second +Shakspeare." + + + +OTHER DRAMATIC WRITERS BEFORE SHAKSPEARE. + + +Thomas Lodge, 1556-1625: educated at Oxford. Wrote _The Wounds of +Civil-War_, and other tragedies. Rosalynd, a novel, from which Shakspeare +drew in his _As You Like It_. He translated _Josephus_ and _Seneca_. + +Thomas Kyd, died about 1600: _The Spanish Tragedy, or, Hieronymo is Mad +Again_. This contains a few highly wrought scenes, which have been +variously attributed to Ben Jonson and to Webster. + +Robert Tailor: wrote _The Hog hath Lost his Pearl_, a comedy, published in +1614. This partakes of the character of the _morality_. + +John Marston: wrote _Antonio and Mellida_, 1602; _Antonio's Revenge_, +1602; _Sophonisba, a Wonder of Women_, 1606; _The Insatiate Countess_, +1603, and many other plays. Marston ranks high among the immediate +predecessors of Shakspeare, for the number, variety, and vigorous handling +of his plays. + +George Peele, born about 1553: educated at Oxford. Many of his pieces are +broadly comic. The principal plays are: _The Arraignment of Paris_, +_Edward I._ and _David and Bethsabe_. The latter is overwrought and full +of sickish sentiment. + +Thomas Nash, 1558-1601: a satirist and polemic, who is best known for his +controversy with Gabriel Harvey. Most of his plays were written in +conjunction with others. He was imprisoned for writing _The Isle of Dogs_, +which was played, but not published. He is very licentious in his +language. + +John Lyly, born about 1553: wrote numerous smaller plays, but is chiefly +known as the author of _Euphues, Anatomy of Wit_, and _Euphues and his +England_. + +Robert Greene, died 1592: educated at Cambridge. Wrote _Alphonsus, King of +Arragon_, _James IV._, _George-a-Greene_, _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, +and other plays. After leading a profligate life, he left behind him a +pamphlet entitled, "A Groat's-worth of Wit, bought with a Million of +Repentance:" this is full of contrition, and of advice to his +fellow-actors and fellow-sinners. It is mainly remarkable for its abuse of +Shakspeare, "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers;" "Tygre's +heart wrapt in a player's hide;" "an absolute Johannes factotum, in his +own conceyt the onely _shakescene_ in the country." + +Most of these dramatists wrote in copartnership with others, and many of +the plays which bear their names singly, have parts composed by +colleagues. Such was the custom of the age, and it is now very difficult +to declare the distinct authorship of many of the plays. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. + + + The Power of Shakspeare. Meagre Early History. Doubts of his Identity. + What is known. Marries, and goes to London. "Venus" and "Lucrece." + Retirement and Death. Literary Habitudes. Variety of the Plays. Table + of Dates and Sources. + + + +THE POWER OF SHAKSPEARE. + + +We have now reached, in our search for the historic teachings in English +literature, and in our consideration of the English drama, the greatest +name of all, the writer whose works illustrate our position most strongly, +and yet who, eminent type as he is of British culture in the age of +Elizabeth, was truly and pithily declared by his friend and contemporary, +Ben Jonson, to be "not for an age, but for all time." It is also +singularly true that, even in such a work as this, Shakspeare really +requires only brief notice at our hands, because he is so universally +known and read: his characters are among our familiar acquaintance; his +simple but thoughtful words are incorporated in our common conversation; +he is our every-day companion. To eulogize him to the reading public is + + To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, + To lend a perfume to the violet ... + +The Bible and Shakspeare have been long conjoined as the two most +necessary books in a family library; and Mrs. Cowden Clarke, the author of +the Concordance to Shakspeare, has pointedly and truthfully said: "A poor +lad, possessing no other book, might on this single one make himself a +gentleman and a scholar: a poor girl, studying no other volume, might +become a lady in heart and soul." + + +MEAGRE EARLY HISTORY.--It is passing strange, considering the great value +of his writings, and his present fame, that of his personal history so +little is known. In the words of Steevens, one of his most successful +commentators: "All that is known, with any degree of certainty, concerning +Shakspeare, is--that he was born at Stratford upon Avon--married and had +children there--went to London, where he commenced actor, and wrote poems +and plays--returned to Stratford, made his will, died, and was buried." + +This want of knowledge is in part due to his obscure youth, during which +no one could predict what he would afterward achieve, and therefore no one +took notes of his life: to his own apparent ignorance and carelessness of +his own merits, and to the low repute in which plays, and especially +playwrights, were then held; although they were in reality making their +age illustrious in history. The pilgrim to Stratford sees the little low +house in which he is said to have been born, purchased by the nation, and +now restored into a smart cottage: within are a few meagre relics of the +poet's time; not far distant is the foundation--recently uncovered--of his +more ambitious residence in New Place, and a mulberry-tree, which probably +grew from a slip of that which he had planted with his own hand. Opposite +is the old Falcon Inn, where he made his daily potations. Very near rises, +above elms and lime-trees, the spire of the beautiful church on the bank +of the Avon, beneath the chancel of which his remains repose, with those +of his wife and daughter, overlooked by his bust, of which no one knows +the maker or the history, except that it dates from his own time. His bust +is of life-size, and was originally painted to imitate nature--eyes of +hazel, hair and beard auburn, doublet scarlet, and sleeveless gown of +black. Covered by a false taste with white paint to imitate marble, while +it destroyed identity and age: it has since been recolored from +traditional knowledge, but it is too rude to give us the expression of his +face. + +The only other probable likeness is that from an old picture, an engraving +of which, by Droeshout, is found in the first folio edition of his plays, +published in 1623, seven years after his death: it was said by Ben Jonson +to be a good likeness. We are very fortunate in having these, +unsatisfactory as they are, for it is simple truth that beyond these +places and things, there is little, if anything, to illustrate the +personal history of Shakspeare. All that we can know of the man is found +in his works. + + +DOUBTS OF HIS IDENTITY.--This ignorance concerning him has given rise to +numerous doubts as to his literary identity, and many efforts have been +made to find other authors for his dramas. Among the most industrious in +this deposing scheme, have been Miss Delia Bacon and Mr. Nathaniel Holmes, +who concur in attributing his best plays to Francis Bacon. That Bacon did +not acknowledge his own work, they say, is because he rated the dramatic +art too far beneath his dignity to confess any complicity with it. In +short, he and other great men of that day wrote immortal works which they +were ashamed of, and were willing to father upon the common actor and +stage-manager, one William Shakspeare! + +While it is not within the scope of this volume to enter into the +controversy, it is a duty to state its existence, and to express the +judgment that these efforts have been entirely unsuccessful, but have not +been without value in that they have added a little to the meagre history +by their researches, and have established the claims of Shakspeare on a +firmer foundation than before. + + +WHAT IS KNOWN.--William Shakspeare (spelt _Shackspeare_ in the body of his +will, but signed _Shakspeare_) was the third of eight children, and the +eldest son of John Shakspeare and Mary Arden: he was born at the beautiful +rural town of Stratford, on the little river Avon, on the 23d of April, +1564. His father, who was of yeoman rank, was probably a dealer in wool +and leather. Aubrey, a gossiping chronicler of the next generation, says +he was a butcher, and some biographers assert that he was a glover. He may +have exercised all these crafts together, but it is more to our purpose to +know that in his best estate he was a property holder and chief burgess of +the town. Shakspeare's mother seems to have been of an older family. +Neither of them could write. Shakspeare received his education at the free +grammar-school, still a well-endowed institution in the town, where he +learned the "small Latin and less Greek" accorded to him by Ben Jonson at +a later day. + +There are guesses, rather than traditions, that he was, after the age of +fifteen, a student in a law-office, that he was for a time at one of the +universities, and also that he was a teacher in the grammar-school. These +are weak inventions to account for the varied learning displayed in his +dramas. His love of Nature and his power to delineate her charms were +certainly fostered by the beautiful rural surroundings of Stratford; +beyond this it is idle to seek to penetrate the obscure processes of his +youth. + + +MARRIES, AND GOES TO LONDON.--Finding himself one of a numerous and poor +family, to the support of which his father's business was inadequate, he +determined, to shift for himself, and to push his fortunes in the best way +he could. + +Whether he regarded matrimony as one element of success we do not know, +but the preliminary bond of marriage between himself and Anne Hathaway, +was signed on the 28th of November, 1582, when he was eighteen years old. +The woman was seven years older than himself; and it is a sad commentary +on the morality of both, that his first child, Susanna, was baptized on +the 25th of May, 1583. + +Strolling bands of players, in passing through England, were in the habit +of stopping at Stratford, and setting upon wheels their rude stage with +weather-stained curtains; and these, it should be observed, were the best +dramatic companies of the time, such as the queen's company, and those in +the service of noblemen like Leicester, Warwick, and others. If he did not +see he must have heard of the great pageant in 1575, when Leicester +entertained Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth, which is so charmingly +described by Sir Walter Scott. Young Shakspeare became stage-struck, and +probably joined one of these companies, with other idle young men of the +neighborhood. + +Various legends, without sufficient foundation of truth, are related of +him at this time, which indicate that he was of a frolicsome and +mischievous turn: among these is a statement that he was arraigned for +deer-poaching in the park of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote. A satirical +reference to Sir Thomas in one of his plays,[30] leads us to think that +there is some truth in the story, although certain of his biographers have +denied it. + +In February, 1584-5, he became the father of twins, Hamnet and Judith, and +in 1586, leaving his wife and children at Stratford, he went up with a +theatrical company to London, where for three years he led a hard and +obscure life. He was at first a menial at the theatre; some say he held +gentlemen's horses at the door, others that he was call-boy, prompter, +scene-shifter, minor actor. At length he began to find his true vocation +in altering and adapting plays for the stage. This earlier practice, in +every capacity, was of great value to him when he began to write plays of +his own. As an actor he never rose above mediocrity. It is said that he +played such parts as the Ghost in Hamlet, and Adam in As You Like It; but +off the stage he became known for a ready wit and convivial humor. + +His ready hand for any work caused him to prosper steadily, and so in +1589 we find his name the twelfth on the list of sixteen shareholders in +the Blackfriars Theatre, one of the first play-houses built in London. +That he was steadily growing in public favor, as well as in private +fortune, might be inferred from Spenser's mention of him in the "Tears of +the Muses," published in 1591, if we were sure he was the person referred +to. If he was, this is the first great commendation he had received: + + The man whom nature's self had made, + To mock herself and truth to imitate, + With kindly counter under mimic shade, + Our pleasant Willie. + +There is, however, a doubt whether the reference is to him, as he had +written very little as early as 1591. + + +VENUS AND ADONIS.--In 1593 appeared his _Venus and Adonis_, which he now +had the social position and interest to dedicate to the Earl of +Southampton. It is a harmonious and beautiful poem, but the display of +libidinous passion in the goddess, however in keeping with her character +and with the broad taste of the age, is disgusting to the refined reader, +even while he acknowledges the great power of the poet. In the same year +was built the Globe Theatre, a hexagonal wooden structure, unroofed over +the pit, but thatched over the stage and the galleries. In this, too, +Shakspeare was a shareholder. + + +THE RAPE OF LUCRECE.--The _Rape of Lucrece_ was published in 1594, and was +dedicated to the same nobleman, who, after the custom of the period, +became Shakspeare's patron, and showed the value of his patronage by the +gift to the poet of a thousand pounds. + +Thus in making poetical versions of classical stories, which formed the +imaginative pabulum of the age, and in readapting older plays, the poet +was gaining that skill and power which were to produce his later immortal +dramas. + +These, as we shall see, he began to write as early as 1589, and continued +to produce until 1612. + + +RETIREMENT AND DEATH.--A few words will complete his personal history: His +fortune steadily increased; in 1602 he was the principal owner of the +Globe; then, actuated by his home feeling, which had been kept alive by +annual visits to Stratford, he determined, as soon as he could, to give up +the stage, and to take up his residence there. He had purchased, in 1597, +the New Place at Stratford, but he did not fully carry out his plan until +1612, when he finally retired with ample means and in the enjoyment of an +honorable reputation. There he exercised a generous hospitality, and led a +quiet rural life. He planted a mulberry-tree, which became a pilgrim's +shrine to numerous travellers; but a ruthless successor in the ownership +of New Place, the Reverend Francis Gastrell, annoyed by the concourse of +visitors, was Vandal enough to cut it down. Such was the anger of the +people that he was obliged to leave the place, which he did after razing +the mansion to the ground. His name is held in great detestation at +Stratford now, as every traveller is told his story. + +Shakspeare's death occurred on his fifty-second birthday, April 23d, 1616. +He had been ill of a fever, from which he was slowly recovering, and his +end is said to have been the result of an over-conviviality in +entertaining Drayton and Ben Jonson, who had paid him a visit at +Stratford. + +His son Hamnet had died in 1596, at the age of twelve. In 1607, his +daughter Susannah had married Dr. Hall; and in 1614 died Judith, who had +married Thomas Quiney. Shakspeare's wife survived him, and died in 1623. + + +LITERARY HABITUDES.--Such, in brief, is the personal history of +Shakspeare: of his literary habitudes we know nothing. The exact dates of +the appearance of his plays are, in most cases, doubtful. Many of these +had been printed singly during his life, but the first complete edition +was published in folio, in 1623. It contains _thirty-six_ plays, and is +the basis of the later editions, which contain thirty-_seven_. Many +questions arise which cannot be fully answered: Did he write all the plays +contained in the volume? Are the First Part of Henry VI., Titus +Andronicus,[31] and Pericles his work? Did he not write others not found +among these? Had he, as was not uncommon then and later, collaboration in +those which bear his name? Was he a Beaumont to some Fletcher, or a +Sackville to some Norton? Upon these questions generations of Shakspearean +scholars have expended a great amount of learned inquiry ever since his +day, and not without results: it is known that many of his dramas are +founded upon old plays, as to plots; and that he availed himself of the +labor of others in casting his plays. + +But the real value of his plays, the insight into human nature, the +profound philosophy, "the myriad-soul" which they display, are +Shakspeare's only. By applying just rules of evidence, we conclude that he +did write thirty-five of the plays attributed to him, and that he did not +write, or was not the chief writer of others. It is certainly very strong +testimony on these points, that seven years after his death, and _three +years before that of Bacon_, a large folio should have been published by +his professional friends Heminge and Condell, prefaced with ardent +eulogies, claiming thirty-six plays as his, and that it did not meet with +the instant and indignant cry that his claims were false. The players of +that day were an envious and carping set, and the controversy would have +been fierce from the very first, had there been just grounds for it. + + +VARIETY OF PLAYS.--No attempt will be made to analyze any of the plays of +Shakspeare: that is left for the private study and enjoyment of the +student, by the use of the very numerous aids furnished by commentators +and critics. It will be found often that in their great ardor, the +dramatist has been treated like the Grecian poet: + + [Shakspeare's] critics bring to view + Things which [Shakspeare] never knew. + +Many of the plays are based upon well-known legends and fictional tales, +some of them already adopted in old plays: thus the story of King Lear and +his daughters is found in Holinshed's Chronicle, and had been for years +represented; from this Shakspeare has borrowed the story, but has used +only a single passage. The play is intended to represent the ancient +Celtic times in Britain, eight hundred years before Christ; and such is +its power and pathos, that we care little for its glaring anachronisms and +curious errors. In Holinshed are also found the stories of Cymbeline and +Macbeth, the former supposed to have occurred during the Roman occupancy +of Britain, and the latter during the Saxon period. + +With these before us, let us observe that names, chronology, geography, +costumes, and customs are as nothing in his eyes. His aim is human +philosophy: he places his living creations before us, dressing them, as it +were, in any garments most conveniently at hand. These lose their +grotesqueness as his characters speak and act. Paternal love and weakness, +met by filial ingratitude; these are the lessons and the fearful pictures +of Lear: sad as they are, the world needed them, and they have saved many +a later Lear from expulsion and storm and death, and shamed many a Goneril +and Regan, while they have strengthened the hearts of many a Cordelia +since. Chastity and constancy shine like twin stars from the forest of +Cymbeline. And what have we in Macbeth? Mad ambition parleying with the +devil, in the guise of a woman lost to all virtue save a desire to +aggrandize her husband and herself. These have a pretence of history; but +Hamlet, with hardly that pretence, stands alone supreme in varied +excellence. Ambition, murder, resistless fate, filial love, the love of +woman, revenge, the power of conscience, paternal solicitude, infinite +jest: what a volume is this! + + +TABLE OF DATES AND SOURCES.--The following table, which presents the plays +in chronological order,[32] the times when they were written, as nearly as +can be known, and the sources whence they were derived, will be of more +service to the student than any discursive remarks upon the several plays. + +Plays. Dates. Sources. + + 1. Henry VI., first part 1589 Denied to Shakspeare; attributed to + Marlowe or Kyd. + 2. Pericles 1590 From the "Gesta Romanorum." + 3. Henry VI., second part 1591 " an older play. + 4. Henry VI., third part 1591 " " " " + 5. Two Gentlemen of Verona 1591 " an old tale. + 6. Comedy of Errors 1592 " a comedy of Plautus. + 7. Love's Labor Lost 1592 " an Italian play. + 8. Richard II. 1593 " Holinshed and other + chronicles. + 9. Richard III. 1593 From an old play and Sir Thomas + More's History. +10. Midsummer Night's Dream 1594 Suggested by Palamon and Arcite, + The Knight's Tale, of Chaucer. +11. Taming of the Shrew 1596 From an older play. +12. Romeo and Juliet 1596 " " old tale. Boccaccio. +13. Merchant of Venice 1597 " Gesta Romanorum, with suggestions + from Marlowe's Jew of Malta. +14. Henry IV., part 1 1597 From an old play. +15. Henry IV., part 2 1598 " " " " +16. King John 1598 " " " " +17. All's Well that Ends Well 1598 " Boccaccio. +18. Henry V. 1599 From an older play. +19. As You Like It 1600 Suggested in part by Lodge's novel, + Rosalynd. +20. Much Ado About Nothing 1600 Source unknown. +21. Hamlet 1601 From the Latin History of Scandinavia, + by Saxo, called Grammaticus. +22. Merry Wives of Windsor 1601 Said to have been suggested by + Elizabeth. +23. Twelfth Night 1601 From an old tale. +24. Troilus and Cressida 1602 Of classical origin, through Chaucer. +25. Henry VIII. 1603 From the chronicles of the day. +26. Measure for Measure 1603 " an old tale. +27. Othello 1604 " " " " +28. King Lear 1605 " Holinshed. +29. Macbeth 1606 " " +30. Julius Caesar 1607 " Plutarch's Parallel Lives. +31. Antony and Cleopatra 1608 " " " " +32. Cymbeline 1609 " Holinshed. +33. Coriolanus 1610 " Plutarch. +34. Timon of Athens 1610 " " and other sources. +35. Winter's Tale 1611 " a novel by Greene. +36. Tempest 1612 " Italian Tale. +37. Titus Andronicus 1593 Denied to Shakspeare; probably by + Marlowe or Kyd. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, (CONTINUED.) + + + The Grounds of his Fame. Creation of Character. Imagination and Fancy. + Power of Expression. His Faults. Influence of Elizabeth. Sonnets. + Ireland and Collier. Concordance. Other Writers. + + + +THE GROUNDS OF HIS FAME. + + +From what has been said, it is manifest that as to his plots and +historical reproductions, Shakspeare has little merit but taste in +selection; and indeed in most cases, had he invented the stories, his +merit would not have been great: what then is the true secret of his power +and of his fame? This question is not difficult to answer. + +First, these are due to his wonderful insight into human nature, and the +philosophy of human life: he dissects the human mind in all its +conditions, and by this vivisection he displays its workings as it lives +and throbs; he divines the secret impulses of all ages and +characters--childhood, boyhood, manhood, girlhood, and womanhood; men of +peace, and men of war; clowns, nobles, and kings. His large heart was +sympathetic with all, and even most so with the lowly and suffering; he +shows us to ourselves, and enables us to use that knowledge for our +profit. All the virtues are held up to our imitation and praise, and all +the vices are scourged and rendered odious in our sight. To read +Shakspeare aright is of the nature of honest self-examination, that most +difficult and most necessary of duties. + + +CREATION OF CHARACTER.--Second: He stands supreme in the creation of +character, which may be considered the distinguishing mark of the highest +literary genius. The men and women whom he has made are not stage-puppets +moved by hidden strings; they are real. We know them as intimately as the +friends and acquaintances who visit us, or the people whom we accost in +our daily walks. + +And again, in this varied delineation of character, Shakspeare less than +any other author either obtrudes or repeats himself. Unlike Byron, he is +nowhere his own hero: unlike most modern novelists, he fashions men who, +while they have the generic human resemblance, differ from each other like +those of flesh and blood around us: he has presented a hundred phases of +love, passion, ambition, jealousy, revenge, treachery, and cruelty, and +each distinct from the others of its kind; but lest any character should +degenerate into an allegorical representation of a single virtue or vice, +he has provided it with the other lineaments necessary to produce in it a +rare human identity. + +The stock company of most writers is limited, and does arduous duty in +each new play or romance; so that we detect in the comic actor, who is now +convulsing the pit with laughter, the same person who a little while ago +died heroically to slow music in the tragedy. Each character in Shakspeare +plays but one part, and plays it skilfully and well. And who has portrayed +the character of woman like Shakspeare?--the grand sorrow of the +repudiated Catharine, the incorruptible chastity of Isabella, the +cleverness of Portia, the loves of Jessica and of Juliet, the innocent +curiosity of Miranda, the broken heart and crazed brain of the fair +Ophelia. + +In this connection also should be noticed his powers of grouping and +composition; which, in the words of one of his biographers, "present to us +pictures from the realms of spirits and from fairyland, which in deep +reflection and in useful maxims, yield nothing to the pages of the +philosophers, and which glow with all the poetic beauty that an +exhaustless fancy could shower upon them." + + +IMAGINATION AND FANCY.--And this brings us to notice, in the third place, +his rare gifts of imagination and of fancy; those instruments of the +representative faculty by which objects of sense and of mind are held up +to view in new, varied, and vivid lights. Many of his tragedies abound in +imaginative pictures, while there are not in the realm of Fancy's fairy +frostwork more exquisite representations than those found in the _Tempest_ +and the _Midsummer Night's Dream_. + + +POWER OF EXPRESSION.--Fourth, Shakspeare is remarkable for the power and +felicity of his expression. He adapts his language to the persons who use +it, and thus we pass from the pompous grandiloquence of king and herald to +the common English and coarse conceits of clown and nurse and +grave-digger; from the bombastic speech of Glendower and the rhapsodies of +Hotspur to the slang and jests of Falstaff. + +But something more is meant by felicity of expression than this. It +applies to the apt words which present pithy bits of household philosophy, +and to the beautiful words which convey the higher sentiments and flights +of fancy; to the simple words couching grand thoughts with such exquisite +aptness that they seem made for each other, so that no other words would +do as well, and to the dainty songs, like those of birds, which fill his +forests and gardens with melody. Thus it is that orators and essayists +give dignity and point to their own periods by quoting Shakspeare. + +Such are a few of Shakspeare's high merits, which constitute him the +greatest poet who has ever used the English tongue--poet, moralist, and +philosopher in one. + + +HIS FAULTS.--If it be necessary to point out his faults, it should be +observed that most of them are those of the age and of his profession. To +both may be charged the vulgarity and lewdness of some of his +representations; which, however, err in this respect far less than the +writings of his contemporaries. + +Again: in the short time allowed for the presentation of a play, before a +restless audience, as soon as the plot was fairly shadowed, the hearers +were anxious for the _denouement_. And so Shakspeare, careless of future +fame, frequently displays a singular disparity between the parts. He has +so much of detail in the first two acts, that in order to preserve the +symmetry, five or six more would be necessary. Thus conclusions are +hurried, when, as works of art, they should be the most elaborated. + +He has sometimes been accused of obscurity in expression, which renders +some of his passages difficult to be understood by commentators; but this, +in most cases, is the fault of his editors. The cases are exceptional and +unimportant. His anachronisms and historical inaccuracies have already +been referred to. His greatest admirers will allow that his wit and humor +are very often forced and frequently out of place; but here, too, he +should be leniently judged. These sallies of wit were meant rather to +"tickle the ears of the groundlings" than as just subjects for criticism +by later scholars. We know that old jokes, bad puns, and innuendoes are +needed on the stage at the present day. Shakspeare used them for the same +ephemeral purpose then; and had he sent down corrected versions to +posterity, they would have been purged of these. + + +INFLUENCE OF ELIZABETH.--Enough has been said to show in what manner +Shakspeare represents his age, and indeed many former periods of English +history. There are numerous passages which display the influence of +Elizabeth. It was at her request that he wrote the _Merry Wives of +Windsor_, in which Falstaff is depicted as a lover: the play of Henry +VIII., criticizing the queen's father, was not produced until after her +death. His pure women, like those of Spenser, are drawn after a queenly +model. It is known that Elizabeth was very susceptible to admiration, but +did not wish to be considered so; and Shakspeare paid the most delicate +and courtly tribute to her vanity, in those exquisite lines from the +_Midsummer Night's Dream_, showing how powerless Cupid was to touch her +heart: + + A certain aim he took + At a fair vestal, throned by the west; + And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, + As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts: + But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft + Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon; + And _the imperial votaress passed on_, + In maiden meditation, fancy free. + + +SHAKSPEARE'S SONNETS.--Before his time, the sonnet had been but little +used in England, the principal writers being Surrey, Sir Walter Raleigh, +Sidney, Daniel, and Drayton. Shakspeare left one hundred and fifty-four, +which exhibit rare poetical power, and which are most of them addressed to +a person unknown, perhaps an ideal personage, whose initials are W. H. +Although chiefly addressed to a man, they are of an amatory nature, and +dwell strongly upon human frailty, infidelity, and treachery, from which +he seems to have suffered: the mystery of these poems has never been +penetrated. They were printed in 1609. "Our language," says one of his +editors, "can boast no sonnets altogether worthy of being placed by the +side of Shakspeare's, except the few which Milton poured forth--so severe +and so majestic." + +It need hardly be said that Shakspeare has been translated into all modern +languages, in whole or in part. In French, by Victor Hugo and Guizot, Leon +de Wailly and Alfred de Vigny; in German, by Wieland, A. W. Schlegel, and +Buerger; in Italian, by Leoni and Carcano, and in Portuguese by La Silva. +Goethe's Apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister is a long and profound critique +of Hamlet; and to the Germans he is quite as familiar and intelligible as +to the English. + + +IRELAND: COLLIER.--The most celebrated forgery of Shakspeare was that by +Samuel Ireland, the son of a Shakspearean scholar, who was an engraver and +dealer in curiosities. He wrote two plays, called _Vortigern_ and _Henry +the Second_, which he said he had discovered; and he forged a deed with +Shakspeare's autograph. By these he imposed upon his father and many +others, but eventually confessed the forgery. + +One word should be said concerning the Collier controversy. John Payne +Collier was a lawyer, born in 1789, and is known as the author of an +excellent history of _English Dramatic Poetry to the Time of Shakspeare_ +and _Annals of the Stage to the Restoration_. In the year 1849, he came +into possession of a copy of the folio edition of Shakspeare, published in +1632, _full of emendations_, by an early owner of the volume. In 1852 he +published these, and at once great enthusiasm was excited, for and against +the emendations: many thought them of great value, while others even went +so far as to accuse Mr. Collier of having made some of them himself. The +chief value of the work was that it led to new investigations, and has +thus thrown additional light upon the works of Shakspeare. + + +CONCORDANCE.--The student is referred to a very complete concordance of +Shakspeare, by Mrs. Mary Cowden Clarke, the labor of many years, by which +every line of Shakspeare may be found, and which is thus of incalculable +utility to the Shakspearean scholar. + + + +OTHER DRAMATIC WRITERS OF THE AGE OF SHAKSPEARE. + + +Ben Jonson, 1573-1637: this great dramatist, who deserves a larger space, +was born in London; his father became a Puritan preacher, but after his +death, his mother's second husband put the boy at brick-making. His spirit +revolted at this, and he ran away, and served as a soldier in the Low +Countries. On his return he killed Gabriel Spencer, a fellow-actor, in a +duel, and was for some time imprisoned. His first play was a comedy +entitled _Every Man in his Humour_, acted in 1598. This was succeeded, +the next year, by _Every Man out of his Humour_. He wrote a great number +of both tragedies and comedies, among which the principal are _Cynthia's +Revels_, _Sejanus_, _Volpone_, _Catiline's Conspiracy_, and _The +Alchemist_. In 1616, he received a pension from the crown of one hundred +marks, which was increased by Charles I., in 1630, to one hundred pounds. +He was the friend of Shakspeare, and had many wit-encounters with him. In +these, Fuller compares Jonson to a great Spanish galleon, "built far +higher in learning, solid and slow in performance," and Shakspeare to an +"English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn +with all tides, tack about and take advantage of all winds, by the +quickness of his wit and invention." + +Massinger, 1548-1640: born at Salisbury. Is said to have written +thirty-eight plays, of which only eighteen remain. The chief of these is +the _Virgin Martyr_, in which he was assisted by Dekker. The best of the +others are _The City Madam_ and _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, _The Fatal +Dowry_, _The Unnatural Combat_, and _The Duke of Milan_. _A New Way to Pay +Old Debts_ keeps its place upon the modern stage. + +John Ford, born 1586: author of _The Lover's Melancholy_, _Love's +Sacrifice_, _Perkin Warbeck_, and _The Broken Heart_. He was a pathetic +delineator of love, especially of unhappy love. Some of his plots are +unnatural, and abhorrent to a refined taste. + +Webster (dates unknown): this author is remarkable for his handling of +gloomy and terrible subjects. His best plays are _The Devil's Law Case_, +_Appius and Virginia_, _The Duchess of Malfy_, and _The White Devil_. +Hazlitt says "his _White Devil_ and _Duchess of Malfy_ come the nearest to +Shakspeare of anything we have upon record." + +Francis Beaumont, 1586-1615, and John Fletcher, 1576-1625: joint authors +of plays, numbering fifty-two. A prolific union, in which it is difficult +to determine the exact authorship of each. Among the best plays are _The +Maid's Tragedy_, _Philaster_, and _Cupid's Revenge_. Many of the plots are +licentious, but in monologues they frequently rise to eloquence, and in +descriptions are picturesque and graphic. + +Shirley, 1594-1666: delineates fashionable life with success. His best +plays are _The Maid's Revenge_, _The Politician_, and _The Lady of +Pleasure_. The last suggested to Van Brugh his character of Lady Townly, +in _The Provoked Husband_. Lamb says Shirley "was the last of a great +race, all of whom spoke the same language, and had a set of moral feelings +and notions in common. A new language and quite a new turn of tragic and +comic interest came in at the Restoration." + +Thomas Dekker, died about 1638: wrote, besides numerous tracts, +twenty-eight plays. The principal are _Old Fortunatus_, _The Honest +Whore_, and _Satiro-Mastix, or, The Humorous Poet Untrussed_. In the last, +he satirized Ben Jonson, with whom he had quarrelled, and who had +ridiculed him in _The Poetaster_. In the Honest Whore are found those +beautiful lines so often quoted: + + ... the best of men + That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer; + A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; + The first true gentleman that ever breathed. + +Extracts from the plays mentioned may be found in Charles Lamb's +"Specimens of English Dramatic Poets who lived about the time of +Shakspeare." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +BACON, AND THE RISE OF THE NEW PHILOSOPHY. + + + Birth and Early Life. Treatment of Essex. His Appointments. His Fall. + Writes Philosophy. Magna Instauratio. His Defects. His Fame. His + Essays. + + + +BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE OF BACON. + + +Contemporary with Shakspeare, and almost equal to him in English fame at +least, is Francis Bacon, the founder of the system of experimental +philosophy in the Elizabethan age. The investigations of the one in the +philosophy of human life, were emulated by those of the other in the realm +of general nature, in order to find laws to govern further progress, and +to evolve order and harmony out of chaos. + +Bacon was born in London, on the 22d of January, 1560-61, to an enviable +social lot. His father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was for twenty years lord +keeper of the great seal, and was eulogized by George Buchanan as "Diu +Britannici regni secundum columen." His mother was Anne Cook, a person of +remarkable acquirements in language and theology. Francis Bacon was a +delicate, attractive, and precocious child, noticed by the great, and +kindly called by the queen "her little lord keeper." Ben Jonson refers to +this when he writes, at a later day: + + England's high chancellor, the destined heir + In his soft cradle to his father's chair. + +Thus, in his early childhood, he became accustomed to the forms and +grandeur of political power, and the modes by which it was to be striven +for. + +In his thirteenth year he was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, then, +as now, the more mathematical and scientific of the two universities. But, +like Gibbon at Oxford, he thought little of his alma mater, under whose +care he remained only three years. It is said that at an early age he +disliked the Logic of Aristotle, and began to excogitate his system of +Induction: not content with the formal recorded knowledge, he viewed the +universe as a great storehouse of facts to be educed, investigated, and +philosophically classified. + +After leaving the university, he went in the suite of Sir Amyas Paulet, +the English ambassador, to France; and recorded the observations made +during his travels in a treatise _On the State of Europe_, which is +thoughtful beyond his years. The sudden death of his father, in February, +1579-80, recalled him to England, and his desire to study led him to apply +to the government for a sinecure, which would permit him to do so without +concern as to his support. It is not strange--considering his youth and +the entire ignorance of the government as to his abilities--that this was +refused. He then applied himself to the study of the law; and whatever his +real ability, the jealousy of the Cecils no doubt prompted the opinion of +the queen, that he was not very profound in the branch he had chosen, an +opinion which was fully shared by the blunt and outspoken Lord Coke, who +was his rival in love, law, and preferment. Prompted no doubt by the +coldness of Burleigh, he joined the opposition headed by the Earl of +Essex, and he found in that nobleman a powerful friend and generous +patron, who used his utmost endeavors to have Bacon appointed +attorney-general, but without success. To compensate Bacon for his +failure, Essex presented him with a beautiful villa at Twickenham on the +Thames, which was worth L2,000. + + +TREATMENT OF ESSEX.--Essex was of a bold, eccentric, and violent temper. +It is not to the credit of Bacon that when Essex, through his rashness and +eccentricities, found himself arraigned for treason, Bacon deserted him, +and did not simply stand aloof, but was the chief agent in his +prosecution. Nor is this all: after making a vehement and effective speech +against him, as counsel for the prosecution--a speech which led to his +conviction and execution--Bacon wrote an uncalled-for and malignant paper, +entitled "A Declaration of the Treasons of Robert, Earl of Essex." + +A high-minded man would have aided his friend; a cautious man would have +remained neutral; but Bacon was extravagant, fond of show, eager for +money, and in debt: he sought only to push his own fortunes, without +regard to justice or gratitude, and he saw that he had everything to gain +from his servility to the queen, and nothing from standing by his friend. +Even those who thought Essex justly punished, regarded Bacon with aversion +and contempt, and impartial history has not reversed their opinion. + + +HIS APPOINTMENTS.--He strove for place, and he obtained it. In 1590 he was +appointed counsel extraordinary to the queen: such was his first reward +for this conduct, and such his first lesson in the school where thrift +followed fawning. In 1593 he was brought into parliament for Middlesex, +and there he charmed all hearers by his eloquence, which has received the +special eulogy of Ben Jonson. In his parliamentary career is found a +second instance of his truckling to power: in a speech touching the rights +of the crown, he offended the queen and her ministers; and as soon as he +found they resented it, he made a servile and unqualified apology. + +At this time he began to write his _Essays_, which will be referred to +hereafter, and published two treatises, one on _The Common Law_, and one +on _The Alienation Office_. + +In 1603 he was, by his own seeking, among the crowd of gentlemen knighted +by James I. on his accession; and in 1604 he added fortune to his new +dignity by marrying Alice Barnham, "a handsome maiden," the daughter of a +London alderman. He had before addressed the dowager Lady Hatton, who had +refused him and bestowed her hand upon his rival, Coke. + +In 1613 he attained to the long-desired dignity of attorney-general, a +post which he filled with power and energy, but which he disgraced by the +torture of Peacham, an old clergyman, who was charged with having written +treason in a sermon which he never preached nor published. As nothing +could be extorted from him by the rack, Bacon informed the king that +Peacham "had a dumb devil." It should be some palliation of this deed, +however, that the government was quick and sharp in ferretting out +treason, and that torture was still authorized. + +In 1616 he was sworn of the privy council, and in the next year inherited +his father's honors, being made lord keeper of the seal, principally +through the favor of the favorite Buckingham. His course was still upward: +in 1618 he was made lord high chancellor, and Baron Verulam, and the next +year he was created Viscount St. Albans. Such rapid and high promotion +marked his great powers, but it belonged to the period of despotism. James +had been ruling without a parliament. At length the necessities of the +government caused the king to summon a parliament, and the struggle began +which was to have a fatal issue twenty-five years later. Parliament met, +began to assert popular rights, and to examine into the conduct of +ministers and high officials; and among those who could ill bear such +scrutiny, Bacon was prominent. + + +HIS FALL.--The charges against him were varied and numerous, and easy of +proof. He had received bribes; he had given false judgments for money; he +had perverted justice to secure the smiles of Buckingham, the favorite; +and when a commission was appointed to examine these charges he was +convicted. With abject humility, he acknowledged his guilt, and implored +the pity of his judges. The annals of biography present no sorrier picture +than this. "Upon advised consideration of the charges," he wrote, +"descending into my own conscience, and calling my memory to account so +far as I am able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of +corruption, and do renounce all defence. O my lords, spare a broken reed!" + +It is useless for his defenders, among whom the chief are Mr. Basil +Montagu and Mr. Hepworth Dixon, to inform us that judges in that day were +ill paid, and that it was the custom to receive gifts. If Bacon had a +defence to make and did not make it, he was a coward or a sycophant: if +what he said is true, he was a dishonest man, an unjust judge. He was +sentenced to pay a fine of L40,000, and to be imprisoned in the Tower at +the king's pleasure; the fine was remitted, and the imprisonment lasted +but two days, a result, no doubt foreseen, of his wretched confession. +This was the end of his public career. In retirement, with a pension of +L1,200, making, with his other means, an annual income of L2,500, this +"meanest of mankind" set himself busily to work to prove to the world that +he could also be the "wisest and brightest;"[33] a duality of fame +approached by others, but never equalled. He was, in fact, two men in one: +a dishonest, truckling politician, and a large-minded and truth-seeking +philosopher. + + +BEGINS HIS PHILOSOPHY.--Retired in disgrace from his places at court, the +rest of his life was spent in developing his _Instauratio Magna_, that +revolution in the very principles and institutes of science--that +philosophy which, in the words of Macaulay, "began in observations, and +ended in arts." A few words will suffice to close his personal history. +While riding in his coach, he was struck with the idea that snow would +arrest animal putrefaction. He alighted, bought a fowl, and stuffed it +with snow, with his own hands. He caught cold, stopped at the Earl of +Arundel's mansion, and slept in damp sheets; fever intervened, and on +Easter Day, 1626, he died, leaving his great work unfinished, but in such +condition that the plan has been sketched for the use of the philosophers +who came after him. + +He is said to have made the first sketch of the _Instauratio_ when he was +twenty-six years old, but it was much modified in later years. He fondly +called it also _Temporis Partus Maximus_, the greatest birth of Time. +After that he wrote his _Advancement of Learning in 1605_, which was to +appear in his developed scheme, under the title _De Augmentis +Scientiarum_, written in 1623. His work advanced with and was modified by +his investigations. + +In 1620 he wrote the _Novum Organum_, which, when it first appeared, +called forth from James I. the profane _bon mot_ that it was like the +peace of God, "because it passeth all understanding." Thus he was +preparing the component parts, and fitting them into his system, which has +at length become quite intelligible. A clear notion of what he proposed to +himself and what he accomplished, may be found in the subjoined meagre +sketch, only designed to indicate the outline of that system, which it +will require long and patient study to master thoroughly. + + +THE GREAT RESTORATION, (MAGNA INSTAURATIO.)--He divided it into six parts, +bearing a logical relation to each other, and arranged in the proper order +of study. + +I. Survey and extension of the sciences, (_De Augmentis Scientiarum_.) +"Gives the substance or general description of the knowledge which mankind +_at present possesses_." That is, let it be observed, not according to the +received system and divisions, but according to his own. It is a new +presentation of the existent state of knowledge, comprehending "not only +the things already invented and known, but also those omitted and wanted," +for he says the intellectual globe, as well as the terrestrial, has its +broils and deceits. + +In the branch "_De Partitione Scientiarum_," he divides all human learning +into _History_, which uses the memory; _Poetry_, which employs the +imagination; and _Philosophy_, which requires the reason: divisions too +vague and too few, and so overlapping each other as to be of little +present use. Later classifications into numerous divisions have been +necessary to the progress of scientific research. + +II. Precepts for the interpretation of nature, (_Novum Organum_.) This +sets forth "the doctrine of a more perfect use of the reason, and the true +helps of the intellectual faculties, so as to raise and enlarge the powers +of the mind." "A kind of logic, by us called," he says, "the art of +interpreting nature: differing from the common logic ... in three things, +the end, the order of demonstrating, and the grounds of inquiry." + +Here he discusses induction; opposes the syllogism; shows the value and +the faults of the senses--as they fail us, or deceive us--and presents in +his _idola_ the various modes and forms of deception. These _idola_, which +he calls the deepest fallacies of the human mind, are divided into four +classes: Idola Tribus, Idola Specus, Idola Fori, Idola Theatri. The first +are the errors belonging to the whole human race, or _tribe_; the +second--_of the den_--are the peculiarities of individuals; the third--_of +the market-place_--are social and conventional errors; and the +fourth--_those of the theatre_--include Partisanship, Fashion, and +Authority. + +III. Phenomena of the Universe, or Natural and Experimental History, on +which to found Philosophy, (_Sylva Sylvarum_.) "Our natural history is +not designed," he says, "so much to please by vanity, or benefit by +gainful experiments, as to afford light to the discovery of causes, and +hold out the breasts of philosophy." This includes his patient search for +facts--nature _free_, as in the history of plants, minerals, animals, +etc.--nature _put to the torture_, as in the productions of art and human +industry. + +IV. Ladder of the Understanding, (_Scala Intellectus_.) "Not illustrations +of rules and precepts, but perfect models, which will exemplify the second +part of this work, and represent to the eye the whole progress of the +mind, and the continued structure and order of invention, in the most +chosen subjects, after the same manner as globes and machines facilitate +the more abstruse and subtle demonstrations in mathematics." + +V. Precursors or anticipations of the second philosophy, (_Prodromi sive +anticipationes philosophiae secundae_.) "These will consist of such things +as we have invented, experienced, or added by the same common use of the +understanding that others employ"--a sort of scaffolding, only of use till +the rest are finished--a set of suggestive helps to the attainment of this +second philosophy, which is the goal and completion of his system. + +VI. Second Philosophy, or Active Science, (_Philosophia Secunda_.) "To +this all the rest are subservient--_to lay down that philosophy_ which +shall flow from the just, pure, and strict inquiry hitherto proposed." "To +perfect this is beyond both our abilities and our hopes; yet we shall lay +the foundations of it, and recommend the superstructure to posterity." + +An examination of this scheme will show a logical procession from the +existing knowledge, and from existing defects, by right rules of reason, +and the avoidance of deceptions, with a just scale of perfected models, to +the _second philosophy_, or science in useful practical action, diffusing +light and comfort throughout the world. + +In a philosophic instead of a literary work, these heads would require +great expansion in order adequately to illustrate the scheme in its six +parts. This, however, would be entirely out of our province, which is to +present a brief outline of the works of a man who occupies a prominent +place in the intellectual realm of England, as a profound philosopher, and +as a writer of English prose; only as one might introduce a great man in a +crowd: those who wish to know the extent and character of his greatness +must study his works. + +They were most of them written in Latin, but they have been ably +translated and annotated, and are within the ready reach and comprehension +of students. The best edition in English, is that by Spedding, Ellis, and +Heath, which has been republished in America. + + +BACON'S DEFECTS.--Further than this tabular outline, neither our space nor +the scope of our work will warrant us in going; but it is important to +consider briefly the elements of Bacon's remarkable fame. His system and +his knowledge are superseded entirely. Those who have studied physics and +chemistry at the present day, know a thousand-fold more than Bacon could; +for such knowledge did not exist in his day. But he was one of those--and +the chief one--who, in that age of what is called the childhood of +experimental philosophy, helped to clear away the mists of error, and +prepare for the present sunshine of truth. "I have been laboring," says +some writer, (quoted by Bishop Whately, Pref. to Essay XIV.,) "to render +myself useless." Such was Bacon's task, and such the task of the greatest +inventors, discoverers, and benefactors of the human race. + +Nor did Bacon rank high even as a natural philosopher or physicist in his +own age: he seems to have refused credence to the discoveries of +Copernicus and Galileo, which had stirred the scientific world into great +activity before his day; and his investigations in botany and vegetable +physiology are crude and full of errors. + +His mind, eminently philosophic, searched for facts only to establish +principles and discover laws; and he was often impatient or obstinate in +this search, feeling that it trammelled him in his haste to reach +conclusions. + +In the consideration of the reason, he unduly despised the _Organon_ of +Aristotle, which, after much indignity and misapprehension, still remains +to elucidate the universal principle of reasoning, and published his new +organon--_Novum Organum_--as a sort of substitute for it: Induction +unjustly opposed to the Syllogism. In what, then, consists that wonderful +excellence, that master-power which has made his name illustrious? + + +HIS FAME.--I. He labored earnestly to introduce, in the place of fanciful +and conjectural systems--careful, patient investigation: the principle of +the procurement of well-known facts, in order that, by severe induction, +philosophy might attain to general laws, and to a classification of the +sciences. The fault of the ages before him had been hasty, careless, often +neglected observation, inaccurate analysis, the want of patient successive +experiment. His great motto was experiment, and again and again +experiment; and the excellent maxims which he laid down for the proper +conduct of experimental philosophy have outlived his own facts and system +and peculiar beliefs. Thus he has fitly been compared to Moses. He led +men, marshalled in strong array, to the vantage ground from which he +showed them the land of promise, and the way to enter it; while he +himself, after all his labors, was not permitted to enjoy it. Such men +deserve the highest fame; and thus the most practical philosophers of +to-day revere the memory of him who showed them from the mountain-top, +albeit in dim vision, the land which they now occupy. + +II. Again, Bacon is the most notable example among natural philosophers of +a man who worked for science and truth alone, with a singleness of purpose +and entire unconcern as to immediate and selfish rewards. Bacon the +philosopher was in the strongest contrast to Bacon the politician. He +left, he said, his labors to posterity; his name and memory to foreign +nations, and "to (his) own country, after some time is past over." His own +time could neither appreciate nor reward them. Here is an element of +greatness worthy of all imitation: he who works for popular applause, may +have his reward, but it is fleeting and unsatisfying; he who works for +truth alone, has a grand inner consequence while he works, and his name +will be honored, if for nothing else, for this loyalty to truth. After +what has been said of his servility and dishonesty, it is pleasing to +contemplate this unsullied side of his escutcheon, and to give a better +significance to the motto on his monument--_Sic sedebat_. + + +HIS ESSAYS.--Bacon's _Essays_, or _Counsels Civil and Moral_, are as +intelligible to the common mind as his philosophy is dry and difficult. +They are short, pithy, sententious, telling us plain truths in simple +language: he had been writing them through several years. He dedicated +them, under the title of _Essays_, to Henry, Prince of Wales, the eldest +son of King James I., a prince of rare gifts, and worthy such a +dedication, who unfortunately died in 1612. They show him to be the +greatest master of English prose in his day, and to have had a deep +insight into human nature. + +Bacon is said to have been the first person who applied the word _essay_ +in English to such writings: it meant, as the French word shows, a little +trial-sketch, a suggestion, a few loose thoughts--a brief of something to +be filled in by the reader. Now it means something far more--a long +composition, dissertation, disquisition. The subjects of the essays, which +number sixty-eight, are such as are of universal interest--fame, studies, +atheism, beauty, ambition, death, empire, sedition, honor, adversity, and +suchlike. + +The Essays have been ably edited and annotated by Archbishop Whately, and +his work has been republished in America. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE ENGLISH BIBLE. + + + Early Versions. The Septuagint. The Vulgate. Wiclif; Tyndale. + Coverdale; Cranmer. Geneva; Bishop's Bible. King James's Bible. + Language of the Bible. Revision. + + + +EARLY VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES. + + +When we consider the very extended circulation of the English Bible in the +version made by direction of James I., we are warranted in saying that no +work in the language, viewed simply as a literary production, has had a +more powerful historic influence over the world of English-speaking +people. + +Properly to understand its value as a version of the inspired writings, it +is necessary to go back to the original history, and discover through what +precedent forms they have come into English. + +All the canonical books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew. The +apocryphal books were produced either in a corrupted dialect, or in Greek. + + +THE SEPTUAGINT.--Limiting our inquiry to the canonical books, and +rejecting all fanciful traditions, it is known that about 286 or 285 B.C., +Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, probably at the instance of his +librarian, Demetrius Phalereus, caused seventy-two Jews, equally learned +in Hebrew and in Greek, to be brought to Alexandria, to prepare a Greek +version of the Hebrew Scriptures. This was for the use of the Alexandrian +Jews. The version was called the Septuagint, or translation of the +seventy. The various portions of the translation are of unequal merit, +the rendering of the Pentateuch being the best; but the completed work was +of great value, not only to the Jews dispersed in the countries where +Greek had been adopted as the national language, but it opened the way for +the coming of Christianity: the study of its prophecies prepared the minds +of men for the great Advent, and the version was used by the earlier +Christians as the historic ground of their faith. + +The books of the New Testament were written in Greek, with the probable +exception of St. Matthew's Gospel, which, if written in Hebrew, or +Aramaean, was immediately translated into Greek. + +Contemporary with the origin of Christianity, and the vast extension of +the Roman Empire, the Latin had become the all-absorbing tongue; and, as +might be expected, numerous versions of the whole and of parts of the +Scriptures were made in that language, and one of these complete versions, +which grew in favor, almost superseding all others, was called the _Vetus +Itala_. + + +THE VULGATE.--St. Jerome, a doctor of the Latin Church in the latter part +of the fourth century, undertook, with the sanction of Damasus, the Bishop +of Rome, a new Latin version upon the basis of the _Vetus Itala_, bringing +it nearer to the Septuagint in the Old Testament, and to the original +Greek of the New. + +This version of Jerome, corrected from time to time, was approved by +Gregory I., (the Great,) and, since the seventh century, has been used by +the Western Church, under the name of the _Vulgate_, (from _vulgatus_--for +general or common use.) The Council of Trent, in the sixteenth century, +declared it alone to be authentic. + +Throughout Western Europe this was used, and made the basis of further +translations into the national languages. It was from the Vulgate that +Aldhelm made his Anglo-Saxon version of the Psalter in 706; Bede, his +entire Saxon Bible in the same period; Alfred, his portion of the Psalms; +and other writers, fragmentary translations. + +As soon as the newly formed English language was strong enough, partial +versions were attempted in it: one by an unknown hand, as early as 1290; +and one by John de Trevisa, about one hundred years later. + + +WICLIF: TYNDALE.--Wiclif's Bible was translated from the Latin Vulgate, +and issued about 1378. If it be asked why he did not go to the original +sources, and thus avoid the errors of successive renderings, the answer is +plain: he was not sufficiently acquainted with Hebrew and Greek to +translate from them. Wiclif's translation was eagerly sought, and was +multiplied by the hands of skilful scribes. Its popularity was very great, +as is attested by the fact that when, in the House of Lords, in the year +1390, a bill was offered to suppress it, the measure signally failed. The +first copy of Wiclif's Bible was not printed until the year 1731. + +About a century after Wiclif, the Greek language and the study of Greek +literature came into England, and were of great effect in making the +forthcoming translations more accurate. + +First among these new translators was William Tyndale, who was born about +the year 1477. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge, and left England +for fear of persecution. He translated the Scriptures from the Greek, and +printed the volume at Antwerp--the first printed translation of the +Scriptures in English--in the year 1526. This work was largely circulated +in England. It was very good for a first translation, and the language is +very nearly that of King James's Bible. It met the fury of the Church, all +the copies which could be found being burned by Tonstall, Bishop of +London, at St. Paul's Cross. When Sir Thomas More asked how Tyndale +subsisted abroad, he was pithily answered that Tyndale was supported by +the Bishop of London, who sent over money to buy up his books. To the +fame of being a translator of the Scriptures, Tyndale adds that of +martyrdom. He was seized, at the instance of Henry VIII., in Antwerp, and +condemned to death by the Emperor of Germany. He was strangled in the year +1536, at Villefort, near Brussels, praying, just before his death, that +the Lord would open the King of England's eyes. + +The Old Testament portion of Tyndale's Bible is principally from the +Septuagint, and has many corruptions and errors, which have been corrected +by more modern translators. + + +MILES COVERDALE: CRANMER'S BIBLE.--In 1535, Miles Coverdale, a co-laborer +of Tyndale, published "Biblia; The Bible, that is, the Holy Scriptures of +the Olde and New Testament, faithfully and truly translated out of the +Douche and Latyn into Englishe: Zurich." In the next year, 1536, Coverdale +issued another edition, which was dedicated to Henry VIII., who ordered a +copy to be placed in every parish church in England. This translation is +in part that of Tyndale, and is based upon it. Another edition of this +appeared in 1537, and was called Matthew's Bible, probably a pseudonym of +Coverdale. Of this, from the beginning to the end of Chronicles is +Tyndale's version. The rest of the Old Testament is Coverdale's +translation. The entire New Testament is Tyndale's. This was published by +royal license. Strange mutation! The same king who had caused Tyndale to +be strangled for publishing the English Scriptures at Antwerp, was now +spreading Tyndale's work throughout the parishes of England. Coverdale +published many editions, among which the most noted was Cranmer's Bible, +issued in 1539, so called because Cranmer wrote a preface to it. Coverdale +led an eventful life, being sometimes in exile and prisoner, and at others +in high favor. He was Bishop of Exeter, from which see he was ejected by +Mary, in 1553. He died in 1568, at the age of eighty-one. + + +THE GENEVAN: BISHOPS' BIBLE.--In the year 1557 he had aided those who were +driven away by Mary, in publishing a version of the Bible at Geneva. It +was much read in England, and is known as the Genevan Bible. The Great +Bible was an edition of Coverdale issued in 1562. The Bishops' Bible was +so called because, at the instance of Archbishop Parker, it was translated +by a royal commission, of whom eight were bishops. And in 1571, a canon +was passed at Canterbury, requiring a large copy of this work to be in +every parish church, and in the possession of every bishop and dignitary +among the clergy. Thus far every new edition and issue had been an +improvement on what had gone before, and all tended to the production of a +still more perfect and permanent translation. It should be mentioned that +Luther, in Germany, after ten years of labor, from 1522 to 1532, had +produced, unaided, his wonderful German version. This had helped the cause +of translations everywhere. + + +KING JAMES'S BIBLE.--At length, in 1603, just after the accession of James +I., a conference was held at Hampton Court, which, among other tasks, +undertook to consider what objections could be made to the Bishops' Bible. +The result was that the king ordered a new version which should supersede +all others. The number of eminent and learned divines appointed to make +the translation was fifty-four; seven of these were prevented by +disability of one kind or another. The remaining forty-seven were divided +into six classes, and the labor was thus apportioned: ten, who sat at +Westminster, translated from Genesis through Kings; eight, at Cambridge, +undertook the other historical books and the Hagiographa, including the +Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ruth, Esther, and a few +other books; seven at Oxford, the four greater Prophets, the Lamentations +of Jeremiah, and the twelve minor Prophets; eight, also at Oxford, the +four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Revelation of St. John; +seven more at Westminster, the Epistles of St. Paul, and the remaining +canonical books; and five more at Cambridge, the Apocryphal books. The +following was the mode of translation: Each individual in one of the +classes translated himself every book confided to that class; each class +then met and compared these translations, and thus completed their task. +The work thus done was sent by each class to all the other classes; after +this, all the classes met together, and while one read the others +criticized. The translation was commenced in the year 1607, and was +finished in three years. The first public issue was in 1611, when the book +was dedicated to King James, and has since been known as King James's +Bible. It was adopted not only in the English Church, but by all the +English people, so that the other versions have fallen into entire disuse, +with the exception of the Psalms, which, according to the translation of +Cranmer's Bible, were placed in the Book of Common Prayer, where they have +since remained, constituting the Psalter. It should be observed that the +Psalter, which is taken principally from the Vulgate, is not so near the +original as the Psalms in King James's version: the language is, however, +more musical and better suited to chanting in the church service. + + +THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.--There have been numerous criticisms, favorable +and adverse, to the language of King James's Bible. It is said to have +been written in older English than that of its day, and Selden remarks +that "it is rather translated into English words than into English +phrase." The Hebraisms are kept, and the phraseology of that language is +retained. This leads to the opinion of Bishop Horsley, that the adherence +to the Hebrew idiom is supposed to have at once enriched and adorned our +language. Bishop Middleton says "the style is simple, it is harmonious, it +is energetic, and, which is of no small importance, use has made it +familiar, and time has rendered it sacred." That it has lasted two +hundred and fifty years without a rival, is the strongest testimony in +favor of its accuracy and the beauty of its diction. Philologically +considered, it has been of inestimable value as a strong rallying-point +for the language, keeping it from wild progress in any and every +direction. Many of our best words, which would otherwise have been lost, +have been kept in current use because they are in the Bible. The peculiar +language of the Bible expresses our most serious sentiments and our +deepest emotions. It is associated with our holiest thoughts, and gives +phraseology to our prayers. It is the language of heavenly things, but not +only so: it is interwreathed in our daily discourse, kept fresh by our +constant Christian services, and thus we are bound by ties of the same +speech to the devout men of King James's day. + + +REVISION.--There are some inaccuracies and flaws in the translation which +have been discerned by the superior excellence of modern learning. In the +question now mooted of a revision of the English Bible, the correction of +these should be the chief object. A version in the language of the present +day, in the course of time would be as archaic as the existing version is +now; and the private attempts which have been made, have shown us the +great danger of conflicting sectarian views. + +In any event, it is to be hoped that those who authorize a new translation +will emulate the good sense and judgment of King James, by placing it in +the hands of the highest learning, most liberal scholarship, and most +devoted piety. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +JOHN MILTON, AND THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH. + + + Historical Facts. Charles I. Religious Extremes. Cromwell. Birth and + Early Works. Views of Marriage. Other Prose Works. Effects of the + Restoration. Estimate of his Prose. + + + +HISTORICAL FACTS. + + +It is Charles Lamb who says "Milton almost requires a solemn service to be +played before you enter upon him." Of Milton, the poet of _Paradise Lost_, +this is true; but for Milton the statesman the politician, and polemic, +this is neither necessary nor appropriate. John Milton and the +Commonwealth! Until the present age, Milton has been regarded almost +solely as a poet, and as the greatest imaginative poet England has +produced; but the translation and publication of his prose works have +identified him with the political history of England, and the discovery in +1823, of his _Treatise on Christian Doctrine_, has established him as one +of the greatest religious polemics in an age when every theological sect +was closely allied to a political party, and thus rendered the strife of +contending factions more bitter and relentless. Thus it is that the name +of John Milton, as an author, is fitly coupled with the commonwealth, as a +political condition. + +It remains for us to show that in all his works he was the strongest +literary type of history in the age in which he lived. Great as he would +have been in any age, his greatness is mainly English and historical. In +his literary works may be traced every cardinal event in the history of +that period: he aided in the establishment of the Commonwealth, and of +that Commonwealth he was one of the principal characters. His pen was as +sharp and effective as the sabres of Cromwell's Ironsides. + +A few words of preliminary history must introduce him to our reader. Upon +the death of Queen Elizabeth, in 1603, James I. ascended the throne with +the highest notions of kingly prerogative and of a church establishment; +but the progress of the English people in education and intelligence, the +advance in arts and letters which had been made, were vastly injurious to +the autocratic and aristocratic system which James had received from his +predecessor. His foolish arrogance and contempt for popular rights +incensed the people thus enlightened as to their own position and +importance. They soon began to feel that he was not only unjust, but +ungrateful: he had come from a rustic throne in Scotland, where he had +received L5,000 per annum, with occasional presents of fruits, grain, and +poultry, to the greatest throne in Europe; and, besides, the Stuart +family, according to Thackeray, "as regards mere lineage, were no better +than a dozen English and Scottish houses that could be named." + +They resisted his illegal taxes and forced loans; they clamored against +the unconstitutional Court of High Commission; they despised his arrogant +favorites; and what they might have patiently borne from a gallant, +energetic, and handsome monarch, they found it hard to bear from a +pedantic, timid, uncouth, and rickety man, who gave them neither glory nor +comfort. His eldest son, Prince Henry, the universal favorite of the +nation, had died in 1612, before he was eighteen. + + +CHARLES I.--When, after a series of struggles with the parliament, which +he had reluctantly convened, James died in 1625, Charles I. came to an +inheritance of error and misfortune. Imbued with the principles of his +father, he, too, insisted upon "governing the people of England in the +seventeenth century as they had been governed in the sixteenth," while in +reality they had made a century of progress. The cloud increased in +blackness and portent; he dissolved the parliament, and ruled without one; +he imposed and collected illegal and doubtful taxes; he made forced loans, +as his father had done; he was artful, capricious, winding and doubling in +his policy; he made promises without intending to perform them; and found +himself, finally, at direct issue with his parliament and his people. +First at war with the political principles of the court, the nation soon +found itself in antagonism with the religion and morals of the court. +Before the final rupture, the two parties were well defined, as Cavaliers +and Roundheads: each party went to extremes, through the spite and fury of +mutual opposition. The Cavaliers affected a recklessness and dissoluteness +greater than they really felt to be right, in order to differ most widely +from those purists who, urged by analogous motives, decried all amusements +as evil. Each party repelled the other to the extreme of opposition. + + +RELIGIOUS EXTREMES.--Loyalty was opposed by radicalism, and the invectives +of both were bitter in the extreme. The system and ceremonial of a +gorgeous worship restored by Laud, and accused by its opposers of +formalism and idolatry, were attacked by a spirit of excess, which, to +religionize daily life, took the words of Scripture, and especially those +of the Old Testament, as the language of common intercourse, which issued +them from a gloomy countenance, with a nasal twang, and often with a false +interpretation. + +As opposed to the genuflections of Laud and the pomp of his ritual, the +land swarmed with unauthorized preachers; then came out from among the +Presbyterians the Independents; the fifth-monarchy men, shouting for King +Jesus; the Seekers, the Antinomians, who, like Trusty Tomkins, were elect +by the fore-knowledge of God, who were not under the law but under grace, +and who might therefore gratify every lust, and give the rein to every +passion, because they were sealed to a certain salvation. Even in the army +sprang up the Levellers, who wished to abolish monarchy and aristocracy, +and to level all ranks to one. To each religious party, there was a +political character, ranging from High Church and the divine right of +kings, to absolute levellers in Church and State. This disintegrating +process threatened not only civil war, with well-defined parties, but +entire anarchy in the realm of England. It was long resisted by the +conservative men of all opinions. At length the issue came: the king was a +prisoner, without a shadow of power. + +The parliament was still firm, and would have treated with the king by a +considerable majority; but Colonel Pride surrounded it with two regiments, +excluded more than two hundred of the Presbyterians and moderate men; and +the parliament, thus _purged_, appointed the High Court of Justice to try +the king for treason. + +Charles I. fell before the storm. His was a losing cause from the day he +erected his standard at Nottingham, in 1642, to that on which, after his +noble bearing on the scaffold, the masked executioner held up his head and +cried out, "This is the head of a traitor." + +With a fearful consistency the Commons voted soon after to abolish +monarchy and the upper house, and on their new seal inscribed, "On the +first year of freedom by God's blessing restored, 1648." The dispassionate +historian of the present day must condemn both parties; and yet, out of +this fierce travail of the nation, English constitutional liberty was +born. + + +CROMWELL.--The power which the parliament, under the dictation of the +army, had so furiously wielded, passed into the hands of Cromwell, a +mighty man, warrior, statesman, and fanatic, who mastered the crew, seized +the helm, and guided the ship of State as she drove furiously before the +wind. He became lord protector, a king in everything but the name. We +need not enter into an analysis of these parties: the history is better +known than any other part of the English annals, and almost every reader +becomes a partisan. Cromwell, the greatest man of his age, was still a +creature of the age, and was led by the violence of circumstances to do +many things questionable and even wicked, but with little premeditation: +like Rienzi and Napoleon, his sudden elevation fostered an ambition which +robbed him of the stern purpose and pure motives of his earlier career. + +The establishment of the commonwealth seemed at first to assure the +people's liberty; but it was only in seeming, and as the sequel shows, +they liked the rule of the lord protector less than that of the +unfortunate king; for, ten years after the beheading of Charles I., they +restored the monarchy in the person of his son, Charles. + +Such, very briefly and in mere outline, was the political situation. And +now to return to Milton: It is claimed that of all the elements of these +troublous times, he was the literary type, and this may be demonstrated-- + + I. By observing his personal characteristics and political + appointments; + + II. By the study of his prose works; and + + III. By analyzing his poems. + + +BIRTH AND EARLY WORKS.--John Milton was born on the 9th of December, 1608, +in London. His grandfather, John Mylton, was a Papist, who disinherited +his son, the poet's father, for becoming a Church-of-England man. His +mother was a gentlewoman. Milton was born just in time to grow up with the +civil troubles. When the outburst came in 1642, he was thirty-four years +old, a solemn, cold, studious, thoughtful, and dogmatic Puritan. In 1624 +he entered Christ College, Cambridge, where, from his delicate and +beautiful face and shy airs, he was called the "Lady of the College." It +is said that he left the university on account of peculiar views in +theology and politics; but eight years after, in 1632, he took his degree +as master of arts. Meanwhile, in December, 1629, he had celebrated his +twenty-first birthday, when the Star of Bethlehem was coming into the +ascendant, with that pealing, organ-like hymn, "On the Eve of Christ's +Nativity"--the worthiest poetic tribute ever laid by man, along with the +gold, frankincense, and myrrh of the Eastern sages, at the feet of the +Infant God: + + See how from far upon the Eastern road, + The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet; + O run, prevent them with thy humble ode, + And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; + Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet, + And join thy voice unto the angel choir, + From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire. + +Some years of travel on the Continent matured his mind, and gave full +scope to his poetic genius. At Paris he became acquainted with Grotius, +the illustrious writer upon public law; and in Rome, Genoa, Florence, and +other Italian cities, he became intimate with the leading minds of the +age. He returned to England on account of the political troubles. + + +MILTON'S VIEWS OF MARRIAGE.--In the consideration of Milton's personality, +we do not find in him much to arouse our heart-sympathy. His opinions +concerning marriage and divorce, as set forth in several of his prose +writings, would, if generally adopted, destroy the sacred character of +divinely appointed wedlock. His views may be found in his essay on _The +Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce;_ in his _Tetrachordon, or the four +chief places in Scripture, which treat of Marriage, or Nullities in +Marriage_; in his _Colasterion_, and in his translation of Martin Bucer's +_Judgment Concerning Divorce_, addressed to the Parliament of England. +Where women were concerned he was a hard man and a stern master. + +In 1643 he married Mary Powell, the daughter of a Cavalier; and, taking +her from the gay life of her father's house, he brought her into a gloom +and seclusion almost insupportable. He loved his books better than he did +his wife. He fed and sheltered her, indeed, but he gave her no tender +sympathy. Then was enacted in his household the drama of the rebellion in +miniature; and no doubt his domestic troubles had led to his extended +discussion of the question of divorce. He speaks, too, almost entirely in +the interest of husbands. With him woman is not complementary to man, but +his inferior, to be cherished if obedient, to minister to her husband's +welfare, but to have her resolute spirit broken after the manner of +Petruchio, the shrew-tamer. In all this, however, Milton was eminently a +type of the times. It was the canon law of the established Church of +England at which he aimed, and he endeavored to lead the parliament to +legislation upon the most sacred ties and relations of human life. +Happily, English morals were too strong, even in that turbulent period, to +yield to this unholy attempt. It was a day when authority was questioned, +a day for "extending the area of freedom," but he went too far even for +emancipated England; and the mysterious power of the marriage tie has +always been reverenced as one of the main bulwarks of that righteousness +which exalteth a nation. + +His apology for Smectymnuus is one of his pamphlets against Episcopacy, +and receives its title from the initial letters of the names of five +Puritan ministers, who also engaged in controversy: they were Stephen +Marshall, Edward Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcome, William Spenston. +The Church of England never had a more intelligent and relentless enemy +than John Milton. + + +OTHER PROSE WORKS.--Milton's prose works are almost all of them of an +historical character. Appointed Latin Secretary to the Council, he wrote +foreign dispatches and treatises upon the persons and events of the day. +In 1644 he published his _Areopagitica_, a noble paper in favor of +_Unlicensed Printing_, and boldly directed against the Presbyterian party, +then in power, which had continued and even increased the restraints upon +the press. No stouter appeal for the freedom of the press was ever heard, +even in America. But in the main, his prose pen was employed against the +crown and the Church, while they still existed; against the king's memory, +after the unfortunate monarch had fallen, and in favor of the parliament +and all its acts. Milton was no trimmer; he gave forth no uncertain sound; +he was partisan to the extreme, and left himself no loop-hole of retreat +in the change that was to come. + +A famous book appeared in 1649, not long after Charles's execution, +proclaimed to have been written by King Charles while in prison, and +entitled _Eikon Basilike_, or _The Kingly Image_, being the portraiture of +his majesty in his solitude and suffering. It was supposed that it might +influence the people in favor of royalty, and so Milton was employed to +answer it in a bitter invective, an unnecessary and heartless attack upon +the dead king, entitled _Eikonoklastes_, or _The Image-breaker_. The Eikon +was probably in part written by the king, and in part by Bishop Gauden, +who indeed claimed its authorship after the Restoration. + +Salmasius having defended Charles in a work of dignified and moderate +tone, Milton answered in his first _Defensio pro Populo Anglicano_; in +which he traverses the whole ground of popular rights and kingly +prerogative, in a masterly and eloquent manner. This was followed by a +second _Defensio_. For the two he received L1,000, and by his own account +accelerated the disease of the eyes which ended in complete blindness. + +No pen in England worked more powerfully than his in behalf of the +parliament and the protectorate, or to stay the flood tide of loyalty, +which bore upon its sweeping heart the restoration of the second Charles. +He wrote the last foreign despatches of Richard Cromwell, the weak +successor of the powerful Oliver; but nothing could now avail to check the +return of monarchy. The people were tired of turmoil and sick of blood; +they wanted rest, at any cost. The powerful hand of Cromwell was removed, +and astute Monk used his army to secure his reward. The army, concurring +with the popular sentiment, restored the Stuarts. The conduct of the +English people in bringing Charles back stamped Cromwell as a usurper, and +they have steadily ignored in their list of governors--called +monarchs--the man through whose efforts much of their liberty had been +achieved; but history asserts itself, and the benefits of the "Great +Rebellion" are gratefully acknowledged by the people, whether the +protectorate appears in the court list or not. + + +THE EFFECT OF THE RESTORATION.--Charles II. came back to such an +overwhelming reception, that he said, in his witty way, it must have been +his own fault to stay away so long from a people who were so glad to see +him when he did come. This restoration forced Milton into concealment: his +public day was over, and yet his remaining history is particularly +interesting. Inheriting weak eyes from his mother, he had overtasked their +powers, especially in writing the _Defensiones_, and had become entirely +blind. Although his person was included in the general amnesty, his +polemical works were burned by the hangman; and the pen that had so +powerfully battled for a party, now returned to the service of its first +love, poetry. His loss of power and place was the world's gain. In his +forced seclusion, he produced the greatest of English poems--religious, +romantic, and heroic. + + +ESTIMATE OF HIS PROSE.--Before considering his poems, we may briefly state +some estimate of his prose works. They comprise much that is excellent, +are full of learning, and contain passages of rarest rhetoric. He said +himself, that in prose he had only "the use of his left hand;" but it was +the left hand of a Milton. To the English scholar they are chiefly of +historical value: many of them are written in Latin, and lose much of +their terseness in a translation which retains classical peculiarities of +form and phrase. + +His _History of England from the Earliest Times_ is not profound, nor +philosophical; he followed standard chronicle authorities, but made few, +if any, original investigations, and gives us little philosophy. His +tractate on _Education_ contains peculiar views of a curriculum of study, +but is charmingly written. He also wrote a treatise on _Logic_. Little +known to the great world outside of his poems, there is one prose work, +discovered only in 1823, which has been less read, but which contains the +articles of his Christian belief. It is a tractate on Christian doctrine: +no one now doubts its genuineness; and it proves him to have been a +Unitarian, or High Arian, by his own confession. This was somewhat +startling to the great orthodox world, who had taken many of their +conceptions of supernatural things from Milton's _Paradise Lost_; and yet +a careful study of that poem will disclose similar tendencies in the +poet's mind. He was a Puritan whose theology was progressive until it +issued in complete isolation: he left the Presbyterian ranks for the +Independents, and then, startled by the rise and number of sects, he +retired within himself and stood almost alone, too proud to be instructed, +and dissatisfied with the doctrines and excesses of his earlier +colleagues. + +In 1653 he lost his wife, Mary Powell, who left him three daughters. He +supplied her place in 1656, by marrying Catherine Woodstock, to whom he +was greatly attached, and who also died fifteen months after. Eight years +afterward he married his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, who survived him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE POETRY OF MILTON. + + + The Blind Poet. Paradise Lost. Milton and Dante. His Faults. + Characteristics of the Age. Paradise Regained. His Scholarship. His + Sonnets. His Death and Fame. + + + +THE BLIND POET. + + +Milton's blindness, his loneliness, and his loss of power, threw him upon +himself. His imagination, concentrated by these disasters and troubles, +was to see higher things in a clear, celestial light: there was nothing to +distract his attention, and he began that achievement which he had long +before contemplated--a great religious epic, in which the heroes should be +celestial beings and our sinless first parents, and the scenes Heaven, +Hell, and the Paradise of a yet untainted Earth. His first idea was to +write an epic on King Arthur and his knights: it is well for the world +that he changed his intention, and took as a grander subject the loss of +Paradise, full as it is of individual interest to mankind. + +In a consideration of his poetry, we must now first recur to those pieces +which he had written at an earlier day. Before settling in London, he had, +as we have seen, travelled fifteen months on the Continent, and had been +particularly interested by his residence in Italy, where he visited the +blind Galileo. The poems which most clearly show the still powerful +influence of Italy in all European literature, and upon him especially, +are the _Arcades, Comus, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso_, and _Lycidas_, each +beautiful and finished, and although Italian in their taste, yet full of +true philosophy couched in charming verse. + +The _Arcades_, (Arcadians,) composed in 1684, is a pastoral masque, +enacted before the Countess Dowager of Derby at Harefield, by some noble +persons of her family. The _Allegro_ is the song of Mirth, the nymph who +brings with her + + Jest and youthful jollity, + Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, + Nods and becks and wreathed smiles, + + * * * * * + + Sport that wrinkled Care derides, + And Laughter holding both his sides. + +The poem is like the nymph whom he addresses, + + Buxom, blithe, and debonaire. + +The _Penseroso_ is a tribute to tender melancholy, and is designed as a +pendant to the _Allegro_: + + Pensive nun devout and pure, + Sober, steadfast, and demure, + All in a robe of darkest grain, + Flowing with majestic train. + +We fall in love with each goddess in turn, and find comfort for our +varying moods from "grave to gay." + +Burke said he was certain Milton composed the _Penseroso_ in the aisle of +a cloister, or in an ivy-grown abbey. + +_Comus_ is a noble poem, philosophic and tender, but neither pastoral nor +dramatic, except in form; it presents the power of chastity in disarming +_Circe, Comus_, and all the libidinous sirens. _L'Allegro_ and _Il +Penseroso_ were written at Horton, about 1633. + +_Lycidas_, written in 1637, is a tender monody on the loss of a friend +named King, in the Irish Channel, in that year, and is a classical +pastoral, tricked off in Italian garb. What it loses in adherence to +classic models and Italian taste, is more than made up by exquisite lines +and felicitous phrases. In it he calls fame "that last infirmity of noble +mind." Perhaps he has nowhere written finer lines than these: + + So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed. + And yet anon repairs his drooping head, + And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore + _Flames in the forehead of the morning sky_. + +Besides these, Milton wrote Latin poems with great vigor, if not with +remarkable grace; and several Italian sonnets and poems, which have been +much admired even by Italian critics. The sonnet, if not of Italian +origin, had been naturalized there when its birth was forgotten; and this +practice in the Italian gave him that power to produce them in English +which he afterward used with such effect. + + +PARADISE LOST.--Having thus summarily disposed of his minor poems, each of +which would have immortalized any other man, we come to that upon which +his highest fame rests; which is familiarly known by men who have never +read the others, and who are ignorant of his prose works; which is used as +a parsing exercise in many schools, and which, as we have before hinted, +has furnished Protestant pulpits with pictorial theology from that day to +this. It occupied him several years in the composition; from 1658, when +Cromwell died, through the years of retirement and obscurity until 1667. +It came forth in an evil day, for the merry monarch was on the throne, and +an irreligious court gave tone to public opinion. + +The hardiest critic must approach the _Paradise Lost_ with wonder and +reverence. What an imagination, and what a compass of imagination! Now +with the lost peers in Hell, his glowing fancy projects an empire almost +as grand and glorious as that of God himself. Now with undazzled, +presumptuous gaze he stands face to face with the Almighty, and records +the words falling from His lips; words which he has dared to place in the +mouth of the Most High--words at the utterance of which + + ... ambrosial fragrance filled + All heaven, and in the blessed spirits elect + Sense of new joy ineffable diffused. + +Little wonder that in his further flight he does not shrink from colloquy +with the Eternal Son--in his theology not the equal of His Father--or that +he does not fear to describe the fearful battle between Christ with his +angelic hosts against the kingdom of darkness: + + ... At his right hand victory + Sat eagle-winged: beside him hung his bow + And quiver with three-bolted thunder stored. + + * * * * * + + ... Them unexpected joy surprised, + When the great ensign of Messiah blazed, + Aloft by angels borne his sign in heaven. + +How heart-rending his story of the fall, and of the bitter sorrow of our +first parents, whose fatal act + + Brought death into the world and all our woe, + With loss of Eden, till one greater Man + Restore us, and regain the blissful seat. + +How marvellous is the combat at Hell-gate, between Satan and Death; how +terrible the power at which "Hell itself grew darker"! How we strive to +shade our mind's eye as we enter again with him into the courts of Heaven. +How refreshingly beautiful the perennial bloom of Eden: + + Picta velut primo Vere coruscat humus. + +What a wonderful story of the teeming creation related to our first +parents by the lips of Raphael: + + When from the Earth appeared + The tawny lion, pawing to get free + His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, + And rampant shakes his brinded mane. + +And withal, how compact the poem, how perfect the drama. It is Paradise, +perfect in beauty and holiness; attacked with devilish art; in danger; +betrayed; lost! + + Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked and ate; + Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat, + Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe + That all was lost! + +Unit-like, complete, brilliant, sublime, awful, the poem dazzles +criticism, and belittles the critic. It is the grandest poem ever written. +It almost sets up a competition with Scripture. Milton's Adam and Eve walk +before us instead of the Adam and Eve of Genesis. Milton's Satan usurps +the place of that grotesque, malignant spirit of the Bible, which, instead +of claiming our admiration, excites only our horror, as he goes about like +a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He it is who can declare + + The mind is its own place, and in itself + Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. + What matter where, if I be still the same, + And what I should be? + + +MILTON AND DANTE.--It has been usual for the literary critic to compare +Milton and Dante; and it is certain that in the conception, at least, of +his great themes, Milton took Dante for his guide. Without an odious +comparison, and conceding the great value, principally historical, of the +_Divina Commedia_, it must be said that the palm remains with the English +poet. Take, for a single illustration, the fall of the arch-fiend. Dante's +Lucifer falls with such force that he makes a conical hole in the earth to +its centre, and forces out a hill on the other side--a physical +prediction, as the antipodes had not yet been established. The cavity is +the seat of Hell; and the mountain, that of Purgatory. So mathematical is +his fancy, that in vignette illustrations we have right-lined drawings of +these surfaces and their different circles. Science had indeed progressed +in Milton's time, but his imagination scorns its aid; everything is with +him grandly ideal, as well as rhetorically harmonious: + + ... Him the Almighty power, + Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky, + With hideous ruin and combustion down + To bottomless perdition, there to dwell + In adamantine chains and penal power, + Who durst defy th' Omnipotent in arms. + +And when a lesser spirit falls, what a sad AEolian melody describes the +downward flight: + + ... How he fell + From Heaven they fabled thrown by angry Jove, + Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn + To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve + A summer's day; and with the setting sun, + Dropt from the zenith like a falling star. + +The heavenly colloquies to which we have alluded between the Father and +the Son, involve questions of theology, and present peculiar views--such +as the subordination of the Son, and the relative unimportance of the +third Person of the Blessed Trinity. They establish Milton's Arianism +almost as completely as his Treatise on Christian Doctrine. + + +HIS FAULTS.--Grand, far above all human efforts, his poems fail in these +representations. God is a spirit; he is here presented as a body, and that +by an uninspired pen. The poet has not been able to carry us up to those +infinite heights, and so his attempt only ends in a humanitarian +philosophy: he has been obliged to lower the whole heavenly hierarchy to +bring it within the scope of our objective comprehension. He blinds our +poor eyes by the dazzling effulgence of that light which is + + ... of the Eternal co-eternal beam. + +And it must be asserted that in this attempt Milton has done injury to the +cause of religion, however much he has vindicated the power of the human +intellect and the compass of the human imagination. He has made sensuous +that which was entirely spiritual, and has attempted with finite powers to +realize the Infinite. + +The fault is not so great when he delineates created intelligences, +ranging from the highest seraph to him who was only "less than archangel +ruined." We gaze, unreproved by conscience, at the rapid rise of +Pandemonium; we watch with eager interest the hellish crew as they "open +into the hill a spacious wound, and dig out ribs of gold." We admire the +fabric which springs + + ... like an exhalation, with the sound + Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet. + +Nothing can be grander or more articulately realized than that arched +roof, from which, + + Pendent by subtle magic, many a row + Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed + With naphtha and asphaltus, yields the light + As from a sky. + +It is an illustrative criticism that while the painter's art has seized +these scenes, not one has dared to attempt his heavenly descriptions with +the pencil. Art is less bold or more reverent than poetry, and rebukes the +poet. + + +CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE.--And here it is particularly to our purpose to +observe, that in this very boldness of entrance into the holy of +holies--in this attempted grasp with finite hands of infinite things, +Milton was but a sublimated type of his age, and of the Commonwealth, when +man, struggling for political freedom, went, as in the later age of the +French Illuminati, too far in the regions of spirit and of faith. As +Dante, with a powerful satire, filled his poem with the personages of the +day, assigning his enemies to the _girone_ of the Inferno, so Milton vents +his gentler spleen by placing cowls and hood and habits in the limbo of +vanity and paradise of fools: + + ... all these upwhirled aloft + Fly o'er the backside of the world far off, + Into a limbo large and broad, since called + The paradise of fools. + +It was a setting forth of that spirit which, when the Cavaliers were many +of them formalists, and the Puritans many of them fanatics, led to the +rise of many sects, and caused rude soldiers to bellow their own riotous +fancies from the pulpit. In the suddenness of change, when the earthly +throne had been destroyed, men misconceived what was due to the heavenly; +the fancy which had been before curbed by an awe for authority, and was +too ignorant to move without it, now revelled unrebuked among the +mysteries which are not revealed to angelic vision, and thus "fools rushed +in where angels fear to tread." + +The book could not fail to bring him immense fame, but personally he +received very little for it in money--less than L20. + + +PARADISE REGAINED.--It was Thomas Ellwood, Milton's Quaker friend, who, +after reading the _Paradise Lost_, suggested the _Paradise Regained_. This +poem will bear no comparison with its great companion. It may, without +irreverence, be called "The gospel according to John Milton." Beauties it +does contain; but the very foundation of it is false. Milton makes man +regain Paradise by the success of Christ in withstanding the Devil's +temptations in the wilderness; a new presentation of his Arian theology, +which is quite transcendental; whereas, in our opinion, the gate of +Paradise was opened only "by His precious death and burial; His glorious +resurrection and ascension; and by the coming of the Holy Ghost." But if +it is immeasurably inferior in its conception and treatment, it is quite +equal to the _Paradise Lost_ in its execution. + +A few words as to Milton's vocabulary and style must close our notice of +this greatest of English poets. With regard to the first, the Latin +element, which is so manifest in his prose works, largely predominates in +his poems, but accords better with the poetic license. In a list of +authors which Mr. Marsh has prepared, down to Milton's time, which +includes an analysis of the sixth book of the _Paradise Lost_, he is found +to employ only eighty per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words--less than any up to +that day. But his words are chosen with a delicacy of taste and ear which +astonishes and delights; his works are full of an adaptive harmony, the +suiting of sound to sense. His rhythm is perfect. We have not space for +extended illustrations, but the reader will notice this in the lady's song +in Comus--the address to + + Sweet Echo, sweeter nymph that liv'st unseen + Within thy airy shell, + By slow Meander's margent green! + + * * * * * + + Sweet queen of parley, daughter of the sphere, + So may'st thou be translated to the skies, + And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies. + +And again, the description of Chastity, in the same poem, is inimitable in +the language: + + So dear to Heaven is saintly Chastity, + That when a soul is found sincerely so, + A thousand liveried angels lackey her. + + +HIS SCHOLARSHIP.--It is unnecessary to state the well-known fact, attested +by all his works, of his elegant and versatile scholarship. He was the +most learned man in England in his day. If, like J. C. Scaliger, he did +not commit Homer to memory in twenty-one days, and the whole of the Greek +poets in three months, he had all classical learning literally at his +fingers' ends, and his works are absolutely glistening with drops which +show that every one has been dipped in that Castalian fountain which, it +was fabled, changed the earthly flowers of the mind into immortal jewels. + +Nor need we refer to what every one concedes, that a vein of pure but +austere morals runs through all his works; but Puritan as he was, his +myriad fancy led him into places which Puritanism abjured: the cloisters, +with their dim religious light, in _Il Penseroso_--and anon with mirth he +cries: + + Come and trip it as you go, + On the light fantastic toe. + + +SONNETS.--His sonnets have been variously estimated: they are not as +polished as his other poems, but are crystal-like and sententious, abrupt +bursts of opinion and feeling in fourteen lines. Their masculine power it +was which caused Wordsworth, himself a prince of sonneteers, to say: + + In his hand, + The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew + Soul-animating strains.... + +That to his dead wife, whom he saw in a vision; that to Cyriac Skinner on +his blindness, and that to the persecuted Waldenses, are the most known +and appreciated. That to Skinner is a noble assertion of heart and hope: + + Cyriac, this three-years-day these eyes, though clear + To outward view, of blemish and of spot, + Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot: + Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear + Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, + Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not + Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot + Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer + Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask? + The conscience friend to have lost them over-plied + In liberty's defence, my noble task, + Of which all Europe talks from side to side, + This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask + Content, though blind, had I no better guide. + +Milton died in 1674, of gout, which had long afflicted him; and he left +his name and works to posterity. Posterity has done large but mistaken +justice to his fame. Men have not discriminated between his real merits +and his faults: all parties have conceded the former, and conspired to +conceal the latter. A just statement of both will still establish his +great fame on the immutable foundations of truth--a fame, the honest +pursuit of which caused him, throughout his long life, + + To scorn delights, and live laborious days. + +No writer has ever been the subject of more uncritical, ignorant, and +senseless panegyric: like Bacon, he is lauded by men who never read his +works, and are entirely ignorant of the true foundation of his fame. Nay, +more; partisanship becomes very warlike, and we are reminded in this +controversy of the Italian gentleman, who fought three duels in +maintaining that Ariosto was a better poet than Tasso: in the third he was +mortally wounded, and he confessed before dying that he had never read a +line of either. A similar logomachy has marked the course of Milton's +champions; words like sharp swords have been wielded by ignorance, and +have injured the poet's true fame. + +He now stands before the world, not only as the greatest English poet, +except Shakspeare, but also as the most remarkable example and +illustration of the theory we have adopted, that literature is a very +vivid and permanent interpreter of contemporary history. To those who ask +for a philosophic summary of the age of Charles I. and Cromwell, the +answer may be justly given: "Study the works of John Milton, and you will +find it." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +COWLEY, BUTLER, AND WALTON. + + + Cowley and Milton. Cowley's Life and Works. His Fame. Butler's Career. + Hudibras. His Poverty and Death. Izaak Walton. The Angler; and Lives. + Other Writers. + + + +COWLEY AND MILTON. + + +In contrast with Milton, in his own age, both in political tenets and in +the character of his poetry, stood Cowley, the poetical champion of the +party of king and cavaliers during the civil war. Historically he belongs +to two periods--antecedent and consequent--that of the rebellion itself, +and that of the Restoration: the latter was a reaction from the former, in +which the masses changed their opinions, in which the Puritan leaders were +silenced, and in which the constant and consistent Cavaliers had their day +of triumph. Both parties, however, modified their views somewhat after the +whirlwind of excitement had swept by, and both deprecated the extreme +violence of their former actions. This is cleverly set forth in a charming +paper of Lord Macaulay, entitled _Cowley and Milton_. It purports to be +the report of a pleasant colloquy between the two in the spring of 1665, +"set down by a gentleman of the Middle Temple." Their principles are +courteously expressed, in a retrospective view of the great rebellion. + + +COWLEY'S LIFE AND WORKS.--Abraham Cowley, the posthumous son of a grocer, +was born in London, in the year 1618. He is said to have been so +precocious that he read Spenser with pleasure when he was twelve years +old; and he published a volume of poems, entitled "Poetical Blossoms," +before he was fifteen. After a preliminary education at Westminster +school, he was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1636, and while +there he published, in 1638, two comedies, one in English, entitled +_Love's Riddle_, and one in Latin, _Naufragium Joculare, or, The Merry +Shipwreck_. + +When the troubles which culminated in the civil war began to convulse +England, Cowley, who was a strong adherent of the king, was compelled to +leave Cambridge; and we find him, when the war had fairly opened, at +Oxford, where he was well received by the Royal party, in 1643. He +vindicated the justice of this reception by publishing in that year a +satire called _Puritan and Papist_. Upon the retirement of the queen to +Paris, he was one of her suite, and as secretary to Viscount St. Albans he +conducted the correspondence in cipher between the queen and her +unfortunate husband. + +He remained abroad during the civil war and the protectorate, returning +with Charles II. in 1660. "The Blessed Restoration" he celebrated in an +ode with that title, and would seem to have thus established a claim to +the king's gratitude and bounty. But he was mistaken. Perhaps this led him +to write a comedy, entitled _The Cutter of Coleman Street_, in which he +severely censured the license and debaucheries of the court: this made the +arch-debauchee, the king himself, cold toward the poet, who at once issued +_A Complaint_; but neither satire nor complaint helped him to the desired +preferment. He quitted London a disappointed man, and retired to the +country, where he died on the 28th of July, 1667. + +His poems bear the impress of the age in a remarkable degree. His +_Mistress, or, Love Verses_, and his other Anacreontics or paraphrases of +Anacreon's odes, were eminently to the taste of the luxurious and immoral +court of Charles II. His _Davideis_ is an heroic poem on the troubles of +King David. + +His _Poem on the Late Civil War_, which was not published until 1679, +twelve years after his death, is written in the interests of the monarchy. + +His varied learning gave a wide range to his pen. In 1661 appeared his +_Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy_, which was +followed in the next year by _Two Books of Plants_, which he increased to +six books afterward--devoting two to herbs, two to flowers, and two to +trees. If he does not appear in them to be profound in botanical +researches, it was justly said by Dr. Johnson that in his mind "botany +turned into poetry." + +His prose pen was as ready, versatile, and charming as his poetic pencil. +He produced discourses or essays on commonplace topics of general +interest, such as _myself; the shortness of life; the uncertainty of +riches; the danger of procrastination_, etc. These are well written, in +easy-flowing language, evincing his poetic nature, and many of them are +more truly poetic than his metrical pieces. + + +HIS FAME.--Cowley had all his good things in his lifetime; he was the most +popular poet in England, and is the best illustration of the literary +taste of his age. His poetry is like water rippling in the sunlight, +brilliant but dazzling and painful: it bewilders with far-fetched and +witty conceits: varied but full of art, there is little of nature or real +passion to be found even in his amatory verses. He suited the taste of a +court which preferred an epigram to a proverb, and a repartee to an +apothegm; and, as a consequence, with the growth of a better culture and a +better taste, he has steadily declined in favor, so that at the present +day he is scarcely read at all. Two authoritative opinions mark the +history of this decline: Milton, in his own day, placed him with Spenser +and Shakspeare as one of the three greatest English poets; while Pope, not +much more than half a century later, asks: + + Who now reads Cowley? If he pleases yet, + His moral pleases, not his pointed wit. + +Still later, Dr. Johnson gives him the credit of having been the first to +master the Pindaric ode in English; while Cowper expresses, in his Task, +regret that his "splendid wit" should have been + + Entangled in the cobwebs of the schools. + +But if he is neglected in the present day as a household poet, he stands +prominently forth to the literary student as an historic personage of no +mean rank, a type and representative of his age, country, and social +conditions. + + + +SAMUEL BUTLER. + + +BUTLER'S CAREER.--The author of Hudibras, a satirical poem which may as +justly be called a comic history of England as any of those written in +prose in more modern times, was born in Worcestershire, on the 8th of +February, 1612. The son of poor parents, he received his education at a +grammar school. Some, who have desired to magnify his learning, have said +that he was for a time a student at Cambridge; but the chronicler Aubrey, +who knew him well, denies this. He was learned, but this was due to the +ardor with which he pursued his studies, when he was clerk to Mr. +Jeffreys, an eminent justice of the peace, and as an inmate of the mansion +of the Countess of Kent, in whose fine library he was associated with the +accomplished Selden. + +We next find him domiciled with Sir Samuel Luke, a Presbyterian and a +parliamentary soldier, in whose household he saw and noted those +characteristics of the Puritans which he afterward ridiculed so severely +in his great poem, a poem which he was quietly engaged in writing during +the protectorate of Cromwell, in hope of the coming of a day when it could +be issued to the world. + +This hope was fulfilled by the Restoration. In the new order he was +appointed secretary to the Earl of Carbery, and steward of Ludlow Castle; +and he also increased his frugal fortunes by marrying a widow, Mrs. +Herbert, whose means, however, were soon lost by bad investments. + + +HUDIBRAS.--The only work of merit which Butler produced was _Hudibras_. +This was published in three parts: the first appeared in 1663, the second +in 1664, and the third not until 1678. Even then it was left unfinished; +but as the interest in the third part seems to flag, it is probable that +the author did not intend to complete it. His death, two years later, +however, settled the question. + +The general idea of the poem is taken from Don Quixote. As in that +immortal work, there are two heroes. Sir Hudibras, corresponding to the +Don, is a Presbyterian justice of the peace, whose features are said to +have been copied from those of the poet's former employer, Sir Samuel +Luke. For this, Butler has been accused of ingratitude, but the nature of +their connection does not seem to have been such as to warrant the charge. +Ralph the squire, the humble Sancho of the poem, is a cross-grained +dogmatic Independent. + +These two the poet sends forth, as a knight-errant with a squire, to +correct existing abuses of all kinds--political, religious, and +scientific. The plot is rambling and disconnected, but the author +contrives to go over the whole ground of English history in his inimitable +burlesque. Unlike Cervantes, who makes his reader always sympathize with +his foolish heroes, Butler brings his knight and squire into supreme +contempt; he lashes the two hundred religious sects of the day, and +attacks with matchless ridicule all the Puritan positions. The poem is +directly historical in its statement of events, tenets, and factions, and +in its protracted religious discussions: it is indirectly historical in +that it shows how this ridicule of the Puritans, only four years after the +death of Cromwell, delighted the merry monarch and his vicious court, and +was greatly acceptable to the large majority of the English people. This +fact marks the suddenness of the historic change from the influence of +Puritanism to that of the restored Stuarts. + +Hudibras is written in octosyllabic verse, frequently not rising above +doggerel: it is full of verbal "quips and cranks and wanton wiles:" in +parts it is eminently epigrammatic, and many of its happiest couplets seem +to have been dashed off without effort. Walpole calls Butler "the Hogarth +of poetry;" and we know that Hogarth illustrated Hudibras. The comparison +is not inapt, but the pictorial element in Hudibras is not its best claim +to our praise. This is found in its string of proverbs and maxims +elucidating human nature, and set forth in such terse language that we are +inclined to use them thus in preference to any other form of expression. + +Hudibras is the very prince of _burlesques_; it stands alone of its kind, +and still retains its popularity. Although there is much that belongs to +the age, and much that is of only local interest, it is still read to find +apt quotations, of which not a few have become hackneyed by constant use. +With these, pages might be filled; all readers will recognize the +following: + +He speaks of the knight thus: + + On either side he would dispute, + Confute, change hands, and still confute: + + * * * * * + + For rhetoric, he could not ope + His mouth but out there flew a trope. + +Again: he refers, in speaking of religious characters, to + + Such as do build their faith upon + The holy text of pike and gun, + And prove their doctrine orthodox, + By apostolic blows and knocks; + Compound for sins they are inclined to + By damning those they have no mind to. + +Few persons of the present generation have patience to read Hudibras +through. Allibone says "it is a work to be studied once and gleaned +occasionally." Most are content to glean frequently, and not to study at +all. + + +HIS POVERTY AND DEATH.--Butler lived in great poverty, being neglected by +a monarch and a court for whose amusement he had done so much. They +laughed at the jester, and let him starve. Indeed, he seems to have had +few friends; and this is accounted for quaintly by Aubrey, who says: +"Satirical wits disoblige whom they converse with, and consequently make +to themselves many enemies, and few friends; and this was his manner and +case." + +The best known of his works, after Hudibras, is the _Elephant in the +Moon_, a satire on the Royal Society. + +It is significant of the popularity of Hudibras, that numerous imitations +of it have been written from his day to ours. + +Butler died on the 25th of September, 1680. Sixty years after, the hand of +private friendship erected a monument to him in Westminster Abbey. The +friend was John Barber, Lord Mayor of London, whose object is thus stated: +"That he who was destitute of all things when alive, might not want a +monument when he was dead." Upon the occasion of erecting this, Samuel +Wesley wrote: + + While Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive, + No generous patron would a dinner give; + See him, when starved to death and turned to dust, + Presented with a monumental bust. + The poet's fate is here in emblem shown, + He asked for bread, and he received a stone. + +To his own age he was the prince of jesters; to English literature he has +given its best illustration of the burlesque in rhetoric. To the reader of +the present day he presents rare historical pictures of his day, of far +greater value than his wit or his burlesque. + + + +IZAAK WALTON. + + +If men are to be measured by their permanent popularity, Walton deserves +an enthusiastic mention in literary annals, not for the greatness of his +achievements, but for his having touched a chord in the human heart which +still vibrates without hint of cessation wherever English is spoken. + +Izaak Walton was born at Stafford, on the 9th of August, 1593. In his +earlier life he was a linen-draper, but he had made enough for his frugal +wants by his shop to enable him to retire from business in 1643, and then +he quietly assumed a position as _pontifex piscatorum_. His fishing-rod +was a sceptre which he swayed unrivalled for forty years. He gathered +about him in his house and on the borders of fishing streams an admiring +and congenial circle, principally of the clergy, who felt it a privilege +to honor the retired linen-draper. There must have been a peculiar charm, +a personal magnetism about him, which has also imbued his works. His first +wife was Rachel Floud, a descendant of the ill-fated Cranmer; and his +second was Anne Ken, the half-sister of the saintly Bishop Ken. Whatever +may have been his deficiencies of early education, he was so constant and +varied a reader that he made amends for these. + + +THE COMPLETE ANGLER.--His first and most popular work was _The Complete +Angler, or, The Contemplative Man's Recreation_. It has been the delight +of all sorts of people since, and has gone through more than forty +respectable editions in England, besides many in America. Many of these +editions are splendidly illustrated and sumptuous. The dialogues are +pleasant and natural, and his enthusiasm for the art of angling is quite +contagious. + + +HIS LIVES.--Nor is Walton less esteemed by a smaller but more appreciative +circle for his beautiful and finished biographies or _Lives_ of Dr. +Donne, Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Bishop Robert +Sanderson. + +Here Walton has bestowed and received fame: the simple but exquisite +portraitures of these holy and worthy men have made them familiar to +posterity; and they, in turn, by the virtues which Walton's pen has made +manifest, have given distinction to the hand which portrayed them. +Walton's good life was lengthened out to fourscore and ten. He died at the +residence of his son-in-law, the Reverend William Hawkins, prebendary of +Winchester Cathedral, in 1683. Bishop Jebb has judiciously said of his +_Lives_: "They not only do ample justice to individual piety and learning, +but throw a mild and cheerful light upon the manners of an interesting +age, as well as upon the venerable features of our mother Church." Less, +however, than any of his contemporaries can Walton be appreciated by a +sketch of the man: his works must be read, and their spirit imbibed, in +order to know his worth. + + + +OTHER WRITERS OF THE AGE. + + +George Wither, born in Hampshire, June 11, 1588, died May 2, 1667: he was +a voluminous and versatile writer. His chief work is _The Shepherd's +Hunting_, which, with beautiful descriptions of rural life, abounds in +those strained efforts at wit and curious conceits, which were acceptable +to the age, but which have lost their charm in a more sensible and +philosophic age. Wither was a Parliament man, and was imprisoned and +ill-treated after the Restoration. He, and most of those who follow, were +classed by Dr. Johnson as _metaphysical poets_. + +Francis Quarles, 1592-1644: he was a Royalist, but belongs to the literary +school of Withers. He is best known by his collection of moral and +religious poems, called _Divine Emblems_, which were accompanied with +quaint engraved illustrations. These allegories are full of unnatural +conceits, and are many of them borrowed from an older source. He was +immensely popular as a poet in his own day, and there was truth in the +statement of Horace Walpole, that "Milton was forced to wait till the +world had done admiring Quarles." + +George Herbert, 1593-1632: a man of birth and station, Herbert entered the +Church, and as the incumbent of the living at Bemerton, he illustrated in +his own piety and devotion "the beauty of holiness." Conscientious and +self-denying in his parish work, he found time to give forth those devout +breathings which in harmony of expression, fervor of piety, and simplicity +of thought, have been a goodly heritage to the Church ever since, while +they still retain some of those "poetical surprises" which mark the +literary taste of the age. His principal work is _The Temple, or, Sacred +Poems and Private Ejaculations_. The short lyrics which form the stones of +this temple are upon the rites and ceremonies of the Church and other +sacred subjects: many of them are still in great favor, and will always +be. In his portraiture of the _Good Parson_, he paints himself. He +magnifies the office, and he fulfilled all the requirements he has laid +down. + +Robert Herrick, 1591-1674: like Herbert, Herrick was a clergyman, but, +unlike Herbert, he was not a holy man. He wrote Anacreontic poems, full of +wine and love, and appears to us like a reveller masking in a surplice. +Being a cavalier in sentiment, he was ejected from his vicarage in 1648, +and went to London, where he assumed the lay habit. In 1647 he published +_Hesperides_, a collection of small poems of great lyric beauty, +Anacreontic, pastoral, and amatory, but containing much that is coarse and +indelicate. In 1648 he in part atoned for these by publishing his _Noble +Numbers_, a collection of pious pieces, in the beginning of which he asks +God's forgiveness for his "unbaptized rhymes," "writ in my wild, +unhallowed times." The best comment upon his works may be found in the +words of a reviewer: "Herrick trifled in this way solely in compliment to +the age; whenever he wrote to please himself, he wrote from the heart to +the heart." His _Litanie_ is a noble and beautiful penitential petition. + +Sir John Suckling, 1609-1641: a writer of love songs. That by which he is +most favorably known is his exquisite _Ballad upon a Wedding_. He was a +man of versatile talents; an officer in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, and +a captain of horse in the army of Charles I. He wrote several plays, of +which the best are _Aglaura_ and _The Discontented Colonel_. While +evidently tinctured by the spirit of the age, he exceeded his +contemporaries in the purity of his style and manliness of his expression. +His wit is not so forced as theirs. + +Edmund Waller, 1605-1687: he was a cousin of John Hampden. By great care +and adroitness he seems to have trimmed between the two parties in the +civil war, but was suspected by both. His poetry was like himself, +artificial and designed to please, but has little depth of sentiment. Like +other poets, he praised Cromwell in 1654 in _A Panegyric_, and welcomed +Charles II. in 1660, upon _His Majesty's Happy Return_. His greatest +benefaction to English poetry was in refining its language and harmonizing +its versification. He has all the conceits and strained wit of the +metaphysical school. + +Sir William Davenant, 1605-1668: he was the son of a vintner, but +sometimes claimed to be the natural son of Shakspeare, who was intimate +with his father and mother. An ardent Loyalist, he was imprisoned at the +beginning of the civil war, but escaped to France. He is best known by his +heroic poem _Gondibert_, founded upon the reign of King Aribert of +Lombardy, in the seventh century. The French taste which he brought back +from his exile, is shown in his own dramas, and in his efforts to restore +the theatre at the Restoration. His best plays are the _Cruel Brother_ and +_The Law against Lovers_. He was knighted by Charles I., and succeeded Ben +Jonson as poet laureate. On his monument in Westminster Abbey are these +words: "O rare Sir William Davenant." + +Charles Cotton, 1630-1687: he was a wit and a poet, and is best known as +the friend of Izaak Walton. He made an addition to _Walton's Complete +Angler_, which is found in all the later editions. The companion of Walton +in his fishing excursions on the river Dove, Cotton addressed many of his +poems to his "Adopted Father." He made travesties upon Virgil and Lucian, +which are characterized by great licentiousness; and wrote a gossiping and +humorous _Voyage to Ireland_. + +Henry Vaughan, 1614-1695: he was called the _Silurist_, from his residence +in Wales, the country of the Silures. He is favorably known by the _Silex +Scintillans, or, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations_. With a rigid +religious tone, he has all the attempt at rhetorical effect which mark the +metaphysical school, but his language is harsher and more rugged. He has +more heart than most of his colleagues, and extracts of great terseness +and beauty are still made from his poems. He reproves the corruptions of +the age, and while acknowledging an indebtedness, he gives us a clue to +his inspiration: "The first, that with any effectual success attempted a +diversion of this foul and overflowing stream, was that blessed man, Mr. +George Herbert, whose holy life and verse gained many pious converts, of +whom I am the least." + +The Earl of Clarendon, 1608-1674: Edward Hyde, afterward the Earl of +Clarendon, played a conspicuous part in the history of England during his +life, and also wrote a history of that period, which, although in the +interests of the king's party, is an invaluable key to a knowledge of +English life during the rebellion and just after the Restoration. A +member of parliament in 1640, he rose rapidly in favor with the king, and +was knighted in 1643. He left England in charge of the Prince of Wales in +1646, and at once began his History of the Great Rebellion, which was to +occupy him for many years before its completion. After the death of +Charles I., he was the companion of his son's exile, and often without +means for himself and his royal master, he was chancellor of the +exchequer. At the Restoration in 1660, Sir Edward Hyde was created Earl of +Clarendon, and entered upon the real duties of his office. He retained his +place for seven years, but became disagreeable to Charles as a troublesome +monitor, and at the same time incurred the hatred of the people. In 1667 +he was accused of high treason, and made his escape to France. Neglected +by his master, ignored by the French monarch, he wandered about in France, +from time to time petitioning his king to permit him to return and die in +England, but without success. Seven years of exile, which he reminded the +king "was a time prescribed and limited by God himself for the expiation +of some of his greatest judgments," passed by, and the ex-chancellor died +at Rouen. He had begun his history in exile as the faithful servant of a +dethroned prince; he ended it in exile, as the cast-off servant of an +ungrateful monarch. As a writer of contemporary history, Clarendon has +given us the form and color of the time. The book is in title and handling +a Royalist history. Its faults are manifest: first those of partisanship; +and secondly, those which spring from his absence, so that much of the +work was written without an observant knowledge. His delineation of +character is wonderful: the men of the times are more pictorially +displayed than in the portraits of Van Dyk. The style is somewhat too +pompous, being more that of the orator than of the historian, and +containing long and parenthetic periods. Sir Walter Scott says: "His +characters may match those of the ancient historians, and one thinks he +would know the very men if he were to meet them in society." Macaulay +concedes to him a strong sense of moral and religious obligation, a +sincere reverence for the laws of his country, and a conscientious regard +for the honor and interests of the crown; but adds that "his temper was +sour, arrogant, and impatient of opposition." No one can rightly +understand the great rebellion without reading Clarendon's history of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +DRYDEN, AND THE RESTORED STUARTS. + + + The Court of Charles II. Dryden's Early Life. The Death of Cromwell. + The Restoration. Dryden's Tribute. Annus Mirabilis. Absalom and + Achitophel. The Death of Charles. Dryden's Conversion. Dryden's Fall. + His Odes. + + + +THE COURT OF CHARLES II. + + +The antithetic literature which takes its coloring from the great +rebellion, was now to give place to new forms not immediately connected +with it, but incident to the Restoration. Puritanism was now to be +oppressed, and the country was to be governed, under a show of +constitutional right, more arbitrarily than ever before. The moral +rebound, too, was tremendous; the debaucheries of the cavaliers of Charles +I. were as nothing in comparison with the lewdness and filth of the court +of Charles II. To say that he brought in French fashions and customs, is +to do injustice to the French: there never was a viler court in Europe +than his own. It is but in accordance with our historical theory that the +literature should partake of and represent the new condition of things; +and the most remarkable illustrations of this are to be found in the works +of Dryden. + +It may indeed with truth be said that we have now reached the most +absolute of the literary types of English history. There was no great +event, political or social, which is not mirrored in his poems; no +sentiment or caprice of the age which does not there find expression; no +kingly whim which he did not prostitute his great powers to gratify; no +change of creed, political or religious, of which he was not the +recorder--few indeed, where royal favor was concerned, to which he was not +the convert. To review the life of Dryden himself, is therefore to enter +into the chronicle and philosophy of the times in which he lived. With +this view, we shall dwell at some length upon his character and works. + + +EARLY LIFE.--Dryden was born on the 10th of August, 1631, and died on the +1st of May, 1700. He lived, therefore, during the reign of Charles I., the +interregnum of Parliament, the protectorate of Cromwell, the restoration +and reign of Charles II., and the reign of James II.; he saw and suffered +from the accession of William and Mary--a wonderful and varied volume in +English history. And of all these Dryden was, more than any other man, the +literary type. He was of a good family, and was educated at Westminster +and Cambridge, where he gave early proofs of his literary talents. + +His father, a zealous Presbyterian, had reared his children in his own +tenets; we are not therefore astonished to find that his earliest poetical +efforts are in accordance with the political conditions of the day. He +settled in London, under the protection of his kinsman, Sir Gilbert +Pickering, who was afterward one of the king's judges in 1649, and one of +the council of eight who controlled the kingdom after Charles lost his +head. As secretary to Sir Gilbert, young Dryden learned to scan the +political horizon, and to aspire to preferment. + + +CROMWELL'S DEATH, AND DRYDEN'S MONODY.--But those who had depended upon +Cromwell, forgot that he was not England, and that his breath was in his +nostrils. The time of his departure was at hand. He had been offered the +crown (April 9, 1656,) by a subservient parliament, and wanted it; but his +friends and family opposed his taking it; and the officers of the army, +influenced by Pride, sent such a petition against it, that he felt obliged +to refuse it. After months of mental anxiety and nervous torture--fearing +assassination, keeping arms under his pillow, never sleeping above three +nights together in the same chamber, disappointed that even after all his +achievements, and with all his cunning efforts, he had been unable to put +on the crown, and to be numbered among the English sovereigns--Cromwell +died in 1658, leaving his title as Lord Protector to his son Richard, a +weak and indolent man, who, after seven months' rule, fled the kingdom at +the Restoration, to return after a generation had passed away, a very old +man, to die in his native land. The people of Hertfordshire knew Richard +Cromwell as the excellent and benevolent Mr. Clarke. + +Very soon after the death of Oliver Cromwell, Dryden, not yet foreseeing +the Restoration, presented his tribute to the Commonwealth, in the shape +of "Heroic Stanzas on the Death of Oliver Cromwell; written after his +funeral." A few stanzas will show his political principles, and are in +strange contrast with what was soon to follow: + + How shall I then begin, or where conclude, + To draw a fame so truly circular? + For, in a round, what order can be showed, + Where all the parts so equal perfect are? + + He made us freemen of the continent, + Whom nature did like captives treat before; + To nobler preys the English lion sent, + And taught him first in Belgian walks to roar. + + His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest; + His name a great example stands, to show + How strangely high endeavors may be blest, + Where piety and valor jointly go. + + +THE RESTORATION.--Cromwell died in September: early in the next year these +stanzas were written. One year later was the witness of a great event, +which stirred England to its very depths, because it gave vent to +sentiments for some time past cherished but concealed. The Long Parliament +was dissolved on the 10th of March, 1660. The new parliament meets April +25th; it is almost entirely of Royalist opinions; it receives Sir John +Granville, the king's messenger, with loud acclamations; the old lords +come forth once more in velvet, ermine, and lawn. It is proclaimed that +General Monk, the representative of the army, soon to be Duke of +Albemarle, has gone from St. Albans to Dover, + + To welcome home again discarded faith. + +The strong are as tow, and the maker as a spark. From the house of every +citizen, lately vocal with the praises of the Protector, issues a subject +ready to welcome his king with the most enthusiastic loyalty. + +Royal proclamations follow each other in rapid succession: at length the +eventful day has come--the 29th of May, 1660. All the bells of London are +ringing their merriest chimes; the streets are thronged with citizens in +holiday attire; the guilds of work and trade are out in their uniforms; +the army, late the organ of Cromwell, is drawn up on Black Heath, and is +cracking its myriad throat with cheers. In the words of Master Roger +Wildrake, "There were bonfires flaming, music playing, rumps roasting, +healths drinking; London in a blaze of light from the Strand to +Rotherhithe." At length the sound of herald trumpets is heard; the king is +coming; a cry bursts forth which the London echoes have almost forgotten: +"God save the king! The king enjoys his own again!" + +It seems to the dispassionate reader almost incredible that the English +people, who shed his father's blood, who rallied round the Parliament, and +were fulsome in their praises of the Protector, should thus suddenly +change; but, allowing for "the madness of the people," we look for +strength and consistency to the men of learning and letters. We feel sure +that he who sang his eulogy of Cromwell dead, can have now no lyric burst +for the returning Stuart. We are disappointed. + + +DRYDEN'S TRIBUTE.--The first poetic garland thrown at the feet of the +restored king was Dryden's _Astraea Redux_, a poem on _The happy +restoration of his sacred majesty Charles II._ To give it classic force, +he quotes from the Pollio as a text. + + Jam redit et virgo, redeunt saturnia regna; + +thus hailing the saturnian times of James I. and Charles I. A few lines of +the poem complete the curious contrast: + + While our cross stars deny us Charles his bed, + Whom our first flames and virgin love did wed, + For his long absence church and state did groan; + Madness the pulpit, faction seized the throne. + + * * * * * + + How great were then our Charles his woes, who thus + Was forced to suffer for himself and us. + + * * * * * + + Oh happy prince whom Heaven hath taught the way, + By paying vows to have more vows to pay: + Oh happy age! oh, times like those alone + By Fate reserved for great Augustus' throne, + When the joint growth of arts and arms foreshow + The world a monarch, and that monarch you! + +The contrast assumes a clearer significance, if we remember that the real +time which elapsed between the publications of these two poems was less +than two years. + +This is greatly to Dryden's shame, as it is to Waller's, who did the same +thing; but it must be clearly pointed out that in this the poets were +really a type of all England, for whose suffrages they wrote thus. From +this time the career of Dryden was intimately associated with that of the +restored king. He wrote an ode for the coronation in 1661, and a poetical +tribute to Clarendon, the Lord High Chancellor, the king's better self. + +To Dryden, as a writer of plays, we shall recur in a later chapter, when +the other dramatists of the age will be considered. + +A concurrence of unusual events in 1665, brought forth the next year the +"Annus Mirabilis," or _Wonderful Year_, in which these events are recorded +with the minuteness of a chronicle. This is indeed its chief value; for, +praised as it was at the time, it does not so well bear the analysis of +modern criticism. + + +ANNUS MIRABILIS.--It describes the great naval battle with the Dutch; the +fire of London; and the ravages of the plague. The detail with which these +are described, and the frequent felicity of expression, are the chief +charm of the poem. In the refreshingly simple diary of Pepy's, we find +this jotting under date of 3d February, 1666-7: "_Annus Mirabilis_. I am +very well pleased this night with reading a poem I brought home with me +last night from Westminster Hall, of Dryden's, upon the present war: a +very good poem." + +Dryden's subserviency, aided by the power of his pen, gained its reward. +In 1668, on the death of Sir William Davenant, he was appointed Laureate, +and historiographer to the king, with an annual salary of L200. He soon +became the most famous literary man in England. Milton, the Puritan, was +producing his wonderful visions in darkened retirement, while at court, or +in the seat of honor on the stage, or in his sacred chair at Will's +Coffee-house in Covent Garden (near the fire-place in winter, and carried +into the balcony in summer), "Glorious John" was the observed of all +observers. Of Will's Coffee-house, Congreve says, in _Love for Love_, "Oh, +confound that Will's Coffee-house; it has ruined more young men than the +Royal Oak Lottery:" this speaks at once of the fashion and social license +of the time. + +Charles II. was happy to have so fluent a pen, to lampoon or satirize his +enemies, or to make indecent comedies for his amusement; while Dryden's +aim seems to have been scarcely higher than preferment at court and +honored contemporary notoriety for his genius. But if the great majority +lauded and flattered him, he was not without his share in those quarrels +of authors, which were carried on at that day not only with goose-quills, +but with swords and bludgeons. It is recorded that he was once waylaid by +the hired ruffians of the Earl of Rochester, and beaten almost to death: +these broils generally had a political as well as a social significance. +In his quarrels with the literary men, he used the shafts of satire. His +contest with Thomas Shadwell has been preserved in his satire called +McFlecknoe. Flecknoe was an Irish priest who wrote dull plays; and in this +poem Dryden proposes Shadwell as his successor on the throne of dulness. +It was the model or suggester of Pope's _Dunciad_; but the model is by no +means equal to the copy. + + +ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.--Nothing which he had yet written is so true an +index to the political history as his "Absalom and Achitophel," which he +published in 1681. The history may be given in few words. Charles II. had +a natural son by an obscure woman named Lucy Walters. This boy had been +created Duke of Monmouth. He was put forward by the designing Earl of +Shaftesbury as the head of a faction, and as a rival to the Duke of York. +To ruin the Duke was their first object; and this they attempted by +inflaming the people against his religion, which was Roman Catholic. If +they could thus have him and his heirs put out of the succession to the +throne, Monmouth might be named heir apparent; and Shaftesbury hoped to be +the power behind the throne. + +Monmouth was weak, handsome, and vain, and was in truth a puppet in wicked +hands; he was engaged in the Rye-house plot, and schemed not only against +his uncle, but against the person of his father himself. To satirize and +expose these plots and plotters, Dryden (at the instance of the king, it +is said,) wrote _Absalom and Achitophel_, in which are introduced, under +Scripture names, many of the principal political characters of the day, +from the king down to Titus Oates. The number of the names is 61. Charles +is, of course, David, and Monmouth, the wayward son, is Absalom. +Shaftesbury is Achitophel, and Dr. Oates figures as Corah. The Ethnic plot +is the popish plot, and Gath is that land of exile where Charles so long +resided. Strong in his praise of David, the poet is discreet and delicate +in his handling of Absalom; his instinct is as acute as that of Falstaff: +"Beware! instinct, the lion will not touch a true prince," or touch him so +gently that the lion at least will not suffer. Thus, Monmouth is +represented as + + Half loath, and half consenting to the ill, + For royal blood within him struggled still; + He thus replied: "And what pretence have I + To take up arms for public liberty? + My father governs with unquestioned right, + The faith's defender and mankind's delight; + Good, gracious, just, observant of the laws, + And heaven by wonders has espoused his cause." + +But he may, and does, roundly rate Achitophel, who tempts with satanic +seductions, and proves to the youth, from the Bible, his right to the +succession, peaceably or forcibly obtained. Among those who conspired with +Monmouth were honest hearts seeking for the welfare of the realm. Chief of +these were Lord Russel and Sidney, of whom the latter was in favor of a +commonwealth; and the former, only sought the exclusion of the Roman +Catholic Duke of York, and the redress of grievances, but not the +assassination or deposition of the king. Both fell on the scaffold; but +they have both been considered martyrs in the cause of civil liberty. + +And here we must pause to say that in the literary structure, language, +and rhythm of the poem, Dryden had made a great step toward that mastery +of the rhymed pentameter couplet, which is one of his greatest claims to +distinction. + + +DEATH OF CHARLES.--At length, in 1685, Charles II., after a sudden and +short illness, was gathered to his fathers. His life had been such that +England could not mourn: he had prostituted female honor, and almost +destroyed political virtue; sold English territory and influence to France +for beautiful strumpets; and at the last had been received, on his +death-bed, into, the Roman Catholic Church, while nominally the supreme +head of the Anglican communion. England cannot mourn, but Dryden tortures +language into crocodile tears in his _Threnodia Augustalis, sacred to the +happy memory of King Charles II_. A few lines will exhibit at once the +false statements and the absolute want of a spark of sorrow--dead, +inanimate words, words, words! + + Thus long my grief has kept me drunk: + Sure there 's a lethargy in mighty woe; + Tears stand congealed, and cannot flow. + ........ + Tears for a stroke foreseen, afford relief; + But unprovided for a sudden blow, + Like Niobe, we marble grow, + And petrify with grief! + + +DRYDEN'S CONVERSION.--The Duke of York succeeded as James II.: he was an +open and bigoted Roman Catholic, who at once blazoned forth the death-bed +conversion of his brother; and who from the first only limited his hopes +to the complete restoration of the realm to popery. Dryden's course was at +once taken; but his instinct was at fault, as but three short years were +to show. He gave in his adhesion to the new king's creed; he who had been +Puritan with the commonwealth, and churchman with the Restoration, became +Roman Catholic with the accession of a popish king. He had written the +_Religio Laici_ to defend the tenets of the Church of England against the +attacks of papists and dissenters; and he now, to leave the world in no +doubt as to his reasons and his honesty, published a poem entitled the +_Hind and Panther_, which might in his earlier phraseology have been +justly styled "The Christian experience of pious John Dryden." It seems a +shameless act, but it is one exponent of the loyalty of that day. There +are some critics who believe him to have been sincere, and who insist that +such a man "is not to be sullied by suspicion that rests on what after all +might prove a fortuitous coincidence." But such frequent changes with the +government--with a reward for each change--tax too far even that charity +which "thinketh no evil." Dryden's pen was eagerly welcomed by the Roman +Catholics. He began to write at once in their interest, and thus to +further his own. Dr. Johnson says: "That conversion will always be +suspected which apparently concerns with interest. He that never finds his +error till it hinders his progress toward wealth or honor, will not be +thought to love truth only for herself." + +In this long poem of 2,000 lines, we have the arguments which conducted +the poet to this change. The different beasts represent the different +churches and sects. The Church of Rome is thus represented: + + A milk-white hind, immortal and unchanged, + Fed on the lawns, and in the forest ranged; + Without unspotted, innocent within, + She feared no danger, for she knew no sin. + +The other beasts were united to destroy her; but she could "venture to +drink with them at the common watering-place under the protection of her +friend the kingly lion." + +The Panther is the Church of England: + + The Panther, sure the noblest, next the hind, + And fairest creature of the spotted kind; + Oh, could her inborn stains be washed away, + She were too good to be a beast of prey! + +Then he Introduces.-- + + The _Bloody Bear_, an _Independent_ beast; the _Quaking Hare_, for the + _Quakers_; the _Bristled Baptist Boar_. + +In this fable, quite in the style of AEsop, we find the Dame, _i.e._, the +Hind, entering into the subtle points of theology, and trying to prove her +position. The poem, as might be supposed; was well received, and perhaps +converted a few to the monarch's faith; for who were able yet to foresee +that the monarch would so abuse his power, as to be driven away from his +throne amid the execrations of his subjects. + +The harmony of Dryden and the power of James could control progressive +England no longer. Like one man, the nation rose and uttered a mighty cry +to William of Orange. James, trembling, flies hither and thither, and at +length, fearing the fate of his father, he deserts his throne; the commons +call this desertion abdication, and they give the throne to his nephew +William and his daughter Mary. Such was the end of the restored Stuarts; +and we can have no regret that it is: whatever sympathy we may have had +with the sufferings of Charles I.,--and the English nation shared it, as +is proved by the restoration of his son,--we can have none with his +successors: they threw away their chances; they dissipated the most +enthusiastic loyalty; they squandered opportunities; and had no enemies, +even the bitterest, who were more fatal than themselves. And now it was +manifest that Dryden's day was over. Nor does he shrink from his fate. He +neither sings a Godspeeding ode to the runaway king, nor a salutatory to +the new comers. + + +DRYDEN'S FALL.--Stripped of his laureate-wreath and all his emoluments, he +does not sit down to fold his hands and repine. Sixty years of age, he +girds up his loins to work manfully for his living. He translates from the +classics; he renders Chaucer into modern English: in 1690 he produced a +play entitled Don Sebastian, which has been considered his dramatic +master-piece, and, as if to inform the world that age had not dimmed the +fire of his genius, he takes as his caption,-- + + ... nec tarda senectus + Debilitat vires animi, mutat que vigorem. + +This latter part of his life claims a true sympathy, because he is every +inch a man. + +It must not be forgotten that Dryden presented Chaucer to England anew, +after centuries of neglect, almost oblivion; for which the world owes him +a debt of gratitude. This he did by modernizing several of the Canterbury +Tales, and thus leading English scholars to seek the beauties and +instructions of the original. The versions themselves are by no means well +executed, it must be said. He has lost the musical words and fresh diction +of the original, as a single comparison between the two will clearly show. +Perhaps there is no finer description of morning than is contained in +these lines of Chaucer: + + The besy lark, the messager of day, + Saleweth in hir song the morwe gray; + And firy Phebus riseth up so bright + That all the orient laugheth of the sight. + +How expressive the words: the _busy_ lark; the sun rising like a strong +man; _all the orient_ laughing. The following version by Dryden, loses at +once the freshness of idea and the felicity of phrase: + + The morning lark, the messenger of day, + Saluted in her song the morning gray; + And soon the sun arose with beams so bright + That all the horizon laughed to see the joyous sight. + +The student will find this only one of many illustrations of the manner +in which Dryden has belittled Chaucer in his versions. + + +ODES.--Dryden has been regarded as the first who used the heroic couplet +with entire mastery. In his hands it is bold and sometimes rugged, but +always powerful and handled with great ease: he fashioned it for Pope to +polish. Of this, his larger poems are full of proof. But there is another +verse, of irregular rhythm, in which he was even more successful,--lyric +poetry as found in the irregular ode, varying from the short line to the +"Alexandrine dragging its slow length along;" the staccato of a harp +ending in a lengthened flow of melody. + + Thus long ago, + Ere heaving billows learned to blow, + While organs yet were mute; + Timotheus to his breathing flute + And sounding lyre + Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire. + +When he became a Roman Catholic, St. Cecilia, "inventress of the vocal +frame," became his chief devotion; and the _Song on St. Cecilia's Day_ and +_An Ode to St. Cecilia_, are the principal illustrations of this new +power. + +Gray, who was remarkable for his own lyric power, told Dr. Beattie that if +there were any excellence in his own numbers, he had learned it wholly +from Dryden. + +The _Ode on St. Cecilia's Day_, also entitled "_Alexander's Feast_," in +which he portrays the power of music in inspiring that famous monarch to +love, pity, and war, has to the scholar the perfect excellence of the best +Greek lyric. It ends with a tribute to St. Cecilia. + + At last divine Cecilia came, + Inventress of the vocal frame: + Now let Timotheus yield the prize, + Or both divide the crown. + He raised a mortal to the skies; + She drew an angel down, + +Dryden's prose, principally in the form of prefaces and dedications, has +been admired by all critics; and one of the greatest has said, that if he +had turned his attention entirely in that direction, he would have been +_facile princeps_ among the prose writers of his day. He has, in general +terms, the merit of being the greatest refiner of the English language, +and of having given system and strength to English poetry above any writer +up to his day; but more than all, his works are a transcript of English +history--political, religious, and social--as valuable as those of any +professed historian. Dryden married Lady Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of +an earl, who, it is said, was not a congenial companion, and who +afterwards became insane. He died from a gangrene in the foot. He declared +that he died in the profession of the Roman Catholic faith; which raises a +new doubt as to his sincerity in the change. Near the monument of old +father Chaucer, in Westminster, is one erected, by the Duke of Buckingham, +to Dryden. It merely bears name and date, as his life and works were +supposed to need no eulogy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF THE GREAT REBELLION AND OF THE RESTORATION. + + + The English Divines. Hall. Chillingworth. Taylor. Fuller. Sir T. + Browne. Baxter. Fox. Bunyan. South. Other Writers. + + + +THE ENGLISH DIVINES. + + +Having come down, in the course of English Literature, to the reign of +William and Mary, we must look back for a brief space to consider the +religious polemics which grew out of the national troubles and +vicissitudes. We shall endeavor to classify the principal authors under +this head from the days of Milton to the time when the Protestant +succession was established on the English throne. + +The Established Church had its learned doctors before the civil war, many +of whom contributed to the literature; but when the contest between king +and parliament became imminent, and during the progress of the quarrel, +these became controversialists,--most of them on the side of the +unfortunate but misguided monarch,--and suffered with his declining +fortunes. + +To go over the whole range of theological literature in this extended +period, would be to study the history of the times from a theological +point of view. Our space will only permit a brief notice of the principal +writers. + + +HALL.--First among these was Joseph Hall, who was born in 1574. He was +educated at Cambridge, and was appointed to the See of Exeter in 1624, +and transferred to that of Norwich in 1641, the year before Charles I. +ascended the throne. The scope of his writings was quite extensive. As a +theological writer, he is known by his numerous sermons, his _Episcopacy +by Divine Right Asserted_, his _Christian Meditations_, and +various commentaries and _Contemplations_ upon the Scriptures. +He was also a poet and a satirist, and excelled in this field. His +_Satires--Virgidemiarium_--were published at the early age of +twenty-three; but they are highly praised by the critics, who rank him +also, for eloquence and learning, with Jeremy Taylor. He suffered for his +attachment to the king's cause, was driven from his see, and spent the +last portion of his life in retirement and poverty. He died in 1656. + + +CHILLINGWORTH.--The next in chronological order is William Chillingworth, +who was born in 1602, and is principally known as the champion of +Protestantism against Rome and Roman innovations. While a student at +Oxford, he had been won over to the Roman Catholic Church by John Perse, a +famous Jesuit; and he went at once to pursue his studies in the Jesuit +college at Douay. He was so notable for his acuteness and industry, that +every effort was made to bring him back. Archbishop Laud, his god-father, +was able to convince him of his errors, and in two months he returned to +England. A short time after this he left the Roman Catholics, and became +tenfold more a Protestant than before. He entered into controversies with +his former friends the Jesuits, and in answer to one of their treatises +entitled, _Mercy and Truth, or Charity maintained by the Roman Catholics_, +he wrote his most famous work, _The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to +Salvation_. Chillingworth was a warm adherent of Charles I.; and was +captured by the parliamentary forces in 1643. He died the next year. His +double change of faith gave him the full range of the controversial field; +and, in addition to this knowledge, the clearness of his language and the +perspicuity of his logic gave great effect to his writings. Tillotson +calls him "the glory of this age and nation." + + +TAYLOR.--One of the greatest names in the annals of the English Church and +of English literature is that of Jeremy Taylor. He was the son of a +barber, and was born at Cambridge in 1613. A remarkably clever youth, he +was educated at Cambridge, and soon owed his preferment to his talents, +eloquence, and learning. An adherent of the king, he was appointed +chaplain in the royal army, and was several times imprisoned. When the +king's cause went down, and during the protectorate of Cromwell, he +retired to Wales, where he kept a school, and was also chaplain to the +Earl of Carberry. The vicissitudes of fortune compelled him to leave for a +while this retreat, and he became a teacher in Ireland. The restoration of +Charles II. gave him rest and preferment: he was made Bishop of Down and +Connor. Taylor is now principally known for his learned, quaint, and +eloquent discourses, which are still read. A man of liberal feelings and +opinions, he wrote on "The liberty of prophesying, showing the +unreasonableness of prescribing to other men's faith, and the iniquity of +persecuting different opinions:" the title itself being a very liberal +discourse. He upholds the Ritual in _An Apology for fixed and set Forms of +Worship_. In this he considers the divine precepts to be contained within +narrow limits, and that beyond this everything is a matter of dispute, so +that we cannot unconditionally condemn the opinions of others. + +His _Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy Life_, his _Rule and Exercises of +Holy Living and of Holy Dying_, and his _Golden Grove_, are devotional +works, well known to modern Christians of all denominations. He has been +praised alike by Roman Catholic divines and many Protestant Christians not +of the Anglican Church. There is in all his writings a splendor of +imagery, combined with harmony of style, and wonderful variety, +readiness, and accuracy of scholarship. His quotations from the whole +range of classic authors would furnish the Greek and Latin armory of any +modern writer. What Shakspeare is in the Drama, Spenser in the Allegory, +and Milton in the religious Epic, Taylor may claim to be in the field of +purely religious literature. He died at Lisburn, in 1667. + + +FULLER.--More quaint and eccentric than the writers just mentioned, but a +rare representative of his age, stands Thomas Fuller. He was born in 1608; +at the early age of twelve, he entered Cambridge, and, after completing +his education, took orders. In 1631, he was appointed prebendary of +Salisbury. Thence he removed to London in 1641, when the civil war was +about to open. When the king left London, in 1642, Fuller preached a +sermon in his favor, to the great indignation of the opposite party. Soon +after, he was appointed to a chaplaincy in the royal army, and not only +preached to the soldiers, but urged them forward in battle. In 1646 he +returned to London, where he was permitted to preach, under +_surveillance_, however. He seems to have succeeded in keeping out of +trouble until the Restoration, when he was restored to his prebend. He did +not enjoy it long, as he died in the next year, 1661. His writings are +very numerous, and some of them are still read. Among these are _Good +Thoughts in Bad Times, Good Thoughts in Worse Times_, and _Mixt +Contemplations in Better Times_. The _bad_ and _worse_ times mark the +progress of the civil war: the _better_ times he finds in the Restoration. + +One of his most valuable works is _The Church History of Britain, from the +birth of Christ to 1648_, in 11 books. Criticized as it has been for its +puns and quibbles and its occasional caricatures, it contains rare +descriptions and very vivid stories of the important ecclesiastical eras +in England. + +Another book containing important information is his _History of the +Worthies of England_, a posthumous work, published by his son the year +after his death. It contains accounts of eminent Englishmen in different +countries; and while there are many errors which he would perhaps have +corrected, it is full of odd and interesting information not to be found +collated in any other book. + +Representing and chronicling the age as he does, he has perhaps more +individuality than any writer of his time, and this gives a special +interest to his works. + + +SIR THOMAS BROWNE.--Classed among theological writers, but not a +clergyman, Sir Thomas Browne is noted for the peculiarity of his subjects, +and his diction. He was born in 1605, and was educated at Oxford. He +studied medicine, and became a practising physician. He travelled on the +continent, and returning to England in 1633, he began to write his most +important work, _Religio Medici_, at once a transcript of his own life and +a manifesto of what the religion of a physician should be. It was kept in +manuscript for some time, but was published without his knowledge in 1642. +He then revised the work, and published several editions himself. No +description of the treatise can give the reader a just idea of it; it +requires perusal. The criticism of Dr. Johnson is terse and just: it is +remarkable, he says, for "the novelty of paradoxes, the dignity of +sentiment, the quick succession of images, the multitude of abstruse +allusions, the subtilty of disquisition, and the strength of language." As +the portraiture of an inner life, it is admirable; and the accusation of +heterodoxy brought against him on account of a few careless passages is +unjust. + +Among his other works are _Essays on Vulgar Errors_ (_Pseudoxia +Epidemica_), and _Hydriotaphica_ or _Urne burial_; the latter suggested by +the exhumation of some sepulchral remains in Norfolk, which led him to +treat with great learning of the funeral rites of all nations. To this he +afterwards added _The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincunxial Lozenge_, in +which, in the language of Coleridge, he finds quincunxes "in heaven above, +in the earth below, in the mind of man, in tones, optic nerves, in the +roots of trees, in leaves, in everything." He died in 1682. + +Numerous sects, all finding doctrine and forms in the Bible, were the +issue of the religious and political controversies of the day. Without +entering into a consideration or even an enumeration of these, we now +mention a few of the principal names among them. + + +RICHARD BAXTER.--Among the most devout, independent, and popular of the +religious writers of the day, Richard Baxter occupies a high rank. He was +born in 1615, and was ordained a clergyman in 1638. In the civil troubles +he desired to remain neutral, and he opposed Cromwell when he was made +Protector. In 1662 he left the Church, and was soon the subject of +persecution: he was always the champion of toleration. In prison, poor, +hunted about from place to place, he was a martyr in spirit. During his +great earthly troubles he was solaced by a vision, which he embodied in +his popular work, _The Saints' Everlasting Rest_; and he wrote with great +fervor _A Call to the Unconverted_. He was a very voluminous writer; the +brutal Judge Jeffries, before whom he appeared for trial, called him "an +old knave, who had written books enough to load a cart." He wrote a +paraphrase of the New Testament, and numerous discourses. Dr. Johnson +advised Boswell, when speaking of Baxter's works: "Read any of them; they +are all good." He continued preaching until the close of his life, and +died peacefully in 1691. + + +GEORGE FOX.--The founder of the Society of Friends was born in 1624, in an +humble condition of life, and at an early age was apprenticed to a +shoemaker and grazier. Uneducated and unknown, he considered himself as +the subject of special religious providence, and at length as +supernaturally called of God. Suddenly abandoning his servile occupation, +he came out in 1647, at the age of twenty-three, as the founder of a new +sect; an itinerant preacher, he rebuked the multitudes which he assembled +by his fervent words. Much of his success was due to his earnestness and +self-abnegation. He preached in all parts of England, and visited the +American colonies. The name Quaker is said to have been applied to this +sect in 1650, when Fox, arraigned before Judge Bennet, told him to +"tremble at the word of the Lord." The establishment of this sect by such +a man is one of the strongest illustrations of the eager religious inquiry +of the age. + +The works of Fox are a very valuable _Journal of his Life and Travels_; +_Letters and Testimonies_; _Gospel Truth Demonstrated_,--all of which form +the best statement of the origin and tenets of his sect. Fox was a solemn, +reverent, absorbed man; a great reader and fluent expounder of the +Scriptures, but fanatical and superstitious; a believer in witchcraft, and +in his power to detect witches. The sect which he founded, and which has +played so respectable a part in later history, is far more important than +the founder himself. He died in London in 1690. + + +WILLIAM PENN.--The fame of Fox in America has been eclipsed by that of his +chief convert William Penn. In an historical or biographical work, the +life of Penn would demand extended mention; but his name is introduced +here only as one of the theological writers of the day. He was born in +1644, and while a student at Oxford was converted to the Friends' doctrine +by the preaching of Thomas Loe, a colleague of George Fox. The son of +Admiral Sir William Penn, he was the ward of James II., and afterwards +Lord Proprietary and founder of Pennsylvania. Persecuted for his tenets, +he was frequently imprisoned for his preaching and writings. In 1668 he +wrote _Truth Exalted_ and _The Sandy Foundation_, and when imprisoned for +these, he wrote in jail his most famous work, _No Cross, no Crown_. + +After the expulsion of James II., Penn was repeatedly tried and acquitted +for alleged attempts to aid the king in recovering his throne. The +malignity of Lord Macaulay has reproduced the charges, but reversed, most +unjustly, the acquittals. His record occupies a large space in American +history, and he is reverenced for having established a great colony on the +basis of brotherly love. Poor and infirm, he died in 1718. + + +ROBERT BARCLAY, who was born in 1648, is only mentioned in this connection +on account of his Latin apology for the Quakers, written in 1676, and +translated since into English. + + +JOHN BUNYAN.--Among the curious religious outcroppings of the civil war, +none is more striking and singular than John Bunyan. He produced a work of +a decidedly polemical character, setting forth his peculiar doctrines, +and--a remarkable feature in the course of English literature--a story so +interesting and vivid that it has met with universal perusal and +admiration. It is at the same time an allegory which has not its equal in +the language. Rhetoricians must always mention the Pilgrim's Progress as +the most splendid example of the allegory. + +Bunyan was born in Elston, Bedfordshire, in 1628. The son of a tinker, his +childhood and early manhood were idle and vicious. A sudden and sharp +rebuke from a woman not much better than himself, for his blasphemy, set +him to thinking, and he soon became a changed man. In 1653 he joined the +Baptists, and soon, without preparation, began to preach. For this he was +thrown into jail, where he remained for more than twelve years. It was +during this period that, with no other books than the Bible and Fox's Book +of Martyrs, he excogitated his allegory. In 1672 he was released through +the influence of Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln. He immediately began to +preach, and continued to do so until 1688, when he died from a fever +brought on by exposure. + +In his first work, _Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners_, he gives us +his own experience,--fearful dreams of early childhood, his sins and +warnings in the parliamentary army, with divers temptations, falls, and +struggles. + +Of his great work, _The Pilgrim's Progress_, it is hardly necessary to +speak at length. The story of the Pilgrim, Christian, is known to all +English readers, large and little; how he left the City of Destruction, +and journeyed towards the Celestial City; of his thrilling adventures; of +the men and things that retarded his progress, and of those who helped him +forward. No one has ever discoursed with such vivid description and +touching pathos of the Land of Beulah, the Delectable Mountains, the +Christian's inward rapture at the glimpse of the Celestial City, and his +faith-sustaining descent into the Valley of the Shadow of Death! As a work +of art, it is inimitable; as a book of religious instruction, it is more +to be admired for sentiment than for logic; its influence upon children is +rather that of a high-wrought romance than of godly precept. It is a +curious reproduction, with a slight difference in cast, of the morality +play of an earlier time. Mercy, Piety, Christian, Hopeful, Greatheart, +Faithful, are representatives of Christian graces; and, as in the +morality, the Prince of Darkness figures as Apollyon. + +Bunyan also wrote _The Holy War_, an allegory, which describes the contest +between Immanuel and Diabolus for the conquest of the city of Mansoul. +This does not by any means share the popularity of _The Pilgrim's +Progress_. The language of all his works is common and idiomatic, but +precise and strong: it is the vigorous English of an unpretending man, +without the graces of the schools, but expressing his meaning with +remarkable clearness. Like Milton's Paradise Lost, Bunyan's allegory has +been improperly placed by many persons on a par with the Bible as a body +of Christian doctrine, and for instruction in righteousness. + + +ROBERT SOUTH.--This eccentric clergyman was born in 1633. While king's +scholar at Dr. Busby's school in London, he led the devotions on the day +of King Charles' execution, and prayed for his majesty by name. At first a +Puritan, he became a churchman, and took orders. He was learned and +eloquent; but his sermons, which were greatly admired at the time, contain +many oddities, forced conceits, and singular anti-climaxes, which gained +for him the appellation of the witty churchman. + +He is accused of having been too subservient to Charles II.; and he also +is considered as displaying not a little vindictiveness in his attacks on +his former colleagues the Puritans. He is only known to this age by his +sermons, which are still published and read. + + + +OTHER THEOLOGICAL WRITERS. + + +_Isaac Barrow_, 1630-1677: a man of varied learning, a traveller in the +East, and an oriental scholar. He was appointed Professor of Greek at +Cambridge, and also lectured on Mathematics. He was a profound thinker and +a weighty writer, principally known by his courses of sermons on the +Decalogue, the Creed, and the Sacraments. + +_Edward Stillingfleet_, 1635-1699: a clergyman of the Church of England, +he was appointed Bishop of Worcester. Many of his sermons have been +published. Among his treatises is one entitled, _Irenicum, a Weapon-Salve +for the Churches Wounds, or the Divine Right of Particular Forms of Church +Government Discussed and Examined_. "The argument," says Bishop Burnet, +"was managed with so much learning and skill that none of either side ever +undertook to answer it." He also wrote _Origines Sacrae, or a Rational +Account of the Christian Faith_, and various treatises in favor of +Protestantism and against the Church of Rome. + +_William Sherlock_, 1678-1761: he was Dean of St. Paul's, and a writer of +numerous doctrinal discourses, among which are those on _The Trinity_, and +on _Death and the Future Judgment_. His son, Thomas Sherlock, D.D., born +1678, was also a distinguished theological writer. + +_Gilbert Burnet_, 1643-1715: he was very much of a politician, and played +a prominent part in the Revolution. He was made Bishop of Salisbury in +1689. He is principally known by his _History of the Reformation_, written +in the Protestant interest, and by his greater work, the _History of my +Own Times_. Not without a decided bias, this latter work is specially +valuable as the narration of an eye-witness. The history has been +variously criticized for prejudice and inaccuracy; but it fills what would +otherwise have been a great vacuum in English historical literature. + +_John Locke_, 1632-1704. In a history of philosophy, the name of this +distinguished philosopher would occupy a prominent place, and his works +would require extended notice. But it is not amiss to introduce him +briefly in this connection, because his works all have an ethical +significance. He was educated as a physician, and occupied several +official positions, in which he suffered from the vicissitudes of +political fortune, being once obliged to retreat from persecution to +Holland. His _Letters on Toleration_ is a noble effort to secure the +freedom of conscience: his _Treatises on Civil Government_ were specially +designed to refute Sir John Filmer's _Patriarcha_, and to overthrow the +principle of the _Jus Divinum_. His greatest work is an _Essay on the +Human Understanding_. This marks an era in English thought, and has done +much to invite attention to the subject of intellectual philosophy. He +derives our ideas from the two sources, _sensation_ and _reflection_; and +although many of his views have been superseded by the investigations of +later philosophers, it is due to him in some degree that their inquiries +have been possible. + + + +DIARISTS AND ANTIQUARIANS. + + +_John Evelyn_, 1620-1705. Among the unintentional historians of England, +none are of more value than those who have left detailed and gossiping +diaries of the times in which they lived: among these Evelyn occupies a +prominent place. He was a gentleman of education and position, who, after +the study of law, travelled extensively, and resided several years in +France. He had varied accomplishments. His _Sylva_ is a discourse on +forest trees and on the propagation of timber in his majesty's dominions. +To this he afterwards added _Pomona_, or a treatise on fruit trees. He was +also the author of an essay on _A Parallel of the Ancient Architecture +with the Modern_. But the work by which he is now best known is his +_Diary_ from 1641 to 1705; it is a necessary companion to the study of +the history of that period; and has been largely consulted by modern +writers in making up the historic record of the time. + +_Samuel Pepys_, 1637-1703. This famous diarist was the son of a London +tailor. He received a collegiate education, and became a connoisseur in +literature and art. Of a prying disposition, he saw all that he could of +the varied political, literary, and social life of England; and has +recorded what he saw in a diary so quaint, simple, and amusing, that it +has retained its popularity to the present day, and has greatly aided the +historian both in facts and philosophy. He held an official position as +secretary in the admiralty, the duties of which he discharged with great +system and skill. In addition to this _Diary_, we have also his +_Correspondence_, published after his death, which is historically of +great importance. In both diary and correspondence he has the charm of +great _naivete_,--as of a curious and gossiping observer, who never +dreamed that his writings would be made public. Men and women of social +station are painted in pre-Raphaelite style, and figure before us with +great truth and vividness. + +_Elias Ashmole_, 1617-1693. This antiquarian and virtuoso is principally +known as the founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. He studied law, +chemistry, and natural philosophy. Besides an edition of the manuscript +works of certain English chemists, he wrote _Bennevennu_,--the description +of a Roman road mentioned in the Itinerary of Antoninus,--and a _History +of the Order of the Garter_. His _Diary_ was published nearly a century +after his death, but is by no means equal in value to those of Evelyn and +Pepys. + +_John Aubrey_, 1627-1697: a man of curious mind, Aubrey investigated the +supernatural topics of the day, and presented them to the world in his +_Miscellanies_. Among these subjects it is interesting to notice "blows +invisible," and "knockings," which have been resuscitated in the present +day. He was a "perambulator," and, in the words of one of his critics, +"picked up information on the highway, and scattered it everywhere as +authentic." His most valuable contribution to history is found in his +_Letters Written by Eminent Persons in the 17th and 18th Centuries, with +Lives of Eminent Men_. The searcher for authentic material must carefully +scrutinize Aubrey's _facts_; but, with much that is doubtful, valuable +information may be obtained from his pages. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE DRAMA OF THE RESTORATION. + + + The License of the Age. Dryden. Wycherley. Congreve. Vanbrugh. + Farquhar. Etherege. Tragedy. Otway. Rowe. Lee. Southern. + + + +THE LICENSE OF THE AGE. + + +There is no portion of the literature of this period which so fully +represents and explains the social history of the age as the drama. With +the restoration of Charles it returned to England, after a time in which +the chief faults had been too great rigor in morals. The theatres had been +closed, all amusements checked, and even poetry and the fine arts placed +under a ban. In the reign of Charles I., Prynne had written his _Histrio +Mastix_, or Scourge of the Stage, in which he not only denounced all stage +plays, but music and dancing; and also declaimed against hunting, festival +days, the celebration of Christmas, and Maypoles. For this he was indicted +in the Star Chamber for libel, and was sentenced to stand in the pillory, +to lose his ears, to pay the king a fine of L5000, and to be imprisoned +for life. For his attack there was much excuse in the license of the +former period; but when puritanism, in its turn, was brought under the +three spears, the drama was to come back tenfold more injurious and more +immoral than before. + +From the stern and gloomy morals of the Commonwealth we now turn to the +debaucheries of the court,--from cropped heads and dark cloaks to plumes +and velvet, gold lace and embroidery,--to the varied fashions of every +kind for which Paris has always been renowned, and which Charles brought +back with him from his exile;--from prudish morals to indiscriminate +debauchery; from the exercisings of brewers' clerks, the expounding of +tailors, the catechizing of watermen, to the stage, which was now loudly +petitioned to supply amusement and novelty. Macaulay justly says: "The +restraints of that gloomy time were such as would have been impatiently +borne, if imposed by men who were universally believed to be saints; these +restraints became altogether insupportable when they were known to be kept +up for the profit of hypocrites! It is quite certain that if the royal +family had never returned, there would have been a great relaxation of +manners." It is equally certain, let us add, that morals would not have +been correspondingly relaxed. The revulsion was terrible. In no period of +English history was society ever so grossly immoral; and the drama, which +we now come to consider, displays this immorality and license with a +perfect delineation. + +The English people had always been fond of the drama in all its forms, and +were ready to receive it even contaminated as it was by the licentious +spirit of the time. An illiterate and ignorant people cannot think for +themselves; they act upon the precepts and example of those above them in +knowledge and social station: thus it is that a dissolute monarch and a +subservient aristocracy corrupt the masses. + + +DRYDEN'S PLAYS.--Although Dryden's reputation is based on his other poems, +and although his dramas have conduced scarcely at all to his fame, he did +play a principal part in this department of literary work. Dryden made +haste to answer the call, and his venal muse wrote to please the town. The +names of many of his plays and personages are foreign; but their vitality +is purely English. Of his first play, _The Duke of Guise_, which was +unsuccessful, he tells us: "I undertook this as the fairest way which the +Act of Indemnity had left us, as setting forth the rise of the great +rebellion, and of exposing the villanies of it upon the stage, to +precaution posterity against the like errors;"--a rebellion the +master-spirit of which he had eulogized upon his bier! + +His second play, _The Wild Gallant_, may be judged by the fact that it won +for him the favor of Charles II. and of his mistress, the Duchess of +Cleveland. Pepys saw it "well acted;" but says, "It hath little good in +it." It is not our purpose to give a list of Dryden's plays; besides their +occasional lewdness, they are very far inferior to his poems, and are now +rarely read except by the historical student. They paid him in ready +money, and he cannot ask payment from posterity in fame. + +On the 13th of January, 1667-8, (we are told by Pepys,) the ladies and the +Duke of Monmouth acted _The Indian Emperour_ at court. + +The same chronicler says: _The Maiden Queene_ was "mightily commended for +the regularity of it, and the strain and wit;" but of the _Ladys a la +Mode_ he says it was "so mean a thing" that, when it was announced for the +next night, the pit "fell a laughing, because the house was not a quarter +full." + +But Dryden, as a playwright, does not enjoy the infamous honor of a high +rank among his fellow-dramatists. The proper representations of the drama +in that age were, in Comedy, Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar; +and, in Tragedy, Otway, Rowe, and Lee. + + +WYCHERLEY.--Of the comedists of this period, where all were evil, William +Wycherley was the worst. In his four plays, _Love in a Wood_, _The +Gentleman Dancing-Master_, _The Country Wife_, and _The Plain Dealer_, he +outrages all decency, ridicules honesty and virtue, and makes vice always +triumphant. As a young man, profligate with pen and in his life, he was a +wicked old man; for, when sixty-four years of age, he published a +miscellany of verses of which Macaulay says: "The style and versification +are beneath criticism: the morals are those of Rochester." And yet it is +sad to be obliged to say that his characters pleased the age, because such +men and women really lived then, and acted just as he describes them. He +depicted vice to applaud and not to punish it. Wycherley was born in 1640, +and died in 1715. + + +CONGREVE.--William Congreve, who is of the same school of morals, is far +superior as a writer; indeed, were one name to be selected in illustration +of our subject, it would be his. He was born in 1666, and, after being +educated at Trinity College, Dublin, was a student at the Middle Temple. +His first play, _The Old Bachelor_, produced in his twenty-first year, was +a great success, and won for him the patronage of Lord Halifax. His next, +_The Double Dealer_, caused Dryden to proclaim him the equal of +Shakspeare! Perhaps his most famous comedy is _Love for Love_, which is +besides an excellent index to the morality of the age. The author was +quoted and caressed; Pope dedicated to him his Translation of the Iliad; +and Voltaire considered him the most successful English writer of comedy. +His merit consists in some degree of originality, and in the liveliness of +his colloquies. His wit is brilliant and flashing, but, in the words of +Thackeray, the world to him "seems to have had no moral at all." + +How much he owed to the French school, and especially to Moliere, may be +judged from the fact that a whole scene in _Love for Love_ is borrowed +from the _Don Juan_ of Moliere. It is that in which Trapland comes to +collect his debt from Valentine Legend. Readers of Moliere will recall the +scene between Don Juan, Sganarelle and M. Dimanche, which is here, with +change of names, taken almost word for word. His men are gallants neither +from love or passion, but from the custom of the age, of which it is said, +"it would break Mr. Tattle's heart to think anybody else should be +beforehand with him;" and Mr. Tattle was the type of a thousand fine +gentlemen in the best English society of that day. + +His only tragedy, _The Mourning Bride_, although far below those of +Shakspeare, is the best of that age; and Dr. Johnson says he would go to +it to find the most poetical paragraph in the range of English poetry. +Congreve died in 1729, leaving his gains to the Duchess of Marlborough, +who cherished his memory in a very original fashion. She had a statue of +him in ivory, which went by clockwork, and was daily seated at her table; +and another wax-doll imitation, whose feet she caused to be blistered and +anointed by physicians, as the poet's gouty extremities had been. + +Congreve was not ashamed to vindicate the drama, licentious as it was. In +the year 1698, Jeremy Collier, a distinguished nonjuring clergyman, +published _A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English +Stage_; a very vigorous and severe criticism, containing a great deal of +wholesome but bitter truth. Congreve came to the defence of the stage, and +his example was followed by his brother dramatists. But Collier was too +strong for his enemies, and the defences were very weak. There yet existed +in England that leaven of purity which has steadily since been making its +influence felt. + + +VANBRUGH.--Sir John Vanbrugh (born in 1666, died in 1726) was an architect +as well as a dramatist, but not great in either role. His principal dramas +are _The Provoked Wife_, _The City Wives' Confederacy_, and _The Journey +to London_ (finished by Colley Cibber). His personages are vicious and +lewd, but quite real; and his wit is constant and flowing. _The Provoked +Wife_ is so licentious a play that it is supposed Vanbrugh afterwards +conceived and began his _Provoked Husband_ to make some amends for it. +This latter play, however, he did not complete: it was finished after his +death by Cibber, who says in the Prologue: + + This play took birth from principles of truth, + To make amends for errors past of youth. + + * * * * * + + Though vice is natural, 't was never meant + The stage should show it but for punishment. + Warm with such thoughts, his muse once more took flame, + Resolved to bring licentious life to shame. + +If Vanbrugh was not born in France, it is certain that he spent many years +there, and there acquired the taste and handling of the comic drama, which +then had its halcyon days under Moliere. His dialogue is very spirited, +and his humor is greater than that of Congreve, who, however, excelled him +in wit. + +The principal architectural efforts of Vanbrugh were the design for Castle +Howard, and the palace of Blenheim, built for Marlborough by the English +nation, both of which are greater titles to enduring reputation than any +of his plays. + + +FARQUHAR.--George Farquhar was born in Londonderry, in 1678, and began his +studies at Trinity College, Dublin, but was soon stage-struck, and became +an actor. Not long after, he was commissioned in the army, and began to +write plays in the style and moral tone of the age. Among his nine +comedies, those which present that tone best are his _Love in a Bottle_, +_The Constant Couple_, _The Recruiting Officer_, and _The Beaux' +Stratagem_. All his productions were hastily written, but met with great +success from their gayety and clever plots, especially the last two +mentioned, which are not, besides, so immoral as the others, and which are +yet acted upon the British stage. + + +ETHEREGE.--Sir George Etherege, a coxcomb and a diplomatist, was born in +1636, and died in 1694. His plays are, equally with the others mentioned, +marked by the licentiousness of the age, which is rendered more insidious +by their elegance. Among them are _The Comical Revenge, or Love in a +Tub_, and _The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter_. + + + +TRAGEDY. + + +The domain of tragedy, although perhaps not so attractive to the English +people as comedy, was still sufficiently so to invite the attention of the +literati. The excitement which is produced by exaggerated scenes of +distress and death has always had a charm for the multitude; and although +the principal tragedies of this period are based upon heroic stories, many +of them of classic origin, the genius of the writer displayed itself in +applying these to his own times, and in introducing that "touch of nature" +which "makes the whole world kin." Human sympathy is based upon a +community of suffering, and the sorrows of one age are similar to those of +another. Besides, tragedy served, in the period of which we are speaking, +to give variety and contrast to what would otherwise have been the gay +monotony of the comic muse. + + +OTWAY.--The first writer to be mentioned in this field, is Thomas Otway +(born in 1651, died in 1685). He led an irregular and wretched life, and +died, it is said, from being choked by a roll of bread which, after great +want, he was eating too ravenously. + +His style is extravagant, his pathos too exacting, and his delineation of +the passions sensational and overwrought. He produced in his earlier +career _Alcibiades_ and _Don Carlos_, and, later, _The Orphan_, and _The +Soldier's Fortune_. But the piece by which his fame was secured is _Venice +Preserved_, which, based upon history, is fictional in its details. The +original story is found in the Abbe de St. Real's _Histoire de la +Conjuration du Marquis de Bedamar_, or the account of a Spanish conspiracy +in which the marquis, who was ambassador, took part. It is still put upon +the stage, with the omission, however, of the licentious comic portions +found in the original play. + + +NICHOLAS ROWE, who was born in 1673, a man of fortune and a government +official, produced seven tragedies, of which _The Fair Penitent_, _Lady +Jane Grey_, and _Jane Shore_ are the best. His description of the lover, +in the first, has become a current phrase: "That haughty, gallant, gay +Lothario,"--the prototype of false lovers since. The plots are too broad, +but the moral of these tragedies is in most cases good. + +In _Jane Shore_, he has followed the history of the royal mistress, and +has given a moral lesson of great efficacy. + + +NATHANIEL LEE, 1657-1692: was a man of dissolute life, for some time +insane, and met his death in a drunken brawl. Of his ten tragedies, the +best are _The Rival Queens_, and _Theodosius, or The Force of Love_. The +rival queens of Alexander the Great--Roxana and Statira--figure in the +first, which is still presented upon the stage. It has been called, with +just critical point, "A great and glorious flight of a bold but frenzied +imagination, having as much absurdity as sublimity, and as much +extravagance as passion; the poet, the genius, the scholar are everywhere +visible." + + +THOMAS SOUTHERN, 1659-1746: wrote _Isabella, or The Fatal Marriage_, and +_Oronooko_. In the latter, although yielding to the corrupt taste of the +time in his comic parts, he causes his captive Indian prince to teach that +period a lesson by his pure and noble love for Imoinda. Oronooko is a +prince taken by the English at Surinam and carried captive to England. + +These writers are the best representatives of those who in tragedy and +comedy form the staple of that age. Their models were copied in succeeding +years; but, with the expulsion of the Stuarts, morals were somewhat +mended; and while light, gay, and witty productions for the stage were +still in demand, the extreme licentiousness was repudiated by the public; +and the plays of Cibber, Cumberland, Colman, and Sheridan, reflecting +these better tastes, are free from much of the pollution to which we have +referred. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +POPE, AND THE ARTIFICIAL SCHOOL. + + + Contemporary History. Birth and Early Life. Essay on Criticism. Rape of + the Lock. The Messiah. The Iliad. Value of the Translation. The + Odyssey. Essay on Man. The Artificial School. Estimate of Pope. Other + Writers. + + + +Alexander Pope is at once one of the greatest names in English literature +and one of the most remarkable illustrations of the fact that the +literature is the interpreter of English history. He was also a man of +singular individuality, and may, in some respects, be considered a _lusus +naturae_ among the literary men of his day. + + +CONTEMPORARY HISTORY.--He was born in London on the 21st of May, 1688, the +year which witnessed the second and final expulsion of the Stuarts, in +direct line, and the accession of a younger branch in the persons of Mary +and her husband, William of Orange. Pope comes upon the literary scene +with the new order of political affairs. A dynasty had been overthrown, +and the power of the parliament had been established; new charters of +right had secured the people from kingly oppression; but there was still a +strong element of opposition and sedition in the Jacobite party, which had +by no means abandoned the hope of restoring the former rule. They were +kept in check, indeed, during the reign of William and Mary, but they +became bolder upon the accession of Queen Anne. They hoped to find their +efforts facilitated by the fact that she was childless; and they even +asserted that upon her death-bed she had favored the succession of the +pretender, whom they called James III. + +In 1715, the year after the accession of George I., the electoral prince +of Hanover,--whose grandmother was the daughter of James I.,--they broke +out into open rebellion. The pretender landed in Scotland, and made an +abortive attempt to recover the throne. The nation was kept in a state of +excitement and turmoil until the disaster of Culloden, and the final +defeat of Charles Edward, the young pretender, in 1745, one year after the +death of Pope. + +These historical facts had a direct influence upon English society: the +country was divided into factions; and political conflicts sharpened the +wits and gave vigor to the conduct of men in all ranks. Pope was an +interpreter of his age, in politics, in general culture, and in social +manners and morals. Thus he was a politician among the statesmen +Bolingbroke, Buckingham, Oxford, Sunderland, Halifax, Harley, and +Marlborough. His _Essay on Criticism_ presents to us the artificial taste +and technical rules which were established as a standard in literature. +His _Essay on Man_, his _Moral Epistles_, and his _Universal Prayer_ are +an index to the semi-Christian, semi-Grecian ethics of an age too selfish +to be orthodox, and too progressive to be intolerant. His _Rape of the +Lock_ is a striking picture of social life, sketched by the hand of a +gentle satire. His translations of Homer, and their great success, are +significant of a more extended taste for scholarship; not attended, +however, with many incentives to originality of production. The nobles +were still the patrons of literature, and they fancied old things which +were grand, in new and gaudy English dresses. The age was also marked by +rapid and uniform progress in the English language. The sonorous, but +cumbrous English of Milton had been greatly improved by Dryden; and we +have seen, also, that the terse and somewhat crude diction of Dryden's +earlier works had been polished and rendered more harmonious in his later +poems. + +This harmony of language seemed to Pope and to his patrons the chief aim +of the poet, and to make it still more tuneful and melodious was the +purpose of his life. + + +BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE.--Pope was the son of a respectable linen-draper, who +had achieved a competency and retired to enjoy it. The mother of the poet +must have been a good one, to have retained the ardent and eulogistic +affection of her son to the close of her life, as she did. This attachment +is a marked feature in his biography, and at last finds vent in her +epitaph, in which he calls her "_mater optima, mulierum amantissima_." + +Pope was a sickly, dwarfed, precocious child. His early studies in Latin +and Greek were conducted by priests of the Roman Catholic Church, to which +his parents belonged; but he soon took his education into his own hands. +Alone and unaided he pursued his classical studies, and made good progress +in French and German. + +Of his early rhyming powers he says: + + "I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came." + +At the age of twelve, he was taken to Will's Coffee-house, to see the +great Dryden, upon whom, as a model, he had already determined to fashion +himself. + +His first efforts were translations. He made English versions of the first +book of the _Thebais_ of Statius; several of the stories of Chaucer, and +one of Ovid's Epistles, all of which were produced before he was fifteen. + + +ESSAY ON CRITICISM.--He was not quite twenty-one when he wrote his _Essay +on Criticism_, in which he lays down the canons of just criticism, and the +causes which prevent it. In illustration, he attacks the multitude of +critics of that day, and is particularly harsh in his handling of a few +among them. He gained a name by this excellent poem, but he made many +enemies, and among them one John Dennis, whom he had satirized under the +name of Appius. Dennis was his life-long foe. + +Perhaps there is no better proof of the lasting and deserved popularity of +this Essay, than the numerous quotations from it, not only in works on +rhetoric and literary criticism, but in our ordinary intercourse with men. +Couplets and lines have become household words wherever the English +language is spoken. How often do we hear the sciolist condemned in these +words: + + A little learning is a dangerous thing; + Drink deep, or touch not the Pierian spring? + +Irreverence and rash speculation are satirized thus: + + Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead, + For fools rush in where angels fear to tread. + +We may waive a special notice of his _Pastorals_, which, like those of +Dryden, are but clever imitations of Theocritus and anachronisms of the +Alexandrian period. Of their merits, we may judge from his own words. "If +they have any merit, it is to be attributed to some good old authors, +whose works as I had leisure to study, so I hope I have not wanted care to +imitate." + + +RAPE OF THE LOCK.--The poem which displays most originality of invention +is the _Rape of the Lock_. It is, perhaps, the best and most charming +specimen of the mock-heroic to be found in English; and it is specially +deserving of attention, because it depicts the social life of the period +in one of its principal phases. Miss Arabella Fermor, one of the reigning +beauties of London society, while on a pleasure party on the Thames, had a +lock of her hair surreptitiously cut off by Lord Petre. Although it was +designed as a joke, the belle was very angry; and Pope, who was a friend +of both persons, wrote this poem to assuage her wrath and to reconcile +them. It has all the system and construction of an epic. The poet +describes, with becoming delicacy, the toilet of the lady, at which she is +attended by obsequious sylphs. + +The party embark upon the river, and the fair lady is described in the +splendor of her charms: + + This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, + Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind + In equal curls, and well conspired to deck, + With shining ringlets, the smooth, ivory neck. + + * * * * * + + Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare. + And beauty draws us by a single hair. + +Surrounding sylphs protect the beauty; and one to whom the lock has been +given in charge, flutters unfortunately too near, and is clipped in two by +the scissors that cut the lock. It is a rather extravagant conclusion, +even in a mock-heroic poem, that when the strife was greatest to restore +the lock, it flew upward: + + A sudden star, it shot through liquid air, + And drew behind a radiant trail of hair, + +and thus, and always, it + + Adds new glory to the shining sphere. + +With these simple and meagre materials, Pope has constructed an harmonious +poem in which the sylphs, gnomes, and other sprites of the Rosicrucian +philosophy find appropriate place and service. It failed in its principal +purpose of reconciliation, but it has given us the best mock-heroic poem +in the language. As might have been expected, it called forth bitter +criticisms from Dennis; and there were not wanting those who saw in it a +political significance. Pope's pleasantry was aroused at this, and he +published _A Key to the Lock_, in which he further mystifies these sage +readers: Belinda becomes Great Britain; the Baron is the Earl of Oxford; +and Thalestris is the Duchess of Marlborough. + + +THE MESSIAH.--In 1712 there appeared in one of the numbers of _The +Spectator_, his _Messiah, a Sacred Eclogue_, written with the purpose of +harmonizing the prophecy of Isaiah and the singular oracles of the Pollio, +or Fourth Eclogue of Virgil. Elevated in thought and grand in diction, the +Messiah has kept its hold upon public favor ever since, and portions of it +are used as hymns in general worship. Among these will be recognized that +of which the opening lines are: + + Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise; + Exalt thy towering head and lift thine eyes. + +In 1713 he published a poem on _Windsor Forest_, and an _Ode on St. +Cecilia's Day_, in imitation of Dryden. He also furnished the beautiful +prologue to Addison's Cato. + + +TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD.--He now proposed to himself a task which was to +give him more reputation and far greater emolument than anything he had +yet accomplished--a translation of the Iliad of Homer. This was a great +desideratum, and men of all parties conspired to encourage and reward him. +Chapman's Homer, excellent as it was, was not in a popular measure, and +was known only to scholars. + +In the execution of this project, Pope labored for six years--writing by +day and dreaming of his work at night; translating thirty or forty lines +before rising in the morning, and jotting down portions even while on a +journey. Pope's polished pentameters, when read, are very unlike the +full-voiced hexameters of Homer; but the errors in the translation are +comparatively few and unimportant, and his own poetry is in his best vein. +The poem was published by subscription, and was a great pecuniary success. +This was in part due to the blunt importunity of Dean Swift, who said: +"The author shall not begin to print until I have a thousand guineas for +him." Parnell, one of the most accomplished Greek scholars of the day, +wrote a life of Homer, to be prefixed to the work; and many of the +critical notes were written by Broome, who had translated the Iliad into +English prose. Pope was not without poetical rivals. Tickell produced a +translation of the first book of the Iliad, which was certainly revised, +and many thought partly written, by Addison. A coolness already existing +between Pope and Addison was increased by this circumstance, which soon +led to an open rupture between them. The public, however, favored Pope's +version, while a few of the _dilettanti_ joined Addison in preferring +Tickell's. + +The pecuniary results of Pope's labors were particularly gratifying. The +work was published in six quarto volumes, and had more than six hundred +subscribers, at six guineas a copy: the amount realized by Pope on the +first and subsequent issues was upwards of five thousand pounds--an +unprecedented payment of bookseller to author in that day. + + +VALUE OF THE TRANSLATION.--This work, in spite of the criticism of exact +scholars, has retained its popularity to the present time. Chapman's Homer +has been already referred to. Since the days of Pope numerous authors have +tried their hands upon Homer, translating the whole or a part. Among these +is a very fine poem by Cowper, in blank verse, which is praised by the +critics, but little read. Lord Derby's translation is distinguished for +its prosaic accuracy. The recent version of our venerable poet, Wm. C. +Bryant, is acknowledged to be at once scholarly, accurate, and harmonious, +and will be of permanent value and reputation. But the exquisite tinkling +of Pope's lines, the pleasant refrain they leave in the memory, like the +chiming of silver bells, will cause them to last, with undiminished favor, +unaffected by more correct rivals, as long as the language itself. "A very +pretty poem, Mr. Pope," said the great Bentley; "but pray do not call it +Homer." Despite this criticism of the Greek scholar, the world has taken +it for Homer, and knows Homer almost solely through this charming medium. + +The Iliad was issued in successive years, the last two volumes appearing +in 1720. Of course it was savagely attacked by Dennis; but Pope had won +more than he had hoped for, and might laugh at his enemies. + +With the means he had inherited, increased by the sale of his poem, Pope +leased a villa on the Thames, at Twickenham, which he fitted up as a +residence for life. He laid out the grounds, built a grotto, and made his +villa a famous spot. + +Here he was smitten by the masculine charms of the gifted Lady Mary +Wortley Montagu, who figures in many of his verses, and particularly in +the closing lines of the _Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard_. It was a singular +alliance, destined to a speedy rupture. On her return from Turkey, in +1718, where her husband had been the English ambassador, she took a home +near Pope's villa, and, at his request, sat for her portrait. When, later, +they became estranged, she laughed at the poet, and his coldness turned +into hatred. + + +THE ODYSSEY.--The success of his version of the Iliad led to his +translation of the Odyssey; but this he did with the collaboration of +Fenton and Broome, the former writing four and the latter six books. The +volumes appeared successively in 1725-6, and there was an appendix +containing the _Batrachomiomachia_, or Battle of the Frogs and Mice, +translated by Parnell. For this work Pope received the lion's share of +profits, his co-laborers being paid only L800. + +Among his miscellaneous works must be mentioned portions of _Martinus +Scriblerus_. One of these, _Peri Bathous_, or _Art of Sinking in Poetry_, +was the germ of The Dunciad. + +Like Dryden, he was attacked by the _soi-disant_ poets of the day, and +retorted in similar style and taste. In imitation of Dryden's +_MacFlecknoe_, he wrote _The Dunciad_, or epic of the Dunces, in the first +edition of which Theobald was promoted to the vacant throne. It roused a +great storm. Authors besieged the publisher to hinder him from publishing +it, while booksellers and agents were doing all in their power to procure +it. In a later edition a new book was added, deposing Theobald and +elevating Colley Cibber to the throne of Dulness. This was ill-advised, as +the ridicule, which was justly applied to Theobald, is not applicable to +Cibber. + + +ESSAY ON MAN.--The intercourse of the poet with the gifted but sceptical +Lord Bolingbroke is apparent in his _Essay on Man_, in which, with much +that is orthodox and excellent, the principles and influence of his +lordship are readily discerned. The first part appeared in 1732, and the +second some years later. The opinion is no longer held that Bolingbroke +wrote any part of the poem; he has only infected it. It is one of Pope's +best poems in versification and diction, and abounds with pithy proverbial +sayings, which the English world has been using ever since as current +money in conversational barter. Among many that might be selected, the +following are well known: + + All are but parts of one stupendous whole + Whose body nature is, and God the soul. + + Know thou thyself, presume not God to scan; + The proper study of mankind is man. + + A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod; + An honest man's the noblest work of God. + +Among the historical teachings of Pope's works and career, and also among +the curiosities of literature, must be noticed the publication of Pope's +letters, by Curll the bookseller, without the poet's permission. They were +principally letters to Henry Cromwell, Wycherley, Congreve, Steele, +Addison, and Swift. There were not wanting those who believed that it was +a trick of the poet himself to increase his notoriety; but such an +opinion is hardly warranted. These letters form a valuable chapter in the +social and literary history of the period. + + +POPE'S DEATH AND CHARACTER.--On the 30th of May, 1744, Pope passed away, +after a long illness, during which he said he was "dying of a hundred good +symptoms." Indeed, so frail and weak had he always been, that it was a +wonder he lived so long. His weakness of body seems to have acted upon his +strong mind, which must account for much that is satirical and splenetic +in his writings. Very short, thin, and ill-shaped, his person wanted the +compactness necessary to stand alone, until it was encased in stays. He +needed a high chair at table, such as children use; but he was an epicure, +and a fastidious one; and despite his infirmities, his bright, +intellectual eye and his courtly manners caused him to be noted quite as +much as his defects. + + +THE ARTIFICIAL SCHOOL.--Pope has been set forth as the head of the +_Artificial School_. This is, perhaps, rather a convenient than an exact +designation. He had little of original genius, but was an apt imitator and +reproducer--what in painting would be an excellent copyist. His greatest +praise, however, is that he reduced to system what had gone before him; +his poems present in themselves an art of poetry, with technical canons +and illustrations, which were long after servilely obeyed, and the +influence of which is still felt to-day. + +And this artificial school was in the main due to the artificial character +of the age. Nature seemed to have lost her charms; pastorals were little +more than private theatricals, enacted with straw hats and shepherd's +crook in drawing-rooms or on close-clipped lawns. Culture was confined to +court and town, and poets found little inducement to consult the heart or +to woo nature, but wrote what would please the town or court. This taste +gave character to the technical standards, to which Pope, more than any +other writer, gave system and coherence. Most of the literati were men of +the town; many were fine gentlemen with a political bias; and thus it is +that the school of poets of which Pope is the unchallenged head, has been +known as the Artificial School. + +In the passage of time, and with the increase of literature, the real +merits of Pope were for some time neglected, or misrepresented. The world +is beginning to discern and recognize these again. Learned, industrious, +self-reliant, controversial, and, above all, harmonious, instead of giving +vent to the highest fancies in simple language, he has treated the +common-place--that which is of universal interest--in melodious and +splendid diction. But, above all, he stands as the representative of his +age: a wit among the comic dramatists who were going out and the essayists +who were coming in; a man of the world with Lady Mary and the gay parties +on the Thames; a polemic, who dealt keen thrusts and who liked to see them +rankle, and who yet writhed in agony when the _riposte_ came; a Roman +Catholic in faith and a latitudinarian in speech;--such was Pope as a type +of that world in which he lived. + +A poet of the first rank he was not; he invented nothing; but he +established the canons of poetry, attuned to exquisite harmony the rhymed +couplet which Dryden had made so powerful an instrument, improved the +language, discerned and reconnected the discordant parts of literature; +and thus it is that he towers above all the poets of his age, and has sent +his influence through those that followed, even to the present day. + + + +OTHER WRITERS OF THE PERIOD. + + +_Matthew Prior_, 1664-1721: in his early youth he was a waiter in his +uncle's tap-room, but, surmounting all difficulties, he rose to be a +distinguished poet and diplomatist. He was an envoy to France, where he +was noted for his wit and ready repartee. His love songs are somewhat +immoral, but exquisitely melodious. His chief poems are: _Alma_, a +philosophic piece in the vein of Hudibras; _Solomon_, a Scripture poem; +and, the best of all, _The City and Country Mouse_, a parody on Dryden's +_Hind and Panther_, which he wrote in conjunction with Mr. Montague. He +was imprisoned by the Whigs in 1715, and lost all his fortune. He was +distinguished by having Dr. Johnson as his biographer, in the _Lives of +the Poets_. + +_John Arbuthnot_, 1667-1735: born in Scotland. He was learned, witty, and +amiable. Eminent in medicine, he was physician to the court of Queen Anne. +He is chiefly known in literature as the companion of Pope and Swift, and +as the writer with them of papers in the Martinus Scriblerus Club, which +was founded in 1714, and of which Pope, Gay, Swift, Arbuthnot, Harvey, +Atterbury, and others, were the principal members. Arbuthnot wrote a +_History of John Bull_, which was designed to render the war then carried +on by Marlborough unpopular, and certainly conduced to that end. + +_John Gay_, 1688-1732: he was of humble origin, but rose by his talents, +and figured at court. He wrote several dramas in a mock-tragic vein. Among +these are _What D'ye Call It?_ and _Three Hours after Marriage_; but that +which gave him permanent reputation is his _Beggar's Opera_, of which the +hero is a highwayman, and the characters are prostitutes and Newgate +gentry. It is interspersed with gay and lyrical songs, and was rendered +particularly effective by the fine acting of Miss Elizabeth Fenton, in the +part of _Polly_. The _Shepherd's Week_, a pastoral, contains more real +delineations of rural life than any other poem of the period. Another +curious piece is entitled, _Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of +London_. + +_Thomas Parnell_, 1679-1718: he was the author of numerous poems, among +which the only one which has retained popular favor is _The Hermit_, a +touching poem founded upon an older story. He wrote the life of Homer +prefixed to Pope's translation; but it was very much altered by Pope. + +_Thomas Tickell_, 1686-1740: particularly known as the friend of Addison. +He wrote a translation of the First Book of Homer's Iliad, which was +corrected by Addison, and contributed several papers to _The Spectator_. +But he is best known by his _Elegy_ upon Addison, which Dr. Johnson calls +a very "elegant funeral poem." + +_Isaac Watts_, 1674-1765: this great writer of hymns was born at +Southampton, and became one of the most eminent of the dissenting +ministers of England. He is principally known by his metrical versions of +the Psalms, and by a great number of original hymns, which have been +generally used by all denominations of Christians since. He also produced +many hymns for children, which have become familiar as household words. He +had a lyrical ear, and an easy, flowing diction, but is sometimes careless +in his versification and incorrect in his theology. During the greater +part of his life the honored guest of Sir Thomas Abney, he devoted himself +to literature. Besides many sermons, he produced a treatise on _The First +Principles of Geology and Astronomy_; a work on _Logic, or the Right Use +of the Reason in the Inquiry after Truth_; and _A Supplement on the +Improvement of the Mind_. These latter have been superseded as text-books +by later and more correct inquiry. + +_Edward Young_, 1681-1765: in his younger days he sought preferment at +court, but being disappointed in his aspirations, he took orders in the +Church, and led a retired life. He published a satire entitled, _The Love +of Fame, the Universal Passion_, which was quite successful. But his chief +work, which for a long time was classed with the highest poetic efforts, +is the _Night Thoughts_, a series of meditations, during nine nights, on +Life, Death, and Immortality. The style is somewhat pompous, the imagery +striking, but frequently unnatural; the occasional descriptions majestic +and vivid; and the effect of the whole is grand, gloomy, and peculiar. It +is full of apothegms, which have been much quoted; and some of his lines +and phrases are very familiar to all. + +He wrote papers on many topics, and among his tragedies the best known is +that entitled _The Revenge_. Very popular in his own day, Young has been +steadily declining in public favor, partly on account of the superior +claims of modern writers, and partly because of the morbid and gloomy +views he has taken of human nature. His solemn admonitions throng upon the +reader like phantoms, and cause him to desire more cheerful company. A +sketch of the life of Young may be found in Dr. Johnson's _Lives of the +Poets_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +ADDISON, AND THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. + + + The Character of the Age. Queen Anne. Whigs and Tories. George I. + Addison--The Campaign. Sir Roger de Coverley. The Club. Addison's + Hymns. Person and Literary Character. + + + +THE CHARACTER OF THE AGE. + + +To cater further to the Artificial Age, the literary cravings of which far +exceeded those of any former period, there sprang up a school of +Essayists, most of whom were also poets, dramatists, and politicians. +Among these Addison, Steele, and Swift stand pre-eminent. Each of them was +a man of distinct and interesting personality. Two of them--Addison and +Swift--presented such a remarkable contrast, that it has been usual for +writers on this period of English Literature to bring them together as +foils to each other. This has led to injustice towards Swift; they should +be placed in juxtaposition because they are of the same period, and +because of their joint efforts in the literary development of the age. The +period is distinctly marked. We speak as currently of the wits and the +essayists of Queen Anne's reign as we do of the authors of the Elizabethan +age. + +A glance at contemporary history will give us an intelligent clue to our +literary inquiries, and cause us to observe the historical character of +the literature. + +To a casual observer, the reign of Queen Anne seems particularly +untroubled and prosperous. English history calls it the time of "Good +Queen Anne;" and it is referred to with great unction by the _laudator +temporis acti_, in unjust comparison with the period which has since +intervened, as well as with that which preceded it. + + +QUEEN ANNE.--The queen was a Protestant, as opposed to the Romanists and +Jacobites; a faithful wife, and a tender mother in her memory of several +children who died young. She was merciful, pure, and gracious to her +subjects. Her reign was tolerant. There was plenty at home; rebellion and +civil war were at least latent. Abroad, England was greatly distinguished +by the victories of Marlborough and Eugene. But to one who looks through +this veil of prosperity, a curious history is unfolded. The fires of +faction were scarcely smouldering. It was the transition period between +the expiring dynasty of the direct line of Stuarts and the coming of the +Hanoverian house. Women took part in politics; sermons like that of +Sacheverell against the dissenters and the government were thundered from +the pulpit. Volcanic fires were at work; the low rumblings of an +earthquake were heard from time to time, and gave constant cause of +concern to the queen and her statesmen. Men of rank conspired against each +other; the moral license of former reigns seems to have been forgotten in +political intrigue. When James II. had been driven out in 1688, the +English conscience compromised on the score of the divine right of kings, +by taking his daughter Mary and her husband as joint monarchs. To do this, +they affected to call the king's son by his second wife, born in that +year, a pretender. It was said that he was the child of another woman, and +had been brought to the queen's bedside in a warming-pan, that James might +be able to present, thus fraudulently, a Roman Catholic heir to the +throne. In this they did the king injustice, and greater injustice to the +queen, Maria de Modena, a pleasing and innocent woman, who had, by her +virtues and personal popularity alone, kept the king on his throne, in +spite of his pernicious measures. + +When the dynasty was overthrown, the parliament had presented to William +and Mary _A Bill of Rights_, in which the people's grievances were set +forth, and their rights enumerated and insisted upon; and this was +accepted by the monarchs as a condition of their tenure. + +Mary died in 1695, and when William followed her, in 1702, Anne, the +second daughter of James, ascended the throne. Had she refused the +succession, there would have been a furious war between the Jacobites and +the Hanoverians. In 1714, Anne died childless, but her reign had bridged +the chasm between the experiment of William and Mary and the house of +Hanover. In default of direct heirs to Queen Anne, the succession was in +this Hanoverian house; represented in the person of the Electress Sophia, +the granddaughter of James I., through his daughter, Elizabeth of Bohemia. +But this lineage of blood had lost all English affinities and sympathies. + +Meanwhile, the child born to James II., in 1688, had grown to be a man, +and stood ready, on the death of Queen Anne, to re-affirm his claim to the +throne. It was said that, although, on account of the plottings of the +Jacobites, a price had been put upon his head, the queen herself wished +him to succeed, and had expressed scruples about her own right to reign. +She greatly disliked the family of Hanover, and while she was on her +death-bed, the pretender had been brought to England, in the hope that she +would declare him her successor. The elements of discord asserted +themselves still more strongly. Whigs and Tories in politics, Romanists +and Protestants in creed, Jacobite and Hanoverian in loyalty, opposed each +other, harassing the feeble queen, and keeping the realm in continual +ferment. + + +WHIGS AND TORIES.--The Whigs were those who declared that kingly power was +solely for the good of the subject; that the reformed creed was the +religion of the realm; that James had forfeited the throne, and that his +son was a pretender; and that the power justly passed to the house of +Hanover. The Tories asserted that monarchs ruled by _divine right_; and +that if, when religion was at stake, the king might be deposed, this could +not affect the succession. + +Anne escaped her troubles by dying, in 1714. Sophia, the Electress of +Hanover, who had only wished to live, she said, long enough to have +engraved upon her tombstone: "Here lies Sophia, Queen of England," died, +in spite of this desire, only a few weeks before the queen; and the new +heir to the throne was her son, George Louis of Brunswick-Luneburg, +electoral prince of Hanover. + +He came cautiously and selfishly to the throne of England; he felt his +way, and left a line of retreat open; he brought not a spice of honest +English sentiment, but he introduced the filth of the electoral court. As +gross in his conduct as Charles II., he had indeed a prosperous reign, +because it was based upon a just and tolerant Constitution; because the +English were in reality not governed by a king, but by well-enacted laws. + +The effect of all this political turmoil upon the leading men in England +had been manifest; both parties had been expectant, and many of the +statesmen had been upon the fence, ready to get down on one side or the +other, according to circumstances. Marlborough left the Tories and joined +the Whigs; Swift, who had been a Whig, joined the Tories. The queen's +first ministry had consisted of Whigs and the more moderate Tories; but as +she fell away from the Marlboroughs, she threw herself into the hands of +the Tories, who had determined, and now achieved, the downfall of +Marlborough. + +Such was the reign of good Queen Anne. With this brief sketch as a +preliminary, we return to the literature, which, like her coin, bore her +image and carried it into succeeding reigns. In literature, the age of +Queen Anne extends far beyond her lifetime. + + +ADDISON.--The principal name of this period is that of Joseph Addison. He +was the son of the rector of Milston, in Wiltshire, and was born in 1672. +Old enough in 1688 to appreciate the revolution, as early as he could +wield his pen, he used it in the cause of the new monarchs. At the age of +fifteen he was sent from the Charter-House to Oxford; and there he wrote +some Latin verses, for which he was rewarded by a university scholarship. +After pursuing his studies at Oxford, he began his literary career. In his +twenty-second year he wrote a poetical address to Dryden; but he chiefly +sought preferment through political poetry. In 1695 he wrote a poem to the +king, which was well received; and in 1699 he received a pension of L300. +In 1701 he went upon the Continent, and travelled principally in France +and Italy. On his return, he published his travels, and a _Poetical +Epistle from Italy_, which are interesting as delineating continental +scenes and manners in that day. Of the travels, Dr. Johnson said, "they +might have been written at home;" but he praised the poetical epistle as +the finest of Addison's poetical works. + +Upon the accession of Queen Anne, he continued to pay his court in verse. +When the great battle of Blenheim was fought, in 1704, he at once +published an artificial poem called _The Campaign_, which has received the +fitting name of the _Rhymed Despatch_. Eulogistic of Marlborough and +descriptive of his army manoeuvres, its chief value is to be found in +its historical character, and not in any poetic merit. It was a political +paper, and he was rewarded for it by the appointment of Commissioner of +Appeals, in which post he succeeded the philosopher Locke. + +The spirit of this poem is found in the following lines: + + Fiction may deck the truth with spurious rays, + And round the hero cast a borrowed blaze; + Marlboro's exploits appear divinely bright, + And proudly shine in their own native light. + +If we look for a contrast to this poem, indicating with it the two +political sides of the question, it may be found in Swift's tract on _The +Conduct of the Allies_, which asserts that the war had been maintained to +gratify the ambition and greed of Marlborough, and also for the benefit of +the Allies. Addison was appointed, as a reward for his poem, +Under-Secretary of State. + +To this extent Addison was the historian by purpose. A moderate partisan, +he eulogized King William, Marlborough, Lord Somers, Lord Halifax, and +others, and thus commended himself to the crown; and in several elegant +articles in _The Spectator_, he sought to mitigate the fierce party spirit +of the time. + + +SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY.--But it is the unconscious historian with whom we +are most charmed, and by whom we are best instructed. It is in this +character that Addison presents himself in his numerous contributions to +_The Spectator_, _The Tatler_, and _The Guardian_. Amid much that is now +considered pedantic and artificial, and which, in those faults, marks the +age, are to be found as striking and truthful delineations of English life +and society in that day as Chaucer has given us of an earlier period. + +Those who no longer read _The Spectator_ as a model of style and learning, +must continue to prize it for these rare historic teachings. The men and +women walk before us as in some antique representation in a social +festival, when grandmothers' brocades are taken out, when curious fashions +are displayed, when Honoria and Flavia, Fidelia and Gloriana dress and +speak and ogle and flirt just as Addison saw and photographed them. We +have their subjects of interest, their forms of gossip, the existing +abuses of the day, their taste in letters, their opinions upon the works +of literature, in all their freshness. + +The fullest and most systematic of these social delineations is found in +the sketch of _The Club_ and _Sir Roger de Coverley_. The creation of +character is excellent. Each member, individual and distinct, is also the +type of a class. + + +THE CLUB.--There is Will Honeycomb, the old beau, "a gentleman who, +according to his years, should be in the decline of his life, but having +ever been careful of his person, and always had an easy fortune, time has +made but very little impression, either by wrinkles on his forehead or +traces on his brain." He knew from what French woman this manner of +curling the hair came, who invented hoops, and whose vanity to show her +foot brought in short dresses. He is a woman-killer, sceptical about +marriage; and at length he gives the fair sex ample satisfaction for his +cruelty and egotism by marrying, unknown to his friends, a farmer's +daughter, whose face and virtues are her only fortune. + +Captain Sentry, the nephew of Sir Roger, is, it may be supposed, the +essayist's ideal of what an English officer should be--a courageous +soldier and a modest gentleman. + +Sir Andrew Freeport is the retired merchant, drawn to the life. He is +moderate in politics, as expediency in that age would suggest. Thoroughly +satisfied of the naval supremacy of England, he calls the sea, "the +British Common." He is the founder of his own fortune, and is satisfied to +transmit to posterity an unsullied name, a goodly store of wealth, and the +title he has so honorably won. + +In _The Templar_, we have a satire upon a certain class of lawyers. It is +indicative of that classical age, that he understands Aristotle and +Longinus better than Littleton and Coke, and is happy in anything but +law--a briefless barrister, but a gentleman of consideration. + +But the most charming, the most living portrait is that of Sir Roger de +Coverley, an English country gentleman, as he ought to be, and as not a +few really were. What a generous humanity for all wells forth from his +simple and loving heart! He has such a mirthful cast in his behavior that +he is rather loved than esteemed. Repulsed by a fair widow, several years +before, he keeps his sentiment alive by wearing a coat and doublet of the +same cut that was in fashion at the time, which, he tells us, has been out +and in twelve times since he first wore it. All the young women profess to +love him, and all the young men are glad of his company. + +Last of all is the clergyman, whose piety is all reverence, and who talks +and acts "as one who is hastening to the object of all his wishes, and +conceives hope from his decays and infirmities." + +It is said that Addison, warned by the fate of Cervantes,--whose noble +hero, Don Quixote, was killed by another pen,--determined to conduct Sir +Roger to the tomb himself; and the knight makes a fitting end. He +congratulates his nephew, Captain Sentry, upon his succession to the +inheritance; he is thoughtful of old friends and old servants. In a word, +so excellent was his life, and so touching the story of his death, that we +feel like mourners at a real grave. Indeed he did live, and still +lives,--one type of the English country gentleman one hundred and fifty +years ago. Other types there were, not so pleasant to contemplate; but +Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley and Fielding's Squire Allworthy vindicate +their class in that age. + + +ADDISON'S HYMNS.--Addison appears to us also as the writer of beautiful +hymns, and has paraphrased some of the Psalms. In this, like Watts, he +catered to a decided religious craving of that day. In a Protestant realm, +and by reason of religious controversy, the fine old hymns of the Latin +church, which are now renewing their youth in an English dress, had fallen +into disrepute: hymnody had, to some extent, superseded the plain chant. +Hymns were in demand. Poets like Addison and Watts provided for this new +want; and from the beauty of his few contributions, our great regret is +that Addison wrote so few. Every one he did write is a gem in many +collections. Among them we have that admirable paraphrase of the +_Twenty-third Psalm_: + + The Lord my pasture shall prepare, + And feed me with a shepherd's care; + +and the hymn + + When all Thy mercies, O my God, + My rising soul surveys. + +None, however, is so beautiful, stately, and polished as the Divine Ode, +so pleasant to all people, little and large,-- + + The spacious firmament on high. + + +HIS PERSON AND CHARACTER.--In closing this brief sketch of Addison, a few +words are necessary as to his personality, and an estimate of his powers. +In 1716 he married the Countess-Dowager of Warwick, and parted with +independence to live with a coronet. His married life was not happy. The +lady was cold and exacting; and, it must be confessed, the poet loved a +bottle at the club-room or tavern better than the luxuries of Holland +House; and not infrequently this conviviality led him to excess. He died +in 1719, in his forty-eighth year, and made a truly pious end. He wished, +he said, to atone for any injuries he had done to others, and sent for his +sceptical and dissolute step-son, Lord Warwick, to show him how a +Christian could die. A monument has been erected to his memory in the +Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey, and the closing words of the +inscription upon it calls him "the honor and delight of the English +nation." + +As a man, he was grave and retiring: he had a high opinion of his own +powers; in company he was extremely diffident; in the main, he was moral, +just, and consistent. His intemperance was in part the custom of the age +and in part a physical failing, and it must have been excessive to be +distinguished in that age. In the Latin-English of Dr. Johnson, "It is not +unlikely that Addison was first seduced to excess by the manumission which +he obtained from the servile timidity of his sober hours." This failing +must be regarded as a blot on his fame. + +He was the most accomplished writer of his own age, and in elegance of +style superior to all who had gone before him. + +In the words of his epitaph, his prose papers "encouraged the good and +reformed the improvident, tamed the wicked, and in some degree made them +in love with virtue." His poetry is chiefly of historical value, in that +it represents so distinctly the Artificial School; but it is now very +little read. His drama entitled _Cato_ was modelled upon the French drama +of the classical school, with its singular preservation of the unities. +But his contributions to _The Spectator_ and other periodicals are +historically of great value. Here he abandons the artificial school; +nothing in his delineations of character is simply statuesque or +pictorial. He has done for us what the historians have left undone. They +present processions of automata moving to the sound of trumpet and drum, +ushered by Black Rod or Garter King-at-arms; but in Addison we find that +Promethean heat which relumes their life; the galvanic motion becomes a +living stride; the puppet eyes emit fire; the automata are men. Thus it +is, that, although _The Spectator_, once read as a model of taste and +style, has become antiquated and has been superseded, it must still be +resorted to for its life-like portraiture of men and women, manners and +customs, and will be found truer and more valuable for these than history +itself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +STEELE AND SWIFT. + + + Sir Richard Steele. Periodicals. The Crisis. His Last Days. Jonathan + Swift--Poems. The Tale of a Tub. Battle of the Books. Pamphlets. M. B. + Drapier. Gulliver's Travels. Stella and Vanessa. His Character and + Death. + + + +Contemporary with Addison, and forming with him a literary fraternity, +Steele and Swift were besides men of distinct prominence, and clearly +represent the age in which they lived. + + +SIR RICHARD STEELE.--If Addison were chosen as the principal literary +figure of the period, a sketch of his life would be incomplete without a +large mention of his lifelong friend and collaborator, Steele. If to Bacon +belongs the honor of being the first writer and the namer of the English +_essay_, Steele may claim that of being the first periodical essayist. + +He was born in Dublin, in 1671, of English parents; his father being at +the time secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He received his +early education at the Charter-House school, in London, an institution +which has numbered among its pupils many who have gained distinguished +names in literature. Here he met and formed a permanent friendship with +Addison. He was afterwards entered as a student at Merton College, Oxford; +but he led there a wild and reckless life, and leaving without a degree, +he enlisted as a private in the Horse Guards. Through the influence of his +friends, he was made a cornet, and afterwards a captain, in the +Fusileers; but this only gave him opportunity for continued dissipation. +His principles were better than his conduct; and, haunted by conscience, +he made an effort to reform himself by writing a devotional work called +_The Christian Hero_; but there was such a contrast between his precepts +and his life, that he was laughed at by the town. Between 1701 and 1704 he +produced his three comedies. _The Funeral, or Grief a la Mode_; _The +Tender Husband_, and _The Lying Lover_. The first two were successful upon +the stage, but the last was a complete failure. Disgusted for the time +with the drama, he was led to find his true place as the writer of those +light, brilliant, periodical essays which form a prominent literary +feature of the reign of Queen Anne. These _Essays_ were comments, +suggestions, strictures, and satires upon the age. They were of immediate +and local interest then, and have now a value which the writers did not +foresee: they are unconscious history. + + +PERIODICALS.--The first of these periodicals was _The Tatler_, a penny +sheet, issued tri-weekly, on post-days. The first number appeared on the +12th of April, 1709, and asserted the very laudable purpose "to expose the +deceits, sins, and vanities of the former age, and to make virtue, +simplicity, and plain-dealing the law of social life." "For this purpose," +in the words of Dr. Johnson,[34] "nothing is so proper as the frequent +publication of short papers, which we read not as study, but amusement. If +the subject be slight, the treatise is short. The busy may find time, and +the idle may find patience." One _nom de plume_ of Steele was _Isaac +Bickerstaff_, which he borrowed from Swift, who had issued party-pamphlets +under that name. + +_The Tatler_ was a success. The fluent pen of Addison gave it valuable +assistance; and in January, 1711, it was merged into, rather than +superseded by, _The Spectator_, which was issued six days in the week. + +In this new periodical, Steele wrote the paper containing the original +sketch of Sir Roger de Coverley and The Club; but, as has been already +said, Addison adopted, elaborated, and finished this in several later +papers. Steele had been by far the larger contributor to _The Tatler_. Of +all the articles in _The Spectator_, Steele wrote two hundred and forty, +and Addison two hundred and seventy-four; the rest were by various hands. +In March, 1713, when _The Spectator_ was commencing its seventh volume, +_The Guardian_ made its appearance. For the first volume of _The +Guardian_, Addison wrote but one paper; but for the second he wrote more +than Steele. Of the one hundred and seventy-six numbers of that +periodical, eighty-two of the papers were by Steele and fifty-three by +Addison. If the writings of Addison were more scholarly and elegant, those +of Steele were more vivacious and brilliant; and together they have +produced a series of essays which have not been surpassed in later times, +and which are vividly delineative of their own. + + +THE CRISIS.--The career of Steele was varied and erratic. He held several +public offices, was a justice of the peace, and a member of parliament. He +wrote numerous political tracts, which are not without historical value. +For one pamphlet of a political character, entitled _The Crisis_, he was +expelled from parliament for libel; but upon the death of Queen Anne, he +again found himself in favor. He was knighted in 1715, and received +several lucrative appointments. + +He was an eloquent orator, and as a writer rapid and brilliant, but not +profound. Even thus, however, he catered to an age at once artificial and +superficial. Very observant of what he saw, he rushed to his closet and +jotted down his views in electrical words, which made themselves +immediately and distinctly felt. + + +HIS LAST DAYS.--Near the close of his life he produced a very successful +comedy, entitled _The Conscious Lover_, which would have been of pecuniary +value to him, were it not that he was already overwhelmed with debt. His +end was a sad one; but he reaped what his extravagance and recklessness +had sown. Shattered in health and ruined in fortune, he retreated from the +great world into homely retirement in Wales, where he lived, poor and +hidden, in a humble cottage at Llangunnor. His end was heralded by an +attack of paralysis, and he died in 1729. + +After his death, his letters were published; and in the private history +which they unfold, he appears, notwithstanding all his follies, in the +light of a tender husband and of an amiable and unselfish man. He had +principle, but he lacked resolution; and the wild, vacillating character +of his life is mirrored in his writings, where _The Christian Hero_ stands +in singular contrast to the comic personages of his dramas. He was a +genial critic. His exuberant wit and humor reproved without wounding; he +was not severe enough to be a public censor, nor pedantic enough to be the +pedagogue of an age which often needed the lash rather than the gentle +reproof, and upon which a merciful clemency lost its end if not its +praises. He deserves credit for an attempt, however feeble, to reward +virtue upon the stage, after the wholesale rewards which vice had reaped +in the age of Charles II. + +Steele has been overshadowed, in his connection with Addison, by the more +dignified and consistent career, the greater social respectability, and +the more elegant and scholarly style of his friend; and yet in much that +they jointly accomplished, the merit of Steele is really as great, and +conduces much to the reputation of Addison. The one husbanded and +cherished his fame; the other flung it away or lavished it upon his +colleagues. As contributors to history, they claim an equal share of our +gratitude and praise. + + +JONATHAN SWIFT.--The grandfather of Swift was vicar of Goodrich, in +Herefordshire. His father and mother were both English, but he was born in +Dublin, in the year 1667. A posthumous child, he came into the world seven +months after his father's death. From his earliest youth, he deplored the +circumstances among which his lot had been cast. He was dependent upon his +uncle, Godwin Swift, himself a poor man; but was not grateful for his +assistance, always saying that his uncle had given him the education of a +dog. At the University of Dublin, where he was entered, he did not bear a +good character: he was frequently absent from his duties and negligent of +his studies; and although he read history and poetry, he was considered +stupid as well as idle. He was more than once admonished and suspended, +but at length received his degree, _Speciali gratia_; which special act of +grace implied that he had not fairly earned it. Piqued by this, he set to +work in real earnest, and is said to have studied eight hours a day for +eight years. Thus, from an idle and unsuccessful collegian, he became a +man of considerable learning and a powerful writer. + +He was a distant connection of Sir William Temple, through Lady Temple; +and he went, by his mother's advice, to live with that distinguished man +at his seat, Shene, in Moor Park, as private secretary. + +In this position Swift seems to have led an uncomfortable life, ranking +somewhere between the family and the upper servants. Sir William Temple +was disposed to be kind, but found it difficult to converse with him on +account of his moroseness and other peculiarities. At Shene he met King +William III., who talked with him, and offered him a captaincy in the +army. This Swift declined, knowing his unfitness for the post, and +doubtless feeling the promptings of a higher ambition. It was also at +Shene that he met a young girl, whose history was thenceforth to be +mingled with his in sadness and sorrow, during their lives. This was +Esther Johnson, the daughter of Temple's housekeeper, and surmised, at a +later day, to be the natural daughter of Temple himself. When the young +secretary first met her, she was fourteen years of age, very clever and +beautiful; and they fell in love with each other. + +We cannot dwell at length upon the events of his life. His versatile pen +was prolific of poetry, sentimental and satirical; of political allegories +of great potency, of fiction erected of impossible materials, and yet so +creating and peopling a world of fancy as to illude the reader into +temporary belief in its truth. + + +POEMS.--His poems are rather sententious than harmonious. His power, +however, was great; he managed verse as an engine, and had an entire +mastery over rhyme, which masters so many would-be poets. His _Odes_ are +classically constructed, but massive and cumbrous. His satirical poems are +eminently historical, ranging over and attacking almost every topic, +political, religious, and social. Among the most characteristic of his +miscellaneous verses are _Epigrams and Epistles, Clever Tom Pinch Going to +be Hanged, Advice to Grub Street Writers, Helter-Skelter, The Puppet +Show_, and similar odd pieces, frequently scurrilous, bitter, and lewd in +expression. The writer of English history consults these as he does the +penny ballads, lampoons, and caricatures of the day,--to discern the +_animus_ of parties and the methods of hostile factions. + +But it is in his inimitable prose writings that Swift is of most value to +the historical student. Against all comers he stood the Goliath of +pamphleteers in the reign of Queen Anne, and there arose no David who +could slay him. + + +THE TALE OF A TUB.--While an unappreciated student at the university, he +had sketched a satirical piece, which he finished and published in 1704, +under the title of _The Tale of a Tub_. As a tub is thrown overboard at +sea to divert a whale, so this is supposed to be a sop cast out to the +_Leviathan_ of Hobbes, to prevent it from injuring the vessel of state. +The story is a satire aimed against the Roman Catholics on the one hand, +and the Presbyterians on the other, in order that he may exalt the Church +of England as, in his judgment, free from the errors of both, and a just +and happy medium between the two extremes. His own opinion of its merits +is well known: in one of his later years, when his hand had lost its +cunning, he is said to have exclaimed, as he picked it up, "What a genius +I had when I wrote that book!" The characters of the story are _Peter_ +(representing St. Peter, or the Roman Catholic Church), _Martin_ (Luther, +or the Church of England), and _Jack_ (John Calvin, or the Presbyterians). +By their father's will each had been left a suit of clothes, made in the +fashion of his day. To this Peter added laces and fringes; Martin took off +some of the ornaments of doubtful taste; but Jack ripped and tore off the +trimmings of his dress to such an extent that he was in clanger of +exposing his nakedness. It is said that the invective was so strong and +the satire so bitter, that they presented a bar to that preferment which +Swift might otherwise have obtained. He appears at this time to have cared +little for public opinion, except that it should fear his trenchant wit +and do homage to his genius. + + +THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS.--In the same year, 1704, he also published _The +Battle of the Books_, the idea of which was taken from a French work of +Courtraye, entitled "_Histoire de la guerre nouvellement declaree entre +les Anciens et les Modernes_." Swift's work was written in furtherance of +the views of his patron, Temple, who had some time before engaged in the +controversy as to the relative merits of ancient and modern learning, and +who, in the words of Macaulay, "was so absurd as to set up his own +authority against that of Bentley on questions of Greek history and +philology." + +_The Battle of the Books_ is of present value, as it affords information +upon the opinions then held on a question which, in various forms, has +been agitating the literary world ever since. In it Swift compares Dryden, +Wotten, and Bentley with the old authors in St. James's Library, where the +battle of the books is said to have taken place. + +Upon the death of Sir William Temple, in 1699, Swift had gone to London. +He was ambitious of power and money, and when he found little chance of +preferment among the Whigs, he became a Tory. It must be said, in +explanation of this change, that, although he had called himself a Whig, +he had disliked many of their opinions, and had never heartily espoused +their cause. Like others already referred to, he watched the political +horizon, and was ready for a change when circumstances should warrant it. +This change and its causes are set forth in his _Bickerstaff's Ridicule of +Astrology_ and _Sacramental Test_. + +The Whigs tried hard to retain him; the Tories were rejoiced to receive +him, and modes of preferment for him were openly canvassed. One of these +was to make him Bishop of Virginia, with metropolitan powers in America; +but it failed. He was also recommended for the See of Hereford; but +persons near the queen advised her "to be sure that the man she was going +to make a bishop was a Christian." Thus far he had only been made rector +of Agher and vicar of Laracor and Rathbeggin. + + +VARIOUS PAMPHLETS.--His _Argument Against the Abolition of Christianity_, +Dr. Johnson calls "a very happy and judicious irony." In 1710 he wrote a +paper, at the request of the Irish primate, petitioning the queen to remit +the first-fruits and twentieth parts to the Irish clergy. In 1712, ten +days before the meeting of parliament, he published his _Conduct of the +Allies_, which, exposing the greed of Marlborough, persuaded the nation to +make peace. A supplement to this is found in _Reflections on the Barrier +Treaty_, in which he shows how little English interests had been consulted +in that negotiation. + +His pamphlet on _The Public Spirit of the Whigs_, in answer to Steele's +_Crisis_, was so terrible a bomb-shell thrown into the camp of his former +friends, and so insulting to the Scotch, that L300 were offered by the +queen, at the instance of the Scotch lords, for the discovery of the +author; but without success. + +At last his versatile and powerful pen obtained some measure of reward: in +1713 he was made Dean of St. Patrick's, in Dublin, with a stipend of L700 +per annum. This was his greatest and last preferment. + +On the accession of George I., in the following year, he paid his court, +but was received with something more than coldness. He withdrew to his +deanery in Dublin, and, in the words of Johnson, "commenced Irishman for +life, and was to contrive how he might be best accommodated in a country +where he considered himself as in a state of exile." After some +misunderstanding between himself and his Irish fellow-citizens, he +espoused their cause so warmly that he became the most popular man in +Ireland. In 1721 he could write to Pope, "I neither know the names nor the +number of the family which now reigneth, further than the prayer-book +informeth me." His letters, signed _M. B. Drapier_, on Irish manufactures, +and especially those in opposition to Wood's monopoly of copper coinage, +in 1724, wrought upon the people, producing such a spirit of resistance +that the project of a debased coinage failed; and so influential did Swift +become, that he was able to say to the Archbishop of Dublin, "Had I raised +my finger, the mob would have torn you to pieces." This popularity was +increased by the fact that a reward of L300 was offered by Lord Carteret +and the privy council for the discovery of the authorship of the fourth +letter; but although it was commonly known that Swift was the author, +proof could not be obtained. Carteret, the Lord Lieutenant, afterwards +said, "When people ask me how I governed Ireland, I said that I pleased +Doctor Swift." + +Thus far Swift's literary labors are manifest history: we come now to +consider that great work, _Gulliver's Travels_,--the most successful of +its kind ever written,--in which, with all the charm of fiction in plot, +incident, and description, he pictures the great men and the political +parties of the day. + + +GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.--Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon's mate, finds himself +shipwrecked on the shore of the country of Lilliput, the people of which +are only six inches in height. His adventures are so vividly described +that our charmed fancy places us among them as we read, and we, for a +time, abandon ourselves to a belief in their reality. It was, however, +begun as a political satire; in the insignificance of the court of +pigmies, he attacks the feebleness and folly of the new reign. _Flimnap_, +the prime minister of Lilliput, is a caricature of Walpole; the _Big +Indians_ and _Little Indians_ represent the Protestants and Roman +Catholics; the _High Heels_ and _Low Heels_ stand for the Whigs and +Tories; and the heir-apparent, who wears one heel high and the other low, +is the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., who favored both parties in +order to gain both to his purpose. + +In his second voyage, that to Brobdignag, his satirical imagination took a +wider range--European politics as they appear to a superior intelligence, +illustrated by a man of _sixty_ feet in comparison with one of _six_. As +Gulliver had looked with curious contempt upon the united efforts of the +Lilliputians, he now found himself in great jeopardy and fear when in the +hands of a giant of Brobdignag. As the pigmy metropolis, five hundred +yards square, was to London, so were London and other European capitals to +the giants' city, two thousand miles in circumference. And what are the +armies of Europe, when compared with that magnificent cavalry +manoeuvring on a parade-ground twenty miles square, each mounted +trooper ninety feet high, and all, as they draw their swords at command, +representing ten thousand flashes of lightning? + +The third part contains the voyage of Gulliver--no less improbable than +the former ones--to _Laputa_, the flying island of projectors and +visionaries. This is a varied satire upon the Royal Society, the +eccentricities of the savans, empirics of all kinds, mathematical magic, +and the like. In this, political schemes to restore the pretender are +aimed at. The Mississippi Scheme and the South Sea bubble are denounced. +Here, too, in his journey to Luggnagg, he introduces the sad and revolting +picture of the Struldbrugs, those human beings who live on, losing all +their power and becoming hideously old. + +In his last voyage--to the land of the _Houyhnhnms_--his misanthropy is +painfully manifest. This is the country where horses are masters, and men +a servile and degraded race; and he has painted the men so brutish and +filthy that the satire loses its point. The power of satire lies in +contrast; we must compare the evil in men with the good: when the whole +race is included in one sweeping condemnation, and an inferior being +exalted, in opposition to all possibility, the standard is absurd, and the +satirist loses his pains. + +The horses are the _Houyhnhnms_, (the name is an attempt to imitate a +neigh,) a noble race, who are amazed and disgusted at the Yahoos,--the +degraded men,--upon whom Swift, in his sweeping misanthropy, has exhausted +his bitterness and his filth. + + +STELLA AND VANESSA.--While Swift's mysterious associations with Stella and +Vanessa have but little to do with the course of English Literature, they +largely affect his personality, and no sketch of him would be complete +without introducing them to the reader. We cannot conjure up the tall, +burly form, the heavy-browed, scowling, contemptuous face, the sharp blue +eye, and the bushy black hair of the dean, without seeing on one side and +the other the two pale, meek-eyed, devoted women, who watch his every +look, shrink from his sudden bursts of wrath, receive for their +infatuation a few fair words without sentiment, and earnestly crave a +little love as a return for their whole hearts. It is a wonderful, +touching, baffling story. + +Stella he had known and taught in her young maidenhood at Sir William +Temple's. As has been said, she was called the daughter of his steward and +housekeeper, but conjectures are rife that she was Sir William's own +child. When Swift removed to Ireland, she came, at Swift's request, with a +matron friend, Mrs. Dingley, to live near him. Why he did not at once +marry her, and why, at last, he married her secretly, in 1716, are +questions over which curious readers have puzzled themselves in vain, and +upon which, in default of evidence, some perhaps uncharitable conclusions +have been reached. The story of their association may be found in the +_Journal to Stella_. + +With Miss Hester Vanhomrigh (Vanessa) he became acquainted in London, in +1712: he was also her instructor; and when with her he seems to have +forgotten his allegiance to Stella. Cadenus, as he calls himself, was too +tender and fond: Vanessa became infatuated; and when she heard of Swift's +private marriage with Stella, she died of chagrin or of a broken heart. +She had cancelled the will which she had made in Swift's favor, and left +it in charge to her executors to publish their correspondence. Both sides +of the history of this connection are fully displayed in the poem of +_Cadenus and Vanessa_, and in the _Correspondence of Swift and Vanessa_. + + +CHARACTER AND DEATH.--Pride overbearing and uncontrollable, misanthropy, +excessive dogmatism, a singular pleasure in giving others pain, were among +his personal faults or misfortunes. He abused his companions and servants; +he never forgave his sister for marrying a tradesman; he could attract +with winning words and repel with furious invective; and he was always +anxiously desiring the day of his death, and cursing that of his birth. +His common farewell was "Good-bye; I hope we may never meet again." There +is a painful levity in his verses _On the Death of Doctor Swift_, in which +he gives an epitome of his life: + + From Dublin soon to London spread, + 'Tis told at court the dean is dead! + And Lady Suffolk, in the spleen, + Runs laughing up to tell the queen: + The queen, so gracious, mild, and good, + Cries, "Is he gone? it's time he should." + +At last the end came. While a young man, he had suffered from a painful +attack of vertigo, brought on by a surfeit of fruit; "eating," he says, in +a letter to Mrs. Howard, "an hundred golden pippins at a time." This had +occasioned a deafness; and both giddiness and deafness had recurred at +intervals, and at last manifestly affected his mind. Once, when walking +with some friends, he had pointed to an elm-tree, blasted by lightning, +and had said, "I shall be like that tree: I shall die first at the top." +And thus at last the doom fell. Struck on the brain, he lingered for nine +years in that valley of spectral horrors, of whose only gates idiocy and +madness are the hideous wardens. From this bondage he was released by +death on the 19th of October, 1745. + +Many have called it a fearful retribution for his sins, and especially for +his treatment of Stella and Vanessa. A far more reasonable and charitable +verdict is that the evil in his conduct through life had its origin in +congenital disorder; and in his days of apparent sanity, the character of +his eccentric actions is to be palliated, if not entirely excused, on the +plea of insanity. Additional force is given to this judgment by the fact +that, when he died, it was found that he had left his money to found a +hospital for the insane, illustrating the line,-- + + A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind. + +In that day of great classical scholars, Swift will hardly rank among the +most profound; but he possessed a creative power, a ready and versatile +fancy, a clear and pleasing but plain style. He has been unjustly accused +by Lady Montagu of having stolen plot and humor from Cervantes and +Rabelais: he drew from the same source as they; and those suggestions +which came to him from them owe all their merit to his application of +them. As a critic, he was heartless and rude; but as a polemic and a +delineator of his age, he stands prominently forth as an historian, whose +works alone would make us familiar with the period. + + + +OTHER WRITERS OF THE AGE. + + +_Sir William Temple_, 1628-1698: he was a statesman and a political +writer; rather a man of mark in his own day than of special interest to +the present time. After having been engaged in several important +diplomatic affairs, he retired to his seat of Moor Park, and employed +himself in study and with his pen. His _Essays and Observations on +Government_ are valuable as a clue to the history. In his controversy with +Bentley on the _Epistles of Phalaris_, and the relative merits of ancient +and modern authors, he was overmatched in scholarship. In a literary point +of view, Temple deserves praise for the ease and beauty of his style. Dr. +Johnson says he "was the first writer who gave cadence to English prose." +"What can be more pleasant," says Charles Lamb, "than the way in which the +retired statesman peeps out in his essays, penned in his delightful +retreat at Shene?" He is perhaps better known in literary history as the +early patron of Swift, than for his own works. + + +_Sir Isaac Newton_, 1642-1727: the chief glory of Newton is not connected +with literary effort: he ranks among the most profound and original +philosophers, and was one of the purest and most unselfish of men. The +son of a farmer, he was born at Woolsthorpe, in Lincolnshire, after his +father's death,--a feeble, sickly child. The year of his birth was that in +which Galileo died. At the age of fifteen he was employed on his mother's +farm, but had already displayed such an ardor for learning that he was +sent first to school and then to Cambridge, where he was soon conspicuous +for his talents and his genius. In due time he was made a professor. His +discoveries in astronomy, mechanics, and optics are of world-wide renown. +The law of gravitation was established by him, and set forth in his paper +_De Motu Corporum_. His treatise on _Fluxions_ prepared the way for that +wonderful mathematical, labor-saving instrument--the differential +calculus. In 1687 he published his _Philosophiae Naturalis Principia +Mathematica_, in which all his mathematical theories are propounded. In +1696 he was made Warden of the Mint, and in 1699 Master of the Mint. Long +a member of the Royal Society, he was its president for the last +twenty-four years of his life. In 1688 he was elected member of parliament +for the university of Cambridge. Of purely literary works he left two, +entitled respectively, _Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the +Apocalypse of St. John_, and a _Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended_; +both of which are of little present value except as the curious remains of +so great a man. + + +_Viscount Bolingbroke_ (Henry St. John), 1678-1751: as an erratic +statesman, a notorious free-thinker, a dissipated lord, a clever political +writer, and an eloquent speaker, Lord Bolingbroke was a centre of +attraction in his day, and demands observation in literary history. During +the reign of Queen Anne he was a plotter in favor of the pretender, and +when she died, he fled the realm to avoid impeachment for treason. In +France he joined the pretender as Secretary of State, but was dismissed +for intrigue; and on being pardoned by the English king, he returned to +England. His writings are brilliant but specious. His influence was felt +in the literary society he drew around him,--Swift, Pope, and +others,--and, as has been already said, his opinions are to be found in +that _Essay on Man_ which Pope dedicated to him. In his meteoric political +career he represents and typifies one phase of the time in which he lived. + + +_George Berkeley_, 1684-1753: he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, +and soon engaged in metaphysical controversy. In 1724 he was made Dean of +Derry, and in 1734, Bishop of Cloyne. A man of great philanthropy, he set +forth a scheme for the founding of the _Bermudas College_, to train +missionaries for the colonies and to labor among the North American +Indians. As a metaphysician, he was an _absolute idealist_. This is no +place to discuss his theory. In the words of Dr. Reid, "He maintains ... +that there is no such thing as matter in the universe; that the sun and +moon, earth and sea, our own bodies and those of our friends, are nothing +but ideas in the minds of those who think of them, and that they have no +existence when they are not objects of thought; that all that is in the +universe may be reduced to two categories, to wit, _minds_ and _ideas in +the mind_." The reader is referred, for a full discussion of this +question, to Sir William Hamilton's _Metaphysics_. Berkeley's chief +writings are: _New Theory of Vision, Treatise Concerning the Principles of +Human Knowledge_, and _Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous_. His name +and memory are especially dear to the American people; for, although his +scheme of the training-college failed, he lived for two years and a half +in Newport, where his house still stands, and where one of his children is +buried. He presented to Yale College his library and his estate in Rhode +Island, and he wrote that beautiful poem with its kindly prophecy: + + Westward the course of empire takes its way: + The four first acts already past, + A fifth shall close the drama with the day; + Time's noblest offspring is the last. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN FICTION. + + + The New Age. Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Richardson. Pamela, and + Other Novels. Fielding. Joseph Andrews. Tom Jones. Its Moral. Smollett. + Roderick Random. Peregrine Pickle. + + + +THE NEW AGE. + + +We have now reached a new topic in the course of English +Literature--contemporaneous, indeed, with the subjects just named, but +marked by new and distinct development. It was a period when numerous and +distinctive forms appeared; when genius began to segregate into schools +and divisions; when the progress of letters and the demands of popular +curiosity gave rise to works which would have been impossible, because +uncalled for, in any former period. English enterprise was extending +commerce and scattering useful arts in all quarters of the globe, and thus +giving new and rich materials to English letters. Clive was making himself +a lord in India; Braddock was losing his army and his life in America. +This spirit of English enterprise in foreign lands was evoking literary +activity at home: there was no exploit of English valor, no extension of +English dominion and influence, which did not find its literary +reproduction. Thus, while it was an age of historical research, it was +also that of actual delineations of curious novelties at home and abroad. + +Poetry was in a transition state; it was taking its leave of the unhealthy +satire and the technical wit of Queen Anne's reign, and attempting, on +the one hand, the impostures of Macpherson and Chatterton,--to which we +shall hereafter refer,--and, on the other, the restoration of the pastoral +from the theatrical to the real, in Thomson's song of the Rolling Year, +and Cowper's pleasant Task, so full of life and nature. Swallow-like, +English poetry had hung about the eaves or skimmed the surface of town and +court; but now, like the lark, it soared into freer air-- + + Coetusque vulgares et udam + Spernit humum fugiente penna. + +In short, it was a day of general awakening. The intestine troubles +excited by the Jacobites were brought to an end by the disaster of +Culloden, in 1745. The German campaigns culminating at Minden, in 1759, +opened a door to the study of German literature, and of the Teutonic +dialects as elements of the English language. + +It is, therefore, not astonishing that in this period Literature should +begin to arrange itself into its present great divisions. As in an earlier +age the drama had been born to cater to a popular taste, so in this, to +satisfy the public demand, arose English _prose fiction_ in its peculiar +and enduring form. There had been grand and desultory works preceding +this, such as _Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrim's Progress_, and Swift's +inimitable story of _Gulliver_; but the modern novel, unlike these, owes +its origin to a general desire for delineations of private life and +manners. "Show us ourselves!" was the cry. + +A novel may be defined as a fictitious story of modern life describing the +management and mastery of the human passions, and especially the universal +passion of love. Its power consists in the creation of ideal characters, +which leave a real impress upon the reader's mind; it must be a prose +_epic_ in that there is always a hero, or, at least, a heroine, generally +both, and a _drama_ in its presentation of scenes and supplementary +personages. Thackeray calls his _Vanity Fair_ a novel without a hero: it +is impossible to conceive a novel without a heroine. There must also be a +_denouement_, or consummation; in short, it must have, in the words of +Aristotle, a beginning, middle, and ending, in logical connection and +consecutive interest. + + +DANIEL DEFOE.--Before, however, proceeding to consider the modern novel, +we must make mention of one author, distinctly of his own age as a +political pamphleteer, but who, in his chief and inimitable work, stands +alone, without antecedent or consequent. _Robinson Crusoe_ has had a host +of imitators, but no rival. + +Daniel Foe, or, as he afterwards called himself, De Foe, was born in +London, in the year 1661. He was the son of a butcher, but such was his +early aptitude, for learning, that he was educated to become a dissenting +minister. His own views, however, were different: he became instead a +political author, and wrote with great force against the government of +James II. and the Established Church, and in favor of the dissenters. When +the Duke of Monmouth landed to make his fatal campaign, Defoe joined his +standard; but does not seem to have suffered with the greater number of +the duke's adherents. + +He was a warm supporter of William III.; and his famous poem, _The +True-Born Englishman_, was written in answer to an attack upon the king +and the Dutch, called _The Foreigners_. Of his own poem he says, in the +preface, "When I see the town full of lampoons and invectives against the +Dutch, only because they are foreigners, and the king reproached and +insulted by insolent pedants and ballad-making poets for employing +foreigners and being a foreigner himself, I confess myself moved by it to +remind our nation of their own original, thereby to let them see what a +banter they put upon themselves, since--speaking of Englishmen _ab +origine_--we are really all foreigners ourselves:" + + The Pict and painted Briton, treach'rous Scot, + By hunger, theft, and rapine hither brought; + Norwegian pirates, buccaneering Danes, + Whose red-haired offspring everywhere remains; + Who, joined with Norman-French, compound the breed + From whence your true-born Englishmen proceed. + +In 1702, just after the death of King William, Defoe published his +severely ironical pamphlet, _The Shortest Way with the Dissenters_. +Assuming the character of a High Churchman, he says: "'Tis vain to trifle +in the matter. The light, foolish handling of them by fines is their glory +and advantage. If the gallows instead of the compter, and the galleys +instead of the fines, were the reward of going to a conventicle, there +would not be so many sufferers." His irony was at first misunderstood: the +High Churchmen hailed him as a champion, and the Dissenters hated him as +an enemy. But when his true meaning became apparent, a reward of L50 was +offered by the government for his discovery. His so-called "scandalous and +seditious pamphlet" was burnt by the common hangman: he was tried, and +sentenced to pay two hundred marks, to stand three times in the pillory, +and to be imprisoned during the queen's pleasure. He bore his sentence +bravely, and during his two years' residence in prison he published a +periodical called _The Review_. In 1709 he wrote a _History of the Union_ +between England and Scotland. + + +ROBINSON CRUSOE.--But none of these things, nor all combined, would have +given to Defoe that immortality which is his as the author of _Robinson +Crusoe_. Of the groundwork of the story not much need be said. + +Alexander Selkirk, the sailing-master of an English privateer, was set +ashore, in 1704, at his own request, on the uninhabited island Juan +Fernandez, which lies several hundred miles from the coast of Chili, in +the Pacific Ocean. He was supplied with clothing and arms, and remained +there alone for four years and four months. It is supposed that his +adventures suggested the work. It is also likely that Defoe had read the +journal of Peter Serrano, who, in the sixteenth century, had been +_marooned_ in like manner on a desolate island lying off the mouth of the +Oroonoque (Orinoco). The latter locality was adopted by Defoe. But it is +not the fact or the adventures which give power to _Robinson Crusoe_. It +is the manner of treating what might occur to any fancy, even the dullest. +The charm consists in the simplicity and the verisimilitude of the +narrative, the rare adaptation of the common man to his circumstances, his +projects and failures, the birth of religion in his soul, his conflicting +hopes and fears, his occasional despair. We see in him a brother, and a +suffering one. We live his life on the island; we share his terrible fear +at the discovery of the footprint, his courage in destroying the cannibal +savages and rescuing the victim. Where is there in fiction another man +Friday? From the beginning of his misfortunes until he is again sailing +for England, after nearly thirty years of captivity, he holds us +spellbound by the reality, the simplicity, and the pathos of his +narrative; but, far beyond the temporary illusion of the modern novel, +everything remains real: the shipwrecked mariner spins his yarns in sailor +fashion, and we believe and feel every word he says. The book, although +wonderfully good throughout, is unequal: the prime interest only lasts +until he is rescued, and ends with his embarkation for England. The +remainder of his travels becomes, as a narrative, comparatively tiresome +and tame; and we feel, besides, that, after his unrivalled experience, he +should have remained in England, "the observed of all observers." Yet it +must be said that we are indebted to his later journey in Spain and +France, his adventures in the Eastern Seas, his caravan ride overland from +China to Europe, for much which illustrates the manners and customs of +navigation and travel in that day. + +_Robinson Crusoe_ stands alone among English books, a perennial fountain +of instruction and pleasure. It aids in educating each new generation: +children read it for its incident; men to renew their youth; literary +scholars to discover what it teaches of its time and of its author's +genius. Its influence continues unabated; it incites boys to maritime +adventure, and shows them how to use in emergency whatever they find at +hand. It does more: it tends to reclaim the erring by its simple homilies; +it illustrates the ruder navigation of its day; shows us the habits and +morals of the merchant marine, and the need and means of reforming what +was so very bad. + +Defoe's style is clear, simple, and natural. He wrote several other works, +of which few are now read. Among these are the _Account of the Plague, The +Life and Piracies of Captain Singleton_, and _The Fortunes and Misfortunes +of Moll Flanders_. He died on the 24th of April, 1731. + + +RICHARDSON.--Samuel Richardson, who, notwithstanding the peculiar merits +of Defoe, must be called the _Father of Modern Prose Fiction_, was born in +Derbyshire, in 1689. The personal events of his life are few and +uninteresting. A carpenter's son, he had but little schooling, and owed +everything to his own exertions. Apprenticed to a printer in London, at +the age of fifteen, he labored assiduously at his trade, and it rewarded +him with fortune: he became, in turn, printer of the Journals of the House +of Commons, Master of the Stationers' Company, and Printer to the King. +While young, he had been the confidant of three young women, and had +written or corrected their love-letters for them. He seems to have had +great fluency in letter-writing; and being solicited by a publisher to +write a series of familiar letters on the principal concerns of life, +which might be used as models,--a sort of "Easy Letter-Writer,"--he began +the task, but, changing his plan, he wrote a story in a series of letters. +The first volume was published in 1741, and was no less a work than +_Pamela_. The author was then fifty years old; and he presents in this +work a matured judgment concerning the people and customs of the day,--the +printer's notions of the social condition of England,--shrewd, clever, and +defective. + +Wearied as the world had been by what Sir Walter Scott calls the "huge +folios of inanity" which had preceded him, the work was hailed with +delight. There was a little affectation; but the sentiment was moral and +natural. Ladies carried _Pamela_ about in their rides and walks. Pope, +near his end, said it was a better moral teacher than sermons: Sherlock +recommended it from the pulpit. + + +PAMELA, AND OTHER NOVELS.--_Pamela_ is represented as a poor servant-maid, +but beautiful and chaste, whose honor resists the attack of her dissolute +master, and whose modesty and virtue overcome his evil nature. Subdued and +reclaimed by her chastity and her charms, he reforms, and marries her. +Some pictures which are rather warmly colored and indelicate in our day +were quite in keeping with the taste of that time, and gave greater effect +to the moral lesson assigned to be taught. + +In his next work, _Clarissa Harlowe_, which appeared in 1749, he has drawn +the picture of a perfect woman preserving her purity amid seductive +gayeties, and suffering sorrows to which those of the Virgin Martyr are +light. We have, too, an excellent portraiture of a bold and wicked, but +clever and gifted man--Lovelace. + +His third and last novel, _Sir Charles Grandison_, appeared in 1753. The +hero, _Sir Charles_, is the model of a Christian gentleman; but is, +perhaps, too faultless for popular appreciation. + +In his delineations of humbler natures,--country girls like +_Pamela_,--Richardson is happiest: in his descriptions of high life he has +failed from ignorance. He was not acquainted with the best society, and +all his grandees are stilted, artificial, and affected; but even in this +fault he is of value, for he shows us how men of his class at that time +regarded the society of those above them. + +These works, which, notwithstanding their length, were devoured eagerly as +soon as they appeared, are little read at present, and exist rather as +historical interpreters of an age that is past, than as present light +literature: they have been driven from our shelves by Scott, Dickens, +Thackeray, and a host of charming novelists since his day. + +Richardson lived the admired of a circle of ladies,--to whose sex he had +paid so noble a tribute,--the hero of tea-drinkings at his house on +Parson's Green; his books gave him fame, but his shop--in the back office +of which he wrote his novels, when not pressed by business--gave him money +and its comforts. He died at the age of seventy-two, on the 4th of July, +1761. + +He was an unconscious actor in a great movement which had begun in France. +The brilliant theories of Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and +Dalembert--containing much truth and many heresies--were felt in England, +and had given a new impetus to English intellect; indeed, it is not +strange, when we come to consider, that while Richardson's works were +praised in English pulpits, Voltaire and the French atheists declared that +they saw in them an advance towards human perfectibility and +self-redemption, of which, if true, Richardson himself was unconscious. +From the amours of men and women of fashion, aided by intriguing +maid-servants and lying valets, Richardson turned away to do honor to +untitled merit, to exalt the humble, and to defy gilded vice. Whatever +were the charms of rank, he has elevated our humanity; thus far, and thus +far only, has he sympathized with the Frenchmen who attacked the +corruptions of the age, but who assaulted also its faith and its +reverence. + + +HENRY FIELDING.--The path of prose fiction, so handsomely opened by +Richardson, was immediately entered and pursued by a genius of higher +order, and as unlike him as it was possible to be. Richardson still clung +to romantic sentiment, Fielding eschewed it; Richardson was a teacher of +morality, Fielding shielded immorality; Richardson described artificial +manners in a society which he did not frequent, Fielding, in the words of +Coleridge, "was like an open lawn on a breezy day in May;" Richardson was +a plebeian, a carpenter's son, a successful printer; Fielding was a +gentleman, the son of General Fielding, and grandson of the Earl of +Denbigh; Richardson steadily rose, by his honest exertions, to independent +fortune, Fielding passed from the high estate of his ancestors into +poverty and loose company; the one has given us mistaken views of high +life, the other has been enabled, by his sad experience, to give us +truthful pictures of every grade of English society in his day from the +lord, the squire, and the fop to the thief-taker, the prostitute, and the +thief. + +Henry Fielding was born on the 22d of April, 1707, at Sharpham Park, +Somersetshire. While yet a young man, he had read _Pamela_; and to +ridicule what he considered its prudery and over-righteousness, he hastily +commenced his novel of _Joseph Andrews_. This Joseph is represented as the +brother of Pamela,--a simple country lad, who comes to town and finds a +place as Lady Booby's footman. As Pamela had resisted her master's +seductions, he is called upon to oppose the vile attempts of his mistress +upon his virtue. + +In that novel, as well as in its successors, _Tom Jones_ and _Amelia_, +Fielding has given us rare pictures of English life, and satires upon +English institutions, which present the social history of England a +century ago: in this view our sympathies are not lost upon purely ideal +creations. + +In him, too, the French _illuminati_ claimed a co-laborer; and their +influence is more distinctly seen than in Richardson's works: great +social problems are discussed almost in the manner of a Greek chorus; +mechanical forms of religion are denounced. The French philosophers +attacked errors so intertwined with truth, that the violent stabs at the +former have cut the latter almost to death; Richardson attacked the errors +without injuring the truth: he is the champion of purity. If _Joseph +Andrews_ was to rival _Pamela_ in chastity, _Tom Jones_ was to be +contrasted with both in the same particular. + + +TOM JONES.--Fielding has received the highest commendations from literary +men. Byron calls him the "prose Homer of human nature;" and Gibbon, in +noticing that the Lords of Denbigh were descended, like Charles V., from +Rudolph of Hapsburg, says: "The successors of Charles V. may despise their +brethren of England, but the romance of _Tom Jones_--that exquisite +picture of human manners--will outlive the Palace of the Escurial and the +Imperial Eagle of Austria." We cannot go so far; we quote the praise but +doubt the prophecy. The work is historically valuable, but technically +imperfect and unequal. The plot is rambling, without method: most of the +scenes lie in the country or in obscure English towns; the meetings are as +theatrical as stage encounters; the episodes are awkwardly introduced, and +disfigure the unity; the classical introductions and invocations are +absurd. His heroes are men of generous impulses but dissolute lives, and +his women are either vile, or the puppets of circumstance. + + +ITS TRUE VALUE.--What can redeem his works from such a category of +condemnation? Their rare portraiture of character and their real glimpses +of nature: they form an album of photographs of life as it was--odd, +grotesque, but true. They have no mysterious Gothic castles like that of +Otranto, nor enchanted forests like that of Mrs. Radcliffe. They present +homely English life and people,--_Partridge_, barber, schoolmaster, and +coward; _Mrs. Honor_, the type of maid-servants, devoted to her mistress, +and yet artful; _Squire Western_, the foul and drunken country gentleman; +_Squire Allworthy_, a noble specimen of human nature; _Parson Adams_, who +is regarded by the critics as the best portrait among all his characters. + +And even if we can neither commend nor recommend heroes like _Tom Jones_, +such young men really existed, and the likeness is speakingly drawn: we +bear with his faults because of his reality. Perhaps our verdict may be +best given in the words of Thackeray. "I am angry," he says, "with Jones. +Too much of the plum-cake and the rewards of life fall to that boisterous, +swaggering young scapegrace. Sophia actually surrenders without a proper +sense of decorum; the fond, foolish, palpitating little creature. 'Indeed, +Mr. Jones,' she says, 'it rests with you to name the day.' ... And yet +many a young fellow, no better than Mr. Thomas Jones, has carried by a +_coup-de-main_ the heart of many a kind girl who was a great deal too good +for him." + +When _Joseph Andrews_ appeared, and Richardson found that so profane a +person as Fielding had dared to burlesque his _Pamela_, he was angry; and +his little tea-drinking coterie was warm in his defence; but Fielding's +party was then, and has remained, the stronger. + +In his novel of _Amelia_, we have a general autobiography of Fielding. +Amelia, his wife, is lovely, chaste, and constant. Captain Booth--Fielding +himself--is errant, guilty, generous, and repentant. We have besides in it +many varieties of English life,--lords, clergymen, officers; Vauxhall and +the masquerade; the sponging-house and its inmates, debtors and +criminals,--all as Fielding saw and knew them. + +The condition of the clergy is more clearly set forth in Fielding's novels +than in the pages of Echard, Oldham, Wood, Macaulay, or Churchill +Babington. So changed was their estate since the Reformation, that few +high-born youths, except the weak or lame, took holy orders. Many +clergymen worked during the week. One, says South, was a cobbler on +weekdays, and preached on Sundays. Wilmot says: "We are struck by the +phenomenon of a learned man sitting down to prove, with the help of logic, +that a priest or a chaplain in a family is not a servant,"--Jeremy +Collier: _Essays on Pride and the Office of a Chaplain_. + +Fielding drew them and their condition from the life. Parson Adams is the +most excellent of men. His cassock is ten years old; over it he dons a +coarse white overcoat, and travels on foot to London to sell nine volumes +of sermons, wherewithal to buy food for his family. He engages the +innkeeper in serious talk; he does desperate battle to defend a young +woman who has fallen into the hands of ruffians on the highway; and when +he is arrested, his manuscript Eschylus is mistaken for a book of ciphers +unfolding a dreadful plot against the government. This is a hit against +the ignorance and want of education among the people; for it is some time +before some one in the company thinks he saw such characters many years +ago when he was young, and that it may be Greek. The incident of Parson +Trulliber mistaking his fellow-priest for a pork-merchant, on account of +his coarse garments, is excellent, but will not bear abbreviation. Adams +is splattered by the huge, overfed swine, and ejaculates, "_Nil habeo cum +porcis_; I am a clergyman, sir, and am not come to buy hogs!" The +condition of a curate and the theology of the publican are set forth in +the conversation between Parson Adams and the innkeeper. + +The works of Fielding may be justly accused of describing immoral scenes +and using lewd language; but even in this they are delineative of the +manners and conversation of an age in which such men lived, such scenes +occurred, such language was used. I liken the great realm of English prose +fiction to some famous museum of art. The instructor of the young may +carefully select what pictures to show them; but the student of English +literature moves through the rooms and galleries, gazing, judging, +approving, condemning, comparing. Genius may have soiled its canvas with +what is prurient and vile; lascivious groups may stand side by side with +pictures of saints and madonnas. To leave the figure, it is wise counsel +to read on principle, and, armed with principle, to accept and imitate the +good, and to reject the evil. Conscience gives the rule, and for every +bane will give the antidote. + +Of this school and period, Fielding is the greatest figure. One word as to +his career. Passing through all social conditions,--first a country +gentleman, living on or rather squandering his first wife's little fortune +in following the hounds and entertaining the county; then a playwright, +vegetating very seedily on the proceeds of his comedies; justice of the +peace, and encountering, in his vocation, such characters as _Jonathan +Wild_; drunken, licentious, unfaithful to his wife, but always--strange +paradox of poor human nature--generous as the day; mourning with bitter +tears the loss of his first wife, and then marrying her faithful +maid-servant, that they may mourn for her together,--he seems to have been +a rare mechanism without a _governor_. "Poor Harry Fielding!" And yet to +this irregular, sinful character, we owe the inimitable portraitures of +English life as it was, in _Joseph Andrews_, _Tom Jones_, and _Amelia_. + +Fielding's habits, acting upon a naturally weak constitution, wore him +out. He left England, and wandered to the English factory at Lisbon, where +he died, in 1754, in the forty-eighth year of his age. + + +TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT.--Smollett, the third in order and in rank of the +novelists of his age, was born at Cardross, Dumbartonshire, in 1721, of a +good family; but he had small means. After some schooling at Dumbarton and +a university career at Glasgow, he was, from necessity, apprenticed to a +surgeon. But as his grandfather, Sir James Smollett, on whom he depended, +died, he left his master, at the age of eighteen, and, taking in his +pocket a manuscript play he had thus early written,--_The Regicides_,--he +made his way to London, the El Dorado of all youths with literary +aspirations. The play was not accepted; but, through the knowledge +obtained in the surgery, he received an appointment as surgeon's mate, and +went out with Admiral Vernon's fated expedition to Carthagena in that +capacity, and thus acquired a knowledge of the sea and of sailors which he +was to use with great effect in his later writings. For a time he remained +in the West Indies, where he fell in love with Miss Anne Lascelles, whom +he afterwards married. In 1746 he returned to London, and, after an +unsuccessful attempt to practise medicine, he threw himself with great +vigor into the field of literature. He was a man of strange and +antagonistic features, just and generous in theory, quarrelsome and +overbearing in practice. From the year 1746 his pen seems to have been +always busy. He first tried his hand on some satires, which gained for him +numerous enemies; and in 1748 he produced his first novel, _Roderick +Random_, which, in spite of its indecency, the world at once acknowledged +to be a work of genius: the verisimilitude was perfect; every one +recognized in the hero the type of many a young North countryman going out +to seek his fortune. The variety is great, the scenes are more varied and +real than those in Richardson and Fielding, the characters are numerous +and vividly painted, and the keen sense of ridicule pervading the book +makes it a broad jest from beginning to end. Historically, his +delineations are valuable; for he describes a period in the annals of the +British marine which has happily passed away,--a hard life in little +stifling holds or forecastles, with hard fare,--a base life, for the +sailor, oppressed on shipboard, was the prey of vile women and land-sharks +when on shore. What pictures of prostitution and indecency! what obscenity +of language! what drunken infernal orgies! We may shun the book as we +would shun the company, and yet the one is the exact portraiture of the +other. + +Roderick Random was followed, in 1751, by _Peregrine Pickle_, a book in +similar taste, but the characters in which are even more striking. The +forms of Commodore Trunnion, Lieutenant Hatchway, Pipes the boatswain, and +Ap Morgan the choleric Welsh surgeon, are as familiar to us now as at the +first. + +Smollett had now retired to Chelsea, where his facile pen was still hard +at work. In 1753 appeared his _Ferdinand Count Fathom_, the portraiture of +a complete villain, corresponding in character with Fielding's _Jonathan +Wild_, but with a better moral. + +About this time he translated _Don Quixote_; and although his version is +still published, it is by no means true to the idiom of the language, nor +to the higher purpose of Cervantes. + +Passing by his _Complete History of Authentic and Entertaining Voyages_, +we come to his _History of England from the Descent of Julius Caesar to the +Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748_. It is not a profound work; but it is +so currently written, that, in lieu of better, the latter portion was +taken to supplement Hume; as a work of less merit than either, that of +Bissett was added in the later editions to supplement Smollett and Hume. +For this history he is said to have received L2000. + +In 1762 he issued _The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves_, who, with his +attendant, _Captain Crowe_, goes forth, in the style of Don Quixote and +Sancho, to _do_ the world. Smollett's forte was in the broadly humorous, +and this is all that redeems this work from utter absurdity. + + +HUMPHREY CLINKER.--His last work of any importance, and perhaps his best, +is _The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker_, described in a series of letters +descriptive of this amusing imaginative journey. Mrs. Winifred, Tabitha, +and, best of all, Lismahago, are rare characters, and in all respects, +except its vulgarity, it was the prototype of Hood's exquisite _Up the +Rhine_. + +From the year 1756, Smollett edited, at intervals, various periodicals, +and wrote what he thought very good poetry, now forgotten,--an _Ode to +Independence_, after the Greek manner of strophe and antistrophe, not +wanting in a noble spirit; and _The Tears of Scotland_, written on the +occasion of the Duke of Cumberland's barbarities, in 1746, after the +battle of Culloden: + + Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn + Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn! + Thy sons, for valor long renowned, + Lie slaughtered on thy native ground. + +Smollett died abroad on the 21st of October, 1771. His health entirely +broken, he had gone to Italy, and taken a cottage near Leghorn: a slight +resuscitation was the consequence, and he had something in prospect to +live for: he was the heir-at-law to the estate of Bonhill, worth L1000 per +annum; but the remorseless archer would not wait for his fortune. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +STERNE, GOLDSMITH, AND MACKENZIE. + + + The Subjective School. Sterne--Sermons. Tristram Shandy. Sentimental + Journey. Oliver Goldsmith. Poems--The Vicar. Histories, and Other + Works. Mackenzie. The Man of Feeling. + + + +THE SUBJECTIVE SCHOOL. + + +In the same age, and inspired by similar influences, there sprang up a +widely-different school of novelists, which has been variously named as +the Sentimental and the Subjective School. Richardson and Fielding +depicted what they saw around them objectively, rather than the +impressions made upon their individual sensitiveness. Both Sterne and +Goldsmith were eminently subjective. They stand as a transparent medium +between their works and the reader. The medium through which we see +_Tristram Shandy_ is a double lens,--one part of which is the distorted +mind of the author, and the other the nondescript philosophy which he +pilfered from Rabelais and Burton. The glass through which the _Vicar of +Wakefield_ is shown us is the good-nature and loving heart of Goldsmith, +which brighten and gladden every creation of his pen. Thus it is that two +men, otherwise essentially unlike, appear together as representatives of a +school which was at once sentimental and subjective. + + +STERNE.--Lawrence Sterne was the son of an officer in the British army, +and was born, in 1713, at Clonmel, in Ireland, where his father was +stationed. + +His father died not long afterwards, at Gibraltar, from the effect of a +wound which he had received in a duel; and it is indicative of the _code +of honor_ in that day, that the duel was about a goose at the mess-table! +What little Lawrence learned in his brief military experience was put to +good use afterwards in his army reminiscences and portraitures in +_Tristram Shandy_. No doubt My Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim are sketches +from his early recollections. Aided by his mother's relations, he studied +at Cambridge, and afterwards, without an inward call, but in accordance +with the custom of the day, he entered into holy orders, and was presented +to a living, of which he stood very much in need. + + +HIS SERMONS.--With no spirit for parochial work, it must be said that he +published very forcible and devout sermons, and set before his people and +the English world a pious standard of life, by which, however, he did not +choose to measure his own: he preached, but did not practise. In a letter +to Mr. Foley, he says: "I have made a good campaign in the field of the +literati: ... two volumes of sermons which I shall print very soon will +bring me a considerable sum.... 'Tis but a crown for sixteen sermons--dog +cheap; but I am in quest of honor, not money." + +These discourses abound in excellent instruction and in pithy expressions; +but it is painful to see how often his pointed rebukes are undesignedly +aimed at his own conduct. In one of them he says: "When such a man tells +you that a thing goes against his conscience, always believe he means +exactly the same thing as when he tells you it goes against his stomach--a +present want of appetite being generally the true cause of both." In his +discourse on _The Forgiveness of Injuries_, we have the following striking +sentiment: "The brave only know how to forgive: it is the most refined and +generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at. Cowards have done +good and kind actions; cowards have even fought, nay, sometimes even +conquered; but a coward never forgave." All readers of _Tristram Shandy_ +will recall his sermon on the text, "For we trust we have a good +conscience," so affecting to Corporal Trim and so overwhelming to Dr. +Slop. + +But if his sermons are so pious and good, we look in vain into his +entertaining _Letters_ for a corresponding piety in his life. They are +witty, jolly, occasionally licentious. They touch and adorn every topic +except religion; and so it may be feared that all his religion was +written, printed, bound, and sold by subscription, in those famous +sermons, sixteen for a crown--"dog cheap!" + + +TRISTRAM SHANDY.--In 1759 appeared the first part of _Tristram Shandy_--a +strange, desultory work, in which many of the curious bits of philosophy +are taken from Montaigne, Burton, Rabelais, and others; but which has, +besides, great originality in the handling and in the portraiture of +characters. Much of what Sterne borrowed from these writers passed for his +own in that day, when there were comparatively few readers of the authors +mentioned. As to the charge of plagiarism, we may say that Sterne's hero +is like the _Gargantua_ of Rabelais in many particulars; but he is a man +instead of a monster; while the chapter on _Hobby-Horses_ is a +reproduction, in a new form of crystallization, of _Gargantua's wooden +horses_. + +So, too, the entire theological cast of _Tristram Shandy_ is that of the +sixteenth century;--questions before the Sorbonne, the use of +excommunication, and the like. Dr. Slop, the Roman Catholic surgeon of the +family, is but a weak mouthpiece of his Church in the polemics of the +story; for Sterne was a violent opponent of the Church of Rome in story as +well as in sermon; and Obadiah, the stupid man-servant, is the lay figure +who receives the curses which Dr. Slop reads,--"cursed in house and +stable, garden and field and highway, in path or in wood, in the water or +in the church." Whether the doctor was in earnest or not, Obadiah paid +him fully by upsetting him and his pony with the coach-horse. + +But in spite of the resemblance to Rabelais and a former age, it must be +allowed that _Tristram Shandy_ contains many of the richest pictures and +fairest characters of the age in which it was written. Rural England is +truthfully presented, and the political cast of the day is shown in his +references to the war in Flanders. Among the sterling original portraits +are those of Mr. Shandy, the country gentleman, controversial and +consequential; Mrs. Shandy, the nonentity,--the Amelia Osborne and Mrs. +Nickleby of her day; Yorick, the lukewarm, time-serving priest--Sterne +himself: and these are only supplementary characters. + +The sieges of towns in the Low Countries, then going on, are pleasantly +connected with that most exquisite of characters, _my Uncle Toby_, who has +a fortification in his garden,--sentry-box, cannon, and all,--and who +follows the great movement on this petty scale from day to day, as the +bulletins come in from the seat of war. + +The _Widow Wadman_, with her artless wiles, and the "something in her +eye," makes my Uncle Toby--who protests he can see nothing in the +white--look, not without peril, "with might and main into the pupil." Ah, +that sentry-box and the widow's tactics might have conquered many a more +wary man than my Uncle Toby! and yet my Uncle Toby escaped. + +Now, all these are real English characters, sketched from life by the hand +of genius, and they become our friends and acquaintances forever. It seems +as though Sterne, after a long and close study of Rabelais and Burton, had +fancied that, with their aid, he might write a money-making book; but his +own genius, rising superior to the plagiarism, took the project out of his +venal hands; and from the antique learning and the incongruities which he +had heaped together, bright and beautiful forms sprang forth like genii +from the mine, to subsidize the tears and laughter of all future time. +What an exquisite creation is my Uncle Toby!--a soldier in the van of +battle, a man of honor and high tone in every-day life, a kind brother, a +good master to Corporal Trim, simple as a child, benevolent as an angel. +"Go, poor devil," quoth he to the fly which buzzed about his nose all +dinner-time, "get thee gone; why should I hurt thee? This world is surely +wide enough to hold both thee and me!" + +And as for Corporal Trim, he is a host in himself. There is in the English +literary portrait-gallery no other Uncle Toby, there is no other Corporal +Trim. Hazlitt has not exaggerated in saying that the _Story of Le Fevre_ +is perhaps the finest in the English language. My Uncle Toby's conduct to +the dying officer is the perfection of loving-kindness and charity. + + +THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY.--Sterne's _Sentimental Journey_, although +charmingly written,--and this is said in spite of the preference of such a +critic as Horace Walpole,--will not compare with _Tristram Shandy_: it is +left unfinished, and is constantly suggestive of licentiousness. + +Sterne's English is excellent and idiomatic, and has commended his works +to the ordinary reader, who shrinks from the hyperlatinism of the time +represented so strongly by Dr. Johnson and his followers. His wit, if +sometimes artificial, is always acute; his sentiment is entirely +artificial; "he is always protruding his sensibility, trying to play upon +you as upon an instrument; more concerned that you should acknowledge his +power than have any depth of feeling." Thackeray, whose opinion is just +quoted, calls him "a great jester, not a great humorist." He had lived a +careless, self-indulgent life, and was no honor to his profession. His +death was like a retribution. In a mean lodging, with no friends but his +bookseller, he died suddenly from hemorrhage. His funeral was hasty, and +only attended by two persons; his burial was in an obscure graveyard; and +his body was taken up by corpse-snatchers for the dissecting-room of the +professor of anatomy at Cambridge,--alas, poor Yorick! + + +OLIVER GOLDSMITH.--We have placed Goldsmith in immediate connection with +Sterne as, like him, of the Subjective School, in his story of the _Vicar +of Wakefield_ and his numerous biographical and prose sketches; but he +belongs to more than one literary school of his period. He was a poet, an +essayist, a dramatist, and an historian; a writer who, in the words of his +epitaph,--written by Dr. Johnson, and with no extravagant +eulogium,--touched all subjects, and touched none that he did not +adorn,--_nullum quod tetigit non ornavit_. His life was a strange +melodrama, so varied with laughter and tears, so checkered with fame and +misfortune, so resounding with songs pathetic and comic, that, were he an +unknown hero, his adventures would be read with pleasure by all persons of +sensibility. There is no better illustration of the _subjective_ in +literature. It is the man who is presented to us in his works, and who can +no more be disjoined from them than the light from the vase, the beauties +of which it discloses. As an essayist, he was of the school of Addison and +Steele; but he has more ease of style and more humor than his teachers. As +a dramatist, he had many and superior competitors in his own vein; and yet +his plays still occupy the stage. As an historian, he was fluent but +superficial; and yet the charm of his style and the easy flow of his +narrative, have given his books currency as manuals of instruction. And +although as a writer of fiction, or of truth gracefully veiled in the +garments of fiction, he stands unrivalled in his beautiful and touching +story of the incorruptible _Vicar_, yet this is his only complete story, +and presents but one side of his literary character. Considering him first +as a poet, we shall find that he is one of the Transition School, but that +he has a beautiful originality: his poems appeal not to the initiated +alone, but to human nature in all its conditions and guises; they are +elevated and harmonious enough for the most fastidious taste, and simple +and artless enough to please the rustic and the child. To say that he is +the most popular writer in the whole course of English Literature thus +far, is hardly to overstate his claims; and the principal reason is that, +with a blundering and improvident nature, a want of dignity, a lack of +coherence, he had a great heart, alive to human suffering; he was generous +to a fault, true to the right, and ever seeking, if constantly failing, to +direct and improve his own life, and these good characteristics are +everywhere manifest in his works. A brief recital of the principal events +in his career will throw light upon his works, and will do the best +justice to his peculiar character. + +Oliver Goldsmith was born at the little village of Pallas, in Ireland, +where his father was a poor curate, on the 10th of November, 1728. There +were nine children, of whom he was the fifth. His father afterwards moved +to Lissoy, which the poet described, in his _Deserted Village_, as + + Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain, + Where health and plenty cheered the laboring swain. + +As his father was entirely unable to educate so numerous a family, +Goldsmith owed his education partly to his uncle, the Rev. Thomas +Contarini, and in part to his brother, the Rev. Henry Goldsmith, whom he +cherished with the sincerest affection. An attack of the small-pox while +he was a boy marked his face, and he was to most persons an +unprepossessing child. He was ill-treated at school by larger boys, and +afterwards at Trinity College, Dublin, which he entered as a sizar, by his +tutor. He was idle, careless, and improvident: he left college without +permission, but was taken back by his brother, and was finally graduated +with a bachelor's degree, in 1749. His later professional studies were +spasmodic and desultory: he tried law and medicine, and more than once +gained a scanty support by teaching. Seized with a rambling spirit, he +went to the Continent, and visited Holland, France, Germany, Switzerland, +and Italy; sometimes gaining a scanty livelihood by teaching English, and +sometimes wandering without money, depending upon his flute to win a +supper and bed from the rustics who lived on the highway. He obtained, it +is said, the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Padua; and on his return to +England, he went before a board of examiners to obtain the position of +surgeon's mate in the army or navy. He was at this time so poor that he +was obliged to borrow a suit of clothes to make a proper appearance before +the examiners. He failed in his examination, and then, in despair, he +pawned the borrowed clothes, to the great anger of the publisher who had +lent them. This failure in his medical examination, unfortunate as it then +seemed, secured him to literature. From that time his pen was constantly +busy for the reviews and magazines. His first work was _An Inquiry into +the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe_, which, at least, prepared +the way for his future efforts. This appeared in 1759, and is +characterized by general knowledge and polish of style. + + +HIS POEMS.--In 1764 he published _The Traveller_, a moralizing poem upon +the condition of the people under the European governments. It was at once +and entirely successful; philosophical, elegant, and harmonious, it is +pitched in a key suited to the capacity of the world at large; and as, in +the general comparison of nations, he found abundant reason for lauding +England, it was esteemed patriotic, and was on that account popular. Many +of its lines have been constantly quoted since. + +In 1770 appeared his _Deserted Village_, which was even more popular than +_The Traveller_; nor has this popularity flagged from that time down to +the present day. It is full of exquisite pictures of rural life and +manners. It is what it claims to be,--not an attempt at high art or epic, +but a gallery of cabinet pictures of rare finish and detail, painted by +the poet's heart and appealing to the sensibility of every reader. The +world knows it by heart,--the portraiture of the village schoolmaster and +his school; the beautiful picture of the country parson: + + A man he was to all the country dear, + And passing rich with forty pounds a year. + +This latter is a worthy companion-piece to Chaucer's "poor persoune," and +is, besides, a filial tribute to Goldsmith's father. So real are the +characters and scenes, that the poem has been a popular subject for the +artist. If in _The Traveller_ he has been philosophical and didactic, in +the _Deserted Village_ he is only descriptive and tender. In no work is +there a finer spirit of true charity, the love of man for God's +sake,--like God himself, "no respecter of persons." + +While in form and versification he is like Pope and the Artificial School, +he has the sensibility to nature of Thomson, and the simplicity of feeling +and thought of Wordsworth; and thus he stands between the two great poetic +periods, partaking of the better nature of both. + + +THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.--Between the appearance of these two poems, in +1766, came forth that nonpareil of charming stories, _The Vicar of +Wakefield_. It is so well known that we need not enter into an analysis of +it. It is the story of a good vicar, of like passions with ourselves; not +wanting in vanity and impetuosity, but shining in his Christian virtue +like a star in the midst of accumulating misfortunes,--a man of immaculate +honor and undying faith, preaching to his fellow-prisoners in the jail, +surveying death without fear, and at last, like Job, restored to +happiness, and yet maintaining his humility. It does not seem to have been +constructed according to artificial rules, but rather to have been told +extemporaneously, without effort and without ambition; and while this very +fact has been the cause of some artistic faults and some improbabilities, +it has also given it a peculiar charm, by contrast with such purely +artificial constructions as the _Rasselas_ of Johnson. + +So doubtful was the publisher, who had bought the manuscript for L60, that +he held it back for two years, until the name of the author had become +known through _The Traveller_, and was thus a guarantee for its success. +The _Vicar of Wakefield_ has also an additional value in its delineation +of manners, persons, and conditions in that day, and in its strictures +upon the English penal law, in such terms and with such suggestions as +seem a prophecy of the changes which have since taken place. + + +HISTORIES, AND OTHER WORKS.--Of Goldsmith's various histories it may be +said that they are of value for the clear, if superficial, presentation of +facts, and for their charm of style. + +The best is, without doubt, _The History of England_; but the _Histories +of Greece and Rome_, re-edited, are still used as text-books in many +schools. The _Vicar_ has been translated into most of the modern +languages, and imitated by many writers since. + +As an essayist, Goldsmith has been a great enricher of English history. +His Chinese letters--for the idea of which he was indebted to the _Lettres +Persanes_ of Montesquieu--describe England in his day with the same +_vraisemblance_ which we have noticed in _The Spectator_. These were +afterwards collected and published in a volume entitled _The Citizen of +the World_. And besides the pleasure of biography, and the humor of the +presentment, his _Life of Beau Nash_ introduces us to Bath and its +frequenters with historical power. The life at the Spring is one and a +very valuable phase of English society. + +As a dramatist, he was more than equalled by Sheridan; but his two plays, +_The Good-Natured Man_ and _She Stoops to Conquer_, are still favorites +upon the stage. + +The irregularities of Goldsmith's private life seem to have been rather +defects in his character than intentional wrong-doings. Generous to a +fault, squandering without thought what was due to his creditors, losing +at play, he lived in continual pecuniary embarrassment, and died unhappy, +with a debt of L1000, the existence of which led Johnson to ejaculate, +"Was ever poet so trusted before?" He lived a bachelor; and the conclusion +seems forced upon us that had he married a woman who could have controlled +him, he, would have been a happier and more respectable man, but perhaps +have done less for literature than he did. + +While Goldsmith was a type and presenter of his age, and while he took no +high flights in the intellectual realms, he so handled what the age +presented that he must be allowed the claim of originality, both in his +poems and in the _Vicar_; and he has had, even to the present day, hosts +of imitators. Poems on college gala-days were for a long time faint +reflections of his _Traveller_, and simple, causal stories of quiet life +are the teeming progeny of the _Vicar_, in spite of the Whistonian +controversy, and the epitaph of his living wife. + +A few of his ballads and songs display great lyric power, but the most of +his poetry is not lyric; it is rather a blending of the pastoral and epic +with rare success. His minor poems are few, but favorites. Among these is +the beautiful ballad entitled _Edwin and Angelina_, or _The Hermit_, which +first appeared in _The Vicar of Wakefield_, but which has since been +printed separately among his poems. Of its kind and class it has no +superior. _Retaliation_ is a humorous epitaph upon his friends and +co-literati, hitting off their characteristics with truth and point; and +_The Haunch of Venison_--upon which he did not dine--is an amusing +incident which might have happened to any Londoner like himself, but which +no one could have related so well as he. + +He died in 1774, at the age of forty-five; but his fame--his better +life--is more vigorous than ever. Washington Irving, whose writings are +similar in style to those of Goldsmith, has extended and perpetuated his +reputation in America by writing his Biography; a charming work, many +touches of which seem almost autobiographical, as displaying the +resemblance between the writer and his subject. + + +MACKENZIE.--From Sterne and Goldsmith we pass to Mackenzie, who, if not a +conscious imitator of the former, is, at least, unconsciously formed upon +the model of Sterne, without his genius, but also without his coarseness: +in the management of his narrative, he is a medium between Sterne and +Walter Scott; indeed, from his long life, he saw the period of both these +authors, and his writings partake of the characteristics of both. + +Henry Mackenzie was born at Edinburgh, in August, 1745, and lived until +1831, to the ripe age of eighty-six. He was educated at the University of +Edinburgh, and afterwards studied law. He wrote some strong political +pamphlets in favor of the Pitt government, for which he was rewarded with +the office of comptroller of the taxes, which he held to the day of his +death. + + +THE MAN OF FEELING.--In 1771 the world was equally astonished and +delighted by the appearance of his first novel, _The Man of Feeling_. In +this there are manifest tokens of his debt to Sterne's _Sentimental +Journey_, in the journey of Harley, in the story of the beggar and his +dog, and in somewhat of the same forced sensibility in the account of +Harley's death. + +In 1773 appeared his _Man of the World_ which was in some sort a sequel to +the _Man of Feeling_, but which wearies by the monotony of the plot. + +In 1777 he published _Julia de Roubigne_, which, in the opinion of many, +shares the palm with his first novel: the plot is more varied than that of +the second, and the language is exceedingly harmonious--elegiac prose. The +story is plaintive and painful: virtue is extolled, but made to suffer, in +a domestic tragedy, which all readers would be glad to see ending +differently. + +At different times Mackenzie edited _The Mirror_ and _The Lounger_, and he +has been called the restorer of the Essay. His story of the venerable _La +Roche_, contributed to _The Mirror_, is perhaps the best specimen of his +powers as a sentimentalist: it portrays the influence of Christianity, as +exhibited in the very face of infidelity, to support the soul in the +sorest of trials--the death of an only and peerless daughter. + +His contributions to the above-named periodicals were very numerous and +popular. + +The name of his first novel was applied to himself as a man. He was known +as the _man of feeling_ to the whole community. This was a misnomer: he +was kind and affable; his evening parties were delightful; but he had +nothing of the pathetic or sentimental about him. On the contrary, he was +humorous, practical, and worldly-wise; very fond of field sports and +athletic exercises. His sentiment--which has been variously criticized, by +some as the perfection of moral pathos, and by others as lackadaisical and +canting--may be said to have sprung rather from his observations of life +and manners than to have welled spontaneously from any source within his +own heart. + +Sterne and Goldsmith will be read as long as the English language lasts, +and their representative characters will be quoted as models and standards +everywhere: Mackenzie is fast falling into an oblivion from which he will +only be resuscitated by the historian of English Literature. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE HISTORICAL TRIAD IN THE SCEPTICAL AGE. + + + The Sceptical Age. David Hume. History of England. Metaphysics. Essay + on Miracles. Robertson. Histories. Gibbon. The Decline and Fall. + + + +THE SCEPTICAL AGE. + + +History presents itself to the student in two forms: The first is +_chronicle_, or a simple relation of facts and statistics; and the second, +_philosophical history_, in which we use these facts and statistics in the +consideration of cause and effect, and endeavor to extract a moral from +the actions and events recorded. From pregnant causes the philosophic +historian traces, at long distances, the important results; or, +conversely, from the present condition of things--the good and evil around +him--he runs back, sometimes remotely, to the causes from which they have +sprung. Chronicle is very pleasing to read, and the reader may be, to some +extent, his own philosopher; but the importance of history as a study is +found in its philosophy. + +As far down as the eighteenth century, almost everything in history +partakes of the nature of chronicle. In that century, in obedience to the +law of human progress, there sprang up in England and on the Continent the +men who first made chronicle material for philosophy, and used philosophy +to teach by example what to imitate and what to shun. + +What were the circumstances which led, in the eighteenth century, to the +simultaneous appearance of Hume, Gibbon, and Robertson, as the originators +of a new school of history? Some of them have been already mentioned in +treating of the antiquarian age. We have endeavored to show how the +English literati--novelists, essayists, and poets--have been in part +unconscious historians. It will also appear that the professed historians +themselves have been, in a great measure, the creatures of English +history. The _fifteenth_ century was the period when the revival of +letters took place, and a great spur was given to mental activity; but the +world, like a child, was again learning rudiments, and finding out what it +was, and what it possessed at that present time: it received the new +classical culture presented to it at the fall of the lower empire, and was +content to learn the existing, without endeavoring to create the new, or +even to recompose the scattered fragments of the past. The _eighteenth_ +century saw a new revival: the world had become a man; great progress was +reported in arts, in inventions, and in discoveries; science began to +labor at the arduous but important task of classification; new theories of +government and laws were propounded; the past was consulted that its +experience might be applied; the partisan chronicles needed to be united +and compared that truth might be elicited; the philosophic historian was +required, and the people were ready to learn, and to criticize, what he +produced. + +I have ventured to call this the Sceptical Age. It had other +characteristics: this was one. We use the word sceptical in its +etymological sense: it was an age of inquiry, of doubt to be resolved. +Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, D'Alembert, and Diderot had founded a new +school of universal inquiry, and from their bold investigations and +startling theories sprang the society of the _illuminati_, and the race of +thinkers. They went too far: they stabbed the truth as it lay in the grasp +of error. From thinkers they became free-thinkers: from philosophers they +became infidels, and some of them atheists. This was the age which +produced "the triumvirate of British historians who," in the words of +Montgomery, "exemplified in their very dissimilar styles the triple +contrast of simplicity, elegance, and splendor." + +Imbued with this spirit of the time, Hume undertook to write a _History of +England_, which, with all its errors and faults, still ranks among the +best efforts of English historians. Like the French philosophers, Hume was +an infidel, and his scepticism appears in his writings; but, unlike +them--for they were stanch reformers in government as well as infidels in +faith--he who was an infidel was also an aristocrat in sentiment, and a +consistent Tory his life long. In his history, with all the artifices of a +philosopher, he takes the Jacobite side in the civil war. + + +HUME.--David Hume was born in Edinburgh on the 26th of April (O.S.), 1711. +His life was without many vicissitudes of interest, but his efforts to +achieve an enduring reputation on the most solid grounds, mark him as a +notable example of patient industry, study, and economy. He led a +studious, systematic, and consistent life. + +Although of good family,--being a descendant of the Earl of Home,--he was +in poor circumstances, and after some study of the law, and some +unsuccessful literary ventures, he was obliged to seek employment as a +means of livelihood. Thus he became tutor or keeper to the young Marquis +of Annandale, who was insane. Abandoning this position in disgust, he was +appointed secretary to General St. Clair in various embassies,--to Paris, +Vienna, and Turin; everywhere hoarding his pay, until he became +independent, "though," he says, "most of my friends were inclined to smile +when I said so; in short, I was master of a thousand pounds." + +His earliest work was a _Treatise on Human Nature_, published in 1738, +which met with no success. Nothing discouraged thereat, in 1741 he issued +a volume of _Essays Moral and Political_, the success of which emboldened +him to publish, in 1748, his _Inquiry Concerning the Human Understanding_. +These and other works were preparing his pen for its greater task, the +material for which he was soon to find. + +In 1752 he was appointed librarian to the Faculty of Advocates, not for +the emolument, but with the real purpose of having entire control of the +books and material in the library; and then he determined to write the +_History of England_. + + +HISTORY OF ENGLAND.--He began with the accession of the Stuarts, in 1603, +the period when the popular element, so long kept tranquil by the power +and sex of Queen Elizabeth, was ready first to break out into open +assertion. Hume's self-deception must have been rudely discovered to him; +for he tells us, in an autobiography fortunately preserved, that he +expected so dispassionately to steer clear of all existent parties, or, +rather, to be so just to all, that he should gain universal approbation. +"Miserable," he adds, "was my disappointment. I was assailed by one cry of +reproach, disapprobation, and even detestation. English, Scotch, Irish, +Whig and Tory, churchman and sectary, free-thinker and religionist, +patriot and courtier, united, in their rage, against the man who had +presumed to shed a generous tear for the fate of Charles I. and the Earl +of Strafford." How far, too, this was ignorant invective, may be judged +from the fact that in twelve months only forty-five copies of his work +were sold. + +However, he patiently continued his labor. The first volume, containing +the reigns of James I. and Charles I, had been issued in 1754; his second, +published in 1756, and containing the later history of the Commonwealth, +of Charles II., and James II., and concluding with the revolution of 1688, +was received with more favor, and "helped to buoy up its unfortunate +brother." Then he worked backward: in 1759 he produced the reigns of the +house of Tudor; and in 1761, the earlier history, completing his work, +from the earliest times to 1688. The tide had now turned in his favor; the +sales were large, and his pecuniary rewards greater than any historian had +yet received. + +The Tory character of his work is very decided: he not only sheds a +generous tear for the fate of Charles I., but conceals or glosses the +villanies of Stuarts far worse than Charles. The liberties of England +consist, in his eyes, of wise concessions made by the sovereign, rather +than as the inalienable birthright of the English man. + +He has also been charged with want of industry and honesty in the use of +his materials--taking things at second-hand, without consulting original +authorities which were within his reach, and thus falling into many +mistakes, while placing in his marginal notes the names of the original +authors. This charge is particularly just with reference to the +Anglo-Saxon period, since so picturesquely described by Sharon Turner. + +The first in order of the philosophical historians, he is rather a +collector of facts than a skilful diviner with them. His style is sonorous +and fluent, but not idiomatic. Dr. Johnson said, "His style is not +English; the structure of his sentences is French,"--an opinion concurred +in by the eminent critic, Lord Jeffrey. + +But whatever the criticism, the _History_ of Hume is a great work. He did +what was never done before. For a long time his work stood alone; and even +now it has the charm of a clear, connected narrative, which is still +largely consulted by many who are forewarned of its errors and faults. And +however unidiomatic his style, it is very graceful and flowing, and lends +a peculiar charm to his narrative. + + +METAPHYSICS.--Of Hume as a philosopher, we need not here say much. He was +acute, intelligent, and subtle; he was, in metaphysical language, "a +sceptical nihilist." And here a distinction must be made between his +religious tenets and his philosophical views,--a distinction so happily +stated by Sir William Hamilton, that we present it in his words: "Though +decidedly opposed to one and all of Hume's theological conclusions, I have +no hesitation in asserting of his philosophical scepticism, that this was +not only beneficial in its results, but, in the circumstances of the +period, even a necessary step in the progress of Philosophy towards +Truth." And again he says, "To Hume we owe the philosophy of Kant, and +therefore also, in general, the later philosophy of Germany." "To Hume, in +like manner, we owe the philosophy of Reid, and, consequently, what is now +distinctively known in Europe as the Philosophy of the Scottish School." +Great praise this from one of the greatest Christian philosophers of this +century, and it shows Hume to have been more original as a philosopher +than as an historian. + +He is also greatly commended by Lord Brougham as a political economist. +"His _Political Discourses_," says his lordship, "combine almost every +excellence which can belong to such a performance.... Their great merit is +their originality, and the new system of politics and political economy +which they unfold." + + +MIRACLES.--The work in which is most fairly set forth his religious +scepticism is his _Essay on Miracles_. In it he adopts the position of +Locke, who had declared "that men should not believe any proposition that +is contrary to reason, on the authority either of inspiration or of +miracle; for the reality of the inspiration or of the miracle can only be +established by reason." Before Hume, assaults on the miracles recorded in +Scripture were numerous and varied. Spinoza and the Pantheistic School had +started the question, "Are miracles possible?" and had taken the negative. +Hume's question is, "Are miracles credible?" And as they are contrary to +human experience, his answer is essentially that it must be always more +probable that a miracle is false than that it is true; since it is not +contrary to experience that witnesses are false or deceived. With him it +is, therefore, a question of the preponderance of evidence, which he +declares to be always against the miracle. This is not the place to +discuss these topics. Archbishop Whately has practically illustrated the +fallacy of Hume's reasoning, in a little book called _Historic Doubts, +relative to Napoleon Bonaparte_, in which, with Hume's logic, he has +proved, that the great emperor never lived; and Whately's successor in the +archbishopric of Dublin, Dr. Trench, has given us some thoughtful words on +the subject: "So long as we abide in the region of nature, miraculous and +improbable, miraculous and incredible may be allowed to remain convertible +terms; but once lift up the whole discussion into a higher region, once +acknowledge aught higher than nature--_a kingdom of God_, and men the +intended denizens of it--and the whole argument loses its strength and the +force of its conclusions." + +Hume's death occurred on the 25th of August, 1776. His scepticism, or +philosophy as he called it, remained with him to the end. He even diverted +himself with the prospect of the excuses he would make to Charon as he +reached the fatal river, and is among the few doubters who have calmly +approached the grave without that concern which the Christian's hope alone +is generally able to dispel. + + +WILLIAM ROBERTSON.--the second of the great historians of the eighteenth +century, although very different from the others in his personal life and +in his creed,--was, like them, a representative and creature of the age. +They form, indeed, a trio in literary character as well as in period; and +we have letters from each to the others on the appearance of their works, +showing that they form also what in the present day is called a "Mutual +Admiration Society." They were above common envy: they recognized each +other's excellence, and forbore to speak of each other's faults. As a +philosopher, Hume was the greatest of the three; as an historian, the palm +must be awarded to Gibbon. But Robertson surprises us most from the fact +that a quiet Scotch pastor, who never travelled, should have attempted, +and so gracefully treated, subjects of such general interest as those he +handled. + +William Robertson was the son of a Scottish minister, and was born at +Borthwick, in Scotland, on September 19th, in the year 1721. He was a +precocious child, and, after attending school at Dalkeith, he entered the +University of Edinburgh at the age of twelve. At the age of twenty he was +licensed to preach. He published, in 1755, a sermon on _The Situation of +the World at the Time of Christ's Appearance_, which attracted attention; +but he astonished the world by issuing, in 1759, his _History of Scotland +During the Reigns of Queen Mary, and of James VI. until his Accession to +the Crown of England_. This is undoubtedly his best work, but not of such +general interest as his others. His materials were scanty, and he did not +consult such as were in his reach with much assiduity. The invaluable +records of the archives of Simancas were not then opened to the world, but +he lived among the scenes of his narrative, and had the advantage of +knowing all the traditions and of hearing all the vehement opinions _pro_ +and _con_ upon the subjects of which he treated. The character of Queen +Mary is drawn with a just but sympathetic hand, and his verdict is not so +utterly denunciatory as that of Mr. Froude. Such was the popularity of +this work, that in 1764 its author was appointed to the honorable office +of Historiographer to His Majesty for Scotland. In 1769 he published his +_History of Charles V._ Here was a new surprise. Whatever its faults, as +afterwards discerned by the critics, it opened a new and brilliant page to +the uninitiated reader, and increased his reputation very greatly. The +history is preceded by a _View of the Progress of Society in Europe from +the Subversion of the Roman Empire to the Beginning of the Sixteenth +Century_. The best praise that can be given to this _View_ is, that +students have since used it as the most excellent summary of that kind +existing. Of the history itself it may be said that, while it is greatly +wanting in historic material in the interest of the narrative and the +splendor of the pageantry of the imperial court, it marked a new era in +historical delineations. + + +HISTORY OF AMERICA.--In 1777 appeared the first eight books of his +_History of America_, to which, in 1778, he appended additions and +corrections. The concluding books, the ninth and tenth, did not appear +until 1796, when, three years after his death, they were issued by his +son. As a connected narrative of so great an event in the world's history +as the discovery of America, it stood quite alone. If, since that time, +far better and fuller histories have appeared, we should not withhold our +meed of praise from this excellent forerunner of them all. One great +defect of this and the preceding work was his want of knowledge of the +German and Spanish historians, and of the original papers then locked up +in the archives of Simancas; later access to which has given such great +value to the researches of Irving and Prescott and Sterling. Besides, +Robertson lacked the life-giving power which is the property of true +genius. His characters are automata gorgeously arrayed, but without +breath; his style is fluent and sometimes sparkling, but in all respects +he has been superseded, and his works remain only as curious +representatives of the age to the literary student. One other work remains +to be mentioned, and that is his _Historical Disquisition Concerning the +Knowledge which the Ancients had of India, and the Progress of Trade with +that Country Prior to the Discovery of the Passage to it by the Cape of +Good Hope_. This is chiefly of value as it indicates the interest felt in +England at the rise of the English Empire in India; but for real facts it +has no value at all. + + +GIBBON.--Last in order of time, though far superior as an historian to +Hume and Robertson, stands Edward Gibbon, the greatest historian England +has produced, whether we regard the dignity of his style--antithetic and +sonorous; the range of his subject--the history of a thousand years; the +astonishing fidelity of his research in every department which contains +historic materials; or the symmetry and completeness of his colossal work. + +Like Hume, he has left us a sketch of his own life and labors, simple and +dispassionate, from which it appears that he was born in London on the +27th of April, 1737; and, being of a good family, he had every advantage +of education. Passing a short time at the University of Oxford, he stands +in a small minority of those who can find no good in their _Alma Mater_. +"To the University of Oxford," he says, "I acknowledge no obligation, and +she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son as I am willing to disclaim +her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College. They proved +to be fourteen of the most idle and unprofitable months of my whole life." +This singular experience may be contrasted with that of hundreds, but may +be most fittingly illustrated by stating that of Dr. Lowth, a venerable +contemporary of the historian. He speaks enthusiastically of the place +where the student is able "to breathe the same atmosphere that had been +breathed by Hooker and Chillingworth and Locke; to revel in its grand and +well-ordered libraries; to form part of that academic society where +emulation without envy, ambition without jealousy, contention without +animosity, incited industry and awakened genius." + +Gibbon, while still in his boyhood, had read with avidity ancient and +modern history, and had written a juvenile paper on _The Age of +Sesostris_, which was, at least, suggested by Voltaire's _Siecle de Louis +XIV_. + +Early interested, too, in the history of Christianity, his studies led him +to become a Roman Catholic; but his belief was by no means stable. Sent by +his father to Lausanne, in Switzerland, to be under the religious training +of a Protestant minister, he changed his opinions, and became again a +Protestant. His convictions, however, were once more shaken, and, at the +last, he became a man of no creed, a sceptic of the school of Voltaire, a +creature of the age of illumination. Many passages of his history display +a sneering unbelief, which moves some persons more powerfully than the +subtlest argument. This modern Platonist, beginning with sensation, +evolves his philosophy from within,--from the finite mind; whereas human +history can only be explained in the light of revelation, which gives to +humanity faith, but which educes all science from the infinite--the mind +of God. + +The history written by Gibbon, called _The Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire_, begins with that empire in its best days, under Hadrian, and +extends to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, under Mohammed II., +in 1453. + +And this marvellous scope he has treated with a wonderful equality of +research and power;--the world-absorbing empire, the origin and movements +of the northern tribes and the Scythian marauders, the fall of the Western +Empire, the history of the civil law, the establishment of the Gothic +monarchies, the rise and spread of Mohammedanism, the obscurity of the +middle age deepening into gloom, the crusades, the dawning of letters, and +the inauguration of the modern era after the fall of Constantinople,--the +detailed history of a thousand years. It is difficult to conceive that any +one should suggest such a task to himself; it is astonishing to think +that, with a dignified, self-reliant tenacity of purpose, it should have +been completely achieved. It was an historic period, in which, in the +words of Corneille, "_Un grand destin commence un grand destin s'acheve_." +In many respects Gibbon's work stands alone; the general student must +refer to Gibbon, because there is no other work to which he can refer. It +was translated by Guizot into French, the first volume by Wenck into +German (he died before completing it); and it was edited by Dean Milman in +England. + +The style of Gibbon is elegant and powerful; at first it is singularly +pleasing, but as one reads it becomes too sonorous, and fatigues, as the +crashing notes of a grand march tire the ear. His periods are antithetic; +each contains a surprise and a witty point. His first two volumes have +less of this stately magnificence, but in his later ones, in seeking to +vindicate popular applause, he aims to shine, and perpetually labors for +effect. Although not such a philosopher as Hume, his work is quite as +philosophical as Hume's history, and he has been more faithful in the use +of his materials. Guizot, while pointing out his errors, says he was +struck, after "a second and attentive perusal," with "the immensity of his +researches, the variety of his knowledge, and, above all, with that truly +philosophical discrimination which judges the past as it would judge the +present." + +The danger to the unwary reader is from the sceptical bias of the author, +which, while he states every important fact, leads him, by its manner of +presentation, to warp it, or put it in a false light. Thus, for example, +he has praise for paganism, and easy absolution for its sins; Mohammed +walks the stage with a stately stride; Alaric overruns Europe to a grand +quickstep; but Christianity awakens no enthusiasm, and receives no +eulogium, although he describes its early struggles, its martyrdoms, its +triumphs under Constantine, its gentle radiance during the dark ages, and +its powerful awakening. Because he cannot believe, he cannot even be just. + +In his special chapter on the rise and spread of Christianity, he gives a +valuable summary of its history, and of the claims of the papacy, with +perhaps a leaning towards the Latin Church. Gibbon finished his work at +Lausanne on the 27th of June, 1787. + +Its conception had come to his mind as he sat one evening amid the ruins +of the Capitol at Rome, and heard the barefooted friars singing vespers in +the Temple of Jupiter. He had then thought of writing the decline and fall +of the city of Rome, but soon expanded his view to the empire. This was in +1764. Nearly thirteen years afterwards, he wrote the last line of the last +page in his garden-house at Lausanne, and reflected joyfully upon his +recovered freedom and his permanent fame. His second thought, however, +will fitly close this notice with a moral from his own lips: "My pride was +soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea +that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, +and that whatever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the +historian must be short and precarious." + + + +OTHER CONTRIBUTORS TO HISTORY. + + +_James Boswell_, 1740-1795: he was the son of a Scottish judge called Lord +Auchinleck, from his estate. He studied law, and travelled, publishing, on +his return, _Journal of a Tour in Corsica_. He appears to us a +simple-hearted and amiable man, inquisitive, and exact in details. He +became acquainted with Dr. Johnson in 1763, and conceived an immense +admiration for him. In numerous visits to London, and in their tour to the +Hebrides together, he noted Johnson's speech and actions, and, in 1791, +published his life, which has already been characterized as the greatest +biography ever written. Its value is manifold; not only is it a faithful +portrait of the great writer, but, in the detailed record of his life, we +have the wit, dogmatism, and learning of his hero, as expressing and +illustrating the history of the age, quite as fully as the published works +of Johnson. In return for this most valuable contribution to history and +literature, the critics, one and all, have taxed their ingenuity to find +strong words of ridicule and contempt for Boswell, and have done him great +injustice. Because he bowed before the genius of Johnson, he was not a +toady, nor a fool; at the worst, he was a fanatic, and a not always wise +champion. Johnson was his king, and his loyalty was unqualified. + + +_Horace Walpole_, the Right Honorable, and afterwards Earl of Orford, +1717-1797: he was a wit, a satirist, and a most accomplished writer, who, +notwithstanding, affected to despise literary fame. His paternity was +doubted; but he enjoyed wealth and honors, and, by the possession of three +sinecures, he lived a life of elegant leisure. He transformed a small +house on the bank of the Thames, at Twickenham, into a miniature castle, +called _Strawberry Hill_, which he filled with curiosities. He held a very +versatile pen, and wrote much on many subjects. Among his desultory works +are: _Anecdotes of Painting in England_, and _AEdes Walpoliana_, a +description of the pictures at Houghton Hall, the seat of Sir Robert +Walpole. He also ranks among the novelists, as the author of _The Castle +of Otranto_, in which he deviates from the path of preceding writers of +fiction--a sort of individual reaction from their portraitures of existing +society to the marvellous and sensational. This work has been variously +criticized; by some it has been considered a great flight of the +imagination, but by most it is regarded as unnatural and full of +"pasteboard machinery." He had immediate followers in this vein, among +whom are Mrs. Aphra Behn, in her _Old English Baron_; and Ann Radcliffe, +in _The Romance of the Forest_, and _The Mysteries of Udolpho_. Walpole +also wrote a work entitled _Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of +Richard III_. But his great value as a writer is to be found in his +_Memoirs_ and varied _Correspondence_, in which he presents photographs of +the society in which he lives. Scott calls him "the best letter-writer in +the language." Among the series of his letters, those of the greatest +historical importance are those addressed to Sir Horace Mann, between 1760 +and 1785. Of this series, Macaulay, who is his severest critic, says: "It +forms a connected whole--a regular journal of what appeared to Walpole the +most important transactions of the last twenty years of George II.'s +reign. It contains much new information concerning the history of that +time, the portion of English history of which common readers know the +least." + + +_John Lord Hervey_, 1696-1743: he is known for his attempts in poetry, and +for a large correspondence, since published; but his chief title to rank +among the contributors to history is found in his _Memoirs of the Court of +George II. and Queen Caroline_, which were not published until 1848. They +give an unrivalled view of the court and of the royal household; and the +variety of the topics, combined with the excellence of description, render +them admirable as aids to understanding the history. + + +_Sir William Blackstone_, 1723-1780: a distinguished lawyer, he was an +unwearied student of the history of the English statute law, and was on +that account made Professor of Law in the University of Oxford. Some time +a member of Parliament, he was afterwards appointed a judge. He edited +_Magna Charta_ and _The Forest Charter_ of King John and Henry III. But +his great work, one that has made his name famous, is _The Commentaries on +the Laws of England_. Notwithstanding much envious criticism, it has +maintained its place as a standard work. It has been again and again +edited, and perhaps never better than by the Hon. George Sharswood, one of +the Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. + + +_Adam Smith_, 1723-1790: this distinguished writer on political economy, +the intelligent precursor of a system based upon the modern usage of +nations, was educated at Glasgow and Oxford, and became in turn Professor +of Logic and of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow. His lecture +courses in Moral Science contain the germs of his two principal works: 1. +_The Theory of Moral Sentiments_, and 2. _An Enquiry into the Nature and +Causes of the Wealth of Nations_. The theory of the first has been +superseded by the sounder views of later writers; but the second has +conferred upon him enduring honor. In it he establishes as a principle +that _labor_ is the source of national wealth, and displays the value of +division of labor. This work--written in clear, simple language, with +copious illustrations--has had a wonderful influence upon the legislation +and the commercial system of all civilized states since its issue, and has +greatly conduced to the happiness of the human race. He wrote it in +retirement, during a period of ten years. He astonished and instructed his +period by presenting it with a new and necessary science. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +SAMUEL JOHNSON AND HIS TIMES. + + + Early Life and Career. London. Rambler and Idler. The Dictionary. Other + Works. Lives of the Poets. Person and Character. Style. Junius. + + + +EARLY LIFE AND CAREER. + + +Doctor Samuel Johnson was poet, dramatist, essayist, lexicographer, +dogmatist, and critic, and, in this array of professional characters, +played so distinguished a part in his day that he was long regarded as a +prodigy in English literature. His influence has waned since his +personality has grown dim, and his learning been superseded or +overshadowed; but he still remains, and must always remain, the most +prominent literary figure of his age; and this is in no small measure due +to his good fortune in having such a champion and biographer as James +Boswell. Johnson's Life by Boswell is without a rival among biographies: +in the words of Macaulay: "Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic +poets; Shakspeare is not more decidedly the first of dramatists; +Demosthenes is not more decidedly the first of orators, than Boswell is +the first of biographers;" and Burke has said that Johnson appears far +greater in Boswell's book than in his own. We thus know everything about +Johnson, as we do not know about any other literary man, and this +knowledge, due to his biographer, is at least one of the elements of +Johnson's immense reputation. + +He was born at Lichfield on the 18th of September, 1709. His father was a +bookseller; and after having had a certain amount of knowledge "well +beaten into him" by Mr. Hunter, young Johnson was for two years an +assistant in his father's shop. But such was his aptitude for learning, +that he was sent in 1728 to Pembroke College, Oxford. His youth was not a +happy one: he was afflicted with scrofula, "which disfigured a countenance +naturally well formed, and hurt his visual nerves so much that he did not +see at all with one of his eyes." He had a morbid melancholy,--fits of +dejection which made his life miserable. He was poor; and when, in 1731, +his father died insolvent, he was obliged to leave the university without +a degree. After fruitless attempts to establish a school, he married, in +1736, Mrs. Porter, a widow, who had L800. Rude and unprepossessing to +others, she was sincerely loved by her husband, and deeply lamented when +she died. In 1737 Johnson went to London in company with young Garrick, +who had been one of his few pupils, and who was soon to fill the English +world with his theatrical fame. + + +LONDON.--Johnson soon began to write for Cave's _Gentleman's Magazine_, +and in 1738 he astonished Pope and the artificial poets by producing, in +their best vein, his imitation of the third Satire of Juvenal, which he +called _London_. This was his usher into the realm of literature. But he +did not become prominent until he had reached his fiftieth year; he +continued to struggle with gloom and poverty, too proud to seek patronage +in an age when popular remuneration had not taken its place. In 1740 he +was a reporter of the debates in parliament for Cave; and it is said that +many of the indifferent speakers were astonished to read the next day the +fine things which the reporter had placed in their mouths, which they had +never uttered. + +In 1749 he published his _Vanity of Human Wishes_, an imitation of the +tenth Satire of Juvenal, which was as heartily welcomed as _London_ had +been. It is Juvenal applied to English and European history. It contains +many lines familiar to us all; among them are the following: + + Let observation with extended view + Survey mankind from China to Peru. + +In speaking of Charles XII., he says: + + His fall was destined to a barren strand, + A petty fortress and a dubious hand; + He left a name at which the world grew pale, + To point a moral or adorn a tale. + + From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, + And Swift expires a driveller and a show. + +In the same year he published his tragedy of _Irene_, which, +notwithstanding the friendly efforts of Garrick, who was now manager of +Drury Lane Theatre, was not successful. As a poet, Johnson was the +perfection of the artificial school; and this very technical perfection +was one of the causes of the reaction which was already beginning to sweep +it away. + + +RAMBLER AND IDLER.--In 1750 he commenced _The Rambler_, a periodical like +_The Spectator_, of which he wrote nearly all the articles, and which +lived for two years. Solemn, didactic, and sonorous, it lacked the variety +and genial humor which had characterized Addison and Steele. In 1758 he +started _The Idler_, in the same vein, which also ran its respectable +course for two years. In 1759 his mother died, and, in order to defray the +expenses of her funeral, he wrote his story of _Rasselas_ in the evenings +of one week, for two editions of which he received L125. Full of moral +aphorisms and instruction, this "Abyssinian tale" is entirely English in +philosophy and fancy, and has not even the slight illusion of other +Eastern tales in French and English, which were written about the same +time, and which are very similar in form and matter. Of _Rasselas_, +Hazlitt says: "It is the most melancholy and debilitating moral +speculation that was ever put forth." + + +THE DICTIONARY.--As early as 1747 he had begun to write his English +Dictionary, which, after eight years of incessant and unassisted labor, +appeared in 1755. It was a noble thought, and produced a noble work--a +work which filled an original vacancy. In France, a National Academy had +undertaken a similar work; but this English giant had accomplished his +labors alone. The amount of reading necessary to fix and illustrate his +definitions was enormous, and the book is especially valuable from the apt +and varied quotations from English authors. He established the language, +as he found it, on a firm basis in signification and orthography. He laid +the foundation upon which future lexicographers were to build; but he was +ignorant of the Teutonic languages, from which so much of the structure +and words of the English are taken, and thus is signally wanting in the +scientific treatment of his subject. This is not to his discredit, for the +science of language has had its origin in a later and modern time. + +Perhaps nothing displays more fully the proud, sturdy, and self-reliant +character of the man, than the eight years of incessant and unassisted +labor upon this work. + +His letter to Lord Chesterfield, declining his tardy patronage, after +experiencing his earlier neglect, is a model of severe and yet respectful +rebuke, and is to be regarded as one of the most significant events in his +history. In it he says: "The notice you have been pleased to take of my +labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I +am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart +it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical +asperity not to confess obligation when no benefit has been received, or +to be unwilling that the public should consider me as owing that to a +patron which Providence has enabled me to do for myself." Living as he did +in an age when the patronage of the great was wearing out, and public +appreciation beginning to reward an author's toils, this manly letter gave +another stab to the former, and hastened the progress of the latter. + + +OTHER WORKS.--The fame of Johnson was now fully established, and his +labors were rewarded, in 1762, by the receipt of a pension of L300 from +the government, which made him quite independent. It was then, in the very +heyday of his reputation, that, in 1763, he became acquainted with James +Boswell, to whom he at once became a Grand Lama; who took down the words +as they dropped from his lips, and embalmed his fame. + +In 1764 he issued his edition of Shakspeare, in eight octavo volumes, of +which the best that can be said is, that it is not valuable as a +commentary. A commentator must have something in common with his author; +there was nothing congenial between Shakspeare and Johnson. + +It was in 1773, that, urged by Boswell, he made his famous _Journey to the +Hebrides_, or Western Islands of Scotland, of which he gave delightful +descriptions in a series of letters to his friend Mrs. Thrale, which he +afterwards wrote out in more pompous style for publication. The letters +are current, witty, and simple; the published work is stilted and +grandiloquent. + +It is well known that he had no sympathy with the American colonies in +their struggle against British oppression. When, in 1775, the Congress +published their _Resolutions_ and _Address_, he answered them in a +prejudiced and illogical paper entitled _Taxation no Tyranny_. +Notwithstanding its want of argument, it had the weight of his name and of +a large party; but history has construed it by the _animus_ of the writer, +who had not long before declared of the colonists that they were "a race +of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of +hanging." + +As early as 1744 he had published a Life of the gifted but unhappy +Savage, whom in his days of penury he had known, and with whom he had +sympathized; but in 1781 appeared his _Lives of the English Poets, with +Critical Observations on their Works_, and _Lives of Sundry Eminent +Persons_. + + +LIVES OF THE POETS.--These comprise fifty-two poets, most of them little +known at the present day, and thirteen _eminent persons_. Of historical +value, as showing us the estimate of an age in which Johnson was an usher +to the temple of Fame, they are now of little other value; those of his +own school and coterie he could understand and eulogize. To Milton he +accorded carefully measured praise, but could not do him full justice, +from entire want of sympathy; the majesty of blank verse pentameters he +could not appreciate, and from Milton's puritanism he recoiled with +disgust. + +Johnson died on the 13th of December, 1784, and was buried in Westminster +Abbey; a flat stone with an inscription was placed over his grave: it was +also designed to erect his monument there, but St. Paul's Cathedral was +afterwards chosen as the place. There, a colossal figure represents the +distinguished author, and a Latin epitaph, written by Dr. Parr, records +his virtues and his achievements in literature. + + +PERSON AND CHARACTER.--A few words must suffice to give a summary of his +character, and will exhibit some singular contrarieties. He had varied but +not very profound learning; was earnest, self-satisfied, overbearing in +argument, or, as Sir Walter Scott styles it, _despotic_. As distinguished +for his powers of conversation as for his writings, he always talked _ex +cathedra_, and was exceedingly impatient of opposition. Brutal in his word +attacks, he concealed by tone and manner a generous heart. Grandiloquent +in ordinary matters, he "made little fishes talk like whales." + +Always swayed by religious influences, he was intolerant of the sects +around him; habitually pious, he was not without superstition; he was not +an unbeliever in ghostly apparitions, and had a great fear of death; he +also had the touching mania--touching every post as he walked along the +street, thereby to avoid some unknown evil. + +Although of rural origin, he became a thorough London cockney, and his +hatred of Scotchmen and dissenters is at once pitiful and ludicrous. His +manners and gestures were uncouth and disagreeable. He devoured rather +than eat his food, and was a remarkable tea-drinker; on one occasion, +perhaps for bravado, taking twenty-five cups at a sitting. + +Massive in figure, seamed with scrofulous scars and marks, seeing with but +one eye, he had convulsive motions and twitches, and his slovenly dress +added to the uncouthness and oddity of his appearance. In all respects he +was an original, and even his defects and peculiarities seemed to conduce +to make him famous. + +Considered the first among the critics of his own day, later judgments +have reversed his decisions; many of those whom he praised have sunk into +obscurity, and those whom he failed to appreciate have been elevated to +the highest pedestals in the literary House of Fame. + + +STYLE.--His style is full-sounding and antithetic, his periods are +carefully balanced, his manner eminently respectable and good; but his +words, very many of them of Latin derivation, constitute what the later +critics have named _Johnsonese_, which is certainly capable of translation +into plainer Saxon English, with good results. Thus, in speaking of +Addison's style, he says: "It is pure without scrupulosity, and exact +without apparent elaboration; ... he seeks no ambitious ornaments, and +tries no hazardous innovations; his page is always luminous, but never +blazes in unexpected splendor." Very numerous examples might be given of +sentences most of the words in which might be replaced by simpler +expressions with great advantage to the sound and to the sense. + +As a critic, his word was law: his opinion was clearly and often severely +expressed on literary men and literary subjects, and no great writer of +his own or a past age escaped either his praise or his censure. Authors +wrote with the fear of his criticism before their eyes; and his pompous +diction was long imitated by men who, without this influence, would have +written far better English. But, on the other hand, his honesty, his +scholarship, his piety, and his championship of what was good and true, as +depicted in his writings, made him a blessing to his time, and an honored +and notable character in the noble line of English authors. + + +JUNIUS.--Among the most significant and instructive writings to the +student of English history, in the earlier part of the reign of George +III., is a series of letters written by a person, or by several persons in +combination, whose _nom de plume_ was Junius. These letters specified the +errors and abuses of the government, were exceedingly bold in denunciation +and bitter in invective. The letters of Junius were forty-four in number, +and were addressed to Mr. Woodfall, the proprietor of _The Public +Advertiser_, a London newspaper, in which they were published. Fifteen +others in the same vein were signed Philo-Junius; and there are besides +sixty-two notes addressed by Junius to his publisher. + +The principal letters signed Junius were addressed to ministers directly, +and the first, on the _State of the Nation_, was a manifesto of the +grounds of his writing and his purpose. It was evident that a bold censor +had sprung forth; one acquainted with the secret movements of the +government, and with the foibles and faults of the principal statesmen: +they writhed under his lash. Some of the more gifted attempted to answer +him, and, as in the case of Sir William Draper, met with signal +discomfiture. Vigorous efforts were made to discover the offender, but +without success; and as to his first patriotic intentions he soon added +personal spite, the writer found that his life would not be safe if his +secret were discovered. The rage of parties has long since died away, and +the writer or writers have long been in their graves, but the curious +secret still remains, and has puzzled the brains of students to the +present day. Allibone gives a list of forty-two persons to whom the +letters were in whole or in part ascribed, among whom are Colonel Barre, +Burke, Lord Chatham, General Charles Lee, Horne Tooke, Wilkes, Horace +Walpole, Lord Lyttleton, Lord George Sackville, and Sir Philip Francis. +Pamphlets and books have been written by hundreds upon this question of +authorship, and it is not yet by any means definitely settled. The +concurrence of the most intelligent investigators is in favor of Sir +Philip Francis, because of the handwriting being like his, but slightly +disguised; because he and Junius were alike intimate with the government +workings in the state department and in the war department, and took notes +of speeches in the House of Lords; because the letters came to an end just +before Francis was sent to India; and because, indecisive as these claims +are, they are stronger than those of any other suspected author. Macaulay +adds to these: "One of the strongest reasons for believing that Francis +was Junius is the _moral_ resemblance between the two men." + +It is interesting to notice that the ministry engaged Dr. Johnson to +answer the _forty-second_ letter, in which the king is especially +arraigned. Johnson's answer, published in 1771, is entitled _Thoughts on +the Late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands_. Of Junius he says: +"He cries havoc without reserve, and endeavors to let slip the dogs of +foreign and civil war, ignorant whither they are going, and careless what +maybe their prey." "It is not hard to be sarcastic in a mask; while he +walks like Jack the giant-killer, in a coat of darkness, he may do much +mischief with little strength." "Junius is an unusual phenomenon, on which +some have gazed with wonder and some with terror; but wonder and terror +are transitory passions. He will soon be more closely viewed, or more +attentively examined, and what folly has taken for a comet, that from its +flaming hair shook pestilence and war, inquiry will find to be only a +meteor formed by the vapors of putrefying democracy, and kindled into +flame by the effervescence of interest struggling with conviction, which, +after having plunged its followers into a bog, will leave us inquiring why +we regarded it." + +Whatever the moral effect of the writings of Junius, as exhibited by +silent influence in the lapse of years, the schemes he proposed and the +party he championed alike failed of success. His farewell letter to +Woodfall bears date the 19th of January, 1773. In that letter he declared +that "he must be an idiot to write again; that he had meant well by the +cause and the public; that both were given up; that there were not ten men +who would act steadily together on any question."[35] But one thing is +sure: he has enriched the literature with public letters of rare sagacity, +extreme elegance of rhetoric and great logical force, and has presented a +problem always curious and interesting for future students,--not yet +solved, in spite of Mr. Chabot's recent book,[36] and every day becoming +more difficult of solution,--_Who was Junius_? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE LITERARY FORGERS IN THE ANTIQUARIAN AGE. + + + The Eighteenth Century. James Macpherson. Ossian. Thomas Chatterton. + His Poems. The Verdict. Suicide. The Cause. + + + +THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + +The middle of the eighteenth century is marked as a period in which, while +other forms of literature flourished, there arose a taste for historic +research. Not content with the _actual_ in poetry and essay and pamphlet, +there was a looking back to gather up a record of what England had done +and had been in the past, and to connect, in logical relation, her former +with her latter glory. It was, as we have seen, the era of her great +historians, Hume, Gibbon, and Robertson, who, upon the chronicles, and the +abundant but scattered material, endeavored to construct philosophic +history; it was the day of her greatest moralists, Adam Smith, Tucker, and +Paley, and of research in metaphysics and political economy. In this +period Bishop Percy collected the ancient English ballads, and also +historic poems from the Chinese and the Runic; in it Warton wrote his +history of poetry. Dr. Johnson, self-reliant and laborious, was producing +his dictionary, and giving limits and coherence to the language. Mind was +on the alert, not only subsidizing the present, but looking curiously into +the past. I have ventured to call it the antiquarian age. In 1751, the +Antiquarian Society of London was firmly established; men began to collect +armor and relics: in this period grew up such an antiquary as Mr. Oldbuck, +who curiously sought out every relic of the Roman times,--armor, fosses, +and _praetoria_,--and found, with much that was real, many a fraud or +delusion. It was an age which, in the words of old Walter Charleton, +"despised the present as an innovation, and slighted the future, like the +madman who fell in love with Cleopatra." + +There was manifestly a great temptation to adventurous men--with +sufficient learning, and with no high notion of honor--to creep into the +distant past; to enact, in mask and domino, its literary parts, and +endeavor to deceive an age already enthusiastic for antiquity. + +Thus, in the third century, if we may believe the Scotch and Irish +traditions, there existed in Scotland a great chieftain named Fion na +Gael--modernized into Fingal--who fought with Cuthullin and the Irish +warriors, and whose exploits were, as late as the time of which we have +been speaking, the theme of rude ballads among the highlands and islands +of Scotland. To find and translate these ballads was charming and +legitimate work for the antiquarian; to counterfeit them, and call them by +the name of a bard of that period, was the great temptation to the +literary forger. Of such a bard, too, there was a tradition. As brave as +were the deeds of Fingal, their fame was not so great as that of his son +Ossian, who struck a lofty harp as he recounted his father's glory. Could +the real poems be found, they would verify the lines: + + From the barred visor of antiquity + Reflected shines the eternal light of Truth + As from a mirror. + +And if they could not be found, they might be counterfeited. This was +undertaken by Doctor James Macpherson. Catering to the spirit of the age, +he reproduced the songs of Ossian and the lofty deeds of Fingal. + +Again, we have referred, in an early part of this work, to the almost +barren expanse in the highway of English literature from the death of +Chaucer to the middle of the sixteenth century; this barrenness was due, +as we saw, to the turbulence of those years--civil war, misgovernment, a +time of bloody action rather than peaceful authorship. Here, too, was a +great temptation for some gifted but oblique mind to supply a partial +literature for that bare period; a literature which, entirely fabricated, +should yet bear all the characteristics of the history, language, customs, +manners, and religion of that time. + +This attempt was made by Thomas Chatterton, an obscure, ill-educated lad, +without means or friends, but who had a master-mind, and would have +accomplished some great feat in letters, had he not died, while still very +young, by his own hand. + +Let us examine these frauds in succession: we shall find them of double +historic value, as literary efforts in one age designed to represent the +literature of a former age. + + +JAMES MACPHERSON.--James Macpherson was born at Ruthven, a village in +Inverness-shire, in 1738. Being intended for the ministry, he received a +good preliminary education, and became early interested in the ancient +Gaelic ballads and poetic fragments still floating about the Highlands of +Scotland. By the aid of Mr. John Home, the author of _Douglas_, and his +friends Blair and Ferguson, he published, in 1760, a small volume of sixty +pages entitled, _Fragments of Ancient Poetry translated from the Gaelic or +Erse Language_. They were heroic and harmonious, and were very well +received: he had catered to the very spirit of the age. At first, there +seemed to be no doubt as to their genuineness. It was known to tradition +that this northern Fingal had fought with Severus and Caracalla, on the +banks of the Carun, and that blind Ossian had poured forth a flood of song +after the fight, and made the deeds immortal. And now these songs and +deeds were echoing in English ears,--the thrumming of the harp which told +of "the stream of those olden years, where they have so long hid, in their +mist, their many-colored sides." (_Cathloda_, Duan III.) + +So enthusiastically were these poems received, that a subscription was +raised to enable Macpherson to travel in the Highlands, and collect more +of this lingering and beautiful poetry. + +Gray the poet, writing to William Mason, in 1760, says: "These poems are +in everybody's mouth in the Highlands; have been handed down from father +to son. We have therefore set on foot a subscription of a guinea or two +apiece, in order to enable Mr. Macpherson to recover this poem (Fingal), +and other fragments of antiquity." + + +FINGAL.--On his return, in 1762, he published _Fingal_, and, in the same +volume, some smaller poems. This Fingal, which he calls "an ancient epic +poem" in six duans or books, recounts the deliverance of Erin from the +King of Lochlin. The next year, 1763, he published _Temora_. Among the +earlier poems, in all which Fingal is the hero, are passages of great +beauty and touching pathos. Such, too, are found in _Carricthura and +Carthon, the War of Inis-thona_, and the _Songs of Selma_. After reading +these, we are pleasantly haunted with dim but beautiful pictures of that +Northern coast where "the blue waters rolled in light," "when morning rose +In the east;" and again with ghostly moonlit scenes, when "night came down +on the sea, and Rotha's Bay received the ship." "The wan, cold moon rose +in the east; sleep descended upon the youths; their blue helmets glitter +to the beam; the fading fire decays; but sleep did not rest on the king; +he rode in the midst of his arms, and slowly ascended the hill to behold +the flame of Sarno's tower. The flame was dim and distant; the moon hid +her red face in the east. A blast came from the mountain; on its wings was +the spirit of Loda." In _Carthon_ occurs that beautiful address to the +Sun, which we are fortunate in knowing, from other sources than +Macpherson, is a tolerably correct translation of a real original. If we +had that alone, it would be a revelation of the power of Ossian, and of +the aptitudes of a people who could enjoy it. It is not within our scope +to quote from the veritable Ossian, or to expose the bombast and fustian, +tumid diction and swelling sound of Macpherson, of which the poems contain +so much. + +As soon as a stir was made touching the authenticity of the poems, a +number of champions sprang up on both sides: among those who favored +Macpherson, was Dr. Hugh Blair, who wrote the critical dissertation +usually prefixed to the editions of Ossian, and who compares him favorably +to Homer. First among the incredulous, as might be expected, was Dr. +Samuel Johnson, who, in his _Journey to the Hebrides_, lashes Macpherson +for his imposture, and his insolence in refusing to show the original. +Johnson was threatened by Macpherson with a beating, and he answered: "I +hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat by the +menaces of a ruffian ... I thought your book an imposture; I think it an +imposture still ... Your rage I defy ... You may print this if you will." + +Proofs of the imposture were little by little discovered by the critics. +There were some real fragments in his first volume; but even these he had +altered, and made symmetrical, so as to disguise their original character. +Ossian would not have known them. As for Fingal, in its six duans, with +captional arguments, it was made up from a few fragments, and no such poem +ever existed. It was Macpherson's from beginning to end. + +The final establishment of the forgery was not simply by recourse to +scholars versed in the Celtic tongues, but the Highland Society appointed +a committee in 1767, whose duty it was to send to the Highland pastors a +circular, inquiring whether they had heard in the original the poems of +Ossian, said to be translated by Macpherson; if so, where and by whom they +had been written out or repeated: whether similar fragments still existed, +and whether there were persons living who could repeat them; whether, to +their knowledge, Macpherson had obtained such poems in the Highlands; and +for any information concerning the personality of Fingal and Ossian. + + +CRITICISM.--The result was as follows: Certain Ossianic poems did exist, +and some manuscripts of ancient ballads and bardic songs. A few of these +had formed the foundation of Macpherson's so-called translations of the +earlier pieces; but he had altered and added to them, and joined them with +his own fancies in an arbitrary manner. + +_Fingal_ and _Temora_ were also made out of a few fragments; but in their +epic and connected form not only did not exist, but lack the bardic +character and construction entirely. + +Now that the critics had the direction of the chase made known, they +discovered that Macpherson had taken his imagery from the Bible, of which +Ossian was ignorant; from classic authors, of whom he had never heard; and +from modern sources down to his own day. + +Then Macpherson's Ossian--which had been read with avidity and translated +into many languages, while it was considered an antique gem only reset in +English--fell into disrepute, and was unduly despised when known to be a +forgery. + +It is difficult to conceive why he did not produce the work as his own, +with a true story of its foundation: it is not so difficult to understand +why, when he was detected, he persisted in the falsehood. For what it +really is, it must be partially praised; and it will remain not only as a +literary curiosity, but as a work of unequal but real merit. It was +greatly admired by Napoleon and Madame de Stael, and, in endeavoring to +consign it to oblivion, the critics are greatly in the wrong. + +Macpherson resented any allusion to the forgery, and any leading question +concerning it. He refused, at first, to produce the originals; and when he +did say where they might be found, the world had decided so strongly +against him, that there was no curiosity to examine them. He at last +maintained a sullen silence; and, dying suddenly, in 1796, left no papers +which throw light upon the controversy. The subject is, however, still +agitated. Later writers have endeavored to reverse the decision of his +age, without, however, any decided success. For much information +concerning the Highland poetry, the reader is referred to _A Summer in +Skye_, by Alexander Smith. + + +OTHER WORKS.--His other principal work was a _Translation of the Iliad of +Homer_ in the Ossianic style, which was received with execration and +contempt. He also wrote _A History of Great Britain from the Restoration +to the Accession of the House of Hanover_, which Fox--who was, however, +prejudiced--declared to be full of impudent falsehoods. + +Of his career little more need be said: he was too shrewd a man to need +sympathy; he took care of himself. He was successful in his pecuniary +schemes; as agent of the Nabob of Arcot, he had a seat in parliament for +ten years, and was quite unconcerned what the world thought of his +literary performances. He had achieved notoriety, and enjoyed it. + +But, unfortunately, his forgery did fatal injury by its example; it +inspired Chatterton, the precocious boy, to make another attempt on public +credulity. It opened a seductive path for one who, inspired by the +adventure and warned by the causes of exposure, might make a better +forgery, escape detection, and gain great praise in the antiquarian world. + + +THOMAS CHATTERTON.--With this name, we accost the most wonderful story of +its kind in any literature; so strange, indeed, that we never take it up +without trying to discover some new meaning in it. We hope, against hope, +that the forgery is not proved. + +Chatterton was born in Bristol, on the Avon, in 1752, of poor parents, but +early gave signs of remarkable genius, combined with a prurient ambition. +A friend who wished to present him with an earthen-ware cup, asked him +what device he would have upon it. "Paint me," he answered, "an angel with +wings and a trumpet, to trumpet my name over the world." He learned his +alphabet from an old music-book; at eight years of age he was sent to a +charity-school, and he spent his little pocket-money at a circulating +library, the books of which he literally devoured. + +At the early age of eleven he wrote a piece of poetry, and published it in +the _Bristol Journal_ of January 8, 1763; it was entitled _On the last +Epiphany, or Christ coming to Judgment_, and the next year, probably, a +_Hymn to Christmas-day_, of which the following lines will give an idea: + + How shall we celebrate his name, + Who groaned beneath a life of shame, + In all afflictions tried? + The soul is raptured to conceive + A truth which being must believe; + The God eternal died. + + My soul, exert thy powers, adore; + Upon Devotion's plumage soar + To celebrate the day. + The God from whom creation sprung + Shall animate my grateful tongue, + From Him I'll catch the lay. + +Some member of the Chatterton family had, for one hundred and fifty years, +held the post of sexton in the church of St. Mary Redcliffe at Bristol; +and at the time of which we write his uncle was sexton. In the +muniment-room of the church were several coffers, containing old papers +and parchments in black letter, some of which were supposed to be of +value. The chests were examined by order of the vestry; the valuable +papers were removed, and of the rest, as perquisites of the sexton, some +fell into the hands of Chatterton's father. The boy, who had been, upon +leaving school, articled to an attorney, and had thus become familiar with +the old English text, caught sight of these, and seemed then to have first +formed the plan of turning them to account, as _The Rowlie papers_. + + +OLD MANUSCRIPTS.--If he could be believed, he found a variety of material +in this old collection. To a credulous and weak acquaintance, Mr. Burgum, +he went, beaming with joy, to present the pedigree and illuminated arms of +the de Bergham family--tracing the honest mechanic's descent to a noble +house which crossed the Channel with William the Conqueror. The delighted +Burgum gave him a crown, and Chatterton, pocketing the money, lampooned +his credulity thus: + + Gods! what would Burgum give to get a name, + And snatch his blundering dialect from shame? + What would he give to hand his memory down + To time's remotest boundary? a crown! + Would you ask more, his swelling face looks blue-- + Futurity he rates at two pound two! + +In September, 1768, the inauguration or opening of the new bridge across +the Avon took place; and, taking advantage of the temporary interest it +excited, Chatterton, then sixteen, produced in the _Bristol Journal_ a +full description of the opening of the old bridge two hundred years +before, which he said he found among the old papers: "A description of the +Fryers first passing over the old bridge, taken from an ancient +manuscript," with details of the procession, and the Latin sermon preached +on the occasion by Ralph de Blundeville; ending with the dinner, the +sports, and the illumination on Kynwulph Hill. + +This paper, which attracted general interest, was traced to Chatterton, +and when he was asked to show the original, it was soon manifest that +there was none, but that the whole was a creation of his fancy. The +question arises,--How did the statements made by Chatterton compare with +the known facts of local history? + +There was in the olden time in Bristol a great merchant named William +Canynge, who was remembered for his philanthropy; he had altered and +improved the church of St. Mary, and had built the muniment-room: the +reputed poems, some of which were said to have been written by himself, +and others by the monk Rowlie, Chatterton declared he had found in the +coffers. Thomas Rowlie, "the gode preeste," appears as a holy and learned +man, poet, artist, and architect. Canynge and Rowlie were strong friends, +and the latter was supposed to have addressed many of the poems to the +former, who was his good patron. + +The principal of the Rowlie poems is the _Bristowe_ (Bristol) _Tragedy_, +or _Death of Sir Charles Bawdin_. This Bawdin, or Baldwin, a real +character, had been attainted by Edward IV. of high treason, and brought +to the block. The poem is in the finest style of the old English ballad, +and is wonderfully dramatic. King Edward sends to inform Bawdin of his +fate: + + Then with a jug of nappy ale + His knights did on him waite; + "Go tell the traitor that to daie + He leaves this mortal state." + +Sir Charles receives the tidings with bold defiance. Good Master Canynge +goes to the king to ask the prisoner's life as a boon. + + "My noble liege," good Canynge saide, + "Leave justice to our God; + And lay the iron rule aside, + Be thine the olyve rodde." + +The king is inexorable, and Sir Charles dies amid tears and loud weeping +around the scaffold. + +Among the other Rowlie poems are the _Tragical Interlude of Ella_, "plaied +before Master Canynge, and also before Johan Howard, Duke of Norfolk;" +_Godwin_, a short drama; a long poem on _The Battle of Hastings_, and _The +Romaunt of the Knight_, modernized from the original of John de Bergham. + + +THE VERDICT.--These poems at once became famous, and the critics began to +investigate the question of their authenticity. From this investigation +Chatterton did not shrink. He sent some of them with letters to Horace +Walpole, and, as Walpole did not immediately answer, he wrote to him quite +impertinently. Then they were submitted to Mason and Gray. The opinion of +those who examined them was almost unanimous that they were forgeries: he +could produce no originals; the language is in many cases not that of the +period, and the spelling and idioms are evidently factitious. A few there +were who seemed to have committed themselves, at first, to their +authenticity; but Walpole, the Wartons, Dr. Johnson, Gibbon the historian, +Sheridan, and most other literary men, were clear as to their forgery. The +forged manuscripts which he had the hardihood afterwards to present, were +totally unlike those of Edward the Fourth's time; he was entirely at fault +in his heraldry; words were used out of their meaning; and, in his poem on +_The Battle of Hastings_, he had introduced the modern discoveries +concerning Stone Henge. He uses the possessive case _yttes_, which did not +come into use until long after the Rowlie period. Add to these that +Chatterton's reputation for veracity was bad. + +The truth was, that he had found some curious scraps, which had set his +fancy to work, and the example of Macpherson had led to the cheat he was +practising upon the public. To some friends he confessed the deception, +denying it again, violently, soon after; and he had been seen smoking +parchment to make it look old. The lad was crazy. + + +HIS SUICIDE.--Keeping up appearances, he went to London, and tried to get +work. At one time he was in high spirits, sending presents to his mother +and sisters, and promising them better days; at another, he was in want, +in the lowest depression, no hope in the world. He only asks for work; he +is entirely unconcerned for whom he writes or what party he eulogizes; he +wants money and a name, and when these seem unattainable, he takes refuge +from "the whips and scorns of time," the burning fever of pride, the +gnawings of hunger, in suicide. He goes to his little garret +room,--refusing, as he goes, a dinner from his landlady, although he is +gaunt with famine,--mixes a large dose of arsenic in water, and--"jumps +the life to come." He was just seventeen years and nine months old! When +his room was forced open, it was found that he had torn up most of his +papers, and had left nothing to throw light upon his deception. + +The verdict of literary criticism is that of the medical art--he was +insane; and to what extent this mania acted as a monomania, that is, how +far he was himself deceived, the world can never know. One thing, at +least; it redeems all his faults. Precocious beyond any other known +instance of precocity; intensely haughty; bold in falsehood; working best +when the moon was at the full, he stands in English literature as the most +singular of its curiosities. His will is an awful jest; his declaration of +his religious opinions a tissue of contradictions and absurdities: he +bequeathes to a clergyman his humility; to Mr. Burgum his prosody and +grammar, with half his modesty--the other half to any young lady that +needs it; his abstinence--a fearful legacy--to the aldermen of Bristol at +their annual feast! to a friend, a mourning ring--"provided he pays for it +himself"--with the motto, "Alas, poor Chatterton!" Fittest ending to his +biography--"Alas, poor Chatterton!" + +And yet it is evident that the crazy Bristol boy and the astute Scotchman +were alike the creatures of the age and the peculiar circumstances in +which they lived. No other age of English history could have produced +them. In an earlier period, they would have found no curiosity in the +people to warrant their attempts; and in a later time, the increase in +antiquarian studies would have made these efforts too easy of detection. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +POETRY OF THE TRANSITION SCHOOL. + + + The Transition Period. James Thomson. The Seasons. The Castle of + Indolence. Mark Akenside. Pleasures of the Imagination. Thomas Gray. + The Elegy. The Bard. William Cowper. The Task. Translation of Homer. + Other Writers. + + + +THE TRANSITION PERIOD. + + +The poetical standards of Dryden and Pope, as poetic examples and +arbiters, exercised tyrannical sway to the middle of the eighteenth +century, and continued to be felt, with relaxing influence, however, to a +much later period. Poetry became impatient of too close a captivity to +technical rules in rhythm and in subjects, and began once again to seek +its inspiration from the worlds of nature and of feeling. While seeking +this change, it passed through what has been properly called the period of +transition,--a period the writers of which are distinctly marked as +belonging neither to the artificial classicism of Pope, nor to the simple +naturalism of Wordsworth and the Lake school; partaking, indeed, in some +degree of the former, and preparing the way for the latter. + +The excited condition of public feeling during the earlier period, +incident to the accession of the house of Hanover and the last struggles +of the Jacobites, had given a political character to every author, and a +political significance to almost every literary work. At the close of this +abnormal condition of things, the poets of the transition school began +their labors; untrammelled by the court and the town, they invoked the +muse in green fields and by babbling brooks; from materialistic +philosophy in verse they appealed through the senses to the hearts of men; +and appreciation and popularity rewarded and encouraged them. + + +JAMES THOMSON.--The first distinguished writer of this school was Thomson, +the son of a Scottish minister. He was born on the 11th of September, +1700, at Ednam in Roxburghshire. While a boy at school in Jedburgh, he +displayed poetical talent: at the University of Edinburgh he completed his +scholastic course, and studied divinity; which, however, he did not pursue +as a profession. Being left, by his father's death, without means, he +resolved to go to the great metropolis to try his fortunes. He arrived in +London in sorry plight, without money, and with ragged shoes; but through +the assistance of some persons of station, he procured occupation as tutor +to a lord's son, and thus earned a livelihood until the publication of his +first poem in 1726. That poem was _Winter_, the first of the series called +_The Seasons_: it was received with unusual favor. The first edition was +speedily exhausted, and with the publication of the second, his position +as a poet was assured. In 1727 he produced the second poem of the series, +_Summer_, and, with it, a proposal for issuing the _Four Seasons_, with a +_Hymn_ on their succession. In 1728 his _Spring_ appeared, and in the next +year an unsuccessful tragedy called _Sophonisba_, which owed its immediate +failure to the laughter occasioned by the line, + + O Sophonisba, Sophonisba O! + +This was parodied by some wag in these words: + + O Jemmie Thomson, Jemmie Thomson O! + +and the ridicule was so potent that the play was ruined. + +The last of the seasons, _Autumn_, and the _Hymn_, were first printed in a +complete edition of _The Seasons_, in 1730. It was at once conceded that +he had gratified the cravings of the day, In producing a real and +beautiful English pastoral. The reputation which he thus gained caused him +to be selected as the mentor and companion of the son of Sir Charles +Talbot in a tour through France and Italy in 1730 and 1731. + +In 1734 he published the first part of a poem called _Liberty_, the +conclusion of which appeared in 1736. It is designed to trace the progress +of Liberty through Italy, Greece, and Rome, down to her excellent +establishment in Great Britain, and was dedicated to Frederick, Prince of +Wales. + +His tragedies _Agamemnon_ and _Edward and Eleanora_ are in the then +prevailing taste. They were issued in 1738-39. The latter is of political +significance, in that Edward was like Frederick the Prince of Wales--heir +apparent to the crown; and some of the passages are designed to strengthen +the prince in the favor of the people. + +The personal life of Thomson is not of much interest. From his first +residence in London, he supported, with his slender means, a brother, who +died young of consumption, and aided two maiden sisters, who kept a small +milliner-shop in Edinburgh. This is greatly to his praise, as he was at +one time so poor that he was arrested for debt and committed to prison. As +his reputation increased, his fortunes were ameliorated. In 1745 his play +_Tancred and Sigismunda_ was performed. It was founded upon a story +universally popular,--the same which appears in the episode of _The Fatal +Marriage_ in Gil Bias, and in one of the stories of Boccaccio. He enjoyed +for a short time a pension from the Prince of Wales, of which, however, he +was deprived without apparent cause; but he received the office of +Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands, the duties of which he could +perform by deputy; after that he lived a lazy life at his cottage near +Richmond, which, if otherwise reprehensible, at least gave him the power +to write his most beautiful poem, _The Castle of Indolence_. It appeared +in 1748, and was universally admired; it has a rhetorical harmony similar +and quite equal to that of the _Lotos Eaters_ of Tennyson. The poet, who +had become quite plethoric, was heated by a walk from London, and, from a +check of perspiration, was thrown into a high fever, a relapse of which +caused his death on the 27th of August, 1748. His friend Lord Lyttleton +wrote the prologue to his play of _Coriolanus_, which was acted after the +poet's death, in which he says: + + "--His chaste Muse employed her heaven-taught lyre + None but the noblest missions to inspire, + Not one immoral, one corrupted thought, + _One line which, dying, he could wish to blot_." + +The praise accorded him in this much-quoted line is justly his due: it is +greater praise that he was opening a new pathway in English Literature, +and supplying better food than the preceding age had given. His _Seasons_ +supplied a want of the age: it was a series of beautiful pastorals. The +descriptions of nature will always be read and quoted with pleasure; the +little episodes, if they affect the unity, relieve the monotony of the +subject, and, like figures introduced by the painter into his landscape, +take away the sense of loneliness, and give us a standard at once of +judgment, of measurement, and of sympathetic enjoyment; they display, too, +at once the workings of his own mind in his production, and the manners +and sentiments of the age in which he wrote. It was fitting that he who +had portrayed for us such beautiful gardens of English nature, should +people them instead of leaving them solitary. + + +THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.--This is an allegory, written after the manner of +Spenser, and in the Spenserian stanza. He also employs archaic words, as +Spenser did, to give it greater resemblance to Spenser's poem. The +allegorical characters are well described, and the sumptuous adornings and +lazy luxuries of the castle are set forth _con amore_. The spell that +enchants the castle is broken by the stalwart knight _Industry_; but the +glamour of the poem remains, and makes the reader in love with +_Indolence_. + + +MARK AKENSIDE.--Thomson had restored or reproduced the pastoral from +Nature's self; Akenside followed in his steps. Thomson had invested blank +verse with a new power and beauty; Akenside produced it quite as +excellent. But Thomson was the original, and Akenside the copy. The one is +natural, the other artificial. + +Akenside was the son of a butcher, and was born at New Castle, in 1721. +Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he studied medicine, and +received, at different periods, lucrative and honorable professional +appointments. His great work, and the only one to which we need refer, is +his _Pleasures of the Imagination_. Whether his view of the imagination is +always correct or not, his sentiments are always elevated; his language +high sounding but frequently redundant, and his versification correct and +pleasing. His descriptions of nature are cold but correct; his standard of +humanity is high but mortal. Grand and sonorous, he constructs his periods +with the manner of a declaimer; his ascriptions and apostrophes are like +those of a high-priest. The title of his poem, if nothing more, suggested +_The Pleasures-of Hope_ to Campbell, and _The Pleasures of Memory_ to +Rogers. As a man, Akenside was overbearing and dictatorial; as a hospital +surgeon, harsh in his treatment of poor patients. His hymn to the Naiads +has been considered the most thoroughly and correctly classical of +anything in English. He died on the 23rd of June, 1770. + + +THOMAS GRAY.--Among those who form a link between the school of Pope and +that of the modern poets, Gray occupies a distinguished place, both from +the excellence of his writings, and from the fact that, while he +unconsciously conduced to the modern, he instinctively resisted its +progress. He was in taste and intention an extreme classicist. Thomas Gray +was born in London on the 26th December, 1716. His father was a money +scrivener, and, to his family at least, a bad man; his mother, forced to +support herself, kept a linen-draper shop; and to her the poet owed his +entire education. He was entered at Eton College, and afterwards at +Cambridge, and found in early life such friendships as were of great +importance to him later in his career. Among his college friends were +Horace Walpole, West, the son of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and +William Mason, who afterwards wrote the poet's life. After completing his +college course, he travelled on the continent with Walpole; but, on +account of incompatibility of temper, they quarrelled and parted, and Gray +returned home. Although Walpole took the blame upon himself, it would +appear that Gray was a somewhat captious person, whose serious tastes +interfered with the gayer pleasures of his friend. On his return, Gray +went to Cambridge, where he led the life of a retired student, devoting +himself to the ancient authors, to poetry, botany, architecture, and +heraldry. He was fastidious as to his own productions, which were very +few, and which he kept by him, pruning, altering, and polishing, for a +long time before he would let them see the light. His lines entitled _A +Distant Prospect of Eton College_ appeared in 1742, and were received with +great applause. + +It was at this time that he also began his _Elegy in a Country +Churchyard_; which, however, did not appear until seven or eight years +later, and which has made him immortal. The grandeur of its language, the +elevation of its sentiments, and the sympathy of its pathos, commend it to +all classes and all hearts; and of its kind of composition it stands alone +in English literature. + +The ode on the progress of poetry appeared in 1755. Like the _Elegy_, his +poem of _The Bard_ was for several years on the literary easel, and he was +accidentally led to finish it by hearing a blind harper performing on a +Welsh harp. + +On the death of Cibber, Gray was offered the laureate's crown, which he +declined, to avoid its conspicuousness and the envy of his brother poets. +In 1762, he applied for the professorship of modern history at Cambridge, +but failed to obtain the position. He was more fortunate in 1768, when it +again became vacant; but he held it as a sinecure, doing none of its +duties. He died in 1770, on the 3d of July, of gout in the stomach. His +habits were those of a recluse; and whether we agree or not, with Adam +Smith, in saying that nothing is wanting to render him perhaps the first +poet in the English language, but to have written a little more, it is +astonishing that so great and permanent a reputation should have been +founded on so very little as he wrote. Gray has been properly called the +finest lyric poet in the language; and his lyric power strikes us as +intuitive and original; yet he himself, adhering strongly to the +artificial school, declared, if there was any excellence in his own +numbers, he had learned it wholly from Dryden. His archaeological tastes +are further shown by his enthusiastic study of heraldry, and by his +surrounding himself with old armor and other curious relics of the past. +Mr. Mitford, in a curious dissection of the _Elegy_, has found numerous +errors of rhetoric, and even of grammar. + +His _Bard_ is founded on a tradition that Edward I., when he conquered +Wales, ordered all the bards to be put to death, that they might not, by +their songs, excite the Welsh people to revolt. The last one who figures +in his story, sings a lament for his brethren, prophesies the downfall of +the usurper, and then throws himself over the cliff: + + "Be thine despair and sceptered care, + To triumph and to die are mine!" + He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height, + Deep in the roaring tide, he plunged to endless night. + + +WILLIAM COWPER.--Next in the catalogue of the transition school occurs the +name of one who, like Gray, was a recluse, but with a better reason and a +sadder one. He was a gentle hypochondriac, and, at intervals, a maniac, +who literally turned to poetry, like Saul to the harper, for relief from +his sufferings. William Cowper, the eldest son of the Rector of +Berkhampsted in Hertfordshire, was born on the 15th of November, 1731. He +was a delicate and sensitive child, and was seriously affected by the loss +of his mother when he was six years old. At school, he was cruelly treated +by an older boy, which led to his decided views against public schools, +expressed in his poem called _Tirocinium_. His morbid sensitiveness +increased upon him as he grew older, and interfered with his legal studies +and advancement. His depression of spirits took a religious turn; and we +are glad to think that religion itself brought the balm which gave him +twelve years of unclouded mind, devoted to friendship and to poetry. He +was offered, by powerful friends, eligible positions connected with the +House of Lords, in 1762; but as the one of these which he accepted was +threatened with a public examination, he abandoned it in horror; not, +however, before the fearful suspense had unsettled his brain, so that he +was obliged to be placed, for a short time, in an asylum for the insane. +When he left this asylum, he went to Huntingdon, where he became +acquainted with the Rev. William Unwin, who, with his wife and son, seem +to have been congenial companions to his desolate heart. On the death of +Mr. Unwin, in 1767, he removed with the widow to Olney, and there formed +an intimate acquaintance with another clergyman, the Rev. William Newton. +Here, and in this society, the remainder of the poet's life was passed in +writing letters, which have been considered the best ever written in +England; in making hymns, in conjunction with Mr. Newton, which have ever +since been universal favorites; and in varied poetic attempts, which give +him high rank in the literature of the day. The first of his larger pieces +was a poem entitled, _The Progress of Error_, which appeared in 1783, when +the author had reached the advanced age of 52. Then followed _Truth_ and +_Expostulation_, which, according to the poet himself, did much towards +diverting his melancholy thoughts. These poems would not have fixed his +fame; but Lady Austen, an accomplished woman with whom he became +acquainted in 1781, deserves our gratitude for having proposed to him the +subjects of those poems which have really made him famous, namely, _The +Task, John Gilpin_, and the translation of _Homer_. Before, however, +undertaking these, he wrote poems on _Hope_, _Charity_, _Conversation_ and +_Retirement_. The story of _John Gilpin_--a real one as told him by Lady +Austen--made such an impression upon him, that he dashed off the ballad at +a sitting. + + +THE TASK.--The origin of _The Task_ is well known. In 1783, Lady Austen +suggested to him to write a poem in blank verse: he said he would, if she +would suggest the subject. Her answer was, "Write on _this sofa_." The +poem thus begun was speedily expanded into those beautiful delineations of +varied nature, domestic life, and religious sentiment which rivalled the +best efforts of Thomson. The title that connects them is _The Task. +Tirocinium_ or _the Review of Schools_, appeared soon after, and excited +considerable attention in a country where public education has been the +rule of the higher social life. Cowper began the translation of Homer in +1785, from a feeling of the necessity of employment for his mind. His +translations of both Iliad and Odyssey, which occupied him for five years, +and which did not entirely keep off his old enemy, were published in 1791. +They are correct in scholarship and idiom, but lack the nature and the +fire of the old Grecian bard. + +The rest of his life was busy, but sad--a constant effort to drive away +madness by incessant labor. The loss of his friend, Mrs. Unwin, in 1796, +affected him deeply, and the clouds settled thicker and thicker upon his +soul. In the year before his death, he published that painfully touching +poem, _The Castaway_, which gives an epitome of his own sufferings in the +similitude of a wretch clinging to a spar in a stormy night upon the +Atlantic. + +His minor and fugitive poems are very numerous; and as they were +generally inspired by persons and scenes around him, they are truly +literary types of the age in which he lived. In his _Task_, he resembles +Thomson and Akenside; in his didactic poems, he reminds us of the essays +of Pope; in his hymns he catered successfully to the returning piety of +the age; in his translations of Homer and of Ovid, he presented the +ancients to moderns in a new and acceptable dress; and in his Letters he +sets up an epistolary model, which may be profitably studied by all who +desire to express themselves with energy, simplicity, and delicate taste. + + + +OTHER WRITERS OF THE TRANSITION SCHOOL. + + +_James Beattie_, 1735-1803: he was the son of a farmer, and was educated +at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he was afterwards professor of +natural philosophy. For four years he taught a village school. His first +poem, _Retirement_, was not much esteemed; but in 1771 appeared the first +part of _The Minstrel_, a poem at once descriptive, didactic, and +romantic. This was enthusiastically received, and gained for him the favor +of the king, a pension of L200 per annum, and a degree from Oxford. The +second part was published in 1774. _The Minstrel_ is written in the +Spenserian stanza, and abounds in beautiful descriptions of nature, +marking a very decided progress from the artificial to the natural school. +The character of Edwin, the young minstrel, ardent in search for the +beautiful and the true, is admirably portrayed; as is also that of the +hermit who instructs the youth. The opening lines are very familiar: + + Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb + The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar; + +and the description of the morning landscape has no superior in the +language: + + But who the melodies of morn can tell? + The wild brook babbling down the mountain side; + The lowing herd; the sheepfold's simple bell; + The pipe of early shepherd dim descried + In the lone valley. + +Beattie wrote numerous prose dissertations and essays, one of which was in +answer to the infidel views of Hume--_Essay on the Nature and +Immutability of Truth, in Opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism_. Beattie +was of an excitable and sensitive nature, and his polemical papers are +valued rather for the beauty of their language, than for acuteness of +logic. + + +_William Falconer_, 1730-1769: first a sailor in the merchant service, he +afterwards entered the navy. He is chiefly known by his poem _The +Shipwreck_, and for its astonishing connection with his own fortunes and +fate. He was wrecked off Cape Colonna, on the coast of Greece, before he +was eighteen; and this misfortune is the subject of his poem. Again, in +1760, he was cast away in the Channel. In 1769, the Aurora frigate, of +which he was the purser, foundered in Mozambique Channels, and he, with +all others on board, went down with her. The excellence of his nautical +directions and the vigor of his descriptions establish the claims of his +poem; but it has the additional interest attaching to his curious +experience--it is his autobiography and his enduring monument. The picture +of the storm is very fine; but in the handling of his verse there is more +of the artificial than of the romantic school. + + +_William Shenstone_, 1714-1763: his principal work is _The +Schoolmistress_, a poem in the stanza of Spenser, which is pleasing from +its simple and sympathizing description of the village school, kept by a +dame; with the tricks and punishment of the children, and many little +traits of rural life and character. It is pitched in so low a key that it +commends itself to the world at large. Shenstone is equally known for his +mania in landscape gardening, upon which he spent all his means. His +place, _The Leasowes_ in Shropshire, has gained the greater notoriety +through the descriptions of Dodsley and Goldsmith. The natural simplicity +of _The Schoolmistress_ allies it strongly to the romantic school, which +was now about to appear. + + +_William Collins_, 1720-1756: this unfortunate poet, who died at the early +age of thirty-six, deserves particular mention for the delicacy of his +fancy and the beauty of his diction. His _Ode on the Passions_ is +universally esteemed for its sudden and effective changes from the +bewilderment of Fear, the violence of Anger, and the wildness of Despair +to the rapt visions of Hope, the gentle dejection of Pity, and the +sprightliness of Mirth and Cheerfulness. His _Ode on the Death of Thomson_ +is an exquisite bit of pathos, as is also the _Dirge on Cymbeline_. +Everybody knows and admires the short ode beginning + + How sleep the brave who sink to rest + By all their country's wishes blest! + +His _Oriental Eclogues_ please by the simplicity of the colloquies, the +choice figures of speech, and the fine descriptions of nature. But of all +his poems, the most finished and charming is the _Ode to Evening_. It +contains thirteen four-lined stanzas of varied metre, and in blank verse +so full of harmony that rhyme would spoil it. It presents a series of +soft, dissolving views, and stands alone in English poetry, with claims +sufficient to immortalize the poet, had he written nothing else. The +latter part of his life was clouded by mental disorders, not unsuggested +to the reader by the pathos of many of his poems. Like Gray, he wrote +little, but every line is of great merit. + + +_Henry Kirke White_, 1785-1806: the son of a butcher, this gifted youth +displayed, in his brief life, such devotion to study, and such powers of +mind, that his friends could not but predict a brilliant future for him, +had he lived. Nothing that he produced is of the highest order of poetic +merit, but everything was full of promise. Of a weak constitution, he +could not bear the rigorous study which he prescribed to himself, and +which hastened his death. With the kind assistance of Mr. Capel Lofft and +the poet Southey, he was enabled to leave the trade to which he had been +apprenticed and go to Cambridge. His poems have most of them a strongly +devotional cast. Among them are _Gondoline_, _Clifton Grove_, and the +_Christiad_, in the last of which, like the swan, he chants his own +death-song. His memory has been kept green by Southey's edition of his +_Remains_, and by the beautiful allusion of Byron to his genius and his +fate in _The English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_. His sacred piece called +_The Star of Bethlehem_ has been a special favorite: + + When marshalled on the nightly plain + The glittering host bestud the sky, + One star alone of all the train + Can fix the sinner's wandering eye. + + +_Bishop Percy_, 1728-1811: Dr. Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore, deserves +particular notice in a sketch of English Literature not so much for his +own works,--although he was a poet,--as for his collection of ballads, +made with great research and care, and published in 1765. By bringing +before the world these remains of English songs and idyls, which lay +scattered through the ages from the birth of the language, he showed +England the true wealth of her romantic history, and influenced the +writers of the day to abandon the artificial and reproduce the natural, +the simple, and the romantic. He gave the impulse which produced the +minstrelsy of Scott and the simple stories of Wordsworth. Many of these +ballads are descriptive of the border wars between England and Scotland; +among the greatest favorites are _Chevy Chase, The Battle of Otterburne, +The Death of Douglas_, and the story of _Sir Patrick Spens_. + + +_Anne Letitia Barbauld_, 1743-1825: the hymns and poems of Mrs. Barbauld +are marked by an adherence to the artificial school in form and manner; +but something of feminine tenderness redeems them from the charge of being +purely mechanical. Her _Hymns in Prose for Children_ have been of value in +an educational point of view; and the tales comprised in _Evenings at +Home_ are entertaining and instructive. Her _Ode to Spring_, which is an +imitation of Collins's _Ode to Evening_, in the same measure and +comprising the same number of stanzas, is her best poetic effort, and +compares with Collins's piece as an excellent copy compares with the +picture of a great master. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +THE LATER DRAMA. + + + The Progress of the Drama. Garrick. Foote. Cumberland. Sheridan. George + Colman. George Colman, the Younger. Other Dramatists and Humorists. + Other Writers on Various Subjects. + + + +THE PROGRESS OF THE DRAMA. + + +The latter half of the eighteenth century, so marked, as we have seen, for +manifold literary activity, is, in one phase of its history, distinctly +represented by the drama. It was a very peculiar epoch in English annals. +The accession of George III., in 1760, gave promise, from the character of +the king and of his consort, of an exemplary reign. George III. was the +first monarch of the house of Hanover who may be justly called an English +king in interest and taste. He and his queen were virtuous and honest; and +their influence was at once felt by a people in whom virtue and honesty +are inherent, and whose consciences and tastes had been violated by the +evil examples of the former reigns. + +In 1762 George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, was born; and as soon +as he approached manhood, he displayed the worst features of his ancestral +house: he was extravagant and debauched; he threw himself into a violent +opposition to his father: with this view he was at first a Whig, but +afterwards became a Tory. He had also peculiar opportunities for exerting +authority during the temporary fits of insanity which attacked the king in +1764, in 1788, and in 1804. At last, in 1810, the king was so disabled +from attending to his duties that the prince became regent, and assumed +the reins of government, not to resign them again during his life. + +In speaking of the drama of this period, we should hardly, therefore, be +wrong in calling it the Drama of the Regency. It held, however, by +historic links, following the order of historic events, to the earlier +drama. Shakspeare and his contemporaries had established the dramatic art +on a firm basis. The frown of puritanism, in the polemic period, had +checked its progress: with the restoration of Charles II, it had returned +to rival the French stage in wicked plots and prurient scenes. With the +better morals of the Revolution, and the popular progress which was made +at the accession of the house of Hanover, the drama was modified: the +older plays were revived in their original freshness; a new and better +taste was to be catered to; and what of immorality remained was chiefly +due to the influence of the Prince of Wales. Actors, so long despised, +rose to importance as great artists. Garrick and Foote, and, later, +Kemble, Kean, and Mrs. Siddons, were social personages in England. Peers +married actresses, and enduring reputation was won by those who could +display the passions and the affections to the life, giving flesh and +blood and mind and heart to the inimitable creations of Shakspeare. + +It must be allowed that this power of presentment marks the age more +powerfully than any claims of dramatic authorship. The new play-writers +did not approach Shakspeare; but they represented their age, and +repudiated the vices, in part at least, of their immediate predecessors. +In them, too, is to be observed the change from the artificial to the +romantic and natural, The scenes and persons in their plays are taken from +the life around them, and appealed to the very models from which they were +drawn. + + +DAVID GARRICK.--First among these purifiers of the drama is David Garrick, +who was born in Lichfield, in 1716. He was a pupil of Dr. Johnson, and +came up with that distinguished man to London, in 1735. The son of a +captain in the Royal army, but thrown upon his own exertions, he first +tried to gain a livelihood as a wine merchant; but his fondness for the +stage led him to become an actor, and in taking this step he found his +true position. A man of respectable parts and scholarship, he wrote many +agreeable pieces for the stage; which, however, owed their success more to +his accurate knowledge of the _mise en scene_, and to his own +representation of the principal characters, than to their intrinsic +merits. His mimetic powers were great: he acted splendidly in all casts, +excelling, perhaps, in tragedy; and he, more than any actor before or +since, has made the world thoroughly acquainted with Shakspeare. Dramatic +authors courted him; for his appearance in any new piece was almost an +assurance of its success. + +Besides many graceful prologues, epigrams, and songs, he wrote, or +altered, forty plays. Among these the following have the greatest merit: +_The Lying Valet_, a farce founded on an old English comedy; _The +Clandestine Marriage_, in which he was aided by the elder Colman; (the +character of _Lord Ogleby_ he wrote for himself to personate;) _Miss in +her Teens_, a very clever and amusing farce. He was charmingly natural in +his acting; but he was accused of being theatrical when off the stage. In +the words of Goldsmith: + + On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting; + 'Twas only that when he was off, he was acting. + +Garrick married a dancer, who made him an excellent wife. By his own +exertions he won a highly respectable social position, and an easy fortune +of L140,000, upon which he retired from the stage. He died in London in +1779. + +In 1831-2 his _Private Correspondence with the Most Celebrated Persons of +his Time_ was published, and opened a rich field to the social historian. +Among his correspondents were Dr. Johnson, Boswell, Goldsmith, Gibber, +Sheridan, Burke, Wilkes, Junius, and Dr. Franklin. Thus Garrick catered +largely to the history of his period, as an actor and dramatic author, +illustrating the stage; as a reviver of Shakspeare, and as a correspondent +of history. + + +SAMUEL FOOTE.--Among the many English actors who have been distinguished +for great powers of versatility in voice, feature, and manner, there is +none superior to Foote. Bold and self-reliant, he was a comedian in +every-day life; and his ready wit and humor subdued Dr. Johnson, who had +determined to dislike him. He was born in 1722, at Truro, and educated at +Oxford: he studied law, but his peculiar aptitudes soon led him to the +stage, where he became famous as a comic actor. Among his original pieces +are _The Patron_, _The Devil on Two Stilts_, _The Diversions of the +Morning_, _Lindamira_, and _The Slanderer_. But his best play, which is a +popular burlesque on parliamentary elections, is _The Mayor of Garrat_. He +died in 1777, at Dover, while on his way to France for the benefit of his +health. His plays present the comic phase of English history in his day. + + +RICHARD CUMBERLAND.--This accomplished man, who, in the words of Walter +Scott, has given us "many powerful sketches of the age which has passed +away," was born in 1732, and lived to the ripe age of seventy-nine, dying +in 1811. After receiving his education at Cambridge, he became secretary +to Lord Halifax. His versatile pen produced, besides dramatic pieces, +novels and theological treatises, illustrating the principal topics of the +time. In his plays there is less of immorality than in those of his +contemporaries. _The West Indian_, which was first put upon the stage in +1771, and which is still occasionally presented, is chiefly noticeable in +that an Irishman and a West Indian are the principal characters, and that +he has not brought them into ridicule, as was common at the time, but has +exalted them by their merits. The best of his other plays are _The Jew, +The Wheel of Fortune_, and _The Fashionable Lover_. Goldsmith, in his poem +_Retaliation_, says of Cumberland, referring to his greater morality and +his human sympathy, + + Here Cumberland lies, having acted his parts, + The Terence of England, the mender of hearts; + A flattering painter, who made it his care + To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are. + + +RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.--No man represents the Regency so completely as +Sheridan. He was a statesman, a legislator, an orator, and a dramatist; +and in social life a wit, a gamester, a spendthrift, and a debauchee. His +manifold nature seemed to be always in violent ebullition. He was born in +September, 1751, and was the son of Thomas Sheridan, the actor and +lexicographer, His mother, Frances Sheridan, was also a writer of plays +and novels. Educated at Harrow, he was there considered a dunce; and when +he grew to manhood, he plunged into dissipation, and soon made a stir in +the London world by making a runaway match with Miss Linley, a singer, who +was noted as one of the handsomest women of the day. A duel with one of +her former admirers was the result. + +As a dramatist, he began by presenting _A Trip to Scarborough_, which was +altered from Vanbrugh's _Relapse_; but his fame was at once assured by his +production, in 1775, of _The Duenna_ and _The Rivals_. The former is +called an opera, but is really a comedy containing many songs: the plot is +varied and entertaining; but it is far inferior to _The Rivals_, which is +based upon his own adventures, and is brimming with wit and humor. Mrs. +Malaprop, Bob Acres, Sir Lucius O'Trigger, and the Absolutes, father and +son, have been prime favorites upon the stage ever since. + +In 1777 he produced _The School for Scandal_, a caustic satire on London +society, which has no superior in genteel comedy. It has been said that +the characters of Charles and Joseph Surface were suggested by the Tom +Jones and Blifil of Fielding; but, if this be true, the handling is so +original and natural, that they are in no sense a plagiarism. Without the +rippling brilliancy of _The Rivals, The School for Scandal_ is better +sustained in scene and colloquy; and in spite of some indelicacy, which is +due to the age, the moral lesson is far more valuable. The satire is +strong and instructive, and marks the great advance in social decorum over +the former age. + +In 1779 appeared _The Critic_, a literary satire, in which the chief +character is that of Sir Fretful Plagiary. + +Sheridan sat in parliament as member for Stafford. His first effort in +oratory was a failure; but by study he became one of the most effective +popular orators of his day. His speeches lose by reading: he abounded in +gaudy figures, and is not without bombast; but his wonderful flow of words +and his impassioned action dazzled his audience and kept it spellbound. +His oratory, whatever its faults, gained also the unstinted praise of his +colleagues and rivals in the art. Of his great speech in the trial of +Warren Hastings, in 1788, Fox declared that "all he had ever heard, all he +had ever read, when compared with it, dwindled into nothing, and vanished +like vapor before the sun." Burke called it "the most astonishing effort +of eloquence, argument, and wit united, of which there was any record or +tradition;" and Pitt said "that it surpassed all the eloquence of ancient +or modern times." + +Sheridan was for some time the friend and comrade of the Prince Regent, in +wild courses which were to the taste of both; but this friendship was +dissolved, and the famous dramatist and orator sank gradually in the +social scale, until he had sounded the depths of human misery. He was +deeply in debt; he obtained money under mean and false pretences; he was +drunken and debauched; and even death did not bring rest. He died in July, +1816. His corpse was arrested for debt, and could not be buried until the +debt was paid. In his varied brilliancy and in his fatal debauchery, his +character stands forth as the completest type of the period of the +Regency. Many memoirs have been written, among which those of his friend +Moore, and his granddaughter the Hon. Mrs. Norton, although they unduly +palliate his faults, are the best. + + +GEORGE COLMAN.--Among the respectable dramatists of this period who +exerted an influence in leading the public taste away from the witty and +artificial schools of the Restoration, the two Colmans deserve mention. +George Colman, the elder, was born in Florence in 1733, but began his +education at Westminster School, from which he was removed to Oxford. +After receiving his degree he studied law; but soon abandoned graver study +to court the comic muse. His first piece, _Polly Honeycomb_, was produced +in 1760; but his reputation was established by _The Jealous Wife_, +suggested by a scene in Fielding's _Tom Jones_. Besides many humorous +miscellanies, most of which appeared in _The St. James' Chronicle_,--a +magazine of which he was the proprietor,--he translated Terence, and +produced more than thirty dramatic pieces, some of which are still +presented upon the stage. The best of these is _The Clandestine Marriage_, +which was the joint production of Garrick and himself. Of this play, +Davies says "that no dramatic piece, since the days of Beaumont and +Fletcher, had been written by two authors, in which wit, fancy, and humor +were so happily blended." In 1768 he became one of the proprietors of the +Covent Garden Theatre: in 1789 his mind became affected, and he remained a +mental invalid until his death in 1794. + + +GEORGE COLMAN. THE YOUNGER.--This writer was the son of George Colman, and +was born in 1762. Like his father, he was educated at Westminster and +Oxford; but he was removed from the university before receiving his +degree, and was graduated at King's College, Aberdeen. He inherited an +enthusiasm for the drama and considerable skill as a dramatic author. In +1787 he produced _Inkle and Yarico_, founded upon the pathetic story of +Addison, in _The Spectator_. In 1796 appeared _The Iron Chest_; this was +followed, in 1797,. by _The Heir at Law_ and _John Bull_. To him the world +is indebted for a large number of stock pieces which still appear at our +theatres. In 1802 he published a volume entitled _Broad Grins_, which was +an expansion of a previous volume of comic scraps. This is full of frolic +and humor: among the verses in the style of Peter Pindar are the +well-known sketches _The Newcastle Apothecary_, (who gave the direction +with his medicine, "When taken, to be well shaken,") and _Lodgings for +Single Gentlemen_. + +The author's fault is his tendency to farce, which robs his comedies of +dignity. He assumed the cognomen _the younger_ because, he said, he did +not wish his father's memory to suffer for his faults. He died in 1836. + + + +OTHER HUMORISTS AND DRAMATISTS OF THE PERIOD. + + +_John Wolcot_, 1738-1819: his pseudonym was _Peter Pindar_. He was a +satirist as well as a humorist, and was bold in lampooning the prominent +men of his time, not even sparing the king. The world of literature knows +him best by his humorous poetical sketches, _The Apple-Dumplings and the +King, The Razor-Seller, The Pilgrims and the Peas_, and many others. + + +_Hannah More_, 1745-1833: this lady had a flowing, agreeable style, but +produced no great work. She wrote for her age and pleased it; but +posterity disregards what she has written. Her principal plays are: +_Percy_, presented in 1777, and a tragedy entitled _The Fatal Falsehood_. +She was a poet and a novelist also; but in neither part did she rise above +mediocrity. In 1782 appeared her volume of _Sacred Dramas_. Her best novel +is entitled _Caelebs in Search of a Wife, comprehending Observations on +Domestic Habits and Manners, Religion and Morals_. Her greatest merit is +that she always inculcated pure morals and religion, and thus aided in +improving the society of her age. Something of her fame is also due to the +rare appearance, up to this time, of women in the fields of literature; so +that her merits are indulgently exaggerated. + + +_Joanna Baillie_, 1762-1851: this lady, the daughter of a Presbyterian +divine, wrote graceful verses, but is principally known by her numerous +plays. Among these, which include thirteen _Plays on the Passions_, and +thirteen _Miscellaneous Plays_, those best known are _De Montfort_ and +_Basil_--both tragedies, which have received high praise from Sir Walter +Scott. Her _Ballads_ and _Metrical Legends_ are all spirited and +excellent; and her _Hymns_ breathe the very spirit of devotion. Very +popular during her life, and still highly estimated by literary critics, +her works have given place to newer and more favorite authors, and have +already lost interest with the great world of readers. + + + +OTHER WRITERS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. + + +_Thomas Warton_, 1728-1790: he was Professor of Poetry and of Ancient +History at Oxford, and, for the last five years of his life, +poet-laureate. The student of English Literature is greatly indebted to +him for his _History of English Poetry_, which he brings down to the early +part of the seventeenth century. No one before him had attempted such a +task; and, although his work is rather a rare mass of valuable materials +than a well articulated history, it is of great value for its collected +facts, and for its suggestions as to where the scholar may pursue his +studies farther. + + +_Joseph Warton_, 1722-1800: a brother of Thomas Warton; he published +translations and essays and poems. Among the translations was that of the +_Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil_, which is valued for its exactness and +perspicuity. + + +_Frances Burney_, (Madame D'Arblay,) 1752-1840: the daughter of Dr. +Burney, a musical composer. While yet a young girl, she astonished herself +and the world by her novel of _Evelina_, which at once took rank among the +standard fictions of the day. It is in the style of Richardson, but more +truthful in the delineation of existing manners, and in the expression of +sentiment. She afterwards published _Cecilia_ and several other tales, +which, although excellent, were not as good as the first. She led an +almost menial life, as one of the ladies in waiting upon Queen Charlotte; +but the genuine fame achieved by her writings in some degree relieved the +sense of thraldom, from which she happily escaped with a pension. The +novels of Madame D'Arblay are the intermediate step between the novels of +Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, and the Waverly novels of Walter +Scott. They are entirely free from any taint of immorality; and they were +among the first feminine efforts that were received with enthusiasm: thus +it is that, without being of the first order of merit, they mark a +distinct era in English letters. + + +_Edmund Burke_, 1730-1797: he was born in Dublin, and educated at Trinity +College. He studied law, but soon found his proper sphere in public life. +He had brilliant literary gifts; but his fame is more that of a statesman +and an orator, than an author. Prominent in parliament, he took noble +ground in favor of American liberty in our contest with the mother +country, and uttered speeches which have remained as models of forensic +eloquence. His greatest oratorical efforts were his famous speeches as one +of the committee of impeachment in the case of Warren Hastings, +Governor-General of India. Whatever may be thought of Hastings and his +administration, the famous trial has given to English oratory some of its +noblest specimens; and the people of England learned more of their empire +in India from the learned, brilliant, and exhaustive speeches of Burke, +than they could have learned in any other way. The greatest of his written +works is: _Reflections on the Revolution in France_, written to warn +England to avoid the causes of such colossal evil. In 1756 he had +published his _Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and +Beautiful_. This has been variously criticized; and, although written with +vigor of thought and brilliancy of style, has now taken its place among +the speculations of theory, and not as establishing permanent canons of +aesthetical science. His work entitled _The Vindication of Natural Society, +by a late noble writer_, is a successful attempt to overthrow the infidel +system of Lord Bolingbroke, by applying it to civil society, and thus +showing that it proved too much--"that if the abuses of or evils sometimes +connected with religion invalidate its authority, then every institution, +however beneficial, must be abandoned." Burke's style is peculiar, and, in +another writer, would be considered pompous and pedantic; but it so +expresses the grandeur and dignity of the man, that it escapes this +criticism. His learning, his private worth, his high aims and +incorruptible faith in public station, the dignity of his statesmanship, +and the power of his oratory, constitute Mr. Burke as one of the noblest +characters of any English period; and, although his literary reputation is +not equal to his political fame, his accomplishments in the field of +letters are worthy of admiration and honorable mention. + + +_Hugh Blair_, 1718-1800: a Presbyterian divine in Edinburgh, Dr. Blair +deserves special mention for his lectures on _Rhetoric and +Belles-Lettres_, which for a long time constituted the principal text-book +on those subjects in our schools and colleges. A better understanding of +the true scope of rhetoric as a science has caused this work to be +superseded by later text-books. Blair's lectures treat principally of +style and literary criticism, and are excellent for their analysis of some +of the best authors, and for happy illustrations from their works. Blair +wrote many eloquent sermons, which were published, and was one of the +strong champions of Macpherson, in the controversy concerning the poems of +Ossian. He occupied a high place as a literary critic during his life. + + +_William Paley_, 1743-1805: a clergyman of the Established Church, he rose +to the dignity of Archdeacon and Chancellor of Carlisle. At first +thoughtless and idle, he was roused from his unprofitable life by the +earnest warnings of a companion, and became a severe student and a +vigorous writer on moral and religious subjects. Among his numerous +writings, those principally valuable are: _Horae Paulinae_, and _A View of +the Evidences of Christianity_--the former setting forth the life and +character of St. Paul, and the latter being a clear exposition of the +truth of Christianity, which has long served as a manual of academic +instruction. His treatise on _Natural Theology_ is, in the words of Sir +James Mackintosh, "the wonderful work of a man who, after sixty, had +studied anatomy in order to write it." Later investigations of science +have discarded some of his _facts_; but the handling of the subject and +the array of arguments are the work of a skilful and powerful hand. He +wrote, besides, a work on _Moral and Political Philosophy_, and numerous +sermons. His theory of morals is, that whatever is expedient is right; and +thus he bases our sense of duty upon the ground of the production of the +greatest amount of happiness. This low view has been successfully refuted +by later writers on moral science. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE NEW ROMANTIC POETRY: SCOTT. + + + Walter Scott. Translations and Minstrelsy. The Lay of the Last + Minstrel. Other Poems. The Waverly Novels. Particular Mention. + Pecuniary Troubles. His Manly Purpose. Powers Overtasked. Fruitless + Journey. Return and Death. His Fame. + + + +The transition school, as we have seen, in returning to nature, had +redeemed the pastoral, and had cultivated sentiment at the expense of the +epic. As a slight reaction, and yet a progress, and as influenced by the +tales of modern fiction, and also as subsidizing the antiquarian lore and +taste of the age, there arose a school of poetry which is best represented +by its _Tales in verse_;--some treating subjects of the olden time, some +laying their scenes in distant countries, and some describing home +incidents of the simplest kind. They were all minor epics: such were the +poetic stories of Scott, the _Lalla Rookh_ of Moore, _The Bride_ and _The +Giaour_ of Byron, and _The Village_ and _The Borough_ of Crabbe; all of +which mark the taste and the demand of the period. + + +WALTER SCOTT.--First in order of the new romantic poets was Scott, alike +renowned for his _Lays_ and for his wonderful prose fictions; at once the +most equable and the most prolific of English authors. + +Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh, on the 15th of August, 1771. His +father was a writer to the signet; his mother was Anne Rutherford, the +daughter of a medical professor in the University of Edinburgh. His +father's family belonged to the clan Buccleugh. Lame from his early +childhood, and thus debarred the more active pleasures of children, his +imagination was unusually vigorous; and he took special pleasure in the +many stories, current at the time, of predatory warfare, border forays, +bogles, warlocks, and second sight. He spent some of his early days in the +country, and thus became robust and healthy; although his lameness +remained throughout life. He was educated in Edinburgh, at the High School +and the university; and, although not noted for excellence as a scholar, +he exhibited precocity in verse, and delighted his companions by his +readiness in reproducing old stories or improving new ones. After leaving +the university he studied law, and ranged himself in politics as a +Conservative or Tory. + +Although never an accurate classical scholar, he had a superficial +knowledge of several languages, and was an industrious collector of old +ballads and relics of the antiquities of his country. He was, however, +better than a scholar;--he had genius, enthusiasm, and industry: he could +create character, adapt incident, and, in picturesque description, he was +without a rival. + +During the rumors of the invasion of Scotland by the French, which he has +treated with such comical humor in _The Antiquary_, his lameness did not +prevent his taking part with the volunteers, as quartermaster--a post +given him to spare him the fatigue and rough service of the ranks. The +French did not come; and Scott returned to his studies with a budget of +incident for future use. + + +TRANSLATIONS AND MINSTRELSY.--The study of the German language was then +almost a new thing, even among educated people in England; and Scott made +his first public essay in the form of translations from the German. Among +these were versions of the _Erl Koenig_ of Goethe, and the _Lenore_ and +_The Wild Huntsman_ of Buerger, which appeared in 1796. In 1797 he rendered +into English _Otho of Wittelsbach_ by Steinburg, and in 1799 Goethe's +tragedy, _Goetz von Berlichingen_. These were the trial efforts of his +"'prentice hand," which predicted a coming master. + +On the 24th of December, 1797, he married Miss Carpenter, or Charpentier, +a lady of French parentage, and retired to a cottage at Lasswade, where he +began his studies, and cherished his literary aspirations in earnest and +for life. + +In 1799 he was so fortunate as to receive the appointment of Sheriff of +Selkirkshire, with a salary of L300 per annum. His duties were not +onerous: he had ample time to scour the country, ostensibly in search of +game, and really in seeking for the songs and traditions of Scotland, +border ballads, and tales, and in storing his fancy with those picturesque +views which he was afterwards to describe so well in verse and prose. In +1802 he was thus enabled to present to the world his first considerable +work, _The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, containing many new ballads +which he had collected, with very valuable local and historical notes. +This was followed, in 1804, by the metrical romance _of Sir Tristrem_, the +original of which was by Thomas of Ercildoune, of the thirteenth century, +known as _Thomas the Rhymer_: it was he who dreamed on Huntley bank that +he met the Queen of Elfland, + + And, till seven years were gone and past, + True Thomas on earth was never seen. + +The reputation acquired by these productions led the world to expect +something distinctly original and brilliant from his pen; a hope which was +at once realized. + + +THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL.--In 1805 appeared his first great poem, _The +Lay of the Last Minstrel_, which immediately established his fame: it was +a charming presentation of the olden time to the new. It originated in a +request of the Countess of Dalkeith that he would write a ballad on the +legend of Gilpin Horner. The picture of the last minstrel, "infirm and +old," fired by remembrance as he begins to tell an old-time story of +Scottish valor, is vividly drawn. The bard is supposed to be the last of +his fraternity, and to have lived down to 1690. The tale, mixed of truth +and fable, is exceedingly interesting. The octo-syllabic measure, with an +occasional line of three feet, to break the monotony, is purely +minstrelic, and reproduces the effect of the _troubadours and trouveres_. +The wizard agency of Gilpin Horner's brood, and the miracle at the tomb of +Michael Scott, are by no means out of keeping with the minstrel and the +age of which he sings. The dramatic effects are good, and the descriptions +very vivid. The poem was received with great enthusiasm, and rapidly +passed through several editions. One element of its success is modestly +and justly stated by the author in his introduction to a later edition: +"The attempt to return to a more simple and natural style of poetry was +likely to be welcomed at a time when the public had become tired of heroic +hexameters, with all the buckram and binding that belong to them in modern +days." + +With an annual income of L1000, and an honorable ambition, Scott worked +his new literary mine with great vigor. He saw not only fame but wealth +within his reach. He entered into a silent partnership with the publisher, +James Ballantyne, which was for a long time lucrative, by reason of the +unprecedented sums he received for his works. In 1806 he was appointed to +the reversion--on the death of the incumbent--of the clerkship of the +Court of Sessions, a place worth L1300 per annum. + + +OTHER POEMS.--In 1808, before _The Lay_ had lost its freshness, _Marmion_ +appeared: it was kindred in subject and form, and was received with equal +favor. _The Lady of the Lake_, the most popular of these poems, was +published in 1810; and with it his poetical talent culminated. The later +poems were not equal to any of those mentioned, although they were not +without many beauties and individual excellences. + +_The Vision of Don Roderick_, which appeared in 1811, is founded upon the +legend of a visit made by one of the Gothic kings of Spain to an enchanted +cavern near Toledo. _Rokeby_ was published in 1812; _The Bridal of +Triermain_ in 1813; _The Lord of the Isles_, founded upon incidents in the +life of Bruce, in 1815; and _Harold the Dauntless_ in 1817. With the +decline of his poetic power, manifest to himself, he retired from the +field of poetry, but only to appear upon another and a grander field with +astonishing brilliancy: it was the domain of the historical romance. Such, +however, was the popular estimate of his poetry, that in 1813 the Prince +Regent offered him the position of poet-laureate, which was gratefully and +wisely declined. + +Just at this time the new poets came forth, in his own style, and actuated +by his example and success. He recognized in Byron, Moore, Crabbe, and +others, genius and talent; and, with his generous spirit, exaggerated +their merits by depreciating his own, which he compared to cairngorms +beside the real jewels of his competitors. The mystics, following the lead +of the Lake poets, were ready to increase the depreciation. It soon became +fashionable to speak of _The Lay_, and _Marmion_, and _The Lady of the +Lake_ as spirited little stories, not equal to Byron's, and not to be +mentioned beside the occult philosophy of _Thalaba_ and gentle egotism of +_The Prelude_. That day is passed: even the critical world returns to its +first fancies. In the words of Carlyle, a great balance-striker of +literary fame, speaking in 1838: "It were late in the day to write +criticisms on those metrical romances; at the same time, the great +popularity they had seems natural enough. In the first place, there was +the indisputable impress of worth, of genuine human force in them ... +Pictures were actually painted and presented; human emotions conceived and +sympathized with. Considering that wretched Dellacruscan and other +vamping up of wornout tattlers was the staple article then, it may be +granted that Scott's excellence was superior and supreme." Without +preferring any claim to epic grandeur, or to a rank among the few great +poets of the first class, Scott is entitled to the highest eminence in +minstrelic power. He is the great modern troubadour. His descriptions of +nature are simple and exquisite. There is nothing in this respect more +beautiful than the opening of _The Lady of the Lake_. His battle-pieces +live and resound again: what can be finer than Flodden field in _Marmion_, +and The Battle of Beal and Duine in _The Lady of the Lake_? + +His love scenes are at once chaste, impassioned, and tender; and his harp +songs and battle lyrics are unrivalled in harmony. And, besides these +merits, he gives us everywhere glimpses of history, which, before his day, +were covered by the clouds of ignorance, and which his breath was to sweep +away. + +Such are his claims as the first of the new romantic poets. We might here +leave him, to consider his prose works in another connection; but it seems +juster to his fame to continue and complete a sketch of his life, because +all its parts are of connected interest. The poems were a grand proem to +the novels. + +While he was achieving fame by his poetry, and reaping golden rewards as +well as golden opinions, he was also ambitious to establish a family name +and estate. To this end, he bought a hundred acres of land on the banks of +the Tweed, near Melrose Abbey, and added to these from time to time by the +purchase of adjoining properties. Here he built a great mansion, which +became famous as Abbotsford: he called it one of his air-castles reduced +to solid stone and mortar. Here he played the part of a feudal proprietor, +and did the honors for Scotland to distinguished men from all quarters: +his hospitality was generous and unbounded. + + +THE WAVERLEY NOVELS.--As early as 1805, while producing his beautiful +poems, he had tried his hand upon a story in prose, based upon the +stirring events in 1745, resulting in the fatal battle of Culloden, which +gave a death-blow to the cause of the Stuarts, and to their attempts to +regain the crown. Dissatisfied with the effort, and considering it at that +time less promising than poetry, he had thrown the manuscript aside in a +desk with some old fishing-tackle. There it remained undisturbed for eight +years. With the decline of his poetic powers, he returned to the former +notion of writing historical fiction; and so, exhuming his manuscript, he +modified and finished it, and presented it anonymously to the world in +1814. He had at first proposed the title of _Waverley, or 'Tis Fifty Years +Since_, which was afterwards altered to '_Tis Sixty Years Since_. This, +the first of his splendid series of fictions, which has given a name to +the whole series, is by no means the best; but it was good and novel +enough to strike a chord in the popular heart at once. Its delineations of +personal characters already known to history were masterly; its historical +pictures were in a new and striking style of art. There were men yet +living to whom he could appeal--men who had _been out_ in the '45, who had +seen Charles Edward and many of the originals of the author's heroes and +heroines. In his researches and wanderings, he had imbibed the very spirit +of Scottish life and history; and the Waverley novels are among the most +striking literary types and expounders of history. + + +PARTICULAR MENTION.--In 1815, before half the reading world had delighted +themselves with _Waverley_, his rapid pen had produced _Guy Mannering_, a +story of English and Scottish life, superior to Waverley in its original +descriptions and more general interest. He is said to have written it in +six weeks at Christmas time. The scope of this volume will not permit a +critical examination of the Waverley novels. The world knows them almost +by heart. In _The Antiquary_, which appeared in 1816, we have a rare +delineation of local manners, the creation of distinct characters, and a +humorous description of the sudden arming of volunteers in fear of +invasion by the French. _The Antiquary_ was a free portrait or sketch of +Mr. George Constable, filled in perhaps unconsciously from the author's +own life; for he, no less than his friend, delighted in collecting relics, +and in studying out the lines, praetoria, and general castrametation of the +Roman armies. Andrew Gemmels was the original of that Edie Ochiltree who +was bold enough to dispute the antiquary's more learned assertions. + +In the same year, 1816, was published the first series of _The Tales of my +Landlord_, containing _The Black Dwarf_ and _Old Mortality_, both valuable +as contributions to Scottish history. The former is not of much literary +merit; and the author was so little pleased with it, that he brought it to +a hasty conclusion; the latter is an extremely animated sketch of the +sufferings of the Covenanters at the hands of Grahame of Claverhouse, with +a fairer picture of that redoubted commander than the Covenanters have +drawn. _Rob Roy_, the best existing presentation of Highland life and +manners, appeared in 1817. Thus Scott's prolific pen, like nature, +produced annuals. In 1818 appeared _The Heart of Mid-Lothian_, that +touching story of Jeanie and Effie Deans, which awakens the warmest +sympathy of every reader, and teaches to successive generations a moral +lesson of great significance and power. + +In 1819 he wrote _The Bride of Lammermoor_, the story of a domestic +tragedy, which warns the world that outraged nature will sometimes assert +herself in fury; a story so popular that it has been since arranged as an +Italian opera. With that came _The Legend of Montrose_, another historic +sketch of great power, and especially famous for the character of Major +Dugald Dalgetty, soldier of fortune and pedant of Marischal College, +Aberdeen. The year 1819 also beheld the appearance of _Ivanhoe_, which +many consider the best of the series. It describes rural England during +the regency of John, the romantic return of Richard Lion-heart, the +glowing embers of Norman and Saxon strife, and the story of the Templars. +His portraiture of the Jewess Rebecca is one of the finest in the Waverley +Gallery. + +The next year, 1820, brought forth _The Monastery_, the least popular of +the novels thus far produced; and, as Scott tells us, on the principle of +sending a second arrow to find one that was lost, he wrote _The Abbot_, a +sequel, to which we are indebted for a masterly portrait of Mary Stuart in +her prison of Lochleven. The _Abbot_, to some extent, redeemed and +sustained its weaker brother. In this same year Scott was created a +baronet, in recognition of his great services to English Literature and +history. The next five years added worthy companion-novels to the +marvellous series. _Kenilworth_ is founded upon the visit of Queen +Elizabeth to her favorite Leicester, in that picturesque palace in +Warwickshire, and contains that beautiful and touching picture of Amy +Robsart. _The Pirate_ is a story the scene of which is laid in Shetland, +and the material for which he gathered in a pleasure tour among those +islands. In _The Fortunes of Nigel_, London life during the reign of James +I. is described; and it contains life-like portraits of that monarch, of +his unfortunate son, Prince Charles, and of Buckingham. _Peveril of the +Peak_ is a story of the time of Charles II., which is not of equal merit +with the other novels. _Quentin Durward_, one of the very best, describes +the strife between Louis XI. of France and Charles the Bold of Burgundy, +and gives full-length historic portraits of these princes. The scene of +_St. Ronan's Well_ is among the English lakes in Cumberland, and the story +describes the manners of the day at a retired watering-place. _Red +Gauntlet_ is a curious narrative connected with one of the latest attempts +of Charles Edward--abortive at the outset--to effect a rising in +Scotland. In 1825 appeared his _Tales of the Crusaders_, comprising _The +Betrothed_ and _The Talisman_, of which the latter is the more popular, as +it describes with romantic power the deeds of Richard and his comrades in +the second crusade. + +A glance at this almost tabular statement will show the scope and +versatility of his mind, the historic range of his studies, the fertility +of his fancy, and the rapidity of his pen. He had attained the height of +fame and happiness; his success had partaken of the miraculous; but +misfortune came to mar it all, for a time. + + +PECUNIARY TROUBLES.--In the financial crash of 1825-6, he was largely +involved. As a silent partner in the publishing house of the Ballantynes, +and as connected with them in the affairs of Constable & Co., he found +himself, by the failure of these houses, legally liable to the amount of +L117,000. To relieve himself, he might have taken the benefit of the +_bankrupt law_; or, such was his popularity, that his friends desired to +raise a subscription to cover the amount of his indebtedness; but he was +now to show by his conduct that, if the author was great, the man was +greater. He refused all assistance, and even rejected general sympathy. He +determined to relieve himself, to pay his debts, or die in the effort. He +left Abbotsford, and took frugal lodgings in Edinburgh; curtailed all his +expenses, and went to work--which was over-work--not for fame, but for +guineas; and he gained both. + +His first novel after this, and the one which was to test the +practicability of his plan, was _Woodstock_, a tale of the troublous times +of the Civil War, in the last chapter of which he draws the picture of the +restored Charles coming in peaceful procession to his throne. This he +wrote in three months; and for it he received upwards of L8000. With this +and the proceeds of his succeeding works, he was enabled to pay over to +his creditors the large sum of L70,000; a feat unparalleled in the history +of literature. But the anxiety and the labor were too much even for his +powerful constitution: he died in his heroic attempt. + + +HIS MANLY PURPOSE.--More for money than for reputation, he compiled +hastily, and from partial and incomplete material, a _Life of Napoleon +Bonaparte_, which appeared in 1827. The style is charming and the work +eminently readable; but it contains many faults, is by no means +unprejudiced, and, as far as pure truth is concerned, is, in parts, almost +as much of a romance as any of the Waverley novels; but, for the first two +editions, he received the enormous sum of L18,000. The work was +accomplished in the space of one year. Among the other _task-work_ books +were the two series of _The Chronicles of the Canongate_ (1827 and 1828), +the latter of which contains the beautiful story of _St. Valentine's Day_, +or _The Fair Maid of Perth_. It is written in his finest vein, especially +in those chapters which describe the famous Battle of the Clans. In 1829 +appeared _Anne of Geierstein_, another story presenting the figure of +Charles of Burgundy, and his defeat and death in the battle with the Swiss +at Nancy. + + +POWERS OVERTASKED.--And now new misfortunes were to come upon him. In 1826 +he had lost his wife: his sorrows weighed upon him, and his superhuman +exertions were too much for his strength. In 1829 he was seized with a +nervous attack, accompanied by hemorrhages of a peculiar kind. In +February, 1830, a slight paralysis occurred, from which he speedily +recovered; this was soon succeeded by another; and it was manifest that +his mind was giving way. His last novel, _Count Robert of Paris_, was +begun in 1830, as one of a fourth series of _The Tales of My Landlord_: it +bears manifest marks of his failing powers, but is of value for the +historic stores which it draws from the Byzantine historians, and +especially from the unique work of Anna Comnena: "I almost wish," he said, +"I had named it Anna Comnena." A slight attack of apoplexy in November, +1830, was followed by a severer one in the spring of 1831. Even then he +tried to write, and was able to produce _Castle Dangerous_. With that the +powerful pen ended its marvellous work. The manly spirit still chafed that +his debts were not paid, and could not be, by the labor of his hands. + + +FRUITLESS JOURNEY.--In order to divert his mind, and, as a last chance for +health, a trip to the Mediterranean was projected. The Barham frigate was +placed by the government at his disposal; and he wandered with a party of +friends to Malta, Naples, Pompeii, Paestum, and Rome. But feeling the end +approaching, he exclaimed, "Let us to Abbotsford:" for the final hour he +craved the _grata quies patriae_; to which an admiring world has added the +remainder of the verse--_sed et omnis terra sepulchrum_. It was not a +moment too soon: he travelled northward to the Rhine, down that river by +boat, and reached London "totally exhausted;" thence, as soon as he could +be moved, he was taken to Abbotsford. + + +RETURN AND DEATH.--There he lingered from July to September, and died +peacefully on the 21st of the latter month, surrounded by his family and +lulled to repose by the rippling of the Tweed. Among the noted dead of +1832, including Goethe, Cuvier, Crabbe, and Mackintosh, he was the most +distinguished; and all Scotland and all the civilized world mourned his +loss. + + +HIS FAME.--At Edinburgh a colossal monument has been erected to his +memory, within which sits his marble figure. Numerous other memorial +columns are found in other cities, but all Scotland is his true monument, +every province and town of which he has touched with his magic pen. +Indeed, Scotland may be said to owe to him a new existence. In the words +of Lord Meadowbank,--who presided at the Theatrical Fund dinner in 1827, +and who there made the first public announcement of the authorship of the +Waverley novels,--Scott was "the mighty magician who rolled back the +current of time, and conjured up before our living senses the men and +manners of days which have long since passed away ... It is he who has +conferred a new reputation on our national character, and bestowed on +Scotland an imperishable name." + +Besides his poetry and novels, he wrote very much of a miscellaneous +character for the reviews, and edited the works of the poets with valuable +introductions and congenial biographies. Most of his fictions are +historical in plot and personages; and those which deal with Scottish +subjects are enriched by those types of character, those descriptions of +manners--national and local--and those peculiarities of language, which +give them additional and more useful historical value. It has been justly +said that, by his masterly handling of historical subjects, he has taught +the later historians how to write, how to give vivid and pictorial effects +to what was before a detail of chronology or a dry schedule of philosophy. +His critical powers may be doubted: he was too kind and genial for a +critic; and in reading contemporary authors seems to have endued their +inferior works with something of his own fancy. + +The _Life of Scott_, by his son-in-law, J. G. Lockhart, is one of the most +complete and interesting biographies in the language. In it the student +will find a list of all his works, with the dates of their production; and +will wonder that an author who was so rapid and so prolific could write so +much that was of the highest excellence. If not the greatest genius of his +age, he was its greatest literary benefactor; and it is for this reason +that we have given so much space to the record of his life and works. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THE NEW ROMANTIC POETRY: BYRON AND MOORE. + + + Early Life of Byron. Childe Harold and Eastern Tales. Unhappy Marriage. + Philhellenism and Death. Estimate of his Poetry. Thomas Moore. + Anacreon. Later Fortunes. Lalla Rookh. His Diary. His Rank as Poet. + + + +In immediate succession after Scott comes the name of Byron. They were +both great lights of their age; but the former may be compared to a planet +revolving in regulated and beneficent beauty through an unclouded sky; +while the latter is more like a comet whose lurid light came flashing upon +the sight in wild and threatening career. + +Like Scott, Byron was a prolific poet; and he owes to Scott the general +suggestion and much of the success of his tales in verse. His powers of +description were original and great: he adopted the new romantic tone, +while in his more studied works he was an imitator and a champion of a +former age, and a contemner of his own. + + +EARLY LIFE OF BYRON.--The Honorable George Gordon Byron, afterwards Lord +Byron, was born in London on the 22d of January, 1788. While he was yet an +infant, his father--Captain Byron--a dissipated man, deserted his mother; +and she went with her child to live upon a slender pittance at Aberdeen. +She was a woman of peculiar disposition, and was unfortunate in the +training of her son. She alternately petted and quarrelled with him, and +taught him to emulate her irregularities of temper. On account of an +accident at his birth, he had a malformation in one of his feet, which, +producing a slight limp in his gait through life, rendered his sensitive +nature quite unhappy, the signs of which are to be discerned in his drama, +_The Deformed Transformed_. From the age of five years he went to school +at Aberdeen, and very early began to exhibit traits of generosity, +manliness, and an imperious nature: he also displayed great quickness in +those studies which pleased his fancy. + +In 1798, when he was eleven years old, his grand-uncle, William, the fifth +Lord Byron, died, and was succeeded in the title and estates by the young +Gordon Byron, who was at once removed with his mother to Newstead Abbey. +In 1801 he was sent to Harrow, where he was well esteemed by his comrades, +but was not considered forward in his studies. + +He seems to have been of a susceptible nature, for, while still a boy, he +fell in love several times. His third experience in this way was +undoubtedly the strongest of his whole life. The lady was Miss Mary +Chaworth, who did not return his affection. His last interview with her he +has powerfully described in his poem called _The Dream_. From Harrow he +went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he lived an idle and +self-indulgent life, reading discursively, but not studying the prescribed +course. As early as November, 1806, before he was nineteen, he published +his first volume, _Poems on Various Occasions_, for private distribution, +which was soon after enlarged and altered, and presented to the public as +_Hours of Idleness, a Series of Poems Original and Translated, by George +Gordon, Lord Byron, A Minor_. These productions, although by no means +equal to his later poems, are not without merit, and did not deserve the +exceedingly severe criticism they met with from the _Edinburgh Review_. +The critics soon found that they had bearded a young lion: in his rage, he +sprang out upon the whole literary craft in a satire, imitated from +Juvenal, called _The English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_, in which he +ridicules and denounces the very best poets of the day furiously but most +uncritically. That his conduct was absurd and unjust, he himself allowed +afterwards; and he attempted to call in and destroy all the copies of this +work. + + +CHILDE HAROLD AND EASTERN TALES.--In March, 1809, he took his seat in the +House of Lords, where he did not accomplish much. He took up his residence +at Newstead Abbey, his ancestral seat, most of which was in a ruinous +condition; and after a somewhat disorderly life there, he set out on his +continental tour, spending some time at Lisbon, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Malta, +and in Greece. On his return, after two years' absence, he brought a +summary of his travels in poetical form,--the first part of _Childe +Harold_; and also a more elaborated poem entitled _Hints from Horace_. +Upon the former he set little value; but he thought the latter a noble +work. The world at once reversed his decision. The satire in the Latin +vein is scarcely read; while to the first cantos of _Childe Harold_ it was +due that, in his own words, "he woke up one morning and found himself +famous." As fruits of the eastern portion of his travels, we have the +romantic tale, _The Giaour_, published in 1811, and _The Bride of Abydos_, +which appeared in 1813. The popularity of these oriental stories was +mainly due to their having been conceived on the spots they describe. In +1814 he issued _The Corsair_, perhaps the best of these sensational +stories; and with singular versatility, in the same year, inspired by the +beauty of the Jewish history, he produced _The Hebrew Melodies_, some of +which are fervent, touching, and melodious. Late in the same year _Lara_ +was published, in the same volume with Mr. Rogers's _Jacqueline_, which it +threw completely into the shade. Thus closed one distinct period of his +life and of his authorship. A change came over the spirit of his dream. + + +UNHAPPY MARRIAGE.--In 1815, urged by his friends, and thinking it due to +his position, he married Miss Milbanke; but the union was without +affection on either side, and both were unhappy. One child, a daughter, +was born to them; and a year had hardly passed when they were separated, +by mutual consent and for reasons never truly divulged; and which, in +spite of modern investigations, must remain mysterious. He was licentious, +extravagant, of a violent temper: his wife was of severe morals, cold, and +unsympathetic. We need not advance farther into the horrors recently +suggested to the world. The blame has rested on Byron; and, at the time, +the popular feeling was so strong, that it may be said to have driven him +from England. It awoke in him a dark misanthropy which returned English +scorn with an unnatural hatred. He sojourned at various places on the +continent. At Geneva he wrote a third canto of _Childe Harold_, and the +touching story of Bonnivard, entitled _The Prisoner of Chillon_, and other +short poems. + +In 1817 he was at Venice, where he formed a connection with the Countess +Guiccioli, to the disgrace of both. In Venice he wrote a fourth canto of +_Childe Harold_, the story of _Mazeppa_, the first two cantos of _Don +Juan_, and two dramas, _Marino Faliero_ and _The Two Foscari_. + +For two years he lived at Ravenna, where he wrote some of his other +dramas, and several cantos of _Don Juan_. In 1821 he removed to Pisa; +thence, after a short stay, to Genoa, still writing dramas and working at +_Don Juan_. + + +PHILHELLENISM: HIS DEATH.--The end of his misanthropy and his debaucheries +was near; but his story was to have a ray of sunset glory--his death was +to be connected with a noble effort and an exhibition of philanthropic +spirit which seem in some degree to palliate his faults. Unlike some +writers who find in his conduct only a selfish whim, we think that it +casts a beautiful radiance upon the early evening of a stormy life. The +Greeks were struggling for independence from Turkish tyranny: Byron threw +himself heart and soul into the movement, received a commission from the +Greek government, recruited a band of Suliotes, and set forth gallantly to +do or die in the cause of Grecian freedom: he died, but not in battle. He +caught a fever of a virulent type, from his exposure, and after very few +days expired, on the 19th of April, 1824, amid the mourning of the nation. +Of this event, Macaulay--no mean or uncertain critic--could say, in his +epigrammatical style: "Two men have died within our recollection, who, at +a time of life at which few people have completed their education, had +raised themselves, each in his own department, to the height of glory. One +of them died at Longwood; the other at Missolonghi." + + +ESTIMATE OF HIS POETRY.--In giving a brief estimate of his character and +of his works, we may begin by saying that he represents, in clear +lineaments, the nobleman, the traveller, the poet, and the debauchee, of +the beginning of the nineteenth century. In all his works he unconsciously +depicts himself. He is in turn Childe Harold, Lara, the Corsair, and Don +Juan. He affected to despise the world's opinion so completely that he has +made himself appear worse than he really was--more profane, more +intemperate, more licentious. It is equally true that this tendency, added +to the fact that he was a handsome peer, had much to do with the immediate +popularity of his poems. There was also a paradoxical vanity, which does +not seem easily reconcilable with his misanthropy, that thus led him to +reproduce himself in a new dress in his dramas and tales. He paraded +himself as if, after all, he did value the world's opinion. + +That he was one of the new romantic poets, with, however, a considerable +tincture of the transition school, may be readily discerned in his works: +his earlier poems are full of the conceits of the artificial age. His +_English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ reminds one of the _MacFlecknoe_ of +Dryden and _The Dunciad_ of Pope, without being as good as either. When +he began that original and splendid portrait of himself, and transcript +of his travels, _Childe Harold_, he imitated Spenser in form and in +archaism. But he was possessed by the muse: the man wrote as the spirit +within dictated, as the Pythian priestess is fabled to have uttered her +oracles. _Childe Harold_ is a stream of intuitive, irrepressible poetry; +not art, but overflowing nature: the sentiments good and bad came welling +forth from his heart. His descriptive powers are great but peculiar. +Travellers find in _Childe Harold_ lightning glimpses of European scenery, +art, and nature, needing no illustrations, almost defying them. National +conditions, manners, customs, and costumes, are photographed in his +verses:--the rapid rush to Waterloo; a bull-fight in Spain; the women of +Cadiz or Saragossa; the Lion of St. Mark; the eloquent statue of the Dying +Gladiator; "Fair Greece, sad relic of departed worth;" the address to the +ocean; touches of love and hate; pictures of sorrow, of torture, of death. +Everywhere thought and glance are powerfully concentrated, and we find the +poem to be journal, history, epic, and autobiography. His felicity of +expression is so great, that, as we come upon the happy conceptions +exquisitely rendered, we are inclined to say of each, as he has said of +the Egeria of Muna: + + ... whatsoe'er thy birth, + Thou wert a beautiful thought and softly bodied forth. + +Of his dramas which are founded upon history, we cannot say so much; they +are dramatic only in form: some of them are spectacular, like +_Sardanapalus_, which is still presented upon the stage on account of its +scenic effects. In _Manfred_ we have a rare insight into his nature, and +_Cain_ is the vehicle for his peculiar, dark sentiments on the subject of +religion. + +_Don Juan_ is illustrative not only of the poet, but of the age; there was +a generation of such men and women. But quite apart from its moral, or +rather immoral, character, the poem is one of the finest in our +literature: it is full of wonderful descriptions, and exhibits a splendid +mastery of language, rhythm, and rhyme: a glorious epic with an inglorious +hero, and that hero Byron himself. + +As a man he was an enigma to the world, and doubtless to himself: he was +bad, but he was bold. If he was vindictive, he was generous; if he was +misanthropic and sceptical, it was partly because he despised shams: in +all his actions, we see that implicit working out of his own nature, which +not only conceals nothing, but even exaggerates his own faults. His +antecedents were bad;--his father was a villain; his grand-uncle a +murderer; his mother a woman of violent temper; and himself, with all this +legacy, a man of powerful passions. If evil is in any degree to be +palliated because it is hereditary, those who most condemn it in the +abstract, may still look with compassionate leniency upon the career of +Lord Byron. + + +THOMAS MOORE.--Emphatically the creature of his age, Moore wrote +sentimental songs in melodious language to the old airs of Ireland, and +used them as an instrument to excite the Irish people in the struggle they +were engaged in against English misgovernment. But his songs were true +neither to tradition nor to nature; they placed before the ardent Celtic +fancy an Irish glory and grandeur entirely different from the reality. Nor +had he in any degree caught the bardic spirit. His lyre was attuned to +reach the ear rather than the heart; his scenes are in enchanted lands; +his _dramatis personae_ tread theatrical boards; his thunder is a +melo-dramatic roll; his lightning is pyrotechny; his tears are either +hypocritical or maudlin; and his laughter is the perfection of genteel +comedy. + +Thomas Moore was born in Dublin, on the 28th of May, 1779: he was a +diminutive but precocious child, and was paraded by his father and mother, +who were people in humble life, as a reciter of verse; and as an early +rhymer also. His first poem was printed in a Dublin magazine, when he was +fourteen years old. In 1794 he entered Trinity College, Dublin; and, +although never considered a good scholar, he was graduated in 1798, when +he was nineteen years old. + + +ANACREON.--The first work which brought him into notice, and which +manifests at once the precocity of his powers and the peculiarity of his +taste, was his translation of the _Odes of Anacreon_. He had begun this +work while at college, but it was finished and published in London, +whither he had gone after leaving college, to enter the Middle Temple, in +order to study law. With equal acuteness and adaptation to character, he +dedicated the poems to the Prince of Wales, an anacreontic hero. As might +be expected, with such a patron, the volume was a success. In 1801 he +published another series of erotic poems, under the title _The Poetical +Works of the late Thomas Little_. This gained for him, in Byron's line, +the name of "the young Catullus of his day"; and, at the instance of Lord +Moira, he was appointed poet-laureate, a post he filled only long enough +to write one birthday ode. What seemed a better fortune came in the shape +of an appointment as Registrar of the Admiralty Court of Bermuda. He went +to the island; remained but a short time; and turned over the uncongenial +duties of the post to a deputy, who subsequently became a defaulter, and +involved Moore to a large amount. Returning from Bermuda, he travelled in +the United States and Canada; not without some poetical record of his +movements. In 1806 he published his _Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems_, +which called down the righteous wrath of the Edinburgh Review: Jeffrey +denounced the book as "a public nuisance," and "a corrupter of public +morals." For this harsh judgment, Moore challenged him; but the duel was +stopped by the police. This hostile meeting was turned to ridicule by +Byron in the lines: + + When Little's leadless pistols met his eye, + And Bow-street myrmidons stood laughing by. + + +LATER FORTUNES.--Moore was now the favorite--the poet and the dependent of +the nobility; and his versatile pen was principally employed to amuse and +to please. He soon began that series of _Irish Melodies_ which he +continued to augment with new pieces for nearly thirty years. + +Always of a theatrical turn, he acted well in private drama, in which the +gentlemen were amateurs, and the female parts were personated by +professional actresses. Thus playing in a cast with Miss Dyke, the +daughter of an Irish actor, Moore fell in love with her, and married her +on the 25th of March, 1811. + +With a foolish lack of judgment, he lost his hopes of preferment, by +writing satires against the regent; but as a means of livelihood, he +engaged to write songs for Powers, at a salary of L500 per annum, for +seven years. + + +LALLA ROOKH.--The most acceptable offering to fame, and the most +successful pecuniary venture, was his _Lalla Rookh_. The East was becoming +known to the English; and the fancy of the poet could convert the glimpses +of oriental things into charming pictures. Long possessed with the purpose +to write an Eastern story in verse, Moore set to work with laudable +industry to read books of travels and history, in order to form a strong +and sensible basis for his poetical superstructure. The work is a +collection of beautiful poems, in a delicate setting of beautiful prose. +The princess Lalla Rookh journeys, with great pomp, to become the bride of +the youthful king of Bokkara, and finds among her attendants a handsome +young poet, who beguiles the journey by singing to her these tales in +verse. The dangers of the process became manifest--the king of Bokkara is +forgotten, and the heart of the unfortunate princess is won by the beauty +and the minstrelsy of the youthful poet. What is her relief and her joy to +find on her arrival the unknown poet seated upon the throne as the king, +who had won her heart as an humble bard! + +This beautiful and popular work was published in 1817; and for it Moore +received from his publishers, the Longmans, L3000. + +In the same year Moore took a small cottage at Sloperton on the estate of +the Marquis of Lansdowne, which, with some interruptions of travel, and a +short residence in Paris, continued to be his residence during his life. +Improvident in money matters, he was greatly troubled by his affairs in +Bermuda;--the amount for which he became responsible by the defalcation of +his deputy was L6000; which, however, by legal cleverness, was compromised +for a thousand guineas. + + +HIS DIARY.--It is very fortunate, for a proper understanding of Moore's +life, that we have from this time a diary which is invaluable to the +biographer. In 1820 he went to Paris, where he wasted his time and money +in fashionable dissipation, and produced nothing of enduring value. Here +he sketched an Egyptian story, versified in _Alciphron_, but enlarged in +the prose romance called _The Epicurean_. + +On a short tour he visited Venice, where he received, as a gift from Lord +Byron, his autobiographical memoirs, which contained so much that was +compromising to others, that they were never published--at least in that +form. They were withdrawn from the Murrays, in whose hands he had placed +them, upon the death of Byron in 1824, and destroyed. A short visit to +Ireland led to his writing the _Memoirs of Captain Rock_, a work which +attained an unprecedented popularity in Ireland. + +In 1825 he published his _Life of Sheridan_, which is rather a friendly +panegyric than a truthful biography. + +During three years--from 1827 to 1830--he was engaged upon the _Life of +Byron_, which concealed more truth than it divulged. But in all these +years, his chief dependence for daily bread was upon his songs and glees, +squibs for newspapers and magazines, and review articles. + +In 1831 he made another successful hit in his _Life of Lord Edward +Fitzgerald_, a rebel of '98, which was followed in 1833 by _The Travels of +an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion_. + +In 1835, through the agency of Lord John Russel, the improvident poet +received a pension of L300. It came in a time of need; for he was getting +old, and his mind moved more sluggishly. His infirmities made him more +domestic; but his greater trials were still before him. His sons were +frivolous spendthrifts; one for whom he had secured a commission in the +army behaved ill, and drew upon his impoverished father again and again +for money: both died young. This cumulation of troubles broke him down; he +had a cerebral attack in December, 1849, and lived helpless and broken +until the 26th of February, 1852, when he expired without suffering. + + +HIS POETRY.--In most cases, the concurrence of what an author has written +will present to us the mental and moral features of the man. It is +particularly true in the case of Moore. He appears to us in Protean +shapes, indeed, but not without an affinity between them. Small in +stature, of jovial appearance; devoted to the gayest society; not very +earnest in politics; a Roman Catholic in name, with but little practical +religion, he pandered at first to a frivolous public taste, and was even +more corrupt than the public morals. + +Not so apparently as Pope an artificial poet, he had few touches of +nature. Of lyric sentiment he has but little; but we must differ from +those who deny to him rare lyrical expression, and happy musical +adaptations. His songs one can hardly _read_; we feel that they must be +sung. He has been accused, too violently, by Maginn of plagiarism: this, +of course, means of phrases and ideas. In our estimate of Moore, it counts +but little; his rare rhythm and exquisite cadences are not plagiarized; +they are his own, and his chief merit. + +He abounds in imagery of oriental gorgeousness; and if, in personality, +he may be compared to his own Peri, or one of "the beautiful blue damsel +flies" of that poem, he has given to his unfriendly critics a judgment of +his own style, in a criticism made by Fadladeen of the young poet's story +to Lalla Rookh;--"it resembles one of those Maldivian boats--a slight, +gilded thing, sent adrift without rudder or ballast, and with nothing but +vapid sweets and faded flowers on board." "The effect of the whole," says +one of his biographers, speaking of Lalla Rookh, "is much the same as that +of a magnificent ballet, on which all the resources of the theatre have +been lavished, and no expense spared in golden clouds, ethereal light, +gauze-clad sylphs, and splendid tableaux." + +Moore has been felicitously called "the poet of all circles," a phrase +which shows that he reflected the general features of his age. At no time +could the license of _Anacreon_, or the poems of Little, have been so well +received as when "the first gentleman in Europe" set the example of +systematic impurity. At no time could _Irish Melodies_ have had such a +_furore_ of adoption and applause, as when _Repeal_ was the cry, and the +Irish were firing their minds by remembering "the glories of Brian the +Brave;" that Brian Boroimhe who died in the eleventh century, after +defeating the Danes in twenty-five battles. + +Moore's _Biographies_, with all their faults, are important social +histories. _Lalla Rookh_ has a double historical significance: it is a +reflection--like _Anastasius_ and _Vathek_, like _Thalaba_ and _The Curse +of Kehama_, like _The Giaour_ and _The Bride of Abydos_--of English +conquest, travel, and adventure in the East. It is so true to nature in +oriental descriptions and allusions, that one traveller declared that to +read it was like riding on a camel; but it is far more important to +observe that the relative conditions of England and the Irish Roman +Catholics are symbolized in the Moslem rule over the Ghebers, as +delineated in _The Fire Worshippers_. In his preface to that poem, Moore +himself says: "The cause of tolerance was again my inspiring theme; and +the spirit that had spoken in the melodies of Ireland soon found itself at +home in the East." + +In an historic view of English Literature, the works of Moore, touching +almost every subject, must always be of great value to the student of his +period: there he will always have his prominent place. But he is already +losing his niche in public favor as a poet proper; better taste, purer +morals, truer heart-songs, and more practical views will steadily supplant +him, until, with no power to influence the present, he shall stand only as +a charming relic of the past. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE NEW ROMANTIC POETRY (CONTINUED). + + + Robert Burns. His Poems. His Career. George Crabbe. Thomas Campbell. + Samuel Rogers. P. B. Shelley. John Keats. Other Writers. + + + +ROBERT BURNS. + + +If Moore was, in the opinion of his age, an Irish prodigy, Burns is, for +all time, a Scottish marvel. The one was polished and musical, but +artificial and insidiously immoral; the other homely and simple, but +powerful and effective to men of all classes in society. The one was the +poet of the aristocracy; the other the genius whose sympathies were with +the poor. One was most at home in the palaces of the great; and the other, +in the rude Ayrshire cottage, or in the little sitting-room of the +landlord in company with Souter John and Tam O'Shanter. As to most of his +poems, Burns was really of no distinct school, but seems to stand alone, +the creature of circumstance rather than of the age, in an unnatural and +false position, compared by himself to the daisy he uprooted with his +ploughshare: + + Even thou who mourn'st the daisy's fate, + That fate is thine--no distant date; + Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives elate, + Full on thy bloom, + Till crushed beneath the furrow's weight + Shall be thy doom! + +His life was uneventful. He was the son of a very poor man who was +gardener to a gentleman at Ayr. He was born in Alloway on the 25th of +January, 1759. His early education was scanty; but he read with avidity +the few books on which he could lay his hands, among which he particularly +mentions, in his short autobiography, _The Spectator_, the poems of Pope, +and the writings of Sterne and Thomson. But the work which he was to do +needed not even that training: he drew his simple subjects from +surrounding nature, and his ideas came from his heart rather than his +head. Like Moore, he found the old tunes or airs of the country, and set +them to new words--words full of sentiment and sense. + + +HIS POEMS.--Most of his poems are quite short, and of the kind called +fugitive, except that they will not fly away. _The Cotter's Saturday +Night_ is for men of all creeds, a pastoral full of divine philosophy. His +_Address to the Deil_ is a tender thought even for the Prince of Darkness, +whom, says Carlyle, his kind nature could not hate with right orthodoxy. +His poems on _The Louse, The Field-Mouse's Nest_, and _The Mountain +Daisy_, are homely meditations and moral lessons, and contain counsels for +all hearts. In _The Twa Dogs_ he contrasts, in fable, the relative +happiness of rich and poor. In the beautiful song + + Ye banks and braes of bonnie Doun, + +he expresses that hearty sympathy with nature which is one of the most +attractive features of his character. His _Bruce's Address_ stirs the +blood, and makes one start up into an attitude of martial advance. But his +most famous poem--drama, comedy, epic, and pastoral--is _Tam o' Shanter_: +it is a universal favorite; and few travellers leave Scotland without +standing at the window of "Alloway's auld haunted kirk," walking over the +road upon which Meg galloped, pausing over "the keystane of the brigg" +where she lost her tail; and then returning, full of the spirit of the +poem, to sit in Tam's chair, and drink ale out of the same silver-bound +wooden bicker, in the very room of the inn where Tam and the poet used to +get "unco fou," while praising "inspiring bold John Barley-corn." Indeed, +in the words of the poor Scotch carpenter, met by Washington Irving at +Kirk Alloway, "it seems as if the country had grown more beautiful since +Burns had written his bonnie little songs about it." + + +HIS CAREER.--The poet's career was sad. Gifted but poor, and doomed to +hard work, he was given a place in the excise. He went to Edinburgh, and +for a while was a great social lion; but he acquired a horrid thirst for +drink, which shortened his life. He died in Dumfries, at the early age of +thirty-seven. His allusions to his excesses are frequent, and many of them +touching. In his praise of _Scotch Drink_ he sings _con amore_. In a +letter to Mr. Ainslie, he epitomizes his failing: "Can you, amid the +horrors of penitence, regret, headache, nausea, and all the rest of the +hounds of hell that beset a poor wretch who has been guilty of the sin of +drunkenness,--can you speak peace to a troubled soul." + +Burns was a great letter-writer, and thought he excelled in that art; but, +valuable as his letters are, in presenting certain phases of his literary +and personal character, they display none of the power of his poetry, and +would not alone have raised him to eminence. They are in vigorous and +somewhat pedantic English; while most of his poems are in that Lowland +Scottish language or dialect which attracts by its homeliness and pleases +by its _couleur locale_. It should be stated, in conclusion, that Burns is +original in thought and presentation; and to this gift must be added a +large share of humor, and an intense patriotism. Poverty was his grim +horror. He declared that it killed his father, and was pursuing him to the +grave. He rose above the drudgery of a farmer's toil, and he found no +other work which would sustain him; and yet this needy poet stands to-day +among the most distinguished Scotchmen who have contributed to English +Literature. + + +GEORGE CRABBE.--Also of the transition school; in form and diction +adhering to the classicism of Pope, but, with Thomson, restoring the +pastoral to nature, the poet of the humble poor;--in the words of Byron, +"Pope in worsted stockings," Crabbe was the delight of his time; and Sir +Walter Scott, returning to die at Abbotsford, paid him the following +tribute: he asked that they would read him something amusing, "Read me a +bit of Crabbe." As it was read, he exclaimed, "Capital--excellent--very +good; Crabbe has lost nothing." + +George Crabbe was born on December 24th, 1754, at Aldborough, Suffolk. His +father was a poor man; and Crabbe, with little early education, was +apprenticed to a surgeon, and afterwards practised; but his aspirations +were such that he went to London, with three pounds in his pocket, for a +literary venture. He would have been in great straits, had it not been for +the disinterested generosity of Burke, to whom, although an utter +stranger, he applied for assistance. Burke aided him by introducing him to +distinguished literary men; and his fortune was made. In 1781 he published +_The Library_, which was well received. Crabbe then took orders, and was +for a little time curate at Aldborough, his native place, while other +preferment awaited him. In 1783 he appeared under still more favorable +auspices, by publishing _The Village_, which had a decided success. Two +livings were then given him; and he, much to his credit, married his early +love, a young girl of Suffolk. In _The Village_ he describes homely scenes +with great power, in pentameter verse. The poor are the heroes of his +humble epic; and he knew them well, as having been of them. In 1807 +appeared _The Parish Register_, in 1810 _The Borough_, and in 1812 his +_Tales in Verse_,--the precursor, in the former style, however, of +Wordsworth's lyrical stories. All these were excellent and very popular, +because they were real, and from his own experience. _The Tales of the +Hall_, referring chiefly to the higher classes of society, are more +artificial, and not so good. His pen was most at home in describing +smugglers, gipsies, and humble villagers, and in delineating poverty and +wretchedness; and thus opening to the rich and titled, doors through which +they might exercise their philanthropy and munificence. In this way Crabbe +was a reformer, and did great good; although his scenes are sometimes +revolting, and his pathos too exacting. As a painter of nature, he is true +and felicitous; especially in marine and coast views, where he is a +pre-Raphaelite in his minuteness. Byron called him "Nature's sternest +painter, but the best." He does not seem to write for effect, and he is +without pretension; so that the critics were quite at fault; for what they +mainly attack is not the poet's work so much as the consideration whether +his works come up to his manifesto. Crabbe died in 1832, on the 3d of +February, being one of the famous dead of that fatal year. + +Crabbe's poems mark his age. At an earlier time, when literature was for +the fashionable few, his subjects would have been beneath interest; but +the times had changed; education had been more diffused, and readers were +multiplied. Goldsmith's _Deserted Village_ had struck a new chord, upon +which Crabbe continued to play. Of his treatment of these subjects it must +be said, that while he holds a powerful pen, and portrays truth vividly, +he had an eye only for the sadder conditions of life, and gives pain +rather than excites sympathy in the reader. Our meaning will be best +illustrated by a comparison of _The Village_ of Crabbe with _The Deserted +Village_ of Goldsmith, and the pleasure with which we pass from the +squalid scenes of the former to the gentler sorrows and sympathies of the +latter. + + +THOMAS CAMPBELL.--More identified with his age than any other poet, and +yet forming a link between the old and the new, was Campbell. Classical +and correct in versification, and smothering nature with sonorous prosody, +he still had the poetic fire, and an excellent power of poetic criticism. +He was the son of a merchant, and was born at Glasgow on the 27th of July, +1777. He thus grew up with the French revolution, and with the great +progress of the English nation in the wars incident to it. He was +carefully educated, and was six years at the University of Glasgow, where +he received prizes for composition. He went later to Germany, after being +graduated, to study Greek literature with Heyne. After some preliminary +essays in verse, he published the _Pleasures of Hope_ in 1799, before he +was twenty-two years old. It was one of the greatest successes of the age, +and has always since been popular. His subject was one of universal +interest; his verse was high-sounding; and his illustrations modern--such +as the fall of Poland--_Finis Poloniae_; and although there is some +turgidity, and some want of unity, making the work a series of poems +rather than a connected one, it was most remarkable for a youth of his +age. It was perhaps unfortunate for his future fame; for it led the world +to expect other and better things, which were not forthcoming. Travelling +on the continent in the next year, 1800, he witnessed the battle of +Hohenlinden from the monastery of St. Jacob, and wrote that splendid, +ringing battle-piece, which has been so often recited and parodied. From +that time he wrote nothing in poetry worthy of note, except songs and +battle odes, with one exception. Among his battle-pieces which have never +been equalled are _Ye Mariners of England_, _The Battle of the Baltic_, +and _Lochiel's Warning_. His _Exile of Erin_ has been greatly admired, and +was suspected at the time of being treasonable; the author, however, being +entirely innocent of such an intention, as he clearly showed. + +Besides reviews and other miscellanies, Campbell wrote _The Annals of +Great Britain, from the Accession of George III. to the Peace of Amiens_, +which is a graceful but not valuable work. In 1805 he received a pension +of L200 per annum. + +In 1809 he published his _Gertrude of Wyoming_--the exception referred +to--a touching story, written with exquisite grace, but not true to the +nature of the country or the Indian character. Like _Rasselas_, it is a +conventional English tale with foreign names and localities; but as an +English poem it has great merit; and it turned public attention to the +beautiful Valley of Wyoming, and the noble river which flows through it. + +As a critic, Campbell had great acquirements and gifts. These were +displayed in his elaborate _Specimens of the British Poets_, published in +1819, and in his _Lectures on Poetry_ before the Surrey Institution in +1820. In 1827 he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow; but +afterwards his literary efforts were by no means worthy of his reputation. +Few have read his _Pilgrim of Glencoe_; and all who have, are pained by +its manifestation of his failing powers. In fact, his was an unfinished +fame--a brilliant beginning, but no continuance. Sir Walter Scott has +touched it with a needle, when he says, "Campbell is in a manner a bugbear +to himself; the brightness of his early success is a detriment to all his +after efforts. He is afraid of the shadow which his own fame casts before +him." Byron placed him in the second category of the greatest living +English poets; but Byron was no critic. + +He also published a _Life of Petrarch_, and a _Life of Frederick the +Great_; and, in 1830, he edited the _New Monthly Magazine_. He died at +Boulogne, June 15th, 1844, after a long period of decay in mental power. + + +SAMUEL ROGERS.--Rogers was a companion or consort to Campbell, although +the two men were very different personally. As Campbell had borrowed from +Akenside and written _The Pleasures of Hope_, Rogers enriched our +literature with _The Pleasures of Memory_, a poem of exquisite +versification, more finished and unified than its pendent picture; +containing neither passion nor declamation, but polish, taste, and +tenderness. + +Rogers was born in a suburb of London, in 1762. His father was a banker; +and, although well educated, the poet was designed to succeed him, as he +did, being until his death a partner in the same banking-house. Early +enamored of poetry by reading Beattie's _Minstrel_, Rogers devoted all his +spare time to its cultivation, and with great and merited success. + +In 1786 he produced his _Ode to Superstition_, after the manner of Gray, +and in 1792 his _Pleasures of Memory_, which was enthusiastically +received, and which is polished to the extreme. In 1812 appeared a +fragment, _The Voyage of Columbus_, and in 1814 _Jacqueline_, in the same +volume with Byron's _Lara_. _Human Life_ was published in 1819. It is a +poem in the old style, (most of his poems are in the rhymed pentameter +couplet;) but in 1822 appeared his poem of _Italy_, in blank verse, which +has the charm of originality in presentation, freshness of personal +experience, picturesqueness in description, novelty in incident and story, +scholarship, and taste in art criticism. In short, it is not only the best +of his poems, but it has great merit besides that of the poetry. The story +of Ginevra is a masterpiece of cabinet art, and is universally +appreciated. With these works Rogers contented himself. Rich and +distinguished, his house became a place of resort to men of distinction +and taste in art: it was filled with articles of _vertu_; and Rogers the +poet lived long as Rogers the _virtuoso_. His breakfast parties were +particularly noted. His long, prosperous, and happy life was ended on the +18th December, 1855, at the age of ninety-two. + +The position of Rogers may be best illustrated in the words of Sir J. +Mackintosh, in which he says: "He appeared at the commencement of this +literary revolution, without paying court to the revolutionary tastes, or +seeking distinction by resistance to them." His works are not destined to +live freshly in the course of literature, but to the historical student +they mark in a very pleasing manner the characteristics of his age. + + +PERCY B. SHELLEY.--Revolutions never go backward; and one of the greatest +characters in this forward movement was a gifted, irregular, splendid, +unbalanced mind, who, while taking part in it, unconsciously, as one of +many, stands out also in a very singular individuality. + +Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on the 4th of August, 1792, at Fieldplace, +in Sussex, England. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley, and of +an ancient family, traced back, it is said, to Sir Philip Sidney. When +thirteen years old he was sent to Eton, where he began to display his +revolutionary tendencies by his resistance to the fagging system; and +where he also gave some earnest in writing of his future powers. At the +age of sixteen he entered University College, Oxford, and appeared as a +radical in most social, political, and religious questions. On account of +a paper entitled _The Necessity of Atheism_, he was expelled from the +university and went to London. In 1811 he made a runaway match with Miss +Harriet Westbrook, the daughter of the keeper of a coffee-house, which +brought down on him the wrath of his father. After the birth of two +children, a separation followed; and he eloped with Miss Godwin in 1814. +His wife committed suicide in 1816; and then the law took away from him +the control of his children, on the ground that he was an atheist. + +After some time of residence in England, he returned to Italy, where soon +after he met with a tragical end. Going in an open boat from Leghorn to +Spezzia, he was lost in a storm on the Mediterranean: his body was washed +on shore near the town of Via Reggio, where his remains were burned in +the presence of Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt, and others. The ashes were +afterwards buried in the Protestant cemetery at Rome in July, 1822. + +Shelley's principles were irrational and dangerous. He was a +transcendentalist of the extreme order, and a believer in the +perfectability of human nature. His works are full of his principles. The +earliest was _Queen Mab_, in which his profanity and atheism are clearly +set forth. It was first privately printed, and afterwards published in +1821. This was followed by _Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude_, in 1816. +In this he gives his own experience in the tragical career of the hero. +His longest and most pretentious poem was _The Revolt of Islam_, published +in 1819. It is in the Spenserian stanza. Also, in the same year, he +published _The Cenci_, a tragedy, a dark and gloomy story on what should +be a forbidden subject, but very powerfully written. In 1820 he also +published _The Prometheus Unbound_, which is full of his irreligious +views. His remaining works were smaller poems, among which may be noted +_Adonais_, and the odes _To the Skylark_ and _The Cloud_. + +In considering his character, we must first observe the power of his +imagination; it was so strong and all-absorbing, that it shut out the real +and the true. He was a man of extreme sensibility; and that sensibility, +hurt by common contact with things and persons around him, made him morbid +in morality and metaphysics. He was a polemic of the fiercest type; and +while he had an honest desire for reform of the evils that he saw about +him, it is manifest that he attacked existing institutions for the very +love of controversy. Bold, retired, and proud, without a spice of vanity, +if he has received harsh judgment from one half the critical world, who +had at least the claim that they were supporting pure morals and true +religion, his character has been unduly exalted by the other half, who +have mistaken reckless dogmatism for true nobility of soul. The most +charitable judgment is that of Moir, who says: "It is needless to disguise +the fact--and it accounts for all--his mind was diseased; he never knew, +even from boyhood, what it was to breathe the atmosphere of healthy +life--to have the _mens sana in corpore sano_." + +But of his poetical powers we must speak in a different manner. What he +has left, gives token that, had he lived, he would have been one of the +greatest modern poets. Thoroughly imbued with the Greek poetry, his +verse-power was wonderful, his language stately and learned without +pedantry, his inspiration was that of nature in her grandest moods, his +fancy always exalted; and he presents the air of one who produces what is +within him from an intense love of his art, without regard to the opinion +of the world around him,--which, indeed, he seems to have despised more +thoroughly than any other poet has ever done. Byron affected to despise +it; Shelley really did. + +We cannot help thinking that, had he lived after passing through the fiery +trial of youthful passions and disordered imagination, he might have +astonished the world with the grand spectacle of a convert to the good and +true, and an apostle in the cause of both. Of him an honest thinker has +said,--and there is much truth in the apparent paradox,--"No man who was +not a fanatic, had ever more natural piety than he; and his supposed +atheism is a mere metaphysical crotchet in which he was kept by the +affected scorn and malignity of dunces."[37] + + +JOHN KEATS.--Another singular illustration of eccentricity and abnormal +power in verse is found in the brief career of John Keats, the son of the +keeper of a livery-stable in London, who was born on the 29th October, +1795. + +Keats was a sensitive and pugnacious youth; and in 1810, after a very +moderate education, he was apprenticed to a surgeon; but the love of +poetry soon interfered with the surgery, and he began to read, not without +the spirit of emulation, the works of the great poets--Chaucer, Spenser, +Shakspeare, and Milton. After the issue of a small volume which attracted +little or no attention, he published his _Endymion_ in 1818, which, with +some similarity in temperament, he inscribed to the memory of Thomas +Chatterton. It is founded upon the Greek mythology, and is written in a +varied measure. Its opening line has been a familiar quotation since: + + A thing of beauty is a joy forever. + +It was assailed by all the critics; but particularly, although not +unfairly, by Jeffrey, in the _Edinburgh Review_. An article in +_Blackwood_, breathing the spirit of British caste, had the bad taste to +tell the young apothecary to go back to his galley-pots. The excessive +sensibility of Keats received a great shock from this treatment; but we +cannot help thinking that too much stress has been laid upon this in +saying that he was killed by it. This was more romantic than true. He was +by inheritance consumptive, and had lost a brother by that disease. Add to +this that his peculiar passions and longings took the form of fierce +hypochondria. + +With a decided originality, he was so impressible that there are in his +writings traces of the authors whom he was reading, if he did not mean to +make them models of style. + +In 1820 he published a volume containing _Lamia_, _Isabella_, and _The Eve +of St. Agnes_, and _Hyperion_, a fragment, which was received with far +greater favor by the reviewers. Keats was self-reliant, and seems to have +had something of that magnificent egotism which is not infrequently +displayed by great minds. + +The judicious verdict at last pronounced upon him may be thus epitomized: +he was a poet with fine fancy, original ideas, felicity of expression, but +full of faults due to his individuality and his youth; and his life was +not spared to correct these. In 1820 a hemorrhage of brilliant arterial +blood heralded the end. He himself said, "Bring me a candle; let me see +this blood;" and when it was brought, added, "I cannot be deceived in that +color; that drop is my death-warrant: I must die." By advice he went to +Italy, where he grew rapidly worse, and died on the 23d of February, 1821, +having left this for his epitaph: "Here lies one whose name was writ in +water." Thus dying at the age of twenty-four, he must be judged less for +what he was, than as an earnest of what he would have been. _The Eve of +St. Agnes_ is one of the most exquisite poems in any language, and is as +essentially allied to the simplicity and nature of the modern school of +poetry as his _Endymion_ is to the older school. Keats took part in what a +certain writer has called "the reaction against the barrel-organ style, +which had been reigning by a kind of sleepy, divine right for half a +century." + + + +OTHER WRITERS OF THE PERIOD. + + +In consonance with the Romantic school of Poetry, and as contributors to +the prose fiction of the period of Scott, Byron, and Moore, a number of +gifted women have made good their claim to the favor of the reading world, +and have left to us productions of no mean value. First among these we +mention Mrs. FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS, 1794-1835: early married to Captain +Hemans, of the army, she was not happy in the conjugal state, and lived +most of her after-life in retirement, separated from her husband. Her +style is harmonious, and her lyrical power excellent; she makes melody of +common-places; and the low key in which her poetry is pitched made her a +favorite with the multitude. There is special fervor in her religious +poems. Most of her writings are fugitive and occasional pieces. Among the +longer poems are _The Forest Sanctuary_, _Dartmoor_, (a lyric poem,) and +_The Restoration of the works of Art to Italy_. _The Siege of Valencia_ +and _The Vespers of Palermo_ are plays on historical subjects. There is a +sameness in her poetry which tires; but few persons can be found who do +not value highly such a descriptive poem as _Bernardo del Carpio_, +conceived in the very spirit of the Spanish Ballads, and such a sad and +tender moralizing as that found in _The Hour of Death_: + + Leaves have their time to fall, + And flowers to wither, at the north-wind's breath, + And stars to set--but all, + Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death! + +Such poems as these will live when the greater part of what she has +written has been forgotten, because its ministry has been accomplished. + +_Mrs. Caroline Elizabeth Norton_, (born in 1808, still living:) she is the +daughter of Thomas Sheridan, and the grand-daughter of the famous R. B. +Sheridan. She married the Hon. Mr. Norton, and, like Mrs. Hemans, was +unhappy in her union. As a poet, she has masculine gifts combined with +feminine grace and tenderness. Her principal poems are _The Sorrows of +Rosalie_, _The Undying One_, (founded on the legend of _The Wandering +Jew_,) and _The Dream_. Besides these her facile pen has produced a +multitude of shorter pieces, which have been at once popular. Her claims +to enduring fame are not great, and she must be content with a present +popularity. + +_Letitia Elizabeth Landon_, 1802-1839: more gifted, and yet not as well +trained as either of the preceding, Miss Landon (L. E. L.) has given vent +to impassioned sentiment in poetry and prose. Besides many smaller pieces, +she wrote _The Improvisatrice_, _The Troubadour_, _The Golden Violet_, and +several prose romances, among which the best are _Romance and Reality_, +and _Ethel Churchill_. She wrote too rapidly to finish with elegance; and +her earlier pieces are disfigured by this want of finish, and by a lack of +cool judgment; but her later writings are better matured and more correct. +She married Captain Maclean, the governor of Cape Coast Castle, in Africa, +and died there suddenly, from an overdose of strong medicine which she was +accustomed to take for a nervous affection. + +_Maria Edgeworth_, 1767-1849: she was English born, but resided most of +her life in Ireland. Without remarkable genius, she may be said to have +exercised a greater influence over her period than any other woman who +lived in it. There is an aptitude and a practical utility in her stories +which are felt in all circles. Her works for children are delightful and +formative. Every one has read and re-read with pleasure the interesting +and instructive stories contained in _The Parents' Assistant_. And what +these are to the children, her novels are to those of larger growth. They +are eighteen in number, and are illustrative of the society, fashion, and +morals of the day; and always inculcate a good moral. Among them we may +particularize _Forester_, _The Absentee_, and _The Modern Griselda_. All +critics, even those who deny her great genius, agree in their estimate of +the moral value of her stories, every one of which is at once a +portraiture of her age and an instructive lesson to it. The feminine +delicacy with which she offers counsel and administers reproof gives a +great charm to, and will insure the permanent popularity of, her +productions. + +_Jane Austen_, 1775-1817: as a novelist she occupied a high place in her +day, but her stories are gradually sinking into an historic repose, from +which the coming generations will not care to disturb them. _Pride and +Prejudice_ and _Sense and Sensibility_ are perhaps the best of her +productions, and are valuable as displaying the society and the nature +around her with delicacy and tact. + +_Mary Ferrier_, 1782-1855: like Miss Austen, she wrote novels of existing +society, of which _The Marriage_ and _The Inheritance_ are the best known. +They were great favorites with Sir Walter Scott, who esteemed Miss +Ferrier's genius highly: they are little read at the present time. + +_Robert Pollok_, 1799-1827: a Scottish minister, who is chiefly known by +his long poem, cast in a Miltonic mould, entitled _The Course of Time_. It +is singularly significant of religious fervor, delicate health, youthful +immaturity, and poetic yearnings. It abounds in startling effects, which +please at first from their novelty, but will not bear a calm, critical +analysis. On its first appearance, _The Course of Time_ was immensely +popular; but it has steadily lost favor, and its highest flights are +"unearthly flutterings" when compared with the powerful soarings of +Milton's imagination and the gentle harmonies of Cowper's religious muse. +Pollok died early of consumption: his youth and his disease account for +the faults and defects of his poem. + +_Leigh Hunt_, 1784-1859: a novelist, a poet, an editor, a critic, a +companion of literary men, Hunt occupies a distinct position among the +authors of his day. Wielding a sensible and graceful rather than a +powerful pen, he has touched almost every subject in the range of our +literature, and has been the champion and biographer of numerous literary +friends. He was the companion of Byron, Shelley, Keats, Lamb, Coleridge, +and many other authors. He edited at various times several radical +papers--_The Examiner_, _The Reflector_, _The Indicator_, and _The +Liberal_; for a satire upon the regent, published in the first, he was +imprisoned for two years. Among his poems _The Story of Rimini_ is the +best. His _Legend of Florence_ is a beautiful drama. There are few pieces +containing so small a number of lines, and yet enshrining a full story, +which have been as popular as his _Abou Ben Adhem_. Always cheerful, +refined and delicate in style, appreciative of others, Hunt's place in +English literature is enviable, if not very exalted; like the atmosphere, +his writings circulate healthfully and quietly around efforts of greater +poets than himself. + +_James Hogg_, 1770-1835: a self-taught rustic, with little early +schooling, except what the shepherd-boy could draw from nature, he wrote +from his own head and heart without the canons and the graces of the +Schools. With something of the homely nature of Burns, and the Scottish +romance of Walter Scott, he produced numerous poems which are stamped with +true genius. He catered to Scottish feeling, and began his fame by the +stirring lines beginning; + + My name is Donald McDonald, + I live in the Highlands so grand. + +His best known poetical works are _The Queen's Wake_, containing seventeen +stories in verse, of which the most striking is that of _Bonny Kilmeny_. +He was always called "The Ettrick Shepherd." Wilson says of _The Queen's +Wake_ that "it is a garland of fresh flowers bound with a band of rushes +from the moor;" a very fitting and just view of the work of one who was at +once poet and rustic. + +_Allan Cunningham_, 1785-1842; like Hogg, in that as a writer he felt the +influence of both Burns and Scott, Cunningham was the son of a gardener, +and a self-made man. In early life he was apprenticed to a mason. He wrote +much fugitive poetry, among which the most popular pieces are, _A Wet +Sheet and a Flowing Sea_, _Gentle Hugh Herries_, and _It's Hame and it's +Hame_. Among his stories are _Traditional Tales of the Peasantry_, _Lord +Roldan_, and _The Maid of Elwar_. His position for a time, as clerk and +overseer of Chantrey's establishment, gave him the idea of writing _The +Lives of Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects_. He was a +voluminous author; his poetry is of a high lyrical order, and true to +nature; but his prose will not retain its place in public favor: it is at +once diffuse and obscure. + +_Thomas Hope_, 1770-1831: an Amsterdam merchant, who afterwards resided in +London, and who illustrated the progress of knowledge concerning the East +by his work entitled, _Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greek_. +Published anonymously, it excited a great interest, and was ascribed by +the public to Lord Byron. The intrigues and adventures of the hero are +numerous and varied, and the book has great literary merit; but it is +chiefly of historical value in that it describes persons and scenes in +Greece and Turkey, countries in which Hope travelled at a time when few +Englishmen visited them. + +_William Beckford_, 1760-1844: he was the son of an alderman, who became +Lord Mayor of London. After a careful education, he found himself the +possessor of a colossal fortune. He travelled extensively, and wrote +sketches of his travels. His only work of importance is that called +_Vathek_, in which he describes the gifts, the career, and the fate of the +Caliph of that name, who was the grandson of the celebrated Haroun al +Raschid. His palaces are described in a style of Oriental gorgeousness; +his temptations, his lapses from virtue, his downward progress, are +presented with dramatic power; and there is nothing in our literature more +horribly real and terror-striking than the _Hall of Eblis_,--that hell +where every heart was on fire, where "the Caliph Vathek, who, for the sake +of empty pomp and forbidden power, had sullied himself with a thousand +crimes, became a prey to grief without end and remorse without +mitigation." Many of Beckford's other writings are blamed for their +voluptuous character; the last scene in _Vathek_ is, on the other hand, a +most powerful and influential sermon. Beckford was eccentric and unsocial: +he lived for some time in Portugal, but returned to England, and built a +luxurious palace at Bath. + +_William Roscoe_, 1753-1831: a merchant and banker of Liverpool. He is +chiefly known by his _Life of Lorenzo de Medici_, and _The Life and +Pontificate of Leo X._, both of which contained new and valuable +information. They are written in a pleasing style, and with a liberal and +charitable spirit as to religious opinions. Since they appeared, history +has developed new material and established more exacting canons, and the +studies of later writers have already superseded these pleasing works. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +WORDSWORTH, AND THE LAKE SCHOOL. + + + The New School. William Wordsworth. Poetical Canons. The Excursion and + Sonnets. An Estimate. Robert Southey. His Writings. Historical Value. + S. T. Coleridge. Early Life. His Helplessness. Hartley and H. N. + Coleridge. + + + +THE NEW SCHOOL. + + +In the beginning of the year 1820 George III. died, after a very long--but +in part nominal--reign of fifty-nine years, during a large portion of +which he was the victim of insanity, while his son, afterwards George IV., +administered the regency of the kingdom. + +George III. did little, either by example or by generosity, to foster +literary culture: his son, while nominally encouraging authors, did much +to injure the tone of letters in his day. But literature was now becoming +independent and self-sustaining: it needed to look no longer wistfully for +a monarch's smile: it cared comparatively little for the court: it issued +its periods and numbers directly to the English people: it wrote for them +and of them; and when, in 1830, the last of the Georges died, after an +ill-spent life, in which his personal pleasures had concerned him far more +than the welfare of his people, former prescriptions and prejudices +rapidly passed away; and the new epoch in general improvement and literary +culture, which had already begun its course, received a marvellous +impulsion. + +The great movement, in part unconscious, from the artificial rhetoric of +the former age towards the simplicity of nature, was now to receive its +strongest propulsion: it was to be preached like a crusade; to be reduced +to a system, and set forth for the acceptance of the poetical world: it +was to meet with criticism, and even opprobrium, because it had the +arrogance to declare that old things had entirely passed away, and that +all things must conform themselves to the new doctrine. The high-priest of +this new poetical creed was Wordsworth: he proposed and expounded it; he +wrote according to its tenets; he defended his illustrations against the +critics by elaborate prefaces and essays. He boldly faced the clamor of a +world in arms; and what there was real and valuable in his works has +survived the fierce battle, and gathered around him an army of proselytes, +champions, and imitators. + + +WORDSWORTH.--William Wordsworth was the son of the law-agent to the Earl +of Lonsdale; he was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, in 1770. It was a +gifted family. His brother, Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, was Master of +Trinity College. Another, the captain of an East Indiaman, was lost at sea +in his own ship. He had also a clever sister, who was the poet's friend +and companion as long as she lived. + +Wordsworth and his companions have been called the Lake Poets, because +they resided among the English lakes. Perhaps too much has been claimed +for the Lake country, as giving inspiration to the poets who lived there: +it is beautiful, but not so surpassingly so as to create poets as its +children. The name is at once arbitrary and convenient. + +Wordsworth was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, which he entered +in 1787; but whenever he could escape from academic restraints, he +indulged his taste for pedestrian excursions: during these his ardent mind +became intimate and intensely sympathetic with nature, as may be seen in +his _Evening Walk_, in the sketch of the skater, and in the large +proportion of description in all his poems. + +It is truer of him than perhaps of any other author, that the life of the +man is the best history of the poet. All that is eventful and interesting +in his life may be found translated in his poetry. Milton had said that +the poet's life should be a grand poem. Wordsworth echoed the thought: + + If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven, + Then to the measure of that Heaven-born light, + Shine, Poet! in thy place, and be content. + +He was not distinguished at college; the record of his days there may be +found in _The Prelude_, which he calls _The Growth of a Poet's Mind_. He +was graduated in 1791, with the degree of B.A., and went over to France, +where he, among others, was carried away with enthusiasm for the French +Revolution, and became a thorough Radical. That he afterwards changed his +political views, should not be advanced in his disfavor; for many ardent +and virtuous minds were hoping to see the fulfilment of recent predictions +in greater freedom to man. Wordsworth erred in a great company, and from +noble sympathies. He returned to England in 1792, with his illusions +thoroughly dissipated. The workings of his mind are presented in _The +Prelude_. + +In the same year he published _Descriptive Sketches_, and _An Evening +Walk_, which attracted little attention. A legacy of L900 left him by his +friend Calvert, in 1795, enabled the frugal poet to devote his life to +poetry, and particularly to what he deemed the emancipation of poetry from +the fetters of the mythic and from the smothering ornaments of rhetoric. + +In Nov., 1797, he went to London, taking with him a play called _The +Borderers_: it was rejected by the manager. In the autumn of 1798, he +published his _Lyrical Ballads_, which contained, besides his own verses, +a poem by an anonymous friend. The poem was _The Ancient Mariner_; the +friend, Coleridge. In the joint operation, Wordsworth took the part based +on nature; Coleridge illustrated the supernatural. The _Ballads_ were +received with undisguised contempt; nor, by reason of its company, did +_The Ancient Mariner_ have a much better hearing. Wordsworth preserved his +equanimity, and an implicit faith in himself. + +After a visit to Germany, he settled in 1799 at Grasmere, in the Lake +country, and the next year republished the _Lyrical Ballads_ with a new +volume, both of which passed to another edition in 1802. With this +edition, Wordsworth ran up his revolutionary flag and nailed it to the +mast. + + +POETICAL CANONS.--It would be impossible as well as unnecessary to attempt +an analysis of even the principal poems of so voluminous a writer; but it +is important to state in substance the poetical canons he laid down. They +may be found in the prefaces to the various editions of his _Ballads_, and +may be thus epitomized: + +I. He purposely chose his incidents and situations from common life, +because in it our elementary feelings coexist in a state of simplicity. + +II. He adopts the _language_ of common life, because men hourly +communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is +originally derived; and because, being less under the influence of social +vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated +expressions. + +III. He asserts that the language of poetry is in no way different, except +in respect to metre, from that of good prose. Poetry can boast of no +celestial _ichor_ that distinguishes her vital juices from those of prose: +the same human blood circulates through the veins of them both. In works +of imagination and sentiment, in proportion as ideas and feelings are +valuable, whether the composition be in prose or verse, they require and +exact one and the same language. + +Such are the principal changes proposed by Wordsworth; and we find Herder, +the German poet and metaphysician, agreeing with him in his estimate of +poetic language. Having thus propounded his tenets, he wrote his earlier +poems as illustrations of his views, affecting a simplicity in subject and +diction that was sometimes simply ludicrous. It was an affected +simplicity: he was simple with a purpose; he wrote his poems to suit his +canons, and in that way his simplicity became artifice. + +Jeffrey and other critics rose furiously against the poems which +inculcated such doctrines. "This will never do" were the opening words of +an article in the _Edinburgh Review_. One of the _Rejected Addresses_, +called _The Baby's Debut, by W. W._, (spoken in the character of Nancy +Lake, eight years old, who is drawn upon the stage in a go-cart,) parodies +the ballads thus: + + What a large floor! 'tis like a town; + The carpet, when they lay it down, + Won't hide it, I'll be bound: + And there's a row of lamps, my eye! + How they do blaze: I wonder why + They keep them on the ground? + +And this, Jeffrey declares, is a flattering imitation of Wordsworth's +style. + +The day for depreciating Wordsworth has gone by; but calmer critics must +still object to his poetical views in their entireness. In binding all +poetry to his _dicta_, he ignores that _mythus_ in every human mind, that +longing after the heroic, which will not be satisfied with the simple and +commonplace. One realm in which Poetry rules with an enchanted sceptre is +the land of reverie and day-dream,--a land of fancy, in which genius +builds for itself castles at once radiant and, for the time, real; in +which the beggar is a king, the poor man a Croesus, the timid man a hero: +this is the fairy-land of the imagination. Among Wordsworth's poems are a +number called _Poems of the Imagination_. He wrote learnedly about the +imagination and fancy; but the truth is, that of all the great +poets,--and, in spite of his faults, he is a great poet,--there is none so +entirely devoid of imagination. What has been said of the heroic may be +applied to wit, so important an element in many kinds of poetry; he +ignores it because he was without it totally. If only humble life and +commonplace incidents and unfigured rhetoric and bald language are the +proper materials for the poetry, what shall be said of all literature, +ancient and modern, until Wordsworth's day? + + +THE EXCURSION AND SONNETS.--With his growing fame and riper powers, he had +deviated from his own principles, especially of language; and his peaceful +epic, _The Excursion_, is full of difficult theology, exalted philosophy, +and glowing rhetoric. His only attempt to adhere to his system presents +the incongruity of putting these subjects into the lips of men, some of +whom, the Scotch pedler for example, are not supposed to be equal to their +discussion. In his language, too, he became far more polished and +melodious. The young writer of the _Lyrical Ballads_ would have been +shocked to know that the more famous Wordsworth could write + + A golden lustre slept upon the hills; + +or speak of + + A pupil in the many-chambered school, + Where superstition weaves her airy dreams. + +_The Excursion_, although long, is unfinished, and is only a portion of +what was meant to be his great poem--_The Recluse_. It contains poetry of +the highest order, apart from its mannerism and its improbable narrative; +but the author is to all intents a different man from that of the +_Ballads_: as different as the conservative Wordsworth of later years was +from the radical youth who praised the French Revolution of 1791. As a +whole, _The Excursion_ is accurate, philosophic, and very dull, so that +few readers have the patience to complete its perusal, while many enjoy +its beautiful passages. + +To return to the events of his life. In 1802 he married; and, after +several changes of residence, he finally purchased a place called +Rydal-mount in 1813, where he spent the remainder of his long, learned, +and pure life. Long-standing dues from the Earl of Lonsdale to his father +were paid; and he received the appointment of collector at Whitehaven and +stamp distributor for Cumberland. Thus he had an ample income, which was +increased in 1842 by a pension of L300 per annum. In 1843 he was made +poet-laureate. He died in 1850, a famous poet, his reputation being due +much more to his own clever individuality than to the poetic principles he +asserted. + +His ecclesiastical sonnets compare favorably with any that have been +written in English. Landor, no friend of the poet, says: "Wordsworth has +written more fine sonnets than are to be met with in the language +besides." + + +AN ESTIMATE.--The great amount of verse Wordsworth has written is due to +his estimate of the proper uses of poetry. Where other men would have +written letters, journals, or prose sketches, his ready metrical pen wrote +in verse: an excursion to England or Scotland, _Yarrow Visited and +Revisited_, journeys in Germany and Italy, are all in verse. He exhibits +in them all great humanity and benevolence, and is emphatically and +without cant the poet of religion and morality. Coleridge--a poet and an +attached friend, perhaps a partisan--claims for him, in his _Biographia +Literaria_, "purity of language, freshness, strength, _curiosa felicitas_ +of diction, truth to nature in his imagery, imagination in the highest +degree, but faulty fancy." We have already ventured to deny him the +possession of imagination: the rest of his friend's eulogium is not +undeserved. He had and has many ardent admirers, but none more ardent than +himself. He constantly praised his own verses, and declared that they +would ultimately conquer all prejudices and become universally popular--an +opinion that the literary world does not seem disposed to adopt. + + +ROBERT SOUTHEY.--Next to Wordsworth, and, with certain characteristic +differences, of the same school, but far beneath him in poetical power, is +Robert Southey, who was born at Bristol, August 12, 1774. He was the son +of a linen-draper in that town. He entered Balliol College, Oxford, in +1792, but left without taking his degree. In 1794 he published a radical +poem on the subject of _Wat Tyler_, the sentiments of which he was +afterwards very willing to repudiate. With the enthusiastic instinct of a +poet, he joined with Wordsworth and Coleridge in a scheme called +_Pantisocrasy_; that is, they were to go together to the banks of the +Susquehanna, in a new country of which they knew nothing except by +description; and there they were to realize a dream of nature in the +golden age--a Platonic republic, where everything was to be in common, and +from which vice and selfishness were to be forever excluded. But these +young neo-platonists had no money, and so the scheme was given up. + +In 1795 he married Miss Fricker, a milliner of Bristol, and made a voyage +to Lisbon, where his uncle was chaplain to the British Factory. He led an +unsettled life until 1804, when he established himself at Keswick in the +Lake country, where he spent his life. He was a literary man and nothing +else, and perhaps one of the most industrious writers that ever held a +literary pen. Much of the time, indeed, he wrote for magazines and +reviews, upon whatever subject was suggested to him, to win his daily +bread. + + +HIS WRITINGS.--After the publication of _Wat Tyler_ he wrote an epic poem +called _Joan of Arc_, in 1796, which was crude and severely criticized. +After some other unimportant essays, he inaugurated his purpose of +illustrating the various oriental mythologies, by the publication of +_Thalaba the Destroyer_, which was received with great disfavor at the +time, and which first coupled his name with that of Wordsworth as of the +school of Lake poets. It is in irregular metre, which at first has the +charm of variety, but which afterwards loses its effect, on account of its +broken, disjointed versification. In 1805 appeared _Madoc_--a poem based +upon the subject of early Welsh discoveries in America. It is a long poem +in two parts: the one descriptive of _Madoc in Wales_ and the other of +_Madoc in Aztlan_. Besides many miscellaneous works in prose, we notice +the issue, in 1810, of _The Curse of Kehama_--the second of the great +mythological poems referred to. + +Among his prose works must be mentioned _The Chronicle of the Cid_, _The +History of Brazil_, _The Life of Nelson_, and _The History of the +Peninsular War_. A little work called _The Doctor_ has been greatly liked +in America. + +Southey wrote innumerable reviews and magazine articles; and, indeed, +tried his pen at every sort of literary work. His diction--in prose, at +least--is almost perfect, and his poetical style not unpleasing. His +industry, his learning, and his care in production must be acknowledged; +but his poems are very little read, and, in spite of his own prophecies, +are doomed to the shelf rather than retained upon the table. Like +Wordsworth, he was one of the most egotistical of men; he had no greater +admirer than Robert Southey; and had his exertions not been equal to his +self-laudation, he would have been intolerable. + +The most singular instance of perverted taste and unmerited eulogy is to +be found in his _Vision of Judgment_, which, as poet-laureate, he produced +to the memory of George the Third. The severest criticism upon it is Lord +Byron's _Vision of Judgment_--reckless, but clever and trenchant. The +consistency and industry of Southey's life caused him to be appointed +poet-laureate upon the death of Pye; and in 1835, having declined a +baronetcy, he received an annual pension of L300. Having lost his first +wife in 1837, he married Miss Bowles, the poetess, in 1839; but soon after +his mind began to fail, and he had reached a state of imbecility which +ended in death on the 21st of March, 1843. In 1837, at the age of +sixty-three, he collected and edited his complete poetical works, with +copious and valuable historical notes. + + +HISTORICAL VALUE.--It is easy to see in what manner Southey, as a literary +man, has reflected the spirit of the age. Politically, he exhibits +partisanship from Radical to Tory, which may be clearly discerned by +comparing his _Wat Tyler_ with his _Vision of Judgment_ and his _Odes_. As +to literary and poetic canons, his varied metre, and his stories in the +style of Wordsworth, show that he had abandoned all former schools. In his +histories and biographies he is professedly historical; and in his epics +he shows that greater range of learned investigation which is so +characteristic of that age. The _Curse of Kehama_ and _Thalaba_ would have +been impossible in a former age. He himself objected to be ranked with the +Lakers; but Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge have too much in common, +notwithstanding much individual difference, not to be classed together as +innovators and asserters, whether we call them Lakers or something else. + +It was on the occasion of his publishing _Thalaba_, that his name was +first coupled with that of Wordsworth. His own words are, "I happened to +be residing at Keswick when Mr. Wordsworth and I began to be acquainted. +Mr. Coleridge also had resided there; and this was reason enough for +classing us together as a school of poets." There is not much external +resemblance, it is true, between _Thalaba_ and the _Excursion_; but the +same poetical motives will cause both to remain unread by the +multitude--unnatural comparisons, recondite theology, and a great lack of +common humanity. That there was a mutual admiration is found in Southey's +declaration that Wordsworth's sonnets contain the profoundest poetical +wisdom, and that the _Preface_ is the quintessence of the philosophy of +poetry. + + +SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.--More individual, more eccentric, less +commonplace, in short, a far greater genius than either of his fellows, +Coleridge accomplished less, had less system, was more visionary and +fragmentary than they: he had an amorphous mind of vast proportions. The +man, in his life and conversation, was great; the author has left little +of value which will last when the memory of his person has disappeared. He +was born on the 21st of October, 1772, at Ottery St. Mary. His father was +a clergyman and vicar of the parish. He received his education at Christ's +Hospital in London, where, among others, he had Charles Lamb as a comrade, +and formed with him a friendship which lasted as long as they both lived. + + +EARLY LIFE.--There he was an erratic student, but always a great reader; +and while he was yet a lad, at the age of fourteen, he might have been +called a learned man. + +He had little self-respect, and from stress of poverty he intended to +apprentice himself to a shoemaker; but friends who admired his learning +interfered to prevent this, and he was sent with a scholarship to Jesus +College, Cambridge, in 1791. Like Wordsworth and Southey, he was an +intense Radical at first; and on this account left college without his +degree in 1793. He then enlisted as a private in the 15th Light Dragoons; +but, although he was a favorite with his comrades, whose letters he wrote, +he made a very poor soldier. Having written a Latin sentence under his +saddle on the stable wall, his superior education was recognized; and he +was discharged from the service after only four months' duty. Eager for +adventure, he joined Southey and Lloyd in their scheme of pantisocracy, +to which we have already referred; and when that failed for want of money, +he married the sister-in-law of Southey--Miss Fricker, of Bristol. He was +at this time a Unitarian as well as a Radical, and officiated frequently +as a Unitarian minister. His sermons were extremely eloquent. He had +already published some juvenile poems, and a drama on the fall of +Robespierre, and had endeavored to establish a periodical called _The +Watchman_. He was always erratic, and dependent upon the patronage of his +friends; in short, he always presented the sad spectacle of a man who +could not take care of himself. + + +HIS WRITINGS.--After a residence at Stowey, in Somersetshire, where he +wrote some of his finest poems, among which were the first part of +_Christabel_, _The Ancient Mariner_, and _Remorse_, a tragedy, he was +enabled, through the kindness of friends, to go, in 1798, to Germany, +where he spent fourteen months in the study of literature and metaphysics. +In the year 1800 he returned to the Lake country, where he for some time +resided with Southey at Keswick; Wordsworth being then at Grasmere. Then +was established as a fixed fact in English literature the Lake school of +poetry. These three poets acted and reacted upon each other. From having +been great Radicals they became Royalists, and Coleridge's Unitarian +belief was changed into orthodox churchmanship. His translation of +Schiller's _Wallenstein_ should rather be called an expansion of that +drama, and is full of his own poetic fancies. After writing for some time +for the _Morning Post_, he went to Malta as the Secretary to the Governor +in 1804, at a salary of L800 per annum. But his restless spirit soon drove +him back to Grasmere, and to desultory efforts to make a livelihood. + +In 1816 he published the two parts of _Christabel_, an unfinished poem, +which, for the wildness of the conceit, exquisite imagery, and charming +poetic diction, stands quite alone in English literature. In a periodical +called _The Friend_, which he issued, are found many of his original +ideas; but it was discontinued after twenty-seven numbers. His _Biographia +Literaria_, published in 1817, contains valuable sketches of literary men, +living and dead, written with rare critical power. + +In his _Aids to Reflection_, published in 1825, are found his metaphysical +tenets; his _Table-Talk_ is also of great literary value; but his lectures +on Shakspeare show him to have been the most remarkable critic of the +great dramatist whom the world has produced. + +It has already been mentioned that when the first volume of Wordsworth's +_Lyrical Ballads_ was published, _The Ancient Mariner_ was included in it, +as a poem by an anonymous friend. It had been the intention of Coleridge +to publish another poem in the second volume; but it was considered +incongruous, and excluded. That poem was the exquisite ballad entitled +_Love_, or _Genevieve_. + + +HIS HELPLESSNESS.--With no home of his own, he lived by visiting his +friends; left his wife and children to the support of others, and seemed +incapable of any other than this shifting and shiftless existence. This +natural imbecility was greatly increased during a long period by his +constant use of opium, which kept him, a greater portion of his life, in a +world of dreams. He was fortunate in having a sincere and appreciative +friend in Mr. Gilman, surgeon, near London, to whose house he went in +1816; and where, with the exception of occasional visits elsewhere, he +resided until his death in 1834. If the Gilmans needed compensation for +their kindness, they found it in the celebrity of their visitor; even +strangers made pilgrimages to the house at Highgate to hear the rhapsodies +of "the old man eloquent." Coleridge once asked Charles Lamb if he had +ever heard him preach, referring to the early days when he was a Unitarian +preacher. "I never heard you do anything else," was the answer he +received. He was the prince of talkers, and talked more coherently and +connectedly than he wrote: drawing with ease from the vast stores of his +learning, he delighted men of every degree. While of the Lake school of +poetry, and while in some sort the creature of his age and his +surroundings, his eccentricities gave him a rare independence and +individuality. A giant in conception, he was a dwarf in execution; and +something of the interest which attaches to a _lusus naturae_ is the chief +claim to future reputation which belongs to S. T. C. + + +HARTLEY COLERIDGE, his son, (1796-1849,) inherited much of his father's +talents; but was an eccentric, deformed, and, for a time, an intemperate +being. His principal writings were monographs on various subjects, and +articles for Blackwood. HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE, (1800-1843,) a nephew and +son-in-law of the poet, was also a gifted man, and a profound classical +scholar. His introduction to the study of the great classic poets, +containing his analysis of Homer's epics, is a work of great merit. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE REACTION IN POETRY. + + + Alfred Tennyson. Early Works. The Princess. Idyls of the King. + Elizabeth B. Browning. Aurora Leigh. Her Faults. Robert Browning. Other + Poets. + + + +TENNYSON AND THE BROWNINGS. + + +ALFRED TENNYSON.--It is the certain fate of all extravagant movements, +social or literary, to invite criticism and opposition, and to be followed +by reaction. The school of Wordsworth was the violent protest against what +remained of the artificial in poetry; but it had gone, as we have seen, to +the other extreme. The affected simplicity, and the bald diction which it +inculcated, while they raised up an army of feeble imitators, also +produced in the ranks of poetry a vindication of what was good in the old; +new theories, and a very different estimate of poetical subjects and +expression. The first poet who may be looked upon as leading the +reactionary party is Alfred Tennyson. He endeavored out of all the schools +to synthesize a new one. In many of his descriptive pieces he followed +Wordsworth: in his idyls, he adheres to the romantic school; in his +treatment and diction, he stands alone. + + +EARLY EFFORTS.--He was the son of a clergyman of Lincolnshire, and was +born at Somersby, in 1810. After a few early and almost unknown efforts in +verse, the first volume bearing his name was issued in 1830, while he was +yet an under-graduate at Cambridge: it had the simple title--_Poems, +chiefly Lyrical_. In their judgment of this new poet, the critics were +almost as much at fault as they had been when the first efforts of +Wordsworth appeared; but for very different reasons. Wordsworth was simple +and intensely realistic. Tennyson was mystic and ideal: his diction was +unusual; his little sketches conveyed an almost hidden moral; he seemed to +inform the reader that, in order to understand his poetry, it must be +studied; the meaning does not sparkle upon the surface; the language +ripples, the sense flows in an undercurrent. His first essays exhibit a +mania for finding strange words, or coining new ones, which should give +melody, to his verse. Whether this was a process of development or not, he +has in his later works gotten rid of much of this apparent mannerism, +while he has retained, and even improved, his harmony. He exhibits a rare +power of concentration, as opposed to the diffusiveness of his +contemporaries. Each of his smaller poems is a thought, briefly, but +forcibly and harmoniously, expressed. If it requires some exertion to +comprehend it, when completely understood it becomes a valued possession. + +It is difficult to believe that such poems as _Mariana_ and _Recollections +of the Arabian Nights_ were the production of a young man of twenty. + +In 1833 he published his second volume, containing additional poems, among +which were _Enone_, _The May Queen_, _The Lotos-Eaters_, and _A Dream of +Fair Women_. _The May Queen_ became at once a favorite, because every one +could understand it: it touched a chord in every heart; but his rarest +power of dreamy fancy is displayed in such pieces as _The Arabian Nights_ +and the _Lotos-Eaters_. No greater triumph has been achieved in the realm +of fancy than that in the court of good Haroun al Raschid, and amid the +Lotos dreams of the Nepenthe coast. These productions were not received +with the favor which they merited, and so he let the critics alone for +nine years. In 1842 he again appeared in print, with, among other poems, +the exquisite fragment of the _Morte d'Arthur_, _Godiva_, _St. Agnes_, +_Sir Galahad_, _Lady Clara Vere de Vere_, _The Talking Oak_, and chief, +perhaps, of all, _Locksley Hall_. In these poems he is not only a poet, +but a philosopher. Each of these is an extended apothegm, presenting not +only rules of life, but mottoes and maxims for daily use. They are +soliloquies of the nineteenth century, and representations of its men and +conditions. + + +THE PRINCESS.--In 1847 he published _The Princess, a Medley_--a pleasant +and suggestive poem on woman's rights, in which exquisite songs are +introduced, which break the monotony of the blank verse, and display his +rare lyric power. The _Bugle Song_ is among the finest examples of the +adaptation of sound to sense in the language; and there is nothing more +truthful and touching than the short verses beginning, + + Home they brought her warrior dead. + +Arthur Hallam, a gifted son of the distinguished historian, who was +betrothed to Tennyson's sister, died young; and the poet has mourned and +eulogized him in a long poem entitled _In Memoriam_. It contains one +hundred and twenty-nine four-lined stanzas, and is certainly very musical +and finished; but it is rather the language of calm philosophy elaborately +studied, than that of a poignant grief. It is not, in our judgment, to be +compared with his shorter poems, and is generally read and overpraised +only by his more ardent admirers, who discover a crystal tear of genuine +emotion in every stanza. + + +IDYLS OF THE KING.--The fragment on the death of Arthur, already +mentioned, foreshadowed a purpose of the poet's mind to make the legends +of that almost fabulous monarch a vehicle for modern philosophy in English +verse. In 1859 appeared a volume containing the _Idyls of the King_. They +are rather minor epics than idyls. The simple materials are taken from the +Welsh and French chronicles, and are chiefly of importance in that they +cater to that English taste which finds national greatness typified in +Arthur. It had been a successful stratagem with Spenser in _The Fairy +Queen_, and has served Tennyson equally well in the _Idyls_. It unites the +ages of fable and of chivalry; it gives a noble lineage to heroic deeds. +The best is the last--_Guinevere_--almost the perfection of pathos in +poetry. The picturesqueness of his descriptions is evinced by the fact +that Gustave Dore has chosen these _Idyls_ as a subject for illustration, +and has been eminently successful in his labor. + +_Maud_, which appeared in 1855, notwithstanding some charming lyrical +passages, may be considered Tennyson's failure. In 1869 he completed _The +Idyls_ by publishing _The Coming of Arthur_, _The Holy Grail_, and +_Pelleas and Etteare_. He also finished the _Morte d'Arthur_, and put it +in its proper place as _The Passing of Arthur_. + +Tennyson was appointed poet-laureate upon the death of Wordsworth, in +1850, and receives besides a pension of L200. He lived for a long time in +great retirement at Farringford, on the Isle of Wight; but has lately +removed to Petersfield, in Hampshire. It may be reasonably doubted whether +this hermit-life has not injured his poetical powers; whether, great as he +really is, a little inhalation of the air of busy every-day life would not +have infused more of nature and freshness into his verse. Among his few +_Odes_ are that on the death of the Duke of Wellington, the dedication of +his poems to the Queen, and his welcome to Alexandra, Princess of Wales, +all of which are of great excellence. His _Charge of the Light Brigade_, +at Balaclava, while it gave undue currency to that stupid military +blunder, must rank as one of the finest battle-lyrics in the language. + +The poetry of Tennyson is eminently representative of the Victorian age. +He has written little; but that little marks a distinct era in +versification--great harmony untrammelled by artificial _correctness_; and +in language, a search for novelty to supply the wants and correct the +faults of the poetic vocabulary. He is national in the _Idyls_; +philosophic in _The Two Voices_, and similar poems. The _Princess_ is a +gentle satire on the age; and though, in striving for the reputation of +originality, he sometimes mistakes the original for the beautiful, he is +really the laurelled poet of England in merit as well as in title. + + +ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.--The literary usher is now called upon to cry +with the herald of the days of chivalry--_Place aux dames_. A few ladies, +as we have seen, have already asserted for themselves respectable +positions in the literary ranks. Without a question as to the relative +gifts of mind in man and woman, we have now reached a name which must rank +among those of the first poets of the present century--one which +represents the Victorian age as fully and forcibly as Tennyson, and with +more of novelty than he. Nervous in style, elevated in diction, bold in +expression, learned and original, Mrs. Browning divides the poetic renown +of the period with Tennyson. If he is the laureate, she was the +acknowledged queen of poetry until her untimely death. + +Miss Elizabeth Barrett was born in London, in 1809. She was educated with +great care, and began to write at a very early age. A volume, entitled +_Essays on Mind, with Other Poems_, was published when she was only +seventeen. In 1833 she produced _Prometheus Bound_, a translation of the +drama of AEschylus from the original Greek, which exhibited rare classical +attainments; but which she considered so faulty that she afterwards +retranslated it. In 1838 appeared _The Seraphim, and other Poems_; and in +1839, _The Romaunt of the Page_. Not long after, the rupture of a +blood-vessel brought her to the verge of the grave; and while she was +still in a precarious state of health, her favorite brother was drowned. +For several years she lived secluded, studying and composing when her +health permitted; and especially drawing her inspiration from original +sources in Greek and Hebrew. In 1844 she published her collected poems in +two volumes. Among these was _Lady Geraldine's Courtship_: an exquisite +story, the perusal of which is said to have induced Robert Browning to +seek her acquaintance. Her health was now partially restored; and they +were married in 1846. For some time they resided at Florence, in a +congenial and happy union. The power of passionate love is displayed in +her _Sonnets from the Portuguese_, which are among the finest in the +language. Differing in many respects from those of Shakspeare, they are +like his in being connected by one impassioned thought, and being, without +doubt, the record of a heart experience. + +Thoroughly interested in the social and political conditions of struggling +Italy, she gave vent to her views and sympathies in a volume of poems, +entitled _Casa Guidi Windows_. Casa Guidi was the name of their residence +in Florence, and the poems vividly describe what she saw from its +windows--divers forms of suffering, injustice, and oppression, which +touched the heart of a tender woman and a gifted poet, and compelled it to +burst forth in song. + + +AURORA LEIGH.--But by far the most important work of Mrs. Browning is +_Aurora Leigh_: a long poem in nine books, which appeared in 1856, in +which the great questions of the age, social and moral, are handled with +great boldness. It is neither an epic, nor an idyl, nor a tale in verse: +it combines features of them all. It presents her clear convictions of +life and art, and is full of philosophy, largely expressed in the language +of irony and sarcasm. She is an inspired advocate of the intellectual +claims of woman; and the poem is, in some degree, an autobiography: the +identity of the poet and the heroine gives a great charm to the narrative. +There are few finer pieces of poetical inspiration than the closing scene, +where the friend and lover returns blind and helpless, and the woman's +heart, unconquered before, surrenders to the claims of misfortune as the +champion of love. After a happy life with her husband and an only child, +sent for her solace, this gifted woman died in 1863. + + +HER FAULTS.--It is as easy to criticize Mrs. Browning's works as to admire +them; but our admiration is great in spite of her faults: in part because +of them, for they are faults of a bold and striking individuality. There +is sometimes an obscurity in her fancies, and a turgidity in her language. +She seems to transcend the poet's license with a knowledge that she is +doing so. For example: + + We will sit on the throne of a purple sublimity, + And grind down men's bones to a pale unanimity. + +And again, in speaking of Goethe, she says: + + His soul reached out from far and high, + And fell from inner entity. + +Her rhymes are frequently and arrogantly faulty: she seems to scorn the +critics; she writes more for herself than for others, and infuses all she +writes with her own fervent spirit: there is nothing commonplace or +lukewarm. She is so strong that she would be masculine; but so tender that +she is entirely feminine: at once one of the most vigorous of poets and +one of the best of women. She has attained the first rank among the +English poets. + + +ROBERT BROWNING.--As a poet of decided individuality, which has gained for +him many admirers, Browning claims particular mention. His happy marriage +has for his fame the disadvantage that he gave his name to a greater +poet; and it is never mentioned without an instinctive thought of her +superiority. Many who are familiar with her verses have never read a line +of her husband. This is in part due to a mysticism and an intense +subjectivity, which are not adapted to the popular comprehension. He has +chosen subjects unknown or uninteresting to the multitude of readers, and +treats them with such novelty of construction and such an affectation of +originality, that few persons have patience to read his poems. + +Robert Browning was born, in 1812, at Camberwell; and after a careful +education, not at either of the universities, (for he was a dissenter,) he +went at the age of twenty to Italy, where he eagerly studied the history +and antiquity to be found in the monasteries and in the remains of the +mediaeval period. He also made a study of the Italian people. In 1835 he +published a drama called _Paracelsus_, founded upon the history of that +celebrated alchemist and physician, and delineating the conditions of +philosophy in the fifteenth century. It is novel, antique, and +metaphysical: it exhibits the varied emotions of human sympathy; but it is +eccentric and obscure, and cannot be popular. He has been called the poet +for poets; and this statement seems to imply that he is not the poet for +the great world. + +In 1837 he published a tragedy called _Strafford_; but his Italian culture +seems to have spoiled his powers for portraying English character, and he +has presented a stilted Strafford and a theatrical Charles I. + +In 1840 appeared _Sordello_, founded upon incidents in the history of that +Mantuan poet Sordello, whom Dante and Virgil met in purgatory; and who, +deserting the language of Italy, wrote his principal poems in the +Provencal. The critics were so dissatisfied with this work, that Browning +afterwards omitted it in the later editions of his poems. In 1843 he +published a tragedy entitled _A Blot on the 'Scutcheon_, and a play +called _The Dutchess of Cleves_. In 1850 appeared _Christmas Eve_ and +_Easter Day_. Concerning all these, it may be said that it is singular and +sad that a real poetic gift, like that of Browning, should be so shrouded +with faults of conception and expression. What leads us to think that many +of these are an affectation, is that he has produced, almost with the +simplicity of Wordsworth, those charming sketches, _The Good News from +Ghent to Aix_, and _An Incident at Ratisbon_. + +Among his later poems we specially commend _A Death in the Desert_, and +_Pippa Passes_, as less obscure and more interesting than any, except the +lyrical pieces just mentioned. It is difficult to show in what manner +Browning represents his age. His works are only so far of a modern +character that they use the language of to-day without subsidizing its +simplicity, and abandon the old musical couplet without presenting the +intelligible if commonplace thought which it used to convey. + + + +OTHER POETS OF THE LATEST PERIOD. + + +_Reginald Heber_, 1783-1826: a godly Bishop of Calcutta. He is most +generally known by one effort, a little poem, which is a universal +favorite, and has preached, from the day it appeared, eloquent sermons in +the cause of missions--_From Greenland's Icy Mountains_. Among his other +hymns are _Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning_, and _The Son of +God goes forth to War_. + +_Barry Cornwall_, born 1790: this is a _nom de plume_ of _Bryan Proctor_, +a pleasing, but not great poet. His principal works are _Dramatic Scenes_, +_Mirandola_, a tragedy, and _Marcian Colonna_. His minor poems are +characterized by grace and fluency. Among these are _The Return of the +Admiral_; _The Sea, the Sea, the Open Sea_; and _A Petition to Time_. He +also wrote essays and tales in prose--a _Life of Edmund Keane_, and a +_Memoir of Charles Lamb_. His daughter, _Adelaide Anne Proctor_, is a +gifted poetess, and has written, among other poems, _Legends and Lyrics_, +and _A Chaplet of Verses_. + +_James Sheridan Knowles_, 1784-1862: an actor and dramatist. He left the +stage and became a Baptist minister. His plays were very successful upon +the stage. Among them, those of chief merit are _The Hunchback_, +_Virginius and Caius Gracchus_, and _The Wife, a Tale of Mantua_. + +_Jean Ingelow_, born 1830: one of the most popular of the later English +poets. _The Song of Seven_, and _My Son's Wife Elizabeth_, are extremely +pathetic, and of such general application that they touch all hearts. The +latter is the refrain of _High Tide on the Coast of Lancashire_. She has +published, besides, several volumes of stories for children, and one +entitled _Studies for Stories_. + +_Algernon Charles Swinburne_, born 1843: he is principally and very +favorably known by his charming poem _Atalanta in Calydon_. He has also +written a somewhat heterodox and licentious poem entitled _Laus Veneris_, +_Chastelard_, and _The Song of Italy_; besides numerous minor poems and +articles for magazines. He is among the most notable and prolific poets of +the age; and we may hope for many and better works from his pen. + +_Richard Harris Barham_, 1788-1845: a clergyman of the Church of England, +and yet one of the most humorous of writers. He is chiefly known by his +_Ingoldsby Legends_, which were contributed to the magazines. They are +humorous tales in prose and verse; the latter in the vein of Peter Pindar, +but better than those of Wolcot, or any writer of that school. Combined +with the humorous and often forcible, there are touches of pathos and +terror which are extremely effective. He also wrote a novel called _My +Cousin Nicholas_. + +_Philip James Bailey_, born 1816: he published, in 1839, _Festus_, a poem +in dramatic form, having, for its _dramatis personae_, God in his three +persons, Lucifer, angels, and man. Full of rare poetic fancy, it repels +many by the boldness of its flight in the consideration of the +incomprehensible, which many minds think the forbidden. _The Angel World_ +and _The Mystic_ are of a similar kind; but his last work, _The Age, a +Colloquial Satire_ is on a mundane subject and in a simpler style. + +_Charles Mackay_, born 1812: principally known by his fugitive pieces, +which contain simple thoughts on pleasant language. His poetical +collections are called _Town Lyrics_ and _Egeria_. + +_John Keble_, 1792-1866: the modern George Herbert; a distinguished +clergyman. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and produced, besides +_Tracts for the Times_, and other theological writings, _The Christian +Year_, containing a poem for every Sunday and holiday in the +ecclesiastical year. They are devout breathings in beautiful verse, and +are known and loved by great numbers out of his own communion. Many of +them have been adopted as hymns in many collections. + +_Martin Farquhar Tupper_, born 1810: his principal work is _Proverbial +Philosophy_, in two series. It was unwontedly popular; and Tupper's name +was on every tongue. Suddenly, the world reversed its decision and +discarded its favorite; so that, without having done anything to warrant +the desertion, Tupper finds himself with but very few admirers, or even +readers: so capricious is the _vox populi_. The poetry is not without +merit; but the world cannot forgive itself for having rated it too high. + +_Matthew Arnold_, born 1822: the son of Doctor Arnold of Rugby. He has +written numerous critical papers, and was for some time Professor of +Poetry at Oxford. _Sorab and Rustam_ is an Eastern tale in verse, of great +beauty. His other works are _The Strayed Reveller_, and _Empedocles on +Etna_. More lately, an Inspector of Schools, he has produced several works +on education, among which are _Popular Education in France_ and _The +Schools and Universities of the Continent_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE LATER HISTORIANS. + + + New Materials. George Grote. History of Greece. Lord Macaulay. History + of England. Its Faults. Thomas Carlyle. Life of Frederick II. Other + Historians. + + + +NEW MATERIALS. + + +Nothing more decidedly marks the nineteenth century than the progress of +history as a branch of literature. A wealth of material, not known before, +was brought to light, increasing our knowledge and reversing time-honored +decisions upon historic points. Countries were explored and their annals +discovered. Expeditions to Egypt found a key to hieroglyphs; State papers +were arranged to the hand of the scholar; archives, like those of +Simancas, were thrown open. The progress of Truth, through the extension +of education, unmasked ancient prescriptions and prejudices: thus, where +the chronicle remained, philosophy was transformed; and it became evident +that the history of man in all times must be written anew, with far +greater light to guide the writer than the preceding century had enjoyed. +Besides, the world of readers became almost as learned as the historian +himself, and he wrote to supply a craving and a demand such as had never +before existed. A glance at the labors of the following historians will +show that they were not only annalists, but reformers in the full sense of +the word: they re-wrote what had been written before, supplying defects +and correcting errors. + + +GEORGE GROTE.--This distinguished writer was born near London, in 1794. He +was the son of a banker, and received his education at the Charter House. +Instead of entering one of the universities, he became a clerk in his +father's banking-house. Early imbued with a taste for Greek literature, he +continued his studies with great zeal; and was for many years collecting +the material for a history of Greece. The subject was quietly and +thoroughly digested in his mind before he began to write. A member of +Parliament from 1832 to 1841, he was always a strong Whig, and was +specially noted for his championship of the vote by ballot. There was no +department of wholesome reform which he did not sustain. He opposed the +corn laws, which had become oppressive; he favored the political rights of +the Jews, and denounced prescriptive evils of every kind. + + +HISTORY OF GREECE.--In 1846 he published the first volume of his _History +of Greece from the Earliest Period to the Death of Alexander the Great_: +the remaining volumes appeared between that time and 1856. The work was +well received by critics of all political opinions; and the world was +astonished that such a labor should have been performed by any writer who +was not a university man. It was a luminous ancient history, in a fresh +and racy modern style: the review of the mythology is grand; the political +conditions, the manners and customs of the people, the military art, the +progress of law, the schools of philosophy, are treated with remarkable +learning and clearness. But he as clearly exhibits the political condition +of his own age, by the sympathy which he displays towards the democracy of +Athens in their struggles against the tenets and actions of the +aristocracy. The historian writes from his own political point of view; +and Grote's history exhibits his own views of reform as plainly as that of +Mitford sets forth his aristocratic proclivities. Thus the English +politics of the age play a part in the Grecian history. + +There were several histories of Greece written not long before that of +Grote, which may be considered as now set aside by his greater accuracy +and better style. Among these the principal are that of JOHN GILLIES, +1747-1836, which is learned, but statistical and dry; that of CONNOP +THIRLWALL, born 1797, Bishop of St. David's, which was greatly esteemed by +Grote himself; and that of WILLIAM MITFORD, 1744-1827, to correct the +errors and supply the deficiencies of which, Grote's work was written. + + +LORD MACAULAY.--Thomas Babington Macaulay was born at Rothley, in +Leicestershire, on the 25th of October, 1800. His father, Zachary +Macaulay, a successful West Indian merchant, devoted his later life to +philanthropy. His mother was Miss Selina Mills, the daughter of a +bookseller of Bristol. After an early education, chiefly conducted at +home, he was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1818, where he +distinguished himself as a debater, and gained two prize poems and a +scholarship. He was graduated in 1822, and afterwards continued his +studies; producing, during the next four years, several of his stirring +ballads. He began to write for the Edinburgh Review in 1825. In 1830 he +entered Parliament, and was immediately noted for his brilliant oratory in +advocating liberal principles. In 1834 he was sent to India, as a member +of the Supreme Council; and took a prominent part in preparing an Indian +code of laws. This code was published on his return to England, in 1838; +but it was so kind and considerate to the natives, that the martinets in +India defeated its adoption. From his return until 1847, he had a seat in +Parliament as member for Edinburgh; but in the latter year his support of +the grant to the Maynooth (Roman Catholic) College so displeased his +constituents, that in the next election he lost his seat. + +During all these busy years he had been astonishing and delighting the +reading world by his truly brilliant papers in the _Edinburgh Review_, +which have been collected and published as _Miscellanies_. The subjects +were of general interest; their treatment novel and bold; the learning +displayed was accurate and varied; and the style pointed, vigorous, and +harmonious. The papers upon _Clive_ and _Hastings_ are enriched by his +intimate knowledge of Indian affairs, acquired during his residence in +that country. His critical papers are severe and satirical, such as the +articles on _Croker's Boswell_, and on _Mr. Robert Montgomery's Poems_. +His unusual self-reliance as a youth led him to great vehemence in the +expression of his opinions, as well as into errors of judgment, which he +afterwards regretted. The radicalism which is displayed in his essay on +_Milton_ was greatly modified when he came to treat of kindred subjects in +his History. + + +THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND.--He had long cherished the intention of writing +the history of England, "from the accession of James II. down to a time +which is within the memory of men still living." The loss of his election +at Edinburgh gave him the leisure necessary for carrying out this purpose. +In 1848 he published the first and second volumes, which at once achieved +an unprecedented popularity. His style had lost none of its brilliancy; +his reading had been immense; his examination of localities was careful +and minute. It was due, perhaps, to this growing fame, that the electors +of Edinburgh, without any exertion on his part, returned him to Parliament +in 1852. In 1855 the third and fourth volumes of his History appeared, +bringing the work down to the peace of Ryswick, in 1697. All England +applauded the crown when he was elevated to the peerage, in 1857, as Baron +Macaulay of Rothley. + +It was now evident that Macaulay had deceived himself as to the magnitude +of his subject; at least, he was never to finish it. He died suddenly of +disease of the heart, on the 28th of December, 1859; and all that remained +of his History was a fragmentary volume, published after his death by his +sister, Lady Trevelyan, which reaches the death of William III., in 1702. + + +ITS FAULTS.--The faults of Macaulay's History spring from the character of +the man: he is always a partisan or a bitter enemy. His heroes are angels; +those whom he dislikes are devils; and he pursues them with the ardor of a +crusader or the vendetta of a Corsican. The Stuarts are painted in the +darkest colors; while his eulogy of William III. is fulsome and false. He +blackens the character of Marlborough for real faults indeed; but for such +as Marlborough had in common with thousands of his contemporaries. If, as +has been said, that great captain deserved the greatest censure as a +statesman and warrior, it is equally true, paradoxical as it may seem, +that he deserved also the greatest praise in both capacities. Macaulay has +fulminated the censure and withheld the praise. + +What is of more interest to Americans, he loses no opportunity of +attacking and defaming William Penn; making statements which have been +proved false, and attributing motives without reason or justice. + +His style is what the French call the _style coupe_,--short sentences, +like those of Tacitus, which ensure the interest by their recurring +shocks. He writes history with the pen of a reviewer, and gives verdicts +with the authority of a judge. He seems to say, Believe the autocrat; do +not venture to philosophize. + +His poetry displays tact and talent, but no genius; it is pageantry in +verse. His _Lays of Ancient Rome_ are scholarly, of course, and pictorial +in description, but there is little of nature, and they are theatrical +rather than dramatic; they are to be declaimed rather than to be read or +sung. + +In society, Macaulay was a great talker--he harangued his friends; and +there was more than wit in the saying of Sidney Smith, that his +conversation would have been improved by a few "brilliant flashes of +silence." + +But in spite of his faults, if we consider the profoundness of his +learning, the industry of his studies, and the splendor of his style, we +must acknowledge him as the most distinguished of English historians. No +one has yet appeared who is worthy to complete the magnificent work which +he left unfinished. + + +THOMAS CARLYLE.--A literary brother of a very different type, but of a +more distinct individuality, is Carlyle, who was born in Dumfries-shire, +Scotland, in 1795. He was the eldest son of a farmer. After a partial +education at home, he entered the University of Edinburgh, where he was +noted for his attainments in mathematics, and for his omnivorous reading. +After leaving the university he became a teacher in a private family, and +began to study for the ministry, a plan which he soon gave up. + +His first literary effort was a _Life of Schiller_, issued in numbers of +the _London Magazine_, in 1823-4. He turned his attention to German +literature, in the knowledge of which he has surpassed all other +Englishmen. He became as German as the Germans. + +In 1826 he married, and removed to Craigen-Puttoch, on a farm, where, in +isolation and amid the wildness of nature, he studied, and wrote articles +for the _Edinburgh Review_, the _Foreign Quarterly_, and some of the +monthly magazines. His study of the German, acting upon an innate +peculiarity, began to affect his style very sensibly, as is clearly seen +in the singular, introverted, parenthetical mode of expression which +pervades all his later works. His earlier writings are in ordinary +English, but specimens of _Carlylese_ may be found in his _Sartor +Resartus_, which at first appalled the publishers and repelled the general +reader. Taking man's clothing as a nominal subject, he plunges into +philosophical speculations with which clothes have nothing to do, but +which informed the world that an original thinker and a novel and curious +writer had appeared. + +In 1834 he removed to Chelsea, near London, where he has since resided. In +1837, he published his _French Revolution_, in three volumes,--_The +Bastile_, _The Constitution_, _The Guillotine_. It is a fiery, historical +drama rather than a history; full of rhapsodies, startling rhetoric, +disconnected pictures. It has been fitly called "a history in flashes of +lightning." No one could learn from it the history of that momentous +period; but one who has read the history elsewhere, will find great +interest in Carlyle's wild and vivid pictures of its stormy scenes. + +In 1839 he wrote, in his dashing style, upon _Chartism_, and about the +same time read a course of lectures upon _Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the +Heroic in History_, in which he is an admirer of will and impulse, and +palliates evil when found in combination with these. + +In 1845 he edited _The Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell_, and in +his extravagant eulogies worships the hero rather than the truth. + + +FREDERICK II.--In 1858 appeared the first two volumes of _The Life of +Frederick the Great_, and since that time he has completed the work. This +is doubtless his greatest effort. It is full of erudition, and contains +details not to be found in any other biography of the Prussian monarch; +but so singularly has he reasoned and commented upon his facts, that the +enlightened reader often draws conclusions different from those which the +author has been laboring to establish. While the history shows that, for +genius and success, Frederick deserved to be called the Great, Carlyle +cannot make us believe that he was not grasping, selfish, a dissembler, +and an immoral man. + +The author's style has its admirers, and is a not unpleasing novelty and +variety to lovers of plain English; but it wearies in continuance, and one +turns to French or German with relief. The Essays upon _German +Literature_, _Richter_, and _The Niebelungen Lied_ are of great value to +the young student. Such tracts as _Past and Present_, and _The Latter-Day +Pamphlets_, have caused him to be called the "Censor of the Age." He is +too eccentric and prejudiced to deserve the name in its best meaning. If +he fights shams, he sometimes mistakes windmills and wine-skins for +monsters, and, what is worse, if he accost a shepherd or a milkmaid, they +at once become _Amadis de Gaul_ and _Dulcinea del Toboso_. In spite of +these prejudices and peculiarities, Carlyle will always be esteemed for +his arduous labors, his honest intentions, and his boldness in expressing +his opinions. His likes and dislikes find ready vent in his written +judgments, and he cares for neither friend nor foe, in setting forth his +views of men and events. On many subjects it must be said his views are +just. There are fields in which his word must be received with authority. + + + +OTHER HISTORIANS OF THE LATEST PERIOD. + + +_John Lingard_, 1771-1851: a Roman Catholic priest. He was a man of great +probity and worth. His chief work is _A History of England_, from the +first invasion of the Romans to the accession of William and Mary. With a +natural leaning to his own religious side in the great political +questions, he displays great industry in collecting material, beauty of +diction, and honesty of purpose. His history is of particular value, in +that it stands among the many Protestant histories as the champion of the +Roman Catholics, and gives an opportunity to "hear the other side," which +could not have had a more respectable advocate. In all the great +controversies, the student of English history must consult Lingard, and +collate his facts and opinions with those of the other historians. He +wrote, besides, numerous theological and controversial works. + +_Patrick Fraser Tytler_, 1791-1849: the author of _A History of Scotland +from Alexander III. to James VI. (James I. of England)_, and _A History of +England during the reigns of Edward VI. and Mary_. His _Universal History_ +has been used as a text-book, and in style and construction has great +merit, although he does not rise to the dignity of a philosophic +historian. + +_Sir William Francis Patrick Napier_, 1785-1866: a distinguished soldier, +and, like Caesar, a historian of the war in which he took part. His +_History of the War in the Peninsula_ stands quite alone. It is clear in +its strategy and tactics, just to the enemy, and peculiar but effective in +style. It was assailed by several military men, but he defended all his +positions in bold replies to their strictures, and the work remains as +authority upon the great struggle which he relates. + +_Lord Mahon_, Earl of Stanhope, born 1805: his principal work is a +_History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles_. +He had access to much new material, and from the Stuart papers has drawn +much of interest with reference to that unfortunate family. His view of +the conduct of Washington towards Major Andre has been shown to be quite +untenable. He also wrote a _History of the War of Succession in Spain_. + +_Henry Thomas Buchle_, 1822-1862: he was the author of a _History of +Civilization_, of which he published two volumes, the work remaining +unfinished at the time of his death. For bold assumptions, vigorous style, +and great reading, this work must be greatly admired; but all his theories +are based on second principles, and Christianity, as a divine institution, +is ignored. It startled the world into admiration, but has not retained +the place in popular esteem which it appeared at first to make for itself. +He is the English _Comte_, without the eccentricity of his model. + +_Sir Archibald Alison_, 1792-1867: he is the author of _The History of +Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution to the Restoration +of the Bourbons_, and a continuation from 1815 to 1852. It may be doubted +whether even the most dispassionate scholar can write the history of +contemporary events. We may be thankful for the great mass of facts he has +collated, but his work is tinctured with his high Tory principles; his +material is not well digested, and his style is clumsy. + +_Agnes Strickland_, born 1806: after several early attempts Miss +Strickland began her great task, which she executed nobly--_The Queens of +England_. Accurate, philosophic, anecdotal, and entertaining, this work +ranks among the most valuable histories in English. If the style is not so +nervous as that of masculine writers, there is a ready intuition as to the +rights and the motives of the queens, and a great delicacy combined with +entire lack of prudery in her treatment of their crimes. The library of +English history would be singularly incomplete without Miss Strickland's +work. She also wrote _The Queens of Scotland_, and _The Bachelor Kings of +England_. + +_Henry Hallam_, 1778-1859: the principal works of this judicious and +learned writer are _A View of Europe during the Middle Ages_, _The +Constitutional History of England_, and _An Introduction to the Literature +of Europe_ in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. With +the skill of an advocate he combines the calmness of a judge; and he has +been justly called "the accurate Hallam," because his facts are in all +cases to be depended on. By his clear and illustrative treatment of dry +subjects, he has made them interesting; and his works have done as much to +instruct his age as those of any writer. Later researches in literature +and constitutional history may discover more than he has presented, but he +taught the new explorers the way, and will always be consulted with +profit, as the representative of this varied learning during the first +half of the nineteenth century. + +_James Anthony Froude_, born 1818: an Oxford graduate, Mr. Froude +represents the Low Church party in a respectable minority. His chief work +is _A History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of +Elizabeth_. With great industry, and the style of a successful novelist in +making his groups and painting his characters, he has written one of the +most readable books published in this period. He claimed to take his +authorities from unpublished papers, and from the statute-books, and has +endeavored to show that Henry VIII. was by no means a bad king, and that +Elizabeth had very few faults. His treatment of Anne Boleyn and Mary Queen +of Scots is unjust and ignoble. Not content with publishing what has been +written in their disfavor, with the omniscience of a romancer, he asserts +their motives, and produces thoughts which they never uttered. A race of +powerful critics has sprung forth in defence of Mary, and Mr. Froude's +inaccuracies and injustice have been clearly shown. To novel readers who +are fond of the sensational, we commend his work: to those who desire +historic facts and philosophies, we proclaim it to be inaccurate, +illogical, and unjust in the highest degree. + +_Sharon Turner_, 1768-1847: among many historical efforts, principally +concerning England in different periods, his _History of the Anglo-Saxons_ +stands out prominently as a great work. He was an eccentric scholar, and +an antiquarian, and he found just the place to delve in when he undertook +that history. The style is not good--too epigrammatic and broken; but his +research is great, his speculations bold, and his information concerning +the numbers, manners, arts, learning, and other characters of the +Anglo-Saxons, immense. The student of English history must read Turner for +a knowledge of the Saxon period. + +_Thomas Arnold_, 1795-1832: widely known and revered as the Great +Schoolmaster. He was head-master at Rugby, and influenced his pupils more +than any modern English instructor. Accepting the views of Niebuhr, he +wrote a work on _Roman History_ up to the close of the second Punic war. +But he is more generally known by his historical lectures delivered at +Oxford, where he was Professor of Modern History. A man of original views +and great honesty of purpose, his influence in England has been +strengthened by the excellent biography written by his friend Dean +Stanley. + +_William Hepworth Dixon_, born 1821: he was for some time editor of _The +Athenaeum_. In historic biography he appears as a champion of men who have +been maligned by former writers. He vindicates _William Penn_ from the +aspersions of Lord Macaulay, and _Bacon_ from the charges of meanness and +corruption. + +_Charles Merivale_, born 1808: he is a clergyman, and a late Fellow of +Cambridge, and is favorably known by his admirable work entitled, _The +History of the Romans under the Empire_. It forms an introduction to +Gibbon, and displays a thorough grasp of the great epoch, varied +scholarship, and excellent taste. His analyses of Roman literature are +very valuable, and his pictures of social life so vivid that we seem to +live in the times of the Caesars as we read. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE LATER NOVELISTS AS SOCIAL REFORMERS. + + + Bulwer. Changes in Writing. Dickens's Novels. American Notes. His + Varied Powers. Second Visit to America. Thackeray. Vanity Fair. Henry + Esmond. The Newcomes. The Georges. Estimate of his Powers. + + + +The great feature in the realm of prose fiction, since the appearance of +the works of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, had been the Waverley +novels of Sir Walter Scott; but these apart, the prose romance had not +played a brilliant part in literature until the appearance of Bulwer, who +began, in his youth, to write novels in the old style; but who underwent +several organic changes in modes of thought and expression, and at last +stood confessed as the founder of a new school. + + +BULWER.--Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer was a younger son of General +Bulwer of Heydon Hall, Norfolk, England. He was born, in 1806, to wealth +and ease, but was early and always a student. Educated at Cambridge, he +took the Chancellor's prize for a poem on _Sculpture_. His first public +effort was a volume of fugitive poems, called _Weeds and Wild Flowers_, of +more promise than merit. In 1827 he published _Falkland_, and very soon +after _Pelham, or the Adventures of a Gentleman_. The first was not +received favorably; but _Pelham_ was at once popular, neither for the +skill of the plot nor for its morality, but because it describes the +character, dissipations, and good qualities of a fashionable young man, +which are always interesting to an English public. Those novels that +immediately followed are so alike in general features that they may be +called the Pelham series. Of these the principal are _The Disowned_, +_Devereux_, and _Paul Clifford_--the last of which throws a sentimental, +rosy light upon the person and adventures of a highwayman; but it is too +unreal to have done as much injury as the _Pirate's Own Book_, or the +_Adventures of Jack Sheppard_. It may be safely asserted that _Paul +Clifford_ never produced a highwayman. Of the same period is _Eugene +Aram_, founded upon the true story of a scholar who was a murderer--a +painful subject powerfully handled. + +In 1831 Bulwer entered Parliament, and seems to have at once commenced a +new life. With his public duties he combined severe historical study; and +the novels he now produced gave witness of his riper and better learning. +Chief among these were _Rienzi_, and _The Last Days of Pompeii_. The +former is based upon the history of that wonderful and unfortunate man +who, in the fourteenth century, attempted to restore the Roman republic, +and govern it like an ancient tribune. The latter is a noble production: +he has caught the very spirit of the day in which Pompeii was submerged by +the lava-flood; his characters are masterpieces of historic delineation; +he handles like an adept the conflicting theologies, Christian, Roman, and +Egyptian; and his natural scenes--Vesuvius in fury, the Bay of Naples in +the lurid light, the crowded amphitheatre, and the terror which fell on +man and beast, gladiator and lion--are _chef-d'oeuvres_ of Romantic art. + + +CHANGES IN WRITING.--For a time he edited _The New Monthly Magazine_, and +a change came over the spirit of his novels. This was first noticed in his +_Ernest Maltravers_, and the sequel, _Alice, or the Mysteries_, which are +marked by sentimental passion and mystic ideas. In _Night and Morning_ he +is still mysterious: a blind fate seems to preside over his characters, +robbing the good of its free merit and condoning the evil. + +In 1838 he was made a baronet. His versatile pen now turned to the drama; +and although he produced nothing great, his _Lady of Lyons_, _Richelieu_, +_Money_, and _The Sea Captain_ have always since been favorites upon the +stage, subsidizing the talents of actors like Macready, Kean, and Edwin +Booth. + +We must now chronicle another change, from the mystic to the supernatural, +as displayed in _Zanoni_ and _Lucretia_, and especially in _A Strange +Story_, which is the strangest of all. It was at the same period that he +wrote _The Last of the Barons_, or the story of Warwick the king-maker, +and _Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings_. Both are valuable to the +student of English history as presenting the fruits of his own historic +research. + +The last and most decided, and, we may add, most beneficial, change in +Bulwer as a writer, was manifested in his publication of the _Caxtons_, +the chief merit of which is as an usher of the novels which were to +follow. Pisistratus Caxton is the modern Tristram Shandy, and becomes the +putative editor of the later novels. First of these is _My Novel, or +Varieties of English Life_. It is an admirable work: it inculcates a +better morality, and a sense of Christian duty, at which Pelham would have +laughed in scorn. Like it, but inferior to it, is _What Will He do with +It?_ which has an interesting plot, an elevated style, and a rare human +sympathy. + +Among other works, which we cannot mention, he wrote _The New Timon_, and +_King Arthur_, in poetry, and a prose history entitled _Athens, its Rise +and Fall_. + +Without the highest genius, but with uncommon scholarship and great +versatility, Bulwer has used the materials of many kinds lying about him, +to make marvellous mosaics, which imitate very closely the finest efforts +of word-painting of the great geniuses of prose fiction. + + +CHARLES DICKENS.--Another remarkable development of the age was the use +of prose fiction, instead of poetry, as the vehicle of satire in the cause +of social reform. The world consents readily to be amused, and it likes to +be amused at the expense of others; but it soon tires of what is simply +amusing or satirical unless some noble purpose be disclosed. The novels of +former periods had interested by the creation of character and scenes; and +there had been numerous satires prompted by personal pique. It is the +glory of this latest age that it demands what shall so satirize the evil +around it in men, in classes, in public institutions, that the evil shall +recoil before the attack, and eventually disappear. Chief among such +reformers are Dickens and Thackeray. + +Charles Dickens, the prince of modern novelists, was born at Landsport, +Portsmouth, England, in 1812. His father was at the time a clerk in the +Pay Department of the Navy, but afterwards became a reporter of debates in +Parliament. After a very hard early life and an only tolerable education, +young Dickens made some progress in the study of law; but soon undertook +his father's business as reporter, in which he struggled as he has made +David Copperfield to do in becoming proficient. + +His first systematic literary efforts were as a daily writer and reporter +for _The True Sun_; he then contributed his sketches of life and +character, drawn from personal observation, to the _Morning Chronicle_: +these were an earnest of his future powers. They were collected as +_Sketches by Boz_, in two volumes, and published in 1836. + + +PICKWICK.--In 1837 he was asked by a publisher to prepare a series of +comic sketches of cockney sportsmen, to illustrate, as well as to be +illustrated by, etchings by Seymour. This yoking of two geniuses was a +trammel to both; but the suicide of Seymour dissolved the connection, and +Dickens had free play to produce the _Pickwick Papers_, by Boz, which were +illustrated, as he proceeded, by H. K. Browne (Phiz). The work met and +has retained an unprecedented popularity. Caricature as it was, it +caricatured real, existent oddities; everything was probable; the humor +was sympathetic if farcical, the assertion of humanity bold, and the +philosophy of universal application. He had touched our common nature in +all ranks and conditions; he had exhibited men and women of all types; he +had exposed the tricks of politics and the absurdity of elections; the +snobs of society were severely handled. He was the censor of law courts, +the exposer of swindlers, the dread of cockneys, the friend of rustics and +of the poor; and he has displayed in the principal character, that of the +immortal Pickwick, the power of a generous, simple-hearted, easily +deceived, but always philanthropic man, who comes through all his trials +without bating a jot of his love for humanity and his faith in human +nature. But the master-work of his plastic hand was Sam Weller, whose wit +and wisdom pervaded both hemispheres, and is as potent to excite laughter +to-day as at the first. + +In this work he began that assault, not so much on shams as upon +prominent, unblushing evil, which he carried on in some form or other in +all his later works; and which was to make him prominent among the +reformers and benefactors of his age. He was at once famous, and his pen +was in demand to amuse the idle and to aid the philanthropic. + + +NICHOLAS NICKLEBY.--The _Pickwick Papers_ were in their intention a series +of sketches somewhat desultory and loosely connected. His next work was +_Nicholas Nickleby_, a complete story, in which he was entirely +successful. Wonderful in the variety and reality of his characters, his +powerful satire was here principally directed against the private +boarding-schools in England, where unloved children, exiled and forgotten, +were ill fed, scantily clothed, untaught, and beaten. Do-the-boys' Hall +was his type, and many a school prison under that name was fearfully +exposed and scourged. The people read with wonder and applause; these +haunts of cruelty were scrutinized, some of them were suppressed; and +since Nicholas Nickleby appeared no such school can live, because Squeers +and Smike are on every lip, and punishment awaits the tyrant. + +Our scope will not permit a review of his numerous novels. In _Oliver +Twist_ he denounces the parish system in its care of orphans, and throws a +Drummond light upon the haunts of crime in London. + +_The Old Curiosity Shop_ exposes the mania of gaming, and seems to have +been a device for presenting the pathetic pictures of _Little Nell_ and +her grandfather, the wonderful and rapid learning of the marchioness, and +the uncommon vitality of Mr. Richard Swiveller; and also the compound of +will and hideousness in Quilp. + +He affected to find in the receptacle of Master Humphrey's clock, his +_Barnaby Rudge_, a very dramatic picture of the great riot incited by Lord +George Gordon in 1780, which, in its gathering, its fury, and its easy +dispersion, was not unlike that of Wat Tyler. Dickens's delineations are +eminently historic, and present a better notion of the period than the +general history itself. + + +AMERICAN NOTES.--In 1841 Dickens visited America, where he was received by +the public with great enthusiasm, and annoyed, as the author of his +biography says, by many individuals. On his return to England, he produced +his _American Notes for General Circulation_. They were sarcastic, +superficial, and depreciatory, and astonished many whose hospitalities he +had received. But, in 1843, he published _Martin Chuzzlewit_, in which +American peculiarities are treated with the broadest caricature. The +_Notes_ might have been forgiven; but the novel excited a great and just +anger in America. His statements were not true; his pictures were not +just; his prejudice led him to malign a people who had received him with +a foolish hospitality. He had eaten and drunk at the hands of the men whom +he abused, and his character suffered more than that of his intended +victims. In taking a few foibles for his caricature, he had left our +merits untold, and had been guilty of the implication that we had none, +although he knew that there were as elegant gentlemen, as refined ladies, +and as cultivated society in America as the best in England. But a truce +to reproaches; he has been fully forgiven. + +His next novel was _Dombey and Son_, in which he attacks British pomp and +pride of state in the haughty merchant. It is full of character and of +pathos. Every one knows, as if they had appeared among us, the proud and +rigid Dombey, J. B. the sly, the unhappy Floy, the exquisite Toots, the +inimitable Nipper, Sol Gills the simple, and Captain Cuttle with his hook +and his notes. + +This was followed by _David Copperfield_, which is, to some extent, an +autobiography describing the struggles of his youth, his experience in +acquiring short-hand to become a reporter, and other vicissitudes of his +own life. In it there is an attack upon the system of model prisons; but +the chief interest is found in his wonderful portraitures of varied and +opposite characters: the Peggottys, Steerforth, the inimitable Micawber, +Betsy Trotwood; Agnes, the lovely and lovable; Mr. Dick, with such noble +method in his madness; Dora, the child-wife; the simple Traddles, and +Uriah Heep, the 'umble intriguer and villain. + +_Bleak House_ is a tremendous onslaught upon the Chancery system, and is +said to have caused a modification of it; his knowledge of law gave him +the power of an expert in detailing and dissecting its enormities. + +_Little Dorrit_ presents the heartlessness of society, and is besides a +full and fearful picture of the system of imprisonment for debt. For +variety, power, and pathos, it is one of his best efforts. + +_A Tale of Two Cities_ is a gloomy but vivid story of the French +Revolution, which has by no means the popularity of his other works. + +In _Hard Times_, a shorter story, he has shown the evil consequences of a +hard, statistical, cramming education, in which the sympathies are +repressed, and the mind made a practical machine. The failure of Gradgrind +has warned many a parent from imitating him. + +_Great Expectations_ failed to fulfil the promise of the name; but Joe +Gargery is as original a character as any he had drawn. + +His last completed story is _Our Mutual Friend_, which, although unequal +to his best novels, has still original characters and striking scenes. The +rage for rising in the social scale ruins the Veneerings, and Podsnappery +is a well-chosen name far the heartless dogmatism which rules in English +society. + +Besides these splendid works, we must mention the delight he has given, +and the good he has done in expanding individual and public charity, by +his exquisite Christmas stories, of which _The Chimes_, _The Christmas +Carol_, and _The Cricket on the Hearth_ are the best. + +His dramatic power has been fully illustrated by the ready adaptations of +his novels to the stage; they are, indeed, in scenes, personages, costume, +and interlocution, dramas in all except the form; and he himself was an +admirable actor. + + +HIS VARIED POWERS.--His tenderness is touching, and his pathos at once +excites our sympathy. He does not tell us to feel or to weep, but he shows +us scenes like those in the life of Smike, and in the sufferings and death +of Little Nell, which so simply appeal to the heart that we are for the +time forgetful of the wand which conjures them before us. + +Dickens is bold in the advocacy of truth and in denouncing error; he is +the champion of honest poverty; he is the foe of class pretension and +oppression; he is the friend of friendless children; the reformer of +those whom society has made vagrants. Without many clear assertions of +Christian doctrine, but with no negation of it, he believes in doing good +for its own sake,--in self-denial, in the rewards which virtue gives +herself. His faults are few and venial. His merry life smacks too much of +the practical joke and the punch-bowl; he denounces cant in the +self-appointed ministers of the gospel, but he is not careful to draw +contrasted pictures of good pastors. His opinion seems to be based upon a +human perfectibility. But for rare pictures of real life he has never been +surpassed; and he has instructed an age, concerning itself, wisely, +originally, and usefully. He has the simplicity of Goldsmith, and the +truth to nature of Fielding and Smollett, without a spice of +sentimentalism or of impurity; he has brought the art of prose fiction to +its highest point, and he has left no worthy successor. He lived for years +separated from his wife on the ground of incompatibility, and, during his +later years at Gadshill, twenty miles from London, to avoid the +dissipations and draughts upon his time in that city. + + +SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA.--In 1868 he again visited America, to read +portions of his own works. He was well received by the public; but society +had learned its lesson on his former visit, and he was not overwhelmed +with a hospitality he had so signally failed to appreciate. And if we had +learned better, he had vastly improved; the genius had become a gentleman. +His readings were a great pecuniary success, and at their close he made an +amend which was graceful and proper; so that when he departed from our +shores his former errors were fully condoned, and he left an admiring +hemisphere behind him. + +In the glow of health, and while writing, in serial numbers, a very +promising novel entitled _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, he was struck by +apoplexy, in June, 1870, and in a few hours was dead. England has hardly +experienced a greater loss. All classes of men mourned when he was buried +in Westminster Abbey, in the poets' corner, among illustrious writers,--a +prose-poet, none of whom has a larger fame than he; a historian of his +time of greater value to society than any who distinctively bear the +title. His characters are drawn from life; his own experience is found in +_Nicholas Nickleby_ and _David Copperfield_; _Micawber_ is a caricature of +his own father. _Traddles_ is said to represent his friend Talfourd. +_Skimpole_ is supposed to be an original likeness of Leigh Hunt, and +William and Daniel Grant, of Manchester, were the originals of the +_Brothers Cheeryble_. + + +WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.--Dickens gives us real characters in the garb +of fiction; but Thackeray uses fiction as the vehicle of social +philosophy. Great name, second only to Dickens; he is not a story-teller, +but an eastern Cadi administering justice in the form of apologue. Dickens +is eminently dramatic; Thackeray has nothing dramatic, neither scene nor +personage. He is Democritus the laughing philosopher, or Jupiter the +thunderer; he arraigns vice, pats virtue on the shoulder, shouts for +muscular Christianity, uncovers shams,--his personages are only names. +Dickens describes individuals; Thackeray only classes: his men and women +are representatives, and, with but few exceptions, they excite our sense +of justice, but not our sympathy; the principal exception is _Colonel +Newcome_, a real individual creation upon whom Thackeray exhausted his +genius, and he stands alone. + +Thackeray was born in Calcutta, of an old Yorkshire family, in 1811. His +father was in the civil service, and he was sent home, when a child of +seven, for his education at the Charter House in London. Thence he was +entered at Cambridge, but left without being graduated. An easy fortune of +L20,000 led him to take life easily; he studied painting with somewhat of +the desultory devotion he has ascribed to Clive Newcome, and, like that +worthy, travelled on the Continent. Partly by unsuccessful investments, +and partly by careless living, his means were spent, and he took up +writing as a profession. The comic was his forte, and his early pieces, +written under the pseudonym of Michael Angelo Fitzmarsh and George Fitz +Boodle, are broadly humorous, but by no means in his later finished style. +_The Great Hoggarty Diamond_ (1841) did not disclose his full powers. + +In 1841, _Punch_, a weekly comic illustrated sheet, was begun, and it +opened to Thackeray a field which exactly suited him. Short scraps of +comedy, slightly connected sketches, and the weekly tale of brick, chimed +with his humor, and made him at once a favorite. The best of these serial +contributions were _The Snob Papers_: they are as fine specimens of +humorous satire as exist in the language. But these would not have made +him famous, as they did not disclose his power as a novelist. + + +VANITY FAIR.--This was done by his _Vanity Fair_, which was published, in +monthly numbers, between 1846 and 1848. It was at once popular, and is the +most artistic of all his works. He called it a novel without a hero, and +he is right; the mind repudiates all aspirants for the post, and settles +upon poor Major Sugar-Plums as the best man in it. He could not have said +_without a heroine_, for does not the world since ring with the fame of +Becky Sharpe, the cleverest and wickedest little woman in England? The +virtuous reader even is sorry that Becky must come to grief, as, with a +proper respect to morality, the novelist makes her. + +Never had the Vanity Fair of European society received so scathing a +dissection; and its author was immediately recognized as one of the +greatest living satirists and novelists. If he adheres more to the old +school of Fielding, who was his model, in his plots and handling of the +story, he was evidently original in his satire. + +In 1847, upon the completion of this work, he began his _History of +Pendennis_, in serial numbers, in which he presents the hero, Arthur +Pendennis, as an average youth of the day, full of faults and foibles, but +likewise generous and repentant. Here he enlists the sympathies which one +never feels for perfection; and here, too, he portrays female loveliness +and endurance in his Mrs. Pendennis and Laura. Arthur is a purer Tom Jones +and Laura a superior Sophia Western. + +In 1851 he gave a course of lectures, repeated in America the next year, +on "the English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century." There was no one +better fitted to write such a course; he felt with them and was of them. +But if this enabled him to present them sympathetically, it also caused +him to overrate them, and in some cases to descend to the standpoint of +their own partial views. He is wrong in his estimate of Swift, and too +eulogistic of Addison; but he is thoroughly English in both. + + +HENRY ESMOND.--The study of history necessary to prepare these led to his +undertaking a novel on the time of Queen Anne, entitled _The History of +Henry Esmond, Esq., written by himself_. His appreciation of the age is +excellent; but the book, leaving for the most part the comic field in +which he was most at home, is drier and less read than his others; as an +historical presentation a great success, with rare touches of pathos; as a +work of fiction not equal to his other stories. The comic muse assumes a +tragic, or at least a very sombre, dress. We have a portraiture of Queen +Anne in her last days, and a sad picture of him who, to the Protestant +succession, was the pretender, and to the hopeful Jacobites, James III. +The character of Marlborough is given with but little of what was really +meritorious in that great captain. + +His novel of _Pendennis_ gave him, after the manner of Bulwer's _Caxton_, +an editor in _Arthur Pendennis_, who presents us _The Newcomes, Memoirs of +a Most Respectable Family_, which he published in a serial form, +completing it in 1855. + + +THE NEWCOMES.--In that work we have the richest culture, the finest +satire, and the rarest social philosophy. The character--the hero by +pre-eminence--is Colonel Newcome, a nobleman of nature's creation, +generous, simple, a yearningly affectionate father, a friend to all the +poor and afflicted, one of the best men ever delineated by a novelist; few +hearts are so hard as not to be touched by the story of his death in his +final retirement at the Charter House. When, surrounded by weeping +friends, he heard the bell, "a peculiar sweet smile shone over his face, +and he lifted up his head a little, and quickly said 'Adsum,' and fell +back: it was the word we used at school when names were called; and, lo! +he, whose heart was that of a little child, had answered to his name, and +stood in the presence of the Master." + + +THE GEORGES.--While he was writing _The Newcomes_, he had prepared a +course of four lectures on the _Four Georges_, kings of England, with +which he made his second visit to the United States, and which he +delivered in the principal cities, to make a fund for his daughters and +for his old age. It was entirely successful, and he afterwards read them +in England and Scotland. They are very valuable historically, as they give +us the truth with regard to men whose reigns were brilliant and on the +whole prosperous, but who themselves, with the exception of the third of +the name, were as bad men as ever wore crowns. George III. was continent +and honest, but a maniac, and Mr. Thackeray has treated him with due +forbearance and eulogy. + +In 1857, Mr. Thackeray was a candidate for Parliament from Oxford, but +was defeated by a small majority; his conduct in the election was so +magnanimous, that his defeat may be regarded as an advantage to his +reputation. + +In the same year he began _The Virginians_, which may be considered his +failure; it is historically a continuation of _Esmond_,--some of the +English characters, the Esmonds in Virginia, being the same as in that +work. But his presentation and estimate of Washington are a caricature, +and his sketch of General James Wolfe, the hero of Quebec, is tame and +untrue to life. His descriptions of Virginia colonial life are unlike the +reality; but where he is on his own ground, describing English scenes and +customs in that day, he is more successful. To paint historical characters +is beyond the power of his pencil, and his Doctor Johnson is not the man +whom Boswell has so successfully presented. + +In 1860 he originated the _Cornhill Magazine_, to which his name gave +unusual popularity: it attained a circulation of one hundred +thousand--unprecedented in England. In that he published _Lovel the +Widower_, which was not much liked, and a charming reproduction of the +Newcomes,--for it is nothing more,--entitled _The Adventures of Philip on +His Way through the World_. Philip is a more than average Englishman, with +a wicked father and rather a stupid wife; but "the little sister" is a +star--there is no finer character in any of his works. _Philip_, in spite +of its likeness to _The Newcomes_, is a delightful book. + +With an achieved fame, a high position, a home which he had just built at +Kensington, a large income, he seemed to have before him as prosperous an +old age as any one could desire, when, such are the mysteries of +Providence, he was found dead in his room on the morning of December 24, +1863. + + +ESTIMATE OF HIS POWERS.--Thackeray's excellences are manifest: he was the +master of idiomatic English, a great moralist and reformer, and the king +of satire, all the weapons of which he managed with perfect skill. He had +a rapier for aristocratic immunities of evil, arrows to transfix +prescriptions and shams; and with snobs (we must change the figure) he +played as a cat does with a mouse, torturing and then devouring. In the +words of Miss Bronte, "he was the first social regenerator of the day, the +very master of that working corps who would restore to rectitude the +warped system of things." But this was his chief and glorious strength: in +the truest sense, he was a satirist and a humorist, but not a novelist; he +could not create character. His dramatic persons do not speak for +themselves; he tells us what they are and do. His mission seems to have +been to arraign and demolish evil rather than to applaud good, and thus he +enlists our sinless anger as crusaders rather than our sympathy as +philanthropists. In Dickens we are sometimes disposed to skip a little, in +our ardor, to follow the plot and find the denouement. In Thackeray we +read every word, for it is the philosophy we want; the plot and personages +are secondary, as indeed he considered them; for he often tells us, in the +time of greatest depression of his hero, that it will all come out right +at the end,--that Philip will marry Charlotte, and have a good income, +while the poor soul is wrestling with the _res augusta domi_. Dickens and +Thackeray seemed to draw from each other in their later works; the former +philosophizing more in his _Little Dorrit_ and _Our Mutual Friend_, and +the latter attempting more of the descriptive in _The Newcomes_ and +_Philip_. Of minor pieces we may mention his _Rebecca_ and _Rowena_, and +his _Kickleburys on the Rhine_; his _Essay on Thunder_ and _Small Beer_; +his _Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo_, in 1846, and his +published collection of smaller sketches called _The Roundabout Papers_. +That Thackeray was fully conscious of the dignity of his functions may be +gathered from his own words in _Henry Esmond_. "I would have history +familiar rather than heroic, and think Mr. Hogarth and Mr. Fielding. +[and, we may add, Mr. Thackeray,] will give our children a much better +idea of the manners of that age in England than the _Court Gazette_ and +the newspapers which we get thence." At his death he left an unfinished +novel, entitled _Dennis Duval_. A gifted daughter, who was his kind +amanuensis. Miss ANNE E. THACKERAY, has written several interesting tales, +among which are _The Village on the Cliff_ and _The Story of Elizabeth_. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE LATER WRITERS. + + + Charles Lamb. Thomas Hood. Thomas de Quincey. Other Novelists. Writers + on Science and Philosophy. + + +CHARLES LAMB.--This distinguished writer, although not a novelist like +Dickens and Thackeray, in the sense of having produced extensive works of +fiction, was, like them, a humorist and a satirist, and has left +miscellaneous works of rare merit. He was born in London, and was the son +of a servant to one of the Benches of the Inner Temple; he was educated at +Christ's Hospital, where he became the warm friend of Coleridge. In 1792 +he received an appointment as clerk in the South Sea House, which he +retained until 1825, when, owing to the distinction he had obtained in the +world of letters, he was permitted to retire with a pension of L450. He +describes his feelings on this happy release from business, in his essay +on _The Superannuated Man_. He was an eccentric man, a serio-comic +character, whose sad life is singularly contrasted with his irrepressible +humor. His sister, whom he has so tenderly described as Bridget Elia, in a +fit of insanity killed their mother with a carving-knife, and Lamb devoted +himself to her care. + +He was a poet, and left quaint and beautiful album verses and minor +pieces. As a dramatist, he is known by his tragedy _John Woodvil_, and the +farce _Mr. H----_, neither of which was a success. But he has given us in +his _Specimens of Old English Dramatists_ the result of great reading and +rare criticism. + +But it is chiefly as a writer of essays and short stories that he is +distinguished. The _Essays of Elia_, in their vein, mark an era in the +literature; they are light, racy, seemingly dashed off, but really full of +his reading of the older English authors. Indeed, he is so quaint in +thought and style, that he seems an anachronism--a writer of the +Elizabethan period returned to life in this century. He bubbles over with +puns, jests, and repartees; and although not popular in the sense of +reaching the multitude, he is the friend and companion of congenial +readers. Among his essays, we may mention the stories of _Rosamund Gray_ +and _Old Blind Margaret_. _Dream Children_ and _The Child Angel_ are those +of greatest power; but every one he has written is charming. His sly hits +at existing abuses are designed to laugh them away. He was the favorite of +his literary circle, and as a talker had no superior. After a life of +care, not unmingled with pleasures, he died in 1834. Lamb's letters are +racy, witty, idiomatic, and unlabored; and, as most of them are to +colleagues in literature and on subjects of social and literary interest, +they are important aids in studying the history of his period. + + +THOMAS HOOD.--The greatest humorist, the best punster, and the ablest +satirist of his age, Hood attacked the social evils around him with such +skill and power that he stands forth as a philanthropist. He was born in +London in 1798, and, after a limited education, he began to learn the art +of engraving; but his pen was more powerful than his burin. He soon began +to contribute to the _London Magazine_ his _Whims and Oddities_; and, in +irregular verse, satirized the would-be great men of the time, and the +eccentric legislation they proposed in Parliament. These short poems are +full of puns and happy _jeux de mots_, and had a decided effect in +frustrating the foolish plans. After this he published _National Tales_, +in the same comic vein; but also produced his exquisite serious pieces, +_The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies_, _Hero and Leander_, and others, all +of which are striking and tasteful. In 1838 he commenced _The Comic +Annual_, which appeared for several years, brimful of mirth and fun. He +was editor of various magazines,--_The New Monthly_, and _Hood's +Magazine_. For _Punch_ he wrote _The Song of the Shirt_, and _The Bridge +of Sighs_. No one can compute the good done by both; the hearts touched; +the pockets opened. The sewing women were better paid, more cared for, +elevated in the social scale; and many of them saved from that fate which +is so touchingly chronicled in _The Bridge of Sighs_. Hood was a true poet +and a great poet. _Miss Kilmansegg and her Precious Leg_ is satire, story, +epic, comedy, in one. + +If he owed to Smollett's _Humphrey Clinker_ the form of his _Up the +Rhine_, he has equalled Smollett in the narrative, in the variety of +character, and in the admirable cacography of Martha Penny. His +caricatures fasten facts in the memory, and every tourist up the Rhine +recognizes Hood's personages wherever he lands. + +After a life of ill-health and pecuniary struggle, Hood died, greatly +lamented, on the 3d of May, 1845, and left no successor to wield his +subtle pen. + + +THOMAS DE QUINCEY (1785-1859).--This singular author, and very learned and +original thinker, owes much of his reputation to the evil habit of +opium-eating, which affected his personal life and authorship. His most +popular work is _The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_, which +interests the reader by its curious pictures of the abnormal conditions in +which he lived and wrote. He abandoned this noxious practice in the year +1820. He produced much which he did not publish; and his writings all +contain a suggestion of strength and scholarship, a surplus beyond what he +has given to the world. There are numerous essays and narratives, among +which his paper entitled _Murder considered as One of the Fine Arts_ is +especially notable. His prose is considered a model of good English. + +The death of Dickens and Thackeray left England without a novelist of +equal fame and power, but with a host of scholarly and respectable pens, +whose productions delight the popular taste, and who are still in the tide +of busy authorship. + +Our purpose is already accomplished, and we might rest without the +proceeding beyond the middle of the century; but it will be proper to make +brief mention of those, some of whom have already departed, but many of +whom still remain, and are producing new works, who best illustrate the +historical value and teachings of English literature, and whose writings +will be read in the future for their delineations of the habits and +conditions of the present period. + + + +OTHER NOVELISTS. + + +_Captain Frederick Marryat_, of the Royal Navy, 1792-1848: in his sea +novels depicts naval life with rare fidelity, and with, a roystering +joviality which makes them extremely entertaining. The principal of these +are _Frank Mildmay_, _Newton Forster_, _Peter Simple_, and _Midshipman +Easy_. His works constitute a truthful portrait of the British Navy in the +beginning of the eighteenth century, and have influenced many +high-spirited youths to choose a maritime profession. + +_George P. R. James_, 1806-1860: is the author of nearly two hundred +novels, chiefly historical, which have been, in their day, popular. It was +soon found, however, that he repeated himself, and the sameness of +handling began to tire his readers. His "two travellers," with whom he +opens his stories, have become proverbially ridiculous. But he has +depicted scenes in modern history with skill, and especially in French +history. His _Richelieu_ is a favorite; and in his _Life of Charlemagne_ +he has brought together the principal events in the career of that +distinguished monarch with logical force and historical accuracy. + +_Benjamin d'Israeli_, born 1805: is far more famous as a persevering, +acute, and able statesman than as a novelist. In proof of this, having +surmounted unusual difficulties, he has been twice Chancellor of the +Exchequer and once Prime Minister of England. Among his earlier novels, +which are pictures of existing society, are: _Vivian Gray_, _Contarini +Fleming_, _Coningsby_, and _Henrietta Temple_. In _The Wondrous Tale of +Alroy_ he has described the career of that singular claimant to the +Jewish Messiahship. _Lothair_, which was published in 1869, is the story +of a young nobleman who was almost enticed to enter the Roman Catholic +Church. The descriptions of society are either very much overwrought or +ironical; but his knowledge of State craft and Church craft renders the +book of great value to the history of religious polemics. His father, +_Isaac d'Israeli_, is favorably known as the author of _The Curiosities of +Literature_, _The Amenities of Literature_, and _The Quarrels of Authors_. + +_Charles Lever_, 1806-1872: he was born in Dublin, and, after a partial +University career, studied medicine. He has embodied his experience of +military life in several striking but exaggerated works,--among these are: +_The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer_, _Charles O'Malley_, and _Jack +Hinton_. He excels in humor and in picturesque battle-scenes, and he has +painted the age in caricature. Of its kind, _Charles O'Malley_ stands +pre-eminent: the variety of character is great; all classes of military +men figure in the scenes, from the Duke of Wellington to the inimitable +Mickey Free. He was for some time editor of the _Dublin University +Magazine_, and has written numerous other novels, among which are: _Roland +Cashel_, _The Knight of Gwynne_, and _The Dodd Family Abroad_; and, last +of all, _Lord Kilgobbin_. + +_Charles Kingsley_, born 1809: this accomplished clergyman, who is a canon +of Chester, is among the most popular English writers,--a poet, a +novelist, and a philosopher. He was first favorably known by a poetical +drama on the story of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, entitled _The Saint's +Tragedy_. Among his other works are: _Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet_; +_Hypatia, the Story of a Virgin Martyr_; _Andromeda; Westward Ho! or the +Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh_; _Two Years Ago_; and _Hereward, the Last +of the English_. This last is a very vivid historical picture of the way +in which the man of the fens, under the lead of this powerful outlaw, held +out against William the Conqueror. The busy pen of Kingsley has produced +numerous lectures, poems, reviews, essays, and some plain and useful +sermons. He is now Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. + +_Charlotte Bronte_, 1816-1855: if of an earlier period, this gifted woman +would demand a far fuller mention and a more critical notice than can be +with justice given of a contemporary. She certainly wrote from the depths +of her own consciousness. _Jane Eyre_, her first great work, was received +with intense interest, and was variously criticized. The daughter of a +poor clergyman at Haworth, and afterwards a teacher in a school at +Brussels, with little knowledge of the world, she produced a powerful book +containing much curious philosophy, and took rank at once among the first +novelists of the age. Her other works, if not equal to _Jane Eyre_, are +still of great merit, and deal profoundly with the springs of human +action. They are: _The Professor_, _Villette_, and _Shirley_. Her +characters are portraits of the men and women around her, painted from +life; and she speaks boldly of motives and customs which other novelists +have touched very delicately. She had two gifted sisters, who were also +successful novelists; but who died young. Miss Bronte died a short time +after her marriage to Mr. Nichol, her father's curate. _Mrs. Elizabeth +Gaskell_, her near friend, and the author of a successful novel called +_Mary Barton_, has written an interesting biography of Mrs. Nichol. + +_George Eliot_, born 1820: under this pseudonym, Miss Evans has written +several works of great interest. Among these are: _Adam Bede_; _The Mill +on the Floss_; _Romola_, an Italian story; _Felix Holt_; and _Silas +Marner_. Simple, and yet eminently dramatic in scene, character, and +interlocution, George Eliot has painted pictures from middle and common +life, and is thus the exponent of a large humanity. She is now the wife of +the popular author, G. H. Lewes. + +_Dinah Maria Muloch_ (Mrs. Craik), born 1826: a versatile writer. She is +best known by her novels entitled _John Halifax_ and _The Ogilvies_. + +_Wilkie Collins_, born 1824: he is the son of a landscape-painter, and is +renowned for his curious and well-concealed plots, phantom-like +characters, and striking effects. Among his novels the best known are: +_Antonina_, _The Dead Secret_, _The Woman in White_, _No Name_, +_Armadale_, _The Moonstone_, and _Man and Wife_. There is a sameness in +these works; and yet it is evident that the author has put his invention +on the rack to create new intrigues, and to mystify his reader from the +beginning to the end of each story. + +_Charles Reade_, born 1814: he is one of the most prolific writers of the +day, as well as one of the most readable in all that he has written. He +draws many impassioned scenes, and is as sensuous in literature as Rubens +in art. Among his principal works are: _White Lies_, _Love Me Little, Love +Me Long_; _The Cloister and The Hearth_; _Hard Cash_, and _Griffith +Gaunt_, which convey little, if any, practical instruction. His _Never Too +Late to Mend_ is of great value in displaying the abuses of the prison +system in England; and his _Put Yourself in His Place_ is a very powerful +attack upon the Trades' Unions. A singular epigrammatic style keeps up the +interest apart from the story. + +_Mary Russell Mitford_, 1786-1855: she was a poet and a dramatist, but is +chiefly known by her stories. In the collection called _Our Village_, she +has presented beautiful and simple pictures of English country life which +are at once touching and instructive. + +_Charlotte Mary Yonge_, born 1823: among the many interesting works of +this author, _The Heir of Redclyff_ is the first and best. This was +followed by _Daisy Chain_, _Heartsease_, _The Clever Woman of the Family_, +and numerous other works of romance and of history,--all of which are +valuable for their high tone of moral instruction and social manners. + +_Anthony Trollope_, born 1815: he and his brother, Thomas Adolphus +Trollope, are sons of that Mrs. Frances Trollope who abused our country in +her work entitled _The Domestic Manners of the Americans_, in terms that +were distasteful even to English critics. Anthony Trollope is a successful +writer of society-novels, which, without being of the highest order, are +faithful in their portraitures. Among those which have been very popular +are: _Barchester Towers_, _Framley Parsonage_, _Doctor Thorne_, and _Orley +Farm_, He travelled in the United States, and has published a work of +discernment entitled _North America_. His brother Thomas is best known by +his _History of Florence to the Fall of the Republic_. + + +_Thomas Hughes_, born 1823: the popular author of _Tom Brown's School-Days +at Rugby_, and _Tom Brown at Oxford_,--books which display the workings of +these institutions, and set up a standard for English youth. The first is +the best, and has made him famous. + + + +WRITERS ON SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. + + +Although these do not come strictly within the scope of English +literature, they are so connected with it in the composition of general +culture, and give such a complexion to the age, that it is well to mention +the principal names. + +_Sir William Hamilton_, 1788-1856: for twenty years Professor of Logic and +Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh. His voluminous lectures on +both these subjects were edited, after his death, by Mansel and Veitch, +and have been since of the highest authority. + +_William Whewell_, 1795-1866: for some time Master of Trinity College, +Cambridge. He has written learnedly on many subjects: his most valuable +works are: _A History of the Inductive Sciences_, _The Elements of +Morality_, and _The Plurality of Worlds_. Of Whewell it has been pithily +said, that "science was his forte, and omniscience his foible." + +_Richard Whately, D.D._, 1787-1863: he was appointed in 1831 Archbishop +of Dublin and Kildare, in Ireland. His chief works are: _Elements of +Logic_, _Elements of Rhetoric_, and _Lectures on Political Economy_. He +gave a new impetus to the study of Logic and Rhetoric, and presented the +formal logic of Aristotle anew to the world; thus marking a distinct epoch +in the history of that much controverted science. + +_John Ruskin_, born 1819: he ranks among the most original critics in art; +but is eccentric in his opinions. His powers were first displayed in his +_Modern Painters_. In his _Seven Lamps of Architecture_ he has laid down +the great fundamental principles of that art, among the forms of which the +Gothic claims the pre-eminence. These are further carried out in _The +Stones of Venice_. He is a transcendentalist and a pre-Raphaelite, and +exceedingly dogmatic in stating his views. His descriptive powers are very +great. + +_Hugh Miller_, 1802-1856: an uneducated mechanic, he was a brilliant +genius and an observant philosopher. His best works are: _The Old Red +Sandstone_, _Footprints of the Creator_, and _The Testimonies of the +Rocks_. He shot himself in a fit of insanity. + +_John Stuart Mill_, born 1806: the son of James Mill, the historian of +India. He was carefully educated, and has written on many subjects. He is +best known by his _System of Logic_; his work on _Political Economy_; and +his _Treatise on Liberty_. Each of these topics being questions of +controversy, Mr. Mill states his views strongly in respect to opposing +systems, and is very clear in the expression of his own dogmas. + +_Thomas Chalmers, D.D._, 1780-1847: this distinguished divine won his +greatest reputation as an eloquent preacher. He was for some time +Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St. Andrew's, and wrote +on _Natural Theology_, _The Evidences of Christianity_, and some lectures +on _Astronomy_. But all his works are glowing sermons rather than +philosophical treatises. + +_Richard Chevenix Trench, D.D._, born 1807: the present Archbishop of +Dublin. He has written numerous theological works of popular value, among +which are _Notes on the Parables, and on Miracles_. He has also published +two series of charming lectures on English philology, entitled _The Study +of Words_ and _English Past and Present_. They are suggestive and +discursive rather than philosophical, but have incited many persons to +pursue this delightful study. + +_Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D._, born 1815: Dean of Westminster. He was +first known by his excellent biography of Dr. Arnold of Rugby; but has +since enriched biblical literature by his lectures on _The Eastern Church_ +and on _The Jewish Church_. He accompanied the Prince of Wales on his +visit to Palestine, and was not only eager in collecting statistics, but +has reproduced them with poetic power. + +_Nicholas Wiseman, D.D._, 1802-1865: the head of the Roman Catholic Church +in England. Cardinal Wiseman has written much on theological and +ecclesiastical questions; but he is best known to the literary world by +his able lectures on _The Connection between Science and Revealed +Religion_, which are additionally valuable because they have no sectarian +character. + +_Charles Darwin_, born 1809: although he began his career at an early age, +his principal works are so immediately of the present time, and his +speculations are so involved in serious controversies, that they are not +within the scope of this work. His principal works are: _The Origin of +Species by means of Natural Selection_, and _The Descent of Man_. His +facts are curious and very carefully selected; but his conclusions have +been severely criticized. + +_Frederick Max Mueller_, born 1823: a German by birth. He is a professional +Oxford, and has done more to popularize the Science of Language than any +other writer. He has written largely on Oriental linguistics, and has +given two courses of lectures on _The Science of Language_, which have +been published, and are used as text-books. His _Chips from a German +Workshop_ is a charming book, containing his miscellaneous articles in +reviews and magazines. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +ENGLISH JOURNALISM. + + + Roman News Letters. The Gazette. The Civil War. Later Divisions. The + Reviews. The Monthlies. The Dailies. The London Times. Other + Newspapers. + + +ROMAN NEWS LETTERS.--English serials and periodicals, from the very time +of their origin, display, in a remarkable manner, the progress both of +English literature and of English history, and form the most striking +illustration that the literature interprets the history. In using the +caption, "journalism," we include all forms of periodical +literature--reviews, magazines, weekly and daily papers. The word +journalism is, in respect to many of them, a misnomer, etymologically +considered: it is a French corruption of _diurnal_, which, from the Latin +_dies_, should mean a daily paper; but it is now generally used to include +all periodicals. The origin of newspapers is quite curious, and antedates +the invention of printing. The _acta diurna_, or journals of public +events, were the daily manuscript reports of the Roman Government during +the later commonwealth. In these, among other matters of public interest, +every birth, marriage, and divorce was entered. As an illustration of the +character of these brief entries, we have the satire of Petronius, which +he puts in the mouth of the freed man Trimalchio: "The seventh of the +Kalends of Sextilis, on the estate at Cumae, were born thirty boys, twenty +girls; were carried from the floor to the barn, 500,000 bushels of wheat; +were broke 500 oxen. The same day the slave Mithridates was crucified for +blasphemy against the Emperor's genius; the same day was placed in the +chest the sum of ten millions sesterces, which could not be put out to +use." Similar in character were the _Acta Urbana_, or city register, the +_Acta Publica_, and the _Acta Senatus_, whose names indicate their +contents. They were brief, almost tabular, and not infrequently +sensational. + + +THE GAZETTE.--After the downfall of Rome, and during the Dark Ages, there +are few traces of journalism. When Venice was still in her palmy days, in +1563, during a war with the Turks, printed bulletins were issued from time +to time, the price for reading which was a coin of about three farthings' +value called a _gazetta_; and so the paper soon came to be called a +gazette. Old files, to the amount of thirty volumes, of great historical +value, may be found in the Magliabecchian Library at Florence. + +Next in order, we find in France _Affiches_, or _placards_, which were +soon succeeded by regular sheets of advertisement, exhibited at certain +offices. + +As early as the time of the intended invasion of England by the Spanish +Armada, about the year 1588, we find an account of its defeat and +dispersion in the _Mercurie_, issued by Queen Elizabeth's own printer. In +another number is the news of a plot for killing the queen, and a +statement that instruments of torture were on board the vessels, to set up +the Inquisition in London. Whether true or not, the newspaper said it; and +the English people believed it implicitly. + +About 1600, with the awakening spirit of the people, there began to appear +periodical papers containing specifically news from Germany, from Italy, +&c. And during the Thirty Years' War there was issued a weekly paper +called _The Certain News of the Present Week_. Although the word _news_ is +significant enough, many persons considered it as made up of the initial +letters representing the cardinal points of the compass, _N.E.W.S._, from +which the curious people looked for satisfying intelligence. + + +THE CIVIL WAR.--The progress of English journalism received a great +additional impetus when the civil war broke out between Charles I. and his +Parliament, in 1642. To meet the demands of both parties for intelligence, +numbers of small sheets were issued: _Truths from York_ told of the rising +in the king's favor there. There were: _Tidings from Ireland_, _News from +Hull_, telling of the siege of that place in 1643; _The Dutch Spy_; _The +Parliament Kite_; _The Secret Owl_; _The Scot's Dove_, with the +olive-branch. Then flourished the _Weekly Discoverer_, and _The Weekly +Discoverer Stripped Naked_. But these were only bare and partial +statements, which excited rancor without conveying intelligence. "Had +there been better vehicles for the expression of public opinion," says the +author of the Student's history of England, "the Stuarts might have been +saved from some of those schemes which proved so fatal to themselves." + +In the session of Parliament held in 1695, there occurred a revolution of +great moment. There had been an act, enforced for a limited time, to +restrain unlicensed printing, and under it censors had been appointed; +but, in this year, the Parliament refused to re-enact or continue it, and +thus the press found itself comparatively free. + +We have already referred to the powerful influence of the essayists in +_The Tatler_, _Spectator_, _Guardian_, and _Rambler_, which may be called +the real origin of the present English press. + + +LATER DIVISIONS.--Coming down to the close of the eighteenth century, we +find the following division of English periodical literature: +_Quarterlies_, usually called _Reviews_; _Monthlies_, generally entitled +_Magazines_; _Weeklies_, containing digests of news; and _Dailies_, in +which are found the intelligence and facts of the present moment; and in +this order, too, were the intellectual strength and learning of the time +at first employed. The _Quarterlies_ contained the articles of the great +men--the acknowledged critics in politics, literature, and art; the +_Magazines_, a current literature of poetry and fiction; the _Weeklies_ +and _Dailies_, reporters' facts and statistics; the latter requiring +activity rather than cleverness, and beginning to be a vehicle for +extensive advertisements. + +This general division has been since maintained; but if the order has not +been reversed, there can be no doubt that the great dailies have steadily +risen; on most questions of popular interest in all departments, long and +carefully written articles in the dailies, from distinguished pens, +anticipate the quarterlies, or force them to seek new grounds and forms of +presentation after forestalling their critical opinions. Not many years +ago, the quarterlies subsidized the best talent; now the men of that class +write for _The Times_, _Standard_, _Telegraph_, &c. + +Let us look, in the order we have mentioned, at some representatives of +the press in its various forms. + +Each of the principal reviews represents a political party, and at the +same time, in most cases, a religious denomination; and they owe much of +their interest to the controversial spirit thus engendered. + + +REVIEWS.--First among these, in point of origin, is the _Edinburgh +Review_, which was produced by the joint efforts of several young, and +comparatively unknown, gentlemen, among whom were Francis (afterwards) +Lord Jeffrey, Lord Murray, Mr. (since Lord) Brougham, and the Rev. Sydney +Smith. The latter gentleman was appointed first editor, and remained long +enough in Edinburgh to edit the first number. Thereafter Jeffrey conducted +it. The men were clever, witty, studious, fearless; and the Review was not +only from the first a success, but its fiat was looked for by authors with +fear and trembling. It became a vehicle for the efforts of the best minds. +Macaulay wrote for it those brilliant miscellanies which at once +established his fame, and gave it much of its popularity. In it Jeffrey +attacked the Lake poetry, and incurred the hatred of Byron. Its +establishment, in 1803, was an era in the world of English letters. The +papers were not merely reviews, but monographs on interesting subjects--a +new anatomy of history; it was in a general way an exponent, but quite an +independent one, of the Whig party, or those who would liberally construe +the Constitution,--putting Churchmen and Dissenters on the same platform; +although published in Edinburgh, it was neither Scotch nor Presbyterian. +It attacked ancient prescriptions and customs; agitated questions long +considered settled both of present custom and former history; and thus +imitated the champion knights who challenged all comers, and sustained no +defeats. + +Occupying opposite ground to this is the great English review called the +_London Quarterly_: it was established in 1809; is an uncompromising +Tory,--entirely conservative as to monarchy, aristocracy, and Established +Church. Its first editor was William Gifford; but it attained its best +celebrity under the charge of John Gibson Lockhart, the son-in-law of Sir +Walter Scott, a man of singular critical power. Among its distinguished +contributors were Southey, Scott, Canning, Croker, and Wordsworth. + +The _North British Review_, which never attained the celebrity of either +of these, and which has at length, in 1871, been discontinued, occupied +strong Scottish and Presbyterian ground, and had its respectable +supporters. + +But besides the parties mentioned, there is a floating one, growing by +slow but sure accretion, know as the _Radical_. It includes men of many +stamps, mainly utilitarian,--radical in politics, innovators, radical in +religion, destructive as to systems of science and arts, a learned and +inquisitive class,--rational, transcendental, and intensely dogmatic. As a +vent for this varied party, the _Westminster Review_ was founded by Mr +Bentham, in 1824. Its articles are always well written, and sometimes +dangerous, according to our orthodox notions. It is supported by such +writers as Mill, Bowring, and Buckle. + +Besides these there are numerous quarterlies of more or less limited +scope, as in science or art, theology or law; such as _The Eclectic, The +Christian Observer, The Dublin_, and many others. + + +THE MONTHLIES.--Passing from the reviews to the monthlies, we find the +range and number of these far greater, and the matter lighter. The first +great representative of the modern series, and one that has kept its issue +up to the present day, is Cave's _Gentleman's Magazine_, which commenced +its career in 1831, and has been continued, after Cave's death, by Henry & +Nichols, who wrote under the pseudonym of _Sylvanus Urban_. It is a strong +link between past and present. Johnson sent his _queries_ to it while +preparing his dictionary, and at the present day it is the favorite +vehicle of antiquarians and historians. Passing by others, we find +Blackwood's _Edinburgh Magazine_, first published in 1817. Originally a +strong and bitter conservative, it kept up its popularity by its fine +stories and poems. Among the most notable papers in Blackwood are the +_Noctes Ambrosianae_, in which Professor Wilson, under the pseudonym of +_Christopher North_, took the greater part. + +Most of the magazines had little or no political proclivity, but were +chiefly literary. Among them are _Fraser's_, begun in 1830, and the +_Dublin University_, in 1832. + +A charming light literature was presented by the _New Monthly_: in +politics it was a sort of set-off to Blackwood: in it Captain Marryat +wrote his famous sea stories; and among other contributors are the ever +welcome names of Hood, Lytton, and Campbell. The _Penny Magazine_, of +Knight, was issued from 1832 to 1845. + +Quite a new era dawned upon the magazine world in the establishment of +several new ones, under the auspices of famous authors; among which we +mention _The Cornhill_, edited by Thackeray, in 1859, with unprecedented +success, until his tender heart compelled him to resign it; _Temple Bar_, +by Sala, in 1860, is also very successful. + +In 1850 Dickens began the issue of _Household Words_, and in 1859 this was +merged into _All the Year Round_, which owed its great popularity to the +prestige of the same great writer. + +Besides these, devoted to literature and criticism, there are also many +monthlies issued in behalf of special branches of knowledge, art, and +science, which we have not space to refer to. + +Descending in the order mentioned, we come to the weeklies, which, besides +containing summaries of daily intelligence, also share the magazine field +in brief descriptive articles, short stories, and occasional poems. + +A number of these are illustrated journals, and are of great value in +giving us pictorial representations of the great events and scenes as they +pass, with portraits of men who have become suddenly famous by some +special act or appointment. Their value cannot be too highly appreciated; +they supply to the mind, through the eye, what the best descriptions in +letter-press could not give; and in them satire uses comic elements with +wonderful effect. Among the illustrated weeklies, the _Illustrated London +News_ has long held a high place; and within a short period _The Graphic_ +has exhibited splendid pictures of men and things of timely interest. Nor +must we forget to mention _Punch_, which has been the grand jester of the +realm since its origin. The best humorous and witty talent of England has +found a vent in its pages, and sometimes its pathos has been productive of +reform. Thackeray, Cuthbert Bede, Mark Lemon, Hood, have amused us in its +pages, and the clever pencil of Leech has made a series of etching which +will never grow tiresome. To it Thackeray contributed his _Snob Papers_, +and Hood _The Song of the Shirt_. + + +THE DAILIES.--But the great characteristic of the age is the daily +newspaper, so common a blessing that we cease to marvel at it, and yet +marvellous as it is common. It is the product of quick intelligence, of +great energy, of concurrent and systematized labor, and, in order to +fulfil its mission, it seems to subsidize all arts and invade all +subjects--steam, mechanics, photography, phonography, and electricity. The +news which it prints and scatters comes to it on the telegraph; long +orations are phonographically reported; the very latest mechanical skill +is used in its printing; and the world is laid at our feet as we sit at +the breakfast-table and read its columns. + +I shall not go back to the origin of printing, to show the great progress +that has been made in the art from that time to the present; nor shall I +attempt to explain the present process, which one visit to a press-room +would do far better than any description; but I simply refer to the fact +that fifty years ago newspapers were still printed with the hand-press, +giving 250 impressions per hour--no cylinder, no flying Hoe, (that was +patented only in 1847.) Now, the ten-cylinder Hoe, steam driven, works off +20,000 sheets in an hour, and more, as the stereotyper may multiply the +forms. What an emblem of art-progress is this! Fifty years ago +mail-coaches carried them away. Now, steamers and locomotives fly with +them all over the world, and only enlarge and expand the story, the great +facts of which have been already sent in outline by telegraph. + +Nor is it possible to overrate the value of a good daily paper: as the +body is strengthened by daily food, so are we built up mentally and +spiritually for the busy age in which we live by the world of intelligence +contained in the daily journal. A great book and a good one is offered for +the reading of many who have no time to read others, and a great culture +in morals, religion, politics, is thus induced. Of course it would be +impossible to mention all the English dailies. Among them _The London +Times_ is pre-eminent, and stands highest in the opinion of the +ministerial party, which fears and uses it. + +There was a time when the press was greatly trammelled in England, and +license of expression was easily charged with constructive treason; but at +present it is remarkably free, and the great, the government, and existing +abuses, receive no soft treatment at its hands. + +_The London Times_ was started by John Walter, a printer, in 1788, there +having been for three years before a paper called the _London Daily +Universal Register_. In 1803 his son, John, went into partnership, when +the circulation was but 1,000. Within ten years it was 5,000. In 1814, +cleverly concealing the purpose from his workmen, he printed the first +sheet ever printed by steam, on Koenig's press. The paper passed, at his +death, into the hands of his son, the third John, who is a scholar, +educated at Eton and Oxford, like his father a member of Parliament, and +who has lately been raised to the peerage. The _Times_ is so influential +that it may well be called a third estate in the realm: its writers are +men of merit and distinction; its correspondence secures the best foreign +intelligence; and its travelling agents, like Russell and others, are the +true historians of a war. English journalism, it is manifest, is eminently +historical. The files of English newspapers are the best history of the +period, and will, by their facts and comments, hereafter confront specious +and false historians. Another thing to be observed is the impersonality of +the British press, not only in the fact that names are withheld, but that +the articles betray no authorship; that, in short, the paper does not +appear as the glorification of one man or set of men, but like an +unprejudiced relator, censor, and judge. + +Of the principal London papers, the _Morning Post_ (Liberal, but not +Radical,) was begun in 1772. The _Globe_ (at first Liberal, but within a +short time Tory), in 1802. The _Standard_ (Conservative), in 1827. The +_Daily News_ (high-class Liberal), in 1846. The _News_ announced itself as +pledged to _Principles of Progress and Improvement_. _The Daily Telegraph_ +was started in 1855, and claims the largest circulation. It is also a +_Liberal_ paper. + + + + +INDEX OF AUTHORS + + + +Addison, Joseph, 258. +Akenside, Mark, 351. +Alcuin, 40. +Aldhelm, Abbot, 40. +Alfred the Great, 42. +Alfric, surnamed Germanicus, 40. +Alison, Sir Archibald, 447. +Alured of Rievaux, 49. +Arbuthnot, John, 252. +Arnold, Matthew, 438. +Arnold, Thomas, 448. +Ascham, Roger, 103. +Ashmole, Elias, 232. +Aubrey, John, 232. +Austen, Jane, 411. + +Bacon, Francis, 156. +Bacon, Roger, 59. +Bailey, Philip James, 437. +Baillie, Joanna, 368. +Barbauld, Anne Letitia, 359. +Barbour, John, 89. +Barclay, Robert, 228. +Barham, Richard Harris, 437. +Barklay, Alexander, 102. +Barrow, Isaac, 230. +Baxter, Richard, 226. +Beattie, James, 356. +Beaumont, Francis, 154. +Beckford, William, 412. +Bede the Venerable, 37. +Benoit, 52. +Berkeley, George, 278. +Blair, Hugh, 369. +Blind Harry, 89. +Bolingbroke, Viscount, (Henry St. John,) 278. +Boswell, James, 321. +Browne, Sir Thomas, 225. +Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 432. +Browning, Robert, 434. +Buchanan, George, 126. +Buckle, Henry Thomas, 447. +Bulwer, Edward George Earle Lytton, 450. +Bunyan, John, 228. +Burke, Edmund, 369. +Burnet, Gilbert, 231. +Burney, Frances, 368. +Burns, Robert, 397. +Burton, Robert, 125. +Butler, Samuel, 198. +Byron, Rt. Hon. George Gordon, 384 + +Caedmon, 34. +Cambrensis, Giraldus, 49. +Camden, William, 126. +Campbell, Thomas, 401. +Carlyle, Thomas, 444. +Cavendish, George, 102. +Caxton, William, 92. +Chapman, George, 127. +Chatterton, Thomas, 340. +Chaucer, Geoffrey, 60. +Chillingworth, William, 222. +Coleridge, Hartley, 427. +Coleridge, Henry Nelson, 427. +Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 424. +Collier, John Payne, 153. +Collins, William, 357. +Colman, George, 366. +Colman, George, (The Younger,) 366. +Congreve, William, 236. +Cornwall, Barry, 436. +Colton, Charles, 205. +Coverdale, Miles, 170. +Cowley, Abraham, 195. +Cowper, William, 353. +Crabbe, George, 400. +Cumberland, Richard, 363. +Cunningham, Allan, 412. + +Daniel, Samuel, 127. +Davenant, Sir William, 205. +Davies, Sir John, 127. +Defoe, Daniel, 282. +Dekker, Thomas, 154. +De Quincey, Thomas, 468. +Dickens, Charles, 452. +Dixon, William Hepworth, 449. +Donne, John, 127. +Drayton, Michael, 127. +Dryden, John, 207. +Dunbar, William, 90. +Dunstan, (called Saint,) 41. + +Eadmer, 49. +Edgeworth, Maria, 410. +Erigena, John Scotus, 40. +Etherege, Sir George, 238. +Evelyn, John, 231. + +Falconer, William, 357. +Farquhar, George, 238. +Ferrier, Mary, 411. +Fielding, Henry, 288. +Fisher, John, 102. +Florence of Worcester, 49. +Foote, Samuel, 363. +Ford, John, 154. +Fox, George, 226. +Froissart, Sire Jean, 58. +Fronde, James Anthony, 448. +Fuller, Thomas, 224. + +Gaimar, Geoffrey, 52. +Garrick, David, 361. +Gay, John, 252. +Geoffrey, 52. +Geoffrey of Monmouth, 48. +Gibbon, Edward, 317 +Gillies, John, 441. +Goldsmith, Oliver, 301. +Gowen, John, 86. +Gray, Thomas, 351. +Greene, Robert, 136. +Greville, Sir Fulke, 127. +Grostete, Robert, 59. +Grote, George, 440. + +Hakluyt, Richard, 126. +Hall, Joseph, 221. +Hallam, Henry, 448. +Harvey, Gabriel, 110. +Heber, Reginald, 436. +Hemans, Mrs. Felicia Dorothea, 409. +Henry of Huntingdon, 49. +Hennyson, Robert, 90. +Herbert, George, 203. +Herrick, Robert, 204. +Heywood, John, 131. +Higden, Ralph, 50. +Hobbes, Thomas, 125. +Hogg, James, 412. +Hollinshed, Raphael, 126. +Hood, Thomas, 467. +Hooker, Richard, 125. +Hope, Thomas, 412. +Hume, David, 311. +Hunt, Leigh, 411. +Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, 205. + +Ingelow, Jean, 437. +Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, 49. +Ireland, Samuel, 153. + +James I, (of Scotland,) 89. +Johnson, Doctor Samuel, 324. +Jonson, Ben, 153. +Junius, 331. + +Keats, John, 407. +Keble, John, 437. +Knowles, James Sheridan, 436. +Kyd, Thomas, 136. + +Lamb, Charles, 466. +Landon, Letitia Elizabeth, 410. +Langland, 56. +Latimer, Hugh, 102. +Layamon, 53. +Lee, Nathaniel, 240. +Leland, John, 102. +Lingard, John, 446. +Locke, John, 231. +Lodge, Thomas, 135. +Luc de la Barre, 52. +Lydgate, John, 90. +Lyly, John, 136. + +Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 441. +Mackay, Charles, 437. +Mackenzie, Henry, 307. +Macpherson, Doctor James, 336. +Mahon, Lord, 447. +Mandevil, Sir John, 58. +Manning, Robert, 59. +Marlowe, Christopher, 134. +Marston, John, 136. +Massinger, 154. +Matthew of Westminster, 49. +Mestre, Thomas, 32. +Milton, John, 174. +Mitford, William, 444. +Moore, Thomas, 390. +More, Hannah, 367. +More, Sir Thomas, 99. + +Napier. Sir William Francis Patrick, 447. +Nash, Thomas, 136. +Newton, Sir Isaac, 278. +Norton, Mrs. Caroline Elizabeth, 410. + +Occleve, Thomas, 89. +Ormulum, 54. +Otway, Thomas, 239. + +Paley, William, 370. +Paris, Matthew, 49. +Parnell, Thomas, 252. +Pecock, Reginald, 102. +Peele, George, 136. +Penn, William, 227. +Pepys, Samuel, 232. +Percy, Dr. Thomas, (Bishop,) 358. +Philip de Than, 52. +Pollok, Robert, 411. +Pope, Alexander, 241. +Prior, Matthew, 251. +Purchas, Samuel, 126. + +Quarles, Francis, 203. + +Raleigh, Sir Walter, 126. +Richard I., (Coeur de Lion,) 52. + +Richardson, Samuel, 285. +Robert of Gloucester, 55. +Robertson, William, 315. +Roger de Hovedin, 49. +Rogers, Samuel, 403. +Roscoe, William, 413. +Rowe, Nicholas, 240. + +Sackville, Thomas, 127. +Scott, Sir Michael, 59. +Scott, Walter, 371. +Shakspeare, William, 137. +Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 405. +Shenstone, William, 357. +Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 364. +Sherlock, William, 230. +Shirley, 154. +Sidney, Sir Philip, 107. +Skelton, John, 95. +Smollett, Tobias George, 292. +South, Robert, 230. +Southern, Thomas, 240. +Southey, Robert, 421. +Spencer, Edmund, 104. +Steele, Sir Richard, 264. +Sterne, Lawrence, 296. +Still, John, 132. +Stillingfleet, Edward, 230. +Stow, John, 126. +Strickland, Agnes, 447. +Suckling, Sir John, 204. +Surrey, Earl of, 98. +Swift, Jonathan, 268. +Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 437. + +Tailor, Robert, 136. +Taylor, Jeremy, 223. +Temple, Sir William, 277. +Tennyson, Alfred, 428. +Thackeray, Anne E., 465. +Thackeray, William Makepeace, 459. +Thirlwall, Connop, 441. +Thomas of Ercildoun, 59. +Thomson, James, 347. +Tickell, Thomas, 252. +Tupper, Martin Farquhar, 437. +Turner, Sharon, 448. +Tusser, Thomas, 102. +Tyndale, William, 169. +Tytler, Patrick Frazer, 446. + +Udall, Nicholas, 132. + +Vanbrugh, Sir John, 237. +Vaughan, Henry, 205. +Vitalis, Ordericus, 49. + +Wace, Richard, 51. +Waller, Edmund, 204. +Walpole, Horace, 321. +Walton, Izaak, 202. +Warton, Joseph, 368. +Warton, Thomas, 368. +Watts, Isaac, 252. + +Webster, 154. +White, Henry Kirke, 358. +Wiclif, John, 77. +William of Jumieges, 49. +William of Malmsbury, 47. +William of Poictiers, 49. +Wither, George, 203. +Wolcot, John, 367. +Wordsworth, William, 415. +Wyat, Sir Thomas, 97. +Wycherley, William, 235. + +Young, Edward, 253. + + + +THE END. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + + +[1] His jurisdiction extended from Norfolk around to Sussex. + +[2] This is the usually accepted division of tribes; but Dr. Latham denies +that the Jutes, or inhabitants of Jutland, shared in the invasion. The +difficult question does not affect the scope of our inquiry. + +[3] Gibbon's Decline and Fall, c. lv. + +[4] H. Martin, Histoire de France, i. 53. + +[5] Vindication of the Ancient British Poems. + +[6] Craik's English Literature, i. 37. + +[7] Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons, book ix., c. i. + +[8] Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. + +[9] Kemble ("Saxon in England") suggests the resemblance between the +fictitious landing of Hengist and Horsa "in three keels," and the Gothic +tradition of the migration of Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidae to the +mouth of the Vistula in the same manner. Dr. Latham (English Language) +fixes the Germanic immigration into Britain at the middle of the fourth, +instead of the middle of the fifth century. + +[10] Lectures on Modern History, lect, ii. + +[11] Sharon Turner. + +[12] Turner, ch. xii. + +[13] For the discussion of the time and circumstances of the introduction +of French into law processes, see Craik, i. 117. + +[14] Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, i. 199. For an admirable +summary of the bardic symbolisms and mythological types exhibited in the +story of Arthur, see H. Martin, Hist. de France, liv. xx. + +[15] Craik says, (i. 198,) "Or, as he is also called, _Lawemon_--for the +old character represented in this instance by our modern _y_ is really +only a guttural, (and by no means either a _j_ or a _z_,) by which it is +sometimes rendered." Marsh says, "Or, perhaps, _Lagamon_, for we do not +know the sound of _y_ in this name." + +[16] Introduction to the Poets of Queen Elizabeth's Age. + +[17] So called from his having a regular district or _limit_ in which to +beg. + +[18] Spelled also Wycliffe, Wicliff, and Wyklyf. + +[19] Am. ed., i. 94. + +[20] Wordsworth, Ecc. Son., xvii. + +[21] "The Joyous Science, as the profession of minstrelsy was termed, had +its various ranks, like the degrees in the Church and in chivalry."--_Sir +Walter Scott_, (_The Betrothed_.) + +[22] 1st, the real presence; 2d, celibacy; 3d, monastic vows; 4th, low +mass; 5th, auricular confession; 6th, withholding the cup from the laity. + +[23] "The Earl of Surrey is said to have translated one of Virgil's books +without rhyme, and, besides our tragedies, a few short poems had appeared +in blank verse.... These petty performances cannot be supposed to have +much influenced Milton; ... finding blank verse easier than rhyme, he was +desirous of persuading himself that it is better."--_Lives of the +Poets--Milton_. + +[24] From this dishonor Mr. Froude's researches among the statute books +have not been able to lift him, for he gives system to horrors which were +before believed to be eccentric; and, while he fails to justify the +monarch, implicates a trembling parliament and a servile ministry, as if +their sharing the crime made it less odious. + +[25] The reader's attention is called--or recalled--to the masterly +etching of Sir Philip Sidney, in Motley's History of the United +Netherlands. The low chant of the _cuisse rompue_ is especially pathetic. + +[26] This last claim of title was based upon the voyages of the Cabots, +and the unsuccessful colonial efforts of Raleigh and Gilbert. + +[27] Froude, i. 65. + +[28] Introduction to fifth canto of Marmion. + +[29] Froude, i. 73. + +[30] Opening scene of The Merry Wives of Windsor. + +[31] Rev. A. Dyce attributes this play to Marlowe or Kyd. + +[32] The dates as determined by Malone are given: many of them differ from +those of Drake and Chalmers. + +[33] + + If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined + The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind. + +_Pope, Essay on Man_. + +[34] Life of Addison. + +[35] Macaulay: Art. on Warren Hastings. + +[36] The handwriting of Junius professionally investigated by Mr. Charles +P. Chabot. London, 1871. + +[37] H. C. Robinson, Diary II., 79. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of English Literature, Considered as an +Interpreter of English History, by Henry Coppee + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH LITERATURE, *** + +***** This file should be named 15176.txt or 15176.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/7/15176/ + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |