The Augustan Reprint Society
Parodies of Ballad Criticism
(1711-1787)
William Wagstaffe, A Comment Upon the History of Tom Thumb,
1711
George Canning, The Knave of Hearts, 1787
Selected, with an Introduction, by
William K. Wimsatt, Jr.
Publication Number 63
Los Angeles
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
University of California
1957
GENERAL EDITORS
Richard C. Boys, University of
Michigan
Ralph Cohen, University of
California, Los Angeles
Vinton A. Dearing, University
of California, Los Angeles
Lawrence Clark Powell, Clark
Memorial Library
ASSISTANT EDITOR
W. Earl Britton,
University of Michigan
ADVISORY EDITORS
Emmett L. Avery, State College
of Washington
Benjamin Boyce, Duke
University
Louis Bredvold, University of
Michigan
John Butt, King's College,
University of Durham
James L. Clifford, Columbia
University
Arthur Friedman, University of
Chicago
Louis A. Landa, Princeton
University
Samuel H. Monk, University of
Minnesota
Ernest C. Mossner, University of
Texas
James Sutherland, University
College, London
H. T. Swedenberg, Jr.,
University of California, Los Angeles
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
Edna C. Davis, Clark Memorial
Library
The Augustan Reprint Society regrets to announce the death of one of
its founders and editors, Edward Niles Hooker. The editors hope, in the
near future, to issue a volume in his memory.
i
Joseph Addison's enthusiasm for ballad poetry (Spectators 70,
74, 85) was not a sheer novelty. He had a ringing English precedent in
Sidney, whom he quotes. And he may have had one in Jonson; at least he
thought he had. He cited Dryden and Dorset as collectors and readers of
ballads; and he might have cited others. He found comfort in the fact
that Molière's Misanthrope was on his side. The modern or broadside
version of Chevy Chase, the one which Addison quoted, had been
printed, with a Latin translation, in the third volume of Dryden's
Miscellany (1702) and had been appreciated along with The
Nut-Brown Maid in an essay Of the Old English Poets and
Poetry in The Muses Mercury for June, 1707. The feelings
expressed in Addison's essays on the ballads were part of the general
patriotic archaism which at that time was moving in rapport with cyclic
theories of the robust and the effete, as in Temple's essays, and was
complicating the issue of the classical ancients versus the moderns.
Again, these feelings were in harmony with the new Longinianism of
boldness and bigness, cultivated in one way by Dennis and in another by
Addison himself in later Spectators. The tribute to the old
writers in Rowe's Prologue to Jane Shore (1713) is of course not
simply the result of Addison's influence.1
Those venerable ancient Song-Enditers
Soar'd many a Pitch above our modern Writers.
It is true also that Addison exhibits, at least in the first of the
two essays on Chevy Chase, a degree of the normal Augustan
condescension
iv
to the archaic—the vision which informs the earlier couplet poem
on the English poets. Both in his quotation from Sidney ("...being so
evil apparelled in the Dust and Cobweb of that uncivil Age, what would
it work trimmed in the gorgeous Eloquence of Pindar?") and in his
own apology for the "Simplicity of the Stile" there is sufficient
prescription for all those improvements that either a Ramsay or a Percy
were soon actually to undertake. And some of the Virgilian passages in
Chevy Chase which Addison picked out for admiration were not what
Sidney had known but the literary invention of the more modern broadside
writer.
Nevertheless, the two Spectators on Chevy Chase and the
sequel on the Children in the Wood were startling enough. The
general announcement was ample, unabashed, soaring—unmistakable
evidence of a new polite taste for the universally valid utterances of
the primitive heart. The accompanying measurement according to the epic
rules and models was not a qualification of the taste, but only a
somewhat awkward theoretical dimension and justification.
It is impossible that any thing should be universally tasted and
approved by a Multitude, tho' they are only the Rabble of a Nation,
which hath not in it some peculiar Aptness to please and gratify the
Mind of Man.... an ordinary Song or Ballad that is the Delight of the
common People, cannot fail to please all such Readers as are not
unqualified for the Entertainment by their Affectation or Ignorance.
Professor Clarence D. Thorpe is surely correct in his view of Addison
as a "grandfather" of such that would come in romantic aesthetics for
the next hundred years.2 Not that Addison invents anything; but he catches every
current whisper and swells it to the journalistic audibility. Here, if
we take Addison at his word, are the key ideas for Wordsworth's Preface
on the language of rustic life, for Tolstoy's ruthless reduction of
taste to the peasant norm. Addison went on to urge what was perfectly
just,
iii
that the old popular ballads ought to be read and liked; at the same
time he pushed his praise to a rather wild extreme, and he made some
comic comparisons between Chevy Chase and Virgil and Homer.
We know now that he was on the right track; he was riding the wave of
the future. It will be sufficient here merely to allude to that well
established topic of English literary history, the rise of the ballad
during the eighteenth century—in A Collection of Old
Ballads (1723-1725), in Ramsay's Evergreen and
Tea-Table, in Percy's Reliques, and in all the opinions,
the critiques, the imitations, the modern ballads, and the forgeries of
that era—in Henry and Emma, Colin and Lucy, and
Hardyknute, in Gay, Shenstone, and Gray, in Chatterton's Rowley.
All these in a sense testified to the influence of Addison's essays.
Addison was often enough given honorable mention and quoted.
On the other hand, neo-classic stalwart good sense and the canons of
decorum did not collapse easily, and the cultivation of the ballads had,
as we have suggested, a certain aspect of silliness. It is well known
that Addison's essays elicited the immediate objections of Dennis. The
Spectator's "Design is to see how far he can lead his Reader by the
Nose." He wants "to put Impotence and Imbecility upon us for
Simplicity." Later Johnson in his Life of Addison quoted Dennis
and added his own opinion of Chevy Chase: "The story cannot
possibly be told in a manner that shall make less impression on the
mind."
It was fairly easy to parody the ballads themselves, or at least the
ballad imitations, as Johnson would demonstrate ex tempore.
"I put my hat upon my head And walked into the Strand, And there I
met another man Whose hat was in his hand." And it was just as easy to
parody ballad criticism. The present volume is an anthology of two of
the more deserving
iv
mock-criticisms which Addison's effort either wholly or in part
inspired.
An anonymous satirical writer who was later identified, on somewhat
uncertain authority, as the Tory Dr. William Wagstaffe was very prompt
in responding. His Comment Upon the History of Tom Thumb appeared
in 1711 perhaps within a week or two of the third guilty
Spectator (June 7) and went into a second edition, "Corrected,"
by August 18. An advertisement in the Post Man of that day
referred to yet a third "sham" edition, "full of errors."3 The writer alludes
to the author of the Spectators covertly ("we have had an
enterprising Genius of late") and quotes all three of the ballad
essays repeatedly. The choice of Tom Thumb as the corpus
vile was perhaps suggested by Swift's momentary "handling" of it in
A Tale of a Tub.4 The satirical method is broad and easy and scarcely
requires comment. This is the attack which was supposed by Addison's
editor Henry Morley (Spectator, 1883, I, 318) to have caused
Addison to "flinch" a little in his revision of the ballad essays. It is
scarcely apparent that he did so. The last paragraph of the third essay,
on the Children in the Wood, is a retort to some other and even
prompter unfriendly critics—"little conceited Wits of the Age,"
with their "little Images of Ridicule."
But Addison is not the only target of "Wagstaffe's" Comment.
"Sir B——— B————" and his
"Arthurs" are another, and "Dr. B—tly" another. One of the most
eloquent moments in the Comment occurs near the end in a
paragraph on what the author conceives to be the follies of the
historical method. The use of the slight vernacular poem to parody the
Bentleyan kind of classical scholarship was to be tried by Addison
himself in Spectator 470 (August 29, 1712) and had a French
counterpart in the Chef d'oeuvre d'un inconnu, 1714. A later
example was executed by Defoe's son-in-law Henry Baker in No. XIX of his
Universal Spectator, February 15,
v
1729.5
And that year too provided the large-scale demonstration of the
Dunciad Variorum. The very "matter" of Tom Thumb reappeared under
the same light in Fielding's Tragedy of Tragedies or the Life and
Death of Tom Thumb the Great with the Annotations of H. Scriblerus
Secundus, 1731. Addison's criticism of the ballads was scarcely a
legitimate object for this kind of attack, but Augustan satire and
parody were free and hospitable genres, always ready to entertain more
than one kind of "bard and blockhead side by side."6
No less a person than George Canning (as a schoolboy) was the author
of the second of the two parodies reproduced in the present volume.
A group of precocious Eton lads, Canning, J. Hookham Frere,
John Smith, and Robert (Bobus) Smith, during the years 1786-1787
produced forty octavo numbers of a weekly paper called The
Microcosm. They succeeded in exciting some interest among the
literati,7 were coming out in a "Second Edition" as early as the
Christmas vacation of 1786,8 and in the end sold their copyright for fifty
pounds to their publisher, Charles Knight of Windsor.9 Canning wrote Nos. XI
and XII (February 12, 1787), a critique of the "Epic Poem"
concerning "The Reformation of the Knave of Hearts."10 This essay in two
parts, running for nearly as many pages as Wagstaffe's archetypal
pamphlet, is a much more systematic and theoretically ambitious effort
than any predecessor. The Knave of Hearts is praised for its
beginning (in medias res), its middle (all "bustle
and business"), and its end (full of Poetical Justice and
superior Moral). The earlier writers had directly labored the
resemblance of the ballads to passages in Homer and Virgil. That method
is now hardly invoked at all. Criticism according to the epic rules of
Aristotle had been well enough illustrated by Addison on Paradise
Lost (see especially Spectator
vi
267) if not by Addison on ballads. The decline of simple respect for the
"Practice and Authority" of the ancient models during the neo-classic
era, the general advance of something like reasoning in criticism, finds
one of its quainter testimonials in the Eton schoolboy's cleverness. He
would show by definition and strict deduction that The Knave of
Hearts is a "due and proper Epic Poem," having as "good right
to that title, from its adherence to prescribed rules, as any of the
celebrated master-pieces of antiquity." The post-Ramblerian date of the
performance and a further if incidental aim of the satire—a
facetious removal from the Augustan coffeehouse conversation—can
be here and there felt in a heavy roll of the periods, a doubling and
redoubling of the abstractions.11
The essay, nevertheless, shows sufficient continuity with the earlier
tradition of parody ballad criticism—for it begins by alluding to
the Spectator's critiques of Shakespeare, Milton,
and Chevy Chase, and near the end of the first number slides into
a remark that "one of the Scribleri, a descendant of the famous
Martinus, has expressed his suspicions of the text being
corrupted." A page or two of irony concerning the "plain and
simple" opening of the poem seems to hark back to something more subtle
in the Augustans than the Wagstaffian derision, no doubt to Pope's
victory over Philips in a Guardian on pastorals. "There is no
task more difficult to a Poet, than that of Rejection. Ovid,
among the ancients, and Dryden, among the moderns, were perhaps
the most remarkable for the want of it."12
The interest of these little pieces is historical13 in a fairly strict
sense. Their value is indirect, half accidental, a glancing revelation
of ideas concerning simplicity, feeling, genius, the primitive, the
historical which run steadily beneath all the ripples during the
vii
century that moves from "classic" to "romantic." Not all of Addison's
parodists taken together muster as much fun, as such whimsical charm, as
Addison himself in a single paragraph such as the one on "accidental
readings" which opens the Spectator on the Children in the
Wood. But this passage, as it happens, requires only a slightly
sophistical application to be taken as a cue to a useful attitude in our
present reading. "I once met with a Page of Mr. Baxter under
a Christmas Pye.... I might likewise mention a Paper-Kite, from
which I have received great Improvement."
William K. Wimsatt, Jr.
Yale University
viii
NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION
|
A
COMMENT
UPON THE
HISTORY
OF
Tom Thumb.
——Juvat immemorata ferentem
Ingenuis oculisque legi manibusque teneri.
Hor.
LONDON,
Printed for J. Morphew near Stationers-Hall.
1711. Price 3 d.
|
3
A2
A
COMMENT
UPON THE
HISTORY
OF
TOM THUMB.
IT is a surprising thing that in
an Age so Polite as this, in which we have such a Number of Poets,
Criticks and Commentators, some of the best things that are extant in
our Language shou'd pass unobserv'd amidst a Croud of inferiour
Productions, and lie so long buried as it were, among those that profess
such a Readiness to give Life to every thing that is valuable. Indeed we
have had an Enterprising Genius of late, that has thought fit to
disclose the Beauties of some Pieces to the World, that might have been
otherwise indiscernable, and believ'd to have
4
been trifling and insipid, for no other Reason but their unpolish'd
Homeliness of Dress. And if we were to apply our selves, instead of the
Classicks, to the Study of Ballads and other ingenious Composures of
that Nature, in such Periods of our Lives, when we are arriv'd to a
Maturity of Judgment, it is impossible to say what Improvement might be
made to Wit in general, and the Art of Poetry in particular: And
certainly our Passions are describ'd in them so naturally, in such
lively, tho' simple, Colours, that how far they may fall short of the
Artfulness and Embellishments of the
Romans in their Way of Writing, yet cannot fail to please all
such Readers as are not unqualify'd for the Entertainment by their
Affectation or Ignorance.
It was my good Fortune some time ago to have the Library of a
School-Boy committed to my Charge, where, among other undiscover'd
valuable Authors, I pitch'd upon Tom Thumb and Tom
Hickathrift, Authors indeed more proper to adorn the Shelves of
Bodley or the Vatican, than to be confin'd to the
Retirement and Obscurity of a private Study. I have perus'd the
first of these with an infinite Pleasure, and a more than ordinary
Application, and have made some Observations on it, which may not,
I hope, prove unacceptable to the Publick; and however it may have
been ridicul'd, and look'd upon as an Entertainment only for Children,
and those of younger Years, may be found perhaps a Performance not
unworthy the Perusal of the Judicious, and the Model superiour to either
of those incomparable Poems of Chevy Chase, or The Children in
the Wood. The Design was undoubtedly
5
to recommend Virtue, and to shew that however any one may labour under
the Disadvantages of Stature or Deformity, or the Meanness of Parentage,
yet if his Mind and Actions are above the ordinary Level, those very
Disadvantages that seem to depress him, shall add a Lustre to his
Character.
There are Variety of Incidents, dispers'd thro' the whole Series of
this Historical Poem, that give an agreeable Delight and Surprise,
and are such as Virgil himself wou'd have touch'd upon, had
the like Story been told by that Divine Poet, viz. his falling into
the Pudding-Bowl and others; which shew the Courage and Constancy, the
Intrepidity and Greatness of Soul of this little Hero, amidst the
greatest Dangers that cou'd possibly befall him, and which are the
unavoidable Attendants of human Life.
Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinæ.
The Author of this was unquestionably a Person of an Universal
Genius, and if we consider that the Age he wrote in, must be an Age of
the most profound Ignorance, as appears from the second Stanza of the
first Canto, he was a Miracle of a Man.
I have consulted Monsieur Le Clerk, and my Friend Dr.
B—ly concerning the Chronology of this Author, who both
assure me, tho' Neither can settle the Matter exactly, that he is the
most ancient of our Poets, and 'tis very probable he was a Druid,
who, as Julius Cæsar mentions in his Commentaries, us'd to
deliver their
6
Precepts in Poetry and Metre. The Author of The Tale of a Tub,
believes he was a Pythagorean Philosopher, and held the
Metempsichosis; and Others that he had read Ovid's
Metamorphosis, and was the first Person that ever found out the
Philosopher's Stone. A certain Antiquary of my Acquaintance, who is
willing to forget every thing he shou'd remember, tells me, He can
scarcely believe him to be Genuine, but if he is, he must have liv'd
some time before the Barons Wars; which he proves, as he does the
Establishment of Religion in this Nation, upon the Credit of an old
Monument.
There is another Matter which deserves to be clear'd, whether this is
a Fiction, or whether there was really such a Person as Tom
Thumb. As to this, my Friends tell me, 'Twas Matter of Fact, and
that 'twas an unpardonable Omission in a certain Author never once to
mention him in his Arthur's, when nothing is more certain than
that he was the greatest Favourite of that Prince, and a Person who had
perform'd some very eminent Services for his Country. And indeed I can't
excuse his taking no Notice of our Poet who has afforded him such Helps,
and to whom he is so much oblig'd for the Model of those Productions:
Besides it had been but a Debt of Gratitude, as Sir R——
B—— was a Member of the Faculty, to have made honourable
mention of him who has spoke so honourably of the Profession, on the
Account of the Sickness of his Hero.
I have an old Edition of this Author by me, the Title of which is
more Sonorous and Heroical, than those of later Date, which for the
7
better Information of the Reader, it may not be improper to insert in
this Place. Tom Thumb his Life and Death, wherein is declar'd
his many marvellous Acts of Manhood, full of Wonder and strange
Merriment: Then he adds, which little Knight liv'd in King
Arthur's Time in the Court of Great Britain. Indeed
there are so many spurious Editions of this Piece upon one Account or
other, that I wou'd advise my Readers to be very cautious in their
Choice, and it would be very wisely done, if they wou'd consult the
curious Ælianus concerning this Matter, who has the choicest
Collection of any Man in England, and understands the most
correct Editions of Books of this Nature.
I have took a great deal of Pains to set these Matters of Importance
in as clear a Light as we Criticks generally do, and shall begin with
the first Canto, which treats of our Hero's Birth and Parentage,
and Education, with some other Circumstances which you'll find are
carry'd on in a manner not very inelegant, and cannot fail to please
those who are not Judges of Language, or those who notwithstanding they
are Judges of Language, have a genuine and unprejudic'd Tast of
Nature.
In Arthur’s Court Tom Thumb did live;
A Man of mickle Might,
The best of all the Table round,
And eke a doubty Knight,
In Stature but an Inch in Height,
Or quarter of a Span;
8
Then think you not this worthy Knight
Was prov’d a valiant Man.
This Beginning is agreeable to the best of the Greek and Latin Poets;
Homer and Virgil give an Idea of the whole Poem in a few
of the first Lines, and here our Author draws the Character of his Hero,
and shews what you may expect from a Person so well qualify'd for the
greatest Undertakings.
In the Description of him, which is very fine, he insinuates, that
tho' perhaps his Person may appear despicable and little, yet you'll
find him an Hero of the most consummate Bravery and Conduct, and is
almost the same Account Statius gives of Tydeus.
————Totos infusa per artus,
Major in exiguo regnabat corpore virtus.
If any suppose the Notion of such an Hero improbable, they'll find
the Character Virgil gives Camilla to be as far
stretch'd:
Illa vel Intactæ segetis per summa volaret
Gramina, nec teneras cursu læsisset Aristas:
Vel mare per medium, fluctu suspensa tumenti
Ferret Iter: celeres nec tingeret æquore plantas.
But to proceed,
His Father was a Plowman plain,
His Mother milk’d the Cow,
And yet a Way to get a Son
This Couple knew not how,
9
B
Until such time the good old Man
To learned Merlin goes,
And there to him in deep Distress
In secret Manner shows,
How in his Heart he wish’d to have,
A Child in time to come,
To be his Heir, tho’ it might be
No bigger than his Thumb.
Of which old Merlin was foretold,
That he his Wish should have,
And so a Son of Stature small
The Charmer to him gave.
There is nothing more common throughout the Poets of the finest
Taste, than to give an Account of the Pedigree of their Hero. So
Virgil,
——Æneas quem Dardanio Anchisæ
Alma Venus Phrygii genuit Simoentis ad undas.
And the Manner of the Countryman's going to consult Merlin, is
like that of Æneas's approaching the Oracle of
Delphos.
——Egressi veneramur Apollinis Urbem.
And how naturally and poetically does he describe the Modesty of the
Man, who wou'd be content, if Merlin wou'd grant him his Request,
with a Son no bigger than his Thumb.
The Two next Stanza's carry on the Idea with a great deal of
Probability and Consistence; and to convince the World that he
10
was born to be something more than Man, he produces a Miracle to bring
him into it.
Begot, and born in half an Hour,
To fit his Father’s Will.
The following Stanza continues the Miracle, and brings the Fairy
Queen and her Subjects, who gives him his Name, and makes him a
Present of his Apparel.
Whereas she cloath’d him fine and brave,
In Garments richly fair,
The which did serve him many Years
In seemly sort to wear.
So Virgil of Queen Dido's Present to
Ascanius:
Hoc Juvenem egregium præstanti munere donat.
And again,
————Quem candida Dido
Esse sui dederat Monumentum & pignus Amoris.
The Description of his Dress is very agreeable, and is not unlike
what I have met with somewhere of a Giant going a Fishing, with an
Account of his Implements equal to his Proportion.
His Hat made of an Oaken Leaf,
His Shirt a Spider’s Web,
Both light and soft for these his Limbs
That were so smally bred.
11
B2
His Hose and Doublet Thistle Down,
Together weav’d full fine;
His Stockings of an Apple green,
Made of the outward Rind;
His Garters were two little Hairs
Pluck’d from his Mothers Eye;
His Shooes made of a Mouse’s Skin,
And Tann’d most curiously.
The next Stanza's relate his Diversions, bearing some Analogy to
those of Ascanius and other Lads in Virgil:
Thus like a valiant Gallant He
Adventures forth to go,
With other Children in the Street,
His pretty Tricks to show.
Una Acies Juvenum ducit quam Parvus Ovantem
Nomen Avi referens Priamus.
There is a Piece of Revenge our little Hero took upon a Play-fellow,
which proves, to what an height Mechanical and Experimental Philosophy
was arriv'd to in that Age, and may be worth while to be considered by
the Royal Society.
Of whom to be reveng’d, he took
In Mirth and pleasant Game,
Black Pots and Glasses, which he hung
Upon a bright Sun-Beam.
The third Line is a Demonstration of the Antiquity of Drinking out of
Black-Pots, which still prevails in most Counties of this Nation, among
the Justices of Peace at their Petty and Quarter Sessions.
12
The last four Lines of this Canto, and the beginning of the next,
contain the miraculous Adventure of the Pudding-Bowl: And, by the by, we
may observe, That it was the Custom of the Christians at that
time, to make Hog-Puddings instead of Minc'd-Pies at Christmas; a
laudable Custom very probably brought up to distinguish 'em more
particularly from the Jews.
Whereas about a Christmas time,
His Father an Hog had kill’d,
And Tom to see the Pudding made,
Fear that it should be spill’d;
He sat, the Candle for to Light,
Upon the Pudding-Bowl:
Of which there is unto this Day
A pretty Pastime told:
For Tom fell in——
Perhaps some may think it below our Hero to stoop to such a mean
Employment as the Poet has here enjoyn'd him, of holding the Candle, and
that it looks too much like a Citizen, or a Cot, as the
Women call it: But if we reflect on the Obedience due to Parents, as our
Author undoubtedly did, and the Necessities those People labour'd under,
we cannot but admire at his ready Compliance with what could by no Means
be agreeable to the Heroical Bent of his Inclinations, and perceive what
a tender Regard he had for the Wellfare of his Family, when he took the
strictest Care imaginable for the Preservation of the Hog-Pudding. And
what can be more remarkable? What can raise the Sentiments of Pity and
Compassion to an higher Pitch, than to see an Hero fall into such an
unforeseen Disaster in the honourable Execution of his Office?
13
This certainly is conformable to the way of Thinking among the
Ancient Poets, and what a good-natur'd Reader cannot but be affected
with.
The following Part of this Canto is the Relation of our Hero's being
put into a Pudding, and convey'd away in a Tinker's Budget; which is
design'd by our Author to prove, if it is understood literally, That the
greatest Men are subject to Misfortunes. But it is thought by Dr.
B—tly to be all Mythology, and to contain the Doctrine of
the Transmutation of Metals, and is design'd to shew, that all Matter is
the same, tho' very differently Modified. He tells me, he intends to
publish a distinct Treatise of this Canto; and I don't question, but
he'll manage the Dispute with the same Learning, Conduct, and good
Manners, he has done others, and as Dr. Salmon uses in his
Corrections of Dr. Sydenham and the Dispensatory.
The next Canto is the Story of Tom Thumb's being Swallow'd by
a Cow, and his Deliverance out of her, which is treated of at large by
Giordano Bruno in his Spaccio de la Bestia trionfante;
which Book, tho' very scarce, yet a certain Gentleman, who has it
in his Possession, has been so obliging as to let every Body know where
to meet with it. After this, you find him carried off by a Raven, and
swallow'd by a Giant; and 'tis almost the same Story as that of
Ganimede, and the Eagle in Ovid.
Now by a Raven of great Strength,
Away poor Tom was born.
Nec mora: percusso mendacibus aere pennis
Abripit Iliaden.
14
A certain great Critick and Schoolmaster who has
publish'd such Notes upon Horace as were never seen before, is of
Opinion, and has very good Authority for what he says, that 'twas rather
an Owl than a Raven; for, as he observes with a wonderful deal of
Penetration and Sagacity, our Hero's Shoes were made of a Mouse's Skin
which might induce the Owl to run away with him. The Giant, he owns,
looks very probable, because we find 'em swallowing People very fast in
almost all Romances.
This Canto concludes with our Hero's Arrival at Court; after he had
spent a considerable Part of his Youth in Labours and Fatigues, had been
inur'd to nothing else but Hardships and Adventures, we see him receive
the Recompence of his Merit, and become the Favourite of his Prince: And
here we may perceive all the Fineness of the Gentleman, mixt with all
the Resolution and Courage of the Warriour; We may behold him as ready
to oblige the Ladies with a Dance, as he was to draw his Sword in their
Defence.
Amongst the Deeds of Courtship done,
His Highness did command,
That he shou’d dance a Galliard brave
Upon the Queen’s Left Hand.
The which he did——
This shews he had all the Accomplishments of Achilles who was
undoubtedly one of the best Dancers in the Age he liv'd, according to
the Character Homer gives him so frequently of the Agility of his
Feet. I have consulted a Master of the Profession of Dancing, who
is excellently vers'd in the Chronology of all Dances, he tells me that
15
this Galliard came into Vogue about the latter End of the Reign
of Uter Pendragon, and continu'd during that of King
Arthur, which is Demonstration to me that our Poet liv'd about
that Age.
It is asserted very positively in the later Editions of this Poem,
that the four following Lines are a Relation of the King and Tom
Thumb's going together an Hunting, but I have took indefatigable
Pains to consult all the Manuscripts in Europe concerning
this Matter, and I find it an Interpolation. I have also an
Arabick Copy by me, which I got a Friend to translate,
being unacquainted with the Language, and it is plain by the Translation
that 'tis there also interpolated.
Now after that the King wou’d not
Abroad for Pleasure go,
But still Tom Thumb must go with him
Plac'd on his Saddle Bow.
——Ipse Uno graditur comitatus Achate.
There is scarcely any Scene more moving than this that follows, and
is such an one as wou'd have shined in Homer or
Virgil. When he was favour'd with his Prince's Ear, and might
have ask'd the most profitable and important Posts in the Government,
and been indemnified if guilty of a Peculatus; He only used his
Interest to relieve the Necessities of his Parents, when another
Person wou'd have scarcely own'd 'em for his Relations.
This discovers such a Generosity of Soul, such an Humility in the
greatest Prosperity, such a tender Affection for his Parents, as is
hardly to be met with, but in our Author.
16
And being near his Highness Heart
He crav’d a wealthy Boon,
A noble Gift, the which the King
Commanded to be done;
To relieve his Father’s Wants,
And Mother being old.
The rest of this Canto relates the Visit to his Father, in which
there is something very soft and tender, something that may move the
Mind of the most polite Reader, with the inward Meltings of Humanity and
Compassion.
The Next Canto of the Tilts and Tournaments, is much like the Fifth
Book of Virgil, and tho' we can't suppose our Poet ever saw that
Author, yet we may believe he was directed to almost the same Passages,
by the same kind of Poetical Genius, and the same Copyings after
Nature.
Now he with Tilts and Tournaments,
Was entertained so,
That all the rest of Arthur’s Knights
Did him much Pleasure show;
And good Sir Lancelot of Lake,
Sir Tristram, and Sir Guy;
But none like to Tom Thumb
For Acts of Chivalry.
Longeque ante omnia Corpora Nisus
Emicat——
And agen,
Post Elymus subit, & nunc tertia palma Diores.
17
C
In Honour of which noble Day,
And for his Lady’s Sake,
A Challenge in King Arthur’s Court,
Tom Thumb did bravely make.
Talis prima Dares caput altum in prælia tollit,
Ostenditque humeros latos, alternaque
Iactat
Brachia portendens, & verberat Ictibus auras,
Quæritur huic alius:——
’Gainst whom those noble Knights did run,
Sir Chion and the rest,
But, still Tom Thumb with all his Might
Did bear away the best.
Et primum ante omnes victorem appellat Acesten.
At the same time our Poet shews a laudable Partiality for his Hero,
he represents Sir Lancelot after a manner not unbecoming so bold
and brave a Knight.
At last Sir Lancelot of Lake,
In manly sort came in,
And with this stout and hardy Knight
A Battle to begin.
Huic contra Æneas, speculatus in agmine longo
Obvius ire parat——
Which made the Courtiers all aghast.
This Canto concludes with the Presents made by the King to the
Champion according to the
18
Custom of the Greeks and Romans in such Cases; only his
tumbling thro' the Queen's Ring is observable, and may serve to give
some Light into the Original of that ingenious Exercise so much
practis'd by the Moderns, of tumbling thro' an Hoop.
The last Canto treats of the Champion's Sickness and Death, and
whoever considers the Beauty, Regularity and majestic Simplicity of the
Relation, cannot but be surpris'd at the Advances that may be made in
Poetry by the Strength of an uncultivated Genius, and may see how far
Nature can proceed without the Ornamental Helps and Assistances of Art.
The Poet don't attribute his Sickness to a Debauch, to the Irregularity
or Intemperance of his Life, but to an Exercise becoming an Hero; and
tho' he dies quietly in his Bed, he may be said in some measure to die
in the Bed of Honour. And to shew the great Affection the King had for
him, he sends for his Physicians, and orders all the Care imaginable to
be taken for the Conservation of his Life.
He being slender and tall,
This cunning Doctor took
A fine perspective Glass, with which,
He did in Secret look.
It is a Wonder that the learned World shou'd differ so in their
Opinions concerning the Invention and Antiquity of Optic Glasses, and
that any one should contend for Metius of Alcmaer, or, as
Dr. Plot does, for Fryar Bacon, when, if this Author had
been consulted, Matters might have been so easily adjusted. Some great
Men indeed
19
C2
wou'd prove from hence, our Knight was the Inventor of 'em, that his
Valet might the more commodiously see to dress him; but if we consider
there were no Beau's in that Age, or reflect more maturely on the
Epithet here given to the Doctor, we may readily conclude, that the
Honour of this Invention belongs more particularly to that ingenious
Profession.
How lovely is the Account of the Departure of his Soul from his
Body:
And so with Peace and Quietness
He left the World below.
Placidaque demum ibi morte quievit.
And up into the Fairy Land
His Soul did fleeting go.
——At Æthereas repetit mens ignea sedes.
Whereas the Fairy Queen receiv’d
With happy Mourning Cheer
The Body of this valiant Knight,
Whom she esteem’d so dear;
For with her dancing Nymphs in Green
She fetch’d him from his Bed,
With Musick and with Melody,
As soon as Life was fled.
——Et fotum gremio Dea tollit in Altos
Idaliæ lucos——
So one of our Modern Poets;
20
Thither the Fairys and their Train resort,
And leave their Revels, and their midnight Sport.
We find in all the most celebrated Poets some Goddess that takes upon
her to be the peculiar Guardian of the Hero, which has been carry'd on
very elegantly in this Author.
But agen;
For whom King Arthur and his Knights,
Full forty Days did mourn,
And in Remembrance of his name,
Who was so strangely born,
He built a Tomb of Marble grey,
And Year by Year did come,
To celebrate the Mournful Day,
And Burial of Tom Thumb,
Whose Fame lives here in England still,
Among the Country sort,
Of whom their Wives and Children small,
Tell Tales of pleasant Sport.
So Ovid;
——Luctus monumenta manebunt
Semper Adoni mei, repetitaque mortis Imago
Annua plangoris peragit simulamina Nostri.
Nor is this Conclusion unlike one of the best Latin Poems this Age
has produc'd.
Tu Taffi Æternum vives, tua munera Cambri
Nunc etiam Celebrant, quotiesque revolvitur Annus
21
Te memorant, Patrium Gens tota tuetur Honorem,
Et cingunt viridi redolentia tempora Porro.
And now, tho' I am very well satisfied with this Performance, yet,
according to the usual Modesty of us Authors, I am oblig'd to tell
the World, it will be a great Satisfaction to me, knowing my own
Insufficiency, if I have given but some Hints of the Beauties of
this Poem, which are capable of being improv'd by those of greater
Learning and Abilities. And I am glad to find by a Letter I have
receiv'd from one of the Literati in Holland, That the
learned Huffius, a great Man of our Nation, is about the
Translation of this Piece into Latin Verse, which he assures me
will be done with a great deal of Judgment, in case he has enough of
that Language to furnish out the Undertaking. I am very well
Appris'd, That there has been publish'd Two Poems lately, Intituled, The
Second and Third Parts of this Author; which treat of our little Hero's
rising from the Dead in the Days of King Edgar: But I am inform'd
by my Friend the Schoolmaster, and others, That they were
compos'd by an Enthusiast in the last Century, and have been since
Printed for the Establishment of the Doctrine of Monsieur Marion
and his Followers, and the Resurrection of Dr. Ems.
I hope no Body will be offended at my asserting Things so positively,
since 'tis the Priviledge of us Commentators, who understand the
meaning of an Author Seventeen Hundred Years after he has wrote, much
better than ever he cou'd be suppos'd to do himself. And certainly, a
22
Critick ought not only to know what his Authors Thoughts were when he
was Writing such and such Passages, but how those Thoughts came into his
Head, where he was when he wrote, or what he was doing of; whether he
wrote in a Garden, a Garret, or a Coach; upon a Lady, or a Milkmaid;
whether at that Time he was scratching his Elbow, drinking a Bottle, or
playing at Questions and Commands. These are material and important
Circumstances so well known to the True Commentator, that were
Virgil and Horace to revisit the World at this time,
they'd be wonderfully surpris'd to see the minutest of their Perfections
discover'd by the Assistances of Modern Criticism. Nor have the
Classicks only reap'd Benefit from Inquiries of this Nature, but
Divinity it self seems to be render'd more intelligible. I know a
Divine, who understands what St. Paul meant by Higher
Powers, much better than that Apostle cou'd pretend to do; and
another, That can unfold all the Mysteries of the Revelations
without Spectacles.
I know there are some People that cast an Odium on me, and others,
for pointing out the Beauties of such Authors, as have, they say, been
hitherto unknown, and argue, That 'tis a sort of Heresie in Wit, and is
like the fruitless Endeavours of proving the Apostolical Constitutions
Genuine, that have been indisputably Spurious for so many
Ages: But let these Gentlemen consider, whether they pass not the same
Judgment on an Author, as a Woman does on a Man, by the gayety of his
Dress, or the gaudy Equipage of his Epithets. And however they may call
me second-sighted, for discerning what they
23
are Blind to, I must tell them this Poem has not been altogether so
obscure, but that the most refin'd Writers of this Age have been
delighted with the reading it. Mr. Tho. D'Urfey, I am told,
is an Admirer, and Mr. John Dunton has been heard to say, more
than once, he had rather be the Author of it than all his Works.
How often, says my Author, have I seen the Tears trickle down
the Face of the Polite Woodwardius upon reading some of the most
pathetical Encounters of Tom Thumb! How soft, how musically
sorrowful was his Voice! How good Natur'd, how gentle, how unaffected
was the Ceremoniale of his Gesture, and how unfit for a Profession so
Merciless and Inhumane!
I was persuaded by a Friend to write some Copies of Verses and place
'em in the Frontispiece of this Poem, in Commendation of My self and my
Comment, suppos'd to be compos'd by AG. FT. LM. RW. and so
forth. To their very worthy and honour'd Friend C. D. upon
his admirable and useful Comment on the History of Tom
Thumb; but my Bookseller told me the Trick was so common, 'twou'd
not answer. Then I propos'd a Dedication to my Lord such an One,
or Sir Thomas such an One; but he told me the Stock to be rais'd
on Dedications was so small now a Days, and the Discount to my Lord's
Gentleman, &c. so high, that 'twou'd not be worth while;
besides, says he, it is the Opinion of some Patrons, that a Dinner now
and then, with, Sir, I shall expect to see you sometimes, is
a suitable Reward for a publick Compliment in Print. But if, continues my Bookseller, you have a Mind it
24
shou'd turn to Advantage, write Treason or Heresy, get censur'd by the
Parliament or Convocation, and condemn'd to be burnt by the Hands of the
common Hangman, and you can't fail having a Multitude of Readers, by the
same Reason, A notorious Rogue has such a Number of Followers to
the Gallows.
FINIS.
THE
MICROCOSM.
by
Gregory Griffin.
129
No. XI. of the
MICROCOSM.
MONDAY, February 12, 1787.
Res gestæ regumque, ducumque, et tristia bella,
Quo scribi possint numero, monstravit Homerus.—Hor.
By Homer taught, the modern poet sings,
In Epic strains, of heroes, wars, and Kings.—Francis.
HERE are certain forms and etiquettes in life,
which, though the neglect of them does not amount to the commission of a
crime, or the violation of a duty, are yet so established by example,
and sanctioned by custom, as to pass into Statutes, equally acknowledged
by society, and almost equally binding to individuals, with the laws of
the land, or the precepts of morality. A man guilty of breaking
these, though he cannot be transported for a felon, or indicted for
treasonable practices, is yet, in the High Court of Custom, branded as a
flagrant offender against decorum, as notorious for an unprecedented
infringement on propriety.
There is no race of men on whom these laws are more severe than
Authors; and no species of Authors more subject to them, than Periodical
Essayists.
130
Homer having prescribed the form, or to use a more modern phrase,
set the fashion of Epic Poems, whoever presumes to deviate
from his plan, must not hope to participate his dignity: And whatever
method, The Spectator, The Guardian, and others, who first
adopted this species of writing, have pursued in their undertaking, is
set down as a rule for the conduct of their followers; which, whoever is
bold enough to transgress, is accused of a deviation from the original
design, and a breach of established regulation.
It has hitherto been customary for all Periodical Writers, to take
some opportunity, in the course of their labours, to display their
Critical abilities, either by making observations on some popular
Author, and work of known character, or by bringing forth the
performances of hidden merit, and throwing light on genius in obscurity.
To the critiques of The Spectator, Shakespear, and more
particularly, Milton, are indebted, for no inconsiderable share
of the reputation, which they now so universally enjoy; and by his means
were the ruder graces, and more simple beauties of Chevy Chace
held up to public view, and recommended to general admiration.
I should probably be accused of swerving from the imitation of so
great an example, were not I
131
to take occasion to shew that I too am not entirely destitute of
abilities of this kind; but that by possessing a decent share of
critical discernment, and critical jargon, I am capable of becoming
a very tolerable commentator. For the proof of which, I shall
rather prefer calling the attention of my readers to an object as yet
untreated of by any of my immediate predecessors, than venture to throw
in my observations on any work which has before passed the ordeal of
frequent examination. And this I shall do for two reasons; partly,
because were I to choose a field, how fertile soever, of which many
others had before me been reaping the fruits, mine would be at best but
the gleanings of criticism; and partly, from a more interested view,
from a selfish desire of accumulated praise; since, by making a work, as
yet almost wholly unknown, the subject of my consideration, I shall
acquire the reputation of taste, as well as judgement;—of
judiciousness in selection, as well as justness in observation;—of
propriety in choosing the object, as well as skill in using the
language, of commentary.
The Epic Poem on which I shall ground my present critique, has
for its chief characteristics, brevity and simplicity. The
Author,—whose name I lament that I am, in some degree, prevented
from
132
consecrating to immortal fame, by not knowing what it is—the
Author, I say, has not branched his poem into excressences of
episode, or prolixities of digression; it is neither variegated with
diversity of unmeaning similitudes, nor glaring with the varnish of
unnatural metaphor. The whole is plain and uniform; so much so indeed,
that I should hardly be surprised, if some morose readers were to
conjecture, that the poet had been thus simple rather from necessity
than choice; that he had been restrained not so much by chastity of
judgement, as sterility of imagination.
Nay, some there may be perhaps, who will dispute his claim to the
title of an Epic Poet; and will endeavour to degrade him even to
the rank of a ballad-monger. But I, as his Commentator, will
contend for the dignity of my Author; and will plainly demonstrate his
Poem to be an Epic Poem, agreeable to the example of all Poets,
and the consent of all Critics heretofore.
First, it is universally agreed, that an Epic Poem should have
three component parts, a beginning, a middle, and an
end;—secondly, it is allowed, that it should have one grand
action, or main design, to the forwarding of which, all the
parts of it should directly or indirectly tend; and that this design
133
should be in some measure consonant with, and conducive to, the purposes
of Morality;—and thirdly, it is indisputably settled, that
it should have a Hero. I trust that in none of these points
the poem before us will be found deficient. There are other inferior
properties, which I shall consider in due order.
Not to keep my readers longer in suspense, the subject of the poem is
"The Reformation of the Knave of Hearts." It is not improbable,
that some may object to me that a Knave is an unworthy Hero for
an Epic Poem; that a Hero ought to be all that is great and good. The
objection is frivolous. The greatest work of this kind that the World
has ever produced, has "The Devil" for its hero; and supported as
my author is by so great a precedent, I contend, that his Hero is a
very decent Hero; and especially as he has the advantage of
Milton's, by reforming at the end, is evidently entitled to a
competent share of celebrity.
I shall now proceed in the more immediate examination of the poem in
its different parts. The beginning, say the Critics, ought to be
plain and simple; neither embellished with the flowers of poetry, nor
turgid with pomposity of diction. In
134
this how exactly does our Author conform to the established opinion! he
begins thus,
“The Queen of Hearts
“She made some Tarts”—
Can any thing be more clear! more natural! more agreeable to the true
spirit of simplicity! Here are no tropes,—no figurative
expressions,—not even so much as an invocation to the Muse. He
does not detain his readers by any needless circumlocution; by
unnecessarily informing them, what he is going to sing; or still
more unnecessarily enumerating what he is not going to sing: but
according to the precept of Horace,
——————in medias res,
Non secus ac notas, auditorem rapit,——
That is, he at once introduces us, and sets us on the most easy and
familiar footing imaginable, with her Majesty of Hearts, and interests
us deeply in her domestic concerns. But to proceed,
“The Queen of Hearts
“She made some Tarts,
“All on a Summer’s Day.”
Here indeed the prospect brightens, and we are led to expect some
liveliness of imagery, some warmth of poetical colouring;—but here
is no such thing.—There is no task more difficult to a Poet, than
that of Rejection. Ovid, among the ancients, and
Dryden, among the moderns, were
135
perhaps the most remarkable for the want of it. The latter from the
haste in which he generally produced his compositions, seldom paid much
attention to the "limæ labor," "the labour of correction," and
seldom therefore rejected the assistance of any idea that presented
itself. Ovid, not content with catching the leading features of
any scene or character, indulged himself in a thousand minutiæ of
description, a thousand puerile prettinesses, which were in themselves
uninteresting, and took off greatly from the effect of the whole; as the
numberless suckers, and straggling branches of a fruit tree, if
permitted to shoot out unrestrained, while they are themselves barren
and useless, diminish considerably the vigour of the parent stock.
Ovid had more genius, but less judgement than Virgil;
Dryden more imagination, but less correctness than Pope;
had they not been deficient in these points, the former would certainly
have equalled, the latter infinitely outshone the merits of his
countryman.—Our Author was undoubtedly possessed of that
power which they wanted; and was cautious not to indulge too far the
sallies of a lively imagination. Omitting therefore any mention
of—sultry Sirius,—silvan shade,—sequestered
glade,—verdant hills,—purling rills,—mossy
mountains,—gurgling fountains,—&c. &c.—he
simply tells us that it was
136
"All on a Summers Day." For my own part, I confess, that I
find myself rather flattered than disappointed; and consider the Poet as
rather paying a compliment to the abilities of his readers, than
baulking their expectations. It is certainly a great pleasure to see a
picture well painted; but it is a much greater to paint it well oneself.
This therefore I look upon as a stroke of excellent management in the
Poet. Here every reader is at liberty to gratify his own taste; to
design for himself just what sort of "Summer's Day" he likes
best; to choose his own scenery; dispose his lights and shades as he
pleases; to solace himself with a rivulet or a horse-pond,—a
shower, or a sun-beam,—a grove, or a kitchen
garden,—according to his fancy. How much more considerate this,
than if the Poet had, from an affected accuracy of description, thrown
us into an unmannerly perspiration by the heat of the atmosphere; forced
us into a landscape of his own planning, with perhaps a paltry
good-for-nothing zephyr or two, and a limited quantity of wood and
water.—All this Ovid would undoubtedly have done. Nay, to
use the expression of a learned brother-commentator, "quovis pignore
decertem" "I would lay any wager," that he would have gone so
far as to tell us what the tarts were made of; and perhaps wandered into
an episode on the art of preserving cherries. But our Poet,
137
above such considerations, leaves every reader to choose his own
ingredients, and sweeten them to his own liking; wisely foreseeing, no
doubt, that the more palatable each had rendered them to his own taste,
the more he would be affected at their approaching loss.
I cannot leave this line without remarking, that one of the
Scribleri, a descendant of the famous Martinus, has
expressed his suspicions of the text being corrupted here, and proposes,
instead of "All on" reading "Alone," alledging, in favour
of this alteration, the effect of Solitude in raising the passions. But
Hiccius Doctius, a High Dutch commentator, one nevertheless well
versed in British literature, in a note of his usual length and
learning, has confuted the arguments of Scriblerus. In support of
the present reading, he quotes a passage from a poem written about the
same period with our author's, by the celebrated Johannes
Pastor*, intituled "An Elegiac Epistle to the Turnkey of
Newgate," wherein the gentleman declares, that rather indeed in
compliance with an old custom, than to gratify any particular will of
his own, he is going
————“All hanged for to be
“Upon that fatal Tyburn tree.”——
138
Now as nothing throws greater light on an author, than the
concurrence of a contemporary writer, I am inclined to be of
Hiccius's opinion, and to consider the "All" as an elegant
expletive, or, as he more aptly phrases it "elegans expletivum."
The passage therefore must stand thus,
“The Queen of Hearts
“She made some Tarts,
“All on a Summer’s Day.”
And thus ends the first part, or beginning; which is simple
and unembellished; opens the subject in a natural and easy manner;
excites, but does not too far gratify our curiosity: for a reader of
accurate observation may easily discover, that the Hero of the
Poem has not, as yet, made his appearance.
I could not continue my examination at present through the whole of
this Poem, without far exceeding the limits of a single paper.
I have therefore divided it into two; but shall not delay the
publication of the second to another week,—as that, besides
breaking the connection of criticism, would materially injure the
unities of the Poem.
139
No. XII.
of the
MICROCOSM.
MONDAY,
February 12, 1787.
————Servetur ad imum,
Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.
Horace.
From his first Entrance to the closing Scene,
Let him one equal Character maintain.
Francis.
AVING thus gone through the first part, or
beginning of the Poem, we may naturally enough proceed to the
consideration of the second.
The second part, or middle, is the proper place for bustle and
business; for incident and adventure.
“The Knave of Hearts
“He stole those Tarts.”
Here attention is awakened; and our whole souls are intent upon the
first appearance of the
140
Hero. Some readers may perhaps be offended at his making his
entré in so disadvantageous a character as that of a
thief. To this I plead precedent.
The Hero of the Iliad, as I observed in a former paper, is made to
lament very pathetically,—that "life is not like all other
possessions, to be acquired by theft."—A reflection, in my
opinion, evidently shewing, that, if he did refrain from the
practice of this ingenious art, it was not from want of an inclination
that way. We may remember too, that in Virgil's poem, almost the
first light in which the Pious Æneas appears to us, is a
deer-stealer; nor is it much excuse for him, that the deer were
wandering without keepers; for however he might, from this circumstance,
have been unable to ascertain whose property they were; he might,
I think, have been pretty well assured that they were not
his.
Having thus acquitted our Hero of misconduct, by the example of his
betters, I proceed to what I think the Master-Stroke of the
Poet.
“The Knave of Hearts
“He stole those Tarts,
“And——took them——quite
away!!”
141
Here, whoever has an ear for harmony, and a heart for feeling, must
be touched! There is a desponding melancholy in the run of the last
line! an air of tender regret in the addition of "quite away!" a
something so expressive of irrecoverable loss! so forcibly intimating
the "Ah nunquam reditura!" "They never can return!" in short,
such an union of sound and sense, as we rarely, if ever meet with in any
author, ancient or modern. Our feelings are all alive—but the
Poet, wisely dreading that our sympathy with the injured Queen might
alienate our affections from his Hero, contrives immediately to awaken
our fears for him, by telling us, that
“The King of Hearts
“Call’d for those Tarts,”—
We are all conscious of the fault of our Hero, and all tremble with
him, for the punishment which the enraged Monarch may inflict;
“And beat the Knave—full sore!”
The fatal blow is struck! We cannot but rejoice that guilt is justly
punished, though we sympathize with the guilty object of punishment.
Here Scriblerus, who, by the bye, is very fond of making
unnecessary alterations, proposes reading "Score" instead of
"sore," meaning thereby to
142
particularize, that the beating bestowed by this Monarch, consisted of
twenty stripes. But this proceeds from his ignorance of the
genius of our language, which does not admit of such an expression as
"full score," but would require the insertion of the particle
"a," which cannot be, on account of the metre. And this is
another great artifice of the Poet: by leaving the quantity of beating
indeterminate, he gives every reader the liberty to administer it, in
exact proportion to the sum of indignation which he may have conceived
against his Hero; that by thus amply satisfying their resentment, they
may be the more easily reconciled to him afterwards.
“The King of Hearts
“Call’d for those Tarts,
“And beat the Knave full sore!”
Here ends the second part, or middle of the poem; in which we
see the character, and exploits of the Hero, pourtrayed with the hand of
a master.
Nothing now remains to be examined, but the third part, or
End. In the End, it is a rule pretty well established,
that the Work should draw towards a conclusion, which our Author manages
thus.
143
“The Knave of Hearts
“Brought back those Tarts.”
Here every thing is at length settled; the theft is compensated; the
tarts restored to their right owner; and Poetical Justice, in
every respect, strictly, and impartially administered.
We may observe, that there is nothing in which our Poet has better
succeeded, than in keeping up an unremitted attention in his readers to
the main instruments, the machinery of his poem, viz. The Tarts;
insomuch, that the aforementioned Scriblerus has sagely observed,
that "he can't tell, but he doesn't know, but the tarts may be reckoned
the heroes of the Poem." Scriblerus, though a man of learning,
and frequently right in his opinion, has here certainly hazarded a rash
conjecture. His arguments are overthrown entirely by his great opponent,
Hiccius, who concludes, by triumphantly asking, "Had the tarts
been eaten, how could the Poet have compensated for the loss of his
Heroes?"
We are now come to the denouèment, the setting all to rights: and our
Poet, in the management of his moral, is certainly superior to
his great ancient
144
predecessors. The moral of their fables, if any they have, is so
interwoven with the main body of their work, that in endeavouring to
unravel it, we should tear the whole. Our Author has very
properly preserved his whole and entire for the end of his poem,
where he completes his main design, the Reformation of his
Hero, thus,
“And vow’d he’d steal no more.”
Having in the course of his work, shewn the bad effects arising from
theft, he evidently means this last moral reflection, to operate with
his readers as a gentle and polite dissuasive from stealing.
“The Knave of Hearts
“Brought back those Tarts,
“And vow’d he’d steal no more!”
Thus have I industriously gone through the several parts of this
wonderful Work; and clearly proved it, in every one of these parts, and
in all of them together, to be a due and proper Epic Poem; and to
have as good a right to that title, from its adherence to prescribed
rules, as any of the celebrated master-pieces of antiquity. And here I
cannot help again lamenting, that, by not knowing the name of the
Author, I am unable to twine our laurels together; and to transmit
to posterity
145
the mingled praises of Genius, and Judgment; of the Poet, and his
commentator.
Having some space left in this paper, I will now, with the permission
of my readers of the great world, address myself more
particularly to my fellow-citizens.
To them, the essay which I have here presented, will, I flatter
myself, be peculiarly serviceable at this time; and I would earnestly
recommend an attentive perusal of it, to all of them whose muses are
engaged in compositions of the Epic kind.—I am very much afraid
that I may run into the error, which I have myself pointed out, of
becoming too local,—but where it is evidently intended for
the good of my fellow citizens, it may, I hope, be now and then
pardonable. At the present juncture, as many have applied for my
assistance, I cannot find in my heart to refuse it them. Were I to
attempt fully explaining, why, at the present juncture,
I fear it would be vain. Would it not seem incredible to the
Ladies, were I to tell them, that the period approaches, when upwards of
a hundred Epic Poems will be exposed to public view, most of them
nearly of equal length, and many of them nearly of equal merit,
146
with the one which I have here taken into consideration; illustrated
moreover with elegant etchings, designed either as hieroglyphical
explanations of the subject, or as practical puns on the name of
the author?—And yet in truth so it is,—and on this subject I
wish to give a word of advice to my countrymen.
Many of them have applied to me by letter, to assist them with
designs for prefixing to their poems; and this I should very willingly
have done, had those gentlemen been kind enough to subscribe their real
names to their requests: whereas, all that I have received have been
signed, Tom Long, Philosophus, Philalethes, and
such like. I have therefore been prevented from affording them the
assistance I wished; and cannot help wondering, that the gentlemen did
not consider, that it was impossible for me to provide typical
references for feigned names; as, for ought I know, the person who
signs himself Tom Long may not be four feet high;
Philosophus may be possessed of a considerable share of folly;
and Philalethes may be as arrant a liar as any in the
kingdom.
It may not however be useless to offer some general reflections for
all who may require them.
147
It is not improbable, that, as the subject of their poems is the
Restoration, many of my fellow-citizens may choose to adorn their
title-pages with the representation of His Majesty, Charles the
Second, escaping the vigilance of his pursuers in the Royal Oak.
There are some particularities generally observable in this picture,
which I shall point out to them, lest they fall into similar errors.
Though I am as far as any other Briton can be, from wishing to "curtail"
his Majesty's Wig "of its fair proportion;" yet I have sometimes been
apt to think it rather improper, to make the Wig, as is usually done, of
larger dimensions than the tree in which it and his Majesty are
concealed. It is a rule in Logic, and I believe may hold good in most
other Sciences, that "omne majus continet in se minus," that
"every thing larger can hold any thing that is less;" but I own,
I never heard the contrary advanced or defended with any plausible
arguments, viz. "that every little thing can hold one larger."
I therefore humbly propose, that there should be at least an edge
of foliage round the outskirts of the said wig; and that its curls
should not exceed in number the leaves of the tree. There is also
another practice almost equally prevalent, of which I am sceptic enough
to doubt the propriety. I own, I cannot think it by any
148
means conducive to the more effectual concealment of his Majesty, that
there should be three Regal Crowns stuck on three different branches of
the tree. Horace says indeed,
————Pictoribus atque Poetis,
Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas.
Painters and Poets our indulgence claim,
Their daring equal, and their art the same.—Fran.
And this may be reckoned a very allowable poetical licence;
inasmuch as it lets the spectator into the secret, who is in the
tree. But it is apt to make him at the same time throw the
accusation of negligence and want of penetration on the three dragoons,
who are usually depicted on the foreground, cantering along very
composedly, with serene countenances, erect persons, and drawn swords,
very little longer than themselves.
Many of the listed titles are available from Project Gutenberg. Where
possible, links are included.
First Year (1946-1947)
Numbers 1-6 out of print.
Titles:
1.
Richard Blackmore's Essay upon Wit (1716),
and Addison's Freeholder No. 45 (1716).
2.
Anon., Essay on Wit (1748), together with Characters by Flecknoe,
and Joseph Warton's Adventurer Nos. 127 and 133.
3.
Anon., Letter to A. H. Esq.; concerning the Stage (1698), and
Richard Willis' Occasional Paper No. IX (1698).
4.
Samuel Cobb's Of Poetry and Discourse
on Criticism (1707).
5.
Samuel Wesley's Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700)
and Essay on Heroic Poetry (1693).
6.
Anon., Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the Stage
(1704) and anon., Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage (1704).
Second Year (1947-1948)
7.
John Gay's The Present State of Wit (1711); and a section on Wit
from The English Theophrastus (1702).
8.
Rapin's De Carmine Pastorali, translated by Creech (1684).
9.
T. Hanmer's (?) Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet (1736).
10.
Corbyn Morris' Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit,
etc. (1744).
11.
Thomas Purney's Discourse on the Pastoral (1717).
12.
Essays on the Stage, selected, with an Introduction by Joseph Wood
Krutch.
Third Year (1948-1949)
13.
Sir John Falstaff (pseud.), The Theatre (1720).
14.
Edward Moore's The Gamester(1753).
15.
John Oldmixon's Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley
(1712); and Arthur Mainwaring's The British Academy (1712).
16.
Nevil Payne's Fatal Jealousy (1673).
17.
Nicholas Rowe's Some Account of the Life of Mr. William
Shakespeare (1709).
18.
"Of Genius," in The Occasional Paper, Vol. III, No. 10
(1719); and Aaron Hill's Preface to The Creation (1720).
Fourth Year (1949-1950)
19.
Susanna Centlivre's The Busie Body (1709).
20.
Lewis Theobold's Preface to The Works of Shakespeare (1734).
21. Critical Remarks on Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa, and
Pamela (1754).
22.
Samuel Johnson's The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) and Two
Rambler papers (1750).
23.
John Dryden's His Majesties Declaration Defended (1681).
24. Pierre Nicole's An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in Which
from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and
Rejecting Epigrams, translated by J. V. Cunningham.
Fifth Year (1950-1951)
25.
Thomas Baker's The Fine Lady's Airs (1709).
26.
Charles Macklin's The Man of the World (1792).
27. Out of print.
27.
Frances Reynolds' An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Taste, and
of the Origin of Our Ideas of Beauty, etc. (1785).
28.
John Evelyn's An Apologie for the Royal Party (1659); and
A Panegyric to Charles the Second (1661).
29.
Daniel Defoe's A Vindication of the Press (1718).
30.
Essays on Taste from John Gilbert Cooper's Letters Concerning
Taste, 3rd edition (1757), & John Armstrong's
Miscellanies (1770).
Sixth Year (1951-1952)
31.
Thomas Gray's An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (1751); and
The Eton College Manuscript.
32.
Prefaces to Fiction; Georges de Scudéry's Preface to Ibrahim
(1674), etc.
33.
Henry Gally's A Critical Essay on Characteristic-Writings
(1725).
34. Thomas Tyers' A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Samuel Johnson
(1785).
35.
James Boswell, Andrew Erskine, and George Dempster. Critical
Strictures on the New Tragedy of Elvira, Written by Mr. David
Malloch (1763).
36.
Joseph Harris's The City Bride (1696).
Seventh Year (1952-1953)
37.
Thomas Morrison's A Pindarick Ode on Painting (1767).
38. John Phillips' A Satyr Against Hypocrites (1655).
39. Thomas Warton's A History of English Poetry.
40. Edward Bysshe's The Art of English Poetry (1708).
41. Bernard Mandeville's "A Letter to Dion" (1732).
42. Prefaces to Four Seventeenth-Century Romances.
Eighth Year (1953-1954)
43. John Baillie's An Essay on the Sublime (1747).
44. Mathias Casimire Sarbiewski's The Odes of Casimire,
Translated by G. Hils (1646).
45. John Robert Scott's Dissertation on the Progress of the Fine
Arts.
46. Selections from Seventeenth Century Songbooks.
47. Contemporaries of the Tatler and Spectator.
48. Samuel Richardson's Introduction to Pamela.
Ninth Year (1954-1955)
49. Two St. Cecilia's Day Sermons (1696-1697).
50. Hervey Aston's A Sermon Before the Sons of the Clergy
(1745).
51. Lewis Maidwell's An Essay upon the Necessity and Excellency of
Education (1705).
52.
Pappity Stampoy's A Collection of Scotch Proverbs (1663).
53. Urian Oakes' The Soveraign Efficacy of Divine Providence
(1682).
54. Mary Davys' Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a
Lady (1725).
Tenth Year (1955-1956)
55. Samuel Say's An Essay on the Harmony, Variety, and Power of
Numbers (1745).
56. Theologia Ruris, sive Schola & Scala Naturae
(1686).
57. Henry Fielding's Shamela (1741).
58. Eighteenth Century Book Illustrations.
59.
Samuel Johnson's Notes to Shakespeare. Vol. I, Comedies,
Part I.
60.
Samuel Johnson's Notes to Shakespeare. Vol. I, Comedies,
Part II.