Such truths my crimes! But Charity's soft | When lo, a figure of celestial mien veil Shall shade the hateful remuant of the tale. Far from the solar walk, and court's high-way 17? The consul's station, or the statesman's place; (Known indistinctly once, and faintly seen) And now, her form angust half reach'd the skies. See a dumb image petrify'd with grief! She spoke, and to my throbbing heart apply'd "Med'cines, and not complaints, thy pangs must So, when o'er Phœbus low-buug clouds prevail, How hard the contest, and how sharp the strife | Recover'd reason lab'ring in my eyes, With nauseous incense chok'd, and hireling wit; And, kindly smiling, said, or seem'd to say; The Nisroch 19 of his knaves, and calf 20 of Rules to die happy, and contented live; fools!- I'll dwell no longer on this angry theme 21;- Like a sick child, I moan'd myself to rest: 16 Pretiosissimum generis humani decus Symmachus socer; Vir totus ex sapientia, virtutibusque factus. Boet. de Consolat. L. II, Pros. 4. Socer Symmachus, sanctus, atque actu ipso reverendus. Ibid. L. I, Pros. 4. 17" In chusing men who are to discharge the highest offices, the safest conduct is to take the man who goes out of his way in order to decline it, and not the man who intrudes boldly for it." St. Bernard. And, when thy stomach can strong food digest, I never leave my children on the road, Coy Fortune's absence stings thee to the heart: 3 The frowns of a capricious jilt you mourn, Thy faith in Providence, thy funds in Heav'n. "A farther weakness in thy heart I read; Yet here the mind of Socrates could soar; To all men open, and to all men near: And the chaste pride of a once spotless name: "Eschew the lust of pow'r, and pride of How rarely is a poor man highly deem'd; life; One jarring mass of counter-working strife! Disarms the tyrant, and looks down on kings: The goddess now, with mild and sober grace Thy exile next sits heavy on thy mind; 29 Intelligo multiformes illius prodigii fucos. 3) Largis cum potius muneribus fluens Sitis ardescit habendi. 31 L. II, Pros. 1. L. II, Pros. 1. L. II, Metr. 2. Or a rich upstart villain dis-esteem'd ?- "Boast not, nor grieve at good or evil fame39: "And what's the applause of learning or of Critics unwrite whate'er the author writ: 32 Quid igitur referre putes, tunè illam mo- accedit, quod existimatio plurimorum non rerum ricendo deseras, an te illa fugiendo? Lib. II, Pros. 3. 4 L I, Pros. 5, Boetius. Boet. L. I. merita, sed fortunæ spectat eventum; eaque tantum judicat esse provisa, quæ felicitas commendaverit. Quo fit, ut existimatio bona, prima omnium deserat infelices. Boetius, Ibid. 39 Si vis beatus esse, cogita hoc primum, contemnere et contemni; nondum es felix, si te turba non deriserit. Antisthenis Dictum. To a new fate this second life must yield, way. "To serve the great, and aggrandise our pride, Still makes new conquests for old conquests lost: Thy life's last hour (nor is it far from thee} Here let my just resentments cease to flow, Rusticiana, fairest of the fair, My present object, and my future care; Weep not my fate: is man to be deplor'd, | Hail death, thou lenient cordial of relief; Fair fruit, which none can reach but birds of Suns set in crimson-streams to rise in gold. prey. "All men from want, as from contagion, fly; Farewell, and may Heav'n's bounty heap on (As more deserving) what it takes from me 45!-- Forgive, Almighty Pow'r, this worldly part; ADVERTISEMENT. IT is to be hoped the reader will pardon me, if 1 take the liberty of prefixing to this elegy a slight advertisement, instead of inserting what fight seem too long for a note in the body of the poem. particular places, where I discover neither boldness nor invention.-I owe also to Fenton the participle meandered; and to Sir W. D'Avenant the latinism of funeral ilicet. As to compound epithets, those ambitiosa ornamenta 3 of modern poetry, Dryden has devis. ed a few of them, with equal diffidence and caution; but those few are exquisitely beautiMr. Pope seized on them as family diamonds, and added thereto an equal number, dug from his own inines, and heightened by his own polishing. Having ventured (and I am sure it is licentia sumpta pudenter 1,) to introduce three or four new expressions in a volume of near five thou-ful. sand lines, and one, namely, dew-tinged ray, in the present elegy, I thought myself obliged to make some apology on that subject; since all innovations in poets like me, (who can only pretend to a certain degree of mediocrity) are more or less of an affected cast, and rarely to be excused; inasmuch as we have the vanity to teach others what we do not thoroughly understand ourselves. And here permit me to call that language of ours classical English, which is to be found in a few chosen writers inclusively from the times of Spencer till the death of Mr. Pope; for false refinements, after a language has arisen to a certain degree of perfection, give reasons to suspect that a language is upon the decline. The same circumstances have happened formerly, and the event has been almost invariably the same. Compare Statius and Claudian with Virgil and Horace: and yet the former was, if one may so speak, immediate heir at law to the latter. I have known some of my cotemporary poets (and those not very voluminous writers) who have cined their one or two hundred words a man; whereas Dryden and Pope devised only about threescore words between them; many of which were compound epithets: but most of the words which they introduced into our language proved in the event to be vigorous and perennial plants, being chosen and raised from excellent offsets 2. - Juded the former author revived also a great number of ancient words and expressions; and this he did (beginning at Chaucer) with so much delicacy of choice, and in a manner so comprebensive, that he left the latter author (who was in that point equally judicious and sagacious) very little to do, or next to nothing. Some few of Dryden's revived words I have presumed to continue; of which take the following instances; as gridéline, filmont, and carmine, (with reference to colours, and mixtures of colours ;) cymar, eygre, trine, EYPHKA, paraclete, panoply, rood, dorp, eglantine, orisons, aspirations, &c. I mention this, lest any one should be angry with me, or pleased with me in I Horat. 2I must here make one exception. Dryden showed some weakness, in anglicising common French words, and those not over elegant, when at the same time we had synonymous words of our own growth. Thus, for example, he introduced leveé, coucheé, boute feu, simagres, fracheur, fougue, &c. Nor was he more lucky in the Italian falsarè: his shield Was falsify'd, and round with jav'lins fill'd. Dryden's Virg. Compound epithets first came into their great vogue about the year 1598. Shakespeare and Ben Jonson both ridiculed the ostentations and immoderate use of them, in their prologues to Troilus and Cressida and to Every Man in his Humour. By the above-named prologues it also appears, that bombast grew fashionable about the same era. Now in both instances an affected taste is the same as a false taste. The author of Hieronimo (who as I may venture to assure the reader, was one John Smith4) first led up the dance. Then came the bold and self-sufficient translator of Du Bartas 5, who broke down all the flood-gates of the true stream of eloquence (which formerly preserved the river clear, within due bounds, and full to its banks) and, like the rat in the LowCountry dikes, mischievously or wantonly deluged the whole land. Of innovated phrases and words; of words revived; of compound epithets, &c, I may one day or other say more, in a distinct criticism on Dryden's poetry. It shall therefore only suffice to observe here, that our two great poetical masters never thought that the interposition of an hyphen, without just grounds and reasons, made a e mpound epithet. On the contrary, it was their opinion, (and to this opinion their practice was conformable) that such union should only be made between two nouns, as patriot-king, ideotlaugh, &c.—or between an adjective and noun, or noun and adjective, vice versa, or au adjective and participle; as laughter-loving, cloudcompelling, rosy-fingered, &c.--As also by an adverb used as part of an adjective, as you may see in the words well-concocted, well-digested, &c. But never by a full real adverb and adjective, as inly-pining, sadly-musing, and, to make free with myself, (though I only did it by way of irony) my expression of simply-marry'd epithets, of which sort of novelties modern poetry chiefly consists. Nor should such compound epithets be looked upon as the poet's making; for they owe their existence to the compositor of the press, and the intervention of an hyphen. Much of the same analogy by which Dryden and Pope guided themselves in the present case, may be seen in the purer Greek and Roman languages: but all the hyphens in the world, (supposing hyphens had been then known) would not have truly joined together the dulce ridentem, or dulce loquentem, of Horace. In a word, some few precautions of the pre 3 Horat. ✦ John Smith writ also the Hector of Germany. 5 Joshua Sylvester. sent kind are not unnecessary: English poetry begins to grow capricious, fantastical, and affectedly luxuriant; and therefore (as Augustus said of Haterius) sufflaminari paululùm debet. HOLY, AN EMBLEMATICAL ELEGY, blows? Lord, has thy hand no mercy, and our woes No more the Sun delights, nor lawns, nor trees; Books have no wit, the liveliest wits have none; (So frail is man) from seeming nothings rose: 1 The hint of this emblem is taken from our venerable and religious poet F. Quarles, L. III, Embl. 4. Mr. Dryden used to say, that Quarles exceeded him in the facility of rhyming. Orion added noise to dumb despair, Oft have we sought (and fruitless oft) to gain worst: Who weep unpity'd, groan without relief; "There is no end nor measure of their grief!" The happy have waste twelve-months to bestow; But those can spare all time, who live in woe! Whose liveliest hours are misery and thrall; Whose food is wormwood, and whose drink is gall". Banish their grief, or ease their irksome load; Ephraim, at length, was favour'd by his God. Ah, what is man, that demi-god on Earth? Proud of his knowledge, glorying in his birth; Profane corrector of th' Almighty's laws, Full of th' effect, forgetful of the cause! Why boast of reason, and yet reason ill? Why talk of choice, yet follow erring will? Why vaunt our liberty, and prove the slave Of all ambition wants, or follies crave? This is the lot of him, surnam❜d the wise, Who lives mistaken, and mistaken dies! The sick less happy, and yet happier live; For pains and maladies are God's reprieve: This respite, 'twixt the grave and cradle giv'n, Is th' interpos'd parenthesis of Heav'n! Scripture-astronomy these three were all watery signs, and emblematical of grief. The fourth constellation, named Orion, threatened mankind with hurricanes and tempests. Sandys understood the passage in the same manner as I do. See his excellent Paraphrase on Job, folio, page 49, London 1637. Mention is again made of the Seven Stars, (Pleiades) and of Orion, Amos, ch. v, v. 6-and Job, ch. ix, v. 9. 8 The star of bitterness, called Wormwood, Rev. ch. viii, v. 10. 9 Job, ch. xxxviii, v. 12. Luke, ch. I, v. 78. 'Avaroλn i§ us. This poetical word, dayspring, expressing the dawn of morning, has been never adopted by our poets, as far as we can recollect. 10 Deut. ch. xxviii, v. 66, 67. Quarles's book, and the emblematical prints therein contained, are chiefly taken from the "And thy life shall hang in doubt before Pia Desideria of Hugo Hermannus. The en- thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and gravings were originally designed by that cele-shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the brated artist C. Van Sichem. morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! For the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes wherewith thou shalt see." See also Job, ch. ill. 2 Dan. ch. iv, v. 34. 31 Sam. ch. xvi, v. 23. Agreeably to this, is a lovely piece of imagery in the holy Scriptures. The Earth mourneth and languisheth; Lebanon is ashamed, and hewn down; Sharon is like a wilderness; Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits." Isaiah, ch. xxxiii, v. 9. 5 Isaiah, ch. lix, v. 5. • South'd, a received term in astrology, v. 8. 11 Jerem. ch. xxiii, v. 15. 12 lbid. ch. xxxi, v. 20. "Ephraim is my dear son;-for, since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have 7 Job, ch, xxxviii v. 31, 32. According to mercy upon him, saith the Lord." |
