Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

VI. The Land of the Muses: a Poem, in the Manner of Spenser. With Poems on feveral Occafions. By Hugh Downman, A. B. 4to. Pr. 2s. 6d. Baldwin.

[ocr errors]

Na preface to this poem, our author, fenfible of the powerful objections to this mode of compofition, endeavours to anticipate the attacks of criticism, by telling us, " himself does not approve of it." The objections to which he only alludes, we hall attempt to fpecify: nor fhall we feem to trifle, when it is confidered, that our remarks may be read by those, who, though guilty of the fame error, have not yet received the fame Conviction.

[ocr errors]

In an age when every effort of genius and of learning has been 3a exerted to polifh and refine our language, it fhould feem, from. the number of thofe who ambitiously write upon the model of Spenfer's Fairy Queen, that it was recommended to imitation by fome peculiar excellence of style and manner, by which Strength and elegance were at once attained. And indeed, were the fact to be admitted, their conduct is not altogether so absurd; for of every writer the ftyle and manner may be copied, as words will take any form. But furely it requires no uncommon penetration to perceive, that Spenfer triumphs not by means of the graces of compofition, but in the want of them; that neither ftrength nor elegance are attained by the ufe of antiquated diction, which obfcures his meaning; or of elliptical con Atruction, which renders it ungrammatical.

It has been long remarked of thefe defects in the language of Spenfer's Faery Queen, that the caufe is wholly to be afcribed to his unfortunate choice of measure: by the repetition of rhime, he was forced upon exploded words; and to the continuance of the stanza he was obliged to accommodate his construction. Nor fhould we have troubled our readers with the repetition of a remark, which was common even when Davenant wrote, did it not afford us an opportunity of expreffing our furprife, that to the very inconvenience which should have warned fucceeding writers, fucceeding writers fhould willingly fubmit; and, like the cur in the fable, efteem that which at once encumbers and difgraces, as a mark of honour and diftinction.

[ocr errors]

Were we inclined to fport with the abfurdity of others; we might expatiate with great mirth upon a modern poem with a gloffary at its tail, for the purpofe of explanation: or were we difpofed to be folemn upon the occafion, we might obferve how much the poet counteracts his own purpose, who checks the tranfport and damps the ardour of his reader, by forcing his attention from the connection of the ftory, the beauty of the

imagery,

36

136

[ocr errors]

imagery, and the strength of the sentiment, to the investigation of obfcure phrafeology, or disentangling of intricate conftruc. tion. But thefe confiderations we muft relinquish, to bestow a little attention upon the stanza.

In defence of this measure,] little can be argued from Spenfer's ufing it. When Spenfer wrote, frequency of experiment had not directed our poets to the most proper measure; confequently our verfification was refigned to uncertainty and caprice, and every writer would think himself at liberty to set up a model. Nothing more, therefore, can be inferred in favour of Spenfer's ftanza from his employment of it, than in favour of English hexameters, from the endeavours of his patron Sydney to adapt our syllables to Roman feet; as the attempt of either is to be imputed to ignorance of the measure most fitted to our language. But indeed fo prevalent is authority, that had the fucceffive rhime been more known and more cultivated by the poets of Spenfer's days, it is highly probable, that the united influence of his admired Chaucer, whom he confidered as pure well-head of English undefil'd," and of the romantic Italians, whofe vigorous imaginations were fo congenial with his own, would have determined him to chose their mode of verfification.

"the

That the ftanza of Spenfer to an English ear is unmusical and tiresome, and that in ufing it he did not confider the nature of the English language, has been already fhewn by a writer, whofe meaneft praise is the certainty of his critical decifions But there are other objections, which, though less frequently urged, are not lefs important. Every meafure in which the rhime is not fucceffive, neceffarily leads into a copious and diffufed expreffion: and hence the general agreement of our elegiac writers to adopt the quatraine, as constructed to give full fcope to the flow of paffion. But in other subjects, fuch as the Faery Queen, where much depends upon compreffion of the thought, this exuberance becomes vicious; and as all faults are aggravated in proportion to the neceffity inducing them, the amplification will be greater in the stanza of nine lines than in that of four many words will be lavished where few fhould be employed, and the ftrength of poetry weakened in diffufion. This is what fpeculation dictates, and the practice of Spenfer in particular confirms.

:

Such are the intrinfic arguments against this mode of verfification, the faultinefs of which might with certainty be inferred from the general agreement of our best poets in rejecting it ; an agreement fo foon begun, that although the fianza in general was employed for many years after Spenfer, yet this particular modification of it feems to have been reprobated even by those writers who immediately followed him, and upon whom his au

thority

thority must have had great influence, as they profeffed to ac knowledge him for their mafter. Drayton, among the various methods of constructing the stanza, which he enumerates in the preface to his Barons Warres, makes no mention of that used in the Faery Queen; nor. has he employed it in any of his hiftoric legends. But if this can be observed of the writers fo near the times of Spenfer *, he is still lefs likely to have found imitators in the fucceeding reign, when, after all other modes of verfification had been tried, our poets began to bestow their attention upon the Couplet; which, though ufed before, had been ufed but fparingly, as fuppofed to be poffeffed of little dignity, and only adapted to fhort excurfions. It was under the first Charles that Sandys fhewed the writers of his time with what fuperior convenience and fuccefs this meafure could be employed in works of length and of the model he propofed, which at once freed the poet from the tyranny of the Stanza, and gratified the ear with more perfect harmony, the comparative excellence was too univerfally felt, not to be univerfally acknowledged. From thefe times therefore to thofe of Prior, we can almoft with confidence fay, it is in vain to look for any attempt either to revive or to imitate the ftanza of Spenfer and even Prior in profeffing it, in his ode" on the glorious fuccefs of her majefty's arms 1706," profeffed only; for fo fenfible was he of its defects, and fo, defirous to avoid them, that he willingly hazarded the great. er impropriety of writing in a measure wholly different from that of the Faery Queen.

:

It now remains to account for the many latter attempts to revive a mode of writing fo faulty and fo antiquated and for this we only can account, from the tendency the generality of later writers have to be abfurd. When all the natural means of engaging notice are exhausted, men are glad to exchange what is juft for what is uncommon. The same spirit of ridiculous innovation, which, towards the decline of the Grecian literature, induced their writers to feek glory from needlefs difficulty, and conftruct poems in the forms of altars, wings, and axes, feems now bufied in engaging ours to darken their meaning in obfolete words, and lengthen it out in obfolete ftanzas.

Having now delivered our fentiments upon this subject, with that freedom which candour authorises and our plan dictates, we next proceed to enquire into the merits of the poem before us. And first, it is with pleasure we obferve that it has what modern poetry is too frequently found to want, a beginning, a middle, and an end; an excellence which cannot be too much valued, however the ignorant may affect to despise the prescriptions of method, and the fhackles of connection. Other beauties of writing

* Drayton lived in the reign of James I.

VOL. XXVI. Sept. 1768.

are

194

are of a fading nature. The luftre of polished diction is obscured in time, as the phrafe is no longer elegant which is no longer understood. In time too, the period which is now mufical, becomes diffonant and harsh; and the wit which now ravishes, forgotten with its anecdote: but of that compofition whose merit confifts in juft connection and natural tranfition, though the parts may be affected, the whole will ever retain its power to please.

But to the regularity of the plan the execution is not answerable the expreflion is too often feeble and profaic; and of his lines, there frequently appears to be no ufe, but that they fill up the ftanza. With the measure of Spenfer, our author feems to have thought it neceffary to adopt his imperfect verfification. But furely Mr. Downman needs not to be informed, that the beauties of a poet are the objects of imitation, and not the defects and that our ears will still be offended with rugged numbers, notwithstanding we are told, fuch was the verfification of our forefathers. It would be unneceffary to croud our page with this writer's faulty attention to his master in this respect : we fhall only inftance in the concluding lines of his ftanza; in which, with Spenfer, he frequently paufes in the middle of a word, or upon a weak fyllable, though nothing more effectually deftroys the harmony of his verse.

That whilom in Adonis' happy garden grew.

We mean not, however, to infinuate that our author has merely copied the defects of Spenfer. On the contrary, we think he has caught much of that fimple and pathetic ftrain, with which we are fo delighted in the Faery Queen: and that he is not deficient in imagination, the following defcription of Fancy may evince. XXIV.

Soon mought they now behold that Maid divine:
Upon a craggy cliff she took her stand,
Above her head fpread a broad branching pine,
Which fent a dark shade round; on either hand
Down many a thoufand yarde of rifing land
From rock to rock a ftrong ftream forc'd its way,
Which there was blent in one accoiled band;
She joyant ftood over the foaming bay,

And bath'd her forehead in the floating dewy spray.

XXV.

When as the tread of stranger feet fhe heard,

Eftfoons her eyes fhe thitherwards enhaunc'd,
Which as the glitterand fun beam bright appear'd,
And quicker than the quivering levin glaunc'd,

And

And ftrait toward them with light ftep advaunc'd;
Her golden- tendrill'd locks down from her head

Hung loofely wav'ring as to them bechaunc'd,
She never them confin'd in tye or brede,
But they moft comely feem'd when most difhevelled.

XXVI.

• In thin habiliment fhe was bedight,

Of cunningly inwoven gofs'mer twin'd,
Moft curious was that garment to the sight,
And on the lap of the soft dalliaunt wind,
Which it fuftain'd, difported far behind;
Its colour was of every various dye,

Which in the glorious bow of heaven we find,
And of every intermingled fhade the eye

Could ever ken, was there in vaft complexity.'

Of the Poems on feveral Occafions, the chief part confifts of Odes and Elegies. In his odes our author has not employed any of our established lyric measures, but has rather chofen, in imitation of certain moderns, to write with returns of the ftrophe and antiftrophe; for which, perhaps, no reafon can be given, except that the fame returns are obferved by Pindar. That no end of poetic harmony is anfwered by them, is plain from the fingle confideration, that no fuch end was proposed by Pindar himself. It is now well known, those changes in the measure merely had reference to the changes in the dancing with which the antient ode was accompanied. We acknowledge, however, that the adoption of this more fober plan, has contributed much to difcontinue that monftrous fpecies of compofition, first introduced among us by Cowley, under the name of Pindaric odes. Sed quid te exempta juvat spinis è pluribus una ? Why reject the rhapfodies of this writer and his imitators as ir regular and wild, when this claffic model can only pretend to uniform irregularity? fince, of odes thus conftructed, the stanzas may be of any length; compofed of verfes the moft difproportionate, and of rhimes the moft diftant, provided the fame diforder is observed in those that correfpond.

By this conduct, we own, the poet may at once confult his ease, and appear learned: but how effectually it renders both his measure and his numbers unmufical and harsh, may appear from the first strophe of the firft ode in this collection.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »