Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum For this he employs fix verfes, among which is this, As if on Knightly terms in lifts they ran. * Pray can you trace chivalry up higher than Pharamond? will you allow it an anachronism ?—Tickel in his verfion of the Phoenix from Claudian, When nature ceafes, thou fhalt ftill remain, Claudian thus, Et clades te nulla rapit, folufque fuperftes, which plainly refers to the deluge of Deucalion, and the conflagration of Phaeton; not to the final diffolution. Your thought of the Priefts lottery is very fine you play the wit, and not the critic, upon the errors of your brother. Your obfervations are all very juft: Virgil is eminent for adjusting his diction to his sentiments; and, the moderns, I find you practise the Profodia of your rules. Your poem fhews you to be, what among t you *Nothing furely can be fo totally abhorrent from all the ideas of antiquity as chivalry, the rife and genius of which is no where fo amply and accurately investigated as by that curious antiquary M. De la Curne de Sainte-Palaye, in a Memoir first published in the 20th volume of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres, and afterwards enlarged and published in two volumes at Paris, 1759. WARTON. To a Lady, with the Works of Voiture. POPE. you fay of Voiture-with books well bred: the state of the fair, though fatirical, is touched with that delicacy and gallantry, that not the court of Auguftus, not-But hold, I fhall lose what I lately recovered, your opinion of my fincerity: yet I muft fay, 'tis as faultless as the fair to whom it is addreffed, be she never so perfect. The M. G. (who, it seems, had no right notion of you, as you of him) transcribed it by lucubration: From fome difcourfe of yours, he thought your inclination led you to (what the men of fashion ⚫ call learning) pedantry; but now, he says, he has no lefs, I affure you, than a veneration for you. Your, etc. LETTER XXVI. December 17, 1710. late mention of Crafhaw, and my IT my T seems that quotation from him, has moved your curiofity. I therefore fend you the whole Author, who has held a place among my other books of this nature for some years; in which time having read him twice or thrice, I find him one of those whose works may just deserve reading. I take this poet to have writ like a gentleman *, that is, at leisure hours, and more to keep out of idleness, than to establish a reputation; fo that nothing regular or * Like a gentleman! he might have faid as well that Dante wrote like a gentleman! or just can be expected from him. All that regards defign, form, fable, (which is the foul of poetry,) all that concerns exactness, or consent of parts, (which is the body,) will probably be wanting; only pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expreffions, and fomething of a neat caft of verfe, (which are properly the dress, gems, or loofe ornaments of poetry,) may be found in these verses. This is indeed the case of most other poetical writers of mifcellanies; nor can it well be otherwife, fince no man can be a true poet, who writes for diverfion only. These authors fhould be confidered as verfifiers and witty men, rather than as poets; and under this head will only fall the thoughts, the expreffion, and the numbers. These are only the pleafing part of poetry, which may be judged of at a view, and comprehended all at once. And (to express myself like a painter) their colouring entertains the fight, but the lines and life of the picture are not to be inspected too narrowly. This Author formed himfelf upon Petrarch, or rather upon Marino*. His thoughts, one may ob ferve, *Crafbaw was fo fond of Marino, a writer of fine imagination but little judgment, as to tranflate the whole first book of his Strage de gli Innocenti (published 1633), which Marino himself preferred to his Il Adone, and to which Milton was indebted for many hints, which, however, he greatly improved. See particularly Stanza 7, and feveral fucceeding Stanzas in Crashaw, p. 35, for a description of Satan. Milton, in his Manfus, celebrates the Adonis: the Strage was not then published. It was first printed in France, and Chapelain prefixed a learned preface to it. There was a tranflation of all the four books of the Slaughter of the Innocents, published 1675, by T. R. and dedicated to the Duchess of York. WARTON. serve, in the main,' are pretty; but oftentimes far fetched, and too often strained and stiffened to make them appear the greater. For men are never fo apt to think a thing great, as when it is odd or wonderful; and inconfiderate authors would rather be admired than understood. This ambition of furprizing a reader, is the true natural cause of all fuftian, or bombaft in poetry. To confirm what I have faid, you need but look into his first poem of the Weeper, where the 2d, 4th, 6th, 14th, 21ft ftanzas are as fublimely dull, as the 7th, 8th, 9th, 16th, 17th, 20th, and 23d ftanzas of the fame copy, are soft and pleafing and if these laft want any thing, it is an eafier and more unaffected expreffion. The remaining thoughts in that poem might have been spared, being either but repetitions, or very trivial and mean. by this example in the firft, one may guefs at all the reft; to be like this, a mixture of tender gentle thoughts and fuitable expreflions, of forced and inextricable conceits, and of needlefs fillers-up to the reft. From all which it is plain, this author writ fast, and fet down what came uppermoft. A reader may skim off the froth, and use the clear underneath; but if he goes too deep, will meet with a mouthful of dregs; either the top or bottom of him are good for little, but what he did in his own, natural, middleway, is beft. And To fpeak of his numbers, is a little difficult, they are fo various and irregular, and moftly Pindaric ; it is evident his heroic verfe (the beft example of which is his Mufic's duel) is carelessly made up; but one may imagine from what it now is, that had he taken more care, it had been musical and pleasing enough, not extremely majestic, but sweet: and the time confidered of his writing, he was (even as uncorrect as he is) none of the worft verfificators. * I will just observe, that the beft pieces of this author are a paraphrase on Pfal. xxiii. On Leffius, Epitaph on Mr. Ashton, Wishes to his fuppofed Miftrefs, and the Dies Ira. * To these might le added fome other pieces of Crashaw that deferved his praife; particularly a tranflation from Mofchus, and another from Catullus. His 23d Pfalm is not equal to that of Sandys', whofe Pfalms deferve much more attention than they meet with. Rofcommon has borrowed many lines from the Dies Ira of Crafhaw, particularly Stanza 17: "My God, my Father, and my Friend, "Do not forfake me in my end !" Crashaw gives it thus, page 194 of his Poems, 1670: 66 My Hope, my Fear, my Judge, my Friend, "Take charge of me and of my end!" Pope has taken many expreffions and lines from this author, who, having been a convert to popery, we may imagine was recommended to our author in his younger years. It is in his Eloifa to Abelard, that many expreffions and thoughts of Crafhaw chiefly occur; particularly his defcription of a religious houfe, from Barclay; the fituation of the Paraclete; and alfo line 347, from the complaint of Alexias, the forfaken wife of Ælexis, though much heightened and improved. Cowley wrote a poem on Crafhaw's death, whom he highly celebrates. He died of a fever at Loretto, being newly chofen canon of that church. WARTON. |