Page images
PDF
EPUB

it in his version of the Iliad, should have rendered the Odyssey in couplets. Most of the numerous historical poems were in stanzas, the octave being generally preferred. Drayton, who had written his Barons' Wars in the Troilus metre, changed it for this when he republished the work, saying that Ariosto's stanza was of all others the most complete and best proportioned; for it "both holds the tune clear through to the base of the column, (which is the couplet at the foot,) and closeth not but with a full satisfaction to the ear for so long detention." Drayton wrote well in every metre which he attempted; but what he thus says of the Italian stanza may be more truly said of the English one invented by Spenser, and used by him in one of the noblest works of human genius. And he committed a great error when he fixed upon the Alexandrine as the measure in which to write his Polyolbion; for of all measures it is that which, in our language, admits the least variety.

Neither the diction of Chaucer, nor of Surrey, the father and the reformer of our poetry, - could have been more perfect than it was. It will not be supposed that because Surrey is thus named with Chaucer, he is placed in the same rank with him; for Chaucer stands in the first rank, with Spenser, Shakspeare, and Milton; and in variety of power Shakspeare is his only peer. We know not what Surrey might have been; but little as he found leisure for composing during an active life, and that life shortened by one of those legal murders which have left an ineffaceable stain upon the memory of Henry VIII., his writings form an epoch in the history of English poetry. Where a true poetical feeling exists, even though in an inferior degree, the diction will always be that of truth and nature; and it is always otherwise with imitators, and where inclination has been mistaken for power. Corruption of language, therefore, and ephemeral styles are introduced by inferior writers; and in this respect, the course of literature, like that of ecclesiastical history, is marked by a succession of heresies, which have prevailed for a time, and then passed away. When the far-fetched words of the monastic style were banished from our versification, alliteration was brought into use, not as the principle upon which the verse

was constructed, but as its chief and indispensable ornament.8 This abuse of what is only ornamental when sparingly and appropriately introduced, became ridiculous, and was laughed out of fashion; but, as in religious sects, they who avoided one error ran into an opposite extreme. A loose and careless versification was sometimes adopted, that the writer might escape the affectation of a stiff and elaborate one; and while men of genius wasted their powers in fantastic conceits, substituting wit for feeling, others who were not inferior in ability, and of better judgment, though the error into which they fell was quite as great-lowered the pitch of their poetry to a prosaic strain, as if there had been no medium between a creeping and a stilted style.

Nevertheless, more poems that are worthy of preservation were produced, in the course of half a century, than in any former or any subsequent age of English literature. It was not till toward the latter part of Elizabeth's reign that the noblest productions appeared, and poetry recovered that estimation which, according to the most illustrious of its patrons, it had lost. Sydney complains that, from almost the highest estimation of learning, it had fallen to be the

8 After noting that we missed "the right use of the material point of poetry," Sydney says, "now for the outside of it, which is words, or (as I may term it) diction, it is even well worse, so is that honey-flowing matron eloquence apparelled, or rather disguised in a courtezan-like painted affectation; one time with so far-fetched words that many seem monsters, but most seem strangers to any poor Englishman; another time with coursing of a letter, as if they were bound to follow the method of a dictionary."- Defence of Poesy.

Puttenham says, it is" nothing commendable" when a "maker takes too much delight to fill his verse with words beginning all with a letter, as an English rhymer that said

The deadly drops of dark disdain
Do daily drench my due deserts.

Many of our English makers use it too much, yet we confess it doth not ill, but prettily, become the metre, if ye pass not two or three words in one verse, and use it not very much; as he that said by way of epithet,

The smoaky sighs, the trickling tears;

and such like: for such composition makes the metre run away smoother, and passeth from the lips with more facility by iteration of a letter than by alteration, which alteration of a letter requires an exchange of ministry and office in the lips, teeth, or palate, and so doth not the iteration."

[ocr errors]

laughing-stock of children; "that an art which was embraced," he said, "in all other places, and patronized and practised by the great, should find a hard return only in England, was what he thought the very earth lamented, and therefore decked the soil with fewer laurels than it was accustomed." "It necessarily followed," he said, "that base men with servile wits undertook it, who thought it enough if they could be rewarded of the printer." This complaint shows that if poetry had not then obtained that patronage among the great, of which Sydney himself set the example to his contemporaries, it already possessed the more effectual patronage of the public, and had become a marketable article. Poets swarmed in this country, as they did in France and Spain, and a little earlier in Italy, and in Holland a little later. And in our literature, as in our language, we took something from other countries, while they seem to have derived nothing from us.

But the poetry of every nation (more than any other branch of its literature) is colored by the national character, as the wine of different soils has its raciness. That of the Italians, in that age, was graceful, delicate, fanciful, sometimes imaginative and sublime. With the Spaniards it was stately, solemn, and fantastic, often more full of sound than meaning, yet frequently, both in its grave and in its humorous strains, worthy of a noble people. With the French it was extravagant and empty; and, in the worst acceptation of the word, licentious, beyond that of any other nation, except at one time the Italians; but in Italy the abomination was checked, while in France it continued in full vogue from generation to generation, till it produced a corruption and dissolution of manners, of which, happily for human nature, no other example has been known in the civilized world. In Holland, it seemed consecrated to patriotism and the household gods; the Dutch may be proud of their poets with as good cause as of their painters, their

9 Webbe says, in the preface to his Discourse of English Poetry, (1586,) "Among the innumerable sorts of English books, and infinite fardles of printed pamphlets, where with this country is pestered, all shops stuffed, and every study furnished, the greatest part, I think, in any one kind, are such as are either mere poetical, or which tend in some respect (as either in matter or form) to poetry."

scholars, their seamen, their struggle against the Spaniards, and their country,—in which art has achieved greater triumphs, and well-directed industry has produced more general comfort, than in any other part of Christendom.

Some advantage over the southern nations we derive from our language; with a little practice it would not be difficult for any one who possesses a talent for versifying to compose in it extemporaneous verses of no higher standard than those of the Improvisatore, but it would never be so easy. The northern tongues afford no such facilities as the southern for this kind of display, in which if any man of genius were to waste his powers, he would infallibly injure them. More difficulty requires more care, and where that difficulty arises not from any preposterous fashion, or unreasonable rules, but from the character of the language, it tends to improve the artist. In the Italian, and it is the same case in the Spanish and Portuguese,it is easy to versify, and an octave stanza is soon filled with melodious words; translate it into the same metre, and it will frequently not be possible in our briefer speech and more compressed vocabulary to fill the stave, without dilating the meaning, or adding to it. With us, too, something more than the mere collocation of words is required to distinguish verse from prose, even when the words themselves are in no degree appropriated to poetry. It is not enough that the ear should be satisfied; something must be addressed to the feelings, the fancy, or the imagination, or something presented to the understanding. That this should be required belongs to the genius of the language and to the national character, differing in this respect from those of the southern nations, and more especially from the French. Of course it must happen that poets will often deceive themselves, and that the public will often be for a while deceived, and false reputations raised. Many pieces have obtained great applause, and some to this day retain it, which could no more endure the test of just criticism, than a bubble can bear the touch.

"There are three ways," Dr. Johnson said, "in which writing may be unnatural ;-by being bombastic, and above nature;-affected, and beside it, fringing events with orna2

VOL. II.

ments which nature did not afford; or weak, and below nature. Neither of the first could please long. The third might, indeed, please a good while, or at least please many, because imbecility, and consequently a love of imbecility, might be found in many." 10 The bombastic immediately invites ridicule, and soon yields to it :-the last personage upon the stage who spake in the vein of King Cambyses and Tamberlain was Ancient Pistol. The affected style lasts longer; and for the same reason as the feeble. That style of poetry belongs to it which Johnson has called the metaphysical; the designation is not fortunate, but so much respect is due to Johnson, that it would be unbecoming to substitute, even if it were easy to propose, one which might be unexceptionable.

11

Whether this style spread like a contagion from Italy to Spain and England, or whether it originated in the intellectual temperature of the age, and thus became endemic in the three countries, may be questioned. It was most out of place when applied to devotional poetry,-upon which every species of false taste seems, at different times, to have fastened. Amatory poems were on the whole improved by it, because it required something more than the common-places which were the stock in trade of all mere versifiers. Cowley squandered upon this fashion powers which might have won for him the lasting fame to which he aspired. Butler alone perceived its proper application, and he, in consequence, produced a poem which, in spite of the subject, can never become obsolete while wit and wisdom are understood. With the true tact of genius he adapted his verse to his materials, and creating thus a manner of his own, derived an advantage from one of the causes which had concurred to deteriorate our versification.

Many persons possess a musical ear who have no voice for singing, but a good voice is seldom found where there is not also an ear which is capable of directing it. The case

10 Boswell's Johnson, (edition 1835,) vol. ix. 309. It is one of the observations recorded by Mr. Windham, who recorded of Johnson nothing but what was worth recording.

11 Donne passed some years in Italy and in Spain; he therefore may be supposed to have contracted the fashion in those countries, having "returned into England perfect in their languages." - Izaak Walton.

« PreviousContinue »