Thus we have have
in "The Humorists,"
"_Crazy,_--One that is in pox, in debt, and all the misfortunes that
can be; and, in the midst of all, in love with most women, and thinks
most women in love with him.
in "The Humorists,"
"_Crazy,_--One that is in pox, in debt, and all the misfortunes that
can be; and, in the midst of all, in love with most women, and thinks
most women in love with him.
Dryden - Complete
See Note XII.
]
[Footnote 435: Perhaps in allusion to Shadwell's frequent use of opium,
as well as to his dulness. ]
[Footnote 436: Note XIII. ]
[Footnote 437: Note XIV. ]
[Footnote 438: Note XV. ]
[Footnote 439: Note XVI. ]
[Footnote 440: Note XVII. ]
[Footnote 441: This elegant phrase is the current catch-word of Sir
Samuel Hearty in the "Virtuoso," described in the _dramatis personæ_ as
"a brisk, amorous, adventurous, unfortunate coxcomb; one that, by the
help of humorous, nonsensical bye-words, takes himself to be a great
wit. "]
[Footnote 442: Alluding, probably, to the following vaunt of Shadwell,
in the Dedication to the "Virtuoso:" "Four of the humours are entirely
new; and, without vanity, I may say, I ne'er produced a comedy that
had not some natural humour in it not represented before, and I hope I
never shall. "]
[Footnote 443: Note XVIII. ]
[Footnote 444: Bruce and Longvil are fine gentlemen in Shadwell's
comedy of the "Virtuoso;" who, during a florid speech of Sir Formal
Trifle, contrive to get rid of the orator, by letting go a trap-door,
upon which he had placed himself during his declamation. ]
NOTES
ON
MAC-FLECKNOE.
Note I.
_This Flecknoe found. _--P. 433.
Richard Flecknoe, the unfortunate bard whom our author has damned to
everlasting fame, was by birth an Irishman, and by profession a Roman
Catholic priest. Marvel, who seems to have known him at Rome, describes
his person as meagre in the extreme, and his itch for scribbling as
incessant. The poem, in which Marvel depicts him, is in the old taste
of extravagant burlesque, and the lines are as rugged as Flecknoe
could himself have produced. It contains, however, some witty and some
humorous description, and the reader may be pleased to see a specimen:
_Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome. _
Obliged by frequent visits of this man,
Whom, as a priest, poet, musician,
I for some branch of Melchizedec took,
Though he derives himself from my Lord Brooke,
I sought his lodging, which is at the sign
Of the sad Pelican, subject divine
For poetry. There, three stair-cases high,
Which signifies his triple property,
I found at last a chamber, as 'twas said,
But seemed a coffin set on the stair's head,
Not higher than seven, nor larger than three feet;
There neither was a ceiling, nor a sheet,
Save that the ingenious door did, as you come,
Turn in, and show to wainscot half the room;
Yet of his state no man could have complained,
There being no bed where he entertained;
And though within this cell so narrow pent,
He'd stanzas for a whole apartement.
* * * * *
---- ----Nothing now, dinner staid,
But till he had himself a body made;
I mean till he were dressed; for else, so thin
He stands, as if he only fed had been
With consecrated wafers; and the host
Hath sure more flesh and blood than he can boast.
This basso-relievo of a man,
Who, as a camel tall, yet easily can
The needle's eye thread without any stitch;
His only impossible is to be rich.
Lest his too subtle body, growing rare,
Should leave his soul to wander in the air,
He therefore circumscribes himself in rhymes,
And, swaddled in's own paper seven times,
Wears a close jacket of poetic buff,
With which he doth his third dimension stuff.
Thus armed underneath, he over all
Doth make a primitive sotana fall;
And over that, yet casts an antique cloak,
Worn at the first council of Antioch,
Which, by the Jews long hid and disesteemed,
He heard of by tradition, and redeemed;
But were he not in this black habit decked,
This half transparent man would soon reflect
Each colour that he past by, and be seen
As the camelion, yellow, blue, or green.
It appears that Flecknoe either laid aside, or disguised, his spiritual
character, when he returned to England; but he still preserved
extensive connections with the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry. [445]
He probably wrote upon many occasional subjects, but his poetry has
fallen into total oblivion. I have particularly sought in vain for
his verses to King John of Portugal, to which Dryden alludes a little
lower. Langbaine mentions four of his plays, namely, "Damoiselles a la
Mode," "Erminia," "Love's Dominion," and "Love's Kingdom," (of which
more hereafter;) but none of these were ever acted, excepting the last.
This gave Flecknoe great indignation, which he thus vents against the
players in his preface to "Damoiselles a la Mode. " "For the acting
of this comedy, those who have the governing of the stage have their
humour, and would be entreated; and I have mine, and won't entreat
them: and were all dramatic writers of my mind, they should wear their
old plays thread-bare before they should have any new, till they
better understood their own interest, and how to distinguish betwixt
good and bad. " Notwithstanding this ill usage, he honoured the players
so far, as to prefix to each character, in the _dramatis personæ_ of
his pieces, the name of the actor, by whom, had the managers been
less inexorable, he meant it should have been performed. But this he
did for the sake of the gentle reader, whom he assures, that a lively
imagination being thus assisted in bodying forth the character, he
may receive as much pleasure from the perusal as from the actual
representation of the performance. Flecknoe bore the damnation of the
only one of his plays which was represented, with the same valiant
indifference with which he supported the rebuffs of the players. In
short, he seems to have been fitted for an incorrigible scribbler, by
a happy fund of self-satisfaction, upon which neither the censures of
criticism, nor the united hisses of a whole nation, could make the
slightest impression. When or how Flecknoe died is uncertain, and of
very little consequence; I presume, however, that he was dead when this
satire was published. I am uncertain whether the reader will think,
that this poor poetaster merited mercy at the hands of Dryden, for the
following lines which he had written in his praise, and which, at any
rate, may serve as a specimen of Flecknoe's poetry:
Dryden, the muses darling and delight,
Than whom none ever flew so high a flight:
Some have their veins so drossy, as from earth,
Their muses only seem to have ta'en their birth.
Other but water-poets are, have gone
No farther than to the fount of Helicon:
And they're but airy ones, whose muse soars up
No higher than to mount Parnassus top;
Whilst thou, with thine, dost seem to have mounted higher
Than he who fetch from heaven celestial fire;
And dost as far surpass all others, as
Fire does all other elements surpass.
Flecknoe's memory being only preserved by this satire, his very name
came to be identified with its title. King, in "A Dialogue in the
Shades," introduces him under the name of _Mac_-Flecknoe; and Derrick
falls into the same error.
Note II.
_Shadwell alone my perfect image bears,
Mature in dulness from his tender years. _--P. 433.
Thomas Shadwell was born at Santon-hall, in Norfolk, in which county
his father represented a very ancient family. He was educated at Caius
College, in Cambridge, and placed in the Middle Temple to study law;
but, like many of the inhabitants of these buildings, he preferred the
smoother paths of literature. He made several essays in heroic verse,
all of which are deplorably bad. They are chiefly occasional pieces;
as, an Address to the Prince of Orange on his Landing, another to Queen
Mary, and a Translation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal; which, though
prefaced by a violent refutation of our author's attacks upon him, is
so execrable, as fully to confirm Dryden's censures of the author's
poetical talents. But, in comedy, he was much more successful; and, in
that capacity, Dryden does him great injustice in pronouncing him a
dunce. On the contrary, I think most of Shadwell's comedies may be read
with great pleasure. They do not, indeed, exhibit any brilliancy of
wit, or ingenuity of intrigue; but the characters are truly dramatic,
original, and well drawn; and the picture of manners which they exhibit
gives us a lively idea of those of the author's age. As Shadwell
proposed Jonson for his model, peculiarity of character, or what
was then technically called _humour_, was what he chiefly wished to
exhibit; and in this, it cannot be denied that he has often succeeded
admirably. His powers, as a dramatist, are highly rated by Rochester,
who imputes his coarseness to rapidity of composition:
Of all our modern wits, none seem to me}
Once to have touched upon true comedy, }
But hasty Shadwell and slow Wycherley. }
Shadwell's unfinished works do yet impart
Great proofs of force of genius, none of art;
With just bold strokes he dashes here and there,
Showing great mastery with little care;
Scorning to varnish his good touches o'er,
To make the fools and women praise them more.
_Allusion to Tenth Satire of Horace. _
Shadwell's plays are seventeen in number, and were published, in four
volumes, under the inspection of his son, Sir John Shadwell, M. D.
Shadwell's life was chequered with misfortune. As he espoused the
party of the Duke of Monmouth, to whom he dedicated "Psyche," and of
Shaftesbury, he thought himself obliged to draw the quill in defence
of their cause. Accordingly, as we have seen, he attempted to answer
"The Medal" on the one hand, and, on the other, accused our author of
intending a parallel between Monmouth and the Duke of Guise, in the
play so entitled. This zeal seems to have cost Shadwell dear; for,
besides undergoing the severe flagellations administered by Dryden,
in the "Defence of the Duke of Guise," in "Absalom and Achitophel,"
and in the present poem, he complains, that his ruin was designed,
and his life sought; and that, for near ten years, he was kept from
the exercise of that profession which had afforded him a competent
subsistence. [446] It is no wonder, therefore, he was among the first
to hail the dawn of the Revolution, by the address already mentioned,
of which the full title is, "A Congratulatory Poem on his Highness the
Prince of Orange his coming into England. Written by T. S. (Thomas
Shadwell,) a True Lover of his Country, (10th January) 1689;" and that
King William distinguished him by the honours of the laurel. Dorset,
who was high chamberlain, answered, to those who remonstrated on
Shadwell's lack of poetical talent, that, without pretending to vouch
for Mr Shadwell's genius, he was sure he was an honest man. Shadwell
did not long enjoy this triumph over his great enemy. He died 19th
November, 1692,[447] in the fifty-second year of his age. It is said,
this event was hastened by his taking an over dose of opium, to the use
of which he was inordinately addicted. "His death," says Dr Nicholas
Brady, who preached his funeral sermon, "seized him suddenly; but he
could not be unprepared, since, to my certain knowledge, he never took
a dose of opium but he solemnly recommended himself to God by prayer. "
In person, Shadwell was large, corpulent, and unwieldy; a circumstance
which our author generally keeps in the eye of the reader. He seems to
have imitated his prototype, Ben Jonson, in gross and coarse sensual
indulgence, and profane conversation. But, if there be truth in a
funeral sermon, he must have corrected these habits before his death;
for Dr Brady tells us, "that our author was a man of great honesty
and integrity, and inviolable fidelity and strictness in his word; an
unalterable friendship wherever he professed it; and however the world
may be mistaken in him, he had a much deeper sense of religion than
many who pretended more to it. His natural and acquired abilities,"
continues the Doctor, "made him very amiable to all who knew and
conversed with him, a very few being equal in the becoming qualities
which adorn and set off a complete gentleman; his very enemies, if he
has now any left, will give him this character, at least if they knew
him so thoroughly as I did. "--CIBBER'S _Lives of the Poets_, Article
_Shadwell_, Vol. III.
Note III.
_Heywood and Shirley. _--P. 434.
Voluminous dramatic authors, who flourished in the beginning of the
17th century. There were no less than four Heywoods who wrote plays;
so that, Winstanley says, the name of Heywood seemed to be destinated
to the stage. But he whom Dryden here means, is Thomas Heywood, a
person rather to be admired for the facility, than for the excellence
of his compositions. Every place and situation was alike to him while
composing; and the favourite register of his scenes was the back of
a tavern bill. Far the greater part of his labours are now lost; and
yet there remain, in the libraries of the curious, twenty-four printed
plays by Thomas Heywood. He was an actor by profession, and a good
scholar, as is evinced by several of his classical allusions. His plays
may be examined with advantage by the antiquary, but afford slender
amusement to the lovers of poetry. The following character of him, by
an old poet, is preserved by Langbaine:
---- ----Heywood sage,
The apologetic Atlas of the stage;
Well of the golden age he could entreat,
But little of the metal he could get.
Threescore sweet babes be fashioned at a lump,
For he was christened in Parnassus pump,
The muses' gossip to Aurora's bed;
And ever since that time his face was red.
If we cannot call Heywood a second Lope de Vega, in point of the extent
of his dramatic works, he overtops most English authors; since he
assures us, in his preface to the "English Traveller," that it was one
reserved among two hundred and twenty plays, in which he had either
had "a whole hand, or, at the least, a main finger. " It is a pity, as
Johnson said of Churchill, so fruitful a tree should have borne only
crabs.
James Shirley, whom our author most unjustly couples with Heywood,
to whom, as well as to Shadwell, he was greatly superior, was born
in 1594, and, although for some time a schoolmaster, appears to have
lived chiefly by the stage. When the civil wars broke out, he followed
the fortune of William, Earl of Newcastle. During the usurpation, when
theatres were prohibited, he returned to his original profession of
a schoolmaster. He died of fatigue and distress of mind during the
great fire of London, in 1666. He wrote forty-two plays, and there
are thirty-nine in print; a complete set of which is much esteemed by
collectors. Dr Farmer has traced, to this neglected bard, an idea,
which Milton thought not unworthy of adoption.
Shirley is spoken of with contempt in "Mac-Flecknoe," but his
imagination is sometimes fine to an extraordinary degree. I recollect
a passage in the Fourth Book of the "Paradise Lost," which hath been
suspected of imitation, as a prettiness below the genius of Milton: I
mean, where Uriel glides backward and forward to heaven on a sun-beam.
Dr Newton informs us, that this might possibly be hinted by a picture
of Annabal Caracci, in the king of France's cabinet; but I am apt
to believe, that Milton had been struck with a portrait in Shirley.
Fernando, in the comedy of the "Brothers," 1652, describes Jacinta at
vespers:
Her eye did seem to labour with a tear,
Which suddenly took birth, but overweighed
With its own swelling, dropped upon her bosom;
Which, by reflection of her light, appeared
As nature meant her sorrow for an ornament':
After, her looks grew cheerfull, and I saw
A smile shoot graceful upward from her eyes,
As if they had gained a victory o'er grief;
_And with it many beams twisted themselves,
Upon whose golden threads the angels walk
To and again from heaven_.
Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare.
Note IV.
_Coarsely clad in Norwich drugget. _--P. 434.
This stuff appears to have been sacred to the use of the poorer
votaries of Parnassus; and it is somewhat odd, that it seems to
have been the dress of our poet himself in the earlier stage of his
fortunes. An old gentleman, who corresponded with the "Gentleman's
Magazine," says, he remembers our author in this dress. Vol. XV. p. 99.
Note V.
_When thou on silver Thames didst cut thy way,
With well-timed oars, before the royal barge. _--P. 434.
I confess myself, after some research, at a loss to discover the nature
of the procession, in which Shadwell seems to have acted as leader of
the band. One is at first sight led to consider the whole procession as
imaginary, and preliminary to his supposed coronation; but, on closer
investigation, it appears, that Flecknoe talks of some real occurrence,
on which Shadwell preceded the royal barge, at the head of a boat-load
of performers. We may see, in the seventh note, that he professed to
understand music, and may certainly have been called upon to assist or
direct the band during some entertainment upon the river, an amusement
to which King Charles was particularly addicted.
Note VI.
_The like was ne'er in Epsom blankets tost. _--P. 434.
This seems to be in ridicule of the following elegant expression
which Shadwell puts in the mouth of a fine lady: "Such a fellow as he
deserves to be _tossed in a blanket_. " This, however, does not occur
in "Epsom-Wells," but in another of Shadwell's comedies, called "The
Sullen Lovers. "
Note VII.
_Methinks I see the new Arion sail,
The lute still trembling underneath thy nail. _--P. 434.
Shadwell appears to have been a proficient in music, and to have
himself adjusted that of his opera of "Psyche," which Dryden here
treats with such consummate contempt. Indeed, in the preface of that
choice piece he affected to value himself more upon the music than the
poetry, as appears from the following passage in the preface: "I had
rather be author of one scene of comedy, like some of Ben Jonson's,
than of all the best plays of this kind, that have been, or ever shall
be written; good comedy requiring much more wit and judgment in the
writer, than any rhiming, unnatural plays can do. This I have so little
valued, that I have not altered six lines in it since it was first
written, which (except the songs at the marriage of Psyche, in the
last scene) was all done sixteen months since. In all the words which
are sung, I did not so much take care of the wit or fancy of them, as
the making of them proper for music; in which I cannot but have some
little knowledge, having been bred, for many years of my youth, to some
performance in it.
"I chalked out the way to the composer, (in all but the song of Furies
and Devils, in the fifth act,) having designed which line I would have
sung by one, which by two, which by three, which by four voices, &c.
and what manner of humour I would have in all the vocal music. "
Note VIII.
_Not even the feet of thy own Psyche's rhyme,
Though they in number as in sense excel. _--P. 435.
This unfortunate opera was imitated from the French of Moliere, and
finished, as Shadwell assures us, in the space of five weeks. The
author having no talents for poetry, and no ear for versification,
"Psyche" is one of the most contemptible of the frivolous dramatic
class to which it belongs. It was, however, _got up_ with extreme
magnificence, and received much applause on its first appearance, in
1675. To justify the censure of Dryden, it is only necessary to quote a
few of the verses, taken at random as a specimen, of what he afterwards
calls "Prince Nicander's vein:"
_Nicander. _ Madam, I to this solitude am come,
Humbly from you to hear my latest doom.
_Psyche. _ The first command which I did give,
Was, that you should not see me here;
The next command you will receive,
Much harsher will to you appear.
_Nic. _ How long, fair Psyche, shall I sigh in vain?
How long of scorn and cruelty complain?
Your eyes enough have wounded me,
You need not add your cruelty.
You against me too many weapons chuse,
Who am defenceless against each you use.
The poet himself seems so conscious of the sad inferiority of his
verses, that he makes, in the preface, a half apology, implying
a mortifying consciousness, that it was necessary to anticipate
condemnation, by pleading guilty. "In a thing written in five weeks, as
this was, there must needs be many errors, which I desire true critics
to pass by; and which, perhaps, I see myself, but having much business,
and indulging myself with some pleasure too, I have not had leisure
to mend them; nor would it indeed be worth the pains, since there are
so many splendid objects in the play, and such variety of diversion,
as will not give the audience leave to mind the writing; and I doubt
not but the candid reader will forgive the faults, when he considers,
that the great design was to entertain the town with variety of music,
curious dancing, splendid scenes, and machines; and that I do not, nor
ever did intend, to value myself upon the writing of this play. "
Shadwell, however, had no right to plead, that this affected contempt
of his own lyric poetry ought to have disarmed the criticism of Dryden;
because, in the very same preface, he sets out by insinuating, that he
could easily have beaten our author on his own strong ground of rhyme,
had he thought such a contest worth winning. So much, at least, may be
inferred from the following declaration:
"In a good-natured country, I doubt not but this, my first essay in
rhyme, would be at least forgiven, especially when I promise to offend
no more in this kind; but I am sensible that here I must encounter a
great many difficulties. In the first place, (though I expect more
candour from the best writers in rhyme,) the more moderate of them (who
have yet a numerous party, good judges being very scarce) are very
much offended with me, for leaving my own province of comedy, to invade
their dominion of rhyme: but, methinks, they might be satisfied, since
I have made but a small incursion, and am resolved to retire. And, were
I never so powerful, they should escape me, as the northern people did
the Romans; their craggy barren territories being not worth conquering. "
Note IX.
_----Pale with envy, Singleton forswore
The lute and sword, which he in triumph bore,
And vowed he ne'er would act Villerius more. _--P. 435.
Singleton was a musical performer of some eminence, and is mentioned as
such in one of Shadwell's comedies. --"'Sbud, they are the best music
in England: there's the best shawm and bandore, and a fellow that acts
Tom of Bedlam to a miracle; and they sing _Charon, oh, gentle Charon! _
and, _Come, my Daphne_, better than Singleton and Clayton did. "--_Bury
Fair_, Act III. Scene I. Villerius, the grand master of the knights
hospitallers, is a principal character in "The Siege of Rhodes," an
opera by Sir William D'Avenant, where great part of the dialogue is in
a sort of lyrical recitative; in the execution of which Singleton seems
to have been celebrated. The first speech of this valorous chief of the
order of St John runs thus:
Arm, arm! let our drums beat,
To all our outguards, a retreat;
And to our main-guards add
Files double lined; from the parade
Send horse to drive the fields,
Prevent what ripening summer yields;
To all the foe would save
Set fire, or give a secret grave.
The combination of the lute and sword, which Dryden alludes to,
is ridiculed in "The Rehearsal," where Bayes informs his critical
friends, that his whole battle is to be represented by two persons;
"for I make 'em both come forth in armour cap-a-pee, with their swords
drawn, and hung with a scarlet ribband at their wrists, (which, you
know, represents fighting enough,) each of them holding a lute in his
hand. --_Smith. _ How, sir; instead of a buckler? --_Bayes. _ O Lord, O
Lord! instead of a buckler! Pray, sir, do you ask no more questions.
I make 'em, sir, play the battle in _recitativo_; and here's the
conceit: Just at the very same instant that one sings, the other,
sir, recovers you his sword, and puts himself into a warlike posture;
so that you have at once your ear entertained with music and good
language, and your eye satisfied with the garb and accoutrements of
war. "--_Rehearsal_, Act V. The adverse generals enter accordingly,
and perform a sort of duet, great part of which is a parody upon the
lyrical dialogue of Villerius and the Soldan Solyman, in the "Siege of
Rhodes. "
Note X.
_Ancient Decker. _--P. 436.
Decker, who did not altogether deserve the disgraceful classification
which Dryden has here assigned to him, was a writer of the reign of
James I. , and the antagonist of Jonson. I suspect Dryden knew, or at
least recollected, little more of him, than that he was ridiculed,
by his more renowned adversary, under the character of Crispinus,
in "The Poetaster. " Indeed, nothing can be more unfortunate to an
inferior wit, than to be engaged in controversy with an author of
established reputation; since, though he may maintain his ground with
his contemporaries, posterity will always judge of him by the character
assigned in the writings of his antagonist. Decker was admitted to
write in conjunction with Webster, Ford, Brome, and even Massinger;
and though he was only employed to fill up the inferior scenes, he
certainly displays some theatrical talent. Indeed he was judged, by
many of his own time, to have retaliated Jonson's satire with success,
in "The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet;" where Ben is designed under
the character of Horace Junior. Besides, Decker possessed some tragic
powers: "The Honest Whore," which is altogether his own production, has
several scenes of great merit.
Note XI.
_But worlds of Misers from his pen should flow;
Humorists, and Hypocrites, it should produce,
Whole Raymond families, and tribes of Bruce. _--P. 436.
Shadwell translated, or rather imitated, Moliere's "L'Avare," under the
title of "The Miser. " In Langbaine's opinion, he has greatly improved
upon his original; but in this, as in other cases, the critic is
probably singular. "The Miser" was printed in 1672.
"The Humorists" was a play professedly written to expose the reigning
vices of the age; but as it was supposed to contain many direct
personal allusions, it was unfavourably received by the audience.
Shadwell, by way, I suppose, of insinuating to the readers an accurate
notion of the characters, or humours, which he means to represent, is,
in this and other pieces, at great pains to give a long and minute
account of each individual in the _dramatis personæ_.
Thus we have have
in "The Humorists,"
"_Crazy,_--One that is in pox, in debt, and all the misfortunes that
can be; and, in the midst of all, in love with most women, and thinks
most women in love with him.
"_Drybob,_--A fantastic coxcomb, that makes it his business to speak
fine things and wit, as he thinks; and always takes notice, or makes
others take notice, of any thing he thinks well said.
"_Brisk,_--A brisk, airy, fantastic, singing, dancing coxcomb, that
sets up for a well-bred man, and a man of honour; but mistakes in
every thing, and values himself only upon the vanity and foppery of
gentlemen. "
I do not know what to make of the "Hypocrites. " Shadwell wrote no play
so entitled; nor is it likely he gave any assistance to Medbourne, who
translated the famous "Tartuffe" of Moliere, for they were of different
opinions in religion and politics. Perhaps Dryden means the characters
of the Irish priest and Tory chaplain in "The Lancashire Witches. "
Raymond is a character in "The Humorists," described in the _dramatis
personæ_ as a "gentleman of wit and honour. " Bruce a similar person in
"The Virtuoso," characterized as a "gentleman of wit and sense. " In
these, and in all other characters where wit and an easy style were
requisite, Shadwell failed totally. His forte lay in broad, strong
comic painting.
Note XII.
_Ogleby. _--P. 436.
This gentleman, whose name, thanks to our author and Pope, has
become almost proverbial for a bad poet, was originally a Scottish
dancing-master, when probably Scottish dancing was not so fashionable
as at present, and afterwards master of the revels in Ireland. He
translated "The Iliad," "The Odyssey," "The Æneid," and "Æsop's
Fables," into verse; and his versions were splendidly adorned with
sculpture. He also wrote three epic poems, one of which was fortunately
burned in the fire of London. Moreover, he conducted the ceremony of
Charles the Second's coronation,[448] and erected a theatre in Dublin.
Note XII.
"_Love's Kingdom. _"--P. 437.
This was a play of Flecknoe's. The full title is, "Love's Kingdom,
a Pastoral Tragi-Comedy; not as it was acted at the theatre, near
Lincoln's-Inn, but as it was written, and since corrected by Richard
Flecknoe; with a short treatise of the English stage, &c. by the same
author. London, printed by R. Wood for the author, 1664. "
The author's account of this piece, in the advertisement, is, "For
the plot, it is neat and handsome, and the language soft and gentle,
suitable to the persons who speak; neither on the ground, nor in the
clouds, but just like the stage, somewhat elevated above the common. In
neither no stiffness, and, I hope, no impertinence nor extravagance,
into which your young writers are too apt to run, who, whilst they
know not well what to do, and are anxious to do enough, most commonly
overdo. "
THE PROLOGUE.
_Spoken by Venus from the Clouds. _
If ever you have heard of Venus' name,
Goddess of beauty, I that Venus am;
Who have to day descended from my sphere,
To welcome you unto "Love's Kingdom" here;
Or rather to my sphere am come, since I
Am present no where more nor in the sky,
Nor any island in the world than this,
That wholly from the world divided is:
For Cupid, you behold him here in me,
(For there where beauty is, Love needs must be,)
Or you may yet more easily descry
Him 'mong the ladies, in each amorous eye;
And 'mongst the gallants may as easily trace
Him to their bosoms from each beauteous face.
May then, fair ladies, you
Find all your servants true;
And, gallants, may you find
The ladies all as kind,
As by your noble favours you declare
How much you friends unto "Love's Kingdom" are;
Of which yourselves compose so great a part,
In your fair eyes, and in your loving heart.
This specimen of "Love's Kingdom" is extracted from the "_Censura
Literaria_," No. IX. ; to which publication it was communicated by Mr
Preston of Dublin. To "Love's Kingdom" Flecknoe subjoined a Discourse
on the English Stage, which is sometimes quoted as authority.
Note XIII.
_Let Virtuosos in five years be writ,
Yet not one thought accuse thy toil of wit. _--P. 438.
Shadwell's comedy called "The Virtuoso," was first acted in 1676 with
great applause. It is by no means destitute of merit; though, as in all
his other pieces, it is to be found rather in the walk of coarse humour
than of elegance, or wit.
The character of Sir Nicholas Gimcrack, the Virtuoso, whose time was
spent in discoveries, although he had never invented any thing so
useful as an engine to pare a cream cheese with, is very ludicrous. I
cannot, however, but notice, that some of the discoveries, which are
ridiculed with so much humour, as the composition of various kinds of
air, for example, have been realized by the philosophers of this age.
As the whole piece seems intended as a satire on the researches of
the Royal Society, its scope could not be very pleasing to Dryden, a
zealous member of that learned body; even if he could have forgiven
some hits levelled against him personally in the preface and the
epilogue, which have been quoted in the introduction to Mac-Flecknoe.
Note XIV.
_Let gentle George in triumph tread the stage,
Make Dorimant betray, and Loveit rage;
Let Cully, Cockwood, Fopling, charm the pit. _--P. 438.
The plays of Sir George Etherege were much admired during the end of
the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, till the refinement of
taste condemned their indecency and immorality. Sir George himself was
a courtier of the first rank in the gay court of Charles II. Our author
has addressed an epistle to him, when he was Resident at Ratisbon.
Etherege followed King James to France, according to one account; but
others say he was killed at Ratisbon by a fall down stairs, after he
had been drinking freely. Sir Fopling Flutter, Dorimant, and Loveit,
are characters in his well-known comedy, "The Man of Mode. " Cully and
Cockwood occur in "Love in a Tub," another of his plays.
Note XV.
_But let no alien Sedley interpose,
To lard with wit thy hungry Epsom prose. _--P. 438.
The first edition bears Sydney, which is evidently a mistake.
Shadwell's comedy of "Epsom Wells" was very successful; which was
imputed by his enemies to the assistance he received from the witty
Sir Charles Sedley. This he attempts to refute in the following lines
of the second prologue, spoken when the piece was represented before
the king and queen at Whitehall:
If this for him had been by others done,
After this honour sure they'd claim their own.
But it is nevertheless certain, that Shadwell acknowledges obligations
of the nature supposed, in the Dedication of the "True Widow" to Sir
Charles Sedley. "No success whatever," he there says, "could have made
me alter my opinion of this comedy, which had the benefit of your
correction and alteration, and the honour of your approbation. And I
heartily wish you had given yourself the trouble to have reviewed all
my plays, as they came inaccurately, and in haste, from my hands: it
would have been more to my advantage than the assistance of Scipio and
Lelius was to Terence; and I should have thought it at least as much
to my honour, since, by the effects, I find I cannot but esteem you
as much above both of them in wit, as either of them was above you in
place of the state. "
There was a general opinion current, that Shadwell received assistance
in his most successful pieces. A libel of the times, the reference
to which I have mislaid, mentions with contempt the dulness of his
"unassisted scenes. "
Note XVI.
_Sir Formal, though unsought, attends thy quill,
And does thy northern dedications fill. _--P. 438.
Sir Formal Trifle is a florid conceited orator in "The Virtuoso," whose
character is drawn and brought out with no inconsiderable portion of
humour. Dryden intimates, that his coxcomical inflated style attends
Shadwell himself upon the most serious occasions, and particularly in
his dedications to the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, to whom he has
inscribed several of his plays. Hence Dryden, in the "Vindication of
the Duke of Guise," calls him the Northern Dedicator. The truth is,
that Shadwell's prose was inflated and embarrassed; and his adulation
comes aukwardly from him, as appears from the opening of the dedication
of that very play, "The Virtuoso," to the Duke of Newcastle.
"So long as your grace persists in obliging, I must go on in
acknowledging; nor can I let any opportunity pass of telling the world
how much I am favoured by you, or any occasion slip of assuring your
grace, that all the actions of my life shall be dedicated to your
service; who, by your noble patronage, your generosity and kindness,
and your continual bounty, have made me wholly your creature: nor can
I forbear to declare, that I am more obliged to your grace than to
all mankind. And my misfortune is, I can make no other return, but a
declaration of my grateful attachment. "
Note XVII.
_Nor let false friends seduce thy mind to fame,
By arrogating Jonson's hostile name. _--P. 439.
Shadwell, as appears from many passages of his prologues and prefaces,
and as we have had repeated occasion to notice, affected to consider
Ben Jonson as the object of his emulation. There were indeed many
points of resemblance between them, both as authors and men. In
their habits, a life spent in taverns, and in their persons, huge
corpulence, probably acquired by habits of sensual indulgence, much
coarseness of manners, and an ungentlemanly vulgarity of dialect,
seem to have distinguished both the original and the imitator. As a
dramatist, although Shadwell falls short of the learned vigour and deep
erudition of Ben Jonson, his dry hard comic painting entitles him to
be considered as an inferior artist of the same school. Dryden more
particularly resented Shadwell's reiterated and affected praises of
Jonson, because he had himself censured that writer in the epilogue
to the "Conquest of Granada," and in the critical defence of that
poem. [449] Hence he considered Shadwell's ranking himself under
Jonson's banners as a sort of personal defiance. But Dryden more
particularly alludes to the following ebullition of admiration, which
occurs in the epilogue to Shadwell's "Humorists:"
The mighty prince of poets, learned Ben,
Who alone dived into the minds of men;
Saw all their wanderings, all their follies knew,
And all their vain fantastic passions drew
In images so lively and so true,
That there each humorist himself might view.
Yet only lashed the errors of the times,
And ne'er exposed the persons, but the crimes;
And never cared for private frowns, when he
Did but chastise public iniquity:
He feared no pimp, no pick-pocket, or drab;
He feared no bravo, nor no ruffian's stab:
'Twas he alone true humours understood,
And with great wit and judgment made them good.
A humour is the bias of the mind,
By which with violence 'tis one way inclined;
It makes our actions lean on one side still,
And in all changes that way bends the will.
This--------
He only knew and represented right.
Thus none, but mighty Jonson, e'er could write.
Expect not then, since that most flourishing age
Of Ben, to see true humour on the stage.
All that have since been writ, if they be scanned,
Are but faint copies from that master's hand.
Our poet now, amongst those petty things,
Alas! his too weak trifling humour brings;
As much beneath the worst in Jonson's plays,
As his great merit is above our praise.
For could he imitate that great author right,
He would with ease all poets else outwrite.
But to outgo all other men, would be,
O noble Ben! less than to follow thee.
Dryden, in the text, turns the idea of bias into ridicule; for its
original application being to the leaden weight disposed in the centre
of a bowl, which inclines its course in rolling, he alleges, that the
only bias which can influence Shadwell is his predominant stupidity.
Note XIX.
_Leave writing plays, and chuse for thy command,
Some peaceful province in Acrostic land.
There thou may'st wings display, and altars raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways. _--P. 440.
Among other efforts of gentle dulness, may be noticed the singular
fashion which prevailed during the earlier period of the 17th century,
of writing in such changes of measure, that by the different length
and arrangement of the lines, the poem was made to resemble an egg,
an altar, a pair of wings, a cross, or some other fanciful figure.
This laborious kind of trifling was much akin to the anagrams and
acrostics. Those who are curious to read, or rather to see, a specimen
of such whimsies, (for they are rather addressed to the eye than the
understanding,) may find a dirge of Mr George Withers, arranged into
the figure of a rhomboid, in Ellis's "Specimens of the Early English
Poets," Vol. III. p. 100. They are mentioned with anagrams, acrostics,
rebuses, and other exercises of false wit, in the "Spectator," No. 63.
END OF THE TENTH VOLUME.
Edinburgh,
Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 445: An anonymous poet ascribes the estimation in which he
was held to his poetical propensities:
Verse the famed Flecknoe raised, the muses' sport,
From drudging for the stage to drudge at court.
]
[Footnote 446: Epistle dedicatory to "Bury-fair," addressed to the Earl
of Dorset. ]
[Footnote 447: See the inscription intended for his monument in
Westminster Abbey, by his son Sir John Shadwell, in the Life prefixed
to _Shadwell's Works_. But it was altered before it was placed in the
Abbey, and a blunder in the date seems to have crept in. --See CIBBER'S
_Lives of the Poets_, Vol. III. p. 49. ]
[Footnote 448: See Vol. IX. p. 61. ]
[Footnote 449: See Vol. IV. p. 211, &c. ]
* * * * *
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Transcriber notes: |
| |
| P. 46. 'priciples' chanaged to 'principles', as in other volume. |
| P. 78. Added footnote after 'manly train' as the anchor is missing |
| and seems to go here. |
| P. 82. Note V, link should be P. 69, not P. 68 changed. |
| P. 82. Note VI, link should be P. 74, not P. 73 changed. |
| Footnote 57: Added 'Note VI. ', as the link is missing. |
| Footnote 174: 'Note XI. ', should read 'Note XII. ', changed. |
| Footnote 175: 'Note XII. ', should read 'Note XIII. ', changed. |
| Footnote 178: 'Note XIII. ', should read 'Note XIV. ', changed. |
| P. 119. 'enequal' is 'unequal' in another volume, changed. |
| P. 169. 'Rosolving' is 'Resolving' in another volume, changed. |
| Footnote 208: Should reaad 'Note XIII', not 'Note XII', changed. |
| P. 394. Footnote 'Pensylvania' changed to 'Pennsylvania'. |
| P. 457. Note XIX needs to be XIII, changed. |
| Footnote 60: Should read 'Note VII', not 'Note VIII', changed. |
| Corrected various punctuation. |
| Underscore indicates italics _like this_. |
| |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
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[Footnote 435: Perhaps in allusion to Shadwell's frequent use of opium,
as well as to his dulness. ]
[Footnote 436: Note XIII. ]
[Footnote 437: Note XIV. ]
[Footnote 438: Note XV. ]
[Footnote 439: Note XVI. ]
[Footnote 440: Note XVII. ]
[Footnote 441: This elegant phrase is the current catch-word of Sir
Samuel Hearty in the "Virtuoso," described in the _dramatis personæ_ as
"a brisk, amorous, adventurous, unfortunate coxcomb; one that, by the
help of humorous, nonsensical bye-words, takes himself to be a great
wit. "]
[Footnote 442: Alluding, probably, to the following vaunt of Shadwell,
in the Dedication to the "Virtuoso:" "Four of the humours are entirely
new; and, without vanity, I may say, I ne'er produced a comedy that
had not some natural humour in it not represented before, and I hope I
never shall. "]
[Footnote 443: Note XVIII. ]
[Footnote 444: Bruce and Longvil are fine gentlemen in Shadwell's
comedy of the "Virtuoso;" who, during a florid speech of Sir Formal
Trifle, contrive to get rid of the orator, by letting go a trap-door,
upon which he had placed himself during his declamation. ]
NOTES
ON
MAC-FLECKNOE.
Note I.
_This Flecknoe found. _--P. 433.
Richard Flecknoe, the unfortunate bard whom our author has damned to
everlasting fame, was by birth an Irishman, and by profession a Roman
Catholic priest. Marvel, who seems to have known him at Rome, describes
his person as meagre in the extreme, and his itch for scribbling as
incessant. The poem, in which Marvel depicts him, is in the old taste
of extravagant burlesque, and the lines are as rugged as Flecknoe
could himself have produced. It contains, however, some witty and some
humorous description, and the reader may be pleased to see a specimen:
_Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome. _
Obliged by frequent visits of this man,
Whom, as a priest, poet, musician,
I for some branch of Melchizedec took,
Though he derives himself from my Lord Brooke,
I sought his lodging, which is at the sign
Of the sad Pelican, subject divine
For poetry. There, three stair-cases high,
Which signifies his triple property,
I found at last a chamber, as 'twas said,
But seemed a coffin set on the stair's head,
Not higher than seven, nor larger than three feet;
There neither was a ceiling, nor a sheet,
Save that the ingenious door did, as you come,
Turn in, and show to wainscot half the room;
Yet of his state no man could have complained,
There being no bed where he entertained;
And though within this cell so narrow pent,
He'd stanzas for a whole apartement.
* * * * *
---- ----Nothing now, dinner staid,
But till he had himself a body made;
I mean till he were dressed; for else, so thin
He stands, as if he only fed had been
With consecrated wafers; and the host
Hath sure more flesh and blood than he can boast.
This basso-relievo of a man,
Who, as a camel tall, yet easily can
The needle's eye thread without any stitch;
His only impossible is to be rich.
Lest his too subtle body, growing rare,
Should leave his soul to wander in the air,
He therefore circumscribes himself in rhymes,
And, swaddled in's own paper seven times,
Wears a close jacket of poetic buff,
With which he doth his third dimension stuff.
Thus armed underneath, he over all
Doth make a primitive sotana fall;
And over that, yet casts an antique cloak,
Worn at the first council of Antioch,
Which, by the Jews long hid and disesteemed,
He heard of by tradition, and redeemed;
But were he not in this black habit decked,
This half transparent man would soon reflect
Each colour that he past by, and be seen
As the camelion, yellow, blue, or green.
It appears that Flecknoe either laid aside, or disguised, his spiritual
character, when he returned to England; but he still preserved
extensive connections with the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry. [445]
He probably wrote upon many occasional subjects, but his poetry has
fallen into total oblivion. I have particularly sought in vain for
his verses to King John of Portugal, to which Dryden alludes a little
lower. Langbaine mentions four of his plays, namely, "Damoiselles a la
Mode," "Erminia," "Love's Dominion," and "Love's Kingdom," (of which
more hereafter;) but none of these were ever acted, excepting the last.
This gave Flecknoe great indignation, which he thus vents against the
players in his preface to "Damoiselles a la Mode. " "For the acting
of this comedy, those who have the governing of the stage have their
humour, and would be entreated; and I have mine, and won't entreat
them: and were all dramatic writers of my mind, they should wear their
old plays thread-bare before they should have any new, till they
better understood their own interest, and how to distinguish betwixt
good and bad. " Notwithstanding this ill usage, he honoured the players
so far, as to prefix to each character, in the _dramatis personæ_ of
his pieces, the name of the actor, by whom, had the managers been
less inexorable, he meant it should have been performed. But this he
did for the sake of the gentle reader, whom he assures, that a lively
imagination being thus assisted in bodying forth the character, he
may receive as much pleasure from the perusal as from the actual
representation of the performance. Flecknoe bore the damnation of the
only one of his plays which was represented, with the same valiant
indifference with which he supported the rebuffs of the players. In
short, he seems to have been fitted for an incorrigible scribbler, by
a happy fund of self-satisfaction, upon which neither the censures of
criticism, nor the united hisses of a whole nation, could make the
slightest impression. When or how Flecknoe died is uncertain, and of
very little consequence; I presume, however, that he was dead when this
satire was published. I am uncertain whether the reader will think,
that this poor poetaster merited mercy at the hands of Dryden, for the
following lines which he had written in his praise, and which, at any
rate, may serve as a specimen of Flecknoe's poetry:
Dryden, the muses darling and delight,
Than whom none ever flew so high a flight:
Some have their veins so drossy, as from earth,
Their muses only seem to have ta'en their birth.
Other but water-poets are, have gone
No farther than to the fount of Helicon:
And they're but airy ones, whose muse soars up
No higher than to mount Parnassus top;
Whilst thou, with thine, dost seem to have mounted higher
Than he who fetch from heaven celestial fire;
And dost as far surpass all others, as
Fire does all other elements surpass.
Flecknoe's memory being only preserved by this satire, his very name
came to be identified with its title. King, in "A Dialogue in the
Shades," introduces him under the name of _Mac_-Flecknoe; and Derrick
falls into the same error.
Note II.
_Shadwell alone my perfect image bears,
Mature in dulness from his tender years. _--P. 433.
Thomas Shadwell was born at Santon-hall, in Norfolk, in which county
his father represented a very ancient family. He was educated at Caius
College, in Cambridge, and placed in the Middle Temple to study law;
but, like many of the inhabitants of these buildings, he preferred the
smoother paths of literature. He made several essays in heroic verse,
all of which are deplorably bad. They are chiefly occasional pieces;
as, an Address to the Prince of Orange on his Landing, another to Queen
Mary, and a Translation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal; which, though
prefaced by a violent refutation of our author's attacks upon him, is
so execrable, as fully to confirm Dryden's censures of the author's
poetical talents. But, in comedy, he was much more successful; and, in
that capacity, Dryden does him great injustice in pronouncing him a
dunce. On the contrary, I think most of Shadwell's comedies may be read
with great pleasure. They do not, indeed, exhibit any brilliancy of
wit, or ingenuity of intrigue; but the characters are truly dramatic,
original, and well drawn; and the picture of manners which they exhibit
gives us a lively idea of those of the author's age. As Shadwell
proposed Jonson for his model, peculiarity of character, or what
was then technically called _humour_, was what he chiefly wished to
exhibit; and in this, it cannot be denied that he has often succeeded
admirably. His powers, as a dramatist, are highly rated by Rochester,
who imputes his coarseness to rapidity of composition:
Of all our modern wits, none seem to me}
Once to have touched upon true comedy, }
But hasty Shadwell and slow Wycherley. }
Shadwell's unfinished works do yet impart
Great proofs of force of genius, none of art;
With just bold strokes he dashes here and there,
Showing great mastery with little care;
Scorning to varnish his good touches o'er,
To make the fools and women praise them more.
_Allusion to Tenth Satire of Horace. _
Shadwell's plays are seventeen in number, and were published, in four
volumes, under the inspection of his son, Sir John Shadwell, M. D.
Shadwell's life was chequered with misfortune. As he espoused the
party of the Duke of Monmouth, to whom he dedicated "Psyche," and of
Shaftesbury, he thought himself obliged to draw the quill in defence
of their cause. Accordingly, as we have seen, he attempted to answer
"The Medal" on the one hand, and, on the other, accused our author of
intending a parallel between Monmouth and the Duke of Guise, in the
play so entitled. This zeal seems to have cost Shadwell dear; for,
besides undergoing the severe flagellations administered by Dryden,
in the "Defence of the Duke of Guise," in "Absalom and Achitophel,"
and in the present poem, he complains, that his ruin was designed,
and his life sought; and that, for near ten years, he was kept from
the exercise of that profession which had afforded him a competent
subsistence. [446] It is no wonder, therefore, he was among the first
to hail the dawn of the Revolution, by the address already mentioned,
of which the full title is, "A Congratulatory Poem on his Highness the
Prince of Orange his coming into England. Written by T. S. (Thomas
Shadwell,) a True Lover of his Country, (10th January) 1689;" and that
King William distinguished him by the honours of the laurel. Dorset,
who was high chamberlain, answered, to those who remonstrated on
Shadwell's lack of poetical talent, that, without pretending to vouch
for Mr Shadwell's genius, he was sure he was an honest man. Shadwell
did not long enjoy this triumph over his great enemy. He died 19th
November, 1692,[447] in the fifty-second year of his age. It is said,
this event was hastened by his taking an over dose of opium, to the use
of which he was inordinately addicted. "His death," says Dr Nicholas
Brady, who preached his funeral sermon, "seized him suddenly; but he
could not be unprepared, since, to my certain knowledge, he never took
a dose of opium but he solemnly recommended himself to God by prayer. "
In person, Shadwell was large, corpulent, and unwieldy; a circumstance
which our author generally keeps in the eye of the reader. He seems to
have imitated his prototype, Ben Jonson, in gross and coarse sensual
indulgence, and profane conversation. But, if there be truth in a
funeral sermon, he must have corrected these habits before his death;
for Dr Brady tells us, "that our author was a man of great honesty
and integrity, and inviolable fidelity and strictness in his word; an
unalterable friendship wherever he professed it; and however the world
may be mistaken in him, he had a much deeper sense of religion than
many who pretended more to it. His natural and acquired abilities,"
continues the Doctor, "made him very amiable to all who knew and
conversed with him, a very few being equal in the becoming qualities
which adorn and set off a complete gentleman; his very enemies, if he
has now any left, will give him this character, at least if they knew
him so thoroughly as I did. "--CIBBER'S _Lives of the Poets_, Article
_Shadwell_, Vol. III.
Note III.
_Heywood and Shirley. _--P. 434.
Voluminous dramatic authors, who flourished in the beginning of the
17th century. There were no less than four Heywoods who wrote plays;
so that, Winstanley says, the name of Heywood seemed to be destinated
to the stage. But he whom Dryden here means, is Thomas Heywood, a
person rather to be admired for the facility, than for the excellence
of his compositions. Every place and situation was alike to him while
composing; and the favourite register of his scenes was the back of
a tavern bill. Far the greater part of his labours are now lost; and
yet there remain, in the libraries of the curious, twenty-four printed
plays by Thomas Heywood. He was an actor by profession, and a good
scholar, as is evinced by several of his classical allusions. His plays
may be examined with advantage by the antiquary, but afford slender
amusement to the lovers of poetry. The following character of him, by
an old poet, is preserved by Langbaine:
---- ----Heywood sage,
The apologetic Atlas of the stage;
Well of the golden age he could entreat,
But little of the metal he could get.
Threescore sweet babes be fashioned at a lump,
For he was christened in Parnassus pump,
The muses' gossip to Aurora's bed;
And ever since that time his face was red.
If we cannot call Heywood a second Lope de Vega, in point of the extent
of his dramatic works, he overtops most English authors; since he
assures us, in his preface to the "English Traveller," that it was one
reserved among two hundred and twenty plays, in which he had either
had "a whole hand, or, at the least, a main finger. " It is a pity, as
Johnson said of Churchill, so fruitful a tree should have borne only
crabs.
James Shirley, whom our author most unjustly couples with Heywood,
to whom, as well as to Shadwell, he was greatly superior, was born
in 1594, and, although for some time a schoolmaster, appears to have
lived chiefly by the stage. When the civil wars broke out, he followed
the fortune of William, Earl of Newcastle. During the usurpation, when
theatres were prohibited, he returned to his original profession of
a schoolmaster. He died of fatigue and distress of mind during the
great fire of London, in 1666. He wrote forty-two plays, and there
are thirty-nine in print; a complete set of which is much esteemed by
collectors. Dr Farmer has traced, to this neglected bard, an idea,
which Milton thought not unworthy of adoption.
Shirley is spoken of with contempt in "Mac-Flecknoe," but his
imagination is sometimes fine to an extraordinary degree. I recollect
a passage in the Fourth Book of the "Paradise Lost," which hath been
suspected of imitation, as a prettiness below the genius of Milton: I
mean, where Uriel glides backward and forward to heaven on a sun-beam.
Dr Newton informs us, that this might possibly be hinted by a picture
of Annabal Caracci, in the king of France's cabinet; but I am apt
to believe, that Milton had been struck with a portrait in Shirley.
Fernando, in the comedy of the "Brothers," 1652, describes Jacinta at
vespers:
Her eye did seem to labour with a tear,
Which suddenly took birth, but overweighed
With its own swelling, dropped upon her bosom;
Which, by reflection of her light, appeared
As nature meant her sorrow for an ornament':
After, her looks grew cheerfull, and I saw
A smile shoot graceful upward from her eyes,
As if they had gained a victory o'er grief;
_And with it many beams twisted themselves,
Upon whose golden threads the angels walk
To and again from heaven_.
Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare.
Note IV.
_Coarsely clad in Norwich drugget. _--P. 434.
This stuff appears to have been sacred to the use of the poorer
votaries of Parnassus; and it is somewhat odd, that it seems to
have been the dress of our poet himself in the earlier stage of his
fortunes. An old gentleman, who corresponded with the "Gentleman's
Magazine," says, he remembers our author in this dress. Vol. XV. p. 99.
Note V.
_When thou on silver Thames didst cut thy way,
With well-timed oars, before the royal barge. _--P. 434.
I confess myself, after some research, at a loss to discover the nature
of the procession, in which Shadwell seems to have acted as leader of
the band. One is at first sight led to consider the whole procession as
imaginary, and preliminary to his supposed coronation; but, on closer
investigation, it appears, that Flecknoe talks of some real occurrence,
on which Shadwell preceded the royal barge, at the head of a boat-load
of performers. We may see, in the seventh note, that he professed to
understand music, and may certainly have been called upon to assist or
direct the band during some entertainment upon the river, an amusement
to which King Charles was particularly addicted.
Note VI.
_The like was ne'er in Epsom blankets tost. _--P. 434.
This seems to be in ridicule of the following elegant expression
which Shadwell puts in the mouth of a fine lady: "Such a fellow as he
deserves to be _tossed in a blanket_. " This, however, does not occur
in "Epsom-Wells," but in another of Shadwell's comedies, called "The
Sullen Lovers. "
Note VII.
_Methinks I see the new Arion sail,
The lute still trembling underneath thy nail. _--P. 434.
Shadwell appears to have been a proficient in music, and to have
himself adjusted that of his opera of "Psyche," which Dryden here
treats with such consummate contempt. Indeed, in the preface of that
choice piece he affected to value himself more upon the music than the
poetry, as appears from the following passage in the preface: "I had
rather be author of one scene of comedy, like some of Ben Jonson's,
than of all the best plays of this kind, that have been, or ever shall
be written; good comedy requiring much more wit and judgment in the
writer, than any rhiming, unnatural plays can do. This I have so little
valued, that I have not altered six lines in it since it was first
written, which (except the songs at the marriage of Psyche, in the
last scene) was all done sixteen months since. In all the words which
are sung, I did not so much take care of the wit or fancy of them, as
the making of them proper for music; in which I cannot but have some
little knowledge, having been bred, for many years of my youth, to some
performance in it.
"I chalked out the way to the composer, (in all but the song of Furies
and Devils, in the fifth act,) having designed which line I would have
sung by one, which by two, which by three, which by four voices, &c.
and what manner of humour I would have in all the vocal music. "
Note VIII.
_Not even the feet of thy own Psyche's rhyme,
Though they in number as in sense excel. _--P. 435.
This unfortunate opera was imitated from the French of Moliere, and
finished, as Shadwell assures us, in the space of five weeks. The
author having no talents for poetry, and no ear for versification,
"Psyche" is one of the most contemptible of the frivolous dramatic
class to which it belongs. It was, however, _got up_ with extreme
magnificence, and received much applause on its first appearance, in
1675. To justify the censure of Dryden, it is only necessary to quote a
few of the verses, taken at random as a specimen, of what he afterwards
calls "Prince Nicander's vein:"
_Nicander. _ Madam, I to this solitude am come,
Humbly from you to hear my latest doom.
_Psyche. _ The first command which I did give,
Was, that you should not see me here;
The next command you will receive,
Much harsher will to you appear.
_Nic. _ How long, fair Psyche, shall I sigh in vain?
How long of scorn and cruelty complain?
Your eyes enough have wounded me,
You need not add your cruelty.
You against me too many weapons chuse,
Who am defenceless against each you use.
The poet himself seems so conscious of the sad inferiority of his
verses, that he makes, in the preface, a half apology, implying
a mortifying consciousness, that it was necessary to anticipate
condemnation, by pleading guilty. "In a thing written in five weeks, as
this was, there must needs be many errors, which I desire true critics
to pass by; and which, perhaps, I see myself, but having much business,
and indulging myself with some pleasure too, I have not had leisure
to mend them; nor would it indeed be worth the pains, since there are
so many splendid objects in the play, and such variety of diversion,
as will not give the audience leave to mind the writing; and I doubt
not but the candid reader will forgive the faults, when he considers,
that the great design was to entertain the town with variety of music,
curious dancing, splendid scenes, and machines; and that I do not, nor
ever did intend, to value myself upon the writing of this play. "
Shadwell, however, had no right to plead, that this affected contempt
of his own lyric poetry ought to have disarmed the criticism of Dryden;
because, in the very same preface, he sets out by insinuating, that he
could easily have beaten our author on his own strong ground of rhyme,
had he thought such a contest worth winning. So much, at least, may be
inferred from the following declaration:
"In a good-natured country, I doubt not but this, my first essay in
rhyme, would be at least forgiven, especially when I promise to offend
no more in this kind; but I am sensible that here I must encounter a
great many difficulties. In the first place, (though I expect more
candour from the best writers in rhyme,) the more moderate of them (who
have yet a numerous party, good judges being very scarce) are very
much offended with me, for leaving my own province of comedy, to invade
their dominion of rhyme: but, methinks, they might be satisfied, since
I have made but a small incursion, and am resolved to retire. And, were
I never so powerful, they should escape me, as the northern people did
the Romans; their craggy barren territories being not worth conquering. "
Note IX.
_----Pale with envy, Singleton forswore
The lute and sword, which he in triumph bore,
And vowed he ne'er would act Villerius more. _--P. 435.
Singleton was a musical performer of some eminence, and is mentioned as
such in one of Shadwell's comedies. --"'Sbud, they are the best music
in England: there's the best shawm and bandore, and a fellow that acts
Tom of Bedlam to a miracle; and they sing _Charon, oh, gentle Charon! _
and, _Come, my Daphne_, better than Singleton and Clayton did. "--_Bury
Fair_, Act III. Scene I. Villerius, the grand master of the knights
hospitallers, is a principal character in "The Siege of Rhodes," an
opera by Sir William D'Avenant, where great part of the dialogue is in
a sort of lyrical recitative; in the execution of which Singleton seems
to have been celebrated. The first speech of this valorous chief of the
order of St John runs thus:
Arm, arm! let our drums beat,
To all our outguards, a retreat;
And to our main-guards add
Files double lined; from the parade
Send horse to drive the fields,
Prevent what ripening summer yields;
To all the foe would save
Set fire, or give a secret grave.
The combination of the lute and sword, which Dryden alludes to,
is ridiculed in "The Rehearsal," where Bayes informs his critical
friends, that his whole battle is to be represented by two persons;
"for I make 'em both come forth in armour cap-a-pee, with their swords
drawn, and hung with a scarlet ribband at their wrists, (which, you
know, represents fighting enough,) each of them holding a lute in his
hand. --_Smith. _ How, sir; instead of a buckler? --_Bayes. _ O Lord, O
Lord! instead of a buckler! Pray, sir, do you ask no more questions.
I make 'em, sir, play the battle in _recitativo_; and here's the
conceit: Just at the very same instant that one sings, the other,
sir, recovers you his sword, and puts himself into a warlike posture;
so that you have at once your ear entertained with music and good
language, and your eye satisfied with the garb and accoutrements of
war. "--_Rehearsal_, Act V. The adverse generals enter accordingly,
and perform a sort of duet, great part of which is a parody upon the
lyrical dialogue of Villerius and the Soldan Solyman, in the "Siege of
Rhodes. "
Note X.
_Ancient Decker. _--P. 436.
Decker, who did not altogether deserve the disgraceful classification
which Dryden has here assigned to him, was a writer of the reign of
James I. , and the antagonist of Jonson. I suspect Dryden knew, or at
least recollected, little more of him, than that he was ridiculed,
by his more renowned adversary, under the character of Crispinus,
in "The Poetaster. " Indeed, nothing can be more unfortunate to an
inferior wit, than to be engaged in controversy with an author of
established reputation; since, though he may maintain his ground with
his contemporaries, posterity will always judge of him by the character
assigned in the writings of his antagonist. Decker was admitted to
write in conjunction with Webster, Ford, Brome, and even Massinger;
and though he was only employed to fill up the inferior scenes, he
certainly displays some theatrical talent. Indeed he was judged, by
many of his own time, to have retaliated Jonson's satire with success,
in "The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet;" where Ben is designed under
the character of Horace Junior. Besides, Decker possessed some tragic
powers: "The Honest Whore," which is altogether his own production, has
several scenes of great merit.
Note XI.
_But worlds of Misers from his pen should flow;
Humorists, and Hypocrites, it should produce,
Whole Raymond families, and tribes of Bruce. _--P. 436.
Shadwell translated, or rather imitated, Moliere's "L'Avare," under the
title of "The Miser. " In Langbaine's opinion, he has greatly improved
upon his original; but in this, as in other cases, the critic is
probably singular. "The Miser" was printed in 1672.
"The Humorists" was a play professedly written to expose the reigning
vices of the age; but as it was supposed to contain many direct
personal allusions, it was unfavourably received by the audience.
Shadwell, by way, I suppose, of insinuating to the readers an accurate
notion of the characters, or humours, which he means to represent, is,
in this and other pieces, at great pains to give a long and minute
account of each individual in the _dramatis personæ_.
Thus we have have
in "The Humorists,"
"_Crazy,_--One that is in pox, in debt, and all the misfortunes that
can be; and, in the midst of all, in love with most women, and thinks
most women in love with him.
"_Drybob,_--A fantastic coxcomb, that makes it his business to speak
fine things and wit, as he thinks; and always takes notice, or makes
others take notice, of any thing he thinks well said.
"_Brisk,_--A brisk, airy, fantastic, singing, dancing coxcomb, that
sets up for a well-bred man, and a man of honour; but mistakes in
every thing, and values himself only upon the vanity and foppery of
gentlemen. "
I do not know what to make of the "Hypocrites. " Shadwell wrote no play
so entitled; nor is it likely he gave any assistance to Medbourne, who
translated the famous "Tartuffe" of Moliere, for they were of different
opinions in religion and politics. Perhaps Dryden means the characters
of the Irish priest and Tory chaplain in "The Lancashire Witches. "
Raymond is a character in "The Humorists," described in the _dramatis
personæ_ as a "gentleman of wit and honour. " Bruce a similar person in
"The Virtuoso," characterized as a "gentleman of wit and sense. " In
these, and in all other characters where wit and an easy style were
requisite, Shadwell failed totally. His forte lay in broad, strong
comic painting.
Note XII.
_Ogleby. _--P. 436.
This gentleman, whose name, thanks to our author and Pope, has
become almost proverbial for a bad poet, was originally a Scottish
dancing-master, when probably Scottish dancing was not so fashionable
as at present, and afterwards master of the revels in Ireland. He
translated "The Iliad," "The Odyssey," "The Æneid," and "Æsop's
Fables," into verse; and his versions were splendidly adorned with
sculpture. He also wrote three epic poems, one of which was fortunately
burned in the fire of London. Moreover, he conducted the ceremony of
Charles the Second's coronation,[448] and erected a theatre in Dublin.
Note XII.
"_Love's Kingdom. _"--P. 437.
This was a play of Flecknoe's. The full title is, "Love's Kingdom,
a Pastoral Tragi-Comedy; not as it was acted at the theatre, near
Lincoln's-Inn, but as it was written, and since corrected by Richard
Flecknoe; with a short treatise of the English stage, &c. by the same
author. London, printed by R. Wood for the author, 1664. "
The author's account of this piece, in the advertisement, is, "For
the plot, it is neat and handsome, and the language soft and gentle,
suitable to the persons who speak; neither on the ground, nor in the
clouds, but just like the stage, somewhat elevated above the common. In
neither no stiffness, and, I hope, no impertinence nor extravagance,
into which your young writers are too apt to run, who, whilst they
know not well what to do, and are anxious to do enough, most commonly
overdo. "
THE PROLOGUE.
_Spoken by Venus from the Clouds. _
If ever you have heard of Venus' name,
Goddess of beauty, I that Venus am;
Who have to day descended from my sphere,
To welcome you unto "Love's Kingdom" here;
Or rather to my sphere am come, since I
Am present no where more nor in the sky,
Nor any island in the world than this,
That wholly from the world divided is:
For Cupid, you behold him here in me,
(For there where beauty is, Love needs must be,)
Or you may yet more easily descry
Him 'mong the ladies, in each amorous eye;
And 'mongst the gallants may as easily trace
Him to their bosoms from each beauteous face.
May then, fair ladies, you
Find all your servants true;
And, gallants, may you find
The ladies all as kind,
As by your noble favours you declare
How much you friends unto "Love's Kingdom" are;
Of which yourselves compose so great a part,
In your fair eyes, and in your loving heart.
This specimen of "Love's Kingdom" is extracted from the "_Censura
Literaria_," No. IX. ; to which publication it was communicated by Mr
Preston of Dublin. To "Love's Kingdom" Flecknoe subjoined a Discourse
on the English Stage, which is sometimes quoted as authority.
Note XIII.
_Let Virtuosos in five years be writ,
Yet not one thought accuse thy toil of wit. _--P. 438.
Shadwell's comedy called "The Virtuoso," was first acted in 1676 with
great applause. It is by no means destitute of merit; though, as in all
his other pieces, it is to be found rather in the walk of coarse humour
than of elegance, or wit.
The character of Sir Nicholas Gimcrack, the Virtuoso, whose time was
spent in discoveries, although he had never invented any thing so
useful as an engine to pare a cream cheese with, is very ludicrous. I
cannot, however, but notice, that some of the discoveries, which are
ridiculed with so much humour, as the composition of various kinds of
air, for example, have been realized by the philosophers of this age.
As the whole piece seems intended as a satire on the researches of
the Royal Society, its scope could not be very pleasing to Dryden, a
zealous member of that learned body; even if he could have forgiven
some hits levelled against him personally in the preface and the
epilogue, which have been quoted in the introduction to Mac-Flecknoe.
Note XIV.
_Let gentle George in triumph tread the stage,
Make Dorimant betray, and Loveit rage;
Let Cully, Cockwood, Fopling, charm the pit. _--P. 438.
The plays of Sir George Etherege were much admired during the end of
the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, till the refinement of
taste condemned their indecency and immorality. Sir George himself was
a courtier of the first rank in the gay court of Charles II. Our author
has addressed an epistle to him, when he was Resident at Ratisbon.
Etherege followed King James to France, according to one account; but
others say he was killed at Ratisbon by a fall down stairs, after he
had been drinking freely. Sir Fopling Flutter, Dorimant, and Loveit,
are characters in his well-known comedy, "The Man of Mode. " Cully and
Cockwood occur in "Love in a Tub," another of his plays.
Note XV.
_But let no alien Sedley interpose,
To lard with wit thy hungry Epsom prose. _--P. 438.
The first edition bears Sydney, which is evidently a mistake.
Shadwell's comedy of "Epsom Wells" was very successful; which was
imputed by his enemies to the assistance he received from the witty
Sir Charles Sedley. This he attempts to refute in the following lines
of the second prologue, spoken when the piece was represented before
the king and queen at Whitehall:
If this for him had been by others done,
After this honour sure they'd claim their own.
But it is nevertheless certain, that Shadwell acknowledges obligations
of the nature supposed, in the Dedication of the "True Widow" to Sir
Charles Sedley. "No success whatever," he there says, "could have made
me alter my opinion of this comedy, which had the benefit of your
correction and alteration, and the honour of your approbation. And I
heartily wish you had given yourself the trouble to have reviewed all
my plays, as they came inaccurately, and in haste, from my hands: it
would have been more to my advantage than the assistance of Scipio and
Lelius was to Terence; and I should have thought it at least as much
to my honour, since, by the effects, I find I cannot but esteem you
as much above both of them in wit, as either of them was above you in
place of the state. "
There was a general opinion current, that Shadwell received assistance
in his most successful pieces. A libel of the times, the reference
to which I have mislaid, mentions with contempt the dulness of his
"unassisted scenes. "
Note XVI.
_Sir Formal, though unsought, attends thy quill,
And does thy northern dedications fill. _--P. 438.
Sir Formal Trifle is a florid conceited orator in "The Virtuoso," whose
character is drawn and brought out with no inconsiderable portion of
humour. Dryden intimates, that his coxcomical inflated style attends
Shadwell himself upon the most serious occasions, and particularly in
his dedications to the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, to whom he has
inscribed several of his plays. Hence Dryden, in the "Vindication of
the Duke of Guise," calls him the Northern Dedicator. The truth is,
that Shadwell's prose was inflated and embarrassed; and his adulation
comes aukwardly from him, as appears from the opening of the dedication
of that very play, "The Virtuoso," to the Duke of Newcastle.
"So long as your grace persists in obliging, I must go on in
acknowledging; nor can I let any opportunity pass of telling the world
how much I am favoured by you, or any occasion slip of assuring your
grace, that all the actions of my life shall be dedicated to your
service; who, by your noble patronage, your generosity and kindness,
and your continual bounty, have made me wholly your creature: nor can
I forbear to declare, that I am more obliged to your grace than to
all mankind. And my misfortune is, I can make no other return, but a
declaration of my grateful attachment. "
Note XVII.
_Nor let false friends seduce thy mind to fame,
By arrogating Jonson's hostile name. _--P. 439.
Shadwell, as appears from many passages of his prologues and prefaces,
and as we have had repeated occasion to notice, affected to consider
Ben Jonson as the object of his emulation. There were indeed many
points of resemblance between them, both as authors and men. In
their habits, a life spent in taverns, and in their persons, huge
corpulence, probably acquired by habits of sensual indulgence, much
coarseness of manners, and an ungentlemanly vulgarity of dialect,
seem to have distinguished both the original and the imitator. As a
dramatist, although Shadwell falls short of the learned vigour and deep
erudition of Ben Jonson, his dry hard comic painting entitles him to
be considered as an inferior artist of the same school. Dryden more
particularly resented Shadwell's reiterated and affected praises of
Jonson, because he had himself censured that writer in the epilogue
to the "Conquest of Granada," and in the critical defence of that
poem. [449] Hence he considered Shadwell's ranking himself under
Jonson's banners as a sort of personal defiance. But Dryden more
particularly alludes to the following ebullition of admiration, which
occurs in the epilogue to Shadwell's "Humorists:"
The mighty prince of poets, learned Ben,
Who alone dived into the minds of men;
Saw all their wanderings, all their follies knew,
And all their vain fantastic passions drew
In images so lively and so true,
That there each humorist himself might view.
Yet only lashed the errors of the times,
And ne'er exposed the persons, but the crimes;
And never cared for private frowns, when he
Did but chastise public iniquity:
He feared no pimp, no pick-pocket, or drab;
He feared no bravo, nor no ruffian's stab:
'Twas he alone true humours understood,
And with great wit and judgment made them good.
A humour is the bias of the mind,
By which with violence 'tis one way inclined;
It makes our actions lean on one side still,
And in all changes that way bends the will.
This--------
He only knew and represented right.
Thus none, but mighty Jonson, e'er could write.
Expect not then, since that most flourishing age
Of Ben, to see true humour on the stage.
All that have since been writ, if they be scanned,
Are but faint copies from that master's hand.
Our poet now, amongst those petty things,
Alas! his too weak trifling humour brings;
As much beneath the worst in Jonson's plays,
As his great merit is above our praise.
For could he imitate that great author right,
He would with ease all poets else outwrite.
But to outgo all other men, would be,
O noble Ben! less than to follow thee.
Dryden, in the text, turns the idea of bias into ridicule; for its
original application being to the leaden weight disposed in the centre
of a bowl, which inclines its course in rolling, he alleges, that the
only bias which can influence Shadwell is his predominant stupidity.
Note XIX.
_Leave writing plays, and chuse for thy command,
Some peaceful province in Acrostic land.
There thou may'st wings display, and altars raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways. _--P. 440.
Among other efforts of gentle dulness, may be noticed the singular
fashion which prevailed during the earlier period of the 17th century,
of writing in such changes of measure, that by the different length
and arrangement of the lines, the poem was made to resemble an egg,
an altar, a pair of wings, a cross, or some other fanciful figure.
This laborious kind of trifling was much akin to the anagrams and
acrostics. Those who are curious to read, or rather to see, a specimen
of such whimsies, (for they are rather addressed to the eye than the
understanding,) may find a dirge of Mr George Withers, arranged into
the figure of a rhomboid, in Ellis's "Specimens of the Early English
Poets," Vol. III. p. 100. They are mentioned with anagrams, acrostics,
rebuses, and other exercises of false wit, in the "Spectator," No. 63.
END OF THE TENTH VOLUME.
Edinburgh,
Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 445: An anonymous poet ascribes the estimation in which he
was held to his poetical propensities:
Verse the famed Flecknoe raised, the muses' sport,
From drudging for the stage to drudge at court.
]
[Footnote 446: Epistle dedicatory to "Bury-fair," addressed to the Earl
of Dorset. ]
[Footnote 447: See the inscription intended for his monument in
Westminster Abbey, by his son Sir John Shadwell, in the Life prefixed
to _Shadwell's Works_. But it was altered before it was placed in the
Abbey, and a blunder in the date seems to have crept in. --See CIBBER'S
_Lives of the Poets_, Vol. III. p. 49. ]
[Footnote 448: See Vol. IX. p. 61. ]
[Footnote 449: See Vol. IV. p. 211, &c. ]
* * * * *
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Transcriber notes: |
| |
| P. 46. 'priciples' chanaged to 'principles', as in other volume. |
| P. 78. Added footnote after 'manly train' as the anchor is missing |
| and seems to go here. |
| P. 82. Note V, link should be P. 69, not P. 68 changed. |
| P. 82. Note VI, link should be P. 74, not P. 73 changed. |
| Footnote 57: Added 'Note VI. ', as the link is missing. |
| Footnote 174: 'Note XI. ', should read 'Note XII. ', changed. |
| Footnote 175: 'Note XII. ', should read 'Note XIII. ', changed. |
| Footnote 178: 'Note XIII. ', should read 'Note XIV. ', changed. |
| P. 119. 'enequal' is 'unequal' in another volume, changed. |
| P. 169. 'Rosolving' is 'Resolving' in another volume, changed. |
| Footnote 208: Should reaad 'Note XIII', not 'Note XII', changed. |
| P. 394. Footnote 'Pensylvania' changed to 'Pennsylvania'. |
| P. 457. Note XIX needs to be XIII, changed. |
| Footnote 60: Should read 'Note VII', not 'Note VIII', changed. |
| Corrected various punctuation. |
| Underscore indicates italics _like this_. |
| |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
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