surely is no mean writer to whom Boileau should Pope had, in proportions very nicely adjusted to be found inferior. The Characters of Men,' how-each other, all the qualities that constitute genius ever, are written with more, if not with deeper He had Invention, by which new trains of events thought, and exhibit many passages exquisitely are formed, and new scenes of imagery displayed, beautiful. The Gem and the Flower' will not as in the Rape of the Lock;' and by which exeasily be equalled. In the women's part are some trinsic and adventitious embellishments and illusdefects; the character of Atossa is not so neatly trations are connected with a known subject, as in finished as that of Clodio; and some of the female the Essay on Criticism.' He had Imagination, characters may be found perhaps more frequently which strongly impresses on the writer's mind, and among men; what is said of Philomede was true of enables him to convey to the reader, the various Prior. forms of nature, incidents of life, and energies of In the Epistles of Lord Bathurst and Lord Bur-passion, as in his Eloisa,' Windsor Forest,' and lington, Dr. Warburton has endeavoured to find a Ethic Epistles.' He had Judgment, which selects train of thought which was never in the writer's from life or nature what the present purpose rehead, and, to support his hypothesis, has printed quires, and, by separating the essence of things that first which was published last. In one, the from its concomitants, often makes the representa most valuable passage is perhaps the Elegy on tion more powerful than the reality: and he had 'Good Sense;' and the other, the End of the Duke colours of language always before him, ready to deof Buckingham.' corate his matter with every grace of elegant exThe Epistle to Arbuthnot, not arbitrarily called pression, as when he accommodates his diction to the the 'Prologue to the Satires,' is a performance con- wonderful multiplicity of Homer's sentiments and sisting, as it seems, of many fragments wrought into descriptions. one design, which by this union of scattered beau- Poetical expression includes sound as well as ties contains more striking paragraphs than could meaning: "Music," says Dryden, "is inarticulate probably have been brought together into an occa- poetry;" among the excellences of Pope, theresional work. As there is no stronger motive to fore, must be mentioned the melody of his metre. exertion than self-defence, no part has more ele- By perusing the works of Dryden, he discovered gance, spirit, or dignity, than the poet's vindication of his own character. The meanest passage, is the satire upon Sporus. the most perfect fabric of English verse, and habituated himself to that only which he found the best; in consequence of which restraint, his poetry Of the two poems which derived their names has been censured as too uniformly musical, and as from the year, and which are called the Epilogue glutting the ear with unvaried sweetness. I susto the Satires,' it was very justly remarked by pect this objection to be the cant of those who Savage, that the second was in the whole more judge by principles rather than perception; and strongly conceived, and more equally supported, but who would even themselves have less pleasure in that it had no single passages equal to the conten- his works, if he had tried to relieve attention by tion in the first for the dignity of Vice, and the studied discords, or affected to break his lines and celebration of the triumph of Corruption. vary his pauses. The Imitations of Horace' seem to have been But though he was thus careful of his versificawritten as relaxations of his genius. This em- tion, he did not oppress his powers with superfluployment became his favourite by its facility; the ous rigour. He seems to have thought with Boiplan was ready to his hand, and nothing was re-leau, that the practice of writing might be refined quired but to accommodate as he could the senti- till the difficulty should overbalance the advantage. ments of an old author to recent facts or familiar The construction of his language is not always images; but what is easy is seldom excellent; such strictly grammatical; with those rhymes which imitations cannot give pleasure to common readers; prescription had conjoined, he contented himself, the man of learning may be sometimes surprised without regard to Swift's remonstrances, though and delighted by an unexpected parallel; but the there was no striking consonance; nor was he very comparison requires knowledge of the original, careful to vary his terminations, or to refuse adwhich will likewise often detect strained applica-mission, at a small distance, to the same rhymes. tions. Between Roman images and English man- To Swift's edict for the exclusion of Alexanners, there will be an irreconcileable dissimilitude, drines and Triplets he paid little regard; he adand the works will be generally uncouth and party-mitted them, but, in the opinion of Fenton, too coloured: neither original nor translated, neither rarely; he uses them more liberally in his translaancient nor modern.* tion than in his poems. He has a few double rhymes: and always, I *In one of these poems is a couplet, to which belongs think, unsuccessfully, except once in the Rape of a story related by the Rev. Dr. Ridley: the Lock.' Slander or poison dread from Delia's rage; Expletives he very early ejected from his verses; but he now and then admits an epithet rather commodious than important. Each of the first six lines Sir Francis Page conceiving that his name was meant to fill up the blank, sent his clerk to complain of the in- of the 'Iliad' might lose two syllables with very sult. Pope told the young man, that the blank might be little diminution of the meaning; and sometimes, supplied by many monosyllables other than the judge's after all his art and labour, one verse seems to be name:"But, Sir, the judge says that no other word will make sense of the passage."-"So then it seems," made for the sake of another. In his latter prosays Pope, “your master is not only a judge but a poet: as that is the case, the odds are against me. Give my respects to the judge, and tell him, I will not contend this distinction to the unjustifiable insolence he displayed with one that has the advantage of me, and he may fill on the memorable trial of Savage, of whom Pope was up the blank as he pleases." Judge Page probably owed the sincere friend. ductions the diction is sometimes vitiated by French | veral hundred places; and the Cambridge editors idioms, with which Bolingbroke had perhaps in- of the large Homer, in Greek and Latin, attributed fected him. I have been told that the couplet by which he so much to Hobbs, that they confess they have corrected the old Latin interpretation very often by his version. For my part, I generally took the author's meaning to be as you have explained it; yet their authority, joined to the knowledge of my own imperfectness in the language, overruled me. But the reason of this preference I cannot discover. However, Sir, you may be confident I think you It is remarked by Watts, that there is scarcely in the right, because you happen to be of my opia happy combination of words, or a phrase poeti- nion: for, men (let them say what they will) never cally elegant in the English language, which Pope approve any other's sense, but as it squares with has not inserted into his version of Homer. How their own. But you have made me much more he obtained possession of so many beauties of proud of, and much more positive in my judgment, speech, it were desirable to know. That he glean- since it is strengthened by yours. I think your ed from authors, obscure as well as eminent, what criticisms, which regard the expression, very just, he thought brilliant or useful, and preserved it and shall make my profit of them: to give you some all in a regular collection, is not unlikely. When, proof that I am in earnest, I will alter three verses in his last years, Hall's Satires were shown him, on your bare objection, though I have Mr. Dryhe wished that he had seen them sooner. den's example for each of them. And this, I hope, New sentiments and new images others may you will account no small piece of obedience from produce; but to attempt any further improvement one who values the authority of one true poet of versification will be dangerous. Art and dili- above that of twenty critics or commentators. But, gence have now done their best, and what shall be though I speak thus of commentators, I will con added will be the effort of tedious toil and need-tinue to read carefully all I can procure, to make less curiosity. up, that way, for my own want of critical under After all this, it is surely superfluous to answer standing in the original beauties of Homer. Though the question that has once been asked, Whether the greatest of them are certainly those of InvenPope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in re-tion and Design, which are not at all confined to turn, If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be the language: for the distinguishing excellences of found? To circumscribe poetry by a definition, Homer are (by the consent of the best critics of all will only show the narrowness of the definer; nations) first in the manners (which include all the though a definition which shall exclude Pope will speeches, as being no other than the represennot easily be made. Let us look round upon the tations of each person's manners by his words;) present time, and back upon the past; let us inquire and then in that rapture and fire, which carries to whom the voice of mankind has decreed the you away with him, with that wonderful force, wreath of poetry; let their productions be examin- that no man who has a true poctical spirit is mased and their claims stated, and the pretensions of ter of himself while he reads him. Homer makes Pope will be no more disputed. Had he given the you interested and concerned before you are aware, world only his version, the name of poet must have all at once, whereas Virgil does it by soft degrees. been allowed him: if the writer of the Iliad' were This, I believe, is what a translator of Homer to class his successors, he would assign a very high ought principally to imitate; and it is very hard for place to his translator, without requiring any other any translator to come up to it, because the chief evidence of genius. reason why all translations fall short of their origi nals is, that the very constraint they are obliged to, renders them heavy and dispirited. The following Letter, of which the original is in the hands of Lord Hardwicke, was communicated to me by the kindness of Mr. Jodrell. "The great beauty of Homer's language, as I take it, consists in that noble simplicity which runs "To MR. BRIDGES, at the Bishop of London's at through all his works; (and yet his diction, con "SIB, Fulham. "The favour of your Letter, with your Remarks, tan never be enough acknowledged; and the speed with which you discharged so troublesome a task doubles the obligation. trary to what one would imagine consistent with simplicity, is at the same time very copious.) I don't know how I have run into this pedantry in a Letter, but I find I have said too much, as well as spoken too inconsiderately: what farther thoughts I have spoken upon this subject, I shall be glad to "I must own that you have pleased me very communicate to you (for my own improvement) much by the commendations so ill bestowed upon when we meet; which is a happiness I very earme; but I assure you, much more by the frankness nestly desire, as I do likewise some opportunity of your censure, which I ought to take the more of proving how much I think myself obliged to kindly of the two, as it is more advantage to a your friendship, and how truly I am, Sir, "Your most faithful, humble servant, "A. POPE." scribbler to be improved in his judgment than to be soothed in his vanity. The greater part of those deviations from the Greeks, which you have observed, I was led into by Chapman and Hobbs; who are, it seems, as much celebrated for their know- The Criticism upon Pope's Epitaphs, which was ledge of the original, as they are decried for the printed in 'The Universal Visitor,' is placed here, badness of their translations. Chapman pretends being too minute and particular to be inserted in to have restored the genuine sense of the author, the Life. from the mistakes of all former explainers, in se- Every art is best taught by example. Nothing contributes more to the cultivation of propriety, [tations with much harshness; in long performance than remarks on the works of those who have most they are scarcely to be avoided; and in shorter excelled. I shall therefore endeavour, at this risit, they may be indulged, because the train of the to entertain the young students in poetry with an composition may naturally involve them, or the examination of Pope's Epitaphs. scantiness of the subject allow little choice. How To define an Epitaph is useless; every one knows ever, what is borrowed is not to be enjoyed as our that it is an inscription on a Tomb. An epitaph, own; and it is the business of critical justice to give therefore, implies no particular character of writ-every bird of the Muses his proper feather. ing, but may be composed in verse or prose. It is indeed commonly panegyrical; because we are sel Blest courtier dom distinguished with a stone but by our friends; Whether a courtier can properly be commended but it has no rule to restrain or mollify it, except for keeping his ease sacred, may perhaps be dis this, that it ought not to be longer than common be- putable. To please king and country, without saholders may be expected to have leisure and pa-crificing friendship to any change of times, was a tience to peruse. ON CHARLES EARL OF DORSET. In the Church of Wythyham in Sussex. The first distich of this epitaph contains a kind of information which few would want, that the man for whom the tomb was erected, died. There are indeed some qualities worthy of praise ascribed to the dead, but none that were likely to exempt him from the lot of man, or incline us much to wonder that he should die. What is meant by "judge of nature," is not easy to say. Nature is not the object of human judgment; for it is vain to judge where we cannot alter. If by nature is meant what is commonly called nature by the critics, a just representation of things really existing, and actions really performed, nature cannot be properly opposed to art; nature being, in this sense, only the best effect of art. The scourge of pride very uncommon instance of prudence or felicity, and deserved to be kept separate from so poor a commendation as care of his ease. I wish our poets would attend a little more accurately to the use of the word sacred, which surely should never be applied in a serious composition, but where some reference may be made to a higher Being, or where some duty is exacted or implied. A man may keep his friendship sacred, because promises of friendship are very awful ties; but methinks he cannot, but in a burlesque sense, be said to keep his ease sacred. Blest peer! The blessing ascribed to the peer has no connexion with his peerage; they might happen to any other man whose posterity were likely to be regarded. I know not whether this epitaph be worthy either of the writer or the man entombed. ON SIR WILLIAM TRUMBAL, A pleasing form; a firm, yet cautious mind; Of this couplet, the second line is not, what is Intended, an illustration of the former. Pride, in the Great, is indeed well enough connected with knaves in state, though knaves is a word rather too ludicrous and light; but the mention of sanctified In this epitaph, as in many others, there appears, pride will not lead the thoughts to fops in learn at the first view, a fault which I think scarcely any ing, but rather to some species of tyranny or op- beauty can compensate. The name is omitted. pression, something more gloomy and more formi-The end of an epitaph is to convey some accoust dable than foppery. Yet soft his nature of the dead; and to what purpose is any thing told of him whose name is concealed? Ar epitaph, and a history of a nameless hero, are equally absurd, since the virtues and qualities so recounted in ei This is a high compliment, but was not first be-ther are scattered at the mercy of fortune to be ap stowed on Dorset by Pope. The next verse is ex-propriated by guess. The name, it is true, may be tremely beautiful. T Blest satirist read upon the stone; but what obligation has it to the poet, whose verses may wander over the earth. and leave their subject behind them, and who i s distich is another line of which Pope was forced, like an unskilful painter, to make his par I do not mean to blame these imi-pose known by adventitious help? Ennobled by himself, by all approved, This epitaph is wholly without elevation, and contains nothing striking or particular; but the poet is not to be blamed for the defects of his subject. He said perhaps the best that could be said. There for an epitaph; and therefore some faults are to be are, however, some defects which were not made necessary by the character in which he was em ployed. There is no opposition between an honest courtier and a patriot; for, an honest courtier cannot but be a patriot. It was unsuitable to the nicety required in short compositions, to close his verse with the word too; every rhyme should be a word of emphasis; nor can this rule be safely neglected, except where the length of the poem makes slight inaccuracies excusable, or allows room for beauties sufficient to overpower the effects of petty faults. At the beginning of the seventh line the word filled is weak and prosaic, having no particular adaptation to any of the words that follow it. The thought in the last line is impertinent, having no connexion with the foregoing character, nor with the condition of the man described. Had the epitaph been written on the poor conspirator* who died lately in prison, after a confinement of more than forty years, without any crime proved against him, the sentiment had been just and pathetical;| but why should Trumbal be congratulated upon his liberty, who had never known restraint? ON THE HON. SIMON HARCOURT, Only Son of the Lord Chancellor Harcourt, at the 1720. To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art, draw near, How vain is reason, eloquence how weak! This epitaph is principally remarkable for the artful introduction of the name, which is inserted with a peculiar felicity, to which chance must concur with genius, which no man can hope to attain twice, and which cannot be copied but with servile imitation. I cannot but wish that, of this inscription, the two last lines had been omitted, as they take away from the energy what they do not add to the sense. ON JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ. JACOBUS CRAGGS, REGI MAGNE BRITANNIE A SECRETIS ET CONSILIIS SANCTORIBUS PRINCIPIS PARITER AC POPULI AMOR ET DELICIE OB. FEB. XVI. MDCCXX. Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere : imputed to the violence with which they are torn from the poem that first contained them. We may, however, observe some defects. There is a redundancy of words in the first couplet: it is superfluous to tell of him, who was sincere, true, and faithful, that he was in honour clear. There seems to be an opposition intended in the fourth line, which is not very obvious: where is the relation between the two positions, that he gained no title and lost no friend? It may be proper here to remark the absurdity of joining, in the same inscription, Latin and English, or verse and prose. If either language be preferable to the other, let that only be used; for, no reason can be given why part of the information should be given in one tongue, and part in another, on a tomb, more than in any other place, or on any other occasion; and to tell all that can be conveniently told in verse, and then to call in the help of prose, has always the appearance of a very artless expedient, or of an attempt unaccomplished. Such an epitaph resembles the conversation of a foreigner, who tells part of his meaning by words, and conveys part by signs. INTENDED FOR MR. ROWE. In Westminster Abbey. Of this inscription the chief fault is, that it be longs less to Rowe, for whom it was written, than to Dryden, who was buried near him; and indeed gives very little information concerning either. To wish Peace to thy shade is too mythological to be admitted into a Christian temple: the ancient worship has infected almost all our other compositions, and might therefore be contented to spare our epitaphs. Let fiction, at least, cease with life, and let us be serious over the grave. ON MRS. CORBET, Who died of a Cancer in her Breast.* I have always considered this as the most valuable of all Pope's epitaphs; the subject of it is a * In the North aisle of the parish church of St. Marga Major Bernardi, who died in Newgate, Sept. 20, 1736. ret, Westminster. •haracter not discriminated by any shining or emi- [ subjects, he must be forgiven if he sometimes wannent peculiarities; yet that which really makes, ders in generalities, and utters the same praises though not the splendour, the felicity of life, and over different tombs. that which every wise man will choose for his final, and lasting companion in the languor of age, in the quiet of privacy, when he departs weary and disgusted from the ostentatious, the volatile, and the vain. Of such a character, which the dull overlook, and the gay despise, it was fit that the value should be made known, and the dignity established. Domestic virtue, as it is exerted without great occasions, or conspicuous consequences, in an even unnoted tenor, required the genius of Pope to display it in such a manner as might attract regard, and enforce reverence. Who can forbear to lament that this amiable woman has no name in the verses? If the particular lines of this inscription be examined, it will appear less faulty than the rest. There is scarcely one line taken from commonplaces, unless it be that in which only Virtue is said to be our own. I once heard a Lady of great beauty and excellence object to the fourth line, that it contained an unnatural and incredible panegyric. Of this, let the ladies judge. ON THE MONUMENT OF THE HON. ROBERT DIGBY AND OF HIS SISTER Erected by their Father the Lord Digby, in the Go! fair example of untainted youth, Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth; Composed in sufferings, and in joy sedate, Good without noise, without pretension great. Just of thy word, in every thought sincere, The scantiness of human praises can scarcely be made more apparent, than by remarking how often Pope has, in the few epitaphs which he composed, found it necessary to borrow from himself. The fourteen epitaphs which he has written, comprise about a hundred and forty lines, in which there are more repetitions than will easily be found in all the rest of his works. In the eight lines which make the character of Digby, there is scarce any thought, or word, which may not be found in the other epitaphs. The ninth line, which is far the strongest and most elegant, is borrowed from Dryden. The conclusion is the same with that on Harcourt, but is here more elegant and better connected. ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER, In Westminster Abbey, 1723. Kneller! by Heaven, and not a master taught, Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie Of this epitaph the first couplet is good, the second not bad, the third is deformed with a broken metaphor, the word crowned not being appliacable to the honours or lays; and the fourth is not only borrowed from the epitaph on Raphael, but of a Who knew no wish but what the world might hear: very harsh construction. Lover of peace, and friend of human kind. And thou, blest maid! attendant on his doom, Yet take these tears; mortality's relief, ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS, In Westminster Abbey, 1729. Here, Withers, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind, The epitaph on Withers affords another instance of common-places, though somewhat diversified, by mingled qualities, and the peculiarity of a profession. This epitaph contains of the brother only a general indiscriminate character, and of the sister tells nothing but that she died. The difficulty in writing epitaphs is to give a particular and appropriate praise. This, however, is not always to be performed, whatever be the diligence or ability of the writer; for, the greater part of mankind have no character at all, have little that distinguishes them from others equally good or bad, and therefore nothing can be said of them which may not be applied with equal propriety to a thousand more. It is indeed no great panegyric, that there is inclosed in this tomb one who was born in one year, and died in another; yet many useful and amiable lives have The third couplet is more happy; the value exbeen spent, which leave little materials for any pressed for him by different sorts of men, raises other memorial. These are however not the pro-him to esteem; there is yet something of the comper subjects of poetry; and whenever friendship, mon cant of superficial satirists, who suppose that or any other motive, obliges a poet to write on such the insincerity of a courtier destroys all his sensa The second couplet is abrupt, general, and unpleasing; exclamation seldom succeeds in our language, and, I think, it may be observed that the particle O! used at the beginning of the sentence, always offends. |