The echo of both opinions has been prolonged into modern times. Wordsworth, who had evidently read Daniel with sympathy and admiration, does him the honour to quote two of his lines in The Excursion;1 while Coleridge, though he speaks of his style with the highest respect, and compares it with that of Wordsworth, repeats the judgment of Drayton. There is much illumination in the analogy suggested by Coleridge between the poetry of Wordsworth and that of Daniel, and the principle of composition adopted by both these poets is the secret alike of the virtues and the defects of their poetical styles. Both were idealists and philosophers in the first place, poets only in the second. Both were so strongly moved by the ardour of their thought, that they cared comparatively little to discriminate as to the best vehicle for its expression. And as each was accustomed, by the inclination of his genius, to write in verse, they frequently used this form of diction, even when the subject-matter of their conceptions was more akin to prose. But, on the other hand, as they were both always moved by a genuine enthusiasm, the weight and dignity of their thought seldom fails to penetrate through their prosaic modes of expression, and leaves in the imagination of the reader a sense of strength and character. The prime impulse in Wordsworth's poetry is the spirit of liberty characteristic of the first age of the French Revolution. Daniel's leading idea was the individual energy which was the most worthy feature of the pioneers of Humanism in Italy. This is strongly expressed in the two lines cited by Wordsworth in The Excursion: Unless himself above himself he can In His poetry is inspired by two constant ideals, which become more clearly defined after his Italian travels. the midst of the decaying institutions of external chivalry, 1 Excursion, book iv. 330, 331. 2 Table Talk, p. 311; Biographia Literaria, ii. 82. Daniel cherishes the idea, suggested to him by his studies of Castiglione, of a Court concentrating in itself all that is noble in the customs of the past, and furnishing to the nation a model of the refinement required by the present. And again, in the midst of the affectations of Court Euphuism, he kept steadily before his eyes the image of the true courtier, as he is presented in the pages of Il Cortegiano, the modern gentleman, complete in arts and letters as well as in arms, and assiduous in cultivating a pure and correct use of his native language. But as Daniel is a poet of less energetic conception than Wordsworth, so is there also less of individuality in his style of metrical expression. In his early poems, at least, he is content to employ the forms consecrated by long usage, and to such an extent that his contemporaries reproached him for his timidity. Thus the author of The Return from Parnassus, while giving him high praise, says:- Only let him more sparingly make use Except for the grace and literary skill of passages resembling those which I have quoted, there is nothing individually characteristic in Delia; though the lifelong aim of the poet is already clearly indicated in the oblique criticism-not invidiously intended-on the archaic revivals recommended by the practice of Spenser : Let others sing of knights and paladines In aged accents and untimely words; Paint shadows in imaginary lines, Which well the reach of their high wits records.2 The Complaint of Fair Rosamond, which follows the general lines of composition in The Mirror for Magistrates, and particularly the tragedy of Shore's Wife by Churchyard, is remarkable for little beyond the polished purity of its English. In the superficial form of The Civil Wars the hand of 1 Return from Parnassus, Act i. Sc. 2. VOL. III 2 Sonnet lv. C the imitator was no less visible to Daniel's contemporaries. Mr. Grosart, the poet's biographer, seems indeed to be perplexed by the criticism of Guilpin—“ others say that he's a Lucanist"-the meaning of which, however, is clear enough, in view of the fact that imitations of the Pharsalia may be noticed throughout The Civil Wars.1 Daniel only took hints from Lucan: the spirit in which he constructed his own epic was quite different from the air of deliberate and sustained rhetoric which animates the work of the clever Roman poet. He writes as at once a patriot and a moralist, with the purpose of pointing out in a worthy manner the successive steps by which the kingdom of England grew to its state of greatness and glory out of the disorders of past times. How closely the idea of poetry in his mind was associated with the idea of politics is shown by his eulogy of the English Constitution, in his animated Defence of Ryme : Let us go no further, but look upon the wonderful architecture of the State of England, and see whether they were deformed times that could give it such a form where there is no one the least pillar of majesty but was set with the most profound judgment, and borne with the just conveniency of Prince and People; no Court of Justice but laid by the rule and square of Nature, and the best of the best Commonwealths that ever were in the world: so strong and substantial as it hath stood against all the storms of factions, both of belief and ambition, which so powerfully beat upon it, and all the tempestuous alterations of humorous times whatsoever: being continually in all ages furnished with spirits fit to maintain the majesty of her own greatness, and to match in an equal concurrency all other kingdoms round about with whom it had to encounter.2 It was Daniel's ambition to make his native language worthy of the country whose Constitution he so much admired and loved : 1 Grosart's edition of Daniel's Works, Memorial - Introduction, p. xi. Compare, for example, Civil Wars, book i. stanzas 2, 3, with Pharsalia, lib. i. 8-66, and Civil Wars, book i. stanzas 109-118, with Pharsalia, lib. i. 523-583, and lib. ii. 16-66. 2 Daniel, Defence of Ryme (Works, Grosart's edition, vol. iv. p. 53). O that the Ocean did not bound our stile But that the melody of our sweet isle Might now be heard to Tyber, Arne, and Po, That they might know how far Thames doth outgo And, listening to our songs another while, Might learn of thee their notes to purify.1 The thought that all his work is done with an eye to his noble ideal constantly sustains him : But (Madam) this doth animate my mind, And in another place : I know I shall be read among the rest, Nevertheless, in spite of the lofty patriotism which inspires the poem, it must be admitted that Drayton's criticism on The Civil Wars was justified. Daniel was "too much historian in verse." Carried away by his patriotic enthusiasm, he did not reflect that his subject lacked the universal and world-wide interest of the Pharsalia, and that though the wars of Cæsar and Pompey might justify the use of the epic, the example could hardly warrant an English imitator of Lucan in adapting the style to events of such purely local significance as the political changes of Warwick, the King-maker, or the battles of Towton and St. Albans. In making himself the poetical chronicler of his country, Daniel did not do full justice to his genius in such a subject "his manner better fitted prose." His poetical ideals are exhibited to far more advan 1 Dedication of Tragedy of Cleopatra, to Countess of Pembroke. Grosart's edition, vol. iii. p. 26. 2 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 27. 3 Introductory Poem, "To the Reader." Grosart's edition, vol. i. p. 14. tage in his Horatian Epistles and his didactic poems; and among these two are deserving of particular notice, namely, the admirable Panegyric Congratulatorie, addressed to James I. on his accession, and Musophilus, in which he throws into the form of a poetical dialogue Castiglione's views as to the importance of literature in refining the manners of a Court. No poem of the time illustrates more vividly than the former of these compositions the personal influence of an English monarch on the fortunes of the people. The general tendency of things in all countries was, as I have said, towards absolutism, and in the eyes of Daniel, James was an absolute monarch: So that the weight of all seems to rely This frame of power thy glory stands upon : Daniel, like Bacon and almost all other political reasoners of that age, had come to the conclusion that the unsettlement of the times, caused by the anarchy of a dying feudalism, could only be righted by the firm central government of the Crown. He recalls, with skilful enthusiasm, the descent of James from Margaret Tudor, and dwells on the principle from which the reigning family derived its popular support, namely, the repression of feudalism by Henry VII. : And as he laid the model of this frame, By which was built so strong a work of State, All that excess of a disordinate And lustful prince, and all that after came, Glancing for a moment at James's successful struggle with the feudal nobility of Scotland, Daniel concluded |