THOUGHTS ON ODE WRITING.
ΩΔΗ Μολπη Carmen, Cantus, Cantilena, Chanson, Canzone, all signify what, Anglicè, we denominate ODE—Among the Greeks, Pindar; among the Latins, Horace; with the Italians, Petrarch; with the French, Boileau; are the principes hujusce scientiæ—Tom Killegrew took the lead in English Lyrics; and, indeed, till our own Mason, was nearly unrivalled—Josephus Miller too hath penned something of the Odaic, inter his Opera Minora. My grandfather had a M.S. Ode on a Gilliflower, the which, as our family had it, was an esquisse of Gammer Gurton’s; and I myself have seen various Cantilenes of Stephen Duck’s of a pure relish—Of Shadwell, time hath little impaired the fame—Colley’s Bays rust cankereth not—Dr. Casaubon measures the Strophe by Anapæsts—In the Polyglott, the epitrotus primus is the metrimensura.—I venture to recommend “Waly, waly, up the Bank,” as no bad model of the pure Trochaic—There is also a little simple strain, commencing “Saw ye my father, saw ye my mother;” which to my fancy, gives an excellent ratio of hendecasyllables.—Dr. Warton indeed prefers the Adonic, as incomparably the neatest, ay, and the newest μολπης μετρον——A notion too has prevailed, that the Black Joke, or Μελαμφυλλαι Δαφναι is not the “Cosa deta in prosa mai, ne in rima;” whereas the Deva Cestrensis, or Chevy Chase, according to Dr. Joseph Warton, is the exemplar of
Trip and go,
Heave and hoe,
Up and down,
To and fro.
Vide Nashe’s Summer’s Last Will and Testament, 1600.
I observe that Ravishment is a favourite word with Milton, Paradise Lost, B. V. 46. Again, B. IX. 541. Again, Com. V. 245.—Spenser has it also in Astrophel. st. 7.—Whereof I earnestly recommend early rising to all minor Poets, as far better than sleeping to concoct surfeits. Vid. Apology for Smectymnuus.—For the listening to Throstles or Thrushes, awaking the lustless Sun, is an unreproved or innocent pastime: As also are cranks, by which I understood cross purposes. Vid. my Milton, 41.—“Filling a wife with a daughter fair,” is not an unclassical notion (vid. my Milton, 39), if, according to Sir Richard Brathwaite, “She had a dimpled chin, made for love to lodge within” (vid. my Milton, 41). “While the cock,” vid. the same, 44.—Indeed, “My mother said I could be no lad, till I was twentye,” is a passage I notice in my Milton with a view to this; which see; and therein also of a shepherdess, “taking the tale.”—’Twere well likewise if Bards learned the Rebeck, or Rebible, being a species of Fiddle; for it solaceth the fatigued spirit much; though to say the truth, we have it; ’tis present death for Fiddlers to tune their Rebecks, or Rebibles, before the great Turk’s grace. However, Middteton’s Game of Chess is good for a Poet to peruse, having quaint phrases fitting to be married to immortal verse. JOSHUA POOLE, of Clare-hall, I also recommend as an apt guide for an alumnus of the Muse.—Joshua edited a choice Parnassus, 1657, in the which I find many “delicious, mellow hangings” of poesy.—He is undoubtedly a “sonorous dactylist”—and to him I add Mr. Jenner, Proctor of the Commons, and Commissary of St. Paul’s, who is a gentleman of indefatigable politeness in opening the Archives of a Chapter-house for the delectation of a sound critic. Tottell’s Songs and Sonnets of uncertain Auctoures is likewise a butful, or plenteous work. I conclude with assuring the Public, that my brother remembers to have heard my father tell his (i.e. my brother’s) first wife’s second cousin, that he, once, at Magdalen College, Oxford, had it explained to him, that the famous passage “His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff,” has no sort of reference to verbal criticism and stale quotations.