45. “The elder is named Pamela, by many men not deemed inferior to her sister; for my part, when I marked them both, methought there was (if at least such perfections may receive the word of more) more sweetness in Philoclea, but more majesty in Pamela: methought love played in Philoclea’s eyes, and threatened in Pamela’s; methought Philoclea’s beauty only persuaded, but so persuaded as all hearts must yield; Pamela’s beauty used violence, and such violence as no heart could resist, and it seems that such proportion is between their minds. Philoclea so bashful, as if her excellencies had stolen into her before she was aware; so humble, that she will put all pride out of countenance; in sum, such proceeding as will stir hope, but teach hope good manners; Pamela, of high thoughts, who avoids not pride with not knowing her excellencies, but by making that one of her excellencies to be void of pride; her mother’s wisdom, greatness, nobility, but, if I can guess aright, knit with a more constant temper.”
Inferiority of other English fictions. 46. The Arcadia stands quite alone among English fictions of this century. But many were translated in the reign of Elizabeth from the Italian, French, Spanish, and even Latin, among which Painter’s Palace of Pleasure, whence Shakspeare took several of his plots, and the numerous labours of Antony Munday may be mentioned. Palmerin of England in 1580, and Amadis of Gaul in 1592, were among these; others of less value, were transferred from the Spanish text by the same industrious hand; and since these, while still new, were sufficient to furnish all the gratification required by the public, our own writers did not much task their invention to augment the stock. They would not have been very successful, if we may judge by such deplorable specimens as Breton and Greene, two men of considerable poetical talent, have left us.[1343] The once famous story of the Seven Champions of Christendom, by one Johnson, is of rather a superior class; the adventures are not original, but it is by no means a translation from any single work.[1344] Mallory’s famous romance, La Morte d’Arthur, is of much earlier date, and was first printed by Caxton. It is, however, a translation from several French romances, though written in very spirited language.
[1343] The Mavilia of Breton, the Dorastus and Fawnia of Greene, will be found in the collections of the indefatigable Sir Egerton Brydges. The first is below contempt; the second, if not quite so ridiculous, is written with a quaint affected and empty Euphuism. British Bibliographer, i. 508. But as truth is generally more faithful to natural sympathies than fiction, a little tale, called Never too Late, in which Greene has related his own story, is unaffected and pathetic. Drake’s Shakspeare and his Times, i. 489.
[1344] Drake, i. 529.
CHAPTER XVII.
HISTORY OF PHYSICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE, FROM 1500 TO 1600.
Sect. I.—On Mathematical and Physical Science.
Algebraists of this Period—Vieta—Slow Progress of Copernican Theory—Tycho Brahe—Reform of Calendar—Mechanics—Stevinus—Gilbert.
Tartaglia and Cardan. 1. The breach of faith towards Tartaglia, by which Cardan communicated to the world the method of solving cubic equations, having rendered them enemies, the injured party defied the aggressor to a contest, wherein each should propose thirty-one problems to be solved by the other. Cardan accepted the challenge, and gave a list of his problems, but devolved the task of meeting his antagonist on his disciple Ferrari. The problems of Tartaglia are so much more difficult than those of Cardan, and the latter’s representative so frequently failed in solving them, as to show the former in a higher rank among algebraists, though we have not so long a list of his discoveries.[1345] This is told by himself in a work of miscellaneous mathematical and physical learning, Quesiti ed invenzioni diverse, published in 1546. In 1555, he put forth the first part of a treatise intitled Trattato di numeri e misure, the second part appearing in 1560.
[1345] Montucla, p. 568.