Talgol, who had long possest
Enflamed Rage in glowing Breast,
Which now began to rage, and burn as
Implacably as Flame in Furnace.
Tho' I am very far from taking Dryden to be a perfect Master of Criticism, yet I do not think his Deficiency proceeded from Want of Judgement so much as from Inconsistency and Vanity, and an Opinion that he was Tyrant of Parnassus, and might govern by Will and Pleasure instead of Law and Reason. I have observed elsewhere that he adapts his Prefaces to the Circumstances of every Play and Poem, and very often contradicts in one what he had said in another: Nay, in his Essay on Dramatick Poetry, the Contradiction is within a few Lines of the Assertion, as thus; There is no Theater in the World has any Thing so absurd as the English Tragi-Comedy, which he confirms by this Verse;
Atq; ursem & Pugiles media inter Carmina poscunt.
And a little after; I cannot but conclude, to the Honour of our Nation, that we have invented, encreased, and perfected, a more pleasant Way of Writing than was ever known to the Antients or Moderns of any Nation, which is Tragi-Comedy. One of the most monstrous Inventions, says the Spectator, that ever enter'd into the Poet's Thought. An Author might as well think of weaving the Adventures of Æneas and Hudibras into one Poem, as of writing such a motley Piece of Mirth and Sorrow. Whatever others thought of Mr. Dryden's Criticisms, he did himself full Justice, and seem'd to despise all other Criticks at the same Time that he laid himself most open to them. These little Criticks do not well consider what the Work of the Poet is, and what the Graces of a Poem; the Story is the least Part of either. Pref. to Moch-Astrol. Against him is every Critick, ancient and modern, from Aristotle to Rimer, and more than all of them against him is his own self. In another Place he writes thus; The Fable is without doubt the chief Part of a Tragedy, because it contains the Action, and the Action contains the Happiness or Misery, which is the End of Tragedy. Without the Fable the Poet, who had otherwise good Manners, Sentiments, and Diction, would no more have made a regular Poem, than a Painter would have made a good Picture that had mingled Blue, Yellow, Red, and other Colours confusedly together. I do not mention these Things to lessen Mr. Dryden's great Character as a Poet; but to shew how well Dr. Felton could judge of it, when he recommended him to us as a Critick. Against Mr. Dryden, as to the Story, is Rapin, who he assures us would be alone sufficient, were all other Criticks lost, to teach a-new the Rules of Writing. Against his Rapin we find the Translator of Homer in an extraordinary Manner in his Notes on the Fifth Iliad. I hope it did not arise from any Resentment for that Jesuit's reflecting on those Poets who seem to place the Essence of Poetry in fine Language, and smooth Verse, to which he ascribes its present Decay. As if the Art consisted only in Purity and Exactness of Language: This indeed pleased well, and was much to the Advantage of Women that had a Mind to be tampering in Writing Verse: They found it their Concern to give Vogue to this Kind of Writing, of which they were as capable as the most Part of Men: For all the Secret was no more than to make some little easy Verses, in which they were content if they cou'd dress some soft passionate Thoughts, &c. The most of our modern Poets being interested in this Affair, I shall say no more of it.
I have hinted more than once, that such Poets, and their Admirers, almost always mistake Affectation for Beauty, and I wonder the Translator of Homer should give them the least Countenance by his Example; for I am very much deceiv'd if there is a more affected Period in the English Tongue than what follows: Nothing is more lively and Picturesque than the Attitude of Patroclus is describ'd in; The Pathetick of his Speech is finely contrasted by the Fierte of Achilles. Again, There's something inexpressibly riant in the Compartments of Achilles's Shield. In the Spectator, No 297. you read thus: The last Fault which I shall take notice of in Stile, is the frequent Use of technical Words or Terms of Art. The bringing in more French Words to soften and enervate our Stile is of very ill Consequence. The Translator, besides Riant, has also Traits, ensanguin'd, &c. I doubt, the Last is hardly a Word in any other Language, and does not at all enrich our own. Dryden, in an Epistle to the Earl of Orrery, has this Remark upon it: I wish we might at length leave to borrow Words of another Nation, which is now a Wontonness in us, not a Necessity: But so long as some affect to speak, there will not be wanting others, who will have the Boldness to write them.
If I might make Use of the Word Contrast, nothing can be more so than Affectation and Simplicity; and the Translator seems, either not to have a just Notion of the Latter, or to have a very ill Opinion of it: For without distinguishing between Simplicity and Negligence, he affirms, That Simplicity is a Word of Disguise for a shameful unpoetical Neglect of Expression, he makes no Exception in this general Charge. And thus one of the greatest Beauties of both Thought and Expression is rendered one of the greatest Deformities. Father Bouhours asserts, that Simplicity contributes the most of any Thing to make a Stile perfect; and again, The Holy Scripture, the Stile of which is, at the same Time, so simple and so sublime.
Mr. Addison has treated of the noble Force of Simplicity as it relates to Thought; and in the following Verses, if I am not mistaken, the Simplicity of Expression as well as Thought is noble:
So chear'd he his fair Spouse, and she was chear'd;
But silently a gentle Tear let fall
From either Eye, and wip'd them with her Hair.
Two other precious Drops, that ready stood
Each in their chrystal Sluice, he 'ere they fell
Kist, as the gracious Signs of sweet Remorse,
And pious Awe, that fear'd to have offended.
It is certain, Simplicity, as well as other Virtues in Speech, has its Vice, and that is Meanness which falls naturally into Burlesque, as this Line: