Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III) by Samuel Johnson (audio ebook reader txt) 📕

They Procured dryden, Whom They Suspected as The Author, To Be

Way-Laid And Beaten. This Incident Is Mentioned by The Duke Of

Buckinghamshire[109], The True Writer, In his Art Of Poetry; Where He

Says Of Dryden:

  Though Prais'D And Beaten For Another'S Rhymes,

  His Own Deserve As Great Applause Sometimes.

His Reputation In time Was Such, That His Name Was Thought Necessary To

The Success Of Every Poetical Or Literary Performance, And, Therefore,

He Was Engaged to Contribute Something, Whatever It Might Be, To Many

Publications. He Prefixed the Life Of Polybius To The Translation Of Sir

Henry Sheers; And Those Of Lucian And Plutarch, To Versions Of Their

Works By Different Hands. Of The English Tacitus He Translated the First

Book; And, If Gordon Be Credited, Translated it From The French. Such A

Charge Can Hardly Be Mentioned without Some Degree Of Indignation; But

It Is Not, I Suppose, So Much To Be Inferred, That Dryden Wanted the

Literature Necessary To The Perusal Of Tacitus, As That, Considering

Himself As Hidden In a Crowd, He Had No Awe Of The Publick; And, Writing

Merely For Money, Was Contented to Get It By The Nearest Way.

In 1680, The Epistles Of Ovid Being translated by The Poets Of The Time,

Among Which One Was The Work Of Dryden[110], And Another Of Dryden And

Lord Mulgrave, It Was Necessary To Introduce Them By A Preface; And

Dryden, Who On Such Occasions Was Regularly Summoned, Prefixed a

Discourse Upon Translation, Which Was Then Struggling for The Liberty

That It Now Enjoys. Why It Should Find Any Difficulty In breaking the

Shackles Of Verbal Interpretation, Which Must For Ever Debar It From

Elegance, It Would Be Difficult To Conjecture, Were Not The Power Of

Prejudice Every Day Observed. The Authority Of Jonson, Sandys, And

Holiday, Had Fixed the Judgment Of The Nation; And It Was Not Easily

Believed that A Better Way Could Be Found Than They Had Taken, Though

Fanshaw, Denham, Waller, And Cowley, Had Tried to Give Examples Of A

Different Practice.

In 1681 Dryden Became Yet More Conspicuous By Uniting politicks With

Poetry, In the Memorable Satire, Called absalom And Achitophel, Written

Against The Faction Which, By Lord Shaftesbury'S Incitement, Set The Duke

Of Monmouth At Its Head.

Of This Poem, In which Personal Satire Was Applied to The Support Of

Publick Principles, And In which, Therefore, Every Mind Was Interested,

The Reception Was Eager, And The Sale So Large, That My Father, An Old

Bookseller, Told Me, He Had Not Known It Equalled but By Sacheverell'S

Trial.

The Reason Of This General Perusal Addison Has Attempted to Derive From

The Delight Which The Mind Feels In the Investigation Of Secrets; And

Thinks That Curiosity To Decipher The Names, Procured readers To The

Poem. There Is No Need to Inquire Why Those Verses Were Read, Which, To

All The Attractions Of Wit, Elegance, And Harmony, Added the Cooperation

Of All The Factious Passions, And Filled every Mind With Triumph Or

Resentment.

It Could Not Be Supposed that All The Provocation Given By Dryden, Would

Be Endured without Resistance Or Reply. Both His Person And His Party

Were Exposed, In their Turns, To The Shafts Of Satire, Which, Though

Neither So Well Pointed, Nor, Perhaps, So Well Aimed, Undoubtedly Drew

Blood.

One Of These Poems Is Called, Dryden'S Satire On His Muse; Ascribed,

Though, As Pope Says, Falsely, To Somers, Who Was Afterwards Chancellor.

The Poem, Whosesoever It Was, Has Much Virulence, And Some Sprightliness.

The Writer Tells All The Ill That He Can Collect Both Of Dryden And His

Friends.

The Poem Of Absalom And Achitophel Had Two Answers, Now Both Forgotten;

One Called azaria And Hushai; The Other, Absalom Senior. Of These Hostile

Compositions, Dryden Apparently Imputes Absalom Senior To Settle, By

Quoting in his Verses Against Him The Second Line. Azaria And Hushai Was,

As Wood Says, Imputed to Him, Though It Is Somewhat Unlikely That He

Should Write Twice On The Same Occasion. This Is A Difficulty Which

I Cannot Remove, For Want Of A Minuter Knowledge Of Poetical

Transactions[111].

The Same Year He Published the Medal, Of Which The Subject Is A

Medal Struck On Lord Shaftesbury'S Escape From A Prosecution, By The

_Ignoramus_ Of A Grand Jury Of Londoners.

In Both Poems He Maintains The Same Principles, And Saw Them Both

Attacked by The Same Antagonist. Elkanah Settle, Who Had Answered

Absalom, Appeared with Equal Courage In opposition To The Medal, And

Published an Answer Called, The Medal Reversed, With So Much Success

In Both Encounters, That He Left The Palm Doubtful, And Divided the

Suffrages Of The Nation. Such Are The Revolutions Of Fame, Or Such Is

The Prevalence Of Fashion, That The Man, Whose Works Have Not Yet Been

Thought To Deserve The Care Of Collecting them, Who Died forgotten In

An Hospital, And Whose Latter Years Were Spent In contriving shows For

Fairs, And Carrying an Elegy Or Epithalamium, Of Which The Beginning and

End Were Occasionally Varied, But The Intermediate Parts Were Always The

Same, To Every House Where There Was A Funeral Or A Wedding, Might With

Truth Have Had Inscribed upon His Stone:

  Here Lies The Rival And Antagonist Of Dryden.

Settle Was, For This Rebellion, Severely Chastised by Dryden, Under The

Name Of Doeg, In the Second Part Of Absalom And Achitophel; And Was,

Perhaps, For His Factious Audacity, Made The City Poet, Whose Annual

Office Was To Describe The Glories Of The Mayor'S Day. Of These Bards He

Was The Last, And Seems Not Much To Have Deserved even This Degree Of

Regard, If It Was Paid To His Political Opinions; For He Afterwards Wrote

A Panegyrick On The Virtues Of Judge Jefferies; And What More Could Have

Been Done By The Meanest Zealot For Prerogative?

Of Translated fragments, Or Occasional Poems, To Enumerate The Titles, Or

Settle The Dates, Would Be Tedious, With Little Use. It May Be Observed,

That, As Dryden'S Genius Was Commonly Excited by Some Personal Regard, He

Rarely Writes Upon A General Topick.

Soon After The Accession Of King james, When The Design Of Reconciling

The Nation To The Church Of Rome Became Apparent, And The Religion Of The

Court Gave The Only Efficacious Title To Its Favours, Dryden Declared

Himself A Convert To Popery. This, At Any Other Time, Might Have Passed

With Little Censure. Sir Kenelm Digby Embraced popery; The Two Reynolds'S

Reciprocally Converted one Another[112]; And Chillingworth Himself Was

Awhile So Entangled in the Wilds Of Controversy, As To Retire For Quiet

To An Infallible Church. If Men Of Argument And Study Can Find Such

Difficulties, Or Such Motives, As May Either Unite Them To The Church Of

Rome, Or Detain Them In uncertainty, There Can Be No Wonder That A Man,

Who, Perhaps, Never Inquired why He Was A Protestant, Should, By An

Artful And Experienced disputant, Be Made A Papist, Overborne By The

Sudden Violence Of New And Unexpected arguments, Or Deceived by A

Representation Which Shows Only The Doubts On One Part, And Only The

Evidence On The Other.

That Conversion Will Always Be Suspected that Apparently Concurs With

Interest. He That Never Finds His Errour Till It Hinders His Progress

Towards Wealth Or Honour, Will Not Be Thought To Love Truth Only For

Herself.

Yet It May Easily Happen That Information May Come At A Commodious Time;

And, As Truth And Interest Are Not By Any Fatal Necessity At Variance,

That One May By Accident Introduce The Other. When Opinions Are

Struggling into Popularity, The Arguments By Which They Are Opposed or

Defended become More Known; And He That Changes His Profession Would,

Perhaps, Have Changed it Before, With The Like Opportunities Of

Instruction. This Was Then The State Of Popery; Every Artifice Was Used

To Show It In its Fairest Form; And It Must Be Owned to Be A Religion Of

External Appearance Sufficiently Attractive.

It Is Natural To Hope That A Comprehensive Is, Likewise, An Elevated

Soul, And That Whoever Is Wise Is Also Honest. I Am Willing to Believe

That Dryden, Having employed his Mind, Active As It Was, Upon Different

Studies, And Filled it, Capacious As It Was, With Other Materials, Came

Unprovided to The Controversy, And Wanted rather Skill To Discover The

Right, Than Virtue To Maintain It. But Inquiries Into The Heart Are Not

For Man; We Must Now Leave Him To His Judge.

The Priests, Having strengthened their Cause By So Powerful An Adherent,

Were Not Long Before They Brought Him Into Action. They Engaged him To

Defend The Controversial Papers Found In the Strong Box Of Charles The

Second; And, What Yet Was Harder, To Defend Them Against Stillingfleet.

With Hopes Of Promoting popery, He Was Employed to Translate Maimbourg'S

History Of The League; Which He Published with A Large Introduction. His

Name Is, Likewise, Prefixed to The English Life Of Francis Xavier; But I

Know Not That He Ever Owned himself The Translator. Perhaps The Use Of

His Name Was A Pious Fraud, Which, However, Seems Not To Have Had Much

Effect; For Neither Of The Books, I Believe, Was Ever Popular.

The Version Of Xavier'S Life Is Commended by Brown, In a Pamphlet Not

Written To Flatter; And The Occasion Of It Is Said To Have Been, That The

Queen, When She Solicited a Son, Made Vows To Him As Her Tutelary Saint.

He Was Supposed to Have Undertaken To Translate Varillas'S History Of

Heresies; And, When Burnet Published remarks Upon It, To Have Written An

Answer[113]; Upon Which Burnet Makes The Following observation:

"I Have Been Informed from England, That A Gentleman, Who Is Famous

Both For Poetry And Several Other Things, Had Spent Three Months In

Translating m. Varillas'S History; But That, As Soon As My Reflections

Appeared, He Discontinued his Labour, Finding the Credit Of His Author

Was Gone. Now, If He Thinks It Is Recovered by His Answer, He Will,

Perhaps, Go On With His Translation; And This May Be, For Aught I Know,

As Good An Entertainment For Him As The Conversation That He Had Set On

Between The Hinds And Panthers, And All The Rest Of Animals, For Whom M.

Varillas May Serve Well Enough As An Author: And This History, And That

Poem, Are Such Extraordinary Things Of Their Kind, That It Will Be But

Suitable To See The Author Of The Worst Poem Become, Likewise, The

Translator Of The Worst History That The Age Has Produced. If His Grace

And His Wit Improve Both Proportionably, He Will Hardly Find That He Has

Gained much By The Change He Has Made, From Having no Religion, To Choose

One Of The Worst. It Is True, He Had Somewhat To Sink From In matter Of

Wit; But, As For His Morals, It Is Scarce Possible For Him To Grow

A Worse Man Than He Was. He Has Lately Wreaked his Malice On Me For

Spoiling his Three Months' Labour; But In it He Has Done Me All The

Honour That Any Man Can Receive From Him, Which Is To Be Railed at By

Him. If I Had Ill-Nature Enough To Prompt Me To Wish A Very Bad Wish For

Him, It Should Be, That He Would Go On And Finish His Translation. By

That It Will Appear, Whether The English Nation, Which Is The Most

Competent Judge In this Matter, Has, Upon The Seeing our Debate,

Pronounced in m. Varillas'S Favour, Or In mine. It Is True, Mr. D. Will

Suffer A Little By It; But, At Least, It Will Serve To Keep Him In from

Other Extravagancies; And If He Gains Little Honour By This Work, Yet He

Cannot Lose So Much By It As He Has Done By His Last Employment."

Having, Probably, Felt His Own Inferiority In theological Controversy, He

Was Desirous Of Trying whether, By Bringing poetry To Aid His Arguments,

He Might Be'Come A More Efficacious Defender Of His New Profession. To

Reason In verse Was, Indeed, One Of His Powers; But Subtilty And Harmony,

United, Are Still Feeble, When Opposed to Truth.

Actuated, Therefore, By Zeal For Rome, Or Hope Of Fame, He Published the

Hind And Panther, A Poem In which The Church Of Rome, Figured by The

_Milk-White Hind_, Defends Her Tenets Against The Church Of England,

Represented by The _Panther_, A Beast Beautiful, But Spotted.

A Fable Which Exhibits Two Beasts Talking theology, Appears, At Once,

Full Of Absurdity; And It Was Accordingly Ridiculed in the City Mouse And

Country Mouse, A Parody, Written By Montague, Afterwards Earl Of Halifax,

And Prior, Who Then Gave The First Specimen Of His Abilities.

The Conversion Of Such A Man, At Such A Time, Was Not Likely To Pass

Uneensured. Three Dialogues Were Published by The Facetious Thomas Brown,

Of Which The Two First Were Called reasons Of Mr. Bayes'S Changing his

Religion; And The Third, The Reasons Of Mr. Hains The Player'S Conversion

And Reconversion. The First Was Printed in 1688, The Second Not Till

1690, The Third In 1691. The Clamour Seems To Have Been Long Continued,

And The