into fame as a writer of satirical verse, he had already given ample proof of his capacity in this direction. His satirical power had, in fact, been slowly but surely developed. As a boy at Westminster he had translated the third satire of Persius; as a poet he seems to have helped the Earl of Mulgrave in the 1679. composition of 'An Essay upon Satire'; as a writer for the stage his happiest efforts were felt to be those prologues and epilogues in which he used his gift of didactic declamation to deal satirically with the manners and opinions of the day. The fact that the 1673. prologue and epilogue to 'Amboyna' consist almost 1662. entirely of lines transferred from The Satire on the Dutch' illustrates the satirical tendency of these 'sallies of badinage occasionally intermixed with a grain of salt satire, or doing duty as acid invectives or patriotic bluster," wherein we can trace surely enough the same qualities which, in their perfection, distinguished Absalom,' 'The Medal,' ' MacFlecknoc,' and still flavour 'The Hind and the Panther,' and the Preface to the 'Fables.' If satire is the product of the intellect rather than of the imagination, the power of reasoning in verse is akin to it. In his plays Dryden had shown a delight in this exercise, and had been laughed at in the Rehearsal' for the habit. In Absalom and Achitophel' he gave Buckingham a Zimri for his Bayes. Vigour and finish, directness and stinging invective, but, above all, discrimination and selfrestraint, render this the greatest, as it was the most effective, of English political satires. Polished in detail and irresistibly fluent, it loses none of its edge through the simple, allegorical form under which the political state of England was represented by the 1 Ward, 'English Poets.' 2 Reasoning? I' gad I love reasoning in verse.'-Buckingham's 'Rehearsal' (1671). courtly Laureate. The simplicity of aim makes Absalom effective as Hudibras could never be. Felicity of language and pleasing harmony of numbers heighten the skilful characterization. Almost alone among satirists Dryden is a master of light and shade. Refusing to deal his blows indiscriminately, he increases the severity of his attack. Further, the tone and quality of the satire is excellently adapted to the persons satirized. The manner in which Oates is held up to scorn differs rightly from that in which Shaftesbury is gibbeted. The character of Shimei is drawn after Butler's manner, but that of Absalom is tender and noble. Following the example of Shadwell, Settle, and the other Whig scribblers, Dryden gladly applies 'personal satire to the support of public principles," and takes ample revenge on Zimri. This character, however, as he himself declares, is not bloody, but ridiculous enough," whilst even Achitophel receives praise where praise is deserved. He tells us that he purposely rebated the satire from carrying too sharp an edge. This moderation, due, no doubt, in some degree to the peculiar political circumstances, is the most remarkable feature of this wonderful poem, which comprised, in Johnson's words, all the excellences of which the subject is capable. It is a feature which is lacking in 'The Medal,' for the situation had changed. The idea of taking as a subject the medal struck by the Whigs to celebrate the liberation of Shaftesbury is said to have originated with Charles himself. The execution is perfect in vehemence and vigour. With overwhelming directness, with poignant and unsparing personality, Dryden ridiculed 'this piece of notorious impudence.' In 'the representation of the Whigs' 1 Johnson, 'Life of Dryden.' 1 2 Essay on the Origin and Progress of Satire.' own hero,' every point in Shaftesbury's character is damned so exhaustively that the words of 'my Uncle Toby' leap to our lips: 'I declare my heart would not let me curse the devil himself with so much bitterness." So terrible was the severity of this attack that it probably hastened Shaftesbury's end. But such severity reflects on the author. It lays him open to the charge of profanity and cruelty, and does credit rather to his head than to his heart. This note is repeated in 'Mac Flecknoe,' one of the best as well as one of the severest of our purely literary satires. The occasion of it rose directly out of the publication of 'The Medal'; the object was the castigation of Thomas Shadwell, who, besides being a better dramatist than Dryden, had dared to reply on behalf of the Whigs in a scurrilous skit entitled 'The Medal of John Bayes.' He therefore is the hero of the piece, chosen by Flecknoe to inherit the throne of dulness. Exquisitely satirical, the matter of' Mac Flecknoe' is keen, vigorous, and crushing, the versification finished and skilful. In the qualities of spite and polish it must yield perhaps to its literary offspring, the Dunciad '; but MacFlecknoe' still excels by virtue of its blistering simplicity. Shadwell was lashed yet again, and with tenfold severity, in the second part of Absalom and Achitophel.' Of this, Dryden's 200 lines are as powerful as ever, and the characters of Shadwell and Settle, as Og and Doeg, are 'painted in the liveliest colours that his poignant satire could afford."2 Nahum Tate's work is by no means bad; but Tate was nearer to Brady than to Dryden, and his rushlight burns dimly in the brilliant blaze of Dryden's genius. Once again Dryden broke out against his critics, 1 'Tristram Shandy,' Book III., chap. ii. 2 Hooper. and handled Sir Richard Blackmore1 satirically in the Preface to the Fables,' and still more severely in the last lines he ever wrote.2 His translation of Juvenal we may dismiss with Johnson's dictum that it' preserves the wit, but wants the dignity of the original." Virgilium vidi tantum, Alexander Pope used to say; but though he was only a precocious lad of twelve years when Dryden died, his work as a satirist may best be gauged by comparing his qualities with those of the older poet, whose versification he had distinguished as the model to be copied.1 By this time the influence of the critical school founded by Boileau dominated Europe. Imagination had been well-nigh driven from the land; antithesis and precision, elegance of diction and technical skill reigned supreme. The last flicker of idealism seemed extinguished. The age of criticism and reason was at hand. Good sense expressed in epigrammatic verse took the place of emotional poetry, and found its most successful exponents in those moral poets whose satire was addressed to good society rather than to human nature, chastening manners rather than the source of them in the soul. Pope's position in literature is that in this. province he is perfect in execution and pre-eminent in wit. His success was the apotheosis of point and polish. This success he first achieved with the Essay on Criticism,' which displays a ripeness of judgment, firmness of touch, and excel 1 He had written a 'Satire upon Wit,' suggesting 'a bank for wit,' and in this was very severe upon Dryden. 2 Prologue to Fletcher's' Pilgrim,' 1700. 3 Johnson, Life of Dryden.' Wycherley is worth mentioning here for his friendship with Pope, rather than for the obscene doggerel of which his satires are composed. lence of craftsmanship little short of marvellous for a boy of twenty-one. In the Rape of the Lock,' the poet of society, the delineator of manners, first declares himself, laughing at the 'little unguarded follies of the female sex. In this poem, in which the 'heroic style is set in satirical juxtaposition with cares, events, and modes of thought with which it is in comical antipathy," the satire is of the most pleasing and smiling sort. But, however much we may admire the bright fancy and 'merum sal' of this delicious. little thing," we cannot choose but feel that the edge of the satire is somewhat blunted by the essential triviality of the incidents in a triumph of insignificance. 5 94 The 'Dunciad suffers from something of the same defect; where Pope rages against contemptible persons his vehemence is superfluous, where he attacks great men the libel reflects chiefly on himself. It was in 1728 that Pope, following Atterbury's advice, showed his satirical power in the 'Dunciad.' The object of this mock heroic poem, styled heroic as being doubly so," was, under the pretence of deifying dulness, to manifest the dulness of those who have only malice to recommend them.' Every vile scribbler of dull and dead scurrilities finds. a niche in this temple of infamy; all the' momentary monsters' and 'industrious bugs," all the Dunces of the day are preserved like flies in the amber of this fierce and brilliant work. Satire spreads its 2 Lowell. 3 Addison. · 4 Pope in his dedication to Lord Middlesex gives a history of the Dunciad' from its rise in the Treatise on Bathos.' 5 Advice founded on the first sketch of his satire on Addison. 6 Note to Preface. 7 'Dunciad.' |