Ut critici dicunt, leviter curare videtur Quò promissa cadant, et somnia Pythagorea. Nævius in manibus non est: at mentibus hæret Penè recens: dadeò sanctum est vetus omne poema. Ambigitur quoties, uter utro sit prior; aufert NOTES. Dryden does, indeed, call them so, but very undeservedly. The truth is, he was not enough acquainted with the manners of the preceding age, to judge competently of them. Besides, nothing is more inconstant than his characters of his own country poets, nor less reasonable than most of his critical notions; for he had many occasional ends to serve, and few principles to go upon. This may be said as to the character of his critical works in general, though written with great elegance and vivacity. Warburton. This censure of Dryden's critical works is surely too severe. Warton. Ver. 69. and every play-house bill] A ridicule on those who talk of Shakespear, because he is in fashion; who, if they dared to do justice to their taste or conscience, would own they liked Durfey better. Warburton. Ver. 71. For gain, not glory,] I believe this perfectly true of Shakespear, but not of Ben Jonson; who was not made, as was Shakespear, a poet by accident, but had spent his life in a close study of the art. And as some of his plays, particularly the Silent Woman, were the first models of just comedy in our language, he could not, with propriety, be substituted for the ruder writers of Rome. The expression in verse 74, the life to come, is somewhat licentious. Warton. For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight, But still I love the language of his heart. е In all debates where critics bear a part, 75 80 Not one but nods, and talks of Jonson's art. NOTES. Ver. 72. in his own despite.] It was a good idea of Foote's, that Shakespear only meant to write farces; but the fine poetry, &c. he threw in gratis. Bowles. Ver. 77. Forgot his epic,] Rhymer absurdly prefers the Davideis to the Jerusalem of Tasso. Warton. Ver. 77. Pindaric art,] Which has much more merit than his epic, but very unlike the character, as well as numbers of Pindar. Pope. Ver. 83. Cowley's wit;] Why mention Cowley, when only dramatic writers are spoken of, and characterised? In verse 85, he alludes to a line of Rochester on Shadwell and Wycherley. It is plain he was only copying the trite and trivial opinions of the pretenders to taste, by omitting Otway, and mentioning only Southerne and Rowe, as masters of the pathetic; but whose Isabella and Jane Shore may in truth be almost put in competition with Belvidera. It is singular that Horace, in the original, should mention Afranius only as the copier of Menander, and not Te * Cowley wrote four plays. Bowles. rence. Spectat Roma potens; 'habet hos, numeratque poëtas Ad nostrum tempus, Livî scriptoris ab ævo. 'Interdum vulgus rectum videt: est ubi peccat. Si "veteres ita miratur laudatque poëtas, NOTES. rence. Instead of Livi, meaning Livius Andronicus, in the succeeding lines, Bentley would read Lævi; because he says that Livius Andronicus was too obsolete to be read by the scholars of Orbilius. Warton. Ver. 85. Shadwell hasty, Wycherley was slow;] Nothing was less true than this particular. But the whole paragraph has a mixture of irony, and must not altogether be taken for Horace's own judgment, only the common chat of the pretenders to criticism; in some things right, in others, wrong; as he tells us in his answer: "Interdum vulgus rectum videt: est ubi peccat." Pope. Ver. 85. How Shadwell hasty,] These lines answer to lines 58, 59, in the original. Dr. Hurd observes, that Menander and his follower, Terence, were not admired by the Roman writers till after the Augustan age. The reason was, "that popular eloquence which continued, in a good degree of vigour, to that time, participating more of the freedom of the old comic banter, and rejecting, as improper to its end, the refinements of the new, insensibly depraved the public taste; which, by degrees only, and nottill a studied and cautious declamation had, by the necessary influence of absolute power, succeeded to the liberty of their old oratory, was fully reconciled to the delicacy and strict decorum of Menander's wit." Warton. Ver. 89. the people's voice is odd;] The capricious levity of popular opinion hath been noted even to a proverb: and yet it is this, which, after all, fixes the fate of authors. This seemingly odd phænomenon I would thus account for: what is usually complimented with the high and reverend appellation of public judgment is, in any single instance, but the repetition or echo, for the most part eagerly catched and strongly reverberated on all sides, of a few leading voices, which have happened to gain the How Shadwell hasty, Wycherley was slow; NOTES. 85 90 the confidence, and so direct the cry of the public. But, (as, in fact, it too often falls out,) this prerogative of the few may be abused to the prejudice of the many. The partialities of friendship, the fashionableness of the writer, his compliance with the reigning taste, the lucky concurrence of time and opportunity, the cabal of a party, nay, the very freaks of whim and caprice; these, or any of them, as occasion serves, can support the dullest, as the opposite disadvantages can depress the noblest performance and give a currency or neglect to either, far beyond what the genuine character of each demands. Hence the public voice, which is but the aggregate of these corrupt judgments, infinitely multiplied, is, with the wise, at such a juncture, deservedly of little esteem. Yet, in a succession of such judgments, delivered at different times, and by different sets or juntos of these sovereign arbiters of the fate of authors, the public opinion naturally gets clear of these accidental corruptions. Every fresh succession shakes off some; till, by degrees, the work is seen in its proper form, unsupported of every other recommendation, than what its native inherent excellence bestows upon it. Then, and not till then, the voice of the people becomes sacred; after which it soon advances into divinity, before which all ages must fall down and worship. For now reason alone, without her corrupt assessors, takes the chair; and her sentence, when once promulgated and authorised by the general voice, fixes the unalterable doom of authors: Όλως καλα νομιζε ύψη και αληθινά, τα διαπαντος αρεσκοντα και Taow. Longinus, Sect. 7. Hurd. Ver. 91. Gammer Gurton] A piece of very low humour, one of Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet, errat: NOTES. of the first printed plays in English, and therefore much valued by some antiquaries. Pope. It was written by J. Still, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells. If our author had been more acquainted with, and had not so much despised, our old plays, he would have acquitted himself better in his edition of Shakespear. A correct* edition of this comedy, written 1551, was given by Mr. R. Dodsley, in his valuable collection of Old Plays; a publication which had the merit of exciting an attention to our ancient writers. Warton. J. Still was born at Grantham in Lincolnshire, 1542, and educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. Ellis. T. Warton and Ellis have both quoted his pleasant ballad, introduced in Gammer Gurton, of "Jolly good ale, and old." "I love no roast but a nut-brown toast, And a crab laid in the fire; A little bread shall do me stead, Much bread I not desire : No frost, no snow, no wind, I trow, I am so wrapt and thoroughly capt, Of jolly good ale, and old." Sir John Harrington thus speaks of him: "But what STILE shall I use to set forth this STILL, whom well nigh thirty yeeres since, my reverend tutor in Cambridge stiled by this name, Divine Still, &c. who was often content to grace my young exercises with his venerable presense, who, from that time to this, hath given me some helps, more hopes, and some encouragements, in my best studies? To whom I never came but I grew more religious, from whom I never went but I parted better instructed.”—(State of the Church.) Bowles. * Stevens says, "very incorrect." Bowles. |