LETTER V. FROM MR. WALSH. Sept. 9, 1706. Ar my return from the North I received the favour Ат of your letter, which had lain there till then. Having been absent about six weeks, I read over your Pastorals again, with a great deal of pleasure, and to judge the better read Virgil's Eclogues, and Spencer's Calendar, at the same time; and, I assure you, I continue the same opinion I had always of them. By the little hints you take upon all occasions to improve them, it is probable you will make them yet better against winter; though there is a mean to be kept even in that too, and a man may correct his verses till he takes away the true spirit of them; especially if he submits to the correction of some who pass for great Critics, by mechanical rules, and never enter into the true design and Genius of an author. I have seen some of these that would hardly allow any one good Ode in Horace, who cry Virgil wants fancy, and that Homer is very incorrect. While they talk at this rate, one would think them above the common rate of mortals: But generally they are great admirers of Ovid and Lucan; and when they write themselves, we find out all the mystery. They scan their verses upon their fingers; run after Conceits and glaring thoughts: Their poems are all made up of Couplets1, of which the first may be the last, or the last first, without any sort of prejudice to their works; in which there is no design, or method, or any thing natural or just. For you are certainly in the right, that in all writings whatsoever (not poetry only) nature is to be followed; and we should be jealous of ourselves for being fond of Similies, Conceits, and what they call saying fine Things. When we were in the North, my Lord Wharton shewed me a letter he had received from a certain great General in Spain; I told him I would by all means3 have that General recalled and set to writing here at home, for it was impossible that a man with so much Wit as he shewed, could be fit to command an Army, or do any other business. As for what you say of Expression: It is indeed the same thing to Wit, as Dress is to Beauty: I have seen many women over-dressed, and several look better in a careless night-gown, with their hair about their ears, than Mademoiselle Spanheim dressed for a ball. I do not design to be in London till towards the parliament: then I shall certainly be there; and hope by that time you will have finished your Pas 1 The most usual and common blemish of all modern English poetry; and in great measure occasioned, and almost unavoidably, by the nature and use of rhyme. 2 The Earl of Peterborow. 3 It is maxim, says Hume, propagated by the dunces of all countries, that a man of genius is unfit for business. 4 Mr. Walsh's remark will be thought very innocent, when the reader is informed that it was made on the Earl of Peterborow, just before the glorious campaigns of Barcelona and Valentia. P. torals as you would have them appear in the world, and particularly the third, of Autumn, which I have not yet seen. Your last Eclogue being upon the same subject as that of mine on Mrs. Tempest's Death, I should take it very kindly in you to give it a little turn, as if it were to the memory of the same Lady, if they were not written for some particular Woman whom you would make immortal. You may take occasion to shew the difference between Poets' Mistresses, and other men's. I only hint this, which you may either do, or let alone, just as you think fit. I shall be very much pleased to see you again in Town, and to hear from you in the mean time. I I am, with very much esteem, Your, etc. LETTER VI. Oct. 22, 1706. AFTER the thoughts I have already sent you on the subject of English Versification, you desire my opinion as to some farther particulars. There are indeed certain Niceties", which, though not much observed even by correct versifiers, I cannot but think, deserve to be better regarded. 1. It is not enough that nothing offends the ear, 5 There are perhaps readers that will say these niceties remind them of Eschylus and Euripides weighing their verses carefully in a pair of scales, in the fifth act of the Frogs of Aristophanes. • An uncommon maturity of taste and judgment, in so young a person as our author, appears in these remarks on English but a good poet will adapt the very Sounds, as well as Words, to the things he treats of. So that there is (if one may express it so) a Style of Sound. As in describing a gliding stream, the numbers should run easy and flowing; in describing a rough torrent or deluge, sonorous and swelling, and so of the rest. This is evident every where in Homer and Virgil, and no where else, that I know of, to any observable degree. The following examples will make this plain, which I have taken from Vida. Molle viam tacito lapsu per lævia radit. Telum imbelle sine ictu conjecit. 'Tolle moras, cape saxa manu, cape robora, Pastor. This, I think, is what very few observe in practice, and is undoubtedly of wonderful force in imprinting the image on the reader: We have one excellent example of it in our language, Mr. Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's day, entitled, Alexander's Feast. 2. Every nice ear must (I believe) have observed, that in any smooth English verse of ten syllables, there is naturally a Pause at the fourth, fifth, or sixth syllable. It is upon these the ear rests, and upon the Versification. This subject has been since much enlarged upon, and more amply discussed, by several writers of considerable abilities, particularly by Lord Kaimes, and Dr. Blair, by the learned Mr. Samuel Say, and above all, by the ingenious Mr. Webb, in his Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry, and in Observations on Poetry and Music. Cowley, in his excellent notes on his Davideis, has given some good remarks on this Representative Versification. judicious change and management of which depends the variety of Versification. For example: At the fifth. Where'er thy navy | spreads her canvas wings, At the fourth. Homage to thee | and peace to all she brings. At the sixth. Like tracts of leverets | in morning snow. Now I fancy, that, to preserve an exact Harmony and Variety, the Pause at the 4th or 6th should not 7 A rule he himself did not always observe; for he continued the pause at the fourth syllable, sometimes, through six verses together. On her white breast So on, for the six following lines; and also in Essay on Man; Ep. I. v. 269. How tiresome and disgusting is the perpetual monotony of the French Versification, in which the pause always falls on the sixth syllable, each line consisting of twelve syllables, as in our Alexandrine; C'est en vain qu'au Parnasse | un temeraire Auteur Pense de l'Art des Vers | atteindre la hauteur. The Nymphs in twilight shades of tangled thickets mourn. The remarks in this letter relate solely to rhyme, and extend not to that superior harmony of which blank verse is susceptible, by varying these pauses, and fixing it on any of the ten syllables of which the line is composed; many examples of which there are in Milton, from the first syllable to the ninth, which has given to his Versification so much harmony and variety. Let the defenders of rhyme consider these words of one of the best of critics; "Similitudine tædium ac satietatem creat; quodque est dulcius, magis perit; amittitque et fidem, et affectus, motusque omnes." QUINTIL. Instit. Orat. 9. c. 4. |