therefore, I will set two of their discourses, on the same subject, in the same light, an old woman of mean parentage, whom a youthful knight of noble blood was I prefer in our countryman, far above all his other stories, the noble poem of "Palamon and Arcite," which is of the epic kind, and perhaps not much inferior to The story is more pleasing than either of them, the the Ilias or the Æneis. manners as perfect, the diction as poetical, the learning as deep and various, and the disposition full as artful; only it includes a greater length of time, as taking up seven years at least; but Aristotle has left undecided the duration of the action, which yet is easily reduced into the compass of a year by a narration of what preceded the return of Palamon to Athens. I had thought for the honour of our nation, and more particularly for his whose laurel, though unworthy, I have worn after him, that this story was of English growth and Chaucer's own; but I was undeceived by Boccace; for, casually looking on the end of his seventh Giornata, I found Dioneo (under which name he shadows himself,) and Fiametta (who represents his mistress, the natural daughter of Robert, king of Naples,) of whom these words are spoken,-Dioneo e lo Fiametta gran pezza cantarono insieme d'Arcita, e di Palamone: by which it appears that this story was written before the time of Boccace; but the name of its author being wholly lost, Chaucer is now become an original; and I question not but the poem has received many beauties by passing through his noble hands. Besides this tale, there is another of his own invention, after the manner of the Provençals, called "The Flower and the Leaf," with which I was so particularly pleased, both for the invention and the moral, that I cannot hinder myself from recommending it to the reader. As a corollary to this preface, in which I have done justice to others, I owe somewhat to myself: not that I think it worth my time to enter the lists with one Milbourn and one Blackmore, but barely to take notice that such men there are who have written scurrilously against me, without any provocation.* Milbourn, who is in orders, pretends amongst the rest this quarrel to me, that I have fallen foul on priesthood. If I have, I am only to ask pardon of good priests, and am Let him be satisfied that afraid his part of the reparation will come to little. he shall not be able to force himself upon me for an adversary. I contemn him His own translations of Virgil too much to enter into competition with him. If (as they say he has declared in print) have answered his criticisms on mine. For other notices of Dryden's revilers, Milbourn and Blackmore, see the Epistle to John Driden, p. 326, and the Prologue to the Pilgrim, p. 483. he prefers the version of Ogilby to mine, the world has made him the same compliment; for it is agreed on all hands that he writes even below Ogilby. That, you will say, is not easily to be done: but what cannot Milbourn bring about? I am satisfied, however, that while he and I live together, I shall not be thought the worst poet of the age. It looks as if I had desired him underhand to write so ill against me; but, upon my honest word, I have not bribed him to do me this service, and am wholly guiltless of his pamphlet. 'Tis true, I should be glad if I could persuade him to continue his good offices, and write such another critique on anything of mine; for I find by experience he has a great stroke with the reader, when he condemns any of my poems, to make the world have a better opinion of them. He has taken some pains with my poetry; but nobody will be persuaded to take the same with his. If I had taken to the church (as he affirms, but which was never in my thoughts), I should have had more sense, if not more grace, than to have turned myself out of my benefice by writing libels on my parishioners. But his account of my manners and my principles are of a piece with his cavils and his poetry: and so have done with him for ever. As for the City Bard or Knight Physician, I hear his quarrel to me is, that I was the author of " Absalom and Achitophel," which he thinks is a little hard on his fanatic patrons in London. But I will deal the more civilly with his two poems, because nothing ill is to be spoken of the dead: and therefore peace be to the manes of his Arthurs.* I will only say, that it was not for this noble knight that I drew the plan of an epic poem on King Arthur, in my preface to the translation of Juvenal. The guardian angels of kingdoms were machines too ponderous for him to manage; and there. fore he rejected them, as Dares did the whirlbats of Eryx, when they were thrown before him by Entellus. Yet from that preface he plainly took his hint: for he began immediately upon the story; though he had the baseness not to acknowledge his benefactor, but, instead of it, to traduce me in a libel. I shall say the less of Mr. Collier, because in many things he has taxed me justly; and I have pleaded guilty to all thoughts and expressions of mine, which can be truly argued of obscenity, profaneness, or immorality; and retract them. If he be my enemy, let him triumph; if he be my friend, as I have given him no personal occasion to be otherwise, he will be glad of my repentance. It becomes me not to draw my pen in the defence of a bad cause, when I have so often drawn it for a good one. Yet it were not difficult to prove that in many places he has perverted my meaning by his glosses; and interpreted my words into blasphemy and bawdry, of which they were not guilty; besides that he is too much given to horse-play in his raillery; and comes to battle like a dictator from the plough. I will not say, The zeal of God's house has eaten him up; but I am sure it has devoured some part of his good manners and civility. It might also be doubted whether it were altogether zeal, which prompted him to this rough manner of proceeding; perhaps it became not one of his function to rake into the rubbish of ancient and modern plays; a divine might have employed his pains to better * Blackmore's two epic poems, "Prince Arthur" and "King Arthur." + See Virgil's Eneas, vv. 394, seq. Entellus with the "cestus" of Eryx. gauntlets in his Translation of Virgil. Translated by Dryden : In the Trojan games in Sicily Dares refused to fight "The gloves of death, with seven distinguished folds purpose than in the nastiness of Plautus and Aristophanes; whose examples, as they excuse not me, so it might be possibly supposed, that he read them not without some pleasure. They who have written commentaries on these poets, or on Horace, Juvenal, or Martial, have explained some vices, which without their Neither has he judged impar interpretation had been unknown to modern times. tially betwixt the former age and us. : There is more bawdry in one play of Fletcher's, called "The Custom of the Country," than in all ours together. Yet this has been often acted on the stage in my remembrance. Are the times so much more reformed now than they were five and twenty years ago? If they are, I congratulate the amendment of our morals. But I am not to prejudice the cause of my fellow-poets, though I abandon my own defence they have some of them answered for themselves, and neither they nor I can think Mr. Collier so formidable an enemy that we should shun him. He has lost ground at the latter end of the day, by pursuing his point too far, like the Prince of Condé at the battle of Senneffe: from immoral plays to no plays, ab abusu ad usum non valet consequentia. But being a party, I am not to erect myself into Blackmore a judge. As for the rest of those who have written against me, they are such scoundrels that they deserve not the least notice to be taken of them. and Milbourn are only distinguished from the crowd by being remembered to their infamy. "Demetri, teque Tigelli Discipularum inter jubeo plorare cathedras."* TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND, WITH THE FOLLOWING POEM OF PALAMON AND ARCITE FROM CHAUCER. MADAM, The bard who first adorned our native tongue Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song; Which Homer might without a blush reherse, He matched their beauties, where they most excel; 5 Of love sung better, and of arms as well. What power the charms of beauty had of old; Inspired by two fair eyes that sparkled like your own. If Chaucer by the best idea wrought, And poets can divine each other's thought, * Hor. Sat. i. 1o. + Dryden here says of Chaucer in reference to Virgil what Juvenal said of Virgil in reference to Homer: "Conditor Iliadis cantabitur, atque Maronis The fairest nymph before his eyes he set ; Who three contending princes made her prize, Like her, of equal kindred to the throne, 15 20 At length have rolled around the liquid space, At certain periods they resume their place, From the same point of heaven their course advance, And conquering Theseus from his side had sent Your generous lord, to guide the Theban government. A Palamon in him, in you an Emily. Heaved up the lightened keel, and sunk the sand,§ 50 Scott thinks this Plantagenet lady was Blanche, first wife of John, duke of Gaunt. Mr. Craik, in his "History of English Literature" (vol. ii. p. 162), suggests that it is more likely to be Joan, daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, earl of Kent, second son of Edward I., famous as the Fair Maid of Kent, and married for the third and last time to Edward the Black Prince, by whom she was the mother of Richard II. She was firstly the wife of Thomas Holland, son of the Lord Holland, and secondly of William Montague, carl of Salisbury. Thus it may be explained how she made three contending princes her prize: and she is believed to be the Countess of Salisbury who gave the Order of the Garter its name. The daughter of the Duke of Beaufort lineally descended from Edward II. through John of Gaunt would be described as "of equal kindred to the throne" with the daughter of Edward I., and as "born of her blood." Fatal, in the sense of fated, destined. "Etesian gale," an annual wind here described as a soft one. § Portunus, the protector of harbours in Roman mythology. See "Astræa Redux," 121, and This is an imitation of Virgil: note. "Et pater ipse manu magna Portunus euntem Impulit."-En. v. 241. The land, if not restrained, had met your way,* His father and his grandsire known to fame; At your approach, they crowded to the port; 55 60 The waste of civil wars, their towns destroyed, 65 Blood, rapines, massacres, were cheaply bought, 70 75 To sign inviolable peace restored; The saints with solemn shouts proclaimed the new accord. When at your second coming you appear, 80 (For I foretell that millenary year) The sharpened share shall vex the soil no more, But earth unbidden shall produce her store; The land shall laugh, the circling ocean smile, And Heaven's indulgence bless the holy isle. 85 • This idea is carried further in "Astræa Redux," where the land, unrestrained, meets Charles on his way back to England to be king: + Kerns, Irish peasants. "It is no longer motion cheats your view; "The Irish kern" (Ann. Mirab. 157): "Like a shag-haired crafty kern." SHAKESPEARE, Henry VI. Part II. act iii. sc. 1. 1 "To hear the reins" is a classical expression, which has been lost in all the modern editions after Derrick, who changed hear into bear. "Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas." "The horse's ear," said Horace, "is in his bridled mouth." The Duchess of Ormond had gone to Ireland in 1697, followed shortly after by the Duke. Pales the goddess of sheep-pastures, and Ceres of corn. The simile of the dove was similarly used by Dryden in complimenting the Queen of England on her coming to the theatre in 1682. See the Prologue, p. 136. |