that this place should be always disposed of according to merit, I would have none preferred to it who has not given convincing proofs both of a sound judgment and strong arm, and who could not, upon occasion, either knock down an ox, or write a comment upon Horace's Art of Poetry. In short, I would have him a due composition of Hercules and Apollo, and so rightly qualified for this important office, that the trunk-maker may not be missed by our posterity.—C. No. 592. Stage Properties; envious critics; greatness of Shakespeare. Studium sine divite vena. HOR. Ars Poet. v. 409. I look upon the play-house as a world within itself. They to have lately furnished the middle region of it with a new set of meteors, in order to give the sublime to many modern tragedies. I was there last winter at the first rehearsal of the new thunder, which is much more deep and sonorous than any hitherto made use of ". They have a Salmoneus behind the scenes who plays it off with great success". Their lightnings are made to flash more briskly than heretofore: their clouds are also better furbelowed, and more voluminous; not to mention a violent storm locked up in a great chest, that is designed for the Tempest. They are also provided with above a dozen showers 20 of snow, which, as I am informed, are the plays of many unsuccessful poets artificially cut and shreaded for that use. Mr. Rymer's Edgar is to fall in snow at the next acting of King Lear, in order to heighten, or rather to alleviate, the distress of that unfortunate prince; and to serve by way of decoration to a piece which that great critic has written against ". I do not indeed wonder that the actors should be such professed enemies to those among our nation who are commonly known by the name of critics, since it is a rule among these gentlemen to fall upon a play, not because it is ill written, but 30 because it takes. Several of them lay it down as a maxim, that whatever dramatic performance has a long run must of necessity be good for nothing; as though the first precept in poetry were, not to please. Whether this rule holds good or not, I shall leave to the determination of those who are better judges than myself i What can be greater than either the thought or the expression in that stanza? This way To drive the deer with hound and horn Earl Piercy took his way; The child may rue that is unborn The hunting of that day. of considering the misfortunes which this battle would bring upon posterity, not only on those who were born immediately after the battle, and lost their fathers in it, but on 10 those also who perished in future battles, which took their rise from this quarrel of the two earls, is wonderfully beautiful, and conformable to the way of thinking among the ancient poets. 20 30 40 What can be more sounding and poetical, or resemble more the majestic simplicity of the ancients, than the following stanzas? The stout Earl of Northumberland A vow to God did make, His pleasure in the Scottish woods With fifteen hundred bowmen bold, All chosen men of might, Who knew full well, in time of need, To aim their shafts aright. The hounds ran swiftly through the woods, And with their cries the hills and dales Vocat ingenti clamore Citharon Taygetique canes, domitrixque Epidaurus equorum: GEORG. iii. 43. Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come, Full twenty hundred Scottish spears, All men of pleasant Tividale, Fast by the river Tweed, etc. The country of the Scotch warriors, described in these two last verses, has a fine romantic situation, and affords a couple of smooth words for verse. If the reader compares the foregoing six lines of the song with the following Latin verses, he will see how much they are written in the spirit of Virgil. Adversi campo apparent hastasque reductis But to proceed: Æn. xi. 605; vii. 682, 7I2. Earl Douglas on a milk-white steed, Most like a baron bold, Rode foremost of the company, Whose armour shone like gold. Turnus ut antevolans tardum præcesserat agmen, &c. Our English archers bent their bows, At the first flight of arrows sent, They closed full fast on ev'ry side, Lay gasping on the ground. With that there came an arrow keen Out of an English bow, Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart A deep and deadly blow. Eneas was wounded after the same manner by an unknown hand in the midst of a parley. Has inter voces, media inter talia verba, ÆN. xii. 318. But of all the descriptive parts of this song, there are none more beautiful than the four following stanzas, which have a great force and spirit in them, and are filled with very natural circumo stances. The thought in the third stanza was never touched by any other poet, and is such an one as would have shined in Homer or Virgil. с с So thus did both these nobles die, He had a bow bent in his hand, Against Sir Hugh Montgomery The gray goose wing that was thereon This sight did last from break of day For when they rung the ev'ning-bell, The battle scarce was done. One may observe likewise, that in the catalogue of the slain the author has followed the example of the greatest ancient poets, not only in giving a long list of the dead, but by diversifying it 20 with little characters of particular persons. And with Earl Douglas there was slain Sir Hugh Montgomery, Sir Charles Carrel, that from the field Sir Charles Murrel of Ratcliff too, Sir David Lamb, so well esteem'd, The familiar sound in these names destroys the majesty of the 30 description; for this reason I do not mention this part of the poem but to show the natural cast of thought which appears in it, as the two last verses look almost like a translation of Virgil. In the catalogue of the English who fell, Witherington's behaviour is in the same manner particularized very artfully, as the 40 reader is prepared for it by that account which is given of him in the beginning of the battle; though I am satisfied that your little buffoon readers (who have seen that passage ridiculed in Then stept a gallant squire forth, Who said, I would not have it told That e'er my captain fought on foot, 10 We meet with the same heroic sentiments in Virgil. Non pudet, O Rutuli, cunctis pro talibus unam EN. xii. 229. 371 ders not What can be more natural or more moving, than the circumstances in which he describes the behaviour of those women,. who had lost their husbands on this fatal day? Next day did many widows come, Their husbands to bewail; They wash'd their wounds in brinish tears, Their bodies bathed in purple blood, They bore with them away: They kiss'd them dead a thousand times, When they were clad in clay. Thus we see how the thoughts of this poem, which naturally arise from the subject, are always simple, and sometimes exquisitely noble; that the language is often very sounding; and that the whole is written with a true poetical spirit. If this song had been written in the Gothic manner, which 30 is the delight of all our little wits, whether writers or readers, it would not have hit the taste of so many ages, and have pleased the readers of all ranks and conditions. I shall only beg pardon for such a profusion of Latin quotations; which I should not have made use of, but that I feared my own judgment would have looked too singular on such a subject, had not I supported it by the practice and authority of Virgil.—C. |