our criticks will join issue on this definition, that we may convenire in aliquo tertio; if they will take it as a granted principle, it will be easy to put an end to the dispute. No man will disagree from another's judgment, concerning this dignity of style in Heroick Poetry; but all reasonable men will conclude it necessary, that sublimest subjects ought to be adorned with the sublimest, and consequently often, with the most figurative expressions. In the mean time, I will not run into their fault of imposing my opinions on other men, any more than I would my writings on their taste: I have only laid down, and that superficially enough, my present thoughts; and shall be glad to be taught better by those who pretend to reform our poetry. DEDICATION OF AURENGZEB E. 5 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN, EARL OF MULGRAVE, GENTLEMAN OF HIS MAJESTY'S BEDCHAMBER, AND KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER.5. MY LORD, Ir is a severe reflection which Montaigne has made on Princes, that we ought not, in reason, to have any expectations from them; and that it is kindness enough, if they leave us in possession of our own. The boldness of the censure shews the free spirit of the author; and the subjects of England may justly congratulate to themselves, 5 This tragedy, which is written in rhyme, was first printed in 1676. 6 John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, was born in 1649, and was son of Edmund, earl of Mulgrave, who died in 1658. His mother was Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Lionel, earl of Middlesex, by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Sheppard, a merchant of London. He was now, therefore, twenty-seven years old. His character (says Dr. Johnson) is not to be proposed as worthy of imitation. His religion he may be that both the nature of our government, and the clemency of our King, secure us from any such complaint. I in particular, who subsist wholly by his bounty, am obliged to give posterity a far other account of my Royal Master, than what Montagne has left of his. Those accusations had been more reasonable, if they had been placed on inferior persons; for in all courts there are too supposed to have learned from Hobbes, and his morality was such as naturally proceeds from loose opinions. His sentiments with respect to women he picked up in the court of Charles, and his principles concerning property were such as a gaming table supplies. He was censured as covetous, and has been defended by an instance of inattention to his affairs; as if a man might not at once be corrupted by avarice and idleness. He is said, however, to have had much tenderness, and to have been very ready to apologize for his violences of passion. - - "In the ESSAY ON SATIRE, he was always supposed to have the help of Dryden. His ESSAY ON POETRY is the great work for which he was praised by Roscommon, Dryden, and Pope, and doubtless by many more whose eulogies have perished." Life of SHEFFIELD. Pope observed to Mr. Spence, that " he was superficial in every thing, even in poetry, which was his forte." "His famous Essay (said Dr. Lockier, Dean of Peterborough, who had personally known Dryden) has certainly been cried up much more than it deserves, though corrected a good deal by Dryden. It was this which set him up for a poet, and he resolved to keep up that character, if he could by any means, fair or foul. Could any thing be more impudent than his publishing that Satire, for writing which Dryden was beaten in Rose Alley, (and many who make it their business to ruin wit; and Montagne, in other places, tells us, what effects he found of their good natures. He describes them such, whose ambition, lust, or private interest, seem to be the only end of their creation. If good accrue to any from them, it is only in order to their own designs, conferred most commonly on the base and infamous; and never given, but only happening sometimes on well deservers. Dulness has brought them to what they are, and malice which was so remarkably known by the name of the Rose-Alley Satire,) as his own? Indeed, he made a few alterations in it; but these were only verbal, and generally for the worse." Spence's ANECDOTES. The following lines in the STATE POEMS (vol. ii. p. 131) furnish us with a portrait of this nobleman, in which, however, there is probably somewhat of caricature: "But let him pass; for here comes stalking on I'll speak not of his slouching looby mien, "A work which all admire,-and well they may; "For what insipid sot can e'er write ill, "When Waller, Lee, and Dryden, take the quill.” Pope, as well as Dryden, as I learn from Mr. Spence, made several alterations in the ESSAY ON POETRY. |