The Life of John Bunyan. xxxvii last great critic on Bunyan, and has far distanced all others in research and judiciousness; and he has pronounced as follows:-" Every assertion or suggestion of this kind that came to my knowledge has been investigated, and the works referred to have been analysed. And beyond this, every allegorical work that could be found previous to the eighteenth century, has been examined in all the European languages; and the result is a perfect demonstration of the complete originality of Bunyan. 'It came from his own heart.' The plot, the characters, the faithful dealing, are all his own. And what is more, there has not been found a single phrase or sentence borrowed from any other book, except the quotations from the Bible and the use of common proverbs. To arrive at this conclusion has occupied much time and labour, at intervals, during the last forty years. The works read and analysed commence with our monkish manuscripts, and continue through the printed books published prior to the Reformation, when the church having no competition in the cure of souls, spoke out without disguise, and from that time to 1678, when our Pilgrim appeared. My determination in all these researches has been to report the whole truth; and had it been discovered that some hints might have been given by previous writers, it would not have been any serious reflection upon the originality of a work which has no prototype. This idea is well represented by Mr. Montgomery: 'If the Nile could be traced to a thousand springs, it would still be the Nile; and so far undishonoured by its obligations, that it would repay them a thousandfold, by reflecting upon the nameless streams the glory of being allied to the most renowned of rivers.' But there has been no discovery of any tributary spring; no borrowed phrases; no more hints, even, than such as naturally arise from the open treasury or storehouse of Holy Writ." Whitney's Emblems is a very rare volume, first published in 1586, never popular or widely diffused, and not in the least likely to have been ever seen by Bunyan. Its chief coincidences with the Pilgrim's Progress are merely the general idea of pilgrimage, the phrase "Christian pilgrim," a cut representing a pilgrim with his staff bearing a globe, and another cut representing a man swimming with a pack upon his back. Bernard's "Isle of Man, or the Legal Proceedings in Manshire against Sin," was popular before Bunyan wrote, and reached its sixteenth edition in 1683, and was circulated in a cheap form, and "sold by most Booksellers;" so that it may have been read by Bunyan, and may even have exerted some influence in bending his mind toward the habit of allegorizing. But it cannot be detected in any of his characters or incidents, and has no coincidences, either general or particular, with his Pilgrim's Progress, and, if it ever afforded him any real assistance, in the suggesting or modifying of an idea, it must have been only, and very slightly, in his Holy War. Xxxviii The Life of John Bunyan. The book which above all others has been cried up as the alleged source of Bunyan's imputed plagiarisms is "Bolswert's Pilgrimage of Dovekin and Willekin to their Beloved in Jerusalem." This is a Dutch work, and was published in 1627, and afterwards translated into French; and it has a number of illustrations, and was at one time very popular. The story in it is, that two female pilgrims set out upon a single day's journey,-that they wash in a river, which flows from Rome by way of the Netherlands to Jerusalem,-that they get infested with vermin at a kermes, and go through a number of silly adventures, -and that in the long run, the one is blown into a pit and perishes, while the other arrives at Jerusalem and is married; and one of its illustrations exhibits them on the bank of a river,—another exhibits them crowned with foolscaps and driven by a mob,-a third exhibits them within a circle of lighted candles, while a necromancer evokes imps and goblins from an overhanging hill, —and a fourth exhibits them on the ascent of a steep mountain, one of them falling over the brink. Yet on the strength of these matters-particularly on that of the illustrations-an attempt was, not many years ago, made to convince the British public that this pitiful " Pilgrimage of Dovekin and Willekin" is the very Pilgrim's Progress itself, and that John Bunyan did no more to it than merely translate it out of Dutch into English! And that attempt found sufficient acceptance and produced sufficient excitement to induce Dr. Southey to grace it with a serious refutation! Fie upon it! And yet it honours "Honest John" quite as remarkably as it defames him; for who ever before imagined "the glorious dreamer," "the tinker of Elstow," to possess the scholarly powers of a translator? The work which most nearly resembles the Pilgrim's Progress is Bishop Patrick's "Parable of the Pilgrim.' This really describes an allegorical Christian pilgrimage; and if it had been seen by Bunyan, it was abundantly capable of suggesting some of his prominent ideas. But it was not written till 1663— and not published till 1687; and therefore may just as well be charged with borrowing from Bunyan, as with lending to him. Besides, it is a lame, feeble, affected production compared with his, and partakes nothing of either his manner or his characteristic spirit. "Whoever has patience to wade through ten pages of Bishop Patrick's Parable," remarks Mr. Offor, "must be fully convinced that his lordship's limping and unwieldy pilgrim will never be able, with all his hobbling, to overtake or even to get within sight of John Bunyan by many a thousand miles. Patrick was a learned man, and his elaborate work requires the pains to read it which he took in its composition; while Bunyan's story flowed freely from his rich imagination, and the reader enjoys it with the same flowing pleasure." The following passage of Patrick may be compared by the curious with Bunyan's "Land of Beulah;" and is probably the one, in all his operose volume, which comes nearest to anything in the Pilgrim's Pro The Life of John Bunyan. xxxix gress:" He and his guide held on their way to that holy place where Jesus himself now resides. Several things they discoursed of, and many good things they did, as they went along; till at last having gained the top of a high hill, (which without some difficulty could not be climbed,) they met with a knot of more excellent persons, who recompensed for the tediousness of that company into which they had lately fallen. The spectacle which presented itself was no less wonderful than it was new. For there they beheld sundry pilgrims like themselves, who had placed their bodies, though in several postures, as if they never meant to stir from that place, unless it was to be carried up to heaven. Some of them were fallen upon their knees, and with their hands upon their breasts, their eyes elevated towards the skies, and a very smiling countenance, they seemed not so much to ask as to possess something which they dearly loved, and for which they rendered thanks to God. Others of them stood gazing upon their tiptoes; with their mouths open, and their eyes so fixed, as if their souls were gone half-way out of their bodies, to fetch in something which they hungered to receive. And others also stretched out their arms to such a length as if either they saw that thing coming to them; or else they thought them to be wings whereby they could fly to that which they looked so greedily upon. For this the Pilgrim observed, that every one directed his eyes the same way; as if they waited for the very same good to descend to their embraces. And therefore these two persons being not so much startled as ravished at this strange sight, thought it was best for them to do so too; and to try if they could make any discovery of that which attracted all these eyes and hearts unto it. And they had not done so very long, but by the advantage of this mountain, and the clearness of the air, and the steadiness of their eyes, and the quiet and silence wherein they were, they had a very fair prospect of the heavenly Jerusalem. It did not seem to be situate in a region like to any that he (the Pilgrim) had as yet beheld; but in one so clear and pure, that the sky was but a smoky vapour to compare with it. There was no cloud that durst be so bold as to come within sight of it; nor was there any darkness that could approach to sully its beauty. But as there was a perpetual serenity about it, so an everlasting day was one of the principal ornaments of it. The rays of the sun, he perceived, never hid themselves from it; if he judged aright, when by the glittering of the place he thought it all gilded with his beams. But sometimes he conceited that the city was all built of such precious stones, and that they supplied the place of the sun, by those streams of light which issued forth from every one of them. Nay, the very garments. of the inhabitants (which he could discern a little) were so glistering, that they seemed able of themselves to create a continual day to those that wore them. He beheld also some winged people (for such are they that dwell there) come flying from one of the gates of the city very speedily towards him, who told * * xl The Life of John Bunyan. him, that they accompanied him in his journey though he did not see them; and that they had been at Jerusalem, to carry the news of his travel thither, and to relate the constancy and resolvedness of his mind in this purpose; and that they were sent back again, not only to wait on him, but to let him know that the Lord of the place did wait very passionately for his arrival, and would be exceedingly glad in safety to receive him. Into what an ecstasy he was cast upon this relation, especially when he heard a little whispering noise (for it was no more) of the music and the melodious airs which those choristers of heaven make; it is altogether needless to tell you. His soul was almost allured out of his body by this sight; and was held in by so very small a thread, that two or three sharp thoughts more of that happy place would have cut in two that tender tie. He thought verily that this was Pisgah, and that he was gone up to die there." The most noticeable of the other works which have been alleged-falsely or ridiculously—as sources of Bunyan's ideas in his Pilgrim's Progress, are The Pylgremage of the Sowle," a small folio published in 1483,-“The Booke of the Pylgrymage of Man," an exceedingly rare quarto of 26 leaves, published at some remote date,-Cauice's "Libro del Peregrino," published at Venice in the early part of the 16th century,-Gawin Douglas's "Palace of Honour," a poem addressed to King James IV. of Scotland, Spencer's "Fairy Queen," a long allegorical poem, well known to students of the old belles-lettres, but world-wide in character from anything which was likely to attract the attention of John Bunyan,-a brief passage amounting to only one sentence, and conveying only a hint, and to which Bunyan had no access, in the works of Lucian, and a poem of six stanzas, called "The Pilgrimage," in George Herbert's volume entitled "The Temple." |