NOTES CHARLES GILDON (1665-1724) I. The volume entitled Miscellaneous Letters and Essays On several Subjects. Philosophical, Moral, Historical, Critical, Amorous, &c. in Prose and Verse. . . By several Gentlemen and Ladies, is dated 1694. An advertisement in the London Gazette for February 19-22, 1694, shows that the book had been published before then. Gildon's contributions, which make up a large part of the work, are signed only in part. The two letters reprinted, which occupy pp. 209-224 of the volume, are certainly his, the second being signed, the first unquestionably from the same pen. II. The character and scope of the Art of Poetry are set forth in the title, which runs as follows: THE COMPLETE ART OF POETRY. In Six Parts. I. Of the Nature, Use, Excellence, Rise and Progress of Poetry, &c. II. Of the Use and Necessity of Rules in Poetry. III. Of the Manner, Rules, and Art of Composing Epigrams, Pastorals, Odes, &c. IV. Of Tragedy and Comedy; how to draw the Plot, and form the Characters of both. V. The Rules of the Epic or Narrative Poem. Of the Poetic Diction or Language, and of English Numbers. VI. A Collection of the most beautiful Descriptions, Similes, Allusions, &c., from Spenser, and our best English Poets, as well Ancient as Modern, with above Ten Thousand Verses, not to be found in any Performance of this Kind. Shakespeariana; or the most beautiful Topicks, Descriptions, and Similes that occur throughout all Shakespear's Plays. It is advertised as 'Just Published' in the Daily Courant for June 25, 1718. No second edition was demanded. Page 3. Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant [by William Walsh (1663-1708)] first appeared in 1692. It was later included in the fourth volume of Tonson's Miscellany (1716). Page 4. my unhappy Circumstances. Having wasted the inheritance he received from his father, Gildon, with a wife to support, was at this time barely making a living as a literary hack. Page 5. its Funeral Elegy. Ovid, Amores, 2. 6. -Verses to the . . . Sparrow. The lyric beginning "Passer, deliciæ meæ puellæ," commonly printed as the second of Catullus' poems. -deplores its Death. The third, beginning "Lugete, et Veneresque Cupidinesque." -ad Amicam Navigantem. Ovid, Amores, 2. 11. -toss'd in another Storm. Propertius, Elegies, 3. 24. The storm is a metaphorical one. Page 6. ad Amicam quam verberaverat. Ovid, Amores, 1. 7. Page 7. Then like some wealthy Island. From the poem entitled The Enjoyment. Page 8. Un sot. . . de Choisir. Boileau, Satire II, A Molière. Page 9. Ovid urges his Fame. Amores, 1. 3. Page 10. Mr. Lock remarks. Cf. the Essay concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chap. 1, Sect. 11, "I grant that the soul, in a waking man, is never without thought." Page 11. Jean Le Clerc (1657-1736), French Protestant theologian. The Ontologia was published in 1692. Page 12. Tibullus, when he says. The poem cannot be certainly ascribed to Tibullus. In editions of his works it is sometimes numbered 3. 19, sometimes 4. 13. -Petrarch tells us. In the sonnet beginning "Come '1 candido piè per l'erba fresca." It is numbered 165 in Scherillo's edition. Page 13. Cowley. In the poem in the Mistress entitled My Diet. -Sir Courtly. The hero of Crowne's comedy Sir Courtly Nice, or It Cannot Be (1685). In the third act Sir Courtly says: "fine Language belongs to Pedants and poor Fellows that live by their Wits. Men of Quality are above Wit. 'Tis true, for our diversion sometimes we write, but we ne'er regard Wit. I write, but I never write any Wit." Page 14. Mr. Harrington. Conceivably James Harrington, who died November 23, 1693, a date almost certainly later than that of the completion of this letter. He was a lawyer and a poet. He published several works of a controversial character, and wrote the preface for the first edition of Athene Oxonienses. If Gildon's friend was not this Mr. Harrington, the person referred to was not widely known. -Monsieur Perault. The Parallèle des Anciens et des Modernes (1688-1692) by Charles Perrault was the first important work in defense of the moderns issued during the controversy afterwards immortalized in the Battle of the Books. -Rapin. The Reverend René Rapin expressed his opinions on the matter in his Réflexions sur la Poëtique d' Aristote et sur les ouvrages des poëtes anciens et modernes (1674); Rymer, in the preface to his translation of this work (1674). Rymer's preface is reprinted in Spingarn's Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, 2. 163-181. Page 15. Rapin extols their Variety. Op. cit., 84-85. Cf. also his Comparaison des poëmes d'Homère et de Virgile (1664), especially p. 102 of John Davies' translation (1672). -Gemitus dedere Caverna. Virgil, Æneid, 2. 53. -præruptus aquæ Mons. Ib. 1. 105. Page 16. The Mountains seem to Nod. Dryden, The Indian Emperor, 3. 2. -St. Euremont's Opinion. St. Evremond, Du merveilleux qui se trouve dans les poëmes des anciens, (Oeuvres Mêlées ed. Paris, 1865, 2. 508). Page 17. Mr. Congreve's Song. In the Old Bachelor, 2. 2. Page 19. Bishe's. Edward Bysshe, The Art of English Poetry containing I Rules for making Verses II A Collection of . . . Thoughts . in English Poets III A Dictionary of Rhymes. First published in 1702, this compilation went through a number of editions. Page 20. Newton's Discoveries. Notably the method of fluxions. -Gusto. The now obsolete use of this word as equivalent to "aesthetic perception" is specially associated with Shaftesbury. Cf. the Characteristics, ed. Robertson, 2. 430. Page 21. Why is he Rule. From the translation of Horace's Ars Poetica by Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon (1633-1685), 108-109. It is not an accurate rendering of the original (Ars Poetica, 86-87): Descriptas servare vices operumque colores Cf. infra, p. 375. -Messrs. of the Port-Royal. Cf. Quatre Traitez de poesies, Latine, Françoise, Italienne, et Espagnole (1663) [by Le Sieur D. T., i.e., De Trigny, a pseudonym of Claude Lancelot]. The books emanating from this famous school were seldom attributed to individual authors. -Crambo. "A game in which one player gives a word or line of verse to which each of the others has to find a rime." NED. Page 22. Will's. Once the favored coffee-house of literary men, and so the stock reference, although it was at this time much less visited. -Some think . . . others Aid. Roscommon, translation of Horace, Ars Poetica, 408-411. Page 27. Sir Philip Sidney. In the Defense of Poesy. Page 28. Horace . . . in his Epistle. Epist. 2. 1. 114 sq. Page 29. Mr. Fontinelle. Entretiens sur la Pluralité des Mondes, by Bernard Bovier de Fontenelle (1686). Page 30. Grimaldi. Nicolino Grimaldi, or Nicolino Grimaldi Nicolini, one of the most popular of contemporary opera-singers. He came to England in 1708. Cf. the Spectator, No. 13, and, on operas in two languages, No. 18. Page 31. Harry Purcel. Henry Purcell (1658?-1695). His operas are in general rather what we should call incidental music -songs and intermezzi. The 'frost-scene' was done for King Arthur (1691), written in collaboration with Dryden. Page 32. Wits . . . against Opera's. Cf. Rapin, Reflections on Aristotle, Rymer's translation, ed. Kennet, 2. 217; Dacier, La Poëtique d'Aristote, 85 (Rem. 12 sur Chap. 6); St. Evremond, Sur les Opéras (Oeuvres Mêlées, ed. Paris, 1865, 2. 389). -Lullie, Louigi. Jean Baptiste Lully (1633?-1687), Italian by birth, famous as a composer of French operas and ballets. Luigi Rossi (d. 1653), whose opera Orfeo is criticised by St. Evremond, op. cit. -Madam Dacier. Anne Lefevre Dacier, Des Causes de la Corruption du Goust (1714), 27-28. Page 33. Horace was angry. Cf. .Epist. 2. 1. 187 sq. -He laughs at. The Spectator, No. 29. Page 35. the Arthurs. Sir Richard Blackmore's Prince Arthur (1695) and King Arthur (1697). Page 36. Duke of Buckingham. In the Essay upon Poetry (1682), by John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave and Duke of Buckinghamshire (1648-1721). Page 37. Author of the Creation. Sir Richard Blackmore (d. 1729). -Madam Dunois. The Ingenious and diverting Letters of the Lady-[the Countess d'Aulnoy], Travels into Spain, &c. The account of the shoemaker-critic is found on p. 177 of the English edition of 1708. Page 38. Mamamouche. Edward Ravenscroft's (A. 1671-1697) Mamamouchi, or the Citizen turned Gentleman (1671). -the Orphan, a tragedy by Thomas Otway; the Empress of Morocco, a tragedy by Elkanah Settle; the Plain-dealer, a comedy by Wycherly; the Comical History of Don Quixote, in three parts, by Thomas D'Urfey. Page 42. his own Countryman, &c. See Dacier's La Poëtique d'Aristote, e.g., Rem. 8 on Chap. 6 (pp. 80-83). For the opinion of the Academy, see J. Chapelain's Sentiments de l'Académie française sur la tragi-comédie du Cid and Georges de Scudéry's Observations sur le Cid. Corneille's ideas are expressed in his Excuse à Ariste, in his three Discours, and in the Examens of his plays. -Piccolomini, Casselvetro, &c. Alessandro Piccolomini, Il Libro della poetica d'Aristotile (1572); Lodovico Castelvetro, Poetica d' Aristotile (1570); Rapin, Réflexions sur la Poëtique d' Aristote (1674); Dacier, La Poëtique d' Aristote. Page 43. Tatler. No. 29. Page 44. Mr. Isaac, i.e., Bickerstaff. -has played the Critic. The eighth and ninth numbers of the Tatler contain criticisms of London Cuckolds and the Old |