TURE. CHAP. edly observes, that Pope is the only poet whose XVIII. very faultlessness has been urged as his reproach, ITERA- and that he is only blamed as Aristides was banished, because the world are weary of hearing him called the Just. Nay, so eager was Byron to do justice to his predecessor, that he became unjust to himself: he compares the poetry of the last century to the Parthenon, and that of his own times to a Turkish mosque, and boasts, that though he had assisted in rearing the gaudy and fantastic edifice, he had ever refrained from defacing and despoiling the monuments of a purer taste.* The real truth seems to be, that Pope's was not the highest class of poetry, but that in the second class he deserves to hold the very highest rank. It may also be observed, that this class, though inferior in the scale of merit, is perhaps more generally and permanently pleasing than any other. other. Milton was undoubtedly a far greater poet than Pope; yet Paradise Lost too often remains praised but unread upon the shelf, while the Moral Essays are turned over by a thousand eager hands. I am far from saying, that this is a right taste; but I do say that it is, and I believe ever will be, the taste of the larger number of readers. When Pope is blamed for wanting the highest poetic flights, we should remember, that such flights did not accord with the subjects he had chosen, and that sublimity misplaced would only become ridiculous. Still less *Letter on the Rev. W. Bowles. XVIII. should he be condemned, as appears his frequent CHAP. fate, only because his imitators, for the following fifty years, were for the most part tasteless and insipid literacopyists of his harmony without his sense; or, to TURE. adopt his own expression, "word-catchers that live " on syllables"-who wrote, in very even balanced numbers, very chilling love-verses and very innocent satires! All this is true, yet all this reflects no discredit upon Pope. It is the fate of all great writers to produce many wretched imitations, and to become the model of all the aspiring dunces of their day. How many ponderous epics have come forth stillborn from the press in imitation of Milton! In our own time, what fooleries have been perpetrated, with Byron for their model! What shoals of would-be Laras and Harolds! How many an accomplished young lady, with a richly bound album, has thought it fashionable to describe herself in it as plunged in the lowest depths of despair and hatred to mankind; as one "who dreads the darkness, and 66 yet loathes the light "—who claims the "brother"hood of Cain"- whose hours are "all tortured "into ages!" But do all these mincing dainty miseries recoil against the illustrious source of them, and tarnish his great poetic name? And why then is Pope alone to be held responsible for the faults and follies of his copyists? The writers of the age of Anne, by descending from the highest but less popular flights of poetry, and by refining the licentiousness which had heretofore prevailed, greatly extended and enlarged the XVIII. TURE. CHAP. field of literature. The number of readers grew more and more considerable. Books were no longer confined either to the studious or to the dissolute. Education and reflection spread by degrees throughout all classes; and though several other causes concurred to this end, the new style in literature was, perhaps, the foremost. To women, especially, the change was of importance; there had hitherto been few books for their suitable amusement, and scarcely any medium between pedantry and ignorance. Amongst the ladies who lived in the time of Pope, nay even in his society, we find a want of that common information, which is seldom acquired but in youth, and which, beyond doubt, their daughters afterwards possessed. Thus, to give one instance, Mrs. Cæsar, whose husband was member of Parliament for Hertford, and had filled offices under Harley, and who was herself a correspondent of Swift, could not spell English; and was so far from considering this deficiency as a matter of shame, that she treats it as a subject of jest. She admits that her spelling is bad, but boasts that her style is terse; and quotes a saying of Pope, that he sometimes finds too many letters in her words, but never too many words in her letters!* In the next generation, I apprehend, many might have misspelt, but would have blushed at it; in the next, again, nearly all would have spelt rightly. There is another praise to which the age of Anne seems justly entitled; it awakened public * Mrs. Cæsar to Swift, August 6. 1732. XVIII. attention to the age of Elizabeth. Our noble CHAP. English ballads had remained forgotten, until Addison quoted and applauded Chevy Chace.* Thus LITERAalso the Fairy Queen was proclaimed, and at length TURE. acknowledged as "a great land-mark of our poetry."+ Thus the great old dramatists again resumed their reign, having in this century first excited praise from eminent men as readers, and next attracted applauding thousands on the stage. During the reigns of William, of Anne, and of George the First, till 1721, when Walpole became Prime Minister, the Whigs and Tories vied with each other in the encouragement of learned and literary men. Whenever a writer showed signs of genius, either party to which his principles might incline him was eager to hail him as a friend. The most distinguished society, and the most favourable opportunities, were thrown open to him. Places and pensions were showered down in lavish profusion; those who wished only to pursue their studies had the means afforded them for learned leisure, while more ambitious spirits were pushed forward in Parliament or in diplomacy. In short, though the sovereign was never an Augustus, almost every minister was a Mæcenas. Newton Spectator, Nos. 70. and 74. + This was the expression of Pope. (Spence, p. 171.) He said, on another occasion:-"There is something in Spenser "that pleases one as strongly in one's old age as it did in one's "youth. I read the Fairy Queen when I was about twelve, "with infinite delight, and I think it gave me as much when I "read it over about a year or two ago." (Ibid. p. 296.) LITERA TURE. CHAP. became Master of the Mint; Locke was a ComXVIII. missioner of Appeals; Steele was a Commissioner of Stamps; Stepney, Prior, and Gay, were employed in lucrative and important embassies. It was a slight piece of humour at his outset and at his introduction-the "City and Country Mouse" - that brought forth a mountain of honours to Montagu, afterwards Earl of Halifax, and First Lord of the Treasury. When Parnell first came to Court, Lord Treasurer Oxford passed through the crowd of nobles, leaving them all unnoticed, to greet and welcome the poet. "I value myself,” says Swift, "upon making the ministry desire to "be acquainted with Parnell, and not Parnell with "the ministry." Swift himself became Dean of St. Patrick's, and but for the Queen's dislike would have been Bishop of Hereford. Pope, as a Roman Catholic, was debarred from all places of honour or emolument, yet Secretary Craggs offered him a pension of 300l. a year not to be known by the public, and to be paid from the Secret Service Money. In 1714 General Stanhope carried a bill, providing a most liberal reward for the discovery of the longitude. ‡ Addison became Secretary of State. Tickell was Secretary in Ireland. Several rich sinecures were bestowed on Congreve and Rowe, on Hughes, and Ambrose Philips. * Journal to Stella, January 31. 1713. + Spence's Anecdotes, p. 307. Commons' Journals, vol. xvii. p. 686, &c. § See a similar enumeration, and some ingenious observations, Edin. Review, No. cvii. p. 21. |