THE CENSURE OF THE ROTA.
VPON Mr DRYDEN'S CONQVEST of GRANADA,
AMonst severall other late Exercises of the Athenian Vertuosi in the Coffe-Academy instituted by Apollo for the advancement of Gazeti Philosophy Mercury's, Diurnalls, &c: this day was wholly taken up in the Examination of the Conquest of Granada; a Gentleman on the reading of the First Part, & therein the Discription of the Bull-baiting, said, that Almanzor's playing at the Bull was according to the Standard of the Greek Heroes, who, as M r. Dryden had learnedly observ'd ( Essay of Dramatique poetry, p. 25.) were great Beef-Eaters. And why might not Almanzor as well as Ajax, or Don Quixot worry Mutton, or take a Bull by the Throat, since the Author had elsewhere explain'd himselfe by telling us the Heroes were more noble Beasts of Prey, in his Epistle [Page 2] to his Conquest of Granada, distinguishing them into wild and tame, and in his Play we have Almanzor shaking his Chaine, and frighting his Keeper. p. 28. broke loose. p. 64. and tearing those that would reclaim his rage. p. 135. To this he added that his Bulls excell'd others Heroes, as far as his own Heroes surpass'd his Gods: That the Champion Bull was divested of flesh and blood, and made immortall by the poet, & bellow'd after death; that the fantastique Bull seem'd fiercer then the true, and the dead bellowings in Verse, were louder then the living; concluding with a wish that M r. Dryden had the good luck to have vary'd that old Verse quoted in his Dramatique Essay.
Atque Vrsum, & Pugiles media inter Carmina pos [...]unt Tauros, & Pugiles prima inter Carmina posco. and praefixt it to the front of his Play, instead of
Another Virtuoso said he could not but take notice how ignorantly some charg'd Almanzor with transgressing the Rules of the Drama, vainly supposing that Heroes might be confin'd to the narrow walks of other common Mortals, not considering that those Dramatick Planets were Images of Excentrio Vertue, which was most beautifull, when least regular: that Almanzor was no lesse maliciously tax'd with changing sides, then which charge what could be more unjust, if they look't on him as Achilles and Rinaldos's countryman, and born with them in that Poeticall Free-State, (for Poets of late have form'd Vtopia's) where all were Monarchs (without [Page 3] Subjects) and all swore Alleagiance to themselves, (and therefore could be Traytors to none else) where every man might invade anothers Right, without trespassing on his owne, and make, and execute what Lawes himself would consent to, each man having the power of Life and Death so absolutely, that if he kill'd himself, he was accountable to no body for the murder; that Almanzor was neither Mr Drydens Subject, nor Boabdelins, but equally exempt from the Poets Rules, and the Princes Laws, and in short, if his revolting from the Abencerrages to the Zegrys, and from the Zegrys to the Abencerrages again, had not equally satisfi'd both parties, it might admit of the same defence, Mr Drydens Out-cries, and his Tumults did, that the Poet represented Men in a Hobbian State of War. A third went on and told them that Fighting Scenes, and Representations of Battells were as necessary to a Tragedy, as Cudgells, and broken Pates to a Country Wake; that an Heroick Poem never sounded so nobly, as when it was heightned with Shouts, and Clashing of Swords; and that Drums and Trumpets gain'd an absolute Dominion over the minds of the Audience: (the Ladies, and Female Spirits) Here an Aquaintance of the Authors interpos'd, and assur'd the Company, he was very confident, that M r Dryden would never have had the Courage to have ventur'd on a Conquest had he not writ with the sound of Drum and Trumpet; and that if there was any thing unintelligible in his rants, t'was the effect of that horrour those Instruments of War with their astonishing noise had precipitated him into, which had so transported him, that he [Page 4] writ beyond himselfe. But he was interrupted by a grave Gentleman that us'd to sup in Apollo and could tell many Story of Ben. Iohnson, who told them, that in his opinion M r Dryden had given little proof of his Courage, since he for the most part combated the dead; and the dead—send no Challenges; nor indeed need they, since through their sides he had wounded himselfe; for he ever play'd the Critick so unluckely, as to discover only his own faults in other men, with the advantage of this aggravation, that the Grammaticall Errors or older Poets, were but the Errors of their Age, but being made his, were not the Errors of this Age: since he granted this Age was refin'd above those Solecismes of the last: thus the Synchoesis, or ill placing of Words, a fault of B. Iohnsons time, was an usuall Elegancy in Mr. Drydens writings, as in the Prologue to his Indian Emperour
Himself in the second verse, which should have been plac'd before may in the first. In the Indian Emperour, Guyomar say's,
left should not have preceded Country, but follow'd it. In Granada, second part.
And again. ‘Yet then to change,' tis nobler to despair.’ [Page 5] Thus the using be for are the vice of those dull times, when Conversation was so low, that our Fathers were not taught to write and read good English, was frequent with M r Dryden in this politer Age; In Granada, second part. Allmanzor.
In the Indian Emperour. ‘Things good, or ill, by circumstances be.’ In Maximin.
And again;
In all these places he observ'd the Rhyme hid the false English. The placing of the Preposition at the end of a Verse or Sentence, M r Dryden had confest was common to him with Iohnson, but not discovering where, the Gentleman oblig'd the Company, by pointing at that in Maximin.
and more conspicuously in his Elegy on Oliver. (one who was as great a contemner of Kings as Almanzor, and [Page 6] as great a defyer of the Gods as Maximin)
To all which, he added that ire an obsolete word of B. Iohnson was antiquated now, but inthrall and oph in M r Dryden were words antiquated in Ben Iohnsons time, that Iohnson only wrote English in good Latine, but M r Dryden was so accomplish't as to write English fluently in all Languages, Greek, Latine, Italian, Spanish, and what not; in him he met with Escapade, Mirador, Bizarre, torrents winding in volumes, Trumpets Clangors, Venus's Cestos, besides unthinking Crowd, bladder'd Air, and such like Poeticall Iargon; and to demonstrate that this Age (or Mr Dryden, which is the same) made some improvement in fals English as well as the last (if at least we have not received a newer English Grammar then Ben. Iohnsons) he desired them to weigh these verses in his Granada.
me, for my self. again,
Thee, for thy self.
As for M r Drydens cavill at the lines in Catiline.
[Page 7] His mistaken Image of shooting (since the Cyclops Engine was a Thunderbolt) recoyl'd upon himself in his Maximin, where he suppos'd Sulphur to rain down in fiery showers on Charinus, a clearer image perhaps of shooting, unknown as much in Maximin's days, as Catalin's. A Critick continuing on the discourse, said, he was sorry that Mr Dryden when he charg'd every page of Shakespeer, and Fletcher with some Solecism of speech, or notorious flaw in sence, did not read their writings and his own with the same spectacles, for had he, he would never have left so incorrect a line as this in that Epilogue, where he taxes the Antients so superciliously; ‘Then Comedy was faultless, but 'twas course.’ 'tis a favour to call this but a flaw; nay, in the threshold of his Granada.
which two verses agree as ill, as if one were a Moor, and the other a Spaniard. again in the First Part,
This Tulip that could hear the wind sing its Epicedium, after it was dead; you may be sure grew no where but in a Poets Garden. [Page 8] in the Second Part,
Where because a Turtle was a solitary Bird, he made two of them sit alone.
Again, speaking of Almanzor:
Here is a Smile describ'd with so much Art, that the description my serve indifferenly either for a Smile, or a Frown, any other Smile, but a gloomy one, rising from bent brows, would have look't too effeminately pleasant in Almanzor's grim face; a clear proof this of the▪ Epistle, that dimples may not misbecome the stern beauty of a Heroe:
These he found in Annus Mirabilis.
Compared with these in Maximin.
[Page 9] From which he inferr'd, that the Edge of Day was capacitated indifferently either to blunt, or Sharpen, according to the Poets pleasure, as from that verse in his Astraea Redux: ‘A horrid stilnesse first invades the Ear,’ he observ'd that to invade the Ear (in M r Drydens Dictionary) signified any violence offer'd to the Ear, either from Noise, or Silence.
In another place in Maximin, he seems fully to have answer'd his Prologue, in not servilely stooping so low as Sence;
here, in making Porphyrius a Bride, he has reacht an excellence, and justify'd his representation of big-belly'd Men in the Wild Gallant, a greater imposibility, then any Shakespear can be censur'd for (for imposybility's in M r Drydens charge are sence, but in anothers nonsence) though he wants not these smaller indecorum's neither; such as his introducing Donna Aurelia in the Mock-Astrologer, retrenching her words, which how consistent'tis with the Spanish Gravity, the great Dons of Wit can best resolve him, and such is that indecency, committed in his Mayden Queen, where the Queen and Courtiers stand still, to hear Celadon and Florimell with a great deal of cold mirth absurdly usurp the Queens Prerogative in making new Marriage-Laws.
That Mr Drydens wit was as much advanc'd beyond [Page 10] that of the Ancients, as his sense & Language; was Evident from these Clenches (to omit that of Pulpit-Quibling finding the benefit of its Clergy since he was so mannerly, as to ask leave to cleanch there) in his forecited Elegy on our English Maximin. ‘Though in his Praise, no Arts can liberall be.’ In his Rival Ladyes, a Serving man threatents to beat the Poet with a staff of his own Rhymes.
In his Mayden Queen, little Sabina tells Florimell, well my drolling Lady, I may be even with you: to which Florimell wittyly, not this ten years by thy growth yet: and after, tells her taller sister Olinda, she cannot affront her because she is so tall. and to parallell B. Iohnson's,
Celadon (in the same Play) tells Florimell; I shall grow desperately constant, and all the tempest of my love will fall upon your head: I shall so pay you: to which Florimell makes this reply; Who you, pay me? you are a bankrupt, cast beyond all possibility of recovery. This when repeated by Loveby in that incomparable clenching Comedy, the Wild Gallant, M r Dryden, and the Taylors Wife call'd a Jest, but is farr from Wit in all Languages. To be short, that his wit depended often on a ridiculous chiming of words, was evident from such instances as these,
much after the rate of that old Tick-tack
A modern Poet stept up next, and said, he observ'd M r Dryden pass'd no better a Complement on the Poets of this Age in his Prologue to his Granada, then on [Page 12] those of the former in his Postscript and Epilogue; for these he tax't as liberally with writing dull sence, as those with writing incorrect; and preferr'd his own gay nonsence equally to both. That his Play was the best comment on his Prologue, and his Tulip with silken armes, and two verses.
sufficiently displai'd his gayety of nonsence: and 'twas for this reason he suppos'd that he upbraided Beaumont and Fletcher with meannesse of expression in their Scenes of Love, because those dull unthinking men never had their thoughts so well dres't, as to transform their Lovers into such gay things, as Silkwormes and Tulips; but this was the unhappiness of their Education, they were not so well bred, nor kept so good Company as Mr Dryden; nay had Iohnson (who was more conversant in Courts) converst (as our Poet) only with Persons of Honour, he had never disgrac'd the Stage with Tib in her Rags, but attir'd her more like a modern Comoedian in a broad-brim'd Hatt, and wast Belt: but 'twas plain, his Humor discover'd more of the Mechanique & the Clown, then the Gentleman; thus Otters Horse, and his Bear, and his Bull, might be entertaining to a Groom, or a Bear-ward, but nothing in nature and all that (to english Tom. Otters in rerum naturâ) was more odious to a Man of Garniture and Feathers: in those days they regal'd their Audience with the Acorns of Poetry, and no marvell then if Cobs Tankard quench't their thirstno lesse then pure Helicon: in sine, [Page 13] Iohnsons wit had too much Alchymy, and their best too much allay to pass for that of the Golden Age, an honour only due to the Poets of these times, that bring old Iron on the Stage. The honour of the Golden Age (reply'd another) belongs justly to M r Dryden, who ever return'd home richly fraught from Spain and America; to his Catholique Conquests Poetry ow's its Indies, and its Plate-Fleets: and after such Voiages and Discoveries, he could not but wonder a little at his modest excusing his ignorance in Sea Terms in his Annus Mirabilis; since he was very confident that his Muse that had so often crost the Seas, and endur'd so many Storms and Shipwracks could not but be Tarpawlin sufficient enough to make an Heroick Poem on Star-boord, and Lar-boord. His blustering Metaphors would more then acquit him of Horace his Censure, ‘Serpit humi tutus, nimium timidus (que) procellae.’
The boldest of the old Poets never rais'd such Tempests as he, though they labour'd to swell their Poetical Sails with all the four winds blowing at once (as Mr Cowly ingeniously, on, V [...]a Furusque; Notusque ruunt, creberque procellis Africus, &c.) He was the man Nature seem'd to make choice of to enlarge the Poets Empire, & to compleat those Discovery's others had begun to shadow: that Shakespear and Fletcher (as some think) erected the Pillars of Poetry is a grosse errour; this Zany of Columbus has discover'd a Poeticall World of greater extent then the Naturall, peopled with Atlantick Colony's of notionall creatures, Astrall Spirits, [Page 14] Ghosts, & Idols, more various then ever the Indians worshipt, and Heroes, more lawless than their Savages. The-already discover'd habitable world (joyn'd with Sr Thomas Moor's, and the Lord Bacon's) was too narrow a Compasse for his Geography of Thoughts, which would admit of no unpeopled Solitudes, nor Terra Incognita; this Poeticall Coryat would travell beyond the Poles of Nature and Opinion; sometimes we have him mounting his Pegasus, and taking a flight to the Mountains of the Moon, and the Bed of Nyle, then (having baited first at Heaven) making his Journey through the lower Fields of Ayr, to Spencers Bower of Bliss, and Tasso's Enchanted wood (both lately discover'd in Fairy-Land) there visiting such wandring Souls▪ as flagging flutter'd down from the middle Sky, and dispossessing the Swallows of their Winter Quarters, lay leiger for Mortall frames in Trunks of hollow Trees. Thus ha's he out travall'd the Sun, and made his flights on the wings of his own fancy without the assistance of Ganza's, or Bottles of May-Dew. In short, did M r Cowley, or any others dislike this Fairy part of Poetry, (though M r Cowly had answer'd himself by making use of Angels visions in his Davideis, where the Argument required it) the Poet had prettily excus'd his fantastique Scenes, & Visionary Pageants, in that Apologetick Verse, ‘Ast opere in tanto fas est obrepere Somnum.’ With him joyn'd a phlegmatick heavy Gownman, who hoped that that Verse was a frank confession of the Poet, that he compos'd severall of his Raptures in a Dream, of which nature was this in his Maximin. [Page 15] ‘Thou treadst th' Abyss of Light,’ Abyss is a word so inconsistent with Light, that 'tis scarce Bright enough for its Shadow.
Compare this with another in Maximin,
and you'l say ti's all pure refin'd nonsence, without the least allay of dull Sence. In another place in Maximin, ‘I reel, and stagger, and am drunk with light.’ this Verse the Poet made, when he was shut up in a dark room and not suffer'd to see the light. Again.
Here it may be a Quaere, whether Spirits (since amongst them ther's no distinction of Sexes) get all Sons, or all daughters. And following those,
How the Aether, that yeelds a nourishment so thin (scarce distinguishable from none at all) that it would starve a Cameleon, should fatten a Spirit, seems a Paradoxe: now after all this, the World may judge whether the notions of Poets (the Fathers of his Church) [Page 16] concerning spirits and Specters, were more satisfactory, then those of Philosophers and Divines; and whether Mr Dryden was not stark Inspiration mad, and in one of his Enthusiastique fits, when he objected it as lazinesse, or dulnesse to the Clergy, that they did not preach in Verse; That Reformation this Age must not be so happy as to expect, since the Objector had alter'd his resolution of exchanging the Sock and Buskin for the Canonicall Girdle Here a great Patron of Rhyme interpos'd, and said, he could heartily wish that not only Divines would preach, Lawyers plead, Philosophers dispute, and Councellers debate, but even our Ladys and Gallants would converse in Rhyme, for besides that this would take off the Argument of the the unnaturallness of Rhyme,
It would be a means of exalting our thoughts, and raising Conversation above the vulgar level, for what can be suppos'd more indecent then for Ladys and Persons of Quality to walk on foot in Prose with the Rabble? Without the sweetnesse and cadency of Rhyme our quick Repartees in discourse lose much of their Beauty, when as if he that spoke last be nick'd by another, both in wit and sound, nothing is left desireable. Nay, M r Dryden that writ ill in Rhyme, would have writ worse without it, for such Redundancy's as this in Granada, First Part, ‘This is my will, and this I will have done.’ which is a handsome way of saying this is my will twice such mean Couplets as this in Maximin.
[Page 17] and such precipitations from such heights, as,
would never have been passable, were not many cozn'd with their sound; in a word, many things were charg'd upon the Poet, of which the Rhymer was no ways guilty, but there needed no greater Argument for the efficacy of Rhime above Blank Verse, then that of blowing a Candle out, and blowing in again, in two Verses.
where the snuff expires so sweetly, it cannot be offensive to the most critical Nose. To this a Favourer of Blank verse with some heat reply'd, that these verses in Granada, Second Part,
These in the Indian Emperour,
And these in Maximin,
proclaim'd the Rhymer no less faulty then the Poet, [Page 18] and evidently prov'd that M r Dryden enslav'd his sense as little to Rhyme, as elsewhere to Syllables; and both to sense. Who after this will deny that the way of writing in verse; is the most free and unconstrain'd? in which the Poet is not ty'd up to Language, sense, Syllables, or Rhyme, but even, sweet, and flowing numbers, and smart Repartees (in plain English, playing with words) attone for the want of all. With what impudence can the Adversaries of Rhyme object its difficultie? when those that are formed neither by Art nor Nature, may write whole plays, such as Mr Dryden's in it, without easing themselves on pace and [...]rot. It is but framing the character of a Huff of the Town, one that from breaking Glass-windows, and combating the watch, starts up an Heroe: him you must make very saucy to his superiours, to shew he is of the same stamp with Achilles and Rinaldo; then tame the savage with the charming sight of the Kings Daughter (or wife) whom this St George is to deliver from the Dragon, or greater dangers: to heighten his character the more, bring in a sheepish King with a Guard of poultrons to be kick't by him, as often as he thinks fit his Miss. should be a witnesse of his Gallantry: if this be not enough, let him play prizes with Armies, still Tumults with one look, and raise Rebellions with another. The Language is no lesse easie then the characters, 'tis but stuffing five Acts with Fate, Destiny, Charms, Charming fair, Killing fair, heavenly fair, the Fair and Brave, the Lover and the Brave, &c. an allusion to two kind Turtles, foisted in, an impertinent Simile from a Storm, or a Shipwrack, and a senslesse Song of Phillis, and the businesse is done: the descriptions may [Page 19] be borrewed from Statius, and Montaigns Essays, the Reason and Politicall Ornaments from Mr Hobs, and the Astrologicall (and if need be, the Language too) from Ibrahim, or the Illustrious Bassa. To conclude all, he said, a barren Invention must ever be provided with such necessary helps, as the following Forms, to which he might have recourse on all occusions.
Some Forms and Figurative Expressions of solarge an extent, that they are adjusted to all Characters in all Plays, Tragedys, Comedys, and Tragi-Comedys, whether written in Rhyme, Blank Verse, or Prose; suitable to all Prologues, Epilogues, and Dramatique Essays that are, or shall be written. ‘For magnifique Sound’
‘Or varied thus:’
For gentle verses, that do not shake us in the reading. Maiden Queen.
Translate the Fair to the Brave, it may be thus,
‘for a Rant’ ‘Ile grasp my Scepter with my dying hand. Indian Emperour.’ ‘Or thus, higher:’
‘Higher yet’
‘For generous Love:’
Or with a more poynant brevity:
‘For sharpnesse of conceit.’ ‘He es'd his half-tir'd Muse on pace and trot. Epilogue to Mock Astrologer.’ ‘That is,’
‘ [Page 21] For pleasant folly,’
Easily resolved thus into prose: