Part 6 (1/2)
Several Hundred Years before there was such a Thing heard of as a Stage at _Athens_.
The next Thing this Critick takes notice of, is _Dryden_'s making _Cleomenes_ a _Copernican_ 2000 Years before _Copernicus_'s Time. The Rest of the Criticisms turn upon the Improbability that Don _Sebastian_ King of _Portugal_ understood Latin, tho' he never prayed to G.o.d in any other Language; or that the Emperor of _Barbary_ had ever heard of the Names of _Bacchus_, _Cupid_, _Castor_, and _Pollux_, or the Mufti of _Archimedes_, tho' we are credibly informed, that most of the Greek and Roman Learning was translated into _Arabick_; and it is well known that the _Arabians_ were the greatest Encouragers of Arts and Sciences for three or four Centuries, when they were buried all over Christendom under the Rubbish of Monkery and Barbarism; and the Revivers of Learning were obliged to them for their Translations and Comments, which were turned into _Latin_ out of _Arabick_. I have not only read of a Translation of _Aristotle_ with Comments by _Aben Rois_, and of _Euclid_ by _Na.s.sir Eddyn_, with Notes, but of an _Arabick Ovid_, where the Fable is the Foundation of the Work, and several other Cla.s.sicks in the _Arabick_ Tongue. How easy would it be to fill up such Critical Epistles as that in the _Guardian_ with as just and curious Remarks out of the best Epick Poets! How has _Chaucer_ confounded the Sacred _Scripture_ History with Pagan Fables:
_There by the Fount_ Narcissus _pin'd alone: There_ Sampson _was, and wiser_ Solomon: Medea'_s Charms were there._ Dryden _from_ Chauc.
_Ariosto_ does the same in the x.x.xii Book of _Orlando Furioso_:
Joshua_'s Day seemed shorter than the same, Shorter did seem the false_ Amphytrion_'s Night._ Harrington.
The same does _Ta.s.so_, _Canto_ iv of his _Jierusamme_:
_There where_ Cileno_'s foul and loathsome Rout; The_ Sphinges, Centaurs; _there where_ Gorgon_'s fell, There howling_ Scilla_'s, yawling round about: There Serpents hiss, there seven mouth'd_ Hydra_'s yell,_ Chimera _there spues Fire and Brimstone out, And_ Polyphemus _blind suporteth h.e.l.l._ Fairfax.
All understood of the h.e.l.l, which is the Punishment of the d.a.m.ned, according to the Christian Theology, and here confounded with the fabled Empire of _Pluto_. _Spencer_ too mixes Scripture History with the Fable: _Canto_ ix.
_The Years of_ Nestor _nothing were to his, Ne yet_ Methusalem, _tho' longest liv'd; For he remembred both their Infancies._
Nay _Milton_ himself adorns the _Pandaemonium_ with Dorick Pillars, while _Adam_ and _Eve_ lived in the _Bowers_ of Paradise before Man had a House to put his Head in:
--------_Pilasters round Were set, and Dorick Pillars overlaid With golden Architrave._
He also borrows the Rivers of the h.e.l.l of the Heathens for his Christian Poem:
_Abhorred_ Styx, _the Flood of deadly Hate, Sad_ Acheron _of Sorrow, black and deep,_ Cocytus _nam'd, of Lamentation loud Heard on her rueful Stream. Fierce_ Phlegeton, _Whose Waves of torrent Fire inflame with Rage.
Far off from these a flow and silent Stream_ Lethe _the River of Oblivion rolls;_
Which
Medusa _with_ Gorgonian _Terror guards._
It has been hinted elsewhere, that 'tis ungenerous to criticise on _Dryden_'s Conduct and Sentiments, which 'tis plain he varied at Pleasure, and wrote like a great Original, whose Example was to be a Rule to others, and himself to take Rules from none; but it is not true, as we read in the above-cited _Guardian_, _That his very Faults have more Beauty in them, than the most elaborate Compositions of many more correct Writers_: For I will repeat some few Lines that are monstrous, and then let the Reader judge how they can be beautiful.
_'Tis false, she is not ill, nor can she be; She must be chaste, because she's lov'd by me.
--------I'll squeeze thee like a Bladder, Or make thee groan thy self away in Air.
She who dares love, and for that Love dares die, And knowing this, dares yet love on, am I.
Good Heaven thy Book of Fate before me lay, But to tear out the Journal of this Day.
But take what Friends, what Armies thou canst bring, What Worlds, and when you are united All, Then I will thunder in your Ears; she shall.
--------Fight, love, despair; And I can do all this, because I dare.
What are ten thousand Subjects, such as they?
If I am scorn'd, I'll take my self away.
Thou shalt not wish her thine, thou shalt not dare To be so impudent as to dispair.
There's not a Star of thine dares stay with thee, I'll whistle thy tame Fortune after me._
I cannot repeat any more of it: These are Mr. _Dryden_'s Faults, in which, according to the _Guardian_, there are more Beauties than in the most elaborate Pieces of more correct Writers. I confess it grieves me to mention such Enormities as these are: For no Man can do more justice to Mr. _Dryden_'s fruitful Imagination, and harmonious Versification than my self: But it does not therefore follow, that even Errour in him is more beautiful than Regularity in others.
It I had more Room, and more Leisure, I should have endeavour'd to explain the Difference between the several Ways of Thinking. Some of them I have attempted, and I hope it may stir up a greater Genius, to do in _English_ as Pere _Bouhours_ has done in _French_, which would introduce a beautiful and just Manner both in Thought and Expression. It would then be known why it is that Archbishop _Tillotson_ and Bishop _Sprat_ are both esteem'd Masters of the _English_ Language; why Sir _William Temple_, and Sir _Roger L'Estrange_, the _Tatler_, and the _Spectator_, are generally spoken of as fine Writers; though their Manner is as different as their Faces. Every Thing that pleases in Writing is with us, as I have already hinted, resolved into Wit, whether it be in the Thought or the Expression. _Nay some_, says the _Spectator_, _carry the Notion of Wit so far, as to ascribe it to Puns and Quibbles, and even to external Mimickry, and to look upon a Man as an ingenious Person that can resemble the Tone, Gesture, or Face of another_. With such admirable Judges as these, Sir _Isaac Newton_'s Discourse of _Fluxions_ is very witty, as the Machine called the _Orrery_ was said to be very _wittily_ contrived. With these _Estcourt_, _Penkethman_, and even _Norris_ are Wits, as the _Spaniards_ take the _Apes_ to be, and that they won't speak because they would not work. I have known two or three Actors who got into Vogue by Grimace only, and acting Parts that had neither Wit nor Sense in them.