A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century Part 14

[1] "An Apology for Smectymnuus."

[2] Lines 162-168. See also "Mansus," 80-84.

[3] "What resounds In fable or romance of Uther's son, Begirt with British and Armoric knights; And all who since, baptized or infidel, Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond, Or whom Biserta sent from Afric sh.o.r.e When Charlemain with all his peerage fell By Fontarabbia."

--_Book I_, 579-587.

[4] "Faery damsels met in forest wide By knights of Logres, or of Lyones, Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore."

--_Book II_, 359-361.

[5] "Ma.s.son's Life of Milton," Vol. VI. P. 789

[6] "Essay on Pope," Vol. I. pp. 36-38 (5th edition). In the dedication to Young, Warton says: "The Epistles (Pope's) on the Characters of Men and Women, and your sprightly Satires, my good friend, are more frequently perused and quoted than 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso' of Milton."

[7] The Rev. Francis Peck, in his "New Memoirs of the Life and Poetical Works of Mr. John Milton," in 1740, says that these two poems are justly admired by foreigners as well as Englishmen, and have therefore been translated into all the modern languages. This volume contains, among other things, "An Examination of Milton's Style"; "Explanatory and Critical Notes on Divers Pa.s.sages of Milton and Shakspere"; "The Resurrection," a blank verse imitation of "Lycidas," "Comus," "L'Allegro"

and "Il Penserosa," and the "Nativity Ode." Peck defends Milton's rhymed poems against Dryden's strictures. "He was both a perfect master of rime and could also express something by it which n.o.body else ever thought of." He compares the verse paragraphs of "Lycidas" to musical bars and p.r.o.nounces its system of "dispersed rimes" admirable and unique.

[8] "Life of Milton."

[9] "Il Pacifico: Works of William Mason," London, 1811, Vol. I. p. 166.

[10] "Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects."

[11] "To Fancy."

[12] _Cf_. Gray's "Elegy," first printed in 1751:

"Save that, from yonder ivy-mantled tower, The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient, solitary reign."

[13] "On the Approach of Summer." The "wattled cotes," "sweet-briar hedges," "woodnotes wild," "tanned hayc.o.c.k in the mead," and "valleys where mild whispers use," are transferred bodily into this ode from "L'Allegro."

[14] Three volumes appeared in 1748; a second edition, with Vol. IV. added in 1749, Vols. V. and VI. in 1758. There were new editions in 1765, 1770, 1775, and 1782. Pearch's continuations were published in 1768 (Vols. VII. and VIII.) and 1770 (Vols. IX. and X.); Mendez's independent collection in 1767; and Bell's "Fugitive Poetry," in 18 volumes, in 1790-97.

[15] The reader who may wish to pursue this inquiry farther will find the following list of Miltonic imitations useful: Dodsley's "Miscellany," I.

164, Pre-existence: "A Poem in Imitation of Milton," by Dr. Evans. This is in blank verse, and Gray, in a letter to Walpole, calls it "nonsense."

II. 109. "The Inst.i.tution of the Order of the Garter," by Gilbert West.

This is a dramatic poem, with a chorus of British bards, which is several times quoted and commended in Joseph Warton's "Essay on Pope." West's "Monody on the Death of Queen Caroline," is a "Lycidas" imitation. III.

214, "Lament for Melpomene and Calliope," by J. G. Cooper; also a "Lycidas" poem. IV. 50, "Penshurst," by Mr. F. Coventry: a very close imitation of "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso." IV. 181, "Ode to Fancy," by the Rev. Mr. Merrick: octosyllables. IV. 229, "Solitude, an Ode," by Dr.

Grainger: octosyllables. V. 283, "Prologue to Comus," performed at Bath, 1756. VI. 148, "Vacation," by----, Esq.: "L'Allegro," very close--

"These delights, Vacation, give, And I with thee will choose to live."

IX. (Pearch) 199, "Ode to Health," by J. H. B., Esq.: "L'Allegro." X. 5, "The Valetudinarian," by Dr. Marriott; "L'Allegro," very close. X. 97, "To the Moon," by Robert Lloyd: "Il Penseroso," close. Parody is one of the surest testimonies to the prevalence of a literary fashion, and in Vol X. p 269 of Pearch, occurs a humorous "Ode to Horror," burlesquing "The Enthusiast" and "The Pleasures of Melancholy," "in the allegoric, descriptive, alliterative, epithetical, hyperbolical, and diabolical style of our modern ode wrights and monody-mongers," form which I extract a pa.s.sage:

"O haste thee, mild Miltonic maid, From yonder yew's sequestered shade. . .

O thou whom wandering Warton saw, Amazed with more than youthful awe, As by the pale moon's glimmering gleam He mused his melancholy theme.

O Curfew-loving G.o.ddess, haste!

O waft me to some Scythian waste, Where, in Gothic solitude, Mid prospects most sublimely rude, Beneath a rough rock's gloomy chasm, Thy sister sits, Enthusiasm."

"Bell's Fugitive Poetry," Vol. XI, (1791), has a section devoted to "poems in the manner of Milton," by Evans, Mason, T. Warton and a Mr. P.

(L'Amoroso).

[16] See James Thomson's "City of Dreadful Night," xxi. Also the frontispiece to Mr. E. Stedman's "Nature of Poetry" (1892) and pp. 140-41 of the same.

[17] "Eighteenth Century Literature," pp. 209, 212.

[18] "English Literature in the Eighteenth Century," pp. 375, 379.

[19] Joseph mentions as one of Spenser's characteristics, "a certain pleasing melancholy in his sentiments, the constant companion of an elegant taste, that casts a delicacy and grace over all his composition,"

"Essay on Pope," Vol. II. p. 29. In his review of Pope's "Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard," he says: "the effect and influence of Melancholy, who is beautifully personified, on every object that occurs and on every part of the convent, cannot be too much applauded, or too often read, as it is founded on nature and experience. That temper of mind casts a gloom on all things.

"'But o'er the twilight grows and dusky caves,' etc."

--_Ibid_, Vol. I. p. 314.

[20] "The Grave," by Robert Blair.

[21] The aeolian harp was a favorite property of romantic poets for a hundred years. See Mason's "Ode to an Aeolus's Harp" (Works, Vol. I. p.

51). First invented by the Jesuit, Kircher, about 1650, and described in his "Musurgia Universalis," Mason says that it was forgotten for upwards of a century and "accidentally rediscovered" in England by a Mr. Oswald.

It is mentioned in "The Castle of Indolence" (i. xl) as a novelty:

"A certain music never known before Here lulled the pensive melancholy mind"--

a pa.s.sage to which Collins alludes in his verses on Thomson's death--

"In yon deep bed of whispering reeds His airy harp shall now be laid."

See "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" I. 341-42 (1805)

"Like that wild harp whose magic tone Is wakened by the winds alone."

And Arthur Cleveland c.o.xe's (_Christian Ballads_, 1840)

"It was a wind-harp's magic strong, Touched by the breeze in dreamy song,"

And the poetry of the Annuals _pa.s.sim_.

[22] _Cf._ the "Elegy":

"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech," etc.

[23] "On a Distant Prospect of Eton College."

[24] "Hymn to Adversity"

[25] "Ode on the Spring."

[26] "Ward's English Poets," Vol. III. pp. 278-82.