Calamities And Quarrels Of Authors Part 45

All this was not done with impunity. An irritated wit only finds his adversary cutting out work for him. A second letter, more abundant with the same pungent qualities, fell on the head of Bentley. King says of the arch-critic--"He thinks meanly, I find, of my reading; yet for all that, I dare say I have read more than any man in England besides _him_ and _me_; for I have read his book all over."[302] Nor was this all; "Humty-Dumty" published eleven "Dialogues of the Dead," supposed to be written by a student at Padua, concerning "one Bentivoglio, a very troublesome critic in the world;" where, under the character of "Signior Moderno," Wotton falls into his place. Whether these dialogues mortified Bentley, I know not: they ought to have afforded him very high amus.e.m.e.nt. But when a man is at once tickled and pinched, the operation requires a gentler temper than Bentley's. "Humty-Dumty," indeed, had Bentley too often before him. There was something like inveteracy in his wit; but he who invented the remarkable index to Boyle's book, must have closely studied Bentley's character. He has given it with all its protuberant individuality.[303]

Bentley, with his peculiar idiom, had censured "all the stiffness and stateliness, and operoseness of style, quite alien from the character of 'Phalaris,' a man of business and despatch." Boyle keenly turns his own words on Bentley. "_Stiffness and stateliness, and operoseness of style_, is indeed quite _alien from the character of a man of business_; and being but a _library-keeper_, it is not over-modestly done, to oppose his judgment and taste to that of Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE, who knows more of these things than Dr. Bentley does of Hesychius and Suidas. Sir William Temple has spent a good part of his life in transacting affairs of state: he has written to kings, and they to him; and this has qualified him to judge how kings should write, much better than the _library-keeper at St. James's_."--This may serve as a specimen of the Attic style of the controversy. Hard words sometimes pa.s.sed. Boyle complains of some of the _similes_ which Bentley employs, more significant than elegant. For the new readings of "Phalaris," "he likens me to a bungling tinker mending old kettles."

Correcting the faults of the version, he says, "The first epistle cost me four pages in scouring;" and, "by the help of a Greek proverb, he calls me downright a.s.s." But while Boyle complains of these sprinklings of ink, he himself contributes to Bentley's "Collection of Asinine Proverbs," and "throws him in one out of Aristophanes," of "an a.s.s carrying mysteries:" "a proverb," says Erasmus, (as 'the Bees'

construe him.) "applied to those who were preferred to some place they did not deserve, as when a _dunce_ was made a _library-keeper_."

Some ambiguous threats are scattered in the volume, while others are more intelligible. When Bentley, in his own defence, had referred to the opinions which some learned foreigners entertained of him--they attribute these to "the foreigners, because they are foreigners--we, that have the happiness of a nearer conversation with him, know him better; and we may perhaps take an opportunity of setting these mistaken strangers right in their opinions." They threaten him with his character, "in a tongue that will last longer, and go further, than their own;" and, in the imperious style of Festus, add:--"Since Dr. Bentley has appealed to foreign universities, to foreign universities he must go." Yet this is light, compared with the odium they would raise against him by the menace of the resentments of a whole society of learned men.

"_Single adversaries_ die and drop off; but _societies_ are immortal: their resentments are sometimes delivered down from hand to hand; and when once they have begun with a man, there is no knowing when they will leave him."

In reply to this literary anathema, Bentley was furnished, by his familiarity with his favourite authors, with a fortunate application of a term, derived from Phalaris himself. Cicero had conveyed his idea of Caesar's cruelty by this term, which he invented from the very name of the tyrant.[304]

"There is a certain temper of mind that Cicero calls _Phalarism_; a spirit like Phalaris's. One would be apt to imagine that a portion of it had descended upon some of his translators. The gentleman has given a broad hint more than once in his book, that if I proceed further against Phalaris, I may draw, perhaps, a duel, or a stab upon myself; a generous threat to a divine, who neither carries arms nor principles fit for that sort of controversy. I expected such usage from the spirit of Phalarism."

In this controversy, the amusing fancy of "the Bees" could not pa.s.s by Phalaris without contriving to make some use of that brazen bull by which he tortured men alive. Not satisfied in their motto, from the Earl of Roscommon, with wedging "the great critic, like Milo, in the timber he strove to rend," they gave him a second death in their finis, by throwing Bentley into Phalaris's bull, and flattering their vain imaginations that they heard him "bellow."

"He has defied Phalaris, and used him very coa.r.s.ely, under the a.s.surance, as he tells us, that 'he is out of his reach.' Many of Phalaris's enemies thought the same thing, and repented of their vain confidence afterwards in his _bull_. Dr. Bentley is perhaps, by this time, or will be suddenly, satisfied that he also has presumed a little too much upon his distance; but it will be too late to repent when he begins to bellow."[305]

Bentley, although the solid force of his mind was not favourable to the lighter sports of wit, yet was not quite dest.i.tute of those airy qualities; nor does he seem insensible to the literary merits of "that odd work," as he calls Boyle's volume, which he conveys a very good notion of:--"If his book shall happen to be preserved anywhere as an useful commonplace book for ridicule, banter, and all the topics of calumny." With equal dignity and sense he observes on the ridicule so freely used by both parties--"I am content that what is the greatest virtue of his book should be counted the greatest fault of mine."

His reply to "Milo's fate," and the tortures he was supposed to pa.s.s through when thrown into Phalaris's bull, is a piece of sarcastic humour which will not suffer by comparison with the volume more celebrated for its wit.

"The facetious examiner seems resolved to vie with Phalaris himself in the science of _Phalarism_; for his revenge is not satisfied with one single death of his adversary, but he will kill me over and over again. He has slain me twice by two several deaths! one, in the first page of his book; and another, in the last. In the t.i.tle-page I die the death of Milo, the Crotonian:--

----Remember Milo's end, Wedged in that timber which he strove to rend.

"The application of which must be this:--That as Milo, after his victories at six several Olympiads, was at last conquered and destroyed in wrestling with a _tree_, so I, after I had attained to some small reputation in letters, am to be quite baffled and run down by _wooden antagonists_. But in the end of his book he has got me into Phalaris's bull, and he has the pleasure of fancying that he hears me _begin to bellow_. Well, since it is certain that I am in the bull, I have performed the part of a sufferer. For as the cries of the tormented in old Phalaris's bull, being conveyed through pipes lodged in the machine, were turned into music for the entertainment of the tyrant, so the complaints which my torments express from me, being conveyed to Mr. Boyle by this answer, are all dedicated to his pleasure and diversion. But yet, methinks, when he was setting up to be _Phalaris junior_, the very omen of it might have deterred him. As the old tyrant himself at last bellowed in his own bull, his imitators ought to consider that at long run their own actions may chance to overtake them."--p. 43.

Wit, however, enjoyed the temporary triumph; not but that some, in that day, loudly protested against the award.[306] "The Episode of Bentley and Wotton," in "The Battle of the Books," is conceived with all the caustic imagination of the first of our prose satirists. There Bentley's great qualities are represented as "tall, without shape or comeliness; large, without strength or proportion." His various erudition, as "armour patched up of a thousand incoherent pieces;" his book, as "the sound" of that armour, "loud and dry, like that made by the fall of a sheet of lead from the roof of some steeple;" his haughty intrepidity, as "a vizor of bra.s.s, tainted by his breath, corrupted into copperas, nor wanted gall from the same fountain; so that, whenever provoked by anger or labour, an atramentous quality of most malignant nature was seen to distil from his lips." Wotton is "heavy-armed and slow of foot, lagging behind." They perish together in one ludicrous death. Boyle, in his celestial armour, by a stroke of his weapon, transfixes both "the lovers," "as a cook trusses a brace of woodc.o.c.ks, with iron skewer piercing the tender sides of both.

Joined in their lives, joined in their death, so closely joined, that Charon would mistake them both for one, and waft them over Styx for half his fare." Such is the candour of wit! The great qualities of an adversary, as in Bentley, are distorted into disgraceful att.i.tudes; while the suspicious virtues of a friend, as in Boyle, not pa.s.sed over in prudent silence, are ornamented with even spurious panegyric.

Garth, catching the feeling of the time, sung--

And to a Bentley 'tis we owe a Boyle.

Posterity justly appreciates the volume of Bentley for its stores of ancient literature; and the author, for that peculiar sagacity in emending a corrupt text, which formed his distinguishing characteristic as a cla.s.sical critic; and since his book but for this literary quarrel had never appeared, reverses the names in the verse of the "Satirist."

FOOTNOTES:

[297] Haughtiness was the marking feature of Bentley's literary character; and his Wolseyan style and air have been played on by the wits. Bentley happened to express himself on the King's MS. of Phalaris in a manner their witty malice turned against him. "'Twas a surprise (he said) to find that OUR MS. was not perused."--"OUR MS. (they proceed) that is, his Majesty's and mine! He speaks out now; 'tis no longer the King's, but OUR MS., _i.e._ Dr. Bentley's and the King's in common, _Ego et Rex meus_--much too familiar for a library-keeper!"--It has been said that Bentley used the same Wolseyan egotism on Pope's publications:--"This man is always abusing _me_ or the _King_!"

[298] Bentley, in one place, having to give a positive contradiction to the statement of the bookseller, rising in all his dignity and energy, exclaims, "What can be done in this case? Here are two contrary affirmations; and the matter being done in private, neither of us have any witness. I might plead, as aemilius Scaurus did against one Varius, of Sucro. _Varius Sucronensis ait, aemilius Scaurus negat. Utri creditis Quirites?_" p. 21.--The story is told by Valerius Maximus, lib. iii. c. 7. Scaurus was insolently accused by one Varius, a Sucronian, that he had taken bribes from Mithridates: Scaurus addressed the Roman people. "He did not think it just that a man of his age should defend himself against accusations, and before those who were not born when he filled the offices of the republic, nor witnessed the actions he had performed. Varius, the Sucronian, says that Scaurus, corrupted by gold, would have betrayed the republic; Scaurus replies, It is not true. Whom will you believe, fellow-Romans?"--This appeal to the people produced all the effect imaginable, and the ridiculous accuser was silenced.

Bentley points the same application, with even more self-consciousness of his worth, in another part of his preface. It became necessary to praise himself, to remove the odium Boyle and his friends had raised on him--it was a difficulty overcome. "I will once more borrow the form of argument that aemilius Scaurus used against Varius Sucronensis.

Mr. Spanheim and Mr. Graevius give a high character of Dr. B.'s learning: Mr. Boyle gives the meanest that malice can furnish himself with. _Utri creditis, Quirites?_ Whether of the characters will the present age or posterity believe?"--p. 82.

It was only a truly great mind which could bring itself so close to posterity.

[299] It was the fashion then to appear very unconcerned about one's literary reputation; but then to be so tenacious about it when once obtained as not to suffer, with common patience, even the little finger of criticism to touch it. Boyle, after defending what he calls his "honesty," adds, "the rest _only_ touches my learning. This will give me _no concern_, though it may put me to some little trouble. I shall enter upon this with _the indifference of a gamester who plays but for a trifle_." On this affected indifference, Bentley keenly observes:--"This was entering on his work a little ominously; for a gamester who plays with indifference never plays his game well. Besides that, by this odd comparison, he seems to give warning, and is as good as his word, that he will put the dice upon his readers as often as he can. But what is worse than all, this comparison puts one in mind of a general rumour, that there's another set of gamesters who _play him_ in his dispute while themselves are safe behind the curtain."--BENTLEY'S _Dissertation on Phalaris_, p. 2.

[300] Rumours and conjectures are the lot of contemporaries; truth seems reserved only for posterity; and, like the fabled Minerva, she is born of age at once. The secret history of this volume, which partially appeared, has been more particularly opened in one of Warburton's letters, who received it from Pope, who had been "let into the secret."

Boyle wrote the Narrative, "which, too, was corrected for him." Freind, who wrote the entire Dissertation on aesop in that volume, wrote also, with Atterbury, the body of the Criticisms; King, the droll argument, proving that Bentley was not the author of his own Dissertation, and the extraordinary index which I shall shortly notice. In Atterbury's "Epistolary Correspondence" is a letter, where, with equal anger and dignity, Atterbury avows his having written _about half, and planned the whole_ of Boyle's attack upon Bentley! With these facts before us, can we read without surprise, if not without indignation, the pa.s.sage I shall now quote from the book to which the name of Boyle is prefixed. In raising an artful charge against Bentley, of appropriating to himself some MS.

notes of Sir Edward Sherburn, Boyle, replying to the argument of Bentley, that "Phalaris" was the work of some sophist, says:--"The sophists are everywhere pelted by Dr. Bentley, for putting out what they wrote in other men's names; but I did not expect to hear so loudly of it from one that has so far outdone them; for _I think 'tis much worse to take the honour of another man's book to one's self_, than to ent.i.tle one's own book to another man."--p. 16.

I am surprised Bentley did not turn the point of his antagonist's sword on himself, for this flourish was a most unguarded one. But Bentley could not then know so much of the book, "made up by contributions," as ourselves.

Partial truths flew about in rumours at the time; but the friends of a young n.o.bleman, and even his fellow-workmen, seemed concerned that his glory should not be diminished by a ruinous division. Rymer, in his "Essay concerning Curious and Critical Learning," judiciously surmised its true origin. "I fancy this book was written (as most public compositions in that college are) by a _select club_. Every one seems to have thrown in a repartee or so in his turn; and the most ingenious Dr. Aldrich (he does not deserve the epithet in its most friendly sense) no doubt at their head, smoked and punned plentifully on this occasion." The arrogance of Aldrich exceeded even that of Bentley. Rymer tells further, that Aldrich was notorious for thus employing his "young inexperienced students;" that he "_betrayed_ Mr. Boyle into the controversy, and is still involving others in the quarrel." Thus he points at the rival chieftains; one of whom never appeared in public, but was the great mover behind the curtain. These lively wits, so deeply busied among the obscurest writers of antiquity, so much against their will, making up a show of learning against the formidable array of Bentley, exhilarated themselves in their dusty labours by a perpetual stimulus of keen humour, playful wit, and angry invective. No doubt they were often enraged at bearing the yoke about their luxuriant manes, ploughing the darkest and heaviest soil of antiquity. They had been reared--

"Insultare solo, et gressus glomerare superbos."

"Georg." Lib. iii. 117.

"To insult the ground, and proudly pace the plain."

TRAPP.

Swift, in "The Battle of the Books," who, under his patron, Sir William Temple, was naturally in alliance with "the Bees," with ingenious ambiguity alludes to the glorious manufacture. "Boyle, clad in a suit of armour, _which had been given him by all the G.o.dS_." Still the truth was only floating in rumours and surmises; and the little that Boyle had done was not yet known. Lord Orrery, his son, had a difficulty to overcome to pa.s.s lightly over this allusion. The literary honour of the family was at stake, and his filial piety was exemplary to a father, who had unfortunately, in pa.s.sion, deprived his lordship of the family library--a stroke from which his sensibility never recovered, and which his enemies ungenerously pointed against him. Lord Orrery, with all the tenderness of a son, and the caution of a politician, observes on "the armour given by the G.o.ds"--"I shall not _dispute_ about the _gift_ of the armour. The G.o.ds never bestowed celestial armour except upon heroes, whose courage and superior strength distinguished them from the rest of mankind." Most ingeniously he would seem to convert into a cla.s.sical fable what was designed as a plain matter of fact!

It does credit to the discernment of Bentley, whose taste was not very lively in English composition, that he p.r.o.nounced Boyle was _not the author_ of the "Examination," from _the variety of styles in it_.--p. 107.

[301] This short and pointed satire of Horace is merely a pleasant story about a low wretch of the name of King; and Brutus, under whose command he was, is entreated to get rid of him, from his hereditary hatred to _all kings_. I suppose this pun must be considered legitimate, otherwise Horace was an indifferent punster.

[302] A keen repartee! Yet King could read this mighty volume as "a vain confused performance," but the learned DODWELL declared to "the Bees of Christchurch," who looked up to him, that "he had never learned so much from any book of the size in his life." King was as unjust to Bentley, as Bentley to King. Men of genius are more subject to "unnatural civil war" than even the blockheads whom Pope sarcastically reproaches with it. The great critic's own notion of his volume seems equally modest and just. "To undervalue this dispute about 'Phalaris,'

because it does not suit one's own studies, is to quarrel with a circle because it is not a square. If the question be not of vulgar use, it was writ therefore for a few; for even the greatest performances, upon the most important subjects, are no entertainment at all to _the many of the world_."--p. 107.

[303] This index, a very original morsel of literary pleasantry, is at once a satirical character of the great critic, and what it professes to be. I preserve a specimen among the curiosities I am collecting. It is ent.i.tled--

"_A Short Account of +Dr. BENTLEY+, by way of Index._

"Dr. Bentley's true story proved false, by the testimonies of, &c., p. --

"His civil language, p. --

"His nice taste, in wit, p. -- in style, p. -- in Greek, p. -- in Latin, p. -- in English, p. --

"His modesty and decency in contradicting great men"--a very long list of authors, concluding with '_Everybody_,' p. --

"His familiar acquaintance with books he never saw,"

p. --

And lastly, "his profound skill in criticism--from beginning to THE END."

Which thus terminates the volume.

[304] Cicero ad Attic.u.m, Lib. vii., Epist. xii.

[305] No doubt this idea was the origin of that satirical Capriccio, which closed in a most fortunate pun--a literary caricature, where the doctor is represented in the hands of Phalaris's attendants, who are putting him into the tyrant's bull, while Bentley exclaims, "I had rather be _roasted_ than _Boyled_."

[306] Sir Richard Blackmore, in his bold attempt at writing "A Satire against Wit," in utter defiance of it, without any, however, conveys some opinions of the times. He there paints the great critic, "crowned with applause," seated amidst "the spoils of ruined wits:"

"Till his rude strokes had thresh'd the empty sheaf, Methought there had been something else than chaff."