Essays and Tales Part 7

VIRG., _AEn._ x. 821.

The pious prince beheld young Lausus dead; He grieved, he wept, then grasped his hand and said, "Poor hapless youth! what praises can be paid To worth so great?"

DRYDEN.

I shall take another opportunity to consider the other parts of this old song.

Part Two.

--_Pendent opera interrupta_.

VIRG., _AEn._ iv. 88.

The works unfinished and neglected lie.

In my last Monday's paper I gave some general instances of those beautiful strokes which please the reader in the old song of "Chevy-Chase;" I shall here, according to my promise, be more particular, and show that the sentiments in that ballad are extremely natural and poetical, and full of the majestic simplicity which we admire in the greatest of the ancient poets: for which reason I shall quote several pa.s.sages of it, in which the thought is altogether the same with what we meet in several pa.s.sages of the "AEneid;" not that I would infer from thence that the poet, whoever he was, proposed to himself any imitation of those pa.s.sages, but that he was directed to them in general by the same kind of poetical genius, and by the same copyings after nature.

Had this old song been filled with epigrammatical turns and points of wit, it might perhaps have pleased the wrong taste of some readers; but it would never have become the delight of the common people, nor have warmed the heart of Sir Philip Sidney like the sound of a trumpet; it is only nature that can have this effect, and please those tastes which are the most unprejudiced, or the most refined. I must, however, beg leave to dissent from so great an authority as that of Sir Philip Sidney, in the judgment which he has pa.s.sed as to the rude style and evil apparel of this antiquated song; for there are several parts in it where not only the thought but the language is majestic, and the numbers sonorous; at least the apparel is much more gorgeous than many of the poets made use of in Queen Elizabeth's time, as the reader will see in several of the following quotations.

What can be greater than either the thought or the expression in that stanza,

To drive the deer with hound and horn Earl Percy took his way; The child may rue that is unborn The hunting of that day!

This way of considering the misfortunes which this battle would bring upon posterity, not only on those who were born immediately after the battle, and lost their fathers in it, but on those also who perished in future battles which took their rise from this quarrel of the two earls, is wonderfully beautiful and conformable to the way of thinking among the ancient poets.

_Audiet pugnas vitio parentum_.

_ Rara juventus_.

HOR., _Od._ i. 2, 23.

Posterity, thinn'd by their fathers' crimes, Shall read, with grief, the story of their times.

What can be more sounding and poetical, or resemble more the majestic simplicity of the ancients, than the following stanzas?--

The stout Earl of Northumberland A vow to G.o.d did make, His pleasure in the Scottish woods Three summer's days to take.

With fifteen hundred bowmen bold, All chosen men of might, Who knew full well, in time of need, To aim their shafts aright.

The hounds ran swiftly through the woods The nimble deer to take, And with their cries the hills and dales An echo shrill did make.

--_Vocat ingenti clamore Cithaeron_, _Taygetique canes_, _domitrixque Epidaurus equorum_: _Et vox a.s.sensu memorum ingeminata remugit_.

VIRG., _Georg._ iii. 43.

Cithaeron loudly calls me to my way: Thy hounds, Taygetus, open, and pursue their prey: High Epidaurus urges on my speed, Famed for his hills, and for his horses' breed: From hills and dales the cheerful cries rebound: For Echo hunts along, and propagates the sound.

DRYDEN.

Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come, His men in armour bright; Full twenty hundred Scottish spears, All marching in our sight.

All men of pleasant Tividale, Fast by the river Tweed, &c.

The country of the Scotch warrior, described in these two last verses, has a fine romantic situation, and affords a couple of smooth words for verse. If the reader compares the foregoing six lines of the song with the following Latin verses, he will see how much they are written in the spirit of Virgil:

_Adversi campo apparent_: _hastasque reductis_ _Protendunt longe dextris_, _et spicula vibrant_:-- _Quique altum Praeneste viri_, _quique arva Gabinae_ _Junonis_, _gelidumque Anienem_, _et roscida rivis_ _Hernica saxa colunt_:--_qui rosea rura Velini_; _Qui Tetricae horrentes rupes_, _montemq ue Severum_, _Casperiamque colunt_, _porulosque et flumen Himellae_: _Qui Tyberim Fabarimque bibunt_.

_AEn._ xi. 605, vii. 682, 712.

Advancing in a line they couch their spears-- --Praeneste sends a chosen band, With those who plough Saturnia's Gabine land: Besides the succours which cold Anien yields: The rocks of Hernicus--besides a band That followed from Velinum's dewy land-- And mountaineers that from Severus came: And from the craggy cliffs of Tetrica; And those where yellow Tiber takes his way, And where Himella's wanton waters play: Casperia sends her arms, with those that lie By Fabaris, and fruitful Foruli.

DRYDEN.

But to proceed:

Earl Douglas on a milk-white steed, Most like a baron bold, Rode foremost of the company, Whose armour shone like gold.

_Turnus_, _ut antevolans tardum praecesserat agmen_, &c.

_Vidisti_, _quo Turnus equo_, _quibus ibat in armis_ _Aurcus_--

_AEn._ ix. 47, 269.

Our English archers bent their bows, Their hearts were good and true; At the first flight of arrows sent, Full threescore Scots they slew.

They closed full fast on ev'ry side, No slackness there was found; And many a gallant gentleman Lay gasping on the ground.

With that there came an arrow keen Out of an English bow, Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart, A deep and deadly blow.

AEneas was wounded after the same manner by an unknown hand in the midst of a parley.

_Has inter voces_, _media inter talia verba_, _Ecce viro stridens alis allapsa sagitta est_, _Incertum qua pulsa manu_--

_AEn._ xii. 318.

Thus, while he spake, unmindful of defence, A winged arrow struck the pious prince; But whether from a human hand it came, Or hostile G.o.d, is left unknown by fame.

DRYDEN.

But of all the descriptive parts of this song, there are none more beautiful than the four following stanzas, which have a great force and spirit in them, and are filled with very natural circ.u.mstances. The thought in the third stanza was never touched by any other poet, and is such a one as would have shone in Homer or in Virgil:

So thus did both these n.o.bles die, Whose courage none could stain; An English archer then perceived The n.o.ble Earl was slain.

He had a bow bent in his hand, Made of a trusty tree, An arrow of a cloth-yard long Unto the head drew he.

Against Sir Hugh Montgomery So right his shaft he set, The gray-goose wing that was thereon In his heart-blood was wet.

This fight did last from break of day Till setting of the sun; For when they rung the ev'ning bell The battle scarce was done.