The Rolliad Part 10

Hic ferulae, dextram, hic, virgis caedenda magistri, Nuda dedit patiens tergora ROLLIADES.

At non ROLLIADEN domuerunt verbera; non, quae Nescio quid gravius praemonuere, minae, Ah! quoties illum aequalis mirata corona est Nec lacrymam in paenis rumpere, nec gemitum!

Ah! quoties, c.u.m supplicio jam inc.u.mberet, ipsi [4]Orbillo cecidit victa labore ma.n.u.s!

I, puer; I, forti tolerando pectore plagas, aemula ROLLIADae nomina disce sequi.

Here to the ferule ROLLE his hand resign'd, Here to the rod he bar'd the parts behind; But him no stripes subdu'd, and him no fear Of menac'd wrath in future more severe.

How oft the youthful circle wond'ring saw That pain from him nor tear, nor groan could draw!

How oft, when still unmoved, he long'd to jerk, The master's wearied hand forsook the work!

Go, boy; and scorning rods, or ferules, aim By equal worth to rival ROLLE in fame.

The beauty of these lines, we presume, is too obvious to require any comment. We will confidently affirm, that they record as glorious an example of patience as any to be found in all the History of the Flagellants, though the ingenious M. De Lolme has extended the subject into a handsome Quarto.

The Italian inscription is a kind of short dialogue, in which the traveller is introduced, demanding the name of the person to whom the pillar is erected.

A chi si sta questa colonna? Al ROLLE; Che di parlar apprese in questo loco Greco e Latino n, ma Inglese--un poco.

Basta cos. Chi non sa il resto, e folle.

This abrupt conclusion we think very fine. It has however been censured as equivocal. Some critics have urged, that the same turn has, in fact, been applied equally to men greatly famous and greatly infamous; to Johannes Mirandula, and Colonel Chartres: and in the present case, say these cavillers, it may be construed to signify either that the rest is too well known to require repet.i.tion, or that there is nothing more to be known. But the great character of Mr. ROLLE will at once remove all ambiguity.

The French inscription was furnished by Mr. ROLLE himself on the day of his election. The idea was first expressed by him in English, and then done into French verse by the [5] Dutch dancing master at Exeter, to whom Mr. ROLLE is indebted for his extraordinary proficiency in that science.

Ne pouvoir point parler a mon chien je reproche; Moi, j'acquis en ces lieux le don de la parole: Je vais donc, & bien vite, a Londres par le coche, Faire entendre au Senat, que je suis un vrai ROLLE.

The _par le coche_ seems to be an addition of the Dancing-master, who was certainly no very great Poet, as appears by his use of feminine rhymes only, without any mixture of masculine: an irregularity perfectly inadmissible, as all our polite readers must know, in the nicety of French prosody. We shall subjoin for the entertainment of our readers an inscription in the parish school at Rouen, which was written about a century since on the original Rollo.

Ici ROLLON fesse soir & matin, Beaucoup souffrit, point n'apprit se Latin.

Aux fiers combats bien mieux joua son role: Tuer des gens lui parut chose drole.

Femme epousa, plus douce que satin, Et, par bonheur, deja veuve & catin; D'elle recut un fils & la v------le.

Ainsi, Lecteur, naquit le premier ROLLE!

But to return to our author. After the vision of the column, MERLIN proceeds in a short speech to intimate to ROLLO, that higher honours may yet await his descendant in the House of Lords,

Where ROLLE may be, what ROLLO was before.

This, as may be naturally supposed, excites the curiosity of the Duke; but MERLIN declares, that it is not permitted him to reveal the glories of the Upper house. The hero must first fulfil his fates, by mortally wounding the Saxon drummer, whom Providence shall inspire in his last moments for this particular purpose.

Ere yet thou know, what higher honours wait Thy future race, accomplish them thy fate.

When now the bravest of our Saxon train Beneath thy conquering arms shall press the plain; What yet remains, his voice divine in death Shall tell, and Heav'n for this shall lengthen out his breath.

Which last line is most happily lengthened out into an Alexandrine, to make the sound an echo to the sense. The pause too after the words "shall tell," finely marks the sudden catches and spasmodic efforts of a dying man. Some extracts from the Drummer's prophecies have already been given to the public; and from these specimens of his loquacity with a thurst in quarte through his lungs, our readers will probably see the propriety with which the immediate hand of Heaven is here introduced. The most rigid critic will not deny that here is truly the

Dignus vindice nodus,

which Horace requires to justify the interposition of a Divinity.

We are now come to the concluding lines of the sixth book. Our readers are probably acquainted with the commonly-received superst.i.tion relative to the exit of Magicians, that they are carried away by Devils. The poet has made exquisite use of this popular belief, though he could not help returning in the last line to his favourite Virgil.

Cla.s.sical observers will immediately perceive the allusion to

------Revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras Hic labor, hoc opus est;

in the description of ROLLO's re-ascent from the night-cellar into the open air.

The Prophet foreseeing his instant end,

"At once, farewel," he said. But, as he said, Like mortal bailiffs to the sight array'd, Two fiends advancing seiz'd, and bore away To their dark dens the much-resisting prey: While ROLLO nimbly clamber'd in a fright, Tho' steep and difficult the way, to light.

And thus ends the sixth book of the ROLLIAD; which we have chosen for the subject of the FIRST PART of our CRITICISMS. In the second part, which is now going on in the Morning-Herald, where the first draughts of the present numbers were originally published, we shall pursue our Commentary through the House of Peers; and in a third part, for which we are now preparing and arranging materials, it is our intention to present our readers with a series of anecdotes from the political history of our ministry, which our author has artfully contrived to interweave in his inimitable poem.

And here, while we are closing this first Part, we cannot but congratulate ourselves, that we have been the humble instruments of first calling the attention of the learned to this wonderful effort of modern genius, the fame of, which has already exceeded the limits of this island, and perhaps may not be circ.u.mscribed by the present age; which, we have the best reason to believe, will very shortly diffuse the glory of our present Rulers in many and distant quarters of the globe; and which may not improbably descend to exhibit them in their true colours to remote posterity. That we indeed imagine our Criticisms to have contributed very much to this great popularity of the ROLLIAD, we will not attempt to conceal. And this persuasion shall animate us to continue our endeavours with redoubled application, that we may complete, as early as possible, the design, which we have some time since formed to ourselves, and which we have now submitted to the Public; happy, if that which is yet to come, be received with the same degree of favour as this, which is now finished, so peculiarly experienced even in its most imperfect condition.

[1] Dr. Busby, formerly master of Westminster school, was famous for his consumption of birch. MERLIN uses his name here by the spirit of prophecy.

[2] Erasmus wrote an _Encomium of Folly_, with abundant wit and learning.

For Creichton, see the Adventurer.

[3] The literal English is "_vehement mouth of oratory._"

[4] A great flogger of antiquity, ------Memini quae _plagosum_ mihi parvo _Orbilium_ dictare. HOR.

[5] Mynheer Hoppingen Van Caperagen, who soon after the publication of our first authentic Edition, sent the following letter to Mr. Ridgway:

D'Exeter, ce 18 Avril, 1785.

"Je suis fort etonne. Monsieur, que vous ayez eu la hardiesse d'admettre dans "_La Critique de la Rolliade_," une accusation contre moi qui n'est nullement fondee, et qui tend a me nuire dans l'esprit de tous les amateurs des beaux arts. Sachez, Monsieur, que je me suis donne la peine de traduire _mot a mot_ la celebre inscription, de mon digne eleve et protecteur, _Mr. Rolle_; que je n'y ai rien ajoute, et que dans le vers ou il est question _du coche_, votre Critique n'auroit du voir qu'une preuve de l'economie de mon susdit _Mecene_. Quant aux rimes feminines que l'auteur me reproche avec tant d'aigreur, je vous dirai qu'il n'y a rien de _male_ dans l'esprit de Mr. _Rolle_, et que j'aurois blesse sa delicatesse en m'y prenant autrement; d'ailleurs je me moque des usages, et je ne veux pas que mes vers sautent a clochepied, comme ceux des poetes Francois, qui n'entendent rien a la danse. Je ne doute pas que vous approuviez mon sentiment la-dessus, et que vous me fa.s.siez rendre justice sur l'objet de ma plainte: en attendant, je vous prie de croire que je suis, avec le plus vif attachment, Monsieur, votre tres obeissant serviteur, HOPPINGEN VAN CAPERAGEN."

END OF PART THE FIRST.

CRITICISMS ON THE ROLLIAD.

PART THE SECOND

_NUMBER I._

We have now followed our admirable author through the _Sixth Book_ of his poem; very much to our own edification, and, we flatter ourselves, no less to the satisfaction of our readers. We have shewn the art with which he has introduced a description of the leading characters of our present House of Commons, by a contrivance something similar indeed to that employed by Virgil, but at the same time sufficiently unlike to substantiate his own claim to originality. And surely every candid critic will admit, that had he satisfied himself with the same device, in order to panegyrize his favourites in the other House, he would have been perfectly blameless. But to the writer of the ROLLIAD, it was not sufficient to escape censure; he must extort our praise, and excite our admiration.

Our cla.s.sical readers will recollect, that all Epic Heroes possess in common with the poets who celebrate their actions, the gift of _prophecy_; with this difference however, that poets prophecy while they are in sound health, whereas the hero never begins to talk about futurity, until he has received such a mortal wound in his lungs as would prevent any man but a hero from talking at all: and it is probably in allusion to this circ.u.mstance, that the power of divination is distinguished in North Britain by the name of SECOND SIGHT, as commencing when common vision ends. This faculty has been attributed to dying warriors, both by _Homer_ and _Virgil_; but neither of these poets have made so good use of it as our author, who has introduced into the last dying speech of the Saxon Drummer, the whole birth, parentage, and education, life, character, and behaviour, of all those benefactors of their country, who at present adorn the House of Peers, thereby conforming himself to modern usage, and at the same time distinguishing the victorious Rollo's prowess in subduing an adversary, who dies infinitely harder than either Turnus or Hector.

Without farther comment, we shall now proceed to favour our readers with a few extracts. The first Peer mentioned by the _Dying Drummer_, is the present _Marquis of Buckingham_: his appearance is ushered in by an elegant panegyric on his father, Mr. _George Grenville_, of which we shall only give the concluding lines:

_George_, in whose subtle brain, if Fame say true, Full-fraught with wars, the fatal stamp-act grew; Great financier! stupenduous calculator!-- _But, George_ the son is _twenty-one times_ greater!

It would require a volume, not only to point out all the merits of the last line, but even to do justice to that Pindaric spirit, that abrupt beauty, that graceful aberration from rigid grammatical contexts, which appears in the single word _but_. We had however a further intention in quoting this pa.s.sage, viz. to a.s.sert our author's claim to the invention of that species of MORAL ARITHMETIC, which, by the means of proper additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions, ascertains the relative merits of two characters more correctly than any other mode of investigation hitherto invented. Lord Thurlow, when he informed the House of Peers, that, "_one_ Hastings is worth _twenty_ Macartneys," had certainly the merit of ascertaining the comparative value of the two men in _whole numbers_, and _without a fraction_. He likewise enabled his auditors, by means of _the rule of three_, to find out the numerical excellence of any other individual; but to compare Lord Thurlow with our author, would be to compare the scholar with the inventor; to compare a common house-steward with _Euclid_ or _Archimedes_. We now return to the poem.