The Rolliad Part 8

He approximates now to the magnificent, or perhaps more properly to the _mania_ of Poetry, and like another Ca.s.sandra, begins to try his skill at prophecy; like her he predicts truly, and like her, for the present at least, is not, perhaps, very implicitly credited.--He proceeds thus;

Rapt into future times, the Muse surveys The rip'ning; wonders of succeeding days: Sees Albion prostrate, all her splendour gone!

In useless tears her pristine state bemoan; Sees the fair sources of her pow'r and pride In purer channels roll their golden tide; Sees her at once of wealth and honour shorn, No more the nations' envy, but their scorn; A sad example of capricious fate, Portentous warning to the proud and great: Sees Commerce quit her desolated isle, And seek in other climes a kinder soil; Sees fair Ierne rise from England's flame, And build on British ruin, Irish fame.

The Poet in the above pa.s.sage, is supposed to have had an eye to Juno's address to aeolus in the first book of the aeneid:

Gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor _Ilium_ in _Italiam_ portans, _Victos_ que _Penates_.

_NUMBER XII._

Though we have at length nearly exhausted the beauties of that part of our author's work, in which the characters of the leading Members of the House of Commons are so poetically and forcibly delineated; we shall find, however, that the genius of the poet seems to receive fresh vigour, as he approaches the period of his exertions, in the ill.u.s.trious Mr. ROLLE. What can be more sublime or picturesque than the following description!

Erect in person, see yon Knight advance, With trusty 'Squire, who bears his shield and lance; The Quixote HOWARD! Royal Windsor's pride, And Sancho Panca POWNEY by his side; A monarch's champion, with indignant frown, And haughty mein, he casts his gauntlet down; Majestic sits, and hears, devoid of dread, The dire Phillippicks whizzing round his head.

Your venom'd shafts, ye sons of Faction spare; However keen, they cannot enter there.

And how well do these lines, immediately succeeding, describe the manner of speaking, which characterizes an orator of such considerable weight and authority:

He speaks, he speaks! Sedition's chiefs around, With unfeign'd terror hear the solemn sound; While little POWNEY chears with livelier note, And shares his triumph in a silent vote.

Some have ignorantly objected to this as an instance of that figure for which a neighbouring kingdom is so generally celebrated, vulgarly distinguished by the appellation of a _Bull_; erroneously conceiving a silent vote to be incompatible with the vociferation here alluded to: those, however, who have attended parliamentary debates, will inform them, that numbers who most loudly exert themselves, in what is called _chearing_ speakers, are not upon that account ent.i.tled to be themselves considered as such.--Our author has indeed done injustice to the worthy member in question, by cla.s.sing him among the number of mutes, he having uniformly taken a very active part in all debates relating to the militia; of which truly const.i.tutional body, he is a most respectable Pillar, and one of the most conspicuous ornaments.

It is unquestionably the highest praise we can bestow upon a member of the British House of Commons, to say, that he is a faithful representative of the people, and upon all occasions speaks the real sentiments of his const.i.tuents; nor can an honest ambition to attain the first dignities of the state, by honourable means, be ever imputed to him as a crime. The following encomium, therefore, must be acknowledged to have been justly merited by a n.o.ble Lord, whose independent and disinterested conduct has drawn upon him the censures of disappointed faction.

The n.o.ble CONVERT, Berwick's honour'd choice, That faithful echo of the people's voice, One day, to gain an Irish t.i.tle glad, For Fox he voted--so the people bad; 'Mongst English Lords ambitious grown to sit, Next day the people bade him vote for PITT: To join the stream our Patriot, nothing loth, By turns discreetly gave his voice to both.

The t.i.tle of n.o.ble convert, which was bestowed upon his Lordship by a Speaker of the degraded Whig faction, is here most judiciously adopted by our Author, implying thereby that this denomination, intended, no doubt, to convey a severe reproach, ought rather to be considered as a subject of panegyric: this is turning the artillery of the enemy against themselves--

"Neque lex est justior ulla, &c."

In the next character introduced, some persons may perhaps object to the seeming impropriety of alluding to a bodily defect; especially one which has been the consequence of a most cruel accident; but when it is considered, that the mention of the personal imperfection is made the vehicle of an elegant compliment to the superior qualifications of the mind, this objection, though founded in liberality, will naturally fall to the ground.

The circ.u.mstance of one of the Representatives of the first city in the world having lost his leg, while bathing in the sea, by the bite of a shark, is well known; nor can the dexterity with which he avails himself of the use of an artificial one, have escaped the observation of those who have seen him in the House of Commons, any more than the remarkable humility with which he is accustomed to introduce his very pointed and important observations upon the matters in deliberation before that august a.s.sembly.

"One moment's time might I presume to beg?"

Cries modest WATSON, on his wooden leg; That leg, in which such wond'rous art is shown, It almost seems to serve him like his own; Oh! had the monster, who for breakfast eat That luckless limb, his n.o.bler noddle met, The best of workmen, nor the best of wood, Had scarce supply'd him with a head so good.

To have a.s.serted that neither the utmost extent of human skill, nor the greatest perfection in the materials, could have been equal to an undertaking so arduous, would have been a species of adulation so fulsome, as to have shocked the known modesty of the worthy magistrate; but the forcible manner in which the difficulty of supplying so capital a loss is expressed, conveys, with the utmost delicacy, a handsome, and, it must be confessed, a most justly merited compliment to the Alderman's abilities.

The imitation of celebrated writers is recommended by Longinus, and has, as our readers must have frequently observed, been practised with great success, by our author; yet we cannot help thinking that he has pushed the precept of this great critic somewhat too far, in having condescended to copy, may we venture to say with so much servility, a genius so much inferior to himself as Mr. Pope. We allude to the following lines:

Can I, NEWHAVEN, FERGUSON forget, While Roman spirit charms, or Scottish wit?

MACDONALD, shining a refulgent star, To light alike the senate and the bar; And HARLEY, constant to support the throne, Great follower of its interests and his own.

The subst.i.tution of _Scottish_ for _Attic_, in the second line, is unquestionably an improvement, since however Attic wit may have been proverbial in ancient times, the natives of Scotland are so confessedly distinguished among modern nations for this quality, that the alteration certainly adds considerable force to the compliment.

But however happily and justly the characters are here described, we cannot think this merit sufficient to counterbalance the objection we have presumed to suggest, and which is princ.i.p.ally founded upon the extreme veneration and high respect we entertain for the genius of our author.

Mr. Addison has observed, that Virgil falls infinitely short of Homer in the characters of his Epic Poem, both as to their variety and novelty, but he could not with justice have said the same of the author of the ROLLIAD; and we will venture to a.s.sert, that the single book of this Poem, now under our consideration, is, in this respect, superior to the whole, both of the Iliad and the aeneid together.

The characters succeed each other with a rapidity that scarcely allows the reader time to admire and feel their several beauties.

GALWAY and GIDEON, in themselves a host, Of York and Coventry the splendid boast: WHITBREAD and ONGLEY, pride of Bedford's vale, This fam'd for selling, that for saving ale; And NANCY POULETT, as the morning fair, Bright as the sun, but common as the air; Inconstant nymph! who still with open arms, To ev'ry Minister devotes her charms.

But when the Poet comes to describe the character of the hero of his work, the present Member for the county of Devon, whom MERLIN points out to his ill.u.s.trious ancestor, as uniting in himself all the Various merits of the worthies whose excellencies he has recorded, he seems to rise even above himself.--It is impossible to do justice to his character, without transcribing the whole, which would exceed the limits of our work; we shall therefore only give to our readers the concluding lines, because they contain characteristic observations upon other distinguished Members, most of whom have hitherto pa.s.sed unnoticed:

In thee, my son, shall ev'ry virtue meet, To form both senator and man complete: A mind like WRAY's, with stores of fancy fraught, The wise Sir WATKIN's vast extent of thought; Old NUGENT's style, sublime, yet ne'er obscure, With BAMBER's Grammar, as his conscience pure; BRETT's brilliant sallies, MARTIN's sterling sense, And GILBERT's wit, that never gave offence: Like WILKES, a zealot in his Sovereign's cause, Learn'd as MACDONALD in his country's laws; Acute as AUDREY, as Sir LLOYD polite, As EASTWICKE lively, and as AMBLER bright.

The justice of [1] the compliment to SIR CECIL WRAY, will not be disputed by those who have been fortunate enough to have met with the beautiful specimens of juvenile poetry, with which some of his friends have lately indulged the public.

Johannes Scriblerus, a lineal descendant of the learned and celebrated Martinus, reads "Starling Martin's sense," alluding to that powerful opponent of the detestable Coalition having recommended that a bird of that species should be placed on the right of the Speaker's chair, after having been taught to repeat the word Coalition, in order to remind the House of that disgraceful event, which had nearly established an efficient and strong government in this country: to which severe and admirable stroke of satire, the object of it clumsily and uncivilly answered, that whilst that gentleman sat in the House, he believed the Starling might be allowed to perform his office by deputy. We have, however, ventured to differ from this great authority, and shall continue to read, "Martin's Sterling sense," as well because we are of opinion that these words are peculiarly applicable to the gentleman alluded to, as that it does not appear probable our author should have been willing to make his poem the vehicle of an indecent sarcasm, upon a person of such eminent abilities.

The compliment to Mr. B.G. in the comparison of the purity of his language to the integrity of his conduct, is happily conceived; but that to the ingenious Mr. Gilbert, the worthy Chairman of the Committee of Supply, is above all praise, and will, we are persuaded, notwithstanding the violence of party, by all sides be admitted to be strictly just.

[1] The characteristic of _Fancy_, which our Poet has attributed to Sir Cecil, must not be misunderstood. It is a Fancy of the chastized kind; distinguished for that elegant simplicity, which the French call _navete_, and the Greeks afe?e?a. We shall insert here two or three of the shorter specimens.

_To_ CaeLIA _(now Lady_ Wray) _on seeing her the 8th of August, 1776, powdering her hair_

EXTEMPORE.

Thy locks, I trow, fair maid, Don't never want this aid: Wherefore thy powder spare, And only _comb_ thy hair.

_To_ SIR JOSEPH MAWBEY, _proposing, in consequence of a previous Engagement, a Party to go a-fishing for White-Bait._

Worthy SIR JOE, we all are wishing You'll come with us a-White-Bait-fishing.

_A Thought on_ NEW MILK _some Time toward the Spring of the Year 1773._

Oh! how charming is New Milk!

Sweet as sugar!--smooth as silk!

_An_ IDEA _on a_ PECK _of_ COALS.

I buy my Coals by peck, that we May have 'em _fresh_ and _fresh_, d'ye see.

_NUMBER XIII._

After concluding the review of the Ministerialists with the young Marcellus of the Poem, the ill.u.s.trious Mr. ROLLE; our author directs the attention of DUKE ROLLO to the Opposition-bench. He notices the cautious silence of MERLIN relative to that side of the House, and rather inquisitively asks the reason; on which the Philosopher (a little unphilosophically, we must confess) throws himself into a violent pa.s.sion, and for a long time is wholly incapable of articulating a syllable. This is a common situation in poets both ancient and modern, as in Virgil and Milton;

Ter conata loqui, &c.

Thrice he essay'd, and thrice in spight of scorn Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth, &c.

but we will venture to a.s.sert, that it was never painted in a manner half so lively, as by the author of the ROLLIAD.

Thrice he essay'd, but thrice in vain essay'd; His tongue, throat, teeth, and lips, refus'd their aid: Till now the stifled breath a pa.s.sage broke; He gasp'd, he gap'd--but not a word he spoke.

How accurately, and learnedly, has the poet enumerated all the organs of speech, which separately and jointly refuse to execute their respective offices! How superior is this to the simply cleaving of the tongue to the palate, the _Vox faucibus haesit_ of Virgil. For as Quintilian observes, a detail of particulars is infinitely better than any general expression, however strong. Then the poor Prophet obtains a little remission of his paroxysm; he begins to breathe convulsively--_he gasped_; he opens his mouth to its utmost extent--_he gaped_; our expectations are raised, and, alas! he still continues unable to utter--_not a word he spoke_. Surely nothing can be more natural in point of truth, than all the circ.u.mstances of this inimitable description: nothing more artful in point of effect, than the suspence and attention which it begets in the mind of the reader!