The Works of Lord Byron Volume I Part 105

May shoot a little with a lengthened bow; We claim this mutual mercy for our task, And grant in turn the pardon which we ask; But make not monsters spring from gentle dams-- Birds breed not vipers, tigers nurse not lambs. 20

A laboured, long Exordium, sometimes tends (Like patriot speeches) but to paltry ends; [vi]

And nonsense in a lofty note goes down, As Pertness pa.s.ses with a legal gown: [vii]

Thus many a Bard describes in pompous strain [viii]

The clear brook babbling through the goodly plain: The groves of Granta, and her Gothic halls, King's Coll-Cam's stream-stained windows, and old walls: Or, in adventurous numbers, neatly aims To paint a rainbow, or the river Thames. [3] 30

You sketch a tree, and so perhaps may shine [ix]-- But daub a shipwreck like an alehouse sign; You plan a _vase_--it dwindles to a _pot_; Then glide down Grub-street--fasting and forgot: Laughed into Lethe by some quaint Review, Whose wit is never troublesome till--true.

In fine, to whatsoever you aspire, Let it at least be simple and entire.

The greater portion of the rhyming tribe [x]

(Give ear, my friend, for thou hast been a scribe) 40 Are led astray by some peculiar lure. [xi]

I labour to be brief--become obscure; One falls while following Elegance too fast; Another soars, inflated with Bombast; Too low a third crawls on, afraid to fly, He spins his subject to Satiety; Absurdly varying, he at last engraves Fish in the woods, and boars beneath the waves! [xii]

Unless your care's exact, your judgment nice, The flight from Folly leads but into Vice; 50 None are complete, all wanting in some part, Like certain tailors, limited in art.

For galligaskins Slowshears is your man [xiii]

But coats must claim another artisan. [4]

Now this to me, I own, seems much the same As Vulcan's feet to bear Apollo's frame; Or, with a fair complexion, to expose Black eyes, black ringlets, but--a bottle nose!

Dear Authors! suit your topics to your strength, And ponder well your subject, and its length; 60 Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear.

But lucid Order, and Wit's siren voice, [xiv]

Await the Poet, skilful in his choice; With native Eloquence he soars along, Grace in his thoughts, and Music in his song.

Let Judgment teach him wisely to combine With future parts the now omitted line: This shall the Author choose, or that reject, Precise in style, and cautious to select; 70 Nor slight applause will candid pens afford To him who furnishes a wanting word. [xv]

Then fear not, if 'tis needful, to produce Some term unknown, or obsolete in use, (As Pitt has furnished us a word or two, [5]

Which Lexicographers declined to do;) So you indeed, with care,--(but be content To take this license rarely)--may invent.

New words find credit in these latter days, If neatly grafted on a Gallic phrase; [xvi] 80 What Chaucer, Spenser did, we scarce refuse To Dryden's or to Pope's maturer Muse.

If you can add a little, say why not, As well as William Pitt, and Walter Scott?

Since they, by force of rhyme and force of lungs, [xvii]

Enriched our Island's ill-united tongues; 'Tis then--and shall be--lawful to present Reform in writing, as in Parliament.

As forests shed their foliage by degrees, So fade expressions which in season please; 90 And we and ours, alas! are due to Fate, And works and words but dwindle to a date.

Though as a Monarch nods, and Commerce calls, [xviii]

Impetuous rivers stagnate in ca.n.a.ls; Though swamps subdued, and marshes drained, sustain [xix]

The heavy ploughshare and the yellow grain, And rising ports along the busy sh.o.r.e Protect the vessel from old Ocean's roar, All, all, must perish; but, surviving last, The love of Letters half preserves the past. 100 True, some decay, yet not a few revive; [xx] [6]

Though those shall sink, which now appear to thrive, As Custom arbitrates, whose shifting sway [xxi]

Our life and language must alike obey.

The immortal wars which G.o.ds and Angels wage, Are they not shown in Milton's sacred page?

His strain will teach what numbers best belong To themes celestial told in Epic song. [xxii]

The slow, sad stanza will correctly paint The Lover's anguish, or the Friend's complaint. 110 But which deserves the Laurel--Rhyme or Blank? [xxiii]

Which holds on Helicon the higher rank?

Let squabbling critics by themselves dispute This point, as puzzling as a Chancery suit.

Satiric rhyme first sprang from selfish spleen.

You doubt--see Dryden, Pope, St. Patrick's Dean. [7]

Blank verse is now, with one consent, allied To Tragedy, and rarely quits her side.

Though mad Almanzor [8] rhymed in Dryden's days, No sing-song Hero rants in modern plays; 120 Whilst modest Comedy her verse foregoes For jest and 'pun' [9] in very middling prose.

Not that our Bens or Beaumonts show the worse, Or lose one point, because they wrote in verse.

But so Thalia pleases to appear, [xxiv]

Poor Virgin! d.a.m.ned some twenty times a year!

Whate'er the scene, let this advice have weight:-- Adapt your language to your Hero's state.

At times Melpomene forgets to groan, And brisk Thalia takes a serious tone; 130 Nor unregarded will the act pa.s.s by Where angry Townly [10] "lifts his voice on high."

Again, our Shakespeare limits verse to Kings, When common prose will serve for common things; And lively Hal resigns heroic ire, [xxv]-- To "hollaing Hotspur" [11] and his sceptred sire. [xxvi]

'Tis not enough, ye Bards, with all your art, To polish poems; they must touch the heart: Where'er the scene be laid, whate'er the song, Still let it bear the hearer's soul along; 140 Command your audience or to smile or weep, Whiche'er may please you--anything but sleep.

The Poet claims our tears; but, by his leave, Before I shed them, let me see 'him' grieve.

If banished Romeo feigned nor sigh nor tear, Lulled by his languor, I could sleep or sneer. [xxvii]

Sad words, no doubt, become a serious face, And men look angry in the proper place.

At double meanings folks seem wondrous sly, And Sentiment prescribes a pensive eye; 150 For Nature formed at first the inward man, And actors copy Nature--when they can.

She bids the beating heart with rapture bound, Raised to the Stars, or levelled with the ground; And for Expression's aid, 'tis said, or sung, [xxviii]

She gave our mind's interpreter--the tongue, Who, worn with use, of late would fain dispense (At least in theatres) with common sense; O'erwhelm with sound the Boxes, Gallery, Pit, And raise a laugh with anything--but Wit. 160

To skilful writers it will much import, Whence spring their scenes, from common life or Court; Whether they seek applause by smile or tear, To draw a Lying Valet, [12] or a Lear, [13]

A sage, or rakish youngster wild from school, A wandering Peregrine, or plain John Bull; All persons please when Nature's voice prevails, Scottish or Irish, born in Wilts or Wales.

Or follow common fame, or forge a plot; [xxix]

Who cares if mimic heroes lived or not! 170 One precept serves to regulate the scene: Make it appear as if it _might_ have _been_.

If some Drawcansir [14] you aspire to draw, Present him raving, and above all law: If female furies in your scheme are planned, Macbeth's fierce dame is ready to your hand; For tears and treachery, for good and evil, Constance, King Richard, Hamlet, and the Devil!

But if a new design you dare essay, And freely wander from the beaten way, 180 True to your characters, till all be past, Preserve consistency from first to last.

Tis hard [15] to venture where our betters fail, [x.x.x]

Or lend fresh interest to a twice-told tale; And yet, perchance,'tis wiser to prefer A hackneyed plot, than choose a new, and err; Yet copy not too closely, but record, More justly, thought for thought than word for word; Nor trace your Prototype through narrow ways, But only follow where he merits praise. 190

For you, young Bard! whom luckless fate may lead [16]

To tremble on the nod of all who read, Ere your first score of cantos Time unrolls, [x.x.xi]

Beware--for G.o.d's sake, don't begin like Bowles!

"Awake a louder and a loftier strain," [17]-- And pray, what follows from his boiling brain?-- He sinks to Southey's level in a trice, Whose Epic Mountains never fail in mice!

Not so of yore awoke your mighty Sire The tempered warblings of his master-lyre; 200 Soft as the gentler breathing of the lute, "Of Man's first disobedience and the fruit"

He speaks, but, as his subject swells along, Earth, Heaven, and Hades echo with the song."[x.x.xii]

Still to the "midst of things" he hastens on, As if we witnessed all already done; [x.x.xiii]

Leaves on his path whatever seems too mean To raise the subject, or adorn the scene; Gives, as each page improves upon the sight, Not smoke from brightness, but from darkness--light; 210 And truth and fiction with such art compounds, We know not where to fix their several bounds.

If you would please the Public, deign to hear What soothes the many-headed monster's ear: [x.x.xiv]

If your heart triumph when the hands of all Applaud in thunder at the curtain's fall, Deserve those plaudits--study Nature's page, And sketch the striking traits of every age; While varying Man and varying years unfold Life's little tale, so oft, so vainly told; 220 Observe his simple childhood's dawning days, His pranks, his prate, his playmates, and his plays: Till time at length the mannish tyro weans, And prurient vice outstrips his tardy teens! [x.x.xv]

Behold him Freshman! forced no more to groan [x.x.xvi]

O'er Virgil's [18] devilish verses and his own; Prayers are too tedious, Lectures too abstruse, He flies from Tavell's frown to "Fordham's Mews;"

(Unlucky Tavell! [19] doomed to daily cares [x.x.xvii]

By pugilistic pupils, and by bears,) 230 Fines, Tutors, tasks, Conventions threat in vain, Before hounds, hunters, and Newmarket Plain.

Rough with his elders, with his equals rash, Civil to sharpers, prodigal of cash; Constant to nought--save hazard and a wh.o.r.e, [x.x.xviii]

Yet cursing both--for both have made him sore: Unread (unless since books beguile disease, The P----x becomes his pa.s.sage to Degrees); Fooled, pillaged, dunned, he wastes his terms away, [x.x.xix]

And unexpelled, perhaps, retires M.A.; 240 Master of Arts! as _h.e.l.ls_ and _clubs_ [20] proclaim, [xl]

Where scarce a blackleg bears a brighter name!