now suppose are on the anvil, I do also prohibit his appearance, unless it be done in metaphor, simile, or very short allusion : and that even here he be not permitted to enter but with great caution and circumspection. I desire that the same rule may be extended to the whole fraternity of heathen gods, it being my design to condemn every poem to the flames in which Jupiter thunders, or exercises any other act of authority which does not belong to him; in short I expect that no pagan agent shall be introduced, or any fact related, which a man cannot give credit to with a good conscience. Provided always that nothing herein contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to several of the female poets in this nation, who shall be still left in possession of their gods and goddesses, in the same manner as if this paper had never been written.1 How completely antagonistic the spirit here manifested is to the spirit of the late Classical Renaissance, as it exhibits itself in the work of the Italian decadence, and even, to some extent, in the Art Poétique of Boileau, may be gathered from what I have said on the subject in the first chapter of this volume. And yet, if the true spirit of the Renaissance be identical with the spirit of civic freedom, no more genuinely classical application of critical principles can be found than in this humorous decree. The writer who had done more than any other to establish these new standards of manners and taste, having attained to some of the highest offices in the State, died, in the fulness of manhood, on the 17th of June 1719, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The occasion was commemorated in an Elegy by his friend Tickell, written with a classic elegance, in itself the highest tribute to the success that had attended the efforts of Addison in his work of social refinement : Can I forget the dismal night that gave By midnight lamps, the mansions of the dead, Through breathing statues, then unheeded things, Through rows of warriors, and through walks of kings! 1 Spectator, No. 523. What awe did the slow, solemn knell inspire, And sleep in peace, next thy loved Montague! CHAPTER V THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILIAR STYLE IN ENGLISH POETRY GEORGE GRANVILLE, LORD LANSDOWN: WILLIAM WALSH JOHN POMFRET: Matthew Prior: JONATHAN SWIFT: JOHN GAY Still IN considering the Reformation of English Manners and Taste after the Revolution of 1688, I said that, viewing the matter historically, it was a mistake to ascribe the character of poetical principles in England after the Restoration mainly to the influence of French models.1 more is this the case in determining the causes that led to the development of the "Illustrious Vulgar Tongue" of our country. Yet it is always well to keep in view French example, not only because the many and striking resemblances in the course of each literature are due to the operation of the same European forces, but also because their equally remarkable diversities of character may be to some extent explained by differences of social condition. In both countries the aim of the poets and critics who formed poetical diction was-as it had also been in Italy -to build up the idiom on a colloquial basis refined by literary practice. In both there was delay in arriving at a fixed standard of propriety, in consequence of an internal conflict of spiritual forces. In both a settlement of the standard began to be reached at about the same stage of civil development; in France, that is to say, at the time when, after the suppression of the Fronde, Louis XIV. 1 Page 82. absorbed all the functions of Government; in England, when the struggle between Crown and Parliament was ended by the settlement of 1688. But in the resulting character of each language there is striking dissimilarity, which is readily traceable to the predominant influence exercised on French society by the Crown and by Female Genius. As the kings of France had mounted to Absolutism by the support of the bourgeoisie, so they naturally encouraged a course of refinement proceeding from the old French poems, in which there was a large infusion of the popular spirit. But they also fully appreciated the great results which had been effected, in the improvement of manners, by the female leaders of the Hôtel Rambouillet, the social descendants of the Presidents of the Cours d'Amour; hence the polite French of the seventeenth century represents a mixture of the delicacy of Voiture, on the one side, and of the logical robustness of La Fontaine, Molière, and Boileau, on the other; these contrary qualities being reconciled with each other by the supreme authority of the Court. No controlling influences of this kind operated in the formation of English taste, though it is easy to see that in English society the same elemental principles were at work. For a brief moment after the Restoration the great Royalist reaction placed the Crown in an almost absolute position; and in an earlier chapter of this History I have endeavoured to trace the effects on taste of the riotous and clumsy caricature of French manners in the Court of Charles II. But these effects were not permanent, and, at the downfall of the Feudal Monarchy, there was nothing in the constitution of English society answering to the influence on language of the Hôtel Rambouillet or the later salons of the Précieuses. On the whole, three forms of poetical diction had asserted themselves in England as just modes for determining the character of the Illustrious Vulgar Tongue. The first was Spenser's principle of archaic revival which, in the form of Allegory, commended itself to such conserva 1 Vol. iii. chap. xv. pp. 455-457. tive intellects as strove to retain at least the image of chivalry and scholastic theology. But this clearly was not conformable to the ordinary usages of English speech; and still less so was the second form, viz. the Metaphysical manner, exemplified in the style of Donne and Cowley, which, springing out of the decay of the Scholastic Logic, carried imagination away from the sphere of common sense. Both of these fashions, being founded too exclusively on conscious literary experiment, showed a tendency to rapid exhaustion. It was not so with the third form, namely Waller's adaptation of the heroic couplet to the purposes of courtly compliment. Waller, how- This metre had its foundation partly in the conversation of society, partly in the tradition of literature. It had been used with excellent effect by Chaucer, who imported it from France, and it had received a new development from Drayton, whose practice, improved by Drummond and Sir John Beaumont, was afterwards taken up by Waller, and used, as a vehicle of panegyric, in opposition to the Pindaric style of Cowley. ever, was essentially a poet of the Court. paying compliments in verse, smooth, lucid, and melodious; and to this end he imported into his poetry as much as possible of colloquial usage. But he shrank from the appearance of vulgarity, and, while discarding metaphysics, strove to give elevation to the subjects of his praise by associating them with a childish Pagan mythology. Hence his style was far from being adapted to the requirements of a society in which the Court played a diminished part. We have only to examine the verse of any representative courtier under the two last Stuarts, to see how it differs in tone from the easy well-bred manner attained in the aristocratic régime by poets like Prior and Cowper. In order to form a refined poetical idiom, answering to the needs of civil society after the Revolution, it was necessary that the courtly style of Waller should receive a strong mixture of the popular speech, just in the same way as Addison had "brought philosophy out of closets |