TONSON OFFERS TO PUBLISH THE PASTORALS.

57

They were published in a Poetical Miscellany or Annual

issued by Ton

son. Four parts or yearly volumes of this Miscellany had been edited by Dryden. A fifth was collected after his death; and now Tonson, with the help of Pope's contributions, ventured on a sixth volume. The publisher's note to Pope, offering his as

sistance, is cha

racteristic of the

keen old man of

TONSON.

business whom Dryden found so hard a taskmaster :

SIR, I have lately seen a Pastoral of yours, in Mr. Walsh's and Congreve's hand, which is extremely fine, and is approved by the best judges in poetry. I remember I have formerly seen you in my shop, and am sorry I did not improve my acquaintance with you. If you design your poem for the press, no one shall be more careful in printing it, nor no one can give greater encouragement to it than, sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

Gray's Inn Gate, April the 20th, 1706.

JACOB TONSON.

The offer of "left-legged Jacob" could not be resisted. The Pastorals, when completed and revised, were sent to the press, and as Wycherley profanely observed, Jacob's ladder raised Pope to immortality! The Miscellany opened with the Pastorals of Ambrose Philips, (which afterwards proved a source of lasting enmity between the rival bucolic poets,)

and closed with those of Pope, who also contributed his version of Chaucer's January and May, and a translation of the Epistle of Sarpedon from the Iliad. The volume contained verses by the Marquis of Normanby, the Duke of Buckingham, and Garth, and a translation of part of Lucan by Rowe. The Windsor poet, therefore, appeared in good company, and Wycherley acted as gentleman usher by inserting a copy of complimentary verses, entitled, "To my friend Mr. Pope on his Pastorals." This piece is correctly and pleasingly written, and concludes with a prediction, that the young poet's muse would soon, like Virgil's, take a higher flight.

So larks, which first from lowly fields arise,
Mount by degrees, and reach at last the skies.

Pope was charged by some malicious critics with writing, or at least correcting these verses on himself, and one might almost swear to this concluding epithet being his composition. He had unquestionably added, as on former occasions, a few graceful touches to the faltering Muse of the Plain Dealer.

The Essay on Criticism was now begun, though not published till 1711. Didactic poetry was then popular. The authors of the day had discarded the grosser impurities of the former period, and reformed the drama. A considerable sediment, however, was left, and there were no aspirations after high invention, imagination, or passion-no return to the fountains of nature, of romance, or of heroism in Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakspeare. To extol contemporary events, to panegyrise living individuals, to paint smooth enamel wordminiatures, and to reason or criticise in decent verse, filled the measure of the poet's ambition. Addison was agreeably descriptive, but feeble, in his Letter from Italy, and Prior had given forth some runnings of his sprightly vein, but there was a character of tameness and littleness in the poetical literature of the period; and the Essay on Criticism was entitled to a high pre-eminence. Pope was probably

ESSAY ON CRITICISM.

59

led to his subject by the Essays on Satire, Translated Verse, and Poetry by Sheffield and Roscommon. Boileau's Art of Poetry had been trans

lated by Sir William
Soame, and revised by
Dryden, who applied
the poem to English
writers. This work
was evidently in Pope's
hands. He did not,
however, adopt the
methodical system of
Boileau, which Shef-
field followed. 1
did not classify criti-
cism as Boileau class-
ified poetry under its
different forms of Pas-
toral, Elegy, Ode, Sa-
tire, &c. He selected
Horace as his model,

He

ROSCOMMON.

but both in Horace

and Pope there is a certain order and connection without

1 Some of the lines in Sheffield's Essay on Poetry are vigorous and

correct:

"Figures of speech, which poets think so fine-
Art's needless varnish to make nature shine-
All are but paint upon a beauteous face,
And in description only claim a place;
But to make rage declaim and grief discourse,
From lovers in despair fine things to force,
Must needs succeed, for who can choose but pity
A dying hero miserably witty?

But, oh! the dialogue where jest and mock

Is held up like a rest at shuttlecock;

Or else like bells eternally they chime,

They sigh in simile, and die in rhyme!"

Pope's Essay on Criticism is much in this style, but of a "higher mood."

which their precepts would have wanted perspicuity as well as force. This would seem to be all that either the Roman or English poet aimed at, though Warburton endeavoured by a laboured commentary, to show that Pope's Essay was a complete treatise both of the art of criticism and the art of poetry. "You remember," said Pope to Wycherley, "a simile Mr. Dryden used in conversation, of feathers in the crowns of the wild Indians, which they not only choose for the beauty of their colours, but place them in such a manner as to reflect a lustre on each other." Such we believe to have been the art adopted by Pope in stringing together the admirable maxims contained in the Essay on Criticism, and the beautiful illustrations with which it is embellished.

The poet did not at first affix his name to the Essay, and the sale was slow. It was attacked by Dennis, the most conspicuous critic of that period, but an unsuccessful poet and dramatist. Pope had dared to throw down the gauntlet to this still formidable aristarch. When treating of critics he said:

But Appius reddens at each word you speak,

And stares tremendous with a threatening eye,
Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry.

His

Dennis had written a tragedy on the story of Appius and Virginia, and was well known to be irritable and violent both in his criticism and his character. The satirical portrait was at once recognised, and the enraged critic lost no time in retaliating in a pamphlet which his egregious vanity no doubt led him to believe would bring his puny assailant to his feet in submission, or annihilate him for ever. remarks on the Essay are replete with personal abuse, part of which will be found quoted by Pope, in justification of his severity, in his notes to the Dunciad; but they contain also a few just observations, by which the poet profited. Dennis was a man of acuteness and learning; he had been noticed by Dryden, Congreve, and Steele; but his temper, naturally violent and vindictive, had been soured by disappointment

DENNIS THE CRITIC.

61

and intemperance, and his vanity and caprice distorted his judgment. His indignation at this time was specially roused by the circumstance that Pope had previously sought his acquaintance.

"At his first coming to town," he says, "he was importunate with Mr. Cromwell to introduce him to me. The recommendation en

gaged me to be about thrice in com

pany with him; after

which I went to the

country, till I found

myself most insolently attacked in his very superficial Essay on Criticism, by which he endeavoured to destroy the reputation of a man who had published pieces of criticism, and to set up his own." Dennis, it was obvious, could bear no brother near his critical throne;

and Pope's predilection for satire was overpowering his youthful diffidence and caution. The enraged critic found few to sympathise with him. The Essay was too excellent to be cried down; and many of the scribblers of that day must have rejoiced to see the furious Goliath of criticism struck on the forehead, though not felled to the ground, by a smooth stone from the sling of a stripling.

There was another class of objectors to the Essay on Criticism. The poet's liberal and tolerant sentiments on the subject of religion, with his praise of Erasmus and his censure of the monks, provoked the holy Vandals of his cwn