Part 17 (1/2)
”So when an Angel by divine command With rising tempests shakes a guilty land, Such as of late o'er pale Britannia pa.s.sed, Calm and serene he drives the furious blast; And, pleased the Almighty's orders to perform, Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm.”
For this poem Addison was rewarded with the post of Commissioner of Appeals. He rose, successively, to be Under Secretary of State; Secretary for Ireland; and, finally, Secretary of State for England-- an office which would correspond to that of our present Home Secretary. He married the Countess of Warwick, to whose son he had been tutor; but it was not a happy marriage. Pope says of him in regard to it, that--
”He married discord in a n.o.ble wife.”
He died at Holland House, Kensington, London, in the year 1719, at the age of forty-seven.
8. But it is not at all as a poet, but as a prose-writer, that Addison is famous in the history of literature. While he was in Ireland, his friend Steele started +The Tatler+, in 1709; and Addison sent numerous contributions to this little paper. In 1711, Steele began a still more famous paper, which he called +The Spectator+; and Addison's writings in this morning journal made its reputation. His contributions are distinguishable by being signed with some one of the letters of the name _Clio_-- the Muse of History. A third paper, +The Guardian+, appeared a few years after; and Addison's contributions to it are designated by a hand ([->]) at the foot of each. In addition to his numerous prose-writings, Addison brought out the tragedy of +Cato+ in 1713. It was very successful; but it is now neither read nor acted. Some of his hymns, however, are beautiful, and are well known. Such are the hymn beginning, ”The s.p.a.cious firmament on high;” and his version of the 23d Psalm, ”The Lord my pasture shall prepare.”
9. Addison's prose style is inimitable, easy, graceful, full of humour-- full of good humour, delicate, with a sweet and kindly rhythm, and always musical to the ear. He is the most graceful of social satirists; and his genial creation of the character of +Sir Roger de Coverley+ will live for ever. While his work in verse is never more than second-rate, his writings in prose are always first-rate. Dr Johnson said of his prose: ”Whoever wishes to attain an English style-- familiar but not coa.r.s.e, and elegant but not ostentatious,-- must give his days and nights to the study of Addison.” Lord Lytton also remarks: ”His style has that nameless urbanity in which we recognise the perfection of manner; courteous, but not courtier-like; so dignified, yet so kindly; so easy, yet high-bred. It is the most perfect form of English.” His style, however, must be acknowledged to want force-- to be easy rather than vigorous; and it has not the splendid march of Jeremy Taylor, or the n.o.ble power of Savage Landor.
10. RICHARD STEELE (+1671-1729+), commonly called ”d.i.c.k Steele,” the friend and colleague of Addison, was born in Dublin, but of English parents, in the year 1671. The two friends were educated at Charterhouse and at Oxford together; and they remained friends, with some slight breaks and breezes, to the close of life. Steele was a writer of plays, essays, and pamphlets-- for one of which he was expelled from the House of Commons; but his chief fame was earned in connection with the Society Journals, which he founded. He started many-- such as +Town-Talk+, +The Tea-Table+, +Chit-Chat+; but only the +Tatler+ and the +Spectator+ rose to success and to fame. The strongest quality in his writing is his pathos: the source of tears is always at his command; and, although himself of a gay and even rollicking temperament, he seems to have preferred this vein. The literary skill of Addison-- his happy art in the choosing of words-- did not fall to the lot of Steele; but he is more hearty and more human in his description of character. He died in 1729, ten years after the departure of his friend Addison.
11. ALEXANDER POPE (+1688-1744+), the greatest poet of the eighteenth century, was born in Lombard Street, London, in the year of the Revolution, 1688. His father was a wholesale linendraper, who, having ama.s.sed a fortune, retired to Binfield, on the borders of Windsor Forest. In the heart of this beautiful country young Pope's youth was spent. On the death of his father, Pope left Windsor and took up his residence at Twickenham, on the banks of the Thames, where he remained till his death in 1744. His parents being Roman Catholics, it was impossible for young Pope to go either to a public school or to one of the universities; and hence he was educated privately. At the early age of eight, he met with a translation of Homer in verse; and this volume became his companion night and day. At the age of ten, he turned some of the events described in Homer into a play. The poems of Spenser, the poets' poet, were his next favourites; but the writer who made the deepest and most lasting impression upon his mind was Dryden. Little Pope began to write verse very early. He says of himself--
”As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came.”
His +Ode to Solitude+ was written at the age of twelve; his +Pastorals+ when he was fifteen. His +Essay on Criticism+, which was composed in his twentieth year, though not published till 1711, established his reputation as a writer of neat, clear, sparkling, and elegant verse. The +Rape of the Lock+ raised his reputation still higher. Macaulay p.r.o.nounced it his best poem. De Quincey declared it to be ”the most exquisite monument of playful fancy that universal literature offers.”
Another critic has called it the ”perfection of the mock-heroic.” Pope's most successful poem-- if we measure it by the fame and the money it brought him-- was his translation of the +Iliad+ of Homer. A great scholar said of this translation that it was ”a very pretty poem, but not Homer.” The fact is that Pope did not translate directly from the Greek, but from a French or a Latin version which he kept beside him.
Whatever its faults, and however great its deficiency as a representation of the powerful and deep simplicity of the original Greek, no one can deny the charm and finish of its versification, or the rapidity, facility, and melody of the flow of the verse. These qualities make this work unique in English poetry.
12. After finis.h.i.+ng the +Iliad+, Pope undertook a translation of the +Odyssey+ of Homer. This was not so successful; nor was it so well done.
In fact, Pope translated only half of it himself; the other half was written by two scholars called Broome and Fenton. His next great poem was the +Dunciad+,-- a satire upon those petty writers, carping critics, and hired defamers who had tried to write down the reputation of Pope's Homeric work. ”The composition of the 'Dunciad' revealed to Pope where his true strength lay, in blending personalities with moral reflections.”
13. Pope's greatest works were written between 1730 and 1740; and they consist of the +Moral Essays+, the +Essay on Man+, and the +Epistles and Satires+. These poems are full of the finest thoughts, expressed in the most perfect form. Mr Ruskin quotes the couplet--
”Never elated, while one man's oppressed; Never dejected, whilst another's blessed,”--
as ”the most complete, concise, and lofty expression of moral temper existing in English words.” The poem of Pope which shows his best and most striking qualities in their most characteristic form, is probably the +Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot+ or +Prologue to the Satires+. In this poem occur the celebrated lines about Addison-- which make a perfect portrait, although it is far from being a true likeness.
His pithy lines and couplets have obtained a permanent place in literature. Thus we have:--
”True wit is nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.”
”Good-nature and good-sense must ever join.
To err is human, to forgive divine.”
”All seems infected that the infected spy, As all looks yellow to the jaundic'd eye.”
”Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; Those best can bear reproof who merit praise.”
The greatest conciseness is visible in his epigrams and in his compliments:--
”A vile encomium doubly ridicules: There's nothing blackens like the ink of fools.”