The inimitable "School-Mistress" of Shenstone is one of the felicities
of genius; but the purpose of this poem has been entirely misconceived.
Johnson, acknowledging this charming effusion to be "the most pleasing
of Shenstone's productions" observes, "I know not what claim it has to
stand among the _moral works_." The truth is, that it was intended for
quite a different class by the author, and Dodsley, the editor of his
works, must have strangely blundered in designating it "a moral poem."
It may be classed with a species of poetry, till recently, rare in our
language, and which we sometimes find among the Italians, in their _rime
piacevoli_, or _poesie burlesche_, which do not always consist of low
humour in a facetious style with jingling rhymes, to which form we
attach our idea of a burlesque poem. There is a refined species of
ludicrous poetry, which is comic yet tender, lusory yet elegant, and
with such a blending of the serious and the facetious, that the result
of such a poem may often, among its other pleasures, produce a sort of
ambiguity; so that we do not always know whether the writer is laughing
at his subject, or whether he is to be laughed at. Our admirable
Whistlecraft met this fate![319] "The School-Mistress" of Shenstone has
been admired for its simplicity and tenderness, not for its exquisitely
ludicrous turn!
This discovery I owe to the good fortune of possessing the edition of
"The School-Mistress," which the author printed under his own
directions, and to his own fancy.[320] To this piece of LUDICROUS
POETRY, as he calls it, "lest it should be mistaken," he added a
LUDICROUS INDEX, "purely to show fools that I am in jest." But "the
fool," his subsequent editor, who, I regret to say, was Robert Dodsley,
thought proper to suppress this amusing "ludicrous index," and the
consequence is, as the poet foresaw, that his aim has been "mistaken."
The whole history of this poem, and this edition, may be traced in the
printed correspondence of Shenstone. Our poet had pleased himself by
ornamenting "A sixpenny pamphlet," with certain "seemly" designs of his,
and for which he came to town to direct the engraver; he appears also to
have intended accompanying it with "The deformed portrait of my old
school-dame, Sarah Lloyd." The frontispiece to this first edition
represents the "Thatched-house" of his old schoolmistress, and before it
is the "birch-tree," with "the sun setting and gilding the scene." He
writes on this, "I have the first sheet to correct upon the table. I
have laid aside the thoughts of fame a good deal in this unpromising
scheme; and fix them upon the landskip which is engraving, the red
letter which I propose, and the fruit-piece which you see, being the
most seemly ornaments of the first sixpenny pamphlet that was ever so
highly honoured. I shall incur the same reflection with Ogilby, of
having nothing good but my decorations. I expect that in your
neighbourhood and in Warwickshire there should be twenty of my poems
sold. I print it myself. I am pleased with Mynde's engravings."
On the publication Shenstone has opened his idea on its poetical
characteristic. "I dare say it must be very incorrect; for I have added
eight or ten stanzas within this fortnight. But inaccuracy is more
excusable in _ludicrous poetry_ than in any other. If it strikes _any_,
it must be merely people of _taste_; for people of _wit_ without taste,
which comprehends the larger part of the critical tribe, will
unavoidably despise it. I have been at some pains to recover myself from
A. Phi**** misfortune of mere _childishness_, 'Little charm of placid
mien,' &c. I have added a _ludicrous index_ purely to show (fools) that
I am in jest; and my motto, 'O, quà sol habitabiles illustrat oras,
maxima principum!' is calculated for the same purpose. You cannot
conceive how large the number is of those that mistake burlesque for the
very foolishness it exposes; which observation I made once at the
_Rehearsal_, at _Tom Thumb_, at _Chrononhotonthologos_, all which, are
pieces of elegant humour. I have some mind to pursue this caution
further, and advertise it 'The School-Mistress,' &c. a very _childish_
performance everybody knows (_novorum more_). But if a person seriously
calls this, or rather burlesque, a childish or low species of poetry,
he says wrong. For the most regular and formal poetry may be called
trifling, folly, and weakness, in comparison of what is written with a
more _manly_ spirit in ridicule of it.'
This edition is now lying before me, with its splendid "red-letter," its
"seemly designs," and, what is more precious, its "Index." Shenstone,
who had greatly pleased himself with his graphical inventions, at length
found that his engraver, Mynde, had sadly bungled with the poet's ideal.
Vexed and disappointed, he writes, "I have been plagued to death about
the ill-execution of my designs. Nothing is certain in London but
expense, which I can ill bear." The truth is, that what is placed in the
landskip over the thatched-house, and the birch-tree, is like a falling
monster rather than a setting sun; but the fruit-piece at the end, the
grapes, the plums, the melon, and the Catharine pears, Mr. Mynde has
made sufficiently tempting. This edition contains only twenty-eight
stanzas, which were afterwards enlarged to thirty-five. Several stanzas
have been omitted, and they have also passed through many corrections,
and some improvements, which show that Shenstone had more judgment and
felicity in severe correction than perhaps is suspected. Some of these I
will point out.[321]
In the second stanza, the _first_ edition has,
In every mart that stands on Britain's isle,
In every village less reveal'd to fame,
Dwells there in cottage known about a mile,
A matron old, whom we schoolmistress name.