wrote many others, the most important of which were published in six
volumes of Miscellanies, to which he was the principal contributor. They
consist of translations from the Greek and Latin poets; epistles,
prologues, and epilogues; odes, elegies, epitaphs, and songs.
Alexander’s Feast, an ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day, displays one of the
highest flights within the compass of lyric poetry. Dryden, although no
lover of labour, is said to have devoted a fortnight to this
masterpiece. Yet the poetic fervour is so supported throughout, that it
reads as if struck off at a heat; so much so, that the few negligences
which escaped the enthusiasm of the writer are scarcely ever noticed.
Dr. Johnson, seldom carried beyond the wariness of criticism by the
inspiration of his author, did not discover that some of the lines are
without correspondent rhymes, till after an acquaintance with it of many
years. The splendour of this poem eclipsed that of his first ode for
Saint Cecilia’s Day, which would have fixed the fame of any other poet.
In Alexander’s Feast the versification is brilliantly worked up, and
abruptly varied, according to the rapid transitions of the subject; the
language is natural though elevated, and the sentiments are suited to
the age and occasion. Had Dryden never written another line, his name
would yet be as undying as the tongue in which he wrote. His Fables in
English verse from Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio, and Chaucer, were his last
work; they were published in 1698. The preface gives a critical account
of the authors from whom the Fables are translated. In this work he
furnished us with the first example of the revival of ancient English
writers by modernizing their language. Yet those readers who can master
Chaucer’s phraseology, and have an ear so practised as to catch the tune
of his verse, will like him better in the simplicity of his native garb,
than in the elaborate splendour of his borrowed costume.
Dryden was a voluminous writer in prose as well as in verse, and quite
as great a master of the English language in the former as in the
latter. His performances in prose consist of Dedications, Prefaces, and
controversial pieces; the Lives of Plutarch and Lucian, prefixed to the
translation of those authors by several hands; the Life of Polybius,
prefixed to the translation of that historian by Sir Henry Shears; and
the Preface to Walsh’s Dialogue concerning Women.
Dryden died on the 1st of May, 1701, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey. He married Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter to the Earl of
Berkshire. He had three sons by this lady; Charles, John, and Henry.
They were all educated at Rome, where John died of a fever. He
translated the fourteenth satire of Juvenal, and was author of a comedy.
Charles translated the seventh satire. There is a confused story
respecting some vexatious and tumultuary incidents occurring at Dryden’s
funeral, which rests on no satisfactory authority; and, even if true,
would occupy more room in the detail, than would square either with our
limits or its own importance.
Dryden was the father of English criticism; and his Essay on Dramatic
Poetry is the first regular and judicious treatise in our language on
the art of writing. Although, after so many valuable discourses have
been delivered to the public on the same subject during the century and
a half which has elapsed since his original attempts, his prose works
may now be read more for the charm of their pure idiomatic English, than
for their novelty or instructive matter, yet the merits of a discoverer
must not be underrated because his discoveries have been extended, or
his inventions improved upon. Before his time, those who wished to
arrive at just principles of taste, or a rational code of criticism, if
they were unacquainted with the works of the ancients and the modern
languages of Italy and France, had no guides to lead them on their way.
Dryden communicated to his own learning, which, though not deep nor
accurate, was various and extensive, the magic of his style and the
popular attraction of his mother tongue: the Spectator followed his
lead, in essays less diffusive, and therefore more within the reach of
the million: in our day, such is the accumulation of material, and so
cheap and copious the power of circulating knowledge, that the poorest
man who can read may inform his mind on subjects of general literature,
to the enlargement of his understanding, and the improvement of his
morals. But we must not forget our obligations to those who began that
hoard, whence we have the privilege of drawing at will.
With respect to those prose works of our author which are devoted to
controversy, their interest has quite passed away, farther than as they
may evince his powers in argument, or command of language. Dr. Johnson
gives a just estimate of his general character. “He appears to have a
mind very comprehensive by nature, and much enriched with acquired
knowledge. His compositions are the effects of a vigorous genius,
operating upon large materials.”
Dryden’s works have been constantly before the public, in various shapes
and successive editions. Those best deserving a place in the library
are, his Prose Works in four volumes, edited by Mr. Malone; his Poetical
Works in four volumes, with notes, by Dr. Joseph Warton, and his son,
the Rev. John Warton; and the whole of his Works in eighteen volumes
octavo, by Sir Walter Scott. The earlier authorities for his Life are
Wood’s Athenæ Oxonienses; the Biographia Britannica; and a Life by
Derrick, poorly executed, prefixed to Tonson’s edition, in 1760.
Johnson’s admirable Essay on this subject is in the hands of every
reader, and is one of the most masterly among his Lives of the Poets. He
was peculiarly well qualified to appreciate a writer in whom, to use his
own words, “strong reason rather predominated than quick sensibility.”
Scott also has written a copious Life, occupying the first volume of his
edition of Dryden’s Works.
[Illustration: [Monument of Dryden in Westminster Abbey.]]
[Illustration:
_Engraved by T. Woolnoth._
LA PÉROUSE.
_From a Miniature in the possession of
La Perouse’s niece at Alby._
Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.
_London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
East._
]
[Illustration]
LA PEROUSE.
The latter half of the last century was distinguished by a rekindling of
that spirit of maritime discovery which, active at the close of the
sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, had lain
comparatively dormant for many years. The voyages of Wallis and
Carteret, the circumnavigation of the globe by Anson, had done something
to enlarge our knowledge, and to recall to mind the discoveries of
Dampier, Tasman, and other early navigators of the western world. The
leading objects, however, of those voyages were political and warlike;
the information gleaned in them was secondary and incidental; and the
first expedition sent out expressly for scientific purposes was that
under the command of Cook, of which we have formerly given a short
account. The brilliant success of that admirable navigator roused France
to emulation; and, under the auspices of Louis XVI., a voyage of
discovery was planned, and entrusted to La Perouse, a name well known
for the interest excited by his mysterious disappearance, and for the
frequent and (for a long time) fruitless attempts which have been made
to trace his fate, and which interest has been recently renewed, by the
unexpected discovery of the place and manner in which he perished.
Jean Francois Galaup de la Perouse was born at Albi, in 1741, where he
entered the French marine in 1756; and, after passing regularly through
the subordinate ranks, in the course of which he saw some active
service, was promoted to the command of a frigate in 1778. In that year
hostilities broke out between France and England, in the course of which
La Perouse had the honour of capturing more than one British ship of
war. In 1782 he was appointed to command a small squadron sent to attack
our settlements in Hudson’s Bay. The object of the expedition was
trifling, being confined to the capture of a few insignificant forts,
which made no resistance. But La Perouse had the opportunity of
displaying his merits as a seaman in the successful navigation of a
tempestuous and icy sea, rendered more dangerous by the prevalence of
thick fogs; and the credit which he thus acquired caused him to be
selected as a proper leader in an intended voyage of discovery. He is
entitled to still higher praise for his humanity, in leaving a provision
of food and arms for the support and protection of those English
residents who had fled into the woods on his approach.
The expedition in question was planned in conformity with the views of
Louis XVI. Attached to the science, and well versed in the study of
geography, he was desirous, on behalf of France, at once of emulating
the glory which England had just acquired through Cook’s discoveries,
and of opening new channels for her commerce in the most distant
regions. A rough draft of the intended course was made out in conformity
with the king’s views, and submitted to his perusal; and the nature of
the scheme is concisely explained in a few sentences appended to the
document by Louis himself. “To sum up the contents of this paper, and my
own observations on them, the objects in view belong to the two heads of
commerce and discovery. Of the former class there are two principal
ones: the whale fishery in the southern ocean, and the trade in furs in
the north-west of America, for transport to China, and, if possible, to
Japan. Among the points to be explored, the principal are the north-west
of America, which falls in with the commercial part of the scheme; the
seas round Japan, which do the same, but I think the season proposed for
this in the paper is ill chosen; the Solomon Islands, and the south-west
of New Holland. All other objects must be made subordinate to these: we
must confine ourselves to what is most useful, and can be accomplished
without difficulty in the three years proposed.”
La Perouse’s official instructions were only a development of this
sketch. Men of science were invited to communicate their views as to the
objects to be pursued, and the best manner of pursuing them; and the
expedition was fitted out with every appliance calculated to promote its
success. It consisted of two frigates, La Boussole, commanded by La
Perouse, and L’Astrolabe, commanded by an accomplished officer, his
friend, named Delangle; each of them with a complement of a hundred men.
They sailed August 1, 1785, doubled Cape Horn without adventures worthy
of notice, and cast anchor in the Bay of La Conception, February 22,
1786. Hence he steered northward, touching at Easter and the Sandwich
islands, until he reached the coast of America, at Mount St. Elias, in
about the sixtieth degree of north latitude. In prosecution of the first
part of his instructions, he ran down southwards, examining the coast
minutely, to the harbour of Monterey, in California, a distance between
five and six hundred leagues: hence he sailed for Japan, September 24.
In crossing the Pacific, the group of small islands named after the
statesman Necker was discovered. During this run, the two frigates,
which were instructed always to keep close to each other, were in
imminent danger of being wrecked on an unknown reef. They were upon it
so suddenly, that La Boussole was thought scarcely to have cleared the
rock by a hundred fathoms. They reached Macao without more adventures,
visited Manilla, where they spent some time, and then set sail for the
Japanese isles, and the coast of Tartary, a part of the globe little
known, except through the reports of missionaries. La Perouse sailed up
the narrow channel, called the Gulf of Tartary, lying between the
Asiatic continent and the almost unknown island of Segalien, or Sagalin.
His progress was stopped by shoals, consisting of the deposits brought
down by the river Amoor; but he went far enough to be satisfied that
Sagalin is not united to the continent; and his belief has since been
shown to be correct. He discovered and gave his own name to the strait
which separates that island from the neighbouring one of Jesso, or
Matsmai; and having thus ascertained that the land to the north of the
principal island of Japan, hitherto believed to be one island, consisted
of two, he sailed northward, traversing the Kurile Islands, visited
Kamtschatka, and passing southwards by the Friendly Islands, dropped
anchor in Botany Bay, January 16, 1788.
It should be mentioned that from the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul,
in Kamtschatka, M. de Lesseps was dispatched home overland, bearing the
navigator’s charts and journals up to the period of their arrival at
that place. To this precaution the world owes that any record of La
Perouse’s wanderings and discoveries has been preserved; for neither
vessel ever was seen or heard of, after they left Botany Bay. The last
communication which reached home from La Perouse was dated February 7,
1788; and expressed his intention of returning to the Friendly Islands,
of exploring the southern coast of New Caledonia, and the Louisiade of
Bougainville. He proposed to coast the western side of New Holland to
Van Dieman’s Land, so as to arrive at the Mauritius in the close of the
same year. Of this scheme but a small portion could have been executed.
Both ships were lost, there is every reason to believe, on the island of
Mallicolo, or Vanicoro, one of the New Hebrides, a group lying about the
sixteenth degree of south latitude; but the exact time and circumstances
remain unknown, for not one of the crews ever reached an European
settlement. When the non-arrival of La Perouse in France began to be the
subject of alarm, an expedition was fitted out under Admiral
d’Entrecasteaux, with orders strictly to pursue the route laid down
above, and to use every means of ascertaining the fate of, and if they
yet lived, ministering relief to, his unfortunate countrymen. The
service was performed with zeal and ability, but without success. Chance
led a private English trader to the solution of this question, vainly,
yet anxiously, sought for many years.
In 1813, Mr. Dillon, a subordinate officer on board a Calcutta trading
vessel, escaped almost by miracle from an affray with the natives of the
Fegee, or Beetee islands, a group lying to the west of the Friendly
Islands, about the eighteenth degree of south latitude, in which
fourteen of the ship’s crew were killed, and of his immediate companions
only two survived. One of these was a Prussian, named Martin Busshart,
who had been for some time on the island where this tragical event
occurred. This man, certain of being sacrificed to the revenge of the
natives, of whom many were killed, if he remained there, requested to be
transported to some other spot; and he was put ashore upon an island
named Tucopia. In time Mr. Dillon became owner and commander of a vessel
named the St. Patrick, and being again in those seas, he visited Tucopia
in May, 1826, to procure some tidings of his old companion in danger.
Here a silver sword-guard was offered for sale. Inquiry being made how
the article was obtained, it was replied, that “when the old men in
Tucopia were boys,” two ships had been wrecked on an island not very far
off, called Mallicolo, or Vanicoro, and that there yet remained large
quantities of the wreck. Captain Dillon guessed that these might be La
Perouse’s vessels, and made sail for the island pointed out; but he was
baffled by adverse circumstances, and forced to pursue his course to
Calcutta without obtaining the desired satisfaction. Arrived at the
capital of India, he laid before the government information and evidence
which was deemed sufficiently conclusive to warrant the fitting out a
ship, named the Research, with the design of fetching off two white men,
who were said to have escaped, and to be living on the island; or, at
least, to seek, by inquiry on the spot, some conclusive evidence of the
fate of La Perouse. Captain Dillon reached Vanicoro, and obtained an
ample harvest of European articles, both in wood and metal. The tale
told by the natives was simple and probable: “A long time ago the people
of this island, upon coming out one morning, saw part of a ship on the
reef opposite to Paiow, where it held together till the middle of the
day, when it was broken by the sea, fell to pieces, and large parts of
it floated on shore along the coast. The ship got on the reef in the
night, when it blew a tremendous hurricane, which broke down a
considerable number of our fruit-trees. We had not seen the ship the day
before. Four men were saved from her, and were on the beach at this
place, whom we were about to kill, supposing them to be spirits, when
they made a present to our chief of something, and thus saved their
lives. They lived with us a short time, and then joined their people at
Paiow, who built a small ship there, and went away in it. The things
which we sell you now have been procured from the ship wrecked on that
reef, on which, at low water, our people were in the habit of diving,
and bringing up what they could find. The same night another ship struck
on a reef near Whannow, and went down. There were several men saved from
her, who built a little ship and went away, five moons after the big one
was lost. While building it they had a great fence of trees round them,
to keep off the islanders, who being equally afraid of them, they
consequently kept up but little intercourse. The white men used often to
look at the sun through something, but we have none of those things. Two
white men remained behind after the last went away: the one was a chief,
and the other a common man, who used to attend on the white chief, who
died about three years ago. The chief, with whom the white man resided,
was obliged, about two years and a half ago, to fly from his country,
and was accompanied by the white man. The only white people the
inhabitants of this island have ever seen were, first, the people of the
wrecked ship; and, secondly, those before me now.”—Dillon’s Discovery of
the Fate of La Perouse, vol. ii. p. 194.
Whannow and Paiow are two villages about ten nautical miles distant from
each other in a straight line, on the western side of the island, which
is nearly surrounded by an abrupt and dangerous coral reef. The climate
is reported to be wet and hazy, so that probably the sufferers were not
aware of their approach to danger till all chance of escape was past.
The story just related is consistent and probable, and it was confirmed
by examination of the shore at Paiow, where a small cleared space, of
about an acre (the only one on the island), was found, in a place well
suited for building and launching a ship; and in the neighbourhood of
which stumps of trees, evidently felled with axes many years before,
were discovered. The spot where one of the ships had struck was
ascertained, and some heavy articles, as guns, raised in the shallow
water on the reef. No trace of the others could be found; and it was
said by the natives to have gone down in deep water. Captain Dillon
returned to Calcutta, and thence to England, bringing the articles he
had obtained along with him.
No doubt can be entertained but that two French ships, apparently ships
of war, were wrecked at Vanicoro. There are no other vessels whose loss
is to be accounted for, and the apparent length of time since their
destruction, corresponds with the date of La Perouse’s expedition. There
is therefore the strongest presumptive evidence for concluding that the
fate of that intrepid navigator is at length revealed: but the articles
collected, though indisputably belonging to French ships, could not be
conclusively identified as having been on board La Boussole and
L’Astrolabe. It was suggested that the point might be determined by
comparing the marks of the cannon with the registers of the French
ordnance, in which the numbers and weight of the guns supplied to each
ship would of course be set down. We do not know whether, or with what
success, this has been done. But the French government appears to have
been satisfied; for on visiting Paris Captain Dillon received the
personal thanks of Charles X., and the cross of the Legion of Honour,
together with a liberal pecuniary reward for his exertions.
The French, even during the excitement of the early part of the
revolution, manifested a lively interest for La Perouse and his crew.
D’Entrecasteaux, we have said, was sent out expressly in quest of them;
and a reward was offered to whosoever should bring intelligence of their
fate, which Captain Dillon was the first to claim. A narrative of the
voyage, compiled from the papers brought home by M. de Lesseps, was
printed in four quarto volumes, with an atlas, at Paris, 1797, at the
national expense, and a certain number of copies being reserved, the
rest of the impression was presented to La Perouse’s widow, who
continued to receive her husband’s pay. Recently the “Voyage de la
Perouse” has been compiled from the original documents, with notes by M.
de Lesseps, in an octavo volume, with an Appendix, containing an account
of Captain Dillon’s researches, and of the voyage of a French ship,
L’Astrolabe, which was engaged at the same time in the same office. To
this work, to Captain Dillon’s publication above quoted, and to the
“Bulletins de la Société de Géographie,” we refer the readers for a full
account of all that is known of the progress and catastrophe of this
celebrated expedition.
[Illustration:
_Engraved by W. Holl._
CRANMER.
_From an original Picture in the Collection
at Lambeth Palace._
Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.
_London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
East._
]
[Illustration]
CRANMER.
Thomas Cranmer was born July 2, 1489, at Aslacton, in Nottinghamshire.
He was descended from an ancient family, which had long been resident in
that county. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Jesus College,
Cambridge; where he obtained a fellowship, which he soon vacated by
marriage with a young woman who is said to have been of humble
condition. Within a year after his marriage he became a widower, and was
immediately, by unusual favour, restored to his fellowship. In 1523, he
was admitted to the degree of doctor of divinity, and appointed one of
the public examiners in that faculty. Here he found an opportunity of
showing the fruits of that liberal course of study which he had been for
some time pursuing. As soon as his teachers left him at liberty, he had
wandered from the works of the schoolmen to the ancient classics and the
Bible; and, thus prepared for the office of examiner, he alarmed the
candidates for degrees in theology by the novelty of requiring from them
some knowledge of the Scriptures.
It was from this useful employment that he was called to take part in
the memorable proceedings of Henry the Eighth, in the matter of his
divorce from Catherine.
Henry had been counselled to lay his case before the universities, both
at home and abroad. Cranmer, to whom the subject had been mentioned by
Gardiner and Fox, went a step farther, and suggested that he should
receive their decision as sufficient without reference to the Pope. This
suggestion was communicated to the king, who, observing, with his usual
elegance of expression, that the man had got the sow by the right ear,
summoned Cranmer to his presence, and immediately received him into his
favour and confidence.