Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[In the "Tom Thumb" article, Latin "-que" was abbreviated with a
notation similar to "-q;". It has been "unpacked" for this e-text as
[que] in brackets.
The original texts printed all names in Italic type; italicized
passages put names in Roman type. To avoid ambiguity, these have been
marked with *asterisks*. All verse citations were printed in italics.]
THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY
_Parodies of Ballad Criticism_
(1711-1787)
William Wagstaffe,
_A Comment Upon the History of Tom Thumb_, 1711
George Canning,
_The Knave of Hearts_, 1787
Selected, with an Introduction, by
William K. Wimsatt, Jr.
Publication Number 63
Los Angeles
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
University of California
1957
* * * * *
GENERAL EDITORS
RICHARD C. BOYS, University of Michigan
RALPH COHEN, University of California, Los Angeles
VINTON A. DEARING, University of California, Los Angeles
LAWRENCE CLARK POWELL, Clark Memorial Library
ASSISTANT EDITOR
W. EARL BRITTON, University of Michigan
ADVISORY EDITORS
EMMETT L. AVERY, State College of Washington
BENJAMIN BOYCE, Duke University
LOUIS BREDVOLD, University of Michigan
JOHN BUTT, King's College, University of Durham
JAMES L. CLIFFORD, Columbia University
ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, University of Chicago
LOUIS A. LANDA, Princeton University
SAMUEL H. MONK, University of Minnesota
ERNEST C. MOSSNER, University of Texas
JAMES SUTHERLAND, University College, London
H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR., University of California, Los Angeles
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
EDNA C. DAVIS, Clark Memorial Library
* * * * *
The Augustan Reprint Society regrets to announce the death
of one of its founders and editors, Edward Niles Hooker.
The editors hope, in the near future, to issue a volume
in his memory.
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION
Joseph Addison's enthusiasm for ballad poetry (_Spectators_ 70, 74, 85)
was not a sheer novelty. He had a ringing English precedent in Sidney,
whom he quotes. And he may have had one in Jonson; at least he thought
he had. He cited Dryden and Dorset as collectors and readers of ballads;
and he might have cited others. He found comfort in the fact that
Molière's Misanthrope was on his side. The modern or broadside version
of _Chevy Chase_, the one which Addison quoted, had been printed, with a
Latin translation, in the third volume of Dryden's _Miscellany_ (1702)
and had been appreciated along with _The Nut-Brown Maid_ in an essay _Of
the Old English Poets and Poetry_ in _The Muses Mercury_ for June, 1707.
The feelings expressed in Addison's essays on the ballads were part of
the general patriotic archaism which at that time was moving in rapport
with cyclic theories of the robust and the effete, as in Temple's
essays, and was complicating the issue of the classical ancients versus
the moderns. Again, these feelings were in harmony with the new
Longinianism of boldness and bigness, cultivated in one way by Dennis
and in another by Addison himself in later _Spectators_. The tribute to
the old writers in Rowe's Prologue to _Jane Shore_ (1713) is of course
not simply the result of Addison's influence.[1]
Those venerable ancient Song-Enditers
Soar'd many a Pitch above our modern Writers.
It is true also that Addison exhibits, at least in the first of the two
essays on _Chevy Chase_, a degree of the normal Augustan condescension
to the archaic--the vision which informs the earlier couplet poem on the
English poets. Both in his quotation from Sidney ("... being so evil
apparelled in the Dust and Cobweb of that uncivil Age, what would it
work trimmed in the gorgeous Eloquence of _Pindar_?") and in his own
apology for the "Simplicity of the Stile" there is sufficient
prescription for all those improvements that either a Ramsay or a Percy
were soon actually to undertake. And some of the Virgilian passages in
_Chevy Chase_ which Addison picked out for admiration were not what
Sidney had known but the literary invention of the more modern broadside
writer.
Nevertheless, the two _Spectators_ on _Chevy Chase_ and the sequel on
the _Children in the Wood_ were startling enough. The general
announcement was ample, unabashed, soaring--unmistakable evidence of a
new polite taste for the universally valid utterances of the primitive
heart. The accompanying measurement according to the epic rules and
models was not a qualification of the taste, but only a somewhat awkward
theoretical dimension and justification.
It is impossible that any thing should be universally tasted and
approved by a Multitude, tho' they are only the Rabble of a Nation,
which hath not in it some peculiar Aptness to please and gratify the
Mind of Man.... an ordinary Song or Ballad that is the Delight of
the common People, cannot fail to please all such Readers as are not
unqualified for the Entertainment by their Affectation or Ignorance.
Professor Clarence D. Thorpe is surely correct in his view of Addison as
a "grandfather" of such that would come in romantic aesthetics for the
next hundred years.[2] Not that Addison invents anything; but he catches
every current whisper and swells it to the journalistic audibility.
Here, if we take Addison at his word, are the key ideas for Wordsworth's
Preface on the language of rustic life, for Tolstoy's ruthless reduction
of taste to the peasant norm. Addison went on to urge what was perfectly
just, that the old popular ballads ought to be read and liked; at the
same time he pushed his praise to a rather wild extreme, and he made
some comic comparisons between _Chevy Chase_ and Virgil and Homer.
We know now that he was on the right track; he was riding the wave of
the future. It will be sufficient here merely to allude to that well
established topic of English literary history, the rise of the ballad
during the eighteenth century--in _A Collection of Old Ballads_
(1723-1725), in Ramsay's _Evergreen_ and _Tea-Table_, in Percy's
_Reliques_, and in all the opinions, the critiques, the imitations, the
modern ballads, and the forgeries of that era--in _Henry and Emma_,
_Colin and Lucy_, and _Hardyknute_, in Gay, Shenstone, and Gray, in
Chatterton's Rowley. All these in a sense testified to the influence of
Addison's essays. Addison was often enough given honorable mention and
quoted.
On the other hand, neo-classic stalwart good sense and the canons of
decorum did not collapse easily, and the cultivation of the ballads had,
as we have suggested, a certain aspect of silliness. It is well known
that Addison's essays elicited the immediate objections of Dennis. The
Spectator's "Design is to see how far he can lead his Reader by the
Nose." He wants "to put Impotence and Imbecility upon us for
Simplicity." Later Johnson in his _Life of Addison_ quoted Dennis and
added his own opinion of _Chevy Chase_: "The story cannot possibly be
told in a manner that shall make less impression on the mind."
It was fairly easy to parody the ballads themselves, or at least the
ballad imitations, as Johnson would demonstrate _ex tempore_. "I put my
hat upon my head And walked into the Strand, And there I met another man
Whose hat was in his hand." And it was just as easy to parody ballad
criticism. The present volume is an anthology of two of the more
deserving mock-criticisms which Addison's effort either wholly or in
part inspired.
An anonymous satirical writer who was later identified, on somewhat
uncertain authority, as the Tory Dr. William Wagstaffe was very prompt
in responding. His _Comment Upon the History of Tom Thumb_ appeared in
1711 perhaps within a week or two of the third guilty _Spectator_ (June
7) and went into a second edition, "Corrected," by August 18. An
advertisement in the _Post Man_ of that day referred to yet a third
"sham" edition, "full of errors."[3] The writer alludes to the author of
the _Spectators_ covertly ("we have had an _enterprising Genius_ of
late") and quotes all three of the ballad essays repeatedly. The choice
of _Tom Thumb_ as the _corpus vile_ was perhaps suggested by Swift's
momentary "handling" of it in _A Tale of a Tub_.[4] The satirical method
is broad and easy and scarcely requires comment. This is the attack
which was supposed by Addison's editor Henry Morley (_Spectator_, 1883,
I, 318) to have caused Addison to "flinch" a little in his revision of
the ballad essays. It is scarcely apparent that he did so. The last
paragraph of the third essay, on the _Children in the Wood_, is a retort
to some other and even prompter unfriendly critics--"little conceited
Wits of the Age," with their "little Images of Ridicule."
But Addison is not the only target of "Wagstaffe's" _Comment_. "Sir
B------ B--------" and his "Arthurs" are another, and "Dr. B--tly"
another. One of the most eloquent moments in the _Comment_ occurs near
the end in a paragraph on what the author conceives to be the follies of
the historical method. The use of the slight vernacular poem to parody
the Bentleyan kind of classical scholarship was to be tried by Addison
himself in _Spectator_ 470 (August 29, 1712) and had a French
counterpart in the _Chef d'oeuvre d'un inconnu_, 1714. A later example
was executed by Defoe's son-in-law Henry Baker in No. XIX of his
_Universal Spectator_, February 15, 1729.[5] And that year too provided
the large-scale demonstration of the _Dunciad Variorum_. The very
"matter" of Tom Thumb reappeared under the same light in Fielding's
_Tragedy of Tragedies or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great with
the Annotations of H. Scriblerus Secundus_, 1731. Addison's criticism of
the ballads was scarcely a legitimate object for this kind of attack,
but Augustan satire and parody were free and hospitable genres, always
ready to entertain more than one kind of "bard and blockhead side by
side."[6]
No less a person than George Canning (as a schoolboy) was the author of
the second of the two parodies reproduced in the present volume. A group
of precocious Eton lads, Canning, J. Hookham Frere, John Smith, and
Robert (Bobus) Smith, during the years 1786-1787 produced forty octavo
numbers of a weekly paper called _The Microcosm_. They succeeded in
exciting some interest among the literati,[7] were coming out in a
"Second Edition" as early as the Christmas vacation of 1786,[8] and in
the end sold their copyright for fifty pounds to their publisher,
Charles Knight of Windsor.[9] Canning wrote Nos. XI and XII (February
12, 1787), a critique of the "Epic Poem" concerning "The Reformation of
the Knave of Hearts."[10] This essay in two parts, running for nearly as
many pages as Wagstaffe's archetypal pamphlet, is a much more systematic
and theoretically ambitious effort than any predecessor. _The Knave of
Hearts_ is praised for its _beginning_ (_in medias res_), its _middle_
(all "bustle and business"), and its _end_ (full of _Poetical Justice_
and superior _Moral_). The earlier writers had directly labored the
resemblance of the ballads to passages in Homer and Virgil. That method
is now hardly invoked at all. Criticism according to the epic rules of
Aristotle had been well enough illustrated by Addison on _Paradise Lost_
(see especially _Spectator_ 267) if not by Addison on ballads. The
decline of simple respect for the "Practice and Authority" of the
ancient models during the neo-classic era, the general advance of
something like reasoning in criticism, finds one of its quainter
testimonials in the Eton schoolboy's cleverness. He would show by
definition and strict deduction that _The Knave of Hearts_ is a "_due
and proper Epic Poem_," having as "good right to that title, from its
adherence to prescribed rules, as any of the celebrated master-pieces of
antiquity." The post-Ramblerian date of the performance and a further if
incidental aim of the satire--a facetious removal from the Augustan
coffeehouse conversation--can be here and there felt in a heavy roll of
the periods, a doubling and redoubling of the abstractions.[11]
The essay, nevertheless, shows sufficient continuity with the earlier
tradition of parody ballad criticism--for it begins by alluding to the
_Spectator's_ critiques of Shakespeare, Milton, and _Chevy Chase_, and
near the end of the first number slides into a remark that "one of the
_Scribleri_, a descendant of the famous _Martinus_, has expressed his
suspicions of the text being corrupted." A page or two of irony
concerning the "plain and simple" opening of the poem seems to hark back
to something more subtle in the Augustans than the Wagstaffian derision,
no doubt to Pope's victory over Philips in a _Guardian_ on pastorals.
"There is no task more difficult to a Poet, than that of _Rejection_.
Ovid, among the ancients, and _Dryden_, among the moderns, were perhaps
the most remarkable for the want of it."[12]
The interest of these little pieces is historical[13] in a fairly strict
sense. Their value is indirect, half accidental, a glancing revelation
of ideas concerning simplicity, feeling, genius, the primitive, the
historical which run steadily beneath all the ripples during the century
that moves from "classic" to "romantic." Not all of Addison's parodists
taken together muster as much fun, as such whimsical charm, as Addison
himself in a single paragraph such as the one on "accidental readings"
which opens the _Spectator_ on the _Children in the Wood_. But this
passage, as it happens, requires only a slightly sophistical application
to be taken as a cue to a useful attitude in our present reading.
"I once met with a Page of _Mr. Baxter_ under a Christmas Pye....
I might likewise mention a Paper-Kite, from which I have received great
Improvement."
William K. Wimsatt, Jr.
Yale University
NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION
[Footnote 1: The chief authorities for the history which I am
summarizing are W. L. Phelps, _The Beginnings of the English
Romantic Movement_, Boston, 1893, Chapter VII; E. K. Broadus,
"Addison's Influence on the Development of Interest in Folk-Poetry
in the Eighteenth Century," _Modern Philology_, VIII (July, 1910),
123-134; S. B. Hustvedt, _Ballad Criticism in Scandinavia and
Great Britain During the Eighteenth Century_, New York, 1916.]
[Footnote 2: "Addison's Contribution to Criticism," in R. F. Jones
_et al._, _The Seventeenth Century_ (Stanford, 1951), p. 329.]
[Footnote 3: Edward B. Reed, "Two Notes on Addison," _Modern
Philology_, VI (October, 1908), 187. The attribution of _A Comment
Upon Tom Thumb_ and other satirical pieces to the Dr. William
Wagstaffe who died in 1725 as Physician to St. Bartholomew's
Hospital depends entirely upon the fact that a collection of such
pieces was published, with an anonymous memoir, in 1726 under the
title _Miscellaneous Works of Dr. William Wagstaffe_. Charles
Dilke, _Papers of a Critic_ (London, 1875), I, 369-382. argues
that not Wagstaffe but Swift was the author of some of the pieces
in the volume. The case for Wagstaffe is put by Nicholas Moore in
a letter to _The Athenaeum_, June 10, 1882 and in his article on
Wagstaffe in the _DNB_. Paul V. Thompson, "Swift and the Wagstaffe
Papers," _Notes and Queries_, 175 (1938), 79, supports the notion
of Wagstaffe as an understrapper of Swift. The negative part of
Dilke's thesis is perhaps the more plausible. _A Comment Upon Tom
Thumb_, as Dilke himself confesses (_Papers_, p. 377), scarcely
sounds very much like Swift.]
[Footnote 4: Text, p. 6. The nursery rhyme _Tom Thumb, His Life
and Death_, 1630, and the augmented _History of Tom Thumb_,
c. 1670, are printed with introductory remarks by W. C. Hazlitt,
_Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England_, II (London,
1866), 166-250.]
[Footnote 5: Cf. George R. Potter, "Henry Baker, F.R.S.
(1698-1774)," _Modern Philology_, XXIX (1932), 305. Nathan Drake,
_The Gleaner_, I (London, 1811), 220 seems mistaken in his remark
that Baker's Scriblerian commentary (upon the nursery rhyme "Once
I was a Batchelor, and lived by myself") was the model for later
mock-ballad-criticisms.]
[Footnote 6: For another early instance of our genre and a very
pure one, see an anonymous Cambridge correspondent's critique of
the burlesque broadside ballad of "Moor of Moore-Hall and the
Dragon of Wantley," in Nathaniel Mist's _Weekly Journal_ (second
series), September 2, 1721, reproduced by Roger P. McCutcheon,
"Another Burlesque of Addison's Ballad Criticism," _Studies in
Philology_, XXXIII (October, 1926), 451-456.]
[Footnote 7: _Diary & Letters of Madame d'Arblay_ (London,
1904-1905), III, 121-122, 295: November 28, 1786; July 29, 1787;
William Roberts, _Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs.
Hannah More_ (London, 1834), II, 46, letter from W. W. Pepys,
December 31, 1786.]
[Footnote 8: Advertisement inserted before No. I in a collected
volume dated 1787 (Yale 217. 304g).]
[Footnote 9: The source of the anecdote seems to be William
Jordan, _National Portrait Gallery_ (London, 1831), II, 3, quoting
a communication from Charles Knight the publisher, son of Charles
Knight of Windsor.
The present reprint of Nos. XI and XII of _The Microcosm_ is from
the "Second" octavo collected edition, Windsor, 1788. _The
Microcosm_ had reappeared at least seven times by 1835.]
[Footnote 10: Iona and Peter Opie, _The Oxford Dictionary of
Nursery Rhymes_ (Oxford, 1951), are unable to find an earlier
printed source for this rhyme than the _European Magazine_, I
(April, 1782), 252.]
[Footnote 11: No. XXXVI of _The Microcosm_ is a letter from Capel
Lofft defending the "Middle Style" of Addison in contrast to the
more modern Johnsonian eloquence. Robert Bell, _The Life of the
Rt. Hon. George Canning_ (London, 1846), pp. 48-54, in a helpful
account of _The Microcosm_, stresses its general fidelity to
_Spectator_ style and themes.]
[Footnote 12: Canning's critique closes with an appendix of three
and a half pages alluding to the Eton Shrovetide custom of writing
Latin verses, known as the "Bacchus." See H. C. Maxwell Lyte,
_A History of Eton College_ (London, 1911), pp. 146-147.]
[Footnote 13: As late as the turn of the century the trick was
still in a manner feasible. The anonymous author of _Literary
Leisure, or the Recreations of Solomon Saunter, Esq._ (1799-1800)
divides two numbers, VIII and XV, between other affairs and a
Shandyesque argument about the nursery charm for the hiccup "Peter
Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper." This author was most
likely not Byron's assailant Hewson Clarke (born 1787, author of
_The Saunterer in 1804_), as asserted in the _Catalogue_ of the
Hope Collection (Oxford, 1865), p. 128.
A historical interest may be not only retrospective but
contemporary. The reader of the present volume will appreciate
"How to Criticize a Poem (In the Manner of Certain Contemporary
Poets)", a critique of the mnemonic rhyme "Thirty days hath
September," in the _New Republic_, December 6, 1943.]
* * * * *
* * * *
A
COMMENT
upon the
HISTORY
of
Tom Thumb.
----Juvat immemorata ferentem
Ingenuis oculis[que] legi manibus[que] teneri._
Hor.
_LONDON_,
Printed for _J. Morphew_ near _Stationers-Hall_.
1711. Price 3 _d._
A
COMMENT
upon the
HISTORY
of
_TOM THUMB_.
It is a surprising thing that in an Age so Polite as this, in which we
have such a Number of Poets, Criticks and Commentators, some of the best
things that are extant in our Language shou'd pass unobserv'd amidst a
Croud of inferiour Productions, and lie so long buried as it were, among
those that profess such a Readiness to give Life to every thing that is
valuable. Indeed we have had an Enterprising Genius of late, that has
thought fit to disclose the Beauties of some Pieces to the World, that
might have been otherwise indiscernable, and believ'd to have been
trifling and insipid, for no other Reason but their unpolish'd
Homeliness of Dress. And if we were to apply our selves, instead of the
Classicks, to the Study of Ballads and other ingenious Composures of
that Nature, in such Periods of our Lives, when we are arriv'd to a
Maturity of Judgment, it is impossible to say what Improvement might be
made to Wit in general, and the Art of Poetry in particular: And
certainly our Passions are describ'd in them so naturally, in such
lively, tho' simple, Colours, that how far they may fall short of the
Artfulness and Embellishments of the _Romans_ in their Way of Writing,
_yet cannot fail to please all such Readers as are not unqualify'd for
the Entertainment by their Affectation or Ignorance_.
It was my good Fortune some time ago to have the Library of a School-Boy
committed to my Charge, where, among other undiscover'd valuable
Authors, I pitch'd upon _Tom Thumb_ and _Tom Hickathrift_, Authors
indeed more proper to adorn the Shelves of _Bodley_ or the _Vatican_,
than to be confin'd to the Retirement and Obscurity of a private Study.
I have perus'd the first of these with an infinite Pleasure, and a more
than ordinary Application, and have made some Observations on it, which
may not, I hope, prove unacceptable to the Publick; and however it may
have been ridicul'd, and look'd upon as an Entertainment only for
Children, and those of younger Years, may be found perhaps a Performance
not unworthy the Perusal of the Judicious, and the Model superiour to
either of those incomparable Poems of _Chevy Chase_, or _The Children in
the Wood_. The Design was undoubtedly to recommend Virtue, and to shew
that however any one may labour under the Disadvantages of Stature or
Deformity, or the Meanness of Parentage, yet if his Mind and Actions are
above the ordinary Level, those very Disadvantages that seem to depress
him, shall add a Lustre to his Character.
There are Variety of Incidents, dispers'd thro' the whole Series of this
Historical Poem, that give an agreeable Delight and Surprise, _and are
such as *Virgil* himself wou'd have touch'd upon, had the like Story
been told by that Divine Poet_, viz. his falling into the Pudding-Bowl
and others; which shew the Courage and Constancy, the Intrepidity and
Greatness of Soul of this little Hero, amidst the greatest Dangers that
cou'd possibly befall him, and which are the unavoidable Attendants of
human Life.
Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinæ.
The Author of this was unquestionably a Person of an Universal Genius,
and if we consider that the Age he wrote in, must be an Age of the most
profound Ignorance, as appears from the second Stanza of the first
_Canto_, he was a Miracle of a Man.
I have consulted Monsieur _Le Clerk_, and my Friend Dr. _B--ly_
concerning the Chronology of this Author, who both assure me, tho'
Neither can settle the Matter exactly, that he is the most ancient of
our Poets, and 'tis very probable he was a _Druid_, who, as _Julius
Cæsar_ mentions in his _Commentaries_, us'd to deliver their Precepts in
Poetry and Metre. The Author of _The Tale of a Tub_, believes he was a
_Pythagorean_ Philosopher, and held the _Metempsichosis_; and Others
that he had read _Ovid's Metamorphosis_, and was the first Person that
ever found out the Philosopher's Stone. A certain Antiquary of my
Acquaintance, who is willing to forget every thing he shou'd remember,
tells me, He can scarcely believe him to be Genuine, but if he is, he
must have liv'd some time before the _Barons_ Wars; which he proves, as
he does the Establishment of Religion in this Nation, upon the Credit of
an old Monument.
There is another Matter which deserves to be clear'd, whether this is a
Fiction, or whether there was really such a Person as _Tom Thumb_. As to
this, my Friends tell me, 'Twas Matter of Fact, and that 'twas an
unpardonable Omission in a certain Author never once to mention him in
his _Arthur_'s, when nothing is more certain than that he was the
greatest Favourite of that Prince, and a Person who had perform'd some
very eminent Services for his Country. And indeed I can't excuse his
taking no Notice of our Poet who has afforded him such Helps, and to
whom he is so much oblig'd for the Model of those Productions: Besides
it had been but a Debt of Gratitude, as Sir _R---- B----_ was a Member
of the Faculty, to have made honourable mention of him who has spoke so
honourably of the Profession, on the Account of the Sickness of his
Hero.
I have an old Edition of this Author by me, the Title of which is more
Sonorous and Heroical, than those of later Date, which for the better
Information of the Reader, it may not be improper to insert in this
Place. _*Tom Thumb* his Life and Death, wherein is declar'd his many
marvellous Acts of Manhood, full of Wonder and strange Merriment_: Then
he adds, _which little Knight liv'd in King *Arthur*'s Time in the Court
of *Great Britain*_. Indeed there are so many spurious Editions of this
Piece upon one Account or other, that I wou'd advise my Readers to be
very cautious in their Choice, and it would be very wisely done, if they
wou'd consult the curious _Ælianus_ concerning this Matter, who has the
choicest Collection of any Man in _England_, and understands the most
correct Editions of Books of this Nature.
I have took a great deal of Pains to set these Matters of Importance in
as clear a Light as we Criticks generally do, and shall begin with the
first _Canto_, which treats of our Hero's Birth and Parentage, and
Education, with some other Circumstances which you'll find are carry'd
on in a manner not very inelegant, _and cannot fail to please those who
are not Judges of Language, or those who notwithstanding they are Judges
of Language, have a genuine and unprejudic'd Tast of Nature_.
In _Arthur's_ Court _Tom Thumb_ did live;
A Man of mickle Might,
The best of all the Table round,
And eke a doubty Knight,
In Stature but an Inch in Height,
Or quarter of a Span;
Then think you not this worthy Knight
Was prov'd a valiant Man.
This Beginning is agreeable to the best of the Greek and Latin Poets;
_Homer_ and _Virgil_ give an Idea of the whole Poem in a few of the
first Lines, and here our Author draws the Character of his Hero, and
shews what you may expect from a Person so well qualify'd for the
greatest Undertakings.
In the Description of him, which is very fine, he insinuates, that tho'
perhaps his Person may appear despicable and little, yet you'll find him
an Hero of the most consummate Bravery and Conduct, and is almost the
same Account _Statius_ gives of _Tydeus_.
--------Totos infusa per artus,
Major in exiguo regnabat corpore virtus.
If any suppose the Notion of such an Hero improbable, they'll find the
Character _Virgil_ gives _Camilla_ to be as far stretch'd:
Illa vel Intactæ segetis per summa volaret
Gramina, nec teneras cursu læsisset Aristas:
Vel mare per medium, fluctu suspensa tumenti
Ferret Iter: celeres nec tingeret æquore plantas.
But to proceed,
His Father was a Plowman plain,
His Mother milk'd the Cow,
And yet a Way to get a Son
This Couple knew not how,
Until such time the good old Man
To learned _Merlin_ goes,
And there to him in deep Distress
In secret Manner shows,
How in his Heart he wish'd to have,
A Child in time to come,
To be his Heir, tho' it might be
No bigger than his Thumb.
Of which old _Merlin_ was foretold,
That he his Wish should have,
And so a Son of Stature small
The Charmer to him gave.
There is nothing more common throughout the Poets of the finest Taste,
than to give an Account of the Pedigree of their Hero. So _Virgil_,
----Æneas quem Dardanio Anchisæ
Alma Venus Phrygii genuit Simoentis ad undas.
And the Manner of the Countryman's going to consult _Merlin_, is like
that of _Æneas_'s approaching the Oracle of _Delphos_.
----Egressi veneramur Apollinis Urbem.
And how naturally and poetically does he describe the Modesty of the
Man, who wou'd be content, if _Merlin_ wou'd grant him his Request, with
a Son no bigger than his Thumb.
The Two next Stanza's carry on the Idea with a great deal of Probability
and Consistence; and to convince the World that he was born to be
something more than Man, he produces a Miracle to bring him into it.
Begot, and born in half an Hour,
To fit his Father's Will.
The following Stanza continues the Miracle, and brings the _Fairy Queen_
and her Subjects, who gives him his Name, and makes him a Present of his
Apparel.
Whereas she cloath'd him fine and brave,
In Garments richly fair,
The which did serve him many Years
In seemly sort to wear.
So _Virgil_ of Queen _Dido_'s Present to _Ascanius_:
Hoc Juvenem egregium præstanti munere donat.
And again,
--------Quem candida Dido
Esse sui dederat Monumentum & pignus Amoris.
The Description of his Dress is very agreeable, and is not unlike what I
have met with somewhere of a Giant going a Fishing, with an Account of
his Implements equal to his Proportion.
His Hat made of an Oaken Leaf,
His Shirt a Spider's Web,
Both light and soft for these his Limbs
That were so smally bred.
His Hose and Doublet Thistle Down,
Together weav'd full fine;
His Stockings of an Apple green,
Made of the outward Rind;
His Garters were two little Hairs
Pluck'd from his Mothers Eye;
His Shooes made of a Mouse's Skin,
And Tann'd most curiously.
The next Stanza's relate his Diversions, bearing some Analogy to those
of _Ascanius_ and other Lads in _Virgil_:
Thus like a valiant Gallant He
Adventures forth to go,
With other Children in the Street,
His pretty Tricks to show.
Una Acies Juvenum ducit quam Parvus Ovantem
Nomen Avi referens Priamus.
There is a Piece of Revenge our little Hero took upon a Play-fellow,
which proves, to what an height Mechanical and Experimental Philosophy
was arriv'd to in that Age, and may be worth while to be considered by
the _Royal Society_.
Of whom to be reveng'd, he took
In Mirth and pleasant Game,
Black Pots and Glasses, which he hung
Upon a bright Sun-Beam.
The third Line is a Demonstration of the Antiquity of Drinking out of
Black-Pots, which still prevails in most Counties of this Nation, among
the Justices of Peace at their Petty and Quarter Sessions.
The last four Lines of this Canto, and the beginning of the next,
contain the miraculous Adventure of the Pudding-Bowl: And, by the by,
we may observe, That it was the Custom of the _Christians_ at that time,
to make Hog-Puddings instead of Minc'd-Pies at _Christmas_; a laudable
Custom very probably brought up to distinguish 'em more particularly
from the _Jews_.
Whereas about a _Christmas_ time,
His Father an Hog had kill'd,
And _Tom_ to see the Pudding made,
Fear that it should be spill'd;
He sat, the Candle for to Light,
Upon the Pudding-Bowl:
Of which there is unto this Day
A pretty Pastime told:
For _Tom_ fell in----
Perhaps some may think it below our Hero to stoop to such a mean
Employment as the Poet has here enjoyn'd him, of holding the Candle, and
that it looks too much like a _Citizen_, or a _Cot_, as the Women call
it: But if we reflect on the Obedience due to Parents, as our Author
undoubtedly did, and the Necessities those People labour'd under, we
cannot but admire at his ready Compliance with what could by no Means be
agreeable to the Heroical Bent of his Inclinations, and perceive what a
tender Regard he had for the Wellfare of his Family, when he took the
strictest Care imaginable for the Preservation of the Hog-Pudding. And
what can be more remarkable? What can raise the Sentiments of Pity and
Compassion to an higher Pitch, than to see an Hero fall into such an
unforeseen Disaster in the honourable Execution of his Office? _This
certainly is conformable to the way of Thinking among the Ancient Poets,
and what a good-natur'd Reader cannot but be affected with._
The following Part of this Canto is the Relation of our Hero's being put
into a Pudding, and convey'd away in a Tinker's Budget; which is
design'd by our Author to prove, if it is understood literally, That the
greatest Men are subject to Misfortunes. But it is thought by Dr.
_B--tly_ to be all Mythology, and to contain the Doctrine of the
Transmutation of Metals, and is design'd to shew, that all Matter is the
same, tho' very differently Modified. He tells me, he intends to publish
a distinct Treatise of this Canto; and I don't question, but he'll
manage the Dispute with the same Learning, Conduct, and good Manners,
he has done others, and as Dr. _Salmon_ uses in his Corrections of Dr.
_Sydenham_ and the _Dispensatory_.
The next Canto is the Story of _Tom Thumb_'s being Swallow'd by a Cow,
and his Deliverance out of her, which is treated of at large by
_Giordano Bruno_ in his _Spaccio de la Bestia trionfante_; which Book,
tho' very scarce, yet a _certain Gentleman_, who has it in his
Possession, has been so obliging as to let every Body know where to meet
with it. After this, you find him carried off by a Raven, and swallow'd
by a Giant; and 'tis almost the same Story as that of _Ganimede_, and
the Eagle in _Ovid_.
Now by a Raven of great Strength,
Away poor _Tom_ was born.
Nec mora: percusso mendacibus aere pennis
Abripit Iliaden.
A certain great _Critick_ and _Schoolmaster_ who has publish'd such
Notes upon _Horace_ as were never seen before, is of Opinion, and has
very good Authority for what he says, that 'twas rather an Owl than a
Raven; for, as he observes with a wonderful deal of Penetration and
Sagacity, our Hero's Shoes were made of a Mouse's Skin which might
induce the Owl to run away with him. The Giant, he owns, looks very
probable, because we find 'em swallowing People very fast in almost all
Romances.
This Canto concludes with our Hero's Arrival at Court; after he had
spent a considerable Part of his Youth in Labours and Fatigues, had been
inur'd to nothing else but Hardships and Adventures, we see him receive
the Recompence of his Merit, and become the Favourite of his Prince: And
here we may perceive all the Fineness of the Gentleman, mixt with all
the Resolution and Courage of the Warriour; We may behold him as ready
to oblige the Ladies with a Dance, as he was to draw his Sword in their
Defence.
Amongst the Deeds of Courtship done,
His Highness did command,
That he shou'd dance a Galliard brave
Upon the Queen's Left Hand.
The which he did----
This shews he had all the Accomplishments of _Achilles_ who was
undoubtedly one of the best Dancers in the Age he liv'd, according to
the Character _Homer_ gives him so frequently of the Agility of his
Feet. I have consulted a Master of the Profession of Dancing, who is
excellently vers'd in the Chronology of all Dances, he tells me that
this _Galliard_ came into Vogue about the latter End of the Reign of
_Uter Pendragon_, and continu'd during that of King _Arthur_, which is
Demonstration to me that our Poet liv'd about that Age.
It is asserted very positively in the later Editions of this Poem, that
the four following Lines are a Relation of the King and _Tom Thumb_'s
going together an Hunting, but I have took indefatigable Pains to
consult all the _Manuscripts_ in _Europe_ concerning this Matter, and I
find it an _Interpolation_. I have also an _Arabick Copy_ by me, which I
got a _Friend_ to translate, being unacquainted with the Language, and
it is plain by the Translation that 'tis there also _interpolated_.
Now after that the King wou'd not
Abroad for Pleasure go,
But still _Tom Thumb_ must go with him
Plac'd on his Saddle Bow.
----Ipse Uno graditur comitatus Achate.
There is scarcely any Scene more moving than this that follows, and is
_such an one as wou'd have shined in *Homer* or *Virgil*_. When he was
favour'd with his Prince's Ear, and might have ask'd the most profitable
and important Posts in the Government, and been indemnified if guilty of
a _Peculatus_; He only used his Interest to relieve the Necessities of
his Parents, when another _Person_ wou'd have scarcely own'd 'em for his
_Relations_. This discovers such a Generosity of Soul, such an Humility
in the greatest Prosperity, such a tender Affection for his Parents, as
is hardly to be met with, but in our Author.
And being near his Highness Heart
He crav'd a wealthy Boon,
A noble Gift, the which the King
Commanded to be done;
To relieve his Father's Wants,
And Mother being old.
The rest of this Canto relates the Visit to his Father, in which there
is something very soft and tender, something _that may move the Mind of
the most polite Reader, with the inward Meltings of Humanity and
Compassion_.
The Next Canto of the Tilts and Tournaments, is much like the Fifth Book
of _Virgil_, and tho' we can't suppose our Poet ever saw that Author,
yet we may believe he was directed to almost the same Passages, _by the
same kind of Poetical Genius, and the same Copyings after Nature_.
Now he with Tilts and Tournaments,
Was entertained so,
That all the rest of _Arthur_'s Knights
Did him much Pleasure show;
And good Sir _Lancelot_ of _Lake_,
Sir _Tristram_, and Sir _Guy_;
But none like to _Tom Thumb_
For Acts of Chivalry.
Longeque ante omnia Corpora Nisus
Emicat----
And agen,
Post Elymus subit, & nunc tertia palma Diores.
In Honour of which noble Day,
And for his Lady's Sake,
A Challenge in King _Arthur_'s Court,
_Tom Thumb_ did bravely make.
Talis prima Dares caput altum in prælia tollit,
Ostendit[que] humeros latos, alterna[que] Iactat
Brachia portendens, & verberat Ictibus auras,
Quæritur huic alius:----
'Gainst whom those noble Knights did run,
Sir _Chion_ and the rest,
But, still _Tom Thumb_ with all his Might
Did bear away the best.
Et primum ante omnes victorem appellat Acesten.
At the same time our Poet shews a laudable Partiality for his Hero, he
represents Sir _Lancelot_ after a manner not unbecoming so bold and
brave a Knight.
At last Sir _Lancelot_ of _Lake_,
In manly sort came in,
And with this stout and hardy Knight
A Battle to begin.
Huic contra Æneas, speculatus in agmine longo
Obvius ire parat----
Which made the Courtiers all aghast.
Obstupuere animi----
This Canto concludes with the Presents made by the King to the Champion
according to the Custom of the _Greeks_ and _Romans_ in such Cases; only
his tumbling thro' the Queen's Ring is observable, and may serve to give
some Light into the Original of that ingenious Exercise so much
practis'd by the Moderns, of tumbling thro' an Hoop.
The last Canto treats of the Champion's Sickness and Death, and whoever
considers the Beauty, Regularity and majestic Simplicity of the
Relation, cannot but be surpris'd at the Advances that may be made in
Poetry by the Strength of an uncultivated Genius, and may see how far
Nature can proceed without the Ornamental Helps and Assistances of Art.
The Poet don't attribute his Sickness to a Debauch, to the Irregularity
or Intemperance of his Life, but to an Exercise becoming an Hero; and
tho' he dies quietly in his Bed, he may be said in some measure to die
in the Bed of Honour. And to shew the great Affection the King had for
him, he sends for his Physicians, and orders all the Care imaginable to
be taken for the Conservation of his Life.
He being slender and tall,
This cunning Doctor took
A fine perspective Glass, with which,
He did in Secret look.
It is a Wonder that the learned World shou'd differ so in their Opinions
concerning the Invention and Antiquity of Optic Glasses, and that any
one should contend for _Metius_ of _Alcmaer_, or, as Dr. _Plot_ does,
for _Fryar Bacon_, when, if this Author had been consulted, Matters
might have been so easily adjusted. Some great Men indeed wou'd prove
from hence, our Knight was the Inventor of 'em, that his Valet might the
more commodiously see to dress him; but if we consider there were no
Beau's in that Age, or reflect more maturely on the Epithet here given
to the Doctor, we may readily conclude, that the Honour of this
Invention belongs more particularly to that ingenious Profession.
How lovely is the Account of the Departure of his Soul from his Body:
And so with Peace and Quietness
He left the World below.
Placida[que] demum ibi morte quievit.
And up into the Fairy Land
His Soul did fleeting go.
----At Æthereas repetit mens ignea sedes.
Whereas the Fairy Queen receiv'd
With happy Mourning Cheer
The Body of this valiant Knight,
Whom she esteem'd so dear;
For with her dancing Nymphs in Green
She fetch'd him from his Bed,
With Musick and with Melody,
As soon as Life was fled.
----Et fotum gremio Dea tollit in Altos
Idaliæ lucos----
So one of our Modern Poets;
Thither the Fairys and their Train resort,
And leave their Revels, and their midnight Sport.
We find in all the most celebrated Poets some Goddess that takes upon
her to be the peculiar Guardian of the Hero, which has been carry'd on
very elegantly in this Author.
But agen;
For whom King _Arthur_ and his Knights,
Full forty Days did mourn,
And in Remembrance of his name,
Who was so strangely born,
He built a Tomb of Marble grey,
And Year by Year did come,
To celebrate the Mournful Day,
And Burial of _Tom Thumb_,
Whose Fame lives here in _England_ still,
Among the Country sort,
Of whom their Wives and Children small,
Tell Tales of pleasant Sport.
So _Ovid_;
----Luctus monumenta manebunt
Semper Adoni mei, repetita[que] mortis Imago
Annua plangoris peragit simulamina Nostri.
Nor is this Conclusion unlike one of the best Latin Poems this Age has
produc'd.
Tu Taffi Æternum vives, tua munera Cambri
Nunc etiam Celebrant, quoties[que] revolvitur Annus
Te memorant, Patrium Gens tota tuetur Honorem,
Et cingunt viridi redolentia tempora Porro.
And now, tho' I am very well satisfied with this Performance, yet,
according to the usual Modesty of us Authors, I am oblig'd to tell the
World, _it will be a great Satisfaction to me, knowing my own
Insufficiency_, if I have given but some Hints of the Beauties of this
Poem, which are capable of being improv'd by those of greater Learning
and Abilities. And I am glad to find by a Letter I have receiv'd from
one of the _Literati_ in _Holland_, That the learned _Huffius_, a great
Man of our Nation, is about the Translation of this Piece into _Latin_
Verse, which he assures me will be done with a great deal of Judgment,
in case he has enough of that Language to furnish out the Undertaking.
I am very well Appris'd, That there has been publish'd Two Poems lately,
Intituled, The Second and Third Parts of this Author; which treat of our
little Hero's rising from the Dead in the Days of King _Edgar_: But I am
inform'd by my Friend the _Schoolmaster_, and others, That they were
compos'd by an Enthusiast in the last Century, and have been since
Printed for the Establishment of the Doctrine of Monsieur _Marion_ and
his Followers, and the Resurrection of Dr. _Ems_.
I hope no Body will be offended at my asserting Things so positively,
since 'tis the Priviledge of us _Commentators_, who understand the
meaning of an Author Seventeen Hundred Years after he has wrote, much
better than ever he cou'd be suppos'd to do himself. And certainly,
a Critick ought not only to know what his Authors Thoughts were when he
was Writing such and such Passages, but how those Thoughts came into his
Head, where he was when he wrote, or what he was doing of; whether he
wrote in a Garden, a Garret, or a Coach; upon a Lady, or a Milkmaid;
whether at that Time he was scratching his Elbow, drinking a Bottle,
or playing at Questions and Commands. These are material and important
Circumstances so well known to the _True Commentator_, that were
_Virgil_ and _Horace_ to revisit the World at this time, they'd be
wonderfully surpris'd to see the minutest of their Perfections
discover'd by the Assistances of _Modern Criticism_. Nor have the
Classicks only reap'd Benefit from Inquiries of this Nature, but
Divinity it self seems to be render'd more intelligible. I know a
Divine, who understands what St. _Paul_ meant by _Higher Powers_, much
better than that Apostle cou'd pretend to do; and another, That can
unfold all the Mysteries of the _Revelations_ without Spectacles.
I know there are some People that cast an Odium on me, and others, for
pointing out the Beauties of such Authors, as have, they say, been
hitherto unknown, and argue, That 'tis a sort of Heresie in Wit, and is
like the fruitless Endeavours of proving the Apostolical Constitutions
_Genuine_, that have been indisputably _Spurious_ for so many Ages: But
let these Gentlemen consider, whether they pass not the same Judgment on
an Author, as a Woman does on a Man, by the gayety of his Dress, or the
gaudy Equipage of his Epithets. And however they may call me
_second-sighted_, for discerning what they are Blind to, I must tell
them this Poem has not been altogether so obscure, but that the most
refin'd _Writers_ of this Age have been delighted with the reading it.
Mr. _Tho. D'Urfey_, I am told, is an Admirer, and Mr. _John Dunton_ has
been heard to say, more than once, he had rather be the Author of it
than all his Works.
How often, _says my Author_, have I seen the Tears trickle down the Face
of the Polite _Woodwardius_ upon reading some of the most pathetical
Encounters of _Tom Thumb_! How soft, how musically sorrowful was his
Voice! How good Natur'd, how gentle, how unaffected was the Ceremoniale
of his Gesture, and how unfit for a Profession so Merciless and
Inhumane!
I was persuaded by a Friend to write some Copies of Verses and place 'em
in the Frontispiece of this Poem, in Commendation of My self and my
_Comment_, suppos'd to be compos'd by _AG. FT. LM. RW._ and so forth.
_To their very worthy and honour'd Friend_ C. D. upon his admirable and
useful _Comment_ on the History of _Tom Thumb_; but my Bookseller told
me the Trick was so common, 'twou'd not answer. Then I propos'd a
Dedication to my Lord _such an One_, or Sir _Thomas such an One_; but he
told me the Stock to be rais'd on Dedications was so small now a Days,
and the Discount to my Lord's Gentleman, _&c._ so high, that 'twou'd not
be worth while; besides, says he, it is the Opinion of some Patrons,
that a Dinner now and then, with, _Sir, I shall expect to see you
sometimes_, is a suitable Reward for a publick Compliment in Print. But
if, continues my Bookseller, you have a Mind it shou'd turn to
Advantage, write Treason or Heresy, get censur'd by the Parliament or
Convocation, and condemn'd to be burnt by the Hands of the common
Hangman, and you can't fail having a Multitude of Readers, by the same
Reason, _A notorious Rogue has such a Number of Followers to the
Gallows_.
_FINIS._
* * * * *
* * * *
[Illustration]
THE MICROCOSM.
by
Gregory Griffin.
No. XI. of the
MICROCOSM.
MONDAY, _February_ 12, 1787.
Res gestæ regumque, ducumque, et tristia bella,
_Quo scribi possint numero, monstravit Homerus_.--HOR.
By Homer taught, the modern poet sings,
_In Epic strains, of heroes, wars, and Kings_.--FRANCIS.
There are certain forms and etiquettes in life, which, though the
neglect of them does not amount to the commission of a crime, or the
violation of a duty, are yet so established by example, and sanctioned
by custom, as to pass into Statutes, equally acknowledged by society,
and almost equally binding to individuals, with the laws of the land,
or the precepts of morality. A man guilty of breaking these, though he
cannot be transported for a felon, or indicted for treasonable
practices, is yet, in the High Court of Custom, branded as a flagrant
offender against decorum, as notorious for an unprecedented infringement
on propriety.
There is no race of men on whom these laws are more severe than Authors;
and no species of Authors more subject to them, than Periodical
Essayists. _Homer_ having prescribed the form, or to use a more modern
phrase, _set the fashion_ of _Epic Poems_, whoever presumes to deviate
from his plan, must not hope to participate his dignity: And whatever
method, _The Spectator_, _The Guardian_, and others, who first adopted
this species of writing, have pursued in their undertaking, is set down
as a rule for the conduct of their followers; which, whoever is bold
enough to transgress, is accused of a deviation from the original
design, and a breach of established regulation.