No, all is hush'd and still as death.--'Tis dreadful!
How reverend is the face of this tall pile;
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,
To bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof,
By its own weight made stedfast and immoveable,
Looking tranquillity! It strikes an awe
And terror on my aching sight; the tombs
And monumental caves of death look cold,
And shoot a chilness to my trembling heart.
Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice;
Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear
Thy voice--my own affrights me with its echoes.
He who reads these lines enjoys, for a moment, the powers of a poet; he
feels what he remembers to have felt before, but he feels it with great
increase of sensibility; he recognises a familiar image, but meets it
again amplified and expanded, embellished with beauty, and enlarged with
majesty.
Yet could the author, who appears here to have enjoyed the confidence of
nature, lament the death of queen Mary in lines like these:
The rocks are cleft, and new-descending rills
Furrow the brows of all th' impending hills.
The water-gods to floods their rivulets turn,
And each, with streaming eyes, supplies his wanting urn.
The fauns forsake the woods, the nymphs the grove,
And round the plain in sad distractions rove:
In prickly brakes their tender limbs they tear,
And leave on thorns their locks of golden hair.
With their sharp nails, themselves the satyrs wound,
And tug their shaggy beards, and bite with grief the ground.
Lo Pan himself, beneath a blasted oak,
Dejected lies, his pipe in pieces broke.
See Pales weeping too, in wild despair,
And to the piercing winds her bosom bare.
And see yon fading myrtle, where appears
The queen of love, all bath'd in flowing tears;
See how she wrings her hands, and beats her breast,
And tears her useless girdle from her waist!
Hear the sad murmurs of her sighing doves!
For grief they sigh, forgetful of their loves.
And, many years after, he gave no proof that time had improved his
wisdom or his wit; for, on the death of the marquis of Blandford, this
was his song:
And now the winds, which had so long been still.
Began the swelling air with sighs to fill:
The water-nymphs, who motionless remain'd,
Like images of ice, while she complain'd,
Now loos'd their streams; as when descending rains
Roll the steep torrents headlong o'er the plains.
The prone creation, who so long had gaz'd,
Charm'd with her cries, and at her griefs amaz'd,
Began to roar and howl with horrid yell,
Dismal to hear and terrible to tell!
Nothing but groans and sighs were heard around,
And echo multiplied each mournful sound.
In both these funeral poems, when he has _yelled_ out many _syllables_
of senseless _dolour_, he dismisses his reader with senseless
consolation: from the grave of Pastora rises a light that forms a star;
and where Amaryllis wept for Amyntas, from every tear sprung up a
violet.
But William is his hero, and of William he will sing:
The hov'ring winds on downy wings shall wait around,
And catch, and waft to foreign lands, the flying sound.
It cannot but be proper to show what they shall have to catch and carry:
'Twas now, when flow'ry lawns the prospect made,
And flowing brooks beneath a forest shade,
A lowing heifer, loveliest of the herd,
Stood feeding by; while two fierce bulls prepar'd
Their armed heads for fight, by fate of war to prove
The victor worthy of the fair one's love.
Unthought presage of what met next my view;
For soon the shady scene withdrew.
And now, for woods, and fields, and springing flowers,
Behold a town arise, bulwark'd with walls and lofty towers;
Two rival armies all the plain o'erspread,
Each in battalia rang'd, and shining arms array'd;
With eager eyes beholding both from far
Namur, the prize and mistress of the war.
The Birth of the Muse is a miserable fiction. One good line it has,
which was borrowed from Dryden. The concluding verses are these:
This said, no more remain'd. Th' ethereal host
Again impatient crowd the crystal coast.
The father now, within his spacious hands,
Encompass'd all the mingled mass of seas and lands;
And, having heav'd aloft the pond'rous sphere,
He launch'd the world to float in ambient air.
Of his irregular poems, that to Mrs. Arabella Hunt seems to be the best;
his ode for St. Cecilia's Day, however, has some lines which Pope had in
his mind when he wrote his own.
His imitations of Horace are feebly paraphrastical, and the additions
which he makes are of little value. He sometimes retains what were more
properly omitted, as when he talks of _vervain_ and _gums_ to propitiate
Venus.
Of his translations, the satire of Juvenal was written very early, and
may, therefore, be forgiven, though it have not the massiness and vigour
of the original. In all his versions strength and sprightliness are
wanting: his hymn to Venus, from Homer, is, perhaps, the best. His lines
are weakened with expletives, and his rhymes are frequently imperfect.
His petty poems are seldom worth the cost of criticism: sometimes the
thoughts are false, and sometimes common. In his verses on lady Gethin,
the latter part is in imitation of Dryden's ode on Mrs. Killigrew; and
Doris, that has been so lavishly flattered by Steele, has, indeed, some
lively stanzas, but the expression might be mended; and the most
striking part of the character had been already shown in Love for Love.
His Art of Pleasing is founded on a vulgar, but, perhaps, impracticable
principle, and the staleness of the sense is not concealed by any
novelty of illustration or elegance of diction.
This tissue of poetry, from which he seems to have hoped a lasting name,
is totally neglected, and known only as it is appended to his plays.
While comedy, or while tragedy, is regarded, his plays are likely to be
read; but, except what relates to the stage[18], I know not that he has
ever written a stanza that is sung, or a couplet that is quoted. The
general character of his Miscellanies is, that they show little wit, and
little virtue.
Yet to him it must be confessed, that we are indebted for the correction
of a national errour, and for the cure of our Pindarick madness. He
first taught the English writers that Pindar's odes were regular; and
though certainly he had not the fire requisite for the higher species of
lyrick poetry, he has shown us, that enthusiasm has its rules, and that,
in mere confusion, there is neither grace nor greatness.
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[Footnote 15: Mr. Malone has ascertained both the place and time of his
birth by the register of Bardsey, which is as follows: "William, the
sonne of Mr. William Congreve of Bardsey Grange, was baptised Febru.
10th, 1669." See Malone's Dryden, vol. i. p. 225. J.B.]
[Footnote 16: Dec. 17, 1714, and May 3, 1718, he received a patent for
the same place for life.]
[Footnote 17: The Historical Register says Jan. 19. aet. 57.]
[Footnote 18: "Except!" Dr. Warton exclaims, "Is not this a high sort of
poetry?" He mentions, likewise, that Congreve's opera, or oratorio, of
Semele, was set to musick by Handel; I believe, in 1743.]