Text
Editionsbericht
Literatur: Granville
Literatur: Poetologische Lyrik
| 5 | Concerning Unnatural Flights in Poetry. [311] AS when some Image, of a charming face, In living Paint, An Artist tries to trace He carefully consults, each beauteous line, Adjusting to his Object, his design; We Praise the Peice, And give the Painter Fame, |
|
| 10 | But as the bright resemblance, speaks the Dame. [312] Poets, are Limners of another kind, To copy out, Idæas in the Mind, Words are the paint, by which their thoughts are shown; And Nature is their Object, to be drawn; |
|
| 15 | The written Picture, we applaud, or blame, But as the just proportions, are the same. Who, driven with ungovernable fire, Or void of Art, beyond these bounds aspire, Gygantick forms, and monstrous Births alone |
|
| 20 | Produce, which Nature shockt, disdains to own By true reflection, I would see my face, Why brings the Fool, a magnifying Glass? But Poetry in Fiction takes delight, Obj. 1. And mounting up, in Figures out of Sight, |
|
| 25 | Leaves Truth behind, in her audacious flight: [313] Fables, and Metaphors, that always lie, 2. And bold Hyperboles, that soar so high, 3. And every Ornament of Verse must die. Mistake me not - No Figures I exclude, Ans. |
|
| 30 | And but forbid Intemperance, not Food. Who would with care, some happy Fiction frame, So mimicks Truth, it looks the very fame, Not rais'd to force, or feign'd in nature's scorn, But meant to grace, illustrate and adorn. |
|
| 35 | Important Truths, still let your Fables hold, And moral misteries, with art unfold: Ladies and Beaux, to Please, is all the task, But the sharp Critick, will Instruction ask. As Veils transparent cover, but not hide |
|
| 40 | Such metaphors appear, when right apply'd; [314] When thro' the phrase, we plainly see the sense, Truth, when the meaning's obvious, will dispense; The Reader, what in Reason's due, believes, Nor can we call that false, which not deceives. |
|
| 45 | Hyperboles, so daring and so bold, Disdaining bounds, Are yet by Rules controul'd: Above the Clouds, but yet within our sight, They mount with truth, and make a tow'ring flight Presenting things impossible to view, |
|
| 50 |
They wander, thro' incredible to True: Falshoods thus mixt, Like metalls are refind. And Truth, like Silver, leaves the dross behind. Thus Poetry has ample space to soar, Nor needs forbidden Regions to explore. |
|
| 55 |
[315] Such Vaunts as his who can with patience bear, Who thus describes his Hero, in the War 'In beat of Action, combats being slain, And after death, still do's the fight maintaini'. b 4. The noisy Culvering, O're charg'd lets fly, |
|
| 60 | And bursts unaiming, in the rended sky, Such frantick flights, are like a Mad-mans dream, And nature suffers, in the wild extream. The Roman Wit, who impiously divides 5. His Heroe and his Gods, to different sides, |
|
| 65 |
I would condemn, but that in spight of sense, Th'admiring World, still stands in his defence. How o'ft Alas! the best of men in vain Contend for blessings, that the worst obtain! The Gods permitting Traitors to succeed: |
|
| 70 |
Become not Parties, in an impious deed, [316] And by the Tyrants Murder, we may find That Cato and the Gods, were of a mind. Thus forcing truth, with such prepostrous praise, Our Characters we lessen, when we'd raise, |
|
| 75 |
Like Castles built, by magick Art, in air, That vanish at approach, such thoughts appear, But rais'd on Truth, by some judicious hand, As on a Rock, they shall for Ages stand. Our King return'd, and banisht Peace restor'd, |
|
| 80 |
The Muse ran Mad, to see her exil'd Lord, On the crackt Stage, the Bedlam Heroes roar'd, And scarce cou'd speak one reasonable word: Dryden himself, to please a frantick Age, 6. Was forc'd to let his judgment, stoop to Rage, |
|
| 85 |
To a wild Audience, he conform'd his voice, Comply'd to Custom, but not err'd thro' Choice; [317] Deem then the Peoples, not the Writer's Sin, Almanzor's Rage, and Rants of Maximin: That fury spent, in each elaborate Peice |
|
| 90 |
He vies for Fame, with ancient Rome, and Greece. Roscommon first, Then Mulgrave rose, Like light To clear our Darkness, and to guide our flight, With steady Judgment, and in lofty Sounds, They gave us patterns, and they set us bounds, |
|
| 95 |
The Stagyrite, and Horace, laid aside, Inform'd by Them, we need no foreign Guide. Who seek from Poetry, a lasting Name, May in their Lessons, learn the road to Fame; But let the bold Adventurer be sure |
|
| 100 |
That every line, the test of Truth endure, On this Foundation, may the Fabrick rise Firm and unshaken, till it touch the Skies. [318] From Pulpits banisht, from the Court, from Love, Abandon'd Truth, seeks shelter in the Grove, |
|
|
Cherish ye Muses, the forsaken Fair, And take into Your Train, this Wanderer. |
[Fußnote, S. 315]
b Taken from Ariosto.
zurück
(1) The Poetic World is nothing but Fiction; Pernassus, Pegasus, and the Muses, pure imagination and Chimæra: But being however a system universally agreed on, all that shall be contriv'd or invented upon this Foundation according to Nature, shall be reputed, as truth: But what so ever shall diminish from, or exceed the just proportions of Nature, shall be rejected, as False, and pass for extravagance, as Dwarfs and Gyants, for Monsters.
(2.) When Homer mentioning Achilles, terms him a Lyon, this is a metaphor, And the meaning is obvious and true, tho' the litteral sense be false: The Poet intending thereby to give his Reader some Idæa of the strength and fortitude of his Heroe - Had he said - That Wolf, or that Bear, [319] this had bin false by, presenting an Image not conformable to the Nature, Or Character of a Heroe. &c.
(3.) Hyperboles are of diverse sorts, And the manner of introducing them, is different. Some are, as it were, Naturaliz'd and establish'd by a Customary way of expression, as when we say, such a one's as swift as the wind; whiter then snow, or the like: Homer speaking of Hireus calls him Beauty it self: Martial of Zoilus, Lewdness it self. such Hiperboles lie indeed, but deceive us not, And therefore Seneca terms 'em Lyes, that readily conduct our imagination to Truths, And have an intelligible signification, tho' the expression be strain'd beyond credibility. Custom has likewise familiaris'd another way for Hyperboles, for example, by Irony, as when we say of some very infamous Woman, she's a Civil person, where the meaning's to be taken in a sense quite opposite to the letter. These few Figures are mention'd only for examples sake: it will be understood that all others are to be us'd with the like care and discretion.
(4) These lines are taken from Ariosto. The Authour need not have travel'd so far from home, to fetch 'nonsense'. But he chose rather to correct in the gentlest manner, by a foreign Example, hoping that such, as are conscious of the [320] like extravagances, will take the hint, and secretly reprove themselves. Quod cunq; ostendis mihi sic, incredulus Odi. It may be possible, for some tempers to maintain Rage and indignation to the last gasp. But the Soul and Body once parted, there must necessarily be a determination of Action &c.
(5.) Victrix Causa deis placuit, sed Victa Catoni. The consent of so many Ages having establish'd the reputation of this Line, the Author perhaps may be judg'd too presuming in this attack; But he cou'd not suppose that Cato, who is describ'd to have been a man of strict devotion, and more resembling the Gods, than men, would choose any party in opposition to the Gods. The Poet would give us to understand, that his Heroe was too generous to accompany the Gods themselves in an unjust Cause. But to represent a Man to be either wiser, or juster, than God, may show the impiety of the Writer, but can add nothing to the lustre of the Heroe, since neither Reason, nor Religion will allow it, and it is impossible in nature for a corrupt being to be more excellent, than a divine. Besides, success implies permission, and not approbation: to place the Gods always on the thriving side, is to make 'em partakers in all successfull wickedness: They judge before the conclusion of the [321] the Action: The Catastrophe will best determine on which side is Providence: And the Violent death of Cæsar acquits the Gods, from being Companions of his Usurpation,
(6.) Mr. Dryden in some Prologue has these two Lines,
He's bound to please, not to write well, And knows,
There is a mode in Plays, as well as Cloaths.
Let the Censurers of Mr. Dryden therefore be satisfied that where he has expos'd himself to be criticiz'd, it has been only when he has endeavour'd to follow the fashion: To humour others, and not to please himself. It may likewise be observ'd that at the time when those Characters were form'd Bullying was altogether the Mode, off the Stage, as well as upon it: And tho' that humour is since much abated in the conversation of the World, yet there remains so far a relish for it, that to this day, an Audience is never so well pleas'd, as when an Actor foams with some extravagant rant. neither can we ever expect a thorow reformation of this Sacrifice to the People, till the writer has some more certain encouragement, than the bare profits of a third day: For those who write to live, will be always under a necessity to com[322]ply in some measure; with the Generality, by whose approbation they subsist.
Mr. Dryden for further Satisfaction in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Spanish-Fryar, thus censures himself. "I remember some Verses of my own Maximin and Almanzor, which cry vengeance upon me for their extravagance &c. All I can say for those passages which are I hope not many, is that I knew they were bad a enough to please, Even when I writ them: But I repent of them among my sins: And if any of their fellows intrude by chance into my present writing, I draw a stroke over all those Dalilahs of the Theatre: and am resolv'd I will Settle my self no reputation by the applause of Fools: 'Tis not that I am mortify'd to all Ambition, but I scorn as much to take it from half-witted Judges, as I should to raise an Estate, by cheating of Bubbles. Neither doe I discommend the lofty stile in Tragedy, which is naturally pompous and Magnificent: But nothing is truly sublime that is not Just and proper. Ep. Dedic. to the Spanish-Fryar.
This may serve for a standing Apology for Mr. Dryden against all his Criticks; and likewise for an unquestionable, Authority to confirm those principles which the Authour of the foregoing Poem has pretended to lay down. &c.
Erstdruck und Druckvorlage
A New Miscellany Of Original Poems, On Several Occasions.
Written by the E. of D. Sir Charles Sidley, Sir Fleetw. Shepheard, Mr. Wolesly,
Mr. Granvill, Mr. Dryden, Mr. Stepney, Mr. Rowe.
And several other Eminent Hands. Never before Printed.
London: Printed for Peter Buck, at the Sign of the Temple in Fleet-Street;
and George Strahan, at the Golden-Ball,
over against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhil 1701, S. 311-322.
Die Textwiedergabe erfolgt nach dem ersten Druck
(Editionsrichtlinien).
URL: https://books.google.fr/books?id=YA0UAAAAQAAJ
Kommentierte Ausgabe
Literatur: Granville
Domsch, Sebastian: The Emergence of Literary Criticism in 18th-Century Britain.
Discourse between Attacks and Authority.
Berlin u. Boston 2014 (= Buchreihe der Anglia / Anglia Book Series, 47).
Fulda, Daniel / Steigerwald, Jörn (Hrsg.): Um 1700:
Die Formierung der europäischen Aufklärung.
Zwischen Öffnung und neuerlicher Schließung.
Berlin 2016.
Gavin, Michael: The Invention of English Criticism, 1650–1760.
Cambridge 2015.
Johnson, Christopher D.: Hyperboles.
The Rhetoric of Excess in Baroque Literature and Thought.
Cambridge, Mass. u.a. 2010.
Lynch, Jack (Hrsg.): The Oxford Handbook of British Poetry, 1660-1800.
Oxford 2016.
Rodriguez, Antonio (Hrsg.): Dictionnaire du lyrique.
Poésie, arts, médias.
Paris 2024.
Sauer, Elizabeth (Hrsg.): Emergent Nation.
Early Modern British Literature in Transition, 1660–1714.
Cambridge 2019.
Williams, Abigail: Poetry and the Creation of a Whig Literary Culture, 1681 – 1714.
Oxford u.a. 2009.
Zymner, Rüdiger (Hrsg.): Handbuch Gattungstheorie.
Stuttgart u.a. 2010.
Edition
Lyriktheorie » R. Brandmeyer