Chapter XXXIV: Part I: canto 1. lines 821-834

[Footnote 234: "The Life of Clarendon," edited by himself, new ed. 1827, 3 vols, I. 378.]

[Footnote 235: Ibid. I. 379.]

[Footnote 236: "The Life of Clarendon," edited by himself, new ed. 1827, 3 vols. I. 380.]

[Footnote 237: "Mr. Evelyn tells me of several of the menial servants of the Court lacking bread, that have not received a farthing wages since the King's coming in."--Pepys's Diary, ed. Lord Braybrooke, 3d ed. 1848, 5 vols. IV. April 26, 1667.

"Mr. Povy says that to this day the King do follow the women as much as he ever did; that the Duke of York... hath come out of his wife's bed, and gone to others laid in bed for him;... that the family (of the Duke) is in horrible disorder by being in debt by spending above £60,000 per annum, when he hath not £40,000." (Ibid. IV. June 23, 1667).

"It is certain that, as it now is, the seamen of England, in my conscience, would, if they could, go over and serve the king of France or Holland rather than us." (Ibid. IV. June 25, 1667).]

[Footnote 238: Pepys's Diary, vol. IV. July 29, 1667.]

[Footnote 239: Rochester's Works, edited by Saint-Évremond.]

[Footnote 240: Pepys's Diary, II. January 1, 1662-1663.]

[Footnote 241: Ibid. IV. July 30, 1667.]

[Footnote 242: Ibid. III. July 26, 1665.]

[Footnote 243: Ibid. II. November 9, 1663.]

[Footnote 244: Pepys's Diary, II. February 8, 17, 1662-3.]

[Footnote 245: Ibid. February 21, 1664-1665.]

[Footnote 246: The author has inadvertently confounded "my Lady Bennet" with the Countess of Arlington. See Pepys's Diary, IV. May 30, 1668, footnote.--Tr.]

[Footnote 247: "Though I reverence those men of ancient times that either have written truth perspicuously, or set it in a better way to find it out ourselves, yet to the antiquity itself, I think nothing due; for if we reverence the age, the present is the oldest."--Hobbes's Works, Molesworth, 11 vols. 8 vo, 1839-45, III. 712.]

[Footnote 248: "To say he hath spoken to him in a dream, is no more than to say he dreamed that God spake to him.... To say he hath seen a vision or heard a voice, is to say that he has dreamed between sleeping and waking.... To say he speaks by supernatural inspiration, is to say he finds an ardent desire to speak, or some strong opinion of himself for which he can allege no sufficient and natural reason."--Ibid, III. 361-2.]

[Footnote 249: "From the principle parts of Nature, Reason, and Passion, have proceeded two kinds of learning, mathematical and dogmatical. The former is free from controversy and dispute, because it consisteth in comparing figure and motion only, in which things truth and the interest of men oppose not each other. But in the other there is nothing undisputable, because it compares men, and meddles with their right and profit."--Ibid. 11 vols. 8 vo, 1839-45, IV. Epis. ded.]

[Footnote 250: His chief works were written between 1646 and 1655.]

[Footnote 251: Nemo dat nisi respiciens ad bonum sibi.

Amicitiæ bonse, nempe utiles. Nam amicitiæ cum ad multa alia, turn ad præsidium conferunt.

Sapientia utile. Nam præsidium in se habet nonnullum. Etiam appetibile est per se, id est jucundum. Item pulchrum, quia acquisitu difficilis.

Non enim qui sapiens est, ut dixere stoici, dives est sed contra qui dives est sapiens est dicendus est.

Ignoscere veniam petenti pulchrum. Nam indicium fiduciæ sui.

Imitatio jucundum: revocat enim præterita. Præterita autem si bona fuerint, jucunda sunt repræsentata, quia bona; si mala, quia præterita. Jucunda igitur musica, poesis pictura.--Hobbes's "Opera Latina," Molesworth, vol. II. 98-102.]

[Footnote 252: Metus potentiarum invisibilium, sive fictæ illæ sint, sive ab historiis acceptæ sint publiée, religio est si publice acceptæ non sint, superstitio.--Ibid. III. 45.]

[Footnote 253: Omnis igitur societas vel commodi causa vel gloriæ, hoc est, sui, non sociorum amore contrahitur.--Ibid. II. 161.

Statuendum igitur est, originem magnarum et diuturnarum societatum non a mutua hominum benevolentia, sed a mutuo metu exstitisse.--Ibid. II. 161.

Voluntas lædendi omnibus quidem inest in statu naturae.--Ibid. II. 162.

Status hominum naturalis antequam in societatem coiretur bellum fuerit; neque hoc simpliciter, sed bellum omnium in omftes.--Ibid. II. 166.

Bellum sua natura sempiternum.--See 166, line 16.]

[Footnote 254: Corpus et substantia idem significant, et proinde vox composita substantia incorporea est insignificans æque ac si quis diceret corpus incorporeum.--Hobbes's "Opera Latina," Molesworth, vol. III. 281.

Quidquid imaginamur finitum est. Nulla ergo est idea neque conceptus qui oriri potest a voce hac, infinitum.--Ibid. III. 20.

Recidit itaque ratiocinatio omnis ad duas operationes animi, additionem et substractionem.--Ibid. I. 3.

Nomina signa sunt non rerum sed cogitationem.--Ibid. I. 15.

Veritas enim in dicto non in re consists.--Ibid. I. 31.

Sensio igitur in sentiente nihil aliud esse potest præter motum partium aliquarum intus in sentiente existentium, quæ partes motæ organorum quibus sentimus partes sunt.--Ibid. I. 317.]

[Footnote 255: Pepys's Diary, II. September 29, 1662.]

[Footnote 256: His "Wild Gallant" dates from 1662.]

[Footnote 257: "We love to get our mistresses, and purr over them, as cats do over mice, and let them get a little way; and all the pleasure is to pat them back again.--Mock Astrologer," II. 1.

Wildblood says to his mistress: "I am none of those unreasonable lovers that propose to themselves the loving to eternity. A month is commonly my stint." And Jacintha replies: "Or would not a fortnight serve our turn?"--Ibid.

Frequently one would think Dryden was translating Hobbes, by the harshness of his jests.]

[Footnote 258: "Love in a Nunnery," II. 3.]

[Footnote 259: Ibid. III. 3.]

[Footnote 260: "Spanish Friar," III. 3. And jumbled with the plot we keep meeting with political allusions. This is a mark of the time. Torrismond, to excuse himself from marrying the queen, says, "Power which in one age is tyranny is ripen'd in the next to true succession. She's in possession."--"Spanish Friar," IV. 2.]

[Footnote 261: Plautus's "Amphitryon" has been imitated by Dryden and Molière. Sir Walter Scott, in the introduction to Dryden's play, says: "He is, in general, coarse and vulgar, where Molière is witty; and where the Frenchman ventures upon a double meaning, the Englishman always contrives to make it a single one."--Tr.]

[Footnote 262: "Amphitryon," I. 1.]

[Footnote 263: "Amphitryon," I. 1.]

[Footnote 264: As Jupiter is departing, on the plea of daylight, Alemena says to him: "But you and I will draw our curtains close. Extinguish daylight, and put out the sun. Come back, my lord.... You have not yet laid long enough in bed To warm your widowed side." --Act II. 2.

Compare Plautus's Roman matron and Molière's honest Frenchwoman with this expansive female (Louis XIV and Mme. de Montespan were not very decent either. See "Mémoires de Saint-Simon.")--Tr.]

[Footnote 265: Himself a Huguenot, who had become a Roman Catholic, and the husband of Julie d'Angennes, for whom the French poets composed the celebrated "Guirlande."--Tr.]

[Footnote 266: "The Dramatic Works of Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar," ed. Leigh Hunt, 1840. Dedication of "Love in a Wood" to her Grace the Duchess of Cleveland.]

[Footnote 267: Act III. 3.]

[Footnote 268: "The Country Wife," V. 4.]

[Footnote 269: Read the epilogue, and see what words and details authors dared then to put in the mouths of actresses.]

[Footnote 270: "That spark, who has his fruitless designs upon the bed-ridden rich widow, down to the sucking heiress in her... clout.--Love in a Wood," I. 2.

Mrs. Flippant: "Though I had married the fool, I thought to have reserved the wit as well as other ladies."--Ibid.

Dapperwit: "I will contest with no rival, not with my old rival your coachman."--Ibid.

"She has a complexion like a Holland cheese, and no more teeth left, than such as give a haut goût to her breath."--Ibid. II. 1.]

[Footnote 271: Ibid. III. 2.]

[Footnote 272: Ibid. V. 2.]

[Footnote 273: The letter of Agnes, in Molière's "L'École des Femmes," III. 4, begins thus: "Je veux vous écrire, et je suis bien en peine par où je m'y prendrai. J'ai des pensées que je désirerais que vous sussiez; mais je ne sais comment faire pour vous les dire, et je me défie de mes paroles," etc. Observe how Wycherley translates it: "Dear, sweet Mr. Horner, my husband would have me send you a base, rude, unmannerly letter; but I won't--and would have me forbid you loving me; but I won't--and would have me say to you, I hate you, poor Mr. Horner; but I won't tell a lie for him--for I'm sure if you and I were in the country at cards together, I could not help treading on your toe under the table, or rubbing knees with you, and staring in your face, till you saw me, and then looking down, and blushing for an hour together," etc.--"Country Wife," IV. 2.]

[Footnote 274: In the "Gentleman Dancing-Master."]

[Footnote 275: "The Plain Dealer," II. 1.]

[Footnote 276: "The Plain Dealer," IV. 2.]

[Footnote 277: Ibid.]

[Footnote 278: "The Plain Dealer," V. 1.]

[Footnote 279: Compare with the sayings of Alceste, in Molière's "Misanthrope," such tirades as this: "Such as you, like common whores and pickpockets, are only dangerous to those you embrace." And with the character of Philinte, in the same French play, such phrases as these: "But, faith, could you think I was a friend to those I hugged, kissed, flattered, bowed to? When their backs were turned, did not I tell you they were rogues, villains, rascals, whom I despised and hated?"]

[Footnote 280: Olivia says: "Then shall I have again my alcove smell like a cabin, my chamber perfumed with his tarpaulin Brandenburgh; and hear vollies of brandy-sighs, enough to make a fog in one's room."--"The Plain Dealer," II. 1.]

[Footnote 281: "The Plain Dealer," III. 1.]

[Footnote 282: Ibid. IV. 1.]

[Footnote 283: "The Plain Dealer," IV. 2.]

[Footnote 284: "Paradise Lost," book I. lines 490-502.]

[Footnote 285: Consult all Shakespeare's historical plays.]

[Footnote 286: Pepys's Diary, II. July 13, 1663.]

[Footnote 287: Ibid.]

[Footnote 288: "Mémoires de Grammont," by A. Hamilton.]

[Footnote 289: Ibid. ch. IX.]

[Footnote 290: Take, for example, Farquhar's "Beaux Stratagem," II. 1.]

[Footnote 291: Consult especially, "Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands; Of Gardening."]

[Footnote 292: Temple's Works: "Of Gardening," II. 190.]

[Footnote 293: Ibid. 184.]

[Footnote 294: Compare this essay with that of Carlyle, on "Heroes and Hero-Worship"; the title and subject are similar; it is curious to note the difference of the two centuries.]

[Footnote 295: Temple's Works, II: "An Essay upon the Ancient and Modern Learning," 155.]

[Footnote 296: Ibid. 165.]

[Footnote 297: Macaulay's Works, VI. 319: "Essay on Sir William Temple."]

[Footnote 298: "An Essay upon the Ancient and Modern Learning," 173.]

[Footnote 299: "Love in a Wood," III. 2.]

[Footnote 300: "The Country Wife," I. 1.]

[Footnote 301: Sir Charles Sedley's Works, ed. Briscoe, 1778, 2 vols: "The Mulberry Garden," II.]

[Footnote 302: "Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscommon, and Dorset," 2 vols. 1731, II. 54.]

[Footnote 303: "The English Poets," ed. A. Chalmers, 21 vols. 1810; Waller, vol. VIII. 44.]

[Footnote 304: Ibid.]

[Footnote 305: "While in this park I sing, the list'ning deer Attend my passion, and forget to fear; When to the beeches I report my flame, They bow their heads, as if they felt the same. To gods appealing, when I reach their bow'rs With loud complaints, they answer me in showers. To thee a wild and cruel soul is giv'n, More deaf than trees, and prouder than the heav'n! ... The rock. That cloven rock, produc'd thee.... This last complaint th' indulgent ears did pierce Of just Apollo, president of verse; Highly concerned that the Muse should bring Damage to one whom he had taught to sing."--Ibid. pp. 44-45.]

[Footnote 306: Ibid, 32.]

[Footnote 307: Ibid. 45.]

[Footnote 308: "The English Poets," Waller, VIII. 45.]

[Footnote 309: Ibid.]

[Footnote 310: "English Poets," VII. 237.]

[Footnote 311: Ibid. 236-237.]

[Footnote 312: Etherege's "Sir Fopling Flutter"; Wycherley's "The Gentleman Dancing-master," I. 2.]

[Footnote 313: From 1672 to 1726.]

[Footnote 314: Onuphre, in La Bruyère's "Caractères," ch. XIII. de la Mode; Begears, in Beaumarchais's "La Mère Coupable."]

[Footnote 315: Consultations of Sganarelle in the "Médecin Malgré Lui."]

[Footnote 316: Amongst women, Éliante, Henriette, Élise, Uranie, Élmire.]

[Footnote 317: Compare the admirable tact and coolness of Éliante, Henriette, and Élmire.]

[Footnote 318: Dryden boasts of this. With him, we always find a complete comedy grossly amalgamated with a complete tragedy.]

[Footnote 319: Vanbrugh, "Confederacy," II. 1.]

[Footnote 320: Wycherley, "The Country Wife," V. 4.]

[Footnote 321: Vanbrugh, "Relapse," II. end.]

[Footnote 322: Ibid.]

[Footnote 323: She says to Maskwell, her lover: "You want but leisure to invent fresh falsehood, and soothe me to a fond belief of all your fictions; but I will stab the lie that's forming in your heart, and save a sin, in pity to your soul."--Congreve, "Double Dealer," V. 17.]

[Footnote 324: Farquhar, "The Beaux Stratagem," II. 1.]

[Footnote 325: Vanbrugh, "Provoked Wife," V. 6.]

[Footnote 326: Vanbrugh, "Provoked Wife," III. 2.]

[Footnote 327: Ibid. V. 2.]

[Footnote 328: The valet Rasor says to his master: "Come to your kennel, you cuckoldy drunken sot you."--Ibid.]

[Footnote 329: Vanbrugh's "Relapse," III. 2.]

[Footnote 330: Ibid.]

[Footnote 331: Vanbrugh's "Relapse," III. 2.]

[Footnote 332: Ibid. III. 5.]

[Footnote 333: Ibid.]

[Footnote 334: Ibid. V. 5.]

[Footnote 335: Ibid. III. 4.]

[Footnote 336: Vanbrugh's "Relapse," III. 4.]

[Footnote 337: Ibid. IV. 1.]

[Footnote 338: Ibid. IV. 4. The character of the nurse is excellent. Tom Fashion thanks her for the training she has given Hoyden: "Alas, all I can boast of is, I gave her pure good milk, and so your honour would have said, an you had seen how the poor thing sucked it.--Eh! God's blessing on the sweet face on't! how it used to hang at this poor teat, and suck and squeeze, and kick and sprawl it would, till the belly on't was so full, it would drop off like a leech." This is good, even after Juliet's nurse in Shakespeare.]

[Footnote 339: Vanbrugh's "Relapse," IV. 6.]

[Footnote 340: Ibid. V. 5.]

[Footnote 341: Ibid. IV. 1.]

[Footnote 342: Vanbrugh's "Relapse," V. 5.]

[Footnote 343: See also the character of a young stupid blockhead, Squire Humphrey. (Vanbrugh's "Journey to London.") He has only a single idea, to be always eating.]

[Footnote 344: Wycherley's Hippolita; Farquhar's Silvia.]

[Footnote 345: Farquhar's "Beaux Stratagem," IV. 1]

[Footnote 346: Vanbrugh's "Provoked Wife," III. 3]

[Footnote 347: Ibid. V. 2.]

[Footnote 348: Congreve's "Love for Love," II. 10.]

[Footnote 349: Ibid. 11.]

[Footnote 350: Miss Prue: "Well, and there's a handsome gentleman, and a fine gentleman, and a sweet gentleman, that was here, that loves me, and I love him; and if he sees you speak to me any more, he'll thrash your jacket for you, he will; you great sea-calf."

Ben: "What! do you mean that fair-weather spark that was here just now? Will he thrash my jacket? Let'n, let'n, let'n--but an he comes near me, mayhap I may give him a salt-eel for's supper, for all that. What does father mean, to leave me alone, as soon as I come home with such a dirty dowdy? Sea-calf! I an't calf enough to lick your chalked face, you cheese-curd you."--Ibid. III. 7.]

[Footnote 351: Congreve's "Love for Love," V. 6.]

[Footnote 352: Congreve, "The Way of the World," III. 5.]

[Footnote 353: Ibid. IV.]

[Footnote 354: Congreve, "The Double-dealer," II. 5.]

[Footnote 355: Congreve, "The Way of the World."]

[Footnote 356: Ibid. II. 6.]

[Footnote 357: Ibid. III. 11.]

[Footnote 358: Congreve, "The Way of the World," IV. 5.]

[Footnote 359: Ibid. IV. 6.]

[Footnote 360: Amanda: "How did you live together?" Berinthia: "Like man and wife, asunder.--He loved the country, I the town. He hawks and hounds, I coaches and equipage. He eating and drinking, I carding and playing. He the sound of a horn, I the squeak of a fiddle. We were dull company at table, worse a-bed. Whenever we met, we gave one another the spleen; and never agreed but once, which was about lying alone."--Vanbrugh, "Relapse," Act II. ad fin.

Compare Vanbrugh, "A Journey to London." Rarely has the repulsiveness and corruption of the brutish or worldly nature been more vividly displayed. Little Betty and her brother. Squire Humphrey, deserve hanging.

Again. Mrs. Foresight: "Do you think any woman honest?" Scandal: "Yes, several very honest; they'll cheat a little at cards, sometimes; but that's nothing." Mrs. F.: "Pshaw! but virtuous, I mean." S.: "Yes, faith; I believe some women are virtuous too; but 'tis as I believe some men are valiant, through fear. For why should a man court danger or a woman shun pleasure?"--Congreve, "Love for Love," III. 14.]

[Footnote 361: Vanbrugh, "Provoked Wife," V. 2. Compare also in this piece the character of Mademoiselle, the French chambermaid. They represent French vice as even more shameless than English vice.]

[Footnote 362: Farquhar's "The Beaux Stratagem," I. 1; and in the same piece here is the catechism of love: "What are the objects of that passion?--youth, beauty, and clean linen." And from the "Mock Astrologer" of Dryden: "As I am a gentleman, a man about town, one that wears good clothes, eats, drinks, and wenches sufficiently."]

[Footnote 363: Congreve, "The Way of the World," II. 4.]

[Footnote 364: The part of Chaplain Foigard in Farquhar's "Beaux Stratagem": of Mademoiselle, and generally of all the French people.]

[Footnote 365: The part of Amanda in Vanbrugh's "Relapse"; of Mrs. Sullen; the conversion of two roisterers, in the "Beaux Stratagem."]

[Footnote 366: "Though marriage be a lottery in which there are a wondrous many blanks, yet there is one inestimable lot, in which the only heaven upon earth is written."

"To be capable of loving one, doubtless, is better than to possess a thousand."--Vanbrugh.]

[Footnote 367: "She Stoops to Conquer."]

[Footnote 368: "The Works of Lord Byron", 18 vols. ed. Moore, 1833, II. p. 303.]

[Footnote 369: Acres: "Odds blades! David, no gentleman will ever risk the loss of his honour!"

David: "I say, then, it would be but civil in honour never to risk the loss of a gentleman.--Look ye, master, this honour seems to me to be a marvellous false friend; ay, truly, a very courtier-like servant."--The Dramatic Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1828; "The Rivals," IV. 1.]

[Footnote 370: Sir Anthony: "Nay, but Jack, such eyes! so innocently wild! so bashfully irresolute! Not a glance but speaks and kindles some thought of love! Then, Jack, her cheeks! so deeply blushing at the insinuations of her tell-tale eyes! Then, Jack, her lips! O Jack, lips, smiling at their own discretion! and if not smiling, more sweetly pouting, more lovely in sullenness!"--Ibid. III. 1.]

[Footnote 371: "The School for Scandal," II. 2.]

[Footnote 372: "The School for Scandal," I. 1.]

[Footnote 373: Ibid. II. 2.]

[Footnote 374: "The School for Scandal," I. 1.]

[Footnote 375: Ibid.]

CHAPTER SECOND

Dryden

Comedy has led us a long way; we must return on our steps and consider other kinds of writing. A higher spirit moves in the midst of the great current. In the history of this talent we shall find the history of the English classical spirit, its structure, its gaps, and its powers, its formation and its development.