Chapter VIII: The Diction of Poetry (2)

[110] In the “Essay Supplementary to the Preface,” Hutchinson, _op. cit._, p. 949.

[111] That Young’s readers and even his editors were occasionally puzzled is seen by the history of the term “concertion.” This was the spelling of the first and most of the subsequent editions, including that of 1787, where the Glossary explains it as meaning “contrivance.” But some editions (e.g. 1751) have “consertion,” and some, according to Richardson (“New Dictionary,” 1836), have “conception.”

[112] Armstrong’s “gelid cistern” for “cold bath” has perhaps gained the honour of an unidentified quotation.

[113] _Vacant_ in the oft-quoted line from “The Deserted Village” (“The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind”), where the word is used in its Latin sense of “free from care.”

[114] As in the case of Milton, Cowper’s latinized words appear to have been floating about for a considerable period, though in most cases their first poetic use is apparently due to him.

[115] Cp. also III, 229, 414; IV, 494.

[116] Apparently after he had done some pruning amongst them (_vide_ “Letter” to Joseph Hill, March 29, 1793, Wright, _op. cit._, Vol. IV, p. 390), and compare his footnote to the “Iliad,” VII, 359, where he apologizes for his coinage _purpureal_.

[117] For an account of the parallelism between certain of the eighteenth century stock epithets and various words and phrases from the Latin poets, especially Virgil (e.g. “hollow” and “_cavus_”: “liquid fountain” and _liquidi fontes_), see Myra Reynolds, “Nature in English Poetry from Pope to Wordsworth” (Chicago, 1909), pp. 46-49.

[118] Cf. Some apt remarks by Raleigh, “Milton,” _op. cit._, pp. 247 and 255.

[119] Cp. Saintsbury, “History of Literary Criticism” (1900-1904), Vol. II, p. 479, note 1.

[120] Cp. Elton, “Survey of English Literature,” 1830-1880 (1920), Vol. II, p. 17, remarks on Rossetti’s diction.

[121] Cp. also Morel, _op. cit._, pp. 423-424.

[122] _Vide_ Lounsbury, “Studies in Chaucer” (1892), Vol. III.

[123] “Scrannel” is either Milton’s coinage or a borrowing from some dialect (N.E.D.).

[124] This of course is used by many later writers, and was perhaps not regarded in Dryden’s time as an archaism.

[125] “New English Dictionary.”

[126] “Works,” ed. Courthope and Elwin, Vol. X, p. 120.

[127] The prevailing ignorance of earlier English is illustrated in that stanza by Pope’s explanation of the expression “mister wight,” which he had taken from Spenser, as “uncouth mortal.”

[128] “The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, in 6 Vols. with a glossary explaining the old and obscure words. Published by Mr. Hughes, London.”

[129] _Ibid._, Vol. I, pp. 115-140.

[130] As in Prior’s “Susanna and the Two Elders” and “Erle Robert’s Mice” (1712).

[131] “Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser,” 1754.

[132] “An Answer to the Sompner’s Prologue in Chaucer,” printed anon, in “Lintott’s Miscellany,” entitled “Poems on Several Occasions” (1717), p. 147.

[133] “A Tale Devised in the Plesaunt manere of Gentil Maister Jeoffrey Chaucer” (“Poets of Great Britain,” 1794, Vol. VII, p. 674).

[134] “Poems on Several Occasions,” by the Rev. Thomas Warton, 1748, p. 30.

[135] “Poems on Several Occasions,” London, 1711, pp. 203-223.

[136] _Vide_ List given by Phelps, “The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement” (1899), Appendix I, p. 175; and cf. an exhaustive list, including complete glossaries, given in “Das Altertümliche im Wortschatz der Spenser-Nachahmungen des 18 Jahrhunderts,” by Karl Reining (Strassburg, 1912).

[137] E.g. Robert Lloyd, 1733-1764, in his “Progress of Envy” (Anderson, Vol. V), defines _wimpled_ as “hung down”; “The Squire of Dames,” by Moses Mendez (1700-1738) has many old words (“benty,” etc.), which are often open to the suspicion of being manufactured archaisms.

[138] _Vide_ his letter to Graves, June, 1742.—“Works,” Vol. III, p. 63 (1769).

[139] “Poems on Several Occasions,” by William Thompson, M.A., etc., Oxford, 1757, pp. 1-13.

[140] _Ibid._, pp. 58-68.

[141] “The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper,” by Dr. Samuel Johnson, 21 Vols. (London, 1810), Vol. XV, p. 32.

[142] Thompson has taken this wrong meaning direct with the word itself from Spenser, “Shepherds Kalendar,” April, l. 26, where _glen_ is glossed by E.K. as “a country hamlet or borough.”

[143] Cp. Joseph Warton’s “Essay on Pope,” Vol. I, p. 366 (4th edition, 1782). Wordsworth, too, as we know, called it a “fine poem” and praised it for its harmonious verse and pure diction, but we may imagine that he was praising it for its own sake without regard to its merits as a Spenserian imitation (_vide_ Hutchinson, _op. cit._, p. 949).

[144] There are at least forty stanzas in the First Canto, without a single archaic form, and an equal proportion in Canto Two: Cf. Morel, _op. cit._, pp. 629-630.

[145] “The letter _y_,” he naïvely says in his “Glossary,” “is frequently placed at the beginning of a word by Spenser, to lengthen it a syllable, and _en_ at the end of a word, for the same reason.”

[146] Thompson seems to have been the first to use the word _bicker_ as applied to running water, an application which was later to receive the sanction of Scott and Tennyson (N.E.D.).

[147] Among the last examples was Beattie’s “Minstrel” (1771-74), which occasioned some of Gray’s dicta on the use of archaic and obsolete words.

[148] Spenserian “forgeries” had also made their appearance as early as in 1713, when Samuel Croxall had attempted to pass off two Cantos as the original work of “England’s Arch-Poet, Spenser” (2nd edition, London, 1714). In 1747, John Upton made a similar attempt, though probably in neither case were the discoveries intended to be taken seriously.

[149] See Phelps, _op. cit._, Chap. VIII, and Grace R. Trenery, “Ballad Collections of the Eighteenth Century,” “Modern Language Review,” July, 1915, pp. 283 foll.

[150] _Vide_ “Preface to A Collection of Old Ballads,” 3 vols. (1723-52), and cf. Benjamin Wakefield’s “Warbling Muses” (1749), Preface.

[151] Yet thirty years later the collections of Joseph Ritson, the last and best of the eighteenth century editors, failed to win acceptance. His strictly accurate versions of the old songs and ballads were contemptuously dismissed by the “Gentleman’s Magazine” (August, 1790) as “the compilation of a peevish antiquary.”

[152] “Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript,” edited Furnivall and Hales, 4 vols. (1867-68).

[153] _Vide_ Henry A. Beers, “A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century,” 1899, Chap. VIII, pp. 298-302.

[154] Hutchinson, _op. cit._, p. 950.

[155] “Chatterton—Poetical Works,” with an Essay on the Rowley Poems, by W. W. Skeat, and a memoir by Bell (2 vols., 1871-1875); and _vide_ Tyrwhitt, “Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol by Thomas Rowley and others in the fifteenth century” (London, 1777).

[156] _Vide_ Oswald Doughty, “English Lyric in the Age of Reason” (1922), p. 251.

[157] _Vide_ John Sampson, “The Poetical Works of William Blake” (Oxford, 1905), Preface, viii.

[158] Until the middle of the eighteenth century the form _glen_ occurs in English writers only as an echo of Spenser (N.E.D.).

[159] _Vide_ “The Dialect of Robert Burns,” by Sir James Wilson (Oxford Press, 1923), and for happy instances of beautiful words still lingering on in the Scots dialects, _vide_ especially “The Roxburghshire Word-Book,” by George Watson (Cambridge, 1923).

[160] Sweet, “New English Grammar” (1892), Part II, pp. 208-212, and Skeat, “Principles of English Etymology” (1887), Part I, pp. 418-420.

[161] The first literary appearance of each compound has been checked as far as possible by reference to the “New English Dictionary.” It is hardly necessary to say that the fact of a compound being assigned, as regards its first appearance, to any individual writer, is not in itself evidence that he himself invented the new formation, or even introduced it into literature. But in many cases, either from the nature of the compound itself, or from some other internal or external evidence, the assumption may be made.

[162] Cp. Sweet, _op. cit._, p. 449.

[163] In the “Beowulf” there are twenty-three compounds meaning “Ocean,” twelve meaning “Ship,” and eighteen meaning “Sword” (_vide_ Emerson, “Outline History of the English Language,” 1906, p. 121).

[164] Cp. Champney’s “History of English” (1893), p. 192 and Note; and Lounsbury, “History of the English Language” (1909), p. 109.

[165] Cp. Sidney’s remarks in the “Defence of Poesie—Elizabethan Critical Essays,” ed. Smith, Vol. I, p. 204.

[166] E.g. Spenser’s “_sea-shouldering_ whales” (an epithet that especially pleased Keats), Nashe’s “_sky-bred_ chirpers,” Marlowe’s “_gold-fingered_ Ind,” Shakespeare’s “_fancy-free_,” “_forest-born_,” “_cloud-capt_,” etc.

[167] Dryden, “English Men of Letters” (1906), p. 76.

[168] Pope’s “Homer,” ed. Buckley, Preface, p. xli.

[169] _Ibid._, p. 47; and cp. Coleridge, “Biographia Literaria,” ed. Shawcross (Oxford, 1907), Vol. I, p. 2, Footnote.

[170] Here it may be noted that many of Pope’s compounds in his “Homer” have no warrant in the original; they are in most cases supplied by Pope himself, to “pad out” his verses, or, more rarely, as paraphrases of Greek words or phrases.

[171] Shawcross, _op. cit._, p. 2, Footnote.

[172] “Lives” ed. Hill, _op. cit._, Vol. III, p. 298.

[173] _Vide_ Leon Morel, _op. cit._, Ch. IV, pp. 412 foll., for a detailed examination of Thomson’s compound formations.

[174] It would appear that this epithet had particularly caught the fancy of Collins. He uses it also in the “Ode on the Manners,” this time figuratively, when he writes of “_dim-discovered_ tracts of mind.”

[175] “Works,” _op. cit._, Vol. IV, p. 203. In point of fact, there is little or no evidence in favour of it. Even the Spenserian imitations that flourished exceedingly at this time have little interest in this respect. Shenstone has very few instances of compounds, but the poems of William Thompson furnish a few examples: “_honey-trickling_ streams” (“Sickness,” Bk. I), “_Lily-mantled_ meads” (_ibid._), etc. Gilbert West’s Spenserian poems have no instances of any special merit; but a verse of his Pindar shows that he was not without a gift for happy composition: “The _billow-beaten_ side of the _foam-besilvered_ main.”

[176] “Letters,” Vol. III, p. 97.

[177] Hill, _op. cit._, Vol. III, p. 437.

[178] _Ibid._, p. 434.

[179] _Vide_ Edmund Gosse, “Two Pioneers of Romanticism” (Warton Lecture), 1915.

[180] It is a coincidence to find that the N.E.D. assigns the first use of the compound _furze-clad_ to Wordsworth.

[181] Bell’s “Fugitive Poets” (London, 1789), Vol. VI.

[182] Anderson’s “British Poets,” Vol. XI.

[183] Bell, _op. cit._

[184] Anderson, _op. cit._

[185] “British Poets,” Vol. X.

[186] _Ibid._, Vol. XI, Pt. I.

[187] _Ibid._, Pt. II.

[188] “British Poets,” Vol. XI, Pt. II.

[189] _Vide_ Legouis, _op. cit._ (English translation, 1897), pp. 133 foll.

[190] Shawcross, _op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 2, Note.

[191] See, e.g., de Selincourt’s remarks on Keats’ compound epithets; “Poems” (1904), Appendix C, p. 581.

[192] “Biog. Lit.,” _op. cit._, and cp. “Poetical Works,” ed. Dykes Campbell, Appendix K, p. 540.

[193] “History of English Prosody” (1908), Vol. II, p. 449.

[194] “History of English Prosody,” _op. cit._, Vol. II, p. 480; and cp. _ibid._, p. 496.

[195] Prefaces, “Poetical Works,” ed. Hutchinson (Oxford, 1916), p. 936.

[196] _Vide_ Courthope, “History of English Poetry” (1910), Vol. I, Chap. IX, for an account of mediaeval allegory and personification.

[197] E.g. “Palamon,” II, 480, 564, 565; Æneas XII, 505-506.

[198] “Black Melancholy” (ll. 163-168) and “Hope” (l. 278), the former of which especially pleased Joseph Warton (“Essay on Pope”: Works, Vol. I, p. 314).

[199] Elton, “The Augustan Ages” (1895), p. 209.

[200] Cf. “Suicide” (Canto II, 194-250).

[201] Cf. also Bk. I, ll. 10, 11; 548, etc.

[202] Especially in Book III of “The Duellist,” where the reader is baffled and wearied by the unending array of bloodless abstractions.

[203] It may be noted incidentally that, according to the “New English Dictionary,” the term _personification_ owes its first literary appearance to the famous “Dictionary” of 1755, where it is thus defined, and (appropriately enough) illustrated: “_Prosopopeia_, the change of things to persons, as ‘Confusion heard his voice.’”

[204] Phelps, _op. cit._, pp. 37-38.

[205] “Letter” to Mallet, August 11, 1726: “I thank you heartily for your hint about personizing of Inspiration: it strikes me.”

[206] Cf. also “Winter,” 794 and “Autumn,” 143.

[207] For some happy instances of its use in English poetry, as well as for a detailed account of Thomson’s use of personification, see especially Morel, _op. cit._, pp. 444-455.

[208] Poets of Great Britain (1793), Vol. IX, p. 414.

[209] “British Poets,” Vol. XXII (1822), p. 117.

[210] “A Collection of Poems by several hands,” 3 vols., 1748; 2nd edition, with Vol. IV, 1749; Vol. V and VI, 1758; Pearch’s continuations, Vol. VII and VIII, 1768, and Vol. IX and X, 1770.

[211] “Dodsley” (1770 ed.), Vol. IV, p. 50.

[212] _Ibid._, VI, 148.

[213] “Dodsley-Pearch,” X, p. 5.

[214] _Vide_ also Bell’s “Fugitive Poetry” (1791). Vol. XI, where there is a section devoted to “Poems in the manner of Milton.”

[215] “Dodsley-Pearch,” X, p. 269.

[216] At the same time there appeared a similar volume of the Odes of William Collins, “Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects,” the original intention having been to publish in one volume. Collins’s collection had a lukewarm reception, so that the author soon burned the unsold copies. But see Articles in “The Times Literary Supplement,” January 5th (p. 5) and January 12, 1922 (p. 28), by Mr. H. O. White, on “William Collins and his Contemporary Critics,” from which it would appear that the Odes were not received with such indifference as is commonly believed.

[217] Cf. “Pope’s Works,” ed. Courthope and Elwin, Vol. V, p. 365.

[218] _Vide_ also “The Triumph of Isis” (1749), and “The Monody written near Stratford-on-Avon.” (“Poets of Great Britain,” 1794, Vol. XI, pp. 1061-4.)

[219] Cf. Gosse, “A History of Eighteenth Century Literature” (1889), p. 233.

[220] Cf. Courthope, “Hist. Engl. Poetry,” Vol. V, pp. 397-8.

[221] “Lives,” ed. G. Birkbeck Hill, Vol. III, p. 341.

[222] “On Lyric Poetry—Poetical Works,” ed. Mitford (Aldine, ed. 1896), Vol. II, p. 147.

[223] In the Aldine edition, ed. Thomas (1901) these personified abstractions are not invested with a capital letter.

[224] “Biographia Literaria” (ed. Shawcross, 1907), p. 12; cf. also “Table Talk” (October 23, 1833), ed. H. N. Coleridge (1858), p. 340. “Gray’s personifications,” he said, “were mere printer’s devil’s personifications,” etc.

[225] Two of Gray’s mechanical figures were marked down for special censure by Dr. Johnson (“Lives,” Gray, ed. Birbeck Hill, Vol. III, p. 440), whose criticism was endorsed by Walpole (“Letters,” Vol. III, p. 98), who likened “Fell Thirst and Famine” to the devils in “The Tempest” who whisk away the banquets from the shipwrecked Dukes.

[226] “Letters” (December 19, 1786), Tovey, _op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 322.

[227] In this connexion mention may be made of “William Blake’s Designs for Gray’s Poems,” recently published for the first time with a valuable introduction by H. J. C. Grierson (Oxford, 1922). “Blake’s imagination,” says Professor Grierson, “communicates an intenser life to Gray’s half-conventional personifications” (Intro., p. 17).

[228] Canto I: LXXIV-LXXV.

[229] Cp. also the detailed personification of “Thrift,” given by Mickle in his “Syr Martyn” (1787).—“Poets of Great Britain” (1794), Vol. XI, p. 645.

[230] Cf. “Paradise Lost,” VI, 3; and Pope’s “Iliad,” V, 297.

[231] “Works” ed. Ellis and Yeats, Vol. I, Pref., x.

[232] July 6, 1803, “Letters,” ed. A. G. B. Russell (1906), p. 121.

[233] In the parallel verses of “The Songs of Experience” the human attributes are attributed respectively to _Cruelty_, _Jealousy_, _Terror_, and _Secrecy_.

[234] “Poetical Works,” ed. John Sampson (Oxford), 1914, p. 187.

[235] _Vide_, e.g., ll. 18-26.

[236] See also, e.g., “Midnight,” l. 272 foll, and l. 410 foll.

[237] A similar type of abstraction is found here and there in the stanzas of the “Song to David” (1763), e.g.:

’Twas then his thoughts self-conquest pruned
And heavenly melancholy tuned
To bless and bear the rest.

But on the whole Smart’s famous poem is singularly free from the bane, though the “Hymn to the Supreme Being” (_vide_ “A Song to David,” edited Tutin (1904), Appendix, p. 32), has not escaped the contagion. But better instances are to be found in the Odes (“Works,” 1761-1762), e.g., “Strong Labour ... with his pipe in his mouth,” “Health from his Cottage of thatch,” etc. _Vide_ also article on “Christopher Smart,” “Times Literary Supplement,” April 6, 1922, p. 224.

[238] Cf. “Poems of William Cowper,” ed. J. C. Bailey (1905), Intro., p. xl.

[239] There are faint personifications of the other seasons in Book III, ll. 427 foll., but none perhaps as effective as William Mickle had already given in his ode, “Vicissitude,” where he depicts Winter staying:

his creeping steps to pause
And wishful turns his icy eyes
On April meads.

[240] _Streaky_, for instance, is due to Thomson who, in the first draft of “Summer” (ll. 47-48) had written:

Mildly elucent in the streaky east,

later changed to

At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east.

[241] “Letters,” edited E. Coleridge, 1895, p. 215.

[242] “Biographia Literaria,” Chap. I.

[243] The ridicule was crystallized in Canning’s famous parody, “The Loves of the Triangles,” which appeared in “The Anti-Jacobin,” Nos. 23, 24 and 26, April to May, 1798. (_Vide_ “The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin,” edited C. Edmonds, 1854, 3rd edition, 1890.)

[244] “The Botanic Garden” (4th edition, 1799), Interlude I, Vol. II, p. 64. Cp. also _ibid._, Interlude III, p. 182 foll.

[245] For details see Legouis, _op. cit._

[246] Both the original and the final versions of the “Evening Walk” and the “Descriptive Sketches” are given by Hutchinson, _op. cit._, Appendix, pp. 592, 601.

[247] But the artistic possibilities of Personification were not unrecognized by writers and critics in the eighteenth century. _Vide_ Blair’s lecture on “Personification” (“Lectures on Rhetoric”) 9th edition, 1803; Lec. XVI, p. 375.

[248] “The Stones of Venice” (1851), Vol. II, Chap. VIII, pp. 312 foll.—The Ducal Palace, “Personification is, in some sort, the reverse of symbolism, and is far less noble. Symbolism is the setting forth of a great truth by an imperfect and inferior sign ... and it is almost always employed by men in their most serious moods of faith, rarely in recreation.... But Personification is the bestowing of a human or living form upon an abstract idea; it is in most cases, a mere recreation of the fancy, and is apt to disturb the belief in the reality of the thing personified.”

[249] For an illuminating analysis, see Elton, “A Survey of English Literature,” 1780-1830 (1912), pp. 1-29.

[250] “Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise,” Vol. IV, pp. 175-178.

[251] Cf. Coleridge’s remarks in “Biographia Literaria,” ed. Shawcross, Chap. I (Oxford, 1907).

[252] Elton, “The Augustan Ages” (1895), p. 211.

[253] “Sleep and Poetry,” ll. 188-201.

[254] Hutchinson, _op. cit._, p. 948.

[255] “Poets of Great Britain” (1794), Vol. X, p. 709.

[256] Cf. “Works” (1889), ed. Courthope and Elwin, Vol. V., p. 360-364.

[257] George Saintsbury, “Eighteenth Century Poetry” (“The London Mercury,” December, 1919, pp. 155-163); an article in which a great authority once again tilts an effective lance on behalf of the despised Augustans.

[258] The best of them have been garnered by Mr. Iola A. Williams into a little volume, “By-ways Round Helicon” (London, 1922), where the interested reader may browse with much pleasure and profit, and where he will no doubt find not a little to surprise and delight him. For a still more complete anthology, _vide_ “The Shorter Poems of the Eighteenth Century” (1923) by the same editor. But for the devil’s advocacy see Doughty, “English Lyric in the Age of Reason” (London, 1922)

[259] The fountain head of all such studies is, of course, the “Biographia Literaria,” for which see especially Shawcross’s edition, 1907, Vol. II, pp. 287-297. Of recent general treatises, Lascelles Abercrombie, “Poetry and Contemporary Speech” (1914); Vernon Lee, “The Handling of Words” (1923); Ogden and Richards, “The Meaning of Meaning”(1923), may be mentioned.

[260] Elton, “Survey of English Literature” (1780-1830), Vol. II, pp. 88 foll.

[261] Cf. Elton, “The Augustan Ages” (1899), p. 209.

[262] “The Legacy of Greece” (Oxford, 1921), p. 11.

[263] “Convention and Revolt in Poetry” (London, 1921), p. 13.

[264] Just as this book was about to go to press, there appeared “The Theory of Poetry,” by Professor Lascelles Abercrombie, in which a poet and critic of great distinction has embodied his thoughts on his own art. Chaps. III and IV especially should be consulted for a most valuable account and analysis of how the poetical “magic” of words is achieved.

[265] “Essays in Criticism,” Second Series (1888): “Wordsworth” (1913 ed.), p. 157.

[266] O. Barfield, “Form in Poetry” (“New Statesman” August 7, 1920, pp. 501-2).

[267] “Œuvres” (ed. Assézat), I, p. 377 (quoted by Babbitt), _op. cit._, p. 121.

[268] Preface to “The Tales” (Poems), ed. A. W. Ward, (Cambridge, 1906), Vol. II, p. 10.

INDEX

Abercrombie, Lascelles, 197 n., 201 n.

Addison, Joseph, 21

“Ælla” (T. Chatterton’s), 163

Akenside, Mark, 16, 27, 69-70, 138-9, 189, 195
Dr. Johnson’s criticism, 16
“Epistle to Curio,” 195
Latinism, 69-70
Personification, 138-9
“Pleasures of the Imagination,” 69

“Alma” (M. Prior’s), 75

“Amyntor and Theodora,” 142

“Anti-Jacobin, The,” 173 n.

“Approach of Summer, The,” 179

“Archaism,” 17-21, 80-101

Aristotle, 10-12, 185

Armstrong, John, 69-70, 110

Arnold, Matthew, 2, 41, 181, 198, 201

“Art of Preserving Health,” 69, 110

Babbitt, I., 13 n., 203 n.

Bailey, J. C., 169 n.

Ballads, 95-7, 196

Barfield, Owen, 202 n.

“Bastard, The,” 111

Beattie, James, 19, 93 n., 125

Beers, H. A., 97 n.

“Beowulf, The,” 104 n.

Binyon, Laurence, 13 n.

“Biographia Literaria,” 13 n., 24 n., 48 n., 51 n., 127 n., 156 n.,
173 n., 185 n.

“Birth of Flattery, The” (G. Crabbe’s), 168

Blair, Robert, 110, 176 n.

Blake, William, 28, 46-7, 77, 99, 124, 129, 136-59, 163-7, 179-80,
181, 187 n., 198, 202
Allegory and Vision, remarks on, 165
Artist, as, 136, 159 n.
Compounds, 124, 129
Felicity of diction, 46-7, 202
“Imitation of Spenser,” 47, 165
“Letters,” 47 n., 164 n., 187 n.
“Muses, To the,” 47
Mysticism, 164
Personifications, 163-7, 179-80
“Piper, The,” 202
“Songs of Experience,” 46, 165 n., 166
“Songs of Innocence,” 46, 165
Stock diction, 46-7

Blount, T., 93

Boswell’s “Life of Johnson,” 16 n.

“Botanic Garden” (E. Darwin’s), 12, 51-2, 126, 173-5

Bowles, William Lisle, 48

Boyce, S., 162

Bruce, Michael, 122

Burns, Robert, 28, 100, 198

Bysshe, Edward, 30

“By-ways Round Helicon”, 195 n.

Campbell, Dykes, 128 n.

Canning, George, 139, 173 n.

Capell, Edward, 95-6

“Castaway, The,” 49, 170

“Castle of Indolence,” 90-2, 161

Chapman, George, 105

“Charge to the Poets” (W. Whitehead’s), 20 n.

“Chase, The” (W. Somerville’s), 68, 110, 142

Chatterton, Thomas, 19, 42-3, 97-8, 123-4, 162-3
Compounds, 123-4
Personifications, 162-3
“Rowley Poems,” 97-8
Stock diction, 42-3

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 26, 84-6, 133

Chaucerian imitations, 84-6

Chesterfield, Lord, 20

“Child of Quality, Lines to” (M. Prior’s), 195

“Choice, The” (J. Pomfret’s), 195

Churchill, John, 139-40, 169-70

Classical literature (connexion with romantic), 181-2

Coleridge, H. N., 156 n.

Coleridge, S. T., 1, 13, 24, 31, 32, 51, 100, 127-8, 156, 173, 182,
193, 204
Archaisms, 100
Compounds, 127-8
Darwin, E., remarks, on, 13, 173
Gray’s personifications, on, 156
Imagination, on, 13
“Letters,” 173 n.
Pope’s style, on, 24, 32, 193

Collins, William, 16, 40-1, 71, 98, 116-7, 129, 149, 150-5, 166, 167,
191, 196
Archaisms, 98
Compounds, 116-7, 129
Dr. Johnson’s criticisms of, 16, 40, 151
“Odes,” 149 n., 150-5
Personifications, 150-5, 166, 167, 178, 179, 191
Romantic forerunner, a, 196
Stock diction, 40-1

Compound epithets, 4, 102-31, 204

“Convention and Revolt in Poetry,” 200 n.

Courthope, W. J., 9 n., 17 n., 45 n., 50 n., 57 n., 133 n., 149 n.,
194 n.

Coventry, F., 147

Cowper, William, 20, 24, 31, 48-50, 73-4, 76, 126, 168-73
Archaism, on, 20
Compounds, 126
Familiar style, on the, 24
“Homer” translation, 48, 74, 126
Latinism, 73-5
“Letters,” 20 n., 48 n., 74 n.
“Olney Hymns,” 49, 169
Personifications, 169-73, 179
Stock diction, 48-9
“Table Talk,” 49
“Task, The,” 49, 73-4, 170-1

Crabbe, George, 50-1, 124-5, 167-8, 179, 195, 204
Compounds, 124-5
Dryden’s style, on, 204
Personifications, 167-8, 179
Stock diction, 50-1

Croxall, Samuel, 93 n.

Cunningham, John, 27, 189

Darwin, Erasmus, 12, 37, 51-2, 53, 120, 173-5

Davenant, Sir William, 21

Denham, Sir John, 15

Dennis, John, 11 n.

De Quincey, Thomas, 52

“Descriptive Sketches,” 52, 175, 176 n.

“Deserted Village, The,” 45-6, 111-2, 195

Diderot, Denis, 203

Dodsley, Robert, 147, 195

Doughty, Oswald, 98 n., 195 n.

Drayton, Michael, 107

Drinkwater, John, 9 n.

Dryden, John, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 18, 21, 22, 26-7, 28, 30, 31,
32, 33, 36, 58-9, 81-2, 83, 105-6, 109, 134, 181, 194, 204
“Annus Mirabilis,” 8
Archaisms, 18, 81-2
Chaucer “translations,” 26-7
Compounds, 105-6
“Essays” and “Prefaces,” 7-11
“Hind and Panther,” 195
Language of poetry, on, 8-9
Latinism, 58-9
Periphrasis, use of, 28, 33
Personifications, 134
“Religio Laici,” 194
Royal Society, 7
Satire, 106, 140
Technical terms, on, 21

“Duellist, The” (Charles Churchill’s), 140 n.

Dyer, John, 39, 70, 109, 142, 188-9

Earle, J., 35 n.

“Economy of Vegetation,” 12, 126, 173-4

Edmonds, C., 173 n.

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” 42, 72, 157, 159, 195, 198

“Eloisa to Abelard,” 134

Elton, Oliver, 10 n., 135 n., 182 n., 186 n., 197 n.

Emerson, O., 104 n.

“English Lyric in the Age of Reason,” 195

“Enthusiast, The,” 71, 121, 149

“Epistle to Curio” (M. Akenside’s), 195 n.

Epithalamium (W. Thompson’s), 160

“Essay on Criticism,” 9-10, 29 n., 195

“Eton College, Ode on a Distant View of,” 156

Evelyn, John, 7

“Evening, Ode to,” 41, 116, 155

“Evening Walk, The,” 52, 127, 175-6

“Excursion, The” (David Mallet’s), 142

“Faerie Queene,” 87, 94, 99, 133, 159-60, 192

Falconer, William, 22, 43-4

“Fleece, The,” (J. Dyer’s), 39, 70

Fletcher, Giles, 57

Fletcher, Phineas, 57

“Fugitive Poets” (Bell’s), 122, 147 n., 195

Furetière, Antoine, 5

Gay, John, 33, 109

Gibbon, Edward, 198

Glanvill, Joseph, 7

Goldsmith, Oliver, 14-15, 20, 44-6, 72, 111-2, 140-1, 195
Archaism, on, 20
Compounds, in, 117-8
Diction of poetry, on, 15
Latinism, 72-3
Personifications, 141-2, 179
Stock diction, 44-6

Graeme, James, 122

Grainger, James, 70, 110, 142

“Grave,” the (Robert Blair’s), 110

Gray, Thomas, 8, 16-17, 18-19, 21-2, 31, 41-2, 67, 71-2, 93 n., 98-9,
117-20, 146, 155-9, 177, 196
Archaisms, on, 18-19, 98-9
Coinages, on, 21
Compounds, 117-20
Diction of poetry, on, 8, 16-17
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” 42, 72, 157, 159, 195, 198
Latinism, 71-2
Letters, 8 n., 16 n.
Personifications, 155-9, 177, 191
Plain colloquial style, 17, 195
Romantic forerunner, A, 150, 196
Stock diction, 41-2
Technical terms, on, 22

Grierson, H. J. C., 159 n.

“Grongar Hill,” 39, 109, 184, 188, 190

Hamilton, William (of Bangor), 146

Hill, G. B., 8 n., 15 n., 16 n., 23 n., 112 n., 151 n.

“Hind and Panther, The,” 195

“Horror, Ode to,” 148

Hughes, John, 83

Hume, David, 198

Hutchinson, T., 52 n., 68 n., 97 n., 132 n., 176 n.

“Hymn to May” (W. Thompson’s), 160

“Il Bellicoso,” 147

“Il Pacifico,” 147

“Il Penseroso,” 71, 176

“Inebriety,” 167

Jago, R., 122

Johnson, Dr., 15-16, 17, 19-20, 23, 31, 40-2, 44, 72-3, 111, 119,
140-1, 151, 159, 177, 179
Archaism, 19-20
Collins, on, 150, 151
Compounds, 111, 119-20
Diction, on, 15-16
“Dictionary,” 140 n.
Dryden, on, 8
Gray’s personifications, on, 156 n.
Latinism, 73
Personifications, 140-1, 177, 179
Pope’s style, on, 23, 31, 193
Satire, 139
Stock diction, 45

Jonson, Ben, 17-18

Keats, John, 126, 128, 129, 144, 187, 188, 192, 196, 203, 204

Ker, W. P., 7 n., 8 n., 9 n., 11 n., 18 n., 21 n.

Kersey, John, 97

“L’Allegro,” 162, 176

Langhorne, J., 122

Langland, William, 133

Latinism, 56-79, 191-2

Lee, Vernon, 197 n.

“Legacy of Greece, The,” 199

Legouis, E., 53 n., 127 n., 175 n.

Lessing’s “Laokoon,” 12 n.

Lloyd, Robert, 88 n.

“London” (Dr. Johnson’s), 111, 140-1

“Loves of the Plants” (E. Darwin’s), 12, 173

“Loves of the Triangles” (G. Canning’s), 173 n.

Lowes, Professor J. L., 200

“Lyrical Ballads,” 1, 2, 175

Lyttleton, G., 119

Maeterlinck, M., 200

Mallet, D., 110, 144 n., 142

Marlowe, Christopher, 105 n.

Marriott, Dr., 147

Mason, William, 86, 146-7

Masson, David, 58 n.

Mendez, Moses, 88, 122

Mickle, William, 93, 125, 162 n., 171 n.

Milton, John, 8, 33-6, 41, 57-8, 60, 61, 62, 66, 70, 71, 72, 76, 77,
81, 94, 107, 133, 136, 142, 146-7, 148, 149, 150, 176-7, 191-2
Archaism, 81, 94
Compound epithets, 105
Diction, 34-6, 57-8
Imitated in eighteenth century, 60-70, 76-7, 146-50, 191-2
Latinism, 57-8, 177
Personification, 133, 137, 142, 146-7, 176-7

“Monody written near Stratford-on-Avon,” 149 n.

Morel, Leon, 39 n., 63 n., 78 n., 91 n., 114 n., 145 n.

Murray, Gilbert, 199

Nashe, Thomas, 105 n.

Neo-classicism, 9-13, 53-4

“Night Thoughts” (E. Young’s), 28, 68-9, 136-8

“Nocturnal Reverie” (Countess of Winchilsea’s), 187

Old English Compounds, 104

“Ossian” poems, 19, 166

“Paradise Lost,” 34-6, 57-8, 76, 133, 136, 184

Parnell, Thomas, 135-6

“Passions, Ode to the,” 153

“Penshurst” (F. Coventry’s), 147

Percy, Bishop, 96-7

Personification and abstraction, 133-80, 190-1

Phelps, W. L., 142 n.

Philips, John, 37, 60-1, 86, 109, 142

“Pity, Ode to” (W. Collins’), 153

“Pleasures of the Imagination” (M. Akenside’s), 69, 138-9, 189

“Pleasures of Melancholy, The” (T. Warton’s), 71, 121

“Poetical Character, Ode on the” (W. Collins’s), 152

“Poetical Sketches” (W. Blake’s), 99, 167, 181

Pomfret, John, 195

Pope, Alexander, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21-2, 23-4,
25, 29, 31-4, 36-7, 40, 42, 45, 46, 48, 50, 54, 59-60, 67, 73,
81, 82-3, 85, 106-9, 111, 115, 130, 134, 135, 136, 139, 140,
183, 184, 185, 189, 193-4, 204
Archaism, 18, 82-3
Compounds, 21, 106-9
Diction, 33, 36-7
“Dunciad,” 18, 134
“Essay on Criticism,” 14, 29 n., 195
Heroic couplet, 29-30, 31-2
“Homer,” 2, 14, 17, 31-2, 40, 48, 184
Language of poetry, 9-10
Latinism, 59-60
Personifications, 134
Satire, 139, 140

Potter, R., 122

Prior, Matthew, 75, 87, 95, 195

“Progress of Error” (W. Cowper’s), 170

“Progress of Poetry” (Thomas Gray’s), 72

“Prolusions” (E. Capell’s), 95-6

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 35 n., 58 n., 66 n.

“Rape of the Lock,” 134

“Religio Laici,” 194

“Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,” 19, 96-7

Reynolds, Myra, 28 n., 61 n., 75 n.

Ritson, Joseph, 96 n.

Robertson, J. L., 6 n., 62

Rogers, Samuel, 125-6

Romanticism, connexion with classicism, 181-2

Rowley poems, 42-4, 97-8, 162-3

“Ruins of Rome” (J. Dyer’s), 109, 142

Ruskin, John, 180

Russell, A. J. B., 164 n.

Saintsbury, George, 29-30, 76 n., 106, 130, 131, 194 n.

Sampson, John, 47 n., 99 n., 165 n.

Savage, Richard, 75, 111, 136

Schmidt’s “Shakespeare Lexicon,” 35

“Schoolmistress, The,” 88-9, 161

Scott, John, 123

Scott, Sir Walter, 100, 192

“Seasons, The” (J. Thomson’s), 37-9, 62-8, 112-6, 142-6, 190, 196, 198

Selincourt, B. de, 35 n., 128 n.

Shakespeare, William, 35, 105 n., 129

Shawcross, T. (_see_ “Biographia Literaria”).

Shelley, P. B., 126, 178, 203, 204

Shenstone, W., 26, 29, 75, 88-9, 118 n., 161

“Shorter Poems of the Eighteenth Century,” 195 n.

Sidney, Sir Philip, 105 n.

Skeat, W. W., 43 n., 97, 98 n., 102 n.

Smart, Christopher, 169 n.

Smith, Gregory, 14 n., 18 n., 56 n.

Somerville, William, 110, 142

“Song to David,” 169 n.

Spence, Joseph, 12

Spenser, Edmund, 80-1, 105 n., 133, 159-60, 191, 192

Spenserian imitations, 18, 84, 86-94, 160-2, 178, 191, 192

Spingarn, J. E., 5 n., 6 n., 7 n.

Sprat, Thomas, 6, 7

Stock diction, The, 25-55, 183-7

“Stones of Venice, The” (J. Ruskin’s), 180 n.

“Storie of William Canynge,” 163

“Sugar Cane, The,” 70, 110, 142

Sweet, Henry, 102 n., 103 n.

Swift, Jonathan, 139

Symbolism, 13, 164, 179, 180

Symons, Arthur, 47 n.

“Syr Martin,” 93, 125, 162 n.

“Table Talk” (S. T. Coleridge’s), 156 n.

“Table Talk” (W. Cowper’s), 49, 170

Taine, H., 183

“Task, The” (W. Cowper’s), 49, 73-4, 170-1

Theory of diction, 5-24

Thomson, James, 37-9, 62-8, 76, 77, 78, 90-2, 94, 112-6, 131, 142-6,
161, 167, 179, 186, 188
“Castle of Indolence,” 90-2, 161
Compounds, 112-6, 131
Diction generally, 37, 67
Latinism, 62-8, 78, 192
Miltonic borrowings, 37, 66
Nature poet, a, 37, 78, 186
Personifications, 142-6, 161, 166, 178-9
Romantic forerunner, a, 196
“Seasons, The,” 37-9, 62-8, 112-6, 142-6, 190, 195, 196, 198
Stock diction, 37-8

Thompson, W., 61-2, 85, 89-90, 118 n.

“Tintern Abbey, Lines written above,” 131

“Traveller, The” (O. Goldsmith’s), 45, 72, 112, 141

Trenery, Grace R., 95 n.

“Triumph of Isis,” 149 n.

Tyrwhitt, Thomas, 86, 98 n.

Upton, John, 93 n.

“Vacation, The,” 147

“Vale Abbey, Lines written at” (T. Warton’s), 149

“Valetudinarian, The,” 147

“Vanity of Human Wishes,” 73, 111, 140-1, 195

“Village, The” (G. Crabbe’s), 167, 168, 195

“Vision of Patience” (S. Boyce’s), 162

“Vision of Solomon” (W. Whitehead’s), 162

Wakefield, Benjamin, 95 n.

Waller, Edmund, 15

Walpole, Horace, 119, 156 n.

“Wanderer, The” (R. Savage’s), 111, 136

Ward, A. W., 204 n.

Warton, Joseph, 21, 70-1, 121, 134, 148-9

Warton, Thomas, 71, 83, 84, 85, 86, 120-1, 149

Watson, George, 100 n.

Watts, Isaac, 49

Welsted, Leonard, 59 n.

Wesley, John, 49, 50, 198

Wesley, Charles, 49

West, Gilbert, 118 n.

White, Gilbert (of Selborne), 28

White, H. O., 148 n.

Whitehead, W., 20 n., 122, 162

Williams, I. O., 195 n.

Wilson, Sir James, 100 n.

Winchilsea, Anne, Countess of, 61, 109, 187-8

“Windsor Forest,” 134

Wordsworth, William, 1, 3, 13, 15, 24, 25, 27 n., 28, 31, 32, 33, 35,
36, 48, 51-3, 67, 68, 77, 79, 97, 115, 132, 175, 182, 185, 187,
189, 192, 193, 197, 201, 204
Archaism, 100
Compounds, 127
Darwin’s (Erasmus) influence, 52-4, 175
Latinism, 79, 192
Percy’s “Reliques,” on, 97
Personifications, 133, 175-6, 178, 180
Pope’s style, on, 24
“Prefaces,” 1, 53, 132, 182, 197, 204
“Prelude, The,” 184-5

Wyche, Sir Peter, 7

“Yardley Oak” (W. Cowper’s), 131, 172

Yeats, W. B., 164 n.

Young, Edward, 9 n., 28, 68-9, 136-8, 151