Chapter VII (2)

'If you visit _Flavia_ on the Sunday, you will always meet good
company, you will know what is doing in the world, you will hear
the last lampoon, be told who wrote it, and who is meant by
every name that is in it. You will hear what plays were acted
that week, which is the finest song in the opera, who was
intolerable at the last assembly, and what games are most in
fashion. _Flavia_ thinks they are atheists who play at cards on
the Sunday, but she will tell you the nicety of all the games,
what cards she held, how she played them, and the history of all
that happened at play, as soon as she comes from church. If you
would know who is rude and ill-natured, who is vain and foppish,
who lives too high and who is in debt; if you would know what is
the quarrel at a certain house, or who and who are in love; if
you would know how late Belinda comes home at night, what
clothes she has bought, how she loves compliments, and what a
long story she told at such a place; if you would know how cross
Lucius is to his wife, what ill-natured things he says to her,
when nobody hears him; if you would know how they hate one
another in their hearts though they appear so kind in public;
you must visit _Flavia_ on the Sunday. But still she has so
great a regard for the holiness of the Sunday, that she has
turned a poor old widow out of her house as a _profane wretch_,
for having been found once mending her clothes on the Sunday
night.'

Between the years 1733-37, owing to his acquaintance with the writings of the famous mystic, Jacob Boehme, Law became a mystic himself. The 'blessed Jacob' as he calls him exercised an influence which colours all his later writings and lasted till his death. In 1740 he retired to his native village and to solitude; but after a while two wealthy and devout ladies, one of them a widow, the other the historian's aunt, Miss Hester Gibbon, joined him in his retreat and devoted to charitable objects their labours and their fortunes. 'Out of a joint income of not less than three thousand pounds a year, only about three hundred pounds were spent upon the frugal expenses of the household and the simple personal wants of the three inhabitants. The whole of the remainder was spent upon the poor.'[66] Report says, let us hope it may be scandal, that after the master's death the love of earthly vanities revived in two of his pupils. His favourite niece had a new dress every month, and Miss Gibbon 'appeared resplendent in yellow stockings.' This is not the place to follow Law's self-denying career, neither are we concerned with the volumes which contain his later views. Admirably written though they be, these works do not belong to the field of literature. Law lived in vigour both of mind and body to a good old age, and died in 1761.

[Sidenote: Joseph Butler (1692-1752).]

Joseph Butler, whose _Sermons_ (1726), and _Analogy of Religion Natural and Revealed to the Constitution and Course of Nature_ (1736), are among the highest contributions to theology produced in the last century, called the imagination 'a forward, delusive faculty,' and he could have boasted that it was a faculty of which no trace is to be found in his works. Moreover, he is generally regarded as wholly destitute of style, and in a sense this is true, for Butler is so intent upon what he has to say that he cares little how he says it. His sense of beauty if he possessed it, was absorbed in a supreme allegiance to truth, and his life was that of a Christian philosopher intent upon one object. His sermons, preached at the Rolls Chapel, which contain the germ of his philosophy, are too closely packed with argument and too recondite in thought to fit them for pulpit discourses. The _Analogy_, which occupied seven years of Butler's life, is better known and more generally interesting. 'There is,' he says, 'a much more exact correspondence between the natural and the moral world than we are apt to take notice of.' His aim is to show that the difficulties which meet us in Revelation are to be found also in nature, that as our happiness or misery in this world largely depends upon conduct, so it is reasonable to suppose, apart from what Revelation teaches, that we are also in a state of probation with regard to a future life. As youth is an education for mature age, so may the whole of our earthly life be an education for a future existence.

'And if we were not able at all to discern how or in what way
the present life could be our preparation for another, this
would be no objection against the credibility of its being so.
For we do not discern how food and sleep contribute to the
growth of the body; nor could have any thought that they would
before we had experience. Nor do children at all think on the
one hand that the sports and exercises, to which they are so
much addicted, contribute to their health and growth; nor, on
the other, of the necessity which there is for their being
restrained in them; nor are they capable of understanding the
use of many parts of discipline, which, nevertheless, they must
be made to go through in order to qualify them for the business
of mature age. Were we not able, then, to discover in what
respects the present life could form us for a future one, yet
nothing would be more supposable than that it might, in some
respects or other, from the general analogy of Providence. And
this, for aught I see, might reasonably be said, even though we
should not take in the consideration of God's moral government
over the world. But, take in this consideration, and
consequently, that the character of virtue and piety is a
necessary qualification for the future state, and then we may
distinctly see how and in what respects the present life may be
a preparation for it.

Butler's style is uniform throughout, and if it have no other merit, may be praised for honesty. It is wholly free from the artifices of the rhetorician; if it is wanting in charm, it is never weak; if it is sometimes obscure, it must be remembered that the author does not write for readers who find it a trouble to think. The bishop's obscurity was not due to negligence. 'Confusion and perplexity in writing,' he says, 'is indeed without excuse; because anyone may, if he pleases, know whether he understands and sees through what he is about; and it is unpardonable for a man to lay his thoughts before others when he is conscious that he himself does not know whereabouts he is, or how the matter before him stands. It is coming abroad in disorder, which he ought to be dissatisfied to find himself in at home.'

Butler weighed his thoughts rather than his words in an age when many distinguished writers were tempted to regard form as of more consequence than substance. It must be admitted, however, that if the ideal of fine literature be the expression of beautiful and richly suggestive thoughts in a style elevated by the imagination, and by a sense of rhythmical harmony, Bishop Butler's place is not among men of letters. His profound sense of the seriousness of life limited his range; but as a thinker, what he lost in versatility he probably gained in depth. The _Analogy_ is a striking instance of a great work wholly without imagination, while full of the intellectual life which sustains the student's attention. There is not a dull page in the book, or one in which the author's meaning cannot be grasped by thoughtful readers. The work is full of weighty sayings on the power of conscience, the rule of right which a man has within him, the force of habit, the necessity of action in relation to belief, and the uselessness of passive impressions. It has been said that the defect of the eighteenth century theology 'was not in having too much good sense, but in having nothing besides,' and the straining after good sense, so prominent in Pope's age, affected alike, men of letters, philosophers, and theologians. The virtue was carried to excess and is conspicuous in Butler. He has his weaknesses both as a philosopher and a theologian, but the reader of the _Analogy_ and of the three sermons on Human Nature, will be conscious that he is in the presence of a great mind.

[Sidenote: William Warburton (1698-1779).]

William Warburton, Pope's commentator, was born at Newark-upon-Trent in 1698, and died as Bishop of Gloucester in 1779. The main argument of his principal work, _The Divine Legation of Moses_ (1738-41), is based upon the astounding paradox that the legation of Moses must have been divine because he never invoked the promises or threatenings of a future state. The book is remarkable for its arrogance and lack of 'sweet reasonableness.' It claims no attention from the student of English literature, neither would Warburton himself were it not for his association with Pope. Allusion has been already made to Crousaz's hostile criticism of the _Essay on Man_ (1737) on the ground that it led to fatalism, and was destructive of the foundations of natural religion. Warburton, who had previously denounced the 'rank atheism' of the poem, now endeavoured to defend it, and how effectually he did so in Pope's judgment is seen in his grateful acknowledgment of the critic's labours. 'I know I meant just what you explain,' he wrote, 'but I did not explain my own meaning as well as you. You understand me as well as I do myself, but you express me better than I could express myself.'

Dr. Conyers Middleton's estimate of what Warburton had done for Pope is more accurate: 'You have evinced the orthodoxy of Mr. Pope's principles,' he says, 'but, like the old commentators on his _Homer_, will be thought, perhaps, in some places to have provided a meaning for him that he himself never dreamt of.'[67]

The poet and Warburton met for the first time in 1740, and the bookseller, Dodsley, who was present at the interview, was astonished at the compliments which Pope lavished on his apologist. Henceforth, until the poet's death, Warburton, who, according to Bishop Hurd, 'found an image of himself in his new acquaintance,' became his counsellor and supporter, and among other achievements added, as Ricardus Aristarchus, to the confusion of the _Dunciad_. Ultimately, as Pope's annotator, he produced much laborious and comparatively worthless criticism, and contrived by his immense fighting qualities as a critic and polemic to make a considerable noise in the world. One incident in the friendship of the poet and of the divine is worth recording. In 1741 Pope and Warburton were at Oxford together, and while there the Vice-Chancellor offered to confer on the poet the degree of D.C.L., and on Warburton that of D.D. Some hesitation, however, on the part of the university having occurred with regard to the latter, Pope wrote to his friend saying, 'As for mine I will die before I receive one, in an art I am ignorant of, at a place where there remains any scruple of bestowing one on you, in a science of which you are so great a master. In short I will be doctored with you, or not at all.'

Warburton's stupendous self-assertion concealed to some extent his heavy style and poverty of thought. His aim was to startle by paradoxes, since he could not convince by argument. No one could call an opponent names in the Billingsgate style more effectively, and every man who ventured to differ from him was either a knave or a fool. 'Warburton's stock argument,' it has been said, 'is a threat to cudgel anyone who disputes his opinion.' He was a laborious student, and the mass of work he accomplished exhibits his robust energy, but he has left nothing which lives in literature or in theology. He was, however, a man of various acquisitions, and won, for that reason, the praise of Dr. Johnson. 'The table is always full, sir. He brings things from the north and the south and from every quarter. In his _Divine Legation_ you are always entertained. He carries you round and round without carrying you forward to the point, but then you have no wish to be carried forward.'

Bentley's more concise description of Warburton's attainments deserves to be recorded. He was, he says, 'a man of monstrous appetite, but bad digestion.'

Warburton's _Shakespeare_ appeared in 1747, his _Pope_ in 1751. It cannot be said that either poet has cause to be grateful to his commentator. Of his _Shakespeare_ a few words may be appropriately said here. In this pretentious and untrustworthy edition, Warburton accuses Theobald of plagiarism, treats him with contempt, and then uses his text to print from. In his Preface he declares that his own Notes 'take in the whole compass of Criticism,' and he professes to restore the poet's genuine Text. Yet, as the editors of the _Cambridge Shakespeare_ observe, there is no trace, so far as they have discovered, 'of his having collated for himself either the earlier Folios or any of the Quartos.' Warburton professed to observe the severe canons of literal criticism, and this suggested the title to Thomas Edwards of a volume in which the critic's editorial pretensions are attacked with some humour and much justice.[68]

We may add that Bishop Hurd, Warburton's most intimate friend, edited his works in seven volumes (1788), and six years later, by way of preface to a new edition, published an _Account of the Life, Writings, and Character of the Author_.

FOOTNOTES:

[57] Readers who remember Mr. Browning's estimate of 'sage Mandeville' in his _Parleyings with Certain Persons_ may deem this criticism unjust; but the De Mandeville who speaks in that poem is the creation of the poet's imagination, or rather he is Mr. Browning himself.

[58] _Bolingbroke: a Historical Study_, p. 133. By J. Churton Collins.

[59] _Walpole_, p. 79. By John Morley. Macmillan.

[60] _Works of George Berkeley._ Edited by George Sampson. With introduction by the Rt. Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, M.P. Vol. i., p. xxxi (London, 1897).

[61] _An Essay on Truth_, 2nd edit., p. 298. 1771.

[62] _Blackwood's Magazine_, June, 1842.

[63] Sir James Macintosh, _Encyclopædia Britannica_.

[64] _The English Church and its Bishops._ By Charles J. Abbey. Vol. i., p. 236.

[65] See p. 194.

[66] _The Life and Opinions of the Rev. William Law, M.A._ By J. H. Overton, M.A. P. 243.

[67] Middleton's _Miscellaneous Works_, vol. i., p. 402.

[68] The first edition of Edwards's work was entitled _Supplement_ to Mr. Warburton's edition of _Shakespeare_, 1747. The third edition (1750) was called _The Canons of Criticism and Glossary_ by Thomas Edwards. Of this volume seven editions were published. Edwards, who was born in 1699, died in 1757.

INDEX OF MINOR POETS AND PROSE WRITERS.

JOHN ARMSTRONG (1709-1779), a Scotchman by birth, practised in London as a physician after some surgical experience in the navy. Believing any subject suitable for poetry, he wrote in blank verse, reminding one of Thomson, _The Art of Preserving Health_ (1744), a poem containing some powerful passages, and many which are better fitted for a medical treatise than for poetry. An earlier and licentious poem _The Economy of Love_, which injured him in his profession, was 'revised and corrected by the author' in 1768.

If bulk were a sign of merit SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE (1650-1729) would not rank with the minor poets. He wrote several long and wearisome epics, his best work in Dr. Johnson's judgment being _The Creation_ (1712), which was praised by Addison in the _Spectator_ as 'one of the most useful and noble productions in our English verse,' a judgment the modern reader is not likely to endorse.

HENRY BROOKE (1706-1783), an Irishman, was the author of a poem entitled _Universal Beauty_ (1735). Four years later he published _Gustavus Vasa_, a tragedy, which was not allowed to be acted, the sentiments being too liberal for the government. His _Fool of Quality_ (1766) a novel in five volumes, delighted John Wesley, and in our day, Charles Kingsley, who praises its 'broad and genial humanity.' Brooke was a follower of William Law, whose mysticism is to be seen in the story.

WILLIAM BROOME (1689-1745) is chiefly known from his association with Pope in the translation of the _Odyssey_, of which enough has been said elsewhere (p. 38). His name suggested the following epigram to Henley:

'Pope came off clean with Homer; but they say
_Broome_ went before and kindly swept the way.'

He entered holy orders, had two livings in Suffolk and one in Norfolk, and married a wealthy widow. His verses are mechanically correct, but are empty of poetry.

JOHN BYROM (1691-1763), the friend and disciple of William Law, the author of the _Serious Call_, is best remembered for his system of shorthand. In a characteristic, copious, and not very attractive journal, he describes, for the consolation of his fellow mortals, how he makes resolutions and breaks them. Byrom wrote rhyme with ease and on subjects with which poetry has nothing to do. His most successful achievement was a pastoral, _Colin and Phoebe_, which appeared in the _Spectator_ (Vol. viii., No. 603). It was written in honour of the daughter of Dr. Bentley, Master of Trinity, 'not,' it has been said, 'because he wished to win her affections, but because he desired to secure her father's interest for the Fellowship for which he was a candidate.' The plan was successful. The one verse of Byrom's that every one has read is the happy epigram:

'God bless the King!--I mean the faith's defender--
God bless (no harm in blessing!) the Pretender!
But who Pretender is, or who is King--
God bless us all!--that's quite another thing.'

SAMUEL CLARKE (1675-1729), a man of large attainments in science and divinity, was the favourite theologian of Queen Caroline, who admired his latitudinarian views, and delighted in his conversation. His works, edited by Bishop Hoadly, were published in 1738 in four folio volumes. In 1704 he delivered the Boyle lectures on _The Being and Attributes of God_, and in 1705 _On Natural and Revealed Religion_. His _Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity_ (1712) was condemned by convocation. In defence of Sir Isaac Newton, Clarke had a controversy with Leibnitz, and having published the correspondence dedicated it to the Queen. His sermons, Mr. Leslie Stephen says, are 'for the most part not sermons at all, but lectures upon metaphysics.' In Addison's judgment Clarke was one of the most accurate, learned, and judicious writers the age had produced.

ELIJAH FENTON (1683-1730) wrote poems and _Mariamne_ a tragedy, in which, according to his friend Broome, 'great Sophocles revives and reappears.' It was acted with applause, and brought nearly one thousand pounds to its author. His name is now chiefly known as having assisted Pope in his translation of the _Odyssey_.

RICHARD GLOVER (1712-1785), the son of a London merchant, was himself a merchant of high reputation in the city. He also 'cultivated the Muses,' and his _Leonidas_ (1737), an elaborate poem in blank verse, preferred by some critics of the day to _Paradise Lost_, passed through several editions and was praised by Fielding and by Lord Chatham. Power is visible in this epic, which displays also a large amount of knowledge, but the salt of genius is wanting, and the poem, despite many estimable qualities, is now forgotten. _Leonidas_ was followed by _Boadicea_ (1758), and _The Atheniad_, published after his death in 1788. Glover was a politician as well as a verseman. His party feeling probably inspired _Admiral Hosier's Ghost_ (1739), a ballad still remembered and preserved in anthologies.

MATTHEW GREEN (1696-1737) is the author of _The Spleen_, an original and brightly written poem. _The Grotto_, printed but not published in 1732, is also marked by freshness of treatment. Green's poems, written in octosyllabic metre, were published after his death.

JAMES HAMMOND (1710-1742) produced many forlorn elegies on a lady who appears to have scorned him, and who lived in 'maiden meditation' for nearly forty years after the poet's death. His love is said to have affected his mind for a time. 'Sure Hammond has no right,' says Shenstone, 'to the least inventive merit. I do not think that there is a single thought in his elegies of any eminence that is not literally translated.'

NATHANIEL HOOKE (1690-1763), the author of a _Roman History_, is better known as the editor of _An Account of the conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, from her first coming to Court in the year 1710, in a letter from herself to Lord ---- in 1742_. The duchess is said to have dictated this letter from her bed, and to have been so eager for its completion that she insisted on Hooke's not leaving the house till he had finished it. He was munificently rewarded for his labour by a present of £5,000. It was Hooke, a zealous Roman Catholic, who, when Pope was dying, asked him if he should not send for a priest, and received the poet's hearty thanks for putting him in mind of it.

JOHN HUGHES (1677-1719) was the author of poems, an opera, a masque, several translations, and a tragedy, _The Siege of Damascus_, which was well received, and kept its place on the stage for some years. He died on the first night's performance of the play. Several articles in the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ are from his pen. In 1715 he published an edition of Spenser in six volumes. Hughes received warm praise from Steele, and enjoyed also the friendship of Addison.

CONYERS MIDDLETON (1683-1750) is now chiefly known for an extravagantly eulogistic life of _Cicero_ (1741), in which, as Macaulay observes, he 'resorted to the most disingenuous shifts, to unpardonable distortions and suppressions of facts.' The book is written in a forcible and lively style. A man of considerable learning, Middleton was a violent controversialist, who liked better to attack and to defend than to dwell in the serene atmosphere of literature or of practical divinity. He assailed the famous Richard Bentley with such rancour that he had to apologize and was fined £50 by the Court of King's Bench. Middleton was a doctor of divinity, but his controversial works, while never directly attacking the chief tenets of the religion he professed, lean far more to the side of the Deists than to the orthodox creed, and, indeed, it would not be uncharitable to class him among them. He appears, like Swift, to have chiefly regarded the Christian religion as an institution of service to the stability of the State. Of the _Miscellaneous Works_ which were published after his death in five volumes, the most elaborate and the most provocative of disputation is _A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are supposed to have subsisted in the Christian Church through several successive centuries_ (1749). Middleton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1734 was elected librarian of the University.

RICHARD SAVAGE (1698-1743), whose fate is one of the most melancholy in the annals of versemen, lives in the admirable though neither impartial nor wholly accurate biography of Dr. Johnson. In 1719 he produced _Love in a Veil_, a comedy from the Spanish; and in 1723 his tragedy _Sir Thomas Overbury_ was acted, but with little success. In the same year he published _The Bastard_, a poem which is said to have driven his mother out of society. _The Wanderer_, in five cantos, appeared in 1729, and was regarded by the author as his masterpiece. It has some vigorous lines and several descriptive passages that are not conventional. Savage died in prison at Bristol, a city which recalls the equally painful story of Chatterton.

LEWIS THEOBALD (1688-1744), the original hero of the _Dunciad_, was a dramatist and translator, but is chiefly known as the author of _Shakespeare Restored; or specimens of blunders committed or unamended in Pope's edition of the poet_ (1726). This was followed two years later by _Proposals for Publishing Emendations and Remarks on Shakespeare_, and in 1733 by his edition of the dramatist in seven volumes. 'Theobald as an editor,' say the editors of the _Cambridge Shakespeare_, 'is incomparably superior to his predecessors and to his immediate successor Warburton, although the latter had the advantage of working on his materials. He was the first to recall a multitude of readings of the first Folio unquestionably right, but unnoticed by previous editors. Many most brilliant emendations ... are due to him.'

WILLIAM WALSH (1663-1708) has chronologically little claim to be noticed here, for his poems were published before the beginning of the century, but he is to be remembered as the early friend and wise counsellor of Pope, and also as the author, I believe, of the only English sonnet between Milton's in 1658, and Gray's, on Richard West, in 1742.

ANNE FINCH, Countess of Winchelsea (1660-1720), published a volume of verse in 1713 under the title of _Miscellany Poems on Several Occasions, Written by a Lady_. The book contains a _Nocturnal Reverie_, which has some lines showing a close and faithful observation of rural sounds and sights, as for example:

'When the loosed horse, now as his pasture leads,
Comes slowly grazing through the adjoining meads,
Whose stealing pace and lengthened shade we fear,
Till torn-up forage in his teeth we hear;
When nibbling sheep at large pursue their food,
And unmolested kine rechew the cud;
When curlews cry beneath the village walls,
And to her straggling brood the partridge calls.'

The _Nocturnal Reverie_, however, is an exception to the general character of Lady Winchelsea's poems, which consist chiefly of odes (including the inevitable Pindaric), fables, songs, affectionate addresses to her husband, poetical epistles, and a tragedy, _Aristomenes; or the Royal Shepherd_. The _Petition for an Absolute Retreat_ is one of the best pieces in the volume. It displays great facility in versification, and a love of country delights.

THOMAS YALDEN (1670-1736), born in Exeter, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, entered into holy orders (1711), and was appointed lecturer of moral philosophy. 'Of his poems,' writes Dr. Johnson, 'many are of that irregular kind which, when he formed his poetical character, was supposed to be Pindaric.' Pindarics were indeed the bane of the age. Every minor poet, no matter however feeble his poetical wings might be, endeavoured to fly with Pindar. Like Gay, Yalden tried his skill as a writer of fables.

NOTE.

_Mrs. Veal's Ghost_ (see pp. 186-187). A curious discovery, made
by Mr. G. A. Aitken (see _Nineteenth Century_, January, 1895),
makes it certain, he thinks, that 'the whole narrative is
literally true.' He even hopes that the receipt for scouring
Mrs. Veal's gown may some day be found. Mr. Aitken seems to
infer that Defoe's other tales will also turn out to be true
histories, but Defoe avers, with all the seriousness he expends
on Mrs. Veal, that he witnessed the great Plague of London,
which it is needless to say he did not.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

=1667.= =Swift born.= =1672.= =Steele born.= =1672.= =Addison born.= 1674. Milton died. =1688.= =Gay born.= =1688.= =Pope born.= 1688. Bunyan died. 1690. Locke's _Essay Concerning Human Understanding_. 1694. Voltaire born. 1699. Racine died. =1700.= =Thomson born.= =1700.= =Dryden died.= 1700. Fénelon's _Télémaque_. 1703. John Wesley born. 1704. Locke died. =1704.= =Addison's= _Campaign_. =1704.= =Swift's= _Tale of a Tub_ and _Battle of the Books_. 1707. Fielding born. 1709. Johnson born. =1709.= =Pope's= _Pastorals_. =1709-1711.= _The Tatler._ =1710.= =Berkeley's= _Principles of Human Knowledge_. =1711.= =Pope's= _Essay on Criticism_. 1711-1712,} _The Spectator._ and 1714. } 1711. Hume born. =1712.= =Pope's= _Rape of the Lock_. 1712. Rousseau born. =1713.= =Addison's= _Cato_. 1713. Sterne born. =1714.= =Mandeville's= _Fable of the Bees_. =1715.= =Gay's= _Trivia_. =1715-1720.= =Pope's= _Translation of Homer's Iliad_. 1715. Wycherley died. =1718.= =Prior's= _Poems on Several Occasions_ =(folio)=. =1719-1720.= =Defoe's= _Robinson Crusoe_ =(first part)=. =1719.= =Addison died.= =1721.= =Prior died.= 1721. Smollett born. =1723-1725.= =Pope's= _Translation of Homer's Odyssey_. =1724.= =Swift's= _Drapier's Letters_. 1724. Kant born. 1724. Klopstock born. =1725-1730.= =Thomson's= _Seasons_. =1725.= =Ramsay's= _Gentle Shepherd_. =1725.= =Young's= _Universal Passion_. =1726.= =Swift's= _Gulliver's Travels_. =1727.= =Gay's= _Fables_. =1728.= =Pope's= _Dunciad_. =1728.= =Gay's= _Beggar's Opera_. 1728. Goldsmith born. =1729.= =Law's= _Serious Call_. 1729. Burke born. 1729. Lessing born. =1729.= =Steele died.= =1731.= =Defoe died.= 1731. Cowper born. =1732-1735.= =Pope's= _Moral Essays_. =1732-1734.= =Pope's= _Essay on Man_. =1732.= =Gay died.= =1733-1737.= =Pope's= _Imitations of Horace_. =1735.= =Pope's= _Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot_. =1736.= =Butler's= _Analogy of Religion_. 1737. Gibbon born. =1738.= =Hume's= _Treatise of Human Nature_. =1740.= =Cibber's= _Apology for his Life_. 1740. Richardson's _Pamela_. 1742. Fielding's _Joseph Andrews_. =1742.= =Pope's= _Dunciad_ =(fourth book added)=. =1742.= =Young's= _Night Thoughts_. =1743.= =Blair's= _Grave_. =1744.= =Akenside's= _Pleasures of Imagination_. =1744.= =Pope died.= =1745.= =Swift died.= =1748.= =Thomson died.= 1748. Hume's _Inquiry concerning Human Understanding_. 1748. Richardson's _Clarissa Harlowe_. 1748. Smollett's _Roderick Random_. 1749. Goethe born. 1749. Fielding's _Tom Jones_.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WRITERS

ADDISON, JOSEPH 1672-1719 AKENSIDE, MARK 1721-1770 ARBUTHNOT, JOHN 1667-1735 ARMSTRONG, JOHN 1709-1779 ATTERBURY, FRANCIS 1662-1732 BENTLEY, RICHARD 1662-1742 BERKELEY, GEORGE 1685-1753 BINNING, LORD 1696-1732 BLACKMORE, SIR RICHARD 1650-1729 BLAIR, ROBERT 1699-1746 BOLINGBROKE, LORD 1678-1751 BOYLE, CHARLES 1676-1731 BROOKE, HENRY 1706-1783 BROOME, WILLIAM 1689-1745 BUTLER, JOSEPH 1692-1752 BYROM, JOHN 1691-1763 CHESTERFIELD, LORD 1694-1773 CIBBER, COLLEY 1671-1757 CLARKE, SAMUEL 1675-1729 COLLINS, ANTHONY 1676-1729 CRAWFORD, ROBERT 1695?-1732 DEFOE, DANIEL 1661-1731 DENNIS, JOHN 1657-1733-4 DORSET, EARL OF 1637-1705-6 DYER, JOHN 1698?-1758 EDWARDS, THOMAS 1699-1757 FENTON, ELIJAH 1683-1730 GARTH, SIR SAMUEL 1660-1717-18 GAY, JOHN 1685-1732 GLOVER, RICHARD 1712-1785 GREEN, MATTHEW 1696-1737 HALIFAX, CHARLES MONTAGUE, EARL OF 1661-1715 HAMILTON, WILLIAM (OF BANGOUR) 1704-1754 HAMMOND, JAMES 1710-1742 HILL, AARON 1684-1749 HOOKE, NATHANIEL 1690-1763 HUGHES, JOHN 1677-1719 KING, ARCHBISHOP 1650-1729 LAW, WILLIAM 1686-1761 LILLO, GEORGE 1693-1739 LYTTELTON, GEORGE, LORD 1708-1773 MALLET, DAVID 1700-1765 MANDEVILLE, BERNARD DE 1670?-1733 MIDDLETON, CONYERS 1683-1750 MONTAGU, LADY MARY WORTLEY 1689-1762 PARNELL, THOMAS 1679-1718 PHILIPS, AMBROSE 1671-1749 PHILIPS, JOHN 1676-1708 POPE, ALEXANDER 1688-1744 PRIOR, MATTHEW 1664-1721 RAMSAY, ALLAN 1686-1758 ROWE, NICHOLAS 1673-1718 SAVAGE, RICHARD 1698-1743 SHAFTESBURY, LORD 1671-1713 SHENSTONE, WILLIAM 1714-1764 SOMERVILLE, WILLIAM 1692-1742 SPENCE, JOSEPH 1698-1768 STEELE, SIR RICHARD 1672-1729 SWIFT, JONATHAN 1667-1745 THEOBALD, LEWIS 1688-1744 THOMSON, JAMES 1700-1748 TICKELL, THOMAS 1686-1740 WALSH, WILLIAM 1663-1708 WARBURTON, WILLIAM 1698-1779 WARDLAW, LADY 1677-1727 WATTS, ISAAC 1674-1748 WESLEY, CHARLES 1708-1788 WINCHELSEA, COUNTESS OF 1660-1720 YALDEN, THOMAS 1670-1736 YOUNG, EDWARD 1684-1765

INDEX.

Addison, Joseph, 4, 5, 15, 16, 19, 20, 35, 59, 62, 125-136, 145, 146.

_Addison, Address to Mr._, 112.

_Admiral Hosier's Ghost_, 244.

_Agamemnon_, 88.

Akenside, Mark, 117.

_Alciphron_, 216, 224.

_Alfred, Masque of_, 88, 119.

_Alma_, 67, 71.

_Ambitious Step-mother, the_, 103.

_Amyntor and Theodora_, 119.

_Analogy of Religion_, 236.

_Appius and Virginia_, 191, 193.

Arbuthnot, John, 45, 49, 175-179.

_Arbuthnot, Epistle to Dr._, 59.

Armstrong, John, 242.

_Art of Political Lying, the_, 177.

_Art of Preserving Health, the_, 242.

_Atheniad, the_, 244.

Atterbury, Bishop, 45, 70, 207-212.

Atticus, character of, 59.

Augustan Age, origin of the term, 10.

_Baucis and Philemon_, 157.

_Bangor, three Letters to the Bishop of_, 230.

Bangorian Controversy, the, 9.

_Bathos, treatise on the_, 39.

Bathurst, Lord, 46, 49.

_Battle of Blenheim, the_, 192.

_Battle of the Books, the_, 160.

_Beggar's Opera, the_, 73, 74.

Bentley, Richard, 36, 48, 160, 207, 208, 243.

_Bentley's Dissertations, Examination of_, 208.

Berkeley, Bishop, 46, 215, 221-229.

Bickerstaff, Isaac, 161;
_Lucubrations of_ 140, 141.

Binning, Lord, 121.

_Black-eyed Susan_, 74.

Blackmore, Sir Richard, 47, 242.

Blair, Robert, 84.

_Blenheim_, 101.

Blount, Martha and Teresa, 44, 56.

_Boadicea_, 244.

Boehme, Jacob, 235.

Boileau and Pope compared, 4, 47;
his _Art Poétique_, 29.

Bolingbroke, Lord, 8, 44, 51, 52, 59, 216-221.

Boyle, Charles, 160, 207, 208.

_Braes of Yarrow, the_, 121.

Bribery, prevalence of, 19.

_Britannia_ (Thomson's), 87;
(Mallet's), 119.

Brooke, Henry, 242.

Broome, William, 38, 243.

_Brothers, the_, 79.

Buckingham, Duke of, 57, 70.

_Busiris_, 79.

Butler, Bishop, 236.

Byrom, John, 243.

_Cadenus and Vanessa_, 154, 165.

_Campaign, the_, 126.

_Captain Singleton_, 188.

_Careless Husband, the_, 196, 197.

Caroline, Queen, 9.

_Castle of Indolence, the_, 93.

_Cato_, 128, _et seq._

Chandos, Duke of, 57.

_Characteristics of Men, Manners, etc._, 19, 52, 212.

Charke, Mrs., _Narrative of her Life_, 11.

_Chase, the_, 112.

Chesterfield, Lord, 202-204.

_Chit-Chat_, 144.

_Christian Hero, the_, 137.

_Christianity, argument against abolishing_, 161.

_Christian Perfection_, 232.

_Christian Religion, Grounds of the_, 222.

Cibber, Colley, 48, 196-198;
_Apology for the Life of_, 198.

_Cider_, 101.

Clarke, Dr. Samuel, 9, 243.

_Colin and Lucy_, 110.

_Colin and Phoebe_, 243.

Collier, Jeremy, 137.

Collins, Anthony, 222.

_Colonel Jack_, 187, 188.

_Conscious Lovers, the_, 137.

_Contentment, Hymn to_, 107.

_Conversion of St. Paul, Dissertation on the_, 205.

_Coriolanus_, 88.

_Country Mouse and City Mouse, the_, 66.

_Country Walk, the_, 114.

Craggs, James, 45, 56.

Crawford, Robert, 121.

_Creation, the_, 242.

_Crisis, the_, 143, 144.

_Criticism, the Essay on_, 29, 191.

_Criticism in Poetry, grounds of_, 192.

Crousaz, M., 54, 238.

Cruelty of the age, 18.

Curll, Edmund, 42.

Defoe, Daniel, 180-191.

Delany, Mrs., _Life and Correspondence of_, 12, 164.

Dennis, John, 191-196.

_Dialogues of the Dead_, 205.

_Dispensary, the_, 96.

_Distrest Mother, the_, 98.

_Divine Legation of Moses, the_, 230, 239.

Dorset, Earl of, 65.

_Drapier's Letters_, 170.

Drelincourt's _Christian's Defence, etc._, 187.

Dryden, John, death of, 1;
and Pope, 28, 58.

_Dryden, Ode to_, 193.

_Drummer, the_, 134.

Drunkenness, prevalence of, 17.

Duelling, 13.

_Dunciad, the_, 39, 48, _et seq._, 240.

Dyer, John, 113, 224.

_Edward and Eleanora_, 88.

Edwards, Thomas, 241.

_Edwin and Emma_, 118.

_Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady_, 33.

_Eloisa to Abelard_, 33.

_Elvira_, 119.

_English Convocation, Rights, Powers and Privileges of_, 208.

_Englishman, the_, 144.

_English Poets, Account of the greatest_, 131.

_Epistle to a Friend in Town_, 114.

_Epistles of Phalaris, Dissertations on the_, 160, 208.

_Essay on Man, the_, 51, 238.

_Eurydice_, 119.

Eusden, Lawrence, 47.

_Evergreen, the_, 120.

_Examiner, the_, 162.

_Excursion, the_, 118.

_Fable of the Bees, the_, 214, 230;
_Remarks on the_, 231.

_Fables_ (Gay's), 73.

_Fair Penitent, the_, 103.

_Fatal Curiosity, the_, 138.

Fenton, Elijah, 38, 244.

_Fleece, the_, 113, 224.

_Fool of Quality, the_, 243.

_Force of Religion, the_, 78.

_Freedom of Wit and Humour, the_, 213.

_Freeholder, the_, 132.

_Freethinking, Discourse on_, 222.

French Literature, influence of, 3, 4, 5.

French Customs, 14.

_Funeral, the_, 137.

Gambling, 21, 22.

Garth, Sir Samuel, 96.

Gay, John, 40, 49, 72-76.

_Gentle Shepherd, the_, 120.

_George Barnwell_, 138.

_Gideon_, 104.

Glover, Richard, 244.

_God, the Being and Attributes of_, 244.

Granville, George, Lord Lansdowne, 40.

_Grave, the_, 84.

Green, Matthew, 245.

_Grongar Hill_, 113.

_Grotto, the_, 244.

_Grub Street Journal, the_, 51.

_Grumbling Hive, the_, 214.

_Guardian, the_, 125, 142.

_Gulliver's Travels_, 167.

_Gustavus Vasa_, 243.

Halifax, Montague, Earl of, 65, 66.

Hamilton, William, of Bangour, 121.

Hammond, James, 245.

_Health, an Eclogue_, 108.

_Henry and Emma_, 67.

_Hermit, the_, 107.

Hervey, Lord, 47, 59, 61.

Hill, Aaron, 104-106, 195.

Hoadly, Bishop, 9, 230.

Homer, Pope's Translation of, 34, _et seq._, 206, 243, 244.
Tickell's translation, 35, 111.

Hooke, Nathaniel, 245.

Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 29.

_Horace, Imitations from_, 55, 59, 60.

Hughes, John, 40, 245.

_Human Knowledge, Treatise on_, 221, 225.

_Hylas and Philonous, Dialogue between_, 222, 227.

_Hymn to Contentment_, 107.

_Hymn to the Naiads_, 118.

_Imperium Pelagi_, 76.

_Instalment, the_, 79.

_Iphigenia_, 193.

_Italy, Letter from_, 131.

_Italy, Remarks on Several Parts of_, 126.

_Jane Shore_, 103.

_John Bull, History of_, 177.

Johnson, Esther, 152, 164, 166, 172.

_Judgment Day, the_, 104.

_Judgment of Hercules, the_, 116.

_Kensington Gardens_, 111.

King, _on the Origin of Evil_, 52.

_Lady Jane Grey_, 103.

_Lansdowne, Epistle to Lord_, 77.

_Last Day, the_, 77.

Law, William, 194, 230-236, 243.

_Law, Elegy in Memory of William_, 85.

Leibnitz, _Essais de Théodicée_, 52.

_Leonidas_, 244.

_Liberty Asserted_, 193.

Lillo, George, 138.

_Love in a Veil_, 246.

_Lover, the_, 144.

_Love's Last Shift_, 196.

_Lying Lover, the_, 137.

Lyttelton, George, Lord, 204.

Mallet, David, 88, 118, 219, 220.

_Man, Allegory on_, 107.

Mandeville, Bernard de, 214, 230.

_Mariamne_, 244.

Marlborough, Duchess of, 13, 57.

_Marlborough, Duchess of, Account of the Conduct of_, 245.

Marriages in the Fleet, 11, 12.

_Mathematical Learning, Essay on the Usefulness of_, 175.

_Memoirs of a Cavalier_, 188.

_Merope_, 106.

Middleton, Conyers, 246.

_Modest Proposal, etc._, 172, 184.

Mohocks, the, 11.

_Moll Flanders_, 188, 190.

Montagu, Lady M. W., 14, 42, 44, 57, 198-202.

Montague, Charles, Earl of Halifax, 65, 66.

_Monument, the_, 192.

_Moral Essays, the_, 55, _et seq._

_Moralties or Essays, Letters, etc._, 206.

_Mrs. Veal, Apparition of_, 186.

_Namur, Taking of_, 70.

_Night Piece on Death_, 107, 108.

_Night Thoughts_, 76, 81.

_Northern Star, the_, 104.

_Ocean_, 76.

_Ode on St. Cecilia's day_, 40.

Opera, Italian, 127.

Oxford, Harley, Earl of, 49.

_Parallel in the Manner of Plutarch_, 206.

Parnell, Thomas, 107.

_Parties, Dissertation on_, 221.

Partridge, John, 161.

Party feeling, excess of, 19, 20.

_Pastoral Ballad_, 116.

_Pastorals_ (Pope's), 29, 191;
(Philips'), 98.

_Patriotism, Letters on_, 221.

_Patriot King, the_, 219, 221.

Patronage of Literature, 5, 6.

_Peace of Ryswick, the_, 126.

_Persian Tales, the_, 100.

Peterborough, Earl of, 45.

_Phalaris, Dissertation on the Epistle of_, 160, 208.

Philips, Ambrose, 11, 98.

Philips, John, 101.

_Plague, History of the_, 189.

_Pleasures of Imagination, the_, 117.

_Plot and No Plot, a_, 193.

_Poetry, Rhapsody on_, 157.

_Polly_, 74.

_Polymetis_, 206.

Pope, Alexander, a representative poet, 27;
his life, 28-64;
and Dennis, 191, 195;
and Cibber, 96;
and Lady M. W. Montagu, 14, 42, 44, 57, 199;
and Spence, 205;
and Arbuthnot, 209.

_Pope, Epistle to_, 81.

_Pope's Translation of Homer_, Spence's Essay on, 206.

Pope, Mrs., 44, 59.

Prior, Matthew, 5, 65-72.

_Progress of Wit, the_, 105.

_Projects, Essay on_, 182.

_Prospect of Peace, the_, 109.

_Public Spirit of the Whigs, the_, 143.

_Querist, the_, 224.

Ramsay, Allan, 120.

_Rape of the Lock, the_, 31.

_Reader, the_, 144.

Religion, Condition of, 9.

_Religion, Natural and Revealed_, 244.

_Religious Courtship, the_, 189.

_Remarks on Several Parts of Italy_, 126.

_Revenge, the_, 79.

_Review, the_ (Defoe's), 185.

_Rise of Women, the_, 108.

_Robinson Crusoe_, 180, 187, 189.

_Rosamond_, 128.

Roscommon's _Essay on Translated Verse_, 29.

Rowe, Nicholas, 102.

_Roxana_, 188, 189.

_Royal Convert, the_, 103.

_Ruin of Great Britain, Essay towards Preventing the_, 223.

_Ruins of Rome, the_, 115.

_Rule Britannia_, 95.

Savage, Richard, 246.

_Schoolmistress, the_, 115, 116.

_Scriblerus, Martin, Memoirs of_, 178, 222.

_Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, the_, 244.

_Seasons, the_, 86, 87, 88-92.

_Sentiments of a Church of England Man_, 162.

_Serious Call_, 216, 233.

Shaftesbury, Lord, 19, 52, 212-215.

Shakespeare, Pope and Theobald's Editions of, 39;
Rowe's Edition, 132;
Warburton's Edition, 241.

Sheffield, John, Earl of, 29, 40.

Shenstone, William, 115, 205.

_Shepherd's Week, the_, 73.

_Shortest Way with Dissenters, the_, 184.

_Siege of Damascus, the_, 245.

_Siris_, 224, 228.

_Sir Thomas Overbury_, 246.

Social Condition of the time, 10.

_Social State of Ireland, Essay on the_, 224.

_Solomon_, 67, 71.

Somerville, William, 40, 112.

_Sophonisba_, 87.

South Sea Company, the, 21.

_Spectator, the_, 11, 14, 16, 19, 20, 98, 117, 125, 127, 128, 141, 142.

Spence, Joseph, 59, 205.

_Spleen, the_, 244.

_Splendid Shilling, the_, 101.

_Stage defended from Scripture, etc., the_, 194.

_Stage Entertainments, Absolute Unlawfulness of_, 194, 232.

Steele, Sir Richard, 125, 136-150.

_Stella, Journal to_, 164, 166.

_Study of History, Letters on the_, 221.

Swift, Jonathan, 34, 42, 44, 48, 49, 50, 51, 62, 151-175.

_Swift, on the Death of Dr._, 154.

_Tale of a Tub, the_, 153, 158, 209.

_Tales of the Genii_, 206.

_Tamerlane_, 103.

_Tancred and Sigismunda_, 88.

_Tatler, the_, 125, 140, 148, 162.

_Tea Table, the_, 144.

_Tea Table Miscellany, the_, 120.

Temple, Sir William, 152, 160, 208.

_Temple of Fame, the_, 33.

_Tender Husband, the_, 137.

_Theatre, the_, 144.

Theobald, Lewis, 39, 47, 48.

_Theory of Vision, Essay towards a new_, 221, 225.

Thomson, James, 44, 47, 85-95.

Tickell, Thomas, 35, 109-111, 135.

_Tour through Great Britain_, 190.

_Town Talk_, 144.

_Trivia_, 11, 73.

_True Born Englishman, the_, 184.

Trumbull, Sir William, 29, 34.

_Ulysses_, 103.

_Ungrateful Nanny_, 121.

_Universal Passion_, 80.

Vanhomrigh, Hester, 164, 222.

_Verbal Criticism_, 118.

Vida's _Scacchia Ludus_, 32.

_Vision of Mirza, the_, 146.

_Voltaire_, 5, 41.

Walpole, Sir Robert, 6, 8, 21, 41, 79.

Walsh, William, 28, 247.

_Wanderer, the_, 247.

Warburton, Bishop, 55, 56, 62, 230, 239-241.

Wardlaw, Lady, 120.

Warton, Joseph, 63.

Watts, Isaac, 131.

_Welcome from Greece, a_, 75.

Welsted, Leonard, 47.

Wesley, Charles, 131.

Wesley, John, 67.

_Whig Examiner, the_, 162.

_William and Margaret_, 118.

Winchelsea, Countess of, 247.

_Windham, Sir W., Letter to_, 217, 221.

_Windsor Forest_, 30.

Women, position of, 14, 15.

Wood's Halfpence, 169, 170.

_World, the_, 203.

Wycherley, William, 28.

Yalden, Thomas, 248.

Young, Edward, 15, 76-83.

_Zara_, 106.

HANDBOOKS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

EDITED BY PROFESSOR HALES

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"A very readable and serviceable manual of English literature during the central years of the seventeenth century."--_Glasgow Herald._

"Mr. Masterman has written a book which combines the preciseness of a text-book with the fullness of thought of a monograph. Indeed, this compact little work will be studied with as much earnestness by the student as it will be read with pleasure by the lover of _belles lettres_.... We lay down the book delighted with what we have read."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._

"A work which reflects the utmost credit on its author ... luminous and at the same time impartial."--_Westminster Review._

"This excellent epitome ... very happily indicates the golden afterglow of the Elizabethan sun."--_Daily Chronicle._

THE AGE OF JOHNSON

"The uniform excellence of Mr. Seccombe's manual of English literary history from 1748 to 1798 affords scarcely any opening for detailed criticism. Little can be said, except that everything is just as it ought to be: the arrangement perfect, the length of the notices justly proportioned, the literary judgements sound and illuminating; while the main purpose of conveying information is kept so steadily in view that, while the book is worthy of a place in the library, the student could desire no better guide for an examination."--_Bookman._

"He has knowledge, he is eminently careful, and, best of all in a handbook-maker of this kind, he is judicial. We like Mr. Seccombe's arrangement. There is a capital introduction, solid and grave rather than brilliant, on which the student may stand in confidence before he dives off into the stream of his tutor's survey. Briefly, we have here a thorough, almost encyclopaedic, review of a great literary period--stimulating to the younger student, and to his elder refreshing by its perception."--_Outlook._

"This book is one of the best of its kind, and we heartily recommend it to our readers."--_Journal of Education._

"The young student could not read a better book to get a comprehensive and yet detailed account of the literary history of the latter half of the eighteenth century."--_Morning Post._

THE AGE OF WORDSWORTH

"It is an admirable little work all the way through and one which the ripest students of the period may read with interest and profit."--_Guardian._

"The desiderated text-book of the period 1798 to 1830 A.D. is no longer to seek. More than that, it has been written by the one Englishman most competent to deal with it. Whatever Professor Herford does he does well; but he has given us nothing at once so good and so helpful as this book."--_University Correspondent._

"The introductory essay on Romanticism in our literature is an admirable piece of work, full of suggestive thought, but Professor Herford is at his best--and a very fine best it is--in his brief summaries of the lives and works of individual writers. His Cobbett, his Lamb, and others that might be instanced, are veritable gems of biographical and critical compression presented with true literary finish."--_Literary World._

"A book which is remarkable for freshness and distinction of style, philosophic grasp of first principles, and critical insight.... When we add that the book is also conspicuous for delicacy of literary appreciation and ripe judgement, both of men and movements, we have said enough to show that we consider its claims are unusual."--_Speaker._

THE AGE OF TENNYSON

"A capital little handbook of modern English literature."--_Times._

"An instructive and readable manual ... an admirable first text-book on the subject."--_Scotsman._

"Professor Walker has done his allotted task with singular skill, wonderful judiciousness, critical insight, adequate knowledge and mastery of facts, keen discernment of qualities and effectiveness of grouping.... We have read no review of the whole of the Tennysonian age so genuinely fresh in matter, method, style, critical canons, and selectedness of phrase. As a small book on a great subject, it is a special treasure."--_Educational News._

* * * * *

UNIFORM WITH THE HANDBOOKS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

_Fourth Edition Enlarged. 725 pages. Small Crown 8vo. 6s. net._