Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/164

 158 WhUford George Crabbe also, in The Village (1783), voiced a spirit of rebellion against false literary conventions. His models were not the ancients, but unfortunate downtrodden moderns: By such examples taught, I paint the Cot, As Truth will paint it, and as bards will not. 8 A fourth satirist who expressed the romantic opinion that since inspiration is the true fountainhead of poetry the poet need not imitate ancient models was James Woodhouse, a prote*ge of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu. Woodhouse, even more vividly than Chatterton, expresses the conviction that it is absurd to try to make poems by rule. This cordwainer poet, who commenced his literary career when the revival of interest in the country and the common people was just beginning, analyses thus the critical position of mid-eighteenth century classicism with regard to poetry: None without Latin stilts could stalk sublime, In bold blank Verse or more elaborate Rhyme, None chaunt choice strains but Horace' Art must pruns Confined, by modern scale, to time and tune; Or clearly comprehend Rhyme's perfect scope By keen Roscommon, or mellifluous Pope None gain Parnassus' heights, with Poet's gait, But Virgil construe, and could well translate; Or Pegasus with whip and rowels ride, Except old Homer's Epics pois'd each side. . . 7 6 The Poetical Works of George Crabbe (Oxford edition) ed. A. J. Carlyle and R. M. Carlyle (London, 1908), 35. Anstey in the appendix to The Patriot (1767) expresses Crabbe-like opinions of the artificiality of English literature in the Age of Johnson. In a passage which is reminiscent of some of the best irony in the Citizen of the World, a publisher invites the poet to dinner: "I've some very good company dine here to-day; There's a pastoral poet from Leadenhall-street t And a liberty- writer just come from the Fleet', With a clever young fellow, that's making an index, Who, perhaps, may assist you to write an Appendix; And a taylor, up three pairs of stairs in the Mews, Who does the political jobs for the news, And works now and then for the critic reviews. " I quote from The Poetical Works of Christopher Anstey. . . (London, 1808), 181-182. 7 The Life and Poetical Works of James Woodhouse (1735-1820) ed. Rev. R. I. Woodhouse (London, 1896), I, 69.