Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/134

* ENGLISH LITERATURE. 112 ENGLISH LITERATURE. sense, and the Dictionary is a monument of lazy industry, not without absurd eccentricities. The man, however, who could inspire perhaps the best biography ever written, merits, aside from lit- erary considerations, all the immortality he en- it is, however, who inevitably as- t claim on our attention when it of. He is the representa- tive voice.' his the characteristic manner. By some denied the title of poet at all, he was by a few classed with Shakespeare as a twin glory, and. lor obvious reasons, he is. alter the great dramatist, the most quotable of English poets. The crowning glory of the century, however, was its least characteristic poetry. Now returns that fresh breath of field and woodland, absent since Milton, but nevermore lacking, this time the love of nature for its own sake. It is conspicu- ous in Gray, Thomson, Cowper, Goldsmith, Col- lins, and Burns, but culminates in Wordsworth, and is inevitable, almost the touchstone, in all nineteenth-century verse. Cray (1716-1771) had the scholarship befitting his fastidious classical taste, and yet his "Elegy" breathes the very spirit of the time in its genial recognition of com mon brotherhood, and its catholic appreciation To apothegmatic thought he joined admirable of virtue wherever found. It was a new voice, and 8 of phrase. We must not confound n viewpoint with that of a later day. If we take exception to his poetical ideals, we must allow that in his own time he was consummate and unapproachable in their execution. It is, however, the consensus of opinion that he was a clever versifier and epigrammatist rather than a poet in anything like the highest sense of the term. His' mental alertness is always seconded by mechanical skill. But. though more perfect in polish, his couplets are tar from equal in beauty and variety to Chaucer's an. I Goldsmith's, and much below Dryden's and Browning's in strength. Like them, he could not -natch a grace beyond the reach of art. He polished until he polished all spontaneity out of his ver-e. It affects us as in. ide — the work of an artisan rather than .if an artist. No wonder the tine ] tic soul of Kent- recoiled from it a- re- sembling the rocking of a hobby-horse. From derations one is prepared to admit thai Pope stands supreme in didactic verse, and that is not equivalent to damning with faint praise. It is equally true that he is peerless in the mock heroic. Unquestionably The Rapi of '!"■ bock is a masterpiece of its kind, but it is too characteristic to warrant the praise some- times bestowed, lb- "a- by temperament finely uited lor satire, and though somi of Ids friendships were warm. 77., Dunciad reveals him alike at bis best and at hi- worst. The "Essay on Criticism," the "Essay on Man," and the various 'epistles' discover the clever man of letters with irkable facility for rhyming the literary and philosophy current in bis day. For any intellectual force which the idea- themselves may possess he can present m legitimate claim — he is simplj the adapter, though bis alone is the form. lie was for the mOSf part a- devoid of emotion as of imagination, but there is one poem in which a real human interesl predominates. i i.c leas! distinctive, it will appear to many his 'Eloisa to Abelard" is a soliloquy, which, while inevitably artificial, yet appeals to the heart, an. I I i i ragic lives of the ill fated pair will. :i degree of vividness before US. I'd' ..re than anything else this poem, so little I he pot! ni ml mnkci. If Byron's somewhat extravagant admiration should oi tit hi' present com ■ I hoi, I. it would eem that it ma irtue of hiat al criticism and the |" '. rather than because of any lint let tl ritics do and say what they will, the little man whose Indomitable w ill | | he life which v !• i difficult ii would have appalled a weaker -pirit v •toutlj 00, M ill ' to 1 Mowing. sweet are its accents still. By this utterance the man is best known, though his other poetical work is memorable, and the Letters are almost incomparable. The romantic spirit was in the air. and became rapidly infectious, but the tradi- tions of a staid classicism obstinately persisted, ami incongruously mingled with the more unre- strained newcomer, notably in Thomson. It is this new ideal — romanticism — which, after the novel, gives the eighteenth century its strongest claim to distinction, so far as tendencies are concerned, and the tracing of the movement from its beginnings is no less instruc- tive than alluring. Cardinal dates must always mark the tremendous significance of Percy's lie- liques. Of perhaps less importance, but similar in aim and spirit, Ossiam exerted great influence on the time, now fairly alive with new things. Whatever the merits of the controversy about its value or authorship, we are surely indebted to Macpherson for a work quite unique. The mar- velous boy Chatterton is one of the many evi- dences of the prodigality of this renascence. Like poor Swift, dying atop, the melancholy Cowper nnil the sensitive Collins had yet to sing, the one in meditative strains, the other in madly im- petuous lyrics. Thomson's Seasons had great popularity in Pope's own day. ami was com- mended by the man who fancied he could invent nature, so completely had it been forgotten. The "Pastorals" is the dismal result. But. Thomson's highest achievement is the "Castle of Indolence." which might well be mistaken for the witchery of Speii-er him-elf. For Goldsmith the world cher- ishes unmixed affection. He is dear as poet, critic, dramatist, novelist, and if his history and science will not bear closest scrutiny the charm of the style i- amply sufficient to redeem errors in matter- of fact. And for all he was, in a worldly sense, impractical, be brought so rich a fund of common sense to poetry and the drama that he demolished the sentimental stage, and invested descriptive poetry with a charm as grateful as it is rare. for historical, if not for better reasons, Beat- tie Intnl. I be mentioned for his Minstrel, Shen- -loiic for his Schoolmistress, Akenside for his Pleasures of the Imagination, Young for his Xighi Thoughts, Churchill for his Rosciad and other satirical work, Blair for his Gtrave, Dyer for his Qrongar Hill. Gay for his Beggar's Opera, Ramsay for his Gentle Shepherd, and Parnell for his Hermit. The mystical Blake (1757- IS:27l had a nature sublimely artistic, and his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are alike valued for imaginative poetry and for symbolistic art. In no indefinite sense he is akin to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Crabbe is noteworthy for hi- merciless fidelity in depicting real life in