FRAGMENTS OF TRANSLATIONS, ETC. 267

From a French version of Homer.

The shouting army cry'd with joy extreme,

He sure must conquer, who himself can tame!

The Bee, 1759, p. 90.

The next is also from Homer, and is proposed as an improvement of Pope :

They knew and own'd the monarch of the main :

The sea subsiding spreads a level plain :

The curling waves before his coursers fly:

The parting surface leaves his brazen axle dry.

Miscellaneous Works, 1801, iv. 410.

From the same source comes number three, a quatrain from Vida's Eclogues :—

Say heavenly muse, their youthful frays rehearse ;
Begin, ye daughters of immortal verse;

Exulting rocks have crown'd the power of song!

And rivers listen'd as they flow'd along.

Miscellaneous Works, 1801, iv. 427.

Another is a couplet from Ovid, the fish referred to being the scarus or bream :

Of all the fish that graze beneath the flood,

He, only, ruminates his former food.

History of the Earth, &c., 1774, iii. 6.

Bolton Corney also prints the translation from the Spectator, already given at p. 94 of this volume. His last fragment is from the posthumous translation of Scarron's Roman Comique : Thus, when soft love subdues the heart

With smiling hopes and chilling fears,
The soul rejects the aid of art,

And speaks in moments more than years.

The Comic Romance of Monsieur Scarron, 1775, ii. 161.

It is unnecessary to refer to any other of the poems attributed to Goldsmith. Mitford included in his edition a couple of quatrains inserted in the Morning Chronicle for April 3, 1800, which were said to be by the poet; but they do not resemble his manner. Another piece with the title of The Fair Thief was revived in July, 1893, by an anonymous writer in the Daily

268 FRAGMENTS OF TRANSLATIONS, ETC.

Chronicle, as being possibly by Goldsmith, to whom it was assigned in an eighteenth-century anthology (1789-80). Its discoverer, however, subsequently found it given in Walpole's Noble Authors (Park's edition, 1806) to Charles Wyndham, Earl of Egremont. It has no great merit; and may safely be neglected as an important addition to Goldsmith's Works, already burdened with much which that critical author would never have reprinted.

APPENDIX E

GOLDSMITH ON POETRY UNDER ANNE AND
GEORGE THE FIRST.

In Letter xvi, vol. ii. pp. 139-41, of An History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son, 1764, Goldsmith gives the following short account of the state of poetry in the first quarter of the Eighteenth Century.

'But, of all the other arts, poetry in this age was carried to the greatest perfection. The language, for some ages, had been improving, but now it seemed entirely divested of its roughness and barbarity. Among the poets of this period we may place John Philips, author of several poems, but of none more admired than that humourous one, entitled, The Splendid Shilling; he lived in obscurity, and died just above want. William Congreve deserves also particular notice; his comedies, some of which were but coolly received upon their first appearance, seemed to mend upon repetition; and he is, at present, justly allowed the foremost in that species of dramatic poesy. His wit is ever just and brilliant; his sentiments new and lively; and his elegance equal to his regularity. Next him Vanbrugh is placed, whose humour seems more natural, and characters more new; but he owes too many obligations to the French, entirely to pass for an original; and his total disregard to decency, in a great measure, impairs his merit. Farquhar is still more lively, and, perhaps more entertaining than either; his pieces still continue the favourite performances of the stage, and bear frequent repetition without satiety; but he often mistakes pertness for wit, and seldom strikes his characters with proper force or originality. However, he died very young; and it is remarkable, that he

continued to improve as he grew older; his last play, entitled The Beaux' Stratagem, being the best of his productions. Addison, both as a poet and prose writer, deserves the highest regard and imitation. His Campaign, and Letter to Lord Halifax from Italy, are masterpieces in the former, and his Essays published in the Spectator are inimitable specimens of the latter. Whatever he treated of was handled with elegance and precision; and that virtue which was taught in his writings, was enforced by his example. Steele was Addison's friend and admirer; his comedies are perfectly polite, chaste, and genteel; nor were his other works contemptible; he wrote on several subjects, and yet it is amazing, in the multiplicity of his pursuits, how he found leisure for the discussion of any. Ever persecuted by creditors, whom his profuseness drew upon him, or pursuing impracticable schemes, suggested by ill-grounded ambition. Dean Swift was the professed antagonist both of Addison and him. He perceived that there was a spirit of romance mixed with all the works of the poets who preceded him; or, in other words, that they had drawn nature on the most pleasing side. There still therefore was a place left for him, who, careless of censure, should describe it just as it was, with all its deformities; he therefore owes much of his fame, not so much to the greatness of his genius, as to the boldness of it. He was dry, sarcastic, and severe; and suited his style exactly to the turn of his thought, being concise and nervous. In this period also flourished many of subordinate fame. Prior was the first who adopted the French elegant easy manner of telling a story; but if what he has borrowed from that nation be taken from him, scarce anything will be left upon which he can lay any claim to applause in poetry. Rowe was only outdone by Shakespeare and Otway as a tragic writer; he has fewer absurdities than either; and is, perhaps, as pathetic as they; but his flights are not so bold, nor his characters so strongly marked. Perhaps his coming later than the rest may have contributed to lessen the esteem he deserves. Garth had success as a poet; and, for a time, his fame was even greater than his desert. In his principal work, The Dispensary, his versification is negligent; and his plot is now become tedious; but whatever he may lose as a poet, it would be improper to rob him of the merit he deserves for having written the prose dedication, and preface, to the poem already mentioned; in which he

has shown the truest wit, with the most refined elegance. Parnell, though he has written but one poem, namely, The Hermit, yet has found a place among the English first rate poets. Gay, likewise, by his Fables and Pastorals, has acquired an equal reputation. But of all who have added to the stock of English Poetry, Pope, perhaps, deserves the first place. On him foreigners look as one of the most successful writers of his time; his versification is the most harmonious, and his correctness the most remarkable of all our poets. A noted contemporary of his own calls the English the finest writers on moral topics, and Pope the noblest moral writer of all the English. Mr. Pope has somewhere named himself the last English Muse; and, indeed, since his time, we have seen scarce any production that can justly lay claim to immortality; he carried the language to its highest perfection; and those who have attempted still farther to improve it, instead of ornament, have only caught finery.'

APPENDIX F

6

CRITICISMS FROM GOLDSMITH'S BEAUTIES OF ENGLISH POESY.'

To The Beauties of English Poesy, 2 vols., 1767, Goldsmith prefixed, in each case, 'short introductory criticisms.' They are, as he says, ' rather designed for boys than men'; and aim only at being 'obvious and sincere'; but they carry his views on the subject somewhat farther than the foregoing account from the History of England.

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK.

This seems to be Mr. Pope's most finished production, and is, perhaps, the most perfect in our language. It exhibits stronger powers of imagination, more harmony of numbers, and a greater knowledge of the world, than any other of this poet's works; and it is probable, if our country were called upon to show a specimen of their genius to foreigners, this would be the work here fixed upon.

THE HERMIT.

This poem is held in just esteem, the versification being chaste, and tolerably harmonious, and the story told with perspicuity and conciseness. It seems to have cost great labour, both to Mr. Pope and Parnell himself, to bring it to this perfection.' It may not be amiss to observe that the fable is taken from one of Dr. Henry More's Dialogues.

IL PENSEROSO.

I have heard a very judicious critic say, that he had an higher idea of Milton's style in poetry, from the two following poems [Il Penseroso and l'Allegro], than from his Paradise Lost. It is certain the imagination shown in them is correct and strong. The introduction to both in irregular measure is borrowed from the Italian, and hurts an English ear.

AN ELEGY, WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH YARD. This is a very fine poem, but overloaded with epithet.2 The heroic measure with alternate rhyme is very properly adapted to the solemnity of the subject, as it is the slowest movement that our language admits of. The latter part of the poem is pathetic and interesting.

LONDON. IN IMITATION OF THE THIRD SATIRE OF JUVENAL.

This poem of Mr. Johnson's is the best imitation of the original that has appeared in our language, being possessed of all the force and satirical resentment of Juvenal. Imitation gives us a much truer idea of the ancients than even translation could do.

THE SCHOOL-MISTRESS.

IN IMITATION OF SPENSER.

This poem is one of those happinesses in which a poet excels himself, as there is nothing in all Shenstone which in any way approaches it in merit; and, though I dislike the imitations of

1 Parnell's Poems, 1770, xxiv.

2 This is a strange complaint to come from Goldsmith, whose own Hermit, as was pointed out to the present Editor by the late Mr. Kegan Paul, is certainly open to this impeachment.