[531]Wakefield says "there is an affectation and ambiguity in this account which he does not comprehend." The uncertainty with which Pope speaks, refers to his doubt of the identity of the lady celebrated by the duke. Enough of "ambiguity and affectation" remains, which would have been no mystery to Wakefield if he had been aware that Pope's object was to deceive.[532]The Memoirs by Ayre appeared in 1745, without the name of the publisher. In a pamphlet which was printed the same year, under the title of Remarks on Squire Ayre's Memoirs, it is stated that the work was put together, and published by Curll, who being notorious for the manufacture of vapid, lying biographies, suppressed a name which would have been fatal to the sale of his trash.[533]Warton's Essay, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 329.[534]Pope's Correspondence, ed. Elwin, vol. i., pp. 144, 158-160, 162.[535]"Pray in your next," writes Caryll to Pope, July 16, 1717, "tell me who was the unfortunate lady you address a copy of verses to. I think you once gave me her history, but it is now quite out of my head." Pope, in his reply does not allude to the subject, and Caryll says to him on Aug. 18, "You answer not my question who the unfortunate lady was that you inscribe a copy of verses to in your book. I long to be re-told her story, for I believe you already told me formerly; but I shall refer that, and a thousand other things more, to chat over at our next meeting, which I hope draws near." This letter was answered by Pope on Aug. 22, but there is still not a word on the unfortunate lady.[536]Dr. Morell, in his notes to Seneca's Epistles, says, "I remember when I was a boy at Eton that an old almswoman, Mrs. Pain, having been cut down alive, gave this reason for hanging herself, that she was afraid of dying." To rush into death from the fear of death is not uncommon, and shows how far suicide is from being an evidence of superior courage. Acute philosophers have not always reasoned better than Pope. M. Lerminier, a French writer of repute, eulogises, in his Philosophie du Droit, the suicide of Cato for "a pure and majestic act." "In the Memoirs of the Emperor's Valet," he says in the next sentence, "we learn that Napoleon tried to destroy himself at Fontainebleau in 1814. He took poison; remedies were applied, and he recovered. He was not to die thus. Would you wish that Napoleon's end should have been that of an amorous sub-lieutenant, or a ruined banker?" But this was the veritable end of Cato. He died the death of "amorous sub-lieutenants and ruined bankers." The question of M. Lerminier revealed his consciousness that suicide was not heroism, or, in justification of the attempt of the Emperor, he would have asked, "Would you not have wished that Napoleon's end should have been the pure and majestic end of Cato?"[537]Comus, ver. 205.[538]I Viaggi di Marco Polo, ed. Pasini, 1847, p. 45.[539]A belief akin to that which grew up in deserts prevailed in England. Hamlet doubts whether his father's ghost is a "spirit of health or goblin damned," and Horatio attempts to dissuade Hamlet from following it lest it should prove to be an impostor. A "goblin damned" may have put on the "fair and warlike form" of the King of Denmark, may "tempt" Hamlet to the "dreadful summit of the cliff," may "there assume some other horrible form which might draw him into madness," and impel him to commit suicide. The radical idea is the same in Shakespeare and Marco Polo. Fiends personate the relations or friends of an intended victim that they may decoy him to his death.[540]And beck'ning woos me, from the fatal treeTo pluck a garland for herself or me.[541]Elements of Criticism, 6th ed., vol. i. p. 477.[542]Ben Jonson's Elegy on the Marchioness of Winchester:What gentle ghost besprent with April dew,Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?And beck'ning woos me?—Warton.[543]Johnson gives two meanings for "to gore,"—"to stab," "to pierce;" and "to pierce with a horn." The second, or special signification, has since superseded the general sense in popular usage, though, as with many other words, a sense which has become obsolete in conversation is occasionally revived in books. Formerly, the general sense of "to pierce," without reference to the mode of piercing, was the predominant meaning, and Milton, Par. Lost, vi. 386, employed the word to denote the gaps made in the ranks of a defeated army:the battle swervedWith many an inroad gored.[544]The third Elegy of Crashaw:And I, what is my crime, I cannot tell,Unless it be a crime t' have loved too well.—Steevens.[545]Shakespeare, Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2:Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;By that sin fell the angels.[546]Dryden, To the Duchess of Ormond:And where imprisoned in so sweet a cageA soul might well be pleased to pass an age.[547]Cowley has a couplet not unlike his, Davideis, i. 80:Where their vast court the mother-waters keep,And undisturbed by moons in silence sleep.—Wakefield.[548]Duke's translation of Juvenal, Sat. iv.:Without one virtue to redeem his fame.—Wakefield.[549]Dryden, Ovid's Amor. ii. 19:But thou dull husband of a wife too fair.—Wakefield.[550]Lord Kames objects to the false antithesis between cold flesh and mental warmth.[551]Milton, Comus, ver. 753:Love-darting eyes or tresses like the morn.—Wakefield.[552]Rolling eyes are contrary to the English idea of feminine refinement. Pope admired them. He had previously said in the Rape of the Lock, Cant. v. 33,Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll.[553]Wakefield mentions that the phrase "unknowing how to yield" is used by Dryden, Æneis, xi. 472, and that the entire couplet is almost identical with two passages in Pope's own translation of the Iliad. The first is at Book ix. 749. The second is at Book xxii. 447, and runs thus:The furies that relentless breast have steeledAnd cursed thee with a heart that cannot yield.[554]From a fragment of Sir Edward Hungerford, according to a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1764:The soul by pure religion taught to glowAt others' good, or melt at others' woe.—Wakefield.[555]Dryden, Æneis, ix. 647, where the mother of Euryalus laments her son, whose body remains with the enemy:Nor was I near to close his dying eyes,To wash his wounds, to weep his obsequies.—Wakefield.The cruelties of the lady's relations, the desolation of the family, the being deprived of the rights of sepulture, the circumstance of dying in a country remote from her relations, are all touched with great tenderness and pathos, particularly the four lines from the 51st, "By foreign hands," &c.—Warton.[556]The anonymous translator of Ariadne to Theseus:Poor Ariadne! thou must perish here,Breathe out thy soul in strange and hated air,Nor see thy pitying mother shed one tear;Want a kind hand, which thy fixed eyes may close,And thy stiff limbs may decently compose.So Gay in his Dione, Act ii. Sc. 1:What pious care my ghastful lid shall close?What decent hand my frozen limbs compose.—Wakefield.De Quincey assumes that the term "decent limbs" refers to the lady's shape, and he remarks that the language "does not imply much enthusiasm of praise." Pope had perhaps the same idea in his mind as the translator he imitated, and "thy decent limbs were composed" may be put inaccurately for "thy limbs were composed decently."[557]The poet in the previous couplet has employed the word "mourn" to signify genuine regret. In this verse it is put for the act of wearing mourning,—the appearing in the "sable weeds," which are, "the mockery of woe" when the sorrow is not real.[558]Dryden, Virg. Ecl. x. 51:How light would lie the turf upon my breast.A. Philips in his third Pastoral:The flow'ry turf lie light upon thy breast.This thought was common with the ancients.—Wakefield.[559]Tasso's description of an angel in the translation of Fairfax, i. 14:Of silver wings he took a shining pairFringed with gold.—Wakefield.[560]The expression has reference to ver. 61. "No sacred earth allowed her room," but her remains have "made sacred" the common earth in which she was buried.[561]Such a poem as Pope's Elegy, deeply serious and pathetic, rejects with disdain all fiction. Upon that account the passage from ver. 59 to ver. 68 deserves no quarter; for it is not the language of the heart, but of the imagination indulging its flights at ease, and by that means is eminently discordant with the subject. It would be a still more severe censure if it should be ascribed to imitation, copying indiscreetly what has been said by others.—Lord Kames.The ghost of the injured person appears to excite the poet to revenge her wrongs. He describes her character, execrates the author of her misfortunes, expatiates on the severity of her fate, the rites of sepulture denied her in a foreign land. Then follows, "What though no weeping," &c. Can anything be more naturally pathetic? Yet the critic tells us he can give no quarter to this part of the poem. Well might our poet's last wish be to commit his writings to the candour of a sensible and reflecting judge, rather than to the malice of every short-sighted and malevolent critic.—Warburton.[562]When Pope describes the retribution which is to fall upon the imperious relatives of the unfortunate lady, he says,Thus unlamented pass the proud away;and it is to these same relations, whose pride was their vice, that he reverts in the line,'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.The persecutors who have hunted you into the grave, shall one day share your fate.[563]R. Herrick, in a Meditation for his Mistress:You are the queen all flow'rs among,But die you must, fair maid, ere long,As he, the maker of this song.—Wakefield.[564]Dean Milman, in his History of Latin Christianity, says that Heloisa "was distinguished for her surpassing beauty." There is no authority for this assertion, which is one of the embellishments of later romancers.[565]"She knew Latin," says M. Rémusat, "and wrote it with facility and talent. As to Greek and Hebrew I can hardly believe that she was acquainted with more than the alphabet, and a few words which were quoted habitually in theology or in philosophy." The treatises of Abelard prove that he could read neither Greek nor Hebrew, and it is not likely that Heloisa was more learned than her master. Latin was the literary language of the day.[566]The sentiments which Warton imagined to be borrowed from Madame Guion and Fenelon were taken from the English translation of the Letters of Heloisa and Abelard. Kindred thoughts may be found in the works of almost any devotional writer.[567]M. Rémusat, who accepts the letters without misgiving, acknowledges that the form of theHistoria Calamitatum"appears to be an artificial frame to the picture." He assumes that the avowed purpose is a pretext, and that the repentant philosopher commences his narrative with a misstatement. The fiction which M. Rémusat is obliged to admit, does not ward off the strongest objection to the genuineness of the letters, and is the hypothesis least favourable to the reputation of Abelard; for his treachery to Heloisa is immensely aggravated by the admission that his narrative was meant for the public, and not for the eye alone of a friend.[568]Essai Historique sur Abailard et Heloise, ed. 1861, p. xxvi.[569]Essai Historique, p. lxiii.[570]As You Like It, Act iv. sc. 3.[571]History of Latin Christianity, vol. iii. p. 363.[572]Philosophie du Moyen Age, ed. 1856, p. 3.[573]Vie d'Abelard, Tome 1. p. 262.[574]Hist. de France, tom. iii. 317.[575]Horne's Works, vol. i. p. 248.[576]Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 33. Fox, the statesman, was one of those who thought "Eloisa much greater in her letters than Pope had made her."[577]Mason's Life of Whitehead, p. 35.[578]The letter which Abelard addressed to his friend, and which had fallen into the hands of Eloisa.[579]Dryden's Don Sebastian:And when I say Sebastian, dear Sebastian!I kiss the name I speak.—Steevens.[580]That is, a lively representation of his person was retained in her mind. So Drayton where he speaks of his departed love:Clear Ankor, on whose silver-sanded shoreMy soul-shrined saint, my fair idea lies.—Wakefield.[581]Claudian, De Nupt. Honor. et Mar. ver. 9:Nomenque beatumInjussæ scripsere manus.—Wakefield.[582]Drayton's Heroical Epistle of Rosamond to Henry:My hapless name with Henry's name I found—Then do I strive to wash it out with tears,But then the same more evident appears.—Holt White.[583]Some of these circumstances have perhaps a little impropriety when introduced into a place so lately founded as was the Paraclete; but are so well imagined and so highly painted, that they demand excuse.—Warton.[584]This is borrowed from Milton's Comus, ver. 428:By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades.—Wakefield.[585]A suspected poem of the Duke of Wharton on the Fear of Death:Where feeble tapers shed a gloomy rayAnd statues pity feign;Where pale-eyed griefs their wasting vigils keep.—Wakefield.[586]A puerile conceit from the dew which runs down stone and metals in damp weather.—Wakefield.A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1836, quotes a parallel couplet from a poem by the Duke of Wharton:Where kneeling statues constant vigils keep,And round the tombs the marble cherubs weep.[587]He followed Milton in the Penseroso:Forget thyself to marble.—Wakefield.Heloisa to Abelard: "O vows! O convent! I have not lost my humanity under your inexorable discipline. You have not made me marble by changing my habit." With the exception of a passage or two quoted by Wakefield, all the extracts in the notes are from Pope's chief text-book, the English work of Hughes, which is very unfaithful to the Latin original.[588]In every edition till that of Warburton the reading was,Heav'n claims me all in vain while he has part.[589]Heloisa to Abelard: "By that melancholy relation to your friend you have awakened all my sorrows."[590]Dryden's Æneis, v. 64:A day for ever sad, for ever dear.—Wakefield.[591]Heloisa to Abelard: "Shall my Abelard be never mentioned without tears? Shall the dear name be never spoken but with sighs?"[592]Heloisa to Abelard: "I met with my name a hundred times. I never saw it without fear; some heavy calamity always followed it. I saw yours too equally unhappy."[593]Pomfret in his Vision:For sure that flame is kindled from belowWhich breeds such sad variety of woe.—Wakefield.Steevens quotes from Dryden's State of Innocence the expression "sad variety of hell," and the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes from Yalden's Force of Jealousy the expression "a large variety of woe."[594]Dryden, Palamon and Arcite:Now warm in love, now with'ring in the grave.—Wakefield.[595]Fame is not a passion.—Warton.Ambition is the passion, and fame is the object of the passion.[596]Heloisa to Abelard: "Let me have a faithful account of all that concerns you. I would know everything, be it ever so unfortunate. Perhaps by mingling my sighs with yours I may make your sorrows less."[597]Heloisa to Abelard: "We may write to each other. Let us not lose through negligence the only happiness which is left us, and the only one perhaps which the malice of our enemies can never ravish from us."[598]Heloisa to Abelard: "Tell me not by way of excuse you will spare our tears; the tears of women shut up in a melancholy place, and devoted to penitence, are not to be spared."[599]Denham of Prudence:To live and die is all we have to do.—Wakefield.Prior's Celia to Damon:And these poor eyesNo longer shall their little lustre keep,And only be of use to read and weep.[600]Heloisa to Abelard: "Be not then unkind, nor deny me that little relief. All sorrows divided are made lighter."[601]Heloisa to Abelard: "Letters were first invented for comforting such solitary wretches as myself."[602]Heloisa to Abelard: "What cannot letters inspire? They have souls; they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart; they have all the fire of our passions; they can raise them as much as if the persons themselves were present; they have all the softness and delicacy of speech, and sometimes a boldness of expression even beyond it."[603]Otway's translation of Phædra to Hippolytus:Thus secrets safe to farthest shores may move:By letters foes converse, and learn to love.—Wakefield.[604]This is the most exquisite description of the first commencement of passion that our language, or perhaps any other, affords.—Bowles.[605]Prior's Celia to Damon:In vain I strove to check my growing flame,Or shelter passion under friendship's name.[606]The Divinity himself. Dryden, in his 12th Elegy:So faultless was the frame, as if the wholeHad been an emanation of the soul.—Wakefield.[607]Heloisa to Abelard: "That life in your eyes which so admirably expressed the vivacity of your mind; your conversation, which gave everything you spoke such an agreeable and insinuating turn; in short, everything spoke for you."[608]She says herself, "You had, I confess, two qualities in great perfection with which you could instantly captivate the heart of any woman,—a graceful manner of reading and singing." She mentions in another place also the excellence of his singing.—Wakefield.[609]He was her preceptor in philosophy and divinity.—Pope.Dryden, Epistle, 14:The fair themselves go mended from thy hand.—Wakefield.[610]Dryden's Œdipus, end of Act iii.:And backward trod the paths I sought to shun.[611]Thy holy precepts and the sanctity of thy character had made me conceive of thee as of a being more venerable than man, and approaching the nature of superior existences. But thy personal allurements soon inspired those tender feelings which gradually conducted me from a veneration of the angel to a less pure and dignified sensation—love for the man.—Wakefield.[612]Dryden, Ovid's Met. x.:And own no laws but those which love ordains.—Wakefield.Heloisa to Abelard: "The bonds of matrimony, however honourable, still bear with them a necessary engagement, and I was very unwilling to be necessitated to love always a man who perhaps would not always love me."[613]Love will not be confined by maisterie:When maisterie comes, the lord of Love anonFlutters his wings, and forthwith is he gone.Chaucer.—Pope.Hudibras, Part iii. Cant. i. 553:Love that's too generous to abideTo be against its nature tied,Disdains against its will to stay,But struggles out and flies away.—Wakefield.Dryden's Aurengezebe:'Tis true of marriage bands I'm weary grown,Love scorns all ties but those that are his own.—Steevens.The passage cited by Pope from Chaucer is in the Franklin's Tale. Spenser copied and altered the lines, which led Wakefield to imagine that Pope had committed the double error of falsely imputing them to Chaucer, and quoting them incorrectly.[614]Heloisa to Abelard: "It is not love but the desire of riches and honour which makes women run into the embraces of an indolent husband: ambition, not affection, forms such marriages. I believe indeed they may be followed with some honours and advantages, but I can never think that this is the way to enjoy the pleasures of an affectionate union."[615]Heloisa to Abelard: "This restless tormenting passion"—ambition—"punishes them for aiming at other advantages by love than love itself."[616]Heloisa to Abelard: "How often I have made protestations that it was infinitely preferable to me to live with Abelard as his mistress than with any other as empress of the world, and that I was more happy in obeying you than I should have been in lawfully captivating the lord of the universe."[617]Heloisa to Abelard: "Though I knew that the name of wife was honourable in the world, and holy in religion, yet the name of your mistress had greater charms because it was more free. I despised the name of wife that I might live happy with that of mistress."[618]Heloisa to Abelard: "We are called your sisters, and if it were possible to think of any expressions which would signify a dearer relation we would use them."[619]Denham, Cooper's Hill:Happy when both to the same centre move,When kings give liberty, and subjects love.—Cunningham.[620]Heloisa to Abelard: "If there is anything which may properly be called happiness here below, I am persuaded it is in the union of two persons who love each other with perfect liberty, who are united by a secret inclination, and satisfied with each other's merit. Their hearts are full, and leave no vacancy for any other passion."[621]Heloisa to Abelard: "If I could believe you as truly persuaded of my merit as I am of yours, I might say there has been a time when we were such a pair."[622]Mrs. Rowe in her Elegy:A dying lover pale and gasping lies.—Wakefield.[623]Heloisa to Abelard: "Where was I? where was your Heloise then? What joy should I have had in defending my lover. I would have guarded you from violence, though at the expense of my life; my cries and shrieks alone would have stopped the hand."[624]For "stroke" Pope, in all editions till that of 1736, read "hand," the word in the translation. He had used "hand" in the rhyme of the previous couplet, and it was probably to avoid the repetition that he made the alteration.[625]Careless readers may misapprehend the sense. "Pain" here means punishment,pœna.—Holt White.Like a verse of Drummond's:The grief was common, common were the cries.—Wakefield.Heloisa to Abelard: "You alone expiated the crime common to us both. You only were punished though both of us were guilty."[626]Heloisa to Abelard: "Oh whither does the excess of passion hurry me! Here love is shocked, and modesty joined with despair deprive me of speech."[627]A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Settle's Empress of Morocco:Muly Hamet.—Speak.Empress.—Let my tears and blushes speak the rest.
[531]Wakefield says "there is an affectation and ambiguity in this account which he does not comprehend." The uncertainty with which Pope speaks, refers to his doubt of the identity of the lady celebrated by the duke. Enough of "ambiguity and affectation" remains, which would have been no mystery to Wakefield if he had been aware that Pope's object was to deceive.
[531]Wakefield says "there is an affectation and ambiguity in this account which he does not comprehend." The uncertainty with which Pope speaks, refers to his doubt of the identity of the lady celebrated by the duke. Enough of "ambiguity and affectation" remains, which would have been no mystery to Wakefield if he had been aware that Pope's object was to deceive.
[532]The Memoirs by Ayre appeared in 1745, without the name of the publisher. In a pamphlet which was printed the same year, under the title of Remarks on Squire Ayre's Memoirs, it is stated that the work was put together, and published by Curll, who being notorious for the manufacture of vapid, lying biographies, suppressed a name which would have been fatal to the sale of his trash.
[532]The Memoirs by Ayre appeared in 1745, without the name of the publisher. In a pamphlet which was printed the same year, under the title of Remarks on Squire Ayre's Memoirs, it is stated that the work was put together, and published by Curll, who being notorious for the manufacture of vapid, lying biographies, suppressed a name which would have been fatal to the sale of his trash.
[533]Warton's Essay, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 329.
[533]Warton's Essay, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 329.
[534]Pope's Correspondence, ed. Elwin, vol. i., pp. 144, 158-160, 162.
[534]Pope's Correspondence, ed. Elwin, vol. i., pp. 144, 158-160, 162.
[535]"Pray in your next," writes Caryll to Pope, July 16, 1717, "tell me who was the unfortunate lady you address a copy of verses to. I think you once gave me her history, but it is now quite out of my head." Pope, in his reply does not allude to the subject, and Caryll says to him on Aug. 18, "You answer not my question who the unfortunate lady was that you inscribe a copy of verses to in your book. I long to be re-told her story, for I believe you already told me formerly; but I shall refer that, and a thousand other things more, to chat over at our next meeting, which I hope draws near." This letter was answered by Pope on Aug. 22, but there is still not a word on the unfortunate lady.
[535]"Pray in your next," writes Caryll to Pope, July 16, 1717, "tell me who was the unfortunate lady you address a copy of verses to. I think you once gave me her history, but it is now quite out of my head." Pope, in his reply does not allude to the subject, and Caryll says to him on Aug. 18, "You answer not my question who the unfortunate lady was that you inscribe a copy of verses to in your book. I long to be re-told her story, for I believe you already told me formerly; but I shall refer that, and a thousand other things more, to chat over at our next meeting, which I hope draws near." This letter was answered by Pope on Aug. 22, but there is still not a word on the unfortunate lady.
[536]Dr. Morell, in his notes to Seneca's Epistles, says, "I remember when I was a boy at Eton that an old almswoman, Mrs. Pain, having been cut down alive, gave this reason for hanging herself, that she was afraid of dying." To rush into death from the fear of death is not uncommon, and shows how far suicide is from being an evidence of superior courage. Acute philosophers have not always reasoned better than Pope. M. Lerminier, a French writer of repute, eulogises, in his Philosophie du Droit, the suicide of Cato for "a pure and majestic act." "In the Memoirs of the Emperor's Valet," he says in the next sentence, "we learn that Napoleon tried to destroy himself at Fontainebleau in 1814. He took poison; remedies were applied, and he recovered. He was not to die thus. Would you wish that Napoleon's end should have been that of an amorous sub-lieutenant, or a ruined banker?" But this was the veritable end of Cato. He died the death of "amorous sub-lieutenants and ruined bankers." The question of M. Lerminier revealed his consciousness that suicide was not heroism, or, in justification of the attempt of the Emperor, he would have asked, "Would you not have wished that Napoleon's end should have been the pure and majestic end of Cato?"
[536]Dr. Morell, in his notes to Seneca's Epistles, says, "I remember when I was a boy at Eton that an old almswoman, Mrs. Pain, having been cut down alive, gave this reason for hanging herself, that she was afraid of dying." To rush into death from the fear of death is not uncommon, and shows how far suicide is from being an evidence of superior courage. Acute philosophers have not always reasoned better than Pope. M. Lerminier, a French writer of repute, eulogises, in his Philosophie du Droit, the suicide of Cato for "a pure and majestic act." "In the Memoirs of the Emperor's Valet," he says in the next sentence, "we learn that Napoleon tried to destroy himself at Fontainebleau in 1814. He took poison; remedies were applied, and he recovered. He was not to die thus. Would you wish that Napoleon's end should have been that of an amorous sub-lieutenant, or a ruined banker?" But this was the veritable end of Cato. He died the death of "amorous sub-lieutenants and ruined bankers." The question of M. Lerminier revealed his consciousness that suicide was not heroism, or, in justification of the attempt of the Emperor, he would have asked, "Would you not have wished that Napoleon's end should have been the pure and majestic end of Cato?"
[537]Comus, ver. 205.
[537]Comus, ver. 205.
[538]I Viaggi di Marco Polo, ed. Pasini, 1847, p. 45.
[538]I Viaggi di Marco Polo, ed. Pasini, 1847, p. 45.
[539]A belief akin to that which grew up in deserts prevailed in England. Hamlet doubts whether his father's ghost is a "spirit of health or goblin damned," and Horatio attempts to dissuade Hamlet from following it lest it should prove to be an impostor. A "goblin damned" may have put on the "fair and warlike form" of the King of Denmark, may "tempt" Hamlet to the "dreadful summit of the cliff," may "there assume some other horrible form which might draw him into madness," and impel him to commit suicide. The radical idea is the same in Shakespeare and Marco Polo. Fiends personate the relations or friends of an intended victim that they may decoy him to his death.
[539]A belief akin to that which grew up in deserts prevailed in England. Hamlet doubts whether his father's ghost is a "spirit of health or goblin damned," and Horatio attempts to dissuade Hamlet from following it lest it should prove to be an impostor. A "goblin damned" may have put on the "fair and warlike form" of the King of Denmark, may "tempt" Hamlet to the "dreadful summit of the cliff," may "there assume some other horrible form which might draw him into madness," and impel him to commit suicide. The radical idea is the same in Shakespeare and Marco Polo. Fiends personate the relations or friends of an intended victim that they may decoy him to his death.
[540]And beck'ning woos me, from the fatal treeTo pluck a garland for herself or me.
[540]
And beck'ning woos me, from the fatal treeTo pluck a garland for herself or me.
And beck'ning woos me, from the fatal treeTo pluck a garland for herself or me.
And beck'ning woos me, from the fatal treeTo pluck a garland for herself or me.
[541]Elements of Criticism, 6th ed., vol. i. p. 477.
[541]Elements of Criticism, 6th ed., vol. i. p. 477.
[542]Ben Jonson's Elegy on the Marchioness of Winchester:What gentle ghost besprent with April dew,Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?And beck'ning woos me?—Warton.
[542]Ben Jonson's Elegy on the Marchioness of Winchester:
What gentle ghost besprent with April dew,Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?And beck'ning woos me?—Warton.
What gentle ghost besprent with April dew,Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?And beck'ning woos me?—Warton.
What gentle ghost besprent with April dew,Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?And beck'ning woos me?—Warton.
[543]Johnson gives two meanings for "to gore,"—"to stab," "to pierce;" and "to pierce with a horn." The second, or special signification, has since superseded the general sense in popular usage, though, as with many other words, a sense which has become obsolete in conversation is occasionally revived in books. Formerly, the general sense of "to pierce," without reference to the mode of piercing, was the predominant meaning, and Milton, Par. Lost, vi. 386, employed the word to denote the gaps made in the ranks of a defeated army:the battle swervedWith many an inroad gored.
[543]Johnson gives two meanings for "to gore,"—"to stab," "to pierce;" and "to pierce with a horn." The second, or special signification, has since superseded the general sense in popular usage, though, as with many other words, a sense which has become obsolete in conversation is occasionally revived in books. Formerly, the general sense of "to pierce," without reference to the mode of piercing, was the predominant meaning, and Milton, Par. Lost, vi. 386, employed the word to denote the gaps made in the ranks of a defeated army:
the battle swervedWith many an inroad gored.
the battle swervedWith many an inroad gored.
the battle swervedWith many an inroad gored.
[544]The third Elegy of Crashaw:And I, what is my crime, I cannot tell,Unless it be a crime t' have loved too well.—Steevens.
[544]The third Elegy of Crashaw:
And I, what is my crime, I cannot tell,Unless it be a crime t' have loved too well.—Steevens.
And I, what is my crime, I cannot tell,Unless it be a crime t' have loved too well.—Steevens.
And I, what is my crime, I cannot tell,Unless it be a crime t' have loved too well.—Steevens.
[545]Shakespeare, Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2:Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;By that sin fell the angels.
[545]Shakespeare, Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2:
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;By that sin fell the angels.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;By that sin fell the angels.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;By that sin fell the angels.
[546]Dryden, To the Duchess of Ormond:And where imprisoned in so sweet a cageA soul might well be pleased to pass an age.
[546]Dryden, To the Duchess of Ormond:
And where imprisoned in so sweet a cageA soul might well be pleased to pass an age.
And where imprisoned in so sweet a cageA soul might well be pleased to pass an age.
And where imprisoned in so sweet a cageA soul might well be pleased to pass an age.
[547]Cowley has a couplet not unlike his, Davideis, i. 80:Where their vast court the mother-waters keep,And undisturbed by moons in silence sleep.—Wakefield.
[547]Cowley has a couplet not unlike his, Davideis, i. 80:
Where their vast court the mother-waters keep,And undisturbed by moons in silence sleep.—Wakefield.
Where their vast court the mother-waters keep,And undisturbed by moons in silence sleep.—Wakefield.
Where their vast court the mother-waters keep,And undisturbed by moons in silence sleep.—Wakefield.
[548]Duke's translation of Juvenal, Sat. iv.:Without one virtue to redeem his fame.—Wakefield.
[548]Duke's translation of Juvenal, Sat. iv.:
Without one virtue to redeem his fame.—Wakefield.
[549]Dryden, Ovid's Amor. ii. 19:But thou dull husband of a wife too fair.—Wakefield.
[549]Dryden, Ovid's Amor. ii. 19:
But thou dull husband of a wife too fair.—Wakefield.
[550]Lord Kames objects to the false antithesis between cold flesh and mental warmth.
[550]Lord Kames objects to the false antithesis between cold flesh and mental warmth.
[551]Milton, Comus, ver. 753:Love-darting eyes or tresses like the morn.—Wakefield.
[551]Milton, Comus, ver. 753:
Love-darting eyes or tresses like the morn.—Wakefield.
[552]Rolling eyes are contrary to the English idea of feminine refinement. Pope admired them. He had previously said in the Rape of the Lock, Cant. v. 33,Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll.
[552]Rolling eyes are contrary to the English idea of feminine refinement. Pope admired them. He had previously said in the Rape of the Lock, Cant. v. 33,
Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll.
[553]Wakefield mentions that the phrase "unknowing how to yield" is used by Dryden, Æneis, xi. 472, and that the entire couplet is almost identical with two passages in Pope's own translation of the Iliad. The first is at Book ix. 749. The second is at Book xxii. 447, and runs thus:The furies that relentless breast have steeledAnd cursed thee with a heart that cannot yield.
[553]Wakefield mentions that the phrase "unknowing how to yield" is used by Dryden, Æneis, xi. 472, and that the entire couplet is almost identical with two passages in Pope's own translation of the Iliad. The first is at Book ix. 749. The second is at Book xxii. 447, and runs thus:
The furies that relentless breast have steeledAnd cursed thee with a heart that cannot yield.
The furies that relentless breast have steeledAnd cursed thee with a heart that cannot yield.
The furies that relentless breast have steeledAnd cursed thee with a heart that cannot yield.
[554]From a fragment of Sir Edward Hungerford, according to a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1764:The soul by pure religion taught to glowAt others' good, or melt at others' woe.—Wakefield.
[554]From a fragment of Sir Edward Hungerford, according to a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1764:
The soul by pure religion taught to glowAt others' good, or melt at others' woe.—Wakefield.
The soul by pure religion taught to glowAt others' good, or melt at others' woe.—Wakefield.
The soul by pure religion taught to glowAt others' good, or melt at others' woe.—Wakefield.
[555]Dryden, Æneis, ix. 647, where the mother of Euryalus laments her son, whose body remains with the enemy:Nor was I near to close his dying eyes,To wash his wounds, to weep his obsequies.—Wakefield.The cruelties of the lady's relations, the desolation of the family, the being deprived of the rights of sepulture, the circumstance of dying in a country remote from her relations, are all touched with great tenderness and pathos, particularly the four lines from the 51st, "By foreign hands," &c.—Warton.
[555]Dryden, Æneis, ix. 647, where the mother of Euryalus laments her son, whose body remains with the enemy:
Nor was I near to close his dying eyes,To wash his wounds, to weep his obsequies.—Wakefield.
Nor was I near to close his dying eyes,To wash his wounds, to weep his obsequies.—Wakefield.
Nor was I near to close his dying eyes,To wash his wounds, to weep his obsequies.—Wakefield.
The cruelties of the lady's relations, the desolation of the family, the being deprived of the rights of sepulture, the circumstance of dying in a country remote from her relations, are all touched with great tenderness and pathos, particularly the four lines from the 51st, "By foreign hands," &c.—Warton.
[556]The anonymous translator of Ariadne to Theseus:Poor Ariadne! thou must perish here,Breathe out thy soul in strange and hated air,Nor see thy pitying mother shed one tear;Want a kind hand, which thy fixed eyes may close,And thy stiff limbs may decently compose.So Gay in his Dione, Act ii. Sc. 1:What pious care my ghastful lid shall close?What decent hand my frozen limbs compose.—Wakefield.De Quincey assumes that the term "decent limbs" refers to the lady's shape, and he remarks that the language "does not imply much enthusiasm of praise." Pope had perhaps the same idea in his mind as the translator he imitated, and "thy decent limbs were composed" may be put inaccurately for "thy limbs were composed decently."
[556]The anonymous translator of Ariadne to Theseus:
Poor Ariadne! thou must perish here,Breathe out thy soul in strange and hated air,Nor see thy pitying mother shed one tear;Want a kind hand, which thy fixed eyes may close,And thy stiff limbs may decently compose.
Poor Ariadne! thou must perish here,Breathe out thy soul in strange and hated air,Nor see thy pitying mother shed one tear;Want a kind hand, which thy fixed eyes may close,And thy stiff limbs may decently compose.
Poor Ariadne! thou must perish here,Breathe out thy soul in strange and hated air,Nor see thy pitying mother shed one tear;Want a kind hand, which thy fixed eyes may close,And thy stiff limbs may decently compose.
So Gay in his Dione, Act ii. Sc. 1:
What pious care my ghastful lid shall close?What decent hand my frozen limbs compose.—Wakefield.
What pious care my ghastful lid shall close?What decent hand my frozen limbs compose.—Wakefield.
What pious care my ghastful lid shall close?What decent hand my frozen limbs compose.—Wakefield.
De Quincey assumes that the term "decent limbs" refers to the lady's shape, and he remarks that the language "does not imply much enthusiasm of praise." Pope had perhaps the same idea in his mind as the translator he imitated, and "thy decent limbs were composed" may be put inaccurately for "thy limbs were composed decently."
[557]The poet in the previous couplet has employed the word "mourn" to signify genuine regret. In this verse it is put for the act of wearing mourning,—the appearing in the "sable weeds," which are, "the mockery of woe" when the sorrow is not real.
[557]The poet in the previous couplet has employed the word "mourn" to signify genuine regret. In this verse it is put for the act of wearing mourning,—the appearing in the "sable weeds," which are, "the mockery of woe" when the sorrow is not real.
[558]Dryden, Virg. Ecl. x. 51:How light would lie the turf upon my breast.A. Philips in his third Pastoral:The flow'ry turf lie light upon thy breast.This thought was common with the ancients.—Wakefield.
[558]Dryden, Virg. Ecl. x. 51:
How light would lie the turf upon my breast.
A. Philips in his third Pastoral:
The flow'ry turf lie light upon thy breast.
This thought was common with the ancients.—Wakefield.
[559]Tasso's description of an angel in the translation of Fairfax, i. 14:Of silver wings he took a shining pairFringed with gold.—Wakefield.
[559]Tasso's description of an angel in the translation of Fairfax, i. 14:
Of silver wings he took a shining pairFringed with gold.—Wakefield.
Of silver wings he took a shining pairFringed with gold.—Wakefield.
Of silver wings he took a shining pairFringed with gold.—Wakefield.
[560]The expression has reference to ver. 61. "No sacred earth allowed her room," but her remains have "made sacred" the common earth in which she was buried.
[560]The expression has reference to ver. 61. "No sacred earth allowed her room," but her remains have "made sacred" the common earth in which she was buried.
[561]Such a poem as Pope's Elegy, deeply serious and pathetic, rejects with disdain all fiction. Upon that account the passage from ver. 59 to ver. 68 deserves no quarter; for it is not the language of the heart, but of the imagination indulging its flights at ease, and by that means is eminently discordant with the subject. It would be a still more severe censure if it should be ascribed to imitation, copying indiscreetly what has been said by others.—Lord Kames.The ghost of the injured person appears to excite the poet to revenge her wrongs. He describes her character, execrates the author of her misfortunes, expatiates on the severity of her fate, the rites of sepulture denied her in a foreign land. Then follows, "What though no weeping," &c. Can anything be more naturally pathetic? Yet the critic tells us he can give no quarter to this part of the poem. Well might our poet's last wish be to commit his writings to the candour of a sensible and reflecting judge, rather than to the malice of every short-sighted and malevolent critic.—Warburton.
[561]Such a poem as Pope's Elegy, deeply serious and pathetic, rejects with disdain all fiction. Upon that account the passage from ver. 59 to ver. 68 deserves no quarter; for it is not the language of the heart, but of the imagination indulging its flights at ease, and by that means is eminently discordant with the subject. It would be a still more severe censure if it should be ascribed to imitation, copying indiscreetly what has been said by others.—Lord Kames.
The ghost of the injured person appears to excite the poet to revenge her wrongs. He describes her character, execrates the author of her misfortunes, expatiates on the severity of her fate, the rites of sepulture denied her in a foreign land. Then follows, "What though no weeping," &c. Can anything be more naturally pathetic? Yet the critic tells us he can give no quarter to this part of the poem. Well might our poet's last wish be to commit his writings to the candour of a sensible and reflecting judge, rather than to the malice of every short-sighted and malevolent critic.—Warburton.
[562]When Pope describes the retribution which is to fall upon the imperious relatives of the unfortunate lady, he says,Thus unlamented pass the proud away;and it is to these same relations, whose pride was their vice, that he reverts in the line,'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.The persecutors who have hunted you into the grave, shall one day share your fate.
[562]When Pope describes the retribution which is to fall upon the imperious relatives of the unfortunate lady, he says,
Thus unlamented pass the proud away;
and it is to these same relations, whose pride was their vice, that he reverts in the line,
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.
The persecutors who have hunted you into the grave, shall one day share your fate.
[563]R. Herrick, in a Meditation for his Mistress:You are the queen all flow'rs among,But die you must, fair maid, ere long,As he, the maker of this song.—Wakefield.
[563]R. Herrick, in a Meditation for his Mistress:
You are the queen all flow'rs among,But die you must, fair maid, ere long,As he, the maker of this song.—Wakefield.
You are the queen all flow'rs among,But die you must, fair maid, ere long,As he, the maker of this song.—Wakefield.
You are the queen all flow'rs among,But die you must, fair maid, ere long,As he, the maker of this song.—Wakefield.
[564]Dean Milman, in his History of Latin Christianity, says that Heloisa "was distinguished for her surpassing beauty." There is no authority for this assertion, which is one of the embellishments of later romancers.
[564]Dean Milman, in his History of Latin Christianity, says that Heloisa "was distinguished for her surpassing beauty." There is no authority for this assertion, which is one of the embellishments of later romancers.
[565]"She knew Latin," says M. Rémusat, "and wrote it with facility and talent. As to Greek and Hebrew I can hardly believe that she was acquainted with more than the alphabet, and a few words which were quoted habitually in theology or in philosophy." The treatises of Abelard prove that he could read neither Greek nor Hebrew, and it is not likely that Heloisa was more learned than her master. Latin was the literary language of the day.
[565]"She knew Latin," says M. Rémusat, "and wrote it with facility and talent. As to Greek and Hebrew I can hardly believe that she was acquainted with more than the alphabet, and a few words which were quoted habitually in theology or in philosophy." The treatises of Abelard prove that he could read neither Greek nor Hebrew, and it is not likely that Heloisa was more learned than her master. Latin was the literary language of the day.
[566]The sentiments which Warton imagined to be borrowed from Madame Guion and Fenelon were taken from the English translation of the Letters of Heloisa and Abelard. Kindred thoughts may be found in the works of almost any devotional writer.
[566]The sentiments which Warton imagined to be borrowed from Madame Guion and Fenelon were taken from the English translation of the Letters of Heloisa and Abelard. Kindred thoughts may be found in the works of almost any devotional writer.
[567]M. Rémusat, who accepts the letters without misgiving, acknowledges that the form of theHistoria Calamitatum"appears to be an artificial frame to the picture." He assumes that the avowed purpose is a pretext, and that the repentant philosopher commences his narrative with a misstatement. The fiction which M. Rémusat is obliged to admit, does not ward off the strongest objection to the genuineness of the letters, and is the hypothesis least favourable to the reputation of Abelard; for his treachery to Heloisa is immensely aggravated by the admission that his narrative was meant for the public, and not for the eye alone of a friend.
[567]M. Rémusat, who accepts the letters without misgiving, acknowledges that the form of theHistoria Calamitatum"appears to be an artificial frame to the picture." He assumes that the avowed purpose is a pretext, and that the repentant philosopher commences his narrative with a misstatement. The fiction which M. Rémusat is obliged to admit, does not ward off the strongest objection to the genuineness of the letters, and is the hypothesis least favourable to the reputation of Abelard; for his treachery to Heloisa is immensely aggravated by the admission that his narrative was meant for the public, and not for the eye alone of a friend.
[568]Essai Historique sur Abailard et Heloise, ed. 1861, p. xxvi.
[568]Essai Historique sur Abailard et Heloise, ed. 1861, p. xxvi.
[569]Essai Historique, p. lxiii.
[569]Essai Historique, p. lxiii.
[570]As You Like It, Act iv. sc. 3.
[570]As You Like It, Act iv. sc. 3.
[571]History of Latin Christianity, vol. iii. p. 363.
[571]History of Latin Christianity, vol. iii. p. 363.
[572]Philosophie du Moyen Age, ed. 1856, p. 3.
[572]Philosophie du Moyen Age, ed. 1856, p. 3.
[573]Vie d'Abelard, Tome 1. p. 262.
[573]Vie d'Abelard, Tome 1. p. 262.
[574]Hist. de France, tom. iii. 317.
[574]Hist. de France, tom. iii. 317.
[575]Horne's Works, vol. i. p. 248.
[575]Horne's Works, vol. i. p. 248.
[576]Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 33. Fox, the statesman, was one of those who thought "Eloisa much greater in her letters than Pope had made her."
[576]Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 33. Fox, the statesman, was one of those who thought "Eloisa much greater in her letters than Pope had made her."
[577]Mason's Life of Whitehead, p. 35.
[577]Mason's Life of Whitehead, p. 35.
[578]The letter which Abelard addressed to his friend, and which had fallen into the hands of Eloisa.
[578]The letter which Abelard addressed to his friend, and which had fallen into the hands of Eloisa.
[579]Dryden's Don Sebastian:And when I say Sebastian, dear Sebastian!I kiss the name I speak.—Steevens.
[579]Dryden's Don Sebastian:
And when I say Sebastian, dear Sebastian!I kiss the name I speak.—Steevens.
And when I say Sebastian, dear Sebastian!I kiss the name I speak.—Steevens.
And when I say Sebastian, dear Sebastian!I kiss the name I speak.—Steevens.
[580]That is, a lively representation of his person was retained in her mind. So Drayton where he speaks of his departed love:Clear Ankor, on whose silver-sanded shoreMy soul-shrined saint, my fair idea lies.—Wakefield.
[580]That is, a lively representation of his person was retained in her mind. So Drayton where he speaks of his departed love:
Clear Ankor, on whose silver-sanded shoreMy soul-shrined saint, my fair idea lies.—Wakefield.
Clear Ankor, on whose silver-sanded shoreMy soul-shrined saint, my fair idea lies.—Wakefield.
Clear Ankor, on whose silver-sanded shoreMy soul-shrined saint, my fair idea lies.—Wakefield.
[581]Claudian, De Nupt. Honor. et Mar. ver. 9:Nomenque beatumInjussæ scripsere manus.—Wakefield.
[581]Claudian, De Nupt. Honor. et Mar. ver. 9:
Nomenque beatumInjussæ scripsere manus.—Wakefield.
Nomenque beatumInjussæ scripsere manus.—Wakefield.
Nomenque beatumInjussæ scripsere manus.—Wakefield.
[582]Drayton's Heroical Epistle of Rosamond to Henry:My hapless name with Henry's name I found—Then do I strive to wash it out with tears,But then the same more evident appears.—Holt White.
[582]Drayton's Heroical Epistle of Rosamond to Henry:
My hapless name with Henry's name I found—Then do I strive to wash it out with tears,But then the same more evident appears.—Holt White.
My hapless name with Henry's name I found—Then do I strive to wash it out with tears,But then the same more evident appears.—Holt White.
My hapless name with Henry's name I found—Then do I strive to wash it out with tears,But then the same more evident appears.—Holt White.
[583]Some of these circumstances have perhaps a little impropriety when introduced into a place so lately founded as was the Paraclete; but are so well imagined and so highly painted, that they demand excuse.—Warton.
[583]Some of these circumstances have perhaps a little impropriety when introduced into a place so lately founded as was the Paraclete; but are so well imagined and so highly painted, that they demand excuse.—Warton.
[584]This is borrowed from Milton's Comus, ver. 428:By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades.—Wakefield.
[584]This is borrowed from Milton's Comus, ver. 428:
By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades.—Wakefield.
[585]A suspected poem of the Duke of Wharton on the Fear of Death:Where feeble tapers shed a gloomy rayAnd statues pity feign;Where pale-eyed griefs their wasting vigils keep.—Wakefield.
[585]A suspected poem of the Duke of Wharton on the Fear of Death:
Where feeble tapers shed a gloomy rayAnd statues pity feign;Where pale-eyed griefs their wasting vigils keep.—Wakefield.
Where feeble tapers shed a gloomy rayAnd statues pity feign;Where pale-eyed griefs their wasting vigils keep.—Wakefield.
Where feeble tapers shed a gloomy rayAnd statues pity feign;Where pale-eyed griefs their wasting vigils keep.—Wakefield.
[586]A puerile conceit from the dew which runs down stone and metals in damp weather.—Wakefield.A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1836, quotes a parallel couplet from a poem by the Duke of Wharton:Where kneeling statues constant vigils keep,And round the tombs the marble cherubs weep.
[586]A puerile conceit from the dew which runs down stone and metals in damp weather.—Wakefield.
A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1836, quotes a parallel couplet from a poem by the Duke of Wharton:
Where kneeling statues constant vigils keep,And round the tombs the marble cherubs weep.
Where kneeling statues constant vigils keep,And round the tombs the marble cherubs weep.
Where kneeling statues constant vigils keep,And round the tombs the marble cherubs weep.
[587]He followed Milton in the Penseroso:Forget thyself to marble.—Wakefield.Heloisa to Abelard: "O vows! O convent! I have not lost my humanity under your inexorable discipline. You have not made me marble by changing my habit." With the exception of a passage or two quoted by Wakefield, all the extracts in the notes are from Pope's chief text-book, the English work of Hughes, which is very unfaithful to the Latin original.
[587]He followed Milton in the Penseroso:
Forget thyself to marble.—Wakefield.
Heloisa to Abelard: "O vows! O convent! I have not lost my humanity under your inexorable discipline. You have not made me marble by changing my habit." With the exception of a passage or two quoted by Wakefield, all the extracts in the notes are from Pope's chief text-book, the English work of Hughes, which is very unfaithful to the Latin original.
[588]In every edition till that of Warburton the reading was,Heav'n claims me all in vain while he has part.
[588]In every edition till that of Warburton the reading was,
Heav'n claims me all in vain while he has part.
[589]Heloisa to Abelard: "By that melancholy relation to your friend you have awakened all my sorrows."
[589]Heloisa to Abelard: "By that melancholy relation to your friend you have awakened all my sorrows."
[590]Dryden's Æneis, v. 64:A day for ever sad, for ever dear.—Wakefield.
[590]Dryden's Æneis, v. 64:
A day for ever sad, for ever dear.—Wakefield.
[591]Heloisa to Abelard: "Shall my Abelard be never mentioned without tears? Shall the dear name be never spoken but with sighs?"
[591]Heloisa to Abelard: "Shall my Abelard be never mentioned without tears? Shall the dear name be never spoken but with sighs?"
[592]Heloisa to Abelard: "I met with my name a hundred times. I never saw it without fear; some heavy calamity always followed it. I saw yours too equally unhappy."
[592]Heloisa to Abelard: "I met with my name a hundred times. I never saw it without fear; some heavy calamity always followed it. I saw yours too equally unhappy."
[593]Pomfret in his Vision:For sure that flame is kindled from belowWhich breeds such sad variety of woe.—Wakefield.Steevens quotes from Dryden's State of Innocence the expression "sad variety of hell," and the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes from Yalden's Force of Jealousy the expression "a large variety of woe."
[593]Pomfret in his Vision:
For sure that flame is kindled from belowWhich breeds such sad variety of woe.—Wakefield.
For sure that flame is kindled from belowWhich breeds such sad variety of woe.—Wakefield.
For sure that flame is kindled from belowWhich breeds such sad variety of woe.—Wakefield.
Steevens quotes from Dryden's State of Innocence the expression "sad variety of hell," and the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes from Yalden's Force of Jealousy the expression "a large variety of woe."
[594]Dryden, Palamon and Arcite:Now warm in love, now with'ring in the grave.—Wakefield.
[594]Dryden, Palamon and Arcite:
Now warm in love, now with'ring in the grave.—Wakefield.
[595]Fame is not a passion.—Warton.Ambition is the passion, and fame is the object of the passion.
[595]Fame is not a passion.—Warton.
Ambition is the passion, and fame is the object of the passion.
[596]Heloisa to Abelard: "Let me have a faithful account of all that concerns you. I would know everything, be it ever so unfortunate. Perhaps by mingling my sighs with yours I may make your sorrows less."
[596]Heloisa to Abelard: "Let me have a faithful account of all that concerns you. I would know everything, be it ever so unfortunate. Perhaps by mingling my sighs with yours I may make your sorrows less."
[597]Heloisa to Abelard: "We may write to each other. Let us not lose through negligence the only happiness which is left us, and the only one perhaps which the malice of our enemies can never ravish from us."
[597]Heloisa to Abelard: "We may write to each other. Let us not lose through negligence the only happiness which is left us, and the only one perhaps which the malice of our enemies can never ravish from us."
[598]Heloisa to Abelard: "Tell me not by way of excuse you will spare our tears; the tears of women shut up in a melancholy place, and devoted to penitence, are not to be spared."
[598]Heloisa to Abelard: "Tell me not by way of excuse you will spare our tears; the tears of women shut up in a melancholy place, and devoted to penitence, are not to be spared."
[599]Denham of Prudence:To live and die is all we have to do.—Wakefield.Prior's Celia to Damon:And these poor eyesNo longer shall their little lustre keep,And only be of use to read and weep.
[599]Denham of Prudence:
To live and die is all we have to do.—Wakefield.
Prior's Celia to Damon:
And these poor eyesNo longer shall their little lustre keep,And only be of use to read and weep.
And these poor eyesNo longer shall their little lustre keep,And only be of use to read and weep.
And these poor eyesNo longer shall their little lustre keep,And only be of use to read and weep.
[600]Heloisa to Abelard: "Be not then unkind, nor deny me that little relief. All sorrows divided are made lighter."
[600]Heloisa to Abelard: "Be not then unkind, nor deny me that little relief. All sorrows divided are made lighter."
[601]Heloisa to Abelard: "Letters were first invented for comforting such solitary wretches as myself."
[601]Heloisa to Abelard: "Letters were first invented for comforting such solitary wretches as myself."
[602]Heloisa to Abelard: "What cannot letters inspire? They have souls; they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart; they have all the fire of our passions; they can raise them as much as if the persons themselves were present; they have all the softness and delicacy of speech, and sometimes a boldness of expression even beyond it."
[602]Heloisa to Abelard: "What cannot letters inspire? They have souls; they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart; they have all the fire of our passions; they can raise them as much as if the persons themselves were present; they have all the softness and delicacy of speech, and sometimes a boldness of expression even beyond it."
[603]Otway's translation of Phædra to Hippolytus:Thus secrets safe to farthest shores may move:By letters foes converse, and learn to love.—Wakefield.
[603]Otway's translation of Phædra to Hippolytus:
Thus secrets safe to farthest shores may move:By letters foes converse, and learn to love.—Wakefield.
Thus secrets safe to farthest shores may move:By letters foes converse, and learn to love.—Wakefield.
Thus secrets safe to farthest shores may move:By letters foes converse, and learn to love.—Wakefield.
[604]This is the most exquisite description of the first commencement of passion that our language, or perhaps any other, affords.—Bowles.
[604]This is the most exquisite description of the first commencement of passion that our language, or perhaps any other, affords.—Bowles.
[605]Prior's Celia to Damon:In vain I strove to check my growing flame,Or shelter passion under friendship's name.
[605]Prior's Celia to Damon:
In vain I strove to check my growing flame,Or shelter passion under friendship's name.
In vain I strove to check my growing flame,Or shelter passion under friendship's name.
In vain I strove to check my growing flame,Or shelter passion under friendship's name.
[606]The Divinity himself. Dryden, in his 12th Elegy:So faultless was the frame, as if the wholeHad been an emanation of the soul.—Wakefield.
[606]The Divinity himself. Dryden, in his 12th Elegy:
So faultless was the frame, as if the wholeHad been an emanation of the soul.—Wakefield.
So faultless was the frame, as if the wholeHad been an emanation of the soul.—Wakefield.
So faultless was the frame, as if the wholeHad been an emanation of the soul.—Wakefield.
[607]Heloisa to Abelard: "That life in your eyes which so admirably expressed the vivacity of your mind; your conversation, which gave everything you spoke such an agreeable and insinuating turn; in short, everything spoke for you."
[607]Heloisa to Abelard: "That life in your eyes which so admirably expressed the vivacity of your mind; your conversation, which gave everything you spoke such an agreeable and insinuating turn; in short, everything spoke for you."
[608]She says herself, "You had, I confess, two qualities in great perfection with which you could instantly captivate the heart of any woman,—a graceful manner of reading and singing." She mentions in another place also the excellence of his singing.—Wakefield.
[608]She says herself, "You had, I confess, two qualities in great perfection with which you could instantly captivate the heart of any woman,—a graceful manner of reading and singing." She mentions in another place also the excellence of his singing.—Wakefield.
[609]He was her preceptor in philosophy and divinity.—Pope.Dryden, Epistle, 14:The fair themselves go mended from thy hand.—Wakefield.
[609]He was her preceptor in philosophy and divinity.—Pope.
Dryden, Epistle, 14:
The fair themselves go mended from thy hand.—Wakefield.
[610]Dryden's Œdipus, end of Act iii.:And backward trod the paths I sought to shun.
[610]Dryden's Œdipus, end of Act iii.:
And backward trod the paths I sought to shun.
[611]Thy holy precepts and the sanctity of thy character had made me conceive of thee as of a being more venerable than man, and approaching the nature of superior existences. But thy personal allurements soon inspired those tender feelings which gradually conducted me from a veneration of the angel to a less pure and dignified sensation—love for the man.—Wakefield.
[611]Thy holy precepts and the sanctity of thy character had made me conceive of thee as of a being more venerable than man, and approaching the nature of superior existences. But thy personal allurements soon inspired those tender feelings which gradually conducted me from a veneration of the angel to a less pure and dignified sensation—love for the man.—Wakefield.
[612]Dryden, Ovid's Met. x.:And own no laws but those which love ordains.—Wakefield.Heloisa to Abelard: "The bonds of matrimony, however honourable, still bear with them a necessary engagement, and I was very unwilling to be necessitated to love always a man who perhaps would not always love me."
[612]Dryden, Ovid's Met. x.:
And own no laws but those which love ordains.—Wakefield.
Heloisa to Abelard: "The bonds of matrimony, however honourable, still bear with them a necessary engagement, and I was very unwilling to be necessitated to love always a man who perhaps would not always love me."
[613]Love will not be confined by maisterie:When maisterie comes, the lord of Love anonFlutters his wings, and forthwith is he gone.Chaucer.—Pope.Hudibras, Part iii. Cant. i. 553:Love that's too generous to abideTo be against its nature tied,Disdains against its will to stay,But struggles out and flies away.—Wakefield.Dryden's Aurengezebe:'Tis true of marriage bands I'm weary grown,Love scorns all ties but those that are his own.—Steevens.The passage cited by Pope from Chaucer is in the Franklin's Tale. Spenser copied and altered the lines, which led Wakefield to imagine that Pope had committed the double error of falsely imputing them to Chaucer, and quoting them incorrectly.
[613]
Love will not be confined by maisterie:When maisterie comes, the lord of Love anonFlutters his wings, and forthwith is he gone.Chaucer.—Pope.
Love will not be confined by maisterie:When maisterie comes, the lord of Love anonFlutters his wings, and forthwith is he gone.Chaucer.—Pope.
Love will not be confined by maisterie:When maisterie comes, the lord of Love anonFlutters his wings, and forthwith is he gone.Chaucer.—Pope.
Hudibras, Part iii. Cant. i. 553:
Love that's too generous to abideTo be against its nature tied,Disdains against its will to stay,But struggles out and flies away.—Wakefield.
Love that's too generous to abideTo be against its nature tied,Disdains against its will to stay,But struggles out and flies away.—Wakefield.
Love that's too generous to abideTo be against its nature tied,Disdains against its will to stay,But struggles out and flies away.—Wakefield.
Dryden's Aurengezebe:
'Tis true of marriage bands I'm weary grown,Love scorns all ties but those that are his own.—Steevens.
'Tis true of marriage bands I'm weary grown,Love scorns all ties but those that are his own.—Steevens.
'Tis true of marriage bands I'm weary grown,Love scorns all ties but those that are his own.—Steevens.
The passage cited by Pope from Chaucer is in the Franklin's Tale. Spenser copied and altered the lines, which led Wakefield to imagine that Pope had committed the double error of falsely imputing them to Chaucer, and quoting them incorrectly.
[614]Heloisa to Abelard: "It is not love but the desire of riches and honour which makes women run into the embraces of an indolent husband: ambition, not affection, forms such marriages. I believe indeed they may be followed with some honours and advantages, but I can never think that this is the way to enjoy the pleasures of an affectionate union."
[614]Heloisa to Abelard: "It is not love but the desire of riches and honour which makes women run into the embraces of an indolent husband: ambition, not affection, forms such marriages. I believe indeed they may be followed with some honours and advantages, but I can never think that this is the way to enjoy the pleasures of an affectionate union."
[615]Heloisa to Abelard: "This restless tormenting passion"—ambition—"punishes them for aiming at other advantages by love than love itself."
[615]Heloisa to Abelard: "This restless tormenting passion"—ambition—"punishes them for aiming at other advantages by love than love itself."
[616]Heloisa to Abelard: "How often I have made protestations that it was infinitely preferable to me to live with Abelard as his mistress than with any other as empress of the world, and that I was more happy in obeying you than I should have been in lawfully captivating the lord of the universe."
[616]Heloisa to Abelard: "How often I have made protestations that it was infinitely preferable to me to live with Abelard as his mistress than with any other as empress of the world, and that I was more happy in obeying you than I should have been in lawfully captivating the lord of the universe."
[617]Heloisa to Abelard: "Though I knew that the name of wife was honourable in the world, and holy in religion, yet the name of your mistress had greater charms because it was more free. I despised the name of wife that I might live happy with that of mistress."
[617]Heloisa to Abelard: "Though I knew that the name of wife was honourable in the world, and holy in religion, yet the name of your mistress had greater charms because it was more free. I despised the name of wife that I might live happy with that of mistress."
[618]Heloisa to Abelard: "We are called your sisters, and if it were possible to think of any expressions which would signify a dearer relation we would use them."
[618]Heloisa to Abelard: "We are called your sisters, and if it were possible to think of any expressions which would signify a dearer relation we would use them."
[619]Denham, Cooper's Hill:Happy when both to the same centre move,When kings give liberty, and subjects love.—Cunningham.
[619]Denham, Cooper's Hill:
Happy when both to the same centre move,When kings give liberty, and subjects love.—Cunningham.
Happy when both to the same centre move,When kings give liberty, and subjects love.—Cunningham.
Happy when both to the same centre move,When kings give liberty, and subjects love.—Cunningham.
[620]Heloisa to Abelard: "If there is anything which may properly be called happiness here below, I am persuaded it is in the union of two persons who love each other with perfect liberty, who are united by a secret inclination, and satisfied with each other's merit. Their hearts are full, and leave no vacancy for any other passion."
[620]Heloisa to Abelard: "If there is anything which may properly be called happiness here below, I am persuaded it is in the union of two persons who love each other with perfect liberty, who are united by a secret inclination, and satisfied with each other's merit. Their hearts are full, and leave no vacancy for any other passion."
[621]Heloisa to Abelard: "If I could believe you as truly persuaded of my merit as I am of yours, I might say there has been a time when we were such a pair."
[621]Heloisa to Abelard: "If I could believe you as truly persuaded of my merit as I am of yours, I might say there has been a time when we were such a pair."
[622]Mrs. Rowe in her Elegy:A dying lover pale and gasping lies.—Wakefield.
[622]Mrs. Rowe in her Elegy:
A dying lover pale and gasping lies.—Wakefield.
[623]Heloisa to Abelard: "Where was I? where was your Heloise then? What joy should I have had in defending my lover. I would have guarded you from violence, though at the expense of my life; my cries and shrieks alone would have stopped the hand."
[623]Heloisa to Abelard: "Where was I? where was your Heloise then? What joy should I have had in defending my lover. I would have guarded you from violence, though at the expense of my life; my cries and shrieks alone would have stopped the hand."
[624]For "stroke" Pope, in all editions till that of 1736, read "hand," the word in the translation. He had used "hand" in the rhyme of the previous couplet, and it was probably to avoid the repetition that he made the alteration.
[624]For "stroke" Pope, in all editions till that of 1736, read "hand," the word in the translation. He had used "hand" in the rhyme of the previous couplet, and it was probably to avoid the repetition that he made the alteration.
[625]Careless readers may misapprehend the sense. "Pain" here means punishment,pœna.—Holt White.Like a verse of Drummond's:The grief was common, common were the cries.—Wakefield.Heloisa to Abelard: "You alone expiated the crime common to us both. You only were punished though both of us were guilty."
[625]Careless readers may misapprehend the sense. "Pain" here means punishment,pœna.—Holt White.
Like a verse of Drummond's:
The grief was common, common were the cries.—Wakefield.
Heloisa to Abelard: "You alone expiated the crime common to us both. You only were punished though both of us were guilty."
[626]Heloisa to Abelard: "Oh whither does the excess of passion hurry me! Here love is shocked, and modesty joined with despair deprive me of speech."
[626]Heloisa to Abelard: "Oh whither does the excess of passion hurry me! Here love is shocked, and modesty joined with despair deprive me of speech."
[627]A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Settle's Empress of Morocco:Muly Hamet.—Speak.Empress.—Let my tears and blushes speak the rest.
[627]A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Settle's Empress of Morocco:
Muly Hamet.—Speak.Empress.—Let my tears and blushes speak the rest.
Muly Hamet.—Speak.Empress.—Let my tears and blushes speak the rest.
Muly Hamet.—Speak.Empress.—Let my tears and blushes speak the rest.