Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A33515
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Bersaba, or, The love of David a poem / written by Samuel Cobb ...
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Cobb, Samuel, 1675-1713.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing C4770; ESTC R40843
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12,685
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25
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BERSABA OR THE Love of David A POEM Written by Samuel Cobb Student of Trinity Colledge Cambridge Improbe Amor quid non mortalia pectora cogis Virg. Aen. l. 4. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by J. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1695. THE PREFACE IT may look like Presumption perhaps to appear again in publick after such ill success such a fearful Engagement and such dangerous Enemies who resolve to draw upon an Author whatever he be and fly at him open-mouthed like a Pack of Irish Wolves barking at the Moon who think that Man happiest that strikes deepest who because they have no Wit themselves will not allow any in others This one would think were enough to deterr a young Scribler from ever after engaging himself in a Poetical Quarrel But our Authors for the most the part hav 〈…〉 Hydra's Heads cut one off another presently rises in the roo 〈…〉 of it these like Benito in the Play tho' kick'd and cuff'd ar 〈…〉 resolv'd to scrape on and suffer heroically They are not now-â—days aw'd formidine fustis when they are once in the humour writing their Natures are invincible and can no more be expell than the English can leave Fighting after the first Engagement than an unlucky Gamester can forbear Playing when he has lost round sum of Money Since then this wicked Custom has gain 〈◊〉 so much strength upon the World since Fools and Blockheads like Logs will Swim uppermost since every paltry Apprentice that has read a few Plays sets up for an Author since these I say take the Priviledge of writing I am resolv'd not to stand out but make one for Company 's sake if I am laugh'd at it will be a comfort to have Companions for tho' some good natur'd Persons I can't tell what to call them have snapp'd at me once already yet I cannot give over for my Life I must on Ecce iterum Crispinus I am come once more to furnish matter for their senseless Lampoons make bold to use the Impudence of a Player who will appear upâ—â— the Stage though hist first off an hundred times But I must â—eg the Favour of them not to debarr me the liberty of Prefacing â—â—r that is the Colours which our Company is known by and 't is as great a rarity now-a-days to see a Poet without a Preface as a Spaniard without his Cloak and Sword With this he covers his Faults and defends them at the same time Here I must digress a little from my purpose for it is grown a modern Vice to amuse the Reader with Chriticisms upon the Ancients and tell him strange things nothing to the Subject that lies before him And when one has made a few Poems to write in the Preface how far we 've out-gone the French and Italian in advanâ—ing Tragedies and Comedies I must hamour the Age and â—se these digressions for Custom 's sake but more particularly by â—eason of a late Ode of mine upon the Queen's death which came â—ut under the name of J. D. Gent. which made such a Noise â—road and which an ingenious Gentleman bestow'd a few Reflectiâ—â—s upon I am not in the least asham'd of what he says but slight â—im more than the Mastiff did a little barking Cur when he â—â—ew'd him his Teeth and pist upon him However I think my â—â—â—f oblig'd in a manner by the Laws of Nature to say something 〈◊〉 it for there is no Man so inhumane who will not speak in deâ—â—â—ce of his own Off-spring when he finds it abus'd Had I been the first that try'd the severity of ignorant and enâ—â—â—us Men I might with all justice imaginable have murmur'd 〈…〉 t my misfortune but since others and those of extraordinary 〈…〉 ote have run through the same hazards the same critical perâ—ecutions I willingly submit my self like a poetical Martyr to â—heir tyrannick Fury but with the constancy of an unjust Sufferer an laugh at their vain insignificant and harmless Blows There are three things I confess which are to be utterly banish'd â—ur Commonwealth for I will pretend to be a small Member of it Blasphemy Prophaneness and Obscenity Wherever any of these meet in a Poem we may call the sense Diseas'd it can in no manner be Wit however cleanly it be cover'd For Obscenity Ovid was banish'd Rome as appears by his own account in his second Book de Tristibus His Elegies are somewhat Lascivious â—or is his Imperial Poem free from those extravagant stories of Pasiphae and Myrrha where the Subjects are so unaptly chosen that they would not allow him to write chastly Horace whom we have â—n so great esteem is licentious in this kind to an extremity â—hiefly in his Satyrs which he wrote not with an intention to â—ash Vice as Juvenal did but purposely to please himself Homer we find leading his Women to Bed but he says no more of them Virgil the best of all the others wrote Love-passions with admirable Softness and Purity considering that Poets are commonly too Luxuriant on those occasions I need not name Cornelius Gallus and many others I will only descend to our Times Mr. Cowley has some small taste of it in his Mistress which he seems to be sensible of in his Preface Much excess is to be allow'd in Love and even more in Poetry so we avoid those two unpardonable Vices Prophaneness and Obscenity which says he if I am Guilty of they have ill represented my thoughts and intentions Prophaneness and Blasphemy commonly go together and the Author of the Satyrs against the Jesuits seems to me to be Guilty of all those three Vices I don't mean to detract from the honour of the dead but as the most vulgar Persons are allow'd to give their Vote so I only speak my opinion which I am perswaded in this case no body will go about to contradict As for Blasphemy of which I was accus'd I cannot but allow with Mr. Dryden that the using of it is a kind of applying Pidgeons to the Soles of the Feet it proclaims their Fancy as well as Judgment to be in a desperate condition This I say because I have found the same immoderate liberty of Verse in others as well as my self and if the Supercilious Readers had examined them with the like strictness and impartiality I am sure very few of them would have escap'd the fire I do not mean to tread in their steps for the Ode was snatch'd from me so abruptly and unfortunately that I could not gather time enough to consider what I had wrote I found J. D. Gent. join'd to it of which I was wholly ignorant for I scorn to do that injustice to another in cloaking my Faults under his name and on the other side I am so vain that I would not let any one claim my Excellencies if I had any but my self Nevertheless those Men who pretend to understand much would certainly have been more mild and favourable had they but consider'd the Licentiousness of Pindarique
Poetry which is a more exalted sort of Lyrick to which we are to allow more Digressions more bold Metaphors and Allegories than to any other Verse besides which as few can understand so few can write it well Hear what Pindar speaks himself concerning it for as the Plain Dealer says Authors love to shew in the Preface that they understand Greek and Latin for fear the Reader should not find it out by the Poem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He writes to the Learned and Wise and not to the Vulgar who commonly correct what they cannot comprehend therefore he compares them to Crows shadowing by that name Bacchilides Schmidius says who was one of the same Wit and Learning as our pretended Criticks are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But lest I should be guilty of Pindarical Digression I will return to the Argument that lies before me though I hope I may stand excusable for what I 've said it being the Zeal of a Parent to it's Children Dorotheus Bishop of Tyrus who lived in the Year 401 and Epiphanius relate the Story of David and Bathsheba after this manner They tell us that Nathan who lived in Gabaon a City near Rama foresaw that David would Sin with Beersabea for so they call her and as he was coming to sorewarn David Belial laid a dead Corps in the way Now it was counted a great part of Charity amongst the Jews to bury the Dead as appears by the Book of Tobit Nathan therefore fearing lest the Body should be unreverently torn by wild Beasts buried it in the mean time David lay with Bathsheba Nathan two or three days after was sent to warn him of it Whether it be true or no I will not dispute now but it seems impoetical Therefore Thâ—â—dorus Beza has rejected it and though I took the hint of 〈◊〉 Fancy from him yet I think I may with as great Justice claim the whole Poem to be my own as a Poet does a Play when he has taken the Plot from a Novel or with more dexterity changes the Scene by turning the French and Italian Comedies into English and throws them upon the Stage for his own peculiar Wit and Invention I have not followed my Author word for word neither have I Paraphras'd him in his Sense but have taken out what was too grave for Poetry and have added some Fancies of my own as at the latter end where the Angel appears to Nathan in the shape of Samuel and where Nathan tells the King a short story of Solomon and Christ. This way of Writing we took from Virgil but if I am not mistaken we have improv'd the Thought For some Learned Men think that Virgil is in a Fault when he brings in Anchises relating to Aeneas the Chronicle of those that were yet unborn who should proceed from his Son They wonder how he should come to the knowledge of Futurity They must either allow that he was a Prophet when he was alive and thou it wilâ— be probable for the Ancients thought that Men do the same thing below as they did above See Horace who makes mention 〈◊〉 Sappho and Alcaeus as if they were the same Poets in Hell aâ— they were on Earth Aeoliis sidibus querentem Sappho Puellis de popularibus c. Od. 13. l. 2. If this cannot be prov'd of Anchises we must run to Pythagoras his Transmigration and Plato ' s Phaedo who thought that the Souls of Men inform'd several Bodies and went out of one into another Then it will be no wonder if Anchisos tells his Son what Persons shall come after since their Souls were predestinateâ— for them below But we never follow this Mr. Dryden â—s more exact in the Conquest of Granada where in the Second Part he brings in the Ghost of Almansor ' s Mother warning him of his future Love yet she knew not this as her being a Ghoct but an Angel bids her go and forewarn her Son who wander'd about ignorant of his Parentage Then from the Battlements of Heav'ns high Tower A Watchman Angel bid me wait this Hour And told me that I had a Task assign'd To warn the little Pledge I left behind Spenser who first led us the way in English supposes Merlin to tell Britomart his Virgin-Hero the Progeny of the Kings and Princes which should spring from her and Arthegal Milton follows his footsteps but he could not bring in a Prophet since there were but two Persons upon Earth therefore an Angel appears to Adam and comforts him with the Promis'd Seed Cowley makes David dream of his Race and an Angel confirm the truth of it when he awakes Though Dreams were held of old a kind of Prophesy though God was sometimes pleas'd to reveal his Will in that manner and foreshew the Fates of Kingdoms the various Changes of Empires and things to come as is manifested from Pharaoh Joseph and Daniel yet it would not have been according to the Rules of Poetry to have made David dream of all his Successors and his Race for a thousand Years together had not some Diviner Being order'd the Vision wisely and appear'd afterward to persuade him in the certainty of it for in those days the Jews began to disbelieve the Sacredness of Dreams thinking them to proceed from the multitude of Business David himself thought so at first That only 't was wild Phancy's play The loose and scatter'd relicks of the Day But the Poet shew'd his Skill by making Gabriel satisfie him The Reason why we commonly bring in Angels or Prophets when Futurity is to be mention'd is this we are to make improbabilities seem probable for should we tell such strange things in our own Persons without bringing a Muse or the like to help us off no body would believe us notwithstanding our boasted Inspiration For says Homer on such an occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad ss Which Virgil Aen. 7. follows by invoking the Muses to tell him Qui bello exciti reges c. Vos meministis enim divae memorare potestis Ad nos vix tenuis famae perlabitur aura This Rule is constantly to be observ'd in an Epick Poem whenever we have need for it And we must likewise take notice that if we have occasion for Angels Devils Furies to forewarn perswade or counsel any one what to do they must not appear in their proper shape but in form of them who are either lov'd honour'd or reverenc'd by those to whom they appear Homer ' s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appears to Agamemnon in his sleep drest in the likeness of Nestor the chief and wisest of his Counsellors But in his Third Iliad he seems to be inexcusable where he brings in Venus like an old Spinning Woman of Lacedaemon whom Helen lov'd No sooner had this old Dame spoke but Helen knew her to be Venus by her Eyes her Neck her Breast and every thing which in my Opinion is a very odd