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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42746	Miscellaneous letters and essays on several subjects philosophical, moral, historical, critical, amorous, &c., in prose and verse : directed to John Dryden, Esq., the Honourable Geo. Granvill, Esq., Walter Moile, Esq., Mr. Dennis, Mr. Congreve, and other eminent men of th' age / by several gentlemen and ladies.	Gildon, Charles, 1665-1724.; Moyle, Walter, 1672-1721.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.	1694 (1694)	Wing G732; ESTC R14504	119,130	250

Walls of Thebes Of the latter Horace Art Poetic Dictus Amphion Thebanae condior Areis Saxa movere sono Testudinis prece bland●… Ducere quo vellet Tho' there be nothing more vulgar and com●…on than these Fables of the Ancient Poets and Musicians yet do they evidently demonstrate that even from those Primitive Times down to our Iron Age these extraordinary Praises and Encomiums were only bestow'd on this divine Power of Poetry that Poets alone seem'd worthy by this most Sacred Art to have the next place to the Gods themselves So that this Universal Applause if there were no other Motive ought to recommend it to our Admiration and Esteem But 't is agreed by the universal and unanimous consent of almost all Nations and Authors that Poetry not only contains all other Arts and Sciences but has this Prerogative peculiar to it self That no Rules no Masters with the best Instructions can teach it unless those who apply themselves to this divine Science are destin'd to the Sacred Function by Nature and a Genius Whence arose that Maxim allow'd of by all Men o●… Sense Poeta Nascitur non Fit That a Poet is Born not Made And from hence it follows in my Opinion That a Poet derives the honor of that Name from his Nature and Genius not from his Art 〈◊〉 This e'ery Scholar has That none but the Darling o●… Heav'n and Nature This may be acquir'd by a Studious Pedant That must be born and grow up with the auspicious Babe for Poeta nascitur non fit I 'm much mistaken if Polidore Virgil do no●… comment on this Axiom in his first Book De Re●… Inventor Cap. 8. where he says 'T is certain tha●… Poetry for many Reasons excels the other Arts an●… Sciences either because no other Art is to be acquir'●… but by a long Application to it or because as Strab●… in the beginning of his Geography against Eratosthenes eloquently demonstrates it contains all others because of all the Arts that Humane Wit has produc'd Poetry alone it taught by a Divine Inspiration c. Cicero in his Oration for Archias the Poet has lest us the Praise of Poets of which Name himself had been extreamly Ambitious in these words Atqui sic says he à summis hominibus ●…ruditissimisque accepimus caeterarum rerum studia Doctrinâ Praeceptis Arte constare Poetam Natur●…●…psâ valere mentis viribus excitari quasi divino quodam spiritu afflari quare suo Jure noster ●…nnius Sanctos appellat Poetas quod quasi deorum aliquo dono Munere commendati nobis esse videantur You see Sir that Cicero confesses that divine Fire in Poets which himself desir'd in vain and ●…hat Poets seem to be recommended by the Gift and Benefit of the Gods to our reception ●…f he that felt not this Sacred Fury was sensible of this we may credit Ovid who by his own Experience says De Fastis lib. 6. Facta Canam sed erunt qui me finxisse loquentur Nullaque Mortali numina visa putent Est Deus in Nobis agitante Calescimus illo Impetus hic sacrae semina mentis habet And Socrates in Plato affirms this Poetical Fury ●…o be divinely inspir'd Plato in his Second Book ●…f the Common-wealth calls Poets the Sons of ●…he Gods and in Lysis terms them the Parents and Guides of Wisdom and elsewhere he ca●… Homer the Father of all Wisdom and Philosophy in these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Home●… was the Guide and Master of the Tragical Beautie●… and Virtues And Petronius Arbiter tells us tha●… the Mind can neither conceive or bring forth i●… Poetical Births unless it be impregnated wit●… great and boundless stores of Learning and fo●… this reason he says in his Satyricon that Eumolp●… spoke oft'ner divinely that is Poetically tha●… like a Man Those who endeavour to draw the Origin●… of Poetry from Singing are not in my Opinio●… much mistaken For when the Ancients endeavour'd to declare the Affections or Passions of th●… Mind in Song by the Sound and peculiar Variation of the Voice as it were in a more Polite an●… Elaborate Speech this rude and unpollish'd Soun●… by degrees refind into an Art Which when 〈◊〉 became where-ever it was so improv'd th●… with it the Praises of the Gods or Heroes w●… celebrated into certain Verses or Rhimes ga●… Birth to Poetry which indeed seems truly real●… to be deriv'd from Singing since with the Learned ev'n now a Poet is not said to Speak b●… Sing The antient Germans a Warlike Peopl●… had no other History of the Acts of the Kin●… and Leaders but certain Songs or Verses b●… which they either extoll'd their Warlike Exploi●… or rous'd the Minds of the Soldiers to fight as 〈◊〉 find in Polyaenus Solon annimated the Athenians to Battle And the Lacedaemonians Sacrific'd to the Muses before they began a Fight that we read that the noble Heroe Matthias King of Hungary us'd to be so touch'd with the Acts of the antient Heroes as he sung 'em to his Lute that the force with which it affected his Mind was apparent in his Body imitating Achilles who sung the Praises of great Commanders to his Harp Another Proof of the Antiquity of Poesie are the Sibyls the Oracles of the Pythian Apollo many of which are in Herodotus Inscriptions Monuments of Victories Pillars and Obelisc's all which afford cause to believe Verse to have a very early Original With these the Writings of the greatest and most antient Authors strow their Works by their Authorities and Sentences to render them the more palatable and efficacious Nay St. Paul is said to have convinc'd the Athenians of the madness of their Idolatry by part only of a Verse of the Poet Aratus and to have us'd that Verse of Menander to the Christian Corinthians Evil Discourses corrupt good Manners Thus much for the Divine and very antient Origin of Poesie and now we are come to the Subject of it according to our former Division Tho' other Arts and Sciences afford abundant matter and a large Field for our Thoughts and Consideration yet none can stand in competition with Poesie for what is there in all the wond'rous Variety and vast extent of Nature that falls not under the consideration of a Poet All the Wonders Mercies and Favours of the highest God can in nothing be more gloriously express'd than in Verse Who can describe the Beauty of his Providence the Bounty of his Gifts the Sacredness of his Mysteries with such Charms such Force such Excellence as the Poet in his Melodious Numbers Majestic Language and Divine Thoughts Hence it was that the Royal Psalmist David chose to appease the Anger of an offended God with the soothing Sacrifice of this Penitential Verses To this we add the Hymns of the antient Hebrews of the old Church and of the Poetical and holy Fathers of the New who to make their Ejaculations and Jubilees of Seraphic Love reach late

Subject or Book when we meet I 'll give you more of my Sentiments which nothing cou'd make me so free of imparting but the Pleasure I have to please such a Friend tho' I shall never yield to you in sincerity or any other Duties that are ●…ow'd to Cloe by Her faithful Friend Urania Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer's Short View of Tragedy and an Attempt at a Vindication of SHAKESPEAR in an Essay directed to JOHN DRYDEN Esq AS soon as Mr. Rymer's Book came to my Hands I resolv'd to make some Reflections upon it tho' more to shew my Will than my Abilities But finding Mr. Dennis had almost promis'd the World a Vindication of the Incomparable Shakespear I quitted the Design since he had got a Champion more equal to his Worth not doubting but Mr. Dennis wou'd as effectually confute our Hypercritic in this as all Men must grant he has in what he attempted in his Impartial Critic But expecting thus long without hearing any farther of it I concluded some other more important or at least more agreeable business had diverted him from it or that he thought it a●… unnecessary Undertaking to perswade the Town o●… a Truth it already receiv'd or to give any farther Answer to a Book that carry'd its own Condemnation in its self However since I find some build an Assurance on this General Silence o●… all the Friends of Shakespear that Mr. Rymer's Objections are unanswerable I resolv'd to besto●… two or three days on an Essay to prove the contrary Which may at least bring this advantage to the Cause to convince the World how very good it is when one of my Inability in so little time have so much to say for it and that without going through the whole Defence I indeed like the most indifferent Counsel make the Motion but leave more able Heads to Plead the Cause One great Satisfaction I have however I succeed is that I speak before a Judge that is the best Qualify'd to decide a Controversie of this Nature that ever England produc'd for in you Sir The Poet and The Critic meet in their highest Perfection and if the Critic discover the Faults of Shakespear The Poet will also see and admire ●…is Beauties and Perfections For as you have Learning and strong Judgment to discern his ●…east Transgressions so have you a Genius that can reach his Noblest Flights and a Justice that ●…ill acknowledge his Deserts And were there no ●…ther Arguments to be brought in his Vindication ●…t wou'd be more than sufficient to destroy all ●…is weak Antagonist has huddl'd together against ●…im that you give him your Approbation This ●…ir is really my Opinion and I 'm sure the most ●…ensible Lovers of Poetry will side with me in it ●…nd secure me from the Imputation of being so ●…oolishly vain to think I Can flatter You when speak of your Poetry your Judgment and ●…our Candor since whatever can be said on that ●…ubject by any one below Mr. Dryden's Abi●…ties wou'd be but a very faint Shadow of the Mighty Panegyric of your Name alone The Method I shall observe in these Reflections for my time will not permit me to bring so confus'd a Chaos into a more regular Form will be first to run over the Pages of his Book as they lye and give you some Animadversions in part of those Absurdities they contain for to examine all wou'd swell my Letter into a Volume and be five hundred times as big as the Text like a certain Reverend Dr. on Job Next I shall attempt a Vindication of Shakespear where he more formerly attaques him In the first I hope you 'll forgive me if I use him with no more Respect than he does Shakespear or You And in the latter I hope you will admit Recriminations on those Patterns h●… proposes to us for the Test of Shakespear's Faults as a sufficient Answer to what he Magisterially lays down as Self-Evident with a Scornful tho' Clumsy Jest without any other Reason to confirm it if not as a Demonstration of that Injur'd Poet's Excellence And that we may from thence conclude with Mr. Rymer as he ha●… it in his Preface to Rapin since his Standards o●… Perfection are equally culpable That the greatest Wits both Modern and Ancient sometimes slip a●… are liable to Cavils And by consequence that all his Pains were needless to bring Shakespear into that Number since his greatest Admirers eve●… confess'd he had Faults Tho' no Man but himself I believe ever Rob'd him of all Excellence and I must say That most that he produces are mee●… Cavils and convict him of being one of those Critics that like Wasps rather annoy the Bee's than terrifie the Drones But indeed the Lovers of Shakespear may well forgive the Author of Edgar and this Short view of Tragedy whatever he can say against his Excellence and Genius since being his Opposité 't is no wonder his Mind 's not capacious enough to Comprehend nor his Tast Poetical enough to relish the Noble Thoughts which the Ingenious have admir'd in Shakespear ever since he Writ It has been the Fate of most Critics on Poetry to Err in those Things they Condemn in others or to discover by their Writing how ill quality'd they are to judge of any thing but the Regularity of the Structure of a Poem which the Known Rules of Art furnish them with the chief formation of a Poet being wanting Nature denying them the Divitem Venam Petronius Arbiter so severe on Lucan and Seneca for on them he reflects in his Satyricen kept not clear of that unnatural Affectation he condemn'd in them Joseph and Julius Scaliger as Rapin observes had the Art but wanted the supply of Nature when they attempted Poetry But Mr. Rymer in any thing he has yet publish'd has not the l●…ast shadow of pretence to the Excellence of either of these Petronius had Wit had Fire a Genius and Language and tho the Scaligers were not Poets yet had they the Merits of pretty good Critics but this Gentleman has scarce produc'd one Criticism that is not borrow'd from Rapin Da●… or Boss●… and mis-apply'd to Shakespear And for his Poetry from the Heroic Tragedy of Edgar to the River zounds he discovers not the least Genius nor Tast of it and therefore must be granted a very incompetent Judge of such a Poet as Shakespear is Some of my Friends whose Authority was very great with me wou'd needs have me examine Edgar but there were two things that obstructed my complyance with them The First That it was so abominably stor'd with Opium that I cou'd not possibly keep my Eyes open to read it attentively The other That 't was such a Banter in it self on Poetry and sense that all the pains I cou'd take about it wou'd be only to give him the vanity of imagining it worth any Man's taking Notice of The Piece now under our Consideration is in a Vein something more merry and uncommon

aerio So weak was the Power of a God to keep her a Maid Nay they make her very Fruitful too for besides Sons by this Amour with 〈◊〉 they give her fifty Daughters Where three Ways meet the Ancients us'd to perform the Rites of Hecate who is call'd by three several Names Luna Artemis and Hecate About the New of the Moon the Richer sort us'd to send a Collation to those Places where three ways met in the Evening as a Supper for Hecate but the Poor us'd to devour these Nocturnal ●…unkets of this Goddess and give out that she her self had eat them as the Priests and their Tribe in Daniel tho' indeed these Suppers were but very Parsimonious so that an ill Supper got the Proverbial Name of a Feast for Hecate for the Poetical Divinity taught that the Ghosts wou'd subsist with very little Nourishment But that Hecate was the same with Luna ●…or Diana is evident from several Places particularly from Raphael Regius in his Comments on the 7th Book of Ovid's Metam And here I think 't is time to make an end of this Lunary Essay lest I be thought to take so much pains about her Goddess-ship for the Influence she has on me I wou'd not incur the Imputation of a Madman for her sake whatever I might for the sake of some Earthly Cynthia perhaps fully as Inconstant and might deserve a greater variety of Names from her numerous Follies than Diana from the several Places of her Worship But whatever Influence the Ethereal or Terrestrial Cynthia's may have on me I 'm confident that neither they nor any other Cause can be Powerful enough to turn me to any thing that should diminish my Value and Esteem for you or the pleasure I take in being what I shall ever Subscribe my self SIR Your Obliged and faithful Friend and Humble Servant Charles Gildon An ESSAY at a Vindication of the Love-Verses of Cowley and Waller c. In Answer to the Preface of a Book Intituled Letters and Uerses Amorous and Gallant Directed to Mr. CONGREVE AS in my two former Critical Discourses of this Book against Mr. Rymer's Short view of Tragedy a Zeal for the Honour of my Country in its greatest Ornaments her Poets Engag'd me so here I cannot help challenging the same Pretence since I can't suppose them deficient in Love without derogating from the Justness of their Characters But I must confess I have not the same hopes of Success in this for there I had to do with an impotent Opiniator but here with a Gentleman of a great deal of Wit and fine Sense There I address'd to Parties already sensible of the Justice of my Cause here to one who is prepossess'd of the contrary But on the other hand I have the greater satisfaction here of being Worsted by one whose Wit can better defend an Error than I the Truth and I 'm of Opinion that 't is a nobler Fate to fall by the Hand of an Hero than Conquer a Dastard Pretender And tho' my Prudence might be call'd in Question by this Attempt yet my generous Ambition will merit a Magnis tamen excidit Ausis One thing I must possess you of in my favour that my unhappy Circumstances allow me not time to use all the Caution I ought or search all the Reasons might be urg'd in this noble Cause so that I am not only Viribus but Opibus impar However I hope the Design will gain me the Opinion of a Good English Man if my Performance shou'd not attain that of a good Critic which will sufficiently compensate my trouble for I shou'd be prouder to be thought a Zealot for the Glory as well as Interest of my Country than the greatest Wit and most Learned Arguer I shall never deny the Ancients their just Praise of the Invention of Arts and Sciences but I cannot without contradicting my own Reason allow them the Perfecters of 'em so far that they must be our uncontroverted Patterns and Standard For our Physicians have found the Prescripts of Hippocrates very Defective And as in Physic so in Poetry there must be a regard had to the Clime Nature and Customs of the People for the Habits of the Mind as well as those of the Body are influenc'd by them and Love with the other Passions vary in their Effects as well as Causes according to each Country and Age nay according to the very Constitution of each Person affected This makes me hope that the Ingenious Author of the Letters and Verses Amorous and Gallant guides himself by a fallacious Rule when he makes the Ancients the Standard of the Excellence of the Moderns or indeed when by exalting those he wholly deprives these of all Honour in Love-Uerses His Charge is reducible to these two Heads viz. The Occasions and the Performances He will have it that the Occasions on which their Poems are written are sought out and that none meet with 'em but themselves whilst those of the Ancients are such as happen almost to e'ry Man in Love Next That the Verses of the Moderns are fill'd with Thoughts that are indeed Surprizing and Glittering but not Tender Passionate or Natural for e'ry Man in Love to think This is the sum of his Charge against 'em of which in the Order I 've plac'd ' em First As for the Occasions I cannot remember any Subject chosen by either Cowly or Waller for we 've nothing to do here with Petrarch a Foreigner that seems to be sought out or unnatural for a Man in Love to choose and if some of 'em do not happen to e'ry Man in Love they are yet on an equal Bottom with the Ancients many of whose Subjects or Occasions are far from happening to all Lovers as none who can pretend to any knowledge of their Writings can deny Corinna's Parrot dy'd and Ovid writes its Funeral Elegy but sure none will contend that this is an Accident common to all Ladies who have Lovers and those Poets too Catullus addresses one Copy of Verses to the very Sparrow of Lesbia and in another deplores its Death A great many Lovers may have Mistresses who never take a Voyage during their Amour and yet Ovid has an Elegy ad Amicam Navigantem and so may ten thousand true Lovers especially such as are Poets never venture on any other Billows but the Frown of their Fair ones and yet Propertius toss'd in another Storm Writes to Cynthia upon it And indeed to reduce the Subjects or Occasions of Love-Uerses to any particular Standard is highly Irrational and must only be the effect of want of Consideration for the various Circumstances and Fortunes of the Lovers must diversifie and alter the Occasions of writing to their Mistresses So that there is no Occasion that is General and that can reach all Men in Love but the Cruelty of their Mistresses on their first Addresses that is their not immediate Compliance for Jealousie is not Universal or at least to extend to the Beating