JOHNSON. 66 Answer to the Eleventh Question.-Johnson in treating of pastoral poetry censures Virgil for intrucing the gods whilst he allows his hero to talk of things that are known only to the later times. "By the introducing of gods" says Johnson, we are given to understand, that the events are to be referred to the golden age, yet the poet allows himself to talk of things that can only be known to later times and even mentions Gallus, the poet's contemporary." In the Comus every thing is referred to the golden age and therefore mythological characters may safely be introduced according to the principles laid down by Johnson. The same principle does not apply to Lycidas. Answer to the Twelfth Question.-Johnson was generally a capricious critic. In judging any thing by the criterion of an established rule, he always guided himself by the letter of the law and not its spirit, for this reason, Macaulay, tells us that Johnson critised works of taste, in the same manner as a lawyer expounds the principles of civil and criminal law. The explanation of the terms nature, truth and poetry, will be a sufficient comment upon Johnson's criticism. 66 Bacon in his essay on truth, has shown that a poetical image although it has no prototype actually existing in nature, is something very different from vinum dæmonum" as poetry is styled by one of the fathers. The poet is not bound like the historian or geographer, to represent nothing but what actually exists in nature; he may combine, the ideas presented to him by nature, very variously. He may even go a little beyond that, he may introduce us to the witches of Shakespeare, the Fairy Queen of Spencer and provided he makes his persons act according to their assumed character, and never makes one part of his story forget another, he may introduce any combination. It has been justly said by Stewart that the poet's sphere of activity is only limited by our sphere of enjoyment. There is therefore a great difference between poetical truth and historical truth. A description which may be called true to life when presented to us as a poetical representation, might yet be called an idle fabrication of the brain when given as a historical faet. Nature is the great foundation of all descriptions, we are so created that we can not have the conception of any thing of which the component parts do not exist in nature. But the poet has the acknowledged liberty of combining these in any way, fitted to give pleasure. But the other classes of writers (excepting novellists whom I may include within the name of poets) are bound to describe such combinations only as exist in nature. Johnson therefore appears to have misunderstood the signification of maxim which binds the poet to copy from nature, and his knowledge of what actually exists in nature can not bind the poet in forming his combinations. Answer to the Thirteenth Question.-The chief peculiarity of the Spenserian stanza that at present strikes me is the constant intermixture of hexametre iambics (or Alexandrines) with the English heroic, which consists of five iambics. K Johnson objects to Spenser's style as too antiquated and irregular and says that we ought to improve upon the taste of our ancestors and not follow them blindly. He also objects to it on account of the obsolete words which abound in it. He says that we ought not to pick up what our ancestors have thrown away. These celebrated authors have assumed it because, it is very dignified and magestic. Beattie explains why he adopted a measure so difficult and complicate in the preface to his Minstrel. Answer to the Fourteenth Question. So Eagerly the fiēnd 1 O'er bōg or steep, through strait, rõugh dense or rāre 2 And swims or sinks or wādes or creeps or flies 4 If Johnson is to be our guide, these lines are peculiarly halting. If the iambic be the only measure that can be used in heroic verse, then almost all these lines are defective as will be seen by my scanning them. But Milton uses intermixture of various metres. Thus in the 1st line the last foot but one, is a pyrrhic, the 4th in the 2nd line is a trochee; the 2nd in the 3rd line is a spondee; all the rest are iambic. The number of monosyllables and string of consonants in the last line makes it peculiarly harsh, but it very beautifully represents the motions of Satan, and we see the number of arts he uses, by the number of feet, 1 And swims-2 or sinks-3 or wades-4 or creeps-5 or flies. Answer to the Fifteenth Question.-This is one of those passages which Dr. Johnson cannot contemplate without deep feelings of admiration. The casural pauses are on the sixth syllables in the 2nd and 3rd lines. In the 4th line the pause is after the 7th and we are obliged to stop on a weak syllable; but still it leaves three syllables after, that is some compensation according to Johnson's rule. In the 5th and 6th lines again, it is on the sixth syllable. In the 7th line it it not so good, because the pause is on the 5th and we are obliged to rest upon a weak syllable. In the last line it is very bad according to Johnson as we rest upon the 1st and 2nd syllables. But according to the opinions of a famous gramarian, these pauses are very beautiful, as they give us time to contemplate the various ciramstances pride, pomp &c. This is one of the best passages in the best play of Shakespeare. The blank verse has the advantage of regulating our stops by means of the sense and not mere sound; it has never the disadvantage of having the sense, opposing the sound and vice versâ. Answer to the Sixteenth Question.-The different sorts and motions described in the two parts of the passage necessarily required a difference or change in the measure. The anapest of the first line, marks the quickness of motion according to Johnson's principle which is in this case true. Each of the following lines begins with an anapœst. The slow melting strains, require that the verse should be prolonged, and the succession of long sounds, which takes us a great deal of time to pronounce effects this purpose. The slow motion of the queen is also well represented. In gliding stāte, she wins her eāsỹ wāy. Answer to the Seventeenth Question. Over hill, ōvěr dāle Through bush through briar Through flood through fire I do wāndĕr ēvěry where Swifter than the moon'ěs sphere. The measure of the verse seems in general to be a trochee in the first part. The first foot of the sixth line is anapæstic and the rest iambic. In the first part the tediousness of the journey is to be represented, and in the second the swiftness. The trochee and the iambic answer these respective purposes very well. Johnson is of opinion that the English language has too few vowels and too many consonants and he is very angry, with Milton for his supposed elisions of vowels. He is of opinion, that the final E used by our old writers was once vocal, and desires that they might be so still. Answer to the Eighteenth Question.-The quotation from Beattie illustrates by the collection of the number of very hash consonants in the first part shrill sound of the trumpet and it is indeed so harsh, that it is scarcely endurable. The " obstreperous trump" would rouse the seven sleepers. The easy smoothness of the 2nd part more easy by comparison, might well represent the mental tranquility it describes. The short shrill shriek, is well calculated to give occasional disturbance. When the beetle winds, we perceive that his horn though small, is sullen indeed. The monosyllables of Pope's Alexandrine the contrast of the very weak 1st syllables to the very long 2nd syllables of each foot, makes us almost see, the dragging of the serpent's tale That like, ǎ wound-ĕd snake, drags, its slow length ǎlōng. Answer to the Nineteenth Question. The pause in the 5th line after bland, by dispersing our pleasing train of ideas seems harsh, we ought to have been obliged to stop at any place, before the sleep dispersed. Answer to the Twentieth Question.-On us who learn the English language merely from books, the meanness of the expression, has no effect. The knife is associated in our mind, with poinard, the dagger and the bodkin, which the Highlander always bears about his person, with which he "rights his wrongs" and stabs his enemy. The dun is a word, which is seldom met with, and is therefore not vulgar, and which we meet with in Shakespeare and Milton only. It is that same word which Milton uses "When Satan soars into the dun air sublime," and when his comers says "which these dun shades will ne'er report." The idea of peeping through the blanket might have been suggested by Shakespeare's own habit of peeping through the blankets of his stage, and no idea that brings unto our mind, the author of Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth, can be associated with anything but sublimity, beauty and pleasure. Answer to the Twenty-first Question.-Whilst I repeat these lines I forget, Johnson and his criticism and see the master mind, that is born to dictate laws to nature, than submit to her laws. Although these allusions have no prototype in nature, although, honor or any thing else, can never be plucked from the moon, although, the pebbles on the hungary beech can never fillip the stars, nor see the representation of danger; yet in spite of nature, the sentiments, which they represent, could have been better represented by nothing. Answer to the Twenty-second Question.-The words are all Johnsonian and with reference to the sense they are all appropriate. It is true that some of them are too hard to be pronounced by a young lady, and some too difficult to be understood without reference to Johnson's dictionary. But in these things Johnson can see no impriety. Answer to the Twenty-third Question.-In the 1st passage, the word which as it always refers to the nearest noun is improper, since its proper antecedent is observa tu and not insult, the words and they ought to be substituted for which. In the 2nd envy and avarice are called adscititious passions, which is not true, for they are innate. In the 3rd there is a great tautology. In the fourth, the metaphor is vicious, and the meaning is lost in the exhuberance of words. Answer to the Twenty-fourth Question.-Hasty compositions, however they may please as for a moment by agreeing with the fashion, can seldom, survive the change of generations, and lose their popularity when they are criticed and their defects shown or simply by neglect. We shall then find the folly of endeavouring to obtain that which we can not retain in our possession (of collecting ideas, which we can not remember,) and spending our lives in toilsome attempts to acquire fresh possessions when we are in the act of losing those, which we already have. MOHENDRO LAUL SHOME, Hindu College, First College Class, Second Year, Senior Scholar of the First Grade. THOMSON'S SEASONS, AND CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. The poet Answer 1st.—Poetry enhanceth whatever she toucheth. takes nature for his subject and then adorns it with all the glow of his own imagination, and all the beauties he can collect from the objects around. Thus in the verses before us the constellations are natural objects, but the Poets imagination represents them as watching over the earth, and peoples them with beautiful beings of his own creation, who tune "the silver lyre" "amid the spangled sky." Poetry is not a lie, but only "the shadow of a lie." The Poet has nature for his subject, but he is at liberty to improve on it, and make the face of nature more beautiful than it actually is. He is at liberty to collect all beauties and exclude all defects, and intersperse his piece with such allusions as the imagination naturally suggests from the objects before it. Thus, in the verse before us, the poets imagination naturally peoples the constellations with extremely beautiful beings. The scope, or end of poetry is to instruct at the same time that it pleases. This the poet effects by a happy combination of harmonious 66 numbers, and such allusions as lay hold on the imagination, and chain the attention. The truths conveyed in poetry come home to men's bosoms," a fact conveyed in poetic imagery sinks deeper into the heart, and is longer remembered, than when communicated in common prose. Poetry, says Bacon, " serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and delectation. I shall conclude with the following verses of Gray, showing the effects of poetry, "Thy steps, where e'er the goddess roams, Glory pursue and generous shame, The unconquorable mind, and freedoms holy flame," The classical superstition alluded to in the last two verses, is to Pythagoras' theory of the harmony of the spheres. Answer 2nd.-The words used figuratively are " dejected", "struggling", "clothed", "weak", "wan", and " prostrate." 66 'Dejected" makes the day sad for the absence of the sun; "struggling" has the effect of realising to us the difficulty with which the rays of the sun pierce the clouded atmosphere; "weak" and "wan" convey a proper impression of the pale light of the sun, and "clothed" of the manner in which the sun is enveloped by clouds and storms. "Prostrate” represents the earth as longer able to resist, but resigning itself to the influence of the wintry storms. Answer 3rd.-The " 'full ethereal round" is the moon, and "all one cope of starry glitter" is the canopy of heaven, which is so studded with stars, that not a vacant spot presents itself to the eye, but the whole appears to be one glitter of stars. 66 Full" is put to intimate that the moon is not only partly visible; and "one" cope to show that the sky is so covered with stars, that the eye cannot rest on a vacant spot. Morn is here represented as a beautiful lady who on waking finds that some mishap is befallen her. The morn resembles a lady in being modest, chaste, and beautiful, and putting on the same dull appearance from misfortune. Answer 4th. The plume of war, with early &c." This verse alludes to the glory which Sidney acquired during the campaign in Flanders, where at an early age he distinguished himself for his gallantry, and nobly fell at the battle of Zutphen. "The lover's myrtle" is in reference to Sydneys love songs to his mistress Stella; and "the poet's boy" alludes to his "songs and sonnets." Answer 5th.-The first three verses allude to the sincere devotedness, with which he supported the cause of his religion, in opposition to the reformation, which Henry VIII., was trying to bring about. More's zeal was generous because he sacrificed his life to his principles, but it was mistaken because it opposed the reformation, which has confered one of the greatest blessings on mankind. More was as firm as Cato because nothing could make him flinch from his established opinions. He was as just in the integrity and disinterestedness with which he performed his official duties. 66 Like rigid Cincinatus &c."-More, like Cincinatus, refused to be rich when to be rich was in his power. He declined a lucrative place which was offered him by Wolsey, alleging that he could not accept it in strict conformity with rules of justice, as he was already holding other civil offices. The character of More "both in public and private life," says, Lord Campbell, came as near to perfection as our nature will permit.' 66 |