Rebuking Oxford under cover of a Figure (Shakespeare):
Benjamin (Hebrew) - Son of my RIGHT HAND
************************************
To my TRULY-belov'd Freind,
Mr. Browne:
on his Pastorals.
Some men, of Bookes or Freinds NOT SPEAKING RIGHT,
May hurt them more with praise, then Foes with spight.
But I have seene thy worke, and I know thee:
And, if thou list thy selfe, what thou canst bee.
For, though but early in these PATHES THOU TREAD,
I find thee write most worthy to be read.
It must be thine owne judgment, yet that sends
This thy worke forth: that judgment mine commends.
And, where the most reade bookes, on Authors fames,
Or, like our Money-Brokers, take up names
On credit, and are cossen'd: see, that thou
By offring not more sureties, then inow,
Hold thyne owne worth unbroke: which is so good
Upon th'Exchange of Letters, as I wou'd
More of our writers would like thee, not SWELL
With the how much they set forth, but th'how well.
Ben Jonson
**************************************
Horace Of the Art of Poetry - transl. Ben Jonson
...Most writers, noble sire and either son,
Are, with the LIKENESS OF THE TRUTH, undone.
Myself for shortness labour, and I grow
Obscure. This, striving to run smooth, and flow,
Hath neither soul nor sinews. Lofty he
Professing greatness, SWELLS; that, low by lee,
Creeps on the ground; too safe, afraid of storm.
This seeking, in a various kind, to form
One thing PRODIGIOUSLY, paints in the woods
A dolphin, and a boar amid the floods.
So shunning faults to greater fault doth lead,
When in a WRONG AND ARTLESS WAY WE TREAD.
***************************************
"Decipimur specie rectie"--Horace,
"We are deceived by the semblance of what is RIGHT."
***************************************
In Memory of Mr. William Cartwright.
For thy Imperiall Muse at once defines
Lawes to arraign and brand their weak strong lines,
Unmask's the Goblin-Verse that fright's a page
As when old time brought Devills on the Stage.
Knew the right mark of things, saw how to choose,
(For the great Wit's great work, is to Refuse,)
And smil'd to see what shouldering there is
To follow LUCAN where he TROD AMISS...
John Berkenhead
**************************************
Amiss \A*miss"\, n.
A fault, wrong, or mistake. [Obs.]
***************************************
Jonson, Timber
...BUT WHY DO men depart at all from the RIGHT and NATURAL *WAYS* of speaking? sometimes for necessity, when we are driven, or think it fitter, *to speak that in obscure words*, or by circumstance, which uttered plainly would offend the hearers. Or to avoid obsceneness, or sometimes for pleasure, and variety, as travellers turn out of the highway, drawn either by the commodity of a footpath, or the delicacy or freshness of the fields. And all this is called åó÷çìáôéóìåíç (eschematismene) or FIGURED LANGUAGE.
****************************************
The idea of ancient literary criticism
By Yun Lee
...In his treatise On Style, Demetrius declares that figured language must be employed if somebody wishes to address and to criticize either a tyrant or a powerful individual, and he advocates this as a middle course between flattery, which is base, and direct criticism, which is dangerous. Ahl notes, in an essay entitled 'The Art of Safe Criticism', that Quintilian, Vespasian's imperial rhetorician, subsequently elaborates Demetrius' account of the political use of figured language at Institutio oratoria 9.2.66. Quintilian sets out three different occasions on which figured language, which he defines as language that is changed from its most obvious and uncomplicated usage by poetic or oratorical usage (9.1.13), may be employed. The first of These concerns when it is dangerous to speak openly; the second concerns propriety - where the Latin 'it is not fitting/ suitable ('non decet' ) perhaps renders the Greek 'improper' (aprepes); while the third advocates the use of figured language where the novelty of such structures may produce delight and pleasure (. Of these three occasions, the first is the most obviously political, and what Quintilian proposes is a need for the author in question to tread warily around authority, particularly as author and political leader may be at odds. The following section of the work suggests that the rhetorician has in mind the empire, figured as tyranny: he cites the use of rhetorical figures in school exercises which require pupils to produce speeches to instigate rebellion against despots without speaking too plainly to tyrants (9.2.67).
**************************************
Some men, of Bookes or Freinds NOT SPEAKING RIGHT,
May hurt them more with praise, then Foes with spight. -- Jonson
TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED
MASTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,
AND WHAT HE HATH *LEFT* US
by Ben Jonson
To draw no envy, SHAKSPEARE, on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy book and fame ;
While I confess thy writings to be such,
As neither Man nor Muse can praise too much.
'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But THESE WAYS
Were not the PATHS I meant unto thy praise ;
For seeliest ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, BUT ECHOES RIGHT ;
Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance ;
Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,
And think to ruin where it SEEMED to raise.
These are, as some infamous bawd or whore
Should praise a matron ; what could hurt her more ?
But thou art proof against them, and, indeed,
Above the ill fortune of them, or the need.
I therefore will begin: Soul of the age!
The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our stage!
My SHAKSPEARE rise !
**************************************
Horace, of the Art of Poetrie
transl. Ben Jonson
If to Quintilius, you recited ought:
Hee'd say, Mend this, good friend, and this; "Tis naught.
If you denied, you had no better straine,
And twice, or thrice had 'ssayd it, still in vaine:
Hee'd bid, blot all: and to the anvile bring
Those ill-torn'd Verses, to new hammering.
Then: If your fault you rather had defend
Then change. No word, or worke, more would he spend
In vaine, BUT YOU, AND YOURS, YOU should LOVE STILL (note- self-loving)
Alone, without a rivall, by his will.
A wise, and honest man will cry out shame
On artlesse Verse; the hard ones he will blame;
Blot out the careless, with his turned pen;
Cut off superfluous ornaments; and when
They're darke, bid cleare this: all that's doubtfull wrote
Reprove; and, what is to be changed, not:
Become an Aristarchus. And, not say,
Why should I grieve my friend, this TRIFLING WAY?
These trifles into serious mischiefs lead
The man once mock'd, and suffered WRONG TO TREAD.
******************************
Quintilius/Jonson
I remember, the Players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing, (whatsoever he penn'd) hee never BLOTTED out line. My answer hath beene, would he had BLOTTED a thousand. Which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their IGNORANCE, who choose that circumstance to commend their friend by, wherein he most FAULTED...
****************************************
fault
4: a WRONG ACTION attributable to bad judgment or IGNORANCE or
inattention; "he made a bad mistake"; "she was quick to
point out my errors"; "I could understand his English in
spite of his grammatical faults" [syn: mistake, error]
***************************************
TO THE MEMORY OF MY (SELF)BELOVED
MASTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,
***************************************
Jonson's 'Master' Shakespeare:
Horace
Hor. lib. 2. Epist. 1.
But lest you think 'tis niggard praise I fling
To bards who soar where I ne'er stretched a wing,
That man I hold TRUE MASTER of his art
Who with fictitious woes can wring my heart,
Can rouse me, soothe me, pierce me with the thrill
Of vain alarm, and, as by magic skill,
Bear me to Thebes, to Athens, where he will.
Now turn to us shy mortals, who, instead
Of being hissed and acted, WOULD BE READ:
We claim your favour, if with worthy gear
You'd fill the temple Phoebus holds so dear,
And give poor bards the stimulus of hope
To aid their progress up Parnassus' slope.
Poor bards! much harm to our own cause we do
(It tells against myself, but yet 'tis true),
When, wanting you to read us, we intrude
On times of business or of lassitude,
When we lose temper if a friend thinks fit
To find a fault or two with what we've writ,
When, unrequested, we again go o'er
A passage we recited once, before,
When we complain, forsooth, our laboured strokes,
Our DEXTEROUS TURNS, are lost on careless folks,
When we expect, so soon as you're informed
That ours are hearts by would-be genius warmed,
You'll send for us instanter, end our woes
With a high hand, and make us all compose.
***************************
And smil'd to see what shouldering there is
To follow LUCAN where he TROD AMISS...
John Berkenhead
***************************************
| Author: Milton, John, 1608-1674. [ Author page in Literature Online ] |
| Title: Eikonoklastes in answer to a book intitl'd Eikon basilike, Date: 1649 |
from the Preface:
... Kings most commonly, though strong in Legions, are but weak at Arguments; as they who ever have accustom'd from the Cradle to use thir will onely as thir right hand, their reason alwayes as thir left. Whence unexpectedly constrain'd to that kind of combat, they prove but weak and puny Adversaries. Nevertheless for their sakes who through custome, simplicitie, or want of better teaching, have not more seriously considerd Kings, then in the GAUDY name of Majesty, and ADMIRE them and thir doings, as if they breath'd not the same breath with other moretall men, I shall make no scruple to take up (for it seemes to be the challenge both of him and all his party) to take up this Gauntlet, though a Kings, in the behalfe of Libertie, and the Common-wealth.
***************************************
"Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poet, William Shakespeare" -- John Milton
1632 Second Folio
WHAT need my Shakespear for his honour'd Bones,
The labour of an age in piled Stones,
Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid
Under a Star-ypointing Pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame,
What need'st thou such dull witnes of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thy self a lasting Monument.
For whilst to th'sharne of slow-endeavouring art,
Thy easie numbers flow, and that each part
Hath from the Leaves of thy unvalu'd Book,
Those Delphick lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of her self bereaving,
Dost make us Marble with too much conceaving;
And so Sepulcher'd in such pomp dost lie,
That Kings for such a Tomb would wish to die.
******************************************
Laying it on with a Trowel: The Proem to Lucan and Related Texts
Author(s): Michael Dewar Source: The Classical Quarterly, New Series,
Vol. 44, No. 1 (1994), pp. 199-211
The extravagant, not to say fulsome, praise showered upon Nero in Lucan’s proem in his De Bello Civili (l.33-66) tends to divide scholars neatly in to two factions, N the blue corner are those for whom it is ‘obviously’ sarcastic or ironic in some degree, whether they consider it intended to be circulated privately or understood only by a small group of initiates, or else see it as actually being designed to offend the princes. IN the red we find those who attempt to explain what the modern palate finds offensive by reference to the Realien of Nero’s reign and to the processes of literary representation in general – and what we loosely call ‘rhetoric’ in particular – current in the poetry of the time. The portion of the proem which from the Middle Ages seems to have caused the most offence is that of predicting Nero’s apotheosis, or , more precisely, his katasterism after death. That this baroque fantasy has an illustrious precedent and clear model in Virgil’s encomium of Augustus in the proem to the Georgics (l.24-42) has not been sufficient to calm the anxieties of all readers. This is in part because of the well-known unease that persists in many quarters over the ‘sincerity’ of that model itself and indeed the whole tenor of Virgil’s literary treatment of the Augustan principate, an unease which it would be both time-consuming and unnecessary to document here.
(snip)
It must be acknowledged that there is a certain amount of evidence for the existence in antiquity itself of not wholly dissimilar attitudes to over-ingenious encomia. The MONSTROUS EXCESSES to which adulation could be taken in the reign of Domitian are scathingly mocked by Juvenal in the fourth Satire. When the Picene fisherman presents the outside turbot to the imperial tyrant he grandly declares ‘ipse capi voluit’ and Juvenal sardonically comments as follows:
quid apertius? et tamen illi
surgebant cristae, nihil est quod credere de se
non posit cum laudatur dis aequa potestas.
(69ff)
And it was a very similar distaste for the repeated circulation of spectacular lies that sickened the heart of Saint Augustine 174-208during his days as professor of Rhetoric at Milan three centuries later…But these passages provide their own reminders of the historical context of such adulation and therefore give due warning of the dangers of assuming that a conception of sincerity and belief identical to our own is at work.
(snip)
In a fairly recent article Frederick Ahl has convincingly demonstrated that ancient rhetorical theory laid considerable emphasis on a ‘FIGURED’ style, akin to and often covering the same ground as irony, which allows a writer or speaker to say one thing on the surface and to be readily understood as actually meaning another. The style, normally called (greek characters) is discussed with particular fullness by Demetrius in his On Style and by Quintilian in the Institutio Oratoria; both authors, especially Quintilian, are shown to lay great stress on its usefulness as a means of voicing criticism of autocratic rulers readily comprehensible to an audience without putting oneself in the danger that would naturally accompany blunt and outspoken hostility. As Ahl put it, “Blunt speech gives way to oblique speech in situations where the speaker is (or feels) threatened or unsure of his audience. Many ancient poets, and all ancient theorists, lived when overt criticism of the ruling powers was dangerous. They sensed the need for obliqueness. But they also sensed the greater persuasiveness of oblique suggestion". Although there are many individual points on which issue could be taken with Ahl’s interpretation of the evidence, and though many qualifications could be added to his model as a whole, there is not real reason to doubt that such techniques were used often enough to be accessible to an attentive audience of readership. The question we are concerned with here is whether there are good grounds for believing such a process is at work in the proem to the De Bello Civili.
***************************************
Catasterism \Ca*tas"ter*ism\, n. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to place among
the stars.]
A placing among the stars; a catalogue of stars.
****************************************
pumpkinification:
an apotheosis; a parody of deification: apocolocyntosis (the usual translation of of apocolocyntosis, in Seneca's Apocolocyntosis divi Claudii, a parody of the deification of the emperor Claudius)
***************************************
'Bumpkinification' of the Earl of Oxford:
But stay, I see thee in the hemisphere
Advanced, and made a constellation there!
Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with rage
Or influence, chide or cheer the drooping stage,
Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like night,
And despairs day, but for thy volume's light.
***************************************
The second sophistic
By Graham Anderson
(snip selection of text)
...Without prior knowledge it is impossible to establish until just before the end of the extract that the speaker is anything other than the most benevolent and philanthropic of despots. Only the last sentence would reveal him as the tyrant Phalaris of Agrigentum, anxious to gain the approval of Delphi for his mikado-like regime. The whole passage is contrived as lexis eschematismene ('figured speech') carefull arranged to convey exactly the opposite of what is being said.
***************************************
DE VERE ARGUTIS - pun
Jonson, Timber
DE VERE argutis. - I do hear them say often some men are not witty, because they are not everywhere witty; than which nothing is more foolish. If an eye or a nose be an excellent part in the face, therefore be all eye or nose! I think the eyebrow, the forehead, the cheek, chin, lip, or any part else are as necessary and natural in the place. But now nothing is good that is natural; RIGHT and NATURAL LANGUAGE seems to have least of the wit in it; that which is writhed and tortured is counted the more exquisite. *Cloth of bodkin or tissue must be embroidered*; as if no face were fair that were not POWDERED or PAINTED! no beauty to be had but in wresting and writhing our own tongue! Nothing is FASHIONABLE till it be DEFORMED; and this is to write like a GENTLEMAN. All must be affected and preposterous as our gallants' clothes, sweet-bags, and night-dressings, in which you would think our men lay in, like ladies, it is so CURIOUS.
**************************************
Much Ado about Nothing
'seest thou not what a deformed thief this fashion is?' (III.iii.121)
'Deformed; a has been a vile thief
this seven year; a goes up and down like a gentleman' (III.iii.
122-24)
***********************************
fucus/paint/maculate
Davies, Scourge of Folly
Of the staid furious Poet FUCUS.
Epig. 114
Fucus, the furious Poet writes but Plaies;
So, playing, writes: that's, idly writeth all:
Yet, idle Plaies, and Players are his Staies;
Which stay him that he can no lower fall:
For, he is fall’n into the deep’st decay,
Where Playes and Players keepe him at a stay.
**************************************
The Rhetoric of Adornment in "Le Misanthrope"
Jeffrey N. Peters
The French Review, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Mar., 2002
At least since Aristotle described eloquence as a form of clothing applied to the substance, or body, of speech in the Rhetoric, Western debates about the proper relation of ideas to the words that express them (inventio as related to elocutio) have recurred to a vestimentary metaphor. In treating the question of appropriate style in oratory, Aristotle writes that speakers "must consider what it is that suits an old man as a red coat suits a young one (for the same garment is not appropriate)" In his Dialogue on Orators, Tacitus evokes a similar image when he dramatizes an opinion common among Roman legists that the superficial ostentation of the rhetorical style compromised clarity of reason: "it is undoubtedly better to clothe what you have to say even in rough homespun than to parade it in the gay-coloured garb of a courtesan. There is a fashion much in vogue with quite a number of counsel nowadays that ill befits an orator, and is indeed scarce worthy even of a man" (XXVI, 301). In this example, effeminate clothing threatens the essence of masculinity in the same way that RHETORICAL FIGURALITY throws into question the referential propriety of language. This judgement is bequeathed to Quintilian, who states, "such ornament must, as I have already said, be bold, manly and chaste, free from all effeminate smoothness and the FALSE HUES derived from artificial dyes, and must glow with health and vigour" (VIII, 3.6, 215).
*************************************
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
**************************************
Fashionable Euphues:
euphues - elegant
Euphuism \Eu"phu*ism\, n. [Gr. ? well grown, graceful; ? well +
? growth, fr. ? to grow. This affected style of conversation
and writing, fashionable for some time in the court of
Elizabeth, had its origin from the fame of Lyly's books,
``Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit,'' and ``Euphues and his
England.''] (Rhet.)
An affectation of excessive elegance and refinement of
language; high-flown diction.
*************************************
Oxford's literary rival Sidney -
Sidney
Sonnet II
Let DAINTY wits crie on the Sisters nine,
That, BRAVELY MASKT, their fancies may be told;
Or, Pindars apes, flaunt they in PHRASES FINE,
Enam'ling with pied flowers their thoughts of gold;
Or else let them in statlier glorie shine,
Ennobling new-found tropes with problemes old;
Or with strange similes enrich each line,
Of herbes or beasts which Inde or Affrick hold.
For me, in sooth, no Muse but one I know,
Phrases and problems from my reach do grow;
And STRANGE THINGS cost too deare for my poor sprites.
How then? euen thus: in Stellaes face I reed
What Loue and Beautie be; then all my deed
But copying is, what in her Nature writes.
****************************
Sidney, Defence of Poesy
Other sort of Poetrie, almost have we none, but that Lyricall kind of Songs and SONETS; which Lord, if he gave us so good mindes, how well it might be employed, and with how heavenly fruites, both private and publike, in singing the praises of the immortall bewtie, the immortall goodnes of that God, who giveth us hands to write, and wits to conceive: of which we might wel want words, but never matter, of which WE COULD TURN OUR EYES TO NOTHING, but we should ever have new budding occassions. But truly many of such writings as come under the banner of unresistable love, IF I WERE A MISTRESS, would never perswade mee they were in love: so coldly they applie firie speeches, as men that had rather redde lovers writings, and so caught up certaine swelling Phrases, which hang togither like a man that once tolde me the winde was at Northwest and by South, because he would be sure to name winds inough, then that in truth they feele those passions, which easily as I thinke, may be bewraied by that same forciblenesse or Energia, (as the Greeks call it of the writer). But let this be a sufficient, though short note, that we misse the right use of the material point of Poesie. Now for the outside of it, which is words, or (as I may tearme it) Diction, it is even well worse: so is it that HONY-FLOWING Matrone Eloquence, apparrelled, or rather disguised, in a Courtisanlike PAINTED AFFECTATION. *One time with so farre fet(ched) words, that many seeme monsters, but must seeme STRAUNGERS to anie poore Englishman*: an other time with coursing of a letter, as if they were bound to follow the method of a Dictionary: an other time with figures and flowers, extreemely winter-starved. But I would this fault were onely peculiar to Versefiers, and had not as large possession among Prose- Printers: and which is to be mervailed among many Schollers, & which is to be pitied among some Preachers. Truly I could wish, if at I might be so bold to wish, in a thing beyond the reach of my capacity, the diligent Imitators of Tully & Demosthenes, most worthie to be imitated, did not so much keepe Nizolian paper bookes, of their figures and phrase, as by attentive translation, as it were, devoure them whole, and make them wholly theirs. For now they cast SUGAR and spice uppon everie dish that is served to the table: like those Indians, not content to weare eare-rings at the fit and naturall place of the eares, but they will thrust Jewels through their nose and lippes, because they will be SURE TO BE FINE.
*************************************
Cynthia's Revels:
Eucosmos/Amorphus/THE DEFORMED
First, the hithermost, in the changeable blue and green Robe, is the commendably-fashion'd GALLANT, Eucosmos; whose Courtly Habit is the grace of the Presence, and delight of the surveying Eye: whom La- dies understand by the names of NEAT and ELEGANT. His Symbol is Divæ Virgini, in which he would express thy Deities principal Glory, which hath ever been Vir- ginity.
**************************************
Cythia's Revels
Cup. What's he, Mercury?
Mer. A notable Smelt. One, that hath newly entertain'd the Begger to follow him, but cannot get him to wait near enough. 'Tis Asotus, the Heir of Philargyrus; but first I'll give ye the others Character, which may make his the clearer. *He that is with him is Amorphus a Traveller, one so made out of the mixture and shreds of forms, that himself is truly deform'd*. He walks most commonly with a Clove or Pick-tooth in his Mouth, he is the very *MINT OF COMPLEMENT*, all his Be- haviours are printed, his Face is another Volume of Essayes; and his Beard an ARISTARCHUS.
****************************
P R O L O G U E. Cynthia's Revels, Jonson
IF gracious silence, sweet attention,
Quick sight, and quicker apprehension,
(The lights of Judgments throne) shine any where;
Our doubtful Author hopes this is their Sphere.
And therefore opens he himself to those;
To other weaker Beams his labours close:
As loth to prostitute their Virgin strain,
To ev'ry VULGAR and ADULT'RATE BRAIN,
In this alone, his Muse her sweetness hath,
She shuns the print of any BEATEN PATH;
And proves new *WAYS* to come to learned Ears:
Pied ignorance she neither loves nor, fears.
Nor hunts she after popular Applause,
Or fomy praise, that drops from common Jaws:
The Garland that she wears, their bands must twine,
Who can both censure, understand, define
What merit is: Then cast those piercing Rays,
Round as a Crown, instead of honour'd Bays,
About his Poesie; which (he knows) affords
Words, above action: matter, above words.
***************************
Treading the (Wrong) Paths of Vulgar and Adulterate Brains:
But THESE WAYS
Were not the PATHS I meant unto thy praise ;
For seeliest ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, BUT ECHOES RIGHT ;
Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance ;
Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,
And think to ruin where it SEEMED to raise.
These are, as some infamous bawd or whore
Should praise a matron ; what could hurt her more ?
****************************
An Epigram.
To the Honour'd------Countess of ------ Jonson
T
He Wisdom Madam of your private Life,
Where with this while you live a widowed Wife,
And the *RIGHT WAYS* you take unto the RIGHT*,
To conquer Rumour, and triumph on Spight;
Not only shunning by your act, to do
Ought that is ill, but the suspicion too,
Is of so brave Example, as he were
No Friend to Vertue, could be silent here.
The rather when the Vices of the Time
Are grown so Fruitful, and false Pleasures climb
By all oblique Degrees, that killing height
From whence they fall, cast down with their own
weight...
**************************************
Rebuked in a Figure:
Droeshout - two left arms/sinister/wrong
************************************
XLII. - THE MIND OF THE FRONTISPIECE
TO A BOOK. --Jonson
From death and dark oblivion (near the same)
The mistress of man's life, grave History,
Raising the world to good and evil fame,
Doth vindicate it to eternity.
Wise Providence would so : that nor the good
Might be defrauded, nor the great secured,
But both might know their *WAYS* were understood,
When vice alike in time with virtue dured :
Which makes that, lighted by the beamy hand
Of Truth, that searcheth the most hidden springs,
And guided by Experience, whose straight wand
Doth mete, whose line doth sound the depth of things ;
She cheerfully supporteth what she rears,
Assisted by no strengths but are her own,
Some note of which each varied pillar bears,
By which, as proper titles, she is known
Time's witness, herald of Antiquity,
The light of Truth, and life of Memory.
*************************************
Horace's 'Dexterous' Turns:
Making Nature Afraid:
Hor. lib. 2. Epist. 1.
'Tis thought that comedy, because its source
Is common life, must be a thing of course,
Whereas there's nought so difficult, because
There's nowhere less allowance made for flaws.
See Plautus now: what ill-sustained affairs
Are his close fathers and his love-sick heirs!
How farcical his parasites! how loose
And down at heel he wears his comic shoes!
For, so he fills his pockets, nought he heeds
Whether the play's a failure or succeeds.
Drawn to the house in glory's car, the bard
Is made by interest, by indifference marred:
So slight the cause that prostrates or restores
A mind that lives for plaudits and encores.
Nay, I forswear the drama, if to win
Or lose the prize can make me plump or thin.
Then too it tries an author's nerve, to find
The class in numbers strong, though weak in mind,
The brutal brainless mob, who, if a knight
Disputes their judgment, bluster and show fight,
Call in the middle of a play for bears
Or boxers;--'tis for such the rabble cares.
But e'en the knights have changed, and now they prize
Delighted ears far less than dazzled eyes.
The curtain is kept down four hours or more,
While horse and foot go hurrying o'er the floor,
While crownless majesty is dragged in chains,
Chariots succeed to chariots, wains to wains,
Whole fleets of ships in long procession pass,
And captive ivory follows captive brass.
O, could Democritus return to earth,
In truth 'twould wake his wildest peals of mirth,
*To see a milkwhite elephant, or shape
Half pard, half camel, set the crowd agape!*
He'd eye the mob more keenly than the shows,
And find less food for sport in these than those;
While the poor authors--he'd suppose their play
Addressed to a deaf ass that can but bray.
For where's the voice so strong as to o'ercome
A Roman theatre's discordant hum?
You'd think you heard the Gargan forest roar
Or Tuscan billows break upon the shore,
So loud the tumult waxes, when they see
The show, the pomp, the foreign finery.
Soon as the actor, thus bedizened, stands
In public view, clap go ten thousand hands.
"What said he?" Nought. "Then what's the attraction? "Why,
That woollen mantle with the violet dye.
But lest you think 'tis niggard praise I fling
To bards who soar where I ne'er stretched a wing,
That man I hold true master of his art
Who with fictitious woes can wring my heart,
Can rouse me, soothe me, pierce me with the thrill
Of vain alarm, and, as by magic skill,
Bear me to Thebes, to Athens, where he will.
Now turn to us shy mortals, who, instead
Of being hissed and acted, would be read:
We claim your favour, if with worthy gear
You'd fill the temple Phoebus holds so dear,
And give poor bards the stimulus of hope
To aid their progress up Parnassus' slope.
Poor bards! much harm to our own cause we do
(It tells against myself, but yet 'tis true),
When, wanting you to read us, we intrude
On times of business or of lassitude,
When we lose temper if a friend thinks fit
To find a fault or two with what we've writ,
When, unrequested, we again go o'er
A passage we recited once, before,
When we complain, forsooth, our laboured strokes,
Our DEXTEROUS TURNS, are lost on careless folks,
When we expect, so soon as you're informed
That ours are hearts by would-be genius warmed,
You'll send for us instanter, end our woes
With a high hand, and make us all compose.
**************************************
"Neque, me ut MIRETUR turba, laboro: / Contentus paucis lectoribus" -
" I do not expend my efforts so that the multitude may *wonder* at me:
I am contented with a few READERS"
Jonson, Epigraph, Workes
*************************************
Rebuked in a Figure:
Droeshout Engraving - two left arms
**************************************
ambisinister
n. left-handed in both hands; awkward. WRONG in both hands.
***************************************
Awk \Awk\, adv.
Perversely; in the wrong way. --L'Estrange.
Awk \Awk\ ([add]k), a. [OE. auk, awk (properly) turned away;
(hence) contrary, wrong, from Icel. ["o]figr, ["o]fugr,
afigr, turning the wrong way, fr. af off, away; cf. OHG.
abuh, Skr. ap[=a]c turned away, fr. apa off, away + a root
ak, a[u^]k, to bend, from which come also E. angle, anchor.]
1. Odd; out of order; perverse. [Obs.]
2. Wrong, or not commonly used; clumsy; sinister; as, the awk
end of a rod (the but end). [Obs.] --Golding.
3. Clumsy in performance or manners; unhandy; not dexterous;
awkward. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
*************************************
Sinister \Sin"is*ter\ (s[i^]n"[i^]s*t[~e]r; 277), a.
Note: [Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, as
Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden.] [L. sinister: cf. F.
sinistre.]
1. On the left hand, or the side of the left hand; left; --
opposed to dexter, or right. ``Here on his sinister
cheek.'' --Shak.
My mother's blood Runs on the dexter cheek, and this
sinister Bounds in my father's --Shak.
Note: In heraldy the sinister side of an escutcheon is the
side which would be on the left of the bearer of the
shield, and opposite the right hand of the beholder.
2. Unlucky; inauspicious; disastrous; injurious; evil; -- the
left being usually regarded as the unlucky side; as,
sinister influences.
All the several ills that visit earth, Brought forth
by night, with a sinister birth. --B. Jonson.
3. WRONG, as springing from indirection or obliquity;
perverse; dishonest; corrupt; as, sinister aims.
Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts. --Bacon.
He scorns to undermine another's interest by any
sinister or inferior arts. --South.
He read in their looks . . . sinister intentions
directed particularly toward himself. --Sir W.
Scott.
4. Indicative of lurking evil or harm; boding covert danger;
as, a sinister countenance.
**************************************
Horace, of the Art of Poetrie
transl. Ben Jonson
Rich men are said with many cups to plie,
And rack, with Wine, the man whome they would try,
If of their friendship he be worthy, or no:
When you write Verses, with your judge do so:
Looke through him, and be sure, *you take not mocks
For praises*, where the mind conceales a foxe.
****************************
