The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Part 30

_Ritson_

Yet Milton could write:

Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth, Or the bell-man's drowsy charm--

and I dare say he was right. O never let a quaker, or a woman, try their hand at being witty, any more than a Tom Brown affect to speak by the spirit!

_Scott_

----Aaron Hill, who, although, in general, a bombastic writer, produced some pieces of merit, particularly the Caveat, an allegorical satire on Pope.

_Ritson_

Say rather his verses on John Dennis, beginning "Adieu, unsocial excellence!" which are implicitly a finer satire on Pope than twenty Caveats. All that Pope could or did say against Dennis, is there condensed; and what he should have said, and did not, for him, is there too.[44]

[44]

ON THE DEATH OF MR. DENNIS

Adieu, unsocial excellence! at last Thy foes are vanquish'd, and thy fears are past: Want, the grim recompense of truth like thine, Shall now no longer dim thy destined shrine.

The impatient envy, the disdainful air, The front malignant, and the captious stare, The furious petulance, the jealous start, The mist of frailties that obscured thy heart-- Veil'd in thy grave shall unremember'd lie; For these were parts of Dennis born to die.

But there's a n.o.bler deity behind; His reason dies not, and has friends to find:

THOMSON'S SEASONS

_Address to the Angler to spare the young fish_

If yet too young, and easily deceived, A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant rod, Him, piteous of his youth, and the short s.p.a.ce He has enjoy'd the vital light of heaven, Soft disengage, and back into the stream The speckled infant throw.----

_Scott_

The praise bestowed on a preceding pa.s.sage, cannot be justly given to this. There is in it an attempt at dignity above the occasion. Pathos seems to have been intended, but affectation only is produced.

_Ritson_

It is not affectation, but it is the mock heroic of pathos, introduced purposely and wisely to attract the reader to a proposal, which from the unimportance of the subject--a poor little fish--might else have escaped his attention--as children learn, or may learn, humanity to animals from the mock romantic "Perambulations of a Mouse."

HAYMAKING

----Infant hands Trail the long rake; or, with the fragrant load O'er-charged, amid the kind oppression roll.

_Scott_

"Kind oppression" is a phrase of that sort, which one scarcely knows whether to blame or praise: it consists of two words, directly opposite in their signification; and yet, perhaps, no phrase whatever could have better conveyed the idea of an easy uninjurious weight--

_Ritson_

--and yet he does not know whether to blame or praise it!

Though here revenge and pride withheld his praise, No wrongs shall reach him through his future days; The rising ages shall redeem his name, And nations read him into lasting fame.

In his defects untaught, his labour'd page Shall the slow grat.i.tude of Time engage.

Perhaps some story of his pitied woe, Mix'd in faint shades, may with his memory go, To touch fraternity with generous shame, And backward cast an unavailing blame On times too cold to taste his strength of art, Yet warm contemners of too weak a heart.

Rest in thy dust, contented with thy lot, Thy good remember'd, and thy bad forgot.

SHEEP-SHEARING

----By many a dog Compell'd---- * * * * *

The clamour much of men, and boys, and dogs---- * * * * *

_Scott_

The mention of _dogs_ twice was superfluous; it might have been easily avoided.

_Ritson_

Very true--by mentioning them only once.

_Scott_

Nature is rich in a variety of minute but striking circ.u.mstances; some of which engage the attention of one observer, and some that of another.

_Ritson_

This lover of truth never uttered a truer speech. Give me a lie wth a spirit in it.

Air, earth, and ocean, smile immense.----