homely construction of his time when he turned his attention to the imitations of the classics? These strangers demanded more ceremony. They were translated freely into the leading modern languages. Sébilet, in his "Pcétique" (1548), says: "Pourtant t'avertis-je que la version ou traduction est aujourd'hui le plus fréquent et mieux reçu des estimés poëtes et des doctes lecteurs.”* In the same year Sébilet published a metrical translation of the "Iphigenia in Aulis" of Euripides. In 1549 also appeared Du Bellay's "Défense et Illustration de la Langue Françoise." He urged very strongly the intelligent imitation of the ancients, with a just criticism of translation, saying that Demosthenes, Homer, Cicero, and Vergil do not sound so well in French as in their original tongue. In a translation, "il vous semblera passer de l'ardente montagne d'Etne sur le froid sommet de Caucase. Et ce que je dy des langues latine et grecque se doit reciproquement dire de tous les vulgaires." What he urged was the intelligent imitation of Greek and Latin, not mere slavish copying. Baïf translated from the Greek; and in this little band we find the most enthusiastic welcome given to the Renaissance. In England there was very similar enthusiasm. Gascoigne's translation, through the Italian, of the "Jocasta " of Euripides (1566), is a familiar instance, and we see the same Græco-Latin revival that found its French equivalent in the ardor of the Pleiad. In England and Spain there was for a time a sort of compromise: to take the former country alone, Shakspere stands at the junction of two great streams which may represent respectively the Middle Ages and classical antiquity. In France the wars of the League interrupted the normal growth of lite * Quoted in Egger's "L'Hellénisme en France," i. 260. rature, and when peace again prevailed it was the new, arid correctness of Malherbe that defined the narrow channels in which French literature was to run for two centuries. Malherbe met with fierce opposition: Mademoiselle de Gournay, for instance, Montaigne's adopted daughter, exposed his incompleteness; but the times were favorable, and his commonplace aversion to extravagance, whether mediæval or in imitation of the classics, won the day. After all, the classicism of the Pleiad could scarcely hope to live it was as remote from the popular affection as was the wearing of togas or the observance of the Panathenaic festival. Then, too, Malherbe touched the chord of patriotism, and in denouncing mediævalism he struck what was to be the prevailing note of European civilization for a long time. The nation that did that most effectually was sure to take the lead. France did this by being the first country to give to the world a new literature, which was distinctly neither mediæval nor a mere tracing over of the classics. It stepped, almost at one stride, from the Græco-Latin period to its own version of classicism, while in England we see two very decided movements flourishing side by side, both of which finally succumbed before the French influence. The most important of these was the dramatic, which need not be described here, with its close relation to the popular life; the other, the tone of the court, with its pedantic imitation of Italian poetry. With the first study of the classics came the attempt to employ classical constructions, while euphuism was an effort to develop the language in a modern fashion. Lyly, as has been clearly shown in an admirable paper by Mr. Friedrich Landmann,* imitated an old Spanish writer, * 66 Der Euphuismus, sein Wesen, seine Quelle, seine Geschichte." Giessen: 1881; and "New Shakspere Society's Transactions," 1880-2, No. XIII. p. 241. Guevara, who may be called the founder of what is known as Euphuism.* The general groping for new light introduced a thousand other affectations. Sidney's "Arcadia," for example, abounds in imitations of the Spanish pastoral romances; and perhaps even more marked was the influence of Sylvester's translation of "Du Bartas," 1598. Dryden, it will be remembered, wrote, in his dedication of the "Spanish Friar," 1691: "I thought inimitable Spenser a mean poet in comparison of Sylvester's 'Du Bartas,' and was rapt into an ecstasy when I read these lines: 'Now when the winter's keener breath began To crystallize the Baltic ocean, To glaze the lakes, to bridle up the floods, And periwig with snow † the baldpate woods.' I am much deceived if this be not abominable fustian." Yet Dryden was not the only one who admired this abominable fustian. Space is lacking for a description of all * It is interesting to observe that euphuism still makes an occasional appearance in English prose, as alliteration does in English verse, and abundant instances of both are to be found in the writings of Swinburne. Lyly, for instance, wrote many such sentences as this: Gentleman, as you may suspect me of idlenesse in giving eare to your talke, so may you convince me of lightnesse in answering such toyes: certes, as you have made mine eares glow at the rehearsall of your love, so have you galled my heart with the remembraunce of your folly." Swinburne says: "The buoyant beauty of surrounding verse, the 'innumerable laughter'; the profound murmur of its many measures, the fervent flow of stanzas now like the ripples and now like the gulfs of the sea," etc. ("Essays," p. 255). Lyly might have written this line: "Neither by defect of form nor by any default of force" (ib. p. 108). For conceits outdoing even Lyly, see Pater, "Studies in the History of the Renaissance," passim. Sylvester says "wool." Cf. this phrase of Du Bartas, "monts enfarinés d'une neige éternelle." But see Sainte-Beuve, "Poésie du XVI. Siècle," p. 68. the affectations of the writers at the time of Elizabeth. Gongorism in Spain, and Marinism in Italy, show how widespread was the confusion which the new cultivation wrought in the language. Can we be surprised that Malherbe carried the reaction against conceits as far as he did, when we read such passages as these from "Du Bartas"? The world, he tells us, would have remained in a state of confusion, if the divine Word "N'eût comme siringué dedans ces membres morts or this, expressive of a galloping horse? "Le champ plat bat, abat, détrappe, grappe, attrappe Other examples of his lawlessness may be found: "Il gagne du dauphin la ba-branlante échine;" "Sur pé-pétillant;" "La peur, à qui ba - bat incessamment la flanc." These may be compared with such gems as the following in English from A. Fraunce's translation of Tasso's "Lamentations of Amyntas," 1587: "I'le quench theyr thirst by my hartbloud, Blynde boy's, proud gyrle's thirst and glut their eyes with aboundant Streams of purpled gore of tootoo wretched Amyntas." Malherbe killed these affectations with one blow; in England they died a lingering death. In France, Malherbe was followed by Corneille, Racine, and Boileau, who flourished under a strong government that embodied the most complete reaction against extravagance of every sort. License in literature was as impossible as political freedom, and the completeness with which France adopted the idea of submission to authority made its brilliant civilization the model for the rest of Europe. England, on the contrary, was ruled by divided counsels. The great dramatists held their position by reason of their close relation with the people. Yet the court followed the prevailing fashions of Spain and Italy. IV. Let us take, for instance, those whom Dr. Johnson called the metaphysical poets, as if metaphysics were synonymous with obscurity. According to him, "They were wholly employed on something unexpected and surprising. . . . Their courtship was void of fondness, and their lamentation of sorrow. Their wish was only to say what they hoped had never been said before." Yet, he acknowledged, "great labor, directed by great ability, is never wholly lost; if they frequently threw away their wit upon false conceits, they likewise sometimes struck out unexpected truth; if their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage. . . . If their greatness seldom elevates, their acuteness often surprises; if the imagination is not always gratified, at least the powers of reflection and comparison are employed; and in the mass of materials which ingenious absurdity has thrown together, genuine and useful knowledge may be sometimes found buried, perhaps, in grossness of expression, but useful to those who know their value; and such as, when they are expanded to perspicuity and polished to elegance, may give lustre to works which have more propriety, though less copiousness, of sentiment." Donne and Cowley were the chief offenders whom Dr. Johnson brings into court. Donne was borne in 1573, nine years after Shakspere, and he died in 1631, so that it is impossible to charge him with being the product of a degenerate age. Dr. Johnson quotes many examples of his poetry to show that the characteristics of his school were "enormous and disgusting hyperboles," "unexpected and unnatural thoughts," "violent and unnatural fictions," "slight and trifling sentiments." He quotes from Donne: |