A CRITICISM on thefe MISCELLANIES. T HE poetical performances of Dr Swift ought to be confidered as occafional poems, framed either to please, or vex some particular perfons. We must not fuppofe them defigned for pofterity. If he had cultivated his genius in that way, he must certainly have excelled, efpecially in fatire. We fee fine sketches in feveral of his pieces: but he feems more defirous to inform and ftrengthen his mind, than to indulge the luxuriancy of his imagination. He chufes to discover and correct errors in the works of others, rather than to illuftrate and add beauties to his own. Like a fkilful artift he is fond of probing wounds to their depth, and of enlarging them to open view. He prefers cauftics, which erode proud flesh, to fofter balfamics, which give more immediate cafè. He aims to be feverely useful, rather than politely engaging: and, as he was either not formed, or would not take pains to excel in poetry, he became in fome measure fuperior to it; and aflumed more the air and manners of a critic, than of a poet. Had he li ved in the fame age with Horace, he would have approached nearer to him, than any other poet: and if we may make an allowance for the different course of study, and different form of government, to which each of these great men were fubject, we may ob. ferve, in feveral inftances, a strong refemblance between them. Both poets are equally diftinguifhed for wit and humour. Each displays a peculiar felicity in diction. But, of the two, Horace is the more elegant and delicate: while he condemns, he pleases. Swift takes pleasure in giving pain. The diffimilitude of their tempers might be owing to the different turns in their fortune. Swift early formed large views of ambition, and was difappointed. Horace, from an exiled low ftate, rofe into affluence, and enjoyed the favour and friendship of Auguftus. Each poet was the delight of the principal perfons of his age. Cum magnis vixiffe, was not more applicable to Horace, than to Swift. They both were temperate; both were frugal; and both were of the fame Epicurean tafte. Horace had his Lydia, Swift had his Vanessa. Horace had his Mecanas and his Agrippa; Swift had his Oxford and his Bolingbroke. Horace had his Virgil, Swift had his Pope. Swift, who had the niceft ear, is remarkably chafte and delicate in his rhymes. A bad rhyme appeared to him one of the capital fins, in poetry; and yet it is a fin into which fome of our greatest poets have fallen; Dryden frequently, Pope fometimes. The former was imbarraffed with a wife and family; and was often under fuch neceffitous circumstances, as to be obliged to publifh, or to want fubfiftence. The latter was in a lefs confined, and in a much more eafy fituation. He was naturally judicious, and uncommonly attentive to maintain the dignity of his character. Altho' his body was weak, his mind was equal to the weight of his laurel crown ; and VOL. VI. A he The wore it not only with cafe, but majefty. Take him as a poet, we shall not fee his like again. The Dean kept company with many of the fair fex; but they were rather his amufement than his admiration. He trifled away many hours in their converfation, he filled many pages in their praife, and, by the power of his head, he gained the character of a lover, without the least affistance from his heart. To this par ticular kind of pride, fupported by the bent of his genius, and joined by the exceffive coldness of his nature, Vanefla owed the ruin of her reputation; and from the fame caufes, Stella remained an unacknowledged wife. If we confider Swift's behaviour, fo far only as it relates to women, we shall find, that he looked upon them rather as bufts, than as whole figures In his panegyrical defcriptions, he has feldom defcended lower than the centre of their hearts; or if ever he has defigned a compleat statue, it has been generally cast in a dirty, or in a difagreeable mould :- as if ftatuary had not conceived, or had not experienced that justness of proportion, that delicacy of limb, and thofe pleafing and graceful attitudes which have conftituted the fex to be the most beautiful part of the creation. If you review his feveral poems to Stella, you will find them fuller of affection than defire, and more expressive of friendship than of love. For example, Thu, STELLA, wert no longer young, When first for thee my harp I jirung; Most of the poems which are abfolutely addreffed to Stella, or which defcribe her in a variety of attitudes, turn upon her age: a kind of excufe perhaps for Swift's want of love.. It is impoffible for me to pass a very minute comment upon the various poems wrote by Swift. They are not only mingled improperly, in point of dates and fubjects; but many, very many of them, are temporary, trifling, and 1 had almost faid puerile. Several of them are perfonal, and confequently scarce amufing; or at leaft they leave a very fmall impreffion upon our minds. Such indeed as are likely to draw your attention, are exquifite, and fo peculiarly his own, that whoever has dared to imitate him in thefe, cr in any of his works, has conftantly failed in the attempt. Upon a general view of his poetry, we fhall find him, as in his other performances, an uncommon, furprifing, heteroclite genius; luxurious in his fancy, lively in his ideas, humorous in his defcriptions, and bitter, exceeding bitter, in his fatire. The reftlefsnefs of his imagination, and the disappointment of his ambition, have both contributed to hinder him from undertaking any poetical work of length or importance. His wit was fufficient to every labour: no flight could have wearied the ftrength of his pinions: perhaps, if the extensive views of his nature had been fully fatisfied, his airy motions motions had been more regular, and lefs fudden. But he now appears like an eagle that is fometimes chained; and at that particular time, for want of nobler and more proper food, diverts his confinement, and appeafes his hunger, by deftroying the gnats, butterflies, and other wretched infects that unluckily happen to buz or flutter within his reach. While I have been reading over his poems, I have considered him as an Egyptian hieroglyphic; which tho' it had an unnatural, and frequently an indecent appearance, yet it always contained fome fecret marks of wifdom, and fometimes of deep morality. The fubjects of his poems are often naufeous, and the performances beautifully disagreeable. The lady's dreing-room has been univerfally condemned, as deficient in point of delicacy, even to the highest degree. The best apology that can be made in its favour, is to fuppofe, that the author exhibited his Celia in the moft hideous colours he could find,. left the might be mistaken as a goddefs, when the was only a morsal. External beauty is very alluring to youth and inexperience and Swift, by pulling off the borrowed plumes of his harpy, dif covers at once a frightful bird of prey, and by making her offenfive, renders her lefs dangerous and inviting. Such, I hope, washis defign. But let his views and motives have been ever fo Beneficial, his general want of delicacy and decorum must not hope eyen to find the fhadow of an excufe; for it is impoffible not to own, that he too frequently forgets that politenefs and tenderness of manners, which are undoubtedly due to human kind. From his early and repeated difappointments, he became a manthrope. If his mind had been more equal and content, I am willing to believe, that he would have viewed the works of nature with a morebenign afpect. And perhaps, under a lefs conftant rotation of anxiety, he might have preferved his fenfes to the laft fcene of life, and might have enjoyed that calm exit from the ftage, for. which his friend Horace fo carneftly fupplicates Apollo. Frui paratis et valido mihi, Latoe, dones, et precor, integra His pride was fo great as fcarce to admit any body to the leafte fare of his friendship, except fuch who could amufe him, or fuch who could do him honour. To these two different claffes we owe many of his poems. His companions and humble followers find themselves immortalized by the infertion of their names in addreffes to Stella, or in other mifcellaneous pieces, written in an eafy, altho' not in a careless manner. His more exalted friends,. whofe ftations and characters did him honour, are treated in a different style and you will perceive a real dignity, and a most delicate kind of wit, in all his poems to Lord Oxford, Lord Peter-borow, Lord Carteret (now Earl of Granville), Mr Pulteney (now Earl of Bath); and I think I may particularly add, in a ✅ pocu A 2 poem to the Countess of Winchelsea (under the name of Ardelia), and another to Mrs Biddy Floyd. Thefe names abetted him in his purfuit of fame. They reflected back the glory which he gave. But ftill I cannot recollect one poem, nay fcarce a couplet, to his noble patron Lord Bolingbroke. In that inftance he has been as filent, as Virgil has been to Horace; and yet he certainly had not a grain of envy in his compofition. I think I can difcern a third kind of ftyle in his poems addrefsed to Mr Pope, Mr Gay, Dr Delany, and Dr Young. When he writes to them, there is a mixture of eafe, dignity, familiarity, and affection. They were his intimate friends, whom he loved fincerely, and whom he wished to accompany into the poetical regions of eternity. As to the poem called Death and Daphne; I recollect an odd incident relating to that nymph. Swift, foon after our acquaintance, introduced me to her, as to one of his female favourites. I had fcarce been half an hour in her company, before the afked me, if I had feen the Dean's poem upon Death and Daphne? As I told her I had not, she immediately unlocked a cabinet, and bringing out the manufcript, read it to me with a feeming fatisfaction, of which at that time I doubted the fincerity. While fhe was reading, the Dean was perpetually correcting her for bad pronunciation, and for placing a wrong emphasis upon particular words. As foon as fhe had gone thro' the compofition, the affured me fmilingly, that the portrait of Daphne was drawn for herself. I begged to be excused from believing it, and protefted that I could not fee one feature that had the least resemblance. But the Dean immediately burft into a fit of laughter; "You fancy," fays he, "that you are ve ry polite; but you are much mistaken. That lady had rather "be a Daphne drawn by me, than a Sacharia by any other pencil." She confirmed what he had faid with great earnestness; fo that I had no other method of retrieving my error, than by whif pering in her ear, as I was conducting her down stairs to dinner, that indeed I found Her hard as dry and cold as lead. You see the command which Swift had over all his females; and you would have smiled to have found his house a constant seragho of very virtuous women, who attended him from morning. till night, with an obedience, an awe, and an affiduity, that are feldom paid to the richest, or the most powerful lovers; no, not even to the Grand Signior himself. To thefe ladies Swift owed the publication of many pieces, which ought never to have been delivered to the prefs. He communicated every compofition as foon as finifhed, to his female fe nate; who not only paffed their judgment on the performance, but conftantly asked, and almost as conftantly obtained, a copy of it. You cannot be furprifed, that it was immediately afterwards feen in print; and when printed, became a part of his works. He lived much at home, and was continually writing, when alone. Not Not any of his fenators prefumed to approach him, when he fig nified his pleasure to remain in private, and without interruption. His nightgown and flippers were not cafier put on or off, than his attendants. No prince ever met with more flattery to his own perfon, or more devotion to his own mandates. This defpotic power not only blinded him, but gave a loose to paffions that ought to haye been kept under a proper restraint. I am forry to fay, that whole nations are fometimes facrificed to his refentment: for reflections of that fort appear to me the least justifiable of any kind of fatire. You will read his acerrima with indignation, and his mi nutia with regret. Yet I must add, that fince he has defcended to low as to write, and still so much lower as to print riddles, he is excellent even in that kind of verfification. The lines are smooth er, the expreffions are neater, and the thought is clofer pursued,. than in any other riddle-writer whatever. But Swift compofing riddles, is Titian painting draught-boards; which must have been inexcufable, while there remained a fignpoft-painter in the world. As to the two Latin poems, An epifile to Dr Sheridan, and, A. defcription of the rocks at Carbery in Ireland; the Dean was extremely folicitous, that they should be printed among his works: and, what is no lefs true than amazing, he affumed to himself more vanity upon these two Latin poems, than upon many of his beft: English performances. It is faid, that Milton in his own judge ment preferred the Paradife Regained to the Paradife Loft. There poffibly might be found fome excufe for fuch a preference; but in Swift's cafe there can he none. He understood the Latin language. perfectly well, and he read it conftantly; but he was no Latin poet. And if the Carberie rupes, and the Epiftola ad Thomam Sheridan, had been the produce of any other author, they must have undergone a fevere cenfure from Dr Swift. The two poems, intitled, The life and genuine character of Dr Swift, and, Verfes on the death of Dr Swift, &c. are poems of great wit and humour. The firft was artfully published by Dr Swift in a manner fo different from thofe rules of poetry to which he confined himself, that he hoped the public might mistake it for a fpurious or uncorrect copy, ftolen by memory from his original poem.. He took great pleasure in this fuppofition: and I believe it anfwered his expectation. One of his stricteft rules in poetry was to avoid triplets. What can have given rife to fo nice a peculiarity, is difficult to determine. It might be owing only to a fingular turn of thinking. But the reafon which he publicly affigned, feemed not fo much against the practice itself, as against the poets who indulged themselves in that manner of writing: "A cuftom (according to the Dean's opinion) introduced by laziness, continued by ignorance, and established by falfe tafte." With deference to fo great a critic, it is a custom that has frequently been pur-. fued with remarkable fuccefs. Mr Dryden abounds in triplets; and in fome of his most elegant poems, the third concluding verfe forms the finest climax in the whole piece. Mr Waller, the father of all flowing poetry, has generally referved the nice point of wit to his triplicate line. And, upon an impartial inquiry, it |