He that reads Rufbworth will find the Speeches of those that were called the learned Gentlemen fuller by half of Pedantry than Hudibras is. Lord Clarendon mentions one Gentleman, who, from the Gallery, delivered in a Bill to deftroy Epifcopacy, Root and Branch; which that noble Lord believes, in that Gentleman, was chiefly for the Vanity of repeating Immedicabile Vulnus Enfe recidendum eft. If all Learning is to be called Pedantry, Milton is much more blameable that Way than Butler. It is really a Matter of confiderable Learning to be qualified to be a Reader of Paradife Loft. And Milton is evidently oftentatious of his Learning; whereas Butler brings it in only to laugh at it: And, as Father Boubours, the French Critic, very well fays, on peut tout dire en riant, you may fay any Thing in Jeft. I will not fay, in Defence of these great Authors, that their having done this is fufficient to justify it; as Seneca fays of Cato- "They that difpraife Cato for Drunkenness "will rather bring Drunkennefs into Repute, than that any "Body will think the worfe of Cato for it." But this I will fay, and it is the Truth, that, without much Augury or Harufpicy, a Man may foretell, that the Learned will foon take the Pains to explain them fo, and the Vulgar to understand up to them, that, before many Years are paft, the Objection will drop, with Increase of Pleafure and Satisfaction even to the unlearned Reader. As to the Plebeian Language, it being his profefs'd Defign to debase the Hiftory of that Time, it became a neceffary Part of that Design to make Use of it. But he mixes it fo artfully with other and more elegant English, that in his popular Way of speaking, he is very far from being vulgar. His Abbreviations and his fplay-foot Rhymes are useful to his Design of feeming to defpife the Art of Poetry, at the fame Time he makes Ufe of it: All tends, as feverely as any of the Orations of Demofthenes, to run down his Adversary, and to defpife all other Praise. And to fay there is no Beauty in his Double-Rhymes, I would not affert: I am fure, in many of them, if not in + See Hiftory of the Rebellion, Fol. Edit. Vol. 1, P. 187. most, moft, there is a great deal of Humour: It gives this Poem BOILEAU. able. I have gone through the chief Objections to the modern Burlefque. As to the Matter of Obfcenity, Profaneness, &c. the Antients have little to brag of; their Practice is fhameful: But, fince we must not go in their Traces, let us examine what Liberties they have given themselves in Style. I fhall take the firft Comick Author amongst them; for Hudibras is a Comedy. Let us fee, then, what we can find in Ariftophanes, the merry Greek; Tart Ariftophanes, as Ben Jobnfon calls him. The chief Licences I have heard or read of in this celebrated Author are thefe: First, Diminutives, fuch as Socratidion, &c. I remember a Critick once, in an Epiftle to Dr. Mills, called him 'Iwanvidior: Upon which Mr. Boyle fays, he did very judiciously, in speaking of a great Grecian, who might be fuppofed to have a Kindness for the Language; for thofe pretty Diminutives, Little Johnny, or fo, don't do fo well in English. I cannot at prefent recollect any Thing of this Kind in Hudibras. Secondly, Compofites, and Decompofites, made up of founding Words; one Word reaching fometimes the Extent of fix Verses: I don't obferve any Thing like this in our Author. Shakefpear is our boldeft Writer for Compofites. Ben Fobnfon has imitated it: Nafty-pated, loufy-faced, turdi-fartical Fellow. But Decompofites Hudibras has: Pyg-what d'y' call him? -malion; Pen-thefile. Thirdly, Parodies, or Applications of grave Paffages of the finest Authors in a Burlesque Way: That is one of our Author's chief Beauties: He has fome very extraordinary Mafter-Pieces of that Kind. Fourthly, Perfians, Scythians, &c. fpeaking in their own Languages: This is likewife practifed by Plautus in one Paffage, where he brings in Punick. The Satyr Menipèe makes his Actors speak, fometimes in Latin, fometimes in Italian; fometimes he makes Ufe of both those Tongues, and the French too, in the fame Speech. But Butler has nowhere Sam. Winter 1760 where allowed himself this Liberty, fcarce of one whole Verfe. Fifthly, The different Dialects of the Greek, the Lacedamonian, Theffalian, &c. Our Language is not very capable of this. Sixthly, Strangers endeavour to speak Attick, and mangle it: There is no fuch Thing in our Author. (See Love in a Tub, by Sir George Etberidge.) : Seventhly, Country Folks fpeak'in their Country Fashion Our Poet has fomething of this Kind; and it was neceffary to the Nature of his Poem. Eighthly, Women knocking hard Words out of Joint, and speaking illiterally, in attempting to speak finely: This is but feldom, I think, practifed by our Author; yet frequent in our English Comedies. Now, all thefe Licences, put together, are more than our Poet uses, and fufficient to justify his greatest Exceffes: And yet, because these Things are thin-fown in the Greek Authors, Ariftophanes is reckoned one of the pureft Attick Writers: Neither is Hudibras at all to be centemned for immodest Language: If he is, what † Scarron has done in this Kind is very abominable. Those that have a Mind to be better informed in this (not very important) Question concerning Burlesque, may please to accept of these further Particulars: * This is humorously bantered by Mrs. Davies, in a Novel, intitled, The Merry Wanderer. See her Works, published in 8vo. Vol. 2. P. 1725, 199. "Joan Ellis (fays fhe) went to an Attorney, and told him, That "The wanted a little of his Device [Advice] in Form of Popery [in "Formâ Pauperis]: Her Husband was dead, and the had reminifter"ed [adminiftered]; but his Brother had clapp'd in a Pecavi [a "Caveat] to her Reminiftration [Adminiftration], and was going to "convince [commence] a Suit against her; and the should lose all "her Money, if he did not help her by his Ingenious [Ingenuity]; "for truly the was not in a Compacity [Capacity] to help herself." + N. B. I read in the Life of Scarron, that not only many of his Poems have an Effrontery beyond Measure with relation to Obfcenity; but that his private Converfation was fo infected with it, that his Lady, the famous Madam de Maintenon afterwards, was three whole Months after she married him, before he could civilize and tame her wild Male in that Respect; a Brutality which one would wonder at, in a Man so much in Favour with the Court of Anne de Auftriche, long before he married her. In In the Caftilian Language, Burladores fignify thofe fet. d'Eau, that fpirt up from the Floor, and wet People, before they are aware. Burla, in Italian, means any witty Malice, done, by Way of Pleafantry, to make People laugh. From thence a Man of Pleafantry was called a Burlefco. Burla likewife, in that Language, is used for those Farces which are commonly a&ed after Tragedies in that Country. Now, as thefe Farces are made up of all the grotesque, low, vulgar, or pedantick Expreffions that can be, this Style came to be called the Burlefque Style. St. Amand begun this Style in France: So the Thing was antienter than the Name: Sarrazin is firft faid to have used the Name. But St. Amand's Style was too low, fit only for Porters, and Carmen, or Colliers, Style de Crocheteurs. Scarron then arofe like a Phoenix, and mixing a Share of true Wit and Humour with his Burlefque, ftruck out a politer Species of it, about the Year 1640: His Succefs made a Number of bad Imitators: All France ran like mad into it: His Typhons begot Typhons His Traveftie of Virgil begot Travefties to almost all the antient Authors: Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Claudian were turned into Mafquerade. Even Brebeuf, the Bombaft Tranflator of Lucan, took fome ungodly Pains too to turn his Favourite Lucan himself into Burlefque. It was, like our Ballads here, an excellent Expedient in Politicks. During all the Wars of Paris, and the Disputes of Mazarin's Ministry, nothing was equal to it for Dispatch of Bufinefs: It was used as a terrible Artillery against the politick Italian; and a play-foot Rhyme came cross him fometimes like a Chain-Shot, where a Speech in Parliament fail'd. But this Meteor that we have been speaking of (I mean + Burlefque, fuch as it was in France) was but short-lived: It was born in the Combuftions of two Kingdoms, and ended just at the Restoration of the one, and Peace of the other : * The Mazarinade is one of the dreadfulleft Satyrs, or rather biting Lampoons, that ever was. Philocabre, Macquignon, Manygold, Bougre (twelve or thirteen Times together) Jean Fontaguin, are the Flowers of it. + It is to be noted, that, at that Time of Day, all French Verses that had but eight or nine Syllables were called Burlesque Verfes, tho' ferious: Hence came that Mistake in a grave Poem on our Saviour's Paffion; but the Title fhocked every Body: To write upon that Subject in Burlefque Verfe, good God! Its utter Extinction is marked in Boileau's Works exactly in the Year 1660: So that it had in that Country, which quits a bad Custom fooner than any other Country in the World, a Duration of just twenty Years. PRE H AVING, in the Preface to HUDIBRAS (P. 6, 7) given a fhort Account of the Power claimed formerly by the Teachers amongft the Independents over their Flocks and Followers, I beg Leave to add the following Letter from Mr. Jofeph Huffey, formerly an Independent Preacher in Cambridge, to one who had been of bis Congregation, in Confirmation of the Truth of what I have there afferted: * SUSAN ORLEBAR, FOR OR I will falute your Perfon by your old Name→ 66 You having committed heinous Offences and Sins "against the Lord Chrift, and Us of this Congregational "Church of Saints, and, in open Slander against the Gospel, "before the World declared your Sin, as Sodom, and hid "it not; we have voted to meet the fecond Thursday of "January, 1700, in order to humble ourselves before the "Lord, and, by giving you up in the Name of the Lord "Jefus Chrift to Satan, cut you wholly off by the terrible "Sentence from any Relation to the Church, that you may find it utter Destruction to the Flesh, and that your "Spirit if you belong to Chrift, may be faved in the Day "of the Lord Jesus. "These are, therefore, to give you Notice, That, in"afmuch as the Church is bound by the indifpenfable Laws " of Chrift's Government to proceed in the fharpeft Way "against you for your manifold Scandals, we fhall, if the "Lord will, effect it the Day and Month above-written." Given at our Church-Meeting, Thursday, November 7, 1700. ROBERT WILSON, SAM. AUNGIER, PHILIP SAUNDERS. Jos. HUSSEY, Paftor, * Copied from the Original, in the Cuftody of the Rev. Dr. Macro, of Norton, in Suffolk. Colchester, |