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A35678
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Remarks on a book entituled Prince Arthur, an heroick poem with some general critical observations and several new remarks upon Virgil / by Mr. Dennis.
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Dennis, John, 1657-1734.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing D1040; ESTC R35663
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111,647
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266
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am confident that no man can take it amiss that an Englishman who Writes to his Fellow Subjects should take the old honest English Liberty of publickly reprehending what he disapproves I never design'd to make an Enquiry into any of Mr. Blackmor's Principles which may regard either Church or State A Man had need have a great deal of time upon his hands who has leisure enough to Examine a Poet 's Politicks or a Physician 's Religion My intention was only to consider this Gentleman in his poetical capacity and to make some Remarks upon the reasonableness of his Design and upon the felicity of his execution And therefore the College of Physicians to whom he in a peculiar manner belongs have juster cause to be alarm'd at the following Treatise than either the Church or the State who are no further concern'd in him than they are in any other Englishman My little penetration could never discover what motive can prevail upon any of the Clergy of the Church of England to espouse a very faulty Poem in the which they cannot be in the least concern'd For First I have demonstrated in the first part of the following Treatise as clearly as any thing in Humanity can be demonstrated that the action of Mr. Blackmor's Poem is an empty Fiction without any manner of instruction and I cannot for my Soul comprehend how Legends in Rhyme should become Sacred at the same time that Prosaick Legends are contemn'd and exploded Secondly Boileau tells us with a great deal of Reason in the Third Canto of his Art of Poetry tho it is spoken in Rhyme That the Terrible Mysteries of the Christian Faith are not capable of delightful Ornaments That the Gospel offers nothing to us but Repentance on the one side or Eternal Torments on the other and that the Criminal mixture of Poetical Fictions gives a Fabulous Air even to its most Sacred Truths De la Foy d'un Chrestien les Mysteres Terribles D'ornemens egayez ne sont point susceptibles L'Evangile a l'Esprit n'offre de touscôtez Que Penetence a faire ou tourmens meritez Et de vos fictions le melange coupable Meme a ses veritez donne l'air de la Fable Now if this be reasonable in the Roman Church I cannot but think that it must have as much force in a much purer Religion Thirdly All Mr. Blackmor's Celestial Machines as they cannot be defended so much as by common receiv'd opinion so they are directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England For the visible descent of an Angel must be a Miracle Now it is the Doctrine of the Church of England if I am not mistaken that Miracles had ceas'd a long time before Prince Arthur came into the World Now if the Doctrine of the Church of England be true as we are oblig'd to believe then are allthe Celestial Machines in Prince Arthur unsufferable as wanting not only Humane but Divine probability But if the Celestial Machines in that Poem are sufferable that is if they have so much as Divine probability as all the Machines in every Poem certainly ought to have it follows of necessity that the Doctrine of the Church must be false So that I leave it to any impartial Clergyman to consider if it can consist with the credit or interest of our Religion so violently to espouse a Book whose errours he cannot possibly defend but by contradicting the Doctrine which he is bound to Teach But to come to the Second Part of the Objection I cannot with all the application of Mind that I am able to use Discover that the State is concern'd in Prince Arthur any more than the Church If the State is concern'd in this Poem it follows by Manifest consequence that there must be a Parallel between the late Revolution and the Expedition of Arthur Now if there is such a Parallel it must necessarily reach to the Characters and especially the principal Characters For to make two actions like the Causes of them must be resembling and the Causes af actions are the manners of the Agents as has been more than once declar'd in the following Treatise From what has been said it follows that to constitute a Parallel between the Revolution and the Expedition of Arthur King William and Prince Arthur must have resembling Characters Now I would fain ask the Friends of Prince Arthur one Question Whether the resemblance between Prince Arthur and the present King was design'd to be total or partial If they Answer that the resemblance was design'd but partial then I would ask them in what Qualities these Princes consent and in what they differ and whether a partial resemblance sussises to make the Parallel For I cannot possibly apprehend how any actions can be very like whose causes are not very like But if those Gentlemen reply that the Author intended a total resemblance between the present King and Prince Arthur then I must freely tell them that whatever they may pretend they cannot be Mr. Blackmore's Friends who either tax him of so prodigious a want of discernment as even his honest enemies would blush to accuse him of or affirm that he intended to expose the King in a very disshonourable Character which I am sure he has a great deal more Honour and Justice than to design Prince Arthur when he is upon the Coasts of Armorica seems very much concern'd for the Cause of Religion and for the welfare of Great Britain But after he has beaten King Oct's Navy anp made a League with that Saxon Monarch at Land he throws of the Mask and appears concern'd neither for Religion nor for his Subjects and gives them cause to believe that his zeal and his care were only pretences which now it was time to disclaim since in all appearance he had compass'd his Sole Design Now can any of the Kings most inveterate Enemies urge any thing against him that is more Maliciously false Is not this the very thing which their miserable Libels have so often in vain repeated That Râ—…ligion and the State were only pretences and that he valued himself alone Have they not stupidly objected this to a Heroe who has been seen by assembled Nations to value himself and human greatness so little that if I could be presumptuous enough to find fault with a Prince who shall always be Sacred to me it should certainly be upon this account because he is the only Person of all the Confederates who has not a due regard for that important Life upon which the safety of the Christian World depends Yet of all the things that his Enemies have basely objected to him not one of them has had courage enough to accuse him of fear But Mr. Blackmore has made his Prince Arthur afraid upon every occasion as has been manifestly prov'd against him in the following Treatise And therefore these Gentlemen ought to consider that by affirming Prince Arthur was designed to resemble the King they affirm that Mr. Blackmore has
Sententious Harangue which we cited above he both delays and discontinues his Action to give a tedious Account of the very Moral of that Action if it can pretend to a Moral But perhaps Mr. Blackmore may say that to instruct by Fable is not so Christian as to instruct by Precept To this I answer First That if he was of that Opinion he ought not to have begun to write an Epick Poem And secondly That the Author and Founder of our Religion as appears by his Parables is of another Mind Now as it is plain that Epick Poetry properly instructs by Action so it is manifest that the true Philosophy and the true Religion can be only shown by Action If a Poet has a mind to make his Hero perfectly vertuous he has free Liberty to do so Let him make him as much a Philosopher and as much a Christian as he pleases But let his Philosophy and let his Religion both appear by his Action It is the King's Example that influences the People and not the Words which he speaks Let him take care to make his People prosper out of a sense of his Duty and that in a Monarch's Religion Aeneas never is discover'd Preaching but he is always found to be the same Always good-natur'd always pious always carefull and anxious for his People Now let us examine Mr. Blackmore's Speculative Hero and see how constant he is to himself We find Prince Arthur appearing at first with three very commendable Qualities which were Piety Valour and a Care and Concern for his People So that the Poet is now oblig'd to maintain these Qualities in his Hero and to make him behave himself throughout the whole Poem like a Man that has Piety and undaunted Courage and the tender'st Concern for his People What will any one say now to see this very Hero who in the first Book of the Poem is so concern'd for the Souls of his Subjects that tho' they were but just escap'd from a Storm in which they had been terribly Tempest-beaten and were wet and cold and weary and hungry and spiritless yet does not suffer them so much as to refresh themselves before he instructs them What will any one say to see this Prince neglect this People after the strangest manner What will any one say to see this Valiant and this Pious King become as fearfull as the meanest and as impious as the most profligate of all his Subjects In the Sixth Book while the Plague was raging in the British Army Arthur by Devotion brings down the Angel Raphael who tells him the Cause of his Affliction in the following Verses Th' Angelick Guards return'd to Heav'n complain'd That your flagitious Troops you ne'er restrain'd Your Captains boldly Whoredoms Riots Rapes Commit and yet each Criminal escapes Thus you avow the Ills by others done And their unpunish'd Guilt becomes your own And thus if we will believe the Poet 's own Angel the Hero is neglectfull of his People and impious But this is at the latter end of the Sixth Book Let us now return to the First Upon the return of the Message which the Embassadours of Arthur brought back from Hoel Mr. Blackmore says That when Arthur heard the Message first His wavering Mind with fears and wise distrust And rising Tides of sudden Joy was tost Uncertain which strong Passion prest him most But when he saw the Presents Hoel sent His Doubts suppress'd he grew more confident And his calm Mind eas'd of his anxious Cares T' embrace his new and generous Friend prepares Here for six lines together the Author takes care to set before us the extraordinary Fear of Arthur Indeed he seems to repent at last that he call'd it by its proper Name And so that which was plain Fear in the second Verse is call'd Doubt in the sixth and Care in the seventh Which puts me in mind of a Custom of the Modern Italians They are very sensible how scandalous a Passion Fear is and therefore when they have a mind to encourage any one whom they respect they never cry Don't be afraid Sir but Quae Vossignoria non si dubiti de mente Don't let your Worship doubt Thus we have seen Prince Arthur fearfull neglectfull and impious The Manners then of the Hero are ill express'd because they are not maintain'd And they are unequal which is self-evident And they are inconvenient For neither is Fear becoming of a Captain nor Impiety of one who takes up Arms to re-establish Religion nor is Neglect of his Subjects becoming of a good King But the Impiety of the Hero is not shown only in the Sixth Book It is apparent from his very Fear in the First For before he left England the Arch-Angel Gabriel had assur'd him that he should Triumph over Octa at ten Years end These are his Words in the Fourth Book and the 115th Page Now Albion sinks beneath the Saxon Weight So Heav'n decrees 't is so ordain'd by Fate But after ten times the revolving Sun His crooked Race has through the Zodiack run The Clouds dispell'd propitious Heav'n shall smile On Uter's House and this reviving Isle Octa shall feel just Heav'ns avenging Stroke And Albion's Youth shall break the Saxon Yoke This we find in the Relation which Lucius made to Hoel Now the ten Years that the Angel mention'd were elaps'd before Arthur set Sail from Normandy as Lucius assures us in the same Relation and the 122d Page of the same Book Ten times the Sun had pass'd his Oblique way By turns contracting and increasing way Darting to either Pole a warmer Ray And now the British Lords c. Thus was Arthur assur'd by Gabriel in England And he was afterwards re-assur'd by Raphael on the Coasts of Britany Who says to him Pag. 16. Book the First No Force or Arts shall your Design prevent Propitious Heav'n decrees your wish'd Event You on these Coasts for happy Ends are thrown And after this expect the British Crown And immediately afterwards he bids him particularly not be afraid of Hoel But fear not Hoel's Pow'r tho' now your Foe By Hell incens'd he will not long be so This I must confess is strange Language for an Angel However we are to suppose that Prince Arthur understood it And yet by and by as we have observ'd above he appears exceedingly afraid of this very Hoel Now that person methinks must show an extraordinary inclination to Fear whom an Angel from Heav'n nay whom two Angels cannot ensure Besides that he must appear to be impious and unbelieving But Hoel is not the only Person of whom Prince Arthur appears afraid For afterwards in the Seventh Book when upon the Ravage that the Plague had made amongst the Britons Octa prepar'd to Attack them Mr. Blackmore tells us That The Tidings soon through all the Army ran VVhen in their Minds tormenting Fears began First the Army was afraid and afterwards the Hero as appears by the Prayer which he makes immediately upon it