The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-13

,s.1ts Inv hibt1 vi NhN
poets Of his time and nearly all the
poets laureate until Warrior. much Of
Davenant's energy was employed in
the mutilation of Shakespeare's plays.
As a playwright Davenant was sue
cessful, his net earnings for his coarse
n cheaply clever plays amounting
at one time to 1900 a week. He intro
duced the popular innovation OF hav-
ing women's parts played by women.
Probably h only lines Davenant ever
wrote that will live are those begin
ming:
The lark now leaves his watery nest
And climbing shakes his dewy wings;
He takes this window for the East,
And to implore your light he sings. \
or Dryden. who succeeded Dave
nant to the office under Charles IT..
and James H., Thomas Gray wrote
that The was as d%isgraceful to the
office from his character as the poor
est scribbler could have been from his
verses" The age was not dlstin-
guished by nobility OF aspiration or
thought. and Dryden was a true ex-
ponent OF his age. He veered from Puri-
tan to Royalist. from being q member
OF the Church OF England to a devout
Romanist. an admirer OF Cromwell to
poet laureate and friend Of Charles II.
He and Shadwell. his immediate sue
cessor. began that long series Of
coarse literary feuds that ended only
In the reign Of Victoria. The ameni-
ties offered the laureates and the re-
sponses composed would make by
themselves an interesting chapter in
English literature.
or Dryden. Shadwell wrote:
He turned a Journeyman to a bookseller:
writ prefaces TO books for meat and drink.
And as 1t paid he both would write and
think.
Later he boastful.y declared that he
required only the pension to write as
well as the laureate. to which compli-
ment the laureate replied:
Mature In dizziness from his tender year.
shadwcll alone Of asi my son. Is ne
Who stands confirmed In full stupidity.
me rest to some faint meaning make pre-
tence.
But shadwell never deviates into sense.
shadwell replied in the prologue to
the Emperor Of Morocco:
For YOU. we ind. too often hiss ana clan
just as you live. speak. think and nght-
ny nap.
And poets We all know can change like you
ana are alone to their own interests true:
"a" write against all sense. nay even their
own:
The vehicle called Pension make, +, down
No fear OF cudsels where there. hon. q,
bread;
a well hiled paunch forgcts a broken head.
In "Absa.om and A%chitophei" Dry
| don rafrra IN Shnl.,xp - "
foul. corrupted natter and adds:
for every Inch that is not fool Is rogue;
He curses God but God before cursed him.
HI reply contains such abusive
terms as "wretched poetitoes." para
site. "knave." writer of Grub street
ong worse than Tom-farthing."
There Is nothing subtle or interesting
IN the quarrel. which Is a mere contln-
uous exchange of coarse insults.
VI ShadWelIs successor, Nahum
rate. known as the author OF the
worst alterations Of Shakespeare. the
worst version of the Psalms of David
the worst continuation OF A
great poem 'Dryden's "Absalom and
Achitophel'), Scott wrote with char
ity that he was one Of those second
rate hards who by dint OF pleonasm
M eNp'etive a find smooth lines IL
any one will furnish them with ideas"
Tate's incumbency was happily as
brief as inglorious. and his works. the
felicities Of which are frankly stolen
from Shakespeare and Milton. are dead
for all but the curious student of
literary history. This laureate lives
| rnlnnNE in Ibnnn'a St.ax,o
The bard whom ~pilfered pastorals renown.
Who turns a Persian tale for half a crown
Just writes to make his bsrrenness app.ar
And strains from hard bound brains eight
lines a year.
He, who still wanting. though he live. on
theft.
steals much, spends little. yet has nothing
left.
And he, who now to sense. now nonsense
leaning
Means not. hut blunders round meaning
And he whose fustisn's so .ublimely bad
II Is not poetry bu, prose run mad.
All these my modest satire babe translate.
And owned that nine such poets made q
Tate!
AT last in Nicholas Rowe. appointed
to the laureateship in 1915, we come
II not to a poet at least to a decent
man and a scholar. He was well born
n educated and had an adequate
income. He was a lifelong friend of
Pope and Addison. He turned out his
negligible official odes with punctual-
ity and is remembered to-day chiefly
as the author of Jane Shore and as
one OF the pioneers in Shakespearian
appreciation and study.
1t would he a nice question TO decide
whether the laureateship was most
~disgraced by Tate. Eusden, Pye or
Whitehead. but perhaps an impartial
critic would give the palm to Eusden.
He and Pye rivalled each other in the
composition Of undiluted %doggerel. II
is said that Gray had Eusden's inglo-
rious record in mind when a generation
later he contemptuously refused the
laurels. 1T was an office. wrote Gray,
that had always humblcd its possessor.
III he were a poor writer, by making
him more conspicuous; and II he were
"A good one. by setting him at war with
the little fry of his own profession
Writing again to his friend Mason
through whom the offer of the bays
had been made, Gray added: =
Though I very well know the bland,
emollient, saponaceous qualities OF sack
and silver. yet II any man would say to
me. II make you a rat catcher to his
Majesty with a salary OF $500 and two
butts Of best Malaga; and though II has
been usual to catch a mouse or two, for
forms sake, In public once a year. yet to