The Rolliad, in Two Parts. George Ellis
now pursues his hero to the pulpit, and there, in imitation of Homer, who always takes the opportunity for giving a minute description of his personæ, when they are on the very verge of entering upon an engagement, he gives a laboured but animated detail of the Doctor’s personal manners and deportment. Speaking of the penetrating countenance for which the Doctor is distinguished, he says,
ARGUS could boast an hundred eyes, ’tis true, }
The DOCTOR looks an hundreds ways with two: }
Gimlets they are, and bore you through and through. }
This is a very elegant and classic compliment, and shows clearly what a decided advantage our Reverend Hero possesses over the celebrated Οφθαλμοδουλος of antiquity. Addison is justly famous in the literary world, for the judgment with which he selects and applies familiar words to great occasions, as in the instances:
———“The great, the important day, “Big with the fate of Cato and of Rome.”—
“The sun grows dim with age, &c. &c.”
This is a very great beauty, for it fares with ideas, as with individuals; we are the more interested in their fate, the better we are acquainted with them. But how inferior is Addison in this respect to our author?
Gimlets they are, &c.
There is not such a word in all Cato! How well-known and domestic the image! How specific and forcible the application!—Our author proceeds: Having described very accurately the style of the Doctor’s hairdressing, and devoted ten beautiful lines to an eulogy upon the brilliant on the little finger of his right hand, of which he emphatically says:
No veal putrescent, no dead whiting’s eye,
In the true water with this ring could vie;
he breaks out into the following most inspirited and vigorous apostrophe—
Oh! had you seen his lily, lily hand,
Stroke his spare cheek, and coax his snow-white band:
That adding force to all his powers of speech,
This the protector of his sacred breech;
That point the way to Heav’n’s cœlestial grace,
This keep his small-clothes in their proper place—
Oh! how the comley preacher you had prais’d,
As now the right, and now the left he rais’d!!!
Who does not perceive, in this description, as if before their eyes, the thin figure of emaciated divinity, divided between religion and decorum; anxious to produce some truths, and conceal others; at once concerned for fundamental points of various kinds; ever at the bottom of things—Who does not see this, and seeing, who does not admire? The notes that accompany this excellent episode, contain admirable instances of our author’s profound knowledge in all the literature of our established religion; and we are sorry that our plan will not suffer us to produce them, as a full and decisive proof that his learning is perfectly on a level with his genius, and his divinity quite equal to his poetry.
[1] The Doctor is Chaplain to his Majesty.—He was bred at Pembroke-hall in Cambridge.
* * * * *
NUMBER V.
On Monday last, the twentieth edition of this incomparable poem made its appearance: and we may safely venture to predict, that, should it be followed by an hundred more, while the fertile and inexhaustible genius of the author continues to enrich every new edition with new beauties, they will not fail to run through, with the same rapidity that the former have done; so universal is the enthusiasm prevailing among the genuine lovers of poetry, and all persons of acknowledged taste, with respect to this wonderful and unparalleled production.
What chiefly distinguishes this edition, and renders it peculiarly interesting at the present moment, is the admirable description contained in it of the newly-appointed India Board; in which the characters of the members composing it are most happily, though perhaps somewhat severely, contrasted with those to whom the same high office had been allotted by a former administration.
That the feelings of the public are in unison with those of our author upon this occasion, is sufficiently apparent from the frequent Panegyrics with which the public papers have of late been filled, upon the characters of these distinguished personages. In truth, the superiority of our present excellent administration over their opponents, can in no instance be more clearly demonstrated, than by a candid examination of the comparative merits of the persons appointed by each of them to preside in this arduous and important department.
Our author opens this comparison by the following elegant compliment to the accomplished Nobleman whose situation, as Secretary of State, entitles him to a priority of notice, as the eminence of his abilities will ever ensure him a due superiority of weight in the deliberations of the board.
SYDNEY, whom all the pow’rs of rhetoric grace.
Consistent SYDNEY fills FITZWILLIAM’s place;
O, had by nature but proportion’d been
His strength of genius to his length of chin,
His mighty mind in some prodigious plan
At once with ease had reach’d to Indostan!
The idea conveyed in these lines, of the possibility of a feature in the human face extending to so prodigious a distance as the East-Indies, has been objected to as some-what hyperbolical. But those who are well acquainted with the person as well as the character of the noble lord alluded to, and who are unquestionably the best judges of the extent of the compliment, will certainly be of a different opinion. Neither indeed is the objection founded in truth, but must have arisen merely from the passage not having been properly understood. It by no means supposes his Lordship to have literally a chin of such preposterous dimensions, as must be imagined for the purpose of reaching to the East-Indies; but figuratively speaking, only purports, that, if his Lordship’s mental, faculties are co-extensive with that distinguished feature of his face, they may readily embrace, and be competent to the consideration of the most distant objects. The meaning of the author is so obvious, that this cavil probably originated in wilful misapprehension, with a view of detracting from the merit of one of the most beautiful passages in the whole poem.
What reader can refuse his admiration to the following lines, in which the leading features of the characters are so justly, strongly, and at the same time so concisely delineated?
Acute observers, who with skilful ken
Descry the characters of public men,
Rejoice that pow’r and patronage should pass
From jobbing MONTAGUE to pure DUNDAS; Exchange with pleasure, ELLIOT, LEW’SHAM, NORTH, For MULGRAVE’s tried integrity and worth; And all must own, that worth completely tried, By turns experienc’d upon every side.
How happy is the selection of epithets in these lines! How forcibly descriptive of the character to which they are applied! In the same strain he proceeds:—
Whate’er experience GREGORY might boast,
Say, is not WALSINGHAM himself a host?
His grateful countrymen, with joyful eyes,
From SACKVILLE’s ashes see this Phœnix rise:
Perhaps with all his master’s talents blest,
To save the East as he subdu’d the West.
The historical allusion is here judiciously introduced; and the pleasing prospect hinted at of the same happy issue attending our affairs in the Eastern, that has already crowned them in the Western world, must afford peculiar satisfaction to the feelings of every British reader.
The next character is most ingeniously described, but like a former one, containing some personal allusions,