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 •

A NEW NARRATIVE HISTORY SIN:CE 1500

To my parents, Norman and Claire Berenson, with gratitude and love
 •••
List of Maps XXIII

Preface xxvii
•••
About the Writing History Exercises XXXIII

About the Author xxxv

Introduction xxxvi

CHAPTER 1 The Age of Religious Reform, 1490-1648 2

CHAPTER 2 States and Empires, 1500-1715 52
CHAPTER 3 Science and Enlightenment, 1600-1789 104

CHAPTER 4 The Era of the French Revolution, 1750-1815 154

CHAPTER 5 The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850 206

CHAPTER 6 Conservation, Reform, and Revolution, 1815-1852 256
CHAPTER 7 From National Unification to Religious Revival, 1850-1880 308

CHAPTER 8 European Society and the Road to War, 1880-1914 356

CHAPTER 9 The First World War, 1914-1919 406

CHAPTER 10 The Russian Revolution and the Rise of the Soviet Union, 1905-1940 456

CHAPTER 11 Fascism and Nazism: Mass Politics and Mass Culture, 1919-1939 508

CHAPTER 12 The Second World War, 1939-1945 558

CHAPTER 13 The Postwar, 1945-1970 610

CHAPTER 14 Economic Dilemmas, European Unity, and the Collapse

of Communism, 1970-2010 664

EPILOGUE Europe in the Twenty-First Century 716

Suggested Answers to Exercises WH1

Glossary G1
Suggested Readings 51
Credits C1
Index /1
•
IX
 •••
List of Maps XXIII

Preface xxvii
•••
About the Writing History Exercises XXXIII

About the Author xxxv

INTRODUCTION XXXVI

BIOGRAPHY: Europa xxxvii

•••
What and Where Is Europe? XXXVIII

Europe in 1450-1500 xii

Agriculture, Industry, and Trade in 1450-1500 xliv
Religion, Culture, and Intellectual Life in 1450-1500 xlvi
The Structure of This Book xlviii

CHAPTER 1 The Age of Religious Reform, 1490-1648 2

BIOGRAPHY: Martin Luther 3
The Beginnings of Religious Change 9
The Protestant Reformation 10
Luther and Religious Reform in Germany 10
Zwingli and the Radicalization of Religious Reform 12
Thomas Muntzer's Radical Anabaptism 14
ANABAPTISM AND THE PEASANTS' WAR 14
THE POLITICS OF RELIGIOUS STRIFE 16
Calvinism 18
Predestination and the Creation of a Calvinist Church 19
The French Religious Wars 21
Other Calvinist Gains 24
The Protestant Transformation in England 25
The Catholic Reformation 28
The Catholic Recovery 29

x
 •
Contents XI

The Council of Trent 30

The Jesuits 31
The Counter-Reformation 35
The Thirty Years' War 38
Reformation Society and Culture 40
Witchcraft 42
The Visual Arts 43
Conclusion: The Reformation's Outcomes and Results 45
WRITING HISTORY: Coordination 47

CHAPTER2 States and Empires, 1500-1715 52

BIOGRAPHY: Louis XIV 53
Absolutism and Its Limits 57
A New Nobility 59
European Wars, 1660s to 1714 60
Spain: Another Kingdom Submerged in Debt 63
"Bureaucratic Absolutism" in Germany and the Holy Roman Empire 65
Austria and Bohemia: The Limits of Habsburg Authority 66
Prussia 67
Russia 69
The Ottoman Empire 72
Constitutional Regimes 75
Poland and Hungary 75
Sweden 76
The Dutch Republic 77
England 77
ENGLAND'S ROAD TO REVOLUTION AND CIVIL WAR 78
ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM DIVIDES IN TWO 79
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR 81
THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 82
THE RESTORATION 83

Empires 85
The Portuguese Empire 85
The Spanish Empire 87
The Dutch Private Enterprise Empire 90
xii Contents

The British Empire 91

The French Empire 94
Conclusion: The Failure of Absolutism 97
WRITING HISTORY: Subordination 98

CHAPTER 3 Science and Enlightenment, 1600-1789 104

BIOGRAPHY: Galileo 105
A Scientific Revolution? 112
The World as Machine 113
The Experimental Method 116
Descartes and the Quest for Certainty 117
Isaac Newton: The Way Gravity Works 119
''Enlightenment'': From the Natural World to the Study of
Humankind 122
''What Is Enlightenment?'' 124
Natural Law and the Nature of Human Beings 125
Locke, Mandeville, and the Scottish Enlightenment 127
Rousseau and Natural Man 132
Civilization and ''Primitive'' Man 133
Rationality and the Critique of Religion 135
National Differences in Enlightenment Thought 136
Voltaire and the Critique of Religion in France 137
The Theory and Practice of Government 142
Women and the New Philosophy 145
Conclusion: The Accomplishments of the Enlightenment 149
WRITING HISTORY: Thesis statements 151

CHAPTER 4 The Era of the French Revolution, 1750-1815 154

BIOGRAPHY: Toussaint Louverture 155
Origins of the French Revolution 159
The Financial Crisis 160
The Political Crisis 162
The Public Opinion Crisis 163
The Crisis of Frustrated Expectations 165
France's New Social Structure 166
 •••
Contents XIII

The Revolution 167

The Revolution Takes Off 169
The Great Fear 171
The Revolution Settles In 172
Religion and Revolution 173
The End of the Monarchy 175
Civil War and Terror 178
The End of the Terror 180
The Directory, 1794-1799 182
Britain, Russia, and the French Revolution 184
Revolution in the French Empire 186
Napoleon's European Empire 192
Conclusion: The Legacy of the French Revolution 201
WRITING HISTORY: The thesis statement and its supporting ideas 203

CHAPTER s The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850 206

BIOGRAPHY: Richard Arkwright 207
Origins of the Industrial Revolution: Why Britain? 211
Britain's Urban, Market-Oriented, High-Wage Economy 211
The Agricultural Revolution 216
Coal: The Revolution in Energy 218
The Rise of Cotton 220
The Mechanization of Industry 221
The Industrial Revolution Moves Beyond Cotton 225
Economic Development Outside of Britain 230
The Cultural and Political Origins of the Industrial Revolution 234
Social Consequences of the Industrial Revolution 236
The Lives of Working People 239
Economic Instability and Its Consequences 241
Changes in Family Life 242
The Factory, Workers, and the Rise of the Labor Movement 244
Economic Libera Iism 248
Conclusion: The Limits of Britain's Industrial Revolution 249
WRITING HISTORY: Cohesion across sentences 251
xiv Contents

CHAPTER6 Conservation, Reform, and Revolution, 1815-1852 256

BIOGRAPHY: George Sand 257
Restoration? 261
The Congress of Vienna 262
The Peace Settlement 265
The Slave Trade 267
New Ideologies of the Post-Revolutionary Period 268
Conservatism 269
Liberalism 269
Romanticism 270
Democracy 272
Socia Iism 272
Feminism 274
Nationalism 275
Political Systems and the Quest for Reform 278
The Autocracies: Austria, Russia, and Prussia 278
Prussia and the Non-Habsburg German States 281
Revolution in Spain and Italy 282
France: The Rise of Constitutional Monarchy 284
The French Revolution of 1830 285
Rebellions in the Low Countries, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, and the Ottoman
Empire 287
Britain: Social Change and Political Reform 288
1848: Europe in Revolution 293
The Revolution Begins 295
The Spread of Revolution 297
Conclusion: The Meaning of 1848 301
WRITING HISTORY: Paragraph flow 302

CHAPTER 7 From National Unification to Religious Revival,

1850-1880 308
BIOGRAPHY: Otto von Bismarck 309
The New Industrialization 313
A New Prosperity? 314
Urbanization and the Urban World 316
 Contents xv

The Redevelopment of Paris 318

Europe's Worldwide Economic Role 320
Political Change 322
Prosperity and Empire in France 323
The Crimean War 324
The Eclipse of Russia 326
National Unification 327
The Unification of Italy 328
The Unification of Germany 330
Consequences of the German Unification 334
THE CREATION OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, 1867 335
THE NEW FRENCH REPUBLIC 337

Marxism and the Opposition to Capitalism 339

Trade Unions, Women's Rights, and
the Rise of Socialist Parties 340
Positivism, Evolution, and the Hegemony of Science 343
Religion in the Modern World 346
Popular Culture 349
Conclusion: A New European Balance of Power 351
WRITING HISTORY: Text reconstruction 352

CHAPTERS European Society and the Road to War, 1880-1914 356

BIOGRAPHY: Maria Montessori 357
Life and Death and the Movement of People 361
Economic Change during the Long Depression, 1873-1893 363
The Agricultural Crisis 363
The Industrial Economy Matures 363
Britain's Relative Decline 364
Technology and the Flurry of Inventions 365
Tariffs and the Rise of Economic Nationalism 367
Politics and Political Change 368
Britain: The Practice of Liberalism 368
France: The Achievement of a Democratic Republic 369
Germany: The Persistence of Authoritarian and Aristocratic Rule 371
Social Reform in Germany 373
xvi Contents

Imperialism and Empire 374

Why Imperialism? 377
Nationalist Reactions to Imperialism 379
The Empire at Home 382
From Missionaries to the "Civilizing Mission" 385
Russia, Austria, and the Balkans 387
Austria-Hungary: A Slow Decline 389
" Politics in a New Key": Anti-Semitism and the Extreme Right 390
Anti-Semitism in Russia and France 391
The Dreyfus Affair 392
Feminism and the New Woman 393
Origins of the First World War 395
The Road to War 395
Morocco and the Balkans 398
Conclusion: Europe Plunges into the Abyss 401
WRITING HISTORY: Text reconstruction and composition 403

CHAPTER 9 The First World War, 1914-1919 406

BIOGRAPHY: Siegfried Sassoon 407
The Outbreak of War 411
The Battles of the Marne and Ypres 412
The Western Front 413
Trench Warfare 415
The Battles of Verdun and the Somme 416
The Eastern Front 418
The War Outside Europe and at Sea 421
War in Africa and the Ottoman Empire 423
The Middle Eastern Campaign 425
The War against Civilians 427
German Responses to the Economic Blockade 429
Consent for the War 430
The Home Front 431
Women's Contributions to the War 432
Wartime Propaganda 433
 ••
Contents XVII

From Protest to Mutiny 435

The American Intervention 437
Both Sides Prepare for All -Out Victory 438
The Allied Victory 439
Germany's Aborted Revolution 441
The Treaty of Versailles 443
Conclusion: Results of the First World War 449
WRITING HISTORY: Paper reconstruction 452

CHAPTER 10 The Russian Revolution and the Rise of the Soviet Union,
1905-1940 456
BIOGRAPHY: Aleksandra Kollontai 457
Origins of the Russian Revolution 461
The Travails of Agricultural and Industrial Life 462
The Radical Intelligentsia 464
The Revolution of 1905 466
The Russian Revolution 469
Lenin and the Bolsheviks 472
The Failure of the Moderate Revolution 473
The New Soviet Regime 476
The Russian Civil War 478
Outcome of the Russian Civil War 480
The Rise of the Soviet Union 483
The New Economic Policy 484
Stalin and the End of NEP 487
Stalin's Revolution 489
The Five-Year Plans 491
The Social Consequences of Stalin's Revolution 494
The Cultural Revolution 495
The Great Purge 498
Conclusion: The Rise of a Powerful Communist State 500
WRITING HISTORY: Analyzing and sorting material into
main ideas 503
xviii Contents

CHAPTER 11 Fascism and Nazism: Mass Politics and Mass Culture,

1919-1939 508
BIOGRAPHY: Leni Riefenstahl 509
The Failure of Liberalism and Democracy after
World War I 513
The Fragility of Postwar Parliamentary Regimes 514
Intellectuals' Disillusionment with Liberalism and Democracy 515
The Dangers of Mass Politics 516
The Rise of Fascism in Italy 517
Italy's Fascist Regime 521
Hitler and the Origins of the Nazi Movement 523
Weimar Politics and the Rejection of Democracy 525
Weimar's Undemocratic Institutions 526
The Economic Crisis of 1923 527
The Resolution of the German Crisis 530
Media and Mass Culture in the lnterwar Period 531
The Cinema 532
Radio 533
Sports 534
Women: Work, Domesticity, and the New ''New Woman'' 534
The Great Depression 535
Nazism 538
The Nazi Takeover 540
The Nazi Regime 543
The Consolidation of Nazi Power 544
The Nazi Dictatorship 545
The New Regime: Dissent and Consent 545
The Persecution of the Jews 547
Economic Achievements 549
Leisure for the Masses 549
Conclusion: The Fascist ''Revolution''? 552
WRITING HISTORY:Creating the complex ''noun phrases''
of academic writing 553
 •
Contents XIX

CHAPTER 12 The Second World War, 1939-1945 558

BIOGRAPHY: Primo Levi 559
The Enormity of the Second World War 563
The Origins of the Second World War 565
Political and Economic Decline in Britain 565
Economy and Politics in France 567
Germany Overturns the Treaty of Versailles 568
The Spanish Civil War 569
The Incorporation of Austria, the Munich Pact, and the Seizure of
Czechoslovakia 570
Prelude to the Second World War 573
The War Phase I: Hitler's Quest for Domination 575
Hitler's Attack on the West 576
From the Battle of Britain to the Early Campaigns in Greece, North Africa,
and the Middle East 578
Operation Barbarossa: The Invasion of Russia 580
Hitler's Europe 581
The Nazi Plans 582
The Terrible Results 583
The Exploitation of Europe 584
Collaboration and Resistance 585
The Case of France 585
The Netherlands and Scandinavia 588
Eastern Europe 589
Communists and the Resistance: The Cases of Yugoslavia
and Greece 590
The Home Front in Britain and Germany 591
The Holocaust 593
The War Phase II: The Allies Turn the Tide 597
The Role of the United States 597
Stalingrad: The Great Turning Point of the War 598
The Allied Invasions of the Continent 598
The War Phase Ill: From the Liberation of France to the
Surrender of Germany 600
xx Contents

The Atom Bomb and the End of the War in the Pacific 602
Conclusion: The Consequences of the War 604
WRITING HISTORY: Using passive voice, it-shifts, and what-shifts
to tell your reader what matters most 607

CHAPTER 13 The Postwar, 1945-1970 610

BIOGRAPHY: Queen Elizabeth 11 611
The Toll of the War 615
Assessing Responsibility for the War 618
The ''German Question'' 619
The Cold War and the Division of Europe 621
Economic Recovery 623
The Marshall Plan 624
The ''Economic Miracle'' 625
The Communist Takeover in Eastern Europe 629
The Hardening of the Cold War 630
The Beginnings of European Cooperation 633
Stalinist Politics and the Command Economy in Eastern Europe 634
European Integration 636
European Politics in the 1950s 637
The End of Empire 638
Southeast Asia 638
South Asia 639
Africa 639
Algeria 643
The Middle East 645
The Soviet Union and Its Satellites, 1956-1970s 647
The Consumer Society 650
Religious Reform 651
Disillusionment with Democracy and Consumerism 652
The Student Revolt 653
 •
Contents XXI

The 1960s in the East 656

The End of the Postwar Economic Miracle 658
Conclusion: A European Continent Reshaped 659
WRITING HISTORY: Using parallelism to simplify complex ideas 661

CHAPTER 14 Economic Dilemmas, European Unity, and the

Collapse of Communism, 1970-2010 664
BIOGRAPHY: Mikhail Gorbachev 665
Stagnation and Decline: The 1970s 670
Stagflation 670
Immigration and the Mounting Hostility to Workers from Abroad 672
Fixing Stagflation 674
The Politics of Terror 676
The New Democracy in Greece, Portugal, and Spain 678
New Political Movements: Feminism, Gay Rights, and
Environmentalism 680
Dissent and Decline in Eastern Europe 683
The Helsinki Accords 683
Economic Stagnation in the East 685
The Collapse of Communism 685
Gorbachev's Dramatic Reforms 688
1989: The End of Communism in Eastern Europe 690
European Unification and Its Discontents 695
The Break-up of the Soviet Union 697
The Violent Collapse of Yugoslavia 700
The Challenges of Post-Communism 704
German Reunification 705
The Transformation in Eastern Europe and Russia 706
Conclusion: A Fragile European Unity 709
WRITING HISTORY: Using coordination and subordination to
find and fix common punctuation mistakes 711
xxii Contents

EPILOGUE Europe in the Twenty-First Century 716

BIOGRAPHY: Ayaan Hirsi Ali 717
The New Terrorism in Europe 720
Islam and the Russian Federation 721
Russian Interventions in the Former Soviet Union 723
The Crisis of the Eurozone 727

Suggested Answers to Exercises WH1

Glossary G1
Suggested Readings 51
Credits C1
Index 11
 ..... ist o
1.1 Europe Today xi
1.2 Europe in 1520 x/iii

1.3 Eurasian and African Trade Networks, c. 1450 x/vi

1.1 The Peasants' War, 1524-1525 15

1.2 The Religious Divisions of Europe in 1560 17

1.3 The Religious Divisions of Europe, c. 1600 36

1.4 Europe in 1648 41

2.1 Europe after the War of Spanish Succession 62

2.2 World Silver Flows, c. 1650 65

2.3 The Habsburgs in Central Europe, 1618-1700 67

2.4 The Expansion of Prussia, 1618-1795 68

2.5 The Growth of the Russian Empire 70

2.6 The Ottoman Empire in 1683 73

2.7 Sweden in 1660 and in 1721 76

2.8 Early Voyages of World Exploration (top) and The Columbian

Exchange (bottom) 89

2.9 European Overseas Empires and Global Trade, c. 1700 95

3.1 The Spread of Scientific Societies in Europe, 1542-1725 114

3.2 Subscriptions to the Encyclopedia 141

4.1 The Seven Years' War 161

4.2 Revolutionary France, 1789-1794 181

4.3 The West Indies in the Late Eighteenth Century 187

4.4 The Haitian Revolution 191

4.5 France's Retreat from America 191

•••
XXIII
xxiv List of Maps

4.6 Napoleon's Empire at Its Height, 1812 196

5.1 The Distribution of Population in Europe, c. 1650 213

5.2 The Coal and Textile Industries in Great Britain, c. 1750 218

5.3 Industrializing Britain by 1850 228

5.4 Industrializing Europe by 1850 231

5.5 Europe's Largest Cities in 1850 237

6.1 Europe after the Congress of Vienna, 1815 267

6.2 Civil Unrest in Europe 1819-1831 279

6.3 Centers of Revolution, 1848 298

7.1 Industrializing Germany by 1870 314

7.2 Paris in 1880 319

7.3 European Industrial Centers and Britain's Global Trading Network,

c. 1860 322

7.4 The Crimean War, 1853-1856 325

7.5 The Unification of Italy 331

7.6 The Unification of Germany 335

7.7 Nationalities in Austria-Hungary, c. 1880 336

8.1 Emigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, 1880-1914 362

8.2 European Empires in 1815 (top) and Empires and Imperial Trading
Networks in 1914 (bottom) 376

8.3 The Boer War, 1899-1902 380

8.4 European Alliances, 1907 396

8.5 The Balkans, 1830-1913 400

9.1 The Western Front, 1914-1916 414

9.2 The Somme: The First Day of Battle, 1916 416

9.3 The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 419

9.4 The Global Dimension of the First World War 421

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 III.

Great god of love, why hast thou made

A face that can all hearts command,
That all religions can invade,
And change the laws of every land?
Where thou hadst placed such power before,
Thou shouldst have made her mercy more.

IV.

When Chloris to the temple comes,

Adoring crowds before her fall;
She can restore the dead from tombs,
And every life but mine recal.
I only am, by love, designed
To be the victim for mankind.
 ALEXANDER'S FEAST,
OR

THE POWER OF MUSIC;

AN ODE IN HONOUR OF ST CECILIA'S DAY.

This celebrated Ode was written for the Saint's Festival in 1697,
when the following stewards officiated: Hugh Colvill, Esq.; Capt.
Thomas Newman; Orlando Bridgeman, Esq.; Theophilus Buller,
Esq.; Leonard Wessell, Esq.; Paris Slaughter, Esq.; Jeremiah
Clarke, Gent.; and Francis Rich, Gent. The merits of this
unequalled effusion of lyrical poetry, are fully discussed in the
general criticism.

I.
 'Twas at the royal feast, for Persia won
By Philip's warlike son:
Aloft, in awful state,
The godlike hero sate
On his imperial throne.
His valiant peers were placed around;
Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound:
(So should desert in arms be crowned.)
The lovely Thais, by his side,
Sate like a blooming eastern bride,
In flower of youth and beauty's pride.
Happy, happy, happy pair!
None but the brave,
None but the brave,
None but the brave deserves the fair.

CHORUS.

Happy, happy, happy pair!

None but the brave,
None but the brave,
None but the brave deserves the fair.

II.
 Timotheus, placed on high
Amid the tuneful quire,
With flying fingers touched the lyre:
The trembling notes ascend the sky,
And heavenly joys inspire.
The song began from Jove,
Who left his blissful seats above,
(Such is the power of mighty love.)
A dragon's fiery form belied the god;
Sublime on radiant spheres he rode,
When he to fair Olympia pressed,
And while he sought her snowy breast;
Then, round her slender waist he curled,
And stamped an image of himself, a sovereign of the world.—
The listening crowd admire the lofty sound,
A present deity! they shout around;
A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound.
With ravished ears,
The monarch hears;
Assumes the god,
Affects to nod,
And seems to shake the spheres.

CHORUS.

With ravished ears,

The monarch hears;
Assumes the god,
Affects to nod,
And seems to shake the spheres.
 III.

The praise of Bacchus, then, the sweet musician sung;

Of Bacchus ever fair, and ever young.
The jolly god in triumph comes;
Sound the trumpets, beat the drums;
Flushed with a purple grace
He shews his honest face:
Now, give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes.
Bacchus, ever fair and young,
Drinking joys did first ordain;
Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure;
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,
Sweet is pleasure after pain.

CHORUS.

Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,

Drinking is the soldiers pleasure;
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,
Sweet is pleasure after pain.

IV.
 Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain:
Fought all his battles o'er again;
And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.—
The master saw the madness rise,
His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;
And, while he heaven and earth defied,
Changed his hand, and checked his pride.
He chose a mournful muse,
Soft pity to infuse;
He sung Darius great and good,
By too severe a fate,
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And weltering in his blood:
Deserted, at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth exposed he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.
With downcast looks the joyless victor sate,
Revolving, in his altered soul,
The various turns of chance below;
And, now and then, a sigh he stole,
And tears began to flow.

CHORUS.

Revolving, in his altered soul,

The various turns of chance below;
And, now and then, a sigh he stole,
And tears began to flow.
 V.

The mighty master smiled, to see

That love was in the next degree;
'Twas but a kindred-sound to move,
For pity melts the mind to love.
Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures:
War, he sung, is toil and trouble;
Honour, but an empty bubble;
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying:
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, O think it worth enjoying;
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,
Take the good the gods provide thee—
The many rend the skies with loud applause;
So Love was crowned, but Music won the cause.
The prince, unable to conceal his pain,
Gazed on the fair,
Who caused his care,
And sighed and looked, sighed and looked,
Sighed and looked, and sighed again;
At length, with love and wine at once oppressed,
The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast.

CHORUS.
 The prince, unable to conceal his pain,
Gazed on the fair,
Who caused his care,
And sighed and looked, sighed and looked,
Sighed and looked, and sighed again;
At length, with love and wine at once oppressed,
The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast.

VI.
Now strike the golden lyre again;
A louder yet, and yet a louder strain.
Break his bands of sleep asunder,
And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder.
Hark, hark! the horrid sound
Has raised up his head;
As awaked from the dead,
And amazed, he stares around.
Revenge, revenge! Timotheus cries,
See the furies arise;
See the snakes, that they rear,
How they hiss in their hair,
And the sparkles that flash from their eyes!
Behold a ghastly band,
Each a torch in his hand!
Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain,
And, unburied, remain
Inglorious on the plain:
Give the vengeance due
To the valiant crew.
Behold how they toss their torches on high,
How they point to the Persian abodes,
And glittering temples of their hostile gods.—
The princes applaud, with a furious joy,
And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;
Thais led the way,
To light him to his prey,
And, like another Helen, fired another Troy.

CHORUS.
And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;
Thais led the way,
To light him to his prey,
And, like another Helen, fired another Troy.

VII.

Thus, long ago,

Ere heaving bellows learned to blow,
While organs yet were mute,
Timotheus, to his breathing flute,
And sounding lyre,
Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.
At last divine Cecilia came,
Inventress of the vocal frame;
The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store,
Enlarged the former narrow bounds,
And added length to solemn sounds,
With nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before.
Let old Timotheus yield the prize,
Or both divide the crown;
He raised a mortal to the skies,
She drew an angel down.

GRAND CHORUS.
 At last divine Cecilia came,
Inventress of the vocal frame;
The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store,
Enlarged the former narrow bounds,
And added length to solemn sounds,
With nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before.
Let old Timotheus yield the prize,
Or both divide the crown;
He raised a mortal to the skies,
She drew an angel down.
VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS,

PARAPHRASED.
C reator spirit, by whose aid
The world's foundations first were laid,
Come visit every pious mind;
Come pour thy joys on human kind;
From sin and sorrow set us free,
And make thy temples worthy thee.
O source of uncreated light,
The Father's promised Paraclete!
Thrice holy fount, thrice holy fire,
Our hearts with heavenly love inspire;
Come, and thy sacred unction bring
To sanctify us, while we sing.
Plenteous of grace, descend from high,
Rich in thy seven-fold energy!
Thou strength of his Almighty hand,
Whose power does heaven and earth command.
Proceeding spirit, our defence,
Who do'st the gifts of tongues dispense,
}
And crown'st thy gift with eloquence.
Refine and purge our earthly parts;
But, O, inflame and fire our hearts!
Our frailties help, our vice controul,
Submit the senses to the soul;
And, when rebellious they are grown,
Then lay thy hand, and hold them down.
Chace from our minds the infernal foe;
And peace, the fruit of love, bestow;
And, lest our feet should step astray,
Protect and guide us in the way.
Make us eternal truths receive,
And practise all that we believe;
Give us thyself, that we may see
The Father, and the Son, by thee.
Immortal honour, endless fame,
Attend the Almighty Father's name;
The Saviour Son be glorified,
Who for lost man's redemption died;
And equal adoration be,
Eternal Paraclete, to thee.
 FABLES.

TALES FROM CHAUCER.

 TO

HIS GRACE
THE

DUKE OF ORMOND.[98]

Anno 1699.
my lord,

S ome estates are held, in England, by paying a fine at the change of

every lord. I have enjoyed the patronage of your family, from the
time of your excellent grandfather to this present day. I have
dedicated the translations of the "Lives of Plutarch" to the first duke;
[99] and have celebrated the memory of your heroic father.[100]
Though I am very short of the age of Nestor, yet I have lived to a
third generation of your house; and, by your grace's favour, am
admitted still to hold from you by the same tenure.
I am not vain enough to boast, that I have deserved the value of so
illustrious a line; but my fortune is the greater, that, for three
descents, they have been pleased to distinguish my poems from
those of other men, and have accordingly made me their peculiar
care. May it be permitted me to say, that as your grandfather and
father were cherished and adorned with honours by two successive
monarchs, so I have been esteemed and patronized by the
grandfather, the father, and the son, descended from one of the
most ancient, most conspicuous, and most deserving families in
Europe.
It is true, that by delaying the payment of my last fine, when it was
due by your grace's accession to the titles and patrimonies of your
house, I may seem, in rigour of law, to have made a forfeiture of my
claim; yet my heart has always been devoted to your service; and
since you have been graciously pleased, by your permission of this
address, to accept the tender of my duty, it is not yet too late to lay
these poems at your feet.
The world is sensible, that you worthily succeed not only to the
honours of your ancestors, but also to their virtues. The long chain
of magnanimity, courage, easiness of access, and desire of doing
good, even to the prejudice of your fortune, is so far from being
broken in your grace, that the precious metal yet runs pure to the
newest link of it; which I will not call the last, because I hope and
pray it may descend to late posterity; and your flourishing youth,
and that of your excellent duchess, are happy omens of my wish.
It is observed by Livy, and by others, that some of the noblest
Roman families retained a resemblance of their ancestry, not only in
their shapes and features, but also in their manners, their qualities,
and the distinguishing characters of their minds. Some lines were
noted for a stern, rigid virtue; savage, haughty, parsimonious, and
unpopular; others were more sweet and affable, made of a more
pliant paste, humble, courteous, and obliging; studious of doing
charitable offices, and diffusive of the goods which they enjoyed.
The last of these is the proper and indelible character of your grace's
family. God Almighty has endued you with a softness, a beneficence,
an attractive behaviour winning on the hearts of others, and so
sensible of their misery, that the wounds of fortune seem not
inflicted on them, but on yourself.[101] You are so ready to redress,
that you almost prevent their wishes, and always exceed their
expectations; as if what was yours was not your own, and not given
you to possess, but to bestow on wanting merit. But this is a topic
which I must cast in shades, lest I offend your modesty; which is so
far from being ostentatious of the good you do, that it blushes even
to have it known; and, therefore, I must leave you to the satisfaction
and testimony of your own conscience, which, though it be a silent
panegyric, is yet the best.
You are so easy of access, that Poplicola[102] was not more, whose
doors were opened on the outside to save the people even the
common civility of asking entrance; where all were equally admitted;
where nothing that was reasonable was denied; where misfortune
was a powerful recommendation; and where, I can scarce forbear
saying, that want itself was a powerful mediator, and was next to
merit.
The history of Peru assures us, that their Incas, above all their titles,
esteemed that the highest, which called them lovers of the poor;—a
name more glorious than the Felix, Pius, and Augustus, of the
Roman emperors, which were epithets of flattery, deserved by few of
them; and not running in a blood like the perpetual gentleness, and
inherent goodness, of the Ormond family.
Gold, as it is the purest, so it is the softest and most ductile of all
metals. Iron, which is the hardest, gathers rust, corrodes itself, and
is, therefore, subject to corruption. It was never intended for coins
and medals, or to bear the faces and inscriptions of the great.
Indeed, it is fit for armour, to bear off insults, and preserve the
wearer in the day of battle; but, the danger once repelled, it is laid
aside by the brave, as a garment too rough for civil conversation; a
necessary guard in war, but too harsh and cumbersome in peace,
and which keeps off the embraces of a more humane life.
For this reason, my lord, though you have courage in an heroical
degree, yet I ascribe it to you but as your second attribute: mercy,
beneficence, and compassion, claim precedence, as they are first in
the divine nature. An intrepid courage, which is inherent in your
grace, is at best but a holiday-kind of virtue, to be seldom exercised,
and never but in cases of necessity; affability, mildness, tenderness,
and a word, which I would fain bring back to its original signification
of virtue, I mean good-nature, are of daily use. They are the bread
of mankind, and staff of life. Neither sighs, nor tears, nor groans,
nor curses of the vanquished, follow acts of compassion and of
charity; but a sincere pleasure, and serenity of mind, in him who
performs an action of mercy, which cannot suffer the misfortunes of
another without redress, lest they should bring a kind of contagion
along with them, and pollute the happiness which he enjoys.
Yet since the perverse tempers of mankind, since oppression on one
side, and ambition on the other, are sometimes the unavoidable
occasions of war, that courage, that magnanimity, and resolution,
which is born with you, cannot be too much commended: And here
it grieves me that I am scanted in the pleasure of dwelling on many
of your actions; but αἰδέομαι Τρῶας is an expression which Tully
often uses, when he would do what he dares not, and fears the
censure of the Romans.
I have sometimes been forced to amplify on others; but here, where
the subject is so fruitful, that the harvest overcomes the reaper, I am
shortened by my chain, and can only see what is forbidden me to
reach; since it is not permitted me to commend you according to the
extent of my wishes, and much less is it in my power to make my
commendations equal to your merits.
Yet, in this frugality of your praises, there are some things which I
cannot omit, without detracting from your character. You have so
formed your own education, as enables you to pay the debt you owe
your country, or, more properly speaking, both your countries;
because you were born, I may almost say, in purple, at the castle of
Dublin, when your grandfather was lord-lieutenant, and have since
been bred in the court of England.
If this address had been in verse, I might have called you, as
Claudian calls Mercury, Numen commune, gemino faciens commercia
mundo. The better to satisfy this double obligation, you have early
cultivated the genius you have to arms, that when the service of
Britain or Ireland shall require your courage and your conduct, you
may exert them both to the benefit of either country. You began in
the cabinet what you afterwards practised in the camp; and thus
both Lucullus and Cæsar (to omit a crowd of shining Romans)
formed themselves to the war, by the study of history, and by the
examples of the greatest captains, both of Greece and Italy, before
their time. I name those two commanders in particular, because they
were better read in chronicle than any of the Roman leaders; and
that Lucullus, in particular, having only the theory of war from books,
was thought fit, without practice, to be sent into the field, against
the most formidable enemy of Rome. Tully, indeed, was called the
learned consul in derision; but then he was not born a soldier; his
head was turned another way: when he read the tactics, he was
thinking on the bar, which was his field of battle. The knowledge of
warfare is thrown away on a general, who dares not make use of
what he knows. I commend it only in a man of courage and
resolution; in him it will direct his martial spirit, and teach him the
way to the best victories, which are those that are least bloody, and
which, though achieved by the hand, are managed by the head.
Science distinguishes a man of honour from one of those athletic
brutes whom, undeservedly, we call heroes. Cursed be the poet,
who first honoured with that name a mere Ajax, a man-killing idiot!
The Ulysses of Ovid upbraids his ignorance, that he understood not
the shield for which he pleaded; there was engraven on it plans of
cities, and maps of countries, which Ajax could not comprehend, but
looked on them as stupidly as his fellow-beast, the lion. But, on the
other side, your grace has given yourself the education of his rival;
you have studied every spot of ground in Flanders, which, for these
ten years past, has been the scene of battles, and of sieges. No
wonder if you performed your part with such applause, on a theatre
which you understood so well.
If I designed this for a poetical encomium, it were easy to enlarge
on so copious a subject; but, confining myself to the severity of
truth, and to what is becoming me to say, I must not only pass over
many instances of your military skill, but also those of your
assiduous diligence in the war, and of your personal bravery,
attended with an ardent thirst of honour; a long train of generosity;
profuseness of doing good; a soul unsatisfied with all it has done,
and an unextinguished desire of doing more. But all this is matter for
your own historians; I am, as Virgil says, Spatiis exclusus iniquis.
Yet, not to be wholly silent of all your charities, I must stay a little on
one action, which preferred the relief of others to the consideration
of yourself. When, in the battle of Landen, your heat of courage (a
fault only pardonable to your youth) had transported you so far
before your friends, that they were unable to follow, much less to
succour you; when you were not only dangerously, but, in all
appearance, mortally wounded; when in that desperate condition
you were made prisoner, and carried to Namur, at that time in
possession of the French;[103] then it was, my lord, that you took a
considerable part of what was remitted to you of your own revenues,
and, as a memorable instance of your heroic charity, put it into the
hands of Count Guiscard, who was governor of the place, to be
distributed among your fellow-prisoners. The French commander,
charmed with the greatness of your soul, accordingly consigned it to
the use for which it was intended by the donor; by which means the
lives of so many miserable men were saved, and a comfortable
provision made for their subsistence, who had otherwise perished,
had you not been the companion of their misfortune; or rather sent
by Providence, like another Joseph, to keep out famine from
invading those, whom, in humility, you called your brethren. How
happy was it for those poor creatures, that your grace was made
their fellow-sufferer? And how glorious for you, that you chose to
want, rather than not relieve the wants of others? The heathen poet,
in commending the charity of Dido to the Trojans, spoke like a
Christian:

on ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco.

All men, even those of a different interest, and contrary principles,

must praise this action as the most eminent for piety, not only in this
degenerate age, but almost in any of the former; when men were
made de meliore luto; when examples of charity were frequent, and
when there were in being,

————Teucri pulcherrima proles,

Magnanimi heroes, nati melioribus annis.

No envy can detract from this; it will shine in history, and, like
swans, grow whiter the longer it endures; and the name of Ormond
will be more celebrated in his captivity, than in his greatest triumphs.
But all actions of your grace are of a piece, as waters keep the tenor
of their fountains: your compassion is general, and has the same
effect as well on enemies as friends. It is so much in your nature to
do good, that your life is but one continued act of placing benefits
on many; as the sun is always carrying his light to some part or
other of the world. And were it not that your reason guides you
where to give, I might almost say, that you could not help bestowing
more than is consisting with the fortune of a private man, or with
the will of any but an Alexander.
What wonder is it then, that, being born for a blessing to mankind,
your supposed death in that engagement was so generally lamented
through the nation? The concernment for it was as universal as the
loss; and though the gratitude might be counterfeit in some, yet the
tears of all were real: where every man deplored his private part in
that calamity, and even those who had not tasted of your favours,
yet built so much on the fame of your beneficence, that they
bemoaned the loss of their expectations.
This brought the untimely death of your great father into fresh
remembrance,—as if the same decree had passed on two short
successive generations of the virtuous; and I repeated to myself the
same verses which I had formerly applied to him:

Ostendunt terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultra

Esse sinent.
But, to the joy not only of all good men, but mankind in general, the
unhappy omen took not place. You are still living, to enjoy the
blessings and applause of all the good you have performed, the
prayers of multitudes whom you have obliged, for your long
prosperity, and that your power of doing generous and charitable
actions may be as extended as your will; which is by none more
zealously desired than by
Your Grace's most humble,
Most obliged, and
Most obedient servant,
John Dryden.
 PREFACE
PREFIXED TO
THE FABLES.

I t is with a poet, as with a man who designs to build, and is very

exact, as he supposes, in casting up the cost beforehand; but,
generally speaking, he is mistaken in his account, and reckons short
in the expence he first intended. He alters his mind as the work
proceeds, and will have this or that convenience more, of which he
had not thought when he began. So has it happened to me; I have
built a house, where I intended but a lodge; yet with better success
than a certain nobleman, who, beginning with a dog-kennel, never
lived to finish the palace he had contrived.[104]
From translating the First of Homer's "Iliads," (which I intended as
an essay to the whole work,) I proceeded to the translation of the
Twelfth Book of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," because it contains,
among other things, the causes, the beginning, and ending, of the
Trojan war. Here I ought in reason to have stopped; but the
speeches of Ajax and Ulysses lying next in my way, I could not balk
them. When I had compassed them, I was so taken with the former
part of the Fifteenth Book, which is the masterpiece of the whole
"Metamorphoses," that I enjoined myself the pleasing task of
rendering it into English. And now I found, by the number of my
verses, that they began to swell into a little volume; which gave me
an occasion of looking backward on some beauties of my author, in
his former books: There occurred to me the "Hunting of the Boar,"
"Cinyras and Myrrha," the good-natured story of "Baucis and
Philemon," with the rest, which I hope I have translated closely
enough, and given them the same turn of verse which they had in
the original;[105] and this I may say, without vanity, is not the talent
of every poet. He who has arrived the nearest to it, is the ingenious
and learned Sandys, the best versifier of the former age; if I may
properly call it by that name, which was the former part of this
concluding century. For Spenser and Fairfax both flourished in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth; great masters in our language, and who
saw much farther into the beauties of our numbers, than those who
immediately followed them. Milton was the poetical son of Spenser,
and Mr Waller of Fairfax; for we have our lineal descents and clans
as well as other families. Spenser more than once insinuates, that
the soul of Chaucer was transfused into his body;[106] and that he
was begotten by him two hundred years after his decease. Milton
has acknowledged to me, that Spenser was his original; and many
besides myself have heard our famous Waller own, that he derived
the harmony of his numbers from "Godfrey of Bulloigne," which was
turned into English by Mr Fairfax.[107]
But to return. Having done with Ovid for this time, it came into my
mind, that our old English poet, Chaucer, in many things resembled
him, and that with no disadvantage on the side of the modern
author, as I shall endeavour to prove when I compare them; and as
I am, and always have been, studious to promote the honour of my
native country, so I soon resolved to put their merits to the trial, by
turning some of the "Canterbury Tales" into our language, as it is
now refined; for by this means, both the poets being set in the same
light, and dressed in the same English habit, story to be compared
with story, a certain judgment may be made betwixt them by the
reader, without obtruding my opinion on him. Or, if I seem partial to
my countryman and predecessor in the laurel, the friends of
antiquity are not few; and, besides many of the learned, Ovid has
almost all the beaux, and the whole fair sex, his declared patrons.
Perhaps I have assumed somewhat more to myself than they allow
me, because I have adventured to sum up the evidence; but the
readers are the jury, and their privilege remains entire, to decide
according to the merits of the cause; or, if they please, to bring it to
another hearing before some other court. In the mean time, to
follow the thread of my discourse, (as thoughts, according to Mr
Hobbes, have always some connection,) so from Chaucer I was led
to think on Boccace, who was not only his contemporary, but also
pursued the same studies; wrote novels in prose, and many works in
verse; particularly is said to have invented the octave rhyme, or
stanza of eight lines, which ever since has been maintained by the
practice of all Italian writers, who are, or at least assume the title of
heroic poets. He and Chaucer, among other things, had this in
common, that they refined their mother-tongues; but with this
difference, that Dante had begun to file their language, at least in
verse, before the time of Boccace, who likewise received no little
help from his master Petrarch; but the reformation of their prose
was wholly owing to Boccace himself, who is yet the standard of
purity in the Italian tongue, though many of his phrases are become
obsolete, as, in process of time, it must needs happen. Chaucer (as
you have formerly been told by our learned Mr Rymer[108]) first
adorned and amplified our barren tongue from the Provençal, which
was then the most polished of all the modern languages; but this
subject has been copiously treated by that great critic, who deserves
no little commendation from us his countrymen. For these reasons of
time, and resemblance of genius, in Chaucer and Boccace, I resolved
to join them in my present work; to which I have added some
original papers of my own, which, whether they are equal or inferior
to my other poems, an author is the most improper judge; and
therefore I leave them wholly to the mercy of the reader. I will hope
the best, that they will not be condemned; but if they should, I have
the excuse of an old gentleman, who, mounting on horseback before
some ladies, when I was present, got up somewhat heavily, but
desired of the fair spectators, that they would count fourscore and
eight before they judged him. By the mercy of God, I am already
come within twenty years of his number; a cripple in my limbs,—but
what decays are in my mind the reader must determine. I think
myself as vigorous as ever in the faculties of my soul, excepting only
my memory, which is not impaired to any great degree; and if I lose
not more of it, I have no great reason to complain. What judgment I
had, increases rather than diminishes; and thoughts, such as they
are, come crowding in so fast upon me, that my only difficulty is to
chuse or to reject, to run them into verse, or to give them the other
harmony of prose: I have so long studied and practised both, that
they are grown into a habit, and become familiar to me. In short,
though I may lawfully plead some part of the old gentleman's
excuse, yet I will reserve it till I think I have greater need, and ask
no grains of allowance for the faults of this my present work, but
those which are given of course to human frailty. I will not trouble
my reader with the shortness of time in which I writ it, or the several
intervals of sickness. They who think too well of their own
performances, are apt to boast in their prefaces how little time their
works have cost them, and what other business of more importance
interfered; but the reader will be as apt to ask the question, why
they allowed not a longer time to make their works more perfect?
and why they had so despicable an opinion of their judges, as to
thrust their indigested stuff upon them, as if they deserved no
better?
With this account of my present undertaking, I conclude the first
part of this discourse: in the second part, as at a second sitting,
though I alter not the draught, I must touch the same features over
again, and change the dead-colouring of the whole. In general I will
only say, that I have written nothing which savours of immorality or
profaneness; at least, I am not conscious to myself of any such
intention. If there happen to be found an irreverent expression, or a
thought too wanton, they are crept into my verses through my
inadvertency. If the searchers find any in the cargo, let them be
staved or forfeited, like counterbanded goods; at least, let their
authors be answerable for them, as being but imported
merchandize, and not of my own manufacture. On the other side, I
have endeavoured to chuse such fables, both ancient and modern,
as contain in each of them some instructive moral; which I could
prove by induction, but the way is tedious, and they leap foremost
into sight, without the reader's trouble of looking after them. I wish I
could affirm, with a safe conscience, that I had taken the same care
in all my former writings; for it must be owned, that supposing
verses are never so beautiful or pleasing, yet, if they contain any
thing which shocks religion or good manners, they are at best what
Horace says of good numbers without good sense, Versus inopes
rerum, nugæque canoræ. Thus far, I hope, I am right in court,
without renouncing to my other right of self-defence, where I have
been wrongfully accused, and my sense wire-drawn into blasphemy,
or bawdry, as it has often been by a religious lawyer,[109] in a late
pleading against the stage; in which he mixes truth with falsehood,
and has not forgotten the old rule of calumniating strongly, that
something may remain.
I resume the thread of my discourse with the first of my translations,
which was the first "Ilias" of Homer.[110] If it shall please God to give
me longer life, and moderate health, my intentions are to translate
the whole "Ilias;" provided still that I meet with those
encouragements from the public, which may enable me to proceed
in my undertaking with some cheerfulness. And this I dare assure
the world beforehand, that I have found, by trial, Homer a more
pleasing task than Virgil, though I say not the translation will be less
laborious; for the Grecian is more according to my genius than the
Latin poet. In the works of the two authors we may read their
manners, and natural inclinations, which are wholly different. Virgil
was of a quiet, sedate temper; Homer was violent, impetuous, and
full of fire. The chief talent of Virgil was propriety of thoughts, and
ornament of words: Homer was rapid in his thoughts, and took all
the liberties, both of numbers and of expressions, which his
language, and the age in which he lived, allowed him. Homer's
invention was more copious, Virgil's more confined; so that if Homer
had not led the way, it was not in Virgil to have begun heroic poetry;
for nothing can be more evident, than that the Roman poem is but
the second part of the "Ilias;" a continuation of the same story, and
the persons already formed. The manners of Æneas are those of
Hector, superadded to those which Homer gave him. The adventures
of Ulysses in the "Odysses," are imitated in the first Six Books of
Virgil's "Æneis;" and though the accidents are not the same, (which
would have argued him of a servile copying, and total barrenness of
invention,) yet the seas were the same in which both the heroes
wandered; and Dido cannot be denied to be the poetical daughter of
Calypso. The six latter Books of Virgil's poem are the four-and-
twenty "Iliads" contracted; a quarrel occasioned by a lady, a single
combat, battles fought, and a town besieged. I say not this in
derogation to Virgil, neither do I contradict any thing which I have
formerly said in his just praise; for his episodes are almost wholly of
his own invention, and the form which he has given to the telling
makes the tale his own, even though the original story had been the
same. But this proves, however, that Homer taught Virgil to design;
and if invention be the first virtue of an epic poet, then the Latin
poem can only be allowed the second place. Mr Hobbes, in the
preface to his own bald translation of the "Ilias," (studying poetry as
he did mathematics, when it was too late,) Mr Hobbes,[111] I say,
begins the praise of Homer where he should have ended it. He tells
us, that the first beauty of an epic poem consists in diction; that is,
in the choice of words, and harmony of numbers. Now the words are
the colouring of the work, which, in the order of nature, is last to be
considered; the design, the disposition, the manners, and the
thoughts, are all before it: where any of those are wanting or
imperfect, so much wants or is imperfect in the imitation of human
life, which is in the very definition of a poem. Words, indeed, like
glaring colours, are the first beauties that arise, and strike the sight;
but, if the draught be false or lame, the figures ill disposed, the
manners obscure or inconsistent, or the thoughts unnatural, then
the finest colours are but daubing, and the piece is a beautiful
monster at the best. Neither Virgil nor Homer were deficient in any
of the former beauties; but in this last, which is expression, the
Roman poet is at least equal to the Grecian, as I have said
elsewhere: supplying the poverty of his language by his musical ear,
and by his diligence.
But to return. Our two great poets being so different in their
tempers, one choleric and sanguine, the other phlegmatic and
melancholic; that which makes them excel in their several ways is,
that each of them has followed his own natural inclination, as well in
forming the design, as in the execution of it. The very heroes show
their authors: Achilles is hot, impatient, revengeful,

Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer, &c.

Æneas patient, considerate, careful of his people, and merciful to his

enemies; ever submissive to the will of heaven:

——quò fata trahunt retrahuntque, sequamur.

I could please myself with enlarging on this subject, but am forced

to defer it to a fitter time. From all I have said, I will only draw this
inference, that the action of Homer, being more full of vigour than
that of Virgil, according to the temper of the writer, is of
consequence more pleasing to the reader. One warms you by
degrees; the other sets you on fire all at once, and never intermits
his heat. It is the same difference which Longinus makes betwixt the
effects of eloquence in Demosthenes and Tully; one persuades, the
other commands. You never cool while you read Homer, even not in
the Second Book (a graceful flattery to his countrymen); but he
hastens from the ships, and concludes not that book till he has made
you amends by the violent playing of a new machine. From thence
he hurries on his action with variety of events, and ends it in less
compass than two months. This vehemence of his, I confess, is
more suitable to my temper; and, therefore, I have translated his
First Book with greater pleasure than any part of Virgil; but it was
not a pleasure without pains. The continual agitations of the spirits
must needs be a weakening of any constitution, especially in age;
and many pauses are required for refreshment betwixt the heats;
the "Ilias," of itself, being a third part longer than all Virgil's works
together.
This is what I thought needful in this place to say of Homer. I
proceed to Ovid and Chaucer; considering the former only in relation
to the latter. With Ovid ended the golden age of the Roman tongue;
from Chaucer the purity of the English tongue began. The manners
of the poets were not unlike. Both of them were well-bred, well-
natured, amorous, and libertine, at least in their writings; it may be,
also in their lives. Their studies were the same,—philosophy and
philology. Both of them were knowing in astronomy; of which Ovid's
"Books of the Roman Feasts," and Chaucer's "Treatise of the
Astrolabe," are sufficient witnesses. But Chaucer was likewise an
astrologer, as were Virgil, Horace, Persius, and Manilius. Both writ
with wonderful facility and clearness; neither were great inventors:
for Ovid only copied the Grecian fables, and most of Chaucer's
stories were taken from his Italian contemporaries, or their
predecessors. Boccace his "Decameron" was first published; and
from thence our Englishman has borrowed many of his "Canterbury
Tales." Yet that of "Palamon and Arcite" was written, in all
probability, by some Italian wit, in a former age as I shall prove
hereafter. The tale of "Grisilde" was the invention of Petrarch; by him
sent to Boccace, from whom it came to Chaucer.[112] "Troilus and
Cressida" was also written by a Lombard author,[113] but much
amplified by our English translator, as well as beautified; the genius
of our countrymen in general, being rather to improve an invention
than to invent themselves, as is evident not only in our poetry, but in
many of our manufactures.—I find I have anticipated already, and
taken up from Boccace before I come to him: but there is so much
less behind; and I am of the temper of most kings, who love to be in
debt, are all for present money, no matter how they pay it
afterwards: besides, the nature of a preface is rambling, never
wholly out of the way, nor in it. This I have learned from the practice
of honest Montaigne, and return at my pleasure to Ovid and
Chaucer, of whom I have little more to say.
Both of them built on the inventions of other men; yet since Chaucer
had something of his own, as "The Wife of Bath's Tale," "The Cock
and the Fox,"[114] which I have translated, and some others, I may
justly give our countryman the precedence in that part; since I can
remember nothing of Ovid which was wholly his. Both of them
understood the manners; under which name I comprehend the
passions, and, in a larger sense, the descriptions of persons, and
their very habits. For an example, I see Baucis and Philemon as
perfectly before me, as if some ancient painter had drawn them; and
all the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales," their humours, their
features, and the very dress, as distinctly as if I had supped with
them at the Tabard[115] in Southwark. Yet even there, too, the
figures of Chaucer are much more lively, and set in a better light;
which though I have not time to prove, yet I appeal to the reader,
and am sure he will clear me from partiality.—The thoughts and
words remain to be considered, in the comparison of the two poets,
and I have saved myself one half of that labour, by owning that Ovid
lived when the Roman tongue was in its meridian; Chaucer, in the
dawning of our language: therefore that part of the comparison
stands not on an equal foot, any more than the diction of Ennius and
Ovid, or of Chaucer and our present English. The words are given
up, as a post not to be defended in our poet, because he wanted the
modern art of fortifying. The thoughts remain to be considered; and
they are to be measured only by their propriety; that is, as they flow
more or less naturally from the persons described, on such and such
occasions. The vulgar judges, which are nine parts in ten of all
nations, who call conceits and jingles wit, who see Ovid full of them,
and Chaucer altogether without them, will think me little less than
mad for preferring the Englishman to the Roman. Yet, with their
leave, I must presume to say, that the things they admire are only
glittering trifles, and so far from being witty, that in a serious poem
they are nauseous, because they are unnatural. Would any man,
who is ready to die for love, describe his passion like Narcissus?
Would he think of inopem me copia fecit, and a dozen more of such
expressions, poured on the neck of one another, and signifying all
the same thing? If this were wit, was this a time to be witty, when
the poor wretch was in the agony of death? This is just John
Littlewit, in "Bartholomew Fair," who had a conceit (as he tells you)
left him in his misery; a miserable conceit. On these occasions the
poet should endeavour to raise pity; but, instead of this, Ovid is
tickling you to laugh. Virgil never made use of such machines when
he was moving you to commiserate the death of Dido: he would not
destroy what he was building. Chaucer makes Arcite violent in his
love, and unjust in the pursuit of it; yet, when he came to die, he
made him think more reasonably: he repents not of his love, for that
had altered his character; but acknowledges the injustice of his
proceedings, and resigns Emilia to Palamon. What would Ovid have
done on this occasion? He would certainly have made Arcite witty on
his death-bed;—he had complained he was farther off from
possession, by being so near, and a thousand such boyisms, which
Chaucer rejected as below the dignity of the subject. They who think
otherwise, would, by the same reason, prefer Lucan and Ovid to
Homer and Virgil, and Martial to all four of them. As for the turn of
words, in which Ovid particularly excels all poets, they are
sometimes a fault, and sometimes a beauty, as they are used
properly or improperly; but in strong passions always to be shunned,
because passions are serious, and will admit no playing. The French
have a high value for them; and, I confess, they are often what they
call delicate, when they are introduced with judgment; but Chaucer
writ with more simplicity, and followed nature more closely than to
use them.[116] I have thus far, to the best of my knowledge, been an
upright judge betwixt the parties in competition, not meddling with
the design nor the disposition of it; because the design was not their
own; and in the disposing of it they were equal.—It remains that I
say somewhat of Chaucer in particular.
In the first place, as he is the father of English poetry, so I hold him
in the same degree of veneration as the Grecians held Homer, or the
Romans Virgil. He is a perpetual fountain of good sense; learned in
all sciences; and, therefore, speaks properly on all subjects. As he
knew what to say, so he knows also when to leave off; a continence
which is practised by few writers, and scarcely by any of the
ancients, excepting Virgil and Horace. One of our late great
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