Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to the Earl of Oxford, About the English Tongue. | ||
REFLECTIONS
on
Dr. Swift's Letter,
about
Refining the English Tongue
I should be guilty of the greatest Folly in the World, if I should go about to give a Character of Persons of whom I have no manner of Knowledge. To speak well or ill of 'em wou'd be equally Ridiculous and Dangerous: For it must be all Invention, and I might then abuse a Man both in my Praise and Dispraise. It is thus with me with Respect to the Author of the Letter lately publish'd about our Language, and to his Patron. I know neither of them, and if I say a Word more themselves, orthe World have said of them, I must have recourse to Fiction, which I cannot think of without abhorrence, where Reputation is concern'd.
That good old Church Martyr the Earl of Stafford was of Opinion, Common Fancie was enough to hang a Man, as in the Case of the Duke of Buckingham, when he was impeach'd by the Commons for Male Practices in his Ministry; and there were no
This most Ingenious Writer has so great a Value for his own Judgment in Matters of Stile, that he has put his Name to hos Letter, and a Name greater than his own, as if he be meant to Bully us into his Methods for pinning down our Language, and making it as Criminal to admit Foreign Words as Foreign Trades, tho' our Tongue may be enrich'd by the one, as much as our Traffick by the other. He would have it corrected, enlarg'd and ascertain'd,
and who must do it? He tells you with great Modesty and Discernment in the 27th Page, The Choice of Hands should be left to him, and he would assign it over to the Women, because they are softer mouth'd, and are more for Liquids than the Men, as he try'd himself in a very notable Experiment. I wonder a grave, serious Divine, who so well vers'd in College learning, shouldCausa
———
That excellent Moralist has not been pleas'd to discover himself, nor to Printe his Name, but has set his Mark to his Works, which he has Embellish'd with new Flowers of Rhetorick, that shew what a Genius he has for refining Langauge, and how happily one may use the Figures of Cursing, Swearing, and Bawdy, which before they were entirely exploded. Tho' we cannot well suppose the Writer of that Merry Tale is any way related to the Author of the Letter, yet out of my great Zeal to promote his Project of polishing Us, I must refer to some shining Passages in
The merriest part of the Project he has been hatching, for an English Academny to bring our Tongue to his pitch of Perfection, is that he has assign'd, that Task to the Tories, whose Wit have so distinguished them in all Times. If there had ever been a Man among 'em who had a right Notion of Letters or Language, who had any relish of Politeness, it had been something. But as there never was one, unless it were two or three Apostate Whigs who had been bred up by the Charity of those Friends they deserted, that had any smattering of Learning, except in Pedantry, nor Tast of any Books but Eikon Basilike and the The Thirtieth of January Sermons; 'tis amazing that he shou'd be so foolish as to fancy, that Learning which always goes by the Stile of Common-wealth, would submit to the Arbitrary Government of an
Whoever reads the Thirty Fifth Chapter of Longinius, will find, that 'tis impossible for a Tory to succeed in Eloquence, and that if they cannot impose so far on Men's Understandings, as to make Fustian pass for Oratory, their Project of an Academy, will be as Chimerical as if they shou'd flatter us with a Trade and Settlements in the Moon. The Reader will not be displeas'd, to see what the Ancients thught of the Capacity of Men of such Principles in Matters of Eloquence, and let a long Experience among us, prove the right Judgment the Philosopher in Longinus made of them 1500 Years ago. He is treating of the Causes of the Decay of Humane Wit; I can never enough admire, said he, how it came to pass, that there are so many Orators in our Times, and so few of 'em rist very high into the Sublime; so Steril are our Wits now a Days; it is not, continues he, because what is generally said of Free Governments, that they nourish and form great Genuis's is true? expecially since almost all the Famous Prators that ever flourish'd and liv'd died within them? Indeed can there be anything that raises the Souls of Great Men more than Liberty; any thing which can more powerfully excite and awaken in us that
It is observable, that Boileau has no manner of remark on all this Passage; it wou'd not have agreed with his Pension, from his Master the French King, to have said a Word in praise of it, nor with his Conscience to have condemn'd it; but Dacier, who had a Hugonot Education, observes speaking of Liberty, shining in the Orations of Orators living in Free States, that as those
Now what a Friend the Letter writer, is to Liberty, we may see in the Examiner of the 26th of April, 1711, which, tho', it may be said he did not Write himself, he and his Party have sufficiently own'd to make them accountable for every Word in that and the rest of them. The reason why Publick Injuries are so seldom redress'd, is for want of Arbitrary Power, he calls it Discretionary; 'tis true, and if I have wrong'd him, by putting Arbitrary in its Place, I ask his Pardon.—
Having said thus much of his Party in general, I might descend to Particulars, and examine the sufficiency of the Characters of his Academicians, a List of them being handed up and down, in which the Author is not forgot. It is set off with Names that must not be repeated, and amongst the rest are a Doctor or two, two or three Poets and Tell Tales, and that Learned and Facetious Person Mr D—ny, whose very Name gives unspeakable Hopes of the Progress of such a Society, in refining our Language, which he and most of his Brethren are so great Masters of, that if twenty of the List will oblige us with as many Lines of Common Sense and Common Grammar, I will be bound to read every thing that shall be publish'd by this
One would thing, that towards advancement of this Scheme, all the Literati of this Kingdom had sent their Powers to Him. That all the Whigs and well sa Tories had entrusted him with their Proxies; for he says I do here in the Name of all the Learned and Polite Persons of the Nation complain, &c.. Whereas whatever has been brag'd by him in other Papers of the Nine in Ten, being on his side for the Land and Church Interest, not nine in a thousand will trust him with that of Wit. And I do here in the Name of all the Whigs, protest against all and every thing don or to be done in it, bu him or in his Name; being a Person with whom they will have no manner of Dealings, as he very well knows, or they might now have had him Scribbling for them as well as when that Discourse was written of the Contests and Dissentions of the Nobles and Commons in Athens and Rome, wherein it is said, 'tis agreed, that in all Governments there is an absolute unlimited Power which naturally and orginally seems to be plac'd in the People in the whole Body; wherever the Executive part lies; again, this unlimited Power, plac'd fundamentally in the Body of a People, &c. and that he wrote better then than he has done since is not to be wonder'd at, if there is any truth in what Longius's Philosopher says.
It would be a poor Triumph to convict him of an Error in History 1700 Years ago, where he tells us, That Caesar was ever attempted till the Time of Claudius, since I do not find tht he or his Brethren have any Notion at all that Truth is necessary in History: For they deny what was done Yesterday, as frankly as if it had been in Julius Caesar'sTime; yet he himself has been sometimes forc'd to confess the Power of Truth, and pay Allegiance to it; as where he says, the great Reason of the Corruption of the Roman Tongue was the changing of their Government into Tyranny, which ruined the Study of Eloquence; and because the Whigs shall have a Share in it, he adds, and their calling in the Palatines, their giving several Towns in Germany the Freedom of the City. A very pleasant Reason that; for when the Roman Language was in the height of its Purity in the Augustan Age, the Cities of Asia and Africk were admitted to that Privilege, as much as the Europeans were afterwards; and yet it cannot be pretended the Moors were naturally more Polite than the Germans. It is plain therefore this was a Party Stroke in favour of the Naturalization Act, to shew what Inconviences it hinders by preventing Foreigners coming amongst us to debauch our Stile, as may be seen by the prodigious Number of Dutch Words that K. William brought with him into England.
Another Instance of the forc'd Homage he pays to Truth, is
his blaming the Slavish
It is a sad Case, when Men get a habit of saying what they please, not caring whether True or False: Who can without pity see our Letter Writer accuse the Famous La Bruyere, for being accessory to the declining of the French Tongue, by his Affection; when it is notorious, that La Bruyere is the most masterly Writer of that Nation, and that his Affection was in the Turn of his Thought, which he did to strike his Readers, who had been too much us'd to dry Lessons to receive any Impression by them. He says, he has many Hundred New Words, not to be found in the Common Dictionaries before his Time. I should be glad to know, who are those Lexicographers, whose Knowledge in the French Tongue he prefers to La Bruyere's; since Richelet and the Academy are not of his Æra. I should rejoyce with him, if a way
I like extreamly his rejecting the Old Cant of Forty One, and giving the great Rebellion its true Name Forty Two: But,of I had been he, I would not have named it at all. For there are a great many Men in England, who, tho' they were not concern'd in it themselves, yet they do not love to hear of it, for the sake of those that were; and it certainly was an Error in delicacy to touch on so tender a Part, no Man of Honour caring to have his Father and Grand father call'd Rogue and Rebel to his Face, especially if such Grand father or Father had no other Fault in the World but his Rebellion; which after so many Acts of Oblivion, and a Revolution besides, can not be a Crime of that Nature, as to last to the 3d and 4th Generation. He is much to be commended however for his Impartiality, and pleading Guilty to the Charge of the Whigs, that the Licentiousness which enter'd with the Rystauration, infected our Religion and Morals.
is a very small Stock,
I keep in a Pocket ty'd about my middle, next my
Smock:
So when I went to put my Purse, as God would
have it, my Smock was unript,
And instead of putting it into my Packet, down
it flipt.
Lady to Bed,
And God knows, I thought my Money was as saffe
as my Maidenhead.
There is a great deal more of it, all as Easy and Natural as this, in the true Stile of Mrs. Abigail, and just as Amphibuous. It is as much Poetry as Prose, Pretty and Innocent, according to the Rules of Criticism; which the Author has taken more care not to break, than the First Commandment; tho' one wou'd think it was his Business to have been mindful of it; and if he had left the Smock to be unript by the Butler, it wou'd have done every whit as well. I cannot help taking notice, that the Clamour he raises about the Poets of King Charles the Second's Reign, the only Age of Poetry in England, is for their Contractions and leaving out the Eds and Eths, wherein he offends intollerably in this very Dogrel of his. Who wou;d have said Smock unript and down it flipt, and not unripped and flipped; there is a waggery in it much better than any Hudibrastick; for it wou'd have run thus:
have it, my Smock was unripped.
And instead of putting it into my Pocket down
it flipped.
It will be no Authority with him, that Mr. Dryden commonly contracted the Syllables that End in Ed or Eth. He was
Who pall d the Appetite he meant to raise.
Where he observes the Advantage the Verse had in the Ed,
for without it it must have hobled on Nine Feet instead of Ten,
What does that Ed, says he, in undeserved do there? I know
no Business it has, unless it be to crutch a Lame Verse, and each
out a scanty Sense; for the Word that is now used is Undeserv'd.
I shou'd not take notice of such a Thing as this, but that I have
to do with a giver of other Men; tho' upon the observing such
little Niceties, does all the Musick of Numbers depend. But the
Refinement of our Versication is a sort of Criticism, which the
Essayer, if we may judge of his
How intolerable must those two Lines of Hudibras be to him then, on more Accounts than one.
A quarter Share at most of Knowledge.
Where ther are almost as many Abreviations as there are Words, and I question whether the being an Hudibrastick is sufficient to excuse it, if it is, otherwise inexcusable; perhaps the Reader may not be displeas'd to see the Lines that follow, which are no great Digression from our Subject.
To judge and censure and controul.
As if you were the sole, Sir Poll,
And sawcily pretend to know
More than you Dividend comes to.
You'll find the Thing will not be done
With Ignorance and Face Alone:
No, tho' y'have purchases to your Name,
In History so great a Fame,
That now you Talent's so well known
For having all belief out grown
That every strange prodigious Take
Is measure'd by you German Scale;
By which the Viruosi try
The Magnitude of every Lye, &c.
Which may very well be introduc'd as often as one has occasion to speak of the late Examiner, or any one that belongs to him. Let this Learned Doctor and his new Academy do their utmost to furnish our Language with what the French call Chevilles, with his Thoroughs, Althoughs, and the whole Army of antiquated Words beforemention'd; I can't imagine Mr. Dryden's Poetry will be in any Danger of becoming unintelligible, tho' he has us'd Abreviations as much as any Polite Writer; and will preserve that Character when the Doctor's is forgotten, unless we should return to our Original Barbarity, as he says we incline to do. He complains the Refinement of our Language has hitherto been trusted to illeterate Court Fops, Half-witted Poets, and University Boys, He would have
He was very shy of using it,
As being loth to wear it out,
And therefore bore it not about,
Unless on Holydays or so,
As Men their best Apparel do.
Besides, 'tis known he could speak Greek
As naturally as Pigs squeak:
That Latin was no more difficile
Than to a Blackbird 'tis to whistle;
Being rich in both he never scanted
His Bounty unto such as wanted;
But much of either wou'd afford,
To many that had not one Word:
For Hebrew Roots, altho' they're found
To flourish but in barren Ground,
To make some think him circumcis'd.
The rest of Sir Hudibra's Merit in Letters is of a Piece, and set off with a Puritanical; Air, that renders the whole truly Ridiculous, and makes a good Comment on several Pages of the Doctor's Epistle, which is most valuabe for the great Judgment and Sincerity that he has shewn in it.
It has already been observ't, that Horace asserts Osse to be the only Rule of Language; and the Letter-Writer repeats what he says, of Words going off and perishing like Leaves, and new ones coming in their Places, which he tells us did not approve of Horace, notwithstanding his own Law of paying Obediance to usage. For if that were necessary, what, according to our Author, would become of his Monumentum Aere pereunius? Did not the Roman Tongue even by his own confession, change as much as ours has done. The Latin Three Hundred Years before Tully was as unintelligible in his Time as the English and French of the same Period are now. And the Corruptions afterwards by the Barbarians made it as different from Cicero's as Ennius's;yet admidst all those variations, Horace's Works are still Monumentum Aera perennius. When a Tongue is come to any degree of Perfection, whoever writes well in it will Live; ther'es a Thirst after Wit in all Ages, and those that have a Taste of it will distinguish the Thought from the Diction
The Doctor may as well set up a Society to find out the Grand Elixer, the Perpetual Motion, the Longitude, and other such Discoveries, as to fix our Language beyond their own Times. The Test of their Successors will vary with the Age, and their Rules grow obsolete as well as their Words. He would make us believe, that the French Academy have not been able to preserve their Langauge from Decay, and who are the Men in Britain who pretend to greater Genius for Eloquence than the most Polite of the Politest Nation in Europe. Mr. Waller Elegantly complains of the Change which necessarily happens to Stile, and does it however in Language which shews, that the Doctor need not be afraid of People's forgetting his Patron a Hundred Years hence, if he can write as good English upon him now, as Mr. Waller did on this Subject Threescore Years ago.
Last, in a daily changing Tongue,
While they are new, Envy prevails,
And as that dies, our Language fails.
The Matter may betray their Art,
Time, if we use ill chosen Stone,
Soon brings a well-built Palace down.
Must carve in Latin or in Greek,
We write in Sand, our Language grows,
and like our Tide, Ours overflows.
Our Author sees no necessity of this Changing our Language. What has been the Fate of all Tongues Ancient and Modern, and for the same Reasons will Eternally be so, he wou'd defend ours from, because the Chinese have Books in their Tongue above 2000 Years Old; and a History of 30000 Years Period with a Sucession of Kings, 20000 Years before Adam. It wou'd be a Discovery worthy those Men who have lately been reconciling Contradictions, and building Arguements upon Nonsense, to find out that certain Standard for our Tongue, wo which, if it were refin'd, he assures us, it might be fixt forever. This wou'd be doing what was never done before, what neither Roman nor Greek, which lasted the longest of any in its Purity, could pretend to. And this would not be the only strange thing that has lately happen'd to us, which never happen'd to a Nation before. It will be in vain to pretend to ascertain Language, unless tey had the Secret of setting Rules for Thinking, and
Thus we see, that in order to bring us to the degree of
Perfection with which the Doctor flatters us by means of his new
Academy, they must teach us first to think justly, to distinguish
false Beauty from true, and glaring from Brightess, to banish
those that write by Humour, and recive only such as aim at
Solidity in their Writings. How come the Celebrated Tale of a
Tub will come off then with the best Judges, I can easily guess,
that excellent Treatise being much of the same nature as
Rabelais, of whom La Bruyere says, Rabelais is
incomprehensible: His Book is an inexplicable Enigma
People often apply those Faults to the Expression of Words which are originally in the thought. The Merit of such as write by Humour, Changes with the Mode, and their Language favouring of their Sentiments, must of course grow out of Fashion. Ronsard the French Poet was so far from writing ill French, that Pasquier thought the French Tongue in its Perfection in his Writings and yet upon the Appearance of Malherb and Bacan, he was no more read nor talk'd of; Whereas there were Authors before him, whose Writings are now in general Esteem, as Marot and St. Galais, for the kind of Poetry in which they excell'd, and their Stile is imitated for its Simplicity, by which la Fountain acquir'd his Fame.
Instances of this kind may be given in our own Tongue, which has improv'd in Refinement as much as the French. Our Shakespeare shone on the Stage, with all the Qualities of a Dramatick Poet, and Dictions in particular, when the French Stage was Barbarous. His Style has its Beauties now, and is newer than many who have since Writ, and for a while with Reputation.
Among all the various ways in which we of late have endeavor'd to endear our selves to the French, and make 'em forive us for beating them so, nothing certainly will oblige 'em more than our affecting to imitate them in our Political Style. Of this Nature is that Novelty the Reverend Author has introduc'd into our Language, where the Term Prime Minister has no more a Place than Will and Pleasure. Pray who among the many Ministers Her Majesty is so happily serv'd does she Honour with that Name, and how comes it that Prime does not go with Precedence? What Law of ours Impowers any body to order our Language to be Inspected, and who is there that wou'd think himself oblig'd to obey him in it? Is there no difference between the Ministers of a Despotick Monarchy, and the Servants of a limited one, who have no Rule but the Law, and are as accountable to it as the vilest of their Flatterers. We see how our Tongue would be improv'd and enlarg'd, had the Doctor and his Brethren the ordering of it. He has already impos'd on us the Court Style of France, and their Politics wou'd soon come after it. He passes a particular Compliment on our Tongue and his Patron, that they have not Merit enought to subsist a Hundred Years without mending. As bad as our English is, I'll engage it will subsist in the History of another great Man of this Nation, as long as the Names of Edward the III, or Henry V. shall be remembred
I have several very good Reasons why, if I were to be of this Academy, I would banish the word Dozen out of our Dictionary, and the Doctor has no doubt to be fond of it, and fixing it there for ever. The French King says he has given about half a dozen Pensions to Learned Men in several Parts of Europe, and perhaps a dozen in his own Kingdom; which, he said, purely out of Affection to the word Dozen, because he knew full well the French King bestows Pensions on a Hundred Men in serval Part of Europe; and on a Thousand in his own Kingdom, who excel in Arts and Literature, which, including the whole, do not amount to half the Income of many a Private Commoner in England. Whereas I will engage to
The last Pages of the Doctor's Book are incomparable, full of most delicate Eulogy in the World, which I cannot read without calling to mind that Verse of Despreaux to Monsieur Seignelai
trouve en lui.
Et ne Supplaudit point de Qualitez d'autrui.
The Doctor seems to have an Opinion, that every body loves Flatter as well as himself, and will take any Thing kindly that is said in their Favour. A little more Sincerity would not be amiss in the Composition of a Clergy-Man and if this is the way to get the Medal he talks of, it will be dearly purchas'd.
I shall be heartily glad to see some of those Productions from Men above Money, that shall deserve the Laurel he has prepar'd for them. People, I doubt not, will crowd to get their Scription in, as they do to get Money into the Lottery; but certainly, the Society will take care of themselves, and if there's any thing to be got have the Forestalling of the Market. The Design itself is useful, and cannot meet with too much Encouragement
The want of a Grammar and Dictionary has been long complain'd of; and we cannot expect our Tongue will ever spread abroad, unless Foreigners are put into a more regular Method of learning it. To distribute Rewards to Merit, is the Duty of a good Ministry, and nothing contributes more to the Glory of a Country that Works of Eloquence and Wit; but he has assum'd a Post that will not be allow'd him. He has set himself in the Director's Chair of an English Academy; before he has past Examination whether he is fit for a Place at the Board; Members are nam'd that have no Right to such Honour, unless it is Privilege that is Inseperable from their Posts and Peerage; and he has given us Assurance of fine Pieces of Wit and Eloquence from a Quarter it never yet came.
Projectors, like Quacks, promise Wonders, but 'tis always the Labour of the Mountain——I might enlarge on this Head if I had not run my Reflections too far already. I shall therefore conclude with a Discription of one of those Quacks and Pretenders, as I find it in the Speech of the famous Alexander Bendo, who, as much a
Reflect a little, says he, what a kind of Creature a Quack is. Mind what follows. He is one who is fain to supply some higher Ability he pretends to with Craft. He draws great Companies to him by undertaking strange Things which can never be effected. The rest is so valuable, that tho I degress'd in it Ten time more than I do, I would present the Doctor with it, and leave it to his serious Consideration.
The Politician by his Example, no doubt, finding how the People are taken with specious, miraculous Impossibilities, plays the same Game, protests, declares, promises, I know not what things, which he is sure can ne'er be brought about. The People believe, are deluded, and pleased; the Expectation of a future Good, which shall never befal them, draws their Eyes off a present Evil. Thus they are kept and establish'd in Subjection, Peace and Obedience, and he in Greatness, Wealth, and Power: So you see the Politician is, and must be a Quack in State Affairs and the Quack (no doubt if he thrives) is an Errant Politician en Physick.
Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to the Earl of Oxford, About the English Tongue. | ||