No age will be content with old plays, the mould and fashion of the time must be exhibited. Pictures of the brutal7 mirth and the horseplay of triumphant8 licence, of the flirtations and intrigues9 of lackeys11 and lords and ladies, all genteel and witty12 à la mode of the Court and town as we know them from Pepys and Grammont, were presented.
Everything must be "new". As we hear of "the new morality," "the new theology," and so on, so, in "The Rehearsal13" (1671), a burlesque14 by the Duke of Buckingham and other hands, on the plays of the last ten years, the word "new" is constantly reiterated15. "You must know this is the new way of writing, and these hard things please forty times better than the old plain way of writing."
[Pg 359]
The butt17 of "The Rehearsal," Bayes, a mixture of Davenant with the mannerisms of Dryden, keeps bragging18 that this or that absurdity19 is "new". "New," certainly, and not worthy to wax old, was the extravagant20 "heroic" tragedy, copying the flights of the French school of bombastic22 romances, and written in rhyming couplets. The authors of "The Rehearsal" stitch together scraps23 and parodies24 of the new plays, in that which is being rehearsed, with plenty of farcical "business" under Mr. Bayes, who gives amusing snatches of his "Ars Poetica," while there are gibes26 at the new style of prologues27 and epilogues, which Dryden wrote so copiously29. But "The Rehearsal" is less witty than Sheridan's "The Critic". As for the "new" rhyming "heroic" plays, Dryden ascribes their origin to Davenant. Forbidden to act the old sort of plays under the Reign of the Saints, he introduced examples of moral virtue32, "writ16 in verse" (in rhyme), "and performed in recitative music". He combined the Italian opera with characters in the manner of Corneille. At the Restoration, he turned his "Siege of Rhodes" into "a just drama," but without "design and variety of characters". Dryden took the manner up, and, inspired by Ariosto, made love and valour the theme of the new heroic tragedy on a superhuman scale, and with supernatural incidents, ghosts for example. Then came rant33 and extravagance expressed in rhymed couplets, and even triplets, till Dryden returned to blank verse, and Lee and Otway and others followed him. But the drama remained as heroic and absurd as when Dryden wrote that masterpiece "The Conquest of Granada". In this he has a ghost, the ghost of the mother of the heroic Almanzor. Scott supposes that she was brought in to prove the courage of her son, even in face of an apparition34. Really, the courtesy of Almanzor is more to be admired; the stage direction shows that he bowed to the spectre!
Many critics of the age regarded the heroic tragedy with no more respect than we are apt to do now. Dryden replied with arguments which are not quite to the point. The heroic tragedy is a perfectly35 legitimate36 form of art; the Greek tragedies deal with divine heroes and gods, and ?schylus in "The Persians" does not disdain37 the ghost of Darius, and in "The Eumenides"[Pg 360] introduces the Furies. Dryden pleaded for a similar licence in the heroic play, but all depends on the manner of the doing. His ghosts are not majestic38, like that of Darius; they are absurd. For boldness of language he also claimed a privilege; persons engaged in superhuman struggles may talk above the pitch of ordinary men. But they must not, like the heroes of the Caroline tragedies, soar or slip into bombast21; they must rise on the wings of poetry, not on bladders full of gas. "Are all the flights of heroic poetry to be concluded bombast, unnatural40, and mere41 madness because they," the critics, "are not affected42 by their excellences44?" asks Dryden, in his "Apology for Heroic Poetry and Poetic25 Licence". "No, not all," the critics might have answered, "but many of your flights of heroic poetry are bombast"; and they might, indeed they did, produce examples. For instance, in his "The State of Innocence45," in which, accepting Milton's permission given in blank verse,
Ay, you may tag my verses if you will,
he rhymed "Paradise Lost" into an opera, Dryden wrote thus:—
Seraph46 and cherub47, careless of their charge,
And wanton, in full ease, who live at large,
Unguarded leave the passes of the sky,
And all dissolved in hallelujahs lie.
The spectacle of wanton seraphs lying dissolved in hallelujahs naturally provoked laughter, but Glorious John did not see the absurdity of the situation. He took his image from Virgil, he says, where the Greeks enter Troy which "lay buried in sleep and wine". But Trojans were not seraphs, and sleep and wine are not dissolving hallelujahs. In the same way Virgil, following Homer, describes the Cyclops as a monster of mountainous height, as in fact he was. Goliath was only about ten feet high. But Dryden applauds Cowley for writing of Goliath—
The valley, now, this monster seemed to fill,
And we, methought, looked up to him from our hill.
"The passage is horrible bombast," says Scott. Not living in an early heroic age, in which exaggeration is natural and pardonable, but in the age of scepticism and the Royal Society, Dryden[Pg 361] exceeded the ancient licence, and, as when a hero takes off his hat to his mother's ghost, mingled48 modern manners with more than heroic audacities49. Criticism should look for beauties, not faults, said Dryden, but the critics could reply that the whole scheme of the heroic drama was faulty. The result is extravagance and rant, indeed rant was then the fault of the actors on the French stage. Molière had to warn his company that a King, conversing50 with his Minister, "does not necessarily speak like a d?moniac".
Turning to comedy, we find it but little instructed, in refinement51, creation of character, and wit, by the example of Molière.
Etherege's three plays "Love in a Tub" (1664), "She Would if She Could" (1667), and "The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter" (1676), are the work of a courtier and amateur concerning whose life and death little is known. The merriment of "Love in a Tub" is a picture of contemporary manners; compared with its prose, the rhyming ten-syllabled52 couplets of the graver and sentimental53 characters are almost a relief.
The author (1635-1691?), in the Prologue28, admits that "wit" (dramatic genius in this case), "has now declined"; avers54 that "the older and graver sort" would decry55 new plays in the manner of Fletcher and Ben Jonson; and bids the audience "Only think upon the modern way of writing". In an Epilogue to "Sir Fopling Flutter," Dryden characterizes the hero admirably:—
True fops help Nature work, and go to school,
To file and finish God Almighty's fool.
If these' pieces have wit, they "have not wit enough to keep them sweet".
Thomas Shadwell (1642-1692) was made immortal56 when he became the butt of Dryden's satire57. His plays are useful to students of contemporary manners, and he was the Laureate of William and Mary in succession to "Glorious John".
Sir Charles Sedley and Mrs. Aphra Behn have left nothing imperishable but a few songs, the swan songs of the dying Muse of lyric58.
All these playwrights59 had before their eyes the inimitable and immortal comedies with which Molière was endowing the literature[Pg 362] of France. But, even when they tried to follow this model, their imitations were barbarous: for compared with the literary taste and manners of the Court of Louis XIV, those of the reign of Charles II were brutal.
The least unsuccessful of those who directed themselves by the light of Molière was William Wycherley (1640?-1716?). Here we sketch61 his career and that of his successors, reserving for a separate section the great name of Dryden. Wycherley was of an old family in Shropshire, had a handsome person, was brought up, in boyhood, at Paris, in the literary circle of Madame de Montausier, later resided at Oxford62, and, if we could believe what Pope says that Wycherley reported of himself, wrote his first play, "Love in a Wood," before he came to London, to the Middle Temple. This would make Wycherley prior to Etherege, but either his own or Pope's memory is supposed to have been incorrect. The play was not acted till 1672: it was not much in advance of Etherege in merit.
Of "The Gentleman Dancing Master" (1673), "The Country Wife" (1673), and "The Plain Dealer64" (1674) the last is by far the best. In the Prologue, the line
And with faint praises one another damn,
was remembered, unconsciously, by Pope, in his "Damn with faint praise" (in the character of "Atticus," Addison).
"The Plain Dealer" is a comedy of humours, like Jon son's, the chief humorist being the benevolent66 railing Manly67, taken from the Alceste of Molière's "Le Misanthrope68". Manly "of an honest, surly, nice humour," is a gallant British sea captain, who holds all the world in contempt but his friend and his love, who, of course, betray him. He is beloved by Fidelia, who, for his sake, has abandoned her large fortune, and taken service as a seaman69 with Captain Manly. Many scenes of conversation, in imitation of Molière, are vigorous; one perhaps was in Sheridan's mind when he wrote "The School for Scandal". Wycherley defends his "Country Wife" from the assaults of a false prude, who, at least, shows us that, even under Charles II, "The Country Wife" was thought superfluously70 indecent. The Widow Blackacre,[Pg 363] a female Peter Peebles, a litigious she-lawyer, with her oaf of a son, is "in very gracious fooling". The intrigue10, and the part assigned to Fidelia, are odious71 enough, and impossible enough, but the nobility of Fidelia is demonstrated by allowing her, occasionally, to talk in blank verse. When we remember Wycherley's French education, we may suppose that he dealt so much in matter which a French audience would not have endured, because he knew the taste of the theatre-going part of his countrymen.
Wycherley is said to have suffered much from a jealous wife of noble birth, who caused him a world of legal troubles by the bequest72 of her money. He married again at 75, and shortly afterwards died. The most interesting thing in his later years was his acquaintance with Pope, then a lad, and the characteristic use which Pope made of his opportunity.
Congreve.
Heaven, that but once was prodigal73 before,
To Shakespeare gave as much, she could not give him more
than she conferred on Congreve. So wrote Dryden: and probably half believed what he wrote. Dryden was a literary dictator; literary opinion followed his lead; and there was a period when the town recognized the equal of Shakespeare in the sprightly74 author of comedies no longer ravishing.
William Congreve was born (1670) near Leeds: his family was of Staffordshire. His father settling in Ireland, Congreve was educated at the grammar school of Kilkenny, and at Trinity College, Dublin. He was a very handsome man, with an air of greatness; he easily conquered both the courtly and the literary world when he came to London; he won the admiration75 and affection of the generous Dryden, who applauded and opened the doors of the theatre to his first comedy, "The Old Bachelor". The play is not better than a fair specimen76 of Wycherley's manner, but "The Double Dealer" (1693) is much more readable and interesting. The complicated passions of Lady Touchwood have a kind of greatness, the more complicated plots of Maskwell nearly lead to a sanguinary conclusion; Maskwell being as near an[Pg 364] approach to the regular villain77 of comedy as the conditions of comedy permitted. Lady Froth is rather more learned than Mrs. Malaprop, and as vicious under her zeal78 for astronomy and "mathemacular proof" as the unkindness of man will allow her to be. The haughty79 refusal of Lord Froth to laugh, even when he is amused, is amusing; Brisk and Careless are agreeable rattles80, Sir Paul Plyant is almost to an incredible degree "an uxorious81, foolish, fond old knight82," and the heroine, Cynthia, is a good girl. The constant bustle83, and the involutions of a plot full of surprises ought to have made the play more popular on the stage than it was at first. Leigh Hunt, who edited "The Comedies of the Restoration" (or rather of the date from the Restoration to Queen Anne), candidly84 says, "speaking for ourselves, we can never attend sufficiently85 to the plots of Congreve. They soon puzzle us and we cease to think of them."
The student who would enjoy Congreve must first peruse86 each play very carefully, and make out a summary of the plot, with diagrams illustrating87 the secret staircases, back doors, screens, and other places of ambush88: he must also master the details of the various marriages which are arranged for the various heiresses, amiable89 bankrupts, and old gentlemen. When the reader has thus given his full attention to the details he may re-read the plays with more ease and pleasure.
In "Love for Love" (1695) Sir Sampson Legend has some of the diverting traits of Sir Anthony Absolute; there are unlooked-for glimpses of romance in the assumed madness of his impoverished90 son Valentine (the sympathetic rake of comedy—the Charles Surface of an earlier day). The sailor son, Ben Legend, is the stock simple sailor, with some gross sense under the breezy manners of the untutored mariner91. Foresight92, with his rich collection of superstitions93, is a "character part" of interest to the folklorist94; one scene between two moral sisters who simultaneously95 detect each other's sins is diverting: the wit of Jeremy the valet, however, does not come within sight of the wit of Molière's Mascarille; and Miss Prue is a tomboy not remarkable96 for innocence.
The pearl of "The Way of the World" (1700) is the high-hearted Millamant, who, when she at last rewards one of the thousands[Pg 365] that sigh for her, makes a very spirited private marriage contract with her adorer. Her song,
If there's delight in love,'tis when I see
That heart, which others bleed for, bleed for me,
is famous among the lyrics97 of Congreve. We do not often care for Congreve's characters, nor do they try to win our affection, but Millamant conquers all hearts.
Congreve's tragedy in blank verse "The Mourning Bride," holds much the same place in his plays as "Don Garcie de Navarre" does in those of Molière.
After a long, fashionable, and applauded life, Congreve died in 1729, deeply lamented98 by the Duchess of Marlborough (daughter of the great Duke), and by the once beautiful and delightful99 actress, Mrs. Bracegirdle. He held rich sinecures100 under Government, as did other wits while the Tories were in office.
Vanbrugh.
He writes your comedies, draws schemes, and models,
And builds Dukes' houses upon very odd hills
is a contemporary couplet which sums up a few of the accomplishments102 of Sir John Vanbrugh. His family seem to have been Protestants driven from Ghent in the wars of Alva. He was born in 1666[1] "in a French bastile" he said. He was educated in France; entered the English army; produced his first play, "The Relapse," in 1696, and was the architect of Castle Howard, the Earl of Carlisle's house, in 1701. Carlisle procured103 for him the herald's post of Clarencieux; as a Whig he was sent to carry the Order of the Garter to the Elector of Hanover (later George I); he built the palace of Blenheim, and, like all who met her, was insulted by Sarah Duchess of Marlborough. He seems to have been friendly with the wits of both parties, being as jovial104 as versatile105. He died on 26 March, 1726.
"The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger," is a kind of continuation of Colley Cibber's "Love's Last Shift"; as Fielding's "Joseph[Pg 366] Andrews" continues and burlesques106 Richardson's "Pamela". From the Preface we learn that, as the second title leads us to think probable, "The Relapse" was accused of obscenity and blasphemy107. The Prologue, spoken by Miss Cross on the first night, would, in our delicate age, clear all the women out of the stalls and boxes. The piece opens with a long dialogue in blank verse, between Loveless, a newly married rake, rejoicing in
the happy cause of my content,
and Amanda, his bride, that Sappy cause. They are going to town, and Amanda is afraid that Loveless's Virtue will Relapse. An amusing character is Lord Foppington, a knight newly made a peer; "While I was but a knight I was a very nauseous fellow," he confesses. He holds an absurd levee with his tailor, wigmaker, and hosier, and snubs his brother, Tom Fashion, who is penniless. Through an old nauseous match-maker, Coupler, Tom learns that the peer is contracted to a rustic108 heiress, whom he has never seen, Miss Hoyden109, daughter to Sir Tunbelly Clumsey. Tom decides to go down, personate his brother, and marry the wealthy Miss Hoyden. Yet he has a qualm of conscience and will give Foppington another chance.
Arrived in town, Loveless and Amanda drop blank verse for prose. Amanda confesses her distaste for the obscenities of, the stage. Loveless admits that he has admired a lady at the play; Amanda flutters with jealousy110; her cousin, Berinthia, enters; she is the woman admired by Loveless. Enter Lord Foppington bent111 on the conquest of Amanda. He dislikes the quiet of a country life: "For 'tis impossible to be quiet without thinking; now thinking is to me the greatest fatigue112 in the world". His lordship is a lover of books, of their bindings, "The inside, I must confess, I am not altogether so fond of". For this he gives his exquisite113 reasons, and describes the glories of his everyday occupations. From 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. he drinks. "Thus, ladies, you see my life is a perpetual round of delights." This peer is worth a wilderness114 of Sir Fopling Flutters. On Sundays, "a vile39 day I must confess," Foppington imitates the course of Mr. Badman. He ends by making a declaration to Amanda, who[Pg 367] replies with a box on the ear. Loveless and Foppington fight, Foppington falls, exclaiming "Ah,—quite through the body. Stap my vitals!"
Like Shakespeare, Vanbrugh "has brave notions," and like him, as Ben Jonson said, "he needs to be stopped" before swords are drawn115 in ladies' company. His Lordship, of course, is no more killed than was the Master of Ballantrae when the sword hilt "dirled on his breast-bone".
Berinthia and Amanda now discuss not "the practical part of unlawful love," "that is abominable"; "but for the speculative116; that, we must all confess, is entertaining". Amanda admits an interest in a speculative inquirer, her husband's friend, Mr. Worthy, and, most unnaturally117, for she is very jealous, invites Berinthia, a merry widow, to be her guest.
Lord Foppington, happily recovered, airs his original philosophy of life for his brother's edification. "Look you, Tam, of all things that belong to a woman I have an aversion to her heart. For when once a woman has given you her heart, you can never get rid of the rest of her body." This philosopher declines to give Tom a penny, and Tom returns to the raid upon Miss Hoyden and her fortune.
Loveless is now found—ah! woful change—not only talking in blank verse—indicative of a serious passion—with Berinthia, but kissing her: the discovery is made by Worthy, her old lover. "O God!" exclaims Berinthia. Worthy now knows that Berinthia adores Loveless, and Berinthia—that Worthy adores Amanda. They contrive118 a plot against Amanda very worthy of their ingenuous119 principles.
We next find Tom at Sir Tunbelly Clumsey's door, which is garrisoned120 like the Tower, and all to seclude121 that Dana?, Miss Hoyden. Both Tom and Miss Hoyden are eager to be married with no more delay than Tom Jones and Sophia, but Sir Tunbelly is more set on ceremonies than Squire122 Western.
The proceedings123 of Berinthia now justify124 the censures125 of the moralist, and "turning the other page," as Chaucer recommends, we find Tom and Miss Hoyden privately126 married by Chaplain Bull, when Foppington arrives with two coaches and twenty foot-men,[Pg 368] the military skill of Sir Tunbelly, convinced that the newcomer is an impostor, enables him to rout127 Lord Foppington's guard and arrest his person. Presently a Sir John Friendly arrives; he knows and recognizes the genuine Foppington, who has admirably preserved the calm dignity of his philosophy. The blushless Hoyden now avows128 to her Nurse and the Chaplain her resolve to prevent trouble by at once wedding the real Lord Foppington.
Meanwhile, by aid of virtue and blank verse, Amanda converts the passion of Mr. Worthy into profound admiration and esteem129. The natural denouement130 follows: Miss Hoyden is recognized as Mrs. Tom Fashion, and Lord Foppington, who would have gone to the guillotine as gallantly131 as any gentleman, congratulates his brother: "Dear Tam, you have married a woman beautiful in her person, charming in her airs, prudent132 in her conduct, constant in her inclinations133, and of a nice morality. Split my windpipe!"
Vanbrugh's quality, his absence of sentiment, his large and lively handling of old comic types, may be guessed at from this brief analysis of his first play. He was thought to have surpassed it in "The Provoked Wife" (1697) and "The Confederacy" (1705). He also adapted pieces by Molière, and a French writer nearly forgotten, Boursault.
George Farquhar.
George Farquhar, born 1678, at Londonderry, was the son of a clergyman, and was a University wit of Trinity College, Dublin. He early became an actor, and early left the stage; it is said because he had done accidentally what Mr. Lenville proposed to do of set purpose to Nicholas Nickleby, severely134 wounded a fellow-player in a stage duel135. He then obtained a commission in the army, and wrote plays, "A Trip to the Jubilee," "Sir Harry136 Wildair," "The Way to Win Him," "The Recruiting Officer," "The Beaux' Stratagem137" (1707), and others; the characters, such as Scrub, Sergeant138 Kite, Archer139, Lady Bountiful, Captain Plume140, and others, were great favourites with Sir Walter Scott, and by him are often quoted. Farquhar died young, at about the age[Pg 369] of 30. George Farquhar with his gaiety, his gallantry, his happy military swagger, his heroes who are not lost to honour, his plots, so comprehensible, and sources of so many merry adventures, wins more sympathy and affection,—dying in the arms of Victory as he did, during the triumph of his last and best play,—than any of the other comic writers of the Restoration.
Otway.
Otway, like most dramatists of his day, cannot be fairly judged by his printed works. They want the splendid costumes and decor, the setting of the stage, and the pathos141 and brilliance142 of the beautiful actresses, for Otway was most successful in such tender and distraught heroines as Belvidera and Monimia. Born in 1652, Thomas Otway, the son of the rector of Woolbeding, in Sussex, entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1669, but soon left it, on the death of his father, for London. Here he hung about the Duke of York's Theatre, where he failed as an actor. In 1675 he produced a play, "Alcibiades," though, as he says in a preface to his "Don Carlos," "I might as well have called it 'Nebuchadnezzar,'" for Alcibiades acted in a way not consistent with his character. The caprice of the witty, miserable143 Earl of Rochester won the good will, if nothing more substantial, of the Duke of York for the poet, who dedicates to him the heroic play of "Don Carlos" (1676). In this, according to Otway, Dryden declared that "I know not a line I would not be author of," so the play must have been, and in fact was, a success. It is written in rhyming couplets, and even triplets; the rhymes are often surprisingly bad. The history of the death of Don Carlos, who was mad, is obscure, and Otway treats it with extreme poetic licence. Philip of Spain is here a tender, though avenging144, father and husband, who repents145 and rants146 monstrously148, though rant is not the common fault of Otway. There is tenderness and pathos enough to account for the popularity of the play; moreover Otway was known to be hopelessly in love with Mrs. Barry, the beautiful actress; Rochester who presently satirised Otway, being his rival. After a luckless campaign with Monmouth in Flanders, Otway, following Dryden's example, abandoned rhyme for blank verse in "The Orphan149"[Pg 370] (1680), based on a stock situation in a novel of the seventeenth century. The intrigue, though the crucial situation is not acceptable now on the stage, is ingeniously contrived150 to bring out the characters of the rival brothers, and Monimia, a very pathetic character, must have drawn many tears. There is the usual number of deaths in the last act. The blank verse has no great distinction, and abounds151 in redundant152 feet. Otway, in fact, did not take by literary perfections, but "The Orphan" has no lines so far below the tragic153 level as the words of the Queen in "Don Carlos".
How hard it is his passion to confine,
I'm sure 'tis so if I may judge by mine!
The phrase of Monimia when she learns the depth of her misery154, "Oh, when shall I be mad indeed!" is of other metal.
In 1682, Otway produced his "Venice Preserved," certainly his best play, which long held the stage, and was acted now and then up to the middle of the nineteenth century. The conspirators155 in the play may be said to rant, but moderation of language does not mark the eloquence156 of violent revolutionaries with the most bitter personal wrongs to avenge157. Belvidera may be "stagey," but she has genuine tenderness and pathos; there is dramatic development of character in Jaffier; "the moving incident" is abundant; the absence of poetry was not marked or missed. The scenes with Antonio, a caricature of the Shaftesbury of Titus Oates's plot, with his "I'll prove there's a plot with a vengeance158, a bloody159, horrid160, execrable, damnable, and audacious plot," must have delighted audiences who had just escaped from Oates's reign of lies and terror. The bloody ghosts who appear in the conclusion are an unhappy reversion to the devices of Chapman. Otway wrote other things, the comedy of "The Soldier's Fortune," for example, which, even then, was "so filthy161, no modest woman ought to be seen at it," as, Otway tells us, a woman of "a nice morality" declared. Certainly Otway had no real comic genius. Before he wrote "Venice Preserved" Otway was destitute162, till relieved by the Duchess of Portsmouth, to whom the play is dedicated163. On the death of Charles II the Duchess ceased, it appears, to succour the poet, who died in deep distress164, in April, 1685; as[Pg 371] to the manner of his death, stories vary. Probably he was not a careful liver; profits from plays were slight; and patrons were niggardly165. Otway is undeniably more coherent, more capable in construction than the majority of the tragedians from Chapman to Ford63; but he did not inherit that remarkable, if occasional, gift of greatness in style which was their common portion.
Nat Lee.
The reader of the plays in which Nat Lee (1653-1692) employs blank verse, finds it much more satisfactory in its cadences166 and in movement than the blank verse of Otway. There is something of the old ring in
For I am doz'd so weary with complaining.
That I could stand and listen to the winds,
or
For straight when the sick priest had breathed his last,
The sacred oil which for a hundred years
Supplied the sun behind the golden veil,
Went out and all the mystic lights were quenched168.
Undeniably there was poetry in Lee, but to the pathos, concentration, and construction of Otway he does not attain169. He was born in Hertfordshire, and educated in Westminster, and Trinity, Cambridge. He was at intervals170 insane, and while reading the speeches of his characters we sometimes seem to "stand and listen to the winds" of a wild night of autumn.
There is a kind of furious magnificence in the tempestuous172 tirades173 of Pharnaces with which the play of "Mithradates" opens, and throughout the terrors of that piece "The old winds cease not blowing and all the night thunders". The same vigour174 displays itself in his first tragedy (1675), written partly in "new" rhymed heroic couplets. The ghost of Caligula would
Burn palaces; like Thunder I would rove,
Tear the tall woods, and rend175 each sacred grove176.
Lee is, by the way, far too prodigal of his ghosts. His age, at all events the theatre-going part of his contemporaries, was apt to jest at ghosts, following Webster and Wagstaffe, and unconvinced[Pg 372] by Henry More, Glanvill in "Sadducismus Triumphatus," and the other founders177 of "Psychical178 Research".
In 1677, Lee, with "The Rival Queens," made a success which long held the stage, and the names of Statira and Roxana, rivals for the love of Alexander the Great, live in memory. Dryden wrote the prologue of the piece, protesting that he was not "logrolling," and comparing the poet to "Titian and Angelo". Lee loved a ghost, and that of Philip of Macedon "shakes his truncheon at 'em," at the conspirators against Alexander, whom two queens adore with furious passion. Statira's first words demand
a knife, a draught179 of poison, flames!
but, instantly relenting, for she has heard that Alexander loves Roxana, she praises the faithless conqueror:—
Not the Spring's mouth, nor breath of jesamin,
Nor violets' infant sweets, nor opening buds,
Are half so sweet as Alexander's breast.
Though "well-matched for a pair of quiet ones," Statira, of the two, is of milder mood.
The staging of the play must have been arduous180, a battle of crows and ravens181 fills the air, an eagle and dragon meet and fight; the eagle and birds drop dead, the dragon flies away, and "soldiers walk off, shaking their heads," and no wonder! especially as the ghost of Philip is still walking, and a "monstrous147 child" is weeping blood into a silver bowl and throwing the gore182 over the percipients. When the jealous Roxana reaches Babylon, she is as passionate183 as Statira, and cries to the spectators,
Away, be gone, and give a whirlwind room!
The two queens meet with gentle words, but when their blood is up their language is on the level of the situation. Roxana is the readier with her knife; the dying Statira forgives her; Alexander dies in a delirium184, with a lucid185 interval171 at the close.
Dryden and Lee worked together in "The Duke of Guise186" (assassinated by order of Henri III) and in "?dipus". The last is worth reading as an example of the taste of the time. The foundation is the "?dipus Tyrannus" of Sophocles, from which[Pg 373] passages are translated in blank verse. In the preface we learn that Corneille's "?dipe" "is inferior to the original". The "?dipus" of Lee and Dryden goes very far beyond,—and in that sense surpasses—the masterpiece of the Athenian. "All that one could gain out of Corneille was that an episode must lie, but not his way." For "custom has obtained that there must be an underplot of second persons," as, alas187 I there is, while the over-elaboration of the loves of ?dipus and Jocasta, "very curious and disgusting," would have seemed to Sophocles the work of L?strygonians or some such uncouth188 barbarians189. Jocasta murders all her children—she hangs the girls and stabs the boys, which proves that the taste of Englishmen was infinitely190 more brutal than that of the prehistoric191 framers of the original legend. ?dipus, after putting out his eyes as in the Greek, commits suicide—by jumping out of an upper floor window! The love affair of Eurydice, and the charge against her of being the murderess of Laius, are supremely192 absurd, while the ghost of Laius drives about in a chariot with those of three of his retainers. Even this nonsense is capped by a song about fiends who use red-hot tongs193, and boiling cauldrons, and torture "with molten lead in it".
Lee and Dryden seem to have stimulated194 each the other's ambition to outdo the worst excesses of the most frantic195 Elizabethan playwrights. They knew, of course, that ?dipus, in the Attic65 myth, did not kill himself, like a distraught housemaid, by jumping out of a window; they knew that he lived, and that the children of Jocasta lived and furnished the materials for two noble dramas of Sophocles. But they thought that the blood could not be spread too thick.[2]
Dryden.
Though Dryden was a dramatist of the Restoration, he was so much else, was a link so strong in the golden chain of our poetry and prose, that he must be considered apart from smaller wits.
John Dryden was born in 1631, at Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire. His name is common in Teviotdale: his family was landed,[Pg 374] and had a baronetcy: in Scotland it is not a landed name. From Westminster school Dryden went to Trinity, Cambridge, where he was known to Mr. Samuel Pepys. He entered in 1650, at 19, an age later than was usual. For some reason he did not like his University.
Thebes did his green unknowing youth engage,
He chooses Athens in his riper age,
that is Oxford, the home of lost causes, like his own. In 1663 married Lady Elizabeth Howard; wrote plays for a livelihood196 (his rents were small); in 1670 became Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal: acted, we may say, in both capacities in his great satires197 of the troubles following on the Popish Plot and other poems down to the birth of the Prince of Wales (10 June, 1688), and, after the Revolution, supported himself by play-writing, translating Virgil, by his "Fables," and other works, till his death on 1 May, 1700.
Setting aside Milton, who dwelt apart, Dryden was by far the greatest man of letters of the Restoration and the reign of our Dutch deliverer. Under Dryden, and to a great extent through his versatile and manly genius, English literature matured and clarified itself. Though not averse199 to far-fetched "conceits200" in his early poems, Dryden shook them off; he made the heroic couplet the instrument for Pope and his successors, he gave it a nobility, a richness and depth of music which it had not possessed201: it was stronger, more varied202, more poetical203, in his hands than in those of Pope. Prose, touched by him, became much more lucid and rapid than it had been in the long involved periods of Clarendon, if not so purely204 simple as the prose of Swift.
It was, in a sense, the misfortune of Dryden that he was the poet of an age immersed in its own complicated and exciting, and now, to all but careful historical students, not easily understood affairs. We have no adequate and intelligent history of the Restoration. Dry den's verses, for the most part, are "topical," deal with events of the day: there is little time for meditation205 on what is universal; he is an urban poet, too: nature and landscape are rarely handled by him. If our ideal of poetry is derived206 from study of Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, and other[Pg 375] recent moderns, we do not and cannot find in Dryden what they have taught us to desire and expect. His themes are of his time and of the men and the political passions of his time. His plays, many of them rhymed, are but little read; nobody strongly recommends his comedies, which are more coarse than comic; he did not, himself, think that comedy set his genius.
His lyrics, though spirited, have not the sweet spontaneity of the true English lyric from "Love has come with Lent to town" to those of the best nineteenth century makers207. To read his best satires with entire enjoyment208 we need to be well acquainted with the obscure intrigues of an age of plots, royal, political, and religious. Yet, through all his poetic work, from his early "Heroic Stanzas210" on the death of Cromwell, down to "Alexander's Feast," we see the note and hear the voice of a great poet; a voice new, noble, sonorous211, and his own. There is, in almost all that Dryden did, in his criticism in prose not less than in his verse, a kind of conquering supremacy212, an ease, an impetus213, and a consciousness of his own greatness which is not arrogance214, but lends facility and a triumphant speed to his verse; while his criticism is that of zest215, of delight in excellence43 wherever he finds it; from Homer to Virgil, from Virgil to the then little understood Chaucer, to Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton.
His "Heroic Stanzas" (published in 1659) in quatrains, may or may not have been inspired by appreciation216 of Cromwell; Dryden's kinsfolk were Presbyterian and Parliamentarian; but his heart and natural inclinations as a man and a poet, were more engaged (1660) in his "Astr?a Redux," and verses to Charles II on his coronation. Dryden, like Waller, was (to our taste) more successful in praising the great usurper217 than the Merry Monarch218. The first stanza209 in the poem on Cromwell strikes a ringing and a novel note, but the reader also requires a footnote on Roman imperial funereal219 ritual before he can understand what is meant. To say of Cromwell,
To our crown he did fresh jewels bring,
while, in fact, he sold the jewels, was to invite satire; to talk of
Stanching220 the blood by breathing of the vein221,
[Pg 376]
was thought an odd way of alluding222 to regicide: though Dryden may perhaps have spoken of the wars in general.
Her safety rescued Ireland to him owes
is a strange compliment to the man of the Drogheda massacre223. Dryden, at this time, wrote as a Protestant; much later he was reconciled to the ancient Church.
His "Astr?a Redux," and poem on the Coronation of Charles II show his early mastery of the heroic couplet. Scott thought that in these poems the Muse awoke, like the Sleeping Beauty of the fairy tale "in the same antiquated224 and absurd vestments in which she had fallen asleep twenty years before". This means that the so-called "metaphysical" style of far-fetched conceits and comparisons (which Sir Walter heartily225 hated) still prevailed. There are, indeed, traces of the habits attributed by fable198 to elephants, and remote classical allusions226, and abrupt227 changes of metaphor228 from anatomy229 to bait-fishing (of which Dryden was fond) and it is rather absurd to make a ship of war "groan230 beneath the weight" of a lad like the Duke of Gloucester! But the verse is excellent, and the spirit high and joyous231, as became the great occasion. As much may be said of the lines addressed to Clarendon.
In the "Annus Mirabilis" (1667), concerning the naval232 war with Holland and the Great Fire of 1666, Dryden reverted233 to the quatrains made fashionable by Davenant's "Gondibert". Mr. Pepys, of the Admiralty, thought this "a very good poem," it came home to his bosom234 and business, and, as a poem of war, is much superior to Addison's "Campaign". There are still conceits, as when Dutch mariners235 killed on board a ship laden236 with spices and Oriental porcelain237 "by shattered porcelain fall," or "by aromatic238 splinters die". To appreciate the poem the reader needs a good chart and an intimate knowledge of naval history, but the vigour of the verses on the fire carries them on like the conflagration239 itself. The "Prayer of Charles II" is royal, and worthy of David, to whom Dryden had already compared him in "Astr?a Redux," as later in "Absalom and Achitophel". Indeed Charles in certain points of conduct resembled the Psalmist.
[Pg 377]
For some fifteen years Dryden was now to be occupied with play-writing, and his tragedies and comedies, as his latest editor says, supply the historian with "the most troublesome and perhaps the most thankless... part of his task". But Dryden does not live by the merits of his dramas. When we have said that Scott, with all his zeal for old plays, did not like Dryden's, it is clear that people less omnivorous240 in literature and less devoted241 to the drama, will leave them alone.
Of Dryden's first comedy, "The Wild Gallant," 1663, Mr. Pepys said it was "so poor a thing as I ever saw in my life". It was condemned242, but was amended243 and repeated. The judgment244 of Mr. Pepys was well deserved. The play is in prose.
"The Rival Ladies" (published 1664) was reckoned "innocent and most pretty witty" by Pepys: it is partly in poor blank verse, partly in rhymed couplets: in the preface Dryden says that Waller "first showed us to conclude the sense, most commonly in distiches, which, in the verse before him, runs on for so many lines together, that the reader is out of breath to overtake it". The plot is reckless of probability, but, on the whole, the thing is not coarse as well as shocking to the credulity of the reader.
In "The Indian Queen" (1664) Dryden added some scenes to a "heroic" play by Sir Robert Howard, and is credited with the part of Montezuma. The "heroic" play resembled the immense extravagant romances of the day ("Gondibert" is a versified romance of this kind); written by Mdlle. de Scudéry and her imitators. Intricate prolonged extravagance was then characteristic; and Sir George Mackenzie ("Bluidy Mackenzie"), who wrote such a romance about the civil war, reckoned these heroic tales the final and perfect type of the novel.
"The Indian Emperor," in rhyme (1665), was a contribution by Dryden to this class of drama. Cortez and Pizarro go conquering together, which is odd, "in a pleasant Indian country," within two leagues of Mexico. The High Priest's morning sacrifice has disposed of 500 human victims—love scenes with ladies of such Mexican names as Almeria and Cydaria follow; Cortez and Pizarro approach in arms, Cydaria and Cortez fall in love, in a song, and after much heroic passion, all ends happily for the[Pg 378] lovers. The merits of the versification and the rhetoric245 are great; Montezuma is racked on the stage; and holds a dialogue about religion, in fine distiches, with his equally tormented246 High Priest. The priest expires, but Cortez releases Montezuma, and throws the blame on Pizarro.
"The Conquest of Granada" (1670) was a yet more triumphant play of the heroic variety; "The Rehearsal," a satirical piece, partly by the Duke of Buckingham, partly by collaborators, derided247 "Bayes" (as we have seen); and as Dryden received the Laureate's bays in 1670, he is, at least, in part, the object of the mockery. He took it very unconcernedly, and went on writing heroic plays, but in 1677-1678, in "All for Love," abandoned rhyme for blank verse. "The Spanish Friar" (1681) was a "topical" play, full of the Protestantism of Oates's Popish Plot.
The sequels of the Whig and Protestant lunacy of the Popish Plot, and the political turmoil248 and Whig conspiracies249 in the interests of Monmouth, and against the succession of the Duke of York (James II.), found Dryden on the side of the King, and gave occasion for his greatest works, the political satires, "Absalom and Achitophel" (Monmouth and Shaftesbury) and "The Medal" (1681-1682), while more amusing if less monumental, is "Mac-Flecknoe," the attack on the Whig playwright60 and versifier, Shadwell. "The Hind167 and Panther" (the Roman and Anglican Churches) is not very appropriate in its allegory, but magnificent in many passages of verse. Dryden came into the religion of the Duke of York, apparently250 from conviction, and so threw in his lot with a doomed251 cause. After the Revolution of 1688, no longer Laureate, he simply worked hard at literature for his livelihood. He translated Virgil with much spirit, into rhymed ten syllabled couplets; and wrote that Ode to the Pious31 Memory of Mrs. Anne Killigrew which contains his repentance252 for the prostitution of the Muse throughout the revel253 of the Restoration.
O gracious God I how far have we
Profaned254 thy heavenly grace of poesy!
Made prostitute and profligate255 the Muse,
Debased to each obscene and impious use,
Whose harmony was first ordained256 above
For tongues of angels and for hymns257 of love.
[Pg 379]
Dryden's old age, as the dictator to the wits at Will's Coffee House, was tranquil258 and happy: he had sown his literary wild oats, his life was one of peaceful and honoured industry, without failure of mental force. He died in May, 1700, and was buried near Chaucer in Westminster Abbey, with strangely maimed rites101, according to Farquhar, the author of "The Beaux' Stratagem," who was present.
Dryden's prose, chiefly critical, was addressed to that part of the literary world, the Court and the Town, and the Templars, which was mainly interested in the theatre. He could thus write with freedom, alertness, and gaiety, to appreciative259 readers concerned with the problems of the drama. It had almost expired by a kind of natural decay, moral and literary, before the theatres were closed by the Puritans. Now writers of plays looked back on the glories of the "former temple," to Jonson, Fletcher, and Shakespeare, and also looked abroad to the French stage then flourishing under Corneille and Molière. Which was the better way? Was the rhyme of French tragedy, and of many French comedies, to be imitated? It was imitated, and in his rhymed tragedies Dryden acquired his mastery of the couplet. What was to be said for and against the English practice of an upper and an under plot? What were the famous "unities260" of time, place, and action? Should deaths be merely reported or presented on the stage? Dryden observes that the audiences used to laugh at dying scenes in tragedies: "it is the most comic part of the whole play".
Having such topics to discuss, Dryden adopted the prose style so justly appreciated, though it was the reverse of his own manner, by Dr. Johnson. Dryden's prefaces to his plays "have not the formality of a settled style, in which the first half of the sentence betrays the other. The clauses are never balanced, nor the periods modelled: every word seems to drop by chance, though it falls into its proper place. Nothing is cold or languid; the whole is airy, animated261, and vigorous; what is little is gay; what is great is splendid."
The most famous essays are those of "Dramatic Poesy," and "The Preface to the Fables," adaptations or "translations" of Chaucer and Boccaccio. The former essay is, in form, a[Pg 380] dialogue, held in a boat on the Thames, while the thunder of the guns, in a great naval battle against the Dutch (3 June, 1665) dies away from the English shores, with promise of an English victory. The speakers are Lord Buckhurst, Sir Robert Howard, Dryden's brother-in-law, the poet himself, and Sir Charles Sedley, the gayest of the four, though his knowledge of Aristotle's "Poetics" is far from adequate. The speeches are rather long; there is no rapid interchange of opinions. In Dryden's lips are placed the words, "Shakespeare was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul". Yet "he is many times flat, insipid262; his comic wit degenerating263 into clinches264, his serious swelling265 into bombast". Dryden, here, and in "The Preface to the Fables," was much more keen to praise Shakespeare than to blame him: in the second place the zest with which he applauds Shakespeare and Chaucer (whose scansion, unluckily, he did not understand), is worthy of himself and of them. He translated Virgil, but, when he did some Homeric passages into English, we see how entirely266 the Greek, to his taste, overcomes the Mantuan poet. "I have found, by trial, Homer a more pleasing task than Virgil... the Grecian is more according to my genius than the Latin poet."
Dryden himself, at the meeting of the ways of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, belonged by genius more to the past than the immediate267 future. His criticisms are like the conversation of a great artist, speaking of his art, and also (Dr. Johnson thought him too copious30 on this subject) of himself. But here Johnson resembles Dryden when he rebukes268 Andromache, at her last leave-taking with Hector, for speaking of her utter bereavement269 of father and brothers by the spear of Achilles. "The devil was in Hector," says Dryden, "if he knew not all this matter, as well as she who told it him, for she had been his bed-fellow for many years together"—an error in fact, and an example of Dryden's occasional frivolity270.
The work of Thomas Southerne has for long been neglected, though Garrick, by making excisions and modifications271, restored part of it to the stage. Southerne was born before the Restoration (1660), and lived to see the last effort of the Stuart cause crushed in 1746. Born in Dublin, he went[Pg 381] to Oxford, neglected the law, gave his first play in 1682, paid court to the Duke of York, got a commission in the Duke of Berwick's regiment272, and wrote, in 1687, a play, not acted till 1721, in which he satirized273 Mary, the daughter of James II. Dryden doubled, in Southerne's case, the price of a prologue, raising it from ￡5 to ￡10, but Southerne raised the gains of authors, getting ￡700 for a single piece, while Dryden never received more than ￡100. Southerne's new comedies were popular after the Revolution of 1688. The plot of his "Innocent Adultery" (dear to Lydia Languish) was taken from a novel, by Mrs. Aphra Behn—the play, in 1758, was revived by Garrick;—from Mrs. Behn also Southerne dramatized "Oroonoko, or the Loyal Slave". This piece, with the licentious274 comic scenes removed, was revived in 1759, and a new age saw how Southerne
"Touch'd their fathers' hearts with gen'rous woe275,
And taught their mothers' youthful eyes to flow,"
though
"With ribald mirth he stained his sacred page".
In 1725, the poetic fire of Southerne died out in "Money the Mistress". The author was liked by everybody, even by Pope, known to all as "honest Tom," and addressed by the Earl of Orrery in a letter as "My Dear Old Man". Southerne did not affect the development of the stage, and the better part of his "Oroonoko" is due to Mrs. Behn: people who laughed at the sub-plot were easily amused.
Of Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) space suffices only for the statement that he was made Poet Laureate under George I., edited Shakespeare, and wrote "Jane Shore," "in imitation of Shakespeare's style". Here is a sample of the imitation:—
"If poor, weak woman swerve276 from Virtue's rule,
If strongly charmed she leave the thorny277 way,
And in the softer paths of pleasure stray,
Ruin ensues, reproach and endless shame,
And one false step entirely damns her fame."
The blank verse too is remote from the Shakespearean.
The stage (like the world after the death of Donne's Miss Drury) continued to exist after the death of Steele. Young and Johnson, Thomson and John Home wrote tragedies, and acting278 comedies abounded279, but we do not find comedies that live and give pleasure in the reading till we come to Goldsmith and Sheridan.
[1] In 1664 in the Parish of St. Nicholas Aeons (see "Diet, of Nat. Biog." referring to the list of Baptisms in that Church).
[2] In the Ach?an myth, first mentioned in the "Iliad," we read that "?dipus fell," the Greek word is that used for falling in battle.
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1
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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muse
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| n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感 | |
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3
parable
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| n.寓言，比喻 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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9
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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10
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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lackeys
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| n.听差( lackey的名词复数 )；男仆（通常穿制服）；卑躬屈膝的人；被待为奴仆的人 | |
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12
witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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rehearsal
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| n.排练，排演；练习 | |
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14
burlesque
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| v.嘲弄，戏仿；n.嘲弄，取笑，滑稽模仿 | |
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reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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bragging
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| v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的现在分词 )；大话 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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bombast
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| n.高调，夸大之辞 | |
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bombastic
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| adj.夸夸其谈的，言过其实的 | |
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scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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parodies
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| n.拙劣的模仿( parody的名词复数 )；恶搞；滑稽的模仿诗文；表面上模仿得笨拙但充满了机智用来嘲弄别人作品的作品v.滑稽地模仿，拙劣地模仿( parody的第三人称单数 ) | |
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poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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gibes
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| vi.嘲笑，嘲弄（gibe的第三人称单数形式） | |
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prologues
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| n.序言，开场白( prologue的名词复数 ) | |
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prologue
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| n.开场白，序言；开端，序幕 | |
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copiously
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| adv.丰富地，充裕地 | |
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copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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rant
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| v.咆哮；怒吼；n.大话；粗野的话 | |
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apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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excellences
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| n.卓越( excellence的名词复数 )；（只用于所修饰的名词后）杰出的；卓越的；出类拔萃的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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seraph
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| n.六翼天使 | |
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cherub
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| n.小天使，胖娃娃 | |
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48
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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49
audacities
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| n.大胆( audacity的名词复数 )；鲁莽；胆大妄为；鲁莽行为 | |
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50
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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51
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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52
syllabled
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| 有…音节的 | |
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53
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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54
avers
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| v.断言( aver的第三人称单数 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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55
decry
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| v.危难，谴责 | |
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56
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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57
satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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58
lyric
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| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
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59
playwrights
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| n.剧作家( playwright的名词复数 ) | |
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60
playwright
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| n.剧作家，编写剧本的人 | |
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61
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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62
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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63
Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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64
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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65
attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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66
benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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67
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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68
misanthrope
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| n.恨人类的人；厌世者 | |
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69
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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70
superfluously
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| 过分地； 过剩地 | |
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71
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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72
bequest
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| n.遗赠；遗产，遗物 | |
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73
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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74
sprightly
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| adj.愉快的，活泼的 | |
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75
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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76
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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77
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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78
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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79
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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80
rattles
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|
| （使）发出格格的响声， （使）作嘎嘎声( rattle的第三人称单数 )； 喋喋不休地说话； 迅速而嘎嘎作响地移动，堕下或走动； 使紧张，使恐惧 | |
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81
uxorious
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| adj.宠爱妻子的 | |
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82
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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83
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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84
candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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85
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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86
peruse
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| v.细读，精读 | |
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87
illustrating
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|
| 给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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88
ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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89
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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90
impoverished
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|
| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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91
mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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92
foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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93
superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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94
folklorist
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| 民俗学研究者 | |
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95
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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96
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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97
lyrics
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| n.歌词 | |
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98
lamented
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|
| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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99
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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100
sinecures
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| n.工作清闲但报酬优厚的职位，挂名的好差事( sinecure的名词复数 ) | |
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101
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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102
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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103
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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104
jovial
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|
| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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105
versatile
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|
| adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的 | |
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106
burlesques
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| n.滑稽模仿( burlesque的名词复数 )；（包括脱衣舞的）滑稽歌舞杂剧v.（嘲弄地）模仿，（通过模仿）取笑( burlesque的第三人称单数 ) | |
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107
blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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108
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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109
hoyden
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| n.野丫头，淘气姑娘 | |
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110
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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111
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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112
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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113
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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114
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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115
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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116
speculative
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|
| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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117
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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118
contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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119
ingenuous
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| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
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120
garrisoned
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| 卫戍部队守备( garrison的过去式和过去分词 )； 派部队驻防 | |
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121
seclude
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| vi.使隔离，使孤立，使隐退 | |
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122
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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123
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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124
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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125
censures
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| v.指责，非难，谴责( censure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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126
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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127
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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128
avows
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| v.公开声明，承认( avow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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129
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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130
denouement
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| n.结尾，结局 | |
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131
gallantly
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|
| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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132
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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133
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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134
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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135
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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136
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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137
stratagem
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| n.诡计，计谋 | |
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138
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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139
archer
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| n.射手，弓箭手 | |
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140
plume
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| n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰 | |
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141
pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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142
brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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143
miserable
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|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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144
avenging
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|
| adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复 | |
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145
repents
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的第三人称单数 ) | |
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146
rants
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| n.夸夸其谈( rant的名词复数 )；大叫大嚷地以…说教；气愤地)大叫大嚷；不停地大声抱怨v.夸夸其谈( rant的第三人称单数 )；大叫大嚷地以…说教；气愤地)大叫大嚷；不停地大声抱怨 | |
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147
monstrous
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|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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148
monstrously
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149
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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150
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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151
abounds
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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152
redundant
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| adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的 | |
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153
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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154
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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155
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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156
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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157
avenge
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| v.为...复仇，为...报仇 | |
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158
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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159
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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160
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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161
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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162
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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163
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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164
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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165
niggardly
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| adj.吝啬的，很少的 | |
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166
cadences
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| n.（声音的）抑扬顿挫( cadence的名词复数 )；节奏；韵律；调子 | |
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167
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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168
quenched
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| 解（渴）( quench的过去式和过去分词 )； 终止（某事物）； （用水）扑灭（火焰等）； 将（热物体）放入水中急速冷却 | |
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169
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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170
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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171
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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172
tempestuous
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| adj.狂暴的 | |
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173
tirades
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| 激烈的长篇指责或演说( tirade的名词复数 ) | |
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174
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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175
rend
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| vt.把…撕开，割裂；把…揪下来，强行夺取 | |
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176
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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177
founders
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| n.创始人( founder的名词复数 ) | |
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178
psychical
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| adj.有关特异功能现象的；有关特异功能官能的；灵魂的；心灵的 | |
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179
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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180
arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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181
ravens
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| n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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182
gore
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| n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶 | |
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183
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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184
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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185
lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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186
guise
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| n.外表，伪装的姿态 | |
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187
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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188
uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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189
barbarians
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| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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190
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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191
prehistoric
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| adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的 | |
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192
supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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193
tongs
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| n.钳；夹子 | |
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194
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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195
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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196
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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197
satires
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| 讽刺，讥讽( satire的名词复数 )； 讽刺作品 | |
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198
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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199
averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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200
conceits
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| 高傲( conceit的名词复数 )； 自以为； 巧妙的词语； 别出心裁的比喻 | |
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201
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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202
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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203
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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204
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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205
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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206
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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207
makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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208
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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209
stanza
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| n.（诗）节，段 | |
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210
stanzas
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| 节，段( stanza的名词复数 ) | |
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211
sonorous
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| adj.响亮的，回响的；adv.圆润低沉地；感人地；n.感人，堂皇 | |
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212
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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213
impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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214
arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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215
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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216
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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217
usurper
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| n. 篡夺者, 僭取者 | |
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218
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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219
funereal
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| adj.悲哀的；送葬的 | |
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220
stanching
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| v.使（伤口）止血( stanch的现在分词 )；止（血）；使不漏；使不流失 | |
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221
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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222
alluding
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| 提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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223
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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224
antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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225
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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226
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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227
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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228
metaphor
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| n.隐喻，暗喻 | |
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229
anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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230
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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231
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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232
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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233
reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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234
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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235
mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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236
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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237
porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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238
aromatic
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| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
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239
conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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240
omnivorous
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| adj.杂食的 | |
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241
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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242
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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243
Amended
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| adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词 | |
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244
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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245
rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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246
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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247
derided
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| v.取笑，嘲笑( deride的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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248
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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249
conspiracies
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| n.阴谋，密谋( conspiracy的名词复数 ) | |
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250
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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251
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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252
repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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253
revel
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| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
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254
profaned
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| v.不敬( profane的过去式和过去分词 )；亵渎，玷污 | |
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255
profligate
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| adj.行为不检的；n.放荡的人，浪子，肆意挥霍者 | |
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256
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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257
hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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258
tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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259
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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260
unities
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| n.统一体( unity的名词复数 )；（艺术等） 完整；（文学、戏剧） （情节、时间和地点的）统一性；团结一致 | |
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261
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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262
insipid
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| adj.无味的，枯燥乏味的，单调的 | |
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263
degenerating
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| 衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的现在分词 ) | |
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264
clinches
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| n.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的名词复数 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议）v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的第三人称单数 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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265
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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266
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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267
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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268
rebukes
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的第三人称单数 ) | |
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269
bereavement
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| n.亲人丧亡，丧失亲人，丧亲之痛 | |
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270
frivolity
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| n.轻松的乐事，兴高采烈；轻浮的举止 | |
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271
modifications
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| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
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272
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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273
satirized
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| v.讽刺，讥讽( satirize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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274
licentious
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| adj.放纵的，淫乱的 | |
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275
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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276
swerve
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| v.突然转向，背离；n．转向，弯曲，背离 | |
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277
thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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278
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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279
abounded
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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