15 As forth she went at early dawn, You know my feet betray my flight; For all your friends are in the rear.” She next the stately bull implored; 20 30 35 40 The goat remarked her pulse was high,45 Her languid head, her heavy eye; "My back," says he, "may do you harm; The sheep's at hand, and wool is warm." The sheep was feeble, and complained His sides a load of wool sustained; Said he was slow, confessed his fears, For hounds eat sheep as well as hares. She now the trotting calf addressed, To save from death a friend distressed. "Shall I," says he, "of tender age, In this important care engage? Older and abler passed you by; 50 55 How strong are those, how weak am I! 16. deep-mouthed thunder. baying of the hounds. 20. mazy round, intricate tracks. Sackville NOTES AND QUESTIONS Song. 1. Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset, wrote this song at the age of twenty-eight. He had just volunteered for sea duty in the first Dutch War, 1665. The song was written at sea the night before the decisive engagement in which the Dutch admiral Opdam was defeated, with the loss of thirty ships. 2. Is the song tender or light-hearted? Compare it with "Encouragements to a Lover," (page 223); "To Lucasta" (page 224). Which does it more closely resemble in subject? In mood? 3. Why is this song called "society verse"? Look up the term and try to find other specimens in an anthology. Wilmot Epitaph on Charles II. 1. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, is remembered now chiefly for his songs. He is called the last of the cavalier poets. These four lines of Wilmot's are perhaps the most famous epigram in English literature. Carey Sally in Our Alley. 1. Henry Carey, the author of this famous lyric, was a dramatist and musician. In one of his plays he burlesqued the bombastic tragedies of the time; he described his play as "the most tragical tragedy that was ever tragedized by any company of tragedians." He also wrote "Namby Pamby," a burlesque on Ambrose Philips, a writer of sentimental society verse, so successfully that Philips has ever since been called "Namby Pamby," and the name is also applied to any sentimental composition or person. Carey is also said to have written "God Save the King." "Sally in Our Alley" was suggested to him by his observation of a shoemaker's apprentice and his sweetheart on a London holiday. 2. Who is the speaker? Are there apprentices in America today? If so, how is their position different from that of the apprentices of the period of this poem? How does this subject differ from the subjects of Pope's poetry? Compare it with some love songs of Elizabethan or seventeenth century England. CHAPTER X THE AGE OF JOHNSON A Period of Transition. JOHNSON'S CIRCLE: Life of Johnson-Oliver Goldsmith-Other Members of Johnson's Circle. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH NOVEL: Samuel Richardson-Henry FieldingOther Novelists of the Period. THE DRAMA: The Attitude toward Shakespeare-Sentimental Comedy-Goldsmith and Sheridan. THE DRIFT TOWARD ROMANTICISM IN POETRY: Interest in the Medieval-Thomas Gray-William Collins-William Cowper-Other Signs of Change. THE REVOLUTION IN POLITICAL THOUGHT: The Return to Nature and Man-Political Consequences of the New Faith in Man-Edmund Burke-Burke's Political Philosophy— Summary. A Period of Transition. The Age of Johnson is a convenient name by which to distinguish the forty years between the death of Pope (1744) and the death of the great literary dictator himself in 1784. In many ways it was one of the most interesting and significant periods in the entire history of English life and literature. It was a period of transition, although the changes were so gradual that few of the actors on the stage were fully conscious of the significance of the parts they were playing. At its beginning, the ideals of life were those represented by the writings of Pope. Wit, polish of language and manners, the absence of enthusiasm, the tendency to mock at literature and life, and belief in the optimistic theory expressed in Pope's line, "Whatever is, is right"-these were some of the elements that contributed to what has been called "the peace of the Augustans." At its end, the American Revolution had been completed, and the lightning flashes that preluded the French Revolution were playing on the horizon; a new philosophy of the rights of man, and a poetry to fit that philosophy, were sweeping aside the old philosophy and the old poetry; and the artificialities of a society represented by The Rape of the Lock were giving way to a social order of which such poems as "A Man's a Man for A' That" and "The Cotter's Saturday Night," and such docu ments as the Declaration of Independence, were the expression. During this time, also, the English novel was born; the spirit of English comedy returned to the stage from which it had been banished for many years; the great dramatic interpretations of David Garrick and Mrs. Siddons gave the drama of Shakespeare a human interest and vitality unknown since the death of the master; and, in the writings and speeches of Edmund Burke, English political idealism found its supreme expression. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this tremendous period is the fact that almost all its elements and many of its leaders were represented in a single group of friends who formed, almost by chance, a club that had no name until it had been meeting for many years. The moving spirit in this club, the personality that informed it and was its sovereign, was Samuel Johnson, a dictionary maker, hack writer, and literary critic, who was no revolutionary, but who wielded an influence beside which the power of kings is shadowy and insubstantial. JOHNSON'S CIRCLE Life of Johnson. The writings of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) possess little popular interest today. His Dictionary and his edition of Shakespeare have long been superseded; his periodical essays lack |