: MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY. NOVEMBER, 1806. BIOGRAPHY. for the Monthly Anthology. [Continued from page 525.) Τιμιώτατα μεν κα πρωτα τα πις την ψυχην αγαθα.-PLAT. de Leg. IV. In 1728 the members of Trinity illegality and violence of the meaCollege renewed their attacks upon sures, which the uñiversity had their master. A charge of violat- pursued. With respect to these ing statutes, wasting the college proceedings a cause was long in revenues, &c. &c., was exhibited agitation at the court of King's to the Bishop of Ely, in sixty-five Bench*, where the propriety of articles. These contained a recap- the vice-chancellor's conduct was itulation of their former griev. disputed. The ministry did not ances, and a considerable addition wish to exert their authority any to the number of their imaginary farther on the occasion ; but the evils. This catalogue, accompa- court reversed the decree of the nied by a petition, was presented university, and a mandamus was to the bishops, although the most sent to Cambridge, on the 7th of eminent lawyers, in the year 1712, February, 1728, to order that Mr. had given their opinion that the Bentley should be restored to all crown possessed the general visi- the degrees and honours of which tatorial power, as well as over the he had been deprived. master in particular. In the first divinity act, after Dr. While the establishing of the Bentley was restored to his devisitor was in debate, and Bent- grees, he moderated himself as ley's enemies in his college were professor in the publick schools. busily employed in accumulating Dr. John 'Addenbroke, afterwards charges of violation of statutes, &c. Dean of Litchfield, appeared as &c. his quarrel with the univer. respondent for the degree of Basity was finally determined in bis chelor of Divinity, who had taken favour. Those enemies who had a very active part against Bentley contributed to his degradation in the senate-house, when his denow found all their efforts vain, and their machinations defeated, ed during the conclusion of these dis * For a list of the pamphlets publishwhile the publick, in general, were putes, we must refer to the ingenious confirmed in their opinion of the Mr. Gough's British Topog: Vol. I. Vol. III. No. 11. 3Y gradation was the subject of debate. His first question was : I. Galei argumenta non valent contra pedobaptismum? The professor objected to the terms of it, because it confined the question to Gale's arguments, and cried out, "Quid nobis cum homuncione Galeo ?" It was observed, afterwards, that the last determination which Bentley had made in the schools before his degradation was on this subject, and that he had said that Gale's arguments need only be considered, as they contained all that could be alleged against infant baptism. The second question was, "Miracula a Christo edita probant ejus divinam missionem ?" To the Latinity of this he objected, and said that he had heard of çdere librum, edere signum populo: sed quis unquam audivit, edere miracula? Miracula facta sunt non edita. Bentley was undoubtedly right, for we read in Plinyt, " Ludibria sibi, obis miracula, fecit natura; but, edere miracula we do not remember. With respect to the dispute of the members of Trinity College, as the Bishop of Ely declined to act, the society, engaged in the cause, and presented a petition to his majesty under the common seal in August, 1728. This was referred to a committee of the privy-council, as well as that of the bishop, who petitioned to be heard concerning his right, on the 2d of November. A printed state of the case of Trinity College was delivered to the privy-counsellors previous to the day appointed for a hearing, in which it was stated, that the college, as they wished an immediate examination into their affairs, intreated that his majesty would assume to himself the pow er of visitor. On March the 15th the cause came on before the lords, and was referred to the court of King's-Bench, and in May, 1729, after a long trial, the judges unanimously determined, that the bishop had a right to exercise a power as visitor, over the master of Trinity College. In June the petitioners exhibited their articles before his lordship; but a suspicion arose, that he wished to be accounted general visitor, the master and fellows procured a further hearing in November. The bishop lost his cause; and in 1731 he moved for a writ of errour, in order to bring it, by appeal, into the house of lords. The crown at last put an end to these disputes, by complying with the petition of the college, and taking the master and the college into its own jurisdiction and visitation. Soon after the restoration of his degrees, Dr. Bentley wrote an anonymous letter to Chishull, with some critical remarks on an inscription to Jupiter Urius, which he had inserted in his Antiquitates Asiatica, and had restored in several passages which Spon and Wheler had published very negligently. Chishull, who was an acute scholar, and a man of solid learning, admitted part of Bentley's corrections, and part he rejected, concluding his letter thus: “ Ultimum (sc. Distichon) nunc lubens verto magis ad mentem hujus Herculis musarum. Sic enim ex pede ipsum metior, proque accepto habeo, quod qui clava confligere potuit,suadela maluit." The Hercules of the Muses, indeed, he proved himself by his criticism on this epigram. About two years after these letters had passed between the learned Chishuil and our British Aristarchus, the marble itself, from which he verses had been out either party's deriving much copied, was brought into England, information from them, he declinand placed in Dr. Mead's collec- ed them, and pleaded his health as tion. On examination, it appear- an excuse. ed that the inscription was origi- The instigations of Queen Canally cut in the very same letters roline, as she wished him to pubwhich Bentley had conjectured. lish an English classick, induced This remarkable instance of crit. Dr. Bentley to undertake his edi. ical sagacity has been recorded tion of Milton, which appeared'in and celebrated, by the learned Dr. quarto in the year 1732, with two Taylor, in the preface to his ad- busts of the poet, at different pemirable little treatise De inopi de- riods of his life, engraved by Verbitore in partis dissecando, in which tue. In his preface, he tells us he has given a fac simile of inscrip- that the mistakes in pointing, or. tion on the marble ; and among thograplay, and distinction of capiother short pieces of criticisms, tal letters are here carefully correcwhich are subjoined to this work, ted. The elision of vowels, and he has preserved the original let- the accent are particularly markters of Bentley and Chishull. ed. The verses which have been Our great critick’s disputes with foisted into the book, by the former his college and the university editor, are pointed out as spurious, were now finally settled : and his and several lines corrected or inreal merits, aided by justice and terposed by the editor himself, in truth, crushed the efforts of fac- order to give that appearance of tion and malevolence. Those who system and consistency, which had envied his erudition and tal- Milton liimself would have done, ents, now saw all their schemes if he had been able himself to defeated. Dr. Bentley, whose de- have revised and corrected the gradation they had so strenuously whole poem. laboured to accomplish, now rose Such is the account which Bentsuperiour to their little arts,and the ley gives of his own edition. He publick in general began to view then very happily compares Para-: the proceedings of his enemies-in dise Lost, in its former state, with their proper light. the defædations of printer and ediHis duty as royal librarian was tor, and debased by the malignity rendered agreeable, not only by the of his enemies, to the condition of nature of his favourite pursuits, the beautiful, tho gh poor and illbut also by the attention which was dressed virgin, in Terence's Phorshewn him by Queen Caroline, mio : who was his constant patroness, ...Ut, ni vis BONI and was justly excited to the ele- In ipsa inesset forma, hæc formam ex. tinguerent. gant compliment which he paid her in his publick speech on creat. He then endeavours to account for ing the Doctor in Divinity. Her the silence of the criticks with reMajesty was particularly fond of gard to the faults which he had engaging him in literary disputes pointed out, and thus concludes : with Dr. Clarke, Vir supra nos. Who durst oppose the universal trum preconium longissime positus, vogue ? and risque his own characTo these amicable contests, Bent- ter, while he laboured to exalt ley for some time submitted, but Milton's? I wonder ratber, that it as they generally terminated with is done even now, Had these very notes been written forty years ago, it would then have been prudence to have suppressed them, for fear of injuring one's rising fortune. But now, when seventy years jamdudum memorem monuerunt, and spoke loudly in my ears, Mitte leves spes et certamina divitiarum ; I made the notes extempore, and put them to the press as soon as made; without any apprehension of growing leaner by censures, or plumper by commendations." - We shall not pretend to enter into a minute examination of Bentley's notes and corrections of this noble poem. That he has improved several passages is certain, and that he has made many trifling remarks, and many unjustifiable and indeed unnecessary alterations cannot be denied. The text, how ever, he has not violated, but has given all his alterations in the margin. His plan seems strange and unwarrantable. Above three hundred of Milton's verses are inclosed in hooks, as spurious, and above seventy either wholly written or altered by the editor himself, are proposed to supply their places. These, he hopes, will not be found disagreeing from the Miltonian character. Besides these innovations in above three hundred lines, he offers a change of two or more words, and in above six hundred more, one word only is altered. Such was his rage for emendation. The sacred top of Horeb, for seeret, is an improvement; but when he wishes to read ardent gems, in the third book, for orient gems; and in the fourth, radiant pearl, for orient pearl, we cannot but exclaim Quis novus hic hospes ? But in Book V. v. 177, when he proposes ye four other wandering stars, instead of ye fi c-fires, because the sun, moon, and Venus had been already named in the Morning Hymn, we are indeed surprised. Did not Bentley know that the sun is not one of the planets, and that the earth is, and was certainly intended by Milton to complete the number five; as in the eighth book he says, "The planet earth?" The change of darkness visible into transpicuous gloom is idle and unwarrantable, though transpicuous be of the Miltonian character. The passages of this admirable poem which our critick rejects are usually those, which contain similies or descriptions. Why these ornamental parts of the work, though sometimes defective,are to be deemed interpolations, would require no common portion of sagacity to determine. To us these appear beauties. To confess the truth, Bentley, with all his critical acumen, was ill calculated for a corrector of Milton's verses. He is too daring, and does not ap pear to possess any extraordinary portion of poetical taste, which was highly requisite. "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling," seems not to have fallen to his lot; and even in his grammatical strictures he is sometimes mistaken, as the Bishop of London has observed. Let not this edition, however, be deprived of its deserts. Many of his remarks are acute, and several of his emendations are certainly improvements, Among these may be reckoned "Ichorous humor issuing flow'd," which he defends by the well-known line of Homer. Ιχως, οιοσπες τε ρέει μακαρίσσι Θεοίσι, and in Book IV. v. 944, "With songs to hymn his throne And practise discipline to cringe not fight," instead of practis'd distances. This emendation is established by verse 954, in which Gabriel says: "Was this your discipline ?”— He ought, indeed, in justice, to have pointed out the beauties of the work, as well as its errors— for though he comforts himself in Latin and Greek: “Jacta est alea, and non injussa cecini: Παρ έμοιγε και αλλοι, Οι κε με τιμήσωσι, μαλιστα δε μητίετα Ζευς, in his concluding note; yet if he had valued his reputation more than the advice of his friends, or, perhaps, than his own opinion of his abilities, he certainly would never have assumed such an office, as editor and reviser of Milton, but would have declined the task imposed on him by her Majesty. These notes roused an army of petty criticks, who stood forth as champions of the injured poet. The Grub-street Journal, and other periodical works, attacked the critick. But of all the pamphlets and remarks which were then published, Dr. Pearce's review of the text of Paradise Lost, with considerations on Bentley's emendations and new corrections, was of the most consequence. The principal part of these remarks, however, has been incorporated into the late Bishop of Bristol's edition of Milton's poetical works, so that as our readers in general must be well acquainted with them, we forbear transcriptions, and shall only observe, that Newton and Pearce seem unwarrantably severe in their strictures on Bentley's corrections. Let it be remembered, likewise, that the learned editor of the new Biographia Britannica is of the same pinion. It was observed, on the evidence of a writer in the Grub-street Jour nal, who received the intelligence from Dr. Ashenhurst, that Bentley had employed eight or nine years he talks of extemporary notes, in in preparing his Milton, although his preface. This may be true, yet it does not contradict the Doctor's assertion. For he might have formed his plan, and have acquainted Dr. Ashenhurst with his intention, and yet not have written his notes until the book was going to the printer. might even have noted his corrections on the margin of a Milton, and yet have been prevented from explaining them, by indisposition, or the disputes in which he was involved with the university dur ing that period. He We shall conclude these loose remarks, with a passage from Dr. Johnson's life of Milton, whose criticism on Paradise Lost, cannot be praised too loudly, or perused too frequently :-"The generality of my scheme does not ad mit the frequent notice of verbal inaccuracies; which Bentley, better skilled in grammar than in poetry, has often found, though he sometimes made them, and which he imputed to the obtrusions of a reviser, whom the author's blindness obliged him to employ. A supposition rash and groundless, if he thought it true; and vile and pernicious, if, as is said, he in private allowed it to be false." Bentley never attempted any defence of this work, but permitted his enemies to triumph, and the criticks to cavil. He seemed at last inclined to enjoy the otium cum dignitate, and to leave disputes and criticisms to those whose age, health,& spirits were better calculated to endure fatigue,and who were Et cantare PARES, et respondere parati |