POETS AND THEIR FAME.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 407, 16 January 1909, Page 9

POETS AND THEIR FAME.

Poets are, rightly or; wrongly,' thought to he mors anxious f to cultivate the good graces of posterity than other writers, and to, look upon their works as means by which they, will bo kept in the mind of. futuro generations. 'Consequently, oyer since/ Horace spoke of his verso ..as . monumentwm acre pcrenuius tho comparison of a poet's works to a public monument has been ono of tho stock conceptions ; of literature. /It is curious to trace the recurrence of the analogy, ever with some diiferejit shade,of' meaning, through the poems of certain of tho Elizabethan' and subElizabethan writers. It emerges .now and then in i.the sonnet-cycles, and . the egotism of Shakespeare's .

Not marble' nor the gilded monuments Of princes shall 1 outlive this powerful rhyme, has "a paralled in D&uiel's "Delia": Think not, sweet Delia, this shall bo thy shame, ■: My muse shall,sound thypraise with mourn- . ful warble. ' •■' .V-, How many live, the"glory of .whose name ' Shall rest in:ice,/when thine is'graved in "• marble. .'; .' '

John Webster wrote "A monumental Column, erected to .tho living Memory of the "everglorious. Henry, ' late Prince of'/Wales, - and uses-.the same: figure not only .in his title but in tho body of hjs-poem. . Other poets also will ;pay their tributes in verse, he says—'., •' ■;

And by these signs:of love let great men know. That: sweet and generous favoui' they bestow-. Upon,<tho .Muses never can he'lost; ■. For they shall live by them whed all the cost Of gilded monuments shall fall to dust; „ . They grave in metal that sustains no rust; The figure is naturally well fitted for elegalo use, and' consequently occurs frequently in such "commendatory versos" as used to be prefixed to complete "editions of dead-poets. Thus John Earlo writes concerning Francis - . • .: ' "Who now shall pay thy tonib«with: such a-verse' .As Jhou. that lady's .didst,' fair Entland's . licarss? ; A monument -that-will' then lasting be"; 1 When all-, the; marbk 'is more dust than' she. :. John Harris/"addresses; the shade.of Beaumont's fellow-worker, Fletcher:— .So when, late, Esses died,: tlip public face 'Wore sorrow, .inlt"; and to add mournful grace To the sad. pomp of his lamented fall,— The cDiumonwcalth served at his funeral,,, . 'And'.by a solemn"order, built'his hearse'; -v But not like'thine, built by thyself in verso, ■Where .thy, advanced .image'.safely stands Above: the reach of sacrilegious hands.. . - In Ben ■'Johnson's well-known lines on Shake-, "speare occurs: the following l apostrophe:— iMy Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by Chaucer, or' Spenser,', or bid Beaumont lie A , little; further off,. to. make .thee room: . •Thou art a monument, without a tomb,. ; And art alive still, while thy book, doth liveArid we have wits to read, and praise to give. .Those lines were prefixed to the First Folio Shakespeare, and Mr. Edward S. Parson has :been contending that they, suggested to Milton .those; lines of his which were prefixed to tlie,: Second. '.."Milton,'' ho; says', "in looking ovoi:, the First Folio; came upbri /Johnson's verses. 'As -he. read 1 them/ his: imagination kindled and v he developed.his own poetic coh r . ception, which'he felt .to be ah' advance upon Johnson's,' and-to put. tho truth moro accurately than his; When it became knbwn that a second edition of Shakespeare's Plays was to' be issued. Milton sent the lines: to the. editor/that tliey might ■' have, the same • place; in the "new: edition."/' Milton's 'lines- begin-/ ning "'.-/.-

■What needs my.' Shakespeare for 'his ,'hotnured ■ bones. •' vneed .-not; fie. quoted,, but",their argument is— Shakespeare needs no''material monument'to perpetuate his memory ; he has one in "the lasting wonder arid astonishment of mankind. That, moreover, is a'splendid tomb—one of marble,—because so .often as men read the. "Delphic lines" of hiMqjjtiy.vtheir fancy is .''turned into marble withVfofrsmuch conceiving," and. so,thou, "ijiy, Shakespeare," . : Sepulchred in such rcmp dos.i; lie 1 „.. kingf. It is clear .tha't'Miltoh borrowed nothing fr'om' : Johnson which lie-might not have-borrowed from any: one of twenty other, sources, and a reader will rather note ..how in this splendid poem, as iu other of the poems .of'his youth, he fails-into, the employment, .along with certain of.his contemporaries,. of mere "con-: ceits". of poetry.— I "Manchester.Guardian." '