FULSOME DEDICATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 114, 10 November 1934, Page 24

FULSOME DEDICATIONS

DRYDEN AN EASY FIRST

THE REST NOWHERE

<8y "Ajax") When Canon Hannay's attack on the Epistle Dedicatorie of the Authorised Version to King James was reported about a month.ago, my attention was naturally called to the only two volumes on the dedication of books that I posses*. Mary Elizabeth Brown's "Dedications: An Anthology of theForms Used from the Earliest Days of Book-making to tho Present Times',' (1913) and Henry B. Wheatley on "The Dedication of Books to Patron and Friend" (18$7) then hastened to justify themselves, the one five years, and the other about thirty years, after its purchase. It was in the former that I found what was the immediate object of vmy search/to1 wit, ;;a j good' sample of a contemporary dedication to Royalty for the purposes .of;comparison' with the dedication/: iof;:, the a.v. ; • , ' -m:'SB Alexander Craige, who is'described as "one of the many Scotchmen who followed their Eoyal master vsouthi in the hope of preferment," dedicated to the Queen in 1606 a-volume ofL some 20,000 verses which.,he-was iidqubtless correct in describing arworthless: ; >But the pension with.-which he; was; re : warded within two years after reaching1 London suggests that the r Queen may have'found more merit £ in.'; his prose. It was .certainly charged with flattery to>an extent which makes , the dedication of the A.V. to herrhusband seem a very tame performance. »j The title of the'book'is "The 'Amorbse Songes, Sonnets,, and \ Elegies,?; of ;-:M. Alexander Craige, ' Scotptßritane^— 1605." The dedication opens 'kju lows: — ,'> _ f::-/Mi::-^t<-: To the most godly/vertuous, beautifull, and accomplished-Princesse, meritoriously dignified with «11 the Titles • 'Religion, Vertue, Honor, Beautie can receive; chair lenge, afforde, or, deserve: Anna, by ; dmne ProvidenCe»"o£'Great Britane, France,;and, Ireland, Queene: .Alexander Craige wiaheth all health, wealth, and royalle facihtie. # f ♦ ' '* , Craige proceeds to refer in the humblest terms?to the merits or dements of his poems, which owed their rescue from destruction solely to the grace of'thens "xoyall Godmother." I am bold (divine Ladie) to borrow thy bleated name, to beautifie my blotted Booke. . ~ Happie beyond the measure of my merit shall I.be,' if I can purchase this portion'of your Princely approbation, as to accept Jind entertaine these trivial] toys (where your Grace shall smell Flowers to refresh, Hearbs to cure, and Weedes to be avoyded in the lowest de» gree of least favour). It is difficult to suppose that Craige intended to advertise the fact that \ some of his. 20,000 - verses were indecent, but what else this reference to the bad smell of the weeds that were to be avoided could mean r anT unable to suggest. * • ♦ In the year after the publication of the A.V. James himself wrote what Gosse said was tha earliest, example' that he had'seen in English of* a dedication to the Deity. Conrad Vorstius had" written a treatise on1 the nature and attributes of God, and James followed up his reply to it by a request to the States General to banish this ''wretched heretique, or rather Atheist out of their dominions." But his "neale-to the glory of God" was mis- * understood by "a sort of people, whose corrupted stomaeke turns "all .good nourishment into bad and pernicious humor*."- James then sought to put himself light in a volume entitled "His Majesties. Declaration concerning His Proceedings with the States General, etc.," which was published in London'in 1012, and also appeared in Latin and French translations. .This book was inscribed to the Saviour, says Wheatley, "in what must be condemned as very improper terms":— To | the Honour | of our Lord and | Saviour Jesus Christ, I the Eternal Sonne of the | Eternal Father, the onely Theanthropos, Mediatour, | and Reconciler I of Mankind, | In signe of Thankefulnesse, | His most humble | and raoßt obliged I Servant, James by the Grace of IGod. King of Great Britaine, I France and Ireland,! Defender of the Faith, | Doeth dedicate, and consecrate | this his Declaration. In connection with the "publication of this book a good story is told. The King w*s as impecunious as he was pious, and R. Barker, who as the King's Printer may be presumed to have « , known him better than most, insisted »n cash down before he would print the bookf "This," says Wheatley, ii* scarcely credible, but it is 'too good a story for us to wish^to prove it false." Of all ,the nauseating tribe of flattering dedicators Drydcn appears to be the most flagrantly insincere, the most prolix, the, most disgusting, and, generally speaking the worst—worst'not merely by Contrast Jwith_ the heights that his genius could reach when he did not prostitute it to the apparently congenial task of fawning and crawling and lying. Such was Drydqn's industry in tnis capacity thafWheatley gives his dedications a chapter of 20 pages all to themselves in a volume which, if the introduction is excluded, falls considerably short of 200. From this treasurehduse'of shocking stuff'it is a perplexing task to select the worst specimens. Where ail is so vile it seems invidious to draw'distinctions, but I see no reason to quarrel with the choice of two which Mary Elizabeth Browne makes from Wheatley's. ample store. \ • • • Anne, Duchess of Monmouth, \to whom Dryden dedicated "The Emperor" in 1667, had the triple advantage of perfect beauty,',peifeet virtue, *nd a perfect husbaadi.. Without virtue and honour the" reign of beauty, he' says, is "unsafe'and short like- that of tyrants." * »"-',. Every sun which looks on beauty wastes it; and when it once is decaying the repairs of art are of as short continuance ss the after-spring when'the sun i*'going further offV This, madam, is its* ordinary fate, hut'yours, which is accompanied by virtue, is aot to that j common destiny. ' t- , ' But to these advantages > the third above mentioned is added, "sincA no part of Europe can afford ,a parallel to -your noble lord'in masculine beauty and in goodliness of v *hape." { i , • To reeeiv#,the blessings-and prayers^of mankind you' need * only ts» be seen together: We are ready to conclude that you are a pair of angels sent below to make virtue amiable in your persons, or to set to poets when^they would pieasant- \ ]y inatnict-the age,, by drawing goodness in fhe f most perfect, and alluring shape of Nature". . i*i i* > * < • • • In this magnificent effort Dryden might be supposed to have reached the high-water mark of adulatory, slush,

but ;the ■geriei'ai opinion^ appears to be that an the dedication of "The State of Innocence" to; Mary of ■ Este, Duchess of Yorky; in 1677;. he beat,all■ previous records; :; And even- without making any? allowance either- for -the:fact -that she had- no ;angel-husbatid: to> help her alongj--or' on'-the principle ;of "Sveight for age"—for the lady was only: 15^— this1 opinionmay -be right; ?The whole document; extends; J believe, to five or six ;pages.l,J The!; parts ? selected 'by Wheatley"fbllbwV';V;^ r/j^'■;■;;■;';.:'',•,';! : :i ■>:. Greatness' is", indeed,•'/communicated.-:.' to some few of 'both sexes; .but.beauty :is confined to a more narrow compass1; it is on^in; your sex;, it: :is-npt; shared .'by niariy,'; and 'i£s :: supreme 'perfection,;.»■. m you: alone. >v; :•■' You, are. never -seen but ;you'are blest;,and I am sure>_you bless all: those who sea: you. ■ We think not the day is long enough when we_ be-' hold you; ani-youare so much the. busi-negg-bf !our:s6ulß,.thaj; while.■y.ouvar.e.-m sight.wekcanineithervlopk'.nor think, on any'j-elße.^SsThere^«o-:^p..?ye»,-'fori;;Other beauties;"ypp are jgresent^, and ttie rest. of. your sex^ but, tHe v unregarded parts that.flO,your triumph; :_.our_ sight 'is!Bo>intent on the object of ■..■ite..-admira-■tion■^thao:■;6ii^.r i.i'tpn^M^■'haye■■■,•noV:•l«B'J^e Wen."'t<j-tpraMe»ypu'^'-'f6r;-.larijgii'aßcV:Beemß' too low a thing to espreiss your exceUence, arid bur-gouls'arS speaking:so much withinV'that theydespise all foreign cpnversa■i Tlius', ma'damV in the midst: of crowds you reign in solitude, and are adored^ with the deepest ; veneration1,1 '■■■ that of silence. You render mankind insensible^to other beauties,'and; have destroyed the empire oflove;.'in-A.-co^-;.whicn,.was,-,uie < BBeati t pi. his dominion. I';% ■ ' v ' j -'i :, .'■'.■•;■;..'•'■• ';.'•■■"!•,' .' ■:■,''' -■'''>■;••■;•'• .•:'-'-;-."".': * ':':''■■''■:' •■•'•'..,;>'-;.- r)i L :;-,':*.' I'This;:dedication^ iby.-';Dr. Johnson an '.'attempt: to mingle earth and heaven \ by'praising' human excellence in the aanguaee of religion": and by Wartonf'arpieceTpf; the grossest and ib6B't';-;al)3e^t^aa^atioa.(';tnat.;,ever/':.dis--graced truei>geniui:":;:Wieatley;W-ha'»-. nothing- ;i6}^ms^^^^illi^:<yl