登陆注册
4705400000553

第553章

The mere choice and arrangement of his words would have sufficed to make his essays classical. For never, not even by Dryden, not even by Temple, had the English language been written with such sweetness, grace, and facility. But this was the smallest part of Addison's praise. Had he clothed his thoughts in the half French style of Horace Walpole, or in the half Latin style of Dr.

Johnson, or in the half German jargon of the present day, his genius would have triumphed over all faults of manner. As a moral satirist he stands unrivalled. If ever the best Tatlers and Spectators were equalled in their own kind, we should be inclined to guess that it must have been by the lost comedies of Menander.

In wit properly so called, Addison was not inferior to Cowley or Butler. No single ode of Cowley contains so many happy analogies as are crowded into the lines to Sir Godfrey Kneller; and we would undertake to collect from the Spectators as great a number of ingenious illustrations as can be found in Hudibras. The still higher faculty of invention Addison possessed in still larger measure. The numerous fictions, generally original, often wild and grotesque, but always singularly graceful and happy, which are found in his essays, fully entitle him to the rank of a great poet, a rank to which his metrical compositions give him no claim. As an observer of life, of manners, of all the shades of human character, he stands in the first class.

And what he observed he had the art of communicating in two widely different ways. He could describe virtues, vices, habits, whims, as well as Clarendon. But he could do something better.

He could call human beings into existence, and make them exhibit themselves. If we wish to find anything more vivid than Addison's best portraits, we must go either to Shakspeare or to Cervantes.

But what shall we say of Addison's humour, of his sense of the ludicrous, of his power of awakening that sense in others, and of drawing mirth from incidents which occur every day, and from little peculiarities of temper and manner, such as may be found in every man? We feel the charm: we give ourselves up to it; but we strive in vain to analyse it.

Perhaps the best way of describing Addison's peculiar pleasantry is to compare it with the pleasantry of some other great satirists. The three most eminent masters of the art of ridicule, during the eighteenth century, were, we conceive, Addison, Swift, and Voltaire. Which of the three had the greatest power of moving laughter may be questioned. But each of them, within his own domain, was supreme.

Voltaire is the prince of buffoons. His merriment is without disguise or restraint. He gambols; he grins; he shakes his sides; he points the finger; he turns up the nose; he shoots out the tongue. The manner of Swift is the very opposite to this. He moves laughter, but never joins in it. He appears in his works such as he appeared in society. All the company are convulsed with merriment, while the Dean, the author of all the mirth, preserves an invincible gravity, and even sourness of aspect, and gives utterance to the most eccentric and ludicrous fancies, with the air of a man reading the commination service.

The manner of Addison is as remote from that of Swift as from that of Voltaire. He neither laughs out like the French wit, nor, like the Irish wit, throws a double portion of severity into his countenance while laughing inwardly; but preserves a look peculiarly his own, a look of demure serenity, disturbed only by an arch sparkle of the eye, an almost imperceptible elevation of the brow, an almost imperceptible curl of the lip. His tone is never that either of a Jack Pudding or of a Cynic. It is that of a gentleman, in whom the quickest sense of the ridiculous is constantly tempered by good nature and good breeding.

We own that the humour of Addison is, in our opinion, of a more delicious flavour than the humour of either Swift or Voltaire.

Thus much, at least, is certain, that both Swift and Voltaire have been successfully mimicked, and that no man has yet been able to mimic Addison. The letter of the Abbe Coyer to Pansophe is Voltaire all over, and imposed, during a long time, on the Academicians of Paris. There are passages in Arbuthnot's satirical works which we, at least, cannot distinguish from Swift's best writing. But of the many eminent men who have made Addison their model, though several have copied his mere diction with happy effect, none has been able to catch the tone of his pleasantry. In the World, in the Connoisseur, in the Mirror, in the Lounger, there are numerous Papers written in obvious imitation of his Tatlers and Spectators. Most of those papers have some merit; many are very lively and amusing; but there is not a single one which could be passed off as Addison's on a critic of the smallest perspicacity.

But that which chiefly distinguishes Addison from Swift, from Voltaire, from almost all the other great masters of ridicule, is the grace, the nobleness, the moral purity, which we find even in his merriment. Severity, gradually hardening and darkening into misanthropy, characterises the works of Swift. The nature of Voltaire was, indeed, not inhuman; but he venerated nothing.

Neither in the masterpieces of art nor in the purest examples of virtue, neither in the Great First Cause nor in the awful enigma of the grave, could he see anything but subjects for drollery.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 教室外的经济学

    教室外的经济学

    这本书,能帮你在需要决策时做出更好的选择,教你如何在经济上做一个精明聪慧的人。
  • 一纸契约,总裁大人请放手

    一纸契约,总裁大人请放手

    他是未婚夫的哥哥,却在未婚夫车祸后乘虚而入让她签下了卖身契。一纸契约,成为了这个坏蛋的女人,他不仅霸道的要得到她的人,还想得到她的心!可契约结束后他还是百般纠缠,甚至有各路情人上门示威又是闹哪样?人善被狗欺,当她苏欣芮是软柿子好捏吗?掌拍小三脚踢小四,终于耳根清净,那个坏男人又找上门来。
  • The Guardian Angel

    The Guardian Angel

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 娘要回家(中篇小说)

    娘要回家(中篇小说)

    天黑后,志新回来了,虽然还打着酒嗝,却一眼就看见春苗的脸上洋溢着胜利的喜悦。春苗说,你喝成这样还能做事么?志新高高兴兴地答应能。春苗说那就去把楼上的木板床搬下来。志新有点失望,他以为是要做那个事。转念一想,今天春苗帮他解了难题,现在表现一下也是应该。想不过又问,你把这里搞得这清爽做什么事?春苗笑而不答只是反问一句,你看呢?志新说,莫不是给老娘准备的?春苗说,看来你还没喝多。
  • 华严宗章疏并因明录

    华严宗章疏并因明录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 复制沃尔玛:山姆·沃尔顿帝国的八条金规

    复制沃尔玛:山姆·沃尔顿帝国的八条金规

    《复制沃尔玛:山姆·沃尔顿帝国的八条金规》从销售理念、服务措施、物流模式、管理风格、市场竞争力、产品战略、人力资源管理、企业文化等这几个方面复制沃尔玛的成功经营理念。沃尔玛公司由美国零售业的传奇人物山姆·沃尔顿先生于1962年在阿肯色州成立。经过四十多年的发展,沃尔玛公司已经成为美国最大的私人雇主和世界上最大的连锁零售企业。
  • 契约前妻:慕少的99次求婚

    契约前妻:慕少的99次求婚

    他是出了名的花心大少,桃花眼惹眼撩妹技能高超!三年后的一次意外,两个人偶然相遇,再也没办法让自己逃出他的掌心。“慕连觉,我们已经离婚了。”“一夜夫妻百日恩,我们昨天还一起滚床单了。”“那只是一个意外。”话还未说完,人已经被拦腰抱起。“乖,别闹,我可以让你每天都给我检查身体。”
  • 都市风水天才

    都市风水天才

    林家风水,举世无双。少年天才,天生气感,一朝踏入风水门,绞浪翻江腾云起。
  • 重启世录

    重启世录

    每一个世界,不一样的内容,但每个世界都被一群人所保护,即使知道自己的未来会很惨烈,但仍然挺身而出。一个本是人类的血族,在世界逐一溃败之时,必须有人站出来,用自己来保护全部世界。命运之子,为了减少伤亡而决定……
  • 无仙

    无仙

    万古修真天地间,一人一剑铸法仙!无情无念三千道,痴笑疯泪淌红尘!天要遮我眼,地要埋我躯,仙要灭我意,道要毁我情。既如此,我以雷轰鸣这天,要他再也黑不了我的世界!既如此,我以火燃尽这地,要他再也盖不住我的手足!既如此,我以念撼动这道,要他再也斩不断我的情!既如此,我愿,天下,无仙......