V. ->' jftt'-.tt <.-»t<t||M| i. I ' ( I it Boston University College of Liberal Arts Library Pre sentea by Professor Loveiand 0^' n wl / p f POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN OLDHAM LONDON : PRINTED BY J. AND W. RIDEE, EARIHOLOMEW CLOSE. THE POEMS OF JOHN OLDHAM EDITED WITH A MEMOIR BY ROBERT BELL LONDON CHARLES GRIFFIN AND CO. stationers' hall court. — 3605 CONTENTS. Memoib 5 To THE Memory of my dear Friexd, Mr. Charles MORWENT 21 Some Verses on presenting a Book to Cosmelia . 45 The Parting 47 Complaining of Absence . 48 Promising a Visit , , 49 A Dithyrambic 50 David's Lamentation for the Death of Saul and Jonathan^ paraphrased 55 Upon the Works op Ben Jonson 62 A Letter from the Country to a Friend in Town . 72 Satires upon the Jesuits.—Prologue 80 „ „ „ Satire 1 85 '-'- "^ >» >j » }> „ ni 104 » IV . ]23 The Careless Good Fellow 133 An Imitation of Horace 134 Paraphrase upon Horace.—Book I. Ode XXXI. 140 » n. „ XIV. 142 1—2 IV CONTENTS. PAGB Horace's Art or Poetry, imitated in English . 144 The Praise of Homer 167 The Thirteenth Satire op Juvenal, imitated . .173 A Satire, in imitation of the Third of Juvenal . .188 The Eighth Satire op Monsieur Boileau, imitated . 203 A Satire touching Nobility 215 A Satire addressed to a Friend 220 A Satire 228 Counterpart to the Satire against Virtue .... 237 Upon the Marriage op the Prince op Orange with THE Lady Mary 244 An Ode for an Anniversary of Music on St. Cecilia's Day 247 To Madam L. E. upon her Recovery from a late Sickness 249 On the Death of Mrs. Katharine Kingscourt . 253 Paraphrase upon the 137TH Psalm 254 Paraphrase upon the Hymn of St. Ambrose .... 258 A Sunday-Thought in Sickness 263 JOHN OLDHAM. 1653— 16S3. Some student, curious in the lore of old book-stalls, .may chance to have lighted upon a stout little volume of poems, printed in the seventeenth_cent_urjj_ and bearing the name of John 0]dhq.m. Unless he happened to be familiar with the history of the period, he might never have heard the name before, and would, probably, conclude that Oldham was one of the swarm of scurrilous doggrel-mongers who aboimded in th^edajs_of_li^eraa2__an^xchy_^^ and who, like other ephemera, perished as soon as they were bom. )The inference would be natural enough, Nearly a hundred Wears have elapsed since the publication of the last edition of these poems ; and in the interval they have gone down into {oblivion. To the present generation of readers they are Jalmost unknown. Yet they obtained considerable celebrity I in the lifetime of the author, and present legitimate claims to a place in every complete collection of English poetry. As a satirist., Oldham possesses incontestable meritsj)fj, lugh order. His—sulyjeicts, likethose of all writers who have lashed the vices of their day, are for the most part temporary; but^the spirit^ point, and frepHprn of f,hp~h^q,tl!lgnJLH'-gpuy-?^ them with permanent interest . His Satires throw a flood of light on the politics, morals, and naanners ofThe EestorationT*^ and are everywhere marked_by^_the_bTOimiand^ of vigorcu^s and original genius. Nor is this his greatest excellence. Throughout the whole of his writings he displays a courage and independence which honourably distinguish him m an jage of corruption and servile adulation ; and the few incidents lof his life with which we are acquamted bear practical testi- : ; 6 JOHN OLDHAM. jinony to that love of liberty, and scorn of the slavery of \patronage, which are energetically asserted in his poems. By the force of these qualities he won his reputation, and rose from_a_jgosition of obscuriiyi to the companionship of men of rank^^and-JLatter^. and the intimate friendship ol Dryden^ John_QldhaiiL was the son of a nonconformist minijter^ who had a congregation at Nuneaton. He was born at Shipton, near Tedbury, in Gloucestershire, on the 9th August, 1653; and, after having received the rudiments of his educa^^ tion at home, was placed at Tedbury school, where he re- mained foFtwo_years. He was indebted foi^his step in his preliminary career to an alderman of Bristol, who had a son at the school, and was anxious that the boy should have the advantage of reading with young Oldham — from which it may be inlerred that the latter had abeady shown more than /average diligence and capacity. Oldham made a rapid pro- Igress at Tedbury; and in June, i67o,^wasentered_at Edmund Hall, Oxford , where he was assisted in his studies by the Eev. Mr. Stephen s, who early discovered the tendency of his genms. Here he soon distinguished himself by his mastery oCCrreek and L^atin. His favourite authors were the poets, and the success with which he cultivated them is shown in his s ubsequent translations and imitations. The love of poetry manifested itself strongly at this period, and at last took complete possession of his time and thoughts. Later in life, when opportunities were thrown open to him of embarking in, more profitable pursuits, he confessed that his efforts in every other direction were fruitless, and that the Muse, his ' darling sin,' still drew him back to the inveterate habit of his youth In vain I better studies there would sow Oft have I tried, but none will thrive or grow. In May. i674^he . took his degree of B^.: shortly after which, much against his own wishes and remonstrances, he was summoned home by his father, who, probably, could not (| afford the expense of more residence the I a prolonged at Uni- JOHN OLDHAM. 7 t versity. No definite scheme of life appears to have been ( marked out for him; and to a mind impatient of idleness and dependence, the short time he remained in Gloucestershire, especially if his sketch of an ' ugly old priest' may be accepted as a sample of the people by whom he was surrounded,* must intolerably irksome. In the following year, the Ihave been small-pox, so frequently the subject of poetical lamenta- tions, carried off his-close companion, MK-Eiehard-Morw^at, and Oldham expressed his grief at the loss ofhis friend in a^ Pin^amIDd^,^whtchr3ispl97STSuc'E~tenderness of feeling and variety of iUuatration. This ls~the oiily~poem he'is known I i to nave written during that interval ; but it is not unlikely that he found ample employment in planning some of the h longer poems he afterwards produced. To this period may, probably, be assigned the germs of the Satires against the (Jesuits. Living in a society of nonconformists, he was at least in a position to hear religious and sectarian topics dis- I cussed with zeal and bitterness, and may have been, to some extent, led to the consideration of the subject by surrounding Jinfluences. But the intercourse with these people was, in [other respects, dreary and uncongenial, and he was glad to make his escape from them when a prospect of settling in Ithe neighbourhood of London was offered to him, although Iconnected with a drudgery he disliked. The situation, that of This satire, entitled Character of a certain xigly old Priest, is in prose, and was written in i675, two years after Oldham returned home. It is so oflfensively coarse that there is some difficulty in believing the traditional story that he designed it as a portrait of f*his father. Its exaggerations of personal ugliness are grotesque and preposterous, and look more like a hideous conception of the writer's fancy than a picture drawn from real life. The priest is described as a solecism in nature, Avith a foul skin, a yawning mouth, his parish and a monstrous nose ; a gruflf voice that has preached half i deaf; a prodigious skull that would furnish a whole regiment of round-heads ; and a pair of ears of a length so inordinate that he binds them over his crown at night instead of quilt night-caps. Had Oldham meant to gibbet his father in this outrageous caricature, he would, in all probability, have touched upon some of the points of temper or disposition which may be presumed to have provoked so graceless a satire ; but there is not a single allusion throughout the whole that warrants such a supposition. 8 JOHN OLDHAM. usher at the free schoDl-e^41i:D5alQP,45_?35^^' "^^^ ^^^ ^^^ tempting. The stipend-waaJa^fling, and the lal^ourmonoto- nous and oppressive. But it possessed the greatest of all attractions for Oldham, because, inconsiderable as it was, it secured occupation and independence. The duties of this employment, involving meaner responsi- } Ibilities than those of tuition, left him little time for poetry; he made, not-svithstanding, so profitable a use of his scanty leisure that he produced several pieces, some of which, obtaining circu- lationin MS., found their way into the literary coteries, and ren- dered their unknown author an object of curiosity to the town wits and critics. Oldham, shut up in his school-room, entirely unconscious of the sensation he had created in the reat world of Fops'-alley and the coffee-houses, was one ay surprised, in the midst of his tasks, by a visit from ochester, Sedley, and Dorset, accompanied by other persons of celebrity, into whose hands his verses had fallen. Mr. Shepherd, the worthy master of the school, seeing Lord Rochester's card, and thinking it quite impossible that such a mark of distinction could be intended for his obscure assistant, took the whole credit of the compliment to himself, and, after carefully arranging his toilet, went to receive his visitors.