Note 75 — THE HIND AND THE PANTHER.
Reading edition
The following justification of their plan is taken from the preface, which is believed to have been entirely the composition of Montague.
"The favourers of 'The Hind and Panther' will be apt to say in its defence, that the best things are capable of being turned to ridicule; that Homer has been burlesqued, and Virgil travestied, without suffering any thing in their reputation from that buffoonery; and that, in like manner,'The Hind and the Panther' may be an exact poem, though it is the subject of our raillery: But there is this difference, that those authors are wrested from their true sense, and this naturally falls into ridicule; there is nothing represented here as monstrous and unnatural, which is not equally so in the original.—First, as to the general design; Is it not as easy to imagine two mice bilking coachmen, and supping at the Devil, as to suppose a hind entertaining the panther at a hermit's cell, discussing the greatest mysteries of religion, and telling you her son Rodriguez writ very good Spanish? What can be more improbable and contradictory to the rules and examples of all fables, and to the very design and use of them? They were first begun, and raised to the highest perfection, in the eastern countries, where they wrote in signs, and spoke in parables, and delivered the most useful precepts in delightful stories; which, for their aptness, were entertaining to the most judicious, and led the vulgar into understanding by surprizing them with their novelty, and fixing their attention. All their fables carry a double meaning; the story is one and entire; the characters the same throughout, not broken or changed, and always conformable to the nature of the creatures they introduce. They never tell you, that the dog, which snapt at a shadow, lost his troop of horse; that would be unintelligible; a piece of flesh is proper for him to drop, and the reader will apply it to mankind: They would not say, that the daw, who was so proud of her borrowed plumes, looked very ridiculous, when Rodriguez came and took away all the book but the 17th, 24th, and 25th chapters, which she stole from him. But this is his new way of telling a story, and confounding the moral and the fable together.
Before the word was written, said the hind, Our Saviour preached the faith to all mankind.
What relation has the hind to our Saviour? or what notion have we of a panther's bible? If you say he means the church, how does the church feed on lawns, or range in the forest? Let it be always a church, or always the cloven-footed beast, for we cannot bear his shifting the scene every line. If it is absurd in comedies to make a peasant talk in the strain of a hero, or a country wench use the language of the court, how monstrous is it to make a priest of a hind, and a parson of a panther? To bring them in disputing with all the formalities and terms of the school? Though as to the arguments themselves, those we confess are suited to the capacity of the beasts; and if we would suppose a hind expressing herself about these matters, she would talk at that rate."
The reader may be curious to see a specimen of the manner in which these two applauded wits encountered Dryden's controversial poem, with such eminent success, that a contemporary author has said, "that 'The City and Country Mouse' ruined the reputation of the divine, as the 'Rehearsal' ruined the reputation of the poet."[76] The plan is a dialogue between Bayes, and Smith, and Johnson, his old friends in the "Rehearsal;" the poet recites to them a new work, in which the Popish and English churches are represented as the city and country mouse, the former spotted, the latter milk-white. The following is a specimen both of the poetry and dialogue:
"Bayes. Reads. With these allurements, Spotted did invite, From hermit's cell, the female proselyte. Oh, with what ease we follow such a guide, Where souls are starved, and senses gratified!
"Now, would not you think she's going? but, egad, you're mistaken; you shall hear a long argument about infallibility before she stir yet:
But here the White, by observation wise, Who long on heaven had fixed her prying eyes, With thoughtful countenance, and grave remark, Said, "Or my judgment fails me, or 'tis dark; Lest, therefore, we should stray, and not go right, Through the brown horror of the starless night, Hast thou Infallibility, that wight?" Sternly the savage grinned, and thus replied, "That mice may err, was never yet denied." "That I deny," said the immortal dame, "There is a guide,—Gad, I've forgot his name,— Who lives in Heaven or Rome, the Lord knows where; Had we but him, sweet-heart, we could not err.— But hark ye, sister, this is but a whim, For still we want a guide to find out him."
"Here, you see, I don't trouble myself to keep on the narration, but write White speaks, or Dapple speaks, by the side. But when I get any noble thought, which I envy a mouse should say, I clap it down in my own person, with a poeta loquitur; which, take notice, is a surer sign of a fine thing in my writings, than a hand in the margent anywhere else.—Well now, says White,
What need we find him? we have certain proof That he is somewhere, dame, and that's enough; For if there is a guide that knows the way, Although we know not him, we cannot stray.
"That's true, egad: Well said, White.—You see her adversary has nothing to say for herself; and, therefore, to confirm the victory, she shall make a simile.
Smith. Why, then, I find similes are as good after victory, as after a surprize.
Bayes. Every jot, egad; or rather better. Well, she can do it two ways; either about emission or reception of light, or else about Epsom waters: But I think the last is most familiar; therefore speak, my pretty one. [Reads.]
As though 'tis controverted in the school, If waters pass by urine, or by stool; Shall we, who are philosophers, thence gather, From this dissention, that they work by neither?
"And, egad, she's in the right on't; but, mind now, she comes upon her scoop. [Reads.]
All this I did, your arguments to try.
"And, egad, if they had been never so good, this next line confutes 'em. [Reads.]
Hear, and be dumb, thou wretch! that guide am I.
"There's a surprize for you now!—How sneakingly t'other looks?—Was not that pretty now, to make her ask for a guide first, and tell her she was one? Who could have thought that this little mouse had the Pope, and a whole general council, in her belly?—Now Dapple had nothing to say to this; and, therefore, you'll see she grows peevish. [Reads.]
} Come leave your cracking tricks; and, as they say, } Use not that barber that trims time, delay;— } Which, egad, is new, and my own.— } I've eyes as well as you to find the way."— } Then on they jogged; and, since an hour of talk Might cut a banter on the tedious walk, "As I remember," said the sober Mouse, "I've heard much talk of the Wit's Coffee-house." "Thither," says Brindle, "thou shalt go, and see Priests sipping coffee, sparks and poets tea, Here, rugged frieze; there, quality well drest; These, baffling the Grand Seigneur; those, the Test; And here shrewd guesses made, and reasons given, That human laws were never made in heaven. But, above all, what shall oblige thy sight, And fill thy eye-balls with a vast delight, Is the poetic Judge of sacred wit,[77] Who does i'the darkness of glory sit. And as the moon, who first receives the light With which she makes these nether regions bright, So does he shine, reflecting from afar The rays he borrowed from a better star; For rules, which from Corneille and Rapin flow, Admired by all the scribbling herd below, } From French tradition while he does dispense, } Unerring truths, 'tis schism,—a damned offence,— } To question his, or trust your private sense. }
"Ha! is not that right, Mr Johnson?—Gad forgive me, he is fast asleep! Oh the damned stupidity of this age! Asleep!—Well, sir, since you're so drowsy, your humble servant.
John. Nay, pray, Mr Bayes! Faith, I heard you all the while.—The white mouse——
Bayes. The white mouse! Ay, ay, I thought how you heard me. Your servant, sir, your servant.
John. Nay, dear Bayes: Faith, I beg thy pardon, I was up late last night. Prithee, lend me a little snuff, and go on.
Bayes. Go on! Pox, I don't know where I was.—Well, I'll begin. Here, mind, now they are both come to town. [Reads.]
But now at Piccadilly they arrive, And, taking coach, t'wards Temple-Bar they drive; But, at St Clement's church, eat out the back, And, slipping through the palsgrave, bilked poor hack.
"There's the utile which ought to be in all poetry. Many a young Templar will save his shilling by this stratagem of my mice.
Smith. Why, will any young Templar eat out the back of a coach?
Bayes. No, egad! But you'll grant, it is mighty natural for a mouse."—Hind and Panther Transversed.
Such was the wit, which, bolstered up by the applause of party, was deemed an unanswerable ridicule of Dryden's favourite poem.