Gondibert

“ Such thought as brow and breast with study warms.
51.
Fix'd to unheeded object is his Eye
His sences he calls in, as if t'improve
By outward absence inward extasie,
Such as makes Prophets, or is made by Love.
52.
Awake (said Gondibert) for now in vain
Thou dream'st of sov'reignty and War's success;
Hope, nought has left, which Worth should wish to gain;
And all Ambition is but Hope's excess.
53.
Bid all our Worthies to unarm, and rest!
For they have nought to conquer worth their care;
I have a Father's right in Birtha's breast,
And that's the peace for which the wise make war. ”

“ As Winds, whose violence out-does all art,
Act all unseen: so we as secretly
These branches of that Cedar Gondibert
Must force, till his deep Root in rising die.
52.
If we make noise whilst our deep workings last,
Such rumour through thick Towns unheeded flies,
As winds through woods, and we (our great work past)
Like winds will silence Tongues, and scape from Eyes.
53.
Ere this dark lesson she was clearer taught,
His enter'd Slaves place at her rev'renc'd Feet
A spacious Cabinet, with all things fraught,
Which seem'd for wearing artfull, rich, and sweet. ”

“ But because I have observed in Virgil, that the Honour done to Æneas and his companions, has so bright a reflection upon Augustus Cæsar, and other great Romans of that time, as a man may suspect him not constantly possessed with the noble spirit of those his Heroes, and believe you are not acquainted with any great man of the race of Gondibert, I adde to your Justification the puritie of your purpose, in having no other motive of your labour, but to adorn Virtue, and procure her Lovers; than which there cannot be a worthier design, and more becoming noble Poesie. ”

“ For hadst thou strength, the danger that surrounds us
Prevents our venturing.—Come!—on a little—
We will go look some moss-grown cavern out,
And there thou shalt repose thee, sweet.—
Enter Gondibert.
Come, boy! come, take my hand——
[Gondibert approaches, with his Sword drawn.
Gondi. Advance no further.
Marg. Ha! Who art thou, that comest, with murderous look,
Here, in the dusky bosom of the wood,
To intercept our passage?
Gondi. One of those
Who, stript of all, by an oppressing world,
Now make reprisals: if my looks be dark,
They best explain my purpose.
[40]
Prince. ”

“ She fell in love with duke Grondibert, whose wounds she assisted her father to heal. Birtha, "in love unpractised and unread," is the beau-ideal of innocence and purity of mind. Grondibert had just plighted his love to her when he was summoned to court, for king Aribert had proclaimed him his successor and future son-in-law. Gondibert assured Birtha he would remain true to her, and gave her an emerald ring which he told her would lose its lustre if he proved untrue. ”

“ Th'obedient and defenceless, sure; no law
Afflicts, for law is their defence, and pow'r;
Yet me, Loves sheep, whom rigour needs not aw,
Wolf-Love, because defenceless, does devour:
69.
Gives me not time to perish by degrees,
But with despair does me at once destroy;
For none who Gondibert a Lover sees,
Thinks he would love, but where he may enjoy.
70.
Birtha he loves; and I from Birtha fear
Death that in rougher Figure I despise!
This Ulfinore did with distemper hear,
Yet with dissembled temp'rance thus replies:
71. ”

“ Enter Gondibert.
All. Hail, noble Captain!
Gondi. How now, my bold and rugged companions! What has been done in my absence?
1 Rob. Oh, sir, a deal of business—We have been washing down old scores, and getting vigour for new. We have had a cup for every breach of the law we have committed. Marry, sir, ours is a rare cellar, to stand such a soaking.
Gondi. Now then, to a business of greater import. I have been lurking round the camp, here, on the skirts of the forest. The parties have met, and a hot battle ensued. ”

“ Few men have read "Gondibert," and almost every one speaks of it, as commonly of the dead, with a certain subdued respect. And it deserves respect as an honest effort to bring poetry back to its highest office in the ideal treatment of life. Davenant emulated Spenser, and if his poem had been as good as his preface, it could still be read in another spirit than that of investigation. As it is, it always reminds me of Goldsmith's famous verse. It is remote, unfriendly, solitary, and, above all, slow. ”

“ Had Gondibert not staid the Peoples Eyes
(Whose virtue stept 'twixt Oswald and their sight)
Who knows but Rhodalind had been his Prise,
Or war must have secur'd Paternal right.
30.
Sad and uneasie is a long-kept Throne;
Not that the People think long pow'r unjust,
But that for change, they wish best Monarchs gone;
Fond change, the People's soon repented lust! ”

“ But in the School of glory we are taught,
That greatness and success should measure deeds;
Then not my great revenge, nor your great fault,
Can be accus'd when eithers act succeeds.
17.
Opinions stamp does virtue currant make;
But such small Money (though the Peoples Gold
With which they trade) great Dealers scorn to take,
And we are greater than one world can hold.
18.
Now Oswald paws'd, as if he curious were
Ere this his Foe (the Peoples Fav'rite) dy'd,
To know him as with Eyes, so with his Ear;
And to his speech thus Gondibert reply'd:
19. ”

“ The Gentle Reader feels that whatever may be the merits of Gondibert, Sir William Davenant is a gallant gentleman and worthy of his lasting friendship.
The Gentle Reader has a warm place in his heart for those whom he calls the paradisaical writers. These are the unfallen spirits who reveal their native dispositions and are not ashamed. They write about that which they find most interesting—themselves. They not only tell us what happens, but what they think and how they feel. We are made partners of their joys and sorrows. The first person singular is glorified by their use. ”

“ Known by her Cures, as Law by punishment.
70.
The weaker sighted ever look too nigh;
But their disputes have made your Charter good;
As doubted Tenures, which long pleadings trie,
Authentick grow by being much withstood.
71.
These Chiefs, for whom we holy Rites desire,
By well fought Fields begot this Cities peace;
Oft with their blood have quench'd intestine fire;
And oft our famines chang'd to glad excess.
72.
Their Rites let not the people be deny'd,
Though by untutor'd kindness rudely sought;
Nor think they have in private Combat dy'd,
Where Gondibert and mighty Oswald fought. ”

“ Such the animadversions which critics of great name have made on Gondibert, and the result is, that if Davenant had not power to begin and consummate an epic poem, yet by what he has done, he has a right to rank in the first class of poets, especially when it is considered that we owe to him the great perfection of the theatre, and putting it upon a level with that of France and Italy ”

“ His last play, written in conjunction with Dryden, was an alteration and pollution of Shakspeare's 'Tempest,' which was more worthy of Trincula than of the authors of 'Absalom and Ahithophel' and of 'Gondibert.' Supposing Davenant the son of Shakspeare, his act to his father's masterpiece reminds us, in the excess of its filial impiety, of Ham's conduct to Noah.
'Gondibert' is a large and able, without being a great poem. It has the incurable and indefensible defect of dulness. ”

“ Altho' a poet should know all arts and sciences, yet ought he discreetly to manage his knowledge. He must have a judgment to select what is noble and beautiful, and proper for the occasion. He must by a particular chemistry, extract the essence of things; without soiling his wit with dross or trumpery. The sort of verse Davenant makes choice of in his Gondibert might contribute much to the vitiating his stile ”

“ His heroic poem of "Gondibert" has, no doubt, great imperfections; but it intimates everywhere a mind above those laborious triflers, who called that poetry which was only verse; and very often exhibits a majestic, dignified, and manly simplicity, equally superior to the metaphysical school, by the doctrines of which Davenant was occasionally misled. Yet, if that author too frequently imitated their quaint affectation of uncommon sentiment and associations, he had at least the merit of couching them in stately and harmonious verse ”

“ The martial half is infinitely the better of the two. He altogether surpasses his model, Davenant. If his poem lack the gravity of thought attained by a few stanzas of "Gondibert," it is vastly superior in life, in picturesqueness, in the energy of single lines, and, above all, in imagination. ”

“ Surely, a “sober intermixture of religion” can never be attributed to the ancient epic. The poem of Gondibert is, indeed, without all this mixture of religious machinery, whether it be termed sober or extravagant. Human means are brought to accomplish human ends ”

“ That the unpractised Birtha should entertain an unresisted passion for the noblest of his sex; and that Gondibert, whose want of ambition alone had secured him from the charms of Rhodalind, should bow to those of his lovely hostess and handmaid, will be thought a very natural turn in the story; upon which, however, the reader may foresee the most interesting events depending. The progress of their love, though scarcely known to themselves, is soon discovered by the sage Astragon. This is expressed by the poet with a very fine turn of a common thought. ”

“ There is dawning womanhood in every line; but she knows nothing of Naxos.—Ouidà, Ariadnê, i. 1.
Ar'ibert, king of the Lombards (653-661) , left "no male pledge behind," but only a daughter named Rhodalind, whom he wished duke Gondibert to marry, but the duke fell in love with Bertha, daughter of As'tragon, the sage. The tale being unfinished, the sequel is not known.—Sir W. Davenant, Gondibert (died 1668) .
Arideus [A.ree'.de.us] , a herald in the Christian army.—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575) . ”

“ An ardent Loyalist, he was imprisoned at the beginning of the civil war, but escaped to France. He is best known by his heroic poem Gondibert, founded upon the reign of King Aribert of Lombardy, in the seventh century. The French taste which he brought back from his exile, is shown in his own dramas, and in his efforts to restore the theatre at the Restoration. His best plays are the Cruel Brother and The Law against Lovers. He was knighted by Charles I., and succeeded Ben Jonson as poet laureate. On his monument in Westminster Abbey are these words: "O rare Sir William Davenant." ”

“ Gondibert methinks wants Life; the Style is rather stiff than Heroic, and has more of Statius than Virgil; one may see every where a great deal of Art, and Pains, and Regularity, even to a fault; nor is a Genius wanting, but it's so unnatural, that an ingenious Person may find much more pleasure in reading a worse Poet. Besides, his Stanza's often cramp the Sence, and injure many a noble Thought and Passion. But Mr. Cowley's Davideis is the Medium between both ”

“ In other respects it has no pretensions to a high rank. But it may be added that a poem of Drummond on the visit of James I. to Scotland, in 1617, is perfectly harmonious; and what is very remarkable in that age, he concludes the verse at every couplet with the regularity of Pope.
Davenant’s Gondibert. 47. Far unlike the poem of Browne was Gondibert, published by Sir William Davenant in 1650. It may probably have been reckoned by himself an epic: but in that age the practice of Spain and Italy had effaced the distinction between the regular epic and the heroic romance. ”

“ His heroic stanzas have beauties and defects; the thoughts are vigorous, and, though not always proper, shew a mind replete with ideas; the numbers are smooth; and the diction, if not altogether correct, is elegant and easy.
Davenant was perhaps at this time his favourite author, though Gondibert never appears to have been popular; and from Davenant he learned to please his ear with the stanza of four lines alternately rhymed.
Dryden very early formed his versification: there are in this early production no traces of Donne's or Jonson's ruggedness ”

“ It is with Davenant’s Preface to Gondibert, in the form of a Letter to Hobbes, and with Hobbes’s answer to it, [486] that England strikes once more into the main path of European critical development. |The Prefatory matter of Gondibert.| And it is of capital importance that, both the writers being exiled royalists, these documents were written at Paris in the year 1650. There was much interest there in English affairs, while, as we have seen, the habit of literary discussion 368had, for more than a generation, become ingrained in Frenchmen. ”

“ His Scouts grow scornfull as they forward come,
He makes his Squadron halt, and near he drew,
Then asks aloud, what are you, and for whom?
5.
The noble Goltho (whose great deeds to day
Prevented Manhood in his early youth)
Believ'd him Oswald's Friend, yet scorn'd the way
To shelter life, behind abandon'd Truth.
6.
For he to Ulfin boldly thus reply'd,
This second Ambush finds us here in vain;
We have no treasure left that we would hide,
Since Gondibert is reckon'd with the slain. ”

“ Escaping a second time, he made good his way to the queen, with whom he remained in France until he volunteered to carry over to England some military stores for the army of his old friend the earl of Newcastle, by whom he was induced to enter the service as lieutenant-general of ordnance. He acquitted himself with so much bravery and skill that, after the siege of Gloucester, in 1643, he was knighted by the king. After the battle of Naseby he retired to Paris, where he became a Roman Catholic, and spent some months in the composition of his epic poem of Gondibert. ”