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Untitled Article
ly , as inclination might lead , or the occasion might require , " From grave to gay , from sportive to severe . "
In this Number I shall invite your readers , not unseasonably , to the Summer of Thomson ; offering to their acceptance the result of a comparison which I made , when I had some leisure for such amusements , between Summer , in the edition of the Seasons which is in every one ' s hands , and the first edition of the Poem , published separately under the following Title :
" Summer . A Poem . By James Thomson . " Jam clarus occultum Andromedae Pater Ostendit ignem . Jam Procyon furit Et Stella vesani Leouis , Sole dies referente siccos . " Jam pastor umbras cum grege languido , Rivumque fessus quaerit , et horridi Dumeta Sylvani ; caretque Ripa vagis taciturna ventis . Hor . ' *
" London : Printed for J . Millan , at Locke ' s-Head in New Street , near the upper End of the Haymarket . MDCCXXVII . " A Dedication follows , " to the Right Hon . Mr . Dodington , one of the Lords of his Majesty ' s Treasury , &c . " The poet , lately arrived from his native Scotland , at the great British mart of talents , had dedicated Winter , in 1726 , to Sir Spencer Compton , from whom , according to Johnson , " some verses which censured the great for their neglect of
* Carm . L . iii . Od . xxix . thus translated by Francis : Ci Andromeda ' s conspicuous sire Now darts his hidden beams from far ; The Lion shews his madn ' itig fire , And barks fierce Procyon ' s raging star , While Phoebus , with revolving ray , Brings back the burnings of the thirsty day .
" Fainting beneath the swelt e ring heat , To cooling streams and breezy shades The shepherd and his flocks retreat , While rustic sylvans seek the glades . Silent ( he brook its borders laves , Nor curls one vagrant breath of wind the waves /'
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ingenious men , * ' at length proems €€ a present of twenty guineas , " in acknowledgment of the poet ' s compliment . In those days a poem was no sooner
finished than policy was engaged to select a patron . Johnson relates that " Thomson , having been some time entertained in the family of Lord Bin , ning , was desirous of testifying his gratitude by making him the patron of his Summer ; but the same
kindness which had first disposed Lord Binning to encourage him , determined him to refuse the Dedication , which was by his advice addressed to Mr . Dodington , a man who had more power to advance the reputation and fortune of a poet . "
Thomson , though he declines " to run into the common track of dedicators , and attempt a panegyric , " and though he is aware of " a certain generous delicacy in men of the most distinguished merit , disposing them to avoid those praises they so
powerfully attract , " yet ventures to publish the discovery he has made , that his patron possesses €€ a character , in which the Virtues , the Graces and the Muses join their influence ;" and that his " example has
recommended Poetry , with the greatest grace—an art , " he adds , " in which you are a master , —one of the finest , and consequently one of the most indulgent , judges of the age ; " worthy to " be transmitted to future times as
the British Maecenas . " In 1730 , on the publication of the Seasons , in a connected form , this prose adulation was commuted , as it has been in all succeeding editions , fpr eleven lines of flattery in verse , imputing to the patron , among other high qualities ,
Unblemished honour ; and an active zeal For Britain ' s glory , liberty and man . " Such was the Dodington of a grateful , or rather an expectant Bard , who predicts in his Dedication , as to
the " memy virtues" of his patron , that " posterity n \ one will do them justice . " Jnstructed by that invaluable dissection of a court , "The Diary of the l ^ te George Bubb Dodington , Baron of Melcopib ? B #$ W posterity h < is done , and wiU continue to do him
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412 Book ^ Worm . No . XXV 1 U .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1822, page 412, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2514/page/20/
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