26. AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CRITIC IN PRAISE OF ‘ELYNOR RUMMYNG’

1718


‘To the Reader’ in a reprint of ‘The Tunning of Elynor Rumming’ (1718). The authorship of these prefatory remarks is unknown.


A View of past Times is the most agreable Study of humane Life. To unveil the former Ages, call back Time in his Course, and with a contracted View prie thro' the Clouds of Oblivion, and see Things that were before our Being, is certainly the most Amusement, if as Martial tells us,

----- hoc est

Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui. (1)

how additional a Happiness is it to enlarge and draw it into the Ages that were before?

This, Reader, is the Editor's Reason for publishing this very antient Sketch of a Drinking Piece; and tho' some of the Lines seem to be a little defac'd by Time, yet the Strokes are so just and true, that an experienc'd Painter might from hence form the most agreeable Variety requisite in a Picture, to represent the mirth of those Times. Here is a just and natural Description of those merry Wassail Dayes, and of the Humours of our great Grandames, which our Poet hath drawn with that Exactness, that, as Mr. Dryden says of Chaucer's Characters, he thought, when he read them himself, to have seen them as distinctly as if he had sup'd with them at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, so I may truly say, I see before me this Variety of Gossips, as plainly as if I had dropt into the Alehouse at Leatherhead and sate upon the Settle to view their Gamball's.

It may seem a Trifle to some to revive a Thing of this Nature: The Subject, they say, is so low, and the Time so long since, that it would be throwing away more to peruse it. What have we to do to puzle our Brains with old out-of fashion'd Trumpery, when we have since had ingenious Poets in our own Times easily to be understood, and much more diverting too.

As for Those nice Curiosoes, who can tast nothing but Deserts; whose chief Perfection is to discover the fine Turn in a new Epilogue, and have so much Work upon their Hands to damn moderns, that they have none to read them; it is not to be expected, that they will either read or can understand the Antients; neither was it for such Sparks that this piece of Antiquity was reviv'd. But Persons of an extensive Fancy and just Relish, who can discover Nature in the lowest Scene of life, and receive pleasure from the meanest Views; who prie into all the Variety of Places and Humours at present, and think nothing unworthy their Notice; and not only so, but with a contracting Eye, survey the Times past, and live over those Ages which were before their Birth; it is in Respect to them, and for a Moment's Amusement that this merry old Tale is reviv'd. The Subject is low, it's true; and so is Chaucer's Old Widow; yet the Description of her Hovel pleases as much in it's Way, as a more lofty Theme.

Note

1 From Martial's ‘Epigrams’, Book X, xxiii, 7–8: ‘He lives twice who can find pleasure in bygone life.’