Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697) | Page 3

temper of Englishmen
in his age, but it also sprang from his learning. From various sources he
drew the theory that Greek and Latin were but corrupted forms of
ancient Phoenician, and that the degeneracy of Greek and Latin in turn
had produced all, or most, of the present European tongues (ibid., p.
354). In addition, he believed that the Greeks had derived some of their
thought from older civilizations, and specifically that Plato had
received many of his notions from the Jews (ibid., p. 230)--an idea
which recalls the argument that Dryden in Religio Laici had employed
against the deists. Furthermore, he had, like many of his learned
contemporaries, a profound respect for Hebrew culture and the
sublimity of the Hebrew scriptures, going so far as to remark in the
"Essay on Heroic Poetry" that "most, even of [the heathen poets'] best
Fancies and Images, as well as Names, were borrow'd from the Antient
Hebrew Poetry and Divinity." In short, however faulty his particular
conclusions, he had arrived at an historical viewpoint, from which it
was no longer possible to regard the classical standards--much less the
standards of French critics--as having the holy sanction of Nature
herself.
Some light is shed on the literary tastes of his period by Wesley's two
essays here reproduced, which with a few exceptions were in accord
with the prevailing current. The Life of Our Blessed Lord shows
strongly the influence of Cowley's Davideis. Wesley's great admiration
persisted after the tide had turned away from Cowley; and his liking for
the "divine Herbert" and for Crashaw represented the tastes of sober
and unfashionable readers. In spite of the fact that he professed
unbounded admiration for Homer as the greatest genius in nature, in
practise he seemed more inclined to follow the lead of Cowley, Virgil,
and Vida. Although there was much in Ariosto that he enjoyed, he
preferred Tasso; the irregularities in both, however, he felt bound to
deplore. To Spenser's Faerie Queene he allowed extraordinary merit. If
the plan of it was noble, he thought, and the mark of a comprehensive
genius, yet the action of the poem seemed confused. Nevertheless, like
Prior later, Wesley was inclined to suspend judgment on this point
because the poem had been left incomplete. To Spenser's "thoughts" he

paid the highest tribute, and to his "Expressions flowing natural and
easie, with such a prodigious Poetical Copia as never any other must
expect to enjoy." Like most of the Augustans Wesley did not care
greatly for Paradise Regained, but he partly atoned by his praise for
Paradise Lost, which was an "original" and therefore "above the
common Rules." Though defective in its action, it was resplendent with
sublime thoughts perhaps superior to any in Virgil or Homer, and full
of incomparable and exquisitely moving passages. In spite of his belief
that Milton's blank verse was a mistake, making for looseness and
incorrectness, he borrowed lines and images from it, and in Bk. IV of
The Life of Our Blessed Lord he incorporated a whole passage of
Milton's blank verse in the midst of his heroic couplets.
Wesley's attitude toward Dryden deserves a moment's pause. In the
"Essay on Heroic Poetry" he observed that a speech of Satan's in
Paradise Lost is nearly equalled in Dryden's State of Innocence. Later
in the same essay he credited a passage in Dryden's King Arthur with
showing an improvement upon Tasso. There is no doubt as to his vast
respect for the greatest living poet, but his remarks do not indicate that
he ranked Dryden with Virgil, Tasso, or Milton; for he recognized as
well as we that the power to embellish and to imitate successfully does
not constitute the highest excellence in poetry. In the Epistle to a
Friend he affirmed his admiration for Dryden's matchless style, his
harmony, his lofty strains, his youthful fire, and even his wit--in the
main, qualities of style and expression. But by 1700 Wesley had
absorbed enough of the new puritanism that was rising in England to
qualify his praise; now he deprecated the looseness and indecency of
the poetry, and called upon the poet to repent. One other point calls for
comment. Wesley's scheme for Christian machinery in the epic, as
described in the "Essay on Heroic Poetry," is remarkably similar to
Dryden's. Dryden's had appeared in the essay on satire prefaced to his
translation of Juvenal, published late in October, 1692; Wesley's
scheme appeared soon after June, 1693.
The Epistle to a Friend concerning Poetry is neither startling nor
contemptible; it has, in fact, much more to say than the rhymed
treatises on verse by Roscommon and Buckinghamshire. Its remarks on

Genius are fresh, though tantalizing in their brevity, and it defends the
Moderns with both neatness and energy. Much of its advice is cautious