Imogen

Imogen

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Title: Imogen A Pastoral Romance
Author: William Godwin
Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9152] [Yes, we are more than
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2003]
Edition: 10

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IMOGEN
A Pastoral Romance
From the Ancient British By WILLIAM GODWIN

Preface
[By WILLIAM GODWIN]
The following performance, as the title imports, was originally
composed in the Welch language. Its style is elegant and pure. And if
the translator has not, as many of his brethren have done, suffered the
spirit of the original totally to evaporate, he apprehends it will be found
to contain much novelty of conception, much classical taste, and great
spirit and beauty in the execution. It appears under the name of
Cadwallo, an ancient bard, who probably lived at least one hundred
years before the commencement of our common era. The manners of
the primitive times seem to be perfectly understood by the author, and
are described with the air of a man who was in the utmost degree
familiar with them. It is impossible to discover in any part of it the
slightest trace of Christianity. And we believe it will not be disputed,
that in a country so pious as that of Wales, it would have been next to
impossible for the poet, though ever so much upon his guard, to avoid
all allusion to the system of revelation. On the contrary, every thing is
Pagan, and in perfect conformity with the theology we are taught to
believe prevailed at that time.
These reasons had induced us to admit, for a long time, that it was
perfectly genuine, and justly ascribed to the amiable Druid. With

respect to the difficulty in regard to the preservation of so long a work
for many centuries by the mere force of memory, the translator,
together with the rest of the world, had already got over that objection
in the case of the celebrated Poems of Ossian. And if he be not blinded
by that partiality, which the midwife is apt to conceive for the
productions, that she is the instrument of bringing into the world, the
Pastoral Romance contains as much originality, as much poetical
beauty, and is as happily calculated to make a deep impression upon
the memory, as either Fingal, or Temora.
The first thing that led us to doubt its authenticity, was the striking
resemblance that appears between the plan of the work, and Milton's
celebrated Masque at Ludlow Castle. We do not mean however to hold
forth this circumstance as decisive in its condemnation. The pretensions
of Cadwallo, or whoever was the author of the performance, are very
high to originality. If the date of the Romance be previous to that of
Comus, it may be truly said of the author, that he soared above all
imitation, and derived his merits from the inexhaustible source of his
own invention. But Milton, it is well known, proposed some classical
model to himself in all his productions. The Paradise Lost is almost in
every page an imitation of Virgil, or Homer. The Lycidas treads closely
in the steps of the Daphnis and Gallus of Virgil. The Sampson
Agonistes is formed upon the model of Sophocles. Even the little
pieces, L'Allegro and Il Penseroso have their source in a song of
Fletcher, and two beautiful little ballads that are ascribed to
Shakespeare. But the classical model upon which Comus was formed
has not yet been discovered. It is infinitely unlike the Pastoral
Comedies both of Italy and England. And if we could allow ourselves
in that licence of conjecture, which is become almost inseparable from
the character of an editor, we should say: That