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There is a wretched poetaster of the name of Robert Montgomery who has written some volumes of detestable verses on religious subjects, which by mere puffing in magazines and newspapers have had an immense sale, and some of which are now in their tenth or twelfth editions.
It must be admitted that a heroine who excites interest chiefly by virtue of her patriotic sentiments and the bravery of her conduct does not represent the highest type of poetic creation. The muse will always lend virtue and bravery to any common poetaster for the mere asking; but she does not so readily vouchsafe a convincing semblance of complex human nature.
Every Man out of his Humour , Cynthia's Revels , and The Poetaster , satirising the citizens, the courtiers, and the poets respectively, followed. His first work in this kind was Sejanus , which was not very favourably received. It was followed by Eastward Ho, in which he collaborated with Marston and Chapman.
But quite as often they flowed without any accompanying reason. Now if David had been a poetaster, he would have said: "Why these tears? she has got me. Am I not more than an equivalent to these puny considerations?" and all this salt water would have burned into his vanity like liquid caustic. If he had been a poet, he would have said: "Alas!
Another poetaster, Barre, who has served and sung the chiefs of all former factions, received, for an ode of forty lines on Bonaparte's birthday, an office at Milan, worth twenty thousand livres in the year and one hundred napoleons d'or for his travelling expenses.
Therefore one softens down the ugly central fact of donkeyism, recommends study of good models, that writing verse should be an incidental occupation only, not interfering with the hoe, the needle, the lapstone, or the ledger, and, above all, that there should be no hurry in printing what is written. Not the least use in all this. The poetaster who has tasted type is done for.
From the 'Apologetical Dialogue' which Jonson wrote after 'The Poetaster' had already passed over the stage, we see that this satire had excited the greatest indignation and sensation in the dramatic world. It was a new manner of falling out with a colleague before the public.
It is well known that in 1598 Shakespeare's company acted Ben's Every Man in His Humour. It appears that he conceived some grudge against the actors, and apparently against Shakespeare and other playwrights, for, in 1601, his Poetaster is a satire both on playwrights and on actors, whom he calls "apes."
He was forever fulminating against bad writing, and hated the ignorant and slipshod work of the hack almost as much as he despised the sham of the man who affected letters, the dabbler and the poetaster.
Indeed, this has been called by some the American Grape, and, though a native of America, its juices are used in some foreign countries to improve the color of the wine; so that the poetaster may be celebrating the virtues of the Poke without knowing it. Here are berries enough to paint afresh the western sky, and play the bacchanal with, if you will.
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