[15] That is to say, as Mr. John Drinkwater has recently put it, it was “the common language, but raised above the common pitch, of the coffee-houses and boudoirs.”—“Victorian Poetry,” 1923, pp. 30-32. [16] _Vide_ Elton, “The Augustan Ages,” 1889, pp. 419 foll. [17] Cp. “Essay on Criticism,” I, ll. 130-140. [18] John Dennis, of course, at the beginning of the century, is to be found pleading that “passion is the chief thing in poetry,” (“The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry,” 1701); but it is to be feared that he is only, so to speak, ringing the changes on the Rules. [19] “A Parallel of Poetry and Painting,” ed. Ker, _op. cit._, Vol. II, p. 147. [20] “A Parallel of Poetry and Painting,” Ker, _op cit._, Vol. II, p. 148. “_Operum Colores_ is the very word which Horace uses to signify words and elegant expressions.” etc. [21] Lessing’s “Laokoon,” which appeared in 1766, may in this, as in other connexions, be regarded as the first great Romantic manifesto. The limitations of poetry and the plastic arts were analysed, and the fundamental conditions to which each art must adhere, if it is to accomplish its utmost, were definitely and clearly laid down. [22] “Polymetis” (1747), p. 311. [23] “Biographia Literaria,” Chap. XXII. [24] _Ibid._, Chap. IV. [25] _Vide_ especially Babbitt, “The New Laocoon, An Essay on the Confusion of the Arts” (1910), to which these paragraphs are indebted; and for a valuable survey of the relations of English poetry with painting and with music, see “English Poetry in Its Relation to Painting and the other Arts,” by Laurence Binyon (London, 1919), especially pp. 15-19. [26] _Vide_ “Elizabethan Critical Essays,” ed. Gregory Smith, Vol. I, Intro. (Oxford, 1904). [27] _Vide_, e.g., Addison, “Spectator” papers on “Paradise Lost” (No. 285, January 26, 1712). [28] Essay, “Poetry Distinguished from other Writing” (Miscellaneous Works, 1820, Vol. IV, pp. 408-14). [29] _Ibid._, p. 22. [30] “Lives,” Hill, _op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 420. [31] “Lives”: Cowley; cp. “The Rambler,” No. 158. [32] Cp. Boswell’s “Life” (1851 edition), Vol. I, p. 277: “He enlarged very convincingly upon the excellence of rhyme over blank verse in English poetry”; also _ibid._, Vol. II, p. 84. [33] “Lives,” ed. Hill, _op. cit._, Vol. III, pp. 416 foll. [34] _Ibid._, p. 341. [35] This is of course exemplified in his own poetic practice, and it has been held sufficient to explain the oft-debated scantiness of his literary production. But for remarkable examples of his minuteness and scrupulosity in the matter of poetic diction see the letter to West referred to above; to Mason, January 13, 1758 (Tovey, _op. cit._, II, p. 12), and to Beattie, March 8, 1771 (_ibid._, II, p. 305). [36] Cp. Courthope, “History of English Poetry,” Vol. V, pp. 218 foll. [37] _Vide_ “Elizabethan Critical Essays,” _op. cit._, Intro., pp. LV-LX. [38] Preface to the “Fables,” Ker, _op. cit._, Vol. II, pp. 266-67.