GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



fine that the disgraced and unhappy Somerset seeking to placate 

 his offended sovereign, had offered it as a " dainty dish to set before 

 the King." 



Pope and Gay were the products of an artificial age ; or rather 

 it would be more correct to say that the trend of their genius was 

 decided by the manners and mental habits of the society in which 

 they found themselves but they were true poets, notwithstanding 

 their upbringing, and therefore, being once brought into touch 

 with nature, were more sensitive to her charms than ordinary 

 folk of their class, and world. More especially was this so with 

 Pope, whose earlier verse shows much appreciation of inanimate 

 natural beauty ; and, as Campbell pointed out, the faculty which 

 enabled him to describe so exquisitely and humorously the court 

 and city manners, and objects of art, is essentially the same which 

 would have made him, under other circumstances and in a different 

 environment, a faithful lover, and student, and a poetic exponent, of 

 outside nature. Even in that artificial day, a few choice spirits, 

 such as Addison, found solace and refreshment in nature, and 

 in communing with her. Addison, as we know, delighted in a 

 garden, in its flowers, its seclusion, and its singing birds, to which 

 last we have seen him cheerfully sacrificing his fruit in exchange 

 for their songs. Minds such as his needed not to be " brought 

 into touch " with nature, for they already walked hand-in-hand 

 with her. But others, like Pope and Gay, whose office it was to 

 reflect in their writings as in a mirror, the manners of society, to 

 satirize and show up its social vices, and its political venality, must 

 sometimes have wearied of the task. For though it is true that 

 as Pope himself says, " the proper study of mankind is man," 

 society was then largely compounded of men and women who 

 lived chiefly in the limelight, and were perpetually posing ; who, 

 metaphorically speaking, were always in full dress. The reality 

 of pastoral life was unknown to them. Their rustic maidens were 

 Arcadian shepherdesses, wearing sacques of flowered brocade, 

 carrying crooks bedecked with ribbons ; and Corin, as well as 

 Corinna, was utterly unreal : he was an impossible swain in an 

 impossible country ! The age of Pope and Gay was the age of 

 petticoats " Stiff with hoops, and armed with ribs of whale " 

 of snuff boxes, and pomander, of long stiff-skirted gold-laced satin 

 or velvet coats, of ruffles, swords, and full-bottomed wigs. A 



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