66 Milton D. Baumgartner 



performed at the Royal Theater in Covent Garden under the com- 

 poser's direction with marked success, according to press reports.^*' 

 The frequent subsequent performances in England and on the 

 Continent were due to the excellency of Handel's composition. 

 That this composition contributed to the popularity of the lyric 

 itself is evident from the numerous new single editions of the ode 

 appearing immediately after Handel set it to music.^^ 



B. Reasons for the Favorable Reception of Dryden's Ode in 



Germany 



As in England, the favorable reception of Dryden's ode in Ger- 

 many was due in a large measure to the prevailing enthusiasm for 

 lyrical and emotional poetry, and to the accompanying revival of 

 music. Shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century Ger- 

 man poetry gradually changed from the rational and descriptive 

 to the imaginative and lyrical. Gottsched under the influence of 

 the French championed the cause of the rational and moral ele- 

 ments in poetry, while Bodmer and Breitinger under the influence 

 of Addison and Milton advocated the imaginative and wonderful 

 as prerequisites for real poetry. 



Descriptive poetry was brought into Germany through Thom- 

 son's Seasons, and influenced Brockes' Irdisches Vergnitgen in 

 Gott, Haller's Die Alpen, Kleist's Der Friihling, and similar poems. 

 The protest against descriptive poetry was raised first in England, 

 Pope condemned it very severely.^- Warton took up the issue 



1" The London Daily Post and General Advertiser for February 20, says: 

 "... there never was, upon like occasion, so numerous and splendid an 

 audience at any theater in London, there being at least thirteen hundredx 

 persons present; .... It met with general applause." Scott-Saintsbury, 

 I, note to p. 344. 



11 British Museum Catalogue. See under Dryden, p. 46 fif. 



12 In his Prologue to his Satires Pope says of descriptive poetry: 



"... who could take ofifence, 

 While pure Description held the place of Sense?" (1. 147) 

 Warburton in his edition of Pope makes the following comment on the 

 above passage: "He uses 'pure' equivocally, to signify either chaste or 

 empty; and has given in this line what he esteemed the true character of 

 descriptive poetry, as it is called. A composition, in his opinion, as absurd 

 as a feast made up of sauces." 



354 



