The Critical Review, Or, Annals of Literature

The Critical Review, Or, Annals of Literature By Tobias George Smollett, 1816 DC pp. 512-513 The Dinias and Dercyllis of Diogenes took the lead ; the Metamorphoses of Lucius succeeded; then we have the loves and pursuit of Rhodanes and Sinon; when two hundred years of dulness were recompensed by the Theagenes ami Chariclea, the seductive fiction of a bishop, who had under his controul the diocese of Tricca. We ought not to omit the remark to those whom we are addressing, that this mitred novelist, and all the ancient writers of the same class, appear to consider the heroes of their story as of no comparative importance, and to bestow all the force of character and spirit of colouring upon their heroines: thus Theagenes is a very insipid person, and the energy and talent is alone bestowed upon Chariclea. A less polite age altered this scheme, so that we find pirates and robbers among the principal characters; and it is to this period that a noble lord, now an absentee, is pria- cipally indebted for the outline, and indeed for much of the dark shading, of his narratives. The prelate we have named has had admirers and imitators after the expiration of thirteen and fifteen centuries: his work suggested to Tasso the birth and early life of Clorinda, in the Jerusalem : and the sacrifice, and subsequent discovery of Chariclea, (the very name adopted) in the Pastorfido of {Juarini. Oom- berville and Scudery, with their numerous followers, were from the same model, and became extremely popular in France. Hardy composed eight tragedies on the subject; and Dorat one, with the identical title of the romance, which was acted in Paris as late as the year 1769. Longus, who, in the fourth century, wrote his Daphnis and Cloe, is the parent of the pastoral, and the origin of the ten thousand productions in which both his style and hi-s names are copied, as if he ha'd by his talents wholly exhausted this mine of invention. The error, however, has been, that he has not, in some respects, been sufficiently attended to. In his composition we nave no conceited gal- (513>) Self-Decept ion. 513 i • ' • " Self-Deception" has a most singular introduction; the novel, instead of ending, begins with the marriage of the hero and heroine; so that, when every thing romantic should be disposed of, and the vulgar transactions of life commence, which are imagined to be too mean for the pencil of the artist, we have still the story pursued ; and we do not at all know how the attention of the reader would have been kept alive, unless some other candidates for distinction had been admitted, who, indeed, give us enough of marriage, for not one of them remains unyoked,—the last couple submitting to the short forms of the Scottish ceremonial, in order to prevent unnecessary delays. iantry, DO didactic instruction, no abstract reasoning, no intrusive episodes, no golden age; and he attempts to please only by the correct transcript of nature. Uamsay's Gentle Shepherd is an imitation of Longus. Our fair readers will perceive, that although we are travelling back a considerable way into antiquity, yet that we are endeavouring to preserve the connection with the modern road, in which we are all familiar; for it signifies little to us what these philosophers, poets, and sophists, have done, unless we, with their assistance, are enabled the better to discover the tract we should ourselves pursue: yet as, in the order of chronology, we shall presently be coming to Gildas, Nen- niu.s, and other monkish and unfashionable personages, we will even leave them in their own dormitories, and join the cheerful society of Miss Parker. Another singularity is, that the reader is left wholly in the dark as to any of those best consolations of marriage, a chubby ruddy offspring; for such is the immaculate purity of the heroine, that the most respectful distance is preserved throughout the whole novel; and when reconciliation appears to be