The Life of John Bunyan [44]
they came;
Perhaps they'll know them by their looks or name.
But if they should not, ask them yet again
If formerly they did not entertain
One Christian, a pilgrim. If they say
They did, and were delighted in his way:
Then let them know that these related are
Unto him, yea, his wife and children are.
Tell them that they have left their house and home,
Are turned Pilgrims, seek a world to come;
That they have met with hardships on the way,
That they do meet with troubles night and day."
How racy, even if the lines are a little halting, is the defence of
the genuineness of his Pilgrim in "The Advertisement to the Reader"
at the end of "The Holy War."
"Some say the Pilgrim's Progress is not mine,
Insinuating as if I would shine
In name or fame by the worth of another,
Like some made rich by robbing of their brother;
Or that so fond I am of being sire
I'll father bastards; or if need require,
I'll tell a lie or print to get applause.
I scorn it. John such dirt-heap never was
Since God converted him. . .
Witness my name, if anagram'd to thee
The letters make NU HONY IN A B.
IOHN BUNYAN."
How full of life and vigour his sketch of the beleaguerment and
deliverance of "Mansoul," as a picture of his own spiritual
experience, in the introductory verses to "The Holy War"! -
"For my part I, myself, was in the town,
Both when 'twas set up, and when pulling down;
I saw Diabolus in possession,
And Mansoul also under his oppression.
Yes, I was there when she crowned him for lord,
And to him did submit with one accord.
When Mansoul trampled upon things divine,
And wallowed in filth as doth a swine,
When she betook herself unto her arms,
Fought her Emmanuel, despised his charms:
Then I was there, and did rejoice to see
Diabolus and Mansoul so agree.
I saw the prince's armed men come down
By troops, by thousands, to besiege the town,
I saw the captains, heard the trumpets sound,
And how his forces covered all the ground,
Yea, how they set themselves in battle array,
I shall remember to my dying day."
Bunyan's other essays in the domain of poetry need not detain us
long. The most considerable of these - at least in bulk - if it be
really his, is a version of some portions of the Old and New
Testaments: the life of Joseph, the Book of Ruth, the history of
Samson, the Book of Jonah, the Sermon on the Mount, and the General
Epistle of St. James. The attempt to do the English Bible into
verse has been often made and never successfully: in the nature of
things success in such a task is impossible, nor can this attempt
be regarded as happier than that of others. Mr. Froude indeed, who
undoubtingly accepts their genuineness, is of a different opinion.
He styles the "Book of Ruth" and the "History of Joseph" "beautiful
idylls," of such high excellence that, "if we found them in the
collected works of a poet laureate, we should consider that a
difficult task had been accomplished successfully." It would seem
almost doubtful whether Mr. Froude can have read the compositions
that he commends so largely, and so much beyond their merit. The
following specimen, taken haphazard, will show how thoroughly
Bunyan or the rhymester, whoever he may be, has overcome what Mr.
Froude regards as an almost insuperable difficulty, and has managed
to "spoil completely the faultless prose of the English
translation":-
"Ruth replied,
Intreat me not to leave thee or return;
For where thou goest I'll go, where thou sojourn
I'll sojourn also - and what people's thine,
And who thy God, the same shall both be mine.
Where thou shalt die, there will I die likewise,
And I'll be buried where thy body lies.
The Lord do so to me and more if I
Do leave thee or forsake thee till I die."
The more we read of these poems, not given to the world till twelve
years after Bunyan's death, and that
Perhaps they'll know them by their looks or name.
But if they should not, ask them yet again
If formerly they did not entertain
One Christian, a pilgrim. If they say
They did, and were delighted in his way:
Then let them know that these related are
Unto him, yea, his wife and children are.
Tell them that they have left their house and home,
Are turned Pilgrims, seek a world to come;
That they have met with hardships on the way,
That they do meet with troubles night and day."
How racy, even if the lines are a little halting, is the defence of
the genuineness of his Pilgrim in "The Advertisement to the Reader"
at the end of "The Holy War."
"Some say the Pilgrim's Progress is not mine,
Insinuating as if I would shine
In name or fame by the worth of another,
Like some made rich by robbing of their brother;
Or that so fond I am of being sire
I'll father bastards; or if need require,
I'll tell a lie or print to get applause.
I scorn it. John such dirt-heap never was
Since God converted him. . .
Witness my name, if anagram'd to thee
The letters make NU HONY IN A B.
IOHN BUNYAN."
How full of life and vigour his sketch of the beleaguerment and
deliverance of "Mansoul," as a picture of his own spiritual
experience, in the introductory verses to "The Holy War"! -
"For my part I, myself, was in the town,
Both when 'twas set up, and when pulling down;
I saw Diabolus in possession,
And Mansoul also under his oppression.
Yes, I was there when she crowned him for lord,
And to him did submit with one accord.
When Mansoul trampled upon things divine,
And wallowed in filth as doth a swine,
When she betook herself unto her arms,
Fought her Emmanuel, despised his charms:
Then I was there, and did rejoice to see
Diabolus and Mansoul so agree.
I saw the prince's armed men come down
By troops, by thousands, to besiege the town,
I saw the captains, heard the trumpets sound,
And how his forces covered all the ground,
Yea, how they set themselves in battle array,
I shall remember to my dying day."
Bunyan's other essays in the domain of poetry need not detain us
long. The most considerable of these - at least in bulk - if it be
really his, is a version of some portions of the Old and New
Testaments: the life of Joseph, the Book of Ruth, the history of
Samson, the Book of Jonah, the Sermon on the Mount, and the General
Epistle of St. James. The attempt to do the English Bible into
verse has been often made and never successfully: in the nature of
things success in such a task is impossible, nor can this attempt
be regarded as happier than that of others. Mr. Froude indeed, who
undoubtingly accepts their genuineness, is of a different opinion.
He styles the "Book of Ruth" and the "History of Joseph" "beautiful
idylls," of such high excellence that, "if we found them in the
collected works of a poet laureate, we should consider that a
difficult task had been accomplished successfully." It would seem
almost doubtful whether Mr. Froude can have read the compositions
that he commends so largely, and so much beyond their merit. The
following specimen, taken haphazard, will show how thoroughly
Bunyan or the rhymester, whoever he may be, has overcome what Mr.
Froude regards as an almost insuperable difficulty, and has managed
to "spoil completely the faultless prose of the English
translation":-
"Ruth replied,
Intreat me not to leave thee or return;
For where thou goest I'll go, where thou sojourn
I'll sojourn also - and what people's thine,
And who thy God, the same shall both be mine.
Where thou shalt die, there will I die likewise,
And I'll be buried where thy body lies.
The Lord do so to me and more if I
Do leave thee or forsake thee till I die."
The more we read of these poems, not given to the world till twelve
years after Bunyan's death, and that