CJ
is away this week - so, as with last year's offering from William Burroughs, Sediment
takes the opportunity to present another discovery from the
wine/literature interface.
John
Dryden (1631 - 1700) was a man of parts: critic, dramatist, satirist,
translator, Poet Laureate. He is best-remembered today for such poems
as Annus Mirabilis
(1667) and Absalom and
Achitophel (1681)
–
quasi-epic in form, often tinged with satirical wit; dramas such as
All For Love
(1678) and Marriage à
la Mode (1673);
essays - Of Dramatic
Poesie
(1667) and Defence of the
Epilogue (1672);
and a host of shorter poems, some playful in tone (Rondelay;
Song - Sylvia the Fair),
others threnodic (On the
Death of Mr. Purcell).
So central was he to the culture of Restoration England, that – in
the literary world at least – the latter part of the seventeenth
century became known as the Age of Dryden.
This little-known Song
is a relatively early work, dating from 1661: a modestly comic
adversion to the perils of drink. Does it deserve a larger reputation?
Well, while it displays some typically Drydenesque metrical daring, its effects seem, all the same, underpowered; and its reliance on Caesarean imagery, predictable. As an apprentice piece, therefore, it's bearable; but not much more.
Well, while it displays some typically Drydenesque metrical daring, its effects seem, all the same, underpowered; and its reliance on Caesarean imagery, predictable. As an apprentice piece, therefore, it's bearable; but not much more.
The
only thing to make it stand out is this curious anomaly - spotted by
the Sediment
research team a while ago: the poem is an acrostic, in which the
first letter of every line, read from top to bottom, spells out a
name. In this case, JACKTONE
RANCH,
nowadays associated with a popular Californian wine range.
Coincidence? Prescience? How could Dryden have known of Californian
wines, three hundred and sixty years ago? And why this particular
brand? The mystery remains. As the does the poem itself:
Song
Just
Caesar, whom the world obeyed,
Augustus
Great, proud Tiberine
Could
ne'er have drunk, sure ne'er have made
Kind
Bacchus! such an ardent
wine.
Tell
Princes, Kings; tell France; tell Spain
Of
Hippocrene
Nectarine
Empurpled as Augustus' train.
Recalling
this alone:
All
men are free to drown their sorrow -
Not
Caesar only – and to sell the morrow
Cheap.
But this once done –
How
costly seems the morning sun!
JD
I am not all that well read. My research so far has not found this song online. Acrostic it may be but has there been any revision by McManis Family Vineyards, Kingsland Wine & Spirits. or even Tesco?
ReplyDeleteNot to our knowledge - but these comments are open to all...
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