10. CHAPTER V

WAS BUNYAN ASSISTED IN THE COMPOSITION OF HIS PILGRIM?

To this question take his own reply—

'Some say the Pilgrim's Progress is not mine,

Insinuating as if I would shine

In name and 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 in print to get applause.

I scorn it; John such dirt-keep never was,

Since God converted him. Let this suffice

To show why I my Pilgrim patronize.

'It came from mine own heart, so to my head,

And thence into my fingers trickled;

Then to my pen, from whence immediately

On paper I did dribble it dandy.

'Manner and matter too was all mine own,

Nor was it unto any mortal known,

'Till I had done it. Nor did any then,

By books, by wits, by tongues, or hand, or pen,

Add five words to it, or wrote half a line

Thereof: the whole, and every will is mine.

'Aso for that' thine eye is now upon,

The matter in this manner came from none,

But the same heart and head, fingers and pen,

As did the other. Witness all good men,

For none in all the world without a lie,

Can say that this is mine, excepting I.

I write not this of any ostentation,

Nor 'cause I seek of men their commendation;

I do it to keep them from such surmise,

As tempt them will my name to scandalize.

Witness my name, it anagram'd to thee,

The letters make, No bonny to a B.

'JOHN BUNYAN.'

'I dare not presume to say, that I know I love his right in everything; but this I can say, I have endeavoured so to do. True, I have not for these things fished in other men's waters; my Bible and Concordance are my only library in my writings.'

He who doubts the word of John Bunyan, knows nothing of the character and soul of a man who suffered nearly thirteen years' imprisonment in Bedford jail, rather than utter a falsehood or use the slightest simulation. Such objectors deserve chastisement in Doubting Castle, and should be flogged with the royal garter—Honi soit qui mal y pense. But such there have been from 1675 to a late period; and the same feeling which led the Scribes and Pharisees to reject the Messiah, because he appeared as the son of a carpenter, probably has led authors of great repute to express their doubts as to the originality of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' because the author was an unlettered man—the reason why, as his pastor says, 'the archers shot so sorely at him.' Dr. Dibdin, in his Typographical Antiquities, describing Caxton's Pilgrimage of the Soul, says—

'This extraordinary production, rather than Bernard's Isle of Man, laid the foundation of John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress."' The late Dr. Adam Clarke, in a Postscript to a Life of Bunyan, observes that 'his whole plan being so very similar to Bernard's religious allegory, called the Isle of Man, or, Proceedings in Manshire; and also to that most beautiful allegorical poem, by Mr. Edmund Spenser, oddly called the Faëry Queen, there is much reason to believe that one or other, if not both, gave birth to the "Pilgrim's Progress."'

Mr. Montgomery, a devoted admirer of Bunyan's genius, considers that the print and the verses entitled The Pilgrim, in Whitney's Emblems, dedicated to the Earl of Leicester, in 1583, might, perhaps, have inspired the first idea of this extraordinary work.

Southey, who investigated this subject with great ability, came to a very pointed conclusion: 'It would, indeed, be as impossible for me to believe

1 Life, 18mo, 1692; re-published by Irinney, 1832, p. 31.

2 The 'Holy War,' in which these lines were inserted.

3 Preface to 'Solomon's Temple Spiritualized.'

4 Vol. I, p. 153.

5 Bunyan's Pilgrim an Epic Poem by C. C. V. G., 1544, p. 44.

6 Montgomery's Christian Poet.

that Bunyan did not write the "Pilgrim's Progress," as that Porson did write a certain copy of verses entitled the Devil's Thoughts. Now, as these verses were doubtless written by Southey himself, he had arrived at a conviction that Bunyan was fully entitled to all the honour of conceiving and writing his great allegory. Still, he says, 'the same allegory had often been treated before him. Some of these may have fallen in Bunyan's way, and modified his own conceptions when he was not aware of any such influence.' It is high time that these questions were fully investigated, and set at rest.

It must be kept in mind that Bunyan knew no language but his own; and that all his characters, as well as the trial by jury, are purely English. When he used five common Latin words in Dr. Skill's prescription, Ex carne et sanguine Christi, this perfectly unassuming author tells his readers, in a marginal note, 'The Latine I borrow.' It is absurd to suppose that learned men read to him old monkish manuscripts, or the allegories of a previous age; for his design was unknown, he had formed no plan, nor had he any intention to have written such a book, until it came upon him suddenly. His first idea was inspired from one of his own works while composing it, and then the whole story flowed into his mind as quick as he could write it. Every attempt has been made to tarnish his fair fame; the great and learned, the elegant poet and the pious divine, have asserted, but without foundation in fact, or even in probability, that some of his ideas were derived from the works of previous writers. Every assertion or suggestion of this kind that came to my knowledge, has been investigated, and the works referred to have been analyzed. And beyond this, every allegorical work that could be found previous to the eighteenth century, has been examined in all the European languages; and the result is a perfect demonstration of the complete originality of Bunyan. 'It came from his own heart.' The plot, the characters, the faithful dealing, are all his own. And what is more, there has not been found a single phrase or sentence borrowed from any other book, except the quotations from the Bible, and the use of common proverbs. To arrive at this conclusion has occupied much time and labour, at intervals, during the last forty years. The works read and analyzed commence with our monkish manuscripts, and continue through the printed books published prior to the Reformation, when the church, having no competition in the cure of souls, spoke out without disguise; and from that time to 1678, when our Pilgrim appeared. Many, if not all the works so examined, contain useful information; and some of them show what was taught by the Church of England when she refused the Bible to the laity, and was unreformed. And, as my readers ought to judge for themselves, while, in most cases, these rare volumes are beyond their reach, it may prove useful to print these analyses, and then every reader can form his own opinion as to the probability, or rather the impossibility, of Bunyan's having gained any idea, or phrase, or name, from any source but his own prolific imagination. My determination in all these researches has been to report the whole truth; and had it been discovered that some hints might have been given by previous writers, it would not have been any serious reflection upon the originality of a work which has no prototype. This idea is well represented by Mr. Montgomery: 'If the Nile could be traced to a thousand springs, it would still be the Nile; and so far undishonoured by its obligations, that it would repay them a thousand-fold, by reflecting upon the nameless streams, the glory of being allied to the most renowned of rivers.' But there has been no discovery of any tributary spring; no borrowed phrases; no more hints, even, than such as naturally arise from the open treasury or storehouse of Holy Writ. The greatest characteristic of original genius is its spontaneous exertion—the evidence of having written without labour and without the consciousness of doing anything remarkable, or the ambitious aim of doing a great work. The greatest efforts of genius flow as naturally as it is for common men to breathe. In this view, Bunyan's work comes nearer to the inspired poetry of the Hebrews in its character than any other human composition. He wrote from the impulse of his genius, sanctified and illuminated by a heavenly influence; as if, indeed, he had exerted no voluntary supervision over its exercise. Everything is as natural and unconstrained as if it had not been intended for public inspection. There has not been found any model with which it can even be compared. It is a beautiful transparency, seen as the heavenly light shines through—the renewed spirit alone enjoys the picture in its perfection, with all its chaste but glowing colours. It can be fully appreciated only by him who possesses that spiritual light without which the things of God and heaven cannot be discerned. Bunyan's works furnish ample proof that his mind was preparing, for many years, the plan and incidents which render this allegory so striking. This may easily be traced in his works, although it was not known to himself; for, however he was all his spiritual life employed in unintentionally pre-

¹ Southey's Life of Bunyan, p. x.

² Introductory Essay to the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' p. xxv. Collins.

³ Dr. Cheever.

paring the material, the design struck him suddenly. Twenty years before his great work appeared, he published a most pungent work, called 'Sighs from Hell.' The preface to this book alludes to a pilgrimage; and in it is found some similar ideas to those which occur in the conversation between Christian and Pliable. It thus commences: 'Friend, because it is a dangerous thing to be walking towards a place of darkness, the journey that most of the poor souls in the world are taking with delight, I have thought it my duty to tell thee what sad success those souls have had, and are like to have, by persevering therein. Why, friend, hast thou thy back to heaven and thy face to hell; and art thou running full hastily that way? I beseech thee, stop thy earnest race, and look what entertainment thou art like to have. Hark! dost thou hear the bitter cries of those who have gone before; shall not these mournful groans pierce thy flinty heart? O! sinner, sinner, there are better things than hell to be had, and a thousand times cheaper. O! there is no comparison; there is heaven, there is God, there is Christ, there is communion with an innumerable company of saints and angels.' How do these ideas remind us of Christian's encouraging words to Pliable! In examining the following accounts of allegories composed by learned doctors, bishops, and divines, the simple Christian will rejoice and triumph in the amazing superiority of a poor unlettered preaching mechanic, guided only by his Biblio. Sanctified learning is exceedingly valuable; yet the productions of an unlettered man, wholly influenced by the Holy Oracles, shines resplendently over the laboured, murky productions of lettered men, who, for, asking the simplicity of the gospel, are trammelled with creeds, confessions, canons, articles, decretals, fathers, and, we may almost add, grandfathers.

The first work, in the order of time, that claims our notice, has never been printed. It is called