Parliamentarian and Historian.

“Alone stood brave Horatius,But constant still in mind;Thrice thirty thousand foes before,And the broad flood behind.‘Down with him!’ cried false Sextus,With a smile on his pale face.‘Now yield thee,’ cried Lars Porsena,‘Now yield thee to our grace!’Round turned he, as not deigningThose craven ranks to see;Nought spake he to Lars Porsena,To Sextus nought spake he!But he saw on PalatinusThe white porch of his home;And he spake to the noble riverThat rolls by the towers of Rome.‘Oh, Tiber, father Tiber!To whom the Romans pray,A Roman’s life, a Roman’s arms,Take thou in charge this day!’So he spake, and speaking sheathedThe good sword by his side,And, with his harness on his back,Plunged headlong in the tide.”

“Alone stood brave Horatius,

But constant still in mind;

Thrice thirty thousand foes before,

And the broad flood behind.

‘Down with him!’ cried false Sextus,

With a smile on his pale face.

‘Now yield thee,’ cried Lars Porsena,

‘Now yield thee to our grace!’

Round turned he, as not deigningThose craven ranks to see;Nought spake he to Lars Porsena,To Sextus nought spake he!But he saw on PalatinusThe white porch of his home;And he spake to the noble riverThat rolls by the towers of Rome.

Round turned he, as not deigning

Those craven ranks to see;

Nought spake he to Lars Porsena,

To Sextus nought spake he!

But he saw on Palatinus

The white porch of his home;

And he spake to the noble river

That rolls by the towers of Rome.

‘Oh, Tiber, father Tiber!To whom the Romans pray,A Roman’s life, a Roman’s arms,Take thou in charge this day!’So he spake, and speaking sheathedThe good sword by his side,And, with his harness on his back,Plunged headlong in the tide.”

‘Oh, Tiber, father Tiber!

To whom the Romans pray,

A Roman’s life, a Roman’s arms,

Take thou in charge this day!’

So he spake, and speaking sheathed

The good sword by his side,

And, with his harness on his back,

Plunged headlong in the tide.”

This does not sound like those verses of Shelley, which we lately encountered. Those went throughthe empyrean of song like Aurora’s chariot of the morning, with cherubs, and garlands, and flashing torches. This, in the comparison, is like some well-appointed dump-cart, with sleek, well-groomed Percheron horses—up to their work, and accomplishing what they are set to do absolutely well.

It was not until 1842, a year or two after the Italian visit, that Macaulay ventured to publish that solitary book of his verse; he very much doubted the wisdom of putting his literary reputation in peril by such overture in rhyme. It extorted, however, extravagant praise from that muscular critic Christopher North; while the fastidious Hunt writes to him (begging a little money—as was his wont), and regretting that the book did not show more of the poetic aroma which breathes from theFaerie Queene. But say what we may of its lack—there is no weakly maundering; it is the work of a man full-grown, with all his wits active, and his vision clear, and who loved plain sirloins better than the fricandeaux and ragoûts of the artists.

There is also a scholarly handling, with high,historic air blowing through—as if he liked his Homer better than his Spenser; his prosody is up to the rules; the longs and shorts are split to a hair’s breadth—jingling and merry where the sense calls for it; and sober and resonant where meaning is weighty; flashing, too, where need is—with sword play and spear-heads that glitter and waver over marching men; but nowhere—I think it must be said—the tremulous poeticsusurrus, that falters, and touches, and detains by its mystic sounds—tempting one into dim border-lands where higher and more inspired singers find their way. Christabel is not of his school, nor the star-shaped shadow of Wordsworth’s Daisy.

Meantime occasional papers from Macaulay’s hand found their way into the pages of the great NorthernReview—but by no means so many as the Whig managers could have wished; he had himself grown to think lightly of such work; the History was calling for his best powers, and therewere parliamentary duties devolving upon him as member for Edinboro’.

I remember catching sight of him somewhere between 1844 and 1846—in his place in the House of Commons, and of listening to his brilliant castigation of Sir Robert Peel, in the matter, I think, of the Maynooth grant. He was well toward fifty then, but sturdy—with the firm tread of a man who could do his three or four leagues of walking—if need were; beetle-browed; his clothes ill-adjusted; his neck bundled in a big swathing of cravat. There was silence when he rose; there was nothing orator-like in his bearing; rather awkward in his pose; having scorn, too, as would seem, for any of the graces of elocution. But he was clear, emphatic, direct, with a great swift river of words all bearing toward definite aim. Tory critics used to say he wrote his speeches and committed them to memory. There was no need for that. Words tripped to his tongue as easily as to his pen. But there were no delicate modulations of voice; no art of pantomime; no conscious or unconscious assumption of graceful attitudes; and when subject-matter enfevered andkindled him—as it did on that occasion—there was the hurry and the over-strained voice of extreme earnestness.

It was not very long after this that he met with a notable repulse from his old political supporters in Edinboro’ that touched him grievously. But there were certain arts of the politician he could not, and would not learn; he could not truckle; he could not hobnob with clients who made vulgar claims upon him. He could not make domiciliary visits, to kiss the babies—whether of patrons, or of editors; he could not listen to twaddle from visiting committees, without breaking into a righteous wrath that hurt his chances. Edinboro’, afterward, however, cleared the record, by giving him before his death a triumphant return to Parliament.

Meantime that wonderful History had been written, and its roll of magniloquent periods made echo in every quarter of the literary world. Its success was phenomenal. After the issue of its second couplet of volumes the publishers sent to the author a check for £20,000 on account. Such checks passing between publisher and author werethen uncommon; and—without straining a point—I think I may say they are now. With its Macaulay endorsement, it makes a unique autograph, now in the possession of the Messrs. Longmans—but destined to find place eventually among the manuscript treasures of the British Museum.

The great history is a partisan history, but it is the work of a bold and out-spoken and manly partisan. The colors that he uses are intense and glaring; but they are blended in the making of his great panorama of King William’s times, with a marvellous art. We are told that he was an advocate and not a philosopher; that he was a rhetorician and not a poet. We may grant all this, and we may grant more—and yet I think we shall continue to cherish his work. Men of greater critical acumen and nicer exploration may sap the grounds of some of his judgments; cooler writers, and those of more self-restraint, may draw the fires by which his indignations are kindled; but it will be very long before the world will cease to find high intellectual refreshment in the crackle of his epigrams, in his artful deployment of testimony, in his picturesque array of greathistoric characters and in the roll of his sonorous periods.

Yet he is the wrong man to copy; his exaltations make an unsafe model. He exaggerates—but he knows how to exaggerate. He paints a truth in colors that flow all round the truth, and enlarge it. Such outreach of rhetoric wants corresponding capacity of brain, and pen-strokes that never swerve or tremble. Smallish men should beware how they copy methods which want fulness of power and the besom of enthusiasm to fill out their compass. Homer can make all his sea-waves iridescent and multitudinous—all his women high-bosomed or blue-eyed—and all his mountains sweep the skies: butweshould be modest and simple.

It was not until Macaulay had done his last work upon the book (still incomplete) which he counted his monument, that he moved away from his bachelor quarters in the Albany (Piccadilly) and established himself at Holly Lodge, which, under the new name (he gave it) of Oirlie Lodge, may be found upon a winding lane in that labyrinth of city roads that lies betweenKensington Gardens and Holland House. There was a bit of green lawn attached, which he came to love in those last days of his; though he had been without strong rural proclivities. Like Gibbon, he never hunted, never fished, rarely rode. But now and then—among the thorn-trees reddening into bloom and the rhododendrons bursting their buds, the May mornings were “delicious” to him. He enjoyed, too, overmuch, the modest hospitalities he could show in a home of his own. There are joyfully turned notes—in his journal or in his familiar letters—of “a goose for Michaelmas,” and of “a chine and oysters for Christmas eve,” and “excellent audit ale” on Lord Mayor’s day. There, too, at Holly Lodge, comes to him in August, 1857, when he was very sad about India (as all the world were), an offer of a peerage. He accepts it, as he had accepted all the good things of life—cheerily and squarely, and was thenceforward Baron Macaulay of Rothley. He appears from time to time on the benches of the Upper House, but never spoke there. His speaking days were over. A little unwonted fluttering of the heart warned him that the end was not far off.

A visit to the English lakes and to Scotland in 1859 did not—as was hoped—give him access of strength. He was much disturbed, too (at this crisis), by the prospect of a long separation from his sister, Lady Trevelyan—whose husband had just now been appointed Governor of Madras. “This prolonged parting,” he says, “this slow sipping of the vinegar and the gall is terrible!” And the parting came earlier than he thought, and easier; for on a day of December in the same year he died in his library chair. His nephew and biographer had left him in the morning—sitting with his head bent forward on his chest—an attitude not unusual for him—in a languid and drowsy reverie. In the evening, a little before seven, Lady Trevelyan was summoned, and the biographer says:—“As we drove up to the porch of my uncle’s house, the maids ran crying into the darkness to meet us; and we knew that all was over.”

He was not an old man—only fifty-nine. The stone which marks his grave in Westminster Abbey is very near to the statue of Addison.

In estimating our indebtedness to Macaulay asa historian—where his fame and execution were largest—we must remember that his method of close detail forbade wide outlook or grasp of long periods of time. If he had extended the same microscopic examination and dramatic exhibit of important personages to those succeeding reigns, which he originally intended to cover—coming down to the days of William IV.—he would have required fifty volumes; and if he had attempted, in the same spirit, a reach like that of Green or Hume, his rhetorical periods must have overflowed more than two hundred bulky quartos! No ordinary man could read such; and—thank Heaven!—no extraordinary man could write so many.

Among those who sought with a delightsome pertinacity for flaws in the historic work of Macaulay, in his own time, was John Wilson Croker, to whom I have already alluded.[86]He was an older man than the historian; Irish by birth, handsome, well-allied by marriage, plausible, fawning on the great (who were ofhisparty) wearingeasily and boastfully his familiarity with Wellington, Lansdowne and Cumberland, airing daintily his literary qualities at the tables of Holland or Peel; proud of his place in Parliament, where he loved to show a satiric grace of speech, and the curled lips of one used to more elegant encounters. In short, he was the very man to light up the blazing contempt of such another as Macaulay; more than all since Croker was identified with the worst form of Toryism, and the other always his political antagonist.

Such being theanimusof the parties, one can imagine the delight of Croker in detecting a blunder of Macaulay, and the delight of Macaulay when he was able to pounce upon the blunders in Croker’s edition ofBoswell’s Johnson. This was on many counts an excellent work and—with its emendations—holds its ground now; but I think the slaps, and the scourgings, and the derisive mockery which the critic dealt out to the self-poised and elegant Croker have made a highly appetizingsauce piquantefor the book these many a year. For my own part, I never enjoy it half so much as when I think of Macaulay’srod of discipline “starting the dust out of the varlet’s [editor’s] jacket.”

It is not a question if Croker deserved this excoriation; we are so taken up with the dexterity and effectiveness with which the critical professor uses the surgeon’s knife, that we watch the operation, and the exceeding grace and ease with which he lays bare nerve after nerve, without once inquiring if the patient is really in need of such heroic treatment.

The Croker Papers[87]—two ponderous volumes of letters and diary which have been published in these latter years—have good bits in them; but they are rare bits, to be dredged for out from quagmires of rubbish. The papers are interesting, furthermore, as showing how a cleverish man, with considerable gifts of presence and of brain, with his re-actionary Toryism dominant, and made a fetich of, can still keep a good digestion and go in a respectable fashion through a long life—backwards, instead of “face to the front.”

In this connection it is difficult to keep out ofmind that other Toryish administrator of theQuarterlybombardments of reform and of Liberalists—I mean Lockhart (to whom reference has already been made in the present volume), and who, with all of Croker’s personal gifts, added to these a still larger scorn than that of his elder associate in the Quarterly conclaves, for those whose social disabilities disqualified them for breathing the rarefied air which circulated about Albemarle Street and the courts of Mr. Murray. Even Mr. Lang in his apologetic but very interesting story of Lockhart’s life,[88]cannot forbear quiet reprehensive allusions to that critic’s odious way of making caustic allusion to “the social rank” of political opponents; although much of this he avers “is said in wrath.” Yet it is an unworthy wrath, always and everywhere, which runs in those directions. Lockhart, though an acute critic, and a very clever translator, was a supreme worshipper of “conditions,” rather than of qualities. He never forgave Americans for being Americans, and never preter-mitted his wrathy exposition of their‘low-lived antecedents’ socially. The baronetcy of his father-in-law, Sir Walter Scott, was I think, a perpetual and beneficent regalement to him.

Must it be said that the jolly story-teller of the sea and of the sea-ports, who wrote for our uncles and aunts, and elder brothers, the brisk, rollicking tales aboutMidshipman Easy, andJaphet in Search of a Father, is indeed gone by?

His name was Frederick Marryat,[89]the son of a well-to-do London gentleman, who had served the little Borough of Sandwich as member of Parliament (and was also author of some verses and political tractates), but who did not wean his boy from an inborn love of the sea. To gratify this love the boy had sundry adventurous escapades; but when arrived at the mature age of fourteen, he entered as midshipman in the Royal Navy—hisfirst service, and a very active one, being with that brave and belligerent Lord Cochrane, who later won renown on the west coast of South America. Adventures of most hazardous and romantic qualities were not wanting under such an officer, all of which were stored in the retentive memory of the enthusiastic and observant midshipman, and thereafter, for years succeeding, were strewn with a free hand over his tales of the sea. These break a good many of the rules of rhetoric—and so do sailors; they have to do with the breakage of nearly all the commandments—and so do sailors. But they are breezy; they are always pushing forward; spars and sails are all ship-shape; and so are the sailors’ oaths, and the rattle of the chain-cables, and the slatting of the gaskets, and the smell of the stews from the cook’s galley.

There is also a liberal andquasidemocratic coloring of the links and interludes of his novels. The trials ofPeter Simplegrow largely out of the cruel action of the British laws of primogeniture; nor does the jolly midshipman—grandson, or nephew—forego his satiric raps at my lord “Privilege.” Yet Marryat shows no special admirationfor such evolutions of the democratic problem as he encounters in America.[90]

Upon the whole, one finds no large or fine literary quality in his books; but thefunin them is positive, and catching—as our aunts and uncles used to find it; but it is the fun of the tap-room, and of the for’castle, rather than of the salon, or the library. For all this, scores and scores of excellent old people were shaking their sides—in the early part of this century—over the pages of Captain Marryat—in the days when other readers with sighs were bemoaning the loss of the “Great Magician’s” power in the dreary story ofCount Robert of Paris, or kindling into a new worship as they followed Ainsworth’s[91]vivid narrative of Dick Turpin’s daring gallop from London to York.

A nearer name to us, and one perhaps more familiar, is that of G. P. R. James,[92]an excellent,industrious man, who drove his trade of novel-making—as our engineers drive wells—with steam, and pistons, and borings, and everlasting clatter.

Yet,—is this sharp, irreverent mention, wholly fair to the old gentleman, upon whose confections, and pastries, so many of us have feasted in times past? What a delight it was—not only for youngsters, but for white-haired judges, and country lawyers—to listen for the jingle of the spurs, when one of Mr. James’s swarthy knights—“with a grace induced by habits of martial exercise”—came dashing into old country quietudes, with his visor up; or, perhaps in “a Genoa bonnet of black velvet, round which his rich chestnut hair coiled in profusion”—making the welkin ring with his—“How now, Sir Villain!”

I caught sight of this great necromancer of “miniver furs,” and mantua-making chivalry—inyoungish days, in the city of New York—where he was making a little over-ocean escape from the multitudinous work that flowed from him at home; a well-preserved man, of scarce fifty years, stout, erect, gray-haired, and with countenance blooming with mild uses of mild English ale—kindly, unctuous—showing no signs of deep thoughtfulness or of harassing toil. I looked him over, in boyish way, for traces of the court splendors I had gazed upon, under his ministrations, but saw none; nor anything of the “manly beauty of features, rendered scarcely less by a deep scar upon the forehead,”—nor “of the gray cloth doublets slashed with purple;” a stanch, honest, amiable, well-dressed Englishman—that was all.

And yet, what delights he had conjured for us! Shall we be ashamed to name them, or to confess it all? Shall the modern show of new flowerets of fiction, and of lilies—forced to the front in January—make us forget utterly the old cinnamon roses, and the homely but fragrant pinks, which once regaled and delighted us, in the April and May of our age?

What incomparable siestas those were, when, from between half-closed eyelids, we watched for the advent of the two horsemen—one in corselet of shining silver, inlaid with gold, and the other with hauberk of bright steel rings—slowly riding down the distant declivity, under the rays of a warm, red sunset! Then, there were abundance of gray castle-walls—ever so high, the ivy hanging deliciously about them; and there were clanging chains of draw-bridges, that rattled when a good knight galloped over; and there were stalwart gypsies lying under hedges, with charmingest of little ones with flaxen hair (who are not gypsies at all, but only stolen); and there is clash of arms; and there are bad men, who get punched with spear heads—which is good for them; and there are jolly old burghers who drink beer, and “troll songs”; and assassins who lurk in the shadows of long corridors—where the moonbeams shine upon their daggers; and there are dark-haired young women, who look out of casements and kiss their hands and wave white kerchiefs,—and somebody sees it in the convenient edge of the wood, and salutes in return, and steals away; and the assassinescapes, and the gypsies are captured in the bush, and some bad king is killed, and an old parchment is found, and the stars come out, and the rivulet murmurs, and the good knight comes back; and the dark tresses are at the casement, and she smiles, and the marriage bells ring, and they are happy. And the school bell (for supper) rings, and we are happy!

As I close this book with these last shadowy glimpses of story-tellers, who have told their pleasant tales, and have lived out their time, and gone to rest, I see lifting over that fair British horizon, where Victoria shows her queenly presence—the modest Mr. Pickwick, with his gaiters and bland expanse of figure; Thackeray, too, with his stalwart form and spectacled eyes is peering out searchingly upon all he encounters; the refined face of Ruskin is also in evidence, and his easy magniloquence is covering one phase of British art with new robes. A woman’s Dantesque profile shows the striking qualities which are fairly mated by the striking passages inAdam BedeandDaniel Deronda; one catches sight, too, of the shaggy,keen visage of the quarrel-loving Carlyle, and of those great twin-brethren of poesy—Browning and Tennyson—the Angelo and the Raphael of latter images in verse. Surely these make up a wonderful grouping of names—not unworthy of comparison with those others whom we found many generations ago, grouped around another great queen of England, who blazed in her royal court, and flaunted her silken robes, and—is gone.

[1]Robert Southey, b. 1774; d. 1843.Joan of Arc(pub.) 1796;Thalaba, 1801;A Vision of Judgment, 1821;Life of Nelson, 1813;The Doctor, 1834-47.Life and Correspondence, edited by Rev. Chas. Cuthbert Southey, 1849-50.[2]In a letter to his friend Bedford (he being then aged fifty) he writes: “I have taken again to my old coat and old shoes; dine at the reasonable hour of four; enjoy, as I used to do, the wholesome indulgence of a nap after dinner,” etc.[3]Letter to Bedford, under date of December, 1793.—Life and Correspondence, p. 69.[4]In theImaginary Conversationbetween Southey and Porson, Landor makes Porson say: “It is pleasant to find two poets [Southey and Wordsworth] living as brothers, and particularly when the palm lies between them, with hardly a third in sight.”Lamb, too, in a letter to Mr. Coleridge (p. 194, Moxon edition of 1832, London), says: “On the whole, I expect Southey one day to rival Milton; I already deem him equal to Cowper, and superior to all living poets besides.” This isaproposofJoan of Arc, which had then recently appeared. He begins his letter: “WithJoan of ArcI have been delighted, amazed; I had not presumed to expect anything of such excellence from Southey.”[5]George IV. was appointed Regent in the year 1811, the old king, George III., being then plainly so far bereft of his senses as to incapacitate him even for intelligent clerical service. He died, as we shall find later, in the year 1820, when the Regent succeeded, and reigned for ten years.TheCroker Papers(1884), recently published, make mention of Mr. Croker’s intervention in the matter of the bestowal of the Laureate-ship upon Southey. Croker was an old friend of Southey, and a trusted go-between in all literary service for the royal household.[6]The sixth and seventh volumes appeared after the poet’s death, in 1847.[7]Henry Crabb Robinson, b. 1775; d. 1867.Diary, Reminiscences, etc. (ed. by Sadler), 1869.[8]Best edition is that of Macmillan, London, 1869.[9]Thomas De Quincey, b. 1785; d. 1859.Confessions of an English Opium Eater, 1821. Complete edition of works, 1852-55.Life and Writings: H. A. Page, 2 vols. London, 1877.[10]The entry is of 1812, p. 391, chap. xv. Macmillan’s edition. London, 1869.[11]Page 215; vol. ii.,Reminiscences. Boston Edition.[12]John Wilson, b. 1785; d. 1854; better known as Christopher North, his pseudonym inBlackwood.The Isle of Palms, 1811;The City of the Plague, 1816;Recreations of Christopher North, 1842. In 1851 a civil-list pension of £300 was conferred upon him. His younger brother James Wilson was a well-known naturalist, and author ofThe Rod and the Gun.[13]“Old North and Young North.”Blackwood, June, 1828.[14]Dorothy Wordsworth, under date of 1809, writes to her friend, Lady Beaumont—“Surely I have spoken to you of Mr. Wilson, a young man of some fortune, who has built a house in a very fine situation not far from Bowness.… He has from boyhood been a passionate admirer of my brother’s writings. [And again.] We all, including Mr. De Quincey and Coleridge, have been to pay the Bachelor (Wilson) a visit, and we enjoyed ourselves very much in a pleasant mixture of merriment, and thoughtful discourse.… He is now twenty-three years of age.”—ColeortonLetters, vol. ii, p. 91.[15]John Gibson Lockhart, b. 1794; d. 1854. Connected withBlackwood, 1818;Adam Blair, 1822; withQuarterly Review, 1826-53;Ancient Spanish Ballads, 1823;Memoirs of Walter Scott, 1836-38. RecentLife of Lockhart, by Andrew Lang. 2 vols., 8vo. Nimmo, London.[16]Mrs. Gordon says, quoting from her mother’s record: Mr. Wilson is as busy studying as possible; indeed, he has little time before him for his great task; he says it will take one month at least to make out a catalogue of the books he has to read and consult. I am perfectly appalled when I go into the dining-room and see all the folios, quartos, and duodecimos, with which it is literally filled; and the poor culprit himself sitting in the midst, with a beard as long and red as an ancient carrot; for he has not shaved for a fortnight. P. 215,Memoir of John Wilson. We are sorry to see that Mr. Lang, in his recentLife of Lockhart(1897), pp. 135-6-7-8, has put some disturbing cross-coloring (perhaps justly) upon the pleasant portrait which Mrs. Gordon has drawn of Christopher North.[17]Mrs. Gordon’sMemoir of John Wilson, p. 222. The statement is credited to the author ofThe Two Cosmos. Middleton, New York, 1863.[18]Thomas Campbell, b. 1777; d. 1844.The Pleasures of Hope, 1799;Gertrude of Wyoming, 1809;Life of Petrarch, 1841; Dr. Beattie’sLife, 1850.[19]Maclise Portrait Gallery, London, 1883 (which cites in confirmation,Notes and Queries, December 13, 1862).[20]De Quincey says that he was the only man in all Europe who quoted Wordsworth as early as 1802. Yet,per contra, theLyrical Balladshad warm praises from Jeffrey (inMonthly Review) and from Southey (inCritical)—showing that the finer ears had caught the new notes from Helicon.[21]Walter Scott, b. 1771; d. 1832;Lay of Last Minstrel, 1805;Marmion, 1808;Lady of the Lake, 1810;Waverley, 1814;Woodstock, 1826;Life of Napoleon, 1827;Life, by Lockhart, 1832-37.[22]He was clerk in Her Majesty’s Foreign Office in London. Carlyle says in a letter (of date of 1842), “I have the liveliest impression of that good honest Scotch face and character, though never in contact with the young man but once.”—Lang’sLockhart, p. 232, vol. ii.[23]For those readers who have a failing for genealogic quests, I give arésuméof the Scott family history and succession of heirs to Abbotsford. The earlier items are from Scott’s black-letter Bible.Walter Scott, Senior, m. 1758 = Anne Rutherford. | +------------+ | Walter Scott, Bart., b. 1771; d. 1832; m. 1797 = Margaret Charlotte one of twelve children, | Carpenter, of French of whom five | blood and birth. reached maturity. | | +-----------------+---------+--------+-------------+ | | | | Charlotte Sophia, Walter, Br. Army, Anne, bapt. Charles, bapt. 1799; d. bapt. 1801; m. 1803; d. bapt. 1805; d. 1837; m. 1820 1825, Miss Jobson; unmarried unmarried 1841. = J. G. Lockhart. d. s. p. 1847. 1833. | +----+----------------+---------------------+ | | | John Hugh, Walter Scott, Charlotte, b. 1828; d. 1858 b. 1821; d. b. 1826; d. m. 1847, J. R. Hope, 1831. unmarried later Hope Scott. 1853. | | +--------------------------------+ | Mary Monica, b. 1852; now Mrs. Maxwell Scott, of Abbotsford.[24]Chapter IV.Queen Anne and the Georges.[25]Lockhart’sLife of Scott, chapter viii., pp. 126-27, vol. iii., Paris edition.[26]Henry Mackenzie, b. 1745; d. 1831.Man of Feeling, 1771;The Lounger, 1785.[27]Rev. Sydney Smith, b. 1771; d. 1845.Memoirby Lady Holland.[28]Francis Horner, b. 1778; d. 1817.Memoirs and Correspondence, 1843.[29]Henry Brougham (Lord Brougham and Vaux), b. 1778; d. 1868.Collected Speeches, 1838.Historic Sketches, etc., 1839-43. Autobiography (edited by a brother), published in 1871.[30]Albert Lunel; or The Château of Languedoc.Lowndes (Bohn) says—“3 vols. post 8vo, 1844. This novel was suppressed on the eve of publication, and it is said not above five copies of the original edition are extant.” TheMaclise Portrait Galleryspeaks of an issue in 1872.[31]Life and Correspondence of Lord Jeffrey, by Lord Cockburn, p. 283, vol. i., Harper’s edition.[32]A grandniece of the great marplot John Wilkes of George III.’s time, and a near connection (if I am not mistaken) of Captain Wilkes of the South Sea Expedition and of the Mason and Slidell seizure.[33]Cited from recollection; but very close to his own utterance, in a letter to a friend.[34]This was arranged through Lord Grey, in exchange for a place in Bristol Cathedral, which had been bestowed by his Tory friend Lyndhurst. To the same friend he was indebted for his living at Combe Fleurey.[35]Life and Times of Rev. Sydney Smith, byStuart J. Reid, p. 226, 1885.[36]James Mackintosh, b. 1765; d. 1832;Vindiciæ Gallicæ(reply to Burke), 1791;Memoirs, by his son, 1835.[37]History of the Revolution in England in 1688, Comprising a View of the Reign of James II. from his Accession to the Enterprise [sic] of the Prince of Orange, London, 1834.[38]Smith, Jeffrey, Brown, Horner, and Brougham. Stephens:Hours in a Library, iii., 140.The “Brown” alluded to as one of the founders, was Dr. Thomas Brown, a distinguished physician and psychologist (b. 1778; d. 1820), who after issue of third number of theReview, had differences with Jeffrey (virtual editor) which led him to withdraw his support.Life, by Welsh, p. 79et seq.[39]I cannot forbear giving—though only in a note—one burst of his fervid oratory, when his powers were at their best:“It was the boast of Augustus—it formed part of the glare in which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost—that he found Rome of brick, and left it of marble—a praise not unworthy of a great prince, and to which the present reign [George IV.] has its claim also. But how much nobler will be our Sovereign’s boast, when he shall have it to say, that he found law dear and left it cheap; found it a sealed book, and left it a living letter; found it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression, left it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence.” Speech, onPresent State of the Law, February 7, 1828.[40]William Gifford, b. 1757; d. 1826. I give the birth-date named by himself in his autobiography, though the newNational Dictionary of Biographygives date of 1756. Gifford—though not always the best authority—ought to have known the year when he was born.Ed.Quarterly Review, 1809-1824;Juvenal, 1802;Ben Jonson, 1816.Some interesting matter concerning the early life of Gifford may be found in Memoirs ofJohn Murray, vol. 1, pp. 127et seq.[41]John Wilson Croker, b. 1780; d. 1857, wrote voluminously for theQuarterly Review;Life of Johnson(ed.), 1831; hisMemoirsandCorrespondence, 1885.[42]Very much piquant talk about George IV. and his friends may be found in theJournal of Mary Frampion from 1779 until 1846. London: Sampson Low & Co., 1885.[43]English Lands and Letters, vol. iii., pp. 168-70.[44]Queen Charlotte, d. 1818.[45]W. S. Landor, b. 1775; d. 1864.Gebir, 1798;Imaginary Conversations, 1824; Foster’sLife, 1869.[46]P. 465.Last Fruit from an Old Tree.[47]Colvin cites this from unpublished verses.[48]In hisLast Fruits from an Old Tree, p. 334, Moxon Edition, Landor writes: “Southey could grasp great subjects and master them; Coleridge never attempted them; Wordsworth attempted it and failed.” This is stronglyex parte![49]I would strongly urge, however, the reading and purchase, if may be, of Colvin’s charming littleGolden Treasurycollection from Landor.[50]Leigh Hunt, b. 1784; d. 1859.Francesca da Rimini, 1816;Recollections of Byron, 1828;The Indicator, 1819-21;Autobiography, 1850.[51]Thomas Moore, b. 1779; d. 1852.Lalla Rookh, 1817.Life of Byron, 1830.Alciphron, 1839.[52]Sloperton was near the centre of Wiltshire, a little way northward from the old market-town of Devizes. Mr. William Winter, in hisGray Days and Gold, has given a very charming account of this home of Moore’s and of its neighborhood—so full of English atmosphere, and of the graces and benignities of the Irish poet, as to make me think regretfully of my tamer mention.[53]William Hazlitt, b. 1778; d. 1830.Characters of Shakespeare, 1817;Table Talk, 1821;Liber Amoris, 1823;Life of Napoleon, 1828;Life(by Grandson), 1867; a later book of memoirs,Four Generations of a Literary Family, appeared 1897. (It gave nothing essentially new, and was quickly withdrawn from sale.)[54]Henry Hallam, b. 1777; d. 1859.Middle Ages, 1818.Literature of Europe, 1837-39. Sketch ofLife, by Dean Milman inTransactions of Royal Society, vol. x.[55]Marguerite Power (Countess of Blessington), b. 1789; d. 1849; m. Captain Farmer, 1804; m. Earl of Blessington, 1817. 1822-1829, travelling on Continent.Idler in Italy, 1839-40 (first novel, about 1833).Conversations with Lord Byron, 1834. Her specialreignin London, 1831 to 1848.[56]There is a very interesting, but by no means flattered, account of Lady Blessington and of her dinners and receptions in Greville’sJournal of the Reign of Queen Victoria, chapter iv., p. 167, vol. i.[57]Edward L. Bulwer (Lord Lytton), b. 1803; d. 1873;Pelham, 1828;Rienzi, 1835;Caxton Novels, 1849-53;Richelieu, 1839; hisBiography(never fully completed) has been written by his son, the second Lord Lytton. It is doubtful, however, if its developments, and inevitable counter-developments, have brought any access of honor to the elder Bulwer.[58]Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield), b. 1804; d. 1881.Vivian Grey, 1826-27;Contarini Fleming, 1832;Coningsby, 1844;Lothair, 1870. Was Premier, 1867, 1874-80. Created Earl of Beaconsfield, 1876.[59]Vaurien, 1797;Flim-Flams, 1805;Despotism, orFall of the Jesuits, 1811.[60]A. E. Chalon, an artist much in vogue in the days of “Tokens,”—who also painted Lady Blessington,—but of no lasting reputation.[61]In illustration of his comparatively humble position early, Greville in his laterJournal, Chapter XXIV., speaks of Disraeli’s once proposing to Moxon, the publisher, to take him (Disraeli) into partnership; Greville says Moxon told him this.[62]George Noel Gordon (Lord Byron), b. (London) 1788; d. (Greece) 1824.Hours of Idleness, 1807;English Bards, etc., 1809;Childe Harold(2 cantos), 1812;Don Juan, 1819-24; Moore’sLife, 1830; Trelawney,Recollections, etc., 1858. The first volume (Macmillan, 1897) has appeared of a new edition of Byron’s works, with voluminous notes (in over-fine print) by William Ernest Henley. The editorial stand-point may be judged by this averment from the preface,—“the sole English poet bred since Milton to live a master-influence in the world at large.”Another full edition of works, with editing by Earl of Lovelace (grandson of Byron), is announced as shortly to appear from the press of Murray in London, and of Scribners in New York.[63]Byron’sNarrative, published in the first volume ofHawkesworth’s Collection. Hon. John Byron, Admiral, etc., was at one time Governor of Newfoundland; b. 1723; d. 1786.[64]The short line is not enough. We must give the burden of that apostrophe to the land of Hellas, though only in a note:“Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields;Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled,And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields.There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds,The free-born wanderer of the mountain air;Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,Still in his beams Mendeli’s marbles glare,Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair.”[65]I cite that part of the “Dream” which, though written much time after, was declared by the poet, and by both friends and foes, to represent faithfully his attitude—both moral and physical—on the occasion of his marriage.[66]This poem appeared about the middle of April, 1816. The final break in his relations with Lady Byron had occurred, probably, in early February of the same year. On December 10, 1815, his daughter Ada was born; and on April 25th, next ensuing, he sailed away from England forever. Byron insisted that the poem (“Fare thee well”), though written in sincerity, was published against his inclinations, through the over-zeal of a friend.—Moore’s Life, p. 526, vol. i.[67]Percy Bysshe Shelley, b. 1792; d. (by drowning in Gulf of Spezia) 1822.Queen Mab, pub. 1821 (but privately printed 1813);Alastor, 1816;Laon and Cythna(afterwardRevolt of Islam), 1818;Adonais, 1821.Life, by Mrs. Shelley, 1845; Hogg’sLife, 1858; Rossetti’s, 1870. Besides which there is biographic material, more or less full, by Forman, Trelawny, McCarthy, Leigh Hunt, Garnett, and Jeaffreson (Real Shelley).Life, inEnglish Men of Letters, by the late John Addington Symonds; and in 1886, Professor Dowden’s work.[68]Rossetti, inEncy. Britannica, says, “in Christ Church, Newark”—as to which item (repeated by Dowden) there has been some American wonderment![69]July, 1804, to July, 1810;Athenæum, No. 3,006, June, 1885.[70]William Godwin, b. 1756; d. 1836.Political Justice, 1793;Caleb Williams, 1794. William Austen (author ofPeter Rugg), in hisLetters from London, 1802-3, describes a visit to Godwin at his cottage—Somerston; notices a portrait of “Mary” (Mrs. Shelley) hanging over the mantel.[71]Miss Martineau (p. 304, vol. ii.,Autobiography) says that Godwin told her he wrote the first half ofCaleb Williamsin three months, and then stopped for six—finishing it in three more. “This pause,” she says, “in the middle of a work so intense, seems to me a remarkable incident.”[72]Separation took place about the middle of June, 1814; she destroyed herself, November 10, 1816. At one time there had been ugly rumors that she was untrue to him; and there is some reason to believe that Shelley once entertained this belief, but there is no adequate testimony to that end; Godwin’sdixitshould not count for very much. Dowden leaves the matter in doubt.[73]I am reminded that Macready’s impersonation of Werner was a noted and successful one.Sardanapalusand theTwo Foscarienlisted also the fervor of this actor’s dramatic indorsement. But these all—needed a Macready.[74]Very full account of the Chancery proceedings in respect to children of Shelley may be found in Professor Dowden’s biography. By this it would appear that by decision of Lord Eldon (July 25, 1818) Shelley was allowed to see his children twelve times a year—if in the presence of their regularly appointed guardians (Dr. and Mrs. Hume).[75]John Keats, b. 1795; d. 1821. First “collected”Poems, 1817;Endymion, 1818; second volume of collectedPoems, 1820;Life and Letters—Lord Houghton (Milnes), 1848.[76]“Ode to a Nightingale,” vi.[77]In letter 573, to Murray (Halleck Col., date of Genoa, November, 1822), Byron says: “I see somebody represents the Hunts and Mrs. Shelley as living in my house; it is a falsehood.… I do not see them twice a month.”[78]Professor Hoppin, in his honest and entertainingOld England, speaks of it (p. 258) as “a dull, dirty village,” and—of the church—as “most forlorn.”[79]Gray Days and Gold; chapter viii. Macmillan, 1896.[80]This relates, of course, to the condition of the Abbey in the days of Byron’s childhood. Colonel Wildman, a distinguished officer in the Peninsular War, who succeeded to the ownership (by purchase) about 1817, expended very large sums upon such judicious improvements as took away its old look of desolation.[81]Croker Papers, chapter xviii. Closing of Session of 1833. Croker would have spoken more gently of him in those latter days, when the king turned his back on Reformers.[82]ThePenny Magazineappeared first in 1832; theCyclopædiain the following year.[83]The reduction of tax from 4d.to 1d.took place in 1836.[84]Thomas Babington Macaulay, b. 1800; d. 1859.History of England, 1848-55-61.Lays of Ancient Rome, 1842. HisEssays(published in America), 1840. CompleteWorks, London, 8 vols., 1866.Life, by Trevelyan, 1876.[85]Greville (Journal of Queen Victoria’s Time, vol. i., p. 369) speaks of a dinner at Lady Holland’s—Macaulay being present—when her ladyship, growing tired of the eloquence of Speakers of the House of Commons and Fathers of the Church, said: “Well, Mr. Macaulay, can you tell us anything of dolls—when first named or used?” Macaulay was ready on the instant—dilated upon Roman dolls and others—citing Persius, “Veneri donato a virgine puppæ.”[86]Seep. 116,Ante.[87]Memoirs and Correspondence, 1885.[88]Lang’sLockhart, p. 42, vol. ii.[89]Frederick Marryat, b. 1792; d. 1848; R. N., 1806; Commander, 1815; resigned, 1830.Frank Mildmay, 1829;Midshipman Easy, 1836;Peter Simple, 1837;Jacob Faithful, 1838;Life, by his daughter, Florence, 1872.[90]Diary in America, by Captain F. Marryat, 1839.[91]William Harrison Ainsworth, b 1805; d. 1882.Rookwood, 1834—chiefly notable for its wonderful description of Dick Turpin’s ride—upon Black Bess—from London to York.Tower of London, 1840.[92]G. P. R. James, b. 1801; d. 1860.Richelieu(first novel), 1829;Darnley, 1830;One in a Thousand, 1835;Attila, 1837. His books count far above a hundred in number: Lowndes (Bohn) gives over seventy titles of novels alone. What he might have done, with a modern type-writer at command, it is painful to imagine.

[2]In a letter to his friend Bedford (he being then aged fifty) he writes: “I have taken again to my old coat and old shoes; dine at the reasonable hour of four; enjoy, as I used to do, the wholesome indulgence of a nap after dinner,” etc.

[3]Letter to Bedford, under date of December, 1793.—Life and Correspondence, p. 69.

[4]In theImaginary Conversationbetween Southey and Porson, Landor makes Porson say: “It is pleasant to find two poets [Southey and Wordsworth] living as brothers, and particularly when the palm lies between them, with hardly a third in sight.”Lamb, too, in a letter to Mr. Coleridge (p. 194, Moxon edition of 1832, London), says: “On the whole, I expect Southey one day to rival Milton; I already deem him equal to Cowper, and superior to all living poets besides.” This isaproposofJoan of Arc, which had then recently appeared. He begins his letter: “WithJoan of ArcI have been delighted, amazed; I had not presumed to expect anything of such excellence from Southey.”

Lamb, too, in a letter to Mr. Coleridge (p. 194, Moxon edition of 1832, London), says: “On the whole, I expect Southey one day to rival Milton; I already deem him equal to Cowper, and superior to all living poets besides.” This isaproposofJoan of Arc, which had then recently appeared. He begins his letter: “WithJoan of ArcI have been delighted, amazed; I had not presumed to expect anything of such excellence from Southey.”

[5]George IV. was appointed Regent in the year 1811, the old king, George III., being then plainly so far bereft of his senses as to incapacitate him even for intelligent clerical service. He died, as we shall find later, in the year 1820, when the Regent succeeded, and reigned for ten years.TheCroker Papers(1884), recently published, make mention of Mr. Croker’s intervention in the matter of the bestowal of the Laureate-ship upon Southey. Croker was an old friend of Southey, and a trusted go-between in all literary service for the royal household.

TheCroker Papers(1884), recently published, make mention of Mr. Croker’s intervention in the matter of the bestowal of the Laureate-ship upon Southey. Croker was an old friend of Southey, and a trusted go-between in all literary service for the royal household.

[6]The sixth and seventh volumes appeared after the poet’s death, in 1847.

[7]Henry Crabb Robinson, b. 1775; d. 1867.Diary, Reminiscences, etc. (ed. by Sadler), 1869.

[8]Best edition is that of Macmillan, London, 1869.

[9]Thomas De Quincey, b. 1785; d. 1859.Confessions of an English Opium Eater, 1821. Complete edition of works, 1852-55.Life and Writings: H. A. Page, 2 vols. London, 1877.

[10]The entry is of 1812, p. 391, chap. xv. Macmillan’s edition. London, 1869.

[11]Page 215; vol. ii.,Reminiscences. Boston Edition.

[12]John Wilson, b. 1785; d. 1854; better known as Christopher North, his pseudonym inBlackwood.The Isle of Palms, 1811;The City of the Plague, 1816;Recreations of Christopher North, 1842. In 1851 a civil-list pension of £300 was conferred upon him. His younger brother James Wilson was a well-known naturalist, and author ofThe Rod and the Gun.

[13]“Old North and Young North.”Blackwood, June, 1828.

[14]Dorothy Wordsworth, under date of 1809, writes to her friend, Lady Beaumont—“Surely I have spoken to you of Mr. Wilson, a young man of some fortune, who has built a house in a very fine situation not far from Bowness.… He has from boyhood been a passionate admirer of my brother’s writings. [And again.] We all, including Mr. De Quincey and Coleridge, have been to pay the Bachelor (Wilson) a visit, and we enjoyed ourselves very much in a pleasant mixture of merriment, and thoughtful discourse.… He is now twenty-three years of age.”—ColeortonLetters, vol. ii, p. 91.

[15]John Gibson Lockhart, b. 1794; d. 1854. Connected withBlackwood, 1818;Adam Blair, 1822; withQuarterly Review, 1826-53;Ancient Spanish Ballads, 1823;Memoirs of Walter Scott, 1836-38. RecentLife of Lockhart, by Andrew Lang. 2 vols., 8vo. Nimmo, London.

[16]Mrs. Gordon says, quoting from her mother’s record: Mr. Wilson is as busy studying as possible; indeed, he has little time before him for his great task; he says it will take one month at least to make out a catalogue of the books he has to read and consult. I am perfectly appalled when I go into the dining-room and see all the folios, quartos, and duodecimos, with which it is literally filled; and the poor culprit himself sitting in the midst, with a beard as long and red as an ancient carrot; for he has not shaved for a fortnight. P. 215,Memoir of John Wilson. We are sorry to see that Mr. Lang, in his recentLife of Lockhart(1897), pp. 135-6-7-8, has put some disturbing cross-coloring (perhaps justly) upon the pleasant portrait which Mrs. Gordon has drawn of Christopher North.

[17]Mrs. Gordon’sMemoir of John Wilson, p. 222. The statement is credited to the author ofThe Two Cosmos. Middleton, New York, 1863.

[18]Thomas Campbell, b. 1777; d. 1844.The Pleasures of Hope, 1799;Gertrude of Wyoming, 1809;Life of Petrarch, 1841; Dr. Beattie’sLife, 1850.

[19]Maclise Portrait Gallery, London, 1883 (which cites in confirmation,Notes and Queries, December 13, 1862).

[20]De Quincey says that he was the only man in all Europe who quoted Wordsworth as early as 1802. Yet,per contra, theLyrical Balladshad warm praises from Jeffrey (inMonthly Review) and from Southey (inCritical)—showing that the finer ears had caught the new notes from Helicon.

[21]Walter Scott, b. 1771; d. 1832;Lay of Last Minstrel, 1805;Marmion, 1808;Lady of the Lake, 1810;Waverley, 1814;Woodstock, 1826;Life of Napoleon, 1827;Life, by Lockhart, 1832-37.

[22]He was clerk in Her Majesty’s Foreign Office in London. Carlyle says in a letter (of date of 1842), “I have the liveliest impression of that good honest Scotch face and character, though never in contact with the young man but once.”—Lang’sLockhart, p. 232, vol. ii.

[23]For those readers who have a failing for genealogic quests, I give arésuméof the Scott family history and succession of heirs to Abbotsford. The earlier items are from Scott’s black-letter Bible.Walter Scott, Senior, m. 1758 = Anne Rutherford. | +------------+ | Walter Scott, Bart., b. 1771; d. 1832; m. 1797 = Margaret Charlotte one of twelve children, | Carpenter, of French of whom five | blood and birth. reached maturity. | | +-----------------+---------+--------+-------------+ | | | | Charlotte Sophia, Walter, Br. Army, Anne, bapt. Charles, bapt. 1799; d. bapt. 1801; m. 1803; d. bapt. 1805; d. 1837; m. 1820 1825, Miss Jobson; unmarried unmarried 1841. = J. G. Lockhart. d. s. p. 1847. 1833. | +----+----------------+---------------------+ | | | John Hugh, Walter Scott, Charlotte, b. 1828; d. 1858 b. 1821; d. b. 1826; d. m. 1847, J. R. Hope, 1831. unmarried later Hope Scott. 1853. | | +--------------------------------+ | Mary Monica, b. 1852; now Mrs. Maxwell Scott, of Abbotsford.

Walter Scott, Senior, m. 1758 = Anne Rutherford. | +------------+ | Walter Scott, Bart., b. 1771; d. 1832; m. 1797 = Margaret Charlotte one of twelve children, | Carpenter, of French of whom five | blood and birth. reached maturity. | | +-----------------+---------+--------+-------------+ | | | | Charlotte Sophia, Walter, Br. Army, Anne, bapt. Charles, bapt. 1799; d. bapt. 1801; m. 1803; d. bapt. 1805; d. 1837; m. 1820 1825, Miss Jobson; unmarried unmarried 1841. = J. G. Lockhart. d. s. p. 1847. 1833. | +----+----------------+---------------------+ | | | John Hugh, Walter Scott, Charlotte, b. 1828; d. 1858 b. 1821; d. b. 1826; d. m. 1847, J. R. Hope, 1831. unmarried later Hope Scott. 1853. | | +--------------------------------+ | Mary Monica, b. 1852; now Mrs. Maxwell Scott, of Abbotsford.

[24]Chapter IV.Queen Anne and the Georges.

[25]Lockhart’sLife of Scott, chapter viii., pp. 126-27, vol. iii., Paris edition.

[26]Henry Mackenzie, b. 1745; d. 1831.Man of Feeling, 1771;The Lounger, 1785.

[27]Rev. Sydney Smith, b. 1771; d. 1845.Memoirby Lady Holland.

[28]Francis Horner, b. 1778; d. 1817.Memoirs and Correspondence, 1843.

[29]Henry Brougham (Lord Brougham and Vaux), b. 1778; d. 1868.Collected Speeches, 1838.Historic Sketches, etc., 1839-43. Autobiography (edited by a brother), published in 1871.

[30]Albert Lunel; or The Château of Languedoc.Lowndes (Bohn) says—“3 vols. post 8vo, 1844. This novel was suppressed on the eve of publication, and it is said not above five copies of the original edition are extant.” TheMaclise Portrait Galleryspeaks of an issue in 1872.

[31]Life and Correspondence of Lord Jeffrey, by Lord Cockburn, p. 283, vol. i., Harper’s edition.

[32]A grandniece of the great marplot John Wilkes of George III.’s time, and a near connection (if I am not mistaken) of Captain Wilkes of the South Sea Expedition and of the Mason and Slidell seizure.

[33]Cited from recollection; but very close to his own utterance, in a letter to a friend.

[34]This was arranged through Lord Grey, in exchange for a place in Bristol Cathedral, which had been bestowed by his Tory friend Lyndhurst. To the same friend he was indebted for his living at Combe Fleurey.

[35]Life and Times of Rev. Sydney Smith, byStuart J. Reid, p. 226, 1885.

[36]James Mackintosh, b. 1765; d. 1832;Vindiciæ Gallicæ(reply to Burke), 1791;Memoirs, by his son, 1835.

[37]History of the Revolution in England in 1688, Comprising a View of the Reign of James II. from his Accession to the Enterprise [sic] of the Prince of Orange, London, 1834.

[38]Smith, Jeffrey, Brown, Horner, and Brougham. Stephens:Hours in a Library, iii., 140.The “Brown” alluded to as one of the founders, was Dr. Thomas Brown, a distinguished physician and psychologist (b. 1778; d. 1820), who after issue of third number of theReview, had differences with Jeffrey (virtual editor) which led him to withdraw his support.Life, by Welsh, p. 79et seq.

[38]Smith, Jeffrey, Brown, Horner, and Brougham. Stephens:Hours in a Library, iii., 140.

The “Brown” alluded to as one of the founders, was Dr. Thomas Brown, a distinguished physician and psychologist (b. 1778; d. 1820), who after issue of third number of theReview, had differences with Jeffrey (virtual editor) which led him to withdraw his support.Life, by Welsh, p. 79et seq.

[39]I cannot forbear giving—though only in a note—one burst of his fervid oratory, when his powers were at their best:“It was the boast of Augustus—it formed part of the glare in which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost—that he found Rome of brick, and left it of marble—a praise not unworthy of a great prince, and to which the present reign [George IV.] has its claim also. But how much nobler will be our Sovereign’s boast, when he shall have it to say, that he found law dear and left it cheap; found it a sealed book, and left it a living letter; found it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression, left it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence.” Speech, onPresent State of the Law, February 7, 1828.

[39]I cannot forbear giving—though only in a note—one burst of his fervid oratory, when his powers were at their best:

“It was the boast of Augustus—it formed part of the glare in which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost—that he found Rome of brick, and left it of marble—a praise not unworthy of a great prince, and to which the present reign [George IV.] has its claim also. But how much nobler will be our Sovereign’s boast, when he shall have it to say, that he found law dear and left it cheap; found it a sealed book, and left it a living letter; found it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression, left it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence.” Speech, onPresent State of the Law, February 7, 1828.

[40]William Gifford, b. 1757; d. 1826. I give the birth-date named by himself in his autobiography, though the newNational Dictionary of Biographygives date of 1756. Gifford—though not always the best authority—ought to have known the year when he was born.Ed.Quarterly Review, 1809-1824;Juvenal, 1802;Ben Jonson, 1816.Some interesting matter concerning the early life of Gifford may be found in Memoirs ofJohn Murray, vol. 1, pp. 127et seq.

Ed.Quarterly Review, 1809-1824;Juvenal, 1802;Ben Jonson, 1816.

Some interesting matter concerning the early life of Gifford may be found in Memoirs ofJohn Murray, vol. 1, pp. 127et seq.

[41]John Wilson Croker, b. 1780; d. 1857, wrote voluminously for theQuarterly Review;Life of Johnson(ed.), 1831; hisMemoirsandCorrespondence, 1885.

[42]Very much piquant talk about George IV. and his friends may be found in theJournal of Mary Frampion from 1779 until 1846. London: Sampson Low & Co., 1885.

[43]English Lands and Letters, vol. iii., pp. 168-70.

[44]Queen Charlotte, d. 1818.

[45]W. S. Landor, b. 1775; d. 1864.Gebir, 1798;Imaginary Conversations, 1824; Foster’sLife, 1869.

[46]P. 465.Last Fruit from an Old Tree.

[47]Colvin cites this from unpublished verses.

[48]In hisLast Fruits from an Old Tree, p. 334, Moxon Edition, Landor writes: “Southey could grasp great subjects and master them; Coleridge never attempted them; Wordsworth attempted it and failed.” This is stronglyex parte!

[49]I would strongly urge, however, the reading and purchase, if may be, of Colvin’s charming littleGolden Treasurycollection from Landor.

[50]Leigh Hunt, b. 1784; d. 1859.Francesca da Rimini, 1816;Recollections of Byron, 1828;The Indicator, 1819-21;Autobiography, 1850.

[51]Thomas Moore, b. 1779; d. 1852.Lalla Rookh, 1817.Life of Byron, 1830.Alciphron, 1839.

[52]Sloperton was near the centre of Wiltshire, a little way northward from the old market-town of Devizes. Mr. William Winter, in hisGray Days and Gold, has given a very charming account of this home of Moore’s and of its neighborhood—so full of English atmosphere, and of the graces and benignities of the Irish poet, as to make me think regretfully of my tamer mention.

[53]William Hazlitt, b. 1778; d. 1830.Characters of Shakespeare, 1817;Table Talk, 1821;Liber Amoris, 1823;Life of Napoleon, 1828;Life(by Grandson), 1867; a later book of memoirs,Four Generations of a Literary Family, appeared 1897. (It gave nothing essentially new, and was quickly withdrawn from sale.)

[54]Henry Hallam, b. 1777; d. 1859.Middle Ages, 1818.Literature of Europe, 1837-39. Sketch ofLife, by Dean Milman inTransactions of Royal Society, vol. x.

[55]Marguerite Power (Countess of Blessington), b. 1789; d. 1849; m. Captain Farmer, 1804; m. Earl of Blessington, 1817. 1822-1829, travelling on Continent.Idler in Italy, 1839-40 (first novel, about 1833).Conversations with Lord Byron, 1834. Her specialreignin London, 1831 to 1848.

[56]There is a very interesting, but by no means flattered, account of Lady Blessington and of her dinners and receptions in Greville’sJournal of the Reign of Queen Victoria, chapter iv., p. 167, vol. i.

[57]Edward L. Bulwer (Lord Lytton), b. 1803; d. 1873;Pelham, 1828;Rienzi, 1835;Caxton Novels, 1849-53;Richelieu, 1839; hisBiography(never fully completed) has been written by his son, the second Lord Lytton. It is doubtful, however, if its developments, and inevitable counter-developments, have brought any access of honor to the elder Bulwer.

[58]Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield), b. 1804; d. 1881.Vivian Grey, 1826-27;Contarini Fleming, 1832;Coningsby, 1844;Lothair, 1870. Was Premier, 1867, 1874-80. Created Earl of Beaconsfield, 1876.

[59]Vaurien, 1797;Flim-Flams, 1805;Despotism, orFall of the Jesuits, 1811.

[60]A. E. Chalon, an artist much in vogue in the days of “Tokens,”—who also painted Lady Blessington,—but of no lasting reputation.

[61]In illustration of his comparatively humble position early, Greville in his laterJournal, Chapter XXIV., speaks of Disraeli’s once proposing to Moxon, the publisher, to take him (Disraeli) into partnership; Greville says Moxon told him this.

[62]George Noel Gordon (Lord Byron), b. (London) 1788; d. (Greece) 1824.Hours of Idleness, 1807;English Bards, etc., 1809;Childe Harold(2 cantos), 1812;Don Juan, 1819-24; Moore’sLife, 1830; Trelawney,Recollections, etc., 1858. The first volume (Macmillan, 1897) has appeared of a new edition of Byron’s works, with voluminous notes (in over-fine print) by William Ernest Henley. The editorial stand-point may be judged by this averment from the preface,—“the sole English poet bred since Milton to live a master-influence in the world at large.”Another full edition of works, with editing by Earl of Lovelace (grandson of Byron), is announced as shortly to appear from the press of Murray in London, and of Scribners in New York.

Another full edition of works, with editing by Earl of Lovelace (grandson of Byron), is announced as shortly to appear from the press of Murray in London, and of Scribners in New York.

[63]Byron’sNarrative, published in the first volume ofHawkesworth’s Collection. Hon. John Byron, Admiral, etc., was at one time Governor of Newfoundland; b. 1723; d. 1786.

[64]The short line is not enough. We must give the burden of that apostrophe to the land of Hellas, though only in a note:“Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields;Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled,And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields.There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds,The free-born wanderer of the mountain air;Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,Still in his beams Mendeli’s marbles glare,Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair.”

[64]The short line is not enough. We must give the burden of that apostrophe to the land of Hellas, though only in a note:

“Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields;Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled,And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields.There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds,The free-born wanderer of the mountain air;Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,Still in his beams Mendeli’s marbles glare,Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair.”

“Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields;

Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled,

And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields.

There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds,

The free-born wanderer of the mountain air;

Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,

Still in his beams Mendeli’s marbles glare,

Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair.”

[65]I cite that part of the “Dream” which, though written much time after, was declared by the poet, and by both friends and foes, to represent faithfully his attitude—both moral and physical—on the occasion of his marriage.

[66]This poem appeared about the middle of April, 1816. The final break in his relations with Lady Byron had occurred, probably, in early February of the same year. On December 10, 1815, his daughter Ada was born; and on April 25th, next ensuing, he sailed away from England forever. Byron insisted that the poem (“Fare thee well”), though written in sincerity, was published against his inclinations, through the over-zeal of a friend.—Moore’s Life, p. 526, vol. i.

[67]Percy Bysshe Shelley, b. 1792; d. (by drowning in Gulf of Spezia) 1822.Queen Mab, pub. 1821 (but privately printed 1813);Alastor, 1816;Laon and Cythna(afterwardRevolt of Islam), 1818;Adonais, 1821.Life, by Mrs. Shelley, 1845; Hogg’sLife, 1858; Rossetti’s, 1870. Besides which there is biographic material, more or less full, by Forman, Trelawny, McCarthy, Leigh Hunt, Garnett, and Jeaffreson (Real Shelley).Life, inEnglish Men of Letters, by the late John Addington Symonds; and in 1886, Professor Dowden’s work.

[68]Rossetti, inEncy. Britannica, says, “in Christ Church, Newark”—as to which item (repeated by Dowden) there has been some American wonderment!

[69]July, 1804, to July, 1810;Athenæum, No. 3,006, June, 1885.

[70]William Godwin, b. 1756; d. 1836.Political Justice, 1793;Caleb Williams, 1794. William Austen (author ofPeter Rugg), in hisLetters from London, 1802-3, describes a visit to Godwin at his cottage—Somerston; notices a portrait of “Mary” (Mrs. Shelley) hanging over the mantel.

[71]Miss Martineau (p. 304, vol. ii.,Autobiography) says that Godwin told her he wrote the first half ofCaleb Williamsin three months, and then stopped for six—finishing it in three more. “This pause,” she says, “in the middle of a work so intense, seems to me a remarkable incident.”

[72]Separation took place about the middle of June, 1814; she destroyed herself, November 10, 1816. At one time there had been ugly rumors that she was untrue to him; and there is some reason to believe that Shelley once entertained this belief, but there is no adequate testimony to that end; Godwin’sdixitshould not count for very much. Dowden leaves the matter in doubt.

[73]I am reminded that Macready’s impersonation of Werner was a noted and successful one.Sardanapalusand theTwo Foscarienlisted also the fervor of this actor’s dramatic indorsement. But these all—needed a Macready.

[74]Very full account of the Chancery proceedings in respect to children of Shelley may be found in Professor Dowden’s biography. By this it would appear that by decision of Lord Eldon (July 25, 1818) Shelley was allowed to see his children twelve times a year—if in the presence of their regularly appointed guardians (Dr. and Mrs. Hume).

[75]John Keats, b. 1795; d. 1821. First “collected”Poems, 1817;Endymion, 1818; second volume of collectedPoems, 1820;Life and Letters—Lord Houghton (Milnes), 1848.

[76]“Ode to a Nightingale,” vi.

[77]In letter 573, to Murray (Halleck Col., date of Genoa, November, 1822), Byron says: “I see somebody represents the Hunts and Mrs. Shelley as living in my house; it is a falsehood.… I do not see them twice a month.”

[78]Professor Hoppin, in his honest and entertainingOld England, speaks of it (p. 258) as “a dull, dirty village,” and—of the church—as “most forlorn.”

[79]Gray Days and Gold; chapter viii. Macmillan, 1896.

[80]This relates, of course, to the condition of the Abbey in the days of Byron’s childhood. Colonel Wildman, a distinguished officer in the Peninsular War, who succeeded to the ownership (by purchase) about 1817, expended very large sums upon such judicious improvements as took away its old look of desolation.

[81]Croker Papers, chapter xviii. Closing of Session of 1833. Croker would have spoken more gently of him in those latter days, when the king turned his back on Reformers.

[82]ThePenny Magazineappeared first in 1832; theCyclopædiain the following year.

[83]The reduction of tax from 4d.to 1d.took place in 1836.

[84]Thomas Babington Macaulay, b. 1800; d. 1859.History of England, 1848-55-61.Lays of Ancient Rome, 1842. HisEssays(published in America), 1840. CompleteWorks, London, 8 vols., 1866.Life, by Trevelyan, 1876.

[85]Greville (Journal of Queen Victoria’s Time, vol. i., p. 369) speaks of a dinner at Lady Holland’s—Macaulay being present—when her ladyship, growing tired of the eloquence of Speakers of the House of Commons and Fathers of the Church, said: “Well, Mr. Macaulay, can you tell us anything of dolls—when first named or used?” Macaulay was ready on the instant—dilated upon Roman dolls and others—citing Persius, “Veneri donato a virgine puppæ.”

[86]Seep. 116,Ante.

[87]Memoirs and Correspondence, 1885.

[88]Lang’sLockhart, p. 42, vol. ii.

[89]Frederick Marryat, b. 1792; d. 1848; R. N., 1806; Commander, 1815; resigned, 1830.Frank Mildmay, 1829;Midshipman Easy, 1836;Peter Simple, 1837;Jacob Faithful, 1838;Life, by his daughter, Florence, 1872.

[90]Diary in America, by Captain F. Marryat, 1839.

[91]William Harrison Ainsworth, b 1805; d. 1882.Rookwood, 1834—chiefly notable for its wonderful description of Dick Turpin’s ride—upon Black Bess—from London to York.Tower of London, 1840.

[92]G. P. R. James, b. 1801; d. 1860.Richelieu(first novel), 1829;Darnley, 1830;One in a Thousand, 1835;Attila, 1837. His books count far above a hundred in number: Lowndes (Bohn) gives over seventy titles of novels alone. What he might have done, with a modern type-writer at command, it is painful to imagine.

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