Sterne, for whose sake I plod through miry ways,Of antique wit and quibbling mazes drear,Let not thy shade malignant censure fear,Though aught of borrowed mirth my search betrays.Long slept that mirth in dust of ancient days,(Erewhile to Guise or wanton Valois dear;)Till waked by thee in Skelton's joyous pile,She flung on Tristram her capricious rays;But the quick tear that checks our wondering smile,In sudden pause or unexpected story,Owns thy true mastery—and Le Fever's woes,Maria's wanderings, and the Prisoner's throes,Fix thee conspicuous on the throne of glory.
Sterne, for whose sake I plod through miry ways,Of antique wit and quibbling mazes drear,Let not thy shade malignant censure fear,Though aught of borrowed mirth my search betrays.Long slept that mirth in dust of ancient days,(Erewhile to Guise or wanton Valois dear;)Till waked by thee in Skelton's joyous pile,She flung on Tristram her capricious rays;But the quick tear that checks our wondering smile,In sudden pause or unexpected story,Owns thy true mastery—and Le Fever's woes,Maria's wanderings, and the Prisoner's throes,Fix thee conspicuous on the throne of glory.
P. 315.Scott.—The modern poet is Crabbe, and the context will be found on p.340; Thalaba is the name of Southey's hero.
P. 319.Montaigne.—In another essay Montaigne tells us that his library for a country library could pass for a very fair one.
P. 320.Southey.—This extract is from Southey'sSir Thomas More; a book of colloquies between Southey himself, under the name of Montesinos, and the apparition of Sir T. More: who tells him that 'it is your lot, as it was mine, to live during one of the grand climacterics of the world', and that, 'I come to you, rather than to any other person, because you have been led to meditate upon the corresponding changes whereby your age and mine are distinguished, and because ... there are certain points of sympathy and resemblance which bring us into contact.' The colloquies are upon such subjects as the feudal and manufacturing systems, the Reformation, prospects of Europe, infidelity, trade.
Chartier was the French poet whose 'eternal glory' it was 'to have announced the mission of Jeanne d'Arc'.
'Here are God's conduits,' &c., is from the first of Donne'sSatires.
P. 324.Barton.—The Rev. John Mitford (1781-1859) formed a large library at Benham, where he also devoted himself to gardening.
P. 325.Bale.—'I was called to London to wait upon the Duke of Norfolk, who having at my sole request bestowed the Arundelian Library on the Royal Society, sent to me to take charge of the books and remove them.... I procured for our Society, besides printed books, near 100 MSS., some in Greek, of great concernment. The printed books being of the oldest impressions are not the less valuable; I esteem them almost equal to MSS. Amongst them are most of the Fathers printed at Basle, before the Jesuits abused them with their expurgatory Indexes; there is a noble MS. of Vitruvius. Many of these books had been presented by Popes, Cardinals, and great persons, to the Earls of Arundel and Dukes of Norfolk; and the late magnificent Earl of Arundel bought a noble library in Germany, which is in this collection. I should not, for the honour I bear the family, have persuaded the Duke to part with these, had I not seen how negligent he was of them, suffering the priests and everybody to carry away and dispose of what they pleased, so that abundance of rare things are irrecoverably gone.'—J. Evelyn(Diary, August 29, 1678.)
P. 326.Whittier.—Sung at the opening of the library at Haverhill, Mass.
P. 334.Helps.—Pope'sEssay on Man:
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined,The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined,The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.
The other allusions are to Johnson, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.
P. 337.Crabbe.—It is explained by Crabbe that while composing 'The Library' he 'was honoured with the notice and assisted bythe advice of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke: part of it was written in his presence, and the whole submitted to his judgement; receiving, in its progress, the benefit of his correction'. The poem was published in 1781.
P. 354.Saxe.—Aristophanes'The Clouds, ridiculing Socrates.
P. 355.Drummond.—Of Sir Thomas Bodley old Anthony Wood says: 'Though no writer, worth the remembrance, yet hath he been the greatest promoter of learning that hath yet appeared in our nation.'
It may be recalled that R. de Bury had a fine idea, although it did not fructify, to wit:—'We have for a long time held a rooted purpose in the inmost recesses of our mind, looking forward to a favourable time and divine aid, to found, in perpetual alms, and enrich with the necessary gifts, a certain Hall in the revered University of Oxford, the first nurse of all the liberal Arts; and further to enrich the same, when occupied by numerous scholars, with deposits of our books, so that the books themselves and every one of them may be made common as to use and study, not only to the scholars of the said Hall, but through them to all the students of the aforesaid University for ever.'
P. 357.Cowper.—'This ode,' Cowper states, 'is rendered without rhime, that it might more adequately represent the original, which, as Milton himself informs us, is of no certain measure. It may possibly for this reason disappoint the reader, though it cost the writer more labour than the translation of any other piece in the whole collection.'
P. 360.Cowley.—
Who now reads Cowley? if he pleases yet,His moral pleases, not his pointed wit.Forgot his epic, nay, Pindaric art!But still I love the language of his heart.—Pope.
Who now reads Cowley? if he pleases yet,His moral pleases, not his pointed wit.Forgot his epic, nay, Pindaric art!But still I love the language of his heart.—Pope.
P. 368.J. M.—It cannot escape observation that Bodley and his library has been a much more fruitful theme than the University of Cambridge. This is the only poem on the latter subject which I have been able to find; it is quoted in Edwards'sMemoirs of Libraries. Leigh Hunt has related his experiences in the library of Trinity College 'when the keeper of it was from home'; see p. 279.
P. 368.Whitelocke.—The authorship of this fine testimony is attributed to Whitelocke, but I have not traced it, by J. K. Hoyt and Anna L. Ward.