Elegy I.To Charles Deodati691II.On the Death of the University Beadle at Cambridge692III.On the Death of the Bishop of Winchester692IV.To his Tutor, Thomas Young693V.On the Approach of Spring694VI.To Charles Deodati695VII.696Epigrams. On the Inventor of Guns697To Leonora singing at Rome697To the same697The Cottager and his Landlord. A Fable697To Christina, Queen of Sweden, with Cromwell's Picture697On the Death of the Vice-Chancellor, a Physician697On the Death of the Bishop of Ely698Nature unimpaired by Time698On the Platonic Idea as it was understood by Aristotle699To his Father699To Salsillus, a Roman poet, much indisposed700To Giovanni Battista Manso, Marquis of Villa701On the Death of Damon701An Ode, addressed to Mr. John Rouse, Librarian of the University of Oxford704Sonnet—"Fair Lady! whose harmonious name"705Sonnet—"As on a hill-top rude, when closing day"705Canzone—"They mock my toil"705Sonnet—To Charles Deodati705Sonnet—"Lady! it cannot be but that thine eyes"705Sonnet—"Enamour'd, artless, young, on foreign ground"705Simile in Paradise Lost706Translation of Dryden's Epigram on Milton706
TRANSLATIONS FROM VINCENT BOURNE.
The Glowworm706The Jackdaw706The Cricket706The Parrot707The Thracian707Reciprocal Kindness the Primary Law of Nature707A Manual more ancient than the Art of Printing708An Enigma—"A needle, small as small can be"708Sparrows self-domesticated in Trinity Coll. Cambridge708Familiarity dangerous709Invitation to the Redbreast709Strada's Nightingale709Ode on the Death of a Lady who lived one hundred years709The Cause won710The Silkworm710The Innocent Thief710Denner's Old Woman710The Tears of a Painter710The Maze711No Sorrow peculiar to the Sufferer711The Snail711The Cantab711
TRANSLATIONS OF GREEK VERSES.
From the Greek of Julianus712On the same by Palladas712An Epitaph712Another712Another712Another712By Callimachus712On Miltiades712On an Infant712By Heraclides712On the Reed712To Health712On Invalids713On the Astrologers713On an Old Woman713On Flatterers713On a true Friend713On the Swallow713On late acquired Wealth713On a Bath, by Plato713On a Fowler, by Isidorus713On Niobe713On a good Man713On a Miser713Another713Another713On Female Inconstancy714On the Grasshopper714On Hermocratia714From Menander714On Pallas bathing, from a Hymn of Callimachus714To Demosthenes714On a similar Character714On an ugly Fellow714On a battered Beauty714On a Thief714On Pedigree715On Envy715By Moschus715By Philemon715
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE FABLES OF GAY.
Lepus multis Amicus715Avarus et Plutus716Papilio et Limax716
EPIGRAMS TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN OF OWEN.
On one ignorant and arrogant716Prudent Simplicity716To a Friend in Distress716Retaliation716"When little more than Boy in Age"717Sunset and Sunrise717
TRANSLATIONS FROM VIRGIL, OVID, HORACE, AND HOMER.
The Salad, by Virgil717Translation from Virgil, Æneid, Book VIII. Line 18718Ovid. Trist. Book V. Eleg. XII.721Hor. Book I. Ode IX.722Hor. Book I. Ode XXXVIII.722Hor. Book II. Ode X.722A Reflection on the foregoing Ode722Hor. Book II. Ode XVI.723The Fifth Satire of the First Book of Horace723The Ninth Satire of the First Book of Horace725Translation of an Epigram from Homer726
COWPER'S LATIN POEMS.
Montes Glaciales, in Oceano Germanico natantes726On the Ice Islands seen floating in the German Ocean727Monumental Inscription to William Northcot727Translation727In Seditionem Horrendam727Translation727Motto on a Clock, with Translation by Hayley728A Simile Latinised728On the Loss of the Royal George728In Submersionem Navigii, cui Georgius Regale Nomen inditum728In Brevitatem Vitæ Spatii Hominibus concessi728On the Shortness of Human Life729The Lily and the Rose729Idem Latine redditum729The Poplar Field729Idem Latine redditum730Votum730Translation of Prior's Chloe and Euphelia730Verses to the Memory of Dr. Lloyd730The same in Latin730Papers, by Cowper, inserted in "The Connoisseur"731
The family ofCowperappears to have held, for several centuries, a respectable rank among the merchants and gentry of England. We learn from the life of the first Earl Cowper, in the Biographia Britannica, that his ancestors were inhabitants of Sussex, in the reign of Edward the Fourth. The name is found repeatedly among the sheriffs of London; and William Cowper, who resided as a country gentleman in Kent, was created a baronet by King Charles the First, in 1641.[3]But the family rose to higher distinction in the beginning of the last century, by the remarkable circumstance of producing two brothers, who both obtained a seat in the House of Peers by their eminence in the profession of the law. William, the elder, became Lord High Chancellor in 1707. Spencer Cowper, the younger, was appointed Chief Justice of Chester in 1717, and afterwards a Judge in the Court of Common Pleas, being permitted by the particular favour of the king to hold those two offices to the end of his life. He died in Lincoln's Inn, on the 10th of December, 1728, and has the higher claim to our notice as the immediate ancestor of the poet. By his first wife, Judith Pennington (whose exemplary character is still revered by her descendants), Judge Cowper left several children; among them a daughter, Judith, who at the age of eighteen discovered a striking talent for poetry, in the praise of her contemporary poets Pope and Hughes. This lady, the wife of Colonel Madan, transmitted her own poetical and devout spirit to her daughter Frances Maria, who was married to her cousin Major Cowper; the amiable character of Maria will unfold itself in the course of this work, as the friend and correspondent of her more eminent relation, the second grandchild of the Judge, destined to honour the name of Cowper, by displaying, with peculiar purity and fervour, the double enthusiasm of poetry and devotion. The father of the subject of the following pages was John Cowper, the Judge's second son, who took his degrees in divinity, was chaplain to King George the Second, and resided at his Rectory of Great Berkhamstead, in Hertfordshire, the scene of the poet's infancy, which he has thus commemorated in a singularly beautiful and pathetic composition on the portrait of his mother.
Where once we dwelt our name is heard no more;Children not thine have trod my nursery floor:And where the gard'ner Robin, day by day,Drew me to school along the public way,Delighted with my bauble coach, and wraptIn scarlet mantle warm, and velvet-capt,'Tis now become a history little known,That once we call'd the past'ral house our own.Short-liv'd possession! but the record fairThat memory keeps of all thy kindness there,Still outlives many a storm, that has effac'dA thousand other themes less deeply traced.Thy nightly visits to my chamber made,That thou might'st know me safe and warmly laid;Thy morning bounties ere I left my home,The biscuit or confectionary plum;The fragrant waters on my cheeks bestowedBy thy own hand, till fresh they shone and glow'd;All this, and, more endearing still than all,Thy constant flow of love, that knew no fall;Ne'er roughen'd by those cataracts and breaksThat humour interpos'd too often makes:All this, still legible in memory's page,And still to be so to my latest age,Adds joy to duty, makes me glad to paySuch honours to thee as my numbers may.
Where once we dwelt our name is heard no more;Children not thine have trod my nursery floor:And where the gard'ner Robin, day by day,Drew me to school along the public way,Delighted with my bauble coach, and wraptIn scarlet mantle warm, and velvet-capt,'Tis now become a history little known,That once we call'd the past'ral house our own.Short-liv'd possession! but the record fairThat memory keeps of all thy kindness there,Still outlives many a storm, that has effac'dA thousand other themes less deeply traced.Thy nightly visits to my chamber made,That thou might'st know me safe and warmly laid;Thy morning bounties ere I left my home,The biscuit or confectionary plum;The fragrant waters on my cheeks bestowedBy thy own hand, till fresh they shone and glow'd;All this, and, more endearing still than all,Thy constant flow of love, that knew no fall;Ne'er roughen'd by those cataracts and breaksThat humour interpos'd too often makes:All this, still legible in memory's page,And still to be so to my latest age,Adds joy to duty, makes me glad to paySuch honours to thee as my numbers may.
The parent, whose merits are so feelingly recorded by the filial tenderness of the poet, was Ann, daughter of Roger Donne, Esq., of Ludham Hall, in Norfolk. This lady, whose family is said to have been originally from Wales, was married in the bloom of youth to Dr. Cowper: after giving birth to severalchildren, who died in their infancy, and leaving two sons, William, the immediate subject of this memorial, born at Berkhamstead on the 26th of November, 1731, and John (whose accomplishments and pious death will be described in the course of this compilation), she died in childbed, at the early age of thirty-four, in 1737. Those who delight in contemplating the best affections of our nature will ever admire the tender sensibility with which the poet has acknowledged his obligations to this amiable mother, in a poem composed more than fifty years after her decease. Readers of this description may find a pleasure in observing how the praise so liberally bestowed on this tender parent, at so late a period, is confirmed (if praise so unquestionable may be said to receive confirmation) by another poetical record of her merit, which the hand of affinity and affection bestowed upon her tomb—a record written at a time when the poet, who was destined to prove, in his advanced life, her most powerful eulogist, had hardly begun to show the dawn of that genius which, after many years of silent affliction, rose like a star emerging from tempestuous darkness.
The monument of Mrs. Cowper, erected by her husband in the chancel of St. Peter's church at Berkhamstead, contains the following verses, composed by a young lady, her niece, the late Lady Walsingham.
Here lies, in early years bereft of life,The best of mothers, and the kindest wife:Who neither knew nor practis'd any art,Secure in all she wish'd, her husband's heart.Her love to him, still prevalent in death,Pray'd Heav'n to bless him with her latest breath.Still was she studious never to offend,And glad of an occasion to commend:With ease would pardon injuries receiv'd,Nor e'er was cheerful when another griev'd;Despising state, with her own lot content,Enjoy'd the comforts of a life well spent;Resign'd, when Heaven demanded back her breath,Her mind heroic 'midst the pangs of death.Whoe'er thou art that dost this tomb draw near,O stay awhile, and shed a friendly tear;These lines, tho' weak, are as herself sincere.
Here lies, in early years bereft of life,The best of mothers, and the kindest wife:Who neither knew nor practis'd any art,Secure in all she wish'd, her husband's heart.Her love to him, still prevalent in death,Pray'd Heav'n to bless him with her latest breath.Still was she studious never to offend,And glad of an occasion to commend:With ease would pardon injuries receiv'd,Nor e'er was cheerful when another griev'd;Despising state, with her own lot content,Enjoy'd the comforts of a life well spent;Resign'd, when Heaven demanded back her breath,Her mind heroic 'midst the pangs of death.Whoe'er thou art that dost this tomb draw near,O stay awhile, and shed a friendly tear;These lines, tho' weak, are as herself sincere.
The truth and tenderness of this epitaph will more than compensate with every candid reader the imperfection ascribed to it by its young and modest author. To have lost a parent of a character so virtuous and endearing, at an early period of his childhood, was the prime misfortune of Cowper, and what contributed perhaps in the highest degree to the dark colouring of his subsequent life. The influence of a good mother on the first years of her children, whether nature has given them peculiar strength or peculiar delicacy of frame, is equally inestimable. It is the prerogative and the felicity of such a mother to temper the arrogance of the strong, and to dissipate the timidity of the tender. The infancy of Cowper was delicate in no common degree, and his constitution discovered at a very early season that morbid tendency to diffidence, to melancholy and despair, which darkened as he advanced in years into periodical fits of the most deplorable depression.
The period having arrived for commencing his education, he was sent to a reputable school at Market-street, in Bedfordshire, under the care of Dr. Pitman, and it is probable that he was removed from it in consequence of an ocular complaint. From a circumstance which he relates of himself at that period, in a letter written in 1792, he seems to have been in danger of resembling Milton in the misfortune of blindness, as he resembled him, more happily, in the fervency of a devout and poetical spirit.
"I have been all my life," says Cowper, "subject to inflammations of the eye, and in my boyish days had specks on both, that threatened to cover them. My father, alarmed for the consequences, sent me to a female oculist of great renown at that time, in whose house I abode two years, but to no good purpose. From her I went to Westminster school, where, at the age of fourteen, the small-pox seized me, and proved the better oculist of the two, for it delivered me from them all: not however from great liableness to inflammation, to which I am in a degree still subject, though much less than formerly, since I have been constant in the use of a hot foot-bath every night, the last thing before going to rest."
It appears a strange process in education, to send a tender child, from a long residence in the house of a female oculist, immediately into all the hardships attendant on a public school. But the mother of Cowper was dead, and fathers, however excellent, are, in general, utterly incompetent to the management of their young and tender offspring. The little Cowper was sent to his first school in the year of his mother's death, and how ill-suited the scene was to his peculiar character is evident from the description of his sensations in that season of life, which is often, very erroneously, extolled as the happiest period of human existence. He has been frequently heard to lament the persecution he suffered in his childish years, from the cruelty of his schoolfellows, in the two scenes of his education. His own forcible expressions represented him at Westminster as not daring to raise his eye above the shoe-buckle of the elder boys, who were too apt to tyrannize over his gentle spirit. The acuteness of his feelings in his childhood, rendered those important years (which might have produced, under tender cultivation, aseries of lively enjoyments) mournful periods of increasing timidity and depression. In the most cheerful hours of his advanced life, he could never advert to this season without shuddering at the recollection of its wretchedness. Yet to this perhaps the world is indebted for the pathetic and moral eloquence of those forcible admonitions to parents, which give interest and beauty to his admirable poem on public schools. Poets may be said to realize, in some measure, the poetical idea of the nightingale's singing with a thorn at her breast, as their most exquisite songs have often originated in the acuteness of their personal sufferings. Of this obvious truth, the poem just mentioned is a very memorable example; and, if any readers have thought the poet too severe in his strictures on that system of education, to which we owe some of the most accomplished characters that ever gave celebrity to a civilized nation, such readers will be candidly reconciled to that moral severity of reproof, in recollecting that it flowed from severe personal experience, united to the purest spirit of philanthropy and patriotism.
The relative merits of public and private education is a question that has long agitated the world. Each has its partizans, its advantages, and defects; and, like all general principles, its application must greatly depend on the circumstances of rank, future destination, and the peculiarities of character and temper. For the full development of the powers and faculties of the mind—for the acquisition of the various qualifications that fit men to sustain with brilliancy and distinction the duties of active life, whether in the cabinet, the senate, or the forum—for scenes of busy enterprize, where knowledge of the world and the growth of manly spirit seem indispensable; in all such cases, we are disposed to believe, that the palm must be assigned to public education.
But, on the other hand, if we reflect that brilliancy is oftentimes a flame which consumes its object, that knowledge of the world is, for the most part, but a knowledge of the evil that is in the world; and that early habits of extravagance and vice, which are ruinous in their results, are not unfrequently contracted at public schools; if to these facts we add that man is a candidate for immortality, and that "life" (as Sir William Temple observes) "is but the parenthesis of eternity," it then becomes a question of solemn import, whether integrity and principle do not find a soil more congenial for their growth in the shade and retirement of private education? The one is an advancement for time, the other for eternity. The former affords facilities for making men great, but often at the expense of happiness and conscience. The latter diminishes the temptations to vice, and, while it affords a field for useful and honourable exertion, augments the means of being wise and holy.
We leave the reader to decide the great problem for himself. That he may be enabled to form a right estimate, we would urge him to suffer time and eternity to pass in solemn and deliberate review before him.
That the public school was a scene by no means adapted to the sensitive mind of Cowper is evident. Nor can we avoid cherishing the apprehension that his spirit, naturally morbid, experienced a fatal inroad from that period. He nevertheless acquired the reputation of scholarship, with the advantage of being known and esteemed by some of the aspiring characters of his own age, who subsequently became distinguished in the great arena of public life.
With these acquisitions, he left Westminster at the age of eighteen, in 1749; and, as if destiny had determined that all his early situations in life should be peculiarly irksome to his delicate feelings, and tend rather to promote than to counteract his constitutional tendency to melancholy, he was removed from a public school to the office of an attorney. He resided three years in the house of a Mr. Chapman, to whom he was engaged by articles for that time. Here he was placed for the study of a profession which nature seemed resolved that he never should practise.
The law is a kind of soldiership, and, like the profession of arms, it may be said to require for the constitution of its heroes,
"A frame of adamant, a soul of fire."
The soul of Cowper had indeed its fire, but fire so refined and ethereal, that it could not be expected to shine in the gross atmosphere of worldly contention. Perhaps there never existed a mortal, who, possessing, with a good person, intellectual powers naturally strong and highly cultivated, was so utterly unfit to encounter the bustle and perplexities of public life. But the extreme modesty and shyness of his nature, which disqualified him for scenes of business and ambition, endeared him inexpressibly to those who had opportunities to enjoy his society, and discernment to appreciate the ripening excellences of his character.
Reserved as he was, to an extraordinary and painful degree, his heart and mind were yet admirably fashioned by nature for all the refined intercourse and confidential enjoyment both of friendship and love: but, though apparently formed to possess and to communicate an extraordinary portion of moral felicity, the incidents of his life were such, that, conspiring with the peculiarities of his nature, they rendered him, at different times, the victim of sorrow. The variety and depth of hissufferings in early life, from extreme tenderness of feeling, are very forcibly displayed in the following verses, which formed part of a letter to one of his female relatives, at the time they were composed. The letter has perished, and the verses owe their preservation to the affectionate memory of the lady to whom they were addressed.
Doom'd, as I am, in solitude to wasteThe present moments, and regret the past;Depriv'd of every joy I valued most,My friend torn from me, and my mistress lost;Call not this gloom I wear, this anxious mien,The dull effect of humour or of spleen!Still, still, I mourn, with each returning day,Him[4]snatch'd by fate in early youth away;And her[5]—thro' tedious years of doubt and pain,Fix'd in her choice, and faithful—but in vain!O prone to pity, generous, and sincere,Whose eye ne'er yet refus'd the wretch a tear;Whose heart the real claim of friendship knows,Nor thinks a lover's are but fancied woes;See me—ere yet my destin'd course half done,Cast forth a wand'rer on a world unknown!See me neglected on the world's rude coast,Each dear companion of my voyage lost!Nor ask why clouds of sorrow shade my brow,And ready tears wait only leave to flow!Why all that soothes a heart from anguish free,All that delights the happy—palls with me!
Doom'd, as I am, in solitude to wasteThe present moments, and regret the past;Depriv'd of every joy I valued most,My friend torn from me, and my mistress lost;Call not this gloom I wear, this anxious mien,The dull effect of humour or of spleen!Still, still, I mourn, with each returning day,Him[4]snatch'd by fate in early youth away;And her[5]—thro' tedious years of doubt and pain,Fix'd in her choice, and faithful—but in vain!O prone to pity, generous, and sincere,Whose eye ne'er yet refus'd the wretch a tear;Whose heart the real claim of friendship knows,Nor thinks a lover's are but fancied woes;See me—ere yet my destin'd course half done,Cast forth a wand'rer on a world unknown!See me neglected on the world's rude coast,Each dear companion of my voyage lost!Nor ask why clouds of sorrow shade my brow,And ready tears wait only leave to flow!Why all that soothes a heart from anguish free,All that delights the happy—palls with me!
Having concluded the term of his engagement with the solicitor, he settled himself in chambers in the Inner Temple, as a regular student of law; but, although he resided there till the age of thirty-three, he rambled (according to his own colloquial account of his early years) from the thorny road of his austere patroness, Jurisprudence, into the primrose paths of literature and poetry. During this period, he contributed two of the Satires in Duncombe's Horace, which are worthy of his pen, and indications of his rising genius. He also cultivated the friendship of some literary characters, who had been his schoolfellows at Westminster, particularly Colman, Bonnell Thornton, and Lloyd. Of these early associates of Cowper, it may be interesting to learn a brief history. Few men could have entered upon life with brighter prospects than Colman. His father was Envoy at the Court of Florence, and his mother was sister to the Countess of Bath. Possessed of talents that qualified him for exertion, with a classical taste perceptible in his translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, and of the works of Terence, he relinquished the bar, to which he had been called, and became principally known for his devotedness to theatrical pursuits. His private life was not consistent with the rules of morality; and he closed his days, after a protracted malady, by dying in a Lunatic Asylum in Paddington, in the year 1794.
To Bonnell Thornton, jointly with Colman, we owe the Connoisseur, to which Cowper contributed a few numbers. Thornton also united with Colman and Warner in a translation of Plautus. But his talents, instead of being profitably employed, were chiefly marked by a predilection for humour, in the exercise of which he was not very discreet; for the venerated muse of Gray did not escape his ridicule, and the celebrated Ode to St. Cecilia was made the occasion of a public burlesque performance, the relation of which would not accord with the design of this undertaking. He who aims at nothing better than to amuse and divert, and to excite a laugh at the expense of both taste and judgment, proposes to himself no very exalted object. Thornton died in the year 1770, aged forty-seven.
Lloyd was formerly usher at Westminster School, but feeling the irksomeness of the situation, resigned it, and commenced author. His Poems have been repeatedly re-published. His life presented a scene of thoughtless extravagance and dissipation. Overwhelmed with debt, and pursued by his creditors, he was at length confined in the Fleet Prison, where he expired, the victim of his excesses, at the early age of thirty-one years.
We record these facts,—1st. That we may adore that mercy which, by a timely interposition, rescued the future author of the Task from such impending ruin:—2ndly, To show that scenes of gaiety and dissipation, however enlivened by flashes of wit, and distinguished by literary superiority, are perilous to character, health, and fortune; and that the talents, which, if beneficially employed, might have led to happiness and honour, when perverted to unworthy ends, often lead prematurely to the grave, or render the past painful in the retrospect, and the future the subject of fearful anticipation and alarm.
Happily, Cowper escaped from this vortex of misery and ruin. His juvenile poems discover a contemplative spirit, and a mind early impressed with sentiments of piety. In proof of this assertion, we select a few stanzas from an ode written, when he was very young, on reading Sir Charles Grandison.