ENGLISH BARDS,

AND

SCOTCH REVIEWERS.'

STILL must I hear?-shall hoarse FITZGERALD bawl His creaking couplets in a tavern hall,

And I not sing, lest, haply, Scotch Reviews

Should dub me scribbler, and denounce my Muse?

1. "The binding of this volume is considerably too valuable for the contents. Nothing but the consideration of its being the property of another, prevents me from consigning this miserable record of misplaced anger and indiscriminate acrimony to the flames."-B., 1816.

2. IMITATION.

"Semper ego auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam, Vexatus toties rauci Theseide Codri?"

JUVENAL, Satire I. 1. 1. 3. "Hoarse Fitzgerald."—"Right enough; but why notice such a mountebank?"-B., 1816.

Mr. Fitzgerald, facetiously termed by Cobbett the "Small Beer Poet," inflicts his annual tribute of verse on the Literary Fund: not content with writing, he spouts in person, after the company have imbibed a reasonable quantity of bad port, to enable them to sustain the operation. [William Thomas Fitzgerald (circ. 1759-1829) played the part of unofficial poet laureate. His loyal recitations were reported by the newspapers. He published, inter alia, Nelson's Triumph (1798), Tears of Hibernia, dispelled by the Union (1802), and Nelson's Tomb (1806). He owes his fame to the

Prepare for rhyme-I'll publish, right or wrong:
Fools are my theme, let Satire be my song.

Oh! Nature's noblest gift-my grey goose-quill!
Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will,
Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen,
That mighty instrument of little men!

The pen foredoomed to aid the mental throes
Of brains that labour, big with Verse or Prose;
Though Nymphs forsake, and Critics may deride,
The Lover's solace, and the Author's pride.
What Wits! what Poets dost thou daily raise !
How frequent is thy use, how small thy praise!

ΙΟ

i. Truth be my theme, and Censure guide my song.—[MS. M.] first line of English Bards, and the famous parody in Rejected Addresses. The following jeux d'esprit were transcribed by R. C. Dallas on a blank leaf of a copy of the Fifth Edition :

"Written on a copy of English Bards at the 'Alfred' by W. T. Fitzgerald, Esq.

"I find Lord Byron scorns my Muse,

Our Fates are ill agreed;

The Verse is safe, I can't abuse

Those lines I never read.

Signed W. T. F."

Answer written on the same page by Lord Byron-
"What's writ on me," cries Fitz, "I never read"!
What's writ by thee, dear Fitz, none will, indeed.
The case stands simply thus, then, honest Fitz,
Thou and thine enemies are fairly quits;

Or rather would be, if for time to come,
They luckily were deaf, or thou wert dumb;
But to their pens while scribblers add their tongues,
The Waiter only can escape their lungs.*]

* [Compare Hints from Horace, 1. 808, note 1.]

Condemned at length to be forgotten quite,
With all the pages which 'twas thine to write.
But thou, at least, mine own especial pen!1
Once laid aside, but now assumed again,
Our task complete, like Hamet's1 shall be free;
Though spurned by others, yet beloved by me:
Then let us soar to-day; no common theme,
No Eastern vision, no distempered dream 2
Inspires our path, though full of thorns, is plain;
Smooth be the verse, and easy be the strain.

ii.

20

30

When Vice triumphant holds her sov'reign sway,
Obey'd by all who nought beside obey; ii.
When Folly, frequent harbinger of crime,
Bedecks her cap with bells of every Clime;
When knaves and fools combined o'er all prevail,
And weigh their Justice in a Golden Scale; iv.
E'en then the boldest start from public sneers,
Afraid of Shame, unknown to other fears,

i. But thou, at least, mine own especial quill
Dipt in the dew drops from Parnassus' hill,
Shalt ever honoured and regarded be,

By more beside no doubt, yet still by me.-[MS. M.] ii. And men through life her willing slaves obey.

[MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.]

iii. Unfolds her motley store to suit the time.

[MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.]

iv. When Justice halts and Right begins to fail.

[MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.]

1. Cid Hamet Benengeli promises repose to his pen, in the last chapter of Don Quixote. Oh! that our voluminous gentry would follow the example of Cid Hamet Benengeli !

2. "This must have been written in the spirit of prophecy." --B., 1816.

More darkly sin, by Satire kept in awe,

And shrink from Ridicule, though not from Law.

Such is the force of Wit! but not belong
To me the arrows of satiric song;

The royal vices of our age demand

A keener weapon, and a mightier hand."

40

Still there are follies, e'en for me to chase,
And yield at least amusement in the race:
Laugh when I laugh, I seek no other fame,
The cry is up, and scribblers are my game:
Speed, Pegasus !-ye strains of great and small,
Ode! Epic! Elegy !-have at you all!

I, too, can scrawl, and once upon a time

I poured along the town a flood of rhyme,
A schoolboy freak, unworthy praise or blame;
I printed-older children do the same.
'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print ;
A Book's a Book, altho' there's nothing in't.
Not that a Title's sounding charm can save
Or scrawl or scribbler from an equal grave:
This LAMB1 must own, since his patrician name

i. A mortal weapon.-[MS. M.]

ii. Yet Title's sounding lineage cannot save

Or scrawl or scribbler from an equal grave,

Lamb had his farce but that Patrician name

ii.

Failed to preserve the spurious brat from shame.-[MS.]

50

1. "He's a very good fellow; and, except his mother and sister, the best of the set, to my mind."-B., 1816. [William (1779-1848) and George (1784-1834) Lamb, sons of Sir Peniston Lamb (Viscount Melbourne, 1828), by Elizabeth,

Failed to preserve the spurious Farce from shame.1
No matter, GEORGE continues still to write,2
Tho' now the name is veiled from public sight.
Moved by the great example, I pursue

The self-same road, but make my own review:
Not seek great JEFFREY'S, yet like him will be
Self-constituted Judge of Poesy.

A man must serve his time to every trade
Save Censure-Critics all are ready made.
Take hackneyed jokes from MILLER,3 got by rote,
With just enough of learning to misquote;

60

only daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke, were Lady Byron's first cousins. William married, in 1805, Lady Caroline Ponsonby, the writer of Glenarvon. George, who was one of the early contributors to the Edinburgh Review, married in 1809 Caroline Rosalie Adelaide St. Jules. At the time of the separation, Lady Caroline Lamb and Mrs. George Lamb warmly espoused Lady Byron's cause, Lady Melbourne and her daughter Lady Cowper (afterwards Lady Palmerston) were rather against than for Lady Byron. William Lamb was discreetly silent, and George Lamb declaimed against Lady Byron, calling her a dd fool. Hence Lord Byron's praises of George. Cf. line 516 of English Bards.]

1. This ingenuous youth is mentioned more particularly, with his production, in another place. (Vide post, 1. 516.)

"Spurious Brat "[see variant ii. p. 300], that is the farce; the ingenuous youth who begat it is mentioned more particularly with his offspring in another place. [Note. MS. M.] [The farce Whistle for It was performed two or three times at Covent Garden Theatre in 1807.]

2. In the Edinburgh Review.

3. [The proverbial "Joe" Miller, an actor by profession (1684-1738), was a man of no education, and is said to have been unable to read. His reputation rests mainly on the book of jests compiled after his death, and attributed to him by John Mottley. (First Edition. T. Read. 1739-)]