Next comes the dull disciple of thy school, That mild apostate from poetic rule, The simple Wordsworth, framer of a lay As soft as evening in his favourite May, (1) Who warns his friend "to shake off toil and trouble, And quit his books, for fear of growing double;" (2) A moon-struck silly lad, who lost his way, And, like his bard, confounded night with day; (3) Shall gentle Coleridge pass unnoticed here, To turgid ode and tumid stanza dear? Though themes of innocence amuse him best, Yet still obscurity's a welcome guest. If Inspiration should her aid refuse To him who takes a pixy for a muse, (4) Yet none in lofty numbers can surpass The bard who soars to elegize an ass. So well the subject suits his noble mind, He brays, (5) the laureat of the long-ear'd kind. (6) has passages equal to any thing. At present, he has a party, but no public-except for his prose writings. His Life of Nelson is beautiful." Elsewhere, and later, Lord B. pronounces Southey's Don Roderick, "the first poem of our time."-L. E. (1) "Unjust."-B. 1816. L. E. (2) Lyrical Ballads, p. 4.-"The Tables Turned." Stanza 1. Up, up, my friend, and quit your books, (3) Mr W., in his preface, labours hard to prove that prose and verse are much the same; and certainly his precepts and practice are strictly conformable: - "And thus to Betty's questions he And the sun did shine so cold," etc. etc. p. 129. (4) Coleridge's Poems, p. II, Songs of the Pixies, i. e. Devonshire fairies; p. 42, we have, Lines to a young Lady; and p. 52, Lines to a young Ass. (5) Thus altered by Lord Byron, in his last revision of the satire. In all former editions the line stood, 66 "A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind."-L. E. (6) Unjust." B. 1816.-In a letter to Mr. Coleridge, written in 1815, Lord Byron says,-"You mention my 'Satire,' lampoon, or whatever you or others please to call it. I can only say, that it was written when I was very young and very angry, and has been a thorn in my side ever since: more particularly as almost all the persons animadverted upon became subsequently my acquaintances, and some of them my friends; which is heaping fire upon an enemy's head,' and forgiving me too readily to permit me to forgive myself. The part applied to you is pert, and petulant, and shallow enough; but, although I have long done every thing in my power to suppress the circulation of the whole thing, I shall always regret the wantonness or generality of many of its attempted attacks."-L. E. (7) Matthew Gregory Lewis, Esq. M. P. for Hindon, never distinguished himself in Parliament, but, mainly in consequence of the clever use he made of his knowledge of the German language, then a rare accomplishment, attracted much notice in the literary world, at a very early period of Oh! wonder-working Lewis! (7) monk, or bard, Who fain wouldst make Parnassus a church-yard! Lo! wreaths of yew, not laurel, bind thy brow, Thy muse a sprite, Apollo's sexton thou! Whether on ancient tombs thou takest thy stand, By gibbering spectres hail'd, thy kindred band; Or tracest chaste descriptions on thy page, To please the females of our modest age; All hail, M.P.! (8) from whose infernal brain Thin sheeted phantoms glide, a grisly train! At whose command "grim women" throng in crowds, St. Luke alone can vanquish the disease; Even Satan's self with thee might dread to dwell, Who in soft guise, surrounded by a choir Grieved to condemn, (9) the muse must still be just, She bids thee "mend thy line, and sin no more."(10) his life. His Tales of Terror; the drama of the Castle Spectre; and the romance called the Bravo of Venice (which is, however, little more than a version from the Swiss Zschocke); but above all, the libidinous and impious novel of The Monk, invested the name of Lewis with an extraordinary degree of celebrity, during the poor period which intervened between the obscuration of Cowper, and the full display of Sir Walter Scott's talents in the Lay of the Last Minstrel,—a period which is sufficiently characterized by the fact, that Hayley then passed for a Poet. Next to that solemn coxcomb, Lewis was for several years the fashionable versifier of his time; but his plagiarisms, perhaps more audacious than had ever before been resorted to by a man of real talents, were by degrees unveiled, and writers of greater original genius, as well as of purer taste and morals, successively emerging, Monk Lewis, dying young, had already outlived his reputation. In society he was to the last a favourite; and Lord Byron, who had become well acquainted with him during his experience of London life, thus notices his death, which occurred at sea in 1818:-"Lewis was a good man, a clever man, but a bore. My only revenge or consolation used to be setting him by the ears with some vivacious person who hated bores especially,-Madame de Staël or Hobhouse, for example. But I liked Lewis; he was the jewel of a man, had he been better set; I don't mean personally, but less tiresome, for he was tedious, as well as contradictory, to every thing and every body. Poor fellow! he died a martyr to his new riches-of a second visit to Jamaica:"I'd give the lands of Deloraine, Dark Musgrave were alive again!" That is, "I would give many a sugar cane, (8) "For every one knows little Matt's an M. P."-See a poem to Mr. Lewis, in The Statesman, supposed to be written by Mr. Jekyll. (9) In very early life, Little's Poems were Lord Byron's favourite study. "Heigho!" he exclaims in 1820, in a letter to Moore, "I believe all the mischief I have ever done, or sung, has been owing to that confounded book of yours."L. E. (10) In the original manuscript, the words were-" mend thy life," but the poet subsequently adopted line.—See Dallas, -L. E. For thee, translator of the tinsel song, To whom such glittering ornaments belong, Hibernian Strangford! with thine eyes of blue, (1) And boasted locks of red or auburn hue, Whose plaintive strain each love-sick miss admires, And o'er harmonious fustian half expires, Learn, if thou canst, to yield thine author's sense, Nor vend thy sonnets on a false pretence. Think'st thou to gain thy verse a higher place, By dressing Camoëns (2) in a suit of lace? Mend, Strangford! mend thy morals and thy taste; Be warm, but pure; be amorous, but be chaste: Cease to deceive; thy pilfer'd harp restore, Nor teach the Lusian bard to copy Moore. Behold!-ye tarts! one moment spare the textHayley's last work, and worst—until his next; Whether he spin poor couplets into plays, Or damn the dead with purgatorial praise, His style in youth or age is still the same, For ever feeble and for ever tame. Triumphant, first, see Temper's Triumphs shine! At least I'm sure they triumph'd over mine. Of Music's Triumphs, all who read may swear That luckless music never triumph'd there. (3) Moravians, rise! bestow some meet reward On dull devotion-Lo! the Sabbath bard, Sepulchral Grahame, (4) pours his notes sublime In mangled prose, nor e'en aspires to rhyme; Breaks into blank the Gospel of St. Luke, And boldly pilfers from the Pentateuch; And, undisturb'd by conscientious qualms, Perverts the Prophets, and purloins the Psalms. Hail, Sympathy! thy soft idea brings (5) A thousand visions of a thousand things, (I) The reader, who may wish for an explanation of this, may refer to Strangford's Camoëns, p. 127, note to p. 56; or to the last page of the Edinburgh Review of Strangford's Camoens. (2) It is also to be remarked, that the things given to the public as poems of Camoens are no more to be found in the original Portuguese than in the Song of Solomon. (3) Hayley's two most notorious verse productions are Triumphs of Temper, and The Triumphs of Music. He has also written much comedy in rhyme, epistles, etc. etc. As he is rather an elegant writer of notes and biography, let us recommend Pope's advice to Wycherley to Mr. H.'s consideration, viz. "to convert his poetry into prose," which may be easily done by taking away the final syllable of each couplet.[The only performance for which Hayley is now remembered is his Life of Cowper. His personal history has been sketched by Mr. Southey in the Quarterly Review, vol. xxxi. p. 263.—L. E.] (4) Mr. Grahame has poured forth two volumes of cant, under the name of Sabbath Walks, and Biblical Pictures. [This very amiable man, and pleasing poet, published subsequently, The Birds of Scotland, and other pieces; but his reputation rests on his Sabbath. He began life as an advocate at the Edinburgh bar; but he had little success there, and, being of a melancholy and very devout temperament, entered into holy orders, and retired to a curacy near Durham, where he died in 1811.—L. E.] (5) Immediately before this line, we find, in the original manuscript, the following, which Lord Byron good-naturedly consented to omit, at the request of Mr. Dallas, who was, no doubt, a friend of the scribbler they refer to: "In verse most stale, unprofitable, flat, Come, let us change the scene, and 'glean' with Pratt; The votaries of the Muse are ill repaid, And shows, still whimpering through threescore of years, The maudlin prince of mournful sonneteers. And art thou not their prince, harmonious Bowles! Thou first great oracle of tender souls? Whether thou sing'st, with equal ease and grief, The fall of empires, or a yellow leaf; Whether thy muse most lamentably tells What merry sounds proceed from Oxford bells, (6) Or, still in bells delighting, finds a friend In every chime that jingled from Ostend; Ah! how much juster were thy muse's hap If to thy bells thou wouldst but add a cap! Delightful Bowles! still blessing and still blest, All love thy strain, but children like it best. "Tis thine, with gentle Little's moral song, To soothe the mania of the amorous throng! With thee our nursery damsels shed their tears, Ere miss as yet completes her infant years: But in her teens thy whining powers are vain; She quits poor Bowles for Little's purer strain, Now to soft themes thou scornest to confine The lofty numbers of a harp like thine; "Awake a louder and a loftier strain," (7) Such as none heard before, or will again! Where all Discoveries jumbled from the flood, Since first the leaky ark reposed in mud, By more or less, are sung in every book, From Captain Noah down to Captain Cook. Nor this alone; but, pausing on the road, The bard sighs forth a gentle episode; (8) And gravely tells-attend, each beauteous miss!When first Madeira trembled to a kiss. Bowles! in thy memory let this precept dwell, Stick to thy sonnets, man!—at least they sell. (9) But if some new-born whim, or larger bribe, Prompt thy crude brain, and claim thee for a scribe; To which this note was appended:-"Mr. Pratt, once a Bath bookseller, now a London author, has written as much, to as little purpose, as any of his scribbling contemporaries. Mr. P.'s Sympathy is in rhyme; but his prose productions are the most voluminous." The more popular of these last were entitled Gleanings.-L. E. (6) See Bowles's Sonnet to Oxford, and Stanzas on hearing the Bells of Ostend. (7) "Awake a louder," etc., is the first line in Bowles' Spirit of Discovery; a very spirited and pretty dwarf-epic. Among other exquisite lines we have the following :— "A kiss Stole on the list'ning silence, never yet Here heard; they trembled even as if the power," etc. etc. That is, the woods of Madeira trembled to a kiss; very much astonished, as well they might be, at such a phenomenon.-[" Misquoted and misunderstood by me; but not intentionally. It was not the woods,' but the people in them who trembled-why, Heaven only knows-unless they were overheard making the prodigious smack." B. 1816.-L. E.] (8) The episode above alluded to is the story of "Robert a Machin" and "Anna d'Arfet," a pair of constant lovers, who performed the kiss above mentioned, that startled the woods of Madeira. (9) "Although," says Lord Byron, in 1821, "I regret having published English Bards, the part which I regret the least is that which regards Mr. Bowles, with reference to Pope. Whilst I was writing that publication, in 1807 and ISO8, Mr. Hobhouse was desirous that I should express our mutual opinion of Pope, and of Mr. Bowles's edition of his works. As I had completed my outline, and felt lazy, I requested that he would do so. He did it. His fourteen lines on Bowles's Pope are in the first edition of English Bards, and are quite as severe, and much more poetical. than my own, in the second. On reprinting the work, as I If chance some bard, though once by dunces fear'd, Perch on thy pen, and flutter o'er thy page; To rave with Dennis, and with Ralph to rhyme; (3) Another epic! Who inflicts again More books of blank upon the sons of men? Baotian Cottle, rich Bristowa's boast, Imports old stories from the Cambrian coast, And sends his goods to market-all alive! Lines forty thousand, cantos twenty-five! Fresh fish from Helicon! (6) who'll buy! who'll buy? The precious bargain's cheap-in faith, not I. Your turtle-feeder's verse must needs be flat, Though Bristol bloat him with the verdant fat; If Commerce fills the purse, she clogs the brain, And Amos Cottle strikes the lyre in vain. In him an author's luckless lot behold, Condemn'd to make the books which once he sold. put my name to it, I omitted Mr. Hobhouse's lines, by which the work gained less than Mr. Bowles."-[The following are the lines written by Mr. Hobhouse: "Stick to thy sonnets, man!-at least they sell. Thus Bowles may triumph o'er the shade of Pope."—L. E.] (1) Carll is one of the heroes of the Dunciad, and was a bookseller. Lord Fanny is the poetical name of Lord Hervey, author of Lines to the Imitator of Horace. (2) Lord Bolingbroke hired Mallet to traduce Pope after his decease, because the poet had retained some copies of a work by Lord Bolingbroke-The Patriot King-which that splendid but malignant, genius had ordered to be destroyed. -"Bolingbroke's thirst of vengeance," says Dr. Johnson, “incited him to blast the memory of the man over whom he had wept in his last struggles; and he employed Mallet, another friend of Pope, to tell the tale to the public, with all its aggravations."-L. E.] (3) Dennis the critic, and Ralph the rhymester:"Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, Making night hideous: answer him, ye owls!"-Dunciad. (4) See Bowles's late edition of Pope's Works, for which he received three hundred pounds. Thus Mr. B. has experienced how much easier it is to profit by the reputation of another than to elevate his own. (5) Lord Byron's MS. note of 1816 on this passage is."Too savage all this on Bowles:" and well might he say That venerable person is still living; and in spite of all 50. Oh, Amos Cottle!-Phoebus! what a name As Sisyphus against the infernal steep Rolls the huge rock whose motions ne'er may sleep, So up thy hill, ambrosial Richmond, heaves Dull Maurice (9) all his granite weight of leaves: Smooth solid monuments of mental pain! The petrifactions of a plodding brain, That, ere they reach the top, fall lumbering back again. With broken lyre, and cheek serenely pale, Yet say! why should the bard at once resign the criticism to which his injudicious edition of Pope exposed him afterwards, there can be no doubt that Lord B., in his calmer moments, did justice to that exquisite poetical genius which, by their own confession, originally inspired both Wordsworth and Coleridge. -L. E. (6) "Fresh fish from Helicon!"-"Helicon" is a mountain, and not a fish-pond. It should have been "Hippocrene." B. 1816.-L. E. (7) Mr. Cottle, Amos, Joseph, I don't know which, but one or both, once sellers of books they did not write, and now writers of books they do not sell, have published a pair of epics-Alfred,-(poor Alfred! Pye has been at him too!) -Alfred, and the Fall of Cambria. (8) Here Lord B. notes in 1816:-"All right. I saw some letters of this fellow (Joseph Cottle) to an unfortunate poetess, whose productions, which the poor woman by no means thought vainly of, he attacked so roughly and bitterly, that 1 could hardly resist assailing him, even were it unjust, which it is not-for verily he is an ass." B. 1816.-[The same person has had the honour to be recorded in the Antijacobin, probably by Canning:— "And Cottle, not he who that Alfred made famous, But Joseph, of Bristol, the brother of Amos."-L. E.] (9) Mr. Maurice hath manufactured the component parts of a ponderous quarto, upon the beauties of Richmond Hill, and the like; it also takes in a charming view of Turnham Green, Hammersmith, Brentford, Old and New, and the parts adjacent. [The Rev. Thomas Maurice also wrote Westminster Abbey, and other poems, the History of Ancient and Modern Hindostan, etc. and his own Memoirs, comprehending Anecdotes of Literary Characters, during a period of thirty years; -a very amusing piece of autobiography. He died in 1824, at his apartments in the British Museum; where he had been for some years assistant keeper of MSS.-L. E.] (10) Poor Montgomery, though praised by every English Review, has been bitterly reviled by the Edinburgh. After all, the bard of Sheffield is a man of considerable genius. His Wanderer of Switzerland is worth a thousand Lyrical Ballads, and at least fifty "degraded epics." Aged or young, the living or the dead, No mercy find - these harpies (1) must be fed. Health to immortal Jeffrey! (3) once, in name, Some think that Satan has resign'd his trust, His scribbling toils some recompense may meet, Health to great Jeffrey! Heaven preserve his life, (I) In a MS. critique on this satire, by the late Reverend William Crowe, public orator at Oxford, the incongruity of these metaphors is thus noticed:-"Within the space of three or four couplets he transforms a man into as many different animals: allow him but the compass of three lines, and he will metamorphose him from a wolf into a harpy, and in three more he will make him a bloodhound!" On seeing Mr. Crowe's remarks, Lord Byron desired Mr. Murray to substitute, in the copy in his possession, for "hellish instinct," "brutal instinct," for "harpies" "felons," and for "blood-hounds" "hell-hounds. ”—L. E. (2) Arthur's Seat, the hill which overhangs Edinburgh. (3) Mr. Jeffrey, who, after the first Number or two, succeeded the Rev. Sidney Smith in the editorship of the Edinburgh Review, retired from his critical post some little time before he was appointed Lord Advocate for Scotland: he is now (1834) a Lord of Session. "I have often, since my return to England," says Lord Byron (Diary, 1814), “beard Jeffrey most highly commended by those who knew him, for things independent of his talents. I admire him for thisnot because he has praised me, but because he is, perhaps, the only man who, under the relations in which he and I stand, or stood, with regard to each other, would have had the liberality to act thus: none but a great soul dared hazard it-a little scribbler would have gone on cavilling to the end of the chapter."-L. E. (4) "Too ferocious-this is mere insanity." B. 1816.L.E. (5) "All this is bad, because personal." B. 1816.-L. E. (6) In 1806, Messrs. Jeffrey and Moore met at Chalk-Farm. The duel was prevented by the interference of the magistracy; and, on examination, the balls of the pistols, like the courage of the combatants, were found to have evapor Dark roll'd the sympathetic waves of Forth, "My son," she cried, "ne'er thirst for gore again, Boast of thy country, and Britannia's guide! ated. This incident gave occasion to much waggery in the daily prints. [The above note was struck out of the fifth edition, and the following, after being submitted to Mr. Moore, substituted in its place:-"I am informed that Mr. Moore published at the time a disavowal of the statements in the newspapers, as far as regarded himself; and, in justice to him, I mention this circumstance. As I never heard of it before, I cannot state the particulars, and was only made acquainted with the fact very lately. Nov. 4, 1811.”—L. E.] (7) In the original manuscript, the line was- "Half Tweed combined his waves to form a tear." Dallas.-P. E. (8) The Tweed here behaved with proper decorum; it would have been highly reprehensible in the English half of the river to have shown the smallest symptom of apprehension. (9) This display of sympathy on the part of the Tolbooth (the principal prison in Edinburgh), which truly seems to have been most affected on this occasion, is much to be commended. It was to be apprehended, that the many unhappy criminals executed in the front might have rendered the edifice more callous. She is said to be of the softer sex, because her delicacy of feeling on this day was truly feminine, though, like most feminine impulses, perhaps a little selfish. (10) His lordship has been much abroad, is a member of the Athenian Society, and reviewer of Gell's Topography of Troy-[George Hamilton Gordon, fourth Earl of Aberdeen, K.T., F.R.S., and P.S.A. In 1822, his Lordship published an Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture.-L. E.] Herbert shall wield Thor's hammer, (1) and sometimes, In gratitude, thou 'It praise his rugged rhymes. Turn beef to bannocks, cauliflowers to kail." Then prosper, Jeffrey! pertest of the train (1) Mr. Herbert is a translator of Icelandic and other poetry. One of the principal pieces is a Song on the Recovery of Thor's Hammer: the translation is a pleasant chant in the vulgar tongue, and endeth thus: "Instead of money and rings, I wot, The hammer's bruises were her lot, Thus Odin's son his hammer got." [The Hon. William Herbert, brother to the Earl of CarnarHe also published, in 1811, Helga, a poem in seven cantos.-L. E.] von. (2) The Rev. Sydney Smith, the reputed author of Peter Plymley's Letters, and sundry criticisms.-Now (1834) one of the Canons Residentiary of St. Paul's, etc. etc. Dyson's Address to his Constituents on the Reform Bill, and many other pieces published anonymously, or pseudonomously, are generally ascribed to this eminently witty person, who has put forth nothing, it is believed, in his own name, except a volume of Sermons.-L. E.] (3) Mr. Hallam reviewed Payne Knight's Taste, and was exceedingly severe on some Greek verses therein. It was not discovered that the lines were Pindar's till the press rendered it impossible to cancel the critique, which still stands an everlasting monument of Hallam's ingenuity. Note added to second edition. The said Hallam is incensed because he is falsely accused, seeing that he never dineth at Holland House. If this be true, I am sorry-not for having said so, but on his account, as I understand his lordship's feasts are preferable to his compositions. If he did not review Lord Holland's performance, I am glad, because it must have been painful to read, and irksome to praise it. If Mr. Hallam will tell me who did review it, the real name shall find a place in the text; provided, nevertheless, the said name be of two orthodox musical syllables, and will come into the verse: till then, Hallam must stand for want of a better.-[It cannot be necessary to vindicate the great author of the Middle Ages and the Constitutional History of England from the insinuations of the juvenile poet.-L. E.] (4) Pillans is a tutor at Eton.-[Mr. Pillans became afterwards Rector of the High School of Edinburgh, and bas now been for some years Professor of Humanity in that University. There was not, it is believed, the slightest foundation for the charge in the text.-L. E.] (5) The Hon. George Lambe reviewed Beresford's Miseries, and is, moreover, author of a farce enacted with much applanse at the Priory, Stanmore, and damned with great expedition at the late theatre, Covent Garden. It was entitled, Whistle for It.-Mr. Lambe was, in 1818, the suc cessful candidate for the representation of Westminster, in opposition to Mr. Hobhouse; who, however, defeated him in the following year. In 1821, Mr. Lambe published a translation of Catullus.-L. E.] (6) Mr. Brougham, in No. XXV. of the Edinburgh Review, throughout the article concerning Don Pedro de Cevallos, Whatever blessing waits a genuine Scot, Illustrious Holland! hard would be his lot, His hirelings mention'd, and himself forgot! (10) Holland, with Henry Petty (11) at his back, The whipper-in and huntsman of the pack. Blest be the banquets spread at Holland House, (12) Where Scotchmen feed, and critics may carouse! Long, long beneath that hospitable roof Shall Grub-street dine, while duns are kept aloof. See honest Hallam lay aside his fork, Resume his pen, review his Lordship's work, And, grateful for the dainties on his plate, Declare his landlord can at least translate! (13) has displayed more politics than policy; many of the worthy burgesses of Edinburgh being so incensed at the infamous principles it evinces, as to have withdrawn their subscriptions. [Here followed, in the first edition:-"The name of this personage is pronounced Broom in the south, but the truly northern and musical pronunciation is BROUGH-AM, in two syllables:" but, for this, Lord B. substituted in the second edition:-"It seems that Mr. Brougham is not a Pict, as I supposed, but a Borderer, and his name is pronounced Broom, from Trent to Tay: so be it."—L. E.] (7) I ought to apologize to the worthy deities for introducing a new goddess with short petticoats to their notice: but, alas! what was to be done? I could not say Caledonia's genius, it being well known there is no such genius to be found, from Clackmannan to Caithness; yet, without supernatural agency, how was Jeffrey to be saved? The national "kelpies" are too unpoetical, and the "brownies" and "gude neighbours" (spirits of a good disposition) refused to extricate him. A goddess, therefore, has been called for the purpose; and great ought to be the gratitude of Jeffrey, seeing it is the only communication he ever held, or is likely to hold, with any thing heavenly. (8) See the colour of the back binding of the Edinburgh Review. (9) In the tenth canto of Don Juan, Lord Byron pays the following pretty compliment to his quondam antagonist:--"And all our little feuds at least all mineDear Jeffrey, once my most redoubted foe, (As far as rhyme and criticism combine To make such puppets of us things below.) Are over; here's a health to Auld Lang syne,' I do not know you, and may never know Your face-but you have acted on the whole Most nobly, and I own it from my soul."-L. E. (10) "Bad enough, and on mistaken grounds too."B. 1816.-L. E. (11) Lord Henry Petty;-now (1834) Marquess of Lansdowne.-L. E. (12) In 1813, Lord Byron dedicated the Bride of Abydos to Lord Holland; and we find in his Journal (Nov. 17th) this passage:-"I have had a most kind letter from Lord Holland on the Bride of Abydos, which he likes, and so does Lady H. This is very good-natured in both, from whom I don't deserve any quarter. Yet I did think at the time that my cause of enmity proceeded from Holland House, and am glad I was wrong, and wish I had not been in such a hurry with that confounded Satire, of which I would suppress even the memory, but people, now they can't get it, make a fuss, I verily believe, out of contradiction."-L. E. (13) Lord Holland has translated some specimens of Lope de Vega, inserted in his life of the author. Both are bepraised by his disinterested guests.-[We are not aware |