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way he insisted upon people kneeling down along with him in the street and praying. During his confinement, writing materials were denied him, and he used to write his poetical pieces with a key on the wainscot. Thus 'scrabbling,' like his own hero, on the wall, he produced his immortal Song to David.' He became by and by sane; but, returning to his old habits, got into debt, and died in the King's Bench prison, after a short illness, in 1770.

"The Song to David' has been well called one of the greatest curiosities of literature. It ranks in this point with the tragedies written by Lee, and the sermons and prayers uttered by Hall in a similar melancholy state of mind. In these cases, as well as in Smart's, the thin partition between genius and madness was broken down in thunder,-the thunder of a higher poetry than perhaps they were capable of even conceiving in their saner moments. Lee produced in that state-which was, indeed, nearly his normal one-some glorious extravagancies. Hall's sermons, monologised and overheard in the madhouse, are said to have transcended all that he preached in his healthier moods. And, assuredly, the other poems by Smart scarcely furnish a point of comparison with the towering and sustained loftiness of some parts of the 'Song to David.' Nor is it loftiness alone,although the last three stanzas are absolute inspiration, and you see the waters of Castalia tossed by a heavenly wind to the very summit of Parnassus,-but there are innumerable exquisite beauties and subtleties, dropt as if by the hand of rich haste, in every corner of the poem. Witness his description of David's muse, as a

'Blest light, still gaining on the gloom,
The more than Michal of his bloom,
The Abishag of his age.'

The account of David's object-
'To further knowledge, silence vice,
And plant perpetual paradise,

When God had calmed the world.'

Of David's Sabbath

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"Incoherence and extravagance we find here and there; but it is not the flutter of weakness, it is the fury of power: from the very stumble of the rushing steed, sparks are kindled. And, even as Baretti, when he read the Rambler' in Italy, thought within himself, If such are the lighter productions of the English mind, what must be the grander and sterner efforts of its genius? and formed, consequently, a strong desire to visit that country; so might he have reasoned, If such poems as David' issue from England's very madhouses, what must be the writings of its saner and nobler poetic souls? and thus might he, from the parallax of a Smart, have been able to rise toward the ideal altitudes of a Shakspere or a Milton. Indeed, there are portions of the Song to David,' which a Milton or a Shakspere has never surpassed. The blaze of the meteor often eclipses the light of

'The loftiest star of unascended heaven, Pinnacled dim in the intense inane.'" -Gilfillan's " Less-Known Brit. Poets," vol. iii., pp. 151-3.

RICHARD GLOVER.

His

"Richard Glover, born 1712, died 1785, was the son of a Hamburgh merchant in London, and was born in St. Martin's-lane, Cannon-street. He was educated at the school of Cheam, in Surrey; but being intended for trade, was never sent to the university. This circumstance did not prevent him from applying assiduously to classical learning; and he was in the competent opinion of Dr. Warton, one of the best Greek scholars of his time. This fact is worth mentioning, as it exhibits how far a determined mind may connect the pursuits, and even distinctions of literature, with an active employment. first poetical effort was a poem to the memory of Sir Isaac Newton, which was written at the age of sixteen; and which his friend, Dr. Pemberton, thought fit to prefix to a 'View of the Newtonian Philosophy,' which he published. Dr. Pemberton, who was a man of more science than taste, on this and on some other occasions addressed the public with critical enlogies on the genius of Glover, written with an excess of admiration, which could be pardoned only for its sincerity. It gives us a higher idea of the youthful promises of his mind, to find that the intelligent poet Green had the same prepossession in his favour. Green says of him in the Spleen':'But there's a youth, that you can name, Who needs no leading-strings to fame; Whose quick maturity of brain The birth of Pallas may explain.'

"At the age of twenty-five he published

nine books of his 'Leonidas.' The poem was immediately taken up with ardour by Lord Cobham, to whom it was inscribed, and by all the readers of verse, and leaders of politics, who professed the strongest attachment to liberty. It ran rapidly through three editions, and was publicly extolled by the pen of Fielding, and by the lips of Chatham. Even Swift, in one of his letters from Ireland, drily inquires of Pope, 'Who is this Mr. Glover, who writ" Leonidas," which is reprinting here, and hath great vogue?' Overrated as 'Leonidas' might be, Glover stands acquitted of all attempts or artifice to promote its popularity by false means. He betrayed no irritation in the disputes which were raised about its merit; and his personal character appears as respectable in the ebb as in the flow of his poetical reputation.

"In the year 1739 he published his poem 'London; or the Progress of Commerce,' in which, instead of selecting some of those interesting views of the progress of social life and civilization which the subject might have afforded, he confined himself to exciting the national spirit against the Spaniards. This purpose was better effected by his nearly contemporary ballad of 'Hosier's Ghost.'

"His talents and politics introduced him to the notice and favour of Frederick, Prince of Wales, whilst he maintained an intimate friendship with the chiefs of the opposition. In the mean time, he pursued the business of a merchant in the city, and was an able auxiliary to his party, by his eloquence at public meetings, and by his influence with the mercantile body. Such was the confidence in his knowledge and talents, that in 1743 the merchants of London deputed him to plead, in behalf of their neglected rights, at the bar of the House of Commons, a duty which he fulfilled with great ability. In 1744, he was offered an employment of a very different kind, being left a bequest of £500 by the Duchess of Marlborough, on condition of his writing the duke's life, in conjunction with Mallet. He renounced this legacy, while Mallet accepted it, but never fulfilled the terms. Glover's rejection of the offer was the more honourable, as it came at a time when his own affairs were so embarrassed as to oblige him to retire from business for several years, and to lead a life of the strictest economy. During his distresses, he is said to have received from the Prince of Wales a present of £500. In the year 1751, his friends in the city made an attempt to obtain for him the office of city chamberlain ; but he was unfortunately not named as a candidate till the majority of votes had been engaged to Sir Thomas Harrison. The speech which he made to the livery on this occasion did him much honour, both for the liberality with which he spoke of his successful opponent, and for the manly but unassuming manner in which he expressed the consciousness of his own integrity, amidst his private mis

fortunes, and asserted the merit of his public conduct as a citizen. The name of Guildhall is certainly not apt to inspire us with high ideas either of oratory or of personal sympathy; yet there is something in the history of this transaction which increases our respect, not only for Glover, but for the scene itself, in which his eloquence is said to have warmly touched his audience with a feeling of his worth as an individual, of his spirit as a politician, and of his powers as an accomplished speaker. He carried the sentiments and endowments of a polished scholar into the most popular meeting of trading life, and showed that they could be welcomed there. Such men elevate the character of a mercantile country.

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"During his retirement from business, he finished his tragedy of Boadicea,' which was brought out at Drury Lane in 1753, and was acted for nine nights, it is said 'successfully,' perhaps a misprint for successively. Boadicea is certainly not a contemptible drama: it has some scenes of tender interest between Venusia and Dumnorix; but the defectiveness of its incidents, and the frenzied character of the British queen, render it upon the whole unpleasing. Beaumont and Fletcher, in their play on the same subject, have left Boadicea, with all her rashness and revengeful disposi tion, still a heroine; but Glover makes her a beldam and a fury, whom we could scarcely condemn the Romans for having carted. disgusting novelty of this impression is at variance with the traditionary regard for her name, from which the mind is unwilling to part. It is told of an eminent portrait-painter, that the picture of each individual which he took had some resemblance to the last sitter: when he painted a comic actress, she resembled a doctor of divinity, because his imagination had not yet been delivered of the doctor. converse of this seems to have happened to Glover. He anticipated the hideous traits of Medea, when he produced the British queen. With a singular degree of poetical injustice, he leans to the side of compassion in delineating Medea, a monster of infanticide, and prepossesses us against a high-spirited woman, who avenged the wrongs of her country, and the violation of her daughters. His tragedy of Medea' appeared in 1761; and the spirited acting of Mrs. Yates gave it considerable effect.

The

"In his later years, his circumstances were greatly improved, though we are not informed from what causes. He returned again to public life; was elected to parliament; and there distinguished himself, whenever mer cantile prosperity was concerned, by his knowledge of commerce, and his attention to its interests. In 1770 he enlarged his 'Leonidas' from nine to twelve books, and afterwards wrote its sequel, the Athenaid,' and a sequel to Medea. The latter was never acted, and the former seldom read. The close of his

life was spent in retirement from business, but amidst the intimacy of the most eminent scholars of his time.

"Some contemporary writers, calling themselves critics, preferred 'Leonidas' in its day to 'Paradise Lost,' because it had smoother versification, and fewer hard words of learning. The re-action of popular opinion against a work that has been once over-rated is apt to depress it beneath its just estimation. It is due to Leonidas' to say, that its narrative, ¦descriptions, and imagery, have a general and chaste congruity with the Grecism of its subject. It is far, indeed, from being a vivid or arresting picture of antiquity; but it has an air of classical taste and propriety in its design; and it sometimes places the religion and manners of Greece in a pleasing and impressive light. The poet's description of Dithyrambus making his way from the cave of Eta, by a secret ascent, to the temple of the Muses, and bursting, unexpectedly, into the hallowed presence of their priestess Melissa, is a passage fraught with a considerable degree of the fanciful and beautiful in superstition. The abode of Oileus is also traced with a suavity of local description, which is not unusual to Glover; and the speech of Melissa, when she first receives the tidings of her venerable father's death, supports a fine consistency with the august and poetical character which is ascribed to her.

'A sigh

Broke from her heart, these accents from her lips.

The full of days and honours through the gate

Of painless slumber is retired. His tomb
Shall stand among his fathers, in the shade
Of his own trophies. Placid were his days,
Which flow'd through blessings. As a river
pure,

Whose sides are flow'ry, and whose meadows fair;

Meets in his course a subterranean void,
There dips his silver head, again to rise,
And, rising, glide through flowers and meadows
new;

So shall Oileus in those happier fields,
Where never gloom of trouble shades the
mind.'

"The undeniable fault of the entire poem is, that it wants impetuosity of progress, and that its characters are without warm and interesting individuality. What a great genius might have made of the subject, it may be difficult to pronounce by supposition; for it is the very character of genius to produce effects which cannot be calculated. But imposing as the names of Leonidas and Thermopylæ may appear, the subject which they formed for an epic poem was such, that we cannot wonder at its baffling the powers of Glover. A poet, with such a theme, was furnished indeed with a grand outline of actions and senti

ments; but how difficult was it, after all that books could teach him, to give the close and veracious appearance of life to characters and manners beheld so remotely on the verge of the horizon of history! What difficulty to avoid coldness and generality on the one hand, if he delineated his human beings only with the manners which history could authenticate; and to shun grotesqueness and inconsistency on the other, if he filled up the vague outline of the antique with the particular and familiar traits of modern life! Neither Fenelon, with all his genius, nor Barthelemy, with all his learning, have kept entirely free of this latter fault of incongruity, in modernising the aspect of ancient manners. The characters of Barthelemy, in particular, often remind us of statues in modern clothes. Glover has not fallen into this impurity; but his purity is cold his heroes are like outlines of Grecian faces, with no distinct or minute physiognomy. They are not so much poetical characters as historical recollections. There are, indeed, some touches of spirit in Artemisia's character, and of pathos in the episode of Teribazus; but Leonidas is too good a Spartan, and Xerxes too bad a Persian, to be pitied; and most of the subordinate agents, that fall or triumph in battle, only load our memories with their names. The local descriptions of 'Leonidas,' however, its pure sentiments, and the classical images which it recalls, render it interesting as the monument of an accomplished and amiable mind."-Campbell's 'Specimens," pp. 588-590. See Allibone's "Crit. Dict. Eng. Lit."; Maunder's "Biog. Dict."; Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."

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Poets." See Allibone's "Crit. Dict. Eng. Lit."; Campbell's "Specimens."

JOHN BAMPFYLDE.

"John Bampfylde, born 1754, died 1796, 'was the younger brother of Sir Charles Bampfylde. He was educated at Cambridge, and published his Sonnets' in 1776, when very young. He soon after fell into mental derangement, and passed the last years of his life in a private madhouse. After twenty years' confinement he recovered his senses, but not till he was in the last gasp of consumption."-Campbell's "Specimens." See Allibone's "Crit. Dict. Eng. Lit."

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reputation. The volumes of its 'Transactions' are inestimable, and are enriched by several valuable productions from Sir William's pen. As a judge he was indefatigable and partial. He studied the native laws of the country, and became so versed in the Sanscrit and the codes of the Brahmins, as to gain the admiration of the most learned men in that country. In 1799 his works were collected and published in 6 vols., and his life written by Lord Teignmouth, in one volume, 1804. beautiful monument has been erected to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral by the East India Company."- Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog." See Maunder's "Biog. Dict."; Shaw's Hist. Eng. Lit."; Chambers' "Cyc. Eng. Lit."

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SIR WILLIAM JONES.

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"Sir William Jones, an Indian judge and learned Oriental writer, was born in London, 1746, and died at Calcutta, 1794. Losing his father in his infancy, his education devolved on his mother, a woman of great virtue and understanding, from whom he learnt the rudiments of knowledge, and was then removed to Harrow school, where he made such great progress in his studies, that Dr. Sumner, the master, affirmed that his pupil knew more Greek than himself; a previous master having said, If Jones were left naked Salisbury plain, he would nevertheless find the road to fame.' In 1764 he was entered of University College, Oxford, where to his classical pursuits he added the study of the Persian and Arabic languages, also the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. At the age of nineteen he became tutor to Lord Althorpe, and, during his residence at Wimbledon, in that noble family, he greatly enlarged his acquirements in Oriental literature. In 1769 he made a tour in France, and about the same time undertook, at the request of the king of Denmark, to translate the history of Nadir Shah from Persian into French. In 1770 he entered on the study of the law at the Temple, but continued his application to Oriental learning and general literature. In 1774 he published his Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry,' dedicated to the University of Oxford. In 1783 he obtained the appointment of a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta, a post which had been the object of his anxious wishes. The honour of knighthood was on this occasion conferred on him, and he soon after married a daughter of the bishop of St. Asaph. In April of that year he embarked for India, from which he was never destined to return. On the voyage his active mind projected the establishment of a society in Bengal for the purpose of illustrating Oriental antiquities and literature. This scheme he saw carried into effect; and under his auspices, and by his direction, the society acquired a high

FRANCIS FAWKES.

"Francis Fawkes, born 1721, died 1777, made translations from some of the minor Greek poets (viz. Anacreon, Sappho, Bion and Moschus, Musæus, Theocritus, and Apollonius), and modernised the description of May and Winter,' from Gawain Douglas. He was born in Yorkshire, studied at Cambridge, was curate of Croydon, in Surrey, where he obtained the friendship of Archbishop Herring, and by him was collated to the vicarage of Orpington, in Kent. By the favour of Dr. Plumptre, he exchanged this vicarage for the rectory of Hayes, and was finally made chaplain to the Princess of Wales. He was the friend of Johnson and Warton; a learned and a jovial parson."-Campbell's "Specimens." See Allibone's "Crit. Dict. Eng. Lit."

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DR. JAMES GRAINGER.

"This writer possessed some true imagina. tion, although his claim to immortality lies in the narrow compass of one poem-his Ode to Solitude.' Little is known of his personal history. He was born in 1721, belonging to a gentleman's family in Cumberland. He studied medicine, and was for some time a surgeon connected with the army. When the peace came, he established himself in London as a medical practitioner. In 1775 he published his Solitude,' which found many admirers,

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including Dr. Johnson, who pronounced its opening lines very noble.' He afterwards indited several other pieces, wrote a translation of Tibullus, and became one of the critical staff of the Monthly Review. He was unable, how. ever, through all these labours to secure a competence, and, in 1759, he sought the West Indies. In St. Christopher's he commenced practising as a physician, and married the Governor's daughter, who brought him a fortune. He wrote a poem entitled 'The Sugar-cane.' This was sent over to London in MS., and was read at Sir Joshua Reynolds' table to a literary coterie, who, according to Boswell, all burst out into a laugh when, after much blank-verse pomp, the poet began a new paragraph thus

'Now, muse, let's sing of rats.'

And what increased the ridicule was, that one of the company, slily overlooking the reader, found that the word had been originally 'mice,' but had been changed to rats as more dignified.

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"Boswell goes on to record Johnson's opinion of Grainger. He said, 'He was an agreeable man, a man that would do any good that was in his power.' His translation of Tibullus was very well done, but The Sugar-cane, a Poem,' did not please him. What could he make of a Sugar-cane? one might as well write "The Parsley-bed, a Poem," or "The Cabbage Garden, a Poem." Boswell-You must then pickle your cabbage with the sal Atticum.' Johnson-One could say a great deal about cabbage. The poem might begin with the advantages of civilized society over a rude state, exemplified by the Scotch, who had no cabbages till Oliver Cromwell's soldiers introduced them, and one might thus show how arts are propagated by conquest, as they were by the Roman arms.' Cabbage, by the way, in a metaphorical sense, might furnish a very good subject for a literary satire.

"Grainger died of the fever of the country in 1767. Bishop Percy corroborates Johnson's character of him as a man. He says, 'He was not only a man of genius and learning, but had many excellent virtues, being one of the most generous, friendly, benevolent men I ever knew.'

"Grainger in some points reminds us of Dyer. Dyer staked his reputation on 'The Fleece; but it is his lesser poem, 'Grongar Hill,' which preserves his name; that fine effusion has survived the laboured work. And so Grainger's Solitude' has supplanted the stately Sugar-cane.' The scenery of the West Indies had to wait till its real poet appeared in the author of 'Paul and Virginia.' Grainger was hardly able to cope with the strange and gorgeous contrasts it presents of cliffs and crags, like those of Iceland, with vegetation rich as that of the fairest parts of India, and of splendid sunshine, with tempests of such tremendous fury that, but for their

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"James Merrick, born 1720, died 1769, was a clergyman, as well as a writer of verse, and became a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, where Lord North was one of his pupils. He took orders, but owing to incessant pains in the head, could not perform duty. His works are a translation of Tryphiodorus, done at twenty, a version of the Psalms, a collection of Hymns, and a few miscellaneous pieces. Gilfillan's "Less-known British Poets," vol. iii.

JOHN SCOTT.

"This worthy and poetical Quaker, who was the son of a draper in London, was born, in the borough of Southwark, 1730, and died 1783. His father retired to Amwell, in Hertfordshire, when our poet was only ten years old; and this removal, together with the circumstance of his never having been inoculated for the small pox, proved an unfortunate impediment to his education. He was put to a day-school, in the neighbouring town of Ware, where not

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