Next comes the dull disciple of thy school, That mild apostate from poetic rule, Who warns his friend "to shake off toil and trouble, * Lyncal Ballads, p. 4.-" The Tables Turned." Stanza 1. Up, up, my friend, and quit your books, Mr. W. in his preface labors 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 Made answer like a traveller bold. And the sun did shine so cold," &c. &c., p. 129. Coleridge's Poems, p. 11, 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." [Thus altered by Lord Byron, in his last revision of the satire. In all former editions the line stood, "A fellow-feeling makes us wond'rous kind." [Injurt." 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 azry, and has been a thorn in my side ever since: more particularly as almost all the person's animadverted upon becane subsequently my acquaintances, and some of them my trends; 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."] His Matthew Gregory Lewis, 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 his life. Tales of Terror; the drama of the Castle Spectre; and the rouance called the Bravo of Venice, (which is, however, httle more than a version from the Swiss Zschocke ;) but above all, the libidinous and impious novel of The Monk, in Whether on ancient tombs thou tak'st thy stand, St. Luke alone can vanquish the disease: Who in soft guise, surrounded by a choir Of virgins melting, not to Vesta's fire, With sparkling eyes, and cheek by passion flush'd, Strikes his wild lyre, while listening dames are hush'd? 'Tis Little! young Catullus of his day, As sweet, but as immoral, in his lay! Pure is the flame which o'er her altar burns; She bids thee "mend thy line, and sin no more." 10 For thee, translator of the tinsel song, To whom such glittering ornaments belong, Hibernian Strangford! with thine eyes of blue," 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. tion. vested 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 reputaIn society he was to the last a favorite; 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 everybody. 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, 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 favorite 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."] 19 [Originally, "mend thy life, and sin no more."] 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 Camoëns. Think'st thou to gain thy verse a higher place, 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, Forever feeble and forever 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." Moravians, rise! bestow some meet reward On dull devotion-Lo! the Sabbath bard, Sepulchral Grahame, 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 brings1 A thousand visions of a thousand things, And shows, still whimpering through threescore of years, The maudlin prince of mournful sonneteers. 1 It is also to be remarked, that the things given to the public as poems of Camoëns are no more to be found in the original Portuguese, than in the Song of Solomon. 2 Hayley's two most notorious verse productions are "Triumphs of Temper," and "The Triumph of Music." He has also written much comedy in rhyme, epistles, &c. &c. 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.] 9 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.] 4 [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; 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 cotemporaries. Mr. P.'s Sympathy' is in rhyme; but his prose productions are the most voluminous." The more popular of these last were entitled "Gleanings."] See Bowles's "Sonnet to Oxford," and "Stanzas on hearing the Bells of Ostend." 6 "Awake a louder," &c. is the first line in Bowles's And art thou not their prince, harmonious Bowles! "Spirit of Discovery;" a very spirited and pretty dwarfepic. 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," &c. &c. 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."-Byron, 1816.] 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. ["Although," says Lord Byron, in 1821, “I regret having published English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,' the part which I regret the least is that which regards Mr. Bowles, with reference to Pope. While I was writing that publica tion, in 1807 and 1808, 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 put my name to it. I omitted Mr. Hob house's lines, by which the work gained less than Mr. Bowles."-The following are the lines written by Mr. Hob house: "Stick to thy sonnets, man!-at least they sell, For modern worthies who would hope to rise: But if some new-born whim, or larger bribe, Prompt thy crude brain, and claim thee for a scribe; If Pope, whose fame and genius, from the first, Perch on thy pen, and flutter o'er thy page; A meet reward had crown'd thy glorious gains, Another epic! Who inflicts again : More books of blank upon the sons of men? 1 Curll is one of the heroes of the Dunciad, and was a bookseller. Lord Fanny is the poetical name of Lord HerTey, author of "Lines to the Imitator of Horace." 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."] Dennis the critic, and Ralph the rhymester.- 4 See Bowles's late edition of Pope's Works, for which he received three hundred pounds. Thus Mr. B. has experieaced how much easier it is to profit by the reputation of another than to elevate his own. Lord Byron's MS. note of 1816 on this passage is."Too savage all this on Bowles:" and well might he say so. That venerable person is still living; and in spite of all the criticisms to which his injudicious edition of Pope exposed h 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.] "Fresh fish from Helicon !"-"Helicon" is a mountain, and not a fish-pond. It should have been Hippocrene."Byron, 1816.] 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 epies. " Alfred."(poor Alfred! Pye has been at him too!) -"Alfred," and the Fall of Cambria." [Here Lord B. notes in 1816:-" All right. I saw some Oh, Amos Cottle! for a moment think 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 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, Lo sad Alcæus wanders down the vale; Yet say why should the bard at once resign Nor hunt the bloodhounds back to Arthur's Seat?12 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 I 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 honor to be recorded in the Antijacobin, probably by Canning:- "And Cottle, not he who that Alfred made famous, 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," &c.. 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.] 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." "[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 "bloodhounds," "hell-hounds."] 12 Arthur's Seat; the hill which overhangs Edinburgh Health to iminortal Jeffrey once, in name, Health to great Jeffrey! Heaven preserve his life The Tolbooth felt-for marble sometimes can, Strew'd were the streets around with milk-white reams, Flow'd all the Canongate with inky streams; The field, and saved him from the wrath of Moore; 66 My son," she cried, " ne'er thirst for gore again, Boast of thy country, and Britannia's guide! 1 [Mr. Jeffrey, who, after the first Number or two, succeeded the Rev. Sydney 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 (1836) a Lord of Session. "I have often, since my return to England," says Lord Byron, (Diary, 1814,) "heard Jeffrey most highly commended by those who knew him, for things independent of his talents. I admire him for this -not 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."} 2 ["Too ferocious-this is mere insanity."-B. 1816.] ["All this is bad, because personal."-B. 1816.] + 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 were found to have evaporated. 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."November 4, 1811.] 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. This display of sympathy on the part of the Tolbooth, (the principal prison in Edinburgh,) which truly seems to have been inost 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 i 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 feininine impulses, perhaps a little selfish. 7 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 lordstup published an "Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture."] 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 Carnarvon. He also published, in 1811, Helga," a poem in seven cantos.] The Rev. Sydney Smith, the reputed author of Peter Plymley's Letters, and sundry criticisms -[Now (1836, one of the Canons Residentiary of St. Paul's. &c. Dyson's Address to his Constituents on the Reform Bill" and many other pieces published anonymously or pseudonomousty. 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.] 10 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 ingenuityNote added to second edition.-The said Hallam is incense! because he is falsely accused, seeing that he never dineth at Holland House. If this be true, I am sorry--not for hav Scott may perchance his name and influence lend, Then prosper Jeffrey ! pertest of the train Whom Scotland pampers with her fiery grain! Whatever blessing waits a genuine Scot, In double portion swells thy glorious lot; For thee Edina culls her evening sweets, And showers their odors on thy candid sheets, Whose hue and fragrance to thy work adhereThis scents its pages, and that gilds its rear." Lo! blushing Itch, coy nymph, enamor'd grown, Forsakes the rest, and cleaves to thee alone: And, too unjust to other Pictish men, Enjoys thy person, and inspires thy pen! ing said so, but on his account, as I understand his lordsup's feasts are preferable to his compositions.-If he did Lot review Lord Holland's performance, I am glad, because it must have been painful to read, and irksome to praise it. If Mr. Hailam will tell me who did review it, the real name shall find a place in the text; provided, nevertheless, the sad 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 Eugland" from the insinuations of the juvenile poet.] 1 Pillans is a tutor at Eton.-(Mr. Pillans became afterwards Rector of the High School of Edinburgh, and has now been for some years Professor of Humanity in that Universy. There was not, it is believed, the slightest foundation for the charge in the text.] * The Hon. George Lambe reviewed "Beresford's Miseres," and is, moreover, author of a farce enacted with much applause at the Priory, Stanmore; and damned with great expedition at the late theatre, Covent Garden. It was entaled Whistle for it."-[Mr. Lambe was, in 1818, the successful 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. In 1832, he was appointed Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, his chief being his brother, Lord Melbourne. He died in 1833.] * Mr. Brougham, in No. xxv. of the Edinburgh Review, I broughout the article concerning Don Pedro de Cevallos, 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 subscriphons. (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."] 4 I ought to apologize to the worthy deities for introducing a new goddess with short petticoats to their notice: Illustrious Holland! hard would be his lot, Now to the Drama turn-Oh! motley sight! What precious scenes the wondering eyes invite! Puns, and a prince within a barrel pent,12 And Dibdin's nonsense yield complete content. Though now, thank Heaven! the Rosciomania's o'er, And full-grown actors are endured once more; 6 [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 mine Dear Jeffrey, once my most redoubted foe, To make such puppets of us things below,) 7["Bad enough, and on mistaken grounds too."-B. 1816] [Lord Henry Petty;-now (1836) Marquess of Lansdowne.] [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."] 10 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 that Lord Holland has subsequently published any verses, except a universally admired version of the 28th canto of the Orlando Furioso, which is given by way of appendix to one of Mr. W. Stewart Rose's volumes.] 11 Certain it is, her ladyship is suspected of having displayed her matchless wit in the Edinburgh Review. However that may be, we know, from good authority, that the manuscripts are submitted to her perusal-no doubt, for correction. 12 In the melo-drama of Tekeli, that heroic prince is clap but, alas what was to be done? I could not say Caledo-ped into a barrel on the stage; a new asylum for distressed nia's genius, it being well known there is no such genius to be found from Clackmanan to Caithness; yet, without superuatural agency, how was Jeffrey to be saved? The naboral" kelpies" are too unpoetical, and the "brownies" and gude neighbors" (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. • See the color of the back binding of the Edinburgh Re view. heroes.--[In the original MS. the note stands thus:--"In the melo-drama of Tekeli, that heroic prince is clapped into a barrel on the stage, and Count Evrard in the fortress hides himself in a green-house built expressly for the occasion. 'Tis a pity that Theodore Hook, who is really a man of talent, should confine his genius to such paltry productions as the Fortress,' Music Mad,' &c. &c."-This extraordinary humorist, who was a mere boy at the date of Lord Byron's satire, has since distinguished himself by works more worthy of his abilities-nine volumes of highly popu lar novels, entitled " Sayings and Doings"-" Gilbert Gurney"-a world of political jeux d'esprit, &c. &c.] |