The Works of Lord Byron Volume I Part 96

[Footnote 130: Henry Kirke White died at Cambridge, in October 1806, in consequence of too much exertion in the pursuit of studies that would have matured a mind which disease and poverty could not impair, and which Death itself destroyed rather than subdued. His poems abound in such beauties as must impress the reader with the liveliest regret that so short a period was allotted to talents, which would have dignified even the sacred functions he was destined to a.s.sume.

[H. K. White (1785-1806) published 'Clifton Grove' and other poems in 1803. Two volumes of his 'Remains,' consisting of poems, letters, etc., with a life by Southey, were issued in 1808. His tendency to epilepsy was increased by over-work at Cambridge. He once remarked to a friend that "were he to paint a picture of Fame, crowning a distinguished undergraduate after the Senate house examination, he would represent her as concealing a Death's head under a mask of Beauty" ('Life of H. K.

W.', by Southey, i. 45). By "the soaring lyre, which else had sounded an immortal lay," Byron, perhaps, refers to the unfinished 'Christiad,'

which, says Southey, "Henry had most at heart."]]

[Footnote 131: Lines 832-834, as they stand in the text, were inserted in MS. in both the Annotated Copies of the Fourth Edition.]]

[Footnote 132: "I consider Crabbe and Coleridge as the first of these times, in point of power and genius."--B., 1816.]

[Footnote 133: Mr. Shee, author of 'Rhymes on Art' and 'Elements of Art'. [Sir Martin Archer Shee (1770-1850) was President of the Royal Academy (1830-45). His 'Rhymes on Art' (1805) and 'Elements of Art'

(1809), a poem in six cantos, will hardly be regarded as worthy of Byron's praise, which was probably quite genuine. He also wrote a novel, 'Harry Calverley', and other works.]]

[Footnote 134: Mr. Wright, late Consul-General for the Seven Islands, is author of a very beautiful poem, just published: it is ent.i.tled 'Horae Ionicae', and is descriptive of the isles and the adjacent coast of Greece. [Walter Rodwell Wright was afterwards President of the Court of Appeal in Malta, where he died in 1826. 'Horae Ionicae, a Poem descriptive of the Ionian Islands, and Part of the Adjacent Coast of Greece', was published in 1809. He is mentioned in one of Byron's long notes to 'Childe Harold', canto ii., dated Franciscan Convent, Mar. 17, 1811.]]

[Footnote 135: The translators of the Anthology have since published separate poems, which evince genius that only requires opportunity to attain eminence. [The Rev. Robert Bland (1779-1825) published, in 1806, 'Translations chiefly from the Greek Anthology, with Tales and Miscellaneous Poems'. In these he was a.s.sisted (see 'Life of the Rev.

Francis Hodgson', vol. i. pp. 226-260) by Denman (afterwards Chief Justice), by Hodgson himself, and, above all, by John Herman Merivale (1779-1844), who subsequently, in 1813, was joint editor with him of 'Collections from the Greek Anthology', etc.]]

[Footnote 136: Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), the grandfather of Charles Robert Darwin. Coleridge describes his poetry as "nothing but a succession of landscapes or paintings. It arrests the attention too often, and so prevents the rapidity necessary to pathos."--'Anima Poetae', 1895, p. 5. His chief works are 'The Botanic Garden' (1789-92) and 'The Temple of Nature' (1803). Byron's censure of 'The Botanic Garden' is inconsistent with his principles, for Darwin's verse was strictly modelled on the lines of Pope and his followers. But the 'Loves of the Triangles' had laughed away the 'Loves of the Plants'.]]

[Footnote 137: The neglect of 'The Botanic Garden' is some proof of returning taste. The scenery is its sole recommendation.]

[Footnote 138: This was not Byron's mature opinion, nor had he so expressed himself in the review of Wordsworth's 'Poems' which he contributed to 'Crosby's Magazine' in 1807 ('Life', p. 669). His scorn was, in part, provoked by indignities offered to Pope and Dryden, and, in part, a.s.sumed because one Lake poet called up the rest; and it was good sport to flout and jibe at the "Fraternity." That the day would come when the message of Wordsworth would reach his ears and awaken his enthusiasm, he could not, of course, foresee (see 'Childe Harold', canto iii. stanzas 72, 'et seqq.').]]

[Footnote 139: Messrs. Lamb and Lloyd, the most ign.o.ble followers of Southey and Co. [Charles Lloyd (1775-1839) resided for some months under Coleridge's roof, first in Bristol, and afterwards at Nether Stowey (1796-1797). He published, in 1796, a folio edition of his 'Poems on the Death of Priscilla Farmer', in which a sonnet by Coleridge and a poem of Lamb's were included. Lamb and Lloyd contributed several pieces to the second edition of Coleridge's Poems, published in 1797; and in 1798 they brought out a joint volume of their own composition, named 'Poems in Blank Verse'. 'Edmund Oliver', a novel, appeared also in 1798. An estrangement between Coleridge and Lloyd resulted in a quarrel with Lamb, and a drawing together of Lamb, Lloyd, and Southey. But Byron probably had in his mind nothing more than the lines in the 'Anti-Jacobin', where Lamb and Lloyd are cla.s.sed with Coleridge and Southey as advocates of French socialism:--

"Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd and Lamb and Co., Tune all your mystic harps to praise Lepaux."

In later life Byron expressed a very different opinion of Lamb's literary merits. (See the preface to 'Werner', now first published.)]]

[Footnote 140: By the bye, I hope that in Mr. Scott's next poem, his hero or heroine will be less addicted to "Gramarye," and more to Grammar, than the Lady of the Lay and her Bravo, William of Deloraine.]

[Footnote 141: "Unjust."--B., 1816. [In 'Frost at Midnight', first published in 1798, Coleridge twice mentions his "Cradled infant."]]

[Footnote 142: The Rev. W. L. Bowles ('vide ante', p. 323, note 2), published, in 1789, 'Fourteen Sonnets written chiefly on Picturesque Spots during a Journey'.]]

[Footnote 143: It may be asked, why I have censured the Earl of CARLISLE, my guardian and relative, to whom I dedicated a volume of puerile poems a few years ago?--The guardians.h.i.+p was nominal, at least as far as I have been able to discover; the relations.h.i.+p I cannot help, and am very sorry for it; but as his Lords.h.i.+p seemed to forget it on a very essential occasion to me, I shall not burden my memory with the recollection. I do not think that personal differences sanction the unjust condemnation of a brother scribbler; but I see no reason why they should act as a preventive, when the author, n.o.ble or ign.o.ble, has, for a series of years, beguiled a "discerning public" (as the advertis.e.m.e.nts have it) with divers reams of most orthodox, imperial nonsense. Besides, I do not step aside to vituperate the earl: no--his works come fairly in review with those of other Patrician Literati. If, before I escaped from my teens, I said anything in favour of his Lords.h.i.+p's paper books, it was in the way of dutiful dedication, and more from the advice of others than my own judgment, and I seize the first opportunity of p.r.o.nouncing my sincere recantation. I have heard that some persons conceive me to be under obligations to Lord CARLISLE: if so, I shall be most particularly happy to learn what they are, and when conferred, that they may be duly appreciated and publicly acknowledged. What I have humbly advanced as an opinion on his printed things, I am prepared to support, if necessary, by quotations from Elegies, Eulogies, Odes, Episodes, and certain facetious and dainty tragedies bearing his name and mark:--

"What can enn.o.ble knaves, or 'fools', or cowards?

Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards."

So says Pope. Amen!--"Much too savage, whatever the foundation might be."--B., 1816.]

[Footnote 144: Line 952. 'Note'--

"Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora."

(VIRGIL.)]

[Footnote 145:

"The devil take that 'Phoenix'! How came it there?"

--B., 1816.]

[Footnote 146: The Rev. Charles James h.o.a.re (1781-1865), a close friend of the leaders of the Evangelical party, gained the Seatonian Prize at Cambridge in 1807 with his poem on the 's.h.i.+pwreck of St. Paul'.]

[Footnote 147: Edmund Hoyle, the father of the modern game of whist, lived from 1672 to 1769. The Rev. Charles Hoyle, his "poetical namesake," was, like h.o.a.re, a Seatonian prizeman, and wrote an epic in thirteen books on the 'Exodus'.]

[Footnote 148: The 'Games of Hoyle', well known to the votaries of Whist, Chess, etc., are not to be superseded by the vagaries of his poetical namesake ["ill.u.s.trious Synonime" in 'MS.' and 'British Bards'], whose poem comprised, as expressly stated in the advertis.e.m.e.nt, all the "Plagues of Egypt."]

[Footnote 149: Here, as in line 391, "Fresh fish from Helicon," etc., Byron confounds Helicon and Hippocrene.]]

[Footnote 150: This person, who has lately betrayed the most rabid symptoms of confirmed authors.h.i.+p, is writer of a poem denominated 'The Art of Pleasing', as "Lucus a non lucendo," containing little pleasantry, and less poetry. He also acts as ["lies as" in 'MS.']

monthly stipendiary and collector of calumnies for the 'Satirist'. If this unfortunate young man would exchange the magazines for the mathematics, and endeavour to take a decent degree in his university, it might eventually prove more serviceable than his present salary.]

[Note.--An unfortunate young person of Emanuel College, Cambridge, ycleped Hewson Clarke, has lately manifested the most rabid symptoms of confirmed Authors.h.i.+p. His Disorder commenced some years ago, and the 'Newcastle Herald' teemed with his precocious essays, to the great edification of the Burgesses of Newcastle, Morpeth, and the parts adjacent even unto Berwick upon Tweed. These have since been abundantly scurrilous upon the [town] of Newcastle, his native spot, Mr. Mathias and Anacreon Moore. What these men had done to offend Mr. Hewson Clarke is not known, but surely the town in whose markets he had sold meat, and in whose weekly journal he had written prose deserved better treatment.

Mr. H.C. should recollect the proverb "'tis a villainous bird that defiles his own nest." He now writes in the 'Satirist'. We recommend the young man to abandon the magazines for mathematics, and to believe that a high degree at Cambridge will be more advantageous, as well as profitable in the end, than his present precarious gleanings.]

[Hewson Clarke (1787-circ. 1832) was entered at Emmanuel Coll. Camb.

circ. 1806 (see 'Postscript'). He had to leave the University without taking a degree, and migrated to London, where he devoted his not inconsiderable talents to contributions to the 'Satirist', the 'Scourge', etc. He also wrote: 'An Impartial History of the Naval, etc., Events of Europe ... from the French Revolution ... to the Conclusion of a General Peace' (1815); and a continuation of Hume's 'History of England', 2 vols. (1832).

The 'Satirist', a monthly magazine ill.u.s.trated with coloured cartoons, was issued 1808-1814. 'Hours of Idleness' was reviewed Jan. 1808 (i.

77-81). "The Diary of a Cantab" (June, 1808, ii. 368) contains some verses of "Lord B----n to his Bear. To the tune of Lachin y gair." The last verse runs thus:--

"But when with the ardour of Love I am burning, I feel for thy torments, I feel for thy care; And weep for thy bondage, so truly discerning What's felt by a 'Lord', may be felt by a 'Bear'."