In the place where we have indicated a pause, follows a description, long, rich, and luscious—of the three naked goddesses? Fye for shame! - no of the "lily flower violeteyed," and the "singing pine," and the "overwandering ivy and vine," and "festoons," and "gnarlèd boughs," and "treetops," and "berries," and "flowers," and all the inanimate beauties of the scene. It would be unjust to the ingenuus pudor of the author not to observe the art with which he has veiled this ticklish interview behind such luxuriant trellis-work, and it is obvious that it is for our special sakes he has entered into these local details, because if there was one thing which "mother Ida" knew better than another it must have been her own bushes and brakes. ... Next comes another class of poems, - Visions. The first is "The Palace of Art," or a fine house in which the poet dreams that he sees a very fine collection of well-known pictures. An ordinary versifier would, no doubt, have followed the old routine, and dully described himself as walking into the Louvre, or Buckingham Palace, and there seeing certain masterpieces of painting; a true poet dreams it. . . . His gallery of illustrious portraits is thus admirably arranged: The Madonna Ganymede St. Cecilia-Europa -Deep-haired Milton - Shakespeare Grim Dante - Michael Angelo - Luther -Lord Bacon - Cervantes - Calderon - King David"the Halicarnassean" (quære, which of them?) — Alfred (not Alfred Tennyson, though no doubt in any other man's gallery he would have a place), — and finally Isaiah, with fierce Ezekiel, Swarth Moses by the Coptic sea, And eastern Confutzee! We can hardly suspect the very original mind of Mr. Tennyson to have harboured any recollections of that celebrated Doric idyll, "The groves of Blarney," but certainly there is a strong likeness between Mr. Tennyson's list of pictures and the Blarney collection of statues Statues growing that noble place in, All heathen goddesses most rare, BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES [The outline biographies that follow are in most cases abridged from the Dictionary of National Biography. The bibliographical notes make no pretension to completeness, but are intended to suggest texts and critical references convenient for the student. In addition to the books mentioned under particular authors, the following are useful for the whole period: Elton's English Literature, 1780–1830; Saintsbury's History of Nineteenth Century Literature; Herford's The Age of Wordsworth; Walker's The Age of Tennyson; Omond's The Romantic Triumph; Beers's History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century; the Cambridge History of English Literature, volumes 12 and 13.] SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE was born at Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, October 21, 1772; was educated at the London charity school called Christ's Hospital, where he became a friend of Charles Lamb, and at Jesus College, Cambridge; adopted radical views on politics and religion, and, together with Robert Southey and other friends, planned a colony to be established in America under the name of Pantisocracy; engaged in lecturing and preaching as an independent (Unitarian) minister, 1795-98; settled at Nether Stowey, Somerset, 1797, in order to be near Wordsworth, and with him planned the volume of Lyrical Ballads (1798) containing "The Ancient Mariner"; traveled in Germany with Wordsworth, and studied philosophy; on his return engaged in translating German books and in contributing to London journals; settled at Keswick, in the Lake country, 1800; became a slave to the opium habit; projected many works on philosophic subjects, but completed none; lectured in London, at various times, 1808-18; published a philosophic newspaper, The Friend, 1809-10; lived with the family of James Gillman, at Highgate, from 1816, with their aid partially conquering the opium habit; died July 25, 1834. His works include the Poems; two dramas (Remorse and Osorio); The Statesman's Manual, 1816; the Biographia Literaria, 1817; Aids to Reflection, 1825; and various posthumous collections. The standard edition of Coleridge's works is that of W. G. T. Shedd, in seven volumes, 1884. The Biographia Literaria has been edited, with valuable introduction and notes, by J. Shawcross (Clarendon Press, 1907); see also extracts in Coleridge's Principles of Criticism, edited by A. J. George, and Coleridge's Literary Criticism, edited by J. W. Mackail. The best biography is that of J. D. Campbell, 1894; there are also Lives by Hall Caine (Great Writers series) and H. D. Traill (English Men of Letters); see also Brandl's Coleridge and the English Romantic School. For criticism, see essays in Hazlitt's The Spirit of the Age, John Stuart Mill's Dissertations, Leslie Stephen's Hours in a Library, G. E. Woodberry's Makers of Literature; and (on Coleridge's literary criticism) L. J. Wylie's Studies in the Evolution of English Criticism, 1894. JOHN WILSON CROKER was born in Galway, Ireland, December 20, 1780; was educated at Trinity College, Dublin; studied law; became Member of Parliament, 1807; contributed abundantly to the Quarterly Review; became Secretary to the Admiralty, and later Privy Councillor; edited Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1831; retired from politics after the passing of the Reform Bill, 1832; died August 10, 1857. His works include: Military Events of the French Revolu tion of 1830, 1831; Essays on the Early Period of the French Revolution, 1857. The Memoirs, Diaries, and Correspondence of Croker were edited by L. J. Jennings, 1884. THOMAS DE QUINCEY was born at Manchester, August 15, 1785; was educated at the Manchester Grammar School; left school and rambled in England and Wales, 1802, finally leading a wandering life in London; at Worcester College, Oxford, 1803; devoted himself to the study of German, philosophy, economics, etc.; contributed the "Confessions of an Opium Eater" to the London Magazine, 1821; became a leading contributor to Blackwood's Magazine; visited the Lake Country to see Wordsworth, and settled in Edinburgh; was always addicted to opium, but of extraordinary vigor and industry; died at Edinburgh, December 8, 1859. His works include: Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, 1822 (enlarged edition, 1856); Klosterheim, 1839; Logic of Political Economy, 1844. De Quincey's Works have been edited by David Masson, in fourteen volumes. A convenient volume of Selections is edited by Turk (Athenæum Press series); of the Confessions there are many reprints, in Everyman's Library, etc. The chief biographies are those of A. H. Japp (originally published under the pseudonym "H. A. Page") and Masson (Men of Letters). For criticism, see essays in G. Saintsbury's Essays in English Literature and Leslie Stephen's Hours in a Library; Turk's introduction to the volume of selections noted above; and Masson's essay on "Prose and Verse” in his volume called Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats. WILLIAM HAZLITT was born at Maidstone, April 10, 1778; the son of a dissenting (Unitarian) minister, was himself educated for the ministry; met Coleridge, and visited him in 1798; studied painting; wrote and lectured on philosophy; was dramatic critic for the London Chronicle, 1814; contributed to Leigh Hunt's Examiner and later to the Edinburgh Review; lectured on literature at the Surrey Institution, 1818-20; had a notoriously unhappy love affair and an unfortunate marriage; died in poverty, September 18, 1830. His works include: Principles of Human Action, 1805; The Round Table, 1815-17; Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, 1817; Lectures on the English Poets, 1818; Lectures on the Dramatic Literature of the Reign of Elizabeth, 1821; Table Talk, 1821-22; The Spirit of the Age, 1825; The Plain Speaker, 1826; Life of Napoleon, 1828-30. Hazlitt's Works have been collected under the editorship of Waller and Glover, twelve volumes, 1902-04; there are good volumes of Selections edited by W. D. Howe (Ginn) and J. Zeitlin (Oxford Press). Hazlitt's Memoirs were written by his grandson, William Carew Hazlitt, 1867; a good brief biography is that of Augustine Birrell (Men of Letters). For criticism, see, besides Birrell's, essays by G. Saintsbury in Essays in English Literature, Leslie Stephen in Hours in a Library, and by Paul Elmer More in Shelburne Essays, second series. FRANCIS JEFFREY was born at Edinburgh, October 23, 1773; was educated at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh; became a lawyer, 1794; was prominent in Whig politics; was a neighbor and friend of Walter Scott's; joined in the founding of the Edinburgh Review, 1802, and edited it, 1803-29; was made Lord Advocate of Scotland, 1830; Member of Parliament, 1831-34; Judge of the Court of Sessions, 1834-50; died January 26, 1850. His Contributions to the Edinburgh Review were collected and published in 1844 and 1853. Jeffrey's Life and Correspondence, by Lord Cockburn, 1852, remains the standard biography. A volume of Selections from his criticism, edited by L. E. Gates (Athenæum Press series), contains a useful introduction, which is reprinted in Gates's Three Studies in Literature, 1899. For other criticism, see in the Works of Walter Bagehot, an essay on "The First Edinburgh Reviewers"; also some account by Hazlitt, in The Spirit of the Age, and an essay by Saintsbury in Essays in English Literature. (See also, for the early reviews and reviewers, J. L. Haney's Early Reviews of English Poets, 1904.) CHARLES LAMB was born at London, February 10, 1775; was educated at Christ's Hospital school, at the same time with Coleridge; a clerk in the India House, 1792-1825; devoted himself to the care of his sister Mary, after she suffered a violent attack of insanity in 1796; contributed to newspapers and magazines, in particular, under the name of Elia, to the London Magazine, 1820-22; lived in retirement on a pension from 1825; died December 27, 1834. His works include a volume of poems, 1798; a tragedy, John Woodvil, 1802; Tales from Shakespeare (with Mary Lamb), 1807; Specimens of English Dramatic Poets Contemporary with Shakespeare, 1808; Essays of Elia, 1823; Last Essays of Elia, 1833. The best edition of Lamb's works is that edited by E. V. Lucas, in seven volumes; Lucas is also the author of the standard biography, 1905. There is a short life by A. Ainger (Men of Letters). For criticism, see essays in Pater's Appreciations, A. Birrell's Obiter Dicta, G. E. Woodberry's Makers of Literature, and P. E. More's Shelburne Essays, second and fourth series. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR was born at Warwick, January 30, 1775; was educated in part at Rugby and at Trinity College, Oxford, but was obliged to leave both colleges because of intractable conduct; quarreled with his father; became a lifelong friend of Robert Southey; in 1808 went to Spain with an expedition to aid in the war against the French; established an estate in Wales; quarreled with many of his neighbors, and with his wife; devoted much of his leisure to the composition of Latin verses; resided in France, 1814, and in Italy, 1815-35; always engaged in composition, but never with pecuniary success, publishing several of his works at his own expense; after further quarrels and libel suits, in 1858 finally exiled himself, living at Florence till his death on September 17, 1864. His works include: Gebir, 1798; Count Julian, 1812; Imaginary Conversations, 1824-29, 1846, 1853; Citation and Examination of William Shakespeare, 1834; Pericles and Aspasia, 1836; The Pentameron, 1837; and various volumes of poems, from 1795 to 1863. The standard edition of Landor's works is in eight volumes, and includes his Life by John Forster. Convenient volumes of selections have been edited by Sidney Colvin (Golden Treasury series), W. S. B. Clymer (Athenæum Press series), and A. G. Newcomer (Conversations only; Holt's English Readings). Besides Forster's Life, see Landor's biography, by Colvin, in the Men of Letters series. For criticism, see the introductions to the three volumes of selections just mentioned; and essays in E. Dowden's Studies in Literature, |