Yale University Library

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YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

THE BEGINNINGS

OF THE

English Romantic Movement

A STUDY IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
LITERATURE

BY

WILLIAM LYON PHELPS
A.M. (HARVARD), PH.D. (YALE)
INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH LITERATURE AT YALE COLLEGE

BOSTON, U.S.A.
GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
1893

Copyright, 1893,
By WILLIAM LYON PHELPS.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

e
4b

TO
PROFESSOR J. P. MAHAFFY
OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, IN REMEMBRANCE
OF A FEW DAYS IN A DULL VACATION
MADE BRIGHT BY HIS
KINDNESS

PREFACE.

This little book gives the results of a search in English
literature from 1700 to 1765, for the beginnings of the English
Romantic movement. The minor poetry from 1725 to 1765,
although desperately dull reading, has satisfactorily rewarded
my search. I have reached no startling conclusions, but there
is some matter in the book that may fairly be called new ; and
a number of points suggested by previous study have been
more fully developed. The Spenserian Revival is treated with
some approach to thoroughness, and my list of imitations I
believe to be much longer than any other ever printed. In the
discussion of Ballad Literature and in the chapter on Gray I
have also gone carefully into details.
So far as I am aware no book has ever been written on the
history of English Romanticism, so that the matter given here
is the result of first-hand study. Every statement of fact and
every critical opinion, unless the contrary is distinctly stated,
are based on references to the original sources, so far as these
have been accessible. The prose and poetry of the period I
have read very largely in first and early editions. An original
edition with the author's first preface is often of the greatest
value to the student of a literary development.
The utmost care has been taken to secure accuracy in dates.
In this kind of work dates are exceedingly important, and
different histories, encylopaedias and dictionaries vary so widely
from each other, that accuracy is not always easy. Every
doubtful date has here been followed up carefully, and the date
finally given is based on the best evidences and authorities.

vi PREFACE.
In this book I have tried to establish two things. First, that
the spirit of Romanticism has never been wholly extinct in
English literature. Second, that between the years 1725 and
1765 the Romantic movement was a real, if quiet force, and that
in these forty years may be found the seeds which sprang to f ulL
maturity in Scott and Byron, and in all the subsequent Romantic
literature of the nineteenth century.
My thanks are due to the officials of the Boston Public
Library, and to the librarians of Harvard and Yale Universities,
who have al'ways shown me the utmost courtesy. I cannot
sufficiently express my obligations to Professor H. A. Beers of
Yale, and to Professor Barrett Wendell of Harvard. It was at
the suggestion of the former that I first entered upon this line
of study, and the generous loan of his own manuscript notes
on the period has been an invaluable help. It was Professor
Wendell who first suggested the idea of printing my results,
a thought that had not previously occurred to me. He also
read all of the first draft of my manuscript and made many
useful suggestions. My thanks are due to Professor John
M. Manly of Brown, who read and annotated my manuscript,
and to Professor George Lyman Kittredge of Harvard, who
assisted me materially in countless places with his wide learning
and unfailing kindness. Mr. Thomas Sergeant Perry of Boston,
and Professor T. R. Lounsbury, of Yale, also read extracts
and helped me by many fruitful hints, and by much friendlv
counsel ; and I should also like to express in common with
so many other students my appreciation of the inspiration
and general stimulus I have received from the kind words of
Professor F. J. Child. No sincere student ever came into
close contact with this Teacher without becoming both a better
scholar and a better man.
Any corrections of errors, or suggestions, will be gratefully
received and promptly acknowledged.
W. L. P.
Yale University, io March, 1893.

CONTENTS.

Page
INTRODUCTION.
What is Romanticism ? . .  i

CHAPTER I.
Principal Literary Characteristics of the Augustan Age 7
CHAPTER II.
Reactionary Tendencies during the Augustan Age . . 23
CHAPTER III. ^
The Reaction in Form  36
CHAPTER IV.
The Spenserian Revival  47
CHAPTER V.
The Influence of Milton in the Romantic Movement —
The Literature of Melancholy  87
CHAPTER VI.
Revival of the Past — Gothicism and Chivalry .... 102
CHAPTER VII.
Revival of the Past — Ballad Literature and Percy , 116
CHAPTER VIIL
Revival of the Past — Northern Mythology, Welsh Poetry,
and Ossian  137

vni ¦ CONTENTS. Pagp
CHAPTER IX.
The Romantic Movement Exemplified in Gray ... . 15;.
CHAPTER X.
General Summary  171

APPENDICES  175
INDEX  i8j

INTRODUCTION.

WHAT IS ROMANTICISM?
Any attempt to make a definition of Romanticism that will
be at once specific and adequate is sure to result in failure. It
is not simply that the word "Romantic" has both a popular
and a critical sense, each of which differs widely from the
other ; but that the word is used critically in very different
ways. For example, we say that Scott's couplets are Classic,
as distinguished from those of Keats, which are Romantic ;
but, speaking critically, it will never do to say that Scott was a
Classic poet, because he certainly stands as one of the most
prominent figures in English Romanticism.
Again, we call Byron a Romantic poet, because his poetry
expresses that Sentimental melancholy and vague aspiration
which characterize the Romantic mood ; but if we take Roman
ticism to be what Heine says it is — the revival of the life and
thought of the Middle Ages — we certainly cannot class Byron'
as a Romantic poet.
The word Romanticism is also often applied not to subject,
but to method. Any poet, like Victor Hugo for example, who
rebels against and ignores the rules of the Classicists, is thereby
a Romantic poet. In this sense Wordsworth might be, and in
fact is, called a Romanticist, although he differs completely
from Scott on the one hand, and from Byron on the other.
When three poets so utterly unlike as Scott, Byron, and Words
worth are each and all ranked by various critics as belonging
to the Romantic school of English literature, it is easy to see
that the term must be used in widely different senses.

2 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
I have seen many people who thought they could define
Romanticism off-hand ; but I have never seen one who could
actually do it when brought to the test. It may be profitable
to rehearse a few of the definitions given by critics and men of
letters, in order to show the difficulty of getting at something
that will satisfy everybody. Heine says,] "Was war aber die
romantische Schule in Deutschland? Sie war nichts anders
als die Wiedererweckung der Poesie des Mittelalters, wie sie
sich in dessen Liedern, Bild- und Bauwerken, in Kunst und
Leben, manif estiert hatte. Die Poesie in alien diesen Gedichten
des Mittelalters tragt einen bestimmten Charakter, wodurch
sie sich von der Poesie der Griechen und Romer unterscheidet.
In Betreff dieses Unterschieds nennen wir erstere die roman
tische und letztere die klassische Poesie." x t Then Heine goes
on to say that in antique art the plastic figures are identical
with the thing represented, with the idea which the artist seeks
to embody and communicate, whereas in romantic art all
descriptions, as, for example, the wanderings of a knight, have
always an .allegorical significance. Classic art portrays the
finite, Romantic art the infinite.
Madame de Stael follows much the same idea. She says,
| " Le nom de romantique a eti introduit nouvellement en Alle-
magne, pour designer la podsie . . . qui est nee^deJa. chevalerie
j|t_du christianisme. . . .| On prend quelquefois le mot classique
comme synonyme de perfection. Je m'en sers ici dans une
autre acception, en consideVantila podsie classique comme celle
des anciens et la poe"sie romantique comme celle qui tient de
quelque maniere aux traditions chevaleresques." ' She also
remarks on " l'imitation de l'une et l'inspiration de 1'autre." 2
These two definitions evidently refer mainly to the subject-
matter — the kind of topics handled by Romantic writers.
Other definitions refer more to the subjective side — to the
Romantic mood. Mr. Pater says, " The essential classical
1 Die Romantische Schule (Cotta edition), page 158.
2 De l'Allemagne, Vol. I., Chap. XXX. (Stuttgart, 1830).

INTRODUCTION. 3
element is that quality of order in beauty. ... It is the addition
of strangeness to beauty that constitutes the Romantic char
acter in art. ... It is the addition of curiosity to thejdesire of
beauty that constitutes the romantic temper. . . . The essential
elements, then, of the Romantic spirit are curiosity and the
love of beauty ; and it is as the accidental effects of these
qualities only that it seeks the middle age." 1
Again, Dr. F. H. Hedge declares that the Romantic feeling
has its origin in wonder and mystery. " It is the sense of
something hidden, of imperfect revelation. . . . The peculiarity
of the classic style is reserve, self-suppression of the writer.
. . . The Romantic is self-reflecting. ..." To the Greeks the
world was a fact, to us it is a problem. . . . Byron is simply
and wholly Romantic, with no tincture of classicism in his
nature or works." 2 Dr. Hedge gave the essence of Romanticism
as Aspiration. Prof. Boyesen writes, " Romanticism is really
on one side retrogressive, as it seeks to bring back the past,
and on the other hand, progressive, as it seeks to break up the
traditional order of things. . . . The conventional machinery
of Romantic fiction ; night, moonlight, dreams . . . Romantic
poetry invariably deals with longing, . . . not a definite desire,
but a dim, mysterious aspiration."8
Now for some definitions referring neither to mood nor to
subject matter, but to method. Mr. Saintsbury lays down this
dictum. "The terms classic and romantic apply to treatment
not to subject, and the difference is that the treatment is classic
when the idea is represented as directly and with as exact an
adaptation of form as possible, while it is romantic when the
idea is left to the reader's faculty of divination assisted only by
(Suggestion and__symbol." 4 Victor Hugo, in the preface to
Hernani (1830) said, " Le Romantisme, tant de fois mal de"fini,
n'est . . . que le liberalisme en litterature." Toreinx, in his
1 Macmillan's Magazine, Vol. XXXV.
2 Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LVII.
3 Novalis and the Blue Flower, Atlantic Monthly, Dec, 1875.
4 A Short History of French Literature, page 582.

i THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
llistoire du Romantisme en France, says, " Les Romantiques sont
ceux qui dans les arts veulent autre chose que ce qui est."
M. Brunetiere, in an exceedingly interesting article called
Classiques et Romantiques?- says, " Le romantisme n'est pas
n'importe quelle revolution, mais une revolution pour remettre
en honneur tout ce que le classicisme avait, sinon dogmatique-
ment condamne", du moins effectivement rejete'. ... Ils sont
precisement aux deux poles de I'histoire de notre litterature
nationale." Classicism he calls " la regularite du bon sens —
la perfection dans la mesure," and Romanticism "le desordre
de l'imagination — la fougue dans l'incorrection.''
No one ever showed better the hopelessness of finding a
satisfactory definition of Romanticism than Alfred de Musset,
in his brilliant Lettres de Dupuis et Cotonet (1836). This cor
respondence is a charming burlesque. The two letter-writers
try definition after definition, only to find that something ex
tremely important has been left out, or that the definition is
self-contradictory, or that it is ridiculously meaningless. They
finally conclude that Romanticism consists in employing an
abundance of glowing adjectives ; which, though meant to be
laughable, is as helpful a definition as many that have been
seriously urged.2
But, though all the above definitions of Romanticism make a
confusing variety of opinions, we cannot help seeing that there
is something in them common to all. Romantic literature will
generally be found to show three qualities : Subjectivity, T'nw>
of the Picturesque, and a Reactionary Spirit. By the first
quality I mean that the aspiration and vague longing of the
writer will be manifest in his literary production ; by the
second, that element of Strangeness added to beauty, which
Mr. Pater declares is fundamental ; this may appear mildly, as
where the writer is fond of ivy-mantled towers and moonlit
1 Revue des deux Mondes, 15 Jan., 1883.
2 Theophile Gautier's brilliant Histoire du Romantisme is full of interest ; and Mri
Courthope's last chapter in his Life of Pope has much that is pertinent and suggestive

INTRODUCTION. 5
water, or may turn into a passion for the unnatural and the
horrible, as in tales of ghosts and of deeds of blood. And by
the third is meant that the Romantic movement in any country
will always be reactionary to what has immediately preceded ;
it may be gently and unconsciously reactionary, as in England,
or proudly and fiercely rebellious, as in France.
Taking these three elements, Subjectivity, Picturesqueness,
and Reaction, it is easy to see why the Romantic movement inv
England, in Germany, and in France, went for its inspiration 1
back to the Middle Ages. Romanticism is certainly wider in/
connotation than Mediaevalism ; and in the discussion of Eng-\
lish Romanticism attempted in this book, the definitions of j
Heine and Madame de Stael would have to be supplemented [
and amplified to be adequate. But in the Middle Age lay just
the material for which the Romantic spirit yearned. Its
religious, military and social life and all forms of mediaeval art
can hardly be better characterized than by the word Picturesque;
and souls weary of form and finish, of " dead perfection," of
" faultily faultless " monotony, naturally sought the opposite of
all this in the literature and thought of the Middle Ages. And
as the Classical Augustans had neglected this period above
all others, and treated it with contempt, the Reactionists \J
began with an attempt to revivify and brighten this forgotten
Mediaeval life.
The most striking difference between the Romantic move
ment in France and in England is that in the former country
the movement was conscious, while in the latter it was only
instinctive. French Romanticism had a definite program,
backed almost from the start by a brilliant critical school,
headed by one supreme creative genius. English Romanticism .
was a totally different thing. Its beginnings are so faint and
so far below the surface that many writers seem to believe that
English Romanticism began with the nineteenth century, and
that in the " age of prose and reason " there was no such
thing as a Romantic movement at all. It is very true that the

6 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
general character of eighteenth century literature was foi ¦¦--¦¦¦i.
critical, and prosaic ; but it is also true that beneath this Hit-
ward crust the fire of Romanticism was glowing. The vole anic
eruption of genius which marked the first years of the present
century can be explained only by the examination of previous
conditions. These conditions I have endeavored to ex;» lin
with some fullness and clearness ; and the result ought to
prove that the beginnings of the English Romantic movement
should date back to the first quarter of the eighteenth cemury ;
and that during the second quarter, and especially during the
fifth decade, the strength of the movement was much greater
than seems to have been commonly supposed.

CHAPTER I.
PRINCIPAL LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
AUGUSTAN AGE.
The literary characteristics of the so-called Classical or
Augustan age of English literature are so well known, that I
shall here discuss them only in a cursory manner. In tracing
the early growth of the Romantic reaction, it is necessary to
begin with a review of the prominent qualities of the Classical
period; this may best be done by enumerating certain strik
ing characteristics, ' and -establishing these by examples taken
directly from the literature of the time. We may proceed in
the following order :
I. THE VIEW OF LIFE. — THE ATTITUDE TOWARD RE
LIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS.
As in every age, literature is simply the crystallization of
tendencies of thought, so the Queen Anne school of English
literature expressed the popular dominating ideas about the
problems of life. Classicism was not merely a literary fashion,
arbitrarily set by the leaders of taste; it had its roots deep
in the prevailing religious and philosophical thought. The
Augustan view of life was almost wholly phenomenal. A man
like Addison carried his whiggism into everything. He reso
lutely closed his senses to feelings of Mystery and Awe; the.
idea of unseen and eternal realities, so constantly present
to the Puritan mind, seems to have had no significance for
men of his stamp. Respectability — decent Conformity — these
were the watchwords of the Augustans. The view of life was
equally unlike that of the Renaissance and of Puritanism.

8 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
In the former, boundless imagination, unspeakable aspiration,
overflowing enthusiasm predominated; in the latter the vivid
realization of the supersensual world, a religious creed full
of the symbolism of Hebrew poetry, and a gloom that was
as quickening to poetical and religious imagination as it was
mortifying to earthly happiness. Now if there was anything
the Augustans hated, it was Enthusiasm; they were simply bored
by it, as the man of the world is bored by the naive raptures
of the unsophisticated. Those who naturally lacked enthusiasm
abhorred the feeling; those who had it, cautiously and deliber
ately checked its expression as something childish and plebeian.
On the religious side of popular belief, Mystery was hated and
Respectability exalted. This was owing partly to a reaction
against Puritanism, and partly to a skeptical indifference
generated by the constant sectarian controversies of the seven
teenth century. It was not simply fanaticism and intense
religious zeal that were despised; the atheists, pronounced
skeptics, and deists were hated with equal fervor, as men who
were trying to unsettle and disturb the reign of respectable
conformity. Mr. Ingersoll would have had no more influence
over the typical Augustan than Mr. Moody. The fashion
of conformity is curiously shown in the greatest man of the
time, Swift. The Dean was as destitute of positive religious
belief as can well be imagined; but the age forced him to
masquerade as the most powerful champion of Christianity.
1 This view of life, with its absence of spontaneous enthusiasm
and religious imagination, must never be forgotten in the study
of the contemporary literature. I think that Pope, notwith
standing his manifest limitations, had more imagination and
enthusiasm than he generally has credit for; but he was forced
to bow to the public opinion which he himself had done so
much to form. Mr. Leslie Stephen, in his admirable history
of English thought, in comparing the relation between Milton,
Spenser, and Pope, says that the first two could speak in a
familiar symbolism; Pope had to take a creed of the time.

PRINCIPAL LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 9
" But the thought had generated no concrete imagery. . . .
We have . . diagrams, instead of pictures ; a system of axioms
. . . instead of a rich mythology." ]
II. THE EXALTATION OF FORM OVER MATTER.
This was largely due to two causes: a reaction against the
" Metaphysical " school of poetry, and the following of French
models. The former has been well pointed out by Mr. Gosse
in his book From Shakespeare to Pope, although Mr. Gosse's
conclusions and assertions here as elsewhere must be taken
cum grano salis. By the beginning of the eighteenth century
the reaction against the school of Donne was complete. The
"surface" view of life disliked obscurity in literature as much
as mystery in religion. When Addison and his friends ridicule
" pointed antithesis," " forced wit," etc., they do not refer to
the pointed, antithetical style of Pope, but to the far-fetched
figures and subtile comparisons of Donne, Herbert, Crashaw,
and the rest. Pope's view of the Metaphysicals may be shown
most plainly by a letter to his friend Cromwell in 17 10, on
the poet Crashaw. " All that regards design, form, fable, which
is the soul of poetry; all that concerns exactness, or consent
of parts, which is the body, will probably be wanting. Only
pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expressions, and
something of a neat cast of verse, which are properly the
dress, gems, or loose ornaments of poetry, may be found in
these verses. . . No man can be a true poet, who writes
for diversion only. These authors should be considered as
versifiers and witty men, rather than as poets." 2 This last
phrase affords a particularly good example of the irony of fate,
because much modern criticism would use Pope's very words
in reference to himself; considering him as a versifier and
witty man rather than a poet. Indeed, not a few students
1 History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. II., page 351, et sea.
2 All my references to Pope's Works are to the Elwin-Courthope edition. The
present quotation is in Vol. VI., page 116.

10 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
of literature would call the author of The Flaming Heart a
truer poet than the author of the Essay on Man.
French influence had also much to do with the formation
of literary taste in England. Within the last few years there
has been a movement among some critics which is an attempt
to depreciate the influence of France on English literature- —
not only of the Augustan period, but also in the case of the
Comic Drama of the Restoration. It is perhaps true that
in the past, Gallic influence has been greatly exaggerated; but
it is an element that cannot be overlooked. The Romanticists
would not have rebelled against Voltaire and his countrymen
so strongly, had the French influence been small; and French
pressure on England was of course wholly in the direction
of clearness and restraint. It reinforced the reaction against
the Metaphysicals. Clearness was exalted above force, raiment
above body, brilliancy above depth. The reason why Augustan
literature is so transparently clear is not wholly due to the"
accuracy and care of the authors; it is owing largely to the
subject matter. Menayoided difficult _ themes. Whether
Pope and his friends pleased the English heart or not, they
certainly suited the French. Voltaire always looked on Queen
Anne literature as the high-water mark of English achievement.
In 1760 he wrote in English to a British friend: "Though Ir
do not like the monstruous irregularities of Shakespear; though
I admire but some lively and masterly strokes in his per
formances, yet I am confident nobody in the world looks with
a greater veneration on your good philosophers. You are now
at the pitch of glory in regard to public affairs. But I know
not wether you have preserved the reputation your island
enjoyed in point of literature when Addison, Congreve, Pope,
Swift were alive." J
1 I transcribed this from the autograph letter in the British Museum.

PRINCIPAL LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 11
III. THE BELIEF THAT ALL TRUE LITERATURE CON
SISTS IN FOLLOWING NATURE.
Nature is here used, of course, in a different sense from that
in which we use the word when we speak of Thomson or
Wordsworth as a follower of Nature. The growth of nature-
poetry was one of the strong tendencies in the Romantic
movement, as will be pointed out later. But the cry " Follow
Nature " was the shibboleth of the Classicists. What they
meant was an exact reproduction of every-day life and
manners, as opposed to anything wild or extravagant, or
that existed only in the writer's imagination. Nature meant
with them little more than their deity-,J7)ommon-Sense. Pope's
Essay on Criticism sets forth the doctrine, and as Mr.
Courthope has given so admirable an analysis of the Essay,
I will quote him directly. "Three main principles underlie
Pope's reasoning :
i. That all sound judgment and true 'wit' is founded on
the observation of Nature ;
2. That false 'wit' arises from a disregard of Nature and
an excessive affection for the conceptions of the mind ;
3. That the true standard for determining what is 'natural'
in poetry is to be found in the best works of the ancients." 1
This gives Augustan canons of criticism in a nutshell. The
contemporary ideal of poetry appears again in a letter written
by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to Pope in 1717.2 Speaking
of the Iliad, she says Pope has passed it through his poetical
crucible without its losing "aught of its original beauty." She
calls Achilles "extremely absurd," and says she likes Ulysses,
"who was an observer of men and manners " much better than
"the hot-headed son of Peleus." This shows again what the
Classicists meant by following Nature ; it was not to describe
the flowers and the trees and the changes of the seasons, or to
use the language of common life — it was to copy the men and
1 Po/e's Works, Vol. V., page 49. 2 /Ud., Vol. IX., page 386.

12 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
manners of polite society — above all things to exclude what
was excessively emotional. Lady Mary's Town Eclogues were
good poetry, because they followed Nature ; Joseph Warton's
Enthusiast did not follow Nature, being too subjective and
passionate. IV. CLASSICISM. IN WHAT SENSE WAS THE LITERATURE
OF THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY CLASSICAL?
Here again we have a word most difficult to define because
it is used in so many different senses. At this point it is
sufficient to repeat that the Augustan literature was not really
Classic ; it was pseudo-classic. As has often been said, it was
"more Latin than Greek, and more French than Latin." It
lacked the element that gives to Greek literature its unpar
alleled glory and charm — Unconsciousness. The literature of
the school of Pope was painfully self-conscious ; and here
we must remember that there is a great difference between
subjectivity and self-consciousness. Romanticism is often
subjective, full of the passion and aspiration of the individual
composer ; pseudo-classicism is self-conscious, in that the
author is constantly observing and laboriously polishing his
own workmanship. He is like an opera singer ravished not
by the beauty of the aria or the dramatic passion of the scene,
but by the sound of her own voice. But although the Queen
Anne literature lacked the Greek unconsciousness, it was
Classical in its clearness both of expression and of thought, in
the perfect adaptability of language to sense; it was Classical
in its repression of emotion, in its ,liinited_ imagination ¦ it
was Classical irT its faithful obedience to critical rules, in its
suppression of individuality to the mandates of established
law; it was Classical in its intellectuality, and enthronement of
Reason. As Professor Beers says,1 "Its soleTTatin master
1 In an unpublished lecture.

PRINCIPAL LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 13
was Horace," and "not Horace in his odes, but in his
Epistles and Satires, and even then Horace as seen through
the spectacles of Boileau." The Augustans were conscious
Classicists ; they thought it no shame to say they were
imitators ;. their standard of excellence they clearly understood,
and fidelity to the model was valued more than any spontaneity
which diverged from it. We know how profoundly Pope was
influenced by Walsh's words, written to him in 1706. * "The
best of the modern poets in all languages are those that have
the nearest copied the ancients."
V. SUPREMACY OF TOWN OVER COUNTRY LIFE.
Dr. Johnson was simply carrying on Augustan ideas when
he said that the best sight for a Scotchman's eyes was the
road that led to London ; and in all his love for the city
and failure to appreciate natural scenery he was entirely in
accord with the preceding age. It is true that Pastoral poetry
flourished like the green bay-tree ; but these compositions —
with one exception to be noticed later — show even more
clearly than the society satires, how utterly lacking the age
was in appreciation of rural life. The Augustan Pastorals
were artificial to the last degree, and form the best evidence
that their authors had no first-hand knowledge of the scenes
they attempted to portray. Their Pastorals were simply
hollow imitations of classic models — Theocritus and Vergil.
The literary monarchs had no genuine love for the country;
the drawing-room, the theatre and the coffee-house absorbed
all their attention. In their judgment, the country was no
place for a healthy mind. It should be taken as medicine, not
as diet. This view appears in a letter from Pope to Mrs. J.
Cowper, written in 1722. "I . . . wish you may love the
town . . . these many years. It is time enough to like, or
affect to like, the country, when one is out of love with all but
one's self." 2
1 Pope's Works, Vol. VI., page 53. 2 Ibid., Vol. IX., page 420.

14 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
VI. THE FONDNESS FOR WIT, SATIRE AND TRAVESTY
AS LITERARY SUBJECTS.
A large proportion of all the Queen Anne and early Georgian
literature is composed of work wholly or in part satirical. This
is seldom a sign of health, as it indicates that original compo
sition and spontaneousness of imagination have succumbed
to the reign of the critics. The cold, hard worldliness of
Augustan life found its natural expression in polished wit and
satire; and the sarcasm was not directed against Sin, but
against Dullness and Unconventionality — another bad sign.
Many people wrote satires because they couldn't write anything
else, not because they wished to lash any particular vice. Even
Young and some of the Romanticists followed the popular
taste and composed satires. The people were so deficient in
natural emotion and higher imagination that the best men felt
forced to yield to the prevailing demand — for the law of
supply and demand affects the market of literature in much
the same way as it fixes the price of wheat. In those days
people wrote satirical pamphlets for the same reason that
people to-day write sonnets for magazines. Pope, writing to
Walsh in 1706,1 said, "I have not attempted anything of a
pastoral comedy, because I think the taste of our age will not
relish a poem of that sort. People seek for what they call wit,
on all subjects, and in all places ; not considering that nature
loves truth so well, that it hardly ever admits of flourishing.
Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty." Matthew
Arnold's remark that Gray would have been another man in a
different age, would be much nearer the truth if spoken of
Pope ; for the great wit and satirist did have occasional touches
of emotion and imagination, which, in another age, he would
have fostered rather than repressed. The brilliant and beauti
ful Lady Mary Wortley Montagu represents even better thanj
^Pope's Works, Vol VI., page 51. This was the letter that called out Walsh's
famous advice.

PRINCIPAL LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 15
Pope and Addison the limitations of the Augustan days. With
all her intellectual power, she does not seem to have been
guilty of a single touch of real feeling or lofty imagination.^
The spirit of the age spoke out in her when she answered Pope's
letter containing his verses on the country lovers struck by
lightning ; she replied by a coarse, doggerel burlesque.1
VII. THE ATTITUDE TOWARD OLD ENGLISH WRITERS.
The rank and file of the Classicists regarded the old English
writers not with absolute contempt, but with indifference. This
indifference arose usually from ignorance. Shakspere was
commonly regarded as the greatest English writer, although he
was often handled in a way that would nowadays be thought
sacrilegious ; and even though admired, he was not very widely
read and by no means always understood. Chaucer was not
thought worthy of serious treatment, as is shown by Pope's
disgusting Imitation. The people at large were grossly ignorant
of him. Spenser fared not much better than Chaucer ; those
who knew him did not generally regard him as worthy of
serious study ; indeed it was by reviving Spenser that the
Romanticists did some of their best work. Milton had been
neglected, but only partially so ; and his day was rapidly
coming ; he had, especially through his minor poems, a power
ful influence on the Romantic movement.
Outside of these four great names, old English writers were
buried in the dust-heaps of the past. The splendor and ex
uberance of the Elizabethan drama had been forgotten in the
attention paid to the insipid, moralizing Augustan stage ; the
old dramatists were empty names. The old English style in
poetry and romance was generally spoken of as "Gothic," a
term of reproach, " synonymous with barbarous, lawless and
tawdry." 2 Even Shakspere was half Gothic; if he was a great
dramatist, he was no playwright ; and he was full of excres-
1 Pope's Works, Vol. IX., page 410. 2 prof. Befts's Unpublished Lectures.

16 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
cences. True English poetry began with Waller. To show
how roughly Shakspere was handled, let us look at one of
Dr. Atterbury's letters to Pope. Atterbury, like Lady Mary,
was a genuine Augustan. He writes in 1721, "I have found
time to read some parts of Shakespeare, which I was least
acquainted with. I protest to you in a hundred places I cannot
construe him. I do not understand him. The hardest part of
Chaucer is more intelligible to me than some of those scenes,
not merely through the faults of the edition, but the obscurity
of the writer, for obscure he is, and a little (not a little) inclined
now and then to bombast, whatever apology you may have
contrived on that head for him. There are allusions in him to
an hundred things, of which I know nothing and can guess
nothing. ... I protest Aeschylus does not want a comment
to me more than he does."1
Perhaps the extreme example of inability to appreciate
Shakspere is afforded by William Hamilton of Bangour,
(1704-1754), the author of the Braes 0' Yarrow. Hamilton
really liked Shakspere, but that did not prevent him from
" versifying " him. He had the audacity to put Hamlet's
soliloquy into the heroic couplet, and he meant it all seriously:
" My anxious soul is tore with doubtful strife,
And hangs suspended betwixt death and life ;
Life ! death ! dread objects of mankind's debate !
Whether superior to the shocks of fate,
To bear its fiercest ills with steadfast mind,
To Nature's order piously resign'd,
Or, with magnanimous and brave disdain,
Return her back th' injurious gift again." 2
He also put part of King Lear into the couplet, with equal

1 Pope's Works, Vol. IX., page 26. This is the celebrated divine and Bishop of
Rochester, Francis Atterbury (1662-1732). He was very intimate with Augustari
men of letters, especially Pope and Swift.
2 Hamilton's Poems and Songs, page 65.
8 Ibid., page 172.

PRINCIPAL LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 17
Another interesting bit of Augustan appreciation of Shak
spere is found in David Mallet's poem, Of Verbal Criticism.
For an example of infelicitous discrimination, it is worth
reading : —
" Great above rule and imitating none ;
Rich without borrowing, nature was his own ;
Yet is his sense debas'd by gross allay :
As gold in mines lies mix'd with dirt and clay.
Now, eagle-wing'd, his heavenward flight he takes ;
The big stage thunders, and the soul awakes ;
Now, low on earth, a kindred reptile creeps ;
Sad Hamlet quibbles, and the hearer sleeps."
Pope had to speak apologetically about Shakspere, as he
did about other things that he admired, which were contrary to
the public taste. His Preface to his edition of Shakspere
goes just as far as he dared.1
How Milton was regarded even by the elect may be seen by
another letter from Atterbury. He writes to Pope in 1722,
about Samson Agonistes. This poem appealed to Atterbury not
because it was Milton — rather in spite of that fact — but
because it was Classical. He thinks that with Pope's improve
ments it will pass. " Some time or other, I wish you would
review, and polish that piece. If upon a new perusal of it . . .
you think as I do, that it is written in the very spirit of the
ancients, it deserves your care, and is capable of being improved,
with little trouble, into a perfect model and standard of tragic
poetry." 2 No wonder the Wartons took every opportunity to
bring Milton into popular recognition.3
1 Pope's Works, Vol. X., page 534.
z Ibid., Vol. IX., page 49.
3 In the Preface to C. Gildon's Art of Poetry (171S) there is a good word spoken for
Shakspere and Spenser.

18 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
VIII. THE ATTITUDE TOWARD ANYTHING SAVOURING
OF ROMANTICISM.
Romantic literature could hardly hope to find favor in an
age whose standard was one of fidelity to every-day life and
exact copying of Franco-Latin models. When the Augustans
called a poem or story " romantic," they meant that it was
either wildly improbable and extravagant or else over-senti
mental ; and in either case it deserved an unqualified con
demnation. Everything must conform to their own standard
of criticism ; otherwise, it could not hope for the serious con
sideration of sane men and women ; and if there was anything
on which the Augustans prided themselves, it was their perfect
sanity — their immense superiority in reason and common-sense
over their own ancestors and over the nations of the north
and east. Pope chafed a little under this rigid exclusion of
Romanticism, for in his sentimental correspondence with Lady
Mary, he writes in 1716, "The more I examine my own mind,
the more romantic * I find myself. . . . Let them say I am
romantic ; so is every one said to be that either admires a fine
thing or praises one ; it is no wonder such people are thought;
mad, for they are as much out of the way of common under
standing as if they were mad, because they are in the right." 2
Lady Mary hated Romanticism, but admired Theocritus ; she
therefore cannot have him included among the Romanticists.
She writes to Pope in 17 17, "I no longer look upon Theocritus
as a romantic writer ; he has only given a plain image of the
way of life amongst the peasants of his country, ... I do not
doubt, had he been born a Briton, but his Idylliums had been
filled with descriptions of threshing and churning." 3 Again
we have some more testimony against Romanticism from Dr.
Atterbury. Pope sent him some Arabian Tales, half-recom
mending them himself, and asking for Atterbury' s opinion.
1 Meaning sentimental. 2 Pope's Works, Vol. IX., page 360.
s Ibid,, Vol. IX., page 374.

PRINCIPAL LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 19
The latter replies : " And, now, Sir, for your Arabian Tales. . . .
Indeed they do not please my taste ; they are writ with so
romantic an air, and, allowing for the difference of eastern
manners, are yet, upon any supposition that can be made, of
so wild and absurd a contrivance (at least to my northern
understanding), that I have not only no pleasure, but no
patience, in perusing them. . . . They may furnish the mind
with some new images, but I think the purchase is made at too
great an expense." '
This gives a very good idea of the Augustan attitude toward
Romanticism ; but the best case I have succeeded in finding
occurs in a letter of Lady Mary's to Pope — the same letter
quoted above in which she speaks of Theocritus. Lady Mary
writes from Adrianople — she has come upon some Turkish
verses and she gives them first in their literal form, and then
puts them " into the style of English poetry," with what success
will presently appear. Speaking of the Turks, she says, " They
have what they call the sublime, that is, a style proper for
poetry, and which is the exact Scripture style. ... I have it
in my power to satisfy your curiosity, by sending you a faithful
copy of the verses that Ibrahim Pasha, the reigning favourite,
has made for the young princess, his contracted wife. . . .
The verses may be looked upon as a sample of their finest
poetry ": — Stanza I.
i. " The nightingale now wanders in the vines ;
Her passion is to seek roses.
2. I went down to admire the beauty of the vines ;
The sweetness of your charms has ravish'd my soul.
3. Your eyes are black and lovely,
But wild and disdainful as those of a stag."
1 Pope's Works, Vol. IX., page 22. This letter was probably written in 1720.

20 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Stanza II.
i. "The wish'd possession is delay'd from day to day ;
The cruel Sultan Achmet will not permit me
To see those cheeks, more vermilion than roses.
2. I dare not snatch one of your kisses ;
The sweetness of your charms has ravish'd my soul.
3. Your eyes are black and lovely,
But wild and disdainful as those of a stag."
Stanza III.
1. "The wretched Ibrahim sighs in these verses ;
One dart from your eyes has pierc'd thro' my heart.
2. Ah ! when will the hour of possession arrive ?
Must I yet wait a long time ?
The sweetness of your charms has ravish'd my soul.
3. Ah ! Sultana ! stag-ey'd ! — an angel amongst angels !
I desire, — and my desire remains unsatisfied. —
Can you take delight to prey upon my heart ? "
Stanza IV.
1. " My cries pierce the heavens !
My eyes are without sleep !
Turn to me, Sultana — let me gaze on thy beauty.
2. Adieu — I go down to the grave.
If you call me — I return.
My heart is hot as sulphur ; — sigh, and it will flame.
3. Crown of my life ! fair light of my eyes !
My Sultana ! my princess !
I rub my face against the earth ; —
I am drown'd in scalding tears — I rave !
Have you no compassion? Will you not turn to look
upon me? "

PRINCIPAL LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 21
Lady Mary then gives a general criticism and finally says,
"What if I turned the whole into the style of English poetry,
to see how it would look ? "
She "versifies" it as follows : —
Stanza I.
" Now Philomel renews her tender strain,
Indulging all the night her pleasing pain ;
I sought the groves to hear the wanton sing,
There saw a face more beauteous than the spring.
Your large stag-eyes, where thousand glories play,
As bright, as lively, but as wild as they."
Stanza II.
" In vain I'm promis'd such a heav'nly prize ;
Ah ! cruel Sultan ! who delays't my joys !
While piercing dreams transfix my am'rous heart,
I dare not snatch one kiss to ease the smart.
Those eyes ! like, etc." Stanza III.
" Your wretched lover in these lines complains ;
From those dear beauties rise his killing pains.
When will the hour of wish'd-for bliss arrive ?
Must I wait longer? — Can I wait and live?
Ah ! bright Sultana ! maid divinely fair !
Can you, unpitying, see the pains I bear ? "
Stanza IV.
" The heavens relenting, hear my piercing cries,
I loathe the light, and sleep forsakes my eyes ;
Turn thee, Sultana, ere thy lover dies.

22 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Sinking to earth, I sigh the last adieu ;
Call me, my goddess, and my life renew.
My queen ! my angel ! my fond heart's desire !
I rave — my bosom burns with heav'nly fire !
Pity that passion which thy charms inspire."
Lady Mary adds, " I cannot determine upon the whole
how well I have succeeded in the translation, neither do I
think our English proper to express such violence of passion,
which is very seldom felt amongst us." This last clause is
significant. I have given this extract at length, because it shows so
clearly the limitation of the Augustan mind. No reader of
to-day would hesitate in answering the question as to which
of these two versions was the more poetical. The fact that
Lady Mary lays the blame of the short-comings of her
translation on the English language, and not on her own
uninspired couplets, is very suggestive. But she was not
the only person who thought that the orthodox form of
versification was necessary to poetry ; Hamilton's version of
Hamlet's soliloquy is a case in point, and even in the latter
half of the century, when the Romantic movement was a
reality, Macpherson thought seriously of putting Ossiati into
the Heroic Couplet.

CHAPTER II.
REACTIONARY TENDENCIES DURING THE
AUGUSTAN AGE.
In support of the proposition that the spirit of Romanticism
has never been wholly extinct in English literature, it may be
interesting to notice certain reactionary tendencies which were
present even in the height of the classical period. Such writers
as Samuel Croxall, Lady Winchelsea,1 Thomas Parnell, Allan
Ramsay, William Hamilton of Bangour, are not easy to classify ;
they can hardly be said to belong to the new Romantic move
ment, nor do they preserve the seventeenth century traditions
of Romanticism. It is perhaps better to consider them as
currents flowing in a direction opposite to the general stream ;
individualities who were really out of sympathy with the
Augustans, but who were overpowered by the prevailing
fashion — partly because the fashion was so strong, partly
because no one of them had sufficient force publicly to throw
off the shackles. But, though their light was under a bushel,
they have a genuine significance to the student of a literary
movement. They show that the reign of Classicism was not
complete. Attention has already been called to the fact that
even the monarch himself was not wholly satisfied with his
reign. Pope's lines in Thomson's Seasons have a peculiar ring,
when we know their authorship.2 It is rather surprising that
Pope should have assisted Thomson in any way, because the
latter was one of the early and powerful forces in the Romantic
1 Also spelled Winchilsea.
2 The lines in Autumn, beginning
" Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self."
Mr. Perry has some interesting remarks on this passage : see his English Litera
ture in the Eighteenth Century, pages 386 and 387.

24 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
reaction, though certainly not always conscious of the fact.1
But Pope himself did some work that in aim, at any rate, was
not wholly Augustan. Windsor Forest, in spite of Wordsworth's
complimentary allusion,1 can hardly be said to be anything
more than artificial ; in Eloisa and in the Unfortunate Lady,
however, amid much coldness and artificiality, we have occa
sional touches of genuine passion and pathos, which suggest
what Pope might have done had he wholly freed himself from
contemporary influences. A mystery surrounds the Elegy —
we do not know the circumstances by which it was conceived ;
but the warmth of Eloisa may be largely explained on purely
personal grounds, which fact, of course, robs it of much of its
significance as an index to Pope's general taste in poetry. No
one who reads Pope's correspondence with Lady Mary can
avoid the conclusion that the poet embodied in this Epistle
much of his own sentimental longings ; for Pope's attitude
toward the brilliant society woman was certainly more than
that of conventional gallantry. He himself realized that Eloisa
was different from the general nature of his literary production.
Writing to Mrs. Martha Blount in 1716, he says, "The Epistle
of Eloisa grows warm, and begins to have some breathings of
the heart in it, which may make posterity think I was in love." 2
And in sending the poem to Lady Mary in 17 17, he adds,
" You will find one passage, that I cannot tell whether to wish
you should understand, or not," 3 .presumably referring to the
closing lines, " And sure if fate some future bard shall join " etc.4
But though Pope's nature and passion poetry can hardly be
said to show much distinct non-conformity with prevailing
I Wordsworth's Prose Works, Vol. II., page nS.
2 Pope's Works, Vol. IX., page 264.
8 Ibid., Vol. IX., page 382.
4 The original editor of the edition of Pope does not agree with this view that
Eloisa is largely the expression of personal feeling. See Note in Vol. IX., pa„e 2g,
Mr. Courthope, however, is in substantial agreement with the view expressed in these!
pages. See Vol. V., page 135.

REACTIONARY TENDENCIES. 25
ideas, a few passages in his private correspondence show
glimpses of Romantic feeling. He writes to Mrs. J. Cowper in
1723, "I could wish you tried something in the descriptive
way on any subject you please, mixed with vision and moral ;
like pieces of the old Provencal poets, which abound with
fancy, and are the most amusing scenes in nature. ... I
have long had an inclination to tell a fairy tale, the more wild
and exotic the better ; therefore a vision, which is confined to no
rules of probability, will take in all the variety and luxuriancy
of description you will ; provided there be an apparent moral
to it. I think one or two of the Persian tales would have given
one hints for such an invention." x This outbreak is very
suggestive. But although it is half paradoxical to speak of Romanticism
in Pope, there was a quiet, retiring figure of the time whose
poetry displays some tendencies wholly contrary to Augustan
feeling. It is worth noticing that he was an intimate friend of
Pope's, and that the latter first edited his works. I refer to
Thomas Parnell (1679-1717).2 It is not true, as Mr. Gosse
says, that he " published nothing." 3 The Hermit was published
in 17 10, and he printed in miscellanies a number of pieces
which Pope collected and published in 1722. Still it was
largely owing to the influence of Pope and Swift, that he was
brought out of his Ulster obscurity, and induced to exercise his
poetic gifts. His best known piece, The Hermit, and his Satires
are in the Classic style ; but certain other of his writings have a
real significance in the history of Romanticism. Mr. Gosse
remarks with much truth, " there lay unvisited a romantic island
1 Works, Vol. IX., page 431.
2 Considerable difference of opinion seems to prevail as to the date of Parnell's
death. Dr. Johnson says he died in July, 171 7. Goldsmith, in his Life of Parnell,
gives the same date, but later on in the very same account, says " he died in the year
1 718." Ryland's Chronological Outlines gives the date 171 7. The Encyclopaedia
Britannica (9th edition) says 1718. Mr. Gosse (in Ward's English Poets,
Vol. III., page 132) says Parnell "was buried at Chester on the 18th of October,
1718." 8 Eighteenth Century Literature, page 137.

26 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
of poesy, which was his by birthright." x His Night-Piece on
Death is very interesting as the fore-runner of the grave-yard
literature of Young, Blair, and the rest, and especially as the
prototype of Gray's Elegy. Compare these lines from the
Night-Piece : —
" Those, with bending osier bound
That nameless heave the crumbled ground,"
with the well-known stanza from Gray.
But besides Parnell's significance as the first of the church
yard poets, there is in his poetry a genuine feeling for Nature,
which is very unlike the Augustan spirit, and which even
suggests Wordsworth.2 It seems as if the latter might have
named Parnell along with Lady Winchelsea in his famous
utterance in 1815. These lines from the Night-Piece show real
love of nature. The poet forsakes the books of the schoolmen
for the wisdom of the sky and stars : —
" How deep yon azure dyes the sky !
Where orbs of gold unnumbered lie,
While thro' their ranks in silver pride
The nether crescent seems to glide.
The slumbering breeze forgets to breathe,
The lake is smooth and clear beneath,
Where once again the spangled show
Descends to meet our eyes below."
Goldsmith preferred the Night-Piece to Gray's Elegy ; but Dr.
Johnson, although uniformly unjust to Gray, did not agree with
his friend in this instance.
Parnell's Hymn to Contentment also shows true nature-feeling.
The following passage seems especially to foreshadow Words
worth : — " The sun that walks his airy way,
To light the world, and give the day;
The moon that shines with borrowed light ;
The stars that gild the gloomy night ;
1 Ward's English Poets, Vol. III., page 133.
2 See Mr. Gosse's F.iphteenth Century literature, page 1^7.

REACTIONARY TENDENCIES. 27
The seas that roll unnumbered waves ;
The wood that spreads its shady leaves ;
The field whose ears conceal the grain,
The yellow treasure of the plain :
All of these and all I see,
Should be sung, and sung by me ;
They speak their Maker as they can,
But want and ask the tongue of man." 2
It is worthy of note that both these poems of Parnell are in
the octosyllabic couplet, a measure that he handled with
singular grace and charm. This verse-form was one largely
employed by the Romanticists.
Besides Parnell's nature poetry, and melancholy mood, he
gives us a breath of real Romanticism in his Fairy Tale. It
opens thus : —
" In Britain's isle, and Arthur's days,
When midnight fairies danced the maze,
Lived Edwin of the Green ;
Edwin, I wis, a gentle youth,
Endowed with courage, sense and truth,
Though badly shaped he been."
This is one of the first faint echoes of Mediaevalism.
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea (died 1720), may also
be considered among the reactionary tendencies of the age.
She has attained some prominence in literary history, owing to
Wordsworth's remark in 18 15, alluded to above; but her poetry
has been very little read, and- is not at all easy to find. She
was a friend of Pope's, and exchanged poems with him on
The Rape of the Lock. Her lines to him —
" Our admiration you command
For all that's gone before ;
What next we look for at your hand
Can only raise it more " 2 —
1 See also the quotation Mr. Gosse gives, Eighteenth Century Literature, page 137.
Mr. Gosse is wrong, however, in saying, " The Hymn opens thus." He has taken a
passage not from the beginning.
2 Poems by Eminent Ladies (1755), Vol. II., page 314.

28 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
do not sound like the words of a rebel against the Augustan
age ; and, indeed, she was not. Mr. Gosse says : " She was
entirely out of sympathy with her age, and her talent was
hampered and suppressed by her conditions. She was the
solitary writer of actively-developed romantic tastes between
Marvell and Gray, and she was not strong enough to create
an atmosphere for herself within the vacuum in which she
languished."1 These are the words of a charmingly inaccurate
writer, and have every symptom of the fatal "enthusiasm of
discovery." Mr. Gosse also remarks elsewhere : " It is impos
sible to say whether she was the last of the old, or the first
of the new romantic school."2 I should say she was neither,
but in general feeling an Augustan, with an under-current of
real love for nature. It is in her fondness for country life,
her love of out-door beauty, and her accurate descriptions of
nature, that she differs from her contemporaries. In these
important points, she may certainly be classed as reactionary
in tendency. Her octosyllabic ode, To the Nightingale, has true
lyric quality, and her short poems, The Tree and A Nocturnal
Reverie, are notable expressions of nature-worship.3 The last
named is in the heroic couplet.
An interesting figure of the time is Samuel Croxall (died
1752). 4 He is remembered to-day chiefly as the translator
of ^Esop's Fables ; most of his original poetry has been for
gotten. With the exception of one poem, to be noticed later,
his effusions found little favor among his contemporaries.
Croxall was celebrated more for his preaching than for his
poetry. He seems to have been wholly out of sympathy with
the spirit of the age, even consciously and defiantly so. His
poetical master was Spenser, for whom he had a fervent
admiration in a time when Spenser was comparatively neg
lected. His important contributions to the Spenserian revival
1 Gossip in a Library, page 123.
2 Eighteenth Century Literature, page 35.
8 These three poems are in Ward's English Poets, Vol. III., pages 29-31.
4 Date of his birth unknown ; he died at a venerable age.

REACTIONARY TENDENCIES. 29
will be discussed later ; but the first work of his that concerns
our present purpose is The Vision, published in 17 15. This
is in the heroic couplet, but the style of the poem is distinctly
unorthodox. It describes a vision of the ancient kings and
queens of England, and the opening pictures of the woods and
flowers and streams have a perceptible Romantic coloring.
Besides the crowned heads, the poet has a vision of two
English poets, not Cowley and Waller, but, strange to say,
Chaucer and Spenser. He thus describes them : —
" Chaucer the Parent of Britannic Lays
His Brow begirt with everlasting Bays,-
All in a Kirtle of green silk array'd
With gleeful smile his merry Lesson play'd.
His fellow Bard beside him Spenser sate
And twitch'd the sounding Chords in solemn State:
An Ivy Garland on his Temples hoar
With Sprigs of Laurel interwove he wore.
Adown his Shoulders hung a Mantle blue
Bedrop'd with Spangles of a Golden Hue ;
Of Arms and Elfin Knights he mus'd his Song,
And taught in Mystic Tales the list'ning Throng."
It is disappointing to find at the conclusion of this poem,
that the work has a theological purpose — to attack Popery ;
but even this unfortunate ending does not rob the poetry of its
rich and warm color. The Vision lay practically unknown till
parts of it were republished by Southey. Since then it has
lapsed into a still deeper obscurity.1
In 1720, Croxall published anonymously The Fair Circassian,
a poetic paraphrase of Solomon's Song. The Preface was
dated "Oxon. 25 March 1720," and was avowedly written by
a tutor who said that the real author had lately died — a
form of literary deception by no means uncommon in the
1 It is barely possible that Croxall took the hint for his Vision from Robert
Greene's Vision — Grosart's Edition of Greene, Vol. XII. Greene sees Chaucer and
Gower.

30 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
eighteenth century. This poem was exceedingly popular. It
went through many editions, but it raised up a host of enemies
for Croxall, on account of its voluptuousness. It is not the
only one of Croxall's poems characterized by untheological
carnality. It is written in the heroic couplet with a sprinkling
of Alexandrines. In warmth of passion it is very unlike the
stock phrases of contemporary poetry.
Some of the editions of The Fair Circassian had shorter
poems appended. These are also in Croxall's glowing style.
One of these — written in a Spenserian verse-form — has a
not unpleasant musical flow. It is called Florinda Seen While
She Was Bathing} Two stanzas will suffice : —
" Florinda, with her sister nymphs, undrest,
Within the channel of the cooly tide,
By bathing sought to soothe her virgin breast,
Nor could the night her dazzling beauties hide :
Her features, glowing with eternal bloom,
Darted, like Hesper, thro' the dusky gloom.
" Her hair bound backward in a spiral wreath
Her upper beauties to my sight betray'd ;
The happy stream concealing those beneath,
Around her waste with circling waters play'd ;
Who, while the fair one on his bosom sported,
Her dainty limbs with liquid kisses courted." 2
Mr. Gosse says that Croxall described his aim in poetry
as being "to set off the dry and insipid stuff" of the age by
publishing "a whole piece of rich glowing scarlet."3 This
is interesting, as it shows that his dislike of Augustan poetry
was conscious and pronounced. He was, however, not more
than half emancipated ; with all his fire and passion, his work
1 There is nothing especially Romantic about the title — the Classicists were always]
seeing women bathing.
2 Cibber, Lives of the Poets, Vol. V., page 288.
8 Eighteenth Century Literature, page 139. I do not know in what connection
Croxall made this remark ; his writings are not easy to find.

REACTIONARY TENDENCIES. 31
has many conventionalities. He has more significance as a
Spenserian. We next come to the sturdy figure of Allan Ramsay (1686-
1758). Ramsay is perhaps best known as the editor of
miscellanies ; but we are here concerned with his own poetic
productions. These are in some cases characterized by a
decided antipathy to the prevailing Classicism. He managed
to put some real life into the most artificial of all compositions
— the Pastoral. His Gentle Shepherd appeared in 1725.
What Ramsay thought of the conventional Pastoral may be
seen by the Preface to his miscellany, The Evergreen, 1724.
He said, in the old bards, "the morning rises as she does in
the Scottish horizon. We are not carried to Greece or Italy for
a Shade, a Stream or a Breeze. ... I find not Fault with
those Things, as they are in Greece or Italy: But with a
Northern Poet for fetching his Materials from these Places, in
a Poem, of which his own Country is the Scene ; as our
Hymners to the Spring and Makers of Pastorals frequently do."
There is a freshness and healthy natural life about the Gentle
Shepherd, which made it seem almost startlingly new to the
Augustans, accustomed as they were to the Theocritus- Vergil
pattern. The songs Ramsay introduced were fresh and sweet;
and many images taken directly from nature show where the
author's real inspiration lay. But unfortunately Ramsay — in
spite of his aggressive naturalness — was too much under the
influence of Pope and the rest to leave his pastoral drama
unblemished. He doubtless thought that in making the two
shepherd lovers turn out to be of noble blood, he would please
the public taste ; to a modern reader this denoiiment is a
glaring fault. Again, after some most natural and beautiful
touches, he introduces didactic observations in the regular
Augustan manner. The freshness of this pastoral is thus
mingled with artificiality, another illustration of the power of
literary fashion even over those men who are most opposed
to it.

32 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Ramsay had published a quarto of his poems in 1721, and
in 1 73 1 appeared the first collected edition of his works. The
Preface to this edition contains some matter not uninteresting.'
He says, " I shall never quarrel with any man whose temper is
the reverse of mine, and enters not into the taste of the same
pleasures. . . . Every man is born with a particular bent, which
will discover itself in spite of all opposition. Mine is obvious,
which since I knew, I never inclined to curb; but rather
encouraged myself in the pursuit, though many difficulties lay
in my way." He apologizes for his Scotch songs. "Such
pedants as confine learning to the critical understanding of the
dead languages, do not view me with a friendly eye. . . .
That I have exprest my thought in my native dialect, was not
only inclination, but the desire of my best and wisest friends;
and most reasonable, since good imagery, just similes, and all
manner of ingenious thoughts, in a well laid design, disposed
into numbers, is poetry." This is an interesting definition.
Again he says, "Throughout the whole I have only copied
from nature, and with all precaution have studied . . . not
to repeat what has been already said by others." All this
gives us evidence of Ramsay's originality, and defiant spirit;
but his inability to free himself entirely from contemporary
thought is shown by the fact that along with his nature-poetry
he published imitations of Horace, and in another part of the
Preface, he says, "Anacreon, Horace and Waller were poets
and had souls warmed with true poetick flame." Such mention
of Waller is damnatory evidence against any complete break
with Classicism on Ramsay's part. Some of Ramsay's songs
however, as The Last Time I Came o'er the Moor, The Lass of
Patie's Mill, Bessie Bell, and The Young Laird are significant
as forerunners of the songs of Burns, and we know that Burns
had a high regard for Ramsay's work.1 Principal Shairp speaks
highly of Ramsay's services to the poetry of nature;2 and
1 " Yes ! there is ane I a Scottish callan —
There's ane ; come forrit, honest Allan ! "
2 PnRt.it. Inter jiretniinn nf Mntitro norroc m.—.n^

REACTIONARY TENDENCIES. 33
Veitch says, " Allan Ramsay is by far the most interesting and
influential literary personage in Scotland in the first half of
the eighteenth century. . . . Ramsay had the courage, in a \
conventional time both in English and Scottish poetry, to
recognize and be true to the manners, the simple every-day
life, the rural character, and the scenery of his native land." 1
Had Ramsay never come into so close personal contact with
the Augustans, he might have done much bolder and more
original work than he did.2 /
The last author we shall treat in the contemporary reaction
is William Hamilton of Bangour (i 704-1 754). Hamilton was
like Parnell in his quiet, retiring disposition. The first
collection of his poems was not published till 1748, and
then during the author's absence from the country. It was
published anonymously, with a preface by Adam Smith, the
economist. A reprint of this edition appeared in 1749. In
1758 a new edition was published bearing the author's name.
In 1760 came the only edition marked by any accuracy or
completeness; and his fame was immediately assailed by the
Monthly Review (February, 1761), which sneered at his poetical
ability. After that there was no new edition of Hamilton
— although he was reprinted once or twice — until 1850.
Hamilton has thus never enjoyed a wide reputation; but
during his life-time he was well known within a small circle,
and regarded with high admiration. He was something of an
aristocrat and in his temperament not unlike the poet Gray.
He was a lonely scholar, fond of solitude and books, and
disliked publicity as sincerely as his great contemporary.
Among much incomparably wretched trash, he wrote some
excellent pieces, and one thoroughly Romantic ballad, The Braes
0' Yarrow. Allan Ramsay, although barred from Hamilton's
1 The Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry, Vol. II., page 24.
2 Ramsay was on intimate terms with the great Classicists ; the last poem in Vol. I.
of the Tea-Table Miscellany (1724) is called The Quadruple Alliance, and he says:
"Swift, Sandy, Young and Gay,
Are still my heart's delight."

34 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
circle by social inferiority, exerted a strong influence upon
him; and his influence was all for good. It was Ramsay who
first brought The Braes o' Yarrow into public attention, by
publishing it in his Tea-Table Miscellany. This poem is not
only lyrically melodious, but is full of the spirit and fire of the
old ballads. It is by all odds the best thing Hamilton ever
wrote, as well as the most Romantic in tone.
Like Parnell, Hamilton handled the octosyllabic couplet with
great ease, and did some excellent work in this measure.
Some of his nature-poetry will bear quoting. In his poem,
Contemplation (probably written in 1739) he shows something
of the Wordsworthian spirit : —
" Above, below, and all around,
Now naught but awful quiet's found,
The feeling air forgets to move,
No zephyr stirs the leafy grove,
The gentlest murmur of the rill
Struck by the potent charm is still,
Each passion in this troubled breast
So to'iling once lies hush'd to rest,
Whate'er man's bustling race employs,
His cares, his hopes, his fears, his joys,
Ambition, pleasure, interest, fame,
Each nothing of important name,
Ye tyrants of this restless ball,
This grove annihilates you all.1
Oh power unseen, yet felt, appear !
Sure something more than nature's here.
Now on the flow'ring turf I lie,
My soul conversing with the sky."
After this singularly fine passage, which, in its day, was a
real contribution to nature-poetry, he wanders off into dreamy
moralizing, after the fashion of Pope.
1 Cf. Marvell, in The Garden:
"Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade."

REACTIONARY TENDENCIES. 35
Hamilton seems to have had a great deal of force and
passion which he deliberately repressed — perhaps thinking the
age would not stand it — perhaps himself ashamed of it. This
fact is curiously well shown by the 1850 edition of his poems.1
His ode to Fancy is there published, and along with it a MS.
copy which the author had written, but for some reason had
withheld from the public. The MS. copy differs considerably
from the printed one, especially in its frankex-expression_ of
jjassion. Here is a passage from the suppressed draft, which
appearecT in print entirely changed and subdued : —
" And now I gaze o'er all her charms,
Now sink transported in her arms ;
Fierce to her lips my lips I join,
Fierce in amorous folds we twine ;
Fierce in rage of love compressed,
Swells throbbing to the touch her breast.
Thus rioting in bliss supreme,
Might I enjoy the golden dream !
But ah ! the rapture will not stay,
For see, she glides, she .glides away ! "
Hamilton was an ardent admirer of Milton, and some of his
verses will be considered again among the poets of the Miltonic
group. He was a good ballad-maker, writing in a vein strikingly
Romantic, he had genuine passionate force which he hardly
dared to express, he " unlocked his heart '' in his nature-poetry,
and yet he wrote long stretches of perfectly smooth and
perfectly flat heroic couplets.2 With this poet, we close for the
present the consideration of reactionary tendencies during the
Augustan age. Gay might perhaps have been included, but in
all probability whatever opposition he had to the Classicists was
not at all serious.
1 Page 55.
2 For example, he started a long poem in twelve books, called The Maid of
Gallowshiels. He never progressed further than into the second book. He wrote
this in 1726, when he was possibly re-acting from Ramsay's influence. The poem is
inexpressibly tedious.

CHAPTER III.
THE REACTION IN FORM.
Romanticism may be considered in two distinct aspects —
Subject-matter and Form. In the study of the English move
ment, the first is far more important ; but the latter cannot
be overlooked. Since Romanticism, like almost all literary
fashions, started as a reaction, the forms in which the new
school clothed their productions naturally differed from that
which had been most common ; and in this aspect especially
the movement was wholly ir^ the direction of freedom. Here
we may agree with Victor Hugo, that Romanticism is nothing
but liberalism in literature. The same spirit that in other
times and places rebelled against the Unities in dramatic art,
struggled successfully in England with the tyranny of the
Heroic Couplet in poetry. By 1726 the sovereignty of the
Couplet was doomed, though for the rest of -the century it lived
and spasmodically flourished. It did not seem to occur to the
Romanticists to make their reforms within the limits of the
Couplet; that is, to 'return to the loose, overflowing couplets
of the early seventeenth century. This would have brought
the rebels even more squarely at issue with the reigning
dynasty, and would have precipitated a conflict which the early
reformers did not seek, and which they would have shrunk
from entering upon. English poetry had to wait for Keats, to
see the Heroic Couplet used in the field of Romanticism,
and manipulated in direct defiance of the practice of Waller,
Dryden and Pope.
The early Romanticists do not seem to have shown much
direct opposition to the Couplet — they were simply weary of
its monotony, and instinctively turned to other and freer forms;

THE REACTION IN FORM. . 37
of versification. Blank Verse, Octosyllabics, and the Spenserian
stanza were the principal vehicles of expression which the new
school adopted. These were in a way also associated with the
Subject-matter aspect of Romanticism, for the first two of these
forms owed much of their popularity to the powerful influence '
of Milton, and the third to the growing study and appreciation
of Spenser. Indeed, Blank Verse came to be distinctly asso
ciated with the Romantic movement — its freedom giving a
wider scope to the imagination than the closed couplets of the
Classicists. Dr. Johnson and his ally Goldsmith perceived
this fact, and accordingly threw the whole weight of their
influence against blank verse ; while the liberals defended it,
notably the poet Young, who grew more intensely radical as
he advanced in years.
John Philips's Cyder appeared in 1706; his Splendid Shilling
in 1705 ; it had been surreptitiously printed even earlier.
Philips, of course, had been influenced by Milton and wrote
in a pseudo-Miltonic style. On the title-page of the Splendid
Shilling were the words An Lmitation of Milton, and Cyder
begins : — " What soil the apple loves, what care is due
To orchats, timeliest when to press the fruits,
Thy gift, Pomona, in Miltonian verse
Adventurous I presume to sing."
Philips deserves mention here because he took to blank
verse so early, and because twenty-five years later his example
was much more influential than the intrinsic merit of his work
justified. After Philips, the next important poem in blank
verse was Thomson's Winter, which appeared in 1726, followed
by Summer in 1727, and Spring in 1728. Autumn was first
published with The Seasons in 1730. Thomson does not seem
to have talked very much about his reasons for choosing blank
verse ; he probably did not do so out of particular conscious
hostility to the Couplet, though he was doubtless weary of its
monotony. Possibly one of his reasons for forsaking the

3.8 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Couplet was the fact that Pope had brought it to its utmost
refinement and polish, and that it was not capable of any
further development. There is an interesting passage in
Autumn which shows that Thomson had a distinct preference
for blank verse, and also evidences the influence of Philips's
example : — " Philips, facetious bard, the second thou
Who nobly durst, in rhyme-unfettered verse,
With British freedom sing the British song."
Although the influence of Philips was out of all proportion
to his worth, his fame was not great enough to give sufficient
prestige to the verse-form he adopted ; but when Thomson
used it for The Seasons, the case was different. Others felt
free to follow in his wake. Somerville's Chase appeared in
1735, and Mr. Gosse says that "he delayed writing it so long
that we find his old Addisonian style tempered by the new and
freer manner of Thomson'." 1
Dyer's Ruins of Rome appeared in 1740. Dyer thought the
Ruins of Rome bore about the same relation to Grongar Hill
as Paradise Lost to L' Allegro. The poem begins : —
" Enough of Grongar and the shady dales
Of winding Towy, Merlin's fabled haunt,
I sung inglorious. Now the love of arts,
And what in metal or in stone remains
Of proud Antiquity," etc.
But posterity — so far as it has expressed any opinion — has
preferred Grongar.
The first installment of Young's Night Thoughts was given;?
to the world in 1742 ; by 1745 it was all published. Young*
was an older man than Thomson, but his chief poem came over
a decade later than The Seasons. The style shows traces of
both Milton and Thomson ; of the former in the swelling
1 Eighteenth Century Literature, page 138. Mr. Gosse gives the date of this poem s
as 1734.

THE REACTION IN FORM. 39
magnificence of some of the lines, and of the latter in its some
what even regularity. It should be said that both Thomson
and Young show the influence of the Classic measure ; many
of the lines are simply unrimed couplets. They could not
completely shake off the shackles in their versification, any
more than they could make a complete departure from Augustan
thought. In 1743 appeared Robert Blair's Grave, a poem that he had
begun to work upon a number of years before. It is an inter
esting fact that this talented author should have written Snly
one poem, and written that in blank verse ; still more interesting
when we observe that his versification is not of the Miltonic-
Thomson order, but points back to the Elizabethan age.1
Blair's verse is very loose and free, and bears evidence on every
page of the reading of old dramatists ; in the great number of
feminine endings, I think I detect particularly the influence of
Fletcher. The Grave was originally written before 1731, and
may have been begun independently of Thomson's example.
If so, it is another instance of the symptoms of revolt. Blair
was naturally more free from the reigning literary fashion for
two reasons ; he was a Scotchman, and he was young. The
young Scotchmen of those days were fond of reading in old
English authors and in the open_book^of_Nature — two sources
of inspiration less familiar to their southern neighbors.
In 1744, Dr. Mark Akenside published his Pleasures of Im-
agination. This was a didactic poem in three books, which the
author afterward laboriously rewrote without improving. The
blank verse is both cold and heavy, though occasionally relieved
by fine passages. The poem is really Romantic only in its title.
One thing is noticeable about Akenside's poetry ; he was fond
of experimenting in various forms of versification, but he never
used the Heroic Couplet except once, and then in his
Remonstrance of Shakespeare (1749), which, being put in the
shape of a theatre prologue, naturally took the couplet form.
1 Mr. Saintsbury notices this in Ward's English Poets, Vol. Ill, page 217.

40 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
In the same year with the Pleasures of Imagination (1744))
appeared The Art of Preserving Health, by John Armstrong
(1709-1779). This is a blank-verse poem in four books.
Armstrong is a direct imitator of Thomson, and like Akenside,
was a physician. It should also be noted that he was a
Scotchman, and showed his love for old English authors by
some juvenile imitations of Shakspere. The longest of these,
a poem on Winter, was written while the young man was
passing the winter in a wild, solitary part of the country, and
curiously enough, seems to have been finished just as Thom
son's poem on the same subject appeared. Whether either
borrowed from the other or not is uncertain ; but when Thom
son by some means managed to read Armstrong's piece, he
showed it to David Mallet and others ; Mallet immediately
asked Armstrong's permission to print it-; the latter, not unwill
ingly, consented. Then Mallet calmly suppressed it and it
was not published till 1770. The poem shows considerable
promise. Besides these imitations of Shakspere, Armstrong, as is well
known, contributed a few Spenserian stanzas to The Castle of
Indolence. In 1757 appeared The Fleece, by John Dyer (died 1758).1
This is a blank-verse poem in four books. Dyer was a
Welshman with a genuine love for natural scenery, which
came out plainly in his early octosyllabics, Grongar Hill and
The Coimtry Walk (1726). He did not handle blank verse
with anything like the skill he showed in the shorter rimed
measure ; perhaps this was partly owing to the unpoetical
nature of the subjects he undertook.
A pronounced imitator of Thomson's blank verse was his
friend and fellow-countryman David Mallet (1700-02  1765).
He is chiefly famous for his connection with the ballad of
1 The year of Dyer's birth seems not to be known : Dr. Johnson says he was born
in 1700. Dowden says 1698 or 1699. Leslie Stephen says "1700 or a year or two
previously." Ryland gives 1 700 with a question-mark.

THE REACTION IN FORM. 41
William and Margaret, which he seems still to have the
credit of writing, though it can be clearly shown that he
stole it.1 Mallet published two lengthy poems in blank
verse, The Excursion (1728) and Amyntor and Theodora (1747).
The Excursion particularly shows Thomson's influence ; its
verse has many similarities to that of The Seasons, and it
has much to say about nature, although its author is evidently
insincere. The style is extremely "classic"' in its cold,
argumentative, viscous flow. Both poems are wofully tedious.
Joseph Warton said of Amyntor and Theodora, " The nauseous
affectation of expressing everything pompously and poetically,
is nowhere more visible than in a poem lately published,
entitled Amyntor and Theodora." '2
The next blank-verse poem of considerable reputation that
followed Dyer's Fleece, was The Sugar Cane (1764), by Dr. James
Grainger, (172 1 (?)-i766). This was of course in the didactic
style. Grainger was an intimate friend of Percy, and their
correspondence on the Reliques and on Ossian is of much
more value and importance for our purposes than Grainger's
blank verse.
The poems above mentioned are the chief essays in blank
verse that appeared in England between 1700 and 1765.
There were, of course, shorter poems of impprtance, such as
Joseph Warton's Enthusiast, written in 1740. The Heroic
Couplet was not abandoned during this period, but the more
knowing ones let it alone, and many of the lesser lights took
to blank verse because it was the fashion. Mr. Perry says,
"Doubtless blank verse was a reaction against the couplet.
It was the first sign of a protest against that rigid form, just
as in Milton's hands it was the last measure in which a poet
of heroic proportions spoke to the world. Yet the instrument
he commanded the puny bardlings of the last century could
not handle ; his dignity was mimicked by a feeble rumble. . . .
Yet they felt the charm of his verse ; that was something, and
1 See Appendix. 2 Essay on Pope, Vol. I, page 147.

42 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
they maintained their side with obstinacy in the face of violent
opposition." l
The Octosyllabic Couplet had not been entirely neglected
in the Augustan age, although, of course, it was nothing like
so common as the prevailing decasyllabic measure. I have
spoken of Parnell's skillful manipulation of it ; 2 Dyer used it
gracefully and won a wide reputation, which he still holds
among students. William Hamilton of Bangour did excellent
work with the measure ; and the whole Miltonic school, their
heads full of L' Allegro and LI Penseroso, scribbled octosyllabics
all through the middle of the century.
We have seen that the reaction in form most naturally
took the shape of blank verse for long poems ; so that the
sympathizers with the Romantic movement, consciously or
unconsciously, found themselves defending blank verse, while
the Classicists attacked it vigorously. Dr. Johnson's opinions
on the subject are well known ; it is, however, worth noticing
here that in the year 1759 two of the most celebrated poets of
the century came out positively on opposite sides — Goldsmith
and Young. There was, so far as I know, no intentional
opposition between them, but it is an interesting fact that
opinions so exactly contrary should have appeared at the
same time, and from the pens of so eminent men. Goldsmith's
Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning was published
in April, 1759. In its pessimistic note, and contempt for the
revival of old English authors, it is in even more striking
contrast with Young's buoyant essay. Chapter XI. of Gold
smith's wail is particularly interesting— On the Marks of
Literary Decay in France and England. The present state of
literature with the fondness for blank verse, he emphatically
condemns. " From this proceeds the affected security of
our odes, the tuneless flow of our blank verse, the pompous
epithet," etc.8
1 Eighteenth Century Literature, page 384.
2 See page 27.
8 Goldsmith was, of course, largely influenced by Dr. Johnson.

THE REACTION IN FORM. 43
Young's Conjectures on Origmal Composition took the form
of an open letter to the "author of Sir Charles Grandison."
Young was 77 years old when he wrote this essay, which
makes all the more remarkable its breadth of thought and
sprightliness of treatment.1 Young's main purpose in writing
the essay was to stir up the age to original composition, and
its buoyant optimism is in striking contrast to Goldsmith's
dismal utterances ; but in the course of his remarks Young
also took occasion to discuss the relative merits of blank
verse and rime. He pronounces his opinion in the most
emphatic style. Speaking of Pope's translation of Homer,
he says, " Had Milton never wrote, Pope would have been
less to blame ; but when in Milton's genius, Homer, as it
were, personally rose to forbid Britons doing him that ignoble
wrong, it is less pardonable, by that effeminate decoration, to
put Achilles in petticoats a second time. How much nobler
had it been, if his numbers had rolled on in full flow, thro' the
various modulations of masculine melody, into those grandeurs
of solemn sound which are indispensably demanded by the
native dignity of heroic song ! How much nobler if he had
resisted the temptations of that Gothic demon 2 which modern
poesy, tasting, became mortal ! . . . Harmony, as well as
eloquence, is essential to poesy; and a murder of his music
is putting half Homer to death. 'Blank' is a term of dimi
nution ; what we mean by ' blank verse ' \f verse, unfallen,
uncursed ; verse reclaimed, re-inthroned in the true language
of the gods ; who never thundered, nor suffered their Homer
to thunder, in rhyme."3 Again, speaking of Dryden, he says,
"The strongest demonstration of his no-taste for the buskin
are (sic) his tragedies fringed with rhyme ; which, in epic
poetry is a sore disease, in the tragic absolute death. To
1 It is rather singular that this significant piece of eighteenth century prose should
be at present so neglected. It is in Vol. II, of Young's Complete Works, London,
1854. The page references that follow are to this edition.
2 Rime.
3 Conjectures, page 565.

44 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Dryden's enormity, Pope's was a slight offence. ... ' Must
rhyme,' then say you, 'be banished?' I wish the nature
of our language could bear its entire expulsion ; but our
lesser poetry stands in need of a toleration for it; it raises
that, but sinks the great; as spangles adorn children, but
expose men."1
Young's preference for blank verse was certainly distinctly
marked, and the essay is especially suggestive coming at this
time, as it shows how the Romantic movement was having its
effect on the poet's mind. He would not have written like
that in the first quarter of the century, when he was polishing
off couplets along with the Augustans.
No discussion of the Reaction in Form would be complete
without noticing the disappearance of the Sonnet, and its
subsequent revival. The sonnet is as naturally a form for
{y Romantic poetry, as the couplet was for Classic. Imagine
the Essay on Man put into a sonnet sequence, like Rossetti's
House of Life! Whatever the sonnet may be best fitted for,
it is certainly wholly unfit for wit, satire, and didactic verse.
It is, therefore, not at all surprising that the sonnet should
have been almost completely neglected by the Augustans. It
is fair to say that it practically disappeared. The only sonnet
written in English between the performances of Milton, and
Gray's sporadic attempt in 1742, that has survived, is a sonnet
on Death, written, curiously enough, by Pope's mentor, William
Walsh. The form of this sonnet is extremely irregular ; 2 it
has, however, some excellent lines, though the sentiment is
Augustan. With the exception of this lonely sonnet, none
of the Classicists, so far as we know, tried their hand at this
form of verse. They would undoubtedly have ridiculed it.
In 1742, Gray wrote a fine sonnet on the death of his brilliant
1 Conjectures, page 574.
2 The riming scheme is ab, ab, be, be, dd, ce, cc. This sonnet was written before
1708, for Walsh died in that year. Mr. Gosse erroneously says (Ward's English
Poets, III., 7) that it is the only sonnet written in English between Milton's and
1 Wnrtnn's!

THE REACTION IN FORM. 45
friend, Richard West, but it was not published till after Gray's
death. This is also irregular in form,1 and has a few classi
cisms, which brought down a most unwarrantably severe
judgment from Wordsworth.
About the middle of the century the sonnet was revived by
Thomas Edwards, Benjamin Stillingfleet, Thomas Warton, and
William Mason. No one of these men can claim the sole
credit of its revival ; 2 but Edwards deserves praise for his
persistence in sonnet composition, and Warton by his greater
influence helped to make the sonnet fashionable.
The sonnets of Benjamin Stillingfleet (1702-1771) were
great neither in number nor in excellence, but some of them
were certainly written before 1750, which gives their author
a place among the pioneers. Mason said that he himself
wrote a sonnet in 1748, and it is so dated in his works; but
Mason was so loose in his statements that he cannot always
be relied upon. However, he wrote a number of sonnets
before 1750. Thomas Warton wrote nine sonnets, all on
the Miltonic model.3 Some of these were written about the
year 1750.
One of the most interesting, although almost entirely
neglected men among the sonnet revivers, was Thomas
Edwards (1699-1757). Edwards was famous in his own
day for a bitter controversy with Warburton, over the latter's
edition of Shakspere. In 1747, when that work appeared,
Edwards came out with a Supplement.4 It was a merciless
exposure of Warburton's editorial methods. Many of the
literary men of the day became interested in the fight ;
Akenside warmly supported Edwards, and wrote a poem on
1 Rimes ab, ab, ab, ab, cd, cd, cd.
2 Mr. Ward says {English Poets, III, 383) that Warton revived the sonnet, but
this statement taken by itself is not strictly true.
8 The influence of Milton was doubtless one of the chief causes of the sonnet
revival. His minor poetry was extremely popular about 1750.
4 A Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespear. Being the Canons of
Criticism, and Glossary. By another Gentleman of Lincoln's Inn. London, 1748.
After the 3d edition, the book was called The Canons of Criticism.

46 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
the subject.1 In the third edition of The Canons of Criticism
(1750), Edwards printed two sonnets by himself. In the fifth
edition (1753) five sonnets appeared; and along with the
seventh edition (1765), besides the five sonnets previously
mentioned, Edwards's' editor published forty-five other sonnets,
some of which Edwards had printed in Dodsley's Miscellanies.
Edwards was thus the author of just fifty sonnets. These
are chiefly addressed to his private friends, and are not par
ticularly remarkable for their literary merit. What is remark
able is the fact that Edwards persistently wrote in this form
at a time when it was so unfashionable. Forty-six of these
sonnets are on the Miltonic model, and the other four are
after the Spenserian pattern — a curious fact, as the Spenserian
sonnet has never been at all popular. Edwards's masters were
Spenser and Milton ; in one of his sonnets he calls Spenser
"the sweetest bard that ever sung"; and there are many
complimentary allusions to Spenser, Shakspere, and Milton.
All of Edwards's poetical works that I have been able to find,
consist of these fifty sonnets, and one epistolary ode. The
sonnet was evidently his favorite mode of expression, and
the early date at which he wrote them ought to give him a
much more prominent place among the sonnet revivers than
he has thus far obtained.
-— Not long after 1760, when Romanticism was a living force,
the sonnet became exceedingly popular; so that the century
closed with the sonnet as exalted as it had been despised among
the Augustans. The disappearance and revival of this verse--
form were certainly outward indications of the reaction against
the couplet, and the general growth of the Romantic movement.
/¦ I have in this chapter sketched in a necessarily cursory
fashion, the Reaction in Form as expressed in blank verse,
octosyllabics, and the sonnet ; the Spenserian revival is so
important as to deserve a much more thorough treatment
"in a separate chapter.
1 Akenside's Odes, Book II, Ode X. This poem appeared in 1751, on Warburton's

CHAPTER IV.
THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL.
French Romanticism in its early stages was wonderfully
fortunate in having the aid of an original genius — Victor
Hugo. He had enough creative power in his own intellect
and imagination to supply the Romantic movement with all the
material it needed. But in the beginnings of English Roman
ticism there was no supreme, dominating figure. Instead of
striking out into wholly new paths, the men who led the move
ment naturally looked back to the past to find the inspiration
the lack of which was so plainly evident in the present.
Among the old English poets, it was Spenser who supplied
them with just what they sought. Spenser was the poet of
Romanticism as Pope was of Classicism. They stand exactly
in opposition ; the one all intellect, didactic and satirical ;
the poet of town life and of fashionable society ; the other
all imagination and exaggeration ; the poet of dreamland, of
woods and streams, of fairy and supernatural life. Along
with the sharp contrast in substance, there is also the pro
nounced difference in style. Nothing could be more unlike
the regular strokes of the couplet than the lazily flowing
melody of the Spenserian stanza.
Spenser thus played a most important part in the new
movement — a part much greater than that of Shakspere and
Milton — although both these poets were extreme favorites
with the Romanticists. Spenser had not been wholly neglected
in the Augustan age, as will presently be shown ; but he was
known only to the scholars and antiquarians, and not to the
mass of literary men. As soon as he was really brought
before the public, writers and readers turned to his pages

48 THE ENGLISH .ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
with avidity — eager for that solace and refreshment which
the dry bones of Classicism could no longer afford.
But there is one exceedingly important fact to notice in
the multitude of Spenserian imitations — very few men took
him seriously. They read him for amusement, and they
practised his versification for amusement ; this fact explains
why so many satires and so much half-comic poetry were
written in the Spenserian form. The spirit of the Augustan
age lingered long after the zenith of its glory had been
passed and affected nearly if not quite all of the Spenser
imitators. Thomson — whose Castle of Indolence was immeas
urably above all the other attempts in this stanza — thought
it necessary to include plenty of mild satire in his poem ;
and Shenstone, when he first wrote The Schoolmistress, never
dreamed of taking Spenser seriously, and was especially anxious
that the public should not take his jest for earnest. The bulk
of the Spenserian imitations were used for satire, parodies and
" occasional " poetry.
But though this fact should never be forgotten by the literary
student, it should also be remembered that the real influence
of Spenser during these years was strong and healthy. Many
people read him and loved him, who did not dare to confess
themselves before men ; and many who began by taking
Spenser as a joke, were led to the serious study and appre
ciation of his poetry. To these he was the golden gate to
the realms of romance ; the splendors of chivalry, the military
glory of tlje days of "ladies dead and lovely knights" — all
this was rescued from oblivious contempt and made once more
real. Thus the influence of Spenser, which after inspiring
Milton, had lain dormant through the Classical period, again
asserted itself as a powerful quickening force. By the middle
of the century, it was so much the fashion to write in the
stanza and to use old English words, that many insignificant
poetasters dipped into the Fairy Queen just deep enough to get
the swing of the stanza and a small vocabulary of obsolete words.

THE' SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 49
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, two famous
literary men expressed their opinions of Spenser in an interest
ing manner. Sir William Temple, in his Essay Of Poetry, said,
"Spencer endeavoured to make Instruction instead of Story,
the Subject of an Epick Poem. His Execution was excellent,
and his Flights of Fancy very noble and high, but his Design
was poor, and his Moral lay so bare, that it lost the Effect ;
'tis true, the Pill was gilded, but so thin, that the Colour and
the Taste were too easily discovered."1
Addison seems to have had this passage of Temple's in
mind, when he wrote his lines on Spenser, in the famous
Account of the Greatest English Poets (1694): —
" Old Spenser next, warm'd with poetic rage,
In ancient tales amus'd a barbarous age ;
An age that yet uncultivate and rude,
Where'er the poet's fancy led, pursued
Through pathless fields, and unfrequented floods,
To dens of dragons, and enchanted woods. j
But now the mystic tale, that pleas'd of yore, /
Can charm an understanding age no more ;
The long-spun allegories fulsome grow,
While the dull moral lies too plain below."
Compare the last line quoted with Temple's statement that
Spenser's " moral lay so bare, that it lost the effect."
It is rather singular that the Spenserian imitations in the
eighteenth century should have been started by an Augustan
of the Augustans — the poet Matthew Prior (1664-172 1). In
1706 appeared his An Ode, Humbly Inscribed to the Queen, on
the Glorious Success of Her Majesty's Anns. Writte?i in Imita
tion of Spenser's Style. His imitation was by no means a perfect
one ; it was in a ten-lined stanza, riming ab, ab, cd, cd, ee. It
is, however, an extremely important poem, being the prototype
of a great many of the Spenserian imitations that followed.
Indeed, it is probable that some of the poetasters learned
1 Miscellanea, Part II, Of Poetry.

SO THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
all their Spenser through Prior. He seems to have been
the originator of this pseudo-Spenserian stanza.1 Curiously
enough, his two masters in this Ode were the extreme leaders
and models of the Classic and Romantic schools — Horace
and Spenser. It sounds paradoxical to say that a poem can
be written after the model of Horace and Spenser, but that is
just what Prior attempted to do. In his interesting preface,
he says, "As to the style, the choice I made of following the
ode in Latin, determined me in English to the stanza; and
herein it was impossible not to have a mind to follow our great
countryman Spenser ; which I have done (as well, at least, as
I could) in the manner of my expression, and the turn of my
number ; having only added one verse to his stanza, which I
thought made the number more harmonious ; and avoided
such of his words as I found too obsolete. I have, however,
retained some few of them, to make the colouring look more
like Spenser's." He then goes on to enumerate such words
as " I weet," " I ween," etc. " My two great examples, Horace
and Spenser, in many things resemble each other ; both have
a height of imagination, and a majesty of expression in describ
ing the sublime ; and both know to temper those talents, and
sweeten the description, so as to make it lovely as well as
pompous ; both have equally that agreeable manner of mixing
morality with their story, and that curiosa felicitas in the choice
of their diction, which every writer aims at and so few have
reached ; both are particularly fine in their images, and know
ing in their numbers."
I have quoted this preface somewhat at length, because it
is so admirable an example of Queen Anne literary criticism ;
and exhibits just that confusion of ideals so often shown by
the Augustans. His comparison of Horace and Spenser was
accepted in gravity and good faith. His saying that by adding
1 Donne and Phineas Fletcher had written ten-lined stanzas, ending with an
Alexandrine, but not with this riming scheme. See Schipper's Englische Metrik
III, page 775.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 51
a verse to Spenser's stanza he had made " the number more
harmonious," sounds to us, and must have seemed to the
Wartons, like unspeakable audacity ; but Prior did not think
so, and he displeased contemporary critics no more in this
than when he put a fine old English ballad into the Heroic
Couplet. It is hardly necessary to add that Prior's ode is utterly
destitute of Spenser's spirit. It is simply the familiar couplet
with the riming scheme changed, and is if anything still more
monotonous. It shows what the Augustan ideal of "harmony"
in versification was. One stanza will suffice : —
" When bright Eliza rul'd Britannia's state,
Widely distributing her high commands,
And boldly wise, and fortunately great,
Freed the glad nations from tyrannic bands ;
An equal genius was in Spenser found ;
To the high theme he match'd his noble lays ;
He travell'd England o'er on fairy ground,
In mystic notes to sing his monarch's praise ;
Reciting wondrous truths in pleasing dreams,
He deck'd Eliza's head with Gloriana's beams."
Dr. Johnson's remarks on this imitation are well worth
quoting : " His poem is necessarily tedious by the form of
the stanza ; an uniform mass of ten lines thirty-five times
repeated, inconsequential and slightly connected, must weary
both the ear and the understanding. His imitation of Spenser,
which consists principally in I ween and I weet, without exclu
sion of later modes of speech, makes his poem neither ancient
nor modern." Johnson compared a stanza of Spenser's with
one of Prior's to show "with how little resemblance he has
formed his new stanza to that of his master. ... By this
new structure of his lines he has avoided difficulties ; nor am
I sure that he has lost any of the power of pleasing ; but he
no longer imitates Spenser." l
1 Life of Prior.

52 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Somewhere between 17 13 and 172 1 another Spenserian
imitation appeared, which I am almost certain was written
by Prior. The poem was called Colin' s Mistakes. In Imitation
of Spenser's Style. It is in the ten-lined stanza, with the same
riming scheme as Prior's Ode to the Queen in 1706. Colin sees
a maiden, whom he first supposes to be Pallas, then Juno, then
Venus, but Clio finally informs him that it is Lady Henrietta
Cavendish Holles-Harley. The thought is, of course, typically
Augustan ; but the allusions to Spenser are interesting. In
the first stanza occur the words, —
"And much he lov'd and much by heart he said
What Father Spenser sung in British verse.
Who reads that bard desires like him to write,
Still fearful of success, still tempted with delight."
Other interesting references might be quoted. The exact date
of this poem I have been unable to ascertain.1
Some interest in Spenser on the Pastoral side was aroused
by Ambrose Philips (1671-1749), who was mainly inspired by
Spenser in writing his Pastorals (1709). Dr. Johnson said in
his Life of Philips that while Pope took Vergil for his pattern,
Philips took Spenser.
Pope was not altogether lacking in appreciation of Spenser.
In 1 7 15 he wrote to Hughes, the editor of Spenser's works,
1 Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holies married Edward Harley, the son of the Earl
of Oxford, October 31, 1713. The poem must, therefore, have been written after that
event, and at some time previous to 1721, the year of Prior's death. The poem is
printed in Nichols's Select Collection of Poems, Vol. 7. Nichols adds a note, in which
he states his belief that the poem was written not by Prior, but by Samuel Croxall.
But it is extremely unlikely that Croxall should have written verses in praise of the
daughter-in-law of the man whose administration he publicly satirized; and further
more there are several strong reasons for Prior's authorship. Prior was a great friend
of Edward Harley, spent many days at his house, and died there in 1721 ; in 1719
Prior wrote some Verses addressed to Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles-Harley the
heroine of the poem here discussed ; and lastly, Colin's Mistakes is in exactly the
same measure as Prior's Ode in 1706, a measure which Croxall to my knowledge^
never handled. These reasons seem to me to be very strong evidence for Prior's "r
authorship.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. S3
" Spenser has been ever a favorite poet to me ; he is like a
mistress, whose faults we see, but love her with them all." 1
But his exceedingly coarse burlesque of the old poet shows
that if his appreciation was sincere, he did not dare to avow
it publicly. When The Alley was written seems difficult to
ascertain. We know from Spence's Anecdotes that Gay had
some slight share in its composition.2 The poem stands
among Pope's imitations of Chaucer, Waller, Cowley, and
others, and we are told that they were " done by the Author
in his Youth." Joseph Warton said that some of these
imitations were written at fourteen or fifteen years of age.3 In
composing The Alley Pope was, of course, not prompted by
his love for Spenser ; it was simply an exercise in versification.
The piece contains six stanzas, and is written in the regular
stanza of the Fairy Queen.
Public attention was called to Spenser by Steele, in the
Spectator for November 19, 1712.4 Steele begins by remarking
on the recent Miltonic criticisms, and then adds : " It is an
honourable and candid endeavour to set the works of our
noble writers in the graceful light which they deserve. You
will lose much of my kind inclination towards you if you do
not attempt the encomium of Spenser also, or at least indulge
my passion for that charming author so far as to print the
loose hints I now give you on the subject." He proceeds
then to describe the general plan of Spenser's poem, and
says : " His style is very poetical ; no puns, affectations of
wit, forced antitheses, or any of that low tribe.5 . . . His
old words are all true English." He then quotes several
stanzas. How far Steele was prompted to all this by real
1 Works, Vol. X, page 120.
2 '"The Alley ' in imitation of Spenser, was written by Mr. Pope, with a line or
two of Mr. Gay's in it." — Anecdotes. Page 167 of Underbill's Selection.
8 Essay on Pope, Vol. II, page 29. London, 1782.
4 No. 540.
5 This sounds like a hit at contemporary poetry; but of course he really means
the " Metaphysicals " of the seventeenth century.

54 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
love of Spenser, or by the necessity of writing his sheet, is
hard to say ; his remarks at any rate do not seem to have
caused much discussion.
In 17 13 appeared An Original Canto of Spencer, design' d as
part of his Fairy Queen, but never printed, now made publick by
Nestor Ironside. This was written by Rev. Dr. Samuel Croxall,
previously ' alluded to.1 The Preface contains a fictitious
account of the supposed unpublished piece of verse ; the
poem is in truth a satire against the Earl of Oxford's (Harley's)
administration. The next year (17 14) Croxall brought out
Another Original Canto, under the same assumed name.2
Croxall afterwards acknowledged the authorship of these
cantos, for his Vision (17 15) mentions them on the title-page.
It is interesting to notice that he employed the Spenserian
stanza for the purpose of political satire. In 17 14 Croxall
also published an Ode to George I. on his arrival in England,
"written in the stanza and measure of Spenser."
In 1 7 15 appeared the first eighteenth century edition of
Spenser's works, edited by John Hughes (167 7-1 7 20). He
prefixed an essay on allegorical poetry and also some Remarks
on the Faerie Queened Hughes, of course, assumes the apolo
getic attitude. " That which seems the most liable to excep
tion in this work is the model of it, and the choice the author
has made of so romantick a story. . . . The whole frame of
it (The Fairy Queen) would appear monstrous, if it were to
be examined by the rules of epick poetry, as they have been
drawn from the practice of Homer and Virgil ; but as it is
plain the Author never designed it by those rules, I think it
ought rather to be considered as a poem of a particular kind,
describing, in a series of allegorical adventures or episodes,
the most noted virtues and vices. To compare it, therefore,
with the models of antiquity, would be like drawing a parallel
1 See Chapter II.
2 I have unfortunately not been able to find any copy of either of these Cantos.
The facts given above are from Leslie Stephen's Dictionary.
8 My quotations from this are from the reprint in Todd's edition ol Spenser.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 55
between the Roman and the Gothick architecture. ... It
ought to be considered, too, at the time when our author
wrote, the remains of the old Gothick chivalry were not quite
abolished ; it was not many years before that the famous
Earl of Surry, remarkable for his wit and poetry in the reign
of King Henry VIIL, took a.romantick journey to Florence, the
place of his mistress's birth, and published there a challenge
against all nations in defence of her beauty." 1 All this apology
for Spenser's Romanticism — and that is just what he calls it
— is interesting and significant. Not less so are his remarks
on Spenser's versification. "As to the stanza in which the
Faerie Queene is written, though the author cannot be com
mended, in the choice of it, yet it is much more harmonious
in its kind than the heroick verse of that age. . . . The defect
of it in long or narrative poems is apparent ; the same measure,
closed always by a full stop, in the same place, by which every
stanza is made as it were a distinct paragraph, grows tiresome
by continual repetition, and frequently breaks the sense, when
it ought to be carried on without interruption. With this
exception the reader will, however, find it harmonious,, full
of well-sounding epithets, and of such elegant turns on the
thought and words, that Dryden himself owned he learned
these graces of verse chiefly from our author, and does not
scruple to say, that ' in this particular, only Virgil surpassed
him among the Romans, and only Mr. Waller among the
English.' " 2
In these remarks, Hughes impresses me as feeling a great
deal more than he dared to express ; he understood the temper
of the age, and knew what he was about when he used Dryden
and Waller to advertise his poet. But the fact that he approv
ingly quoted Dryden's utterance shows once more how strange
was the Classicist's notion of harmony. The ears that never
1 Pages 20-23. This expedition of Surrey's is now known to be mythical ; probably
based on a novel by Nash, and given currency by one of Drayton's epistles.
2 Page 40.

56 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
grew weary of the eternal couplet, objected to the Spenserian
stanza because it was monotonous ! It wi.3 many years before
their notion lost its force. It took a whole century more to
bring out Leigh Hunt's frank statement : "I do not hesitate
to say that Pope and the French school of versification have
known the least on the subject, of any poets perhaps that ever
wrote. They have mistaken mere smoothness for harmony."1
Hughes's edition of Spenser did not accomplish much
toward making the poet popular; it was 1750 — thirty-five
years later — before an edition of Spenser again appeared in
England.2 The next Spenserian imitation to be considered was written
by William Whitehead (1715-1785), afterwards poet-laureate
— .one of the dullest of all the dull poets of the eighteenth
century. He wrote the Vision of Solomon when at school,
probably about the year 1730. It is a short poem, written
in the ten-line stanza, on Prior's model. It is not at all
remarkable for poetic merit. Whitehead also wrote two odes
to his friend Charles Townsend, written in a six-lined stanza.3
These were probably done at a comparatively early age.
With the exception of Whitehead's little school exercise —
and the date of that is uncertain — I have not succeeded in
finding any imitation of Spenser published between Croxall's
performances in 17 14 and the marriage odes on Prince Fred
erick in 1736. The first attempts in Spenserianism do not
seem, therefore, to have awakened much attention, or to have
called out many imitators; after 1736, however, when the
people were a little more inclined toward Romanticism, a
flood of Spenserian imitations appeared.
1 Preface to the Story of Rimini, page 13.
2 It may be worth mentioning in passing that in 1734 the learned Dr. Jortin
published Remarks on Spenser's Poems. They are of no special significance and
are devoid of interest from the literary point of view.
3 To the Honourable Charles Townsend and To the Same — On the Death of a
Relation. The riming scheme is ab, ab, cc, the last an Alexandine. This measure
was sometimes used by the Spenserians.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 57
William Thompson is a poet almost completely forgotten
to-day, but he was one of the best of the Spenserians. Little
is known of his life ; the dates of his birth and death are
uncertain ; but he was born in the early part of the century,
and died before 1767. He was a careful and enthusiastic
student of the old English poets. From early youth he
admired Spenser and imitated him in three poems. Although
Thompson was really filled with the Romantic spirit, it is
worthy of note that he was also extravagantly fond of Pope
— another instance of the unconsciousness of English Roman
ticism. ^T^estdes Thompson's Spenserian imitations, he wrote a
number of graceful songs, and his Ode Brumalis shows him
to have been an intense lover of Shakspere. He might also
have been classed among the blank-verse school, for he
wrote a long poem in that measure, with the not particularly
attractive title of Sickness.
In May, 1736, Thompson produced his Epithalamium on
the Royal Nuptials. This is in the regular stanza of the
Fairy Queen and has something of the master's spirit in
its sweetness and melody. One stanza will suffice to show
the nature of the poem : —
" Her Thamis (on his golden urn he lean'd)
Saluted with this hymeneal song,
And hail'd her safe. Full silent was the wind,
The river glided gently soft along,
Ne whispered the breeze the leaves among,
Ne love-learn'd Philomel out-trill'd her lay ;
A stilness on the waves attentive hung,
A brighter gladness blest the face of day,
All nature 'gan to smile, her smiles diffus'd the May."
In the same year (1736) Thompson also wrote The Nativity,
which he modestly called A College Exercise. This is also in
the regular Spenserian stanza, and has some beautiful passages.
Two stanzas are worth quoting : —

58 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
" Eftsoons he spy'd a grove, the Season's pride,
All in the centre of a pleasant glade,
Where nature flourish'd like a virgin-bride ;
Mantled with green, with hyacinths inlay'd.
And crystal-rills o'er beds of lilies stray'd ;
The blue-ey'd violet and king-cup gay,
And new-blown roses, smiling sweetly red,
Outglow'd the blushing infancy of Day,
While amorous west-winds kist their fragrant souls away.

But hark, the jolly pipe, and rural lay !
And see, the shepherd, clad in mantle blue,
And shepherdess in russet kirtle gay,
Come dancing on the shepherd-lord to view,
And pay, in decent-wise, obeysance due.
Sweet-smelling flow'rs the gentle votaries bring,
Primroses, violets, wet with morning-dew,
The sweetest incense of the early spring ;
A humble, yet, I weet, a grateful offering."
Such verses as these have evidently nothing in common
with the Augustan spirit. They belong to Romanticism in
substance as well as in form. They display not only a
study of old English' poetry, but a real, unaffected love of
nature. In 1757 Thompson published a volume of poems. It
contained the two shorter pieces already discussed, and also
his Hymn to May. It is uncertain when this was written —
probably after 1750. His Preface to this Hymn is suggestive.
He says: "As Spenser is the most descriptive and florid of
all our English writers, I attempted to imitate his manner in
the following vernal poem. I have been very sparing of the
antiquated words, which are too frequent in most of the
imitations of this author ; however, I have introduced a few
here and there, which are explained at the bottom of each

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 59
page where they occur.1 Shakespeare is the poet of Nature,
in adapting the affections and passions to his characters ; and
Spenser in describing her delightful scenes and rural beauties.
His lines are most musically sweet ; and his descriptions most
delicately abundant, even to a wantonness of painting; but
still it is the music and painting of Nature. We find no
ambitious ornaments, or epigrammatical turns, in his writings,
but a beautiful simplicity ; which pleases far above the glitter
of pointed wit. ... A modern writer, has, I know, objected
against running the verse into alternate and stanza ; but Mr.
Prior's authority is sufficient for me, who observes that it allows
a greater variety, and still preserves the dignity of the verse.
As I professed myself in this canto to take Spenser for
my model, I chose the stanza ; which I think adds both a
sweetness and solemnity at the same time to subjects of
this rural and flowery nature. The most descriptive of our
old poets have always used it. . . . I followed Fletcher's
measure in his "Purple Island." . . . The Alexandine line,
I think, is peculiarly graceful at the end, and is an improve
ment on Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. ... I hope I have
no apology to make for describing the beauties, the pleasures,
and the loves of the season in too tender or too florid a manner.
The nature of the subject required a luxuriousness of versifica
tion, and a softness of sentiment."
This extremely interesting preface has several points worth
attention. It shows that Thompson was in spirit a thorough
going Romanticist, but that he was compelled to assume
the defensive attitude, and even to fortify his position with
the Classic najne of Prior. He is evidently speaking to an
audience whose good- will he has yet to win ; and the nature
of his defense suggests that he had some particular critic in
mind, especially as he once speaks of a "modern writer."
1 Some of the eighteenth century glossaries are significant as showing the general
ignorance of old English; they often explained words that are to-day perfectly
familiar.

'
.A

'60 THE ENGLISJI ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.

This modern writer I believe to be Dr. Johnson, who attacked
Spenserianism in the Rambler in May, 1751.1 Thompson
/comes out for Romanticism in three ways : (1) As a lover of
old English poetry; (2) as a believer in "luxuriousness" of
versification, which the couplet could not afford ; (3) as a
\ sincere lover of nature. A quotation from the Hymn to May
will show all this clearly enough : —
" Her hair (but rather threads of light it seems)
With the gay honors of the Spring entwin'd,
Copious, unbound, in nectar'd ringlets streams,
Floats glittering on the sun and scents the wind
Lovesick with odors ! — now to order roll'd,
It melts upon her bosom's dainty mold,
Or, curling round her waist, disparts its wavy gold.
" Young circling roses, blushing, round them throw
The sweet abundance of their purple rays,
And lilies, dip'd in fragrance, freshly blow,
With blended beauties, in her angel-face ;
The humid radiance beaming from her eyes
The air and seas illumes, the earth and skies,
And open, when she smiles, the sweets of Paradise." 2
Another stanza is an apostrophe to beauty : —
" Where lives the man (if such a man there be)
In idle wilderness or desert drear,
To beauty's sacred power an enemy ?
Let foul fiends harrow him ; I'll drop no tear.
I deem that carl, by Beauty's power unmov'd,
Hated of Heaven, of none but Hell approv'd ;
O may he never love ! O never be belov'd !-" *
There is an additional fact to be noted about Thompson's
Spenserian imitations. He wrote in the stanza of the Fairy
1 No. 121. This would place the date of Thompson's poem after 1751.
2 Stanzas X. and XI.
» Stanza LIV.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 61
Queen not for idle amusement, or to exercise his poetic ingenuity,
but because his mind was richly stored with the treasures of
old English poetry. He was one of the few ardent admirers
of Spenser. He was so unlike the majority of his contempo
raries, that even Chalmers thinks it necessary to say that
Thompson's style had unfortunately not been sufficiently
"chastened into simplicity by the example and encourage
ment of the moderns."
In the year 1736 appeared another poem on the marriage of
Prince Frederick ; this was also by a university man, Richard
Owen Cambridge (17 17-1802). It was published among a
number of Oxford congratulatory verses on the same subject,
which calls our attention for a moment to the influences of the
universities on the Spenserian movement. Many of the early
imitations came from Cambridge and Oxford men, some of
them hardly out of their teens, an evidence that the youngsters
with literary ambitions were turning for inspiration to the wells
of old English poetry. This little ode by Cambridge is in
the ten-lined stanza ; although imitative of Spenser, it is not
avowedly so. It contains nothing worthy of special remark ;
it is no better and no worse than average occasional poetry.
Some years later, however, Cambridge published a much
closer imitation of the ancient poet. This is his Archimage
(1742-1750).1 The title is, of course, borrowed from Spenser's
famous magician. The poem is in the regular Spenserian
stanza, and is mildly humorous and satirical ; it describes
how the author (Archimage), with four of his boat's crew,
took a lady for a ride on the river. It is a rather pretty
bit of trifling, and the allegory is well sustained ; the large
number of obsolete words is noticeable. Cambridge lived in
the country and cultivated his quiet tastes for letters and
landscape gardening ; he had also a wide circle of literary
friends. In 1751 he removed to Twickenham — and there
issued his most pretentious effort in poetry, the Scribleriad, a
1 1 have not been able to discover precisely the year.

62 . THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
mock-heroic poem in six books, written in the couplet. It
received on its first appearance scarcely any recognition, and
has even less to-day. Although Cambridge lived after the
close of the century, he does not seem to h:..ve been especially
affected by the Romantic movement. In his Spenserian
imitations, he simply followed a literary fashion ; but it should
not be forgotten that the writings of more or less insignificant
authors show the course of a literary movement better than
the productions of great men. In the latter there is always
originality ; in the former we find copying of popular models.
This shows the necessity as well as the justification of raking
over so many of the dust-heaps of the past.
In the Gentleman' s Magazine for April, 1737, appeared this
little note : — Newcastle-upon-Tyne, April 23.
" I hope, Sir, you'll excuse the following poem (being the perform
ance of one in his sixteenth year) and insert it in your next magazine,
which will oblige ,.
0 Yours, etc., Marcus.
Following the note was published the poem, called The Vir
tuoso ; in Imitation of Spencer's Style and Stanza. The author
was a poet who soon afterward became famous, Mark Aken-
side (1721-1770). The Virtuoso is in the regular Spenserian
stanza, and is full of attempts at old English. It is a* mild
satire, resembling Spenser only in form. It was Akenside's
first and last essay in the regular stanza of the Fairy Queen;
but he seemed in later years to admire Spenser, and wrote
three odes in a ten-lined pseudo-Spenserian stanza.1
In 1739 appeared On the Abuse of Travelling; A Canto, In
Imitation of Spenser? This was by Gilbert West (1700-05 —
1756). Very little is known of West's life. He was a learned
1 Book I, Ode IX, To Curio, 1744. Book II, Ode XIII, To the Author of
Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg, 1751. Book II, Ode XI, To the Country
Gentlemen of England, 1758. All these have the rather curious riming scheme,
ab, ab, cc, de, ed, the last being an Alexandrine.
2 This poem is in Dodsley's Collection (1765), Vol. II, page 98.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 63
man, and published a number of translations of Pindar's odes.
The poem before us is a gentle satire on the effects of travel
ling abroad, and the temptations encountered. It is in the
allegorical style. Archimago attempts to entice the Red Cross
Knight from the love of fairy-land by showing him all manner
of voluptuous temptations. The poem has more Romantic
atmosphere than West's later work. One stanza will suffice
to show its quality (XXII.) : —
" And now they do accord in wanton daunce
To join their hands upon the flow'ry plain ;
The whiles with amorous leer and eyes askaunce
Each damsel fires with love her glowing swain ;
'Till all impatient of the tickling pain,
In sudden laughter forth at once they break,
And ending so their daunce, each tender twain
To shady bow'rs forthwith themselves betake,
Deep hid in myrtle groves, beside a silver lake."
The last stanza of the poem closes as follows : —
" So to his former wiles he turns him soon,
As in another place hereafter shall be shown."
But West never fulfilled this promise.
The most interesting thing about this imitation is the glossary.
He explains words that are to-day perfectly clear, thus showing
the limitations of the vocabulary in his time. Such words as
sooth, guise, hardiment, Elfin, prowess, wend, hight, dight, para
mours, behests, caitiffs, etc., West translates in footnotes. The
prevailing ignorance of Spenser is also shown by his careful
explanations of "Una" and "Paynim."
Gray was much pleased with this poem. He wrote from
Florence to his friend, Richard West, July 16, 1740: "Mr.
Walpole and I have frequently wondered you should never
mention a certain imitation of Spenser, published last year by
a namesake of yours, with which we are all enraptured and
enmarvailed."

64 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
In 175 1 appeared Gilbert West's second imitation — Educa
tion. A Poem ; in Two Cantos. Written in Imitation of the
Style and Manner of Spenser's Fairy Queen} This is much
duller than the Abuse of Travelling. It narrates the struggles
of the Knight with Custom and the final victory of the former.
Its main interest lies in West's attack on the artificial method
of gardening (Stanzas XVII.-XXIV.).
Dr. Johnson, in his Life of West, took occasion once more
to attack the Spenserian school. He himself failed altogether
to appreciate the movement, but some of his criticisms are
perfectly sound, judged by the standard of the poetry which
the Spenserians produced. Dr. Johnson saw in this style of
poetry only the versifying of the curious ; he said the " effect
was local and temporary"; they "presuppose an accidental
or artificial state of mind"; they are "proofs of great industry,
and great nicety of observation, but the highest praise, the
praise of genius, they cannot claim." He also said they were
"only pretty, the plaything of fashion, and the amusement of
a day." Much of this is strictly true ; but in these playthings
the Doctor failed to perceive any significance.
In 1739 also appeared A New Canto of Spenser's Fairy Queen,
in folio. Perhaps this was inspired by Croxall's work in
A curious and interesting figure in the group was Samuel
Boyse (1708-1749). Boyse's life is far more interesting than
his poetry. He was born in Dublin, and married at the age of
twenty. In 1731 he published in Edinburgh Translations and
Poems. He had many brilliant opportunities for advancement,
all of which he wasted by almost inexplicable recklessness.
Debts at length drove him from Edinburgh. He often had to
beg for the smallest coins, and wrote verses in bed to obtain
money for clothes and food. Although a dissolute vagabond,
it is interesting to notice that he published in 1739 a l°ng
1 Only one Canto was really published.
2 I have not been able to find any copy of this Folio nor the name of its author.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 65
poem in the couplet called The Deity. Here he was following
in the wake of the Essay on Man. Moralizing, didactic poetry
had then lost little of its strong hold on popular attention, and
Boyse, as Mr. Perry says, wrote " with a keen eye on his
market." Boyse also modernized some of Chaucer's tales.
Although totally destitute of Spenser's spirit, he made imita
tions at various times. He paraphrased part of Psalm XLII,
"In Imitation of the Style of Spenser." These verses sound
more like the couplet than like the Fairy Queen, being in six-
lined stanzas, riming ab, ab, cc. In 1736-7 he published The
Olive; an Heroic Ode. ... Ln the Stanza of Spenser. This
was an "occasional" poem, on the King's return to Great
Britain. In the Preface, Boyse says he modeled his work on
Prior's ode in 1706, affording still another instance of the
long-continued influence of Prior's short poem. 77/,? Olive
is far better than Prior's ode ; but it also illustrates the
unsuitableness of this stanza for occasional poetry; and to
show how much appreciation of Spenser Boyse had, it is only
necessary to observe that he couples Spenser with " tuneful
Waller," "deathless Addison," and Pope! He speaks of
Prior in the highest terms, saying that he is "content to
follow his steps at a distance." He also has one interesting
passage, which shows some originality : " Satire is, I know,
the prevailing taste of the age, and for that I am not ashamed
to own I have neither genius nor disposition."
In 1740 he published an Ode Sacred io the Birth of the Mar
quis of Tavistock. This is in the same ten-lined stanza. It is
artificial and lifeless.
About the same year appeared another poem from his pen,
The Vision of Patience. This was "sacred to the memory of
Mr. Alexander Cuming, a Young Gentleman unfortunately
lost in the Northern Ocean on his return from China, 1740."
This work has not much poetic merit, but is written in the
allegorical style. The stanza describing the abode of the
Goddess of Silence may be worth quoting: —

66 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
" Here no invading noise the Goddess finds,
High as she sits o'er the surrounding deep ;
But pleas'd she listens to the hollow winds,
Or the shrill mew, that lulls her evening-sleep ;
Deep in a cleft-worn rock we found her laid,
Spangled the roof with many an artless gem ;
Slowly she rose and met us in the shade,
As half disturb'd that such intrusion came ;
But at her sister's sight with look discreet,
She better welcome gave, and pointed each a seat."
Although it is quite possible that Boyse had no first-hand
knowledge of Spenser at all, that was not the case with his
greater contemporary, William Shenstone (17 14-1763). The
School-Mistress is one of the best of the Spenserian imitations,
and is often ranked next to the Castle of Indolence, though it
hardly deserves so high a place. Shenstone published a first
incomplete form of this poem in 1737 ; it appeared in final
shape in 1742. Fortunately, we are able to know exactly
what attitude Shenstone held toward Spenser ; it throws con
siderable light on the whole school. A careful search of his
correspondence reveals the fact that his imitation was not
written in any serious spirit, and his earnest declaration that
he was "only in fun," is exceedingly interesting. But the
more he read Spenser the more he liked him ; and as people
persisted in admiring The School-Mistress for its own sake, he
• finally consented to agree with them, and in later editions
omitted the commentary explaining that the whole thing was
done in jest. At first he speaks of his poem as a "burlesque"
— a "ludicrous imitation." Writing to his friend Mr. Graves,
January 19, 1742, he says: "The true burlesque of Spenser
(whose characteristic is simplicity) seems to consist in a simple
representation of such things as one laughs to see or to observe
one's self, rather than in any monstrous contrast between
the thought and words." 1 Again, writing to the same man
1 Works, Vol. III. (1769), page 61.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 67
December 24, 1741, he says : "Some time ago I read Spenser's
Fairy Queen ; and when I had finished, thought it a proper
time to make some additions and corrections in my trifling
imitation of him, The School-Mistress. — His subject is certainly
bad, and his action inexpressibly confused ; but there are some
particulars in him that charm one. Those which afford the
greatest scope for a ludicrous imitation are, his simplicity and
obsolete phrase ; and yet these are what give one a very
singular pleasure in the perusal."1
We see by this that when The School-Mistress was first
written, Shenstone knew nothing apparently of Spenser ; and
that when he did actually read him, he was charmed in spite of
himself. As he did not dare to consider Spenser seriously, he
tries to point out certain characteristics to explain the charm
he felt in the Fairy Queen, without seeing that the real source
of the fascination lay in the beauty of the poetry. In his
early years Shenstone was very much of an Augustan. The
age speaks through him again in a letter to Mr. Graves, June,
1742. "I am glad you are reading Spenser; though his plan
is detestable and his invention less wonderful than most people
imagine, who do not much consider the obviousness of allegory ;
yet, I think, a person of your disposition must take great delight
in his simplicity, his good-nature, etc. . . . When I bought
him first, I read a page or two of the Fairy Queen, and cared
not to proceed. After that, Pope's Alley made me consider
him ludicrously ; and in that light, I think, one may read him
with pleasure. I am now . . . from trifling and laughing at
him, really in love with him. I think even the metre pretty
(though I shall never use it in earnest); and that the last
Alexandrine has an extreme majesty."2
It is fortunate that we have a letter like this, so clearly
exhibiting the attitude of one of the best-known men of his
time toward one of the greatest names in English literature.
The patronizing tone toward Spenser is extremely suggestive ;
1 Works, Vol. Ill, page 63. 2 md., Vol. Ill, page 66.

68 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
and the fact that Shenstone's gate to this Romantic field was
the coarse burlesque of Pope, is certainly noteworthy. When
Pope exercised his ingenuity in this style of versification, he
little dreamed that he was opening a new world even to the
men of his age. Shenstone's remark that he thought " even
the metre pretty " needs no comment. His letter, in all its
stupidity, betrays a much deeper appreciation of Spenser than
the writer dared to show.
One more letter of Shenstone's must be quoted ; it shows
his anxiety that the people should not mistake his burlesque for
a thing done in earnest. The letter is written to Mr. Graves,
but bears no date : 1 "I have added a ludicrous index, purely
to shew (fools) that I am in jest ; . . . You cannot conceive
how large the number is of those that mistake burlesque for
the very foolishness it exposes (which observation I made once
at the Rehearsal, at Tom Thumb, at Chrononhotonthologos ;
all which are pieces of elegant humour). I have some mind
to pursue this caution further ; and advertise it, ' The School-
Mistress, &c.' A very childish performance everybody knows
(novorum more). But if a person seriously calls this, or rather,
burlesque, a childish or low species of poetry, he says wrong.
For the most regular and formal poetry may be called trifling,
folly, and weakness, in comparison of what is written with a
more manly spirit in ridicule of it."2
This letter aflords proof positive of Shenstone's lack of
seriousness in imitating Spenser. It is somewhat surprising,
after approaching the old poet in this spirit, that Shenstone
should have succeeded as well as he did. The School-Mistress
will probably always be known as his best production, and we
are not surprised to find Gray saying in 1751 or thereabouts:
"'The School-Mistress' is excellent in its kind and masterly."3
The book-seller, Robert Dodsley (1 703-1 764), published in
1742 an imitation of Spenser called Pain and Patience; the
1 Probably written in 1742. 2 Works, Vol. Ill, page 69.
8 Gray's Works, ed. Gosse, Vol. II, page 219.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 69
piece is metrically rough, has no merit of any kind, and bears
no evidence of being consciously imitative. About 1744 he
published six uninspired six-lined stanzas On the Death of
Mr. Pope. All the stanzas end with the same Alexandrine, —
"With sounds to soothe the ear, with sense to warm the heart,"
a sentiment unfortunately not descriptive of Dodsley's effort.
In July, 1743, appeared Albion's Triumph, An Ode on the
Success of His Majesty's Arms. All I have been able to
discover of this poem is an extract of five stanzas printed
in the Gentleman's Magazine, for July, 1743. The metre is
fashioned after that of Prior — ten-lined stanzas, with Prior's
riming scheme. The extract is guilty of no poetical beauty.
' The poet William Mason (1725-1797), who had little origi
nality, but who imitated first Milton and then Gray in an almost
servile fashion, does not belong to the regular Spenserian group,
but in his Musaeus (written 1744, published 1747), he intro
duced a few stanzas in Spenser's style. Musaeus was a monody
on the death of Pope, and written in imitation of Milton's
Lycidas. Different poets in Musaeus bewail Pope's death ;
Chaucer speaks in an imitation of old English, and Spenser
speaks two stanzas after the metre of the Shepherd's Calendar
and three stanzas in the style of the Fairy Queen. There is
nothing remarkable about these imitations ; they simply give
Mason a slight connection with the movement. He figures
in another branch of Romanticism.
Thomas Blacklock (1721-1791) was blind from early youth.
While a young boy, his parents read the poets aloud to him,
mainly Spenser, Milton, Prior, Addison, Pope, and Ramsay.
He began to compose rimes at the age of twelve, and circulated
his writings in manuscript. Blacklock simply followed contem
porary fashions in his compositions ; and he was born late
enough to come partially under the influence of the new school.
The philosopher Hume was greatly interested in this blind man,
and in a letter written October 15, 1754, he says: "I have
asked him whether he retained any idea of light or colors. He

70 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
assured me that there remained not the least trace of them.
I found, however, that all the Poets, even the most descriptive
ones, such as Milton and Thompson, were read by him with
Pleasure. Thomson is one of his favorites."1
Blacklock wrote verses in many different kinds of metres,
but the poem that chiefly concerns us here is his Hymn to
Divine Love ; Ln Imitation of Spenser? This is a short pro
duction in seven-lined stanzas, riming ab, ab, be, c; a rather
unusual measure. The poem is absolutely common-place. In
his verses called Philantheus, Blacklock also introduced the
same stanzaic form. The only interesting thing about Black-
lock's imitation of Spenser is the evidence which it gives of
the strength of this literary fashion ; for Blacklock had no
originality ; he simply followed popular forms.
Christopher Pitt (1699-1748) was chiefly celebrated in his
day and generation for his translation of Vergil, which Joseph
Warton in point of scholarship compared favorably with
Dryden's. Pitt published a thin volume of Poems and Trans
lations in 1727; in one of these bits of verse he alludes to
Spenser, but his Imitation was probably not written till a
number of years later. This is in the vein of Pope's Alley,
and may have been directly inspired by it. Its title is The
Jordan, and the nature of its contents may be guessed by the
opening line, —
" A well-known vase of sov'reign use I sing."
The poem is in the regular Spenserian form, and contains a
number of obsolete words. In mechanism it is not unskilful,
but in spirit is merely a coarse burlesque.
Gloucester Ridley3 (1702-1774) published in April, 1747,
in Dodsley's Museum* a piece called Psyche; or the Great
1 Spence's Anecdotes, page 448.
2 Probably published in 1 746.
8 An interesting account of Ridley appears in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1 774,
page 505.
4 The Museum lasted from March 29, 1746, to September 12, 1747, and was issued
fortnightly.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 71
Metamorphosis. A Poem, writteti in imitation of Spenser. The
history of this poem is not uninteresting. " The origin of this
is as follows : his friend, Mr. Spence, having lent him the
works of Spencer, which he had never read, on returning
them, our author sent Mr. Spence, as a fragment, the fifteen
first stanzas of Psyche, without farther plan or design, as an
exercise to imitate that writer. Mr. Spence pressed him to
finish it ; he did so, and completed the canto. This was his
excuse for adopting obsolete words."1 Afterwards, Dodsley
urged him to continue the Metamorphosis ; Ridley rather shrank
from this task, evidently finding composition in the Spenserian
stanza desperately hard work. His plan for the whole poem
is interesting, as showing how he tried to combine the moraliz-
ing-didactic spirit of the age with the Romantic style of poetry.
"As the first part of the Metamorphosis in one canto, was a
kind of Paradise Lost, this was to be a Paradise Regained.
His plan (a very important one) was a view of the general
notions of religion, with respect both to the credenda and agenda,
which prevailed in the world, out of the Jewish church, before
the incarnation, cast into four cantos, under the general title
of Melampus, or the Religious Groves. . . . The first canto is
Fear, which is contrasted by Superstition ; the second Trust,
which is opposed by Enthusiasm ; the third Love, with the
origin of Idolatry; the last Joy. In the first canto . . .
Psyche was left changed into a caterpillar; in the next she
is married to Elf, and her progeny are Elves and Fairies."
Ridley made slow work with this titanic task, and the inspira
tion deserted him so often that he was more than once tempted
to throw the whole thing aside. The complete poem Melampus
did not appear until after his death. It was published in
1781. It is interesting to notice what a jumble the whole plan was ;
imitative of Spenser in its stanza and allegory, imitative of
Milton in its general plan, and yet full of the didactic style
1 Gentleman's Magazine, 1774, page 505.

72 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
of the Augustan age. The canto called Psyche, the only
portion published in his life-time, has little poetic merit.
It is imitative of Spenser only externally — in stanza and
language. The account of Ridley's life in the Gentleman's
Magazine ends with a ludicrously ambiguous compliment :
"He exchanged this life, for a better, in November 1774,
aged 72, leaving a widow and some daughters. His works
follow him."
Bishop Robert Lowth (1710-1787), the learned divine and
famous lecturer on Hebrew poetry, made one slight attempt
at Spenserian verse. His Choice of Hercules first appeared
in Spence's huge tome Polymetis (1747), in the tenth dialogue.
Hercules chooses between two female figures, Pleasure and
Virtue, hesitating through several stanzas, but, of course,
eventually taking Virtue. The allegorical scheme of the
poem is interesting, but Lowth, although an excellent critic
of poetry, had no creative gift. The versification of this piece
is modeled after the Prior pseudo-Spenserian form.
In the same year (1747) appeared an anonymous quarto, A
New Canto of Spencer's Fairy Queen. Now first published. This
was by John Upton; the title, of course, was not really intended
to deceive the public. The poem contains forty-two stanzas,
ten-lined, after Prior's model. At the beginning is a short
quotation in Spenser's style. Obsolete words abound, and
allegorical abstractions are plentiful. Many phrases are taken
almost bodily from Shakspere.1 It may be worth while to
quote one of Upton's stanzas, to show his style : —
" Thus talking, on the Neighbour Beach they find
A Bark, all in her gaudy Trim displaid ;
The silken Sails sung in the whistling Wind,
Courting the Knight on Board, who nought afraid
Springs deftly on the Deck ; when Archimage
1 For example :
" And ever and anon the sheeted Dead
Did squeak and gibber thro' the myrksome Air." — Stanza VII.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 73
A wondrous Pin takes in his cunning Hand,
That mov'd, as if instinct with Spirit sage,
The bounding Bark, which made the adverse Land ;
Where a bright bevy stood of Females fair,
All ready to receive them, blith and debonnair." 1
In addition to Lowth's, Ridley's and Upton's imitations, the
year 1747 saw still another from the pen of Robert Bedingfield
(died 1768). It first appeared in Dodsley's Museum for May,
1747. The Education of Achilles is a poem of fourteen stanzas,
in the regular Spenserian form. It has more poetic merit than
the common run of contemporary imitations. The fondness
for abstractions — so common at this time — is very notice-j
able. Modesty, Temperance, Fidelity, Benevolence, Exercise,
Experience and Contemplation all take a hand in the " Educa-1
tion of Achilles."
In 1748 Joseph Warton published in a thin volume the
poetical remains of his father, the Rev. Thomas Warton, who
died in 1745. This volume contains among other pieces
Philander, an Imitation of Spencer. It was occasioned by the
death of Mr. William Levinz, November, 1706. At what
date it was written I have been unable to ascertain; but it is
interesting as showing how honestly the Warton brothers came
by their fondness for Spenser. The poem is prefaced by a
garbled quotation from the dedication to Spenser's Astrophel,
as follows : —
" To You alone I sing this mournful Verse —
Made not to please the living, but the Dead —
To You, whose soft'n'd hearts it may empierse
With Dolours — (if you covet It to read —
And if in You found pittie ever place,
May You be mov'd to pittie such a case."
Philander is a short poem, in six-lined stanzas, completely
destitute of poetic merit. It is interesting simply as coming
from the father of the Wartons, and because of its early date.
1 Of course a reminiscence of Milton's V Allegro.

74 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
In 1748 appeared by far the best poem of the whole Spen
serian school, The Castle of Indolence, by James Thomson, who
died two months after its publication. This poem is not
simply an external imitation of Spenser, as in the stanza, the
obsolete words, and the allegorical form of the story; much
of it is genuine poetry, and has something of the Romantic
feeling and atmosphere of Spenser, as well as touches of
his melodious music. Thomson had perhaps been partially
inspired by Shenstone's School-mistress ; for the opening words
of his Advertisement remind one of Shenstone's notions. He
says, " This poem being written in the manner of Spenser, the
obsolete words, and a simplicity of diction in some of the lines,
which borders on the ludicrous, were necessary to make the
imitation more perfect." We can only wish that Thomson had
seen fit to give free expression to his love for Spenser, and
omitted from his poem all the burlesque element. But the
fact that Thomson thought ludicrous touches necessary is a
fact too suggestive to be forgotten.
How early Thomson began to admire Spenser is hard to say.
It is an interesting fact that the allusion to Spenser in The
Seasons did not appear in the first edition (1730), but was
inserted later. The allusion referred to is in Summer and
runs as follows : —
" The gentle Spenser, fancy's pleasing son,
Who, like a copious river, poured his song
O'er all the mazes of enchanted ground."
Perhaps this was inserted after Thomson had begun to have
in mind The Castle of Indolence. We know that he had this
intention as early as 1733 or 1734, for he writes in 1748, "After
fourteen or fifteen years, The Castle of Indolence comes abroad
in a fortnight." : Whether he had it simply in mind during
those years, or was actually composing it, is impossible to say.2
1 Letter to Paterson,' Thomson's Works (1847), Vol. I, page ci.
2 On the evidence of the words of Thomson quoted above, Mr. Gosse makes the
surprising statement (Eighteenth Century Literature, page 225) that Thomson had

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 75
The first canto of The Castle of Indolence is much better than
the second, and the opening stanzas of the first are perhaps
the best part of the poem. There is some of the same
atmosphere that appears in Tennyson's Lotus-Eaters.
Stanza thirty has distinctly a Romantic tone : —
-As when a shepherd of the Hebrid-Isles,
Placed far amid the melancholy main,
(Whether it be lone fancy him beguiles ;
Or that aerial beings sometimes deign
To stand, embodied to our senses plain)
Sees on the naked hill, or valley low,
The whilst in ocean Phoebus dips his wain,
A vast assembly moving to and fro ;
Then all at once in air dissolves the wondrous show."
It is noticeable that in one place Thomson speaks of "my
master Spenser." x
The delicate shading of humour gives a certain charm to
the poem, and some passages have an interest other than
poetical or Spenserian. But throughout the work one is
conscious of an entirely different atmosphere from that in
most of the other imitations; there are some genuine touches
of Romanticism. Thomson has always had full credit —
perhaps too much — for his aid to nature-poetry in the
Seasons ; but his greater contribution to Romanticism does not
seem to have attracted so much general attention. Joseph
Warton immediately recognized the value of the poem. He
said, " There are some who think it (poetry) has suffered by
deserting these fields of fancy, and by totally laying aside the
descriptions of magic and enchantment. What an exquisite
picture has Thomson given us in his delightful Castle of Indo
lence." He then quotes the stanza beginning, "As when a
shepherd of the Hebrid-Isles." " I cannot at present recollect
actually written The Castle of Indolence by 1 733. Mr. Gosse's statement is a wholly
unwarrantable inference.
1 Canto II, stanza 52.

76 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
any solitude so romantic, or peopled with beings so proper to the
place and the spectator. The mind naturally loves to lose itself
in one of these wildernesses, and to forget the hurry, the noise
and splendor of more polished life."1 Warton also alluded
to Thomson in the second volume of his Essay. He had been
speaking of the fashion of imitating Spenser, and condemning
the burlesque and comic style.2 " To imitate Spenser on a
subject that does not partake of the pathos, is not giving a
true representation of him. . It has been fashionable of
late to imitate Spenser, but the likeness of most of the copies,
hath consisted rather in using a few of his ancient expressions,
than in catching his real manner." He then notes some
exceptions, as The School-mistress, the Education of Achilles,
and says, " To these must be added that exquisite piece of
wild and romantic imagery, Thomson's Castle of Indolence ;
the first canto of which, in particular, is marvellously pleasing,
and the stanzas have a greater flow and feeling than his blank
verse." She.rstone wrote appreciatively of Thomson's poem
shortly after it appeared ; 3 and his verses to William Lyttleton
in 1748, on Thomson's death, speak of the "sweet descriptive
bard " in high terms. The service rendered to the English
Romantic movement by the Castle of Lndolence was exceedingly
great ; Thomson might have done still more work in the same
field had his life not been so suddenly cut short.
In 1749 appeared A Farewell Hymn e to the Country, Attempted
in the Manner of Spenser's Epithalamion. This was by the Rev.
R. Potter, who was an enthusiastic lover of nature and a great
admirer of old English poetry in general, and of Spenser in
particular. The Hymne was popular, and passed into a second
edition the next year. It is not without poetic merit, and has
a good musical flow. The stanza in which he alludes to his
master may be worth quoting. He has spoken of three poets,
1 Essay on Pope, Vol. 1, pape 366 (4th ed, 1782).
2 See Vol. II, page 31.
8 Letter to Mr. Jago, November 15, 1748.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 77
Milton, Chaucer, and " sweet Cowley," and then proceeds as
follows : —
"And he, forth-beaming thro' the mystic Shade
In all the Might of Magic sweetly strong ;
Who steep'd in Teares the pitious Lines he made,
The tendrest Bard that ere empassion'd Song ;
Or when of Love's Delights he cast to play,
Couth deftly dight the Lay ;
And with gay Girlonds goodly beautifide,
Bound trew love-wise to grace his bridale Day,
With daintie Carrols hymn'd his happy Bride ;
Lov'd Spenser, of trew Verse the Well-spring sweet !
The Footing of whose Feet
I, paineful Follower, assay to trace.
Bring fayrest Floures, the purest Lillies bring,
With all the purple Pride of all the Spring ;•
And make great Store of Poses trim, to grace
The Prince of Poets' Race ;
And Hymen, flymen, io Hymen sing ;
The Hills, the Dales, the Woods, the Fountaines ring."
In 175 1 appeared The Seasons, by Moses Mendez (died
1758). Mendez was a Jew, who dabbled in literature. He
was famous chiefly for his great wealth, and forms in this
respect a curious contrast to the literary beggars of the day.
He was the richest poet of his time, leaving a fortune of
£100,000 at his death. Mendez was an enthusiastic admirer
of Thomson's poetry, and in The Seasons he imitated him .
doubly, by writing on 'Nature and by adopting the Spenserian
stanza. Mendez's poem is divided into four parts, Spring,
Summer, Autumn, Winter. He opened with some prefatory
stanzas defying the critics, and then goes on as follows : —
" Ere yet I sing the round-revolving year,
And show the toils and pastime of the swain,
At Alcon's grave I drop a pious tear t,
Right well he knew to raise his learned strain,
And, like his Milton, scorned the rhiming chain.

78 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Ah ! cruel fate, to tear him from our eyes ;
Receive this wreath, albe the tribute's vain,
From the green sod may flowers immortal rise,
To mark the sacred spot where the sweet poet lies."
This reference to Thomson is especially interesting on
account of the allusion to blank verse.
Mendez's Seasons contains the usual amount of obsolete
words, but has in its swing and melody something of the real
manner of the master. The fourth stanza in Spring shows
Mendez at his best : —
" The balmy cowslip gilds the smiling plain,
The virgin snow-drop boasts her silver hue,.
An hundred tints the gaudy daisy stain,
And the meek violet, in amis blue,
Creeps low to earth, and hides from public view."
Some years later Mendez took the field again, with his
Squire of Dames. He describes the searcR of the Squire of
Dames for three hundred chaste women, and his ill success.
Mendez meant the poem to be both an allegory and a satire.
It is in two cantos in the regular Spenserian stanza, and
shows how the Squire found every girl unfaithful. At last
he goes to the castle of Merlin, and gazes in a magic mirror
which will reveal anything asked for. He calls for his own
chaste mistress, Columbel, and, to his horror, she and her
paramour are represented in a situation which is anything
but chaste. At this last straw he swoons and the poem
closes. The Squire of Dames shows careful reading of Spenser, and
is far above the ordinary imitations. It exhibits great metrical
skill ; and some passages are notably Romantic. The descrip
tion of Merlin's castle is perhaps the most Romantic part of
the poem, and, as Mendez's poetry is so little known, I will
quote this passage entire : —

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 79
" Together now they seek the hermitage
Deep in the covert of a dusky glade,
Where in his dortour wons the hoary sage.
The moss-grown trees did form a gloomy shade,
Their rustling leaves a solemn music made,
And fairies nightly tripped the aweful green,
And if the tongue of fame hath truth display'd,
Full many a spectre was at midnight seen,
Torn from his earthly grave, a horrid sight ! I ween.
Ne rose ne vi'let, glads the cheerless bow'r,
Ne fringed pink from earth's green bosom grew,
But hemloc dire and every baleful flow'r
Might here be found, and knots of mystic rue.
Close to the cell sprong up an auncient yew,
And store of imps were on its boughs ypight,
At his behests they from its branches flew,
And, in a thousand various forms bedight,
Frisk'd to the moon's pale wain, and revell'd all the night.
Around the cave a clust'ring ivy spread
In wide embrace his over-twining arms,
Within the walls with characters bespread
Declar'd the pow'rful force of magic charms,
Here drugs were plac'd destructive of all harms,
And books that deep futurity could scan ;
Here stood a spell that of his rage disarms
The mountain lyon till he yields to man ;
With many secrets more which scarce repeat I can." x
This is neither moralizing nor smutty ; being very different
poetry from either Ridley's Psyche or Pitt's Jordan. It counts
for something in the history of Romanticism. Mendez illus
trates the two-fold nature of the movement, in his love of
Nature, and love of the Past ; and7 his following Thomson in
both subject and form is note-worthy.
Boyse was not the only vagabond among the Spenserians ;
another rascal was the poet Robert Lloyd (i 733-1 764). He
1 Canto II, Stanzas 31, 32, 33.

80 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOT XMENT.
led a terribly dissipated life, was more offer! drunk than sober,
and spent a large portion of the time in prison for debt.
He was a professed imitator of Prior, and had a keen and
penetrating wit, which he used unsparingly. In some directions
his tastes seemed to favor the new school. He wrote an
epistle to Garrick, in which he praised the English dramatists,
and Shakspere's departure from Classic rules of art. He
satirized the chorus of the Greek stage.
His remarks on the contemporary craze for imitations are
not bad. He wrote them in 1755 to a friend who was about
to publish a volume of miscellanies. Lloyd warns him against
too much imitation : —
" Let not your verse, as verse now goes,
Be a strange kind of measur'd prose ;
Nor let your prose, which sure is worse,
Want nought but measure to be verse.
Write from your own imagination,
Nor curb your Muse by imitation ;
For copies show, howe'er exprest,
/ A barren genius at the best.
— But imitation's all the mode —
Yet where one hits, ten miss the road."
He then goes on to complain of the number of Miltonic
imitations, and says : — " 'Tis by those
Milton's the model mostly chose
Who can't write verse, and won't write prose."
His remarks on the Spenserian imitations are interesting : —
" Others, who aim at fancy, choose
To woo the gentle Spenser's muse.
The poet fixes for his theme
An allegory, or a dream.
Fiction and truth together joins
Thro' a long waste of flimsy lines ;

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 81
Fondly believes his fancy glows,
And image upon image grows ;
Thinks his strong Muse takes wondrous flights,
Whene'er she sings of peerless wights,
Of dens, of palfreys, spells and knights,
'Till allegory, Spenser's veil,
T' instruct and please in moral tale,
With him 's no veil the truth to shroud,
But one impenetrable cloud."
These octosyllabics are worth quoting, as they show the
popularity that Spenserianism had gained. But although Lloyd
thus satirized the imitators, he had already joined their ranks.
In 1 75 1 he published his Progress of Envy. It is a defense
of Milton. Lloyd attacks a disreputable Scotchman who had
made an onslaught on the reputation of the Puritan poet.
Besides the main object of the poem, it is also a panegyric
on Spenser, and even Shakspere and Chaucer come in for
praise. It is allegorical in form, with the customary number
of personified abstractions. The stanza is Spenserian, with
nine lines, but with a curious riming scheme.1
In 1691 Edmund Smith (1668-1710) made himself somewhat
famous by a Latin ode on the death of Dr. Pococke ; in 175 1
was published Thales, a Spenserian imitation, and apparently a
translation of Smith's Latin verses.2 Who wrote the English
stanzas is difficult to ascertain. They are in eight-lines,3 still
another variation on Spenser's original form.
By 1 75 1 Dr. Johnson thought it was about time to speak
out. The Spenserians were having things altogether too much
their own way, and he was alarmed at such ^ten^eneij^sjnjhe
(direction of JRpnianticism. He relieved his mind in the
Rambler^Tor May 14, 175 1. He says, "the imitation of
Spenser ... by the influence of some men of learning and
genius, seems likely to gain upon the age." To imitate
Spenser's "fictions and sentiments can incur no reproach,
1 ab, ab, cd, cd, d. - The English poem is in Bell's Fugitive Poetry.
8 Riming abab, b, c, c, c.

82 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
for allegory is perhaps one of the most pleasing vehicles of
instruction." So far as Spenser encourages didactic poetry,
the doctor naturally thinks he is all right. " But I am very
far from extending the same respect to his diction or his
stanza. His style was in his own time allowed to be vicious.
. . . His stanza is at once difficult and unpleasing ; tiresome
to the ear by its uniformity, and to the attention by its length."
This is a strange criticism coming from an admirer of long
poems in the heroic couplet. Johnson closes his paper with
one parting shot. " The style of Spenser might by long labour
be justly copied ; but life is surely given us for higher purposes
than to gather what our ancestors have thrown away, and to
learn what is of no value, but because it has been forgotten."
Dr. Johnson's emphatic protest is the most conclusive evidence
as to the strength which the movement had gained by the
middle of the century.
In 1754 appeared a very important work — Thomas Warton's
Observations on the Faery Queen. This had a strong influence
in furthering the serious study and appreciation of Spenser.
The book will be mentioned again in connection with the
critical side of the Romantic movement. Warton made some
imitations of his own. Indeed his poetry is wholly imitative,
his chief model being Milton, whose ideas and language he
borrowed with a free hand. His poems were not published
collectively till 1777, but a number of them appeared at
occasional intervals. His Spenserian imitations are Morning,
written in 1745, published 1750, Elegy on the Death of Frederic,
Pi-ince of Wales (17 51), A Pastoral in the Manner of Spenser
(1753), though there is some doubt as to his authorship of this ;
and the Complaint of Cherwell, written 1761, published 1777.
It is curious that with all his knowledge of Spenser, his
imitations should not have followed the regular stanza of the
Fairy Queen} But although he did not pay so close attention
1 The Elegy and Complaint are six-lined, ending with an Alexandrine, and riming
ab, ab, c, c. The Pastoral is in the same form as the Shepherd's Calendar for
January and December.

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 83
to the form, he was filled with the master's spirit ; allusions to
the old poet constantly occur among his verses. In his poem,
The Pleasures of Melancholy, written in his seventeenth year, he
says : — " Thro' Pope's soft song tho' all the Graces breathe
And happiest art adorn his Attic page ;
Yet does my mind with sweeter transport glow
As at the root of mossy trunk reclin'd,
In magic Spenser's wildly-warbled song
I see deserted Una wander wide
Thro' wasteful solitudes and lurid heaths."
Thomas Warton, like his brother, was a conscious Romanti
cist.1 Thomas Denton (1724-1777), a minor poet, also belongs to
the Spenserian school. He was an Oxford man, receiving his
M.A. in 1752. He wrote two imitations of Spenser, Immortality
(1754) and The House of Superstition (1762). Both of these
are in ten-lined stanzas, and rime after Prior's model. Immor
tality is imitative of Spenser only in form. Its language
is distinctively that of the eighteenth century. It exhibits
the contemporary note of inelaiicholy, and the fascination
of grave-damp. There are, however, even in this piece
some curiously Romantic touches, as in the eleventh stanza,
beginning as it unfortunately does, with "Cynthia": —
" Pale Cynthia mounted on her silver car
O'er heaven's blue concave drives her nightly round ;
See a torn abbey, wrapt in gloom, appear
Scatter'd in wild confusion o'er the ground.
1 Some of his general publications are as follows : —
1745. Five Pastoral Eclogues.
1747. Pleasures of Melancholy.
xy4g. Triumph of I sis.
175 1. Newmarket.
1754. Observations, enlarged in 1762.
1774. First vol., History of English Poetry, second vol, 1778, third vol, 1781.
1785. Edition of Milton's luvenile Poems.
1777. Collection of his own poems, second edition, 1778, third, 1779, fourth, 1789.

84 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Here rav'nous Ruin lifts her wasteful hands
O'er briar-grown grots and bramble-shaded graves ;
Safe from her wrath one weeping marble stands,
O'er which the mournful yew its umbrage waves :
Ope, ope thy pond'rous jaws, thou friendly tomb,
Close the sad deathful scene, and shroud me in thy womb."
In its general tone the poem, of course, belongs to the school
of Blair, Young and Gray.
The House of Superstition is a poem in thirteen stanzas, and
has a closer resemblance to Spenser than Denton's earlier
work, being arranged in allegorical form. It describes the
victory of the goddess Truth over the inmates of the castle of
Superstition. The poem contains scarcely any obsolete words,
and it seems doubtful whether Denton had any first-hand
knowledge of Spenser at all. It is more likely that in writing
in this form he was simply following the contemporary
fashion. One of these poets who is almost completely forgotten to-day,
was Cornelius Arnold (1711-1757 ?). Very little is known of
his life. His Spenserian imitation, The Mirror, was published
as a quarto in 1755, and later in his Poems (1757). Arnold
had evidently' read Shenstone's School-mistress, as we learn
from his Preface. "The Author begs leave to premise, that
in this essay he has reta'ined some few of the old words of
Spenser, and adopted the simplicity of the diction in the ludi
crous cast, at the end of most of the stanzas, to give it some
what the exterior air of that great original, however far short
he may have fell of the spirit." Arnold's poem contains forty-
four regular Spenserian stanzas ; it is a satire on contemporary
life and manners, and describes how Death seizes one personage
after another, the lawyer, knight, actor, etc. The poetry has
not much beauty, but exhibits some originality and considerable
force. In 1756 appeared a very dull poem by Christopher Smart
(1722-1770). The Hymn to tfie Siipretne Being on Recovery

THE SPENSERIAN REVIVAL. 85
from a Dangerous Fit of Illness, is in six-line stanzas,1 and is
poor stuff. Its form alone makes it necessary to mention it
here. William Wilkie (1721-1772) is connected with the Spenserian
school by his poem, A Dream — In the manner of Spenser,
which appeared in 1759. It was published along with the
second edition of the Epigoniad, which work gave Wilkie the
title of the " Scottish Homer." This was a long epic in nine
books, written in the couplet. A Dream is a regular Spenserian
imitation, containing eighteen stanzas. It is an attack on
literary critics — a defense of nature against the canons of the
artificial school of criticism. One stanza will suffice to show
Wilkie's style: —
" Though Shakspeare, still disdaining narrow rules,
His bosom fill'd with Nature's sacred fire,
Broke all the cobweb limits fix'd by fools,
And left the world to blame him and admire,
Yet his reward few mortals would desire ;
For, of his learned toil, the only meed —
That ever I could find he did acquire,
Is that our dull, degenerate, age of lead,
Says that he wrote by chance, and that he scarce could read."
In 1767 William Junius Mickle (1734-1788) published The
Concubine, a Spenserian imitation in two cantos. In the second
edition (1778) he changed the name, calling 'it Sir Martyn.
Although this poem appeared after 1765, and thus strictly
carries us beyond the limit of our present study, The Concubine
deserves a moment's notice, as it had been growing in Mickle's
mind for some years. In the Rev. John Sim's Life of Mickle,
we are told that about his thirteenth year (1746) "Spenser's
Faery Queene falling accidentally in his way, he was immediately
struck with the picturesque descriptions of that much admired
ancient bard, and powerfully incited to imitate his style and
manner." 2 In Mickle's preface to his poem — printed with
1 Riming ab, ab, cc. 2 Mickle's Poetical Works, London, 1806, page xi.

86 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
the second edition in 1778 — he said : " Some reasons, perhaps,
may be expected for having adopted the manner of Spenser.
To propose a general use of it were indeed highly absurd ;
yet it may be presumed there are some subjects on which it
may be used with advantage. But not to enter upon any
formal defence, the Author will only say, that the fulness and
wantonness of description, the quaint simplicity, and above all,
the ludicrous, of which the antique phraseology and manner of
Spenser are so happily and peculiarly susceptible, inclined him
to esteem it not solely as the best, but the .only mode of
composition adapted to his subject." Here again we have
the familiar emphasis laid on the "simplicity," and especially
\J the "ludicrous" element in Spenser.
Mickle's poem is in the regular stanza, and shows consider-
\ able familiarity with Spenser ; he adopted both antiquated
spelling, and obsolete words, the latter being explained in a
Glossary which accompanied the poem.
With this poem we close our view of the Spenserian revival.
Editions of Spenser did not keep pace with the growing number
of imitations ; it was not until the middle of the century that
the demand for Spenser himself became strong. Hughes's
edition of 17 15 seemed to satisfy the public till 1750, when
another edition took the field. This was followed by an edition
of the Fairy Queen in 175 1, and in 1758 three separate editions
of the same poem appeared. Another edition of Spenser's
Works was published in 1778.
Little is needed by way of summary. The imitations began
to be numerous after 1736, and the movement reached its
\ climax about 1750. The unconsciousness of the movement
is shown by the powerful influence exercised upon it by Pope
and Prior. The significant fact that Spenser was by many
apprehended only on the ludicrous side, was discussed at
some length in the early part of this chapter.1
1 See Appendix for a list of Spenserian imitations.

CHAPTER V.
THE INFLUENCE OF MILTON IN THE ROMANTIC
MOVEMENT. — THE LITERATURE OF
MELANCHOLY.
We do not to-day think of Milton primarily as a Romantic
poet ; his great epic would more naturally place him in the
ranks of the Classicists ; and his remarkable devotion to the
study of Greek and Latin authors, with the powerful influence
they had upon him, would seem to separate him widely from
Romanticism. To the men of the eighteenth century, however,
his message was Romantic. He was shunned and practically
neglected by the Augustans, whose Classicism was so thor
oughly Horatian ; and those who admired him did so more on
account of the bulk of his epic and its theological theme, than
from a genuine love and appreciation of his poetry. The
young Romanticists claimed Milton for their own ; his name
was a rallying cry ; and they followed him in thought, language,
and versification. His influence cannot be traced out in detail
so clearly as Spenser's ; but it was a quickening force, as any
one who reads eighteenth century minor poetry may see for
himself. I have already spoken of his influence on the Reaction
in Form ; his blank verse was steadily imitated and did much
toward dethroning the couplet ; his octosyllabics were still
more effective, and his sonnets leavened English poetry after
1750. But it was not so much in form as in thought that
Milton affected the Romantic movement ; and although Para
dise Lost was always reverentially considered his greatest work,
it was not at this time nearly so effective as his minor poetry ;
and in the latter it was 77 Penseroso — the_lo_ve- of jneditative
comfortable melancholy — that penetrated most deeply into the
Rx>majitic.soul. Even such a poem as Dyer's Fleece, although
in blank verse, is more 1 miniscent of the juvenile poems than

vM
V/ 1,0

88 ras ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
of the epics ; and the blank verse of the Warton brothers is
charged with the sentiments and phrases of Milton's octosylla
bics. The influence of Milton cannot, accordingly, be seen in
so distinct a literary fashion as the Spenserian fad ; it must be
traced in a different way, and along more general lines.
It was in the Spectator for December 31, 17 n, that Addison
announced his intention of writing a series of papers on Milton ;
but important as Addison's work was, he was not the first man
to bring Milton into public notice. Editions of Milton had
been regularly supplying a quiet but steady demand.
The well-known men who show the influence of Milton most
clearly are the Warton brothers, Collins, Mason, and Gray.
But there were many lesser lights who give evidence of close
study of the Puritan poet. For example, William Hamilton of
Bangour imitated Milton in his octosyllabic poem Contemplation}
He shows this perhaps most clearly in his fondness for Ab
stractions ; and indeed the subsequent fashion of personifying
Abstractions — though dating back even much earlier than the
orality Plays — seems in the new Romantic movement to
have flowed largely from Milton. Consider these lines from
Hamilton's poem : —
" Anger, with wild disorder'd face ;
And Malice pale of famish'd face ;
Loud-tongued Clamour, get thee far
Hence, to wrangle at the bar ;
With opening mouths vain Rumour hung ;
And falsehood with her serpent tongue ;
Revenge, her blood-shot eyes on fire,
And hissing Envy's snaky tire ;
With Jealousy, the fiend most fell,
Who bears about his inmate hell,
Now far apart with haggard mien
To lone Suspicion list'ning seen," etc.2
This kind of thing became extremely common.
1 Written in or before 1739.
2 Observe the similarity of all this to Collins's Ode on the Passions.

THE INFLUENCE OF MILTON. 89
Joseph Warton (1722-1800) is one of the most important
names in the history of English Romanticism.1
From the start his sympathy was wholly with the new move
ment. He sprang enthusiastically into the ranks, burning his
bridges in the most reckless manner. In his prose writings he
showed himself to be what few men were at that time — a
Romanticist, not by accident, but with malice aforethought.
Iri this chapter, however, we are concerned not with his
prose, but with his poetry, which sounded some of the earliest
and most distinct Romantic tones. He was a follower of
Milton, and his poetry is in the 77 Penseroso mood ; the fond
ness for solitude and twilight, for personal ^subjecJiv_e^qmmunion
wittL_Naiure —-these common Romantic qualities are strikingly
characteristic of Warton's poetry. From 1740 to 1760 English
literature is full of the still music of sentimental melancholy,
with a burden of Dead Marches. In 1740, when only eighteen,
Joseph Warton wrote The Enthusiast; or the Lover of Nature,
a poem in blank verse. It is in the minor key, full of Romantic
feeling, and vibrating with Miltonic echoes. The youth gave
vent to his feelings as follows : —
" Rich in her weeping country's spoils, Versailles
May boast a thousand fountains, that can cast
The tortur'd waters to the distant Heavn's ;
Yet let me choose some pine-topt precipice
Abrupt and shaggy, whence a foamy stream,
Like Arno, tumbling roars ; or some black heath,
Where straggling stands the mournful Juniper,
Or yew-tree scath'd."
1 Dates of his chief publications :
1740. The Enthusiast (written; I think not published till 1744).
1746. Odes.
1749. Ode to Mr. West.
1749-53. Edition of Vergil. <¦
1756. Essay on Pope — second volume in 1 782.
1797. Edition of Pope.
1799. Edition of Dryden.

90 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Again we have touches akin to Rousseau's "back-tr>nature"
sentiment : —
" Happy the first of men, ere yet confin'd
To smoky cities ; who in sheltering groves, •
Warm caves and deep-sunk vallies, liv'd and lov'd,
By cares unwounded."
His comparison of Addison with Shakspere shows the dfifi^nt
feeling of rebellion, which made the Wartons the true leaders
of the Romantic reaction : —
"What are the lays of artful Addison,
Coldly correct, to Shakespear's warblings wild ?
Whom on the winding Avon's willow'd banks
Fair Fancy found, and bore the smiling babe
To a close cavern." *
, The poem concludes with a passionate cry for solitude and
wild nature. Milton and Thomson were Warton's masters in
this poem ; it is a remarkable production for a youth of
eighteen, not only in its intrinsic merit, but in its prophetic
insight of what was coming. The Enthusiast is certainly one
of the most important poems in the Romantic movement.
In December, 1746, Joseph Warton published a thin volume
of Odes. His advertisement has some significant remarks.
He says : " The Public has been so much accustomed of late
to didactic poetry alone, and essays on moral subjects, that
any work where the imagination is much indulged, will perhaps
not be relished or regarded. The author therefore of these
pieces' is in some pain lest certain austere critics should think
them too fanciful or descriptive. But as he is convinced that
the fashion of moralizing in verse has been carried too far, and
(¦ as he looks upon Invention and imagination to be the chief
faculties of a poet, so he will be happy if the following Odes
1 Reminiscent, of course, of Milton's calling Shakspere "Fancy's child" and
"Warble his native wood-notes wild." Observe also the studied alliteration of
this passage from Warton.

THE INFLUENCE OF MILTON. 91
may be looked upon as an attempt to bring back Poetry into
its right channel."
This is a rap over the knuckles for Classicism ; in a crude
and rough way Warton here articulated the Romantic doctrine.
He had believed all this in 1740, and during his whole life he
clung to these views with singular tenacity.
This small volume contained fourteen odes, in various
metres. Some of the subjects will give an idea of the char
acter of the book — Fancy, Liberty, Health, Superstition,.
Evening, The Nightingale, Solitude, etc. The Ode to Fancy
is full of echoes of Milton: — •
" Haste Fancy from the scenes of folly,
To meet the matron Melancholy,
Goddess of the tearful eye,
That loves to fold her arms and sigh ;
Let us with silent footsteps go
To charnels and the house of woe,
To Gothic churches, vaults and tombs
Where each sad night some virgin comes,
With throbbing breast, and faded cheek,
Her promis'd bridegroom's urn to seek."
This is an excellent example of what is meant by the
^"literature of melancholy," and of course its original inspi
ration from 77 Penseroso is indisputable. In the same ode
appears an allusion to Shakspere, where Warton is again
thinking of Milton's expression, " Fancy's child." 1 Milton's
casual remark that Shakspere was the child of Fancy seemed
to produce a profound impression on the Romanticists. '
The Ode to Health, written on his recovery from the small
pox, is noteworthy for the opinion expressed of Milton in the
last stanza : — 1 " O hear our prayer, 0 hither come
From thy lamented Shakespear's tomb,
On which thou lov'st to sit at eve,
Musing o'er thy darling's grave."

92 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
"Where Maro and Musaeus sit
Listening to Milton's loftier song,
With sacred silent wonder smit,
While, monarch of the tuneful throng,
Homer in rapture throws his trumpet down,
And to the Briton gives his amyranthine crown."
Homer, and especially Vergil, doing homage to Milton would
certainly have been a sacrilegious thought to Augustan minds.
For Dryden's famous lines were considered simply as the
hyperbole of complimentary verses.
The Ode to Evening has some passages which instantly
suggest Gray's Elegy. For example : —
" Hail, meek-eyed maiden, clad in sober grey,
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As, homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes,
He jocund whistles thro' the twilight groves."
And another stanza has the line : —
" And with hoarse hummings of unnumber'd flies."
The Ode to Solitude fitly closes this remarkable collection of
poetry. This ode is strictly Romantic in tone, and with the
other thirteen stands as one of the finger-posts of the whole
Romantic movement.
Warton's Ode to West (1749), on the latter's translation of
Pindar, gives, especially in the third stanza, his contemptuous
opinion of Augustan verse.1
What Warton laid down as principles in his prose essays,
he tried to exemplify in his verse, He turned directly away
from Classicism, and drew his inspiration from fresh out-door
nature and from meditative melancholy. Perhaps he is the
first consciously Romantic poet in the eighteenth century. Mr.
Courthope says of Warton's Enthusiast: "It may certainly be
regarded as the starting-point of the romantic revival, as it
expresses all that love of solitude and that yearning for the
1 The stanza begins : " Away, enervate bards, away,
Who spin the courtly, silken lay."

THE INFLUENCE OF MILTON. 93
spirii^of _ a bygone age, which are especially associated with
the genius of the romantic school of poetry." J The poem can
hardly be regarded as the starting-point, as I have shown
in these pages that the spirit of Romanticism had appeared
in some strength earlier than 1740 ; but Warton's peculiar
distinction is that he was a Romanticist with a program.
Thomas Warton (17 28-1 790) was even a more direct
follower of Milton than his older brother. The two men were
from the start avowed Romanticists, both writing Romantic
poetry, and Joseph helping the movement by destructive criti-l
cism of Pope, while Thomas assisted by favorable criticism of
Spenser. T. Warton's poems are so patched with Miltonic •
phrases, that when the quotations are removed scarcely
anything remains. With his intense Romantic feeling it is
singular that he should also have written one long imitation
of Pope — the heavy satire Newmarket (1751). In 1745, while
still a boy, he wrote and in 1747 published The Pleasures of
Melancholy. The title was of course suggested by Akenside's
Pleasures of Imagination, in the wake of which followed
"Pleasures" of all kinds. In composition T. Warton had no
more originality than his brother, but he came out positively
for Romanticism and his Pleasures of Melancholy is really a
companion-piece to the Enthusiast. The influence of Milton
also appears as plainly : —
" Beneath yon ruin'd abbey's moss-grown piles
Oft let me sit, at twilight hour of eve,
Where thro' some western window the pale Moon
Pours her long-levell'd rule of streaming light ;
While sullen sacred silence reigns around,
Save the lone screech-owl's note,2 who builds his bow'r
Amid the mould'ring caverns dark and damp,
Or the calm breeze, that rusties in the leaves
Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green
Invests some wasted tow'r."
1 Pope's Works, Vol. V, page 365.
2 The screech-owl was a stock figure in the " Literature of Melancholy."

94 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
He also compares the artificiality of court life with the
'¦ happiness of romantic solitude.
His ode on the Approach of Summer is a close imitation of
Milton. A specimen will show how freely Warton borrowed : —
" Haste thee, nymph ! and hand in hand,
With thee lead a buxom band ;
Bring fantastic-footed Joy,
With Sport, that yellow-tressed boy."
One of the most strictly Romantic passages in this poem is as
follows : — " Yet still the sultry noon t' appease
Some more romantic scene might please ;
/ Or fairy bank, or magic lawn,
- By Spenser's lavish pencil drawn ;
On that hoar hill's aerial light,
In solemn state, where waving wide,
Thick pines with darkening umbrage hide
The rugged vaults and riven tow'rs
Of that proud castle's painted bow'rs
Whence Hardy Knute, a baron bold,
In Scotland's martial days of old,
Descended from the stately feast,
Begirt with many a warrior guest."
1/ The Rqmanticists particularly delighted in " umbrage " —
thick woods, ruined castle-towers, twilight coloring and all
quietistic landscape scenery.
Two of T. Warton's odes are on distinctly Romantic subjects
— The Crusade and the Grave of King Arthur — published in
1777. They were both in octosyllabics? ~~ His nine sonnets
were all on the Miltonic model, and the three on Stonehenge,
King Arthur's Round Table, and the river Lodon, are full of
the spirit of Romanticism. The very word " romantic " was
a favorite with T. Warton ; he constantly uses it in both poetry
and prose.

THE INFLUENCE OF MILTON. 95
A critical estimate of the poetry of the Warton brothers
would find in it much imitation and little immortality ; but its
historical significance is hard to overestimate. They followed
models, but their models were Romantic and decidedly anti-
Classical. The best lyrical poet of the time was William Collins
(1721-1759). In one sense of the word Collins was thoroughly
classical ; in his verses we find the perfect finish and grace' of
Greek form. In sentiment, however, he was with the young
Romanticists, and was strongly influenced by Milton. It is
going a little too far to say that " his poetry was the first
distinct utterance of the school which uttered in Warton's essay
a public protest against the canons accepted by Pope and his
followers," x but he certainly played a part in the movement.
Like many of the Romanticists, Collins began to write poetry
in early youth ; while a boy at school he published some verses
to a lady.2 In the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1739,
appeared three poems — written by Collins, J. Warton his
school-mate, and a third friend. In January, 1742, appeared
his Persian Eclogues? In this enterprise Collins pretended
to be only a translator. In the Preface he apologized for the
" rich and. figurative " style of the Persians. He also spoke
of their "elegancy and wildness of thought," saying, "our
genius's are . . . much too cold for the entertainment of such /
sentiments." After reading this Preface, one expects to find
verses rather startling ; but the four eclogues are really in no
way remarkable either for literary merit or for Romantic feeling ;
and they are written in the heroic couplet. In December,
1 7 46,* he published a few days after the appearance of J.
Warton's Odes, his Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric
1 Stephen's Dictionary of National Biography.
2 Gentleman's Magazine, January, 1739.
» Afterward (edition 1757) called Oriental Eclogues.
* First edition is dated 1747; but it was really published in December, 1746.
Gray's letter on the odes of Warton and Collins is very interesting. (See his Works,
ed. Gosse, II, page 160.)

96 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Subjects. The two friends had intended to publish their Odes
together in one volume, but curiously enough Dodsley wouldn't
take Collins's verses ; and still more curiously, the immediate
result seemed to prove Dodsley's judgment entirely correct;
for Warton's book was successful, while Collins's attracted
very little attention.1 This little, neglected volume contained
twelve odes, among them some pieces which are to-day known
everywhere. Collins was a great admirer of Shakspere and
Spenser, and though his love for Milton was not so strongly
avowed, it appears in his great fondness for personified
abstractions, and in occasional phrases.2 His beautiful Ode
to Evening is wholly Romantic in mood, and the last part of
his Ode on the Poetical Character has the Romantic flavor. His
Ode on the Death of Thomson (June, 1749) showed a true
appreciation of the poet of nature. His Ode to Simplicity
(1746) is in the form which Milton used for his Christmas
hymn. The most significant poem of Collins — his Ode on the
Scottish Superstitions — will be considered later in another
connection. Collins was steadily gravitating in the direction
of Romanticism, and had his health lasted, he might have
played an important part in the movement. Judging by
actual results, he does not count for anything like so much
in the history of Romanticism as the Warton brothers, although
his poetry is immeasurably superior in literary excellence.
The poetry of Gray demands a separate chapter; he was
influenced, more perhaps than he himself thought, by Milton.
His Elegy was the culmination of the literature of melancholy,
as well as of the Church-yard school. In its pensive mood and
love of twilight it is in the regular 77 Penseroso vein ; in its
meditation on death and the grave, it belongs more properly
to the school of Blair and Young.
1 J. Warton was really one of the first men to recognize Collins's lyrical power.
(See his Essay on Pope, Vol. I, page 69.)
2 Such as in the OdeHo Liberty :
" Play with the tangles of her hair."

THE INFLUENCE OF MILTON. 97
It is rather difficult to classify the poet William Mason
(1725-1797), except to say that he was first, last, and all the
time an imitator. Mason's character, while not vicious, is
repelling because of his enormous conceit. It seems strange
that a man of his offensiveness should have been so long the
intimate friend of gentlemen so fastidious as Gray and Walpole.
Gray treated Mason like an affectionate hound, and after Gray's
death Walpole seems to have continued friendly to Mason
simply because of the opportunities it gave him to folk about
Gray. Walpole's constant affection and reverence for Gray's
memory are exceedingly beautiful. Gray corresponded con
siderably with Mason, but one feels that both men were
conscious of the former's intellectual superiority. Gray shows
it by a mild contempt only half concealed ; and Mason shows
it in his usual fawning style. No man ever came into close
contact with Gray without being impressed by the loftiness of
his character and his strong intellectuality-; but Mason, while
giving the first rank to the Cambridge recluse, undoubtedly felt
that with this one exception he himself was the poet of the age.
His connection with Gray, and the fact that he edited Gray's
literary remains have kept Mason alive ; his poetry is not alto
gether without merit, but it "smells of mortality." Lowell said
that Gray and Mason together could not make the latter a poet.
Mason's Musaeus (1747), a poem in imitation of Milton's
Lycidas, has been already alluded to ; Milton speaks in this
poem in blank verse, although Milton bewailing the death of
Pope is not very easy to imagine, either from the literary or .
theological point of view. Mason's sonnets also show Milton's
influence ; intrinsically they are of little value. His II Pacifico
and II Bellicoso L were perhaps as direct imitations of Milton's
juvenile poetry as the whole movement produced ; though
there were so many minor versifiers that it is dangerous to
¦ 1 II Bellicoso and II Pacifico were written a year or two before 1747; the latter was
first published in 1748, on the conclusion of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.

98 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
make sweeping statements.1 Mason dabbled to some extent in
Romanticism, especially after he came under Gray's influence.
He wrote two tragedies, Elfrida (175 1) and Caractacus (1759).
These are on the model of the ancient Greek drama, and
though they contain some fine passages, they lack vitality.
In some letters published with Elfrida Mason gave his theories
of dramatic art. They can hardly be called Romantic, as he
stoutly upholds the Unities and insists on the retention of the
Chorus. • He was willing, however, to modify the severity of
Greek taste so far as concerned subject-matter, and pleaded
for the introduction of bits of nature-description. He said :
" I meant only to pursue the antient method, so far as it is
probable a Greek poet, were he alive, would now do, in order
to adapt himself to the genius of our times, and the character
of our Tragedy. . . . for the sake of natural embellishment,
and to reconcile mere modern readers to that simplicity of
fable, in which I thought it necessary to copy the Antients,
I contrived to lay the scene in an old romantic forest." 2
The subject-matter of Mason's dramas, with all their iciness
of treatment, is really Romantic. Caractacus is a story of
Druid times, in which Druids play an important part ; the
£cene is laid in Mona. The virtuous maiden and brave
youthful hero are, of course, sufficiently prominent ; but there
are some passages that may be called strictly Romantic. They
show Gray's influence. Thus : —
" Mona on Snowdon calls :
Hear, thou King of mountains, hear ;
Hark, she speaks from all her strings ;
Hark, her loudest echo rings ;
King of mountains, bend thine ear ;
Send thy spirits, send them soon,
Now, when Midnight and the Moon
Meet upon thy front of snow ;
*****
1 For example, another imitation equally close was V Amoroso, by the " Rev. Mr. P."
See Bell's Fugitive Poetry, Vol. XI.
2 Letter I.; in his Works (1764).

THE INFLUENCE OF MILTON. 99
Snowdon has heard the strain ;
Hark, amid the wond'ring grove
Other harpings answer clear,
Other voices meet our ear,
*****
Rustling vestments brush the ground ;
Round, and round, and round they go,
Thro' the twilight, thro' the shade,
Mount the oak's majestic head,
And gild the tufted mistletoe." x
Mason also translated from P. H. Mallet a " Runic " poem,
thus touching Romanticism on the side where Gray and Percy
were chiefly interested. Mason was often coupled with Gray
by contemporary critics, and the alleged obscurity of their odes
was freely satirized.
Among the imitators of Milton, only a few names have been
mentioned ; the subject is too vague and elusive to warrant a
rehearsal of the long list of poetasters who show his influence.
Many of the Spenserians greatly admired Milton, and imitated
him along with the Elizabethan poet.
Vibrating with the literature of melancholy, which was so I
distinct a note in Romanticism, there was a still deeper under- /
tone in the poetry of the grave-yard, and in long reflective/
verses on death and immortality. This strange growth will\
receive only a passing notice. It was not exactly Romantic,
though akin to the Romantic feeling, and was certainly .reac;
tionary to the Augustan spirit, which strove to taboo both the
jshaZow^f the grave" and fhe mystery of . the . future. This
tolTing^Bell" in literature seemed to the new school to give a
"pleasing gloom," and had perhaps its most conspicuous
example in Young, who stimulated his fancy by composing
under the light of a candle stuck in a skull. All this move
ment was more preparatory to Romanticism than actually a
part of it. The tones of despair, the odor of the charnel-house,
1 Works, page 196.

100 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
the world-old meditation on the shortness of life and the cer
tainty of death — the new emphasis laid on all this evidently
contained seeds of the Romantic movement. The Church-yard
school began with Parnell's Night-Piece on Death, in the early
years of the century. Blair's Grave (1743) and Young's Night
Thoughts (1742-45) and Gray's Elegy (1751) were the principal
contributions to permanent literature that the school produced.
Blair and Young, apart from their versification, touch Romanti
cism only on this side — the joy of gloom, the fondness for
bathing one's temples in the dank night air and the musical
delight of the screech-owl's shriek. Mr. Perry says Young
had much of the " crude ore of Romanticism," and Mr. Gosse
speaks of his " note of romantic despair." 1
The elegiac quatrain, a form of versification naturally suited
to the literature of melancholy, became very popular about the
middle of the century. Shenstone was very fond of the elegy,
and wrote an interesting essay on the subject, in which he
spoke of the aim of poetry, discussed different styles of versifi
cation, etc. Shenstone himself composed a large number of
elegies, but in Gray's celebrated poem the elegy rose to its
highest perfection. Gray made it exceedingly fashionable, and
swarms of imitations of his church-yard poem poured from the
press.2 Its influence was felt immediately, not only in England,
but all over Europe. Mr. Gosse says, " the Elegy has exer
cised an influence on all the poetry of Europe, from Denmark
to Italy, from France to Russia. With the exception of certain
1 These four lines in Night Thoughts may have suggested to Goldsmith an idea
for his famous passage in The Deserted Village: —
" As some tall tow'r, or lofty mountain's brow,
Detains the sun, illustrious from its height ;
While rising vapours and descending shades
With damps, and darkness, drown the spacious vale."
2 Gray's Elegy was published February 16, 17-51, and went through four editions in
two months. Then came editions in rapid succession, eleven in all. It was once more
printed in 1753, and in that form had a second edition. It also appeared in Dodsley's
Miscellany, and was largely pirated.

THE INFLUENCE OF MILTON. 101
works of Byron and Shakespeare, no English poem has been
so widely admired and imitated abroad." 1
The churcj^^d^ihpjjHasted for many years. The aspirants
for prizes in the universities chose as subjects "Death," "The
Grave," "Immortality," etc.2 Even as late as 1787, Mason
wrote an elegy, In a Church-yard in South Wales.
The literature of melancholy must certainly be considered
anjrngortant factor in the beginnings of Romanticism. In its
subjective tone, in its vague aspiration, fondness for solitude
and gloomy meditation, it was quite different from the tone
of Augustan literature ; and its master was none other than
Milton. 1 Life of Gray, page 97.
2 For example, Porteus's prize poem in 1759 : Death ; a Poetical Essay.

CHAPTER VI.
REVIVAL OF THE PAST. — GOTHICISM AND
CHIVALRY.
I shall give only the briefest notice of the revival of Gothic
tastes and of the renewed interest in Chivalry. It is well
known that in the course of the eighteenth century public taste
in these matters suffered a complete revolution ; for in the last
decade Gothicism and Chivalry were as popular as they had
been unpopular during the reign of Pope. I propose in this
chapter to point out the evidences of the transition — to trace
the beginnings of the new fashion. It is to this part of
the development of Romanticism that Walter Scott belongs,
and of which he was perhaps the culmination. We may
conveniently call this the objective side of the movement, as
distinguished from the subjective, which advanced parallel with
it. The former pertains to the subject-matter ; the latter to
the mood of the author, as we say that Scott was Romantic
because of his subjects and Byron because of his sentimental
mood. Both aspects are equally important in English Roman
ticism, but the objective side reached its fullest development
later. For the present we are thus concerned only with signs
of the revival of interest in what was " Gothic " — as it affected
architecture, literature, and the study of the military aspect of
mediaeval life.
Everyone knows how low the word " Gothic " had sunk in
the Augustan age. In the pages of Addison and Pope, the
term " Gothic " was, of course, one of reproach and contempt,
whether applied to architecture or to poetry. It was not until
after 1750 that Gothicism showed any signs of coming again
into favor. " If in the history of British art," says Eastlake,

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 103
" there is one period more distinguished than another for its
neglect of Gothic, it was certainly the middle of the eighteenth
century." But "an author . . . appeared to whose writings
and to whose influence as an admirer of Got.hic art we believe
may be ascribed one of the chief causes which induced its
present revival." Of course Eastlake refers to Horace Wal
pole (1717-1797). "It is impossible to peruse either the
letters or the romances of this remarkable man without being
struck by the unmistakable evidence which they contain of his
iMedweval^ predilections. . The position which he occupies
with regard to art resembles in many respects that in which he
stands as a man of letters. His labours were not' profound in
either field. But their result was presented to the public in a
form which gained him rapid popularity both as an author and
a dilettante. As a collector of curiosities he was probably
influenced more by a love of old world associations than by
any sound appreciation of artistic design." x
These words are a sufficiently accurate and concise descrip
tion of Walpole's influence on the Gothic revival. Walpole
was not a sincere and philosophical Romanticist, nor did he
ever claim to be such. He was a gentleman who dabbled in
art and literature and took up Gothicism as a new fad ; his
Romanticism was largely due to the powerful influence of his j
friend Gray. But without any conscious attempt at revolu
tionary leadership, his influence on the Romantic movement
was undoubtedly great. He made himself felt in two ways.
1. He made Gothicism fashionable by his home and collec
tions at Strawberry Hill,
2. His Castle of Otranto was the pioneer pf a long succession
of Gothic romances.
Walpole's .taste for the picturesque appears as early as
Gray's, though his appreciation was not so keen nor his
emotion so deep. Walpole as well as Gray described the
Grande Chartreuse excursion. " But the road, West, the road !
1 History of the Gothic Revival, page 42 et sea.

104 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
winding round a prodigious mountain, and surrounded with
others, all shagged with hanging woods, obscured with pines,
or lost in clouds ! Below, a torrent breaking through cliffs,
and tumbling through fragments of rocks ! Sheets of cascades
forcing their silver speed down channelled precipices, and
hasting into the roughened river at the bottom ! Now and
then an old foot-bridge, with a broken rail, a leaning cross, a
cottage, or the ruin of an hermitage ! This sounds too bombast
and too romantic to one that has not seen it, too cold for one
that has." '
It was about 1750 that Walpole began to erect the building
afterward so famous as Strawberry Hill. He wrote to Sir
Horace Mann, January 10, 1750, "I am going to build a little
'gothic castle at Strawberry Hill." After this date his letters
contain many references to the " castle " and to " gothic " things
in general. In another letter to Mann, February 25, 1750,
he explained and defended his tastes. " I shall speak much
more gently to you, my dear child, though you don't like Gothic
architecture. The Grecian is only proper for magnificent and
public buildings. 'Cbkftnns and all their beautiful ornaments,
look ridiculous when crowded ifi'to' a closet or a cheese-cake
house. The variety is little, and admits no charming irregu
larities. I am almost as fond of the Sharawaggi, or Chinese
want of symmetry, in buildings, as in grounds or gardens. I
am sure, whenever you come to England, you will be pleased
with the liberty of taste into which we are struck, and of
which you can have no idea ! " The public taste in buildings
and in laying out grounds had indeed changed ; and the
change was symptomatic of the whole Romantic movement.
English gardens about this time were relieved of the artificial,
regularly cut paths and hedges, and were made more and more
to take on the appearance of wild nature.
If some middle-class wealthy Englishman had for his own
amusement built such a Gothic castle as the one called
1 Letter to Richard West, September 30, 1 739.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 105
Strawberry Hill, he would probably have been greeted only
with ridicule. But when Horace Walpole, the glass of, fashion
and the mould of form, drew attention to his new-fangled
architecture, he carried London society with him. The fame
of Strawberry Hill and its curiosities grew apace ; and though
the real similarity of the building to Gothic architecture would
to-day count for nothing, its effect in re-awakening the study
and love of Gothicism counted for much in the middle of the
eighteenth century. The impulse that Walpole gave to the
Gothic revival on its architectural side was probably greater
than that of any other man. Professor Beers remarks that
mediaeval architecture had a decided advantage in England
over other forms of mediaeval art ; for the latter were known
only to a few scholars, whereas the architecture was known
to all in such buildings as the Tower of London, Westminster
Abbey, Lichfield and Salisbury Cathedrals, and other places.
By calling public attention to mediaeval buildings that were
in advanced stages of decay, Walpole preserved them from
complete destruction. Before this time people had not thought
them worthy of especial admiration. They were used for all
sorts of ignominious purposes.
The craze for Gothic architecture that followed the " ginger
bread " castle at Strawberry Hill had a strong side-influence
on the revival of the Romantic spirit in literature. Architecture
and literature are intimately connected, there being something
of the same difference between Greek and Gothic architecture
that exists between Classic and Romantic poetry. In fact, it
was Walpole's taste in architecture that led directly to his
second great service to the Romantic movement, his Castle of
Otranto. His own literary taste was not Romantic, as will
presently appear ; the same whim that created Strawberry Hill
gave birth to his Gothic romance.
Walpole had not the slightest idea of revolutionizing public
literary taste by the Castle of Otranto. His well-known
description of the origin of this book is given in two letters

106 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
to the Rev. W. Cole. Writing February 28, 1765, he says,
"Though we love the same ages, you must excuse worldly
me forjjreferring the romantic scenes of antiquity. If you
will tell me how to send it, and are partial enough to me to
read a profane work in the style of former centuries, I shall
convey to you a little story-book, which I published some
time ago, though not boldly with my own name ; but it has
succeeded so well, that I do not any longer entirely keep the
secret. Does the title, 'The Castle of Otranto,' tempt you?"
Again, writing March 9, 1765 : — "Your partiality to me and
Strawberry have, I hope, inclined you to excuse the wildness
of the story. . . . Shall I ever confess to you, what was the
origin of this romance ? I waked one morning, in the beginning
of last June, from a dream, of which all I could recover was,
that I had thought myself in an ancient castle (a very natural
dream for a head like mine filled with Gothic story) and that
on the uppermost bannister of a great staircase I saw a
gigantic hand in armour. In the evening I sat down, and
began to write, without knowing in the least what I intended
to say or relate. The work grew on my hands, and I grew
fond of it. . . . In short, I was . . . engrossed with my tale,
which I completed in less than two months."
It was in June, 1764, that Walpole began his story, and he
completed it August 6. It was published December 24 of the
same year. In the preface he gave a fictitious account -of the
romance, saying that he had found the work in the library of
an ancient Catholic family in the North of England. " It was
printed at Naples, in the black letter, in the year 1529. . . .
Some apology for it is necessary. Miracles, visions, necro
mancy, dreams, and other preternatural events, are exploded
now, even from romances. That was not the case when our
author wrote. . . . Belief in every kind of prodigy was . . .
established in those dark ages."
In the preface to the second edition Walpole begged the
public's pardon for pretending that the book was a translation.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 107
"It was an attempt," he said, "to blend the two kinds of
romance, the ancient and the modern. In the former, all was
imagination and improbability ; in the latter, nature is always
intended to be, and sometimes has been, copied with success.
Invention has not been wanting; but the great resources af
fancy have been dammed up, by a strict adherence to common
life." The remainder of the preface is occupied with a defense
of Shakspere, who had been attacked by Voltaire for mingling
the comic with the tragic in his plays.
Walpole had misgivings about the "wildness " of the story,
and rather expected an outburst of critical denunciation.
Writing to M. Elie de Beaumont, March 18, 1765, he said,
" How will you be surprised to find a narrative of the most
improbable and absurd adventures ! How will you be amazed
to hear that a country of whose good sense you have an opinion
should have applauded so wild a tale ! But you* must remem
ber, Sir, that whatever good sense we have, we are not yet in
any light chained down to precepts and inviolable laws. All
that Aristotle or hte superior commentators, your authors, have
taught us, has not yet subdued us to regularity ; we still prefer
the extravagant beauties of Shakspeare and Milton to the
cold and well-disciplined merit of Addison and even to the
sober and correct march of Pope." It must be remembered
that in this passage Walpole is describing the taste of the
English people rather than his own preferences ; and his
remarks show that the new critical school in England, repre
sented by the Wartons, Young, and others, was making itself
deeply felt.
Walpole was surprised at the success of the Castle of Otranto.
The whole impression was sold in less than three months.
Writing to the Earl of Hertford, March 26, 1765, he says,
" The success . . . has, at last, brought me to own it,
though the wildness of it made me terribly afraid ; but it
was comfortable to have it please so much, before any
mortal suspected the author ; indeed, it met with too much

108 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
honour far, for at first it was universally believed to be Mr.
Gray's." Mason had been completely duped by Walpole's first preface,
and said that no man of the time had "imagination enough to
iprent such a story." Even Gray liked it, his Romanticism
getting the better of his critical faculty. He wrote to Walpole,
December 30, 1764, "It engages our attention here, makes
some of us cry a little, and all in general afraid to go to bed
0' nights." Walpole had shown his manuscript to Gray, and
the latter had recommended publication.
To-day it is impossible for us to take the Castle of Otranto
seriously; to us it is ridiculous and bathetic.1 But in 1764 it
was a kind of revelation, and its immense popularity shows
how hungrily the people devoured Romantic food. It was the
pioneer of all the wild tales of blood and ghosts that followed
its appearance, and thus, in some sense, it was an epoch-
making book. Clara Reeve's Old English Baron professedly
imitated in its general manner Walpole's story, and the works of
Mrs. Radcliffe (1764-1823) are in the direct line of succession.
The modern romances of chivalry, however, cannot be
truthfully said to have originated with Walpole, although his
book gave the movement its greatest impetus. In 1762 was
published Longsword ; an Historical Romance. The title-page
omits the writer's name, but the real author was the Rev.
Thomas Leland, D.D. (1722-1785). He was a learned divine,
born in Dublin, who afterwards achieved fame in the Ossianic
controversy. Longsword, though never read nowadays, has
1 The scene from the story which is always selected for especial ridicule is where
"three drops of blood fell from the nose of Alfonso's statue" (Chapter IV.). But
this idea did not originate with Walpole ; it seems to have been regarded as simply
an evil omen, and did not appear then in a ludicrous light. In Dryden's play
Amboyna (1673), Act IV, Scene I, I ran across the following passage, and doubtless
much earlier allusions can be found in ballads : —
" Something within me does forbode me ill ;
I stumbled when I enter'd first this Wood ;
My Nostrils bled three Drops ; then stop'd the Blood,
And not one more wou'd follow."

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 109
deep significance, for it points directly to Scott. In the
Advertisement the author said : "The outlines of the following
story, and some of the incidents and more minute circum
stances, are to be found in the antient English historians."
That is, Leland took his plot after the fashion of the Eliza
bethan playwrights. The7brave_.yguth and aggressively_yirtuous
maiden figure conspicuously in this book, as they did in Walpole
and in the later romances. One quotation will suffice to show
the style of Longsword : — "A youth who seemed just rising to
manhood, of graceful form, tall of stature, and with limbs of
perfect shape, lay sorely wounded upon the ground, languid,
pale, and bloody. Over him hung one in the habit of a page,
younger, and still more exquisitely beautiful, piercing the air
with lamentations, and eagerly employed in binding up the
wounds of the fallen •youth, with locks of comely auburn, torn
from a fair though dishevelled head." x No more of this, for
Goddes dignite !
Longsword is tedious to read, but interesting on account of
its early date — two years before the Castle of Otranto. The
two stories have some points of resemblance, although one is
a historical and the other a Gothic romance. But Longsword
is more of a forerunner of Scott than the other ; it is a romance
of the days of Henry III. and is crammed full of the adventures
of chivalry. It is also worth notice that the primary object of
Longsword was not to instruct, but to amuse.2 Clara Reeve
(1738-1803), in her Progress of Romance (1785), has in one of
the dialogues the following interesting reference to Longsword?
Euphanasia mentions the name of the story, and Hortensius
asks: "How is that, a Romance in the 18th century?"
Euph. " Yes, a Romance in reality and not a Novel. —
A story like those of the middle ages, composed of Chivalry,
Love, and Religion." They then proceed to discuss the book,
Euphanasia remarking : " This work is distinguished in my
1 Vol. I, page 102. (First edition.) 2 See the Advertisement.
3 Vol. II, page 31.

110 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
list, among Novels uncommon and Original." Sophronia
erroneously gives Longsword' s date of publication as 1766
instead of 1762.
Although Horace Walpole did so, much for Romanticism,
his own literary taste was not Romantic — in fact it was not
good. His intense admiration for Gray's Odes may be largely
accounted for by his personal attachment to their author, and
by the fact that the Odes was the first publication from his
own press at Strawberry Hill. Gray's later and more purely
Romantic work was disliked and not appreciated by Walpole.
In a letter to George Montagu, March 12, 1768, he said:
" Gray has added to his poems three ancient odes from
Norway and Wales. The subjects of the two first are grand
and picturesque, and there is his genuine vein in them ; but
they are not interesting, and do not, like his other poems,
touch any passion. . . . Who can care through what horrors
a Runic savage arrived at all the joys and glories they (sic)
could conceive, the supreme felicity of boozing ale out Qf the
skull of an enemy in Odin's hall?" Walpole also took little
interest in Paul Henri Mallet's epoch-making Histoire de
Dannemarck. In a letter to Montagu, February 19, 1765,
he said : " I cannot say he has the art of making a very
tiresome subject agreeable. There are six volumes and I am
stuck fast in the fourth." Nor was Walpole much impressed
by Ossian. At first he seemed to think the poems genuine,
but he very soon changed his mind, and had no language
strong enough to express his contempt for Macpherson and
his writings — the one subject on which Johnson and Walpole
agreed. He said : " It tires me to death to read how many
ways a warrior is like the moon, or the sun, or a rock, or a
•lion, or the ocean." Again, Walpole constantly made fun
of T. Warton's History of English Poetry. Writing to Mason,
March 9, 1781, he said: "Mr. Warton thinks Prior spoiled
his original in his imitation of 'Henry and Emma.' Mercy
on us ! what shall we come to in these halcyon days ? "

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. Ill
Walpole was at heart very much of an Augustan ; his
Romanticism was mainly a taste for novelties. To the last
his favorite poet was apparently Pope. His letters contain
many references to Thomson, of whom he spoke with the
utmost contempt ; and the significance of Thomson's Spen
serian and nature poetry Walpole never seemed to feel. Of
course, this contemptuous attitude was partly owing to the
regular position which gentlemen took toward professional
men of letters ; of most contemporary authors he spoke with
ridicule and disgust, crying out in 1746, "Pope and poetry
are dead ! " Nor did he spare Spenser and Shakspere.
March 9, 1765, he wrote to Cole, "I am almost afraid I
must go and read Spenser, and wade through his allegories,
and drawling stanzas." He said of A Midsummer Nights
Dream, that it was "forty times more nonsensical than the
worst translation of any Italian opera-books."
All this, of course, furnishes still more evidence to one of
the main propositions I have endeavored to establish — the
unconsciousness of the English Romantic movement. Sorne
of the men who did the most for Romanticism were really
opposed to it in spirit.
Along with the revival of Gothicism in literature and art,
came the revival of the love and study of Chivalry — indeed
they were both parts of the same movement. Thomas Warton,
in his Observations on the Faery Queen (1754), made a strong
plea for the study of chivalry. He said that if the reader
wished to understand Spenser, he must go back in imagination
to the age in which Spenser lived. " For want of this caution,
too many readers view the Knights and damsels, the tourna- 1
ments and enchantments, of Spenser, with modem eyes ; never!
considering that the encounters of chivalry subsisted in our
author's age ; that romances were then most eagerly read
and studied ; and tliat consequently Spenser, from the
fashion of the times, was induced to undertake a recital of
chivalrous achievements, and to become, in short, a romantic

112 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
poet." x He closed his Observations with a defense of chivalry
and a plea for more study of mediaeval romances and mediaeval
life. In 1762 appeared a very important work, Letters on Chivalry
and Romance, by Bishop Richard Hurd (1720-1808). These
letters were meant to be supplementary to III. and IV.
of his Moral and Political Dialogues, published some years
before. These two dialogues were headed On the Age of Queen
Elizabeth, in which Mr. Digby, Dr. Arbuthnot and Addison
were the speakers. Hurd took a bold position in the Dialogues,
but he went still further in the Letters. He discussed the
origin of chivalry, compared Heroic and Gothic manners, and
declared the latter more poetical ; he showed their effect on
Spenser and Milton, criticised the Fairy Queen and Tasso's
epic, and finally traced the decline of Gothic poetry.
I Hurd shows on every page the influence of the Warton
brothers, but he took a much bolder and more confident
position than either of them had dared to assume. Between
1756 and 1762 Romanticism had made rapid progress. Hurd's
purpose was to vindicate Gothic manners and to show that
they were superior to the Heroic as subjects for poetry. In
his first Letter he said, " May there not be something in the
Gothic Romance peculiarly suited to the views of a genius,
and to the ends of poetry? And may not the philosophic
moderns have gone too far in their perpetual ridicule and
contempt of it? "
The word " Romantic " like the word " Gothic " was appreci
ating in value by being restored to something resembling its
proper use. In Letter III. Hurd says, "feudal service soon
introduced what may be truly called ivmantic, the going in quest
of adventures." In Letter VL Hurd spoke of Gothicism in a
way that must have dumbfounded many of his contemporaries.
He said, " So far as the heroic and Gothic manners are the
same, the pictures of each, if well taken, must be equally
1 Vol. II, page 71 (1807).

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 113
entertaining. But I go further, and maintain that the circum
stances, in which they differ, are clearly to the advantage of the
Gothic designers." He adds that if Homer had seen feudal
manners, he would certainly have preferred them. " And the
grounds of this preference would, I suppose, have been, the
improved gallantry of the Gothic Knights; and the superior
solemnity of their superstitions." l
Not satisfied with this, Hurd proceeded to do something that
to the Augustan would have seemed blasphemous; he called the
Grecian manners barbarous, saying that Gothicism furnished
the poet "with finer scenes and subjects . . . than the simple'
and uncontrolled barbarity of the Grecian. . . . For the
more solemn fancies of witchcraft and incantation, the Gothic
(popular tales) are above measure striking and terrible."
The conclusion of Letter VI. is worth quoting. It shows
how swiftly Romanticism was advancing. " We are upon en
chanted ground, my friend ; and you are to think yourself well
used, that I detain you no longer in this fearful circle. The
glympse, you have had of it, will help your imagination to con
ceive the rest. And without more words you will readily
apprehend that the fancies of our modern bards are not only
more gallant, but, on a change of the scene, more sublime,
more terrible, more alarming, than those of the classic fables.
In a word, you will find that the manners they paint, and the
superstitions they adopt, are the more poetical for being Gothic."
Hurd claimed Spenser and Milton as witnesses on his side
' of the case of Gothicism versus Classicism, saying that Milton
took the Classic model instead of the Gothic only after " long
hesitation ; his favorite subject was Arthur and his Knights of
the Round Table." It is always an interesting occupation for
the imagination to speculate on the style and character of the
great Romantic poem which Milton had in mind, but which he
finally abandoned. He might have created the greatest piece
of Romantic literature in the English language.
1 Italics always his own.

•y
/

114 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Hurd's discussion of the " Follow Nature " maxim, given in
Letter X., is suggestive. " But the source of bad criticism, as
universally of bad philosophy, is the abuse of terms. A poet,
they say, must follow nature; and by nature we are to suppose
can only.be meant the known and experienced course of affairs
in this world. Whereas the poet has a world of his own,
where experience has less to do, than consistent imagination.
He has, besides, a supernatural world to range in. He has
Gods, and Fairies, and Witches, at his command. ... In
the poet's world, all is marvellous and extraordinary ; yet not
unnatural in one sense, as it agrees to the conceptions that
are readily entertained of these magical and wonder-working
natures. This trite maxim of following nature is further mis
taken, in applying it indiscriminately to all sorts of poetry."
He then proceeds to compare the poetry of men and manners
with the poetry that is " sublime and creative."
In this eminently sane discussion of two schools of poetry,
Hurd was following directly in the path marked out by Joseph
Warton in his Essay on Pope (1756). The peculiarly interesting
thing about Hurd's tone is its contrast to the tone of criticism
to-day. Hurd freely acknowledged the claim of the "follow
nature " poetry ; he simply wished to get a hearing for imagi
native and Romantic poetry — in short, to persuade the public
that such work might truthfully claim to be legitimate poetry.
He succeeded so well that to-day the whole attitude of criticism
is exactly reversed. Every one acknowledges imaginative and
Romantic poetry, and stray critics like Mr. Courthope have to"
work harder than Hurd labored for his cause to persuade their
generation that the poetry of men and manners is poetry at all.
Hurd was not particularly hopeful about the future of Ro
manticism. He had no conception of the far-reaching effect
of his own work. His last Letter discussed the decline of
Gothic poetry, and the revolution brought about during the
Augustan age. He sadly remarked, " What we have gotten by
this revolution, you will say, is a great deal of good sense.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 115
What we have lost, is a world of fine fabling." He did not
perceive with what gigantic strides the counter-revolution was
about to move.
We must regard Hurd as a strong influence, (i) He was a
follower of the Warton school of criticism, and spoke much
more boldly and decisively than Warton for Romantic tastes.
(2) Besides helping in the general movement, he joined the
Wartons in dethroning Pope by exalting the imaginative poets. '
(3) He came just at the time to accelerate the speed of the
Romantic movement. Hurd's learning and authoritative posi
tion counted for much ; and the emphasis with which he spoke
is remarkable, coming so early as 1762. The critical judg
ments on poetry made by Matthew Arnold are really a simple
re-statement of what Joseph Warton and Hurd laid down a
hundred years before.
From this time everything with a Gothic flavor rose rapidly
in public esteem. The love of chivalry and the revival of
Gothic architecture on the one hand, and the tremendous
impetus which Percy gave to ballad literature on the other,
formed two streams that flowed with increasing size and speed
until they finally united in Walter Scott.

CHAPTER VII.
REVIVAL OF THE PAST — BALLAD LITERATURE
AND PERCY.
It was natural enough that the old English ballads should
not have been appreciated in the Augustan age. There can
hardly be a greater contrast in style and sentiment than that
between the freshness, spontaneity and wild music of the old
songs of love and war, and the polished, artificial, monotonous
strains of the Queen Anne didactic and satirical poetry. We
shall find a few exceptions to the general taste ; but the
common attitude toward ballads was one of contempt or idle
curiosity. Self-satisfied Augustan eyes looked upon them as
barbarous — good enough, indeed, for the childhood of English
literature, but not worth the serious attention of men who had
learned the true art of poetry from Waller. With the exception
of Garlands, no real collection of ballads appeared in the
century till the year 1723. For years ballads had been
neglected and scattered about the country in loose sheets, many
of them serving for mural decorations, or stopping holes to
expel the winter's flaw. In the seventeenth century, antiquarian
scholars like Selden and Pepys began to make collections of
this fugitive literature, regarding them of course in the light
of curiosities, rather than as having any intrinsic literary
value. Among the Augustans, in spite of the general feeling, there
was an occasional good word spoken for the old English
ballads. In two numbers of the Spectator, May 2 1 and May
25, 171 1, Addison wrote his critique of the ballad of Chevy-
Chase} The tone of Addison's criticism is somewhat suggestive;
1 Spectator, Nos. 70 and 74.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 117
he evidently appreciated the ballad, and at the same time was
timid in avowing his taste, for he constantly quoted Vergil.
He said that travelling had stimulated him to ballad-collecting,
and then in deference to the "greatest modern critics," who
contended that " an heroic poem should be founded upon some
important precept of morality," he labored to prove that this
requirement was satisfied in Chevy-Chase.
Addison also thought it necessary to apologize for the
simplicity of the ballad. " I must only caution the reader not
to let the simplicity of the style, which one may well pardon
in so old a poet, prejudice him against the greatness of the
thought." x He also remarked, " I shall . . . show that the
sentiments in that ballad are extremely natural and poetical,
and full of the majestic simplicity which we admire in the
greatest of the ancient poets." 2 In conclusion, he spoke of
the newness of the subject for his treatment and of the necessity
for supporting his opinion by the authority of Vergil. " I shall
only beg pardon for such a profusion of Latin quotations ;
which I should not have made use of, but that I feared my
own judgment would have looked too singular on such a
subject, had not I supported it by the practice and authority
of Virgil." 3 This comparison of Chevy-Chase with Vergil is
akin to Prior's attempt to serve two masters — Horace and
Spenser. We find a secret love of the old English poetry, but
public opinion demanded that everything should be tried by
Classic models.
In the Spectator for June 7, 17 11, 4 Addison spoke appreci
atively of the ballad of Two Children in the Wood, saying it
gave him "most exquisite pleasure." He also went a little
further in the defense of ballads in general, saying that Lord
Dorset and the poet Dryden had collections of ballads, and
were fond of reading them, and that he knew that "several
of the most refined writers of our present age " were " of the
same humour."
1 No. 70. 2 No. 74. s No. 74. 4 No. 85.

118 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Addison's ballad reviews, of course, attracted some attention,
and in a small way contributed to the ballad revival ; x but
they produced no revolution in the public taste, nor did
Addison ever intend that they should.2
Another Augustan writer did something for the ballad,
revival — Nicholas Rowe, the dramatist (1673-1718). In
1 7 14 appeared The Tragedy of Jane Shore. Written in Imi
tation of Shakespear's Style. It is the prologue that is
especially significant. He came out rather boldly for old
English : —
" Tonight, if you have brought your good old Taste,
We'll treat you with a downright English feast.
A Tale, which told long since in homely wise,
Have never fail'd of melting gentle Eyes.
Let no nice Sir despise our hapless Dame,
Because recording ballads chaunt her name ;
Those venerable ancient song-enditers
Soar'd many a pitch above our modern writers ;
They caterwaul'd in no romantick ditty,
Sighing for Phillis's, or Chloe's pity."
This use of the word romantick is striking. The old ballads
are just what we should call Romantic, but Rowe's use of the
word shows how different and degraded a meaning it had
among the Augustans. This Prologue must have required
considerable courage on Rowe's part, as its tone was so
exactly contrary to public taste.
As is well known, the poet Prior "versified" the ballad of
the Not-Browne Mayde into the heroic couplet, under the title
oi Henry and Emma (1718). Prior undoubtedly thought that
he had transformed the old ballad into real poetry, and the age
thought so too. Still, his poem called attention to this fine
piece of old literature, and in that way perhaps rendered some
1 They certainly had some influence on the editor of the Collection of Old
Ballads (1723).
2 Dr. Johnson ridiculed all these ballad-praises in the Rambler, No. 177.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 119
service to the movement. He published the ballad itself along
with his own version.1
In a chronological list of the collections of ballads and songs
published between 1700 and 1765, the first work to deserve
notice would be A Choise Collection of Comic and Serious Scots
Poems, both Ancient and Modern. By Several Hands. Printed
by James Watson. This was published at Edinburgh in three
volumes, the first part appearing in 1706, the second in 1709,
the third in 1 7 1 1 . The compiler of these songs is not known,
but his name is generally supposed to have been John Spottis-
wood. The Preface was written by the publisher. He called
attention to the common fashion in other European countries
of publishing miscellanies, and said he hoped this would justify
his present enterprise. " 'Tis hoped, that this being the first
of its nature which has been published in our own native Scots
dialect, the candid reader may be the more easily induced,
through the consideration thereof, to give some charitable
grains of allowance, if the performance come not up to such
a point of exactness as may please an over nice palate."
Watson's object was evidently not so much to revive old
ballads as to make a song-miscellany. But his collection was
the fore-runner of a large number that followed, and he is
chiefly significant as the main inspiration of the important
work of Allan Ramsay. Watson was a genuine pioneer, and
for that reason holds a position of considerable importance in
this branch of the Romantic movement. Minto says that his
book was the great seminal work of all the Scotch poetry of
the century.2 His fresh, unaffected songs must have come
like a cooling breeze over the arid wastes of contemporary
verse. In 1 7 19 Ramsay published a collection of Scots Songs. This
is not of much importance, as it was so completely eclipsed
1 In this connection, Parnell's Fairy Tale in the Ancient English Style, already
spoken of in Chapter II, may be evidenced as another stray piece of literature
showing a fondness for old English.
2 Ward's English Poets, Vol. Ill, page 159.

120 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
by his later work. But it enjoyed some popularity, and ran
through two editions.
In 1719-20, at London, Thomas D'Urfey edited in six
volumes, Wit and Mirth , or Pills to Purge Melancholy ; Being
a Collection of the Best Merry Ballads and Songs Old and New.
Fitted to all Humours, having each their proper Tune for either
Voice, or Instrument ; Most of the Songs being new Set. Many
of these songs were accompanied by the musical score ; and
the principal object of the collection was, of course, not to
revive old English literature, but to make a popular singing-
book. D'Urfey has, therefore, but little significance in the
Romantic movement. His Dedication is curious enough to
be wprth quoting. " I have (with a great deal of trouble and
pains) made some part of this collection, and render'd ye
many of the old pieces which were thought well of in former
days, . . . and I must presume to say, scarce any other man
could have perform'd the like, my double genius for poetry
and musick giving me still that ability which others perhaps
might want." He then says he has performed his " own
things " before King Charles II., King James, King William,
Queen Mary, Queen Anne, and Prince George. D'Urfey's
dedication is unmodest, and his songs are immodest. They
are unspeakably loose and coarse, although intended for sing
ing by young men and maidens. It is not strange that Ramsay
thought his own collections clean, when the public tolerated
such abominable stuff as D'Urfey raked together.
We come now to something quite different — a publication
that has an important place in the history of the ballad revival.
This was an anonymous work in three volumes, the full title
being as follows : A Collection of Old Ballads, Corrected from
the best and most ancient Copies Extant. With Introductions
Historical, Critical or Humorous. Illustrated with Copper
Plates. These important volumes were published in London,
the first and second in 1723, and the third in 1725. J The
1 The dates are very often given incorrectly. I took them directly from the title-
pages of the original editions.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 121
name of the editor has never been positively known, but he
is supposed to have been Ambrose Philips, who wrote the
Spenserian pastorals. The Prefaces to these volumes are
significant. Like Addison, the Editor felt forced to appeal
to the authority of the classics. In the preface to the first
volume he said, " As the greatest part of this book is not
my own, and several things in it written ages ago, I may, I
hope, without either vanity or offence enter upon the praises
of Ballads, and shew their antiquity." He remarks that
" old Homer . . . was nothing more than a blind Ballad-
singer. Pindar, Anacreon, Horace, Cowley, Suckling are
Ballad-makers." The Editor increased the usefulness of his volume by prefix
ing to many of the ballads historical and critical introductions.
This research work went a long way toward disseminating
knowledge about old English literature ; and the strongest
proof that this collection aroused general interest was its
immediate and wide-spread popularity. Success encouraged
the Editor to take a somewhat bolder tone. In the second
edition of the first volume he said, " The encouragement which
my design has met, especially from people of the best taste,
has induced me to make a Second Collection, in which are
contained a considerable number of Ballads more ancient and
upon far older subjects than the generality of these ; and from
the pains I have taken not only with the introduction, but also
to recover, the best and oldest copies extant, I dare promise
myself they will prove a grateful entertainment to the curious
reader." Among the ballads in the first volume was Chevy-Chase, of
which the Editor remarked, "I shall not here point out the
particular beauties of this song, with which even l Mr. Addison
was so charm'd, that in a very accurate criticism upon it . . .
he proves, that every line is written with a true spirit of poetry."
This shows that Addison's criticism had had some effect.
i This " even " is suggestive.

122 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
In the preface to the second volume, published the same
year (1723), the Editor congratulates himself on the popularity
of his undertaking, saying " though we printed a large edition
for such a trifle, and in less than two months time put it to
the press again, yet could we not get our second edition out
before it was really wanted."
It is interesting to observe that this Editor in 1723 thought
it necessary to do just what Percy did in 1765 — he floated the
old ballads by adding a number of modern popular songs.
He also, again like Percy, adopted the apologetic tone.
" There are many who perhaps will think it ridiculous enough
to enter seriously into a dissertation upon ballads ; and there
fore I shall say as little as possibly I can." His defense was
that although contemporary taste did condemn the ballads,
they were not considered childish by the age in which they
were written, but that their authors were able and prominent
men. He concluded his preface by saying that he had material
enough for another volume, but did not intend to let the world
know whether or not he would publish it until the world had
let him know whether or not they would encourage him. In
two years (1725) he published the third volume, and said that
it had been delayed by " divers accidents." In Vol. II. he had
printed genuine old pieces like Leir and his Three Daughters,
King Arthur, Robin Hood, and others ; but in the third volume
he weakened. He gave as his reason for omitting many old
ballads, that they were " written in so old or obsolete a stile
that few or none of my readers wou'd have understood 'em."
Possibly the world had not encouraged him so much as he
hoped ; his tone is that of a man whose enthusiasm had been
wet-blanketed by adverse criticism. Matters were different in
1765. The character and taste of the audience had changed.
Many filthy and immoral songs appeared in this early ballad
collection. The attitude toward old ballads, as toward Spenser,
seems hardly to have been one of sincere admiration. In many
minds old English ballads were necessarily associated with

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 123
coarseness, and when imitations of them were written people
thought an alloy of smut was necessary, just as was the case
with the imitations of Spenser.
Notwithstanding these defects, this collection of 1723-25
has deep significance. Its purpose was totally different from
that of the ordinary song-miscellanies ; it was an attempt at a
genuine revival of old ballad literature, and points directly to
Percy. Its great popularity is also note-worthy, even if it was
a sudden blaze rather than a steady fire.
In 1724, Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) published two mis
cellanies of considerable importance, the Tea-Table Miscellany
and the Evergreen. These works are usually classed together,
as if they were entirely similar ; in reality there is between
them an important difference, as will presently appear. Ramsay
brought out his miscellanies apparently without any knowledge
of the Collection of Old Ballads, published the year before ; for
he must have begun collecting materials some time before that
work appeared. Ramsay's inspiration goes back to James
Watson. The dedication of the first volume of the Tea-Table
is dated January 1, 1724. When the second volume appeared
is not certainly known. It is usually ascribed to the same
year, 1724, but there is no real evidence to support this date,
as no copy of the first edition of the second volume is known
to be extant. It seems better to ascribe it to the year 1725 or
1726, for Ramsay was also busy in 1724 with the Evergreen,
and good evidence for the later date is furnished by the ballad
of William and Margaret, a full discussion of which will be
given later.1 The third volume of the Tea-Table appeared in
1727, and the fourth volume with the tenth edition of the whole
work in 1740. The Tea-Table was not exactly an attempt to
revive old ballads, although it was a strong influence in the
movement ; it was really a song collection. Ramsay's object
in this work was to amuse father than to instruct the age. He
included a number of modern songs, like 'Twas when the seas
1 See appendix.

124 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT:
tvere roaring, and other pieces. The tone of his preface shows
that he had nothing revolutionary in mind. But although
Ramsay's chief object was amusement, he brought to public
attention some remarkable ballads, of which two may be
mentioned — Hamilton's Braes o' Yarrow and William and
Margaret, usually erroneously ascribed to David Mallet. The
former was one of the most strictly Romantic productions of
any author in the first half of the eighteenth century ; and the
latter attracted wide-spread attention, not only on account of
its merit, but because of Mallet's claim to its authorship.
Ramsay included a number of his own pieces, his Farewel to
Lochaber being one of the'few serious songs he ever wrote, as
well as one of the best. In the fourth volume appeared the
old ballad of Sweet William's Ghost, and curiously enough, a
coarse parody of William a?id Margaret, called Watty and
Madge. The Tea-Table was enormously popular, and ran
through a great number of editions ; it was steadily published
till 1765.
The Evergreen, which appeared in two volumes, the dedica
tion being dated October 15, 1724, is an altogether different
work. The full title reads, The Evergreen. Being a Collection
of Scots Poems, Wrote by the Lngenious before 1600. This was an
attempt to awaken interest in old English poetry, and Ramsay's
inspiration in this was not Watson, but the examples of the
editors of Shakspere. The Dedication is written somewhat
defiantly. "The Spirit of Freedom that shines throw both the
serious and comick Performances of our old Poets, appears of
a Piece with that Love of Liberty that our antient Heroes con
tended for." In the Preface, he remarked, " I have observed
that Readers of the best and most exquisite Discernment fre
quently complain of our modern Writings, as filled with affected
Delicacies and studied Refinements, which they would gladly
exchange for that natural Strength of Thought and Simplicity
of Stile our Forefathers practised : To such, I hope the follow
ing Collection of Poems will not be displeasing." His patriotism

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 125
and love of nature both appear in the following passage :
" When these good old Bards wrote, we had not yet made Use
of imported Trimmings upon our Cloaths, nor of foreign Em
broidery in our Writings. Their Poetry is the Product of their
own Country, not pilfered and spoiled in the Transportation
from abroad : Their Images are native, and their Landskips
domestick ; copied from those Fields and Meadows we every
day behold." All this, of course, is bold talk for 1724 ; Ram
say is evidently comparing the rude, natural strength of old
English poetry with the insipid decorativeness of Augustan
style. He also gets in a hit at the couplet. " Besides, the
Numbers, in which these Lmages are conveyed,. as they are not
now commonly practised, will appear new and amusing. The
different Stanza and varied Cadence will likewise much sooth
a'nd engage the Ear, which in Poetry especially must be always
flattered." Unfortunately the Evergreen was by no means such a success
as the Tea-Table Miscellany. A second edition did not appear
till 1 761. Ramsay meant to issue a third and fourth volume,
but desisted, probably owing to the lack of encouragement that
the first two parts received.
Ramsay was not a scrupulous or conscientious editor. His
title-page announcement that the songs were " wrote before
1600" is not strictly true. He palmed off as old ballads a
large number of new songs, and is thus, in a sense, the fore
runner of Chatterton as well as of Percy. His own poem in
the Evergreen, called the Vision, he printed as " compylit in
Latin anno 1300" and translated in 1524. Then, the ballad
Hardyknute was, of course, modern, though possibly Ramsay
himself did not know it. This ballad was an ingenious
imitation of the old English style, and deceived even so critical
a scholar as Gray, who said that he did " not at all believe "
the report that it was modern.1 The poem was really written
by Lady Wardlaw of Pitrevie in Fife (1677-1726-7).
1 Letter to Walpole, Works (ed. Gosse), Vol. Ill, page 45.

126 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
Ramsay made his compilation from the Bannatyne MSS.,
but omitted and added stanzas, modernized the versification
and varied the spelling. He described the sources of his
work in a poem which he wrote with the idea of prefixing it to
the Evergreen, but perhaps his courage failed him, for the piece
was not published till years afterwards. After naming over a
list of authors, he says : —
" Their Warkis I've publisht, neat, correct, and fair,
Frae antique manuscriptis, with utmost cair."
But this is exactly what he did not do. At that time the
Bannatyne MSS. were in the hands of William Carmichael,
brother of the Earl of Hyndford ; he lent them to Ramsay,
who was neither sufficiently learned nor sufficiently scrupulous
to edit them in any accurate or careful way. But it is not at
all surprising that Ramsay's work was loose ; the surprising
thing is that so early as 1724 such an attempt should have
been made at all. The fact that one of Ramsay's miscellanies
succeeded and the other failed seems to show that the age
cared more for pretty songs than for any relics of antiquity.
Due credit, however, should be given Ramsay for his own
tastes. He is really one of the most remarkable figures in the
early history of Romanticism. In both his creative and critical
work, he threw his influence decidedly against the age. He
brought before the public some thoroughly Romantic poetry,
and stands as one of the pioneers among ballad collectors.
In 1724 appeared The Hive. A Collection of the Most
Celebrated Songs. This was published anonymously, but was
prefaced by A Criticism on Song-writing. By Mr. Philips;
in a letter to a lady. If Philips really edited the Collection of
Old Ballads (1723) he wrote his prefaces in an entirely different
style from the way he talked here. In the Hive he says the
French are the best song-writers, and that we cannot too
highly praise the merits of the poet Waller. The Hive was
popular, as by 1732 it had passed into a fourth edition. It

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 127
is, however, simply one of the numerous group of song-
miscellanies. In 1725 William Thomson edited a large folio, containing
the words and music of twenty-five songs. The full title was
Orpheus Caledonius, or a Collection of the Best Scotch Songs set
to Musick by W. Thomson. This book contained (without any
acknowledgment) a number of the songs and poems that had
appeared in the Tea-Table, and in later editions of his work
Ramsay accordingly castigated Thomson. Orpheus Caledonius
was but a slight contribution to the array of ballad collections
and song-books, and has little significance in the movement.
In 1749 appeared Warbling Muses, a collection of lyrics
edited by Benjamin Wakefield. On the title-page was printed
the rather arrogant statement, " Being the first attempt of this
Kind." The preface is very interesting, as showing the editor's
attitude toward ancient and modern English literature. He
says, " I selected a Multitude of Pieces from our most cele
brated Poets, from Shakespear down to Pope. The Words of
our famous modern Poets were sacred to me ; for which Reason
I did not presume to alter a single Letter in them, except now
and then a proper Name ; but I was far less scrupulous,
with regard to the Compositions of such Poets of Eminence,
part of whose Diction is grown obsolete ; I frequently modern
izing many of their Expressions and harmonizing their Verse."
The last sentence is especially good ; we all know what was
meant by the "harmonizing" process.
By the middle of the century the attempt to revive old
ballad literature had all the appearance of being abortive. No
steady public interest had been excited. But only ten years
later we find signs of an interest in antiquity which very soon
became a passion. In 1760 appeared one of the most scholarly
bits of work that the whole century produced. This was a
book by the afterwards famous Shaksperian editor, Edward
Capell (1713-1781), called Prolusions; or select Pieces of antient
Poetry, — compil'd with great Care from their several Originals,

128 TH£ ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
and offer'd to the Publick as Specimens of the Integrity that should
be found in the Editions of worthy Authors. Capell therefore
had a new aim — Accuracy — a thing in his time almost
unknown, and in which he had few immediate imitators. In
the dedication he said that his " honest intention " was to set
editors an example of care and fidelity. The book was divided
into three parts, the first being The Notbrowne Mayde ; Master
Sackvile's Induction ; and Overbury's Wife. The second, Edward
the third, a Play thought to be writ by Shakespeare, and the third
division contained " Those excellent didactic Poems, intitl'd
— Nosce teipsum, written by Sir John Davis; with a Preface."
Capell's preface to the Prolusions, dated July 20, 1759, explains
the task of editing, and shows a respect for accuracy and
fidelity that is almost modern ; he made some omissions and
changes, but noted them all. He called his attempt in pub
lishing these old pieces a "novelty," which indeed it was.
This work of Capell's gave to the public the fine ballad of the
Notbrowne Mayde in its original, unmutilated and " unpolished "
form. He simply ignored Prior's Henry and Emma, treating
it with silent contempt. He gave the date of the ballad as
early in the sixteenth century, saying that what "a poet of
late days" (Prior) had said as to its age could not be true.
In the revival of old literature, the Prolusions represents a
distinct advance on previous work ; the editor was thoroughly
in earnest, and assumed toward the poetry he revived no
patronizing or apologetic tone. Capell has therefore some
real significance in the Romantic movement.
Another indication of the growth of interest in antiquities,
and a first fruit of Capell's work, appeared in 1764. No name
is on the title-page of this volume, but its editor was John
Bowie (1725-1788). The full title reads, Miscellaneous Pieces
of Antient English Poesie. viz The Troublesome Raigne of King
John, Written by Shakespeare, Extant in no Edition of his Writ
ings. The Metamorphosis of Pygmalion's Image, and certain
Satyres. By John Marston. The Scourge of Villanie. By the

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 129
same. All printed before the year 1600. This book, of course,
does not strictly come under the head of ballad collections ;
but it evidenced a growth of the same interest, and belongs
more properly to this part of the general subject than to any
other. Bowie was influenced by Capell, and his book was
another example of accuracy in scholarship. The text seems
to have been printed with great care, and the original title-
pages are reproduced. It is one of the best specimens of
reprints that eighteenth century eyes ever beheld. Bowie
was a man of great learning, who devoted himself to researches
in obscure and untrodden paths ; his specialty being Spanish
literature. We come now to the most famous ballad-book of the
eighteenth century, Percy's Reliques. It was an epoch-making
book, and is usually spoken of as one of the chief causes
of the great re-awakening in English poetry. But the course
of our studies in the ballad revival proves that Percy's book
was fully as much a result as it was a cause of the Romantic
movement. It is true that in the list of ballad collections
that preceded Percy only two had much significance, the Old
Ballads (1723-5) and Ramsay's Evergreen (1724). But the
influence of these two was strong, and after 1755 evidences of
renewed interest in antiquities — in poetry, chivalry, mythology -^L
— were showing themselves on every side. Percy's book came
just at the critical time when the Romantic movement was
beginning to be conscious of its own strength.
Thomas Percy (1729-1811) seems to have been interested
in antiquarian researches from early youth. His tastes are
shown by his publications. In 1761 he published A Chinese
Novel — Han Kiou Chooan, in four volumes, translated by him
from the Portuguese. In 1762 appeared Miscellaneous Pieces
Relating to the Chinese, in two volumes. In 1763 he edited
Surrey's poems, but with the exception of a few private copies,
the whole impression was destroyed by fire. In 1763 appeared
his Five Pieces of Runic Poetry. In 1764, A New Translation

130 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
of the Song of Solomon. In 1765, the Reliques. In 1770, his
translation of P. H. Mallet's book, Northern Antiquities. In
177 1, his Hermit of Warkworth. In 1793, his Essay on the
Origin of the English Stage. In 1782 he was made Bishop of
Dromore in Ireland, and about 1806 he became blind.
Percy's correspondence with his friend Dr. Grainger, author
of Sugar-Cane, also shows his interest in antiquities.1 They
discussed Macpherson's Ossian and similar subjects. Percy
had evidently turned his inquisitive brain on Caribbean and
American antiquities, for on July 25, 1762, Grainger writes:
" I told you I could be of no service to you in promoting your
intentional publications ; we have no old books of Knight-
errantry in this island, and nobody can tell me anything of
the Charibbean poetry ; indeed, from what I have seen of
these savages, I have no curiosity to know ought of their
compositions. I have, however, desired a nephew of mine
. . . who goes to-morrow to North America ... to make all
imaginable inquiry after the poetry of the North Americans.
... If he has any success, you may depend upon my
transmitting the effects of it to you." 2 This merely as a
sample of Percy's passion for antiquarian bits of knowledge.
His appetite grew by what it fed on.
For a number of years previous to 1765, Percy had been
collecting materials for the Reliques. He bored his friends and
acquaintances, and turned his keen glance in every direction.
In justice to Shenstone, it should never be forgotten that it
was he who first proposed the publication, and that he was
to have been joint-editor. March 1, 1761, Shenstone wrote
to his friend Graves, " You have perhaps heard me sp ak
of Mr. Percy — he was in treaty with Mr. James Dodsley,
for the publication of our best old ballads in three volumes. —
He has a large folio MS. of ballads, which he shewed me,
1 These letters are printed in Vols. VII. and VIII. of Nichols's Literary Illus
trations. 2 Nichols, Vol. VII, page 281.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 131
and which, with his own natural and acquired talents, would
qualify him for the purpose, as well as any man in England.
I proposed the scheme for him myself, wishing to see an
elegant edition and good collection of this kind, — I was also
to have assisted him in selecting and rejecting ; and in fixing
upon the best readings — But my illness broke off our corre
spondence, the beginning of winter — and I know not what he
has done since." 1 Since 1742 Shenstone's taste had improved.
His connection with Percy places him among the Romanticists.
The Reliques appeared in three volumes in February, 1765.
The full title reads, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry; Consisting
of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and other Pieces of our Earlier Poets,
(chiefly of the Lyric Kind). Together with some few of later Date.
The chief sources of the Reliques were as follows :
1. The Folio MS.
2. Certain other MSS. collections.
3. Scotch ballads sent him by Sir David Dalrymple.
4. The ordinary printed broadsides.
5. Poems he extracted from the old printed collections.2
The MS. was a '-scrubby, shabby, paper" book. Percy
discovered it " lying dirty on the floor under a Bureau in ye
Parlour " of Humphrey Pitt of Shiffnal. The servants had
been accustomed to use it in kindling fires. Pitt gave it to
Percy, who afterwards had it bound, a process in which the
volume suffered considerably, often losing lines at the tops and
bottoms of the pages. The date of the handwriting was prob
ably about 1650.
Percy treated his materials in a way which nowadays would
be considered scandalous, but which was common enough a
hundred years ago. The influence of Capell and Bowie had
not been strong enough to elevate very much the ideal of
accuracy. It is extremely suggestive, however, to observe
Percy's polishing, because it shows his own subservience to
1 Shenstone's Works, Vol. Ill, page 363.
2 This table is taken from the 1876 edition of the Reliques, Volume I, page lxxxi.

132 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
the public opinion which his book did so much to destroy.
" As to the text, he looked on it as a young woman from the
country with unkempt locks, whom he had to fit for fashion
able society. ... All fashionable requirements Percy sup
plied. He puffed out the 39 lines of the Child of Ell to
200; he pomatumed the Heir of Lin till it shone again;
he stuffed bits of wool into Sir Caroline, Sir Aldringar; he
powdered everything. The desired result was produced ; his
young woman was accepted by polite society, taken to the
bosom of a countess, and rewarded her chaperon with a mitre." J
We observe, therefore, that in many respects Percy was not
ahead of contemporary taste. This polishing and pruning
process is proof sufficient; but the slight way in which he
spoke of his book is also testimony to the point. Writing to
Dr. Birch, February 2, 1765, he says, " I know not whether
you will not be offended to find your name mentioned in the
preface to such a strange collection of trash."2 In later years,
also, Percy looked on the Reliques as a youthful performance
of no particular consequence; the fourth edition (1794) was
edited by Percy's nephew, who said that the " original Editor
had no desire to revive it."
But what is especially interesting in this connection is to
notice in the original preface Percy's apologetic tone. He was
evidently very timid in this undertaking, and afraid of popular
ridicule. He bolstered himself up with the names of Shen
stone and Dr. Johnson, the latter of whom he was very anxious
to please. He said, " This manuscript was shown to several
learned and ingenious friends, who thought the contents too
curious to be consigned to oblivion, and importuned the
possessor to select some of them, and give them to the press.
As most of them are of great simplicity, and seem to have been
merely written for the people, he was long in doubt whether,
in the present state of improved literature, they could be
1 Bishop Percy's Folio MS, Vol. I, page xvi.
2 Nichols, Vol. VII, page 577.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 133
deemed worthy of the attention of the public. At length the
importunity of his friends prevailed, and he could refuse
nothing to such judges as the author of The Rambler and the
late Mr. Shenstone." Again he says, " In a polished age like
the present, I am sensible that many of these reliques of
antiquity will require great allowances to be made for them."
Percy also thought it necessary to do just what Ramsay and
the Editor of Old Ballads had done ; to float old ballads by
adding modern lyrics. He says, " To atone' for the rudeness ]
of the more obsolete poems, each volume concludes with a few
modern attempts in the same kind of writing ; and to take off
_ from the tediousness of the longer narratives, they are every
where intermingled with little elegant pieces of the lyric kind."
Then, after naming a long list of eminent men to whose aid
he was indebted, Percy added, "The names of so many men of
learning and character the Editor hopes will serve as an amulet,
to guard him from every unfavourable censure for having
bestowed any attention on a parcel of Old Ballads." He then
goes on to say that his "little work" has simply been the
fruit of occasional leisure hours. Percy was evidently trying
to cast anchors to windward. In studying the Reliques, this
apologetic manner of the Editor should never be forgotten, for
it constitutes further evidence toward the jincan^iousness of
the Rpmantinjirinvprnerit Percy had no idea he had published
an epoch-maker. The first edition appeared, as has been said,
in 1765 ; the second in 1767. In the advertisement the editor
speaks of the favorable reception given to his book. The
second edition was very much like the first, except that the
order of the pieces was changed, and the introductory essays
considerably enlarged and improved. This advertisement is
dated 1766, showing that a second edition was found to be
necessary within a year. The third edition appeared in 1775.
Further corrections were made, and Tyrwhitt's Chaucer was
praised. The fourth edition did not appear till i794> an<i was
edited by the Bishop's nephew, Thomas Percy. A number of

134 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
corrections and improvements were made, and the text was
emended "by recurring to the old copies." The Editor took
occasion to reply to those who had doubted the existence of
any original MS., by giving a number of names as vouchers
and by describing the MS. in detail. But the folio was really
not so important to the Reliques as was, and still is, commonly
supposed. Percy said in his 1765 preface, that the "greater
part" of his material was extracted from the MS., but this was
not true; out of 176 pieces published in the Reliques, only 45
were taken from that source. Another example of eighteenth
century literary honesty.
In spite of the pains Percy had taken to forestall the criticism
of men like Johnson, he met with disappointment. Previously
to the publication of the Reliques, Percy and Johnson had
discussed the matter, and the Editor naturally thought that the
Doctor was on his side. But he should have remembered the
autocrat's fixed opinions on all literature of this stamp. In the
Rambler (No. 177) for November 26, 1751, Johnson had
ridiculed the taste for ballads and the black letter, and he was
not the man to change his mind. Although Johnson's limits
of appreciation were rather narrow, he had a sure nose for
/anything Romantic. He was extremely suspicious of new
literary fashions. It was this instinct that led him to oppose
the Spenserians, to fight blank verse, to disparage Gray, and
to attack the taste for ballads ; it led him also to make his
fierce onslaught on Macpherson. The Doctor gave the
Reliques no encouragement at all ; and Warburton and even
Hurd had also recorded themselves against this kind of literary
work. But if the critics looked askance at this new departure, the
popular reception was cordial and friendly enough to make all
amends. The Reliques reached the English heart, and stirred
up memories and aspirations that were full of promise for the
literature of the future. Dr. Grainger's letters to Percy show
the popularity of the work. In February, 1766, he wrote, "I

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 135
sincerely congratulate you on the great success of your 'Ancient
Poetry.' The book deserves all the applause which has been
given it." 1 A few months later he wrote, " I congratulate you
again on the success of your ' Ancient Ballads ' ; though great,
it is not more than they deserve." -
Percy's book makes the year 1765 one of the most important
dates in the history of English Romanticism. The Reliques
came just at the right time. Its effect on literature, though
not felt so immediately as Ossian 's, was far more healthful and
far more lasting. It influenced the younger generation of
readers with a force hard to overestimate ; and men like
Wordsworth and Scott always gladly acknowledged what they
owed to it. Scott's eagerness in its perusal and its effect on
his taste are well known ; and Wordsworth's testimony as to
its effect on the language is worth remembering.3
Besides the direct influence of the ballads, the prose matter
Percy published with the Reliques had a wide influence. His
Essay on the Ancient Minstrels inspired Beattie to write his
Spenserian poem ; 4 and the other essays on antiquarian matters
must have done much to stir up interest in the past.5
The best evidence as to the effect of Percy's book on
English literature may be obtained by a glance at the ballad
bibliography of the eighteenth century.6 Before Percy, only
two important collections had appeared ; in the remaining
years they came as thick as tale. Ritson was a bitter opponent
of Percy, and took a fiendish delight in exhibiting to the public
the Bishop's loose methods of editing ; he stoutly denied the
existence of the MS., and was silenced only by ocular proof.
1 Nichols, Vol. VII, page 292.
2 Ibid., page 293.
3 In Poetry as a Study (1S15).
4 The Minstrel (1771-1774).
5 Besides the Essay already spoken of, the first edition of the Reliques contained
essays on the "origin of the English stage," on the "metre of Pierce Plowman's
Vision," and on the "ancient metrical romances"; and there were a great many
interesting introductions to separate ballads.
6 See list in Child's Ballads (1857), Vol. I, page xiii.

136 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
But Ritson owed much to the man he attacked ; and the
excellence of his own work, and his important share in the
ballad revival — where would it all have been without Percy ?
In 1823 an abridgment of the Reliques was published, called
Beauties of Ancient English Poetry. The Preface may be partly
quoted here, as showing how far the Romantic movement had
progressed by that time and how much it owed to Percy.
The Editor says, " Mr. Hume has observed that in the Fairy
Queen of Spencer, the genius of the author is encumbered and
disguised under the antiquated and fantastical costume of
chivalry, which he has chosen to assume. We believe there
are few readers of the poetry of the present day to whom this
very objection does not constitute one essential interest and
beauty of the work. . . The feelings with which our ancient
poetry was generally regarded at the beginning and close of
the last century, were essentially different. In our Augustan
age, as it has been termed, we see the mind of the country
tending with determined force from that ancient literature, and
in the present day we have seen its return upon these treasures
of the past, with an almost passionate admiration." He then
speaks of Goldsmith's ridicule of old poetry, saying, " No man
will believe that Goldsmith, now living, would have so judged."
All this is first-rate testimony to the profound and permanent
influence of Percy's Reliques.

CHAPTER VIII.
REVIVAL OF THE PAST — NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY,
WELSH POETRY, AND OSSIAN.
During the first half of the eighteenth century scarcely any
interest seems to have been taken either in native superstitions
or in Teutonic mythology. For poetic material the familiar
Greek and Roman myths sufficed, and the superstitions of
Scotland, Ireland and Wales shared the same neglect which
had overtaken the old ballads. The first important poem in
this branch of Romanticism was written late in the year 1749,
but the public had no chance to see it until 1788. In 1749
Mr. John Home visited England to make some arrangements
with Garrick about the stage presentation of the tragedy of
Douglas. While Home was staying at the house of Mr. Barrow
at Winchester, he met the poet Collins, and they evidently
conversed on more or less Romantic themes, for after Home's
return to Scotland, Collins sent him an ode he had just written,
with the title, An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the High
lands of Scotland; considered as the subject of poetry ; inscribed
to Mr. Home, author of Douglas. Strangely enough, neither
Collins nor Home ever made any attempt to publish this Ro
mantic poem. It was finally printed in 1788, by Dr. Alexander
Carlyle, in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Almost immediately afterward a rival edition also appeared ;
and since that time this Ode has always ranked among Collins's
most important work. The poem is in subject, treatment and
style distinctly Romantic ; and it struck a new note in English
verse. Mr. Lowell says, " The whole Romantic School, in its
germ, no doubt, but yet unmistakably foreshadowed, lies already
in the 'Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands.'"1 The
1 Literary Essays, Vol. IV, page 3.

138 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
ninth stanza may be quoted, as an expression of the Romantic
spirit in Collins : —
" Unbounded is thy range ; with varied skill
Thy muse may, like those feathery tribes which spring
From their rude rocks, extend her skirting wing
Round the moist marge of each cold Hebrid isle,
To that hoar pile, which still its ruin shows ;
In whose small vaults a pigmy folk is found,
Whose bones the delver with his spade upthrows,
And culls them, wondering, from the hallowed ground !
Or thither, where, beneath the showery west,
The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid ;
Once foes, perhaps, together now they rest,
No slaves revere them, and no wars invade ;
Yet frequent now, at midnight solemn hour,
The rifted mounds their yawning cells unfold,
And forth the monarchs stalk with sovereign power,
In pageant robes, and wreathed with sheeny gold,
And on their twilight tombs aerial councils hold."
It is an interesting fact that a poem of this nature, so
different from the ordinary contemporary style, and so dis
tinctly fore-shadowing later Romantic poetry, should have
been suffered by the writer and by the one for whose sake
it was written to lie so long in neglected manuscript. In
later years Collins might have published it, if his mind had
not gone into an eclipse. Perhaps Home thought it unsuitable
for the taste of the age. If it had been printed in 1750, it
would doubtless have attracted attention. It would certainly
have pleased the Wartons and as certainly displeased Collins's
firm friend, Dr. Johnson.
This Ode cannot be said to have done much for the Romantic
movement, as it did not reach the public ; but its composition
is interesting as showing in what direction the mind of Collins
was working, and that Romantic tastes were being generally, if
secretly, cultivated. Collins, like the Wartons, was an enthusi
astic student of the old English authors.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 139
The first book in Europe which aroused any general interest
in Northern mythology and the literature of the Eddas, was
written in the language which had done the most to preserve
Classic style and form. This book was the Introduction a
V Histoire de Dannemarck, published in 1755. Its author was
Paul Henri Mallet (1730-1807), a native of Geneva. In 1752
he had been made professor of Belles Lettres at Copenhagen,
and had become deeply interested in Danish literature. His
Introduction treated of the religion, laws, and customs of the
ancient Danes, and was followed the next year (1756) by a
second part, Monuments de la mythologie et de la poesie des
Celtes, et particulierement des anciens Scandinaves. In the same
year his work was translated into Danish. In 1760 Mallet
returned to Geneva, and by 1777 had completed his full
Histoire de Dannemarck.
'Throughout Europe the influence of Mallet's work was
enormous, and for many years his book was the standard
authority. Gray, always alert and watchful for any new liter
ary event, was charmed. In his correspondence with Mason
about Caractacus, in which Gray kept urging Mason to be as
wild and picturesque as possible, he alluded to Mallet as
follows (January 13, 1758): "I am pleased with the Gothic
Elysium. Do you think I am ignorant about either that, or
the hell before, or the twilight. I have been there, and have
seen it all in Mallet's Introduction to the History of Denmark
(it is in French), and many other places." J Gray also made
other allusions to Mallet from time to time, which show that
he was reading him carefully.
Mallet made a strong plea for the study of the customs and
manners and mythology of the ancient Danes. He said, " The
most affecting and -most striking passages in the ancient
northern poetry, were such as now seem to us the most
whimsical, unintelligible, and overstrained. So different are
our modes of thinking from theirs. We can admit of nothing
1 Gray's Works, Vol. II, page 352.

140 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
but what is accurate and perspicuous. They only required
bold and astonishing images which appear to us hyperbolical
and gigantic."1 In the Introduction to Volume IL, Mallet
again returned to the charge. "In fine, do we not discover
in these religious opinions, that source of the marvellous with
which our ancestors filled their Romances, a system of wonders
unknown to the ancient Classics and but little investigated
even to this day ; wherein we see Dwarfs and Giants, Fairies
and Demons acting and directing all the machinery with the
most regular conformity to certain characters which they always
sustain." 2
In the second volume Mallet gave a general description and
historical sketch of the Eddas ; he translated a large portion
of the Eddaic mythology, and also several Odes. It was here
that Gray got the hint for his Descent of Odin. Mallet twice
alludes to the poem,3 and gives a translated extract.
Gray was not the only English man of letters who was stirred
up by Mallet ; Percy seems to have become interested at about
the same time, and he did English Romanticism an immense
service by translating Mallet. Percy's translation appeared in
two volumes in 1770, with the title, Northern Antiquities ; or a
Description of the Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws of the
Ancient Danes, and Other Northern Nations, including those of
our own Saxon Ancestors, with a Translation of the Edda, or
System of Runic Mythology, and other Pieces, From the Ancient
Lslandic Tongue. This translation included the first two
volumes of the Histoire de Dannemarck, viz. — the Lntroduction,
and the Edda with Odes. The first volume consisted of a
description of the arts, government and customs of the Danes,
and a long discussion of their highly picturesque mythology.
The translation of the Edda was given in the second volume ;
the first part being the system of mythology, where stories of
1 English Translation called " Northern Antiquities," Vol. I, page 394.
2 Vol. II, page 9.
8 Vol. I, page 147, and Vol. II, page 220.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 141
Odin, Frigga, Thor, Balder and the rest were told in dialogue ;
then followed some sketches of the Elder Edda, and translations
of Odes.
To the English mind all this material was almost startlingly
new. The wonderful richness and splendor of northern my
thology and poetry were brought to popular knowledge just at
the time when England was in a receptive attitude. All
subsequent Norse study and all the revival of the Norse
element in English literature may be traced back to Mallet's
book. Mallet, like all other men of the new school, assumed an
apologetic attitude. He said, " But will not some object, To
what good purpose can it serve to revive a heap of puerile
fables, and opinions, which time hath so justly devoted to
oblivion ? Why take so much trouble to dispel the gloom
which envelopes the infant state of nations ? What have we
to do with any but our own contemporaries ? much less with
barbarous manners, which have no sort of connection with
our own, and which we shall happily never see revive again ?
This is the language we now often hear." 1 He then proceeds
to refute such objections.
In discussing the new interest taken at this time in " Runic "
poetry, it is an interesting fact that in the slender volume of
poems by Thomas Warton, Senior, published in 1748, there are
two Runic Odes. This strange contribution to Romanticism,
coming years before Mallet, Percy and Gray drew public
attention to Northern themes, is certainly noteworthy ; and
it is interesting to observe that the author of these two
Runic odes was the father of the Warton brothers — affording
additional evidence as to where they imbibed their Romantic
tastes. Almost nothing is known to-day of this reverend
gentleman ; but the remarkable ardor for Romanticism which
his sons exhibited even from early youth may be partially
explained by the fact that in their father's posthumous volume
1 Vol. II, page 35.

142 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
we find both Spenserian and Runic poetry. Warton took
these two odes from Sir William Temple's essay Of Heroic
Virtue. Temple quotes with strong approval two Latin trans
lations of a portion of the song of Regner Lodbrog, a Northern
king, who composed this poem " in the Runic language about
eight hundred years ago, after he was mortally stung by a
serpent, and before the venom seized upon his vitals."1
Temple remarked that in these verses there was a " vein truly
poetical." Warton's odes appear to be free translations from
this Latin, and as his poetry is so difficult of access, it may
be worth while to quote one of his Odes entire : —
" At length appears the wish'd-for Night,
When my glad Soul shall take her Flight ;
Tremble my Limbs, my Eye-balls start,
The Venom's busy at my Heart.
Hark ! how the solemn Sisters call,
And point aloft to Odin's Hall !
I come, I come, prepare full Bowls,
Fit Banquet for heroic Souls :
What's Life ? — I scorn this idle Breath,
I smile in the Embrace of Death ! " 2
Percy began his English translation of Mallet probably
about the same time that his Reliques appeared in print ; but
he had been reading Mallet earlier than that. In 1763
appeared a small anonymous volume, Five Pieces of Runic
Poetry Translated from the Islandic Language. On the
opposite side of the title-page a note was printed, " N. B.
This tract was drawn up for the press in the year 1761 ; but
the publication has been delayed by an accident." We see,
then, that Percy was working on Runic poetry in the same
year that Gray wrote his two Norse poems.
Percy was, of course, inspired by Mallet's book.; but it was
the success of the Ossianic fragments (1760) that induced him
1 Temple's Works (1814), Vol. Ill, page 368. 2 Poems (1748), page 159.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 143
to publish. His preface is very interesting. After speaking
of the roughness of the manners of the northern nations, he
alludes to their " amazing fondness for poetry." A " few
specimens of these are now offered to the public. It would
be as vain to deny, as it is perhaps impolitic to mention, that
this attempt is owing to the success of the Erse fragments.
It is by no means for the interest of this little work, to have
it brought into a comparison with those beautiful pieces, after
which it must appear to the greatest disadvantage. And yet
till the Translator of those poems thinks proper to produce
his originals, it is impossible to say whether they do not owe
their superiority, if not their, whole existence, entirely to
himself." It is interesting to observe how the new interest in Norse
mythology, the study of superstitions, the fragments of Gaelic
verse, and various kinds of Romantic lore were all working
together in the great literary movement. Anything wild and
extravagant was now becoming as fashionable as it had pre
viously been despised. Percy recommended his little volume
by saying that " the poetry of the Scalds chiefly displays itself
in images of terror."
The Five Pieces are prose translations of five Runic poems,
with the originals added. Percy himself, however, had no
first-hand knowledge of the language ; the five poems which
he gives had already appeared in Latin and Swedish versions.
He obtained the assistance of a scholar, who compared these
English versions with the originals, and who saw to it that the
" Runic " was all right. Percy embellished his title-page with
some Runic characters, Both as an ornament and as a voucher
that his poems were not forgeries. If Ossian had not already
set the fashion of Romantic names, how strange must have
sounded in eighteenth century ears titles like The Dying Ode
of Regner Lodbrog, The Ransome of Egill the Scald, The Funeral
Song of Hacon I The idea of putting them in prose must have
been suggested to Percy by the success of Macpherson's

* 144 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
experiment. The Runic poems just hit the newly-aroused
public sentiment.
A few quotations will show the style of the literature with
which Percy fed the people. "Then the sword acquired
spoils ; the whole ocean was one wound ; the earth grew red
with reeking gore ; the sword grinned at the coats of mail ; the
sword cleft the shields asunder." J
Then, as illustrative of the mythology : " We fought with
swords. . . . From my early youth I learnt to dye my sword
in crimson ; I never yet could find a man more valiant than
myself. The gods now invite me to them. Death is not to
be lamented. 'Tis with joy I cease. The goddesses of destiny
are come to fetch me. Odin hath sent them from the habita
tion of the gods. I shall be joyfully received into the highest
seat ; I shall quaff full goblets among the gods. The hours of
my life are past away. I die laughing." 2
We can easily imagine how Pope and Lady Mary would
have criticised this style of poetry, and have " versified " it in
correct couplets.
The Romantic movement was now making real progress.
" Wild " poetry became all the rage, as we see by another sign
of the times that appeared in 1764. This was a book by the
Rev. Evan Evans (1731-1789), curate of Llanvair Talhaiam in
Denbighshire. Evans was born at Cynhawdref, Cardiganshire,
and studied at Oxford. From an early age he cultivated his
love of poetry. He was a profound student of Welsh literature,
and spent many hours transcribing Welsh MSS., and traveling
about in Wales in search of material. He also composed
Welsh poetry of his own. His important contribution to the
Romantic movement is his work in 1764, Some Specimens of the
Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards. Translated into English,
with Explanatory Notes on the Historical Passages, and a short
account of Men and Places mentioned by the Bards, in order to
1 Dying Ode, page 29. 2 Page 4 1 .

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 145
give the Curious some Ldea of the Taste and Sentiments of our
Ancestors, and their manner of Writing}
In this venture Evans claimed that he was not inspired by
Ossian, but that he had had this book in mind for years.
Possibly Gray's Bard may have suggested something to him,
though he does not say so. He spoke with ardor of the won
derful style of Welsh poetry, and said " no nation in Europe
possesses greater remains of antient and genuine pieces of this
kind than the Welsh."
His description of his material is interesting. " The follow
ing poems . . . were taken from a manuscript of the learned
Dr. Davies, author of the Dictionary, which he had transcribed
from an antient vellum MS. which was wrote, partly in Edward
the second and third's time, and partly in Henry the fifth's,
containing the works of all the Bards from the Conquest to the
death of Llewelyn, the last prince of the British line."
Evans makes no apology for Welsh poetry ; it is significant
of the changing taste that he regards Extravagance as a draw
ing card. He says, " What was said of poetry in general, by
one of the wits, that it is but Prose run mad, may very justly be
applied to our Bards in particular ; for there are not such
extravagant flights in any poetic compositions, except it be in
the Eastern."
Evans's translations, like those of Macpherson and Percy,
were in prose. He translated, in all, ten poems, and followed
Percy's example in adding the originals. He also appended a
treatise in Latin, De Bardis Dissertatio. One quotation from
Evans's Specimens will suffice. " Llywelyn was our prince ere
the furious contest happened, and the spoils were amassed with
eagerness. The purple gore ran over the snow-white breasts
of the warriors, and there was an universal havock and carnage
after the shout. The parti-coloured waves flowed over the
1 The copy I consulted was the original 1764 publication, in the Harvard library;
it has many manuscript corrections in Evans's own hand, written November 9;
1772,

146 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
broken spear, and the warriors were silent. The briny wave
came with force, and another met it mixed with blood, when
we went to Porthaethwy on the steeds of the main over the
great roaring of the floods. The spear raged with relentless
fury, and the tide of blood rushed with force. Our attack was
sudden and fierce. Death displayed itself in all its horrors ;
so that it was- a doubt whether anv of us should die of old
age." '
Evans's Specimens has significance not only in its own con
nection with Ossianic poetry, but because it inspired Gray's
poem, The Triumphs of Oiven, published in 1768. Gray also
composed some shorter Welsh pieces.
We come now to one of the most important literary events
of the eighteenth century — the Ossianic poems of James
Macpherson (1738-1796). Macpherson was born at Ruthven,
Inverness, and after the year 1756 taught school there for some
time. In 1759 he became acquainted with Home and Dr.
Carlyle, and showed them some fragments of Erse poetry in
his possession. Macpherson also told Dr. Blair that he was
unwilling to publish these fragments, because they were so
totally unlike the style of contemporary poetry that no one
would pay any attention to them. But, emboldened by the.
encouragement of Blair, Home and Carlyle, he did publish, in
1760, Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of
Scotland, and translated from the Galic or Erse language. Dr.
Blair wrote a Preface for the work. The Fragments is a small,
thin volume, with no name on the title-page and nothing to
indicate under whose sponsorship it appeared. In this unas
suming manner was^ published a book destined to arouse
universal curiosity and excitement, and to exert a most power
ful if not perpetual influence on English and Continental litera
ture. In the preface we read, " The public may depend on the
following fragments as genuine remains of ancient Scottish
poetry. The date of their composition cannot be exactly ascer-
1 Page 32.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 147
tained. Tradition, in the country where they were written,
refers them to an aera of the most remote antiquity ; and this
tradition is supported by the spirit and strain of the poems
themselves ; which abound with those ideas, and paint those /
manners, that belong to the most early state of society." i
Reference is then made to a supposed epic. "Though the
poems now published appear as detached pieces in this collec
tion, there is ground to believe that most of them were originally
episodes of a greater work which related to the wars of Fingal.
Concerning this hero innumerable traditions remain to this
day, in the Highlands of Scotland. The story of Ossian, his
son, is so generally known, that to describe one in whom the
race of a great family ends, it has passed into a proverb,
' Ossian the last of the heroes.' " The passage just quoted is
significant, as it affords either the excuse or the justification
for the publication of the main poem in 1762. The preface
also contained another bid for public interest. " It is believed,
that, by a careful inquiry, many more remains of ancient genius,
no less valuable than those now given to the world, might be
found in the same country where these have been collected.
In particular there is reason to hope that one work of consider
able length and which deserves to be styled an heroick poem,//'
might be recovered and translated, if encouragement were
given to such an undertaking." This was a manifest feeling
of the popular pulse. It was hoped that by printing just
enough to inflame public curiosity, money would be subscribed
sufficient to permit Macpherson to travel about the Highlands
and collect more material. The scheme succeeded perfectly.
Universal interest was aroused ; and even Gray's delight is
not surprising, for these early pieces do have intrinsic poetic
merit, and the dose was not large enough to be nauseating.
A quotation from Fragment VIII. is typical. "By the side
of a rock on the hill, beneath the aged trees, old Ossian sat
on the moss ; the last of the race of Fingal. Sightless are
his aged eyes ; his beard is waving in the wind. Dull thro'

148 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
the leafless trees he heard the voice of the north. SorroV
revived in his soul ; he began and lamented the dead. . . .
Fair with her locks of gold, her smooth neck, and her breasts
of snow; fair as the spirits of the hill when at silent noon
they glide along the heath ; fair, as the rainbow of heaven ;
came Minvane the maid. Fingal ! she softly saith, loose me
my brother Gaul. Loose me the hope of my race, the terror
of all but Fingal. Can I, replies the king, can I deny the
lovely daughter of the hill ? take thy brother, O Minvane,
thou fairer than the snow of the north ! "
This poetic prose was unlike anything that had yet been
heard in England. Both scholars and general readers studied
it eagerly ; and Gray was fascinated. He immediately inquired
of his friends on all sides, to furnish him further information
and if possible to secure the originals. He could not make
up his mind about the genuineness of the authorship. He
corresponded with Macpherson, and said that the letters he
received in return were " ill wrote, ill reasoned, unsatisfactory,
calculated (one would imagine) to deceive one, and yet not
cunning enough to do it cleverly. ... In short, this man
is the very Daemon of poetry, or he has lighted on a treasure
hid for ages." 1 But Gray was more inclined in this matter
to faith rather than skepticism, and though never positive and
dogmatic, he always favored the theory of genuine authorship.
Percy was also deeply interested, and asked Dr. Grainger for
an opinion. Grainger replied, " Depend upon it, the ' Frag
ments ' are not translated from the Erse ; there is not one
local or appropriated image in the whole. . . . The author,
however, is a man of genius." 2 Percy was not satisfied, and
wrote to Grainger 'again, but received substantially the same
reply. Horace Walpole was evidently not deeply impressed
with the poems. On receiving the first bits, he wrote to
Dalrymple, February 3, 1760, "They are poetry, and resemble
1 Gray's Works, Vol. Ill, page 51.
2 Nichols's Lit. Illus., Vol. VII, page 275.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 149
that of the East ; that is, they contain natural images and
natural sentiment elevated, before rules were invented to make
poetry difficult and dull." Walpole told Dalrymple that the
poems would make an impression on Gray, and this explains
how the latter received specimens so early. Walpole wrote
again to Dalrymple, April 4, 1760, describing the effect the
poetry had produced ; he said that Gray, Mason, Lyttleton
and one or two more were " in love with your Erse elegies ;
I cannot say in general they are so much admired." Walpole
grew less and less pleased with the Ossianic poetry, and ended
in complete skepticism and disgust, finally writing Mason
September 17, 1776, "Oh! there is another of our authors,
Macpherson ! when one's pen can sink to him, it is time to
seal one's letter." The above quotations illustrate the various
opinions which the Fragments brought out. Enough interest
was aroused to furnish Macpherson with sufficient funds to
travel in search of that epic which in the preface to the
Fragments had been so mysteriously alluded to.
The Epic seemed easy to find. The Fragments had been
published in Edinburgh ; the scene of the literary war was
now boldly transferred to London. In 1762 1 a thick quarto
was published : Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books :
Together with several other Poems, composed by Ossian the Son
of Fingal. Translated from the Galic Language, by James Mac
pherson. With this volume appeared an Advertisement, a
Preface, and a Dissertation concerning the Antiquity, etc., of the
Poems of Ossian the Son of Fingal, all by Macpherson. In
addition to the epic, this volume also contained sixteen short
poems. Macpherson's preface is interesting. He defends
himself against the charge of forgery, and also apologizes for
the book. He feared the temper of the age would hardly
stand the Ossianic style, or take any interest in the relics of
1 The date 1762 is on the title-page, and this is always given as the correct date.
It must have appeared a little earlier, however, for Walpole writes, December 8, 1761,
" Fingal is come out."

150 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
antiquity. He said, " I would not have dwelt so long upon
this subject, . . . were it not on account of the prejudices
of the present age against the ancient inhabitants of Britain."
He spoke of the interest aroused by the Fragments, and of
the " people of rank and taste " who had given him the funds
to search for Fingal.
Macpherson did not stop here. In 1763 appeared Temora,
an Ancient Epic Poem, in Eight Books: Together with several
other Poems, composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal. Translated
from the Galic Language, by James Macpherson. There were five
"other poems," and a specimen of the original "Galic" of
Temora, together with a fresh Dissertation. He said of Ossian,
" His ideas, though remarkably proper for the times in which
he lived, are so contrary to the present advanced state of
society, that more than a common mediocrity of taste is
required, to relish his poems as they deserve." By this time
Macpherson was thoroughly stirred up by the attacks of the
critics, and his Dissertation is full of polemics. "I am
thoroughly convinced, that a few quaint lines of a Roman or
Greek epigrammatist, if dug out of the ruins of Herculaneum,
would meet with more cordial and universal applause than all
the most beautiful and natural rhapsodies of all the Celtic
bards and Scandinavian Scalders that ever existed."
It is important to remember that Macpherson himself was
/no Romanticist. He never intended to establish a Romantic
school ; in fact, his own taste was of the regulation eighteenth
century stamp. Some Irish fragments had been compared
with Ossian, and Macpherson ridiculed them on the ground
of their Romanticism. He said, "They are entirely writ in
that romantic taste, which prevailed two ages ago, — Giants,
enchanted castles, dwarfs, palfreys, witches and magicians
form the whole circle of the poet's invention. The celebrated
Fion could scarcely move from one hillock to another, without
encountering a giant, or being entangled in the circles of a
magician. Witches, or broomsticks, were continually hovering

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 151
around him, like crows ; and he had freed enchanted virgins
in every valley in Ireland. In short, Fion, great as he was,
had but a bad sort of life of it." He attacked Romanticism
again in a note to the poem Cathloda, but here he was trying
more to pacify his critics than to express his own views.
Speaking of the Highland bards he says, "They then launched
out into the wildest regions of fiction and romance. I firmly
believe, there are more stories of giants, enchanted castles,
dwarfs, and palfreys, in the Highlands, than in any country
in Europe.1 These tales, it is certain, like other romantic
compositions, have many things in them unnatural, and conse
quently, disgustful to true taste, but, I know not how it happens,
they command attention more than any other fictions I ever
met with." Macpherson had no idea that he was furthering
a^enuine-Romantiajevolution. In 1763 appeared Dr. Hugh Blair's ponderous essay, A
Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal.
This essay was bound in with Fingal and Temora, and continued
to appear in successive editions of these poems. It is unspeak
ably dry, and is written in the minute style — criticising detail
after detail — so characteristic of eighteenth century literary
criticism. He discussed at wearisome length the morality of
Ossian, and the essay is chiefly taken up with a comparison
of Ossian and Homer, a comparison that was as inevitable as
it was profitless. There are, however, some points of interest
in this wilderness, especially where Blair tried to defend
Ossianic poetry. He said Ossian's two great characteristics
were tenderness and sublimity. "The events recorded are all
serious~ancrgra.ve ; the scenery throughout, wild and romantic.
The extended heath by the seashore ; the mountains shaded
with mist ; the torrent rushing through a solitary valley ; the
scattered oaks, and the tombs of warriors overgrown with moss;
all produce a solemn attention in the mind, and prepare it for
1 The tone of this is hardly consistent with his remarks on the Irish fragments,
which he said were spurious because so Romantic.

152 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT. i
great and extraordinary events. We find not in Ossian an
imagination that sports itself, and dresses out gay trifles to
please the fancy. His poetry, more perhaps than that of any
other writer, deserves to be styled, The^poetry. of the_heart?'
Again : — " We meet with no affected ornaments ; no forced
refinement ; no marks either in style or thought of a studied
endeavor or to shine and sparkle. Ossian appears everywhere
to be prompted by his feelings." In this way Blair helped
along the Ossianic movement of sentimentalism, melancholy,
and loye_j)f jiature's solitudes ; what was called Wertherism
in Germany might have been called Ossianism in England.
It was along these lines that the influence of Ossian was most
strongly felt on contemporary literature ; Ossian belongs largely
to the subjective side of Romanticism, which culminated in
England. in the poet Byron.
Part of the Ossian excitement was due to Scotchjiatriotism
— newly inflamed both by these publications and by the Eng
lish adverse criticisms. Much of the opposition to Ossian was
owing, of course, to English prejudice. The most cultivated
men in Edinburgh were up in arms to defend their epic ; while
the London critics, headed by the redoubtable Johnson —
doubly armed by national feeling and literary classicism — con
tinued to attack Ossian with argument and ridicule.
In the 1773 edition, Macpherson spoke of the warm welcome
Ossian had received on the Continent ; he dwelt on its im
mense popularity in Europe, the successive versions that had
appeared in various languages, and remarked that he now
resigned the poems forever to their fate. He also spoke of the
doubt that had originally perplexed him — whether to translate
Ossian in prose or in verse — saying that he himself had pre
ferred rime, but that he had been dissuaded from this by his
friends. He also gives a specimen of his own Ossian couplets.
This point is certainly significant, as it shows Macpherson's
own lack of judgment and inability to appreciate the signs of
the times. Ossian in heroic couplets would almost certainly

REVIVAL OF THE PAST. 153
have fallen flat, or at best been extremely short-lived. And
the tediousness of the tropes would have been centupled in the
monotony of the rimes. Ossian certainly had a narrow escape.
It was Macpherson's embossed and flowing rhetoric that did
much to produce the extraordinary effect that followed his
publications. Fetters both of thought and of language were
everywhere being cast aside ; and it was largely owing to this
popular weariness of effete formalism that Ossian was hailed
with so intense eagerness. Its wildness, melancholy, sublimity
— entire disregardof^conyentionality — these were the qualities
that gave Ossian its enormous popularity. Ossian struck a
note in perfect harmony with Rousseau's "Back_ to Nature "
cry in France and with the Sturm und Drang in Germany ; in
the latter country the poems were especially influential ; for
the tide of_sentimentalism was beginning to sweep everything
before it. Werther's fondness for Ossian shows Goethe's
appreciation of its significance ; and Chateaubriand was a pro
nounced admirer of Ossian — an important fact, because in
Chateaubriand critics are usually agreed that French Romanti
cism had its primal impulse.
Ossian points as directly to Byron as the chivalry and ballad
revivals point to Scott. These indicate the two great streams
in the Romantic movement. In Byron's poetry — sincere or
feigned — we see constantly manifest the Ossian feeling.
What Byron himself thought of Ossian I have had a good
opportunity to observe by perusing Byron's own manuscript
notes in a copy of the Ossian poems.1 The following notes I
copied directly from Byron's hand-writing: "The portrait
which Ossian has drawn of himself is indeed a masterpiece.
He not only appears in the light of a distinguished warrior —
generous as well as brave — and possessed of exquisite sensi
bility — but of an aged venerable bard — subjected to the
1 It is the second volume of the 1806 edition of Ossian. The volume contains
Byron's autograph and copious notes written in his own hand. This book is in the
Harvard library.

154 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
most melancholy vicissitudes of fortune — weak and blind —
the sole survivor of his family — the last of the race of Fingal.
The character of Fingal — the poet's own father — is a highly
finished one. There is certainly no hero in the Iliad — or
the Odyssey — who is at once so brave and amiable as this
renowned king of Morven. It is well known that Hector —
whose character is of all the Homeric heroes the most complete
— greatly sullies the lustre of his glorious actions by the insult
over the fallen Patroclus. On the other hand the conduct of
Fingal appears uniformly illustrious and great — without one
mean or inhuman action to tarnish the splendour of his fame —
He is equally the object of our admiration esteem and love."
Speaking of Ossian's skill in depicting female characters, he
writes, " How happily, for instance, has he characterized his
own mistress — afterwards his wife — by a single epithet ex
pressive of that modesty — softness — and complacency —
which constitute the perfection of feminine excellence — ' the
mildly blushing Everallin.' ... I am of opinion that though
in sublimity of sentiment — in vivacity and strength of descrip
tion — Ossian may claim a full equality of merit with Homer
himself — yet in the invention both of incidents and character
he is greatly inferior to the Grecian bard."
These quotations are interesting as showing how seriously
Byron took Ossian and how carefully and thoughtfully he read
him. The influence of Ossian lasted long after the immediate
excitement caused by its novelty and professed antiquity had
passed away.

CHAPTER IX.
THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT EXEMPLIFIED IN GRAY.
A chronological study of Gray's poetry and of the imagina
tion and love of nature displayed in his prose remains, is not
only deeply interesting in itself, but is highly important to the
history of Romanticism. In him, the greatest literary man of
the time, we find the best example of the steady growth of the
Romantic movement. But before proceeding to the discussion
of this, a word on Gray's sterility is necessary. The view
given by Matthew Arnold in his famous essay ' is entirely with
out foundation in fact. The reason why Gray wrote so little
was not because he was chilled by the public taste of the age ;
he would probably have written no more had he lived a hun
dred years before or since. He was not the man to be de
pressed by an unfavorable environment; for his mind was ever
open to new influences, and he welcomed with the utmost
eagerness all genuine signs of promise. His correspondence
shows how closely and intelligently he followed the course of
contemporary literature; he had something to say about every
new important book. The causes of his lack of production
are simple enough to those who start with no pre-conceived
theory, and who prefer a commonplace explanation built on
facts to a fanciful one built on phrases. Gray was a scholar,
devoted to solitary research,- and severely critical; this kind of
temperament is not primarily creative, and does not toss off
immortal poems every few weeks. The time that Mason spent
in production, Gray spent in acquisition, and when he did pro
duce, the critical fastidiousness of the scholar appeared in
1 Ward's English Poets, Vol.- III., p. 302. Both Mr. Perry and Mr. Gosse seem to
support Arnold's view, but I am unable to see anything in it.

156 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
every line. All his verses bear evidence of the most pains
taking labor and rigorous self-criticism. Again, during his
whole life he was handicapped by wretched health, which,
although never souring him, made his temperament melan
choly, and acted as a constant check on what creative activity
he really possessed. And finally, he abhorred publicity and
popularity. No one who reads his correspondence can doubt
this fact. He hated to be dragged out from his scholarly
seclusion, and evidently preferred complete obscurity to any
noisy public reputation. This reserve was never affected; it
was uniformly sincere, like everything else in Gray's character.
His reticence was indeed extraordinary, keeping him not only
from writing, but from publishing what he did write.1 His
own friends would have had no difficulty in explaining his
scantiness of production. Horace Walpole, writing to George
Montagu, Sept. 3, 1748, says: "I agree with you most abso
lutely in your opinion about Gray; he is the worst company in
the world. From a melancholy turn, from living reclusely,
and from a little too much dignity, he never converses easily;
all his words are measured and chosen, and formed into sen
tences; his writings are admirable; he himself is not agree
able." Again, referring to Gray's slowness in composition,
Walpole writes to Montagu, May 5, 1761. He is talking about
Gray's proposed history of poetry, and he says: "If he rides
Pegasus at his usual foot-pace, (he) will finish the first page
two years hence." The adjective that perhaps best expresses
Gray is Fastidious. He was as severe on the children of his
own brain as he was on those of others; he never let them
appear in public until he was sure everything was exactly as
it should be. Even his greatest poem pleases more by its ex
quisite finish than by its depth of feeling. These three
reasons, then, his scholarly temperament, his bad health, and
his dignified reserve, account satisfactorily for his lack of
1 He wrote, in English and Latin, more than 60 poems, but only 12 appeared in
print during his lifetime ; and his prose is all posthumous.

ROMANTIC MOVEMENT EXEMPLIFIED IN GRAY. 157
fertility. If we wish to know why so deep and strong a nature
produced so little poetry, we must look at the man, and not at
his contemporaries. So much for Gray's sterility.1
Although Gray's biographers and critics have ve"ry seldom
spoken of it, the most interesting thing in a study of his poetry
— and the thing, of course, that exclusively concerns us here —
is his steady progress in the direction of Romanticism. Be
ginning as a classicist and disciple of Dryden, he ended in
thorough-going Romanticism.2 His early poems contain noth
ing Romantic; his Elegy has something of the Romantic
mood, but shows many conventional touches; in the Pindaric
Odes the Romantic feeling asserts itself boldly; and he ends
in enthusiastic study of Norse and Celtic poetry and mythol
ogy. Such a steady growth in the mind of the greatest poet
of the time shows not only what he learned from the age, but
what he taught it. Gray is a much more important factor in
the Romantic movement than seems to be commonly sup
posed. This will appear from a brief examination of his
poetry. While at Florence in the summer of 1740, he began to write
an epic poem in Latin, De Principiis Cogitandi. Only two
fragments were written,3 but they made a piece of consider
able length. This was an attempt to put in poetic form the
philosophy of Locke. It shows how little he at that time
understood his own future. The Gray of 1760 could no more
have done a thing of this sort, than he could have written the
Essay on Man. In these early years he was completely a
Classicist. In 1748, when he was largely under Dryden's
1 After I had fully reached this conclusion, I read Mr. Tovey's recent book, Gray
and His Friends. The Introduction to that book is the most judicious essay on
Gray that I have ever seen in print, though Mr. Tovey does not discuss his connec
tion with Romanticism. I was pleased to find that my view of Gray's sterility was
very similar to Mr. Tovey's, who completely disposes of Arnold's theory.
2 He never despised Dryden, however, though he went far beyond him. Oct. 2,
1765, he wrote to Beattie, "Remember Dryden, and be blind to all his faults."
Gray's Works,Vo\. Ill, p. 224.
8 The second in 1742.

158 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
influence, he began a didactic poem in the heroic couplet,
On the Alliance of Education and Government. It is significant
that he never finished either of these poems. Mathias said :
"When Mr. Nichols once asked Mr. Gray, why he never
finished that incomparable Fragment on ' The Alliance between
good Government and good Education, in order to produce
the happiness of mankind,' he said, he could not; and then
explained himself in words of this kind, or to this effect : ' I
have been used to write chiefly lyrick poetry, in which, the
poems being short, I have accustomed myself to polish every
part of them with care ; and as this has become a habit, I
can scarcely write in any other manner ; the labour of this
in a long poem would hardly be tolerable.'"1 Gray must
have perceived early in this task that the game was not
worth the candle.
In 1742 Gray wrote three Odes : On the Spring, On a Distant
Prospect of Eton College, and To Adversity. These well-known
pieces contain little intimation of Gray's later work. They
have nothing of the spirit of Romanticism, and might have
been written by any Augustan of sufficient talent. The
moralizing is wholly conventional, and the abundance of per
sonified abstractions was in the height of fashion. The poems
thus far mentioned represent Gray's first period. He was a
disciple of Dryden, and a great admirer of Pope, for writing
to Walpole in 1746, he calls Pope "the finest writer, one of
them, we ever had." 2
Gray's second period is represented by the Elegy, which
he began in 1742 and finished in June, 1750.3 He was in no
haste to print it ; the manuscript circulated among his friends,
and was first printed anonymously, with a preface by Horace
1 Mathias's Observations (1S15), page 52. This passage in itself goes a long way
toward explaining Gray's sterility.
* Gray's Works, Vol. II, page 130.
8 Gray's interesting letter to Walpole about the Elegy, June 1 2, 1 750, may be found
in his Works, Vol. II, page 209. He says: "You will, I hope, look upon it in the
light of a thing with an end to it; a merit that most oT my writings have wanted."
He evidently felt the fragmentarv nature of his ni-pvinne -wnrV

ROMANTIC MOVEMENT EXEMPLIFIED IN GRAY. 159
Walpole, February 16, 1751. How long Gray meant to keep
the Elegy from the public is uncertain ; circumstances com
pelled its publication. On February 10, 175 1, the editor of
the Magazine of Magazines requested permission to print it.
This alarmed Gray ; he flatly refused the editor's request,
and wrote instantly to Walpole, asking him to get Dodsley
to print it as soon as possible.1
The Elegy is not a Romantic poem ; its moralizing is
conventional, and pleased eighteenth century readers for that
very reason. Scores of poems were written at that time in
which the strength was neither above nor below that of the
Elegy, and these poems have nearly all perished. What has
kept Gray's contribution to the Church-yard school alive and
popular through all changes in taste, is its absolute perfection
of language. There are few poems in English literature that
express the sentiment of the author with such felicity and
beauty. This insures its immortality; and it is this fact
that deservedly gives it the first place in Gray's literary
productions. But although the Elegy is not strictly Romantic, it is
different from Gray's earlier work. It is Romantic in its
mood, and stands as a transition between his period of
Classicism and his more highly imaginative poetry. It was
the culmination of the 77 Penseroso school, and as I have '
shown, that school was in several ways intimately connected
with the growth of the Romantic movement. There is one"
highly significant fact about the composition of the Elegy,
which shows with perfect distinctness that its author was
passing through a period of transition. One of its most
famous stanzas Gray originally wrote as follows : —
" Some Village Cato with dauntless Breast
The little Tyrant of his Fields withstood ;
Some mute inglorious Tully here may rest ;
Some Caesar, guiltless of his Country's Blood."
1 Th'.s letter is in Gray's Works. Vol. II, page 210. It contains minute instruc
tions about the printing of the poem, and says it must be published anonymously.

160 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
The fact that Gray should originally have put down the
Latin names, and afterwards inserted in their place the
three names Hampden, Milton, Cromwell — taken from com
paratively recent English history — is something certainly
worth attention. It marks the transition from Classicism to
Nationalism. In this stanza he shook off the shackles of
pseudo^classicism; he made up his mind that English historical
examples were equal in dignity to those taken from Latin
literature. It was a long step forward, and although perhaps
a small thing in itself, is an index to a profound change going
on in Gray's mind.1
Gray's next work shows him well on the way toward Roman
ticism. In 1754 he wrote The Progress of Poesy, and in the
same year began The Bard, which he finished in 1757. Both
these Pindaric Odes were first printed in 1757, on Horace
Walpole's press at Strawberry Hill — the first and the best
things ever published there. These two odes, especially the
latter, are the most imaginative poetry Gray ever produced,
and were distinctly in advance of the age. They were above
the popular conception of poetry, and their obscurity was
increased by their allusiveness. The public did not take to
them kindly ; many people regarded them as we see Browning
and Wagner regarded to-day. Their obscurity was ridiculed,
and they were freely parodied.2 Gray was a little hurt by all
this, but he had foreseen their probable reception. He had
written to Walpole, " I don't know but I may send him
(Dodsley) very soon ... an ode to his own tooth, a high
Pindaric upon stilts, which one must be a better scholar than
he is to understand a line of, and the very best scholars will
1 This point is fully and suggestively treated in the Saturday Review for June 19,
1875, in an article called A Lesson from Gray's Elegy.
2 Dr. Johnson said they were " two compositions at which the readers of poetry
were at first content to gaze in mute amazement." In 1783, Dr. Johnson was
violently attacked for this by the Rev. R. Potter, an enthusiastic adi jircr of Gray.
Potter said that Gray's Bard, with its "wild_and romantic scenery,' etc, was ''the
finest ode in the world."

ROMANTIC MO VEMENT EXEMPLIFIED IN GRA Y. 161
understand but a little matter here and there." x Horace
Walpole never forgave the age for its attitude toward Gray's
odes. Again and again he refers to it in his correspondence,
and it had much to do with his dislike for Dr. Johnson.2
Walpole called the Odes " Shakspearian," "Pindaric," and
" Sublime," and said they were " in the first rank of genius
and poetry." But Walpole's opinions were largely influenced
in this matter by personal pride, for his own taste was not at
all reliable. He said Gray's Eton Ode was "far superior" to
the Elegy?
In the Pindaric Odes, Gray ceased to follow the age ; he
struck out ahead of it, and helped to mould its literary taste.
From this time people began to regard him as a Romanticist,
and to look for wild and extravagant productions from his pen.
When the Castle of~Vtrdnto appeared in 1764, Gray was by
many believed to be the author. The Odes became much
more popular after Gray's death — a sign of growth in public
taste. This made Dr. Johnson angry, and had much to do
with his satirical treatment of the Odes in his wretched Life of
Gray. He did not like to think that Gray had really taught
the people anything, and so he declared that the admiration for
Gray was all hypocrisy, just as many honest people to-day make
fun of those who admire Wagner's music. Johnson said that in
Gray's Odes " many were content to be shewn beauties which
they could not see." Undoubtedly Gray and Wagner have
hypocrites among their admirers ; but the fact that each
helped to set a fashion is significant of a change in taste.
We now enter upon the last period of Gray's literary produc
tion. In 1755 Mallet's Introduction a I 'Histoire de Dannemarck
appeared. This had a powerful effect on Gray, and aroused
1 Works, Vol. II, page 21S.
2 For Walpole's remarks on Gray's Odes, see his letters to Horace Mann, August 4,
1757, and to Lyttleton, August 25, 1757. See especially his letter to Mason, January27,
i78i,on Johnson's Life of Gray. Walpole afterward spoke of Johnson as a " babbling
old woman," and a " wight on stilts."
8 Letter to Lyttleton, August 25, 1757.

162 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
his interest in Northern mythology, which he studied with the
utmost enthusiasm. In 1761, Gray wrote The Fatal Sisters.
From the Norse Tongue; also The Descent of Odin. Evans's
1 book on Welsh poetry, the Specimens (1764), stirred him up
again, and he wrote The Triumphs of Owen. These three
poems were published in 1768, in the edition of his writings
revised by himself. All this work, of course, is strictly
Romantic.1 In 1760, when the Ossianic Fragments appeared,
Gray was wonderfully aroused. His friends knew he would be
excited, for Walpole, writing to Dalrymple, April 4, 1760, said,
"You originally pointed him out as a likely person to be
charmed with the old Irish poetry you sent me." On receiving
some specimens, Gray immediately wrote to Walpole as follows :
" I am so charmed with the two specimens of Erse poetry, that
I cannot help giving you the trouble to inquire a little farther
about them and should wish to see a few lines of the original,
that I may form some slight idea of the language, the measures,
and the rhythm." 2 He then proceeds to make further com
ments. His own Romantic tastes come out strikingly in the
following letter to Stonehewer, June, 1760. "I have received
another Scotch packet with a third specimen, inferior in kind
. . . but yet full of nature and noble wild feeling. . . . The
idea, that struck ancTsurprised me most, is the following. One
of them (describing a storm of wind and rain) says : —
' Ghosts ride on the tempest to-night ;
Sweet is their voice between the gusts of wind ;
Their songs are of other -worlds ! '
Did you never observe (while rocking winds are piping loud)
that pause, as the gust is recollecting itself, and rising upon the
ear in a shrill and plaintive note, like the swell of an Aeolian
1 Gosse says in his Life of Gray, page 163, that Gray not only takes precedence
of English poets in the revival of Norse mythology, but even of the Scandinavian
writers. But this is going too far. Mallet, in his Histoire de Dannemarck, Vol. II..
page 309, speaks of a book on the " exploits des rois et des heros du Nord " published
at Stockholm in 1737.
2 Works, Vol. Ill, page 45.

ROMANTIC MOVEMENT EXEMPLIFIED IN GRAY. 163
harp ? I do assure you there is nothing in the world so like
the voice of a spirit." x Gray continued to correspond with his
friends about Ossian, saying that he had " gone mad " about
it.2 The best way to show the growth toward Romanticism in
Gray's poetry is to quote successively short passages from
poems representative of all his periods of production. They
will explain themselves.
From the Ode on the Spring, written 1742 : - —
" To Contemplation's sober eye
Such is the race of Man ;
And they that creep, and they that fly,
Shall end where they began.
Alike the Busy and the Gay
But flutter thro' life's little day,
In fortune's varying colours drest ;
Brush'd by the hand of rough Mischance,
Or chill'd by Age, their airy dance
They leave, in dust to rest."
From The Alliance of Education and Government, written in
17.48: —
" As sickly Plants betray a niggard earth,
Whose barren bosom starves her gen'rous birth,
Nor genial warmth, nor genial juice retains
Their roots to feed, and fill their verdant veins ;
And as in climes, where Winter holds his reign,
The soil, tho' fertile, will not teem in vain,
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise,
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies ;
So draw Mankind in vain the vital airs,
Unform'd, unfriended, by those kindly cares,
That health and vigour to the soul impart,
Spread the young thought, and warm the opening heart ;
So fond Instruction" etc.
1 Gray's Works, Vol. Ill, page 47.
2 Mr. Gosse has some interesting remarks on Gray and Ossian in his Life of Grayt
page 149.

164 THT ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
From the Elegy, 1742-50 : —
" Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds ;
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r
The mopeing owl does to the moon complain
Of such, as wandering near her secret bow'r,
Molest her ancient solitary reign."
From The Progress of Poesy, written 1754 : —
" Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep,
Isles, that crown th' Aegean deep,
Fields, that cool Ilissus laves,
Or where Maeander's amber waves
In lingering Lab'rinths creep,
How do your tuneful Echos languish,
Mute, but to the voice of Anguish ?
Where each old poetic Mountain
Inspiration breath 'd around ;
Ev'ry shade and hallow*d Fountain
Murmur'd deep a solemn sound ;
Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil hour
Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains.
Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant-Power,
And coward Vice, that revels in her chains.
When Latium had her lofty spirit lost,
They sought, oh Albion ! next thy sea-encircled coast."
From The Bard, written 1754-7 : —
On a rock, whose haughty brow,
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
Robed in the sable garb of woe,
With haggard eyes the Poet stood ;
(Loose his beard, and hoary hair
Streamed, like a meteor, to the troubled air)
And with a Master's hand, and Prophet's fire,
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre.

ROMANTIC MOVEMENT EXEMPLIFIED IN GRAY. 165
Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave,
Sighs to the torrent's aweful voice beneath !
O'er thee, oh King ! their hundred arms they wave,
Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breath ;
Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,
To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay."
From The Fatal Sisters, written 1761 : — ¦
" Now the storm begins to lower
(Haste, the loom of Hell prepare),
Iron-sleet of arrowy shower
Hurtles in the darken'd air.
* * * *
See the griesly texture grow,
('Tis of human entrails made,)
And the weights, that play below,
Each a gasping Warriour's head.
* * * *
Misla black, terrific maid,
Sangrida, and Hilda see,
Join the wayward work to aid ;
'Tis the woof of victory.
Ere the ruddy sun be set,
Pikes must shiver, javelins sing,
• Blade with clattering buckler meet,
Hauberk crash, and helmet ring."
From The Descent of Odin, written 1761 : —
" In the caverns of the west,
By Odin's fierce embrace comprest,
A wond'rous Boy shall Rinda bear,
Who ne'er shall comb his raven-hair,
Nor wash his visage in the stream,
Nor see the sun's departing beam ;
Till he on Hoder's corse shall smile
Flaming on the fun'ral pileT
Now my weary lips I close :
Leave me, leave me to repose."

166 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
The significance of the above quotations is apparent at a
glance. The Descent of Odin is about as different from the
Ode on the Spring as can well be imagined.
As he advanced in life, Gray's ideas of poetry grew free
in theory as well as in practise. His Observations on English
Metre, written probably in 1760-61, and published in 1814,
contains much interesting matter. Gray had planned to write
a History of English poetry, but when he heard that Thomas
Warton was engaged in that work, he gave up the idea, and
handed over his material and general scheme to Warton. If
Gray had completed a history of this kind, it would certainly
have been more accurate than Warton's, and would probably
have done as much service to Romanticism. A few words
may be quoted from the Observations, to show how far Gray
had advanced in his ideas since 1740. Speaking of Milton,
he says, " The more we attend to the composition of Milton's
harmony, the more we shall be sensible how he loved to
vary his pauses, his measures and his feet, which gives that
enchanting air of freedom and wildness to his versification,
unconfined by any rules but those which his own feeling and
the nature of his subject demands."1
Gray's prose remains are deeply interesting to the student
of Romanticism. He was one of the first men in Europe who
had any real appreciation of wild and Romantic scenery. It
has now become so fashionable to be fond of mountains, and
lakes, and picturesque landscapes, that it seems difficult to
believe that all this is a modern taste. To-day the average
summer traveler speaks enthusiastically of precipices, mountain
cascades and shaded glens, and even to some extent interprets
them by the imagination ; but the average eighteenth century
sojourner neither could nor would do anything of the sort.
This appreciation of the picturesque in external nature has a
close kinship with the. Romantic movement in literature; for
the same emotions are at the foundation of each.
1 Works, Vol. I, page 332.

ROMANTIC MOVEMENT EXEMPLIFIED IN GRAY. 167
The Classicists had no more love for wild nature than they
had for Gothic architecture or Romantic poetry. Let us take '
Addison as a conspicuous example. " In one of his letters,
dated December, 1701, he wrote that he had reached Geneva
after 'a very troublesome journey over the Alps. My head
is still giddy with mountains and precipices ; and you can't
imagine how much I am pleased with the sight of a plain ! '
This little phrase is a good illustration of the contempt for
mountains, of the way they were regarded as wild, barbaric,
useless excrescences. . . . The love of mountains is some
thing really of modern, very modern, growth, the first traces
of which we shall come across towards the middle of the last
century. Before that time we find mountains spoken of in
terms of the severest reprobation."1
Mountains and wild scenery were considered as objects not
of beauty or grandeur, but of horror. But in Gray's letters
we hear the modern tone.
In this respect he was even more in advance of his
contemporaries than in his Romantic poetry. From first to last
he was always a lover of wild nature ; and, as this taste was so
unfashionable, we may be sure of his sincerity. Toward the
close of his life, this feeling in Gray becomes more and more
noticeable. His Lake Journal is a marvel when we consider
its date, for it is written in the true spirit of Wordsworth. But
his early letters and journals show that he knew how to
appreciate Romantic scenery. Take two extracts from his
Journal in France (1739).2 These words are interesting simply
as showing what attracted Gray's attention : " Beautiful way,
1 Perry's Ezghteeiith Century Literature, page 145. But much of our modern
love for mountains and precipices is doubtless due to the circumstances in which
we view them. Carried to the top of the Rigi in a comfortable car, we are in a
condition to enjoy to the utmost the glorious view ; but if the Rigi represented an
obstacle, something that must be passed over with infinite discomfort and even peril,
in order to reach a destination on the other side, I am sure we should not appreciate
the view so keenly. This was the attitude in which Addison looked at the Alps.
2 This was printed for the first time by Mr. Gosse in Vol. I. of his edition of
Gray's Works.

168 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
commonly on the side of a hill, cover'd with woods, the river
Marne winding in the vale below, and Coteaux, cover'd with
vines, riseing gently on the other side ; fine prospect of the
town of Joinville, with the castle on the top of the mountain,
overlooking it. . . . Ruins of an old castle on the brow of a
mountain, whose sides are cover'd with woods." x Again,
describing the journey to Geneva : " The road runs over a
Mountain, which gives you the first tast of the Alps, in it's
magnificent rudeness, and steep precipices ; set out from
Echelles on horseback, to see the Grande Chartreuse, the way
to it up a vast mountain, in many places the road not 2 yards
broad ; on one side the rock hanging over you, & on the other
side a monstrous precipice. In the bottom runs a torrent . . .
that works its way among the rocks with a mighty noise, and
frequent Falls. You here meet with all the beauties so savage
and horrid 2 a place can present you with ; Rocks of various
and uncouth figures, cascades pouring down from an immense
height out of hanging Groves of Pine-Trees, & the solemn
Sound of the Stream, that roars below, all concur to form one
of the most poetical scenes imaginable." =
All this is remarkable language for the year 1739. Probably
very few private journals of the eighteenth century can show
anything similar to it ; for Gray's feelings were, at that time,
almost exclusively his own. One more remark of his on Alpine
scenery may be quoted. He wrote to Richard West, November
16, 1739 : " I own I have not, as yet, anywhere met with those
grand and simple works of Art, that are to amaze one, and
whose sight one is to be the better for ; but those of Nature
have astonished me beyond expression. In our little journey
up to the Grande Chartreuse, I do not remember to have gone
ten paces without an exclamation, that there was no restrain-
1 Works, Vol. I, page 240.
2 The word sounds conventional, more like Augustan style ; but what Gray goes
on to say shows that it appealed to his own feelings in a very different way.
3 Works, Vol. I, page 244.

ROMANTIC MOVEMENT EXEMPLIFIED IN GRAY. 169
ing. Not a precipice, not a torrent, not a cliff, but is pregnant
with religion and poetry. There are certain scenes that would
awe an atheist into belief, without the help of other argument.
One need not have a very fantastic imagination, to see spirits
there at noonday ; you have Death perpetually before your
eyes, only so far removed, as to compose the mind without
frightening it." '
Just thirty years later, Gray wrote another journal, which
shows that he had progressed as rapidly in his appreciation of
Nature as he had in his love of wild and passionate poetry.
This is the Journal in the Lakes, written in 1769, and published
in 1775. This document is of great value, as throwing light
on the purely imaginative side of Gray's nature. He took this
Lake trip alone, and wrote the Journal simply to amuse his
friend, Dr. Wharton. Here we have a very different view of
nature from that given by Dyer, Thomson , and even by the
Wartons. This remarkable Journal is written in the true
Wordsworthian spirit. Gray not only observes but spiritually
interprets nature. Two quotations will suffice to show how
far Gray's taste had advanced since 1739 : "Behind you are
the magnificent heights of Walla-crag ; opposite lie the thick
hanging woods of Lord Egremont, and Newland valley, with
green and smiling fields embosomed in the dark cliffs ; to the
left the jaws of Borrodale, with that turbulent chaos of
mountain behind mountain, rolled in confusion ; beneath you,
and stretching far away to the right, the shining purity of the
Lake, just ruffled by the breeze, enough to show it is alive,
reflecting rocks, woods, fields, and inverted tops of moun
tains."2 The following passage is perhaps the most striking thing
Gray ever wrote about nature : " In the evening walked alone
down to the Lake by the side of Crow-Park after sun-set and
saw the solemn colouring of night draw on, the last gleam of
sunshine fading away on the hill-tops, the deep serene of the
1 Works, Vol. II, page 44. 2 Works, Vol. I, page 254.

170 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
waters, and the long shadows of the mountains thrown across
them, till they nearly touched the hithermost shore. At
distance heard the murmur of many water-falls not audible in
the day-time. Wished for the Moon, but she was dark to me
and silent, hid in her vacant interlunar cave." 1
Mitford said : " No man was a greater admirer of nature
than Mr. Gray, nor admired it with better taste." Perhaps
Walpole had partly in mind Gray's superior appreciation of
Alpine scenery when he wrote, in 1775: "We rode over the
Alps in the same chaise, but Pegasus drew on his side, and a
cart-horse on mine." 2 There is something noble and truly
beautiful in the way in which Walpole always insisted on his
own inferiority to Gray. His attitude in this was never
cringing ; it was a pure tribute of admiration, and that, too,
from a sensitive man who had been repeatedly snubbed by the
very object of his praise.
It is interesting to notice the strange and strong, contrast
between the shy, reserved temperament of Gray, and the pro
nounced radicalism of his literary tastes. Had he been a
demonstrative and gushing person like Mason, his utterances
about mountains and Ossianic poetry would not seem so singu
lar ; but that this secluded scholar, who spent most of his
hours over his books in Cambridge and the manuscripts in the
British Museum, and who was always slow to speak, should
have quietly cultivated tastes so distinctly Romantic — this is
a noteworthy fact. It seems to show that the one-man power
counts for something in literary developments. Gray influ
enced the age more than the age influenced him ; he led rather
than followed. In addition to all the various forces that we
have observed as silently working in the Romantic movement,
we must add the direct influence of the courage and genius of
Gray. 1 Works, Vol. I, page 258.
2 Letter to Cole, December 10, 1775.

CHAPTER X.
GENERAL SUMMARY.
In the preceding pages, I have sketched the growth of
Romanticism from its first faint manifestations to its practi
cally complete ascendancy. It is evident that a number of
various elements entered into the movement. There was the
poetry of external nature, which began with Ramsay, Thomson
and Dyer ; although this was not necessarily Romantic, it ex
erted a powerful reactionary influence. There was the Change
of Form ; the yoke of the couplet was slipped off by the re
vival of blank verse, and by constant experiments in other
metres ; all of which pointed not to Rule, but to Freedom.
Then came the extraordinary influence of Spenser, and the
swarm of imitations of his stanza ; many of these were not
serious, but they helped to further the study of both Spenser
and all Elizabethan poetry. The influence of Milton was also
a powerful agency — giving to literature a dreamy, melancholy
cast, that harmonized with the Sentimentalism on England and
the Continent. Then appeared the revival of mediaeval taste,
in the rage for Gothic art and the love of chivalry. Language
itself was made fresh and strong by the influx of ballad litera
ture, which had had friends all through the century, but which
leaped into enormous popularity through Percy's Reliques.
The final blow to Augustan taste came in the form of substi
tuting for its attenuated, classic mythology, the picturesque,
Romantic tales of the gods and heroes of the North. Along
with this revival of ancient themes appeared the poems of
Ossian, claiming remote antiquity, and exercising a deep, if
not formative, influence. Lastly, during the critical twenty

172 THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT.
years from 1750 to 1770, the greatest living man of letters
exerted all his poetic powers in the direction of Romanticism.
The Romantic school was aided not only by the poets
and story tellers ; it had its critical defenders. A number of
serious prose works backed up the movement and inspired its
supporters. Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty (1753) had, perhaps,
little to do with the literary side of Romanticism, but as a
contribution to the discussion of real beauty and true art it
was certainly influential. Hogarth insisted that true art should
avoid Regularity ; he also pleaded for copying and studying
nature and out-door life. Lowth's lectures on the Sacred
Poetry of the Hebrews (1753) encouraged the study of the
Old Testament from the purely literary point of view, and
opened up anew all the grandeur and imagery of Hebrew
poetry. The critical side of his work helped also in forming
true ideas on the nature of poetry. His chapter on Poetic
Imagery from the Objects of Nature must have been especially
suggestive in those days. Again, in the next year (1754)
appeared Thomas Warton's Observations on the Faery Queen;
a warm, vigorous defense of mediaeval subject and Romantic
treatment. In 1759 Young's Conjectures on Original Compo
sition took a radical stand. He declared that the time had
come to abandon Classic models ; and to turn directly to
nature and to the inspiration of native genius. He insisted
that genius was greater than any rules, and must be a law
unto itself. The spectacle of this aged poet boldly flinging
off all shackles and defiantly supporting the new school, must
have been in itself an inspiration. But most important of all
the critical works that aided the Romantic movement, was
Joseph Warton's Essay on Pope (1756). It is one of the most
significant books of the whole century. This was the first
open and serious attack on Pope's position as a poet. The
tone of it is extraordinarily modern ; much of it might have
been written by our critics of to-day. Warton insisted that
Pope was a great Wit rather than a great Poet ; his poetry

GENERAL SUMMARY. 173
was strictly not first-class and must forever prevent him from
obtaining a place among the highest names. Warton's book
was both destructive and constructive ; he successfully assailed
Pope's lofty position and completely dethroned him and his
school ; at the same time he elaborated his own theories as
to the nature of true Poetry ; — and these theories were, of
course, Romantic. Although the second volume of Warton's
Essay did not appear until nearly thirty years after the first,
he had articulated in his initial publication distinct doctrines
which have formed the Romantic creed from that day to this.
He was one of the few conscious apostles of the new school.
On the whole, however, as has been frequently said in these
pages, the English Romantic movement was gradual and largely
unconscious ; it originated in no distinct antagonism to the
Augustans — for some of the most influential Romanticists
were profound admirers of Pope and Addison — but rather
in an instinctive longing for fresh woods and pastures new.
It is a curious fact that the French people, always so fickle,
extravagant and violent in political and social affairs, should
be on the whole so sober and self-restrained in their creative
and critical literature ; while the English, whose social history
shows remarkable self-control and political foresight, have
always exhibited Romantic tendencies in literature and art.
For this very reason, the Romantic movement in France was
a bitter, desperate fight between a band of young reformers
and the national literary instinct ; while in England the
Romantic movement was simply the heart of the people
asserting itself — timidly yet instinctively — against the domi
nation of a critical school. Even the genius of a Pope and
a Swift, backed by all the shining talent of Augustan men of
letters, failed to hold the English mind in any long bondage.
Even at the zenith of their glory, the signs of revolt were
plainly visible.

APPENDIX I.

A list of Spenserian imitations published from 1700 to 1775. The
dates refer not to the composition, but to the publication.
1706. Prior. " Ode to the Queen."
1713-1721. Prior (?). " Colin's Mistakes."
Pope. " The Alley."
1 7 13. Croxall. "An Original Canto of Spencer's Fairy
Queen."
1 714. Croxall. " Another Original Canto."
1730 (cir.). Whitehead. "Vision of Solomon."
Whitehead. " Ode to the Honourable Charles
Townsend."
Whitehead. " Ode to the Same."
1736. Thompson. " Epithalamium."
1736. Cambridge. "Marriage of Frederick."
1736-7. Boyse. "The Olive."
1736-7. Boyse. "Psalm XLII."
1737. Akenside. " The Virtuoso."
1739. G. West. " Abuse of Travelling.'"
1739. Anon. " A New Canto of Spenser's Fairy Queen."
1740. Boyse. " Ode to Marquis of Tavistock."
1 741 (cir.). Boyse. "Vision of Patience."
1742. Shenstone. "The School-Mistress "(incomplete form
published 1737).
1 742-50. Cambridge. " Archimage."
1742. R. Dodsley. " Pain and Patience."
1743. Anon. "Albion's Triumph."
1744 (cir.). R. Dodsley. "Death of Mr. Pope."
1744. Akenside. " Ode to Curio."
1746. Blacklock. "Hymn to Divine Love."
Blacklock. " Philantheus."

176

APPENDIX I.

1747-1747- 1747-
1747-1747-1748.1748.1749.
1750.1751. 1751.
1751.1751.
1751.1751.1753-1754-I7SS-
1748-1756.1757-1757-
1758.1759- 1762.1767.1768.1771-1775- 1775-

58.

Mason. " Stanzas in Musaeus."
Ridley. " Psyche."
Lowth. " Choice of Hercules."
Upton. ¦' A New Canto of Spencer's Fairy Queen."
Bedingfield. " Education of Achilles."
Pitt. " The Jordan."
T. Warton, Sr. " Philander."
Thomson. " Castle of Indolence."
Potter. " A Farewell Hymne to the Country."
T. Warton. " Morning."
G. West. " Education."
T. Warton. " Elegy on the Death of Prince Fred
erick."
Mendez. " The Seasons."
Lloyd. " Progress of Envy."
Akenside. "Ode."
Smith. " Thales."
T. Warton. "A Pastoral in the Manner of Spenser."
Denton. " Immortality."
Arnold. " The Mirror."
Mendez. " Squire of Dames."
Smart. " Hymn to the Supreme Being."
Thompson. " The Nativity."
Thompson. " Hymn to May."
Akenside. " To Country Gentlemen of England."
Wilkie. "A Dream."
Poem in Ralph's Miscellany.
Denton. " House of Superstition."
Mickle. " The Concubine."
Downman. " Land of the Muses."
Beattie. " The Minstrel."
Anon. " Land of Liberty."
Mickle. " Stanzas from Introduction to Lusiad."

APPENDIX II.

THE BALLAD OF WILLIAM AND MARGARET.
David Mallet's literary reputation is chiefly due to a piece of
poetry which he never wrote. William and Margaret was one
of the most popular ballads of the eighteenth century. It appeared
in nearly all the numerous miscellanies, both poetic and musical ; it
was read, sung, and recited on all sides. It was even parodied.
With the exception of a few skeptical and unimportant personages,
its authorship was universally attributed to Mallet, and men like
James Thomson, Dr. Johnson, and Bishop Percy gave him the
weight of their authority. The ballad floated all the rest of Mallet's
literary performances, and he died a famous man.
The exact date of Mallet's birth is unknown ; but he was born in
Scotland in 1700, 1701, or 1702. His original name was Malloch,
which he changed to Mallet somewhere about the year 1728, and not
on his first arrival in London, as is often stated. He came to the
metropolis in 1723, as private tutor in the family of the Duke of
Montrose. It was not long before he became a man of considerable
influence, for it was owing to his timely assistance that Thomson was
able to get his Winter before the public. This is the only thing for
which posterity has reason to be grateful to Mallet ; his own writings
are mainly dull.
As has been said, it was William and Margaret that established
Mallet's literary reputation ; and it is only within a few years that
his claim to its authorship has been successfully assailed. We shall
see unfolded one of the prettiest cases of literary forgery on record,
as well as one of the meanest, for it took a great deal of deliberate
lying on Mallet's part to make good his claim.
The best accounts of this ballad are given by Mr. Frederick Dins-
dale, in his edition of the Ballads and Songs of Mallet (London,
1857), and by Mr. William Chappell, in his Appendix to the third

178 APPENDIX II.
volume of the Roxburghe Ballads (London, 1880). Mr. Dinsdale
aggressively believed that Mallet wrote the ballad, but he did not
possess the later and more damaging evidence. Mr. Chappell proves
that Mallet stole the ballad, but his own account contains inaccuracies
and omits some important facts.
The whole story is as follows : William and Margaret first
attracted public attention in a periodical called The Plain Dealer,
under date of July 24, 1724. Aaron Hill, the editor, added the
following note to the poem : —
" I am never more delighted than when I meet with an opportunity to
unveil obscure merit, and produce it into notice. . . . My having taken
up, in a late perambulation, as I stood upon the top of Primrose Hill, a
torn leaf of one of those Halfpenny Miscellanies which are published for
the use and pleasure of our nymphs of low degree, and known by the name
of Garlands, ... I fell unexpectedly upon a work, for so I have no scruple
to call it, which deserves to live forever ! and which (notwithstanding its
disguise of coarse brown paper, almost unintelligible corruptions of the
sense from the blunders of the press, with here and there an obsolete low
phrase which I have altered for the clearer explanation of the author's
meaning) is so powerfully filled throughout with that blood-curdling, chill
ing influence of Nature working on our passions (which Criticks call the
sublime) that I have never met it stronger in Homer himself ; nor even in
that prodigious English genius, who has made the Greek our countryman.
The simple title of this piece was, William and Margaret. A Ballad. I
am sorry that I am not able to acquaint my Reader with his name to whom
we owe this melancholy piece' of finished Poetry ; under the humble title
of a Ballad."
Thus the poem first reached the public attention dressed out with
Hill's " improvements," which practically destroyed its beauty and
strength. They were all made after the pattern of Augustan taste.
The next we hear of the ballad is in The Plain Dealer for
August 28 of the same year (1724). Hill writes that the poem which
he had published on July 24, he had supposed to be the work of
some old poet long since dead, but that he had been " agreeably
undeceived ; the author of it is alive, and a North Briton." At the
same time Hill printed a letter which he had received from the
avowed author (Mallet), though he did not as yet mention Mallet's
name. This letter expressed the pleasure the writer felt in having

APPENDIX II. 179
his " simple tale " published with so favorable a comment, and gave
a detailed and minute account of the circumstances which he said
inspired him to write the ballad. He wrote out a pathetic story of a
young girl who had been ruined and then deserted by her lover, in
consequence of which she died. Mallet said that while meditating
on this melancholy event, a scene from the play of the Knight of the
Burning Pestle entered his mind ; especially the lines repeated by
old Merrythought, —
" When it was grown to dark midnight,
And all were fast asleep,
In came Margaret's grimly ghost,
And stood at William's feet."
Mallet said this stanza was probably a part of some old ballad, all
the rest of which was lost ; but these lines coming to him while
thinking of the sad story of the dead girl, inspired him to write his
own ballad, William and Margaret. Along with this letter, Mallet
sent his own version of the ballad, which was the one Hill had found
and emended. Hill printed the letter, but refused to publish Mallet's
copy of the ballad, as he said the sense of the two versions was
the same.
All this important matter about Mallet's letter and Hill's August
number of The Plain Dealer, Mr. Chappell makes no mention of.
He must have been ignorant of it, for he says that Mallet afterward
claimed that he had founded his ballad on the stanza from the old
drama ; and Mr. Chappell adds very weakly, that Mallet can hardly
be supposed to have read Beaumont and Fletcher as early as 1724,
because they would not have been included in the curriculum of a
University education ! This argument tries to prove too much ;
instead of making Mallet a blacker villian, it only weakens the case
against him ; because we know that Mallet had read the play by
1724, and there is evidence to show that the best English authors
were at that time very widely read and imitated in Scotland.
Although Mallet did steal the ballad, there is no reason why we
should not give the devil his due. *
To resume ; the only copy of William and Margaret before the
public thus far was Hill's mangled version published in July, 1724.
Mr. Chappell says that its next appearance was in Allan Ramsay's

180 APPENDIX II.
Tea-Table Miscellany, published the same year. It is true that the
ballad did appear in Vol. II. of this Miscellany, in Mallet's own
version, and signed " D. M." But when Vol. II was first published,
is not so certain. There is good reason for assigning its date to
1725 or 1726, rather than to 1724. If we only knew exactly when
the volume was published, it might be of great service in tracing the
history of this ballad.
In 1725, William and Margaret appeared in Vol. Ill of the Col
lection of Old Ballads. This version is neither Aaron Hill's nor the
one published by Mallet. A'ccording to Mr. Chappell, it must be a
reprint from the original ballad published before the Knight of the
Burning Pestle. But as this copy in Old Ballads differs from
Mallet's version only in slight verbal changes, its publication would
not have excited much suspicion.
By 1726, at any rate, Mallet had the credit of authorship, for
Thomson, in the Preface to the second edition of Winter, alludes to
him as the composer of William and Margaret. In 1728 Mallet
published the ballad under his own name, along with his poem, The
Excursion, and in successive editions of Mallet's works it regularly
appeared. The proof of the forgery did not come till the year 1878, when a
black-letter copy of the old ballad of William and Margaret was
brought to light. This copy bears a Queen Anne stamp, and on this
sta?np rests the evidence against Mallet. In 171 1 an act of Parlia
ment was passed requiring stamps upon newspapers. This Act was
not meant to apply to ballads, and, as Mr. Chappell says, "they were
speedily excepted from its operation." This ballad is exactly the
same as the one published in Mallet's works, with the exception of a
few verbal alterations. It could not have been written by Mallet,
for he would have been more than a marvel of precocity to produce
such a thing at the age of eleven or twelve years. This Queen Anne
stamp completely disposes of Mallet's claim ; and thus it is altogether
probable that William and Margaret, as it stands, is one of the old
English ballads, and not an eighteenth century production at all.
In a case like this, where we know for certain only a part of the
facts, we naturally ask, How did Mallet's name come to be so firmly
joined to this ballad as to hold the credit of its authorship for 150
years ? This is largely a matter of conjecture ; but as everybody in

APPENDIX II. 181
possession of the facts has a right to amuse himself in constructing a
theory, it may not be out of place to suggest the following explanation.
We know that Hill published his disfigured version in July, 1724.
Mallet saw it in print and noticed that no one claimed its authorship.
Having the true copy in his own possession, he made a radical
change in the first line, with trifling verbal alterations in the other
stanzas, trumped up a story of the circumstances that led him to
compose the poem and sent both story and poem to The Plain
Dealer, taking care to withhold his name from the public. With
great cunning he himself quoted the passage from the old drama,
thus forestalling future criticisms on that score. Hill published
Mallet's unsigned letter, but refused to publish the enclosed version
of the ballad, probably because he liked his own improvements too
well to have them superseded. Then Mallet, wanting a publisher
for his own copy, handed it over to Allan Ramsay — who was
thoroughly unscrupulous in matters of authorship — and it appeared
in Vol. II of the Tea-Table Miscellany, signed " D. M." As no one
put up a counter-claim to Mallet, he grew bolder, and in 1728
published the ballad with his full name in a volume of his own verse.
Such seems to be a natural and probable account of what he did,
why he did it, and what the results of his action were.
Mallet never wrote anything in his life that can compare with this
ballad, and he never attempted anything in the same manner and
verse-form until 1760, five years before his death. He then pub
lished an original ballad in the same metre, called Edwin and
Etnma. No one has ever considered it worth while to dispute his
claim to this poem. It is indeed a silly piece of verse. Perhaps he
thought matters would look less suspicious if he had more than one
ballad to show for his work. But, unhappily for his reputation,
Edwin and Emma is like William and Margaret only in structure.
It is a ridiculous composition, highly artificial in sentiment and in
language. It has none of the spirit of the former ballad. A few
stanzas quoted from each will make further comment unnecessary.
William and Margaret begins as follows : —
" When all was wrapt in dark Midnight
And all were fast asleep,
In glided Margaret's grimly ghost,
And stood at William's feet.

182 APPENDIX II.
" Her face was like the April morn,
Clad in a wintry cloud,
And clay-cold was her lily hand,
That held the sable shrowd.
" So shall the fairest face appear
When Youth and Years are flown ;
Such is the robe that Kings must wear
When Death has reft their crown."
Compare this with a passage taken from Edwin and Emma : —
" Long had she filled each youth with love,
Each maiden with despair ;
And though by all a wonder owned,
Yet knew not she was fair.
" Till Edwin came, the pride of swains,
A soul devoid of art ;
And from whose eye, serenely mild,
Shone forth the feeling heart.
" A mutual flame was quickly caught ;
Was quickly too revealed ;
For neither bosom lodged a wish,
That virtue keeps concealed."
William and Margaret has an importance, independent of its
authorship, as contributing to the early hidden growth of the English
Romantic movement. Its great popularity in " the age of prose and
reason " shows that there was a love for poetry of this kind, however
much fashion condemned it in the abstract. For its introduction to
the public, we must be grateful to Aaron Hill — a pompous, short
sighted person — and Allan Ramsay — a sturdy, unscrupulous, half-
vulgar fellow. They builded better than they knew.

INDEX,

Addison, Joseph, his literary Whig-
gism, 7 ; his verses on Spenser,
49 ; compared with Shakspere by
J. Warton, 90 ; his criticism of
Chevy-Chase, 116 ; of Two Chil
dren in the Wood, 117; effect of
his critiques on Editor of " Old
Ballads," 121; his appreciation of
natural scenery, 167.
Akenside, Mark, his Pleasures of
Imagination, 39 ; supports Ed
wards, 45 ; his Spenserian imita
tions, 62 ; effect of his Pleasures
of Imagination, 93.
Armstrong, John, his Art of Pre
serving Health, 40.
Arnold, Cornelius, his Spenserian
imitation, 84.
Arnold, Matthew, his criticisms of
poetry merely a re-statement of
Hurd and Warton, 115 ; his view
of Gray's sterility, 155.
Atterbury, Francis, his letter on
Shakspere, 16; on Milton, 17;
his opinion of Pope's Arabian
Tales, 19.
Beattie, James, inspired by Percy,
'35-
Beaumont, M. Elie de, Walpole's
letter to, 107.
Bedingfield, Robert, his Spenserian
imitation, 73.

Beers, H A., his remark on Augus
tan Classicism, 12; on Gothic
architecture, 105.
Blacklock, Thomas, his Spenserian
imitations, 69, 70 ; his blindness,
69..
Blair, Hugh, his connection with
Macpherson, 146; his Ossian
dissertation, 151.
Blair, Robert, his Grave, 39.
Blank Verse, a favorite form with
the Romanticists, 37 ; its adoption
by Philips, 37 ; by Thomson, Dyer
and Young, 38 ; attacked by
Johnson and Goldsmith and de
fended by Young, 37, 42, 43, 44;
Perry's remarks on, 41.
Bowie, John, his " Miscellaneous
Pieces," 128 ; his accuracy, 129.
Boyesen, H. H, his definition of
Romanticism, 3.
Boyse, Samuel, his life, 64; his
religious poetry, 65 ; modernized
Chaucer, 65 -r his Spenserian imi
tations, 65, 66 ; copied Prior, 65 ;
his remark on Satire, 65.
Browning, Robert, obscurity of his
poetry compared to Gray's Odes,
161.
Brunetiire, his definitions of Roman
ticism and Classicism, 4.
Burns, Robert, admired Ramsay,
32-

184

INDEX.

Byron, Lord, explained by early
Romanticism, vi ; his poetry
Romantic in mood, i, 2 ; his
manuscript comments on Ossian,
'S3-
Cambridge, R. 0., his Spenserian
imitations, 61; his Scribleriad,
61.
Capell, Edward, his Prolusions, 127;
his accuracy, 128 ; his effect on
Bowie, 129.
Carlyle, Alexander, published Col
lins's Ode on Superstitions, 137.
Chalmers, Alexander, his criticism
of Thompson, 61.
Chateaubriand, his admiration for
Ossian, 153.
Chaucer, people ignorant of, 15 ;
modernized by Boyse, 65.
Chivalry, revival of, 102, in; T.
Warton's defense of, 112 ; Hurd's
letters on, 112, 113, 114.
Classicism, definitions of, see Intro
duction ; not merely a literary
fashion, 7 ; its reign not complete,
23 ; its true poet Pope, 47;
attacked by J. Warton, 91; the
Elegy shows Gray's transition
from, 160.
Cole, Rev. W., Walpole's letters to,
106, ill, 170.
Collins, William, a lyric poet, 95 ; a
Romanticist, 95; his Persian
Eclogues, 95 ; his Odes, 95, 96 ;
his Ode on Superstitions, 137,
i38-
Courthope, W. J., his analysis of
Pope's Essay on Criticism, 11.
Croxall, Samuel, a reactionary tend
ency, 23 ; translation of vEsop,
28 ; his poetical master Spenser,

28 ; his Vision, 29 ; his Fair Cir
cassian, 29 ; his voluptuousness,
30 ; his aim in poetry, 30 ; his
Spenserian imitations, 54; a poem
possibly inspired by him, 64.
Denton, Thomas, his Spenserian
imitations, 83, 84.
Dodsley, Robert, his Spenserian imi
tations, 68.
Donne, John, reaction against his
school, 9.
Dryden, John, Young's remarks on
his plays, 43 ; compared to Spen
ser by Hughes, 55 ; his lines on
Milton, 92 ; Gray a disciple of,
157, 158.
D'Urfey, Thomas, his "Wit and
Mirth," 120.
Dyer, John, his Ruins of Rome, 38 ;
Grongar Hill, 38 ; his Fleece, 40 ;
his use of the octosyllabic couplet,
42 ; his Fleece reminiscent of
Milton, 87; a pioneer in nature
poetry, 171.
Eastlake, C. L., his remarks on
Gothicism, 102.
Edwards, Thomas, a reviver of the
Sonnet, 45, 46.
Evans, Evan, his Welsh specimens,
144, 145, 146.
Finch, Anne, a reactionary tendency,
23 ; Wordsworth's complimentary-
allusion to, 27; her admiration
for Pope, 27; her love of nature,
28.
Fletcher, Phineas, his Purple Island,
59-
Frederick, Prince of Wales, Odes on
his nuptials, 56, 57, 61.

INDEX.

185

Gay, John, his opposition to the
Classicists not serious,. 35; helped
Pope in the Alley, 53.
Goethe, his appreciation of Ossian,
'S3-
Goldsmith, Oliver, preferred Par
nell's Night-Piece to Gray's Elegy,
26 ; attacked blank verse, 37, 42 ;
his ridicule of old poetry, 136.
Gosse, Edmund, his remarks on
Parnell, 25; on Lady Winchelsea,
28 ; on Croxall, 30 ; on Somer-
ville, 38 ; on Young, 100; on
Gray's Elegy, 100.
Gothicism, its unpopularity before
1750, 102 ; revival of, 103, et seq.
Grainger, James, his Sugar-Cane, 41 ;
Percy's correspondence with, 130,
134, 148 ; his attitude toward
Ossian, 148.
Gray, Thomas, his Elegy compared
to Parnell's Night-Piece, 26 ; his
sonnet, 44, 45 ; his remark on
G. West's Spenserian imitation,
63 ; his Elegy compared to J.
Warton's Ode to Evening, 92 ;
his Elegy the culmination of the
literature of melancholy, 96 ; Ma
son's relations with, 97 ; popularity
of his Elegy, 100; his remark on
the Castle of Otranto, 108 ; his
Romantic work disliked by Wal
pole, 1 10 ; deceived by Hardy
Knute, 125; his remark on P. H.
Mallet's Histoire, 139 ; his debt
to Mallet, 140, 161 ; to Evans, 146;
his enthusiasm over Ossianic poe
try, 148, 162; his sterility, 155,
156, 157; his admiration for Dry
den, 157, 158 ; his De Principiis
Cogitandi, 157; his Alliance of
Education and Government, 158 ;

his early Odes, 158 ; his Elegy,
158, 159, 160-; his Pindaric Odes,
160, 161; public taste for com
pared to that for Wagner and
Browning, 161 ; his Norse and
Welsh poetry, 162 ; his Observa
tions on English Metre, 166; his
praise of Milton's harmony, 166 ;
his proposed History of English
Poetry, 166 ; his prose remains,
their importance to Romanticism
and to the love of nature, 166,
167, 168, 169, 170.
Hamilton, William, his versification
of Shakspere, 16; a reactionary
tendency, 23 ; editions of his
poems, 33 ; his temperament like
Gray's, 33; influenced by Ramsay,
34 ; his Braes o' Yarrow, 33, 34 ;
his Wordsworthian spirit, 34 ; his
repression of passion, 35;*sum-
mary of his poetical significance,
35; his use of the • octosyllabic
couplet, 42 ; his " Contemplation '"
imitative of Milton, 88.
Harley, Earl of Oxford, his admin
istration satirized, 54.
Harley, Edward, his connection with
Prior, 52.
Harley, Lady Henrietta, inspired a
poem by Prior, 52.
Hedge, F. H, his definition pt
Romanticism, 3.
Heine, his definition of Romanti
cism, i, z.
Hemani, quotation from Preface to,
3-
Heroic Couplet, its tyranny, 36 ; the
early Romanticists not directly
opposed to, 36 ; the Spenserian
stanza its opposite, 47,

186

INDEX.

Hertford, Earl of, Walpole's letter
to, 107.
Hogarth, his Analysis of Beauty,
172.
Home, fohn, his Douglas, 137; his
connection with Collins, 137.
Homer, Youngs remarks on translat
ing, 43 ; does homage to Milton,
92.
Horace, the real master of English
Classicism, 13 ; Prior's remarks
on, 50.
Hughes, John, edited the first 18th-
century edition of Spenser, 54, 86;
his remarks on same, 54, 55, 56.
Hugo, Victor, a Romantic poet, 1 ;
his definition of Romanticism, 2 ;
his aid in French Romanticism,
47-
Hume, David, his letter about Black-
lock, 70.
Hunt,' Leigh, his remarks on versifi
cation, 56.
Hurd, Richard, his Letters on
Chivalry, 112, 113, 114 ; his oppo
sition to ballads, 134.
Johnson, Samuel, his love for town
life, 13 ; hostility to blank verse,
37, 42 ; his remarks on Prior, 51;
on A. Philips, 52 ; attacks Spen-
serianism, 60, 64, 81, 82 ; attacks
J>allads, 134; attacks Ossian, 152;
Walpole's dislike of, 161; attacks
Gray's Odes, 161.
Keats, John, his Romantic couplets,
1, 36-
Leland, Thomas, his " Longsword,"
108, 109.
Lloyd, Robert, his life, 80; an imi

tator of Prior, 80; his remarks on
contemporary fashions, 80 ; his
Spenserian imitation, 81.
Lowell, J. R., his remark on Collins,
137-
Lowth, Robert, his Spenserian imita
tion, 72 ; his lectures on Hebrew
poetry, 172.
Macpherson, James, his intention to
put Ossian into the heroic coup
let, 22, 152 ; his life, 146; his
"Fragments," 146, 147, 148, 149;
Gray's correspondence with, 148 ;
Walpole's opinion of, 149 ; his
"Ossian," 149, 150, 151, 152, 153,
154; was no Romanticist himself,
150.
Mallet, David, his opinion of Ham
let, 17; his connection with Arm
strong, 40; with Thomson, 177;
an imitator of Thomson, 40, 41;
ballad of William and Margaret,
see Appendix II.
Mallet, P. H, his Histoire de
Dannemarck, no, 139, 140, 141,
161; Percy's translation of, 140;
his apologetic attitude, 141; in
spired Percy, 142 ; inspired Gray,
161.
Mann, Horace, Walpole's letters to,
104.
Mason, William, a reviver of the
Sonnet, 45 ; his Musaeus, 69, 97;
his character and relations with
Gray, 97; his sonnets and imita
tions of Milton, 97 ; his tragedies,
98 ; his Runic poem, 98 ; his Ele
gy, ioi j duped by Walpole, 108.
Mendez, Moses, his Spenserian imi
tations, 77, 78, 79 ; his wealth, 77;
his admiration for Thomson, 77,-

INDEX.

1S7

Mickle, W. J., his Spenserian imita
tion, 85, 86 ; his remarks on
Spenser, 86.
Milton, Atterbury's remarks on Sam
son Agonistes, 17; imitated by J.
Philips, 37 ; his sonnets, 44 ; his
influence on sonnet revival, 45, 46;
a favorite poet with the Romanti
cists, 47; imitated by Mason, 69,
97, 98 ; his influence on Ridley,
7 1 ; defended by Lloyd, 81; the
model for T. Warton, 82, 93 ; one
of the great names in English
Romanticism, 87; his II Penseroso
most effective, 87; Addison's
papers on, 88 ; imitated by Ham
ilton, 88 ; by J. Warton, 89 ; effect
of his remark that Shakspere was
Fancy's child, 91 ; declared to be
superior to Homer and Vergil, 92 ;
imitated by T. Warton, 94 ; by
Collins, 96 ; his freedom of versi
fication praised by Gray, 166.
Minto, William, his remark on Wat
son's Song-collection, 119.
Mitford, John, his remark on Gray's
love of nature, 170.
Montagu, George, Walpole's letters
to, no, 156.
Montagu, Lady Mary, her opinions
of Achilles and Ulysses, 11 j her
Town Eclogues, 12 ; a thorough
representative of Augustan feel
ing, 1 5 ; her views on Theocritus,
18 ; her Turkish verses, 19, 20, 21,
22 ; her mental limitations, 22 ;
her connection with Pope's
Eloisa, 24.
Musset, Alfred de, his definition of
Romanticism, 4.
Ossian, see Macpherson.

Parnell, Thomas, a reactionary tend
ency, 23 ; his Hermit and Satires,
25 ; has real significance in the
history of Romanticism, 25 ; his
Night-Piece the forerunner of
Graveyard school, 26; his genuine
feeling for nature, 26 ; his Hymn
tJ Contentment, 26 ; his use of
the octosyllabic couplet, 27; his
Fairy Tale, 27.
Pastoral Poetry, insipid in England,
13. Ramsay's remark on, 31.
Pater, Walter, his definition of
Romanticism, 2.
Pepys, Samuel, a collector of ballads,
116.
Percy, Thomas, his friendship with
Grainger, 41 ; similarity of his
editing to that of " Old Ballads,"
122, 133; his Reliques, 129, 130,
I31. '32> T33- '34. I3S. T36; h;s
publications, 129, 130; his treat
ment of material for Reliques,
131 ; his tone toward the Reliques
in later life, 132 ; his apologetic
attitude toward ballads, 132 ; his
Essay on the Ancient Minstrels,
135; his translation of Mallet, 140;
his Five Pieces of Runic Poetry,
142, 143, 144; his interest in
Ossian, 148.
Perry, T S., remarks on blank verse,
41; on Boyse, 65; on Young, 100;
on Addison's appreciation of
nature, 167.
Philips, Ambrose, his Pastorals, 52 ;
supposed to be Editor of " Old
Ballads," 121; his Hive, 126.
Philips, John, his Splendid Shilling
and Cyder, 37 ; his influence, 37, 38.
Pitt, Christopher, his Spenserian
imitation, 70.

1S8

INDEX.

Pope, Alexander, his view of the
Metaphysicals, 9 ; his doctrine of
following nature, n; his dislike
for the country, 13 ; his remark
on the taste of the age, 14 ; his
Shakspere preface, 17; calls him
self Romantic, 18 ; sends Arabian
Tales to Atterbury, 18 ; his lines
in Thomson's Seasons, 23 ; his
work not wholly Augustan, 24 ;
his Windsor Forest, 24 ; his
Eloisa and Unfortunate Lady,
24 ; his desire to tell a fairy tale,
25 ; editor of Parnell's works, 25 ;
Lady Winchelsea's admiration for,
27; his Homer condemned by
Young, 43 ; representative of
Classicism, 47 ; his letter to
Hughes on Spenser, 52 ; his
Alley, 53 ; admired by Thompson,
57; influence of his Alley on
Shenstone, 67, 68 ; Dodsley's
lines on death of, 69 ; Mason
on same, 69; influence of
Alley on Pitt, 70; his influence
on Spenserianism powerful, 86 ;
admired by Walpole, in; Hurd
joined the Wartons in dethron
ing, 115; Gray's admiration for,
158.
Potter, R., his Spenserian imitation,
76, 77-
Prior, Matthew, his Spenserian imi
tation and Preface, 49, 50, 51; Dr.
Johnson's criticism of same, 51;
probable author of Colin's Mis
takes, 52; his influence on
Thompson, 59 ; his metre copied
in " Albion's Triumph," 69 ; imi
tated by Lloyd, 80; his influence
on Spenserianism powerful, 86 ;
his version of the Not Browne

Mayde, 118 ; the same ignored by
Capell, 128
Radcliffe, Mrs., her novels, 108.
Ramsay, Allan, a reactionary
tendency, 23; an editor of
Miscellanies, 31; his remarks on
Pastoral poetry, 31; his Gentle
Shepherd, 31 ; his originality, 32 ;
his Classicism, 32 ; his Songs, 32 ;
his influence on Hamilton, 33 ;
inspired by Watson, 119; his
Scots Songs, 119; his Tea-Table
and Evergreen, 123, 124, 125 ; his
editorial methods, 125, 126 ; casti
gates W. Thomson, 127.
Reeve, Clara, her imitation of
Walpole, 108 ; her Progress of
Romance, 109.
Ridley, Gloucester, his Psyche, 70,
7i. 72-
Ritson, Joseph, his attacks on Percy,
135-
Romanticism, history of never been
written, v ; spirit of never been
extinct in English literature, vi,
23 ; definitions of, see introduc
tion ; its three main elements, 5;
wider in connotation than Mediae-
valism, 5 ; 17th century traditions
of, 23 ; Pope's sympathy with,
25 ; has two aspects, 36 ; a living
force after 1760, 46 ; French R.
fortunate in having Victor Hugo,
47 ; had no real leader in England,
47; its true poet Spenser, 47;
Thompson filled with, 57, 58, 59,
60; Mendez poetry full of, 78, 79 ;
T. Warton's sonnets full of the
spirit of, 94 ; the literature of
melancholy a distinct note in,
99 ; Walpole's, 103 ; its progress

INDEX.

189

shown by Hurd's Letters, 112, et
sea. ; Hurd not hopeful about its
future, 114 ; Ramsay a remarkable
figure in, 126; the year 1765 an
important date in history of, 135;
importance of Collins's Ode on
Superstitions in, 137; Macpher
son's attitude toward, 150; Ossian
belongs to subjective side of,
152; Gray's movement toward,
1 57 ; Gray's early odes have noth
ing of the spirit of, 158 ; import
ance of Gray's prose in history
of, 166.
Romantic Movement, a real force
between 1725 and 1765, vi ; in
stinctive in England and conscious
in France, 5, 173 ; its effect on
Young, 44 ; its influence on the
sonnet, 46; Cambridge not
affected by, 62 ; Thomson's influ
ence on, 76 ; its strength in 1750,
82 ; its critical side, 82 ; the
fondness for abstractions common
in, 88 ; the Enthusiast one of the
most important poems in, 90; has
objective and subjective sides,
102 ; Walpole's services to, 103,
105 ; Watson holds an important
place in, 119; D'Urfey has little
significance in, 120; Capell has
real significance in, 128 ; Percy's
Reliques shows its unconscious
ness, 133 ; importance of Collins
in, 138 ; Gray's connection with,
see Chapter IX; the picturesque
in nature has close connection
with, 166 ; J. Warton's Essay on
Pope most important critical work
in, 172 ; unconsciousness of sum
marized, 173; the French com
pared with English, 173.

Romantic School, said to contain
Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, 1 ;
foreshadowed in Collins's Ode
on Superstitions, 137; its critical
defenders, 172.
Rossetti, D. G., his House of Life,
44.
Rowe, Nicholas, his service to the
ballad revival, 1 18 ; his use of the
word Romantic, 118.
Saintsbury, George, his definition of
Romanticism, 3.
Scott, Walter, explained by early
Romanticism, vi ; his classic coup
let, 1 ; a prominent figure in
Romanticism, 1; belongs to objec
tive side of same, 102 ; inspired
by Percy's Reliques, 135.
Selden, John, a collector of ballads,
116.
Shairp, J. C, his remarks on Ram
say, 32.
Shakspere, his " monstrous irregu
larities," 10 ; regarded as greatest
writer, but not understood, 15 ;
Atterbury's complaint of, 16; ver
sified by Hamilton, 16 ; criticized
by Mallet, 17; apologized for by
Pope, 17; Warburton's edition of,
45 ; praised by Edwards, 46 ; a
favorite poet with Romanticists,
47 ; admired by Thompson, 57 ;
copied by Upton, 72 ; compared
with Addison by J. Warton, 90 ;
alluded to in J. Warton's Ode to
Fancy, 91; defended by Walpole,
107; his Midsummer Night's
Dream ridiculed by same, in.
Shenstone, William, his School-mis
tress, 48, 74, 84 ; his influence on
Thomson, 74 ; on Arnold, 84 ;

190

INDEX.

his fondness for elegiac writing,
ioo ; his connection with Percy's
Reliques, 130.
Smart, Christopher, his Spenserian
imitation, 85.
Smith, Adam, wrote preface to
Hamilton's poems, 33.
Smith, Edmund, his Latin ode, 81.
Somerville, William, his Chase, 38.
Sonnet, disappearance and revival
of. 44. 45. 4°-
Spence, Joseph, his remark on Pope's
Alley, 53 ; his Polymetis, 72.
Spenser, Edmund, not taken seri
ously, 15, 48, 66; his influence
on Edwards, 46 ; the great poet
of English Romanticism, 47, 48 ;
his influence strong and healthy,
48 ; Prior's remarks on, 50, 51;
influenced A. Philips, 52 ; Steele
calls public attention to, 53 ;
praised by Hughes, 54, 55, 56 ;
editions of, 54, 56, 86 ; Thomp
son's remarks on, 58, 59 ; ignor
ance of shown by glossaries, 63 ;
Shenstone's attitude toward, 66,
67, 68 ; his influence on Ridley,
71; on the Wartons, 73 ; Thom
son's allusion to in Seasons, 74 ;
in Castle of Indolence, 75;
admired by Potter, 76; his
influence on T. Warton, 82, 83 ;
Denton's knowledge of, 84 ;
Mickle's remarks on, 86 ; ridiculed
by Walpole, in; T. Warton's
Observations on Fairy Queen,
m, 172.
Spenserian Imitations, very popular
in Romantic movement, 48;
Prior's, 49, 50, 51; really started
by Prior, 49 ; Pope's, 53 ; Crox
all's, 54 ; Whitehead's, 56 ;

Thompson's, 55, 58, 59, 60
Cambridge's, 61 ; Akenside's, 62
West's, 62, 63 ; Boyse's, 65, 66
Shenstone's, 66, 67, 68 ; Dods
ley's, 68 ; an anonymous ode, 69
Mason's, 69 ; Blacklock's, 70
Pitt's, 70; Ridley's, 70, 71, 72
Lowth's, 72 ; Upton's, 72 ; Bed
ingfield's, 73 ; Rev. T. Warton's,
73 ; Thomson's, 74, 75, 76
Potter's, 76; Mendez's, 77
Lloyd's remarks on, 80 ; his own
81; Smith's ode translated as, 81
Johnson's remarks on, 82 ; T.
Warton's, 82 ; Denton's, 83, 84
Arnold's, 84 ; Smart's, 84 ; Wil-
kie's, 85 ; Mickle's, 86 ; summary
of, 86 ; list of, see Appendix I.
Spenserian Stanza, a favorite verse-
form with the Romanticists, 37;
unlike the couplet, 47; used for
satires and comic poetry, 48 ; a
pseudo-form originated by Prior,
50 ; discussed by Hughes, 55 ;
Dr. Johnson's remarks on, 82.
Stael, Madame de, her definition of
Romanticism, 2.
Steele, Richard, his remarks on
Spenser, 53, 54.
Stephen, Leslie, his comparison of
relations between Milton, Spenser
and Pope, 8.
Stillingjleet, Benjamin, a reviver of
the sonnet, 45.
Surrey, Earl, his mythical expedi
tion, 55.
Swift, Jonathan, his religious atti
tude, 8.
Temple, William, his remarks on
Spenser, 49 ; on a Runic ode,
142.

INDEX.

191

Tennyson, Alfred, his Lotus Eaters,
75-
Thompson, William, his Romanti
cism, 57, 58, 59, 60 ; his Spenser
ian imitations, 57, 58, 59, 60 ; a
lover of Shakspere, 57 ; his blank-
verse poem, 57 ; his fondness for
Pope, 57.
Thomson, James, a powerful force,
23 ; his preference for blank
verse, 37, 38 ; his influence on
verse-form, 37, 38 ; shows classic
influence, 39; imitated by
Armstrong, 40 ; his Castle of
Indolence, 48, 74, 75, 76 ; his
allusion to Spenser, 74 ; imitated
by Mendez, 77 ; despised by Wal
pole, m.
Thomson, William, his Orpheus
Caledonius, 127.
Toreinx, his definition of Romanti
cism, 4.
Townsend, Charles, a friend of
Whitehead's, 56.
Tovey, D. C, his essay on Gray, 157,
Note.
Upton, John, his Spenserian imita
tion, 72.
Vergil, does homage to Milton, 92 ;
his style compared with that of
Chevy-Chase, 117.
Voltaire, his letter on the Queen
Anne School, 10.
Wagner, Richard, obscurity of his
music compared to Gray's odes,
161.
Wakefield, Benjamin, his Warbling
Muses, 127.
Waller, Edmund, compared to

Spenser by Hughes, 55 ; Augus
tans learned art of poetry from,
116 ; praised by A. Philips, 126.
Walpole, Horace, his relations with
Gray and Mason, 97 ; his import
ance in Gothic revival, 103 ; his
description of Grande Chartreuse,
104 ; Strawberry Hill, 104, 105 ;
his Castle of Otranto, 105, 106,
107, 108 ; his own literary taste
not Romantic, no; makes fun
of T. Warton, no ; at heart an
Augustan, in; his contempt for
Thomson and fondness for Pope,
in; criticises Spenser and Shaks
pere, in; his attitude toward
Ossian, 148, 149 ; his view of
Gray's sterility, 156 ; his connec
tion with the publication of Gray's
Elegy, 1 59 ; with Gray's Pindaric
Odes, 160 ; his dislike for Dr.
Johnson, 161 ; his remark on
Gray's fondness for Ossian, 162 ;
his beautiful attitude toward
Gray, 170.
Walsh, William, his advice to Pope,
13 ; his sonnet, 44.
Warburton, William, his edition of
Shakspere, 45 ; his opposition to
ballads, 134.
Wardlaw, Lady, author of Hardy-
Knute, 125.
Warton, Joseph, his Enthusiast, 12,
41, 89 ; his remark on Pope's
imitations, 53 ; his praise of Pitt's
Virgil, 70 ; publishes his father's
poems, 73 ; his praise of the
Castle of Indolence, 75, 76 ; a
leader of Romanticism, 89 ; his
imitations of Milton, 89, 90 ; his
comparison of Addison and
Shakspere, 90; his Odes, 00, 91,

192

INDEX.

92 ; the first consciously romantic
poet, 92 ; Hurd a follower of, 114;
his Essay on Pope most import
ant work in movement, 172.
Warton, Thomas (Senior), his Spen
serian imitation, 73 ; his Runic
odes, 141.
Warton, Thomas, a reviver of the
sonnet, 45 ; his Observations on
the Faery Queen, 82, in, 172 ;
his Spenserian imitations, 82 ; his
Pleasures of Melancholy, 83, 93 ;
a more direct follower of Milton
than his brother, 93 ; his New
market, 93 ; his odes and sonnets,
94 ; his History of English Poetry
ridiculed by Walpole, no; his
plea for study of chivalry, in,
112 ; Gray gives historical mate
rials to, 166.
Watson, James, his Song-collection,
119.
West, Gilbert, his Spenserian imita
tions, 62, 63, 64 ; his attack on
artificial gardening, 64.

West, Richard, sonnet on death of,
45-
Whitehead, William, his Spenserian
imitations, 56.
Wilkie, William, his Epigoniad, 85;
his Spenserian imitation, 85.
Winchelsea, Lady, see Anne Finch.
Wordsworth, William, his compli
mentary allusion to Windsor
Forest, 24 ; to Lady Winchelsea,
27; his condemnation of Gray,
45 ; his praise of Percy's Reliques,
135 ; Gray's Lake Journal written
in the true spirit of, 167, 169.
Young, Edward, a composer of
satires, 14 ; his defense of blank
verse, 37, 42, 43, 44 ; his Night
Thoughts, 38 ; shows classic
influence, 39 ; most conspicuous
exemplar of Graveyard school,
99 ; Perry's and Gosse's remarks
on, 100 ; his radicalism in poetry,
172.

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The volumes will be moderate in price, yet attractive in appear
ance, and as nearly as possible uniform in size and style. Each
volume will contain, in addition to an unabridged and critically
accurate text, an Introduction and a body of Notes. The amount
and nature of the annotation will, of course, vary with the age
and character of the work edited. The notes will be full enough
to explain every difficulty of language, allusion, or interpretation;
but they will not contain dissertations, philological or literary, for
which the passage annotated serves merely as a text or motto.
Full glossaries will be furnished when necessary. The introduc
tions are meant to be a distinctive feature of the series. Each
introduction will give a brief biographical sketch of the author
edited, and a somewhat extended study of his genius, his relation
to his age, and his position in English literary history. The in
troductory matter will usually include a bibliography of the
author or the work in hand, as well as a select list of critical and
biographical books and articles.
The following volumes have already appeared : —
Sidney's Defense of Poesy.
Edited by Professor "Albert S. Cook of Yale University. [Seepage 9.
Ben Jonson's Timber: or Discoveries.
Edited by Professor Felix E. Schelling of the University of Pennsyl
vania. ' [See page 13.
The following volumes are in preparation : —
Chaucer: Selections from The Canterbury Tales.
Edited hy Professor George Lyman Rittredge of Harvard University.
This book is intended primarily as an introduction to the study
of Chaucer, and incidentally, as a preparation for the study of
Middle English in general.

XX ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Old English Ballads.
Selected and edited by Professor F. B. Gummere of Haverford College.
The aim has been to present the best of the traditional English
and Scottish ballads and also to make the collection representa
tive. The glossary will be found full, but simple. The introduc
tion presents a detailed study of popular poetry and the views of its
chief critics, with notes on metre, style, etc. [Early in September.
Spenser: Selections from the Faerie Queene.
Edited by Professor F. B. Gtjmmere of Haverford College.
Specimens ofthe Pre-Shaksperean Drama.
Edited by John Matthews Manly, Professor of the English Language
in Brown University. Two vols.
The first volume will contain Miracle Plays, Moralities, and
Interludes; the second, Roister Doister, Gorboduc, and plays of
Lyly, Greene, and Peele. There will he a general introduction,
tracing the growth of the Drama from the Miracle Plays to Shak
spere; and each play will be provided with a special introduction.
It is believed that the matei-ials for the study of the growth of
the Drama given in these two volumes will meet the requirements
of all students except those whose business it is to know the whole
of the literature of the subject.
English Poets of the Seventeenth Century from Donne to Dryden.
Edited by Professor L. B. R. Briggs of Harvard University.
Milton's Poems.
Edited by Professor Kittredge of Harvard University.
Dryden. Edited by Professor L. B. R. Briggs of Harvard University.
Steele. Edited by Professor George R. Carpenter of the Massachusetts In
stitute of Technology.
Addison. Edited by Professor Barrett Wendell of Harvard University.
Selections from Swift.
Edited by Professor C. T. Winchester of Wesleyan University.
Thomson's Seasons and Castle of Indolence.
Edited by Professor Herbert Eveleth Greene of Wells College.
Gray. Edited by William Lyon Phelps, Ph. D., Instructor in English
Literature in Yale University.

ANNOUNCEMENTS. XXI
Goldsmith: The Traveller and The Deserted Village.
Edited by Professor J. A. Tufts of the Phillips Exeter Academy.
Selections from Johnson.
Edited by Professor H. Humphrey Neill of Amherst College.
Selections from the Works of William Cowper.
Edited by Prof essor James 0. Murray, D. D., LL. D., Princeton College,
Selections from Coleridge's Prose.
Chiefly from the Biographia Literana and Table Talk. Edited by
Professor J. M. Hart of Cornell University.
Coleridge's Poems.
Edited by Professor Francis H. Stoddard of the University of the
City of New York.
Wordsworth. Edited by Professor Edward Dowden of the University of Dublin.
Keats. Edited by Arlo Bates.
Selections from the Essays of Francis Jeffrey.
Edited by Lewis E. Gates, Instructor in English in Harvard University.
The selections will be chosen to illustrate the qualities of Jeffrey's
style and his range and methods as a literary critic. The introduc
tion will give a brief sketch of the history of Reviews in England
down to 1802 and will suggest some of the more important changes
in critical methods and in the relations between critic and public
which were brought about by the establishment of the Edinburgh
Review.
Selections from Landor.

Edited by W. B. Shubrick Clymer, formerly Instructor in English in
Harvard University.
Browning. , ,
Edited by the Rev. Stoppord A. Brooke, of London, Eng.
Tennyson. Edited by Henry van Dyke, D.D.
Arrangements are making for volumes of Milton's Prose, Sir
Thomas Browne, Jeremy Taylor, George Herbert, Temple, Pope,
Bolingbroke, Berkeley, Gay and Prior, Burke, Byron, Scott,
Shelley, Lamb, Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, De Quincey, Macaulay,
Carlyle, Ruskin, and others. The publishers and the general
editors will welcome suggestions as to authors or worKs that
should be included in the Series.

HIGHER ENGLISH.

[See also Classics for Children, pages 2 to 5.]

Lessons in English.

Adapted to the study of American Classics. A text-book for High
Schools and Academies. By Sara E. H. Lockwood, formerly teacher
of English in the High School, New Haven, Conn. 12mo. Cloth.
xix + 403 pages. Mailing price, $1.25 ; for introduction, $1.12.
Thanatopsis and Other Favorite Poems of Bryant.
Prepared especially to accompany Lockwood's Lessons in English.
12mo. Paper. 61 pages. Mailing price, 12 cents; for introd., 10 cents.
npHIS is, in a word, a practical High School text-book of English,
embracing language, composition, rhetoric, and literature.
It presents in simple and attractive style, the essentials of good
English ; and, at the same time, develops a critical literary taste,
by applying these rules and principles to the study of American
Classics. The plan provides for a course in English extending over the
pupil's first year and a half in the High School, the work being
preparatory to the study of English Literature as usually pursued
in schools of this grade. These " Lessons " include the most im
portant facts concerning the History and Elements ,of the Lan
guage, Common Errors in the Use of English, the Study of Words,
Rules for the Construction of Sentences, Figures of Speech, Punc
tuation, Letter- Writing, Composition, and Biographical Sketches
of the seven authors particularly studied, — Irving, Bryant, Long
fellow, Whittier, Hawthorne, Holmes, and Lowell.

Katharine Lee Bates, Professor
of English, Wellesly College, Mass. :
While the treatment of the various
subjects included is thorough, sound
and clear, the art of the teacher is
most happily displayed throughout.
English study guided by this volume
can hardly fail to be at once profit
able and delightful.
F. A. Hill, Prin. English High
School, Cambridge, Mass. : The book
opens to me like a very sensible,
practical and attractive book ; and I
may say that the author has hit the
nail pretty squarely on the head.
James Winne, Prin. High School,
Poughkeepsie, N. Y.: The more I

examine it and other books, the
more I like it. As yet I have found
no text that I like so well as Lock-
wood's. C. G. Dunlap, Prof, of English,
Kas. State University : I know of no
text-book on elementary English so
satisfactory to me as this. Any
student who masters it is soundly
prepared in elementary English.
K. E. Blackwell, Prof, of English,
Randolph-Macon College, Virginia:
I was so pleased with the book that I
put it into my preparatory class. It
has stirred more interest in the study
of English than any book I have ever
used iu that class.

HIGHER ENGLISH.

The Practical Elements of Rhetoric.
By John F. Genung, Ph.D., Professor of Rhetoric in Amherst College.
12mo. Cloth, xiv +483 pages. Mailing price, $1.40; for introd., $1.25.
rPHE treatment is characterized by good sense, simplicity, origi
nality, availability, completeness and ample illustration.
It is throughout constructive and the student is regarded at
every step as endeavoring to make literature. All of the literary
forms have been given something of the fulness hitherto accorded
only to argument and oratory. No important principle has been
presented without illustrations drawn from the usage of the best
authorities. Genung's Rhetoric, though a work on a trite subject, has aroused
general enthusiasm by its freshness and practical worth. Among
the many leading institutions that have introduced it are Welles-
ley, Smith, Vassar Colleges ; Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt,
Northwestern Universities ; and the Universities of Virginia,
North Carolina, Uliiiois, Minnesota, Kansas, Michigan.
C. F. Richardson, Prof, of English,
Literature, Dartmouth College, and
author of a History of American
Literature : I find it excellent both
in plan and execution.
Miss M. A. Jordan, Prof, of Rhet
oric, Smith College, Northampton,
Mass. : The critic is conscious of a
feeling of surprise as he misses the
orthodox dulness. The analysis of
topics is clear, the illustrations are
pertinent and of value in themselves,
the rules are concise and portable.
A Handbook of Rhetorical Analysis.
Studies in Style and Invention, designed to accompany the author's
Practical Elements of Rhetoric. By John F. Genung, Ph.D., Pro-
fessor of Rhetoric in Amherst College. 12mo. Cloth, xii + 306 pages.
Mailing Price, $1.25 ; Introduction and Teachers' Price, $1.12.
rpHIS handbook follows the general plan of the larger text-hook,
being designed to alternate with that from time to time, as
different stages of the subject are reached.
J. H. Gilmore, Prof, of Rhetoric, Whittenberg College, Springfield,
University of Rochester, N. Y. : This Ohio : Its actual use in class work
strikes me as a very significant at- has confirmed my former favorable
tempt to open a road that college judgment of it. It is not surpassed
students especially need to travel. or equalled by any other work m the
C. L. Ehrenfeld, Prof. English, same line.

T. W. Hunt, Prof, of Eng. Litera-
ture, Princeton College, Princeton,
N. J. : It impresses me as a philo
sophic and useful manual. I like
especially its literary spirit.
W. H. Magruder, Prof, of English,
Agricultural and Mechanical College
of Mississippi : For clearness of
thought, lucidity of expression, apt
ness of illustration, — in short, for
real teaching power, — I have never
seen this work equalled.

HIGHER ENGLISH.

Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature.
Designed mainly to show characteristics of style. By William Mimto,
M.A., Professor of Logic and English Literature in the University of
Aberdeen, Scotland. 12mo. Cloth. 566 pages. Mailing price, $1.65;
for introduction, $1.50.
rpHE main design is to assist in directing students in English
composition to the merits and defects of the principal writers
of prose, enabling them, in some degree at least, to acquire the one
and avoid the other. The Introduction analyzes style : elements
of style, qualities of style, kinds of composition. Part First gives
exhaustive analyses of De Quincey, Macaulay, and Carlyle. These
serve as a key to all the other authors treated. Part Second takes
up the prose authors in historical order, from the fourteenth cen
tury up to the early part of the nineteenth.
Hiram Corson, Prof. English Lit
erature, Cornell University : With
out going outside of this book, an ear
nest student could get a knowledge
of English prose styles, based on the
soundest principles of criticism, such
as he could not get in any twenty
volumes which I know of.
Katherine Lee Bates, Prof, of
English, Wellesley College: It is of
sterling value.
John M. Ellis, Prof, of English
Literature, Oberlin College : I am
using it for reference with great in

terest. The criticisms and comments
on authors are admirable — the best,
on the whole, that I have met with
in any text-book.
J. Scott Clark, Prof, of Rhetoric,
Syracuse University : We have now
given Minto's English Prose a good
trial, and I am so much pleased that
I want some more of the same.
A. W. Long, Wofford College, Spar
tanburg, S.C.: I have used Minto's
English Poets and English Prose the
past year, and am greatly pleased
with the results.

Minto's Characteristics of the English Poets,
from Chaucer to Shirley.
By William Minto, M.A., Professor of Logic and English Literature
in the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. 12mo. Cloth. xi + 382 pages.
Mailing price, $1.65 ; for introduction, $1.50.
rpHE chief objects of the author are: (1) To bring into clear
light the characteristics of the several poets ; and (2) to trace
bow far each was influenced by his literary predecessors and his
contemporaries.

HIGHER ENGLISH. y
Selections in English Prose from Elizabeth to
Victoria. 1580-1880.
By James M. Garnett, Professor of the English Language and Liter
ature in the University of Virginia. 12mo. Cloth, ix + 701 pages.
By mail, $1.65 ; for introduction, $1.50.
rpHE selections are accompanied by such explanatory notes as
have been deemed necessary, and will average some twenty
pages each. The object is to provide students with the texts
themselves of the most prominent writers of English prose for
the past three hundred years in selections of sufficient length to
be characteristic of the author, and, when possible, they are com
plete works or sections of works.

F. B. Gummere, Prof, of English,
Haverford College: I like the plan,
the selections, and the making of the
book.

H. N. Ogden, West Virginia Uni
versity : The book fulfils my expec
tations in every respect, and will
become an indispensable help in the
work of our senior English class.
Sidney's Defense of Poesy.
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Albert S. Cook, Professor
of English in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth, xiv + 103 pages. By
mail, 90 cents ; for introduction, 80 cents.
A S a classic text-book of literary aesthetics, Sidney's Defense has
enduring interest and value. Something of the character of
Sidney as a man, of the grandeur of his theme, of the signifi
cance of poetry, of sound methods of profiting by poetry and of
judging it, — ought to he disclosed by study of the book. In
the notes everything is considered with reference to the learner,
as far as possible ; and the point of view is not exclusively that
of the grammarian, the antiquary, the rhetorician, or the ex
plorer of Ehzabethan literature, but has been chosen to include
something of all these, and more.
William Minto, Prof, of Litera
ture, University of Aberdeen: It

seems to me to be a very thorough
and instructive piece of work. The
interests of the student are consulted
in every sentence of the Introduction
and Notes, and the paper of ques
tions is admirable as a guide to the
thorough study of the substance of
the essay.
Homer T. Fuller, Pres. Worcester
Polytechnic Institute, Worcester,
Mass. : I think every lover of the
best specimens of good thought and

good writing in our mother tongue
must confess his obligations to both
editor and publishers of such a
volume as this. First, for the breadth
and accuracy of the notes; second,
for the historical research and good
critical judgment displayed in the
introduction; third, for the good
taste and clearness of the type and
print ; and fourth, for the timeliness
of the appearance of a volume which
just at present calls attention to some
of the essentials of poetry.

10

HIGHER ENGLISH.

Shelley's Defense of Poetry.
Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Albert S. Cook, Professor of
English in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth, xxvi + 86 pages. Price by
mail, 60 cents ; for introduction, 50 cents.
QHELLEY'S Defense may be regarded as a companion-piece to
that of Sidney. In their diction, however, the one is of the
sixteenth century and the other of the nineteenth. For this reason
a comparison of the two is of interest to the student of historical
English style. But, apart from this, the intrinsic merits of Shelley's
essay must ever recommend it to the lover of poetry and of beauti
ful English. The truth which he perceives and expounds is one
which peculiarly needs enforcement at the present day, and it is
nowhere presented in a more concise or attractive form.

John F. Genung, Prof, of Rhetoric,
Amherst College: By his excellent
editions of these three works, Profes
sor Cook is doing invaluable service
for the study of poetry. The works
themselves, written by men who were
masters alike of poetry and prose,
are standard as literature; and in

the introductions and notes, which
evince in every part the thorough and
sympathetic scholar, as also in the
beautiful form given to the books by
printer and binder, the student has
-11 the help to the reading of them
that he can desire.

Cardinal Newman's Essay on Poetry,
With reference to Aristotle's Poetics. Edited, with Introduction and
Notes, by Albert S. Cook, Professor of English in Yale University.
8vo. Limp cloth, x + 36 pages. Mailing price, 35 cents ; for introduc
tion, 30 cents.
rpHE study of what is essential and what accidental in poetry is
more and more engaging the attention of thoughtful men,
particularly those occupied with educational work. Newman's
Essay expresses the view of one who was a man of both action
and theory. Besides this, the Essay is a notable example of the
literary work of one who has been considered the greatest master
of style in this generation. The illustrative apparatus provided by
the editor includes practical hints on the study of Greek drama in
English, an index, an analysis, and a few suggestive notes.
Hiram Corson, Prof, of English, multum in parvo bit of writing ; and
Cornell University. In its editorial the notes show the recherche" scholar-
character it's an elegant piece of ship of the editor.
work. . . . The introduction is a

HIGHER ENGLISH. 11
The Art of Poetry :
The Poetical Treatises of Horace, Vida, and Boileau, with the trans
lations by Howes, Pitt, and Soame.
Edited by Albert S Cook, Professor of the English Language and
Literature in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth. 214 pages. Mailing
price, $1.25 ; for introduction, $1.12.
rpHISVolume is intended to meet the wants of three classes of
teachers and students, those of Latin, French, and English or
comparative hterature. To the first class it will furnish the best
Latin metrical criticisms, ancient and modern, on poetry ; to the
second, a classic which every highly educated Frenchman is sup
posed to know by heart ; and to the third, an authoritative state
ment, by poets themselves, of the canons recognized in the
Augustan ages of Latin, Italian, and French hterature, and, to a
very considerable extent, in the so-called Augustan period of
English hterature, the reign of Queen Anne. Those who read
Latin and French will here find the originals, while those who
read only English are provided with standard translations. A
full index, containing lists of the Homeric and Virgilian passages
illustrated and a topical analysis of the threefold work enhance
its value for the class-room and the private student.

Bliss Perry, Prof, of English,
Williams College : The fullness and
accuracy of the references in the
notes is a testimony to his patience

as well as his scholarship. ... I
wish to express my admiration of
such faithful and competent editing.

Addison's Criticisms on Paradise Lost.
Edited by Albert S. Cook, Professor of the English Language and Lit
erature in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth, xxvi + 200 pages. Mailing
price, $1.10; for introduction, $1.00.
rpHE text of this edition is based upon the literal reproductions
of Arber and Morley, and, allowing for the modernization of
spelling and punctuation, is believed to be more correct than any
puhhshed in this century. The index is unusually full, and will
enable Addison's comments on any particular passage of Paradise
Lost, as well as on those of the ancient epics with which it is
compared, to be found with the least possible trouble.
V. D. Scudder, Inst, in English be welcome as an addition to our
IAterature, Wellesley College : It store of text-books.
seems to me admirably edited and to

12 HIGHER ENGLISH.
'What is Poetry ?'
Leigh Hunt's An Answer to the Question including Remarks on
Versification.
Edited by Albert S. Cook, Professor of the English Language and
Literature in Yale University. 12mo. Cloth. 104 pages. Mailing
price, 50 cents; for introduction, 60 cents.
(~)NE of the most delightful short papers on the subject of
poetry is this of Leigh Hunt. Its definitions, its quotations,
and especially its charm and spirit make it peculiarly valuable
for school and college use as an introduction to a course in poetry
or criticism. In this edition the quotations are conformed to the
best texts, which cannot always be said of the ordinary issues.
The notes are few and brief, and have, for convenience, been
relegated to the foot of the page ; in many cases they are merely
devoted to locating the quotations employed in the text, an aid
for which both teacher and student will be thankful. The index,
as in other books by the same editor, is a feature of the new
edition.
Analytics of Literature.
By L. A. Sherman, Professor of English Literature in the University
of Nebraska. l2mo. Cloth. 488 pages. Mailing price, $1.40; for
introduction, $1.25.
rpHIS book was written to embody a new system of teaching
hterature that has been tried with great success. The chief
features of the system are the recognition of elements, and insuring
an experience of each, on the part of the learner, according to the
laboratory plan. The principal stages in the evolution of form
in literature are made especial subjects of study.
It aims to make criticism begin on less vague and more exact
foundations. The discussion in each chapter is in the nature of a
condensed lecture before laboratory experiment and verification in
the topic treated. The text-pages of the volume proper are adapted
alike to students of higher or lower grade, and the treatment, so
far as left incomplete, is continued in notes provided in an appen
dix. To aid teachers not acquainted with laboratory methods,
hints and suggestions how to set the student at work for himself
are added to many chapters.

HIGHER ENGLISH. 13
Ben Jonson's Timber: or Discoveries ;
Made upon Men and Matter, as they have Flowed out of his Daily
Reading, or had their Reflux to his Peculiar Notions of the Times.
Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Feltx E. Schelling, Professor
in the University of Pennsylvania. 12mo. Cloth, xxxviii + 166 pages.
Mailing price, 90 cents ; for introduction, 80 cents.
fPHIS is the first attempt to edit a long-neglected English classic,
which needs only to be better known to take its place among
the best examples of the height of Elizabethan prose. The text
— the restoration of which entitles the book to a place in every
library — is based on a careful collation of the folio of 1641 with
subsequent editions ; with such modernization in spelling and
punctuation as a conservative judgment has deemed imperative.
The introduction and a copious body of notes have been framed
with a view to the intelligent understanding of an author whose
wide learning and wealth of allusion make him the fittest exponent
of the scholarship as well as the literary style and feeling of his age.
Edward Dowden, Prof, of English,
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland : It
is a matter for rejoicing that so valu
able and interesting a piece of liter

ature as this prose work of Jonson,
should be made easily accessible and
should have all the advantages of
scholarly editing.

A Primer of English Verse.
By Hiram Corson, Professor of English Literature in Cornell Univer
sity. 12mo. Cloth. iv + 232 pages. By mail, $1.10; for introduction,
$1.00.
fpHE leading purpose of this volume is to introduce the student
to the Eesthetic and organic character of English Verse — to
cultivate his susceptibility to verse as an inseparable part of poetic
expression. To this end, the various effects provided for by the
poet, either consciously or unconsciously on his part, are given for
the student to practice upon, until those effects come out distinctly
to his feelings.

The University Magazine, New
York: Prof. Corson has given us
a most interesting and thorough
treatise on the characteristics and
uses of English metres. He dis
cusses the force and effects of vari

ous metres, giving examples of usage
from various poets. The book will
be of great use to both the critical
student and to those who recognize
that poetry, like music, is constructed
on scientific and precise principles.

14 HIGHER ENGLISH.
Ewe Short Courses of Reading in English Litera-
ture.With Biographical and Critical References. By C. T. Winchester,
Professor of English Literature in Wesleyan University. Sq. 16mo.
Cloth, v + 99 pages. Mailing price, 45 cents ; for introduction, 40 cents.
rpHIS little book lays out five short courses of reading from the
most prominent writers in pure literature of the last three
centuries, beginning with Marlowe and ending with Tennyson.
The book contains also information as to the best editions for
student use, with extended and well chosen Usts of critical and
biographical authorities.
Le Baron K. Briggs, Professor of I much pleased with it. It cannot help
English, Harvard University : I am I being useful.
Synopsis of English and American Literature.
By G. J. Smith, instructor of English, Washington (D.C.) High School.
8vo. Cloth. 125 pages. By mail, 90 cents ; for introduction, 80 cents.
/~kNE finds here in every case the author's full name, the dates
of birth and death, the class of writers to which he belongs,
the chronological place of that class in the development of litera
ture, his most important works, his most distinguished contem
poraries, the leading events of the time, and, in most cases a few
clear words of explanation or criticism. of most valuable information in the

W. B. Chamberlain, Prof, of
Rhetoric, Oberlin College : Its clear
ness, compactness, and readiness for
reference must make it one of the
most useful tools for either teacher
or student. It gives a vast amount

most economical manner possible. A
very valuable feature is its correla
tion of literary with political and
general historical events. I regard
it as a decided success.

Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hamlet.
For the use of Colleges, High Schools, Academies and Clubs. By Car
roll Lewis Maxcy, A.B., Associate Principal and instructor in Eng
lish, Troy (N.Y.) Academy. Square 16mo. Cloth. 200 pages. Mail
ing price, 50 cents ; for introduction, 45 cents.
A VERY few notes have been added to explain passages which
would otherwise be unintelligible. The most famous quota
tions are grouped at the end of each act.
The Philosophy of American Literature.
By Greknough White, A.M. 12mo. Flexible cloth, iv + 66 pages.
By mail, 35 cents ; for introduction, 30 cents.

HIGHER ENGLISH. 16
The Best Elizabethan Plays.
Edited with an Introduction by William R. Thayer. 12mo. Cloth
611 pages. By mail, $1.40 ; for introduction, $1.25.
HPHE selection comprises The Jew of Malta, by Marlowe ; The
A Ichemist, by Ben Jonson ; Philaster, by Beaumont and Fletcher ;
The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Fletcher and Shakespeare ; and The
Duchess of Malfi, by Webster. It thus affords not only the best
specimen of the dramatic work of each of the five Elizabethan
poets who rank next to Shakespeare, but also a general view of the
development of English drama from its rise in Marlowe to its last
strong expression in Webster. The necessary introduction to the
reading of each play is concisely given in the Preface. Great care
has been used in expurgating the text.

Felix E. Schelling. Professor 6f
English, University of Pennsyl
vania: This has proved invaluable
to me in my Seminar. All profes
sors of English literature must wel
come such intelligent and scholarly
editions of our enduring classics.

Charles F. Richardson, Prof, of
English, Dartmouth College : The
book is an excellent one, intelligently
edited, equipped with brief and sen
sible notes, and introduced by a
preface of real critical insight. Alto
gether, it is well fitted for college use.

A Method of English Composition.
By T. Whiting B.' ncroft, late Professor of Rhetoric and English Lit
erature in Brown University. 12mo. Cloth. 101 pages. Mailing
price, 55 cents; for introduction, 50 cents,.
Notes on English Literature.
By Fred Parker Emery, Instructor in English in the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Boston. 12mo. Cloth. 152 pages. By mail,
$1.10; for introduction, $1.00.
rPHIS book is a departure from the ordinary mode of teaching
English Literature. It follows the critical, comparative, and
philosophical method of the best universities, and combines the
advantages of the tabulated synopsis of authors and books with
those of the critical literary history. History, polities, society, and
religion are studied with the proper perspective in relation to liter
ature and are made to show why hterature is necessarily charac
teristic of the age that produced it.
Leroy Stephens, Pres. Western with it in the value of the references
Pennsylvania Classical and Scien- by which history and literature are
tific Institute, Mt. Pleasant, Pa.: kept so closely linked together.
Nothing that I have seen compares

16

HIGHER ENGLISH.

Hudson' 8 Expurgated Shakespeare.
For Schools, Clubs, and Families. Revised and enlarged Editions of
twenty-three Plays. Carefully expurgated, with Explanatory Notes at
the bottom of the page, and Critical Notes at the end of each volume.
By H. N. Hudson, LL.D., Editor of The Harvard Shakespeare. One
play in each volume. Square 16mo. Varying in size from 128-253
pages. Mailing Price of each : Cloth, 50 cents; Paper, 35 cents. Intro
duction Price; Cloth, 45 cents; Paper, 30 cents. Per set [in box),
$12.00. (To Teachers, $10.00.) For list see next page.
QOME of the special features of this edition are the convenient
size and shape of the volumes ; the clear type, superior press-
work, and attractive binding; the ample introductions: the ex
planatory notes, easily found at the foot of the page ; the critical
Dotes for special study ; the judicious expurgation, never mangling
either style or story ; the acute and sympathetic criticism that has
come to be associated with Dr. Hudson's name ; and, finally, tho
reasonableness of the price.

Oliver Wendell Holmes : An edi
tion of any play of Shakespeare's to
which Mr. Hudson's name is affixed
does not need a line from anybody to
commend it.
Cyrus Northrop, President Uni
versity of Minnesota : They are con
venient in form and edited by Hud-
ion, — two good things which I can
lee at a glance.
Hiram Corson, Prof, of Rhet. and
Eng. Lit., Cornell University : I con
sider them altogether excellent. The
notes give all the aid needed for an
understanding of the text, without
waste and distraction of the student's
mind. The introductory matter to
the several plays is especially worthy
of approbation.
C. F. P. Bancroft, Prin. of Phil
lips Academy, Andover, Mass. : Mr.
Hudson's appreciation of Shake
speare amounted to genius. His
editing accordingly exhibits more
than learning and industry, — it re-
Veals insight, sympathy, and convic- j
tion. He leads the pupil into the |

very mind and heart of " the thou
sand-souled Shakespeare."
Byron Groce, Master in Public
Latin School, Boston : The amended
text is satisfactory; the typography
is excellent; the notes are brief, al
ways helpful, not too numerous, and
put where they will do the most good ;
the introductions are vigorous, in
spiriting, keenly and soundly critical,
and very attractive to boys, especially
on account of their directness and
warmth, for all boys like enthusi
asm. C. T. Winchester, Prof, of English,
Wesleyan University : The notes and
comments in the school edition are
admirably fitted to the need of the
student, removing his difficulties by
stimulating his interest and quicken
ing his perception.
A. C. Perkins, Prin. of Adelphi
Academy, Brooklyn: In the prepa
ration of the School Shakespeare,
Mr. Hudson met fully the capacities
and needs of students in our schools
and colleges.

HIGHER ENGLISH. 17
The list is as follows : —
*A Midsummer-Night's Dream.8 *Henry the Eighth.3
*The Merchant of Venice.i *Komeo and Juliet.3
*Much Ado About Nothing.3 *Julius Caesar.1
*As You Like It.i Twelfth Night.1 •Hamlet.1
*The Tempest.2 The Winter's Tale.2 *Eing Lear.2
King John. Richard Second. *Macbeth.2
Richard TMrd.2 Antony and Cleopatra.'
*Henry Fourth, Part First.1 *Othello.s
Henry Fourth, Part Second.1 Cymbeline.3
Henry the Fifth.2 *Coriolanus.3
Old Edition, paper, plays starred above. By mail, 20 cents ; for introduc
tion, 15 cents.
Hudson's Three-Volume Shakespeare.
For Schools, Families, and Clubs. With Introductions and Notes on
each Play. 12mo. Cloth. 636-678 pages per volume. By mail, per
volume, $1.40 ; for introduction, $1.25. The plays included in the three
volumes respectively are indicated by figures in the above list.
Shakespeare's Complete Works. Haruard Edition.
By Henry N. Hudson, LL.D. In Twenty Volumes, 12mo, two plays in
each volume. Retail price: Cloth, $25.00; half calf, $55.00. Also in
Ten Volumes, of four plays each. Retail price: Cloth, $20.00; half
calf, $40.00.
Buyers should be careful not to confound the Harvard Shakespeare
with an old edition made in 1851 and still sold hy another house.
fTlHIS is pre-eminently the edition for libraries, students, and
general readers. The type, paper, and binding are attractive
and superior, and the introductions and notes represent the editor's
ripest thought.
The first volume contains the Burbage portrait and a life of the
poet. The history of each play is given in its appropriate volume.
The plays are arranged in three distinct series : Comedies, His
tories, and Tragedies ; and the plays of each series presented, as
nearly as may be, in the chronological order of the writing.
An obvious merit of this edition is that each volume has two
sets of notes; one mainly devoted to explaining the text, and
placed at the foot of the page ; the other mostly occupied with
matters of textual comment and criticism, and printed at the end
of each play. The edition is thus admirably suited to the uses

18

HIGHER ENGLISH.

both of the general reader and of the special student. General
readers prefer to have explanations directly before them; and in
at least nine cases out of ten they will pass over an obscure word
or phrase or allusion without understanding it, rather than look
up the explanation in another volume or another part of the same
volume. Often, too, in case the explanation be not directly at
hand, they will go elsewhere in quest of it, and then find, aftei
all, that the editor has left the matter unexplained ; whereas, with
foot-notes, they will see at once how the matter stands, and will
be spared the labor and vexation of a fruitless search.
Mr. Hudson's notes are always fresh and original, aiming to
give the pupil such help as he needs for a thorough understanding
of the poet's meaning rather than for the technical teaching of
philology. It was always Mr. Hudson's wish to bring his students
into close communion with the author. If he could accomplish
that, his great object was secured, and anything that would tend
to distract the attention of the pupil to foreign matters he con
sidered a very great mistake. "While studying Shakespeare, his
desire was to understand him, and not to make him the subject
for the teaching of the English language.

OPINIONS OF NOTED SHAKESPEARIANS.

Horace Howard Furness : A noble
edition, with happy mingle of illus
tration, explanation, and keen, sub
tle, sympathetic criticism.
E. P. Whipple: Hudson's is the
most thoughtful and intelligent in
terpretative criticism which has,
luring the present century, been
written, either in English or German.
Professor Dowden : Hudson's edi

tion takes its place beside the best
work of English Shakespeare stu
dents. Dr. A. P. Peabody: I regard the
edition as unequalled in Shakespear
ian scholarship, and in its worth in
the library and for current use.
Prof. C. T. Winchester: It seems
to me, without question, the best
edition now printed.

Life, Art, and Characters of Shakespeare.
By Henry N. Hudson, LL.D., Editor of The Harvard Shakespeare, etc.
IiW vols. 12mo. 1003 pages. Uniform in size and binding with The
Harvard Shakespeare. Retail prices: Cloth, $4.00; half-calf, $8.00.
Besides the topics mentioned in the title, this work treats of the origin
and growth of the English drama and of Shakespeare's contemporaries,

HIGHER ENGLISH.

19

Other Works by Dr. Hudson.

See also English Literature Pamphlets below.
Classical English Reader.
Selections of the choicest prose and poetry from Spenser to Longfellowj
with notes. 467 pages. Cloth. By mail, $1.10; for introduction, $1.

F. J. Child, Prof, of English in
Harvard University : A boy who
knew this book as well as boys who

are good for anything generally know
their readers, might almost be said
to be liberally educated.

Essays on Education, English Studies, and Shakespeare.
Paper. 118 pages. By mail, and for introduction, 25 cents.
Text-Book of Poetry.
Selections from Wordsworth, Coleridge, Burns, Beattie, Goldsmith, and
Thomson. With Lives and Notes. Cloth. 704 pages. By mail, $1.40;
for introduction, $1.25.
Text-Book of Prose.
Selections from Burke, Webster, and Bacon. With Lives and Notes
Cloth. 648 pages. By mail, $1.40; for introduction, $1.25.
Shakespeare and Chaucer Examinations.
Edited, with some remarks on the " Class-Room Study of Shakespeare,"
by William Taylor Thom, M.A., recently Professor of English in
Hollins Institute, Va. Square 16mo. Cloth. 346 pages. Mailing price,
$1.10; for introduction, $1.00.
fPHIS volume contains, beside other interesting and valuable mat
ter, examinations on Hamlet (two), Macbeth, King Lear,
Othello, and The Merchant of Venice, with a Chaucer examination
set chiefly by Professor Child of Harvard University, and based
upon The Prologue, The Knight's Tale, and The Nun's Priest's Tale.
W. M. Baskervill, Prof, in Vander-
bilt University : We heartily recom
mend these examinations to teach-
Introduction to the Poetry of Robert Browning.
By William John Alexander, Ph.D., Munro Professor of the English
Language and Literature, University of Toronto, and formerly Fellow
of Ahns Hopkins University. 12mo. Cloth. v + 212 pages. Mailing
Price, $1.10 ; for introduction, $1.00.
F J Furnivall, Founder of the analysis of his limitations and their
original Browning Society : I think causes are the best and truest yet
yonr estimate of Browning and your made. {From a letter to the author.)

ers. They are full of suggestive
information. They will serve as
admirable models.

20 HIGHER ENGLISH.
English Literature Pamphlets.
A LL of these are printed in good type, on good paper, and have
been judiciously annotated for the use of students. All are of
12mo size. The first of the prices given below is the mailing price,
and the second the introductory. The name of the editor is iu
brackets.
Burke. [Hudson.]
I. Five Speeches and ten Papers. 20 cents ; 15 eents.
II. Life. A Letter to a Noble Lord, and eleven Extracts. 20 cents ;
15 cents.
Webster. [Hudson.]
I. Reply to Hayne, and six Extracts. 20 cents ; 15 cents.
II. Life, and extracts from twenty-five Speeches. 20 cents ; 15 cents,
Webster. [Montgomery.] First Bunker Hill Address, with Life. 12
cents ; 10 cents.
Bacon. [Hudson.] Life, and Extracts from thirty Essays. 20 cents;
15 cents.
Wordsworth. [Hudson.]
I. Life. The Prelude, and thirty-three Poems. 20 cents ; 15 eents.
II. Sixty Poems and Sonnets. 20 cents ; 15 cents.
Coleridge and Burns. [Hudson.J Lives, and forty-five Poems. 20
cents ; 15 cents.
Coleridge. [Hudson.] The Ancient Mariner. 6 cents ; 5 cents.
Addison and Goldsmith. [Hudson.] Lives, fifteen Papers from Addi
son, eleven Prose Selections from Goldsmith, with The Deserted
Village. 20 cents ; 15 cents.
Macaulay. [Montgomery.] Essay on Clive, with Life. 20 cents ; 15 cents.
Macaulay. [Montgomery.] Second Essay on the Earl of Chatham,
with Life. 20 cents ; 15 cents.
Craik's English of Shakespeare.
Illustrated in a Philological Commentary on Julius Caesar. By George
L. Craik, Queen's College, Belfast. Edited, from the third revised
London edition, by W. J. Rolfe, Cambridge, Mass. 12mo. Cloth. 400
pages. Mailing Price, $1.00; Introduction, 90 cents.
A N exposition in regard both to the language or style of Shake
speare, and to the English language generally.
Shakspere 's Versification.
Notes on Shakspere's Versification, with Appendix on the Verse Tests
and a short Descriptive Bibliography. By George H. Browne. A.M.
12mo. Paper. 34 pages. Price, interleaved, 35 cents.

HIGHER ENGLISH. 21
The Classic Myths in English Literature.
Accompanied by interpretative and Illustrative Notes.
Based chiefly on Bulfinch's Age of Fable (1855) , which has been adapted
to school use and to the needs of beginners in English Literature and
in the Classics, and iu part rewritten.
By Charles Mills Gayley, Professor of the English Language and
Literature in the University of California and formerly Assistant
Professor of Latin in the University of Michigan. OOmo. Cloth. 000
pages. Mailing price, 00 cents ; for introduction, 00 cents.
QOME special features of the edition are : An introduction on
the indebtedness of English poetry to the literature of fable ;
and on methods of teaching mythology.
An elementary account of myth-making and of the principal
poets of mythology, and of the beginnings of the world, of gods
and of men- among the Greeks.
A thorough revision and systematization of Bulfinch's Stories
of Gods and Heroes ; with additional stories, and with selections
from English poems based upon the myths.
Illustrative cuts from Baumeister, Koscher, and other standard
authorities on mythology.
The requisite maps.
Certain necessary modifications in Bulfinch's treatment of the
mythology of nations other than the Greeks and Romans.
Notes, following the text (as in the school editions of Latin
and Greek authors), containing an historical and interpretative
commentary upon certain myths, supplementary poetical citations,
a list of the better known allusions to mythological fiction, refer
ences to works of art, and hints to teachers and students.
The work is elaborately illustrated with a large number of
specially prepared new cuts and reproductions from the antique
and from recent authoritative publications. The whole work will
be found eminently satisfactory from both the literary and artistic
points of view, and as a manual of ready reference will prove itself
invaluable to classical and other teachers.

22

HIGHER ENGLISH.

Arnold's English Literature.

Historical and Critical.
With an Appendix on English Metres, and Summaries of the Different
Literary Periods. By Thomas Arnold, M.A., of University College,
Oxford. American edition. Revised. 12mo. Cloth. 558 pages. Mail
ing Price, $1.65; Introduction (with or without the following pamphlet),
$1.50.
The Anglo-Saxon and Norman Periods have been republished, from
the fourth revised English edition, and can be furnished in paper bind.
ing. Mailing Price, 30 cents; Introduction, 25 cents.
rpHE student of this manual will receive just impressions of the
relative value of names and books, as well as political and re-
dgious influences. Indeed, the adjustment and arrangement of ma
terial are managed with wonderful dexterity and analytic clearness.

H. H. Morgan, Prin. of High
School, St. Louis, Mo.: I should
most fully recommend it to any
one whose interest in literature was

that of the student ; for he would
find much which could otherwise
be obtained only by extensive read
ing.

First Two Books of Milton's Paradise Lost;
and Milton's Lycidas.
By Homer B. Sprague, Ph.D., formerly Principal of the Girls' High
School, Boston. 12mo. Cloth. 198 pages. Mailing Price, 55 cents; In
troduction, 45 cents.
rpHIS edition furnishes convenient and suggestive notes, with
excellent type and arrangement, and presents an approved
formula for conducting class exercises. It omits fifteen or twenty
objectionable lines.
William F. Warren, President o/lme admirably adapted to its pur-
Boston University : It seems to | pose.
A Hand-Book of Poetics.
For Students of English Verse. By Francis B. Gummere, Ph.D., Pro
fessor of English Literature, Haverford College, Pa., and formerly
Instructor in English in Harvard College. 12mo. Cloth, x + 250 pages
Mailing price, $1.10 ; for introduction, $1.00.
rTIHE book has three divisions, — Subject-Matter, Style, Metre.
Each is treated from two points of view, — the historical, trac
ing the growth of different kinds of subject, of expression, or of

HIGHER ENGLISH. 23
rhythm; and the theoretical, stating clearly the principles and
laws ot the matter discussed.
F. J. Child, Prof, of English, Har- I exceedingly fine book in Mr Gum-
word University : I think youhave an | mere's Poetics.
Outlines of the Art of Expression.
By J. H Gilmore, Professor of Logic, Rhetoric, and English in the
^l^ftVi-n,CtfSt^'N7- 12mo" Gioth- "7 pages. MaiCg price"
65 cents ; for introduction, 60 cents. 6 p !
Fulton and Trueb/ood's Works,
Choice Readings from Popular and Standard Authors.
Compiled and arranged by Robert I. Fulton, A.M., Professor of
Elocution and Oratory in the Ohio Wesleyan University and acting
director of the School of Oratory, Kansas City, Mo., aS' Thomas Cg
Trueblood, A.M., Professor of Elocution and 01^0^ in the Universe
Pre^nfn, iv"°' I29Pafes' By mail, $1.65 ;inWuction7Il50y
Presentation edition, stamped cover, full gilt, fine paper, $4.00 retail.
JTS distinctive feature is the number, variety, and interest of
the pieces, classified according to their character, and covering
the entire range of available selections. Indices are given to
the best scenes from all the plays of Shakespeare, 189 choice
readings from the Bible, and 159 hymns, —all classified. A com
plete diagram of the principles of vocal expression is added.
J. W. Churchill, Prof, of Elocu- of the authors has been very success
ion, Ideological Seminary, An- fully accomplished, both in the ex-
dover, Mass.: The excellent purpose pository and illustrative material.
Chart Illustrating the Principles of Vocal Expression.
Printed on extra tough paper, 36 x 60 inches, bound on the edges, and
mounted. Retail price, $2.00. Special introduction terms on application.
The College Critic's Tablet.
For use in Literary Societies, Lyceums, and Classes in English, Elocution,
and Oratory. 4to. ii + 174 pages. Tablet form. Mailing price, 70 cents ;
for introduction, 60 cents.
T"1HIS is a new idea on a new plan which has been thoroughly
tested in the class-room and literary society by the authors. It
enables the critic to keep his attention upon the speaker, gives an
orderly and systematic plan for criticising correctly and helpfully,
records these criticisms for future guidance, and suggests remedies
for prevailing faults. Full and explicit directions for use are
printed on the back of each sheet.

Tames W. Bashford, Pres. Ohio
Wesleyan University: The Tablet
will prove fruitful of suggestions and

frugal of time to every college critic,
The good teacher of elocution cannot
" keep school " without it.

108 HISTORY.
A General History.
For High Schools and Colleges.
By P. V. N. Myers, Professor of History, University of Cincinnati;
author of Ancient History and Mediseval and Modern History. 12mo.
Half leather, x + 759 pages. Mailing price, $1.65 ; for introduction,
$1.50.
rPHIS volume is based upon the author's Ancient History and
Mediaeval and Modem History. In some instances the perspec
tive and the proportions of the narrative have been changed to suit
a briefer course and students of less maturity ; but in the main,
the book is constructed upon the same lines as the earlier works.
In a word, this history is believed to combine all the quali*"_es
that such a work should possess, — a philosophic eye for the g -eat
line of development of the life of the race, not diverted by mere
incidents; candor in the treatment of all questions; a due sense
of proportion ; accuracy of scholarship ; a style transparent though
at the same time full of color ; and the quality of teachableness.
One feature of the greatest interest and practical value is this, —
the author not only brings out and keeps distinct the interrela
tions of things, but he notes and sets clearly before the reader what
each nation has contributed to the life and advancement of the
race, — and so to our present civilization. Among the methods
which will specially recommend themselves to teachers is the plan
of cross-references which bind the branches of the learner's acquisi
tions compactly and vitally.
It is only necessary to add that the book has been found to be
just about full enough, and that the text is fully supplemented by
the best of maps, by illustrations, indexes, and tables.
Its adoption in many leading cities and institutions after ex
tended comparison with other works and most thorough discussion,
appears to indicate that this work is destined to rank as the best
general history.

J. W. Stearns, Prof, of Pedagogy,
University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Wis.: Its selection of topics for
treatment, its conception of the rela
tions of parts to the whole, its grasp
' of what is most vital in the history
v ot the civilized world, together with
the vividness and vitality of the nar

rative make it the best textbook in
universal history for beginners that
we are acquainted with. It is well
equipped with good maps, and the
numerous illustrations have been se
lected with a view to their value as
elucidations and expansions of the
text*

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