a former dictum contradicted then. "It is observable, that sublimity of genius has been generally attended with a strong affection for the demonry of the ancient northern fable. Milton was particularly fond of it. It was the study of his youth, and the dream of his age. This passion seems natural. There is something sublime in the Celtic mythology,-in the idea of ancient hardyhood, and the feats of former times, that is peculiarly adapted to a natural grandeur of imagination. In the mythology of the Greeks every thing seems little, seems puerile in comparison. Hence Mr. Gray's strong attachment to every thing that breathed of the former. The hall of Odin was heaven itself to him (!!), and Ossian the very dæmon of poetry.' 1775. 9.99 "Nor long since," says CRADOCK, (vol. 1, p. 184)," I received a very kind message from the Rev. Mr. Bright of Skeffington Hall, in Leicestershire, to inform me that he had wished to deposit with me all the remaining papers and documents of Mr. Gray, as bequeathed to him by Mr. Stonhewer; but that he found they had all been carried to Rome inadvertently by a learned editor!" GRAY made a little book (of his own travels, I suppose), with delineations of woods, rivers, and remarkable buildings on each side of the road."-CRADOCK, vol. 2, p. 131. GRAY and Walpole wrote from Italy a little in the style of Erskine and Boswell. "I AGREE with you (George Montagu), most absolutely in your opinion about Gray. He is the worst company in the world. From a melancholy turn, from living reclusively, and from a little too much dignity, he never converses easily. All his words are measured and chosen, and formed BEATTIE gives a very amiable account of into sentences. His writings are admirable; him.-Life of Beattie, vol. 1, p. 65. THE notes to the two Pindarics, first printed in the Glasgow edition, Beattie thought more copious than were necessary. "But I understand," he says, "he is not a little chagrined at the complaints which have been made of their obscurity, and he tells me that he wrote these notes out of spite."-Ibid. vol. 1, p. 104. he himself is not agreeable."-H. WALPOLE. Letters, vol. 1, p. 194. "GRAY says very justly, that learning never should be encouraged; it only draws out fools from their obscurity.". Ibid. vol. 1, p. 407. "AND you know I have always thought a running footman as meritorious a being as a learned man. Why is there more merit in having travelled one's eyes over so many reams of paper, than in having carried one's legs over so many acres of ground ?"—Ibid. "My Lady Ailesbury has been much diverted, and so will you too. Gray is in their neighbourhood. My Lady Carlisle says, he is extremely like me in his manner. They went a party to dine on a cold loaf (?), and passed the day. Lady Ailesbury protests he never opened his lips but once, and then only said, 'Yes, my lady, I believe so." -Ibid. vol. 2, p. 159. "GRAY has translated two noble incan “GRAY never wrote any thing easily but things of humour. Humour was his natural and original turn; and though from his childhood he was grave and reserved, his genius led him to see things ludicrously and satirically; and though his health and dissatisfaction gave him low spirits, his melancholy turn was much more affected than his pleasantry in writing."-Ibid. vol. 4, p. 14. "Ir may so happen, that a writer, from a happy circumstance, may acquire a reputation as just as it is instantaneous. This was the case with the late Mr. Gray, who, tations from the Lord knows who, a Danish by his happening to be conversant in fashionable company, gained a complete cenGray, who lived the Lord knows when. They are to be enchased in a history of fashionable writers are most justly set in tury in point of reputation. For though English bards, which Mason and he are writing; but of which the former has not opposition to good, the very epithet implywritten a word yet, and of which the lat-ing that their works will not last, yet fater, if he rides Pegasus at his usual footpace, will finish the first page two years hence."-Ibid. vol. 2, p. 239. "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. Our human feelings, which he masters at will in his former pieces, are here not affected. Who can care through what horrors a Runic savage arrived at all the joys and glories they could conceive, the supreme felicity of boozing ale out of the skull of an enemy in Odin's Hall? Oh, yes! just now, perhaps, these Odes would be toasted at many a contested election."— Ibid. vol. 3, p. 234. Aug. 13, 1771. "I HAVE, I own, been much shocked at reading Gray's death in the papers. In an hour that makes one forget any subject of complaint, especially towards one with whom I lived in friendship from thirteen years old."—Ibid. vol. 3, p. 381. shion is now and then in the right, as well as other fools."-PINKERTON. Letters of Literature, p. 103. "I EVEN admire Mr. Gray's plan of wearing mustachios for a considerable time, to show that he despised every possibility of p. 264. ridicule."-PINKERTON, Lett. of Lit. 66 Lionel and Clarissa. 'Lady Mary. I have been telling him of the poem my late brother, Lord Jessamy, made on the mouse that was drowned. Col. Oldboy. Ay, a fine subject for a poem; a mouse that was drowned in a—. Lady M. Hush, my dear Colonel, don't mention it! To be sure the circumstance was vastly indelicate; but for the number of lines the poem was as charming a morsel;-I heard the Earl of Punley say, who understands Latin, that it was equal to any thing in Catullus." Young. WHAT Mrs. Carter (to Mrs. M. vol. 1, p. 72), says of Rousseau is more applicable to DEDICATION of the Brothers to the Duke "Swadling him by the light of his own rays!" of Grafton. wwwwwwm Steele. AN admirable description of flirting and cleaning windows.- Conscious Lovers, p. 54. Fairies. "A VIRTUOUS well, about whose flowery banks The nimble footed fairies dance their rounds BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, Faithful 32. "In her soft arms the boundless babe embraced." All this is full of Catholic passion. 59. The innocents "Vehicled in their own vital flame." The Milky Way their memorial. Lucifer and Satan are different devils in his poems. 86. The Abaddons. 112. Belzebub fermenting hell-as thunder spoils barrels of wine. The lines here alluded to are, "Ah pudet! et Getico scripsi sermone libellum, Structaque sunt nostris barbara verba modis. Et placui, gratare mihi, cæpique Poetæ Inter inhumanos nomen habere Getas!" Epist. ex Ponto.-J. W. W. 192. Poetry the language of man before | God has the caput mortuum of his age." the fall. 193. The Patriarchs made sacred pastorals and sonnets. 197. How the Curetes overnoised his cry. 200. Poets in heaven. 234. " Unappeasable as hell.”1 274. "Oft with his tears he ballasted his boat." God who always tenders hearts contrite. 276. "Men fierce as fiends they wor shipped." Edmund, p. 339. "Soon as morn rising on its wings of light Takes o'er the world its instantaneous flight." I think he had Chamberlain's lines in his mind, "The sun on light's dilated wings had fled To wake the western villagers from bed." Edmund, 291. "Hilda, who kept death always in her eye, He always writes massacre-the French In sickness nothing had to do but die. pronunciation. Vol. 2. With a sweet patience she endured her pain." 293-4. Hilda's death passionate, and at P. 5. "WHERE Beelzebub sits broiling the same time most fantastic.2 on his throne.” "On Asafætida the whole was built." 14. "Despair no disappointment ever No fear, surprize, or danger undergoes: 17. Mammon in a gold cage. 20. Dragon, and the remoras, and the sy rens. 23. Catching torpedoes. The storm. 69. The author's prophecy concerning himself by the name of Kennes. 76. Lines which Parnell has certainly imitated in the Hermit. 90-1. Satan disguising himself. 98. "Satan riding a snake,” and "Turning the brute's own sting to spur flight." Lucifer's palace. its Maggi's verse may be applied to Ken's devotional poems. "Belle d'affetti più che di pensieri." Tom. 2, p. 26. And these also, "Più che gl'ingegni alteri www Matthew Stevenson. AUTHOR of Norfolk Drollery, or a Compleat Collection of the newest Songs, Jovial Poems, and Catches, &c. 1673. So says Nichols-but this title seems rather to designate a collection. Robert Wolseley. YOUNGER Son of Sir Charles Wolseley of Staffordshire. The father was one of Cromwell's lords, and the son took an active and 129-30. Edmund released by natural honourable part in the Revolution. He went as envoy to Brussels in 1693. 2 The edition here referred to is that of W. Hawkins, 2 vols. 8vo. 1721. The copy before me is marked by Southey throughout. He gave it to me in 1834.-J. W. W. Frederick Calvert, Lord Baltimore. THIS odd man, whose character may well be suffered to sleep with him in the grave, published, 1. A Tour to the East, in 1763-4, with Remarks on the City of Constantinople and the Turks. Also Select Pieces of Oriental Wit, Poetry, and Wisdom, by the Lord Baltimore. London, 1767, 8vo. 2. Gaudia Poetica, Latinâ, Anglicâ et Gallicâ Linguâ composita. Ao. 1769. Augustæ Litteris Spathianis, 1770, surmounted by a baron's coronet, with the initials F. B. This is dedicated in Latin to Linnæus, who repaid the compliment with the grossest flattery. 3. Cœlestes et Inferi. Venetiis. Typis C. Palese, 1771, 4to. Copies of these last works, which are exceedingly rare, were in the collection of Isaac Reed. wwww John Glanvill.-Broad Hinton, Wilts, 1664. He published, 1. Some Odes of Horace imitated with relation to his Majesty and the Times, 1690. 2. Poems dedicated to the Memory and lamenting the Death of her late sacred Majesty of the Small Pox, 1695. 3. A Plurality of Worlds, translated| from the French, 1688. her funeral, September 16, 1656. Oratione funebri, à marito ipso, more prisco laudata fuit, is part of her epitaph. The copies of this pamphlet were industriously collected and destroyed. But Mr. Granger, who had seen one, was fully persuaded by it of her innocence. He published, besides this funeral oration, 1656, 2. A Panegyric to the King, 1660. 3. The History of Isoof Bassa, 1684, and translated The Venetian Triumph. On his return home from one of his embassies, he took the road along the coast of France, and in his audience of the King told him that the French were hard at work in raising a naval force, and pointed out the danger to England. Instead of attending to the intelligence, Charles severely reprimanded him for talking of things which it was not his business to meddle with. Bevil Higgons.-1670-1735. YOUNGER Son of Sir Thomas Higgons by Bridget his second wife; true to the Stuart family, he accompanied James into France. He published a volume of Historical and Critical Remarks on Burnet's History; and, 2. A short View of the English History, with Reflections Political, Historical, Civil, Physical, and Moral, on the Reigns of the Kings, their Characters and Manners, their Successions to the Throne, and all other remarkable Incidents to the Revolution 1688. Drawn from authentic Memoirs and MSS. 1727. Sir Thomas Higgons.-Shropshire, 1624-1691. ONE of the few Cavaliers whose services were rewarded after the Restoration. Charles II. knighted him, and gave him a pension of £500 a year, and gifts to the amount of £4000. In 1669 he was sent envoy extraordinary to invest the Duke of Saxony with the Order of the Garter, and about four years afterwards went envoy to Vienna. He married the famous widow of Robert Earl of Essex, and delivered an oration at John Evelyn.-Sayes Court, near Deptford, 1654-1698. SON of the Sylvan Evelyn. He wrote the Greek Poem which is prefixed to the second volume of his father's work, and translated Rapin's Gardens, Plutarch's Life of Alexander, and the History of the Grand Viziers Mahomet and Achmet Coprogli, and of the three last Grand Seigniors, their Sultanas and chief Favourites, with the most secret Intrigues of the Seraglio. 1677. 8vo. |
