ne had only our own dear Dr
entered upon the his-
education; showing
than guineas,

we

w it edgea good nd so at to those in return; Keep it. "I I love you all ine on purpose appily together! e spent a happy for ever bless you! He took his leave derness, we were quite Hannah's head stands tion and kindness of the I will venture to say noirt her hereafter. A literary (Sterne's daughter) sent to of her deceased father, begging e had written to them; among to Wilkes with the same request. wer, that as there happened to be dinary in those he had received, he I lost them. On which the faithful r father's works sent back to say, that if s would be so good as to write a few letters tion of her father's style, it would do just as and she would insert them.'

little effect. On the Sunday he was in good spirits and free from pain; but as the suppression still continued, Dr Cadogan became extremely alarmed, and sent for Pott, Heberden, and Schomberg, who gave es, the cup-him up the moment they saw him. Poor Garrick gratify stared to see his room full of doctors, not being connd a scious of his real state. No change happened till the Tuesday evening, when the surgeon who was sent for to blister and bleed him made light of his illness, assuring Mrs Garrick that he would be well in a day or two, and insisted on her going to lie down. Towards morning she desired to be called if there was the least change. Every time that she administered the draughts to him in the night, he always squeezed her hand in a particular manner, and spoke to her with the greatest tenderness and affection. Immediately after he had taken his last medicine, he softly said, "Oh dear!" and yielded up his spirit with a groan, and in his perfect senses. His behaviour during the night was all gentleness and patience, and he frequently made apologies to those about him for the trouble he gave them. On opening him, a stone was found that measured five inches and a-half round one way, and four and a-half the other; yet this was not the immediate cause of his death; his kidneys were quite gone. I paid a melancholy visit to the coffin yesterday, where I found room for meditation till the mind "burst with thinking." His new house is not so pleasant as Hampton, nor so splendid as the Adelphi, but it is commodious enough for all the wants of its inhabitant; and besides, it is so quiet that he never will be disturbed till the eternal morning, and never till then will a sweeter voice than his own be heard. May he then find mercy! They are preparing to hang the house with black, for he is to lie in state till Monday. I dislike this pageantry, and cannot help thinking that the disembodied spirit must look with contempt upon the farce that is played over its miserable relics. But a splendid funeral with such illustrious dust, and so many are desirous could not be avoided, as he is to be laid in the abbey of testifying their respect by attending. I can never cease to remember with affection and gratitude so warm, steady, and disinterested a friend; and I can most truly bear this testimony to his memory, that I priety, and regularity, than in his; where I never never witnessed in any family more decorum, pro

in 1777 Garrick brought out Miss More's tragedy

Percy at Drury Lane, where it was acted seventeen nights successively. Her theatrical profits amounted to £600, and for the copyright of the play she got £150 more. Two legendary poems, Sir Eldred of the Bower, and The Bleeding Rock, formed her next publication. In 1779 the third and last tragedy of Hannah More was produced; it was entitled The Fatal Falsehood, but was acted only three nights. At this time she had the misfortune to lose her friend Mr Garrick by death, an event of which she has given some interesting particulars in her letters.

'From Dr Cadogan's I intended to have gone to the Adelphi, but found that Mrs Garrick was at that moment quitting her house, while preparations were making for the last sad ceremony: she very wisely fixed on a private friend's house for this purpose, where she could be at her ease. I got there just before her; she was prepared for meeting me; she ran into my arms, and we both remained silent for some minutes; at last she whispered, "I have this moment embraced his coffin, and you come next." She soon recovered herself, and said with great composure, "The goodness of God to me is inexpressible; I desired to die, but it is his will that I should live, and he has convinced me he will not let my life be quite miserable, for he gives astonishing strength to my body, and grace to my heart; neither do I deserve, but I am thankful for both." She thanked me a thousand times for such a real act of friendship, and bade me be comforted, for it was God's will. She told me they had just returned from Althorp, Lord Spencer's, where he had been reluctantly dragged, for he had felt unwell for some time; but during his visit he was often in such fine spirits, that they could not believe he was ill. On his return home, he appointed Cadogan to meet him, who ordered him an emetic, the warm bath, and the usual remedies, but with very

saw a card, nor even met (except in one instance) a person of his own profession at his table, of which Mrs Garrick, by her elegance of taste, her correctness of manners, and very original turn of humour, was the brightest ornament. All his pursuits and tastes were so decidedly intellectual, that it made the society, and the conversation which was always to be found in his circle, interesting and delightful.”

In 1782 Miss More presented to the world a volume of Sacred Dramas, with a poem annexed, enand Johnson said he thought her the best of the titled Sensibility. All her works were successful, female versifiers. The poetry of Hannah More is now forgotten, but 'Percy' is a good play, and it is clear that the authoress might have excelled as difficult species of composition. In 1786 she puba dramatic writer, had she devoted herself to that lished another volume of verse, Florio, a Tale for Fine Gentlemen and Fine Ladies; and The Bas Bleu, or Conversation. The latter (which Johnson complimented as 'a great performance') was an elaborate eulogy on the Bas Bleu Club, a literary assembly that met at Mrs Montagu's.* The following couplets

* These meetings were called the Blue Stocking Club, in consequence of one of the most admired of the members, Mr Benjamin Stillingfleet, always wearing blue stockings. The appel lation soon became general as a name for pedantic or ridicu lous literary ladies. Hannah More's poem proceeds on the

dence we should have done had only our own dear Dr Stonehouse been present, we entered upon the history of our birth, parentage, and education; showing how we were born with more desires than guineas, and how, as years increased our appetites, the cupboard at home began to grow too small to gratify them; and how, with a bottle of water, a bed, and a blanket, we set out to seek our fortunes; and how we found a great house with nothing in it; and how it was like to remain so, till, looking into our knowledgeboxes, we happened to find a little larning, a good thing when land is gone, or rather none; and so at last, by giving a little of this little larning to those who had less, we got a good store of gold in return; but how, alas! we wanted the wit to keep it. "I love you both," cried the inamorato-" I love you all five. I never was at Bristol-I will come on purpose to see you. What! five women live happily together! I will come and see you-I have spent a happy evening-I am glad I came-God for ever bless you! you live lives to shame duchesses." He took his leave with so much warmth and tenderness, we were quite affected at his manner. If Hannah's head stands proof against all the adulation and kindness of the great folks here, why, then, I will venture to say nothing of this kind will hurt her hereafter. A literary anecdote: Mrs Medalle (Sterne's daughter) sent to all the correspondents of her deceased father, begging the letters which he had written to them; among other wits, she sent to Wilkes with the same request. He sent for answer, that as there happened to be nothing extraordinary in those he had received, he had burnt or lost them. On which the faithfuling, and never till then will a sweeter voice than his editor of her father's works sent back to say, that if Mr Wilkes would be so good as to write a few letters in imitation of her father's style, it would do just as well, and she would insert them.'

In 1777 Garrick brought out Miss More's tragedy of Percy at Drury Lane, where it was acted seventeen nights successively. Her theatrical profits amounted to £600, and for the copyright of the play she got £150 more. Two legendary poems, Sir Eldred of the Bower, and The Bleeding Rock, formed her next publication. In 1779 the third and last tragedy of Hannah More was produced; it was entitled The Fatal Falsehood, but was acted only three nights. At this time she had the misfortune to lose her friend Mr Garrick by death, an event of which she has given some interesting particulars in her letters.

From Dr Cadogan's I intended to have gone to the Adelphi, but found that Mrs Garrick was at that moment quitting her house, while preparations were making for the last sad ceremony: she very wisely fixed on a private friend's house for this purpose, where she could be at her ease. I got there just before her; she was prepared for meeting me; she ran into my arms, and we both remained silent for some minutes; at last she whispered, "I have this moment embraced his coffin, and you come next." She soon recovered herself, and said with great composure, "The goodness of God to me is inexpressible; I desired to die, but it is his will that I should live, and he has convinced me he will not let my life be quite miserable, for he gives astonishing strength to my body, and grace to my heart; neither do I deserve, but I am thankful for both." She thanked me a thousand times for such a real act of friendship, and bade me be comforted, for it was God's will. She told me they had just returned from Althorp, Lord Spencer's, where he had been reluctantly dragged, for he had felt unwell for some time; but during his visit he was often in such fine spirits, that they could not believe he was ill. On his return home, he appointed Cadogan to meet him, who ordered him an emetic, the warm bath, and the usual remedies, but with very

little effect. On the Sunday he was in good spirits and free from pain; but as the suppression still continued, Dr Cadogan became extremely alarmed, and sent for Pott, Heberden, and Schomberg, who gave him up the moment they saw him. Poor Garrick stared to see his room full of doctors, not being conscious of his real state. No change happened till the Tuesday evening, when the surgeon who was sent for to blister and bleed him made light of his illness, assuring Mrs Garrick that he would be well in a day or two, and insisted on her going to lie down. Towards morning she desired to be called if there was the least change. Every time that she administered the draughts to him in the night, he always squeezed her hand in a particular manner, and spoke to her with the greatest tenderness and affection. Immediately after he had taken his last medicine, he softly said, "Oh dear!" and yielded up his spirit with a groan, and in his perfect senses. His behaviour during the night was all gentleness and patience, and he frequently made apologies to those about him for the trouble he gave them. On opening him, a stone was found that measured five inches and a-half round one way, and four and a-half the other; yet this was not the immediate cause of his death; his kidneys were quite gone. I paid a melancholy visit to the coffin yesterday, where I found room for meditation till the mind "burst with thinking." His new house is not so pleasant as Hampton, nor so splendid as the Adelphi, but it is commodious enough for all the wants of its inhabitant; and besides, it is so quiet that he never will be disturbed till the eternal mornown be heard. May he then find mercy! They are preparing to hang the house with black, for he is to lie in state till Monday. I dislike this pageantry, and cannot help thinking that the disembodied spirit must look with contempt upon the farce that is played could not be avoided, as he is to be laid in the abbey over its miserable relics. But a splendid funeral with such illustrious dust, and so many are desirous of testifying their respect by attending. I can never cease to remember with affection and gratitude so warin, steady, and disinterested a friend ; and I can most truly bear this testimony to his memory, that I priety, and regularity, than in his; where I never never witnessed in any family more decorum, prosaw a card, nor even met (except in one instance) person of his own profession at his table, of which Mrs Garrick, by her elegance of taste, her correctness of manners, and very original turn of humour, was the brightest ornament. All his pursuits and tastes were so decidedly intellectual, that it made the society, and the conversation which was always to be found in his circle, interesting and delightful.'

In 1782 Miss More presented to the world a volume of Sacred Dramas, with a poem annexed, enand Johnson said he thought her the best of the titled_Sensibility. All her works were successful, female versifiers. The poetry of Hannah More is now forgotten, but 'Percy' is a good play, and it is clear that the authoress might have excelled as difficult species of composition. In 1786 she published another volume of verse, Florio, a Tale for Fine Gentlemen and Fine Ladies; and The Bas Bleu, or Conversation. The latter (which Johnson complimented as 'a great performance') was an elaborate eulogy on the Bas Bleu Club, a literary assembly that met at Mrs Montagu's. The following couplets

a dramatic writer, had she devoted herself to that

* These meetings were called the Blue Stocking Club, in consequence of one of the most admired of the members, Mr Benjamin Stillingfleet, always wearing blue stockings. The appellation soon became general as a name for pedantic or ridicu. lous literary ladies. Hannah More's poem proceeds on the

have been quoted and remembered as terse and tual cultivation, from the palace to the cottage, it pointed:

'In men this blunder still you find,
All think their little set mankind.'
'Small habits well pursued betimes,
May reach the dignity of crimes.'

Such lines mark the good sense and keen observa-
tion of the writer, and these qualities Hannah now
resolved to devote exclusively to high objects. The
gay life of the fashionable world had lost its charms,
and, having published her 'Bas Bleu,' she retired to
a small cottage and garden near Bristol, where her
sisters kept a flourishing boarding-school. Her first
prose publication was Thoughts on the Importance of
the Manners of the Great to General Society, produced
in 1788. This was followed in 1791 by an Estimate
of the Religion of the Fashionable World.
As a
means of counteracting the political tracts and exer-

is impossible not to rank her among the best benefactors of mankind.

The great success of the different works of our authoress enabled her to live in ease, and to dispense charities around her. Her sisters also secured a competency, and they all lived together at Barley Grove, a property of some extent which they purchased and improved. From the day that the school was given up, the existence of the whole sisterhood appears to have flowed on in one uniform current of peace and contentment, diversified only by new appearances of Hannah as an authoress, and the 1, ups and downs which she and the others met with in the prosecution of a most brave and humane experiment-namely, their zealous effort to extend the blessings of education and religion among the inhabitants of certain villages situated in a wild country some eight or ten miles from their abode. tions of the Jacobins and levellers, Hannah More, who, from a concurrence of unhappy local and temin 1794, wrote a number of tales, published monthly porary circumstances, had been left in a state of under the title of The Cheap Repository, which at- These exertions were ultimately so successful, that ignorance hardly conceivable at the present day. tained to a sale of about a million each number. the sisterhood had the gratification of witnessing a Some of the little stories (as the Shepherd of yearly festival celebrated on the hills of Cheddar, Salisbury Plain') are well told, and contain striking where above a thousand children, with the members moral and religious lessons. With the same object, of female clubs of industry (also established by our authoress published a volume called Village them), after attending church service, were regaled Politics. Her other principal works are-Strictures at the expense of their benefactors. Hannah More on the Modern System of Female Education, 1799; died on the 7th of September 1833, aged eightyHints towards Forming the Character of a Young Prin- eight. She had made about £30,000 by her writcess, 1805; Calebs in Search of a Wife, comprehend-ings, and she left, by her will, legacies to charitable ing Observations on Domestic Habits and Manners, Religion and Morals, two volumes, 1809; Practical Piety, or the Influence of the Religion of the Heart on the Conduct of Life, two volumes, 1811; Christian Morals, two volumes, 1812; Essay on the Character and Writings of St Paul, two volumes, 1815; and Moral Sketches of Prevailing Opinions and Manners, Foreign and Domestic, with Reflections on Prayer, 1819. The collection of her works is comprised in eleven volumes octavo. The work entitled Hints towards

Forming the Character of a Young Princess,' was written with a view to the education of the Princess Charlotte, on which subject the advice and assistance of Hannah More had been requested by Queen Charlotte. Of Colebs,' we are told that ten editions were sold in one year-a remarkable proof of the popularity of the work. The tale is admirably written, with a fine vein of delicate irony and sarcasm, and some of the characters are well depicted, but, from the nature of the story, it presents few incidents or embellishments to attract ordinary novel readers. It has not inaptly been styled 'a dramatic sermon.' Of the other publications of the authoress, we may say, with one of her critics, 'it would be idle in us to dwell on works so well known as the "Thoughts on the Manners of the Great," the "Essay on the Religion of the Fashionable World," and so on, which finally established Miss More's name as a great moral writer, possessing a masterly command over the resources of our language, and devoting a keen wit and a lively fancy to the best and noblest of purposes.' In her latter days there was perhaps a tincture of unnecessary gloom or severity in her religious views; yet, when we recollect her unfeigned sincerity and practical benevolence-her exertions to instruct the poor miners and cottagers-and the untiring zeal with which she laboured, even amidst severe bodily infirmities, to inculcate sound principles and intellec

mistake of a foreigner, who, hearing of the Blue Stocking Club, translated it literally Bas Bleu.' Byron wrote a light satirical sketch of the Blues of his day-the frequenters of the London saloons-but it is unworthy of his genius.

and religious institutions amounting to £10,000.

In 1834, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs Hannah More, by William Roberts, Esq., were published in four volumes. In these we have a full account by Hannah herself of her London life, and many interesting anecdotes.

LADY MORGAN.

She

LADY MORGAN (Sidney Owenson) has, during the last thirty or forty years, written in various departments of literature-in poetry, the drama, novels, biography, ethics, politics, and books of travels. Whether she has written any one book that will become a standard portion of our literature, is doubtful, but we are indebted to her pen for a number of clever lively national sketches and anecdotes. has fought her way to distinction, self-educated, in the midst of raillery, sarcasm, and vituperation, provoked on the one hand by her careless and bold avowal of liberal opinions on questions of politics and the minor morals' of life, and on the other by her ill-concealed worship of the fashions and follies of the great, which has led her democratic friends to pronounce the pretty severe opinion, that there is not a pernicious vanity or affectation belonging to tuft-hunting or modishness, which she does not labour to confirm and strengthen by precept, sentiment, and her own goodly example.'t If Lady Morgan has not always taste, she has talent; if she has not always delicacy, she speaks boldly and freely; if she has got into the society of the great (the reputation of her writings, like those of Swift, doing the office of a blue ribbon or of a coach-and-six'), she has told us all she knows about them. She has been as liberal of satire and sarcasm as of adulation. She has a masculine disregard of common opinion or censure, and a temperament, as she herself states, 'as cheery and genial as ever went to that strange medley of pathos and humour-the Irish character." Mr Owenson, the father of our authoress, was a

* Quarterly Review, 1834.

+ Westminster Review, Oct. 1829.

respectable actor, a favourite in the society of Dub- niscences); Woman and her Master (a philosophical lin, and author of some popular Irish songs. His history of woman down to the fall of the Roman daughter inherited his predilection for national empire); and various other shorter publications. In music and song. Very early in life she published | 1841 Lady Morgan published, in conjunction with a small volume of poetical effusions, and afterwards her husband, Sir T. C. Morgan, M.D. (author of The Lay of the Irish Harp, and a selection of twelve Sketches of the Philosophy of Life and Morals, &c.), Irish melodies, with music. One of these is the two volumes, collected from the portfolios of the popular song of Kate Kearney, and we question writers, and stray sketches which had previously whether this lyric will not outlive all Lady Morgan's appeared in periodicals, entitling the collection The other lucubrations. While still in her teens, Miss Book Without a Name. In reviewing the literary Owenson became a novelist. She published succes-progress of Lady Morgan, one of her friendly admisively St Clair, The Novice of St Dominick, and rers (Mr Henry F. Chorley) has the following obserThe Wild Irish Girl. These works evinced a fer- vations:vid imagination, though little acquaintance with either art or nature. The Wild Irish Girl' was exceedingly popular, and went through seven editions in two years.

*

"The strong national enthusiasm of childhood, at once somewhat indiscriminate in its warmth and limited in its scope, will be seen to have ended in fearless and decided political partisanship, in the espousing of ultra-liberal doctrines, abroad as well as at home. But let us quote Lady Morgan's own words from the preface to the last edition of O'Donnel. "After all, however," says she, "if I became that reviled but now very fashionable personage, a female politician, it was much in the same way as the Bourgeois Gentilhomme spoke prose without knowing it, a circumstance perhaps not uncommon with Irish writers. For myself at least, born and dwelling in Ireland amidst my countrymen and their sufferings, I saw and I described, I felt and I pleaded: and if a political bias was ultimately taken, it originated in the natural condition of things, and not in malice aforethought' of the writer." In each successive novel, too, the characters will be found more and more boldly contrasted, the scenes prepared and arranged with finer artifice. If we cannot but note the strong family likeness which exists between all their plots, through every one of which a brilliant and devoted woman flits in masquerade, now to win a lover, now to save a friend, now to make a proselyte, we must also insist upon the living nature of many of their dramatis persona, especially the broadly comic ones, instancing the Crawleys (" Florence Macarthy"), and Lieutenant O'Mealy ("The O'Briens"), and Lawrence Fegan and Sir Ignatius Dogherty (“ The Princess"), and upon the thousand indications scattered here and there with apparent artlessness, but real design, which prove that though their writer loves to float upon the surface of life and society, she can at will dive into their depths, and bring up truths new and valuable.'

Miss Owenson continued her labours as a novelist. Patriotic Sketches, Ida, and The Missionary, were her next works. O'Donnel soon followed, and was succeeded by Florence Macarthy, an Irish Tale (1818), and The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys (1827). In these works our authoress departed from the beaten track of sentimental novels, and ventured, like Miss Edgeworth, to portray national manners. We have the high authority of Sir Walter Scott for the opinion, that 'O'Donnel,' though deficient as a story, has some striking and beautiful passages of situation and description, and in the comic part is very rich and entertaining.' Lady Morgan's sketches of Irish manners are not always pleasing. Her high-toned society is disfigured with grossness and profligacy, and her subordinate characters are often caricatured. The vivacity and variety of these delineations constitute one of their attractions: if not always true, they are lively; for it was justly said, that whether it is a review of volunteers in the Phoenix Park, or a party at the Castle, or a masquerade, a meeting of United Irishmen, a riot in Dublin, or a jug-day at Bog-Moy-in every change of scene and situation our authoress wields the pen of a ready writer.' One complaint against these Irish sketches was their personality, the authoress indicating that some of her portraits at the vice-regal court, and those moving in the best society' of Dublin, were intended for well-known characters. Their conversation is often a sad jargon of prurient allusion, comments on dress, and quotations in French and Italian, with which almost every page is patched and disfigured. The unfashionable characters and descriptions-even the rapparees, and the lowest of the old Irish natives, are infinitely more entertaining than these offshoots of the aristocracy, as painted by Lady Morgan. In the summer of 1816, Lord Byron and Mr and Her strength evidently lies in describing the broad Mrs Shelley were residing on the banks of the Lake characteristics of her nation, their boundless mirth, of Geneva. They were in habits of daily intercourse, their old customs, their love of frolic, and their wild and when the weather did not allow of their boating grief at scenes of death and calamity. The other excursions on the lake, the Shelleys often passed works of our authoress are France and Italy, con- their evenings with Byron at his house at Diodati. taining dissertations on the state of society, man- 'During a week of rain at this time,' says Mr Moore, ners, literature, government, &c. of those nations:having amused themselves with reading German these are written in a bold sketchy style, and with ghost-stories, they agreed at last to write something many gross faults, they are spirited, acute, and en- in imitation of them. "You and I," said Lord Byron tertaining. Lord Byron has borne testimony to the to Mrs Shelley, "will publish ours together." He then fidelity and excellence of Italy; and if the autho-began his tale of the Vampire; and having the whole ress had been less ambitious of being always fine arranged in his head, repeated to them a sketch of the and striking,' and less solicitous to display her story one evening, but from the narrative being in reading and high company, she might have been prose, made but little progress in filling up his outone of the most agreeable of tourists and observers. line. The most memorable result, indeed, of their Besides these works, Lady Morgan has given to the story-telling compact, was Mrs Shelley's wild and world The Princess (a tale founded on the revolution powerful romance of Frankenstein-one of those oriin Belgium); Dramatic Scenes from Real Life (very ginal conceptions that take hold of the public mind poor in matter, and affected in style); The Life and at once and for ever.' 'Frankenstein' was published Times of Salvator Rosa, two volumes; The Book of in 1817, and was instantly recognised as worthy of the Boudoir (autobiographical sketches and remi- Godwin's daughter and Shelley's wife, and as, in fact,

MRS SHELLEY.