'broke out like the Irish rebellion, threescore thousand strong, when nobody was aware, or in the least expected it! The 'Sophy' must, however, upon critical examination, be acknowledged not to rise, in intrinsic merit, above mediocrity. Soon after the publication of his tragedy, Denham was made sheriff of Surrey, and governor of Farnham Castle for the king; but not being skilled in military affairs, he relinquished that post, and retired to Oxford, where his majesty then held his court. At Oxford, in 1643, he wrote Cooper's Hill-the poem upon which his poetic reputation mainly rests-A poem,' says Dryden, which for majesty of style, is, and ever will be, the standard of good writing.' In 1648, Denham conveyed James, Duke of York, to France, and in consequence of his connection with the royal family, his estate was sold, during his absence, by order of Parliament; but the Restoration revived his fallen dignity and fortunes. He was made surveyor of the king's buildings, and at the coronation of Charles the Second, created Knight of the Bath. He had freed himself from his early excesses and follies, but an unfortunate marriage darkened his closing years, which were also unhappily visited by insanity. He, however, sufficiently recovered to receive the congratulations of Butler, his fellow poet, and to commemorate the recent death of Cowley, in one of his happiest effusions. Denham died on the nineteenth of March, 1668, and was buried on the twenty-third of the same month, in Westminster Abbey, near the graves of Chaucer and Spenser. 'Cooper's Hill,' the poem by which Sir John Denham is now best known, consists of between three and four hundred lines, written in the heroic couplet. The descriptions are interspersed with sentimental digressions, suggested by surrounding objects-the river Thames, a ruined Abbey, Windsor forest, and the field of Runnymede. The view from Cooper's Hill is represented to be rich and luxuriant, but the muse of Denham was more reflective than descriptive. Dr. Johnson assigns to this poet the praise of being the author of a species of composition that may be denominated local poetry, of which the fundamental subject is some particular landscape, to be poetically described, with the addition of such embellishments as may be supplied by historical retrospection or incidental meditation.' The versification of Denham is generally smooth and flowing, but he wanted both depth and delicacy of feeling. In reading his poetry, therefore, we must be satisfied with smoothness, regularity, and order, without the higher attributes of genius. The following extract is from 'Cooper's Hill', and the four lines in Italics have been praised by every critic from Dryden down to the present time: THE THAMES AND WINDSOR FOREST. Mine eye, descending from the hill, surveys By his old sire, to his embraces runs, Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea, Like mortal life to meet eternity. Though with those streams he no remembrance hold, Nor with a sudden and impetuous wave, The mower's hopes, nor mock the ploughman's toil, First loves to do, then loves the good he does. Nor are his blessings to his banks confin'd, But free and common, as the sea or wind. So that to us no thing, no place is strange, But his proud head the airy mountain hides This scene had some bold Greek or British bard Beheld of old, what stories had we heard Of fairies, satyrs, and the nymphs their dames, Their feasts, their revels, and their amorous flames! 'Tis still the same, although their airy shape We subjoin an extract also from Denham's Elegy, in which it will appear, however, that the poet seems to have forgotten, that Shakspeare was buried on the banks of his own native Avon, not in Westminster Abbey, and that both he and Fletcher died long ere time had 'blasted their bays.' ON THE DEATH OF MR. ABRAHAM COWLEY. Old Chaucer, like the morning star, To us discovers day from far. His light those mists and clouds dissolv'd By Shakspeare's, Jonson's, Fletcher's lines, And in one grave their mansion keep. Till time had blasted all their bays; But cursed be the fatal hour That pluck'd the fairest sweetest flower And amongst wither'd laurels threw. Time, which made them their fame outlive, To Cowley scarce did ripeness give. Old mother wit and nature gave Shakspeare and Fletcher all they have: In Spenser and in Jonson, art Of slower nature got the start; But both in him so equal are, None knows which bears the happiest share; To him no author was unknown, Yet what he wrote was all his own; He melted not the ancient gold, Nor with Ben Johnson did make bold To plunder all the Roman stores Of poets and of orators: Horace his wit and Virgil's state He did not steal, but emulate; And when he would like them appear, Their garb, but not their clothes, did wear: When on that gale his wings are stretch'd; His fancy and his judgment such, Each to th' other seem'd too much; His severe judgment giving law, His modest fancy kept in awe. Contemporary with Denham was the comparatively unknown poet, Chamberlayne-an author whose genius was imbued with a depth of poetical spirit to which the former was an entire stranger. Denham could reason fluently in verse, without any glaring faults of style; but such a description of a summer morning as the following, from Chamberlayne, was altogether beyond his powers: The morning hath not lost her virgin blush, Nor step, but mine, soil'd the earth's tinsell'd robe. How full of heaven this solitude appears, This healthful comfort of the happy swain; Who from his hard but peaceful bed roused up, By a full quire of feather'd choristers, Wedding their notes to the enamour'd air! Here nature in her unaffected dress Plaited with valleys, and emboss'd with hills WILLIAM CHAMBERLAYNE was born at Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire, in 1619. Of his family, and of his early education, nothing is now definitely known. He studied the medical profession, and afterward practiced as a physician in his native place; but he appears to have wielded the sword as well as the lancet, as he was present, and took part with the royalists, in the famous battle of Newbury. His circumstances, like those of Vaughan, seem to have been, during his whole life, far from flourishing; and he bitterly complains that his continuous poverty debarred him from the society of the congenial wits of the age. The latter part of his life was passed in the toils of his laborious profession, and his death occurred in 1688, the memorable year that witnessed the downfall of James the Second. The principal works of Chamberlayne are Love's Victory, a tragic-comedy, published in 1658; and Pharonnida, a Heroic Poem, which appeared in the following year. The scene of the first is laid in the island of Sicily, and that of 'Pharonnida,' partly in Sicily and partly in Greece. With no court connection, no light or witty copies of verses to float him into popularity, relying solely on his too long and comparatively unattractive works-to appreciate which, through all the windings of romantic love, plots, escapes, and adventures, more time is required than the author's busy age could afford-we should not be surprised that Chamberlayne was an unsuccessful poet. His works were, indeed, almost entirely forgotten, till Campbell, in his 'Specimens of the Poets,' published in 1819, by quoting largely from 'Pharonnida,' and pointing out the 'rich breadth and variety of its scenes,' and the power and pathos of its characters and situations, drew attention to the passion, the imagery, the purity of sentiment, and the tenderness of description, which lay, 'like metals in the mine' in the neglected volume of this author. We do not, however, think that the works of Chamberlayne can ever be popular; for though his genius is of a very high order, his beauties are constantly marred by infelicities of execution. But fine passages, like the description of morning already quoted, and that which follows, abound in every part of his works: Where every bough Maintain'd a feather'd chorister to sing To drop it in those wounds, which the cleft earth Of virgin purity, he says, with singular beauty of expression The morning pearls, Dropt in the lily's spotless bosom, are Less chastely cool, ere the meridian sun Hath kiss'd them into heat. In a grave narrative passage of 'Pharonnida,' the beauties of morning, of which, like Milton, he seems to have been peculiarly fond, are thus sweetly touched off The glad birds had sung A lullaby to-night, the lark was fled, On dropping wings, up from his dewy bed To fan them in the rising sunbeams. We shall close these brief extracts with the following finely executed description of a dream: A strong prophetic dream, Diverting by enigmas nature's stream, Long hovering through the portals of her mind On vain fantastic wings, at length did find The glimmerings of obstructed reason, by A brighter beam of pure divinity The heart o' th' microcosm, about which is hurl'd |