vaguely romantic. He was certainly a virtuoso and man of taste, and most people will remember Mr. Ruskin's early and lasting admiration for Rogers and his Italy. THOMAS CAMPBELL The other poet is the once overpraised and now underrated THOMAS CAMPBELL. Campbell, like Rogers, was in fairly comfortable circumstances for most of his life, although his father, a Glasgow merchant related (1777-1844). to the house of Argyll, had lost his fortune in the disturbances of the American war. At Glasgow University Campbell distinguished himself by his translations of the Greek poets. In 1799, when he was only in his twentysecond year, his Pleasures of Hope was published, and created an enthusiasm as hearty as the clamour which greeted the Lay of the Last Minstrel and Childe Harold. Shortly afterwards he travelled abroad, and saw warlike scenes and battlefields which suggested some noble lyrics. To the seventh edition of The Pleasures of Hope, published in 1802, was added Ye Mariners of England, while Lochiel's Warning and the magnificent verses on Hohenlinden were published together shortly after. In 1803 he settled in London, married, and began to pursue literature as his exclusive profession. works were written chiefly for the booksellers. His principal volumes of poetry after this time were Gertrude of Wyoming, (1809), Theodric (1824), and The Pilgrim of Glencoe (1842). Meanwhile, he became a very distinguished person, and the University of Glasgow made him its Lord Rector. In 1843 he retired to Boulogne, and died there the year after. His body was brought to England and interred in Westminster Abbey. His It is to his descriptive lyrics, which are among the finest in any language, that Campbell will owe his lasting fame. They Transitional speak for themselves, and need no criticism. Otherfeatures of wise, his position in the poetry of his time is identical Campbell's with that of Rogers. The Pleasures of Hope is of and Rogers' poetry. the eighteenth century, formal and Johnsonian. It Campbell's shows the following of Goldsmith's Traveller and lyrics. Deserted Village, not merely in its metre, but in the manner of its reflections. And, to the end, although susceptible to the fascinations of the romantic school, Campbell retained the old fetters willingly. Just as in Blake we have a romantic poet far in advance of his age, so in Campbell and Rogers we have the relics of a past era surviving in the company of a new school of verse with which they only sympathised by force of circumstances They are actually poets of the transition from the classical to the romantic period. The Pleasures of Memory and The Pleasures of Hope belong to the same class of poetry as The Task; and, when we take into account the fire and rhythmical majesty of lyrics like Hohenlinden, it should not be forgotten that Cowper, in his ode on the Loss of the Royal George, had done something already of very much the same kind. The subjective lyric, the lyric of passion and nature in conjunction, was beyond Campbell's power. He just contrived, by bold and spirited verse, to appeal to the taste of the nineteenth century; but in the procession of poets he was behind his time. OTHER NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. POETS OF THE CENTURY NINETEENTH (TO 1850). The names and work of the writers included in the following summary are somewhat heterogeneous. The obvious difficulty in classifying the poets of a very fertile century arises from the fact that many of them seem to illustrate no principle of evolution or progress. Some are mere imitators, some are original in an unexpected and baffling way, others are glib writers who have very little to say for themselves, and write because they have an indiscriminate facility for making verses about nothing. In the present case we have taken together those poets, dramatists, and writers of verse who died during the first half of the century, with the exception of Hood and Praed, and one or two others whose work, in its distinct individuality, calls for our attention later. On the other hand, this seems to be the proper place for one or two writers, like Mr. Justice Talfourd and Sheridan Knowles, who, although they survived the limit of 1850, emphatically belong to the earlier period. The list opens with the name of JOANNA BAILLIE (1762-1851), niece of the celebrated doctor John Hunter. She was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister at Bothwell, near Glasgow, but spent the greater part of her life at Hampstead, where she and her sister kept house together. She wrote a number of respectable and mediocre dramas, both in tragedy and comedy, the chief of which are the series known as Plays on the Passions (1798-1812). Basil and De Monfort are the best-the second of these achieved some success on the stage-but Miss Baillie's dramatic theory was essentially vapid and unreal, and her incident was of a second-rate theatrical type, reminiscent to some extent of Mrs. Radcliffe in her less horror-struck mood. These plays have altogether disappeared from the modern stage; and, although the curious reader may still find them in the cabinet editions of plays which lurk on the upper shelves of libraries, he will find that his sense of duty will be amply satisfied when he has glanced through two or three. BERNARD BARTON (1784-1849) was a member of the Society of Friends, and, attracting some attention on that account, became known as the Quaker poet. He was a friend of many of the literary men of his day, and especially of Charles Lamb. His daughter married Edward Fitzgerald. He published in 1812 a volume with the portentous title of Metrical Effusions; this was succeeded by Napoleon and other Poems (1822), Poetic Vigils (1824), and Devotional Verses (1826). merous other pieces appeared separately and in magazines. Nu THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY (17971839) has a certain, and, in our more exacting day, rather ludicrous reputation as an author of drawingroom songs. The sentiments of The Soldier's Tear, She Wore a Wreath of Roses, I'd be a Butterfly, Oh no, we never mention her, and We met -'twas in a crowd, are unexceptionable, but these pieces do not add to the treasures of the English lyric. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD (1766-1823) was the son of a tailor at Honington, near Bury St. Edmunds, and worked as a shoemaker in London. His poetry was rejected by the London booksellers, but was published at Bury, a gentleman named Capel Lofft undertaking the expense. His chief poems were The Farmer's Boy (1800), and Rural Tales (1802) -all smooth, correct, and unimpressive. He was patronised by the Duke of Grafton, whose seat of Euston was close to Bloomfield's birthplace. In 1823 he died, partially insane, at Shefford in Bedfordshire. CAROLINE ANNE BOWLES (17861854) has already been mentioned as the second Mrs. Southey. She was born and died at Lymington in Hampshire, which was her home during all her life, save for the four years of her marriage. She wrote several rather undistinguished poems, including Ellen Fitzarthur (1820) and Tales of the Factories (1823); her chief work in fiction is Chapters on Churchyards (1829). She certainly would have remained in obscurity had it not been for the patronage which her future husband gracefully, but not very wisely, extended to all minor poets. WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES (17621850) was born at King's Sutton, on the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, and was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Oxford. He took Holy Orders and obtained in 1804 the valuable living of Bremhill in Wiltshire; he also was a prebendary, and afterwards a canon residentiary of Salisbury. His Fourteen Sonnets (1789) exercised a tremendous influence on Coleridge, who, unable to buy the book, made transcripts of it and presented them to his friends. In some way, therefore, Bowles may be said to have quickened the genius of the Lake Poets; but, were it not for this, the reader of the sonnets, which were increased in number later on, would proclaim their author a very dull bard with a somewhat artificial sense of the picturesque. The later works of the Rector of Bremhill, The Missionary of the Andes (1815), The Village Verse-Book (1837), etc., have no claims to a like distinction. His edition (1806) of Pope, in which he found an uncongenial occupation, was the origin of the famous controversy as to whether Pope was a poet. Byron, in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, distinguished Bowles with a volume of unnecessary abuse. The great statesman, GEORGE CANNING (1770-1827), claims a place in English literature on account of his contributions to the famous Anti-Jacobin Review (1799-1801). His Loves of the Triangles-a parody on Darwin's Loves of the Plants-the Needy Knife-Grinder, the Inscription on Mrs. Brownrigg-a mocking imitation of Southey's inscription on Henry Marten the regicide-and the U-Niversity of Gottingen, are all very amusing and will long possess admirers. He was aided in the Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin by John Hookham Frere (see below). Canning's powers in serious poetry are shown in such pieces as Ulm and Trafalgar, and his noble and affecting lines on his son's death in 1820. HENRY FRANCIS CARY (17721844), of Christ Church, Oxford, assistant librarian in the British Museum, published in 1805 a blankverse translation of Dante's Inferno, and in 1812 completed the whole of the Divine Comedy. This version, even in our own day, when the study of Dante has been so much extended, remains one of the best, and bears testimony to a praiseworthy and ac curate scholarship and a real talent for poetry. HARTLEY COLERIDGE (17961849), eldest son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was educated at Ambleside and Merton College, Oxford, and obtained a fellowship at Oriel. His manner of life was, however, a little, although not very, irregular; and, when stories of drunkenness got about, the College deprived him of his distinction. A somewhat indolent person, he wrote casually for Blackwood, and, after some wandering, settled down at Grasmere with nothing to live on. His unsatisfactoriness was very superficial, but there can be little doubt that he wasted his genius; and his brother Derwent's memoir of him, prefixed to the posthumous edition of his works (1851), is of the nature of an apology. Hartley Coleridge's chief works were Poems, Essays, and the considerable Biographia Borealis (1833). SARA COLERIDGE (1802-1852) was the youngest of Coleridge's children, and wrote verses worthy of remark. She married in 1829 her cousin, Henry Nelson Coleridge. Her original poetry is scanty and is dispersed throughout the fairy-tale called Phantasmion (1837); but the dissertations which she appended to many of her father's posthumous works are remarkable both for power of thought and expression. GEORGE CROLY (1780-1860) was a native of Dublin and rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook. He had a fertile imagination and gorgeous style. His chief poems were Paris in 1815 (1817), The Angel of the World (1820), and The Modern Orlando (1846). He also wrote eloquent and fanciful romances-Salathiel (1829), Tales of the Great St. Bernard (1829), and Marston (1846). Scottish poetry-or, rather, songwriting is well represented by ALLAN CUNNINGHAM (1784-1842), a Dumfriesshire peasant who pursued the trade of a stone-mason and worked under Sir Francis Chantrey. He carried on, in company with two or three poets whose names will be found in this list, the tradition of song inherited from Burns. prose he wrote the Lives of the Painters (1829-33), and other books. In GEORGE DARLEY (1795-1846), the editor (1840) of Beaumont and Fletcher, possessed a lyric faculty which was rated very highly by some of his contemporaries. He was a member of Trinity College, Dublin, and worked on The London Magazine. Sylvia (1827) is a pastoral play, a curious medley of prose and verse; but the verse is in many cases exquisite. Nepenthe (1839) is a rather inferior poem, but retains much of the same brilliant manner. Darley may be said to have inherited something of the lightness and grace of the Elizabethan lyric, as Beddoes inherited its uncanny mystery. EBENEZER ELLIOTT (1781-1849), the "Corn-law Rhymer," was the son of a clerk in an ironfoundry at Masborough, near Rotherham, and became himself an ironmaster at Sheffield. He published some poems at intervals between 1798 and 1830 which showed a considerable sense of the picturesque, and here and there some lyric ability. The Corn-Law Rhymes (1831) were for the most part intemperate and thoroughly vulgar; their vulgarity no doubt was the chief quality which endeared them to the mob. Elliott was praised by Southey, Bulwer, Wilson, and Carlyle; but it must be owned that, even if we allow him the possession of real poetical qualities, he stands in a very minor rank of poets. JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE (17691846), the friend of Canning, whoni he assisted in the Anti-Jacobin Review, was chargé d'affaires in Spain with Sir John Moore, and afterwards Resident at Malta, where he died. He was the author of the once celebrated satiric poem, published in 1817, entitled Prospectus and Specimen of an intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft, etc. It was written in ottava rima, and was a clever burlesque of romantic writings, with here and there a touch of real poetry. It was the model on which Byron wrote Beppo and afterwards Don Juan. Frere was also the author of an Ode on Athelstan's Victory (at Brunanburh), published by Ellis (1801) as a fourteenth-century production, but really written when Frere was at school at Eton, and the great discussion on Rowley and Chatterton was taking place. He also made an admirable translation into English verse of the Acharnians, Knights, Birds, and Frogs of Aristophanes, published in 1839 and 1840. JAMES GRAHAME (1765-1811), a native of Glasgow, at first a barrister, and afterwards a well-known Anglican clergyman, published in 1801 a dramatic poem called Mary Queen of Scotland. This was followed by The Sabbath, Sabbath Walks (both 1804). and other poems of a religious character. Grahame was neither an easy nor a graceful poet; and, although his verse is full of tender and devout feeling, it has little vigour or imagination. REGINALD HEBER (1783-1826) | was born at Malpas in Cheshire, educated at Brasenose, and became vicar of Hodnet. He was appointed to the bishopric of Calcutta in 1823, and died at Trichinopoly three years later. He was Bampton Lecturer in 1815, and wrote a life of Jeremy Taylor (1822) for an edition of that divine's works. In poetry his most famous work is the beautiful passage in his Newdigate prize poem of Palestine (1807), describing the building of the Temple. He also wrote a fair amount of sacred verse, and one or two famous hymns, including From Greenland's icy mountains. FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS (née Browne-1793-1835) had once a reputation which has utterly vanished. She was a native of Liverpool, and spent the early part of her life in North Wales, not far from Abergele. Her poetry began early; and, when her first important book, Domestic Affections (1812), was published, she, although only in her nineteenth year, had been in print before. In the same year she married Captain Hemans. They separated for some reason or other before very long. Mrs. Hemans was fortunate in her competition for prizes. Bruce and Wallace (1819) and Dartmoor (1821) were both selected from a number of poems on the same subject. A play called The Vespers of Palermo (1823) was not successful. Other works quickly followed: The Forest Sanctuary (1825), Records of Women (1828), Songs of the Affections (1830). Towards the end of her life she lived at Dublin with her brother, and published there in 1834 her Hymns for Childhood and Scenes and Hymns of Life, with a few sonnets entitled Thoughts during Sickness. Her style was graceful, but presented, as Scott said, "too many flowers for the fruit." Her insipid prettinesses have the minimum of intellectual and emotional force. One or two of her pieces are well known from their domestic simplicity, but, considering the volume of her writings, her loss of credit is entire. WILLIAM HERBERT (1778-1847), son of the first Earl of Carnarvon, and Dean of Manchester, was in early life a lawyer, and had been in Parliament before taking Holy Orders. He was an industrious translator from a variety of languages, wrote two original poems-Helga (1815) and Attila (1838)-besides tales, sermons, and scientific treatises. JAMES HOGG (1770-1835), known better as the "Ettrick Shepherd" of Wilson's Noctes Ambrosiana, was born in Ettrick Vale, Selkirkshire. His school was the mountain's side, where he kept the cattle and sheep. His education was scanty, but he had great natural gifts, a quick and attentive memory, and a thorough appreciation of natural scenery. In 1801 he published a small volume of songs, and in 1807 The Mountain Bard. Soon afterwards he left his occupation and resided at Edinburgh, supporting himself entirely by his pen. The Queen's Wake (1813) brought him into very favourable notice, and was followed by Madoc of the Moor (1816), Jacobite Relics (1820), etc. His chief delight was in legendary tales and folk-lore. He helped Scott in collecting the Border Minstrelsy; and his whole work shows the dominant influence of fancy. His extraordinary novels and tales, including the wonderful Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), are all of this type. modern critic says, "He wanted art to construct a fable, and taste to give due effect to his imagery and conceptions. But there are few poets who impress us so much with the idea of direct inspiration, and that poetry is indeed an art 'unteachable and untaught.' A JAMES SHERIDAN Knowles (17841862), dramatist, was born at Cork in 1784, and went on the stage as an actor. On retiring from the theatre he occupied himself with teaching elocution and sometimes preaching in chapels. Caius Grac chus (1815) was his first play, and was succeeded by Virginius (1820) which is still performed in the provinces-William Tell (1825), and others. In comedy he wrote The Hunchback (1832) and The Love Chase (1837); and, beside these, he was the author of two novels, George |