1856.]

crow-tor,' as Milton calls it, which does not bloom till June.

Then there are the birds he mentions, and here we quote again from Mr. Lees: The birds that so sweetly sing in Shakspeare's pages are all of the Warwickshire breed the bird with orange-tawny bill,' and the 'lark that tirra lirra sings,' as well as the nightingale, may all be heard any fine morning in May, in the Weir-brake below Stratford Church.' (p. 45.) We don't absolutely say this; still, the subject is full of interest; we can imagine no more delightful essay, if well done, than on Shakspeare as a naturalist. Here and there he may have committed an inaccuracy, or been misled by the common errors of his time, as when he speaks of the blind mole' (there is, though, a species in southern Europe quite blind); but you will never find him making mistakes in natural history such as occur in many of our best poets. For example, Tennyson, in The Poet's Song:

The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee. Speaking of this charge against the bird, Mr. Broderip writes, in his Zoological Recreations (page 36), 'We believe that all our species are guiltless of such depredation.' Nor would Shakspeare have fallen into the error which Washington Irving commits, when describing his old church at Stratford :-'Small birds have built their nests among the cornices and fissures of the walls, and keep up a continual flutter and chirping; and rooks are sailing and cawing about its lofty grey spire.' Shakspeare would at once have seen they were not rooks, but jackdaws. A few years back, when repairing the steeple, the workmen filled up the holes where they bred, and nearly all the jackdaws have now left. It may, how. ever, be only an Americanism, for Longfellow makes precisely the same blunder, when speaking of Nuremburg

455

Quaint old town of toil and traffic, quaint old town of art and song, Memories haunt thy pointed gables, like the rooks that round them throng. A friend, from personal observation, assures us of what before we were convinced, that these also are jackdaws. The confusion between the two birds is not uncommon, we suspect, in American writers.

It is not a little singular that most of the proofs adduced that the play of The Two Noble Kinsmen is the joint production of Shakspeare and Fletcher, turn upon the former's minute habit of observation in natural history. The following line has often been adduced:

Touch the ground for us no longer time Than a dove's motion, when the head's plucked off.

We quote Leigh Hunt,- This also has been supposed proof positive of Shakspeare's hand. I think it is; but I must also be of opinion that it is his hand in excess.' We shall say nothing more than that Shakspeare rarely introduces conceits for their bare sake, much less does he deal with unpleasant images when there is no necessity. A few lines after we meet with twinning cherries,' which is very lovely, and thoroughly Shakspearian; both passages are, however, pregnant with his closeness of observation. The description, too, of the horse that Arcite rides, is written by a true lover of nature.

There is one bird, however, whose habitat and breeding habits and food have puzzled naturalists more than any other-the cuckoo. Even at this present day the best authorities are by no means agreed. The best modern accounts of the habits of this bird, which we know of, may be found in Macgillivray; but far before Macgillivray, or any other naturalist, dead or living, with all due deference to them, would we place Shakspeare's account. We can find more of its history, evidently taken from life, in his plays,

than in any work professedly written by a naturalist. Here, in a few lines, is a description of the young of the cuckoo, which no one but he who had watched it often and attentively, could have given :

Being fed by us, you us'd us so As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird, Useth the sparrow: did oppress our nest; Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk, That even our love durst not come near your sight,

For fear of swallowing.

First Part of King Henry IV.,
Act v., Scene 1.

Who that has ever seen a young cuckoo, with its great gaping mouth ready to devour its step-parents, the sparrows, will deny the truth of this? Then again he marks its arrival in the well known song,When daisies pied, and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver-white, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,

Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he,
Cuckoo,

Cuckoo, cuckoo ;-O word of fear,
Unpleasing to the married ear!

Love's Labour Lost, Act v., last scene.

The meaning of the latter portion is still well understood in these parts. How accurately, too, he notes its departure.

He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
Heard, not regarded.

First Part of King Henry IV., Act i. Scene 3. In fact, we might compile its history from him. Let us give one more example of his extreme minuteobservation respecting of another shy bird. Horatio says of Osric (Hamlet, Act v., Scene 2), This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

ness

of as the 'White-winged plover wheeling round.' Again, Far from her nest the lapwing cries away;' i.e. any intruder. Both passages are very descriptive of its habits. We are not, of course, going to draw a conclusion that cuckoos and plovers are peculiarly Warwickshire birds, or that they were more plentiful in Shakspeare's time than now, though an old country expression, that the land will grow nothing but lapwings,' seems to allude to an abundance of the latter formerly. We merely point to these two instances to show how accurate he is, and how well worthy his descriptions of nature are of more attention than naturalists have yet paid to them. But we have said enough for the present, and must close our scrambling remarks. We trust, though, that we have shown there are plenty of other ways of appreciating Shakspeare than by the usual idolatry of pseudo-relics and the folio edition. We owe him a vast debt of gratitude, and we can best repay him by studying his works.

Shakspeare seems to have been endowed with a telescopic and a microscopic vision. The one power he directed towards the furthest thoughts, the other he turned to the common things around him. And wherever we are it matters not, in Warwickshire or elsewhere, we can all contribute something which shall confirm his accuracy of observation. Go out into the open fields, into the air, into the woodlands, look around you, and enjoy them as Shakspeare enjoyed them. Flowers, and singing birds, and green grass, and rivers, and blowing breezes, nature has given unto us with no unsparing hand, everywhere, everywhere. And this is the moral, after all, that Shakspeare teaches us, that if we use them but rightly, we shall

Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

J. W.

1856.]

WE

VE sincerely regret that we are compelled to begin our notice of so amiable a man and so pleasing a poet as James Montgomery, by speaking in terms of indignant protest of the manner in which his biography has been written. This biography is the most scandalous specimen of book-making with which, even in these days of preposterously extended biographies, we have happened to become acquainted. The story of a quiet life singularly devoid of incident has been spun out into seven closely-printed volumes, by the pure incompetence, stupidity, and impertinence of its writers. It was quite fit that some permanent record of Montgomery's life should be prepared: his poetry has real merit and distinctive characteristics which entitle him to such a memorial; though had the life of Mr. Popkins run a similar course, most assuredly it would not have been worth recording. Still, one of the seven volumes we have toiled through might properly enough have been given to a memoir, written with moderate discrimination, of the author of The World before the Flood, The Pelican Island, and The Common Lot. But Messrs. Holland and Everett had for once got hold of a subject likely to have some interest for educated people, and they resolved to make the most of it; and, if possible, to associate their own utterly insignificant names with the respectable name of Montgomery. Mr. Everett gives us, at the beginning of the third volume, a picture of his own gross features; and Mr. Holland, if possible a more vulgar-looking individual, figures at the beginning of the fifth, in one of those white neckcloths with long limp ends which are indissolubly associated with the memory of Mr. Stiggins. The characteristics of the biography are faithfully mirrored in these two countenances, so redo

lent of self-conceit, stupidity, and vulgarity. We do not hesitate to say that Messrs. Holland and Everett are 'wholly incapable of writing a biography. Their main determination in this work appears to have been to cover as many pages as possible. It seems to have been Mr. Holland's system to cram himself from some cheap and popular manual, and then, with the information thus casily acquired, to come down upon Montgomery, and note down the conversations on various subjects' which ensued. Mr. Holland, of course, is the great man in most of these; and he has preserved them quite in the Boswell style. We have abundance of such lively and memorable dialogues as the following:-HOLLAND-‘ Sir, did you ever see a whale?' MONTGOMERY No, I never saw a whale.'

Whenever Montgomery said anything particularly weak and silly (which we regret to find he often did), Mr. Holland hastened to chronicle it as a valuable relic. Montgomery had a tendency, it appears, to write extremely long and very prosy, not to say twaddling, letters; and an immense number of these are given, almost all possessing not the slightest interest. Then Montgomery was for many years editor of a Sheffield newspaper; and in that capacity, as Mr. Holland tells us, the great and important events which have been significantly called The Wars of the French Revolution,' were consecutively chronicled and commented upon by him;' and of course this is good reason why in his biography all these great and important events' should be chronicled and commented upon again. Mr. Montgomery was accustomed to go about speechifying at Sabbath-school and Bible Society meetings; and no doubt all these speeches served a useful purpose at the time; but surely there was no occasion to preserve a great number

Longman and Co. 1854 6.

the highest style of man,* should be made ridiculous by his biographers' snobbish attempt to claim kindred for him with a noble family.

The poet's father was a Moravian preacher; accordingly, we are favoured with a history of the Moravians, their doctrines, and persecutions. The most remarkable circumstance about this primitive people is their odd manner of contracting marriages. It is decided by lot what brother' shall marry such a sister:' and this system has been submitted to for several centuries. Montgomery told a story as to a certain Mr. Hutton, a great man among the Moravians:

George III. was fond of him; and on one occasion the King, who liked a joke, said, in his dry way, 'Mr. Hutton, I am told that you Moravians do not select your wives, but leave it to your ministers to choose for you-is it so?' Yes, please your Majesty; marriages amongst the Brethren are contracted, as your Majesty will perceive, after the fashion of royalty.'

The specimens which are preserved of Montgomery's bon-mots are such, that it is clear that had Sydney Smith ever come in contact with him, that distinguished wit would have met his match. We give some witticisms, culled with

care:

As Montgomery never wore any trinket, jewel, or personal ornament of that kind, we were amused one day by his exhibiting on his finger a galvanic ring (such as were then common, being made of a rim of zinc and copper), archly remarking, that as it had been placed there by a lady, he dared not remove it!'

June 4, 1822. Mr. Everett accompanied Montgomery on an excursion to Mansfield. The Hope coach left Sheffield at half-past seven in the morning, -an early hour for the poet. He was however ready to the ininute; and watching the guard place a large watch in its receptacle, There,' says he, is his time, locked up like a turnspit dog in a wheel, to run its rounds and do its work!'

Then, for an example of wit and presence of mind conjoined :

459

'Brother,

flower, beautifully blue. what sort of corn is that? inquired the stranger. 'Such corn as your shirt is made of!' was the PROMPT reply.

On one occasion, Mr. Holland was accosted by a gentleman, sotto voce, with the startling inquiry, 'Do you know that Mr. Montgomery is married?' 'Certainly not,' was the reply; 'why do you put such a question? Because,' said the gentleman, there is a letter in existence which I am told proves the fact.' That letter is before us: it begins thus-'My dear friend-In a gloomy humour, I wrote the preceding trifle a few days ago. You will learn from it a

secret, which I have hitherto withheld even from you and all my friends in Sheffield, namely, that I am married!'

To cut short Mr. Holland's story, the trifle was a copy of very poor verses, in which Montgomery mentions that he was married to the Muse. In such brilliant and novel

Jeux-d'esprit did the worthy man indulge.

Our readers would not forgive us, if we failed to record the following remarkable incident.

Coming into Mr. Holland's room one day, it was evident that something had tickled the poet's fancy. On being asked how he was:-. - Montgomery · 'Wait till I have recovered my breath, and I will tell you. You have noticed the immense piles of stones which your friend, William Lee, the surveyor of highways, has laid up yonder for paving the streets?-Holland-Yes, sir.'Montgomery'Well, I was coming along, in a most melancholy mood, when the sight of these stones, in connexion with a sudden fancy, so amused me, that I think the incident has really done me good. I thought that when our surveyor dies, the epitaph originally made for Sir John Vanbrugh, would, with the alteration of a single word, be exactly suitable for the worthy Sheffielder :

Lie heavy on him, earth, for Lee Laid many a heavy load on thee!' Montgomery, notwithstanding this pleasant sally on the name of Mr. Lee, was as ready as any one to admit the value of the public services of one through whose official superintendence Sheffield might fairly claim to be regarded as one of the best paved, as well as best drained, towns in the kingdom.

We can recal a parallel instance of wit to Mr. Montgomery's jokes, from the writings of Mr. Dickens.

Vol. i. p. 22.