Slike strani
PDF
ePub

-MILLS, ABRAHAM, 1851, The Literature and the Literary Men of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. II, p. 319.

Besides conventional lyrics of comparatively small account, Hamilton wrote various notable poems. In "Contemplation, or the Triumph of Love," warmly praised in the "Lounger," by Professor Richardson and Henry Mackenzie, there is much ingenuity of reflection and illustration, in rhymed octosyllabics evincing structural skill and dexterity. The translations from Greek and Latin poetsnotably those from Horace-display both scholarship and metrical grace. "The Parting of Hector and Andromache," from the first Iliad, has the distinction of being the earliest Homeric translation into English blank verse. The "Episode of the Thistle," ingeniously explaining the remote origin of the Scottish national emblem-"the armed warrior with his host of spears"-is not without a measure of epic force and dignity. The winter piece in the third of four odes, besides its intrinsic merits, probably inspired the

opening passage of the first introduction in "Marmion." But the prominent and thoroughly individual feature of the poem is what Wordsworth, in that heading to "Yarrow Unvisited," calls "the exquisite ballad of Hamilton." Scott, in his introductory remarks to the "Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (Border Ministrelsy, iii. 145), says: "It will be, with many readers, the greatest recommendation of these verses, that they are supposed to have suggested to Mr. Hamilton of Bangour the modern ballad beginning,

Busk ye, busk ye my bonny, bonny bride." If for this poem alone, Hamilton will not be forgotten.-BAYNE, THOMAS, 1890, Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, vol. XXIV, p. 222.

Hamilton seems to have had a great deal of force and passion which he deliberately repressed-perhaps thinking the age would not stand it-perhaps himself ashamed of it.-PHELPS, WILLIAM LYON, 1893, The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, p. 35.

Thomas Carte

1686-1754

Thomas Carte: historian; born at Clifton, near Rugby, England, in April, 1686; educated at University College, Oxford. He became a priest and Jacobite. During the rebellion of 1715 a large reward was offered for his arrest, but he escaped to France. His chief work is a "History of England" (4 vols., 1747-55), which is prized for its facts, but is not well written. Many volumes of his manuscripts are preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Died April 7, 1754.-ADAMS, CHARLES KENDALL, ed., 1897, Johnson's Universal Cyclopaedia, vol. II, p. 100.

PERSONAL

About thirty-two years of age, of a middle stature, a raw-boned man, goes a little stooping, a sallow complexion, with a full grey or blue eye, his eyelids fair, inclining to red, and commonly wears a light-coloured peruke.-PROCLAMATION IN GAZETTE, 1722, Aug. 15.

Carte possessed a strong constitution, capable of incessant labor. He often wrote from early morning until night, taking only a cup of tea in the interval. Then he would eat heartily and enjoy his late dinner. He was gay and jovial, careless in his dress and appearance. In his writings there is little to be praised except their laborious accuracy, and the chief value of his collections and history consists in their having prepared the way

for the more gifted Hume.-LAWRENCE EUGENE, 1855, The Lives of the British Historians, vol. I, p. 326.

GENERAL

Your history ["Duke of Ormonde"] is in great esteem here. All sides seem to like it. The dean of St. Patrick's (Swift) honours you with his approbation. Any name after his could not add to your satisfaction. But I may say, the worthy and the wise are with you to a man, and you have me into the bargain.-BOYLE, JOHN (LORD ORRERY), 1736? Letter to Carte.

Carte's "Life of the Duke of Ormonde" is considered as a book of authority; but it is ill written. The matter is diffused in too many words; there is no animation, no compression, no vigour. Two good

volumes in duodecimo might be made out of the two (three) in folio.-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1773, Life by Boswell, Oct. 8.

Although the author died before the publication of the last volume, in 1755intending to bring his work down to the Restoration yet he lived long enough to witness its success, and the victory which he had obtained over its numerous opponents, and the shame attached to those who had withdrawn their original patronage. This work will live long and always be consulted. DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL, 1824, The Library Companion.

Of borrowers from Carte, Hume is one of the largest, and would have acted with more justice by frank acknowledgments of his obligations. It is amusing to observe the cavalier manner in which he incidentally alludes to Carte in his notes as "a late author of great industry and learning, but full of prejudices and of no penetration." The two authors occupy the same relative position as those of the laborious miner and the skilful polisher of the precious metal, which but for the assiduity of the former might still be undistinguished beneath the clod. But those who wish to gather all the gold must still revert to Carte.-ALLIBONE, S. AUS

TIN, 1854-58, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, vol. 1, p. 347.

It was not prepossessing in point of style; but it was so great an advance on previous histories, in the extent of the

original material used and quoted, that it would have commanded success but for an unlucky note, inserted at p. 291, on a passage concerning the unction of our kings at their coronation. In this note (which his friends vainly pleaded was not by his hand), he asserted his belief in the cure of king's evil in the case of a man named Christopher Lovel of Bristol, by the touch of the Pretender, or, as he called him, "the eldest lineal descendant of a race of kings who had, indeed, for a long succession of ages cured that disease by the royal touch." The cure was said to have been effected at Avignon in November 1716. This raised a storm among the anti-Jacobite party. Carte was attacked in several pamphlets, and a writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine" (1748, p. 13) professed to have investigated the case and found it, of course, entirely false. The man had been temporarily cured by the change of air and regimen, but had suffered a relapse on his return and died when on a second voyage. The practical result to Carte was the withdrawal of the grant from the common council of London by a unanimous vote on 7 April 1748 (Gent. Mag. 1748, p. 185), and an immediate neglect of his work. In spite of such discouragement he persisted in his enterprise, and the next two volumes appeared in 1752, and a fourth in 1755, after his death.-SHUCKBURGH, E. S., 1887, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. IX, p. 193.

Henry Fielding

1707-1754

Born, at Sharphan Park, Somersetshire, 22 April 1707. Family moved to East Stour, Dorsetshire, 1710. Educated at Eton [1719?-1725?]. At Leyden, studying Law [1725-27?]. Returned to London. First play, "Love in several Masques," produced at Drury Lane, Feb. 1728. Probably returned to Leyden for a short time in 1728. Prolific writer of plays, 1727-37. Married Charlotte Craddock, 1735 [?]. Manager of Haymarket Theatre, 1736-37. Entered Middle Temple, 1 Nov. 1737; called to Bar, 20 June 1740. Edited "The Champion," with J. Ralph; contrib. articles, 27 Nov. 1739 to 12 June 1740. Revised his play, "The Wedding Day," for Garrick; produced 17 Feb. 1743. Wife died, 1743 [?]. Ed. "The True Patriot," 5 Nov. 1745 to 10 June 1746. Edited "The Jacobite's Journal," Dec. 1747 to Nov. 1748. Married Mary Daniel, 27 Nov. 1747. Lived at Twickenham. Moved to house in Bow Street, when appointed J. P. for Westminster, Dec. 1748. Chairman of Quarter Sessions, Hick's Hall, May 1749. Ed. "Covent Garden Journal," Jan. to Nov. 1752. Severe illness, winter of 1749, and spring of 1754. Moved to Ealing, May 1754. To Lisbon for health, July 1754. Died there, 8 Oct. 1754; buried in English cemetery there. Works: "Love in several Masques," 1728; "Rape upon Rape"

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

(anon.), 1730 (another edition called: "The Coffee-house Politicians," 1730); "The Temple Beau," 1730; "The Author's Farce" (under pseud. "H. Scriblerus Secundus"), 1730; "Tom Thumb" (by "Scriblerus Secundus"), 1730 (with additional act, 1731); "The Welsh Opera" (by "Scriblerus Secundus"), 1731 (2nd edn. same year, called: "The Grub Street Opera"); "The Letter-Writers" (by "H. Scriblerus Secundus"), 1731; "The Lottery" (anon.), 1732; "The Modern Husband," 1732; "The Covent Garden Tragedy" (anon.), 1732; "The Debauchees" (or "The Old Debauchees ;" anon.), 1732; "The Mock Doctor" (anon.; from Molière), 1732; "The Miser," 1733; "The Intriguing Chambermaid," 1734 (from Regnard); "Don Quixote in England," 1734; "An Old Man taught Wisdom," 1735; "The Universal Gallant, 1735; "Pasquin," 1736; "The Historical Register for the Year 1736" (anon.), 1737; "Eurydice," 1737; "Tumble-down Dick," 1737; "The Vernon-aid" (anon.), 1741; "The Crisis," (anon.), 1741; "Miss Lucy in Town" (anon.), 1742; "Letter to a Noble Lord" (respecting preceding; anon.), 1742; "The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews" (2 vols.; anon.), 1742 (2nd edn. same year); "A Full Vindication of the Duchess Dowager of Marlborough" (anon.), 1742; "Plutus" (from Aristophanes, with W. Young), 1742; "The Wedding Day," 1743; "Miscellanies" (including "Jonathan Wild," 3 vols.), 1743 (2nd edn. same year); "Proper Answer to a Scurrilous Libel," 1747; "The History of Tom Jones" (6 vols.), 1749; "A Charge delivered to the Grand Jury," 1749; "A True State of the Case of Bosavern Penlez,' 1749; "An Enquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers, etc.," 1751; "Amelia," 1751; "Examples of the Interposition of Providence," 1752; "Proposals for making an effectual Provision for the Poor," 1753; "A clear State of the Case of Elizabeth Canning," 1753. Posthumous: "Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon," 1755; "The Fathers," 1778. He translated: Ovid's "Art of Love," under title of "The Lover's Assistant," 1859; and edited: the 2nd edn. of Sarah Fielding's "Adventures of David Simple," 1744, and "Familiar Letters," 1747. Collected Works: ed. by Murphy, in 4 vols., 1762; ed. by Chalmers, in 10 vols., 1806; ed. by Roscoe, 1840; ed. by Herbert, 1872; ed. by Leslie Stephen, 10 vols. 1882; ed. by G. Saintsbury, 12 vols. 1893. Life: by F. Lawrence, 1855; by Austin Dobson, 1883.-SHARP, R. FARQUHARSON, 1897, A Dictionary of English Authors, p. 99.

PERSONAL

HENRICI FIELDING

A SOMERSETENSIBUS APUD GLASTONIAM

ORIUNDI,

FIRI SUMMO INGENIO,

EN QUÆ RESTRANT!

STYLO QUO NON ALIUS UNQUAM, INTIMA QUI POTUIT CORDIS RESERARE, MORES HOMINUM

EXCOLENDOS SUSCEPIT.
VIRTUTI DECOREM, VITIO FŒDITATEM
ASSERUIT, SUUM CUIQUE TRIBUENS;
NON QUIN IPSE SUBINDE IRRETIRETUR
EVITANDIS-

ARDENS IN AMICITIA, IN MISERIA
SUBLEVANDA EFFUSUS,

HILARIS, URBANUS, ET CONJUX, ET PATER

ADAMATUS,

ALIIS, NON SIBI VIXIT.

VIXIT: SED MORTEM VICTRICEM VINCIT.
DUM NATURA

DURAT, DUM SÆCULA CURRUNT,
NATURÆ PROLEM SCRIPTIS PRÆ SE FERENS,
SUAM ET SUÆ GENTIS EXTENDET FAMAM.
-INSCRIPTION ON TOMB, English Ceme-
tery, Lisbon.

[ocr errors]

F- -g, who yesterday appear'd so rough,
Clad in coarse Frize, and plaister'd down with
Snuff,

See how his Instant gaudy Trappings shine;
What Play-house Bard was ever seen so fine!
But this, not from his Humour flows, you'll
say,

But mere Necessity;—for last Night lay
In Pawn, the Velvet which he wears to-Day.
-ANON, 1735, Seasonable Reproof.

These so tolerated companies gave encouragement to a broken wit to collect a fourth company, who for some time acted plays in the Haymarket. This enterprising person, I say (whom I do not choose to name, unless it could be to his advantage, or that it were of importance), had sense enough to know that the best plays with bad actors would turn but to a very poor account, and therefore found it necessary to give the public some pieces. of an extraordinary kind, the poetry of which he conceived ought to be so strong that the greatest dunce of an actor could not spoil it: he knew, too, that as he was in haste to get money, it would take up less time to be intrepidly abusive than

decently entertaining; that to draw the mob after him he must rake the channel and pelt their superiors. . . Such then was the mettlesome modesty he set out with; upon this principle he produced several frank and free farces, that seemed to knock all distinctions of mankind on the head-religion, laws, government, priests, judges, and ministers, were all laid flat, at the feet of this Herculean satirist! this Drawcansir in wit, who spared neither friend nor foe! who, to make his poetical fame immortal, like another Erostratus, set fire to his stage by writing up to an act of parliament to demolish it. I shall not give the particular strokes of his ingenuity a chance to be remembered by reciting them; it may be enough to say, in general terms, they were so openly flagrant that the wisdom of the legislature thought it high time to take a proter notice of them.-CIBBER, COLLEY, 1740, Apology.

I wish you had been with me last week when I spent two evenings with Fielding and his sister, who wrote "David Simple:" and you may guess I was very well entertained. The lady, indeed, retired pretty soon, but Russell and I sat up with the poet till one or two in the morning, and were inexpressibly diverted. I find he values, as he justly may, his "Joseph Andrews" above all his writings. He was extremely civil to me, I fancy on my father's account. - WARTON, JOSEPH, 1746, Letter to Thomas Warton, Oct.

He [Rigby] and Peter Bathurst t'other night carried a servant of the latter's, who had attempted to shoot him, before Fielding; who, to all his other vocations, has, by the grace of Mr. Lyttelton, added that of Middlesex justice. He sent them word he was at supper, that they must come next morning. They did not understand that freedom, and ran up, where they found him banqueting with a blind man, a whore, and three Irishmen, on some cold mutton and a bone of ham, both in one dish, and the dirtiest cloth. He never stirred nor asked them to sit. Rigby, who had seen him so often come to beg a guinea of Sir C. Williams, and Bathurst, at whose father's he had lived for victuals, understood that dignity as little, and pulled themselves chairs; on which he civilised.-WALPOLE, HORACE, 1749, Letter to George Montagu, May 18; Letters, ed. Cunningham, vol. II, p. 162.

I dined with him (Ralph Allen) yesterday, where I met Mr. Fielding,—a poor emaciated, worn-out rake, whose gout and infirmities have got the better even of his buffoonery.—HURD, RICHARD, 1751, Letter to Balguy, March 19.

I advise Mr. Spondy to give him the refusal of this same pastoral; who knows but he may have the good fortune of being listed in the number of his beef-eaters, in which case he may, in process of time, be provided for in the Customs or the Church; when he is inclined to marry his own cook-wench his gracious patron may condescend to give the bride away; and may finally settle him, in his old age, as a trading Westminster Justice.-SMOLLETT, TOBIAS GEORGE, 1751, Adventures of Peregrin Pickle.

I am sorry for H. Fielding's death, and not only as I shall read no more of his writings, but I believe he lost more than others, as no man enjoyed life more than he did, though few had less reason to do so, the highest of his preferment being raking in the lowest sinks of vice and misery. I should think it a nobler and less nauseous employment to be one of the staff-officers that conduct the nocturnal weddings. His happy constitution (even when he had, with great pains, half demolished it) made him forget everything when he was before a venison pasty, or over a flask of champaigne; and I am persuaded he has known more happy moments than any prince upon earth. His natural spirits gave him rapture with his cook-maid, and cheerfulness when he was starving in a garret. There was a great similitude between his character and that of Sir Richard Steele. He had the advantage both in learning and, in my opinion, genius: they both agreed in wanting money in spite of all their friends, and would have wanted it, if their hereditary lands had been as extensive as their imagination; yet each of them so formed for happiness, it is pity he was not immortal.MONTAGU, LADY MARY WORTLEY, 1755, Letter to the Countess of Bute, Sept. 22.

Mr. Fielding had not been long a writer for the stage, when he married Miss Craddock, a beauty from Salisbury. About that time, his mother dying, a moderate estate, at Stower, in Dorsetshire, devolved to him. To that place he retired with his wife, on whom he doated, with a

resolution to bid adieu to all the follies and intemperances to which he had addicted himself in the career of a town-life. But unfortunately a kind of family-pride here gained an ascendant over him; and he began immediately to vie in splendour with the neighbouring country 'squires. With an estate not much above two hundred pounds a-year, and his wife's fortune, which did not exceed fifteen hundred pounds, he encumbered himself with a large retinue of servants, all clad in costly yellow liveries. For their master's honour, these people could not descend so low as to be careful in their apparel, but, in a month or two, were unfit to be seen; the 'squire's dignity required that they should be new-equipped; and his chief pleasure consisting in society and convivial mirth, hospitality threw open its doors, and in less than three years, entertainments, hounds, and horses, entirely devoured a little patrimony, which, had it been managed with economy, might have secured to him a state of independence for the rest of his life. . His passions, as the poet expresses it, were trembling alive all o'er: whatever he desired, he desired ardently; he was alike impatient of disappointment, or illusage, and the same quickness of sensibility rendered him elate in prosperity, and overflowing with gratitude at every instance of friendship or generosity: steady in his private attachments, his affection was warm, sincere, and vehement; in his resentments, he was manly, but temperate, seldom breaking out in his writings into gratifications of ill humour, or personal satire. It is to the honour of those whom he loved, that he had too much penetration to be deceived in their characters; and it is to the advantage of his enemies, that he was above passionate attacks upon them. Open, unbounded, and social in his temper, he knew no love of money; but, inclining to excess even in his very virtues, he pushed his contempt of avarice into the opposite extreme of imprudence and prodigality. When young in life he had a moderate estate, he soon suffered hospitality to devour it; and when in the latter end of his days he had an income of four or five hundred a-year, he knew no use of money, but to keep his table open to those who had been his friends when young, and had impaired

their own fortunes. Though disposed to gallantry by his strong animal spirits, and the vivacity of his passions, he was remarkable for tenderness and constancy to his wife, and the strongest affection for his children. MURPHY, ARTHUR, 1762, An Essay on the Life and Genius of Henry Fielding, Esq., Works, ed. Chalmers, vol. I, pp. 44, 82.

If I could not discover the place of Camoens' interment, I at last found out the grave and tombstone of the author of "Tom Jones." Fielding, who terminated his life, as is well-known, at Lisbon, in 1754, of a complication of disorders, at little more than forty-seven years of age, lies buried in the cemetery appropriated to the English factory. I visited his grave, which was already nearly concealed by weeds and nettles. Though he did not suffer the extremity of distress under which Camoens and Cervantes terminated their lives, yet his extravagance-a quality so commonly characteristic of men distinguished by talents-embittered the evening of his days.-WRAXALL, SIR NATHANIEL WILLIAM, 1815, Historical Memoirs of My own Time, from 1772 to 1784.

[ocr errors]

Nor was she (Lady Mary Wortley Montagu) a stranger to that beloved first wife, whose picture he drew in his "Amelia, where, as she said, even the glowing language he knew how to employ did not do more than justice to the amiable qualities of the original, or to her beauty, although this had suffered a little from the accident related in the novel-a frightful overturn, which destroyed the gristle of her nose. He loved her passionately, and she returned his affection. His biog

[ocr errors]

raphers seem to have been shy of disclosing that after the death of this charming woman, he married her maid. And yet the act was not so discreditable to his character as it may sound. The maid had few personal charms, but was an excellent creature, devotedly attached to her mistress, and almost broken-hearted for her loss. In the first agonies of his own grief, which approached to frenzy, he found no relief but from weeping along with her; nor solace when a degree calmer, but in talking to her of the angel they mutually regretted. This made her his habitual confidential associate, and in process of time he began to think he could not give

« PrejšnjaNaprej »