How truly I rejoice that you have recovered Guy; that man won my heart the moment I saw him: give my love to him, and tell him I am truly glad he is alive again. There is much swteeness in those lines from the sonneteer of Avon, and not a little in dear Tom's; an earnest, I trust, of good things to come! With Mary's kind love, I must now conclude myself, My dear Brother, Ever yours, LIPPUS. to Milton's vision of the Bishop of Winchester, (the celebrated Dr. Andrews,) as to suggest the probability of having been borrowed from that source. The passage is to be found in Milton's beautiful Latin elegy on the death of that prelate, and is thus translated by Cowper: "While I that splendour, and the mingled shade At once, with looks, that beam'd celestial grace, Then night retired, and, chas'd by dawning day, I mourn'd my banish'd sleep with fond concern ; TO THE REV. WALTER BAGOT. Weston, March 4, 1793. My dear Friend-Since I received your last I have been much indisposed, very blind, and very busy. But I have not suffered all these evils at one and the same time. While the winter lasted I was miserable with a fever on my spirits; when the spring began to approach I was seized with an inflammation in my eyes, and ever since I have been able to use them, have been employed in giving more last touches to Homer, who is on the point of going to the press again. Though you are Tory I believe, and I am Whig, our sentiments concerning the mad-caps of France are much the same. They are a terrible race, and I have a horror both of them and their principles.* Tacitus is certainly living now, and the quotations you sent me can be nothing but extracts from some letters of his to yourself. Yours most sincerely, W. C. We have already mentioned the interest excited in Cowper's mind by a son of Hayley's, a youth of not more than twelve years of age, and of most promising talents. At Cowper's request he addressed to him the subjoined letter, containing cri * Louis XVI. the unhappy King of France, had recently perished on the scaffold, Jan. 21, 1793. ticisms on his Homer, which do honour to his taste and acuteness. The Poet's reply may also be regarded as a proof of his kind condescension, and amiable sweetness of temper. TO WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ. Eartham, March 4, 1795. Honoured King of Bards-Since you deign to demand the observations of an humble and unexperienced servant of yours, on a work of one who is so much his superior, (as he is ever ready to serve you with all his might,) behold what you demand! but let me desire you not to censure me for my unskilful and perhaps (as they will undoubtedly appear to you) ridiculous observations; but be so kind as to receive them as a mark of respectful affection from Your obedient servant, 1. 749 Il. XVIII. VOL. V. THOMAS HAYLEY. I cannot reconcile myself to these expressions, "Ah cloth'd with impudence, &c." and "Shameless wolf," and "Face of flint." "Dishonour'd foul," is, in my opinion, an uncleanly expression. "Reel'd," I think makes it appear as if Olympus was drunk. "Kindler of the fires of Heaven," I think makes Jupiter appear too much like a lamp-lighter. 317 These lines are, in my opinion, below the elevated genius of Mr. Cowper. to 319 300 This appears to me to be rather Irish, since in line 300 you say, "No one sat," and in 304, "Polydamas rose." K TO MR. THOMAS HAYLEY. Weston, March 14, 1793. My dear Little Critic-I thank you heartily for your observations, on which I set a higher value, because they have instructed me as much, and have entertained me more, than all the other strictures of our public judges in these matters. Perhaps I am not much more pleased with shameless wolf, &c. than you. But what is to be done, my little man? Coarse as the expressions are, they are no more than equivalent to those of Homer. The invective of the ancients was never tempered with good manners, as your papa can tell you; and my business, you know, is not to be more polite than my author, but to represent him as closely as I can. Dishonour'd foul I have wiped away, for the reason you give, which is a very just one, and the present reading is this, Who had dared dishonour thus The life itself, &c. Your objection to kindler of the fires of heaven I had the good fortune to anticipate, and expunged the dirty ambiguity some time since, wondering not a little that I had ever admitted it. The fault you find with the two first verses of Nestor's speech discovers such a degree of just discernment that, but for your papa's assurance to the contrary, I must have suspected him as the author of that remark: much as I should have respected it, if it had been so, I value it, I assure you, my little friend, still more as yours. In the new edition the passage will be found thus altered ; Alas! great sorrow falls on Greece to-day! Priam, and Priam's sons, with all in TroyOh! how will they exult, and in their hearts Triumph, once hearing of this broil between The prime of Greece, in council and in arms! Where the word reel suggests to you the idea of a drunken mountain, it performs the service to which I destined it. It is a bold metaphor; but justified by one of the sublimest passages in scripture, compared with the sublimity of which even that of Homer suffers humiliation. It is God himself who, speaking, I think, by the prophet Isaiah, says, "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard.”* With equal boldness in the same scripture, the poetry of which was never equalled, mountains are said to skip, to break out into singing, and the fields to clap their hands. I intend, therefore, that my Olympus shall be still tipsy. The accuracy of your last remark, in which you convicted me of a bull, delights me. A fig for all critics but you! The blockheads could not find it. It shall stand thus, First spake Polydamas▬▬ Homer was more upon his guard than to commit such a blunder, for he says, ηρχ ̓ ἀγορεύειν. And now, my dear little censor, once more accept my thanks. I only regret that your strictures are so few, being just and sensible as they are. Tell your papa that he shall hear from me soon: * Isaiah xxiv. 20. |