whom he had already vituperated in Antithelyphthora. See Memoir, p. xliii. Page 73,485. Antony von Leuwenhoek, born at Delft, 1632, and died there, 1723. Remarkable for his skill with the microscope, which made him also a good physiologist; and some of his discoveries were of great importance. His works occupy four 4to. vols. Page 74, 526. Pygmalion, a celebrated statuary of Cyprus, chiselled a statue of such exquisite beauty that he fell in love with it, and Venus, at his earnest request, endowed it with life. He married it, and became the father of Paphus, the founder of the city of that name in Cyprus. Page 76. fear that this poem would give offence to "unenlightened readers" which induced him. to ask Newton to write his Preface. TRUTH. It was the Author's Page 78, 183. Adust," burnt, scorched. 7 119. Spencer Cowper, son of the Lord Chancellor, Dean of Durham 1745-1774. The "Second stall," because the first was poet says the Bishop's. There is an uninteresting pamphlet by him in the British Museum, and a volume of good Sermons on Church Festivals, the following extract from which will show that he was no Calvinist: "That predestination to eternal life is the arbitrary choice of a despotic Power determined by no rule, but that of an uncontrollable will, and independent of any preceding merit or worth in the persons so predestined, is a doctrine unworthy of God, and destructive of all moral goodness." Z 131. This description is a description, to the minutest detail, of the two prominent figures in Hogarth's "Morning." Page 80, 201. Geta is a laughter-moving servant in Terence's two plays Adelphi and Phormio. Page 82,1311. This was in Feb. 1778. "Nobles disguised themselves as tavern-waiters to obtain sight of him: the loveliest of France would lay their hair beneath his feet. His chariot is the nucleus of a comet whose train filled whole streets they crown him in the theatre, with immortal vivats; finally stifle him under roses, for old Richelieu recommended opium in such state of the nerves, and the excessive patriarch took too much." (Carlyle's French Revolution.) Page 83, 358. Dr. Richard Conyers, Rector of St. Paul's, Deptford, was the brotherin-law of Thornton, and was the means of introducing Newton to Cowper. (Memoir, p. xxxvi.) It is needless to add that he was a zealous evangelical preacher. Il 364 and 379. In these two lines the poet has broken through one of his own canons, and, venturing out of England, has tried to describe what he has never seen. In the first line Page 93, 1283. Cowper, though professedly Whig, always regarded the Americans as rebels, and believed that George III. was right in his persistent endeavours to conquer them. 7 292. Various naval engagements were fought in 1780, with great bravery, but indecisive results. Such were Rodney's in the West Indies, April 17; Parker's, off the Dogger Bank; and Graves', with the French, in the Chesapeake. See Lord Stanhope's Hist., chaps. lxii. lxiii. 7293 On the violence of the political strifes of that time, see the opening of ch. Ixi. of Lord Stanhope. Mean, shabby, pitiful, and unwarrantable," were epithets used by one speaker in the House of Lords. 7309. The National Debt was nearly doubled during the American War. In 1775 it was £124,000,000; in 1783, £238,000,000. But it is now £740,000,000. Page 95, 374. "Trucked," trafficked away. 376. The Test Act was passed in 1673, with a view of excluding Papists from power. Under its provisions, al persons holding any position of trust, civil or military, or admitted of the Royal Household, were to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the usage of the Church of England, declaring at the same time that they had no belief in Transubstantiation. One therefore meets in the newspapers of that day with notices like this:-"Yesterday his Royal Highness Prince Frederick received the Communion, having been appointed Ranger of Richmond Park.' The Act was repealed in 1828. bishop here referred to is Warburton (Gloucester 1760-1779); and the works, Essays "On the Alliance between Church and State," and "The Necessity and Equity of a Test Law." The 7390. At the first printing of these Poems, the following passage followed 7 389. After the edition was printed off, the author came to the conclusion that it was objectionable, and finding Newton agreeing with him, had the leaf cancelled, and substituted lines 390-413 for the omitted passage. I have a copy of the first edition lying before me, with the cancel The lie that burn'd thy fathers' bones to dust, The lie that claps a lock on mercy's plan, Is deified and sits omniscient there; The lie that knows no kindred, owns no friend And thrusts the truth with scorn and anger by; Page 96, 1423. Jude, verse 7. Page 97, 480. The absurdity of the idea that the Latin element in our tongue comes from the Roman occupation of Britain needs no comment. Cowper knew almost nothing of history. He seems, further on, to think that Woden and Thor were British deities. 7517. "Which may be found at Doctors' Commons," Cowper adds in a note. Page 98, 550. Alluding to the reign of Charles II. See Macaulay's Hist. ch. iii., "State of the Navy." The 19th of January, 1733, to Greenland. brethren, Christian David, Matthew Stach, and Christian Stach, having met with many friends and patrons at Copenhagen, set sail on the 10th of April. Soon after their arrival, on the 20th of May, they built a house not far from the Colony of Godhaab. They endeavoured to learn the language, and to enter into a useful intercourse with the heathen, but met with many difficulties; among which, that which seemed the most distressing was, that almost all the Greenlanders of that district had been carried off by the small-pox. In the year 1734 they received two assistants, and agreed with one another that they would faithfully hold out, in hunger and distress, by hard and hazardous labour, amidst contempt on all sides, in danger of life among the incensed savages, by a supposed desertion of their friends at Copenhagen, by an apparent unfruitfulness, nay, impossibility of access to the hearts of the heathen, and in many other hardships and difficulties attending the mission in the first years. They had, indeed, the joy of baptizing, in the year 1739, the firstfruits, Samuel Kajarnak, and family; but he was soon obliged to flee from murderers. Yet he returned again in the year 1740, and drew many Greenlanders after him, to whom he, on his flight, had preached the gospel. A great awakening arose, soon after, among the Greenlanders; and in a few years the congregation of the baptized, regulated so orderly as could hardly have been thought possible among savages, increased to such a degree that they were obliged to think of a second congregation from among the heathen, which in 1758 was begun at Fishers' Bay, 'and which is yet flourishing." The whole history of this mission, as well as that of the same body to the West Indies, is one of the most self-denying and beautiful on record. It was this which made Greenland a Christian country. Page 112,554. “ Leuconomus,” George Whitefield. Born at Gloucester, Dec. 1714; educated at Oxford; ordained 1736, and immediately became famous as a preacher. He could be heard, it is said, at a mile distance (Eng. Cyclopædia). Was a most intimate friend of the Wesleys, both at Oxford and afterwards, until he quarrelled with them on the question of predestination, Whitefield taking Calvinistic views. The personal breach soon healed, but from that time they never worked in concert again. He died at Boston, in America, Dec. 1770. 2 Page 116, 754. The last lines, in all probability, refer to Newton. Page 117. CHARITY may be said to complete the series of "Christian Poems." It was written in a fortnight, and completed on the 12th of July, 1781. 7 23. Captain Cook was killed at Owhyee (Hawaii), Feb. 14, 1779, and the news received in England with profound grief. was Page 117, ll 51-64. There is confusion in Cowper's historical memory here. Cortez conquered Mexico in 1519-20, and therefore in the reign, not of Philip, but of Charles V. In the course of the war, the Mexican king, Montezuma, in trying to persuade his subjects to submit to the conquest which he saw to be inevitable, was mortally wounded by them, to the great chagrin of Cortez. In his last hours, we are told, "Cortez joined with Father Bartholomew in persuading him renounce his idolatry; but all their arguments were to no purpose, and he expired, after having conjured the general to avenge his death." Francis Pizarro, in 1531, achieved the conquest of Peru. By acts of treachery unparalleled even by Spaniards, he gained possession of the Inca, Atahualpa, and having led him to pay an enormous ransom, had him tried by Father Vincent for idolatry, avarice (!), and other offences. He was condemned to be burnt alive. The pious priest afterwards "undertook the Inca's conversion; and his arguments were worthy of himself. He promised that if he would die a Christian, instead of being burned, he should be only strangled, which had the desired effect, and, to the eternal dishonour of all concerned in this iniquitous proceeding, he was baptized in the evening and strangled next morning." 166. Is. xiv. 10, 11. 230. Is. lxvi. 3. 7253. Thornton. See Memoir, xxiii. note. Il 290-311. John Howard, born in London, 1726. After the earthquake at Lisbon, he determined, being a rich man, to go thither to help the sufferers, but was captured by a French privateer. The sights which he saw in the prison helped to shape his future career of philanthropy. A few years later he visited the town and country jails in England and Wales, and laid a report before the House of Commons. Afterwards (in 1777) he published his "Account of the State of Prisons," astonishing the world by the value of his researches, by his prodigious labour, hazard, and self-devotion. He was immediately felt to be not only one of the greatest, but one of the noblest characters of the age. In the same pious iabour he then visited the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Russia, Spain, and Portugal. Dangers or disgust never turned him from his path: he visited Constantinople and Smyrna because they were plaguestricken, and he desired to know the state of the lazarettos. Pushing eastwards, he was seized with fever in the Crimea, and died at Cherson in 1790. Page 125, 432. Page 126, 499. 1 Cor. xiii. Dean Swift. Page 128, 1609. The Baptists are dipped: all other Christians are commonly sprinkled. "Love," says Cowper, "might make them tolerant of each other." Page 128, 1613. The "Prince" of Machiavel, full of "projects dark and deep for the statesman," is the work referred to here. Macaulay's Essay on it. See Page 129. CONVERSATION was originally intended for the introduction to a second volume. "I am in the middle of an affair called Conversation,' which, as Table Talk' serves in the present volume by way of introductory fiddle, I design shall perform the same office in a second." (Letter to Newton.) Page 130, 57- Vestris was an Italian stagedancer of wonderful skill. He took a farewell of the stage in 1781, and was succeeded by his son. Page 133, 198. Dares was one of the companions of Eneas, and Entellus a Sicilian. The fierce combat between these two pugilists is described in the Aneid, v. 362-472 Page 134, 243. Guy is supposed to have flourished in the reign of Athelstan, and, besides many victories over dragons, he is said to have decided the fate of the kingdom by fighting an enormous Danish giant on Magdalen Hill, near Winchester. Page 135, 299. "Budge," i. e. wearing a fur robe to look like a philosopher. Cp. Comus, 1. 707. Page 136, 352. "Il n'est jamais plus difficile de bien parler que quand on a honte de se taire." (Rochefoucauld.) 7358. There was an idea that the ancients had the art of making lamps which would burn for a thousand years, and placed them in sepulchres. Page 139,505. Luke xxiv. 13-31. v. n., to practise extortion." (Johnson.) So in Ps. lxxx. 22. "Exact, 66 Page 147. RETIREMENT. 'My view, in choosing this subject, is to direct to the proper use of the opportunities it affords for the culti vation of a man's best interests; to censure the vices and follies which people carry with them into their retreats, where they make no other use of their leisure than to gratify themselves with the indulgence of their favourite appetites, and to pay themselves, by a life of pleasure, for a life of business." (Letter to Newton.) Page 149, 106. In the first two editions this line ran, "Whatever is, seems formed indeed for us.' It was altered to its present form in 1793. Page 151, 278. Cowper's own love, as we have seen, was doomed to end in sorrow and disappointment. From that time he never wrote on Love, except in these bitter lines. Page 152, 279. Dr. William Heberden. This most amiable and admirable man was born in 1710, and was Cowper's medical friend in London. The present passage is inexpressibly affecting, so earnest and true is the poet's sympathy with him on the cause of his retirement. He lived, however, twenty years after this, and died at the age of ninety. He is said to have spoken often of his affection for Cowper. Page 155, 421. "Balk," the unploughed ridges between the furrows, or at the ends of the field. Page 157, 137- "Nereids," sea nymphs; "Dryads," wood nymphs. Page 160, 7 688. Voltaire, at his retreat at Ferney, built a church, and inscribed on the porch, Deo erexit Voltaire.' Page 161, 1691. Allusion to Horne Tooke's Letter to Dunning, which contained the germs of the "Diversions of Purley." Page 163. The Doves. Written in May 1780, and sent to Mrs. Newton, with this explanatory note:-"The male dove was smoking a pipe, and the female dove was sewing, while she delivered herself as above. This little circumstance may lead you perhaps to guess what pair I had in my eye.' Of course he means Mr. and Mrs. Bull. &c. The fable of The Raven was also sent to Newton about the same time, with a letter describing the circumstance which suggested it. ""Twas April, as the bumpkins say,' The change of style had been made in 1752, but the common people for many years pertinaciously held that they had been cheated of eleven days of their life, and were furious with the promoters of the change. I have myself heard an old woman descanting on the impiety of it; she "had heard her mother say so. Dray," the local name for a squirrel's nest. Page 164. "Sweet stream," &c. Addressed to Miss Shuttleworth, Mrs. W. Unwin's sister. Alexander Selkirk was born in Fifeshire in 1676, quarrelled with his family and went to sea, and his adventures on the island of Juan Fernandez are said to have furnished the materials for Defoe's great fiction. Some relics of his "solitary abode," a gun and cup, are still in the possession of the family. But, after his return home, he pined for his island again, and would see no one, only going out of doors after dark. After staying nine months at home, he went away again, and was never more heard of. Page 165. On the Promotion of Thurlow. This was written for Hill, and sent to him in a letter, dated Nov. 14, 1779, no doubt with a natural desire to recall himself and his prophecy to the memory of his old friend. See Memoir, p. xxvi. The Ode to Peace was written at the beginning of his second attack of insanity, 1773. Memoir, p. xl. Page 166. The Modern Patriot was intended for a description of Burke on account of his friendship with Fox, and the line which he took on the American and Roman Catholic questions. A few days afterwards, however, Cowper saw how unjust his poem was. "I was so well pleased with his proposals for a Reformation [Economical Reform Speech, Feb. 9, 1780], that I thought better of his cause, and burnt He must have kept a copy. my verses." On observing some Names of Note. Cowper had borrowed the book from Unwin, and sent it back with these lines. Page 167. Report, &c., sent both to Unwin and Hill in letters. See Memoir, p. xlii. The original MS. is in the Brit. Mus., with the following heading : Nose Plf., Eyes Deft. Vid. Plowden, folio 6,000. The house of Lord Mansfield, which was burnt by the Golden Rioters, was in Bloomsbury Square. See Mahon, ch. lxi. "The Vandals," alluding to the terrible havoc and destruction wrought by the Vandals when they sacked Rome in 455. Page 168. The Love of the World, &c. Newton told Cowper this story, and he versified it in about an hour. Newton sent the verses to Mr. Thornton, having inserted some lines of his own. With this insertion, as Cowper's note shows, they appeared in the Leeds Journal, he not being aware who put them in print, or made the additions. Lines 9-14 appear to be those added by Newton, and in many editions they are printed in brackets; but as there are no brackets in Cowper's own edition, I have printed none. Southey supposes that the expression," going the whole hog," is derived from this fable. Page 170. In the letter forwarding The Nightingale and Glow-worm to Unwin, Cowper writes, "I only premise that in the philosophical tract in the Register, I found it asserted that the glow-worm is the nightingale's food." Votum. The following translation is offered merely for the information of those who do not read Latin. A WISH. Ye morning dews, ye breezes bringing health, Ah happy days! For then no fears oppressed, Page 170, 170. The poor little Goldfinch died next door to Cowper's house. He kept this poem by him for several months, continually retouching it. Page 171. The Pineapples and the Bee. Written September 1779, and addressed to Mrs. Hill, who had given the poet the seeds from which he produced his pineapples. The Translation of Horace was inserted by him among his original poems for the sake of the Reflection which follows it. Page 172. Vincent Bourne was usher of the fifth form at Westminster when Cowper passed through it. He was famous for his skill in Latin poetry, and is described as slovenly, dirty, and good-natured. One of his pupils, the Duke of Richmond, once set fire to his greasy wig, and then boxed his ears to put it out. "I have an affection for the memory of Vinny Bourne," says Cowper in one of his letters. But he says also: "I lost more than I got by him, for he made me as idle as himself. He was so inattentive to his boys, and so indifferent whether they brought him good or bad exercises, or none at all, that he seemed determined, as he was the best, so to be the last Latin poet of the Westminster line." Page 173. The Shrubbery was written soon after the Ode to Peace. (See note, p. 165.) The Shrubbery is at Weston. It was afterwards cut down by a stupid bailiff, who misunderstood an order of Mr. Throckmorton. Page 174 The Winter Nosegay. "That sunny shed," viz. in the author's garden, summerhouse and greenhouse by turns. (Memoir, p. xlv.) Prior's Poem is in Anderson's Page 175. Poets, vii. p. 405. Boadicea was written after reading Hume's History, in 1780. Page 181. In a letter to Unwin, announcing the transmission of the MS. of this volume, Cowper writes: "The motto of the whole is Fit surculus arbor. If you can put the author's name under it, do so; if not, it must go without one. For I know not to whom to ascribe it. It was a motto taken by a certain Prince of Orange, in the year 1733, but not to his own writing, or indeed to any poem at all, but, as I think, to a medal." Page 183, 19. "Our sires had none." Our author has again confounded Britons with Englishmen. Page 184, 158. "Lumber." Every edition published in the author's lifetime read Umber. The correction was never made until 1803. 778. It is said that a Saxon king conferred the distinction of royalty upon the two chief magistrates of this ancient town, who were originally elected from the two principal crafts, viz. millers and tanners. The first notice of them in literature is in the Duke of Buckingham's Play of the Rehearsal. Page 186, 154. "Yon eminence." A hill on the grounds of Weston House, two or three fields west of Cowper's residence. 173-6. The square tower of Clifton; the tall spire, Olney; the villages remote, Emberton, Steventon. Page 187, 227. "The peasant's nest," a better sort of farm cottage; now, however, tiled instead of thatched, and the trees are all cut down. Page 188, 253. "A colonnade," a fine avenue of chesnuts in Weston Park, ending at the rustic bridge. 278. "The Alcove" is beyond the rustic bridge, a view seat of six sides, three of them open. Only a visit to the place can enable the reader to realize the wonderful truthfulness of the whole description. Page 193, 534. This was a portrait from life. An engraving taken from this description was sent to Cowper, who replied: "I cannot say that poor Kate much resembles the original, who was neither so young nor so handsome as here represented; but she has a figure well suited to the account given in The Task, and a face exceedingly expressive of despairing melancholy." Page 195, 1621. The Society and Friendly Islands. came to 7633. "Omai" was a native of the Friendly Islands. He acted as interpreter to Captain Cook in his third voyage, and England with him in 1775. He was naturally an object of very great interest in London circles, and charmed everybody by his intelligence, modesty, and self-reliance. Dr. Johnson was delighted with him; and Reynolds painted him. Cowper was correct in supposing that he pined after English refinement after his return home, though it was only a guess introduced as a vehicle for satire on our own frivolity. It was afterwards related that he entreated pathetically to be carried back to England again. Page 197, 700. Four years after this was written, Reynolds had to give up painting, owing to failing sight. 1 702. Bacon was a friend of Newton, and, on the strength of this, took the opportunity of expressing to the poet his admiration of his first volume, and also sent him |