108. Authors who live by the pen well justified. 112. "Brushing the dust from my black rollers." 141. Gothic or Chinese taste. 201. Cricket not regarded as an amusement for gentlemen. 210. Neglect of Churches. Velvet altar pieces, and shabby clergymen in pulpits with rich velvet cushions. 211. Struggle between the Old and New Version of the Psalms, as between the old and new style. Old and new tunes also, and itinerant psalm-singers in every county, as propagandists. 212. Service waiting for the squire. 213. Display of new fashions at church. The St. James's Magazine. By ROBERT LLOYD, A. M. 1762. P. vii. HAD the plan of this Magazine been more enlarged it could never have wanted an occasional support from the correspondence of young gentlemen of sixteen, great geniuses of no education, and great scholars of no genius. What it is not to contain. 18. Lloyd's character of Churchill. 13. His own feelings, perhaps, in this picture of a rake. 25. Conversation at Will's in Swift's time. 30. Swift's opinion that society was at the best in the peaceable part of Charles the First's reign. 81. His own feelings here. 91. Charles Emily's poem first (I suppose) published here. 118. A letter (original) of Swift's, curiously showing his feelings concerning marriage. 1 BP. BEVERIDGE's Defence of the Book of Psalms, published in 1710, is probably the most valuable relic of this well-known struggle. It is reprinted in Horne's edition of his Works, vol. i. p. 613, &c.—J. W. W. 127. "None are permitted to wear swords at Bath." 138. A reflection on British courage, by B. Thornton. 139." The bravery of a man fighting a duel with himself, without second or antagonist, vulgarly called self-murder."THORNTON. 140. An author's nine lives disposed of. Poor Lloyd must have remembered this in his last days! 150. Imitations in Aureng-Zebe of Samson Agonistes. 156. Gibbeting. "Such spectacles may frighten crows, But never scared a thief."-C. DENIS. 188. The experiment of introducing news did not answer, and was immediately discontinued. 190. Tullius and Tarquin. I suspect that this has been falsely ascribed to Dryden. There are too many expletives in it for him to have used at that age. 205. The Rubric Posts-still in use. 219. The Poetry Professors. An unlucky second sight in contempt of Scotch poets. 66 Harvey's drunken prose," properly enough so called, though perhaps maudlin might be the better epithet, the soft mood of semi-drunkenness. 265. Thornton's announcement of his Plautus. Colman intended, Terma suggested the thought. 292. The quatrain said not to be a new elegiac measure, but heroic verse," and to be met with in Dryden's Ann. Mirabilis, and all through the long and tedious poem of Davenant's Gondibert." 343. A sneer at Gray, Mason, and Whitehead. Churchill. 345, 6. 363. An essay to show that ancient poetry cannot be relished in translations. 374. Lloyd on his own undertaking. 378. A sneer at uneducated poets. 386. Denis. 388. His own style. 383. Gilb. West sneered at. 385. Verse properly recommended for comedy. Vol. 2. P. 1. Is this R-d B-y Bensley or Bentley ? 2. Poetry worn out. 3. A contrast to Wordsworth's sonnet. 13. Shake a Leicestershire1 woman by the petticoat, and the beans will rattle in her throat. A story that the mayor is chosen there by a sow. The candidates sit in a semicircle, each with his hat full of beans in his lap, and he is the mayor from whose hat the sow eats first.2 72. A complete translation of Racine proposed by the editor to be given in the course of his work-a certain portion every month, separately paged. Was it to be his own? and was it done? 114. Honest satire on Churchill, Colman, Thornton, and Lloyd here. 115-6-8. 118-25. Is this W. C., Cowper? 189. The price of the Mag. (18.) was complained of. The London, Royal, and others being only sixpence. 63. Blackmore well criticised. 109. Johnson and his imitators - well characterized by Lloyd. 112. Unjust to Whitehead. 118. Praise of acting at school. The Jesuits seem to have been of this opinion. Rector of Chellington, Bedfordshire, he published a volume of poems by subscription. 121. This Rogers says that Cowley's odes "Shall please while wit can pleasure bring, And Lee and Young, great masters of sublime, Arrest applause to the last pulse of time." 149. Mason or Warton lampooned here? in an imitation of Boileau. 166. William Ellis the great ballad-singer of that day. 182. A pleasing poem of Lloyd's—in his better mind. 187. This ode, secundum artem, is signed L., but it is exactly what W. C. promised in the last volume, p. 125. And I take it to be his. 201. Poor Lloyd seems now to have ad197. Shepherd's lamentation over Lloyd's mitted any thing, however worthless, in any drudgery. 241. Coleman's Ep. to Lord Pulteney. Vol. 3. P. 1. TRANSLATION by Denis from a MS. poem of Cazotte's. 57. Churchill severely condemned by Lloyd. "Plenty of these in this county," says FULLER, "especially about Barton in the Beans," &c.; and under the proverb, Bean-Belly Leicestershire, he adds, Those in the neighbouring counties use to say merrily, Shake a Leices tershire yeoman by the collar, and you shall hear the beans rattle in his belly.' But those yeomen smile at what is said to rattle in their bellies, whilst they know good silver ringeth in their pockets."-Worthies, p. 125-6, folio. 2 In reading this odd custom, one naturally calls to mind the old titles of "Rex Fabarum," "Roi de la Feve,"-" Rey de Havas," &c. See BRANDE'S Pop. Ant. vol. i. pp. 16, 17, 275, ed. Ellis. Reprint. J. W. W. way. 209. Potter's speech against the repeal of the Jews' Bill,-from his own MSS. Sterne. IN Almon's "Life and Correspondence of Wilkes," vol. 5, pp. 7-20, are some letters from Sterne's widow and daughter to Wilkes. Sterne left them in distress. He died £1100 in debt; his effects did not produce above £400. All the widow had was an estate of £40 a year, out of which she engaged to pay the rest. A collection was made for them in the race-week at York; it produced £800. He sold the copyright of his sermons, but was to have what copies they could get subscribers for. WILKES and Hall (Stevenson), promised to write Sterne's life for their benefit,-but though often pressingly reminded of it, neither of them performed their promise. in their hands, his delighted readers well nigh find themselves at a loss which they shall most admire, the sublimity and sweetness of the blessed truths he conveys, or the charming felicity of their conveyance." pro--Monthly Review, vol. 41, p. 471. Almon says, the wife and daughter had retired to France during his life," rather than live in England under the daily vocations of an unkind husband." 1 How Toplady, who wrote a good manly Miss Sterne intimates that Eugenius was style, could say this, is marvellous. Herdesigned for Hall. vey's resembles a confectioner's shop, just before Twelfth Day. Hervey. HERVEY'S Contemplations on the Night done into blank verse, after the manner of Dr. Young, by T. Newcomb, M.A. Monthly Review, vol. xvi. p. 289. (175.) Praised- -as also Mr. Newcomb, at considerable length. "To conclude, where the Meditant surpasses the Poet, the former is perhaps so inimitable, that the latter loses his honour; but when he excels his original, he certainly merits our applause." And they wish him to give the other meditations in the same manner. This is contradicted in Sterne's own Letters. See Letter li. vol. ix. p. 150. The following strong passage occurs in Letter xci. to Miss Sterne: I am unhappy; thy mother and thy self at a distance from me, and what can compensate for such a destitution? For God's sake persuade her to come and fix herself in England, for life is too short to waste in separation, and while she lives in one country, and I in an. other, many people will suppose it proceeds from choice. Besides, I want thee near me, thou child and darling of my heart!" Vol. x. p. 40.-J. W. W. Brown. CHURCHILL, Vol. ii. p. 174, N. His Estimate ran through seven editions in one year. "His insatiable vanity, dogmatism and arrogance rendered him disgusting to others, and a torment to himself." Yet this ill-natured writer confesses that he understood the theory of composition, and that his Dissertation on the Rise, Union, and Power, the Progression, Separation, and Corruptions of Poetry and Music, evinces a thorough acquaintance with the subjects on which he treats. One pamphleteer abused him, "that, with an eye to preferment, he had officiously strained all his powers and faculties, to make the people appear sole authors of their own calamities." The same opponent says, "whoever casts an eye on the existimator's scanty page and overgrown margin, will pronounce at once that nobody understands the value of three and sixpence better than he." All which the M. Review (April 1758) appears to commend. The next article is upon the second vol. of the Estimate (vol. xviii. p. 354). It is thoroughly malignant; and, if the writer had any reason for suspecting the real state of Brown's mind, might almost deserve to be called murderous. P. 374. Glover. "MRS. YATES usually selected his Medea for her benefit."-N. CHURCHILL, vol. ii. p. 367. Oct. 24, 1761. "MR. GLOVER has pub- | Wakefield. As my business then lay lished his long-hoarded Medea, as an intro- there," said he," that was my reason for duction to the House of Commons; it had fixing on Wakefield as the field of action." been more proper to usher him from school CRADOCK'S Mem. vol. 4, p. 286. to the University. There are a few good lines, not much conduct, and a quantity of iambics and trochaics, that scarce speak English, and yet have no rhyme to keep one another in countenance. If his chariot is stopt at Temple Bar, I suppose he will take it for the Straits of Thermopylæ, and be delivered of his first speech before its time."-H. WALPOLE, vol. 2, p. 311. In reviewing his "Beauties of English Poetry," (2 vols. 6s.), "Monthly Review," vol. 36, p. 491, his preface is called unaccountable and uncouth, and his introductory observations on the several poems, "still more wrong-headed, more singular, more affected, and more absurd." Thomson, in the opinion of this mighty critic, is a verbose and affected poet, and Shenstone's "Pastoral Ballads," have neither learning nor simplicity; but his "Schoolmistress" is one of those happinesses in which a poet excels himself! Gay's burlesque pastorals are in the manner of Theocritus. Who that reads criticisms can forbear crying out with the Shepherd in Virgil, "Quid facient Domini, audent cum talia fures ?" Cradock used to offer Goldsmith every aid in his power as to his works, i. e. in suggesting amendments. "As to my Hermit,'" said Goldsmith, "that poem, Cradock, cannot be amended." He had occasion "to pay a journey to GOLDSMITH makes Miss Richland argue "that severity in criticisms is necessary," and says, "It was our first adopting the severity of French taste, that has brought them in turn to taste us."-Good-natured Man. DEDICATION of "She Stoops to Conquer," to Johnson. "I have particularly reason to thank you for your partiality to this performance. The undertaking a comedy not merely sentimental, was very dangerous, and Mr. Colman, who saw this piece in its various stages, always thought it so." Gray. On the publication of his "Fatal Sisters," "Descent of Odin," and "Triumph of Odin," the "Monthly Review, (1768), vol. 38, p. 408, says-" These turn chiefly on the dark diableries of the Gothic times; and if to be mysterious and to be sublime be the same thing, these deep-wrought performances must undoubtedly be deemed so. For our parts we shall for ever regret the departure of Mr. Gray s muse from that elegantly moral simplicity she assumed in the "Country Churchyard." MASON's edition. "The whole collection is, for a writer of Mr. Gray's poetical powers and propensities, singularly small. His muse, though certainly the most enthusiastic admirer of Nature, has gathered a mere nosegay from her breast, - -an assemblage, indeed, of uncommon and highly-flavoured flowers; but it is in a wilderness of this kind that we wish to range at large."— Monthly Review, vol. 52, p. 377 Ibid. vol. 53, p. 102. His Elegy said here to be imitated from one by Gay. Here is a former dictum contradicted then. "It is observable, that sublimity of genius has been generally attended with a strong affection for the demonry of the ancient northern fable. Milton was particularly fond of it. It was the study of his youth, and the dream of his age. This passion seems natural. There is something sublime in the Celtic mythology,—in the idea of ancient hardyhood, and the feats of former times, that is peculiarly adapted to a natural grandeur of imagination. In the mythology of the Greeks every thing seems little, seems puerile in comparison. Hence Mr. Gray's strong attachment to every thing that breathed of the former. The hall of Odin was heaven itself to him (!!), and Ossian the very dæmon of poetry."" 1775. "Times," Wednesday, 23d Dec. 1835.Ar a sale of autographs, "Gray's assignment of his two Odes, the Progress of Poetry,' and the 'Bard,' for forty guineas. 29 June, 1757. Mr. Wilks, M.P., purchased this for eight guineas. (Mason relates that Gray was "too high-minded to receive remuneration for his productions.)" GRAY and Walpole wrote from Italy a little in the style of Erskine and Boswell. "I AGREE with you (George Montagu), most absolutely in your opinion about Gray. He is the worst company in the world. From a melancholy turn, from living reclusively, and from a little too much dignity, he never converses easily. All his words are measured and chosen, and formed BEATTIE gives a very amiable account of into sentences. His writings are admirable; him.-Life of Beattie, vol. 1, p. 65. THE notes to the two Pindarics, first printed in the Glasgow edition, Beattie thought more copious than were necessary. "But I understand," he "he is not a says, little chagrined at the complaints which have been made of their obscurity, and he tells me that he wrote these notes out of spite."-Ibid. vol. 1, p. 104. he himself is not agreeable."-H. WALPOLE. Letters, vol. 1, p. 194. |