Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 139.

He is really one of the most remarkable figures in the early history of Romanticism. In both his creative and critical work, he threw his influence decidedly against the age. He brought before the public some thoroughly Romantic poetry, and stands as one of the pioneers among ballad collectors. PHELPS, WILLIAM LYON, 1893, The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, p. 126.

For any trace of the inevitable in his verse the reader will look in vain. The higher imagination was a gift denied to him; yet with comparatively commonplace powers he exercised an influence which many men far more richly endowed have vainly striven to attain. It is to this, fully as much as to the intrinsic worth of his verse, considerable as its merit often is, that he owes his interest. . . . He had predecessors, indeed he was so little of an original genius that he would probably never have written had there not been a popular demand for the kind of verse he supplied. The language of political economy is well applied to it, for there never was a clearer case in literature of the operation of economic laws. But except Ramsay, there was no one who displayed any sustained capacity to furnish what was wanted.-WALKER, HUGH, 1893, Three Centuries of Scottish Literature, vol. II, pp. 9, 24.

No Scottish poet, probably, has been subjected at once to praise so much beyond his merits and to distract so grossly unjust to his deserts, as Allan Ramsay. While by some it has been averred that he was merely a time-serving manufacturer of

verse, who wrote what would sell, by others he had been extolled as not only the first but as one of the greatest of the singers of a new era. Burns himself spoke of Ramsay's "Gentle Shepherd" as the "most glorious poem ever written." Neither the eulogy nor the disparagement perhaps has been exactly just; but if indeed, as has been said of him, he appears to some to have been less a poet born than one made by circumstances, it must also at least be said that by what he did for the muse of his country he merits a place in Scottish poetic history little behind that of the greatest makers, Barbour, Henryson, Dunbar, Lyndsay, and Burns.-EYRE-Todd, George, 1896, Scot tish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century, vol. I, p. 38.

The characteristic touch of humour blended with romance, that formed its most distinctive feature, was preserved with a certain freshness and verve, by the individuality of Ramsay, and his sympathy with the realities of life and with nature made him keep in touch with what was the most valuable inheritance of Scottish song. His geniality won for him the favour of the leading spirits of the nation. His revival of the older forms harmonised not with the taste only, but with the deeper feelings of his day; and whatever the limitations of his genius, the author of the "Gentle Shepherd" claims the profound gratitude of his nation as one who transmitted a tradition, and who passed on the torch through the hands of Robert Fergusson to the more powerful arm and more commanding genius of Burns.CRAIK, SIR HENRY, 1901, A Century of Scottish History, vol. II, p. 32.

Sir Charles Hanbury Williams

1708-1759.

Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, third son of John Hanbury (the son added Williams to his name in compliance with the will of his godfather, Charles Williams, Esq., of Caerleon), was born in 1709, and educated at Eton; married to Lady Frances Coningsby, 1732; M. P. for Monmouth, 1733, and became a hearty supporter of Sir Robert Walpole, aiding him by his lampoons and pasquinades on his enemies as well as by his votes; Paymaster of the Marines, 1739; in 1746 made Knight of the Bath, and soon afterwards appointed Envoy to the Court of Dresden; minister at Berlin from 1749 to 1751, when he returned to Dresden; subsequently minister of St. Petersburg, where his eventual want of success and habits of dissipation reduced him to a wreck both in mind and body; died, it was supposed by his own hand, Nov. 2, 1759. He was the author of No. 3 of The World. 1. "The Odes of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Knight of the Bath," (edited by J. Ritson), 1755, 1780, 1784. 2. "Poems by

412

SIR CHARLES HANBURY WILLIAMS

C. H. Williams, 1763. 3. "The Works of the Right Honourable Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, K. B., from the Originals in the Possession of his Grandson, the Earl of Essex, with Notes by Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, London, Ed. Jeffery," 1822, 3 vols. The falsehoods of the title-page and preface, and subsequent apology of the publisher, are noticed in London Quarterly Review, xxvii.-ALLIBONE, S. AUSTIN, 1871, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, vol. III, p. 2735.

PERSONAL

I enquired after my old acquaintance Sir Charles Williams, who I hear is much broken, both in his spirits and constitution. How happy might that man have been, if there had been added to his natural and acquired endowments a dash of morality: If he had known how to distinguish between false and true felicity; and, instead of seeking to increase an estate already too large, and hunting after pleasures that have made him rotten and ridiculous, he had bounded his desires of wealth, and followed the dictates of his conscience. His servile ambition has gained him two yards of red ribbon, and an exile into a miserable country, where there is no society and so little taste that I believe he suffers under a dearth of flatterers. This is said for the use of your growing sons, whom I hope no golden temptations will induce to marry women they can not love, or comply with measures they do not approve.-MONTAGU, LADY MARY WORTLEY, 1758, Letter to the Countess of Bute, July 17.

He goes about again: but the world, especially a world of enemies, never care to give up their title to a man's madness, and will consequently not believe that he is yet in his senses.-WALPOLE, HORACE,

1758, Letter to Sir Horace Mann, Apr. 14; Letters, ed. Cunningham, vol. III, p. 132.

GENERAL

He spoke contemptuously of our lively and elegant, though too licentious, Lyrick bard, Hanbury Williams, and said, "he had no fame, but from boys who drank with him."-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1773, Life by Boswell, Sept. 24, ed. Hill, vol. v, p. 305.

His verses were highly prized by his contemporaries, and the letters of his friend Mr. Fox (the first Lord Holland), abound with extravagant commendations of his poetical talents; but in perusing those which have been given to the public, and those which are still in manuscript, the greater part are political effusions, or licentious lampoons, abounding with local

wit and temporary satire, eagerly read at their appearance, but little interesting to posterity.-COXE, WILLIAM, 1801, History of Monmouth, vol. 11, p. 279.

It's with great pleasure I beg your acceptance of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams' works. How pious, how I know it will give you great pleasure in canting and insincere people are become! hearing his Majesty has ordered one; three of the Cabinet Ministers have purchased copies; the Earl of Lonsdale six copies; also many great ladies, which shows their great sense. There are much more indecent poems in Pope and Prior.-JEFFERY, EDWARD, 1822, Letter to Mr. Upcot.

We . . . are ready to make some allowances for Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, and although his pieces are, as we have said, the grossest ever published, they probably are not much grosser than many others which were circulated in his day; and his reputation now stands so disgracefully distinguished rather through the indiscretion and effrontery of his publishers than through any superior wickedness of his own. We should have thought a new edition of his works not only pardonable, but laudable and useful, if it had been made the opportunity of separating his consigning the latter to obscurity and better from his worse productions, and oblivion. It may not be even now too late. Some of Sir Charles' verses must live; they are not merely witty and gay, but they are the best examples of a particular class of poetry, and are not without their importance in the history of social manners and political parties. We wish that they were collected into a volume, which one could open without being shocked by the juxtaposition of the horrors to which we have alluded. .

Sir Charles, without any effort on his part, has achieved a lasting fame. He will be always mentioned, and, if a decent edition be published, often read; but of the present work we are obliged to say, notwithstanding the respectable names which the editor has entrapped into his title-page

SIR CHARLES HANBURY WILLIAMS

and dedication, that it is a disgrace to good manners, good morals, and literature, and that no man of sense and no woman of delicacy can allow it to be seen on their table.-CROKER, JOHN WILSON? 1822, Sir Charles Hanbury, Williams's Works, The Quarterly Review, vol. 28, pp. 49, 59.

The lampoons of Sir Charles Williams are now read only by the curious, and, though not without occasional flashes of wit, have always seemed to us, we must own, very poor performances.-MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, 1833, Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, Edinburgh Review, vol. 58, p. 233.

His principal importance as an ally to the minister consisted in his power of writing, almost extempore, light pasquinades and tart lampoons on their political opponents, as each passing event prompted either the spirit of malice or the spirit of fun. The greater part of these have lost their interest; for squibs can only sparkle for a time. But some of Sir Charles's lighter compositions are still popular, and several, which are unconnected with politics, are pleasing for their grace and smartness. His ballad, written in 1740, on Lady Ilchester asking Lord Ilchester how many kisses he would have, is a very successful song.-CREASY, SIR EDWARD, 1850-75, Memoirs of Eminent Etonians, p. 312.

Of the conversational humour of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, very few traces have survived; but of his facetious talent in literary composition we have abundant evidence. We meet, in Walpole's correspondence, numerous traces of his popularity as a writer of quizzical versesmost of them were political satires directed against the enemies of his patron Sir Robert Walpole, and some of these are disfigured with allusions, and even with words, that are extremely objectionable; he also sometimes indulged in satirical squibs on ladies, and on persons whose insignificance should have shielded them from such attacks.-WARBURTON, ELIOT, 1852, Memoirs of Horace Walpole, vol. II, p. 116.

Time has robbed his satires of their point, by burying in oblivion the circumstances that gave rise to them. A single specimen of his writings is all that was deemed worthy of place in this volume.

413

-PARTON, JAMES, 1856-84, The Humorous Poetry of the English Language, p. 687.

His political squibs are some of the most lively and vigorous in our language.CUNNINGHAM, PETER, 1856, ed. Letters of Horace Walpole, vol. 1, p. 160, note.

Witty Excellency Hanbury did not succeed at Berlin on the "Romish-King Question," or otherwise; and indeed went off rather in a hurry. But for the next six or seven years he puddles about, at a great rate, in those Northern Courts; giving away a great deal of money, hatchPetersburg, Warsaw (not much at Berlin, ing many futile expensive intrigues at after the first trial there); and will not be altogether avoidable to us in this coming, as one could have wished. Besides, he is Horace Walpole's friend and select London wit: he contributed a good deal to the English notions about Friedrich; and has left considerable bits of acrid testimony on Friedrich, "clear words of an Eyewitness," men call them, -which are still read by everybody; the said Walpole, and others, having since printed them, in very dark conditions. Brevity is much due to Hanbury and his testimonies, since silence in the circumstances is not allowable. CARLYLE, THOMAS, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, bk. xvi, ch. v.

Among all these butterflies of song, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams takes the place of a wasp, if not of a veritable hornet. He was the Pasquin of his age, and a master of violent stinging invective in hard verse. In his own age no one dared to collect the savage lyrics of Williams, which were first presented to the world in 1822.-Gosse, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p, 229.

Burke alluded to him as "the polished courtier, the votary of wit and pleasure." Walpole regarded him as a model for the gilded youth of his day.

His occasional verse forms a not unworthy link between Prior and Gay, and Cowper and Canning. Yet the writings of Hanbury Williams were not thought to come up to the sparkle of his conversation, of which some idea may perhaps be gathered from the earlier letters of his friend Horace Walpole.-SECCOMBE, THOMAS, 1900, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LXI, p. 382.

William Collins

1721-1759.

Born, at Chichester, 25 Dec. 1721. Probably educated first at Chichester. Scholar of Winchester College, 19 Jan. 1733. Contributed verses to "Gentleman's Magazine" (Jan. and Oct. 1739), while still at school. Matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, 22 March 1740; Demyship at Magdalen College, 29 July 1741; B. A., 18 Nov. 1743. Visit to uncle in Flanders. Thought of entertaining Army or Church, but eventually devoted himself to literature in London. Failing health; visit to France, lived with sister at Chichester on his return. For a time in a madhouse at Chelsea. Visit to Oxford, 1754. Died at Chichester, 12 June 1759. Buried, at St. Andrew's Church, Chichester. Works: "Persian Eclogues" (anon.), 1742 (another edn., anon., entitled "Oriental Eclogues," 1757); "Odes," 1747 [1746]; "Verses humbly addressed to Sir Thomas Hammer" (anon.), 1743. Posthumous: "An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands," 1788. Collected Works: ed. by Langhorne, with Life, 1765, etc.; ed. by Mrs. Barbauld, 1797; ed. by A. Dyce, 1827; ed. by Moy Thomas, with Life, 1858.-SHARP, R. FARQUHARSON, 1897, A Dictionary of English Authors, p. 62.

PERSONAL

Ye who the merits of the dead revere,
Who hold misfortune sacred, genius dear,
Regard this tomb, where Collins, hapless
name,

Solicits kindness with a double claim.

Though nature gave him, and though science
taught

The fire of fancy, and the reach of thought,
Severely doomed to penury's extreme,
He pass'd in maddening pain life's feverish
dream,

While rays of genius only served to show
The thickening horror, and exalt his woe.
Ye walls that echoed to his frantic moan,
Guard the due records of this grateful stone;
Strangers to him, enamoured of his lays,
This fond memorial to his talents raise.
For this the ashes of a bard require,
Who touched the tenderest notes of pity's
lyre;

Who joined pure faith to strong poetic

powers;

Who, in reviving reason's lucid hours,

Sought on one book his troubled mind to rest,
And rightly deemed the book of God the best.
-HAYLEY, WILLIAM AND SARGENT, JOHN,
Inscription on Collins's Monument.

How little can we venture to exult in any intellectual powers or literary attainments, when we consider the condition of poor Collins. I knew him a few years ago, full of hopes and full of projects, versed in many languages, high in fancy, and strong in retention. This busy and forcible mind is now under the government of those who lately would not have been able to comprehend the least and most narrow of its designs. What do you hear of him? are there hopes of his recovery? or is he to pass the remainder of his life in misery and degradation? perhaps with

complete consciousness of his calamity.— -JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1754, Letter to Joseph Warton, March 8.

The neglected author of the Persian eclogues, which, however inaccurate, excel any in our language, is still alive. Happy, if insensible of our neglect, not raging at our ingratitude.- GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 1759, An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning.

In stature somewhat above the middle size; of a "brown" complexion, keen expressive eyes, and a fixed sedate aspect, which from intense thinking had contracted an habitual frown.-LANGHORNE, JOHN, 1765-81, The Poetical Works of William Collins, Memoir.

William Collins, the poet, I was intimately acquainted with, from the time he came to reside at Oxford. As

[ocr errors]

he brought with him, for so the whole
turn of his conversation discovered, too
high an opinion of his school acquisitions,
and a sovereign contempt for all academic
studies and discipline, he never looked
with any complacency on his situation in
the university, but was always complaining
of the dulness of a college life.
When poverty overtook him, poor man, he
had too much sensibility of temper to bear
with his misfortunes, and so fell into a
most deplorable state of mind. How he
got down to Oxford, I do not know; but I
myself saw him under Merton wall, in a
very affected situation, struggling, and
conveyed by force, in the arms of two or
three men, towards the parish of St.
Clement, in which was a house that took
in such unhappy objects; and I always

understood that, not long after, he died in confinement; but when, or where, or where he was buried, I never knew. Thus was lost to the world this unfortunate person, in the prime of life, without prime of life, without availing himself of fine abilities, which, properly improved, must have raised him to the top of any profession, and have rendered him a blessing to his friends, and an ornament to his country. Without

[ocr errors]

books, or steadiness or resolution to consult them if he had been possessed of any, he was always planning schemes for elaborate publications, which were carried no farther than the drawing up of proposals for subscriptions, some of which were published; and in particular, as far as I remember, one for a "History of the Darker Ages.' He was passionately fond of music; good natured and affable; warm in his friendships, and visionary in his pursuits; and, as long as I knew him, very temperate in his eating and drinking. He was of moderate stature, of a light and clear complexion, with grey eyes, so very weak at times as hardly to bear a candle in the room; and often raising within him apprehensions of blindness.-WHITE, GILBERT? 1781, Gentleman's Magazine.

He was an acceptable companion everywhere; and, among the gentlemen who loved him for a genius, I may reckon the Doctors Armstrong, Barrowby, and Hill, Messrs. Quin, Garrick, and Foote, who frequently took his opinion on their pieces before they were seen by the public. He was particularly noticed by the geniuses who frequented the Bedford and Slaughter's Coffee Houses. From his knowledge of Garrick he had the liberty of the scenes and green-room, where he made diverting observations on the vanity and false consequence of that class of people; and his manner of relating them to his particular friends was extremely entertaining.-RAGSDALE, JOHN, 1783, Letter to William Hymers, July.

In illustration of what Dr. Johnson has related, that during his last malady he was a great reader of the Bible, I am favoured with the following anecdote from the Reverend Mr. Shenton, Vicar of St. Andrews, at Chichester, by whom Collins was buried: "Walking in my vicaral garden one Sunday evening, during Collins's last illness, I heard a female (the servant, I suppose) reading the Bible in

his chamber. Mr. Collins had been accustomed to rave much, and make great moanings; but while she was reading, or rather attempting to read, he was not only silent but attentive likewise, correcting her mistakes, which indeed were very frequent, through the whole of the twentyseventh chapter of Genesis." I have just been informed, from undoubted authority, that Collins has finished a "Preliminary Dissertation" to be prefixed to his "History of the Restoration of Learning," and that it was written with great judgment, precision, and knowledge of the subject. -WARTON, THOMAS, 1783, Letter to William Hymers, July.

I have lately finished eight volumes of Johnson's "Prefaces, or Lives of the Poets." In all the number I observe but one man (a poet of no great fame,-of whom I did not know that he existed till I found him there), whose mind seems to have had the slightest tincture of religion; and he was hardly in his senses. His name was Collins. He sunk into a state of melancholy, and died young. Not long before his death, he was found at his lodgings in Islington by his biographer,

with the New Testament in his hand. He said to Johnson, "I have but one book; but it is the best. Of him, therefore, there are some hopes.-CowPER, WILLIAM, 1784, Letter to Mr. Newton, March 19.

Glide gently, thus for ever glide,

O Thames! that other bards may see As lovely visions by thy side As now, fair river! come to me. O glide, fair stream! for ever so, Thy quiet soul on all bestowing, Till all our minds for ever flow As thy deep waters now are flowing. Vain thought!-Yet be as now thou art, That in thy waters may be seen The image of a poet's heart, How bright, how solemn, how serene! Such as did once the Poet bless, Who murmuring here a later ditty, Could find no refuge from distress But in the milder grief of pity. Now let us, as we float along, For him suspend the dashing oar; And pray that never child of song May know that Poet's sorrows more. How calm! how still! the only sound, The dripping of the ear suspended! -The evening darkness gathers round By virtue's holiest Powers attended. -WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM, 1789, Remembrance of Collins.

« ZurückWeiter »