wife was an event deeply to be regretted, since, during the short period of his marriage, "he evidently became more attentive to times and seasons, and might have been won by domestic comforts from the habit of tippling, which was doubtless as much a disease as the gout, and must have tended to impair a constitution naturally vigorous."

That he was not, with all his eccentricities, an ill husband, may be inferred from the fact that Perry, his brother-in-law, continued to be his firm friend, and to pay him the greatest attention, to the end of his life. Perry indeed is said to have had greater influence with him than any other person; for he would listen to remonstrances from Perry which he would not have endured from any one else; and he was sometimes induced, by Perry's intervention, to accept favours or attentions which the independence of his spirit would otherwise have spurned.

From the time of his wife's death, according to the memoir in the "Gentleman's Magazine," his asthma, with which he had been afflicted ever since he had the imposthume on his lungs, in the early part of his life, greatly increased, so as to prevent him from close or long-continued application to any kind of study. This malady, the writer suggests, may possibly have been aggravated by his sedentary habits.

While he was on a visit to Perry at Merton, a fire broke out in the house, which destroyed a performance on which he had bestowed the labour of at least ten months. He had borrowed the manuscript of the Greek Lexicon compiled by Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople, from the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, engaging

K

to make a complete copy of it. This manuscript is known as the Codex Galeanus, from having been presented to Trinity College by the learned Gale, and, from its evident antiquity, may reasonably be supposed to be a transcript extremely valuable. Porson carried it with him wherever he went. On the morning of the day on which the fire occurred, he set out from Merton on a ride to London, taking with him the manuscript, but leaving the transcript, which he had just finished, behind him. As he was on the road, he felt, he thought, some apprehensions of approaching evil, and stopped three or four times on the way, deliberating whether he should return for his books and papers. Once he actually turned back his horse's head; but at last, trusting that his fears were idle, he resolved on continuing his journey. The following night, during his absence, the fire broke out, and the copy was destroyed. Dr. Raine was the first to inform him of his loss; and Porson, on hearing the news, inquired if any lives had been lost. Dr. Raine replied in the negative. "Then," rejoined Porson, "I will tell you what I have lost; twenty years of my life;" repeating, at the same time, the stanza of Gray,

"To each his sufferings; all are men,

Condemn'd alike to groan,

The tender for another's pain,

The unfeeling for his own."*

How he meant these lines to be applied, we are left to conjecture. Among the effects destroyed at the same time were a copy of Kuster's Aristophanes, the margins

Kidd, Tracts, p. xxxix.

of which were filled with notes and emendations, the letter of Ruhnken to which we have previously alluded, and many other literary treasures.

With the resolution of Bishop Cooper, who, when his wife, in a fit of rage, set fire to the manuscript of his Thesaurus on which he had spent eight years' labour, sat calmly down to write it over again, Porson devoted himself to make a second transcript of Photius equally accurate with the first. How long he took to his task is not related. The manuscript, a handsome quarto volume, he deposited in the library of his College. It was not printed till 1822, fourteen years after his death, when it came forth in quarto and octavo. Meanwhile, in 1808, an edition had been published, perhaps chiefly with a desire to anticipate Porson, by Hermann, but from very incorrect copies, and consequently with numerous blunders, and with a kind of sneer in the preface at those who would prefer to see it printed from the "Codex Galeanus." The edition has been reviewed, with no injustice perhaps to Hermann, but with some rather flippant censures on Photius himself, in the "Edinburgh Review,"* in an article attributed to the late Bishop Blomfield.

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Porson's personal appearance, at the time of his marriage, was, when he was well dressed, very commanding. "His very look," says Mr. John Symmons, impressed me with the idea of his being an extraordinary man; what is called, I believe, by artists, in the Hercules, the repose of strength,' appeared in his whole figure and face."+ "His head," says Pryse

6

* July 1813.

† Barker's Parriana, vol. i. p. 552.

Gordon*, "was remarkably fine; an expansive forehead, over which was smoothly combed (when in dress) his shining brown hair. His nose was Roman, with a keen and penetrating eye, shaded with long lashes. His mouth was full of expression; and altogether his countenance indicated deep thought. His stature was nearly six feet." Mr. Maltby, who became acquainted with him when he was under thirty, spoke of him as having been then a handsome man.† His ordinary dress, especially when alone, and engaged in study, was careless and slovenly, but, on important occasions, when he put on his blue coat, white waistcoat, black satin breeches, silk stockings, and ruffled shirt, "he looked," says Mr. Gordon, "quite the gentleman."

This description of Porson is supported by the portraits of him that are to be seen at Cambridge; one by Kirkby, a painter of some note in his day, in the diningroom of the Master's lodge at Trinity College; and another by Hoppner in the public library; of which an engraving is prefixed to this work. The marble bust of him, by Chantrey, in the chapel of Trinity College, is thought not to do him justice; a plaster bust, which was made from a cast taken immediately after his death, and of which an engraving by Fittler is given in the Adversaria, is considered to be a much better representation of him.

There was also a portrait of him at the Cider Cellars in Maiden Lane; but we believe it has been removed, and we know neither its author nor its merits.

* Personal Memoirs, vol. i. p. 288.

† Barker's Lit. Anecd. vol. ii. pp. 24, 186.

CHAP. XII.

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GREEK VERSION OF THREE CHILDREN SLIDING ON THE ICE.' -PORSON INSPECTS IRELAND'S "SHAKSPEARE PAPERS."-ACCOUNT OF IRELAND'S FORGERY. IRELAND'S ARTS OF CONCEALMENT.

HIS BOLDNESS.

TRANSCRIBES LEAR.

SUCCESS INCREASES DETERMINES ON FORGING A WHOLE PLAY. MANY DECEIVED BY THE APPEARANCE OF THE PAPERS; SIR FREDERICK EDEN; JAMES BOSWELL; DR. PARR; DR. JOSEPH WARTON.-SHAKSPEARE'S PRETENDED WILL.-NAMES ATTACHED TO PARR'S CERTIFICATE OF GENUINENESS. NOTICE OF THE PAPERS IN THE BIBLIOTHECA PARRIANA." MR. E. H. BARKER'S ATTEMPTED DEFENCE OF PARR.-SHERIDAN'S OPINION OF SHAKSPEARE.-" VORTIGERN AND ROWENA BROUGHT ON THE STAGE. YOUNG IRELAND'S PROFITS.-MALONE'S CRITICISM.-GEORGE CHALMERS's 66 APOLOGY FOR THE BELIEVERS."-CONCLUSION OF THE AFFAIR.

CATASTROPHE.

IN 1796 Porson published in the "Morning Chronicle" a Greek version of the nursery song of "Three Children sliding on the Ice," with a short addition. It was prefaced by the following letter to the Editor.

"SIR,

"As a learned friend of mine was rummaging an old trunk the other day, he discovered a false bottom, which on examination proved to be full of old parchments. But what was his joy and surprise when he discovered that the contents were neither more nor less than some of the lost tragedies of Sophocles! As the writing is difficult, and the traces of the letters somewhat faded, he proceeds slowly in the task of deciphering. When he has finished, the entire tragedies will be given to the public. In the mean time I send you the following fragment, which my friend communicated to me, and which all critics will concur with me, I doubt not, in