xxviii PREFATORY MEMOIR OF WILLIAM COWPER. In 1791 Mrs. Unwin was seized with paralysis, and the effect on Cowper of her illness, and lengthened recovery from it, was very sad. He began to fancy he heard voices speaking to him when he woke in the morning. Mrs. Unwin's intellect, weakened by her illness, succumbed to the same delusion, and a schoolmaster at Olney, Samuel Teedon, actually undertook to explain the meaning of the imagined sounds to Cowper. This man gained great influence over the unhappy poet, who paid him large sums of money at different times. From this period the life of Cowper became clouded and hopeless. Poor Mrs. Unwin, weak in mind and body, had grown fretful and very exacting. He had no companion now but this suffering, imbecile woman, and the equally mad or knavish schoolmaster, Lady Hesketh being at Bath for her health. When she returned she was so shocked and alarmed, that she wrote at once for Mr. Hayley (a friend whom Cowper had lately made in consequence of their being both employed-of course, by different publishers-on an edition of Milton), begging him to come at once to Olney. He complied. They induced the celebrated Dr. Willis to see Cowper, but he could do nothing for the now restless madman. A pension of 300l. a year was granted to the poet by the king, but he was incapable of understanding his good fortune. Dr. Willis had suggested change of air and scene, and clinging to this last hope, Mr. Johnson succeeded in persuading him to go (with Mrs. Unwin) to North Tuddenham, then to Mundesley, on the coast, and finally to Dunham Lodge, near Swaffham. Here Mrs. Unwin died. Cowper was taken to see her. He uttered an exclamation of sorrow and left the room, but became quite calm directly afterwards, and suffered Johnson to resume the reading which had lately been their only means of pleasing him— that of Miss Burney's novels. After the death of Mrs. Unwin, Cowper had glimpses of reason. In March, 1799, he continued his revision of his Homer, wrote the Latin poem, "Montes Glaciales," and a few days afterwards "The Castaway. He liked being read to, and would listen to his own poems, except to "John Gilpin," which he disliked. An excellent woman, Miss Perowne, had in a degree taken Mrs. Unwin's former place beside him, and assisted the loving efforts of his kinsman to cheer and help him. But care and love were alike vain. In the helpless gloom of melancholy madness his life closed. He died April 25, 1800. "From that moment (of his death), says his kinsrean, “until the coffin was closed, the expression into which his countenance had settled was that of calmness and composure, mingled, as it were, with a hy surprise." He had emphatically "entered into his rest," and was at peace. he was buried in Dereham Church, in St. Edmund's Chapel. Mrs. Unwin lies in the south aisle. THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM COWPER. Early Poems. VERSES WRITTEN AT BATH, ON FINDING THE HEEL OF A SHOE, IN 1748. FORTUNE! I thank thee: gentle goddess, thanks! Of early breakfast, to dispel the fumes And bowel-raking pains of emptiness, Nor noontide feast, nor evening's cool repast, Hopes she from this, presumptuous-though perhaps Nathless she thanks thee, and accepts thy boon, Vain-glorious fool, unknowing what he found, Spurn'd the rich gem thou gavest him. Wherefore ah! Conferr'dst thou, goddess? Thou art blind, thou sayest: B Flattening the stubborn clod, till cruel time His prosperous way; nor fears miscarriage foul, OF HIMSELF. WILLIAM was once a bashful youth; That one might say (to say the truth), Some said that it was want of sense, But some a different notion had, Howe'er, it happened, by degrees, Nay, now and then would look quite gay, And sometimes said, or tried to say, A witty thing or so. He eyed the women, and made free So that there was, or seemed to be The women said, who thought him rough, 66 But now no longer foolish, The creature may do well enough, At length, improved from head to heel, Now that a miracle so strange May not in vain be shown Let the dear maid* who wrought the change POEMS TO DELIA. Catfield,† July, 1752. AN APOLOGY FOR NOT SHOWING HER WHAT I HAD WROTE. DID not my Muse (what can she less ?) * His cousin, Theodora Cowper. "Cutfield;" Ed. 1825, probably "Catfield," the parish in Norfolk of which Cowper's maternal uncle, the Rev. Roger Donne, was rector. The Delia of the Poet was his cousin, Theodora Jane Cowper, to whom he was much attached. His love was returned, but her father, Mr. Ashley Cowper, refused to consent to their union. “Delia” died unmarried in 1824. Nor heeds she whether harsh or clear, At the same place. APOLOGY TO DELIA, FOR DESIRING A LOCK OF HER HAIR. DELIA, the unkindest girl on earth, Refused that instant to comply Trust me, my dear, however odd I sought it merely to defraud Yes! when its sister locks shall fade, Ah then! if haply to my share When you behold it still as sleek, As when it left thy snowy neck, Then shall my Delia's self declare And have preserved my little share |