36. A man out of his Element:. . a sailor thrown from his horse, and his head striking against the ten-mile stone from Portsmouth.-No. 64. View of the Road to Paddington, with a Representation of the Deadly Never-green, that bears fruit all the year round; the fruit at full length:.. three felons on the gallows at Tyburn.-73. A Man loaded with Mischief:.. a fellow with a woman, a magpie, and a monkey on his back. It was one of those schemes," Mr. Chalmers says, "which could not be expected to last, or to be repeated, and which the public, at a less good-humoured period, might in all probability be disposed to consider as an insult." The public, however, took it in good humour, as it was meant'. When a pamphlet was published in France to ridicule the writings of Rousseau, a French critic well observed, "il est fort aisé de le faire, rien ne prétant plus à la parodie que le sublime, soit en style, soit en action, soit en morale." Burlesque and parody are indeed easy; and the more famous the original,.. the more sublime, it may be added, and even the more sacred,.. the easier is the unworthy, or base, or blasphemous attempt to place it in a ridiculous point of view. But burlesque is not so easy when it appeals only to the sense of humour, without any admixture of malice or wickeder ingredients. In this respect no writer had ever less reason than Bonnell Thornton to regret the indulgence of a dangerous taste for the ludicrous. Having made free with one of the arts in his Sign-post Exhibition, he took a liberty of the same inoffensive kind with the other two, in an Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, adapted to the ancient British music of the salt-box, jew'sharp, marrow-bones and cleavers, and humdrum, or hurdygurdy. This mock-lyric was so good in its kind, that Johnson 7 Churchill, in the "Ghost," represents Fame as talking, among other topics, Of sign post exhibitions, rais'd For laughter more than to be prais'd, Book iii. 273--80. 8 Bachaumont. Memoires Secrets, &c. tom. i. 305. used to praise it and repeat some of the lines in the annexed specimen, which will show the humour of this metrical performance. RECITATIVE, accompanied. The meaner melody we scorn Which vulgar instruments afford, In strains more exalted the Salt-Box shall join, RECITATIVE, to the Jew's-Harp. Strike, strike the soft Judaic harp; By teeth coercive in firm durance kept, AIR. Buzzing twangs the iron lyre, Trembling, trilling, Whizzing with the wavering wire. AIR, after a grand Symphony accompanied with Marrow- Hark, how the banging marrow-bones With a ding dong, ding dong, Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong ding. Let Cleavers sound A merry merry round, By banging Marrow-bones. RECITATIVE, to the Humstrum, or Hurdy-Gurdy. Cease lighter numbers; hither bring The undulating string Stretch'd out, and to the tumid bladder, Then deeper swell the notes and sadder, And let the hoarse bass slowly solemn sound. AIR. With dead, dull, doleful, heavy hums, And grievous groans The sober hurdy-gurdy thrums. Thornton went through with the jest, as he did in the exhibition. The ode was set by Dr. Burney, and actually performed at Ranelagh to a crowded audience. But then the execution in some degree clashed with the design, for the singing was good; the performers were excellent musicians; the cleavers had been cast in bell-metal for the occasion, and sweet tones were produced from the jew's-harp by a person who had acquired the art of playing it with perfect skill. Whether or not these frolics of wanton but inoffensive humour originated in the Nonsense Club cannot now be ascertained; but there can be no doubt that they were discussed and matured in that "noble institution," which fell to pieces about the time that Cowper was withdrawn from it. He had his full share in its merriment, and would never have alluded to it, as he has done with evident pleasure in the recollection, if he had seen any reason in his sadder mind to regret his connexion with it. The whole tenour of his correspondence shows that his disposition was remarkably playful, and that his playfulness never transgressed the bounds of strict propriety. If he seldom spoke of those members who were cut off early in life, it was because it was painful on that account alone to think of them. Of the survivors Colman was often in his mind, and always remembered with kindness, except when he thought himself treated by him with a neglect which, because of that very kindness, he felt keenly; and Hill continued to be his intimate and faithful friend through life. The friends who amused themselves in this club with banter and burlesque had, however, bonds of worthier sympathy. Cowper was born for better things; and Thornton and Colman, though they took the lead in every thing ludicrous, gave another proof of coincidence in their literary taste and occupations, not less remarkable than their joint authorship of the Connoisseur. Colman translated Terence with admirable skill; and Thornton, when the intention was imparted to him, conceived the 66 design of translating Plautus in like manner, into what he called the old English measure, by which he meant the dramatic blank verse of Shakespeare and his immediate followers. He published a specimen in his friend Lloyd's magazine, and that specimen was followed by some able essays, concerning the advantages of measure in modern comedies, or in translations from those of the ancients. Colman assisted him by translating one play; and it is probable that he would have lent him further aid, if he had not at that time been much engaged in theatrical business and in composing pieces for the stage. When Thornton published two volumes of his intended version, he dedicated them to Colman, and the dedication is a pleasing memorial of that friendship which seems never to have been interrupted. "I can never forget the time," he says, "when our literary amusements were so intimately blended, that we seemed to have one invention, one sentiment, one expression. The regularity of a periodical publication led us to a constant intercourse and communication of ideas; and whatever may be the fate of this present undertaking, I shall never repent my having dipt in ink, since it gave me an opportunity of cultivating a social as well as a literary connexion with you. "Instead of prefixing your name to this work, with the distant air of a dedication, I wished to have had it coupled along with mine in the title-page: I wanted you as a comes jucundus, an agreeable companion, in this new unbeaten track of translation, which you have so happily struck out before me.-I own, indeed, I shall feel a more than ordinary disappointment if I should be judged unworthy to rank with you in this humbler branch of literature; for I confess, in the pride of my heart, that one great inducement to my engaging in this task was the hope that our names would be mentioned together as the translators of Terence and Plautus; though I cannot aspire to an equal share of reputation with the author of 'The Jealous Wife,' or the joint author of The Clandestine Marriage.'" Thornton only lived to publish seven of the plays, one of which was translated by Colman, and another by Mr. Warner, who continued the undertaking, and completed it in five 9 St. James's Magazine, December, 1762; vol. i. p. 265. volumes. His part is respectably executed; but Thornton's is, as far as it goes, one of the best versions in our language from any ancient author. The skill with which he has compensated, by correspondent playfulness of wit, for what it was impossible to translate, is perhaps unrivalled. Both Thornton and Colman were men of the world, in whose society Cowper's moral and religious feelings were not likely to be strengthened; but his principles were in no danger of being corrupted or shaken by them. However little the religion in which they had been trained up may have influenced the general tenour of their lives, it retained its hold on their belief. Their writings never conveyed any thing offensive to public morals or public faith; and there is every reason to suppose that they were perfectly sincere in the contempt which they expressed for the infidelity which was at that time in vogue, and in their abhorrence of the consequences to which they clearly saw its prevalence must inevitably lead. Poor Lloyd, who was also a member of the Nonsense Club, was a much more dangerous companion. 10 Robert Lloyd, whose father, Dr. Pierson Lloyd, was undermaster at Westminster, was of the same age and standing as Colman, and was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, when his compeer was elected to Oxford. The father was a humourist, and of course furnished, to those who were bred up under him, matter for innumerable stories, which there are now none to remember and to laugh at; unless, indeed, which is very likely, some of them have been transferred to his successors, as they may have descended to him. But he was also a kind-hearted, equal-minded, generous, good man. Cowper loved his memory, and this feeling alone, he said, prompted him to attempt a translation of some Latin verses which were spoken " at the Westminster election next after his decease. He had never learnt who wrote them; but I can state that they were 10 He was connected nearly fifty years with the school, and had, very deservedly, a pension from the king of 4001. a year. He died January 5, 1781, being at that time chancellor of York and portionist of Waddesdon in Buckinghamshire. 11 I have now before me the copy, in his own writing, which he sent to Mr. Unwin, with this heading, "Translation of the Latin Verses spoken in Honour of the Late Dr. Lloyd, at the last Westminster Election, by W. C., who was two years under him while he was an usher, and had afterwards the happiness of his acquaintance. |