MISS LANDON, MRS. NORTON, MRS. BROWNING. 501 in the Plea of the Midsummer Fairies. A kindred spirit, Jerrold, says that "his various pen touched alike the springs of laughter and the sources of tears." Hood died in 1845. DAVID MACBETH MOIR, born in 1798 was the Delta of Blackwood's Magazine. The surgeon of Musselburgh found time to cultivate a poetic genius of the first order. A gentle melancholy is the ruling spirit of his works; but from his novel of Mansie Wauch, a mellow Scottish humour shines softly out. He died in 1851. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON was born in 1802 at Old Brompton. Her signature of L. E. L. soon became known by her beautiful poems in the Literary Gazette. The Improvisatrice and The Golden Violet are among her principal works. She wrote also three novels, one of which is called Romance and Reality. Having married Mr. Maclean, Governor of Cape Coast Castle in Africa, she went out to that lonely home to die. One October morning in 1839, about two months after her arrival, she was found dead on her bedroom floor, having accidentally, it is thought, taken an overdose of prussic acid. Rich luxuriance of fancy is the characteristic of her poetry. THOMAS AIRD, born in 1802, at Bowden in Roxburghshire, contributed many poems to Blackwood. He was long editor of the Dumfries Herald. The Devil's Dream is his noblest poem. Some racy prose sketches of Scottish character have also come from his pen. CAROLINE NORTON (Miss Sheridan), grand-daughter of the celebrated dramatist, was born in 1808. The Sorrows of Rosalie —The Undying One, a legend of the Wandering Jew-The Dream-and The Child of the Islands, may be named among her poems. Stuart of Dunleath is her principal novel. ELIZABETH BROWNING (Miss Barrett) attracted notice first by a translation of the Prometheus Bound of Æschylus. A long illness in early life, occasioned by the bursting of a vessel in the lungs, enabled her, by a wide and varied course of reading, and much deep, solitary thought, to prepare for the high vocation of a poet. She certainly has given us the sweetest and noblest strains of poetry that have come in the present generation from her sex. In 1846 she went to reside at Florence; and what she saw of Tuscan affairs inspired her fine political poem of Casa Guidi Windows. 502 BROWNING, AYTOUN, BAILEY, DOBELL. A long poem in blank-verse, Aurora Leigh, depicts the maiden life of a poetess, "the autobiography of a heart and intellect.” The principal favourites among Mrs. Browning's poems are, The Duchess May-Bertha in the Lane-Cowper's Grave-The Cry of the Children-Lady Geraldine's Courtship-Sonnets from the Portuguese. This gifted lady died in the earlier part of the year 1861. ROBERT BROWNING, the husband of the lady just named, was born at Camberwell in 1812. He published Paracelsus in 1836. Then followed Pippa Passes; Strafford (1837), and The Blot on the Scutcheon (1843), tragedies which proved failures on the stage; Bells and Pomegranates; and in 1855, Men and Women. Obscurity is his chief fault (take Sordello, as an example): but the lightning of great poetic genius shines through the clouds. His later works are The Ring and the Book; Balaustion's Adventure; Red Cotton Night-Cap Country; and The Agamemnon of Eschylus Transcribed. He died at Venice, Dec. 12, 1889. WILLIAM EDMONDSTOUNE AYTOUN was born in 1813 at Edinburgh. While at college his poem of Judith attracted the notice of Professor Wilson. But his fame rests chiefly upon his spiritstirring Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers. He also wrote the historic romance of Bothwell, and a most effective satire on modern poets, entitled Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, by Percy T. Jones. He filled the chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Edinburgh, and was also Sheriff and Vice-Admiral of Orkney. In conjunction with THEODORE MARTIN, a parliamentary solicitor in London, he wrote Ballads by Bon Gaultier, and joined the same friend in translating the lyrics of Goëthe. Professor Aytoun died in 1865. PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, born in 1816 at Nottingham, has written some noble but unequal poems. Festus is his chief work (1839). The Angel World and The Mystic followed in succession, both being in the same rapturous and exalted style. In The Age, a Colloquial Satire, he tried another key, pitched as low as his former strains were high. SYDNEY DOBELL, whose nom de plume was Sydney Yendys, was born in 1824 at Peckham Rye. In the uncongenial atmosphere SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF POETS. 503 of a wine-merchant's counting-house-his father followed that business near Cheltenham-he cultivated poetry with much success. The Roman (1850) was his first, and is still his best poem. Balder-Sonnets on the War, written in conjunction with ALEXANDER SMITH and England in Time of War, complete the list of Mr. Dobell's works. He died in 1874. ALEXANDER SMITH, born in 1830 at Kilmarnock, made his fame by A Life Drama, written amid the toils of drawing patterns for a muslin house in Glasgow. A second volume, entitled City Poems, rich with the same excessive wealth of imagery, appeared in 1857. We have here the black streets of smoky Glasgow glorified with poetic light, which sometimes brightens to sublimity. The year 1861 produced mellowed fruit of his genius in a fine poem of the epic class, Edwin of Deira, which gives a stirring and truthful picture of Saxon life in old Northumbria. Mr. Smith, who had been for several years Secretary to the University of Edinburgh, died in 1867 at Wardie near Edinburgh, cut off at the age which proved fatal to Burns and to Byron. In a domestic novel, styled Alfred Hagart's Household, and a book of Essays called Dreamthorp, he gave proof that a poet can often write most graphic and graceful prose. Supplementary List. CAROLINE SOUTHEY.-(1787-1854)-Miss Bowles-Buckland, Hants-Ellen Fitz-Arthur; The Widow's Tale; Chapters on Churchyards (prose). WILLIAM THOM.—(1789-1848)—a weaver of Inverury-Rhymes and Recol lections. BRYAN PROCTER.—(1790-1868)—“Barry Cornwall”—Marcian Colonna; Flood of Thessaly; Dramatic Scenes; Mirandola (a tragedy). HENRY HART MILMAN.-(1791-1868)-London-Dean of St. Paul's-Fazio (a tragedy); Samor; The Fall of Jerusalem; The Martyr of Antioch; History of Latin Christianity (prose). JOHN CLARE. (1793-1864)—a ploughman--Poems of Rural Life. HARTLEY COLERIDGE. (1796–1849)—Clevedon, near Bristol-Poems; Lives of Northern Worthies (prose). DERWENT COLERIDGE.-(1800-still living)-Keswick-Memoir of Hartley Coleridge. SARA COLERIDGE.(1803-1852)-Keswick-Phantasmion. HAYNES BAYLY.-(1797-1839)—The Soldier's Tear; I'd be a Butterfly. WILLIAM MOTHERWELL.-(1797-1835)-Glasgow-journalist-Scottish Minstrelsy; Jeanie Morrison. 504 SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF POETS. ALARIC ALEXANDER WATTS.-(1799-1864)-Poetical Sketches; Lyrics of the Heart. JOHN EDMUND READE.-dramatist and poet-Italy; Revelations of Life. WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED.-(1802-1839)-The Red Fisherman; Quince. RICHARD HENRY HORNE.-(1803-1884)-London-Orion, an epic (sold at a farthing); Cosmo de Medici and Death of Marlowe (dramas). CHARLES SWAIN.-(born 1803)-The Mind; English Melodies. THOMAS KIBBLE HERVEY.-(1804-1859)-Australia; England's Helicon. RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES.-(1809-1885)-LORD HOUGHTON-Yorkshire -politician-Poems of Many Years; Palm Leaves; Life of Keats. MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER.-(1810-1889)-London-barrister - Proverbial Philosophy; An Author's Mind; The Crock of Gold. CHARLES MACKAY.-(1812-1890)-Perth-journalist-Voices from the Crowd; ROBERT NICOLL.-(1814-1837)-Perthshire-Thoughts of Heaven. MATTHEW ARNOLD.-(1822-1888)-Laleham-son of Dr. Arnold-inspector GERALD MASSEY.-(born 1828)-Babe Christabel; Craigcrook Castle. DANTE GABRIEL ROSETTI.-(1828-1883)-London-art designer-The Early Italian Poets; Poems. WILLIAM ALLINGHAM.-(1828-1889)-Ballyshannon-Songs, Poems, and Ballads. WILLIAM MORRIS.-(born 1834)-London-designer of house decorationsThe Life and Death of Jason; The Earthly Paradise; The Story of Sigurd the Volsung, and the Fall of the Niblungs. ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.-(born 1837)-London-chief of "the fleshly school of poetry"-Atalanta in Calydon; Chastelard; Bothwell; Mary Stuart (the last three tragedies forming a trilogy). ROBERT BUCHANAN.-(born 1841)-Glasgow-lyric poet-Undertones; London Lyrics. Of the ladies who adorn this department of our literature, it would be unpardonable to pass over ISA CRAIG (now Mrs. Knox), who wrote the prize poem on Burns in 1859; BESSIE PARKES, author of Gabriel; MARY HUME, author of Normiton; and ADELAIDE PROCTER, author of Legends and Lyrics. DRAMATISTS. SIR THOMAS NOON TALFOURD, born in 1795 in a suburb of Stafford, was the son of a brewer at Reading in Berkshire. Educated for the law, he rose rapidly, until in 1849 a seat on the bench rewarded his talents and his toils. Five years later, he died suddenly of apoplexy, while charging the grand jury at Stafford. The study of the Greek drama, upon which he wrote an Essay, guided his pen to the production of some noble works. His principal play is Ion. But The Athenian Captive; Glencoe, or the Fate of the Macdonalds; and The Castilian, are all dramas of powerful cast and elevated style. We also owe a Life of Charles Lamb to this accomplished man. SIR HENRY TAYLOR, born in the beginning of the present century, contributed to the modern English drama one of its finest works, Philip van Artevelde, founded on the history of the famous brewer of Ghent. This noble and stately play was published in 1834. To its accomplished author we also owe a drama founded on early English history, called Edwin the Fair. Sir Henry, who held an appointment in the Colonial Office, was author of The Eve of the Conquest and other poems, and of several volumes of Essays. He died in 1886. Supplementary List. THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES.-(1803–1849)—son of a learned physician-The Bride's Tragedy. RICHARD LALOR SHEIL.-(1791-1851)-Dublin-an orator and politicianEvadne; The Apostate. GILBERT ABBOTT A'BECKETT.-(1810-1856)-London-a police magistratemany Plays; also Comic Blackstone; Comic Histories of England and Rome. TOM TAYLOR.-(1817-1880)-Sunderland-Secretary to Board of Health— dramatic critic of the "Times"-editor of "Punch "--many Comedies and Farces; Memorials of Haydon. WESTLAND MARSTON.-(born 1825)-Boston, Leicestershire-Heart of the World; Patrician's Daughter. ROBERT B. BROUGH.-(born 1828)-London-brewer's son--What to Eat, Drink, and Avoid; Medea (a burlesque), &c. Other names worthy of honourable mention under this head are SHIRLEY BROOKS, the novelist (Our Governess; The Creole), and editor of "Punch;" WILKIE COLLINS (The Frozen Deep); the late MARK LEMON, editor of "Punch" (more than fifty Farces, &c.); HENRY MAYHEW, founder of "Punch,” and author of London Labour and the London Poor; The Wandering Minstrel, a farce. |