[1] This fort was named after Colonel John Hare (d. 1846) of the 27th
Regiment, from 1838 lieutenant-governor of the eastern provinces and
commander of the first division of the field force in the War of the
Axe.
LOVELACE, RICHARD (1618-1658), English poet, was born at Woolwich in
1618. He was a scion of a Kentish family, and inherited a tradition of
military distinction, maintained by successive generations from the time
of Edward III. His father, Sir William Lovelace, had served in the Low
Countries, received the honour of knighthood from James I., and was
killed at Grolle in 1628. His brother, Francis Lovelace, the "Colonel
Francis" of _Lucasta_, served on the side of Charles I., and defended
Caermarthen in 1644. His mother's family was legal; her grandfather had
been chief baron of the exchequer. Richard was educated at the
Charterhouse and at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated in
1634. Through the request of one of the queen's ladies on the royal
visit to Oxford he was made M.A., though only in his second year at the
university. Lovelace's fame has been kept alive by a few songs and the
romance of his career, and his poems are commonly spoken of as careless
improvisations, and merely the amusements of an active soldier. But the
unhappy course of his life gave him more leisure for verse-making than
opportunity of soldiering. Before the outbreak of the civil war in 1642
his only active service was in the bloodless expedition which ended in
the Pacification of Berwick in 1640. On the conclusion of peace he
entered into possession of the family estates at Bethersden, Canterbury,
Chart and Halden in Kent. By that time he was one of the most
distinguished of the company of courtly poets gathered round Queen
Henrietta, who were influenced as a school by contemporary French
writers of _vers de société_. He wrote a comedy, _The Scholar_, when he
was sixteen, and a tragedy, _The Soldier_, when he was twenty-one. From
what he says of Fletcher, it would seem that this dramatist was his
model, but only the prologue and epilogue to his comedy have been
preserved. When the rupture between king and parliament took place,
Lovelace was committed to the Gatehouse at Westminster for presenting to
the Commons in 1642 a petition from Kentish royalists in the king's
favour. It was then that he wrote his most famous song, "To Althea from
Prison." He was liberated, says Wood, on bail of £40,000 (more probably
£4000), and throughout the civil war was a prisoner on parole, with this
security in the hands of his enemies. He contrived, however, to render
considerable service to the king's cause. He provided his two brothers
with money to raise men for the Royalist army, and befriended many of
the king's adherents. He was especially generous to scholars and
musicians, and among his associates in London were Henry Lawes and John
Gamble, the Cottons, Sir Peter Lely, Andrew Marvell and probably Sir
John Suckling. He joined the king at Oxford in 1645, and after the
surrender of the city in 1646 he raised a regiment for the service of
the French king. He was wounded at the siege of Dunkirk, and with his
brother Dudley, who had acted as captain in his brother's command,
returned to England in 1648. It is not known whether the brothers took
any part in the disturbances in Kent of that year, but both were
imprisoned at Petre House in Aldersgate. During this second imprisonment
he collected and revised for the press a volume of occasional poems,
many if not most of which had previously appeared in various
publications. The volume was published in 1649 under the title of
_Lucasta_, his poetical name--contracted from _Lux Casta_--for a lady
rashly identified by Wood as Lucy Sacheverell, who, it is said, married
another during his absence in France, on a report that he had died of
his wounds at Dunkirk. The last ten years of Lovelace's life were passed
in obscurity. His fortune had been exhausted in the king's interest, and
he is said to have been supported by the generosity of friends. He died
in 1658 "in a cellar in Longacre," according to Aubrey, who, however,
possibly exaggerates his poverty. A volume of Lovelace's _Posthume
Poems_ was published in 1659 by his brother Dudley. They are of inferior
merit to his own collection.
The world has done no injustice to Lovelace in neglecting all but a
few of his modest offerings to literature. But critics often do him
injustice in dismissing him as a gay cavalier, who dashed off his
verses hastily and cared little what became of them. It is a mistake
to class him with Suckling; he has neither Suckling's easy grace nor
his reckless spontaneity. We have only to compare the version of any
of his poems in _Lucasta_ with the form in which it originally
appeared to see how fastidious was his revision. In many places it
takes time to decipher his meaning. The expression is often
elliptical, the syntax inverted and tortuous, the train of thought
intricate and discontinuous. These faults--they are not of course to
be found in his two or three popular lyrics, "Going to the Wars," "To
Althea from Prison," "The Scrutiny"--are, however, as in the case of
his poetical master, Donne, the faults not of haste but of
over-elaboration. His thoughts are not the first thoughts of an
improvisatore, but thoughts ten or twenty stages removed from the
first, and they are generally as closely packed as they are
far-fetched.
His poems were edited by W. C. Hazlitt in 1864.
LOVELL, FRANCIS LOVELL, VISCOUNT (1454-1487), supporter of Richard III.,
was son of John, 8th Baron Lovell. As a young man he served under
Richard of Gloucester in the expedition to Scotland in 1480. After the
death of Edward IV. he became one of his patron's strongest supporters.
He had been created a viscount on the 4th of January 1483, and whilst
still Protector Richard made him Chief Butler. As soon as Richard became
king, Lovell was promoted to be Lord Chamberlain. Lovell helped in the
suppression of Buckingham's rebellion, and as one of Richard's most
trusted ministers was gibbeted in Collingbourne's couplet with Catesby
and Ratcliffe:--
"The catte, the ratte and Lovell our dogge
Rulyth all England under a hogge."
He had command of the fleet which was to have stopped Henry Tudor's
landing in 1485, but fought for Richard at Bosworth and after the battle
fled to sanctuary at Colchester. Thence he escaped next year to organize
a dangerous revolt in Yorkshire. When that failed he fled to Margaret of
Burgundy in Flanders. As a chief leader of the Yorkist party he had a
foremost part in Lambert Simnel's enterprise. With John de la Pole, earl
of Lincoln, he accompanied the pretender to Ireland and fought for him
at Stoke on the 16th of June 1487. He was seen escaping from the battle,
but was never afterwards heard of; Bacon relates that according to one
report he lived long after in a cave or vault (_Henry VII._, p. 37, ed.
Lumby). More than 200 years later, in 1708, the skeleton of a man was
found in a secret chamber in the family mansion at Minster Lovell in
Oxfordshire. It is supposed that Francis Lovell had hidden himself there
and died of starvation.
Collingbourne's couplet is preserved by Fabyan, _Chronicle_, p. 672.
For the discovery at Minster Lovell see _Notes and Queries_, 2nd ser.
i. and 5th ser. x. (C. L. K.)
LOVER, SAMUEL (1797-1868), Irish novelist, artist, songwriter and
musician, was born in Dublin on the 24th of February 1797. His father
was a stockbroker. Lover began life as an artist, and was elected in
1828 a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy--a body of which two years
afterwards he became secretary. He acquired repute as a miniature
painter, and a number of the local aristocracy sat to him for their
portraits. His love for music showed itself at an early age. At a dinner
given to the poet Tom Moore in 1818 Lover sang one of his own songs,
which elicited special praise from Moore. One of his best-known
portraits was that of Paganini, which was exhibited at the Royal
Academy. He attracted attention as an author by his _Legends and Stories
of Ireland_ (1832), and was one of the first writers for the _Dublin
University Magazine_. He went to London about 1835, where, among others,
he painted Lord Brougham in his robes as lord chancellor. His gifts
rendered him popular in society; and he appeared often at Lady
Blessington's evening receptions. There he sang several of his songs,
which were so well received that he published them (_Songs and Ballads_,
1839). Some of them illustrated Irish superstitions, among these being
"Rory O'More," "The Angel's Whisper," "The May Dew" and "The Four-leaved
Shamrock." In 1837 appeared _Rory O'More, a National Romance_, which at
once made him a reputation as a novelist; he afterwards dramatized it
for the Adelphi Theatre, London. In 1842 was published his best-known
work, _Handy Andy, an Irish Tale_. Meanwhile his pursuits had affected
his health; and in 1844 he gave up writing for some time, substituting
instead public entertainments, called by him "Irish Evenings,"
illustrative of his own works. These were successful both in Great
Britain and in America. In addition to publishing numerous songs of his
own, Lover edited a collection entitled _The Lyrics of Ireland_, which
appeared in 1858. He died on the 6th of July 1868. Besides the novels
already mentioned he wrote _Treasure Trove_ (1844), and _Metrical Tales
and Other Poems_ (1860).
His _Life_ was written in 1874 by Bayle Bernard.
LOVERE, a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Bergamo, at the
north-west end of the Lago d'Iseo, 522 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901)
3306. It is a picturesque town, the houses having the overhanging wooden
roofs of Switzerland united with the heavy stone arcades of Italy, while
the situation is beautiful, with the lake in front and the semicircle of
bold mountains behind. The church of Santa Maria in Valvendra, built in
1473, has frescoes by Floriano Ferramola of Brescia (d. 1528). The
Palazzo Tadini contains a gallery of old pictures, some sculptures by
Benzoni and Canova, and a zoological collection. Lovere possesses a
silk-spinning factory, and the Stablimento Metallurgico Gregorini, a
large iron-work and cannon foundry, employs 1600 workmen. Lovere is
reached by steamer from Sarnico at the south end of the lake, and there
is a steam tramway through the Val Camonica, which is highly cultivated,
and contains iron- and silk-works. From Cividate, the terminus, the road
goes on to Edolo (2290 ft.), whence passes lead into Tirol and the
Valtellina.
LOW, SETH (1850- ), American administrator and educationist, was born
in Brooklyn, New York, on the 18th of January 1850. He studied in the
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and in Columbia University, where he
graduated in 1870. He became a clerk (1870) and then a partner (1875) in
his father's tea and silk-importing house, A. A. Low & Brothers, which
went out of business in 1888. In 1878 he organized, and became president
of, the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. In 1882-1886 he was mayor of the
city of Brooklyn, being twice elected on an independent ticket; and by
his administration of his office he demonstrated that a rigid "merit"
civil-service system was practicable--in September 1884 the first
municipal civil-service rules in the United Service were adopted in
Brooklyn. He was president of Columbia University from 1890 to 1901, and
did much for it by his business administration, his liberality (he gave
$1,000,000 for the erection of a library) and his especial interest in
the department of Political Science. In his term Columbia became a
well-organized and closely-knit university. Its official name was
changed from Columbia College to Columbia University. It was removed to
a new site on Morningside Heights, New York City. The New York College
for the Training of Teachers became its Teachers' College of Columbia; a
Faculty of Pure Science was added; the Medical School gave up its
separate charter to become an integral part of the university; Barnard
College became more closely allied with the university; relations were
entered into between the university and the General, Union and Jewish
theological seminaries of New York City and with Cooper Union, the
Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts and the American Museum of Natural
History; and its faculty and student body became less local in
character. Dr Low was a delegate to the Hague Peace Conference in 1899.
He was prominent among those who brought about the chartering of Greater
New York in 1897, and in this year was an unsuccessful candidate, on an
independent ticket, for mayor of New York City; in 1900, on a fusion
ticket, he was elected mayor and served in 1901-1903.
LOW, WILL HICOK (1853- ), American artist and writer on art, was born
at Albany, New York, on the 31st of May 1853. In 1873 he entered the
atelier of J. L. Gérôme in the École des Beaux Arts at Paris,
subsequently joining the classes of Carolus-Duran, with whom he remained
until 1877. Returning to New York, he became a member of the Society of
American Artists in 1878 and of the National Academy of Design in 1890.
His pictures of New England types, and illustrations of Keats, brought
him into prominence. Subsequently he turned his attention to
decoration, and executed panels and medallions for the Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel, New York, a panel for the Essex County Court House, Newark, New
Jersey, panels for private residences and stained-glass windows for
various churches, including St Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church,
Newark, N.J. He was an instructor in the schools of Cooper Union, New
York, in 1882-1885, and in the school of the National Academy of Design
in 1889-1892. Mr Low, who is known to a wider circle as the friend of R.
L. Stevenson, published some reminiscences, _A Chronicle of Friendships,
1873-1900_ (1908). In 1909 he married Mary (Fairchild), formerly the
wife of the sculptor MacMonnies.
LOWBOY, a small table with one or two rows of drawers, so called in
contradistinction to the tallboy, or double chest of drawers. Both were
favourite pieces of the 18th century, both in England and America; the
lowboy was most frequently used as a dressing-table, but sometimes as a
side-table. It is usually made of oak, walnut or mahogany, with brass
handles and escutcheons. The more elegant examples of the Chippendale
period have cabriole legs, claw-and-ball feet and carved knees, and are
sometimes sculptured with the favourite shell motive beneath the centre
drawer.
LOW CHURCHMAN, a term applied to members of the Church of England or its
daughter churches who, while accepting the hierarchical and sacramental
system of the Church, do not consider episcopacy as essential to the
constitution of the Church, reject the doctrine that the sacraments
confer grace _ex opere operato_ (e.g. baptismal regeneration) and lay
stress on the Bible as the sole source of authority in matters of faith.
They thus differ little from orthodox Protestants of other
denominations, and in general are prepared to co-operate with them on
equal terms.
The name was used in the early part of the 18th century as the
equivalent of "Latitudinarian," i.e. one who was prepared to concede
much latitude in matters of discipline and faith, in contradistinction
to "High Churchman," the term applied to those who took a high view of
the exclusive authority of the Established Church, of episcopacy and of
the sacramental system. It subsequently fell into disuse, but was
revived in the 19th century when the Tractarian movement had brought the
term "High Churchman" into vogue again in a modified sense, i.e. for
those who exalted the idea of the Catholic Church and the sacramental
system at the expense both of the Establishment and of the exclusive
authority of Scripture. "Low Churchman" now became the equivalent of
"Evangelical," the designation of the movement, associated with the name
of Simeon, which laid the chief stress on the necessity of personal
"conversion." "Latitudinarian" gave place at the same time to "Broad
Churchman," to designate those who lay stress on the ethical teaching of
the Church and minimize the value of orthodoxy. The revival of
pre-Reformation ritual by many of the High Church clergy led to the
designation "ritualist" being applied to them in a somewhat contemptuous
sense; and "High Churchman" and "Ritualist" have often been wrongly
treated as convertible terms. Actually many High Churchmen are not
Ritualists, though they tend to become so. The High Churchman of the
"Catholic" type is further differentiated from the "old-fashioned High
Churchman" of what is sometimes described as the "high and dry" type of
the period anterior to the Oxford Movement.
LOWE, SIR HUDSON (1769-1844), English general, was the son of an army
surgeon, John Lowe, and was born at Galway on the 28th of July 1769. His
mother was a native of that county. His childhood was spent in various
garrison towns but he was educated chiefly at Salisbury grammar school.
He obtained a post as ensign in the East Devon Militia before his
twelfth year, and subsequently entered his father's regiment, the 50th,
then at Gibraltar (1787) under Governor-General O'Hara. After the
outbreak of war with France early in 1793, Lowe saw active service
successively in Corsica, Elba, Portugal and Minorca, where he was
entrusted with the command of a battalion of Corsican exiles, called
The Corsican Rangers. With these he did good work in Egypt in 1800-1801.
After the peace of Amiens, Lowe, now a major, became assistant
quartermaster-general; but on the renewal of war with France in 1803 he
was charged, as lieutenant-colonel, to raise the Corsican battalion
again and with it assisted in the defence of Sicily. On the capture of
Capri he proceeded thither with his battalion and a Maltese regiment;
but in October 1808 Murat organized an attack upon the island, and Lowe,
owing to the unsteadiness of the Maltese troops and the want of succour
by sea, had to agree to evacuate the island. The terms in which Sir
William Napier and others have referred to Lowe's defence of Capri are
unfair. His garrison consisted of 1362 men, while the assailants
numbered between 3000 and 4000. In the course of the year 1809 Lowe and
his Corsicans helped in the capture of Ischia and Procida, as well as of
Zante, Cephalonia and Cerigo. For some months he acted as governor of
Cephalonia and Ithaca, and later on of Santa Maura. He returned to
England in 1812, and in January 1813 was sent to inspect a Russo-German
legion then being formed, and he accompanied the armies of the allies
through the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, being present at thirteen
important battles. He won praise from Blücher and Gneisenau for his
gallantry and judgment. He was chosen to bear to London the news of the
first abdication of Napoleon in April 1814. He was then knighted and
became major-general; he also received decorations from the Russian and
Prussian courts. Charged with the duties of quartermaster-general of the
army in the Netherlands in 1814-1815, he was about to take part in the
Belgian campaign when he was offered the command of the British troops
at Genoa; but while still in the south of France he received (on the 1st
of August 1815) news of his appointment to the position of custodian of
Napoleon, who had surrendered to H.M.S. "Bellerophon" off Rochefort.
Lowe was to be governor of St Helena, the place of the ex-emperor's
exile.
On his arrival there at Plantation House he found that Napoleon had
already had scenes with Admiral Cockburn, of H.M.S. "Northumberland,"
and that he had sought to induce the former governor, Colonel Wilks, to
infringe the regulations prescribed by the British government (see
_Monthly Review_, January 1901). Napoleon and his followers at Longwood
pressed for an extension of the limits within which he could move
without surveillance, but it was not in Lowe's power to grant this
request. Various matters, in some of which Lowe did not evince much
tact, produced friction between them. The news that rescue expeditions
were being planned by the Bonapartists in the United States led to the
enforcement of somewhat stricter regulations in October 1816, Lowe
causing sentries to be posted round Longwood garden at sunset instead of
at 9 P.M. This was his great offence in the eyes of Napoleon and his
followers. Hence their efforts to calumniate Lowe, which had a
surprising success. O'Meara, the British surgeon, became Napoleon's man,
and lent himself to the campaign of calumny in which Las Cases and
Montholon showed so much skill. In one of the suppressed passages of his
_Journal_ Las Cases wrote that the exiles had to "reduce to a system our
demeanour, our words, our sentiments, even our privations, in order that
we might thereby excite a lively interest in a large portion of the
population of Europe, and that the opposition in England might not fail
to attack the ministry." As to the privations, it may be noted that Lowe
recommended that the government allowance of £8000 a year to the
Longwood household should be increased by one-half. The charges of
cruelty brought against the governor by O'Meara and others have been
completely refuted; and the most that can be said against him is that he
was occasionally too suspicious in the discharge of his duties. After
the death of Napoleon in May 1821, Lowe returned to England and received
the thanks of George IV. On the publication of O'Meara's book he
resolved to prosecute the author, but, owing to an unaccountable delay,
the application was too late. This fact, together with the reserved
behaviour of Lowe, prejudiced the public against him, and the government
did nothing to clear his reputation. In 1825-1830 he commanded the
forces in Ceylon, but was not appointed to the governorship when it
fell vacant in 1830. In 1842 he became colonel of his old regiment, the
50th; he also received the G.C.M.G. He died in 1844.
See W. Forsyth, _History of the Captivity of Napoleon at St Helena_ (3
vols., London, 1853); Gourgaud, _Journal inédite de Sainte-Hélène_
(1815-1818; 2 vols., Paris, 1899); R. C. Seaton, _Napoleon's Captivity
in relation to Sir Hudson Lowe_ (London, 1903); Lieut.-Col. Basil
Jackson, _Notes and Reminiscences of a Staff-Officer_ (London, 1903);
the earl of Rosebery, _Napoleon; the Last Phase_ (London 1900); J. H.
Rose, _Napoleonic Studies_ (London, 1904). (J. Hl. R.)
LÖWE, JOHANN KARL GOTTFRIED (1796-1869), German composer, was born at
Löbejün, near Halle, on the 30th of November 1796, and was a choir-boy
at Köthen from 1807 to 1809, when he went to the Franke Institute at
Halle, studying music with Türk. The beauty of Löwe's voice brought him
under the notice of Madame de Staël, who procured him a pension from
Jérôme Bonaparte, then king of Westphalia; this stopped in 1813, on the
flight of the king. He entered the University of Halle as a theological
student, but was appointed cantor at Stettin in 1820, and director of
the town music in 1821, in which year he married Julie von Jacob, who
died in 1823. His second wife, Auguste Lange, was an accomplished
singer, and they appeared together in his oratorio performances with
great success. He retained his office at Stettin for 46 years, when,
after a stroke of paralysis, he was somewhat summarily dismissed. He
retired to Kiel, and died on the 20th of April 1869. He undertook many
concert tours during his tenure of the post at Stettin, visiting Vienna,
London, Sweden, Norway and Paris. His high soprano voice (he could sing
the music of the "Queen of Night" in _Die Zauberflöte_ as a boy) had
developed into a fine tenor. Löwe was a voluminous composer, and wrote
five operas, of which only one, _Die drei Wünsche_, was performed at
Berlin in 1834, without much success; seventeen oratorios, many of them
for male voices unaccompanied, or with short instrumental interludes
only; choral ballads, cantatas, three string quartets, a pianoforte
trio; a work for clarinet and piano, published posthumously; and some
piano solos. But the branch of his art by which he is remembered, and in
which he must be admitted to have attained perfection, is the solo
ballad with pianoforte accompaniment. His treatment of long narrative
poems, in a clever mixture of the dramatic and lyrical styles, was
undoubtedly modelled on the ballads of Zumsteeg, and has been copied by
many composers since his day. His settings of the "Erlkönig" (a very
early example), "Archibald Douglas," "Heinrich der Vogler," "Edward" and
"Die Verfallene Mühle," are particularly fine.
LOWELL, ABBOTT LAWRENCE (1856- ), American educationalist, was born in
Boston, Massachusetts on the 13th of December 1856, the great-grandson
of John Lowell, the "Columella of New England," and on his mother's
side, a grandson of Abbott Lawrence. He graduated at Harvard College in
1877, with highest honours in mathematics; graduated at the Harvard Law
School in 1880; and practised law in 1880-1897 in partnership with his
cousin, Francis Cabot Lowell (b. 1855), with whom he wrote _Transfer of
Stock in Corporations_ (1884). In 1897 he became lecturer and in 1898
professor of government at Harvard, and in 1909 succeeded Charles
William Eliot as president of the university. In the same year he was
president of the American Political Science Association. In 1900 he had
succeeded his father, Augustus Lowell (1830-1901), as financial head of
the Lowell Institute of Boston. He wrote _Essays on Government_ (1889),
_Governments and Parties in Continental Europe_ (2 vols., 1896),
_Colonial Civil Service_ (1900; with an account by H. Morse Stephens of
the East India College at Haileybury), and _The Government of England_
(2 vols., 1908).
His brother, PERCIVAL LOWELL (1855- ), the well-known astronomer,
graduated at Harvard in 1876, lived much in Japan between 1883 and 1893,
and in 1894 established at Flagstaff, Arizona, the Lowell Observatory,
of whose _Annals_ (from 1898) he was editor. In 1902 he became
non-resident professor of astronomy at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He wrote several books on the Far East, including _Chosön_
(1885), _The Soul of the Far East_ (1886), _Noto, an Unexplored Corner
of Japan_ (1891), and _Occult Japan_ (1895), but he is best known for
his studies of the planet Mars--he wrote _Mars_ (1895), _Mars and Its
Canals_ (1907), and _Mars, the Abode of Life_ (1908)--and his contention
that the "canals" of Mars are a sign of life and civilization on that
planet (see MARS). He published _The Evolution of Worlds_ in 1909.
LOWELL, CHARLES RUSSELL (1835-1864), American soldier, was born on the
2nd of January 1835 in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Anna Cabot
Jackson Lowell (1819-1874), a daughter of Patrick Tracy Jackson, married
Charles Russell Lowell, a brother of James Russell Lowell; she wrote
verse and books on education. Her son graduated at Harvard in 1854,
worked in an iron mill in Trenton, New Jersey, for a few months in 1855,
spent two years abroad, and in 1858-1860 was local treasurer of the
Burlington & Missouri river railroad. In 1860 he took charge of the
Mount Savage Iron Works, in Cumberland, Maryland. He entered the Union
army in June 1861 (commission May 14) as captain of the 3rd (afterwards
6th) U.S. cavalry; on the 15th of April 1863 he became colonel of the
2nd Massachusetts cavalry; he was wounded fatally at Cedar Creek on the
19th of October 1864, when he was promoted brigadier-general of U.S.
Volunteers, and died on the next day at Middletown, Va. Lowell married
in October 1863, Josephine Shaw (1843-1905), a sister of Colonel R. G.
Shaw. Her home when she was married was on Staten Island, and she became
deeply interested in the social problems of New York City. She was a
member of the State Charities Aid Society, and from 1877 to 1889 was a
member of the New York State Board of Charities, being the first woman
appointed to that board. She founded the Charity Organization Society of
New York City in 1882, and wrote _Public Relief and Private Charity_
(1884) and _Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation_ (1893).
See Edward E. Emerson (ed.), _The Life and Letters of Charles Russell
Lowell_ (Boston, 1907).
LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL (1819-1891), American author and diplomatist, was
born at Elmwood, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 22nd of February
1819, the son of Charles Lowell (1782-1861).[1] On his mother's side he
was descended from the Spences and Traills, who made their home in the
Orkney Islands, his great-grandfather, Robert Traill, returning to
England on the breaking out of hostilities in 1775. He was brought up in
a neighbourhood bordering on the open country, and from his earliest
years he found a companion in nature; he was also early initiated into
the reading of poetry and romance, hearing Spenser and Scott in
childhood, and introduced to old ballads by his mother. He had for
schoolmaster an Englishman who held by the traditions of English
schools, so that before he entered Harvard College he had a more
familiar acquaintance with Latin verse than most of his fellows--a
familiarity which showed itself later in his mock-pedantic accompaniment
to _The Biglow Papers_ and his macaronic poetry. He was a wide reader,
but a somewhat indifferent student, graduating at Harvard without
special honours in 1838. During his college course he wrote a number of
trivial pieces for a college magazine, and shortly after graduating
printed for private circulation the poem which his class asked him to
write for their graduation festivities.
He was uncertain at first what vocation to choose, and vacillated
between business, the ministry, medicine and law. He decided at last to
practise law, and after a course at the Harvard law school, was admitted
to the bar. While studying for his profession, however, he contributed
poems and prose articles to various magazines. He cared little for the
law, regarding it simply as a distasteful means of livelihood, yet his
experiments in writing did not encourage him to trust to this for
support. An unhappy adventure in love deepened his sense of failure, but
he became betrothed to Maria White in the autumn of 1840, and the next
twelve years of his life were deeply affected by her influence. She was
a poet of delicate power, but also possessed a lofty enthusiasm, a high
conception of purity and justice, and a practical temper which led her
to concern herself in the movements directed against the evils of
intemperance and slavery. Lowell was already looked upon by his
companions as a man marked by wit and poetic sentiment; Miss White was
admired for her beauty, her character and her intellectual gifts, and
the two became thus the hero and heroine among a group of ardent young
men and women. The first-fruits of this passion was a volume of poems,
published in 1841, entitled _A Year's Life_, which was inscribed by
Lowell in a veiled dedication to his future wife, and was a record of
his new emotions with a backward glance at the preceding period of
depression and irresolution. The betrothal, moreover, stimulated Lowell
to new efforts towards self-support, and though nominally maintaining
his law office, he threw his energy into the establishment, in company
with a friend, Robert Carter, of a literary journal, to which the young
men gave the name of _The Pioneer_. It was to open the way to new ideals
in literature and art, and the writers to whom Lowell turned for
assistance--Hawthorne, Emerson, Whittier, Poe, Story and Parsons, none
of them yet possessed of a wide reputation--indicate the acumen of the
editor. Lowell himself had already turned his studies in dramatic and
early poetic literature to account in another magazine, and continued
the series in _The Pioneer_, besides contributing poems; but after the
issue of three monthly numbers, beginning in January 1843, the magazine
came to an end, partly because of a sudden disaster which befell
Lowell's eyes, partly through the inexperience of the conductors and
unfortunate business connexions.
The venture confirmed Lowell in his bent towards literature. At the
close of 1843 he published a collection of his poems, and a year later
he gathered up certain material which he had printed, sifted and added
to it, and produced _Conversations on some of the Old Poets_. The
dialogue form was used merely to secure an undress manner of approach to
his subject; there was no attempt at the dramatic. The book reflects
curiously Lowell's mind at this time, for the conversations relate only
partly to the poets and dramatists of the Elizabethan period; a slight
suggestion sends the interlocutors off on the discussion of current
reforms in church and state and society. Literature and reform were
dividing the author's mind, and continued to do so for the next decade.
Just as this book appeared Lowell and Miss White were married, and spent
the winter and early spring of 1845 in Philadelphia. Here, besides
continuing his literary contributions to magazines, Lowell had a regular
engagement as an editorial writer on _The Pennsylvania Freeman_, a
fortnightly journal devoted to the Anti-Slavery cause. In the spring of
1845 the Lowells returned to Cambridge and made their home at Elmwood.
On the last day of the year their first child, Blanche, was born, but
she lived only fifteen months. A second daughter, Mabel, was born six
months after Blanche's death, and lived to survive her father; a third,
Rose, died an infant. Lowell's mother meanwhile was living, sometimes at
home, sometimes at a neighbouring hospital, with clouded mind, and his
wife was in frail health. These troubles and a narrow income conspired
to make Lowell almost a recluse in these days, but from the retirement
of Elmwood he sent forth writings which show how large an interest he
took in affairs. He contributed poems to the daily press, called out by
the Slavery question; he was, early in 1846, a correspondent of the
London _Daily News_, and in the spring of 1848 he formed a connexion
with the _National Anti-Slavery Standard_ of New York, by which he
agreed to furnish weekly either a poem or a prose article. The poems
were most frequently works of art, occasionally they were tracts; but
the prose was almost exclusively concerned with the public men and
questions of the day, and forms a series of incisive, witty and
sometimes prophetic diatribes. It was a period with him of great mental
activity, and is represented by four of his books which stand as
admirable witnesses to the Lowell of 1848, namely, the second series of
_Poems_, containing among others "Columbus," "An Indian Summer Reverie,"
"To the Dandelion," "The Changeling"; _A Fable for Critics_, in which,
after the manner of Leigh Hunt's _The Feast of the Poets_, he
characterizes in witty verse and with good-natured satire American
contemporary writers, and in which, the publication being anonymous, he
included himself; _The Vision of Sir Launfal_, a romantic story
suggested by the Arthurian legends--one of his most popular poems; and
finally _The Biglow Papers_.
Lowell had acquired a reputation among men of letters and a cultivated
class of readers, but this satire at once brought him a wider fame. The
book was not premeditated; a single poem, called out by the recruiting
for the abhorred Mexican war, couched in rustic phrase and sent to the
_Boston Courier_, had the inspiriting dash and electrifying rat-tat-tat
of this new recruiting sergeant in the little army of Anti-Slavery
reformers. Lowell himself discovered what he had done at the same time
that the public did, and he followed the poem with eight others either
in the _Courier_ or the _Anti-Slavery Standard_. He developed four
well-defined characters in the process--a country farmer, Ezekiel
Biglow, and his son Hosea; the Rev. Homer Wilbur, a shrewd old-fashioned
country minister; and Birdofredum Sawin, a Northern renegade who enters
the army, together with one or two subordinate characters; and his
stinging satire and sly humour are so set forth in the vernacular of New
England as to give at once a historic dignity to this form of speech.
(Later he wrote an elaborate paper to show the survival in New England
of the English of the early 17th century.) He embroidered his verse with
an entertaining apparatus of notes and mock criticism. Even his index
was spiced with wit. The book, a caustic arraignment of the course taken
in connexion with the annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico, made
a strong impression, and the political philosophy secreted in its lines
became a part of household literature. It is curious to observe how
repeatedly this arsenal was drawn upon in the discussions in America
about the "Imperialistic" developments of 1900. The death of Lowell's
mother, and the fragility of his wife's health, led Lowell, with his
wife, their daughter Mabel and their infant son Walter, to go to Europe
in 1851, and they went direct to Italy. The early months of their stay
were saddened by the death of Walter in Rome, and by the news of the
illness of Lowell's father, who had a slight shock of paralysis. They
returned in November 1852, and Lowell published some recollections of
his journey in the magazines, collecting the sketches later in a prose
volume, _Fireside Travels_. He took some part also in the editing of an
American edition of the _British Poets_, but the low state of his wife's
health kept him in an uneasy condition, and when her death (27th October
1853) released him from the strain of anxiety, there came with the grief
a readjustment of his nature and a new intellectual activity. At the
invitation of his cousin, he delivered a course of lectures on English
poets before the Lowell Institute in Boston in the winter of 1855. This
first formal appearance as a critic and historian of literature at once
gave him a new standing in the community, and was the occasion of his
election to the Smith Professorship of Modern Languages in Harvard
College, then vacant by the retirement of Longfellow. Lowell accepted
the appointment, with the proviso that he should have a year of study
abroad. He spent his time mainly in Germany, visiting Italy, and
increasing his acquaintance with the French, German, Italian and Spanish
tongues. He returned to America in the summer of 1856, and entered upon
his college duties, retaining his position for twenty years. As a
teacher he proved himself a quickener of thought amongst students,
rather than a close and special instructor. His power lay in the
interpretation of literature rather than in linguistic study, and his
influence over his pupils was exercised by his own fireside as well as
in the relation, always friendly and familiar, which he held to them in
the classroom. In 1856 he married Miss Frances Dunlap, a lady who had
since his wife's death had charge of his daughter Mabel.
In the autumn of 1857 _The Atlantic Monthly_ was established, and Lowell
was its first editor. He at once gave the magazine the stamp of high
literature and of bold speech on public affairs. He held this position
only till the spring of 1861, but he continued to make the magazine the
vehicle of his poetry and of some prose for the rest of his life; his
prose, however, was more abundantly presented in the pages of _The
North American Review_ during the years 1862-1872, when he was
associated with Mr Charles Eliot Norton in its conduct. This magazine
especially gave him the opportunity of expression of political views
during the eventful years of the War of the Union. It was in _The
Atlantic_ during the same period that he published a second series of
_The Biglow Papers_. Both his collegiate and editorial duties stimulated
his critical powers, and the publication in the two magazines, followed
by republication in book form, of a series of studies of great authors,
gave him an important place as a critic. Shakespeare, Dryden, Lessing,
Rousseau, Dante, Spenser, Wordsworth, Milton, Keats, Carlyle, Thoreau,
Swinburne, Chaucer, Emerson, Pope, Gray--these are the principal
subjects of his prose, and the range of topics indicates the catholicity
of his taste. He wrote also a number of essays, such as "My Garden
Acquaintance," "A Good Word for Winter," "On a Certain Condescension in
Foreigners," which were incursions into the field of nature and society.
Although the great bulk of his writing was now in prose, he made after
this date some of his most notable ventures in poetry. In 1868 he issued
the next collection in _Under the Willows and other Poems_, but in 1865
he had delivered his "Ode recited at the Harvard Commemoration," and the
successive centennial historical anniversaries drew from him a series of
stately odes.
In 1877 Lowell, who had mingled so little in party politics that the
sole public office he had held was the nominal one of elector in the
Presidential election of 1876, was appointed by President Hayes minister
resident at the court of Spain. He had a good knowledge of Spanish
language and literature, and his long-continued studies in history and
his quick judgment enabled him speedily to adjust himself to these new
relations. Some of his despatches to the home government were published
in a posthumous volume--_Impressions of Spain_. In 1880 he was
transferred to London as American minister, and remained there till the
close of President Arthur's administration in the spring of 1885. As a
man of letters he was already well known in England, and he was in much
demand as an orator on public occasions, especially of a literary
nature; but he also proved himself a sagacious publicist, and made
himself a wise interpreter of each country to the other. Shortly after
his retirement from public life he published _Democracy and other
Addresses_, all of which had been delivered in England. The title
address was an epigrammatic confession of political faith as hopeful as
it was wise and keen. The close of his stay in England was saddened by
the death of his second wife in 1885. After his return to America he
made several visits to England. His public life had made him more of a
figure in the world; he was decorated with the highest honours Harvard
could pay officially, and with degrees of Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews,
Edinburgh and Bologna. He issued another collection of his poems,
_Heartsease and Rue_, in 1888, and occupied himself with revising and
rearranging his works, which were published in ten volumes in 1890. The
last months of his life were attended by illness, and he died at Elmwood
on the 12th of August 1891. After his death his literary executor,
Charles Eliot Norton, published a brief collection of his poems, and two
volumes of added prose, besides editing his letters.
The spontaneity of Lowell's nature is delightfully disclosed in his
personal letters. They are often brilliant, and sometimes very
penetrating in their judgment of men and books; but the most constant
element is a pervasive humour, and this humour, by turns playful and
sentimental, is largely characteristic of his poetry, which sprang from
a genial temper, quick in its sympathy with nature and humanity. The
literary refinement which marks his essays in prose is not conspicuous
in his verse, which is of a more simple character. There was an apparent
conflict in him of the critic and the creator, but the conflict was
superficial. The man behind both critical and creative work was so
genuine, that through his writings and speech and action he impressed
himself deeply upon his generation in America, especially upon the
thoughtful and scholarly class who looked upon him as especially their
representative. This is not to say that he was a man of narrow
sympathies. On the contrary, he was democratic in his thought, and
outspoken in his rebuke of whatever seemed to him antagonistic to the
highest freedom. Thus, without taking a very active part in political
life, he was recognized as one of the leaders of independent political
thought. He found expression in so many ways, and was apparently so
inexhaustible in his resources, that his very versatility and the ease
with which he gave expression to his thought sometimes stood in the way
of a recognition of his large, simple political ideality and the
singleness of his moral sight.
WRITINGS.--The _Works of James Russell Lowell_, in ten volumes (Boston
and New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1890); _édition de luxe_, 61
vols. (1904); _Latest Literary Essays and Addresses_ (1891); _The Old
English Dramatists_ (1892); _Conversations on some of the Old Poets_
(Philadelphia, David M'Kay; reprint of the volume published in 1843
and subsequently abandoned by its author, 1893); _The Power of Sound:
a Rhymed Lecture_ (New York, privately printed, 1896); _Lectures on
English Poets_ (Cleveland, The Rowfant Club, 1899).
MEMOIRS.--_Letters of James Russell Lowell_, edited by Charles Eliot
Norton, in two volumes (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1899); _Life of
James Russell Lowell_ (2 vols.), by Horace E. Scudder (Houghton,
Mifflin & Co., 1901); _James Russell Lowell and his Friends_ (Boston,
1899), by Edward Everett Hale. (H. E. S.*)