1787-1874
[Sidenote: Froude’s _Life of Carlyle_.]
“I have also seen and scraped acquaintance with Procter--Barry
Cornwall. He is a slender, rough-faced, palish, gentle, languid-looking
man, of three or four and thirty. There is a dreamy mildness in his
eye; he is kind and good in his manners and, I understand, in his
conduct. He is a poet by the ear and the fancy, but his heart and
intellect are not strong.”--1824.
[Sidenote: S. C. Hall’s _Retrospect of a long Life_.]
“A decidedly rather pretty little fellow, Procter, bodily and
spiritually: manners prepossessing, slightly London-elegant, not
unpleasant; clear judgment in him, though of narrow field; a sound,
honourable morality, and airy friendly ways; of slight, neat figure,
vigorous for his size; fine genially rugged little face, fine head;
something curiously dreamy in the eyes of him, lids drooping at the
_outer_ ends into a cordially meditative and drooping expression; would
break out suddenly now and then into opera attitude and a _Là ci darem
là mano_ for a moment; had something of real fun, though in London
style.”
[Sidenote: Fields’s _Yesterdays with Authors_.]
“The poet’s figure was short and full, and his voice had a low,
veiled tone habitually in it, which made it sometimes difficult to
hear distinctly what he was saying. When he spoke in conversation,
he liked to be very near his listener, and thus stand, as it were,
on confidential grounds with him. His turn of thought was apt to be
cheerful among his friends, and he entered readily into a vein of wit
and nimble expression. Verbal facility seemed natural to him, and his
epithets, evidently unprepared, were always perfect. He disliked cant
and hard ways of judging character. He praised easily. He impressed
every one who came near him as a born gentleman, chivalrous and
generous in a high degree.”