[137] An elegant poet of our times alludes, with due feeling, to these
personal sacrifices. Addressing Poetry, he exclaims--
"In devotion to thy heavenly charms,
I clasp'd thy altar with my infant arms;
For thee neglected the wide field of wealth;
The toils of interest, and the sports of health."
How often may we lament that poets are too apt "to clasp the
altar with infant arms." Goldsmith was near forty when he
published his popular poems--and the greater number of the
most valued poems were produced in mature life. When the poet
begins in "infancy," he too often contracts a habit of writing
verses, and sometimes, in all his life, never reaches poetry.
[138] Vol. ii. p. 355.
[139] My old favourite cynic, with all his rough honesty and acute
discrimination, Anthony Wood, engraved a sketch of Stockdale
when he etched with his aqua-fortis the personage of a
brother:--"This Edward Waterhouse wrote a rhapsodical,
indigested, whimsical work; and not in the least to be taken
into the hand of any sober scholar, unless it be to make him
laugh or wonder at the simplicity of some people. He was a
cock-brained man, and afterwards took orders."
[140] It was published in quarto in 1673, and has engravings of the
principal scene in each act, and a frontispiece representing
the Duke's Theatre in Dorset Gardens, where it was first acted
publicly; it had been played twice at court before this, by
noble actors, "persons of such birth and honour," says Settle,
"that they borrowed no greatness from the characters they
acted." The prologues were written by Lords Mulgrave and
Rochester, and the utmost _eclat_ given to the five long acts
of rhyming bombast, which was declared superior to any work of
Dryden's. As City Poet afterwards Settle composed the
pageants, speeches, and songs for the Lord Mayor's Shows from
1691 to 1708. Towards the close of his career he became
impoverished, and wrote from necessity on all subjects. One of
his plays, composed for Mrs. Mynns' booth in Bartholomew Fair,
has been twice printed, though both editions are now
uncommonly rare. It is called the "Siege of Troy;" and its
popularity is attested by Hogarth's print of Southwark Fair,
where outside of Lee and Harper's great theatrical booth is
exhibited a painting of the Trojan horse, and the announcement
"The Siege of Troy is here."--ED.