Book III.—ED.]_Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

Footnote 52:

Line 20.—[Sir FRANCIS BURDETT, then M.P. for Boroughbridge.—ED.]

Footnote 53:

Line 23.—[JOHN RICHARDSON, M.P. for Newport, Cornwall, and one of the

proprietors of Drury Lane Theatre. In the _Rolliad_ he was the author,

in Part I., of Nos. iv., x., and xi.; and in Part II. of Nos. iii. and

iv. He wrote No. iv. of _Probationary Odes_, in ridicule of Sir R.

Hill, Bart.; No. xix. on Viscount Mountmorres, and the concluding

prose portion. To the _Political Miscellanies_ he contributed, “This

is the House that George Built,” and in conjunction with Tickell, the

“Epigrams by Sir Cecil Wray,” “Pretymaniana,” and “Foreign Epigrams”.

In the latter Dr. Laurence assisted them. Also “A Tale: At Brookes’s

once it so fell out”. “Theatrical Intelligence Extraordinary.”

“Epigram: Who shall Expect the Country’s Friend?” “A new Ballad: Billy

Eden,” in conjunction with Tickell. “Proclamation.” He died in

1803.—ED.]

Footnote 54:

Line 25.—[The Rev. SAMUEL PARR, LL.D., was not only a great scholar,

but an uncompromising Whig, and one of Fox’s most enthusiastic

supporters. His conversational powers were great, and his arguments

were enforced by boldness, dogmatism, and arrogance, which qualities,

however, did not always exempt him from stinging retorts even from the

fair sex. The following, among other attacks, appears in Crabb

Robinson’s interesting _Diary_, ii. 457:—

A RECIPE.

To half of BUSBY’S skill in mood and tense

Add BENTLEY’S pleasantry, without his sense:

Of WARBURTON take all the spleen you find,

And leave his genius and his wit behind.

Squeeze CHURCHILL’S rancour from the verse it flows in,

And knead it stiff with JOHNSON’S heavy prosing.

Add all the piety of ST. VOLTAIRE,

Mix the gross compound—_Fiat_ DR. PARR.

His person, in full canonicals, with capacious wig, unfailing tobacco

pipe and tankard, is, with the effigies of many other noted

politicians of the period, introduced into a spirited bacchanalian

scene by Gillray, published in 1801, entitled _The Union Club_.]

Footnote 55:

BUZZ PROSE.—The learned reader will perceive that this is an elegant

_metonymy_, by which the quality belonging to the outside of the head

is transferred to the inside. _Buzz_ is an epithet usually applied to

a large wig. It is here used for swelling, burly, bombastic writing.

There is a picture of HOGARTH’S (the Election Ball, we believe), in

which there are a number of Hats thrown together in one corner of the

room; and it is remarked as a peculiar excellence that there is not a

Hat among them of which you cannot to a certainty point out the owner

among the figures dancing, or otherwise distributed through the

picture.

We remember to have seen an experiment of this kind tried at one of

the Universities with the _wig_ and _writings_ here alluded to. A page

taken from the most happy and elaborate part of the writings was laid

upon a table in a barber’s shop, round which a number of wigs of

different descriptions and dimensions were suspended, and among them

that of the Author in question. It was required of a young student,

after reading a few sentences in the page, to point out among the wigs

that which must of necessity belong to the Head in which such

sentences had been engendered. The experiment succeeded to a miracle.

The learned reader will now see all the beauty and propriety of the

_metonymy_.

Footnote 56:

Line 25.—[JOHN COURTENAY was for many years one of the men of mark in

the House of Commons for his ability, independent spirit, erudition,

and coarse sarcastic wit. He was born at Carlingford, Ireland, in

1738. Having obtained the patronage of George, Viscount Townshend,

Lord-Lieutenant (1767–72), he became the principal writer in the

“_Batchelor_,” a government paper, distinguished by genuine wit and

humour, conducted by Simcox, a clergyman; Richard Marlay, afterwards

Bishop of Waterford and Lismore; Robert Jephson, a dramatic poet of

note; the Rev. Mr. Boroughs, and others. The chief task of these

advocates of the Castle was to counteract the “_Baratarian Letters_,”

an Irish imitation of _Junius_, which, attacking the Lord-Lieutenant’s

government, received contributions from Flood, and first published

Grattan’s character of Chatham. At the “Coalition,” 1783, he was

appointed Surveyor-general of the Ordnance, and henceforward attached

himself to FOX. He wrote, among other works, _A Poetical Review of the

Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D., 1786_;

_The Rape of Pomona, an Elegiac Epistle from the Waiter at Hockrel to

the Hon. Mr. Lyttelton, 1773_; _Philosophical Reflections on the late

Revolution in France_; and a _Biographical Sketch of his own Life_. In

his _Epistles in Rhyme_ he thus ridicules Horace Walpole’s _Strawberry

Verses_ on the two Misses Berry:—

“Who to love tunes his note, with the fire of old age,

And chirps the trim lay in a trim Gothic cage.”

Walpole, however (_Correspondence_, ix. 434–5), good-naturedly laughed

at them, saying that these verses on himself were really some of the

best in the whole set. Courtenay was a member of _The Literary Club_,

founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and figures in several of Gillray’s

caricatures. He it was who, referring to Gay’s _Beggars’ Opera_,

designated the author the _Orpheus of Highwaymen_. He died 24th March,

1816.—ED.]

Footnote 57:

KIDNAPP’D RHYMES.—Kidnapp’d implies something more than _stolen_.

It is, according to an expression of Mr. Sheridan’s (in the

“Critic”), _using other people’s “thoughts as gipsies do stolen

children—disfiguring them, to make them pass for their own”_.

This is a serious charge against an author, and ought to be well

supported. To the proof then!

In an Ode of the late LORD NUGENT’S are the following spirited lines:

“Though CATO liv’d—though TULLY spoke—[58]

Though BRUTUS dealt the godlike stroke,

Yet perish’d fated ROME!”

The author above mentioned saw these lines, and liked them—as well he

might; and as he had a mind to write about Rome himself, he did not

scruple to enlist them into his service; but he thought it right to

make a small alteration in their appearance, which he managed thus.

Speaking of Rome, he says it is the place

“_Where_ CATO liv’d”:—

A sober truth! which gets rid at once of all the poetry and spirit of

the original, and reduces the sentiment from an example of manners,

virtue, patriotism, from the _vitæ exemplar dedit_ of LORD NUGENT, to

a mere question of inhabitancy. _Ubi habitavit Cato_—where he was an

inhabitant-householder, paying scot and lot, and had a house on the

right-hand side of the way, as you go down _Esquiline_ Hill, just

opposite to the poulterer’s. But to proceed—

“_Where_ CATO liv’d; where TULLY spoke,

Where BRUTUS dealt the godlike stroke—

—_By which his glory rose_!!!”

The last line is _not_ borrowed.

We question whether the history of modern literature can produce an

instance of a theft so shameless, and turned to so little advantage.]

Footnote 58:

[Horace Walpole, in a letter to Hannah More, quotes one word of these

verses incorrectly, writing:—“Though Cato _died_,” an error which P.

Cunningham allows to pass, as also another, that _Mr._—instead of

_Lord_—Nugent wrote them.—ED.]

Footnote 59:

Line 26.—[Sir ROBERT ADAIR. Some observations on his alleged mission

to St. Petersburgh to counteract the measures of Government will be

found on a subsequent page. The publication here satirized is entitled

“Part of a Letter from Robert Adair, Esq., to the Rt. Hon. C. J. Fox;

occasioned by Mr. Burke’s mention of Lord Keppel in a recent

publication,” London, Debrett, 1796, and is by no means a contemptible

composition. It is called “_Part_ of a Letter,” because it is a

portion of a longer one, being only the part devoted to a vindication

of the writer’s uncle, Admiral Lord Keppel, and of Fox; with

characteristic delineations of Sir G. Saville, the Marquis of

Rockingham, Lord North, and George Byng, M.P., on all of whom he

passes great compliments.—ED.]

Footnote 60:

_And loads the blunderbuss with_ BEDFORD’S _brains._—This line is

wholly unintelligible without a note. And we are afraid the note will

be wholly incredible, unless the reader can fortunately procure the

book to which it refers.

In the “Part of a Letter,” which was published by MR. ROBT. ADAIR, in

answer to MR. BURKE’S “Letter to the D. of B.,” nothing is so

remarkable as the studious imitation of Mr. Burke’s style.

His vehemence, and his passion, and his irony, his wild imagery, his

far-sought illustrations, his rolling and lengthened periods, and the

short quick pointed sentences in which he often condenses as much

wisdom and wit as others would expand through pages, or through

volumes,—all these are carefully kept in view by his opponent, though

not always very artificially copied or applied.

But imitators are liable to be led strangely astray; and never was

there an instance of a more complete mistake of a plain meaning, than

that which this line is intended to illustrate—a mistake no less than

that of a _coffin_ for a _corpse_. This is hard to believe or to

comprehend—but you shall hear.

MR. BURKE, in one of his publications, had talked of the French

“_unplumbing_ the dead in order to destroy the living,”—by which he

intended, without doubt, not metaphorically, but literally,

“_stripping the dead of their_ LEADEN COFFINS, _and then making them_

(_not the_ DEAD _but the_ COFFINS) _into bullets_”. A circumstance

perfectly notorious at the time the book was written.

But this does not satisfy our author. He determines to retort MR.

BURKE’S own words upon him; and unfortunately “reaching at a

metaphor,” where MR. BURKE only intended a fact, he falls into the

little mistake above mentioned, and by a stroke of his pen transmutes

the illustrious HEAD of the house of RUSSELL into a metal, to which it

is not for us to say how near or how remote his affinity may possibly

have been. He writes thus—“_If_ MR. BURKE _had been content with

‘unplumbing’ a dead Russell, and hewing_ HIM (observe—not the coffin,

but HIM—the old dead Russell himself) _into grape and canister, to

sweep down the whole generation of his descendants_,” _&c., &c._

The thing is scarcely credible; but IT IS SO! We write with the book

open before us.

Footnote 61:

Qu.—Surcharge?

[Footnote:

[62]HORACE, ODE VIII., BOOK II.

IN BARINEM.

_Ulla si juris tibi pejerati

Pœna, Barine, nocuisset unquam,

Dente si nigro fieres, vel uno

Turpior ungui_,

_Crederem. [64]Sed tu simul obligâsti

Perfidum votis caput, enitescis

Pulchrior multo_, juvenumque prodis

Publica cura.

[66]Expedit _matris cineres_ opertos

Fallere, et toto [66]_taciturna noctis

Signa_ cum cœlo, gelidâque Divos

Morte carentes.

_Ridet hoc, inquam, [67]Venus ipsa; rident

Simplices [69]Nymphæ, ferus et [73]Cupido

Semper ardentes acuens sagittas_

Cote cruentâ.

Adde quod pubes tibi crescit omnis,

[74]_Servitus crescit nova; [75]nec priores

Impiæ tectum dominæ relinquunt,

Sæpe minati._

Te suis matres metuunt juvencis;

Te [76]_senes parci, miseræque [77]nuper

Virgines nuptæ, tua ne retardet

Aura Maritos._

Footnote 63:

Line 3.—[Referring to LORD MOIRA’S complaints against the Government

agents, for unnecessary cruelty to the Irish rebels.—ED.]

Footnote 65:

Line 13.—[The following attack upon Lord Moira, “for his patriotic zeal,

and the correctness and propriety with which he gave, in the upper House

of Parliament, an account of the insurrection upon his estates, and in

other parts of Ireland,” is extracted from the “_Batchelor_”. These

observations were there pointed at the father of Lord Moira, but have

been adapted by the Author of the _Ode_ and the Artist to the son.

_Lord Moira._—“My Lords, I rise to return my thanks to the Noble Lord

who spoke last. I can testify the truth of all he has asserted. At the

time of the Insurrection in the North, I had frequent and intimate

conversations with that celebrated enchanter, _Moll Coggin_. I have

often seen her riding on a black ram with a blue tail. Once I

endeavoured to fire at her, but my gun melted in my hand into a clear

jelly. This jelly I tasted, and if it had been a little more acid, it

would have been most excellent. The Noble Lords may laugh; but I declare

the fact upon my veracity, which has never been doubted. Once I pursued

this fiend into my ale cellar: she rode instantly out of my sight into

the bung-hole of a beer barrel. She was at that time mounted on her

black ram with the blue tail. Some time after, my servants were much

surprised to find their ale full of _blue hairs_. I was not surprised,

as I knew the blue _hairs_ were the hairs of the ram’s _blue tail_.

Noble Lords may stare, but the fact is as I relate it. This _Moll

Coggin_ was the fiend who raised the _Oak-boys_ to rebellion. I was also

well acquainted with the two Cow-boys mentioned by the Noble Lord; they

were my tenants, and were certainly endowed with supernatural powers. I

have known one of them tear up by the roots an Oak two hundred feet

high, and bear it upright on his head four miles! his party were on that

account called Oak-boys. Noble Lords may laugh, but I speak from certain

knowledge. The Oak-tree grew in my garden, and I have often seen five

hundred Swans perching on its boughs; these swans were remarkable for

destroying all the snipes in the country—they flew faster than any snipe

I ever saw, and you may imagine a small bird could make but a feeble

resistance in the talons of a swan. I hope, my Lords, you will pardon my

wandering a little from the present subject,” &c.—ED.]

Footnote 68:

Line 17.—[“One night after _nine o’clock_, a party of Soldiers saw a

light in a house by the road-side—they went and ordered it to be

extinguished immediately: the people of the house begged that the light

might be suffered to remain because there was a child belonging to the

family in convulsion fits, who must expire for want of help if the

people were to be without fire and candle; _but this request_ HAD NO

EFFECT.” _Lord Moira’s Speech in the House of Lords, November 22, 1797._

This statement was, however, satisfactorily disproved. The incident

forms a feature in the accompanying engraving. Notwithstanding official

denials, it has long been admitted that the conduct of the Soldiery in

Ireland was simply infamous. Billeting on Catholics and reputed

malcontents of the better class appears to have been invariably as an

unlimited licence for robbery, devastation, ravishment, and, in case of

resistance, murder. Sir Ralph Abercromby, on assuming the command of the

army in Ireland, declared, in general orders, that their habits and

discipline were such as to render them “formidable to everybody but the

enemy”. The just severity of this phrase was confirmed by the subsequent

experience of Lord Cornwallis.—ED.]

Footnote 70:

Line 19.—[Sir George Augustus William Shuckburgh, distinguished by his

scientific researches, married the daughter and sole heiress of Jas.

Evelyn, Esq. of Felbridge, Surrey, by whom he had an only daughter,

Julia, who became, in 1810, the wife of the Earl of Liverpool. Sir

George, on the decease of his father-in-law in 1793, assumed the

additional surname of Evelyn. He died in 1804, having been five times

returned to Parliament for the county of Warwick.—ED.]

Footnote 71:

Line 20.—[Sir John Macpherson, Bart. was M.P. for Horsham, and for a

short period Governor-General of India.—ED.]

Footnote 72:

Line 21.—[Col. Bastard was M.P. for Devon. He was returned with Mr.

Rolle, the hero of “_The Rolliad_,” on the Pitt interest.—ED.]

Footnote 78:

Line 31.—[Sir William Pulteney was M.P. for Shrewsbury, and no Member in

the House was more looked up to. He was the second son of Sir James

Johnstone, Bart., of Westerhall, and brother of Governor Johnstone. He

married the cousin of Lt.-Gen. Henry Pulteney, surviving brother of

William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, assuming the name of Pulteney. The

General left immense wealth, “the fruits of his brother’s virtues!” as

Horace Walpole sarcastically phrases it. The greater part of it he

bequeathed to the said cousin. Sir William Johnstone Pulteney died in

1805. His daughter was created Countess of Bath.—ED.]

Footnote 79:

The trepidation of Mr. Tooke, though natural, was not necessary; as it

appeared from the ever-memorable “Letter to Mr. M‘Mahon” (which was

published about this time in the _Morning Chronicle_, and threw the

whole town into paroxysms of laughter), that in the Administration which

his Lordship was so gravely employed in forming, Mr. Fox was to have no

place!

Footnote 81:

Line 36.—[Of M‘MAHON it is said in T. RAIKES’S _Journal_ (November,

1836):—“George IV. never had any private friends: he selected his

confidants from his minions. M‘MAHON was an Irishman of low birth and

obsequious manners: he was a little man, his face red, covered with

pimples; always dressed in the blue and buff uniform, with his hat on

one side, copying the air of his master, to whom he was a prodigious

foil, and ready to execute any commissions, which in those days were

somewhat complicated.” He was private secretary and keeper of the privy

purse to King George IV. when Prince Regent, was sworn of the Privy

Council, and created a Baronet, 7th August, 1817, with remainder, in

default of male issue, to his brother. SIR JOHN died 12th September,

1817, the title devolving on his brother THOMAS, a distinguished

military officer, who was Adjutant-General of Her Majesty’s forces in

India, Lieut.-Gov. of Portsmouth, Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army,

&c.

SIR JOHN M‘MAHON left a large personal property, amounting to £90,000.

One of his bequests is thus worded: “To THOMAS MARRABLE, a dear and

esteemed friend, £2000; and with my last prayers for the glory and

happiness of the best-hearted man in the world, the PRINCE REGENT, I

bequeath him the said Thomas Marrable, an invaluable servant”. The

latter was a member of the household of King George IV., and one of his

confidential agents. A full-length portrait of him as one of the

procession is given in Sir G. Nayler’s history of the coronation of that

monarch.

Among Gillray’s _Caricatures_ is an amusing one, engraved but not

mounted on a tall horse, with the much smaller person of M‘Mahon

consequentially riding on a diminutive steed at his side, passing the

gates of Carlton House. The quotation from Burns engraved on it suggests

that the Prince might still prove a worthy occupant of the throne.—ED.]

Footnote 82:

[As if written by ROBERT ADAIR, who had previously indited “HALF _a

Letter to Mr. Fox_”.]

[Footnote:

[83]Non usitatâ nec tenui ferar

Pennâ biformis per liquidum æthera

Vates.

[84]——Non ego, quem vocas

Dilecte, Mæcenas, obibo,

[85]Nec Stygiâ cohibebor undâ.

[86]Jamjam residunt cruribus asperæ

Pelles, et album mutor in alitem

[87]Supernê, nascunturque leves

Per digitos humerosque plumæ.

Visam gementis littora Bosphori,

Syrtesque Gætulas,[89] canorus

Ales,[90] Hyperboreosque campos.

[91]Me Colchus, et qui[92] dissimulat metum

* * *

* * * me peritus

Discet Iber Rhodanique[93] potor.

Absint[94] inani funere neniæ,

[95]Luctusque turpes et querimoniæ.

[96] —— —— —— sepulchri

Mitte supervacuous honores.

Footnote 88:

[MR. PITT’S Tax upon Hair-powder proved a failure; many of the public

declining its use. Those who continued it were called “_guinea-pigs_,”

the tax being a guinea per head.—ED.]

Footnote 97:

[For an explanation of this allusion, see Note at p. 74.—ED.]

[Footnote:

[98]Acmen Septimius suos amores

Tenens in gremio, mea, inquit, Acme,

Ni te perdite amo, &c.

[99]Cæsio veniam obvius Leoni.

[100]Hoc ut dixit, Amor sinistram, ut ante

Dextram, sternuit approbationem.

[101]At Acme leviter caput reflectens,

Et dulcis pueri ebrios ocellos

Illo purpureo ore suaviata,

Sic, inquit, mea vita,[102] Septimille, &c.

[103]Nunc ab auspicio bono profecti

Mutuis animis amant, amantur.

Unam Septimius misellus Acmen

Mavult quam[104] Syrias Britanniasque.[105]

Footnote 105:

_I.e._, The Clerkship of the Pells in Ireland, and Auditorship of South

Wales.

Footnote 106:

[On 7th Feb., 1796, a _forged_ French newspaper called _L’Eclair_,

containing false intelligence, was circulated in London for

stock-jobbing purposes. On 3rd July a verdict of £100 was given against

D. STUART, proprietor of _The Morning Post_, for sending the above paper

to the proprietors of _The Telegraph_, by which it was discredited; and

on the following day, a verdict of £1500 was given against Mr.

Dickinson, for falsely accusing Mr. Goldsmid, the money-broker, of

forging the above. It announced a peace between Austria and France.—ED.]

Footnote 107:

_Morning Post_, Jan. 25.

Footnote 108:

_Morning Chronicle_, Jan. 25.

Footnote 109:

This appears to allude to Mr. SHERIDAN’S conduct during the _Mutiny_.

Footnote 110:

This is not the first time that we have heard of Mr. TIERNEY’S

discouragement of impiety. However we may disapprove of this gentleman’s

political principles, we are not insensible to the merit of such

conduct.

Footnote 111:

_Morning Post_, Jan. 25.

Footnote 112:

_Morning Chronicle_, Jan. 25.

Footnote 113:

_Morning Chronicle_, _Morning Post_, _Morning Herald_, &c.

Footnote 114:

The Company seem to have recollected (had _his Grace_ forgotten?) that

the DUKE of NORFOLK has _another_ SOVEREIGN, to whom he has recently,

more than once, sworn Allegiance; and under whom he _now_ holds the

LIEUTENANCY of the WEST RIDING of the COUNTY OF YORK, and the Command of

a REGIMENT of MILITIA.

Footnote 115:

See _The True Briton_, of Thursday, Jan. 25.

Footnote 116:

Conjuravere Cives nobilissimi Patriam incendere—_Gallorum_ gentem

infestissimam nomini Romano in bellum arcessunt—Dux Hostium cum exercitu

supra caput est.—ORAT. CATON. ap. SALLUST.

Footnote 117:

Tum Catilina polliceri tabulas novas, proscriptionem locupletium,

Magistrates, Sacerdotia, rapinas, alia omnia quæ bellum atque lubido

Victorum fert.—SALLUST.

Footnote 118:

[“A Correspondent cautions us against making a profane use of MR.

WILBERFORCE’S appearance on Sunday; that gentleman would not have been

so ungodly as to gallop there without a sufficient reason—it was the

fulfilment of some Prophecy; and the horse he rode might be related to

the White Horse of the Revelations.”—_Morning Chronicle_, Jan. 11,

1798.—ED.]

Footnote 119:

[This refers to Charles Howard, eleventh DUKE OF NORFOLK, (who gave, at

a public dinner, the famous toast of “Our Sovereign’s health, the

Majesty of the People,”) and to John Horne Tooke, who was a regularly

ordained clergyman, and had been tried for High Treason and

acquitted.—ED.]

Footnote 120:

[These lines allude to the Empress Catherine’s placing in her gallery

the bust of Fox between those of Demosthenes and Cicero, as a token of

gratitude for his exertions in defeating the project of PITT, who, in

conjunction with Prussia and Holland, had, in 1791, prepared a powerful

armament to compel her to give up Ockzakow, which she had seized. The

Court party delighted in stigmatizing FOX as the modern _Catiline_. “But

the part which he took in parliament subsequent to 1793, (says _Sir N.

W. Wraxall_), and the eulogiums lavished by him on the French

Revolution, soon changed the Empress’s tone. She caused the bust to be

removed; and when reproached with such a change in her conduct, she

replied, ‘C’étoit Monsieur Fox de _Quatre-vingt-onze_ que j’ai placé

dans mon cabinet’.”—_Wraxall’s Posthumous Memoirs_, vol. 1, pp. 435,

436.

“It seems to have escaped general notice, (says Sir James Prior in his

Life of Burke), that the misfortunes of Poland in her final partition

may be, in some degree, attributed, however undesignedly on their part,

to Mr. Fox and the Opposition, in the strong and unusual means made use

of to thwart Mr. Pitt in the business of Ockzakow. They lay claim, it is

true, to the merit of having prevented war on that occasion. But if war

had then taken place with England for one act of violence comparatively

trivial, Russia, in all probability, would not have ventured upon a

second and still greater aggression, involving the existence of a

nation, with the certainty of a second war. Nothing, after all, might

have saved Poland from the combination then on foot against her; but it

is certain that Mr. Pitt, from recent experience, had little

encouragement to make the attempt.”

It is a curious circumstance that, though the _plate_ illustrating these

_Lines_ was published, according to its inscription, on the 17th March,

1792, the five stanzas engraved on it are identical with those which

appeared in the _Anti-Jacobin_ of 12th Feb., 1798, though these were

introduced as written “by an English Traveller just [_sic_] returned

from Petersburgh”.

Assuming the date on the engraving to be correct, we might account for

the _parachronism_ on the supposition that the author of the earlier

_plate-stanzas_ availed himself of the appearance of the _Lines written

under the Bust of Charles Fox at the Crown and Anchor to reproduce

them_—six years afterwards—with a few verbal alterations, to adapt them

to a later period—and with an equivocal statement as to the period of

their first production.

The following are the alterations in the reprinted version:—

Stanza 2 line 3, frantic _for_ lawless.

„ 3 „ 1, their country’s _for_ domestic.

„ 3 „ 1, and wealth and _for_ external.

„ 3 „ 3, honoured _for_ sacred.

„ 4 „ 1, now _for_ then.

„ 4 „ 3, advocate _for_ tool confessed.

„ 4 „ 4, later _for_ modern.

„ 5 „ 2, thus _for_ now.

„ 5 „ 4, Catiline _for_ Cataline.

„ 5 „ 4, modern _for_ later.—ED.]

Footnote 121:

[Written to ridicule Richard Payne Knight’s _Progress of Civil Society_,

a Didactic Poem, in Six Books. London, 1796, 4to.—ED.]

Footnote 122:

_Ver._ 3. A modern author of great penetration and judgment observes

very shrewdly, that “the cosmogony of the world has puzzled the

philosophers of all ages. What a medley of opinions have they not

broached upon the creation of the world. Sanconiathon, Manetho, Berosus,

and Ocellus Lucanus have all attempted it in vain. The latter has these

words—_Anarchon ara kai ateleutaion to pan_—which imply, that all things

have neither beginning nor end.” See Goldsmith’s _Vicar of Wakefield_;

see also Mr. Knight’s Poem on the _Progress of Civil Society_.

Footnote 123:

_Ver._ 12. The influence of Mind upon Matter, comprehending the whole

question of the Existence of Mind as independent of Matter, or as

co-existent with it, and of Matter considered as an intelligent and

self-dependent Essence, will make the subject of a larger Poem in 127

Books, now preparing under the _same_ auspices.

Footnote 124:

_Ver._ 14. See Godwin’s _Enquirer_; Darwin’s _Zoonomia_; Paine;

Priestley, &c. &c.; also all the French Encyclopædists.

Footnote 125:

_Ver._ 16. _Quæstio spinosa et contortula._

Footnote 126:

_Ver._ 26. “Add thereto a tiger’s chawdron.”—Macbeth.

Footnote 127:

_Ver._ 26, 27.

“In softer notes bids Lybian lions roar,

And warms the whale on Zembla’s frozen shore.”

_Progress of Civil Society_, Book I. ver. 98.

Footnote 128:

_Ver._ 29. “An oyster may be crossed in love.”—Mr. Sheridan’s _Critic_.

Footnote 129:

_Ver._ 34. Birds fly.

Footnote 130:

_Ver._ 35. But neither fish, nor beasts—particularly as here

exemplified.

Footnote 131:

_Ver._ 36. The bear.

Footnote 132:

_Ver._ 37. The mackerel—there are also _hard-roed_ mackerel. _Sed de his

alio loco._

Footnote 133:

_Ver._ 38. Bear’s _grease_, or _fat_, is also in great request; being

supposed to have a _criniparous_, or hair-producing quality.

Footnote 134:

_Ver._ 39. There is a special Act of Parliament which permits mackerel

to be cried on Sundays.

Footnote 135:

_Ver._ 45 to 49. Every animal contented with the lot which it has drawn

in life. A fine contrast to man, who is always discontented.

Footnote 136:

_Ver._ 49. _Salt wave_—wave of the sea—“_briny wave_”.—Poetæ passim.

Footnote 137:

_Ver._ 50. A still stronger contrast, and a greater shame to man, is

found in plants;—they too are contented—he restless and changing. _Mens

agitat mihi, nec placida contenta quiete est._

Footnote 138:

_Ver._ 50. _Potatoes ’tatoes breed._ Elision for the sake of verse, not

meant to imply that the root degenerates.—Not so with man—

Mox daturus

Progeniem vitiosiorem.

Footnote 139:

_Ver._ 61–66. Simple state of savage life—previous to the pastoral, or

even the hunter state.

Footnote 140:

_Ver._ 66. First savages disciples of Pythagoras.

Footnote 141:

_Ver._ 67, &c. Desire of animal food natural only to beasts, or to man

in a state of civilized society. First suggested by the circumstances

here related.

Footnote 142:

_Ver._ 71. Pigs of the _Chinese_ breed most in request.

Footnote 143:

_Ver._ 76. First formation of a bow. Introduction of the science of

archery.

Footnote 144:

_Ver._ 79. Grass twisted, used for a string, owing to the want, of other

materials not yet invented.

Footnote 145:

_Ver._ 83. Bone—fish’s bone found on the sea-shore, shark’s teeth, &c.

&c.

Footnote 146:

_Ver._ 90. Ah! what avails, &c.—See Pope’s _Description of the death of

a Pheasant_.

Footnote 147:

_Ver._ 93. “With leaden eye that loves the ground.”

Footnote 148:

_Ver._ 94. The first effusion of blood attended with the most dreadful

consequences to mankind.

Footnote 149:

_Ver._ 97. _Social_ Man’s wickedness opposed to the simplicity of savage

life.

Footnote 150:

_Ver._ 100, 101. Different causes of war among men.

Footnote 151:

_Ver._ 106. Invention of fire—first employed in cookery, and produced by

rubbing dry sticks together.

Footnote 152:

[Written in the character of C. J. FOX, at his seat, St. Anne’s Hill,

near Chertsey, during his secession from Parliament from 1797 to 1802.

His fondness for the Greek Poets is well known.—ED.]

Footnote 153:

[Alluded to at page 79.—ED.]

Footnote 154:

[Erskine was noted for his intense vanity, which procured him the

nickname of _Ego_. Sir John Bowring, who knew him well, gives in his

_Autobiography_ several instances of this peculiarity, one of which is

here inserted. “The master-string of his mind was vanity; its

vibrations trembling to the very end of his existence. He said, ‘When

the Emperor Alexander came to England, Lord Granville told me that the

Emperor wished to see me. I went. He received me with particular

attention, and said he was very anxious to make my acquaintance. He

spoke English as well as you do. “You are a friend and correspondent,”

he said, “of my most valued friend La Harpe?” “Yes, sire.” “Is he a

regular correspondent?” “Yes, a very kind one.” “Has he been so of

late?” “Well, if your Majesty will cross-examine me, I must own he

owes me a letter.” He put his hand into his pocket, and drew forth a

letter addressed to me. “Yes, there is his answer. I intercepted it

that I might have the pleasure of knowing Lord Erskine.” I gave

Alexander all my writings and speeches, which he received with many

expressions of satisfaction.’”—ED.]

Footnote 155:

[On April 3, 1797, an open-air meeting of the inhabitants of Westminster

was held in Palace Yard, during very inclement weather (Westminster Hall

having been shut against them by order of the keeper), to consider of an

address to his Majesty to dismiss PITT’S ministry. FOX and the Duke of

Bedford took part in the proceedings. Meetings were held about the same

time all over the country for the same object.—ED.]

Footnote 156:

[After Lord Shelburne’s resignation of the office of Prime Minister,

consequent on the coalition of Fox and Lord North, he was created

Marquis of Lansdowne, and withdrew almost entirely from public life,

passing his time principally at his magnificent seat, Bowood, near

Calne, Wiltshire.—ED.]

Footnote 157:

NOTES TO THE “NEW COALITION”.

[The Secret History of FOX’S coalition with LORD NORTH, his former

adversary,—a proceeding which entailed on him much odium,—was first

brought to light by the publication of the “Memorials and Correspondence

of Charles James Fox,” begun by the late Lord Holland, and edited by

Earl Russell. It was occasioned by his disgust at the conduct of the

Earl of Shelburne, for while FOX as one of the Secretaries of State

under the Rockingham Administration was treating with Dr. Franklin for

peace with the United States through the agent of the Cabinet (Thomas

Grenville) Lord Shelburne, the other Secretary of State, was, through

_his_ agent Oswald, privately thwarting his measures, and that with the

concurrence of the King! The consequence of the Coalition was the fall

of Lord Shelburne’s ministry, and Fox and Lord North’s “taking the

Treasury by storm”.—ED.]

Footnote 158:

[The _India Bill_ brought in by FOX, shortly after his accession to

office, was the signal for his downfall. The Bill passed the House of

Commons by large majorities, but when it reached the Lords, the King,

who hated FOX, empowered Earl Temple to declare that he would consider

everyone who supported the measure as personally his enemy. The Bill was

consequently lost on the second reading by a majority of eighty-seven

against twenty-nine. The Coalition Ministry resigned, and PITT, then in

his 23rd year, became Prime Minister.]

Footnote 159:

[JOHN NICHOLLS, M.P. for Tregony, was blind of one eye, and altogether

remarkably ugly. His delivery was ungraceful, and his action generally

much too vehement. He wrote _Recollections and Reflections during the

Reign of George III._, 2 vols. 8vo., 1822. His hostile pamphlet on the

_Income Tax_ is marked by great ability.—ED.]

Footnote 160:

[On the 14th April, 1794, THELWALL was in the chair at a supper of one

of the Divisions of the Reformers, and blowing off the head of a pot of

porter said, “This is the way I would have all kings served”.—ED.]

Footnote 161:

[JOHN HORNE TOOKE was educated for the Church, and in 1760 became vicar

of _New Brentford_. Resigning this he studied the Law, but being a

clergyman was refused admission to the Bar. At first he supported PITT,

then a _promising_ Reformer, publishing in 1788 his “Two Pair of

Portraits,” disadvantageously contrasting FOX and his father with Pitt

and his father. But Pitt not fulfilling his hopes, he became his bitter

opponent and softened his animosity towards FOX. In 1775 he was

imprisoned for a libel on the king’s troops in America. In 1790 he was

an unsuccessful candidate for Westminster; the other candidates being

FOX and Admiral Sir Alan Gardner. In 1794 he was tried, in company with

THELWALL and others, for high treason, when all were acquitted. In 1796

he again stood for Westminster, and failed; but in 1801 he obtained a

seat in Parliament for Old Sarum, on the nomination of Lord Camelford. A

remarkable memoir of him was contributed to the _Quarterly Review_, vol.

7, by Lord Dudley, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Canning’s

administration, 1827–8.—ED.]

[Footnote:

HOR. LIB. III., CARM. XXV.

DITHYRAMBUS.

[162]Quo me, Bacche, rapis, tui

Plenum? quæ nemora, aut quos agor in specus,

Velox mente novâ?

[163]Quibus

Antris egregii Cæsaris audiar

Eternum meditans decus

Stellis inserere, et consilio Jovis?

Footnote 164:

Dicam insigne, recens, adhuc

Indictum ore alio.

Footnote 165:

Non secus in jugis

Exsomnis stupet Evias,

Hebrum prospiciens.

Footnote 166:

et nive candidam

Thracen, ac _pede barbaro

Lustratam Rhodopen_.

Footnote 167:

There appears to have been some little mistake in the Translator

here—_Rhodope_ is not, as he seems to imagine, the name of a woman, but

of a mountain, and not in _Russia_. Possibly, however, the Translator

may have been misled by the inaccuracy of the traveller here alluded to.

Footnote 168:

Ut mihi devio

Rupes, et vacuum nemus

Mirari libet!

[Footnote:

[169]O Naiadum potens

Baccharumque valentium

Proceras manibus vertere fraxinos.

[170]Nil parvum, aut humili modo,

Nil mortale loquar. Dulce periculum est,

O Lenæe, sequi deum

Cingentem viridi tempora pampino.

Footnote 171:

[This clever parody has reference to the attempt made by the DUKE OF

NORTHUMBERLAND to evade payment of PITT’S Income-tax. To mitigate the

severity of the pressure on persons with large families, a deduction of

ten per cent. was allowed to persons who had above a certain number of

children. Among others the Duke was not ashamed to avail himself of this

clause.—ED.]

Footnote 172:

[See Note at p. 84 in “_A Bit of an Ode to Mr. Fox_,” line 18.—ED.]

Footnote 173:

[SIR HUGH SMITHSON married Lady Eliz. Seymour, great-granddaughter of

Joceline, eleventh Earl of Northumberland, who was the last of the male

Percies. He was created DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND in 1766. The hero of this

Ballad was his son, who died in 1817.—ED.]

Footnote 174:

The ceremony of invocation (in didactic poems especially) is in some

measure analogous to the custom of drinking toasts; the corporeal

representatives of which are always supposed to be absent, and

unconscious of the irrigation bestowed upon their names. Hence it is,

that our Author addresses himself to the natives of an island who are

not likely to hear, and who, if they did, would not understand him.

Footnote 175:

His Majesty’s ship _Endeavour_.

Footnote 176:

In justice to our Author we must observe, that there is a delicacy in

this picture, which the words, in their common acceptation, do not

convey. The amours of an English shepherd would probably be preparatory

to marriage (which is contrary to our Author’s principles), or they

might disgust us by the vulgarity of their object. But in Otaheite,

where the place of a shepherd is a perfect sinecure (there being no

sheep on the island), the mind of the reader is not offended by any

disagreeable allusion.

Footnote 177:

Laws made by parliaments or kings.

Footnote 178:

Customs voted or imposed by ditto, not the customs here alluded to.

Footnote 179:

M. Bailly and other astronomers have observed, that in consequence of

the varying obliquity of the Ecliptic, the climates of the circumpolar

and tropical climates may, in process of time, be materially changed.

Perhaps it is not very likely that even by these means Britain may ever

become a small island in the South Seas. But this is not the meaning of

the verse—the similarity here proposed relates to manners, not to local

situation.

Footnote 180:

The word _one_ here, means all the inhabitants of Europe (excepting the

French, who have remedied this inconvenience), not any particular

individual. The Author begs leave to disclaim every allusion that can be

construed as personal.

Footnote 181:

As a stream—simile of dissimilitude, a mode of illustration familiar to

the ancients.

Footnote 182:

Walks of polished life, see “Kensington Gardens,” a poem.

Footnote 183:

Germania—Germany; a country in Europe, peopled by the Germani: alluded

to in Cæsar’s Commentaries, page 1, vol. ii. edit. prin. See also

several Didactic Poems.

Footnote 184:

A beautiful figure of German literature. The Hottentots remarkable for

staring at each other—God knows why.

Footnote 185:

This delightful and instructive picture of domestic life is recommended

to all keepers of boarding-schools, and other seminaries of the same

nature.

Footnote 186:

It is a singular quality of brandied cherries that they exchange their

flavour for that of the liquor in which they are immersed.—See Knight’s

_Progress of Civil Society_.

Footnote 187:

This division of the word is in the true spirit of the English as well

as the ancient Sapphic. See the “Counter-Scuffle,” “Counter-Rat,” and

other poems in this style.

Footnote 188:

[The Rev. Gilbert Wakefield wrote several pamphlets against government,

of which no notice was taken, until his Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff

appeared, when the Attorney-General instituted a prosecution against

him. He was found guilty and imprisoned; during which imprisonment a

subscription of £3000 among his friends supported his wife and family

very comfortably.—ED.]

Footnote 189:

[John Gale Jones was an active political agitator for many years. In

1810, he was the conductor of the debating club, denominated the

“British Forum,” which at one of its meetings discussed the propriety of

the exclusion of strangers from the House of Commons during the debates

on the Walcheren Expedition. For his observations the House,

disregarding his apology, committed him to Newgate.—ED.]

Footnote 190:

[“John Thelwall left his shop (that of a silk mercer) to be one of the

Reformers of the age. After his acquittal he went about the country

lecturing. Sometimes he was attended by numerous admirers, but more

frequently hooted and pelted by the mob. In order to escape prosecution

for sedition, he took as his subject Greek and Roman history, and had

ingenuity enough to give such a colouring to events and characters, as

to render the application to living persons and present events an

exciting mental exercise. I heard one or two of these lectures, and

thought very differently of him then from what I thought afterwards.

When, however, he found his popularity on the wane, and more stringent

laws had been passed, to which he individually gave occasion, he came to

the prudent resolution of abandoning his vagrant habits, and leading a

farmer’s life in a beautiful place near Brecon.... He was an amiable man

in private life, an affectionate husband, and a fond father. He

altogether mistook his talents—he told me without reserve that he

believed he should establish his name among the epic poets of England;

and it is a curious thing considering his own view’s that he thought the

establishment of Christianity, and the British Constitution, very

appropriate subjects for his poem.... THELWALL, unlike Hardy, had the

weakness of vanity; but he was a perfectly honest man, and had a power

of declamation which qualified him to be a mob orator. He used to say

that if he were at the gallows with liberty to address the people for

half-an-hour, he should not fear the result; he was sure he could excite

them to a rescue. I became acquainted with him soon after his acquittal,

and never ceased to respect him for his sincerity, though I did not

think highly of his understanding.”—_Crabb Robinson’s Diary_, 1790 and

1799.—ED.]

Footnote 191:

[These “Gagging Bills,” of 1796, required that notice should be given to

the magistrate of any public meeting to be held on political subjects;

he was authorized to be present, and empowered to seize those guilty of

sedition on the spot; and a second offence against the act was

punishable with transportation. So exasperated were the Opposition with

this measure that Fox and a large part of the minority withdrew

altogether for a considerable time from the House.—ED.]

Footnote 192:

There is a doubt, whether this word should not have been written _liar_.

Footnote 193:

These words, of _conviction_ and _hanging_, have so ominous a sound, it

is rather odd they were chosen.

Footnote 194:

[The hero of the above song was Charles Howard, eleventh Duke of

Norfolk, who both as a member of the House of Commons (while Earl of

Surrey), and afterwards as a peer, was one of FOX’S most strenuous

supporters. SIR N. WRAXALL thus describes him: “Nature, which cast him

in her coarsest mould, had not bestowed on him any of the external

insignia of high descent. His person, large, muscular, and clumsy, was

destitute of grace or dignity, though he possessed much activity. At a

time when men of every description wore hair-powder and a queue, he had

the courage to cut his hair short, and to renounce powder, which he

never used except when going to court. In his youth he led a most

licentious life, having frequently passed the whole night in excesses of

every kind, and even lain down, when intoxicated, occasionally to sleep

in the streets, or on a block of wood. In cleanliness he was negligent

to so great a degree that he rarely made use of water for the purpose of

bodily refreshment and comfort.” Complaining one day to Dudley North

that he was a martyr to the rheumatism, and had ineffectually tried

every remedy for its relief, “Pray, my lord,” said he, “did you ever try

a clean shirt?” It must not be forgotten, however, that he was a

munificent patron of literature, for he defrayed the entire expense of

printing Taylor’s Translation of Plato, 5 vols. 4to.; Dallaway’s History

of Sussex, 2 vols. 4to.; and Duncumb’s History of Herefordshire, 2 vols.

The initials B. O. B. refer to _Mr._ (afterwards _Sir Robert_) _Adair_,

who is often alluded to in these pages.—ED.]

Footnote 195:

[These observations are directed against Godwin’s work on “Political

Justice,” which, on its first appearance, excited extraordinary

attention. His aim was to represent the whole system of society as

radically and essentially wrong, and to extirpate all those principles

which uphold its present constitution. The existence of the Deity is

spoken of as an hypothesis, and the ethics are worthy of the religion.

HOLCROFT reviewed it in the “Monthly Review,” but was doubtful whether

to praise or blame it.—ED.]

[“I noticed (says CRABB ROBINSON in 1811) the infinite superiority of

GODWIN over the French writers in moral feeling and tendency. I had

learned to hate Helvetius and Mirabeau, and yet retained my love for

GODWIN. This was agreed to as a just sentiment.”—ED.]

Footnote 196:

[Written in ridicule of Dr. DARWIN’S _Loves of the Plants_.]

Footnote 197:

Ver. 1–4. Imitated from the introductory couplet to the _Economy of

Vegetation_:

“Stay your rude steps, whose throbbing breasts infold

The legion fiends of glory and of gold”

This sentiment is here expanded into four lines.

Footnote 198:

Ver. 6. _Definition_—A distinct notion explaining the genesis of a

thing.—_Wolfius._

Footnote 199:

Ver. 7. _Postulate_—A self-evident proposition.

Footnote 200:

Ver. 8. _Axiom_—An indemonstrable truth.

Footnote 201:

Ver. 9. _Tangents_—So called from touching, because they touch circles,

and never cut them.

Footnote 202:

Ver. 10. _Circles_—See Chambers’s Dictionary, article “Circle”.

Footnote 203:

Ver. 10. _Osculation_—For the _osculation_, or kissing of circles and

other curves, see Huygens, who has veiled this delicate and inflammatory

subject in the decent obscurity of a learned language.

Footnote 204:

Ver. 11. _Cissois_—A curve supposed to resemble the sprig of ivy, from

which it has its name, and therefore peculiarly adapted to poetry.

Footnote 205:

Ver. 12. _Conchois_, or _Conchylis_—A most beautiful and picturesque

curve; it bears a fanciful resemblance to a _conch_ shell. The conchois

is capable of infinite extension, and presents a striking analogy

between the animal and mathematical creation—every individual of this

species containing within itself a series of _young_ conchoids for

several generations, in the same manner as the Aphides and other insect

tribes are observed to do.

Footnote 206:

Ver. 15. _Hydrostatics_—Water has been supposed, by several of our

philosophers, to be capable of the passion of love. Some later

experiments appear to favour this idea. Water, when pressed by a

moderate degree of heat, has been observed to simper, or simmer, as it

is more usually called. The same does not hold true of any other

element.

Footnote 207:

Ver. 17. _Acoustics_—The doctrine or theory of sound.

Footnote 208:

Ver. 18. _Euclid and Algebra_—The loves and nuptials of these two

interesting personages, forming a considerable episode in the third

canto, are purposely omitted here.

Footnote 209:

Ver. 19. _Pulley_—So called from our Saxon word to PULL, signifying to

pull or draw.

Footnote 210:

Ver. 23. _Fair sylphish forms_—_Vide_ modern prints of nymphs and

shepherds dancing to nothing at all.

Footnote 211:

Ver. 27. _Such rich confusion_—Imitated from the following genteel and

sprightly lines in the first canto of the “Loves of the Plants”:

“So bright its folding canopy withdrawn,

Glides the gilt landau o’er the velvet lawn,

Of beaux and belles displays the glittering throng,

And soft airs fan them as they glide along”.

Footnote 212:

Ver. 38. _Angle_—Gratus puellæ risus ab Angulo.—_Hor._

Footnote 213:

Ver. 39. _How slow progressive Points_—The Author has reserved the

picturesque imagery which the _theory of fluxions_ naturally suggested

for his “Algebraic Garden,” where the _fluents_ are described as rolling

with an even current between a margin of _curves_ of the higher order

over a pebbly channel, inlaid with _differential calculi_.

In the following six lines he has confined himself to a strict

explanation of the theory, according to which lines are supposed to be

generated by the motion of points, planes by the lateral motion of

lines, and solids from planes, by a similar process.

_Quære_—Whether a practical application of this theory would not enable

us to account for the genesis or original formation of space itself, in

the same manner in which Dr. Darwin has traced the whole of the

organized creation to his six filaments—Vide _Zoonomia_. We may conceive

the whole of our present universe to have been originally concentred in

a single point; we may conceive this primeval point, or _punctum

saliens_ of the universe, evolving itself by its own energies, to have

moved forward in a right line, _ad infinitum_, till it grew tired; after

which the right line which it had generated would begin to put itself in

motion in a lateral direction, describing an area of infinite extent.

This area, as soon as it became conscious of its own existence, would

begin to ascend or descend, according as its specific gravity might

determine it, forming an immense solid space filled with vacuum, and

capable of containing the present existing universe.

Space being thus obtained, and presenting a suitable nidus, or

receptacle for the generation of chaotic matter, an immense deposit of

it would gradually be accumulated; after which, the filament of _fire_

being produced in the chaotic mass by an _idiosyncrasy_, or self-formed

habit, analogous to fermentation, _explosion_ would take place; _suns_

would be shot from the central chaos; _planets_ from _suns_; and

_satellites_ from _planets_. In this state of things the filament of

_organization_ would begin to exert itself in those independent masses

which, in proportion to their bulk, exposed the greatest surface to the

action of _light_ and _heat_. This filament, after an infinite series of

ages, would begin to _ramify_, and its viviparous offspring would

diversify their forms and habits, so as to accommodate themselves to the

various _incunabula_ which Nature had prepared for them. Upon this view

of things it seems highly probable that the first effort of Nature

terminated in the production of vegetables, and that these, being

abandoned to their own _energies_, by degrees detached themselves from

the surface of the earth, and supplied themselves with wings or feet,

according as their different propensities determined them in favour of

aerial and terrestrial existence. Others, by an inherent disposition to

society and civilization, and by a stronger effort of _volition_, would

become men. These, in time, would restrict themselves to the use of

their _hind feet_; their _tails_ would gradually rub off by sitting in

their caves or huts, as soon as they arrived at a domesticated state;

they would invent _language_ and the use of _fire_, with our present and

hitherto imperfect system of _society_. In the meanwhile, the _Fuci_ and

_Algæ_, with the _Corallines_ and _Madrepores_, would transform

themselves into _fish_, and would gradually populate all the submarine

portion of the globe.

Footnote 214:

Ver. 46. _Trochais_—The Nymph of the Wheel, supposed to be in love with

Smoke-Jack.

Footnote 215:

Ver. 56. _The conscious fire_—The sylphs and genii of the different

elements have a variety of innocent occupations assigned them; those of

fire are supposed to divert themselves with writing _Kunkel_ in

phosphorus.—See _Economy of Vegetation_:

“Or mark, with shining letters, Kunkel’s name

In the pale _phosphor’s_ self-consuming flame”.

Footnote 216:

Ver. 68. _Listening ears_—Listening, and therefore peculiarly suited to

a pair of diamond ear-rings. See the description of Nebuchadnezzar in

his transformed state—

“Nor flattery’s self can pierce his _pendent ears_”.

In poetical diction, a person is said to “_breathe the_ BLUE _air_,” and

to “_drink the_ HOARSE _wave_!”—not that the colour of the sky or the

noise of the water has any reference to drinking or breathing, but

because the poet obtains the advantage of thus describing his subject

under a _double relation_, in the same manner in which material objects

present themselves to our different senses at the same time.

Footnote 217:

Ver. 73. _Cock-tailed mice_—Coctilibus Muris. _Ovid._—There is reason to

believe that the _murine_, or _mouse_ species, were anciently much more

numerous than at the present day. It appears from the sequel of the

line, that Semiramis surrounded the city of Babylon with a number of

these animals.

_Dicitur altam

Coctilibus Muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem._

It is not easy at present to form any conjecture with respect to the

end, whether of ornament or defence, which they could be supposed to

answer. I should be inclined to believe, that in this instance the mice

were dead, and that so vast a collection of them must have been

furnished by way of tribute, to free the country from these destructive

animals. This superabundance of the _murine_ race must have been owing

to their immense fecundity, and to the comparatively tardy reproduction

of the _feline_ species. The traces of this disproportion are to be

found in the early history of every country.—The ancient laws of Wales

estimate a cat at the price of as much corn as would be sufficient to

cover her, if she were suspended by the tail with her fore-feet touching

the ground.—See Howel Dha.—In Germany, it is recorded that an army of

rats, a larger animal of the mus tribe, was employed as the ministers of

divine vengeance against a feudal tyrant; and the commercial legend of

our own Whittington might probably be traced to an equally authentic

origin.

Footnote 218:

Ver. 76. _Rectangle_—“A figure which has one angle, or more, of ninety

degrees”. _Johnson’s Dictionary._—It here means a right-angled triangle,

which is therefore incapable of having more than one angle of ninety

degrees, but which may, according to our author’s _Prosopopœia_, be

supposed to be in love with three, or any greater number of nymphs.

Footnote 219:

Ver. 80. _Plato’s and Menecmus’ lore_—Proclus attributes the discovery

of the conic sections to Plato, but obscurely. Eratosthenes seems to

adjudge it to Menecmus. “_Neque Menecmeos necesse erit in cono secare

ternarios._” (Vide _Montucla_.) From Greece they were carried to

Alexandria, where (according to our author’s beautiful fiction)

_Rectangle_ either did or might learn magic.

Footnote 220:

Ver. 86. _Zatanai_—Supposed to be the same with Satan.—Vide the _New

Arabian Nights_, translated by Cazotte, author of “_Le Diable

amoureux_”.

Footnote 221:

Ver. 87. _Gins_—the Eastern name for Genii.—Vide _Tales of ditto_.

Footnote 222:

Ver. 87. _Dom-Daniel_—a submarine palace near Tunis, where Zatanai

usually held his court.—Vide _New Arabian Nights_.

Footnote 223:

Ver. 88. _Sulphur_—A substance which, when cold, reflects the yellow

rays, and is therefore said to be yellow. When raised to a temperature

at which it _attracts oxygene_ (a process usually called _burning_), it

emits a blue flame. This may be beautifully exemplified, and at a

moderate expense, by igniting those _fasciculi_ of brimstone _matches_,

frequently sold (so frequently, indeed, as to form one of the London

cries) by women of an advanced age, in this metropolis. They will be

found to yield an _azure_, or blue light.

Footnote 224:

Ver. 90. _Caf_—the Indian _Caucasus_.—Vide _Bailly’s Lettres sur

l’Atlantide_, in which he proves that this was the native country of Gog

and Magog (now resident in Guildhall), as well as of the Peris, or

fairies, of the Asiatic romances.

Footnote 225:

Ver. 91. _Judæa’s fabled king_—Mr. HIGGINS does not mean to deny that

Solomon was really king of Judæa. The epithet _fabled_ applies to that

empire over the Genii, which the retrospective generosity of the Arabian

fabulists has bestowed upon this monarch.

Footnote 226:

Ver. 96. _Young volcanoes_—The genesis of burning mountains was never,

till lately, well explained. Those with which we are best acquainted are

certainly not viviparous; it is therefore probable, that there exists,

in the centre of the earth, a considerable reservoir of their eggs,

which, during the obstetrical convulsions of general earthquakes,

produce new volcanoes.

Footnote 227:

Ver. 100. _Far-extended heel_—The personification of _Rectangle_,

besides answering a poetical purpose, was necessary to illustrate Mr.

HIGGINS’S philosophical opinions. The ancient mathematicians conceived

that a cone was generated by the revolution of a triangle; but this, as

our author justly observes, would be impossible, without supposing in

the triangle that _expansive nisus_, discovered by Blumenbach, and

improved by Darwin, which is peculiar to animated matter, and which

alone explains the whole mystery of organization. Our enchanter sits on

the ground, with his heels stretched out, his head erect, his wand (or

_hypothenuse_) resting on the extremities of his feet and the tip of his

nose (as is finely expressed in the engraving in the original work), and

revolves upon his bottom with great velocity. His skin, by magical

means, has acquired an indefinite power of expansion, as well as that of

assimilating to itself all the _azote_ of the air, which he decomposes

by expiration from his lungs—an immense quantity, and which, in our

present unimproved and uneconomical mode of breathing, is quite thrown

away. By this simple process the transformation is very naturally

accounted for.

Footnote 228:

Ver. 104. _Phœnician Cone_—It was under this shape that Venus was

worshipped in Phœnicia. Mr. HIGGINS thinks it was the _Venus Urania_, or

Celestial Venus; in allusion to which, the Phœnician grocers first

introduced the practice of preserving sugar-loaves in blue or

sky-coloured paper—he also believes that the _conical_ form of the

original grenadier’s cap was typical of the loves of Mars and Venus.

Footnote 229:

Ver. 107. _Parabola_—The curve described by projectiles of all sorts, as

bombs, shuttlecocks, &c.

Footnote 230:

Ver. 115. Hyperbola—Not figuratively speaking, as in rhetoric, but

mathematically; and therefore blue-eyed.

Footnote 231:

Ver. 122. _Asymptotes_—“Lines, which though they may approach still

nearer together till they are nearer than the least assignable distance,

yet being still produced infinitely, will never meet”.—_Johnson’s

Dictionary._

Footnote 232:

Ver. 124. _Ellipsis_—A curve, the revolution of which on its axis

produces an ellipsoid, or solid resembling the eggs of birds,

particularly those of the gallinaceous tribe. _Ellipsis_ is the only

curve that embraces the cone.

Footnote 233:

[“Romantic Ashbourn.” The road down Ashbourn Hill winds in front of

Ashbourn Hall, then the residence of the Rev. Mr. Leigh, who married a

relation of CANNING’S, and to whom the latter was a frequent visitor. A

clever parodical application of this couplet was made by O’CONNELL to

LORD STANLEY’S section of a party of six, who wished to hold the balance

of power, during PEEL’S short administration in 1835. He altered it to

“The Derby Dilly,” carrying _six_ insides.—See the Greville Memoirs,

vol. 3, pp. 236, &c.—ED.]

Footnote 234:

[Thus sings Dr. Darwin of the Loves of the Plants:

“_Two_ brother swains, of Collins’ gentle name,

The same their features, and their forms the same,

With rival love for fair Collinia sigh,

Knit the dark brow, and roll the unsteady eye.

With sweet concern the pitying beauty mourns,

And soothes with smiles the jealous pair by turns.

“Woo’d with long care, Curcuma, cold and shy,

Meets her fond husband with averted eye.

_Four_ beardless youths the obdurate beauty move

With soft attentions of Platonic love.”—ED.]

Footnote 235:

[BRISSOT was one of the first movers in the outbreak of the French

Revolution, and with twenty other Girondists suffered death under the

guillotine, October 30, 1793. He was one of the most virtuous as well as

most accomplished _littérateurs_ of the time.—ED.]

Footnote 236:

Such was the end of these worthies. They were found starved to death in

a cave in Languedoc. Vide _Barrère’s Rep._

[CHARLES BARBAROUX was one of the most distinguished and energetic of

the Girondists. As he opposed the party of Marat and Robespierre, he

was, in 1793, proscribed as a Royalist and an enemy of the Republic. He

wandered about the country, hiding himself as he best could for thirteen

months, when he was taken, and perished by the guillotine, June 25,

1794.—ED.]

[JÉROME PÉTION DE VILLENEUVE was a prominent member of the Jacobin Club,

and a great ally of Robespierre. Being elected MAIRE DE PARIS in

Bailly’s stead, he encouraged the demonstrations of the lowest classes,

and the arming of the populace. He then joined the Girondists. On their

defeat by the army of the Convention, he fled in July, 1793, into

Bretagne. A short time after the corpses of himself and Buzot were found

in a corn-field near St. Emilion, partly devoured by wolves. They were

supposed to have died by their own hands. He was extremely virtuous in

all his domestic relations; but his public career shows him to have been

weak, shallow, ostentatious, and vain.—ED.]

Footnote 237:

See LOUVET’s _Récit de mes Périls_.

Footnote 238:

This philosophic coxcomb is the idol of those who admire the French

Revolution _up to a certain point_.

Footnote 239:

This little anecdote is not generally known.—It is strikingly

pathetic.—GARAT has recorded this circumstance in a very eloquent

sentence—“O toi, qui arrêtas la main avec laquelle tu traçais le progrès

de l’esprit humain, pour porter sur tes lèvres le breuvage mortel,

d’autres pensées et d’autres sentimens out incliné ta volonté vers le

tombeau, dans ta dernière délibération.—(GARAT, it seems, did not choose

to poison _himself_.)—Tu as rendu à la liberté éternelle ton âme

Républicaine par ce poison qui avait été partagé entre nous comme le

pain entre des frères.”

“Oh you, who stayed the hand with which you were tracing the progress of

the human mind, to carry the mortal mixture to your lips—it was by other

thoughts and other sentiments that your judgment was at length

determined in that last deliberated act. You restored your republican

spirit to an eternal freedom, by that poison which we had shared

together, like a morsel of bread between two brothers.”

Footnote 240:

_Isosceles_—An equi-crural triangle—It is represented as a _Giant_,

because Mr. HIGGINS says he has observed that procerity is much promoted

by the equal length of the legs, more especially when they are long

legs.

Footnote 241:

_Mathesis_—The doctrine of mathematics—Pope calls her _mad

Mathesis_.—Vide _Johnson’s Dictionary_.

Footnote 242:

_Hallucinating_—The disorder with which Mathesis is affected is a

disease of _increased volition_, called _erotomania_, or _sentimental

love_. It is the fourth species of the second genus of the first order

and third class; in consequence of which, Mr. Hackman shot Miss Reay in

the lobby of the playhouse.—Vide _Zoonomia_, vol. ii., pp. 363, 365.

Footnote 243:

_Galvanic fires_—Dr. Galvani is a celebrated philosopher at Turin. He

has proved that the electric fluid is the proximate cause of nervous

sensibility; and Mr. HIGGINS is of opinion that by means of this

discovery, the sphere of our disagreeable sensations may be, in future,

considerably enlarged. “Since dead frogs (says he) are awakened by this

fluid to such a degree of posthumous sensibility as to jump out of the

glass in which they are placed, why not men, who are sometimes so much

more sensible when alive? And if so, why not employ this new stimulus to

deter mankind from dying (which they so pertinaciously continue to do)

of various old-fashioned diseases, notwithstanding all the brilliant

discoveries of modern philosophy, and the example of Count Cagliostro?”

Footnote 244:

_Internal Angles_, _&c._—This is an exact versification of Euclid’s

fifth theorem.—Vide _Euclid in loco_.

Footnote 245:

_Asses-Bridge_—Pons Asinorum—The name usually given to the

before-mentioned theorem—though, as Mr. Higgins thinks, absurdly. He

says, that having frequently watched companies of asses during their

passage of a bridge, he never discovered in them any symptoms of

geometrical instinct upon the occasion. But he thinks that with Spanish

asses, which are much larger (vide _Townsend’s Travels through Spain_),

the case may possibly be different.

Footnote 246:

_Fare_—A person, or a number of persons, conveyed in a hired vehicle by

land or water.

Footnote 247:

_Badged boatman_—Boatmen sometimes wear a _badge_, to distinguish them,

especially those who belong to the Watermen’s Company.

Footnote 248:

_Alp_, or _Alps_—A ridge of mountains which separate the North of Italy

from the South of Germany. They are evidently primeval and volcanic,

consisting of granite, toadstone, and basalt, and several other

substances, containing animal and vegetable recrements, and affording

numberless undoubted proofs of the infinite antiquity of the earth, and

of the consequent falsehood of the Mosaic chronology.

Footnote 249:

_Turn the stiff screw_, &c.—The harmony and imagery of these lines are

imperfectly imitated from the following exquisite passage in the

_Economy of Vegetation_:

“Gnomes, as you now dissect, with hammers fine,

The granite rock, the noduled flint calcine;

Grind with strong arm the circling Chertz betwixt,

Your pure Ka—o—lins and Pe—tunt—ses mixt.”

_Canto_ ii. line 297.

Footnote 250:

[_The windmill_, &c.—This line affords a striking instance of the sound

conveying an echo to the sense. I would defy the most unfeeling reader

to repeat it over without accompanying it by some corresponding gesture

imitative of the action described.—EDITOR.]

Footnote 251:

_Sweet Enthusiast_, &c.—A term usually applied in allegoric or technical

poetry to any person or object to which no other qualifications can be

assigned.—_Chambers’s Dictionary._

Footnote 252:

[ANNE PLUMPTRE, who made herself known as one of the first introducers

of German plays, said: “_People are talking about an Invasion. I am not

afraid of an Invasion; I believe the country would be all the happier

if_ BUONAPARTE _were to effect a landing and overturn the Government. He

would destroy the Church and the Aristocracy, and his government would

be better than the one we have_”. Crabb Robinson’s _Diary_ (1810), i.

298.—ED.]

Footnote 253:

_The smiling infant_—Infancy is particularly interested in the diffusion

of the new principles. See the “Bloody Buoy”. See also the following

description and prediction:

“Here Time’s huge fingers grasp his giant mace,

And dash proud Superstition from her base;

Rend her strong towers and gorgeous fanes, &c.

· · · · ·

While each light moment, as it passes by,

With feathery foot and pleasure-twinkling eye,

Feeds from its baby-hand with many a kiss

The callow-nestlings of domestic bliss.”—_Botanic Garden._

Footnote 254:

_The monster’s back_—Le Monstre Pitt, l’ennemi du genre humain. _See

Debates of the legislators of the Great Nation, passim._

Footnote 255:

Atque illud prono præceps agitur decursus.—_Catullus._

Footnote 256:

STONE.—Better known by the name of WILLIAMS.

Footnote 257:

We decline printing this rhyme at length, from obvious reasons of

delicacy; at the same time that it is so accurate a translation of

_pictis puppibus_, that we know not how to suppress it, without doing

the utmost injustice to the general spirit of the poem.

Footnote 258:

[Jean Bon St. André, deputy to the Convention for the Department of Lot,

during the reign of Terror, rivalled Marat and Robespierre in cruelty.

Having been appointed to remodel the Republican Navy, he was present at

the action of June 1, 1794, in which he shewed excessive cowardice. He

was afterwards Consul at Smyrna, where he was arrested by the Turks, but

released on the peace. Napoleon subsequently commissioned him to

organise the four departments of the Rhine, in which he succeeded. He

was created a Baron, a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and Prefect of

Maure. He died in 1813 of a contagious malady caught while performing

charitable offices for the sick!—ED.]

Footnote 259:

Henry VI. crowned at Paris.

Footnote 260:

The Black Prince.

Footnote 261:

The Spanish Armada.

Footnote 262:

Oliver Cromwell.

Footnote 263:

Louis XIV.

Footnote 264:

William III.

Footnote 265:

Blenheim, Ramilies, &c., &c.

Footnote 266:

American War.

Footnote 267:

Lord Heathfield.

Footnote 268:

[Parodied from Pope’s Prologue to _Cato_.—ED.]

Footnote 269:

See _The Robbers_, a German tragedy [by SCHILLER], in which robbery is

put in so fascinating a light, that the whole of a German University

went upon the highway in consequence of it.

Footnote 270:

See _Cabal and Love_, a German tragedy [by SCHILLER], very severe

against prime ministers and reigning Dukes of Brunswick. This admirable

performance very judiciously reprobates the hire of German troops for

the _American_ war in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a practice which

would undoubtedly have been highly discreditable to that wise and

patriotic princess, not to say wholly unnecessary—there being no

American war at that particular time.

Footnote 271:

See _The Stranger; or, Reformed Housekeeper_, in which the former of

these morals is beautifully illustrated; and _Stella_, a genteel German

comedy [by GOETHE], which ends with placing a man _bodkin_ between _two

wives_, like _Thames_ between his _two banks_ in _The Critic_. Nothing

can be more edifying than these two dramas. I am shocked to hear that

there are some people who think them ridiculous.

Footnote 272:

These are the warnings very properly given to readers, to beware how

they judge of what they cannot understand. Thus if the translation runs,

“_lightning of my soul, fulgation of angels, sulphur of hell_,” we

should recollect that this is not coarse or strange in the German

language when applied by a lover to his mistress; but the English has

nothing precisely parallel to the original Mulychause Archangelichen,

which means rather _emanation of the archangelic nature_—or to

Smellmynkern Vankelfer, which, if literally rendered, would signify

_made of stuff of the same odour whereof the devil makes flambeaux_. See

Schüttenbrüch on the German idiom.

Footnote 273:

A manifest error, since it appears from the Waiter’s conversation (p.

211) that Rogero was not doomed to starve on water-gruel, but on

pease-soup, which is a much better thing. Possibly the length of

Rogero’s imprisonment had impaired his memory; or he might wish to make

things appear worse than they really were; which is very natural, I

think, in such a case as this poor unfortunate gentleman’s.—_Printer’s

Devil._

Footnote 274:

Vide _The Stranger_.

Footnote 275:

_Lovers’ Vows._

Footnote 276:

This is an excellent joke in German; the point and spirit of which

is but ill-_Rendered_ in a translation. A NODDY, the reader will

observe, has two significations, the one a _knave at All-fours_, the

other a _fool_ or _booby_. See the translation by Mr. Render of

_Count Benyowsky, or the Conspiracy of Kamschatka_, a German

Tragi-Comi-Comi-Tragedy, where the play opens with a scene of a game

at chess (from which the whole of this scene is copied), and a joke

of the same point, and merriment about pawns, _i.e._, boors being a

_match_ for kings.

Footnote 277:

This word in the original is strictly _fellow-lodgers_—“_Co-occupants of

the same room, in a house let out at a small rent by the week_”. There

is no single word in English which expresses so complicated a relation,

except perhaps the cant term of _chum_, formerly in use in our

Universities.

Footnote 278:

[The above song is a parody on that pathetic one—given below—written by

Sheridan, and introduced into Kotzebue’s drama of _The Stranger_, to be

overheard by the latter. It was sung by Mrs. Bland—as Annetta—to a

melody by the Duchess of Devonshire, in a manner, it is said, that

thrilled every heart.

“I have a silent sorrow here,

A grief I’ll ne’er impart;

It breathes no sigh, it sheds no tear,

But it consumes my heart.

This cherish’d woe, this lov’d despair,

My lot for ever be;

So my soul’s lord, the pangs I bear

Be never known by thee!

“And when pale characters of death

Shall mark this alter’d cheek;

When my poor wasted trembling breath

My life’s last hope would speak;

I shall not raise my eyes to heaven,

Nor mercy ask for me,

My soul despairs to be forgiv’n,

Unpardon’d, love, by thee!”—ED.]

Footnote 279:

See _Count Benyowsky_; where Crustiew, an old gentleman of much

sagacity, talks the following nonsense:

Crustiew [_with youthful energy, and an air of secrecy and confidence_].

“To fly, to fly, to the isles of Marian—the island of Tinian—a

terrestrial paradise. Free—free—a mild climate—a new-created

sun—wholesome fruits—harmless inhabitants—and liberty—tranquillity.”

Footnote 280:

See _Count Benyowsky_, as before.

Footnote 281:

See _Count Benyowsky_.

Footnote 282:

See _Count Benyowsky_ again; from which play this and the preceding

references are taken word for word. We acquit the Germans of such

reprobate silly stuff. It must be the translator’s.

Footnote 283:

We believe this song to be copied, with a small variation in metre and

meaning, from a song in _Count Benyowsky; or, the Conspiracy of

Kamschatka_, where the conspirators join in a chorus, _for fear of being

overheard_.

[Footnote:

AD SIRMIONEM PENINSULAM.

[284]Peninsularum Sirmio, Insularumque,

Ocelle! quascunque in liquentibus stagnis,

Marique vasto fert uterque Neptunus;

[285]Quam te libenter, quamque lætus inviso,

Vix mi ipse credens Thyniam, atque Bithynos

Liquisse campos,[286] et videre te in tuto.

[287]O quid solutis est beatius curis

Cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino

Labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum.

[288]Desideratoque acquiescimus lecto?

Hoc est, quod unum est pro laboribus tantis.

[289]Salve! O venusta Sirmio! atque hero gaude;

Gaudete! vosque Lydiæ lacus undæ;

Ridete[290] quicquid est domi cachinnorum!

Footnote 291:

[The following _Letter_ probably alludes to the _Association for

promoting the Discovery of the interior parts of Africa_, of which Sir

John Sinclair was the presiding genius. “The result of their labours,”

says Hugh Murray, in his Account of African Discoveries, “has thrown new

lustre on the British name, and widely extended the boundaries of human

knowledge.”—ED.]

Footnote 292:

[Buonaparte’s Bulletin.—ED.]

Footnote 293:

[SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, the celebrated author of the _History of the Public

Revenue, the Statistical Account of Scotland_, and many useful

agricultural and other works.—ED.]

Footnote 294:

[Dr. Parr’s noted Latin Preface to his edition of _Bellendenus de

Statu_. T. De Quincey, in his famous dissection of Dr. Parr and his

writings, beseeches the “gentle reader” of Bellendenus to pronounce the

penultimate syllable _short_, and _not long_, as is usually done.—ED.]

Footnote 295:

[_I.e._, from BOB ADAIR, _a dull fool_, to NICHOLL [Nicholls], _a

wretched goose_.—ED.]

Footnote 296:

[Sir Geo. Aug. Wm. Shuckburgh, M.P., F.R.S., author of papers in the

Phil. Trans.—ED.]

Footnote 297:

[Sir John Sinclair.—ED.]

Footnote 298:

[The following are Dr. Darwin’s instructions for the _transportation of

Ice Islands_:—

“There, Nymphs! alight, array your dazzling powers,

With sudden march alarm the torpid hours;

On ice-built isles expand a thousand sails,

Hinge the strong helms, and catch the frozen gales.

The winged rocks to feverish climates guide,

Where fainting zephyrs pant upon the tide;

Pass, where to Ceuta Calpé’s thunder roars,

And answering echoes shake the kindred shores;

Pass, where with palmy plumes, Canary smiles,

And in her silver girdle binds her isles;

Onward, where Niger’s dusky Naiad laves

A thousand kingdoms with prolific waves,

Or leads o’er golden sands her threefold train

In steamy channels to the fervid main;

While swarthy nations crowd the sultry coast,

Drink the fresh breeze, and hail the floating frost:

Nymphs! veil’d in mist, the melting treasure steer,

And cool with arctic snows the tropic year.”

“If the nations who inhabit this hemisphere of the globe, instead of

destroying their seamen and exhausting their wealth in unnecessary wars,

could be induced to unite their labours to navigate these immense masses

of ice into the more southern oceans, two great advantages would result

to mankind, the tropic countries would be much cooled by their solution,

and our winters in this altitude would be rendered much milder, for

perhaps a century or two, till the masses of ice became again

enormous.”—ED.]

* * * * *

[DR. THOMAS BEDDOES, born at Shiffnal in 1760, was a scientific

Physician far in advance of his age; his _Popular Essay on Consumption_,

1779, his tracts entitled _Hygeia_, 1801, &c., may still be studied with

profit. He paid particular attention to the medical use of the

permanently Elastic Fluids, and avows that as “one rash experiment on a

patient would demolish a plan on which the hope of relieving mankind

from much of their misery is founded,” he made preliminary experiments

on himself in the case of _Oxygene_ and _Consumption_, as alluded to in

the text, _À propos_ of the artificial distribution of disease, it may

be mentioned that in _The Batchelor_, p. 189, is a method for

“discharging the Plague”.

He wrote much on the political topics of the day, always taking the

liberal side, and attacking PITT with great virulence and eloquence. The

principles of the French Revolution were at first advocated by him with

the utmost enthusiasm, but he was soon disgusted by the excesses

committed. He was a student of German literature, and much admired by

Immanuel Kant. He was also an intimate friend of Darwin’s, whose

political opinions he shared, and whose works were intrusted to his

revision in manuscript. A few months after the publication of Darwin’s

_Botanic Garden_, its magnificent imagery and harmonious versification

inspired some admirers to say that the style of this work was a style

_sui generis_, and that it defied imitation. Dr. Beddoes maintained an

opposite opinion. Much as he admired the poem in question, he thought

that the Darwinian structure of verse might be imitated by a writer

possessed of inferior poetical powers, and in a few days he produced in

the same circle part of the manuscript of _Alexander’s Expedition to the

Indian Ocean_ as an unpublished work of the author of the _Botanic

Garden_. The deception completely succeeded, and some enthusiastic

admirers of the latter work pointed out with triumph “certain passages

as proofs of the position that the author in his happier efforts defied

imitation”. Beddoes’s success was the more extraordinary, as in the

“Introduction” to a considerable extract from his poem which he printed

in the _Annual Anthology_ for 1796, he states that he had never before

written twice as many lines of verse as the composition under notice

consisted of.

As BEDDOES’S imitation of DARWIN is seldom met with, it may not be out

of character in a work of the present nature to give a specimen of it.

AN IMITATION OF DARWIN.

“Now the new Lord of Persia’s wide domain,

Down fierce Hydaspes seeks the Indian main;

High on the leading prow the Conqueror stands,

Eyes purer skies and marks diverging strands.

A thousand sails attendant catch the wind,

And yet a thousand press the wave behind;

Two veteran hosts, outstretched on either hand,

Wide wave their wings and sweep the trembling land.

Each serried phalanx Terror stalks beside,

And shakes o’er crested helms his blazing pride;

While Victory, still companion of his way,

Sounds her loud trump and flaunts her banners gay.”

Further on, the Hero’s attention is attracted to the surrounding

landscape, which he thus apostrophizes:—

“Ye fields for ever fair! Thou mighty stream!

Bright regions! blessed beyond the muse’s dream!

Thou fruitful womb of ever-teeming earth!

Ye fostering skies that rear each beauteous birth!

Trees, that aloft uprear your stately height,

Whose sombrous branches shed a noontide night!

Groves, that for ever wear the smile of spring!

Gay birds that wave the many-tinted wing!

Of reptiles, fishes, brutes, stupendous forms!

And ye, of nameless insects glittering swarms!

Sons of soft toil, whose shuttle beauty throws,

Whose tints the Graces’ earnest hands dispose,

Whose guileless bosom Care avoid and Crime,

Gay as your groves, and cloudless as your clime!

Primæval piles, that rose in massive pride,

Ere Western Art her first faint efforts tried!

Ye Brachmans old, whom purer æras bore,

Ere Western Science lisped her infant lore!

How will your wonders flush the Athenian sage?

How ray with glory my historic page?”

In a letter to Hannah More, Horace Walpole says: “The poetry is most

admirable; the similes beautiful, fine, and sometimes sublime; the

author is a great poet, and could raise the passions, and possesses all

the requisites of the art.” In another lively epistle to the Misses

Berry (28th April, 1789), he says: “I send you the most delicious poem

upon earth. I can read this Second Part over and over again for ever;

for though it is so excellent, it is impossible to remember anything so

disjointed, except you consider it as a collection of short enchanting

Poems. ‘The Triumph of Flora,’ beginning at the fifty-ninth line, is

most beautifully and enchantingly imagined, and the twelve verses that

by miracle describe and comprehend the creation of the universe out of

chaos, are, in my opinion, the most sublime passage in any author, or in

any of the few languages with which I am acquainted.”—ED.]

[Darwin was acquainted with Rousseau. He was a man of great bodily and

intellectual vigour, irascible and imperious, a strong advocate of

temperance, and for many years an almost total abstainer. His

professional fame was such that George III. said he would take him as

his physician if he would come to London. He formed a botanical garden

at Lichfield, about which Miss Seward wrote some verses which suggested

his _Botanic Garden_. The _Loves of the Plants_ had a singular success,

and was praised in a joint poem by Cowper and Hayley. It was translated

into French, Portuguese, and Italian. Darwin himself is said by

Edgeworth to have admired the parody (_Monthly Magazine_, June and

Sept., 1802, p. 115). Coleridge (_Biographia Literaria_, 1817, p. 19)

speaks of the impression which it made even upon good judges.

In the _Anti-Jacobin Review_, vol. i. (1799), pp. 718–721, appear some

Latin verses [by Ben. Frere] which are thus introduced: “Among the

copies of verses which are annually produced as a public exercise called

TRIPOS, at Cambridge, we have selected the following as a beautiful

composition. The subject is Dr. BEDDOES’S _Factitious Air applied to the

Case of Consumptions_.”—ED.]

Footnote 299:

[This piece has not hitherto formed a portion of the editions of _The

Poetry_.—ED.]

Footnote 300:

[This spirited song refers to LORD MOIRA’S motion in the Irish House of

Commons, 19th of February, 1798, for an address to the Lord Lieutenant,

complaining of the excesses committed by the government authorities,

civil and military, and recommending that conciliatory measures should

be devised. He took occasion to praise the loyalty of his own tenants at

BALLYNAHINCH; but, unfortunately for him, shortly after, an insurrection

broke out at this very place, and a large number of pikes were found

secreted by the peasantry in his own woods. On June 12, General Nugent

attacked the rebels, 5000 strong, commanded by Munro, near Ballynahinch,

and routed them with great slaughter. This victory quelled the rebellion

in the north.—ED.]

Footnote 301:

[The EARL OF MOIRA was a gallant soldier, an eloquent orator, and a

sagacious as well as honest statesman. Having early in life achieved

much reputation for skill and courage during the American War, and

afterwards in Flanders, he subsequently turned his attention to

politics, particularly those of Ireland, his native country, which drew

on him repeated attacks from the Ministerial press. In 1812 he was

appointed Governor-General of India, and created MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. He

was the patron of THOMAS MOORE on his arrival in London. He died in

1825.—ED.]

Footnote 302:

_Hibernice pro_ French.

Footnote 303:

[A quite literal translation of this poem would be out of the question.

The fact is, the sentiment is superior to the execution. CANNING could

write much better if he chose. He might wish to fabricate an

ultra-patriotic schoolboy, and so wrote like one; but it is certain that

as a schoolboy he has written far better things. Either he wrote in a

hurry, or cooked up a school exercise; the introduction looks like it,

and the Latin Prose is as prosy as the verse is common-place.—A. F. W.]

Footnote 304:

The Isle of Wight.

Footnote 305:

[This valedictory Address, and the portion entitled FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE

which follows the Poem, have never hitherto formed a part of editions of

the Poetry.—ED.]

Footnote 306:

We see with some pleasure, that what we anticipated is beginning to take

effect. A NEW MAGAZINE and REVIEW is already advertised, under the same

Name which We had adopted, and professedly on the same Principles. We

have no knowledge of the undertaking, but from report, which speaks

favourably of it; but We heartily wish this, and every work of a similar

kind, a full and happy success.

Footnote 307:

Published by HÉBERT.

Footnote 308:

Published by MARAT.

Footnote 309:

See the Remarks on the Treaties of _Pilnitz_ and _Pavia_, &c.; on TATE’S

Manifesto; on Neutral Navigation; on the Treatment of Prisoners; on the

Continuation of the War for a Spice Island, &c., &c., &c.

Footnote 310:

See the motto prefixed to _The Baviad_, a satirical poem, by W. Gifford,

Esq., unquestionably the best of its kind since the days of Pope:

Nunc in ovilia

Mox in reluctantes dracones.

Footnote 311:

The author of _The Pursuits of Literature_. [Now known to be T. J.

Mathias, editor of various Italian works, and teacher of Italian to the

family of K. George III.—ED.]

Footnote 312:

The Manes of Vercengetorix are supposed to have been very much gratified

by the invasion of Italy and the plunder of the Roman territory. The

defeat of the Burgundians is to be revenged on the modern inhabitants of

Switzerland. But the Swiss were a free people, defending their liberties

against a tyrant. Moreover, they happened to be in alliance with France

at the time. No matter; _Burgundy_ is since become a province of France,

and the French have acquired a property in all the injuries and defeats

which the people of that country may have sustained, together with a

title to revenge and retaliation to be exercised in the present or any

future centuries, as may be found most glorious and convenient.

Footnote 313:

The speech of GENERAL FITZPATRICK, on his motion for an Address of the

House of Commons to the Emperor of Germany, to demand the deliverance of

M. LA FAYETTE from the prison of Olmütz, was one of the most dainty

pieces of oratory that ever drew tears from a crowded gallery, and the

clerks at the table. It was really quite moving to hear the General talk

of religion, conjugal fidelity, and “such branches of learning”. There

were a few who laughed indeed, but that was thought hard-hearted, and

immoral, and irreligious, and God knows what. Crying was the _order of

the day_. Why will not the OPPOSITION try these topics again? LA FAYETTE

indeed (the more’s the pity) is out. But why not a motion for a general

gaol-delivery of all state prisoners throughout Europe? [This was

FITZPATRICK’S master-speech, and extorted the applauses of PITT himself,

who nevertheless resisted its arguments. BURKE said that LA FAYETTE,

“instead of being termed an ‘illustrious exile,’ ought always to be

considered, as he now was, an outcast of society; who, having no talents

to guide or influence the storm which he had laboured to raise, fled

like a dastard from the bloodshed and massacre in which he had involved

so many thousands of unoffending persons and families”.—ED.]

Footnote 314:

“Now all the while did not this stony-hearted CUR shed one

tear.”—_Merchant of Venice._ [JOHN CURWEN—member for the city of

Carlisle, from 1786 till 1812. He was a skilful agriculturist, and his

operations may be said to have given a new character to the business of

farming. He died in 1828, aged 73.—ED.]

Footnote 315:

See page 72, in the note, for a theft more shameless, and an application

of the thing stolen more stupid, than any of those recorded of Irish

story-tellers by Joe Miller.

Footnote 316:

See _Récit de mes Périls_, by LOUVET; _Mémoires d’un Détenu_, by

RIOUFFE, &c. The avidity with which these productions were read, might,

we should hope, be accounted for upon principles of mere curiosity (as

we read the _Newgate Calendar_, and the history of the _Buccaneers_),

not from any interest in favour of a set of wretches infinitely more

detestable than all the robbers and pirates that ever existed.

Footnote 317:

Every lover of modern French literature, and admirer of modern French

characters, must remember the rout which was made about LOUVET’S death

and LODOISKA’S poison. The attempt at self-slaughter, and the process of

the recovery, the arsenic and the castor oil, were served up in daily

messes from the French papers, till the public absolutely sickened.

Footnote 318:

_Faciles Napeæ._

Footnote 319:

See Anthologia, _passim_.

Footnote 320:

Such was the strictness of this minister’s principles, that he

positively refused to go to Court in shoe-buckles. See Dumouriez’s

_Memoirs_.

Footnote 321:

See MADAME ROLAND’S _Memoirs_.—“_Rigide Ministre_,” _Brissot à ses

Commettans_.

Footnote 322:

The “pumple” nosed attorney of Furnival’s Inn.—“Congreve’s _Way of the

World_.” [... When you liv’d with honest _Pumple Nose_, the attorney of

Furnival’s Inn. Act 3, sc. 1.—ED.]

Footnote 323:

These lines contain the Secret History of QUATREMER’S deportation. He

presumed in the Council of Five Hundred to arraign MADAME DE STAEL’S

conduct, and even to hint a doubt of her sex. He was sent to _Guyana_.

The transaction naturally brings to one’s mind the dialogue between

Falstaff and Hostess Quickly in Shakespeare’s Henry IV.

_Fal._ Thou art neither fish nor flesh—a man cannot tell where to have

thee.

_Quick._ Thou art an unjust man for saying so—thou or any man knows

where to have me.

Footnote 324:

For instance, in the course of a political discussion REWBELL observed

to the EX-BISHOP [TALLEYRAND], “_that his understanding was as crooked

as his legs_”—“Vil Emigré, tu n’as pas le sens plus droit que les

pieds”—and therewith threw an ink-stand at him. It whizzed along, as we

have been informed, like the fragment of a rock from the hand of one of

Ossian’s heroes; but the wily apostate shrunk beneath the table, and the

weapon passed over him innocuous, and guiltless of his blood or brains.

Footnote 325:

See Homer’s description of Vulcan. First Iliad.

Inextinguibilis vero exoriebatur risus beatis numinibus

Ut viderunt Vulcanum per domos _ministrantem_.

Footnote 326:

_The Men without a God_—one of the new sects. Their religion is intended

to consist in the adoration of a Great Book, in which all the virtuous

actions of the society are to be entered and registered. “In times of

civil commotion they are to come forward to exhort the citizens to

unanimity, and to read them a chapter out of the Great Book. When

oppressed or proscribed, they are to retire to a burying-ground, to wrap

themselves up in their great-coats, and wait the approach of death,” &c.

Footnote 327:

The Reader is at liberty to fill up the blanks according to his own

opinion, and after the chances and changes of the times. It would be

highly unfair to hand down to posterity as followers of _Leviathan_, the

names of men who may, and probably will soon, grow ashamed of their

leader.

Footnote 328:

Though the _yeasty_ sea

Consume and swallow navigation up. _Macbeth._

[Applied to S. Whitbread, M.P., _the Brewer_.—ED.]

Footnote 329:

_i.e._ Perhaps _a member of the_ WHIG CLUB—a society that has presumed

to monopolize to itself a title to which it never had any claim, but

from the character of those who have now withdrawn themselves from it.

“_Perhaps_” signifies that _even_ the WHIG CLUB _sometimes_ rejects a

candidate whose PRINCIPLES (_risum teneatis_) it affects to disapprove.

[Referring to the secession of the DUKE OF PORTLAND and others from the

Whig Club in consequence of their not approving of all the proceedings

of Fox and his more violent adherents. SHERIDAN met with so much

opposition to his entrance into the Whig Club, that he succeeded in

getting admitted only by stratagem.—ED.]

Footnote 330:

“It is notorious that the _French Directory have newspapers in their

pay_, not only in America, but in _every_ country in Europe. That there

should exist such MERCENARY TRAITORS AS TO RECEIVE THE PAY OF REGICIDES

AND ASSASSINS is still less astonishing than that there should be found

men in the different countries, and _men of rank_, too, so base, so

degenerate, and so _foolish_, as to give encouragement to their

treasonable productions” (p. 57). The author speaks truth; there is at

least _one_ newspaper of this description in _London_, which is

encouraged—to their shame be it spoken!—by _men of rank_, and by members

of the Legislature—_Representans du Peuple Souverain!_—who even degrade

themselves so far as to associate with the profligate miscreants who

compose its inflammatory pages.—REVIEWER.

Footnote 331:

“See BACHE of 11 February, 1795.”

Footnote 332:

The reader will not be surprised to hear that this is the identical

governor who wanted a few thousands of dollars from the French minister,

FAUCHET, and who drew _secretly_ 15,000 dollars out of the Bank of

Pennsylvania!! This man brought a whole litter of _bastards_ home to his

virtuous wife. He is a shameless blackguard, a drunkard, and everything

that can be named that is vile. Such is a _republican governor_; a chief

magistrate of state, who has infinitely greater powers over life and

property than King George has!! And this I have already pointed out on

sundry occasions.

Footnote 333:

[Lord Erskine.—ED.]

Footnote 334:

[T. Moore in his early college days.—ED.]

Footnote 335:

[Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, see _Ballad_.—ED.]

Footnote 336:

[Capt. Charles Morris.—ED.]

ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Pg. 17, changed “he was expelled the House of Commons” to “he was

expelled from the House of Commons”.

2. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.

3. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.

4. Footnotes were re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the

end of the last chapter.

5. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.

6. Enclosed bold font in =equals=.

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others. · 第 10 / 10 章