even brief mention. It is easy to picture the great publisher when the
new copies first arrived, crisp and new with the smell of printers’ ink
upon them. There was no despair, no disappointment this time, but the
eager palpitation and anxiety of the parent, solicitous but equally
certain of the success of his child! A letter penned in haste to John
Wilson before ever “Maga” was seen by public eye betrays better than
any polite effusion could have done, the genuine emotion of the man.
“John Wilson, Esq.
Queen Street
October 20, 1817
My dear Sir,--As in duty bound I send you the first complete copy I
have got of the Magazine. I also beg you will do me the favor to accept
of the enclosed. It is unnecessary for me to say how much and how
deeply I am indebted to you, and I shall only add that by the success
of the Magazine (for which I shall be wholly indebted to you) I hope to
be able to offer you something more worthy of your acceptance.--I am,
dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
W. Blackwood”[98]
[98] Mrs. Oliphant: _Annals of a Publishing House_, V. i, p. 127
Mrs. Oliphant draws a pretty picture, which reveals better perhaps
than some more erudite account, the mental state of William Blackwood
the night before “Maga” was offered to the world. “He went into his
house, where all the children ... rushed out with clamor and glee to
meet their father, who, for once in his excitement, took no notice of
them, but walked straight to the drawing room, where his wife, not
excitable, sat in her household place, busy no doubt for her fine
family; and coming into the warm glow of the light, threw down the
precious Magazine at her feet. ‘There is that that will give you what
is your due--what I always wished you to have’, he said, with the
half-sobbing laugh of the great crisis. She gave him a characteristic
word, half-satirical, as was her way, not outwardly moved.... Sometimes
he called her a wet blanket when she thus damped his ardor,--but not, I
think, that night.”[99]
[99] Same
It might easily be guessed that after the sudden bursting into glory
of the October number, the same high level would be difficult to
sustain. But although subsequent numbers boast no Chaldee to convulse
or enrage the town, the popularity of “Maga” seems never again to
lag. The November number begins properly enough. The afore-mentioned
apology and explanation of the Chaldee introduced it to the watchful
waiters, impatient to ascertain what a second issue would bring forth.
The first long article, nine and a half pages, “On the Pulpit Eloquence
of Scotland”[100], very thoughtful, very serious, very earnest, in
tone, thanks God that Scotland has been blessed with the heavenly
visitation of her well loved preacher, Dr. Chalmers, and extols and
praises and appreciates the man, “like an angel in a dream”. The second
article continues the learned discussion “On the Optical Properties
of Mother-of-Pearl”[101]. The third is John Wilson’s famous review of
Byron’s “Lament of Tasso”[102], wherein says he “There is one Poem in
which he (Byron) has almost wholly laid aside all remembrance of the
darker and stormier passions; in which the tone of his spirit and his
voice at once is changed, and where he who seemed to care only for
agonies, and remorse, and despair, and death, and insanity, in all
their most appalling forms, shews that he has a heart that can feed
on the purest sympathies of our nature, and deliver itself up to the
sorrows, the sadness and the melancholy of humbler souls.”[103]
[100] _Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine_, V. ii, p. 131
[101] Ibid., V. ii, p. 140
[102] Ibid., V. ii, p. 142
[103] Ibid., V. ii, p. 143
The lighter tone again asserts itself in “Letters of An Old Bachelor,
No. 1.”[104], who waxes indignant over French opinion concerning
English ladies! He quotes a certain French writer who represents “the
dress of the English ladies” as mere imitation of the French, only
“all ridicule and exaggeration. 'Does a French lady, for instance, put
a flower in her hair--the heads of the English ladies are immediately
covered with the whole shop of a bouquetière. Does a French lady
put on a feather ... in this country--nothing but feathers is to be
seen!’ This, of course”, says the old bachelor in all earnestness, “is
all a vile slander”[105],--although he must admit having seen heads
covered with flowers, and “ladies wearing _quite as many_ feathers
as were becoming.”[106] He resents too that a French priest should
accuse English ladies of having bad teeth. “Is he ignorant”, he would
know, “that young ladies by applying to Mr. Scott, the dentist, may
be supplied with a single tooth for the small sum of two guineas,
while dowagers may be accommodated with a complete set of the _most
beautiful_ teeth, made from the tusks of the hippopotamus ... for
a very trifling consideration? In fact, it is quite astonishing,
to see the fine teeth of all our female acquaintances;... And yet
this abominable priest has the impudence to talk of bad teeth!”[107]
Besides, “what ladies of any nation”, says he, “play so charmingly the
pianoforte?”[108]
[104] Ibid., V. ii, p. 192
[105] Ibid., V. ii, p. 193
[106] Same
[107] Same
[108] Ibid., V. ii, p. 194
This little skit is followed by the second installment “On the Cockney
School of Poetry”[109],--this time that well known and scandalous
handling of Hunt’s “Story of Rimini”,--Lockhart’s again, of course.
This was the article whose turbulent discussion of the moral depravity
of Leigh Hunt threw Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, then Blackwood’s London
agents, into such a state of pious horror. They evidently feared
getting mixed up in anything livelier than antiquarian projects, and
threatened to withdraw their name. The articles on the Cockney School
went merrily on, however; and so did Baldwin and Cradock even until
July 1818. No doubt they found it a paying proposition!
[109] Same
Sir Walter Scott tried to wean both Wilson and Lockhart away from
“that mother of mischief”[110] as he termed the magazine. According to
Mr. Lang, he “disapproved (though he chuckled over it) the reckless
extravagance of juvenile satire”. But it is easy to comprehend how “a
chuckle” from Sir Walter would be the last incentive to curb their
literary abandon. Blackwood worked long for the support of Scott,
knowing well what it would mean to “Maga”. A semblance of support, at
least, he secured through his patronage of Scott’s favorite, William
Laidlaw, whose agricultural chronicles ran for a time as one of
the regular features. Scott even contributed an occasional article
himself from time to time, which, though anonymous, could not escape
recognition. Probably he never attained a very cordial affection for
the publisher, and it is well known that he disapproved of much that
“Maga” said and did, yet outwardly he professed neutrality between
_Constable’s_ and _Blackwood’s_; and in a letter to William Laidlaw,
February 1818, while “Maga” was still in its youth, his verdict is not
vindictive. “Blackwood is rather in a bad pickle just now--sent to
Coventry by the trade, as the booksellers call themselves and all about
the parody of the two beasts. Surely these gentlemen think themselves
rather formed of porcelain clay than of common potters’ ware. Dealing
in satire against all others, their own dignity suffers so cruelly from
an ill-imagined joke! If B. had good books to sell, he might set them
all at defiance. His Magazine does well and beats Constable’s; but we
will talk of this when we meet.”[111]
[110] A. Lang: _Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart_, V. i, p. 193
[111] J. G. Lockhart: _Life of Sir Walter Scott_, V. v, p. 268
Continuing the panorama, the issue for February 1818 contains three
pages of notes “To Correspondents”, of which several deserve mention:
“We have no objection to insert Z.’s Remarks on Mr. Hazlitt’s Lectures,
after our present Correspondent’s Notices are completed. If Mr. Hazlitt
uttered personalities against the Poets of the Lake School, he reviled
those who taught him all he knows about poetry.” This same issue was
then starting a series of articles entitled “Notices of a Course of
Lectures on English Poetry, by W. Hazlitt”.[112] With no personal
comment, they give the gist of Hazlitt’s lectures at the Surrey
Institution in London. The first article covers the lectures on “Poetry
in General”[113], “On Chaucer and Spenser”[114], and “On Shakespeare
and Milton”[115]. These papers ran for several months, and the promised
Remarks of Z. do not appear in any recognizable form unless the paper
“Hazlitt Cross-Questioned”[116] in the August issue (1818) is the
awaited article. It is presented in the form of eight questions, the
first: “Did you, or did you not, in the course of your late Lectures
on Poetry, infamously vituperate and sneer at the character of Mr.
Wordsworth--I mean his personal character; his genius even you dare not
deny?”[117] Again--“Do you know the difference between Milton’s Latin
and Milton’s Greek?”[118] and--“Did you not insinuate in an essay on
Shakespeare ... that Desdemona was a lewd woman, and after that dare
to publish a book on Shakespeare?”[119] The eighth question closes the
article: “Do you know the Latin for a goose?”[120]
[112] _Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine_, V. ii, p. 556
[113] Same
[114] Ibid., V. ii, p. 558
[115] Ibid., V. ii, p. 560
[116] Ibid., V. iii, p. 550
[117] Same
[118] Ibid., V. iii, p. 551
[119] Same
[120] Ibid., V. iii, p. 552
But to return to our notes “To Correspondents” in February 1818, there
remains one or two others of especial interest as illustrating the
attitude these notes assumed. For instance: “Can C. C. believe it
possible to pass off on us for an original composition, an extract
from so popular a work as Mrs. Grant’s Essay on the Superstitions
of the Highlands? May his plagiarisms, however, always be from works
equally excellent.” Another: “The foolish parody which has been sent us
is inadmissible for two reasons; first, because it is malevolent; and
secondly, because it is dull.” We are inclined to think the latter was
the decisive reason.
This same issue includes the first contribution of a man who
was henceforth to wield an important pen in the make-up of the
magazine--one William Maginn. He was a brilliant writer, and a
reckless, and contributed copiously. Some one has characterized him
as “a perfectly ideal magazinist”. The article, “Some Account of the
Life and Writings of Ensign and Adjutant Odoherty, Late of the 99th
Regiment”[121], well reveals the serio-comic tone of his work which was
so popular. Ensign Odoherty was destined to fill many a future page. In
fact, Maginn was “a find”!
[121] Ibid., V. ii, p. 562
Quoting from this article: “One evening ... I had the misfortune,
from some circumstances here unnecessary to mention, to be conveyed
for a night’s lodging to the watch-house in Dublin. I had there the
good fortune to meet Mr. Odoherty, who was likewise a prisoner. He
was seated on a wooden stool, before a table garnished with a great
number of empty pots of porter.... With all that urbanity of manner by
which he was distinguished, he asked me ‘to take a sneaker of his
swipes’.”[122] This is the Ensign Odoherty of whom it is said “Never
was there a man more imbued with the very soul and spirit of poetry....
Cut off in the bloom of his years, ere the fair and lovely blossoms of
his youth had time to ripen into the golden fruit by which the autumn
of his days would have been beautified and adorned,”[123]--etc.--“His
wine ... was never lost on him, and, towards the conclusion of the
third bottle he was always excessively amusing.”[124] The writer offers
one or two specimens of Odoherty’s poetry, among them verses to a lady
to whom he never declared himself. “This moving expression of passion”,
we are told, “appears to have produced no effect on the obdurate fair
one, who was then fifty-four years of age, with nine children, and
a large jointure, which would certainly have made a very convenient
addition to the income of Mr. Odoherty.”[125] On being appointed to
an ensigncy in the West Indies, he sailed for Jamaica with a certain
Captain Godolphin, and has left a charming poetical record of the trip,
of which the following will sufficiently impress the reader:
“The captain’s wife, she sailed with him, this circumstance I heard of her,
Her brimstone breath, ‘twas almost death to come within a yard of her;
With fiery nose, as red as rose, to tell no lies I’ll stoop,
She looked just like an admiral with a lantern at his poop.”[126]
The whole poem is not quoted, but the latter part of it gives an
account “of how Mrs. Godolphin was killed by a cannon ball lodging in
her stomach”[127], as well as other pathetic and moving events. In
describing the rest of the stanzas, however, Maginn assures us, “It
is sufficient to say they are fully equal to the preceding, and are
distinguished by the same quaintness of imagination.”[128]!
[122] Ibid., V. ii, p. 563
[123] Ibid., V. ii, p. 562
[124] Ibid., V. ii, p. 564
[125] Ibid., V. ii, p. 566
[126] Same
[127] Same
[128] Same
This article is followed by “Notices of the Acted Drama in
London”[129], the second of a series of sixteen articles which ran
regularly, January 1818 to June 1820.[130] These are decidedly
interesting,--even thrilling, if such a term may be employed,--in that
they approach with contemporary assurance names which dramatic legend
bids the present day revere:--Mr. Kean, Mrs. Siddons, Miss O’Neil,
Mr. C. Kemble, and others. The first of these articles (January 1818)
states: “our fixed opinions are few;” ... but continues further that
one of these fixed opinions is that “it would be better for all the
world if he (Shakespeare) could be thought of as a poet only--not as
a writer of acting dramas. If it had not been for Mr. Kean, we should
never have desired to see a play of Shakespeare’s acted again.”[131] As
for Desdemona,
“The gentle lady married to the Moor!--
“If we had been left to ourselves we could have fancied her anything
or anybody we liked, and have changed the fancy at our will. But, as
it is, she is nothing to us but a slim young lady, in white satin,
walking about on the boards of a Theatre.”[132] The writer of this
article furthermore reminds the public: “we shall ... always have more
to say on five minutes of genius, than on five hours of dulness.”[133]
And--“It would also be desirable for both parties, if our Edinburgh
readers would not forget that we write from London, and our London
ones that we write for Edinburgh.”[134] The second installment,
February 1818, of these dramatic notices, comes down to more specific
criticisms.--“Perhaps we were more disgusted by this revived play, the
Point of Honour, than we should otherwise have been, from being obliged
to sit, and see, and hear Miss O’Neil’s delightful voice and looks cast
away upon it.--Though they have chosen to call it a play, it is one
of that herd of Gallo-Germanic monsters which have visited us of late
years, under the name of Melo-Dramas;... It makes the ladies in the
galleries and dress-boxes shed those maudlin tears that always flow
when weak nerves are over-excited.”[135]
[129] Ibid., V. ii, p. 567
[130] Ibid., V. ii-vii
[131] Ibid., V. ii, p. 428
[132] Same
[133] Ibid., V. ii, p. 429
[134] Same
[135] Ibid., V. ii, p. 567
Needless to say, the whole tone of the magazine was not of this light
and popular kind. Much that it published was heavy, some of it dry.
All the preceding gives in general the atmosphere of what ensured
the success of the budding “Maga”. It continued in this manner, but
ever mingling the steady, the serious, the grave, with the lively
and the scandalous. For instance in the number for April 1818 we
find an article “On the Poor Laws of England; and Answers to Queries
Transmitted by a Member of Parliament, with a View to Ascertaining the
Scottish System”[136],--some four pages or more of serious discussion.
In the same number appears “Letters on the Present State of Germany,
Letter I”[137], earnestly setting forth the causes of discontent in
Germany, acknowledging into the bargain, that “the triumph of human
intellect over the sway of despotism was never made more manifest than
it has been within the last fifty years among the Germans”[138], and
concluding with a paragraph from our modern point of view more than
interesting: “If the Germans have a Revolution, it will, I hope and
trust, be calm and rational, when compared with that of the French.
Its precursors have not been, as in France, ridicule, raillery,
derision, impiety; but sober reflection, Christian confidence, and
manly resolutions, gathered and confirmed by the experience of
many sorrowful years. The sentiment is so universally diffused--so
seriously established--so irresistible in its unity,--that I confess
I should be greatly delighted, but not very much astonished, to
hear of the mighty work being accomplished almost without resistance,
and entirely without outrage.”[139] This number likewise includes an
article discussing the “Effect of Farm Overseers on the Morals of Farm
Servants”[140], another called “Dialogues on Natural Religion”[141],
and a “Hospital Scene in Portugal. (Extracted from the Journal of a
British Officer, in a series of Letters to a Friend)”[142], a graphic
description which spares no horrible detail or opportunity for the
pathetic.
[136] Ibid., V. iii, p. 9
[137] Ibid., V. iii, p. 24
[138] Ibid., V. iii, p. 25
[139] Ibid., V. iii, p. 29
[140] Ibid., V. iii, p. 83
[141] Ibid., V. iii, p. 90
[142] Ibid., V. iii, p. 87
The first article in the number for May 1818 is a brief but strictly
specific “Description of the Patent Kaleidoscope, Invented by Dr.
Brewster”[143]. This issue too presented the first of a series
entitled “The Craniologists Review”[144], No. I being a description
of Napoleon’s head, supposedly by “a learned German”, a Doctor Ulric
Sternstare, who may or may not have been a _bona fide_ personage. One
is apt to suspect, however, that these articles are by our young friend
Lockhart. “Maga” owed many a _nomme de plume_ to Lockhart’s German
travels; the subject matter, craniology, is one of his own hobbies,
as later revealed in _Peter’s Letters_; and the last sentence is more
reminiscent of the young scamp than any “learned German”! The article
concludes: “I think him a more amiable character than that vile toad
Frederick of Prussia, who had no moral faculties on the top of his
head; and he will stand a comparison with every conqueror, except
Julius Caesar, who perhaps deserved better to be loved than any other
person guilty of an equal proportion of mischief.”[145]
[143] Ibid., V. iii, p. 121
[144] Ibid., V. iii, p. 146
[145] Ibid., V. iii, p. 148
There is a gem of an article in _Blackwood’s_ for July 1818, the
fourth of a series of “Letters of Timothy Tickler to Eminent Literary
Characters. Letter IV--To the Editor of _Blackwood’s Magazine_”.[146]
Timothy Tickler was an uncle of John Wilson’s, a Mr. Robert Sym;
but it is doubtful whether Robert Sym was the author of many, if
any, of the compositions laid at the door of the venerable Timothy.
This Letter IV is professedly in answer to one from the editor of
_Blackwood’s_. Obviously it is only another device, and a clever
one, to discuss the merits of “Maga”, and make a stab at the Whigs
and the _Edinburgh Review_. Old Timothy says, “You wish to have my
free and candid opinion of your work in general, and I will now try
to answer your queries in a satisfactory way. Your Magazine is far
indeed from being a ‘faultless monster, which the world ne’er saw’;
for it is full of faults, and most part of the world has seen it....
Just go on, gradually improving Number after Number, and you will
make a fortune.”[147] Seeming criticism, then a sudden tooting of the
Blackwood horn, seeming praise of Constable, then a flash and a dig,
characterize the article throughout. He continues: “You go on to ask
me what I think of Constable’s Magazine? Oh! my dear Editor, you are
fishing for a compliment from old Timothy again!--I have seen nothing
at all comparable to it during the last three score and ten years.
Thank you, _en passant_, for the Numbers of it you have sent me. Almost
anything does for our minister to read.”[148] He concludes thus: “I
shall have an opportunity of writing you again soon ... when I hope to
amuse you with certain old-fashioned whimsies of mine about the Whigs
of Scotland, whom I see you like no more than myself.”[149]
[146] Ibid., V. iii, p. 461
[147] Same
[148] Ibid., V. iii, p. 461-2
This is followed by a very brief sketch of the “Important Discovery
of Extensive Veins and Rocks of Chromate of Iron in the Shetland
Islands”[149]; and this in turn by a “Notice of the Operations
Undertaken to Determine the Figure of the Earth, by M. Biot, of the
Academy of Sciences, Paris, 1818”,[150] eleven pages in length, and
though decidedly statistical, discursive and meditative enough in tone
to interest more than the merely scientific reader.
[149] Ibid., V. iii, p. 463
[150] Same
The less said about the poetry in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ the better.
Most of it is pretty poor stuff. It is strange, with men like
Wordsworth and Coleridge and Byron living, that “Maga” should print
such feeble verse--all the more strange when those responsible for
the periodical were such venerators of intellectual power and so ably
appreciative. The Wordsworthian influence is largely reflected in
much of the _Blackwood_ verse, in fact the Wordsworthian love for
the simple and the commonplace is reflected to such an extent that
it assumes the aspect of the commonplace run to seed. Of course,
opposition to the Cockney School was pure principle on the part of
the magazine; and no matter what fine poetry “the Shelley’s and
the Keatses” produced, “Maga” must per necessity say nay! With the
exception of some of the verse of James Hogg, and occasional bits like
the anonymous “To My Dog”[151] in the issue for January 1818, there
is practically nothing to hold one spellbound. There is a good deal
of satiric verse on the order of that by “Ensign Odoherty”, already
sampled. The first twelve volumes of the magazine contain much lengthy
and serious verse bearing the signature Δ, whom we know to have been
David M. Moir, “The amiable Delta” of the Blackwood group. His poetry
takes no hold upon us of the present hour, but strangely enough, men
like Tennyson, Jeffrey, Lockhart, found it praiseworthy, and even
Wordsworth. It must be of some value if Wordsworth praised it who was
not often known to show interest in any poetry but his own.
[151] Ibid., V. ii, p. 378
The number for March 1822 began the “Noctes Ambrosianae”[152], which
continued till February 1835[153]. These papers are too well known to
demand much mention here. Suffice it to say that during their career,
they were the most popular and eagerly read feature of all periodical
literature of the time.
[152] Ibid., V. xi, p. 369
[153] Ibid., V. xi-xxxvii
In July 1820, Lockhart reviewed Washington Irving’s “Knickerbocker’s
History of New York”[154]. All mention of such papers as “Extracts
from Mr. Wastle’s Diary”, which made its first appearance in March
1820[155], can scarcely be omitted. It is the Mr. Wastle of _Peter’s
Letters_ whom Lockhart makes responsible for this series, which, like
the compositions of Timothy Tickler, is but another device for merry
making over local events and persons.
[154] Ibid., V. vii, p. 360
[155] Ibid., V. vi, p. 688