Chapter 20

109. _Zoilus_. The ancient grammarian who assailed the works of Homer. The epithet Homeromastix is sometimes applied to him.

113. _The philosophic Tully, etc._ See the concluding paragraph of Cicero's _De Senectute_.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

It is doubtful whether any other poet was so widely and so continuously assailed in the reviews as Shelley. Circumstances have made certain critiques on Byron, Keats, and others more widely known, but nowhere else do we find the persistent stream of abuse that followed in the wake of Shelley's publications. The _Blackwood_ articles were usually most scathing, and those of the _Literary Gazette_ were not far behind. Fortunately, the poet spent most of his time in Italy and thus remained in ignorance of the great majority of these spiteful attacks in the less important periodicals.

_Alastor_, which appeared in 1816, attracted comparatively little attention. The tone of the brief notice reprinted from the _Monthly Rev._, LXXIX, n.s., p. 433, shows that the poet was as yet unknown to the critics. _Blackwood's Magazine_, VI (148-154), gave a longer and, on the whole, more favorable account of the poem. In the same year, Leigh Hunt published his _Story of Rimini_, most noteworthy for its graceful rhythmical structure in the unrestricted couplets of Chaucer. This departure from the polished heroics of Pope, which were ill-adapted to narrative subjects in spite of his successful translation of Homer, was hailed with delight by the younger poets. Shelley imitated the measure in his _Julian_ and _Maddalo_, and Keats did likewise in _Lamia_ and _Endymion_. Hunt was soon recognized by the critics as the leader of a group of liberals whom they conveniently classified as the Cockney School. Shelley's ill-treatment at the hands of the reviewers dates from his association with this coterie. His _Revolt of Islam_ (1818) was assailed by John Taylor Coleridge in the _Quarterly Review_, XXI (460-471). _The Cenci_ was condemned as a horrible literary monstrosity by the scandalized critics of the _Monthly Rev._, XCIV, n.s. (161-168); the _Literary Gazette_, 1820 (209-10); and the _New Monthly Magazine_, XIII (550-553). The review here reprinted from the _London Mag._, I (401-405), is comparatively mild in its censure.

One would naturally suppose that the death of Keats would have ensured at least a respectful consideration for Shelley's lament, _Adonais_ (1821); but the callous critics were by no means abashed. The outrageous article in the _Literary Gazette_ of December 8, 1821, pp. (772-773), is one of the unpardonable errors of literary criticism; but it sinks into insignificance beside the brutal, unquotable review which _Blackwood's Magazine_ permitted to appear in its pages. In the same year Shelley's youthful poetical indiscretion, _Queen Mab_, which he himself called "villainous trash," was published under circumstances beyond his control, and forthwith the readers of the _Literary Gazette_ were regaled with ten columns of foul abuse from the pen of a critic who declared that he was driven almost speechless by the sentiments expressed in the poem. Well could the heartless reviewer of _Adonais_ write:--"If criticism killed the disciples of that [the Cockney] school, Shelley would not have been alive to write an elegy on another."

115. _Eye in a fine phrenzy rolling_. Shakespeare's _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, V, 1, 12.

115. _Above this visible diurnal sphere_. Milton's _Paradise Lost_, Book VII, 22.

116. _Parca quod satis est manu_. Horace, _Odes_, III, 16, 24.

116. _Lord Fanny_. A nickname bestowed upon Lord Hervey, an effeminate noble of the time of George II.

117. _O! rus, quando ego te aspiciam_. Horace, _Satires_, II, 6, 60.

117. _Mordecai_. See Book of _Esther_, V, 13.

118. _Last of the Romans_. Mark Antony in Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_, III, 2, 194.

120. _Full fathom five_. Shakespeare's _The Tempest_, I, 2, 396.

126. _Ohe! jam satis est_. Horace, _Satires_, I, 5, 12-13.

126. _Tristram Shandy_. The excommunication is in vol. III, chap. XI.

133. _Put a girdle_, etc. See Shakespeare's _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, II, 1, 175.

JOHN KEATS

The history of English poetry offers no more interesting case between poet and critic than that of John Keats. The imputed influence of a savage critique in hastening the death of the poet has given the _Quarterly Review_ an unenviable notoriety which clings in spite of the efforts of scholars to establish the truth. To many students, Keats, _Endymion_, and _Quarterly_ are practically connotative terms; and this is a direct result of the righteous but misguided indignation of Shelley--misguided because his information was incomplete and the more guilty party escaped, thus inflicting upon the _Quarterly_ the brunt of the opprobrium of which far more than half should be accredited to _Blackwood's Magazine_.

_Endymion_ was published in April, 1818. One of the publishers (Taylor and Hessey) requested Gifford, then editor of the _Quarterly Review_, to treat the poem with indulgence. This indiscreet move probably actuated Gifford to provide a severe critique; at any rate, in the belated April number of the _Quarterly_, XIX (204-208), which was not issued until September, appeared the famous review. A persistent error, which has crept into W.M. Rossetti's _Life of Keats_, into Anderson's bibliography, and even into the article on Gifford in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, attributes this article to Gifford himself; but it is known to be the work of John Wilson Croker. (See the article on Croker in _Dict. Nat. Biog._ From the article on John Murray (_ibid._) we learn that Gifford was not wholly responsible for a single article in the _Quarterly_.)

Meanwhile, _Blackwood's Magazine_, III (519-524) had made _Endymion_ the text of its fourth infamous tirade against the Cockney School of Poetry. The signature "Z" was appended to all the articles, but the critic's identity has not yet been discovered. Leigh Hunt thought it was Walter Scott, Haydon suspected the actor Terry, but it is more probable that the honor belongs to John Gibson Lockhart. One account attributes the entire series to Lockhart; another attributes the series to Wilson, but holds Lockhart responsible for the _Endymion_ article. Mr. Andrew Lang, in his _Life and Letters of Lockhart_, dismissed the matter by saying that he did not know who wrote the article.

The _Quarterly_ critique was reprinted in Stevenson's _Early Reviews_, in Rossetti's _Life of Keats_, in Buxton Forman's edition of Keats' _Poetical Works_ (Appendix V) and elsewhere. From a critical point of view, it is, as Forman terms it, a "curiously unimportant production." The student will at once question its power to cause distress in the mind of the poet; as for malignant severity, there are several reviews among the present reprints that put the brief _Quarterly_ article to shame. When we turn to what Swinburne calls the "obscener insolence" of the _Blackwood_ article, we find an unrestrained torrent of abuse against both Hunt and Keats that amply justified Landor's subsequent allusions to the _Blackguard's Magazine_. The _Quarterly_ critique was captious and ill-tempered; but the _Blackwood_ article was a personal insult.

It is impossible to consider in detail the vexed question of the influence which these reviews had upon Keats. In Mr. W.M. Rossetti's _Life of Keats_, pp. (83-106) there is a full discussion of the evidence on the subject. Within a few months after the appearance of the articles, Keats wrote:--"Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic of his own works. My own domestic criticism has given me pain without comparison beyond what _Blackwood_ or _The Quarterly_ could possibly inflict." Some weeks later he wrote that the _Quarterly_ article had only served to make him more prominent among bookmen. After some time he expressed himself less confidently and deprecated the growing power of the reviews, but there is no evidence that he fretted over the critiques. Haydon tells us that Keats was morbid and silent for hours at a time; but it is quite likely that the consciousness of his physical affliction--hereditary consumption--was oppressing his mind. His death occurred on February 23, 1821--about two and a half years after the appearance of the _Endymion_ critiques.

Shelley had gone to Italy before the reviews were published. He heard of the _Quarterly_ article, but knew nothing of _Blackwood's_ while writing _Adonais_; hence in both poem and preface, the former review is charged with having caused Keats' death. Shelley declared that Keats' agitation over the review ended in the rupture of a blood vessel in the lungs with an ensuing rapid consumption. These statements, which Shelley must have had indirectly, have not been substantiated. We are forced to the conclusion now generally accepted--that Keats, although sensitive to personal ridicule, was superior to the stings of review criticism and that the distressing events of the last year of his life were sufficient to assure the early triumph of the inherent and unconquerable disease.

141. _Miss Baillie_. Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) authoress of numerous forgotten plays and poems which enjoyed great popularity in their day.

142. _Land of Cockaigne_. Here means London, and refers specifically to the Cockney poets. An old French poem on the _Land of Cockaigne_ described it as an ideal land of luxury and ease. The best authorities do not accept Cockney as a derivative form. The Cockney School was composed of Londoners of the middle-class, supposedly ill-bred and imperfectly educated. The critics took special delight in dwelling upon the humble origin of the Cockneys, their lack of university training, and especially their dependence on translations for their knowledge of the classics.

142. _When Leigh Hunt left prison_. Hunt had been imprisoned for libel on the Prince Regent (1812).

146. _Vauxhall_. The Gardens were a favorite resort for Londoners early in the eighteenth century and remained popular for a long time. See Thackeray's _Vanity Fair_ (chap. VI). The implication in the present passage is that the Cockney poet gets his ideas of nature from the immediate vicinity of London.

147. _East of Temple-bar_. That is, living in the City of London.

150. _Young Sangrado_. An allusion to Doctor Sangrado, in Le Sage's _Gil Blas_ (1715).

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

Tennyson's first poetical efforts, which appeared in _Poems by Two Brothers_ (1827) attracted little critical attention. His prize-poem, _Timbuctoo_ (1829) received the interesting notice here reprinted from the _Athenaeum_ (p. 456) of July 22, 1829. _Timbuctoo_ was printed in the _Cambridge Chronicle_ (July 10, 1829); in the _Prolusiones Academicae_ (1829); and several times in _Cambridge Prize-Poems_. The use of heroic metre in prize-poems was traditional; hence the award was an enviable tribute to the blank-verse of _Timbuctoo_.

Tennyson's success was emphasized by the remarkable series of reviews that greeted his earliest volumes of poems. The _Poems, chiefly Lyrical_ (1830) were welcomed by Sir John Bowring in the _Westminster Review_, by Leigh Hunt in the _Tatler_, by Arthur Hallam in the _Englishman's Magazine_, and by John Wilson in _Blackwood's Magazine_. The _Poems_ (1833) were reviewed by W.J. Fox in the _Monthly Repository_, and by John Stuart Mill in the _Westminster Review_. This array of names was indeed a tribute to the poet; but the unfavorable review, was, as usual, most significant. The article written by Lockhart for the _Quarterly Rev._, XLIX (81-97), has been characterized as "silly and brutal," but it was neither. Tennyson's fame is secure; we can at least be just to his early reviewer. It is true that the poet winced under the lash and that ten years elapsed before his next volume of collected poems appeared; but Canon Ainger is surely in error when he holds the _Quarterly Review_ mainly responsible for this long silence. The rich measure of praise elsewhere bestowed upon the volume would leave us no alternative but the conclusion that Tennyson was childish enough to maintain his silence for a decade because Lockhart took liberties with his poems instead of joining the chorus of adulation. We know that there were other and stronger reasons for Tennyson's silence and we also know that the effect of Lockhart's article was decidedly salutary. When the next collection of _Poems_ (1842) did appear, the shorter pieces ridiculed by Lockhart were omitted, and the derided passages in the longer poems were altered.

We may, without conscientious scruples, take Mr. Andrew Lang's advice, and enjoy a laugh over Lockhart's performance. Its mock appreciations are, perhaps, far-fetched at times; but there are enough effective passages to give zest to the article. It has been said in all seriousness that Lockhart failed to appreciate the beauty of most of Tennyson's lines, and that he confined his remarks to the most assailable passages. Surely, when a critic undertakes to write a mock-appreciation, he will not quote the best verses, to the detriment of his plan. The poet must see to it that his volume does not contain enough absurdities to form a sufficient basis for such an article. There is a striking contrast to the humor of Lockhart in the little-known review of the same volume by the _Literary Gazette_, 1833, pp. (772-774). The latter seized upon some crudities that had escaped the _Quarterly's_ notice, and, with characteristic brutality, decided that the poet was insane and needed a low diet and a cell.

Although the reception accorded to _Poems_ (1842) was generally favorable, the publication of _The Princess_ in 1847 afforded the critics another opportunity to lament Tennyson's inequalities. The spirit of the review of _The Princess_ here reprinted from the _Literary Gazette_ of August 8, 1848, is practically identical with that of the _Athenaeum_ on January 6, 1848, but specifies more clearly the critic's objections to the medley. It is noteworthy that Lord Tennyson made extensive changes in subsequent editions of _The Princess_, but left unaltered all of the passages to which the _Literary Gazette_ took exception. The beautiful threnody _In Memoriam_ (1850) and Tennyson's elevation to the laureateship in the same year established his position as the leading poet of the time; but the appearance of _Maud_ in 1856 proved to be a temporary check to his popularity. A few personal friends admired it and praised its fine lyrics; but as a dramatic narrative it failed to please the reviews. The most interesting of the critiques (unfortunately too long to be reprinted here) appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_, XLI (311-321), of September, 1855,--a forcible, well-written article, which, incidentally, shows how much the magazine had improved in respectability since the days of the lampooners of Byron, Shelley, and Keats. The authorship of the article has not been disclosed, but we know that W.E. Aytoun asked permission of the proprietor to review Tennyson's _Maud_. (See Mrs. Oliphant's _William Blackwood and his Sons_.) The publication of the _Idylls of the King_ (1859), turned the tide more strongly than before in Tennyson's favor, and subsequent fault-finding on the part of the critics was confined largely to his dramas.

153. _Catullus_. See Catullus, II and III--(_Passer, deliciae meae puellae_, and _Lugete, O Veneres Cupidinesque_).

153. [Greek: Eithe lyre, k. t. l.] Usually found in the remains of Alcaeus. Thomas Moore translates it with his _Odes of Anacreon_ (LXXVII), beginning "Would that I were a tuneful lyre," etc. Lockhart proceeds to ridicule Tennyson for wishing to be a river, which is not what the quoted lines state. Nor does Tennyson "ambition a bolder metamorphosis" than his predecessors. Anacreon (Ode XXII) wishes to be a stream, as well as a mirror, a robe, a pair of sandals and sundry other articles. See Moore's interesting note.

155. _Non omnis moriar_. Horace, _Odes_, III, 30, 6.

156. _Tongues in trees_, etc. Shakespeare's _As You Like It_, II, 1, 17.

157. _Aristaeus_. A minor Grecian divinity, worshipped as the first to introduce the culture of bees.

164. _Dionysius Periegetes_. Author of [Greek: periegesis tes ges], a description of the earth in hexameters, usually published with the scholia of Eustathius and the Latin paraphrases of Avienus and Priscian. For the account of AEthiopia, see also Pausanias, I, 33, 4.

167. _The Rovers_. _The Rovers_ was a parody on the German drama of the day, published in the _Anti-Jacobin_ (1798) and written by Frere, Canning and others. It is reprinted in Charles Edmund's _Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin_. The chorus of conspirators is at the end of Act IV.

169. _The Groves of Blarney_. An old Irish song. A version may be seen in the _Antiquary_, I, p. 199. The quotation by Lockhart differs somewhat from the corresponding stanza of the cited version.

170. _Corporal Trim_. In Sterne's _Tristram Shandy_.

173. _Christopher North_. John Wilson, of _Blackwood's Magazine_.

ROBERT BROWNING

The reviews of Browning's poems are singularly uninteresting from a historical standpoint. There is usually a protest against the obscurity of the poetry and a plea that the author should make better use of his manifest genius. For details concerning these reviews, see the bibliography of Browning in Nicoll and Wise's _Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century_. The list there given is extensive, but does not include several of the reviews mentioned below.

The early poems were so abstruse that the critics were unable to make sport of them as they did in the case of Wordsworth, Byron, Tennyson, and the rest; and when Browning finally deigned to write within range of the average human intellect, that particular style of reviewing had lost favor. His earliest publication, _Pauline_ (1832) was well received by W.J. Fox in _Monthly Repository_, and in the _Athenaeum_. _Tait's Edinburgh Magazine_ called it a "piece of pure bewilderment." See also the brief notice in the _Literary Gazette_, 1833, p. 183. _Paracelsus_ (1835) had a similar experience; the reprint from the _Athenaeum_, 1835, p. 640, is fairly characteristic of the rest, among which are the articles in the _Monthly Repository_, 1835, p. 716; the _Christian Remembrancer_, XX, p. 346, and the reviews written by John Forster for the _Examiner_, 1835, p. 563, and the _New Monthly Magazine_, XLVI (289-308).

Neither the favorable review of _Sordello_ (1840) in the _Monthly Rev._, 1840, II, p. 149, nor the partly appreciative article in the _Athenaeum_, 1840, p. 431, seems to warrant the well-known anecdotes relating the difficulties of Douglas Jerrold and Tennyson in attempting to understand that poem. The _Athenaeum_ gave the poet sound advice, especially in regard to the intentional obscurity of his meaning. That this admonition was futile may be gathered from the _Saturday Review's_ article (I, p. 69) on _Men and Women_ (1855) published fifteen years after _Sordello_. The critic reverted to the earlier style, and produced one of the most readable reviews of Browning. Whatever may be the final verdict yet to be passed upon Browning's poetic achievement, the fact remains that the contemporary reviews from first to last deplored in his work a deliberate obscurity which was wholly unwarranted and which precluded the universal appeal that is essential to a poet's greatness.

189. _Della Crusca of Sentimentalism_. Robert Merry (1755-1798) under the name Della Crusca became the leader of a set of poetasters who flourished during the poetic dearth at the end of the eighteenth century and poured forth their rubbish until William Gifford exposed their follies in his satires _The Baviad_ (1794) and _The Maeviad_ (1795).

189. _Alexander Smith_. A Scotch poet (1830-1867).

189. _Mystic of Bailey_. Philip James Bailey (1816-1902), best known as the author of _Festus_, published _The Mystic_ in 1855.

192. _Hudibras Butler, etc._ Samuel Butler, author of _Hudibras_ (1663-78); Richard H. Barham, author of the _Ingoldsby Legends_ (1840); and Thomas Hood, author of _Whims and Oddities_ (1826-27). These poets are cited by the reviewer for their skill with unusual metres and difficult rhymes.

INDEX

_Academy_, xlii-xliii

_Account of English Dramatic Poets_, xv

_Adonais_, by Shelley, reviewed, 129-134; 214, 217

_Advice to Young Reviewer_, xxiii

Ainsworth, Harrison, xlv

Akenside, Mark, xvi

_Alastor_, by Shelley, reviewed, 115

_Album Verses_, by Lamb, reviewed, 66-67

Alford, Dean, xxxv

Allingham, William, l

_All the Year Round_, l

_Analytical Review_, xxii

_Anti-Jacobin Review_, xxiii

Appleton, Dr. Charles, xlii

Arber, Prof. Edward, xiii

Arnold, Matthew, xxxii, xxxvi, xlii

_Athenaeum_, xxxviii-xl, liv; on Tennyson's _Timbuctoo_, 151; on Browning's _Paracelsus_, 187

_Athenian Mercury_, xiv

_Atlas_, xl

Austin, Mr. Alfred, xxxvi

Bagehot, Walter, xxxii, xxxiv

Barrow, Sir John, xxviii

_Battle of the Reviews_, xx-xxi

Bayle, Pierre, xiii

_Bee_, xvi

Behn, Mrs. Aphra, xv

Beloe, William, xxiii

Bentham, Jeremy, xxxi

_Bentley's Miscellany_, l

Bibliography, lvi-lix

_Bibliotheca Literaria_, xvi

_Bibliotheque Ancienne et Moderne_, xvi

_Bibliotheque Angloise_, xv

_Bibliotheque Choisee_, xvi

Blackwood, John, xlvii

Blackwood, William, xlv

_Blackwood's Magazine_, xlv-xlvii; on Keats' _Endymion_, 141-150; 216

_Blank Verse_, by Lamb and Lloyd, reviewed, 65

Blount, Sir Thomas Pope, xiv

_Bookman_, xxxvii

Bower, Archibald, xvi

_British and Foreign Review_, xxxii

_British Critic_, xxiii; on Landor's _Gebir_, 68

_British Librarian_, xvi

_British Magazine_, xxii, xlv

_British Review_, xxxii, 213

Brougham, Henry, xxiv, xxvi-xxvii, xxx, 210

Browning, Robert, _Paracelsus_ rev. in _Athenaeum_, 187; _Sordello_ rev. in _Monthly Rev._, 188; _Men and Women_ rev. in _Saturday Rev._, 189-196; 220-222

Buckingham, James Silk, xxxviii

Budgell, Eustace, xvi

Bulwer, Edward, xxx, xlv

Bunting, Mr. Percy, xxxvi

Burns, Robert, _Poems_ rev. in _Edinburgh Mag._, 13-14; in _Critical Rev._, 15; 199-200

Byron, Lord, 47, 48; _Hours of Idleness_ rev. in _Edinburgh Rev._, 94-100; _Childe Harold_ rev. in _Christian Observer_, 101-114; 210-213

Campbell, Thomas, xlv

Carlyle, Thomas, xxx, xlv, xlix

Cave, Edward, xliv

_Cenci_, by Shelley, reviewed, 116-128, 214

_Censura Celebrium Authorum_, xiv

_Censura Temporum_, xv

_Childe Harold_, by Byron, reviewed, 101-114; 212-213

_Christabel_, by Coleridge, reviewed, 47-59

_Christian Observer_, xxxiii; on Byron's _Childe Harold_, 101-114

_Christian Remembrancer_, xxxii

Christie, Jonathan Henry, xlviii

Cleghorn, James, xlvi

Cobbett, William, xxxvii

Cockney School, _Blackwood's Mag._ on, 141-150; 216-217

Colburn, Henry, xxxvii, xlv

Coleridge, John Taylor, xxix

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, xlvi; _Christabel_ rev. in _Edinburgh Rev._, 47-59; 201-202, 204-206

Collins, Mr. John Churton, li

Colvin, Mr. Sidney, xlii, liv

_Compleat Library_, xiv

Conder, Josiah, xxxii

_Contemporary Review_, xxxv

Cook, John D., xli

Copleston, Edward, xxiii

_Cornhill Magazine_, l

Cotton, Mr. James S., xliii

Courthope, Mr. W.J., xxxvi

Courtney, Mr. W.L., xxxv

Cowper, William, _Poems_ rev. in _Critical Rev._, 10-12; 198-199

_Critic_, xxxvii

_Critical Review_, xviii-xxi, xxiii, xxv, xxxiii; on Goldsmith's _Traveller_, 5-9; on Cowper's _Poems_, 10-12; on Burn's _Poems_, 15; on _Lyrical Ballads_, 20-23

Croker, John Wilson, xxviii

Dennis, John, xv

DeQuincey, Thomas, xlviii

_De Re Poetica_, xiv

_Descriptive Sketches_, by Wordsworth, reviewed, 16-18

Dickens, Charles, l, liv

Dilke, Charles W., xxxix

Dixon, William H., xxxix

Doble, Mr. C.E., xliii

Dowden, Prof. Edward, xxxiv

_Dublin Review_, xxxii

_Dublin University Magazine_, l

D'Urfey, Thomas, xv

_Eclectic Review_, xxxii