Chapter 22

Nor from those visions need we fear to turn to Sybil Lesley. We see her in Elvar Tower, a high-born Lady--in Dalgonar Glen, a humble bondmaid. The change might have been the reverse--as with the lassie beloved by the Gentle Shepherd. Both are best. The bust that gloriously set off the burnishing of the rounded silk, not less divinely shrouded its enchantment beneath the swelling russet. Graceful in bower or hall were those arms, and delicate those fingers when moving white along the rich embroidery, or across the strings of the sculptured harp; nor less so when before the cottage door they woke the homely music of the humming wheel, or when on the brae beside the Pool, they playfully intertwined their softness with the new-washed fleeces, or when among the laughing lasses at the Linn, not loth were they to lay out the coarse linen in the bleaching sunshine, conspicuous She the while among the rustic beauties, as was Nausicaa of old among her nymphs at the Fountain.

We are in love with Sybil Lesley. She is full of _spunk_. That is not a vulgar word; or if it have been so heretofore, henceforth let it cease to be so, and be held synonymous with spirit. She shows it in her defiance of Sir Ralph on the shore of Solway--in her flight from the Tower of Elvar; and the character she displays then and there, prepares us for the part she plays in the peasant's cot in the glen of Dalgonar. We are not surprised to see her take so kindly to the duties of a rustic service; for we call to mind how she sat among the humble good-folks in the hall, when Thrift and Waste figured in that rude but wise Morality, and how the gracious lady showed she sympathised with the cares and contentments of lowly life.

England has singled out John Clare from among her humble sons (Ebenezer Elliott belongs altogether to another order)--as the most conspicuous for poetical genius, next to Robert Bloomfield. That is a proud distinction--whatever critics may choose to say; and we cordially sympathise with the beautiful expression of his gratitude to the Rural Muse, when he says--

"Like as the little lark from off its nest, Beside the mossy hill, awakes in glee, To seek the morning's throne, a merry guest-- So do I seek thy shrine, if that may be, To win by new attempts another smile from thee."

Now, England is out of all sight the most beautiful country in the whole world--Scotland alone excepted--and, thank heaven, they two are one kingdom--divided by no line, either real or imaginary--united by the Tweed. We forget at this moment--if ever we knew it--the precise number of her counties; but we remember that one and all of them--"alike, but oh! how different"--are fit birthplaces and abodes for poets. Some of them, we know well, are flat--and we in Scotland, with hills or mountains for ever before our eyes, are sometimes disposed to find fault with them on that ground--as if nature were not at liberty to find her own level. Flat indeed! So is the sea. Wait till you have walked a few miles in among the Fens--and you will be wafted along like a little sail-boat, up and down undulations green and gladsome as waves. Think ye there is no scenery there? Why, you are in the heart of a vast metropolis!--yet have not the sense to see the silent city of mole-hills sleeping in the sun. Call that pond a lake--and by a word how is it transfigured? Now you discern flowers unfolding on its low banks and braes--and the rustle of the rushes is like that of a tiny forest--how appropriate to the wild! Gaze--and to your gaze what colouring grows! Not in green only, or in russet brown, doth nature choose to be apparelled in this her solitude--nor ever again will you call her dreary here--for see how every one of those fifty flying showers lightens up its own line of beauty along the plain--instantaneous as dreams--or stationary as waking thought--till, ere you are aware that all was changing, the variety has all melted away into one harmonious glow, attempered by that rainbow.

Let these few words suffice to show that we understand and feel the flattest--dullest--tamest places, as they are most ignorantly called--that have yet been discovered in England. Not in such did John Clare abide--but many such he hath traversed; and his studies have been from childhood upwards among scenes which to ordinary eyes might seem to afford small scope and few materials for contemplation. But his are not ordinary eyes--but gifted; and in every nook and corner of his own county the Northamptonshire Peasant has, during some twoscore years and more, every spring found without seeking either some lovelier aspect of "the old familiar faces," or some new faces smiling upon him, as if mutual recognition kindled joy and amity in their hearts.

John Clare often reminds us of James Grahame. They are two of our most artless poets. Their versification is mostly very sweet, though rather flowing forth according to a certain fine natural sense of melody, than constructed on any principles of music. So, too, with their imagery, which seems seldom selected with much care; so that, while it is always true to nature, and often possesses a charm from its appearing to rise up of itself, and with little or no effort on the poet's part to form a picture, it is not unfrequently chargeable with repetition--sometimes, perhaps, with a sameness which, but for the inherent interest in the objects themselves, might be felt a little wearisome--there is so much still life. They are both most affectionately disposed towards all manner of birds. Grahame's "Birds of Scotland" is a delightful poem; yet its best passages are not superior to some of Clare's about the same charming creatures--and they are both ornithologists after Audubon's and our own heart. Were all that has been well written in English verse about birds to be gathered together, what a sweet set of volumes it would make! And how many, think ye--three, six, twelve? That would be indeed an aviary--the only one we can think of with pleasure--out of the hedgerows and the woods. Tories as we are, we never see a wild bird on the wing without inhaling in silence "the Cause of Liberty all over the world!" We feel then that it is indeed "like the air we breathe--without it we die." So do they. We have been reading lately, for a leisure hour or two of an evening--a volume by a worthy German, Doctor Bechstein--on Cage Birds. The slave-dealer never for a moment suspects the wickedness of kidnapping young and old--crimping them for life--teaching them to draw water--and, _oh nefas!_ to sing! He seems to think that only in confinement do they fulfil the ends of their existence--even the skylark. Yet he sees them, one and all, subject to the most miserable diseases--and rotting away within the wires. Why could not the Doctor have taken a stroll into the country once or twice a-week, and in one morning or evening hour laid in sufficient music to serve him during the intervening time, without causing a single bosom to be ruffled for his sake? Shoot them--spit them--pie them--pickle them--eat them--but imprison them not; we speak as Conservatives--murder rather than immure them--for more forgivable far it is to cut short their songs at the height of glee, than to protract them in a rueful simulation of music, in which you hear the same sweet notes, but if your heart thinks at all, "a voice of weeping and of loud lament," all unlike, alas! to the congratulation that from the free choirs is ringing so exultingly in their native woods.

How prettily Clare writes of the "insect youth."

"These tiny loiterers on the barley's beard, And happy units of a numerous herd Of playfellows, the laughing Summer brings, Mocking the sunshine on their glittering wings, How merrily they creep, and run, and fly! No kin they bear to labour's drudgery, Smoothing the velvet of the pale hedge-rose, And where they fly for dinner no one knows-- The dewdrops feed them not--they love the shine Of noon, whose sons may bring them golden wine. All day they're playing in their Sunday dress-- When night repose, for they can do no less; Then to the heathbell's purple hood they fly, And like to princes in their slumbers lie, Secure from rain, and dropping dews, and all, In silken beds and roomy painted hall. So merrily they spend their summer-day, Now in the cornfields, now in the new-mown hay. One almost fancies that such happy things, With colour'd hoods and richly-burnish'd wings, Are fairy folk in splendid masquerade Disguised, as if of mortal folk afraid. Keeping their joyous pranks a mystery still, Lest glaring day should do their secrets ill."

Time has been--nor yet very long ago--when such unpretending poetry as this--humble indeed in every sense, but nevertheless the product of genius which speaks for itself audibly and clearly in lowliest strains--would not have passed by unheeded or unbeloved; nowadays it may, to many who hold their heads high, seem of no more worth than an old song. But as Wordsworth says,

"Pleasures newly found are sweet, Though they lie about our feet;"

and if stately people would but stoop and look about their paths, which, do not always run along the heights, they would often make discoveries of what concerned them more than speculations among the stars.

It is not to be thought, however, that the Northamptonshire Peasant does not often treat earnestly of the common pleasures and pains, the cares and occupations, of that condition of life in which he was born, and has passed all his days. He knows them well, and has illustrated them well, though seldomer in his later than in his earlier poems; and we cannot help thinking that he might greatly extend his popularity, which in England is considerable, by devoting his Rural Muse to subjects lying within his ken, and of everlasting interest. Bloomfield's reputation rests on his "Farmer's Boy"--on some exquisite passages in "News from the Farm"--and on some of the tales and pictures in his "May-day with the Muses." His smaller poems are very inferior to those of Clare--but the Northamptonshire Peasant has written nothing in which all honest English hearts must delight, at all comparable with those truly rural compositions of the Suffolk shoemaker. It is in his power to do so--would he but earnestly set himself to the work. He must be more familiar with all the ongoings of rural life than his compeer could have been; nor need he fear to tread again the same ground, for it is as new as if it had never been touched, and will continue to be so till the end of time. The soil in which the native virtues of the English character grow, is unexhausted and inexhaustible; let him break it up on any spot he chooses, and poetry will spring to light like clover from lime. Nor need he fear being an imitator. His mind is an original one, his most indifferent verses prove it; for though he must have read much poetry since his earlier day--doubtless all our best modern poetry--he retains his own style, which, though it be not marked by any very strong characteristics, is yet sufficiently peculiar to show that it belongs to himself, and is a natural gift. Pastorals--eclogues--and idyls--in a hundred forms--remain to be written by such poets as he and his brethren; and there can be no doubt at all that, if he will scheme something of the kind, and begin upon it, without waiting to know fully or clearly what he may be intending, before three winters, with their long nights, are gone, he will find himself in possession of more than mere materials for a volume of poems that will meet with general acceptation, and give him a permanent place by the side of him he loves so well--Robert Bloomfield.

Ebenezer Elliott (of whom more another day)[A] claims with pride to be the Poet of the Poor--and the poor might well be proud, did they know it, that they have such a poet. Not a few of them know it now, and many will know it in future; for a muse of fire like his will yet send its illumination "into dark deep holds." May it consume all the noxious vapours that infest such regions--and purify the atmosphere--till the air breathed there be the breath of life. But the poor have other poets besides him--Crabbe and Burns. We again mention their names--and no more. Kindly spirits were they both; but Burns had experienced all his poetry--and therefore his poetry is an embodiment of national character. We say it not in disparagement or reproof of Ebenezer--conspicuous over all--for let all men speak as they think or feel--but how gentle in all his noblest inspirations was Robin! He did not shun sins or sorrows; but he told the truth of the poor man's life, when he showed that it was, on the whole, virtuous and happy--bear witness those immortal strains, "The Twa Dogs," "The Vision," "The Cottar's Saturday Night," the sangs voiced all braid Scotland thorough by her boys and virgins, say rather her lads and lasses--while the lark sings aloft and the linnet below, the mavis in the golden broom accompanying the music in the golden cloud. We desire--not in wilful delusion, but in earnest hope, in devout trust--that poetry shall show that the paths of the peasant poor are paths of pleasantness and peace. If they should seem in that light even pleasanter and more peaceful than they ever now can be below the sun, think not that any evil can arise "to mortal man who liveth here by toil" from such representations--for imagination and reality are not two different things--they blend in life; but there the darker shadows do often, alas! prevail--and sometimes may be felt even by the hand; whereas in poetry the lights are triumphant--and gazing on the glory men's hearts burn within them--and they carry the joy in among their own griefs, till despondency gives way to exultation, and the day's darg of this worky world is lightened by a dawn of dreams.

[Footnote A: _Professor Wilson's Works_, vol. vi., page 224.]

This is the effect of all good poetry--according to its power--of the poetry of Robert Bloomfield as of the poetry of Robert Burns. John Clare, too, is well entitled to a portion of such praise; and therefore his name deserves to become a household word in the dwellings of the rural poor. Living in leisure among the scenes in which he once toiled, may he once more contemplate them all without disturbance. Having lost none of his sympathies, he has learnt to refine them all and see into their source--and wiser in his simplicity than they who were formerly his yoke-fellows are in theirs, he knows many things well which they know imperfectly or not at all, and is privileged therein to be their teacher. Surely in an age when the smallest contribution to science is duly estimated, and useful knowledge not only held in honour but diffused, poetry ought not to be despised, more especially when emanating from them who belong to the very condition which they seek to illustrate, and whose ambition it is to do justice to its natural enjoyments and appropriate virtues. In spite of all they have suffered, and still suffer, the peasantry of England are a race that may be regarded with better feelings than pride. We look forward confidently to the time when education--already in much good--and, if the plans of the wisest counsellors prevail, about to become altogether good--will raise at once their condition and their character. The Government has its duties to discharge--clear as day. And what is not in the power of the gentlemen of England? Let them exert that power to the utmost--and then indeed they will deserve the noble name of "Aristocracy." We speak not thus in reproach--for they better deserve that name than the same order in any other country; but in no other country are such interests given to that order in trust--and as they attend to that trust is the glory or the shame, the blessing or the curse, of their high estate.

But let us retrace our footsteps in moralising mood, not unmixed with sadness--to the Mausoleum of Burns. Scotland is abused by England for having starved Burns to death, or for having suffered him to drink himself to death, out of a cup filled to the brim with bitter disappointment and black despair. England lies. There is our gage-glove, let her take it up, and then for mortal combat with sword and spear--only not on horseback--for, for reasons on which it would be idle to be more explicit, we always fight now on foot, and have sent our high horse to graze all the rest of his life on the mountains of the moon. Well then, Scotland met Burns, on his first sunburst, with one exulting acclaim. Scotland bought and read his poetry, and Burns, for a poor man, became rich--rich to his heart's desire--and reached the summit of his ambition, in the way of this world's life, in a--Farm. Blithe Robin would have scorned "an awmous" from any hands but from those of nature; nor in those days needed he help from woman-born. True, that times began by-and-by to go rather hard with him, and he with them; for his mode of life was not

"Such as grave livers do in Scotland use,"

and as we sow we must reap. His day of life began to darken ere meridian--and the darkness doubtless had brought disturbance before it had been perceived by any eyes but his own--for people are always looking to themselves and their own lot; and how much mortal misery may for years be daily depicted in the face, figure, or manners even of a friend, without our seeing or suspecting it! Till all at once he makes a confession, and we then know that he has been long numbered among the most wretched of the wretched--the slave of his own sins and sorrows--or thralled beneath those of another, to whom fate may have given sovereign power over his whole life. Well, then--or rather ill, then--Burns behaved as most men do in misery,--and the farm going to ruin--that is, crop and stock to pay the rent--he desired to be, and was made--an Exciseman. And for that--you ninny--you are whinnying scornfully at Scotland! Many a better man than yourself--beg your pardon--has been, and is now, an Exciseman. Nay, to be plain with you--we doubt if your education has been sufficiently intellectual for an Exciseman. We never heard it said of you,

"And even the story ran that he could gauge."

Burns then was made what he desired to be--what he was fit for, though you are not--and what was in itself respectable--an Exciseman. His salary was not so large certainly as that of the Bishop of Durham--or even of London--but it was certainly larger than that of many a curate at that time doing perhaps double or treble duty in those dioceses, without much audible complaint on their part, or outcry from Scotland against blind and brutal English bishops, or against beggarly England, for starving her pauper-curates, by whatever genius or erudition adorned. Burns died an Exciseman, it is true, at the age of thirty-seven; on the same day died an English curate we could name, a surpassing scholar, and of stainless virtue, blind, palsied, "old and miserably poor"--without as much money as would bury him; and no wonder, for he never had the salary of a Scotch Exciseman.

Two blacks--nay twenty--won't make a white. True--but one black is as black as another--and the Southern Pot, brazen as it is, must not abuse with impunity the Northern Pan. But now to the right nail, and let us knock it on the head. What did England do for her own Bloomfield? He was not in genius to be spoken of in the same year with Burns--but he was beyond all compare, and out of all sight, the best poet that had arisen produced by England's lower orders. He was the most spiritual shoemaker that ever handled an awl. The "Farmer's Boy" is a wonderful poem--and will live in the poetry of England. Did England, then, keep Bloomfield in comfort, and scatter flowers along the smooth and sunny path that led him to the grave? No. He had given him by some minister or other, we believe Lord Sidmouth, a paltry place in some office or other--most uncongenial with all his nature and all his habits--of which the shabby salary was insufficient to purchase for his family even the bare necessaries of life. He thus dragged out for many long obscure years a sickly existence, as miserable as the existence of a good man can be made by narrowest circumstances--and all the while Englishmen were scoffingly scorning, with haughty and bitter taunts, the patronage that at his own earnest desire made Burns an Exciseman. Nay, when Southey, late in Bloomfield's life, and when it was drawing mournfully to a close, proposed a contribution for his behoof, and put down his own five pounds, how many purse-strings were untied? how much fine gold was poured out for the indigent son of genius and virtue? Shame shuffles the sum out of sight--for it was not sufficient to have bought the manumission of an old negro slave.

It was no easy matter to deal rightly with such a man as Burns. In those disturbed and distracted times, still more difficult was it to carry into execution any designs for his good--and much was there even to excuse his countrymen then in power for looking upon him with an evil eye. But Bloomfield led a pure, peaceable, and blameless life. Easy, indeed, would it have been to make him happy--but he was as much forgotten as if he had been dead; and when he died--did England mourn over him--or, after having denied him bread, give him so much as a stone? No. He dropt into the grave with no other lament we ever heard of but a few copies of poorish verses in some of the Annuals, and seldom or never now does one hear a whisper of his name. O fie! well may the white rose blush red--and the red rose turn pale. Let England then leave Scotland to her shame about Burns; and, thinking of her own treatment of Bloomfield, cover her own face with both her hands, and confess that it was pitiful. At least, if she will not hang down her head in humiliation for her own neglect of her own "poetic child," let her not hold it high over Scotland for the neglect of hers--palliated as that neglect was by many things--and since, in some measure, expiated by a whole nation's tears shed over her great poet's grave.

What! not a word for Allan Ramsay? Theocritus was a pleasant Pastoral, and Sicilia sees him among the stars. But all his dear Idyls together are not equal in worth to the "Gentle Shepherd." Habbie's Howe is a hallowed place now among the green airy Pentlands. Sacred for ever the solitary murmur of that waterfa'!

"A flowerie howm, between twa verdant braes, Where lassies use to wash and bleach their claes; A trotting burnie, wimpling through the ground, Its channel pebbles, shining, smooth, and round: Here view twa barefoot beauties, clean and clear, 'Twill please your eye, then gratify your ear; While Jenny what she wishes discommends, And Meg, with better sense, true love defends!"

"About them and siclike" is the whole poem. Yet "faithful love shall memorise the song." Without any scenery but that of rafters, which overhead fancy may suppose a grove, 'tis even yet sometimes acted by rustics in the barn, though nothing on this earth will ever persuade a low-born Scottish lass to take a part in a play; while delightful is felt, even by the lords and ladies of the land, the simple Drama of humble life; and we ourselves have seen a high-born maiden look "beautiful exceedingly" as Patie's Betrothed, kilted to the knee in the kirtle of a Shepherdess.