The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

could be easily procured, and the absence of
it is a blemish in the present edition.
It is in the " Life of Milton" that the defect of
Mr. Cunningham's plan of editing is most con-
spicuous. The justice or injustice of John-
son's mode of dealing with the facts of Mil-
ton's life is avoided in the corrective notes ;
but in the preface the editor writes :

Passing over the political objections to the life—for man-
kind (I fear) will long differ and dispute about the political
character of Milton—l would venture to affirm that no one
has written finer or truer things about " Paradise Lost "
than Johnson in this life. His alleged virulence is indeed
always more in the manner of his matter than the matter
itself. He had no inclination to narrate the events of
Milton's career; and tells us, in the very outset of the
memoir, that he would have contented himself with the
addition of a few notes to Fenton's elegant abridgment, but
that a new narrative for uniformity's sake was thought
necessary.

This is an awkward passage in every sense,
not only in its " matter," but also in " the
manner of its matter." It is not only for its
political acrimony that Johnson's life of Milton
is liable to censure. There is a grossness of
tone in his sneering comments on Milton
that are positively offensive. Mr. Cunningham
has probably never seen what Coleridge has
written on the " Satan" of Milton, else he
would not assert that "no one had written
" truer or finer things" (!) than Johnson on
" Paradise Lost." But it was by what he wrote
on the minor poems of Milton that Johnson,
as Mr. Hallam emphatically expresses it,
" committed his reputation." He could ap-
preciate "town poetry," and was fit to decide
on the school of Dryden or Pope, but he had
no ear to catch the exquisite melodies of the
peculiar rhythm of Milton's versification. Even
his canons of criticism as applied to " minor
poems " are essentially wrong. Thus John-
son says that " all that short compositions
" can commonly obtain is neatness and
" elegance " (vol. i., p. 139)—a position suffi-
ciently refuted by the poetic fire and brilliancy
of effect of the Greek audiology, the Odes of
Horace,and by lyrical poetry in general. The dic-
tum has, since Johnson's death, been also deci-
sively overturned byßurns,Moore,Campbell,and
Beranger. When, in critisising "minor poems,"
Johnson laid down so erroneous a rule, we can
scarcely be surprised at his " committing his
reputation " by the depreciation of " Lycidas "
and " Comus," the latter of which, according
to Johnson, is "inelegantly splendid and te-
" diously instructive." It is for comments of
that sort on these charming minor pieces, and
not for his remarks on " Paradise Lost" (as Mr.
Cunningham supposes), that an outcry has been
raised at the " Life of Milton." Mr. Cunning-
ham then proceeds to show "the hold of
"Johnson's memoir of Milton upon mankind"
by quoting a stanza from " Don Juan "—as if
Lord Byron and mankind were identical.
But let us turn to another point. The reli-
gion of Milton is surely a subject that might
attract the careful notice of an editor after the
discovery of Milton's treatise of " Christian
Doctrine.' In alluding to that work, the editor
writes
Milton's theological opinions were determined in 182.3 by
the discovery in the State Paper-office of his " Treatise on
Christian Doctine," written in Latin, and printed in 1824
by command of George IV. Milton was an Arian. "It is
said that the discovery of Milton's Arianism in this rigid
generation has already impaired the sale of 'Paradise
Lost.' "—Hallam's Lit. Hist. iii. 474, third ed.
A " corrective and explanatory " note would
be here required. The editor ought surely to
inform the present readers of Johnson's life
what were the opinions of Milton on so grave
a subject as Christianity. The word " arian "
is vague and indeterminate, and in our times
is interpreted as Rationalist, and this point is
deserving of special notice, as Mr. Hallam's
observation (quoted by Mr. Cunningham) is
based on fact. Great discomfort was really
experienced in the religious world when with
jubilant strains the literary Unitarians pro-
claimed that Milton was an arian of their
mode of belief. The fact is, that Milton was
heterodox as to his conception of the " Trinity
in Unity," but he was not sceptical quoad the
Atonement ; and that such a mind as his
had faith in vicarious redemption or (as he
expresses it) of " life by life,' is well worth
recording. So far from being a Rationalist,
Milton was in many things positively su-
perstitious, and believed in the personal

SATURDAY,

interposition of Providence to an ex•
tent that would astound our contemporary
" Arians " and neologists. Surely such a note
as we have cited is not adequate to the
important topic of the religious opinions of so
great a man.
Again, on the subject of Milton's prose
works, we find the following note :

The admirers of Milton's political opinions, and some, too,
who comprehend his poetry, have -found his prose style,

Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
structure
onge ofr co his
con-
fined But musical as is Apollo's lute.
sTehnites,heos is wevgeern,eraislly umnoctthbersecoasmee.. Tvibehe
When l
fined to numbers, he is as awkward and unwieldy as a swan
out of water. What Donne is in poetic pauses Milton is in
the euphony of prose. He is behind the best of his con-
temporaries—behind Taylor, and not to be compared for a
moment with either Hobbes or Cowley. /n his reply to the
Eikon, whatever advantage he may have in argument is not
assisted by his style, for Gauden has at least the better of
him in the easy gracefulness of a good style.
Here one with such a love for minutite
as the editor ought to have been more
particular in his references. The prose
writings of Milton are noble productions,
despite of their cumbrous rhetoric. They are
impassioned with the moral power of a mighty
genius, and we feel while reading them that
we are in presence of a master-spirit. The
admirers of his prose writings read them
for their loftiness of thought and the genuine
character of their overwhelming vehemence.
It is chiefly in the opening passages that he
is involved, but his prose writings deserve
their fame ; and, though we do not sympathise
with their opinions, we admire the Saxon
sturdiness and muscularity of grasp visible in
those truly great productions.
The manner in which Mr. Cunningham treats
his literary contemporaries is not very compli-
mentary. The question whether Dryden was
sincere in his perversion to Romanism has be-
come of considerable interest since Mr.Macauiay
vilified him in the most scornful language in
his " History of England." One would think that
the editor of Johnson's " Lives " ought to be
anxious to rescue so great a man as Dryden
from the foul stains that would rest on his
memory if he had been a mercenary apostate.
Johnson wrote favourably towards Dryden on
the subject, and Sir Walter Scott supported
the same view. Here is Mr. Cunningham's
note on this important point :
The reader who would pursue the subject thus admir-
ably handled by Johnson should consult Scott's " Life of
Dryden ;" Southey's Life of Cowper," ii. 131 ; and
Macaulay's " History." Both Scott and Southey acquit
Dryden of being biassed by motives of temporary con-
venience; but Mr. Macauley is painfully positive that his
conversion was a mere money matter.
Now. surely this is not a proper mode of
annotation. Mr. Cunningham may if he
please ignore what Mr. Hallam or Mr. Bell
have written upon the point, but he might cite
in corroboration of Johnson's pathetic remarks
the following affecting confession of sentiments
from a private letter of Dryden, addressed to
his relative, Mrs. Stewart, written late in
1699 :
The court rather speaks kindly of me than does anything
for me, though they promise largely ; and perhaps they
think I will advance as they go backward, in which they
will be mush deceiv'd : for I cannot go au inch beyond my
conscience and my honour I know not what
church to go to, if I leave the Catholique ; they are all so
divided amongst themselves in matters of faith, necessary
to salvation, and yet all assuming the name of Protestants, .
May God be pleas'd to open your eyes, as he has open d
mine ! Truth is but one ; and they who have once heard
of it can plead no excuse, if they do not embrace it. But
these are things too serious for a trifling letter.
Johnson did not know of that letter at the
time of his writing Dryden's life, else he would
have quoted it. Even without any reference
to that remarkable letter, Mr. Hallam has re-
marked that the vigour with which Dryden
wrote for Popery shows that he fancied him-
self on the side of truth. His words are worth
quoting. " It. is such an answer as a candid
" man may well admit to any doubts of
" Dryden's sincerity. He who could argue so
" powerfully as the Hind, may well be allptve4,
"to have thought himself in the right.
(Hallam's Introd. Lit. Europe, vol. iii., p. 476.)
Mr. Bell, in his " Annotated Edition of the
Poets," has devoted nearly one hundred pages
of small type to Dryden's personal history.
On the question of his sincerity iu becoming
a Papist Mr. Bell has brought forward curious
facts, highly corroborative of the views taken
by Johnson, Scott, and Hallam, but of this re-

I

NOVEMBER 25, 1854.

cent and important evidence Mr. Cunningham
takes no notice, except in a cursory way at

page 334.
This point is the more noticeable as we
find in the life of " Congreve," in the present
edition (vol. ii., p. 234), Mr. Cunningham
quotes a passage from a letter, first published
in Bell's "Life of Dryden," referring to
Dryden's private account of what the town
thought of The Double-Dealer. But if Mr. Bell
is to be referred to for evidence of the first iin
pressions of the town on Congreve's new play,
why should not the editor of the present work
refer to the same source for evidence to rescue
the fame of " glorious John Dryden " from
having acted in religion such a part as is
implied in the title of Congreve's comedy?
But we may here observe, that on the
question of Dryden's sincerity the autho
rities stand thus : Johnson, Scott, Hal-
lam, and Bell, are favourable to Dryden;
Mr. Macaulay severely hostile ; and Mr.
Cunningham appears to have formed no
opinion. We may add that in the Dublin
Review (vol. xxvi., pp. 420-33) the ques-
tion is ably argued against Mr. Macaulay.
In notes on the ininutite of literary and per-
sonal history, however, Mr. Cunningham
displays a wide range of knowledge. His
notes of this nature amount in the whole to
many hundreds, and they are usually useful
as correcting errors in the text, or supplying
information which Johnson would not take
the trcuble to collect. In many oases inter-
esting anecdotes are given. The following
seems to have escaped all Garrick's bio-
graphers :
Of David Garrick, thus accidentally brought before me,
I have something to tell that is new. His early life was
wild, and his father in his will (which I have seen) makes
his wife his executrix, and leaves liberal legacies to all his
children—David excepted. The only mention of the actor
whose death was to eclipse the gaiety of nations and im-
noverish the public stock of harmless pleasure is as foi-
-1 iws:—" Item, to my son David one shilling." Captain
Garrick, the father, was, when he made his will, Ist January,
1730-7, in London. He died three months afterwards.
The future actor was then in his twenty-first year.

Not many of Waller's good sayings have
been preserved, but the following strikes us as
a choice specimen :
A motion being made in the House of Commons that
such as were chosen to serve in the Parliament trooper
s'iluld be faithful' and skillful] riders, Mr. Waller's opinion
was demanded, who approved the forme of it as excellent ;
" for," ,ayes he, " it is most necessary the riders be faithful
least they runne away with their horses, and skillful' least
their horses runne away with them."—L'Estrange's Anec-
doled.
In the elucidation of literary history, Mr.
Cunningham often displays great vigilance
and sagacity. The discovery of a poem by
Parr, which had escaped all the poet's editors,
through the hints given in Swift's journal, ii.
93, is a remarkable instance of successful re-
search. Mr. Cunningham is also sometimes
very happy in tracking a sentiment or thought
through different writers. The oft-quoted
line,
God made the country, and man made the town,

is always referred to Cowper, but Cowley wrote
before him, with even stronger emphasis,
God the first garden made, and the first city, Cain.
The propriety of Johnson's term of " meta-
physical poets " applied to Donne, Cowley, and
writers of that class has been much canvassed,
but in a note it is shown that Johnson did not
invent the term, but found it as it was first
used by Dryden and afterwards by Pope. But
in some small critical points Mr. Cunningham
himself falls into error. Thus, in his preface
(xxiv.), he writes :
He (Johnson) does not delight in fiction or in blank
verse, but likes sterling sense expressed in vigorous Eng-
lish, and in English hexameters with rhyme.
A strange mistake, " English hexameters will
rhyme !" and the judgment is no less strangely
contradicted lower down :
He gives ( I feel and regret) a most undue preference
to blank verse over rhyme, and is too uncompromising an
advocate for the school of Dryden and Pope ; yet, when his
principles are understood, it is easy to read him without
falling into his errors.
We suppose the preference is meant to
rhyme over blank verse. We must notice one
contradiction of more consequence which
occurs between a passage in the preface and
another in the notes. Referring to the story

THE PRESS.

of Milton having been whipped at college,

he says:—
That Milton suffered the That Milton was whipped
indignity of corporal coffee- at college rests on the autho-
tion at college is now, among rity of Aubrey, who states the
those that read, pretty gene• circumstance in connection
rally exploded ; but it will be with other particulars of the
long before the impression poet's early life as " from
is thoroughly rooted out, ad- his brother, Mr. Christopher
winced as it is by Johnson, Milton." Aubrey's accuracy
and countenanced by Byron is curiously confirmed by the
in a poem like " Don Juan." industry and knowledge of
That Shakespeare stole deer, I'. Warton (see Aubrey's
and that Milton was whipt at " Lives," iii. 444, and "Mil.
college, will long continue ( I ton's Minor Poems," by
fear) among the vulgar errors Warton, p. 423). Aubrey
of our literature.—Preface. was a curious inquirer, with
ample means of information,
and no motive whatever for
telling a lie.—Notes.
We may notice another error on a matter
of fact. In the " Lite of Addison," in the
second volume, where Johnson refers to the
incompatibility of character between Lord
Wharton, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and
Addison, as secretary, (vol. ii., p. 129), Mr.

Cunningham subjoins :
Though little is to be said in favour of Wharton, I am
afraid Johnson has confounded the father with the son—
the first marquis with the first duke. The marquis
died 1715.
Why should Mr. Cunningham " fear that
Johnson has confounded " the father and son?
He raises a doubt and does not solve it. But
the text of Johnson is right. Lord Wharton, the
Irish viceroy alluded to in the text, was created
Earl of' Wharton in 1706, and Marquis in 1714
(Brydgo's " Collin's Peerage, vol. ix., p. 996).
He was the subject of Swift's violent pamphlet
" A Short Character," and in Scott's " Swift"
there is abundant evidence to show that his
character must have been almost as opposite to
Addison's as his still more notorious (and more
gifted) son, the Duke of Wharton. It was on
the father that, in the notes on Burnet's His-
tory, Swift penned the emphatic sentence,
" The most universal villain I ever knew."
Of late years there has been some contro-
versy as to Addison's fame. The most brilliant
tribute to his memory we know of is from
Dugald Stewart, in his "Preliminary Disserta-
tion in the Encyclopedia Britaunica. The
influence of Addison on popular thought is
there stated with great power. But Mr.
Cunningham has no allusion to it, though it is
well worth citing. Addison was the favourite
author of the brilliant Canning, and his in-
fluence can be seen in the ease and graceful
smoothness of the orator's speeches. Mr.
Cunningham might have added much inter-
esting matter to many of his notes by referring
to the persons with whom particular poets have
been favourites. As we think more favourably of
Crabbe when we know that his " Phoebe Daw-
son " was the last poetry read to Charles Fox
and Sir Walter Scott, so we take pleasure in
knowing that Addison on the " Immortality of
the Soul " was the last book of any kind read
to Burke on his deathbed, and at his special
desire. In the last century it was fashionable
to quote from Prior in Parliament, from the
time when Lord Chatham made his admirable
quotation from "The English Padlock "—as
applied to America. The last time we recollect
Prior being quoted in the Senate was by the
late Earl Grey. In his dexterous defence of
Lord Clarendon in the " Birch Scandal," Lord
John Russell gracefully applied an unhack-
neyed quotation, alluding to the Order of the
Garter :
Those emblems Cecil did invest,
And gleamed on wise Oodolphin's breast.
There was a question at the tune where the
lines were to be found, and some egregious
errors were made, as some M.P.'s who were
looked on as authorities said they were " from
Prior " ! They are from the nearly-forgot-
ten Tickell, iu his verses to the Earl of Sun-
derland (Dodsley's Collection, vol i., p. 39).
The mention of Tickell's name recals us to
one of Mr. Cunningham's notes. Johnson, in
his life of that poet (vol. ii., p. 323), remarks
upon his translation of the first book of the
" Iliad " :
Upon these suspicions, with which Dr. Warburton hints
that other circumstances concurred, Pope always in his
Art of Sinking " quotes this book as the work of
Addison.
Mr. Cunningham subjoins :
See chapter xii., where, after quoting several instances
from the rival translation, be adds, " or these of the same

1121.

hand," quoting Addison's lines on Sacheverell. See " Mis
cellanies, the last Volume," Bro., 1728. p. 81.
Dr. Young, Lord Bathurst, Mr. Harte, and Lord Lyt-
telton, each of them assured me that Addison himself cer-
tainly translated the first book of Homer.—Warfon on Pope,
ii. 248, ed. 1782.
Steele, in the Dedication to Congreva of Addison's
" Drummer," challenges the reputed translator of the first
book to produce a second.
But if Mr. Cunningham referred to the edition
of the " Miscellanies " for 1732 he would find
that the version is referred to distinctly in the
twelfth chapter as Tickell's, under the abbre-
viated references Ti. Horn. 11.
The work is excellent in its typography, and
remarkably cheap. A handsomer or more
convenient edition of British Classics for his
library no gentleman need desire ; and, though
iu this case we should have preferred a freer
style of critical commenting, yet we are by no
means inclined to underrate the extent and
value of Mr. Cunningham's labours. He has,
we learn, long contemplated editing the book,
and been for years collecting his materials.
There may be some difference of opinion as
to the style of annotation which should have
been adopted, but every one must acknowledge
that Mr. Cunningham has illustrated the text
with a vast amount of curious and useful in-
formation, which sensibly adds to the value of
the book, and must greatly conduce to the
pleasure of the reader.

A Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories,
and Fancies. By Mrs. Jameson. London :

Longmans.
Mits. JAMESON'S volume is made up of frag•
ments, ethical, autobiographical, theological,
literary, and artistic. These fragments are all
distinguished by elegance of sentiment, but
they are more egotistical than we were prepared
to expect from this lady's previous writings,
and they are, on the whole, marked rather by
fanciful feeling than depth of thought.
Mrs. Jameson must by her own account
have been an extraordinary child. Her auto-
biographical fragment relates to her life be•
tweet' her fifth and tenth year. When six

years old, she says
I suffered from the fear of not being loved where I had
attached myself, and froin'the idea that another was pre-
furred before we, such anguish as had nearly killed me.

She was remarkable also for a vindictive
spirit of rather a peculiar kind
recollect that when one of those set over me inflicted
what then appeared a most horrible injury and injustice,
the thoughts of vengeance haunted my fancy fur months :
but it was an inverted sort of vengeance. 1 imagined the
house of my enemy on fire, and rushed through the flames
to rescue her. She was drowning, and I leaped into the
deep water to draw her forth. She was pining in prison,
and I forced bars and bolts to deliver her. If this were
magnanimity, it was not the less vengeance ; for, observe, I
always fancied evil, and shame. and humiliation to my ad.
versaty ; to myself the role of superiority and gratified
pride.
She was left to conquer this spirit as she
best could, and thus, she remarks, it always
" has been, and always must be, with all
" strong natures." She recollects that she
had " an early, instinctive, boundless delight
" in external beauty," and, with unusual dis-
crimination in a child, she could analyse the
source of the pleasure she felt in poetry :
It was this intense sense of beauty which gave the first
zest to poetry : I losed it, not bemuse it told me what I
did not -know, but because it helped me to words in which
to clothe my own knovrleqe and perceptions, and reflected
back the pictures unconsciously hoarded up in my mind.
This was what made Thomson's " Seasons " a favourite
book when I first began to read for my own amusement,
and before I could understand one half of it.
In her youthful reading Khc seems to have
had a peculiar faculty of getting impressions
of evil from some books, and good from others.
Thus she relates :

I remember impressions of vice and cruelty from some
parts of the Old Testament and Goldsmith's " History of
England," which I shudder to recal.
She recollects also that some tracts and
stories by Mrs. Hannah More did her much
" moral mischief." Shakspeare, on the con-
trary, though surely not less emphatic in
examples of vice and cruelty than either of
the above hooks, only gave her delight:—
I hail read him all through between seven and ten years
old. lie never did me any moral mischief. He never
soiled my mind with any disordered image. What was ex-
ceptionable and coarse in language. I passed by without
attaching any meaning whatever to ft.

Are we to accept the following as literally
true, in a child of such tender years ?
To me Falstaff was not witty and wicked—only irresis-
tibly fat and funny ; and I remember lying on the ground
rolling with laughter ever some of the scenes in Henry the
Fourth—the muck play, and the seven men in buckram.
Some books fixed vivid pictures in her
imagination. The following seems tinged
with affectation :

For example, out of Homer's " Odyssey" (lent to me by
the parish clerk) I had the picture of Nasicaa and her
maidens going down in their chariots to wash their linen :
so that when the first time I went to the Pitti Palace, and
could hardly see the pictures through blinding tears, I saw
that picture of Rubella, which all remember who have been
at Florence, and it flashed delight and refreshment through
those remembered childish associations.

Music, as might be expected in so sensitive
a child, produced an extraordinary effect upon
her :

Discordant sounds were not only hateful, but made me
turn white and cold, and sent the blood backward to my
heart; and certain tunes had a curious effect, I cannot now
account for : for though, when heard for the first time, they
bad little effect, they became intolerable by repetition ; they
turned up some hidden emotion within me too strong to
be borne. It could not have been from association, which
I believe to be a principal element in the emotion excited
by music. I was too young for that. What associations
could such a baby have had with pleasure or with pain ?
Or could it be possible that associations with some former
state of existence awoke up to sound? That our life " hath
elsewhere its beginning, and cotneth from afar," is a belief,
or at least an instinct, in some minds, which music, and
only music, seems to thrill into consciousness.
This notion of a " former state of exist-
ence" is, we believe, a favourite theory
with some minds. We are inclined, how-
ever, to refer all the sensations to which
Mrs. Jameson alludes to peculiar organisation
rather than to what we suppose must be
called a pre-earthly or pre-bodily state of
being. Our own prosaic experience may be
of little value in determining so subtle a
question, but we may say that we never met
with any person who had any serious idea
that he could recollect anything before he
was born, or who imagined it likely that con
sciousness preceded conception.
As we have arrived at the end of Mrs.
Jameson's autobiographical fragment, we are
tempted to say a few words on such revelations
in general. We are afraid that no person
could relate his sentiments and sensations
from a very early age without subjecting him-
self to the charge of being exceedingly egotisti
cal, nor without a great probability of the
record of youthful experience being coloured
by the impressions and opinions of more ad-
vanced age. In the case of literary persons there
seems a stronger objection against such rela-
tions (except when conceived in a most modest
spirit), as the literary character is believed to be
peculiarly prone to exaggerate the importance
of its internal life. The practice is, moreover,
exposed to ridicule from the habit some writers
have of talking perpetually of themselves, and
even of making money by filling books with
their mental portraiture. There is a kind of
quackery in this practice which strikes us as
altogether derogatory to literary reputation.
It is a mode by which an author may to his
circle of readers, be it large or small, puff him-
self just as he pleases ; and there may be as
much real puffery in giving prominence to
childish peculiarities as in representing ma-
turity endowed with all imaginable talent and
virtue. It is probable that many of Mrs.
Jameson's readers will exclaim, " What a
" wonderful child she must have been !" But
we are afraid that these reminiscences will on
the whole detract from the respect in which
she has hitherto been held as a writer. Some
children, we know, have great strength of cha-
racter and intense capacity of feeling; but
this line of delineation has been overdone in
modern literature. We may remark that the
fondness of some authors of talking about
themselves receives curious illustration in
another part of this volume. Towards the
latter end of his life, Hazlitt was, or fancied
himself, deeply in love. His Dulcinea was a
servant maid. His folly might have passed
without much notice, had he not chosen to fill
some quires of foolscap with his raving.
" Scripta liter amariet." His writings remain a
pi record much rather of the morbid vanity which
endeavoured to inflate even its folly to colossal
proportions than of genuine emotion.
4 It is a fault generally of Mrs. Jameson's
book, that, in all her ethical speculations, she