The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

MASSON'S ESSAYS•

Essays, Biographical and Critical : chiefly on
English Poets. By David Masson, A.M. Cam-
bridge : Macmillan and Company.
A collection of ten charming and remarkable
papers illustrative of our national literature. Illus-
trative of the literature of this country—from the
age of Queen Victoria to that of Queen Elizabeth.
It is consequently a group of biographical and
critical essays, having a certain symmetry and
completeness of desig,n'in the midst of its apparently
straggling, diversified, and miscellaneous charac-
teristics. Several of these little treatises upon poets
and poetry will be recognised by the reader as
effusions living pleasantly enough in his recollec-
tion from their original and purely anonymous ap-
pearance. For Mr. Masson's work, after all, is
nothing more nor less than a selection from writ-
ings contributed by him during the last dozen
years or so to one or other of our leading monthly
and quarterly periodicals. The elaborate
.a.naly-
out
appeared
for Nove-
mber. analy-
tical criticism upon " Shakspere and Goethe,"
for example, came before the world in 1852 as an
article in the Britishilton ,s Quarterlyyh
to
m
The singularly graceful descriptive chapter.
relating
same year in the North British Review for
during the
February. The "Three Devils"—meaning Lu-
ther's Evil Spirit, Milton's Satan, and. G-oethe's
.Mephistopheles—made their first startling appa-
rition together in Fraser's .7.ffegazinc• " Dry-
den and the Literature, of the Restoration"
formed the theme of another of our author's
brilliant and ornate British Quarterly cri-
ticisms. " Dean Swift" another suggest-
ed by a reprint of Scott's " Life" and the first
issue of Thackeray's "Lectures." The next Essay
in the series, by far the most noticeable of them all,
we shall revert to, presently. Let us speak of it
simply now as an enthralling " Story of the Year
1770," originally printed in three picturesque in-
stalments in the pages of the Dublin University
Magazine. Subsequently we come upon another
notable excerpt from the North British Review, in
the form of an article upon the poetry of " Words-
worth." Upon another explanatory of " Scottish
Influence in British Literature." Upon another—
curiously remarkable for its evidence at once of
taste and acumen--delineative of certain " Theories
of Poetry." And, lastly, upon a third reprint front
the British Quarterly, relating to the genius dis-
played in the prose and verse of "De Quincey,"
the eloquent, eccentric, and far-famed Opium-Eater.
Such in brief are the constituent portions of this
very readable volume from the pen of David Mas-
son, A.M., the learned and accomplished Professor
of English Literature at University College, London.
In the course of his succinct but sufficient Prefatory
Note, our author remarks that " had the selection
been large enough to
represent the entire series of
compositions from which it is taken," he would have
preferred arranging the papers in the exact order
of time in which they made their appearance. As
it is, he adds—" The Essays chosen having been
such as from their character might most aptly go
together in the same volume, it has been deemed
best to arrange them in the historical order of the
matters to which they refer." And so it falls out,
as already intimated, that the work—such as it is
—constitutes in a manner a sort of a critical survey
of English Literature from the Elizabethan epoch
downwards to the present generation. A compre-
hensive series of views illustrative of the literary
annals of Great Britain—beginning with the times
of Shakspere, and so passing down the Stream of
Years through the days of Milton, and Dryden,
and Swift, and Chatterton, and Wordsworth, to
those of our own immediate centemporaries.
Chatterton ! That is the one conspicuous feature
of the work under notice, to which we have as yet
only alluded incidentally. That is the Essay, Bio-
graphical and Critical, of whi▪
ch we have only
spoken, according to its second ti▪ tle, as the " Story
of the Year 1770," originally published in the
pages of the Dublin University. Published
in those pages, in three parts, subdivided into chap-
ters, in the July, August, and October numbers of
1851, the year of the memorable Hyde-park Exhi-
bition. A considerable portion of this Essay, Mr.
Masson tells us in his Prefatory Note, "is now
published for the first time ;" and he adds, " A
certain difference will be observed between this
paper and the others, both as regards the extent of
space allotted to it—[the article in question spread-
ing over no less than 168 pages, from p. 178 to p.
345]—and as regards the manner of the literary
treatment." Observing very justly in regard to it
by way of conclusion, that iu some respects this
portion of the Volume departs from the typical cha-
racter of the Essay, and approaches that of a mi▪
nia-
ture Biography." Observing this, we repeat, very
justly. For the rather elaborated memorial paper
upon Chatterton into which the " Story of 1770"
has been expanded would be defined much less ac-
curately, if spoken of merelyas a critical essay, than
as what it actually is, a species (if we may so term it)
of foreshortened biography. It is very charming, very
readable, very graceful as a memoir of the Boy-
Poet. But after all, if viewed as a biography, if
viewed as a mere " miniature biography" of Chat-
terton, it cannot be regarded, we conceive, as in
any way satisfactory. Any more than Dix's ac-
count of the same woful tale (beginning with Genius
and ending with Suicide) can be regarded as satis-
factory. Any more, for that matter, than Gre-
gory's all but stereotyped "Life of Chatterton
written originally for the Biographia Britannica,
reprinted soon afterwards in a separate form, and
prefixed without a single emendation, how-
ever trivial, to Southey and Cottle's 3 vol. edi▪ tion,
Bvo., of the Works of the "marvellous boy-:---the
sleepless soul that perished in his pride," published
in 1803 by the Messrs. Longmans
and Company.
Abbreviated though this most affecting story of the
i
Life and Death of the Boy-Bard has been under
the hand of Mr. Masson, it may yet take rank, we
conceive, with the ampler and more pretentious
memoirs of the same career by John Dix and George
Gregory. Certainly it is far above the miserable
little catch-penny " Life," by one Davis—occa-
sionallyi to be picked up for a few pence upon the
London Book-stalls, having on ts. frontispiece
an odious caricature of some imaginary face of
Chatterton, with, literally, a white " choker" ga-
rotted about the throat, and the eyes goggling
over the check-bones like those of an idiot under-
going the process of strangulation. Mr. Masson's
Essay, we repeat, is as far beyond this miserable
thing of a " Life" by one John Davis, as the eru-
dition of old Jacob Bryant is above the ignorance
of the Rev. Dr. Maitland ! This last-mentioned
_ personage being, we must inform our readers, the
author of a very slashing three-and-sixpenny pamph-
let, issued from the press a week or two back at
Rivingtons. " Chatterton : an Essay" —it is
entitled. A
in And it is a production avowedly given to
the world just now, because of the recent appear-
ance a new and more elaborated form of Mr.
Masson's scholarly and picturesque Essay, entitled
"A. story of the year 1770." How any one in-
spired
ecclesiastics and like thes.A. Rev.
could
u 0 S.
with any sentiment of Christian charitable-
nite. mss, how above
Dve.Dall.an ,
I.,deliberately pen an Essay such as this one d
upon
Chatterton, we must protest at once altogether
passes our comprehension. Consider, for a mo-
ment, what it literally is. It is a harsh, a cruel,
and even let us say at once, in one word—a brutal
attack upon the memory of a poor
..boy who died
nearly eighty-seven years ago in London, notori-
ously and undeniably by an act of self-murder, to
which he was driven by the phrenzy of despair and
_ the pangs of absolute starvation ! And it is the
3,l.l)pto(afptuerblic scorn, ridicule, and
memory of this poor boy that.all Dt
these
eMaitland
eighty-sevennow
? Because of any new facts he
fresh light he can throw
deliberatelyyreprobationearsilave gone holds
vv bh y
fparnoyblem involved in the once
can adduce—because of any grand discoveries he
y and Chatterton ?
ushastpoor
upon
tyande
co
op—i
tbi
Nothing of the sort ! Simply, literally, actually
tyee
tvuoatnsh
hadtohr authorship
real
littlea
ol
fS
the
eonpPoeu
poems
nothinges
for this one very insufficient. reason that Dr. Mait-
land has somehoweleo:tlaolgtastcebaoogluott into Iris head the whimsiCal
Chatterton atl
hte
old crotchet tdlitohatawtßi
attributed to Rowley. Dr.. Maitland swallows aftnr
whateveral l atnod
with-
out the smallest hesitation whatever the whole of
that nonsensical farrago of absurdity—purporting
to be a copy from an unauthenticated pencilled
repel:et of the Coroner's InqueSt upon the body of
Chatterton—contributed to "Notes and Queries"
on the sth of February, 1853, by Mr. Glitch, the
possessor of "the innumerable (sic 1) newspaper
and magazinecuttings which belonged to
Mr. Hazlewood.,_ An unauthenticated pen-
cilled report of the
inquest, crammed with
the most egregious blunders proving to
our mind, beyond the shadow of a doubt,- the
glaring fact of its being altogether a monstrous fa-
brication. Stating, for example, that the inquest
was held on " Friday, the 27th of August, 1770,"
when the 27th of Augnk+.
- that year fell on a
Monday ! Calling the house where Chatterton
died, in Brooke-street, "No 17
• " , when it was, on
the contrary, " No. 4!” Omitting all mention of
either Mary Foster or 'William laanisley as wit-
nesses giving evidence upon the occasion before the
coroner—when the fact that those witnesses did
give such evidence (as well as the other fact
that the house was No. 4) was 44 proved" by the
inquiries made as to the whole of those occurrences
as near to the actual time when they transpired as
the year 1780—inquiries then instituted personally
by the Rev. Sir Herbert Croft, Bart., the author
of "Love and Madness.,, But while Dr. Maitland,
be it observed, can listen with respectful credulity
to the wok-and-bull story put, forward in AT*4

and Queries by Mr. Gutch, of Worcester, a cock-
and-bull story taken from the pencilled rub-
bish of the Lord-Knows-Who—aids sane inge-
nious Dr. Maitland, who is all the while so
very
terto u , scurrilous
virtually in larieskants
leedogf etsh emsd elic2lnbo
roaynCeehait
n
regard to the credibility and, in point of fact,
also in regard to the very origin of Sir Herbert
Croft's " Love and Madness:" which he nevertheless
quotes from abundantly, and at one part flippantly
stigmatises (p. 96) as "a silly and discreditable
book." As a significant token, however, of the
profound knowledge of the Chatterton Question
which this very sensible and sagacious Dr. Maitland
brings to bear upon it, with a view to its elucida-
i ion—take bis reference in " Note 7," p. 97, to
that incidental remark made by Robert Southey iu
his letter to John May, Nov. 23d, 1802—" I have
taken no notice of Croft." To which Dr. Maitland
naively appends this confession of ignorance on his
own part, saying "I should like to know what
Southey meant by that little parenthetical notice
of Sir Herbert Croft." Icdesd ? With such
flagrant ignorance, anent the mere outlines of the
Chatterton Controversy, as this innocent avowal
testifies—perhaps it might have been as well, Dr.
Maitland, had you been a little less dogmatical
upon the question at issue, had you ben a little
less arrogant in tone, a little less insolent in the
depreciation of the moral and intellectual powers of
one, in regard to whom you only know things—
obviously—by halves ! Southey's reference to
Croft, in that latter written on the 23d of Nov.,
1802, to Mr. May, we can very easily explain to
the bewildered mind of Dr. Maitland. Shortly
after the beginning of the present century, Southey
designed to aid Chatterton's sister (Mrs. Newton)
and her daughter, by editing a collected edition
of the Boy-Poet's writings. To which end
he published certain " Proposals, &c.," in
the pages of the Monthly Magazine ; in these pro •
posals explaining sundry proceedings on the part
of Sir Herbert Croft, not very creditable to that Rev.
Baronet. Croft was at the time resident in Copen-
hagen. Nevertheless he heard,of this in due course,
through the kind offices, no doubt, of some of those
" d—d good-natured friends" Sheridan describes
as ever ready to make us all acquainted with
something said or done to our disadvantage. Where-
fore, in " rage and resentment untameable," he
issued a pamphlet in defence of himself against the
accusations contained in the " Proposals &c." in
a then recent number of the Monthly Magazine.
Croft exclaiming in this pamphlet, among other
similar things—" I cannot be expected by any man
of honour or feeling to descend to answer a scurri-
lous person, signing himself Robert Southey !"
Upon which, Joseph Cottle Ins remarked
rather humorously—" yet he is answering
him !" That—we take it—is the meaning
of Southey's writing to May, 23d November,
1802, " I have taken no notice of Croft"—signify-
ing to his friend that be has taken no notice of
this pamphlet, written by Croft at Copenhagen,
in reply to the " Proposals, &c.," in the Monthly
Magazine. If Dr. Maitland cares to examine
the matter more in detail, he will find his
curiosity may be readily satisfied by turning
to Southey's " Life and Correspondence,"
vol. ii., p. 186, and to Cottle's " Recollections
of Coleridge, &c.," vol. i., p. 266. Enough,
however --he whole of this most illogical
and bungling argument, put forward by Dr. Mait-
land in his egregiously preposterous pamphlet
about Chatterton,* says as much for the ascerbity of
the author of that pamphlet, and as little for his
astuteness, as the " Story of 1770" speaks well for
the clear mind and the gentle heart of Mr. Masson.
Shame to the one ! Honour to the other !
Chatterton could he note either—might laugh
-to scorn the perverse vituperation of his assailant,
and exult in the genial sympathies of one of the
latest and one of the ablest of his appreciators.
Whatever may be said to the contrary, the glory
of Rowley is Chatterton's glory—the fabricated
" originals'' (so to designate them) now preserve I
in the British Museum, are the certificates of his
literary fame and the testimonials of his poetical
reputation. If he has been depreciated by Dean
Mulles, and jeered at by Mr. Bryant, and (eighty-
seven years after he has been dead and buried)
scurrilously assailed in regard to his moral and
intellectual character by Dr. Maitland—Chatter-
ton has been applauded by Dr. Johnson ! He has
been eulogised by Shelley ! He has been lamented
by Coleridge—commended by Scott—respectfully
edited by Southey—mentioned with all honour by
Campbell, with all admiration by Byron, with all
grace by Wordsworth, with all tenderness of feel-
ing by James Montgomery. Malone, and Tyr whitt,
and Warton, and other great critics of the last as
well as of the present century have paid their
homage to his genius. John Keats inscribed to
his memory his mai.len poem of " Hyperion." Al-
fred de Vigny has selected his career as the theme
of an eloquent romance and of a pathetic drama.
David Masson has thrown over the recollection of
his life and death, of his genius and of bii sufferings,
the vivifying glow of a sympathetic imagination.

following morning, upon his attempting to dispose
of a portion of it, he was followed to my ware-
house, where the remainder of it was found. Iwu
thereupon taken into custody and placed in Brecon
Gaol, from which I
' escaped. Giffar
d—Did you not go to Saward in 1844
land ask him a question about the title to some
land that you had in Australia I—l did, and he
drew out a case for the opinion of counsel.
Cross-examination continued.—lt was al ways
part of my scheme to represent myself as a respect-
able man. I did represent myself as a colonial
trader, and I was one. I had land
Mr. Burge was the counsel whosaeopiinaioAnuwstLal.
ob-
tained by Saward. That was not the first ocoa-
sion upon which Saward and I had met. I was
not in England when Markham was tried. When
I heard that he had been innocently convicted, An-
derson, Saward, Atwell, a man named Thomas
Smith, and myself, met and subscribed a sovereign
each for his wife. The 5/. was given to Atwell to
leave for her at a public-house, the landlord of
which has since told me that he gave her the mo-
ney. I reasoned with Anderson for not trying to
get Markham acquitted, upon which Seward said
that " that wouldn't do, as he (Anderson) might
draw himself into it." (Sensation.) I knew Ed-
ward Agar (the approver in the late bullion rob-
bery case) through Saward, with whom I first be-
came acquainted about 25 or 26 years ago. He was
always known as " Jem, the penman." I do not
want to make myself appear better than I am, but
Saward was known for years after I first became
acquainted with him to be carrying skeleton keys
through the city for a gang of burglars when they
wanted them for a night. I cannot say that I cor-
rupted Saward. (Laughter.) I was in England
when Agar was tried. Saward told me that he was
in the habit of selling gold for Agar.
Re-examined by Mr. Mullins--I arrived in Eng-
land on the 26th of May, 1856. From 1853 or
1854 to that time I was in the colonies. Saward
had known me several years previous to my being
confined in Brecon Gaol: Saward introduced- me
to Agar, to whom I sold a crape shawl which I had
brought with me from the colonies. Saward told
me I must trust Agar for the amount of the shawl,
and I did so. In 1844 I met Alexander Frazer at
Saward's chambers, 4 Hare-court, Temple..
This closed the evidence for the prosecution.
The Lord Mayor, after giving the prisoners the
usual caution, asked them whether they had any-
thing to say in answer to the charge ?
Anderson—No.

Saward—l am not guilty of the charge.
The prisoners were then fully committe I for
trial.

!HE POPE AND HIS CHAPLAIN-MAJOR.

ROME, Feb. s.—lt is rare for any long period to
go by without affording some fresh example of the
Pope's benevolence and generosity towards the in-
digent classes of his subjects. An amusing instance
of his Holiness's accessibility took place at the Vati-
can a few days ago, when a little boy presented him-
self in the outer ante-chamber of the apostolic apart-
ment', and begged to be admitted to the presence of
the Pontiff. It may he imagined with what surprise
this request was received by the palace servants, and
how they endeavoured to make the child unders' and
the incongruity of his demand. Whilst the affair was
under discussion, a cameriere segreto of his Holiness
passed through the ante-chamber, and having the
curiosity to learn what was the matter referred it, as a
good joke, to the Pope himself. Pio Nono, how-
ever, gave orders for the child to be admitted to his
presence, and having questioned him as to the
reason of his wishing for an audience, heard that
the boy had an earnest desire to study, but that his
parents, unable to procure him the necessary books,
always put him off with an assurance that the Pope
would buy them for him. To effect the realisation
of this promise the boy had made the best of his
way to the Vatican, and promptly informed his
Holiness that the works indispensable for the pro-
secution of his studies would cost fifty-three pauls.
The Pope directed the cameriere segreto to
give him two dollars (twenty pauls), but the
boy said that he could not buy his Looks
with that, so his Holiness 'benevolently took
out two gold coins of five dollars each and pre-
sented them to the enraptured child, who
forthwith made off towards the bookseller's shop,
followed by an officer of the Pope's household, who
had ordets to observe his movement'. Being in-
formed tdat the boy bad really appropriated the re-
quired money to the purchase of books, and that
he had consigned the remainder to his mother, the
Pope took an interest in him and allotted a monthly
sum for his education in the career of letters to
which he seemed so much attached. Another less
edifying but not less amusing anecdote has been
' current in Rome for the last few days, at the ex-
pense of the chaplain-major of the Pope's army. It
appears that this.prelate, being dissatisfied with the
conduct of an officer in the foreign regiment, threat-
ened to have him cashiered, unless certain relations
he maintained were discontinued. Theresentment of
the officer, however, whether real orimaginary, gave
rise to some subiequent misgivings in the pre-
late's breast, which the recent attacks upon code-
siastical dignitaries were by no means calculated to"
soothe. Meanwhile the officer, having become ac-
quainted at Forli with a nobleman of that town,
Count Gaddi, a relation of the Pope, who is now
in Rome, and enjoys ,a certain degree of influence,
begged his good offices to appease the wrath of
Monsignor Tizzani, the chaplain-major. The count,
although unacquainted with the prelate, promised
to call upon him for the desired purpose, but re-
quested to be informed at what hour he was most
likely to find him disengaged.
This the officer undertook to discover, and going
to the chaplain's residence for that purpose, gave
five pauls to one of the servants, requesting him to
give admittance to a gentleman who would call
about two o'clock, and who wished to speak with
the prelate on urgent business,
Monsignor Tizzani, being informed of this cir-
cumstance by his zealous servant, conceived great
alarm, and felt sure that some emissary of the
officer's vengeance, or some ferocious follower of
Verger's example, was seeking an audience for
homicidal purposes. He therefore prudently sum-
moned to his aid a sergeant of gendarmes, who pro-
posed to lie in wait with some of his men during
the visit to prevent 'any aggressiye act on the part
of the visitor ; but the cautious prelate sagaciously
supposing that a blow with a poignard would be
sooner received than prevented, declined
adopting that plan, and intimated that the
sergeant himself bad better assume the prelatical
gown for the nonce, and give audience in
his name to the mysterious visitor. The valorous
gendarme philosophically complied—" cedant arena
toga," was the motto acted upon • his uniform
disappeared under the purple robe, his moustaches
were hidden in an ample wrapper, under pretence
of suffering from a violent toothache ; and the room
being darkened with curtains, the unconscious
Count Gaddi was admitted. Having exposed. the
case and requested the prelate's indulgence for his
friend, the Count waited for a reply, which', of
course, the gendarme, who expected an assault
rather than a petition, was not prepared to give in
a very explicit form, and the prelate, who was
anxiously listening to the conversation from an
adjoining door, cut matters short by sending a ser-
vant to say that dinner was ready, at which an-
nouncement the sham monsignor started up, and
the count withdrew, much surprised at his
mumbling voice and strange uncertainty of
manner. It was only on his complaining to Car-
dinal Bofondi of his want of success that the meta-
morphosis was discovered, for the cardinal sent his
own secretary to intercede with monsir, who at
once confessed his own alarm and the stratagem he
had used to avoid the supposed dangerous inter-
view. All Rome is laughing at this adventure,
and Monsignor Tizzani amongst the rest ; but the
Pope is said to be doubly displeased—first, at his
relation being considered a perilous visitor ; and
next, at a gendarme being so unceremoniously in-
ducted into
Monday morningntoprelatieal he
garb.t
Oa
customary solemnity of
Candlemasolin e
sblessed t oo t
splendidlyk
place
at St,
Peter's, when his
H
adorned distributed them to the members
doorfn ethed tapers,Sacred
College,
and the
and ecclesiastical autho-
rities,_diplomatistsand foreigners whose
religion qualifies them for the reception of the pre-
sent. Queen Christina, with her family and suite,
assisted as usual in a royal box.
Piince Orsini, Marquis Ferraioli, and
Signor
Jacobini have been deputed by the provincial coun-
cil
of Rome and Comarca, to present their grateful.
thanks to his Holiness, in the name ofPePrt.'
vince, for his generous gift of twelve
.seudi to alleviate the distress of the inhabitants of
the thousand
ntf
the neighbouring villages, who are. still suffering
from the partial failure of the
improvingwine
Marina, in which w
the roaThe d to
money has been
devotederk the indigent labourers of
io crop.
that district are
judiciously employed.—Coprespor,
dent of Daily ~'ews.

—GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND.—Lad
night
d Lodge of Emergency was held at the
Freemasons'a Gal
Tavern, for tho purpose of proceeding with
the arrears
of business. Present the M.W. the G.M.
Grand
T.
the Right Hon. the Earl of Zetland in the chair, the
Right Ron. Lord Panmure, Viscount Goderioh, kn.
question, as
After the orders of the day bad been disposed of, a
lengthened discussion ensued on the vexede
the
power of
to whether Grand Lodge should
adjourning the quarterly communications.
hieffeet, as also did a
Pan-
mure opposed a resolution to this assu Lord
number of other brethren, on
to
aground that it was not
vote of want of cone-
Necessary ; it was tantamount
e such a power. The re-
deuce in the G.M. to and
Grand
Lodge was then
Adjourned.
i solution was negatived, and the