The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1865-10-19
The LOtes of the ocls.
Tdsso, Pope, Montgomery,
PercivdI, Dante, Milton, addison,
Dryden, Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Hemans.

fFrom the Christian Advocate and Journal
Many distinguished poets have been
bachelors. So far as we have been
able to learn, Virgil was never marri.
cd. Petrarch's love for Laura dc
Moves has given immortality to the
name Of that lady but he loved hope
lessly and died unmarried. Tasso
nursed an unhappy affection for the
beautiful Lcodora, sister to Alphonso,
Duke Of Ferrara. This hapless love il
said to have made the poet insane,
and led to his being more than seven
years in the hospital at st. Anna as a
lunatic. Ho never afterwards loved
another. Pope's " Elegy on an unfor-
tunatc LADY," is supposed to have
been produced by the death of one
whom the author loved. However
this may have been, he never married.
Thomson, Collins and Goldsmith died
bachelors. There is reason for think
ing that Montgomery's beautiful poem
entitled "Hannah," describes o cir
cumstance that really took place in the
life of that poet; and the marriage of
ono whom he fondly loved to another,
is said to have rendered Percival a
gloomy misanthrope during the re.
mainder of his life.
But perhaps these were more fortu-
nate than those poets who contracted
unhappy marriages. Dante had scarce
ly completed his ninth year before he
formed an attachment to Beatrice For
tinati, whom he has immortalized in
his Divine Comedia;" but the object
of his love became the wife of another,
and died young. Although Dante
cherished her memory throughout the
whole of his life, he did not permit the
remembrance of her TO prevent him
from marrying u lady Of noble birth
named Gcmme de Donati. This lady
possessed an outrageous temper, and
after living together for somc years
they separated. Perhaps his own do
mestic troubles suggested the lines
which he places in the mouth Of
character in his Inferno,
"Sfe, my wifc
or savage temper, more thar aught besides,
Hath to this evil brought" ..
Milton married Mary Powell on a
short acquaintance; but he soon re.
pointed OF his rashness. There was no
similarity of taste between the repub-
lican student and the gay daughter Of
the royalist. Neither of them were
happy; and she who might have been
known w all coming generations as
the Eve who rendered the homo Of
England's sublimest bard an Eden, is
remembered only as one whose con-
duct served to vex that noble mind
Dryden's homo was far from being the
abode of uninterrupted peace. We
are told that upon his wife expressing
q wish that qho were book, that she
might receive some attention from
him, he said should preferthat she sho'd
be an almanac, for then he could
change her at the end of the year. lie
is said to have written an epitaph fol
her in something like the following
language:
"Bcneath this stone my wife does lie;
SHE is happy, and so am l."
Addison married q high born lady
only to find that he could not live hap
PLY with her. Byron's early love fol
Mary Chaworth has rendered thai
ladys name famous. One cannot helr
thinking how different might have
been the life and literary productions
of the poet had she become his wife
AS it was, his marriage 10 Miss Mill
bank was a fruitful source of wretch
edness, both to her and the prohigat,
bard. Mrs. Uemaps was married car
ly in life to one who utterly failed t
appreciate her virtue, and who, aftel
having lived with her for severa
years, let her go to support hersel
and five small boys by the labor ofhel
pen. Mrs. Norton early wept o?el
the grave of one whom she loved, anC
then formed one of the most unhappy
unions that ever brought misery on
any woman:
This appears like dark picture
but perhaps, these mislortunes served
to bring out the genius of those who
experienced them. Genius produces
its mightiest works in the midst Of
sorrows and difficulties. Had Shakes,
peare never been forced from his home
it is possible that we never would
have heard of him as great poet. The
oak must wrestlc with the storm be.
fore it can como to maturity. 1t is
when outward circumstances are for
bidding that the mind generally gives
birth TO its most glorious thoughts
Had Dante's life glided smoothly away
or even had his homo been q place
where he could have found peace and
quietness while the storm ragged with
out, he might never have been known
as one of the earth's greatest poets.-
Could anything but acquaintance with
great sorrow have given to Mrs He
mans the pathos that characterizes SC
much of her poetry2 1t is fact tha
poets who have been happy IN theil
marriages have few of them gained
place in the first rank Of their frater
nifty. Would not Moore have had {
greater depth of feeling in his poetry
If his domestic life had not glided 81
smoothly away? Had Southey beer
as unfortunate in his domestic rcla
tions as was Byron, perhaps ther
would hav6 been more fire in his poe
try. A happy marriage has prevented
Barry Cornwall from meeting the OK
p'ectations that his early production
created.