New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-17
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDoR.

The writings of Walter Savage Landor' "H
never have been and never can be popui"ii' -.
always captivated the admiration OF Ino $50
minds and there il probably otherauthor 80 A''io
-, 90 4bo ,vorid % readers whose permanent
place win be so high in the history OF Engsh hteIS
tnre The oauses of this indifference TO one OF lne
most npre,v Grecian and at the same time mos'
tborongblv and exquisitely English OF ali EhsHo
,riters yvonld not be far TO seek; but we are con
cernea NOW rather with LandOrs personal history 'i
with An estimate Of his literary position a.nous
the book before us devotes to the eIluca au'uy a
his noems many elaborate and to our minu suP'iIr
,,,,a no coo His life was in some respects LAo hH
r., oty from, sympathy with the most OF man
Kind by temper which he used TO declare vac INC
,,r, worst with which was ever cursed anu
5onood 20 min not only his own happiness but the
uesce of nearly everybody with whom ne tIleu !"
live men think of him as sort Oh lhspIeu savage
best admired at % distance 1eG win 'nie
ferOcity of temper there hlhgIeu ohiI"r
80 oentIeness warmth of affection ten
derness for friends, for women, for flowers
and animals. Among the many who loved him
through all his wrongheadedness and violence
were some of the nOblest of men and of women
and perhaps until Mr.. Forster's book appeared
no more truthful picture of him had been
given us than that which Dickens drew when
he made him a character in Bleak House under
the name of La,ernce BOytOrn. The first introduce
tion of Bovhorn in the novel is not only very char
actersto of Landors superb extravaganza OF speech
but is very nearly matched by actual scenes in his life
I'VE have been mlsdiTected, JaTndyce, by most
abandoned ruf1ian who told us to take the turning
to the right instead of to the left He is the most in
tolerable scoundrel on the face of the earth. His
father must have been most cOnsummate villain
ever to have had such a son. l would have that
fellow shot without the least remorse have not
the slightest doubt that the scoundrel has passed his
whole existence in misdirecting travellers by my
soul thought him the worst-looking dog had ever
beheld when he was telling me to take the turning
to the right And yet stood before that fellow face
TO face and didn't knock his brains outP writer
in The AheHGum tells story of Landors
roaring about some man who had offended
him, yet to whom he owed no special grudge: That
fellow was the greatest rascal that ever lived, and
his father before him was next to him. the greatest
rascal that ever hved;' Just BOythOrn said of Sir
Leicester Dedock That fellow is and his father icas
and his grandfather Was the most stitf-necked AFRO
CANT imbeeile. pig-headed numskull ever, by some
inexplicable mistake of nature born in any station
of life but a walking sticks~ And just as Boyhorn
declared that if he had kept lady waiting dinner
he would have turned away from the door and gone
instantly to the Himalaya Mountains, so LandOr,
when he once lost his way in going to
dinner party, could no remedy for his
breach of poteness but cutting his throat or drown
ing himself, unless a cOuntryman whom he met could
direct him by q short road to the house where the
party were assembled. Mr.. Dickens, in a recent
number of Al the Year Round, tells similar story
of Lander at Lady Blessington's: His dress-say,
his cravat or shirtcollar-had become slightly
disarranged on a hot evening and Count DOTsay
laughingly called his attention to the circumstance
ms we rose from table Lander became flushed, and
greatly agitated: My dear Count DOrsay. l thank
you'll My dear Count D'Orsay. thank you from my
soul for pointing out to me the abomnable condition
to which am reduced If had entered the draw
inG-room, and presented myself before Lady Bless
lngtOn in so absurd light, would have instantly
gone home put pistol to my head, and blown my
brains out =" These however, views of side
of his character which was amusing rather than
painful The tempest spent itself in harmless
explosions of invective, passed away in one Of
those leonine roars of laughter for which the poet
had curious sort of celebrity But there was
tragic side also, and many time in that turbulent
life of eightynine years the tempest spread fearful
desOlation.
Landor the son of physician at Warwick,
and was born in that town on the SOth Of January,
IT'S. He came of good family, but seems to have
laid claim to a high ancestral distinction to which
he really had no right Mr.. Forster says: Il had on
one occasion the greatest difficulty in restraining
him from sending challenge to Lord John Russell
for some fanced slight to the memory of Sir Arnold
Savage, Speaker of Henry the Seventies first House
Of Commons; yet any connection beyond the name
could not with safety have been assumed" He was
sent to Rugby where he defed the head master, and
was removed as the alternative Of expulsion He
was rusticaed at Trinity College Oxford. for shoot
ing at the window Of an obnoxious fellQw-stQdent,
and never went back again. He quarreled bitterly
with his father left home in a rage and retired 70
Wales where he had an unfortunate love adventure,
and wrote his first long poem "Gebir." 1t was this
remarkable poem which led afterward to his in
timacy with Southey. Succeeding TO the family
estates after the death of his father he led rather
wild life for while at Bath but when Napoleon
invaded Spain he hurried TO the Peninsula to offer
the Spaniards present of money and his services as
avolunteer He did nothing in Spain except quarrel
Outrageously with the English Envoy at Corunna,
and at the end of three months went home in dis
gust, bearing, however, the honorary commission of
colonel in King Ferdinand's army When some years
later Ferdinand restored the Jesuts in Spain Landor
sent back his commission, saying that he had done
his best for Spanish liberty against Napoleon, and
could not continue nOminaly in the service of
worse perjurer and traitor" IL was perhaps this
visit to Spain which inspired his tragedy of Count
Julian" based upon the same chapter of Spanish
history from which Southey at the same time. was
constructing his " Vision of Don RoderickD When
Count Julian" was finished it was offered to Long
man, who refused it, whereupOn, says Lander
committed to the flames my tragedy of 'Ferrante
and Giulio' and am resolved that never verse of
mine hereafter shall be committed to anything elsep
Count Julian, however, was soon printed by Muir
ray. and we hear of Lander with comedy called
THE Charitable Dowager." which he was anxious
should be not only published but acted As might
have been imagined, il was entirely unfit for the
stage and never was brought out.