The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-04-27

being works of imagination couched in
a style essentially bold and free, choice
phraseology, careful rhythm, and copi-
GUS illustration were not so much
needed; but when We learn that Ben
Jonson completed his highly-wrought
comedy of "The Alchymistv in six
weeks, and that DIR. johnson could
throw off forty-eight octave pages of
such a finished composition as his
" Life of Savage" at a sitting, one is in
deed lostin bewildering admiration, and
perhaps half inclined to doubt the au-
thors word. However much we may
wonder at feats like these, we should
not. forget Sheridan's witty remark,
that very easy writing is generally very
hard reading; and comfort our common
place selves with the thought that, in
nine cases out of ten, genius in literature
is like genius in practical life, little else
than honest, interchangeable labor fortu-
nately directed. The wise Lord Bacon
has observed that prodigies, of what
kind soever they may be, belong to what
is monstrous in nature, and as they are
not produced in accordance with the
laws which determine mans condition,
ought neither to be sought out nor imi-
tated. But we must turn now to our
third point--the strange circumstances
under which celebrated works have
been produced. - .I......t-
1t is curious that two of the greatest
historical works in the world were
|,
the 90 History of the Peloponnesian
War; by Thucydides, the 9. History of
the Rebellion by Lord Clarendon.
Fortescue, the chief justice in Henry's
Wis reign, wrote his great work on
the laws of England under the same
Locke was refugee in
Holland when he penned his memorable
" Letter concerning Toleration," and
put the finishing touches to his immor-
tai Essay on the Human Understand
ing" Lord Bolingbroke had also cleft
his country for his country's good
when he was engaged on the works by
which he will be best remembered.
Everybody knows Dante's sad tale, and
his miserable wanderings from city to
city while the Divine Comedy was in
course of production. Still more mel
is it to review the formidable
array of great works which were COM
posed within the walls of prison. First
come the " Pilgrims Progress and
Z" Don Quixote;'' the one written in Bed
ford gaol, the other in squalid dun
geon in Spain. James l. (of Scotland)
penned his sweet poem "The Kynge's
Quhair," while prisoner in Windsor
Castle; and the loveliest of Lord Sur
rey's verses We're written in the same
place, under the same circumstances.
Sir Walter Raleighs "History of the
World'' was composed in the Tower.
George Buchanan executed his brilliant
Latin version of the Psalms while in
generated in Portugal. "Fleta," one
of the most valuable of our early law
works, took its name from the fact of
its having been complied by its author
in the Fleet Prison. Boethius' Soon
solutions of Philosophy" De Foes
'' Review and " Hymn to the Pillory,'
Voltaire's Henriade," Howel's "Fa-
miliar Letters''-to which we have re-
Gently directed attention-Dr. Dodd's
- Prison Thoughts, Grotius' Com
on st. Matthew" and the
Adventures of DR.. Syntax,n
al these were produced in the gloomy
cell of a common prison. Tasso wrote
some of the loveliest of his sonnets in a
nad-house, and Christopher Smart his
= Song to David''-one of the most elo-
luent sacred lyrics in our language
while undergoing confinement in
similar place. Poor Nathaniel Lee, the
lramatist, is said to have revolved some
Of his tragedies in lucid intervals within
the walls of a lunatic asylum. Plautus
fabricated some of his comedies in
bake-house. The great Descartes, Berni,
the Italian poet, and Boyse, the once
author of 1.-The Deity
usually wrote while lying in bed.
Hooker meditated his Ecclesiastical
Polity'' while rocking the cradle of his
child; and Richardson slowly elaborated
his romances among the compositors of
his printingoffice. Byron composed
the greater part of Lara" while en-
gagged at his toilet-table, and his PRO
logue at the Opening of Drury Lane
Iheater' in stage-coach. Moore's
gorgeous Eastern romance, "Lalla
was written in a cottage
blocked up with snow, with an English
winter roaring round it. Burns dreamed
one of his lyrics, and wrote it down just
as it came to him in his sleep. Tartini's
" DEVILS Sonata was another inspira-
ton from Morpheus; and so also was
"Kubla Khan"
Such were the extraordinary circum-
stances attending the composition of
works which have amused and in
thousands of people; such have
been some of the methods, and such
some of the habits of authors. Various
and unintelligible often are the forms
in which human genius will reveal it
self; but quite as various, and perhaps
quite as unintelligible, at first sight, are
the ways in which it has surmounted
the obstacles which opposed it, asserted
its claims, and effected its development.
-CaSSelPS Magazine.
The Troubles of a Poet. q.