New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-06
NEwYoRK DAILY TRIBUNE SUNDAY MARCH q e

and the m0deety TO hearc WITH patlenco' Ay'S
name like Shakespeares, is yariously spcheu-
Lilly, Lyle, Lyllie and Lylv; andh may VEN
ture upon an utterly indefensible joke, should cay
that he was one of those Lilies whcn IL Wouio De
particularly absurd to paint.
No book upon literary fashions would be complete
without some account of the rise and progress OF
English versi6cation. and the influence OF DrYdens
and of Popes example upon most of the verse OF the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Inc ten
syllable conplet, measured trim and antitneticaiiy
balanced made all verse of the kind written before
glorious john" and much written during MS
time, seem harsh, clumsy, and awkward. Inc
peculiarity of Popes lines is that they are easy
of imitation and the natural result was that they
were perpetually initiated. 1t was reserved. says
Macaulay " for Pope to discover the trick to make
himself complete master of it, and to teach u 10
everybody else" He adds that ounces could write
it, and that being matter OF rule and compass u
put all artists ppon q level Campbell praised It,
naturally, for bis prize poem" OF " The PLEASURES
of Memory" was in debt to il for the easy flow OF
it's lines. Some years ago, when poor Leigh Hunt
was young, he with his Spenser-lovlng companions
wagcd a great war upon Pope; but Cowper had
long before written him down "a mechanical
maker of verses" 1t was one of Byron's whims to
declare Pope perfect master of his art, not perhaps
because Byron loved him, but probably because he
mated SOuthey, COlerldge, and particularly Bowles'
But, after ALL POpe's manner is one which mas
never entirely gone ont of fashion. Our own poets
whenever they attempt the decasyllabic write as
nearly like him as possible. DR.. Holmes must have
been great reader of Pope at some time. as those
will know who have read that early poem OF his
delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society OF
Harvard College in 1886, and remember the force
and melody Of its yersfcatiOn. Pope did not in
vent the line, but lie so improved it that it ought
TO BIO called by bis name, as we call different verse
Spcnserean.
literary fashion of the last century was the
Della Cruscan 10 which that amiable man. William
Clifford, gave an etfectuai if not benevolent quetns
In the preface to his Baviad" the author tells us
that in 1885, a few English Of both sexes, whom
chance had iumbled together at Florence, took q
fancy to while away their time in scrbbling high
flown panegvrics upon themselves" One OF them
was JohnsOn's Thrale, Mrs. Piozz; and The names,
utterly obscure now, of Greathead Merry. Parsons,
and others are given. Merry married Miss Brunton
the actress and coming with her to this country in
1896 died here suddenly. The chief lights OF the
new school had lived in Florence, and their pro-
auctions had or were supposed to have, an Italian
cast The disciples III London set up daily news
paper called The World. in which thew printed their
calico verses Clifford fOrcibly calls it drunken
three prominent features: !. Downright nonsense
2. Downright frigidity; g. Downright dOggerel.
OF the first lie gives the following specimen; each
an independent line:
Hang DER his eye the gnssamery tear.
Wreath round her airy harp the tiTn'roua JOY
A web-wOrk of despair. a man Of woes.
And DER my lids the scaldng tumOr roll.
We arc told that Merry gives us moody monarchs,
COOLING cataracts, gloomy glass, mingling murder,
n Ill. .
ings, sinking sorrows, rich reasOnIngs melancholy
mercies. dewy vapors damp that sweep the silent
swamp; and a world Of Others to be found in the
compass of half dozen pages" Anastasa Robin
son. the poor lady OF whom l have had something
to say in n previous paper, one of the Della
Crusca set, and wrote with the foolishest
Of them, for which they paid her, poor as she then
was, in nothing but complimentary sonnets. There
was Mr.. Vaughan who " under the aluring sigma
ture of Edwin" wrote melancholy poems, " on the
death of bug the tight OF an earwig, the misfor
tunes Of q cockchatfer, other event OF equal
importance" There was poem mentioned by
Clifford " On tame mouse, which belonged to
fady who saved its life. constantly fed it, and wept
M its approaching death. The mouses eyes dropped
ont of its head poor mouse! the day before it
aied." Critics sometimes COMPLAIN OF our poetry,
and of present feeble or foolish manncrisms. am
lCHpbtu W topJ WIS HONui' huASh OAiApAN SA'NS ~
a note:
This feeling mou-e. whose heart was warn'd
Becanse her mistress drODta tear,
Wept both her eyes away.
By sympathy deprived OF light
She days darkness tried;
The grateful u ar M more could flow,
so lk'd it not aud diod.
Nav we when others weep for US
The debt with interest pay
And when the genrOus fOnts are dry,
Revert On native ely.
The man who wrote this signed himself [" Edwin"
Surely we may quote Beattie, and declare that
Young Edwin was no vulgar boy" Ii is melan-
choy fact that such puere stuff this was greatly
in fashion. Tho reviews magazines newspapers
were full of it. One critic said that Anastasia's
poem on the nightingale was superior to that OF
Milton on the same subject. Greathead equalled
Shakespeare Cesario outdid Pope Flesh and
blood could not bear it-certanly not the flesh and
blood of Clifford, who joined classical taste ana
an uncomfortable temper by the way John
Kemblo is taken to task bv him fol his love OF OLD
hooks and because he pleased to buy at vast SUMS
the trash Of ancient days" Somebody showed the
satirist marked catalogue of Dood's looks, and
no there found that Kemble had been foolish enough
to nay for the following the annexed prices:
First part Of tho rrsgcan Rlgne Of scIimus Emperor
Of the Turks Ell. lis, o. ,,...,- r.. J., o., =
Jacob and Merrte and Whlttle Come ny, 1o, d.
Look about You; Comedy. 30, 49, Cd
Il is wonderful to consider how great literary
flames some times sink into q mere name. l was
struck with this the other day while reading Mr.
Stevenss new book about Madame dc Stael. How
much she IS talked about, how frequently she is
mentioned how little she is readl ! suppose that
the same is true of DIR. Johnson. What his fame
was while living and writing I need not say.
when he died biographies alter biographies Iemi-
niscences after "reminiscences OF him were instantly
published as suppose that they will be about MI
CARLYLE; yet who reads Johnson nowf His
works are upon my shelves in some twenty vol
umes, but seldom take one OF item down anu
observe that nobody ever asks to borrow them.
Yot ~ all the men of his time he is best known by