Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-08
Some Whims Of Authors,
Temple Bar.

Carneades, the philosopher, seldom
wrote without dosing himsef with helle-
bore. -schylus, Eupolis, Cratinus,
Ennlus are said never to have sat down
TO compose till they were intoxicated.
Dryden often had himself bled, and, like
Fuseh, ate raw meat to assist, he said,
his Imagination. Shadwell, De Quin-
cey. PSalmanaazar, Dean Miner, Col
eridge, and Bishop Horsley, stimulated
themselves with opiuI, as De Musset
was helpless without absinthe. Gray
seldom sat down to compose without
first reading through some cantos of the
"Faery Queen" Corneille fired him
self with the pursual of ''Lucan." Black
stone never wrote without q bottle of
port wine on his desk, nor Schiller with
ont flask Of Rhenish within call. When
his imagination was sluggish he would
sit with his feet in hot water, drinking
coffee ''to thaw the frost on his wits. "
MOntaigne was never happy without his
cat, and with his pen IL his right hand
while his left was smoothing the glossy
back Of his favorite tabby, meditated his
Essays" Boxborne, the great Dutch
scholar, could never write a word with
out pipe in his mouth, and as he pre-
ferred long pipe and yet required
the use Of both hands, he bethought him
Of avery ingenious device. He had a hat
with an enormous brim, which impend-
ed in front Of his face; through this he
made hole to support his pipe thus Sc
curing the double advantage Of shading
his eyes and enjoying without inconven-
fence his favorite luxury, and in this way
he produced his voluminous and valua-
BILE writings. Hobbies had the same
weakness, ten or twelve pipes with a
candle" being his invariable concomit-
ants at the desk, and DIR. Parr was not
less dependent on tobacco. SoutheY
could never write line except at his
desk, with his books round him and with
familiar objects near by. Milton could,
he said, never compose anything to his
satisfaction except between the vernal
and autumnal equinox. At those sea-
sons his poetry came like an inspiration.
At other times, in spite of the most
strenuous efforts, he would be unable to
bring to the birth single verse. Thorn
sou, Collins, and Gray had the same su-
prostitution about themselves. John
son, with his usual bluff common sense,
ridicUles such fancies, and calls them
unworthy Of any sensible mantle good
doctors theory being that man who
had the power Of writing always could
write eff he set himself doggedly to it. "
William Pryune, the voluminous author
OF the "Histriomastriz," was nothing
without long quilted cap which came
an inch OYER his eyes. Button was help
a z-,r,ElCez,
frill. Still stranger were the whims of
Graham, the author OF "rhe Sabbath"
and HCgg, the Ettrick Shepherd, who,
If We are to believe De Quincy, found
eirth vein never ran happily unless they
sat down to their tasks With boots and
spurs On. An eminent modern novelist
finds his pen and imagination powerless
unless he sits surrounded by lighted
candles in q darkerei room, and Horace
Walpole tells as that Lord 0rrery found
no stimulus so effCacious as n sharp fit
Of the govt. The great Datch scholar,
Isaak NOssIus, and our OWL poet, John
Philips, would employ a servant to
comb their hair while they mediate their
works. Coleridge told Hazlitt that when
engaged in composition he never found
his vein so happy as when he was walk
ing over uneven ground, or making his
way through eoppice with the twigs
brushing his face. Wordsworth, on the
other hand, preferred straight gravel
walk where he could wander mechani-
cdly and without any impeachment to
and fro; in this way almost all his latter
poems were composed. Lord Bacon had
a fancy for inhaling the fumes of bottle
of claret poured out on earth which had
been newly upturned.