Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-25

HAL WIZ, ike HIMSELF, WIS q Oedr lover
of poetry. Early in 1870, when Gosse
was twenty, the two friends prepared
and brought out in the summer of 1870,
joint volume entitled "Madrigals,
Songs and Sonnets, by j. A. Blake and
E. w. Gosse." Mr.. Gosse tells me he
doubts if dozen copies of this first ven
ture were ever sold; but it was not GER
tainly thrown away, for it introduced
him to Rossetti, Swinbourne, and others
brought him into that literary atmos-
phere for which he had always longed.
The first editor to accept one of his ar
ticles was Froude, at that time one of
the editors of Fraser's Magazine. Be-
fore this Gosse had sent articles to one
magazine and another, and had them re-
turned to him, as befalls most youthful
soribes. He hardly expected better luck
with the manuscript sent to Froude; but
very speedily came, by way of answer,
the proofs of the article for correction. .
1t was the beginning of his success.
wonder if anything has ever given him
quite such a glow of satisfaction since?
In 1871 he made his first journey 10 Nor
way and wrote for Fraser's an account
of his adventures in the Lofoden islands.
About this time, also, he began to write
for the Spectator. In 1872 he travelled
through North Germany and Scandiva-
via, and met Anderson Bjornsen and
other " Northern Lights.
In 1873 he published 'fOn Viol and
Flute,' the first book of poems for
which he alone was responsible, and it
brought him immediate and deserved
recognition as poet. In the next year
he was employed on the editorial staff Of
the Examiner, besides frequently con-
tributing to the "Academy'' and the
Saturday Review. AS his first poetical
venture in company with Blake had
won for him literary friends, SO his sec
ond, "0n Viol and Flute," won for
him, in way, that dearest friend Of
all, his wife. Lawrence Alma Tadema,
the great artist, read the. book, liked it,
and asked the young poet to his house.
and at the hospitable Tadema mansion,
on the Regents park, Gosse met Miss
Nellie Epps, Mr.. Tadema's sister, to
whom he was married in 1875, when he
was only twenty-siX. Mr.. Gosse 3 has
been an exceptionally happy marriage.
Some of you in America have the pleas
ure of knowing Mrs. Gosse; and you
know in her q warm hearted, sympaths-
tic, altogether charming woman, in
whom the heart of her husband may
safely trust. have seen on the fy-leaf
of book l CHANGED to borrow of Mr..
Gosse, poetical inscription to his wife,
so beautiful as poetry, so true in feeling,
that venture to copy it for you. 1t will
tell you, better than 1 could possibly tell
you otherwise, how truly this poet has
been lowered with the very love of love:
TO NELLIE GossE-Nov. II, 1873.
If womanhood were like the rose
That with myriad blossoms blows,
All fair alike in sweet consent
OF form, perfection, hue and scent,
So that the gardener scarcely knows
Flower-head from flower head, richly blent-
Yet would my heart at once divine
Your presence by secret sign,
And to that single flower incline.-[E. W. G.
Art is good, and fame is good, and
fellowship of friends Is dear; but surely
the best gift of the gods is perfect love
the love of election, and of profoundest
sympathy, such as these lines express.
The Gosses live in a pleasant home in
Delamere Terrace, near Westbourne
square, and there on Sunday afternoon
you are sure to find some OF the most in
teresting people in London.
In the autumn of 1884 Mr.. Gosse and
his wife went to America, where the poet
had been engaged to deliver courses of
lectures before the Lowell institute of
Boston, and the Johns Hopkins univer-
sity: besides various single lectures else
where. No man, 1 think, ever made
more friends in a single visit to America
than did Mr.. Gosse. In Boston he was
the guest of william D. Howells, and in
Washington Mr.. Bancroft and General
Sheridan were his cicerones. Everywhere
he said what was best, and, 1 am happy
to say, he brought away most pleasant
impressions of his American cousins.
The American language astonished
him, the least bit in the world. He found
that a railway station had become a
"depot;' merchandising was a
"pitcher; luggage had turned into
"baggage;' lift had acquired the
dignity of an "elevator, and an en-
CINE had enlarged itself into ''loco-
motive He found out, too, that
Democracy is a real thing in "the
states.
Just before Mr.. Gosse's visit to
America he had been appointed to sue
coed Mr.. Leslie Stephen as Clark pro-
fessor of English literature at Trinity
college, Cambridge, post he will have
held five years next October, at which
time he will resign it. l have neglected
to say that on the very day of his mar
EldSS W MISS hppey III 1919 Nc ASSSiNOO
an unsolicited appointment as trans
lator to the board of trade, with
a salary of f4O0 $4,000. This appoint
ment still holds; and I am told the gov
eminent has no more thorough and
official. Busy as he is in
acknowledgements more both in
writing and in study than almost anyone
1 know-Mr. Gosse not only has never
neglected in the slightest degree the
duties of his post, but he has attended to
them with unusual fidelity and eff
cheney.
1 think he would rank as second only
to his marriage, among the blessings of
his life, his intimate friendship with Mr..
Austin Dobson. Both Gosse and Dobson
belonged to the board of trade, and Mr..
Stedman, in a charming article about
'fSome London Poets, which he con-
tributed to Harper IS Magazine, spoke of
them as ga brace of singing birds
which smooth bore brings down at one
aim.' 1t is q very rare thing that
capricious fortune SO favors an in
innate friendship as in the case Of these
two poets. Congenial in taste and in
engaged id the same pur-
suits, they not only live in the same
town, in the midst of the same circle,
but the very business of their lives COM
neIs than IN elbow each other And