The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-09

I
served either in the use of the title or
the pecuniary emoluments accompany
| ing it.
| From Bernard TO Ben JonSon a series
of laureates held Office. often without
pension and usually without any def
mite or legal form of creation. But
from 1919 10 the present day we can
trace an unbroken race of officially ap-
pointed and peilsioned poets.
The public coronation of the incum-
bents has never been performed. nor
have any examinations ever been held
10 establish their fitness. Being a
court appointment. political feeling
more than poetical taste has generally
influenced the selections. and curiously
enough. two of the greatest men that
ever held it obtained it us the price
of political poStacy-Dryden and
Southey. With the exception Of Ma
hum Tate, a native of Dublin. every
laureate has been an EngliShman.
When. in 1911, James l. appointed
JonSon poet laureate, he gave him an
annual salary of one hundred marks.
equal to about $3.50. On Jonson's
rhymed petition to ''uhe best of mon
archS, masters. men, Charles /. in
creased the poets pension to $500. Civ
| ing him "one fierce of canary Spanish
wine out of our store of wines yearly"
The salary was adequate for the con-
Of OFT lRsa h.lAin "
same as was paid to the kings physi-
| clan. but both pension end puncheOn
were often in. arrears. Sir William
| Davenant, supposed by many 10 be
the natural son of Shakespeare, sue
ceeded to the laureateShip and held it
nOminally for thirty years, but owing
to political connections and the Puri-
tan aScendency failed to obtain regT-
lar payment of his salary. The Of
fee fell into ''innOcuous desuetude"
during the Commonwealth.
Tate was the next laureate and he
held the place under three SOYereigns.
William III, Anne and George l. His
version of the Psalms is his best claim
to remembrance. The extreme brew
ity of his official Odes did not atone for
their fulsome adulatiOn, and, when an
almost entire redistribution of court
patronage took place, he had TO. make
way for Rowe, and died in abject
poverty. Rowe'S highest claim upon
patronage was the editor of shakes
peare" and the victim of Lord Oxford,
who, when he applied for state en-
ployment, advised him to study Span
ish. and, when he had learned the lam
guage, congratulated him ON being able
to read Don Quixote in the original.
Eusden, the next laureate after Rowe,
was drunken country parson, in
whose odeS the most noticeable feature
is excess of fiatreTy without the art to
conceal it Then came Cooley Cibber,
a decidedly inferior poet. The Dun
clad" has pillOried him to all time. Glib
Der carried off the laureateship from
Pope, Dennis, TheobaId and Stephen
Duck, (the Wiltshire threSher. of
whom the reader probably now hears
year during his long incumbency he
produced a perfunctOry poem. which
nowadays would be tossed into the
waSte-baSket of the average country
weekly. When Cibber died, the duke
of DevonShire, then lord chamberlain,
offered the laureateship to Gray, sug-
costing that it be held as a sinecure
and the usual OdeS be done away with;
but Gray declined it, and it was given
to Whitehead, whose verses had the
negative merit of being considered SUI
perior to those Of his predecessor. The
amiable, clever and eccentric Warrior
succeeded him. The laurel then pass
ed TO the head of Pye, VI. F., OF whom
respectable in everything but his
poetry" He was the last laureate who
regularly wrote official odes, and the
irony Of fate ordained thar, as he was q
particularly cOnviviaI man, during his
incumbency the fierce OF canary
should be withdrawn and commuted
for an annual payment of about S135.
Sir Walter Scott declined the laurel
when Pye died, and it was conferred
upon SOuthey, who also held the title
of hiSUoriOgrapher royal, no salary,
however, being attached 10 the latter
Office. He wrote several adulatory
poems. the most famous of which was
THE Vision Of Judgment" and the
4. -.
Nuptiale,' composed at the marriage
of Princess Charlotte. Southey be-
gan the poem when she was betrothed
to the prince of Orange. and when the
match was broken off and she married
Prince Leopold. one Of the late kings OF
the Belgians, the poet imparrially
transferred tie panegyric. His Of
fetal odes are, for the most part, worse
than Pye's. Upon SouJhey's death
Wordsworth declined the laureate's
place s4i The plea OF advanced age-he
WAS then Ts-buJ Sir Robert Peel in
duced ham - reconsider his deteTmin-
alton. 4 VIII undertake" wrote the
minister. ''thst YOU shall have nothing
required from you
Wordsworth wrote no poems relar-
ing 70 the Office during Ms seven
years iRcumbency. When he died
there WIS 10 one % CONTEST Tenny-
sons claim 70 the bays and Lord
Breadalbane. then lord chamberlain,
signed The warrant Nov. u. $50, r.
citing that b. should ''llaTe, hold, ex-
errise and enjoy al the rights. profits
and privileges Of t-.aC Office" The
lord stewards Department. SAYS Mr..