The herald., 1897-03-28
POETS LAUREATE

during fame, we know but little of the
manner by which the crowned heads of
Europe have gained the bays that encir-
Gle their brows
The term Laureate" was applied
first to the graduated rhetoricians of
Oxford university in England 1t was
customary to crown those graduates
who exhibited poetic talent with laurel,
which was done with great pomp and
ceremony. The chancellors Of the Uni
versity of Strasburg used the following
formula: II create you, placed in this
chair of state, crowned with laurel and
ivy. and wearing a gold ring, and the
same do pronounce poet laureate, in the
name Of the Father. Of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost
Those who were simply versifiers Of
the king were called "versificatores
regis" and after they were crowned
they assumed the name Of poeta lau-
reatus. The business of the laureate is
to extol .v-a~~s- - ~
poesy the virtues Of royalty. The origin
Of the custom runs back into dim an
tiquity. We find bards following
Ossian's heroes through all their wars.
The troubadours of the thirteenth
century chanited their songs of love and
war in camp and court. ard as their
weird strains died away the poet lau-
reate became the salaried part.
The first poet laureate who received a
regular salary for singing the praises Of
the king was Henry de Arran ches. who
lived in the reign of Henry III, and
whose salary was few pounds and
tun Of wine.
Then followed in succession John Kay,
John Dryden, Andrew Barnard, John
Shelton, Richard Edwards, Samuel
Daniel, Nahum Tate, Nicholas Rowe,
Laurence Easton, Colley Cibber, Will
lam Whitehead. Thomas Warton Henry
James Pye, Robert Southey, William
Wadsworth, Alfred Tennyson and the
English and American citizens and
even the ordinary lovers of English
verse do not feel that the mantle of
Tennyson should have fallen on the man
son should have fallen on the man who
The laureates who have been the
harpers of England since the thirteenth
century have added but few laurels to
her brow. for it is a lamentable truth
that all English kings have not had 4
But few of those who have won the
laurel from royal hands have even been
the favorites of the muses.. Dryden,
under the tutelage of the blind old bard
of the commonwealth, gave vigor and
tone to the literature of that day, while
Southey was commonplace, emitting no
| sparks of genuine inspiration. Words
worth was the greatest of what was
called the Lake school of poets. Every
thing in nature to him was irradiated
with mind. The mountain and the lake,
| the river and the forests, had their tales
to tell, If there was some one to listen
and to quote his own language in re-
| gard to himself, showing his love of
nature, he says:
ITO me the meanest flower that blows
can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for
tears"
Coming down to the late Lord Tenny-
son, he served his country long and we'll
and while he can never take rank with
some of the poets who have not been
crowned, yet all admit that a subtle
! fragrance pervades much of his poetry
and that the melodious cadances Of his
verse will linger long on heart and ear
yet his Imagination, while always Wig
orous and pure, never bathed itself il
the air around the still Olympian heights
nor did he. like Milton, scale the wall,
| of Paradise and with flowing pen cloth'
with epic grandeur the characters of Sa
tan, Michael and Lucifer and the "angel
ic squadron bright" Yet he wove tn.
tears and hates, the battles and siegel
of our heroic age into mellinuous vers,