The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1897-04-09
LAMPOONING DAYS.
HAVE HAD THEIR RUN AND PASSED
OUT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

The Age Of "Enrlish Bards and Scotch
Reviewers" when Byron Wrote His Dit.
Ter satires-The way They Manage such
Matters In Frame.
1t is said that "tanthe" and "Thc Maid
Of Athens" are the only two surviving
persons whom Byron had described or re
forred to in his poems. Whether this be ac
curately true OF not the generations against
which that brilliant literary Ishmael
waged such constant ard such futile
war has almost entirely passed away, and
with it has passed he fashion of lumpoon
ing ones rivuls-and even of cEtOllin2
ones fricnds-iu verse. Time was when q
spice of personality was an indispensable
attraction i'm book meant to catch the
public car, and if young or incNr
author neglected this important point the
publisher would be sure to urge the neces
sity of catering for the general taste and
would perhaps himself suggest a worthy
subject for an cpimam. We ure not rcier
ring to the Curlls of a century and hall
ago but to the very honorable and gener
GUS publishers with whom our gr1ndfa
thCrs had to do. The literary controversies
which were so rife in the age of " English
Bards and Scotch Reviewers, " but which
are nowadays comparatively rare, were
gloated over by an eager public, and it is
not to be wondered at if the publishers, who
had their fingers continuously upon tLCh
customers pulse, preferred such books as
were calculated TO stimulate the fever oi
curiosity. These personal references were,
Of course, very various in their character.
No lady could complain of being immor
talizCd as Ianthe, but we can imagine that
a considerable number of ByrOn's victims
would have given a round sum to be cN
cluded from his bitter satiros. 1t must
have been bad quarter of an hour tCl
the Scotch reviewers when they read the
retaliation which one of their company has
brought upon them, almost as uncomfort
able as the five minutes i'm which the poor,
i'll treated gOvCruCss read the description
Of herself commencing with the words
"Born in a garrett in kitchen bred.
Few Of Byrons friends or acquaiutanccs
escaped without a single spluttor from his
pen of gall, and some, as is well known,
felt the injury very keenly. But at the
same time he knew how TO speak favoraEly
both of the living and the dead 1t is
strange instance of the vast power welded
for good or evil by the maker of simple
mont enjoying a comfortable annuty tC
which she had no other claim whatever
than that of having been cxtollcd by Byron
in few complimentary stgnzas. To dc
Byron justice, he rarely showed up" his
contemporaries unless they had previously
turned their pens against him, whereas
there were poets in those times who hatlG
in verso for no better reason tu&n that
their victims took a different view of poll
tics from their own. ShCley's outEurst
against Castlcrcngh, and many of PutI
Pindars unmeasured diaGibes, exceed in
their bitterness anything which We should
consider justihable today. When We
say that the fashion of personal allusiOus
among poets has passed away we do no!
mean that the circumstance is unknown
in the present generation The laurJGtcs
CscapaGc in Punch, in which he applied
the lash to the shoulders of a brother oct,
is not likely TO be forgotten, and he has
taken several other occasions of bClalorine
his critic, and the race of "IrCspOnsiLlC
reviewers in general 1t is but n short
time ago that two of our most popular
poets took up the cudgels to one another in
the public prints, and oyerclouded theil
genius by n mist of hard words and re
ordinations perhaps quite as virulent as
anything that Byron wrote Of a rival
There can be no doubt that personal allu.
sions of the kind which we have instanccd
are in every sense Objectionable, and that
the decay of the fashion is matter fo1
much congratulation. Two reasons in par.
ticular might be given which would amply
suffice to condemn the practice In the
first place, it is so very easyato lash oneself
into a rage by the whip cracking Of our
own rhymes and meters, just as certain
animals are said to do by the application
of their tails.
1t is quite possible to work oneself into
a literary fury against a literary rival,
while at the club or in the street We should
take him by the hand and exchange the
idle gossip of the day. Again, it is beyond
all question that literary wrangles have
tendency to debase literature itself There
is no such thing as sublime personality.
The only lofty satire is that which is thor.
oughly general in its application. A better
poet who is either prcjudiced or angry nee
essarily descends from the back of Pega-
sus and holds on, if at all, by the tail In
other words, his verses limp, his ideas
grow commonplace, and the SAVIOR Of his
poetry is destroyed. English poets in par
ticular do wcll to let this species Of satire
is an admirable fighter, he is decidedly linn
tied in his mastery Of weapons. Poetry is
a foil that should always have the buttons
on, but we have a too straightforward way
of taking the buttons off. In France they
manage these things differently. There
they can crC5s foil5 without hurting each
other 1t is a national characteristics Mo
liere used occasionally to hit living persons
very hard, but we read of one instance in
which he completely disarmed the resent
ment of the object Of his satire by reading
his play to him privately before it was put
upon the stage. He had satirized his man
in such polite style that the latter was
easily persuaded to take so much individ-
ual attention rs a compliment The thing
would have been impossible i'm England
For us, at all events, the day of personali-
ties in literature is past, and we imagine
that no sensible Englishman regrets it,
Even tlattery is in questionable taste. But
chat man should be lampoOned by his
fellow on account Of a mere difference of
opinion is no longer TO be tolerated
urday Review
Fugitlve's Identity Hevcn'ed by Death
City of Mexico, April 9.-It is publicly
announced here that Thomas c. Price,
an American who died here yesterday,
hoe baar1 Identified fTE,r.1ag NT{,y,,,